Explainer-Why carbon capture is no easy solution to climate change

2023/11/22


By Leah Douglas

(Reuters) -Technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions to keep them from the atmosphere are central to the climate strategies of many world governments as they seek to follow through on international commitments to decarbonize by mid-century.

They are also expensive, unproven at scale, and can be hard to sell to a nervous public - making unworkable, at the moment, the model envisaged worldwide of capturing carbon and storing it for money.

As nations gather for the 28th United Nations climate change conference in the United Arab Emirates at the end of November, the question of carbon capture’s future role in a climate-friendly world will be in focus. Here are some details about the state of the industry now, and the obstacles in the way of widespread deployment:

FORMS OF CARBON CAPTURE

The most common form of carbon capture technology involves capturing the gas from a point source like an industrial smokestack. From there, the carbon can either be moved directly to permanent underground storage or it can be used in another industrial purpose first, variations that are respectively called carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS).

There are currently 42 operational commercial CCS and CCUS projects across the world with the capacity to store 49 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to the Global CCS Institute, which tracks the industry. That is about 0.13% of the world’s roughly 37 billion metric tons of annual energy and industry-related carbon dioxide emissions.

Some 30 of those projects, accounting for 78% of all captured carbon from the group, use the carbon for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), in which carbon is injected into oil wells to free trapped oil. Drillers say EOR can make petroleum more climate-friendly, but environmentalists say the practice is counter-productive.

The other 12 projects, which permanently store carbon in underground formations without using them to boost oil output, are in the U.S., Norway, Iceland, China, Canada, Qatar, and Australia, according to the Global CCS Institute.

It is unclear how many of these projects, if any, turn a profit.

Another form of carbon capture is direct air capture (DAC), in which carbon emissions are captured from the air.

About 130 DAC facilities are being planned around the world, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), though just 27 have been commissioned and they capture just 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

The U.S. in August announced $1.2 billion in grants for two DAC hubs in Texas and Louisiana that promise to capture 2 million metric tons of carbon per year, though a final investment decision on the projects has not been made.

HIGH COSTS

One stumbling block to rapid deployment of carbon capture technology is cost.

CCS costs range from $15 to $120 per metric ton of captured carbon depending on the emissions source, and DAC projects are even more expensive, between $600 and $1,000 per metric ton, because of the amount of energy needed to capture carbon from the atmosphere, according to the IEA.

Some CCS projects in countries like Norway and Canada have been paused for financial reasons.

Developers say they need a carbon price, either in the form of a carbon tax, trading scheme or tax break, that makes it profitable to capture and store the carbon. Without that, only carbon capture projects that increase revenue in a different way - like through increased oil output - are profitable.

Countries including the U.S. have rolled out public subsidies for carbon capture projects. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, offers a $50 tax credit per metric ton of carbon captured for CCUS and $85 per metric ton captured for CCS, and $180 per metric ton captured through DAC.

Though those are meaningful incentives, companies may still need to take on some added costs to move CCS and DAC projects ahead, said Benjamin Longstreth, global director of carbon capture at the Clean Air Task Force.

Some CCS projects have also failed to prove out the technology's readiness. A $1 billion project to harness carbon dioxide emissions from a Texas coal plant, for example, had chronic mechanical problems and routinely missed its targets before it was shut down in 2020, according to a report submitted by the project’s owners to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Petra Nova project restarted in September.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Where captured carbon can be stored is limited by geology, a reality that would become more pronounced if and when carbon capture is deployed at the kind of massive scale that would be needed to make a difference to the climate. The best storage sites for carbon are in portions of North America, East Africa, and the North Sea, according to the Global CCS Institute.

That means getting captured carbon to storage sites could require extensive pipeline networks or even shipping fleets – posing potential new obstacles.

In October, for example, a $3 billion CCS pipeline project proposed by Navigator CO2 Ventures in the U.S. Midwest - meant to move carbon from heartland ethanol plants to good storage sites - was canceled amid concerns from residents about potential leaks and construction damage.

Companies investing in carbon removal need to take seriously community concerns about new infrastructure projects, said Simone Stewart, industrial policy specialist at the National Wildlife Federation.

"Not all technologies are going to be possible in all locations," Stewart said.

(Reporting by Leah DouglasEditing by Marguerita Choy)





© Reuters

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/11/sci-fi-tek-carbon-removal-is-latest-way.html

UK

Foreign workers and students’ 'shift in behaviour' skewed net migration estimate

Charles Hymas
Thu, 23 November 2023 

In 2022 one in 30 foreign workers left before the 12 months was up - BEN STANSALL/AFP

A major shift in the behaviour of foreign workers and students has been blamed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for a massive underestimate of net migration.

‌The ONS had originally calculated net migration for the year to December 2022 as 606,000 for the number who had come to the UK to work, study or seek refuge minus those who had emigrated.

‌However, in its latest analysis, published on Thursday, it upgraded that figure to 745,000, the highest annual net migration on record. It means that 139,000 more people than previously thought arrived in Britain in the year to December 2022.

‌This was largely because overseas workers and students stayed longer in Britain than previously, meaning their provisional estimates for the year to December were askew and underestimated the number of “long-term” migrants, defined as those staying more than 12 months.

‌Before the pandemic, one in five students did not stay long term in the UK and instead left before 12 months was up. By 2022, it had fallen to just one in seven.

‌The trend is even more stark amongst foreign workers. Whereas one in six left before 12 months was up, it fell to one in 30 in 2022.


