It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
This Day in Anarchist History: The Assassination of Colonel Falcón
by subMedia / November 14th, 2024
On this day in Anarchist History, November 14 1909, we remember young Simón Radowitzky and his assassination of Colonol Falcón, the head of the federal police in Argentina.
Colonel Falcón rose through the ranks of the military by conducting genocide and enslaving Mapuche and other Indigenous People in Patagonia and brought those same skills to Buenos Aires where he brutally repressed anarchists.
After assassinating Falcón, Radowitzky was tortured and jailed for 22 years but that didn’t stop him from continuing to lead a revolutionary life.
Sea angels and devils: could plankton unlock the secrets of human biology?
Brianna Randall Tue 5 November 2024 THE GUARDIAN Different plankton found off Greenland and California, including Sapphirina and an unidentified siphonophore species related to hydrozoan jellies.Photograph: Leonid Moroz/University of Florida
Off the west coast of Greenland, a 17-metre (56ft) aluminium sailing boat creeps through a narrow, rocky fjord in the Arctic twilight. The research team onboard, still bleary-eyed from the rough nine-day passage across the Labrador Sea, lower nets to collect plankton. This is the first time anyone has sequenced the DNA of the tiny marine creatures that live here.
Watching the nets with palpable excitement is Prof Leonid Moroz, a neuroscientist at the University of Florida’s Whitney marine lab. “This is what the world looked like when life began,” he tells his friend, Peter Molnar, the expedition leader with whom he co-founded the Ocean Genome Atlas Project (Ogap).
Moroz gestures toward Greenland’s glaciated valleys. The rapid warming here is replicating conditions from 600m years ago, when complex life forms began appearing. “We’re sailing through deep biological time right now,” he says.
Moroz and Molnar’s mission is to classify, observe, sequence and map 80% of the sea’s smallest creatures to learn more about ourselves, and the health of the planet.
Plankton and humans do not have much in common at first glance. But studying marine organisms has led to breakthrough understandings about our own brains and bodies. Observing the electrical discharges of jellyfish taught us how to restart the heart. Sea slugs showed us how memories form. Squid taught us how signals spread between different parts of the brain. Horseshoe crabs demonstrated how visual receptors work.
An unusual aspect of Moroz and Molnar’s research trips is that they are unlocking plankton’s secrets onboard sailing boats rather than engine-powered vessels – and they are not alone in this endeavour.
“Large oceanographic vessels can cost $100,000 [£77,000] a day, which can quickly bankrupt your research organisation,” says Chris Bowler, an oceanographer with France’s National Centre for Scientific Research and a scientific adviser to the Tara Ocean Foundation.
For the past two years he has collected plankton samples for the Microbiomes Mission, a research initiative to study micro-organisms in the ocean, onboard a 33-metre schooner. “Working from a sailboat is 50 times cheaper,” Bowler says.
That cost saving also allows researchers the luxury of time, which is imperative for finding the genetic commonalities and patterns that will reveal answers about human health. Bowler says it is important to analyse and observe these microscopic organisms interacting with each other and the world around them. That cannot happen in a lab back on land because the organisms are too fragile.
Low-carbon, readily available and easier to manoeuvre near to shore, sailing boats also “don’t vibrate, so you can do really precise work aboard”, says Molnar, who has captained Ogap voyages over more than 9,000 nautical miles.
The reason that microscopic marine life can teach us about our own development is convergent evolution. This is when unrelated organisms arrive at the same solution to a problem, such as how birds, beetles, butterflies and bats all adapted to fly, but did so at different times and in slightly different ways. Overlapping solutions provide common building blocks for everything from how to fold a protein to how to form a brain.
“Every organism that lives here today is a logbook of every single adaptation that made it successful,” Moroz says. “The brain is one of the most complicated structures in the universe. Yet 70% of our knowledge about how the brain works is thanks to marine creatures. Without them, many of today’s medicines would simply not exist.”
The brain is one of the universe’s most complicated structures. Yet 70% of our knowledge about how it works is thanks to marine creatures
Leonid Moroz
The reason he studies plankton is because their “logbook” is the longest – some single-celled marine organisms have been around for more than 3bn years. That means they have more tricks up their metaphorical sleeves than we do.
“Some groups of these marine species do not age, never develop cancers and they can fully regenerate when damaged. They are able to perform many tasks better than us,” Moroz says.
One way to take human medicine to the next level is to take our cues from these organisms. But first, we have to identify them. Ogap’s lofty mission would not have been possible 10 years ago; rapid technological advances have reduced the size of equipment, while satellite communications and AI have shrunk the timeframe for analysing results from months to minutes.
In Greenland, for example, Ogap kept marine organisms alive for several days on their sailing boat while sequencing their DNA during different stages of life. “We were able to watch them reproduce, decay, then repair themselves, even die, all while taking high-resolution video,” Molnar says.
The team then uploaded the data via Starlink to universities where scientists used AI to look for pattern recognition in the organisms’ DNA. “Literally within an hour, we would have results back on the sailboat,” Molnar says. “This type of work was simply science fiction 10 years ago.”
While the technology is new, using sailing boats to explore is a millennia-old human endeavour.
“There’s a long history of sailing to answer scientific questions,” says David Conover, the owner of ArcticEarth, the sailing boat Ogap used for its Greenland expedition. From Captain Cook’s anthropological discoveries in the Pacific to Darwin’s groundbreaking observations on natural selection onboard the Beagle, sailing boats have afforded many types of researchers the luxury of getting to far-flung parts of the world to deeply engage with their surroundings.
“The more time you can afford to be at sea, the more open you are to discovery,” Conover says.
The key now is to observe the cornucopia of unknown marine organisms before they disappear for ever. “By the time you finish your coffee tomorrow morning, between 20 and 100 species will have vanished for ever, including the wonderful solutions they were offered by nature, which is a huge loss for biomedical science,” Moroz says.
To continue documenting the wonders of tiny single-celled sea creatures, Ogap will head next to Patagonia, at the tip of South America. Eventually, Ogap’s genomic atlas will be digitised and made freely available, providing a baseline of marine biodiversity as well as valuable insights for the development of new medicines.
“Every day is a surprise,” Moroz says. “That is the finest part of all of these voyages – the level of excitement, of discovery. It’s so rich. It’s nonstop.”
Saturday, October 12, 2024
Telescopes can help bring renewable energy to isolated Chilean communities
Utrecht University
Just published research in Nature Sustainability shows that building a renewable energy system for a telescope in Chile’s isolated Atacama Desert could also cover 66% of a nearby community’s energy needs, giving hope for win-win development around other remote infrastructure projects.
Integrating renewable energy sources into the design of the AtLAST telescope would introduce the astronomical community on the Chajnantor plateau and the nearby residential areas to more sustainable energy systems. This integration would reduce local reliance on fossil fuels and provide renewable energy.
