MINING IS UNSUSTAINABLE
Making mining smarter, cleaner 'has never been more important'


Sudbury’s Centre for Excellence in Mining Innovation, or CEMI, celebrated the official launch of the Mining Innovation Commercialization Accelerator (MICA) Network on Wednesday.

First proposed by CEMI in 2015, the MICA Network aims to connect regional mining clusters with cross-sector innovation centres across the country to create a national network that will help commercialize innovations in the mining industry.

“The objective of the MICA Network is to create a space where small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), who do most of the innovation in the mining sector and other industrial sectors across the country, could network with one another,” said CEMI president Douglas Morrison

. “The one thing I would say about MICA is that it’s focused on innovation. It’s not focused on research, which is very different from innovation. Innovation is the technical refinement of research into a permanently successful, commercially viable business.”

Event participants joined Morrison and his team as they introduced MICA’s six main partners and provided an overview of the network and its benefits to the Canadian innovation ecosystem.

The three-hour hybrid event, which featured introductory remarks by Assistant Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Canada Jeff Labonté and special guest speaker George Hemingway of Stratalis Consulting, attracted dozens of viewers from around the world.

Through its national network, MICA hopes to create a mining technology “ecosystem” in Canada and lead the mining industry’s transition to a low-carbon future.

The network will accomplish this task by accelerating the number and scale of Canadian businesses in the mining sector and commercializing late-stage mining technologies.

Some MICA members will be eligible to submit project proposals that increase mine productivity, reduce energy consumption and GHG emissions, implement smart mining systems or eliminate environmental risk and reduce long-term liabilities.

To apply for leveraged funding, applicants must secure funding to match MICA’s contribution and be “incorporated pursuant to the laws of Canada.”

Successful applicants will enter into a funding agreement with the network to commercialize their innovation within one to five years.

Around 350 mine or plant operating companies, Canadian SMEs, large tech companies, industry associations, innovators, and academic and research associations are expected to become members of the network.

Those who join the MICA Network will gain access to a number of networking opportunities at the grassroots level.

“We’re excited at Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN) to be a part of the launch of MICA and to participate and contribute,” said Labonté, the deputy minister.

“Our work continues within the mining sector and the innovation sector to build bridges and contribute to these efforts, but of course, those efforts are really about the work that you do, the work the network will build, and all of the opportunity that will come from it.”

CEMI received $40 million in federal funding through the Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund in July to support the development of the MICA network.

The $112.4-million initiative is expected to leverage around $70 million in private sector investments to support the creation of 900 jobs and 12 new businesses.

The network, which is headquartered in Sudbury, is also expected to commercialize around 30 new products and services within the mining industry.

“MICA is a national network with six main partners across Canada, from B.C. to Newfoundland, from the north to the south, from universities and colleges to business developers all supporting the extraction of every metal and mineral commodity Canada has to offer,” said CEMI board chair Marianne Matichuk.

“Innovation for mining has never been more important than it is today. MICA will focus on helping SME companies to grow and expand by delivering new technologies to electrify the economy and reverse climate change.”

MICA’s main partners include the MaRS Discovery District, Group MISA, College of the North Atlantic, Saskatchewan Polytechnic, The Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals and Mining (BRIMM), and InnoTech Alberta.

During the virtual announcement, CEMI’s president said these partners were not selected randomly.

“They’re here because they can help us address every single commodity that is mined in Canada today,” said Morrison.

CEMI’s vice-president of Business Development and Commercialization, Charles Nyabeze, said MICA’s main partners were selected because “they have access to innovations happening in their own backyards” in the mining sector and beyond.

“The network that MICA is going to work with is truly representative of the entire Canadian innovation ecosystem,” said Nyabeze.

MICA’s partners were present during the launch event to give brief presentations on what each organization has to offer.

“We believe that quicker, smarter, and more efficient adaptations can come from networking, collaborating and learning from the outside world,” said Paul Labbe, mining research chair at Saskatchewan Polytechnic.


“We have great ideas to bring to the rest of Canada, and we have big hearts and work hard to be open-minded.”

The launch event culminated with George Hemingway’s keynote address, which explored the concepts of meaning and purpose.

“We and the companies we work for need to go out and not just focus on the obvious GHG reduction or electric scoops or tailings dams or storytelling to investors, but in getting our people and ourselves to be advocates in our industry going forward,” said the partner and innovation practice lead at Stratalis Consulting.

