DUNKIN DONUT ON MARS

Image captured by Mars rover shows a mysterious ‘doughnut’ on the planet’s surface

By Kristen Rogers, CNN
Thu June 29, 2023

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover captured this image June 23 in the red planet's Jezero Crater using its SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager camera.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/LANL/CNES/IRAP

An image captured by the Mars rover Perseverance shows a mysterious doughnut-shaped rock on the red planet’s surface.

Launched in July 2020, the Mars Perseverance rover continues to explore the planet’s 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer-wide) Jezero Crater for signs of ancient microbial life, according to NASA. The rover collects samples of rock and broken rock and soil (called regolith) for possible return to Earth by a future Mars mission.

The Mars “doughnut” is one of the latest objects captured about 100 meters (roughly 328 feet) away in the delta of the Jezero Crater by the SuperCam Remote Micro-Imager — one of the rover’s cameras helping scientists see what’s on the planet’s surface.

The Perseverance team hasn’t made the rover go closer to the doughnut-shaped rock to examine or sample it, so its exact makeup and origins are unknown, said Jim Rice, an assistant research scientist in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University. Rice, who is on the rover’s Mastcam-Z imaging team, first spotted the rock on June 14.

Scientists have a few hypotheses as to where the rock came from — and where it didn’t.

“I can’t say with absolute, 100% certainty it’s not a meteorite, but I think it’s highly unlikely,” Rice said. “The reason I say that is because, this region we’re in, we see a lot of rocks that have these kind of hollowed-out interiors.”

The typical rocks in this region are sedimentary sandstones that are likely a few billion years old, Rice said. “Those were brought in by floods by this big river channel, the Neretva Vallis — that’s the channel that brought all the water and the rocks and sediment in there.”

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The river channel likely transported the doughnut-shaped rock from another area, he added. The rock is larger than 25 centimeters (nearly 10 inches) wide, but exactly how much larger is unknown, Rice said.

Another rock could have been embedded in the center of the doughnut-shaped rock before weather eroded it, leaving a cavity, he added. Wind can also gradually enlarge any small pits or cavities that were already there. Or the rock could have just been weaker in its center.

“Really, scientifically, it’s not anything special,” Rice said.

Pascal Lee, a senior planetary scientist at the SETI Institute, said he thinks the rock could be a meteorite, given past sightings of meteorites on Mars, and the planet’s proximity to the asteroid belt and capacity to preserve meteorites.

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The rock is surrounded by smaller rocks or fragments, “so maybe (it’s) a meteorite that broke up upon landing,” Lee said. In this case, the doughnut shape could have been created by weaker materials in the rock eroding upon entering Mars’ atmosphere, he added.

It’s also possible that the rock was “thrown away from another part of Mars by the impact of a large asteroid,” Lee said. “It’s called an ejecta block. … I would recommend that Perseverance divert from its current course to check it out.”

The rover team has no plans to do so, as it’s currently driving Perseverance in the opposite direction toward boulders it will eventually sample, Rice said.

The Mars doughnut isn’t the only pastry-shaped rock that has been found on the planet. In 2014, NASA’s Opportunity rover spotted a small rock that’s white on the outside, with a red interior — like a jelly doughnut, Lee said.

IAEA chief to visit Fukushima nuclear power plant next week, Japan says

REUTERS
30 June, 2023
(

c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2023

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s foreign minister Yoshimasa Hayashi said on Friday the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi will visit Japan during July 4-7 to see the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Japan plans to release the water from Tokyo Electric Power Co’s Fukushima plant, which was destroyed during the 2011 nuclear disaster, into the sea this summer, raising concerns in neighbouring countries.

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

Indonesian radioecologist concerned about Japan's nuclear-contaminated water release plan

CGTN

30-Jun-2023

People protest against the Japanese government's plan to discharge nuclear-contaminated water into the sea in Fukushima, Japan, June 20, 2023. /Xinhua

Japanese government's plan to discharge Fukushima nuclear-contaminated water into the sea may have a negative impact on the ecology of the Pacific Ocean, an Indonesian nuclear expert said.

