When You're Hacked or Under Attack, Here's the Help You Can Expect: None

Internet service providers, crypto currency exchanges, and the police should want to help when you've been hacked.

Jul 12, 2021By  Marcia Wendorf

Marcia Wendorf

In early July, a group of hackers known as REvil targeted Kaseya Ltd. in a widespread ransomware attack. Kaseya's VSA software is used by many companies to provide computer management services – resulting in an easy gateway to even more potential victims. 

REvil claims to have infected a total of 1 million computers, but many cybersecurity experts believe that's a vast overestimate, citing the number closer to 40,000 computers worldwide. Those computers are tied to organizations including a large New Jersey educational services company, an outpatient surgical center in South Carolina, and one of Sweden's largest grocery chains, Coop. 

This supply-chain attack is being called the largest and most significant in history, and the hackers are demanding a $70 million Bitcoin payment as ransom. While the ransom has reportedly not been paid, Kaseya's customers are on the slow road to recovery – thanks in part to swift responses from the FBI, President Joe Biden, and CISA. 

It's evident that, when an attack or hack occurs, large companies and utilities have significant support. But, around the world, individuals are fighting their own personal wars against hackers and other forms of corruption. Often, they aren't offered the same resources. This is the story of one of those victims.

Over the same weekend, Kaseya was hacked, George* was facing his own cyber attack – and finding it almost impossible to get help. 

The first attack 

Things started going wrong long before the July 4th holiday weekend.

On April 25, 2021, George* checked his bank balance and noticed a pending withdrawal in the amount of $700 payable to the cryptocurrency and money exchange site Uphold. George logged into his Uphold account and found that someone had purchased the cryptocurrencies Dogecoin and Ethereum with the money.

George called his bank and had them place a cancel order on the $700 transaction. He then sent a customer support ticket to Uphold, asking them to stop the transaction and letting them know that his account on their site, and possibly the accounts of others, had been compromised.

Additionally, George filed a complaint with the FBI's cybersecurity reporting site ic3.gov and thought no more of the matter. 

The second attack

On July 2, 2021, George received an email from the cryptocurrency exchange site Bittrex, informing him that someone had recently logged into his account. George hadn't been on Bittrex in a while; however, when he logged in, he saw that someone had sold all of the Bitcoin he held on the site and converted it into the cryptocurrency Tether. That person had then transferred the cryptocurrency to an address outside of Bittrex, making it unrecoverable.

Hacker's Bittrex login Source: Marcia Wendorf

The third attack

The day after the theft on Bitrex, George logged into Facebook and found that a page he had set up for a potential new business had been commandeered, and now displayed text written in the Cyrillic alphabet. George was so alarmed by this that he deleted the page – so unfortunately we can't show you what it looked like.

Even more incredibly, whoever had commandeered George's page was attempting to set up a Facebook ads campaign. Fortunately, Facebook had noticed something amiss and had balked at the attempt. The hacker then responded via email, stating that he had provided all the necessary documentation.  George immediately changed his Facebook password, and he set up two-factor authentication on the site.

How did this happen?

Like many of us, George uses his email address and the same password on multiple sites. For example:
Username: george@examplecompany.com
Password: Fred (the name of George's first dog).

If one of those sites gets hacked, or the user is a victim of phishing, then hackers the world over have that combination of username and password, which they are free to try out on multiple other sites. To see if your information has been compromised, you can go to a site such as Have I Been Pwned?  

Here are just some of the data breaches that might have exposed George's email and password combination:

Data breaches at George's sites. Source: Have I Been Pwned?

While the amount that was stolen from Bitrex wasn't large, George states that he felt like someone had come into his home and stolen from him. He immediately began checking the logins on all his accounts, especially those that involved documents or money.

That's when he says he found that his OneDrive cloud storage account had been accessed from the same IP address that had accessed Bittrex. Microsoft OneDrive is a file hosting and synchronization service that is operated by Microsoft as part of its web version of Office, and it is ubiquitous on Windows devices.

George's OneDrive account contained files that included many of his passwords, banking information, and tax returns.

Tracing Hacker's IP address. Source: Marcia Wendorf

George was able to see the Internet Protocol (IP) address from which the hacker was operating, and he traced it to the internet service provider (ISP) Midcontinent Communications, which is based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. 

