'MAYBE' TECH BLUE HYDROGEN

Groups worry about New Mexico governor’s hydrogen hub plan

Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham addresses energy executives at the New Mexico Oil And Gas Association meeting on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021, in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Lujan Grisham has moved to crack down on pollution from gas extraction while also trying to shield the state's producers from a drilling moratorium by the Biden administration. New Mexico relies on oil and gas royalties for around one third of its budget. 

(AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — A coalition of environmental groups are raising concerns about Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s plans to turn New Mexico into a hydrogen fuel hub.

The Democrat, who is running for reelection, has set a goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions at least 45% by 2030 as compared to 2005 levels.

The Natural Resource Defense Council, the Rio Grande Chapter of the Sierra Club, the New Mexico Environmental Law Center and two dozen other organizations argue in a letter sent Tuesday to the governor and other top elected officials that large-scale development of hydrogen risks incentivizing new oil and natural gas fields.

Hydrogen fuel cells can power vehicles to reduce transportation emissions, but most energy used to produce hydrogen comes from natural gas. Some are hopeful that hydrogen can be produced by using electricity generated from solar or wind power to separate hydrogen and oxygen in water.

However, the letter warns of excessive water use in a state where the commodity is already scarce.

The groups urged the governor to focus on wind and solar energy instead.

Lujan Grisham has expressed interest in speaking at a climate change conference next month. Earlier this year, she asked Biden to exempt oil and gas producers in New Mexico from a drilling moratorium.

In a speech this week to oil and gas executives, Lujan Grisham invited them to join her in partnerships for hydrogen production in the coming decades.

The U.S. Energy Department in July allocated more than $50 million to a number of projects in support of the agency’s hydrogen initiative.

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Attanasio is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues. Follow Attanasio on Twitter.

World must target absolute zero emissions, Australian iron ore mogul says

Reuters | October 4, 2021 

Andrew Forrest founded Fortescue Metals Group in 2003.

 (Image from: Daily Telegraph video)

The world needs to focus on absolute zero emissions, rather than a net zero target, and use clean hydrogen to get there rather than relying on unproven technologies such as carbon capture and storage, Australian iron ore titan Andrew Forrest said on Monday.


Forrest, who grew Fortescue Metals Group into the world’s fourth largest iron ore miner in less than two decades, has turned his attention to developing green energy projects such as hydrogen around the world.

Australia’s richest man said the idea of reaching “net zero” by 2050 – a pillar of the upcoming COP26 climate summit in Glasgow – was a “smokescreen” that suggested climate change could be solved by burying or offsetting carbon emissions.

“It’s not going to happen,” said Forrest, speaking on a panel at the Reuters Impact conference.

“The fossil fuel industry has lobbied hard… to get taxpayers to fund their attempt at a transition to ‘clean’ energy – on their timetable. But that’s a highway to climate disaster.”

Of the 60 million tonnes of hydrogen produced every year, 96% was still made from fossil fuels, Forrest said.

“Green hydrogen is the solution we need to get to absolute zero,” he said.

Green hydrogen is made from water, using renewable electricity, while other sorts such as “blue” hydrogen are produced from fossil fuels.

The International Energy Agency backed a bigger role for hydrogen on Monday, saying governments needed to step up investment in hydrogen production and storage chains to help cut net emissions to zero.

The Australian government is pushing both hydrogen development and carbon capture and storage (CCS) to cut emissions, as it views CCS as essential to the future use of gas and coal, the country’s second- and third-largest export earners.

But the 20 pilot CCS plants in existence worldwide capture only 0.4% of the CO2 emitted globally by power stations and industrial processes, Forrest said.

To meet a net zero emissions target by 2050, the IEA projects the world would need to capture and store 7.6 billion tonnes a year of carbon dioxide by 2050, up from current CCS capacity of 40 million tonnes a year.

“Carbon capture and storage, despite having received billions of subsidies for decades, remains an unproven failure, far from commercial viability,” said Forrest.

(By Melanie Burton and Sonali Paul; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Fortescue buys 60% stake in Dutch-based renewable energy firm


Wed, October 6, 2021

FILE PHOTO: Photo of the logo of Fortescue Metals Group adorning their headquarters in Perth, Australia
In

(Reuters) - Fortescue Metals Group Ltd's green energy unit said on Thursday it bought a 60% stake in Dutch-based renewable firm High yield Energy Technologies (HyET) Group in a bid to cut costs and boost green energy production.

Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) is part of Fortescue Metals' plan to become the world's first major supplier of green iron ore, and aims to supply 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen globally by 2030.

Fortescue Metals, the world's No.4 iron ore producer, is pursuing some of the most ambitious green plans in the industry with its efforts to diversify into renewable energy and green hydrogen through FFI.


"HyET Hydrogen's technology will support FFI in reducing costs in other areas of the green hydrogen supply chain," said Julie Shuttleworth, chief executive officer of FFI.

FFI, which plans to spend between $400 million and $600 million in the year to June 2022 on developing green transport and decarbonisation technologies, expects to cut down costs at its Powerfoil factory in Australia from the acquisition.

As part of the deal, FFI will provide a majority share of financing for the expansion of HyET Solar's Dutch Solar photovoltaics factory. Financial terms of the stake acquisition were not disclosed.

