NEWFOUNDLAND

Federal Court rules on the side of fishermen on Class B licence policy

GUYSBOROUGH – This newspaper reported last November on the efforts of a small group of fishermen to obtain the right to sell or pass down their Class B lobster fishing licences, which will expire when the holders die.

At the end of December, the Federal Court of Canada ruled a judicial review of the decision prohibiting the sale of a Class B licence – in a court case initiated by Newfoundland fisherman Donald Publicover – would be allowed.

Upon hearing the news that the wheels of justice had acted in the fishermen’s favour, and that change to the policy applied to Class B licences may be afoot, James MacDonald, a lifelong fisherman who currently holds a Class B lobster licence, said, “That’s tremendous and I think we deserve that … we were told, ‘Oh, if the time comes that you want to get your Class A licence back, you can get them.’ But, if we can get that, we can either hand down or sell the ones we have, that’s better than letting them die with us.”

MacDonald, who resides in Cooks Cove, Guysborough County, has been fishing in Chedabucto Bay since he was 12 years old and, at 84, he continues to head out on the water every lobster season. He’s hopeful that something will come of this recent court decision, and said, “Even to hand it down I would be satisfied.”

The background notes for the Dec. 22 decision state, “The Moonlighter Policy was designed to encourage conservation, with limitations on the availability of licences and a ‘freeze’ on the reissuance of licences.”

The argument in Justice Elizabeth Heneghan’s decision to allow a judicial review stated: “In the Decision, the Minister describes the rationale behind categorization of lobster licences, which is the conservation and sustainability of the lobster fishery. She says that the rule against non-transferability of lobster licences “form[s] an integral party of these conservation and sustainability measures … In my opinion, the Decision is not responsive to the Applicant’s request to transfer his licence. In particular, the Decision does not explain how allowing the Applicant to transfer his licence to an eligible fisher undermines the goals of the policy.”

The question of conservation, as pertains to the approximately 80 existing Class B licences held in the Atlantic region, no longer applies as it once did in the 1970s when the Class B licences were instated.

Class B licences, issued under the so-called Moonlighter Policy in 1975, were implemented to “prevent the issuance of licences to people not fully dependent” on the lobster fishery; this would allow fewer harvesters to catch more lobster per person and “support conservation by reducing the fishing effort,” stated the respondent in the case, represented by Julia McCleave, Senior Advisor, Fisheries Licensing Policy, Fisheries and Oceans, in Dartmouth, in an affidavit.

In a Jan. 7 press release, Michel P. Samson of Cox and Palmer, the firm representing Category B licence holders, said, “Simply put, DFO is defending an outdated policy that no longer applies … It is time to move forward with a new policy that provides fair treatment to elderly fishers and beneficial opportunities to multiple parties, including DFO.”

Given the age of those impacted by the policy, time is of the essence. Samson said, “If DFO appeals this decision, it's basically sending the message that they're just waiting for our clients to die.”

The Federal Court of Canada decision can be found online at: https://decisions.fct-cf.gc.ca/fc-cf/decisions/en/item/518367/index.do.

Lois Ann Dort, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Guysborough Journal

'Big milestone:' Insulin-producing cells grown from stem cells safe for transplant, shows Edmonton research

Nicole Bergot 

EDMONTON JOURNAL

JAN. 12,2021

Insulin-producing cells grown from stem cells are safe for transplant, say University of Alberta (U of A) researchers aiming to get diabetes patients off injected insulin forever.

 Provided by Edmonton Journal 

James Shapiro, professor of surgery, medicine and surgical oncology in the U of A's faculty of medicine and Dentistry and Canada Research Chair in transplant surgery and regenerative medicine.

The researchers include the U of A’s James Shapiro who led the team that developed the Edmonton Protocol in the 1990s — the process that allows successful transplantation of donated insulin-producing islet cells into the livers of people with Type 1 diabetes, freeing most from the need for daily insulin injections. Those patients, however, still need anti-rejection drugs, which can increase the risk of cancer and kidney damage. The number of donated islet cells available is also limited.

