Saturday, August 28, 2021

Crown Estate Launches Study of Wind Farms' Impact on Marine Ecosystems

Large offshore 8MW wind turbines, Credit: CharlieChesvick — Dogger Bank Wind Farm off Yorkshire, above, will be the largest facility of its kind in the world (Equinor)

The UK royal family's property management firm, the Crown Estate, is set to carry out a research study on how massive offshore wind investments could impact marine ecosystems. The decision responds to concerns that wind farms could have adverse impacts on marine life.

The firm, which manages the U.K. sovereign’s public lands and the seabeds of England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has launched a program that is designed to address the critical gap in understanding how marine ecosystems will respond to the continued growth of offshore wind. The UK's thriving offshore wind sector is ramping up to deliver 40 GW of capacity by 2030.

The Crown Estate's new $9.5 million "ECOWind" program is a joint initiative led by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Defra.

“The U.K. has set a legal requirement to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, which will reduce our contribution to climate change. Expanding sustainable energy generation is at the heart of the government’s strategy but it’s important we understand the response from wildlife and marine ecosystems to help manage this sustainably,” said Susan Waldron, NERC’s Director of Research and Skills.

She added that the program will analyze the ecological consequence of large-scale expansion of offshore wind farms to inform future policy decisions throughout U.K. waters.

The four-year program will fund research into how offshore wind farms affect the marine environment alongside other growing pressures on U.K. ecosystems, including climate change and human activities like fishing. In particular, it will focus on how populations and inter-species interactions are responding to offshore wind deployment and how marine observations can be enhanced through innovative technologies.

The planned research comes as the U.K. is pumping massive investments in offshore wind projects, with a world-leading 11 GW of installed capacity and intentions to expand to 40 GW by 2030.

Globally, offshore wind installed capacity is projected to exceed 250 GW by 2030, up from 33 GW in 2002. The combined capital and operational expenditure for 2020-2030 stands at $810 billion, according to a Rystad Energy report.

Denmark to Commission Scandinavia's Largest Offshore Wind Farm

image courtesy of Vattenfall — Image courtesy of Vattenfall

Next month, Danish households will start receiving electricity from Scandinavia's largest offshore wind farm, a development that marks another milestone in the country’s clean energy ambitions.

This follows the announcement by Swedish utility company Vattenfall AB that the inauguration of the 604 MW Kriegers Flak wind farm is set for September 6. The project, which is Scandinavia’s and Denmark’s largest offshore wind project so far, was constructed in the Baltic Sea at a cost of $1.4 billion.

It forms part of the country’s ambitious commitment to invest in clean energy: Denmark as a target of achieving a 70 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, and aims to become a CO2-neutral nation by 2050.

The inauguration of the park follows the installation of the last turbine in June and finalization of testing and certification processes.

“We are very proud of the contribution that Kriegers Flak brings to the wind energy production in Denmark and to the green transition. After a successful construction process, Kriegers Flak is now ready to provide green power to Danish homes and industry,” said Anna Borg, Vattenfall CEO.

In June, Vattenfall completed the installation of the last of a total 72 offshore wind turbines in the wind farm located some 8-20 nautical miles off the east coast of Denmark. With an annual production capacity of 604 MW, the park will provide annual electricity consumption for approximately 600,000 Danish households, effectively increasing the Danish wind production by approximately 16 percent.

The offshore wind farm, which covers an area of 38 square nautical miles, features 72 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines, each with a capacity of 8.4MW. Each turbine has a total height of 615 feet and weighs up to 800 tons. About 90 nm of underwater cables have been laid to connect the project to the grid.

Denmark had 1.7 GW installed offshore wind capacity by the end of 2019. It has recently approved a plan to build an artificial island in the North Sea that will be a hub to hundreds of offshore turbines with a capacity to generate 10 GW, enough energy for 10 million households. The first stage will support up to 3 GW, and it is expected to cost $34 billion. Its operations should begin by 2033.

Crowley Launches Offshore Wind Training Program With Mass Maritime

mma — Image courtesy Massachusetts Maritime Academy

Crowley Maritime and Massachusetts Maritime Academy have announced a training partnership to help create the offshore wind workforce that the U.S. will need for its growing renewable energy industry.

The first-of-its-kind training and workforce development program will be dedicated to the needs of the New England region's offshore wind energy industry. Though offshore wind is just getting started on the U.S. East Coast, it is expected to expand rapidly over the course of the next decade, boosted by support from federal policymakers, state governments, oil majors and investors.

The program will include sea safety and survival instruction and will be certified by the Global Wind Organisation (GWO), a non-profit that sets international standards for safety training. The academy will coordinate with Relyon Nutec, the world's largest provider of specialized instruction for energy and industrial sectors, to deliver the courses.

