Cracks detected around land near mine and sinkhole in Chile

Thu, August 18, 2022 

SANTIAGO, Aug 18 (Reuters) - New cracks were detected in the ground near a sinkhole around a copper mine owned by Canada's Lundin Mining Corp. in Chile, but the company said Thursday that the cracks are unrelated to the hole or mining activity.

The discovery in Chile's northern Atacama region has drawn attention to the arid region while authorities investigate the possible causes.

"The cracks detected on land near the Alcaparrosa mine are an unrelated incident to the sinkhole and we stress that there are no underground mining operations or populated communities in the nearby area," Ojos del Salado mining company, a division of Lundin, said in a statement.

"The source of their formation is currently under study," the company added.

Chile's SMA environmental regulator ordered this week "urgent and transitory" measures as investigations advance into the origin of the sinkhole 36.5 meters in diameter in the municipality of Tierra Amarilla, some 665 kilometers to the north of the Chilean capital.

The government has said it intends to bring harsh penalties against those responsible for the sinkhole, suggesting it could be linked to over-mining.

Lundin owns 80% of the property, while the remaining 20% is held by Japan's Sumitomo Metal Mining and Sumitomo Corporation. 

(Reporting by Fabian Andres Cambero;Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)

COWS BURP FOR FREE
The new US climate law has a gigantic methane leak

DONNA HENDREN/FIVE RIVERS CATTLE

Methane from livestock burps and farts is not covered by the new fee.

By Tim McDonnell
Published August 18, 2022

The Inflation Reduction Act, the biggest climate bill in US history, marks a turning point in the battle against methane. It imposes a fee of $900 per metric ton of methane emissions starting in 2024, rising to $1,500 by 2026. It’s the first time the US has imposed a fee or tax on any form of greenhouse gas emissions.

The only problem is: The fee won’t apply to most of the country’s methane emissions.

Methane is the sneaky, dangerous cousin of carbon dioxide. Although accounting for only 11% of US greenhouse gas emissions by volume, methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet, and responsible for up to 30% of the observed increase in global temperatures since the pre-industrial era. Methane emissions are not regulated in the US, and are only sporadically measured and reported by the companies that produce them—predominantly those in the fossil fuel and livestock industries.

But the new law covers only the oil and gas sectors, which account for about one-third of emissions. Farting and burping cows, landfills, and other sources can still let loose freely.

How effective is the new methane fee?

The methane fee also applies only to sources that emit more than the equivalent of 25,000 metric tons of CO2 per year. According to an analysis by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), that threshold applies to 2,172 facilities—including wells, pipelines, and storage facilities—that together account for just 43% of the oil and gas sector’s total methane emissions.

Even that number is an over-estimate, because the law allows facilities to get away with a certain percentage of emissions for free, depending on the type of facility it is. For the biggest sources, that discount could shave a third off the total covered emissions, according to CRS.

Moreover, rather than directly measuring emissions, companies are allowed to self-report based on a federally approved estimation method that relies on assumptions about average emissions from certain types of equipment. Depending on how that method is applied, companies can dramatically underreport their emissions. Even in a generous interpretation, the federal method undercounts real methane emissions by up to 60%, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

But methane remains in the new law’s sights in other ways. The government will make available provides $1.5 billion for research and development into methods to monitor methane emissions and plug leaky infrastructure. Federal regulators are also finalizing a broader set of rules to require oil and gas companies to monitor and reduce their methane emissions (although such regulations are notoriously vulnerable to legal challenges and could be thrown out by a future presidential administration).

Perhaps companies’ strongest incentive is the market itself: With natural gas prices reaching record heights, any methane (the main chemical component of natural gas) lost to the atmosphere through leaks or intentional flaring is money flying away.

Fact-check: Does a cow emit more pollution than a car?

Andy Nguyen, PolitiFact.com
Wed, August 17, 2022 

Viral Facebook post: "Bill Gates and AOC say that a cow emits more pollution than a car."

PolitiFact's ruling: False

Here's why: Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., have talked in the past about the pressing need for governments and corporations to take climate change seriously, including the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the agriculture industry.

One Facebook post took this a step further by claiming the two said "a cow emits more pollution than a car."

The post features an image of Gates and Ocasio-Cortez with a cartoon illustration of a cow. Underneath the image is text that makes a reference to using an idling car in an enclosed space for carbon monoxide poisoning.

"How bout I spend the night in a garage with a cow, and they spend the night in a garage with a running car," text underneath the image reads. "Then we can meet up the next morning to discuss."

Variations of the claim have popped up elsewhere on social media.

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.
Greenhouse gas emissions from cows and cars

The emissions coming from a cow and those from a car are not one in the same.

A cow produces methane gas when partially digested food like grass is fermented within the rumen, one of a cow’s four stomach compartments. That gas is built up during fermentation and expelled by the cow through belching and, occasionally, flatulence.

Cars with internal combustion engines primarily produce carbon dioxide as a byproduct when fuel is burned to provide energy.

A single cow will expel an average of 220 pounds of methane per year, according to the University of California, Davis.

Meanwhile, the Environmental Protection Agency reports that a typical car will emit an average of 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

Methane gas is nearly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to contributing to climate change, UC Davis reports.

Despite methane's potency, it only lasts for about 12 years in the atmosphere before a majority of it is removed through oxidation. Experts at UC Davis theorize that it’s possible the amount of methane that cows emit into the atmosphere is the same as the amount that breaks down.

As for carbon dioxide, the university said it can last anywhere from several hundred to a thousand years in the Earth's atmosphere before breaking down. Meaning the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will continue to build up more and more in the atmosphere and will take centuries before disappearing.

There are an estimated 253 million passenger cars and trucks within the U.S., with about 1.8 million of them being electric powered. The U.S. has around 91.9 million head of cattle.
What Gates and Ocasio-Cortez have said about cows and climate change

A spokesperson for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation told PolitiFact Gates has never said anything about cows producing more pollution than cars. Although a representative for Ocasio-Cortez’s office did not return a request for comment, we could not find any public remarks or written statements similar to the claim in the Facebook post made by the congresswoman.

However, both have talked in the past about the link between the agriculture industry and climate change.

Gates published a research paper in October 2021 detailing the need to make green technologies more affordable and accessible than their carbon-emitting counterparts. He mentioned in the report that livestock contributed 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions while passenger cars emitted 7%.

