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Tuesday, January 28, 2020
Icelandic Volcano Showing Signs of Potential Eruption
By Ron Brackett
weather.com
Mount Thorbjörn has been rising about a tenth of an inch a day.
Emergency management officials declared a “state of uncertainty.”
An eruption could force the evacuation of about 5,000 people.
Mount Thorbjörn, a volcano in southwest Iceland, is showing signs of a potential eruption as it rattles the area around Grindavík with small earthquakes.
Iceland's Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management declared a “state of uncertainty” after Thorbjörn began "inflating" last week.
A rise of about a tenth of an inch a day has been detected, and it's thought to be from magma accumulation a few miles underground, AFP reported.
Police officials have declared a state of uncertainty.
The Iceland Monitor reports that an eruption could force the evacuation of about 5,000 people: the residents of Grindavik, workers at a power plant and employees and tourists at the Blue Lagoon, a popular geothermal spa.
Visitors sit in the geothermal waters at the Blue Lagoon close to the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik on August 30, 2018.(Photo by Maja Hitij/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Rögnvaldur Ólafsson, at the Department of Civil Protection, said the most likely scenario is that the magma accumulation will either stop or continue for some time without a volcanic eruption.
Another possibility is that seismic activity increases and results in a magnitude 6 earthquake.
Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, a professor at the Institute of Earth Sciences, told the Iceland Monitor that if the volcano does erupt, it would be a small eruption with a lava flow.
The last major eruption was during a volcanic period known as the Reykjanes Fires from 1210 to 1240, according to the Met Office.
In 2010, Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano exploded and sent remains of rock and minerals flying into European airspace for nearly a week. More than 100,000 flights were canceled and 300 airports closed.
By Ron Brackett
weather.com
Mount Thorbjörn has been rising about a tenth of an inch a day.
Emergency management officials declared a “state of uncertainty.”
An eruption could force the evacuation of about 5,000 people.
Mount Thorbjörn, a volcano in southwest Iceland, is showing signs of a potential eruption as it rattles the area around Grindavík with small earthquakes.
Iceland's Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management declared a “state of uncertainty” after Thorbjörn began "inflating" last week.
A rise of about a tenth of an inch a day has been detected, and it's thought to be from magma accumulation a few miles underground, AFP reported.
The Icelandic Met Office said the inflation was first detected on Jan. 21. Since then, a swarm of earthquakes has shaken the area on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 31 miles from the capital Reykjavik. The strongest had a magnitude of 3.7.
The Met Office enacted a yellow aviation color code for the area, which means increased monitoring of a volcanic area and increased flow of information to aviation officials from the Met Office and the Civil Protection Department.
The Met Office enacted a yellow aviation color code for the area, which means increased monitoring of a volcanic area and increased flow of information to aviation officials from the Met Office and the Civil Protection Department.
Police officials have declared a state of uncertainty.
The Iceland Monitor reports that an eruption could force the evacuation of about 5,000 people: the residents of Grindavik, workers at a power plant and employees and tourists at the Blue Lagoon, a popular geothermal spa.
Visitors sit in the geothermal waters at the Blue Lagoon close to the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik on August 30, 2018.(Photo by Maja Hitij/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Rögnvaldur Ólafsson, at the Department of Civil Protection, said the most likely scenario is that the magma accumulation will either stop or continue for some time without a volcanic eruption.
Another possibility is that seismic activity increases and results in a magnitude 6 earthquake.
Magnús Tumi Guðmundsson, a professor at the Institute of Earth Sciences, told the Iceland Monitor that if the volcano does erupt, it would be a small eruption with a lava flow.
The last major eruption was during a volcanic period known as the Reykjanes Fires from 1210 to 1240, according to the Met Office.
In 2010, Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano exploded and sent remains of rock and minerals flying into European airspace for nearly a week. More than 100,000 flights were canceled and 300 airports closed.