Murdahayu Makmur, a marine radioecologist with Indonesia's National Nuclear Energy Agency raised her concern about Japan's discharge plan in a recent interview.

The nuclear contaminated water contains the radioactive substance tritium, and with the discharge of a large amount of nuclear contaminated water, there is concern whether the content of tritium in seawater will increase significantly and whether it will have an ecological impact, she said.

In addition, the nuclear contaminated water may contain other radioactive substances besides tritium, the expert added.

Nuclear contaminated water discharged into the sea will be driven by ocean currents and continue to spread. Marine life which move with the currents and the migration of marine fish will also drive the spread of radioactive materials, she said.

The radioecologist noted that if the tritium content in seawater and marine life continues to increase, the entire Pacific coast, including Indonesia, will be affected.

Indonesia is very concerned about the environment and seafood safety in the surrounding waters, and will closely monitor the level of radioactive substances in the surrounding waters, she added.

Growing anger and fears

Despite ongoing opposition from both locally and abroad, Japan has been rushing to carry out its plan to dump radioactive wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, causing growing anger and stoking fears among the global community.

A protest against Japan's planned discharge of nuclear-contaminated water in Seoul, South Korea, June 12, 2023. /Xinhua

The head of the Fukushima fisheries federation has again expressed opposition to the plan to release radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the sea, local media reported on Wednesday.

During a meeting on Tuesday with the plant's operator Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), Tetsu Nozaki said the government and TEPCO had told the prefectural fisheries federation eight years ago that they would not dispose of the wastewater without gaining the understanding of the parties involved, the public broadcaster NHK reported.

The fishers have not endorsed the government and TEPCO's explanations about the discharge plan, Nozaki noted.

Secretary-General Henry Puna of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) warned in a statement on Monday that Japan's plan to dump nuclear wastewater into the sea "is not merely a nuclear safety issue. It is rather a nuclear legacy issue, an ocean, fisheries, environment, biodiversity, climate change and health issue with the future of our children and future generations at stake."

Leaders from multiple Pacific Island countries have urged Japan "to store or dump their nuclear waste in their home countries rather than storing or dumping them in the Pacific," the statement said, adding that people from the Pacific Island countries have gained nothing from Japan's plans, which puts future generations at great risk.

(With input from agencies)

The looming fate of Fukushima’s contaminated water

Environmental concerns in the Pacific also come
with political risks for Japan’s prime minister.


The Fukushima plant operator expects that the storage tanks for contaminated water will reach their capacity by early 2024 (Philip Fong/AFP via Getty Images)

DANIEL MANDELL
Published 30 Jun 2023 

In the coming months, Japan will be in a position to enact its long-announced plan to release contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean. Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who will make the final decision on whether to go ahead with the plan, will have to balance the fact that the tanks currently being used to store the water will reach their capacity in early 2024 against the environmental and political risks that the plan to release the water presents. How he ultimately does this is likely to have significant ramifications not only for his own domestic standing, but for Japan’s international reputation as well.

The challenge stems from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which caused a meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear reactor located on Japan’s Pacific coast. Since that time, the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings (TEPCO), has had to pump in water to cool the melted fuel and fuel debris. Once the water comes in contact with the radioactive materials, it becomes radioactive itself.

TEPCO has been using a process known as Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) to remove most of the radioactive elements in the water, but the technology is not able to remove from the water the low levels of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen. The treated-but-still-contaminated water is currently being stored at the power plant in specially designed tanks. Although TEPCO has constructed enough tanks to store more than 1.3 million cubic metres of contaminated water, it expects that the tanks will reach their capacity early next year.

In 2021, the Japanese government published a plan to slowly release the contaminated water into the Pacific Ocean. According to the government, the water that will be released will present a minimal risk to humans and the environment, with the level of radioactivity falling far below established safety levels. The final piece of an undersea tunnel that will be used to release the water was recently installed, leaving only final safety checks and official approvals before the water will be able to begin to flow.

