Saturday, October 22, 2022

Centuries-old Asura head statue unearthed at Cambodia's famed Angkor
SovanNguon - Thursday

Photo taken on Oct. 19, 2022, shows an Asura head statue in Siem Reap province, Cambodia. (ANA/Handout via Xinhua)

A 60-centimeter-high sandstone Asura head statue was unearthed in front of the south gate of the Angkor Thom temple in Cambodia's famed Angkor Archaeological Park.

The sandstone statue, which is centuries old, is being preserved at the Preah Norodom Sihanouk-Angkor Museum, and the conservation team will continue to find its original body.

PHNOM PENH, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- A centuries-old sandstone Asura head statue has been discovered in front of the south gate of the Angkor Thom temple in Cambodia's famed Angkor Archaeological Park, the APSARA National Authority (ANA) said in a news release on Thursday.

Asura is a demigod, titan or antigod, according to the context. They exist in both the Hindu and the Buddhist religions.

Chhouk Somala, head of the registration team of the ANA's Department of Conservation of Monuments and Preventive Archaeology, said the Asura head statue was found on Wednesday at the location of the former souvenir stalls in front of the south gate of Angkor Thom.

"At first, our team dug 30 to 40 cm deep and found three pieces of ancient stone, then they washed, and assembled them to become the Asura head," he said in the news release.

The Asura head statue is 60 cm high, 65 cm wide, and 59 cm thick, he said, adding that the Bayon-style statue had been built simultaneously with the Bayon temple during the reign of Jayavarman VII in the late 12th century and early 13th century.

Currently, the statue is being kept at the Preah Norodom Sihanouk-Angkor Museum, he said, adding that the team will continue to find its original body.

Located in northwest Cambodia's Siem Reap province, the 401-square km Angkor Archaeological Park, which was inscribed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1992, is the most popular tourist destination in the Southeast Asian nation.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ancient park attracted up to 2.2 million international tourists in 2019, earning a gross revenue of 99 million U.S. dollars from ticket sales, according to the state-owned Angkor Enterprise.

The ANA said that tourists have started visiting the Angkor site again after the COVID-19 pandemic has waned.

"This is a sign that the growth of tourists will return to normal after the absence of tourists for two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic," the ANA said. ■

Clean idea: Calgary tech company turning CO2 emissions into soap

Sarah Offin / Global News/ Yesterday

Together CarbinX and CleanO2 are creating what they say is the world's first carbon capture soap.

Jaeson Cardiff never meant to get into the business of making soap.

He was actually working as a plumber when, in the depths of an inner-city condo's utility room, he started developing an idea to help the environment.

"We're trying to convert emissions into useable goods and have those goods sold on the open market," said Cardiff.

He's now the co-founder of CarbinX, a cleantech company in Calgary that has developed a technology to capture carbon monoxide from natural gas appliances, like furnaces and boilers.

CarbinX machines are about the size of two refrigerators and capture carbon emissions by using a hydroxide chemical to absorb it.

Read more:
Calgary energy company eyeing Pincher Creek for potential carbon capture hub

And rather than just store that carbon, it's being turned into potassium carbonate, which is then added to soap.

"What the carbonate does is act like a water softener. So it's going to give the lather a really silky feel," said Michelle Regel, the owner of partnering company CleanO2. It's purported to be the world's first carbon capture soap.

While Cardiff admits the soap was developed as a marketing tool, the company is now selling some 100,000 bars every month.

"People are so excited about finally having a way to participate in capturing (greenhouse gases)."

More than 50 of the CarbinX systems are currently in use globally — everywhere from airports to condo buildings — reducing green house gases from appliances by about 20 per cent. Next year they hope to get to 50 per cent.

"The long-term goal for us is to completely decarbonize the heating industry," said Cardiff.

Video: Queen’s University researches how to transform carbon dioxide into sustainable fuel

Notley pitches rate caps, new schools and hiring campaigns at NDP AGM

Dylan Short - Calgary Herald

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley speaks at the NDP provincial convention in downtown Calgary on Saturday, October 22, 2022.

Promises to fix health care and quell the rising cost of living were part of NDP Leader Rachel Notley’s speech at her party’s AGM Saturday as she also took the chance to take shots at the governing UCP party.

Speaking to a packed room in the Imperial Ballroom at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Calgary, Notley called Alberta’s largest municipality an “NDP stronghold” during a campaign-style speech ahead of a spring general election in which her party will look to form government.

