Afghan survivor: If another quake doesn’t kill us, poverty might

More than 1,000 people have been killed and some 2,000 injured in Afghanistan’s worst earthquake in 20 years.

Afghan people spread their clothes out to dry on dried on shrubs

 near the ruins of houses damaged by an earthquake in Bernal, Paktika province

 [File: Ahmad Sahel Arman / AFP]

By Stefanie Glinski
Published On 28 Jun 2022

Gayan, Afghanistan – When a magnitude 5.9 earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan last week, Naqib lost his home and nearly his whole family. His parents and four siblings now lie buried on a hilltop overlooking the remote district of Gayan in hard-hit Paktika province. The 11-year-old now only has one sister, Nesab, who is four.

The little girl is glued to his side, quietly listening as her brother recalls the June 22 disaster.

“I was buried under the rubble with Nesab. We were screaming. My uncle came and helped us out of the destroyed house. It was dark, but I saw that nobody else in my family was screaming. They were all dead.”

In the morning, Naqib watched as relatives washed the bodies of the dead before burying them. It happened in a blur, and his eyes fill with tears at the memory. His sister is confused, he admitted, one moment asking when her parents will wake up, the next declaring them dead.

A total of 35 people have died in the children’s extended family; 45 were injured, some of them severely.




Naqib’s story is all too common. More than 1,000 people have been killed and 2,000 injured in what has been recorded as Afghanistan’s worst earthquake in 20 years. According to the country’s Ministry of Public Health, 35 entire villages have been destroyed or damaged. In Gayan alone, at least 250 people have died.

Families affected by the disaster now say they are struggling to see a future in the already impoverished area that has long been cut off from the rest of the country, with no electricity and only poor phone signal available.

Since the earthquake, aid agencies, Taliban officials and Afghans from all over the country have flooded in to help. Dozens of helicopter flights have brought in aid and evacuated the injured, while truckloads full of food, blankets and tents navigated the difficult terrain all the way from the capital, Kabul, a roughly nine-hour drive.

“This area saw a lot of fighting during the war, so only a few people came here,” said Naqib’s uncle and now closest relative, Rahmatullah Rahmani. He was referring to fighting between the US invasion of 2001 and its withdrawal in 2021, during which time government forces, supported by the US and other Western forces, fought the Taliban.

On August 15, 2021, the Taliban took control of the country.

“The Taliban destroyed a lot, and so did the Americans. It was dangerous and that’s why we don’t have good roads, schools or clinics here,” added the 42-year-old, who also lost his wife and two daughters last week.

“We used to manage before, but I don’t think we can after the earthquake. In the last few days, people arrived to bring food and tents, but how much longer are they going to stay? Soon we will be left alone and we don’t know how we are going to rebuild our houses.”

Qalandar Ebad, the Taliban’s minister of public health, admitted to the challenge. “The condition is critical. People have lost their homes, but they are also affected psychologically. Many children have seen their family members die, which is traumatising,” he said.

He added the Taliban would be supporting rebuilding efforts and psychological care for victims, but also hoped the Afghan people would help.

“I don’t think any other country has more humanitarians than Afghanistan,” he claimed, sitting cross-legged in a tent in Gayan, where he met other senior officials, aid agency representatives and Afghan volunteers.

Since the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan has slipped even deeper into a pre-existing humanitarian crisis that has seen a down-spiralling economy, skyrocketing poverty levels and widespread unemployment.

In Gayan, a rocky, mountainous terrain unsuitable for farming, men have traditionally sought work opportunities in other Afghan cities, sending cash home whenever possible. They now say they will be staying home, working to rebuild their own lives.

Immediately after the earthquake, the United Nations estimated that $15m would be required to respond to people’s immediate needs. The world body has now appealed for $110m to cover the quake response as billions of dollars in Afghan funds remain frozen in US accounts and international sanctions hamper efforts to help those worst affected.

Rahmani confirmed the Taliban had promised him 100,000 Afghani ($1,300) for each death in the family, saying that while he did not know when he would be receiving the cash, he was thankful, and hoped to put it towards rebuilding his home. He will be opting for a house stronger than the mud-brick building he previously lived in.

“I don’t know where the money will come from, because such a house is more expensive. It’s the only option though if I want to keep my family safe,” he said, explaining that he would also be raising orphaned Naqib and his sister Nesab.

Gayan’s District Governor Malawi Rahmatullah Darwish – previously a Taliban commander of more than 100 soldiers – said he would be helping, too.

“Right after the earthquake struck, I organised 40 of my staff members to help remove rubble, dig up people, and call ambulances. We will help rebuild these homes too – with our own hands,” he said.

Some locals remain suspicious and claim the Taliban have already prioritised giving aid to their supporters in the area instead of sending it to those worst hit – and that people from far-away areas that had no quake damage had come in to fraudulently claim food aid.

Rahmani said most people in his village were trying to press on, even though they had lost hope.

He stands amidst the rubble of his own house; a walled compound next to where Naqib had previously lived with his own parents.

“If there isn’t another earthquake to kill us, poverty might. I don’t know what the future brings, but I have to work hard to rebuild our lives – for my family.”

KEEP READING

More aid arrives in Afghanistan in boost to quake relief effort

Photos: Afghan authorities scramble to reach earthquake zone

Timeline: Deadly earthquakes in Afghanistan


SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

INDIA 

PRIDE MONTH

Explained: The Stonewall Uprising And How June Became The Pride Month For LGBTQ Rights Movement

It's the 53rd anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, also called the Stonewall Riots, believed to have led to the larger LGBTQ rights movement. 
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Balloons in the form of the word PRIDE

Chris Sweda/Chicago Tribune via AP

INDIA
Outlook Web Desk
28 JUN 2022 

The police raided the Stonewall Inn in New York City on June 28, 1969. It was reportedly running without a liquor licence.

