Bangladesh's critically endangered Asian elephants get court protection

13 hours ago

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Bangladesh's critically endangered wild elephants have received a court order banning their adoption and protecting them from exploitation.

Animal rights groups welcomed the High Court suspension of all licences, so young Asian elephants can no longer be captured and taken into captivity.

Some of the animals have been used for begging, circuses or street shows.

There are now only about 200 of the elephants in Bangladesh, with about half of those living in captivity.

The country used to be one of the major homes for the Asian elephant but poaching and habitat loss has caused a marked decrease in their numbers.

Under the previous scheme, young elephants could be taken into captivity where the forestry department issued licenses to logging groups who would use the animals to haul logs. Others ended up in circus groups. Such exploitation broke the terms of the licences, the court said.

Rakibul Haque Emil, head of animal rights group People for Animal Welfare (PAW) Foundation in Bangladesh, said it was a "landmark order".


"In this name of training elephants, private licensees including circus parties brutally separate elephant calves from their mother, shackle them for months and then torture them to teach tricks," he said.

He said it was now hoped that captive elephants could be rehabilitated.

Actor Jaya Ahsan launched the legal case alongside PAW, and said he hoped it would be the end of harsh "training" that could be inflicted on the animals.

A spotlight was shone on the issue last year when a young elephant was killed by a train after being used for begging on the streets. They are often painted in bright colours and forced to perform tricks by their captors.

And in 2019 two emaciated elephants were rescued by police after being used for roadside begging.

Bangladesh court halts wild elephant adoption

Updated Feb. 26, 2024| By AFP

A Bangladeshi court on Sunday barred the adoption of elephants from the wild, a move hailed by animal rights activists as a "landmark" order to help stop cruelty.

Unsplash


Rights groups said the high court order suspending licences will stop the torture of captive Asian elephants in the name of training.

"The high court today suspended all licenses for the captive rearing of elephants," Amit Das Gupta, deputy attorney general of the country, told AFP.

Bangladesh was once one of the major homes for Asian elephants.

But poaching and habitat loss saw their number dwindle so much that they are now declared critically endangered in the South Asian country.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says there are nearly 100 captive Asian elephants in Bangladesh, nearly half the amount of elephants left in the wild in the country.

As logging and farming encroach on elephant territory, young animals are captured in the country's northern and southeastern hills.

The forestry department has previously issued licenses to logging groups who use the elephants to drag tree trunks, or to circus groups -- to adopt the animals.

But Gupta said the elephants were being exploited and used for begging and "street extortion", breaking the license terms.

Animal rights activists said the suspension would end often brutal training -- known as "hadani".

"This is a landmark order," said Rakibul Haque Emil, head of the animal rights group People for Animal Welfare (PAW) Foundation in Bangladeshi.

PAW and actor Jaya Ahsan launched a public interest litigation against captive elephant licensing.

"In this name of training elephants, private licensees including circus parties brutally separate elephant calves from their mother, shackle them for months and then torture them to teach tricks," Emil said.

"We hope it is the end of hadani in Bangladesh," he added.

The plight of the captive elephants was highlighted May last year when a young elephant, used for begging on the streets, was killed by a train.

Some daub the elephants in colourful paint and force them to do tricks on the streets, asking for cash for their performance.

In May 2019 police also rescued two emaciated elephants from their owners after the animals were used for roadside begging. The elephants were later handed over to Dhaka Zoo.

Emil said they would mobilise support for the rehabilitation of captive elephants.

"Several countries in Asia such as Thailand and Nepal have found some success in rehabilitating captive elephants," he said. "We shall do it here."

Writ filed seeking an end to oppression of captive elephants

Daily Sun Report, DhakaMonday, 19 February, 2024



A writ petition was filed with the High Court on Monday to put an end to the ongoing practice of oppression of captive elephants in the country.

Supreme Court lawyer Barrister Saqeb Mahbub submitted the petition to the concerned bench of the High Court on behalf of the prominent actress Jaya Ahsan and the People for Animal Welfare (PAW) Foundation, an organisation working for the protection of animal rights.

A press release signed by architect Rakibul Haq Emil, founder and chairman of PAW Foundation, confirmed the matter on Monday.

The press release said the captive elephants in Bangladesh are being tortured by people in many ways at different events, including circuses, weddings, commercial advertisements, and political rallies. Moreover, some are using elephants to extort money.These animals are being oppressed severely at the training sessions to perform at these events, violating the Wildlife (Conservation and Security) Act, 2012, and the Animal Welfare Act, 2019.

Aiming to stop this evil practice, the animal rights activists have been organising different programs to gain the attention of the Forest Department regarding the matter for the last few years, but no one has ever paid heed to their demands. Finally, the writ petition was filed with the High Court this time to get justice to this end, the release added.

TEXAS

Austin witches create community at witch markets, tiny home agrihood

One natural witch lives at Green Gate Farms’ tiny home agrihood, where she feels safe to openly practice her craft.

By Emily HernandezFeb 25, 2024


FWW said the animals that live at Green Gate Farms, like this goose named Goldie, have been an important part of her daily connection with nature as a witch. 

Emily Hernandez


Though you may not be aware, a vibrant witch community is thriving in the heart of Texas. It's a community full of magic practitioners who may just entrance you with their welcoming lifestyles and curated spellwork.

