As urban populations soar wastewater treatment struggles to find sustainable solutions

Activated sludge comes of age

Book Announcement

WORLD SCIENTIFIC

 

IMAGE: COVER OF "ACTIVATED SLUDGE: DEVELOPMENTS AND SUSTAINABLE SOLUTIONS" view more 

CREDIT: WORLD SCIENTIFIC

Globally, activated sludge treats the majority of urban wastewaters; yet it is one of the most complex biological processes used. It is a sophisticated microbial process fraught with operational problems leading to occasional failures in achieving required effluent quality standards. With the increasing problem of partially treated and raw sewage entering rivers and estuaries, the pressure on the process to cope with ever increasing volumes of wastewater has never been so great.

With increasing volumes of dilute wastewater entering treatment plants the high variability in hydraulic and organic loadings cause significant problems to operators of activated sludge plants, often resulting in untreated wastewater entering rivers. There is a long delay between design, funding and construction of wastewater treatment plants, including retrofitting, and so the problem of surface water pollution is on the rise, This is exacerbated by rapid housing developments in areas where there is insufficient wastewater treatment capacity or where receiving waters are insufficient to cope with increased loadings requiring increasingly higher levels of treatment. The better the effluent quality the more costly wastewater becomes to treat in terms of capital cost, energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions. The challenge for operators, designers, consultants and researchers is to find novel solutions that are reliable, sustainable and able to rapidly increase treatment capacity at minimum cost. This is a tall order and requires a firm understanding of the process and, in particular, how bacterial flocs are formed, develop and respond to different operating conditions.

Activated Sludge: Developments and Sustainable Solutions explores in detail the microbial basis of activated sludge, especially the fascinating process of floc formation and development, the role of the organisms, and how a new understanding of the biology of the process has led to the creation of many new innovative process designs. Developments in basin design have created multiple reactor stages allowing a range of anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic zones to capitalize on a wider range of organisms able to remove nitrogen and phosphorus as well as organic matter. The high energy intensive conventional systems are now replaced with highly controlled reactors operating at low dissolved oxygen concentrations using a new generation of aeration devices. Underlying all this are the increasing challenges of ever-increasing loadings, climate change, nanoparticles, microplastics, pathogen removal and antibiotic gene transfer. The development of membrane bioreactors has removed the problems of settleability thereby increasing process reliability and effluent quality, while integrated fixed-film activated-sludge processes are more efficient and compact. Activated sludge is over a hundred years old as a process and is being reimagined into a highly efficient, reliable, and increasingly sustainable treatment process. The book concludes by exploring how activated sludge can become even more sustainable, for example, by carbon harvesting and by product recovery.

This interdisciplinary book is essential reading for both engineers and scientists whether training at university or practitioners and consultants in the wastewater industry. Activated Sludge: Developments and Sustainable Solutions retails for US$168 / £150 (hardcover) and is also available in electronic formats. To order or know more about the book, visit http://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/Q0408.

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About the Author

Professor Nick Gray is a founding member and former Director of the Trinity Centre for the Environment, a hub for interdisciplinary research and teaching at Trinity College Dublin. He is an expert hydrobiologist specializing in biological wastewater treatment and water pollution control. He combines his research and experience as a consultant environmental engineer and scientist into his teaching and writing. He has written over 180 papers in 49 different journals and is the author of 15 books and numerous book chapters.

About World Scientific Publishing Co.

World Scientific Publishing is a leading international independent publisher of books and journals for the scholarly, research and professional communities. World Scientific collaborates with prestigious organisations like the Nobel Foundation and US National Academies Press to bring high quality academic and professional content to researchers and academics worldwide. The company publishes about 600 books and over 160 journals in various fields annually. To find out more about World Scientific, please visit www.worldscientific.com.

For more information, contact WSPC Communications at communications@wspc.com.