It was a time when homosexuality was a criminal offence. Gay bars were places where gay, lesbians, and others in the queer community socialised away from public harassment. The Stonewall Inn was one such place.

On June 28, 1969, the police arrested the employees for selling alcohol without a licence and assaulted some of the patrons there. It was the third such raid on the bars in the area, according to the Britannica Encyclopaedia.

However, the Stonewall Inn raid was different. People did not retreat or scatter as in the past. Rather, they began to jeer and jostle with the police as they put bar patrons in vans, as per Britannica. It adds that people threw beer bottles and debris at the police, forcing police personnel to barricade themselves behind the bar and call for reinforcements. As the police barricaded inside, around 400 people rioted outside and set the bar on fire.

It was the first of the confrontation with the police, which continued till July 3, 1969.

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The National Geographic noted, "It took hours for officers to clear the streets. The next night, thousands came to the Stonewall Inn to taunt the police. Clashes broke out again that night and sporadically in the days that followed."

Stonewall catalysed LGBTQ movement

There are multiple versions of the events at the Stonewall Inn, but all versions agree that the incident led to the larger the LGBTQ rights movement.

Michael Fader, a person present at the scene, was quoted in a book as saying that there was no going back from there.

"There was something in the air, freedom a long time overdue, and we’re going to fight for it. It took different forms, but the bottom line was, we weren’t going to go away. And we didn't," Michael was quoted as saying in the book Stonewall: The Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution.

The Britannica noted, "Although there had been other protests by gay groups, the Stonewall incident was perhaps the first time lesbians, gays, and transgender people saw the value in uniting behind a common cause."

It further noted that there was a wider socio-political context to the incident.

"Occurring as it did in the context of the civil rights and feminist movements, the Stonewall riots became a galvanizing force," noted Britannica.

The rights movement became fierce with Stonewall

While homosexual organisations had been around in the United States since 1950s, they largely catered to the middle class and the majority of queer people didn't find their place there, said Aaron Lecklider, a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He termed Stonewall Uprising a "grassroot liberation".

He told Newsweek, "The grassroots liberation that emerged in and around Stonewall upended earlier efforts to fit in and perform good citizenship, drawing on the energy of a highly public revolt to join with revolutionary feminists, Black nationalists, and working-class revolutionaries in envisioning a better world.

"This was not the first time gay people had thrown in their lot with radicals. Many, including some of the architects of the 1950s homophile movement, were highly active in the Depression-era Communist Party. But the idea that gay people were better off dismantling the society that rejected them rather than begging for acceptance had finally entered into the mainstream currents of American culture."

Britannica also noted that Stonewall paved the way for new generation of radical groups such as the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) and the Gay Activists Alliance (GAA).

"In addition to launching numerous public demonstrations to protest the lack of civil rights for gay individuals, these organizations often resorted to such tactics as public confrontations with political officials and the disruption of public meetings to challenge and to change the mores of the times. Acceptance and respect from the establishment were no longer being humbly requested but angrily and righteously demanded," as per Britannica.

 
The First Pride Parade

The first Pride Parade was held in New York City on June 28, 1970 to mark the first anniversary of Stonewall.

By all estimates, there were 3-5,000 marchers at the inaugural Pride Parade in New York City, according to the Library of Congress.

Initially, the slogan was decided to be "gay power" rather than "gay pride", according to Britannica. Initially, it was a once-a-month parade in June, which evolved into a month-long affair over the years.

It adds that Gay Pride, or LGBTQ Pride, generally came to be celebrated in the United States on the last Sunday in June but the day expanded to become a monthlong event over the years.

Over the years, the Pride Month began to celebrated beyond the United States. Now there are parades, performances, and demonstrations during the Pride Month to mark the LGBTQ rights movement across the world.

UK

Inside Gateways, One of the World’s Longest-Surviving Lesbian Nightclubs

A new documentary tells the story of the London nightclub where lesbian women found escape and acceptance

Lucia Cheng
Reporter

June 28, 2022

Women at Gateways with owner Ted Ware around 1953 

Courtesy of the Ware Family Archive

If you were a lesbian in Chelsea, London, between 1943 and 1985, then you may have found yourself standing outside of a dull green door at 239 Kings Road. After you whispered the password—“Dorothy”—and walked down a steep set of stairs, you would find “heaven,” as artist Maggi Hambling tells Screen Daily’s Nikki Baughan.

The smokey, windowless, 35-foot-long room was the site of Gateways, one of the world’s longest-running lesbian nightclubs, now the subject of director Jacquie Lawrence’s new documentary Gateways Grind. So named for a popular dance move, the bar was not a place to fall in love with women; it was a place to go home with them. But now, the famous club’s door has been painted white, leaving no trace that it was ever there.


“That’s the thing with lesbian landmarks,” says the writer and broadcaster Sandi Toksvig in the documentary. “They literally get painted over.”

In the documentray, Lu Corfield and Victoria Broom act as clientele from the club. 

Photo by Jonathan Phang for Gateways Grind

Lawrence made the documentary to bring attention to overlooked lesbian history. The stories of gay men, who historically faced criminal repercussions, are often more visible than lesbian women’s stories, says Lawrence.

“There are so many incredible documentaries and dramas which eradicate or minimize the role of lesbians, because Queen Victoria said we didn’t exist,” Lawrence tells Jake Hall of PinkNews. “Because we weren’t criminalized, it’s like we weren’t there.”

As Chelsea gentrified, the bar started receiving complaints about loud music, eventually losing its late-night license. Shortly after, in 1985, Gateways closed for good, reports Flashbak’s Rob Baker.

“Posh people didn’t like lesbians spilling out onto the pavement at 11:30 p.m. every night of the week!” Lawrence tells PinkNews.

For the women at Gateways, the nightclub was like “heaven” because it was somewhere they could go to escape harsh societal expectations and be accepted for who they were, writes Screen Daily. Wearing trousers would get women banned from many restaurants; if not accompanied by a man, pubs were unpleasant places for women, as Flashbak writes.

