Ex-Hasidic trans activist photographed by Annie Leibovitz

Abby Stein, an activist for LGBTQ+ inclusion in Jewish communities and beyond, is one of dozens of subjects in a new library to showcase the diversity of people.

By JTAApril 5, 2022, 

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Abby Chava Stein, an American transgender author, activist, blogger, model, speaker and rabbi, relaxes on the 

Resort Deck of Celebrity Apex. (Annie Leibovitz for Celebrity Cruises' All Inclusive Photo Project)

Abby Stein remembers two things well about her first-ever editorial photo shoot after coming out as an ex-Orthodox trans woman.

The first was that the shoot, in her bedroom for Vogue magazine in 2018, was the first time Stein had posed in a bra, and she wasn’t totally comfortable with the experience.

The second was that someone asked her who her dream photographer would be.

The name that popped into her mind was “one that I knew was never going to happen,” she recalled last week — Annie Leibovitz.

“She’s definitely done a lot of work to elevate LGBTQ voices and portraits,” Stein told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency last week about why she was drawn to Leibovitz, the award-winning portraitist. “And she is obviously Jewish.”

Four years later, that dream has come true: Leibovitz has photographed Stein in a setting that couldn’t be more different from her New York City apartment — on the deck of a cruise liner.

Stein, an activist for LGBTQ+ inclusion in Jewish communities and beyond, is one of dozens of subjects of photographs in a new library created by Celebrity Cruises to showcase the diversity of people who love to travel. The images — which also include #MeToo movement founder Tarana Burke, disability activist and model Jillian Mercado, and the Jewish director with alopecia Rachel Fleit, among others — will be made available for anyone to use, in an effort to change the public face of the cruise industry.

“What Annie, indeed all of the artists involved in this project have captured so beautifully, is that for vacations to really live up to the marketing moniker ‘all-inclusive,’ then they should start by using images that are inclusive of all, not just a few,” Celebrity Cruises President and CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo said in a statement.

“I am keenly aware of the privilege to be asked to participate,” Stein wrote on Twitter. “I don’t think this is about me — this is about representation in the LGBTQ, and especially trans, community. It’s about bodies that are different than the mainstream ‘cis-straight-normative’ expectations.”

Stein was careful to note that though she did post about her experience on social media, promoting the company was not part of her contract for the photoshoot. But she said knowing that the CEO of Celebrity was the first woman to lead a Royal Caribbean Group cruise line brand and that the company was the first to have a woman captain a “mega” cruise ship gave her confidence that the company’s inclusion efforts were genuine.

Behind the scenes of the Annie Leibovitz shoot, Abby Stein, center right, poses with her cousin. (Courtesy of Abby Stein)

“While I don’t understand corporate intentions, the people I worked with from Celebrity were all really, really amazing and they really mean it,” she said. “I think they’ve done a lot of amazing stuff towards being more inclusive and I’m a big fan of inclusivity. Specifically, actual actions.”

Working with Leibovitz gave Stein “a lot of courage,” Stein said. She added, “It was legitimately such a diverse crowd. People with different abilities, people with different looks, different ages, different body types and everything. So it was a very, I would say empowering moment.”

For the shoot, Stein got to pick from a few 1950s-style options, ultimately choosing a white one-piece with black polka dots and posing on a chaise on the deck of a Celebrity Cruise liner where she and other models spent a full week.

Stein’s Jewish identity became a recurring theme through her seven nights on the cruise. Leibovitz — who vaulted to her first staff job, at Rolling Stone, on the strength of photographs she took in Israel in the 1970s — revered Stein’s background as a rabbi, Stein recalled.

And when word circulated that Stein celebrates Shabbat every week, Celebrity CMO Michael Scheiner, who is also Jewish, asked if she would like to lead Friday night services on the boat.

“That wasn’t part of any contract or any deal,” Stein said. “I wasn’t paid for that or anything. But literally within a day they added it to the cruise schedule.”

Dozens of cruise guests attended. Stein led the service and gave a short sermon. Manischewitz grape juice and fresh-baked challah were served.

“It was really nice and sweet,” she said.

Calgary researchers say there may be a link between fracking and premature births

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Preterm infants at higher risk of developing

neurodevelopmental difficulties, physical disabilities

Bill Graveland · The Canadian Press · Posted: Apr 05, 2022 

In this 2013 file photo, workers tend to a well head during a hydraulic fracturing operation outside Rifle, in western Colorado. (Brennan Linsley/Associated Press)

A University of Calgary study says there may be a link between the density of certain oil and gas operations and increased health risks for nearby pregnant women and their babies.

"There is very little research about fracking as it relates to the health of pregnant people and children living near these sites," said Amy Metcalfe, a co-principal investigator and associate professor in obstetrics and gynecology at the university's Cumming School of Medicine.

"Our study found the rate of spontaneous preterm deliveries — birth before 37 weeks — increased significantly relative to the number of fracturing sites within 10 kilometres of their home."

Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, involves directional drilling and injecting large amounts of fluid into wells to extract oil and natural gas.

Dr. Amy Metcalfe is shown in a handout photo. (Supplied by the University of Calgary)

Over a five-year period, researchers reviewed health data of pregnant women, specifically those living in rural areas whose homes were near fracking sites.

