BEEN THERE,DONE THAT 60 YRS AGO
Iran sends space capsule carrying animals into orbit

FORWARD TO THE PAST,BACKWARDS TO THE FUTURE

Sky News
Updated Wed, 6 December 2023 



Iran said it has launched a capsule into space carrying animals as it prepares to send up astronauts in the next few years.

The capsule went 80 miles into orbit, according to a report by the official IRNA news agency that quoted telecommunications minister Isa Zarepour.

He said the launch of the 1,000lb (450kg) capsule formed part of its future plans for human missions by 2029.

He did not say what kind of animals were in the capsule.

State TV showed footage of a rocket named Salman carrying the capsule into the sky. The launch location was not disclosed.

Iran has from time to time announced successful launches of satellites and other spacecraft.

It has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit over the last decade, and in 2013 it launched a monkey into space.

In September this year, it said it sent a data-collecting satellite into space

The US and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the programme because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles.

The US has alleged Iran's satellite launches defy a UN Security Council resolution and has called on Tehran to undertake no activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

In 2018, former American president Donald Trump withdrew the US from the 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers - drawn up to ensure Iran's nuclear programme was "exclusively peaceful" - and restored crippling sanctions.

Efforts to revive the agreement faltered more than a year ago and since then the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has said Iran has enough uranium enriched to near-weapons grade levels to build "several" nuclear weapons should it choose to do so.

Iran has always denied seeking nuclear weapons and says its space activities and nuclear programme - which has steadily advanced over the years - are purely for civilian purposes and scientific research.

Crows can use self-control to hold out for favourite food, study suggests


Sam Russell, PA
Wed, 6 December 2023 

Crows will hold out for their favourite food regardless of whether a rival bird is present, a study has indicated.

However, jays will settle for a less preferred food option when another bird is there rather than wait for their favourite and risk losing out, according to research by Anglia Ruskin and Cambridge universities.

Both species are capable of displaying self-control through delayed gratification, by holding out for something better, the study’s authors said.

Co-lead author Rachael Miller, senior lecturer in biology at Anglia Ruskin University, said jays tend to be less sociable than crows and rely more on hiding food for later use for survival.

She said this may be why jays appear to change their tactics and choose their less preferred, but immediately available, food option when another bird is present.

The researchers examined the behaviour of six New Caledonian crows and five Eurasian jays when presented with two food choices on a rotating tray – a high-quality and low-quality option.

Eurasian jays settled for a less preferred food option when another bird was present (Rachael Miller/ PA)

For jays, the high-quality food was mealworm and the low-quality food was bread, while the favourite for crows was meat and the less preferred option was apple.

The birds had to remove the food from under clear plastic cups.

Each bird was tested separately, and they watched as both food types were added to the rotating tray.

At the same time, a second bird – either a direct competitor or a non-competitor bird – remained in an adjacent compartment.

Just before the less preferred food option became available on the rotating tray, the door between the compartments was opened, allowing the second bird access.

The bird being tested could then choose either the immediate option or wait 15 seconds for the delayed, preferred food to become available.

The study found each jay selected the high-quality, delayed reward (mealworm) while alone, but typically chose the immediate food choice (bread) when either a competitor or non-competitor bird was present.

In contrast, each crow stood its ground and waited for the high-quality, delayed reward (meat) over the immediate, less preferred option (apple) in all three test conditions.

Dr Miller said: “Delayed gratification, in this case declining an immediate, small food reward and waiting for something better, demonstrates the ability for self-control.

“We have also used this rotating tray task to comparably measure self-control in young children.

“Both the Eurasian jay and the New Caledonian crow are capable of delaying gratification for a better reward, and we expected both species would wait for the higher-quality, preferred reward when alone and potentially with a non-competitor bird present, but would choose the lower-quality, immediate reward when a competitor was present, as waiting could risk them losing out.

“Interestingly, we found that jays were highly flexible in their use of delayed gratification, and this was entirely influenced by the presence of other birds, but the crows consistently chose the better, delayed reward, regardless of rival birds being present.

“These findings add to our understanding of self-control and the factors influencing delayed gratification in animals, which may relate to a particular species’ social tolerance and levels of competition.

“New Caledonian crows tend to be more sociable and tolerant of others than Eurasian jays, and while both hide food for later use, jays rely more on this tactic for their survival.

“This might explain why the more territorial jays altered their choosing strategy when competitors were present and selected the immediate, less preferred food to avoid missing out entirely.”

The study is published in the journal PLOS ONE.

A pregnant megamouth shark found on a Philippines beach was the first ever seen — and it solved a long-standing mystery

Marianne Guenot
Wed, 6 December 2023

A stock image of a megamouth shark caught in fishing nets in the central Philippines.REUTERS/Rhaydz Barcia

A megamouth washed up on a beach in the Philippines in November.


The shark was found with a pup alongside her and six fetuses inside her body.


The finding confirms for the first time that these sharks give birth to live young.

A dead 18-foot megamouth shark that washed up on the beach in the Philippines was pregnant, confirming for the first time that these mysterious creatures give birth to live young.

The shark was found in the municipality of Aurora on November 14 with one pup and six fetuses, according to New Scientist.

The specimen is the first record of a pregnant megamouth found in the world, according to a statement from the National Museum of the Philippines published on Facebook on Friday.

The discovery solves a long-standing mystery about whether these creatures are ovoviviparous, meaning they can lay eggs inside their bodies and give birth to live young.

This is similar to the megamouth's cousin, the whale shark, that gives birth to live young.

