It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, August 07, 2021
Video: Archaeologists Discover Roman Wreck Laden With Amphorae
Italian archaeologists have discovered a Roman wreck from the second century B.C. off the coast of Sicily. The sunken vessel was located in about 300 feet of water off Isola delle Femmine, near Palermo, and it was heavily laden with amphorae - likely of the type used to carry wine.
The discovery was part of an underwater reconnaissance campaign conducted by the Regional Agency for Environmental Protection (ARPA Sicilia) and the province's superintendent of the sea (SopMare) to verify archaeological finds in deep waters. The first images of the find were detected and acquired by Arpa technicians using an ROV from the deck of the oceanograpic vessel Calypso South.
"The Mediterranean continually gives us precious elements for the reconstruction of our history linked to maritime trade, the types of boats, the transports carried out, the thalassocracies, but also data relating to life on board and the relationships between coastal populations," said Sicily's Superintendent of the Sea, Valeria Li Vigni. "The discovery confirms the presence of numerous archaeological remains in the bathymetric bands over 50/80 meters, which stimulates us to continue our research in the deep sea."
The activity is a bit out of the normal scope of ARPA Sicilia's mission, as it is not strictly focused on environmental protection, but director Vincenzo Infantino said that it is a valuable way in which the agency can contribute to Sicilian heritage. "The study and monitoring of the marine environment, constantly operated by Arpa Sicilia continues to enrich the picture of the precious beauties present in the Sicilian sea . . . whose protection is an essential imperative for our community," he said.
It was the mission's second find in a matter of months, following on the heels of the discovery of another Roman wreck off the coast of Ustica - also laden with amphorae and likely dating to the second century B.C.
Amphorae were the shipping containers of their day, widely used to transport wine, olive oil and food on board merchant vessels in the Mediterranean basin. They were employed by the Phoenicians, the Greeks and the Romans alike; as many of these ceramic vessels have survived through the ages, they provide archaeologists with valuable clues about the trading patterns of the era.
Dams and Dredging Mean Bad News for Vietnam's Mekong Delta
[By Milton Osborne]
The release of recent research from the Netherlands adds an additional insight into what is happening in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the country’s all-important food producing region that contributes some fifty per cent to its agricultural GDP. In a stark conclusion the research cites 2050 as the Tipping Point when the delta will no longer be able to cope with salt water intrusions, a phenomenon that is already causing the los of productive land.
What is of particular interest in the research that has been pursued for more than a decade is the conclusion that to date climate change is responsible for only about five per cent of the delta’s current problems. Rather, it argues that until now the chief culprits are the dams that have been built on the Mekong’s mainstream in China and Laos—11 in China and two so far in Laos—plus the upwards of 300 dams that have been constructed on the tributaries that flow into the Mekong. This multiplicity of barriers has led to a sharp decline in the flow of sediment down the Mekong as it reaches the delta, robbing the region of vital nutrients, and no longer adding new topsoil to the land while playing a part in ridding the delta of damaging insect pests.
Without the added topsoil that once accompanied the flood flows the delta has become increasingly vulnerable to salt water incursions that have accompanied water level rises. But for the moment these rises in sea levels are less immediately important than the effects that have followed large-scale sand mining, most importantly in Cambodia but also in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam itself. With a building boom over the past decade in those countries supply of sand is vital for construction, but removing sand from the Mekong means that the riverbed becomes deeper, water flows more quickly and scours the regions that are then exposed to salt water incursions in the dry season.
None of the conclusions just summarised should be taken as minimising the longer-term threats associated with climate change. Rather the effects of the dams on the Mekong and its tributaries plus the impact of sand mining are setting up a situation in which climate change will be even more likely to wreak its damaging effects in 2050.
Dr Milton Osborne was a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. He has been associated with Southeast Asia for nearly sixty years since being posted to the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh in 1959. A graduate of Sydney and Cornell Universities (University Medallist and Fulbright Scholar, respectively), he has held academic positions in Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Singapore.
This article appears courtesy of The Interpreter and may be found in its original form here.
What's Behind the Giant Blooms of Brown Seaweed on Caribbean Beaches?
[By Stephen P. Leatherman]
Here’s a handy geography question for your next trivia match: What is the world’s only sea that doesn’t have a land border?
