Skull found at Philadelphia high school prompts districtwide search



Taylor Allen
Mon, October 25, 2021, 

The School District of Philadelphia is asking high school principals and other officials to search for skeletal remains in their buildings after the discovery of a human skull at Central High School.

Driving the news: The school district announced the finding of the "human skeletal item," believed to have belonged to a Native American male, on Friday. The district told Axios that a staff member originally discovered the skull in June.

Now district officials are working with the Department of Interior and Temple University to repatriate the remains.

What they're saying: District officials said the skull was likely used as a teaching tool from the mid-1850s to the early to mid-1900s.

The district said it hasn't used human skeletons in lessons for at least a decade.

"Despite the fact that this individual is long deceased, they were an individual who was a member of a community," Kimberly Williams, chair of Temple's Anthropology Department, said in a statement.

The big picture: Mishandling of Indigenous remains isn't uncommon in American history, especially in the context of forced residential boarding schools.

And according to a report from NPR, many skeletons in classrooms across the country are real.

In Pennsylvania, remains of nine Native American children who attended a government-run school were returned home earlier this year.

Of note: Researchers in the 19th century used to collect skulls and conduct experiments to promote white supremacy. The trade and selling of crania propelled the practice.

The Penn Museum came under fire in April following reports that a curator used the remains of victims of the 1985 MOVE bombing for an online forensics course.

This past May, the city revealed its discovery that in 2017, Thomas Farley, the former health commissioner, ordered a separate set of MOVE bombing victims' remains to be cremated without notifying family members.

The remains that were thought to be destroyed were found a day later after a subordinate didn't go through with the order.

Farley resigned at the request of Mayor Jim Kenney.

What's next: The school district asked high school principals to conduct surveys of any skeletal teaching collections within their schools by Nov. 5, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Chrétien under fire for residential school comments

Duration: 02:36 

WARNING: This story contains distressing details. Former prime minister Jean Chrétien is under fire after saying on the Radio-Canada’s Tout le Monde en Parle he never heard about abuse at residential schools during his tenure as minister of what was then called Indian affairs from 1968 to 1974.

VIDEO

Chrétien under fire for residential school comments (msn.com)

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M; ECOCIDE

Illegal waste dumps wreak environmental havoc in French countryside



Issued on: 26/10/2021 - 

Text by: FRANCE 24

Near a forest barely 20 kilometres from Paris, an impromptu landfill covering more than 16 hectares is just one of many illegal waste dumps polluting the French countryside. The industrial waste is dumped by polluters evading garbage disposal fees.

Toufik Bouallaga, a volunteer at a local citizen’s collective, is visibly disturbed as he walks across an illegal dump filled with plastic tubs, asbestos sheets and metal waste. “It breaks my heart, knowing this could have been a place for kids to go on walks … this is a forest…it’s sickening,” he explains.

Legal waste disposal in France can cost up to 115 euros per tonne for industrial refuse while illegal dumping can cost as little as four euros per tonne.

It's a lucrative business for illegal operators, one that is causing enormous environmental damage since the fermentation of the trash produces methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas.

Sinkholes on receding Dead Sea shore mark 'nature's revenge'

'Hikers walk next to sinkholes in the southern part of the Dead Sea 

(AFP/Menahem KAHANA)

Claire GOUNON
Tue, October 26, 2021, 7:59 PM·4 min read

In the heyday of the Ein Gedi spa in the 1960s, holidaymakers could marinate in heated pools and then slip into the briny Dead Sea. Now the same beach is punctured by craters.

A spectacular expanse of water in the desert, flanked by cliffs to east and west, the Dead Sea has lost a third of its surface area since 1960.

The blue water recedes about a metre (yard) every year, leaving behind a lunar landscape whitened by salt and perforated with gaping holes.

Going forward, "you might be lucky to have a channel of water here, that people will be able to put their toes in," laments Alison Ron, a resident of Ein Gedi who once worked at the spa.

"But there will be a lot of sinkholes."

The sinkholes can exceed 10 metres (33 feet) in depth and are a testament to the shrinking sea. Receding salt water leaves behind underground salt deposits. Runoff from periodic flash floods then percolates into the ground and dissolves the salt patches. Without support, the land above collapses.

- Ghost town -

At the Ein Gedi thermal baths, the roughly three kilometres (two miles) of rocky sand that now separate the spa from the shore are dotted with holes and crevices.

Further north, a whole tourist complex has turned into a ghost town, disfigured by craters and enclosed in fences. The pavement is gutted, the lampposts overturned, the date plantation abandoned.

Ittai Gavrieli of the Israel Geological Institute told AFP there are now thousands of sinkholes all around the shores of the Dead Sea, in Jordan, Israel and the occupied West Bank.

They reflect human policy that has literally decimated the flow of water into the Dead Sea. Both Israel and Jordan have diverted the waters of the River Jordan for agriculture and drinking water. Chemical companies have extracted minerals from the seawater.

Climate change further accelerates evaporation. In Sodom, Israel, southwest of the Dead Sea, the country's highest temperature in over 70 years was recorded in July 2019 -- 49.9 degrees Celsius, or nearly 122 Fahrenheit.

- 'Nature's revenge' -

Gavrieli said the Israel Geological Institute is monitoring the formation of sinkholes from space but it is not an exact science.

He said they are certainly "dangerous" but also "magnificent."

"It has potential to become a tourist attraction, if you're willing to take the risk on one hand and if insurance issues are clear," he said.

Much too perilous, answers Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of the NGO EcoPeace, for whom the sinkholes are "nature's revenge" for "the inappropriate actions of humankind".

"We will not be able to bring back the Dead Sea to its former glory," he said. "But we are demanding that we stabilise it."

His organisation, comprised of Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists, advocates increased desalination of seawater from the Mediterranean to relieve pressure on the Sea of Galilee and the River Jordan, which could then flow back to the Dead Sea.

EcoPeace would also like the industry to be "held accountable" by paying more taxes.

- Inescapable decline -

Asked by AFP, a spokesman for Jordan's water ministry offered no detailed fix for the crisis. Instead, he said the donor community should play a "vital role" in sparking interest "to find reasonable solutions to the Dead Sea problem".

In June, Jordan abandoned a long-stalled proposal to build a canal with Israel and the Palestinians to carry water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.

Instead, Amman announced it would build a desalination plant to supply drinking water.

Even if the canal had been built, it could not have saved the lake on its own, said hydrologist Eran Halfi of the Dead Sea-Arava Science Center.

"The Dead Sea is at a deficit of one billion cubic metres per year and this was supposed to bring 200 million cubic metres," he said. "It would slow the drop but not prevent it."

So is the Dead Sea doomed to evaporate? Scientists say its decline is inevitable for at least the next 100 years. Sinkholes will keep spreading over the century.