The goal of the research now is to develop an unlimited supply of islet cells that can be transplanted without the need for anti-rejection drugs, said a Tuesday news release from the U of A.

The research team had early success in a first in-humans clinical trial to test whether pancreatic cells grown from stem cells can be safely implanted and begin to produce insulin.

Of 17 patients who received implants, 35 per cent showed signs in their blood of insulin production after meals within six months of the implant, and 63 per cent had evidence of insulin production inside the implant devices when they were removed after one year.

“This is a very positive finding,” said Shapiro, professor of surgery, medicine and surgical oncology in the U of A’s faculty of medicine and dentistry and Canada Research Chair in transplant surgery and regenerative medicine.

“It’s not the end game, but it’s a big milestone along the road to success, demonstrating that stem cell-derived islet therapies are safe, and can begin to show some signal of efficacy in patients in the clinic.”

In the trial, adult diabetes patients at six centres in Canada, the United States and Europe received implants of several small permeable devices filled with millions of cells each. The cells were taken from stem cells, then chemically transformed into stem cells programmed to become islet cells.

The team reported on its proof of concept and safety study in a newly published paper in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.

Shapiro said that while determining safety was the main goal of this phase of the trial, at least one patient who had 10 devices implanted was able to significantly cut her insulin dose, indicating potential effectiveness.

The next step will be to determine how many stem cell-derived pancreatic cells are needed for transplant to optimize insulin production in both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes patients.

“We’ve seen a lot of advances in the last 100 years since the Canadian discovery of insulin,” said Shapiro, who began the search for better diabetes treatment 38 years ago. “The race isn’t over yet, but we’re on our last laps and I really do believe that we can cross that ribbon.

“Cell-based therapies have the promise to deliver something far better than insulin therapy.”

nbergot@postmedia.com

RUSSIA

Climate change: thawing permafrost a triple-threat

Thawing Arctic permafrost laden with billions of tonnes of greenhouse gases not only threatens the region's critical infrastructure but life across the planet, according a comprehensive scientific review.


© Natalia KOLESNIKOVA

Wellhead equipment at the Utrenneye field, the resource base for Novatek's Arctic LNG 2 project, located in the Gydan Peninsula on the Kara Sea shore line in the Arctic circle

Nearly 70 percent of the roads, pipelines, cities and industry -- mostly in Russia -- built on the region's softening ground are highly vulnerable to acute damage by mid-century, according to one of half-a-dozen studies on permafrost published this week by Nature.


© Alain BOMMENEL

Permafrost zones in the northern hemisphere

Another study warns that methane and CO2 escaping from long-frozen soil could accelerate warming and overwhelm global efforts to cap the rise in Earth's temperature at livable levels.

Exposure of highly combustible organic matter no longer locked away by ice is also fuelling unprecedented wildfires, making permafrost a triple threat, the studies report.

Blanketing a quarter of the northern hemisphere's land mass, permafrost contains twice the carbon currently in the atmosphere, and triple the amount emitted by human activity since 1850.

By definition, it is ground that has been at temperatures colder than zero degrees Celsius (32F) for more than two years, though much permafrost is thousands of years old.

Temperatures in the Arctic region have risen two to three times more quickly over the last half-century than for the world as a whole -- two to three degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

The region has also seen a series of freakish weather anomalies, with temperatures in winter flaring up to 40C above previous averages.

Permafrost itself has, on average, warmed nearly 0.4C from 2007 to 2016, "raising concerns about the rapid rate of thaw and potential old carbon release," note researchers led by Kimberley Miner, a scientist at the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

- Zombie fires -

Their study projects a loss of some four million square kilometres of permafrost by 2100 even under a scenario in which greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced in the coming decades.

Rising temperatures are not the only driver of accelerated melting.

Arctic wildfires rapidly expand the layer of permafrost subject to thawing, the researchers point out.

As the climate warms, these remote, uncontrolled blazes are projected to increase 130% to 350% by mid-century, releasing more and more permafrost carbon.

Indeed, thawing renders buried organic carbon more flammable, giving rise to "zombie fires" that smoulder throughout frigid winters before igniting again in Spring and Summer.

