Global rally against COVID-19 safety measures comes to Parliament Hill

Online misinformation about pandemic safety measures thriving, experts say

#COVIDIOTS

Raisa Patel, David Thurton · CBC News · Posted: Aug 29, 2020

A demonstrator holds her sign during a protest against measures to stop transmission of COVID-19 on Parliament hill in Ottawa, Sat., Aug. 29, 2020. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

Flouting public health guidance to wear masks in public areas, avoid large gatherings and practice physical distancing, hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Parliament Hill Saturday to protest pandemic safety measures they say infringe on their personal rights.

The group behind the rally is part of a wider movement of people across the globe venting their frustrations over science-backed measures designed to slow the spread of COVID-19. The majority of protesters did not wear masks and congregated closely together on Parliament Hill's front lawn.

The demonstration was one of several rallies that took place around the world on Saturday. In Berlin, 38,000 people protested public safety restrictions at an event that was disbanded by police after demonstrators failed to keep their distance and wear masks as instructed.

Elsewhere in Europe, about 200 anti-mask activists held a similar rally in Paris, while thousands of demonstrators gathered in London's Trafalgar Square calling the coronavirus a hoax and demanding an end to restrictions.

Thousands rally in downtown Montreal to protest Quebec's mandatory mask rules

AUDIOAnti-mask group speaks out against Sudbury's health directives

The group behind the event in Canada's capital calls itself a "leaderless" movement that doesn't take political sides, and says it is mostly concerned with being forced to comply with the measures.

"We are not anti-mask at all, we are pro-liberty," said Kelly Anne Wolfe, the executive director of The Line Canada, a group that organized the protest. "If you want to wear a mask or a tutu, we have nothing to say about that. That is your right. You do not have a right to put one on my face or the face of my children. It's as simple as that."

The Parliamentary Protective Service, which is responsible for security on Parliament Hill, has not issued an estimate for the size of Saturday's crowd.
Masks protect individuals — and others

Public health authorities have overwhelmingly recommended or mandated the use of masks to protect against transmission and exposure of the virus — particularly in cases where a person is asymptomatic or might not know if they have been infected.

The Public Health Agency of Canada recommends wearing a homemade or non-medical mask when it is not possible to maintain physical distancing, while many jurisdictions across the country have also made mask-wearing mandatory in indoor public areas.

A balloon floats above protesters on Parliament hill during a demonstration against safety measures intended to slow the spread of COVID-19. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

"It's been shown to be a very effective public health measure," said Craig Jenne, an infectious disease researcher at the University of Alberta. "We know, for example, that masks can reduce the transmission and spread of droplets by more than six-fold."

Jenne said that when it comes to considering personal freedom, context is important.

"Wearing a mask is not a large ask and [it] is not an arduous process to literally protect the lives of people in your community."

While some individuals are not able to wear masks because of pre-existing health conditions, those who can are helping to stop the spread, he added.

"If we can do our part to keep viral numbers down, we can protect them as well. So it really is just an overall community effort."
Beliefs shared widely online

The group responsible for Saturday's rally mobilized on Facebook, where organizers said they expected 200,000 people to show up.

Only a small fraction of that number materialized, but experts say these beliefs have found new life online.

"I have noticed an increased level of misinformation circulating on social media since the beginning of the pandemic," said Aengus Bridgman, a Montreal-based researcher with the Media Ecosystem Observatory.

Demonstrators in downtown Ottawa were joined by supporters from outside the city, including a convoy of protesters travelling from Quebec. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

While social media provides a platform for citizens to exercise fundamental freedoms and participate in the democratic process, Bridgman said that must be weighed against sharing harmful information.

"There are concerns when we have social media platforms that are, through negligence, allowing the spread of misinformation that...leads to increased infection rates, increased deaths, and increases the duration of the pandemic."

COVID-19 conspiracy theories creating a 'public health crisis' in Canada, experts say

Anti-masking groups draw from anti-vaccination playbook to spread misinformation

Earlier this week, Canada's Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam acknowledged that online platforms were also contributing to mistrust surrounding a COVID-19 vaccine.

"I am also concerned about the first pandemic in the age of the internet and social media. This is an area of significant work because we have an overload of information through which many Canadians can't sort out what is credible and what is not," she said.

"I look towards different partners, different government departments coming together to look at how we better address some of the myths and disinformation that is in that space. That is, I think, fundamentally a massive challenge."


With files from Reuters
CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC NewsReport Typo or Error

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Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay apologizes for tweet linking Freeland with billionaire Soros

Findlay expressed 'alarm' over 2009 video of then journalist Chrystia Freeland interviewing George Soros

The Canadian Press · Posted: Aug 29, 2020

Kerry-Lynne Findlay pictured in the House of Commons in 2014 when she represented the B.C. riding of Delta-Richmond East. She was elected in 2019 for the riding of South surrey-White Rock. (CBC)

Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay is apologizing for "thoughtlessly" spreading material about Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland from a source she said she later discovered traffics in hateful conspiracy theories.