“More than ever, I believe it’s not just the what we do, but the why we do it that makes a difference. Many small messages of purpose are the difference that can build trust the industry needs to transform and persevere in most uncertain lifetimes.”

How to apply

Those interested in determining their eligibility to become a member of the network can visit MICA’s website at www.micanetwork.ca.

Membership is available in four categories, including individual, associate, SME, and mining companies and costs range from $125 to $35,000 per year.

MICA’s first call for proposals for technical projects will be launched on Dec. 1.

The phase one form will be available on MICA’s website and a webinar will be held following the launch for general information and to answer any questions. The phase one application will be due on Jan. 7.

More information on technical projects and access to funding is also available on MICA’s website.

The Local Journalism Initiative is made possible through funding from the federal government.

sud.editorial@sunmedia.ca

Twitter: @SudburyStar

Colleen Romaniuk, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Sudbury Star

Sudbury’s connection to the moon | CTV News

https://northernontario.ctvnews.ca/sudbury-s-connection-to-the-moon-1.4513326

2019-07-18 · Sudbury’s contribution to the space exploration is a major topic of interest at Science North, where it continues to be studied in great detail. Olathe MacIntyre is a staff scientist there. "I feel like I’m in a cosmologically significant place here in Sudbury. It’s fun for me. I wanted to go to the moon. I actually wanted to go on Mars ...

• Estimated Reading Time: 3 mins

Sudbury was a stand-in for the moon and other little-known ...

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/sudbury-stand-moon-other-little-080000215.html

2019-07-12 · "It looks like a Sudbury breccia."Bonus: Apollo 13On April 11, 1970, the giant Saturn V rocket blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center with three astronauts — Jim Lovell, John Swigert and Fred Haise — heading toward the moon. The Apollo 13 mission seemed to be going well, with some at mission control saying it was the smoothest ride so far.But about 56 hours into the flight, an oxygen ...

• Estimated Reading Time: 8 mins

50 years ago, astronauts trained in Sudbury, Ont., for the ...

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/apollo-asronauts-trained...

2021-07-09 · 2021-07-09 · A planetary scientist who helped guide astronauts around Sudbury, Ont., during their training in 1971 for the Apollo 16 moon mission and …

When Sudbury, Ont., was a suitable substitute for the …

https://www.cbc.ca/archives/when-sudbury-ont-was-a-suitable-substitute...

2020-07-08 · Sudbury landscape substitutes for the moon. 50 years ago. 1:45. Two American astronauts travel to the Ontario city in 1971 to practice their geology skills. 1:45. It was easier for a test pilot to ...

• Estimated Reading Time: 2 mins

Australian green group looks to derail Woodside's $12-billion gas project

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Lawyers for the Conservation Council of Western Australia have sent letters to Woodside Petroleum and the country's energy minister seeking to delay, if not stop, the company's Scarborough natural gas project

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© Reuters/David Gray FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: The logo for Woodside Petroleum, Australia's top independent oil and gas company

The letters were sent just weeks ahead of a final investment decision by Woodside on the Scarborough project off the coast of Western Australia and an expansion of its Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant, together expected to cost $12 billion.

Writing on behalf of the Conservation Council of WA (CCWA), the Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) said in letters to Woodside Chief Executive Meg O'Neill and Environment Minister Sussan Ley that the Scarborough development needs to be reviewed under provisions of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act that bar any harm to the Great Barrier Reef.

The green group says emissions from the gas produced at Scarborough will worsen global warming which is damaging the reef off Australia's east coast.

"In particular, CCWA is concerned that the Project, by way of its forecast Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions, is likely to have a significant impact on the World Heritage and National Heritage values of the Great Barrier Reef," EDO lawyer Brendan Dobbie said in the letter dated Nov. 17 to O'Neill.

Woodside did not comment on the issues raised in the letter, but said it already has primary environmental approvals from the federal government and the Western Australian state government to support a go-ahead decision for Scarborough.

"Woodside rejects the assertion by activists that there is significant environmental approvals risk of proceeding to an FID (final investment decision) for Scarborough at this time," Woodside said in an emailed statement.

The National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (NOPSEMA) said on Friday that Woodside has an "'in principle' approval for the project as a whole" but still needs further approvals for any activity to begin, including an environment plan, well operations management plan and a safety case.

Credit Suisse analyst Saul Kavonic said the CCWA's request posed "negligible risk" to the project, adding that Woodside "has a strong track record in gaining government and regulatory support".