"These below-ground fires could release legacy carbon from environments previously thought to be fire-resistant," Miner and colleagues warn.

The most immediate threat is to the region's infrastructure.

Northern hemisphere permafrost supports some 120,000 buildings, 40,000 kilometres (25,000 miles) of roads and 9,500 kilometres of pipelines, according to another study led by Jan Hjort, a scientist at Finland's University of Oulu.

"The strength of soil drops substantially as temperatures rise above the melting point and ground ice melts," the study noted.

No country is more vulnerable than Russia, where several large cities and substantial industrial plant sit atop frozen soil.

Some 80 percent of buildings in the city of Vorkuta are already showing deformations caused by shifting permafrost.

Nearly half of oil and gas extraction fields in the Russian Arctic are in areas with permafrost hazards threatening current infrastructure and future developments.

© Irina YARINSKAYA

Clean-up operation following a massive fuel spill in the Ambarnaya River outside Norilsk on June 10, 2020.

- Sudden collapse -

In 2020, a fuel tank ruptured after its supports suddenly sank into the ground near the Siberian city of Norilsk, spilling 21,000 tonnes of diesel into nearby rivers.

Thawing permafrost was blamed for weakening the plant's foundation.

North America does not have large industrial centres built on permafrost, but tens of thousands of kilometres of roads and pipelines are increasingly vulnerable too.

While scientists know far more than a decade ago, basic questions remain unanswered as to how much carbon may be released as Arctic soil warms.

As a result, "permafrost dynamics are often not included in Earth system models," which means their potential impact of Earth's rising temperature are not adequately taken into account, Miner and colleagues note.

This is especially true, they warn, for the sudden structural collapse of permafrost, a process known as thermokarst.

It is also still an open question as to whether climate shifts will cause the Arctic region to become drier or wetter.

The answer has huge implications.

"In a greener, wetter Arctic, plants will offset some or all permafrost carbon emissions," the authors not.

In a browner, drier Arctic, however, CO2 emissions from decomposing soils and the amount of ever-more flammable fuels for wildfires will increase.

Permafrost covers 30 million square kilometres, roughly half of it in the Arctic, and a million km2 across the Tibetan Plateau. Most of the rest was covered when seas rose at the end of the last ice age.

mh/pvh

France's new-generation nuclear plant delayed again


The French government is banking on new nuclear plants to hit its targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions (AFP/CHARLY TRIBALLEAU)


Julien MIVIELLE, Tom BARFIELD
Wed, January 12, 2022

Electricity giant EDF on Wednesday announced a further delay and cost overruns for France's flagship new-generation nuclear plant, in a blow to President Emmanuel Macron's strategy of making atomic power a cornerstone of energy policy.

EDF said that the Flamanville plant on the Channel coast would not be loaded with fuel until the "second quarter of 2023", instead of late 2022.

The statement came after Macron announced plans for new reactors to provide low-carbon energy and as France backs classing nuclear as a "green" technology under future EU rules.

Projected costs had increased by another 300 million euros ($340 million) to 12.7 billion euros, EDF said -- around four times more than the initial forecast of 3.3 billion euros.

Construction on the new-generation EPR plant began in 2007, and was supposed to be finished in 2012.

In November, Macron had announced that "for the first time in decades, we will restart construction of nuclear reactors in our country" -- as well as "developing renewable energy".

The plans would "guarantee France's energy independence" and help reach its goal of being carbon neutral by 2050, he added.

But the president, who has yet to officially confirm that he plans to stand for re-election in April, was short on details like where or when the new plants would be built.

The Flamanville overruns were "a fiasco at the French public's expense", said Greens presidential candidate Yannick Jadot.

Left-wing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon called the news a "shipwreck for the nuclear sector" -- long one of the crown jewels of French industry.

- Brussels battle -

With 56 reactors providing over 70 percent of France's electricity, according to EDF, Paris has led the charge for nuclear power to be recognised by the European Union as a green technology eligible for carbon-neutral investment.

Allying with eastern EU member states like Poland and the Czech Republic, the push to include atomic energy in the so-called green "taxonomy" has set it at odds with traditional partner Germany.