"Crowley and MMA are leaders in the maritime industry, and the joint program will help us build the next generation employee serving in the offshore wind industry," said Jeff Andreini, vice president, Crowley New Energy. "This partnership will provide workers the skills and knowledge they need, and together we help create cleaner energy sources in the U.S."

Crowley – a longtime supporter of the nation's maritime academies – will continue to provide scholarships, internships and hands-on learning for MMA cadets, including opportunities at sea and at the recently created Maritime Center for Responsible Energy (MCRE) on the MMA campus.

"Partnering with industry leaders is critical to our program at MMA. We're especially proud to team up with Crowley to help prepare the workforce for opportunities in the offshore wind industry," said Rear Admiral Francis X. McDonald, USMS, president of the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. "Training and internships will help our cadets gain expertise and experience, which will be critical as they pursue careers in this growing field."

Going beyond training, the Crowley/MMA offshore wind industry partnership will also create outreach programs and workforce development for underrepresented population groups, specifically in Massachusetts' Gateway Cities - the former manufacturing centers outside of Greater Boston that are in need of economic revival.

Milestone for Offshore Wind with Order for First US-Built Substation

first US-built offshore wind farm substation — Rendering of the substation (South Fork Wind)

In another milestone for the development of large-scale offshore wind farms in the United States, the first contract has been placed for an American-built offshore wind substation. The contract for the building of the critical component went to the largest offshore fabricator in the U.S. as part of an effort to leverage experience in the oil and gas sector to support the creation of the new offshore wind industry.

Orsted and Eversource, which are jointly developing the South Fork Wind project to be located off New York’s Long Island selected Kiewit Offshore Services to design and build the substation. The 1,500- ton, 60-foot-tall substation will be built at Kiewit’s facility in Ingleside, Texas, near Corpus Christi, creating more than 350 jobs.

“We’re helping to build a new U.S. manufacturing industry that will create thousands of good-paying jobs not just in the Northeast but in communities across the United States,” said David Hardy, Chief Executive Officer of Orsted Offshore North America. This initiative is part of our commitment to deliver for our long-term partners, combining international experience with local expertise in communities across the country.”

Offshore wind substations are critical components of utility-scale offshore wind farms. Substations collect the power produced by wind turbines and connect the energy to the grid. The offshore substation will consist of a topside resting on a monopile foundation.

Kiewit expects to begin construction on the substation in November and complete the work by spring 2023. The completed structure will transit the Gulf of Mexico and sail along the East Coast for installation at the South Fork Wind site in the summer of 2023.

"Achieving our nation's clean energy goals will be largely dependent on U.S.-based companies like Kiewit, and we are excited to partner with them to deliver the first U.S.-made offshore wind substation," Joe Nolan, Chief Executive Officer and President of Eversource Energy. "Our partnership with Kiewit marks another significant milestone for the U.S. offshore wind industry and signals the growth of the next great maritime industry throughout the country."

South Fork Wind continues to advance through the federal permitting process, with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issuing the project’s final Environmental Impact Statement on August 16. The partners expect South Fork Wind to be fully permitted in early 2022, with construction activities ramping up soon after the final permits are issued. They expect the project to begin producing energy by the end of 2023.

PRIMITIVE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL

How Did Somali Pirates Get Paid?

Rob Phayre, a former ransom delivery specialist who helped shipowners retrieve vessels and crews from pirates, has written a new novel based on his experiences off Somalia. He recently corresponded with The Maritime Executive about the nature of the work and the root causes of Somali piracy.

TME: To start, can you tell us about yourself and your career in resolving hostage situations?

I started my career with seven years as a British military helicopter pilot, and I commanded a flight of helicopters in the Second Gulf War. I had the privilege to fly the first British Army helicopter across the border into Iraq on the first day of the war. I also flew in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Perhaps one of my best experiences was in supporting British special forces when doing their jungle training in West Africa.

After leaving the British Army, I lived in Africa for nearly 17 years, but I was only involved in resolving Somali pirate attacks for about three of those years. During that time, I worked on more than 30 projects delivering ransoms to Somali pirates. I have also supported a number of organizations resolving other onshore kidnapping incidents. If I had to put a figure on the total amount delivered in ransom, it’s just under $100 million.

TME: Can you tell us about how you would arrange for ransom deliveries?

We developed a special mechanism that allowed us to drop the ransom out of an aircraft by parachute. The pirates would collect the money after it fell into the water, take it to the ship, count it and then leave. At that point another team that we had already pre-positioned would board the ship, cross load supplies, help the crew get it underway again and escort it to the nearest safe port.

There were a number of risks during those projects. Delays could mean the pirates would lose patience and we would have to go back to the negotiating table. The money delivery could fail. We never lost a load to a bad drop, but it was close occasionally. The pirates might not have left the ship after we paid the ransom, or the rescue team could get attacked on the way to collect the ship. We managed all of those risks to the best of our ability.