The research shows that replicating similar energy systems at nearby telescopes could reduce fossil fuel-based energy generation by 30GWh annually, cutting emissions by 18-24 kilotonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent while contributing to access to affordable renewable energy for surrounding communities.
Remote astronomical facilities
Home to observatories like the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment (APEX) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), the Chajnantor plateau in the Atacama Desert, Chile is a global astronomical prime spot. Due to their remoteness, astronomical facilities are often disconnected from the national electricity grid and rely on diesel and gas generators to supply their power-intensive operations.
Atacama Desert a prime location for solar energy
The Atacama Desert is also a prime location for solar energy projects, holding the highest levels of solar irradiation globally. However, although the area hosts 85% of Chile’s solar energy developments, Atacameños pay more for their energy than the capital region. For example, the national electricity grid ends 100km from San Pedro de Atacama, which besides Patagonia is one of the most prominent tourist destinations in Chile. The town and its surrounding areas operated solely diesel and natural gas generators until 2022 and suffer frequent power outages. Most renewable energy generated in the region is used to power lithium mines and exported to other provinces.
The researchers identified the feasibility of using surplus energy from the AtLAST telescope’s energy system to supply San Pedro de Atacama. “A solar renewable energy system sized to supply the telescope could cover 66% of the electricity demand of San Pedro de Atacama without additional capacities in PV or battery,” says co-author Luis Ramirez Camargo, an assistant professor at Utrecht University’s Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development.
Energy communities
This idea is based on “energy communities”, a union of public, private and commercial entities that jointly invest in or share energy infrastructure or provide energy services, and builds on open and fair decision-making.
The researchers created spaces where local residents and other affected parties could share their take on the challenges and opportunities for a more sustainable energy system in the San Pedro de Atacama area. “Allowing those who are truly affected to participate in the discussion and be able to influence decision-making is essential to arrive at just, locally applicable solutions for the energy transition,” says lead author Guillermo Valenzuela Venegas, a researcher at the University of Oslo.
“Distributing benefits to multiple stakeholders through an energy community can lead to a more socially accepted and just energy transition,” says Ramirez Camargo. “Our research shows that astronomy can lead by example in the urgent transition to an equitable net-zero world, keeping our planet habitable and ensuring no one is left behind”.
A renewable and socially accepted energy system for astronomical telescopes
Article Publication Date
11-Oct-2024
Saturday, September 21, 2024
ALL CAPITALI$M IS STATE CAPITALI$M
US to award $3 billion to 25 projects for battery manufacturing sector
Reuters | September 20, 2024 | LMA material is expected to enable improved energy density, safety, and faster charging for advanced batteries. (Source: Albemarle)
The US Energy Department said Friday it plans to award $3 billion to 25 battery manufacturing sector projects in 14 states as the Biden administration works to shift the supply chain away from China.
The projects will increase domestic production of advanced batteries and battery materials and follows the adoption of US EV tax credit rules to shift battery production and critical minerals away from China.
The awards fund battery-grade processed critical minerals, components, battery manufacturing, and recycling, and will generate $16 billion in total investment for the projects and support 12,000 production and construction jobs, the department said.
“Mineral security is essential for climate security,” said White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi. “This sets us up to lead on the next generation of battery technologies – from solid state to other new chemistries.”
Albemarle is set to receive $67 million for a project in North Carolina to produce commercial quantities of anode material for next-generation lithium-ion batteries, while Honeywell is set to receive $126.6 million to build a commercial-scale facility in Louisiana to produce a key electrolyte salt needed for lithium batteries.
DOE plans to award Dow $100 million to produce battery-grade carbonate solvents for lithium-ion battery electrolytes, while Clarios Circular Solutions, which is partnering with SK ON and Cosmo Chemical, is set to receive $150 million for a project in South Carolina to recycle lithium-ion battery production scrap materials from SK ON, the battery unit of SK Innovation.
Currently most US production scrap is exported by material traders to be processed, mostly in China, DOE said.
DOE plans a $225 million award for production of lithium carbonate by SWA Lithium, jointly owned by Standard Lithium and Equinor, using direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology. DOE also plans to award $225 million to TerraVolta Resources to produce lithium from brine using DLE.
Revex Technologies, a partnership co-founded by Lundin Mining, is set to receive $145 million for three Michigan facilities to turn waste from the only operating US primary nickel mine to yield domestic nickel production for at least 462,000 EV batteries yearly.
DOE plans to award $166 million to South32 Hermosa in Patagonia, Arizona for the mining of high purity manganese sulfate monohydrate (HPMSM) for electric vehicle battery chemistries. Currently over 96% of HPMSM is made in China.
DOE also plans to award $166.1 million for another HPMSM project in Louisiana for Element 25 from manganese ore sourced from an Element 25 mine in Western Australia.
Group14 Technologies is to receive $200 million to develop a US-based silane manufacturing plant in Moses Lake, Washington. The largest source of silane today is China, a material needed for silicon batteries.
Birla Carbon is set to receive $150 million for next-generation synthetic graphite that will not use material from China.
DOE previously awarded $1.82 billion to 14 projects. DOE said the projects selected must complete negotiations and an environmental review before they are awarded.
(By David Shepardson; Editing by Stephen Coates)
South32’s Arizona manganese plant tapped for $166m US government grant
Staff Writer | September 20, 2024 | The Hermosa project in Arizona. (Image courtesy of South32.)
South32’s (LSE: S32; ASX: S32) Hermosa project in Arizona has been tapped for a US government grant of up to $166 million. This potential funding is part of the US Energy Department’s plans to invest $3 billion into the domestic battery manufacturing sector announced Friday.
Located in the Patagonia Mountains, about 80 km southeast of Tucson, the Hermosa project is targeted to produce two federally designated critical minerals — zinc and manganese — from the Taylor sulphide and Clark oxide deposits, respectively.
The Taylor deposit represents the first phase of the project, targeting first production in fiscal 2027. It has the potential to become one of the world’s largest, lowest-cost zinc producers, with a nameplate capacity of 4.3 million tonnes annually and unit costs of $86/tonne of ore processed, as shown in its feasibility study. Its initial mine life is estimated at 28 years.
Following the delivery of the feasibility study, the board of South32 approved an investment of $2.16 billion to fund the construction of key infrastructure for the zinc mine, which had already begun last year.
According to South32, the infrastructure at the zinc mine would support future potential development of other deposits at the site, including the battery-grade manganese deposit at Clark, which is subject to further study. Manganese facility
The DOE funding, once negotiated and secured, would provide 30% of the cost of its proposed commercial-scale manganese production facility, the Australian miner said in a press release on Friday.
While the exact location of the facility is yet to be determined, it will be in southern Arizona, South32 said. Construction for the manganese decline to enable bulk sampling through a demonstration plant and further underground exploration are continuing on schedule, with access targeted for the end of 2025.