Shortly after Japan announced its plans in 2021, it requested technical assistance from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), with the IAEA Director General setting up a task force to provide a science-based safety review of Japan’s plan. The task force is expected to release a comprehensive draft report in the near future.

Robust opposition to the proposed release of contaminated water has come both locally and internationally (Takashi Aoyama/Getty Images)

When the government first announced its plan, it was met with significant concern – if not outrage – from a variety of groups both inside and outside of Japan. Protests against the plan came from China, South Korea, Taiwan, and the Pacific Island countries that view the ocean as part of their identity.
As a result of its diplomatic and educational efforts, Japan has begun to win over some of the objectors.

Now, two years later, there is still robust opposition from many of these same places. Japan’s fishing industry recently reiterated its opposition to the plan, China is accusing Japan of using the Pacific Ocean as its “sewer for discharging its nuclear contaminated water”, and the Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum has called for continued discussion and study before the water is released. Australian Minister for International Development and the Pacific Pat Conroy recently echoed the Pacific Islands Forum’s position, explaining Australia’s expectation that “any discharge of treated water by Japan will be fully informed through scientific assessments” and hope “that everyone just keeps talking”.

However, as a result of its diplomatic and educational efforts, Japan has begun to win over some of the objectors. The leaders of the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of Palau now say they have no objection to the release of the contaminated water. Additionally, a South Korean delegation recently visited the Fukushima site to collect additional data, showing a willingness to revise its existing opposition.

Assuming that the IAEA’s report agrees with Japan’s contention that the release of the contaminated water presents only a minimal risk to the environment and that Kishida decides to move forward with the plan, the question the prime minister will face is how to handle the political difficulties he is likely to encounter.

Within Japan, Kishida’s approval ratings have recently declined over unpopular domestic policies, raising questions of whether he will call a snap election to seek a fresh mandate. In this context, approving the release of the contaminated water before ameliorating domestic opposition from the fishing industry and others may present a meaningful threat to his own political future.

At the international level, approving the release plan risks derailing the recent rapprochement between Japan and South Korea, whose relationship has long been tense for historical reasons. It could also undermine decades of effort that Japan has put into building its status as a trusted partner for the Pacific Island countries, as well as its desire to create a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific”.

Given the fact that the storage tanks at the power plant will soon reach capacity, the inescapable reality is that action will need to be taken. The decision and resulting impact will ultimately determine whether the action is as severe as the initial meltdown.

 SURFS UP

Scientists have finally 'heard' the chorus of gravitational waves that ripple through the universe

By Associated Press

 Jun 30, 2023

Gravitational waves stretching and squeezing space-time in the universe. (AP)

Einstein predicted that when really heavy objects move through spacetime - the fabric of our universe - they create ripples that spread through that fabric. Scientists sometimes liken these ripples to the background music of the universe.

In 2015, scientists used an experiment called LIGO to detect gravitational waves for the first time and showed Einstein was right. But so far, those methods have only been able to catch waves at high frequencies, explained NANOGrav member

Chiara Mingarelli, an astrophysicist at Yale University.

Those quick "chirps" come from specific moments when relatively small black holes and dead stars crash into each other, Mingarelli said.

Scientists have observed for the first time the faint ripples caused by the motion of black holes that are gently stretching and squeezing everything in the universe. (AP)

In the latest research, scientists were searching for waves at much lower frequencies. These slow ripples can take years or even decades to cycle up and down, and probably come from some of the biggest objects in our universe: supermassive black holes billions of times the mass of our sun.

Galaxies across the universe are constantly colliding and merging together. As this happens, scientists believe the enormous black holes at the centers of these galaxies also come together and get locked into a dance before they finally collapse into each other, explained Szabolcs Marka, an astrophysicist at Columbia University who was not involved with the research.

The black holes send off gravitational waves as they circle around in these pairings, known as binaries.

"Supermassive black hole binaries, slowly and calmly orbiting each other, are the tenors and bass of the cosmic opera," Marka said.