Of course, tracing the IP address doesn't mean that the hacker is physically located somewhere near Topeka, Kansas, he could be using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and be located anywhere in the world. He could also have taken over a legitimate user's computer, making it a "zombie," and be using it to launch his attacks.

Midcontinent Communications. Source: Marcia Wendorf

On July 5, 2021, on George's behalf, we contacted Midcontinent Communications through their online chat forum, where we were able to interact with a representative. 

Interesting Engineering: I have a security issue coming from Midco, before I report it to the Sioux Falls police and the FBI, I wanted to talk to someone at your company.

Roz (Midcontinent Communications): Hi, this is Roz with Midco! That's definitely not good that you're having security issues with us. I can absolutely do my best to help, may I know who I'm speaking with?

IE: [George's] computer was hacked starting in June from an IP address traceable to Midco. Just three days ago, [George] experienced the hacker stealing money out of one of [his] accounts. I have screen grabs of the hacker's activity.

R(MC): That's awful! I'm sorry to hear that you're being targeted like this. In this situation, the best thing to do is to file a police report, as we're not allowed to divulge information about other people's IP addresses unless it's to the police for an open case. Once we've been contacted by the police about the situation, we'll be able to take action from there.

IE: Roz, are you telling me that Midco doesn't have a Security Division that deals with this sort of thing?

R(MC): We absolutely have a security division, but it's policy to only accept information requests and take action based on police reports, as people have tried to commit fraudulent activity about such things in the past.

However, when the Sioux City Police Department was contacted, they stated that they don't handle cybercrimes and that George's only recourse was to file a report on the FBI's ic3.gov website.

This raised an obvious question: If the Sioux City Police Department doesn't handle cybercrimes, how exactly is a police report to be filed so that Midcontinent Communications can begin to examine the alleged hacker's behavior?

Another question is: How many other of Midcontinent's accounts have been hacked?

Who is responsible?

For this article, we attempted to reach Midcontinent Communications for comment but were unable to reach anyone via phone after the initial online chat. Their virtual assistant feature provided the following:

Midco: Hi, I'm Midco's virtual assistant. I'm here to help! I'd like to get to know you better. What’s your first name?

Interesting Engineering: I chatted with Roz on July 5, 2021. I'm a journalist with Interesting Engineering. We have a story coming out tomorrow in which we mention Midco, and I'm reaching out to someone at Midco for comment.

M: Are you currently a Midco customer? Select one:

IE: No

M: Got it! Are you inquiring about services at your home or business? Select one:

IE: Neither.

M: Sorry. I didn't quite understand. (I'm still learning. 😃) What would you like to do?

IE: I would like to speak to someone.

M: Got it. Let’s get you to the next available expert. 😀

No one responded from that point on, confirming that some companies make it extremely difficult to speak to one of their human representatives. If companies, such as Midcontinent Communications, make it impossible to report hacking coming from one of the IP addresses they administer, that leaves everyone in jeopardy.

If local police departments fail to take a police report, or even an informational report, much less follow up on cases of theft by identify theft, more people will lose more money. We reached out to the Sioux Falls Police Department for comment on this article, and we spoke to the Front Desk Information Officer. When asked if he had any comment, he said, "No", then he refused to provide either his name or his badge number.

What you can do

While George reached out to us, he is certainly not the only one who is experiencing personal hacks and cyber attacks. According to Have I Been Pwned? 11,417,410,545 accounts have been compromised. Further, a Clark School study at the University of Maryland hacks occur every 39 seconds on average, affecting one in three Americans annually.

If you believe any of your accounts have been compromised, it's best to change your passwords, alert your banks, and be sure you've set up two-factor authentication. Proactively, learn how to spot a phishing attack, get a password manager, and scan your devices for viruses. 

We're all vulnerable to cyber attacks – just like George. His story is unfortunately far from unique. More than ever, we need to look out for ourselves to avoid a similar fate. Especially if we can't get the help we need.

*Names have been changed to protect the identities of the individuals in this story. 

A Small 'Wobble' in the Moon's Orbit Could Fuel Rapid Flooding in the 2030s

And we'd better start planning now, before it's too late.