However, the lake could reach an equilibrium because as its surface decreases, the water becomes saltier and evaporation slows down.

In Ein Gedi, Ron said that forecast gave her little satisfaction. By diverting rivers and building factories, she said, "man has interfered".

"We have to be ashamed of ourselves that we have allowed this to happen," she said.

cgo-dac/jjm/kir

Brazil Senate committee backs criminal charges against Bolsonaro



Issued on: 27/10/2021 -
Text by: NEWS WIRES

A Brazilian Senate commission approved a damning report on Tuesday that recommends criminal charges be brought against President Jair Bolsonaro, including crimes against humanity, for his Covid policies.

Seven of the panel's 11 senators voted to endorse the text -- presented last week after a six-month investigation into Brazil's pandemic response -- which also calls for the indictment of 77 other people, including several ministers and three of Bolsonaro's children.

The nearly 1,200-page report also urges Brazil's Supreme Court to suspend the far-right leader's access to his accounts on social media platforms YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for falsely alleging that Covid-19 vaccines were linked to AIDS.

Following dozens of often tense and harrowing hearings, the report finds Bolsonaro "deliberately exposed" Brazilians to "mass infection" in a disastrous attempt to reach herd immunity from the coronavirus.

The report calls for the president to be indicted for nine crimes related to his downplaying Covid-19 and flouting expert advice on containing it.

They include "crimes against humanity," "prevarication," "charlatanism," and incitement to crime.

The committee does not have the power to bring charges itself, and it is unlikely the attorney general or lower-house speaker -- both Bolsonaro allies -- will open criminal or impeachment proceedings.

But the report adds to the damage as Bolsonaro reels from his lowest-ever approval ratings, heading into an election in one year's time that polls place him on track to lose to leftist ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

And the crimes against humanity charge theoretically has the potential to be tried at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

After the vote the senators observed a minute of silence in tribute to the 606,000 Brazilians who have died from Covid -- a toll second only to the United States.

"We can no longer tolerate this type of behavior," the lawmakers said in a court filing earlier signed by the panel's deputy chair, opposition Senator Randolfe Rodrigues.

Debunked AIDS claim

The committee hearings, broadcast live, have featured emotional witness statements and chilling revelations about the use of ineffective medication on "human guinea pigs."

The senators' court filing called for the authorities to lift the data confidentiality on Bolsonaro's social media accounts and order Facebook and Twitter, as well as YouTube owner Google, to provide normally secret information on the president's usage.

The document also called on the high court to order Bolsonaro to make a retraction in a nationally televised address, "refuting any correlation between vaccination against the coronavirus and developing AIDS," or face a fine of 50,000 reais ($9,000) for every day he fails to comply.

Bolsonaro made the controversial claim Thursday in his weekly social media live address.

He said "official reports" from the British government -- which has debunked the claim -- "suggest that people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 are developing Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome much faster than expected."

Facebook removed the video for violating its policies on spreading misinformation. YouTube went a step further Monday, suspending Bolsonaro for a week, in addition to blocking the clip.

'I don't want to lose Facebook'

Bolsonaro appeared to have taken the information from a supposed news story spreading online.

"I recommend you read the article," he said in his video, without saying where the information came from.

"I'm not going to read it here, because I don't want to lose my Facebook live video."

Like former US president Donald Trump, his political role model, Bolsonaro relies heavily on social media to rally his base.

Bolsonaro has had social media posts deleted numerous times in the past for spreading misinformation and inciting people to violate social distancing policies.

However, this is the first time Facebook has taken down one of his weekly live videos, a cornerstone of his communications.

The president, who took office in January 2019, has said he does not plan to be vaccinated against Covid-19, and joked in the past the vaccine could "turn you into an alligator."

(AFP)

Donald Trump Endorses Jair Bolsonaro as Brazil Senate Recommends Charges Over Pandemic

BY JUSTIN KLAWANS ON 10/26/21 
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has received a reelection endorsement from former President Donald Trump the same day that the Brazilian Senate recommend he face criminal charges for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

"President Jair Bolsonaro and I have become great friends over the past few years," former President Trump said in a statement. "He fights for, and loves, the people of Brazil."

"[Bolsonaro] is a great president and will never let the people of his great country down," the statement continued.


The president of Brazil since 2019, Bolsonaro has often been compared to Trump because of his numerous similar policies. The Daily Beast has even called Bolsonaro the "Trump of the Tropics."
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An independent who was a former official in Rio de Janeiro, Bolsonaro was elected on a far-right platform of nationalist conservatism. He has also advocated pro-life views and supports less restrictive gun laws in Brazil.

Additionally, Foreign Policy noted in January that Bolsonaro "[idolized] the outgoing U.S. president" and was "peddling similar false claims and conspiracy theories in Brazil" after the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

Trump's endorsement comes hours after a Brazilian Senate committee voted 7-4 on a recommendation that Bolsonaro should face criminal charges for his handling of COVID.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has received an endorsement from former President Donald Trump the same day that the Brazilian Senate recommended he face charges for his handling of the pandemic. Here, Bolsonaro can be seen giving a speech in 2020.

EVARISTO SA/GETTY

While Bolsonaro is up for reelection in 2022, his approval ratings have been falling as a result of hyperinflation and his response to the pandemic. Brazil has had the second-most deaths from COVID-19 in the world, behind only the United States.

The Senate committee had been investigating Bolsonaro and his administration's actions regarding COVID for the past six months.

A copy of the committee's report obtained by the Associated Press states that Bolsonaro should be charged with a number of offenses, from inciting crime to charlatanism and crimes against humanity.

The author of the report also stated that Bolsonaro was "the main person responsible for the errors committed by the federal government during the pandemic."

Bolsonaro allegedly did not purchase the needed amount of COVID vaccines to inoculate the Brazilian population, and has additionally expressed doubt about the vaccines' efficacy. He has also reportedly downplayed the severity of the pandemic and pushed back against mask mandates and quarantines.

The only major government policy that Bolsonaro endorsed against the pandemic was the use of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug also advocated by former President Trump.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has stated that "the potential benefits of these drugs do not outweigh their risks," and the use of hydroxychloroquine has not been proven effective against the virus.

Bolsonaro himself contracted COVID-19 in July 2020.

Nationwide protests occurred in Brazil this past June, with people demanding that Bolsonaro resign due to what they felt was poor handling of the pandemic. German outlet DW reported that the protests extended across 43 Brazilian cities.

Despite the findings of the Senate, Bolsonaro has maintained that he did not handle the pandemic improperly, and has brushed off the recommendations of health officials as "political correctness". Additionally, the nation's Prosecutor-General is viewed as a Bolsonaro loyalist who is likely to protect him in a court of law.