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DOI

10.1142/q0408 

Lowest Antarctic sea ice record broken for the second year in a row

Peer-Reviewed Publication

OCEAN-LAND-ATMOSPHERE RESEARCH (OLAR)

 

IMAGE: FIG. CHANGES IN ANTARCTIC SEA ICE. A) TIME SERIES OF ANNUAL MINIMUM ANTARCTIC SEA ICE EXTENT FOR THE 1979-2023 PERIOD [1] AND LINEAR TRENDS DURING 1979-2014, 1979-2017, 1979-2022, AND 1979-2023. B) AVERAGE ANOMALY OF ANTARCTIC SEA ICE CONCENTRATION FROM SEPTEMBER 2022 TO JANUARY 2023 [1]. view more 

CREDIT: JIPING LIU， ZHU ZHU

Antarctic sea ice extent dropped to its lowest level in 45 years of satellite observations on 21 February 2023 - the second year in a row with an area below 2 million km2. This occurrence raises the question of whether the recent change in Antarctic sea ice is a brief anomaly or an early precursor to a transition to a long-term decline.

 

Sea ice in the Southern Ocean shows large variability, both seasonally and interannually. On 21 February 2023, the Antarctic sea ice extent reached its seasonal minimum of 1.788 million km2, setting a new record low since the late 1970s [1] (Fig. 1a). It was set against the background of anomalously low ice extents since 2017, especially immediately after the previous record of 1.924 million km2 in 2022 [1]. After the 2022 minimum, strong heat waves in mid-March brought large warm anomalies to East Antarctica and coastal areas, which kept the ice extent well below the climatology in March (the second lowest for the month of March on record). Since late May, the pace of seasonal ice growth had slowed dramatically, partly due to anomalous northerly/northwesterly winds in the eastern Pacific, western Atlantic, and central Indian sectors that transported warmer air and pushed the sea ice edge southward. Antarctic sea ice experienced a rare event – the lowest for three consecutive months (June, July, and August) on record. Since October, the seasonal ice melt had been at a well-above-normal pace. In response to a stronger seasonal warming anomaly, the decline in sea ice in December was greatly accelerated. This acceleration led to the second lowest December extent on record, followed by the lowest for two consecutive months (January and February 2023) on record. Large polynyas were identified in the Ross, Amundsen, and Weddell Seas.

Several atmospheric drivers associated with modes of climate variability might contribute to the 2023 new record minimum. First, at mid- and high-latitudes, 2022 experienced a persistent positive Antarctic Oscillation (AAO, except June) [2]. Moreover, a very strong AAO occurred in September, November and December 2022, and the strongest AAO for the month of January during the satellite era was set in 2023. This occurrence led to a persistent, stronger, and southwestward shift in the Amundsen Sea Low (ASL), which greatly reduced the sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea and east of the Antarctic Peninsula through onshore warm wind advection and increased sea ice in the marginal sea ice zone between the Amundsen Sea and the eastern Ross Sea (Fig. 1b). Second, in the tropics, there was a moderate La Niña event that occurred in 2022, but it had been unusually prolonged for three consecutive years [3], making it a rare triple-dip event. Atmospheric deep convection over the southwestern tropical Pacific associated with La Niña triggered southeastward propagating Rossby waves, further deepening the ASL. Third, the joint influence of the negative phase of the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation and the positive phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation also favored strengthening of the ASL through stationary wave dynamics [4] but tended to have the opposite effect on atmospheric circulation in the central Indian sector.

However, unlike previous years, starting in June 2022, the Antarctic, beyond the control of the anomalous ASL, showed widespread negative sea ice concentration anomalies, particularly in spring and summer (Fig. 1b). The global ocean has absorbed most of the excess heat induced by anthropogenic forcing, and its temperature surged to a record high in 2022 [5]. The heat content of the Southern Ocean has increased faster than that of other oceans, and the subsurface south of ~55°S has been significantly warmer [6]. The circumpolar westerlies over the Southern Ocean have shown poleward intensification since satellite observations and are predicted to increase under anthropogenic forcing [7]. This can enhance Ekman suction, which facilitates warmer subsurface water being transferred upward. Recent research suggested that compared to the atmospheric circulation, the subsurface of the Southern Ocean had a smaller contribution to the extreme sea ice state before the unprecedented plunge during 2014-2017 but played a critical role in the persistent negative ice extent anomalies since 2016 [8]. Thus, human-caused global warming might act as a control valve through which subsurface ocean warming is being stirred into the surface.