During the peak of piracy, my team and I delivered a ransom that was worth just under $15 million. To give you an idea of scale, that’s about 160 kilos of hundred-dollar bills - about seven large Samsonite suitcases' worth. It remains to this day one of the largest ransoms paid for hostage taking at sea.

TME: Did the pirates always leave the ship once they were paid, or did they ever try to hold out for more money?

For the projects I worked on, yes. Simply put, they were businesspeople - granted, businesspeople with no moral values, but still businesspeople. If they hadn’t surrendered the ship after a delivery, then they wouldn’t have been paid again. They would accrue all the costs of running their projects and not get any more financial rewards. I am aware of several projects where hostages didn’t get released after a payment, but in many cases, they were not negotiated professionally.

TME: Do governments get involved in negotiating with pirates and paying ransoms?

It’s a very grey area. It depends on the government and the part of the world where the hostage taking has happened. The French government, for example, has passed laws that state that they will pay ransoms to get their citizens back. In fact, there have been a number of protests when they haven’t. Most Western governments will publicly say that they don’t make substantive concessions to pirates. That is the right approach in my opinion.

Nation-states making payments with unlimited funds just raises the cost of ransoms for everyone else. However, it is also right that individuals, if they choose to, should be able to pay ransom to release their loved ones. That all works fine and is generally ignored by governments as long as payments are not made to terrorist organisations.

If terrorists are involved, that’s much trickier. You can’t pay them legally, even through third parties. On the plus side, governmental support may be more likely to happen - but that usually results in a security service response. The risk to the hostage goes up considerably.

This became a concern several years into the antipiracy response off Somalia. As soon as there was a lull in the number of vessels being held by pirates, Western governments determined that the risk of inadvertently paying money to terrorist organizations in Somalia was too high, and they made it a very serious offence to pay ransom. I am not aware of any proof that any ransom was ever directly paid to a terrorist group for maritime piracy in Somalia, but there was always the potential for side payments or protection money being paid by the piracy groups. It was certainly a factor in the decision process for many risk management companies.

A final word on maritime terrorism: this is different from piracy or criminality. The objective is completely different. With terrorism, an actor will target either a specific vessel or a specific flag state to enhance their political aims. Money has nothing to do with it.

TME: What were the root causes of Somali piracy?

I believe that the commonly used explanation of foreign offshore fishing vessels plundering the Somali coast is used too often as an argument. Sure, it’s a potential catalyst, but money and power were the key drivers once they were available. Warlords and clan chiefs could raise huge sums of money, equip their personal forces and expand their fiefdoms. Individuals could earn a living that just wasn’t available to them before. Most of the political leadership didn’t have the power or reach to be able to police the whole of the coastline, and those who did have the ability were most likely corrupt. The existence of a failed state provided safe harbor for pirates to bring home their catch and negotiate their release.

TME: How can piracy be defeated?

In the longer term, only sustainable development, other employment opportunities, the removal of available targets, rule of law and effective military response are the way to continue bringing down the maritime piracy risk.

Rob Phayre is the author of The Ransom Drop, a newly-released novel about maritime kidnapping and ransom delivery. It may be found on Amazon here.

Offshore Floating Solar Technology Receives World’s First Class AiP

world's first solar technology to receive class approval — One of the pilot project solar units (SolarDuck)

For the first time, a floating offshore solar technology has received an Approval in Principle (AiP) from one of the leading classification societies. According to Bureau Veritas which issued the approval to Dutch renewable energy company SolarDuck, this marks the beginning of a new era for this form of renewable energy.

Launched in April, SolarDuck’s first pilot known as King Eider consists of four triangular-shaped units, which are mounted by 156 solar panels and deliver a combined electrical output of 64 kWp to the grid. The structure holds the solar panels approximately 10 feet above water level. The platform is designed to handle coastal sea conditions and hurricane-force winds. It is also optimized for offshore sites in estuaries, natural harbors, as well as near-shore sites.

Bureau Veritas was involved in the project from the design stage. The AiP covers the design methodology of the unit’s structure and validates the relevant parts using standards for marine renewable energy technologies and offshore wind turbines.

“Building on our experience in the marine and offshore market, we supported SolarDuck throughout this innovative journey by assessing risk, analyzing regulations, and improving the overall structure performance and mooring safety,” said Paul Shrieve, Vice President Offshore & Services at Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore. “We are proud to be part of the venture and to contribute to make this cutting-edge solution reliable.”

Each unit measures nearly 53 feet on each side of the triangle. The pilot units were built by Damen and deployed this spring.

