CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Patisserie Valerie auditor fined £2.34m

27 September 2021 by Katherine Price

Patisserie Valerie auditor Grant Thornton UK has been fined £2.34m following the high-profile collapse of the chain in 2019, which saw the closure of 70 stores and more than 900 job losses.

Grant Thornton acted as statutory auditor for Patisserie Holdings, Patisserie Valerie's holding company, since 2007 and signed off clean audit opinions for its 2015, 2016 and 2017 financial statements.

In October 2018, Patisserie Holdings announced that its board had been notified of potentially fraudulent accounting irregularities and the company subsequently entered administration.

The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has imposed sanctions against Grant Thornton and audit engagement partner David Newstead that include reporting to the FRC annually for three years on the impact of its remedial actions (including a root cause analysis) on audit quality; a review of the audit practice's culture relating to challenge; and additional monitoring in relation to bank and cash audit work. Grant Thornton will also pay the FRC's costs of the investigation.

Newstead has also been fined £87,750 and banned from carrying out statutory audits and signing statutory audit reports for three years.

Grant Thornton and Newstead accepted failures in their audit work relating to revenue, cash, journals and fixed asset additions.

In each of the three years, the FRC found the audit work included serious breaches which were "often repeated year on year", revealing "a pattern of serious lapses in professional judgement, failures to exercise professional scepticism, failures to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence and/or to prepare sufficient audit documentation".

Claudia Mortimore, deputy executive counsel to the FRC, said: "This decision notice sets out numerous breaches of relevant requirements across three separate audit years, evidencing a serious lack of competence in conducting the audit work.

"The audit of Patisserie Holdings Plc's revenue and cash in particular involved missed red flags, a failure to obtain sufficient audit evidence and a failure to stand back and question information provided by management.

"As a result of this investigation, GT has taken remedial actions to improve its processes and to prevent a recurrence of these types of breaches. The package of financial and non-financial sanctions should also help to improve the quality of future audits."

Patisserie Valerie was sold to Causeway Capital Partners in 2019.

Heathrow junction blocked by Insulate Britain protesters

Persistent climate campaigners defy injunction to blockade London ring road for sixth time

UK police detain a protester from Insulate Britain occupying a road leading to Heathrow Airport. The activists want the government to insulate and retrofit homes to cut climate emissions. All photos: PA
Tim Kiek

Sep 27, 2021

Climate protesters on Monday blocked a major UK motorway at a road leading to London's Heathrow Airport.

It is the sixth time that the M25, London's ring road, has been targeted by Insulate Britain campaigners in just over a week.

The activists, who are demanding that the UK take action on home insulation, defied an injunction won by the government last week preventing them from occupying roads.

The interim ruling gave police the authority to imprison Insulate Britain's protesters after the authorities were criticised for being soft on earlier protests.

A similar injunction was granted on Saturday, prohibiting the occupation of the A20 and other arterial roads linked to the Port of Dover. It came after Insulate Britain protesters blockaded the area on Friday.

The group's tactics have made it something of a pariah in the UK, yet spokeswoman Tracey Mulligan said its all-publicity-is-good-publicity strategy had "certainly got everybody talking about insulation".

"We have got people considering that our government is legally failing in their duty to protect us and I think we're showing that [UK Home Secretary] Priti Patel, unfortunately, is trying to scare us with an injunction and that shows her lack of character, not ours," she told LBC radio.

"You can't put an injunction on hunger, you can't put an injunction on physics, and we are terrified for our children's future and sick of over 8,000 people dying each year from the choice of heating or eating."

She admitted that the group was not happy about the injunction but highlighted what she called "the bigger context".

"We are tired of over seven million people having to choose between heating or eating and we know that's going to get worse with the energy crisis that we're facing now."

Official Sources Warn a Geomagnetic Storm Is Imminent, So Get Ready For Auroras


The Sun on 21 September 2021. (NASA/SDO)

MICHELLE STARR
27 SEPTEMBER 2021

If you live at a high latitude, it's time to break out the camera. Space weather agencies are predicting a solar storm for Monday 27 September: moderate, with a chance of aurora.

The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the British Met Office have both issued predictions for the storm, which is predicted to be the result of several solar coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and solar winds unleashed from a "hole" that has opened up in the Sun's corona.

Although there could be as many as four CMEs that could affect Earth, you don't have to fret. The storm will only get as high as a level G2 – relatively mild on the five-level solar storm scale, on which G5 is the strongest.

At high latitudes, the predicted G2 storm may cause power grid fluctuations; satellite orientation may be affected, with increased drag at low-Earth orbit; and high-frequency radio propagation may fade.

But we may be in for a treat, too: "Aurora may be seen as low as New York to Wisconsin to Washington state," the NOAA wrote in its alert.

Solar storms are a part of pretty normal space weather, and in the coming few years, we can probably expect to see more of them. They occur when the Sun gets a little rowdy, in the form of CMEs and solar winds, causing disruptions to Earth's magnetic field and upper atmosphere.

CMEs are pretty much exactly what they sound like. The Sun's corona – the outermost region of its atmosphere – erupts, ejecting plasma and magnetic fields into space. If the CME is oriented at Earth, the collision of the solar ejecta with Earth's magnetic field can cause a geomagnetic storm – also known as a solar storm.

