Wind energy could generate 3.3 million jobs within five years, industry body claims

Anmar Frangoul CNBC 4/30/2021

Around the world, governments are laying out targets to cut emissions and increase renewable energy installations.

Any move away from fossil fuels will be a significant challenge requiring huge change.

© Provided by CNBC A rope access technician standing on the hub of a wind turbine.

The expansion of the wind energy industry could create 3.3 million jobs in the next five years, according to analysis from industry body the Global Wind Energy Council.

The projection includes direct roles in onshore and offshore wind as well as jobs across the sector's value chain. The latter comprises jobs in areas such as installation, manufacturing, project planning and development, operation and maintenance and decommissioning.

These roles would service an industry forecast to install an extra 470 gigawatts of onshore and offshore capacity between 2021 and 2025, the GWEC said.

The Brussels-based organization's outlook for jobs is based on what it described as "market growth data" from GWEC Market Intelligence and "global studies by the International Renewable Energy Agency … on job creation for onshore and offshore wind projects from 2017 and 2018."

Joyce Lee, the council's head of policy and projects, said Thursday the energy transition would "have to accelerate over the next decade to safeguard our chances of achieving carbon neutrality by mid-century."

"The good news is that the transition offers net employment and economic gains," Lee said. "Governments across the world can tap into the socioeconomic benefits by setting more ambitious renewable energy targets, streamlining permitting for wind projects, and building energy markets that account for the true costs of fossil fuels."

Around the world, governments are indeed laying out targets to cut emissions and increase renewable energy installations, with a number aiming to make wind energy a crucial tool in their pivot away from fossil fuels.

Last month, for instance, the U.S. said it wanted to expand its offshore wind capacity to 30 GW by 2030, a move the Biden administration hopes will generate thousands of jobs and unlock billions of dollars in investment in coming years.

Across the Atlantic, the U.K. wants its offshore wind capacity to hit 40 GW by 2030, while the European Union wants offshore installations to amount to at least 60 GW by the end of this decade and 300 GW by 2050.

Despite these targets, the reality on the ground shows that for many countries, any move away from fossil fuels will be a significant challenge requiring a huge amount of change.

In the U.S., for example, fossil fuels comfortably remained the biggest source of electricity generation in 2020, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Cancer rates much higher in medieval Britain than previously realized, study suggests

By Katie Hunt, CNN  30/4/2021

The earliest description of cancer is from an ancient Egyptian papyrus, and going back further, even dinosaurs suffered a form of the disease. But cancer long has been thought to have become a common disease only in the last two centuries or so.

© Cambridge Archaeological Unit/St John's College The remains of numerous individuals were unearthed on the site of the former Hospital of St. John the Evangelist in the city of Cambridge, UK. Skeletal remains were investigated as part of the study.

This is, in part, down to longer life expectancies, habits like smoking, and exposure to tumor-inducing chemicals post-industrial revolution.

However, new research published in the journal Cancer on medieval skeletons has suggested that cancer was more widespread than previously realized -- although still less common than today.

In the first study of its kind, researchers from the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom analyzed 143 skeletons from six cemeteries from the Cambridge area that were dated to between the sixth and 16th centuries. To detect malignant lesions, the team focused on three areas most likely to contain secondary malignant growth in people with cancer -- the spinal column, pelvis and thigh bone.

The scientists visually inspected the bones and used radiographs and computed tomography scans. The team found that 3.5% of the individuals showed evidence of metastatic cancer -- that is, when the malignant tumor spreads to a different part of the body from where it started.

"The majority of cancers form in soft tissue organs long since degraded in medieval remains. Only some cancer spreads to bone, and of these only a few are visible on its surface, so we searched within the bone for signs of malignancy," said Piers Mitchell, a senior research associate and director of the Ancient Parasites Laboratory at the University of Cambridge's department of archaeology, in a news statement.

Taking into account data on modern populations that shows CT scans detect bone metastases around 75% of the time and the proportion of cancer deaths that involve spread to the bone, the researchers estimated that 9% to 14% of medieval Britons developed cancer.