The Conservatives' environment critic retweeted a video of Freeland interviewing billionaire George Soros when she was a journalist with the Financial Times in 2009 and commented that their closeness should alarm every Canadian.

The edited two-minute clip shows Soros advocating for then-U.S. president Barack Obama to bring China into what the financier describes as a "new world order, a financial world order."

Soros, who is Jewish, is a frequent bogeyman of conspiracy theories from far-right figures in the U.S., his native Hungary and beyond.

In a post Saturday morning, Findlay wrote that Freeland listened carefully to Soros "like student to teacher."

Findlay deleted the retweet Saturday afternoon and apologized, saying she never meant to endorse what she called "hateful rhetoric."

"I thoughtlessly shared content from what I am now learning is a source that promotes hateful conspiracy theories. I have removed the tweets and apologize," Findlay wrote.


The U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish advocacy organization, says in a 2018 blog post that Soros "has become a lightning rod for conservative and right-wing groups who object to his funding of liberal causes."

"In far-right circles worldwide, Soros' philanthropy often is recast as fodder for outsized conspiracy theories, including claims that he masterminds specific global plots or manipulates particular events to further his goals," the ADL's post reads.

"Many of those conspiracy theories employ longstanding anti-Semitic myths, particularly the notion that rich and powerful Jews work behind the scenes, plotting to control countries and manipulate global events."

Newly minted Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saturday.

Activists topple statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in downtown Montreal

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'We must fight racism, but destroying parts of our history is not the solution,' says Quebec premier

CBC News · Posted: Aug 29, 2020 4:05 PM ET | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

A statue of Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, was toppled to the ground by demonstrators as a protest march calling for defunding of the police reached its end at Place du Canada on Saturday. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

A group of activists toppled a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in Place du Canada in downtown Montreal on Saturday afternoon in the aftermath of a protest calling for the defunding of the police force.

A handful of people climbed the monument, tied ropes around the statue and held up banners before unbolting it and pulling it down. The falling statue's trajectory caused the head to fly off and bounce onto the cobblestones below. A video posted to social media captured the moment.

The incident took place following a peaceful march through downtown Montreal, one of several demonstrations held across Canada organized by a coalition of Black and Indigenous activists.

It was not clear what affiliation, if any, those who pulled down the statue had with the march. The falling statue appeared to catch other demonstrators, organizers and police by surprise. A march organizer, contacted by CBC Montreal, declined to comment. 

• Jason Kenney says Alberta would re-erect John A. Macdonald statue toppled in Montreal

A CBC journalist obtained a leaflet from a demonstrator who said it had been distributed to explain the act. The leaflet points to an online petition with over 46,000 signatures asking Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante to take down the statue.

"Sir John A. Macdonald was a white supremacist who orchestrated the genocide of Indigenous peoples with the creation of the brutal residential schools system, as well as promoting other measures that attacked Indigenous peoples and traditions," the leaflet reads in part.

Because of the city's inaction, "a diverse coalition of young activists" decided to act, the leaflet says, though it does not identify the coalition.

As of late Saturday afternoon, no arrests had been made.

Premier, mayor denounce vandalism

The statue of Macdonald, Canada's first prime minister, has been the site of repeated acts of graffiti in recent years, and it has often been covered in red paint.

It was also decapitated by unknown vandals in 1992. The Montreal Gazette reported at the time that a fax sent to media outlets claimed the act of vandalism was timed to commemorate the anniversary of the hanging of Louis Riel on Nov. 16, 1885.

• Rallies held across Canada to spotlight police violence, demand reform

• Quebec issues street check guidelines aimed at preventing discriminatory stops

On Twitter Saturday, Quebec Premier François Legault wrote that "whatever one might think of John A. MacDonald, destroying a monument in this way is unacceptable. We must fight racism, but destroying parts of our history is not the solution. Vandalism has no place in our democracy and the statue must be restored."

Earlier in the day, Jason Kenney, Legault's counterpart in Alberta, also used Twitter to decry the act and said Alberta would host the statue if Montreal didn't want it.

In a statement Saturday, Plante wrote that the city's public art office and heritage experts will coordinate the statue's restoration.

"I strongly deplore the acts of vandalism that took place this afternoon in downtown Montreal," she said in the statement.

She noted that some monuments are at "the heart of emotional debates," a reference to contemporary critiques of Macdonald's legacy and record on Indigenous issues — which includes establishing Canada's residential school system.

• Ropes tied around John A. Macdonald statue in Regina during demonstration

• Native Council of P.E.I. asking community members for input on John A. Macdonald statue

"I understand and share the motivation of citizens who want to live in a more just and inclusive society," her statement said. "But the discussion and the necessary actions must be carried out peacefully, without ever resorting to vandalism."