Solar winds emerge from 'holes' in the Sun's corona. These are cooler, less dense regions of plasma in the Sun's atmosphere, with more open magnetic fields. These open regions allow the solar winds to escape more easily, blowing electromagnetic radiation into space at high speeds. If the hole is facing Earth, those winds can blow right at us, once again getting all up in our magnetosphere.

The Sun currently has both going on.

"There are four CME which may affect the Earth," the British Met Office explained on its website.

"Three of these could arrive separately or as a single combined feature during 27 September, with a further CME perhaps glancing the earth later on 27 or during 28 September. A coronal hole fast wind may also affect the Earth on 27 and 28 September, although any effects from this wind are considered uncertain.

"There is also a low risk that the CMEs and fast wind may affect the earth at similar times, providing a greater effect. Any enhancements would then ease during 28 and 29 September."

Any charged particles that collide with Earth's magnetic field are sent whizzing along the magnetic field lines towards the poles, where they rain down on Earth's upper atmosphere and collide with atmospheric molecules. The resulting ionization of these molecules generates the stunning dancing lights we call the aurora.

According to Space Weather's aurora forecast, we've got a level of Kp 6 on the ten-point Kp index of geomagnetic activity. This means a strong possibility of bright, dynamic aurora with the likelihood of auroral coronae.

We can also expect more solar storms in the months and years ahead. The Sun is currently heading towards the most active period of its 11-year cycle, called solar maximum. During solar maximum, the solar magnetic field – which controls sunspots (temporary regions of strong magnetic fields), solar flares, and coronal mass ejections – is at its strongest, and so too is solar activity.

Earlier this year, the Sun spat out its most powerful flare since 2017, so our star definitely seems to be waking up. Its sunspot activity is expected to peak in July 2025, after which it will subside back into solar minimum.

1 dead, 9 injured after strong earthquake hits Greek island of Crete

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of at least 5.8 struck the Greek island of Crete on Monday, killing one person and injuring several others, while damaging homes and churches and causing rock slides.


Associated Press

Athens September 27, 2021

A demolished Greek Orthodox church after a strong earthquake hit Arkalochori village on the southern island of Crete in Greece. (Photo: AP)

An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of at least 5.8 struck the Greek island of Crete on Monday, killing one person and injuring several others, while damaging homes and churches and causing rock slides near the country’s fourth-largest city.

The quake sent people fleeing into the streets in the city of Heraklion, and schools were evacuated. Repeated aftershocks rattled the area, adding to damage in villages near the epicentre.

The Athens Geodynamic Institute said the quake struck at 9:17 a.m. (0617 GMT), with an epicentre 246 kilometres (153 miles) south southeast of the Greek capital, Athens.

A military truck passes near a damaged Greek Orthodox chapel after a strong earthquake in Arcalochori village on the southern island of Crete, Greece. (Photo: AP)

“This is not an event that occurred without warning. We have seen activity in this region for several months. This was a strong earthquake, it was not under sea but under land and affecting populated areas,” seismologist Gerasimos Papadopoulos said on Greece’s state broadcaster ERT.

The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center and the U.S. Geological Survey gave a preliminary magnitude of 6.0, with an epicentre seven kilometers (four miles) north of the village of Thrapsano. The Athens Geodynamic Institute said it was 5.8. It is common for different seismological institutes to give varying magnitudes for an earthquake in the initial hours and days after an event.

Greece’s Climate Crisis and Civil Protection Ministry said that according to reports from local authorities, one person had been killed and a further nine people suffered injuries. The details of the circumstances of the death and injuries were not immediately available.


A man stands outside a damaged building after a strong earthquake in Arkalochori village on the southern island of Crete, Greece. (Photo: AP)

The fire department said it was flying 30 members of its disaster response units with sniffer dogs and specialised rescue equipment to Crete, while all its disaster response units and the fire department services on Crete were placed on general alert.

At least nine aftershocks also struck the area, with the EMSC giving a preliminary magnitude of 4.6 for the two strongest ones.

Residents of Heraklion rushed out into the streets. Local media in Crete reported damage, with collapsing walls of old stone buildings in villages near the epicentre of the temblor on the eastern part of the island.

“The earthquake was strong and was long in duration,” Heraklion mayor Vassilis Lambrinos told private Antenna television. “We have requested that schools are evacuated. The children are out in the playgrounds.”

International and domestic flights to Heraklion airport weren’t affected by the quake, while the region’s hoteliers association said there was no serious damage to any hotels in the area, which includes many popular holiday resorts.

ALSO READ: Magnitude 5.7 earthquake hits south of Manila in Philippine

Your smartphone has enough data to potentially detect cannabis intoxication, study finds

Tom Yun

CTVNews.ca writer
Sunday, September 26, 2021 


Smartphone sensor data combined with time-of-day data resulted in an accuracy rate of 90 per cent when it came to detecting cannabis use, a new study found.

Researchers from Rutgers University in New Jersey say smartphone sensor data combined with machine learning could detect whether someone is under the influence of marijuana.