(Reporting by Sonali Paul; editing by Christian Schmollinger)

Gabon is last bastion of endangered African forest elephants


PONGARA NATIONAL PARK, Gabon (AP) — Loss of habitat and poaching have made African forest elephants a critically endangered species. Yet the dense forests of sparsely populated Gabon in the Congo River Basin remain a “last stronghold” of the magnificent creatures, according to new research that concluded the population is much higher than previous estimates

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

Counting forest elephants is a far bigger challenge than surveying plains-dwelling savanna elephants from the air. It takes difficult and dirty scientific work that doesn’t involve laying eyes on the elusive animals that flee at the slightest whiff of human scent.

Instead, researchers have been trekking for years through dense undergrowth collecting dung from Gabon’s forest elephants and analyzing the DNA from thousands of samples to determine the number of individual elephants in each plot of land examined.

Now the survey by the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society and the National Parks of Gabon, released Thursday, has concluded that the central African country of about 2.3 million people harbors about 95,000 forest elephants.

Previous estimates put the population at 50,000 to 60,000 — or about 60% of the world’s remaining African forest elephants.

Herds have nearly been decimated elsewhere in the region Gabon shares with conflict-ridden countries such as Cameroon, Congo and Central African Republic, according to researchers.

Central Africa has the largest number of forest elephants in the world, although figures have fallen by more than 86% over a 31-year period, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which cites increasing threats of poaching and habitat loss.

The latest new survey in Gabon is the “first nationwide DNA-based assessment of a free-ranging large mammal in Africa,” according to the researchers. The technology is also being used to count elephants and tigers in India.

“Gabon is quite unique, certainly for forest elephants. But actually across Africa where elephants occur, it’s very unique in that ... what we call potential elephant habitat pretty much covers the entire country,” said Emma Stokes, the WCS Africa regional director.

“We found elephants were distributed across almost 90% of the total surface area of the country,” she said. “And you know, Gabon has forest cover of up to 88% of the country. That’s very unusual.”

In Gabon, tourists may still see some elephants on the beaches and coastal forests of the Atlantic coast. But, unlike their bigger savanna cousins that roam the plains of southern Africa in abundance, most forest elephants live in dense forests so counting them is painstaking work.

The solution: Trail their dung for genetic material. For three years, research teams would spend a month in the bush, walking 12 kilometers (about 7 miles) a day seeking elephant fecal samples, breaking only for a week at a time.

The team trudged through patches of savanna, thickets, densely wooded wetlands and rivers following elephant tracks marked by broken tree branches, old dung piles and footprints, looking for fresh dung.

“We got some dung here,” Fabrice Menzeme, a ranger, shouted after walking for about three kilometers (1.8 miles) in Pongara National Park on the Atlantic coast during fieldwork in 2020. Animated team members rushed in. Upon closer inspection, disappointment followed. The dung was more than a day old.



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Researchers want the dung “steaming fresh,” Stokes said. “So, it’s warm, it’s fresh, it has a sheen to it. And the idea is to take the outer surface of that dung pile; a very small amount is needed in purpose-built tubes that are taken out by the field teams.”

The fecal swabs were put into small test tubes and taken to a government wildlife genetic analysis laboratory in the capital, Libreville, where scientists extracted DNA from about 2,500 samples collected countrywide.

Extracting DNA from dung samples is “a bit like a cooking recipe, following several steps” to remove vegetation and seeds arising from elephants’ diet or bacteria or organisms that develop on the dung, said Stéphanie Bourgeois, a research scientist with the parks agency and co-author of the research paper. “That’s why you have to clean them and try to purify your DNA before you do your analysis.”

“DNA is unique for every individual, the same for humans as it is for elephants. So DNA is just a tool to help us identify individuals and the number of times we sample each of these individuals,” Bourgeois said at the laboratory. “We use a complex statistical model and from this we estimate the number of elephants that are in the area we sampled.”

This is Gabon’s first nationwide elephant census in 30 years. Only 14% of the elephant habitat in the country had been surveyed in the last decade, according to researchers. Previous surveys relied on dung counts, which can be more expensive, more difficult and less reliable than DNA sampling on large-scale surveys, they said.

“This is an exciting paper because it substantially raises the population estimates of forest elephants in Gabon and establishes a new, rigorous country-level monitoring methodology," said John Poulsen, associate professor of tropical ecology at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, who was not involved in the research.

“At the same time,” Poulsen said, “the government of Gabon now has an enormous responsibility for conserving forest elephants in the face of poaching, and especially human-elephant conflict and crop-raiding."