Gates has also previously talked about the possibility of developed nations transitioning entirely to eating synthetic beef to help reduce the need for livestock, thereby lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Ocasio-Cortez briefly came under fire in 2019 when an FAQ shared by her office regarding the Green New Deal, a proposed resolution she co-sponsored to help address climate change, included a line about "farting cows."

"We set a goal to get to net-zero, rather than zero emissions, in 10 years because we aren’t sure that we’ll be able to fully get rid of farting cows and airplanes that fast," the FAQ said.

The mention of "farting cows" did not appear in the resolution itself.

The resolution also mentioned the need to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, but makes no comparison to the emission of cars with those of cows.

Similar to Gates, Ocasio-Cortez has also advocated for the need to eat less meat and dairy products as a way to help address climate change.

She’s made statements about it on social media and in an interview on the canceled Showtime series "Desus & Mero."

"It’s not to say you get rid of agriculture. It’s not to say we’re going to force everybody to go vegan or anything crazy like that," she said on the show. "But it’s to say, listen, we’ve got to address factory farming. Maybe we shouldn’t be eating a hamburger for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
Our ruling

A Facebook post claims Gates Ocasio-Cortez said cows emitted more pollution than cars.

Although both have talked about climate change in the past and the roles that fossil fuels and livestock play in greenhouse gas emissions, neither have said anything resembling the claim in the Facebook post.

The methane emitted by cows is more potent in contributing to climate change, but it breaks down in the atmosphere considerably more quickly than the carbon dioxide from cars.

We rate the Facebook post False.

This article was originally posted on PolitiFact.com.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Fact-check: Does a cow emit more pollution than a car?

ETHNIC CLEANSING

Israeli forces kill Palestinian youth in West Bank clashes, medics say

JERUSALEM, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed a Palestinian youth in predawn clashes in the Israeli-occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, Palestinian medics said.

At least 30 Palestinians were wounded, four of whom were shot with live ammunition and three of whom were in critical condition, the Palestine Red Crescent said.

Palestinian medics identified the man who was killed as Waseem Khalifa, 18, from Balata, the largest refugee camp in the West Bank.

Witnesses said clashes erupted when Israeli forces arrived to protect Jewish worshippers visiting Joseph's Tomb, a site that has been a flashpoint.

The Israeli military told Reuters it was checking on the incident.

According to Israeli media, armed Palestinians exchanged fire with Israeli soldiers around the site. No Israeli casualties were reported.

Last week, three Palestinian gunmen were killed in a shootout with Israeli forces in the northern city of Nablus. It was the deadliest incident in the West Bank since Israel and the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad ended three days of fighting in Gaza, the worst in more than a year.

Israeli jets pounded the Gaza Strip in what the military said was a pre-emptive attack aimed at preventing an imminent threat to Israel.

At least 49 people were killed in Gaza, including civilians and children, and hundreds more were wounded during 56 hours of fighting, which also saw more than 1,000 rockets launched towards Israel by the Islamic Jihad.

Israeli forces have carried out near-daily raids in the West Bank in recent months after men from the area carried out deadly street attacks in Israel.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Additional reporting and writing by Henriette Chacar; Editing by Gerry Doyle)

ZIONIST TERROR

Israeli forces raid Palestinian NGOs, UN criticises 'arbitrary' move
 

  

Funeral of Palestinian who was killed by Israeli forces during clashes in a raid, in Nablus
 

A Palestinian man stands inside of the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, in Ramallah in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank

 

A Palestinian woman walks next to a broken door of the Andrews Episcopal Church, in Ramallah in the Israeli-Occupied West Bank


Wed, August 17, 2022 
By James Mackenzie

JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Israel closed seven Palestinian organisations it accuses of channelling aid to militant groups on Thursday, drawing condemnation from the United Nations, which said the closures appeared "totally arbitrary".

Security forces raided offices of the non-governmental groups in the West Bank, confiscating computers and equipment before sealing off entrances, Palestinian witnesses and officials said.

The Israeli military said the groups were used by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a group it has designated a terrorist organisation. Israel has previously declared six of the groups as terrorist organisations.

The designation, which has drawn criticism from the United Nations and human rights watchdogs, was ratified on Wednesday for three of them. The United Nations called for the designations to be revoked.

"Despite offers to do so, Israeli authorities have not presented to the United Nations any credible evidence to justify these declarations," the UN Human Rights Office said in a statement. "As such, the closures appear totally arbitrary."

The U.S. State Department said Israel had told the United States it would provide more information on the reasons behind the decision to close the organizations after Washington contacted Israeli officials.

"We will review what is provided to us and come to our own conclusion," State Department spokesperson Ned Price said.

Nine European Union countries have said they will continue working with the groups, citing a lack of evidence for the Israeli accusation.

The UN identified the groups as the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association; Al Haq; Bisan Center for Research and Development; Defense for Children International – Palestine; Health Work Committees (HWC); Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC); and the Union of Palestinian Women's Committees (UPWC).

EARLIER TENSIONS

Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz reiterated Israel's claim that the organisations had operated undercover to serve the PFLP, which has carried out deadly attacks on Israelis and which the United States and the EU regard as a terrorist organisation.

"They also assist in raising funds for the terrorist organisation via a variety of methods that include forgery and fraud," Gantz said.

Palestinian officials condemned the move, which Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said was invalid.

"These are legal institutions that work under the law," Shtayyeh told reporters during a visit to the office of Al-Haq in Ramallah.

Earlier, Palestinians clashed with Israeli forces arriving to guard Jewish worshippers visiting Joseph's Tomb, a shrine in the West Bank city of Nablus. The site has seen repeated clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces.

An 18-year-old Palestinian, who the Israeli military alleged had shot at soldiers, was killed and at least 30 people were wounded during the clashes in Nablus, Palestinian medics said.

(Reporting by Nidal al-MughrabiAdditional reporting and writing by Henriette Chacar, Ari Rabinovitch and James MackenzieEditing by Alison Williams, Frances Kerry and Gareth Jones)

Israel raids Palestinian rights groups it labeled terrorists






Shawan Jabarin, director of al-Haq Human rights organization, front, briefs activists who gathered to show support, at his office that was raided by Israel forces, in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022. Israel raided the offices of several Palestinian advocacy groups it had previously designated as terrorist organizations, sealing entrance doors and leaving notices declaring them closed, the groups said Thursday. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)More

JALAL HASSAN and FARES AKRAM
Wed, August 17, 2022 

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Israel raided the offices of several Palestinian advocacy groups it had previously blacklisted as terrorist organizations early Thursday, sealing entrances and declaring them closed.