Berlin is in the process of shutting all its nuclear plants by the end of this year and Germany's governing coalition now includes the Green party, rooted in part in opposition to the technology going back to the 1970s.

Environment Minister Steffi Lemke has said it would be "absolutely wrong" to include nuclear energy on the list, as it "can lead to devastating environmental catastrophes".

"We agree to disagree on the issue" with the French, German Europe Minister Anna Luehrmann told AFP last week.

Germany's no-nuclear policy has not been without its disadvantages, with critics saying it has delayed the country's exit from coal power and made it more dependent on natural gas from Russia.

- Endless delays -

State-controlled EDF said Wednesday that the latest delay at Flamanville was partly due to "an industrial context that has been made more difficult by the pandemic".

The plant has experienced multiple technical setbacks, with the national nuclear watchdog identifying problems with welding in 2019 which had to be redone.

Although Flamanville is the only reactor under construction in France, three others are in operation around the world: two in China and one in Finland.

EDF was also picked to build a two-reactor plant at Hinkley Point in southwest England in 2016, but this project too has been hit by delays and cost overruns.

Many of France's existing nuclear plants are coming to the end of their expected lifespans of 40 years.

If the reactor is loaded with fuel in Flamanville in the middle of next year, it would be expected to begin commercial operations around five or six months later.

The government has said a coal plant at Cordemais in western France will be allowed to operate until 2024 until the Flamanville site is brought online.

jmi/adp-tgb/sjw/lth

Russian baby tiger fights for life after frostbite, surgery

The tiger cub receiving treatment from veterinary doctors at the rare breeds rehabilitation 

centre in the village of Alekseevka in Russia's Far East.

 JANUARY 12, 2022

Russian animal rescuers said Wednesday they were fighting for the life of an Amur tiger cub who had been found dying from exhaustion and frostbite in the country's far east.

An emaciated female tiger cub aged around four or five months and suffering from severe frostbite and injuries was found by a local fisherman on a river bank in the south of the Primorye region late last year.

The fisherman reported the find to wildlife carers who evacuated the cub to a rehabilitation centre, said Amur Tiger Centre.

"External examination showed that she was severely exhausted as a result of which the tip of her tail was frostbitten," the centre said, adding that the cub's lower jaw also became necrotic after an injury.

The tiger, who weighed just around 20 kilogrammes (44 pounds)—roughly half the norm—when she was found, underwent an intense rehabilitation course and gained about 10 kilogrammes in preparation for surgery. The dead tip of her tail was also cut off.

Late last week the cub underwent a 2.5-hour operation, with doctors transplanting healthy tissue to repair her jaw.

The surgery was succesful but it is too early to make any predictions and say if it will be possible to release the cub back into the wild, said Amur Tiger Centre.

Amur tigers are an endangered species. AKA SIBERIAN TIGER

The ailing tiger underwent surgery to repair its jaw.

"The most important thing right now is to halt the tissue necrosis and save the tiger's life," said Sergei Aramilev, the centre's head. "People are doing their best."

Russia and China are home to the big cats which are also known as Siberian tigers and are listed as "endangered" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature's Red List.

There are around 600 tigers in Russia, said Pyotr Osipov, head of the Amur branch at WWF.

"Heavy snowfall and changes in temperature have significantly complicated tigers' life this winter," Osipov told AFP, adding that two tiger cubs had recently been found frozen to death.

President Vladimir Putin has personally championed the protection of the Amur tiger.

In 2010, Putin, then the country's prime minister, hosted an unprecedented 13-state summit that aimed at doubling the big cat's population.Russian, Chinese smugglers arrested with tonne of bear paws: NGO

© 2022 AFP

Campaigners sue UK over 'inadequate' climate plan


The UK government seeks to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 to help tackle climate change

 (AFP/William EDWARDS)


Wed, January 12, 2022

Green campaigners on Wednesday launched legal actions against Britain alleging the government's "pie-in-the-sky" climate plan was "inadequate" to deliver promised steep cuts in emissions.