The researchers set out to develop a proof-of-concept way to passively detect cannabis use as an alternative to existing detection measures, such as blood, urine or saliva tests. Their findings were published in September in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

"Adverse effects of acute cannabis intoxication have been reported by young adults, with associated consequences such as poor academic and work performance, and injuries and fatalities due to driving while 'high' on cannabis," the authors wrote in the study.

The authors conducted a study experiment involving 57 young adults who reported using cannabis at least twice a week. The participants were asked to complete three surveys a day over a 30-day period that asked how high they were feeling at a given time, as well as when they had last used cannabis and the quantity consumed. In total, the participants reported 451 episodes of cannabis use.

The participants were also asked to download an app that analyzed GPS data, phone logs, accelerometer data and other smartphone sensors and usage statistics.

When only looking at the time of day, the algorithm was able to accurately detect an episode of cannabis use with 60 per cent accuracy. The smartphone sensor data alone was also able to produce an accuracy rate of 67 per cent.

However, smartphone sensor data combined with time-of-day data resulted in an accuracy rate of 90 per cent.

“Using the sensors in a person’s phone, we might be able to detect when a person might be experiencing cannabis intoxication and deliver a brief intervention when and where it might have the most impact to reduce cannabis-related harm,” said corresponding author and Rutgers professor Tammy Chung in a news release.

The GPS data was the most important dataset when it came to detecting cannabis use. The researchers found that participants would tend to travel shorter distances while they were high. Accelerometer data was the second most important feature, as it can be used to measure body movements.

The researchers say this is the first study to look at how smartphone sensors could be used to detect cannabis intoxication.

Chung and her colleagues were also involved in a similar study from 2018 that investigated whether smartphone data could detect heavy drinking episodes. In that study, they found that an algorithm that measured smartphone-usage patterns, such as screen-on duration, typing speed and time of day, could detect heavy drinking episodes with 91 per cent accuracy.

Smartphones used to check water for pollutants – by tracking paramecia
By Ben Coxworth
September 24, 2021


A pair of Paramecium aurelia swim through a water sample
Amai 129/C.C. 4.0


Even though it's vitally important for people in impoverished nations to check drinking water sources for pollutants, they often lack the facilities for performing such tests. A new system could help, as it uses a smartphone camera to check up on tiny aquatic organisms.

Developed by scientists at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, the setup can be used to analyze untreated water samples from lakes or rivers on the spot, within a matter of minutes.

A team led by Asst. Prof. Javier Fernandez started by observing single-celled organisms known as paramecia, which are abundant in bodies of water throughout the world. The researchers initially noted the average swimming speed of the organisms in untainted water, and then observed how much that speed decreased as different concentrations of pollutants such as heavy metals and antibiotics were introduced.

When the scientists subsequently measured the swimming speed of paramecia in water samples – utilizing a simple microscope attachment on a smartphone camera, along with object tracking algorithms – they found that they could accurately determine how polluted the water was, based on how much slower than normal the organisms were swimming.

For instance, even when heavy metals were present in concentrations considered to be half of what's safe for humans to consume, the swimming speed of the paramecia decreased by half.

"Taking a sample of water and measuring the speed of paramecia can therefore be used as a straightforward method to assess the drinkability of water without the need for specialized equipment or chemicals," says Fernandez. "Usually, you would need a different test for each pollutant, but paramecia swimming is a global measurement."

The research is described in a paper that was recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Source: Singapore University of Technology and Design

SAFFRON IS WORTH MORE THAN OPIUM OR POT

Afghan saffron boss says Taliban will not silence her

Issued on: 27/09/2021 - 

HOSHANG HASHIMI AFP


Herat (Afghanistan) (AFP)

An Afghan business leader who employs hundreds of women on her saffron fields has vowed to speak up for the rights of her workers, and "not remain silent" under Taliban rule.

The hardliners have increasingly excluded women from public life since sweeping to power in mid-August, pushing many female entrepreneurs to flee the country or go into hiding.

Many fear a return to their brutally oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001 when women were effectively banned from going to school or work, and only allowed to leave the house with a male relative.

"We will raise our voice so that it reaches their ears," said Shafiqeh Attai, who started her saffron company in the western city of Herat in 2007.

"No matter what happens we won't just sit at home, because we have worked very hard."

- 'We will not remain silent' -

Attai's business, the Pashton Zarghon Saffron Women's Company, produces, processes, packages and exports the world's most expensive spice with an almost exclusively female workforce.

More than 1,000 women pick the brightly coloured crocuses across the company's 25 hectares (60 acres) of land in the Pashton Zarghon district of Herat Province, which borders Iran.

Another 55 hectares are independently owned and operate under the collective that Attai set up for women saffron pickers, who are represented by union leaders.

Employing women allows them to be breadwinners for their families, Attai said, enabling them to send their children to school, and to buy them clothing and other essentials.

The red pistil, which is made up of three stigma, is dried and ready to be sold HOSHANG HASHIMI AFP

"I worked hard to establish my business," the 40-year-old said. "We don't want to sit quietly and be ignored. Even if they ignore us, we will not remain silent."

