Tuesday, June 09, 2020

Scientific fieldwork 'caught in the middle' of US-Mexico border tensions

Imagine you're a scientist, setting out camera traps to snap pictures of wildlife in a remote area of southern Arizona. You set out with your gear early in the morning, but it took longer than expected to find all the locations with your GPS. Now, on your hike back, it's really starting to heat up.

You try to stick to the shaded, dry washes, and as you round a bend, you're surprised to see several people huddled under a scraggly mesquite tree against the side of the steep ravine: Mexican immigrants crossing the border. They look dirty and afraid, but so do you.

"¿Tienes agua?" they timidly ask, and you see their empty plastic water containers.

This fictionalized scenario reflects a composite of real incidents experienced by U.S. and Mexican researchers, including me, on both sides of the border in the course of their fieldwork. While giving aid may be the moral thing to do, there can be consequences. Humanitarian aid workers in Arizona have been arrested for leaving food and water for migrants in similar situations, and such arrests have risen since 2017.

The U.S.-Mexico border is a region of significant biological and cultural diversity that draws researchers from a wide variety of disciplines, including geology, biology, environmental sciences, archaeology, hydrology, and cultural and social sciences. It is also an area of humanitarian crisis and contentious politics.

Migrants have always been a part of this area, but dangerous drug cartels and increasing militarization have added additional challenges for those who live and work here. U.S. and Mexican researchers are faced with ethical and logistical challenges in navigating this political landscape. To better understand these complex dynamics, my colleagues and I conducted an anonymous survey among researchers who work in the border region to learn how border politics affect collaboration and researchers' ability to perform their jobs.

Border fieldwork comes with complications

Our binational, multidisciplinary group of concerned scientists distributed an anonymous, online survey to 807 members of the Next-Generation Sonoran Desert Researchers Network. From this group of academic professionals, college students and employees of nonprofit organizations and federal and state agencies who work in the U.S.-Mexico border region, we received 59 responses. While not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal, a summary of our results can be found on the N-Gen website, and the original data is available online.

Researchers in our pre-pandemic study reported feeling safe for the most part while working in the U.S.-Mexico border region. However this may reflect the fact that they adjust their work to stay away from risky places.

Respondents noted the importance of knowing individuals and communities where they work. For instance, one U.S.-based researcher told us, "I feel safe in Mexico where I know landowners and they know me. I don't feel safe in U.S. public lands due to Border Patrol's extensive presence, their racial profiling ways and guns pulled on me."

Many respondents reported having encountered situations during fieldwork when they felt their security was threatened, occurring relatively equally on both sides of the border. Participants did not express safety concerns due to migrants themselves, but instead pointed to the militarization and criminal activity associated with the region.

Safety concerns on the Mexico side were primarily due to drug cartels and other criminal activity. Concerns in the U.S. centered on direct intimidation or "uneasy" or threatening encounters with U.S. Border Patrol, private landowners or militias.

As a result of safety concerns, many researchers from both countries reported their organization or employer had placed restrictions on working in the border areas of Mexico. In most cases, this meant limiting access to specific areas or requiring additional paperwork or approval through their institution.

Respondents reported logistical issues "altered or disrupted" their ability to perform fieldwork. These problems ranged from trouble crossing the border to difficulty obtaining necessary paperwork and permissions.

One researcher reported that permit delays for shipping scientific equipment across the border had stalled their research for over a year. More than half of respondents said these issues had increased in frequency or caused greater disruption to their work within the last three years.

Caught in the middle

Unsurprisingly, most researchers surveyed (69%) said they've encountered undocumented migrants while conducting fieldwork in the border region, although infrequently.

In situations of contact, migrants asked for assistance, such as food, water or a ride, a little over half of the time. Researchers drew a clear distinction between their willingness to offer food or water versus providing transportation.

Despite concerns about recent prosecutions of humanitarian aid workers in the border region, the threat was not sufficient to stop most respondents from taking action they viewed as moral or ethical.

"I would have pause given legal ramifications," one person told us, "But I do not think this would change how I would act." Survey respondents commented that they felt "caught in the middle" of an "impossible situation," where the fear of prosecution conflicts with their moral imperative to help people in need.

Overall our results suggest that research is affected by border policies in myriad ways: Restricted access to areas reduces scientists' ability to collect comprehensive data, such as are necessary for conducting biodiversity inventories.