Metcalfe said the women living near between one to 24 well sites had a 7.4 per cent risk of early delivery and the risk increased to 11.4 per cent for those near 100 or more fracking operations. She said premature births present a health risk.

"Preterm infants are at higher risk of developing neurodevelopmental difficulties, physical disabilities and behaviour problems, including autism, cerebral palsy and epilepsy," Metcalfe said.

Results from the report are published in JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Pediatrics.

Metcalfe said they received the grant in 2017 and used health data from 2013 to 2018.

2nd study into child development coming 

Metcalfe said despite the data, she can't definitively say that fracking is causing premature births.

"We can't say from this work that fracking causes adverse birth effects. We can say they are more likely to occur in proximity to that, but there's really more research that needs to be done to look at causal mechanisms why this would happen," she said.

"It would be a weird coincidence if it wasn't that, but it's not something we're able to assess from this particular study."

The research will continue. Carly McMorris, the other co-principal investigator and associate professor at the university's Werklund School of Education, is recruiting participants for a study to determine if hydraulic fracturing affects child development.

She said it will assess thinking skills, academic abilities and social-emotional functioning in children in grades one through three living in communities both close to and far from fracking operations.

The communities selected are Grande Prairie, which has the most fracking activity in Alberta, and Lethbridge, which has virtually none. The children will also wear a device that will test air pollution around them for one week.

• 'Nation-building' investments in electricity grid needed to reach net-zero: experts

• Fracking to blame for earthquakes, seismic 'clusters' in central Alberta

McMorris said the results from the studies will provide evidence that could help inform decisions and practices related to fracking.

Metcalfe realizes there might be some blowback from the public about the results of the research.

"Fracking is politically controversial, right? There's groups on both sides that have very strong opinions and, inevitably by doing work in this area, someone's going to be (ticked) off."

‘Green steel’ heating up in Sweden’s frozen north

By JAMES BROOKS

Susanne Rostmark, research leader, LKAB, holds a piece of hot briquetted iron ore made using the HYBRIT process nearby the venture’s pilot plant in Lulea, Sweden on Feb. 17, 2022. The steel-making industry is coming under increasing pressure to curb its environmental impact and contribute to the Paris climate accord, which aims to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius (James Brooks via AP)


LULEA, Sweden (AP) — For hundreds of years, raging blast furnaces — fed with coking coal — have forged steel used in cars, railways, bridges and skyscrapers.

But the puffs of coal-fired smoke are a big source of carbon dioxide, the heat-trapping gas that’s driving climate change.

According to the World Steel Association, every metric ton of steel produced in 2020 emitted almost twice that much carbon dioxide (1.8 tons) into the atmosphere. Total direct emissions from making steel were about 2.6 billion tons in 2020, representing around 7% of global CO2 emissions.

In Sweden, a single company, steel giant SSAB, accounts for about 10% of the country’s emissions due to the furnaces it operates at mills like the one in the northern town of Lulea.

But not far away, a high-tech pilot plant is seeking to significantly reduce the carbon emissions involved in steel production by switching some of that process away from burning coking coal to burning hydrogen that itself was produced with renewable energy.




HYBRIT — or Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology — is a joint venture between SSAB, mining company LKAB and Swedish state-owned power firm Vattenfall launched in 2016.

“The cost of renewable energy, fossil-free energy, had come down dramatically and at the same time, you had a rising awareness and the Paris Agreement” in 2015 to reduce global emissions, said Mikael Nordlander, Vattenfall’s head of industry decarbonization.

“We realized that we might have a chance now to outcompete the direct use of fossil fuels in industry with this electricity coming from fossil-free sources,” he added.

Last year, the plant made its first commercial delivery. European carmakers that have committed to dramatically reducing their emissions need cleaner steel. Chinese-owned Volvo Group became the first carmaker to partner with HYBRIT. Head of procurement Kerstin Enochsson said steel is a “major contributor” to their cars’ carbon footprint, between 20 and 35%.

“Tackling only the tailpipe emissions by being an electric company is not enough. We need to focus on the car itself, as well,” she said.

Demand from other companies, including Volkswagen, is also sending a signal that there is demand for green steel. Steelmakers in Europe have announced plans to scale up production of steel made without coal.

The HYBRIT process aims to replace the coking coal that’s traditionally used for ore-based steel making with hydrogen and renewable electricity.

It begins with brown-tinged iron ore pellets that react with the hydrogen gas and are reduced to ball-shaped “sponge iron,” which takes it name due to pores left behind following the removal of oxygen. This is then melted in an electric furnace.

If the hydrogen is made using renewable energy, too, the process produces no CO2.

“We get iron, and then we get water vapor instead,” said SSAB’s chief technology officer Martin Pei. “Water vapor can be condensed, recirculated, reused in the process.

“We really solve the root cause of carbon dioxide emissions from steel making,” he said.

Steel is a recyclable material, but demand for the alloy is expected to grow in the coming years, amid a push to transform society and build wind turbines, solar plants, power transmission lines and new electric vehicles.

“Steel is a superb construction material. It is also possible to recycle steel again and again,” said Pei. “You can reuse steel as many times as possible.

“The only problem today is the current way of making steel from iron ore emits too much CO2,” he said.

By the end of this decade, the European Union is attempting to cut overall CO2 emissions in the 27-nation bloc by 55% compared to 1990 levels. Part of that effort includes making companies pay for their C02 emissions and encourage the switch to low-carbon alternatives.