"Modern research shows a third to a half of people with soft tissue cancers will find the tumor spreads to their bones. We combined this data with evidence of bone metastasis from our study to estimate cancer rates for medieval Britain," explained Mitchell, the study's lead author.

Major affliction

Prior research into cancer rates using the archaeological record has been limited to examining the surface of the bone for lesions. These past studies suggested that cancer was rare, affecting less than 1% of the population, the study said.

"Until now it was thought that the most significant causes of ill health in medieval people were infectious diseases such as dysentery and bubonic plague, along with malnutrition and injuries due to accidents or warfare," said coauthor Jenna Dittmar, who was an associate researcher at the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research at the University of Cambridge while undertaking the study analysis.

"We now have to add cancer as one of the major classes of disease that afflicted medieval people," Dittmar said in the statement.

Even with this higher estimate, cancer was still much less widespread in medieval times than in modern Britain, where there is a 40% to 50% prevalence of cancer at time of death, the study said.

Unanswered question

One key question that remains unanswered, the study said, is to what extent the effects of tobacco smoking and the toxins and pollutants from industrialization have had on the risk of developing cancer.

"The best way we have to answer this question would be to study data from before the Industrial Revolution of the 1700s and 1800s and before tobacco became available in Britain following the transatlantic settlement of the Americas by Europeans in the 1500s," the study said.

The researchers said the study did have limitations. Diagnosing cancer in those lain dead for many centuries is challenging -- skeletons can't describe their symptoms or have blood tests. Plus, other diseases during life can cause changes in bones that may mimic the lesions made by metastases, and decomposition can also affect the bone after death.

Also, the sample size was limited by the number of available skeletons with good preservation of the spine, pelvis and thigh bone, which leads to a larger margin of error.

"We need further studies using CT scanning of apparently normal skeletons in different regions and time periods to see how common cancer was in key civilizations of the past," Mitchell said

.

© Jenna Dittmar A human vertebra dating back to medieval times shows evidence of cancer

#ABOLISHBLASPHEMYLAWS

Pakistan decries EU parliament's move on blasphemy laws

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan on Friday decried a move by the European Parliament, which a day earlier adopted a resolution demanding Islamabad allow freedom for religious minorities and asked the EU to reconsider the South Asian country's preferential trade status.

The European Parliament appealed on Islamabad to free a Christian couple — Shagufta Kausar and her husband Shafqat Emmanuel — who have been on death row since 2014. The two were convicted of insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.

It also urged Pakistani authorities to repeal the country's controversial blasphemy laws, provide Kausar and Emmanuel with needed medical care and “immediately and unconditionally” overrule their death sentence.

It also expressed concern at increasing online and other attacks on journalists and human rights activists and asked Pakistan to take steps to ensure their safety.

Under Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, anyone accused of insulting Islam can be sentenced to death if convicted. Just the mere accusation of blasphemy can cause riots and incite mobs to violence and killings.

The foreign ministry in Islamabad released a statement expressing the government's disappointment at the European resolution, saying it “reflects a lack of understanding in the context of blasphemy laws and associated religious sensitivities in Pakistan — and in the wider Muslim world”.

However, it is unlikely that Islamabad will act on the charged issue. Radical Islamists parties have in recent years held violent rallies to stop the government from making any changes in the blasphemy laws.

Kausar and Emmanuel were arrested in 2013 on suspicion of sending a blasphemous text message to a local cleric in eastern Punjab province, an allegation they denied. The two were tried and sentenced to death in 2014. Since then, their appeals have been pending in the Lahore High Court.

According to domestic and international human rights groups, blasphemy allegations in Pakistan have often been used to intimidate religious minorities and to settle personal scores.

A Punjab governor was killed by his own guard in 2011 after he defended a Christian woman, Aasia Bibi, who was accused of blasphemy. She was acquitted after spending eight years on death row and left Pakistan for Canada to join her family after receiving threats.

Munir Ahmed, The Associated Press

Pope enables Vatican prosecutions of cardinals, bishops


ROME — Pope Francis has sent another message to Vatican-based cardinals and bishops that he intends to hold them accountable for criminal misconduct: He removed the procedural obstacles that had spared them from being prosecuted and judged by the Vatican’s lay criminal tribunal.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

A new law published Friday makes clear that Vatican city-state prosecutors and judges have jurisdiction over Holy See cardinals and bishops and need only the pope’s consent to proceed with investigations and trials against them.