The funding follows a $20 million award to the Hermosa project earlier this year from the Department of Defense Production Act Investment (DPAI) program to help accelerate the domestic production of battery-grade manganese.
“This project has the potential to provide a reliable, lower carbon and cost-effective domestic option for manganese products within the electric vehicle battery supply chain that currently relies entirely on foreign imports,” Pat Risner, president of South32 Hermosa said in the statement.
South32 says Hermosa could be scaled up as the only fully integrated source of battery-grade manganese for EV battery chemistries sufficient to supply the emerging North American market. Based on a third-party life cycle assessment, production from its deposit at Hermosa is projected to be the lowest carbon impact project in manganese chemicals in North America. The US has not mined any manganese since the 1970s, and more than 95% of the current production of battery-grade manganese is currently in China, according to company estimates.
US closer to greenlighting ioneer’s Nevada lithium mine
The Rhyolite Ridge lithium-boron project in Nevada. (Image courtesy of ioneer.)
The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) cleared on Thursday one of the final regulatory hurdles for ioneer’s (ASX: INR) Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada, a project that would be a key supplier of the electric vehicle battery metal to the local auto industry.
The proposed lithium mine, about 225 miles (362 km) north of Las Vegas, contains one of the largest sources of lithium in North America. It could produce enough of the metal to power nearly 370,000 electric vehicles per year.
The agency’s decision follows a review process spanning over more than six years, and is part of Washington’s ongoing efforts to strengthen domestic critical minerals production and counteract China’s dominance of battery mentals. If granted final approval, Rhyolite Ridge would be the first lithium project permitted by the Joe Biden administration.
Shares in ioneer soared on the news, closing more than 15% higher to A$0.19 each on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX). This leaves the company with a market capitalization of A$432.42 million ($294m).
The Rhyolite Ridge asset is also home to a rare flower, which has given conservation groups arguments to oppose the project, highlighting the complexity of trying to balance the protection of biodiversity and the need for metals to reduce the globe’s emissions.
Rhyolite Ridge is the only known lithium-boron deposit in North America and one of only two known such deposits in the world.
Once it is published in the Federal Register, the public will have 30 days to submit comments. After the review period, the BLM will publish a final environment impact analysis, with a final decision — essentially a mining permit — to be issued within 30 days after that.
The Rhyolite Ridge lithium project “represents another step by the Biden-Harris administration to support the responsible, domestic development of critical minerals to power the clean energy economy,” the BLM said in statement.
Laura Daniel-Davis, Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior, noted the proposed mine exemplifies what can be achieved when industry, states, tribes, and stakeholders collaborate to ensure prompt consideration and adaptation of projects that meet the US energy needs while respecting cultural and environmentally sensitive areas.
Breaking away from imports
Lithium is one of 50 minerals identified as critical by the U.S. Geological Survey, which considers importance of the mineral to the country’s economy and national security and the vulnerability of its supply chains. Lithium batteries are used extensively in the growing market for portable electronic devices, vehicles, and grid storage applications.
The US government has already backed another lithium mine in Nevada. Lithium Americas’ (TSX: LAC) (NYSE: LAC) Thacker Pass project is targeting 80,000 tonnes per annum of battery-quality lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) production capacity in two phases of 40,000 tonnes. Phase 1 production is expected to commence in the second half of 2026. The project is expected to create 1,000 jobs during construction and 500 jobs during operations.
US mining policy is currently administered through multiple agencies, including the BLM, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Thursday, September 19, 2024
A Refreshing Conversation About Climate Change
The realities of global warning are becoming increasingly dismal. But in her latest book 'What If We Get It Right?' Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson explains that we already have the answers we need.
Imagine this: No wildfires. Or 100-year-hurricanes or droughts or floods every year. Our coral reefs are vibrant; the microplastics are gone. There is sustainable public transportation, clean energy, and lush landscapes.
With the facts of climate change—an ever-warming world, climate-destroyed communities, rapidly-dwindling natural resources—it can be hard to imagine. Or it feels just that, imaginary. And it’s enough to make taking any meaningful action to “save the planet” so lofty and vast, it can feel pointless.
Talk to Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, Ph.D., a marine biologist and climate activist, and a different story emerges. She is the founder of the Urban Ocean Lab, an organization that works to help plan for the future of coastal cities, and has worked with everyone from Patagonia to the U.S. government to develop clean ocean policies. While Dr. Johnson doesn’t belittle the big problems climate change presents, she also believes them to be solvable.
It’s a topic Dr. Johnson explores in her recently published book, What If We Get It Right? Here, she shares that while a utopian world may not be the future, the apocalyptic visions we're all prophesying aren’t either.
Leah Thomas: What drew you to the world of marine biology and environmentalism?
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson: From a very young age, what drew me to it is love. I fell in love with nature—sea urchins, worms, butterflies, reef fish, stars, sunshowers, forests, moss. Once I learned that the species and ecosystems I loved were threatened, I became determined to do what I could to protect and restore nature.
Marine biologist was my first dream job, then park ranger, and later I wanted to be an environmental lawyer. Now I do ocean climate policy work for coastal cities through my think tank, Urban Ocean Lab, and also do what I can to welcome others into pro-nature actions and furthering climate solutions.
Stay In The Know
Marie Claire email subscribers get intel on fashion and beauty trends, hot-off-the-press celebrity news, and more. Sign up here.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.
LT: Are there some positive ways you've seen the environmental movement shift over the decades?
AEJ: It’s great how multigenerational the environmental movement has become. Although I’d love to see more cross-generation collaboration, the fact that we are three (maybe four) generations deep holds heaps of potential.
I’m also starting to finally see the environmental movement become more prominent in mainstream pop culture. Better late than never, the status quo has shifted toward sustainability and climate action being a no-brainer. Like, of course we should all be helping to safeguard life on this rad, unique planet.
LT: Speaking of generations, an increasing number of young people are experiencing anxiety around the future of the planet. What would you say to someone who feels apathy towards action?
AEJ: I would say, don’t worry about staying hopeful. Instead, focus on being useful, and advancing solutions. Hope is actually not a prerequisite for action.
And while young people may feel generally misunderstood by older generations, I'd encourage them to seek out those older people who do want to understand them, and more importantly, who are open to mentorship. This can work both ways— each generation has a lot to learn from the others.
Find your people. Join something. Getting involved in climate solutions is not about quitting your job or starting your own nonprofit. It’s about finding your role, putting your skills, resources and magic to its best use— at home, at work, and as a citizen. One simple way I like to envision that is through what I call my climate action Venn diagram. It's where we each find our way to the intersection of three questions: What are you good at? What work needs doing? What brings you joy?
(Image credit: Getty Images)
LT: You’ve done a lot to spark conversations around climate change, including with your recent book What If We Get It Right? What inspired you to tell this story?