Newsweek has contacted the Brazilian government's press office for comment.

 EXPLAINER: Brazil senators urge COVID charges for Bolsonaro 

BY MAURICIO SAVARESE 

ASSOCIATED PRESS

 OCTOBER 27, 2021

SAO PAULO 

A Brazilian Senate committee is recommending that President Jair Bolsonaro face a series of criminal indictments for actions and omissions related to the world’s second highest COVID-19 death toll. The 7-to-4 vote Tuesday by the 11-member committee ended its six-month investigation of the government’s handling of the pandemic and calls for prosecutors to put Bolsonaro on trial for charges ranging from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity. More than 600,000 people have died of COVID-19 in Brazil. 

What lies ahead for Bolsonaro, who denies any wrongdoing:

WHAT ARE THE RECOMMENDATIONS AGAINST BOLSONARO? 

The most debated of the recommended charges is of inciting an epidemic that leads to deaths. Prison time for those convicted ranges between 20 and 30 years. Gustavo Badaró, a law professor at Sao Paulo University, argues that is a “thin legal case” because Bolsonaro did not start the pandemic himself. Bolsonaro is also accused of violating health protocols, charlatanism, falsification of private documents, irregular use of public funds, crimes against humanity, violation of social rights and breach of presidential decorum. Badaró argues the strongest case against Bolsonaro in the final report is the accusation of delaying or refraining from action required as part of a public official’s duty for reasons of personal interest. Prison time for a conviction ranges from three months to one year, but as a sitting president that could be enough to suspend Bolsonaro from office. Ricardo Barretto, a law professor at IDP university, says Bolsonaro's open challenge of health protocols and his defense of drugs that don't work against the coronavirus are also well substantiated. The president was repeatedly seen unmasked at gatherings that he encouraged himself. He also touted use of anti-malarial drug chloroquine as if it was a cure for the virus. 

Senators had debated whether they should recommend charges of homicide and genocide against Bolsonaro, but they decided not to include those in the final report. 

___ WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? 

Brazil’s prosecutor-general, Augusto Aras, who in the past has sided with the president and is widely seen as protecting him, has to decide whether the Senate inquiry warrants him opening an investigation. He would then have to get authorization from the Supreme Court to proceed since Bolsonaro is a sitting politician. Sen. Omar Aziz, the chairman of the Senate inquiry, said he planned to deliver the committee's recommendations to Aras on Wednesday. If the prosecutor-general presented charges against the president, the case would move to Brazil's Chamber of Deputies, the lower house of Congress. Two-thirds of the 513 deputies would have to vote for the Supreme Court to suspend the president for at least six months and put him on trial. Senators, however, do not expect Aras to move forward with charges against Bolsonaro. The inquiry also offers two alternatives for punishing Bolsonaro for crimes he allegedly committed. The first is a request for an impeachment proceeding that would join more than 100 others in the files of Speaker Arthur Lira, who has stymied several attempts to remove Bolsonaro from office. The second is to get a case against Bolsonaro at the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands, but there are no details on how or when that might occur. 

___ WHO ELSE COULD BE CHARGED?

 The Senate inquiry recommends charges against a total of 78 people and two companies. It includes Bolsonaro’s three eldest sons, Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, federal Deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro and Rio de Janeiro city council member Carlos Bolsonaro. All three are accused of spreading false information about the pandemic online. A former health minister, Gen. Eduardo Pazuello, and his successor, Marcelo Queiroga, are also on the list, which includes four other Cabinet ministers. The report also names Wilson Lima, governor of the state of Amazonas, and his health secretary. The Amazonas capital, Manaus, experienced severe shortages of oxygen supply at the beginning of the year, causing many COVID-19 patients to die breathless. Charges are also recommended for several businessmen who staunchly support Bolsonaro. 

___ WHAT ARE THE POLITICAL IMPLICATIONS?

 Bolsonaro faces a difficult reelection path for next October's election, and the probe is one of the reasons his popularity is at record lows. His nemesis, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, leads all polls to return to the office he held in 2003-2010. The end of the Senate inquiry gives some relief to the president, who won't have damaging daily news on the investigation being shown on primetime television. His allies in Congress are now expected to push for reforms and new measures to deal with another trigger for Bolsonaro's unpopularity — a sharp acceleration of inflation that has added to Brazil's economic woes with high unemployment. Barretto, the IDP law professor, says the recommendations of charges against Bolsonaro could affect his political future even more if he loses reelection. He notes other courts and prosecutors could prosecute the far-right politician for the same alleged crimes once he was out of office, regardless of the prosecutor-general's decision. They could also pursue charges of administrative dishonesty, a crime under Brazilian law that leads to a defendant losing his political rights for a conviction.

\

Satellites used to track methane leaks in climate fight

Issued on: 27/10/2021 

Gaslighting: A NASA illustration of methane lit up as is the greenhouse gas is emitted around the world Handout NASA/AFP/File


Paris (AFP)

A yellow streak representing high concentrations of methane, a dangerous greenhouse gas, is visible over southern Iraq on a map produced by Kayrros, a French firm that uses satellites to track leaks from fossil fuel facilities.

The source of the immense leak discovered in 2019 was never officially confirmed -- and it is only one of many.

The satellite map shows blotches of colour splattering the globe from the United States to Russia, and Algeria to Turkmenistan, bearing witness to poor maintenance in the oil and gas industry.

Methane (CH4) ranks number two in greenhouse gasses emitted after carbon dioxide (CO2). But while it receives less attention, it is extremely dangerous for the environment. By weight, it creates 28 times as much warming as CO2 over a century.

"We see huge leaks, intentional or unintentional releases that are linked to the production and transport of natural gas and petrol just about everywhere in the world," said Kayrros's Jean Bastin.

"Today we can track them and link them with events that can be avoided easily," he added.

Kayrros uses free data from Europe's Sentinel satellites to find and track the methane leaks.

The fossil fuel industry is an important source of methane emissions.

The International Energy Agency estimates that it emitted 120 million tonnes of methane last year, about a third of the amount linked to human activity. Moreover, much of that leaked methane can be easily prevented at little or no cost, it believes.

The IEA said in a recent report that it "estimates that more than 70 percent of current emissions from oil and gas operations are technically feasible to prevent and around 45 percent could typically be avoided at no net cost because the value of the captured gas is higher than the cost of the abatement measure."
'We see them'

The European Union and the United States are drafting an agreement to reduce methane emissions by at least 30 percent by 2030.

"That's completely feasible," Kayrros President Antoine Rostand said, pointing to the all too frequent practice of emptying gas left in pipelines into the atmosphere ahead of maintenance work.

Old and poorly maintained pipelines are the biggest culprit of leaks.