More importantly, the new record low Antarctic sea ice extent in 2023 marks a reversal from the long-term positive trend to a negative trend for the time series of the minimum ice extent (Fig. 1a), indicating that Antarctic sea ice might enter a new regime. This finding further raises the question of whether changes in Antarctic sea ice in the past several years are a brief anomaly due largely to natural climate variability or early evidence of a robust transition from long-term increasing Antarctic sea ice to decreasing sea ice, in which anthropogenic forcing outweighs natural variability. Concern about a tipping point is enhanced by the fact that the latest generation of climate and earth system models projects a large decrease in Antarctic sea ice associated with increased greenhouse gases during the 21st century [9,10]. A large reduction in Antarctic sea ice would have profound impacts on the Antarctic climate and ecosystem, i.e., climate extremes, stability of ice shelves, the food chain and wildlife population, and global consequences, such as sea level rise and carbon cycle feedback. Thus, more research is needed to answer this question and improve our understanding of how future Antarctic sea ice change could interact with the broader earth system.

References

1. F. Fetterer, K. Knowles, W. Meier, M. Savoie, and A. Windnagel, Sea Ice Index, Version 3. Boulder, Colorado USA. National Snow and Ice Data Center (Accessed 22 February, 2023).
2. CPC - Antarctic Oscillation Index (Accessed 20 February, 2023).

http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/precip/CWlink/daily_ao_index/aao/

1. CPC – Oceanic Nino Index (Accessed 20 February, 2023). https://origin.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/ensostuff/ONI_v5.php
2. X. Li, et al., Tropical teleconnection impacts on Antarctic climate changes, Nat. Rev. Earth Environ., 2, 680-698, 2021.
3. L. Cheng, et al., Another year of record heat for the oceans, Adv. Atmos. Sci., https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-023-2385-2, 2023.
4. IPCC, IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. eds H.-O. Pörtner et al. Cambridge University Press, 755 pp. 2019.
5. R. Goyal, A. Gupta, M. Jucker, and M. England, Historical and projected changes in the Southern Hemisphere surface westerlies, Geophys. Res. Lett., 48, e2020GL090849, 2021.
6. L. Zhang, et al.,  The relative role of the subsurface Southern Ocean in driving negative Antarctic Sea ice extent anomalies in 2016-2021, Commun. Earth Environ., 3, 302, 2022.
7. J. Liu, and J. Curry, Accelerated warming of the Southern Ocean and its impacts on the hydrological cycle and sea ice, PNAS, 107, 14987-14992, 2010.
8. L. Roach, et al., Antarctic sea ice area in CMIP6, Geophys. Res. Lett., 47, e2019GL086729, 2020.

 

Contributions: J.L. conceived the study and wrote the manuscript, Z.Z. and J.L. prepared the figure, and all authors contributed to the manuscript preparation and discussion.

Funding: None

Data Availability: The satellite-derived Antarctic sea ice data are available at ftp://sidads.colorado.edu/DATASETS/NOAA/G02135.

Competing Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

 

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JOURNAL

Ocean-Land-Atmosphere Research

DOI

10.34133/olar.0007 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

News article

ARTICLE TITLE

Lowest Antarctic sea ice record broken for the second year in a row

Philippines to deploy underwater vehicle to pinpoint location of stricken oil tanker

MARCH 06, 2023

Spilled oil had been detected on the shore and in coastal waters near more than 60 villages close to the site where the vessel is thought to have sank.

Facebook/coastguardph

MANILA – The Philippine authorities believe they have found the location of a tanker that sank off a central province last week, the environment ministry said on Monday (March 6), amid a race to assess the extent of an oil spill and contain further environmental damage.

The tanker, the MT Princess Empress, is thought to be lying at about 366 metres below sea level, off Oriental Mindoro province, though the information still needed to be verified, the ministry said in a statement.

A remotely operated autonomous vehicle will be deployed to help determine the exact location of the tanker, it added.

Experts said that the authorities want to know how much oil is inside and how to pump the remainder out and stop any leaks.

The vessel was carrying about 800,000 litres of industrial fuel oil when it suffered engine trouble on Feb 28 in rough seas, according to the coast guard.

It was not immediately clear what caused the Philippine-flagged vessel to sink, but all 20 crew members were rescued before it went down.

Spilled oil had been detected on the shore and in coastal waters near more than 60 villages close to the site where the vessel is thought to have sank, the Philippine disaster agency said.

About 36,000 hectares of coral reef, mangroves and sea-grass were potentially in danger of being affected by the oil slick, according to marine scientists at the University of the Philippines.

Oriental Mindoro Governor Humerlito Dolor vowed to seek compensation for the damage and other expenses.