AEJ: Nature, biophilia, my love of and reverence for wonders of biodiversity and ecosystems; they're all an endless source of inspiration. I wanted to offer something toward the next shift I’d like to see in the environmental movement, which is toward a relentless focus on solutions, on imagining and building the future we want to see, instead of focusing on apocalyptic visions of the future we want to avoid.
I think having more and more answers to this “what if we get it right?” question is a critical component in inspiring all of us to charge ahead with the transformation that is needed, from an extractive economy and society to a regenerative one.
LT: The book has dozens of contributors from different walks of life—from activists to scientists to corporate sustainability leaders. Why was it important for you to include such a broad range of voices?
AEJ: As I put it in the book’s introduction, “If ever there were a moment for collective wisdom, this is it. All hands (and minds and hearts) on deck.” Climate change is the gnarliest, most gargantuan problem humanity has ever faced. We need hundreds of solutions. Through interviewing a wide variety of experts making major moves, people who have helped me see the ways forward, I want to highlight the breadth of the solutions needed.
I also want to be very clear that we already have most of the solutions we need—from restoring ecosystems, to green buildings, to public transit, to reducing food waste, to renewable energy. We just need to implement them...quickly!
(Image credit: Gilberto Tadday)
LT: You've helpfully included a playlist for the readers.
AEJ: The very last page in the book is my Anti-Apocalypse Mixtape. I probably spent 80-plus hours crafting it over the last six months, and listened to it on repeat while making my final edits. These aren’t songs written about climate, but ones I have repurposed because of the lyrics or energy they offer—anthems for victory, love songs to Earth, tunes for tenacity, and sexy implementation vibes.
LT: One argument against “climate optimism” is that it ignores the "reality" of the state of the world. Can you be a realist and a climate optimist at the same time, and if so, how do you balance the two?
AEJ: Personally, I’m not an optimist. I’m a scientist, a realist. The reality is that while the situation is dire, and the stakes are sky high, we also know that there are innumerable possible futures. So, while I don’t embody the optimistic expectation that our story on this planet has a happy ending, every day I wake up, as I think more and more of us wake up, and make increasingly devoted contributions to shaping the best possible climate future. And you know what? Even regardless of the outcome (which we can’t control), it will feel so incredibly good to have been part of the effort (which we can). Truly, every tenth of a degree of warming we can prevent, every centimeter of sea level rise we avoid, every bit of nature we protect and restore, really matters.
This story appears in the 2024 Changemakers Issue of Marie Claire.
A unique supply agreement has been set for the Nordic energy company Gasum to provide Hapag-Lloyd with bio-LNG to fuel containerships sailing between Singapore and Rotterdam in 2025 and 2026. The supply that will meet Hapag’s obligation under its contract with the cargo owners project, ZEMBA, is also seen as a key stepping stone toward the carrier’s goal to be net-zero carbon by 2045.
Bio-LNG is growing in favor among the shipping industry as an alternative that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 90 percent. Hapag will have one of the first large-scale supply contracts while Maersk also recently said it is also working on securing offtake agreements for liquified bio-methane (bio-LNG) as part of its fleet modernization program to ensure that its planned new dual-fuel gas vessels provide greenhouse gas emissions reductions in this decade. Bio-LNG is gaining due to the concerns for supply and cost of methanol as a marine fuel.
Hapag-Lloyd was announced in April 2024 as the winner of the first buyers’ agreement from ZEMBA (Zero Emission Maritime Buyers Alliance). The first-of-its-kind buyers alliance unites major shippers including Amazon, Patagonia, Bauhaus, New Balance, Nike, REI, and others which collectively agreed to purchase over one billion TEU miles on the route between Singapore and Rotterdam in 2025 and 2026. Hapag as the winner of the tender has agreed to provide an independently certified and exclusive waste-based biomethane service that can achieve at least a 90 percent reduction in greenhouse gases on a lifecycle basis relative to fossil fuel-powered shipping.
ZEMBA’s concept was by pooling demand they believe they can spur the fuel transition in shipping. Carriers bid for the contract assured of volumes and demand to help support the cost of the effort.
Gasum will bunker Hapag-Lloyd’s containerships with a total amount of 20,000 mt of bio-LNG during 2025-2026. The vessel will be operating on the Singapore-Rotterdam route effectively launching a long-distance green corridor.
“This agreement demonstrates that the green transition in the maritime transport sector is picking up speed”, said Jacob Granqvist, VP of Maritime for Gasum. “We need all-hands-on-deck to drive the effort, and using bio-LNG to fuel maritime transports is an effective way to reduce emissions already today, rather than in a distant future.”
Gasum’s liquefied biomethane (bio-LNG) fuel is produced from waste feedstocks such as biowaste, sewage sludge, manure, and other industrial and agricultural side streams. On average, it will provide 90 percent lower emissions when compared with fossil fuel and the company highlights it can be used in all the same applications as natural gas, including as a road and maritime transport fuel and as energy for industry. The residual solids and liquids created in the biogas production process are also further processed and used as, for example, fertilizers in agriculture or raw material in industrial processes.
Gasum produces biogas in its own 17 biogas plants in Finland and Sweden and has supply contracts from other partners. The company says its goal is to offer seven TWh of renewable gas by 2027, including biomethane and e-methane. Achieving this goal would result in a combined CO2 reduction of 1.8 million tonnes per year.
Wednesday, July 24, 2024
Explained: Extreme cold in Argentina’s Patagonia region
Fernando Mateos Frühbeck
DW
July 22, 2024
While scientists can explain why Patagonia had a freak freeze in July, they say it's harder to pin it on climate change, at this time, without more data.
The lucky ones: Other sheep were buried in the snow
Ministerio de Defensa de Argentina
When Patagonia was hit by a wave of unusual, extreme weather, it recorded temperatures as low as minus 15 degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit). It is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, but those temperatures were beyond normal.
Ducks froze to death in ponds, sheep were stuck in piles of snow, and military personnel transported food to affected areas for people and livestock.
"This is an unusual phenomenon," said Raúl Cordero, a climatologist at the University of Santiago de Chile. But he added it was not the first of the season and "may not be the last."
What's the origin of the extreme cold in Patagonia?
The low temperatures in Patagonia and the Southern Cone of Latin America (Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay and southern Brazil) are due to the arrival of cold air from Antarctica.
High pressure at the southern tip of the continent pulled polar air northwards. That happens when the polar vortex — a belt of strong winds that keeps cold air over the South Pole — is weak.
"The unusual weakness of the Antarctic polar vortex increases the likelihood of polar air masses escaping to inhabited areas in the southern hemisphere. In other words, the likelihood of cold waves increases," said Cordero.
The cold wave —the opposite of a heat wave — of July 2024 was the second time in three months that that had happened in the region.
