AI really could destroy the world - but not in the way you might expect

Story by Christian Guyton

 Yesterday 
TechRadar

null© Shutterstock

Everybody loves ChatGPT, the fun AI chatbot that can help you write an essay, find your dream home, or, uh, create harmful malware. Whatever your opinion of the internet’s favorite chatty AI, there’s no denying that it’s here to stay - worming its way into every aspect of our increasingly-online society.

Now, there are plenty of prominent figures who have warned us about the dangers of AI - most recently Geoffrey Hinton, the ‘Godfather of AI’, and OpenAI founder Sam Altman, the latter of whom stated in a US Senate hearing that “regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigating the risks” of advanced AI models.

I won’t lie, I’ve been worried about it myself; not least because ChatGPT could probably write this article you’re reading right now, and it could do it a lot faster than me. I’ve experimented thoroughly with AI, though, and I’m not that worried about it all. I do worry about the nefarious stuff people could do with AI tools, but I don’t blame AI for that - that would be like banning cars because bank robbers can use them as getaway vehicles.

There is, however, one really big problem with the current explosion of AI technology, and it’s one that almost nobody seems to be talking about. Even I didn’t properly know about it until I did some research recently. AI models like ChatGPT need to be ‘trained’ in order to function, and that takes three things: a lot of training data, a lot of hardware, and a lot of electricity.

For the planet

I’ll be honest here: I’m probably not as committed an environmentalist as I probably should be in this day and age. I do recycle as much as possible, I compost my garden and food waste, and I try to avoid running the heaters in my house as much as possible (though I confess, this is more motivated by the rising cost of my utility bills).

But as a tech journalist and general gadget fiend, I’m not exactly saving the planet. I’m running a powerful PC for many hours a day, and I own a car for driving to the office and picking up groceries. I do try to minimize my carbon footprint where I can, though - as we all should.

AI, as it turns out, has a pretty damn big carbon footprint. This wasn’t true until recently, with the release of ChatGPT to the public spurring a mass wave of copycats like Google Bard and widespread interest in generative AI across a variety of business sectors. The AI industry has boomed - and so too have its emissions.

How much power does an AI need?

Did you know that a single Google search produces approximately 0.2g of carbon dioxide? That’s not a direct link; Google isn’t shooting a tiny droplet of CO2 into the atmosphere every time you search ‘chinese food near me’. It’s based on the amount of electricity a Google search uses; using search engines is a relatively resource-intensive internet activity, whereas firing out a post on Twitter uses a tenth of that at 0.02g.

Asking a generative AI bot like ChatGPT one question? Well, that could produce as much as five times the amount of carbon emissions, according to CarbonCredits.com. Let’s assume it’s one gram of CO2 per query, then. While OpenAI has not released official figures on how many queries ChatGPT handles per day, estimates have placed it at anywhere between 100 million and one billion individual responses.

So we’re already looking at up to a million kilos of CO2 emissions every single day. That’s based on the electricity required to use a large language AI model like ChatGPT, but it’s not the whole story. Developing and training AI models also comes at a cost of emissions; according to the MIT Technology Review, training just one AI model can produce as much CO2 as five regular cars will in their entire operating lifetime.

Even setting aside the raw cost of energy emissions, we also have to bear in mind that training and running these AIs also requires a vast amount of physical hardware. We’ve already seen industry-leading GPU maker Nvidia committing to AI development, and rival AMD is teaming up with Microsoft to join the AI arms race.

While this has obvious ramifications for consumers as companies like Nvidia turn away from their gaming and creative customers in favor of selling to AI developers, it’s also important to consider the impact that producing components like the best graphics cards has on the planet. These products use specific rare-earth metals in their construction - and the rare-earth mining pits used to gather them can have devastating ecological impacts.

A glimmer of hope

Ironically, AI could be both a contributor to and the solution to our current global state of environmental decline. Despite its high cost of emissions, people are already implementing AI tools in the fight against climate change.

David Jensen, a coordinator at the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), notes that AI could prove instrumental in reducing emissions over the next few years. “This can be on a large scale, such as satellite monitoring of global emissions, or a more granular scale, such as a smart house automatically turning off lights or heat after a certain time,” he explains.