- Alternative to opium -

The ousted, Western-backed government encouraged farmers to grow the spice -- used in dishes from biryani to paella -- in a bid to wean them away from Afghanistan's huge and problematic poppy industry.

Still, the country remains by far the world's biggest producer of opium and heroin, supplying between 80 and 90 percent of global output.

During their previous stint in power, the Taliban -- who used the sale of opium to fund their insurgency -- destroyed much of the crop ostensibly to eradicate it, though critics said it was to drive up the value of their huge stockpiles.

The cultivation of poppies has again surged in recent years, as poverty and instability increased. Afghanistan's production area is now roughly four times larger now than in 2002, according to the United Nations.

- 'Red gold' -

Herat Province produces the vast majority of Afghanistan's saffron.

Afghanistan's army of workers take to the country's sun-baked fields to pick the popular spice

 HOSHANG HASHIMI AFP

At more than $5,000 per kilogram (2.2 pounds), saffron is the world's most expensive spice, and Attai's company produces between 200 and 500 kilos each year.

The pistil of the flower has for centuries been used around the world in cooking, perfumes, medicines, tea and even as an aphrodisiac -- and because of its high price has been dubbed "red gold" by those who rely on its cultivation.

Best grown in the baking hot sun, the bright purple saffron flowers are harvested in October and November by armies of workers, many of them women in their fifties and sixties, who start picking at dawn before the plants wilt later in the day.

Labourers then prise apart the delicate lilac leaves, vivid red stigmas and pale yellow stamens -- painstaking work that demands concentration and skill.

- 'Hard work' -

Attai is concerned not just about the future of her business, but also for women across Afghanistan who are living in limbo, uncertain about jobs, education and representation in government.

"Now that the government of the Islamic Emirate is here we are very worried that they will block our work," she said.

The harvest is sent to factories where gloved workers remove the red pistil 

HOSHANG HASHIMI AFP

"They haven't given girls the permission to go back to school and university, and they haven't given any women posts in the government -- I am worried about what will happen," she added.

"I'm not just thinking about myself, I'm thinking about all those that this business supports to run their homes," she said, noting that some of her employees are the sole breadwinners in their families.

"I am worried that 20 years of hard work by these women will go to waste."

- 'Cannot be ignored' -

In the 20 years between the US-led ouster of the Taliban in 2001 and the Islamists' return, many women became business leaders, particularly in cities like Herat.

Long a key commercial hub near Iran and Turkmenistan's borders, the city has in recent months suffered from the flight of many businesswomen.

Younes Qazizadeh, head of the city's chamber of commerce, told AFP that he hoped the Taliban would make an official announcement to indicate that "women could come back and do business under this government as well".

For now, the fate of businesses like Attai's hangs on a thread.

"It is our hope to start women's businesses again in our country," Qazizadeh added.

Attai said that for now, she is staying in her homeland because she has "some hope" that her business can survive.

Ahead of the US pullout, a mammoth airlift saw 124,000 people evacuated from Kabul airport.

"I could have left as well. But I didn't leave because all the hard work and effort that we put in should not be ignored," Attai said.

"Not a single man is brave enough" to stop Attai and her female colleagues from working, she says 

Hoshang Hashimi AFP

"I don't think they will block our work," she added, referring to the Taliban.

"We are a company which is completely run by women and employs women -- not a single man is brave enough to stop that. A woman who has shovelled her fields day and night cannot be ignored."

© 2021 AFP

MOLDOVA

In separatist Transnistria, Sheriff calls the shots


Issued on: 27/09/2021 - 

Sheriff -- the word is on everyone's lips be it on the way to the football -- or the supermarket

 Sergei GAPON AFP


Tiraspol (Moldova) (AFP)

This year's Champions League features an improbable upstart: FC Sheriff, a club run by an eponymous company built on murky money in a pro-Russian separatist enclave of Europe's poorest country, Moldova.

The would-be state, which harkens back to its Soviet past with a towering Lenin statue in the centre of its administrative hub, Tiraspol, broke away from Moldova in a short civil war in the early 1990s.

Thirty years later, the little-known Transnistria region with its own border police, army, currency and hammer-and-sickle-emblazoned flag has not been recognised internationally but is propped up by free Russian gas and some 1,500 troops.

The territory, however, is effectively run by the Sheriff holding company that sports a five-pointed sheriff's star as its logo.

Owned by a former Soviet police officer, Viktor Gushan, the conglomerate controls businesses ranging from a cognac distillery and caviar farm to supermarket and gas station chains -- and the football club making waves in Europe.

"Viktor Gushan is the person with the most influence here, both in politics and economics," said Anatoly Dirun, director of the Tiraspol School of Political Studies.

FC Sheriff's players, seen training at the Sheriff Stadium in Tiraspol, have already caused a stir by winning their first group match against Shakhtar Donetsk 

Sergei GAPON AFP

Dirun, a former member of the ruling Renewal party financed by Sheriff, said that besides business, Gushan's people also hold all of the main leadership posts in the breakaway region, from parliament to the prime minister's seat to the presidency.

- 'Sheriff Republic' -

Gushan founded Sheriff in 1993 with fellow police officer Ilya Kazmaly.

The two 59-year-olds spent the following years buying up former Soviet factories -- and fighting off competitors.

