Indonesia’s pandemic-fuelled problem: Mounds of medical waste

From masks and gloves to IVs and COVID tests, reporter Adi Renaldi visits the landfills and dumpsites that are now home to toxic medical waste.

Bagong Suyoto, from the NGO National Waste Coalition, holds up intravenous drip lines with needles still attached, collected by scavengers from landfills on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia [101 East/Al Jazeera]

By Adi Renaldi
1 Oct 2021

The overpowering stench is the first thing that I notice, filling my nose and making my eyes water. Then I see the mountains of rotting waste. This is Burangkeng, one of Indonesia’s largest landfills, in the city of Bekasi some 30km from the capital, Jakarta.

On the surface it looks like any other large dumpsite, but among the regular rubbish lies a growing amount of toxic medical waste. From blood-filled drip lines to masks, medical gloves and COVID-19 tests. All hidden in plain sight.
KEEP READINGAsia’s Pandemic Waste EmergencyWhy has COVID-19 taken hold in Indonesia?What’s behind Indonesia’s COVID-19 surge?Cemeteries full as Indonesia reports 1,000 COVID deaths in a day

As a journalist investigating the impact of the pandemic on Indonesia’s waste system, I have spent a great deal of time reporting from morgues, cemeteries and hospitals, watching how the virus takes tens of thousands of lives and renders others hopeless and isolated.

Every time I go into the field, I feel isolated, too, as I have to separate from my family for fear of spreading the virus. I have come to Burangkeng to find out what happens to COVID-19 waste.

At the entrance, I meet Bagong Suyoto. He is surrounded by heavy trucks full of waste from across Jakarta, waiting to unload.

Reporter Adi Renaldi and Bagong Suyoto from the National Waste Coalition uncover used intravenous drip lines, dumped in the Burangkeng landfill 

[101 East/Al Jazeera]

A man in his early 50s, he knows this site well and visits it regularly. He heads an NGO called National Waste Coalition (KPNas) and for more than two decades has been advocating for better management of waste in Indonesia.

“I did not have an understanding about waste at first, I wasn’t even interested in it. But after I investigated it, I found out that waste is a problem for the environment and for humanity,” he says.

‘Used and dumped’

Since the early days of the pandemic, Suyoto has noticed a rapid increase in the amount of untreated medical waste appearing in Jakarta’s landfills. He is going to show me how easy it is to find.

It does not take us long. Just a few metres inside Burangkeng landfill, Suyoto locates intravenous (IV) drip bags and lines scattered among other types of plastic waste. Then he spots COVID-19 rapid tests.

Discarded COVID-19 rapid tests and other medical waste are found mixed in with with regular rubbish at the Burangkeng landfill in Bekasi city 

[101 East/Al Jazeera]

“There are still many in here,” he says. “They look like they have just recently been used and dumped in here.”

According to the United Nations Environment Program (PDF), the rate of medical waste disposal has risen by 500 percent in Jakarta and four other Asian capital cities.

As we sift through used masks with gloved hands and poke bags filled with old medicines, I wonder how this waste came to be here, among household debris.

Suyoto tells me that most of the medical waste he finds is mixed with regular waste inside plastic bags. Because the waste is concealed, it is difficult to track how it enters the landfill, or to trace it back to its source.

Further inside the dump, as we squat on the side of a track watching trucks unload, Suyoto says the medical waste is mixed like this purely for economic purposes.

He explains that it is far cheaper for hospitals and clinics to dump their waste than pay disposal businesses to remove it.

By law, medical waste should be incinerated or sterilised. But the reality is only 4 percent of Indonesia’s 3,000 hospitals have a licence to operate an incinerator.

The Burangkeng landfill in Bekasi city, 30km from Jakarta,

 is one of the country’s largest 

[101 East/Al Jazeera]

In July 2021, the Minister of Environment and Forestry Siti Nurbaya acknowledged the growing problem of medical waste. She announced the government would relax some rules for hospitals and clinics that were struggling with increased waste, allowing the operation of some unauthorised incinerators under the ministry’s supervision.

To a man like Suyoto, who has fought to bring the government’s attention to this problem for decades, this response is not enough to stem the growing tide.

“Governments must provide more thermal technology or incinerator technology to destroy medical waste, especially waste related to the COVID pandemic treatment. The government must be serious about it,” he tells me.

At the source

To see the source of medical waste first-hand, I visit the University of Indonesia Hospital. As I walk in, lines of people wearing masks stretch past the front door as they wait for treatment. Of the 160 to 170 patients admitted here every day, 80 percent have COVID-19.

I meet Siti Kurnia Astuti, who manages the hospital’s waste. She takes me on a tour of the hospital, showing me how staff in the COVID ward take off their PPE, carefully placing it in marked bags and then in bins, which will be wheeled to the disposal area at the back of the building.

Here, we find workers weighing the medical waste and storing it for collection. Astuti tells me the amount has quadrupled during the pandemic, rising to 10 tonnes each month.

Siti Kurnia Astuti is the head of sanitation at the University of Indonesia Hospital. She shows reporter Adi Renaldi where the hospital stores its medical waste before collection [101 East/Al Jazeera]

The hospital used to have its own working incinerator to burn this waste, but it broke down. Now, they must pay a company about 70 cents per kilogram to take it away and process it for them.

“So you can imagine how high the cost is that needs to be paid by the hospital, just in waste processing. While, if we process it using our own incinerator, we can save about 50 percent of the cost,” Astuti says.

But she still worries about where it could end up, and says the hospital sometimes follows the trucks that take the waste away, to ensure it is not being dumped.

Back at the Burangkeng landfill, I watch hundreds of waste pickers scavenging through the piles of rubbish, as if looking for treasure. Carrying large bamboo baskets and metal picks, they search for items that can be sold.

IV drip bags and lines are prized products that can be sold for 38 cents per kilogram to unscrupulous recycling plants.

Scavengers and middlemen

Wilson Pandhika is the secretary-general of Indonesia Plastic Recyclers, an association that represents 120 plastic recycling businesses. He says the industry relies heavily on the informal sector.

He also admits that sourcing plastics from unofficial waste collectors has led to a convoluted supply chain with layers of middlemen.

The scavengers who collect medical waste are also putting themselves at great risk.

Near some landfills on Jakarta’s outskirts, is a village of people who pick through the rubbish to find recyclable items to sell, including some medical waste

 [101 East/Al Jazeera]

Suyoto takes me to meet them at a village near the Burangkeng landfill. Here we find small children running around and playing games while men clean IV drip lines and bottles, stacking them into baskets and bags.

Suyoto picks up some lines with needles still poking off the end and one of the scavengers tells us how he once got pricked by a needle while collecting waste.

“You can get tetanus from it!” Suyoto warns him.

Needle-stick injuries can lead to serious infections while contact with other types of medical waste can result in chemical or radiation burns.