(Reporting by Tejaswi Marthi in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

Repsol produces hydrogen from biomethane at Spanish refinery

Spanish giant claims its first 10-tonne batch of renewable hydrogen offset roughly 90 tonnes of CO2 emissions


Producing renewable hydrogen: Repsol's refinery in Cartagena, Spain

Photo: REUTERS/SCANPIX

5 October 2021
By Josh Lewis in Perth

Spanish oil and gas giant Repsol has produced its first batch of hydrogen utilising biomethane as the feedstock.

Repsol confirmed Monday it had produced 10 tonnes of renewable hydrogen at its Cartagena Industrial Complex, in the Murcia region of south-east Spain.

The hydrogen produced from the process will be used to manufacture fuels such as gasoline, diesel, or kerosene for aviation.

By utilising the equivalent of 500 megawatt hours of biomethane to produce the hydrogen, Repsol claims it avoided roughly 90 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.

“This new process for production of renewable hydrogen is further evidence of the transformation of Repsol’s industrial complexes into multi-energy hubs capable of manufacturing decarbonized products. It also supports the company’s commitment to achieving zero net emissions by 2050,” Repsol said in Monday’s statement.


Repsol aims to produce hydrogen directly from solar

“Energy efficiency, circular economy, renewable hydrogen, and CO2 capture and use technologies are the four main pillars on which Repsol is based to place its industrial complexes at the forefront of the energy transition.”

The milestone comes after Repsol in August claimed to have produced Spain’s first aviation biofuel from waste at its Petronor Industrial Complex in Bilbao.

It claimed the 5300-tonne batch of biojet would help avoid 300 tonnes of CO2, roughly the equivalent emitted from 40 flights between Madrid and Bilbao.

Repsol is also planning to start up a 2.5-megawatt electrolyser at its Petronor refinery in the second half of next year to produce green hydrogen, while it is aiming to have 1.9 gigawatts of installed capacity across its portfolio by 2030.

CP shares image of new hydrogen-powered locomotive

The railroad expects the unit to begin operation in 2022

A rendering of hydrogen locomotive H2 0EL, which is expected to see its painting and launch in late 2021.

 October 4, 2021

CALGARY, Alberta – Canadian Pacific has shared an image of its forthcoming hydrogen-powered locomotive. It shows an EMD cowl-style locomotive in a green, blue, white, and gray paint scheme.

According to the railroad’s sustainability website, the locomotive, known as “H2 0EL” for Hydrogen – Zero Emissions Locomotive, will be prepped for its official painting and launch. Each design element of the locomotive articulates the effect of this project. The blue and green paint colors represent sustainability, water, and technology. The H2 0EL wordmark features angled typography to symbolize movement and progress in action.

“This is a globally significant project that positions CP at the leading edge of decarbonizing the freight transportation sector,” President and CEO Keith Creel says. “CP will continue to focus on finding innovative solutions to transform our operations and implement our Climate Strategy, positioning CP and our industry as leaders for a sustainable future.”

CP has previously tested lower-emission locomotives using biofuels and compressed natural gas, as well as battery-powered units. Virtually all freight locomotives in North America are diesel-powered, representing railroading’s most significant source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The railroad expects the unit to begin operation in 2022.

Silicon-Carbide Nanotubes: New Study Reveals Relations Between Hydrogen and Its Storage, Bringing the Energy Into Daily Use

Marie Morales Sep 28, 2021 

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Hydrogen energy is potentially a key measure to meet the United Nations net zero emissions target, although the hardship in handling and storage has stalled its industrial function.

A Phys.org report specified that a gas, at a very low -252 degrees Celsius, making its storage at room temperature quite a challenge.

Essentially, the relations between hydrogen and its storage material is merely very weak to carry on at room temperature. This makes the design of the storage materials essential to reaching the goal of bringing hydrogen energy into everyday use.

This is where computational material design arises. Too much time and energy can be saved during the hydrogen technology development by designing a material using a computer and mimicking its capacity for hydrogen storage.

(Photo: Xuezhen Huang et al. on Wikimedia Commons)
Silicon Nanotubes

Van Der Waals Force

The predictions, nonetheless, become quite limited in their use unless they are precise and can be made at a reasonable estimated cost.

In recent research published in ACS Omega, researchers developed a computationally costly, although precisely novel, way to forecast hydrogen storage.

According to the study's lead, the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology's Dr. Kenta Hongo, improving prediction dependability for simulations can help fast-track the development of materials for hydrogen fuel storage and result in a more energy-saving society.

One of the essential forces of attraction between things is the van der Waals force, defining the interaction between molecules or atoms based on the distance between them.

Since this said force is the result of a quite complex quantum process, conventional solutions could not explain it very well, and therefore, the simulations thus far are the level of rough approximations of it.

Silicon-Carbide Nanotubes

To answer the question on the appropriateness of this approach, Dr. Hongo and his team looked at silicon-carbide nanotubes, one of the most capable materials for hydrogen storage.

A similar My Space Astronomy report said, with a computational approach known as diffusion Monte Carlo or DMC, the team devised a model that accounted for the van der Waals forces when mimicking the hydrogen storage in silicon-carbide nanotubes.

Most conventional models consider the connections between the said nanotube materials and hydrogen. Although, the DMC approach utilizes the power of a supercomputer to reconstruct the interaction mechanism by following the individual electrons' arrangement.