The project, which was deployed in IJzendoorn, in the Netherlands, was born from the ambitions of a group of maritime and energy engineers, who founded SolarDuck to play an active role in getting the world to net zero. Upon realizing that solar energy is an inexpensive and efficient form of renewable energy for many cities, islands, and regions around the globe, but inaccessible to many of these regions due to land scarcity constraints, the team initiated the project to make solar panels float offshore.

According to the team at SolarDuck, water-based solar applications will yield higher energy outputs with lower costs and efforts required for installation. They expect to combine the broad availability of the coastline versus onshore locations with benefits ranging from shorter transmission lines and fewer maintenance requirements which results in less space required per MW installed.

Protecting the Ozone Layer Also

Protects Earth’s Ability to Sequester

Carbon

A side-by-side comparison of modeled ozone concentration in Earths atmosphere with the Montreal Protocol (left) and without (right).

Previous “world-avoided” experiments have shown that, without the Montreal Protocol, ozone levels would be depleted globally by the mid-twentieth century.

Credits: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Protecting the ozone layer also protects Earth’s vegetation and has prevented the planet from an additional 0.85 degrees Celsius of warming, according to new research from Lancaster University, NASA, and others. This new study in Nature demonstrates that by protecting the ozone layer, which blocks harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation, the Montreal Protocol regulating ozone-depleting substances also protects plants – and their ability to pull carbon from the atmosphere. The impact from plants has not been accounted for in previous climate change research.

“We know the ozone layer is connected to climate. We know greenhouse gases affect the ozone layer. But what we’ve never done before this is connect the ozone layer to the terrestrial carbon cycle,” said lead author Paul Young, an atmospheric and climate scientist at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom.

The ozone layer in the upper atmosphere, or stratosphere, blocks UV radiation that can damage living tissue, including plants. The ozone “hole,” discovered in 1985, is the result of humans emitting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are ozone-depleting chemicals and greenhouse gases that were once commonly used as coolants in refrigerators and in aerosols like hairspray. They were then phased out of use by the Montreal Protocol signed in 1987 and its subsequent amendments.

Scientists have previously simulated the world that we avoided by banning CFCs. Now, the new study returns to the same question – what would happen if CFCs continued to be emitted? – and looked at the effect on plants.

“Past world-avoided experiments have never considered the impacts of increased UV radiation on plants, and what that would mean for the plants’ ability to sequester carbon,” said Young.

Nearly 200 countries came together to sign the Montreal Protocol in 1987, which limited CFC emissions. The production of CFCs was eventually phased out, and the ozone layer is recovering as a result.

Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/Katy Mersmann

Please download more visuals at NASA's Scientific Visualization Studio

The team used a series of models to gain a more complete picture and simulate two hypothetical scenarios: the world projected and the world avoided. “The world projected is similar to the path we’re currently on,” said Luke Oman, a research physical scientist focusing on atmospheric chemistry and dynamics at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “The world avoided represents a path not taken.”

For the world-avoided scenario, the researchers assumed that CFC emissions would increase at the same rate, 3% every year, from the 1970s onward. The models show that there would be a huge thinning of the ozone layer across the globe by 2050. By 2100, ozone holes forming in the tropics would be worse than what has been observed in the Antarctic ozone hole.

In their models of the world-avoided, a depleted ozone layer would let more harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation reach the surface, inhibiting plants from storing carbon in their tissue and in the soil. As a result, atmospheric CO2 levels are estimated to be 30% higher than they would likely be under Earth’s current trajectory. Consequently, Earth would likely be an additional 0.85°C hotter in that “world-avoided” scenario solely because of the impact on plants.

This global thinning of the ozone layer would allow significantly more harmful UV radiation from the sun to reach the surface, which would effectively sunburn the plants on Earth, said Young. Earth’s trees and vegetation would be much less efficient at photosynthesis, hindering their ability to absorb carbon out of the atmosphere and sequester it, storing carbon in plant tissue and the soil for many years. Overall, the damage to plants would result in 580 billion metric tons less carbon stored in forests, soil and vegetation. It would instead be released into the atmosphere, increasing atmospheric CO2 levels by 30% on average compared to the world projected scenario.

That huge increase in atmospheric CO2 alone would cause global temperatures to rise 0.85°C by 2100, according to the models. That’s on top of the warming Earth may experience due to prior and expected emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, as well as the 1.7°C of direct warming due to increased CFC emissions in this scenario.

But how do we know this “world-avoided” scenario is anything like the world that would come to be without the Montreal Protocol? The team checked their models against historical data collected by NASA satellites and other available data from NASA’s partners. For example, they looked at ozone levels recorded by the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aboard NASA’s Aura satellite and compared them to what the models ‘predicted’ would have happened. What happened in the model was very close to what actually happened in the past, giving the scientists confidence that their model could accurately project what may happen in the future.