About 65% to 70% percent of all African forest elephants surviving today live in Gabon, according to Lee White, Gabon’s minister of water and forests.

“That’s an indication of the fact that Gabon has resisted the slaughter and the tragedy that has played out in the countries around Gabon,” said White.

Conservation efforts include massive public awareness campaigns and efforts to deter cross-border poachers.

“You see it around Africa. Countries that have lost their elephants, have lost control of their natural resources, have often actually lost control of their countries,” White said. “The countries that have almost no elephants have been through civil wars and are much less stable than the countries that have preserved their elephants.”

Still, the minister said, Gabon is facing elephant problems of its own in addition to cross-border poaching for ivory, which he says has declined since China banned ivory imports.

One big problem, he said in an interview at the recent climate conference in Glasgow, is human-elephant conflicts that kill about 10 people a year. “When I go into rural Gabon, I get a lot of angry people who are screaming at me because the elephants have eaten their crops and, tragically, even occasionally have killed their relatives.”

One reason elephants are raiding village crops, White said, may be that global warming has dramatically reduced the abundance of forest fruit over the past 40 years. “So, it looks like climate change is starting to impact the forest,” he said. “And that means the elephants are hungry.”

___

Associated Press reporter Allen G. Breed contributed from Raleigh, North Carolina and AP reporter David Keyton contributed from Glasgow, Scotland.

___

The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Farai Mutsaka , The Associated Press

Study: Everyday household noise stresses dogs out

By HealthDay News

DOGS GET STRESSED FROM EVERYTHING

If your pooch often seems anxious, it could be due to common household noises such as from a vacuum or microwave oven, researchers say.

It's well known that a sudden loud racket such as fireworks or thunderstorms can spark anxiety in dogs, but this new study shows that even day-to-day sounds may upset them, and that owners may not realize it.

"We feed them, house them, love them and we have a caretaker obligation to respond better to their anxiety," said lead author Emma Grigg, a research associate and lecturer at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis.

Her team surveyed 386 dog owners about their dogs' responses to household sounds and also assessed dog behaviors and human reactions from 62 online videos.

High-frequency, intermittent household noises such as the battery warning of a smoke detector are more likely to cause a dog anxiety, rather than low-frequency, continuous noise, the researchers concluded.

They also found that many owners underestimate their dogs' frightened reactions to household noises, and often respond with amusement rather than concern, according to findings published this month in the journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science.

"We know that there are a lot of dogs that have noise sensitivities, but we underestimate their fearfulness to noise we consider normal because many dog owners can't read body language," Grigg said in a university news release

"Dogs use body language much more than vocalizing and we need to be aware of that," she added.

Common signs of anxiety in dogs include cringing, trembling or retreating. There are also more subtle clues such as panting, licking their lips, turning their head away, stiffening their body, turning their ears back and lowering their head below their shoulders.

"We hope this study gets people to think about the sources of sound that might be causing their dog stress, so they can take steps to minimize their dog's exposure to it," Grigg said.


More information

The American Kennel Club offers advice on dog anxiety.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

Fragment of long-lost 12th-century poem found in book binding


Researcher Tamara Atkin was examining the bindings from a book published in 1528 when she found a fragment of "Siege d'Orange," a 12th century poem that had been believed completely lost by scholars. Photo courtesy of Queen Mary University of London

Nov. 18 (UPI) -- A researcher uncovered a fragment from a long-lost 12th-century French poem in the binding of a book at a University of Oxford library in Britain.

Tamara Atkin, from Queen Mary University of London, was researching the reuse of books in the 16th century when she found a fragment from the long-lost poem, Siege d'Orange, in the binding of a book published in 1528 and currently housed at Oxford's Bodleian Library.

The poem tells the story of the siege of Orange, a city in the Rhone Valley, and is part of a cycle of epic narrative poems about the legendary hero Guillaume d'Orange.

Atkin said scholars had long known about the poem's existence, but it was believed to be lost until the discovery of the fragment, which she said appears to come from a copy printed in England in the late 13th century.

"The discovery of the fragment we now have fills an important gap in the poetic biography of the epic hero. This is a most exciting addition to the corpus of medieval French epic poetry," Philip Bennett, an expert on d'Orange from the University of Edinburgh, told The Guardian.

Atkin said the same book also included a fragment from Beroul's Roman de Tristan, an early telling of the medieval romance story of Tristan and Iseult.

