Alaska's first CSI takes on blood and burglaries in sub-zero weather

James Bartlett - Los Angeles
Sat., May 1, 2021

Shasta Pomeroy

Alaska, the Last Frontier state, now has its first and only crime scene investigator. What drew the native Alaskan to the forensic sciences?

Two years into her justice degree at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Shasta Pomeroy went on a ride-along with the local police and was allowed to observe an outdoor crime scene.

At the time, she was unsure of her future. She was taking law classes, but knew she didn't want a career as an attorney.

That night changed everything for her.

"I knew that I wanted to be on scene. I was never more sure of anything in my life. My family were surprised, but they were super supportive," she says.

Pomeroy completed the law classes, but it was a five-week study trip one summer to University of California Riverside, some 55 miles (88km) east of downtown Los Angeles, that was her leap of faith.

"The crime scene investigation certification was expensive, and it meant travelling into the Lower 48," she says. "I was really seeing if this was what I wanted."

She learned about crime scene photography, bloodstain pattern recognition, collecting DNA, entomology (insect) samples and more, and it quickly confirmed she had made the right choice.

"I'm not emotion-driven, and I can't explain it, but I just knew."

She was born in Oregon but raised from infancy in North Pole, a small Alaska town about 15 miles south of Fairbanks, where it always feels like Christmas, with year-round decorations and a Santa Claus House.

A road sign for the North Pole Chamber of Commerce, Alaska.

In 2016, Pomeroy joined the Fairbanks Police Department [FPD] as a data clerk but would study in her down time and read forensic science books "for fun".

She then became an evidence technician, preserving and packaging evidence for later analysis by scientific investigators, and while she worked "tagging and bagging", she completed her Masters in Administration of Justice. Her final project reviewed the use of forensic science in law enforcement, and how it could apply within Alaska.

She had one goal in mind.

Over the next few years, she undertook further forensic science training through the state's medical examiner's office, the state crime lab, in Las Vegas, and online, and finally this March she was named as the first ever CSI (crime scene investigator) at the FPD.

"I respect and care about the people here, and I wanted to go where I was needed," she says.

Shasta Pomeroy

Her accomplishment wasn't just limited to the "Golden Heart" city - population 31,500 - as her appointment also meant she was the first ever CSI in the entire state of Alaska.

Just back from a "fantastic" week's training at the Death Investigation Academy in Missouri, Pomeroy, 30, spoke enthusiastically about her journey.

"Prior to me, detectives and others would get specialised training, and the State Troopers had a technician who would attend scenes."

She frequently mentions the encouragement she has received.

"This position literally didn't exist. [FPD] Chief Ron Dupee and Deputy Chief Rick Sweet created it for me," she says.

Writing reports is a constant in her duties, though on any random day she could be in the department dusting for fingerprints, processing footwear impressions, collecting DNA samples, or being called out to multiple crime scenes.

"Homicides, suspicious deaths, burglaries - we have lots of burglaries - sexual assaults, aggravated assaults. We deal with everything."

Working in Alaska has some extra challenges.

Black Spruce Trees, Fairbanks, Alaska, United States,

Heightened privacy laws mean a greater need for search warrants for example - and then there's the famous frigid weather.

"The coldest scene I have worked was -33 degrees, outdoors," Pomeroy says.

"You have to warm up your camera, your batteries, and then your hands, before you can work. If there's a drive-by shooting, the bullet casings will be hot when ejected from the weapon, and then freeze into the snow. You can't get them out wearing thick gloves."

'Sherlockian Principles of close observation'

The "CSI Effect", a television-inspired assumption among the public that crimes can be quickly solved using modern technology, does have some basis in truth, admits Pomeroy.

"We have a 3D, 360-degree imaging technology called Faro, which I'm waiting to be trained on, and handheld alternative light source (ALS), which I use to look for biological samples like body fluids such as semen and saliva at a sexual assault scene."

Shasta Pomeroy

Like all technology, Faro has some limitations, including the fact it cannot pick up "fungible" evidence like smoke, perfume or flashes of light.

"A lot of my work is on my hands and knees, using the Sherlockian Principles of close observation," says Pomeroy, who carries a Nikon camera and a pocket magnifying glass with LED and UV features with her on every call.

She has found herself on rooftops, or alone in remote, forested areas, of which Fairbanks has many. None of this dulls her passion, though she does admit to relying on coffee, often iced coffee, despite the weather.

'Human nature wants answers'

"I can go a call-out with just an hour of sleep, and no coffee, but it doesn't matter. I'm just excited to get to work. This really is my calling."

Like many other people working in law enforcement, Pomeroy is very physically active when she's off-duty. She says it's "a physical and artistic way of decompressing and expressing myself".

"I've been a ballerina and dancer for years, and I'm an aerialist on the silks and trapeze. I also enjoy singing, and I'm trying to pick up the piano."

Pomeroy admits that she does feel pressure as the first CSI - though not as the first female CSI.

Law enforcement is a notably male-dominated profession, but she's found nothing but support, and she says everyone understands how useful her work can be.

CSIs are usually expected to specialise, and now she's in the field, Pomeroy is looking to obtain certifications in areas such as death investigations and bloodstain pattern recognition and analysis.

She also assists the state medical examiner's office in Anchorage with post-mortem biological sample collection, something that allows the bodies of victims to be released to the family in timely manner.

"Human nature wants answers," she says.

"As one piece of the crime-solving puzzle, I can help give answers to victims, and to the community."

Missouri latest state to thwart voter-approved policies

Sat., May 1, 2021,



COLUMBIA, Mo. — Missouri lawmakers recently shut down attempts to pay for Medicaid expansion, in what is the latest example of a statehouse fighting to undo voter-enacted polices.

Critics argued during a contentious debate in the state Senate on Thursday that voters didn’t understand the potential cost of the federal health insurance program. Supporters, including Democrats and some Republicans, said lawmakers were going against the will of voters who amended the Missouri Constitution last year to make thousands more low-income adults eligible for government health insurance.