This makes the DMC prototype the most precise approach of forecast to date. The scientists were also able to forecast the amount of energy needed to dislodge hydrogen from its storage and the distance the hydrogen was likely to be from the silicon-carbide nanotube's surface.

They then compared the results from their modeling to those obtained via conventional prediction methods. Dr. Hongo believes that such findings can be a stepping stone for further hydrogen storage simulation tech improvement.

He added that even though the DMC approach is computationally costly, it can be used to clarify the peculiarities, or the tendencies of prediction error, of every forecast method.

This will help understand which forecast is trustworthy and how to alter prediction methods to make them more helpful or functional.

Related information about Silicon-Carbide Nanotubes is shown on Subject Zero Science's YouTube video below:

Fortescue Metals to eliminate scope 3 emissions by 2040

Cecilia Jamasmie | October 5, 2021 

FMG is boosting hydrogen and green energy production to cut its carbon footprint. 

(Image courtesy of FMG.)

Fortescue Metals Group (ASX: FMG), the world’s fourth largest iron ore producer, became on Tuesday the first major miner to commit to achieving net zero scope 3 emissions, those produced by its customers including steel makers, by 2040.


The Australian miner put its closest rivals BHP, Rio Tinto and Vale under scrutiny earlier this year after announcing it had brought forward a self-imposed deadline of reaching net zero scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030. That’s about two decades earlier than the other three iron ore producers.

Fortescue is seeking to move from being a major consumer of fossil fuel, with a current trajectory of more than 1 billion litres a year of diesel being used across the operations if no remedial action is taken, to a major clean and renewable energy exporter.

As part of that plan, it has also announced it aims to start producing green hydrogen as soon as 2023. The company is targeting the production of 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen a year by 2030, which will open up opportunities to work with customers and shipping partners on emissions reduction and elimination projects.

For now, the main customers FMG plans to work with are the one in the steelmaking sector, which account for 98% of the company’s scope 3 emissions.

To hit net-zero, the miner wants to reduce emission intensity levels from those customers by 7.5% by 2030.

 
Highway to climate disaster

Despite the commitment to eliminate emissions, FMG’s founder and main shareholder Andrew Forrester believes that the global goal of reaching “net zero” by 2050 – a pillar of the upcoming COP26 climate summit in Glasgow – is a “smokescreen.”

It suggests climate change could be solved by burying or offsetting carbon emissions, said Forrest, speaking on a panel at the Reuters Impact conference on Monday.

“The fossil fuel industry has lobbied hard… to get taxpayers to fund their attempt at a transition to ‘clean’ energy – on their timetable. But that’s a highway to climate disaster.”

Of the 60 million tonnes of hydrogen produced every year, 96% is still made from fossil fuels, Forrest noted. He added the solution to get to absolute zero emissions is green oxygen.

Mining magnate and Australia’s former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull launched last month a new body – the Green Hydrogen Organization – which will advocate for the country’s hydrogen industry to focus solely on green hydrogen produced from renewable sources.

Fortescue plans to use its own hydrogen from Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) to help transition its ore carrier fleet and help reduce or eliminate emissions in its partnerships.

The mining company will also use FFI’s hydrogen as it researches ways to produce iron ore and cement without the need for high temperatures and coal.

“Our work to decarbonise FMG’s iron ore operations will position Fortescue as the first major supplier of green iron ore in the world, paving the way for production of green iron and a new green steel industry,” FFI chief executive officer, Julie Shuttleworth, said in the statement.

Bold and welcome

Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility’s Director of Climate & Environment, Dan Gocher, said in an emailed statement that FMG’s announcement today was a “bold and welcome commitment.”

“FMG’s bold target overshadows the lack of ambition by BHP and Rio Tinto, whose absence of firm targets for steelmaking is looking increasingly lacklustre,” he said.

“BHP and Rio Tinto should be embarrassed by being outdone by a company they once referred to as a ‘junior miner’. It’s time for BHP and Rio Tinto to set binding targets for their scope 3 emissions, rather than simply funding research and working with their customers.”

Gocher believes that FMG’s news are “particularly humiliating” for BHP, given proxy advisors have recommended shareholders vote against the company’s climate transition plan at its upcoming annual general meetings. They are scheduled for October 14 in London and November 11 in Perth.

Is this the Schadenfreude moment for China sceptics?

The Evergrande crisis is merely the tip of the iceberg of an overheated and indebted property sector.

 AFP

Updated: 04 Oct 2021,

Vivek Deheji

The woes of Chinese property development firm, Evergrande, heavily indebted to both domestic and foreign lenders and on the verge of collapse, has engendered a Schadenfreude moment amongst China sceptics: but is it premature? After the crisis broke out, some proclaimed that the imminent failure of Evergrande might just be China’s “Lehman moment", referring to the 2008 bankruptcy of the New York investment bank, Lehman Brothers, which was the opening salvo in the global financial crisis. Yet, global financial markets settled after a day or two of turmoil, as investors bet that that the Chinese state, which still heavily regulates the economy, will restructure the debt-laden firm in a manner that forestalls any potential international contagion. The critics might just have to wait before popping the Schadenfreude champagne corks.

Yet, even absent contagion, the Evergrande saga is but the tip of the iceberg of an overheated and indebted property sector which potentially threatens the edifice of the larger Chinese economy and, therefore, indirectly the global economy too. In a fascinating long read, British-born historian Niall Ferguson makes just such a case 

(“Evergrande's Fall Shows How Xi Has Created a China Crisis", Bloomberg Opinion, 26 September bloom.bg/3A9KCWI).