The deep-sea under global change
2017Roberto Danovaro
Cinzia Corinaldesi
Antonio Dell’Anno
Paul V.R. Snelgrove
Open Archive DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.02.046
Cinzia Corinaldesi
Antonio Dell’Anno
Paul V.R. Snelgrove
Open Archive DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.02.046
Previous ArticlePolar oceans in a changing climate
Summary
The deep ocean encompasses 95% of the oceans’ volume and is the largest and least explored biome of Earth’s Biosphere. New life forms are continuously being discovered. The physiological mechanisms allowing organisms to adapt to extreme conditions of the deep ocean (high pressures, from very low to very high temperatures, food shortage, lack of solar light) are still largely unknown. Some deep-sea species have very long life-spans, whereas others can tolerate toxic compounds at high concentrations; these characteristics offer an opportunity to explore the specialized biochemical and physiological mechanisms associated with these responses. Widespread symbiotic relationships play fundamental roles in driving host functions, nutrition, health, and evolution. Deep-sea organisms communicate and interact through sound emissions, chemical signals and bioluminescence. Several giants of the oceans hunt exclusively at depth, and new studies reveal a tight connection between processes in the shallow water and some deep-sea species. Limited biological knowledge of the deep-sea limits our capacity to predict future response of deep-sea organisms subject to increasing human pressure and changing global environmental conditions. Molecular tools, sensor-tagged animals, in situ and laboratory experiments, and new technologies can enable unprecedented advancement of deep-sea biology, and facilitate the sustainable management of deep ocean use under global change.
Biology of extremes
Less than 0.0001% of the deep ocean’s area (over 200 meters depth) has been investigated so far, making it the least explored biome of Earth. Indeed, we know the moon’s surface better than the deep sea floor. Deep-sea ecosystems encompass a wide range of habitats and environmental conditions, unlike any others on Earth (Figure 1). The effective absence of light beyond 200–500 meters depth precludes photosynthesis and thus greatly limits food availability. Pressures range from 20 to >1100 atmospheres, and temperatures range from –1.8 to 2°C, though fluids emitted at hydrothermal vents may reach 450°C. Compounds toxic to most animals occur in high concentrations in hydrothermal vent fluids (see the Quick guide by William Brazelton in this issue). Some deep-sea habitats can be hypoxic or anoxic.
Summary
The deep ocean encompasses 95% of the oceans’ volume and is the largest and least explored biome of Earth’s Biosphere. New life forms are continuously being discovered. The physiological mechanisms allowing organisms to adapt to extreme conditions of the deep ocean (high pressures, from very low to very high temperatures, food shortage, lack of solar light) are still largely unknown. Some deep-sea species have very long life-spans, whereas others can tolerate toxic compounds at high concentrations; these characteristics offer an opportunity to explore the specialized biochemical and physiological mechanisms associated with these responses. Widespread symbiotic relationships play fundamental roles in driving host functions, nutrition, health, and evolution. Deep-sea organisms communicate and interact through sound emissions, chemical signals and bioluminescence. Several giants of the oceans hunt exclusively at depth, and new studies reveal a tight connection between processes in the shallow water and some deep-sea species. Limited biological knowledge of the deep-sea limits our capacity to predict future response of deep-sea organisms subject to increasing human pressure and changing global environmental conditions. Molecular tools, sensor-tagged animals, in situ and laboratory experiments, and new technologies can enable unprecedented advancement of deep-sea biology, and facilitate the sustainable management of deep ocean use under global change.
Biology of extremes
Less than 0.0001% of the deep ocean’s area (over 200 meters depth) has been investigated so far, making it the least explored biome of Earth. Indeed, we know the moon’s surface better than the deep sea floor. Deep-sea ecosystems encompass a wide range of habitats and environmental conditions, unlike any others on Earth (Figure 1). The effective absence of light beyond 200–500 meters depth precludes photosynthesis and thus greatly limits food availability. Pressures range from 20 to >1100 atmospheres, and temperatures range from –1.8 to 2°C, though fluids emitted at hydrothermal vents may reach 450°C. Compounds toxic to most animals occur in high concentrations in hydrothermal vent fluids (see the Quick guide by William Brazelton in this issue). Some deep-sea habitats can be hypoxic or anoxic.
WAS a 392-year-old shark was discovered in the Arctic Ocean Viral photo does show longest-living shark species, but exact age is unclear
Is there really a shark swimming in the ocean that’s been alive since 1627?
The Jan. 21 post displays an image of an ancient-looking shark and claims the "392-year-old shark" was recently discovered in the Arctic Ocean. "This guy was wandering the oceans back in 1627," the post says.
It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
In this case, there is a little truth here: The image is legitimate, and it does show the longest-living species of shark, but the shark’s exact age isn’t clear.
Here’s how we know. We ran a reverse-image search and found that the photo appeared in online news articles in July 2017. Captions say the photo depicts a Greenland shark in the Arctic Ocean. The image is credited to Julius Nielsen, a researcher at the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources.