Solutions to the problem

Indonesia’s waste management system is a major concern among environmentalists. The country has more than 400 landfills on almost 9,000 hectares (22,240 acres) of land.

The practice of dumping waste in open landfills without proper management, has created mountains of rubbish as high as 40 metres in another of Jakarta’s landfills – Bantar Gebang. Built in the 1980s, each day it receives an estimated 7,500 tonnes of waste. It is predicted it will reach its capacity in 2021, according to the Regional Development and Planning Agency.

But you don’t have to go to a landfill to clearly see that the country is struggling with the amount of medical waste being generated. Discarded masks on the streets are now a common sight.

Scientist Dr Akbar Hanif Dawam Abdullah has perfected a method to recycle used masks into plastic pellets 

[101 East/Al Jazeera]

I am not the only one taking notice of this. Dr Akbar Hanif Dawam Abdullah, a scientist at the Cibinong Science Centre, did the maths.

He says, “Fifty percent of the urban population are wearing disposable masks. It’s a big number. Indonesia has 270 million people and if half of them are wearing disposable masks, we would have 130 million. And if they change masks every day … we tried to calculate it and found that it produces more than 100 tonnes of disposable masks waste per day.”

I visit Dr Dawam at his lab in Bandung, West Java, some 150km southeast of Jakarta, where he and his team have been working tirelessly to find solutions. When I ask him to explain why he decided to tackle this problem, his eyes light up and he becomes animated.

Dr Dawam has studied bioplastics for five years, and knows that most medical protective equipment contains a plastic called polypropylene that can be recycled.

He shows me the various bits of equipment in his lab as his assistants, wearing goggles, gloves and white coats, demonstrates the method they have perfected to turn masks into plastic pellets.

Dr Akbar Hanif Dawam Abdullah monitors the melted plastic as it emerges along a conveyor belt 

[101 East/Al Jazeera]

First, they sterilise the masks using alcohol or bleach, then dry them. The sterilised masks are then melted down at 170 degrees Celsius (338 degrees Fahrenheit).

I watch as the melted plastic comes out of a machine in a long blue sticky line and is fed onto a conveyor before being cut to pieces.

Dr Dawam proudly holds up the results to show me – colourful pellets that can be made into new plastic products, including more protective equipment.

He tells me he is waiting for new regulations to start the implementation of programmes like his, and that some small and medium recycling industries are already interested.

“Some industries know it, but they don’t dare to proceed. The society has shown their enthusiasm in this matter. Some people have even started to sterilise [masks], to wash it, to collect,” he says. “It’s like we are halfway, we just need to continue.”

Pricing carbon: Canada’s ‘carbon tax’ versus international gas taxes

By Barry Saxifrage | Analysis | October 1st 2021
#1756 of 1757 articles from the Special Report:

RACE AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE

NATIONAL OBSERVER

When I was a kid, oil companies gave away trinkets with each fill-up, like collectible drinking glasses and fake tiger tails. Now we get bigger things — like 1,000-year heat waves, superstorms, megafires, and crop failures.

In fact, Canadians filling up at the pump have been a primary driver behind our nation's 30 years of climate failure. As my first chart below shows, Canadian tailpipe emissions have been surging relentlessly upwards since 1990.

The dashed line shows the climate pollution from gasoline and diesel purchased at the pump, for both passenger and freight vehicles. This makes up the lion's share of Canada's transport sector emissions, which also includes domestic aviation, rail, and shipping. And these pump sales are what have been driving the huge surge in this sector's emissions.

Back in 1990, the gasoline and diesel we bought at the pump created the same amount of climate pollution as our nation's electricity generation — nearly a hundred million tonnes of CO2 (MtCO2) per year.

Since then, Canadians have made a big push to close coal-fired power plants. As a result, our electricity sector now emits 30 MtCO2 less per year than in 1990.

But all that climate progress was more than wiped out by a 60 MtCO2 surge in the climate pollution we dump out our tailpipes.


That's roughly the same pollution increase as from Canada's oilsands industry — whose emissions jumped by 68 MtCO2 over these same years. Combined, the increased emissions from the oilsands and our pump sales equal all of Canada's 128 MtCO2 jumps in climate pollution since 1990.

In total, pump sales now cause 154 MtCO2 per year. If you include the additional “upstream” emissions from extracting and refining all that gasoline and diesel, the full climate impact reaches 190 MtCO2. On the chart, those additional emissions are included in the oil & gas sector line.

To put the climate pollution from our gasoline and diesel-burning into an international context, there are 150 nations whose entire economies emit less.

Why is our pump-and-dump so out of control in Canada? And what have other nations done to rein theirs in?

Putting a price on carbon

The primary tool nations use to rein in profligate gasoline burning is the gas tax. Gas taxes raise the price at the pump. Higher prices create greater incentives to use gasoline more efficiently. And higher prices also make the less-toxic and less climate-damaging alternatives — like transit, cycling, and electric vehicles — more attractive and cost-competitive.

Analysis: Maybe charging a bit closer to what these other nations do to pump-it-and-dump-it would finally get us headed in the right direction on the road to a safe and sane climate future, writes columnist @bsaxifrage. #CarbonTax #GasTax #emissions


Nations differ widely in the amount they tax gasoline. Canada, even with our much-ballyhooed “carbon tax,” is one of the laggards. Take a look.



This next chart shows gasoline taxes for Canada and many of its peers. The data comes from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

I've converted the tax per litre to the equivalent “carbon tax” per tonne of CO2 (tCO2) emitted. (Math note: $0.10/L = $43/tCO2 emitted.)

As you can see, nations like Italy, Norway, Britain, and Germany tax their gasoline at least $550 per tCO2. That's $400 more per tCO2 than Canada levies.

What does Canada charge? You need to look way down at the bottom to see that Canada taxes gasoline at just $160 per tCO2.

Notice, also, that our official “carbon tax” (the dark green part of the bar) is tiny compared to the de facto carbon tax imposed by Canada and other nations via other taxes on gasoline. Focusing just on our small official “carbon tax” can distract from the big picture — how high Canada and other nations are setting the effective carbon price on gasoline via all taxes combined.

By 2030, Canada says it will raise our official “carbon tax” up to $170 per tCO2. You can see what that will do by looking at the pale green part of Canada's bar on the chart.

We'll still be charging much less for our tailpipe emissions — in 2030 — than nearly every other OECD nation charges today.
Cheaper carbon = super-polluting cars

As we've seen, Canada's low carbon price for gasoline has greenlighted our surging emissions and decades of climate failure. And there's another threat it has been unleashing — locking in large amounts of future climate pollution and financial risk.

My next chart shows why. 

I've added big red dots to show how climate-polluting the average new car is in each nation.

This data comes from the International Energy Agency (IEA). It's in grams of CO2 emitted per kilometre (gCO2/km).