Sweden’s steel industry has set out plans to achieve “fossil-free” operations by 2045. SSAB in January brought forward its own plans to largely eliminate carbon dioxide emissions in its steel-making processes by the end of the decade.

“The companies are well aware of their possibilities and limitations in the current processes and that they have to do something about it,” said Helen Axelsson, director of energy and environment at Jernkontoret, the Swedish steel producers’ association.

But according to the World Steel Association, over 70% of global steel production takes place in Asia, where steel producers don’t have access to the same quantities of old scrap steel as countries that have been industrialized for a longer time. That’s another reason why average emissions per ton of steel are higher in the global south.

Filip Johnsson, a professor in energy technology at Gothenburg’s Chalmers University, said the vast amounts of renewable electricity necessary to make hydrogen and cleaner steel could make rolling out the HYBRIT process difficult in other parts of the world.

“I would say that the major challenge is to get loads of electricity and also to provide it sort of constantly,” he said.

The small Lulea pilot plant is still a research facility, and has so far produced just a couple of hundred tons. There are plans to construct a larger demonstration plant and begin commercial deliveries by 2026.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

UN warns Earth ‘firmly on track toward an unlivable world’

“Limiting warming to 1.5C requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest and be reduced by 43% by 2030”

By FRANK JORDANS and SETH BORENSTEIN

1 of 10

Wind turbines stand in front of the rising sun in Frankfurt, Germany, Friday, March 11, 2022. A United Nation-backed panel plans to release a highly anticipated scientific report on Monday, April 4, 2022, on international efforts to curb climate change before global temperatures reach dangerous levels.

 (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

BERLIN (AP) — Temperatures on Earth will shoot past a key danger point unless greenhouse gas emissions fall faster than countries have committed, the world’s top body of climate scientists said Monday, warning of the consequences of inaction but also noting hopeful signs of progress.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed “a litany of broken climate promises” by governments and corporations, accusing them of stoking global warming by clinging to harmful fossil fuels.

“It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track toward an unlivable world,” he said.

Governments agreed in the 2015 Paris accord to keep global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) this century, ideally no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit). Yet temperatures have already increased by over 1.1C (2F) since pre-industrial times, resulting in measurable increases in disasters such flash floods, extreme heat, more intense hurricanes and longer-burning wildfires, putting human lives in danger and costing governments hundreds of billions of dollars to confront.

“Projected global emissions from (national pledges) place limiting global warming to 1.5C beyond reach and make it harder after 2030 to limit warming to 2C,” the panel said.

In other words, the report’s co-chair, James Skea of Imperial College London, told The Associated Press: “If we continue acting as we are now, we’re not even going to limit warming to 2 degrees, never mind 1.5 degrees.”

Ongoing investments in fossil fuel infrastructure and clearing large swaths of forest for agriculture undermine the massive curbs in emissions needed to meet the Paris goal, the report found.

Emissions in 2019 were about 12% higher than they were in 2010 and 54% higher than in 1990, said Skea.

The rate of growth has slowed from 2.1% per year in the early part of this century to 1.3% per year between 2010 and 2019, the report’s authors said. But they voiced “high confidence” that unless countries step up their efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the planet will on average be 2.4C to 3.5C (4.3 to 6.3F) warmer by the end of the century — a level experts say is sure to cause severe impacts for much of the world’s population.

“Limiting warming to 1.5C requires global greenhouse gas emissions to peak before 2025 at the latest and be reduced by 43% by 2030,” he said.

Such cuts would be hard to achieve without without drastic, economy-wide measures, the panel acknowledged. It’s more likely that the world will pass 1.5C and efforts will then need to be made to bring temperatures back down again, including by removing vast amounts of carbon dioxide — the main greenhouse gas — from the atmosphere.

Many experts say this is unfeasible with current technologies, and even if it could be done it would be far costlier than preventing the emissions in the first place.

The report, numbering thousands of pages, doesn’t single out individual countries for blame. But the figures show much of the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere was released by rich countries that were the first to burn coal, oil and gas beginning with the industrial revolution.

The U.N. panel said 40% of emissions since then came from Europe and North America. Just over 12% can be attributed to East Asia, which includes China. But China took over the position as world’s top emissions polluter from the United States in the mid-2000s.

Many countries and companies have used recent climate meetings to paint rosy pictures of their emissions-cutting efforts, while continuing to invest in fossil fuels and other polluting activities, Guterres charged.

“Some government and business leaders are saying one thing but doing another,” he said. “Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic.”

A Karbi tribal woman whose agriculture land had been transfered to build a solar power plant grazes her cow near the plant in Mikir Bamuni village, Nagaon district, northeastern Assam state, India, Feb. 18, 2022. A United Nation-backed panel plans to release a highly anticipated scientific report on Monday, April 4, 2022, on international efforts to curb climate change before global temperatures reach dangerous levels. (AP Photo/Anupam Nath)

The report isn’t without some hope, however.

Its authors highlight myriad ways in which the world can be brought back on track to 2C or even, with great effort, return to 1.5C after that threshold has been passed. This could require measures such as the removal of CO2 from the atmosphere with natural or artificial means, but also potentially risky technologies such as pumping aerosols into the sky to reflect sunlight.