What are the implications for global temperatures?
Cordero said the cold snaps in Patagonia are unlikely to affect the global climate. Rather, he said, it would be the other way around: It will be changes in the global climate that contributed to a weak Antarctic polar vortex, resulting in the cold waves in the Latin America's Southern Cone.
"While these low temperatures were recorded in populated areas of the Southern Cone, the highest temperatures ever observed were recorded in the upper Antarctic atmosphere," said Cordero.
Australia and New Zealand were also likely to be affected by extreme cold snaps, he said. And, indeed, a weather station in Queensland, Australia, recorded the coldest night in 120 years on July 18, 2024.
But the researcher said the cold wave could have a small positive impact at a more local level.
Patagonia's icefields cover more than 10,000 square kilometers (3,861 square miles) on the border between Chile and Argentina. They "lose on average between 10 billion and 15 billion tons of ice every year. Although recent cold spells will not change this trend, they may at least make this year's balance less negative," said Cordero. Is climate change behind the extreme cold?
Some research focused on the Northern Hemisphere indicates that such cold waves may be due to climate change.
A 2012 study by the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Massachusetts, US, suggested that accelerated Arctic warming had affected air streams that controlled the climate. That would increase the likelihood of extreme events in mid-latitudes, causing or contributing to droughts, floods, cold and heat waves.
Another study published by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2021 suggested that Arctic warming had contributed to the frequency of severe winters in the US.
The researchers found that changes in the Arctic could change the stratospheric polar vortex, causing very cold air to move southward, leading to extreme cold waves. Cold waves and climate change: Not enough scientific proof
This evidence is a matter of debate, however, and part of the scientific community disagrees.
"I don't think Arctic warming has a big role in the cold extremes over midlatitudes. Our work has shown these are likely explained by natural variability and have occurred despite, rather than because of, global warming," said James Screen, Professor of Climatology at the University of Exeter, and contributor to the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
"In most parts of the world, the warming effects of climate change will exceed any potential cooling effect from shifting weather patterns due to Arctic warming," said Screen.
Cordero agrees that "[these] cold waves will not change the warming trend in Patagonia, which is as evident as in the rest of the world." Extreme cold does not counter global heating
Despite a scientific consensus on global heating, such cold episodes have been used by climate deniers to defend their positions.
"[They] are confusing short-term variations in weather with long-term variations in climate," said Screen. "A single cold extreme is a weather phenomenon."
But when we look at how cold extremes have changed over multiple decades, he said, they have become less frequent and less severe globally.
"Global warming is an upward trend in the average global temperature. A few cold snaps, however extreme, are not going to change this trend," said Cordero.
Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany
Sources:
Evidence linking Arctic amplification to extreme weather in mid-latitudes; published by Jennifer A. Francis, Stephen J. Vavrus in the journal Geophysical Research Letters (March 2012) https://doi.org/10.1029/2012GL051000
Linking Arctic variability and change with extreme winter weather in the United States; published by Judah Cohen et al. in the journal Science (September 2021) https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi9167
Fernando Mateos Frühbeck Fernando is a Spanish journalist. He's worked in radio, television, print and documentary film.
Friday, July 05, 2024
How Does Capitalism Respond to Pollution and Climate Change? “Greenwashing”
Predatory capitalists in the fashion industry utilize greenwashing to fool their customers and deceive the public
Greenwashing is nothing new, it has been around a long time along with public concerns over climate change and environmental impacts affecting consumer decisions about purchasing products. Consumer education, public advocacy, union organizing, political activism, strict regulation, responsible investing (Economic, Social and Governance — ESG) and non-profit consumer options, are the best and most effective means of dealing with capitalist greenwashing and other means of deceptive advertising and marketing techniques.
For decades Wall Street investors, capitalists and corporate managers have been agonizing over the best way for responding to public outcry about environmental degradation and how consumer products contribute to atmospheric and environmental destruction. However, as consumers and activists are beginning to realize there are means and ways to combat the use of greenwashing to cover up the damage done by unscrupulous business owners and capitalists. Some options include organizing workers for collective bargaining in the fashion industry, especially in underdeveloped countries where workers are underpaid and exploited for their cheap labor.
Other options include demanding more government action from federal and state agencies. Also aware consumers can explore alternatives for traditional fashion retail merchandising from consumer cooperative organizations and other nonprofit groups providing retail fashion alternatives.
There is also greater consumer demand for business practices in the production of goods and services for sale to the public that strictly adhere to standards for responsible Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. Corporate policies that have an impact regarding ESG practices for responsible manufacturing and production must be strictly observed and regulated.
The fashion industry is no exception to efforts by dishonest corporate capitalists to fool consumers into believing that the products they buy from big corporations, especially those who produce and manufacture clothing in sub-developed countries, do not have a negative impact on the environment and climate change. We know from experience and news reports that clothing manufactured in underdeveloped countries, which are nonunion and have fewer rules and regulations regarding environmental protection, are much more likely to hurt the environment and negatively affect climate change than clothing manufactured in countries with stricter laws affecting the environment.
In recent decades fashion marketing has put greater emphasis on higher profit margins derived from mass production, “fast fashion”, and higher volume sales which promote low prices to stimulate higher demand for mass produced cheaper clothing. Since “fast fashion” often leads to detrimental impact on the environment as well as eroding the economic welfare of cheap, exploited labor, corporate capitalists are anxious to disguise the harmful effects of mass output and cheap labor on the environment.
Many fashion companies utilize deceptive advertising techniques to disguise the harm to the environment that comes with consumer demand for cheaper products and greater variety. Since there is no accountability for dishonest claims about fashion’s harmful impact on the environment, corporate capitalists can lie, cheat and otherwise exploit consumer demand for greater adherence to environmental protections.
There are limits as to how far the capitalist fashion industry can go in using “greenwashing” as an effective technique in gaining consumer confidence that no harm will come to the environment if they buy from fashionista capitalists. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has the most responsibility to enforce laws regarding deceptive consumer marketing and advertising claims.
Over the last few years the FTC has done little to effectively regulate the use of greenwashing by fashion manufacturers. Rules regarding deceptive and misleading advertising techniques have not been updated to reflect changes in marketing techniques to more effectively attract consumers who buy products believing there is little or no negative impact to the environment.
Recently, however, the number of complaints to the FTC about greenwashing by clothing manufacturers, the use of clever and deceptive marketing techniques to fool customers that their purchase of fashion merchandise will not harm the environment, has increased significantly. In response the FTC has begun to review and improve the regulatory process in such a way that more effectively limits and even eliminates the use of greenwashing by unscrupulous clothing manufacturers.
Another aspect of the “fast fashion” industry that fashionista capitalists have been hiding by greenwashing is the damage done to the environment and global warming by the use of unscrupulous labor exploitation and practices, especially the prevalence of sweatshops in underdeveloped and even more advanced industrial nations. The environmental damage from sweatshops and an impoverished, exploited labor force has a massive detrimental impact on local economic and natural resources necessary to sustain healthy communities.
The only way to counter the use of greenwashing to cover-up sweatshops and exploitation of cheap labor is emphasis on union organizing and collective bargaining.
In the United States more than a century ago the prevalence of sweatshops in American cities led to numerous outbreaks of environmental degradation as well as severe numbers of sickness and disease among workers and their families, especially tuberculosis. With unscrupulous owners of garment factories and the exploitation of cheap immigrant labor, there seemed to be no end of detriment to the environment from the manufacture of textiles and related clothing products.
As sweatshops became more prevalent and the hardship for workers in the garment industry were intolerable, the movement to organize workers started early in the last century. Organizations like the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America and the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, led by labor leaders like Sidney Hillman and David Dubinsky, began to organize workers into unions that would protect the right to bargain collectively with employers and ensure effective protections to prevent abuse and exploitation of their employees.
As working conditions and environmental effects of the clothing manufacturing industry in America improved, capitalist owners of big corporations which dominated the fashion marketplace in America, seeking to maximize their profits and returns to investors, began to set their sights on underdeveloped countries with cheap labor and little or no environmental regulation.
These corporate capitalists saw the advantage of exploiting lax regulations and little or no groups to protect employees welfare, health and safety. As a result these owners expanded their manufacturing operations in those countries at the expense of factory production in the US. That is why capitalists resort to greenwashing to cover-up the damage their manufacturing operations in underdeveloped countries does to the environment, especially the impact on climate change.
In addition to supporting union membership and collective bargaining rights in America, environmental activists as well as labor advocates must support the same for workers in underdeveloped countries. The struggle for environmental protection is an international effort, and must support labor rights and protection in those countries where workers were most vulnerable to exploitation at the hands of their capitalist employers.
UNITE HERE is one such union that has taken the lead for social and economic justice in the fashion industry. They are the successor union to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers and the Ladies Garment Workers, which had merged years ago and then were absorbed years ago into UNITE HERE, which aggressively continues the fight for collective bargaining rights and protection for workers in fashion and other industries.
On the political front, activists concerned about the use of greenwashing by capitalist manufacturers and retailers must prevail upon the FTC to do a better job of removing deceptive marketing techniques and advertising from the marketplace. This also entails political pressure on Congress to provide greater support and regulatory powers for the FTC to regulate the marketplace and make sure clothing manufacturers, especially fast fashion capitalists, do not bend the truth and cover-up their lies about the real damage they are doing to the environment and climate change.
Finally, all of us concerned about the environment and climate change must do our part to boycott clothing manufacturers and retailers who do not subscribe to the strictest standards for policies that promote corporate responsibility, especially adherence to ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) standards for production and services sold to the public. There are options and alternatives to support and patronize companies and businesses that are not profit-driven.
One such company is Patagonia, a manufacturer and retailer of outdoor clothing and equipment. Patagonia is a privately-held multi-billion dollar company whose owner decided a few years ago to donate all of his shares to a charitable trust with all profits to be used for donations to groups and organizations for the purpose of supporting environmental protection and limit the damage from climate change. As the owner once said when he set up the Patagonia Foundation, “The Earth Is Now Our Only Shareholder”.
Retail cooperatives are another option available to shareholders concerned about the environment and climate change. One such company is REI, a membership owned consumer cooperative specializing in outdoor equipment and clothing. Like many other consumer and member-driven cooperatives, REI is not for profit as well as very pro-active in supporting and subsidizing action and policies that respect the environment.
Ultimately, it is up to consumers, activists and other concerned citizens to do their part in combating corporate use of greenwashing. Information is the best way to expose deceit and lies perpetrated by corporate capitalists.
Supporting unions and collective bargaining, political pressure on politicians to support anti-greenwashing efforts by the FTC, supporting investing in those companies that adhere to ESG standards for corporate conduct, and patronizing non-profit retailers/manufacturers are all options to oppose greenwashing.
Ultimately we all have to do our part to spread the word to others about the dangers of greenwashing, and the need to promote political and consumer-driven action to stop the threat posed by capitalist greed to the environment.
Ken Bank is a semi-retired business executive, part-time playwright, and freelance writer with masters degrees in business and history. He lives in New Jersey and is active in the local Democratic Party organization in support of progressive policies.
Friday, June 21, 2024
Explainer: Deep-sea mining
With the future of mineral mining on the ocean floor remaining contested and murky, Dialogue Earth digs into the debates
The deep sea is an underwater world scientists are still trying to fathom. It is also a reserve of increasingly sought-after minerals that are critical for modern life, making it a site of major competition for resources. Some governments are gearing up to exploit the seabed, while others want such deep-sea mining halted until its risks to marine life and the environment are better understood.
As the debate escalates, Dialogue Earth breaks down what is known about the uncharted waters of deep-sea mining.
Mining the deep sea involves extracting mineral deposits from seabeds at more than 200 metres below the surface. This area covers around 65% of the planet and harbours a rich diversity of species, many still unknown to science. It encompasses geological features including mountain ranges, plateaus, volcanic peaks, canyons, vast abyssal plains and chasms including the Mariana Trench, which is home to the deepest point of the ocean, at 11,000 metres.
While commercial mining is still a prospect rather than a reality, experimental deep-sea mining has already taken place. The process usually involves deploying seafloor vehicles to dredge or sever seabed formations and scooping or suctioning up mineral-rich deposits to a support vessel, where they can be stored, processed and transported to shore. (Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts & New Zealand Environment Guide. Graphic: Ed Harrison / Dialogue Earth) What are deep-sea miners after?
Would-be miners are targeting nickel, copper, cobalt, manganese, zinc, silver and gold. These are so-called “critical minerals” – metals essential to modern technology and widely used in the manufacture of smartphones, laptops, solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles. Attention is focused on three types of marine mineral deposits: polymetallic nodules found lying on the seafloor; polymetallic sulphides known as “seafloor massive sulphide deposits” that form around active, high-temperature hydrothermal vents; and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts that cover underwater mountains known as seamounts. Graphic: Ed Harrison / Dialogue Earth
Advocates argue that the deep sea could be a reliable, clean and ethical alternative to terrestrial sources. Opponents have environmental concerns and say projections of the need for deep-sea minerals may be wildly optimistic, and that demand can be met by known terrestrial resources and more advanced recycling of metals. How might deep-sea mining affect the ocean?
Scraping the ocean floor to extract resources could destroy deep-sea homes of octopuses, sponges and other species. Mining hydrothermal vents would require removing entire vent structures, which can support thriving animal communities. Exploiting cobalt-rich crusts deposited on seamounts would potentially remove fauna found there and on the seafloor, which could do similar or even more damage to bottom trawling.
Secondary impacts are also possible. Mining would produce sediment plumes, some of which could be toxic and smother animals downstream. Noise and light pollution caused by mining could disrupt deep-sea communities uniquely adapted to high pressures and the lack of sunlight. Deep-sea animal communities are often slow growing and could take decades – even centuries – to recover from disturbance.
Is mining already taking place?
Shallow-water mining for sand, tin and diamonds is already happening around the world. Some deep-sea mining exploration has taken place to scope for mining potential and test equipment, both within areas under national control and in international waters. But mining has yet to be conducted commercially.
Countries have the rights to explore and exploit the natural resources of the seabed and subsoil within their territorial sea and exclusive economic zone (EEZ), which normally extends 200 nautical miles beyond a nation’s territorial sea. Nations can claim rights over even more seabed on the continental shelf under certain circumstances. Norway and the Cook Islands are among the nations actively pursuing mining in the waters under their control.
As for seabeds beyond national jurisdiction, the UN stipulates that they belong to no individual nation and are the “common heritage of mankind”; any activities carried out there must therefore be for “the benefit of mankind”. Full-scale mining in these areas cannot begin until the International Seabed Authority signs off a binding code on how it should be conducted.
What is the International Seabed Authority?
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) is an intergovernmental organisation based in Kingston, Jamaica, that has been tasked with developing a code to regulate the exploitation of minerals in international waters. It was established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and counts all 168 signatories as member states, including the EU.
To date, it has issued 31 contracts for mining exploration in high seas areas totalling more than 1 million square kilometres. Over half of the exploration contracts are for polymetallic nodules in the area between Hawaii, Kiribati, and Mexico in the Pacific Ocean, known as the Clarion-Clipperton Zone (CCZ).
The ISA has since 2014 been working on a code for deep sea mining, and some nations and businesses are putting increasing pressure on the body to finalise these regulations. In 2021, the small Pacific island state of Nauru invoked a never-before-used ISA rule that compels the authority to allow mining to proceed within two years under whatever regulations are in place at the time. The regulations were still far from complete when the two-year rule expired.
Any exploitation license applications submitted under the two-year rule still have to be approved by the ISA, and it is very unlikely this will happen before the regulations are finalised. During the regulator’s meeting in July 2023, delegates agreed to a non-legal binding target of working “with a view” to completing the rules by July 2025.
Who wants to mine?
The list of would-be deep-sea miners includes private businesses, state-owned companies and governments, including those of China, India, Japan, Russia and South Korea. Some nations have teamed up: the Interoceanmetal Joint Organization is a consortium formed of Bulgaria, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Poland, Russia and Slovakia. Small island states which control significant amounts of seabed are also keen to engage in mining, including the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Singapore and Tonga.
Some nations are further ahead than others. The Cook Islands has already offered licences to three companies to study the feasibility of mining seabed minerals in its territorial waters. Norway’s parliament decided to open its extended continental shelf for deep-sea mining exploration earlier this year (this area goes beyond its territorial waters but falls under Norwegian control due to UN rules). The government says any extraction plans require approval from the energy ministry and the parliament, and only “sustainable and responsible” projects will be permitted.
Who is against mining?
An increasing number of nations are cautioning against starting commercial deep-sea mining without a better understanding of its impacts. To date, 25 countries have called for pauses or a full ban, including Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Fiji, Germany, Mexico and the UK.
Scientists concerned about potentially irreparable damage to ecosystems say not enough is known about deep-sea species and ecosystems to establish an adequate baseline against which to protect them or monitor the impact of mining. Conflicts between mining and other ocean activities could also occur as proposed mining areas overlap with shipping routes, fishing grounds, and areas bio-prospected for genetic resources. The increase in marine traffic and mining waste discharge could disrupt the primary productivity of the food web (the rate at which energy is converted to organic substances by organisms), and potentially affect fish populations.
Major companies, including Google, Samsung, Patagonia, BMW, Volvo and Volkswagen Group, have backed a call from the WWF for a temporary ban. These companies have pledged to ensure minerals extracted from the deep sea are not used in their products.
A sea star 2,500 meters beneath the central Pacific Ocean turns its stomach inside out to feed on Victorgorgia coral (Image: NOAA)
Where does China stand?
China holds five out of the 31 ISA exploration contracts, the most of any country. Several of its national research institutions, universities and state-owned companies have built up their technical capability for deep-sea exploitation, in part as a hedge against high reliance on imported strategic minerals. Recently, Qingdao and Shanghai’s municipal governments have also begun exploring opportunities to boost related research.
In 2016, the country adopted a Deep Sea Law to set regulations for deep-sea exploration and exploitation activities, including licensing, environmental impact assessments and monitoring requirements. China’s representatives at the ISA have been actively engaged in the mining regulation negotiations, pushing back on a discussion of a moratorium on mining during the ISA talks in July 2023. Beijing said the ISA was established to regulate seabed activities by setting out rules for mineral exploitation and protecting the deep sea environment
Some marine engineering researchers suggest more effort and investment is needed from the nation for it to catch up with progress in technological and equipment development achieved by Europe, Japan and South Korea.
When could commercial mining start?
For mining rights in international waters to be granted, contractors will have to conduct environmental impact assessments in line with ISA rules. They also need to demonstrate financial and technological capacity to actually undertake proposed mining activities. Nauru’s invocation of the ISA law means that contractors can now apply for mining licenses. But applications are unlikely to be approved by the authority before it finalises the rules, regulations and procedures. Member nations have agreed to work towards adopting the rules by July 2025, but many representatives have expressed doubt that the body will be able to meet a non-binding timeline.
To date, no party has submitted a mining licence to the ISA. But Nauru could be the first to start commercial exploitation. It is a sponsoring state for Nauru Ocean Resources Inc (NORI), a wholly owned subsidiary of The Metals Company. The company, based in Canada, says NORI intends to apply for an exploitation contract following the next ISA meeting in July 2024, and expects to be in production in late 2025.
This is an updated version of the explainer, which was first published in February 2019 and last updated in November 2021.
Regina Lam is an ocean and special projects assistant editor at Dialogue Earth, based in London. She joined in 2021 and has worked at major Hong Kong newspapers and has reported for the BBC World Service. She holds an MSc in global affairs from King’s College London. Regina is interested in global ocean governance, environmental justice and what makes compelling storytelling and robust investigation in environmental journalism. She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin and English. Jessica Aldred is former special projects (oceans) editor at Dialogue Earth
Sunday, June 02, 2024
Tropical forest resilience to seasonal drought linked to nutrient availability
International research team carry out Africa’s first large-scale nutrient addition experiment with nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium
Tropical forests are highly productive ecosystems accounting for nearly half of the global forest carbon sink. If tropical forests can no longer remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the effects of climate change may become even more severe. In recent times, these forests have been found to be increasingly limited in nutrients, which may affect their resilience to seasonal droughts and the rate at which they can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. To investigate this, an international research team led by the University of Göttingen established Africa’s first largescale nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium addition experiment in the Budongo Forest of Uganda. Their research showed that increasing the availability of certain nutrients can potentially sustain the productivity of these forests even under intense drought conditions – conditions already prevalent in most parts of the world. The results were published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The researchers investigated how nutrients control the production of leaf litter onto the forest floor. Plant leaves actively remove human-produced carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when they photosynthesise to make their own food. This process leads to carbon accumulation in the plant’s wood or in the leaves themselves. However, under drought conditions most trees respond by shedding their leaves, which reduces the rate of carbon removal from the atmosphere. Eventually, the whole plant dies if the drought persists for a prolonged period. However, the researchers found in particular that for trees which were deficient in potassium, increasing the availability of this nutrient during the drier period delays the timing when most leaves are lost by four weeks. To overcome the low potassium levels, the trees had reallocated the potassium from their dying leaves to the rest of the plant before shedding them. Lead author Dr Raphael Manu from the University of Göttingen explains “that low potassium and phosphorus availability can make this vital tropical forest ecosystem more vulnerable to drought and a less effective carbon sink”.
In dry conditions, potassium helps plants to effectively regulate the minute pores in their epidermis, and phosphorus plays an important role in conserving water within the plant. This explains why these two nutrients are so important when conditions become drier in the future. Professor Edzo Veldkamp from the University of Göttingen adds, “This is the first time that we have experimentally linked soil nutrient availability to the seasonal drought response of tropical forests.”
The research was part of the project “Nutrient limitation in a Ugandan tropical forest (RELIANCE)”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Original publication: Raphael Manu et al. Response of tropical forest productivity to seasonal drought mediated by potassium and phosphorus availability. Nature Geoscience 2024. Doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01448-8
Litter collectors for monitoring litterfall in the Budongo Forest Experiment
Tropical forests are highly productive ecosystems accounting for nearly half of the global forest carbon sink. If tropical forests can no longer remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, the effects of climate change may become even more severe. In recent times, these forests have been found to be increasingly limited in nutrients, which may affect their resilience to seasonal droughts and the rate at which they can remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. To investigate this, an international research team led by the University of Göttingen established Africa’s first largescale nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium addition experiment in the Budongo Forest of Uganda. Their research showed that increasing the availability of certain nutrients can potentially sustain the productivity of these forests even under intense drought conditions – conditions already prevalent in most parts of the world. The results were published in the journal Nature Geoscience.
The researchers investigated how nutrients control the production of leaf litter onto the forest floor. Plant leaves actively remove human-produced carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when they photosynthesise to make their own food. This process leads to carbon accumulation in the plant’s wood or in the leaves themselves. However, under drought conditions most trees respond by shedding their leaves, which reduces the rate of carbon removal from the atmosphere. Eventually, the whole plant dies if the drought persists for a prolonged period. However, the researchers found in particular that for trees which were deficient in potassium, increasing the availability of this nutrient during the drier period delays the timing when most leaves are lost by four weeks. To overcome the low potassium levels, the trees had reallocated the potassium from their dying leaves to the rest of the plant before shedding them. Lead author Dr Raphael Manu from the University of Göttingen explains “that low potassium and phosphorus availability can make this vital tropical forest ecosystem more vulnerable to drought and a less effective carbon sink”.
In dry conditions, potassium helps plants to effectively regulate the minute pores in their epidermis, and phosphorus plays an important role in conserving water within the plant. This explains why these two nutrients are so important when conditions become drier in the future. Professor Edzo Veldkamp from the University of Göttingen adds, “This is the first time that we have experimentally linked soil nutrient availability to the seasonal drought response of tropical forests.”
The research was part of the project “Nutrient limitation in a Ugandan tropical forest (RELIANCE)”, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
Original publication: Raphael Manu et al. Response of tropical forest productivity to seasonal drought mediated by potassium and phosphorus availability. Nature Geoscience 2024. Doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01448-8
As our planet warms, many species are shifting to different locations as their historical habitats become inhospitable. Trees are no exception – many species’ normal ranges are no longer conducive to their health, but their shift to new areas that could better sustain them has been lagging behind those of other plants and animals. Now, scientists show that the reason for this lag might be found belowground. A study published in PNAS on May X, shows that trees, especially those in the far north, may be relocating to soils that don’t have the fungal life to support them.
Most plants form belowground partnerships with mycorrhizal fungi, microscopic, filamentous fungi that grow in the soil and connect with plant roots to supply plants with critical nutrients in exchange for carbon. Most large coniferous trees in northern latitudes form relationships with a kind of mycorrhizal fungi called ectomycorrhizal fungi.
“As we examined the future for these symbiotic relationships, we found that 35% of partnerships between trees and fungi that interact with the tree roots would be negatively impacted by climate change,” says lead author Michael Van Nuland, a fungal ecologist at the Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN).
The trees most at risk of this climate mismatch in North America are those in the pine family, find the authors. Areas of particular concern are the edges of species ranges where trees often face the harshest conditions. Here, the authors discovered that trees with higher survival rate in these locations have more diverse mycorrhizal fungi, a sign that these symbioses may be critical for helping trees withstand the effects of climate change.
“Ectomycorrhizal fungi have a different relationship to climate than ectomycorrhizal trees do,” says co-author Clara Qin, a data scientist at SPUN. “We are finding evidence that the trees have to answer for these differences.”
The study sheds light on how climate change might be affecting symbioses. “While we expect climate-driven migrations to be limited by abiotic factors like the availability of space at higher latitudes and elevations, we don't usually account for biotic limitations like the availability of symbiotic partners,” says Qin.
“It’s absolutely vital that we continue to work to understand how climate change is affecting mycorrhizal symbioses,” says Van Nuland. “These relationships underpin all life on Earth – it’s critical that we understand and protect them.”
A giant pine tree growing on Corsica, where climate change effects are extreme
CREDIT
SPUN/Quentin van den Bossche
Cortinarius spp., a mycorrhizal mushroom.
CREDIT
SPUN/Mateo Barrenengoa
A forest with ectomycorrhizal trees in the Apennine Mountains, Italy
This research was funded by a National Science Foundation grant awarded to Kai Zhu and Kabir Peay (NSF Awards 1926438, 2244711)
PNAS, Van Nuland et al., “Climate mismatches with ectomycorrhizal fungi contribute to migration lag in North American tree range shifts”
The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (SPUN) is a scientific research organization with a mission to map and preserve Earth’s fungal networks. In collaboration with researchers and local communities, SPUN is accelerating efforts to protect the underground ecosystems largely absent from conservation and climate agendas. To learn more about SPUN, visit:https://spun.earth/.