Plante said Montreal police would investigate.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said public art and heritage experts will coordinate the statue's restoration. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

A magnet for controversy

In recent years, concerns about Macdonald's actions and policies have made statues of the man targets of activists in cities across Canada.

In Victoria, B.C., city council voted to remove the statue from the steps of city hall as a gesture of reconciliation in 2018.

Protesters tied ropes around a statue of Macdonald in Regina in July.

One in Charlottetown has been the frequent target of paint and the subject of a debate, with the city's council recently deciding to keep the statue — but begin a conversation with P.E.I.'s Indigenous community about how to present it.

With files from Sarah Leavitt and Radio-Canada

MONTREAL -- Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante condemned the destruction of a statue of Canada's first prime minister during a defund the police rally on Saturday.

Just before 3 p.m. in Montreal, the often-vandalized statue of John A. Macdonald at Place du Canada in the heart of Montreal was toppled by protesters.

The protest was scheduled to demand a reduction in police funding.

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Statue taken down today in so-called #Montreal #BlackLivesMatter #DefundPolice #manifencours #decolonize Kanada pic.twitter.com/0TYGayWUiK— Nore (@noreornot) August 29, 2020

Montreal police (SPVM) spokesperson Jean-Pierre Brabant confirmed that at around 2:45 p.m. the statue was toppled by protesters though police do not have any suspects at the moment.

SPVM officers asked protesters to leave the area over a loudspeaker once the statue was in pieces on the ground.

"People understood and they left," said Brabant.

In a statement, Plante said she strongly condemns "the acts of vandalism that took place this afternoon in downtown Montreal... Such gestures cannot be accepted or tolerated."

"We know that certain historical monuments, here and elsewhere, are at the heart of emotional debate. I reiterate that I prefer to put them in context rather than simply removing them. I am also in favour of adding monuments that will be more representative of the society to which we all aspire."

Plante said the city's public art office will coordinate to restore the statue. 

View this post on Instagram

Jaggi Singh on Instagram: “The racist John A. Macdonald statue in Montreal has fallen! It was taken down minutes ago by anonymous protesters at the end of the…”

The racist John A. Macdonald statue in Montreal has fallen! It was taken down minutes ago by anonymous protesters at the end of the #DefundThePolice demo.

A post shared by Jaggi Singh (@comradejaggi) on Aug 29, 2020 at 11:59am PDT

After the crowd dispersed, a perimetre was erected around the park.

No one was injured, and there were no other incidents during the protest, according to Brabant.

"The protest in general went really well," he said. "It's just the mischief at place du Canada that was a bit negative."

The statue has been the target of spray paint and vanalism many times over the past couple of years, as attention has been drawn to Canada's first Prime Minister's treatment of Indigenous and other marginalized peoples.

Newly elected Conservative leader Erin O'Toole criticized the actions of the protesters on Twitter.

Canada wouldn't exist without Sir John A. Macdonald. Canada is a great county, and one we should be proud of. We will not build a better future by defacing our past.

It's time politicians grow a backbone and stand up for our country. https://t.co/VdskHzFaRy— Erin O'Toole (@ErinOTooleMP) August 29, 2020



NATIONWIDE PROTEST

The protesters in Montreal joined others across Canadian to demand a reduction in police funding.

The Coalition for BIPOC Liberation is calling for a 50 per cent reduction in the budget reserved for the police to invest instead "in black and Indigenous communities."



Repost from @racialjusticecollective • Today is the day! Meet us at Place des Arts at noon, right in face of the metro,...Posted by The Coalition for BIPOC Liberation on Saturday, 29 August 2020

The group is also calling for the demilitarization of the police and "alternate community regulation to handle non-violent calls."

According to the group of activists, protests will also take place in Toronto, London, Montreal, Fredericton, Moncton and Halifax.

Calls to withdraw funding from police forces have multiplied in the United States, but also in Canadian cities since the death of George Floyd in the United States last May.

In a news release presented to the City of Montreal last week as part of a pre-budget consultation, the Fraternite des policemen et policieres de Montréal, which represents the 4,500 police officers of the SPVM, strongly opposed the defunding, saying that reducing the police budget will compromise public safety.

-- this report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2020.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/black-lives-matter-protesters-topple.html

UPDATED

UK Scientist Discovers Dinosaur Fossil While Running Along Shore Of Eigg Beach

The 166 million-year-old dinosaur fossil was discovered by Dr. Elsa Panciroli, who was with her team members looking for remains of other animals.