Despite a general lack of knowledge about such alternative spiritualities in the U.S., many witches in the Capital City told MySA that Austin feels situated to become a safe space.

“(Witch) is a word that some people don't feel comfortable being described. It's very loaded,” Jessica Beaver, a self-described natural and folk magic witch, told MySA. “In a lot of other countries, witchcraft (is) literally the word for bad, evil, greedy magic. But it is something more in the Western world, more in America, where witchcraft itself has been reclaimed as something that does not equal (evil magic).”

Beaver is the owner of Yarrow & Sage, a metaphysical shop that sells magical offerings like runes, tarot cards, crystals, herbs, and other ritual tools. She also runs the Austin Witches Markets, which have evolved since their founding in 2015 to become a space for all kinds of magic practitioners to source ingredients, connect with like-minded people and grow their small businesses.

Shea Curtis, a vendor at the February 3 Austin Witch Market, sells handmade artwork filled with pressed flowers and paper insects from her shop Dark Whimsy. 

Emily Hernandez

Amanda Aguilar, one of the vendor’s at the Austin Witches Market, offers customers oracle readings and connects people with their spirit guides by working with deities, ancestors, and guardian angels through her business Runic Rose Oracle.

“It’s just been very accepting and loving, and I’ve noticed that that translates to the customers because they feel accepted…which is really important, especially if you’re navigating the spiritual journey,” Aguilar told MySA.

Austin Witch Market vendor Tiffanie McKinnie and her son sell crocheted oddities from her shop Knoddities at the February 3 market. Emily Hernandez

Market vendor Tiffanie McKinnie sells handmade crocheted anatomical hearts, Baphomets, and cryptid lovies from her shop Knoddities. As both a Christian and a magic practitioner, she believes everyone is a witch in their own way.

“If people think that prayer isn’t a form of magic, I mean, come on!” McKinnie told MySA.

“You’re talking to a God and it magically somehow sends it up to him,” her son added.

Another witch who has sourced spell ingredients from the witch markets is FWW, who goes by her spiritual pseudonym. As someone who comes from a long line of witches, she feels the magic running through her veins daily.

“I try to live my life as acutely aware of the magic that is around us naturally,” she told MySA. “Even just this morning…I saw two hawks, which happen to be my spirit animals. Whenever I see a hawk, or especially a peregrine falcon, I know that it's going to be a good day.”

Natural witch FWW sits on a couch in the community farmhouse at Green Gate Farms, where she lives in a tiny home agrihood.

Emily Hernandez


FWW describes herself as a natural witch who lives in a tiny home at Green Gate Farms agrihood— which is a residential neighborhood centered around community farming. Since moving to Austin in 2016, she feels like she finally has a place to put down roots and openly practice her craft in her witchy cottage. She also found that she has two familiars on the farm: the barn cat Millie and a gray kitten.

Growing up in Massachusetts, FWW said she couldn’t really come out of the “broom closet” because of close-minded attitudes about alternative spiritualities. However, she started her journey when she was 13 under the guidance of a magic practitioner she affectionately calls The Seeker. She recalls a time when he taught her how to summon air.

“I put my hands out, and I really felt it and summoned it. I watched this pile of leaves literally start to spin upward like this up to where my eyes were and then it went the opposite way down back,” FWW said. “I was sold immediately. I'm enjoying reliving it actually.”

Her daily rituals include meditation in her loft and grounding, which FWW describes as touching the earth and imagining that she is taking in energy she needs and pushing her roots deeper into the ground to solidify her connection with the earth.

“Depending on my mood, I will go full out and do the full circle and all the candles and all the chants and all the things,” FWW said. “And then other times when I'm doing spellwork, if I find a seed that lands in my hand, I'll put my intention into that and let it go to the wind and plant itself.”


For her, following a specific deity isn’t necessary to feel fulfilled as a witch.

“For certain days of the year (like) solstices and Sabbots, I will reach out to Goddess as a whole, and God as a whole, and then the Universal Spirit that comes around that,” FWW said. “I use the pantheons as a guide more so than worship. Because nature is the worship.”

Feb 25, 2024
By Emily Hernandez is a Dallas native who graduated with a journalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She covers trending news about the Capital City’s culture and beloved Austin staples. She has interned with The Daily Beast, The Texas Tribune, KUT News and the Austin American-Statesman, writing on topics ranging from the church of Scientology trying to silence rape victims to white nationalism within the 2022 Texas gubernatorial race.

The manifesto Britain needs

Labour must act to save the environment – here’s my three-point plan

Carbon budgets that add up, proper protection for Britain’s land and sea, and replacing GDP with a wellbeing index

Our writers and experts name the pledges Labour must include in its manifesto

George Monbiot
THE GUARDIAN
Tue 20 Feb 2024 

I’m as likely to be selected for the national gymnastics team. But bear with me awhile, to imagine that, like David Cameron, I’m about to be wafted by the UK’s fairytale political system from my garden shed to the benches of the House of Lords, to become Labour’s shadow environment secretary. Here are the three big policies I would try to insert into the party’s manifesto.