‌This is a consequence of the changing nature of international migrants coming to the UK.

Whereas before Brexit, it was predominantly people coming from the UK to live, work and study, they are now non-EU migrants from further afield with an incentive to stay longer given the distance travelled.

‌They are also more likely than ever before to bring their spouses and children, giving them an extra incentive to stay for longer in the UK as they settle into UK life.

‌The figures are particularly high for NHS and care staff, with 173,896 dependants brought for 143,990 actual workers, meaning more dependants arrive than actual workers.

‌For every three students granted a visa, a dependent also got one. This is a dramatic increase from 26 students per dependent in 2019.

‌The ONS published its 606,000 estimate for the year to December in May, which meant it was “provisional” and based on previous assumptions of migrant behaviour.

Only now, having collected more definitive data, has it been able to make a more accurate estimate.

‌On Thursday, it said the significant revision of last year’s figures was due to “unexpected patterns” in the behaviour of migrants.
‘Staying for longer’

‌Jay Lindop, of the ONS, said that before the pandemic migration was “relatively stable but patterns and behaviours have been shifting considerably since then”.

‌“More recently, we’re not only seeing more students arrive but we can also see they’re staying for longer. More dependents of people with work and study visas have arrived too, and immigration is now being driven by non-EU arrivals,” he said.

Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the ONS faced a “trade-off between accuracy and timeliness”.

“The thing that people focus on is the recent figures and I think that they (the ONS) do just face a trade-off between accuracy and timeliness,” she said.

“And I think there’s a cost in terms of public trust, of having – even if the revisions are planned – revisions that are really big.”

She said the hope is that patterns would settle down, leaving it easier to predict who will turn out to be long-term and short-term migrants.

Hotel still 'hostile and unwelcoming' to Native Americans despite DOJ order: lawsuit

Matthew Chapman
November 23, 2023 

Hotel website gallery photo

A South Dakota hotel at the heart of a Justice Department case that forced the owner to resign for discriminating against Native Americans is accused of going back to its old tricks in a new lawsuit, reported The Daily Beast.

"The Department of Justice reached an agreement with South Dakota’s Grand Gateway Hotel earlier this month which stipulated that owner Connie Uhre would have nothing to do with the direction or overview of the company or its subsidiary businesses after she made public comments discriminating against Indigenous Americans," reported Brooke Leigh Howard, noting that Uhre had previously proclaimed they would "no longer allow any Native American on property." "Now, a year after the Justice Department launched an investigation stemming from complaints alleging racism, the hotel is under fire again for anti-Indigenous practices — this time, allegedly at the hands of the owner’s son, Nick Uhre."

According to the new lawsuit, filed by newly married couple Ryan and Jessica White against the Grand Gateway Hotel and the Cheers Sports Lounge and Casino, an employee refused to honor their reservation number from Travelocity, even after they pointed out vacancies on the hotel website, demanded that a Travelocity representative with an accent "speak English!" and ordered them out of the lobby while calling security for backup. Ryan is Indigenous American.

“As a result of the Grand Gateway’s discrimination, the White family felt and feels threatened, embarrassed, humiliated, disturbed, and shocked,” said the suit. “The discrimination experienced by the White family was part of a pattern of discrimination by the Grand Gateway ... The Grand Gateway created a hostile, discriminatory, and unwelcoming environment for Native Americans.”

Nick Uhre has denied that his mother has any racist beliefs. However, tribal leaders have served a notice of trespass to the former hotel owner, saying that the hotel's location violates a treaty signed with the Sioux in 1868.

“We’re tired of this bullsh-t,” saidKevin Killer, President of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe as the incident escalated last year, adding, “I get profiled almost every single day; I know that. You just have to take a stand at a certain point.”

RAINBOW BRIDGE CAR EXPLOSION

Fox News walks back claim car 'full of explosives' in 'terror attack' at Canada border

AND THEY IMPLIED THE CAR WAS COMING FROM CANADA

David Edwards
November 22, 2023 

Fox News/screen grab

Fox News on Wednesday changed its story on a possible "terror attack" at the U.S.-Canada border.

Following the vehicle explosion at the New York border with Canada, Fox News quickly called the event a "terror attack," citing "sources."

The network also reported that the vehicle was "full of explosives."

But within an hour, the network changed its reporting.

"Now we told you earlier that there was an explosion because there were explosives inside the car, and now authorities are apparently walking that back just a little bit saying it's unclear if there were explosives or how many explosives," Fox News host Trace Gallagher clarified to viewers.

"And so you can see as, as the fog clears on this air, and they're kind of getting a better idea of what's happening," he added.

Within minutes, the network also backed off its claim of a "terror attack" and instead labeled the motive as "unclear."

"Clearly, this might not be a terror attack at all," Gallagher said.

Watch the video below from Fox News or click the link here.

'Performative clown': GOP candidates slammed for assuming terrorism caused car explosion

M.L. Nestel
November 22, 2023 

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)


They're eating terrorism crow.

Two Republican candidates seeking higher office were both shouting terrorism and publicly shamed.

GOP presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy jumped the terrorism gun — early after a car bulleted toward a U.S.-Canada bridge checkpoint and then smashed and blew up causing the deaths of two people.

They later backed off its claim of a "terror attack" and instead labeled the motive as "unclear."

"I’ve been saying it for a long time & will say it again: we must secure our *NORTHERN* border too," Ramaswamy wrote in a post on Twitter/X. "It’s the forgotten frontier of the border crisis in our country."