Two environmental pressure groups, ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth, announced they have started separate legal proceedings at London's High Court against Prime Minister Boris Johnson's administration.

The UK government, which seeks to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 to help tackle climate change, insists it has set out detailed steps to help transition to a low-carbon economy.

Friends of the Earth however has filed for a judicial review to challenge the plans, arguing that they are unlawful.

"With characteristic sleight of hand the government has set out an imaginary pathway for reducing carbon emissions but no credible plan to deliver it," said Friends of the Earth lawyer Katie de Kauwe in a statement.

"A rapid and fair transition to a safer future requires a plan that shows how much greenhouse gas reduction the chosen policies will achieve, and by when.

"That the plan for achieving net zero is published without this information in it is very worrying, and we believe is unlawful."

ClientEarth argued that the government's "pie-in-the-sky" plan lacked credible strategies to slash emissions adequately -- and risked more drastic measures later on.

"It's not enough for the UK government simply to have a net zero strategy, it needs to include real-world policies that ensure it succeeds," said ClientEarth lawyer Sam Hunter Jones.

"Anything less is a breach of its legal duties and amounts to greenwashing and climate delay."

In response, the government said it had outlined proposals to slash emissions in October, including a ban on new diesel and petrol cars by 2030.

It also cited plans to decarbonise electricity production by 2035 -- and to make all new heating systems low-carbon by 2035.

"The UK has cut emissions faster than any other G7 country over the past few decades," said a spokesperson from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

"The net zero strategy sets out specific, detailed measures we will take to transition to a low carbon economy."

London's High Court will decide at a later date whether or not to allow a full hearing of both cases.

Britain hosted the COP26 UN climate change summit in Glasgow last November.

ode-rfj/bp

Guantanamo at 20: 'A global symbol of American injustice, torture and abuse of power'

On the 20th anniversary of the arrival of the US' first detainees at Guantanamo Bay, DW spoke about the situation with a human rights expert as well as the man tasked with closing the prison back in 2013.


What started as a low-tech facility soon became a high-tech fortress of US secrecy and torture housing nearly 800 prisoners

The first 20 detainees arrived at the United States military prison Camp X-Ray, located at a US naval base on the Caribbean island nation of Cuba, on January 11, 2002.

The men, captured or turned in for ransom as part of the US "war on terror" that followed the attacks on 9/11, were dressed in bright orange prison overalls. They were seen on photographs cowering in so-called stress positions in a caged and razor-wired outdoor space with their eyes and ears covered, as US soldiers stood guard over them.
Why were detainees taken to Guantanamo?

The facility, which began as a decidedly low-tech affair, was eventually renamed Camp Delta, and transformed into a purpose-built, high-tech site designed for the detention, interrogation and military trial of "enemy combatants" that the US claimed had taken up arms against them.

The facility caused outrage when it was opened by then-President George W. Bush and came on the heels of a long list of human rights abuses by the superpower.

While the Bush-Cheney administration argued it was within its rights to "rendition" (kidnap) and use "enhanced interrogation" (torture) to find the masterminds behind the 9/11 attacks, human rights advocates were alarmed that the US would insist upon placing the facility beyond America's shores — and thus, beyond America's laws and the Geneva Convention.

On this 20th anniversary, DW spoke with two people familiar with the facility

What does Guantanamo symbolize today?

Asked what Guantanamo means today, Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) told DW: "Guantanamo today is a global symbol of American injustice, torture and abuse of power."

Shamsi lamented, "If the government has enough evidence that is untainted by torture to prosecute prisoners, including those facing the death penalty, it should pursue plea agreements to finally resolve cases." Otherwise, she says, they should be released.

Shamsi argues that the US government should finally apologize to those she says have been unlawfully held at the site: "You know, it's one of the hallmarks and tragedies of our age that the US government has not yet apologized to any one of these men about the harm it has done to them."

She also thinks that current US President Joe Biden should finally close the facility: "President Biden has all the authority he needs to close Guantanamo in a way that takes into account the harms that have been done to the men who've been tortured and imprisoned without charge or fair trials for two decades, while providing a measure of justice and resolution for victims."

What can be done with detainees still at Guantanamo?