"Now that we see them, there's rising awareness," he said.

Kayrros works for the IEA as well as oil and gas producers who are seeking to improve their environmental practices.

It also counts among is clients investment funds who are seeking to evaluate the climate risks of the companies in which they invest, Rostand said.

The use of satellites is "one of the most recent and promising advances in understanding the level of methane emissions worldwide," the IEA said last year.

Previously companies had to set up networks of heat-sensitive cameras to catch methane leaks, which usually meant they had at best a partial view of the situation.

"A key advantage of satellites is that they can help locate large emitting sources promptly," it added.
Race to spot smaller leaks

McGill University Professor Mary Kang agreed that satellites can help reduce large leaks from the oil and gas industry infrastructure.

"However, I would say that it misses smaller leaks that can amount to a lot as well because there are many of them," she said.

Kayrros and its competitors are working to improve the sensitivity of their technology to detect smaller leaks.

The Canadian firm GHGSat is in the process of deploying a constellation of its own satellites that it says will be able to detect emissions 100 times smaller than some current satellites.

It already has three satellites in orbit and is deploying more.

The company is working with TotalEnergies to monitor the French firm's offshore oil and gas facilities, which have until now escaped monitoring as the sun reflecting off the sea disrupted readings.

The US pressure group Environmental Defense Fund plans to launch its own satellite, called MethaneSAT, in order to get even more detailed readings to find small leaks.

The satellite is scheduled to be placed into orbit by SpaceX in the autumn of 2022.

© 2021 AFP

UN says national climate targets 'fall far short'

The UN's latest Emissions Gap Report shows that the world is on track for a temperature rise of 2.7 degrees Celsius this century. Ahead of next week's COP26 climate summit, it said nations must act urgently.

"The heat is on" is the title of the new Emissions Gap Report published on Tuesday by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). The report analyzes the updated national climate plans — known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — of 120 countries.

The NDCs are at the core of the Paris Climate Agreement. All signatories are required to set national climate targets and regularly report on both their implementation and new targets.

The name of the UNEP's latest report says it all — and its findings are sobering. With the updated NDCs, greenhouse gas emissions will only see a reduction of 7.5% by 2030. But in order to achieve the goal of the Paris Agreement and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius/2.7 degrees Fahrenheit (compared to 1900 levels), greenhouse gases would have to fall by 55%.

'The clock is ticking loudly'

In other words, the world must cut its emissions by 28 gigatons of CO2 equivalent (GtCO2e) per year by 2030. To limit emissions to 2 C, countries would still have to reduce their climate-damaging emissions by 30%, or 13 GtCO2e.

"To be clear: we have eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts. The clock is ticking loudly," Inger Andersen, executive director of the UNEP, wrote in the report.

If, however, countries just stick to their own national climate targets, which they are allowed to set individually under the Paris Agreement, the world is on track for a temperature rise of 2.7 C.

"That would result in catastrophic climate change that we would not be able to cope with at all — that must be avoided at all costs," said Niklas Höhne, director of the Cologne-based nonprofit research organization New Climate Institute and professor of climate protection at Wageningen University in the Netherlands.

Pandemic was a missed opportunity

The UNEP report expressed disappointment that investments designed to stimulate the economy after the coronavirus pandemic had barely taken climate protection into consideration. According to the report, less than one-fifth of recovery packages are likely to contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a 5.4% drop in new emissions worldwide. At the same time, the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere reached a new high, according to a report from the World Meteorological Organization, the UN's weather and climate agency.

Compared to the previous year, the increase was even higher than the average rise over the past decade, the report said. Or, as the UNEP puts it: "CO2 concentrations are higher than at any time in the last 2 million years."


Natural greenhouse gas sinks, like the Amazon, can help offset emissions
Net-zero targets bring hope

According to the UNEP, the net-zero pledges made by a host of countries, including the United States, Japan, China, as well as the European Union, could make a significant difference.

Net zero means that for all of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by humans, the same amount must be removed from the atmosphere. Artificial and natural greenhouse gas sinks, such as peatlands or forests, can be offset against greenhouse gases emitted.

"If made robust and implemented fully, net-zero targets could shave an extra 0.5 C off global warming, bringing the predicted temperature rise down to 2.2 C," the UNEP report says. It is critical, however, of the fact that many countries are not planning to start working toward net-zero until after 2030.
An extreme world — even with a 2 C increase

Countries need to link long-term net-zero targets to their ongoing NDCs and move forward quickly, UNEP Executive Director Andersen urged in the report's foreword. "This can't happen in five years. Or in three years. This needs to start happening now," she said.

Even if global warming were stopped at 2 C, Niklas Höhne of the New Climate Institute said the world would be a changed place. "We are currently at a temperature increase of 1 C. And we're seeing droughts, forest dying, floods — like in [Germany's] Ahr Valley — and fires all over the world. An increase of 2 C means, as a first approximation, twice as many floods, twice as many extreme weather events."


Livestock farming is just one of the ways methane is released into the atmosphere
Potential in methane, carbon markets

The UNEP report sees another opportunity to close the gap between climate targets and the current reality, through the reduction of methane emissions.

Methane not only escapes during the extraction of fossil fuels, but is produced during the decomposition of organic waste, in the treatment of wastewater and through livestock farming and rice cultivation.

Though methane only lingers in the atmosphere for 12 years compared to up to centuries for CO2, it is much more potent and therefore significantly more harmful to the climate during its relatively short lifespan. As such, a rapid reduction of methane emissions could limit temperature rise faster in the short term than a drop in CO2, according to the report.

Mechanisms such as compensation payments to poorer countries or clearly defined and properly designed carbon markets could also lead to countries taking more ambitious climate protection measures, the UNEP authors wrote.

"We are so late to climate action that it is imperative that developed countries, in addition to efforts at home, help developing countries reduce emissions as quickly as possible. The emissions gap is so large that no country can sit back," Höhne said.

This year's Emissions Gap Report highlights not only failures but also the enormous potential for more climate action, wrote UNEP's Andersen. For example, policies implemented between 2010 and 2021 will lower annual emissions by 11 GtCO2e in 2030 compared to what would have happened without them.

Though she said "we should not despair," she also called on the world to "wake up to the imminent peril we face as a species. We need to go firm. We need to go fast. And we need to start doing it now."

This article has been adapted from German

Who are the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases?


Rob Waugh
·Contributor
Tue, 26 October 2021

China is by the far the biggest overall emitter of greenhouse gases. (Getty Images)

At this year’s United Nations COP26 climate conference, attempts to limit greenhouse gas emissions will be centre-stage.

Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases such as methane cause heat to become trapped in Earth’s atmosphere, leading to a warming effect.

Levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are more than 50% higher than before the Industrial Revolution, according to statistics from the Met Office.