The UNEP has also developed an AI-powered ‘World Environment Situation Room’, which Jensen believes can become a “mission control center for planet earth” with future advancements in AI technology. The Situation Room uses AI to expedite environmental monitoring tasks, such as tracking methane emissions and air quality around the world.

And after all, we can’t solely blame AI models for having high carbon emissions when they’re using electricity provided by energy companies willing to keep burning fossil fuels. It’s difficult to reliably source electricity from renewable sources, especially when ‘dirty’ energy sources are often cheaper - thanks for that one, oil lobbyists. It’s somewhat telling that the White House’s ‘AI Bill of Rights’ doesn’t really address ecological concerns surrounding AI.

I don’t like being a climate doomsayer. The facts don’t lie, however; things are going to get worse if we don’t change our path. Perhaps AI really can be used to combat an impending climate disaster, though. I certainly hope so, because I’m a big believer in the ways in which AI truly can benefit our society - I just don’t think chatbots are the way to do it. Certainly not nonsense like Elon Musk’s planned ‘anti-woke’ AI, anyway…

A third of young men in Germany think violence against women is ‘acceptable,’ study finds

MISOGYNY & FEMICIDE ARE SOCIAL NORMS 

Story by Sophie Tanno • CNN

Yesterday 

A third of young men in Germany find it acceptable to use violence against women, according to a new survey which has caused outrage among gender equality campaigners.

The survey was commissioned by children’s charity Plan International Germany. Its findings were published in regional newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.

A group of 1,000 men and 1,000 women aged 18-35 from across Germany were asked to give their views on masculinity for the study, which was carried out online.

34% of men from that age bracket admitted to being violent towards their female partner in the past, to “instil respect in them.” 33% said they thought it was acceptable if their “hand slipped” occasionally during an argument with their partner.

Exploring attitudes to victim-blaming and double standards, the survey found that 50% of men said they would not want a relationship with a woman who had had many sexual partners, while 20% of the women interviewed agreed with this statement.

The survey also found that expectations within a relationship differed greatly between men and women.

Just over half of men – 52% – wanted a relationship in the form of a “breadwinner-housewife model,” where they earned most of the money for the household and childcare and household tasks were primarily the woman’s role.

Over two-thirds of the women interviewed disagreed, wanting equal partnerships and shared decision-making.

Just under half of respondents – 48% – expressed a dislike for public displays of homosexuality, saying they felt “disturbed” by it.

A German group called the Federal Organization for Equality wrote on Twitter that the findings were “shocking.”

“According to a survey by Plan International Germany, every third young man finds violence against women ‘acceptable’. This urgently needs to change!”

Karsten Kassner from Federal Forum Men, a group which advocates for gender equality, also called for change as he said “It’s problematic that a third of the surveyed men trivialize physical violence against women.”

According to data from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police (BKA), 115,000 women in Germany were victims of partner violence in 2021.

Germany also has one of the highest rates of femicide in Europe - a problem which was exacerbated during the coronavirus pandemic, according to data from the BKA.

ISRAEL
‘Smuggling, Not Terror, Is the Real Border Threat’

by Israel Kasnett / JNS.org
OPINION

JUNE 11, 2023 


Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attends the Arab summit in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, May 31, 2019. Photo: REUTERS/Hamad l Mohammed/File Photo.

JNS.org – The deadly June 3 attack on Israel’s southern border may have been an isolated incident, but highlighted the larger problem of cross-border smuggling, which is disrupting Israel’s efforts to maintain not only its border with Egypt but also with Jordan.

Efraim Karsh, emeritus professor at King’s College, London, and former director of the BESA Center, doesn’t believe there will be any repercussions from the attack, as Israel views it as an isolated case. He noted that Islamic State has taken responsibility for the incident.

For its part, Egypt has agreed to compensate the families of the victims.

In the early morning of Saturday, June 3, Mohamed Saleh Ibrahim, 22, shot dead Sgt. Lia Ben-Nun, 19, and Staff Sgt. Uri Iluz, 20, at an observation post near the border. In the ensuing manhunt, Staff Sgt. Ohad Dahan, 20, was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the terrorist, inside Israeli territory. Ibrahim, too, was killed in the exchange, and a fourth Israeli soldier sustained minor injuries.