Written By Vishal Tiwari


In a bizarre but yet exciting incident, a scientist discovered a dinosaur fossil while running along the shore of Hebridean island in Scotland. The dinosaur fossil was discovered by Dr. Elsa Panciroli, who was with her team members looking for remains of other animals. Panciroli, while talking to the press, said that she stumbled upon the bone of the dinosaur while running and trying to catch up with other members of her team. The dinosaur fossil is reportedly 166 million-year-old, dated to the Middle Jurassic period.

Read: Fossil Embryo Reveals New Details About ‘sauropods’ That Lived 80 Million Years Ago



🚨JURASSIC DISCOVERY KLAXON🚨

A 166 million-year-old dinosaur bone has been found on the isle of Eigg!

Dr Panciroli (@gsciencelady) made the discovery on the Hebridean island. The find has since been identified as belonging to a stegosaurian dinosaur – like Stegosaurus pic.twitter.com/ri5nnLyqAb— National Museums Scotland (@NtlMuseumsScot) August 26, 2020

Read: Fossil Of 13-ft-long Marine Predator Found Inside Larger Animal: Study
First on isle of Eigg

The bone has been kept in the National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh, where it has been displayed for visitors. According to reports, scientists in Scotland have been searching dinosaur bones for more than 200 hundred years. Until now the only dinosaur fossil discovered in Scotland was on the Isle of Skye. This is the first time that a dinosaur bone has been found os isle of Eigg, where previously only marine reptile and fish fossils were discovered. The dinosaur fossil found on the small island is a limb bone, which is about 50 centimetres long in size.

Read: Fossil Of Long-necked Ancient Reptile Reveals The Spices Was Adaptable, Lived Underwater

The find has since been identified as belonging to a stegosaurian dinosaur, like Stegosaurus. Panciroli discovered the bone on a National Geographic funded fieldwork in 2017. The bone was badly eroded, but paleontologist and Panciroli's colleague Nigel Larkin carefully prepared it for the team to study. It was probably a juvenile, and bite marks show it was scavenged after death, said Panciroli.

Read: Fossils Reveal Dinosaur Predecessor Kongonaphon Kely Was Smaller Than A Cellphone


Dinosaur bone discovered on Scottish island the 1st of its kind in the country

Paleontologist Elsa Panciroli was running to catch up with her colleagues when she spotted the rare fossil

CBC Radio · Posted: Aug 28, 2020 5:57 PM ET | Last Updated: August 28

Researchers believe the discovery is a lower back leg bone of a stegosaurian dinosaur, a species not seen in Scotland before. (N. Larkin)

A rare dinosaur bone from the Middle Jurassic was discovered in Scotland, thanks to the keen eye of a local paleontologist.

Elsa Panciroli got separated from her colleagues while searching for fossils on the Scottish Isle of Eigg. She was hopping from boulder to boulder on the shoreline to catch up with the rest of the team when something caught her eye.

"I suddenly realized the boulder I had just hopped onto and run past, it had something in it. But I wasn't sure quite what," Panciroli, who is a paleontologist at National Museums Scotland, told As It Happens guest host Helen Mann.

"So I turned around, went back to look, and it was a dinosaur bone sticking out of the boulder on the shoreline I'd just literally stepped on."

Her discovery turned out to be a 48-centimetre dinosaur bone, belonging to a species that has never been seen in Scotland before.

Scottish paleontologist Elsa Panciroli discovered a fossil that turned out to be a leg bone from a Jurassic-era stegosaurus. (S. Brusatte)

1st dinosaur on Eigg

Panciroli was so surprised to find the dinosaur bone, she says she downplayed her discovery to her colleagues at first.

"I was a bit reluctant to say the d-word, so I just kept saying I found something," she said. "And eventually they teased [it] out of me, and of course the moment I said 'dinosaur' everyone ... wanted to come and have a look."

Hundreds of people have likely walked over the boulder without noticing anything, she said, and finding the fossil was a matter of luck as much as training.

"I think a lot of the time for people who search for fossils, it's about pattern recognition. You're looking to recognize something. And it was almost unconscious, because I wasn't looking anymore; I was running."

Panciroli said Eigg has been extensively studied, and the purpose of the trip was to look for fossils seen on the island before, like those of marine reptiles and fish.

How a paleontologist and dentist solved the mystery of dinosaur tracks on a cave ceiling

The researchers never expected to find signs of something as big as a dinosaur — and it turns out that Panciroli's discovery is even rarer than that.
Rare fossil from the Middle Jurassic

After months of extensive tests on the bone, its owner was established to be a young stegosaurian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic period. This is the first time this type of dinosaur and a fossil this old have been found in Scotland.

"It's 166 million years old, and this is a time when fossils — globally speaking, not just in Scotland — are very, very rare," Panciroli said.

"So just finding it in the first place is really quite significant."

Panciroli imagined the last moments of the young stegosaurus, whose fossilized bone she discovered, in her painting. (Elsa Panciroli )

It's also the first time a dinosaur fossil has been found on Eigg; all other dino fossils in Scotland were discovered on the Isle of Skye.