The law abrogated a regulation that said only the tribunal’s highest appeals court, which is made up of three cardinals, could judge cardinals and bishops accused of criminal offences.

The reform is the latest sign that after eight years of preaching about ending corruption and other criminal activity in the Holy See, Francis is taking concrete steps to make it easier to hold his own cardinals and bishops accountable while emboldening Vatican prosecutors to go after them.

On Thursday, he passed a different law forcing Vatican superiors to declare their finances are clean, and set a 40-euro ($48) cap on work-related personal gifts received by any Vatican employee. The gift cap was seen as a way to cut down on the rampant practice of financial gift-giving to Holy See clerics.

Friday's reform follows Francis’ decision last year to strip a senior Vatican official, Cardinal Angelo Becciu, of his privileges as a cardinal in a move seen as laying the groundwork for Becciu to possibly be put on trial.

The allegations against him aren’t clear, however, and Becciu hasn't been charged with any crime.

Becciu has said Francis cited a 100,000-euro donation he made using Holy See funds to a charity run by his brother. Becciu has denied wrongdoing, noting that he had full authority to disburse the funds, the money was destined for the charity, not his brother, and the money never left the diocesan bank account into which it was deposited.

Becciu was also involved initially in a London real estate venture that is now the subject of a Vatican corruption investigation. But the key transaction under scrutiny occurred after he was promoted.

The new procedural law Friday would presumably make unnecessary any move to strip other cardinals of their privileges before an indictment is handed down.

In an introduction to the new regulation, Francis said it was important to make sure everyone is equal under the law.

Within the church’s in-house canon law system for church crimes, cardinals and bishops are judged only by the pope, who is an absolute monarch with exclusive legislative, executive and judicial power in the Vatican. That privilege extended also to the criminal code of the city-state’s tribunal in ways that led to some anomalies in recent years.

In one famous case, prosecutors decided to not even investigate the cardinal whose Vatican apartment was renovated using a half-million dollars in donations intended for the pope’s children’s hospital. The hospital president who diverted the funds to the renovation project was convicted by the Vatican tribunal. But the cardinal who benefitted from the crime wasn’t even called to testify, much less investigated.

More recently, a British judge expressed perplexity that the current Vatican hierarchy had seemingly been spared investigation in the London real estate corruption case. The judge, ruling in a related asset seizure case, questioned why the Vatican secretary of state and his No. 2 hadn’t even provided witness statements about the London deal, when documents and evidence indicated they had authorized it.

The text of the new law was published without comment near the back of Friday's editions of the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

Nicole Winfield, The Associated Press

Venezuelans celebrate beatification of 'doctor to the poor'

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelans on Friday celebrated the beatification of Jose Gregorio Hernandez, a medic who became known as the "doctor of the poor" while treating the ill during the Spanish flu pandemic in the early 20th century.

© Reuters/MIRAFLORES PALACE Beatification mass of doctor Jose Gregorio Hernandez, in Caracas

© Reuters/CNB.JGB Beatification mass of doctor Jose Gregorio Hernandez, in Caracas

Pope Francis in 2020 began the process of his beatification, which precedes sainthood in the Roman Catholic tradition.

That process was completed on Friday in a Caracas ceremony led by papal nuncio Aldo Giordano and other Venezuelan church leaders.

Giordano called for Hernandez's intervention to help the South American nation obtain coronavirus vaccines for its inoculation campaign, which has been mired in partisan differences.

© Reuters/MIRAFLORES PALACE Beatification mass of doctor Jose Gregorio Hernandez, in Caracas

"May the blessed Jose Gregorio intercede so that access to vaccines can be achieved together, without divisions," Giordano said. "(Hernandez) is able to unite all his compatriots, independent of their social, political and economic differences."

Video: Pope urges countries to speed up vaccinations, share shots with poor countries (NBC News)

Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, in a video released on Thursday said he hoped the beatification would foment solidarity among Venezuelans, who for decades have been bitterly divided by politics.