Restrictions directly affecting the ability of researchers to collaborate over international boundaries can limit creativity and discovery. That can have long-term impacts, such as further separating countries' ability to understand each other and foster meaningful partnerships catalyzed by science, including industrial innovation or ecological sustainability.

Societies have the right to enjoy the benefits of science. This requires that scientists are able to collaborate internationally and to fulfill their functions without discrimination or fear of repression or prosecution

Canada and the U.S. working on extending border closure

Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

New hints of volcanism under the heart of northern Europe

by Royal Astronomical Society

Scientists have discovered new evidence for active volcanism next door to some of the most densely populated areas of Europe. The study 'crowd-sourced' GPS monitoring data from antennae across western Europe to track subtle movements in the Earth's surface, thought to be caused by a rising subsurface mantle plume. The work is published in Geophysical Journal International.

The Eifel region lies roughly between the cities of Aachen, Trier, and Koblenz, in west-central Germany. It is home to many ancient volcanic features, including the circular lakes known as 'maars'.

These are the remnants of violent volcanic eruptions, such as the one which created Laacher See, the largest lake in the area. The explosion that created this is thought to have occurred around 13,000 years ago, with a similar explosive power to the cataclysmic Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991.

The mantle plume that likely fed this ancient activity is thought to still be present, extending up to 400km down into the Earth. However, whether or not it is still active is unknown: "Most scientists had assumed that volcanic activity in the Eifel was a thing of the past," said Prof. Corné Kreemer, lead author of the new study. "But connecting the dots, it seems clear that something is brewing underneath the heart of northwest Europe."

In the new study, the team—based at the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of California, Los Angeles in the United States—used data from thousands of commercial and state-owned GPS antennae all over western Europe, to map out how the ground is moving vertically and horizontally as the Earth's crust is pushed, stretched and sheared.

The research revealed that the region's land surface is moving upward and outward over a large area centred on the Eifel, and including Luxembourg, eastern Belgium and the southernmost province of the Netherlands, Limburg.

"The Eifel area is the only region in the study where the ground motion appeared significantly greater than expected," adds Prof. Kreemer. "The results indicate that a rising plume could explain the observed patterns and rate of ground movement."

The new results complement those of a previous study in Geophysical Journal International that found seismic evidence of magma moving underneath the Laacher See. Both studies point towards the Eifel being an active volcanic system.

The implication of this study is that there may not only be an increased volcanic risk, but also a long-term seismic risk in this part of Europe. The researchers urge caution however: "This does not mean that an explosion or earthquake is imminent, or even possible again in this area. We and other scientists plan to continue monitoring the area using a variety of geophysical and geochemical techniques, in order to better understand and quantify any potential risks."

Deep low-frequency earthquakes indicate migration of magmatic fluids beneath Laacher See

More information: Corné Kreemer et al. Geodetic evidence for a buoyant mantle plume beneath the eifel volcanic area, NW Europe, Geophysical Journal International (2020). DOI: 10.1093/gji/ggaa227

Journal information: Geophysical Journal International

Provided by Royal Astronomical Society

Amid COVID-19 pandemic, deadly disease strikes rabbit populations

by Deborah Sullivan Brennan, The San Diego Union-Tribune

A lethal disease that strikes rabbits was detected in a jackrabbit in Palm Springs, leading local veterinarians and animal rescue organizations to prepare for its potential spread to San Diego County.

The disease, rabbit hemorrhagic disease virus, is highly contagious and can jump between wild and domestic populations. It hit California for the first time in early May, when a group of about 10 dead rabbits were found in Palm Springs, and tests of one of the carcasses came back positive for the virus.

With a fatality rate up to 80 percent, the disease can decimate colonies of rabbits, jackrabbits, pika and hare, but it does not affect humans or other animals including cats or dogs. Pets, scavengers and other animals can spread the virus on their feet or fur, however, so officials are taking steps to protect rescued rabbits, and urging rabbit owners to safeguard their pets.

"It spreads very fast in the wild populations," said Jon Enyart, director of wildlife medicine for Project Wildlife, the wildlife rescue arm of the San Diego Humane Society. "Then it runs rampant through the domestic populations as well."