Gateways began when course bookie Ted Ware won the lease in a bet in 1943. He initially offered the space to his lesbian friends, freshly banned from their old haunt the Bag O’Nails pub, reports Ginny Dougary for the Observer. After he married the actress Gina Cerrato in 1953, she took over running the club.

Lesbian women stand around the bar in the new documentary Gateways Grind. 

Photo by Jonathan Phang for Gateways Grind

Gina was later joined by Smithy, a butch lesbian rumored to be her lover, and together they ran a tight ship. In the documentary, Gina is quoted as saying that Gateways is a place where “the bullshit didn’t have the upper hand.”

No guests were admitted after 10 p.m. Troublemakers were immediately banned, which was “more than just embarrassing, it was unbelievably inconvenient,” as the nearest alternative lesbian club was in Brighton, writes Flashbak. Snogging was strictly prohibited in the bar unless you were in the toilets. And as Screen Daily reports, the club’s requirement that its clientele “identify as either butch or femme, and behave accordingly” provoked some controversy.

But perhaps the most intriguing stories come from Gina’s brushes with fame. Women like writer Patricia Highsmith, LGBTQ poet laureate Trudy Howson and Stonewall co-founder Lisa Power graced Gateways’ dancefloor, as Christobel Hastings writes for Stylist. Sometimes, Mick Jagger would pass by Gateways on his way to Kings Road and speak to Gina.

Gina Ware sits at the bar at Gateways.

 Courtesy of the Ware Family Archive

“My mum would be outside, taking deliveries, doing the laundry or whatever, and she said that he used to stop and talk quite often,” Gina’s daughter, also named Gina, tells the Observer. “And I was, like: ‘You mean, you knew Mick Jagger?’ And she said: ‘Oh yes, and he was always so kind and respectful. He wanted to come into the club, but I wouldn’t let him. He said: ‘Gina, please let me—I’ll wear a dress,’ and I said: ‘Darling, I can’t—it’s women-only.’”

Gateways was also the site of a pivotal ten minutes in the 1968 film The Killing of Sister George. Director Robert Aldrich decided to pay the regulars £10 each for the day’s filming rather than hire extras, per Flashbak. The resulting scenes showed the women “dancing, drinking and flirting just like any other Londoners in any other London club.”

But perhaps unexpectedly, the club refused to take any political stances. As writer Elizabeth Wilson tells Screen Daily, Gateways threw her out for attempting to distribute leaflets for the Gay Liberation Front—and when group members protested outside the club, they were arrested.

Although seemingly counterproductive, Gina’s intention was to offer her patrons protection in a society where being outed could mean losing everything. Even now, Lawrence tells PinkNews that she wanted to include more queer people of color in the documentary, but “there were some people who still can’t talk openly on-camera about being there.”

Although Gateways’ green door is now white, an ongoing campaign is underway to recognize the pivotal space in LGBTQ history with an official blue plaque. (While the plaque is supported by many prominent lesbians, the application to English Heritage is still pending.)

“It’s important to have that blue plaque,” Gina’s daughter tells the Observer, “because it’s a location that means an awful lot to people and something genuinely happened there.”

Lucia Cheng | READ MORE
Lucia Cheng is the Because of Her Story intern for summer 2022.

Trans Fear Court Decision Will Prevent Insurance Coverage for Sex Reassignment in Brazil

Superior Court of Justice decision released operators from paying for procedures outside the National Supplementary Health Agency list

Jun.28.2022

Thalita, 21, is anxious. The young transsexual from São Paulo seeks, in court, that a health operator pays for her transgender surgery — alteration of Organs genital —, which she has been waiting for for years. She and several other trans people feel insecure after a decision by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) changed the understanding of the National Supplementary Health Agency list of procedures. On the 8th, the justices of the STJ decided that the list should be exhaustive, exempting health plans from paying for procedures not included in it. Previously, the list was seen as an example, opening loopholes for users to seek the cost of procedures outside it in court.

Transgenitalization is not part of the ANS list and, with current understanding, can be promptly denied. Although the decision of the STJ ministers is not binding, it tends to be followed by judges across the country. Thalita, who has been on hormone treatment since the age of 18 and has been in psychological counseling for even longer, fears the consequences of the STJ's decision.

Lawyer Claudia Ramos, a member of the Sexual and Gender Diversity Commission of the Brazilian Bar Association and a member of the Mães pela Diversidade collective, says that it has never been easy to get health care providers to pay for sex reassignment surgery. But the Judiciary, many times, accepted the requests. Now, she assesses, the tendency is for these procedures to be denied, and hope lies in the Supreme Court. "[The STJ's decision] is an injury to the Constitution, which enshrined the principle of human dignity as one of the fundamental principles of the democratic rule of law. It's the light we see at the end of the tunnel."


Translated by Kiratiana Freelon

Buddhist Transgender Monastic Works for Awareness and Inclusivity in India

By Justin Whitaker
June 23, 2022

From telanganatoday.com

Tashi Choedup, a transgender Buddhist monastic, is working to spread awareness about gender identity in India. Choedup, 30, uses the pronouns they/their and she/her as part of their non-binary gender identity.

Speaking on gender identity, Choedup noted that people who are homosexual or trans do not just wake up one day and realize their gender identity, but generally are aware of it from a young age: “We do not choose to be who we are; we are just who we are.” (Telangana Today)

Like others growing up in the LGBTIQ community, Choedup learned about gender and sexuality from the internet and faced misunderstandings from those around them, including the Buddhist monastic community when they began spending time with Buddhists.

“I have engaged with different faiths and got introduced to Buddhism as well. When I started studying and engaging with Buddhism more, it made sense to me,” Choedup said. Nonetheless, Choedup had to slowly introduce ideas about queer identity to Buddhist monastics. (Telangana Today)

Noting the current state of LGBTIQ in the Indian state of Telangana, Choedup praised the efforts of some local politicians, saying, “A few bureaucrats in our state have been actively working for the community in recent times and the state government has also come up with some initiatives. But a lot more needs to be done.” (Telangana Today)

In April, the director general of police for Telangana, Mudireddy Mahendar Reddy, inaugurated “Pride Place,” an LGBTIQ protection group for the state. The police group will be tasked specifically with ensuring the safety and security of transgender people.