As Ferguson observes, Evergrande is emblematic of a China that has developed in the past decade with an economic development paradigm premised on “urbanization on steroids". For all of the skyscrapers, both commercial and residential, that dot the landscape of Chinese cities, large and even small, many of them remain empty and their property developers unable to sell enough units to pay-off the debt incurred in putting up the buildings to begin with.

In other words, the property sector in China, larger even than in the US on the eve of the collapse of Lehman, is a ticking time bomb that could have significant macroeconomic consequences beyond the property and financial sectors through the impact on Chinese households, who are heavily invested in a property market that has been in bubble territory for some time. Citing research by Harvard economics professor Kenneth Rogoff and his co-author Yuanchen Yang of Beijing’s Tsinghua University, Ferguson notes that housing wealth accounts for a whopping 78% of total assets in China, much higher than the 35% share in the United States, for instance. The upshot is that consumer spending in China is, as per Rogoff-Yang, “significantly more sensitive to a decline in housing prices" than in the US. The impacts of a more generalized collapse in the property market in China could be large and consequential for the global economy.

For those with a long enough memory, none of these recent developments should come as a surprise. As long ago as 2004, economist James Dean and I argued, and as I summarized for Mint readers much later (“Will the elephant overshadow the dragon?", 5 March 2015 bit.ly/3ixSLyx), that the Chinese model is characterized by the glaring contradiction between ever-increasing economic freedoms and an authoritarian political dispensation. What is more, the economic development paradigm of the Chinese Communist authorities was focussed on an infrastructure-driven, “build and they will come" model, in sharp contrast to, say, the Indian model in which the supply of new infrastructure is driven by the demand for it, rather than the reverse.

The consequence, as Dean and I argued in 2004, was a Chinese development success story that was something of a house of cards, and built upon excessive investment, including in housing—what the Austrian school of economics would call “malinvestment". Chinese growth statistics would, therefore, in an important sense be inflated. After all, if the economy grows rapidly because of a stock of property and infrastructure that ultimately will never be put to use, and which leads to the accumulation of large debts, such rapid growth may be unsustainable and, in a certain sense, illusory.

Up until now, China sceptics, including your columnist, have been confounded by the reality that successive generations of the Chinese leadership have shown a remarkable ability to continue to refresh and reinvent their model—both economic and political—thus ensuring that growth rates remain high and that the spectre of social chaos and unrest remains at bay. Every Chinese leader since Deng Xiaoping and his pioneering reforms of the late 1970s have managed to maintain the unwritten but all-important bargain with the populace: “we will give you the opportunity to get rich, and the price is that you must stay out of politics". But perhaps, just perhaps, the chickens may finally have come home to roost on the watch of authoritarian strongman, Xi Jinping—what, writing in 2015, I had reckoned might be an “implosion" in the Chinese economy or a “belated and disorderly democratization" of the society.

What might make this time different is that in the past few years, Xi has begun to rewrite the unwritten social compact, and increase government and party control over the economy, and reign in what he clearly believes is an excessively free and insufficiently regulated market economy, undoing the premise of Deng’s reforms. He has also been, first quietly and now overtly, building a cult of personality to match that around Mao. If the economy and the public mood sour, Xi may end up ruing these choices.

Nord Stream 2 Operator Begins Gas Tests

By Irina Slav - Oct 05, 2021, 

Nord Stream AG has started feeding gas into the same-name pipeline to run tests as part of pre-commissioning preparations.

"The first string will be filled gradually to build the required inventory and pressure as a prerequisite for later technical tests," said the Swiss-based company as quoted by Reuters.

Meanwhile, in a separate report, Reuters revealed that Germany had approached Nord Stream 2 for assurances that it would meet all regulatory requirements when it enters into operation. This may be an indication that Germany is close to approving the politically charged piece of infrastructure.

"The Federal Network Agency today requested Nord Stream 2 AG to provide information and, if necessary, evidence that all regulatory requirements will be met in the context of operating the pipeline," the German Federal Network Agency—the watchdog for electricity and gas markets, among others—said in a statement cited in the report.

The controversy around Nord Stream 2, which initially centered on the fact that with it more Russian gas will bypass Ukraine, has now shifted to accusations that Moscow is using—and even causing—the energy crunch to force Germany into approving the new project. Gazprom has struck back, saying it is delivering exactly as much gas to the EU as is stipulated in their long-term contracts.

The United States is also against the project, fearing a deepening EU dependence on Russian fossil fuels. In 2019, Washington slapped sanctions on Nord Stream 2 and threatened to sanction the European partners in the project. Since then, the tone has mellowed somewhat, but not a lot. Russian pipeline gas remains the biggest competitor for U.S. LNG, along with Qatari LNG.

The 1,200-km, $111-billion pipeline will have the capacity to send 55 billion cu m of natural gas from Russia to Germany annually once it gets all necessary approvals.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

How Marvel Comics fooled comic book censors by turning Vampires into Dinosaurs


Marvel Comics' tradition of horror heroes started by tricking old school comic book censors with dinosaurs

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

By George Marston 1 day ago

The post-credits scene of Venom: Let There Be Carnage opens up some interesting possibilities for the future of Sony Pictures' budding Spider-Man adjacent film universe, which next expands with January 28, 2022's Morbius, based on the infamous Marvel vampire.