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No instruments on Earth could capture the ripples from these giants. So "we had to build a detector that was roughly the size of the galaxy," said NANOGrav researcher Michael Lam of the SETI Institute.

The results released this week included 15 years of data from NANOGrav, which has been using telescopes across North America to search for the waves. Other teams of gravitational wave hunters around the world also published studies, including in Europe, India, China and Australia.

The scientists pointed telescopes at dead stars called pulsars, which send out flashes of radio waves as they spin around in space like lighthouses.

These bursts are so regular that scientists know exactly when the radio waves are supposed to arrive on our planet — "like a perfectly regular clock ticking away far out in space," said NANOGrav member Sarah Vigeland, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. But as gravitational waves warp the fabric of spacetime, they actually change the distance between Earth and these pulsars, throwing off that steady beat.

By analyaing tiny changes in the ticking rate across different pulsars — with some pulses coming slightly early and others coming late — scientists could tell that gravitational waves were passing through.

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The NANOGrav team monitored 68 pulsars across the sky using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Other teams found similar evidence from dozens of other pulsars, monitored with telescopes across the globe.

So far, this method hasn't been able to trace where exactly these low-frequency waves are coming from, said Marc Kamionkowski, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University who was not involved with the research.

Instead, it's revealing the constant hum that is all around us — like when you're standing in the middle of a party, "you'll hear all of these people talking, but you won't hear anything in particular," Kamionkowski said.

The background noise they found is "louder" than some scientists expected, Mingarelli said. This could mean that there are more, or bigger, black hole mergers happening out in space than we thought — or point to other sources of gravitational waves that could challenge our understanding of the universe.

Researchers hope that continuing to study this kind of gravitational waves can help us learn more about the biggest objects in our universe. It could open new doors to "cosmic archaeology" that can track the history of black holes and galaxies merging all around us, Marka said.

"We're starting to open up this new window on the universe," Vigeland said.

Scientists have finally 'heard' the chorus of

gravitational waves that ripple through the 

universe

Maddie Burakoff

Jun 30 2023

Scientists have observed for the first time the faint ripples caused by the motion of black holes that are gently stretching and squeezing everything in the universe.

They reported on Wednesday (local time) that they were able to “hear” what are called low-frequency gravitational waves – changes in the fabric of the universe that are created by huge objects moving around and colliding in space.

“It’s really the first time that we have evidence of just this large-scale motion of everything in the universe,” said Maura McLaughlin, co-director of NANOGrav, the research collaboration that published the results in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Einstein predicted that when really heavy objects move through spacetime – the fabric of our universe – they create ripples that spread through that fabric. Scientists sometimes liken these ripples to the background music of the universe.

In 2015, scientists used an experiment called LIGO to detect gravitational waves for the first time and showed Einstein was right.

But so far, those methods have only been able to catch waves at high frequencies, explained NANOGrav member Chiara Mingarelli, an astrophysicist at Yale University.

AURORE SIMONNET/AP
This illustration provided by researchers in June 2023 depicts gravitational waves stretching and squeezing space-time in the universe.

Those quick “chirps” come from specific moments when relatively small black holes and dead stars crash into each other, Mingarelli said.

In the latest research, scientists were searching for waves at much lower frequencies. These slow ripples can take years or even decades to cycle up and down, and probably come from some of the biggest objects in our universe: supermassive black holes billions of times the mass of our sun.

Galaxies across the universe are constantly colliding and merging together. As this happens, scientists believe the enormous black holes at the centres of these galaxies also come together and get locked into a dance before they finally collapse into each other, explained Szabolcs Marka, an astrophysicist at Columbia University who was not involved with the research.

The black holes send off gravitational waves as they circle around in these pairings, known as binaries.

“Supermassive black hole binaries, slowly and calmly orbiting each other, are the tenors and bass of the cosmic opera,” Marka said.

UNCREDITED/AP
The Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia, US, were used to observe the slow gravitational waves.

No instruments on Earth could capture the ripples from these giants. So “we had to build a detector that was roughly the size of the galaxy,” said NANOGrav researcher Michael Lam of the SETI Institute.