"Let me assure you, the damage done directly on the environment and on our people's livelihood will be given corresponding compensation depending on what is stipulated in the compensation guidelines," he told a briefing.

The governor was speaking at a briefing together with representatives of the tanker owner, RDC Reield Marine Services, and contractors hired for the cleanup operations.

The tanker's owner has contracted local agencies, Harbor Star Shipping Services and Malayan Towage and Salvage Corp, for the cleanup.

"The situation is very difficult... because of the weather. If sea conditions are bad, it is also unsafe for our contractors to work," Rodrigo Bella, vice-president of Harbor Star, told the media briefing.

Dolor said the two contractors would shoulder all expenses initially, including paying residents hired for cleanup jobs.

The national government has also pledged to hire locals under a scheme to assist those whose livelihood has been affected by temporary fishing and swimming bans in affected areas. 

ALSO READ: Thai villagers take refiner Star Petroleum to court over oil spill

Source: Reuters

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/03/oil-from-sunken-tanker-swamps-central.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/03/spill-from-sunken-product-tanker.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/03/philippines-scrambles-to-contain-oil.html

Copenhagen has world’s best work-life balance, according to Forbes study

BEN HAMILTON 

 MARCH 7TH, 2023

Top seven almost totally dominated by Nordics

Copenhagen has the best work-life balance in the world, according to Forbes Advisor.

Its 2023 study assessed 128 major cities across the world, giving each a score out of 100. Copenhagen scored 70.5, placing it well ahead of Helsinki on 65.1.

Nordic cities dominated, taking six of the top seven places, with Stockholm, Oslo, Gothenburg and Reykjavik also featuring.

Only Auckland (NZ) in fifth and the European trio of Vienna, Edinburgh and Belfast (eighth to tenth) managed to penetrate the top ten from outside the region.

Strong emphasis on sustainability

Close to ten factors were assessed, including the World Happiness Index ranking, Gender Inequality Index ranking, average working hours, minimum legal annual leave, property price to income ratio, proportion of remote and hybrid working vacancies, maternity leave policy, parks and nature reserves per capita, unemployment rate, and sunlight hours.

“Copenhagen is ranked the best city for a work-life balance with its strong emphasis on sustainability and a high quality of life. This is reflected in its infrastructure, public transport and green spaces,” explained the report.

“Inhabitants of the Danish capital are known for their ‘hygge’ lifestyle, which focuses on taking time to care about oneself and others, relaxing and enjoying life’s quieter pleasures. Many companies in the Danish capital uphold these values within the workplace, offering flexible working hours and five week minimum annual leave.”

Additionally, it noted: “Unemployment rates are lower than many other parts of Europe (2.4 percent) and companies offer a fair parental leave split of 52 weeks for both parents.”

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Lawyers for big business are busiest in years fighting Biden’s rules


07 March 2023 - 

BY LAURA DAVISON AND ERIC MARTIN

Suzanne Clark, who has led the advocacy group since 2021, said the business community is worried about becoming the “boy who cried wolf” about regulatory overreach since they’ve talked about it for so long.

Lawyers working for the US Chamber of Commerce are the busiest they have been in years as President Joe Biden’s administration rolls out new regulations, the group’s CEO said.

Suzanne Clark, who has led the advocacy group since 2021, said the business community is worried about becoming the “boy who cried wolf” about regulatory overreach since they’ve talked about it for so long. But new rules warrant action, she said in an interview on Monday with Bloomberg News.

“It’s been a massive shift,” Clark said. “I don’t know that our litigation centre has ever been this active in decades and decades of history.”

The chamber is gearing up for a lawsuit against the Federal Trade Commission over a proposal that would prohibit companies from enforcing non-compete clauses in employment contracts. The agency argues that such agreements undermine labour competition, limit innovation and suppress wages.

The business lobby threatened in January to sue if the rule were to move forward.

“This feels like a test case to us. They’re going to come in and see if they can regulate competition to see if they can get away with this as a foot in the door of what else they could do,” Clark said.

The US Chamber has also filed lawsuits in the past year over the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rollback of proxy adviser rules and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s expansion of its examination manual to include discrimination.

“It’s not that we are feeling particularly litigious,” Clark said. “It’s that we’re feeling this expansion of government in a really big way.”