Among the solutions recommended are a rapid shift away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy such as increasingly cheap solar and wind power, the electrification of transport, less meat consumption, more efficient use of resources and massive financial support for poor countries unable to pay for such measures without help.

The situation is as if humanity has “gone to the doctor in a very unhealthy condition,” and the doctor is saying “you need to change, it’s a radical change. If you don’t you’re in trouble,” said report co-author Pete Smith, a professor of soils and global change at the University Aberdeen.

“It’s not like a diet,” Smith said. “It is a fundamental lifestyle change. It’s changing what you eat, how much you eat and get on a more active lifestyle.”

One move often described as “low-hanging fruit” by scientists is to plug methane leaks from mines, wells and landfills that release the potent but short-lived greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. A pact forged between the United States and China at last year’s U.N. climate conference in Glasgow aims to do just that.

“The big message we’ve got (is that) human activities got us into this problem and human agency can actually get us out of it again,” said Skea, the panel’s co-chair.

The panel’s reports have become increasingly blunt since the first one was published in 1990, and the latest may be the last before the planet passes 1.5C of warming, Skea told the AP.

Last August, it said climate change caused by humans was “an established fact” and warned that some effects of global warming are already inevitable. In late February, the panel published a report that outlined how further temperature increases will multiply the risk of floods, storms, drought and heat waves worldwide.

Still, the British government’s former chief science adviser David King, who wasn’t involved in writing the report, said there are too optimistic assumptions about how much CO2 the world can afford to emit.

“We don’t actually have a remaining carbon budget to burn,” said King, who now chairs the Climate Crisis Advisory Group.

“It’s just the reverse. We’ve already done too much in the way of putting greenhouse gases up there,” he said, arguing that the IPCC’s calculation omits new risks and potentially self-reinforcing effects already happening, such as the increased absorption of heat into the oceans from sea ice loss and the release of methane as permafrost melts.

Such warnings were echoed by U.N. chief Guterres, citing scientists’ warnings that the planet is moving “perilously close to tipping points that could lead to cascading and irreversible climate impacts.”

“But high-emitting governments and corporations are not just turning a blind eye; they are adding fuel to the flames,” he said, calling for an end to further coal, oil and gas extraction. “Investing in new fossil fuels infrastructure is moral and economic madness.”

Vulnerable nations said the report showed big polluters have to step up their efforts before the next U.N. climate summit in Egypt this fall.

“We are looking to the G-20, to the world’s biggest emitters, to set ambitious targets ahead of COP27, and to reach those targets – by investing in renewables, cutting out coal and fossil fuel subsidies,” said Tina Stege, climate envoy for the Marshall Islands. “It’s long past time to deliver on promises made.”

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Borenstein reported from Washington.

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Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

No obituary for Earth: Scientists fight climate doom talk

By SETH BORENSTEIN

1 of 7

Christiana Figueres poses for a photo after an interview with the Associated Press prior to a news conference of "The Unite Behind The Science" campaign ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 20, 2020. Scientists say climate change is bad, getting worse, but it is not game over for planet Earth or humanity. “It’s not that they’re saying you are condemned to a future of destruction and increasing misery,” said Figueres, the former U.N. climate secretary who helped forge the 2015 Paris climate agreement and now runs an organization called Global Optimism.

(AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)


It’s not the end of the world. It only seems that way.

Climate change is going to get worse, but as gloomy as the latest scientific reports are, including today’s from the United Nations, scientist after scientist stresses that curbing global warming is not hopeless. The science says it is not game over for planet Earth or humanity. Action can prevent some of the worst if done soon, they say.

After decades of trying to get the public’s attention, spur action by governments and fight against organized movements denying the science, climate researchers say they have a new fight on their hands: doomism. It’s the feeling that nothing can be done, so why bother. It’s young people publicly swearing off having children because of climate change.

University of Maine climate scientist Jacquelyn Gill noticed in 2018 fewer people telling her climate change isn’t real and more “people that we now call doomers that you know believe that nothing can be done.” Gill says it is just not true.

“I refuse to write off or write an obituary for something that’s still alive,” Gill told The Associated Press, referring to the Earth. “We are not through a threshold or past the threshold. There’s no such thing as pass-fail when it comes to the climate crisis.”

“It’s really, really, really hard to walk people back from that ledge,” Gill said.

Doomism “is definitely a thing,” said Wooster College psychology professor Susan Clayton, who studies climate change anxiety and spoke at a conference in Norway last week that addressed the issue. “It’s a way of saying ‘I don’t have to go to the effort of making changes because there’s nothing I can do anyway.’”

Gill and six other scientists who talked with The Associated Press about doomism aren’t sugarcoating the escalating harm to the climate from accumulating emissions. But that doesn’t make it hopeless, they said.

“Everybody knows it’s going to get worse,” said Woodwell Climate Research Center scientist Jennifer Francis. “We can do a lot to make it less bad than the worst case scenario.”

The United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change just issued its third report in six months. The first two were on how bad warming is and how it will hurt people and ecosystems, with today’s report focusing on how the extent of disruption depends on how much fossil fuels are burned. It shows the world is still heading in the wrong direction in its fight to curb climate change, with new investments in fossil fuel infrastructure and forests falling to make way for agriculture.