In 2020, the global average temperature stood at 1.2C above pre-industrial levels, according to the World Meteorological Organisation’s State of the Global Climate 2020 report.

This year is the deadline for the 191 countries that signed up to the Paris Agreement in 2015 to agree to steeper emissions cuts known as nationally determined contributions.

To achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5C, carbon emissions must be halved by 2030.

Read more: A 1988 warning about climate change was mostly right

The 1.5C figure is considered important, because above that level of rise, there will be more heatwaves, extreme weather events and droughts – leading to economic losses, forced migration and loss of human life.

Total greenhouse gas emissions per year (Our World in Data/World Research Institute)

Carbon dioxide accounts for roughly 76% of carbon emissions, followed by methane (mostly from agriculture) at 16%, according to America’s Environmental Protection Agency.

But CO2 emissions vary widely by country, as well as by industry, with 60% of global CO2 emissions coming from the power and industry sector, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Which countries emit the most greenhouse gases?

China emitted 11.58 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2016, compared to the US's 5.83 billion tonnes, according to data from Our World in Data and the World Resources Institute.

India emitted 3.24 billion tonnes, and Russia emitted 2.39 billion tonnes (see chart below).

Gas emissions by country in 2016 (Our World in Data/World Research Institute)

China is by far the world’s biggest contributor to greenhouse gas levels, emitting more than the entire developed world combined in 2019, according to research by Rhodium Group.

President Xi Jinping is not likely to attend the COP26 talks, Chinese officials have warned Boris Johnson.

The Chinese leader is not thought to have left China since March 2020: instead, China’s special envoy on climate change Xie Zhenhua will be in attendance.

This poses a problem at the COP26 conference: China, India, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, which are together responsible for around a third of global emissions, have not yet come forward with new emissions goals.
Which countries emit the most greenhouse gas per capita?

While China, which has the world’s largest population, is the biggest overall emitter, it is not in the top 10 countries with the highest emissions per capita.

The world’s largest per capita CO2 emitters tend to be major oil-producing countries, particularly those with small populations such as Qatar and Kuwait.

Guyana has become the world’s greatest per capita emitter after the discovery of a major offshore oil and gas field.

Greenhouse gas emission by country per capita (Our World in Data)

Guyana's petroleum development is just beginning, although politicians in the country claim the revenue from the oil will help investment in renewable and alternative energy sources.

In terms of total carbon emitted over time, China is in second place to the US, according to research by Carbon Brief.

Carbon Brief’s analysis of total carbon emissions by countries around the world since 1850 shows that the US is the biggest polluter in history, with China close behind.

The UK ranks in eighth place.

Carbon Brief found that humans have pumped a total around 2,500 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere since 1850 (taking into account both industrial emissions and emissions due to changes in land use) – with the US responsible for 20% of this total.
Which industries emit the most carbon dioxide?

Three-quarters of greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy sector (including energy for transport, heating buildings and use in industry), according to statistics from Our World in Data and the World Resources Institute.

Transport represents 16.2% of greenhouse gas emissions, with 1.9% from the aviation sector alone, mostly in the form of CO2.

Greenhouse gas emissions by sector (Our World in Data/World Research Institute)

In agriculture (responsible for 18.4% of global emissions), 4.1% of total global emissions comes from agricultural soils, where nitrous oxide (a greenhouse gas) is emitted when nitrogen fertilisers are applied to soils.

Another 5.8% of the global total comes from livestock and manure, from animals such as cattle and sheep that produce large amounts of methane as they digest grass.

UN chief: ‘Leadership gap’ undermines global climate efforts

By FRANK JORDANS

In this long time exposure photo, trucks and cars roll on a highway in Frankfurt, Germany, Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

BERLIN (AP) — The head of the United Nations says a “leadership gap” is undermining the world’s efforts to curb global warming, days before presidents and prime ministers from around the globe gather for a climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Tuesday that time is running out to cut greenhouse gas emissions and meet the goals of the 2015 Paris accord to avert global warming that he said could become “an existential threat to humanity.”

“The clock is ticking,” he said in New York at the presentation of a U.N. report highlighting the difference between what scientists say is needed and what countries are doing to reduce the amount of greenhouse gas being pumped into the atmosphere. “This is a moment of truth.”

“The emissions gap is the result of a leadership gap,” Guterres said. “But leaders can still make this a turning point to a greener future instead of a tipping point to climate catastrophe. ”

The new report by the U.N. Environment Programme found fresh pledges by governments to cut emissions are raising hopes but aren’t strict enough to keep global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.

It concluded that recent announcements by dozens of countries to aim for “net-zero” emissions by 2050 could, if fully implemented, limit a global temperature rise to 2.2 degrees Celsius (4 F). That’s closer but still above the less stringent target agreed upon in the Paris climate accord of capping global warming at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 F) compared to pre-industrial times.

“Every ton of carbon dioxide emissions adds to global warming,” French climate scientist Valerie Masson-Delmotte, who co-chaired an August U.N. climate science report, told the United Nations on Tuesday. “The climate we experience in the future depends on our decisions now.”

The European Union, the United States and dozens of other countries have set net-zero emissions targets. However, the UNEP report said the net-zero goals that many governments announced ahead of a U.N. climate summit in Glasgow next week remain vague, with much of the heavy lifting on emissions cuts pushed beyond 2030.

Guterres said scientists were clear on the facts of climate change, adding that “now, leaders need to be just as clear in their actions.”

“They need to come to Glasgow with bold, time-bound, front-loaded plans to reach net zero,” he said.

Guterres made a direct plea to China, the top carbon polluter, to make carbon-cutting efforts go faster than previously proposed because “that would have an influence on several other countries.” China hasn’t updated its required emissions cut pledge.

The report came out as the U.N. General Assembly focused on climate change in a marathon session of speeches Tuesday. The presidents of vulnerable island nations Palau and the Maldives used the opportunity to plea for the world to do more because their countries are at risk of being wiped out.

“Our homes, our blue economy, our heath and our overall well-being have been ravaged by the climate crisis,” Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. told the General Assembly. “We must take radical action now.”

“The fate of small islands today is the fate of the world tomorrow,” Maldives President Ibrahim Solih said.

Australia became the latest country to announce a net-zero target on Tuesday, but experts swiftly pointed out that it doesn’t stack up.

The U.N. Environment Programme is one of several agencies to examine the gap between government pledges and the Paris goals. Its executive director echoed the need for speed on curbing emissions.

“To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5 C, we have eight years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions,” said Inger Andersen. “Eight years to make the plans, put in place the policies, implement them and ultimately deliver the cuts.”