Speaking at the inauguration, Reddy said: “The cell will act as a one-stop solution for trans people in the state by offering police and other services through networking and collaboration with other stakeholders.” (The Siasat Daily)

The move follows the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019, which calls on all Indian states to create transgender protection cells and to track violence against transgender persons. Choedup was among those participating in the inauguration and welcoming the initiative.

A meeting at the Queer-Trans Wellness and Support Centre. From donatekart.com

Choedup is part of the Queer and Trans Wellness and Support Centre (QT Centre), based in Hyderabad, which provides housing for queer people in need.

“The QT Centre will provide much-needed emergency support and more, including mental and physical health support. Any queer person can walk into the center and communicate with everyone,” Choedup said. “Each person can stay for up to 40 days. We will also help find long-term stays and employment.” (News Meter)

To parents of queer individuals, Choedup’s message is one of building compassionate awareness: “It comes easy to hate things that we do not understand. As parents, you might have had a certain idea of a child. But when they turn out to be different, try to understand and support them. After all, people don’t get to choose their sexuality and gender.” (Telangana Today)
See more

Buddhist queer monastic seeks inclusivity (Telangana Today)
DGP inaugurates Transgender Persons Protection Cell (The Siasat Daily)
QT Centre: A safe haven for queer folks of Hyderabad (News Meter)
We Need Your Support To Set-Up Queer-Trans Wellness Centre , Help Us (Donate Kart)
Related news reports from BDG

Thai Lawmakers Move Forward on Marriage Equality as Bangkok Celebrates Pride Parade
Thai Buddhist Monks Draw Condemnation and Praise over Current Affairs Discussion
Buddhist Monks in Bhutan Join Movement to Raise Awareness of Sexual Health and Rights
Buddhist Monk Seeks Equality, Acceptance for Thailand’s LGBT+ Communities
Thailand Moves to Recognize Same-sex Unions
Rainbodhi, an LGBTIQ Buddhist Community, Launches in Australia
Related features from BDG

Dharma in Transition: A Buddhist Call for Trans Liberation
Buddhistdoor View: Finding the Right Balance with Social Justice Causes
Call Us By Our Chosen Name

Buddhists Respond to US Supreme Court Decision on Abortion

By Justin Whitaker
June 28, 2022

From aljazeera.com

On 24 June, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) ruled 6:3 to uphold a Mississippi law and 5:4 to overrule previous decisions that have guaranteed an American’s right to an abortion, namely Roe vs. Wade and a follow-up case, Planned Parenthood vs. Casey. While anti-abortion activists cheered the decision, those supporting safe and legal abortion access in the country, as well as numerous foreign leaders around the world, expressed condemnation of the decision.

A PBS poll taken after the decision showed that 56 per cent of US adults opposed the court’s decision, with 45 per cent indicating that they were strongly opposed. Only 28 per cent of Americans said they strongly supported the court’s ruling. Furthermore, 57 per cent of US adults expressed a belief that the decision to overturn Roe was based on politics rather than the law.

Buddhists around the world have a complex relationship with abortion. While causing an abortion is expressly forbidden in the monastic code, the procedure has been permitted and legally protected in many predominantly Buddhist countries.
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In North Carolina, Kaitlyn Potts, a student at Fayetteville Technical Community College and president of the Cumberland County Young Conservatives, expressed support for the decision: “A lot of people assume pro-life people are Christian, but I was born and raised Buddhist. We don’t even believe in swatting a fly.” (The Fayetteville Observer)

Jizo statues in Japan are commonly displayed in bibs and caps as part 

of a ceremony honoring aborted fetuses.

Many contemporary Buddhists weigh the balance of concern for the loss of life on the one hand and compassion for the difficult choice being made by a pregnant person on the other. As a practical matter, many pro-choice Buddhists note that making the procedure illegal can cause even greater suffering and loss of life as women may be forced to seek out alternatives to safe medical procedures.

The importance of life is paramount in the minds of many Buddhists, and the life as a human being is held to be especially precious. “Buddhism believes in rebirth and teaches that individual human life begins at conception,” said Damien Keown, a professor of Buddhist ethics at Goldsmiths College, University of London and a chair professor at Geumgang University in South Korea. “The new being, bearing the karmic identity of a recently deceased individual, is therefore as entitled to the same moral respect as an adult human being.” (Religion Unplugged)

Nonetheless, a recent study conducted by Pew Research Center showed that 82 per cent of Buddhist adults in the US support access to legal abortions in all or most circumstances.* In 1993, the Dalai Lama was asked if he could understand the needs of a woman who might not be able to raise a child. He responded by affirming his support for birth control, saying: “I think abortion should be approved or disapproved according to each circumstance.” (The New York Times)

Soraj Hongladarom, a professor of philosophy and director of the Center for Science, Technology, and Society at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, sought to clarify the issue in his article “Buddhism and Abortion:”

In order to live relatively peacefully in a particular concrete social setting, perhaps abortion needs to be allowed. This does not mean that Buddhism allows abortion, but it means that, in the specific social circumstances that we find ourselves in, abortion performed by medical professionals in a modern and hygienic setting may be needed. On the one hand, this goes against the purely spiritual teaching of Buddhism, but on the other hand, it is also in accordance with the tendency of Buddhism to leave social issues to the people to decide within certain limits. If they think that some form of abortion is best for a particular type of society, one that they prefer, then so long as this does not violate the very basic orientation of Buddhism itself it is up to them to do so while still being good Buddhists. The challenge certainly lies in how to reconcile the two.(Academia)