The disease has circulated for several decades throughout 40 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia, as well as Mexico and Canada. A second strain emerged in France in 2010, and in March of this year, it began killing both wild and domestic rabbits in New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, Texas and Mexico, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. That's when officials braced for a possible outbreak in California.

"It's a really hard virus to contain, once its out in a wild landscape," said Deana Clifford, a senior wildlife veterinarian with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. "There's no way to really effectively protect wild rabbits in the state."

Wildlife officials are monitoring rabbit populations and collecting samples, officials said. And they are examining animals that appear to have died of the disease, selectively testing carcasses for the virus to determine if it is spreading to new areas or different species, such as cottontails or other rabbit relatives, Clifford said.

Studies from outbreaks in Europe show that the death rate of infected rabbits ranges from 5 to 80 percent, she said. So it's possible that wild populations may rebound from the epidemic, even if it spreads.

"What we hope is that over time, this disease, that some rabbits will survive and develop some resistance," Clifford said.

In the meantime, the risk to both wild rabbits and pets exposed to the virus is high. The disease in a group called calicivirus, and is unrelated to the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. To rabbits, however, it's not only far more lethal than coronavirus, but also much hardier. It can remain viable in the environment at room temperature for 105 days, and even longer—225 days—at 39 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a statement by the House Rabbit Society. It's not killed by freezing, and infected rabbits who survive can shed the virus for 42 days or longer.

The virus hasn't appeared among any rabbits San Diego, but rescue workers are taking precautions in case it does. The San Diego Chapter of the House Rabbit Society, an all rabbit rescue organization, is isolating new animals at their shelter, and warning rabbit owners to be careful of their pets.

"We as humans can spread the virus too, on shoes or carpets," said Jennifer Lee, executive director of San Diego House Rabbit Society. "That's why it's important that people who have rabbits, not have their rabbits go outside to play, and have inside shoes, and outside shoes, and clothing ... . If they feel that their rabbit might have it, isolate that rabbit, especially if you have other rabbits in their home."

Other recommendations include washing hands before and after handling a pet rabbit; changing clothes after contacting other rabbits; disinfecting shoes with bleach; using only known hay and feed sources, and avoiding foraged plants, grasses or tree branches; installing door and window screens to eliminate flies and mosquitoes; and quarantining any new rabbit.

The virus causes liver inflammation in infected animals, and prevents blood from clotting, said Linda Knox, a veterinarian at Palomar Animal Hospital, who works with the House Rabbit Society. A vaccine available in Europe can protect rabbits from the disease, but it's not approved for widespread use in the U.S. Veterinarians can only apply to use it once a case is confirmed in their own state. So after the Palm Springs carcass tested positive, Knox applied for access to the vaccine.

"We are trying to get emergency approval through the (U.S. Department of Agriculture) to import this vaccine, Eravac, which is made in Spain," she said. "Once we get the USDA approval, we hope to get this vaccine imported so we can protect the rabbits."

She expects the vaccine to arrive about a month after she receives approval. Once it does, it could be administered to pet or rescue rabbits. It would not be possible to vaccinate wild rabbits, Clifford said. However, some very rare, endangered species, such as the riparian brush rabbit in the Central Valley, which numbers only a few hundred, could potentially be captured and rescued or vaccinated, if the disease strikes its area, she said.

Signs of infection can include low appetite, lethargy, fever, seizures or bleeding from the nose, mouth or rectum. But there may also be no symptoms until sudden death, so shelters, as well as pet owners, must separate new rabbits from others for a quarantine period.

At Project Wildlife, which takes in 12,000 sick, injured or orphaned wild animals, including up to 2,000 rabbits per year, that's a big challenge, Enyart said. However, workers are placing new animals or groups of animals in quarantine rooms, and also assigning staff members to specific rooms, so they don't cross-contaminate other groups.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, rescue workers have already adopted practices such as social distancing, wearing masks and gloves, and changing clothes before and after working with animals, officials said. The rabbit epidemic has reinforced and refined those practices, officials said.

"I do feel like (COVID-19) has prepared us for this, because we were already in the mindset," he said. "Were finding that in the midst of all this madness, that best practices are getting better. We're able to say these rabbits can't be near these rabbits, that helps us see if there are any concerns with out own (personal protective equipment) and our own biosecurity. So it's really helping us fine-tune it and make it as good as possible."