Notley said she would be releasing her party’s platform over a number of stages over the next several weeks. On Saturday, she unveiled a number of policy planks, including plans to build “hundreds of schools” and introduce a number of caps on everything from tuition costs to utility bills.

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley speaks at the NDP provincial convention in downtown Calgary on Saturday, October 22, 2022.

“We will get prices under control,” said Notley. “We’ll put a rate cap back onto your utility bills, we will freeze auto insurance rates, we will keep the gas tax off the price of the pump until inflation has returned to more normal levels.”

Notley said her government would work with other levels of lawmakers to increase rental housing and would “restart the most aggressive affordable housing construction program” the province has ever seen. She also said they would have the most aggressive hiring campaign for health-care workers in Alberta’s history.

Notley stressed the fact that oil and gas prices would ebb and flow and stressed the importance of expanding other sectors of the economy to protect from when prices aren’t as rosy as they currently are.

While pointing to a number of initiatives that her party introduced while in power, Notley also said she did not get everything right while she was premier.

“I get that and I take responsibility for that,” said Notley. “But I will not be deterred from this work.”

The 2022 NDP AGM was held Friday and Saturday with more than 1,300 people registered to attend. Notley said it was the biggest convention in the party’s history and urged members to carry that energy and momentum forward into the new year.

The AGM also served as an opportunity for grassroots members of the party to have their say in helping to shape the party’s policy positions moving forward. The attendees debated a number of policy resolutions that ranged from the party supporting the creation of a senior’s advocate and accessibility legislation to supporting the re-indexing of AISH and increasing other supports for Albertans with disabilities.

RACHEL ,UNLIKE SMITH AND UCP, TALKS TO THE MEDIA

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley speaks to media at the NDP provincial convention in downtown Calgary on Saturday, October 22, 2022.

Party members also debated resolutions around class sizes, eliminating the Kananaskis Conservation Pass and a number of policy directions around boosting health care.

“(Members) are very concerned about health care, the state of our health care, education, what it looks like for kids in our classes, post-secondary. They want to see an economic recovery that includes everybody — not just a few at the top,” said Notley. “They’re talking about those things, and then they’re also talking about how can we help. They’re at the point now just rolling up their sleeves and saying, ‘What can we do?'”

The AGM was held at the same time the UCP held its annual meeting at the River Cree Casino near Edmonton.

Notley used her Saturday speech to take a shot or two at the governing party and their new leader. Speaking to media after her speech, Notley said she has no ill will towards the new premier personally but that she is worried about “the hurtfulness” of some of her policies.

“I do worry about the hurtfulness of some of her statements and some of her policies with respect to real Albertans with the consequences of those decisions will be,” said Notley.

Notley said she has never declared victory until the votes are counted but that she is optimistic ahead of the general election based on what she is hearing from Albertans.

dshort@postmedia.com

Notley-led NDP to focus on economic diversification, healthcare measures for next election campaign

Elise von Scheel - Yesterday - CBC

NDP Leader Rachel Notley says a government led by her would cap and freeze taxes and fees in a number of areas in an effort to combat the high cost of living.

Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley unveiled some of her party's plans during their annual convention on Saturday. They will focus predominantly on healthcare and economic measures as they take on the United Conservative Party in next spring's election.© NDP

In a speech to party members Saturday, she said part of her economic platform includes a cap on utility rates, freezing auto insurance rates, continuing to hold off on collecting a gasoline tax and putting a cap on post-secondary tuition fees.

Alberta's New Democrats are holding their annual convention in Calgary this weekend. In her address to the approximately 1,400 members in attendance, Notley unveiled the thrust of the party's election platform — meant, as she says, to position them as the alternative to the current governing party.

Her party plans to focus predominantly on healthcare and economic measures as it takes on the United Conservative Party in next spring's election.

"We will get prices under control for the things you don't have a choice about paying for," Notley vowed.

"We will defend and repair and rebuild public healthcare in Alberta, stronger than ever."

The current UCP government is providing utility rebates this fall to households. They also suspended the gas tax earlier this year, but reintroduced a portion of it at the start of October.

Notley offered few specific policies, but outlined the broader direction for the platform the party intends to adopt for the campaign — which she says will be rolled out in stages starting in a few weeks.

The NDP is committing to replenishing supports for seniors, families and those receiving income assistance. Notley says they would launch a massive healthcare worker recruitment campaign.

She also said the NDP would build hundreds of new schools and would move on an "aggressive" affordable housing construction program.