Clark also said US controls on technology sold to China must be calibrated to avoid punishing companies that are selling goods to the world’s second-biggest economy that don’t put national security at risk.

Export controls can be a “blunt instrument,” Clark said, cautioning the Biden administration to take a nuanced approach.

Clark said she’s had private conversations with US commerce secretary Gina Raimondo about some of the group’s concerns, while declining to elaborate.

“There’s some combination of real fear and concern about the national security threat, and real fear and concern about the American economic security threat if we’re not nuanced,” she said.

Bangkok residents told to mask up, avoid outdoor activities as air pollution worsens

The giant Buddha statue of Wat Paknam Phasi Charoen temple is seen amid air pollution in Bangkok, on Feb 2, 2023. 

BANGKOK – Residents in Bangkok have been advised by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) to wear face masks and avoid outdoor activities after fine dust levels climbed above safe levels in several areas of Thailand’s capital on Tuesday morning.

Data from air quality monitoring stations showed that the atmospheric level of PM2.5 ranged from 61 to 93 micrograms (mcg) per cubic m in 69 areas of the city.

Any level above 50mcg is considered unsafe as long-term exposure is linked with chronic diseases, including lung and heart problems.

City residents who have difficulty breathing, eye inflammation, chest pain or headaches after going outside should see a doctor, BMA was quoted as saying by The Nation newspaper.

On Tuesday, Bangkok Post reported that the haze pollution in the country has exceeded safe levels in 36 provinces, particularly the north.

Bangkok and its surrounding provinces will remain blanketed in smog for the next two days.

On Monday, Mr Jatuporn Buruspat, the permanent secretary for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, said that PM2.5 levels have remained critical in the north and the north-east for the past week.

This is due to the slash-and-burn activities in forests and farms, with more than 2,500 hotspots found on both sides of the border, he added.

Officials from the Department of Natural Parks, Wildlife, and Plant Conservation, the Royal Forest Department and local officials are struggling to control the blazes.

Satellite images from the Geo-Informatics and Space Technology Development Agency on Saturday showed 6,701 hot spots in Myanmar, 2,583 in Thailand, 2,125 in Cambodia, 1,434 in Laos, 147 in Vietnam and two in Malaysia.

Thai PBS World reported that Thailand’s National Environment Board will meet on March 15 to consider the forest fire and haze problems.

This comes after the Office of the Asean Secretary-General sent a Second Level Alert to all member countries about cooperation to cope with the related problems.

Mr Jatuporn said the alert was issued after more than 150 hot spots were detected in a single day.

Most of the hot spots in Thailand were concentrated in forests, 267 in farming areas, 228 in community areas, 155 on land reform plots and 14 near highways.

The three provinces with the most hot spots were Kanchanaburi (597), Tak (200) and Mae Hong Son (117).

Canada school board gets high marks for historic adoption of anti-Islamophobia program
Nearly 40,000 Muslim students can benefit from new policy

7/03/2023 Tuesday
AA



File photo








A Toronto-area school board has become the first in Canada to introduce an anti-Islamophobia program.

The Peel District School Board did its homework and found that about one-quarter of its 153,000 students – Kindergarten through Grade 12 in 244 schools – were Muslim.


“The launch of the strategy demonstrates the Peel District School Board’s commitment to ensuring that Muslim-identifying students feel affirmed and have a safe and inclusive learning environment,” the board said in an email interview with Anadolu.


The comments were gathered by Manon Edwards, the board’s communications manager.


The Peel board’s initiative received an A from the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM).


“Peel District School Board is the first school board in Canada to develop an anti-Islamophobia strategy of its kind,” NCCM Education Programs Manager Aasiyah Khan said in an email interview.


In fact, Khan said Peel might be the first in North America to create the program.


But changes like this do not happen overnight.


Former board trustee Nokha Dakroub (2014-2022) is a social worker and activist who had previously mentioned the danger of Islamophobia as it affects students.


In August, she said it was time to take concrete action, and at a board meeting that month, she put forth a notice of motion to create the anti-Islamophobia strategy. The idea was officially adopted at a board meeting in September of that year.


The following is the official record of the motion passed by the board.


“Be it resolved, that Peel District School Board commit to an anti-Islamophobia strategy. That staff report out on its efforts to develop an anti-Islamophobia strategy, specifically provide information on what, if any, actionable items and accountability measures are in place, including plans to regularly provide this information to the broader community.”


“Be it further resolved, that the Peel District School Board mandates anti-Islamophobia training for all staff.”


The final version was adopted in January 2023.


“I’m very excited,” Dakroub told Mississauga.com news after the policy was passed.


It is called by the somewhat long-winded name “The Affirming Muslim Identities and Dismantling Islamophobia Strategy.”


Whatever you name it, Khan said it is a policy that was badly needed.


“In recent times, we (NCCM) have been getting almost one call a day in regards to incidents of hate, racism, or Islamophobia in schools,” she commented in the email.


“It is a very real problem that students, teachers and school staff face within the system and must be addressed. Schools should be the safest place for our students.”


Stripped down to its basics, the program instructs teachers and other staff how to deal with Islamophobia if it arises.


The plan, to be introduced over a four-year period, tackles Islamophobia through education created with community partners like NCCM, annual anti-Islamophobia training, staying in touch with Muslim groups and encouraging Muslim student associations.


“(It is) an anti-Islamophobia strategy that is created by and for those who are consistently impacted by direct or indirect forms of hate and racism within the school system,” Khan said.


The Peel board knows this strategy will be a great aid to its students who are of the Muslim faith.


“The Peel School Board realizes that Islamophobia impacts the experiences of our Muslim students, their families and our staff,” the board said. “As such, we strive every day to ensure the safety, well-being and mental health of our Muslim students and staff.”


The Peel board’s action is a big plus, but the NCCM knows there is no time for recess when it comes to schools.


“We will continue to work with school boards across the country to develop anti-Islamophobia strategies similar to that of the Peel District School Board; this is an important step in the right direction,” Khan said.

WHO expert 'frustrated' over US unwillingness to share info on COVID origins tracing

Global Times, March 7, 2023

Politicization has made scientific tracing of the origins of COVID-19 a difficult matter to conduct, observers said, after a World Health Organization (WHO) senior expert expressed frustration about the U.S.' reluctance to share more information on tracing the origins of the disease.

"If any country has information about the origins of the pandemic, it is essential for that information to be shared with the WHO and the international scientific community," WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.

Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO's COVID-19 technical lead, tweeted on the same day saying she is "deeply frustrated" about the U.S. not offering additional information from its reports assessing COVID-19's origins.

"We [WHO] welcome the U.S.' support in seeking the origins of the COVID-9 pandemic and in preventing future pandemics. What you are doing does not help us achieve this," Maria posted.

"The origins tracing should be purely a matter of science, but since the beginning the issue has been mingled with politics. Driven by political interests, we've seen the U.S. - from the accusations made by the FBI to the U.S. Department of Energy - has never stopped politicizing the issue," a senior expert from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC) told the Global Times, who requested anonymity.

"On the issue of origins tracing, the U.S. opted to pretend to be deaf in hearing fact-based responses from other countries, and it only wishes to investigate countries that the U.S. suspects, but isn't allowing the international community to investigate itself for being a suspect on this matter," a Beijing-based expert specializing in U.S. studies told the Global Times on condition of anonymity on Sunday.

The U.S. mind-set in dealing with the origins-tracing issue is exactly the same as how it copes with diplomatic issues - it always holds a hegemonic mentality as well as double standards. Allowing its intelligence community to be in charge of a matter of science clearly proves the U.S. has been politicizing the issue, the expert noted.

"Given the U.S. intelligence community's track record of making up stories, there is little, if any, credibility in their conclusions. The U.S. will not succeed in discrediting China by rehashing the 'lab leak' theory, but will only hurt the U.S.' own reputation," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning refuted on Wednesday.

The U.S. has been disregarding questions and concerns from the international community about its Fort Detrick and military biological labs around the world. Instead, it has been busy confusing right and wrong by making use of its loud voice and dominance of discourse power, experts said.

The FBI recently claimed that the origins of the pandemic are most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan, Central China's Hubei Province. The Wall Street Journal on February 26 also reported exclusively that the U.S. Energy Department had concluded that "the COVID pandemic most likely arose from a laboratory leak." However, the report was even labeled as being made with "low confidence" by the Energy Department itself, media reported earlier.

Tedros also said on Friday that "the continued politicization of the origins research has turned what should be a purely scientific process into a geopolitical football, which only makes the task of identifying the origins more difficult, and that makes the world less safe."