Leaders, diplomats, scientists and environmental activists will meet in Glasgow from Oct. 31-Nov. 12 to discuss how countries and businesses can adjust their targets to avert the more extreme climate change scenarios that would result in a significant sea-level rise, more frequent wild weather and more droughts.

Guterres said he would use a trip to the Group of 20 meeting in Italy to press all countries, including major emerging economies such as China, to do more on climate change.

“If there is no meaningful reduction of emissions in the next decade, we will have lost forever the possibility of reaching 1.5 degrees,” he said.

Guterres said past climate summits had acknowledged that while all countries have to curb emissions, some are more able to do so than others, with leadership coming from the richest and most developed.

“But the level of emissions of the emerging economies is such that we also need the emerging economies to go an extra mile,” he said. “Only if everybody does the maximum, it will be possible to get there.”

The UNEP report emphasized several measures that can help boost efforts to curb global warming, including clamping down on emissions of the potent but short-lived greenhouse gas methane. It also emphasized the need to ensure pandemic recovery funds are spent on environmentally friendly measures.

The report found that most countries have missed the opportunity to use COVID-19 recovery spending to stimulate the economy while backing climate action.

“Despite these alarm bells ringing at fever pitch, we see new evidence today in the (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report that governments’ actions so far simply do not add up to what is so desperately needed,” Guterres told diplomats later Tuesday.

___

Seth Borenstein in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s climate coverage at http://apnews.com/hub/climate

Scientists fear global 'cascade' of climate impacts by 2030

by Ruth Douglas, SciDev.Net

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Climate hazards such as extreme heat, drought and storms could trigger "cascading impacts" that may be felt around the world within the next decade, warns a study released ahead of the UN climate summit, COP26.

Increasingly frequent extreme weather events could lead to more food insecurity, displacement of people, and conflict within vulnerable countries by 2030, with knock-on effects for whole regions and the global economy, according to the report by UK-based policy institute Chatham House.

The ten "hazard-impact pathways" of greatest near-term concern all relate to Africa or Asia, the report says, referring to the chain of impacts triggered by climate-related events.

However, the repercussions of these hazards may be far-reaching, it suggests.

The research drew on the views of more than 200 climate scientists and other specialists to assess which immediate climate hazards and impacts should most concern decision-makers in the coming decade.

"One of the really concerning things that the research highlighted was that [climate change] impacts aren't confined to the vulnerable place where they happen," said Ruth Townend, a research fellow with the environment and society program at Chatham House and co-author of the report, What near-term climate impacts should worry us the most?

"But the vulnerability of the place where they happen means impacts are bigger than they might otherwise be.

"They then cascade and have knock-on impacts and sort of chain reactions … that are global in their nature, or at least cover large regions."

Adaptation finance

Researchers say the findings, released ahead of COP26 in Glasgow (31 October–12 November), show that it is in the interests of wealthy nations to finance climate adaptation in the most at-risk regions, where action is urgently needed to address socioeconomic vulnerabilities to climate impacts.

Wealthy nations have so far failed to deliver on pledges made at the 2009 climate conference in Copenhagen of at least US$100 billion a year in climate finance to support developing nations in tackling climate change.

"With COP26 coming up, all eyes are focused on … what can be achieved, particularly in terms of cutting emissions, but one of the key findings of the report is that … in the near-term one of the most important things is addressing issues of adaptation," said Townend.

"If we don't act in the 2020s to help vulnerable countries cope with the climate change that is already happening, and will continue to happen, then we're going to incur wildly spiraling costs in terms of dealing with those disasters in the near future."

Concerns highlighted by the climate scientists and other specialists included heightened food insecurity in South and South-East Asia, and Australasia, as well as reduced food security globally arising from multiple climate hazards leading to "breadbasket failures."

"You have these key breadbasket regions which export grain to other areas and they play this really important role of stabilizing food supply," said Townend. "So, if your harvest fails, you're able to buy in grain from outside and that means people don't go hungry and the impacts are confined, but … if those breadbasket regions get hit, that safety net is taken away from the whole region and that can increase global food prices."

Loss and damage

Daniel Quiggin, senior research fellow at Chatham House and lead author of the report, said: "Lack of resilience in the agricultural sector, as well as widespread poverty and inequality in developing nations, most notably in Africa, will exacerbate the impacts of climate change and drive cascading effects across borders.

"Without more aid for adaptation and poverty reduction, food insecurity due to extreme heat, drought, storm damage and multiple crop failures could result in political instability and conflict and drive increased migration to Southern Europe."

The paper calls for the development of a comprehensive climate risk register that charts the communities most vulnerable to climate hazards, the potential cascading risks, and what can be done to increase resilience.

"The key thing that we're saying in this report is that by addressing those issues of vulnerability, we can actually prevent really appalling climate disasters from occurring in this decade," added Townend.

Ritu Bharadwaj, climate governance and finance senior researcher at the International Institute for Environment and Development, said finance for climate 'loss and damage' would be one of the key issues to address at COP26. "It is happening now and vulnerable countries and communities around the world are losing their lives, their livelihoods, their homes—they're getting displaced," she told a SciDev.Net debate last week, adding: "These issues will only escalate as climate change impacts get worse.Pentagon, intelligence agencies detail climate threat to security

Provided by SciDev.Net

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Outrage over Israel’s building of a Jerusalem park over Palestinian cemetery


Issued on: 27/10/2021 - 

Israeli border police detain a Palestinian man during a protest against Israel’s building of a Jerusalem park which they say encroaches on a centuries-old Muslim graveyard near Old City wall, in Jerusalem October 26, 2021. The municipality says graves will not be disturbed. © Ammar Awad, REUTERS

Sobbing and trying to cling to her son’s gravestone, Palestinian Jerusalemite Ola Nababteh was dragged away from Al-Yusufiyah cemetery by Israeli police as a digger truck levelled land for a new park behind her

Palestinians say the project encroaches on a centuries-old Muslim graveyard beneath the eastern wall of Jerusalem's Old City. Israel captured East Jerusalem including the Old City in a 1967 war and later annexed it in a move not recognised internationally.

The Israeli municipality says authorised burial sites in the cemetery will not be harmed. But the unearthing of human bones when construction for the park began this month stirred panic among families like Nababteh's with loved ones interred at Al-Yusufiyah.

"Over my dead body - my son will not be removed from here," Nababteh told Reuters on Tuesday, a day after Israeli police removed her from the graveyard.

Arieh King, a Jerusalem deputy mayor, said there was never any intent to move the grave and that police had evacuated Nababteh because she was too close to construction.

The remains found this month were not in an authorised gravesite and "had been buried illicitly in the ground many years ago," he told Reuters, adding that the park would provide Palestinians with easier access to the Old City.

Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, said the park, due to open in mid-2022, is an assault on the cemetery.