The newfound bone was likely a back lower leg bone of a stegosaurian dinosaur, a large quadruped species with distinctive plates on the back.

Previously, only fossils from two different types of dinosaurs — "the big, long-necked, very heavy dinosaurs" and "the meat-eating dinosaurs that walk on two legs" — have been found in Scotland, Panciroli said.

Storm surge unearths 'incredible' trove of dinosaur fossils in U.K.

Researchers will now continue looking for fossils on Eigg and Skye in hopes of building a more complete picture of the ecosystem of that time period.

"We already know that there were also mammals at this time, the very earliest ones, but also things like salamanders, crocodiles, turtles — so we can even look at food chains. It really is only the beginning of research," Panciroli said.

The researcher also said she was happy to find something so close to home. "It's always lovely to find something in your home country. I think I expected that I would probably have to travel abroad to look for something like this, so it's a big surprise."

Written by Olsy Sorokina. Interview produced by Jeanne Armstrong.

CO₂ removal to halt warming soon would be a gargantuan undertaking

Nothing is perfect, and the trade-offs could be large if poorly managed.

SCOTT K. JOHNSON - 8/27/2020, 1:25 PM

Enlarge / How much switchgrass could we grow for biofuels?
Michigan State University 

One of the options to help us get our balance of greenhouse gas emissions down faster is to actively remove some CO2 from the atmosphere. The idea is that it can be cheaper and easier to start CO2 removal while our energy systems are transitioning than to attempt to make that transition happen quickly enough to reach our climate goals. Obviously, there’s never a free lunch, and these ideas have attracted lots of scrutiny because of their side effects and feasibility.

Crops vs. BECCS

Three studies published this week examine some of the issues of negative emissions in detail. The first focuses primarily on BECCS—bioenergy with carbon capture and storage. This is a technically attractive strategy that would involve growing biofuel crops, burning them to generate electricity, capturing the CO2 leaving the power plant’s exhaust, and storing that CO2 somewhere (probably deep underground). The added value from electricity generation makes this look cheaper than many methods that could pull similar amounts of CO2 out of the air. As a result, many emissions scenarios that manage to halt warming at 1.5°C or 2°C rely on sizable deployments of BECCS to get there.

The primary downside is the potential competition for land with food crops or forests. To get a much clearer picture, the study first set aside the land projected to be used for crops before working out the global potential for BECCS. The researchers focused on crops like switchgrass and sugarcane or woody plants like fast-growing poplar and assumed that any carbon in vegetation present on land converted to this use was lost at the start (burned, for example). They ran the numbers for BECCS as well as liquid fuels like biodiesel or ethanol, for which much of the resulting CO2 is released rather than captured.

The results highlight the importance of sweating the details—outcomes vary considerably by geographic location and methods. Clearing an area of land for crops can create a large carbon “debt” that has to be paid up before your effort accomplishes anything climate-wise. The more productive the biofuel crop is in a given climate zone and soil type, the faster it can pay that debt. Because of this, the timespan of the operation—or accounting—the better things can look. Over an 80-year period, most regions can turn a carbon storage “profit” with BECCS. But if you’re looking at the first 30 years, a number of sites would fail to overcome their initial debt.

Enlarge / Here is where BECCS could overcome its initial carbon debt (negative numbers, cool colors) for 30-year and 80-year timeframes.
Hanssen et al./Nature Climate Change

So sticking with the suitable locations—and leaving cropland untouched—could BECCS supply all the carbon capture needed to make a 1.5°C warming scenario work? According to the study’s simulation, not quite, although it can get close. The effort would be massive, though. By 2100, these biofuel crops would occupy 5-16 percent of the Earth’s land area, depending on how quickly our CO2 emissions declined. At that point, BECCS power plants would be generating more electricity than the current global total.
Fill up my tank

The second study was focused on producing liquid biofuels for things like airplanes and shipping. It zeroed in on an even finer scale, using ecosystem modeling based on several study sites in the eastern US. The goal was to progress beyond generic estimates and see exactly where carbon would be going in biofuel cropland, accounting for soil processes and the details of the biofuel-production process. Might there be cases where that land could have a bigger carbon impact if it were just reforested?

This scenario was based on switchgrass grown for ethanol or biofuel, with a 70-year timeframe and the initial vegetation on converted land harvested for energy rather than burned. It also included scenarios for improved switchgrass crops and fuel-making processes, as well as the possibility of capturing the carbon emitted during fuel production.

Unsurprisingly, the study found that using cropland or former pasture produced a much clearer carbon benefit than converting forest for switchgrass agriculture. But for cropland and pasture, even current methods had a greater climate benefit than restoring them to grasslands would. If the land is suitable for reforestation, on the other hand, doing so would likely beat biofuels. Introduce some improvements in switchgrass yields and biofuel production efficiency, though, and it tops reforestation for climate mitigation. So there is a positive path here in the right circumstances.