By Brad Bergan

Jul 12, 202

Honolulu flooded from high tides.Hawaii Sea Grant King Tides Project

It can always get worse.

And in recent years, we've seen climate change increase the number and strength of hurricanes, in addition to other seriously damaging weather events globally. But something else, more gradual yet still worrying is on the horizon, and it could change the shape of life on the coasts of the U.S.

Combined with rising sea levels due to global warming, the moon's lunar cycle will amplify low and high tides in the late 2030s, which could lead to serious coastal flooding throughout the U.S., according to a recent study published in the journal Nature Climate Change.

And we'd better start planning now, before it's too late.

Sea levels may rise 12 ft higher than 2000 levels by 2100

In coastal areas, high-tide floods (also termed "nuisance floods"), happen once the tides rise roughly 2 ft (0.6 m) higher than the daily average for high tides, which leads to flooding in streets, or through storm drains. These floods are less serious than major catastrophic events we typically associate with major climate events, but they still have a serious effect on societ
In 2019, more than 600 such floods happened in the U.S., but a new study from NASA suggests that nuisance floods will likely grow in frequency by the 2030s, and will involve most of the U.S. coastline inundated with four times the number of high-tide flood days each year for a full decade, or longer. Longer coastal flood seasons will cause serious disruptions to lives and livelihoods, especially if communities don't immediately start planning for the eventuality, warn the researchers of the study. "It's the accumulated effect over time that will have an impact," said Assistant Professor Phil Thompson of the University of Hawaii in a NASA blog post. "If it floods 10 or 15 times a month, a business can't keep operating with its parking lot under water."

"People lose their jobs because they can't get to work," said Thompson. "Seeping cesspools become a public health issue." And there are multiple causes behind this development, the first of which is, predictably, the sea level rise from global climate change. Glacial ice continues to melt at a record rate, dumping colossal volumes of meltwater into the ocean. This has increased average sea levels by roughly 8 to 9 inches (21 to 24 cm) since the year 1880, and roughly a third of that increase happened in the last 25 years. If trends continue, sea levels could rise 1 to 12 ft (0.3 to 2.5 m) higher than where they were in 2000, by 2100. Of course, this in part could change depending on whether humans sufficiently reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the near future.

The moon will amplify high and low tides in the 2030s

However, the moon, too, could play a vital role in the exacerbation of flooding in the 2030s, when its orbit's "wobble", which is due to a change in its relative position to Earth every 18.6 years, could amplify the cycle of high and low tides, making lower tides lower and higher tides higher. As of writing, we're already in a tide-amplifying cycle of the moon, and the next one will happen in the mid-2030s — when worldwide sea levels will already have increased enough for these amplified tides to create a perfect storm of tide-raising forces, where the combined effect of the lunar cycle and climate change-linked sea-level rise would exacerbate high-tide flooding throughout the entire coastline of the United States. In just 14 years, high-tide flooding will shift "from a regional issue to a national issue with a majority of U.S. coastlines being affected," said the study authors.

This is a scary development, but it's important to note that we still have time to minimize the damage from potentially devastating flooding due to the combined effects of lunar cycles and sea-level rise. Perhaps not enough to avoid the rising waters altogether, but planning for it, financially, in terms of infrastructure, where you live, and social support systems (personal or top-down governance) is crucial. And with a little more than a decade to go, most of us can prepare adequately. If we decide to take it seriously.

Hubble Might Survive. 

NASA Is About to Try Its Backup Computer

And if it works, NASA might boost Hubble to a higher orbit.

By Brad Bergan

Jul 13, 2021

The Hubble Space Telescope in orbit.NASA / Wikimedia

Hubble is still in a fight for its survival.

However, NASA just completed a system-wide review to evaluate potential factors and risks involved in switching Hubble to its backup hardware, which could go forward later this week, according to a blog post shared on the agency's official website. And this could save the space telescope's life.

In space, you can't hold your breath. But we're doing it anyway.
NASA's long road to recovering Hubble

NASA is still investigating the world-historical space telescope to uncover the initial cause of the payload computer's issue, which initially shut down the entire observatory in June. On Sunday, June 13, Hubble's computer came to a grinding halt just after 4:00 PM EDT, with initial suspicions circulating on a possibly degraded memory module. This was the latest in an increasingly frequent bout of minor and major issues the aging telescope had faced since it began to expand our understanding of the universe after its successful launch in 1990.