The answer is the Sargasso Sea – a 2-million-square-nautical-mile haven of biodiversity that lies east of Bermuda in the Atlantic Ocean. Rather than beaches, it’s bounded by rotating ocean currents that form the North Atlantic Subtropical Gyre.
The Sargasso is named for sargassum, a free-floating brown seaweed that grows in its calm, clear waters. In the open ocean this seaweed serves as nursery grounds and a haven for sea life.
But over the past decade, a new “Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt” has inundated Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and Florida coastlines, wreaking environmental and economic havoc. It’s driving away tourists, devastating local fishing industries and requires costly cleanup.
In my work as a coastal scientist, I’ve watched these invasions become the new normal, choking beaches and turning clear blue waters golden brown. Along with other researchers, I’m trying to understand why sargassum has proliferated into this new sprawling bloom, how to deal with such massive amounts of it, and how affected countries can predict the severity of the next influx.
A mysterious ‘golden floating rainforest’
For centuries people have viewed the Sargasso Sea with superstition and fear. Early myths described a treacherous section of the Atlantic Ocean where seaweed ensnared ships. Christopher Columbus documented this ecosystem in his 1492 expedition journals when his ships were becalmed there. His crew feared they would be dragged to the ocean floor, never returning home to Spain.
This region was sometimes called the Devil’s Triangle. Sea captains mapped routes to circumvent it completely. Mysterious accidents and disappearances there prompted author Vincent Gaddis to give it a new name in 1964: the “deadly Bermuda Triangle.”
But these sargassum islands also create a rich ecosystem that ocean explorer Sylvia Earle calls “a golden floating rainforest.” Suspended by round “berries” filled with gas, the seaweed offers food, sanctuary and breeding grounds for crabs, shrimp, whales, migratory birds and some 120 species of fish. Mats of it form the sole spawning grounds for European and American eels and habitat for some 43 other threatened or endangered species.
Sargassum’s berrylike structures are gas-filled bladders that help the plant float. H. Scott Meister, SCDNR
Sargassum also shelters sea turtle hatchlings and juvenile fish during their early life in the open ocean. Ten endemic species live nowhere else on Earth. The Sargasso is a valuable commercial fishery worth about US$100 million per year.
Noxious blooms
Enormous amounts of sargassum first engulfed Caribbean coastlines in 2011. I was there at the time, conducting research in the British Virgin Islands, and I saw huge “rafts” of this brown macroalgae extending 500 feet offshore.
Swimmers couldn’t get into the water. Some boats couldn’t leave port. Beaches were piled with massive mounds, some nearly as tall as I was. Nesting sea turtles couldn’t lay their eggs. The seaweed isn’t toxic, but as it decomposed it reeked of rotten eggs and swarmed with insects.
Beaches covered in sargassum have become the new normal in Florida and the Caribbean.
Small quantities of sargassum have always turned up as “beach wrack” – stuff that washes ashore. It stabilizes shorelines by helping to build sand dunes and nourishes dune plants. For these reasons, it’s left to naturally decompose in wild areas, such as Cape Florida State Park.
But the scale of recent coastal influxes is unprecedented. And since the 2011 event, they have occurred every year except for 2013.
Monthly mean sargassum density for the month of July, 2011-2018. Wang et al., 2019, CC BY
Gluts of coastal seaweed have a damaging influence on the coastal environment. In large quantities, the seaweed strips oxygen from the water, killing fish and seagrasses that offer key habitat for many species. It may reduce sunlight needed by ocean plants and smother shallow coral reefs, like those in the Florida Keys.
In 2018 NASA satellites revealed the largest marine algae bloom in the world. A belt of sargassum that contained over 22 million tons of seaweed stretched some 5,500 miles across the Atlantic to West Africa. Satellite images are showing abnormally high amounts again in 2021.
Warmer, overnutrified waters
Data gathered over the past decade has revealed the likely causes of these seaweed invasions: Saharan dust clouds, warming temperatures and the growing human nitrogen footprint.
Just as nutrients feed red tide blooms, they feed sargassum, which thrives in warmer water. Climate change also increases upwelling of nutrients from deep ocean waters at the other end of the sargassum belt in West Africa.
The influxes of the past decade seem to have originated along Brazil’s Atlantic coast, not in the Sargasso Sea. Large amounts of fertilizer flow into the Amazon River and then to the ocean from industrial-scale agriculture and ranches. Nutrients also pour into the Gulf of Mexico from the Mississippi River. Climate change-driven downpours increase runoff.
Saharan dust clouds that extend for thousands of miles across the Atlantic Ocean have also contributed to this explosion of sargassum seaweed. The dust contains iron, nitrogen and phosphorus that fertilizes plankton and seaweed blooms. These thick atmospheric dust plumes corresponded with a sargassum spike in 2015 and the worst incursion of sargassum in 2018.
Researchers are also exploring changing in ocean currents, which may be another contributing factor.
Economic and ecological harm
Sargassum threatens tourism, a major economic engine for the Caribbean and Florida. Mexico has deployed Navy ships for cleanup operations in Cancun. Some Caribbean destinations have installed floating barriers, like those used in oil spills, to keep seaweed offshore. In 2019 Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados likened the scale of the economic fallout to that of a hurricane.
There is currently no good way to dispose of such great volumes of seaweed. It’s labor-intensive and expensive. Removing sargassum from 15 miles of Miami-Dade beaches cost $45 million in 2019.
Some communities plow seaweed under the sand. Others, like Fort Lauderdale, collect it, wash off the salt and convert it to natural fertilizer or mulch. In Mexico some entrepreneurs are compressing it into bricks and using it, like adobe, for building construction. In the long term, lasting solutions will come only through addressing climate change and nitrogen emissions from human activities.
Stephen P. Leatherman is a professor of coastal science at Florida International University.
This article appears courtesy of The Conversation and may be found in its original form here.
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.
Will Seafood Corporations Act as Ocean Stewards?
[By Robert Blasiak and Nobuyuki Yagi]
Communities and small-scale producers around the world have long achieved resilience and self-sufficiency through stewardship: knowledge and care shaped by an intimate understanding of their unique surroundings, and agency to act. Talun-kebun in Indonesia; maeulsoop in Korea; kaitiakitanga in New Zealand; satoyama in Japan – these and dozens of other examples of stewardship have emerged across generations, and continue to inspire and shape action and ethics today.
But our current era, the Anthropocene, is one of hyper-connectivity, with truly global movement of goods, knowledge and people. Even the most remote communities are rapidly becoming linked into international supply chains and trade networks. What does stewardship mean in the context of globally active corporations? In many ways, transnational companies seem the antithesis of stewards: motivated by growth, shareholder dividends and short-term decision-making.
Yet growth often depends on frontiers and untapped resources, and some industries are already bumping up against planetary boundaries. In 2017, for instance, the FAO reported that only around 6% of fish stocks were “underfished”, while global fisheries catches have remained largely stagnant for the past 30 years.
Transnational corporations are also connected to diverse geographies, cultures and norms. In the seafood industry, shifting norms have elevated many issues, from labour and human rights, to gender equality and animal welfare. At the World Economic Forum in 2019, Jim Leape noted: “If your seafood is caught by slaves, it doesn’t matter if it’s sustainable.”
So what is the recent history of an industry encountering biosphere limits and navigating a changing world of norms? Together with colleagues from academia, civil society and the private sector, we studied the role of stewardship in the seafood industry, publishing our findings this June in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science.
From boycotts to ‘buycotts’
We found the seafood industry to be inextricably linked and shaped by interactions with NGOs, academia, policymakers and other industry actors. High-profile NGO campaigns in the 1970s, for instance, focused on bycatch of charismatic species like dolphins in tuna fisheries, resulting in seafood boycotts and swift corporate, and eventually regulatory, responses.
Boycotts quickly led to “buycotts”, as focus expanded beyond stopping the consumption of certain types of seafood to encouraging the consumption of sustainably produced varieties. The primary vehicle for such efforts has been certifications and ecolabels, with the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and Aquaculture Stewardship Council certifications among the most prominent.
Ecolabels are not one-size-fits all. More than 120 have been established since the 1990s, with varying levels of focus on social and environmental standards, and adapted to local or national settings. This proliferation can create confusion among consumers and retailers. It resulted in the establishment of the Global Sustainable Seafood Initiative (GSSI), which serves as a benchmark of certifications.
Marine Ecolabel Japan (MEL), for instance, was originally established in 2007 as a domestic labelling system. Traditionally a fish-consuming country with a high degree of trust and dependence on its local, small-scale fishers, Japan saw little need for an international labelling scheme. But growing market connections have caused a shift, pushing MEL to modify its standard and garner GSSI recognition in 2019.
The growing role of ‘green clubs’
More recently, green clubs – voluntary alliances of corporate actors committed to environmental or social goals that are not mandated by law – have become increasingly prominent in the seafood industry. These create a new potential for collaboration on sustainability. One such example is the Coalition of Legal Toothfish Operators (COLTO) and its forerunner ISOFISH, which brought together industry and other actors to address rampant illegality in the toothfish fishery. In 1997, around half of catch volumes were illegally caught. Transparency, cooperation and joint monitoring exercises were key to turning this around.
One factor working to the advantage of COLTO was the relatively small number of operators in the fishery. The seafood industry is highly consolidated, with the top 13 companies controlling 11–16% of global marine catch, and up to 40% of the largest and most valuable stocks. Ten of these seafood giants have formed the Seafood Business for Ocean Stewardship (SeaBOS) initiative, with a public set of shared commitments and time-bound goals for achieving transformational change in the industry to move towards ocean stewardship.
The future of ocean stewardship
Looking closely at the past decades, some general patterns are evident. Companies are beginning to move beyond simply complying with legal and regulatory policy. They are actively seeking to position themselves as leaders in a transformation towards sustainable and ethical seafood. One such example is the Association of Responsible Krill Harvesting Companies (ARK). It established a series of voluntary spatial closures (areas where no fishing is allowed) which its members have complied with since 2018. Generally speaking, voluntary measures by resource-users benefit from speedy decision-making (compared with the slow speed with which legally binding international agreements are established) and high compliance, as users have been directly involved in developing the rules.
Other industry-led efforts take a broader ecological-systems perspective. One example is steps away from turning fish fit for human consumption into aquaculture feed (given that the food-grade fish may be of nutritional value to local communities, while the aquaculture production ends up supplying high-income markets). Another is hedging against the growing risks of climate change by making fisheries resilient to unexpected shocks. This involves a focus on ecosystem-based management and a “portfolio approach” to managing, for example, salmon stocks, which takes into account the genetic diversity of populations and sub-populations.
Some argue that stewardship is not an end goal, but rather an approach. As time passes, the list of social and ecological issues associated with stewardship has expanded, and it is unlikely to remain static. In recent years, for instance, animal welfare has become a hot-button issue, while minimising antibiotics in aquaculture production is an area of growing attention as antimicrobial resistance increases. Yet much remains to be done – some 34% of fish stocks are being harvested at biologically unsustainable levels. In many cases, sustainable fisheries management is still a distant goal. In other cases, new technologies and approaches to transparency are redefining the boundaries of how the seafood industry can understand and lessen its footprint on marine ecosystems.
As the concept of stewardship matures within the industry, it has the potential to act as a touchpoint for a suite of other ocean-based industries.
In the context of the Anthropocene, a globally connected world, and rapid consolidation of industries, our paper concludes that the “future of the ocean and humanity’s relationship with it may rest on efforts to translate stewardship from an aspirational notion to a pillar of standard operating procedure anchored in supportive public policy."
Robert Blasiak is a researcher at the Stockholm Resilience Centre, Stockholm University, where he focuses on international cooperation, sustainable management of ocean resources, and ocean stewardship.
Nobuyuki Yagi is a professor at the University of Tokyo who specialises in international fisheries and environmental economics.
This article appears courtesy of China Dialogue Ocean and may be found in its original form here.
The opinions expressed herein are the author's and not necessarily those of The Maritime Executive.
Net zero target for 2050 is too slow, and a strategy for climate failure
A major new research paper argues that setting “net zero by 2050” targets will fail to prompt urgent action on climate change, and won’t achieve the speed of emission reductions needed to avoid the worsening impacts of global warming.
The paper, released by the Australian-based Breakthrough National Centre for Climate Restoration, says shorter-term emission reduction targets are needed to compel action to cut fossil fuel use, including setting a more ambitious target to reach zero emissions as early as 2030.
“[Net zero by 2050] scenarios are based on models and carbon budgets generally associated with a 50 or 66 per cent chance of staying below the target, that is, a one-in-two, or one-in-three, chance of failure,” the paper says.
“We would never accept those risks of failures in our own lives. Why accept them for impacts which may destroy civilisation as we know it?”