Unsurprisingly, nations that make it more expensive to dump climate pollution out the tailpipe have fewer climate-damaging cars. Like the U.K. and Germany, where new cars average around 140 gCO2/km.

And the flip side is that nations with smaller taxes on gasoline have the most climate-damaging new cars. Like in Canada, Australia, and the U.S., where new cars average over 180 gCO2/km.


In fact, the IEA says Canadians buy the world's most climate-polluting new passenger vehicles. Each one emits 206 gCO2 per kilometre, on average.

This means that Canadians are choosing to burn 50 per cent more gasoline every kilometre — and thus emit 50 per cent more climate pollution — than the British and Germans.

And all our new cars and trucks will still be on the road for another decade or more.

This is what locking in climate failure looks like.

By keeping the price to climate pollute so far below what most OECD and G7 nations charge, we've filled our roads and driveways with the world's most gas-guzzling, hyper-emitting fleet of vehicles. And millions of these will still be there well past 2030, still super-polluting with every kilometre driven.

In addition to locking in excess climate pollution, they also lock in significantly greater financial risk for Canadians who own them. The looming financial risk is that the cost to fill up these highest-emitting-in-the-world vehicles will skyrocket if humanity acts to save itself from the rapidly metastasizing climate crisis.

While Canada chose to keep the cost to climate pollute with our vehicles low, the British took the opposite approach.
The U.K.’s gas tax climate policy

Back in the 1990s, the U.K. introduced a “Fuel Duty Escalator” that raised its gas tax by 39 pence per litre over eight years. (Currency note: The rise was 28 pence at the time, which is equal to 39 pence in today's prices. Dollar prices discussed below are in current Canadian dollars.)

As my next chart shows, the total increase equalled $290 per tCO2 emitted — an additional $36 every year.

Compare that to Canada's official “carbon tax” that is currently raising our gas tax by just $5 per year — seven times slower than the U.K.

Why did the British raise their gas tax so quickly?

The Fuel Duty Escalator was introduced in 1993 by the Conservative government of John Major. Its stated goal was to reduce the nation's climate pollution: “The largest contribution to the growth in United Kingdom carbon dioxide emissions in the coming years is expected to come from the transport sector … (this escalator will) provide a strong incentive for motorists to buy more fuel-efficient vehicles.”

Then in 1997, when a Labour government won, the policy continued. The explanation: “The tax system sends critical signals about the economic activities that a society wishes to promote and deter ... Road traffic is the fastest-growing source of carbon dioxide and the increased commitment will therefore provide a significant contribution to meeting the government’s target for a 20 per cent reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide by the year 2010.”

I want to pause here to highlight that the U.K. did this three decades ago. The climate science was clear enough back then, but the brutal climate impacts occurring now hadn't arrived yet. Now they have. Yet Canada is still dragging its feet on taxing our tailpipe pollution.

So, did the U.K.'s transportation emissions go down?

Yes. Climate pollution from cars and trucks in the U.K. stopped rising in the early 2000s and has since fallen. It's now down to just below 1990 levels. That's obviously a lot better result than in Canada, where our tailpipe emissions soared 50 per cent higher and are still rising.

In addition, the U.K.'s higher carbon price on gasoline has resulted in new passenger cars and trucks there emitting a third less climate pollution every kilometre than ours do in Canada. So, the U.K. has locked in fewer future climate emissions and less gasoline dependency/risk than we have.

Along the way, the U.K. also reduced all its national emissions by 43 per cent. And it managed to meet all its climate targets. Canada … not so much.

Climate pollution changes versus climate targets in Canada and the U.K. from 1990 to 2019.

In Canada, we've allowed our national emissions to rise by 21 per cent — the worst, by far, among the G7 nations. And we've wildly overshot all our climate targets, as well.
What if…

Hey, I know this sounds crazy, but what if Canada did exactly the same thing that our Commonwealth peers did — raise our gas tax by $290 per tCO2 over the next eight years?

It would then reach around $500 per tCO2 by 2030. That's still below what many nations, like the U.K., Norway, and Germany levy now. But we would at least be in the same ballpark when it comes to putting a price on carbon pollution at the pump.

Maybe charging a bit closer to what these other nations do to pump-it-and-dump-it would finally get us headed in the right direction on the road to a safe and sane climate future.

As a bonus, today we have the luxury of lots more high-quality, low-carbon alternatives to switch to — from improving public transit options in our big cities to a rapidly growing list of electric vehicles of all shapes and sizes.

Threatened Hollywood strike could ripple into some projects in Canada

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If it goes ahead, IATSE strike could halt U.S. film and TV

 productions

CBC News · Posted: Oct 01, 2021 

The International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) is taking a harder line in contract talks with film and TV producers on quality-of-life issues for production crews by asking for a strike mandate. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

More than 60,000 people who work behind the scenes on U.S. film and television began casting ballots on Friday on whether to give their union a strike mandate, which could lead to a mass walkout and Hollywood's biggest disruption to production since the 1940s.

The vote was announced after months of talks broke down between the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) over two agreements covering U.S. film and television productions. 

The union has been negotiating for better quality-of-life conditions — longer breaks during a workday, shift turnaround provisions and assurances that members won't have to work so many consecutive hours on set that they become exhausted.

Messages from union members, writing anonymously, have been pouring in via social media, describing onerous working conditions.

"I was the prop master on a big budget network show. Exhausted, biking home from the stage one night, I was hit by a car and my neck was broken and several vertebrae were cracked," writes one worker on the Instagram feed ia_stories.

"My first thought when I awoke in the hospital was that I had to get to work the next day for a big stunt scene."

The contract dispute has drawn support for the union from a number of celebrities, including Josh Ruben, Seth Rogan, Ben Stiller and Lily Tomlin.

"It's an issue of mental and physical well-being, and just long, extensive hours working," IATSE director of Canadian affairs John Lewis told CBC News.

Streaming residuals

The union is also fighting for streaming residuals and higher pay for its lowest-paid workers.

It wants fair compensation for crews working on shows for online streaming services, Lewis said, after "most unions and guilds took discounts to allow studios to establish this new genre or platform for production, and now it's well-established with big budgets. And we don't think those discounts are necessary or appropriate any more."

Although Canadian union members aren't affected by the possible strike authorization, there could be headaches for some U.S. productions in Canada should a strike go ahead.

There are typically "a handful" of crew members from the U.S. who work north of the border on U.S. film or TV projects and are covered by one of the two collective agreements, said Lewis.

"It's rare to have no U.S. crew at all, particularly [on] the higher budgeted U.S. productions."

IATSE hopes the vote on the strike mandate will spur the studios to come back to the table and negotiate, he added.

"In the event — and we hope it doesn't come to this — there is a labour stoppage, it could impact some productions in Canada."

He said his office has not yet heard when a strike might occur, should union members authorize a walkout.