By Sofie Bates

NASA's Earth Science News Team

Last Updated: Aug 26, 2021

Editor: Sofie Bates

New Satellite Imaging Detects the "Milky Seas" of Maritime Lore

“The whole appearance of the ocean was like a plain covered with snow. There was scarce a cloud in the heavens, yet the sky . . . appeared as black as if a storm was raging. The scene was one of awful grandeur, the sea having turned to phosphorus, and the heavens being hung in blackness, and the stars going out, seemed to indicate that all nature was preparing for that last grand conflagration which we are taught to believe is to annihilate this material world.” – Capt. Kingman of the American clipper ship Shooting Star off Java, Indonesia, 1854

For centuries, sailors have been reporting strange encounters like the one above. These events are called milky seas. They are a rare nocturnal phenomenon in which the ocean’s surface emits a steady bright glow. They can cover thousands of square miles and, thanks to the colorful accounts of 19th-century mariners like Capt. Kingman, milky seas are a well-known part of maritime folklore. But because of their remote and elusive nature, they are extremely difficult to study and so remain more a part of that folklore than of science.

I’m a professor of atmospheric science specializing in satellites used to study Earth. Via a stat-of-the-art generation of satellites, my colleagues and I have developed a new way to detect milky seas. Using this technique, we aim to learn about these luminous waters remotely and guide research vessels to them so that we can begin to reconcile the surreal tales with scientific understanding.

The bioluminescence in milky seas is caused by a type of bacteria. Steve. H. D. Haddock/MBARI, CC BY-ND

Sailors’ tales

To date, only one research vessel has ever encountered a milky sea. That crew collected samples and found a strain of luminous bacteria called Vibrio harveyi colonizing algae at the water’s surface.

Unlike bioluminescence that happens close to shore, where small organisms called dinoflagellates flash brilliantly when disturbed, luminous bacteria work in an entirely different way. Once their population gets large enough – about 100 million individual cells per milliliter of water – a sort of internal biological switch is flipped and they all start glowing steadily.

Luminous bacteria cause the particles they colonize to glow. Researchers think the purpose of this glow could be to attract fish that eat them. These bacteria thrive in the guts of fishes, so when their populations get too big for their main food supply, a fish’s stomach makes a great second option. In fact, if you go into a refrigerated fish locker and turn off the light, you may notice that some fish emit a greenish-blue glow – this is bacterial light.

Now imagine if a gargantuan number of bacteria, spread across a huge area of open ocean, all started glowing simultaneously. That makes a milky sea.

While biologists know a lot about these bacteria, what causes these massive displays remains a mystery. If bacteria growing on algae were the main cause of milky seas, they’d be happening all over the place, all the time. Yet, per surface reports, only about two or three milky seas occur per year worldwide, mostly in the waters of the northwest Indian Ocean and off the coast of Indonesia.

Researchers found a milky sea event off the coast of Somalia, seen here as a pale swoosh in the top left image. The other panels show sea surface temperature, ocean currents and chlorophyll. Steven D. Miller/NOAA

Satellite solutions

If scientists want to learn more about milky seas, they need to get to one while it’s happening. Trouble is, milky seas are so elusive that it has been almost impossible to sample them. This is where my research comes into play.

Satellites offer a practical way to monitor the vast oceans, but it takes a special instrument able to detect light around 100 million times fainter than daylight. My colleagues and I first explored the potential of satellites in 2004 when we used U.S. defense satellite imagery to confirm a milky sea that a British merchant vessel, the SS Lima, reported in 1995. But the images from these satellites were very noisy, and there was no way we could use them as a search tool.

We had to wait for a better instrument – the Day/Night Band – planned for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s new constellation of satellites. The new sensor went live in late 2011, but our hopes were initially dashed when we realized the Day/Night Band’s high sensitivity also detected light emitted by air molecules. It took years of studying Day/Night Band imagery to be able to interpret what we were seeing.

Finally, on a clear moonless night in early 2018, an odd swoosh-shaped feature appeared in the Day/Night Band imagery offshore Somalia (above). We compared it with images from the nights before and after. While the clouds and airglow features changed, the swoosh remained. We had found a milky sea! And now we knew how to look for them.

This milky sea off the coast of Java was the size of Kentucky and lasted for more than a month. Steven D. Miller/NOAA

The “aha!” moment that unveiled the full potential of the Day/Night Band came in 2019. I was browsing the imagery looking for clouds masquerading as milky seas when I stumbled upon an astounding event south of the island of Java. I was looking at an enormous swirl of glowing ocean that spanned over 40,000 square miles (100,000 square km) – roughly the size of Kentucky. The imagery from the new sensors provided a level of detail and clarity that I hadn’t imagined possible. I watched in amazement as the glow slowly drifted and morphed with the ocean currents.