The paper is significant because Australia’s mainstream political debate is currently dominated by Labor’s demand for a net zero target by 2050, and the federal Coalition’s commitment that net zero is nice, but it will only get there as soon as it can, or some time this century.
The Breakthrough paper is by no means the first that highlights that the Paris climate goals require much more urgent action, and that decisive action in the next 10 years is required to avoid depleting the “carbon budget.”
The Coalition government insists that coal generation will continue for decades, and wants to invest billions in infrastructure to support an expansion of the gas industry.
The Breakthrough Centre’s research briefing published on Wednesday points to a number of scientific papers that suggest average global warming is now on track to exceed 1.5°C, even if greenhouse gas emissions are reduced to net zero as early as 2030.
“At the present level of warming of 1.2°C, climate change is already dangerous, with some system-level tipping points already crossed and others dangerously close,” the research briefing says.
“A return to the safe climate conditions of the Holocene requires rapid decarbonisation and drawing down atmospheric carbon dioxide to more stable levels. The policy aim must be “a big minus” in emissions, not “net zero” emissions.”
It says precautionary action must be taken to ensure that tipping points with catastrophic outcomes are not triggered.
“In short, emission reduction efforts must be reframed as emergency action to reach net zero emissions by 2030, plus drawdown to reduce atmospheric carbon concentrations from the current unstable 420ppm CO2 (in excess of 500ppm CO2 e if all greenhouse gases are included) to well below 350ppm CO2,” the paper adds.
A growing number of national governments are making formal commitments to zero emissions targets by 2050, but many have been reluctant to commit to the goal – including Australia.
The Morrison government has continued to express a “preference” for Australia to reach zero net emissions as soon as possible, and has set no interim targets beyond the original 26-28 per cent reduction by 2030 target it adopted in 2015, which is now widely regarded as completely inadequate.
The Breakthrough Centre says the focus on net zero targets is distracting from the crucial need for short and medium term targets – targets which are more likely to solicit a more immediate policy response from both governments and investors.
“Long-term targets are an excuse for procrastination,” co-author of the paper and former fossil fuel executive, Ian Dunlop, said.
“The short-term matters most. Emergency action to cool and protect the most vulnerable climate and ecosystems is vital. Failure to do so right now may make long-term targets irrelevant if cascades of system-level biophysical changes are triggered.”
“Saying [net zero by 2050] is “the best we can do” is caving into an unsustainable and dangerous future, and giving up on protecting major Earth systems and ecologies.”
“The [net zero by 2050] scenarios will not save the world’s coral reefs, nor stop rapid and devastating Arctic change nor prevent the inundation of low-lying small island states, or the triggering of societal collapse in parts of the world.”
The report argues that governments should instead be looking to set ‘a big minus’ target for global emissions, to not only stop increases in the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases, but also to actively reduce these concentrations by drawing down carbon dioxide to stable levels.
Observations from scientific bodies like the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show average global temperatures are regularly recording increases of more than one degree attributed global warming, and increased temperatures are already contributing to climate change fuelled disasters of worsening intensity and increased frequency.
National governments are set to meet before the end of the year, for the next round if international climate change negotiation in Glasgow, where it is expected that renewed pressure will be placed on countries lagging on their climate change commitments – such as Australia – to increase their level of action.
COMING SOON IMPERIALIST WAR IN THE ARCTIC
Rosatom Seeks Putin’s Approval for Northern Sea Route Plan
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been urged to approve the ambitious Northern Sea Transport Corridor project in order to open up the Northern Sea Route, which is attracting interest from the international business community.
Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachev told Putin in a meeting at the Kremlin Wednesday that the containerized shipping industry is increasingly expressing interest in the Northern Sea Route following the events in the Suez Canal and growth in world trade.
“We would like, with your consent, to start developing a large container transport logistics corridor on the basis of our Northern Sea Route project,” said Likhachev.
He added that developing the route for the commercial shipping industry will open a completely new level of business and economic positioning, not only for the state corporation but also for Russia, with the wider objective being to benefit the world economy.
The project involves the development of two terminal hubs, a fleet of icebreakers, port infrastructure, communication and navigation systems, among other investments.
According to Likhachev, Rosatom is implementing projects designed to open the route to commercial shipping with focus being on conducting additional analysis on the needs for icebreaking support for medium and long term operations.
The company reckons it might need three to six new powerful icebreakers to keep the entire Northern Sea Route open for daily shipments throughout the year. It has embarked on plans to build the first batch of icebreakers powered by liquified natural gas (LNG).
“All projects on the Northern Sea Route are developing, perhaps even at a higher pace than we planned. In this regard, we are conducting an additional analysis of the needs for icebreaking support after 2024, after 2030,” said Likhachev.
The Northern Sea Route is emerging as a strategic economic front for Russia as countries and shipping lines seek to find alternative routes to Asia and Europe. Disruptions like the blockage of the Suez Canal in March and continued COVID-19 disruptions in ports have weighed on an otherwise booming ocean freight industry, which is enjoying unprecedented demand and profitability.
Rusatom Cargo, a subsidiary of Rosatom, contends that transit cargo flow along the Northern Sea Route could reach 80 million tons per year by 2024, up from 33 million last year.
Last month, Rosatom signed an agreement with DP World establishing a joint venture that will invest in, build and operate transport and logistics capacity along the northern transit corridor.
“DP World supports Russia's efforts to diversify trade flows between Asia and Europe. The Northern Transit Corridor holds out the prospect of shorter transit times between East and West,” said Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, DP World CEO.
He added the northern route cuts up to 19 days from the journey time between South East Asia and North West Europe because it is shorter, faster, less congested and more efficient.
Exxon booted from carbon-tax alliance after lobbying scandal
Kevin Crowley and Ari Natter, Bloomberg News
Exxon Mobil Corp. was suspended from the Climate Leadership Council, a pro-carbon tax group backed by conservation groups and some of the world’s biggest corporations.
The move comes just weeks after an Exxon lobbyist was secretly recorded by Greenpeace saying that the oil giant only voiced support for a carbon tax because it knew such a policy would be almost impossible to implement. Exxon was one of the CLC’s founding members when it was formed in 2017; other participants include BP Plc, Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Microsoft Corp..
“After careful consideration, we have decided to suspend ExxonMobil’s membership in both the Council and Americans for Carbon Dividends, our advocacy arm,” CLC Chief Executive Officer Greg Bertelsen said in a statement on Friday.
Exxon CEO Darren Woods apologized for the lobbyist’s comments at the end of June, saying they “in no way represent the company’s position” and reiterated support for a carbon tax. The oil explorer already was under intense investor pressure to bolster emission-reduction efforts after an activist investor won a key boardroom battle that replaced a quarter of directors.
“CLC’s decision is disappointing and counterproductive,” Exxon spokesman Casey Norton said in an email. “It will in no way deter our efforts to advance carbon pricing that we believe is a critical policy requirement to tackle climate change.”
Momentum for a carbon tax is gaining support as a way of combating climate change. Advocates say it would incentivize companies and consumers to pollute less. The American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil-industry trade group that counts Exxon among its members, endorsed such a policy earlier this year.
But a tax that could increase the costs of driving, flying and importing is likely to face stiff resistance from some quarters. The Climate Leadership Council advocates that any proceeds should be directly returned to taxpayers through “carbon dividends.” It also wants simpler carbon regulations and similar fees charged on foreign imports to create a level playing field.
The World Resources Institute, also a founding member of the CLC, welcomed Exxon’s removal.
All companies should “re-examine their lobbying, political spending and participation in trade associations to ensure their actions are fully aligned with their public statements on climate change,” the WRI said in a statement.
Exxon will mull “more aggressive objectives” on emissions, Woods said last month, citing input from its new directors. The company is considering a target to zero out carbon emissions from its own operations, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
ONE OF THE CLASSIC BLUNDERS
Exxon’s “net zero” climate goal misses the
point
REUTERS/BRENDAN MCDERMID/FILE PHOTOExxon CEO Darren Woods previously called climate commitments a "beauty competition." Now it seems he wants a turn on the runway.
By Tim McDonnell Climate reporter Published August 6, 2021
Even among major oil companies, ExxonMobil has been reluctant to take the climate change crisis seriously.
A July 21 analysis by the World Benchmarking Alliance, a group of sustainability-oriented nonprofits and financial institutions, gave Exxon a score of 5.2 out of 100 in how well its corporate strategy is aligned with the Paris Agreement goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (Chevron, its closest peer, scored a 6.4).
In March, CEO Darren Woods dismissed other oil companies’ emissions-reduction commitments as a “beauty competition,” in defending his decision in December 2020 to set goals only to moderately reduce emissions per unit of oil and gas produced, and not to aim for net zero emissions as rivals like BP and Shell have done.
Now, it seems, Woods wants a turn on the runway. The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 5 that the company is considering setting a net zero goal for 2050. If it does, that would be a major victory for the climate activist shareholders that shook up the company’s board in May. But the details suggest that Exxon’s commitment would only be skin-deep.
Companies need to focus on their Scope 3 emissions
Corporate emissions are tallied in three categories. Scope 1 covers emissions from the company’s direct operations, like gas burned to run the motor in an oil pump or company car. Scope 2 covers emissions from purchased energy—the electricity in Exxon’s offices, for example. Scope 3 covers emissions that come from a company’s suppliers and from its customers as they make use of the company’s product.
For an oil and gas company, scope 1 and 2 are negligible compared to scope 3: obviously, the vast majority of Exxon’s carbon footprint occurs when its customers burn its products in cars and airplanes and power plants. Exxon has disclosed its scope 1 and 2 emissions for a decade, but only disclosed its scope 3 emissions for the first time in April. And according to the Journal, the new net zero goal will only apply to scopes 1 and 2.
At the moment, Exxon’s main strategy for addressing scope 3 emissions is a new division it set up in February to commercialize carbon capture systems, which would allow major industrial consumers of gas to lower their scope 1 emissions, which, if the gas came from Exxon, are the same as Exxon’s scope 3. Woods has also said that Exxon may eventually sell carbon offset credits it generates through carbon capture activities—essentially running the company’s carbon pollution business in reverse, which could in theory draw down its scope 3 emissions.
Ultimately, the only way for Exxon to eliminate its scope 3 emissions is to stop producing oil and gas. That’s the direction some of its European peers are headed, as they look to become titans of renewable energy. Until Exxon gets on board, it will never be the climate beauty queen.
Workers protest at Metro Vancouver hotel over layoffs, pressuring province to intervene
B.C. hotel workers have been in a labour dispute since last year, fighting to keep their jobs, benefits and wages
Author of the article: Sarah Grochowski
Publishing date: Aug 06, 2021 •
FILE PHOTO: Workers and supporters hold placards in front of the Hilton Vancouver Metrotown hotel on April 27. PHOTO BY UNITE HERE LOCAL 40 /PNG Article content
It’s been nearly four months since Liza Secretaria was laid off from a job she held for more than two decades, a nighttime auditor for the Hilton Metrotow
She’s one of 97 employees laid off when business at the Burnaby hotel slowed to a halt amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, Secretaria stood shoulder to shoulder in front of the hotel with her former coworkers, demanding the reinstatement of their jobs.
The demonstration was supported by some of the province’s largest labour unions, Unite Here Local 40 and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which estimate 42,500 hotel workers in B.C. are out of work.
“It’s hard,” said Secretaria, who migrated to Canada close to 30 years ago.
Along with her job, the 53-year-old immigrant also lost her mother-in-law to lung cancer and her brother to COVID-19 this past year.
“I’m really struggling,” she said, grieving her inability to provide financial support to her sisters in the Philippines, who she said rely on her contributions.
“These women have worked for decades carrying the hotels on their backs,” said spokesperson Stephanie Fung of Unite Here Local 40.
The union says the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated inequalities and adversely affected hotel workers, many of whom are women and people of colour.
“We’re asking Hilton Metrotown and all other hotels who are firing their long-term workers to step in and guarantee that these women have jobs to return to when business recovers,” added Fung.
Also blocking 6083 McKay Ave. in protest were some of 142 hotel workers terminated from jobs with Pacific Gateway Hotel at Vancouver’s airport.
B.C. hotel workers have been in a labour dispute since last year, fighting to keep their jobs, benefits and wages.
In April, Burnaby city council adopted a resolution to withdraw business from the Hilton Metrotown in support of laid-off workers.
Postmedia has reached out to Hilton Metrotown and Pacific Gateway for comment.