Producers addressed 'economic realities'

The AMPTP disputes the union's characterization that the alliance has been negotiating in bad faith.

"The AMPTP put forth a deal-closing comprehensive proposal that meaningfully addresses the IATSE's key bargaining issues," it said in a statement.

"When we began negotiations with the IATSE months ago, we discussed the economic realities and the challenges facing the entertainment industry as we work to recover from the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic."

Strike authorization needs 75% 'yes' vote

The union members are voting until Sunday night, with results expected to be announced Monday. IATSE represents a wide range of workers in creative positions, including directors of photography, costume and set designers, and hair and makeup artists.

The threshold to pass strike authorization is a "yes" vote of 75 per cent.

IATSE also has the support of 118 members of the U.S. Congress, who signed a letter sent Thursday to the head of the industry's alliance, saying "these workers have risked their health, working through the COVID-19 pandemic," to keep film and TV productions running, and they have the right to "adequate sleep, meal breaks and living wages."

With files from CBC's Allie Elwell

Strike looms over labor conditions on TV and film productions by big streaming services

Devin Coldewey@techcrunch •October 1, 2021

Image Credits: IATSE


A dispute over working conditions at “new media” properties like Netflix, Disney+, Apple TV and others may shut down productions across the country if a strike vote by the union succeeds. Thousands of workers on and off set claim they are not receiving appropriate wages, breaks, safety measures and other needs due to a contractual loophole exempting these companies from established film and TV production labor standards.

The conflict has been widely covered in the entertainment press, with celebrities and studios voicing their support and countless workers sharing horror stories from jobs on these productions.

The issue, as explained by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or IATSE, is a 2009 agreement made when companies like Netflix were just starting to get into original productions and didn’t have the kind of labor infrastructure that established studios did. The economics of these “new media” companies being “uncertain,” it was decided that “greater flexibility” would be afforded to them in on-set matters where union rules might impede new and untested entrants.

But that same agreement noted that once these services became more economically viable, then a new agreement should take its place acknowledging that. That time, the IATSE says, has come.

And who could possibly disagree? Netflix is now an industry powerhouse, and billions are being spent by Disney, Apple, and Amazon on some of the most high-profile media productions ever attempted. Yet because they are “new media,” the gaffers and grips on, say, something like the next season of Jack Ryan or Bridgerton don’t have the same guarantees of lunch breaks, hour limits, or proper scale wages as an “old media” production. (Note: I originally listed the Lord of the Rings as an example but this was poorly chosen, as it is a New Zealand-based production and not using IATSE union workers.)



Image Credits: IA_stories / Instagram

That’s not to say that every production under these companies is hell — a lot depends on the producers — but the lack of guarantees has produced what many workers describe as systemic exploitation. It’s taken for granted that they will work longer hours than they are officially paid for, skip holidays and weekends, and so on, while earning less than they would for equivalent work on a production under, say, Universal or A24.

Much ink has been spilled on the huge production efforts of these companies, dropping billions to compete with one another over lucrative subscribers. Each company has dozens of shows being produced simultaneously and on breakneck schedule in order to satisfy the seemingly bottomless demand for content. If we don’t get a new Stranger Things season in time, there’s a good chance something will become “the new Stranger Things” and eat Netflix’s lunch, or rather popcorn.

Comparatively little has been written in the tech world about the human cost of these productions — after all, that’s more on the “entertainment” beat. But it’s par for the course with tech companies to claim the benefits of “innovation” while washing their hands of the repercussions; hardly a week goes by that we don’t hear about some horrible new consequence due to a feature or policy at Facebook, Google, Amazon, Uber, DoorDash or any number of other companies.

It’s not surprising to hear that some of these same companies are fostering an exploitative work environment — many of them rely on one already!

At any rate, negotiations between the IATSE and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have stalled and the union has formally asked its workers to vote on whether to initiate a strike. If it’s a “yes” when the votes are counted in a few days, there will probably be one last chance for “new media” to make a satisfactory proposal before a huge number of productions are halted.

“We are united in demanding more human working conditions across the industry,” said IATSE president Matthew Loeb in a press release today. “If the mega-corporations that make up the AMPTP remain unwilling to address our core priorities and treat workers with human dignity, it is going to take the combined solidarity of all of us to change their minds.”

Certainly almost everyone involved would prefer not to have to strike, though it would be an impressive demonstration of organized labor’s power to disrupt a plainly hostile industry. Here’s hoping negotiations succeed at last and the production professionals being trodden on by this new crop of media overlords get the breaks they deserve.

Stars like Seth Rogen are backing a strike that could bring Hollywood to a halt.
Here's why.


Marco della Cava, USA TODAY
Fri, October 1, 2021,


OK, entertainment junkies, be prepared to go into withdrawal.

Just when COVID-19 helped us develop a newfound appreciation for – if not an outright dependence on – small- and big-screen entertainment, an industry strike may cause production to grind to a halt.

Unionized workers in charge of rigging lights, doing hair, making sets and just about everything else non-acting related will vote today whether to walk off the job. At issue are better working conditions, say leaders of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or IATSE.

"How am I supposed to have a family while working 12+ hours a day (even longer when you add commuting)?" wrote would-be striker Kirsten Thorson on Instagram. "I love my job in the film industry but the industry doesn't love me back."

There are hints that some showrunners and directors are already heeding the complaints of crews.

On the Instagram account IATSE Stories, where members can post comments anonymously, one person wrote that "the director on the show I'm on follows this page and after reading how the crew gets treated, has made it a POINT to wrap before we hit 10hrs everyday, not even 12."deserve better," 

Seth Rogen, seen here presenting outstanding supporting actress in a comedy at the 73rd Emmy Awards, has spoken out in support of unionized Hollywood workers. "Our films and movies literally would not exist without our crews, and our crews deserve better," he tweeted.

Top actors are coming out in support of the possible strike, knowing that their jobs wouldn't exist without the armies behind them. And most are themselves part of their own union, the Screen Actors Guild.

"I just spent 9 months working with an incredibly hard working crew of film makers through very challenging conditions," Ben Stiller wrote on Twitter. "Totally support them in fighting for better conditions."

But supporting Hollywood crews does not mean all productions would stop. First off, there are a number of union contracts that are still in effect for another year, such as the one covering pay services such as HBO.

The contract that expired several months ago and led to this negotiation stalemate is focused in part on streaming services such as Netflix, who were issued more generous terms because the future of such services wasn't known back when the ink dried on IATSE's New Media deal in 2009.

And second, a shutdown could still be avoided, given what's at stake for producers and workers alike, says Thomas Lenz, an adjunct lecturer at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and partner at Pasadena-based Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo.

"A 'yes' vote from union members puts them in a good bargaining position, something they can deploy if they need to," says Lenz. "Producers don't really want a disruption in the product they put out, and workers don't want to go long without pay. They could get back to the bargaining table."