Helping lead Transnistria's so-called "privatisation" -- the selling off of Soviet-era state-owned businesses to private owners -- in the 1990s and early 2000s was Valery Litskay, the separatist state's former foreign minister and chief advisor to its first self-styled president.

"Sheriff won the competition," Litskay told AFP, explaining they offered "the best prices and guarantees" that the factories would "continue running".

But the former official said the company has a "very dark criminal history", recalling that they had a "tough fight" with competitors.

Want gas? The Sheriff conglomerate has local consumers covered there too Sergei GAPON AFP

"If you go to our cemeteries, you will see whole alleys of bandits," he said.

Gushan, Sheriff's co-founder and president, declined AFP's interview request.

Litskay said the region's leadership "did not track who killed whom," conceding, "yes, it's not very pretty, but that's the reality of economic life."

It's "better to have a corporation of police", he added, than a "corporation of bandits."

As they rose to power, the police officers launched new businesses.

Ukrainian coach Yuriy Vernydub is tasked with plotting Sheriff's path -- they face Real Madrid next -- to the knockout phase of the lucrative Champions League 

Sergei GAPON AFP/File

In 1997, they founded FC Sheriff, who earlier this month shocked Shakhtar Donetsk in their first group stage game and face Spanish giants Real Madrid on Tuesday.

Dubbing Transnistria "Sheriff Republic", investigative outlet RISE Moldova found that by 2015 one third of all the money from the separatist enclave's budget was paid out to companies owned by Sheriff.

Today, its companies export goods ranging from textiles to construction materials across Europe and caviar as far as the United States and Japan.

- 'Happy with the status quo' -

Vadim Krasnoselsky, the current head of Transnistria whose presidential campaign was financed by Sheriff, hails the company as the region's "main taxpayer".

"They create new jobs, they invest," he told AFP. "They are a reliable partner, they can be trusted."

President of Transnistria Vadim Krasnoselsky has hailed Sheriff's role as a "reliable partner" which invests and creates jobs 

Sergei GAPON AFP

Their monopoly, though, may not be a boon for Transnistria.

The region is haemorrhaging young people, with its population halving to as low as 250,000 from around 500,000 during the Soviet era, according to several estimates.

The main reason, analysts say, is Transnistria's average wage of $250-300 per month -- lower than the rest of Moldova.

In a 2006 referendum 97 percent of Transnistria's population wanted the region to join Russia. Now there is a "diversification of choice among the youth," said Andrei Mospanov, deputy director of the Tiraspol-based ISPIRR think tank.

Like all of his older friends, Andrei, 17, said he plans to leave for university to Russia or Chisinau.

Flags of Russia and Transnistria -- which professes allegiance to Moscow -- flutter by a monument to 18th century Russian military commander Alexander Suvorovin in Tiraspol 

Sergei GAPON AFP

"I don't see any development in Transnistria," he told AFP.

New Moldovan President Maia Sandu has said she wants her country to join the European Union and demanded Russian troops leave Transnistria.

But the breakaway statelet still affirms its allegiance to Moscow.

In Tiraspol, a billboard reads "Russia in our hearts," while a portrait of Russian President Vladimir Putin hangs on a wall in Krasnoselsky's offices.

Negotiations on ending the frozen conflict have stalled for years -- and insiders say that's because the leadership is happy with things just as they are.

"Russia gives us free gas and troops, and they get their point of influence" on Europe, said Litskay.

"We are very happy with the status quo."

© 2021 AFP

'MAYBE' TECH

The Bauer Et Al “Blue” Hydrogen LCA Paper Isn’t Useful In The Real World (Part 1 Of 2)

As a contribution to the literature on what will happen in the real world, this is a fairly slight addition, one which is being promoted far beyond its actual merit by the usual suspects.

By Michael Barnard
Published2 days ago

The Bauer Et Al "Blue" Hydrogen LCA Paper Isn't Useful In The Real World (Part 1 of 2) | CleanTechnica

As hydrogen hype is ramping up again, this time very clearly due to the fossil fuel industry putting its very large, well-funded thumb on the scales of public perception and policy-making, a pair of academic papers on the climate merits of “blue” hydrogen have been published recently. The first was by Howarth and Jacobson, and found that “blue” hydrogen had full lifecycle emissions that made it a non-starter as a climate solution. The second, by a host of authors — 16 of them, which is an unusually large number for an academic paper in this field, and more in keeping with a pile-on letter with signatories — finds that “blue” hydrogen can be a good low-carbon addition to the solution set.

The Howarth, Jacobson, et al paper will be assessed in a separate article, but this pair of pieces will assess the merits of the hyper-authored paper favoring “blue” hydrogen, On the climate impacts of blue hydrogen production, in the journal ChemRxiv. Note that this journal is in the same vein as other journals appearing at present, in that it publishes non-peer reviewed material, a very acceptable practice for important fields with long peer-review cycles but one that comes with a proviso.
“These are preliminary reports which have not been peer-reviewed. They should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health related behaviour, or be reported in news media as established information.”