1. Strong and honest climate policies


First, Labour will adopt the climate and ecology bill drafted by the Zero Hour campaign, which was presented to parliament by the Green MP Caroline Lucas in 2020. Unlike current environmental laws, it tracks both the science and our international commitments. The UK signed the Paris agreement, which seeks to limit global heating to 1.5C. Yet none of the government’s policies are aligned with this aim. The fifth carbon budget, which set our climate goals for 2028-2032, is 36% higher than it would be if we stuck to the agreement. To make matters much worse, the budgets exclude, until 2033, the greenhouse gases produced by international aviation and shipping, and the climate breakdown we commission through the goods and services we import, which account for 43% of our total emissions. If these are counted, Zero Hour estimates, our greenhouse gases have fallen not by 48% since 1990, as official figures claim, but by 23%.

At the same time, some of our crucial ecosystems are being pushed close to their tipping points. Think of the River Wye, which, like many other rivers, is so overloaded with livestock manure that it’s now on the verge of ecological collapse. Many of our threatened ecosystems are essential stores of carbon: their degradation throws us even further out of line with our global climate pledges.

The bill would oblige the government to limit our total emissions to the UK’s proportionate share of a global carbon budget, to allow a 67% chance of limiting heating to 1.5C. It would bring our reliance on fossil fuels to an end as quickly as possible and restore and expand our ecosystems.

2. Offer real protection to vulnerable areas of land and sea

This takes us to my second policy, which also honours an international commitment, made with great fanfare by Boris Johnson in 2020: to protect 30% of our land and sea by 2030. You will be astonished to hear that Johnson had his fingers crossed when he made that promise. His government promptly announced that 26% of our land and 38% of our seas were already protected.

What the government meant was that it has drawn lines on a map around places where, in most cases, nature has no meaningful protections. Most of our national parks are ecological disaster zones, grazed to the quick by sheep and deer or burnt for grouse shooting. Most of our “marine protected areas” are repeatedly trashed by trawlers. A paper in Global Ecology and Conservation reveals that as little as 5% of the UK’s land surface meets international standards for nature protection. In England, it’s just over 3%. Only 0.53% of English seas have been protected from damaging industries such as fishing, dredging and construction.

Labour will honour Johnson’s broken promise and the UK’s commitment under the global biodiversity framework: 30% of our land and sea will be genuinely protected. To this end, we’ll develop a land and sea use strategy, identifying the places where it makes most sense to farm and fish, and the places it makes more sense to rewild, delivering a just transition towards a greener rural economy.

3. Implement a genuine progress index in place of GDP

At the moment, every attempt to create a greener and fairer country is hampered by the way we measure progress. So my third big policy is to dethrone our use of GDP as a general indicator of how well we are doing, and replace it with more appropriate measures. There’s a vast range of ideas about what a genuine progress index would look like, so Labour would launch a consultation and citizens’ assemblies to decide how best to do it.

Unlike GDP, which bundles up good things and bad (if you have to refurbish your home because of flooding, this contributes to GDP), our index would incorporate measures of health, education, housing, environmental quality, employment and leisure time, ability to meet the cost of living, equality, inclusivity and democratic engagement. All these things are measured today, but they currently take second place to a perverse metric that was never designed to track our wellbeing.

I know they want it. So I’ll just keep sitting here waiting for the call. Hello? Whenever you’re ready guys. Damn signal must have gone down again.

George Monbiot is a Guardian columnist

Decarbonising the grid without large-scale public investment is impossible

Research shows that using public borrowing to fund renewable energy projects is cheaper than relying on the private sector.

By Chris Hayes and Melanie Brusseler
THE NEW STATESMAN

Wind turbine blades at the Harland and Wolff shipyard. 

Photo by Peter Macdiarmid / Getty Images.

Several months of rumours, internal briefings and mixed messaging culminated in the Labour Party officially abandoning its pledge to invest £28bn a year in its green prosperity plan, down-scaling its spending plans to less than £15bn over the course of a full parliament. Great British Energy, a central part of this plan, will remain with an initial capitalisation of £8.3bn, presumably financed by gilt issuance. While the larger climb-down is motivated by the party’s stated commitment to fiscal credibility, it has retained its target to reach clean energy by 2030. The two stances are incompatible; the situation demands more public investment, not less, and GB Energy must lead the way.

In an effort to appear hospitable to business, Rachel Reeves has repeatedly stressed her wish to “de-risk” private investment not just in British business but also for our infrastructure, “unlocking” private capital to fill the void left by previous governments. The cruel irony is that our new era of high interest rates, which has given the shadow Treasury team fiscal cold feet, is itself a symptom of precisely the conditions that make private capital less, rather than more, likely to take up the mantle – at least where renewable energy investment is concerned. The reasons for this can broadly be put into three categories: cost, certainty and coherence.

Cost is the simplest. The interest-hiking cycle frightening fiscal policymakers has applied to everyone, not just to governments. Governments, at least in the rich world, can still borrow more cheaply than private companies. If anything, the spread in yields between corporate and sovereign bonds rises during periods of financial instability. Over the past decade, the spread of UK BBB-rated corporate bonds (the credit rating invariably assigned to new offshore wind projects) over gilts has been in the region of 1.5-2.5 percentage point

This is not a marginal concern. Renewable energy – with its profile of high upfront investment costs followed by extremely low operating costs – is acutely sensitive to the cost of capital, with debt usually comprising up to 80 per cent of the financing mix. The International Energy Agency estimates that a 2 percentage point increase in the cost of capital inflated a solar or wind project’s “levelised cost of electricity” (the average unit electricity cost over the lifetime of an asset) by a staggering 20 per cent. In so far as it is avoidable, this is upward redistribution from billpayers to the financial sector. Combine this with the freedom from the need to pay dividends beyond making equity holders whole and you have a radically cheaper energy proposition to the public. Given that electricity is, in economist Isabella Weber’s words, a systemically significant price, the need to keep it low and stable is a matter of macroeconomic urgency. Indeed, failure to do so over the last two years is the main reason interest rates are currently as prohibitively high as they are.