"The graves of human beings cannot be violated no matter the gender, nationality or religion,” he said.

Palestinians want East Jerusalem for the capital of a state they seek in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which abuts the city, and the Gaza Strip. Israel regards Jerusalem as its eternal and indivisible capital.

(REUTERS)

TOOK LONG ENOUGH

In Biden shift, US denounces Israel on settlements

Issued on: 26/10/2021 -


Washington (AFP)

The United States on Tuesday forcefully criticized Israel for the first time in years on its settlements, with President Joe Biden's administration saying it "strongly" opposed new construction on the West Bank.

The reaction comes after four years under Donald Trump in which the United States offered a green light to Israel's activity on occupied Palestinian land, with his secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, touring a settlement at the end of his tenure.

The State Department under Biden had repeatedly warned against settlement construction and on Tuesday sharply criticized Israel after it moved ahead.

"We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government's plan to advance thousands of settlement units" on Wednesday as well as tenders published Sunday for more than 1,300 homes, State Department spokesman Ned Price said.


"We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution," he told reporters.

"We also view plans for the retroactive legalization of illegal outposts as unacceptable."

Price stopped short of saying the decision would jeopardize relations with Israel. But he said that the administration would "raise this issue directly with senior Israeli officials in our private sessions."

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is a right-winger close to the settlement movement, although he leads a coalition with centrists who seek to preserve stable relations with the United States.

Housing Minister Zeev Elkin is part of the right-wing New Hope party and said the settlements were "essential to the Zionist vision" of strengthening Jewish presence in the West Bank.

Gap in US

Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh had urged Washington to "confront" Israel on the settlements, which he described as "aggression."

About 475,000 Israeli Jews live in settlements in the West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law, on land Palestinians claim as part of their future state.

The Trump administration, which was backed by evangelical Christians who see biblical reasons for supporting a Jewish homeland, revised longstanding State Department guidance and said it did not consider settlements illegal.

It was a sharp shift from the previous Democratic administration of Barack Obama who faced open criticism from Israel's veteran right-wing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, particularly over US diplomacy with Iran.

In one of its last acts, the Obama administration declined to exercise the routine US veto at the UN Security Council and allowed a resolution against Israeli settlements to pass through.

While Biden has long ties with the Jewish state, many in his Democratic Party have increasingly opposed Israeli policies, especially under Netanyahu.

In June, dozens of Democratic lawmakers wrote an open letter to Biden urging him to "consistently and proactively" issue "firm public condemnations" of actions that could jeopardize the peace process.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, a centrist who engineered the coalition to oust Netanyahu, accused the previous government of putting Israel at risk through a partisan alliance with Trump and has pledged to work through disagreements quietly.

Lapid last month proposed a development plan for the impoverished Gaza Strip, which is controlled by Islamist militants Hamas who fought a war with Israel in May, but conceded that the idea was not supported across the government.

© 2021 AFP

Gas giants: Can we stop cows from emitting so much methane?

Myriam LEMETAYER
Tue, 26 October 2021

Gas giants: Can we stop cows from emitting so much methane? (AFP/Lou BENOIST)

That cow may look peaceful and harmless, munching on some grass in a verdant pasture.

But don't be fooled -- it is emitting methane, a particularly potent greenhouse gas contributing to runaway global climate change.

Agriculture is responsible for 12 percent of global man-made greenhouse gas emissions, much of it due to methane, the second most warming gas after carbon dioxide.


Methane is around 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas over a 100-year period, but it stays in the atmosphere for only 12 years compared to centuries.

So drastically reducing methane emissions could have a major impact in mitigating the damage expected from global warming in the coming decades.

Agriculture and livestock farming generate around 40 percent of the methane related to human activities, the rest produced by the fossil fuel industry.

Much of that methane is produced by the digestive process in cows, which then burp the emissions out into the world.

Around 95 percent of the methane produced by cows come from their mouths or nostrils.

So how can we reduce the danger being belched out by cows across the world every day?

Who, me?: New tactics are being investigated to try to curb the methane emissions of cows

- Cows with masks -

US agricultural giant Cargill, partnering with British start-up ZELP (Zero Emissions Livestock Project), has developed a form of mask that covers cows' nostrils.

The device filters the methane, transforming it into carbon dioxide, which per molecule has a much less potent effect on global warming.

Ghislain Boucher, head of the ruminant team at Cargill's animal nutrition subsidiary Provimi, said the first results were "interesting".

"Methane emissions have been reduced by half," he told AFP.

However the device still needs to be tested in real-world conditions before it can be marketed late next year -- or even in 2023.

In the short term, Cargill is starting to market in northern Europe a calcium nitrate food additive, saying that 200 grammes daily would reduce cow methane emissions by 10 percent.

The additional cost is estimated to be "between 10 and 15 cents per cow per day," Boucher said at a breeding gathering in central France.

- Seaweed to the rescue? -

Adding red seaweed to cow feed has far more potential, according to a US study published earlier this year, which indicated it could reduce methane emissions by more than 80 percent.

If the results can be repeated, red seaweed would need to grown in vast quantities, preferably near farming areas, the researchers at University of California Davis said.

However a question looms over the issue: how will farmers react to paying more for such measures which do not add to their bottom line, unless they are reimbursed via some kind of carbon credit?

It is also uncertain how consumers will respond. For example, will Americans who prefer corn-fed beef be as partial to the seaweed-fed variety?

And perhaps the easiest way to reduce cow methane emissions is for the world to eat less beef and diary.

A report by the United Nations Environment Programme in May pointed out that technological measures have a "limited potential to address" methane emissions from the agriculture sector.

"Three behavioural changes, reducing food waste and loss, improving livestock management, and the adoption of healthy diets (vegetarian or with a lower meat and dairy content) could reduce methane emissions by 65-80 million tonnes a year over the next few decades," it said.

myl/ico/dl/rl

Orkney's seaweed-eating sheep offer hopes of greener farming

Issued on: 27/10/2021 -

The ultra-remote island of North Ronaldsay may boast only around 60 people -- but it is home to what scientists say could be a breakthrough in cutting planet-warming methane emissions -- seaweed for its distinctive sheep Adrian DENNIS AFP


North Ronaldsay (Orkney) (Royaume-Uni) (AFP)

On a tiny island in Scotland's far-flung Orkneys, thousands of sheep spend the winter munching on seaweed, a unique diet that scientists say offers hope for reducing planet-warming methane emissions.

Around 60 people share North Ronaldsay -- an island just over 3 miles (5 kilometres) long, ringed by rocky beaches and turquoise waters off the north coast of mainland Britain -- with the distinctive native sheep.

Boasting brown, beige or black wool, the animals are hemmed into its foreshore owing to a large system of stone walls -- called a sheep dyke -- built in the early 19th century to keep them away from fields and roads.