As such, this article is an assessment of something that is very early in the review cycle, and some comments may become stale as the paper moves through to final publication. As a non-peer reviewed early publication journal, it doesn’t have an impact factor. By comparison, the Howarth Jacobson paper is peer-reviewed and published in Wiley’s open access journal Energy Science & Engineering, which has an impact factor of 4.07. This is not in any way dismiss the paper, but to acknowledge that it is somewhat less reliable by this measure at this time. I refer to papers in similar early publication journals regularly, most notably Cornell’s arXiv on machine learning, where peer review cycles can take two years.

The paper appears to have been in the works for a while with a subset of the authors, then the Howarth and Jacobson paper was published, and this paper was rushed to early publication in reaction, presumably with the addition of authors who wanted to make their disagreement with Jacobson known as well. This is reminiscent of the 20 author critique of Jacobson et al’s 2015 published study on 100% renewables by 2050 for the USA, a critique I found without particular merit, but in this case the publication is parallel to Jacobson’s, not directly critiquing it. My observation at the time was that everyone was agreeing that up to 80% was fully achievable with renewables, but that the last 20% would be too hard or expensive. My further observation is that last 20% is now often the last 10% according to many. I suspect Jacobson will be proven right, and further that his vision is by far the fastest and cheapest one to get electricity decarbonized by 80% t0 90%, so if other technologies prove necessary for the last bit, they can wait.

That the authors are reacting to the Howarth-Jacobson paper is clear from the abstract by the way, where they say “However, recent research raises questions about the effective climate impacts of blue hydrogen from a life cycle perspective.” This is not to denigrate the authors. Like the authors of the previous critique, they have a different belief about what will be necessary to decarbonize the world, and so this is, in my opinion, something of a tempest in a teapot. Except that it isn’t. The credibility of “blue” hydrogen is essential for the fossil fuel industry to maintain its current level of policy and opinion pressure for adoption of fossil-fuel sourced hydrogen in a much larger way than any current use of the molecule.

And so, to the contents of the paper. The approach to this will be to quote key elements from the paper and respond to them.


“Hydrogen is foreseen to be an important energy vector in (and after) the transition to net-zero Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission economies.”

This is an overstatement at best. Hydrogen as an energy vector is being promoted heavily by the fossil fuel industry, but fails multiple tests associated with economics, efficiency and effectiveness after decades of attempts. Hydrogen will be required as a chemical feedstock in industry, but is unlikely to be widely used in transportation, storage or heating. There are much better alternatives for the vast majority of use cases.


Hydrogen demand projection through 2100 by author

For those who missed it, I recently published a three part series with a contrarian but I think more accurate perspective on the future of hydrogen demand, one which saw global hydrogen demand falling, not rising. This is version 1.0 and intended to provide the basis for a fuller discussion. And to be clear, it’s a singular non-academic analyst’s perspective and in no way peer reviewed or intended to be peer reviewed, much like Liebreich’s excellent and useful hydrogen ladder. There are large error bars and it’s an opinion, not a prediction. But it is an opinion based on what is necessary across multiple domains for us to actually take action on climate, the laws of thermodynamics and basic economics. My perspective that hydrogen demand will be falling is a large part of the reason I don’t think that “blue” hydrogen is even necessary. Perpetuating and expensively remediating the significant negative externalities of the fossil fuel industry isn’t required to nearly the degree that the fossil fuel industry is trying to convince people it is.

If an updated version of the paper is produced that the authors might make this a more accurate statement, but note that it is not the direct point of the paper. It is, however, indicative of their assumptions, something which becomes clearer and clearer through the paper.

“The reductions in carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-eq.) emissions per unit of hydrogen production were in the order of 50-85% when compared to standard NG-based hydrogen production without CCS”

There are two concerns with it. The first is that the goal cannot be 50% or even 85%. The goal is 100%. In connection with the expectation of a very large role for hydrogen in energy, 50–85% simply perpetuates the damage of climate change.

Later in the paper, the authors find that in the best cases with high monitoring and maintenance, it can exceed 90%. Further, they say that technologies that are in prototype today but not scaled could achieve 100%. It’s important to recognize that the authors make it clear that only in the best case scenarios with the absolute best practices and technology that is currently unproven will “blue” hydrogen be compatible with climate change requirements.


Magnitude of challenge vs tiny scale of CO2 use today by author

The second concerns CCS. Having reviewed all major CCS implementations and most proposed technologies, publishing regularly on the subject for several years, there is no way that CCS can or will scale to the magnitude of the emissions. At present, the total global CCUS market is 230 million tons of CO2 annually. 90 million tons of that is for enhanced oil recovery, and as the CO2 being ‘sequestered’ is first pumped from underground where it was already sequestered, is strongly negative for climate change. Meanwhile, the current scale of annual emissions is in the 40 billion tons range, and the total excess atmospheric CO2 is over a thousand billion tons. In order to stabilize the climate, we have to get to net zero and start drawing down the thousand billion tons.

This concludes the first half of the assessment of the “blue” hydrogen life-cycle assessment. As a reminder, this is non-peer reviewed draft apparently rushed to publication, and so comments in this article may not reflect the final published version of the paper. That said, given the assumptions and provenance, it’s unlikely to be substantially altered unless other reviewers find substantive errors in the modeling. I don’t dispute the LCA work that the authors have done, but am merely pointing out that their arguments about “blue” hydrogen’s value have little merit in the actual world we inhabit.