Cliff Sloan agrees with Shamsi. He was appointed special envoy for the closure of Guantanamo Bay by President Barack Obama back in 2013.

Sloan says it is important to note that great progress has been made in closing the site but that it will be very difficult to see the project through to its conclusion.

Still, he says, "I would like to see all of them transferred in the first six months of this year, its [the] 20th anniversary. It is shameful."

Pressed by DW about shuttering the prison, Sloan said: "The obstacles that have come up with Guantanamo closure are political opposition that is irrational and not based on fact — and some legal obstacles based on laws unwisely passed by Congress. But having said that, there is no reason that we cannot move forward with closing Guantanamo."

Sloan acknowledges: "It takes a lot of work, but other countries, including countries in Europe and countries elsewhere in the world who recognize that Guantanamo needs to be closed and that these people need a place to go to, have provided resettlement opportunities. So it can be done. This line that you hear sometimes that, well, they're there because there's no place for them to go is simply wrong. Homes can be found for them."

The former envoy was also clear that: "They can be resettled in third countries, as has been done with other detainees. And when I say transferred to them, I'm not saying transfer to incarceration. I'm saying transfer to freedom."

When asked whether the US should pay reparations to those wrongly held in the facility, Shamsi of the ACLU said: "That's absolutely something that the US government should do." But the attorney said, the US "needs to start with ending the travesty and legal, moral and ethical catastrophe that is Guantanamo."

In all, 779 men have entered Guantanamo since January 2002 and currently 39 remain — 27 of those still there have never been charged with any crime.

Five more Guantanamo detainees approved for release

The US government has approved the release of five more prisoners from the Guantanamo Bay military prison, according to documents posted online this week by the Defense Department.

© Paul HANDLEY A sign for Camp Justice, where trials are held for detainees at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba.

Three of the five detainees were from Yemen, one was from Somalia, and the fifth from Kenya.

They have spent a collective 85 years in the prison opened two decades ago for so-called "war on terror" detainees in the wake of the September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda attack on the United States.

Never charged, detainees now approved for release -- decided after case reviews in November and December -- total 18 of the 39 men still held in the prison facility at the US Naval Base in Cuba.

Those newly approved for release are Somali Guleed Hassan Ahmed (also called Guled Hassan Duran); Kenyan Mohammed Abdul Malik Bajabu; and Omar Muhammad Ali al-Rammah, Moath Hamza al-Alwi, and Suhayl al-Sharabi of Yemen.

 Nicholas Kamm 

Demonstrators in front of the White House calling for the closure of the US military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba on January 11, 2022, the 20th anniversary of the opening of the facility.

The Pentagon's Periodic Review Board found that all did not present, or no longer presented, a threat to the United States.

But like the others approved, their releases could be delayed as Washington seeks arrangements with their own or other countries to accept them.

- Repatriation challenge -

Currently the United States will not repatriate Yemenis due to the civil war in the country, or Somalis, whose homeland is also mired by domestic conflict.

The release approvals indicated an accelerated effort by the administration of President Joe Biden to resolve the situations of the 39 in Guantanamo, after his predecessor Donald Trump effectively froze action.

Tuesday marked the 20th anniversary of the opening of the Guantanamo prison, and brought calls from international human rights groups to shut it down, accusing the United States of arbitrary detention of hundreds of people and the illegal torture of dozens.

On Monday a group of UN human rights experts called for Washington to "close this ugly chapter of unrelenting human rights violations."

Writing on the Lawfare website, US Senator Dianne Feinstein said those detainees facing trial, including September 11th mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, could be tried in US civilian courts rather than the secretive and troubled military commissions system.

"Now that the US's war in Afghanistan is over, it's time to shut the doors on Guantanamo once and for all," Feinstein said.

- Mental health -

Of the 39 men still at Guantanamo, 10 are in the process of standing trial, mostly still in preliminary proceedings; two have pleaded guilty to terror-related charges; and nine remain in limbo, neither charged nor yet granted release.

Some of the nine, Guantanamo defense attorneys say, have mental health problems that make it hard to present a case for release to the boards or arrange a future life in their home countries or elsewhere.