Kari Lake, the failed Arizona pro-Trump gubernatorial candidate who is now running for Senate, also shouted terrorism.

"This looks like at attempted terrorist attack along our Northern border," she tweeted. "Our worst fears are being realized. @JoeBiden's open border invites chaos & misery into our country."

An hour later she changed her tune.

"Multiple outlets are walking back the initial reports of a terror attack," her follow-up an hour later reads. "While I mourn for the two men killed, I’m thankful this appears to have been a tragic accident. The sad reality is that an attack on this country seems inevitable with our border crisis. That MUST change."

At no point was it officially confirmed that the deadly incident at the Rainbow Bridge one day before the Thanksgiving holiday was a terroristic threat.

That didn't stop Ramaswamy or Lake from claiming straightaway, and without any validation, that the incident an attack by some kind of terroristic element. Ramaswamy soon clarified his statement, but not before he doubled down.

"One month ago, @GovChristie ridiculed me for demanding more security on the Northern Border: 'I don’t think you’ve heard anyone who knows anything ask for that.' Well, it’s radio silence from him today," Ramaswamy wrote. "The bipartisan establishment is filled with these clowns & it’s pathetic."

And critics came to give them a dose of humble pre-Thanksgiving pie.

GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie called out his rival.

"Radio silence from me because I have years of law enforcement experience fighting terrorists and crime and you do not. You jump to the conclusion it is terrorism without any definitive proof," Christie wrote on Wednesday. "This is why your judgment is so flawed and you’d be such an awful President. Here’s a hint for you: wait for the evidence and then make judgments. That’s what any experienced leader would do."

Heath Mayo, a conservative Christian lawyer warned Ramaswamy to rethink his attempt to run for president given his judgement to assume the incident in upstate New York was a terroristic act.

"If you fall for misreporting and jump to erroneous conclusions without the facts this quickly, why should anyone trust you to make major judgments as president," he asked in a tweet. "Spare the country, please. Take a job that doesn’t depend on your judgment."

And former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger (ret. R-IL) pressed Lake to remain a civilian and stay out of politics.

"Just a reminder that @KariLake was ready to change American policy and take a victory lap…. Before anything. Take a breath," his tweet from Wednesday reads. "But she is just a performative clown."

'Not responsible': Officials slam speculation on explosion as Fox calls it terrorism

Matt Keeley, The New Civil Rights Movement
November 22, 2023 8:30PM ET

 REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Canadian authorities said it’s irresponsible to speculate about the explosion at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing on Wednesday, as the investigation continues. Meanwhile, Fox News reported the explosion was an attempted terrorist attack without naming sources.

“We’re taking this circumstance very seriously, but to speculate on the origin of this particular circumstance, the reasons why this may have happened, until we have more accurate information is simply not responsible,” Dominic LeBlanc, Canadian Public Safety Minister, addressed reporters at about 2:20 p.m. local time.

At 2:30 p.m., Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the Canadian Parliament.

“We will continue to be engaged, we will provide updates. The update I can give right now is there are four border crossings that are right now closed, Rainbow Bridge, Whirlpool Bridge, Queenston Bridge and Peace Bridge. Additional measures are being contemplated and activated at all border crossings across the country. We are taking this extraordinarily seriously,” Trudeau said.

U.S. President Joe Biden has also been briefed on the explosion, according to The Guardian. The vehicle reportedly was coming from Canada into the U.S. when it was flagged for a secondary inspection by border officials. At this point, the car rapidly accelerated and drove through a fence and onto the bridge plaza, then drove towards the inspection lanes, hit a structure and exploded, according to the Niagara Gazette. The two men inside the vehicle were killed, and a border patrol official was injured.

Fox News called the explosion an attempted “terrorist attack” according to Reuters. Other outlets, however, including CNN, have said that it’s unclear whether or not it was an attack, an accident or a medical emergency that caused the acceleration. It is also unclear if there was an explosive device or if the car exploded on impact.

“Those bomb technicians are an absolutely essential part of this response. And they should be able to tell pretty quickly whether or not there was an explosive device in that vehicle. If the answer is no, and this is entirely the result of either unintentional or an inadvertent vehicle crash, that’ll tell us how quickly they’ll be able to restore service to that side of the bridge,” Andy McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI, said on CNN.

Josh Campbell, CNN’s Security Correspondent, also pointed out that if the explosion is a terrorist attack, it doesn’t look like other terrorist attacks.

“Yeah, I’m just not seeing it,” Campbell said. “Most terrorists … their intent is to cause you know, mass loss of life as much loss of life as they can. And so just the very nature of that you have two individuals who are in a vehicle at the same time, that’s unusual. I mean, typically if you have you know, two terrorists, for example, they would select different targets and work to try to maximize the harm.”

McCabe agreed with Campbell that what happened was “something that really any car could do,” regardless of whether or not it had explosives.

“I think there’s a lot of circumstances that point in that same direction, as Josh Campbell was saying just few minutes ago, from what we know about terrorist operatives, and the way that they stage attacks. If you had a vehicle that was … loaded with explosives that you intended to detonate, you wouldn’t crash the car and then detonate the explosives. You’d wait, you take the car in an unobtrusive way, unremarkable way, as close as you could possibly get to the target and then you would intentionally detonate it, and that doesn’t seem to be that doesn’t fit the circumstances that we’re aware of so far.”

However, McCabe also said that it wasn’t a sure thing that the explosion wasn’t an attack.