We learned a lot from this watershed case: how milky seas are related to sea surface temperature, biomass and the currents – important clues to understanding their formation. As for the estimated number of bacteria involved? Approximately 100 billion trillion cells – nearly the total estimated number of stars in the observable universe!

The two images on the left were taken with older satellite technology while the images on the right show the high-definition imagery produced by the Day/Night Band sensor. Steven D. Miller/NOAA

The future is bright

Compared with the old technology, viewing Day/Night Band imagery is like putting on glasses for the first time. My colleagues and I have analyzed thousands of images taken since 2013, and we’ve uncovered 12 milky seas so far. Most happened in the very same waters where mariners have been reporting them for centuries.

Perhaps the most practical revelation is how long a milky sea can last. While some last only a few days, the one near Java carried on for over a month. That means that there is a chance to deploy research craft to these remote events while they are happening. That would allow scientists to measure them in ways that reveal their full composition, how they form, why they’re so rare and what their ecological significance is in nature.

If, like Capt. Kingman, I ever do find myself standing on a ship’s deck, casting a shadow toward the heavens, I’m diving in!

Steven D. Miller is a Professor of Atmospheric Science and the Director of the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University.

This article appears courtesy of The Conversation and may be found in its original form here.

MOUNTAINEERING: NEVER LOOKING DOWN
Madeeha Syed

Published August 22, 2021

Naila Kiani with Ali Raza Sadpara and Sirbaz Khan at the summit of G2

In 2018, a video went viral on social media showing a woman in a wedding jorra in front of the mighty K2, deep in the mountains of Gilgit Baltistan, surrounded by porters singing wedding songs. That woman was Naila Kiani. And this was her first major trek.

Fast forward three years, and Naila is now the first Pakistani woman to summit an 8,000m peak in Pakistan — Gasherbrum II (8,035m). She did her summit along with Sirbaz Khan, for whom it was his eighth 8,000m peak, and Ali Raza Sadpara, a local legend who has now officially climbed 8,000m peaks a whopping 16 times — more than any Pakistani living or deceased.

“A year after that [K2 base camp trek], I started thinking seriously about climbing,” she says to me over the phone. Naila has been anxiously hoping to get a successful flight back to Dubai, where she is currently based.

Naila is an avid sportsperson — she is a trained boxer, rock climber and runs for fun. But her transition into a big mountain climber happened rather quickly and against all expectations.

“I researched for two years,” she says about her obsession with mountains and mountaineering. “I was training but … then I got pregnant. It was okay, it was the Covid-19 year. Nothing much happened. I rested for two months after my delivery and then trained for four months.” And then it was time to go. Just like that.

Naila Kiani has become the first Pakistani woman to summit an 8,000m mountain in Pakistan. Incredibly, this was the first big mountain she’s ever climbed. She shares her experience with Eos

Right after having a baby, I ask incredulously. “Yes,” laughs Naila. “My daughter was six months old when I left for base camp and 7.5 months old when I summited Gasherbrum II.”

But the shocks don’t end there. Most mountaineers spend their time conquering smaller peaks before attempting the biggest ones but, according to Naila, “This is the first mountain I ever climbed.”

What made her so confident she could summit an 8,000er in her first attempt at mountaineering? “I did the Gondogoro La Pass [en route the return from the K2 base camp trek] which was at an altitude of 5,850m. I can sense how my body is doing and my body worked well near 6,000m.”

So, understandably, she first decided to aim for a 7,000m peak. But the time it took to summit a 7,000m peak was the same as an 8,000m one — four to six weeks. Plus, it was only 1,000m more. But that’s a thousand metres into the death zone (when the air has such less oxygen your cells literally start dying) I remind her. “That’s the biggest challenge I can give myself!” she laughs.

Although she was training for an 8,000m peak, Naila didn’t really believe she would summit. “I was only thinking of pushing myself as far as I could go,” she says. “Mentally, I knew I wouldn’t give up quickly because in boxing I wouldn’t give up. I lost badly in one of the fights, but I didn’t give up and kept going until the last round. I knew that about myself. I would give it my all until the end. So, I knew I’m mentally strong from boxing. I was conditioning myself physically.”

Naila Kiani in front of K2 in 2018 | Instagram

HOW MANY MOUNTANEERS HAVE DANCED FOR K2; THE GODDESS

Normally, when trying to pick an ‘easy’ (still incredibly difficult to do) 8,000m peak in Pakistan, mountaineers opt for Broak Peak (8,047m). Why did she go for Gasherbrum II (G2)?

“[Because] Sirbaz [Khan] was doing G2,” she says. “I’m not a professional mountaineer, and I didn’t know what the other teams would be like. So, I decided to go with someone I knew. Sirbaz had a great team with him.”