© Reuters/MIRAFLORES PALACE Beatification mass of doctor Jose Gregorio Hernandez, in Caracas

Hernandez, the fourth Venezuelan to be beatified, was born in the Andean state of Trujillo in 1864. He died in 1919 after being hit by a car in Caracas, and his devotees spent decades petitioning the Vatican to put him on the path to sainthood.

 

© Reuters/CNB.JGB Beatification mass of doctor Jose Gregorio Hernandez, in Caracas

In 2017, the church attributed a miracle to Hernandez for saving the life of a young girl, Yaxury Solorzano, who was shot in the head during a robbery attempt.

Doctors had said Solorzano would be disabled if they managed to save her life, but she recovered and was able to walk just weeks after leaving the hospital, according to church records.

Solorzano's mother had prayed to Hernandez for her daughter's salvation. Both mother and daughter were present for Friday's ceremony.

High ranking government officials including Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino, Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, and parliament chief Jorge Rodriguez were present for the ceremony.

(Reporting by Mayela Armas, Writing by Brian Ellsworth, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)

B.C. First Nation joins calls for Ottawa to step in on review of Alberta coal project

A British Columbia First Nation has joined calls for the federal government to step in on the environmental review of a proposed open-pit coal mine in Alberta's Rocky Mountains.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Ktunaxa First Nation, the first group outside Alberta to ask for Ottawa's involvement, says it has little faith in the province's ability to hear their concerns over Montem Resources' Tent Mountain project. They say it would have effects beyond the provincial boundary, impairing their ability to practice their treaty rights.

"Due to the location, size and lifespan of the proposed project, the (Ktunaxa) consider that it will likely cause significant adverse impacts on the Ktunaxa Nation’s Indigenous rights and interests," says the letter written to federal Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson.

Montem Resources is proposing to resume mining on a site near Coleman, Alta., last mined in 1983. Documents filed with Alberta's regulator say the company would only need 750 hectares.

But the Ktunaxa say those documents gloss over the fact that Tent Mountain would dump waste rock and water in B.C. and needs permits from B.C. authorities. They also point out Tent Mountain would be immediately adjacent to as many as four other open-pit coal mines.

"The potential for the project to contribute to regional cumulative effects is therefore also a deep concern," the letter states.

The letter points out the mine comes suspiciously close to the production threshold that would automatically trigger a federal review.

"This raises the prospect that the project description has been tailored specifically to avoid a federal (assessment)."

The Ktunaxa say their experience in the federal-provincial review of Benga Mining's Grassy Mountain project leaves them with little faith in a review conducted only by Alberta.

"Without a federal environmental assessment, the Alberta government will not conduct any, much less meaningful and legally sufficient, consultation with the (Ktunaxa) to address and accommodate for the Project’s impacts," the letter says.

The Alberta government has announced plans for a series of five regional meetings with Alberta First Nations, but no plans for B.C.

The letter says Ktunaxa people fear losing that land for treaty-guaranteed traditional purposes including hunting, gathering, collecting medicines, ceremonies and cultural continuity.

"These effects will be compounded by the cumulative disturbance to the regional landscape," they write.

Montem Resources did not respond to a request for comment.

The Ktunaxa are only the latest group to request Ottawa join the assessment. The Kainai and Siksika First Nations in southern Alberta, as well as environmental groups and local landowners, have asked for the same.

Montem has stated in investor materials that the federal assessment agency has already ruled that federal participation isn't required.

However, an email from the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada to Montem suggests that's not the whole story. The company was told the minister could still designate the project for a federal review.

"The Minister of Environment and Climate Change (has) the authority to designate the project if, in the Minister’s opinion, the carrying out of project activities may cause adverse environmental effects or public concerns related to those effects warrant the designation," the email says.

Wilkinson has until June 1 to respond to those requests. A spokeswoman in his office said the decision will likely come around that date.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 30, 2021.

— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadia

USA
Especially hostile week for abortion rights: Report

Twenty-eight restrictions on abortion were signed into law across seven states between April 26 and April 29, according to a new report, marking an especially hostile week for abortion rights.