The island's crofters -- people who live and work on so-called croft agricultural land -- wanted to use every available space to grow crops and as pasture for cows.

The unintended result: in summer the sheep can nibble on grass, but by winter eating the plentiful seaweed is their only means of survival.

While some other mammals -- including Shetland ponies native to the neighbouring island chain, and red deer -- are known to snack on seaweed, scientists say that the North Ronaldsay sheep are unique worldwide for spending months eating only the marine plants.

Methane reduction

With the world facing a deepening climate emergency, they are increasingly seen by some as a case study that could lead to a breakthrough in methods for raising livestock, which is a major source of greenhouse gases.

Farm animals belch and fart methane gas which, though trivial sounding, is about 30 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Given the vast scale of the global meat industry, the issue has become a major focus for climate scientists -- just as world leaders prepare to gather in the Scottish city Glasgow from Sunday for the crucial COP26 summit.

The seaweed diet of the Orkney sheep has an effect on their complex digestive system and appears to reduce the amount of methane produced.

"There's different components in the seaweed that actually interfere with the process (of) how methane is made," said Gordon McDougall, a researcher at The James Hutton Institute in Dundee in eastern Scotland who has been examining the sheep's diet for two decades.

Researchers at The University of California, Davis, published results in March showing that a "bit of seaweed in cattle feed could reduce methane emissions from beef cattle as much as 82 percent".

David Beattie, another James Hutton Institute scientist, stressed there is huge interest in such innovation.

"There's a really big movement within the industry to try and cut out the carbon footprint that the industry as a whole has," he told AFP.

"I see seaweed playing a part in that."

Scale

This would not necessarily mean cows and sheep switching to a diet entirely comprised of seaweed like the North Ronaldsay sheep, but it could supplement their usual feed.

Seaweed is not available in large enough quantities to feed so many animals, McDougall noted, and taking away too much from the sea could also damage the environment and ecosystems.

But the marine plants -- good sources of minerals, vitamins and omega-3 fatty acids -- could partly replace soy, which is heavily used in animal feed but transported for thousands of miles and linked to deforestation.

Researchers still need to determine the types and quantities of seaweed which could be best suited to adding to feed.

"And then, can you scale that up to a level where you'd actually have an effect on the overall UK farming?" said McDougall.

The plump North Ronaldsay sheep, who chow down strands of seaweed as if they were spaghetti, are set to keep providing a useful case study.

© 2021 AFP

Kiwi boffins aim to clear the air on livestock emissions

Tucked away in rural New Zealand, a multi-million dollar research facility is working to slash the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by farm animals -- saving the world one belch at a time (AFP/Marty MELVILLE)

Neil SANDS
Tue, October 26, 2021

Tucked away in rural New Zealand, a multi-million dollar research facility is working to slash the greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere by farm animals -- saving the world one belch at a time.

Cattle and sheep are kept in perspex pens for two days per session as scientists carefully analyse every burp and fart that emerges from them at the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre.

"I never thought I'd make my living measuring the gas that comes out of animals' breath," the facility's director Harry Clark told AFP.

The UN says agricultural livestock accounts for 14.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions generated by human activity and the centre -- regarded as a world leader in livestock emissions research -- is hopeful it can play a key role in tackling the problem.

How authorities ended up funding the project to the tune of NZ$10 million (US$7.0 million) a year is a story of economic necessity and changing attitudes to climate change.

But it begins in the gut of ruminant livestock, which use microbes to partially digest their food by fermenting it in a compartment of their stomach before regurgitating it to be chewed as cud.

The process results in copious amounts of methane -- a gas that has more than 80 times the 'global warming potential' of carbon dioxide, across 20 years according to the UN Economic Commission.

There are estimated to be 1.5 billion cows on the planet, with each one capable of producing 500 litres (132 gallons) of the gas each day.

In addition, livestock urine produces nitrous oxide, another powerful climate pollutant.

- 'Tantalising' methane vaccine' -

New Zealand's farm-reliant economy means its proportion of agricultural emissions is much higher, accounting for around half of its greenhouse gases.

At Clark's centre in Palmerston North, the major focus is on livestock methane, which accounts for almost 36 percent of the country's total.

"New Zealand has a specific problem and it's imperative we give farmers the tools and technologies to reduce their emissions," Clark said.

The facility, which is vetted by an ethics committee, is exploring research that includes selective breeding programmes to develop bloodlines of animals that naturally produce less gas.

Sheep have been bred that produce 10 percent less methane than average and Clark said researchers were trying to produce similar results with cattle.

Other projects include putting emission-inhibiting additives in livestock feed and even developing a harness or mask with filters that capture methane before it leaves the animal's mouth.

But Clark said perhaps the most exciting prospect being developed in Palmerston North is a vaccine that reduces methane by targeting the microbes in the gut that produce the gas.

"It's tantalisingly close, in the sense that it works in the laboratory but it doesn't work in the animal yet," he said, adding such a vaccine could be easily administered to flocks and herds worldwide, with an immediate impact on global emissions.

It is a growing area of research globally: In the US, researchers are experimenting with probiotics for cattle, while in India, scientists are adding supplements to feed -- with the aim of reducing the amount of methane produced.

But critics warn this approach offers only short term benefits and "band-aid" solutions to major problems.

"Reducing methane output while breeding still more methane-producing animals ignores animal suffering, deforestation, and the increased risk of diseases -- including zoonotic viruses -- all associated with animal agriculture," said Aleesha Naxakis, spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).

- Global shift -

New Zealand’s government has committed to reducing livestock methane 10 percent by 2030 and 24-47 percent by 2050, compared with 2017 levels.

But some have questioned why the lucrative agricultural sector is treated differently to the rest of the economy, which has been set a target of zero net emissions by 2050.

Monitoring website Climate Action Tracker rates New Zealand’s climate policies as "highly insufficient", citing the methane carve out as one of the main reasons.

"As we look toward COP26, unless governments take immediate steps to transition our global food system away from animals and towards plants, we’re setting fire to the only home we have," warned Naxakis.

Clark conceded 'getting rid of livestock, and eating more plant-based foods' would reduce agricultural emissions and make both people and the planet healthier, but said the situation was more complex.

He said pursuing such a major shift, rather than working to lower livestock emissions, would have significant economic and social consequences on the sector worldwide.

Clark added that the government's funding of research into livestock emissions was only partly to do with New Zealand's reliance on the sector.

"Sure there's an element of self interest, but there's a bit of altruism there as well," he said.

"If we can find solutions that are applicable elsewhere, that help tackle emissions in China, the US, or wherever, then New Zealand could make a major contribution, as a small nation, to the global effort to reduce emissions."

ns/hr/lto