Western diplomats visited one of the offices hours later in a show of support for the outlawed groups. The U.S. State Department expressed concern about the raids and said it was seeking more information from senior Israeli officials.

The raids marked a major escalation against the civil society organizations, which Israel has outlawed over claims that they have ties to a militant group, a charge they deny. Israel has provided little evidence to back up its accusations. Nine European countries have rejected Israel's charges against the groups, citing a lack of evidence.

Israel claims the groups are linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular, left-wing movement with a political party as well as an armed wing that has carried out deadly attacks against Israelis. Israel outlawed the groups last year.

Shawan Jabarin, director of al-Haq, one of the targeted groups, said he and his staffers are still examining whether any documents were confiscated.

Israeli troops "came, blew up the door, got inside, and messed with the files,” he told The Associated Press. They then sealed the entrance to the office, he said.

Another of the groups, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, circulated video showing soldiers in full battle gear searching their office and moving equipment.

Rights defenders have described Israel’s moves against the groups as part of a decades-long crackdown on political activism in the occupied territories. Last month, nine EU member states said Israel hasn’t backed up its allegations and that they will continue working with the groups.

A delegation of mostly European diplomats visited al-Haq's office hours after the raid in a show of support.

“We express our solidarity with our partners, which we have been supporting for many, many years,” said Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, the EU representative to the Palestinian territories, who led the delegation. He said their work in supporting human rights was “indispensable.”

State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington that the U.S. was “concerned” about the raids and closures, adding that civil society is an “integral element to thriving democracies.”

He said Israeli officials have pledged to provide further information, without detailing what has been received so far or what conclusions U.S. officials have drawn from it.

The Israeli military said it closed seven institutions and seized their property in Thursday’s raids. The military did not immediately explain the discrepancy in the numbers, between groups designated and groups raided.

On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz's office reiterated its claim that the groups "operate under the guise of performing humanitarian activities to further the goals of the PFLP terrorist organization, to strengthen the organization and to recruit operatives.”

Most of the targeted organizations document alleged human rights violations by Israel as well as the Palestinian Authority, both of which routinely detain Palestinian activists.

The groups reportedly raided include al-Haq, a veteran, internationally respected Palestinian rights group; Addameer, which advocates for Palestinian prisoners; Defense for Children International-Palestine; the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees; the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, and the Bisan Center for Research and Development.

Jabarin said “neighbors and strangers” who were nearby during Thursday's raid had opened the office in Ramallah as soo as the Israeli forces left, and that al-Haq’s staff were inside and resuming their work.

“We don’t take permission from any Israeli military or political official. We are proceeding, encouraged by our belief in accountability and the international law,” he said.

Troops raiding al-Haq's office broke through a door leading to the St. Andrew's Episcopal Church compound, which rents the office space to the group, according to the church rector, Rev. Fadi Diab. The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem condemned what it said was a “flagrant attack” on the compound, saying the al-Haq office had its own separate entrance.

The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the church statement.

Thursday's raids come seven months after Israel outlawed Al-Haq, Addameer, Bisan and others.

The Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank described the closure of the organizations as a “dangerous escalation and an attempt to silence the voice of truth and justice.” Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Palestinian official, said the PA will appeal to the international community to reopen the institutions.

Israel and Western countries consider the PFLP a terrorist organization.

A Defense Ministry statement last year said some of the outlawed groups are “controlled by senior leaders” of the PFLP and employ its members, including some who have “participated in terror activity.”

It said the groups serve as a “central source” of financing for the PFLP and had received “large sums of money from European countries and international organizations,” without elaborating.

Israel has long accused human rights groups and international bodies of being biased against it and of singling it out while ignoring graver violations by other countries.

Also Thursday, the Israeli military said Palestinian gunmen fired at soldiers who were escorting Jewish worshippers to a shrine in the West Bank city of Nablus and that the soldiers returned fire. The army was referring to an incident in the early hours in which Palestinians said an 18-year-old Palestinian, Waseem Khalifa, was killed.

Joseph’s Tomb is a flashpoint prayer site. Some Jews believe the biblical Joseph is buried in the tomb, while Muslims say a local sheikh is buried there. The army escorts Jewish worshippers to the site several times a year, in coordination with Palestinian security forces. Clashes sometimes break out at the site.

___

Akram reported from Gaza City. Associated Press writers Joseph Krauss in Ottawa, Ontario and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.

Families of 9/11 victims urge Biden to direct $3.5 billion worth of frozen assets to the Afghan people. 'This is their money, not ours,' they argue.


Lloyd Lee
Tue, August 16, 2022 

Mothers with their babies on a children’s ward at Indira Gandhi hospital receive treatment for malnutrition on August 13, 2022 in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Nava Jamshidi/Getty Images

President Joe Biden froze $7 billion in funds held by Afghanistan's central bank in February.

Half the funds would go to humanitarian aid, and the rest would go to the families of 9/11 victims.

Some 9/11 family members called the move "legally suspect and morally wrong."

Some family members of 9/11 victims are calling on President Joe Biden to return billions of dollars worth of frozen assets, held by the Afghanistan central bank, back to the Afghan people as a humanitarian crisis lingers in the country.

In a letter sent to the president on Tuesday, 77 family members signed a request to modify an executive order from February which effectively held the Afghan central bank's $7 billion worth of assets in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The letter was first reported by Politico.

The goal was to keep the funds out of reach from the Taliban as the group embarked on a swift takeover of the country following the US military withdrawal nearly one year ago. At the same time, the Biden administration hoped to direct half of those assets towards aid for the Afghan people, while the other half could go towards relatives of 9/11 victims — who have sought compensation for years after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks — pending ongoing negotiations.

But the family members who signed the letter are arguing that any use of those funds to pay relatives is "legally suspect and morally wrong," and that they "belong to the Afghan people and the Afghan people alone."

Nearly two decades ago, about 150 family members of the 9/11 victims successfully sued several groups, including Al Qaeda and the Taliban, when a court ordered in a default judgment that the defendants pay $7 billion worth of damages, according to The New York Times.