ATTACK ON WOMEN'S RIGHTS BY FUNDAMENTALIST WHITE MEN & CATHOLIC PRIESTS

What to know about new abortion restrictions and what that could mean for Roe v. Wade

"The current barrage of coordinated attacks must be taken seriously as the unprecedented threat to reproductive health care and rights that it is," Elizabeth Nash, principal policy associate on state issues for the Guttmacher Institute, which put out the report, said in a statement. "The year 2021 is well on its way to being a defining one in abortion rights history."

According to the Guttmacher Institute, a research organization that supports reproductive rights, the pace of restrictions enacted so far this year puts 2021 on track to see historic high numbers of abortion restrictions. At this point in 2011, regarded by the research institute as the most restrictive year for abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was decided, 42 restrictions had been enacted; this year, the nation is up to 61 restrictions enacted across 13 states

.

© Sue Ogrocki/AP, FILE Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt speaks during a news conference in Oklahoma City, Feb. 11, 2021.

The wave of abortion restrictions on the state level comes as the Biden administration has begun taking steps to fulfill its promise of shoring up abortion rights. It also comes as the Supreme Court has a new makeup with the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and former President Donald Trump's appointment of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who signed anti-abortion advertisements as a Notre Dame Law School "University Faculty for Life" group member.MORE: Is Ginsburg's death the end of Roe v. Wade? This time, some experts say, it could be.

Nash, of Guttmacher, told ABC News in an email the rise in restrictions this year could be due to "a far more conservative federal court system, backlash to the 2020 presidential election, and more conservative state legislatures that know abortion restrictions play well to the extreme ends of their base."

The laws signed this week include a near-total ban on the procedure in Oklahoma and a ban on abortion after 20-weeks' gestation in Montana.

© Ross D. Franklin/AP, FILE Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey speaks during a bill signing, April 15, 2021, in Phoenix.

Some of the laws, including the Oklahoma ban, are expected to be challenged by rights groups. This is by design, Nash posited, as conservative lawmakers have been pushing laws in the hopes a challenge will make it up to the Supreme Court that could challenge the Roe decision itself. Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that established abortion as a right nationally, was further endorsed by the Supreme Court in 1992's Planned Parenthood v. Casey and 2016's Whole Woman's Health v. Hellerstedt.

Many of the other newly signed laws, however, may go unchallenged, including laws that, in practice, make abortion more difficult to access and require doctors provide medically dubious information.

Filmmaker hopes new doc on Canadian and other ISIS brides will help 'leave hatred behind,' allow repatriation

Desmond Brown
CBC 30/4/20221

© The Return: Life After ISIS Hamilton native Kimberly Polman has expressed regret about being part of the ISIS caliphate, and has been requesting that she be allowed to return to Canada. She's one of the women featured in the new documentary The Return: Life After…

Hamilton native Kimberly Polman is among former ISIS brides featured in The Return: Life After ISIS by Alba Sotorra Clua and her Barcelona-based production company, and the filmmaker hopes the new documentary will give insight into the issues surrounding repatriation.

Sotorra Clua said the documentary, currently one of the films being shown digitally during the Hot Docs Festival, focuses on the plight of Polman and other women from Western countries who joined the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, but then came to regret it.

"This brings a different light on the issues and the question of repatriation," Sotorra Clua told CBC News via telephone from Barcelona.

"Civil society, politicians and policymakers — it can make them rethink the way we are dealing with this issue.

"At the moment, the Western world is rejecting repatriation, and maybe if they watch the film, they can have a different point of view," said Sotorra Clua, of Alba Sotorra Cinema Productions.

Polman, who was raised as a Reformed Mennonite and was the winner of the Women's Opportunity Award in 2011 (Soroptimist International), left Canada and her three adult children in 2015 to join ISIS in Syria.

Sotorra Clua said Polman made that decision for humanitarian reasons, after she saw a Facebook post saying nursing skills were needed in the caliphate.

One year after her arrival, Sotorra Clua said, Polman became disenchanted with ISIS and tried to escape, but was caught and taken to prison, where she was brutally interrogated and raped, and was eventually forced to sign a statement agreeing to face capital punishment if she ever tried to leave again.