Having the right team helped; Sirbaz would have more than his share of work cut out for him on Gasherbrum II. “The ropes hadn’t been fixed on G2,” relates Naila. “Normally Nepali Sherpas [along with local guides] fix the ropes on the mountains for expeditions. But we didn’t have any on G2. So, Sirbaz Khan and Ali Raza Sadpara were fixing the ropes as well.”

Smiling summit photos hide the insurmountable effort it takes just to reach the top and return safely. You’re pushed to your very limits — physically and emotionally — and on a hostile terrain, where you’re constantly at risk of dying. “The longest day was the summit day,” relates Naila. “[We climbed for] 17 hours.”

At very high altitudes, because of the thin air and low oxygen, it’s hard to eat and it’s even harder to sleep. When the time came for their summit push, Naila and the team hadn’t slept or eaten properly for three days.

“We only had three hours to sleep, but couldn’t,” she says. “We left at 2am and it took us 17 hours to go from Camp 3 to the summit and back. The next day, getting down from Camp 3 was also very exhausting. We were almost dead when we got to the base camp.”

As a first-time mountaineer, Naila observed first-hand how the altitude affected other climbers. “After around 8,000m, the death zone starts,” she says, “There wasn’t much distance [35m] left. But I saw the other climbers. Some were crawling. Others gave up 100m before the summit. I couldn’t understand that, they were so close.”

Their summit was also with added risk: there were no fixed ropes after approximately 7,536m. “It was my first summit, so I didn’t know this was not normal,” says Naila. “We had to use safety ropes strapped to each other, and we had to move very fast. This was very risky. If one fell, the others would too… it wasn’t easy.

“A lot of other climbers were shocked. This never happened in Nepal [where the ropes are fixed all the way to the summit]. Our team fixed most of the ropes. And the foreigners didn’t help much. Sirbaz said he felt this was harder than Everest. Because [in addition to climbing] he had to fix the ropes for everyone else.”

At the summit, Naila was faced with incredible views only a chosen few get to see — high above the clouds, in one of the 14 highest spots on Earth, being able to see both China and India. “I was very light-headed,” Naila says. “How did this happen? I’m the most inexperienced person here. I couldn’t believe that I could’ve reached the top. It felt like a dream.”

That high was not unadulterated, however. “I was so exhausted. I didn’t actually enjoy it. Plus, it was too windy. The team was very uncomfortable. We wanted to get down very quickly.”

While she was summiting G2, there were at least five other women from Pakistan attempting other 8,000m peaks at the same time. They were not successful. When Naila finally got to base camp, she found out that she’d set a record: she had become the first Pakistani woman to summit an 8,000m mountain in Pakistan.

“I never even thought of making a record or anything,” she says. “I don’t really care about that. I just wanted to test my body.”

And what does she have planned for the future? “When I left for this expedition, I thought I’d try to climb one 8,000m and then dekha jaey ga [we’ll see],” says Naila. “I definitely wasn’t thinking I would go for another peak, but now I am!”

Here’s wishing her luck in conquering more peaks and beyond.

The writer is a member of staff She tweets @madeehasyed

Published in Dawn, EOS, August 22nd, 2021

DAWN.COM PAKISTAN
Disappearing ecosystems
Editorial

Published August 28, 2021 -

AFTER the UN sounded “code red for humanity” with the launch of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report earlier this month, research has emerged indicating more of the same and revealing further details of the shocking extent of damage caused to the delicate balance of nature. US-based scientists have published the findings of their research in the Nature Scientific Reports, declaring that if carbon emissions continued to be released into the atmosphere at the same rate, it would annihilate up to 95pc of the earth’s ocean surface by 2100. This means that over 70pc of the earth’s surface, which is covered with water, would undergo permanent damaging changes in less than 80 years. The surface climate of oceans would be destroyed with the absorption of a poisonous concentration of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. That would irreparably change the water acidity levels, surface water temperature and concentration of the mineral aragonite (used by many marine animals to form shells and bone). According to the article, the seas have already absorbed up to a third of the world’s carbon emissions since the Industrial Revolution. However, the accelerated pace with which CO2 was still being released into the atmosphere would mean a death sentence for most of the species that live on the surface of oceans. A living example of these alarming findings is Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, where rising sea temperatures have bleached and destroyed more than half the wondrous corals since 1995. The Great Barrier Reef stretches over 2,300 kilometres and has been a World Heritage Site since 1981 due to its scientific importance.