Upon realizing the system failure of Hubble, NASA's flight controllers flung themselves into action at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, with attempts to restart the computer. But sadly, it just shut down again the next day, and it remained offline while engineers and scientists continued to work around the clock to bring it back to life. A NASA representative said "there is no definite timeline for bringing the computer back online," according to a Space.com report, but the agency did pursue multiple options to save the space telescope from certain doom.

One of the paths to recovery lies in pivoting Hubble to its backup computer. So on in late June and early July, NASA prepared for and completed test procedures on the space observatory. This involved a multi-day test of steps required to activate backup hardware on the space telescope, which was completed on July 8. And, on July 12, the agency was ready to switch Hubble to its backup computer. But while crossing your fingers is merited, it's important to remember that the agency had already planned to phase out the space telescope in the coming years, with the new James Webb Space Telescope (Webb) slated for launch later this year.

Hubble could be boosted to a higher orbit

Despite years of heart-wrenching delays, the Webb telescope is widely regarded as the successor to Hubble. But there are a few shortcomings to the forthcoming space observatory, in comparison to its struggling predecessor. For one, the Webb will be stationed much farther from Earth after launch, which means repairing it will take far greater resources and logistical commitments than a quick lift to lower-Earth orbit. Secondly, the James Webb Space Telescope lacks ultraviolet (UV) capabilities, which is why NASA is urging astronomers to submit as many UV-based studies and applications as possible in recent years.

Hopefully, Hubble will come online when NASA activates its backup computer system. If it doesn't then NASA may move Hubble into position for eventual re-entry and burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. But if it does survive the ordeal of Summer 2021, and the world-renowned space telescope completes several more groundbreaking studies, the agency may elect to boost it to a higher orbit, where it may remain as a testament to revolutionary astronomy for decades.

Hubble telescope beams back picture of a 'soft, woolly' spiral galaxy


Christy Somos

CTVNews.ca Writer
Tuesday, July 13, 2021 


The flocculent spiral galaxy NGC 3521 is seen here in this image posted by NASA on July 13, 2021 (ESA/Hubble & NASA and S. Smartt (Queen's University Belfast) Robert Gendler)

TORONTO -- The Hubble Space Telescope has beamed back a picture of a flocculent spiral galaxy, so called because of its “soft and fluffy” appearance and lack of defined spiral “arms” normally associated with spiral galaxies.

NASA posted the image Tuesday explaining that the galaxy, named NGC 3521, is a “member of a class of galaxies known as flocculent spirals, [and] like other flocculent galaxies, NGC3521 lacks the clearly defined, arcing structure to its spiral arms.”

The space agency also described NGC 3521 as having “patches of stars and dust” showing up here and there throughout the central disk, stating that about 30 per cent of galaxies share the same “patchiness” as NGC 3521.

The galaxy NGC 3521 is located about 26 million light years away and is found in the constellation Leo, NASA said.

NASA has also begun operations to restore the payload computer on the Hubble Space Telescope, providing an update Tuesday to say that the agency had completed a review to see if switching the telescope to its backup hardware is needed.

The investigation into the cause of computer issue that had paused the telescope’s observations is ongoing.

 

News

Robot digger works 24 hours on its own in auto-machinery breakthrough

13 July 2021 | By GCR Staff | 

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Researchers from Baidu Research Robotics and Auto-Driving Lab (RAL) and the University of Maryland, College Park, have introduced an autonomous excavator system (AES) that can operate with no human intervention for more than 24 hours, shifting as much material as an experienced human operator.

The system was tested at a waste disposal site, a toxic environment where automation is in strong demand.

They say the technology is relevant given the worldwide shortage of skilled excavator operators at a time when the size of the global market for excavators is forecast to grow by some 43% from 2018 to 2026 – from $44.12bn to $63.14bn.

Safety is another factor, with excavation accidents causing around 200 casualties a year in the US, they said.

“This work presents an efficient, robust, and general autonomous system architecture that enables excavators of various sizes to perform material loading tasks in the real world autonomously,” said Dr. Liangjun Zhang, corresponding author and the Head of Baidu Research Robotics and Auto-Driving Lab. 

The system uses LiDAR, cameras, other sensors and algorithms to perceive the environment and identify target materials.

It was tested in winter weather conditions, where vaporisation hampers the sensing performance of LiDAR.

The amount of materials excavated, in both wet and dry form, was 67.1 cubic meters per hour for a compact excavator, which is in line with the performance of a human operator.

“AES performs consistently and reliably over a long time, while the performance of human operators can be uncertain,” said Dr. Zhang.

Researchers also set up ten different scenarios at a closed testing field to see how the system performed in numerous real-world tasks. After testing a variety of large, medium-sized, and compact excavators, AES was ultimately proven to match the average efficiency of a human operator in terms of the amount of materials excavated per hour.

“This represents a key step moving towards deploying robots with long operating periods, even in uncontrolled indoor and outdoor environments,” said Dr. Dinesh Manocha, professor at the University of Maryland.

Image: The robot digger worked round the clock at a waste disposal site (Baidu Research Robotics and Auto-Driving Lab)

Further reading:

• All-seeing autonomous diggers: Hitachi joins in $31m funding round for next-gen lidar tech
• Autonomous dump trucks to operate in Norwegian stone quarry

 

Innovation

Researchers find way to cure concrete with CO2

13 July 2021 | By GCR Staff | 0 Comments

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Researchers from Saudi oil company Aramco and the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) have found a way of introducing more CO2 into concrete at the curing stage, saying it could be an important use for emissions captured from industrial processes, including cement-making.

Carbon-cured concrete sets much faster than the industry norm, and is more durable, they say.

We estimate it could recycle more than 63 million tons of CO2 every year– Research scientist Issam Amr

They claim that if the global precast concrete industry implemented CO2 curing technology, it could recycle at least 63 million tons of CO2 every year, the equivalent of taking around 14 million cars off the road.

The actual figure may be as high as 246 million tons of CO2, the equivalent of approximately 53 million cars, they add.

“This is all the more worthwhile given the manufacture of cement—the principal ingredient of concrete—produces around 7% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions,” says Aramco senior research scientist Issam Amr, who led the industry-academia research project, in a note to GCR.

From research that began in 2014, Aramco and KAIST found that by using steam to introduce the CO2, they could store up to 200kg of CO2 in a ton of precast cement.

Researchers chose precast concrete because it was easier to carry out the curing process in a controlled environment.

They say their concrete cures much faster, reaching the industry required strength of 35 megapascals (MPa) in just three days, rather than the usual 28, and that it can be demoulded after eight to 10 hours.

Carbon-cured concrete is more durable, less permeable and showed a greater resistance to sulphate and chlorine, a potential advantage in offshore construction, researchers added.

Image: Researchers say it could be an important use for emissions captured from industrial processes (veeterzy/Unsplash)

Footage of "sinister" police raid on Antepavilion building triggers anger

ahead of tensegrity structure unveiling

Marcus Fairs | 12 July 2021 26 comments

Organisers of the annual Antepavilion architecture charity competition have released footage of police storming their building and arresting staff ahead of the opening of the rooftop tensegrity structure targeted in the raid.





CCTV footage shows more than 40 officers streaming into the canalside Hoxton Docks arts building in east London after the door was forced open with power tools.

Another clip shows eight officers pulling owner Russell Gray off his motorbike when he arrived at the building after being told about the raid. A third clip shows police pushing Gray against a shutter and handcuffing him.

Antepavilion employees jailed overnight

Gray, who heads the Antepavilion charity and owns the building it is based in, was arrested on suspicion of attempted assault and dangerous driving. He and two employees spent a night in jail but were released the next morning.

Russell Gray was pulled off his motorbike by police

Police have issued "no apologies and no charges" following the raid, Gray told Dezeen.

It is thought that police believed the building was being used by environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion to prepare for protests against media groups that are dismissive of climate change.

Installation similar to Extinction Rebellion structures

The rooftop installation, called All Along the Watchtower and designed by a collective called Project Bunny Rabbit, is similar to structures used by protesters to block roads during demonstrations. One of two winners of this year's Antepavilion competition, it will open to the public on 23 July.

During its construction, the arts venue hosted workshops that showed members of the public how to assemble similar lightweight, reusable tensegrity structures made of bamboo poles and steel cables. During the raid, police threatened to come back and remove the structure, according to Gray.