Certainty is what investors crave as a precondition for overcoming what Keynes called the “liquidity preference” and sinking their capital into long-term projects. Hence the UK’s often celebrated “contracts for difference” scheme, which addresses the volatility pervasive to spot markets in wholesale electricity – especially where renewables are concerned – and fixes generators’ prices, providing some certainty to the price side of the profitability equation. Until recently, this regime had considerable success mobilising investment in a nascent offshore wind industry; only Denmark has more offshore wind capacity per capita. But as geopolitical, ecological and macro-financial turbulence has become the order of the day, the relative stability once taken more or less for granted on the cost side has been replaced by supply-chain snarls, raw input inflation and, of course, the much tighter financing conditions that prompted Labour to seek salvation from the private sector.

By the time these large capital-intensive projects are operational, the risks attending these costs have been resolved, yet the investment decision itself is made based on price-fixing agreements secured long beforehand. Either investors abandon their plans – as with the calamitous failure of the last such auction round – or demand a risk premium. In other words, private renewable investment is secured by fossilising yesterday’s uncertainties into today’s prices (for 15 years) – uncertainties that are immaterial to the one cast-iron certainty from society’s perspective, namely that such investment must take place one way or another if we are to confront the climate crisis.

Finally, as the architects of the future systems explicitly acknowledge, the components of our energy system must be understood in terms of their contribution to the larger coherent system. And yet the vertical disintegration and horizontal fragmentation characterising our current privatised model increasingly places system-level need in tension with project-level expected profitability. Despite the obvious surplus created by the larger system, which is not in any question, investment is determined by the ability of its isolated components to capture a sufficient share of that surplus under prevailing market and regulatory conditions. In other words, the investment pipeline is gummed up by intra-system distributional squabbles (among and between generators, retailers, the grid, etc) that ought to be subsumed on to a larger balance sheet. Instead they are invariably overcome by enlisting the unwitting consumer via higher bills.

An alternative is possible. As a new report by Common Wealth argues at length, energy decarbonisation can be achieved cheaply, effectively and robustly if politicians have the courage to undertake the scale of public borrowing necessary and turn GB Energy into the leading developer of revenue-generating energy assets, rather than a minor bit-player. It is an illusion to expect the private sector to do the government’s work without extracting a higher price. The best way to de-risk investment is simply for states to invest themselves.

Read the full report on public power generation from the Common Wealth think tank.

Clean Arctic Alliance: Progress Made, But IMO Fails to Act on Black Carbon Emissions, Despite Credible and Direct Pathway

in International Shipping News,Shipping: Emission Possible 26/02/2024

As a meeting of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) Sub-Committee on Pollution Prevention and Response (PPR 11) closed today in London, the Clean Arctic Alliance called on the IMO to urgently adopt a mandatory regulation requiring ships to move to distillate fuels while operating in and near to the Arctic, and for the maritime sector to follow a 2021 IMO resolution above 60 degrees north. In addition, The Alliance called on the international shipping sector to now implement the new guidance agreed this week to protect the Arctic from black carbon emissions from shipping [1].

“While PPR11 made some progress this week – agreeing guidance on best practise on black carbon control measures as well as emissions measurement, monitoring, and reporting, and also commencing an open discussion on the issue of fuel quality and aromaticity – the IMO is still failing to act on reducing black carbon emissions despite a switch to cleaner fuels being identified over a decade ago”, said Dr Sian Prior, Lead Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance. “A clear and credible path has already been identified – the IMO must now adopt a mandatory regulation requiring ships to move to distillate fuels while operating in and near to the Arctic.”

“During the meeting, some IMO member states agreed that recommendatory action would not be sufficient and stronger action was required – but then failed to push hard enough to achieve that action. Due to this ongoing travesty – with of emissions of a potent short-lived climate pollutant remaining unregulated – the Clean Arctic Alliance calls on the shipping sector to follow the IMO Resolution agreed in 2021 to voluntarily switch to distillate fuels to protect the Arctic, and to apply the guidance finalised during PPR11. We call on IMO member states to now turn the 2021 resolution into a regulation as an interim measure – switching to distillate fuels is a clear way forward in one of the world’s most climate vulnerable regions. Not only can it be achieved quickly, it will also ensure that emissions in black carbon emissions are rapidly reduced between 50% – 80% (depending on the engine and other variables), until work to develop a polar fuel standard can be concluded, added Prior.”

During PPR11, many IMO member states acknowledged that discharge of scrubber wastewater is an environmental hazard and supported regulation of scrubbers on a regional basis. Regrettably, there was no consensus between those that support a ban or regulation, those that support regulation but have no wish to penalise shipowners that have installed scrubbers, and those that have yet to be convinced that regulation is required. As a result PPR could only encourage member states and interested parties including NGOs to bring proposals to PPR 12 in 2025.