Polman finally surrendered to the Kurdish troops in 2019 and has been held in Kurdish detention camps ever since, waiting to come home.

Sotorra Clua said Polman and the other women featured in her documentary have expressed regret and shame, but are also are hopeful about forgiveness and being given a second chance by their countries of origin.

"I was very intrigued and moved by the stories of these women," Sotorra said.

Polman is a dual Canadian-U.S. citizen. In addition to expressing regret about being part of the ISIS caliphate, she has been requesting that she be allowed to return to Canada

In March, Global Affairs Canada told CBC News it is aware of "Canadian citizens being detained by Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria and is particularly concerned with cases of Canadian children in the region."

But the agency said that because of the security situation on the ground, its ability to provide "any kind of consular assistance in Syria remains extremely limited."

The group of Western women in the Syrian detention camp featured in the documentary are from different parts of the world, including Canada, the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands and Germany.

They include Briton Shamima Begum and Hoda Muthana, both from the United States.

Begum was born and grew up in London, as a British citizen. When she was 15, she and two other girls, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, left the U.K. to join ISIS. Today, Begum, whose three children are dead, is imprisoned in the al-Roj camp in territory controlled by Syrian Kurds.

Begum has failed at the U.K.'s highest court to restore her British citizenship, in a case that's a test of the U.K.'s policy to strip the citizenship of Britons who joined ISIS and are now being detained by Syrian Kurdish groups without trial.

In November 2014, Muthana, now 26, left her home to join ISIS. She tricked her family into letting her go to Atlanta, from New Jersey, for a school field trip, and instead boarded a plane to Turkey and then to Syria to meet with ISIS.

A few weeks later, she married Suhan Abdul Rahman, an Australian jihadist, who died a few months later during a battle. She went on to marry at least two more times, according to reports.

Working with Sevinaz Evdike, a Kurdish women's rights activist, Sotorra Clua said she had "unprecedented access" and spent many hours speaking to and filming some of the thousands of displaced ISIS brides and their children.

While they are deprived of basics, Sotorra Clua said what emerges is the slow growth of a sense of community between the women.

Sotorra Clua said as Evdike puts the "wives" through trust exercises, diaries and letters to their younger selves, the story of the nightmare that was ISIS unfolds.
'Honest dialogue' in wake of ISIS's defeat

Sotorra Clua said the aftermath of ISIS's defeat was devastating, leaving thousands of women and children of more than 50 nationalities with nowhere to go.

"I'd been following the stories of these women who'd made headlines around the world, and branded as traitors. I wanted to hear them first-hand, and what followed was emotionally challenging," she said.

"I myself lost friends in the war, so there was some tension. But as time passed, the walls of fear and pain fell to make room for an honest dialogue.

"The only way out for all of us is to leave hatred behind and start over with compassion, forgiveness and understanding," Sotorra Clua added.

The Return: Life After ISIS is among films available digitally during Hot Docs, which runs through May 9.

Plastic gets to the oceans through over 1,000 rivers

Laura Parker 
NATGEO 30/4/2021


The problem with plastic waste just got more complicated—and so did the effort to stanch its flow into the world’s oceans.

© Photograph by Afrianto Silalahi, Barcroft Media/Getty Images PEKANBARU, INDONESIA - DECEMBER 17, 2020 : Aerial photo shows floating plastic and styrofoam trash polluting a corner of Siak River, Pekanbaru.

Rivers are the primary conduits for plastic waste to the seas. In 2017, two separate groups of scientists concluded that 90 percent of river-borne plastic waste that flushes into the oceans is conveyed by just a handful of large, continental rivers, including the Nile, Amazon, and Yangtze, the world’s three longest rivers. Cleaning up those rivers—10 rivers were named in one study and 20 in the other—could go a long way toward solving the problem, experts agreed.

(These maps show the journey of plastic waste through rivers to the sea.)

New research published today in Science Advances has turned that thinking on its head. Scientists found that 80 percent of plastic waste is distributed by more than 1,000 rivers, not simply 10 or 20. They also found that most of that waste is carried by small rivers that flow through densely populated urban areas, not the largest rivers.