Police threatened to remove All Along the Watchtower

Police said the raid and arrests were “proactive action to prevent and reduce criminal disruption which we believe was intended for direction at media business locations over the weekend”.

However, Antepavilion insisted there was no connection between Extinction Rebellion and the installation. "Antepavilion has no links to Extinction Rebellion beyond commissioning the construction of an art installation at their site using long-established ‘tensegrity’ structural principles," it said in a statement.

"Extinction Rebellion has sometimes used the same tensegrity principles to erect temporary structures at protest sites. The raid is clear evidence of the carte blanche powers police have been given to harass and intimidate, in the government’s efforts to crackdown on dissenting voices."

Raid triggers concern among architecture community

The footage of the raid, which Antepavilion organisers have been projecting onto the side of the building, triggered widespread concern. "The more I look at this the more appalled I am," tweeted architect and head of Central St Martins school Jeremy Till in response to the footage. "While the [right-wing] press bleat on about rising crime, 40 police raid innocent artists."

The installation was made using tensegrity structural principles

Architect Julia Barfield described the raid in a tweet as "A shocking misuse of power and resources particularly in a #ClimateEmergency."

"May not be entirely accurate but I count 41 coppers here," wrote Financial Times architecture critic Edwin Heathcote. "Is that not also an insane waste of resources?"

"Utterly mad to hear the Met [police] has arrested the team from this year's Antepavilion, tweeted Open City director Phineas Harper. "The police are out of control."



Related story
Antepavilion building "smashed up" and staff arrested in police raid on design workshops


"This doesn’t seem to have had much attention beyond the specialist art/design press but the sight of 30+ police breaking into a private building to remove an artwork, apparently on political grounds, is….sinister," wrote Simon Hinde, programme director of journalism and publishing at London College of Communication.

"On Friday 25th June 2021, Antepavilion was raided by dozens of police spearheaded by the Territorial Support Group (TSG)," the Antepavilion team said in its statement. "Upon entering, the authorities handcuffed everyone on-site and three people were arrested, held until 4 am the next day and had their phones confiscated."

"The police continued to occupy the site until Saturday night, 26 June."

Antepavilion is a charity that "aims to promote independent thought and symbiosis in the fields of art, craft and architecture". It has organised the controversial annual competition, which commissions designs for temporary structures that challenge planning constraints, every year since 2017.

This year the tensegrity structure was commissioned as a "special early summer commission" alongside the overall winner of the competition. The winner, AnteChamber by Studio Nima Sardar, will be built later this year.

Photography is courtesy of Antepavilion

All Along The Watchtower will be open to the public from 6 to 11pm on Friday 23 July. Tickets cost £10. For details of more architecture and design events, visit Dezeen Events Guide.

Planting trees "doesn't make any sense" in the fight against climate change say experts

Marcus Fairs | 5 July 2021 95 comments

Afforestation is an unreliable way of sequestering atmospheric carbon, according to several key figures interviewed by Dezeen as part of our carbon revolution series.

While trees capture huge amounts of carbon, they need to remain growing for a long time to be effective carbon stores, experts say.

In addition, the timber they produce needs to be put to long-term use to prevent the carbon it contains from quickly going back into the atmosphere when it rots or is burned.

"Planting trees is probably the most difficult potential method from a measurement and verification perspective," said Paul Gambrill, CEO of carbon marketplace Nori in an interview with Dezeen.

"Forests need to have a permanence of 100 years to be effective"

"You plant the forest but you don't start seeing carbon retention and sequestration happening for at least 10 years after they're planted, so there's a long lag time in doing that," explained Gambrill, whose company allows people who capture atmospheric carbon to sell it to people who want to offset their emissions.

"And then you have to maintain that forest and make sure it isn't burned or cut down."Forests need to have a permanence of 100 years to be effective carbon stores", he said.

"So you plant your saplings and then you have to maintain the forest for 100 years. That's multiple generations of people. How many companies last 100 years these days? How on earth is anyone going to afford to maintain that forest, hiring the team of people you need to do that? It doesn't make any sense."Soil sequestration sees carbon removed from the atmosphere to enrich soil

Soil sequestration, whereby atmospheric carbon is drawn into the earth via regenerative agriculture techniques, is a far more effective solution, he argued, since carbon remains in the soil for hundreds of years.