We break down the plot:
Q: Which workers are ready to walk?

A: For months, the production workers union has been trying to negotiate a new three-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for its 150,000 workers. These include cinematographers, costumers, script supervisors and grips – essentially, the critical folks who allow the stars to shine. The union has never before gone on strike. If it did this time, an estimated 60,000 of those members currently on jobs are expected to stop working.

The parties have been talking for a while. The current contract was set to expire July 31, but as talks dragged on it was extended to Sept 10. Negotiations for a new three-year deal continued after that, eventually leading to this tense moment.

Lenz says the pandemic's impact on work/life balance is also a factor. "If you're working 10- and 12-hour days routinely, the pandemic may now have caused you to reassess your whole lifestyle and decide if you want to work the same way as you did in the past," he says.
Q: What does the union want?

A: IATSE wants better working conditions and salaries, while AMPTP feels the demands are too financially onerous for an industry that's still reeling from the pandemic. A letter written by IATSE president Matthew Loeb says the aim is “more humane working conditions across the industry, including reasonable rest during and between workdays and on the weekend, equitable pay on streaming productions, and a livable wage floor.” Under the current IATSE New Media deal, for example, streaming services with fewer than 20 million subscribers pay lower wages. Also on the table: making Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday for union workers.

"Employers, such as the producers guild here, go into things looking at everything as a cost item," says Lenz. "But the times are a bit different now. Look at all the social justice protests over the past year and something like giving people MLK Day off makes sense. Most employers are waking up to that."

Many pay TV programs would not be affected by a strike of production-side workers, as contracts between producers and the unions differ depending on the type of content in question. HBO's "Succession," for example, would not be in jeopardy from a strike.

Q: Which productions will suffer?

A: Movies, network TV shows and Netflix productions would halt as they fall under the now-expired contract. That means any television series or reality show currently in production might be delivering repeat episodes to fans later this year or early next year.

But a number of popular premium-cable productions – and so-called low-budget theatrical fare – wouldn't be stalled because that union contract is good until the end of 2022. Commercials also are safe. IATSE's agreement with the Association of Independent Commercial Producers runs through Sept. 30, 2022.

“If you are working on commercials or for HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, BET or another company that has a contract still in effect – you must keep working,” IATSE informed members working on productions for those companies earlier this week. “You will not be a scab!”

Q: What do Hollywood stars think?

A: Would-be strikers have support on social media. Seth Rogen tweeted, "Our films and movies literally would not exist without our crews, and our crews deserve better." "Grace and Frankie” co-stars Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda shared a photo of themselves on Instagram with raised fists while wearing union T-shirts. Bradley Whitford tweeted that negotiators for AMPTP "refuse to even discuss guaranteed meal breaks or 10 hour turnarounds. That's nuts. If you make a living in front of a camera, now is the time to speak for the people who make it possible."

Q: Is this a new dispute?

A: Consider it another episode in a long-running series. In 1945, 10,500 members of the Confederation of Studio Unions went on strike, shutting down production on the David O. Selznick epic “Duel in the Sun,” starring Gregory Peck. Months went by without a resolution, culminating in riots in front of Warner Bros. studios. More recently, the Writers Guild of America struck in late 2007 for a larger percentage of show profits. The 14-week standoff halted production of TV and movies. After its resolution, economists estimated that the strike cost the Los Angeles economy more than $1 billion.

In this 2007 file photo, Writers Guild of America members strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in a rally at Fox Plaza in Los Angeles' Century City district.

Q: What happens now?

A: IATSE needs at least 75% of its membership to vote yes to call the strike. Votes are expected to come in over the weekend, and the union could in theory call a strike as early as Monday. Negotiations are likely to continue behind the scenes even as the union mulls officially pulling its workers off the job.

There is an economic incentive to work out a deal. A recent report from the Motion Picture Association of America, using Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2016, indicated that the film and TV industry produces more than 2 million high-paying jobs that in turn funnel nearly $50 billion annually to businesses wherever content is being created.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Hollywood strike vote: What could it mean for your favorite TV shows?

“Unsustainable and Unhealthy”: As IATSE Workers Go Public, Pressure Mounts on Studios Amid Looming Strike

As film and TV production ramps up after pandemic shutdowns and this year’s "Great Resignation" ripples across the broader job market, Hollywood crewmembers say over-12-hour workdays, short rest periods and under-$18-an-hour rates are "just cruel."


BY KATIE KILKENNY

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OCTOBER 2, 2021

Makeup artist Kristina Frisch learned quickly that COVID-19 hadn’t slowed the pace of work in film and television production. After accepting her first full-time job following pandemic-related shutdowns, she discovered the gig would entail working six-day weeks for the entire shoot and never being able to break for lunch (she could eat while working). Then, during the shoot, “I went five days without seeing my children,” Frisch says, a new record for her. Overall, after quarantine, “It was like, we got shut down, so we now have to work longer and harder.”


Kristina Frisch, photographed on October 1 in Los Angeles. 

PHOTOGRAPHED BY LEE MORGAN

For months, crewmembers have shared stories like this one on social media, detailing long hours, low wages and grueling work conditions in today’s production environment, against the backdrop of new contract negotiations. Since May, the major crew union, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), has been hammering out details for a new Basic Agreement with the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

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Union leaders have been advocating for more substantial rest periods, higher minimum rates for the lowest-paid crafts, and more streaming compensation and resources for their health and pension plan. Those talks broke down in mid-September, and this weekend, tens of thousands of IATSE members are voting on whether to authorize their international president, Matthew Loeb, to potentially call a strike against the film and television industry. For their part, the AMPTP has said that the union walked away from a “deal-closing comprehensive proposal” that addressed its top concerns. A strong vote in favor of authorization could give union negotiators more leverage in talks, while an overall “no” vote could jeopardize their position.


Colby Bachiller, photographed on September 29 in Los Angeles

 PHOTOGRAPHED BY LEE MORGAN

However the vote pans out, this negotiation period has inspired crewmembers to get increasingly candid about work conditions. As a result, “I think [the larger industry is] finally paying attention,” says script coordinator and Local 871 member Colby Bachiller. “Even before the pandemic, we knew how the rates and the hours were unlivable, unsustainable and unhealthy — but now they’re just cruel.” IATSE members are getting more specific about their concerns, too, raising the alarm about skipped meal breaks, extensive workdays, short rest periods and living standards on their union’s minimum rates. (The AMPTP’s proposal to IATSE included improved rest periods for certain postproduction workers and crewmembers working on first-season TV shows, and a 10-19 percent increase in minimum rates for low-paid crafts, it has said.)

Thanks in part to the popular Instagram account IA Stories, which shares mostly anonymous tales from crewmembers, IATSE workers have become especially vocal about the toll of over-12-hour workdays. Though some productions initially gestured toward trying to implement a 10-hour day, as recommended by the industry’s top guilds when production restarted during the pandemic, “it seemed like a lot of that good-faith stuff did not hold up,” says property master Theresa Corvino, a member of Local 44. “I’ve seen dramatic shifts toward not taking meal breaks at all or meal breaks running hours behind; seeing 14-16 hour days on the regular when the soft promise was 10-hour days; seeing shows running what we refer to as ‘Fraturdays’ just about every weekend.” (“Fraturdays” refer to late Friday shoots that run into the early morning on Saturday, giving crewmembers less rest time before they return to work on Monday.)



Victor P. Bouzi, photographed on October 1 in Los Angeles. 

PHOTOGRAPHED BY LEE MORGAN

Victor P. Bouzi, a sound mixer and Local 695 member, says of some jobs requiring 14- to 20-hour days for weeks, “That wasn’t always the case. This seems to be more of a drive just to get the product out since COVID with all these new streaming platforms that have come out.” One crewmember says they’re “constantly” asked to change time cards when it comes to turnaround invasions. A studio source says the AMPTP offered a daily 10-hour turnaround, with exceptions for feature postproduction, on-call employees and studio publicity, during negotiations. Fraturdays are still an “open item” in negotiations, this source says, adding that during night shoots, “clearly you’re going to have that situation.”

A lack of guaranteed meal breaks makes these long days even more taxing, according to some crewmembers. “I just worked on a feature in Atlanta where we never once had a lunch break. Not once did we have a lunch break for 40 shooting days,” says costumer and Local 705 member Eric Johnson. Union members claim that meal penalties, the fee productions pay when workers miss mandated meal periods, have become so affordable that productions bake them into budgets (Basic Agreement signatories have to pay members of at least some major IATSE locals between $7.50 and $13.50 per half hour after the missed mealtime). And while the extra meal-penalty compensation can be helpful to those with low pay, “after 10 years of [missed meals], you just can’t sustain that,” says Johnson. Some productions advocate for “rolling lunches” where workers step away briefly and/or fill in for one another during an uninterrupted workday so they can grab food, but crewmembers in certain roles — like those in the camera department — say that they can’t realistically leave or have someone else briefly assume their roles.


Eric Johnson, photographed on September 29 in Los Angeles.

 PHOTOGRAPHED BY LEE MORGAN

On social media, IATSE members and their allies have advocated for guaranteed meal breaks. The studio source says the AMPTP offered an “alternative meal break solution,” with rolling lunches being just one of the options discussed, which was rejected. “We feel that people do have an opportunity to actually have a meal on productions by and large,” this studio source adds.

Workers say extra long hours that may have been sustainable when they were younger aren’t now. “When you’re 24 years old, it’s very different than when you’re 44 years old, how your body can handle all that,” says director of photography and Local 600 member Patti Lee, who previously worked as an electrician and gaffer. “You also see a lot of broken people at the end, in their older years.”

Individuals in some of IATSE’s lowest-paid roles say that, beyond long hours, they face additional struggles due to what they describe as unlivable pay. Currently, writers assistants, assistant production coordinators and art department coordinators make a contractual minimum of $16 an hour or a little bit above, while script coordinators make, at minimum, $17.64 an hour. While trying to learn how to make ends meet in her role, Bachiller remembers being advised by support-staff colleagues to, on Fridays, take “all the food that was about to expire from the kitchen and that would be our groceries for the weekend.” She adds, “That was just considered normal, that was just part of paying your dues.” Alison Golub, a writers assistant and Local 871 member, counts herself lucky that she’s an L.A. native and can live at home — “because I can’t afford to pay rent.” A strike would be especially challenging for members in these roles, and Local 871 is currently putting together a program, potentially financed at least in part by a strike fund, to offer financial support to them in the event of a strike; at least one other Local is working on an economic relief program.

Concern over crewmembers’ working hours, rest periods and low wages isn’t new, and has been building steadily for years. According to one union insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the issues the union is fighting for this round of negotiations are “the same five or six issues that we have been talking [about] with our employers for a decade,” namely, low wages, long hours, rest periods, compensation from new media, and health and pension plan funding. (“There are some issues that both sides, producers and unions, want to resolve in negotiations,” the studio source counters. “At the end of the day, there have been deals made the last five or six rounds of negotiations, and clearly both sides, including the union, agreed to the contract, so they must have agreed to those lists of priorities.”) The 1997 death of second camera assistant Brent Lon Hershman in a car crash and the 2006 release of Haskell Wexler’s documentary on entertainment’s long working hours, Who Needs Sleep?, ignited similar conversations decades before. Members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild and the Costume Designers Guild have discussed a potential strike for years.

But IATSE members — whose union represents roles as disparate as studio publicists and lighting technicians — are “straight-up united” about these issues in 2021, says Bouzi. Citing the so-called “Great Resignation,” a term describing the recent nationwide surge in resignations across industries, Golub adds, “I think what’s going on in the film industry right now is indicative of what’s going on in the country as a whole.” She says, “I enjoy working in film and television but I also want to have a life outside of it and that’s not unreasonable to ask for.”

In recent days, the umbrella union, and the 36 Locals whose members will cast a ballot, have been keeping their constituency abreast of voting developments via email and text; Locals have also held informational town halls, and members have been using social media, phone-banking and car-painting to urge others to vote yes. In its communications with members, IATSE leaders are encouraging them to vote to authorize a strike and stressing that an authorization does not mean a strike will occur, but is instead a bargaining chip. The union insider notes that most members of their Local that they’ve talked to seem ready to vote yes, but a small number are still unsure. The AMPTP and IATSE do not yet have a set date to return to the negotiating table.

On set, crewmembers say they haven’t heard much chatter from management about a potential strike even as it looms over the industry, threatening productions nationwide. “You know things are being done in a different way than normal because there’s concerns about there being a strike, but nobody is coming out and saying, ‘We’re doing this because of a strike,'” says Corvino. Frisch says it’s strange to see fellow crewmembers wearing “IA Solidarity” T-shirts on set but few people around them talking or asking about it. “Everybody acts like something’s not happening until they absolutely have to deal with it,” she says, “which I understand, really, because you never know what way it’s going to go.”

Union jobs? Ford's plan for new EV factories raises question

Fri., October 1, 2021



NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ford’s blockbuster announcement this week that it would build four sprawling new factories in Kentucky and Tennessee by 2025 and hire nearly 11,000 workers raised a big unanswered question: Just how good will those jobs be?

No one — not Ford, not the United Auto Workers union, not the future job holders themselves — yet knows how much the workers will be paid or whether they will vote for union membership.

Three of the plants, to be built with Ford's South Korean corporate partner, SK Innovation, would produce batteries for 1 million electric vehicles annually. A fourth would make the next generation of electric F-Series pickup trucks, a version of America's top-selling vehicle.

The new factories represent an $11.4 billion bet by Ford on a vision for the future in which tens of millions of drivers will shift from pollution-belching internal combustion engines to electric vehicles that emit nothing from the tailpipe.

The stakes are high for Ford’s employees as well as for the UAW, which is counting on ensuring union membership at battery factories to replace jobs that will be lost should the transition to electric vehicles happen as Ford and others envision. Union workers generally are paid, on average, 20% more than their nonunion counterparts, typically receive more generous benefits and wield a larger voice on safety and other workplace rules at their factories.

On Monday, when Ford's plans were announced, CEO Jim Farley stopped short of publicly supporting the UAW, saying only that union representation at the plants would be decided by the workers themselves. In Kentucky and Tennessee, states in which unions have often been shunned by workers and opposed by political leaders, representation by the UAW is far from assured.

On Wednesday, Ford said it expected to continue a “strong, mutually beneficial” relationship with the UAW.

“We respect the UAW’s efforts to organize future hourly workers at the new facilities coming to Tennessee and Kentucky,” Ford and SK said in statements.

By stopping short of offering explicit support for union membership at its new plants, experts say, Ford may be trying to appease politicians who have been vocal opponents of union organizing. Political leaders in both states still have to approve money for worker training and other incentives to Ford, said Dan Cornfield, who teaches sociology and political science at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and the company wouldn't want to jeopardize that support.

“The company is in between its union partners and its state government partners in this,” Cornfield said. “So they probably are not speaking out about unionization one way or the other because they don’t want to antagonize their longstanding partners.”

Not to mention rankle President Joe Biden, who has frequently promoted an industry-wide transition to electric vehicles as a vital way to counter climate change and create “good-paying union jobs.”

A letter attached to Ford’s national contract with the UAW pledges that the company will remain neutral when the union tries to organize any new factories. It will agree to “card check” sign-up efforts, which let unions recruit workers to sign cards saying they want to be represented. Once 51% of workers sign on, the plant becomes union.

Generally, that’s the union’s favored way of organizing plants. But in Southern states, card check doesn’t mean automatic union factories. Kentucky and Tennessee have “right-to-work” laws, which bar companies from signing deals that force workers to pay union dues.

In Tennessee, in particular, political leaders, including Republican Gov. Bill Lee, have fought the UAW, which lost recent factory-wide organizing votes at a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga. In opposing the UAW, Lee argued that union membership would make it harder for the state to recruit other manufacturers.

“It is more difficult to attract companies into states that have a high level of organized union activity,” Lee said ahead of a 2019 vote at VW. “For that reason, I think that Volkswagen remaining a merit shop facility is beneficial to the economy of Tennessee.”

Difficult as it is, union organizing in the South is not impossible. The UAW already represents nearly 16,000 hourly workers at two Ford plants in Louisville and at a General Motors complex in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

UAW President Ray Curry, who attended the Tennessee ceremony this week, said he didn't think Ford had chosen sites in Stanton, Tennessee, and Glendale, Kentucky, to avoid the UAW. He expressed optimism about organizing the new factories.

“We’ve got a long-term working relationship with Ford," Curry said. “It’s just a great opportunity to continue in that relationship.”

Todd Dunn, president of the UAW local office in Louisville, sounded hopeful, too. He said he regarded the remarks this week by Ford's CEO Farley as cautionary in a politically charged environment.

“I think that might be them saying, ‘Hey, in a right-to-work state, we’re going to make sure they (workers) have their choice.' "

The union, Dunn said, will campaign on a promise to seek better wages and benefits, health and safety advocacy and a greater voice for workers.

The new Ford site in Stanton, Tennessee, lies in rural Haywood County, about 50 miles east of Memphis, one of only a few counties in the state that voted for Biden in the 2020 election. That bodes well for union organization, Vanderbilt’s Cornfield said. Unions historically have succeeded in the South, he said, when they organize branch operations of companies from the North that already are unionized.

“On the other hand," Cornfield noted, “the Southern political climate in terms of government tends to be Republican and opposed to unionization.”

Tennessee's “right to work” law has existed for more than seven decades. Republican state lawmakers have already established a question for the 2022 ballot asking voters whether that law should be enshrined in the Tennessee Constitution, further complicating the conversation for Ford.

So far, Republican U.S. Sens. Bill Hagerty and Marsha Blackburn haven't publicly opposed a union at the Ford facilities, which are still years away from opening. But both stressed the state's right-to-work law, with Hagerty saying he hopes future workers who will decide whether to unionize “will be mindful of the pro-business, pro-competition and pro-worker policies of Tennessee.”

The Ford plants could raise the standard of living in Haywood County and those surrounding it. Workers at union auto assembly plants earn an average of around $32 an hour, compared with the national average auto manufacturing wage of $25. But in Tennessee, Cornfield said, production workers in all industries are paid an average of only $19 an hour.

Auto companies generally want to pay less at plants that make parts, such as batteries, rather than assemble vehicles. But the UAW will seek assembly-plant wages at those facilities.

It may be easier for the union to organize in Kentucky, a solidly red state but one with a Democratic governor who supports the UAW. Glendale is about 50 miles south of Louisville, a union stronghold that includes the only unionized teachers in the state, said Kenneth Troske, an economics professor at the University of Kentucky.

The state has some history with unions in coal mining and auto production and only recently, in 2017, did it pass a “right to work” law.

But it has voted solidly Republican of late. And a huge Toyota factory in the center part of the state has remained nonunion.

“We used to be a pretty strongly pro-union state,” Troske said. “That certainly has changed. We are Republican. We are as red as red gets now.”

___

This story was first published on Sept. 30, 2021. It was updated on Oct. 1, 2021 to correct a reference to Tennessee auto manufacturing workers making an average of $19 per hour. The $19 figure is for production workers in all industries.

Krisher reported from Detroit and Schreiner from Louisville, Kentucky. AP writer Adrian Sainz contributed from Stanton, Tennessee.

Tom Krisher, Jonathan Mattise And Bruce Schreiner, The Associated Press

Climate change: Arctic's unknown viruses' and nuclear waste

BBC

Published2 days ago

Some of the nine million square feet of Arctic ice is more than a million years old

A rapidly warming Arctic could cause the spread of nuclear waste, undiscovered viruses and antibiotic resistant bacteria, a report has found.

It said potential radioactive waste from Cold War nuclear submarines and reactors and damage from mining could be released as the ice melts.

The nine million square miles of Artic dates to about a million years old.

Co-author Dr Arwyn Edwards from Aberystwyth University said much of the Arctic is still unknown.

Writing in Nature Climate Change, Dr Edwards co-authored report with academics from universities in the United States and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.

The Arctic houses a diverse range of chemical compounds whether through natural processes, accidents or deliberate storage.