She said the fragment was published in the 12th century, and contains significant differences from the only other known copy of the poem, an incomplete 13th-century manuscript housed at the Bibliotheque Nationale de France.

"It's fantastically exciting to discover something that's been lost all this time, but I do think it is also worth simultaneously holding the thought that actually, the only reason these fragments have survived is because at some point, someone thought the manuscripts in which they appeared were not valuable as anything other than waste," Atkin said.

"There's a sort of lovely tension in that, I think."

TOYOTA ARMY
Yemen Huthis say nearly 15,000 rebels killed since mid-June


Yemeni army reinforcements arrive to join fighters loyal to Yemen's Saudi-backed government, on the southern front of Marib on November 16, 2021 (AFP/-)

Thu, November 18, 2021, 9:33 AM·2 min read

Nearly 15,000 Yemeni Huthi fighters have been killed near the strategic city of Marib since June, sources close to the rebels said Thursday, in a rare admission of their casualties during the seven-year war.

"The air strikes launched by the Saudi-led military coalition and the battles have killed nearly 14,700 Huthis since mid-June near Marib," an official at the rebel-run defence ministry told AFP.

Another official from the same office confirmed the toll.


On the pro-government side more than 1,200 fighters were killed in the same five-month period while defending areas near Marib, two government military officials told AFP.

Marib city is the internationally-recognised government's last major stronghold in Yemen's oil-rich north.

The Iran-backed Huthis began a major push to seize the city last year.

The battle was halted multiple times due to negotiations, but the rebels renewed their attacks in February, there was a major assault in June, and an intensified push since September.

A Saudi-led coalition which intervened in 2015 to support the government has, since October 11, reported almost daily air strikes around Marib with a death toll, by their count, of around 3,800 rebels.

On Thursday the coalition said in a statement that nearly 27,000 rebels have been killed since last year in the battle for Marib.

One of the officials on the government side said that "1,250 soldiers have been killed since June near Marib," a toll confirmed by a second government military official.

AFP cannot independently verify either side's figures.

The war has led to what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced.

The loss of Marib would be a major blow for the government and would strengthen the rebels' position in future peace negotiations, according to experts.

This week a convoy of Yemeni army reinforcements arrived on the southern front of Marib to join loyalists fighters.

The troops in red berets rode in pickup trucks bearing the Yemeni flag.

As fighting continues on that front the Huthis on Friday took control of a large area south of Hodeida, a Red Sea port where the warring sides agreed on a ceasefire in 2018, after loyalist forces withdrew.

The United Nations Mission to support the Hodeida Agreement (UNMHA) said on Monday that the latest developments "represent a major shift of the front lines", a possible reference to the Marib front.

The Saudi-led coalition intervened in Yemen in early 2015 to shore up the government after the Huthis seized the capital Sanaa months before.

faw-mah/it/dv

Bipartisan senators move to block Saudi arms deal over Yemen involvement



Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., led a group of bipartisan senators on Thursday with introducing a joint resolution to stop a Biden administration arms deal with Saudi Arabia. Pool file photo by Greg Nash/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 18 (UPI) -- A group of bipartisan senators introduced a bill Thursday to block the Biden administration from completing an arms sale to Saudi Arabia over its involvement in the Yemen civil war.

The $650 million arms deal with the Kingdom approved by the State Department earlier this month is the first major military sale by the Biden administration, and it has come under criticism from some politicians and activists as they object to the role the U.S. Middle Eastern ally is playing in the Yemen conflict, including its recently instated fuel blockade of the war-torn country that has prevented food and water from getting in.

The joint resolution unveiled Thursday voices disapproval of the sale by Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., and Mike Lee, R-Utah.

"A message needs to be sent to Saudi Arabia that we don't approve of their war in Yemen," Paul said in a statement. "By participating in this sale, we would not only be rewarding reprehensible behavior, but also exacerbating a humanitarian crisis in Yemen. I order Congress and the Biden administration to consider the possible consequences of this sale that could accelerate an arms race in the Middle East and jeopardize the security of our military technologies."

Yemen, which borders the Gulf of Aden to its south and Saudi Arabia to its north, has been submerged in conflict since March 2015 when the internationally recognized and Saudi-backed government launched an attack against Houthi rebels.

The United Nations has described the situation as the world's largest humanitarian crisis with some 21 million people in need of humanitarian assistance including more than 11 million children.

In February, President Joe Biden announced the end of U.S. support for offensive military operations in Yemen. The arms deal was approved Nov. 4 by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which has described the weapons involved as defensive in nature.