The study used radiocarbon dating to measure carbon isotopes absorbed in the eye tissue of 28 female Greenland sharks. Analysis presented a probability range that suggested the sharks were at least 272 years old, and could be as much as 512 years old, with the midpoint range being around 390 years.
Shortly after the study published, articles that claimed scientists had discovered a 512-year-old shark started circulating on the internet. Nielsen addressed the rumors in an interview with Live Science and in a December 2017 post on his Instagram account:
"All of this is just the same story coming to life from August 2016 and please note that we have not found any sharks to be 600 or 500 yr old.... we have ESTIMATED (meaning that it has not been verified) that one shark was AT LEAST 272 yr old or in more detail that this shark was between 272-512 yr old with 95.5% certainty (the latter also being an unverified estimate). Take home message from the authors of the investigation was that Greenland shark longevity is measured in centuries."
The Facebook post shares an authentic image of a Greenland shark, a species scientists believe to be the longest-living vertebrate in the world. But the researcher who took the photo has said the study estimated one shark was at least 272 years old, and could have been as much 512 years old, but no specific age was verified.
The photo is real and the shark is old, but we are not sure of the age. We rate this Half True.
"The Machinists Union does not (support the USMCA trade deal). And every environmental organization in this country (also) opposes it."
Major environmental groups opposed the new USMCA trade deal
By Rylee Wilson 
In the last debate before the Feb. 3 Iowa presidential precinct caucuses, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said the United-States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement (USMCA) did not go far enough to protect the environment or the rights of workers.
Moderator: "But, Sen. Sanders, to be clear, the AFL-CIO supports this deal [the USMCA]. Are you unwilling to compromise?"
Sanders: "The AFL-CIO does. "The Machinists Union does not (support the USMCA trade deal). And every environmental organization in this country, including the Sunrise Organization, who are supporting my candidacy, opposes it."
We found Sanders mostly correct in stating major organizations oppose the USMC, although stating that every major organization opposes it was a stretch. Plus, his claims about union support for the deal need some context.
Responding to PolitiFact, the Sanders campaign pointed to a letter from a group of 10 high-profile environmental organizations, including the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, Greenpeace, and others, urging Congress to vote against the USMCA.
The 10 groups signing the letter have a combined 12 million members.
"We do not get many opportunities to renegotiate trade deals. At this pivotal moment, we cannot afford to lock ourselves into a multi-decade deal that ignores climate change and helps corporate polluters," the letter stated.
However, some large environmental groups did not take a stance on the USMCA.
In an email to The Daily Iowan, representatives from the Environmental Working Group, a nonpartisan conservation nonprofit, said the group has no official stance on the USMCA. Likewise, the Union of Concerned Scientists said the USMCA is not an issue the organization is working on or following.
The USMCA is the new agreement governing trade between the United States, Canada, and Mexico, updating the nearly 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. The leaders of the three countries involved in the agreement agreed to the USMCA in November 2018.
The USMCA passed the House of Representatives 385-41 on Dec. 19, 2019, and the Senate 89-10 on Jan. 17, 2020, with bipartisan support. Sanders was one of 10 senators to vote no on the agreement.
Channing Dutton, a Des Moines-based attorney and member of Citizens Climate Lobby, said most environmental groups would oppose the agreement because the USMCA does not include provisions for climate change in its current form.
"It’s a safe bet that every responsible climate change organization would oppose any trade agreement that ignored the effects of climate change or allow easy modification of the agreement because of climate change impacts," Dutton said.
Dutton, who has endorsed businessman Tom Steyer’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, added that the agreement cannot be modified to adapt to worsening climate conditions, echoing the concerns environmental groups expressed that the deal cannot be altered to provide provisions for climate change after it becomes law.
"This is why he [Sanders] said he would not sign the deal without climate change considerations," Dutton said. "They use the agreement to stop people, communities, states, and even nations from doing things such as adopting the carbon tax that Citizens Climate Lobby supports."
Mixed support from labor unions
Sanders also brought up during the Des Moines debate the USMCA’s support among unions. Moderator Brianne Pfannenstiel, the chief politics reporter at the Des Moines Register, said the AFL-CIO, a federation of more than 55 national and international labor unions, supports the deal.
The AFL-CIO announced in December 2019 its support for the deal, which it previously opposed, after negotiating with lawmakers to include more provisions for the deal it deemed to be labor-friendly.
"The USMCA is far from perfect. It alone is not a solution for outsourcing, inequality or climate change," the AFL-CIO said in a prepared statement. "Successfully tackling these issues requires a full-court press of economic policies that empower workers, including the repeal of tax cuts which reward companies for shipping our jobs overseas."
During the debate, Sanders noted that the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace (IAM) workers, which has a membership of 600,000, opposes the USMCA.
Although the machinist and aerospace union is part of the AFL-CIO, it issued a statement criticizing the USMCA, though it did not cite concerns over climate change.
"U.S. workers have been waiting over 25 years for a responsible trade deal that puts their interests ahead of corporations who are fleeing our shores," the machinists and aerospace union wrote in the statement. "They are still waiting. The IAM will oppose NAFTA 2.0."
Responding to PolitiFact, the Sanders campaign cited the IAM statement, as well as statements from the National Family Farm Coalition, which has around 450,000 members, and the United Food and Commercial Workers, with 1.3 million members, as evidence of labor unions upset with the USMCA.
While some unions are in opposition, other large unions have issued statements of support for the newest version of the USMCA. The Teamsters, a union consisting of truck drivers, mechanical workers and other trades with a membership of 1.4 million, supports the deal.
Additionally, the United Steel Workers, with a membership of 860,000, supported the deal, while the United Auto Workers, membership 990,000, did not explicitly support the deal, but said the deal will need to be strictly enforced to prevent the further loss of U.S. auto industry jobs to Mexico.
"We will do all we can to vigilantly monitor the agreement to try to make sure multinational corporations live up to their end of the bargain, but we should have no illusion that our efforts alone will get the job done," United Auto Workers president Rory Gamble wrote in a prepared statement.
Our ruling
Sanders said about supporting USMCA, "The AFL-CIO does. The Machinists Union does not. Every environmental organization in this country, including the Sunrise Organization, who are supporting my candidacy, opposes it."
Sanders is correct in saying the Machinists Union does not support the USMCA trade deal, although some major unions support it.
Not every single environmental group in the country opposed USMCA — some had no position. But most of the major groups were opposed, including 10 organizations with 12 million combined members who urged Congress not to support the USMCA. We were unable to find any major environmental group that endorsed the deal.
We rate Sanders’ statement Mostly True.
JAY SEKLOW TRUMP'S LAWYER SUMS UP IMPEACHMENT DEFENSE IN SENATE;
"DANGER, DANGER,DANGER"
User Clip: Jay Sekulow moments ago | C-SPAN.org
https://www.c-span.org › video › user-clip-jay-sekulow-moments-ago
8 hours ago - January 28, 2020 | Clip Of Senate Impeachment Trial, Day 8 This clip ... IF YOU LOWER THE BAR THAT WAY, DANGER, DANGER, DANGER
'Danger! Danger! Danger!' Is Trump's team alarmed about ...
https://www.theguardian.com › us-news › 2020 › jan › 28 › trump-impeac...
4 hours ago - The president's ...
Missing: SPEECH
Trump's defense, lost in space - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com › opinions › 2020/01/28 › trumps-defense-...
Jay Sekulow, an attorney for President Trump, on his way to the Senate chamber for Trump's impeachment ... Jan. 28, 2020 at 4:34 p.m. PST. Danger, Will Robinson! Republican Sens. ... Trump's lawyers, in three days making their case on the Senate floor, ... from his apocalyptic acceptance speech to his American-
SECOND EVER Canadian Animal Law Conference
CANADIAN ANIMAL LAW CONFERENCE 2020
Co-hosted by Animal Justice and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law, the conference will bring together animal rights lawyers, scholars, advocates, and students to reflect on the role of nonhuman animals in our shared world.
We held the first Canadian Animal Law Conference in Halifax last October, and it was a smashing success. Animal law has grown tremendously in Canada over the past decade, and we are pleased to offer an opportunity for animal law leaders to gather, take stock of our accomplishments, and consider the future.
Submissions for the inaugural Canadian Animal Law Conference are invited on topics relating to advocacy, litigation, legislation, policy, and our legal and ethical relationship with nonhuman animals.
To learn more about submissions, please
visit the conference website.
We held the first Canadian Animal Law Conference in Halifax last October, and it was a smashing success. Animal law has grown tremendously in Canada over the past decade, and we are pleased to offer an opportunity for animal law leaders to gather, take stock of our accomplishments, and consider the future.
Submissions for the inaugural Canadian Animal Law Conference are invited on topics relating to advocacy, litigation, legislation, policy, and our legal and ethical relationship with nonhuman animals.
To learn more about submissions, please
visit the conference website.
Blogger Says China "stole Coronavirus from Canada and weaponized it into a Bioweapon."
Websites spin unproven link between Canada, China about coronavirus outbreak
By Daniel Funke 
A widely shared article on social media inaccurately claims Canada is the source of the 2019 coronavirus outbreak in China.
Zero Hedge, a blog with a track record of publishing false information, said in a Jan. 26 story that the coronavirus is part of a Chinese plot to develop a bioweapon. The article was republished from a website called Great Game India.
"Last year a mysterious shipment was caught smuggling Coronavirus from Canada. It was traced to Chinese agents working at a Canadian lab," the story reads. "Subsequent investigation by GreatGameIndia linked the agents to Chinese Biological Warfare Program from where the virus is suspected to have leaked causing the Wuhan Coronavirus outbreak."
The story weaves together unrelated facts to construct a conspiracy theory. Officials are still trying to determine the exact cause of the outbreak, but there’s no evidence of it being created for use as a bioweapon.
(Screenshot from Zero Hedge)
The article was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
The virus, which originated in the central China city of Wuhan, has infected more than 4,000 people worldwide, and China has restricted travel within the country amid a rising death toll.
The Canadian lab
Great Game India claims that the current coronavirus outbreak can be traced to Chinese agents who infiltrated a Canadian lab to steal virus samples. But there’s no evidence for that.
The story focuses on the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg. In 2013, researchers there were investigating a new cluster of coronavirus infections that appeared to have originated in Saudi Arabia.
Great Game India implies that disease is the same one that’s currently affecting China. But the lab was examining the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) coronavirus. (There are seven kinds of coronaviruses that can infect humans.)
Great Game India goes on to claim that Chinese scientists working in the Canadian lab were "bio-warfare agents" and took the samples to the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
One of the scientists mentioned in the Great Game India story, Xiangguo Qiu, is under investigation for a possible "policy breach" after she was invited to the Wuhan lab twice a year for two years. Qiu, her husband and her students from China were removed from the lab in July 2019.
There are questions about what information Qiu shared with Chinese officials while visiting Wuhan, and the Canadian National Microbiology Laboratory has sent viruses to China in the past for research. But there is no evidence to support the claim that Qiu stole coronavirus samples and gave them to the Wuhan lab to create biological weapons.
The Wuhan lab
The assertion that the origin of the coronavirus outbreak is a Chinese lab near Wuhan also lacks evidence.
The Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is a maximum-security biolab that deals with some of the world’s most dangerous pathogens, such as Ebola and the SARS coronavirus. Some experts have linked the lab to China’s biological warfare program. The country denies having such a program, but the State Department has raised concerns about China’s potential noncompliance with the Biological Weapons Convention, which bans the production of such weapons.
"Coincidentally, the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory is located only 20 miles away from the Huanan Seafood Market which is the epicenter of the Coronavirus outbreak dubbed the Wuhan Coronavirus," the Great Game India story reads.
As of now, however, the lab’s proximity to the seafood market is a coincidence, as there is no evidence that the lab is the source of the coronavirus outbreak.
The CDC and the World Health Organization are still investigating the cause of the coronavirus outbreak. In its most recent situation summary, the CDC said that both it and Chinese authorities had isolated the genome of the Wuhan coronavirus.
Their findings suggest "a likely single, recent emergence from a virus related to bat coronaviruses and the SARS coronavirus." Early reports suggested that the disease appeared to have originated at a seafood and animal market in Wuhan, and it spread from there to several Asian countries, Australia, France, Canada and the United States.
Our ruling
A Zero Hedge story claims that Chinese agents stole coronavirus samples from Canada to create a biological weapon, which has now caused an outbreak of the disease around the world.
A Chinese scientist who worked in a Canadian lab studying coronaviruses is under investigation for trips she took to Wuhan. But there’s no evidence she gave China coronavirus samples to develop a biological weapon. Plus, the lab worked on MERS, not the Wuhan coronavirus. The Wuhan lab mentioned in the story does deal with dangerous pathogens like coronaviruses, but there is no evidence that it is the source of the latest outbreak.
The story lacks evidence for its headline, so we rate it False.
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