Nuclear waste, viruses and chemicals

Thawing permafrost, or permanently frozen land, has widely been seen as a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions as massive stores of Arctic soil carbon are released to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide and methane, as well as causing abrupt change to the landscape.

However, the research found the implications are more widespread and less understood - with potential for the release of nuclear waste and radiation, unknown viruses and other chemicals of concern.

The Soviet K-27 submarine was sunk in the Kara Sea in 1981 after a fatal nuclear leak




Between 1955 and 1990, the Soviet Union conducted 130 nuclear weapons tests in the atmosphere and near surface ocean of the Novaya Zemlya archipelago off the coast of north-west Russia.

The tests used 224 separate explosive devices, releasing about 265 megatons of nuclear energy and more than 100 decommissioned nuclear submarines were scuttled in the nearby Kara and Barents seas.

Despite a Russian government launching a strategic clean-up plan, the review notes the area has tested highly for the radioactive substances caesium and plutonium, between undersea sediment, vegetation and ice sheets.

The United States' Camp Century nuclear-powered under-ice research facility in Greenland also produced considerable nuclear and diesel waste.

Decommissioned in 1967, waste was left in the accumulating ice, which faces a longer term threat from changes to the Greenland Ice Sheet.

The 1968 Thule bomber crash in the same country also dispersed huge amounts of plutonium on the Greenland ice sheet.

I

The Arctic abrupt thawing has been seen as a contributor of greenhouse gas emissions as stores of Arctic soil carbon are released to the atmosphere

Antibiotic resistant bacteria?

Deep permafrost of more than three metres is one of the few environments on Earth that has not been exposed to modern antibiotics.

More than 100 diverse microorganisms in Siberian deep permafrost have been found to be antibiotic resistant and as permafrost thaws, there is potential for these to mix with meltwater and create new antibiotic-resistant strains of existing bacteria.

Where the layers of permafrost are exposed suddenly and haphazardly, increasing the opportunity for the release of multiple years of species simultaneously.

What about fossil fuels?

By-products of fossil fuels have been introduced into permafrost environments since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution

As well as by-products of fossil fuels being in the environments since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the Arctic also contained natural metal deposits, including arsenic, mercury and nickel.

The mining of these for decades has caused huge contamination from waste material across tens of millions of hectares, according to the report.

High concentration pollutants and chemicals previously stored within the permafrost could be released back into atmosphere as it melts and increased water flows mean it can disperse widely, damaging animal and bird species as well as entering the human food chain.

More than 1,000 settlements, whether resource extraction, military and scientific projects, have been created on permafrost during the last 70 years and that, coupled with the local populace, increases the likelihood of accidental contact or release.

The report said despite its findings, it is still poorly understood and largely unquantified and further in-depth research in the area is vital to gain further insight into the risks.

The permafrost is melting "abruptly", says the report

Dr Arwyn Edwards, from Aberystwyth University, said: "Changes in the Arctic's climate and ecology will influence every part of the planet as it feeds carbon back to the atmosphere and raises sea levels.

"This review identifies how other risks can arise from the warming Arctic. It has long been a deep-freezer for a range of harmful things, not just greenhouse gases.

"We need to understand more about the fate of these harmful microbes and pollutants and nuclear materials to properly understand the threats they may pose.

"It is imperative demonstrable action is taken at next month's COP26 summit as these findings should concern anybody. As well as fulfilling the targets of the Paris Agreement and reducing the increase in the global climate temperature to 1.5 Celsius, there needs to be a strong and immediate commitment to funding research in this area.

"What should worry us is how much we have still yet to learn about the Arctic, how important it is to all of our futures and why it is worth protecting."

“Mega Comet” Heading Our Way Is Probably The Largest Ever Seen




ARTIST'S IMPRESSION OF C/2014 UN271 (BERNARDINELLI-BERNSTEIN), 

THE LARGEST AND MOST PRISTINE COMET WE HAVE EVER SEEN. 

IMAGE CREDIT: NOIRLAB/NSF/AURA/J. DA SILVA (SPACEENGINE) CC-BY-4.0


By Stephen Luntz 30 SEP 2021,


In June this year, two astronomers discovered probably the largest comet ever seen, an object so big there was initial debate if it might really be a dwarf planet on a comet-like orbit. This "mega comet" is on an inward-bound trajectory from the outer Solar System.

Now, its discoverers and many co-authors have reported the results of three months spent learning more about this exceptional object. A paper accepted by the Astrophysical Journal Letters (preprint on ArXiv.org) reveals plenty we didn't know about this world when its existence hit the news.

Anyone learning about C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) for the first time needn’t worry, though. Even at its closest approach in 2031, UN271 will be more distant than Saturn at around 11 astronomical units away ((1 AU = distance from Earth to the Sun), frustrating astronomers who would love a closer look at something this unusual.

UN271's orbit has been traced, and its last approach to the Sun was around 3.5 million years ago. On that occasion it only got to 18 astronomical units away, almost twice the distance it will reach this time and around the distance to Uranus. It's likely to soon be the closest to the Sun it has ever been, making it the most pristine comet we have ever seen, a true throw-back to the Solar System's origins.

Early numbers for UN271's size were inevitably imprecise. However, the authors have now settled on an estimate of 150 kilometers (100 miles) across. That gives it a volume thousands of times a typical comet, and at least 10 times bigger than even a giant like Hale-Bopp. For comparison, comet 67P, which Rosetta studied, is only 2.6 miles (4.3 kilometers) across, and Arrakoth, the furthest world humanity has ever explored, is 22 miles (35 kilometers) long and 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide.

 

There were hopes of getting more certainty on the size when UN271 passed in front of a star as seen from Eastern Australia, but cloud covered the entire region from which the event might have been seen. However big, though, the comet won't be visible to the naked eye when it makes its close approach.

One of the first things astronomers wanted to know about UN271 was whether it was already showing cometary activity, that is having material turn to gas and form a coma. UN271 had been photographed by both TESS, NASA's planet-hunter, and the Dark Energy Survey (DES) in 2018 without anyone noticing its significance, so the authors checked the earlier images to see if they could find tell-tale signs of fuzziness.

They found a discrepancy in the measurements, with TESS reporting an object almost twice as bright. It turns out the reason was that DES was looking at only a small area around UN271, while TESS was aggregating over a bigger space, including a large, but faint coma, indicating material had been escaping for a long time. The coma's composition cannot yet be detected, but carbon dioxide carrying dust grains with it as it escapes is thought most likely.

UN271's tail is fainter still, requiring the combination of many images to detect it at all.

“It is usually a losing proposition to speculate on the future behavior of comets,” the paper acknowledges, but nevertheless projects that at its brightest UN271 should be around magnitude 9 – visible to amateurs with small telescopes under dark skies.

Some astronomers are keen to get a mission going to UN271, calculating the best time for a flyby is 2033, which would require a launch by 2028.