If elected, the party intends to orient the provincial economy around industries like geothermal, hydrogen, digital media, agri-food and renewable energies.

"Our determined drive to diversification is critical to strengthen our economy and to effectively respond to climate change," Notley said.

"We will not pit these two issues against each other. If we do, we will fail at both."

But Notley also acknowledged that not all decisions her government made when they were in office from 2015 to 2019 were well received by Albertans.

"We didn't get it all right. I get that and I take responsibility for that."

Notley also committed an NDP cabinet would have gender parity.

Members at the convention are also debating policy proposals that could be incorporated into the NDP's election platform. Saturday morning members passed resolutions on things like repealing the UCP's K-6 curriculum and repealing a handful of labour laws brought in by the UCP.

Follow along live with the Alberta UCP annual general meeting

Trevor Robb -

Danielle Smith poses with the Alberta UCP caucus at the McDougall Centre on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022.© Dylan Short

This weekend marks the first time the United Conservative Party will debate policy under the leadership of newly minted Premier Danielle Smith.

The Edmonton Journal will be providing readers a one-stop-shop for all things UCP annual general meeting with an online live stream carrying the conference from the River Cree Resort in Enoch, near Edmonton, a live-blog at EdmontonJournal.com with digital editor Trevor Robb, and analysis from Postmedia columnists from both the Edmonton Journal and our sister paper, the Calgary Herald.

Provincial affairs journalist Lisa Johnson will be on the ground at the convention to provide in-depth coverage of the day’s events as they unfold. Be sure to follow Lisa on Twitter .

Premier Danielle Smith is expected to give a keynote address at 1 p.m. Saturday.

20 policy resolutions on the table

In total, Alberta’s United Conservative Party will debate 20 policy resolutions, including a couple that have proven controversial .

One resolution drafted by the party’s Edmonton West-Henday riding association aims to ban the instruction of several related concepts, “whether it is advanced under the title of so called critical race theory, intersectionality, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion or some other name.”

Related
Ban on teaching anti-racism, diversity included in Alberta UCP policy resolutions

UCP policy resolution could see municipal officials register as lobbyists

It calls for a “halt” to what it calls differential treatment due to ethnic heritage, and “any student being taught that by reason of their ethnic heritage they are privileged, they are inherently racist or they bear historic guilt due to said ethnic heritage or that all of society is a racist system.”

Another proposed policy from Airdrie East calls for the party to “uphold the rights of parents and caregivers so as not to require them to affirm or socially condition a child in a gender identity that is incongruent with the child’s birth sex,” arguing that barring evidence of criminal neglect or abuse, parents are best suited to guide their child’s development.

A resolution from Calgary-Klein argues the party should establish legal requirements for the government to consult with stakeholders and the public before enacting “significant” legislation, arguing the UCP government has shown a lack of communication. While a resolution championed by the Calgary-North West constituency association would call on the provincial government to have councillors, administration and staff from municipalities register as lobbyists if they are dealing with the province.

You can read all of the proposed draft policies here

STILL SCIENCE FICTION

Tokamak Energy Announces Triple Product on the Path to Commercial Fusion Energy – Presented at the American Physical Society Plasma Physics Conference

Jacquireid
21 October 2022
In Press Release

Tokamak Energy today announces that its ST40 spherical tokamak has achieved a triple product¹ result of 6×10¹⁸ keV.s.m^-3. This result was achieved earlier this year at a plasma temperature of 100 million degrees Celsius, the threshold required for commercial fusion energy, in a spherical tokamak with a plasma volume of less than one cubic meter; 15 times less volume than any other tokamak which has achieved this temperature.

The triple product achieved is the highest by a private fusion energy company. Triple product¹ is a widely recognised fusion industry measure of plasma density, temperature and confinement, collectively a key measure of progress in the path to realising commercial fusion conditions. The company has been invited to present the results today at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Plasma Physics in Washington, USA.

Chris Kelsall, CEO of Tokamak Energy said: “High performance in smaller spherical tokamaks is the key to commercial fusion power. Our latest achievement further substantiates this optimal route to clean, secure, low cost, scalable and globally deployable commercial fusion energy. We are proud to have achieved this result in collaboration with the Princeton and Oak Ridge National Laboratories.”

The ST40 spherical tokamak is now undergoing an upgrade and will further develop operational experience and efficient technologies for future devices which the company will be announcing soon.