Thus, the Yangtze, which traverses 3,915 miles across China and empties into the East China Sea, and was ranked most polluted by plastics, has been displaced by the 16-mile-long Pasig River in the Philippines, which flows through the capital city of Manila, home to 14 million people.

That’s quite a shift. But it speaks to two important issues key to understanding and solving the plastic waste problem. The research underscores the pervasive spread of plastic waste into literally every crevice of the planet, and the need for solutions far more logistically complex and costly than some of the plastics campaign sloganeering suggests. The study also reinforces what marine scientists and other experts have long argued: that the ultimate solution to protecting oceans and freshwater systems is to contain plastic waste on land, where it originates.

© Photograph courtesy The Ocean Cleanup Las Vacas river in Guatemala

Gary Bencheghib, who heads Sungai Watch, a campaign now cleaning up 45 rivers in Bali, says the research from 2017 didn’t make much sense to him.

“The 10-rivers study surprised me more than anything when it came out,” he says. “It wasn’t reinforcing what we were seeing on the ground in Indonesia in the smaller streams. We live in the tropics in a volcanic region where there are literally rivers every 500 meters and they’re all choking on plastic.”
Better data, big changes

Humans have used rivers since the dawn of civilization to carry away their waste. Yet as the plastic trash issue exploded in the last decade, most of the research focused on plastic in the oceans. Analysis of rivers and other freshwater systems has lagged behind. For example, the first full-scale assessment of plastic waste in India’s Ganges River, conducted by the National Geographic Society, concluded just 18 months ago. A similar analysis of the Mississippi River began last month after 100 mayors of cities along the river corridor joined together to sponsor it as a first step toward reducing plastic waste. Japan is conducting a survey to track plastic in both the Ganges and Mekong Rivers.

The new research was based on new modeling and conducted by several of the same scientists involved in both 2017 river studies. They say the data available four years ago was limited, and led to a heavy focus on the size of river basins and population density. In all, the scientists analyzed plastic waste in 1,656 rivers for the new study.

The new modeling takes into account activity in those river basins, such as the proximity of rivers to coastlines, as well as the effects of rainfall, wind currents, and terrain, including slope, that ease the movement of plastic into waterways. Plastic flows more easily into rivers from paved urban areas, for example, than it does in forests, and travels farther in rainy climates than dry ones. The researchers also took into account the proximity of landfills and dump sites to river banks, and concluded that those within six miles (10 kilometers) of rivers are likely to spill into them.

“One big difference from a few years ago is we don’t consider rivers mere conveyor belts of plastics,” says Lourens J.J. Meijer, the study’s lead author. “If you put plastic into the river hundreds of kilometers from the mouth, it doesn’t mean that that plastic will end up in the ocean.”

The farther plastic waste has to travel along a river, the less likely it will actually reach the seas. On the Seine River in France River in France, for example, plastic water bottles with labels dating to the 1970s have beached themselves along the riverbank.

One of the surprises, Meijer says, is that small rivers on tropical islands carry so much plastic waste, such as in the Philippines, Indonesia, and the Dominican Republic. Likewise, rivers in Malaysia and Central America, which are fairly short, also disgorge heavy concentrations of plastic waste.

“Not always the usual suspects like the Ganges or Yangtze,” Meijer says.

Another finding is how plastic flows into the oceans differ by climate. In tropical regions, rivers disgorge plastic into the seas continuously, while rivers in temperate regions can flush most plastic in a single month, usually August in the rainy season, or single events, such as flash floods.

One storyline from the 2017 studies remains constant: Most of the rivers that transport plastic to the seas are in Asia. Of the first 50 rivers on the new list, 44 are in Asia, a reflection, the authors say, of population density.

“Asia and Southeast Asia are the hot spots, but that could change,” says Laurent Lebreton, a co-author. “I am a bit concerned for Africa for the decades to come. The population is growing, it is really young, and the economy is getting better so people will buy more stuff.”
A focus on solutions

The research, which underwent a two-year peer review before publication, was funded by The Ocean Cleanup, a nonprofit founded by Boyan Slat, the Dutch entrepreneur whose quixotic $30 million effort to clean up the plastic in the Pacific Ocean turned him into an international celebrity. Both Lebreton and Meijer work for the nonprofit.