The results released this week included 15 years of data from NANOGrav, which has been using telescopes across North America to search for the waves. Other teams of gravitational wave hunters around the world also published studies, including in Europe, India, China and Australia.

The scientists pointed telescopes at dead stars called pulsars, which send out flashes of radio waves as they spin around in space like lighthouses.

These bursts are so regular that scientists know exactly when the radio waves are supposed to arrive on our planet – “like a perfectly regular clock ticking away far out in space,” said NANOGrav member Sarah Vigeland, an astrophysicist at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

But as gravitational waves warp the fabric of spacetime, they actually change the distance between Earth and these pulsars, throwing off that steady beat.

UNCREDITED/AP
This Very Large Array radio telescope in New Mexico and several other telescopes around the world were used to observe the slow gravitational waves that are constantly stretching and squeezing everything in the universe.

By analysing tiny changes in the ticking rate across different pulsars – with some pulses coming slightly early and others coming late – scientists could tell that gravitational waves were passing through.

The NANOGrav team monitored 68 pulsars across the sky using the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Other teams found similar evidence from dozens of other pulsars, monitored with telescopes across the globe.

So far, this method hasn’t been able to trace where exactly these low-frequency waves are coming from, said Marc Kamionkowski, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University who was not involved with the research.

Instead, it’s revealing the constant hum that is all around us – like when you’re standing in the middle of a party, “you’ll hear all of these people talking, but you won’t hear anything in particular,” Kamionkowski said.

The background noise they found is “louder” than some scientists expected, Mingarelli said. This could mean that there are more, or bigger, black hole mergers happening out in space than we thought – or point to other sources of gravitational waves that could challenge our understanding of the universe.

UNCREDITED/AP
NANOGrav team members meeting at Green Bank Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia., in 2018.

Researchers hope that continuing to study this kind of gravitational waves can help us learn more about the biggest objects in our universe. It could open new doors to “cosmic archaeology” that can track the history of black holes and galaxies merging all around us, Marka said.

“We’re starting to open up this new window on the universe,” Vigeland said.

New UPS Trucks Will Get Air Conditioning After Years of Driver Demands

UPS will slowly begin introducing air conditioning to its fleet of delivery trucks from next year, but is it doing enough?

BY LEWIN DAY|PUBLISHED JUN 29, 2023 

Air conditioning was once considered an optional luxury, but it's generally standard issue on most vehicles today. When it comes to UPS's fleet of delivery trucks, though, drivers have long had to suffer the brunt of hot summers entirely unaided. Some relief will soon be at hand, though, as a result of long-running negotiations with workers.

Air conditioning has long been a top priority for those that work at UPS. If you've ever driven your project beater without A/C in a hot summer, you'll know the struggle. Imagine that magnified by the fact that you're stuck in a hot truck for a full day's shift. Workers have even shared thermometer readings on Twitter showing temperatures inside UPS trucks can reach in excess of 120 F. Now, it seems that UPS has finally agreed to new measures that should help to keep its trucks, and thus its delivery crews, cooler.

The change has come about via contract negotiations with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Union which represents UPS workers. The primary measure is that all newly purchased UPS small package delivery vehicles will be fitted with air conditioning from January 1, 2024 onwards. Where possible, the company will prioritize the delivery of new vehicles to the hottest parts of the country first.

Of course, UPS operates a fleet of over 120,000 delivery trucks in the US. The newly-equipped trucks will make up a small fraction of that fleet for some time. For the rest of its famous Package Cars, UPS will install a fan in the cab to provide drivers with some airflow. A second fan will later be installed in UPS trucks without air conditioning by June 1, 2024.

The new agreement with the Teamsters also highlights some glaring design oversights in UPS's unique Package Car delivery vehicles. Moving forward, UPS will retrofit its vehicles with exhaust heat shields to minimize the amount of heat passing into the vehicle. This is something virtually every passenger car has featured for decades, so it's surprising the measure was never implemented on UPS's trucks. The company will retrofit existing Package Cars with exhaust shields in the 18 months following ratification of its new contract with the Teamsters.

Package Cars will also receive a new air scoop that ducts fresh air into the cargo area of the vehicle. This promises to reduce temperatures in the back when workers are loading and unloading packages. The retrofit programs will cover the bespoke Package Cars that make up 95% of UPS's fleet, with other vehicles to receive upgrades where practical.

Workers have been calling for UPS to solve this issue for years, with heat stroke and other heat-related injuries causing undue harm to those on the job. Workers have collapsed and even died on the job, with relatives pinning the cause on soaring temperatures and unbearable working conditions.

A few fans in old trucks aren't going to solve this problem overnight. While it's positive to see the company finally taking some actions toward protecting its workers from injury, it's hard to understand why it's taken this long in the first place.

New Mexico regulators fine oil producer $40 million for burning off vast amounts of natural gas

New Mexico oilfield and air quality regulators announced unprecedented fines against a Texas-based oil and natural gas producer on accusations that the company flouted local pollution reporting and control requirements as it burned off vast amounts of ...

By MORGAN LEE 

Associated Press
June 29, 2023

 Pump jacks work in a field near Lovington, N.M.,

New Mexico oilfield and air quality regulators on Thursday, June 29, 2023, announced unprecedented state fines against a Texas-based oil and natural gas producer 
The Associated Press

SANTA FE, N.M. -- New Mexico oilfield and air quality regulators on Thursday announced unprecedented state fines against a Texas-based oil and natural gas producer on accusations that the company flouted local pollution reporting and control requirements by burning off vast amounts of natural gas in a prolific energy-production zone in the southeast of the state.

The New Mexico Environment Department announced a $40.3 million penalty against Austin, Texas-based Ameredev, alleging the burning caused excessive emissions in 2019 and 2020 at five facilities in New Mexico’s Lea County near the town of Jal. Regulators raised concerns about the excess release of several pollutants linked to climate warming or known to cause serious health issues, including sulfur dioxide.

The agency alleged that Ameredev mined oil and natural gas without any means of transporting the gas away via pipeline, as required by state law. The company instead is accused of burning off the natural gas in excess of limits or without authorization in 2019 and 2020 — with excess emissions equivalent to pollution that would come from heating 16,640 homes for a year, the agency said in a statement.

The open-air burning, or “flaring,” of natural gas is often used as a control measure to avoid direct emissions into the atmosphere, with permit requirements to estimate burning.

“They simply were not following what they had represented in their permits. ... They represented that they would capture 100% of their gas, send it to the sales pipeline," said Cindy Hollman, section chief for air quality compliance at the New Mexico Environment Department.

Representatives for Ameredev and a parent company could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday by phone or email.

Separately, state oilfield regulators issued a violation notice and proposed a $2.4 million penalty against Ameredev for a series of regulatory infractions at one of the company’s wells. It accused Ameredev of failing to file required production and natural gas waste reports.

“Such reports are critical for operators to demonstrate compliance with (New Mexico) waste rules, which themselves are a key component of New Mexico’s climate change policy,” the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department said in a statement. “Other required reports were submitted but were unacceptably late.”

Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department Secretary Sarah Cottrell Propst said her agency was pursuing the maximum penalty available.

The sanctions can be disputed administratively, and eventually appealed in court.

The Environment Department has ordered the company to cease all excess emissions and seek permits that accurately reflect its operations, with verification from an independent auditor.

Hollman said that the sanctions stem from anonymous calls from concerned citizens about open-air flares from the burning of natural gas. She said that led to on-site inspections in late December 2019 at installations of tanks that receive crude oil from the wells.

“None of the facilities had permitted a flare and yet every facility was flaring,” Hollman said in an interview. “Every site was different than what they had represented.”

Advanced oil-drilling techniques have unlocked massive amounts of natural gas from New Mexico's portion of the Permian Basin, which extends into Texas. But existing pipelines don’t always have enough capacity to gather and transport the gas.

State oil and gas regulators recently updated regulations to limit venting and flaring at petroleum production sites to reduce methane pollution, with some allowances for emergencies and mandatory reporting.