NOTE

¹triple product (nT𝝉_E) Any device that is going to make fusion energy a commercial reality requires a plasma (an ionized gas of charged particles / hydrogen nuclei) with a high triple product. nT𝝉_E is a widely recognized measure of progress towards commercial fusion. There are three plasma conditions that must be met simultaneously:

Temperature – is the device capable of heating the plasma so that the particles move fast enough to fuse with each other when they collide?
Density – can the device contain a dense enough plasma so that plenty of collisions occur?
Confinement – can the device keep the charged particles within the plasma for long enough to sustain the fusion reaction?

https://www.euro-fusion.org/fusion/history-of-fusion

History of Fusion - EUROfusion

However, the science and physics of nuclear fusion started becoming clear only in the 1920s when British astrophysicist Arthur Eddington suggested that ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_nuclear_fusion

History of nuclear fusion - Wikipedia

The history of nuclear fusion began early in the 20th century as an inquiry into how stars powered themselves and expanded to incorporate a broad inquiry ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_fusion

Nuclear fusion - Wikipedia

The opposite is true for the reverse process, called nuclear fission. Nuclear fusion uses lighter elements, such as hydrogen and helium, which are in general ...

https://www.iter.org/mag/3/29

Who 'invented' fusion? - ITER

By the eve of World War II, the theoretical framework for fusion was established. Fundamental science still needed to be explored (and the exploration was to ...

https://www.lppfusion.com/technology/brief-history-of-fusion-power

Brief History of Fusion Power - LPPFusion

In the 1930's scientists, particularly Hans Bethe, discovered that nuclear fusion was possible and that it was the energy source for the sun. Beginning in ...

https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsnuclear-fusion-reactions

DOE Explains...Nuclear Fusion Reactions - Department of Energy

Nuclear Fusion reactions power the Sun and other stars. In a fusion reaction, two light nuclei merge to form a single heavier nucleus. The process releases ...

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/what-is-nuclear-fusion

What is nuclear fusion | IAEA

Mar 31, 2022 ... Ever since the theory of nuclear fusion was understood in the 1930s, scientists — and increasingly also engineers — have been on a quest to ...

http://butane.chem.uiuc.edu/pshapley/genchem1/l1/web-l1.pdf

Fusion and the Beginning of the Universe The Big Bang

To 3 significant figures, neutrons and protons have the same mass. We give the name atomic mass unit (amu) to the mass of one of these nuclear particles.

https://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i44/Cold-fusion-died-25-years.html

Cold fusion died 25 years ago, but the research lives on - C&EN

Nov 7, 2016 ... This story line is a common refrain for the researchers and companies involved. It all got started in 1989, when electrochemists Martin ...

https://www.science.org/content/article/fusion-power-may-run-fuel-even-gets-started

Fusion power may run out of fuel before it even gets started - Science

Jun 23, 2022 ... Some of fusion's fitfulness is innate to the design of doughnut-shaped tokamak reactors. The magnetic field that confines the ultrahot, energy- ...

Investors raise $280 million to fight deforestation in Africa

A kiln for making charcoal, widely used for cooking in Africa.

The funds will boost timber production and curb deforestation.

PHOTO: NYTIMES

PUBLISHED
OCT 21, 2022,

SYDNEY – A consortium of investment firms closed its first fund-raising round for the forestry sector in sub-Saharan Africa, in a bid to combat deforestation.

Norfund led the funding round with US$76 million (S$108 million) into the African Forestry Impact Platform (AFIP), followed by US$75 million and US$48 million from British International Investment and Finnfund respectively, a statement from the investors released on Thursday said.

Increasing timber demand in Africa’s expanding economies is putting pressure on some of the world’s most biodiverse forests, said David Brand, chief executive officer of New Forests, which will manage the fund.

AFIP has been registered in Singapore as a variable capital company, which is an open ended, permanent capital vehicle.

The fund will help increase the supply of sustainable wood products, said Clarisa De Franco, managing director and head of private equity funds at the UK government’s development-finance arm. “Charcoal is an important source of domestic fuel in many sub-Saharan African nations with the demand rising,” De Franco said.

The increasing consumption of charcoal is putting pressure on forests on the continent. Usage of the wood-based fuel jumped 90 per cent in Africa to 34.9 million tonnes in 2020 with Nigeria, Ethiopia and Ghana being the top producers, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization report.

The AFIP fund aims to raise as much as US$500 million of long-term institutional capital for investment in the continent that loses four million hectares of forests yearly, according to a statement.

The fund has acquired 100 per cent of Green Resources, East Africa’s forestry and wood processing company that manages approximately 38,000 hectares of pine and eucalyptus plantations in Tanzania, Uganda and Mozambique, according to the statement.