“While shipping industry and oil industry parties claimed that scrubbers are ‘OK’, several member states and environmental groups countered this old and tired narrative, which is based on the 20th century myth that ‘the solution to pollution is dilution’”, said Eelco Leemans, Technical Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance. “We are now seeing increasing support from IMO member states for regulation of scrubbers, particularly in coastal waters and sensitive areas such as the Arctic. The IMO’s failure to identify next steps means that it has in effect given the green light for countries to implement restriction, while many states have given a red light to the use of scrubbers in their waters.”

Heavy Fuel Oil
PPR 11 also agreed guidelines on mitigation measures to reduce the risks of using and carrying for use of heavy fuel oil (HFO) in Arctic waters for approval by MEPC 82, later in the year.

“More important than agreeing these guidelines”, said Andrew Dumbrille, Strategic and Technical Advisor to the Clean Arctic Alliance, “is the need for ships still using HFO in Arctic waters to switch to cleaner alternative fuels, when the deadline prohibiting the use and carriage for use of HFO by ships operating in Arctic waters takes effect from 1 July 2024.“

“Regrettably, as some ships will continue to use HFO under an exemption or waiver until 1 July 2029, the Clean Arctic Alliance is calling for shipping companies to take responsibility for their environmental impact by making better fuel choices. Not only will this reduce the risks of a HFO spill in the Arctic but it will also reduce black carbon emissions too – a win-win situation which tackles both the climate and biodiversity crises together. Prioritising measures which are at the intersection of planetary threats should be a high priority for the IMO and its member states.”
Source: Clean Arctic Alliance

 

Accidental Deep Ocean Discovery Changes Our Understanding of Earth

By WOODS HOLE OCEANOGRAPHIC INSTITUTION FEBRUARY 25, 2024

New research has identified oceanic transform faults as significant, previously underestimated sinks for CO2, challenging existing notions about the Earth’s geological carbon cycle. This research emphasizes the crucial role of natural geological emissions in shaping Earth’s climate history and highlights the need for a deeper understanding of these processes in the context of addressing contemporary climate change. Above is a cut slice of altered mantle rock. Credit: Solvin Zankl

Studying a rock is like reading a book. The rock has a story to tell, says Frieder Klein, an associate scientist in the Marine Chemistry & Geochemistry Department at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).

The rocks that Klein and his colleagues analyzed from the submerged flanks of the St. Peter and St. Paul Archipelago in the St. Paul’s oceanic transform fault, about 500 km off the coast of Brazil, tell a fascinating and previously unknown story about parts of the geological carbon cycle.

Transform faults, where tectonic plates move past each other, are one of three main plate boundaries on Earth and about 48,000 km in length globally, with the others being the global mid-ocean ridge system (about 65,000 km) and subduction zones (about 55,000 km).

The Role of Transform Faults in Carbon Cycling

Carbon cycling at mid-ocean ridges and subduction zones has been studied for decades. In contrast, scientists have paid relatively scant attention to CO₂ in oceanic transform faults. The transform faults were considered “somewhat boring” places for quite some time because of the low magmatic activity there, says Klein. “What we have now pieced together is that the mantle rocks that are exposed along these ocean transform faults represent a potentially vast sink for CO₂,” he says.

Partial melting of the mantle releases CO₂ that becomes entrained in hydrothermal fluid, reacts with the mantle closer to the seafloor, and is captured there.

Chief Scientist Frieder Klein and Deep Rover Pilot Alan Scot exploring a submerged carbonate platform. Credit: Novus Select

This is a part of the geological carbon cycle that was not known before,” says Klein, lead author of a new journal study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Because transform faults have not been accounted for in previous estimates of global geological CO₂ fluxes, the mass transfer of magmatic CO₂ to the altered oceanic mantle and seawater may be larger than previously thought.”

Geological Emissions and Climate

”The amount of CO₂ emitted at the transform faults is negligible compared to the amount of anthropogenic – or human-driven – CO₂,” says Klein. “However, on geological timescales and before humans emitted so much CO₂, geological emissions from Earth’s mantle – including from transform faults – were a major driving force of Earth’s climate.”

As the paper states, “global anthropogenic CO₂ emissions are estimated to be on the order of 36 gigatons (Gt) per year, dwarfing estimates of average geological emissions (0.26 Gt per year) to the atmosphere and hydrosphere. Yet, over geological timescales, emissions of CO₂ sourced from Earth’s mantle have been pivotal in regulating Earth’s climate and habitability, as well as the C [carbon]-concentration in surface reservoirs, including the oceans, atmosphere, and lithosphere.” Klein adds that “this is before anthropogenic combustion of fossil fuels, of course.”

Understanding Climate Change Through Geological Studies

“In order to fully understand modern human-caused climate change, we need to understand natural climate fluctuations in Earth’s deep past, which are tied to perturbations in Earth’s natural carbon cycle. Our work provides insights into long-timescale fluxes of carbon between Earth’s mantle and the ocean/atmosphere system,” says co-author Tim Schroeder, member of the faculty at Bennington College, Vermont. “Large changes in such carbon fluxes over millions of years have caused Earth’s climate to be much warmer or colder than it is today.”