'Unfair and shameful': Hilton Metrotown workers, unions hold sit-in as lockout continues
Hundreds took to downtown Burnaby streets in support of locked-out hotel workers a day ago
Traffic was brought to a halt in downtown Burnaby during rush hour today (Aug. 5) as supporters and workers voiced their displeasure at Hilton Metrotown management, with what the representing union insists is a lockout of hotel employees.
At roughly 5 p.m. this afternoon, hundreds blocked the intersection of Kingsway and Willingdon with sounds of honking cars driving by in solidarity with hospitality workers.
UNITE HERE Local 40 says workers — mostly women — have now been without their jobs for 112 days.
The location locked out room attendants, front desk agents, banquet, and kitchen staff on April 16 after terminating 97 long-term staff, impacting at least 50 workers who live in Burnaby — a move the union has called "mass firings" amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In June, several unions threatened to boycott the hotel and pull $2 million in business next year if no agreement was reached by the end of the month, in addition to money already lost in 2021.
UNITE HERE Local 40 then started a public petition in July, calling on any supporters to also boycott the hotel over unfair treatment of locked-out employees.
"This lockout has dragged on for far too long," UNITE HERE Local 40 President Zailda Chan said to a large crowd gathered in front of the hotel.
"That's why we're here today. To put our bodies on the line. We're taking over the streets today to stop the city in its tracks and we're here to say 'no' to the mistreatment of workers.
"We're not going to let these hotels get away with pandemic profiteering. No to replacing workers with cheaper hires, no to rolling back wages to minimum wage and eliminating pension and health care benefits. 'No' to that."
Liza Secretaria, a night auditor at the Hilton for 21 years and a single mother, says she lost her brother and mom within months of each other last year and then was suddenly without a job.
"I love my job because I enjoy talking to people, listening to the stories of my guests and getting to know them," she told the crowd.
"The pandemic hit British Columbia last March and that's when my life turned upside down. Last August, I lost my mother to cancer, after a few months, my brother died from COVID-19. Then, last April, I was locked out. It's just too much. Losing my mother and my brother, just was very hard."
"What happened at the Hilton Metrotown was just the tip of the iceberg. Women, hotel workers, are hurting over British Columbia. Many women like me, an immigrant, single mom, are hurting because of losing their job because of the pandemic. But that should not be the reason to get rid of us! I urge Hilton to Metrotown to do the right thing, now."
Prominent union leaders in the province also joined workers and supporters at the sit-in, calling on hotel management to reinstate jobs.
Teri Mooring showed her solidarity, while also calling on the Hilton Metrotown management to reinstate workers immediately.
"On behalf of the 47,000 members of the British Columbia Teachers' Federation [BCTF], we support you," the BCTF president said.
"As we've heard, workers at the Metrotown Hilton, along with the Pacific Gateway, are women, are women of colour, are single mothers all trying to support families and we need to support you in this fight. This is not fair. This is not OK. You deserve so much better from the owners of the Hilton.
"It is not OK. We need to fight this. Hotel owners need to be put on notice: you cannot profit off the backs of women, workers. It is not OK. I'm here today to deliver the strongest possible message. The BC Teachers' Federation stands with all UNITE HERE Local 40 workers. We're here to fight with you. We're standing with you. We aren't going anywhere."
BC CUPE President Karen Ranalletta warned hotel management they haven't just picked a fight with the currently locked out employees, but with union support across the province and country.
"A hundred and 12 days. A hundred and 12 days of fighting for dignity, fighting for your jobs and fighting for respect. A hundred and 12 days. That is incredibly unfair and shameful. This employer has deep pockets. This employer hates unions. This employer wants more than anything, for you to give up.
"They haven't just picked a fight with the employees here. They've picked a fight with the entire labour movement. When you take on one of us, you take on all of us. You don't take on just us here in British Columbia, you take on everybody across the country. That's not a fight that I'd want to pick."
With UNITE HERE Local 40 maintaining employees were locked out, Hospitality Industrial Relations (HIR) labour relations consultant Kevin Woolliams, who represents the employer, told Glacier Media last month the situation is a strike.
"The union has refused to set further bargaining dates with the employer," he said. "More than 15 days were offered to the union in May, and the union, as of June 3, has offered no dates in June."
According to UNITE HERE Local 40, 50,000 hospitality workers lost their jobs when the pandemic hit the province in March, with thousands of employees terminated.
- with files from Chris Campbell, Burnaby NOW, and Glen Korstrom, Business In Vancouver