The authors write, “While climate and other ecosystem service benefits cannot be taken for granted from cellulosic biofuel deployment, our scenarios illustrate how conventional and carbon-negative biofuel systems could make a near-term, robust, and distinctive contribution to the climate challenge.”
Enlarge / Here's how carbon storage accumulates for different techniques, depending on the land type used.
Field et al./PNAS

DAC it up

The third study looked at an entirely different technology—“direct air capture” (DAC) of CO2 from ambient air, after which it can be stored underground. As several companies have advanced designs for this process and even built pilot plants, DAC has entered the realm of the plausible. It has the advantage of concentrating the work into the footprint of a facility rather than acres of arable land. So is DAC all the capture with none of the side effects?

Well, not exactly. It’s still comparatively quite expensive, and it trades voracious land use for voracious energy use. The study modeled the consequences of meeting 1.5°C warming pathways with BECCS and forest expansion to meet our CO2 removal needs, and it contrasted that with using direct air capture instead. With things like BECCS allowed to take over cropland, the researchres simulated pretty extreme increases in staple crop prices, particularly in the Global South.

Direct air capture doesn’t contribute to that problem, but water use in the two scenarios is actually similar. And the heat required in the DAC process—provided by natural gas with capture of the emitted CO2 in some pilots—could be equivalent to two-thirds of current natural gas production or more.

But even with the current state of this young technology, the economic model shows that DAC could play a substantial role, removing enough CO2 by 2035 to equal 7 percent of current-day emissions, if we’re willing to go that route.

The authors of this study emphasize a take-away message that applies to all three: “These results highlight that delays in aggressive global mitigation action greatly increase the requirement for DAC to meet climate targets, and correspondingly, energy and water impacts.” The sooner we start reducing our emissions, the less of a need there will be for these carbon-removal techniques, allowing us to minimize the scale of the trade-offs they come with.

Nature Climate Change, 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-0885-y, 10.1038/s41558-020-0876-z

PNAS, 2020. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1920877117 (About DOIs).

Nine gigawatts of wind turbines were added last year in the US

The 2019 numbers show projects are up, costs are down.

SCOTT K. JOHNSON - 8/28/2020, 2:30 PM

Enlarge
Earlier this year in the US, energy generation from wind, solar, and hydroelectric dams combined to top coal generation for over two months straight. This was the product of spring peaks in renewable generation and reduced electrical demand during lockdowns, but those events were layered on top of coal’s continuing decline and the long-term growth of renewables. A new report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory looks back at 2019—what is now known as the Before Times—to tally up year-end totals for the wind industry.

2020 looks like the year US renewables first out-produce coal
The topline number is that a little over nine gigawatts of wind capacity was added last year—slightly more than in each of the four previous years. Wind accounts for about one-third of all new generation added in 2019, and it ticked up to seven percent of all electricity generated in the US.

But as for the grid carrying that electricity, a little under 1,000 miles of transmission lines were built last year—the second lowest amount in the last 10 years.

The trend toward bigger wind turbines continued, with the average capacity of a turbine built last year reaching 2.55 megawatts. The height of the tower on which the turbine sits has risen over time—now averaging 90 meters—but the bigger factor is longer blades. Average rotor diameter was 120 meters, up from closer to 80 meters a decade ago.


For grid region abbreviations, see the map here.
LBL

New projects in 2019 (yellow dots) and total installed wind capacity by state.
LBL
Transmission infrastructure has gotten less attention.
LBL

Turbines are getting larger over time, with a higher average capacity.
LBL

Over 1,800 older turbines were retrofitted last year, mostly with longer blades. That slightly increases their maximum capacity, but more importantly it leads to more consistent generation. These changes have boosted “capacity factors”—the average fraction of a turbine’s maximum capacity that it is generating as the winds vary over the days and seasons. The report notes that the average capacity factor of turbines built 2014-2018 was 41 percent, beating out turbines built 2004-2012 that come in at 31 percent. Newer turbines are also aging more gracefully, maintaining their output better than wind farms built before 2008.

Costs, meanwhile, continue to tick down from a 2010 peak, reaching about $850 per kilowatt for turbines and $1,400 per kilowatt on the project scale. That brings the average cost of electricity produced from wind to $36 per megawatt-hour. Wind has maintained its cost lead over natural gas electricity, although solar electricity has caught up in the last few years.


Capacity factor has ticked up over time.
LBL

Newer turbines aren't seeing the capacity factor decline after 10 years that earlier turbines were.
LBL

Per-kilowatt-hour costs of new projects have declined over the last decade.
LBL

This cost of electricity calculation accounts for construction and ongoing costs, averaged over the lifetime of the project.
LBL

Wind electricity (blue), solar (yellow), and natural gas (black) have converged over time.
LBL

Here's the report's outlook for wind installations in the next few years.
LBL

While the report projects wind to gradually get cheaper in the future, it also notes that wind is losing a bit of its edge as its slice of the generation pie increases. With transmission capacity still limited, electricity from wind-rich areas in the middle of the country can’t easily be sent to meet demand elsewhere. Without storage, the variability of the wind energy becomes more important as it becomes a bigger player on the grid.

The report still projects a significant increase in wind projects through 2020 (caveat: COVID-19) and 2021. But between the factors mentioned above and (more importantly) the planned phase-out of federal tax incentives for renewable energy, the outlook sees a sharp drop after 2021. Annual wind project activity is pretty sensitive to policy—just look at the swing between 2012 and 2013, when projects were rushed in ahead of the deadline the last time tax credits expired—so actions on the state and national level could yet shift that outlook.

THE END OF CAPITALISM AS WE KNOW IT

Bankrupt OneWeb gets FCC approval for another 1,280 broadband satellites
OneWeb can launch up to 2,000 satellites, seeks permission for another 48,000.

JON BRODKIN - 8/27/2020, 1:16 PM

Enlarge / Illustration of a OneWeb satellite.

Amid a bankruptcy and a pending sale, OneWeb has secured US approval to offer broadband service from 2,000 satellites.

OneWeb already had Federal Communications Commission approval for a 720-satellite constellation that was green-lit in June 2017. In an order released yesterday, the FCC gave OneWeb approval for another 1,280 satellites.

The first 720 satellites, of which OneWeb has launched 74, are for low Earth orbital altitudes of 1,200km. The additional 1,280 satellites were approved for medium Earth orbits of 8,500km. Both are much lower than the 35,000km geostationary orbits used by traditional satellite-broadband networks, which should result in lower latency and a better experience for Internet users.

Bankrupt OneWeb seeks license for 48,000 satellites, even more than SpaceX

OneWeb filed another application in May 2020 to launch a whopping 47,844 satellites at an altitude of 1,200km, but it's not clear how long it would take to get FCC approval. OneWeb's application for 1,280 satellites had been pending for more than three years before the FCC approved it this week. In that intervening time, the FCC adopted several rule changes related to satellite broadband, including an April 2019 order with new licensing rules for one of the spectrum bands that OneWeb eventually got approval to use.

OneWeb, which is based in London, also needs approval from UK regulators.
New spectrum, more capacity

The newly approved 1,280 satellites will use V-Band spectrum (37.5-43.5GHz, 47.2-50.2 GHz, and 50.4-51.4GHz). The FCC decision also gave OneWeb permission to use those frequencies with the previously approved 720 satellites. Originally, the 720 satellites were authorized to use only the Ku and Ka spectrum bands.

"We are pleased to hear the FCC granted our V-Band application. The V-band is critical for next generation satellite broadband services," OneWeb told Ars in a statement today. "OneWeb looks forward to the future growth opportunities this approval will enable as we commercialize our spectrum and execute on our mission to bring low-latency connectivity to communities, governments, businesses, and people in the US and around the world."

The FCC approval is contingent on OneWeb complying with power limits and spectrum-sharing rules, preventing interference with other networks, following procedures to minimize orbital debris, and other conditions. Under FCC rules, OneWeb has six years to launch 50 percent of licensed satellites and nine years to launch all of them.

The FCC said granting OneWeb's application is in the public interest, and that the "additional capacity would enhance OneWeb's ability to offer its proposed broadband services in the United States."
Bankruptcy and sale

OneWeb filed for bankruptcy and laid off most of its staff in late March. On July 3, OneWeb agreed to sell the business to a consortium including the UK government and Bharti Global Limited for $1 billion.


FURTHER READINGOneWeb goes bankrupt, lays off staff, will sell satellite-broadband business



The sale needs approval from regulators and the US Bankruptcy Court; OneWeb said it expects to complete the sale in Q4 2020. Bankruptcy proceedings are ongoing, and OneWeb told Ars that it "continues to target Q4 for exit from Chapter 11."

OneWeb will have to compete against SpaceX, which has already launched over 600 satellites and started beta tests with Internet users. SpaceX has FCC permission to launch nearly 12,000 satellites and has applied for authorization to launch another 30,000.

Like OneWeb, SpaceX is using V-Band spectrum. SpaceX argued in filings that OneWeb should have to "detail how it intends to deploy in both the Ku/Ka and V-bands, whether it will have to replace an initial wave of Ku/Ka-band satellites with a new generation of V-band equipped satellites, and if so, how it intends to manage the significant coordination, collision avoidance, and disposal management challenges that such a rapid turn-over would require," the FCC said in a summary of SpaceX's concerns. The FCC rejected SpaceX's request, explaining that "the information provided by OneWeb is sufficient and consistent with what has been received from other applicants" and that the extra information SpaceX requested "does not affect the interference analyses relied upon for this grant."