An initial investigation revealed that Ibrahim had entered the border area through an emergency gate in the fence, secured only with plastic handcuffs.

Israel’s Army Radio reported on Sunday that six rifle magazines, a Koran and a knife were found on Ibrahim’s body. According to the report, the presence of the Koran has led the IDF to believe that Ibrahim was motivated by Islamic religious extremism.

However, Egypt claimed that Ibrahim had crossed the border to pursue drug smugglers following an earlier arrest.

While according to the Israeli military a drug trafficking attempt was thwarted at 3 a.m. that morning, the Egyptian statement did not explain the time gap between that and the murders of Iluz and Dahan.

According to Karsh, it is smuggling, not Islamist terrorism, that is the real problem on Israel’s southern and eastern borders.

“It’s two sides of the same coin,” he said, referring to smuggling and terrorism. “Bedouin on both sides of the fence are involved in smuggling. Once you take care of the Bedouin issue, the border will be quieter.”

Eyal Zisser, a lecturer in the Middle East History Department at Tel Aviv University, agreed that the attack was an isolated incident that does not reflect the policies of the Egyptian regime.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, he said, “remains committed to the peace agreement with Israel, and the continued close relationship and military cooperation.”

“For Sisi, a policeman brainwashed by extreme Islam is a threat to his regime and not only to Israel, so we can calm down,” he added.

Sisi’s concerns are valid. Last year, ISIS terrorists attacked a checkpoint in Qantara, in the Sinai province of Ismailia, killing 11 Egyptian soldiers.

The presence of ISIS on Israel’s southern border, coupled with the persistent smuggling problem, presents a unique challenge for both Egypt and Israel.

The problem is even worse on Israel’s eastern border.

In one of the most serious cases to date, in April, Israeli authorities arrested Jordanian parliamentarian Imad al-Adwan after finding 12 rifles and 194 pistols in his vehicle at the Allenby Bridge border crossing.

Further investigation revealed that since February 2022, al-Adwan had engaged in the illicit transportation of a diverse range of goods into Israel. This unauthorized activity took place on 12 separate occasions and was facilitated by the misuse of Adwan’s diplomatic passport. Among the items involved in this illegal operation were exotic birds, electronic cigarettes and gold.

Yossi Kuperwasser, director of the Project on Regional Middle East Developments at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, has noted that according to Israel Defense Forces figures, during 2020-2021 some 1,600 smuggling attempts from Jordan were interdicted. In the first months of 2023, he notes, several hundred weapons were seized in other smuggling attempts.

According to Michael Milstein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Moshe Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, weapons smuggling across the Egyptian and Jordanian borders over the past decade has reached “strategic challenge” proportions.

He told JNS that the smuggling across Israel’s border with Jordan is among the main sources of the growing security threat in Judea and Samaria.

Milstein noted that Israel’s coordination with Egypt and Jordan—both of which have signed peace treaties with Israel—“is very strong today, and a broad part of it is focused on smuggling prevention.”

Preventing such activity is also a Jordanian and Egyptian interest, as those who promote smuggling are also responsible for crimes, public disorder and even terrorism in both countries, he noted.

However, in Karsh’s view, unless the IDF implements operational changes at the borders to deal with the smuggling phenomenon, it is only a matter of time before another deadly incident occurs.

‘Unabomber’ Ted Kaczynski ‘died from suicide’

Ted Kaczynski committed suicide in prison 

(John Youngbear/AP)

SUN, 11 JUN, 2023 -
MICHAEL SISAK, MIKE BALSAMO AND JAKE OFFENHARTZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS

Ted Kaczynski, the Harvard-educated mathematician who retreated to a dingy shack in the Montana wilderness and ran a 17-year bombing campaign that killed three people and injured 23 others, died from suicide, sources say.

Branded the “Unabomber” by the FBI, Kaczynski, who was 81 and suffering from late-stage cancer, was found unresponsive in his cell at the Federal Medical Centre in Butner, North Carolina, at about 12.30am on Saturday.