“It starts to look more like trying to potentially, you know, to people trying to essentially push their way across the border because they’re afraid of getting stopped if they tried it in the lawful way,” McCabe said. “But we can’t rule out the fact … that this could have been two people trying to make some sort of a statement that ended up unfortunately in a in a life-taking way for themselves.”

Nine times the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers miscalculated badly at expense of taxpayers, wildlife

by ProPublica for Daily Kos
Sunday, November 19, 2023 

Kevin Hecht takes a picture of the New Orleans skyline from the top of a levee in the Holy Cross neighborhood as rain from the outer bands of Hurricane Barry moves into the area on July 12, 2019 in New Orleans, Louisiana.


by Tony Schick
ProPublica and Oregon Public Broadcasting

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.


Since it was founded in 1802, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has taken on some of the nation’s most ambitious attempts to manipulate nature for the benefit of human beings. The agency’s motto — “Essayons!” — translates from French to “Let Us Try!” And try it does.

The Corps has plunged ahead time and again with billion-dollar construction projects based on assumptions that don’t exactly pan out. In some cases, the agency goes on to spend billions more restoring the natural environment it manipulated.

We reported in late October on the Corps’ $1.9 billion proposal to remedy the fact that its 13 dams on the Willamette River in Oregon have helped drive iconic salmon to the brink of extinction.

Trouble is, that recovery plan is also based on assumptions that might not match reality. Central to what the Corps proposes is a pair of fish collectors, which the agency describes as essentially giant fish vacuums. Salmon the size of baby carrots would be whooshed into it, trapped in tanks and trucked around dams on their migration to the sea. The devices are to be built on a massive scale never before tested, and the Corps estimates a single collector could cost up to $450 million. A recent scientific review concluded that the kind of approach the Corps is pitching in Oregon won’t save salmon but “only prolong their decline to extinction.”

The Corps says it’s the best option for helping salmon while keeping dams operational for hydropower customers, boaters and other users of the Willamette systems — although many of those users say they would be fine with lowering reservoirs and curtailing hydropower if it helped fish.

The Oregon story is one example in a long line of Corps projects that have drawn criticism over the years.

In 1971, the New York Times editorial board declared “the American people are becoming increasingly fed up with the expensive, boondoggling, make‐work, environmentally destructive projects that to a large degree characterize the civilian activities of the Army’s Corps of Engineers.”

Three decades later, a Washington Post investigation found the Corps pursued “billions of dollars’ worth of taxpayer-funded water projects, many with significant environmental costs and minimal economic benefits.”

The Government Accountability Office concluded in 2006 that the Corps’ work was “fraught with errors, mistakes, and miscalculations, and used invalid assumptions and outdated data.”

ProPublica, with its partner Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting, has reported that the Corps knew since 1852 that levees force rivers to run higher and faster and yet persisted in using them for flood control.

When asked for a response to critics, the Corps this week issued a statement in which it acknowledged that over its long history, “there have been challenges associated with some of our projects. As an organization, we are always striving to be better.”

The agency said lessons learned from past projects have prompted changes to planning processes and the incorporation of “independent peer review.” The Corps said it’s working to modernize business methods, materials and designs while evolving in its approach to environmental and social concerns. Corps leaders are committed, the statement said, “to safely deliver projects, on time and within budget.”

Here are some examples of Corps projects that didn’t go as expected.
New Orleans Levee System

Year begun: 1965

Location: New Orleans

The plan: Prevent flooding during coastal storms by building a series of levees around Greater New Orleans.

What actually happened: In 2005, design flaws allowed a storm surge from Hurricane Katrina to breach the walls of the $738 million levee system that the Corps had built over the preceding four decades. The storm and flooding killed 1,392 people and caused damage totaling an inflation-adjusted $190 billion. The American Society of Civil Engineers called the levee failures “the worst engineering catastrophe in US History,” and the Corps later acknowledged its levees were “a system in name only.”
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway

Year begun: 1971

Location: Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama

The plan: Build a 234-mile artificial waterway connecting the Tennessee River to the Tombigbee River in Alabama, creating a new channel to the Gulf of Mexico and an estimated 208,000 new jobs in economically depressed areas of Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.

What actually happened:The Associated Press reported in 2019 that the Tenn-Tom, as it’s known, “has never come close to traffic projections used to sell it to the public, and poverty rates have increased in most of the counties it flows through in Mississippi and Alabama.” New jobs totaled 29,000, a study by Troy University found — or 179,000 less than early projections. The project cost $2 billion.
St. John’s Bayou-New Madrid Floodway

Year begun: 1986

Location: Missouri Bootheel

The plan: Control flooding in southeast Missouri with a construction project that would include levees and two giant rainwater pumps and cost $165 million.

What actually happened: The project was never completed. The Corps’ own lobbyist described the idea as an “economic dud with huge environmental consequences,” The Washington Post reported in 2006. According to earlier reporting by the Post, the Corps’ efforts were expected to drain 36,000 acres of wetlands and deliver virtually no actual flood protection.
Olmsted Locks and Dam

Year begun: 1988

Location: Olmsted, Illinois

The plan: Build a lock and dam system on the Ohio River to reduce delays on one of the most commercially trafficked water routes in the country, near the meeting of the Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. The project was scheduled to be finished in 1998 at a cost of $700 million. The Corps projected the locks and dam would generate $920 million in economic benefits annually.