"This proposed sale will support U.S. foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a friendly country that continues to be an important force for political and economic progress in the Middle East," it said in a statement.

The deal includes 280 AIM-120C-7/C-8 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, which are predominantly used for defensive iron strikes, and 596 LAU-128 missile rail launchers as well as containers, support equipment and other forms of spare parts and technical support.

Last week, Rep. Ilhan Omar introduced a similar bill in the House to block the arms sale, which she said was "simply unconscionable" as the Kingdom continues "to slaughter innocent people and starve millions in Yemen.

"We should never be selling human rights abusers weapons, but we certainly should not be doing so in the midst of a humanitarian crisis they are responsible for," she said in a statement.

3,000 flip-flops placed in National Mall in protest of U.S. funding Philippine military

Activists placed 3,000 flip-flops on the National Mall Thursday in a call for Congress to pass the Philippine Human Rights Act, which would cut support for Philippine military and police over human rights violations.

 Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo


Nov. 18 (UPI) -- Activists on Thursday placed flip-flops on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in protest of extrajudicial killings carried out by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.


Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., a sponsor of the bill wrote on Twitter that the "human rights tragedy must end." Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

As part of the protest organized by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, demonstrators placed 3,000 pairs of flip-flops, each representing 10 of the 300,000 killings carried out under Duterte's leadership as they urged U.S. lawmakers to stop providing military aid to the nation.

The protest sought to encourage Congress to pass the Philippine Human Rights Act, which would cut support for Philippine military and police until alleged human rights violations have been examined.

It calls for suspension of U.S. security assistance and vetoing of loans to the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippines National Police and also requires the U.S. State Department and U.S. Department of Defense to report to Congress on the misuse of the aid, "including but not limited to extrajudicial killings, intimidation, illegal sales, and misappropriation."

Democratic Oregon Reps. Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer also released a joint statement calling for the bill's passage. Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

The bill cites the threat posed by Duterte and the military to trade unionists, journalists, small farmers, LGBTQ activists and critics of the government.

One of the bill's sponsors, Rep. Susan Wild, D-Pa., reacted to the demonstration on Twitter.

"This human rights tragedy must end. It's time to pass my bill, the Philippine Human Rights Act," she wrote.

Democratic Oregon Reps. Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer also released a joint statement calling for the bill's passage.

"During President Duterte's regime, we have seen widespread and well-documented extrajudicial murders in a so-called 'War on Drugs,' and Philippine security forces are suspected in the murders of pro-democracy advocates, Indigenous people and other voices of dissent," they wrote. "It is unconscionable that U.S. military aid continues to flow to the Philippine government."

The Communication Workers of America and the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines organized the protest. Photo by Tasos Katopodis/UPI | License Photo

The Silent Build-Up to a Super-Eruption That Could Catastrophically Affect Global Climate

By UNIVERSITY OF GENEVA NOVEMBER 17, 2021

Geologists from the UNIGE and Peking University have developed a technique that makes it possible to estimate the maximum size of a future super-eruption of Toba volcano in Sumatra.

It is estimated that about 5-10 volcanoes worldwide are capable of producing a super-eruption that could catastrophically affect global climate. One of these volcanoes hides below the waters of Lake Toba in Sumatra and has caused two super-eruptions in the last one million year. But when will the next one be? Will there be any warning signs? To answer these questions, an international team of geologists led from the University of Geneva (UNIGE), Switzerland, and Peking University, China, developed an analysis of the levels of uranium and lead in zircons – a mineral typically found in explosive volcanic eruptions – to determine how long it took the volcano to prepare for its super-eruptions. Unfortunately, these results, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), refute the notion that unusual geological signs would herald an imminent super-eruption. Instead, the magma silently accumulated in the magma reservoir until these massive explosions occur.

The Toba volcano in Sumatra caused two of the largest eruptions known on the Earth: the first 840,000 years ago, the second 75,000 years ago, each measuring about 2’800 km3, enough to blanket the whole of Switzerland with 7 cm thick of ash, and representing 70,000 times the amount of magma erupted to this moment by the ongoing La Palma eruption. Two other smaller eruptions took place, one 1.4 million years ago and the other 500,000 years ago.