Khalid Ahmed Qasim, whose case was reviewed in December, was denied release even though the Pentagon authorities in charge of the reviews acknowledged that he was not a significant person in Al-Qaeda or the Taliban and did not pose a significant threat.

But they indicated that he frequently would not comply with officials at the Guantanamo prison and lacked plans for his future if he was released.

The board "encourages the detainee to immediately work toward showing improved compliance and better management of his emotions," it said.

It asked his attorneys to produce a plan "regarding how his mental health conditions will be managed if he were to be transferred" out of Guantanamo.

pmh/crs/dw

AFP

East Africa’s Oldest Modern Human Fossil Is Way Older Than Previously Thought

Analysis of ash from a massive volcanic eruption places the famed Omo I fossil 36,000 years back in time


Brian Handwerk
Science Correspondent

January 12, 2022 
The remote Kibish Formation, in southern Ethiopia, features layered deposits more than 300 feet thick that have preserved many ancient human tools and remains. Céline Vidal

At a remote region in southwestern Ethiopia, the Omo River and its long-vanished tributaries have laid bare rugged bluffs and hillsides, exposing a layer cake of ancient sediments and the trapped remains of early humans. Before the Covid pandemic, Céline Vidal and colleagues journeyed to this site known as the Kibish Formation to work in scorching temperatures up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit, picking through the ashes of ancient volcanic eruptions to learn more about some of the oldest members of our species.

“It was an adventure,” says Vidal, a volcanologist at the University of Cambridge, who studies how ancient eruptions impacted climate and civilizations. “This is the part of science that online life isn’t ever going to replace.”


One of the reasons Vidal and colleagues came to the site was to learn about Omo I, one of the oldest known examples of Homo sapiens. Using geochemical clues to match the layer of volcanic ash blanketing the fossil to a specific volcanic eruption, they discovered Omo I is 36,000 years older than previously believed. Ash from an enormous eruption of the Ethiopian Rift’s Shala volcano was put down atop the sediment layer containing the Omo I fossil approximately 233,000 years ago, which means that Omo I and her kind lived here at least that long ago.

“Each eruption has a unique geochemical composition, a kind of fingerprint which we can use to try to figure out exactly which eruption on the Ethiopian Rift would have created a layer of volcanic ash,” Vidal explains. “We found a match for the ash layer that covers the fossils, so we know which eruption produced that ash and the age of that eruption.”

The findings, published this week in the journal Nature, show that Omo I had to be older than the layer that later fell from the sky to rest atop her remains, but they don’t reveal her maximum age. It may later be possible to determine the oldest possible date for Omo I if the team can similarly identify another volcanic layer from below the fossil.

Geologist Amdemichael Zafu, a study coauthor, in front of the deposits of the 233,000-year-old eruption of Shala. Céline Vidal

Famed paleoanthropologist Richard Leakey and colleagues found Omo I near the southern Ethiopian town of Kibish in 1967. Originally, scientists dated freshwater mollusk shells found with the skull to conclude that that the remains were about 130,000 years old. They also saw from the beginning, quite clearly, that the skull’s flat face, prominent chin and high forehead were distinctly modern, and that this ancient person should be classified as a member of our own species.

For more than half a century the fossil has been known as one of the oldest existing Homo sapiens skulls anywhere in the world. (The partial skull and skeleton were considered the oldest until the 2017 discovery of 300,000-year-old skull, jaw and tooth fragments from Jebel Irhoud, Morocco.) In 2005, radioactive dating study pushed back the age of the fossil skull significantly, to 195,000 years ago. But today’s study now suggests that Omo I is actually tens of thousands of years older

.

A reconstruction of the Omo I skull discovered by Richard Leakey and colleagues in 1967. 

The Natural History Museum / Alamy Stock Photo

The era in which Homo sapiens likely first appeared and gradually evolved in Africa, between about 360,000 years ago and 100,000 years ago, was one of cataclysmic volcanic activity. Enormous eruptions rocked the region, depositing thick layers of ash that would have made some localities uninhabitable. Because changing environments sometimes pushed early humans to adopt new behaviors and tools, these eruptions might have actually played a part in shaping evolution here. Perhaps they caused groups of ancient humans to move around, encountering one another and exchanging everything from genes to technologies before separating again.