In a presentation about the fund, New Forests said target metrics included 2.26 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in net removals, inclusive of carbon offsets; a 14 per cent increase per hectare of quality habitat protected or restored; and a 14 per cent increase in people earning an income or additional or improved livelihood.

“The Africa platform will expand the plantation forest sector while seeking to also support forest conservation, restoration of degraded land and expansion of community-based forestry programs,” Mr Brand said.

New Forests, which has A$8.7 billion (S$7.8 billion) in assets under management across 1.1 million hectares, manages sustainable timber plantations and conservation areas, carbon and conservation finance projects, agriculture, timber processing and infrastructure assets.

BLOOMBERG

BP Bets $4 Billion On Green Landfill Gas, Yielding Another Fat Payday For The ‘Shalennial’ Rice Brothers

Christopher Helman
Forbes Staff
Oct 18, 2022

The Brothers Rice: Daniel, Toby and Derek, in November 2021.

CHRIS CRISMAN/THE FORBES COLLECTION

Thanks to federal subsidies, sucking methane out of landfills is twice as profitable per unit of energy versus pumping oil—with zero carbon emissions.

BP yesterday agreed to buy landfill gas producer Archaea Energy for $3.3 billion cash plus the assumption of $800 million in debt. The biggest winner is Daniel Rice IV, the 41-year-old chairman of Archaea, who with his brothers will receive more than $700 million in the deal.

The Rice brothers, including Derek and Toby (all still under the age of 50), made their name by building up their family’s natural gas company Rice Energy into a shale gas fracking giant that in 2017 they sold to EQTEQT -7% for $8.2 billion (of which they netted about $600 million). Toby Z. Rice subsequently became CEO of EQT, which today is the biggest producer of natural gas in the United States.

In 2018, early in the SPAC craze, Daniel Rice launched Rice Acquisition Corp., which ultimately spent $1 billion to acquire landfill operations and invest in systems to capture and sell the natural methane seeping out of them. It’s a similar business to shale fracking in that they are still engaged in producing and selling gas, but with a huge bonus: it’s “green.”

When garbage piled in landfills rots, it emits methane. In decades past that gas would just waft into the atmosphere where its greenhouse impact is 24 times more pronounced than that of carbon dioxide. Capturing that gas has huge environmental benefits. And thanks to federal subsidies, it has also become hugely lucrative.

BP, already America’s biggest marketer of “biogas,” was lured by Archaea’s fast growth and fat profits. In the past year Archaea grew its landfill gas output from 5.7 million mmBtu (million British thermal units) to 10 million mmBtu and operating profits of nearly $150 million. But Archaea was just getting started. It has upwards of 80 landfill gas projects in the works, including a JV with trash giant Republic ServicesRSG +0.9%, and visibility toward boosting output to 50 million mmBtu by 2030.

Federal subsidies make this green business golden. Normal natural gas fetches about $7 per mmBtu. But landfill gas fetches $33 per mmBtu, thanks to tax credits extended by the recent Inflation Reduction Act.

Analyst Oswald Clint at Bernstein Research notes that the deal for Archaea will enable BP to grow its biogas business from about 52,000 mmBtu per day to 400,000 mmBtu per day by 2030, with profits jumping more than fivefold to $1 billion. Per unit of energy, biogas is twice as profitable for BP as oil.

The brothers now have the challenge of reinvesting their $720 million in proceeds (27.7 million shares of Archaea at $26 cash per share, according to filings). This shouldn’t be a problem. Their Rice Investment Group has already acquired stakes in a dozen energy-related startups, while Daniel also chairs their second blank-check SPAC (ticker: RONI), which is sitting on $350 million in cash with a June 2023 deadline to make an acquisition.

For more, check out my 2021 feature on Archaea and Forbes magazine story on the Rice bros.:

WION Climate Tracker: European city’s aim to develop a solar farm in space

Europe might one day be powered by giant floating solar panels orbiting the planet. The European space agency has unveiled a plan to capture the sun's energy in space and beam it back down to earth.

BONUS

Wow! Pillars of Creation as seen by the James Webb Space Telescope | 4K Zoom-in

James Webb telescope just Captured The Pillars of Creation, Discovered objects Hidden in dust clouds

The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope has captured a lush, highly detailed landscape – the iconic Pillars of Creation – where new stars are forming within dense clouds of gas and dust. The three-dimensional pillars look like majestic rock formations, but are far more permeable. These columns are made up of cool interstellar gas and dust that appear – at times – semi-transparent in near-infrared light.