What actually happened: The project wasn’t completed until 2018 — 20 years later than expected. The cost, $3 billion, was four times what the Corps said it would be, and the economic benefits were $236 million, or about one-fourth the original estimate. In 2021, a collection of farmers along the river sued the federal government, claiming the project had increased the frequency and severity of flooding. The Corps sought to dismiss the suit, arguing the river’s flood pattern had not been severely altered. The case is pending.
Savannah Harbor Dredging

Year begun: 1999

Location: Savannah, Georgia

The plan: Dredge Savannah’s harbor to increase commercial shipping. When approved in 1999, the cost was pegged at $459 million.

What actually happened: The Corps was sued by environmental groups and state environmental regulators in South Carolina, where Corps officials were planning to dump potentially toxic dredge spoils. The Corps tried to get the lawsuit dismissed but eventually reached a settlement that included additional pollution controls. The effort took two decades thanks to repeated delays. Meanwhile, the cost more than doubled, to $973 million.
Florida Everglades Restoration

Year begun: 2000

Location: Florida Everglades

The plan: Undo the damage done by engineering projects that degraded the famed ecosystem to half its original size. This damage occurred decades earlier, when the Corps was authorized to build levees around the Everglades and drain the wetlands. Key components of the restoration effort were to include building a massive reservoir the size of Manhattan and a series of artificial marshes meant to funnel clean water into the Everglades. The work would cost $8 billion and take 30 years to complete.

What actually happened: The Corps’ subsequent estimates put the project at $23 billion and 50 years to complete. Two decades passed before the Corps and state officials finally broke ground on the reservoir. According to the Miami Herald: “Even the Army Corps, which is building the reservoir, has signaled it’s worried about whether the finished project will meet the water quality standards it’s supposed to. If the new project missed the mark, it’s possible the ‘crown jewel’ of Everglades restoration might not work.”
Controlling Columbia River Salmon Predators

Year begun: 2015

Location: Mouth of the Columbia River, Oregon-Washington border

The plan: A colony of double-crested cormorants had settled on a set of islands that the Corps built up with soil it dredged from the riverbed, and the birds were feasting on endangered juvenile salmon as they tried to make their way to the ocean. To save endangered fish, the Corps decided to shoot the birds and put oil on their eggs to prevent them from hatching.

What actually happened: Killing the birds drove the colony to a bridge several miles upriver, where the cormorants ate even more salmon than before. Then the birds inundated the bridge with their droppings, causing an estimated $1 million in damage each year.
Coast Fortification in New Jersey

Year begun: 2016

Location: Margate, New Jersey

The plan: Construct sand dunes as part of a statewide effort to fortify the coast after Hurricane Sandy in 2012, at an estimated cost of $63 million.

What actually happened: Margate residents had resisted the project, arguing that an existing retaining wall was sufficient and that dune construction would cause drainage problems for the seaside town. Their fears bore out in 2017, when water pooled behind newly constructed dunes. The town sued. During the trial, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer, a Corps official acknowledged the standing water had surpassed agency predictions and that the agency wanted to continue building, despite being at a loss for solutions. Margate Mayor Michael Becker told the Inquirer the emotional toll of the beach construction was “worse than Hurricane Sandy.” After finding that the town’s concerns were “understandable and cry out for help,” a judge ruled construction could continue if the Corps fenced off ponds and built raised walkways for residents.
Dredging the Mississippi

Year begun: 2018

Location: Mississippi River near New Orleans

The plan: Dredge the Mississippi, deepening the 45-foot-deep channel to 50 feet at the river’s mouth to allow for more shipping.

What actually happened: After the $250 million dredging was completed in 2022, saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico started entering the river. The Corps had known for decades that its continued efforts to deepen the river channel would trigger an intrusion of saltwater, according to The New Orleans Advocate. The agency predicted an underwater dam could contain the invading saltwater, but, according to Bloomberg, this year it failed to do so. To fix the drinking water problem, New Orleans is now building a pipe to pull freshwater from farther upriver, which Bloomberg reports could cost $100 million to $250 million.

I AM UNDERWHELMED

IDF Acknowledges Discrepancy Between Videos Showing Hamas Weapons Inside al-Shifa Hospital, Denies ‘Manipulating’ Media

A news report from the hospital showed two rifles behind an MRI machine. An earlier Israel Defense Forces video showed just one

Published 11/18/23
Aaron Feis


The Israel Defense Forces responded Saturday to a report that shows a discrepancy between two videos of the same weapons found inside the al-Shifa hospital, which the IDF has been saying for weeks is a Hamas stronghold.

Comparing an IDF video of the location with a later Fox News report from the same facility, CNN noted in a Saturday report that just one rifle was visible in the former, while two were visible in the latter.

In a statement to CNN, the IDF said that the discrepancy was due to the addition of “more weaponry and terrorist assets [that] were discovered throughout the day.”

An aerial view shows the compound of Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on November 7, 2023, amid the ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas.

BASHAR TALEB/AFP via Getty Images

“Suggestions that the IDF is manipulating the media are incorrect,” the statement continued. “We are acting with full transparency whilst maintaining the safety of our troops and operational readiness.”

Israeli troops took al-Shifa earlier this week after a military operation that drew international scrutiny. The IDF has asserted that al-Shifa served as a base of operations for the Hamas terrorists who launched a brutal attack on Israel on October 7, indiscriminately killing over 1,200 people and taking an estimated 240 more back to Gaza as hostages. Palestinian officials have denied this characterization, saying that the only people at the hospital were medical workers, patients and some 60,000 displaced civilians seeking shelter.

After Israeli troops pushed into the hospital complex on Wednesday, IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus guided a video tour of its MRI building using “one shot, no editing” to present what he called evidence of Hamas’ prior presence there.

About two minutes into the video, Conricus led the cameraperson to the rear of an MRI machine and gestured to a “grab bag” he said was intended for a Hamas combatant to “grab and go” at a moment’s notice.

Conricus partially opens the bag to clearly reveal part of one AK-47 rifle.
IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus shows one AK-47 rifle behind an MRI machine at Gaza's al-Shifa hospital complex.Israel Defense Forces/X


“There is an AK-47. There are cartridges, ammo. There are grenades in here. Of course uniforms,” he said. “All of this was hidden very conveniently, secretly, behind the MRI machine.”

Conricus’ video was shot during daylight hours and posted to X — formerly Twitter — on Wednesday. At one point in the video, his watch can be seen indicating it was 1:18 p.m.

Hours later, the IDF led Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst through the same facility.



In his report, posted to X early Thursday, Yingst described the walkthrough as being held “in the dark of night.”

Yingst and his cameraperson were led to the rear of what appeared to be the same MRI machine, where two rifles were now visible.
Two rifles are seen behind an MRI machine at the al-Shifa hospital complex in Gaza.Fox News/X

When a BBC journalist was guided through the same room on Thursday, two guns were still visible in the same spot, according to CNN.

Israeli troops continued to operate at al-Shifa on Saturday, another IDF spokesperson, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, told the Times of Israel.

Hagari — who, according to a recent poll, is now seen by Israelis as significantly more trustworthy than Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — told the outlet that the IDF had four goals at the hospital: gathering information on Hamas-held hostages, finding Hamas weapons and command rooms, locating Hamas operatives in the area, and to destroying the subterranean Hamas tunnels that the IDF says sit below al-Shifa.


Hagari said Saturday that the IDF would “publish material soon” on its efforts.

The ongoing war began on October 7 with Hamas terrorists’ brutal invasion of Israel, which saw approximately 1,200 people killed, over 200 more believed kidnapped and atrocities committed on unarmed civilians.

Since, Israel has responded with a tight blockade around Gaza, and a series of airstrikes and ground incursions. According to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, over 12,300 people have been killed in Gaza, most of them also civilians. The United Nations’ chief on human rights last week accused both Hamas and Israel of committing war crimes.

Video Shows Israeli Soldier Tossing Stun Grenade into West Bank Mosque During Call to Prayers

The 18-second video was shared by a Hamas-affiliated Palestinian news outlet and quickly fueled anti-Israel sentiments online

Published 11/18/23 

Christopher Gavin

An Israeli soldier caught on video tossing a stun grenade into a West Bank mosque during a daily call to prayers has been suspended by the Israel Defense Forces, as footage shared by a Hamas-affiliated Palestinian news outlet circulated online.

The suspension of the reservist over the incident, which took place approximately two weeks ago, was confirmed by the IDF to Israeli outlet Ynetnews on Saturday.

"This is a serious incident that goes against the values ​​of the IDF," a statement issued to the outlet read. "Upon learning of the incident, the soldier was suspended from his post. He will be thoroughly investigated and [disciplined] accordingly."

The video footage was posted on social media by the Quds News Network, which reported the soldier asked a friend to film the clip as he threw the flash bang grenade.

The 18-second video was reportedly taken in the village of Budrus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank territory during what appears to be an early-morning call to prayers. Ynetnews reported Saturday that the incident took place approximately two weeks ago

In the clip, the soldier can be seen looking back towards the camera before he activates the stun grenade and jogs toward the door of the mosque.

The soldier is then seen tossing the grenade, which goes off as he casually walks back toward the person holding the camera.

Lights inside the mosque appeared to be on, but it was not immediately clear if anyone was inside.

After the grenade goes off, there seems to be no reaction, from the soldier or anyone else, as the area is quiet in the remaining few seconds of the clip. No apparent damage to the building can be seen.

The short clip quickly spurred a new wave of anti-Israel sentiments online, as the original post amassed more than 2 million views within the first four hours after it was posted.

The video will likely only further escalate the tense and fraught relationship between Palestinians and Israeli setters in the West Bank, which has suffered its worst outbreaks of violence in years since the Israel-Hamas war began last month.

According to the United Nations, 186 Palestinians, including 51 children, have been killed by Israeli forces and another eight have been killed by Israeli settlers in the West Bank.

Meanwhile, four Israelis have been killed in attacks by Palestinians, the UN reported.

Most of the fatalities since Oct. 7 happened during confrontations after Israeli search-and-arrest operations, though others happened in demonstrations expressing solidarity with Gaza and during alleged attacks on Israeli troops or settlers, the UN said.

On Thursday, three gunmen reportedly with ties to Hamas were killed after they opened fire at a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the West Bank's Bethlehem, killing an Israeli security officer and wounding five others.

Earlier this month, the IDF said it opened an investigation into videos allegedly recorded by Israeli soldiers showing themselves abusing and mistreating Palestinian detainees in the West Bank.

The clips show men wearing handcuffs and blindfolds as soldiers kick or stomp on some of them.

Amid the rising reports of violence, President Joe Biden condemned "extremist settlers" last month for "pouring gasoline" on the conflict, which he's repeatedly said should be resolved through a negotiated "two-state solution."

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

‘Silicon Valley’s Party Animal’ Convicted on Fraud and Money Laundering Charges

A federal jury found his schemes resulted in approximately $18.8 million in 'missing money'

Published 11/18/23 

Rocio Fabbro

The 39-year-old Michael Rothenberg was known for extravagant parties and his mixing of business and pleasure as spoofed in HBO’s “Silicon Valley.”LinkedIn

Aformer San Francisco venture capitalist dubbed “Silicon Valley’s Party Animal” was convicted earlier this week on several charges, including wire and bank fraud, and money laundering.

Michael Rothenberg, 39, known for extravagant parties and his mixing of business and pleasure as spoofed in HBO's Silicon Valley, was convicted by a federal jury of committing wire and bank fraud totaling nearly $19 million in “missing money,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Rothenberg committed wire fraud with millions of dollars of investments into his venture capital funds, and later committed money laundering by transferring those funds through several bank accounts, the jury found.


He was also found to have defrauded Silicon Valley Bank, which was acquired by First Citizens Bank in March after its collapse, deceptively obtaining a $4 million line of credit to pay back a shortfall at one of his funds.

He founded Rothenberg Ventures Management in 2012, a venture capital management company, which for six years managed his four venture capital funds aimed at investing in Silicon Valley start-ups, specifically in virtual reality technologies. In 2015, however, Rothenberg started his own company, River Studios, to produce content used in virtual reality headsets.

While he told employees and investors that the studio had been “self-funded” and that no venture capital funds were used to get the company off the ground, Rothenberg used venture capital fund money to pay for the studio’s operations, according to evidence at the trial.

A 2015 Bloomberg report, which first gave Rothenberg the "party animal" title, described the lavish culture at the then three-year-old firm, including hot-air balloons rides on wine tours of Napa Valley, visits to San Francisco's Samovar Tea Lounge and free seats to Giants and Golden State Warriors games in Rothenberg’s luxury boxes

In 2018, Rothenberg settled civil charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission and agreed to a five-year ban from the brokerage and investment advisory business, without admitting or denying the charges. The SEC said Rothenberg and his firm misappropriated millions of dollars in funds, including an estimated $7 million of excess fees, over three years.

Rothenberg allegedly used the funds to finance a racing car and crew and threw private parties and events at high-end resorts, among other extravagant expenses, using the misappropriated funds, according to the SEC complaint.

Rothenberg’s sentencing is scheduled for March 1 and he remains out of custody on pre-trial bail. He could face a maximum of 60 years in prison and about $1.5 million in fines across all charges.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M BUSINESS AS USUAL

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 UK
Gas boilers poised to become largest nitrous oxide emitters by 2025

A HOMEOWNER TURNING DOWN THE TEMPERATURE OF A GAS BOILER
PA WIRE

SAMI QUADRI

5 DAYS AGO

Gas boilers are on track to become the largest nitrous oxide emitters in the capital by 2025, experts have warned.

Boilers currently account for around 21 per cent of nitrous oxide emissions across London and environmentalists warn it could be come an even bigger source of local pollution in the near future.

The post-pandemic shift to remote working is believed to be one of the factors that has driven an increase in emission forecasts.

Experts have called for the Government to phase out gas boilers and switch to alternative measures such as heat pumps.

It comes after a cold snap sent demand for gas surging to a peak of 135 million cubic metres last month - the most since February this year and the largest in an October since 2021.

The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) says heat pumps are the only viable alternative to heat homes en masse and that millions of households should receive subsidies worth more than £6bn to encourage their adoption.

It has called for £1.3bn a year to be spent on heat pumps for poorer homes and £1.9bn on grants of £7,000 each for other homeowners to buy them. A further £3.2bn a year should be spent on energy efficiency and heat pump installations for social housing, the NIC said.

Mark Maslin, a Professor of Earth System Science at UCL, said: “Our world is changing and it is changing for the better - but it means we must be critical of old technology and embrace newer cleaner and am safer technology.

“For example gas boilers are not only a significant cause of greenhouse gas emissions, they are also a risk to public health. In fact, by 2025, they will be the largest contributor to NOx emissions, overtaking car

“There is compelling environmental and public health arguments in favour of legislative action to help homes transition away from gas boilers and converting to options such as thermal storage boilers and heat pumps.

“It is a double win; better for our air in London, and better from our greenhouse gas emissions. If we combine this with switching from gas cooking to electric cooking we will greatly improve indoor air quality for millions of people.”

Cleantech company tepeo has called for the removal of gas boilers and increased adoption of low-carbon heating solutions.

tepeo Founder and CEO Johan Du Plessis said: “A technology-agnostic approach to low-carbon heating is essential if we are to accelerate the UK’s transition to Net Zero, while also eliminating these harmful emissions. We must remember that ensuring we’re all breathing in clean air is about far more than cars.”

This tiny Greek island now has zero waste – leading the way for the rest of the world

On Tilos, there’s no landfill site at all. So how have they done it, and how can this zero-waste model be replicated around the world?

MELANIE GOLDBERG
18 Nov 2023

View from the mountain of Livadia, Tilos island.

 Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto/Shutterstock

Located about 90km east of Rhodes lies the world’s first zero-waste island. Picturesque Tilos boasts white sandy beaches, scenic rolling hills, historic architecture and no bins.

In the 1980s, the island of around 800 people voted to become a conservation zone for wildlife. By 2018, they generated all their energy via renewables. This summer, Tilos was certified as Greece’s first zero-waste community.

The most modern measures have been implemented to solve an age-old problem. Specially designed and trademarked blue bags have a QR code that measures volume and content. A nifty ‘Just Go Zero’ app allows every household to monitor and track the circular management of waste materials as they are recycled.