Emergency service workers performed CPR and revived him before he was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead later on Saturday morning, sources told the Associated Press (AP).

The sources were not authorised to publicly discuss Kaczynski’s death and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Ted Kaczynski pleaded guilty to his crimes 

(Elaine Thompson/AP)

The federal Bureau of Prisons has faced increased scrutiny in the last several years after the death of wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein, who also died by suicide in a federal jail in 2019.

Kaczynski had been held in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, since May 1998, when he was sentenced to four life sentences plus 30 years for a campaign of terror that set universities nationwide on edge.

He admitted committing 16 bombings from 1978 and 1995, permanently maiming several of his victims.

His targets included academics and airlines, the owner of a computer rental store, an advertising executive and a timer industry lobbyist. In 1993, a California geneticist and a Yale University computer expert were maimed by bombs within the space of two days.

Two years later, he used the threat of continued violence to convince The New York Times and The Washington Post to publish his manifesto, a 35,000-word screed against modern life, technology and damage to the environment.

Kaczynski lived in a cabin in the woods outside Lincoln, Montana 

(Elaine Thompson/AP)

The tone of the treatise was recognised by his brother, David, and David’s wife Linda Patrik, who tipped off the FBI, which had been searching for the Unabomber for years in the nation’s longest, costliest manhunt.

Authorities in April 1996 found him in a small plywood cabin outside Lincoln, Montana, that was filled with journals, a coded diary, explosive ingredients and two completed bombs.

While awaiting trial in 1998, Kaczynski attempted to hang himself using underwear.

Though he was diagnosed by a psychiatrist as a paranoid schizophrenic, he was adamant that he was not mentally ill. He eventually pleaded guilty rather than allow his lawyers to present an insanity defence.

Growing up in Chicago, Kaczynski skipped two grades before attending Harvard at the age of 16, where he published papers in prestigious mathematics journals.

His explosives were carefully tested and came in meticulously handcrafted wooden boxes sanded to remove possible fingerprints. Later bombs bore the signature “FC” for “Freedom Club”.

The FBI called him the “Unabomber” because his early targets seemed to be universities and airlines. An altitude-triggered bomb he posted in 1979 went off as planned on board an American Airlines flight, with a dozen people on board suffering from smoke inhalation.

During his decades in prison, Kaczynski maintained regular correspondence with the outside world, becoming an object of fascination – and even reverence – among those opposed to modern civilisation.

“He’s turned into an iconic figure for both the far-right and far-left,” said Daryl Hall, a domestic terrorism expert at the New Lines Institute, a non-profit think tank. “He definitely stands out from the rest of the pack as far as his level of education, the meticulous nature in which he went about designing his bombs.”

Survey Says UK Cost Pressures Hurting Farmers' Mental Health

TEHRAN (FNA)- More than two-thirds of farmers believe their mental health has been affected by soaring production costs, according to an industry survey.

Prices for key agricultural inputs such as fuel, energy, fertiliser and animal feed have been heightened due to the global turmoil of the past 18 months, including the war in Ukraine, Eastern Daily Press reported.

And the survey by the National Farmers' Union (NFU) shows 68pc of farmers felt this has had a negative impact on their mental health.

Meanwhile, 61pc of respondents attributed poor mental health to unfairness in the supply chain, and almost 50pc cited rural crime.

The data was published ahead of a parliamentary event aiming to kickstart conversations about the wellbeing of the nation’s food producers.

NFU Vice President David Exwood said farming is one of the most rewarding jobs in the world, but the "distressing survey results" show the pressures are "incredibly challenging" too.

“Our survey pinpoints some of the root causes affecting rural mental health – economic and political uncertainty - and we are calling on government to continue taking steps to address these issues to reduce the stress farmers are facing," he said.

Scotland’s ex-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon arrested in party finances probe

Scottish police say report to be sent to Crown Office, Procurator Fiscal Service after questioning

Ahmet Gurhan Kartal |11.06.2023 - 


LONDON

Scotland’s former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has been detained on Sunday in connection with an investigation into the Scottish National Party’s (SNP) finances.