The politicization of the origins tracing has made the science-based investigation difficult to conduct, hindering the efforts of scientists, virologists and health experts around the world to find out the truth, a Chinese member of the WHO-China joint team told the Global Times on Sunday.

China attaches great importance to and actively participates in global traceability scientific cooperation, but to solve this serious and complex scientific issue, global scientific cooperation is needed, the member expert said, calling for an open and transparent attitude from individual countries on this matter.

COVID-19 origins probe plods on with no clear resolution

House could vote on a bill this week that would declassify information on links between the Wuhan Institute and COVID-19

House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic Chairman Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, is holding a hearing on the origins of COVID-19 Wednesday, with former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield slated to testify. 

(Bill Clark/ CQ Roll Call)

By Lauren Clason

Posted March 6, 2023 

CQ Roll Call

Republicans are continuing the search for answers on the origins of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but the path forward is mired in stalled investigations, classified documents and stonewalling from the Chinese government.

Top Republicans are increasingly convinced the virus leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China and are once again homing in on U.S. intelligence in the wake of a report that another federal agency believes the virus may have escaped from the lab.

The Chinese government has rebutted the “lab leak” allegations as political posturing but has refused to cooperate with international investigations in a number of ways — including by shielding key data about the Wuhan Institute’s work.

Ohio Republican Rep. Brad Wenstrup, who chairs the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, is holding a hearing on the origins issue Wednesday, with former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield slated to testify.

Last week, the Senate also passed by voice vote a measure led by Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., calling on Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines to “declassify any and all information” on links between the Wuhan Institute and COVID-19. The House Rules Committee will take up the measure this week, and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will mark up an identical House bill on Tuesday.

In the House, Wenstrup and Oversight and Accountability Chairman James R. Comer, R-Ky., have already requested documents and testimony from 40 federal officials and academics involved in the early days of the pandemic response.

Comer said he’s hoping to hear from lower-level staff before the committee brings in senior officials like former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci, whom many on the right have vilified as a complicit actor in a Chinese cover-up.

“I think they’re going well,” Comer said of negotiations with the witnesses. “We’re working on it. Nothing moves fast in this town.”

Still, he hasn’t ruled out the possibility of issuing subpoenas.

“I hope not, but we probably will,” he said.

The subcommittee released a memo Sunday detailing emails on the involvement of Jeremy Farrar, director of research foundation the Wellcome Trust and future chief scientist at the Word Health Organization, in the publication of a crucial March 2020 paper arguing the virus evolved naturally.

The Wellcome Trust did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Fauci on Monday pushed back on the memo’s implications that he directed the paper’s publication to dispel the “lab leak” theory.

“I did not ‘prompt’ the drafting of any publication that would ‘disprove’ the lab leak theory nor was I involved in drafting or editing any portion of the Nature Medicine paper,” he said in a statement. “My only goal was to encourage the expert virologists to evaluate the origin of the COVID-19 virus by providing an objective and scientifically sound examination of the information available at the time.”

Fauci has repeatedly pledged to cooperate with Republican investigations, saying he has “nothing to hide.”

The hearing follows a Wall Street Journal report that the Department of Energy found with “low confidence” that evidence favors the theory that the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab.

Other federal agencies remain split on the origin question, with only the FBI concluding with “moderate confidence” that the virus likely came from the lab. Comer and Wenstrup last week broadened their investigation to include the Energy and State departments and the FBI.

Wenstrup has also been working to declassify the full version of an Intelligence Committee report on COVID-19’s origins that was partially released under Democrats last Congress. He accused the intelligence community, often referenced as the IC, of ignoring links between China’s bioweapons program and coronavirus research.

Democrats also support further investigations into COVID-19’s origins, but have not pushed anywhere near as hard as Republicans. Haines published a declassified report under President Joe Biden’s direction in October 2021.

Rep. Mike Gallagher, R-Wis., chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, called that report “anemic” and raised concerns that the DNI and broader intelligence community were consulting with ethically conflicted sources.

“I think it’s caused a lot of people to lose trust in the public health establishment, certain elements of the IC, and it's obviously bad for public health,” he said.

A provision that would have created an independent, bipartisan investigative panel modeled after the probe into the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks stalled last year after the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved it as part of the PREVENT Pandemics Act, a broader pandemic prevention bill.