To better understand carbon cycling between Earth’s mantle and the ocean, Klein, Schroeder, and colleagues studied the formation of soapstone “and other magnesite-bearing assemblages during mineral carbonation of mantle peridotite” in the St. Paul’s transform fault, the paper notes. “Fueled by magmatism in or below the root zone of the transform fault and subsequent degassing, the fault constitutes a conduit for CO₂-rich hydrothermal fluids, while carbonation of peridotite represents a potentially vast sink for the emitted CO₂.”

The researchers argue in the paper that “the combination of low extents of melting, which generates melts enriched in incompatible elements, volatiles, and particularly CO₂, and the presence of peridotite at oceanic transform faults creates conditions conducive to extensive mineral carbonation.”

The rocks were collected using human-occupied vehicles during a 2017 cruise to the area.

Finding and analyzing these rocks “was a dream come true. We had predicted the presence of carbonate-altered oceanic mantle rocks 12 years ago, but we couldn’t find them anywhere,” says Klein. “We went to the archipelago to explore for low-temperature hydrothermal activity, and we failed miserably in finding any such activity there. It was unbelievable that we were able to find these rocks in a transform fault, because we found them by chance while looking for something else.”

Reference: “Mineral carbonation of peridotite fueled by magmatic degassing and melt impregnation in an oceanic transform fault” by Frieder Klein, Timothy Schroeder, Cédric M. John, Simon Davis, Susan E. Humphris, Jeffrey S. Seewald, Susanna Sichel, Wolfgang Bach and Daniele Brunelli, 12 February 2024, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2315662121

Funding for this research was provided by the Dalio Ocean Initiative, the Independent Research & Development Program at WHOI, and the National Science Foundation.

Gigantic new snake species discovered in Amazon rainforest

Story by By Amy Woodyatt, CNN •

Scientists working in the Amazon rainforest have discovered a new species of snake, rumored to be the biggest in the world.

A team from the University of Queensland traveled to the Ecuadorian Amazon to search for the previously undocumented northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayima), following an invitation from the Waorani people to observe anacondas “rumoured to be the largest in existence,” according to the scientists.

The team joined the hunters on a 10-day expedition to the Bameno region of Baihuaeri Waorani Territory, before paddling down the river system to “find several anacondas lurking in the shallows, lying in wait for prey,” Professor Bryan Fry, a biologist from the University of Queensland, who led the team, said in a statement.

Anacondas are giant, non-venomous constricting snakes found in or near water in warm parts of South America.

“The size of these magnificent creatures was incredible – one female anaconda we encountered measured an astounding 6.3 metres (20.7 feet) long,” Fry said of the team’s discovery, which was made while filming for National Geographic’s upcoming series “Pole to Pole with Will Smith.”

The team also said they had heard anecdotal evidence that snakes of 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) and 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) had been sighted in the area.

Green anacondas are the world’s heaviest snakes, according to the UK’s Natural History Museum, which noted that the heaviest individual ever recorded weighed 227 kilograms (500 pounds). It measured 8.43 meters long (27.7 feet) and 1.11 meters (3.6 feet) wide.

While another species, the reticulated python, tends to be longer – often reaching more than 6.25 meters (20.5 feet) in length – it is lighter.


The discovery was made while filming for a National Geographic series. - Professor Bryan Fry/The University of Queensland© Provided by CNN

But experts studying the creatures discovered that the newly identified northern green anaconda species diverged from the southern green anaconda almost 10 million years ago, and they differ genetically by 5.5%.

“It’s quite significant – to put it in perspective, humans differ from chimpanzees by only about 2 per cent,” Fry said. The findings are described in the journal MDPI Diversity.

The team then set out to compare the genetics of the green anaconda with other specimens elsewhere to assess them as an indicator species for the health of ecosystems, and warned that the Amazon is facing numerous threats.

“Deforestation of the Amazon basin from agricultural expansion has resulted in an estimated 20-31 per cent habitat loss, which may impact up to 40 per cent of its forests by 2050,” Fry said.

Habitat degradation, forest fires, drought and climate change threaten rare species like the anacondas, which exist in such rare ecosystems, he added.

German central bank losses soar, wiping out risk provisions

Story by Jenni Reid 

The German central bank on Friday reported an annual distributable profit of zero, after it released 19.2 billion euros ($20.8 billion) — the entirety of its provisions for general risks — and 2.4 billion euros from its reserves.

"The Bundesbank can bear the financial burdens, as its assets are significantly in excess of its obligations," Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said at a news conference.
The ECB on Thursday posted its first annual loss since 2004, of 1.3 billion euros, even as it also drew on its own risk provisions of 6.6 billion euros, as higher interest rates hit central banks' securities holdings.


Joachim Nagel, president of Deutsche Bundesbank, during the central bank's

© Provided by CNBC

Losses incurred by the German central bank rocketed into the tens of billions in 2023 due to higher interest rates, requiring it to draw on the entirety of its provisions to break even.

The Bundesbank on Friday reported an annual distributable profit of zero, after it released 19.2 billion euros ($20.8 billion) in provisions for general risks, and 2.4 billion euros from its reserves. That leaves it with just under 700 million euros in reserves, the central bank said.

Net interest income was negative for the first time in its 67-year history, declining by 17.9 billion euros year on year to -13.9 billion euros.

"We expect the burdens to be considerable again for the current year. They are likely to exceed the remaining reserves," Bundesbank President Joachim Nagel said at a news conference.