* Buddhistdoor View: On the Moral and Traditional Complexities of Abortion (BDG)
See more

Majority of Americans think Supreme Court overturning Roe was more about politics than law (PBS)
What 6 American Religious Subgroups Think About Abortion (Religion Unplugged)
‘We are outraged and heartbroken and ready to fight’: Fayetteville residents react to Roe v. Wade ruling (The Fayetteville Observer)
The Dalai Lama (The New York Times)
Buddhism and Abortion (Academia)
Tags: abortion, abortion rights, buddhism, buddhism in north america, buddhism in the united states, buddhism in the US, buddhism in the west, Damien Keown, life and death, politics


Justin Whitaker grew up on a dirt road 10 miles from the nearest town in Montana. In college he stumbled upon philosophy and Buddhism, two loves that have carried him around the world ever since. He now holds a PhD in Buddhist ethics from the University of London and lives in Missoula, Montana with his wife, daughter, and their cat after an exciting two years living in Hong Kong. Western Dharma is published monthly.

 

Rocket Lab & NASA launch CAPSTONE to the Moon

written by Mihir Neal June 27, 2022

Rocket Lab has launched the CAPSTONE (Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment) satellite to the Moon. It’s the first official mission of NASA’s Artemis program that is seeking to permanently return humans to the surface of our nearest astronomical body.

Launching onboard the Electron rocket, liftoff occurred at 5:55 AM EDT (09:55 UTC) on Tuesday, June 28, from Launch Complex 1B at Rocket Lab’s launch facility on Māhia Peninsula, New Zealand. This mission made Electron the smallest rocket to launch a payload toward the Moon and the first lunar flight to lift off from New Zealand.

Rocket Lab did not recover the first stage on this mission, hence the Electron launch vehicle supporting this mission flew in a standard configuration without any recovery hardware.

The second stage of the Electron placed the payload in an initial low Earth orbit. To propel the 25 kg (55 lbs) CubeSat to the moon, Rocket Lab’s Lunar Photon — optimized especially for Lunar missions — will give the payload the extra thrust needed to get it to the Moon.

Powered by green-hypergolic propellants, its onboard Hypercurie engine will place the CAPSTONE satellite on a ballistic lunar transfer orbit. Unlike the free return trajectory utilized during Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and 70s, this fuel-efficient ballistic lunar transfer makes it possible to deploy CAPSTONE to such a distant orbit using a small launch vehicle.

Once in lunar vicinity, the CAPSTONE satellite will use its onboard propulsion systems to place itself in a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit around the Moon.

CAPSTONE Payload

CAPSTONE is a CubeSat developed by the Terran Orbital Corporation and managed by NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program within the agency’s Space Technology Mission Directorate. 

This is the first mission to launch that directly supports NASA’s Artemis program, which plans to return humans to the Moon and advance humanity’s ways to Mars. As such, CAPSTONE will be the first spacecraft to enter the Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) around the Moon.

An NRHO is a one-week, highly eccentric orbit that works with a balancing point in the gravities of the Earth and Moon. This makes the orbit ideal for crewed missions onboard the Gateway space station, NASA’s Orion spacecraft, and/or SpaceX’s lunar variant of Starship as it provides crews routine access to the polar lunar landing sites that are the Artemis program’s targets.

Apart from access to the surface and fuel efficiency, an NRHO will allow scientists to take advantage of the deep space environment for radiation experiments to gather a better understanding of the potential impacts of space weather on people and instruments. Most importantly, an NRHO trajectory also has a continuous line of sight, or “view”, of Earth, resulting in uninterrupted communications between the spacecraft and home.

This differs from the Apollo missions which periodically lost communications with the Earth when they passed behind the Moon.

The NRHO orbit will also bring CAPSTONE within 1,600 kilometers of one lunar pole on its near pass and 70,000 kilometers from the other pole at its peak every seven days, requiring less propulsion capability for spacecraft flying to and from the Moon’s surface than other orbits would allow.

CAPSTONE is planned to reside in this orbit for at least six months to characterize the properties of this unique orbit.

The satellite will also validate the power and the propulsion requirements to maintain this orbit as predicted by NASA’s models, thereby reducing logistical uncertainties for Orion and Starship operations. CAPSTONE will also demonstrate the reliability of spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation systems as well as its communications capabilities with Earth, something which will be used extensively during the crewed Artemis missions by the Orion spacecraft and Starship Human Landing System (HLS).

CAPSTONE will accomplish these objectives by using its onboard secondary payload flight computer and radio to perform calculations to determine its position in the orbit. This will be done using data taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) as a reference point.

The CAPSTONE payload in Rocket Lab’s integration facility at LC-1. (Credit: Rocket Lab)

This peer-to-peer navigation system is named Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System, developed by the owner and main operator of the mission: Advanced Space. 

This technology will be used to evaluate CAPSTONE’s autonomous navigation software. If successful, this software will allow future spacecraft to determine their location without having to rely exclusively on tracking from Earth.

Overall, these are part of CAPSTONE’s six mission objectives:

• verify the characteristics of a cis-lunar Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit
• demonstrate entering and maintaining this unique orbit
• lay a foundation for commercial support of future lunar operations
• demonstrate spacecraft-to-spacecraft navigation
• demonstrate one-way ranging technique using Deep Space Network signals and a Chip Scale Atomic Clock
• gain experience with small, dedicated launches of CubeSats beyond low-Earth orbit, to the Moon, and beyond. 

Launch Timeline

Final preparations for launch began six hours before liftoff with the closure of the road to the launch site. At T-4 hours, Electron was raised to the vertical position. After pad connection checkouts, fueling of the rocket with RP-1 kerosene began, with liquid oxygen flowing to the rocket at T-2 hours at the same time safety zones were activated for the marine space around the launch track.

At T-30 minutes, airspace closures took effect for launch. This was followed at T-18 minutes by the GO / NO GO poll. 