Photo of Lake Toba in Sumatra and its island created by the accumulation of magma in the volcano’s magma reservoir. Credit: © UNIGE

Geologists from UNIGE and Peking University are interested in the Toba volcano because there is no historical record of human response to a super-eruption of the size that it produced in the past. Such an event would affect the global climate and pose numerous problems, particularly in terms of food supply, not to mention the migration of populations. “Toba volcano forms a caldera, meaning that previous eruptions have created a large depression that is occupied today by meteoric water,” explains Luca Caricchi, professor at the Department of Earth Sciences at the UNIGE Faculty of Science and co-author of the study. At the center of the lake is an island that raised from the water because of the push of the magma injected in the subvolcanic reservoir. “We can see that this island is gradually increasing in height, indicating that the volcano is active and that magma is accumulating underneath,” says Ping-Ping Liu, a professor at the Faculty of Earth and Space Sciences of Peking University and leading author of the article. But are we close to the next super-eruption?

Measuring uranium and lead in zircon

Zircon is a mineral that is found in the products of explosive volcanic eruptions. “One of its characteristics is that it takes uranium within its structure,” explains Ping-Ping Liu. Over time, the uranium decays into lead. “So by measuring the amount of uranium and lead in zircon with a mass spectrometer, we can determine its age,” says the geologist. The scientists determined the age of a large number of zircons extracted from the products of different eruptions: the youngest zircon provides information on the date of the eruption and the older zircons reveal the history of magma accumulation preceding the super-eruptions. 

“The first super-eruption occurred around 840,000 years ago after 1.4 million years of magma input, whereas magma fed the second super-eruption at 75,000 years accumulated only in 600,000 years,” notes Luca Caricchi. Why was the time of magma accumulation halved even if the two super-eruptions were of the same size? “This is linked to the progressive increase of the temperature of the continental crust in which Toba’s magma reservoir is assembled,” explains Ping-Ping Liu. The input of magma has gradually heated the surrounding continental crust, which makes the magma cool slower. “This is a ‘vicious circle’ of eruptions: the more the magma heats the crust, the slower the magma cools and the faster the rate of magma accumulation becomes,” she says. The result is that super-eruptions can become more frequent in time.

Estimating the rate of magma accumulation to anticipate the size of the next super-eruption

This technique, based on zircon geochronology, can also be used to estimate the rate of magma input in a magma reservoir. “Today, we estimate that about 320 km3 of magma could be ready to erupt within the reservoir of Toba volcano,” says Luca Caricchi. If such an eruption would occur now, this would be a very catastrophic event that strongly affect not only the highly populated island of Sumatra but also the global environment. Geologists have estimated that currently about 4 km³ of eruptible magma is accumulating within Toba’s magma reservoir every thousand years and that this rate was rather stable throughout its eruptive history. “The next super-eruption of the size of the last two would therefore take place in about 600,000 years,” he continues. This does not rule out that smaller eruptions could occur in the meantime.

This innovative method can be applied to any other volcano globally and could serve to identify which volcano is closest to a super-eruption. “This is a great advance, because with few super-eruptions in the last 2 million years, it is not possible for us to obtain statistically significant values for the frequency of these catastrophic events at a global scale,” explains Ping-Ping Liu. “Our study also shows that no extreme events occur before a super-eruption. This suggests that signs of an impending super-eruption such as a significant increase in earthquakes or rapid ground uplift, might not be as obvious as pictured in disaster movies by the film industry. At Toba volcano, everything is happening silently underground, and the analysis of the zircons now gives us an idea of what is to come,” concludes Luca Caricchi.

Reference: “Growth and thermal maturation of the Toba magma reservoir” by Ping-Ping Liu, Luca Caricchi, Sun-Lin Chung, Xian-Hua Li, Qiu-Li Li, Mei-Fu Zhou, Yu-Ming Lai, Azman A. Ghani, Theodora Sihotang, Tom E. Sheldrake, and Guy Simpson, 1 November 2021, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101695118

ANOTHER VERSION OF  CARBON CAPTURE

AUSTRALIA

‘A farce’: experts dismiss government claims a controversial and unproven technology will cut emissions by 15%

Burning vegetation and injecting emissions underground ‘ecologically risky’ and ‘should be avoided’

Researchers have dismissed the Morrison government’s use of bioenergy with carbon capture and storage technology in its net zero emissions 2050 modelling. 

Photograph: The AGE/Fairfax Media

Supported by


Graham Readfearn
@readfearn
Thu 18 Nov 2021 16.30 GMT

Experts have questioned how a controversial energy technology that doesn’t currently exist in Australia could be earmarked as a major source of cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in the Morrison government’s plan to reach net zero by 2050.