The pup found alongside the megamouth adult could have been recently birthed as the stress of capture or stranding can cause sharks to expel their pups or eggs, said AA Yaptinchay of Marine Wildlife Watch of the Philippines who oversaw the necropsy, per New Scientist.

The six megamouth fetuses were transported to the National Museum of the Philippines for further detailed examination, per the statement. Genetic testing could now reveal whether the fetuses have different fathers, New Scientist reported.

Megamouth sharks have been particularly elusive. First found in 1976, there have been under 300 sightings of the deep sea sharks since. Fewer than 150 specimens have ever been uncovered. They are the smallest of three species of filtering sharks.

Like their cousins the basking sharks, they feed on krill suspended in seawater, sieved through their oversized mouths.

While most specimens have been found near the Philippines and Taiwan, these sharks have been spotted around the world.

A study published earlier this year reported a sighting of two megamouths swimming side by side off the coast of California. They were likely engaging in some sort of pre-copulation ritual, the study authors said.

Long thought to be extinct in Kenya, giant pangolins are now being helped back from the brink

Peter Muiruri

The Guardian
Tue, 5 December 2023 

Photograph: Will Burrard-Lucas/Pangolin Project

When Fred Telekwa settled on his farm inside Nyakweri forest, in western Kenya, four years ago, his main worry was how to prevent elephants and buffaloes from destroying his crops. The nearby Maasai Mara game reserve housed a huge amount of roaming wildlife.

“Two or three elephants can clear an acre of cabbages in one night. I had no choice but to put up an electric fence to ward off the animals,” he says.

But the fence had unintended consequences. One morning in November last year, Telekwa woke up to the sight of a giant ground pangolin that had been electrocuted as she tried to reach a termite mound. She was pregnant. And her death left Telekwa distraught.

“I am one of those people who have supported the conservation of pangolins in this forest. How could one die within my land? I am yet to get over the loss,” he says, stroking the wire with a wooden staff.

“That was the first and last time I ever saw a pangolin. In fact, had she not been electrocuted, chances are I would not have seen her.”

A solitary, nocturnal, scaly-clad animal that looks like a huge, slow-moving pine cone, the endangered giant ground pangolin was believed to be extinct in Kenya.

Their rediscovery, through a scattering of sightings in 2018, was cause for cautious celebration among conservationists. Now, the fight is on to ensure this tiny population survives.

Pangolins are highly endangered, and their numbers are declining rapidly. They are considered the world’s most trafficked animals – especially to Asian markets, where their meat is seen as a delicacy and their scales are sold as a cure for conditions including hangovers and liver problems, and to help mothers breastfeed.

There is no scientific evidence that pangolin scales have any medicinal value. Nevertheless, the wildlife protection organisation Traffic estimates that in 2021 alone, 23.5 tonnes of pangolins and their body parts were trafficked, and 1 million of the animals have been poached over the past decade.

In Kenya, little is known about the giant ground pangolins’ population – including how many live in the country’s forests. Before 2018, it was assumed that the pangolin was locally extinct, as the last-known sighting was in 1971 in western Kenya. Today, local conservationists estimate there are only between 30 and 80 left in the country.

Since last year, the Pangolin Project has been working with landowners around Nyakweri forest to create space for these animals, a tall order considering that most, like Telekwa, are farmers who are clearing the forest for farming and erecting electric fences to keep away wild animals.

Within the forest lie bags of charcoal, freshly felled trees, neatly arranged logs and charcoal kilns – clear indicators of the loss of forest cover, a key habitat for the giant ground pangolin in Kenya.

“There are so many threats that make the giant ground pangolin a priority,” says Beryl Makori, the project manager. “We are losing the forest ecosystem following land demarcation to individual pieces,” she says.

“There is also a measure of poaching because we have found some pangolins without scales after being electrocuted.”

Reducing or stopping deforestation is crucial if the few remaining giant ground pangolins in Kenya are to survive in the wild. Already, about 23 landowners, representing at least 60 households, have come together to form the Nyekweri Kimintet Forest Conservation Trust, covering almost 2,020 hectares (5,000 acres).

Peter Ole Tompoy, 70, heads the conservancy that protects the Nyakweri forest and hopes to persuade more landowners to sign conservancy leases and give the giant pangolins a fighting chance.

“Maasai are pastoralists. Previously, we didn’t have these land demarcations and would move all over looking for pasture. Now the demarcation has divided the land,” says Tompoy, who, despite his passion for conservation, has never seen a pangolin.

Some landowners say the lack of an alternative livelihood to farming has held them back from fully embracing conservation. Musuak Ole Kakui grows maize on 30 of his 80 acres. “An acre gives me 20 to 25 bags of maize. A bag sells for 5,000 Kenyan shillings [£27] – or 100,000 an acre,” he said. “Conservation may not earn my family a similar amount.”

According to Araluen “Azza” Schunmann, director of the Pangolin Crisis Fund, addressing the needs of local people is crucial to making conservation work. “Community-led conservation is central to saving endangered species and creating coexistence between wildlife and the people living alongside wildlife,” she says. “For wildlife to thrive, the people of the region need to thrive as well.”

In the meantime, the Pangolin Project has been raising awareness in the community with a small team of young men making the rounds of homesteads and helping landowners to remove the lowest strands of electric fences, which are the most dangerous threat to the animals.

Related: Scientists discover why dozens of endangered elephants dropped dead

So far, these “pangolin guardians” have spoken to about 1,800 households, says Claire Okell, founder of the Pangolin Project. “The community will have a sense of ownership if these pangolins are protected within their area.”