Proceeding from that point, the next major event occurred at T-2 minutes when the launch auto-sequence began and Electron’s onboard computers took control of the countdown.

At T-2 seconds, Electron’s 9 Rutherford engines ignited and built up to full thrust as engine health checks were carried out before the vehicle was released for flight at T0.

Electron then pitched and rolled onto an easterly trajectory to achieve the needed initial low-Earth orbit inclination for the mission. At T+2 minutes 41 seconds, the first stage engines shut down, followed by stage separation. At T+2 minutes 51 seconds, Electron’s second stage vacuum-optimized Rutherford engine ignited, with fairings separating just 27 seconds later.

At T+6 minutes 36 seconds, the initial set of batteries on the second stage were depleted and “hot swapped” with unused batteries on the stage. At this time, the spent batteries (Battery A and B) were jettisoned to reduce mass on the stage as it continued to climb to orbit. 

At T+9 minutes, Electron achieved a low orbit of 165 kilometers. Over the next five days, Photon’s HyperCurie engine will perform a series of orbit-raising maneuvers from this initial parking orbit roughly once every 24 hours.

The Lunar Photon spacecraft before integrating the CAPSTONE payload. (Credit: Rocket Lab)

The Photon will perform burns every day to increase the stage’s velocity and increase the eccentricity of the orbit as it continues its way to the Moon. On the sixth day, HyperCurie will burn for the last time, accelerating the payload to 39,500 kilometers per hour and into a trans-lunar injection trajectory that will take CAPSTONE from Earth to the Moon.

Twenty minutes after the Photon’s last burn is complete, CAPSTONE will be released from the Photon satellite bus.

Commanded by teams at the Advanced Space mission operations center, CAPSTONE will then perform a series of planned trajectory correction maneuvers using its onboard low-energy propulsion systems. 

Overall, the final Photon burn will send CAPSTONE 1.3 million kilometers from Earth, more than three times the distance to the Moon before the Earth-Moon system’s gravity pulls and tugs it back towards the Moon. 

CAPSTONE will arrive in its NRHO of the Moon four months after launch.

(Lead photo: Electron lifts off with CAPSTONE. Credit: NASA)

Simultaneous extreme weather created dangerous cascades in U.S.

More one-two punch systems expected to topple records under climate change

Peer-Reviewed Publication

JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: THE MAJOR DROUGHT THAT HAPPENED IN 2021 AT THE SAME TIME AS A RECORD-BREAKING HEAT WAVE CAUSE THE HEAT TO RISE BY AS MUCH AS FOUR DEGREES IN PARTS OF THE SOUTHWEST U.S. view more 

CREDIT: JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Intense heat in the southwestern United States broke records last summer partly because it hit in tandem with an unusually severe drought, finds a new Johns Hopkins study measuring for the first time how the two extreme weather events dangerously interacted in real time.

Though the drought’s impact on that heat wave was modest in general, it pushed up temperatures by four degrees in some areas, and the researchers say similarly dueling weather events likely drove this year’s New Mexico wildfire to historic proportions. Moreover, as climate change advances, these one-two weather punches and their inherent hazards will become increasingly common.

“With more extremes happening, the possibility of an extreme drought plus a heat wave and even a fire, together, the odds are just better that it’s going to happen,” said co-author Benjamin Zaitchik. “Understanding how a compound event can lead to a cascade where you end up in a record-shattering situation that can be really damaging for people and ecosystems is something that many climate scientists are trying to understand.”

The findings are newly published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Climate change is expected to increase extreme weather events, particularly heat waves. There is also increasing concern about more compound events, two or more weather episodes happening together, which then work together or cascade, to become record-shattering episodes.

“We’re not just going to see records fall, we’re going to see records get blown out of the water,” Zaitchik says.

The June 2021 heatwave happening at the same time as a severe drought was an opportunity to better understand exactly if and how real cascading events unite to amplify conditions.

“We had the drought. We had the heat wave on top of that. Were they really cascading?” said Zaitchik, who’s a hydroclimate scientist. “They were happening together and it was bad, but what we were able to do with our experiments is determine if it was a cascade and if it was, did that help to explain why it broke records.”

Using climate modeling and satellite images, the team measured the link between the heat wave and the drought. Or more simply put, they discovered what happened to the heat wave if they took the drought out of the picture.

The drought pushed up temperatures about a half a degree on average but in some areas, particularly forested areas, it was four degrees higher over the course of an entire week, said lead author Mahmoud Osman, also a hydroclimate scientist and a postdoctoral fellow in the university’s Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Science.

The heat’s effect on the drought was harder to capture, both because the conditions were already so profoundly dry, so further drying might have been imperceptible, and because the simulations weren’t designed to capture all of the impacts that heat has on drought. Still the team found signs, not clear affirmation, that the drought elevated heat, which increased demand for evaporation, adding to the water stress of already very dry conditions.

Fires are another element that could easily become part of a heat/drought cascade, Osman and Zaitchik said, adding that it seems to already be happening this year in Texas and New Mexico.

“We now have earlier springs leading to earlier drying of the soil which leads to increased fire risk, leading to this kind of heat/drought/fire cascade that our study speaks to,” Zaitchik said, “We’re already seeing it this year and we’re going to see it every year.”

The authors also included Nathaniel Winstead, principal staff scientist at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

The work was supported by: National Science Foundation Grant No. 1854902.

 

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JOURNAL

Geophysical Research Letters

DOI

10.1029/2022GL099265 

How climate change is affecting extreme weather events around the world

Date: June 28, 2022

Source: IOP Publishing

Summary:  

For a long time, climate scientists have struggled to link extreme weather events to climate change. This has changed. The science of weather event attribution is now beginning to show the true costs and impacts that human-caused climate change is having today. This fast-growing body of research aims to disentangle the various drivers of extreme weather events from human-induced climate change and the best assessments can provide valuable information in insuring against loss and damage, funding adaptation measures, and litigating against polluters.