The film's previously released trailer shows strong horror movie elements involved in scientist Michael Morbius' transformation into a so-called 'Living Vampire' - along with possible connections to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which may or may not exist in the same continuity as Sony's films at this point.


(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Despite being more of a cult favorite than a household name, Morbius the Living Vampire holds a special place in Marvel lore.


Though Marvel Comics featured vampire characters in its early days as Timely Comics and its subsequent Atlas Comics era, the 1954 implementation of the Comics Code Authority prohibited the depiction of the undead in comics, including zombies and vampires.

Morbius is the first character to be billed directly as a vampire in the Marvel Universe 17 years after the implementation of the CCA (hence Morbius' caveat of being a 'Living' vampire). But Morbius isn't Marvel's first attempt to skirt around the censorship rules of the era.

In fact, Marvel's first big vampire villain wasn't technically a vampire at all - but a dinosaur.

How and why did Marvel decide a dinosaur-human-hybrid monster was the right choice to depict a non-vampiric vampire? And why is a vampire dinosaur so freakin' awesome?

We can answer the first question - but the latter should be obvious already.

So put on your Alan Grant style hat and your Ellie Sattler khaki shorts and get ready to play paleontologist as we dig into the bones of Marvel's vampire dinosaur, Sauron, and the circumstances that led to his creation.

Vampiresaurus Rex


(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Right off the bat (get it?) you may be asking, why couldn't Marvel just use a vampire in their comic books - especially if they had done it before.

In the '50s, mainstream comic books underwent a period of intense scrutiny in which popular psychologists began analyzing and blaming comic books for a perceived increase in societal ills and immorality (at least according to the ideals of the time). Similar to what modern fans have witnessed with alarmism over violent video games or certain genres of music, comic books began taking the blame for changing cultural attitudes.

The result was the 1954 implementation of the Comics Code Authority, a governing body similar to the Motion Picture Association of America's ratings board, which analyzed and censored comic books of all genres, and ultimately gave its seal of approval to those that met its stringent content standards.


The CCA's regulations included prohibiting the depiction of explicit violence, sexuality, and drug use in comics, but the limits didn't stop there. Along with these controversial topics, the CCA went so far as to ban the depiction of numerous fantasy and sci-fi elements it deemed inappropriate - including straight-up banning the depiction of common horror monsters such as vampires and werewolves.


Maybe they thought kids would go from tying towels around their necks to play Superman to literally drinking blood and howling under a full moon? Some of the actual assertions brought about by the moral panic over comic books aren't too far off from such fantastic fears.


(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

But in the late '60s, Marvel Comics - ever the innovators - found a way to dig into some of these banned ideas without losing the security of the CCA stamp that code-approved comic books bore on their covers for decades: they'd use dinosaurs.

When writer Roy Thomas and artist Neal Adams took over the Uncanny X-Men title in the late '60s, Thomas set about revamping the team's adventures and adding some new antagonists for the X-Men to fight. Settling on his interest in vampires for inspiration, Thomas brought in the concept of Karl Lykos, AKA Sauron - a villain with the vampiric power to drain the lifeforce of his victims to sustain himself (pay no attention CCA, no blood-drinking going on here!).
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But despite efforts to separate the concept of a vampire from the aspects of vampire mythology that were then in violation of the Comics Code, Adams' mutated bat-like design for the character was deemed to bring the concept too close to an actual vampire for the CCA's comfort, necessitating design changes to make Sauron acceptable.


Thomas and Adams took the main feature of their bat-creature - his massive, leathery wings - and twisted the rest of the design to resemble a pteranodon, a winged, crested dinosaur in the pterosaur family of great reptiles (for the paleontologists among us, we'll take this moment to acknowledge that pterosaurs aren't technically dinosaurs, despite their cultural associations).


Taking the design away from a bat-inspired direction also allowed Thomas and Adams to give Sauron even more vampire-like powers, establishing that the villain turns into his dinosaur-like form after absorbing life force, and adding a hypnotic stare to his arsenal.


And with that, Thomas and Adams had found the way to game the Comics Code Authority's guidelines against horror characters - by going in a totally unexpected direction and making their bat monster into a dastardly dinosaur (we know, we know - pterosaur).


Sauron (whose name is taken from JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings - Sauron himself even says so on the page) debuted in 1969's Uncanny X-Men #60, going on to become a recurring villain for the X-Men with appearances in cartoons and video games, and even a place of honor as one of the first figures released in the beloved '90s Toy Biz X-Men action figure line.

Oddly enough though, Adams and Thomas's vampire-centric storytelling wouldn't stop there, even after the creative team split, with Adams leaving Marvel entirely to work at DC.

Blood Ties


(Image credit: DC)

By 1970, just a year after co-creating Sauron, Adams had become massively popular as the artist of several of DC's Batman titles. In the landmark Detective Comics #400, Adams, writer Frank Robbins, and editor Julius Schwarz introduced Man-Bat, the alter ego of scientist Kirk Langstrom, who becomes a giant, humanoid bat when he takes a special serum of his own making.