According to the government’s modelling report of its “technology not taxes” plan, a technique known as BECCS – bioenergy with carbon capture and storage – would be removing about 15% from the nation’s gross greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

But the approach, which involves burning vegetation or waste for power and then capturing the carbon dioxide and injecting it underground, is not one of the priority technologies the government has picked to support.

The government’s modelling report has already come under fire from experts for questionable assumptions and an approach which leaves the gas industry to grow while relying on international offsets.

Experts said it was not clear how the government had arrived at the BECCS figure, with some saying the technique itself was unproven, problematic and ecologically risky.

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BECCS theoretically requires three key elements – the availability of biomass such as trees, vegetation or waste and land and water to grow it; a power plant to burn the biomass and capture the CO2; and then a geological formation underground close by where the CO2 could be injected.

There was no mention of BECCS in the government’s latest progress report on its low emissions technology plans, published earlier this month.

According to the government’s modelling report, BECCS removes 38m tonnes of CO2 by 2050 under its technology plan, compared to 253Mt of gross emissions from sectors including electricity, transport and agriculture.

Other scenarios modelled by the government include even higher levels of BECCS.

BECCS is included in many global efforts to map out routes for economies to reach net zero, but remains controversial because of its potential to compete for land and resources currently used to produce food.

Dr Kate Dooley, a researcher at the University of Melbourne and an expert on how land could be used to mitigate climate change, said based on the government’s numbers, about 14m hectares – or about 6% of all Australia’s agricultural land – would be needed to generate emissions reductions at that level.

She said: “BECCS is an unproven technology with significant land area requirements which at a global scale have been shown to pose tradeoffs and serious risks for resource use, biodiversity, and food security.”

Dooley said while Australia’s size meant there were good opportunities to cut emissions on land, much of this potential came in reducing clearing.

She added: “Risky unproven technologies such as BECCS should be avoided in favour of options with greater co-benefits.”


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Energy and climate change program director at the Grattan Institute, Tony Wood, said including BECCS in the government’s planning at all “would be problematic because the report says it’s based on an assumption the technology is not economically viable in absence of incentives.

“But there’s nothing in the report that describes what incentives would trigger such an investment. It’s imposed on the modelling without any justification, but it offsets a substantial amount of emissions.

“These are extraordinary numbers to have in a report without any justification of how this would work, how it would happen and what the costs would be.”

Tim Baxter, a senior researcher at the Climate Council, said the inclusion of BECCS in the government’s modelling was a “farce”.

“The pretence that BECCS will get off the ground at this scale in Australia without careful, intelligent planning is absurd,” he said.

Chief executive of Climate Analytics, Bill Hare, said BECCS will “likely work” but wasn’t yet proven at scale anywhere in the world.

There has been little research carried out into the potential for BECCS in Australia. One study, published in 2018, did suggest a potential 25Mt of CO2 could be stored a year by 2050 through BECCS.

Australia could become a net negative emissions economy. The technology already exists
Frank Jotzo

But the research, from the University of Melbourne, was based on sourcing waste biomass “to avoid the ecological uncertainties and social challenges of dedicated energy crops.”

A co-author of that study, Prof Peter Cook, who also consults to industry and government on carbon capture and storage (CCS), said he was not aware of any BECCS projects in Australia and only a small number overseas where government incentives were being provided.

He said a challenge of combining bioenergy with CCS – which is among the government’s priority technologies – is “you can’t do it everywhere, you need the right rocks or you have to pipe [the CO2] a long way.”

He said BECCS was feasible and was among several technologies that would be needed in the future to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere.

But he added: “But it’s much better if we stop putting CO2 in the atmosphere in the first place.”


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On Thursday, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency released a roadmap to show the growth potential for the bioenergy industry in Australia.

There was no mention of combining bioenergy with CCS. But the roadmap said growing the bioenergy industry could cut emissions, divert waste from landfill, and improve the nation’s fuel security.

Guardian Australia asked emissions reduction minister Angus Taylor how the emissions reductions from BECCS were calculated for the report, why it wasn’t a priority technology, and where the government thought the biomass would be sourced from.

A spokesperson for the minister said in a statement: “Consistent with other long term emissions modelling exercises, including work by the [International Energy Agency] and US, the [Global Trade and Environmental Model] includes BECCS.

“Analysis by McKinsey does not include BECCS and achieves a similar net emissions outcome to the GTEM model. This illustrates that there are a range of technologies that will contribute to Australia achieving net zero emissions by 2050.”