The US Army Corps of Engineers is dredging the Mississippi River and racing to keep the sea from contaminating drinking water

mmcfalljohnsen@insider.com (Morgan McFall-Johnsen) -Business Insider

In this photo taken by a drone, the normally wide Mississippi River has been reduced to a narrow trickle, October 20, 2022, near Portageville, Missouri.

Jeff Roberson/AP Photo

The Mississippi River is at record low levels, stranding barges and allowing sea water to move in with no end in sight.

The US Army Corps of Engineers is emergency dredging to keep the channel open to supply barges.

USACE is also building an underwater barrier in Louisiana to keep the sea out of drinking water.

The Mississippi River's waters have plunged to new lows, grounding cargo barges on the shallow riverbed and allowing seawater to creep up through Louisiana. That's sent the US Army Corps of Engineers into a frenzy of damage control.

At the mouth of the river, the agency is building an underwater levee to stop the creep of seawater from the Gulf of Mexico, which threatens to incapacitate water-treatment plants in southern Louisiana.

Randy Statler sits on a rock to watch people walk to Tower Rock, an attraction normally surrounded by the Mississippi River and only accessible by boat, October 19, 2022, in Perry County, Missouri.

Jeff Roberson/AP Photo

Meanwhile, further north, USACE is racing to dig emergency dredges in order to maintain a channel of nine-foot-deep water for barges carrying agricultural goods and fuel up and down the Mississippi. Those goods — like soybeans and oil — partially fuel the economy of the central US.

The price of shipping them has skyrocketed in the last month, The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. AccuWeather estimates the total economic losses at $20 billion.

"Is there an end in sight? No ma'am," Lisa Parker, a USACE public affairs officer, told Insider. "We're at the mercy of Mother Nature right now."

Barges, stranded by low water, sit at the Port of Rosedale along the Mississippi River on October 20, 2022 in Rosedale, Mississippi. Scott Olson/Getty Images© Scott Olson/Getty Images

The waters are receding due to drought in the upper river valleys of Ohio and Missouri, which feed into the Mississippi. In early October — peak harvest season, when barge traffic is high, according to Parker — at least eight barges ran aground in the shallow waters. The Coast Guard imposed new restrictions on how low ships and barges can sit in the water.

The river has only lost more volume since then. In Memphis, Tennessee, water levels have dropped past the record low set in 1988.

Forecasts from the National Weather Service promise no relief over the next 28 days, predicting that river levels will remain low.

Scientists must conduct rigorous analysis to attribute any single event to the climate crisis. However, decades of research show that rising global temperatures are affecting droughts overall, making them more severe and long-lasting.

'As soon as we're done working, we're moving on to the next hotspot,' Parker said

A US Army Corps of Engineers dredging vessel powers south down the Mississippi River on October 19, 2022, past Commerce, Missouri.

Jeff Roberson/AP Photo

USACE has seven dredging vessels actively sucking up riverbed material at hotspots where the waters are too shallow, from St. Louis to New Orleans, according to Parker. She said they've been deployed 24/7 and have been in such high demand that she doesn't have an estimate for how many sites they've dredged.

"As soon as we're done working, we're moving on to the next hotspot," she said.

On the Louisiana coast, the river is so low that ocean water from the Gulf of Mexico began pushing upstream. USACE is racing to build a 1,500-foot-wide, 35-foot-tall underwater levee to prevent saltwater from creeping further up the river, where it could contaminate drinking water. Already, there's a drinking water advisory in effect for the coastal region of Plaquemines Parish.

An underwater sill is constructed near the mouth of the Mississippi River to block seawater pushing up river, on October 18, 2022.

USACE© USACE

Contractors were finishing up the levee on Friday, according to Matt Roe, a public affairs officer for the USACE's New Orleans district.

The work won't be done once the levee is completed, though. Engineers will continue to monitor salinity levels in the river. If seawater begins to override the barrier, they plan to build the levee up taller.

As for the dredging team, the 24/7 work may not end for at least another month. Parker said they expect to be dredging "potentially every day."

"We're confident that we'll be able to maintain that nine-foot channel and keep the Mississippi open," she said.

Drone video of low Mississippi River water levels, tugs in Caruthersville, Missouri.

Mississippi River at historically low level due to drought

ABC News Chief Meteorologist Ginger Zee joins ABC News Live to discuss how this drought impacts everything from produce to commerce.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment