Top CEOs urge diversification as Alberta grapples to find its place
Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press
CALGARY -- Susannah Pierce's children aren't interested in following in her footsteps.
The president of Shell Canada Ltd., one of Canada's largest integrated oil companies, heads up a workforce of 3,500 Canadian employees, earned public recognition as the face of the $40 billion LNG Canada project, and has lived and worked around the world.
But Pierce's 15-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter don't see a future for themselves in the industry where their mother has thrived.
The oil and gas sector is simply "not as attractive as it once was" to today's young people, Pierce says bluntly, an uncomfortable fact she and other energy executives are being forced to face up to -- even within their own households.
"If the conversation isn't, 'I want to work in the same business as you, Mom and Dad,' then we have to ask ourselves why," Pierce said in an interview.
The dinnertime conversations between Pierce and her children are a scaled-down version of a wider discussion taking place in Alberta right now as an entire province tries to decide on its path forward.
While Alberta's historic oil and gas sector still makes an outsized contribution to the Canadian economy, it has been battered and bruised by seven years of low prices, pipeline protests and cancellations, layoffs, and consolidation. The province's unemployment rate is 8.5 per cent, and close to 30 per cent of downtown Calgary's office market sits vacant.
Alberta's long-term unemployment rate -- the portion of the population that has been without work for more than a year -- is 2.4 per cent, significantly higher than the national average of 1.4 per cent.
Even now, with crude prices higher than they've been in years, there is widespread acknowledgment that the energy landscape has permanently shifted.
Climate change and the transition away from fossil fuels have moved to the forefront of the national and international conversation. Investment dollars are increasingly flowing to industries with favourable environmental performance, and companies -- Shell included -- are investing in green technology and decarbonization as part of their own net-zero commitments.
In the past several years, there have been various government attempts to address Alberta's challenges, from tax credits aimed at boosting the province's rapidly growing tech sector to incentives for petrochemical development and investments in hydrogen technology.
Recently, a group of prominent Alberta CEOs -- including Pierce -- came together to form their own task force with the aim of coming up with long-term solutions for the Alberta economy.
"It's a service in support of what governments might be able to do, without asking governments to do it for us," Pierce said. "The world is changing, in terms of the energy product it needs. And as a result, we must change too."
The task force aims to come up with a series of economic strategies, policies and incentives that will attract investment and jobs to the province. It will also look at ways to keep young people in a province that is viewed by some as stuck in the past.
Also involved in the project, dubbed "Define the Decade," are other heavyweights like Enbridge's Al Monaco and Cenovus Energy's Alex Pourbaix. And the task force includes executives of some of the province's rapidly growing tech firms, such as artificial intelligence company AltaML and life sciences company DynaLIFE.
Diversification has been a buzzword in Alberta during previous commodity price downturns. It has always fallen by the wayside, though, when oil prices start to climb again, said Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta.
This time, however, it's different, he said, and there's no time to waste.
"Alberta's history of riding these boom and bust cycles ... is frankly, gone," Legge said. "But we believe our best days are ahead of us. So many of the things that are happening In the world, the trends, the evolutions that are happening -- Alberta really has a shot to be a global leader."
David Taras, a political analyst based at Calgary's Mount Royal University, said the idea of a group of Alberta's top CEOs joining together to lobby for diversification, green energy, and the startup economy would have been unfathomable 10 or even 5 years ago.
The public relations message has clearly shifted away from defending traditional oil and gas, he said, to establishing Alberta's role in the public eye as a future-forward investment destination.
"The global tide has shifted, and shifted dramatically," Taras said. "And the industry has not only caught up, but realized they have to move on, they have to be in a different place."
The Calgary and Edmonton Chambers of Commerce are not involved in the "Define the Decade" initiative but recently released a joint wish list for the federal election that calls for commitments from all the parties with respect to diversifying Alberta's economy.
Deborah Yedlin, president and chief executive of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, said the organization is asking for everything from federal investments in grants and equity deals to foster the growth of the startup tech sector, to the creation of national Centres of Excellence within Alberta for sectors ranging from clean technology, artificial intelligence, and sports.
"We (Alberta) have the willingness to lead, but we can't do it on our own," Yedlin said. "We need federal support."
Monday, August 30, 2021
Canada pushes to build 2 new carbon capture hubs: Government document
Reuters
Rod Nickel and Nia Williams
Publishing date: Aug 30, 2021 •
Reuters
Rod Nickel and Nia Williams
Publishing date: Aug 30, 2021 •
Equipment used to capture carbon dioxide emissions is seen at a coal-fired power plant owned by NRG Energy where carbon collected from the plant will be used to extract crude from a nearby oilfield in Thomspsons, Texas, U.S. on January 9, 2017.
PHOTO BY ERNEST SCHEYDER /REUTERS
WINNIPEG — C anada is pushing to provide incentives for at least two new massive carbon capture projects by 2030, a federal government document showed, with nearly a dozen oil and gas companies already pursuing rights to store carbon dioxide in Alberta’s vast underground caverns.
The hubs to collect carbon from clusters of emitters would advance Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s goal of cutting emissions by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2030. The global oil industry is betting heavily that carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) can become a multi-billion-dollar global business with government and private investment.
To encourage private investment in CCUS projects, Canada is counting on its carbon price, which is set to rise to C$170 ($134.8) per tonne of carbon by 2030 from C$40, a planned tax credit, and its Clean Fuel Regulation (CFR), which requires lower emissions intensity in fuel.
The cost of building the projects, and their locations, are not yet known.
The two carbon storage hubs would be planned or under construction by 2030, with Canada sequestering at least 15 million tonnes of carbon annually by that year in total, according to the Natural Resources Department’s draft CCUS strategy, obtained by Reuters after it was shared privately in July with industry stakeholders.
“The big takeaway is the federal government is pretty serious about CCUS,” a Calgary oil industry source said.
Canada’s four existing projects, representing 15% of global facilities, currently capture 4 million tonnes per year, according to the Canadian government.
Canadians vote for a new federal government on Sept. 20. On Sunday, Trudeau said he would cut oil and gas sector emissions based on five-year targets starting in 2025. His Liberal party is in a tight race with the Conservatives, a party that also supports carbon capture and has promised to introduce a tax credit to encourage investment.
The Natural Resources Department is doubtful whether its incentives will be enough to stimulate widespread adoption.
“It is not yet clear whether this elevated pricing signal, combined with other federal policies yet to be implemented, such as the CFR and the investment tax credit announced, will be sufficient to drive widespread CCUS adoption,” the federal strategy said.
The government’s doubts highlight challenges such as high costs and complex technology required to capture carbon.
Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan could not be immediately reached.
In September, Alberta is expected to call for expressions of interest to store carbon underground, with formal project selection next year, according to two sources familiar with the process.
WINNIPEG — C anada is pushing to provide incentives for at least two new massive carbon capture projects by 2030, a federal government document showed, with nearly a dozen oil and gas companies already pursuing rights to store carbon dioxide in Alberta’s vast underground caverns.
The hubs to collect carbon from clusters of emitters would advance Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s goal of cutting emissions by 40-45% from 2005 levels by 2030. The global oil industry is betting heavily that carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) can become a multi-billion-dollar global business with government and private investment.
To encourage private investment in CCUS projects, Canada is counting on its carbon price, which is set to rise to C$170 ($134.8) per tonne of carbon by 2030 from C$40, a planned tax credit, and its Clean Fuel Regulation (CFR), which requires lower emissions intensity in fuel.
The cost of building the projects, and their locations, are not yet known.
The two carbon storage hubs would be planned or under construction by 2030, with Canada sequestering at least 15 million tonnes of carbon annually by that year in total, according to the Natural Resources Department’s draft CCUS strategy, obtained by Reuters after it was shared privately in July with industry stakeholders.
“The big takeaway is the federal government is pretty serious about CCUS,” a Calgary oil industry source said.
Canada’s four existing projects, representing 15% of global facilities, currently capture 4 million tonnes per year, according to the Canadian government.
Canadians vote for a new federal government on Sept. 20. On Sunday, Trudeau said he would cut oil and gas sector emissions based on five-year targets starting in 2025. His Liberal party is in a tight race with the Conservatives, a party that also supports carbon capture and has promised to introduce a tax credit to encourage investment.
The Natural Resources Department is doubtful whether its incentives will be enough to stimulate widespread adoption.
“It is not yet clear whether this elevated pricing signal, combined with other federal policies yet to be implemented, such as the CFR and the investment tax credit announced, will be sufficient to drive widespread CCUS adoption,” the federal strategy said.
The government’s doubts highlight challenges such as high costs and complex technology required to capture carbon.
Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan could not be immediately reached.
In September, Alberta is expected to call for expressions of interest to store carbon underground, with formal project selection next year, according to two sources familiar with the process.
Alberta already has received informal interest from at least 10 groups, including publicly announced projects involving Royal Dutch Shell, TC Energy and a consortium of the five biggest Canadian oil producers, said David Knight Legg, board advisor to economic development agency Invest Alberta.
Many global oil and gas producers see CCUS as a way to prolong their capacity to produce fossil fuels, by locking away their emissions.
A massive expansion of carbon sequestration facilities is vital if the world is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), from around 40 million tonnes a year currently to 7.6 billion tonnes.
Julia Levin, program manager at Environmental Defence, called CCUS a “dangerous distraction” from transitioning to cleaner sources of energy.
“It’s been five decades of huge amounts of resources, research, public and private investment and we have a global capacity to capture 0.1% of emissions from the fossil fuel sector,” she said.
IEA research suggests storing carbon deep underground is safe and stable. However, the pipelines required to transport carbon to injection sites need to be monitored to mitigate the risk of ruptures.
One industry source said dozens of oil and gas companies are considering projects, awaiting details of Alberta’s competitive process.
Jennifer Henshaw, spokeswoman for Alberta’s energy minister, said the government is still developing the competitive process.
Analysts say hubs are the most economic way to store carbon. Alberta is a rare place where suitable geology, a cluster of high emitters and government regulation are all in place, said Neeraj Nandurdikar, global head of power and renewables consulting at Wood Mackenzie.
Hubs make sense because the more carbon they sequester, the lower costs will be, said Tim McKay, President of Canadian Natural Resources, Canada’s biggest oil producer.
Some smaller oil producers warn that hubs could stymie their plans to inject carbon close to their operations, many in remote regions.
Whitecap Resources, an oil producer that already stores carbon, will propose to Alberta that it manage underground space for small producers that want to inject their carbon locally, CEO Grant Fagerheim told Reuters.
Whitecap could sequester 6 million tonnes of carbon per year under the proposal, triple what it currently buries, he said.
Michael Belenkie, head of Advantage Energy’s Entropy unit, a company making modular carbon capture technology, said Alberta needs to prevent speculators from securing underground space, which would kill off CCUS projects.
For now, uncertainty is keeping interest in check.
After the election, more companies are likely to propose projects, said Chris Severson-Baker, Alberta regional director of the Pembina Institute.
“You might get a stampede of interest,” he said.
Many global oil and gas producers see CCUS as a way to prolong their capacity to produce fossil fuels, by locking away their emissions.
A massive expansion of carbon sequestration facilities is vital if the world is to reach net-zero emissions by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), from around 40 million tonnes a year currently to 7.6 billion tonnes.
Julia Levin, program manager at Environmental Defence, called CCUS a “dangerous distraction” from transitioning to cleaner sources of energy.
“It’s been five decades of huge amounts of resources, research, public and private investment and we have a global capacity to capture 0.1% of emissions from the fossil fuel sector,” she said.
IEA research suggests storing carbon deep underground is safe and stable. However, the pipelines required to transport carbon to injection sites need to be monitored to mitigate the risk of ruptures.
One industry source said dozens of oil and gas companies are considering projects, awaiting details of Alberta’s competitive process.
Jennifer Henshaw, spokeswoman for Alberta’s energy minister, said the government is still developing the competitive process.
Analysts say hubs are the most economic way to store carbon. Alberta is a rare place where suitable geology, a cluster of high emitters and government regulation are all in place, said Neeraj Nandurdikar, global head of power and renewables consulting at Wood Mackenzie.
Hubs make sense because the more carbon they sequester, the lower costs will be, said Tim McKay, President of Canadian Natural Resources, Canada’s biggest oil producer.
Some smaller oil producers warn that hubs could stymie their plans to inject carbon close to their operations, many in remote regions.
Whitecap Resources, an oil producer that already stores carbon, will propose to Alberta that it manage underground space for small producers that want to inject their carbon locally, CEO Grant Fagerheim told Reuters.
Whitecap could sequester 6 million tonnes of carbon per year under the proposal, triple what it currently buries, he said.
Michael Belenkie, head of Advantage Energy’s Entropy unit, a company making modular carbon capture technology, said Alberta needs to prevent speculators from securing underground space, which would kill off CCUS projects.
For now, uncertainty is keeping interest in check.
After the election, more companies are likely to propose projects, said Chris Severson-Baker, Alberta regional director of the Pembina Institute.
“You might get a stampede of interest,” he said.
Shell proposes new carbon capture and storage project at Scotford Complex
By Amanda Stephenson The Canadian Press
Posted July 13, 2021
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney wants to see more investments like the proposed new carbon capture and storage project at Scotford Complex coming from the energy sector and plans to push for projects when he sits down with energy executives later this week. Tom Vernon reports – Jul 13, 2021
Shell Canada Ltd. has announced plans to build a large-scale carbon capture and storage project at its Scotford Complex near Edmonton, part of its strategy to become a net-zero emissions company by 2050.
The proposed Polaris CCS project will capture carbon dioxide from the Shell-owned Scotford refinery and chemicals plant, the company said Tuesday, adding it expects Polaris to have storage capacity of about 300 million tonnes of C02 over the life of the project.
“It’s a significant reduction of emissions,” said Shell’s senior vice-president of products and chemicals Mark Pattenden in an interview, adding the project’s initial phase alone could see Shell capture and store 750,000 tonnes of C02 per year.
He said that would result in direct and indirect emissions reductions of up to 40 per cent from the refinery and up to 30 per cent from the chemicals plant.
Pattenden declined to disclose a price tag for the project, and said Shell won’t make a final investment decision until 2023. But he said Canada’s soon-to-be-implemented Clean Fuel Standard — as well as the federal carbon tax which is set to increase to $170 per tonne by 2030 — means that Polaris makes financial sense and won’t require government funding.
“We’re confident we have a robust project,” Pattenden said.
READ MORE: Several Canadian oilsands operators commit to become net zero emitters by 2050
Shell already has experience with carbon capture and storage, a technology that captures carbon dioxide and stores it underground instead of allowing it to be released into the atmosphere. The company’s Quest facility — which it operates on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project joint venture at the Scotford Complex — has safely stored more than six million tonnes of C02 in its six years of operation and has proven to be 30 per cent cheaper to operate than anticipated, Shell said.
Shell is also involved in other major carbon capture projects around the globe, including the Northern Lights CCS project in Norway and the Porthos CCS project in the Netherlands.
According to a recent report by energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, Canada is a world leader in carbon capture and storage, with 14 per cent of the current global operating capacity. Other major carbon capture projects in Canada include the Boundary Dam coal power plant in Saskatchewan and the Sturgeon Refinery CCS project in Alberta.
READ MORE: Robot dogs the newest ’employees’ at Alberta Shell refinery
But Chris Severson-Baker, spokesman for clean energy think-tank The Pembina Institute, said significantly more capacity is required if Canada is to have a shot at meeting its 2050 climate change commitments.
“We don’t know exactly how much carbon capture we will need in Canada, but we will need a certain amount of it and certainly a heck of a lot more than we’ve already developed,” he said.
READ MORE: Climate Change: Oil sands producer aims at net zero with carbon capture
Shell’s announcement Tuesday is significant in that it reduces emissions from an existing facility rather than a new project, Severson-Baker said.
“Often when there’s announcements . . . of new technology that will result in better environmental performance. it’s usually on a new project, so it’s actually adding emissions overall even though it might be lower on a per-unit basis,” he said. “In order for us to achieve the kind of targets Canada has set, we need to achieve really significant reductions in existing emissions from oil and gas operations.”
Shell also said Tuesday it wants to transform the Scotford Complex into one of five energy and chemicals parks owned by the company around the world. In the first phase of the Polaris project, Pattenden said, carbon dioxide captured from the Scotford refinery’s hydrogen plants would produce blue hydrogen for use in the refining process, with the potential for large-scale blue hydrogen production later on.
Shell is also exploring opportunities around biofuels, Pattenden said, adding within this decade, the company will use carbon capture and storage and renewable power to process new feedstocks such as bio-oils or waste oils to reduce the C02 emitted in the production of fuel.
“These would be potentially blended into existing fuel streams that we sell to customers or in the future they could be produced as stand-alone fuels . . . they could immediately be put into vehicles,” he said.
By Amanda Stephenson The Canadian Press
Posted July 13, 2021
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney wants to see more investments like the proposed new carbon capture and storage project at Scotford Complex coming from the energy sector and plans to push for projects when he sits down with energy executives later this week. Tom Vernon reports – Jul 13, 2021
Shell Canada Ltd. has announced plans to build a large-scale carbon capture and storage project at its Scotford Complex near Edmonton, part of its strategy to become a net-zero emissions company by 2050.
The proposed Polaris CCS project will capture carbon dioxide from the Shell-owned Scotford refinery and chemicals plant, the company said Tuesday, adding it expects Polaris to have storage capacity of about 300 million tonnes of C02 over the life of the project.
“It’s a significant reduction of emissions,” said Shell’s senior vice-president of products and chemicals Mark Pattenden in an interview, adding the project’s initial phase alone could see Shell capture and store 750,000 tonnes of C02 per year.
He said that would result in direct and indirect emissions reductions of up to 40 per cent from the refinery and up to 30 per cent from the chemicals plant.
Pattenden declined to disclose a price tag for the project, and said Shell won’t make a final investment decision until 2023. But he said Canada’s soon-to-be-implemented Clean Fuel Standard — as well as the federal carbon tax which is set to increase to $170 per tonne by 2030 — means that Polaris makes financial sense and won’t require government funding.
“We’re confident we have a robust project,” Pattenden said.
READ MORE: Several Canadian oilsands operators commit to become net zero emitters by 2050
Shell already has experience with carbon capture and storage, a technology that captures carbon dioxide and stores it underground instead of allowing it to be released into the atmosphere. The company’s Quest facility — which it operates on behalf of the Athabasca Oil Sands Project joint venture at the Scotford Complex — has safely stored more than six million tonnes of C02 in its six years of operation and has proven to be 30 per cent cheaper to operate than anticipated, Shell said.
Shell is also involved in other major carbon capture projects around the globe, including the Northern Lights CCS project in Norway and the Porthos CCS project in the Netherlands.
According to a recent report by energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie, Canada is a world leader in carbon capture and storage, with 14 per cent of the current global operating capacity. Other major carbon capture projects in Canada include the Boundary Dam coal power plant in Saskatchewan and the Sturgeon Refinery CCS project in Alberta.
READ MORE: Robot dogs the newest ’employees’ at Alberta Shell refinery
But Chris Severson-Baker, spokesman for clean energy think-tank The Pembina Institute, said significantly more capacity is required if Canada is to have a shot at meeting its 2050 climate change commitments.
“We don’t know exactly how much carbon capture we will need in Canada, but we will need a certain amount of it and certainly a heck of a lot more than we’ve already developed,” he said.
READ MORE: Climate Change: Oil sands producer aims at net zero with carbon capture
Shell’s announcement Tuesday is significant in that it reduces emissions from an existing facility rather than a new project, Severson-Baker said.
“Often when there’s announcements . . . of new technology that will result in better environmental performance. it’s usually on a new project, so it’s actually adding emissions overall even though it might be lower on a per-unit basis,” he said. “In order for us to achieve the kind of targets Canada has set, we need to achieve really significant reductions in existing emissions from oil and gas operations.”
Shell also said Tuesday it wants to transform the Scotford Complex into one of five energy and chemicals parks owned by the company around the world. In the first phase of the Polaris project, Pattenden said, carbon dioxide captured from the Scotford refinery’s hydrogen plants would produce blue hydrogen for use in the refining process, with the potential for large-scale blue hydrogen production later on.
Shell is also exploring opportunities around biofuels, Pattenden said, adding within this decade, the company will use carbon capture and storage and renewable power to process new feedstocks such as bio-oils or waste oils to reduce the C02 emitted in the production of fuel.
“These would be potentially blended into existing fuel streams that we sell to customers or in the future they could be produced as stand-alone fuels . . . they could immediately be put into vehicles,” he said.
SEE
Floods threaten hundreds of thousands in northeast India
Issued on: 30/08/2021
Issued on: 30/08/2021
Villagers take shelter on higher ground after incessant rain flooded India's Assam state
Biju BORO AFP
Guwahati (India) (AFP)
Flood waters rose Monday across northeastern India, where hundreds of thousands of people are stranded on the roofs of their homes or have fled to higher ground as more torrential rain fell.
Incessant downpours for more than a week forced the Brahmaputra and other major rivers to burst their banks across Assam and Bihar states.
Up to two metres (6.6 feet) of water has submerged many villages. Experts say annual floods which hit the region are getting worse because of climate change.
At one dam, authorities released water fearing the walls would collapse.
The floods have also threatened a UNESCO World Heritage-listed reserve that is home to the largest concentration of one-horned rhinos.
Tens of thousands of people are stuck in villages cut off by the floods and the state governments said more than 400,000 had been moved to higher ground.
Sixteen-year-old Anuwara Khatun said she and her family have spent nearly a week on the roof of their home at Ghasbari in Assam's Morigaon district.
"The water level has been rising for five days now," she told AFP by telephone from her stricken village on the banks of the Brahmaputra.
"A lot of families are stuck on their roofs. There is a shortage of essential supplies so we only eat once a day. There is no hygiene here."
Santosh Mandal moved his family to a sandbank in Bihar's Supaul district after his village was flooded.
"There is no clean water to drink, food to eat and the children are crying for milk. We are praying for help because the government has yet to send relief," Mandal said.
The Bihar government has sent rescue boats to get people to safety but these are concentrated in the worst-hit districts.
The Bihar and Assam governments said more than 12,000 people were in relief camps.
The Bihar government opened up the Valmiki Gandak dam, warning people in nearby villages to move away, after 16 centimetres (six inches) of rain fell in 24 hours.
About 70 percent of the 430-square-kilometre (166-square-mile) Kaziranga National Park in Assam is underwater, threatening its rare one-horned rhinoceroses as well as elephants and wild boar.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam's chief minister, on Monday made an "urgent appeal" for traffic to avoid a key highway through the reserve.
He said animals that seek shelter on the highway were now at risk.
© 2021 AFP
Guwahati (India) (AFP)
Flood waters rose Monday across northeastern India, where hundreds of thousands of people are stranded on the roofs of their homes or have fled to higher ground as more torrential rain fell.
Incessant downpours for more than a week forced the Brahmaputra and other major rivers to burst their banks across Assam and Bihar states.
Up to two metres (6.6 feet) of water has submerged many villages. Experts say annual floods which hit the region are getting worse because of climate change.
At one dam, authorities released water fearing the walls would collapse.
The floods have also threatened a UNESCO World Heritage-listed reserve that is home to the largest concentration of one-horned rhinos.
Tens of thousands of people are stuck in villages cut off by the floods and the state governments said more than 400,000 had been moved to higher ground.
Sixteen-year-old Anuwara Khatun said she and her family have spent nearly a week on the roof of their home at Ghasbari in Assam's Morigaon district.
"The water level has been rising for five days now," she told AFP by telephone from her stricken village on the banks of the Brahmaputra.
"A lot of families are stuck on their roofs. There is a shortage of essential supplies so we only eat once a day. There is no hygiene here."
Santosh Mandal moved his family to a sandbank in Bihar's Supaul district after his village was flooded.
"There is no clean water to drink, food to eat and the children are crying for milk. We are praying for help because the government has yet to send relief," Mandal said.
The Bihar government has sent rescue boats to get people to safety but these are concentrated in the worst-hit districts.
The Bihar and Assam governments said more than 12,000 people were in relief camps.
The Bihar government opened up the Valmiki Gandak dam, warning people in nearby villages to move away, after 16 centimetres (six inches) of rain fell in 24 hours.
About 70 percent of the 430-square-kilometre (166-square-mile) Kaziranga National Park in Assam is underwater, threatening its rare one-horned rhinoceroses as well as elephants and wild boar.
Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam's chief minister, on Monday made an "urgent appeal" for traffic to avoid a key highway through the reserve.
He said animals that seek shelter on the highway were now at risk.
© 2021 AFP
Irish FA agrees equal pay deal for men's and women's teams
Issued on: 30/08/2021 -
Issued on: 30/08/2021 -
The Republic of Ireland's men and women's teams will be paid equally after a deal was agreed on Monday
Paul Faith AFP
London (AFP)
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) hailed on Monday "a ground-breaking deal for Irish sport" after an agreement was reached for the Republic or Ireland's male and female footballers to receive equal pay for internationals.
As part of the deal, the men's team have agreed to reduce their match fees with the FAI matching that contribution to increase pay for the female players.
"The Football Association of Ireland is proud to announce that players representing the Republic of Ireland senior men and senior women’s international teams will receive the same match fees on international duty with immediate effect in a ground-breaking deal for Irish sport," the FAI said in a statement.
England, Brazil, Australia, Norway and New Zealand are among the other nations to have publicly committed to paying their men and women players the same amount for earning a senior cap.
“This is a great day for Irish football," said Ireland women's team captain Katie McCabe.
"We have taken a huge step forward with this deal and have shown the world what can be achieved through unity as we offer male and female international players the same opportunities."
Everton defender Seamus Coleman said the Irish men's team were happy to play their part in ensuring a deal could be reached.
"We are delighted as players to do what we can to ensure that our female international players are treated equally and fairly and we remain fully committed to doing whatever we can to achieve that goal together," said Coleman.
The FAI said the equal pay will begin immediately with September's internationals and "equality of approach" has also been agreed with regard to bonuses for tournament qualification.
© 2021 AFP
London (AFP)
The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) hailed on Monday "a ground-breaking deal for Irish sport" after an agreement was reached for the Republic or Ireland's male and female footballers to receive equal pay for internationals.
As part of the deal, the men's team have agreed to reduce their match fees with the FAI matching that contribution to increase pay for the female players.
"The Football Association of Ireland is proud to announce that players representing the Republic of Ireland senior men and senior women’s international teams will receive the same match fees on international duty with immediate effect in a ground-breaking deal for Irish sport," the FAI said in a statement.
England, Brazil, Australia, Norway and New Zealand are among the other nations to have publicly committed to paying their men and women players the same amount for earning a senior cap.
“This is a great day for Irish football," said Ireland women's team captain Katie McCabe.
"We have taken a huge step forward with this deal and have shown the world what can be achieved through unity as we offer male and female international players the same opportunities."
Everton defender Seamus Coleman said the Irish men's team were happy to play their part in ensuring a deal could be reached.
"We are delighted as players to do what we can to ensure that our female international players are treated equally and fairly and we remain fully committed to doing whatever we can to achieve that goal together," said Coleman.
The FAI said the equal pay will begin immediately with September's internationals and "equality of approach" has also been agreed with regard to bonuses for tournament qualification.
© 2021 AFP
World eliminates leaded petrol in ‘huge milestone’ for health, environment
Issued on: 30/08/2021 -
Text by: NEWS WIRES
Leaded petrol has been eliminated after the world’s last remaining stocks were used up last month, the U.N.’s Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Monday, after heading a 19-year campaign to end use of the poisonous substance that poses major health and environment risks.
Algeria, the only country still pumping leaded petrol into vehicles, exhausted its final stocks in July, UNEP said.
The agency said the petrol contaminates air, soil and drinking water and can cause heart disease, stroke and cancer. Some studies have shown it harms brain development, especially in children.
UNEP worked with governments, businesses and civic groups to eradicate leaded petrol and said ending its use after a century marked a “huge milestone”.
“Leaded fuel illustrates in a nutshell the kind of mistakes humanity has been making at every level of our societies,” Inger Anderson, UNEP executive director, told journalists.
Those mistakes had driven climate change, pollution and a loss of biodiversity, she said, but the global response to lead in fuel shows that “humanity can learn from and fix mistakes that we’ve made”.
Lead’s toxicity has been recognised since Roman times. It nevertheless began being added to gasoline in the early 1920s to make cars more powerful, and from then on was used in all petrol globally until the 1970s when wealthier countries began phasing it out.
But in the early 2000s, 86 nations were still using leaded gasoline. The UNEP-led campaign was formed to help them move away from the fuel including by driving investment and overcoming concerns around prices, Anderson said.
UNEP warned, however, that the transport industry remained a driver of climate-warming emissions, and 1.2 billion vehicles were set to hit the road in the coming decades.
Antonio Guterres, U.N. Secretary General, said the elimination of leaded gasoline showed what could be achieved via collaboration, and called for similar initiatives towards emissions-free transport and tackling climate change.
“We must now turn the same commitment to... create a world of peace that works with nature, not against it,” he said in a pre-recorded video.
(REUTERS)
Issued on: 30/08/2021 -
Leaded petrol began being added to gasoline in the early 1920s to make cars more powerful, and from then on was used in all petrol globally until the 1970s when wealthier countries began phasing it out. In the early 2000s, 86 nations were still using leaded gasoline. © Anwar Amro, AFP/ File picture
Text by: NEWS WIRES
Leaded petrol has been eliminated after the world’s last remaining stocks were used up last month, the U.N.’s Environment Programme (UNEP) said on Monday, after heading a 19-year campaign to end use of the poisonous substance that poses major health and environment risks.
Algeria, the only country still pumping leaded petrol into vehicles, exhausted its final stocks in July, UNEP said.
The agency said the petrol contaminates air, soil and drinking water and can cause heart disease, stroke and cancer. Some studies have shown it harms brain development, especially in children.
UNEP worked with governments, businesses and civic groups to eradicate leaded petrol and said ending its use after a century marked a “huge milestone”.
“Leaded fuel illustrates in a nutshell the kind of mistakes humanity has been making at every level of our societies,” Inger Anderson, UNEP executive director, told journalists.
Those mistakes had driven climate change, pollution and a loss of biodiversity, she said, but the global response to lead in fuel shows that “humanity can learn from and fix mistakes that we’ve made”.
Lead’s toxicity has been recognised since Roman times. It nevertheless began being added to gasoline in the early 1920s to make cars more powerful, and from then on was used in all petrol globally until the 1970s when wealthier countries began phasing it out.
But in the early 2000s, 86 nations were still using leaded gasoline. The UNEP-led campaign was formed to help them move away from the fuel including by driving investment and overcoming concerns around prices, Anderson said.
UNEP warned, however, that the transport industry remained a driver of climate-warming emissions, and 1.2 billion vehicles were set to hit the road in the coming decades.
Antonio Guterres, U.N. Secretary General, said the elimination of leaded gasoline showed what could be achieved via collaboration, and called for similar initiatives towards emissions-free transport and tackling climate change.
“We must now turn the same commitment to... create a world of peace that works with nature, not against it,” he said in a pre-recorded video.
(REUTERS)
Issued on: 30/08/2021 -
When the UNEP launched its campaign in 2002, many major powers had already quit using the fuel, including the United States, China and India
JOE RAEDLE GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Nairobi (AFP)
The use of leaded petrol has been eradicated from the globe, a milestone that will prevent more than 1.2 million premature deaths and save world economies over $2.4 trillion annually, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said Monday.
Nearly a century after doctors first issued warnings about the toxic effects of leaded petrol, Algeria -- the last country to use the fuel -- exhausted its supplies last month, UNEP said, calling the news a landmark win in the fight for cleaner air.
"The successful enforcement of the ban on leaded petrol is a huge milestone for global health and our environment," said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, which is headquartered in Nairobi.
Even as recently as two decades ago, more than 100 countries around the world were still using leaded petrol, despite studies linking it to premature deaths, poor health and soil and air pollution.
Nairobi (AFP)
The use of leaded petrol has been eradicated from the globe, a milestone that will prevent more than 1.2 million premature deaths and save world economies over $2.4 trillion annually, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said Monday.
Nearly a century after doctors first issued warnings about the toxic effects of leaded petrol, Algeria -- the last country to use the fuel -- exhausted its supplies last month, UNEP said, calling the news a landmark win in the fight for cleaner air.
"The successful enforcement of the ban on leaded petrol is a huge milestone for global health and our environment," said Inger Andersen, executive director of UNEP, which is headquartered in Nairobi.
Even as recently as two decades ago, more than 100 countries around the world were still using leaded petrol, despite studies linking it to premature deaths, poor health and soil and air pollution.
World map showing the progression of bans on toxic leaded petrol after the last country, Algeria, ended its use in July
Jonathan WALTER AFP
Concerns were raised as early as 1924, when dozens of workers were hospitalised and five declared dead after suffering convulsions at a refinery run by US giant Standard Oil, nicknamed the "looney gas building" by staff.
Nevertheless, until the 1970s almost all the gasoline sold across the globe contained lead.
When UNEP launched its campaign in 2002, many major economic powers had already stopped using the fuel, including the United States, China and India. But the situation in lower-income nations remained dire.
- 'End of a toxic era' -
By 2016, after North Korea, Myanmar and Afghanistan stopped selling leaded petrol, only a handful of countries were still operating service stations providing the fuel, with Algeria finally following Iraq and Yemen in ending its reliance on the pollutant.
UNEP said in a statement that the eradication of leaded petrol would "prevent more than 1.2 million premature deaths per year, increase IQ points among children, save $2.44 trillion (2.07 trillion euros) for the global economy, and decrease crime rates."
Concerns were raised as early as 1924, when dozens of workers were hospitalised and five declared dead after suffering convulsions at a refinery run by US giant Standard Oil, nicknamed the "looney gas building" by staff.
Nevertheless, until the 1970s almost all the gasoline sold across the globe contained lead.
When UNEP launched its campaign in 2002, many major economic powers had already stopped using the fuel, including the United States, China and India. But the situation in lower-income nations remained dire.
- 'End of a toxic era' -
By 2016, after North Korea, Myanmar and Afghanistan stopped selling leaded petrol, only a handful of countries were still operating service stations providing the fuel, with Algeria finally following Iraq and Yemen in ending its reliance on the pollutant.
UNEP said in a statement that the eradication of leaded petrol would "prevent more than 1.2 million premature deaths per year, increase IQ points among children, save $2.44 trillion (2.07 trillion euros) for the global economy, and decrease crime rates."
The UNEP said the eradication of leaded petrol would prevent more than 1.2 million premature deaths each year
Ben STANSALL AFP/File
The agency said the dollar figure came from a 2010 study led by scientists at California State University at Northridge.
Its chief factors were the benefits of better health for the overall economy; lower medical costs; and a dip in criminal activity -- higher crime rates have previously been linked to exposure to leaded fuel.
UNEP warned that fossil fuel use in general must still be drastically reduced to stave off the frightening effects of climate change.
Greenpeace hailed the news as "a celebration of the end of one toxic era."
"It clearly shows that if we can phase out one of the most dangerous polluting fuels in the 20th century, we can absolutely phase out all fossil fuels," said Thandile Chinyavanhu, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace Africa.
"Africa's governments must give no more excuses for the fossil fuel industry," she added.
Globally, vehicle sales are set to climb exponentially, particularly in emerging markets.
"The transport sector is responsible for nearly a quarter of energy-related global greenhouse gas emissions and is set to grow to one third by 2050," UNEP said, adding that 1.2 billion new vehicles would hit the streets in the coming decades.
"This includes millions of poor-quality used vehicles exported from Europe, the United States and Japan, to mid- and low-income countries.
The agency said the dollar figure came from a 2010 study led by scientists at California State University at Northridge.
Its chief factors were the benefits of better health for the overall economy; lower medical costs; and a dip in criminal activity -- higher crime rates have previously been linked to exposure to leaded fuel.
UNEP warned that fossil fuel use in general must still be drastically reduced to stave off the frightening effects of climate change.
Greenpeace hailed the news as "a celebration of the end of one toxic era."
"It clearly shows that if we can phase out one of the most dangerous polluting fuels in the 20th century, we can absolutely phase out all fossil fuels," said Thandile Chinyavanhu, climate and energy campaigner at Greenpeace Africa.
"Africa's governments must give no more excuses for the fossil fuel industry," she added.
Globally, vehicle sales are set to climb exponentially, particularly in emerging markets.
"The transport sector is responsible for nearly a quarter of energy-related global greenhouse gas emissions and is set to grow to one third by 2050," UNEP said, adding that 1.2 billion new vehicles would hit the streets in the coming decades.
"This includes millions of poor-quality used vehicles exported from Europe, the United States and Japan, to mid- and low-income countries.
Vehicle sales are set to climb globally exponentially, particularly in emerging markets
FREDERIC J. BROWN AFP/File
"This contributes to planet warming and air polluting traffic and (is) bound to cause accidents," the global body said.
Earlier this month, a bombshell report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that Earth's average temperature would be 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer around 2030 compared to pre-industrial times.
A decade earlier than projected, the rise has raised alarm bells about the use of fossil fuels.
© 2021 AFP
"This contributes to planet warming and air polluting traffic and (is) bound to cause accidents," the global body said.
Earlier this month, a bombshell report by the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that Earth's average temperature would be 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer around 2030 compared to pre-industrial times.
A decade earlier than projected, the rise has raised alarm bells about the use of fossil fuels.
© 2021 AFP
The race to give nuclear fusion a role in the climate emergency
For now, publicly funded labs are producing results a long way ahead of the private firms – but this could change
This is a lot of progress, but it’s not even the biggest change: that would be the emergence of private sector fusion firms. The recently formed Fusion Industry Association estimates that more than $2bn of investment has flooded into fusion startups. The construction of experimental reactors by these firms is proceeding at a phenomenal rate: Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which has its origins in MIT research, has begun building a demonstration reactor in Massachusetts; TAE Technologies has just raised $280m to build its next device; and Canadian-based General Fusion has opted to house its new $400m plant in the UK. This will be constructed in Oxfordshire, an emerging hotspot for the industry that is home to private ventures First Light Fusion and Tokamak Energy as well as the publicly funded Jet and Mast (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) Upgrade devices run by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
Some of the investors in these firms have deep pockets: Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Lockheed Martin, Goldman Sachs, Legal & General, and Chevron have all financed enterprises pursuing this new nuclear power source. For now, publicly funded labs are producing results a long way ahead of the private firms – but this could change.
With such progress, interest, and investment – and net energy gain perhaps just one or two more improvements away – perhaps it’s time to retire the old joke, so cliched it has been banned by editors at the Economist, that “fusion is 30 years away… and always will be”.
Physicist Vaughn Draggoo inspects the target chamber during its construction at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California, October 2001.
Photograph: Joe McNally/Getty Images
Power from fusion has proved too hard to generate at scale. Can recent breakthroughs and massive investment change that?
Arthur Turrell
Sat 28 Aug 2021
On 8 August 2021, a laser-initiated experiment at the United States National Ignition Facility (NIF), based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, made a significant breakthrough in reproducing the power source of the stars, smashing its own 2018 record for energy released from nuclear fusion reactions 23 times over. This advance saw 70% of the laser energy put in released as nuclear energy. A pulse of light, focused to tiny spots within a 10-metre diameter vacuum chamber, triggered the collapse of a capsule of fuel from roughly the size of the pupil in your eye to the diameter of a human hair. This implosion created the extreme conditions of temperature and pressure needed for atoms of hydrogen to combine into new atoms and release, kilogram for kilogram, 10m times the energy that would result from burning coal.
The result is tantalisingly close to a demonstration of “net energy gain”, the long sought-after goal of fusion scientists in which an amount greater than 100% of the energy put into a fusion experiment comes out as nuclear energy. The aim of these experiments is – for now – to show proof of principle only: that energy can be generated. The team behind the success are very close to achieving this: they have managed a more than 1,000-fold improvement in energy release between 2011 and today. Prof Jeremy Chittenden, co-director of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London, said last month that “The pace of improvement in energy output has been rapid, suggesting we may soon reach more energy milestones, such as exceeding the energy input from the lasers used to kickstart the process.”
If you’re not familiar with nuclear fusion, it’s different from its cousin, nuclear fission, which powers today’s nuclear plants by taking big, unstable atoms and splitting them. Fusion takes small atoms and combines them to forge larger atoms. It is the universe’s ubiquitous power source: it’s what causes the sun and stars to shine, and it’s the reaction that created most of the atoms we are made of.
Scientists have long been excited about fusion because it doesn’t produce carbon dioxide or long-lived radioactive waste, since the fuel it requires – two types of hydrogen known as deuterium and tritium – is plentiful enough to last for at least thousands of years, and because there is zero chance of meltdown. Unlike renewables such as wind and solar power, plants based on fusion would also take up little space compared with the power they would be able to generate.
Power from fusion has proved too hard to generate at scale. Can recent breakthroughs and massive investment change that?
Arthur Turrell
Sat 28 Aug 2021
On 8 August 2021, a laser-initiated experiment at the United States National Ignition Facility (NIF), based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, made a significant breakthrough in reproducing the power source of the stars, smashing its own 2018 record for energy released from nuclear fusion reactions 23 times over. This advance saw 70% of the laser energy put in released as nuclear energy. A pulse of light, focused to tiny spots within a 10-metre diameter vacuum chamber, triggered the collapse of a capsule of fuel from roughly the size of the pupil in your eye to the diameter of a human hair. This implosion created the extreme conditions of temperature and pressure needed for atoms of hydrogen to combine into new atoms and release, kilogram for kilogram, 10m times the energy that would result from burning coal.
The result is tantalisingly close to a demonstration of “net energy gain”, the long sought-after goal of fusion scientists in which an amount greater than 100% of the energy put into a fusion experiment comes out as nuclear energy. The aim of these experiments is – for now – to show proof of principle only: that energy can be generated. The team behind the success are very close to achieving this: they have managed a more than 1,000-fold improvement in energy release between 2011 and today. Prof Jeremy Chittenden, co-director of the Centre for Inertial Fusion Studies at Imperial College London, said last month that “The pace of improvement in energy output has been rapid, suggesting we may soon reach more energy milestones, such as exceeding the energy input from the lasers used to kickstart the process.”
If you’re not familiar with nuclear fusion, it’s different from its cousin, nuclear fission, which powers today’s nuclear plants by taking big, unstable atoms and splitting them. Fusion takes small atoms and combines them to forge larger atoms. It is the universe’s ubiquitous power source: it’s what causes the sun and stars to shine, and it’s the reaction that created most of the atoms we are made of.
Scientists have long been excited about fusion because it doesn’t produce carbon dioxide or long-lived radioactive waste, since the fuel it requires – two types of hydrogen known as deuterium and tritium – is plentiful enough to last for at least thousands of years, and because there is zero chance of meltdown. Unlike renewables such as wind and solar power, plants based on fusion would also take up little space compared with the power they would be able to generate.
The Tokamak of the Joint European Torus (Jet) at the Culham Science Centre – which will soon to attempt to produce the largest amount of fusion energy so far.
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
However, because the NIF’s breakthrough is about demonstrating the principle only, the total amount of energy generated is not very impressive; it’s only just enough to boil a kettle. Nor does the gain measurement account for the energy used to run the facility, just what’s in the laser pulse. Despite this, it is nevertheless a landmark moment in the decades-long quest to produce fusion energy and use it to power the planet – which is, perhaps, the greatest scientific and technological challenge humanity has ever undertaken.
Although the experiment may have happened in a vacuum, NIF’s advance has not, and the pace of progress in fusion may surprise some long-time sceptics. Even Dr Mark Herrmann, head of the NIF’s fusion programme, says the latest development was “a surprise to everyone”. Many recent advances have been made with a different type of fusion device, the tokamak: a doughnut-shaped machine that uses a tube of magnetic fields to confine its fuel for as long as possible. China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (East) set another world record in May by keeping fuel stable for 100 seconds at a temperature of 120m degrees celsius – eight times hotter than the sun’s core. The world’s largest ever magnetic fusion machine, Iter, is under construction in the south of France and many experts think it will have the scale needed to reach net energy gain. The UK-based Joint European Torus (Jet), which holds the current magnetic fusion record for power of 67%, is about to attempt to produce the largest total amount of energy of any fusion machine in history. Alternative designs are also being explored: the UK government has announced plans for an advanced tokamak with an innovative spherical geometry, and “stellarators”, a type of fusion device that had been consigned to the history books, are enjoying a revival having been enabled by new technologies such as superconducting magnets.
However, because the NIF’s breakthrough is about demonstrating the principle only, the total amount of energy generated is not very impressive; it’s only just enough to boil a kettle. Nor does the gain measurement account for the energy used to run the facility, just what’s in the laser pulse. Despite this, it is nevertheless a landmark moment in the decades-long quest to produce fusion energy and use it to power the planet – which is, perhaps, the greatest scientific and technological challenge humanity has ever undertaken.
Although the experiment may have happened in a vacuum, NIF’s advance has not, and the pace of progress in fusion may surprise some long-time sceptics. Even Dr Mark Herrmann, head of the NIF’s fusion programme, says the latest development was “a surprise to everyone”. Many recent advances have been made with a different type of fusion device, the tokamak: a doughnut-shaped machine that uses a tube of magnetic fields to confine its fuel for as long as possible. China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (East) set another world record in May by keeping fuel stable for 100 seconds at a temperature of 120m degrees celsius – eight times hotter than the sun’s core. The world’s largest ever magnetic fusion machine, Iter, is under construction in the south of France and many experts think it will have the scale needed to reach net energy gain. The UK-based Joint European Torus (Jet), which holds the current magnetic fusion record for power of 67%, is about to attempt to produce the largest total amount of energy of any fusion machine in history. Alternative designs are also being explored: the UK government has announced plans for an advanced tokamak with an innovative spherical geometry, and “stellarators”, a type of fusion device that had been consigned to the history books, are enjoying a revival having been enabled by new technologies such as superconducting magnets.
For now, publicly funded labs are producing results a long way ahead of the private firms – but this could change
This is a lot of progress, but it’s not even the biggest change: that would be the emergence of private sector fusion firms. The recently formed Fusion Industry Association estimates that more than $2bn of investment has flooded into fusion startups. The construction of experimental reactors by these firms is proceeding at a phenomenal rate: Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which has its origins in MIT research, has begun building a demonstration reactor in Massachusetts; TAE Technologies has just raised $280m to build its next device; and Canadian-based General Fusion has opted to house its new $400m plant in the UK. This will be constructed in Oxfordshire, an emerging hotspot for the industry that is home to private ventures First Light Fusion and Tokamak Energy as well as the publicly funded Jet and Mast (Mega Amp Spherical Tokamak) Upgrade devices run by the UK Atomic Energy Authority.
Some of the investors in these firms have deep pockets: Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Lockheed Martin, Goldman Sachs, Legal & General, and Chevron have all financed enterprises pursuing this new nuclear power source. For now, publicly funded labs are producing results a long way ahead of the private firms – but this could change.
With such progress, interest, and investment – and net energy gain perhaps just one or two more improvements away – perhaps it’s time to retire the old joke, so cliched it has been banned by editors at the Economist, that “fusion is 30 years away… and always will be”.
Junior UK science minister Amanda Solloway and Nick Hawker, CEO of First LIght Fusion, inspecting the company’s £1.1m “Big Gun” device, which the Oxfordshire firm hopes will help them achieve fusion and deliver clean energy.
Photograph: Matt Alexander/PA
But it does depend on what we mean by “fusion” in that context; the scientists and their backers are now focusing on the bigger objective of fusion as a viable power source like fission, solar or wind. This requires far more than just “breakeven” in energy: a functioning fusion power plant would probably need at least 30 times the energy out for energy put in. However, scaling up the gain in energy is but one difficulty in making fusion a viable power source. A commercial reactor will have to solve several tricky engineering problems such as extracting the heat energy and finding materials that will withstand the relentless bombardment the reactor chamber will receive over its lifetime. Fusion reactors must also be self-sufficient in tritium, one of the two types of hydrogen that are fed in as fuel. For this, it is necessary to surround the reactor chamber with lithium because its atoms are converted to tritium when struck by the most energetic products of fusion – and this process has yet to be demonstrated at scale.
Those pursuing fusion have long known of the obstacles, but – with limited resources – achieving the immediate goal of gain has been a bigger priority. That’s beginning to change as fusion scientists and engineers look beyond scientific proof of principle. Around the world, several recently opened facilities are dedicated to solving these problems and, although they’re not trivial, everyone in fusion is confident that the obstacles can be overcome: progress depends on investment and will.
To find examples of how these two factors can be transformative, look no further than the pandemic. A sudden shot of both investment and motivation transformed the use of mRNA to fight disease from a wild idea to an accepted technology in the form of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Katalin Karikó, whose foundational work on mRNA has been key to the success of the technology, had the will to persevere for many years with little recognition and even less funding. Her dedication, and that of her colleagues, combined with a massive investment in development, testing and deployment is what enabled the vaccines to be ready in record time. The world wanted this, and we made it happen.
Global heating has made the need to turn carbon-free fusion energy into a usable power source ever more urgent. The world’s response thus far has been lackadaisical: it’s 2021 and more than 80% of global primary energy consumption still comes from coal, oil and gas. Fossil fuel consumption actually increased between 2009 and 2019 (though it fell in 2020 as most of the world locked down to help prevent the spread of Covid-19). While progress to date has been slow, most nations have pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Dr Ajay Gambhir, a senior policy research fellow at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London, says most electricity generation needs to come from near-zero carbon sources as soon as 2030 in order to achieve this. Dr Michael Bluck, also of the Grantham Institute, expresses serious doubts that commercial fusion energy will be ready in time, saying that it is “very difficult to see this [conventional tokamaks] happening until after 2050” and that laser fusion has “another 50 years to go, if at all”.
But it does depend on what we mean by “fusion” in that context; the scientists and their backers are now focusing on the bigger objective of fusion as a viable power source like fission, solar or wind. This requires far more than just “breakeven” in energy: a functioning fusion power plant would probably need at least 30 times the energy out for energy put in. However, scaling up the gain in energy is but one difficulty in making fusion a viable power source. A commercial reactor will have to solve several tricky engineering problems such as extracting the heat energy and finding materials that will withstand the relentless bombardment the reactor chamber will receive over its lifetime. Fusion reactors must also be self-sufficient in tritium, one of the two types of hydrogen that are fed in as fuel. For this, it is necessary to surround the reactor chamber with lithium because its atoms are converted to tritium when struck by the most energetic products of fusion – and this process has yet to be demonstrated at scale.
Those pursuing fusion have long known of the obstacles, but – with limited resources – achieving the immediate goal of gain has been a bigger priority. That’s beginning to change as fusion scientists and engineers look beyond scientific proof of principle. Around the world, several recently opened facilities are dedicated to solving these problems and, although they’re not trivial, everyone in fusion is confident that the obstacles can be overcome: progress depends on investment and will.
To find examples of how these two factors can be transformative, look no further than the pandemic. A sudden shot of both investment and motivation transformed the use of mRNA to fight disease from a wild idea to an accepted technology in the form of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Katalin Karikó, whose foundational work on mRNA has been key to the success of the technology, had the will to persevere for many years with little recognition and even less funding. Her dedication, and that of her colleagues, combined with a massive investment in development, testing and deployment is what enabled the vaccines to be ready in record time. The world wanted this, and we made it happen.
Global heating has made the need to turn carbon-free fusion energy into a usable power source ever more urgent. The world’s response thus far has been lackadaisical: it’s 2021 and more than 80% of global primary energy consumption still comes from coal, oil and gas. Fossil fuel consumption actually increased between 2009 and 2019 (though it fell in 2020 as most of the world locked down to help prevent the spread of Covid-19). While progress to date has been slow, most nations have pledged to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Dr Ajay Gambhir, a senior policy research fellow at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Imperial College London, says most electricity generation needs to come from near-zero carbon sources as soon as 2030 in order to achieve this. Dr Michael Bluck, also of the Grantham Institute, expresses serious doubts that commercial fusion energy will be ready in time, saying that it is “very difficult to see this [conventional tokamaks] happening until after 2050” and that laser fusion has “another 50 years to go, if at all”.
Construction of the magnetic Tokamak of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (Iter) in south-eastern France. The project is a collaboration between 35 countries.
Photograph: Clement Mahoudeau/AFP/Getty Images
Those working in fusion do recognise that time is of the essence, and it’s part of what is motivating the recent acceleration. The startups’ vision necessarily sees fusion power being deployed at an unprecedented rate. “If we want to contribute to net zero by 2050 we need to be building plants, multiple, in the 2040s,” Nick Hawker, CEO of First Light Fusion, tells me. And who says the fusion firms couldn’t do it with the right tailwind? We would never have believed that a vaccine, let alone the first mRNA vaccine, could be developed and approved within a year instead of over decades.
The scale of the climate challenge is so immense that we need to throw the kitchen sink at it. That means renewables, fission, energy storage, carbon capture, and any other lifeline humanity can grab. If the world doesn’t have the will to at least try to deploy fusion energy too, it would be a missed opportunity. Fusion could afford people in developing countries the same energy consumption opportunities as people in developed nations enjoy today – rather than the global cutbacks that may be necessary otherwise. And we are likely to need fusion well beyond 2050, too: as a source of large-scale power to extract the carbon dioxide we’ve already put into the atmosphere, and because it’s the only feasible way we can explore space beyond Earth’s immediate vicinity.
Whether commercial fusion energy is ready in time to help with global warming or not depends on us as a society and how badly we want – no, need – star power on our side.
Arthur Turrell is the author of The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (£20).
Those working in fusion do recognise that time is of the essence, and it’s part of what is motivating the recent acceleration. The startups’ vision necessarily sees fusion power being deployed at an unprecedented rate. “If we want to contribute to net zero by 2050 we need to be building plants, multiple, in the 2040s,” Nick Hawker, CEO of First Light Fusion, tells me. And who says the fusion firms couldn’t do it with the right tailwind? We would never have believed that a vaccine, let alone the first mRNA vaccine, could be developed and approved within a year instead of over decades.
The scale of the climate challenge is so immense that we need to throw the kitchen sink at it. That means renewables, fission, energy storage, carbon capture, and any other lifeline humanity can grab. If the world doesn’t have the will to at least try to deploy fusion energy too, it would be a missed opportunity. Fusion could afford people in developing countries the same energy consumption opportunities as people in developed nations enjoy today – rather than the global cutbacks that may be necessary otherwise. And we are likely to need fusion well beyond 2050, too: as a source of large-scale power to extract the carbon dioxide we’ve already put into the atmosphere, and because it’s the only feasible way we can explore space beyond Earth’s immediate vicinity.
Whether commercial fusion energy is ready in time to help with global warming or not depends on us as a society and how badly we want – no, need – star power on our side.
Arthur Turrell is the author of The Star Builders: Nuclear Fusion and the Race to Power the Planet, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (£20).
‘I was on a list to be terminated’ – Sue Dobson, the spy who helped to end apartheid
She risked arrest, torture and jail to fight racism in 1980s South Africa, and her story is being made into a film
I was looked after by the royal protection squad because they believed that there was a threat to my lifeSue Dobson
Dobson and her then husband, Peter, a computer analyst, had become involved with the ANC through his sister, also an activist.
While Peter accessed information from defence companies linked to the South African government, Dobson was out in the field, using dead-letter drops, invisible ink and clandestine meetings to share intelligence.
These were techniques that the couple had learned in the Soviet Union, having visited secretly for several months of military and intelligence training.
Dobson said: “At the time, the Russians assisted people in the liberation movements through training. I was trained in radio work, explosives, intelligence work. The skills ensured my survival.”
She added: “My ANC brief was to get as close to government as I possibly could … I went through security clearances. I had access to the minister for internal affairs, I interviewed the minister for foreign affairs, the late Pik Botha.”
Over several months, she had a honey-pot affair with a police official, who confided information that she passed to the ANC: “It was probably the most dangerous point in my work. If he’d worked out who and what I was, I wouldn’t be having this conversation. Peter was aware of the affair. He understood my motivation. I was not doing that for my own selfish reason, but for something that I believed very strongly in.”
She risked arrest, torture and jail to fight racism in 1980s South Africa, and her story is being made into a film
Sue Dobson has written a memoir that has inspired a film before it has even been published.
Dalya Alberge
Sun 29 Aug 2021
As a white South African, Sue Dobson risked arrest, torture and imprisonment spying for the black nationalist cause during the latter days of the brutal apartheid regime. She was a middle-class woman in her 20s when she joined the African National Congress (ANC) and infiltrated the white minority government – even having a honey-pot affair with a police official to obtain information, with the full support of her husband, a fellow activist. When her cover was blown in 1989, she fled to Britain, where she sought political asylum after threats to her life.
Now, for the first time in 30 years, she is ready to talk publicly about her story – that of a “very ordinary” woman who played an extraordinary part in fighting racism.
She told the Observer: “It’s because I’m ordinary that I was able to do the work that I did because I wasn’t suspected … My ordinariness has been my strength, strangely.”
Now 59, having come to terms with painful memories, she has written a memoir that has inspired a film before it has even been published.
Sole access to the manuscript has been given to British producer Guy de Beaujeu, whose credits include Journey’s End, RC Sherriff’s harrowing first world war drama, starring Sam Claflin and Paul Bettany.
If Dobson had been arrested, she would have faced up to 15 years in prison and torture. “The charge would be treason,” she said. “The South African security chiefs were renowned for their barbaric interrogation routine. Many people died during interrogation. They were thrown out of windows. They were beaten so badly that they were brain damaged. There were particularly unsavoury techniques like electric shocks to the genitals …
“The unfairness of it all is that I probably would have been beaten, but not as severely as someone who was a different colour. So, even in the interrogation rooms, racism was very much an issue.”
Dalya Alberge
Sun 29 Aug 2021
As a white South African, Sue Dobson risked arrest, torture and imprisonment spying for the black nationalist cause during the latter days of the brutal apartheid regime. She was a middle-class woman in her 20s when she joined the African National Congress (ANC) and infiltrated the white minority government – even having a honey-pot affair with a police official to obtain information, with the full support of her husband, a fellow activist. When her cover was blown in 1989, she fled to Britain, where she sought political asylum after threats to her life.
Now, for the first time in 30 years, she is ready to talk publicly about her story – that of a “very ordinary” woman who played an extraordinary part in fighting racism.
She told the Observer: “It’s because I’m ordinary that I was able to do the work that I did because I wasn’t suspected … My ordinariness has been my strength, strangely.”
Now 59, having come to terms with painful memories, she has written a memoir that has inspired a film before it has even been published.
Sole access to the manuscript has been given to British producer Guy de Beaujeu, whose credits include Journey’s End, RC Sherriff’s harrowing first world war drama, starring Sam Claflin and Paul Bettany.
If Dobson had been arrested, she would have faced up to 15 years in prison and torture. “The charge would be treason,” she said. “The South African security chiefs were renowned for their barbaric interrogation routine. Many people died during interrogation. They were thrown out of windows. They were beaten so badly that they were brain damaged. There were particularly unsavoury techniques like electric shocks to the genitals …
“The unfairness of it all is that I probably would have been beaten, but not as severely as someone who was a different colour. So, even in the interrogation rooms, racism was very much an issue.”
A South African police officer chasing a demonstrator with a sjambok whip.
Photograph: Gideon Mendel/Corbis/Getty Images
Over a number of years, Dobson passed information to the ANC while working as a journalist for a government-supporting newspaper, The Citizen, the state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation, and then as an employee of the government’s information bureau.
Over a number of years, Dobson passed information to the ANC while working as a journalist for a government-supporting newspaper, The Citizen, the state-run South African Broadcasting Corporation, and then as an employee of the government’s information bureau.
I was looked after by the royal protection squad because they believed that there was a threat to my lifeSue Dobson
Dobson and her then husband, Peter, a computer analyst, had become involved with the ANC through his sister, also an activist.
While Peter accessed information from defence companies linked to the South African government, Dobson was out in the field, using dead-letter drops, invisible ink and clandestine meetings to share intelligence.
These were techniques that the couple had learned in the Soviet Union, having visited secretly for several months of military and intelligence training.
Dobson said: “At the time, the Russians assisted people in the liberation movements through training. I was trained in radio work, explosives, intelligence work. The skills ensured my survival.”
She added: “My ANC brief was to get as close to government as I possibly could … I went through security clearances. I had access to the minister for internal affairs, I interviewed the minister for foreign affairs, the late Pik Botha.”
Over several months, she had a honey-pot affair with a police official, who confided information that she passed to the ANC: “It was probably the most dangerous point in my work. If he’d worked out who and what I was, I wouldn’t be having this conversation. Peter was aware of the affair. He understood my motivation. I was not doing that for my own selfish reason, but for something that I believed very strongly in.”
High-school students in an anti-apartheid protest, Soweto, Johannesburg, January 1986. Photograph: David Turnley/Corbis/VCG/Getty Images
She impressed her government superiors and was being considered for a post in the office of the president, FW de Klerk, when her cover was blown. Another security clearance discovered her sister-in-law’s ANC connection.
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Under cover of night, Dobson fled to Botswana, where Soviet contacts put her on a plane to London in October 1989: “The Russians saved my life.”
De Klerk seeks accountability. What about his own?
But her ordeal was not over. She struggled financially: “The South African government had seized everything we had.”
She also feared reprisals: “I was looked after by the royal protection squad because they believed that there was a threat to my life.
“We had had a couple of assassinations of high-ranking ANC officials in Europe and I had been warned that I was on a list, that I could be terminated…
“We had to be very vigilant for things like letter bombs. They had a particularly unpleasant technique of putting poison into parcels so, if exiles opened something, they would be poisoned. It was very difficult to live a normal life.”
The film – titled Burned, inspired by the term for a spy being revealed – will be shot next year.
She impressed her government superiors and was being considered for a post in the office of the president, FW de Klerk, when her cover was blown. Another security clearance discovered her sister-in-law’s ANC connection.
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Under cover of night, Dobson fled to Botswana, where Soviet contacts put her on a plane to London in October 1989: “The Russians saved my life.”
De Klerk seeks accountability. What about his own?
But her ordeal was not over. She struggled financially: “The South African government had seized everything we had.”
She also feared reprisals: “I was looked after by the royal protection squad because they believed that there was a threat to my life.
“We had had a couple of assassinations of high-ranking ANC officials in Europe and I had been warned that I was on a list, that I could be terminated…
“We had to be very vigilant for things like letter bombs. They had a particularly unpleasant technique of putting poison into parcels so, if exiles opened something, they would be poisoned. It was very difficult to live a normal life.”
The film – titled Burned, inspired by the term for a spy being revealed – will be shot next year.
Kidnapped, raped, wed against their will: Kyrgyz women’s fight against a brutal tradition
At least 12,000 women are still abducted and forced into marriage every year in Kyrgyzstan. But pressure is growing to finally end the medieval custom
The man who kidnapped her would soon become her husband. At the wedding, Aisuluu discovered that she was not even the woman he had intended to kidnap for marriage. But in the haste of having to return home with a bride and after wandering the streets all afternoon, the man decided to settle for the first “cute girl” he saw.
This was 1996, and Aisuluu was a teenager. Today she has four children by her kidnapper-turned-husband, to whom she is still married.
At least 12,000 women are still abducted and forced into marriage every year in Kyrgyzstan. But pressure is growing to finally end the medieval custom
Dinara struggles as a relative of the man who abducted her tries to force a white scarf on to her head, signifying her submission to his demands to be married. Dinara, 22, finally accepted her lot, saying: ‘This is our tradition.’
Photograph: Noriko Hayashi/Panos
Global development is supported by
Mauro Mondello
Mon 30 Aug 2021
Aisuluu was returning home after spending the afternoon with her aunt in the village of At-Bashy, not far from the Torugart crossing into China. “It was 5 o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday. I had a paper bag full of samsa [a dough dumpling stuffed with lamb, parsley and onion]. My aunt always prepared them on weekends,” she said.
“A car with four men inside comes in the opposite direction to mine. And all of a sudden it … turns around and, within a few seconds, comes up beside me. One of the guys in the back gets out, yanks me and pushes me inside the car. I drop all the samsa on the pavement. I scream, I squirm, I cry, but there is nothing I can do.”
Global development is supported by
Mauro Mondello
Mon 30 Aug 2021
Aisuluu was returning home after spending the afternoon with her aunt in the village of At-Bashy, not far from the Torugart crossing into China. “It was 5 o’clock in the afternoon on Saturday. I had a paper bag full of samsa [a dough dumpling stuffed with lamb, parsley and onion]. My aunt always prepared them on weekends,” she said.
“A car with four men inside comes in the opposite direction to mine. And all of a sudden it … turns around and, within a few seconds, comes up beside me. One of the guys in the back gets out, yanks me and pushes me inside the car. I drop all the samsa on the pavement. I scream, I squirm, I cry, but there is nothing I can do.”
The man who kidnapped her would soon become her husband. At the wedding, Aisuluu discovered that she was not even the woman he had intended to kidnap for marriage. But in the haste of having to return home with a bride and after wandering the streets all afternoon, the man decided to settle for the first “cute girl” he saw.
This was 1996, and Aisuluu was a teenager. Today she has four children by her kidnapper-turned-husband, to whom she is still married.
One victim of ala kachuu was Farida, 20. Here she is seen struggling after being forced, with a friend (right), into the back of a car.
Photograph: Noriko Hayashi/Panos
Known as ala kachuu (“take and run”), the brutal practice of kidnapping brides has its roots in medieval times along the steppes of Central Asia, yet persists to this day. It has been banned in Kyrgyzstan for decades and the law was tightened in 2013, with sentences of up to 10 years in prison for those who kidnap a woman to force her into marriage (previously it was a fine of 2,000 soms, worth about $25).
The new law has not curtailed the practice, however, and prosecutions are rare. Nevertheless, according to the human rights organisation Restless Beings: “This is a significant development, in that prior to this the sentence for stealing livestock was considerably more than that for ala kachuu.”
“A happy marriage begins by crying,” goes one Kyrgyz proverb, and those tears are of anger and terror at the start of a marriage for ala kachuu brides.
Ala kachuu is practised in all the countries of Central Asia, but it is especially common in the rural areas of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, a predominantly Muslim nation of about 6 million people. During Soviet rule, the custom was rare and parents generally arranged marriages.
Data from the Women Support Center, an organisation that fights for gender equality in the country, indicates that at least 12,000 marriages take place, and are consummated, every year against the will of the bride. (The figure is from a 2011 report and believed to be an underestimate). Men kidnap women, they say, to prove their manhood, avoid courtship (considered a tedious waste of time) and save the payment of the kalym, or dowry, which can cost the groom up to $4,000 (£3,000) in cash and livestock.
After the ala kachuu, which in some cases can be a consensual “kidnapping” when a couple wishes to speed up the process of marriage, the brides are taken to the house of the future husband. The in-laws welcome the woman and force her to wear the jooluk, a white shawl that signifies submission to the bride’s new family. Then comes the wedding. About 80% of the girls kidnapped accept their fate, often on the advice of their parents.
According to data from the Unicef office in Bishkek, the percentage of girls aged 15 to 19 who become pregnant in Kyrgyzstan is among the highest in the region, while 13% of marriages take place before the age of 18, despite it being illegal.
Known as ala kachuu (“take and run”), the brutal practice of kidnapping brides has its roots in medieval times along the steppes of Central Asia, yet persists to this day. It has been banned in Kyrgyzstan for decades and the law was tightened in 2013, with sentences of up to 10 years in prison for those who kidnap a woman to force her into marriage (previously it was a fine of 2,000 soms, worth about $25).
The new law has not curtailed the practice, however, and prosecutions are rare. Nevertheless, according to the human rights organisation Restless Beings: “This is a significant development, in that prior to this the sentence for stealing livestock was considerably more than that for ala kachuu.”
“A happy marriage begins by crying,” goes one Kyrgyz proverb, and those tears are of anger and terror at the start of a marriage for ala kachuu brides.
Ala kachuu is practised in all the countries of Central Asia, but it is especially common in the rural areas of post-Soviet Kyrgyzstan, a predominantly Muslim nation of about 6 million people. During Soviet rule, the custom was rare and parents generally arranged marriages.
Data from the Women Support Center, an organisation that fights for gender equality in the country, indicates that at least 12,000 marriages take place, and are consummated, every year against the will of the bride. (The figure is from a 2011 report and believed to be an underestimate). Men kidnap women, they say, to prove their manhood, avoid courtship (considered a tedious waste of time) and save the payment of the kalym, or dowry, which can cost the groom up to $4,000 (£3,000) in cash and livestock.
After the ala kachuu, which in some cases can be a consensual “kidnapping” when a couple wishes to speed up the process of marriage, the brides are taken to the house of the future husband. The in-laws welcome the woman and force her to wear the jooluk, a white shawl that signifies submission to the bride’s new family. Then comes the wedding. About 80% of the girls kidnapped accept their fate, often on the advice of their parents.
According to data from the Unicef office in Bishkek, the percentage of girls aged 15 to 19 who become pregnant in Kyrgyzstan is among the highest in the region, while 13% of marriages take place before the age of 18, despite it being illegal.
Aitilek, 18, wearing the white scarf that symbolises her submission to her kidnapper’s demands of marriage.
Photograph: Noriko Hayashi/Panos
It is estimated that 2,000 women are raped by their future husbands each year (again this number is believed to be well below today’s figures), and are thus condemned to marry, because returning to their family would be a deep mark of shame. Fleeing brides also risk further violence and even death.
One such bride, Aizada Kanatbekova, 27, was found strangled to death in a field in early April this year, two days after being forcibly bundled into a car with the help of two passers-by. The kidnapping took place in daylight in the centre of the capital, Bishkek – an alarming indication that this practice is not limited to the countryside.
It is estimated that 2,000 women are raped by their future husbands each year (again this number is believed to be well below today’s figures), and are thus condemned to marry, because returning to their family would be a deep mark of shame. Fleeing brides also risk further violence and even death.
One such bride, Aizada Kanatbekova, 27, was found strangled to death in a field in early April this year, two days after being forcibly bundled into a car with the help of two passers-by. The kidnapping took place in daylight in the centre of the capital, Bishkek – an alarming indication that this practice is not limited to the countryside.
Altyn Kapalova at a court in Bishkek to face trial for changing her children’s names. The single mother gave them middle names derived from her first name rather than the traditional patronymics based on fathers’ first names.
Photograph: Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP/Getty
Altyn Kapalova, a writer, feminist activist and researcher at the University of Central Asia in Bishkek, condemned the lack of legal protection for women. “A police station is not a safe place for a woman seeking help. If a woman goes to a police station to report a kidnapping, they laugh at her, tell her it’s not their business, to go home and settle it with her family,” she said.
In 2018, one shockingly gruesome case highlighted the authorities’ callous attitude. The victim, Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy, a 20-year-old medical student, was murdered in a police station by the man who had kidnapped her. He stabbed her, then carved her initials and those of another man she had planned to marry on to the woman’s body. The officers had left the two of them alone in the waiting room.
The perpetrator was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But activists say that the majority of violence against women still goes unpunished. “The problem is one of culture, of education, and not of laws,” said Kapalova, who has received constant threats since 2019, when she jointly organised Kyrgyzstan’s first feminist art exhibition. The highly controversial show, Feminnale, brought whip-wielding nationalists out in protest when it ran for 17 days at the Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts in Bishkek.
Another artist hoping to change attitudes is Tatyana Zelenskaya, who works with the human rights organisation Open Line Foundation, which supports victims of bride kidnapping through counselling and legal advice. Zelenskaya created the drawings and graphics of Spring in Bishkek, a video game for smartphones that aims to convince young people that kidnapping is not a tradition but a crime.
Altyn Kapalova, a writer, feminist activist and researcher at the University of Central Asia in Bishkek, condemned the lack of legal protection for women. “A police station is not a safe place for a woman seeking help. If a woman goes to a police station to report a kidnapping, they laugh at her, tell her it’s not their business, to go home and settle it with her family,” she said.
In 2018, one shockingly gruesome case highlighted the authorities’ callous attitude. The victim, Burulai Turdaaly Kyzy, a 20-year-old medical student, was murdered in a police station by the man who had kidnapped her. He stabbed her, then carved her initials and those of another man she had planned to marry on to the woman’s body. The officers had left the two of them alone in the waiting room.
The perpetrator was convicted of murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison. But activists say that the majority of violence against women still goes unpunished. “The problem is one of culture, of education, and not of laws,” said Kapalova, who has received constant threats since 2019, when she jointly organised Kyrgyzstan’s first feminist art exhibition. The highly controversial show, Feminnale, brought whip-wielding nationalists out in protest when it ran for 17 days at the Kyrgyz National Museum of Fine Arts in Bishkek.
Another artist hoping to change attitudes is Tatyana Zelenskaya, who works with the human rights organisation Open Line Foundation, which supports victims of bride kidnapping through counselling and legal advice. Zelenskaya created the drawings and graphics of Spring in Bishkek, a video game for smartphones that aims to convince young people that kidnapping is not a tradition but a crime.
Tatyana Zelenskaya’s illustration of Aizada Kanatbekova’s abduction and murder. She also did the art for the video game Spring in Bishkek, which aims to educate young people about ala kachuu.
Photograph: Handout
In just over six months, the app has already been downloaded more than 130,000 times; an extraordinary success, given that developers had hoped for 25,000. In the game, players witness the kidnapping of a best friend and must free her, while messages with suggestions prepared by psychologists, journalists and activists appear on the screen, as well as real telephone numbers that can be used in an emergency.
“The idea is to make the girls understand that they are masters of their own destiny. This is why we transform them into heroines capable of rebelling and changing the course of things,” said Zelenskaya. “For a generation of women who grew up with the idea that nothing is possible without a man’s approval, unhinging this concept is difficult.”
The Kyrgyz government has given little indication that it supports these efforts. Indeed, the wording of the new constitution is read by many as a shift in priorities towards an erosion of human rights and fundamental freedoms if they are in conflict with “traditional” values.
The prologue of the constitution, introduced by the nationalist president, Sadyr Japarov, and approved in a referendum in April 2011, underlines the importance of the spiritual and cultural values of Kyrgyz society – “following the traditions of our ancestors, continuing to live in unity, peace, harmony with nature, based on the precepts of Manas the Magnanimous”, referring to the hero of a Kyrgyz epic. The passage is seen by many as a tacit endorsement of ala kachuu.
In just over six months, the app has already been downloaded more than 130,000 times; an extraordinary success, given that developers had hoped for 25,000. In the game, players witness the kidnapping of a best friend and must free her, while messages with suggestions prepared by psychologists, journalists and activists appear on the screen, as well as real telephone numbers that can be used in an emergency.
“The idea is to make the girls understand that they are masters of their own destiny. This is why we transform them into heroines capable of rebelling and changing the course of things,” said Zelenskaya. “For a generation of women who grew up with the idea that nothing is possible without a man’s approval, unhinging this concept is difficult.”
The Kyrgyz government has given little indication that it supports these efforts. Indeed, the wording of the new constitution is read by many as a shift in priorities towards an erosion of human rights and fundamental freedoms if they are in conflict with “traditional” values.
The prologue of the constitution, introduced by the nationalist president, Sadyr Japarov, and approved in a referendum in April 2011, underlines the importance of the spiritual and cultural values of Kyrgyz society – “following the traditions of our ancestors, continuing to live in unity, peace, harmony with nature, based on the precepts of Manas the Magnanimous”, referring to the hero of a Kyrgyz epic. The passage is seen by many as a tacit endorsement of ala kachuu.
The female Kyrgyz scientists behind an initiative to launch the country’s first satellite, which is helping redefine the role of women in a country increasingly asserting older notions of women’s roles. Photograph: Handout
Resistance to those old values is embodied by the dynamic group of eight Kyrgyz women aged 18 to 24 behind the Kyrgyz Space Programme, an initiative funded by private donations. They plan, next year, to launch into orbit Kyrgyzstan’s first satellite, a tiny “nanosatellite” with only basic functions but nevertheless capable of receiving and sending a signal.
“We have been working on a CubeSat for some time, building it entirely, piece by piece: technology, programming, mathematics, physics, up to welding,” said Kyzzhibek Batyrkanova, the eldest in the group.
Take this woman to be your wife
All eight women are studying aerospace engineering while constructing the CubeSat. They also travel to remote areas to give seminars to schoolchildren, especially girls, on the basics of engineering, mathematics, science and technology. They also share personal stories of female “emancipation”.
Anna Boyko, who oversees the physics and programming courses for the group, says: “I was like them, a young girl whose highest aspiration was to find a ‘charming prince’ . Then I took part in two weeks of training in a computer company … and after two days they all realised that I was much better than my male companions with computers.”
This is an edited version of a story that first appeared on Newlines, an online magazine, covering the Middle East and beyond
Resistance to those old values is embodied by the dynamic group of eight Kyrgyz women aged 18 to 24 behind the Kyrgyz Space Programme, an initiative funded by private donations. They plan, next year, to launch into orbit Kyrgyzstan’s first satellite, a tiny “nanosatellite” with only basic functions but nevertheless capable of receiving and sending a signal.
“We have been working on a CubeSat for some time, building it entirely, piece by piece: technology, programming, mathematics, physics, up to welding,” said Kyzzhibek Batyrkanova, the eldest in the group.
Take this woman to be your wife
All eight women are studying aerospace engineering while constructing the CubeSat. They also travel to remote areas to give seminars to schoolchildren, especially girls, on the basics of engineering, mathematics, science and technology. They also share personal stories of female “emancipation”.
Anna Boyko, who oversees the physics and programming courses for the group, says: “I was like them, a young girl whose highest aspiration was to find a ‘charming prince’ . Then I took part in two weeks of training in a computer company … and after two days they all realised that I was much better than my male companions with computers.”
This is an edited version of a story that first appeared on Newlines, an online magazine, covering the Middle East and beyond
‘It’s not the cow, it’s the how’: why a long-time vegetarian became beef’s biggest champion
Nicolette Hahn Niman was an environmental lawyer who became a cattle rancher, and didn’t eat meat for 33 years. For both the ecosystem and human health, she argues, it’s how animals are farmed that matters
Nicolette Hahn Niman was an environmental lawyer who became a cattle rancher, and didn’t eat meat for 33 years. For both the ecosystem and human health, she argues, it’s how animals are farmed that matters
Nicolette Hahn Niman on the ranch in 2014. Photograph: Stephen Zwick
Patrick Barkham
@patrick_barkham
Mon 30 Aug 2021
After refusing to eat meat for 33 years, Nicolette Hahn Niman bit tentatively into a beefburger two years ago. She had become a vegetarian because she was concerned about animal welfare and the environmental cost of meat. Unlike most vegetarians, she had experience of the dire conditions on factory farms during her career as an environmental lawyer campaigning against pollution caused by industrial meat production in the US. Then she married a farmer.
Hahn Niman’s journey from vegetarian activist to cattle rancher to writing a book called Defending Beef may be driven by love, but it is also informed by a lawyerly desire to stick up for small farmers besieged by the growing ethical and environmental clamour against meat. The burger turned out to be an unexpectedly delicious brief pleasure, but it was the 18 years working on the ranch alongside the man who grilled it – and raised the cow – her husband, Bill Niman, that inspired her.
Hahn Niman was raised in semi-rural Michigan and was working in New York as an environmental lawyer for Robert F Kennedy Jr when she fell in love with a farmer. Kennedy Jr’s charity, Waterkeeper Alliance, was seeking to stop livestock farmers from polluting water bodies with slurry, and Hahn Niman began working with farmers who were doing the right thing, including her future husband. When the couple met for coffee in Central Park, “I just realised, wow, this is a really handsome man, in addition to his work that I admire,” she says, on a video call from her farm kitchen. When she moved from New York to the Pacific coast to be with Niman on the rough, arid terrain of his 1,000-acre ranch, she planned to continue as a lawyer.
“I began doing small tasks around the ranch and I discovered I loved it,” she says. “I said to Bill: ‘I’d like to work on the ranch.’ And he was shocked. I was still vegetarian at the time, and he was like: ‘Oh, wow, I didn’t think you’d want to be a rancher.’
“I wanted to be capable of doing whatever needed to be done here at the ranch. I didn’t want to be a helpless female.”
For seven years, she worked full-time on the farm, where they refuse to use chemicals on the land or animals, before raising their two sons. She says she and Bill are constantly learning. “The most important thing I learned was that in the two years I’d been working on agricultural issues as an environmental lawyer, I just scratched the surface in terms of understanding the real daily issues of agriculture.”
Many environmentally aware people believe that if they are still eating beef they probably shouldn’t be. Fuelled by the popular Netflix film, Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, there has been a backlash against the meat. Rainforests are razed for cattle grazing, and the industrial farming of cows causes soil erosion and water and air pollution. Meanwhile, people who gorge on burgers, butter and ice-cream seem beset by chronic diet-related diseases and ballooning obesity rates. Worst of all, livestock farming is driving the climate crisis, causing around 14% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Hahn Niman’s time rebutting the claims made in Cowspiracy includes debating with one of the film’s directors in San Francisco. “It was really shocking because I’ve never sat next to someone who knew less about agriculture in my life,” she says. “Yet here is someone telling everyone how we need to eat and what we need to farm. I feel like I need to bring facts and reason in and say, ‘OK, you’ve heard this inflammatory statement. Where’s the truth? How do we get to solutions? We want to eat healthily and ethically – what choices should we make?’”
If the world switched to eating only grass-fed beef, people would have to eat much less and pay much more. Hahn Niman points out that naturalistic grazing does not mean meat would be only for the rich because many poor people graze livestock this way already. “We need to have food bear its full cost,” she says. “Cheap food is not the answer – we need to make good food available for everyone.”
The true cost of cheap food includes all “these downstream effects”: water and air pollution, soil erosion, animal cruelty – and the poor human health they cause.
Patrick Barkham
@patrick_barkham
Mon 30 Aug 2021
After refusing to eat meat for 33 years, Nicolette Hahn Niman bit tentatively into a beefburger two years ago. She had become a vegetarian because she was concerned about animal welfare and the environmental cost of meat. Unlike most vegetarians, she had experience of the dire conditions on factory farms during her career as an environmental lawyer campaigning against pollution caused by industrial meat production in the US. Then she married a farmer.
Hahn Niman’s journey from vegetarian activist to cattle rancher to writing a book called Defending Beef may be driven by love, but it is also informed by a lawyerly desire to stick up for small farmers besieged by the growing ethical and environmental clamour against meat. The burger turned out to be an unexpectedly delicious brief pleasure, but it was the 18 years working on the ranch alongside the man who grilled it – and raised the cow – her husband, Bill Niman, that inspired her.
Hahn Niman was raised in semi-rural Michigan and was working in New York as an environmental lawyer for Robert F Kennedy Jr when she fell in love with a farmer. Kennedy Jr’s charity, Waterkeeper Alliance, was seeking to stop livestock farmers from polluting water bodies with slurry, and Hahn Niman began working with farmers who were doing the right thing, including her future husband. When the couple met for coffee in Central Park, “I just realised, wow, this is a really handsome man, in addition to his work that I admire,” she says, on a video call from her farm kitchen. When she moved from New York to the Pacific coast to be with Niman on the rough, arid terrain of his 1,000-acre ranch, she planned to continue as a lawyer.
“I began doing small tasks around the ranch and I discovered I loved it,” she says. “I said to Bill: ‘I’d like to work on the ranch.’ And he was shocked. I was still vegetarian at the time, and he was like: ‘Oh, wow, I didn’t think you’d want to be a rancher.’
“I wanted to be capable of doing whatever needed to be done here at the ranch. I didn’t want to be a helpless female.”
For seven years, she worked full-time on the farm, where they refuse to use chemicals on the land or animals, before raising their two sons. She says she and Bill are constantly learning. “The most important thing I learned was that in the two years I’d been working on agricultural issues as an environmental lawyer, I just scratched the surface in terms of understanding the real daily issues of agriculture.”
Many environmentally aware people believe that if they are still eating beef they probably shouldn’t be. Fuelled by the popular Netflix film, Cowspiracy: The Sustainability Secret, there has been a backlash against the meat. Rainforests are razed for cattle grazing, and the industrial farming of cows causes soil erosion and water and air pollution. Meanwhile, people who gorge on burgers, butter and ice-cream seem beset by chronic diet-related diseases and ballooning obesity rates. Worst of all, livestock farming is driving the climate crisis, causing around 14% of annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Hahn Niman’s time rebutting the claims made in Cowspiracy includes debating with one of the film’s directors in San Francisco. “It was really shocking because I’ve never sat next to someone who knew less about agriculture in my life,” she says. “Yet here is someone telling everyone how we need to eat and what we need to farm. I feel like I need to bring facts and reason in and say, ‘OK, you’ve heard this inflammatory statement. Where’s the truth? How do we get to solutions? We want to eat healthily and ethically – what choices should we make?’”
All the cattle on the 1,000-acre ranch are grass-fed.
Photograph: Courtesy of Nicolette Hahn Niman
Hahn Niman’s argument is summarised by a slogan T-shirt she likes to wear: “It’s not the cow, it’s the how.” A cow is not an innate eco-devil, but how they are farmed is often fiendishly damaging. She does not defend grazing on obliterated rainforests, but joins other influential farmer-writers such as Gabe Brown, Charles Massy, Simon Fairlie, and the controversial, iconoclastic ecologist-grazier Allan Savory, in proposing a better kind of cattle farming. If cows are freed from barns and feedlots – the cramped dirt pens in the US where they are fed grain – and allowed to roam and eat diverse natural grasses and shrubs as their wild ancestors did, they can restore soils, enhance natural diversity and help capture carbon. Cows, she believes, can engineer healthier ecosystems, and healthy grass-fed animals provide meat with measurable health benefits over factory-farmed stuff.
This sounds reasonable, but the carbon cost of cattle is what troubles most environmentalists today. In her book Defending Beef, Hahn Niman explains how naturalistic cattle grazing adds manure and organic matter to the soil and encourages plants that help draw down carbon. Unlike crops, which are traditionally cultivated by ploughing the soil and releasing carbon, there is a wealth of evidence showing that carefully grazed grasslands sequester carbon.
But evidence also shows that grasslands’ rates of carbon sequestration tail off after 20 years. A scientific study in 2017 concluded that, at best, careful cattle grazing could offset 20-60% of its annual emissions. The same study calculated that, globally, 1g of protein per person per day comes from grass-fed animals, whereas 32g of protein per person per day comes from all animal sources including fish, with 49g from plant sources. Ruminants already collectively take up about a quarter of the planet’s useable surface; it would not be possible to move to grass-fed meat and keep eating it at current levels without devastating environmental consequences, turning forests into vast prairies.
These kinds of big global studies frustrate Hahn Niman because, she argues, they fail to account for the complexity and diversity of land. “In that report, they say, ‘This is crazy, you have this huge amount of land used for grazing and it’s only producing this tiny percentage of nutrition.’ But if you ignore what those lands could actually be used for in agriculture, then that statistic means nothing.” For instance, her own ranch has rough, dry ground and Mediterranean-style weather; they cannot grow crops there. So the Nimans are converting arid grassland into sustenance where no other human food could be produced.
Many environmentalists argue in response that if diets were to become much less meaty, all such grazing land could be rewilded, sequestering even more carbon, while cropland is farmed more intensively to feed the world. This, responds Hahn Niman, fails to acknowledge the soil erosion and carbon emissions caused by intensive, plough-based farming. As the innovative Australian farmer Charles Massy puts it, says Hahn Niman, “Natural landscapes have a way of functioning. And in modern agriculture and modern human life we tend to ignore what that functionality looks like – where there should be watercourses, grasslands, forests.” We need to “create agricultural systems that work with the natural land function, rather than just ploughing it and doing whatever we want,” she argues. Where grasslands occur naturally and have been grazed by wild herbivores for millennia, farming with nature is grazing cattle.
The current consensus is that livestock cause 14% of global emissions; Hahn Niman calculates that cattle make up 8%, but she writes of cattle farmers who claim to sequester so much carbon in their grasslands that their cows are carbon neutral. What is her best estimate of how much those emissions would fall if we only raised grass-fed beef? “As a lawyer, I understand the desire to create statistics that we can use as evidence, but coming up with a global figure is probably nonsense,” she says. Modelling of the emissions of natural grazing systems doesn’t account for how they positively benefit hydrology or water retention in the soil. “I’ve learned from living here for 18 years that even one part of our ranch is incredibly different from another. What you should do on the land is radically specific to that place. I am convinced that grazing, when done well, is probably beneficial everywhere. But to legitimately quantify how much [carbon] benefit you’re going to get globally – I actually don’t think that can be done.”
Hahn Niman’s argument is summarised by a slogan T-shirt she likes to wear: “It’s not the cow, it’s the how.” A cow is not an innate eco-devil, but how they are farmed is often fiendishly damaging. She does not defend grazing on obliterated rainforests, but joins other influential farmer-writers such as Gabe Brown, Charles Massy, Simon Fairlie, and the controversial, iconoclastic ecologist-grazier Allan Savory, in proposing a better kind of cattle farming. If cows are freed from barns and feedlots – the cramped dirt pens in the US where they are fed grain – and allowed to roam and eat diverse natural grasses and shrubs as their wild ancestors did, they can restore soils, enhance natural diversity and help capture carbon. Cows, she believes, can engineer healthier ecosystems, and healthy grass-fed animals provide meat with measurable health benefits over factory-farmed stuff.
This sounds reasonable, but the carbon cost of cattle is what troubles most environmentalists today. In her book Defending Beef, Hahn Niman explains how naturalistic cattle grazing adds manure and organic matter to the soil and encourages plants that help draw down carbon. Unlike crops, which are traditionally cultivated by ploughing the soil and releasing carbon, there is a wealth of evidence showing that carefully grazed grasslands sequester carbon.
But evidence also shows that grasslands’ rates of carbon sequestration tail off after 20 years. A scientific study in 2017 concluded that, at best, careful cattle grazing could offset 20-60% of its annual emissions. The same study calculated that, globally, 1g of protein per person per day comes from grass-fed animals, whereas 32g of protein per person per day comes from all animal sources including fish, with 49g from plant sources. Ruminants already collectively take up about a quarter of the planet’s useable surface; it would not be possible to move to grass-fed meat and keep eating it at current levels without devastating environmental consequences, turning forests into vast prairies.
These kinds of big global studies frustrate Hahn Niman because, she argues, they fail to account for the complexity and diversity of land. “In that report, they say, ‘This is crazy, you have this huge amount of land used for grazing and it’s only producing this tiny percentage of nutrition.’ But if you ignore what those lands could actually be used for in agriculture, then that statistic means nothing.” For instance, her own ranch has rough, dry ground and Mediterranean-style weather; they cannot grow crops there. So the Nimans are converting arid grassland into sustenance where no other human food could be produced.
Many environmentalists argue in response that if diets were to become much less meaty, all such grazing land could be rewilded, sequestering even more carbon, while cropland is farmed more intensively to feed the world. This, responds Hahn Niman, fails to acknowledge the soil erosion and carbon emissions caused by intensive, plough-based farming. As the innovative Australian farmer Charles Massy puts it, says Hahn Niman, “Natural landscapes have a way of functioning. And in modern agriculture and modern human life we tend to ignore what that functionality looks like – where there should be watercourses, grasslands, forests.” We need to “create agricultural systems that work with the natural land function, rather than just ploughing it and doing whatever we want,” she argues. Where grasslands occur naturally and have been grazed by wild herbivores for millennia, farming with nature is grazing cattle.
The current consensus is that livestock cause 14% of global emissions; Hahn Niman calculates that cattle make up 8%, but she writes of cattle farmers who claim to sequester so much carbon in their grasslands that their cows are carbon neutral. What is her best estimate of how much those emissions would fall if we only raised grass-fed beef? “As a lawyer, I understand the desire to create statistics that we can use as evidence, but coming up with a global figure is probably nonsense,” she says. Modelling of the emissions of natural grazing systems doesn’t account for how they positively benefit hydrology or water retention in the soil. “I’ve learned from living here for 18 years that even one part of our ranch is incredibly different from another. What you should do on the land is radically specific to that place. I am convinced that grazing, when done well, is probably beneficial everywhere. But to legitimately quantify how much [carbon] benefit you’re going to get globally – I actually don’t think that can be done.”
If the world switched to eating only grass-fed beef, people would have to eat much less and pay much more. Hahn Niman points out that naturalistic grazing does not mean meat would be only for the rich because many poor people graze livestock this way already. “We need to have food bear its full cost,” she says. “Cheap food is not the answer – we need to make good food available for everyone.”
The true cost of cheap food includes all “these downstream effects”: water and air pollution, soil erosion, animal cruelty – and the poor human health they cause.
Nicolette Hahn Niman, her husband Bill and their son Miles in 2012.
Photograph: Courtesy of Nicolette Hahn Niman
Proselytising the health benefits of grass-fed beef comes easily to Hahn Niman. She makes a good case for America’s obesity problem being caused not by grass-fed burgers, but by ultra-processed foods. Two-thirds of calories eaten by US children come from ultra-processed foods. These include the new generation of lab-made meats. She points out that a “confinement pork” producer (you can guess how the pigs are reared) she once fought as an environmental lawyer recently started a vegan food range. We need “real” food, not factory food, she argues.
Her own return to meat-eating was driven by health concerns as she turned 50, including a diagnosis of osteopenia, the precursor to osteoporosis. She cites research showing how livestock will deliberately graze plants to address specific health issues (another reason to allow animals to graze naturally) and believes that humans have the same kind of innate “nutritional wisdom,” as Fred Provenza argues in his book, Nourishment.
Hahn Niman accepts that moving to a healthier, low-carbon food system, when global capitalism is still pushing production in the opposite direction, is a challenge that can seem as overwhelming as the climate crisis. She believes it requires government legislation as well as consumers choosing to eat locally produced food. And eating locally requires more food production close to people’s homes and a demographic shift to the countryside: fewer than 20% of Americans live in rural areas; less than 1% work in farming. Post-Covid, there are signs of a move from city to country in many nations. Hahn Niman hopes such shifts will deliver a healthier outdoor life for many children. She observes the benefits of farm life for her sons, who are 12 and eight. “We forage for mushrooms and blackberries, we have our own orchard, so there’s a lot going on that involves their bodies and food – physical activity of meaning, not just going into the playground, which is fun too.”
Hahn Niman may have remained a vegetarian for many years after she became a cattle rancher, but after returning to meat she now eats it daily. “When I started eating meat again, I was reconnecting with my whole upbringing, my culture and the foods that I’ve grown up with,” she says. “I’ve felt physically and emotionally good. It’s been surprising how much joy that has brought me.”
Defending Beef by Nicolette Hahn Niman is published by Chelsea Green Publishing, £14.99. To order a copy for £13.04, go to the guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
Proselytising the health benefits of grass-fed beef comes easily to Hahn Niman. She makes a good case for America’s obesity problem being caused not by grass-fed burgers, but by ultra-processed foods. Two-thirds of calories eaten by US children come from ultra-processed foods. These include the new generation of lab-made meats. She points out that a “confinement pork” producer (you can guess how the pigs are reared) she once fought as an environmental lawyer recently started a vegan food range. We need “real” food, not factory food, she argues.
Her own return to meat-eating was driven by health concerns as she turned 50, including a diagnosis of osteopenia, the precursor to osteoporosis. She cites research showing how livestock will deliberately graze plants to address specific health issues (another reason to allow animals to graze naturally) and believes that humans have the same kind of innate “nutritional wisdom,” as Fred Provenza argues in his book, Nourishment.
Hahn Niman accepts that moving to a healthier, low-carbon food system, when global capitalism is still pushing production in the opposite direction, is a challenge that can seem as overwhelming as the climate crisis. She believes it requires government legislation as well as consumers choosing to eat locally produced food. And eating locally requires more food production close to people’s homes and a demographic shift to the countryside: fewer than 20% of Americans live in rural areas; less than 1% work in farming. Post-Covid, there are signs of a move from city to country in many nations. Hahn Niman hopes such shifts will deliver a healthier outdoor life for many children. She observes the benefits of farm life for her sons, who are 12 and eight. “We forage for mushrooms and blackberries, we have our own orchard, so there’s a lot going on that involves their bodies and food – physical activity of meaning, not just going into the playground, which is fun too.”
Hahn Niman may have remained a vegetarian for many years after she became a cattle rancher, but after returning to meat she now eats it daily. “When I started eating meat again, I was reconnecting with my whole upbringing, my culture and the foods that I’ve grown up with,” she says. “I’ve felt physically and emotionally good. It’s been surprising how much joy that has brought me.”
Defending Beef by Nicolette Hahn Niman is published by Chelsea Green Publishing, £14.99. To order a copy for £13.04, go to the guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
WHITE MALE HETEROSEXISTS
Spate of attacks across UK sparks fear among LGBTQ+ communityHate crimes related to sexual orientation and gender identity have increased year on year since 2015
Birmingham’s gay village, scene of an attack on a couple earlier this month.
Photograph: Jacob King/PA
Libby Brooks and Jessica Murray
Sun 29 Aug 2021
Two weeks ago, Ranjith “Roy” Kankanamalage, 50, was discovered with a fatal head injury in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, east London. The brutal attack was, police believe, motivated by homophobia and a man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
A day earlier, a couple called Rob and Patrick were attacked with broken bottles in Birmingham’s gay village, leaving one unconscious and the other with extensive cuts. Three men have been arrested on suspicion of robbery and wounding.
On 30 July, in Edinburgh, a married gay couple were punched, kicked and spat at as they walked down a busy city centre street. Three men have been charged in connection with alleged assaults and homophobic crimes.
And in Liverpool, during Pride month, hundreds of people joined a protest on 22 June after at least three street attacks on young men within the space of a few weeks.
Local activists and national campaigners have told the Guardian that this spate of attacks across the UK, while unconnected, underscores a climate of fear endured by the LGBTQ+ community on the streets.
Since 2015, hate crimes related to sexual orientation and gender identity have increased year on year, according to government data for England, Wales and Scotland. In the year to March 2020 in England and Wales, sexual orientation hate crimes rose by 19% to 15,835, and transgender identity hate crimes by 16% to 2,540 – averaging more than 50 reports each day.
Sasha Misra, the associate director of campaigns at the LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall, said: “The recent incidents in Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool and London are a stark reminder that in 2021, lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people do not feel safe to be ourselves.” Misra also pointed to Stonewall data from 2017 indicating that four in five such incidents go unreported, with LGBTQ+ victims often reluctant to go to the police.
This is backed by the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for hate crime, deputy chief constable Mark Hamilton. “Traditionally, homophobic and transphobic hate crimes have been significantly underreported,” he said, though he argued that the work of LGBTQ+ liaison officers with specific responsibility for building community links was among initiatives that were paying off.
“We believe some of the increase may be down to better reporting.”
But local activists describe what they perceive as an escalation in public hostility. Lawrence Barton, the director of Birmingham Pride, who runs a number of venues in the gay district, said: “There has been an increase in this type of activity, locally and nationally. We had a homophobic attack on a drag queen only a few weeks ago.
“I’m out regularly in the gay district on a weekend, and it staggers me how many people come out with homophobic remarks, shout from their car windows and make comments as they’re walking past,” he added.
Barton said he was “disappointed with the reduced amounts of police presence” in the area, although West Midlands police said they have recently increased high-visibility patrols and wanted to reassure anyone who is targeted that their report would be treated with sensitivity.
While preventing attacks was important, Barton said tackling the wider problem of homophobic views is his biggest concern. “Some people delude themselves into thinking that we live in a society that’s very progressive, and that we enjoy all these equalities and freedoms. But actually, when you cut underneath the surface, it’s clear there’s still a massive journey to true equality.”
LGBTQ+ hate crimes do not often make headlines, said Divina de Campo, a drag queen from Manchester, who said she was aware of a number of recent assaults in the city, including one of a transgender woman.
De Campo, who spearheaded fundraising efforts after LGBTQ+ murals in the city’s gay village were defaced at the end of June, said: “I’m very aware that the atmosphere and environment on the street is much more hostile. A lot of this is linked to how the press talk about transgender people and the government’s stance on conversion therapy, rolling back reform of the Gender Recognition Act and funding for schools education. It sends out a clear message to people who are bigoted and want to do LGBTQ+ people harm that it’s OK.”
Public acceptance may have improved dramatically over the past half century but there is still a long way to go, said Linda Riley, the publisher of Diva magazine and founder of Lesbian Visibility Week, who first drew attention to the Birmingham attack on social media after she was alerted by a friend.
“When I was 17, walking down the street it was the norm to be verbally abused; now I’m nearly 60 and it’s a hate crime,” she said. “But if you surveyed the whole community about how safe they feel walking down the street holding hands, men or women, they’d say it’s still always a worry.”
Libby Brooks and Jessica Murray
Sun 29 Aug 2021
Two weeks ago, Ranjith “Roy” Kankanamalage, 50, was discovered with a fatal head injury in Tower Hamlets Cemetery Park, east London. The brutal attack was, police believe, motivated by homophobia and a man has been arrested on suspicion of murder.
A day earlier, a couple called Rob and Patrick were attacked with broken bottles in Birmingham’s gay village, leaving one unconscious and the other with extensive cuts. Three men have been arrested on suspicion of robbery and wounding.
On 30 July, in Edinburgh, a married gay couple were punched, kicked and spat at as they walked down a busy city centre street. Three men have been charged in connection with alleged assaults and homophobic crimes.
And in Liverpool, during Pride month, hundreds of people joined a protest on 22 June after at least three street attacks on young men within the space of a few weeks.
Local activists and national campaigners have told the Guardian that this spate of attacks across the UK, while unconnected, underscores a climate of fear endured by the LGBTQ+ community on the streets.
Since 2015, hate crimes related to sexual orientation and gender identity have increased year on year, according to government data for England, Wales and Scotland. In the year to March 2020 in England and Wales, sexual orientation hate crimes rose by 19% to 15,835, and transgender identity hate crimes by 16% to 2,540 – averaging more than 50 reports each day.
Sasha Misra, the associate director of campaigns at the LGBTQ+ rights charity Stonewall, said: “The recent incidents in Edinburgh, Birmingham, Liverpool and London are a stark reminder that in 2021, lesbian, gay, bi, trans and queer people do not feel safe to be ourselves.” Misra also pointed to Stonewall data from 2017 indicating that four in five such incidents go unreported, with LGBTQ+ victims often reluctant to go to the police.
This is backed by the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for hate crime, deputy chief constable Mark Hamilton. “Traditionally, homophobic and transphobic hate crimes have been significantly underreported,” he said, though he argued that the work of LGBTQ+ liaison officers with specific responsibility for building community links was among initiatives that were paying off.
“We believe some of the increase may be down to better reporting.”
But local activists describe what they perceive as an escalation in public hostility. Lawrence Barton, the director of Birmingham Pride, who runs a number of venues in the gay district, said: “There has been an increase in this type of activity, locally and nationally. We had a homophobic attack on a drag queen only a few weeks ago.
“I’m out regularly in the gay district on a weekend, and it staggers me how many people come out with homophobic remarks, shout from their car windows and make comments as they’re walking past,” he added.
Barton said he was “disappointed with the reduced amounts of police presence” in the area, although West Midlands police said they have recently increased high-visibility patrols and wanted to reassure anyone who is targeted that their report would be treated with sensitivity.
While preventing attacks was important, Barton said tackling the wider problem of homophobic views is his biggest concern. “Some people delude themselves into thinking that we live in a society that’s very progressive, and that we enjoy all these equalities and freedoms. But actually, when you cut underneath the surface, it’s clear there’s still a massive journey to true equality.”
LGBTQ+ hate crimes do not often make headlines, said Divina de Campo, a drag queen from Manchester, who said she was aware of a number of recent assaults in the city, including one of a transgender woman.
De Campo, who spearheaded fundraising efforts after LGBTQ+ murals in the city’s gay village were defaced at the end of June, said: “I’m very aware that the atmosphere and environment on the street is much more hostile. A lot of this is linked to how the press talk about transgender people and the government’s stance on conversion therapy, rolling back reform of the Gender Recognition Act and funding for schools education. It sends out a clear message to people who are bigoted and want to do LGBTQ+ people harm that it’s OK.”
Public acceptance may have improved dramatically over the past half century but there is still a long way to go, said Linda Riley, the publisher of Diva magazine and founder of Lesbian Visibility Week, who first drew attention to the Birmingham attack on social media after she was alerted by a friend.
“When I was 17, walking down the street it was the norm to be verbally abused; now I’m nearly 60 and it’s a hate crime,” she said. “But if you surveyed the whole community about how safe they feel walking down the street holding hands, men or women, they’d say it’s still always a worry.”
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