Slat’s team has since developed a trash-eating machine called the Interceptor to collect trash from rivers. It is roughly a variation on Mr. Trash Wheel, the googly-eyed trash barge propelled by a water wheel that has been cleaning up the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland, since 2008 and now leads a fleet of four trash wheels there.

In 2019, Slat announced plans to mass produce 1,000 Interceptors and deploy them within five years. The pandemic slowed the pace, but several of the devices are at work on rivers in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Dominican Republic. The challenge, Slat says, is scaling up to meet such an ambitious goal. “It’s not very difficult to address one river,” he says. “It’s very difficult to do ten or one hundred or one thousand.”

George Leonard, chief scientist at the Ocean Conservancy, who was not involved in the study, says the challenges of cleaning up 1,000 rivers, despite the advancements in equipment designed to handle such a chore, calls attention to the message long prescribed by his organization. “We have always said we need to keep plastic out of the ocean in the first place, rather than relying on cleaning it up as a solution. That means keep it out of the rivers, too.”

2 Edmonton tech companies recognized for environmental innovations
Madeleine Cummings

CBC 30/4/2021

© Anthea Sargeaunt 2S Water CEO Anthea Sargeaunt holds the sensor that earned her company first prize at a recent international mining industry competition.

STEEL TOED RUNNING SHOES!

Two Edmonton companies have impressed mining industry leaders from around the world, taking home two of the top three prizes at a recent clean technology competition.

2S Water and Copperstone Technologies placed first and third, respectively, at the Mining Cleantech Challenge on April 22.

Of the 56 teams that applied, a dozen were chosen to present their technologies virtually to a global panel of mining industry experts and investors.

Anthea Sargeaunt, the CEO of 2S Water, said winning the competition was "an incredible honour."

"Having this validation from big mining companies, that what we're doing is important to them, just means so much to us right now," she said in an interview on Wednesday with CBC Edmonton's Radio Active.

Finding metals in mining water

2S Water has spent the past three years researching and developing sensors that detect metals in water.

The sensors can be put to work in multiple industries, including municipal wastewater and oil and gas.

The company's product resembles a black box and connects to a pipe. Water flows through it and data comes out in real time.

"That lets them adjust their processes so they can make sure the water is actually safe and clean before it passes through their water treatment and into the environment," Sargeaunt said.

Detecting metals in water is important for the mining industry, Sargeaunt said, because metal can cause machinery to peel and corrode. It can also lead to environmental fines, lost revenue and site closures. The Canadian coal-mining company, Teck Coal, recently received a $60-million fine for contaminating rivers in British Columbia. In that case, waste rock had leached selenium and calcite into the water.

Mining companies typically test water by sending samples to a lab, she said, but it can take between 72 hours and 10 days to receive the results. Sensors can speed up that process, saving time and money.

Robots take on tailings ponds

Copperstone Technologies, founded by three graduate students from the University of Alberta in 2014, builds robots for hazardous site investigations.

Like 2S Water, the company's technology has multiple applications. In a mining context, the robots can traverse waste areas called tailings ponds, which can be dangerous for humans to navigate.

CEO Craig Milne said the company's amphibious robots move easily between different types of terrain all year round. They can also carry heavy loads.

More proactive monitoring could prevent environmental catastrophes like the 2014 Mount Polley mine tailings spill in B.C., Milne said.

Canadians 'outperforming' competition

The Colorado Cleantech Industries Association runs the annual competition. Before the pandemic, it was held in Denver.

Helen El Mallakh, the executive director of the CCIA, said the Edmonton companies impressed the judges because they both presented cost-effective products with a wide application and large growth potential.

Canadian companies swept the podium this year, with Richmond, B.C.-based Ideon Technologies winning second prize.

"We're increasingly seeing that the Canadian companies are really outperforming a number of other companies," El Mallakh said.

Both Edmonton CEOs said the recognition has led to follow-up meetings with people they met during the competition and business opportunities.