XENA SJW

Xena star Lucy Lawless calls out Hercules actor 

Kevin Sorbo for his theory that Antifa rioters 

stormed the US Capitol 

• Actress Lucy Lawless has called out right-wing actor Kevin Sorbo over a tweet about the US Capitol Hill rioters 
• Sorbo, 62, who starred in Hercules: The Legendary Journey from 1995 to 1999, shared a photo of the rioters quipping, 'They don't look like patriots to me' 
• Lawless, 52, who starred in the Hercules spin-off Xena: The Warrior Princess from 1995 to 2001, called him out 
• The actress hit back: 'No, Peanut. They are not Patriots. They are your flying monkeys,homegrown terrorists, QAnon actors' 

By BRIAN GALLAGHER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED:  8 January 2021

While they once shared the small screen together as Xena and Hercules, Lucy Lawless and Kevin Sorbo have little in common these days.

The right-wing Sorbo, 62, who starred in Hercules: The Legendary Journey from 1995 to 1999, shared a photo on Twitter of some of the men who stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, claiming, 'They don't look like patriots to me.'

He previously claimed that those who stormed the Capitol weren't actually Trump supporters, but Antifa demonstrators, though Lawless, 52, who starred in the Hercules spin-off Xena: The Warrior Princess from 1995 to 2001, called him out.

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Xena and Hercules: While they once shared the small screen together as Xena and Hercules, Lucy Lawless and Kevin Sorbo have little in common these days

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Kevin's tweet: The right-wing Sorbo, 62, who starred in Hercules: The Legendary Journey from 1995 to 1999, shared a photo on Twitter of some of the men who stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, claiming, 'They don't look like patriots to me'

The photo featured one bearded man holding a red flag that read Trump for President and another man wearing a Viking helmet holding an American flag.

The original tweet asked, 'Do these look like Trump supporters? Or Leftist agitators disguised as Trump supporters

When Sorbo tweeted, 'They don't look like patriots to me,' Lawless responded, 'No, Peanut. They are not Patriots. They are your flying monkeys,homegrown terrorists, QAnon actors.'

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No, Peanut: When Sorbo tweeted, 'They don't look like patriots to me,' Lawless responded, 'No, Peanut. They are not Patriots. They are your flying monkeys,homegrown terrorists, QAnon actors'

'They are the douchebags that go out and do the evil bidding of people like you who like to wind them up like toys and let them do their worst,' she added, with the hashtags #keepingYourFilthyHandsclean and #enabler.

Another fan also shared Sorbo's hypocrisy, as illustrated in four tweets from Wednesday morning and afternoon.

Sorbo first retweeted a woman who said, 'People are storming the Capitol in DC right now,' with the actor adding, 'It's happening.'

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Enabler: 'They are the douchebags that go out and do the evil bidding of people like you who like to wind them up like toys and let them do their worst,' she added, with the hashtags #keepingYourFilthyHandsclean and #enabler

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Hypocrisy: Another fan also shared Sorbo's hypocrisy, as illustrated in four tweets from Wednesday morning and afternoon

Less than an hour later he tweeted, 'History is being made...' but another hour later he changed his tune considerably.

'To those storming the Capitol building: Please be careful, do not act like ANTIFA. Respect the police and know they are mostly on our side, they are simply trying to do their job,' he said.

The final tweet was just 45 minutes after the last, where he then claimed, 'ANTIFA led the charge into the Capitol building dressed as Trump supporters.'

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History: Less than an hour later he tweeted, 'History is being made...' but another hour later he changed his tune considerably

Final tweet: The final tweet was just 45 minutes after the last, where he then claimed, 'ANTIFA led the charge into the Capitol building dressed as Trump supporters'

The fan tweeted to Lawless, 'Lucy... Here's the best acting he's ever done...,' which Lawless responded, 'Oooooh, PEANUT!!!' 

Sorbo never publicly responded to Lawless' tweets, though he continued tweeting about Antifa being responsible for the Capitol insurrection.

Sorbo most recently starred in The Penitent Thief, while Lawless voiced Aeosian Queen in the animated series Star Wars: Resistance.

Peanut: The fan tweeted to Lawless, 'Lucy... Here's the best acting he's ever done...,' which Lawless responded, 'Oooooh, PEANUT!!!'

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Work: Sorbo most recently starred in The Penitent Thief, while Lawless voiced Aeosian Queen in the animated series Star Wars: Resistance

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Xena star Lucy Lawless calls out Hercules star Kevin Sorbo for his Antifa theory

OUTSOURCING CONTRACTING OUT PRIVATIZATION

NHS Test and Trace is paying 73 consultancy firms an AVERAGE of £163,000 PER EMPLOYEE

Test and Trace private consultancy firms have been paid £375 million so far

Government-funded service currently employs 2,300 management consultants

The figures reflect number of consultants working at the start of November

PUBLISHED:  8 January 2021

Test and Trace consultancy firms working for the NHS are being paid sums which equate to an average of £163,000 a consultant, it has emerged.

The figures from the Department of Health and Social Care show that the government-funded service currently employs 2,300 management consultants, with £375 million being spent so far on private consultancy services.

It comes as Boris Johnson today announced the NHS will be able to give 200,000 jabs every day by next Friday as part of his ambitious lockdown-ending plans.

Test and Trace consultancy firms working for the NHS are being paid sums which equate to an average of £163,000 a consultant. (Stock image)

Health Minister Helen Whately released the figures, which reflect the number of consultants who were working at the start of November last year, in response to a question from Labour MP Andy Slaughter.

Mr Slaughter later told The Times: 'These are staggering sums of public money being handed out to consultants with no scrutiny or explanation how they are chosen.

'As we enter the worst phase of the pandemic, if mistakes have been made these must be laid bare.'

Ms Whately also explained that consultant were being recruited from 73 different suppliers.

Tamzen Isacsson, chief executive of the Management Consultancies Association (MCA), said: 'The charge from consulting firms including various operating costs that goes well beyond consultant salaries including product development, solution development, security system requirements, legal costs, overheads, and training and recruitment costs.

'A large number of consultancy firms have been brought into support critical government projects during the pandemic including on Test and Trace which has required people with expertise in digital technology, supply chain, logistics, procurement and in delivering major government projects.

'The consulting sector has provided multi-disciplinary capabilities and senior experience very quickly to support Government and has helped deal with complex negotiations around data, infrastructure and procurement at pace.

'All MCA member firms used by government in this period have been procured through competitively tendered Crown Commercial Service frameworks which evaluate bidding firms against quality and cost criteria. As part of these contracts, consultancy firms are required to upskill civil servants and transfer knowledge to increase capability for the future.

'We should remember that Government is dealing with an unprecedented volume of workload and major upheaval due to COVID-19 and using external resources has enabled them to work quickly and with intensity in many areas.'

In November, it was revealed that Britain's creaking Test and Trace system was still not reaching at least four in ten contacts of those testing positive for Covid-19.

Figures showed that in cases managed either online via email or by telephone by private companies, Serco and Sitel, just 58.9 per cent of close contacts were reached.

Boris Johnson today announced the NHS will be able to give 200,000 jabs every day by next Friday as part of ambitious lockdown-ending plans.

It came after a BBC investigation claimed it could actually be as low as 50 per cent due to IT problems and delays in getting contact details for people to call.

Downing Street defended the 'colossal' achievements of Test and Trace but acknowledged improvements could be made.

A No 10 spokesman said at the time: 'We are testing more people per head of population than any other European country and that will grow thanks to our increased testing capacity.'

It comes as Boris Johnson today announced he would bring in the Army to bolster the UK's coronavirus vaccination drive and claimed the NHS would be able to give 200,000 jabs every day by next Friday as part of ambitious lockdown-ending plans.

With the roll-out of vaccines the only light at the end of the tunnel, the Prime Minister reassured the public there would be enough doses available to get all the top priority groups immunised by mid-February.

He also pledged to offer every care home resident a jab by the end of January and announced a new national online booking system that is hoped will speed up the process.

Mr Johnson's mammoth jab pledge — which critics fear he won't be able to deliver because it is over-ambitious — came moments after Britain recorded 1,162 Covid deaths in the second worst day of the pandemic.

Department of Health data shows only April 21 had a worse death toll than today, when 1,224 victims were declared.

Curtains can also be solar panels: Japan-made tech to change world

As government pilots a tidal project, country focuses on catching up in renewables

Toshiba is developing perovskite photovoltaic cells that harvests sunlight and are thin and transparent enough to coat curtains.

Yuji Ohira and Masayuki Nakagawa, Nikkei staff writers

January 8, 2021 12:01 JST

TOKYO/FUKUOKA -- Global demand for electricity is estimated to double by 2050 as countries race to build a zero-carbon future. With this expected surge in demand, the pressure is on to find alternative sources of energy and develop storage for those.

As countries shift away from fossil fuels, companies are focusing on developing and improving technologies for cleaner fuels. One such company is Toshiba, which is developing and improving on the perovskite photovoltaic cells created by a Japanese scientist in 2009.

A perovskite solar cell harvests sunlight and is thin and transparent enough to coat machines and objects such as electric vehicles, vending machines, smartphones, clothes and curtains. This new solar cell could replace the existing crystalline silicon cells that dominate today's photovoltaic market.


Over the past decade, Toshiba has managed to increase the power conversion efficiency of its perovskite solar cells to 14.1%, the highest in the world. This compares just over 20% for conventional solar panels.

If perovskite solar cells become cheaper, they could be a vital technology for a carbon-neutral economy. "We could be able to install solar cells anywhere," said Kenji Todori, a senior expert at Toshiba.

A team of researchers at Stanford University said that if the manufacturing process of perovskite cells can be fine-tuned further, the average price of electricity generated this way could be dragged down to roughly 2 cents per kilowatt-hour. If this comes true, perovskite cells would be one of the cheapest sources of renewable energy.

But the creator of the perovskite cells, Tsutomu Miyasaka, professor at Toin University of Yokohama and a Nobel Prize in chemistry candidate, is not optimistic about the future of Japanese research in this field.

"In China, there are at least 10,000 researchers specializing in this technology, more than 10 times the number in Japan," he said. Despite being in the lead decades ago in the development of solar energy, Japanese manufacturers have now lost out to foreign rivals.

But Japan has now another focus -- tidal power. As an island, this is a plentiful source of energy for Japan. At the Goto Islands in the west of the country, where currents are fast and powerful, the Ministry of Environment and renewable energy producer Kyuden Mirai Energy are piloting Japan's first tidal power generation system.

A turbine to generate electricity from tides.

Tides are predictable, unlike wind and sunlight, so they can be "trusted to keep producing stable amounts of electricity without being affected by weather conditions," said Masakatsu Terasaki, an executive at Kyuden Mirai Energy. It is estimated that Japan can generate energy, from tides, equivalent to the amount that 20 nuclear reactors can produce.

As countries strive to achieve zero emissions, global investment in the power sector is projected to grow to $2.2 trillion in 2030, about three times the figure for 2019. U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, who will be sworn in on Jan. 20, pledged to achieve a zero-carbon power sector by 2035.

Across the world, the auto industry is also focusing on developing electric cars, as internal combustion engines look increasingly outdated. Several countries have committed to banning the sale of gasoline vehicles, with the U.K. setting 2030 as its target time frame.

To keep pace with global developments, Japan needs to put to rest the debate about whether renewable energy, which is costlier now, hinders economic growth. Fossil fuels will account for only 20% of the world's primary energy consumption in 2050, down from 85% in 2018, according to a forecast by BP.

As such, Japan should move forward by looking at ways to make renewables cheaper. For one, it can learn from Germany which has managed to increase the share of renewables in its annual power supply by 5 percentage points at an average annual cost of just $2.9 billion.

By contrast, Japan has had to spend 1.8 trillion yen ($17.5 billion) a year for the same market expansion. While Japan's population of around 126 million is much bigger than Germany's 83 million, there should be room still to develop cheaper renewables.

Japan should also take note that energy can determine the destiny of a country. The sharp decline of crude oil prices that started in 1986 was one of the factors that caused the collapse of the Soviet Union. Oil reserves in Western Siberia discovered in the 1960s buttressed the Soviet economy for decades. But the plunge in oil prices depressed the country's oil revenues, leading to a rise in debt to Western countries.

The Middle East has also benefited from its rich oil reserves that have provided an annual income of $600 billion to the countries in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Its control of world supply has also kept the global economy vulnerable to conflicts in the Persian Gulf.

As the beginning of the end of the Age of Oil unfolds, the world energy order will be reshaped. Innovation in energy technology will determine the winners and losers in the new era of green energy.

Additional reporting by Hidemitsu Kibe in Dubai.

CO-FRATERNAL 

Hilltop Buddhist Monastery Uncovered in Eastern India

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

BIHAR, INDIA—The Times of India reports that a Mahayana Buddhist monastery dated to about the eleventh or twelfth centuries A.D. has been discovered on a hilltop in eastern India. Anil Kumar of Visva Bharati University said the structure featured interconnected cells, wooden doorframes, and lime-plastered floors decorated with red, green, yellow, white, and black paint. The lintel at the entrance to the monastery’s main sacred area depicts two Bodhisattvas known as Manjushri and Avalokiteshvara. Wooden votive tablets recovered at the site each bear the figure of a person that may represent the Buddha. Kumar said some 500 sculptures have also been documented at the site. The name of the monastery, Srimaddharmaviharik aryabhiksusanghasya, was found written in script dated to about the eighth or ninth centuries A.D. on two burnt clay seals, he added. The large number of metal bangles, and the presence of doors on the cells, suggest that women monks may have lived in the monastery. A woman named Vijayashree Bhadra, who received donations from Mallika Devi, a queen of the Pala Empire, is known to have served as chief monk. To read about another Buddhist monastery where there is evidence for cohabitation of monks and nuns, go to "Early Buddhism in India."

The USA should never speak to anyone about democracy ever again, after Trump-encouraged mobs stormed the US Capitol building

The world has criticised scenes seen in America as Congress tried to ratify Joe Biden's presidential election win

UNRULY MOB: A protester screams "Freedom" inside the Senate chamber after the U.S. Capitol was breached by a mob during a joint session of Congress on January 06, 2021 in Washington, DC. Congress held a joint session today to ratify President-elect Joe Biden's 306-232 Electoral College win over President Donald Trump (Photo via Getty Images)

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump encouraged rioters to storm the US Capitol building, and then told them that they were very special, in a video that has now been taken down by both Twitter and Facebook.

At the end of the video he did ask rioters to go home and remain peaceful, in the event that left four people dead.

Not for the first time, Trump repeated completely false claims that the US Presidential election results were fraudulent.

Recently, the Washington Post leaked an audio recording of Trump asking Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to change the outcome of the state’s presidential elections.

However, the US congress has now certified Joe Biden’s election victory, and he will be sworn in on 20 January.

The scenes in America have attracted worldwide criticism and condemnation – with many pointing out that rioters seemed to be treated very differently because they were white.

TV Executive and social commentator Danielle Dash said: “The trauma of processing the state violence Black people faced in the summer for peacefully protesting versus white people storming the Capitol with impunity is overwhelming.

“It weighs heavy on the heart because this was always about race and racism.”

Writer and broadcaster Reni Eddo-Lodge said: “Maya Angelou said, “when people show you who they are, believe them”. Relevant then, relevant now, relevant forever.”

This sentiment was even repeated by Piers Morgan, who said rioters would have been treated differently if they were Black or muslim.

Others have pointed out that the rioters planned openly on social media for weeks, which raises questions about the lack of police presence.
Dangerous rhetoric

Social media platforms have recognised the danger of Trump’s rhetoric.

Guy Rosen, VP of Integrity at Facebook wrote: “This is an emergency situation and we are taking appropriate emergency measures, including removing President Trump’s video.

“We removed it because on balance we believe it contributes to rather than diminishes the risk of ongoing violence.”

The current US president has also been suspended from Twitter, who say he severely violated their civic integrity policy.

The social media platform have said they will permanently suspend the current president’s account if certain tweets are not taken down.

Many said that the scenes in America seemed like they came from “third world” countries, while others pointed out that this rhetoric was offensive.

Interestingly, the storming of the Capitol building comes almost 30 years after similar scenes in South Africa, where several hundred white extremists also interrupted a democratic process in 1993.

People have pointed out that a rioter raised the Confederate flag inside the US Capitol building, something that did not even happen during America’s civil war.

The flag is widely seen as offensive by Black people due to its historic origins.

In 1861, 11 states broke away from America when Abraham Lincoln was elected president.

Lincoln had argued that slavery should not be extended to new territories. People in the South who enslaved Black people wanted to continue doing so.

The USA should never speak to anyone about democracy ever again, after Trump-encouraged mobs stormed the US Capitol building - Voice Online (voice-online.co.uk)

Who Took Part in ‘Stop the Steal’ US Capitol Storming? Lawmakers, Right-Wing Figures IDed in Footage

by Morgan Artyuk

Several dozen people have been arrested by Washington, DC, police in the hours after the storming of the US Capitol building on Wednesday, and federal investigators say their probe of the chaos is likely to last the rest of 2021.

Among the ample film footage taken at the US Capitol storming on Wednesday, several political figures have been identified, including known alt-right leaders, online politicos and even several state legislators.

‘QAnon Shaman’ Jake Angeli

Perhaps no single demonstrator at the event has acquired more press attention than Jake Angeli, who appeared shirtless in an eye-grabbing “Viking” outfit of animal furs and body paint

The 32-year-old Arizona resident is a well-known figure in the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, where he’s referred to as the “QAnon Shaman,” according to the Arizona Republic.

© REUTERS / MIKE THEILER

Police confront supporters of President Donald Trump as they demonstrate on the second floor of the U.S. Capitol near the entrance to the Senate after breaching security defenses, in Washington, U.S., January 6, 2021.

At first, accusations swirled online that Angeli, his identity unknown, was actually an Antifa agent provocateur. However, others who knew of him and his politics quickly stepped in to set the record straight.

He has appeared in similar garb at a number of protests during Trump’s presidency. At one protest in May, Arizona Republic reporter Brieanna Frank got an interview with Angeli, which she reposted on Wednesday, confirming Angeli’s identity.

QAnon adherents maintain that Trump is waging a secret war against a deep state cabal of Satan-worshippers that maintains a global child sex-trafficking network. It’s unclear where the claims began, but it’s likely they originated on anonymous internet image board 4chan in 2017.

White Nationalists Matthew Heimbach, Jason Tankersley

Standing next to Angeli in the photo are two well-known alt-right figures: Matthew Heimbach, founder of the now-defunct Traditionalist Worker Party, a neo-Nazi group, has been identified as wearing the blue facemask.

​Heimbach was instrumental in organizing and promoting the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017 that brought together more than a thousand members of various white supremacist, white nationalist and neo-Nazi groups and which saw counter-protester Heather Heyer murdered by one of the attendees using his car. However, his group disbanded the following year amid personal intrigues between members of its leadership, including Heimbach.

The man with the large beard between them is reportedly Jason Tankersley, a member of Maryland State Skinheads, another white supremacist group.

Far-Right Online Streamer Baked Alaska

One person who not just admitted to participating in the insurrection but actually reveled in it was Tim Gionet, better known as the white nationalist internet personality Baked Alaska.

Gionet streamed the entire event on the blockchain service DLive and is seen at one point attempting to call US President Donald Trump from inside a lawmaker’s office.

​Gionet is categorized as a white nationalist by the Southern Poverty Law Center for his anti-Semitic views that include Holocaust denial. He also participated in the August 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville. His YouTube channel was banned in October 2020 after he filmed himself committing crimes and harassing people for wearing facemasks.

Incidentally, while Gionet is seen maskless among the throngs of rioters inside the Capitol on the livestream, he admitted on his stream just two days earlier that he had tested positive for COVID-19.

Proud Boys ‘Incognito’?

However, not seen much at the protests in an unusual display of invisibility were the Proud Boys. Leader Enrique Tarrio was arrested and banned from Washington, DC, in the days before the January 6 insurrection in connection with an attack on several Black churches in DC that he admitted to perpetrating.

Prior to the notoriously violent group’s arrival, Tarrio said the group would appear “incognito” at the protest instead of in their typical uniform of Fred Perry’s polo shirts and personal effects stamped with their laurel wreath emblem.

“The ProudBoys will turn out in record numbers on Jan 6th but this time with a twist... We will not be wearing our traditional Black and Yellow. We will be incognito and we will spread across downtown DC in smaller teams. And who knows....we might dress in all BLACK for the occasion", Tarrio wrote last week on Parler, a social media network that has become popular with far-right figures.

​Despite his claims, Proud Boys nonetheless appeared in their standard garb outside the Capitol, where they were filmed in a fight with unknown persons as they unleashed a hail of paintball rounds.

National Socialist Club 131

Another hate group that joined the insurrection was the National Socialist Club (NSC) 131, a small but violent neo-Nazi group with chapters in several countries.

​One image posted on Telegram with the timestamp 4:10 p.m. on January 6 shows someone holding up a business card with the group’s logo on it and the message “the US Capitol building is now a 131 zone.”

State Lawmakers

In addition to the slew of alt-right personalities, at least six Republican state legislators from across the US participated in the storming of the Capitol on Wednesday.

One lawmaker, West Virginia Delegate Derrick Evans, was only elected in November and has not even been sworn into office yet. Evans posted a video of himself entering the building on Wednesday before deleting it. However, copies are still circulating on Twitter.

​“We’re in, baby!” Evans can be heard yelling in the video, which shows dozens of people forcing the doors of the Capitol open with their body weight. Evans is now facing calls for his resignation back home, with more than 33,000 people signing a petition demanding he step down.

“I want to assure you all that I did not have any negative interactions with law enforcement nor did I participate in any destruction that may have occurred,” Evans told West Virginia Metro News, describing himself as “an independent member of the media to film history.”

Other state lawmakers who joined the insurrection included Tennessee state Rep. Terri Lynn Weaver, who told the Tennessean she was “in the thick of it” but denied any violence taking place. “Just a whole heck of a lot of patriots here,” she told the outlet, calling it “an epic and historic day.”

Another was Virginia gubernatorial candidate and state Sen. Amanda Chase, who similarly denied violence taking place, according to the Henrico Citizen, which noted she later referred to having several people “on the ground.” She also spoke at the event. Last month, she called for Trump to declare martial law to overturn the results of the November election.

Michigan state Rep. Matt Maddock organized busloads of protesters going to the event and himself spoke at it. It’s unclear if he participated in the storming of the Capitol, but his wife, Meshawn, a prominent Republican leader in Michigan, reportedly posted a video to Instagram urging the protesters to “march on the Capitol and drag these people out of power,” according to the Detroit Free Press.

Several other state lawmakers attended the protests and spoke, but don’t seem to have participated in the storming of the Capitol. One, Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, said he found the violence “repugnant, disgusting and threatening,” according to Harrisburg ABC affiliate WHTM, which noted he nonetheless faces calls for resignation back home.

Renewed Calls for Trump’s Removal

The insurrection began on Wednesday after Trump addressed thousands of his followers at a “Stop the Steal” event outside the White House. Trump has maintained US President-elect Joe Biden’s November 2020 election victory was fraudulently engineered and he has rejected the outcome, as well as the numerous recounts and certifications of the results that continue to show him as the loser of the race.

We will never give up, we will never concede,” Trump told the crowd. “We will stop the steal!”

The protesters then proceeded down the National Mall to the US Capitol, where federal lawmakers were meeting to give the final certification of the Electoral College votes identifying BIden as the winner. After skirmishing with police, some officers seemingly let the protesters into the Capitol, which they proceeded to ransack. However, the Electoral College ballots were secured, and after the insurrectionists were evicted, lawmakers reconvened and finished the certification.

Four people died in the event: one woman was shot by a Capitol security guard and died of her wounds, while three others suffered medical emergencies.

Your daily coffee has a big climate cost — here’s how to reduce it by 77%

The way coffee is produced can make a big difference to the climate.

 by Fermin Koop
January 7, 2021 

Coffee, our essential ally for many rough mornings, has a hidden environmental cost that is contributing to the world’s climate crisis, a new study showed. Still, there are plenty of ways to address this challenge that could bring coffee’s emissions down up to 77%, from shipping the beans with cargo ships to using more renewable energy in the process.

Image credit: Flickr / McKay Savage

Grown in tropical regions with fragile ecosystems, coffee is one of the most traded products in the world. Over 9.5 billion kilograms are produced every year, with a trade value of more than $30 billion. Demand is expected to triple by 2050, which has accelerated sustainability initiatives among coffee producers.

Conventional coffee production uses substantial amounts of energy, water, and land, which can have potentially significant impacts on biodiversity. This is mainly due to the long supply chain required to produce and transport the coffee bean to the market. The EU and the US import two-third of the coffee produced worldwide.

Although there has been substantial research into the environmental impacts of coffee production, it has primarily focused on the production phase. Significantly less consideration has been given to the environmental cost of coffee processing, including transportation from the production to consumption countries.

In a recent effort, UK researchers Carmen Nab and Mark Maslin calculated and compared the carbon footprints of conventional and sustainable Arabica coffee, the beans baristas use to make a high-quality brew, from leading producers Brazil and Vietnam. Together, both countries produce over 50% of the world’s Arabica coffee.

Conventional coffee from Vietnam was calculated to have the highest carbon footprint, with 16.04 kilogram of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per kilogram of coffee, closely followed by the one produced in Brazil (14.61 kilograms of CO2). Meanwhile, emissions from sustainable coffee were much lower in both cases, averaging 3.40 kilogram.

The exportation and transport process produced over 70% of total CO2 emissions in conventional coffee from both countries. The processing phase was the second-largest source of emissions (19%–21%) followed by the growing (7%) and milling (1%) phases. In the case of sustainable coffee, the processing phase was the largest source of emissions.

The researchers also calculated that just one espresso has an average carbon footprint of about 0.28 kilogram of CO2 emissions. And the figure grows significantly if the coffee has milk. Lattes have a carbon footprint of about 0.55 kg, followed by cappuccinos on 0.41 kg and flat whites on 0.34 kg, they estimated.

“Weight for weight, the coffee produced by the least sustainable means generates as much carbon dioxide as cheese and has a carbon footprint only half that of one of the worst offenders—beef. And that’s all before adding milk, which carries its own hefty environmental baggage,” Nab and Masling wrote in a blog post.

The sustainable case studies quantified in this study had an estimated 77% lower carbon footprint than the conventional case studies. The use of cargo ships for the transportation of coffee beans reduced emissions significatively, as it can export larger shipments at once. The replacement of chemical fertilizers with organic waste also played a big role.

But there are many other things that coffee producers could incorporate and reduce their emissions even further, the researchers argued:

Use of recycled materials and reduction of packaging amount. This reduces the demand for primary materials, thus reducing energy, water, and material consumption, air and water emissions in the production of packaging materials, and impacts on biodiversity from forestry and mining

Increasing efficiency in water heating. In the processing phase, an estimated 70% of CO2 emissions were attributed to consumption, largely due to the significant energy use of automatic coffee machines. This energy use could be reduced by using more efficient water-using technologies.

Use of renewable energy sources. The use of fossil fuels for electricity and energy production releases significant air emissions during each phase of the coffee life cycle. The use of renewable energy sources can reduce the carbon footprint of crop production by up to 70%.

Roasting the coffee beans in the producing country. Currently, coffee is usually exported to the country of consumption before it is roasted, allowing retailers to market their coffee as “freshly roasted.” Whilst green coffee beans have a longer shelf life than roasted ones, roasted coffee beans can retain their fresh taste for up to six months if stored at a cool temperature.

The study was published in the journal Royal Geographical Society.