Towards winning the war on feral wild rabbits

Women's communication shapes division of labor in household

by Lisa Potter, University of Utah

For many couples, COVID-19 quarantine has shattered the normal routine and led some to renegotiate who does what around the house. Research has shown that the way couples divide up housework and how they feel about their arrangements are related to relationship satisfaction. It's also known that communication plays a big role in relationship satisfaction.

In a new study, Daniel Carlson of the University of Utah Department of Family and Consumer Studies led a team that analyzed the role that communication plays in the division of household labor. The authors used data on 487 heterosexual couples from the 2006 Marital and Relationship Survey. They focused on two things: How partners' communication influences the division of housework, and what role partners' communication quality plays in shaping how the division of housework affects relationship satisfaction.

They found that partner communication is the most important factor linking the division of household labor to satisfaction in the relationship. But the way that the partners' communication matters depends on gender.

"Right now people are quarantined, and families have lost important supports that enabled them to work. We've lost child care and schools, and some people have lost jobs, so more responsibilities have been thrust onto parents," said Carlson, associate professor and lead author of the paper. "In these times, focusing on the division of labor and understanding what factors shape it is important."

The paper was published on June 1, 2020, in the journal Socius. Amanda Miller and Stephanie Rudd from the University of Indianapolis were co-authors of the study.

The study found that the way women communicate shapes how couples split up the housework, and when women communicate negatively, men do more. However, the negative communication causes men's relationship satisfaction to decline. Men's communication isn't implicated in how couples divide the housework. Rather, it's an outcome of how the couple shares housework. When men contribute equally to household duties, they communicate better. When women do the majority of the housework, men communicate worse.

For women, an equal division of labor is important to their relationship satisfaction. For men, it depends on how his partner communicates with him.

"The division of labor has ramifications for not only individual relationships in terms of how happy they are, but also has implications more broadly in society," said Carlson. "When societies have gender equality, people have more life satisfaction and happiness."

At first, Carlson had expected that men's communication would determine the division of labor. Traditionally, women have had difficulty gaining equality in relationships and men were the impediment to this. But in this study, that doesn't bear out.

"Women's communication driving the labor division makes a lot of sense. If change needs to happen, women tend to be the one that's going to fight for more equality. The burden of communication would fall on their shoulders," said Carlson. "It's also surprising that it's not compassionate communication that gets men to do more housework, it's the negative communication."

Carlson is now looking into how the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantines has shifted the parents' divisions of childcare and housework. In a pre-publication brief, Carlson shared his and the team's initial findings. They analyzed responses to a survey of 1,060 parents in heterosexual couples conducted in mid-April that asked them to assessed the division of labor in their household during the pandemic compared with before it began. The preliminary results suggest that men are doing more housework and child care since the pandemic began, and this has led to more equal domestic arrangements. Women are still doing the majority of the housework, however.

"A lot of families are in a position where they're in this new world where they're going to have to renegotiate their arrangements," Carlson said. "Right now, it's an important time to think about the role of communication in this, and how things might change after quarantine is over."

Research finds that sharing housework doesn't mean couples have less sex

More information: Daniel L. Carlson et al, Division of Housework, Communication, and Couples' Relationship Satisfaction, Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World (2020). DOI: 10.1177/2378023120924805

Provided by University of Utah

Infected insects may warn of impending citrus disease a year in advance

by American Phytopathological Society

Citrus greening disease (Huanglongbing of HLB), transmitted by the Asian citrus psyllid, is currently the biggest threat to the citrus industry and is threat to many parts of the world, including Asia, Africa, South America, and the Unites States. In Florida alone, citrus greening disease has accounted for losses of several billions of U.S. dollars.

Despite HLB's widespread prevalence, factors influencing the epidemic are poorly understood because most research has been conducted after the pathogen has been introduced. In an attempt to change this, several Texas-based scientists surveyed commercial and residential citrus trees from 2007 to 2017 and monitored the time-course variations in the proportion of citrus trees and the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP).

"Unlike previous studies on citrus greening disease epidemics that were typically initiated in commercial orchards after the disease had been introduced or became widespread in the area, our study commenced 5-years prior to the first detection of the greening bacterium in Texas and continued for 5 additional years," said Olufemi Alabi, one of the scientists involved in this research. "This gave us unique opportunity to obtain a holistic picture of the progression of the disease epidemics from its onset in both commercial and residential ecologies.