"A 52-year-old woman has today, Sunday, 11 June, 2023, been arrested as a suspect in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National Party," Scottish police said in a statement.

"The woman is in custody and is being questioned by Police Scotland detectives,” it added.

"A report will be sent to the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service."

The party’s former chief executive and Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell was previously arrested but later released without charge.

The police confiscated documents and computers after searches in Sturgeon and Murrel’s home and the SNP’s headquarters.

The investigation was launched in 2021 after allegations that approximately £600,000 ($754,000) collected from party supporters for Scottish independence bid was misspent.

Sturgeon has been a staunch supporter of Scotland’s becoming an independent country, separating from the UK.

Scots wanted to remain as part of the UK in a 2014 independence referendum as more than 55% voted against independence. However, the independence bid has been revised following the Brexit vote in 2016 as more than half of the Scottish voters voted to remain in the EU.

Humza Yousaf, first minister of Scotland and the new leader of the SNP said on Sunday that the independence will be front and center of their next general election campaign.

Dengue outbreak in Peru reaches over 130K cases with 200 dead, heightened by El Niño rains

By Sarah Rumpf-Whitten , Fox News
June 11, 2023 

Peru’s worst dengue outbreak on record could intensify further as an El Niño climate phenomenon brings torrential rains and mosquitoes, driving the death toll this year past 200 with over 130,000 recorded cases, the health ministry said on Thursday.

Dengue fever is an aedes aegypti mosquito-borne tropical disease that can provoke a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pain, and sometimes death.

The country’s health authorities have pointed towards the natural climate phenomenal, El Niño, as one of the key drivers of the surge in cases.

El Niño is a cyclical warming of the world’s oceans and weather, which fuels tropical cyclones in the Pacific, boosting rainfall and flood risk in the region.

The increase in rainfall brings mass reproduction of mosquitoes due to the accumulation of water in the cities.

Peru’s health officials are prohibiting residents from storing still water in open containers, hoping to prevent reproduction.

“Dengue kills,” said Health Minister Rosa Gutiérrez in a Tuesday statement. “Because of that, help me eliminate mosquito breeding sites.”

Peru has 130,000 recorded cases of dengue fever.AFP via Getty Images

Dengue fever can cause a high fever, headache, vomiting, muscle and joint pain, and sometimes death.AFP via Getty Images

A worker of the Health Ministry fumigates against the Aedes aegypti mosquito to prevent the spread of dengue fever in Managua.AFP via Getty Images

On Thursday, June 8, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declared that an El Niño is now underway. The past three years have been dominated by the cooler La Niña pattern.

Scientists say this year looks particularly worrying.

The last strong El Niño was in 2016, and the world saw its hottest year on record.

200 people have died of dengue fever in Peru this year.AFP via Getty Images

Family members mourn a 10-year-old who died from dengue fever.AFP via Getty Images


“We’re in unprecedented territory,” said Michelle L’Heureux, a meteorologist with NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center.

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte signed a decree on Thursday declaring a two-month “state of emergency” in 18 of the country’s 24 regions to allow swift official action for “imminent danger from heavy rainfall” this year and next.

Gutiérrez said the figure is the highest since 2017, when there were 68,290 cases and 89 deaths.

India and Pakistan brace for severe weather as Cyclone Biparjoy intensifies

Cyclone Biparjoy formed over the Arabian Sea earlier this month

Biparjoy means “disaster” or “calamity” in Bengali.

People have been urged to stay away from the coast, with concerns of high waves as seen in Mumbai in 2022. AP

The National
Jun 11, 2023

Authorities in India and Pakistan have urged people to stay away from the coast as more than 1 million people brace for the arrival of Cyclone Biparjoy, which has increased in strength as it prepares to make landfall.

In a warning on Sunday, India's Meteorological Department said it recorded “phenomenal” conditions over the east-central Arabian Sea with winds of up to 170km per hour.

Fishing communities in the western states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa and other coastal areas have been advised to stop all activity for five days.

People in Pakistan were also urged to stay away from the coastline with the cyclone set to intensify.

Cyclone Biparjoy map tracker: Updates as storm intensifies en route to India

Biparjoy means “disaster” or “calamity” in Bengali.

More than 1.8 million people across India and Pakistan are thought to be in the path of the cyclone, according to the Pacific Disaster Centre.

“People should be aware of weather conditions and avoid going to the beach whereas fishermen should avoid boating in the open sea,” said Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority.

Authorities in Karachi have banned the public from accessing beaches, as well as fishing, sailing and swimming in the sea, Pakistan's Dawn News reported.

However, the paper said “considerable” crowds were pictured at Karachi beaches despite the restrictions.

The storm formed over the Arabian Sea early this month, with Biparjoy being declared a severe cyclone by Oman on June 7, where authorities warned locals to stay away from coastal areas.

India's meteorological department said it will very likely move north until Wednesday morning when it will move north-east towards Pakistan.

Teams from the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force have been deployed in the districts most likely to be affected by the storm.

Unstable structures, such as hoardings, have been removed and the electricity department is on standby for power supply disruptions, Reuters reported.

It will hit the coast between the Indian state of Gujarat and Pakistan as a “very severe cyclonic storm” with wind gusts of up to 150km per hour the department said in an update on Sunday.

The Chief Minister of Pakistan's Sindh province has said authorities are prepared to relocate eight to nine thousand “vulnerable” families if needed.

Dozens have already been killed in heavy rains in northern Pakistan.

At least 12 people were buried alive after the roofs and walls of their houses collapsed,” Taimur Ali Khan, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority told AFP.

The storms hit four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province late on Saturday, with 15 people killed in Bannu district, including five siblings aged between two and 11.

More than 140 people were injured and more than 200 livestock died, he said.

Winds and heavy rain kill at least 29, including 8 children, in Pakistan




People gather around a car damaged after a tree fell during a rainfall in Lahore. AFPHeavy rains followed by strong winds killed at least 29 people, including eight children, in northwest Pakistan, officials said on Sunday.

The storms hit four districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province late on Saturday, with five siblings aged between two and 11 among the dead.


"At least 12 people were buried alive after the roofs and walls of their houses collapsed," Taimur Ali Khan, a spokesman for the provincial disaster management authority, told AFP. More than 140 people were injured and more than 200 livestock died, he said.

Authorities have declared an emergency in all four districts.

The affected districts of KP province are Bannu, Lakki Marwat and Karak, senior rescue officer Khateer Ahmed said, uprooting trees and knocking down electrical transmission towers. Officials were working to provide emergency relief to the injured, Ahmed said.

Last year, monsoon rains and flooding devastated Pakistan, killing more than 1,700 people, affecting around 33 million people and displacing nearly 8 million.


To mitigate the effects of natural disasters, the government in its national budget draft presented on Friday allocated $1.3 billion for climate resilience.


 

An injured victim of rain storm is treated at a hospital in Bannu. AP

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif expressed grief over the loss of life loss from the storm and directed authorities to pick up the pace of the relief operation.

Meanwhile, a cyclone is making its way across the Arabian Sea towards the coastlines of Pakistan and India, expected to make landfall at the end of the week.

The "severe and intense” cyclone with wind speeds of 150 kilometres per hour was on a course toward the country’s south, Pakistan's disaster management agency said.

Pakistani authorities said they would begin evacuating between 8,000 and 9,000 families from along the coastline of Sindh province, including in the mega port city of Karachi, home to around 20 million people. The army will be deployed from Monday to assist.

 

People bathe along the Seaview Beach in Karachi on Sunday. AFP

The cyclone could bring winds, storm surges and urban flooding from Tuesday evening as it approaches, the disaster management agency said Sunday.

"Fishermen are advised not to venture into the open sea until the (weather) system is over by June 17," the agency said.

Prime Minister Shahbaz also ordered officials to put in place emergency measures in advance of the approaching Cyclone Biparjoy in the Arabia Sea.

 

Motorcyclists ride a motorbike along a street during a rainfall in Lahore. AFP

Scientists say climate change is making seasonal rains heavier and more unpredictable.

Pakistan, which has the world's fifth largest population, is responsible for only 0.8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions but is one of the most vulnerable nations to extreme weather caused by global warming.

Last summer, unprecedented monsoon rains put a third of the country under water, damaging two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people.

June 11,2023

Agencies

A lawsuit brought by kids in Montana could determine if the state has a constitutional duty to protect its residents from climate change

Associated Press
Jun 11, 2023

Glacier National Park, Montana. Marli Miller/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

A lawsuit brought against the state of Montana by a group of kids heads to trial on Monday.
Whether a constitutional right to a livable climate is protected by state law is at the center of the lawsuit.
The outcome has the potential to set an important precedent in the fight against climate change.

Whether a constitutional right to a healthy, livable climate is protected by state law is at the center of a lawsuit going to trial Monday in Montana, where 16 young plaintiffs and their attorneys hope to set an important legal precedent.

It's the first trial of its kind in the U.S., and legal scholars around the world are following its potential addition to the small number of rulings that have established a government duty to protect citizens from climate change.

The trial comes shortly after the state's Republican-dominated legislature passed measures favoring the fossil fuel industry by stifling local government efforts to encourage renewable energy while increasing the cost to challenge oil, gas, and coal projects in court.

By enlisting plaintiffs ranging in age from 5 to 22, the environmental firm bringing the lawsuit is trying to highlight how young people are harmed by climate change now and will be further affected in the future. Their testimony will detail how wildfire smoke, heat and drought have harmed residents' physical and mental health.

The plaintiffs' youth has little direct bearing on the legal issues, and experts say the case likely won't lead to immediate policy changes in fossil fuel-friendly Montana.

But over two weeks of testimony, attorneys for the plaintiffs plan to call out state officials for pursuing oil, gas and coal development in hopes of sending a powerful message to other states.

Plaintiff Grace Gibson-Snyder, 19, said she's felt the impacts of the heating planet acutely as wildfires regularly shroud her hometown of Missoula in dangerous smoke and as water levels drop in area rivers.

"We've seen repeatedly over the last few years what the Montana state Legislature is choosing," Gibson-Snyder said. "They are choosing fossil fuel development. They are choosing corporations over the needs of their citizens."


In high school, Gibson-Snyder was an environmental activist who was too young to vote when she signed on as a plaintiff. The other young plaintiffs include members of Native American tribes, a ranching family dependent on reliable water supplies and people with health conditions, such as asthma, that put them at increased risk during wildfires.

Some plaintiffs and experts will point to farmers whose margins have been squeezed by drought and extreme weather events like last year's destructive floods in Yellowstone National Park as further evidence that residents have been denied the clean environment guaranteed under Montana's Constitution.

Experts for the state are expected to downplay the impacts of climate change and what one of them described as Montana's "minuscule" contributions to global greenhouse gas emissions.

Lawyers for Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, a Republican, tried repeatedly to get the case thrown out over procedural issues. In a June 6 ruling, the state Supreme Court rejected the latest attempt to dismiss it, saying justices were not inclined to intervene just days before the start of a trial that has been "literally years in the making."

One reason the case may have made it so far in Montana, when dozens of similar cases elsewhere have been rejected, is the state's unusually protective 1972 Constitution, which requires officials to maintain a "clean and healthful environment." Only a few other states, including Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York, have similar environmental protections in their constitutions.

In prior rulings, State District Judge Judge Kathy Seeley significantly narrowed the scope of the case. Even if the plaintiffs prevail, Seeley has said she would not order officials to formulate a new approach to address climate change.

Instead, the judge could issue what's called a "declaratory judgment" saying officials violated the state Constitution. That would set a new legal precedent of courts weighing in on cases typically left to the government's legislative and executive branches, environmental law expert Jim Huffman said.

Still, such a ruling would have no direct impact on industry, said Huffman, dean emeritus at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon.

"A declaratory judgment would be a symbolic victory, but would not require any particular action by the state government. So the state could, and likely would, proceed as before," he said.

Economist Terry Anderson, a witness for the state, said that over the past two decades, carbon dioxide emissions from Montana have declined, but that's in part due to the shuttering of coal power plants.

"Montana energy or environmental policies have virtually no effect on global or local climate change because Montana's GHG (greenhouse gas) contributions to the global total is trivial," Anderson said in court documents.