In July, Amazon received FCC approval to launch 3,236 low Earth orbit satellites for its planned "Project Kuiper" broadband service.


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JON BRODKINJon is Ars Technica's senior IT reporter, covering the FCC and broadband, telecommunications, wireless technology, and more.EMAIL jon.brodkin@arstechnica.com // TWITTER @JBrodkin

New map shows vulnerability of Antarctic ice to self-fracking
Over half of the ice shelves seem susceptible to process that doomed Larsen B.

SCOTT K. JOHNSON - 8/26/2020

Enlarge / In 2002, the Larsen B ice shelf disintegrated in a matter of weeks.
NASA 


In 2016, a study found that adding a couple new processes to a model of the Antarctic ice sheets made them much more vulnerable to melt, greatly increasing global sea level rise—both this century and in the centuries to come. It was an alarming result, to be sure, but also a bit conjectural. The researchers didn’t have a way to assess how realistically the new processes were modeled, so they viewed their paper as raising a question deserving attention rather than providing an answer.

Two sea level studies have some good news, bad news

The new processes were the collapse of ice cliffs above a certain height (a theoretical constraint, but not something we’ve watched happen) and hydrofracturing. The latter is a propagation of a surface fracture in the ice clean through to the bottom of the ice sheet as the crack fills with water. Hydrofracturing is a known commodity—it was probably the dominant process in the sudden collapse of Antarctica’s Larsen B ice shelf in 2002. The question here, instead, is how vulnerable is the rest of Antarctica to this process?

A new study led by Ching-Yao Lai at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has tried to answer that question by mapping fractures and calculating where hydrofracturing should be possible.
On the shelf

The work focuses on ice shelves, which are the floating tongues of ice that exist where a glacier slides into the sea. In many places, ice shelves attach to the land along the sides of an embayment, providing some anchoring that slows their forward motion. This also slows the flow of the rest of the glacier on land—a critical function called “buttressing.” If a buttressing ice shelf breaks up, the glacier is more or less uncorked, and its flow into the sea will accelerate.

So to assess the relevance of hydrofracturing for future Antarctic ice loss, the researchers were looking for a combination of three things: the presence of fractures, the conditions that make fractures susceptible to hydrofracturing, and the buttressing area of ice shelves.

First up, they wanted to map fractures. Rather than laboring away for thousands of hours to find and mark all the fractures by hand, the researchers turned to a machine learning technique. After training the algorithm in a small area with hand-marked fractures, the researchers turned it loose on satellite imagery all around Antarctica, identifying nearly 32,000 of them.

To figure out whether fractures are vulnerable to hydrofracturing, the researchers turned to measurements and models of ice flow and temperature. Hydrofracturing only works if there’s enough tension in the ice perpendicular to the fracture. Otherwise, filling the fracture with water isn’t sufficient to force that fracture wider and deeper all the way to the bottom. It will just fill with water and sit there.

The vast majority of fractures turn out to be in stable conditions where surface meltwater flooding would not cause hydrofracturing. That does, however, still leave a significant number of unstable fractures.

Finally, the map of vulnerable fractures is compared to the map of ice shelves that buttress the land ice behind them. And here the stats are not comforting. Roughly 60 percent of the area of buttressing ice shelves around Antarctica should be vulnerable to hydrofracturing, the researchers estimate. And their fracture map shows that some are present in all these areas.

Enlarge / Areas of buttressing ice shelves that are vulnerable to hydrofracturing shown in red. Fractures in green and black areas should be stable; blue areas provide no buttressing. Boxes zoom in on two areas where surface meltwater is present today.
Lai et al./Nature

I’m melting

The recipe for hydrofracturing, of course, requires the “hydro” part—meltwater on the ice surface. That’s quite rare today. Using a recent map of surface meltwater ponds on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, which reaches lower (warmer) latitudes, the researchers find that only 0.6 percent of the ice shelf area there is both vulnerable and currently hosting meltwater. In the few notable areas with significant amounts of meltwater, fractures should be stable.

The problem is that projected warming of air temperatures could lead to much greater amounts of surface meltwater on the ice by the end of this century. And given the apparent vulnerability to hydrofracturing, that could mean more collapsed ice shelves like the Larsen B. There's also a lot more land ice behind these vulnerable sites, with bigger stakes for sea level rise.

So far, the biggest problem for Antarctic ice has been warmer seawater eating away at the ice shelves from below. This study highlights an atmospheric method of attack that will have to be studied in great detail to better anticipate Antarctica’s response to climate change.

Nature, 2020. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2627-8 (About DOIs).