Companies To Produce Green Hydrogen From Converted Jack-Up

by Bojan Lepic

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Rigzone Staff

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Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Trio joins forces to develop a concept for offshore green hydrogen production by using a converted jack-up rig in the North Sea.

Three companies have joined forces to develop a concept for offshore green hydrogen production by using a converted jack-up rig in the North Sea.

Offshore engineering solutions Aquaterra Energy signed a partnership with renewable hydrogen producer and supplier Lhyfe and offshore drilling contractor Borr Drilling. These organizations will lead Project Haldane, an industrial-scale offshore green hydrogen production concept, through the deployment of an electrolyzer system on a converted jack-up rig.

This unique solution should solve the challenges related to grid connectivity and intermittency of supply created by remote locations, preventing the full use of reliable winds far out in the North Sea.

The solution will provide an off-take for the electricity produced near the wind farm and aims to use existing platforms, pipelines, terminal infrastructure, and offshore equipment leveraging the existing infrastructure to reduce costs.

The concept will offer an alternative deployment to existing assets – such as jack-up drilling rigs traditionally used for oil and gas exploration – provide a source of green hydrogen and enhance the commercial feasibility of remote offshore wind projects.

“With our expertise in complex offshore operations and fleet management, Borr Drilling will leverage its core capabilities to evaluate the adoption of this alternative energy source in an environment with a large untapped potential,” Director of Operations at Borr Drilling Darren Sutherland said. “While we will continue to work in our traditional drilling market, this project reinforces our ambition to continuously improve the sustainability of our activities and align our service offering with the changing expectations of our customers and stakeholders.”

“Lhyfe is already producing renewable hydrogen in industrial quantities onshore, with a direct connection to renewable energy, pumping seawater and purifying it to feed the electrolysis process. This is hence a production process already considering offshore harsh conditions. Over the last few years, we have also been working on different projects to deploy our production process offshore,” CEO at Lhyfe Matthieu Guesné stated.

“Offshore wind offers the greatest potential for sustainable hydrogen production because of the cost-effectiveness that can be achieved through scalability and technological innovation. The market is yet to deliver a flexible solution that benefits from the existing infrastructure in the North Sea and Lhyfe wants to be at the forefront of this change by creating a world-first green hydrogen production of this kind,” he added.

Aquaterra also stated that the consortium welcomes any interested parties to submit inquiries while the concept is still in its early stages.

“With years of experience in the successful delivery of complicated offshore jack-up operations, complex structural projects, and offshore process systems we are excited to be the interface that brings together the interest of Lhyfe in offshore markets and expands on Borr Drilling’s expertise in jack-up rig equipment. Our unique value here is that we are multilingual in terms of the engineering and operational needs of oil and gas assets, and green energy processing systems,” the Managing Director at Aquaterra Energy James Larnder said.

To contact the author, email bojan.lepic@rigzone.com

DEEP DIVE
Our smushed-faced dogs are quietly suffering for us
A century of inbreeding is destroying flat-faced canines like bulldogs. Is it time to stop breeding them?

By MATTHEW ROZSA
SALON
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 26, 2021

Pug (Getty Images/mlorenzphotography)


Why do humans love dogs with smushed faces? Indeed, some of the most popular purebred dogs are those with noses that look as though they were pressed up against glass in utero: Pugs, English bulldogs, French bulldogs, and Boston terriers all fall into these categories. The technical term for these types of smushed-face dogs is "brachycephalic." (The root brachy- means "short," while cephalic means "of the head.") Perhaps humans love them because, with their snouts squished toward their skulls until their faces are flat, brachycephalic dogs are unbearably adorable. Their big, round eyes seem friendly, curious and kind; their wrinkled visages convey a delightful spectrum of moods, from grumpy to overjoyed; and when their tongues stick out of their mouths, as often happens, they look like they're blowing raspberries.

"I think there's a good reason to believe that one of the things we like about a shorter-nosed dog is that they more resemble a human primate face," Alexandra Horowitz, a cognitive scientist and the author of "Our Dogs, Ourselves," said during an interview last year with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "We need to acknowledge that it's gone too far."

Appearances can be deceiving, however. While brachycephalic dogs may seem to lead the lives of happy cartoon characters, their actual day-to-day lives can be full of discomfort — and often worse. From illnesses to genetic diseases, brachycephalic dogs not only have problems — their problems are getting worse. That's because as time has passed, such breeds are becoming more inbred than they were 100 years ago — which, for some dog lovers and vets, raises ethical questions about continuing to breed them. Indeed, humans may be dogs' best friend, but in our quest to breed more best friends we may have inadvertently hurt the ones we claim to love.

What it's like being a brachycephalic dog

It starts with the elimination of the snout; though aesthetically pleasing to breeders and owners, this anatomical alteration forces the dog to breathe through nasal passages that are simply too small.

"We might imagine when we have a cold and it's harder to breath and we tend to snore a lot," Erica Feuerbacher, an associate professor at Virginia Tech's Department of Animal and Poultry Science, wrote to Salon. "That could be what it might be like for these dogs."