The remaining issue, however, was to find a way to collect.

With the Taliban takeover of the Afghan government, some lawyers for the relatives of the victims have renewed their efforts to seek compensation through the frozen assets. Last year, after the plaintiffs of the $7 billion default judgment asked a judge to begin repayments, a US Marshal served the Federal Reserve of New York a "writ of execution" to seize the funds, The Times reported.

However, the undersigned family members are claiming that the arguments are legally dubious.

"Their argument is that, when the Taliban took control over the Afghan government, the Taliban presumptively gained control of the frozen assets as well, freeing the funds for the plaintiffs to pursue," the letter states. "These suits, and the legal claims involved, are complex. But these arguments are founded on a false premise. This money does not belong to the Taliban. This money comes from Afghanistan's central bank, and as such, it belongs to the Afghan people."

Who has legal access to the funds has been a point of contention. Leaders of the Taliban believe the funds rightfully belong to them, and talks with the Biden administration over the reserves have stalled.

Family members who signed the letter also pointed to the ongoing humanitarian crisis afflicting the Afghan people, underscoring the urgency behind releasing the funds.

Famine and poverty continue to ravage the country. According to a report from the United Nations, one year after the Taliban takeover, nearly 23 million people are food insecure, and two million children suffer from malnutrition.

"Simply put, this money belongs to the Afghan people, not 9/11 family members – and they need it more," the letter states.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Ruling clears Biden's 2021 pause on new oil, gas leases


 A judge’s order that forced the Biden administration to resume sales of oil and gas leases on federal land and waters was vacated on Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2022, by a federal appeals court in New Orleans.

 (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

KEVIN McGILL and MATTHEW BROWN

 Wed, August 17, 2022

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A judge’s order that forced the Biden administration to resume sales of oil and gas leases on federal land and waters was vacated Wednesday by a federal appeals court in New Orleans.

It was at least a temporary victory for President Joe Biden but the immediate effect was unclear.

The much-heralded climate bill that Biden signed into law Tuesday provides for new drilling opportunities, in a compromise among Democrats, and mandates that several lease sales be held over the next year in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska.

Biden had signed an executive order that suspended new lease sales soon after taking office in 2021. The following March, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe, Louisiana, blocked the policy, siding with a more than a dozen Republican-leaning states opposed to Biden's move.

The appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday said the judge’s reasons were unclear and sent the case back to him.

“We cannot reach the merits of the Government’s challenge when we cannot ascertain from the record what conduct — an unwritten agency policy, a written policy outside of the Executive Order, or the Executive Order itself — is enjoined,” Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote for a panel that also included judges James Dennis and James Graves.

Department of the Interior officials were reviewing the decision, spokesperson Melissa Schwartz said. She declined to say whether the climate law made the issue moot.

The practical impacts of the ruling could be minor because of the fossil fuel leasing mandates in the climate law, said Erik Milito, president of the National Ocean Industries Association, which represents oil and gas companies.

The law requires the government to reinstate $192 million in leases in the Gulf of Mexico that were blocked by another court ruling last year. And it requires two more sales in the Gulf and one in Alaska before October 2023. Those sales had been canceled under Biden. The provision reviving them was inserted into the law at the insistence of West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, an advocate for fossil fuels.

Going forward the law says Interior will hold periodic oil and gas lease sales and offer at least 60 million acres (24 million hectares) of offshore parcels and 2 million acres (810,000 hectares) onshore during the prior year before it can approve any renewable energy leases.

“Offshore oil and gas leasing has been protected and will proceed,” said Milito.

Environmentalists remained hopeful that the ruling would prompt the administration to move forward with other changes to the oil and gas leasing program, such as limits on future development including where leasing occurs.

“They may not be able to deliver a full moratorium on leasing, but at least they can exercise more restraint than they could with the injunction in place,” said Jeremy Nichols with the environmental group WildEarth Guardians. “All eyes are going to be on the Interior Department to see what their next move might be.”

Following last year’s injunction from Doughty that forced lease sales to resume, the Biden administration auctioned off more than 2,700 square miles (6,950 square kilometers) of leases in the Gulf of Mexico in November. The sale was later overturned by a federal judge in Washington D.C., who said the government had failed to adequately consider climate change impacts from burning oil and gas from the Gulf.

In June, the administration sold leases on about 110 square miles (285 square kilometers) of federal land, mostly in Wyoming, despite concluding that future emissions from the parcels offered could cause billions of dollars in damages due to climate change impacts. Legal challenges of those sales by environmentalists are pending.

Doughty was appointed to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump. Higginbotham was appointed to the appeals court by former President Ronald Reagan; Dennis, by former President Bill Clinton; Graves, by former President Barack Obama.

U$ 

Climate bill's unlikely beneficiary: US oil and gas industry



While the Inflation Reduction Act concentrates on clean energy incentives that could drastically reduce overall U.S. emissions, it also buoys oil and gas interests by mandating leasing of vast areas of public lands and off the nation’s coasts. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)More


MATTHEW BROWN and MICHAEL PHILLIS
Thu, August 18, 2022 


BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. oil industry hit a legal roadblock in January when a judge struck down a $192 million oil and natural gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico over future global warming emissions from burning the fuels. It came at a pivotal time for Chevron, Exxon and other industry players: the Biden administration had curtailed opportunities for new offshore drilling, while raising climate change concerns.

The industry’s setback was short-lived, however. The climate measure President Joe Biden signed Tuesday bypasses the administration's concerns about emissions and guarantees new drilling opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. The legislation was crafted to secure backing from a top recipient of oil and gas donations, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, and was shaped in part by industry lobbyists.

While the Inflation Reduction Act concentrates on clean energy incentives that could drastically reduce overall U.S. emissions, it also buoys oil and gas interests by mandating leasing of vast areas of public lands and off the nation’s coasts. And it locks renewables and fossil fuels together: If the Biden administration wants solar and wind on public lands, it must offer new oil and gas leases first.

As a result, U.S. oil and gas production and emissions from burning fuels could keep growing, according to some industry analysts and climate experts. With domestic demand sliding, that means more fossil fuels exported to growing foreign markets, including from the Gulf where pollution from oil and gas activity plagues many poor and minority communities.

