Thanks For the Evidence, You Seditious Dweebs

Whitney Kimball and Tom McKay

Photo: Saul Loeb (Getty Images)

Yesterday, a nauseated and tired public witnessed a clear, on-the-ground, real-time feed of Trump supporters committing countless potential felonies and misdemeanors. They saw it not through security footage or journalists’ reports but mostly from the culprits themselves, who gleefully livestreamed and tweeted from the Capitol building as if it was a field trip. As the high wore off, tweets and videos vanished—some deleted by the platforms themselves, others likely pulled by slack-jawed Trumpers covering their own asses.

Fortunately, archivists familiar with digital mass takedown events had the foresight to immediately crowdsource the evidence of rioting, and potential destruction of government property, weapons-related offenses, and unlawful entry, to name a few examples.

An extensive directory can be found on the New Zealand-based file hosting service MEGA; it’s the miraculously tidy result of a miles-long thread on the datahoarder subreddit, which amassed over 1,700 comments abounding with links to tweets and videos cross-posted all over the internet. A parallel archive mostly containing the same content can be found on the Prague-based search engine and data archive Intelligence X. (While redditors need to rely on MEGA, a third-party platform which can remove content if it likes, Intelligence X owns its own infrastructure. Intelligence X specifically preserves content which might be wiped elsewhere—which can mean Hunter Biden’s emails and private Bitcoin keys). The combined dossiers include MAGA rioters’ posts on DLive, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, some of which are still live on those platforms at this writing.

While platforms generally look better without these posts stoking government overthrow, yesterday made abundantly clear why laypeople need to preserve this content before social media companies remove it. It’s useful to know the face and badge number of a law enforcement officer taking a selfie with a rioter, for example.

The relatively consequence-free siege feels similar to the infamous white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017, when organized street brawlers injured dozens and a neo-Nazi terrorist rammed his car into a crowd of counter-demonstrators, killing protester Heather Heyer and wounding over a dozen others. Donald Trump failed to denounce that violent mob, too. It was thanks to far-right groups’ brazen, publicity-hungry tactics that directly resulted in many of their members being doxxed in the aftermath. Numerous attendees, many of whom had previously attracted the attention of anti-fascist groups and/or had left extensive trails of digital evidence, were easily identified and doxxed from footage by both activists and the professional media. Some lost their jobs, while a number were prosecuted. Others simply lost the anonymity that allowed them to comfortably espouse violent, bigoted beliefs without consequences.

In this case, maybe the most self-incriminating evidence originated on DLive—a gaming platform and known alt-right haven—which was quick to remove some of yesterday’s streams. Popular right-wing streamer BakedAlaska, who recently tested positive for covid-19 and is banned on virtually every other platform, offered a full display of himself and fellow rioters damaging government property, and breaking into an office and a conference room while cops mulled around like they were on recess. Fellow traveler Zykotik documented himself and others outside, stomping a pile of camera equipment, and shouting “this is the real news media!” and “fuck fake news!” (This is still viewable on DLive, and you can see a Bloomberg reporter’s view of the destruction here.)

Screenshot: BakedAlaska

While we await to see whether law enforcement plans to pursue charges, archivists have made sure to keep unmistakable photo and video evidence available for public scrutiny. Founder and CEO of Intelligence X, Peter Kleissner, told Gizmodo via email that the company “sprung into action at midnight local time” in Prague as they noticed Twitter and Facebook removing posts. He says his company has now gathered around 1,000 files.

“Shame on Facebook for deleting evidence related to yesterday’s riots while keeping up accounts and videos of violence and extremism (including ISIS propaganda and QAnon content) for years,” Kleissner wrote. “Didn’t Mark [Zuckerberg] say they ‘Won’t Be ‘Arbiter of Truth’? While censorship is a complicated topic, one thing is for sure: Mark is usually on the wrong side.” Kleissner believes that these self-incriminating acts should be preserved for historical purposes. “Thinking long-term, people in 2121 will hopefully benefit and appreciate these efforts that we take in this moment,” he said. “Looking back in history and the 1812 breach of the Capitol as well as other events such as the 1933 German Reichstag fire highlight the need for accurate and original data in historical context.”

In the immediate future, the act of group documentation can also backfire disastrously for far-right groups as all it takes is one security slip-up or revealing a few too many personal details for police, activists, and the media to compile enough information to identify the individual behind a username or expose their poorly-laid plans.

For example, left-wing media collective Unicorn Riot has repeatedly leaked Discord chat logs detailing the inner workings of white supremacist groups such as Identity Evropa, Atomwaffen Division offshoot Feuerkrieg Division, the now-defunct Traditionalist Workers Party, and the National Socialist Legion, as well as a bevy of others based in the Pacific Northwest. In 2019, an unknown individual or individuals leaked the SQL database for Iron March, a message board that served as one of the major hubs of the white supremacist movement until its dissolution in 2017. That data exposed numerous individuals who had hitherto kept their offline identities hidden, including a Canadian Royal Navy sailor who had advertised arms deals to other users, a U.S. Navy sailor who had previously recruited members for Atomwaffen, and a prison guard captain at a Nevada detention center used to house federal immigration detainees who had attempted to create a white nationalist group.

While Twitter has treated Trump’s account as a national emergency and temporarily locked him out, the company seems to be using a lighter touch on people who’ve glorified rioters. Though many of the more incriminating first-person tweets have been removed, other viral tweets spreading conspiracies and cheering on the insurrection remain up.

After complaints yesterday, YouTube told Gizmodo via email that it has demonetized the YouTube channel for Elijah Schaffer—a right-wing Blaze TV reporter who tweeted an image of an open inbox on a computer inside Nancy Pelosi’s office—and suspended him from the Partner Program, as the channel doesn’t follow YouTube’s advertiser-friendly guidelines. YouTube told Gizmodo that it’s looking into other posts that are still live.

Facebook, which has blocked Trump until the end of the presidential transition, and DLive were not immediately available for comment.

Thanks For the Evidence, You Seditious Dweebs (gizmodo.com)

United States: President Trump Must Leave Office Immediately

Through his actions, President Donald J. Trump has violated his oath of office and betrayed the public trust.

The shameful events of January 6 have shaken American democracy to its core. Incited by the incumbent president of the United States, a mob temporarily took over the US Capitol and tried to prevent the Congress from exercising its constitutional duty to confirm the choice of the American people for their next president. Thankfully, the effort failed. Indeed, the episode underscored the essential resilience of our democracy. At a time of great peril, the congressional and judicial branches have rallied to protect our constitutional system and the rule of law—features that have distinguished the United States during its nearly 250-year history.

There will be time enough for thoughtful reflection about the path forward to restore the health of our democracy, reduce the polarization that has prevented effective action to address the needs of the American people, and recommit to the aspiration of making the United States a beacon of freedom and equality for the world. But at least one thing is already clear: The president, through his actions, has violated his oath of office and betrayed the public trust. More than that, his ongoing presence and unwillingness or inability to faithfully exercise his constitutional duties pose a direct threat to the peaceful transfer of power and the well-being of the Republic. Whether through resignation, impeachment and conviction, or invocation of the 25th amendment, President Trump must leave office immediately.

Michael Abramowitz, President of Freedom House
Michael Chertoff, Chairman, Freedom House Board of Trustees

United States: Freedom House Condemns Political Violence in Washington

The violent disruption of a congressional session is unlawful. These are among the most shameful images in our nation’s history.

In response to reports that supporters of President Trump have broken into the Capitol and forced Congress to suspend its validation of the results of the presidential election, Freedom House issued the following statement:

“We strongly condemn the violence that has occurred in Washington today, which has no place in a democratic system,” said Michael J. Abramowitz, president of Freedom House. “It is an affront to the millions of Americans who peacefully cast ballots, as well as the poll workers who counted them in good faith and the public officials and judges who defended the results against groundless allegations of fraud. In the weeks since election day, innumerable citizens have exercised their right to assemble lawfully and expressed their views without resorting to physical force.”

“President Trump has continually called on his political allies to reject and overturn his election defeat in defiance of the law,” Abramowitz added. “Just moments before today’s violence began, the president specifically exhorted his assembled supporters to march on the Capitol and encourage Republican lawmakers to disrupt the vote-counting process. The right to peaceful protest is protected by law. Violence is not.”

“It now falls to members of Congress to unanimously denounce this effort to undermine our democracy, to complete their legal and constitutional duty by counting the Electoral College votes, and to decisively end this deeply shameful episode in our nation’s history.”

Climate change -- not Genghis Khan -- caused the demise of Central Asia's river civilizations, research shows

Summary:

While Genghis Khan and Mongol invasion is often blamed for the fall of Central Asia's medieval river civilizations, new research shows it may have been down to climate change. Researchers conducted analysis on the region and found that falling water levels may have led to the fall of civilizations around the Aral Sea Basin, as they depended on the water for irrigation-based farming.

Date: December 15, 2020

Source: University of Lincoln

Ruins of Otrar, Kazakhstan (stock image).
Credit: © Dmitry Chulov / stock.adobe.com

A new study challenges the long-held view that the destruction of Central Asia's medieval river civilizations was a direct result of the Mongol invasion in the early 13th century CE.

The Aral Sea basin in Central Asia and the major rivers flowing through the region were once home to advanced river civilizations which used floodwater irrigation to farm.

The region's decline is often attributed to the devastating Mongol invasion of the early 13th century, but new research of long-term river dynamics and ancient irrigation networks shows the changing climate and dryer conditions may have been the real cause.

Research led by the University of Lincoln, UK, reconstructed the effects of climate change on floodwater farming in the region and found that decreasing river flow was equally, if not more, important for the abandonment of these previously flourishing city states.

Mark Macklin, author and Distinguished Professor of River Systems and Global Change, and Director of the Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health at the University of Lincoln said: "Our research shows that it was climate change, not Genghis Khan, that was the ultimate cause for the demise of Central Asia's forgotten river civilizations.

"We found that Central Asia recovered quickly following Arab invasions in the 7th and 8th centuries CE because of favourable wet conditions. But prolonged drought during and following the later Mongol destruction reduced the resilience of local population and prevented the re-establishment of large-scale irrigation-based agriculture."

The research focused on the archaeological sites and irrigation canals of the Otrar oasis, a UNESCO World Heritage site that was once a Silk Road trade hub located at the meeting point of the Syr Darya and Arys rivers in present southern Kazakhstan.

The researchers investigated the region to determine when the irrigation canals were abandoned and studied the past dynamics of the Arys river, whose waters fed the canals. The abandonment of irrigation systems matches a phase of riverbed erosion between the 10th and 14th century CE, that coincided with a dry period with low river flows, rather than corresponding with the Mongol invasion.

The research was led by the University of Lincoln in collaboration with VU University Amsterdam, University College London, the University of Oxford and JSC Institute of Geography and Water Safety, Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan. It is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America and highlights the critical role that rivers can have in shaping world history.

Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Lincoln. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:
Toonen, W.J.H., Macklin, M.G., Dawkes, G., Durcan, J.A., Leman, M., Nikolayev, Y. and Yegorov, A. A hydromorphic reevaluation of the forgotten river civilizations of Central Asia. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2020 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2009553117

University of Lincoln. "Climate change -- not Genghis Khan -- caused the demise of Central Asia's river civilizations, research shows." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 15 December 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/12/201215112017.htm>.

 

The African Hydrogen Partnership Wants To Catalyze The African Green Hydrogen Economy

January 7th, 2021 by Remeredzai Joseph Kuhudzai 

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Hydrogen plays a critical role in the world’s economy with applications in the industrial and transportation sectors. Hydrogen is used in carbon intensive industries such as metals refining and in the manufacturing of ammonia. Hydrogen is derived mostly from fossil fuels at the moment, particularly via the reforming of natural gas. Technological advances and massive cost reductions in renewable energy generation, such as in the solar and wind space, mean that the cost of producing hydrogen from renewables keeps coming down. This makes it more feasible to produce so-called green hydrogen. A lot of African countries have tremendous potential to utilize their abundant renewable energy resources, and green hydrogen could be a viable option for certain sectors.

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Editor’s note: CleanTechnica does not see electricity storage using hydrogen (“green hydrogen”) as a cost-effective, efficient, logical way to store electricity — now or in the future. However, we do see it as potentially useful for industrial processes and very heavy-duty, long-haul transport. More on that will be published soon.

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Image: NASA

We caught up with Vincent Oldenbroek (VO), Secretary General and co-initiator of the African Hydrogen Partnership (AHP), to find out more on the latest developments in the hydrogen space and their vision for Africa.

RJK: Hydrogen is trending a lot these days. What has brought hydrogen back to the limelight?

VO: Let it be clear right from the start. All zero emission energy technologies, energy carriers, and storage methods are highly needed to shift to a fully renewable, sustainable, global, and fair society. There is no silver bullet. Nevertheless, hydrogen is extremely versatile and is a missing link in a fully renewable society. After several ups and downs over the past decades, some critical parts and drivers of the long envisioned green hydrogen economy are now coming together. Hydrogen is here to stay this time due to six major developments not being present in the previous ups:

1. The global population has become aware of the impacts of the use of fossil fuels. The impact of climate change, air and water pollution and loss of biodiversity is being felt stronger and stronger globally. Therefore, more and more regulations are coming into place ruling out the use of fossil fuels.
2. As you rightfully mention, the cost of renewable electricity has decreased tremendously the past 10 years. In particular, solar and wind electricity is now in many places in the world cheaper than new built, nuclear, coal, gas or hydropower plants.
3. Electrolyzers are becoming rapidly cheaper because of scaling up, economies of scale, material developments, and efficient integration with intermittent renewable and novel concepts, resulting in the fact that green hydrogen cost will be primarily driven by the green electricity cost. The cheaper hydrogen becomes, the more sectors can use it. From the first fuel cells and hydrogen used in space to everyday use, similar to the development pathway of solar panels.
4. A large amount of hydrogen storage technologies have become available. From underground seasonal hydrogen storage in salt caverns, to high pressure light weight storage tanks for drones, airplanes and vehicles, metal hydrides or liquid fuels such as ammonia (for large ships) or organic hydrogen carriers.
5. Hydrogen powered (heavy duty) vehicles are now very close to having the same operational performance as petrol, diesel, or CNG/LPG powered counterparts. Due to so-called ‘spill-over’ effects from other sectors such as aerospace (carbon fiber composites for high pressure, compact, and lightweight hydrogen tanks), power electronics (regenerative and compact electric motors, efficient inverters, traction batteries, and capacitors), nanotechnology (reducing expensive metals in fuel cell catalysts to the amount of current car exhaust gas catalytic converters), which have made storage and fuel cells more compact, cheaper, lighter, and more efficient.
6. Several regions in the world (e.g. Japan, Korea, Europe), realize the only way to become a fully renewable society is by importing low cost renewable energy from other regions with an abundance of it. Hydrogen and other derived carriers make it possible to store and transport this renewable energy from one continent to another on a large scale in a cost-effective way. Engineers have proven that natural gas pipelines and tankers can be re-used and missing technology is now being trialed.

RJK: A lot of people are still skeptical of hydrogen since the majority of it comes from reforming of methane/fossil fuels currently.

VO: Past performance is no guarantee of future results, investors say. The same applies to a system in transition and technologies yet to be discovered. Keep in mind, changing a complete energy, chemical, and fuel system built-up over a century is not something which will happen overnight. As hydrogen is an energy carrier, the hydrogen is as green and as cheap as the energy source is. For a long time, low-cost green energy was only available in places with large amounts of hydropower and a low local consumption of the generated hydroelectricity. An interesting fact is that Africa for a long time occupied place #1 and #5 with the biggest hydrogen production plants (based on splitting water, called electrolysis) powered by hydropower (Aswan, Egypt and Kwekwe, Zimbabwe). Unfortunately, many places in the world did not have access to low cost and large amounts of hydropower or green energy for a long time. Due to the large amount of oil and natural gas discoveries, in combination with the belief that the world would transition to nuclear energy or fusion, fossil fuels were cheap and used abundantly. As mentioned in the previous answer, due to the current and ever decreasing cost of solar and wind energy being available on a small and large scale, more and more regions not having had access before to low cost green energy, now do have. As electrolyzers can be bought from very small to large size, hydrogen could also be made wherever green energy is available.

RJK: How competitive is green hydrogen from the unit economics point of view vs. natural gas and hydrogen from fossils?

VO: The so-called negative externalities of natural gas and fossil fuel production are often not included in their cost and therefore are actually too cheap. Who pays for the effects of climate change or health impacts due to air pollution, just to name an example? Also several fossil-based hydrogen production plants are already amortized. So comparing the marginal hydrogen production cost from fossils fuels of a fully developed technology with green hydrogen from new-built plants of a new technology is not a fair comparison.

The economic situation of a country is for a great part defined by the trade balance. For countries not having fossil energy resources or profiting from the export and value creating chains, local green hydrogen production could  already  be competitive when viewed holistically. Importing fossil based hydrogen fuel might seem cheaper, but mostly creates less jobs then having the value chain locally present.

Economics not only encompasses the cost of the commodities itself, but also the cost of financing the build up of infrastructure. Currently the financial sector is moving away from financing carbon-based infrastructures and favors green investments, which will result in lower financing costs for green tech.

Lastly, we haven’t spoken about rules and regulations ruling out fossil fuels, then the question becomes; which green technology is the most competitive?

RJK: Tell us a bit more about the African Hydrogen Partnership, how it started, and your mission and vision for Africa.

VO: The AHP is the main, continent-wide African association covering fuel cells, hydrogen, related chemicals, and carriers. Membership is open to private sector organizations, research institutes, universities, and other hydrogen and related associations, each having its own grouping and representation on the Board of the AHP. The mission of the AHP is to establish hydrogen economies in Africa, for the benefit of Africa and the world. Establishing hydrogen economies in Africa will provide tremendous social, economic, and environmental benefits, all at the same time.

It started in 2014 when Mr. Siggi Huegemann, a German who resides in the UK, initiated the idea for an African hydrogen association and hosted a daily blog called African Hydrogen Power. When I knew I would move to Harare, Zimbabwe in 2018, I joined Mr. Huegemann and we formed an unincorporated association to formally establish the organization in Africa and renamed the initial initiative to African Hydrogen Partnership (AHP).

In 2019, the AHP published its new website and three visionary documents about establishing and financing hydrogen economies in Africa. We received valuable feedback on the vision via visits to Tanzania, China, Nigeria, and close to hundred conference calls, meetings in the UK and Zimbabwe, and email exchanges with all kinds of different organizations. After a small conference in 2020 in Addis Ababa with a good representation of stakeholders from Africa, Europe, and Asia, Mr. Ian Fraser and Ms. Catherine Scholtz, Directors of RTS Africa Engineering, joined the unincorporated association. Together with them, we formally registered the AHP, with RTS Africa Engineering and Hypowa as the first two member companies, in Mauritius in November 2020.

RJK: Why is Africa one of the best places for green hydrogen production?

VO: Developing countries would be the big winners from the move toward a hydrogen economy as indicated by the Asian Development Bank. As indicated before, establishing hydrogen economies in Africa will provide tremendous social, economic and environmental benefits, all at the same time. Social and economic drivers are often a lot stronger than solely relying on environmental drivers.

Africa is perfectly positioned, as it has relatively little fossil-based infrastructure and vested interests. Africa is a growth market in general, not only for the energy sector. The African population is the fastest growing worldwide and the poverty rate is declining. Instead of using fossil energy for facilitating the growth, one could ‘leapfrog CO2’ by using green electricity and hydrogen. Africa will be one of the places least frozen by the past fossil energy dogma. Strong infrastructure is actually detrimental in this new world. When the current system works too well, there is resistance to change and too much legacy to overcome. Africa can be regarded in many cases as a so-called ‘greenfield’. There is a lot of non-used and non-arable, barren or wasteland available. This comes on top of the abundance of very good renewable energy resources as well as mineral resources. From a social point of view, Africa also has a large and young workforce, which could build up the green hydrogen and electricity value chains. The proximity to Europe and the Middle East also facilitates trade, exchange and collaborations.

RJK: Which industries and applications are ripe for introduction of hydrogen and growing the green hydrogen economy in Africa?

VO: Industries where uptime and availability of energy is very crucial to their business model or is essential to the safety of their operation. Think of the telecom sector, (underground) mining and ventilation, hospitals, hotels.

On an energy basis, one pays more for transport fuels (e.g. petrol, diesel) than for industry feedstock or chemicals (e.g. ammonia, cement and steel production). Regions where the transport of fuels or chemicals defines a large part of the landed costs, green hydrogen is or will be cost competitive. Think of trucking or the production of ammonia based fertilizers in landlocked countries. In remote mining areas, a great example is Anglo American, which starts trialing with onsite hydrogen production from solar PV to power the mining operation and produce hydrogen fuel for the mining dumper trucks.

Apart from the economic drivers, environmental drivers are also creating awareness and targets are set to reduce the carbon footprint in Africa. Many industries in Africa are part of globally operating companies where shareholders demand lower carbon footprint. As Africa is a growth market, it makes sense reducing or avoiding the carbon footprint in Africa, especially when expanding.

RJK: Which countries in Africa are best suited to exploit opportunities in the green hydrogen economy?

VO: All African countries can reap in one way or another the benefits from a green hydrogen economy. Close to all African countries are rich in at least one or more of the most prevalent renewable energy sources, wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal, biomass. Most African countries have a relatively low population density and non-arable land available. These factors indicate that the basic requirements are in place to become self-sufficient green hydrogen economies and can avoid or reduce the import of energy significantly.

Several African countries around the Northern and Southern Tropics have extremely good solar and wind resources. Besides that, also the availability of large amounts of non-arable land and are in the proximity of or have infrastructures connecting to the ocean, think of the Northern Africa countries and Namibia, South Africa, Angola, and Botswana. These countries could produce hydrogen at such low cost and significant quantities that it will become competitive to current fossil fuel based applications worldwide and so export hydrogen (either in liquid form, bounded to nitrogen as ammonia or liquid organic hydrogen carriers) to regions lacking large amounts of renewable energy sources or land availability, such as Europe, Japan, South Korea, and others. Several experts foresee a global energy system similar  to today’s system based on oil and natural gas.

Several other African countries have an extreme abundance of mineral resources essential in producing solar panels, wind turbines, electric motors, batteries, electrolysers and fuel cells or biological carbon (biomass), being essential in producing chemicals and bioplastics for example.

I truly hope/believe the agreement of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) can/will accelerate the creation of a pan-African and global green hydrogen economy. 

Students detail efforts to make Ireland more climate resilient

Many entrants to BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition focus on environmental issues

Kevin O'Sullivan

Over 1,000 students from across Ireland are taking part in the first ever virtual BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition. Participating students from Naas Community College, Naas, Co Kildare Sean Byrne and Sean Higgins and their project ‘Can an economically efficient upper limb prosthetic be made and match the market?’

Subjecting crops grown in Ireland to a form of high volume water stress at an early stage of growth may be a way of making them more resilient in the face of increased global warming.

That is the firm conclusion of Luke Fox-Whelan, a pupil at Templeogue College, Dublin, who grew winter barley with a view to making it more robust – given that 14 per cent more rainfall is predicted for the country in coming years and concentrated, most of which will occur at wintertime.

His research, which he is featuring at this year’s BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition, is not a simple experiment on water tolerance. He believes the plant’s “somatic memory” kicks in when it is subjected to an early three-day “storm stress test”.

So that when it encounters the real thing during a wet spell during winter, it is better able to withstand the conditions.

The science behind this, he believes, relates to epigenetics; a second layer of genetics which is an emerging science and the subject of intense investigation in recent years. It can give rise to a particular trait based on a previous memory, Luke explained.

Plants subjected to the initial stress went on to be less fragile, instead of the untreated group which were more inclined to fall over and die.

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While he accepts more experiments are needed on the technique, “it’s a way of addressing food insecurity due to climate change”.

He confirmed his motivation was, “how do we make climate change less world-ending?”
Shuttlecock

There is always a place for fascinating basic science at the BTYSTE, such an investigation of why a badminton shuttlecock flies faster and further in warmer temperatures or why scrolling through TikTok is so addictive. But the scale of projects and endeavour focussed on countering climate change and on reducing the carbon footprint related to human activity stood out.

Orlaith Ní Ghallchobhair of St Kevin’s Community College in Dunlavin in Co Wicklow, has proposed nettles as a sustainable solution to fast fashion.

Participating students Ali O’ Donoghue and Eilís Mullane, students from St Brigid’s Secondary School, Killarney, Co Kerry and their project ‘Vertical Farming -The Future of Healthy Schools’.

In particular, she demonstrated how nettle wool and nettle fibre can be used as a biodegradable alternative to polyester. Her research was prompted by the realisaton “most of my wardrobe is made from synthetic fibres”, which are recyclable up to a point but don’t breakdown for up to 200 years.

Orlaith extracted nettle fibres from nettle stalks and spun them into a yarn. She also subjected it to “tensile strength tests” and evaluated its ability to absorb water. The first product she produced was a nettle wool scarf, and went on to recycle a cotton shirt insulated with nettle wool.

She was delighted to prove the sustainability of nettle wool in a fashion world increasingly seeking to reduce its carbon footprint, safe in the knowledge when finished with the garments, she can put them in her garden composter.

Plastic waste

John David O’Donnell, a first year student at Patrician Presentation School in Fethard, Co Tipperary, investigated the possibility that sheep’s wool be used as an alternative to plastic packing, thus “reducing the environmental impact of plastic waste and reviving the wool industry”.

Living on a sheep farm, he said he was conscious of how most wool was being exported to China, and Covid-19 had, in effect, collapsed the domestic market, and believed the natural fibres in wool could be combined with other biodegrable materials to replace plastic, which is a source of so much pollution – and carbon emissions.

He experimented on combinations of wool with gelatin, starch, gum Arabic and flour, and concluded it could result in a viable alternative.

Researchers propose a framework for evaluating the impacts of climate change on California's water and energy systems

by Harrison Tasoff, University of California - Santa Barbara

Hydroelectric stations like Shasta Dam, along the Sacramento River, are integral to California’s water and energy needs. Credit: U.S. Bureau Of Reclamation

As the planet continues to warm, the twin challenges of diminishing water supply and growing energy demand will intensify. But water and energy are inextricably linked. For instance, nearly a fifth of California's energy goes toward water-related activities, while more than a tenth of the state's electricity comes from hydropower. As society tries to adapt to one challenge, it needs to ensure it doesn't worsen the other.

To this end, researchers from UC Santa Barbara, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley have developed a framework to evaluate how different climate adaptations may impact this water-energy nexus. Their research appears in the open access journal Environmental Research Letters.

"Electricity and water systems are linked in many different ways," said coauthor Ranjit Deshmukh, an assistant professor in the environmental studies department. "Climate change is expected to stress these links so we presented a framework that maps these interdependencies and will enable us to understand and quantify its impacts on the energy-water nexus."

Although it's not the first study to look at these topics, it takes a more nuanced approach than the papers that have come before. "There have been many analyses on how climate change could affect the water and energy sectors separately, but those studies were not typically looking at interactions and feedbacks between the two," said lead author Julia Szinai of Berkeley Lab's Climate and Ecosystem Sciences Division. "Our paper develops a generalized framework that identifies how climate change affects these coupled water and electricity systems and potential adaptations to future gaps in supply and demand. By doing so we illustrate often overlooked tradeoffs and synergies in adapting to climate change."

The framework uses systems analysis to identify the biggest potential climate stressors on the water and energy sectors. It quantifies actions that will be needed to adapt to climate change, and examines the feedbacks that would result from these actions.

"For example, our framework shows how increased temperatures due to climate change will likely increase electricity demand for air conditioning and water demand for irrigation," Deshmukh explained. "Whereas snowpack loss in the Sierras and variable precipitation will affect the water supply, not just for urban and agricultural use, but also for hydropower generation and thermal power plant cooling."

California relies on snowpack in the Sierra Nevadas to slowly mete out water over the course of the year.

The team applied the framework they developed to California, which relies on the snowpack for a good deal of its water and expends significant amounts of energy to transport water from the north to the southern part of the state. They examined multiple adaptation strategies in the water sector and found that some are energy intensive while others can actually save both water and energy.

The researchers integrated data across a number of fragmented studies to estimate the overall range of possible water and energy futures for the state under various climate scenarios at the end of the century. Their analysis found that two factors will likely dominate climate change's direct impacts on California's electricity sector: higher air conditioning loads and decreased hydropower availability.
The climate crisis has severely impacted California’s water-energy nexus. Here we see the contrast between a full reservoir behind Folsom Dam in July 2011 compared to the water level under the extreme drought in January 2014. Credit: United States Bureau Of Reclamation

"One of the most important points of the paper is that adapting our water system to climate change can either significantly exacerbate electricity grid stress, or on the flip side, it could help to alleviate it," said co-author and Berkeley Lab climate scientist Andrew Jones. "If we focus on adapting the water system by using big transfers of water across basins, or by using energy-intensive desalination, that's just going to make the electricity problem much more difficult. If, on the other hand, we adapt the water system by conserving water, it's actually a win-win situation because you're also reducing the energy required for water."

Currently, a staggering 19% of California's electricity consumption goes toward water-related applications, such as treating, transporting, pumping and heating. Additionally, about 15% of in-state electricity generation comes from hydropower.

The state has already seen some impacts of climate change on its water-energy systems. Extended droughts exacerbated by climate change have led to spikes in electricity consumption for groundwater pumping, and corresponding hydropower deficits have required replacement by dirtier fossil fuels.

The team is certain that the climate crisis will have a huge impact on the state's future water supplies. That said, the effect is wildly uncertain. In the worst case, available water supplies could decrease 25%; however, they could increase 46%.

"There are significant uncertainties in the climate model projections for precipitation," said Deshmukh. "But irrespective of those uncertainties, the adaptation measures offer significant co-benefits." Conserving water would save energy as well as money for consumers, and allow for greater flow in the state's natural streams and rivers.

When the team applied their framework to the worst-case scenario, they found that choosing the most energy-intensive adaptation strategies in the water sector could result in an energy imbalance as large as that caused directly by climate change.

"I think this is the first study to show that water sector adaptation can have as large of an impact on the electricity sector as the direct effect of climate change itself," said Jones.

"This study has highlighted the benefit of coordinated adaptation planning between the two sectors," added lead author Szinai, "so we're now linking a more detailed water resources management model and an electricity planning model that can demonstrate resilient pathways for building out electricity infrastructure in the Western U.S. when climate change impacts are included from the water sector."

Deshmukh is currently leading a team to explore the connections between energy, water and the climate by quantifying the impacts of climate change on hydropower dams and thermal power plants in 12 countries across southern Africa. He hopes to identify optimal investments in electricity infrastructure.

"California has a choice in how it wants to adapt its water sector to the impacts of climate change," Deshmukh stated. "The state can either pursue energy intensive climate adaptation measures such as desalination or develop a portfolio of measures that maximize water conservation potential. Planners and policymakers in the water and energy sectors need to coordinate their actions and plans for adapting to climate change."


Explore further  

Cooperation across boundaries and sectors could boost sustainable development

More information: Julia K Szinai et al. Evaluating cross-sectoral impacts of climate change and adaptations on the energy-water nexus: a framework and California case study, Environmental Research Letters (2020). DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/abc378

Journal information: Environmental Research

Vancity beats other Canadian banks and credit unions to net-zero pledge
By the Editors Jan 7, 2021 BC BUSINESS

Credit: Zbynek Burival/Unsplash

Vancity is saying goodbye to fossil fuels—eventually

The financial institution has committed to banishing carbon emissions from its lending portfolio by 2040

It won’t happen overnight—not by a long shot—but Canada’s biggest community credit union is getting out of financing fossil fuels.

Vancouver City Savings Credit Union just became the first bank or credit union in the country to commit to net-zero carbon emissions across its entire lending portfolio. Vancity plans to reach that goal by 2040, a decade ahead of the global target encouraged by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The IPCC has warned that to limit global warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial levels, the world must cut human-caused carbon emissions to about 45 percent of 2010 output by 2030 on its way to hitting net zero by 2050. In a hopeful sign, climate models recently revealed that swiftly eliminating emissions could stabilize temperatures in just 20 years.

Besides reaching net zero, Vancity has made four other climate commitments part of its business strategy: financing an equitable climate transition, investing in a better future, being more transparent and accountable, and “walking the talk” in all it does. The credit union also said that it will set an “ambitious initial target” for cutting emissions by 2025.

Canada’s big banks are laggards when it comes decarbonizing their portfolios. Vancity cites a report by the San Francisco­–based Rainforest Action Network showing that from 2016-19, Royal Bank of Canada, Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Nova Scotia were three of the top 10 banks worldwide for financing the fossil fuels industry. Combined, those three firms provided almost US$90 billion to oil and gas companies in 2019.

“The financial sector must play a central role supporting the shift to a low-carbon economy that is clean and fair for everyone,” Christine Bergeron, Vancity’s interim president and CEO, said in a statement. “Vancity has long been at the forefront of confronting systemic inequity and addressing climate change, and these commitments will help Vancity do its part to address the climate crisis by engaging our members and communities as a key part of the solution. It won’t be easy to meet our commitments, but the days of business as usual are over. We must all do more if we want to address the urgent challenge that’s taking place around us.”

Vancity, which manages some $28 billion assets on behalf of 543,000 member-owners, launched Canada’s first socially responsible investment fund in 1986. In 2008, it was the first North American financial institution to become carbon-neutral across its internal operations. Among its other climate-friendly credentials, Vancity is a signatory and board member of the UN Principles for Responsible Banking and the Collective Commitment to Climate Action, and a member of the Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials, which supports creating a global greenhouse gas accounting and reporting standard for financial services.

You can find more details on Vancity’s climate commitments here.

Exporting the U.S. Shale Boom Has Changed Oil Markets Forever

Sheela Tobben and Dave Merrill, Bloomberg News

The Theo T oil tanker docked at a NuStar facility in 

Corpus Christi, Texas, on Dec. 31, 2015. 

Sheela Tobben and Dave Merrill

(Bloomberg) -- Five years ago on New Year’s Eve, the Theo T left the Texas Gulf Coast with the first U.S. shale crude shipment overseas. The oil, gathered from nearby ConocoPhillips wells and sold to trading giant Vitol Group, set sail for Italy just two weeks after lawmakers lifted a long-standing ban on exports.It was the start of a trade that would reshape global oil markets, shift geopolitical power and upend entire economies. The shale boom itself has turned the U.S. into the world's largest oil producer and has moved it ever closer to a long-cherished dream of ending dependence on Middle East oil. But the export boom created an entirely new market, sending crude pulled from the shale fields of Texas, New Mexico and North Dakota to more than 50 countries, with shipments often surpassing those of any OPEC nation aside from Saudi Arabia.

These past five years could very well go down as the best years that U.S. shale oil exporters will ever see. Covid-19 has obliterated global fuel demand and bankrupted more than 40 drillers across America. Exactly how much oil leaves U.S. shores in the coming years will largely depend on how quickly the world can recover from the pandemic and how aggressively politicians work to shift the world away from fossil fuels. But the global reach of U.S. shale has changed oil markets for good and remains a potent, diplomatic weapon for the U.S.“Opening the shale revolution to the world through the export ban lifting helped shift the global oil market psychology from supply scarcity to abundance,” said Karim Fawaz, IHS Markit's director of energy research analysis. “It unshackled the U.S. industry to keep growing past its domestic refining limitations.”

Perhaps no two groups have gained from the export of America's shale boom more than producers of U.S. oil and the giant commodities merchants who trade it. Wildcatters including billionaire Harold Hamm of Continental Resources Inc. and Scott Sheffield of Pioneer Natural Resources Co. saw their revenues more than double as exports took off. “Today the U.S. has its own petrodollars,” Hamm said in August 2018 as U.S. oil shipments overseas boomed. 

Trading giants including Trafigura Group, Vitol, Gunvor Group and Mercuria Energy Group profited from buying cheaper shale oil, shuttling it to the U.S. coast and shipping it to eager buyers in Europe and Asia. Betting that shipments would surge, they expanded their trading desks in the U.S., invested in ports, pipelines and export facilities. By the last week of 2019, exports of American oil had reached nearly 4.5 million barrels a day.

U.S. shale's gain was OPEC's loss. As shale oil flooded the market, OPEC was forced to cede market share. The U.S., which had been one of OPEC's biggest customers, has cut its monthly imports by about 50% since mid-2006. Last week, Saudi Arabian cargoes to the U.S. fell to zero for the first time since at least 2010.Exports have turned U.S. shale into a permanent thorn in OPEC's side. The oil cartel has had to join forces with Russia, Mexico and other major producers to ratchet back production several times in the past five years while U.S. shale expanded its reach into key markets.

Shale now shares the fortunes — and the misfortunes — of being a major exporter. The strongest evidence of this yet came in March when U.S. President Donald Trump joined leaders of the world's largest oil-producing nations to hammer out an unprecedented accord to save oil markets from total collapse as the pandemic slashed demand.

The U.S.’s shrinking dependence on foreign imports has also allowed the Trump administration to impose increasingly debilitating sanctions on two OPEC founding members — Venezuela and Iran — without fear of higher fuel prices back home. And with American shale now readily available in global markets, oil price spikes tied to conflicts in the Middle East are shorter and more subdued.

“The flow of U.S. oil since the ban's end has kept global oil supply in balance even at times when politics have caused the loss of supply from Iran, Venezuela and Libya,” said Sandy Fielden, director of oil research at Morningstar Inc. 

How long the U.S. can maintain this clout on global oil markets remains to be seen.

One bullish sign for U.S. oil exports: China’s appetite for crude has come back with a vengeance since the country emerged from lockdowns. That has helped draw down American oil inventories as U.S. cargoes start hitting the water once again, reaching 3.6 million barrels a day in the week of Christmas.

There is no other country that will dictate the fate of U.S. oil exports more than China. About two years after U.S. lawmakers lifted the export ban, shipments to China reached 2 million barrels a day, making it by far the largest buyer of American oil. The Asian nation's appetite for crude has rebounded since it emerged from lockdowns, but Saudi Arabia and Russia remain major suppliers to the country and competition may heat up later this year as OPEC+ restores output.“The Asian market will become more competitive as OPEC+ restores some of its production,”  said Shirin Lakhani, a senior oil analyst at Rapidan Energy Group. “For OPEC+ producers, sales into Asia have the best profit margins due to proximity and logistics.”

Demand for U.S. barrels will also depend on how well the global economy fares in the coming years after its deepest recession since World War II. The World Bank forecasts a 4% economic rebound this year, following a 4.3% contraction in 2020, but cautioned there’s an “exceptional level of uncertainty” as the pandemic may reduce potential global growth for a decade.  It will take until the end of 2021 for the oil glut left behind by the pandemic to clear as demand will be “lower for longer than expected” when the virus emerged in the spring, the International Energy Agency said in December. 

The incoming Biden administration and its plan to completely reshape U.S. energy policy will undoubtedly affect U.S. oil exports. Among the president-elect’s promises on the campaign trail were stronger regulation of the hydraulic fracturing that unleashed the U.S. shale boom, a ban on fracking federal lands and a broader transition away from fossil fuels.  Depending on how it's executed, the ban alone may not significantly affect U.S. oil shipments. It would theoretically only apply to new drilling licenses and affect a fairly limited amount of new oil output, namely in New Mexico.

But that may only prove to be a temporary boon for oil exporters. Joe Biden is among a growing chorus of world leaders pledging to wean their nations off fossil fuels for good. More than 120 countries, including China, the U.K. and Canada, have committed to achieving net-zero emissions over the course of the next three decades. The president-elect himself has pledged to achieve net-zero emissions in the U.S. no later than 2050. Electric transportation lies at the center of virtually every country's plan to go carbon-neutral. 

Annual sales of electric cars around the world — including trucks and buses — reached almost 27 million in 2019 and are set to accelerate in the coming years to a rate of 133 million vehicles a year in the next two decades, according to BloombergNEF estimates. By 2040, around 500 million passenger electric vehicles will be on the road, or roughly one third of the world’s total.But as long as the world moves mostly on fossil fuels, shale will continue to fight for its share of the global market. “The lifting of the export ban and the incredible growth and resilience in domestic shale will keep the U.S. a crucial exporter of American crude oil for the foreseeable future,’’ Lakhani said.

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

The Climate Crisis Will Be Steroids for Fascism



Brian Kahn
MANAGING EDITOR, EARTHER
Filed to:COUPS



A gallows erected by Trump-supporting violent extremists in front of the Capitol.Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP (Getty Images)

The Capitol has a police force with a $500 million budget, and yet it failed at its one job on Wednesday. Members of Congress, among the most protected people on the planet, were forced to hide in undisclosed locations as violent extremists overran the Capitol.

The anti-democratic message Wednesday’s insurrection sent is chilling. Far-right mobs incited by the president over baseless conspiracy theories and a commitment to white nationalism breached one of the most secure places in the U.S. and disrupted a basic democratic process of certifying election results. But what it portends for both the future of the Republican Party and its response to the climate crisis is even more chilling.

The ingredients for the toxic soup that stirred extremists to take on one of the branches of government (as well as numerous coordinated attacks at the state level) will only grow more plentiful and powerful as the climate crisis worsens. If elected officials aren’t ready to take a clear-eyed look at the damage done on Wednesday and what awaits us in the coming hotter decades, we’ll face even more extreme assaults on democracy and the most vulnerable among us.

The violent assault on the Capitol followed a pattern increasingly familiar in the Trump era, though it’s been an undercurrent in American society for much longer. Blatant lies about the election being rigged were spread over social media and used as cover to convene in Washington, DC, and storm the Capitol. Extremists clashed with police, met minimal resistance outside, and were allowed to mill about the building for hours, trashing offices and posing in the Senate for Parler-worthy photos.

Then they were allowed to politely file out of the building and only a few dozen were arrested. That number may rise, but the initial response pales in comparison to how Black Lives Matter protesters were treated this summer. Not to mention climate-related protesters like Fire Drill Fridays where police created a huge perimeter to cordon off press and onlookers and brought in buses to process protesters who were arrested.

Newly Sworn‑In West Virginia Lawmaker Streamed Video Of Himself Storming the Capitol


Wednesday’s insurrection and law enforcement’s frail response are eerily similar to what happened this summer when right-wing militias spread conspiracies about wildfires in Oregon. In that case, extremists sowed confusion to assert control over regions engulfed in smoke, setting up armed checkpoints and threatening journalists. Law enforcement turned a blind eye, and in the case of one sheriff, even briefed extremists. At the time, experts told me it was in part an attempt by far-right figures to see what they could get away with.

The lesson in both cases is that the pushed boundaries didn’t snap back. The permissive nature of law enforcement and people in power—more than 120 Republican representatives and senators voted to decertify state election results based on lies after the mob invaded the Capitol Building—opens the door to further violent probing.

Now, I’m a firm believer that an assault on democracy or unlawful behavior during a climate-fueled disaster alone should be reason to hold people to account. But looking at the two events in tandem and seeing the climate future that awaits us is what really raises my alarm bells—and should raise those of the people in power. Pretending this will pass or offering broad platitudes that “we are better than this” will ensure more terror.

Climate change is chaos by nature. It means more powerful storms, more intense wildfires, more extreme floods and droughts. It is an assault on the weakest among us, and decades of the right-wing mindset of small government have left the country with fewer resources to deal with the fallout. As the summer’s wildfires show, the far-right will be there to try to fill the power void. Those fires occurred in a predominantly white region.

There’s a strong strain of white nationalism and neo-Nazism that ran through Wednesday’s insurrection, and it’s easy to imagine what will happen when flames or storms hit places that are predominantly Black, brown, or Indigenous. In fact, we don’t need to imagine it at all. We’ve seen it in the gunman who showed up at a Walmart to kill immigrants whom he falsely blamed for putting strain on the environment. And we saw it in the white vigilante violence in the vacuum after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. We’ve seen it so frequently, it even has a name: ecofascism.

After Wednesday, the boundaries of permissible violence have now expanded to a distorting degree, at a time of increasing climate instability. White supremacists, neo-Nazis, and other extremists literally took over the halls of power and got away with it. When climate change upends communities with far fewer defenses—communities that hate groups already scapegoat—the results will be catastrophic.

It’s never been clearer that a large chunk of the nation’s top Republican leaders will embrace and even fuel this extremism and hate. The Venn diagram of people who push election denial and climate denial has near-perfect overlap, but even if these figures deny the climate crisis, they’ll still look to exploit it. At the end of the day, their goal is to use easy-to-disprove lies to build and consolidate power.

Fixing a mess like this absolutely has to be part of the process of addressing climate change. Accountability for those who incited extremists is a good place to start. Emily Atkin of Heated noted on Twitter in the wake of the Georgia special election that gave Democrats the Senate that democracy reform is climate policy, and I have to agree. Washington, DC, statehood, getting corrosive money out of politics, and expelling seditionists are all good places to start. A strong federal response to climate change that both draws down emissions and protects people from the impacts already in the pipeline is also crucial. Decades of weakening the federal government and proselytizing about the power of the individual has left millions exposed to calamity. Rebuilding the federal response to climate change, and ensuring it also engages everyone in moving the country forward through good-paying jobs and a just transition for frontline and fossil fuel communities, are essential to beating hate groups into the background.

None of this will make the fascism on full display disappear overnight. But doing nothing or insisting we turn the page opens the door to something much worse.