Despite the first appearance of citrus greening disease in Florida in 2005, the bacterium wasn't found in Texas until 2011, when scientists detected it in the psyllids. The disease was not detected in citrus years until 2012, suggesting that psyllids may actually be used for early detection of the HLB pathogen in newly invaded areas.

Over the course of this decade-long study, the proportion of infected trees and psyllids increased exponentially over time while the number of fields and residential backyards with at least one disease-affected citrus tree reached 26% and 40% respectively by 2017. Research also revealed seasonal fluctuations and will provide comprehensive insight into the ongoing citrus greening epidemic in Texas, with potential lessons for California and other citrus-growing regions that have not yet been affected.

"Our study suggest that a flatter progression of citrus greening disease epidemics could be achieved through the implementation of strategies to protect new plantings from infection and the continued implementation of the area-wide ACP management program," said Mamoudou Sétamou, the lead author of the article .

This study is good news for Texas farmers, who were alarmed by the rapid spread of citrus greening disease epidemics in Florida and worried that the smaller Texas citrus industry would be quickly overwhelmed once the disease appeared.

"Surprisingly, our research showed that although an exponential growth was observed in progression of infected trees in Texas, the annual rate of increase was relatively slower than reported from Florida. This led us to conduct series of analyses that enabled us to identify potential climatic and cultural factors that may be contributing to the relatively slow spread of citrus greening disease in Texas."

New technique has potential to protect oranges from citrus greening

More information: Mamoudou Sétamou et al, Distribution of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus in Citrus and the Asian Citrus Psyllid in Texas Over a Decade, Plant Disease (2019). DOI: 10.1094/PDIS-08-19-1779-RE

Provided by American Phytopathological Society

China removes pangolin from

traditional medicine list

The Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) Credit: Sarita Jnawali of NTNC – Central Zoo The United States, CC BY 2.0
China has removed pangolin parts from its official list of traditional medicines, state media reported Tuesday, days after increasing legal protections on the endangered animal.

Pangolins were left out of the official Chinese Pharmacopoeia this year, along with substances including a pill formulated with bat faeces, the state-owned Health Times reported.

The pangolin, the world's most heavily trafficked mammal, is thought by some scientists to be the possible host of the novel coronavirus that emerged at a market in China's Wuhan city last year.

Its body parts fetch a high price on the black market as they are commonly used in traditional Chinese medicine, although scientists say they have no therapeutic value.

China's forestry authority on Friday gave pangolins the highest level of protection in the country due to its threatened status.

"Depleted wild resources" are being withdrawn from the Pharmacopoeia, Health Times reported, although the exact reason for the removal of pangolins was unclear.

China has in recent months banned the sale of wild animals for food, citing the risk of diseases spreading to humans, but the trade remains legal for other purposes—including research and traditional medicine.

The World Wide Fund for Nature on Saturday said it "strongly welcomed" China's move to upgrade protections for the pangolin, calling it an "important respite" from the illegal pangolin trade.
Gabon bans eating of pangolin and bats amid pandemic

© 2020 AF

Climate change brings fires, floods and moths to Siberia

by Marina Lapenkova

*Russia's Siberia region, best known as an icy tundra, is being transformed by climate change*

Best known as a vast, cold tundra, Russia's sprawling Siberia region is being transformed by climate change that has brought with it warmer temperatures, forest fires and growing swarms of hungry moth larvae.

Spanning millions of square kilometres east of the Urals to the Pacific Ocean, the area has been particularly hard hit this year by extreme weather, which scientists say is the result of global warming.

Photographs of wild flower fields in local media last month were a rare site so early in the year in the normally chilly region—and ice cream sales were up 30 percent.

"This winter was the hottest in Siberia since records began 130 years ago," said Marina Makarova, the chief meteorologist at Russia's Rosgidromet weather service.

"Average temperatures were up to six degrees centigrade higher than the seasonal norms."

Then spring came, and with it much warmer temperatures. Makarova says April saw some days reach 30 C or higher.

The warmer temperatures didn't just bring wild flowers and boosted ice cream sales.

Rainfall was up by a third in eastern Siberia, sparking devastating floods that forced thousands to be evacuated, particularly in the town of Tulun and the surrounding area.