To the industry, the new law signals Democrats are willing to work with them and to abandon the notion fossil fuels could soon be rendered obsolete, said Andrew Gillick with Enverus, an energy analytics company whose data is used by industry and government agencies.

“The folks that think oil and gas will be gone in 10 years may not be thinking through what this means," Gillick said. "Both supply and demand will increase over the next decade.”

The result would be more planet-warming carbon dioxide — up to 110 million tons (100 million metric tons) annually — from U.S.-produced oil and gas by 2030, with most coming from fuel burned after export, according to some economists and analysts. Others predict smaller increases.

The law reinstates within 30 days the 2,700-square miles (6,950-square kilometers) of Gulf leases that had been withheld. It ensures companies like Chevron will have the chance to expand and overrides the concerns of U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras that the government was “barreling full-steam ahead” without adequately considering global emission increases.

The measure's importance was underscored by Chevron executives during a recent earnings call, where they predicted continued growth in the Gulf and tied that directly to being able "to lease and acquire additional acreage.”

The fossil fuel industry's ambitions are now directly linked to wind and solar development: The bill prohibits leasing of federal lands and waters for renewable energy unless the government has offered at least 2 million acres (810,000 hectares) of public land and 60 million acres (24 million hectares) in federal waters for oil and gas leasing during the prior year. The law does not require leases to be sold, only offered for sale.

The measure’s critics say that's holding renewables hostage unless the fossil fuel industry gets its way. Some accuse Biden and Democrats of abandoning pledges to confront the industry.

“It’s 10 more years of mandatory leases," said Brett Hartl with the Center for Biological Diversity. "We will do our damnedest but it’s hard to fight them all.”

Communities near polluting industrial plants will continue to suffer if the oil and gas industry remains vibrant, said Beverly Wright, executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. She worries that incentives in the law for technology that captures carbon from industrial processes could also perpetuate harm to these poor, mostly minority residents.

In Louisiana’s St. James Parish, where petrochemical plants dominate the landscape, environmental justice activist Sharon Lavigne said the legislation will allow pollution from fossil fuels to keep harming her community.

“That’s just like saying they’re going to continue to poison us, going to continue to cause us cancer,” said Lavigne, a former high school teacher who founded the group Rising St. James.

The leasing provisions mark a failure in efforts by environmentalists and social justice advocates to impose a nationwide leasing ban. The movement’s high point came when Biden followed campaign pledges to end new drilling on federal lands with an order his first week in office suspending lease sales.

Republicans complained the administration still wasn't holding enough sales even after a federal judge blocked Biden's order. On Wednesday a federal appeals court struck down an injunction that had blocked the leasing suspension, but the impact could be minimal because of the new law's mandates.

A stream of potential drilling sites is crucial for companies to maintain future production because wells can take years to develop and some yield nothing, said Jim Noe, an industry lobbyist who worked with Senate staff on the climate bill's leasing provisions.

“The industry is in constant need — almost like a treadmill — of lease sales,” said Noe, an attorney at Holland & Knight who represented offshore oil and gas companies. Noe said demand for oil and gas won’t decline immediately and Gulf drilling brings jobs and more energy security.

A United Nations report before Biden took office warned that the U.S. and other nations need to sharply decrease investments in oil, gas and coal to keep temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

Other bill provisions that focus on renewable energy and capturing carbon dioxide from industrial plants would result in net emission reductions 10 to 50 times greater than emission increases from burning more oil and gas, analysts say.

The increase in oil and gas emissions still could be substantial — as much as 77 million to 110 million tons (70 to 100 million metric tons) of additional carbon dioxide annually by 2030 from new leasing, according to economist Brian Prest with the research group Resources for the Future.

Other experts had lower projections: The San Francisco-based climate research group Energy Innovation predicted up to 55 million tons (50 million metric tons) of additional carbon dioxide annually from new leasing. Researchers from Princeton and Dartmouth said the impact could be negligible or as much as 22 million tons (20 million metric tons) in the U.S., plus much more abroad.

Any increase hinges on global oil and natural gas prices staying high — and that in turn depends on a range of factors including the ongoing war in Ukraine, said Robbie Orvis with Energy Innovation.

“It may increase oil and gas production somewhat, but that is very much offset by all of the other pieces of the bill,” Orvis said.

Yet there's uncertainty about how quickly other pieces of the bill could bring emission cuts. Wind and solar construction could run into the supply chain problems hindering many economic sectors. And technology to capture and store carbon dioxide is still being refined and is in limited use.

Other provisions could make it potentially more expensive to drill on public lands and waters. There are modest increases in royalty and rental rates and a new $5-per-acre fee when companies want particular parcels offered for lease. Another fee would require companies to pay for natural gas, or methane, that enters the atmosphere as a potent greenhouse gas.

The higher costs could dampen interest among companies, said Mark Squillace, a natural resources law professor at University of Colorado Law School.

“Even though the industry is going to be getting more oil and gas leasing if they want it, it's an interesting question: Do they want it?” Squillace asked.

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Phillis reported from St. Louis.

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On Twitter follow Brown: @MatthewBrownAP and Phillis: @mjphillis

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The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment

PURGE

Russian Jews head for Israel as Kremlin targets emigration group

Thu, August 18, 2022

By Rami Amichay

TEL AVIV (Reuters) - In the hours after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, Ilya Fomintsev, a 43-year-old oncologist and director of a medical charity, took to the streets of Moscow to protest. He was arrested and sentenced to 20 days’ detention.

Fearing for his future, like many other opponents of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, Fomintsev decided to leave the country.

But as other opposition-minded Russians headed for Turkey, Georgia and Armenia, Fomintsev, on the advice of an old patient, began gathering documents proving his Jewish ancestry and made an appointment at the Israeli consulate.

"I am of Jewish origin and the only option for me to emigrate was to Israel," Fomintsev said in an interview at his new home in Tel Aviv.

“By and large in other countries, it is impossible to legalise yourself, it is also impossible to open bank accounts there or do business. Israel was the only option I had and I took advantage of the repatriation programme.”

Fomintsev was part of a renewed wave of Jewish emigration from Russia that, though not as large as earlier pre-revolutionary and post-Soviet exoduses, has seen tens of thousands of Russians make for the Jewish state.