The central bank will report a loss carryforward that will be offset through future profits, he said.

Bundesbank's Nagel: There is strength in the German economy

Nagel added: "The Bundesbank's balance sheet is sound. The Bundesbank can bear the financial burdens, as its assets are significantly in excess of its obligations."

The German central bank — and many of its peers — have significant securities holdings exposed to interest rate risk, which have been significantly impacted by the European Central Bank's unprecedented run of rate hikes.

The ECB on Thursday posted its first annual loss since 2004, of 1.3 billion euros, even as it also drew on its own risk provisions of 6.6 billion euros. It follows the euro zone central bank's near decade of financial stimulus, printing money and buying large amounts of government bonds to boost growth, which are now requiring hefty payouts.

The central bank of the Netherlands on Friday reported a 3.5 billion euro loss for 2023.

Central banks stress that annual profits and losses do not impact their ability to enact monetary policy and control price stability. However, they are watched as a potential threat to credibility, particularly if a bailout becomes a risk, and they impact central banks' payouts to other sources.

In the case of the Bundesbank, there have been no payments to the federal budget for several years and, it said Friday, there are unlikely to be for a "longer" period of time. The ECB, meanwhile, will not make profit distributions to euro zone national central banks for 2023.

Nagel further said Friday that raising interest rates had been the right thing to do to curb high inflation, and that the ECB's Governing Council will only be able to consider rate cuts when it is convinced inflation is back to target based on data.

On the struggling German economy, he said: "Our experts expect the German economy to gradually regain its footing during the course of the year and embark onto a growth path. First, foreign sales markets are expected to provide tail winds. Second, private consumption should benefit from an improvement in households' purchasing power."

Julia Malott: Politicizing the transgender debate does a disservice to gender dysphoric youth

Opinion by Julia Malott • 


In the wake of Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s announcement of comprehensive reforms to the province’s transgender care protocols, a flurry of commentary has erupted, spanning a broad spectrum of opinions on the social and medical treatment of transgender youth.

The polarizing opinions largely align with partisan biases, offering either staunch support for, or vehement opposition to, the proposed policies. Astonishingly, there’s been scant exploration of the complexities inherent in such policies, which is a disservice to gender dysphoric children.

A nuanced understanding seems necessary, given that the irreversible nature of transitioning in childhood is matched by an equally consequential decision to forego such medical interventions until adulthood. Once sexual development has taken hold — whether through natural puberty or cross-sex hormones — irreversible changes happen to the body. The stakes are high with either outcome.

Unfortunately, a lack of nuance is starkly evident in our political discourse. Earlier this month, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre broke his silence on Alberta’s policy shift and weighed in on the use of hormone therapies and puberty blockers for minors. Yet his response was marked by contradiction and divisiveness.

He stated that, “We should protect children” and their ability to “make adult decisions when they become adults,” but also that, “We should protect the rights of parents to make their own decision with regards to their children.” Pressed further, he clarified that he is against puberty blockers for children. He then blamed the status quo on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (who has been equally divisive in his own statements)

Poilievre’s contradictory statements ignore that a decision for a child not to undergo puberty blockers is itself a decision that cannot be undone in adulthood, because it results in profound changes to the body that cannot be completely reversed. It is those changes that lead a transgender adult to stick out in public and receive much of the negative attention they are often subjected to.

He also appeared to stumble on the contradictions inherent in Smith’s recent policy changes, which respect parental rights over social transitioning and sex education, but impose restrictions on hormonal treatments, even when consensus might exist between the child, its parents and medical professionals that such a treatment might be best.

(More recently, Poilievre stated his opposition to transwomen participating in women’s sports and using female-only spaces, such as change rooms and washrooms.)

The Conservative leader’s comments underscore the broader issue of transgender health care moving away from scholarly discussion and being dragged into the arena of partisan politics. As noted by York social work professor Kinnon MacKinnon and Pablo Expósito-Campos, writing in the Conversation , the resulting polarization and spread of misinformation may pose greater risks to gender-diverse individuals than the medical treatments in question.

The direction of our discourse mirrors past debates over abortion, which quickly became mired in political ideology. The abortion discussion became framed in terms that implied stark opposition between the “pro-choice” and “pro-life” camps, as if most Canadians are not broadly in support of both choice and life as guiding principles. In social politics, solutions lie in carefully balancing virtues, not pitting them against one another as though they’re diametrically opposed.


With minds already made up on whether a transition is to be celebrated or condemned, partisan players are all too comfortable making any case that will advance their position, with little consideration for the real-life consequences.

Statements from Conservative politicians continue to overlook Canada’s troubling history of LGBTQ+ abuses, which persist to this day, and are reluctant to recognize that one of the primary benefits of medical transitions in childhood — achieving more seamless post-transition integration as one’s affirmed gender — can significantly mitigate the challenges faced by transgender individuals who are marginalized in a society that’s deeply divided by these political debates.

On the other end of the political spectrum, progressive voices have yet to acknowledge the medical risks and regrets involved in transitioning, acting as though every desire professed by a child is unquestionably flawless. These narratives from progressive quarters have painted medical transitioning as a straightforward, low-risk endeavour with negligible regret rates, framing it moreso as a journey of self-discovery.