The UN’s IPCC report also contained similar dire warnings, and urged immediate collective action to arrest the accelerated pace of global warming and keep catastrophic climate events at bay. The unprecedented and large-scale forest fires that recently wreaked havoc in a number of European and Mediterranean regions are an example of what calamities lie ahead. The world needs to wake up and change its ruinous ways.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2021

PAKISTAN
Power sector blamed for challenges faced by LNG supply chain

The Newspaper's Staff Reporter
Published August 26, 2021 -

Senators expressed concern over mismanagement of LNG imports, particularly those from the spot market. — APP/File

ISLAMABAD: The petroleum division on Wednesday blamed the power sector for most of the challenges faced by the liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply chain and said the Frontier Works Organisation (FWO) had given monopoly through 10 fuel stations on the motorway to troubled Hascol as subsidiary.

Testifying before the Senate Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources, Petroleum Secretary Dr Arshad Mahmood said there was a dry-out situation on M-2 (Lahore-Islamabad Motorway) on the eve of Eidul Azha and the petroleum division had been trying to ensure that these remained wet. He said there were 10 fuel stations on the motorway – five each on either side – that the FWO had given to Hascol as kind of a subsidiary.

Presided over by Abdul Qadir, who as an independent candidate had defeated a PTI nominee to become a senator from Balochistan, then joined the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf and became chairman of Senate committee, said the petroleum division was not taking timely decisions. He said the government should take timely decisions on LNG imports to protect consumers from unnecessary burden. He said the government should facilitate the private sector instead of monopolising the LNG business.

The petroleum secretary said he had personally taken up the mater with the FWO management to have a strategy so that these fuel stations remain well served. He said it would be inappropriate to disclose details, but two major parties were in line for acquisition of Hascol at current depressed share price.

Senate panel criticises petroleum division for not taking timely decisions

One of the two parties was really sound and interested in taking over major shareholding after financial restructuring of the second largest private oil marketing company by market share. The company has 611 fuel stations across the country, besides other major strategic installations.

A senator pointed out that it appeared to be a well-planned move by the main shareholders of Hascol, accusing them of playing with fraudulent purchase orders. He cited recent disclosures by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan that the company kept on restating its financial results.

He pointed out that even the new major shareholders — Vitol — with 40pc stake was planning to have a major initial public offering in the United Kingdom and wanted to dump Hascol and run away because it did not want its bad liabilities on Vitol balance sheet. The senators advised that they should not be allowed to escape, instead operations should normalise and share price improve so that local shareholders could at least have some recovery for the share whose value had crashed from Rs380 to just Rs8 in a short period.

In reply to a question, Chairman of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority, Masroor Khan, said the Ogra’s concern was that shareholders’ interest remains protected, but more importantly the consumers should not suffer because of any dry-out situation. He said the regulator had engaged with the company to fulfill its licence responsibilities to not only keep its 611 fuel stations wet but also to ensure 20 days of product coverage.

The senators expressed concern over mismanagement of LNG imports, particularly those from the spot market, resulting in a burden on consumers of not only electricity but also the consumers of CNG as it had become more expensive than petrol.

Petroleum Secretary Dr Arshad Mahmood told the committee that the government could still have about 250 mmcfd of additional LNG processing capacity from existing terminal operators, but because of the fear of investigations, the executives of gas companies were reluctant to take contract additional capacity.

He informed the committee the petroleum division was also engaged with various institutions and would seek parliamentary support to address the challenge of ‘bureaucratic hesitation’ by raising the bar to higher forums, like cabinet bodies, for approval processes. He said there was nothing illegal in benefiting from additional capacity and that too when it has to bring down processing tariff, but one should be appreciative of those who may have spent time in jails earlier in similar situations.

He told the committee that while petroleum sector companies — PSO, PLL, SSGCL and SNGPL — were bound by international commercial contracts in LNG imports, their customers — the power sector companies — had not only payment problems but were also not ready to sign similar contracts with gas suppliers.

In the same vein, a senior executive of SNGPL, Jawad Naseem, told the committee that the power division or its entities changed their LNG requirements seven to eight times a year after approval of annual delivery plans prepared on the basis of the power division’s demand.

These changes, he said, had taken place invariably over the past three years on both sides i.e. power division refused to take LNG arranged on its orders or demanded up to 30pc higher intake instead of its earlier demand. While the power sector refused to take responsibility or foot the bill for variation, the SNGPL had to make diversions back and forth to other subsidised consumers or pay penalties

But that was not all, he explained, adding that various government committees or the cabinet take decisions to provide gas to the fertiliser sector on a 10-15 day notice, or on hourly notice to the power sector, because the government could not afford loadshedding in the domestic sector in case of a sudden drop in river flows.

The secretary told the committee that petroleum companies did not have the financial muscle to have spot LNG purchases 5-6 months in advance. He said the government was looking into building underground storage capacity near Badin for LNG to avoid short-term supply and price fluctuations. The project would cost about $1.5bn.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2021

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