“It’s not that they’re saying you are condemned to a future of destruction and increasing misery,” said Christiana Figueres, the former U.N. climate secretary who helped forge the 2015 Paris climate agreement and now runs an organization called Global Optimism. “What they’re saying is ’the business-as-usual path ... is an atlas of misery ’ or a future of increasing destruction. But we don’t have to choose that. And that’s the piece, the second piece, that sort of always gets dropped out of the conversation.”

United Nations Environment Program Director Inger Andersen said with reports like these, officials are walking a tightrope. They are trying to spur the world to action because scientists are calling this a crisis. But they also don’t want to send people spiraling into paralysis because it is too gloomy.

“We are not doomed, but rapid action is absolutely essential,” Andersen said. “With every month or year that we delay action, climate change becomes more complex, expensive and difficult to overcome.”

“The big message we’ve got (is that) human activities got us into this problem and human agency can actually get us out of it again,” James Skea, co-chair of Monday’s report, said. “It’s not all lost. We really have the chance to do something.”

Monday’s report details that it is unlikely, without immediate and drastic carbon pollution cuts, that the world will limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, which is the world’s agreed upon goal. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit). And earlier IPCC reports have shown that after 1.5 degrees, more people die, more ecosystems are in trouble and climate change worsens rapidly.

“We don’t fall over the cliff at 1.5 degrees,” Skea said, “Even if we were to go beyond 1.5 it doesn’t mean we throw up our hands in despair.”

 Michael Mann, professor of atmospheric science at Penn State, arrives at the "Before the Flood" premiere on day 2 of the Toronto International Film Festival at the Princess of Wales Theatre on Sept. 9, 2016, in Toronto. Mann said scientists used to think Earth would be committed to decades of future warming even after people stopped pumping more carbon dioxide into the air than nature takes out. But newer analysis in recent years show it will only take a few years after net zero emissions for carbon levels in the air to start to go down because of carbon being sucked up by the oceans and forests. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)



Rutgers University Climate Scientist Jennifer Francis poses for a portrait during an interview in Washington, June 7, 2013. Climate change is going to get worse, but as gloomy as the latest scientific reports are, including today’s from the United Nations, scientist after scientist stress that curbing global warming is not hopeless. “Everybody knows it's going to get worse,” said Woodwell Climate Research Center scientist Francis. “We can do a lot to make it less bad than the worst case scenario.” 

(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)


United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme Inger Andersen, right, accompanied by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, speaks during an oceans plastics event at the United Nations Environment Programme headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, Nov. 18, 2021. Scientists say climate change is bad, getting worse, but it is not game over for planet Earth or humanity. “We are not doomed, but rapid action is absolutely essential,” Andersen said. 

(AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool, File)

IPCC reports showed that depending on how much coal, oil, and natural gas is burned, warming by 2100 could be anywhere from 1.4 to 4.4 degrees Celsius (2.5 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, which can mean large differences in sickness, death and weather disasters.

While he sees the increase in doom talk as inevitable, NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt said he knows first-hand that people are wrong when they say nothing can be done: “I work with people and I’m watching other people and I’m seeing the administration. And people are doing things and they’re doing the right things for the most part as best they can. So I’m seeing people do things.”

Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann said scientists used to think Earth would be committed to decades of future warming even after people stopped pumping more carbon dioxide into the air than nature takes out. But newer analyses in recent years show it will only take a few years after net zero emissions for carbon levels in the air to start to go down because of carbon being sucked up by the oceans and forests, Mann said.

Scientists’ legitimate worries get repeated and amplified like in the kids game of telephone and “by the time you’re done, it’s ‘we’re doomed’ when what the scientist actually said was we need to reduce or carbon emissions 50% within this decade to avoid 1.5 (degrees of) warming, which would be really bad. Two degrees of warming would be far worse than 1.5 warming, but not the end of civilization,” Mann said.

Mann said doomism has become far more of a threat than denialism and he believes that some of the same people, trade associations and companies that denied climate change are encouraging people who say it is too late. Mann is battling publicly with a retired University of Arizona ecologist, Guy McPherson, an intellectual leader of the doom movement.

McPherson said he’s not part of the monetary system, hasn’t had a paycheck in 13 years, doesn’t vote and lived off the grid for a decade. He said all species go extinct and humans are no exception. He publicly predicted humanity will go extinct in 2026, but in an interview with The Associated Press said, “I’m not nearly as stuck on 2026,” and mentioned 2030 and changes to human habitat from the loss of Arctic summer sea ice.

Woodwell’s Francis, a pioneer in the study of Arctic sea ice who McPherson said he admires, said while the Arctic will be ice free by the summer by 2050, McPherson exaggerates the bad effects. Local Arctic residents will be hit hard, “the rest of us will experience accelerated warming and sea-level rise, disrupted weather patterns and more frequent extreme weather. Most communities will adapt to varying degrees,” Francis said. “There’s no way in hell humans will go extinct by 2026.”

Humans probably can no longer prevent Arctic sea ice from disappearing in the summer, but with new technology and emissions cuts, Francis said, “we stand a real chance of preventing those (other) catastrophic scenarios out there.”

Psychology professor Clayton said “no matter how bad things are, they can always be worse. You can make a difference between bad and worse... That’s very powerful, very self-affirming.”

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Associated Press writer Frank Jordans contributed from Berlin.