It's probably not a coincidence that just a little while after his human-bat-hybrid design was rejected at Marvel, Neal Adams introduced a similar character at DC - notice that Kirk Langstrom and Karl Lykos even have the same initials. And despite seemingly skirting the Comics Code Authorities rules against depicting vampires (and, in a way, werewolves too), Man-Bat made it to the page.

Man-Bat's introduction in the DC Universe was indicative of changes to come in the CCA's rules around horror characters - changes which put Roy Thomas back in mind of vampires when he took over writing Amazing Spider-Man for longtime writer (and co-creator) Stan Lee.

Lee's departure from the title once again took Peter Parker in a mad science direction, with Lee's final plot for Amazing Spider-Man #100 involving Peter taking a special serum meant to eliminate his spider-powers and allow him to live a normal life.

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

But instead of the desired effects, Peter becomes somehow even more spider-like, growing four extra arms out of his torso - undergoing his own spider transformation thanks to a special serum. Is this the influence of Man-Bat coming back around to Marvel? It's hard to say - but years later Spider-Man: The Animated Series adapted the story taking it even further with Peter's serum transforming him into a full-on Man-Spider (yes, name included).

For Thomas' part, he and artist Gil Kane picked up the tale in Amazing Spider-Man #101 by having Peter Parker visit geneticist Dr. Michael Morbius, whose research into his own rare blood disease turned him into a vampire-like creature who feeds on that pseudo-science catchall of 'lifeforce' rather than blood. And in this way, Morbius the Living Vampire, as he quickly came to be called, followed Thomas' initial idea of a vampire-like character whose powers come from science rather than mysticism that was first adapted into Sauron.

Not long after Morbius' introduction, Marvel Comics leaned even further into horror, thanks to the continued relaxation of CCA restrictions on horror characters, introducing their own version of Bram Stoker's Dracula whose title, House of Dracula, spun-off characters such as Blade, Werewolf By Night, and more.

And, in an appropriate full-circle moment, Dracula even fought the X-Men in a fan-favorite story (appropriately titled X-Men Vs. Dracula), in which he temporarily turned Storm into a vampire.

And as for Roy Thomas, he kept on with his penchant for bringing horror into superhero comics by turning J. Jonah Jameson's son John Jameson into Man-Wolf - another version of a classic horror movie monster with a twist.

Marvel's Dracula remains a presence in the Marvel Universe, with the vampire lord recently feuding with X-Force and the Avengers in separate tales. And of course, Morbius is about to get his own Sony movie - with Blade the Vampire Hunter coming to the MCU in a reboot film, and Werewolf By Night spin-off character Moon Knight getting his own MCU show. And there are even reports that a version of Werewolf By Night will come to the MCU in a 2022 Disney Plus Halloween special.

And to think, Marvel's horror legacy all started with vampire dinosaurs.


George Marston
I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)

COLONIALISM IS CLIMATE CHANGE

Historical climate emissions reveal responsibility of big polluting nations

Six of top 10, including China and Russia, yet to show ambition on emissions cuts before Cop26


Damian Carrington Environment editor
THE GUARDIAN
Tue 5 Oct 2021 

Analysis of the total carbon dioxide emissions of countries since 1850 has revealed the nations with the greatest historical responsibility for the climate emergency. But six of the top 10 have yet to make ambitious new pledges to cut their emissions before the crucial UN Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow in November.

The six include China, Russia and Brazil, which come only behind the US as the biggest cumulative polluters. The UK is eighth and Canada is 10th. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for centuries and the cumulative amount of CO2 emitted is closely linked to the 1.2C of heating the world has already seen.

At the UN negotiations, historical emissions underpin the claims for climate justice made by developing nations, along with the disparity in wealth of nations. Countries that grew rich on fossil fuels have the greatest responsibility to act, developing nations say, and to provide funding for low-CO2 development and protection against the impacts of global heating.

The UK is hosting Cop26 and the prime minister, Boris Johnson, acknowledged this responsibility in a speech to the UN in September.

The analysis, produced by Carbon Brief, includes, for the first time, emissions from the destruction of forests and other changes in land use alongside fossil fuels and cement production. This pushes Brazil and Indonesia into the top 10, unlike when fossil fuel emissions alone are considered.

The data also shows the world has now used 85% of the CO2 budget that would give a 50% chance of limiting heating to 1.5C, the danger limit agreed in Paris in 2015.

The US, Germany, Britain and Canada are the only top 10 nations to have made pledges of deeper emissions cuts in advance of Cop26. While the US has said it will double its climate finance contribution to developing nations, some still see this as too little from the world’s biggest economy.

Russia has made a new pledge, but it allows for emissions to rise, and the Climate Action Tracker (Cat) group classes it as “critically insufficient” compared with the Paris targets. China and India have yet to make any new pledges, while those of Brazil, Indonesia and Japan do not improve on previous pledges.


“There’s a direct link between the 2,500bn tonnes of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere since 1850 and the 1.2C of warming we’re already experiencing,” said Simon Evans at Carbon Brief. “Our new analysis puts a vital spotlight on the people and countries most responsible for heating our planet.

“We can’t ignore CO2 from forestry and land use change, because it makes up nearly a third of the cumulative total since 1850. Once you include that, it’s really striking to see Brazil and Indonesia vaulting into the top 10.”

Mohamed Nasheed, ambassador for the Climate Vulnerable Forum (CVF), a group of 48 nations, and the speaker of parliament in the Maldives, said: “Basic justice demands that those who have done most to cause the climate emergency should take the lead in addressing it. This new analysis makes clear where responsibility lies: principally with the US, but also latterly with China and Russia.