More certainly, the volcanic ash helped to create a record of what occurred during the turbulent era.

At the Kibish formation, researchers were stumped by a massive layer of ash, more than six feet thick, just above the sediments where Omo I and other fossils were found. At a distance of nearly 200 miles away from the nearest ancient volcano, the ash was flour-like, so fine that it lacked enough large crystals to be used for radiometric dating, which provides an age by measuring how much of the mineral’s radioactive potassium has decayed into radioactive argon. “This material just wasn’t suitable for the type of techniques we normally use,” Vidal explains.

But Vidal and colleagues were able to determine the age of the eruption that deposited the ash by sampling rocks closer to their volcanic sources, in places where ashy debris contained plenty of larger crystals suitable for radiometric dating.

“It’s really neat work to be able to go to the volcanic complexes, and collect samples right from the source, and connect them chemically in a very precise way to what was found at the fossil site itself,” says Rick Potts, director of the Smithsonian’s Human Origins Program, who wasn’t involved with the study.

Dates for important fossils like Omo I are extremely important for scientists who are piecing together an evolutionary timeline of Homo sapiens. They provide a solid framework to help track changes in evolution, like human appearance, or in behavior, like tool technologies. They also lend context to events like dramatic climate shifts that may have helped to drive those adaptations. “In any given region, it’s useful to establish the earliest appearance of something that looks very, very much like a H. Sapiens skull,” says Potts. “And that’s Omo I.”

Omo I’s fascinating skull shape shows that humans living in eastern Africa 230,000 years ago had already evolved to the point that they looked much like ourselves. But that’s not the whole story. Leakey’s team found a second set of remains at the site, dubbed Omo II, which appears to be the same age but has a quite different and more archaic look that has sparked debate on whether it’s truly a Homo sapiens.

From about 350,000 to 160,000 years ago the human fossil record shows a mixing and matching of different traits, in different times and places, some of which are more primitive and others more modern. This paradigm makes the remains of Omo I and Omo II particularly interesting, Potts notes, because such variation can be seen side by side.

“Whether it may be the same gene pool, or two neighboring groups of hominins, this basis for the combining of archaic and modern looking traits is sort of encapsulated by what happened to be two fossil individuals collated at Kibish by Richard Leakey in the 1960s,” Potts says. “As is true for many animals, the origin of our own species wasn’t an event but a more gradual process that took place over time.”


Brian Handwerk | READ MORE
is a science correspondent based in Amherst, New Hampshire.

US to hold largest-ever offshore wind farm auction next month

Only one offshore wind farm is currently fully operational in the United States: the Block Island Wind Farm, pictured, which was completed at the end of 2016 off the state of Rhode Island and capable of producing 30 megawatts

 (AFP/DON EMMERT)


Wed, January 12, 2022

The US government announced Wednesday it will auction more than 480,000 acres off the coasts of New York and New Jersey to build wind farms as part of its campaign to supply renewable energy to more than 10 million homes by 2030.

Offshore wind developers will bid February 23 on six areas in the New York Bight -- the most lots ever offered in a single auction -- which could generate between 5.6 to seven gigawatts of energy, enough to power two million homes, the Interior Department said.

"We are at an inflection point for domestic offshore wind energy development. We must seize this moment -- and we must do it together," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement.

The auction will be the first under President Joe Biden, whose administration aims to build as many as to seven major offshore wind farms and review plans for at least 16 others along the US coasts.

The effort is part of Washington's fight against climate change, and the Biden administration says the wind investment would cut 78 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions and create tens of thousands of jobs.

The auction comes after the state governments of New York and New Jersey announced plans to install 16 gigawatts of offshore wind power by 2035, the largest such commitment in the country, the Interior Department said.

Only one offshore wind farm is currently fully operational in the United States: the Block Island Wind Farm, completed at the end of 2016 off the state of Rhode Island and capable of producing 30 megawatts.

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