Progressive resources have been leaned upon heavily under current policy. Juno Dawson, in her influential work, “This Book Is Gay,” which is considered a top resource for LGBTQ+ youth, addresses this topic directly. Dawson states that, “There is no such thing as ‘sex changes for kids.’ It doesn’t happen. If a young trans or non-binary person wants medical intervention (many do not) … they will have extensive counselling before possibly being prescribed a course of hormone blockers that delay the onset of puberty.

“All this means is that if that individual chooses to make permanent physical changes as a young adult, they won’t then have to counteract the bodily consequences of puberty, ie., breasts, a deeper voice, etc. It basically saves them a lot of time on a surgeons table at a later date.”

While Dawson highlights the benefits of puberty blockers for those who continue their transition into adulthood, her vacuous portrayal simplifies the medical process involved in prescribing these treatments. Contrary to the rigorous medical review one might expect, Canadian health-care providers, operating under an affirmation-first model, often face pressure to prescribe puberty blockers without extensive vetting.

This approach, aimed at avoiding crossing into conversion-therapy practices, relies on the principle that one’s professed gender identity must always be affirmed, even by medical professionals. Dawson’s reassurance that permanent changes are deferred until adulthood also overlooks the significant issue of infertility resulting from the use of puberty blockers, as they prevent the attainment of reproductive maturity.

Our conversation around transgender youth care needs to be more thoughtful and medically grounded, and politicization does not lend well to that endeavour. Several European countries have recognized potential shortcomings in the current standards of gender-affirming care and have embarked on systematic reviews of the medical literature to ensure evidence-based approaches that prioritize the well-being of gender dysphoric youth.

This is a discussion that would be better to have within the medical community, rather than the political sphere. We should follow the evidence of where gender-affirming care yields powerfully positive life-changing outcomes for gender dysphoric youth, while also taking a cautious approach in deference to the profound nature of these interventions.

Wouldn’t that service gender dysphoric youth better than the politicization of their health care?

National Post

Murray Mandryk: No integrity in candidate on Sask. rights commission

Opinion by Murray Mandryk • 

Bronwyn Eyre sees no problem with Saskatchewan Party candidates serving on the independent Human Rights Commission.© Provided by Leader Post

We once lived in simpler times when matters of controversy like the ones the Saskatchewan Party government now faces were avoided by rules roughly based on good, old-fashioned integrity.

Yes, even in the world of politics where integrity has never exactly been in overabundance, there were always some unwritten rules. It’s funny how time in government clouds one’s view of those rules and where lines of integrity are drawn.

The latest example comes from Justice Minister Bronwyn Eyre, who — after replacing the previous Saskatchewan Human Rights Commission (SHRC) that saw resignations over the pronoun bill — is now defending her government’s appointment of potential Saskatchewan Party candidate for Saskatoon Southeast, Mubarik Syed.

The problem isn’t Syed wanting to be an MLA. The problem is: How will the human rights commission be viewed if he doesn’t win the Sask. Party nomination or seat and returns?

Frankly, the problem is: How is the SHRC now viewed even if he doesn’t return? In what world is it OK for a known, active partisan to be part of the independent, quasi-judicial body?

Judges who may have once been politically active absolutely refrain from so much as a political conversation once they don their black robes. Shouldn’t the same apply to those appointed to quasi-judicial bodies?

According to a story by the Leader-Post’s Alec Salloum, Syed began considering a run for the Sask. Party back in November before his January appointment (which raises a separate question about the ethics of government giving one of its candidates a prestigious appointment as he embarks on a political run).

“This process was started a long time ago,” Syed said. “The timing is such that it’s been just announced now and that is not something that I can — this is not my decision, obviously.”

No, obviously, it was completely his decision to accept the human rights commission appointment. Obviously, he had complete control over that decision. But, more to the point, obviously, cabinet made the appointment.

Credit Syed for wanting to serve as a means of “expressing gratitude for how the country and province” has welcomed him. Diversity is welcomed in the Sask. Party caucus.

But it’s nonsense to suggest there is no potential conflict because, as Syed explained, “there is no material gains” for him.

This is nothing but a potential conflict and one that, unfortunately, will linger with this new commission suffering from a lack of public confidence since Eyre made wholesale new appointments last month. Really, the problem is neither he nor Eyre can see this as a problem.

In fact, it’s far more troubling than the less consequential concerns over commissioners or their companies making a donation to the Sask. Party by buying a plate for the premier’s dinner party fundraiser or even a more direct contribution.

For Eyre to say “partisan affiliation simply didn’t come into consideration” is rather unbelievable — especially coming from a justice minister. (Although, that she seems OK with the private lawyers she hired raising accusations of “judicial activism,” one supposes the sky may now be the limit.)

Ask yourself: Would she say the same thing if the situation was reversed under an NDP government? Would the Sask. Party opposition of the past be OK with this? Would any Opposition?

For Eyre to then say it’s “unfortunate to suggest” anyone who throws their hat in the ring will no longer be able to serve on commissions or boards is simply gaslighting.

Coming from a political party that does its utmost to dissuade opposing candidates from running by going over their every social medial post in hopes of finding a nugget of embarrassment, this is more than a tad hypocritical.

But, again, no one is even saying Syed can’t run. What they are saying is he can’t run and be a human rights commissioner ruling on government decisions.

It’s a matter of integrity … which used to mean something.

Murray Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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