“The historical emitters have taken up all the carbon budget for 1.5C and spent it on their own development. In that sense we have lent them our carbon budget and they owe us for it. Coming up to the Cop[26] we have seen some increased pledges for finance, but it is still far below the $100bn [£73.5bn] a year the CVF is calling for.”

Tom Athanasiou, a partner in the Climate Equity Reference Project, said the differing capacity of rich and poor nations to fund climate action was important. “Historical responsibility is a keystone equity principle, but it’s not the only one,” he said. “Considering capacity is essential if we’re to keep climate action from happening on the backs of the poor.”

The Carbon Brief analysis shows that about 85% of the cumulative emissions of the US and China are from fossil fuel burning, and 15% from deforestation, with the reverse true for Brazil and Indonesia. Indonesia has made some progress in halting the razing of trees, but the felling of forests in Brazil has accelerated under the current president, Jair Bolsonaro.
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The inclusion of deforestation emissions pushes Australia up from 16th to 13th place – Australia is thought to have cleared nearly half of its forest cover in the last 200 years. Australia’s emissions-cutting pledge for Cop26 does not increase its ambition and is rated “highly insufficient” by Cat.

The US has been the biggest cumulative polluter from 1850 all the way to the present day. Russia was the second biggest polluter until 2007, when its emissions were surpassed by China’s, whose emissions started rising rapidly from the 1970s. The UK was the third biggest emitter for a century, from 1870 until 1970, when it was overtaken by Brazil.

“We started the industrial revolution in Britain. We were the first to send the great puffs of acrid smoke to the heavens on a scale to derange the natural order,” Johnson told the UN general assembly in September. “We understand when the developing world looks to us to help them and we take our responsibilities.”

The Cop26 president, Alok Sharma, said: “Big emitters, especially those in the G20, have a responsibility to send a strong and powerful message to the world that they are raising ambition and accelerating action on climate change. While those who have contributed most to the problem of global heating should take the lead, there is a role for all countries and parts of society in rising to this shared challenge.”

Robbie Andrew at Cicero, a Norwegian climate research centre, said: “While historical emissions are very important, almost two-thirds of our emissions of fossil CO2 have come since about 1980, and about 40% since 2000 [and] it’s what’s happening now that we can do something about.”

Last week, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said developed economies needed to take the lead and Greta Thunberg raised the issue of historical responsibility as well.

The climate crisis is destroying the human rights of those least responsible for it

“I recognise that the countries who have emitted the most carbon [dioxide] did not do so with the intention of harming the climate,” Nasheed said. “The internal combustion engine was invented for mobility, not to drown island nations. So I call for a collective approach to this, where we act together to rapidly scale up the clean technologies that we need instead of playing a postcolonial blame game.”

The Carbon Brief analysis used data from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center, Our World in Data, Global Carbon Project, Carbon Monitor and studies on emissions from deforestation and changes in land use. It starts in 1850, before which reliable data is scarce, and so does not include emissions from the deforestation that occurred before that time. It accounted for changing national boundaries over time but did not ascribe the emissions from previously colonised countries to the colonising nation.

Cumulative emissions from fossil fuels, cement, deforestation and land use change from 1850 to 2020. Video: Carbon Brief

Arizona monsoon causes dormant eggs of three-eyed "prehistoric shrimp" to hatch

Cheryl Santa Maria
Digital Reporter
Tuesday, October 5th 2021

 Interesting things can happen when it rains.

You may have heard of Triops before but under a different name. With eggs that can stay dormant for decades and an ability to survive in harsh conditions, they are often sold in kits designed for children, who are encouraged to put the eggs in water and watch the creatures grow.

Often branded as "prehistoric sea creatures," the novelty aquarium pets have three eyes and can reach up to 1 cm when fully grown. They kind of look like tadpoles, but with an extra-terrestrial twist.

*One of the Triops that emerged in the July storm. (L. Carter/NPS) via LiveScience

Back in July, a monsoon hit Flagstaff, Arizona, an area that typically receives around 230 mm of rain a year. But over a period of about 10 days, 127 mm fell, and that was enough to hydrate dormant Triops eggs.

Within a week the hatchlings had matured, and they were visible in a temporary pond that formed in the ball court at Wupatki National Monument, LiveScience reports. Triops sightings are rare, and at first, park staff wasn't sure what to make of them.

Triops usually lay their eggs in the desert, where they remain until enough rain accumulates for them to hatch, creating another generation of crustaceans that will go on to lay more eggs.

They typically live up to 90 days, but the temporary lake only lasted for about a month. And it didn't take long for local wildlife to notice the new addition to the pond, with birds swooping in to eat the critters. It's not clear if any Triops were able to lay eggs before the water evaporated.

Triops can be found in Africa, Australia, Asia, South America, Europe, and North America, typically inhabiting temporary pools. They're often branded as "prehistoric" because their ancestors evolved between 419 and 359 million years ago - long before the dinosaurs made an appearance some 252 million years ago.

While Triops' appearance hasn't changed much in all that time, they have evolved, making the moniker 'prehistoric' somewhat inaccurate.

Triops can help curb the spread of the West Nile virus because they consume mosquito larvae that spread the disease. In Japan, Triops can sometimes be found in rice paddies, eating away at the weeds.