It also acts as a highly effective fertiliser, reducing the need for synthetic fertilisers, the production of which generates large amounts of emissions. "Soil carbon is by far the most affordable and scalable method of carbon removal that we know today," he said.

Afforestation is "a tricky business," according to sustainable design expert William McDonough. "What happens next?" he said in an interview with Dezeen, referring to the question of what happens once the trees have been planted.

"So if you want to say I'm getting a forest here to replace this thing I did and it has all this characterization of capturing carbon over the next X number of years," he said.

"Then you have to legally put that in position, and politically put that in position, to make sure that will happen. So you're betting on a future you hope you can control. We have to make sure the intentions are aligned with various realities."

"More permanent" carbon storage options are required

Christoph Beuttler, head of climate policy at Swiss direct air capture company Climeworks, said "more permanent options" are needed for long-term carbon storage. "Trees remove CO2, but how permanent is it?" he said. "How long do the trees stand? And what happens after? Do they get burned? Are they cut down for use in bioenergy?"

Longer-term solutions, according to Beuttler, include carbon capture and storage (CCS), whereby carbon is removed from the atmosphere mechanically and pumped underground, or carbon capture and utilisation (CCU), whereby the captured carbon is turned into materials.

Other forms of biomass, including fast-growing algae, bamboo and hemp, have been touted as alternative ways of sequestering carbon naturally, with hemp "more effective than trees", according to Cambridge University researcher Darshil Shah.

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Atmospheric CO2 is "our biggest resource" says carbon-negative plastic brand Made of Air

In a recent article for Dezeen, architecture writer Fred Bernstein pointed out the flaws in the argument that constructing buildings from timber is an effective means of long-term carbon storage. "You can't waste any of the wood," he wrote in the article, which examined the sustainability claims of a timber home designed by Perkins&Will.

"That's a problem because converting a tree into lumber usually turns half the wood into sawdust or chips, which could end up being burnt or allowed to decompose. This problem alone suggests carbon sequestration figures should be cut in half."

In addition, he wrote: "The wood has to stay in or on the building for a very long time. If the building needs repairs, and lumber is removed, it may be recycled, but it may also be burnt or allowed to decompose. And who'll be watching in 20 or 50 years?"

Afforestation must be done "in a smart way"

Planting forests can cause ecological damage if not done carefully, according to Jon Khoo, sustainability leader at carpet brand Interface.

"You don't want it to be a monoculture where anything is going to be damaging," said Khoo, who is helping Interface in its drive to be a carbon-negative company. "If someone's going to plant trees, you want them planting in a smart way that recreates the forest that should be in that land and that creates an ecosystem that is balanced."

Khoo added that a whole range of approaches will be needed to remove carbon from the atmosphere, including other natural methods of capture including mangroves and seagrass as well as mechanical methods such as Climeworks' direct air capture machines.

"We're gonna need both," said Khoo. "We're gonna need a lot of carbon sinks to undo what we've done for the last 250 years."

Swiss company Climeworks uses direct air capture machines to remove CO2 from the atmosphere

William McDonough agreed, adding that there are other reasons for creating new forests besides carbon capture. These include protecting biodiversity, conserving water and preventing erosion, as well as serving as cultural and spiritual assets for humanity.

"I think taking care of forests is something that is essential to culture," he said. "There are so many reasons to do it beyond carbon sequestration. It's still worth doing even if the carbon equations are skewed a bit because it's about a 25-year cycle. The tree grows, dies, becomes carbon, goes up, comes back."

Forests aren't the only type of ecosystem that needs to be recreated, he added. "So let's plant mangroves, let's restore ecosystems everywhere we can, all over the planet, all the time."

Offsetting carbon emissions should just be "a first step"

Designer Charlotte McCurdy argued that offsetting emissions by paying for trees to be planted amounted to "holding a forest hostage".

"Does someone holding a forest hostage actually mean that you can go emit and somehow that makes you neutral?" she asked. Offsetting, whereby greenhouse gas emissions are negated by investing in schemes that recapture those emissions, is a lazy way out, she argued.