Although pangolins have received a lot of attention as the world’s most trafficked mammals, “this knowledge has not translated into a robust conservation drive”, she says.

Now it is a race against time to save the pangolin, says Makori. “I feel we are protecting the last of the pangolins. We will give all it takes for a protected habitat with a viable population.”

Find more age of extinction coverage here, and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on X (formerly known as Twitter) for all the latest news and features

Cairngorms: Beavers to return to UK's biggest national park after 400 years

Sky News
Updated Tue, 5 December 2023 


Beavers are to return to the UK's biggest national park for the first time in 400 years after a licence was granted for their release.

Up to six beaver families will live in the Cairngorms in the first year of the initiative after Scotland's nature agency, NatureScot, approved an application from the park authority.

The animals will be released at agreed sites in the upper River Spey catchment.

Other sites in the park may also take the animals over the course of the five-year licence, meaning a total of up to 15 families could be allowed.

NatureScot said establishing a beaver population on the River Spey will boost biodiversity and enhance ecosystems.

The approval marks the fifth catchment in which beavers have either been officially granted permission to remain or have been released.

It comes after the Scottish government announced its backing in 2021 for translocation, which involves safely trapping and moving the animals to a more suitable area, rather than culling them when they cause problems.

Donald Fraser, from NatureScot, said the agency's decision "marks a significant milestone for beaver restoration in Scotland".

He said there was "huge potential for beavers to contribute to habitat restoration and biodiversity enhancement" in the park.

Mr Fraser added he understood the "legitimate concerns" of farmers and crofters but was "satisfied" the park authority's monitoring plans, as well as NatureScot's beaver mitigation scheme, "will sufficiently address any potential conflicts".

Read more:

Urban beavers reintroduced to London after 400 years

Some 400 years ago, the species was driven to extinction in the Cairngorms, which covers parts of Aberdeenshire, Moray, Highland, Angus and Perth and Kinross.

An initial reintroduction trial of beavers at Knapdale in Argyll began in 2009 and populations are now established there and in Tayside, on the Forth, and at Loch Lomond.

The beavers will be humanely trapped and taken under licence from areas where they are having a negative impact on prime agricultural land and where mitigation measures have not been successful or are not possible.

The first three release sites in the national park are on land owned by the Rothiemurchus Estate, Wildland Scotland and RSPB Scotland.

They will receive beavers in the coming weeks and months.

Sandy Bremner, from the Cairngorms National Park Authority, said: "This is a significant moment in the history of the national park, with the licence allowing us to return beavers to the area after an absence of 400 years."

NatureScot believes the catchment is highly favourable for beavers, with a low risk of beaver/human conflict.

Alan McDonnell, Trees for Life's head of nature restoration, said: "Allowing these habitat-creating, flood-preventing animals to be relocated across Scotland - to where they are needed, and with the right support in place for farmers - offers hope for tackling the nature and climate emergencies.

"By moving rather than shooting beavers, we can help this keystone species get to work boosting biodiversity, tackling climate breakdown, and creating wildlife tourism opportunities."

Opinion
On the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, a threat looms

Kim Heacox

THE GUARDIAN
Tue, 5 December 2023 

Photograph: Rick Wilking/Reuters

Imagine a cosmic rock billions of years old yet vibrant with water, light and life. Not too close to the sun and not too far away. Tilted on its axis and turning daily to render seasons, sunrises and sunsets. A place so bountiful and varied that it has nourished and inspired humanity through our entire history. This is Earth, our only home. And that stunning array of life – countless species evolved over millennia and evolving still – is what scientists today call biodiversity.

That biodiversity is in trouble.

First, some good news: fifty years ago this month, in 1973, the US congress passed – and President Richard Nixon signed – something unprecedented: the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Written with biodiversity in mind, and to strengthen previous US conservation laws, the ESA empowered the federal government to get serious about protecting the United States’ most imperiled species of plants, mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and insects by making it illegal to “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture or collect” them. It further granted the government – and this is important – the authority to restore and defend habitats, home ranges and entire ecosystems critical to those species’ wellbeing.


Related: Why the return of sea otters to Canada’s west coast is making waves

This was monumental. A nation obsessed with individualism, economic growth and resource development had proclaimed that all forms of life had a right to exist – even flourish. This flourishing, we know from subsequent studies, not only reinvigorates the land but also revives the best in people, helping them to enjoy nature by discovering wonder and gratitude. The world is not here for us to grab and own; it’s here for us to caretake and share. This transcendence from ownership to stewardship was – and continues to be – many things, but mostly it’s a journey into ethical action for a planet in peril.

According to the US Department of the Interior, the ESA “has been credited with saving 99% of listed species from extinction thanks to the collaborative actions of federal agencies, state, local and Tribal governments, conservation organizations and private citizens”.

The whooping crane (the tallest bird in North America), down to 15 individuals in 1941, numbers close to 500 today. The peregrine falcon and bald eagle – the US national symbol – with their home ranges and vitality decimated by habitat destruction and degradation, and by shootings and pesticides, have made remarkable recoveries. The black-footed ferret, considered extinct until a few were discovered in Wyoming in 1981, has since rebounded to some 300 individuals, thanks to extensive habitat reclamation and captive breeding; while this sounds promising, wildlife biologists say that number needs to increase tenfold before the ferret can be considered no longer threatened by extinction.