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Follow AP’s climate coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Top Pakistan court hears arguments in major political crisis

By KATHY GANNON

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Pakistan's opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif, center, with his supporters leaves the Supreme Court after petitions hearing to dissolve parliament by country's Prime Minister, in Islamabad, Pakistan, Monday, April 4, 2022. Pakistan's top court began hearing arguments Monday on whether Prime Minister Imran Khan and his allies had the legal right to dissolve parliament and set the stage for early elections. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)


ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan’s top court began hearing arguments Monday on whether Prime Minister Imran Khan and his allies had the legal right to dissolve parliament and set the stage for early elections.

The opposition is challenging the latest moves by Khan, a former cricket start turned conservative Islamist leader who came to power in 2018, contending they are a ploy by Khan to stay in power.

The Supreme Court started hearing arguments on Monday both from Khan’s legal team and his allies, and also the opposition, but then adjourned the session until noon Tuesday.

There was no immediate explanation for the adjournment and it was also unclear when a ruling would come. Muslim-majority Pakistan is observing the holy month of Ramadan, when the faithful fast from dawn to dusk

On Sunday, Khan’s ally and Pakistan’s deputy parliament speaker, Qasim Suri, dissolved the assembly to sidestep a no-confidence vote that Khan appeared certain to lose. The opposition claims the deputy speaker had no constitutional authority to throw out the no-confidence vote.

The developments marked the latest in an escalating dispute between Khan and the opposition, which has been backed by defectors from the prime minister’s own party, Tehreek-e-Insaf or Justice Party, and a former coalition partner, the Muttahida Quami Movement, which had joined opposition ranks. The opposition claims it had the numbers to oust Khan in parliament. It has also accused him of economic mismanagement.

The current political conundrum is in many ways unchartered territory, even for Pakistan, where successive governments have been overthrown by a powerful military and others ousted before their term ended.

The most significant decision before the Supreme Court is whether Suri, the deputy speaker, had the constitutional authority to throw out the no-confidence vote, according to constitutional lawyer Ali Zafar.

Zafar told The Associated Press that the court also has to decide whether it even has the authority to rule on this matter. Khan’s party insists actions of a parliament speaker are privileged and cannot be challenged in court.

If the court rules the deputy speaker was out of line, the parliament will reconvene and hold the no-confidence vote on Khan, legal experts say. If the court upholds the latest actions, Pakistan is heading into early elections.

The opposition says it has the 172 votes in the 342-seat assembly to oust Khan. After Suri on Sunday threw out the no-confidence motion, information minister and another Khan ally, Fawad Chaudhry, accused the opposition of plotting “regime change” with the backing of the United States.

Pakistan’s powerful military — which has directly ruled the country for more than half of its 75-year history — has remained silent through much of the political infighting.

However, Army Chief Qamar Javed Bajwa on Sunday distanced the military from allegations of a U.S.-backed conspiracy, saying Pakistan wants good relations with both China and the U.S., Pakistan’s largest trading partner.

Khan, an outspoken critic of Washington’s war on terror and Pakistan’s partnership in that war, claims the U.S. wants him gone because of his foreign policy choices and for refusing to distance Pakistan from China and Russia.

“We support the peaceful upholding of constitutional democratic principles. That is the case in Pakistan. It is the case around the world,” said U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price about Pakistan and allegations of U.S. attempts to oust Khan. “We do not support one political party over another; we support the broader principles, the principles of rule of law, of equal justice under the law.”

However, Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center, sees the latest political wrangling as just another “part of a recurring pattern in Pakistan of governments undermining the democratic process to maintain their hold on power. ”

It underscores a deeply polarized society, Kugelman added. While Khan’s supporters may think dissolving parliament was a “stroke of genius” to avoid a no confidence vote, his critics “think he has acted recklessly and essentially pulled off a legal coup, plunging the country into a constitutional crisis.”

Separately, Pakistani President Arif Alvi, another Khan ally, was ignoring Monday’s deliberations before the Supreme Court and was forging ahead with preparations for an interim government that would see Pakistan through elections. Under the constitution, Khan would remain prime minister until the appointment of a caretaker premier, Alvi said in a tweet.

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Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report. Follow Kathy Gannon on Twitter at www:twitter.com/Kathygannon

Africa looks to renewables to curb warming, boost economies

 Africa has attracted just 2% — $60 billion — of the $2.8 trillion invested in renewables worldwide

By WANJOHI KABUKURU

An aerial view of a solar power plant in Ouarzazate, central Morocco on Feb.4, 2016. Renewable energy's potential across the African continent remains largely untapped, according to a new report in April 2022 by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (AP Photo/Abdeljalil Bounhar, File)

MOMBASA, Kenya (AP) — From wind farms across the African coastline to geothermal projects in the east African rift valley, a new United Nations climate report on Monday brought the continent’s vast clean energy potential into the spotlight. If realized, these renewable energy projects could blunt the harshest global warming effects, power the continent’s projected economic development and lift millions out of poverty, the report said.

The U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change report comes at a time when Africa’s renewable energy business is already booming. Many African nations are intensifying efforts to embrace alternative renewable energy pathways and shift away from fossil fuel dependency, with countries such as Kenya, Tanzania, Morocco, Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa taking the lead on large-scale clean energy adoption.

Yet Africa has attracted just 2% — $60 billion — of the $2.8 trillion invested in renewables worldwide in the last two decades and accounts for only 3% of the world’s current renewable energy capacity. 

Limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) or 2C (3.6F), in line with the 2016 Paris climate agreement, will involve even greater energy system transformation, the U.N. report said.