Change a Big Issue vendor’s life this Christmas by purchasing a Winter Support Kit. You’ll receive four copies of the magazine and create a brighter future for our vendors through Christmas and beyond.

Only a few years ago, 87% of waste was being sent to landfill; now the island doesn’t have one. The old landfill site is now home to the Centre for Circular Innovation where rubbish is sorted, the organic waste converted to fertiliser. There’s also a Centre for Creative Upcycling for furniture or clothes no longer needed.

If successful, the island could serve as a zero-waste blueprint for the rest of the world to follow. That’s certainly the intention of environmental company Polygreen, who have pushed forward the initiative and hope to bring it next to the fossil fuel-enriched United Arab Emirates.

Founded in 2018 by Greek-Cypriot Athanasios Polychronopoulos, Polygreen already operates across several continents and specialise in treating oil spills and hazardous waste management.

Polychronopoulos has “a mission to make Abu Dhabi the first zero-waste Emirate”. And by 2030 too. The petrostate is already home to a zero-carbon city, Masdar City, located within Abu Dhabi, with features such as wind towers, solar power plants and magnetically controlled cars. During its construction, the city welcomed numerous international dignitaries such as Hillary Clinton, George W Bush, and the then UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon.

While the scheme has been a success on a small island with a population of less than 1,000 – much less outside of holiday season – can the success transfer over to a region of almost three million? Not to mention that the UAE will need a significant amount of carbon offsetting to make up for its oil and gas industry.

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This month, COP28 kicks off along the road from Abu Dhabi, in Dubai. It has already proved controversial, led by Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, CEO of the United Arab Emirates’ state oil company – though if he did happen to be serious about saving the planet, he’ll certainly know all the ways we’re going wrong at the moment.

But is it realistic or just a try for some positive PR for an oil-rich nation that relies on constant air conditioning and private car ownership to go zero waste?

Last year Abu Dhabi launched its Mission to Zero initiative, with the catchy tagline: “No excuse for single-use!” Plastic bags have already been banned, with the aim to do the same with plastic bottles. From individuals to shops, restaurants and government departments, there’s a toolkit to show people how they can make a difference. But the mission does seem almost impossible.

Meanwhile, in the UK with less than half of our waste recycled we definitely have lessons to learn from Tilos.

Melanie Goldberg is part of The Big Issue’s Breakthrough programme

UK

Reading fire: Hero crane driver describes 'close call' saving worker from high-rise

Connor Parker
Thu, 23 November 2023 

Glen Edwards operated the crane during the rescue. (Reach)

A crane driver who has been called "heroic" after saving a worker trapped by a fire on a building site said the rescue was a close call.

More than 50 firefighters were dispatched to battle the blaze at the Station Hill development in Reading town centre at 11.30am on Thursday.

Hundreds of construction workers and office staff from surrounding buildings were evacuated as fire crews worked to contain the fire, which appeared to have spread to the top of a high-rise tower under construction near Reading train station.

Watch: Hero crane operator says Reading fire rescue was 'very close call'


The fire service has confirmed that two people were rescued by crane and taken for medical treatment.

Videos shared on social media showed a man being rescued as a cage was directed onto a platform by a the crane driver.

Once the worker was on board he was lifted to safety.

Glen Edwards, 65, said: "I was no more than 20 metres up in the air and I looked out my left-hand window and saw a guy standing on the corner of the building.

"I’d only just seen him and someone said ‘can you get the cage on’, so that was it, I got the cage on and got it over to him the best I could. It was quite windy conditions.

"I would say it was a very close call, if you look at the video at the way the wind was swirling around there.

"I tried to put the cage down between him and the flames, but I was hampered by the wind swirling around there.

The scene at the Station Hill development site in Reading where the fire broke. (PA) (PA)

"But I got the cage down and I managed to get him in there."

Edwards, a crane operator of 30 years, said it had "not been your average day at work".
Witnesses praise crane driver

Another construction worker, who asked not to be named, said Edwards was "a bit of hero" for his actions under pressure.

The worker said: "If he had been any longer, it would have been a very different ending."

Another witness who did not want to be named said: "He was coughing [when he came down], from the smoke, you know what I mean.

Two men were rescued by crane and taken to hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation after the large fire broke out at the Station Hill development site in Reading. (Reach)

Damage done to the site. (PA)

"When he got inside the crane and the crane put him down everyone was clapping.

"The crane driver was very fast. He was still in the crane while the building was on fire."

A spokesperson for South Central Ambulance Service said two people had been taken to hospital for treatment for smoke inhalation.

A spokesman for Lincoln MGT, the join venture company responsible for delivering the Station Hill development, said: "We can confirm that a fire took place on the Station Hill construction site this morning.

"We activated our fire emergency plans immediately, the emergency services were notified and are currently on site.

"The safety of those on site and the wider public is always our first priority and the site has been evacuated as a result.

"As soon as we have more information we will provide an update."

Construction company Sir Robert McAlpine, which is the lead contractor on the development, has been contacted for further information as well.
How many construction workers die a year in the UK?

In the fiscal year ending in April 2023, the UK recorded 45 fatal injuries on construction sites, up more than 50% from the previous year.

It is the most lethal profession in the UK by a wide margin, with the second most dangerous being agriculture, forestry and fishing which recorded 21 deaths.

Fire deaths are far more rare, with the most common causes of death on construction sites being falling from height, struck by moving objects or struck by vehicles.