"The reason there's an emphasis on offsets is that it's easy," said the designer, who is developing carbon-sequestering bioplastics. "Truly decarbonizing and disentangling your industry or your material selection from fossil fuels or fossil carbon that actually takes retooling. "

"And offsets can be a pathway, a first step, but by no means is it a destination in terms of designing an actual system that is decarbonized," she added.

"The majority of our scenarios [for preventing runaway climate change] rely on negative emissions. And negative emissions are not offsets. Negative emissions are pulling carbon out of the air. How do we find and scale those technologies?"



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Nori's Gambrill agreed that offsetting via tree-planting looks like an easy option but in reality is fraught with uncertainty. "Have you ever bought an airfare or something like that and you see a little checkbox, and you check that box and they say we're going to take care of the carbon emissions from this and we'll plant a tree or something?" he asked.

"That's fine and good but you as a consumer have no idea how they're doing that, where it's happening or how it's being measured and verified. You have no insight into that after you check that box and you move on with your day."

"We know that a carbon dioxide molecule basically hangs out in the atmosphere for approximately 100 years," he added. "So it just kind of evolved to a point where people are saying, if I'm going to pay you to offset some emissions, then you should make sure that that carbon is going to stay out [of the atmosphere] for at least 100 years."

"It is impossible to get down to zero with offsets"

Fredrika Klarén, head of sustainability at electric car brand Polestar, agreed that there are "too many insecurities" when offsetting fossil-fuel emissions. Instead, companies have to eliminate emissions from their entire value chain.

"It is impossible to get down to zero with offsets," said Klarén, who is helping Polestar develop a car that aims to be carbon-neutral in every aspect of its production. "The trouble is that not many people are aware of this. You cannot offset emissions from the use of fossil fuels. There are too many insecurities in that."

"It is great to support forest conservation but you cannot do it as a means to try to offset emissions from something that you’ve just produced," she added, pointing out that Polestar is "not going to go down the tree planting route."

"We have to decarbonize our value chain. We have to go for that. Otherwise, we will fail at becoming net-zero."

 

Projects

China completes work on $1.7bn project to transform Pakistan’s dysfunctional grid

8 July 2021 | By GCR Staff | 0 Comments

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A $1.7bn electricity transmission line on the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which was begun in December 2018, was inaugurated in a ceremony held in Islamabad and Beijing at the end of last month.

The 660kV Matiari–Lahore high-voltage direct current line will provide Pakistan’s national grid with a new backbone and improve chronic problems with the country’s energy transmission and distribution grids.

The 878km line was financed and built by the State Grid Corporation of China, which will operate it for the next 25 years.

More than 1,300 Chinese and 6,500 Pakistani workers were employed on the scheme.

Hammad Azhar, Pakistan’s energy minister, said the project would bring stability to the country’s power system. Speaking at the online ceremony, he said the project would “enhance transmission capability and bring relief to consumers”.

Electricity generation in Pakistan has increased dramatically in recent years, thanks to the large-scale construction of mainly coal-fired plants funded by China.

As a result the country has an installed capacity of around 37GW and peak demand of only 25GW, although this is growing at a rate of about 5% a year. However the grid is able to handle only 22GW of power, resulting in chronic blackouts and load shedding, particularly in the summer when demand is highest.

However, problems occur in winter as well. In January of this year, the entire country suffered a blackout after a fault at a power station in southeast Sindh province caused the grid to lose its 50Hz frequency, which caused power stations throughout the country to close down.

This makes the reinforcement of the grid, arguably, the single most important infrastructure scheme for the country’s socio-economic development.

Zhang Jianhua, head of China’s National Energy Administration, told those present at the ceremony that the Matiari-Lahore line was the first large-scale transmission project of the CPEC, and would provide “solid assurance” for power transmission in the south and power supply in the north.

Speaking about the economic corridor in general, Azhar added: “The CPEC is of utmost importance for Pakistan. It will enable the country to enhance industrial production, upgrade energy and communication infrastructure and improve connectivity within the region.”

Of Pakistan’s 207 million people, roughly 58 million lacked access to grid electricity in 2018, including 46% of the rural population.

Image: Power lines in Karachi. Pakistan’s grid is vulnerable to chronic blackouts and load shedding (HovaHe/CC BY-SA 2.0)