Attribution science has led to major advances in linking the impacts of extreme weather and human-induced climate change, but large gaps in the published research still conceal the full extent of climate change damage, warns a new study released today in the first issue of Environmental Research: Climate, a new academic journal published by IOP Publishing.

Researchers from the University of Oxford, Imperial College London and the Victoria University of Wellington reviewed the impacts of five different types of extreme weather events and to what degree these damaging events could be attributed to human induced climate change.

To do this, they combined information from the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports and results from a fast increasing body of attribution studies -- where weather observations and climate models are used to determine the role that climate change played in specific weather events.

They found that for some extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, the link with climate change is clear and unequivocal across the world, and that the extent of the impacts are likely being underestimated by insurers, economists and governments. For others, such as tropical cyclones, the paper shows that important differences exist between regions and the role that climate change plays in each event is more variable than for heatwaves.

"The rise of more extreme and intense weather events such as heatwaves, droughts and heavy rainfall have dramatically increased in recent years, affecting people all over the globe. Understanding the role that climate change plays in these events can help us better prepare for them. It also allows us to determine the real cost that carbon emissions have in our lives," says Ben Clarke from the University of Oxford, lead author of the study.

The authors note that there is an urgent need for more data from lower- and middle-income countries, where the impacts of climate change are more strongly felt. Research on these impacts is hampered when national weather data is not publicly available -- examples include South Africa, where corruption denies funds to weather reporting facilities leading to huge data gaps in an otherwise good network; drought-prone Somalia, where disorderly regime changes have disrupted measurements; and many countries, such as Poland, where weather data is only available for a high fee, and thus generally not for publicly funded research.

"We really don't have a comprehensive overview or detailed inventory of what impacts climate change is having today, yet," says Dr Friederike Otto from the Grantham Institute -- Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London, co-author of the study.

"But we do now have the tools and advanced understanding to create such an inventory, but these need to be applied more evenly across the world to improve our understanding in areas where evidence is lacking. Otherwise we are denying countries the knowledge to make the best use of sparse funds and improve chances for people to live safely and adapt to the changing climate," she concludes.

Journal Reference:Ben Clarke, Friederike Otto, Rupert Stuart-Smith, Luke Harrington. Extreme weather impacts of climate change: an attribution perspective. Environmental Research: Climate, 2022; 1 (1): 012001 DOI: 10.1088/2752-5295/ac6e7d

Is AI good or bad for the climate? It's complicated

A new framework for understanding and shaping the impacts of Artificial Intelligence on greenhouse gas emissions

Date:June 28, 2022

Source: McGill University

Summary:

Experts in AI, climate change, and public policy present a framework for understanding the complex and multifaceted relationship of AI with greenhouse gas emissions, and suggest ways to better align AI with climate change goals.

As the world fights climate change, will the increasingly widespread use of artificial intelligence (AI) be a help or a hindrance? In a paper published this week in Nature Climate Change, a team of experts in AI, climate change, and public policy present a framework for understanding the complex and multifaceted relationship of AI with greenhouse gas emissions, and suggest ways to better align AI with climate change goals.

"AI affects the climate in many ways, both positive and negative, and most of these effects are poorly quantified," said David Rolnick, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at McGill University and a Core Academic Member of Mila -- Quebec AI Institute, who co-authored the paper. "For example, AI is being used to track and reduce deforestation, but AI-based advertising systems are likely making climate change worse by increasing the amount that people buy."

The paper divides the impacts of AI on greenhouse gas emissions into three categories: 1) Impacts from the computational energy and hardware used to develop, train, and run AI algorithms, 2) immediate impacts caused by the applications of AI -- such as optimizing energy use in buildings (which decreases emissions) or accelerating fossil fuel exploration (which increases emissions), and 3) system-level impacts caused by the ways in which AI applications affect behaviour patterns and society more broadly, such as via advertising systems and self-driving cars.

"Climate change should be a key consideration when developing and assessing AI technologies," said Lynn Kaack, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Public Policy at the Hertie School, and lead author on the report. "We find that those impacts that are easiest to measure are not necessarily those with the largest impacts. So, evaluating the effect of AI on the climate holistically is important."

AI's impacts on greenhouse gas emissions -- a matter of choice

The authors emphasize the ability of researchers, engineers, and policymakers to shape the impacts of AI, writing that its "… ultimate effect on the climate is far from predestined, and societal decisions will play a large role in shaping its overall impacts." For example, the paper notes that AI-enabled autonomous vehicle technologies can help lower emissions if they are designed to facilitate public transportation, but they can increase emissions if they are used in personal cars and result in people driving more.

The researchers also note that machine learning expertise is often concentrated among a limited set of actors. This raises potential challenges with respect to the governance and implementation of machine learning in the context of climate change, since it may create or widen the digital divide, or shift power from public to large private entities by virtue of who controls relevant data or intellectual capital.

"The choices that we make implicitly as technologists can matter a lot," said Prof. Rolnick. "Ultimately, AI for Good shouldn't just be about adding beneficial applications on top of business as usual, it should be about shaping all the applications of AI to achieve the impact we want to see."

Journal Reference:Lynn H. Kaack, Priya L. Donti, Emma Strubell, George Kamiya, Felix Creutzig, David Rolnick. Aligning artificial intelligence with climate change mitigation. Nature Climate Change, 2022; 12 (6): 518 DOI: 10.1038/s41558-022-01377-7

The US Supreme Court is about to decide a major climate court case

The ruling could have ripple effects that extend beyond climate action

By Justine Calma@justcalma  Jun 28, 2022

Activists including Climate Action Campaign (CAC) gather outside of the Supreme Court to show support for

 protecting the Clean Air Act.

 Photo by Leigh Vogel/Getty Images for NRDC

This week, the Supreme Court is expected to decide a major climate case that could determine what tools the federal government can use to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

The case, West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency, started out years ago as a battle over how much authority the EPA has to force power plants to cut down their pollution — but it’s turned into a bigger fight over how much power federal agencies have to enforce all kinds of regulations.