'Huge moths'

Swarms of the Siberian silk moth, whose larvae eat away at conifer trees in the region's forests, have grown rapidly amid the rising temperatures.

The moths are usually inactive during winter and eat in spring, summer and autumn periods which are now lengthening.

"In all my long career as a specialist, I've never seen moths so huge and growing so quickly," said Vladimir Soldatov, a moth expert, who warns of "tragic consequences" for forests.

The larvae, which are taking over larger areas of forest, strip trees of their needles and make them more susceptible to forest fires.

Siberia evokes images of chilly winters, but soaring temperatures this spring saw wild flowers bloom and ice cream sales soar

The moth "has moved 150 kilometres north compared to its usual territory and that's because of global warming," Soldatov told AFP.

In the Krasnoyarsk region of eastern Siberia, more than 120,000 trees have had to be treated to kill the larvae, according to the regional forest protection centre.

Another insect pest, the bark beetle that bores into tree trunks, has also recently colonised the region. It has flourished since 2003 as the climate became milder.

With snow melting earlier in the year in northern Siberia, exposed dry vegetation and soil means fires can spread easily, said Alexei Yaroshenko, who heads the forest section at Greenpeace Russia.

From January to mid-May, fires devastated 4.8 million hectares in Siberia, among them 1.1 million hectares of high-latitude boreal forest, according a Greenpeace report published Tuesday.

This year's fires follow on from exceptionally severe blazes last summer.

Forest fires 'doubled'

Climate change has led the number of forest fires to "double in 10 years," said Vyacheslav Kharuk, the head of the forest monitoring laboratory at the Forest Institute in the city of Krasnoyarsk.

The fires risk cutting the capacity of far-northern boreal forests to retain carbon dioxide and methane, which will lead to higher emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change.

According to research by Kharuk's laboratory, between 2000 and 2009, around three million hectares of forest caught fire every year. Between 2010 and 2019, the average was six million hectares.

In years to come "the area of the fires will increase to double or four times the size," he predicted.

The news is not all bad: the changing nature of Siberia's landscape will attract new species of birds and animals, Kharuk added.

"Our steppes are getting greener. Our lakes are warming up. Siberia is becoming a more appealing region for animals and for us, too."

But, he says, the number of extreme weather events means he is already starting to "miss our winters with temperatures of minus 40 degrees centigrade"

Connection found between Arctic Oscillation and increased risk of fire in Siberia

From space, Russian cosmonauts fight chess grandmaster to a draw

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station played chess against an Earth-bound grandmaster on Tuesday, in a celebration of the first such game half a century ago.

Equipped with an electronic chessboard, cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner played in zero gravity against 30-year-old Russian former child prodigy Sergei Karyakin.

The game was broadcast live and ended in a draw after about 15 minutes.

It was organised by the space agency Roscosmos and the Russian Chess Federation to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Space-Earth game of chess played on June 9, 1970.

"It's a huge honour for us not to lose to a grandmaster," Ivanishin said, while Vagner added that US astronauts on the ISS watched the game and gave tips.

Karyakin, who played from Moscow's Museum of Cosmonautics, said he was jittery during the game and could not fall asleep until 4 am on the night before the match.

"They played well," he said. "I can say that the human brain functions very well in space, and I have seen this today."

At the age of 12 years and seven months, Karyakin became the world's youngest ever grandmaster.

Ivanishin, Vagner and US astronaut Chris Cassidy arrived on the ISS in April.

On May 31, they were joined by US astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on the first manned private flight to the ISS.

SpaceX made history by becoming the world's first commercial company to send humans to the ISS, leading Russia to lose its long-held monopoly on space travel.

Explore furtherAstronauts leave virus-plagued planet for space station

© 2020 AFP

Siberian oil spill contaminates Arctic lake

Russia declared a state of emergency last week after 21,000 tonnes of diesel leaked from a fuel reservoir that collapsed outside Norilsk

An oil spill that sparked a state of emergency has contaminated a freshwater lake in the Russian Arctic, the regional governor said Tuesday, a claim denied by Norilsk Nickel, the metals giant linked to the leak.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a state of emergency last week after 21,000 tonnes of diesel leaked from a fuel reservoir that collapsed May 29 outside the Arctic city of Norilsk.

The spill has polluted the ground and waterways, triggering a major clean-up effort.