Add to these marquee success stories the humpback whale, gray whale, California condor, Kirkland’s warbler, Mexican gray wolf, American alligator and others that would perhaps be gone forever were it not for the ESA. It takes tremendous effort – and at times real sacrifice (change in land-use practices, business models, etc) – to save a species that’s in rapid decline.

Which brings us to the bad news: “After helping prevent extinctions for 50 years,” the Associated Press announced this past August, “the Endangered Species Act itself may be in peril.” The AP wrote that “environmental advocates and scientists say [the ESA] is as essential as ever. Habitat loss, pollution, climate change and disease are putting an estimated 1m species worldwide at risk. Yet the law has become so controversial that Congress hasn’t updated it since 1992 – and some worry it won’t last another half-century.”

Why the controversy? Follow the money, in particular campaign donations to rightwing lawmakers from wealthy landowner associations and industry groups (logging, mining, oil, coal and gas) that oppose the ESA, which they say stifles economic growth and property rights.

If a right brings about the rapid decline of another species, it’s not a right. It’s a wrong. That’s the whole point of the ESA: to create a new moral imperative – be a brake on the big wheel that tramples biodiversity and will one day diminish all our futures if we don’t enforce (and improve) the act at every opportunity.

Back in July, when House Republicans held a hearing about what they called the “destructive cost” of the ESA, the representative Bruce Westerman, chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources, added that the act had been so “twisted and morphed by radical litigants” that he would soon propose improvements. It was his way of saying he and his fellow Republicans would likely overrule science, delay new species listings, cut funding and starve the ESA.

What dangerous folly.

“Science is supposed to be the fundamental principle of managing endangered species,” said Mike Leahy, a senior director of the National Wildlife Federation. “It’s getting increasingly overruled by politics. This is every wildlife conservationist’s worst nightmare.”

To have any chance at survival, the ESA will need bipartisan support – not easy in these polarized times. When the act passed in 1973, the House vote was 390-12. How things have changed.

“Given the current political geography,” Ben Ehrenreich wrote in The New Republic, “it would be … whimsical to suppose that any American politician or movement could ride to power on the message that this planet does not belong to us, that we share it with the dead and the still-to-be-born and with species we have not bothered to notice, and that we must learn to live among them with generosity, humility and the sort of wisdom that does not come to human beings cheaply.”

Global biodiversity is now in serious decline, with extinction rates estimated to be at least 1,000 times higher than pre-human levels. According to the World Wildlife Fund’s Living Planet Report, which studied a representative 32,000 populations, the numbers of mammals, fish, birds, reptiles and amphibians have fallen nearly 70% in the past 50 years.

“We are the asteroid,” say T-shirts worn by increasing numbers of young Americans who know their history and science. The fifth and last great mass extinction occurred some 66m years ago when an asteroid slammed into Earth and doomed roughly three-fourths of all species to extinction. Today, it’s us. We have kicked off the sixth mass extinction, and every endangered species is a red warning light trying to wake us up.

Some 400 years ago, the young French scientist René Descartes had a dream (what he called a “meditation”) that led him to believe in a mind-body separation, that humans alone had souls. Animals did not, and as such, animals could feel neither pain nor anxiety. We alone were touched by God, and ruled over a mechanistic world.

This “Cartesian dualism” permeated western thought for centuries. It reduced nature to a commodity and further gave people permission to abuse plants and animals – with impunity. That mindset, coupled with the rise of agriculture and industry, accelerated the destruction of entire ecosystems, culminating in the largest wildlife slaughter in the history of the world: the killing of tens of millions of North American buffalo. This, tragically, is who we are.

How to turn it around? Start with parenting and education. Take kids outdoors where they can climb mountains, walk through forests and come home feeling taller than the trees, as Henry David Thoreau did. Tell them stories as Indigenous peoples did – and still do – about wild animals who have spirits and ancient trees who give wise counsel. Strive to live simply so others may simply live. Furthermore, have government incentivize the media, with its massive influence, to educate as well as entertain.

Why is it, we might ask, that the US has no high-profile champions of the larger-than-human world? No David Attenborough or Jane Goodall (they’re British) or David Suzuki (Canadian)? It’s time to change that by cultivating telegenic young American scientists, actors, athletes, musicians and humanists who already have a strong following. Get them on camera every week, knee-deep in a river talking about the patience of herons, the majesty of eagles, the beauty and value of nature everywhere here on our cosmic rock.

“Restoring biodiversity is the only way out of the crisis we have created,” says David Attenborough, “and that, in turn, means rewilding the world.”

Soon after taking office, President Biden signed an executive order to tackle the climate crisis, and to conserve 30% of US lands, waters and ocean areas by 2030. Noble objectives. The distinguished Harvard biologist EO Wilson went further, arguing that if humanity is to stand any chance of a healthy future, 50% of the world’s land surface must exist in a natural state.

What then are the benefits of wild nature and biodiversity? Clean air, carbon storage, water purification, food and drink, natural medicines, disease and pest control, nutrient cycling, soil fertility, pollination, habitats for wildlife, spiritual connections, sense of place, inspiration, recreation and physical and mental wellbeing – to name a few.

Should grizzly bears be re-introduced into the north Cascades, and wolves into Colorado? Yes. They were here long before us.

The American buffalo too were here for millennia, and are coming back. Reduced to only a few hundred, they now number some 350,000 and are free from the threat of extinction, which has taken many decades of devotion and hard work. The next big challenge will be to give them enough open space so they can stampede at will and once again be wild – buffalo, not feedlot cows.