He argued climate change could ultimately benefit Montana with longer growing seasons and the potential to produce more valuable crops.

Supporters of the lawsuit predicted an overflow crowd when the trial starts Monday in Helena. They rented a nearby theater to livestream the proceedings for those who can't fit in the courtroom.

The case was brought in 2020 by attorneys for the environmental group Our Children's Trust, which has filed climate lawsuits in every state on behalf of young plaintiffs since 2011. Most of those cases, including a previous one in Montana, were dismissed prior to trial.

A ruling in favor of the Montana plaintiffs could have ripple effects, according to Philip Gregory, Our Children's Trust attorney. While it wouldn't be binding outside Montana, it would give guidance to judges in other states, which could impact upcoming trials such as one in Hawaii, Gregory said.

Attempts to get a similar decision at the federal level were boosted by a June 1 ruling allowing a case brought by young climate activists in Oregon to proceed to trial in U.S. District Court. That case was halted by U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Roberts on the eve of the trial in 2018.

From 2011 through 2021, Our Children's Trust brought in contributions of more than $20 million, growing from four employees to a team of more than 40 attorneys and other workers and about 200 volunteers, according to tax filings and the group's website.

Founder Julia Olson said securing the trials in Montana and Oregon marked a "huge step" forward for the group.

"It will change the future of the planet if courts will start declaring the conduct of government unconstitutional," she said.

While Montana's Constitution requires the state to "maintain and improve" a clean environment, the Montana Environmental Policy Act, originally passed in 1971 and amended several times since, requires state agencies to balance the environment with resource development.

Lawmakers revised the policy this year to say environmental reviews may not look at greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts unless the federal government makes carbon dioxide a regulated pollutant.

A key question for the trial will be how forcefully the state contests established science on human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, said Jonathan Adler, environmental law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. If the state doesn't deny that science, the trial will deal with the question of whether courts can tell governments to address climate change.

"I'm skeptical about that," Adler said. "It really pushes the boundaries of what courts are capable of and effective at addressing."

To Gibson-Snyder, now a student at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, the court system became the only avenue to make change as a 16-year-old.


Since then, "I've become maybe a bit disillusioned," she said. "The question is not only can we create sustainable policy, it's how can we dismantle the policy that's actively harming Montana?"

American Musician Who Featured on Bourdain’s Show Is Arrested in Russia

SCARY

Michael Travis Leake could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of production or distribution of drugs.

Erik Uebelacker
Breaking News Intern
Published Jun. 11, 2023 

@AlecLuhn/Twitter

A U.S. military veteran and rock band musician has been arrested in Moscow on suspicion of drug trafficking, Russian state media reported.

Michael Travis Leake, who has reportedly lived in Russia since 2010, was detained on Saturday for allegedly selling the amphetamine mephedrone. In a Telegram statement from Moscow’s courts of general jurisdiction, Leake was described as a “former paratrooper and musician” who “is accused of engaging in the narcotics business through attracting young people.”

An Instagram account under Leake’s name lists him as the vocalist for the band LoviNoch—which translates to “Catch the Night”—and the producer for groups Lourna, Tarakany and others.

Leake also famously appeared on an episode of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown in Moscow and St Petersburg after being handpicked by Bourdain to appear on the show. In the episode, he half-joked about the KGB listening in on their conversation and tailing Bourdain.

The episode’s producer, Darya Tarasova, told CNN that Leake’s band wasn’t famous, but he and his friends were vocal critics of Russian state censorship and advocates for free speech in the country.

“Bourdain really liked that interview,” she said, adding, “The last time we spoke was in 2018 and he seemed depressed and upset, but Travis would never do the things he is being accused of. He is an American in Russia and is very aware of the situation he’s in. But I’m surprised he stayed after the war started as it was very risky for him.”

The U.S. State Department said it’s aware of the reports that an American citizen had been detained in Moscow, according to an emailed statement to The Associated Press.

Leake will be held for two months in pre-trial detention, per orders from the Moscow court. He could face up to 20 years in prison if convicted of production or distribution of drugs.