According to Israeli government figures, 20,246 Russians emigrated to Israel between January and July 2022, with numbers spiking from around 700 per month in February to over 3,000 in March. By contrast, in the whole of 2019 only 15,930 Russians emigrated to Israel.

Most of the emigrants from Russia are Jews, but some may only have close relatives who are Jewish. Under Israel's Law of Return, a person needs at least one Jewish grandparent to be entitled to immediate citizenship. Around 600,000 Russians qualify.

The scale of the emigration seems to have taken the Russian authorities by surprise, and may have prompted retaliation by the Kremlin.

COURT CASE

In July, the Russian Justice Ministry requested the liquidation of the Moscow branch of the Jewish Agency for Israel, a non-profit organisation that helps foreign Jews looking to move to Israel. The first court hearing is scheduled for Friday at Moscow’s Basmanny District Court, which often handles politically sensitive cases.

The agency says its activities serving Jewish communities in Russia will continue in order to ensure they thrive and remain connected to their heritage.

Though the cases against the Jewish Agency formally relate to violations of Russian data protection laws, Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai in July accused Russia of trying to punish Israel for its position on Ukraine.

"Russian Jews will not be held hostage by the war in Ukraine. The attempt to punish the Jewish Agency for Israel's stance on the war is deplorable and offensive," Shai said.

Though Israel has not provided Ukraine with military support, it has offered Kyiv humanitarian aid and diplomatic backing.

With the Jewish Agency facing closure, Russian emigration to Israel is likely to become more expensive in the absence of the generous financial support it provides to would-be Israelis.

In Fomintsev's case, the Jewish Agency paid for plane tickets for him, his wife and three children.

When Konstantin Konovalov, a 33-year-old graphic designer who left Moscow with his girlfriend and pet dog, arrived at Tel Aviv airport in April, the agency even ordered them a taxi to their new home.

Konovalov said: “I think closing the agency will impact less on Muscovites, who of course can afford to repatriate, and more on people from the regions, who don’t have the money.”

But according to Sofia Goldman, head of a Moscow consultancy that helps with emigration to Israel, the case against the Jewish Agency has not dampened interest in emigration, which continues to grow. Instead, the kind of requests she gets have shifted as the flow of emigrants continues.

"If earlier people who really had some kind of good documentary base for obtaining citizenship applied to us, today they call us more often with a question about checking their ancestry. They call with assumptions: 'I think my grandmother, my grandfather, my distant relative had Jewish roots, let's check that'."

For some emigrants who do make it to Israel, the realities of life overseas can come as a culture shock.

Konovalov, who is studying Hebrew five hours a day and enjoying working in Israel’s thriving start-up sector, said he was surprised at how far the Israeli banking and delivery sectors lag behind Russia’s.

“I don’t rule out going back if one day something changes in Russia. Moscow is still very important for me, and it’s hard to leave your hometown.”

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Alison Williams)

Russia compels religious leaders to show rapturous support for war


Thu, August 18, 2022 at 7:57 AM·5 min read

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia is seen before the Victory Day Parade in Red Square in Moscow, Russia June 24, 2020. The military parade, marking the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two, was scheduled for May 9 but postponed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov - RC2IFH9E043QMore

During his three decades as chief rabbi of Moscow, Pinchas Goldschmidt presided over a spectacular revival of Jewish worship, education and culture in a land where prejudice against his community has deep roots. Now the Swiss-born rabbi, who has just stepped down and left the country, says, “There is fear in the hearts of the Jews of Russia.” This is not just the anxiety many Russians share about the war in Ukraine. It is the fear that the authorities, having hitherto kept the lid on anti-Semitism, could unleash it—especially if Jewish leaders resist pressure to act as cheerleaders for the Russian army.

The rabbi recalls that before the war it was just possible for a religious group in Russia to maintain “correct but distant” relations with the authorities. But now clerics of all stripes are being told they have to support the invasion. In a carefully worded statement explaining his departure that was published last month, the rabbi said, “I could not remain silent, viewing so much human suffering.” However, he continued, “It became clear that the Jewish community in Moscow would be endangered by me remaining in my position.”

Every religious group in Russia is feeling the Kremlin’s newly Manichean line towards faith. Patriarch Kirill (pictured), the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, echoes official justifications for the war and has come up with some of his own. Lately he has followed Vladimir Putin in deploring the federal structure of the Soviet Union (which they say led to its break-up) and suggesting that any future Russian empire must be unitary, like that of the tsars. Hilarion Alfeyev, his Western-educated external affairs chief, who had held off from actively supporting the war, was abruptly demoted in June and dispatched to a job as a bishop in Budapest.



Far worse punishments await ordinary clerics who speak out against the war—or simply decline to call it a “special military operation”, as the government demands. Two Russian Orthodox clerics face criminal charges for using religious arguments to denounce the war. One of them, Ioann Kurmoyarov, has been jailed in St Petersburg since June after posting a video in which he said that anyone “not disturbed by what is happening in Ukraine” could hardly be called Christian.

The loyal segment of Russia’s Muslim leadership has perhaps outdone the Orthodox church in the zeal of its pro-war pronouncements. Talgat Tadzhuddin, a senior figure in Russian Islam whose rhetoric has always been fiercely anti-American, last month backed the Kremlin’s surreal claim to be engaging in the “denazification” of Ukraine. He said that the government should keep pursuing its war aims “so as to leave no fascists or parasites anywhere near us, because in future there may not be enough pesticide”.

He and other state-backed Muslim leaders have presented the battle against Ukraine as a holy war, implying that soldiers who are slain on the battlefield will go to paradise. This matters because soldiers from Russia’s ethnic minorities, including many Muslims, are playing an outsize role in the campaign.

With big local congregations apparently toeing its line, Russia’s government is probably now hoping that their links with co-religionists can help it promote its propaganda abroad. In May it succeeded in drawing Islamic entrepreneurs and officials to an annual meeting in the city of Kazan in Tatarstan, a Russian republic where a majority of the population is Muslim. Participants came from more than 70 countries, despite the war. Many governments sent greetings. These included Turkey’s, which is run by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a strongman in Mr Putin’s mould.

Maintaining diplomacy with Christians has proved somewhat more complex. Since the days of the cold war the Russian Orthodox Church has used the World Council of Churches (wcc), a forum based in Geneva, as a venue to offer the Kremlin’s view of the world. But the war in Ukraine has horrified Western churches. Rowan Williams, former leader of the world’s Anglicans, has called for the wcc to kick out the Moscow Patriarchate.