“The people voted for this. We put it in the Missouri Constitution. That’s what they voted to do,” Democratic Sen. Jill Schupp said. “Now we have people who took an oath to uphold the constitutions of the United States and the state of Missouri, and here we are with people turning their backs.”

It’s unclear how the decision will impact access to Medicaid once new eligibility rules take effect in July. Republican Gov. Mike Parson on Thursday tweeted that his administration will assess its options once the budget is finalized. Lawmakers expect a court battle.

Missouri is among 16 states that allow voters to enact policies by putting them on the ballot, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. South Dakota, Utah, Montana, Arizona and Florida are all states where lawmakers recently sought to undermine voter-approved measures.

In voting against funding Missouri's Medicaid expansion, the Senate’s top budgeter, Republican Dan Hegeman, said: “If the voters had all the information we do, I think they would have made a different decision.”

Craig Burnett, a political scientist and direct democracy expert at Hofstra University, said gaps between lawmaker and voter priorities can occur when there’s an oversaturation of Democrats in urban areas or due to gerrymandering — when legislative districts are drawn to give one party an oversized advantage in elections. He said the conflict is particularly acute when it comes to social issues.

“You only get this kind of mismatch when the legislature is pretty significantly out of step with the average voter,” Burnett said.

South Dakota was the first state to adopt direct democracy in 1898. There’s been pushback from lawmakers since then.

Recently, voters there legalized medical marijuana, raised the minimum wage and expanded casino gambling. The GOP-led Legislature responded by trying to make it harder to put initiative petitions on the ballot.

In Montana, voters last year approved a recreational marijuana program that sends a significant portion of tax revenues to conservation purposes. But a Republican-backed legislative plan seeks instead to put up to $6 million toward an addiction treatment program before directing a third of what's left to wildlife habitat, parks and recreational facilities.

After Utah voters passed Medicaid expansion in 2018, conservative lawmakers delayed its full implementation before adding work requirements. In Arizona, Republicans are looking to eliminate about a third of the revenue from a voter-approved tax increase on the wealthy to fund education.

While Florida voters in 2018 overwhelmingly approved a measure allowing most felons to vote once they complete their sentences, the Republican-led Legislature undercut that by requiring them to pay off fines and court costs first.

Missouri's fight over Medicaid expansion isn’t the first time the Legislature and voters have bumped heads over ballot measures in recent years.

Voters in 2018 repealed a law that ended mandatory union dues for non-union members, a longtime goal for Republicans.

That same year — as Republican Josh Hawley defeated Democratic former U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill and the GOP kept overwhelming control of the Legislature — voters legalized medical marijuana, raised the minimum wage and adopted a redistricting measure opposed by top Republicans.

After the success of primarily Democratic-backed policies at the polls, Republicans have sought to undo them and make it harder for voters to put issues on the ballot.

Several pending bills would increase the cost to file initiative petitions, require petitioners to go to greater lengths to gather signatures, and raise the vote threshold needed to amend the Missouri Constitution.

Burnett said that while recent tensions have primarily involved Republican statehouses and more liberal voters, it's also happened with Democratic-led legislatures. He cited California voters’ 2008 decision to ban same-sex marriage, which was later overturned in court.

"It’s very frustrating for all of those voters who voted for this,” he said. “The whole point of the initiative petition is actually supposed to be to get around the legislature and enact policies that they’re unwilling to do, or maybe they’re too politically toxic.”

___

Associated Press writers Amy Beth Hanson in Helena, Mont., and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.

Summer Ballentine, The Associated Press

KARMA IS A BITCH

Stephen Karanja: Kenyan 

anti-vaccine doctor dies

 from Covid-19

 ANTI ABORTION DR IS ANTI VAXXER

Emmanuel Onyango - BBC News, Nairobi

Sat., May 1, 2021, 12:48 p.m.·3 min read

A Kenyan doctor who became a vociferous opponent of Covid-19 vaccines has succumbed to the virus, weeks after saying the jabs were "totally unnecessary".

Dr Stephen Karanja, chairman of the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association, advocated steam inhalation and hydroxychloroquine tablets.

He clashed with the Catholic church over the safety of Covid jabs.

Health authorities and the World Health Organization (WHO) rejected his claims.

"[The vaccine] being distributed in Kenya, has been reviewed and found safe not only by the WHO rigorous process but also by several stringent regulatory authorities," the WHO said in March.

• Africa Live: Latest updates from across the continent

• Kenyan nurse: 'I was shunned over coronavirus fears'

• The women fighting South Africa's 'infodemic'

The Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops also distanced itself from Dr Karanja's view on Covid-19 vaccines, saying the vaccines were "licit and ethically acceptable."

Kenya received just over a million vaccine doses from the global Covax initiative, most of which have been administered.

The country has confirmed more than 160,000 cases and 2,707 deaths. In March, the government imposed another lockdown restricting movement in five counties after a surge in new infections.

What did Dr Karanja say about Covid vaccines?

In a letter dated 3 March Dr Karanja said that "there are drugs that have been repurposed and used effectively to treat Covid-19," adding that "we also know that vaccination for this disease is totally unnecessary making the motivation suspect."

He went on in different forums to advocate alternative treatments, including steam inhalation and a cocktail of drugs - including hydroxychloroquine and Ivermectin, which have not been approved by the WHO to treat Covid-19.

• Covid-19 and hydroxychloroquine: What do we know?

• The South African debate over Ivermectin

Dr Karanja, who was an obstetrician and gynaecologist, died on Thursday a week after he was admitted to hospital suffering from complications caused by a Covid-19 infection.

What else has Dr Karanja said?

Before falling out with the Catholic church in Kenya about the safety and efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccine, Dr Karanja often allied with the religious leaders to oppose mass vaccination campaigns.

In 2019 he led opposition against vaccination of schoolgirls against cervical cancer, saying the jab against Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) was unnecessary because it affected those "whose lifestyle involves irresponsible sexual behaviours".

In 2014, his association opposed the government's rollout of a tetanus vaccine targeting women, claiming it was a sterilisation campaign, despite local health authorities, the WHO, and the UN children's agency Unicef saying the vaccine was safe.