VIDEO

https://www.theweathernetwork.com/us/news/article/arizona-monsoon-causes-dormant-eggs-of-three-eyed-prehistoric-shrimp

Thumbnail graphic created by Cheryl Santa Maria. Image courtesy: Getty.

‘Dinosaur Shrimp’ Discovery in Northern Arizona; Unusual Finding of Hundreds of Tadpole-Size Creatures After Heavy Rainfall

Marie Morales  Oct 05, 2021 0

Faceb

After a heavy summer downpour in Arizona, reports of a "dinosaur shrimp" discovery have spread, identifying the new find as "Triops," tadpole-size creatures.

According to officials at Wupatki National Monument, a Live Science report said that hundreds of unusual, prehistoric critters appeared from tiny eggs and started to swim around a temporary lake on the desert landscape.

Lead interpretation ranger Lauren Carter from Wupatki National Monument said the tiny creatures look like small mini-horseshoe crabs with three eyes.

The Central Michigan University said the dinosaur shrimps' eggs could lay dormant for several decades in the desert until adequate rain falls to make lakes that provide habitat and time for the maturity of the hatchlings and later lay eggs for the next generation.

(Photo: Dat doris on Wikimedia Commons)
A Greek term for ‘three eyes,’ Triops, are at times called ‘dinosaur shrimp’ due to their long evolutionary background.

Triops' Unusual Appearances

Appearances of the Triops are unusual when tourists reported that they saw the at a provisional, rain-filled lake within the ceremonial ball court of the monument, a circular walled structure about 32 meters across, the staff of the monument was unsure what to make of the tiny discoveries.

Carter explained that after a monsoon during the latter part of July, they knew that "there was water in the ball court," although they didn't expect anything living in it. Then, a tourist came up and said there were tadpoles down in the ball court.

Initially, the lead interpretation ranger wondered if toads, living in underground burrows during the dry season, had arisen during the wet spell to lay eggs.

To investigate further, Carter went to the ball court, which was originally constructed by the indigenous people at Wupatki.

She continued, saying she just scooped the creature up with her hands and looked at it and elaborated she had no idea. She felt an inkling of familiarity, though, as had worked before at Petrified Forest National Park in northeastern Arizona, and remembered reports of Triops in the area.

Crustacean with 3 Eyes

A Greek term for "three eyes," Triops, described in the Triops World site, is at times called "dinosaur shrimp" due to their long evolutionary background.

These crustaceans' ancestors evolved 419 million to 359 million years ago, during the Devonian period, and their emergence has changed very minimally since then, the Central Michigan University stated.

Notably, the dinosaurs did not appear until much later during the Triassic period, which started around 252 million years ago.

Nevertheless, these crustaceans are not the same as their ancestors, and thus, they would not be regarded as living fossils.

In connection to this, Carter said she doesn't like the term "living fossil" as it leads to a misunderstanding with the public that has not changed at all.

"But they have changed," she pointed out and added, these creatures have evolved. It's just that their outward emergence is quite similar to what they were millions of years back.

'Lucky' Creatures

Typically, Flagstaff, Arizona, gets approximately nine inches or 22.0 centimeters of rain each year, according to Carter. In this case, the Triops found at Wupatki National Monument got fortunate with short yet intense rainfall.

Last year, Flagstaff experienced the driest, lowest monsoon summer ever recorded with only four inches or 10.2 centimeters of rain. However, in the last week and a half of July this year, the region got an uproar of rain, almost five inches or 12.7 centimeters, a similar CΙnet report specified.

During that time, according to a Central Michigan University description, the eggs of the Triops hatched, and in just a few hours, the little critters possibly started filter feeding.

As in any other crustaceans, they underwent several molts before ultimately maturing in just more than one week.

 The dinosaur shrimp appearance was also reported on 12 News's YouTube video below:

Why US nuclear plants are shutting down

The nuclear power dilemma, explained.

By Cleo Abram 

VOX

Oct 5, 2021


The infamous Indian Point nuclear plant, located roughly 30 miles north of Manhattan, shut down earlier this year. To many, the shutdown was a victory following decades of protests about safety and environmental concerns. Here’s the problem: When operating, Indian Point provided more electricity than is produced annually by all solar and wind in New York state.

Indian Point is not the only nuclear plant shutting down. Since 1990, the number of operating nuclear units in the United States has been declining.

The total number of operating nuclear units in the US is declining as plants close. Statista

Nuclear plants generate roughly 10 percent of the electricity used around the world but 20 percent in the United States — and 52 percent of the electricity used in the United States that doesn’t come from

 fossil fuels.

Fossil fuels still provide 63 percent of the world’s electricity. Nuclear accounts for roughly 10 percent, and renewables for the remaining 27 percent. Our World in Data

When a reactor shuts down, utilities often end up replacing the lost electricity by burning more coal or natural gas, according to analysis by the US Energy Information Administration. The electricity generated from Indian Point, for example, was replaced largely by natural gas. And as energy reporter David Roberts points out, even if we were able to replace the lost electricity with renewable energy like wind and solar, that’s renewable energy that isn’t going to replace fossil fuels. With each plant that closes, we’re taking a step backward on climate change.

So why are so many nuclear plants shutting down? In this video, we explore that question by taking a closer look at Indian Point.