Next month Patriarch Kirill may meet Pope Francis on the sidelines of an interfaith gathering in Kazakhstan. The Holy See has strongly defended its determination to keep communicating with Russia’s spiritual leaders—a position that some Catholic and Orthodox prelates in Ukraine and other post-Soviet countries lambast as hopelessly naive.

The Vatican’s ideal scenario is for the spiritual masters of western Christendom and Russian Orthodoxy to jointly press secular leaders to make peace. But according to Tamara Grdzelidze, a theologian from Georgia who used to represent her country at the Holy See, the Vatican may well be overestimating Patriarch Kirill’s influence. If he were to soften his line on Ukraine, he would probably not stay patriarch for very long.

© 2022 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved.

From The Economist, published under licence. The original content can be found on https://www.economist.com/europe/2022/08/18/russia-compels-religious-leaders-to-show-rapturous-support-for-war

Mideast's Jordan River: Rich in holiness, poor in water

THE JORDAN CREEK, NO BAPTISMS HERE

MARIAM FAM
Thu, August 18, 2022 

A cow crosses the Jordan River near Kibbutz Karkom in northern Israel on July 30. Jesus is said to have been baptized in the river. (Oded Balilty / Associated Press)

Kristen Burckhartt felt overwhelmed. She needed time to reflect, to let it sink in that she had just briefly soaked her feet in the water where Jesus is said to have been baptized, in the Jordan River.

“It’s very profound,” said the 53-year-old visitor from Indiana. “I have not ever walked where Jesus walked, for one thing.”

Tourists and pilgrims come to the site from near and far, many driven by faith, to follow in Christ’s footsteps, to touch the river’s water, to connect with biblical events.

Symbolically and spiritually, the river is of mighty significance to many. Physically, the Lower Jordan River of today is a lot more meager than mighty.


By the time it reaches the baptismal site, its dwindling water looks sluggish, a dull brownish green shade.

Its decline, due to a confluence of factors, is intertwined with the entanglements of the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict and rivalry over precious water in a valley where so much is contested. Championing the transboundary Jordan’s revival without wading into the thicket of the disputes that have fueled its deterioration can be a challenge.

A stretch of the river, for instance, was a hostile frontier between once-warring Israel and Jordan; river water also separates Jordan on its eastern bank from the Israeli-occupied West Bank, seized by Israel in a 1967 war and sought by the Palestinians for a state.

“It’s a victim of the conflict, definitely. It’s a victim of people, because it’s what we did as people to the river, basically, and now adding to all this it’s a victim of climate change,” said Yana Abu Taleb, the Jordanian director of EcoPeace Middle East, which brings together Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists and lobbies for regional collaboration on saving the river. “So it’s a victim in every way.”

EcoPeace has said for years that the Lower Jordan River, which runs south from the Sea of Galilee, is particularly threatened by decades of water diversions for agriculture and domestic use and by pollution. Only a tiny fraction of its historical water flow now reaches its terminus in the Dead Sea, not far south from the baptismal site that Burckhartt visited.

The diversions are one reason the Dead Sea has been shrinking.

Standing at the Jordanian baptismal site Bethany Beyond the Jordan, Burckhartt, a Presbyterian, said the river’s water felt cold on her skin, offering a respite from the sweltering heat around her. In the jumble of emotions, she grappled with, she could also feel sadness for the river’s dwindling.

“I am sure God above is also sad.”

___

The Bible says Jesus was baptized in the Jordan River.

The river’s eastern bank, modern-day Jordan, and its western one both house baptismal sites, where rituals of faith unfold, a reflection of the river’s enduring religious, historical and cultural allure.

The river holds further significance as the scene of miracles in the Old Testament; after years of wandering the desert, the ancient Israelites are said to have crossed the Jordan on dry ground after the water was stopped for them to pass.

At the Jordanian baptismal site on the eastern bank recently, a woman dipped her feet in the waters and then cupped some with her hands, rubbing it on her face and over her head. Others touched the river and crossed themselves or bent over to fill empty bottles.

Charlie Watts, a tourist from England, submerged a wooden cross — a gift and a blessing for his Christian mother back home. “I took a video ... so I can show her that it was true,” Watts said.

While he is not as religious as his mother, the 24-year-old still considered his visit to the Jordanian site special: “What made it surreal is to think that this is what started the world movement of Christianity.”

In an interview, Rustom Mkhjian, director general of the Baptism Site Commission in Jordan, spoke passionately about the Jordanian site’s claim to authenticity and its preservation as it was in the time of Christ and John the Baptist. UNESCO has declared it a World Heritage Site “of immense religious significance to the majority of denominations of Christian faith, who have accepted this site as the location where Jesus” was baptized.

“Every year we celebrate interfaith harmony, and among my happiest days in my life is days when I see Jews, Christians and Muslims visit the site and the three of them cry,” Mkhjian said. “The present spot where we are is a site with a great message needed: Let us build human bridges of love and peace.”

The Jordanian and West Bank sites both give visitors access to the river, where they come face to face, a narrow stretch of the body of water between them. An Israel flag at the West Bank’s Qasr al-Yahud serves as a reminder to those in Jordan that the river is a frontier separating the two worlds.

That site is also billed as where, according to tradition, Jesus was baptized. Jordan and Israel compete for these people’s tourism dollars.

Several people in flowing white robes waded in from the West Bank recently, posing in a semicircle for photos. Visitors in another group stood on riverbank steps or in the water itself as two men in black, apparently clerical attire, poured river water over their heads.

In the background some sang, their voices heard back on the Jordanian side:

“Oh, Brothers, let’s go down. ... Down in the river to pray.”

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Such serene moments contrast with the military hostilities that have played out on the river’s banks as part of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The river’s history and its water have been as politically fraught as holy, and for decades land mines have lurked menacingly on banks that were once a war zone.

On the eastern bank, demining of the area where the Jordanian baptismal site now sits began after a 1994 peace treaty between Jordan and Israel.

On the West Bank, a team from the HALO Trust, a British American charity, has cleared mines from areas housing churches in the vicinity of the Qasr al-Yahud site as recently as 2020. The site itself had opened for the public years earlier after Israel cleared a narrow road to the river, while the area around the churches remained off-limits and frozen in time for decades.