It is an affliction that may literally be unimaginable for humans. Humans are occasionally born with brachycephaly, though their symptoms are not the same as it is for these dogs. Molly H. Sumridge, an instructor of anthrozoology at Carroll College, noted to Salon that humans with brachycephaly usually do not have the extreme symptoms intentionally bred into many dogs. "In humans, this is corrected in infants through the use of a cranial reforming helmet," Sumridge told Salon.

"Due to malformation of the skull and muzzle, a lot of brachycephalic dogs have stenotic nares [a condition caused by malformed nasal cartilage that strains the larynx], bulging eyes and deep nasal skin folds," Marjan van Hagen, a professor of animal behavior at Utrecht University, told Salon by email. This means that many of the animals are constantly experiencing shortness of breath, which "has a major impact on their day-to-day lives, as they have to gasp for air with every breath they take." They also may painful eye disorders because of their malformed sockets; pugs, for instance, are particularly prone to ocular proptosis, a condition in which their eyes pop out of their skulls.

That is not all. The list of diseases related to being brachycephalic is long, and "continues to grow" as we study them, Van Hagen says. Van Hagen can attest to dogs with abnormalities in their inner-ear structures and tear ducts, having accumulations of cerebrospinal fluid in the spinal cord and craniums too small for a dog's cerebellum (which helps control muscle activity). Even the jaws that make English bulldogs seem simultaneously ferocious and silly are often, in fact, a source of pain: brachycephalic dogs can have crowding of teeth because there is not enough space in their jaws, resulting in inflammation.

There is also a good reason why bulldogs like Uga, the famous mascot for the University of Georgia, need to be constantly air conditioned if they stay in the sun for too long.

"Their brachycephaly also contributes to them not being able to thermoregulate as well and they can overheat easily, again meaning that they are limited in what activities and in what conditions they can participate," Feuerbacher explained. She also mentioned it is common for English and French bulldog puppies to need to be delivered through C-sections, which affects the mother's welfare.

Smaller brachycephalic dogs are also prone to a condition known as hanging tongue syndrome. When their tongues are too large, they're missing teeth or they have an abnormal jaw bone, the floppy pink muscular organ will constantly stick out or droop down from their mouths. While this may appear cute, it can be very uncomfortable for the dogs. If they are not able to pull their tongue into their mouth enough to keep it moist, it can dry out, crack, blister and get infected. Imagine the feeling of having uncomfortable chapped lips but on your tongue.

The inter-canine language barrier

Smushed-face dogs may also struggle to have conversations with their canine companions.

"Brachycephalic deformities can also inhibit a dog's ability to effectively communicate with other dogs through facial body language," Sumridge told Salon. In other words, because their facial structure appears odder to other dogs, they are inhibited in their ability to communicate.

If it is so difficult for many of these dogs to survive, "talk" and in some cases even to reproduce, how do they exist at all? Surprisingly, they have been around for a while — albeit in healthier form.

"The origins of brachycephalic dogs depend on what characteristic you're looking to measure," Sumridge explained. Pugs, Shih Tzus and Pekingese dogs are very ancient, for example, but the extreme nature of their current flat faces are more recent.

"The breeding for flatter faces seems to have increased mostly in the last 50-100 years to accentuate the 'baby face' that many owners love and are attracted to," Sumridge told Salon.

Modern dog breeds were created in the 19th century, as the concept of "purebreds" became fashionable among Victorian Europeans. As with so many things, this phenomenon can be linked to racism, specifically the eugenics movements which held that knowledge about genetics could be manipulated to create "perfect" specimens in the human and animal world.

Even if purebred brachycephalic dogs did not have this uncomfortable history, there would still be considerable ethical concerns about continuing to breed them.

"Veterinarians all over the world argue that there is widespread evidence of a link between extreme brachycephalic phenotypes and chronic disease, which compromises canine welfare," van Hagen said. "The selection of dogs with progressively shorter and wider skulls has reached physiological limits. To continue breeding them in this way, with this knowledge, therefore can be considered unethical."

Feuerbacher noted that it is not simply brachycephalic breeds who have congenital health issues. A number of purebred dogs have health problems because of inbreeding, such as German shepherds who are bred to have increasingly sloped backs and therefore develop back, hip and leg problems.

"I think we have a responsibility to our animals to breed them to be as healthy as we can, rather than give in solely to our desire for certain aesthetics," Feuerbacher wrote. "We can certainly select for different aesthetics, but if we keep in mind the welfare of the animal when we are making these selection decisions, hopefully we'll find a balance and not select for extreme characteristics that can negatively impact the animal."

The solution, experts agree, is to discourage overbreeding. It is possible for dogs to continue to come in a variety of colors, shapes and sizes, and yet still lead healthy lives. The key, experts agree, is to make sure that there is genetic diversity in their lineage. Inbreeding, as the name itself makes clear, is bad.

MATTHEW ROZSA is a staff writer for Salon. He holds an MA in History from Rutgers University-Newark and is ABD in his PhD program in History at Lehigh University. His work has appeared in Mic, Quartz and MSNBC.