“If human beings think they’re the best animal in the world,” the author and rancher Dan O’Brien says, “now’s our chance to prove it.”

We’ve come a long way from Descartes. We know now that other species have emotional intelligence, that wild animals mourn their dead and celebrate their young, that elephants call each other by names, that entire forests are composed of trees that communicate (through mycorrhizal networks). In his new book, Alfie and Me, Carl Safina, one of the United States’ best science and nature authors, adopts an injured owl and writes: “Our deeply shared history as living things is why we had the mutual capacity to recognize each other, and be brought into relationship by that strange binding called trust.” The healing, Safina discovered, goes both ways.

When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the “new world”, they were stunned to find hummingbirds, which didn’t exist in Europe. “Joyas voladoras”, they called them: flying jewels. It seemed that even the most brutal and destructive of men had a capacity for wonder.

Today, the fate of most every plant and animal on Earth is in our hands. The Endangered Species Act has never been more valuable. Wallace Stegner, the dean of western writers, once wrote: “We are the only species which, when it chooses to do so, will go to great lengths to save what it might destroy.”

Let this be our guiding principle for the next 50 years.

A former ranger with the US National Park Service, Kim Heacox is the author of many books, including The Only Kayak and Jimmy Bluefeather, both winners of the National Outdoor Book Award, and the recently published novel On Heaven’s Hill, a finalist for the Banff Mountain Book Award. He lives in Alaska.

NZ

Wellington welcomes first wild-born kiwi chicks in over a century

AFP
Tue, 5 December 2023 

Kiwi chicks have been born in the wilds around Wellington for the first time in more than a century (Pete KIRKMAN)

Conservationists in New Zealand celebrated on Tuesday after discovering that kiwi chicks had been born in the wilds around Wellington for the first time in more than a century.

The fluffy, flightless bird with a long distinctive beak is a beloved national symbol, but few New Zealanders have ever seen one in the wild.

Kiwi are among the most vulnerable birds in New Zealand.

The Department of Conservation estimates there are only about 26,000 brown kiwis left.

Last year, the Capital Kiwi Project released a few dozen adult birds into the wild near Wellington, hoping to reestablish a population in the area.

They have now discovered four chicks -- who are believed to be the first born in the hills of Wellington in more than 150 years.

"This is very special for the team which has been working hard for the last few years," project founder Paul Ward told AFP.

The chicks are a "massive milestone for our goal of building a wild population of kiwi on Wellington's back doorstep", he added.

A project volunteer had a shock when he put his hand in a nest under a tree last week and pulled out a freshly-hatched kiwi chick, Ward said.

"He was very pleasantly surprised when another shot past him. We found two last week and then another two today."

The goal is for the fledgling chicks to reach a fighting weight of 800 grammes, Ward said, to be large enough to ward off stoats, their natural predators.

"We'll go out and give them some extra worms for Christmas to put on weight," Ward joked.

An adult kiwi weighs about three kilogrammes.

In order for kiwi to be able to return to the rugged hills south-west of Wellington, the project first had to rein in their predators.

Local dog owners were invited to sessions to teach their pets to steer clear of kiwi while out for walks.

The project also declared war on stoats by laying a huge network of 4,600 traps over an area equivalent to nearly 43,000 football pitches.

Ward hopes the fluffy chicks are just the beginning.

"We are only monitoring a quarter of the 63 (adult) birds which have been released, so it is likely there will be more (chicks) out in the wild," he added.

"We have high hopes these will be the first of many."

ryj/arb/mca

NZ

Maori MPs call Charles ‘King Skin Rash’ at opening of parliament

CHEEKY BUGGERS

Timothy Sigsworth
Tue, 5 December 2023 

Maori MPs appeared to mock the King during the opening of New Zealand’s parliament on Tuesday by calling him “King Skin Rash” as they pledged allegiance.

Three MPs from the Te Pāti Māori party failed to use the official Maori name for King Charles III, “Kīngi Tiāre”, instead saying “Kīngi harehare” as they were sworn in following October 14’s election.

The politicians argued “hare” was just another name for Charles, however using the word twice means “skin rash” or “sore”, as well as something “offensive” or “objectionable”, according to the Māori Dictionary website.

The King is New Zealand’s head of state and all MPs are required to swear allegiance to him in English or Maori.

Te Pāti Māori opposes pledging allegiance to the monarch and supports the removal of the King as the country’s head of state.

In an earlier break from protocol on Tuesday, its MPs swore allegiance to their descendants and New Zealand’s founding document.

Te Pati Maori co-leader Rawiri Waiti during the swearing-in ceremony as the parliament convened for the first time since October's elections

 - Mark Mitchell/New Zealand Herald via AP

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Te Pāti Māori’s co-leader, said the party’s MPs were “always provocative” when asked if they had been trying to be “cute” by apparently snubbing the King.

“There are lots of meanings for lots of things,” she said.

Rawiri Waititi, Ms Ngarewa-Packer’s co-leader, added that “Hare” can mean Charles in some areas of New Zealand and that he calls his own uncle Charles “Hare”.

“We swore our own oath, how we think an oath should be sworn in Aotearoa [Maori for New Zealand],” he said.

Buckingham Palace declined to comment when contacted by The Telegraph.

While New Zealand’s republican movement is not huge there has been debate for some time on whether the Pacific nation should become a republic, with a citizen as the head of state.

In some indigenous communities, this feeling is stronger, both in New Zealand and elsewhere.

Critics accused Te Pāti Māori of mocking the monarch, who is reportedly planning to visit Australia and New Zealand next year in what is likely to be a key test of his popularity abroad.

“They are trying to make fun of the transliteration ‘hare’, which if said as ‘harehare’ is kind of a transliteration of Charlie, but it also means something objectionable,” New Zealand First MP Shane Jones said.

Charles, then the Prince of Wales, and Camilla, then Duchess of Cornwall, on their last trip to New Zealand in 2019 - Chris Jackson/Getty Images

“It is preposterous that the Māori party should think that they are the authentic voice for Maori New Zealanders,” he added, noting that the party won less than three per cent of the vote in the recent election.

“A lot of their party voters were not Maori, a lot of them were hippies.”

Te Pāti Māori has six MPs, making it the smallest party in New Zealand’s parliament.

During Tuesday’s formalities, each of them made a pledge to their mokopuna, or descendants, to tikanga, or Maori practices, and the Maori version of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Signed in 1840, the treaty laid down a set of principles under which the British and Maori agreed to govern New Zealand, but the English and Maori versions differ and there is debate over whether Maori ceded sovereignty.

Several of the Te Pāti Māori MPs wore feathered headdresses and cloaks honouring their traditional roots and sang or performed an indigenous challenge during the opening of the legislature.

Their swearing-in came amid mounting tensions in New Zealand over race relations.

Thousands of protesters rallied against the New Zealand government's Indigenous policies on Tuesday - Mike Scott/New Zealand Herald via AP

Thousands attended protests earlier on Tuesday organised by Te Pāti Māori against the country’s new government, objecting to policies they argue will unravel decades of progress on indigenous rights.

A Right-of-centre coalition between the National Party, New Zealand First and ACT New Zealand was formed after the October election ended six years of rule by the progressive Labour Party led by former prime minister Jacinda Ardern.

Te Pāti Māori opposes policies introduced by the coalition which seek to wind back the use of Maori language, review affirmative action policies and assess how the country’s founding treaty document is interpreted in legislation.

Protestors gathered in city squares, motorway bridges and outside the country’s parliament in Wellington, the capital.

Police said there had been traffic disruptions in several cities nationwide.

David Seymour, leader of the libertarian party ACT New Zealand, dismissed the demonstrations as “divisive theatrics”.

“New Zealanders elected a government that will treat people equally, regardless of their race,” he said.

PHOTO ESSAY
In the salt deserts bordering Pakistan, India builds its largest renewable energy project

SIBI ARASU
Updated Wed, 6 December 2023

Workers carry a solar panel for installation at the under-construction Adani Green Energy Limited's Renewable Energy Park in the salt desert of Karim Shahi village, near Khavda, Bhuj district near the India-Pakistan border in the western state of Gujarat, India, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. India is developing a 30 gigawatt hybrid — wind and solar — renewable energy project on one of the largest salt deserts in the world. 

KHAVDA, India (AP) — Rising from the bare expanse of the large salt desert that separates India from Pakistan is what will likely be the world's largest renewable energy project when completed three years from now.

The solar and wind energy project will be so big that it will be visible from space, according to developers of what is called the Khavda renewable energy park, named after the village nearest to the project site.

At the site, thousands of laborers install pillars on which solar panels will be mounted. The pillars rise like perfectly aligned concrete cactuses that stretch as far as the eye can see. Other workers are building foundations for enormous wind turbines to be installed; they also are transporting construction material, building substations and laying wires for miles.

When completed, the project will be about as large as Singapore, spreading out over 726 square kilometers (280 square miles). The Indian government estimates it will cost at least $2.26 billion.

Shifting to renewable energy is a key issue at the ongoing COP28 climate summit. Some leaders have voiced support for a target of tripling renewable energy worldwide in any final agreement while curbing use of coal, oil and natural gas, which spew planet-warming gases into the atmosphere.

What makes this heavy industrial activity peculiar is that it's taking place in the middle of the Rann of Kutch in western India’s Gujarat state. The Rann is an unforgiving salt desert and marshland at least 70 kilometers (43.5 miles) from the nearest human habitation but just a short army truck ride away from one of the world’s most tense international borders separating the two South Asian nations.

GROUND ZERO OF INDIA'S CLEAN ENERGY TRANSITION

When The Associated Press visited the renewable energy park, two days of unseasonal heavy rains had left the ground muddy and water logged since the only escape for water in this rough terrain is evaporation. This made it even harder for the workers to do their job.

Notwithstanding the tough conditions, an estimated 4,000 workers and 500 engineers have been living in makeshift camps for the better part of the past year toiling to get this project up and running.

Once completed, it will supply 30 gigawatts of renewable energy annually, enough to power nearly 18 million Indian homes.

As India aims to install 500 gigawatts of clean energy by the end of the decade and to reach net zero emissions by 2070, this project site will likely contribute significantly to the world’s most populous country’s transition to producing energy from non-carbon spewing sources.

As things stand, India is still mostly powered by fossil fuels, especially coal, which generate more than 70% of India's electricity. Renewable energy currently contributes about 10% of India’s electricity needs. The country is also currently the third-largest emitter of planet-warming gases behind China and the United States.

“There are people working here from all over India,” said KSRK Verma, Khavda project head for Adani Green Energy Limited, the renewable energy arm of the Adani Group, which the Indian government has contracted to build 20 gigawatts of the project. Verma, with over 35 years of experience building dams across turbulent South Asian rivers and enormous natural gas tanks under the Bay of Bengal, says this is one of the most difficult projects he’s undertaken.

“It’s not at all (an) easy site to work at, there is no habitation, the land is marshy, there are a lot of high winds, rains and this is a high earthquake prone area,” said Vneet Jaain, managing director of Adani Green at its headquarters in the city of Ahmedabad.

Jaain who has overseen multiple ambitious projects for the Adani Group said the first six months were spent just building basic infrastructure. “From April this year is when we started working on the actual project,” he added.

The Adani Group has been in the limelight this year ever since the U.S.-based short-selling Hindenburg Research firm accused the Group and its head, Gautam Adani, of “brazen stock manipulation” and “accounting fraud.” Adani Group has called the allegations baseless.

Jaain of Adani Green says the allegations have had little impact on its ongoing projects including work at the Khavda renewable energy park.

AN EXAMPLE TO EMULATE

“Twenty years ago, India was exactly where a vast expanse of (the) developing world was,” Ajay Mathur, director general of the International Solar Alliance, said of the country's renewable energy production. The alliance has 120 member countries and promotes renewable energy — primarily solar — across the world.

About 200 kilometers (124 miles) away in the industrial city of Mundra, also located along the Gujarat state’s coastline, the Adani Group is manufacturing the solar and wind energy parts needed for the project. It's one of the few locations in India where most solar energy components are made from scratch. Some of the factories are run like laboratories, with protective gear, face masks and head covers required to avoid dust particles that can compromise solar cells.

The nearby wind energy factory aims to produce 300 turbines a year, with each blade stretching nearly 79 meters (86 yards) and weighing 22 metric tons (24 tons). Each wind turbine generator is capable of producing 5.2 megawatts of clean energy. They will be India’s biggest.

As Mathur of the solar alliance said, “India has traveled a long way,” and its largescale renewable energy projects including the Khavda park will be inspiring for other developing countries. “Here is a country that was exactly where they are today and was able to make the change,” he said.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT

While acknowledging the importance of transitioning to renewable energy, environmental experts and social activists say India’s decision to allow clean energy projects without any environmental impact assessments is bound to have adverse consequences.

“The salt desert is a unique landscape” that is “rich in flora and fauna,” including flamingos, desert foxes and migratory bird species that fly from Europe and Africa to winter in this region, according to Abi T Vanak, a conservation scientist with the Bengaluru-based Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment. Vanak has overseen multiple environment-related research projects in the Kutch region.

Kutch and other similar regions are classified as “wastelands,” by the Indian government — and Vanak says this is extremely unfortunate. “They are not recognized as valid ecosystems,” he said.

With renewable energy projects exempt from environmental impact assessments, “There is no system in place” to determine the best places for them, according to Sandip Virmani, an environmentalist based in Kutch.

At a little over 45,000 square kilometers (17,374.5 square miles), the Kutch district is as big as Denmark and is India’s largest district. Given this, Virmani said there is enough land in Kutch for various renewable energy projects. But he fears that dairies and other local businesses in the region might be impacted by large-scale projects. “It has to be in the context of not compromising on another economy,” he said.

Meanwhile, longtime residents are still waiting to see how this huge project near their village will affect them.

Hirelal Rajde, 75, who has spent most of his life in Khavda, is mindful of the upcoming energy project as well as the increase in tourism in recent years in this otherwise desolate region. “I think these developments are both good and bad,” said Rajde.

“I think overall though it will benefit more than it will cause problems," he said. "I tell everyone who lives here to hold onto their land, don’t sell it. In a few years, I tell them they’ll have so much business that they won’t be able to rest even at night.”

___

Follow Sibi Arasu on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @sibi123 ___

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.

Workers walk through a swamp to install electric transmission towers for the Adani Renewable Energy Park near Khavda, Bhuj district, near the India-Pakistan border in the western state of Gujarat, India, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. India is developing a 30 gigawatt hybrid — wind and solar — renewable energy project on one of the largest salt deserts in the world. 

Employees work at the site of Adani Green Energy Limited's Renewable Energy Park in the salt desert of Karim Shahi village, near Khavda, Bhuj district near the India-Pakistan border in the western state of Gujarat, India, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. India is developing a 30 gigawatt hybrid — wind and solar — renewable energy project on one of the largest salt deserts in the world.

A worker takes an afternoon nap during a lunch break at the construction site of Adani Green Energy Limited's Renewable Energy Park in the salt desert of Karim Shahi village, near Khavda, Bhuj district near the India-Pakistan border in the western state of Gujarat, India, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. India is developing a 30 gigawatt hybrid — wind and solar — renewable energy project on one of the largest salt deserts in the world. 

Trucks carry aluminium alloy frames to Adani Green Energy Limited's Renewable Energy Park near Khavda, Bhuj district near the India-Pakistan border in the western state of Gujarat, India, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. India is developing a 30 gigawatt hybrid — wind and solar — renewable energy project on one of the largest salt deserts in the world. 

Employees work at the construction site of Adani Green Energy Limited's Renewable Energy Park in the salt desert of Karim Shahi village, near Khavda, Bhuj district near the India-Pakistan border in the western state of Gujarat, India, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. India is developing a 30 gigawatt hybrid — wind and solar — renewable energy project on one of the largest salt deserts in the world. 

Ahmed Ramzu, from the Maldhari community, milks a buffalo in Khavda, Bhuj district near the India-Pakistan border in the western state of Gujarat, India, Friday, Sept. 22, 2023. India is developing a 30 gigawatt hybrid — wind and solar — renewable energy project on one of the largest salt deserts in the world. 