That means more renewable energy intiatives, such as Kenya’s Lake Turkana Wind Power, launched in 2019 some 600km (372 miles) northwest of the capital Nairobi and making up 18% of the country’s energy production, are needed. Its CEO, Phylip Leferink, said large projects like these can be replicated, but it remains logistically challenging.

“The wind conditions in the north of Kenya are rather unique for the continent. You will be hard-pressed to find another location in Africa with a similar wind regime,” Leferink said. “(This) however does not mean that there is no potential for other wind projects in Africa; there most certainly is. Especially the African coastline, from Djibouti all the way south around South Africa and up north again up to Cameroon, has good wind potential and certainly warrants initiatives in this regard.”

The project is already in good company, with off-grid solar power also contributing to the country’s energy production. In Nakuru county, some 167km (104 miles) northwest of Nairobi, James Kariuki signed up for M-Kopa solar power, a pay-as-you-go low-cost financing for off-grid solar power to his home.

“When I installed solar power into my home, I ended up making considerable savings from the use of kerosene lamp for lighting and charcoal in my house,” Kariuki said. “Hospital bills for my family have since gone down and we now have internet and watch international sports in my home.”

Since 2012, M-Kopa has powered over 225,000 homes in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania with off-grid solar power. Kenya has also been expanding its geothermal and bioenergy capacity for several years.

 Workers install a solar panel at a photovoltaic solar park situated on the outskirts of the coastal town of Lamberts Bay, South Africa on March. 29, 2016. Renewable energy's potential across the African continent remains largely untapped, according to a new report in April 2022 by the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

These initiatives are a firm step in the right direction, according to report author and energy expert Yamina Saheb.

“Renewable energy sources are definitely an important mitigation strategy for Africa, offering its citizens decent living standards by developing infrastructure and buildings that do not require carbon intensive solutions,” Saheb told the Associated Press. “The whole continent could go solar including PV (photovoltaic) and thermal solar and some countries could also go for wind.”

Solar energy initiatives such as the Noor Ouarzazate complex in Morocco, Benban solar park in Egypt and South Africa’s Redstone solar park have sprung up across the continent. The four nations attracted 75% of all the renewable energy investments flows in the region.

Africa has a world-leading capacity for even more solar power initiatives, the report said, with a solar photovoltaic potential of up to 7900 gigawatts. Plans are also underway to explore the potential for geothermal energy in the east African rift valley system and nations dotted around the continent, such as Angola, Sudan and Zambia, are investing in wind and hydropower.

A transition to clean energy is also “economically attractive” in some circumstances, the IPCC report said. The U.N. estimates that Africa’s continued uptake of renewable energies will see the creation of more than 12 million new jobs. China remains the largest lender of Africa’s renewable energy investments followed by the African Development Bank, World Bank and the Green Climate Fund.

“This latest IPCC working group report on mitigation is a clear indicator that Africa should harness the immense renewable energies opportunities available within the continent to power economic growth and build resilient infrastructure,” said Max Bankole Jarrett, an energy expert and former Africa regional manager at the International Energy Agency. “Africa’s vast renewable energy sources should be a priority not just for the continent but also for the world racing to fulfill the net zero ambition.”

53 African nations have already submitted their voluntary national determined contributions under the Paris climate agreement which details energy plans and outlines targets to curb emissions. 40 of those countries have included renewable energy targets.

Africa suffers some of the most severe effects from climate change, despite being the lowest greenhouse gas emitting continent with the least adaptive capacity. Swathes of the continent still lack access to electricity and cooking fuels: The International Energy Agency estimates some 580 million people were without power in 2019, and the World Health Organization says about 906 million are in need of cleaner cooking fuels and technologies. But providing universal access using non-renewable energy sources would lead to increased global emissions, the report warned.

“Climate action is a key component in meeting the sustainable development goals,” it said.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Hertz car rental firm to buy 65,000 electric vehicles from Polestar


Hertz has signed a deal to buy 65,000 electric vehicles from Swedish carmaker Polestar over the next five years, the companies announced Monday. Photo courtesy Polestar/UPI


April 4 (UPI) -- Hertz has signed a deal to buy 65,000 electric vehicles from Swedish carmaker Polestar over the next five years, the companies announced Monday.

The car rental giant will initially order the Polestar 2 model, the companies said in a joint press release. The cars will be made available as early as this spring in Europe and by the end of the year in North America and Australia.

"We are excited to partner with Polestar and look forward to introducing their premium EV products into our retail and rideshare fleets," said Hertz CEO Stephen Scherr.

"By working with EV industry leaders like Polestar, we can help accelerate the adoption of electrification while providing renters, corporate customers and rideshare partners a premium EV product, exceptional experience and lower carbon footprint."

RELATED Vehicle-to-home charging is coming as demand for electric vehicles climbs

Polestar, which sold 29,000 cars last year, expects sales to reach 290,000 vehicles per year by the end of 2025, according to the release.

The company was formed by Volvo and Chinese carmaker Greely in 2017, when it unveiled its Polestar 1 hybrid. It was followed by the fully electric Polestar 2 fastback in February 2019.

The company has said its product range will include five electric vehicles by 2024 with three new models to follow Polestar 1 and Polestar 2.