A BIGGER FIGHT OVER HOW MUCH POWER FEDERAL AGENCIES HAVE

With the Biden administration’s climate plans relying on drastically slashing CO2 emissions from power plants, the case is being closely watched by environmentalists. The Supreme Court’s decision could come down as soon as Wednesday, so here’s a quick primer on why this case is such a nail-biter.

WHAT IS WEST VIRGINIA V. EPA ABOUT?

The core of the lawsuit is a disagreement about the Clean Air Act, a bedrock environmental law in the US that lays out the EPA’s responsibility to protect the nation’s air quality by regulating pollution. Since 1970, EPA action under the Clean Air Act has led to a significant drop in major pollutants like particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.

In 2015, former President Barack Obama went further, using the Clean Air Act to mandate a new set of regulations for US power plants called the Clean Power Plan. In particular, the new plan set guidelines for carbon dioxide emissions, a greenhouse gas that is the primary driver of climate change. By regulating those emissions, the plan pushed states to transition to more clean energy from sources like solar and wind.

But the proposal didn’t last long. Two dozen states, including West Virginia, sued the EPA in response, and in 2016, the Supreme Court decided to put the Clean Power Plan on hold as the case made its way through court.

By 2019, the Trump administration had replaced the Clean Power Plan with its own weaker greenhouse gas regulations called the Affordable Clean Energy rule. Former President Donald Trump’s EPA also decided that the Obama administration had gone too far in using the Clean Air Act to push for greenhouse gas pollution cuts across the entire power sector — determining instead that its authority to regulate pollution was limited to what a power plant can do within its “fenceline.” Under the Trump administration’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act, the EPA might be able to push a power plant to install equipment that captures CO2 on-site so that it doesn’t escape into the atmosphere — but it can’t push a state to phase out fossil fuel power plants in favor of solar or wind farms.

In the meantime, a different group of states successfully sued to block the Trump plan, leaving it up to President Joe Biden’s EPA to craft an entirely new rule. West Virginia appealed that ruling to the Supreme Court, and here we are. It’s now up to the Supreme Court to decide which interpretation holds sway, even though neither Obama nor Trump’s greenhouse gas rules ever went into effect.

WHY IS THIS CASE IMPORTANT?

A clean power grid is absolutely crucial to cleaning up the US’s frightfully dirty climate record.

The Biden administration, as part of rejoining the Paris climate agreement after Trump tried to renege, committed the US to reducing its planet-heating pollution by at least 50 percent this decade compared to peak pollution levels in 2005. By 2035, the Biden administration plans for the US power sector to be completely free of carbon pollution. This is all to meet a critical deadline that the whole planet faces. Global greenhouse gas emissions need to reach net zero by around 2050 to keep climate change from surpassing 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Beyond that threshold, millions more people are projected to be exposed to climate-driven disasters, including severe droughts, dangerous heat waves, and coastal flooding.

A CLEAN POWER GRID IS ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL TO CLEANING UP THE US’S FRIGHTFULLY DIRTY CLIMATE RECORD

Unfortunately, the current electrical grid is built primarily on fossil fuel power plants. The power sector alone is responsible for about a quarter of US greenhouse gas emissions. The only source of pollution bigger than the power sector in the US is transportation — and transitioning from gas-guzzlers to electric vehicles only becomes a cleaner choice if the grid runs on carbon-free energy.

Democrats have been trying to pass legislation that would push utilities to use more clean energy, but it’s been tied up in a congressional stalemate for months. That makes executive powers all the more important for the administration’s climate change efforts. Currently, Biden can try to use federal agencies like the EPA to crack down on polluters without relying on Congress. But with a conservative majority in the Supreme Court, including three Trump appointees, a decision could come down that restricts the EPA’s power to do that.

This fight is actually even bigger than the Clean Air Act or the EPA. In West Virginia v. EPA, “The plaintiffs want to hem in what they call the administrative state, the E.P.A. and other federal agencies that set rules and regulations that affect the American economy,” Coral Davenport writes for The New York Times. The case is the result of years of a coordinated strategy to hamstring the executive branch’s ability to regulate industry.

HOW MIGHT THE SUPREME COURT RULE?

We don’t know yet — but given the makeup of the court, environmental activists are unlikely to come away happy.

In one scenario, the court might decide to look narrowly at the Clean Air Act and what its language says about the EPA’s authority over power plants. In that case, the Clean Air Act might no longer be an appropriate vehicle for the EPA to rein in greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. That limited interpretation might leave it open for the EPA to find other ways to regulate greenhouse gas pollution — just not through the Clean Air Act.

THIS IS WHERE IT COULD START TO GET DICEY FOR THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S ABILITY TO RELY ON THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH TO GET ANYTHING DONE

On the other hand, the Supreme Court might decide to zoom out — looking beyond the language in the Clean Air Act. This is where it could start to get dicey for the Biden administration’s ability to rely on the executive branch to get anything done on climate change — or even other agendas that would require federal agencies to write and enforce rules on industry. The court could limit a federal agency’s ability to expand its powers beyond anything explicitly written out in law by Congress. Thanks to a 1984 doctrine called the “Chevron deference,” courts generally defer to a federal agency’s expertise in interpreting more ambiguous statutes. So, even if CO2 isn’t explicitly written about in the 1970 Clean Air Act, under this doctrine, the EPA might decide that it makes sense to tackle greenhouse gas pollution given today’s climate crisis.

The Supreme Court might instead seek to strengthen the “major questions doctrine,” which says that the court doesn’t need to give deference to federal agencies in matters of major national significance that Congress has yet to explicitly write into legislation.

Whatever it is, we’re likely to find out soon. The Supreme Court is scheduled to issue opinions tomorrow on four cases that are remaining this term, which might include West Virginia v. EPA. Until then, there are a whole lot of environmental advocates and legal experts on edge.