Norilsk Nickel owns the power plant where the spill originated and its head Vladimir Potanin told Putin last week his company would pay for clean-up efforts estimated at $146 million.

A spokeswoman for the taskforce in charge of the accident clean-up told AFP last week that the spill had been contained.

But officials in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk this week said that high concentrations of polluted water had been discovered beyond floating barriers set in place to stop the fuel from spreading.

"The fuel has got into Pyasino as well. This is a beautiful lake about 70 kilometres (45 miles) long. Naturally, it has both fish and a good biosphere," said Krasnoyarsk region governor Alexander Uss, according to Interfax news agency.

He added that it was important to prevent spilled fuel from reaching the Pyasina River, a vital waterway for the region that flows from the lake into the Kara Sea.

At a video conference on Tuesday, Norilsk Nickel denied that the diesel had polluted the lake or risked reaching the Kara Sea.

"Our samples at the Pyasino Lake show 0.0 percent contamination results," said Sergei Dyachenko, the company's first vice-president and chief operating Officer.

The fuel spill polluted huge stretches of a river in the Russian Arctic, triggering a major clean-up

"The distance from Pyasino Lake to the Kara Sea is more than 5,000 kilometres," he added.

Dyachenko said that "experts on the ground are confident that most of (the spill) can be cleaned," while this must be done before cold weather sets in.

Greenpeace criticises Russian authorities

Greenpeace director in Russia Vladimir Chuprov told AFP Tuesday that it would be a "disaster" if 10,000 tonnes or more of fuel had reached the lake, and criticised authorities for not giving more information about the extent of the spill.

Chuprov also warned of "harmful consequences" if the pollution reaches the Kara Sea, which he said Greenpeace feared would happen.

Its teams have been unable to access the site due to restrictions in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus, he said.

Russian officials have said that the thawing of permafrost as a result of climate change is the likely cause of the fuel tank leak.

Environmentalists and officials say the spill is the worst accident of its kind in the Arctic region, home to much of Russia's oil, gas and mining infrastructure and dogged by pollution since the Soviet era.

Russian officials have ordered a review of at-risk structures built on permafrost.

Norilsk Nickel officials acknowledged Tuesday that the company had not specifically monitored the permafrost up to now, saying it would carry out a complete audit of its buildings and infrastructure in the near future.

Russia sees melting permafrost behind Arctic fuel spill

France's wolf population rises further to 580 adults

French breeders hold a banner reading "no to wolves" as they demonstrate with their animals in Lyon

France's wild wolf population rose again last year, with officials counting 580 adults at winter's end compared with an average of 530 a year ago, France's OFB biodiversity agency said Tuesday.

The government has been allowing grey wolves to multiply despite fierce resistance from livestock owners, who say they are suffering from increased attacks on their flocks.

But this winter's increase was slower than the 23 percent jump seen the previous year, and "survival rates declined," the OFB said, adding that the causes remained unknown.

Wolves were hunted to extinction in France by the 1930s, but gradually started reappearing in the 1990s as populations spread across the Alps from Italy.

Their numbers have grown rapidly in recent years, prompting authorities to allow annual culls to keep their numbers in check, though the predator remains a protected species.

Under a "Wolf Plan" adopted in 2018, the "viability threshold" of 500 animals, the level at which the population is likely to avoid becoming at risk of extinction over a 100-year period, was not expected to be reached until 2023.

Wolves are increasingly spotted across French territory, from the Pyrenees mountains as far north as the Atlantic coastal regions near Dieppe.

But "there are still no packs formed outside the Alps and Jura," the heavily forested region near the Swiss border, the agency said.

The numbers are far below those found in Italy, Romania or Poland, but they have nonetheless infuriated French farmers who say the wolves are decimating their flocks.

Last year, authorities registered 3,741 wolf attacks that led to the deaths of nearly 12,500 animals, mainly sheep.

The government offers compensation for the losses and has set up a range of measures to protect flocks, including patrols by "wolf brigades" in areas where traditional anti-wolf measures, such as dogs, fenced-off areas and additional shepherding, have failed.

That has not been enough to assuage the powerful FNSEA agriculture lobby and other groups, which say they have to wait too long for compensation payments in the face of repeated attacks on their livelihood.

France to step up wolf culls as population surges

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment