Substantial carbon dioxide emissions from northern peatlands drained for crop cultivation

UNIVERSITY OF EXETER

Research News

 

IMAGE: ARCTIC PEATLAND IN SVALBARD view more 

CREDIT: ANGELA GALLEGO-SALA

A new study shows that substantial amounts of carbon dioxide were released during the last millennium because of crop cultivation on peatlands in the Northern Hemisphere.

Only about half of the carbon released through the conversion of peat to croplands was compensated by continuous carbon absorption in natural northern peatlands.

Peatlands are a type of wetland which store more organic carbon than any other type of land ecosystem in the world.

Due to waterlogged conditions, dead plant materials do not fully decay and carbon accumulates in peatlands over thousands of years.

Therefore, natural peatlands help to cool the climate by capturing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and trapping carbon in soils.

However, artificial drainage of peatlands for agriculture aerates the soil and enhances the decay of organic matter, rapidly releasing carbon into the atmosphere.

Peatlands are a missing piece of the carbon cycle puzzle; little is known about how much carbon has been released due to drainage and conversion of peatland to cropland during the historical sprawl of agriculture, and about the role of cultivated peatlands versus natural peatlands.

The new international study, led by INRAE and LSCE, and including the University of Exeter, quantified CO2 fluxes in natural and cultivated peatlands between 850 and 2010.

The study provides the first detailed estimates of historical carbon losses from cultivated northern peatlands.

"We incorporated peatland hydrological and carbon processes into a process-based land surface model," said Chunjing Qiu who developed the model and designed the study, and worked at the Institut National de de recherche pour l'agriculture, l'alimentation et l'environnement (INRAE) and the Laboratory for Sciences of Climate and Environment (LSCE) in France.

"This model is one of the first to simulate natural peatland and the conversion of peatland to cropland and resultant CO2 emissions.

"We also looked at how the carbon emission rates of cultivated peatlands vary with time after conversion.

"High CO2 emissions can occur after the initial drainage of peatland, but then, the emission rates decrease with time because of depletion of labile carbon and increasing recalcitrance of the remaining material."

Professor Angela Gallego-Sala, of Exeter's Global Systems Institute, said: "This study highlights how much carbon is lost if you drain peatlands, as we have done to many peatlands in Europe, but it also reminds us how important it is to make sure we manage peatlands appropriately."

The study shows that cultivated northern peatlands emitted 72 billons tons of carbon over 850-2010, and 40 billons tons over the period 1750-2010.

According to the authors, this indicates that historical CO2 emissions caused by land-use changes are greater than previously estimated.

It also implies an underestimation of historical carbon uptake by terrestrial ecosystems if carbon emissions from cultivated peatlands is ignored.

"Carbon emissions from drainage of peatlands are a source of concern for national greenhouse gas budgets and future emission trajectories," said Philippe Ciais from LSCE, who co-lead the study with Chunjing Qiu.

"However, we have only a very few observations, and peatland drainage and cultivation are not explicitly considered by bookkeeping models and dynamic global vegetation models used to compute the annual carbon budget.

"Emissions from cultivated peatlands are omitted in previous global carbon budget assessments.

"Our study brings new and important implications for a better understanding of the global carbon budget."

###

The paper, published in the journal Science Advances, is entitled: "Large historical carbon emissions from cultivated northern peatlands."

PEAT, MUSKEG, BOG FIRES
Canada may see more 'zombie fires' as climate warms and winters shorten: experts


© Provided by The Canadian Press 

Canada may see more 'zombie fires' as climate warms and winters shorten: experts

VANCOUVER — Blazes that continue to burn through the winter in Canada were once thought to be a myth, but the so-called zombie fires may become more common as temperatures get warmer and less snow falls, experts say.

Steven Cumming, an associate professor at Laval University's department of wood and forest sciences, said those working in fire management had heard stories of the underground smouldering blazes over winter but there was no way of counting them until a recent study.

"All I know in Canada is that their existence has been reported more as a matter of folklore," he said in an interview. "And what this paper does is give us some idea how often these things might be happening."

The paper, published in the science journal Nature, said increasing summer temperatures associated with climate warming may promote the survival of overwintering fires in the future in the boreal regions. Blazes that burn over winter are also known as holdover or zombie fires.

Most of the fires are seen in the sub-Arctic, Arctic, Northwest Territories and the northern boreal forest in Ontario, Alberta and Saskatchewan, where peat is found in vast amounts, the report said.

The Fort McMurray fire in Alberta and several fires in Northwest Territories were considered zombie fires.

James Waddington, a professor at McMaster University's school of Earth, environment and society, said holdover fires come back to life from a previous season after smouldering under the snow.

"In some areas, a fire can come back to life and start being a flaming fire again," he said.

"So, the idea that because it can come back without a new ignition source burning and smouldering all winter, we call that a zombie fire. The term zombie fire is relatively new."

Hot summers lead to fires burning deeper in organic or peat soils, and are more likely to be detected the following spring, Waddington said.

"Perhaps they are becoming more common, but perhaps we're also getting a little bit better at, well, hunting them down, to use the zombie terms.

"I would say we're not at a stage of what I would call a zombie fire apocalypse, to use another zombie term, but I think it's important because the scientists found that it was linked to hot summers."

Mike Flannigan, a professor of wildland fire at the University of Alberta, said the holdover fires emit a lot more carbon on average than normal forest fires.

Peatlands are carbon reservoirs that have been building up over thousands of years, he said.

Burning one kilogram of peat emits about half a kilogram of carbon into that atmosphere, Flannigan noted.

"And the more carbon you have, the more warming you have, the more warming you have the more fire, so it's a cycle."

He said he would attribute most of the increase for the zombie fires, if not all, to a warming climate.

Canada is warming at twice the rate and the Arctic area is warming three times as fast as the rest of the world, Flannigan said.

"These fires that would normally have gone out in the winter or in the fall, burn right through until the following year," he said.

"So, warming will lead to more zombie fires because of warmer, drier winters and less snow."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 5, 2021.

Hina Alam, The Canadian Press

Debunking two myths – “China stole American jobs” and “America built China.”

China succeeded by emulating the proven paths of other Asian Tigers, which relied on investment, manufacturing, and exports to build their nations.

By Chris Kanthan
-June 4, 2021
SOURCE NationofChange



We live in a highly connected and interdependent world, where no country can achieve progress on its own. While developing countries rely on rich countries for technology, the rich countries depend on poorer nations for labor, natural resources, consumers, and bright immigrants. Nationalistic Republicans forget this symbiotic relationship, especially when it comes to China. The two enduring and endlessly repeated myths are that China is uniquely guilty of stealing American jobs and that America built China. Let’s quickly analyze the raw facts.

Loss of Manufacturing Jobs

First, the number of manufacturing jobs as a percentage of all jobs have been decreasing since the 1940s, as the chart below shows.

The inexorable decline in manufacturing was first due to automation from 1945-1975 and then due to additional pressure from outsourcing to developing nations. Thus, manufacturing’s share declined from 38% in the 1940s to 20% in 1980 when U.S. corporations started accelerating offshoring of low-end manufacturing such as those related to textiles, shoes, and toys. By the time China joined the WTO in 2001, U.S. manufacturing of employment had already been further halved to about 12%. Then over the next two decades, it declined by only an additional three percentage points. Even the U.S. government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics acknowledges that only one-fourth of jobs lost in the last two decades in the U.S. can be ascribed to China.
So, Why Does China Get all the Blame?

Simple. It’s because there was a vast consolidation of manufacturing in Asia. After China joined the WTO, many multinational corporations moved their factories from places like Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand etc. into China, where labor was relatively much cheaper. It was simply a matter of cost-efficiency. Thus, while Americans used to see names of numerous countries on the imported products before, now they just saw “Made in China” dominate the labels. This made China look like a bigger problem.

As economist Yukon Huang points out, Asia’s share of U.S. imports has remained pretty much the same. The only difference was the shuffling of factories within Asia. I created the chart below with data from U.S. government’s data about U.S. trade with Asia and U.S. total trade. The chart shows how Asia’s share of total U.S. imports has remained pretty much constant over the last two decades.

Therefore, if we had kept importing from ten different Asian countries, nobody would be blaming China, and there won’t be sensational books and videos like Death by China. Or, look at it this way: If the labels on products said, “Made in Asia,” Americans wouldn’t have noticed much difference over the last two decades.

Did America Build China?

Another populist trope is that “We (America) built China!!!” It sounds great and nobody is going to argue if you’re talking to an American audience. The logic is that America’s foreign direct investments (FDI) and outsourcing created all those jobs and made China great again.

Here are three compelling facts that debunk this myth:
America invested very little of its FDI in China. In fact, less than 2%.
On the flipside, U.S.A. accounted for only about 10% of all the FDI that flowed into China over the last 30 years.

FDI is a very small percentage of China’s GDP.

Consider that the U.S. spent about $5.4 TRILLION on FDI in other countries from 1990-2020. Guess how much of that went into China? About $260 billion or less than 5% of the total (source: U.S. Gov report).

Notice that $260 billion over 30 years amounts to less than $10 billion a year. Peanuts, in the big picture. Furthermore, as seen in the table above, China invested $150 billion in the U.S. during the same period. So, the net flow was only $100 billion over 30 years. It’s a drop in the ocean.

Wait! How could that be? What about all the factories for Apple, Walmart, Nike, etc.? Well, here’s what happened: U.S. corporations simply outsourced all of them to other multinational corporations like Foxconn. Thus, the real investors in mainland China were Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore etc.

If you look at China’s total FDI inflows in the last 30 years, it amounts to an impressive $2.3 trillion. Thus, U.S.A.’s share of all Chinese FDI is only about 10%.

Third, while China has been the second largest recipient of FDI – the U.S. has been #1 for a long time – the FDI has averaged to only 3% of GDP over the last two decades. In the recent years, it has decreased to 1% as compared to China’s GDP. (Chart below from World Bank).

Conclusion

China succeeded by emulating the proven paths of other Asian Tigers, which relied on investment, manufacturing, and exports to build their nations. However, this model has limitations and couldn’t have succeeded spectacularly without industrial socialism, as I explained in a previous article.

Finally, China just didn’t take all the money. They have also invested $1.5 trillion in other countries. Thus, the money sloshes around and flows everywhere in this globalized world. It’s not a zero-sum game. Politicians don’t understand math and pundits prefer to ignore math.

Of course, China-bashers complain either way. If China receives investment from other countries, people will point to it as a sign of Chinese inferiority. If China invests in other countries, it is accused of taking over the world. And if China does neither, critics will bemoan how China is isolated from the world.



Chris Kanthan is the author of six books, including the latest: “China, China, Chyyna: Greatest disruption to American century.” Chris lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, has traveled to 40 countries, and writes about world affairs, politics, economy and health.

“Disaster patriarchy”: 

V (Eve Ensler) on how the pandemic has unleashed a war on women

“Women are losing their safety, their economic power, their autonomy, their education, and they are pushed onto the frontlines, where they are often used, unprotected and sacrificed.”

By

 Amy Goodman

 -

June 4, 2021

SOURCEDemocracy Now!

 The pandemic has led to a sharp rise in gender-based violence, job losses in female-dominated industries, greater parenting duties for mothers, and other pressures that primarily fall on women around the world. These effects amount to a kind of “disaster patriarchy” in which “men exploit a crisis to reassert control and dominance and rapidly erase the hard-earned rights of women,” says V, the artist and activist formerly known as Eve Ensler. “Women are losing their safety, their economic power, their autonomy, their education, and they are pushed onto the frontlines, where they are often used, unprotected and sacrificed.”

Biden urged to go further after ‘strong step’ toward protecting Arctic Refuge from drilling

"Until the leases are canceled, they will remain a threat to one of the wildest places left in America."

By Jessica Corbett
-June 2, 2021
SOURCE Common Dreams

Protesters march in support of Arctic environmental protections 

at a rally in Fairbanks, Alaska on May 7, 2017.

Environmental campaigners in Alaska and across the country are cautiously celebrating the Biden administration’s Tuesday decision to suspend some fossil fuel drilling leases that were sold in the Arctic shortly before former President Donald Trump left office while also calling on Congress to provide permanent protections to one of the planet’s most biodiverse places.

“We strongly support the Biden administration’s commitment to preserving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the last great expanses of untouched wilderness areas in America,” said Kristen Miller, acting executive director of Alaska Wilderness League. “The leasing program and resulting lease sale were the result [of] a substantial flawed and legally deficient process that must be reversed.”

“Suspending these leases is a step in the right direction and we commend the Biden administration for committing to a new program analysis that prioritizes sound science and adequate tribal consultation,” Miller continued. “The Arctic refuge Coastal Plain is sacred to the Gwich’in people who were roundly ignored by the Trump administration, as well as the Iñupiat that have lived on the Coastal Plain for generations.”

“There is still more to be done,” she added. “Until the leases are canceled, they will remain a threat to one of the wildest places left in America. Now we look to the administration and Congress to prioritize legislatively repealing the oil leasing mandate and restore protections to the Arctic refuge Coastal Plain.”

Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, echoed that call for additional action.

“After fighting so hard to protect these lands and the Porcupine caribou herd, trusting the guidance of our ancestors and elders, and the allyship of people around the world, we can now look for further action by the administration and to Congress to repeal the leasing program,” she said. “There is so much more to do to protect these lands for future generations.”

BREAKING: President Biden's administration will cancel oil & gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!!

This is a MASSIVE win for climate, wildlife & Indigenous communities! We thank Biden's admin for standing with people — not polluters.https://t.co/vr8Cwjet2W— Friends of the Earth (Action) (@foe_us) June 1, 2021

Citing “alleged legal deficiencies,” President Joe Biden issued an executive order on his first day in office directing the interior secretary to place a temporary moratorium on all activities related to the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program in the 19.6 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and conduct a new, comprehensive analysis of its potential environmental impacts.

Interior Secretary Deb Haalad’s new order (pdf) directs the department to analyze the leasing program under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

Gina McCarthy, the White House domestic climate policy adviser, said Tuesday that Biden “believes America’s national treasures are cultural and economic cornerstones of our country and he is grateful for the prompt action by the Department of the Interior to suspend all leasing pending a review of decisions made in the last administration’s final days that could have changed the character of this special place forever.”

Politico noted that “the move comes after the Biden administration disappointed environmental groups last week by lending its support to developing ConocoPhillips’ Willow project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the area that lies to the west of ANWR.”

Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at the Columbia Law School, told the New York Times that the move could help appease critics of that decision.

“This will help solidify the president’s bona fides in opposing major new fossil fuel projects,” Gerrard said. “He doesn’t have a 100% clean record on this. This is certainly a step that the environmental community will smile on, coming at this moment, in view of the recent actions that environmentalists didn’t like.”



The Biden admin is suspending several oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge—an essential step to protect precious ecosystems and our climate. It’s also a move that’s popular among voters. @danielledeis and I break down the polling: https://t.co/g68LccMoHa— Marcela Mulholland (@x3Marcela_) June 1, 2021

While environmental campaigners applauded the ANWR move, they also emphasized the importance of the administration going much further to protect ANWR’s 1.56 million-acre Coastal Plain.

“This is a welcome announcement and another strong step toward protecting the refuge,” said Environment America public lands campaign director Ellen Montgomery. “Thanks to President Biden’s action in January and today, the caribou and polar bears can live undisturbed by heavy equipment, roads, and pollution from drilling operations. For now, we can breathe a little easier knowing that the seismic testing ‘thumper trucks’ are not going to be driving into the refuge.”

“While this buys some time, the fight to protect this unique and pristine area is not over,” she said. “We’re calling on Congress to establish permanent protections for this wild, remote area. Oil leases should never have been sold in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and we now need our leaders to make sure it never happens again. We need more nature, more baby caribou, more denning polar bears, and more wildlife. Here’s what we don’t need: dredging up fossil fuels in a wildlife refuge.”

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), a primary leader of climate legislation in Congress, also welcomed the suspension, saying that “today’s decision is an important step towards safeguarding the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, protecting the people and species who depend upon this invaluable wild place, and avoiding unnecessary climate and environmental harm.”

“The refuge needs more than this pause, it needs permanent protection. A new analysis will tell us what we already know, that the refuge is a special place and should never be opened up to drilling. I remain committed to passing my Arctic Refuge Protection Act and permanently protecting this the unique and vulnerable habitat from oil and gas leasing and development,” added the senator, referencing a bill he reintroduced in February.

I fought to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and stop the Trump administration’s plan for drilling
I am proud to see the Biden administration reverse this Trump-era plan
We must fight to preserve America’s wild places for future generations
https://t.co/rRKxeopM6U— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) June 1, 2021

Absent congressional action, the federal government will be legally required to hold two more lease sales by late 2024, thanks to what critics call the 2017 Trump tax scam.

The sale in early January followed decades of political fights over drilling in the region, but did not attract any interest from the fossil fuel industry’s major players.

As Politico detailed:

Despite the oil industry’s long efforts to access the refuge, the lease sale flopped, and generated only $14.4 million in revenue and bids from only three players, none of which were major oil and gas operators. Seven of the nine bids went to the Alaska Investment Development and Export Authority, a state-owned corporation that was urged to participate by former Alaska Governors Bill Walker and Frank Murkowski, who raised concerns that industry would show no interest in the sale.

In addition to AIDEA, Knik Arm Services, a real estate and leasing firm, and Regenerate Alaska, a subsidiary of the Australian oil and gas company 88 Energy, each picked up one tract.

The leases were signed and issued on January 19.

Greenpeace USA climate campaign director Janet Redman said Tuesday that “the disastrous idea to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas corporations was never anything more than an eleventh-hour favor to fossil fuel billionaires from the previous administration.”

“It made zero sense then and as demand for oil continues to plummet and climate impacts wreak havoc across the world it makes even less sense now,” Redman added. “Scientists are clear that 100% of Arctic oil and gas must stay in the ground if we’re going to limit global warming to the 1.5 degrees Celsius outlined in the Paris agreement.”

“The bar for President Biden and his administration has never been whether they can reverse the climate destruction of the previous administration, but if they’ll do what science and justice demand to stop the climate crisis,” she said. “We fully expect President Biden to keep his promise to phase out fossil fuels and transition to 100% renewable energy. This includes ending oil and gas leasing on all federal lands and waters.”

Jessica Corbett
Jessica’s writing has been published by The Nation, In These Times, The Ithaca Voice, London’s Peace News, and Common Dreams. Her work in journalism primarily explores the intersection of politics, public health, and environmental policy. She also writes about human and civil rights, gender, and labor issues.

GREEN CAPITALI$M

Matchbox joins toy companies to make toys more eco-friendly

Matchbox car swill be made of 99 percent recycled materials and will hit store shelves in 2022.

By Ashley Curtin
-June 4, 2021
SOURCE NationofChange

Image Credit: Mattel, Inc.

Matchbox announced it’s goal to use 100 percent recycled material by 2030 to produce their toys. This is one environmental initiative Mattel, owner of Matchbox, is striving for.

The company, who joins major toy companies such as Hasbro and LEGO to make toys more environmentally friendly, also plans on launching a series of toy electric cars modeled after real vehicles as a way to “educate children on the environmental impact of cars and motoring,” according to a press release.

“Matchbox has always been about realism,” Roberto Stainchi, senior vice president of Hot Wheels and global head of vehicles at Mattel, Inc., said. “It’s a reflection of the world and the vehicles kids see driving on the road every day. As we were thinking about our brands, and thinking about where to begin, we thought, ‘Well if this world is evolving, so should Matchbox.'”

The first matchbox car to be release in Mattel’s “eco-series” is modeled after the Tesla Roadster—a zero-emission, electric vehicle. The matchbox car will be made of 99 percent recycled materials and will hit store shelves in 2022.

“We love this casting of the Matchbox Tesla Roadster because it represents two things,” Stainchi said. “It’s not just about the materials and usage of the materials that are more sustainable, but it’s also about the themes that encourage environmental consciousness and really help kids experience greener behaviors in their play.”

Not only will the matchbox car be made of recycled material, the packaging it comes in will be made from paper and wood fiber.

Mattel also plans on adding matchbox versions of BMW, Nissan and Toyota’s hybrid and electric cars.

UPDATE

Plastic pellet spill from burning ship causes ‘worst beach pollution’ in Sri Lanka’s history

“No one is able to say how long we will have the adverse effects of this pollution.”

By Olivia Rosane
-June 3, 2021
SOURCE EcoWatch


A chemical-laden ship sank off the coast of Sri Lanka Wednesday, after burning for nearly two weeks.

The accident has already led to one of the worst marine disasters in the country’s history, as tons of plastic pellets from the burning ship have already contaminated its fishing waters and washed up on its shores, Reuters reported.

THERE ARE NO ACCIDENTS ONLY PREVENTABLE INCIDENTS

“This is probably the worst beach pollution in our history,” Sri Lanka’s Marine Protection Authority (MEPA) chairman Dharshani Lahandapura told AFP.

Situation Update: Latest pictures of the “X-PRESS PEARL” vessel. Footage was captured by the SLAF Bell 212 a short while ago (02 June 2021).#MVXPressPearl pic.twitter.com/KsmlOtVfPn— Sri Lanka Air Force (@airforcelk) June 2, 2021

The ship, a Singapore-registered container vessel named MV X-Press Pearl, caught fire May 20 after an explosion while it was anchored off of Sri Lanka’s western coast, according to Reuters. It was carrying 1,486 containers, including 25 metric tons (approximately 28 U.S. tons) of nitric acid and other chemicals. Some of these chemical-filled containers fell overboard in the fire. However, it is believed that most of the cargo was destroyed in the flames, according to AFP.

Up until now, the biggest devastation from the incident has been the plastic pellet pollution. The government moved Wednesday to suspend fishing along 50 miles of Sri Lanka’s coastline, grounding 5,600 boats, according to Reuters.

“I have never seen anything like this before,” Dinesh Wijayasinghe, a 47-year-old who works in a hotel in the coastal town of Negombo, told The New York Times. “When I first saw this, about three to four days ago, the beach was covered with these pellets. They looked like fish eyes.”

This pollution is devastating both for the region’s marine life and for the people who depend on it for their livelihoods. Microplastics and other charred remains from the ship have been found as far down as two feet deep in the sand, according to AFP. There are fears the pollution will harm mangroves and coral reefs and make it harder for fish to breed in shallow waters.

“No one is able to say how long we will have the adverse effects of this pollution,” 30-year-old fisherman Fisherman Lakshan Fernando told AFP. “It could take a few years or a few decades, but in the meantime what about our livelihoods?”

At the same time, the plastic pollution could have a lasting impact on human health.

“The pellets can soak and absorb the chemicals from the environment,” marine biologist Dr. Asha de Vos told The New York Times. “This is an issue because when we eat whole fish, we will also be eating these chemicals.”

#Debris and cargo that were on board the #Container Vessel #XPressPearl have been spotted along the beach in the “Kapungoda ,Seththapaduwa” area in #Negambo by local #fishermen. A cargo container has also been spotted at around 4am in the same area. The fire continues. pic.twitter.com/IQlzrC9acq— Kanchana Wijesekera (@kanchana_wij) May 26, 2021

The ship began to sink on Wednesday, according to Reuters. A salvage crew tried to drag the ship into deeper waters, but the attempt was ultimately unsuccessful.


There are now concerns an oil spill could make the environmental disaster even worse, CNN reported. The vessel has 350 metric tons (approximately 386 U.S. tons) of oil in its tank. This could reach a 30-kilometer (approximately 19 mile) stretch of coastline, including pristine beaches.

Fisheries Minister Kanchana Wijesekera tweeted that there was a plan in place to deal with any potential oil spill.

“Booms and skimmers will be used around the vessel and strategic locations, spray to be used to disperse Oil Slick,” he said.


MEPA has formulated a strategic plan in case there is an #OilSpill from the #XPressPearl. Booms and skimmers will be used around the vessel and strategic locations, spray to be used to disperse Oil Slick. There are also contingency plans for full beach cleanups.
The full plan 👇🏾 pic.twitter.com/ngL0gfGBAG— Kanchana Wijesekera (@kanchana_wij) June 2, 2021

Sri Lankan authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the ship’s crew, The New York Times reported.

Urban oil wells linked to asthma and other health problems in Los Angeles

In some cases, the impact on residents’ lungs is worse than living beside a highway or being exposed to secondhand smoke every day.

By Jill Johnston and Bhavna Shamasunder
-June 2, 2021

SOURCE The Conversation

When California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a goal to phase out oil drilling statewide by 2045, he focused on its impact on climate change. But oil drilling is also a health problem, particularly in Los Angeles, where thousands of oil wells still dot the city.

These wells can emit toxic chemicals such as benzene and other irritants into the air, often just feet from homes, schools and parks.

As environmental health researchers, we study the impacts of oil drilling on surrounding communities. Our research shows that people living near these urban oil operations suffer higher rates of asthma than average, as well as wheezing, eye irritation and sore throats. In some cases, the impact on residents’ lungs is worse than living beside a highway or being exposed to secondhand smoke every day.
LA was once an oil town with forests of derricks

Over a century ago, before Hollywood, the first industry to boom in Los Angeles was oil.

Oil was abundant and flowed close to the surface. In early 20th-century California, sparse laws governed mineral extraction, and rights to oil accrued to those who could pull it out of the ground first. This ushered in a period of rampant drilling, with wells and associated machinery crisscrossing the landscape. By the mid-1920s, Los Angeles was one of the largest oil-exporting regions in the world.

A 1924 photo shows the oil derricks on Signal Hill. Water and Power Museum Archive

The view across The Pike amusement park and downtown Long Beach, California, in 1940 shows a forest of oil derricks in the background. Water and Power Museum Archive

Oil rigs were so pervasive across the region that the Los Angeles Times described them in 1930 as “trees in a forest.” Working-class communities were initially supportive of the industry because it promised jobs but later pushed back as their neighborhoods witnessed explosions and oil spills, along with longer-term damage to land, water and human health.

Tensions over land use, extraction rights and subsequent drops in oil prices due to overproduction eventually resulted in curbs on drilling and a long-standing practice of oil companies’ voluntary “self-regulation,” such as noise-reduction technologies. The industry began touting these voluntary approaches to deflect governmental regulation.

Increasingly, oil companies disguised their activities with approaches such as operating inside buildings, building tall walls and designing islands off Long Beach and other sites to blend in with the landscape. Oil drilling was hidden in plain sight.

Beverly Hills High School earned money from an oil well, hidden behind walls covered with flower drawings, that operated until 2017 but raised health concerns. 

Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Today there are over 20,000 active, idle or abandoned wells spread across a county of 10 million people. About one-third of residents live less than a mile from an active well site, some right next door.

Since the 2000s, the advance of extractive technologies to access harder-to-reach deposits has led to a resurgence of oil extraction activities. As extraction in some neighborhoods has ramped up, people living in South Los Angeles and other neighborhoods in oil fields have noticed frequent odors, nosebleeds and headaches.
Closer to urban oil drilling, poorer lung function

The City of Los Angeles currently requires no buffers or setbacks between oil extraction and homes. Approximately 75% of active oil or gas wells are located within 500 meters (1,640 feet) of “sensitive land uses,” such as homes, schools, child care facilities, parks or senior residential facilities.

Despite that proximity and over a century of oil drilling in Los Angeles, there have been few studies on how it affects residents’ health. We have been working with community health workers to gauge the impact oil wells are having on residents, particularly on its historically Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.Oil drilling in Los Angeles.

The first step was a door-to-door survey of 813 neighbors from 203 households near wells in Las Cienegas oilfield, just south and west of downtown. We found that asthma was significantly more common among people living near South Los Angeles oil wells than among residents of Los Angeles County as a whole. Nearly half the people we spoke with, 45%, didn’t know oil wells were operating nearby, and 63% didn’t know how to contact local regulatory authorities to report odors or environmental hazards.

Next, we measured lung function of 747 long-term residents, ages 10 to 85, living near two drilling sites. Poor lung capacity, measured as the amount of air a person can exhale after taking a deep breath, and lung strength, how strongly the person can exhale, and are both predictors of health problems including respiratory disease, death from cardiovascular problems and early death in general.

We found that the closer someone lived to an active or recently idle well site, the poorer that person’s lung function, even after adjusting for such other risk factors as smoking, asthma and living near a freeway. This research demonstrates a significant relationship between living near oil wells and worsened lung health.

People living up to 1,000 meters (0.6 miles) downwind of a well site showed lower lung function on average than those living farther away and upwind. The effect on their lungs’ capacity and strength was similar to impacts of living near a freeway or, for women, being exposed to secondhand smoke.

Using a community monitoring network in South Los Angeles, we were able to distinguish oil-related pollution in neighborhoods near wells. We found short-term spikes of air pollutants and methane, a potent greenhouse gas, at monitors less than 500 meters, about one-third of a mile, from oil sites.

When oil production at a site stopped, we observed significant reductions in such toxins as benzene, toluene and n-hexane in the air in adjacent neighborhoods. These chemicals are known irritants, carcinogens and reproductive toxins. They are also associated with dizziness, headaches, fatigue, tremors and respiratory system irritation, including difficulty breathing and, at higher levels, impaired lung function.
Vulnerable communities at risk

Many of the dozens of active oil wells in South Los Angeles are in historically Black and Hispanic communities that have been marginalized for decades. These neighborhoods are already considered among the most highly polluted, with the most vulnerable residents in the state.

A state app called well finder locates active oil wells, including in Los Angeles County. State of California

But while the governor declared that “California needs to move beyond oil,” his current timeline would allow oil wells to continue operating for the next two decades. A variety of policies, including buffers, phaseouts and emissions controls, will need to be considered to protect public health and accelerate the transition to cleaner energy sources.

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

Jill Johnston and Bhavna Shamasunder

Jill Johnston works to develop community-academic partnerships to advance environmental health and justice in disadvantaged urban and rural neighborhoods. Dr. Johnston's research combines community engagement with exposure assessment and epidemiology, to address environmental health concerns. In particular, she is interested in assessing exposure pathways to pollutants as a result of industrial activities. Dr. Johnston has collaborated with community organizations in San Antonio, TX to assess the migration of chlorinated solvents from groundwater into indoor air (vapor intrusion) near a former Air Force Base. Using community-driven approaches, she has worked to assess exposure to emerging contaminants due to land-applied sewage sludge as well as assess impacts of industrial animal operations. Her interest in environmental justice research emerged from years spent as a community organizer in South Texas working towards just remediation of legacy contamination, a healthy built environment and meaningful community participation in decision-making processes. She received her PhD in Environmental Sciences and Engineering from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in environmental epidemiology. At USC, Dr. Johnston will continue to utilize participatory and community-based methods to understand the impacts of industrial processes and chemical use on the environment, characterize pathways of human exposure, and evaluate approaches to increase health, equity and justice. 

Bhavna Shamasunder teaches and conduct research on environmental health and justice at Occidental College in the Urban & Environmental Policy Department and Public Health Program. Much of my research is informed by community generated questions and collaborations, in partnership with those most affected by industrial or product driven exposures. My research examines impacts from oil extraction for nearby communities, and consumer product driven exposures in low income communities of color. I live and work in Los Angeles.

REMEMBER ENRON

How third-party auditors make oil industry fraud possible

The accounting companies hired by oil companies to evaluate their inflated financial claims are on the hook from investors frustrated by the lack of accountability.

By Justin Mikulka
-June 4, 2021
SOURCE Desmog Blog

BOILER BEING  DELIVERED TO LOUISIANA  OIL REFINERY ON GULF COAST

Major accounting firm KPMG is under fire from investors who filed a class action lawsuit against the firm for overstating the asset values of now-defunct oil exploration company Miller Energy Resources. And last month, a judge dismissed KPMG’s attempt to have the case thrown out.

At issue in the lawsuit, filed in 2016, is a $4.55 million purchase by Miller Energy in 2009 for land and offshore oil assets in Alaska which included existing oil production infrastructure. Miller Energy then claimed those same assets were worth approximately half a billion dollars, a claim which would require approval by third-party auditors.

But according to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the property and old oil infrastructure in Alaska was worth only a fraction of those claims; inflating its value beyond its worth amounted to fraud, according to the SEC. The SEC stated that “Miller Energy overvalued the Alaska assets by more than $400 million.” But the oil company wasn’t the only one at fault, said the SEC. In January 2016, the SEC sent a cease and desist order for Miller Energy detailing the major fraud case and focusing in part on the role that third-party auditors such as KPMG played in making it possible.

The onshore and offshore Alaskan oil assets purchased by Miller Energy had been abandoned by the previous owner because the asset retirement obligations (AROs) — the amount of money required to properly decommission the existing assets — were likely greater than the value of the remaining oil in the ground. The property was essentially worthless once the cost of the AROs was considered. But Miller Energy then told the SEC in 2010 that property was worth half a billion dollars and KPMG signed off on that estimate for several years, starting in 2011.

In an August 2017 cease and desist order for KPMG, the SEC summarized the extent of KPMG’s failure to perform a valid audit of Miller Energy:

“[T]he KPMG engagement team performed an inadequate assessment of the risks associated with the Miller Energy engagement. Among other things, KPMG’s initial evaluation, which was completed by Riordan and approved by KPMG management, failed to adequately consider Miller Energy’s bargain purchase, its recent history as a penny-stock company, its lack of experienced executives and qualified accounting staff, its existing material weaknesses in internal control over financial reporting, its long history of reported financial losses, and its pressing need to obtain financing to operate the newly acquired Alaska Assets.”

The Miller Energy executive who signed off on the overvaluation ultimately paid an SEC fine of $125,000, while KPMG was fined $1 million.

Oil reserves fraud — in which companies overestimate the amount of oil that can be produced from their assets — has been recognized as a growing problem in the oil and gas industry, as DeSmog has previously reported. But in order for companies to succeed in convincing investors of their incredible claims, it is critical to have independent third-party auditors — like KPMG — to support these claims.

A Seal of Approval on Fraud

Having third-party professionals sign off on corporate financial reporting is a standard part of doing business. The idea is to have independent parties verify that the reports are accurate. When companies are engaged in fraud, getting an apparently reputable third party to put its name on the financial reporting is one way to hide the fraudulent dealings, while also offering plausible deniability to those committing the fraud.

Much like the role of Enron’s auditor, the major accounting firm Arthur Andersen, whose “audits were meant to, and did, act as a seal of approval, a willingness to put a stamp of good practice on Enron transactions,” as Slate described in 2002, Miller Energy found a third party to sign off on its questionable financials: the small firm Sherb & Co.

And just like that seal of approval by a supposedly independent auditor ended up being the downfall of Arthur Andersen — then part of The Big Five accounting firms in the U.S. — and saw Enron’s top executives go to prison, so too are Miller Energy and its auditors’ activities now under scrutiny.

Sherb & Co. completed audits for Miller Energy in 2009 and 2010. Then, in 2013, the SEC found “that Sherb & Co. LLP and its auditors falsely represented in audit reports that they had conducted the audits in accordance with U.S. auditing standards when in fact they were riddled with failures and improper professional conduct.”

But by that time Miller Energy had switched, in 2011, to a new auditing firm to validate the claim that the land and oil infrastructure the company purchased in Alaska was worth one hundred times what it paid for it: Big Four accounting firm KPMG.
SEC and Miller Energy

In August 2017, the SEC charged KPMG with “audit failures” in its work with Miller Energy.

“Auditing firms must fully comprehend the industries of their clients. KPMG retained a new client and failed to grasp how it valued oil and gas properties, resulting in investors being misinformed that properties purchased for less than $5 million were worth a half-billion dollars,” Walter E. Jospin, Director of the SEC’s Atlanta Regional Office, said in a statement at the time.

The SEC’s 2016 order against Miller Energy recounted the details of a 2010 call in which the management discussed how to validate the oil company’s inflated asset valuations. On that call, the Miller Energy CFO reportedly told the other participants that “a professional had to sign off on it, not us, some third party…” Source: SEC Cease and Desist Order to Miller Energy, January 12, 2016

Financial reporting at the heart of the matter in 2010 showed an increase in asset value of over $490 million for Miller Energy, compared to 2009 when the company had assets of less than $10 million. Essentially, the company’s entire value in 2010 was attributable to the Alaskan assets. Miller Energy 2010 Financial Statement. Source: SEC filing

Both Sherb & Co, and later KPMG, audited and approved that valuation.

Then, in April 2011 the SEC sent a letter to Miller Energy with some questions about its annual 10-K filing from the previous year, first asking the oil company to explain its valuation of the Alaskan property.

Starting with its response to this question, Miller Energy went all-in on its fraudulent claims and shielded itself with the veneer of credibility from a Big Four accounting firm.
“The Management is Incompetent”

According to SEC documents, KPMG was retained as Miller Energy’s independent auditor on February 1, 2011. Two months later, on April 13, executives for the oil exploration firm rang the opening bell on the stock market floor as the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It was a big moment for a company with no history of profits and that had been trading as a penny stock before the Alaska purchase.

That day, Miller Energy CEO Scott Boruff gave an interview on the trading floor, mentioning his company’s “explosive growth” and its bright future prospects. Boruff was paid $7.6 million in 2011.

Boruff was joined that day by company founder Delroy Miller, who also happened to be his father-in-law. While this arrangement apparently didn’t raise any questions with auditors, in 2014 their relationship was flagged in more SEC correspondence from “Concerned Miller Shareholders (CMS)”:

“In the absence of proper qualifications, CMS has raised reasonable questions surrounding Mr. Boruff’s appointment as Miller’s CEO and specifically, whether it was motivated by his close familial ties to the Company’s founder.”

Boruff had no oil industry experience before being appointed in 2008 as CEO by his father-in-law. However, Boruff did have experience with companies involved in financial fraud, as lawyers for CMS noted.

According to CMS correspondence with the SEC, in a section titled “The Management is Incompetent,” Boruff had previously worked at the firm GunnAllen Financial, leaving in October 2006, and that “GunnAllen has since been closed by regulators [in 2010] and entered bankruptcy in the wake of investor lawsuits and allegations of a major Ponzi scheme involving Provident Asset Management.”

Provident was a good old-fashioned Ponzi scheme, promising investors eye-popping 18 percent returns from oil and gas royalties. In reality, however, the company paid those returns with money coming from new investors. The scam involved almost a half-billion dollars.

But Boruff, who worked as a broker at GunnAllen, was not charged in that Ponzi scheme. Instead of distancing himself from it, however, as the new head of Miller Energy, he hired Darren Gibson in 2009, who according to documents sent to the SEC, “was Provident’s former National Sales Director during the alleged Ponzi scheme.”

Announcing the new hire in a press release, Boruff said “[Gibson]’s proven track record in raising capital will allow Miller to aggressively pursue our acquisition and drilling program goals.”

But Boruff and Gibson’s proven track record should have raised red flags to auditors evaluating the company’s financial records, especially given the pair’s lack of oil and gas industry experience.

Despite all this, KPMG continued rubber-stamping Miller’s financial statements even after the concerned shareholders had been communicating with the SEC.
Reserves Fraud and Asset Retirement Obligations

As DeSmog has reported, oil and gas companies inflating the values or volumes of their reserves estimates lies at the heart of much of the fraud now surfacing in the industry. Miller Energy is just one example of many.