Former Senate HELP Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., publicly called for the provision to be included with other portions that ultimately hitched a ride in the fiscal 2023 omnibus.

“While there is more to do to strengthen our public health system beyond these reforms — and I will keep pushing on this issue no matter what — the PREVENT Pandemics Act represents meaningful, bipartisan progress, carefully negotiated between Republicans and Democrats over nearly a year,” she said in December.

And another bipartisan investigation from HELP Committee leaders appears to be stalled under the committee’s new leadership. The only report that was ultimately published was an “interim” GOP version from the committee’s former top Republican, North Carolina’s Richard M. Burr, before he retired last year.

The committee is now governed by Chairman Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and ranking member Bill Cassidy, R-La. Murray now leads the Appropriations Committee.

Republicans are also directing more scrutiny to the World Health Organization as negotiations continue on an international pandemic treaty. Cassidy and 14 other senators introduced a nonbinding resolution last week aimed at requiring Senate approval of the final agreement.

Gallagher said the U.S. should be more wary of China’s involvement in international organizations like the WHO in the wake of the pandemic.

“Obviously it's going to be hard to get the CCP to open up their files, but there’s stuff we can do with the information that we have at hand, and there's stuff we can do to pressure them going forward,” Gallagher said. “If nothing else, it should make us very skeptical of their participation in not only the WHO but all international fora because time and again they just haven't lived up to their commitments. They lie and they just don't operate as a responsible stakeholder.”

The scrutiny also follows erroneous reports in far-right media that the treaty would cede U.S. authority to the WHO, which has no power over individual nations’ sovereignty.

House Energy and Commerce Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, also accused the WHO of being “complicit” in a cover-up by the Chinese government.

“As the WHO begins the process to move this pandemic treaty forward, America’s sovereign rights and biomedical leadership and innovation must be protected,” the lawmakers said in a statement. “The CCP also must be held accountable.”

Energy and Commerce Republicans again echoed the call Thursday.

“The American people deserve full transparency regarding what our government knows about how this pandemic started, how taxpayer dollars may have been spent on risky research, and if labs performing such research are upholding the highest standards of safety,” the lawmakers said.

Pollution returns to northern China as industrial activities rise

WHERE THERE IS SMOKE THERE IS WORK 

FIRESIGN THEATRE

MARCH 06, 2023

The sun rises over the city on a polluted morning in Beijing, China on Nov 18, 2021.

Reuters file

AsiaOne has launched EarthOne, a new section dedicated to environmental issues — because we love the planet and we believe science. Find articles like this there.

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BEIJING — Thirteen northern Chinese cities surrounding the capital Beijing have issued pollution alerts over the last few days, raising concerns that an industrial recovery in the region is increasing smog levels.

All 13 cities, including Tianjin and Tangshan, China's biggest steelmaking centre, had issued "orange" heavy pollution alerts by Sunday (March 5), the second-highest alert, the National Joint Research Centre for Tackling Key Problems in Air Pollution Control (NJRC) said.

Air quality in the traditionally smog-prone region of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei has improved markedly in recent years as a result of a "war on pollution" since 2014, which involved closing and relocating industrial plants as well as raising emission standards.

NJRC said the recent spike had been driven by an increase in industrial activity, with steel and cement plants operating at higher levels, and diesel truck traffic also rising. It expected the smog to persist until March 10.

China has been trying to re-energise its economy since lifting strict Covid-19 curbs at the end of last year, raising fears that pollution could be allowed to rise.

An orange alert means the three-day average air quality index (AQI) has risen above 200, classified as "heavy pollution", and normally triggers industrial closures or output cuts under Chinese regulations.

Though Beijing, where parliament is holding its annual meeting, has not issued an alert, its AQI hit 230 on Sunday night and climbed above 200 again on Monday.

Tangshan said on Saturday that it was beginning a "Level 2" emergency response, the second time in a fortnight that it has implemented such measures.

During the first period, several steel mills were due to reduce their sintering by between 30 per cent and 50 per cent to meet the government requirements, consultancy Mysteel said in a report.

Being a woman DJ in Egypt’s small alternative scene

Reuters

When circumstances permit, Egyptian DJ Donia Shohdy organizes parties in Egypt's small underground alternative music scene which she ventured into in 2017. But on top of the struggle to create accessible parties, she also faces sexism.