Work began to clear those mines in 2018, but only after three years of building trust and getting onboard all involved, from Israeli and Palestinian authorities to several Christian denominations that own the churches and lands, said Ronen Shimoni, who was part of the HALO effort.

“Nothing is simple here in the West Bank,” Shimoni said.

___

It’s against that turbulent backdrop that EcoPeace Middle East has been urging regional collaboration on the Jordan between rivals who have long had every motivation to squeeze as much water as possible out of the river or its tributaries.

“Any fresh water left in the river would have in the past been seen as empowering the enemy. ... You take everything that you can,” said Gidon Bromberg, the group's Israeli director.

“There’s legitimate need for the water. ... Water is scarce,” he said. “But the conflict creates an incentive to take everything.”

The result is that the Lower Jordan’s annual discharge into the Dead Sea was estimated at 20 million to 200 million cubic meters compared to a historic amount of 1.3 billion cubic meters, according to a report published in 2013 by a U.N. commission and a German federal institute. Bromberg puts the current figure at no more than 70 million cubic meters.

“Israel, from a historical perspective, has taken about half the water, and Syria and Jordan have taken the other half,” Bromberg said. “The pollution that’s coming into the river is coming from Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli sides and a little bit also from Syria.”

Water use in the Jordan River basin is unevenly developed, the U.N.-German report said, adding that the Palestinians can no longer access or use water from the Jordan River itself. Syria doesn’t have access to the river but has built dams in the Yarmouk River sub-basin, which is part of the Jordan River basin, it said.

For Palestinians in the West Bank, the only way to see the Jordan River is to visit the Israeli-run baptismal site there, said Nada Majdalani, EcoPeace’s Palestinian director.

“The Jordan River in the past, for Palestinians, meant livelihoods and economic stability and growth,” she said. Now, she added, it has been reduced to an “ambition of statehood and sovereignty over water resources.”

The river’s decline, she said, is especially disappointing to elderly Palestinians “who remember how the river looked ... and how they used to go fishing, how they used to have a dip in the river.”

Bromberg said EcoPeace has been documenting the “lose-lose” nature of the river’s deterioration for all parties.

“From a Jewish tradition, you know, the river and its banks are a place of miracles,” he said. “Well, it doesn’t reflect a place of miracles in its current depleted state.”

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In late July, the Israeli government approved plans to rehabilitate a stretch of the Lower Jordan, a decision described by Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg as “historic” and the beginning of a correction.

“For decades it was neglected and most of its waters were taken, and it effectively turned into a sewage canal,” Zandberg said in a statement. “In an era of climate crisis and a serious ecological crisis, there is double significance to rehabilitating the River Jordan and returning it to nature, the public, and hikers.”

Speaking by phone, Zandberg said the plan focuses on a stretch that runs in Israeli territory and reflects Israel’s improved water situation given its desalination program, which has left it much less reliant on water it has been using from the Sea of Galilee.

“Now, we’re actually more equipped to do it,” she said. “We have water."

She added she hopes the decision would showcase the river’s potential and pave the way for broader collaboration on the rest of the Lower Jordan as well as send a signal to Jordan that “we are committed ... to our mutual assets,” including the river. “It can provide a success story on that segment, and then it will enable more successful partnerships in the future.”

That’s something that hasn’t always come easily.

“Politics, sometimes, interferes and also budget issues and the trust ... between the parties,” Zandberg said.

A regional rehabilitation and development master plan announced in 2015 by EcoPeace and others was adopted by the Jordanian government but not by the Israelis or Palestinians due to outstanding “final-status” peace process issues, according to the group.

That plan said the lower part of the Jordan River will require at least 400 million cubic meters of freshwater per year to reach “an acceptable rehabilitation level.”

Creation of a trust fund to finance de-pollution projects — an effort that EcoPeace had viewed as less politically controversial — stalled after a 2017 diplomatic crisis between Israel and Jordan and amid years of strained ties under the government of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. There have been signs of improved ties since.

Not everyone in the region welcomes, or trusts, EcoPeace’s calls for cooperation.

“Our job is tough. Our messages are challenged,” said Abu Taleb, the group’s Jordanian director.

“Because of having that, you know, Israeli chapter, we’re always accused of being ‘normalizers,’” or having normal relations with Israel, Abu Taleb said. That is a contentious topic, unpopular among many ordinary Arabs, citing factors such as Israel’s open-ended occupation of lands it captured in 1967 and a lack of a resolution to the Palestinian issue. "The water knows no borders,” Abu Taleb said.

Bromberg said he, too, has run into criticism from what he said was a vocal minority in Israel “inappropriately” branding their work as benefiting Jordanians and Palestinians at the expense of Israeli interests. “Sadly, there are people who think that if you’re working with the other side, you must be working for the other side exclusively,” he said.

Politics aside, the strain on some governments to meet water needs complicates calls to add water to the river.

Jordan, for instance, is one of the world’s most water-scarce nations, and its challenges are compounded by a growing population swelled by waves of refugees.

“We are under stress, so we don’t have a surplus to add to the Jordan River and to revive it despite the great importance of this to the Jordanians,” said Khalil Al-Absi, an official with the Jordan Valley Authority.

“Solutions require concerted [regional] effort and the international community’s” help, the Jordanian official said.

“We have many beautiful ideas for the Jordan River but there are limitations.”

Climate change threatens to exacerbate such problems. “The impact of the climate change is seriously influencing the water resources,” Al-Absi said.

According to the World Bank, the Middle East and North Africa region faces the greatest expected economic losses from climate-related water scarcity, estimated at 6% to 14% of gross domestic product by 2050.

Advocates, such as Bromberg, acknowledge that climate change makes a Jordan revival harder — but argue that restoring the river and its banks offers economic incentives.

“The climate crisis brings home the issue of urgency that rehabilitating the river is perhaps the only way to prevent further instability in the valley,” Bromberg said, “because it can create alternative revenues through tourism.”

For all the river’s challenges, Al-Absi said he remained optimistic. The alternative could be grim.

“If there is no water, people won’t come despite [the presence] of religious sites,” he said. “Water is life. Without water, there is no life.”

Fam reported from Bethany Beyond the Jordan and Amman, Jordan. Associated Press writer Ilan Ben Zion in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.