In both instances the government carried on with its plans, but officials reported that they encountered vaccine hesitancy as a result of the objections raised by Dr Karanja.

He was also a prominent anti-abortion campaigner and appeared in court in 2018 as an expert witness in a case in which the government was sued for withdrawing guidelines on abortion. The high court ruled that the government decision was unlawful and illegal.

Though shunned by a majority of health professionals in Kenya, the Catholic church recognised his association, but often hastened to add that Dr Karanja did not speak for the Catholic church.

"The mandate of the church is to speak on matters of morality and faith. The mandate of the doctors is to speak on their understanding of their scientific practice. We are not at variance," Father Ferdinand Lugonzo, the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops spokesperson, told the BBC.

In Mexico, ancient Maya cave reveals mysterious painted hand prints


Hand prints, reportedly 1,200 years old, are seen on the cave walls, in Merida


By Alberto Fajardo

Sat., May 1, 2021, 

MERIDA (Reuters) - Dozens of black and red hand prints cover the walls of a cave in Mexico, believed to be associated with a coming-of-age ritual of the ancient Maya, according to an archeologist who has explored and studied the subterranean cavern.

The 137 prints, mostly made by the hands of children, are more than 1,200 years old, which would date them near the end of the ancient Maya's classical zenith, when major cities across present-day southern Mexico and Central America thrived amid major human achievements in math and art.

The cave is located near the northern tip of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, where the towering pyramids of urban centers like Uxmal and Chichen Itza still stand, and lies some 33 feet (10 meters) below a large ceiba tree, which the Maya consider sacred.

Archeologist Sergio Grosjean argues that the hand prints were likely made by children as they entered puberty, due to a analysis of their size, with the colors providing a clue to their meaning.

"They imprinted their hands on the walls in black... which symbolized death, but that didn't mean they were going to be killed, but rather death from a ritual perspective," he said.

"Afterwards, these children imprinted their hands in red, which was a reference to war or life," he added.

Other Mayan artifacts found in the cave include a carved face and six painted relief sculptures, which date from between 800-1,000 A.D., a time when severe drought struck the region and may have contributed to the classical Maya's sudden abandonment of major cities.

While the first Mayan settlements date back nearly 4,000 years, there were still large centers when Spanish conquerors arrived in the early 1500s.

Several million Maya continue to live in communities scattered across southeastern Mexican states like Chiapas and Campeche, in addition to Guatemala and Belize.

(Reporting by Alberto Fajardo; Writing by David Alire Garcia; editing by Diane Craft)

UK TORY BUDGET
Children will ‘suffer the consequences’ of UK cutting Unicef funding by 60%

SAM BLEWETT, PA DEPUTY POLITICAL EDITOR1 May 2021, 




Unicef will have its UK funding cut by around 60%, the United Nations agency said as it warned the world’s most vulnerable children will “suffer the consequences” of the Government’s move.

The UN children’s fund said on Saturday it was “deeply concerned” by the decision as it urged ministers to restore overseas aid funding by the end of the year at the latest.

It is the latest cut to emerge from the Government’s decision to break its manifesto commitment to maintain spending at 0.7% of national income by slashing it to 0.5%.

Facing widespread criticism, Boris Johnson this week insisted spending would increase when it is “fiscally prudent to do so” as he said the coronavirus pandemic means it is necessary to “economise”.

Unicef urged the Prime Minister to reinstate the 0.7% commitment by the end of the year “at the latest” as it revealed funding for the agency this year would reduce to £16 million, down from £40 million.

“Any cuts to these funds will have serious consequences for children,” the agency said in a statement.

“It is too soon to know the full impact that this and future UK funding cuts will have on Unicef programmes. However, we worry that children living in some of the world’s worst crises and conflicts will suffer the consequences.”

Other funding cuts to have trickled out include an 85% reduction to the UN sexual and reproductive health agency, which it branded “devastating” for women, girls and their families around the world.

A leaked memo has suggested that the UK will slash bilateral funding for overseas water, sanitation and hygiene projects by more than 80% – a move WaterAid described as “savage”. 

And a report by media outlet Devex said ministers are planning to reduce funding for polio eradication by 95%.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: “The seismic impact of the pandemic on the UK economy has forced us to take tough but necessary decisions, including temporarily reducing the overall amount we spend on aid.

“We will still spend more than £10 billion this year to fight poverty, tackle climate change and improve global health.

“We are working with suppliers and partners on what this means for individual programmes.”

NAMIBIA
A Canadian oil firm thinks it has struck big. Some fear it could ravage a climate change hotspot

By David McKenzie and Ingrid Formanek, CNN 

Video by Peter Rudden 

MAY 2,2021

Syringa trees rise out of the Kalahari sand in the wild expanse of Kavango East, as the humid heat warns of afternoon showers. It's easy to imagine this place has looked the same for a hundred years.© CNN Tom Alweendo, Namibia's Minister of Mines and Energy.

Except, that is, for the road. Recently widened, graded and ramrod straight, new roads like this mean change is coming.

Carved out of the trees and surrounded by a chain-link fence, that change comes as a shock: a giant oil rig towers above these flat lands, dwarfing the trees.

In this northeastern corner of Namibia, on the borders of Angola and Botswana, a Canadian oil company called ReconAfrica has secured the rights to explore what it believes could be the next -- and perhaps even the last -- giant onshore oil find.

The oilfield that ReconAfrica wants to harness is immense. The firm has leased more than 13,000 square miles, or some 30,000 square kilometers, of land in Namibia and neighboring Botswana.

© David McKenzie/CNN ReconAfrica founder Craig Steinke scoured the planet for the next big oil find. He believes they have possibly found one in the Kavango Basin.

The find -- potentially containing 12 billion barrels of oil -- could be worth billions of dollars. And some experts believe the oil reserves here could be even bigger.

"We know we have discovered a new sedimentary basin. It's up to 35,000 feet deep and it's a large and very expansive basin," says Craig Steinke, the co-founder of ReconAfrica.

Behind him, a team is operating a thousand horsepower rig capable of reaching depths of 12,000 feet. Even with Covid-19 lockdowns, they are working fast.

Steinke is confident; he says a detailed aeromagnetic survey shows the basin is large enough and deep enough to contain oil. "Every basin of this depth in the world produces commercial hydrocarbons. It just makes sense," he said.

ReconAfrica is calling this part of eastern Namibia and western Botswana the Kavango basin

.

© Peter Rudden for CNN Farmers move cattle within the area ReconAfrica has gained rights to. Climate scientists warn that in just 30 years, unless aggressive mitigation efforts are imposed, the way of life in Kavango will be untenable.

It's part of a wider geological formation already known to geologists. Some 110 million years ago, it formed at the bottom of a shallow inland sea. Basins are depressions in the earth's crust formed mostly by tectonic forces over hundreds of millions of years.

© David Mckenzie/CNN Paulus Mukoso is the leader of a group of !Kung people who live near the exploratory drilling -- nobody from ReconAfrica had come to talk to them. "I am worried that if they come here, they will say only the good things that they are bringing here, not the bad things."

Think of an empty swimming pool; over a very, very long period of time, the pool is filled with material -- leaves, sand, organic matter. Hang around long enough and you won't see the swimming pool -- just the stuff inside it.


When the sediment is sitting at the right depth and is formed by the right mix of organic matter, such as the remains of dead animals or plants, it can, over tens of millions of years turn into oil, a resource that has helped drive the world economy for decades.

Today, that hunt for oil is triggering a fierce debate.

Supporters of drilling say the find could transform the fortunes of Namibia and Botswana, and that the countries have every right to exploit their own natural resources. After all, so the reasoning goes, the developed world has spent the past century exploiting its own fossil fuel reserves and getting rich in the process.

Opponents are using a familiar argument against oil exploration. They believe a major find could devastate regional ecosystems.

© Peter Rudden for CNN A ReconAfrica oil rig in the midst of the expanse of Namibia's East Kavango region.

And they have a powerful tool in the fight against hydrocarbons: In the face of the climate crisis, and in a region uniquely vulnerable to rising temperatures, should oil be exploited at all?


Staggering warming

Unlike neighboring Angola, Namibia doesn't have an oil industry of its own to speak of -- so far. Yet it is already being hammered by the world's dependency on fossil fuels.

"Southern Namibia already has twice the global rate of warming. In northern Namibia it is a staggering 3.6 degrees Celsius per century," said Francois Engelbrecht, a professor at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and a lead author on the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report.

"The northern part of Namibia and Botswana and southern Zambia are likely the region in the Southern Hemisphere that is warming the fastest," he said.

Multiple projections show that as the planet warms, these regions will warm twice as fast. Those increasing temperatures will have a specific impact on the region.

When warm air rises over the equatorial region of Africa it goes on to sink over the sub-tropics, creating the Kalahari high pressure system that inhibits rain. Most common in the winter months, this weather system creates the semi-arid environment of the area.

But as the climate warms, those dry spells will become more frequent in the summer months, Engelbrecht said. The change in weather patterns and the corresponding increase in heat will create an even hotter and drier climate. It could destroy the way of life of the people who live here

.

© Ingrid Formanek/CNN In the San village, children carry water from a nearby borehole. Activists and scientists fear that a large-scale oil industry here could pollute the ground water. ReconAfrica says their practices won't lead to water pollution.

"Farming is already marginal. When it gets drastically warmer and drier, the means for adaptation will be extremely limited. The cattle industry will likely collapse," said Engelbrecht, stressing that aggressive action on climate change could help reduce the damage.

While the future of climate change looks bleak, its impact is already being felt in Namibia. Farmers in southern Africa are already experiencing more frequent droughts and changing weather patterns that make small-scale livestock and crop production more difficult.


The end of oil? Not so fast

With the severe repercussions of climate change looming, the pressure to shift from fossil fuels to renewables is gaining ground and climate activists are pushing governments to leave oil in the ground.

This global shift on climate action was on full display at US President Joe Biden's Leaders Climate Summit last month, where world leaders were busy trying to outdo each other by promising hefty cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

Biden announced that by 2030, the US would reduce its emissions by roughly half from 2005 levels. The European Union wants to become carbon neutral by 2050.The message is clear: In the developed world, oil could become a commodity of the past.

© Jaco Marais/Die Burger/Gallo Images/Getty Images Deonstmrators in Cape Town, South Africa stage a silent protest against the drilling in the Kavango Basin, on March 11.

"The big risk is that the global North makes the transition, and that Africa becomes the dumping ground for the world's fossil fuel technologies -- the last place where this kind of energy is being pursued," said Engelbrecht.In a museum in Namibia's capital, Windhoek, where some of the country's diamond, uranium, and other mineral riches are on display, Tom Alweendo, the Minister of Mines and Energy, makes the case for continued oil exploration

.

© BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images World leaders took part in a climate change virtual summit on April 22.

He says Namibia has a fundamental right to exploit its own natural resources -- including fossil fuels.

"Any volume of oil that is commercially viable will mean a lot to our economy. Not only in terms of employment, but income that would come into the treasury," Alweendo said.

Climate funding for the developing world -- a key element of the Paris Agreement -- remains far short of what climate advocates say is needed to help countries like Namibia mitigate and adapt to the consequences of climate change.

While Namibia's wind and solar potential are some of the best in the world, Alweendo says there is still a place for oil too. And he says the country should be given the chance to exploit it.

"There is a feeling from developing countries that somehow the resources that were used to develop the Western Hemisphere are suddenly now not the right thing to do and we need to do something else," said Alweendo.

He points out that Namibia is fully committed to climate change treaties, but maintains that to abandon oil, Namibia needs concrete compensation.

Niall Kramer, a South African oil industry consultant and former oil executive, put it bluntly: "Someone who is sitting in Norway and has a very good quality of life because of the oil that was found in the North Sea is now telling the world that it should run on renewables. If you are sitting in Africa, your incentives are very different."

Those incentives are lining up with the needs of global oil industry. While some developed nations are wavering on oil, ReconAfrica's Steinke readily admits that Namibia provides a welcoming environment and doesn't see anything wrong with plunging the company's oil drill smack bang in the center of a climate change hotspot.

"The oil is where you find it, right? And you can't blame the Namibian government for wanting to achieve energy independence," he said.

ReconAfrica boasts that it was given favorable terms by the Namibian government: a 5% royalty fee and 35% corporate tax.

Last month, the company announced that it had found a workable oil system -- but said it still needed to dig two more wells to be sure.


A unique ecosystem

Scientists and environmental activists say ReconAfrica hasn't conducted sufficient environmental impact studies and that it could threaten one of the world's unique ecosystems if it goes ahead with its plans to exploit any reserves it finds in the Kavango Basin.

The ephemeral Omuramba-Omatako river lies close to ReconAfrica's first exploratory drill site. This sensitive water system flows into the Kavango River and from there into the Okavango Delta in neighboring Botswana.

A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the delta is a major draw for international tourists to the region. The Kavango river fans out into the Kalahari Desert, creating an inland wetland that never makes it to the sea. It is a haven for some of the most diverse animals and birds on the continent.

"Currently the work that they are doing is not a big deal. It doesn't have a large environmental or social footprint," said Jan Arkert, a geologist and activist, referring to ReconAfrica. "But if they find what they are looking for and expand production, the impact will be absolutely devastating for the Delta."

Botswana's government has tried to allay people's fears of harm to the Delta. It says ReconAfrica is undergoing appropriate environmental assessment studies before approvals for drilling activities would be granted.

Arkert and water experts like Surina Esterhuyse, a professor at the University of the Free State in South Africa, fear large-scale oil production could also have an extreme impact on the local population.

"It is a water-scarce area and where there is drilling, potential pollution could contaminate the groundwater. And the people depend on that," said Esterhyse. In their de facto reservation near the drilling site, the leader of the San community has heard only rumors about ReconAfrica's operations. But he fears the consequences.

"I am worried that if they come here, they will say only the good things that they are bringing here, but they won't say any of the bad things," said local community leader Paulus Mukoso.

The San are the first people of Namibia, but over many decades they have been pushed out of their lands and deprived of their way of life.

"Nobody wants to drink dirty water. Clean water is critical for our survival," he says.

One of the lightning rods of ReconAfrica's exploration here was the early indication that the company intended to use hydraulic fracturing -- better known as fracking -- to exploit the Kavango basin.

The practice is highly controversial, blamed for causing significant water and air pollution and even earthquakes. Several US states and countries have banned the practice.

In interviews and company documents used to gain investor interest, fracking seemed to be on the table. But after a considerable public outcry, the company has gone quiet on the practice, instead saying they will focus on conventional oil exploration.

"We have absolutely no intention in developing unconventionals. Zero," said Steinke, using the oil-industry term for finds exploited by fracking. The ultimate decision, he says, lies with the Namibian government.

Alweendo, the energy minister, told CNN the decision on how any oil is extracted will happen once they know just what is in the Kavango Basin.

Steinke says ReconAfrica has complied with all environmental laws and employs the best possible practices.

"I say to these people who are critics, who likely have never been to Namibia, let alone the Kavango region, come to the Kavango, and let's just have a look at the environment, and then you tell me that these people don't deserve a better lifestyle, especially if they're sitting on, standing on, a major source of energy," he said.

Few people in Kavango East seemed to know much about his company's oil exploration, but many are holding out for the promise of work or a better life.

Mukoso, the San chief, says there isn't any work for members of his community, meaning they have to survive on the meager pensions of their elders. Every month, that money runs out, he says, leaving them to depend on handouts and whatever food they can find in the bush -- and that isn't much.

While the San community used to roam freely in this country, hunting and gathering food, that way of life ended decades ago.

"Nature is important for me, but if you go into nature, there is nothing left," he says. He hopes to sit down with representatives from ReconAfrica to find out how his community can benefit.

But as farming and cattle raising become more marginal because of climate change, and young people seeking a different life, more and more people will move to informal settlements like the ones around Rundu, the regional capital. Here shacks dot the Kalahari sand on the edges of the main highway.

Here, too, they hear rumors of future oil riches -- but they need work now.

Outside a shebeen, a lean-to bar common here, a group of men sit on a bench in the mid-afternoon sun.

52-year-old Simone Kaveto tries to make money selling firewood.

"Here in Rundu there are lots of people, but there are no jobs," he said.

Man behind the Bricklin sports car says electric vehicles an 'earthquake' for car industry

"If it was me and I had a choice on how to spend money wisely, my role in government would be standardizing charging," he said.

"So you don't have 'I'm going to put in 15,000 charging stations and you can't use it because your nozzle doesn't fit my nozzle.' "

CBC Sat., May 1, 2021

Bricklin is now CEO of Visionary Vehicles, which is working to manufacture a three-wheel electric car called the 3EV. (Visionary Vehicles - image credit)

The man who created New Brunswick's famous Bricklin SV-1 says the car industry is facing huge changes over the next few decades as more electric vehicles enter the market.

Malcolm Bricklin made the remarks at a business sustainability conference put on by the Town of Riverview.

"The industry is going to go through this tremendous earthquake, is what it's going to be, because they're all doing it," he told the virtual audience Thursday.

"They're all coming up with the same vehicles … and they're going to send them to their own dealers that are not used to selling them."

Bricklin, now 82, is CEO of Visionary Vehicles, a New York based company trying to make a small, affordable two- passenger car called the 3EV.

He believes electric vehicles are the future of the industry, but he admits there are lots of obstacles to overcome before they can overtake gas and diesel-powered vehicles.

"There's going to be all sorts of problems," Bricklin said. "Problem number one, we gotta have more charging places everywhere."

Visionary Vehicle's three-wheeled electric 3EV is designed to offer good range and a luxury sports car's appeal for less than $30,000 US.(Visionary Vehicles)

Bricklin said new buyers of electric cars suffer from "range anxiety."

"If you have a garage, you're almost OK, because you can charge overnight, but if you live in an apartment and you don't have a garage, you got a problem."

Bricklin said that leaves you using a commercial charging station, and there aren't enough right now for drivers to avoid lines.

The second problem is providing the electricity for an ever expanding number of electric cars on the road.

If car companies want to produce electric vehicles in numbers similar to gas-powered vehicles, Bricklin said, which he estimates is around 100 million a year, there's not enough electricity for them, especially clean electricity right now.

"But people are going to learn to put solar cells and wind turbines on their homes or their apartments and get the juice for their batteries 100 per cent from not the grid."

Third, Bricklin said, producing enough batteries will be an issue.

"You have to project how many battery factories you're going to build based upon what the sales could be, which you don't have the slightest idea," he said, "So you have to project it, you have to invest here, but if you don't do that then you're going to have the sales, but you're not going to have the batteries."

Despite the obstacles, Bricklin said driving an electric car is a dream.

"It drives smoothly, it rides with power … I'm telling you it's an incredible experience if you drive an electric car, if it's done halfway right.

This neon green 1975 model Bricklin is one of the few remaining vehicles of its kind still on the road.(Photo Submitted)

Bricklin's proposed vehicle is a two-seat, three-wheel sports car with scissor doors that he believes can be produced to sell at under $30,000 US.

The three-wheel design dramatically reduces the weight of the car, which he said allows more range and better performance.

And even though he was once in business with the New Brunswick government to produce his Bricklin SV-1 back in the 1970s, he said there is no reason for politicians to offer car companies incentives to go electric.

Bricklin said all the companies are already there. Instead, put the money where it matters.

"If it was me and I had a choice on how to spend money wisely, my role in government would be standardizing charging," he said.

"So you don't have 'I'm going to put in 15,000 charging stations and you can't use it because your nozzle doesn't fit my nozzle.' "

Black scientist rethinks the 'dark' in dark matter

By Lisa Selin Davis, CNN 
MAY 2, 2021


When many kids were running around playing tag or video games, Chanda Prescod-Weinstein was thinking about particle physics.

© Shutterstock Theoretical physicist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, who explores the structural oppression of the scientific community as one of the themes in her new book, advocates for making the "night sky accessible" to all children. A starry night at Yellowstone National Park is shown here.

After her mother took her to see "A Brief History of Time," Errol Morris' 1991 documentary about theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, she fell in love with the discipline. She was just 10 years old.

Nearly 30 years later, she is the first Black woman to hold a tenure-track faculty position in theoretical cosmology as an assistant professor at the University of New Hampshire. Prescod-Weinstein is one of the country's few core faculty members of both physics and women's and gender studies departments at a higher institution.

In her new book, "The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred," Prescod-Weinstein invites readers into the universe as she sees it -- and as a self-described queer agender Black woman, she sees it differently than many people.

Her book chapters -- including "The Physics of Melanin," "Black People Are Luminous Matter" and "The Anti-Patriarchy Agender" -- show her focus "at the intersection of astrophysics and particle physics" and at the intersection of physics and Black feminist thought and anti-colonial theory.

Her book is a tour of particles like quarks and leptons, as well as the axions that Prescod-Weinstein specializes in, but it also explores the various structural oppressions that affect who gets to study and discover them -- and even who gets to name those discoveries.

She points to terms like WIMP -- weakly interacting massive particles -- and its relative MACHO, or massive astrophysical compact halo objects, as examples. "You can tell that physicists love an acronym," she wrote, "and that the physicists who came up with WIMP and MACHO were almost certainly men."

Women and people of color, she notes, are routinely left out of histories of science, despite their important role in the progress that White men are credited with making. Prescod-Weinstein asks us to consider how science would be different if scientists were from more diverse backgrounds, and if it incorporated Indigenous scientific knowledge and voices.

We spoke to Prescod-Weinstein about her ideas and her hopes for future scientists.

This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

CNN: The subtitle of your book combines dark matter, space-time and dreams deferred. How do those three things intersect for you?

Chanda Prescod-Weinstein: I'm a dark matter expert, and so of course, the dark matter -- an invisible form of matter that we believe comprises 80% of the universe -- is going to figure into it in some big way. And dark matter exists in this larger context of space-time, which is how Einstein's theory of relativity requires us to think of space and time, as existing in relationship with each other.

I also wanted to be honest that this was going to be part of the larger social context and not just the larger physical context. That larger social context is dreams deferred. That is both a comment on the social issues that I raise in the book, but also a comment on having to raise the social issues.

CNN: How so?

Prescod-Weinstein: "Dreams deferred" refers to a suite of poems by Langston Hughes, about the Black experience under White supremacy in America and in all of its facets, and that there are still limits on how we live. One of the things that attracted me to particle physics and particle physics as a career path when I was 10 years old was that it seemed so far away from the problems that my parents were confronting.

When I was a young person dreaming of particles, it was never my dream to write a book about popular science that also problematizes how science happens. And yet here I am doing this work.

CNN: Tell us more about your parents and how their work influenced you.

Prescod-Weinstein: I had a political vocabulary that was maybe a little bit unusual for a kid who was interested in physics. My parents were both political organizers. I was raised by a Black feminist thinker who was also doing Black feminist organizing. She was spending a lot of time dealing with the problem of the way poverty is criminalized in the United States. I was also at points going to picket lines with my father, who was a union organizer and, at one point, a union officer. I was seeing a lot of bad things, and I was hearing a lot of bad stories.

Particle physics just made it seem like there is a universe out there, and life isn't just about what's messed up on our little planet. And that was really exciting -- that maybe there was a way to get away from the bad stuff.

But it turned out that it wasn't just my job to do the things in physics that excite me, but to think about what I was doing in a larger social context and the impact of my work on the larger community.

The question that I'm interested in, ultimately, is how can we be in good relations with each other and what is the role that scientists play in what kinds of relationships we have with each other? But also: What is the role that particle physics and cosmology can play in promoting good relations?

CNN: You note that White people sometimes find the term "dark matter" scary and foreboding, and that for terms like that and others, "a Black feminist physicist working in the 1960s would never have used this language." How would such terms be different if scientists had been and were now a more diverse group?

Prescod-Weinstein: My biggest pet peeve around the phrase "dark matter" is that it's not a good name for it, because it misrepresents the properties of the thing. It's not dark; it's actually invisible.

The thing about a question like yours is that it's speculative fiction. At the time that dark matter got its name, there were almost no Black men and literally zero Black women with a doctorate in physics. So, we have no idea. It would be another 40 years between when dark matter got its name around 1933, and when Willie Hobbs Moore got her doctorate in physics in 1972 at the University of Michigan; she was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in physics.

But it's an interesting question to ask, and I think it's one that we have to ask, knowing that there never actually will be a clear, definitive answer. And at the same time, we have to grapple with these alternative futures that were foreclosed because of White supremacy, because of patriarchy.

CNN: Can you give an example of someone whose future in physics was curtailed because of White supremacy?

Prescod-Weinstein: Elmer Imes was the second African American to earn a doctorate in physics, which he did at the University of Michigan in 1918. His work as an experimentalist actually played a really important role in providing evidence for quantum mechanics. When you're situating the history of how quantum mechanics came to be accepted as a correct model for physical reality, Elmer Imes should be part of that story.

The way that students of physics typically learn the history of the field is through anecdotes that their professors told them during class and through anecdotes that are littered throughout their textbooks. But Black people have our own community historians, like Dr. Jami Valentine Miller, the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in physics from Johns Hopkins University. She runs African American Women in Physics and has been keeping track of Black women who have a doctorate in physics and related areas. A lot of these stories get transferred through oral communication, even if no one has been given the opportunity to write it up for a publication.

I think publishers have a really big role to play here when writing their quantum mechanics textbooks. I think that we are long overdue for a history of Black people in American physics.

CNN: Would having more physicists who look similar to you have made a difference in your path?

Prescod-Weinstein: I talk in the book about meeting Nadya Mason, an incredibly accomplished condensed matter experimentalist at University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, who is also a Black woman. She shares my heritage: one Black, non-Jewish parent and one White Jewish parent. Meeting Nadya was incredibly important for me, but we were both the kinds of students who got into Harvard. This kind of representation is particularly helpful for the chosen few. But if you have a situation where you're living in a bubble of a chosen few, effectively the power relations are unchanged. Yes, it is important to see examples. But if those examples are exceptions, then you have a problem.

I don't want to undercut the significance of my accomplishments, because I know that I have worked hard and that I have overcome barriers. I also know that as a light-skinned woman who has a Harvard degree, I experienced less racism because of my appearance.

I don't think that representation or diversity and inclusion necessarily bring us to material change that actually changes those power relations. What we need are a different set of power relations.

CNN: You talk about making the "night sky accessible" to all children. What does that mean to you?

Prescod-Weinstein: It starts with a very simple question: How do we create the conditions so that every child has access to a dark night sky and the opportunity to sit and wonder underneath it? It has very deep implications, because that requires thinking about public transportation and how people get access to dark night skies. It requires thinking about pollution and whether dark night skies continue to be possible. And it has to do with thinking about patriarchy: making it safe to be out under a darkening sky.

It has to do with making sure that parents aren't working 80-hour weeks because their jobs don't pay a living wage. It's about making sure that everyone has access to good health care, to clean water, to food, because it is hard to just enjoy and wonder when you are either being poisoned or when you are hungry.

At the end of the day, even though I have pretty extensive critiques of the scientific community, at heart I'm still a scientist who is really passionate and excited about the fact that we can use math to describe the universe. It's such an incredible thing that it starts with learning to count when you're a toddler and ends with being able to describe to my students how gold is made in stellar explosions.

Each generation is tasked with doing the work of trying to push the boundaries further into freedom. I find myself hoping that someone from the next generation will actually get to live my dream, which is enjoying learning about the universe and telling its stories, without being distracted by racism, transphobia and other forms of oppression.

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Willie Hobbs Moore's accomplishment. She was the first African American woman to earn a doctorate in physics.

© Courtesy Chanda Prescod-Weinstein Chanda Prescod-Weinstein is author of the new title "The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred." She is shown at Las Campanas Observatory in Chile's Atacama Desert, December 18, 2011.

In energy-reliant Canada, banks and investors face dilemma in meeting emissions target

None of the big Canadian banks has joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which commits to finding pathways to net-zero emissions by 2050. VanCity, the biggest credit union, which has never financed fossil fuel companies, is the only Canadian financial institution in the alliance.

© Reuters/Mark Blinch FILE PHOTO: A Royal Bank of Canada logo is seen on Bay Street in the heart of the financial district in Toronto

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian banks' commitments to "net-zero financed emissions" by 2050 have drawn doubts from many investors, given the lack of a defined goal, details and their continued support for oil and gas companies, even if partially aimed at helping them transition to alternatives.


But their growing funding for green projects also presents a dilemma for shareholders who might want to divest.

The situation highlights the largely Canadian quandary faced by both the banks and their investors. Even in their quest to shrink financing for big emission-producers, the lenders cannot withdraw from an industry that accounts for about a tenth of the economy, despite its being responsible for over a quarter of emissions.

Over the past five months, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), Toronto-Dominion Bank and Bank of Montreal, have announced plans to achieve net-zero emissions, but lacked details including a definition of that goal, interim reduction targets and plans to move away from traditional energy sources.

The six biggest banks account for nearly 90% of the industry's revenues and move in tandem on strategic shifts, including climate initiatives, which leaves shareholders with few local alternatives.

"The challenge with the current push to divest banks because they're involved in fossil fuels is that these are the very same banks critical to help meet many of our goals in alternative energy and sustainable financing," said Jamie Bonham, director of corporate engagement at NEI Investments, which holds shares of the five banks.

Canadian banks' outstanding loans to the oil and gas sector has stayed at the levels of two years ago, although it fell by 9.7% to C$47.5 billion ($42.2 billion) from a year earlier as of Jan. 31.

They remain some of the biggest financiers of fossil fuel producers globally, with TD the world's top oil sands banker and RBC Canada's biggest financier of fossil fuels, in 2020, according to the Rainforest Action Network https://www.ran.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Banking-on-Climate-Chaos-2021.pdf. RBC, TD and Bank of Nova Scotia were among the 12 worst banks for fossil fuel financing globally between 2016 and 2020.

Reports from the banks show none of the proceeds of green bonds they issued last year went to renewable projects by traditional energy companies.

GRAPHIC - Global banks' financing for fossil fuel companies: https://graphics.reuters.com/CANADA-BANKS/ENVIRONMENT/xegvbxzkkvq/chart.png

LAGGARDS

Their reluctance to step away from financing fossil fuels makes them laggards compared to their global counterparts, particularly European ones like BNP Paribas

 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bnp-paribas-shale-idUSKBN1CG0E3 and ING Groep that have distanced themselves from shale and/or tar-sands related oil and gas projects.

"When we set the net-zero target, that wasn't, for us, about divestment," said Andrea Barrack, TD's global head of sustainability and corporate citizenship, in an interview with Reuters. "We're a major corporation in a country where a lot of... people's livelihoods depend on (the oil and gas) industry. We take those obligations seriously."

TD's 2021 ESG report, expected to be released next year, will include some interim goals, Barrack said.

For more details on how Canadian banks are approaching their net-zero emissions targets, see

Despite the dilemma, some investors are taking action.

Amelia Meister, senior campaigner at retail investor group SumOfUs, which represents about 1,700 retail shareholders of Canadian banks, said some members have divested their bank shares, and over 2,500 have said they will move their money from the banks to credit unions.

"We don't necessarily know what their internal definitions for low carbon are," Meister said. "Some define low carbon as light natural gas, which is still a fossil fuel."

Others demand more transparency.

The banks should disclose milestones for achieving net zero emissions, including explicit criteria and timelines for withdrawing from activities not aligned with the Paris Agreement, said Emily DeMasi, senior engager for EOS, a stewardship service provider at Federated Hermes, representing investors who hold about C$3.3 billion of TD shares.

They should also show how they are incentivizing clients to reduce emissions, she said.

If they don't move quickly enough, EOS could band together with other investors, file shareholder resolutions and vote to remove directors, DeMasi said.

None of the big Canadian banks has joined the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, which commits to finding pathways to net-zero emissions by 2050. VanCity, the biggest credit union, which has never financed fossil fuel companies, is the only Canadian financial institution in the alliance.

Banks globally face climate transition risks, said Jaime Ramos Martin, who manages Aviva Investors' ESG funds.

"To be ahead on climate transition risks banks would need to transition their (portfolios) quicker than the economies where they are present," Ramos Martin said. "Importantly, for us investors to follow up these efforts we need a great deal of disclosure, which currently is lacking."

Meister blamed the banks for some of Canada's continued outsized reliance on traditional energy.

"Canadian banks dragging their heels has put our economy in a worse situation for the transition."

(Reporting By Nichola Saminather; Editing by Denny Thomas and Dan Gr

AstraZeneca has drawn criticism for saying it can't share its vaccine tech with the WHO because it has no engineers available 'to brief people and train them'

The comment was "utterly unacceptable," Chow said, adding that it was proof of why governments "should never have trusted a small number of companies to vaccinate the world."

BEGS THE QUESTION HOW CAN ASTRAZENECA CAN BE PRODUCING VACCINES WITHOUT ENGINEERS?!

ztayeb@businessinsider.com (Zahra Tayeb)

© Provided by Business Insider AstraZeneca recently took part in a shareholder Q&A. Reuters/Dado Ruvic

AstraZeneca recently said it had no engineers to assist in the transfer of vaccine technology.

The statement by the company's CEO was made during a shareholder Q&A.

It has drawn criticism from campaign groups and other industry observers.

Health industry observers and social justice groups have criticized recent comments by AstraZeneca's CEO about sharing its vaccine technology.

AstraZeneca said it could not share such technology with the World Health Organization (WHO) because it had no engineers available to assist in the technology transfer.

The comments were made by chief executive Pascal Soriot during a shareholder Q&A on Friday.

The People's Vaccine Alliance, a global coalition of civil society organizations, pressed AstraZeneca on providing access to its technology.

"There is no way, even if we give access to the technology and we told people 'here is the recipe'," Soriot responded during the Q&A, "there is no way we could train these people to manufacture the vaccine because our engineers are flat out working with our existing partners."

He added: "The solution is to increase the yield in the existing plants, not to create more plants, because we have no engineers to brief people and train them."

The CEO's response has been met with criticism. Heidi Chow, the lead campaigner at Global Justice Now, a social justice organization, accused the company of "making excuses for their complicity in vaccine apartheid," after the firm dismissed efforts to join the WHO's COVID-19 Technology Access Pool.

The comment was "utterly unacceptable," Chow said, adding that it was proof of why governments "should never have trusted a small number of companies to vaccinate the world."

Katie Mellor, an Oxford vaccine trial volunteer, said she found the comments to be "deeply offensive" as people across the world continue to die in the absence of vaccines.

An AstraZeneca spokesperson told Insider in a statement: "Vaccine manufacturing is highly complex, and accelerating production at this scale and speed requires partners around the world with capabilities to manufacture using our standard process to ensure consistency and quality of the vaccine."

The spokesperson said AstraZeneca was the first company to sign up to COVAX, "for which our vaccine has provided 98% of all supply to date. The majority of doses supplied through COVAX are for low and middle-income countries."

The statement continued. "To deliver on our commitment to broad and equitable access and accelerate vaccine production, we have enabled technology transfer to more than 20 different supply partners across more than 15 countries around the globe."

It added: "Vaccine manufacturing is highly complex, and accelerating production at this scale and speed requires partners around the world with capabilities to manufacture using our standard process to ensure consistency and quality of the vaccine."

The call to share technology and expertise for vaccine production through the WHO's technology pool comes amid vaccine shortages in many developing countries.

Countries that have been hit hard in recent weeks include India, which has been battling an unprecedented COVID-19 surge that was overwhelming hospitals and crematoria.

At the time of writing, India has reported more than 19 million COVID-19 cases and more than 216,000 deaths.