Workers sit on a tractor trailer as they make their way to work at the construction site of Adani Green Energy Limited's Renewable Energy Park in the salt desert of Karim Shahi village, near Khavda, Bhuj district near the India-Pakistan border in the western state of Gujarat, India, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. India is developing a 30 gigawatt hybrid — wind and solar — renewable energy project on one of the largest salt deserts in the world.

Employees work on a wind turbine blade at the Adani New Industries Limited in the port town of Mundra in Western India's Gujarat state, India, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. It's one of the few locations in India where most solar energy components are made from scratch.

Employees work on a wind turbine blade at the Adani New Industries Limited in the port town of Mundra in Western India's Gujarat state, India, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. It's one of the few locations in India where most solar energy components are made from scratch. 

A sign is displayed at the construction site of Adani Green Energy Limited's Renewable Energy Park in the salt desert of Karim Shahi village, near Khavda, Bhuj district near the India-Pakistan border in the western state of Gujarat, India, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. India is developing a 30 gigawatt hybrid — wind and solar — renewable energy project on one of the largest salt deserts in the world. 

An employee works to transport a wind turbine blade for painting at the Adani New Industries Limited, one of India's largest solar panels and wafers manufacturing facility in the port town of Mundra in Western India's Gujarat state, India, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. It's one of the few locations in India where most solar energy components are made from scratch. 

Machine operators work on cell printing for solar panels at the Adani-owned Mundra Solar Techno-Park Private Limited, in the port town of Mundra in Western India's Gujarat state, India, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. It's one of the few locations in India where most solar energy components are made from scratch.

A worker makes arrangements of solar cells at the Adani-owned Mundra Solar Techno-Park Private Limited in the port town of Mundra in Western India's Gujarat state, India, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. It's one of the few locations in India where most solar energy components are made from scratch. 

A load lifter operator wheels past a solar panel display alongside an image of Gautam Adani inside the Adani-owned Mundra Solar Techno-Park Private Limited, in the port town of Mundra in Western India's Gujarat state, India, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. It's one of the few locations in India where most solar energy components are made from scratch. 

Solar panels are installed at an under-construction site of Adani Green Energy Limited's Renewable Energy Park in the salt desert of Karim Shahi village, near Khavda, Bhuj district near the India-Pakistan border in the western state of Gujarat, India, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. When completed, the project will be about as large as Singapore. 

(AP Photos/Rafiq Maqbool)

Explainer-How would Canada's proposed oil and gas emissions cap work?

IT RELIES UPON THE FAKE SOLUTION; CCS

Wed, 6 December 2023 


By Nia Williams

(Reuters) - Canada plans to unveil a framework for its long-awaited oil and gas emissions cap at the United Nations COP28 climate summit in Dubai, the only major only-producing country developing such a policy.

Here are details of what it is expected to entail, and what it will mean for the fossil fuel sector:


WHAT IS THE OIL AND GAS EMISSIONS CAP?

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau first promised a cap that would limit oil and gas emissions during his 2021 re-election campaign. It is a key part of Canada's pledge to cut greenhouse gas 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2030, and no other sectors of the economy faces such a cap.

The government will table a framework for the cap at COP28, which runs till Dec. 12, ahead of draft regulations next year.

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault described the framework as a "plain language document" that would give the main elements of the regulations.

Ottawa plans to set an upper limit for oil and gas emissions that will shrink over time, but has not yet said what the limit will be or how it would be regulated. Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said last month the government wanted to achieve the biggest emissions cuts possible without shutting in production.

But Canada's main oil province Alberta is strongly opposed to the emissions cap, arguing it would limit production.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Canada is the world's fourth-largest oil producer and the oil and gas industry is the country's highest-polluting sector, responsible for more than a quarter of total emissions.

In 2021, oil and gas emissions totalled 189 million metric tons, an increase of 3% from the previous year and 12% from 2005, which undercut decarbonization in other sectors like electricity.

Canadian oil producers have ramped up production in anticipation of increased export capacity when the expanded Trans Mountain pipeline starts up next year.

Projections from the federal government's Emissions Reduction Plan (ERP) suggests oil and gas emissions would need to drop to 110 million metric tons by the end of this decade for Canada to meet its 2030 target.

Guilbeault told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday the emissions cap would be close to what is in the ERP.

HOW CAN CANADA CUT OIL AND GAS EMISSIONS?

On Monday, Canada issued draft regulations that toughen its standards on methane emissions. The Canadian Climate Institute (CCI) think-tank says tougher methane rules could drive a third of the emissions cuts needed to get oil and gas pollution to the 110-megatonne level by 2030.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS), electrification and co-generation of power can also contribute to reducing emissions. The CCI said there are solutions available to make an emissions cap work without the oil and gas sector having to cut production, but government and industry should move fast.

WHY IS IT CONTROVERSIAL?

The Pathways Alliance, a consortium of Canada's six-largest oil sands producers proposing a C$16.5 billion ($12.14 billion) CCS project, says it is concerned "impractical and unachievable" timeframes for cutting pollution targets could drive away investment.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith cites the emissions cap as another example of federal government over-reach, and has vowed to ignore it.

The province is battling a number of Trudeau's other climate policies, including proposed Clean Electricity Regulations, and recently scored a win when Canada's Supreme Court said a federal law assessing how major projects impact the environment was largely unconstitutional.

($1 = 1.3593 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia, additional reporting by Gloria Dickie in Dubai; Editing by Denny Thomas and Marguerita Choy)