Another major factor is how oil companies get around financial obligations to clean up their old wells and surrounding lands after they are done extracting oil and gas — known in the industry as asset retirement obligations (AROs). These obligations are increasingly becoming an issue as oil and gas companies try to sell old assets because the cleanup liabilities are likely greater than the value of the oil and gas. This was the case with Miller Energy.

The asset retirement obligations for the Alaskan property Miller acquired were the reason why no one else wanted to buy it.

In July 2010, the SEC asked questions about Miller’s AROs and noted that in 2009, “a third party report had indicated that the AROs for these assets were $41 million.”

Miller Energy’s finances were rife with red flags. Enough even to get one engineering firm, with prior experience with the Alaskan property Miller purchased, to walk away. According to the SEC, this was because the firm “refused to assign any value to a property known as the Redoubt Shoal field [a major part of the Alaskan assets Miller acquired, which was then valued at $291 million by Miller], because it was uneconomical … and the prior firm had explained that it would not put its ‘name on a report that implies value exists where it likely does not.’”

After its Alaska deal, Miller Energy not only needed an auditor to give its seal of approval to claims that its property and oil infrastructure in Alaska had some value, it would require an auditor to agree it was worth half a billion dollars. KPMG was willing to do this.
Third-Party Auditors and KPMG

In 2017, the SEC laid out the many failures of KPMG in the Miller Energy case, including that the evidence that something was wrong should have been obvious to anyone who knew to look for it: “All of these facts were readily ascertainable from the publicly available bankruptcy records of the prior owner of the Alaska Assets. If they had reviewed those records, KPMG would have learned that their understanding of the facts leading to the acquisition was inaccurate.”

The SEC also noted that, like the CEO of Miller Energy, the partner whom KPMG put in charge of the audit, John Riordan, lacked relevant oil and gas industry experience, “resulting in departures from professional standards.”

But the issue was not just one partner at KPMG, according to the SEC, which noted that company management and national personnel “became aware of the unusual and highly material prior-year transaction,” yet “the firm did not take sufficient action.”

KPMG 2015 Audit Quality Report

As the SEC also noted in this case, due diligence requires an auditor to exercise professional skepticism — something the Miller valuation should have raised. Yet in 2011, when the financial website Street Sweeper published research challenging Miller Energy’s financial claims, KPMG chose to overlook those red flags as well, says the SEC. Now defunct, Street Sweeper was known for reporting on “over-valued, over-hyped stocks on Wall Street.”

The SEC noted that KPMG’s Department of Professional Practices (DPP), which was responsible for developing the firm’s internal auditing standards and guidance, failed to step in despite its knowledge of the Miller Energy case.

The SEC concluded that “DPP’s decision not to inquire further about the valuation of the Alaska Assets was unreasonable in light of the circumstances.” It also added that once KPMG learned of the 2011 Street Sweeper report, the department should have provided oversight of both Miller’s assessment and its own company procedures for the valuation.

In August 2017, the SEC found KPMG guilty of a long list of violations with regard to its audits of Miller Energy, including “lack of competence” and “highly unreasonable conduct.”

While not specifically implicated in the Miller Energy audit, David Middendorf, the former head of KPMG’s DPP where he was responsible for “audit quality and professional practice,” was sentenced to prison in 2019 for his part in trying to cover up KPMG’s dismal auditing results from 2013 and 2014.

After being misled about the oil company’s financial realities, many investors in Miller Energy lost their entire investments, which is why they are now suing KPMG.
Investors Lose, Fraudsters Walk Away

In the end, the SEC settled the charges against KPMG and John Riordan, its partner overseeing the case. KPMG agreed to give back the money it earned from working for Miller Energy, which was a little over $5 million when interest was included. Additionally, KPMG paid a civil penalty of $1 million while Riordan was fined $25,000. Riordan remained a partner at KPMG until he retired in 2020.

KPMG did not respond to a request for comment on whether anyone at KPMG was held accountable for their role in the Miller Energy audit.

Miller Energy was also fined $5 million, but due to its 2015 bankruptcy, it is not clear if that amount was ever paid in full during the three years it had to make the payments. In 2016, the company was reorganized into new entities controlled by Apollo Investment Corporation.

The SEC did not respond to a request for information on the status of that payment.

For their roles in the fraud, Miller’s CFO Paul Boyd and COO David Hall were both personally fined $125,000.

Scott Boruff, the CEO who oversaw all of the fraudulent activity, was not fined. After leaving Miller Energy in March 2016 when the bankruptcy was finalized, Boruff was sued by his father-in-law for failure to repay a $6 million personal loan.

Meanwhile, defrauded investors have turned to a lawsuit against KPMG to try to recoup their losses. That lawsuit is now expected to proceed next year.

Jeffrey Skilling, CEO of Enron, spent 14 years in jail for misleading investors. Arthur Andersen ceased to exist as one of the Big Five accounting firms due to its role in the Enron fraud. Meanwhile, Miller Energy executives and KPMG have essentially walked away with fines irrelevant to the scale of the fraud.

The oil company executives who oversaw the company during this fraud kept the money they were paid.

As this case and many others make clear, there is little incentive for oil industry executives to play by the rules when a company can engage in blatant fraud, get caught, and suffer almost no consequences. However, these frauds require the help of a third-party auditor willing to look the other way.

And while there are clearly auditors and engineering firms who will not put their “name on a report that implies value exists where it likely does not,” as the SEC wrote, there are plenty of others who will — including some of the biggest names in the business.

Justin Mikulka
Twitter URL 

https://twitter.com/JustinMikulka

 Profile Info Justin Mikulka is a freelance writer, audio and video producer living in Trumansburg, NY. Justin has a degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Cornell University.