Recent changes by the state Environment Department focus on oilfield equipment that emits smog-causing pollution, specifically volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides.

Two  Combines

两个结合

JUN 30, 2023 | RYAN HO KILPATRICK

THE CMP DICTIONARY

Four and a half decades after Deng Xiaoping called for Marxism to adapt to China’s “material conditions,” Xi has added that it must also match “China’s outstanding traditional culture.” But the “Two Combines,” as this formula has been christened, is aimed squarely at legitimizing and justifying his own uncontested power.

At a symposium on cultural heritage development on June 2, 2023 Chinese President Xi Jinping stressed the importance of “combining Marxist theory with China’s outstanding traditional culture” (把马克思主义基本原理同中华优秀传统文化相结合). According to Xi, this marriage is necessary to realize his grandiose vision of a new “modern Chinese civilization” (中华民族现代文明) grounded in his own theory, which we explore in-depth in “China’s ‘Xivilizing’ Mission.”

Together with the need to adapt Marxism to China’s material conditions (把马克思主义基本原理同中国具体实际相结合), a prerogative established by the 3rd Plenary Session of the 11th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 1978, the formulation has become known as the “Two Combines” (两个结合). It’s a political phrase or tifa (提法) that was first put forward by Xi in July 2021, but which has seen a renewed publicity push since Xi made related remarks during a speech on June 2, 2023. In one memorable flourish, the China Confucius Foundation even at the time called the combines a “magical talisman” that has always guided China’s development.

Marking Marx As Chinese

Magical properties aside, the Confucians are right to point out that the idea of molding Marxism around specific conditions in China — a process known as Sinicization (中国化) — is far from new. It was first formally introduced by Mao Zedong from the caves of Yan’an in 1938, after he and his vision of a distinctly Chinese, peasant-led revolution triumphed over the Soviet-educated “Twenty-Eight Bolsheviks” who had dominated the CCP prior to the Long March out of Jiangxi Soviet (for more on this history, read “CCP or CPC: A China Watchers’ Rorschach”).

However, the idea has not always been in vogue since that time. Mao’s insistence that Marxism should be applied through national forms (通过民族形式的马克思主义) and with Chinese characteristics (中国特色) was denounced by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as “nationalist” (搞民族主义) and was not openly used in the official documents during the 1960s. It was only after the Cultural Revolution, as China entered the era of Reform and Opening-up, that a second wave of “Sinicization” was proposed by Deng Xiaoping then followed up by Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao.

Second-wave Sinicization, ironically, was used in service not of communism but capitalism, rationalizing and justifying market reform in China’s post-socialist stage. The consistency with which “socialism with Chinese characteristics” (中国特色社会主义) was used to describe this stage saw the modifier “with Chinese characteristics” take on new, parodical meaning as a disavowal of whatever concept preceded it.

Civilized Communism

Xi’s addition of the second combine is “an important original assertion,” according to a piece in cpcnews.cn, the Communist Party’s official news site. Taken together, it says, the two are “the inherent requirement and inevitable logic of the Sinicization of Marxism. The entire history of the Chinese Communist Party, writes the author, a professor of Marxism, is the history of the Sinicization of Marxism. Only when Marxism is fully Sinicized will it decisively “take root in the hearts of the people.”

This approach reframes the historical failings of the Communist Party in an original manner. By this logic, past problems had to do not with an excess of violence and dogmatism, or with over-concentration of power. Rather, they arose because Marxism as applied in China was simply not Chinese enough.

Most saliently, the “Two Combines” concept reinforces how Xi has used the idea of Chinese culture or civilization to legitimize his own tightening grip on power. Throughout his rule, invocations of the greatness of Chinese civilization have been coupled with claims to be its inheritor and protector. As another Two Combines commentary on cpcnews.cn puts it, “our Party’s historical and cultural self-confidence has reached a new height, and […] our Party’s efforts to inherit the excellent Chinese tradition have reached a new level.”

---

Ryan Ho Kilpatrick

CMP Managing Editor