The Polestar 3, which will be made in the United States, will be an electric SUV expected to be released in 2022 and was described by Polestar CEO Thomas Ingenlath as being built "in America for Americans."

Hertz also maintains a significant fleet of Tesla vehicles dedicated to the company's partnership with Uber, the company's executives said in a February earnings call.

Mark Fields, the interim CEO of Hertz Global Holdings who was replaced by Scherr, said in the call that the company is poised to play leading role in the electric vehicle fleet transition.

PREPARE FOR UNION BUSTING BIG TIME
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz returns, cancels company's buyback program

Howard Schultz, who returned to the Starbucks Coffee Company on Monday as CEO, then announced the company will end its share buy-back program. File Photo by Jim Bryant/UPI | License Photo

April 4 (UPI) -- Starbucks is suspending its share buyback plan, returning CEO Howard Schultz said Monday.

In an open letter to employees, Schultz said the "decision will allow us to invest more profit into our people and our stores -- the only way to create long-term value for all stakeholders."

"In the weeks ahead, I will be traveling, along with our leaders, to connect with partners in our stores and manufacturing plants around the world to understand your thinking and ideas about how to build this next Starbucks," wrote Schultz, who served two previous terms as the company's chief executive.

The company announced in March that it reinstated its stock buyback program, with plans to return $20 billion to shareholders over the next three fiscal years. Buybacks increase earnings per share by reducing the number of shares on the market.

The move to suspend the buyback plan coincides with an increased push to unionize at several of the company's stores.

Before the unanimous vote at a Seattle store in late March, five stores in the Buffalo, N.Y., area and another one in Mesa, Ariz., voted to be represented by the Starbucks Workers Union.

The share buyback plan was instituted under previous CEO Kevin Johnson, who announced his retirement in March, paving the way for Schultz to serve in the role for a third time until a permanent replacement is found. Monday marked his first day back on the job.

"As I make this transition, we are very fortunate to have a founder who is able to step in on an interim basis, giving the board time to further explore potential candidates and make the right long-term succession decision for the company," Johnson said at the time.

Schultz wasted no time in getting to work, making the announcement to end the share buyback program as the company looks to adapt to a COVID-19 world. It had already announced the intended closure of around 150 stores just prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, in an effort to streamline operations.

"Our company, like many companies, is facing new realities in a changed world. Pinched supply chains, the decimation caused by COVID, heightened tensions and political unrest, a racial reckoning and a rising generation which seeks a new accountability for business," Schultz wrote on Monday.

"As Starbucks, we can either choose to rise to this moment -- or stand idle. I am returning to the company to work with all of you to design that next Starbucks -- an evolution of our company deep with purpose, where we each have agency and where we work together to create a positive impact in the world."

Two Disney-branded hand sanitizers recalled over carcinogen, methanol


Two Disney-branded hand sanitizer products are being recalled after FDA testing showed the presence of methanol in one and benzene, a human carcinogen in the other. File Pool photo by Alex Wong/UPI | License Photo

April 4 (UPI) -- A pair of Disney-branded hand sanitizers are being recalled over the presence of either methanol or benzene, the latter of which is classified as a carcinogen, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.

The FDA found the blue formulation of the Mickey Mouse Hand Sanitizer Ethyl Alcohol 68% contained methanol. Testing also found both the green and blue formulations of the Mandalorian Hand Sanitizer Ethyl Alcohol 68% product contained benzene, which is classified as a human carcinogen.

Both are sold in 2.11-ounce bottles.

"Substantial exposure to benzene can occur through inhalation, oral, and skin and it may result in cancers including leukemia and blood cancer of the bone marrow and blood disorders, which can be life-threatening," states the FDA recall notice, which was originally issued Friday.

Prolonged exposure to methanol can result in nausea, vomiting, headache, blurred vision, coma, seizures, permanent blindness, permanent damage to the central nervous system or death, according to the FDA.

Anyone using the products externally is at risk, but young children who accidentally ingest the hand sanitizers are at particular risk.

Both products were produced by a third-party manufacturer and imported by Disney's Best Brands Consumer Products Inc.

The company determined the affected products were produced in April and May of 2020 and had already been removed from sale in April 2021 for unrelated commercial reasons.

As of the date of the recall notice, Best Brands had not received any reports of adverse events related to the voluntarily recalled lots.

The products were initially distributed across the United States through three retail outlets.

Anyone who has bottles of either of the products should dispose of them immediately.

The company will issue refunds for anyone who still has hand sanitizer from the affected lots.

HARD TO MISS
7-foot snake found under the cushion of California man's couch

April 4 (UPI) -- A California reptile expert called to remove a snake found in a resident's couch said he was shocked to discover the serpent was a 7-foot-long Vietnamese blue beauty rat snake.

Alex Trejo, owner of So-Cal Rattlesnake Removal, said he was summoned to a Chula Vista home on a report of an unusual discovery.

"This guy calls me, is pretty frantic and he's like, 'There's a snake in my couch,'" Trejo told KGTV.

Trejo said he was shocked to lift the sofa cushion and find the 7-foot snake, which is not native to the United States. He said in a Facebook post that the call was a "once in a lifetime snake rescue."

Trejo said the non-venomous snake was not eager to be captured.

"He didn't get my skin, but he actually got the lining of my shirt," he said.

Trejo said the snake is in the care of a specialist and being treated for a respiratory infection while he attempts to find the animal's owner.