If the universe is a giant computer simulation, here's how many bits would be required to run it


By Adam Mann 

3 days ago

How many bits does the universe contain? A lot.

 (Image credit: Yuichiro Chino via Getty Images)

The visible cosmos may contain roughly 6 x 10^80 — or 600 million trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion — bits of information, according to a new estimate.

The findings could have implications for the speculative possibility that the universe is actually a gigantic computer simulation.

Underlying the mind-boggling number is an even stranger hypothesis. Six decades ago, German-American physicist Rolf Landauer proposed a type of equivalence between information and energy, since erasing a digital bit in a computer produces a tiny amount of heat, which is a form of energy.

Because of Albert Einstein's famous equation E = mc^2, which says that energy and matter are different forms of one another, Melvin Vopson, a physicist at the University of Portsmouth in England, previously conjectured that a relationship might exist between information, energy and mass.

"Using the mass-energy-information equivalence principle, I speculated that information could be a dominant form of matter in the universe," he told Live Science. Information might even account for dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up the vast majority of matter in the cosmos, he added.

Vopson set out to determine the amount of information in a single subatomic particle, such as a proton or neutron. Such entities can be fully described by three basic characteristics: their mass, charge and spin, he said.

"These properties make elementary particles distinguishable [from] each other, and they could be regarded as 'information,'" he added.

Information has a specific definition first given by American mathematician and engineer Claude Shannon in a groundbreaking 1948 paper called "A Mathematical Theory of Communication." By looking at the maximum efficiency at which information could be transmitted, Shannon introduced the concept of the bit. This can have a value of either 0 or 1, and is used to measure units of information, much like distance is measured in feet or meters or temperature is measured in degrees, Vopson said.

Using Shannon's equations, Vopson calculated that a proton or neutron should contain the equivalent of 1.509 bits of encoded information. Vopson then derived an estimate for the total number of particles in the observable universe — around 10^80, which accords with previous estimates — to determine the total information content of the cosmos. His findings appeared Oct. 19 in the journal AIP Advances.

Even though the resulting number is enormous, it still isn't large enough to account for the dark matter in the universe, Vopson said. In his earlier work, he estimated that approximately 10^93 bits of information — a number 10 trillion times larger than the one he derived — would be necessary to do so.

"The number I calculated is smaller than I expected," he said, adding that he is unsure why. It could be that important things were unaccounted for in his calculations, which focused on particles like protons and neutrons but ignored entities like electrons, neutrinos and quarks, because, according to Vopson, only protons and neutrons can store information about themselves.

He admits that it’s possible that the assumption is wrong and perhaps other particles can store information about themselves as well.

This may be why his results are so different from prior calculations of the universe's total information, which tend to be much higher, said Greg Laughlin, an astronomer at Yale University who wasn't involved in the work.

"It's sort of ignoring not the elephant in the room, but the 10 billion elephants in the room," Laughlin told Live Science, referring to the many particles not considered in the new estimate.

While such calculations may not have immediate applications, they could be of use to those who speculate that the visible cosmos is, in reality, a gigantic computer simulation, Laughlin said. This so-called simulation hypothesis is "a really fascinating idea," he said.

"Calculating the information content — basically the number of bits of memory that would be required to run [the universe] — is interesting," he added.

But, as of yet, the simulation hypothesis remains a mere hypothesis. "There's no way to know whether that's true," Laughlin said.

Originally published on Live Science.

Evolution led to similarities in the melodies of animal vocalizations and human languages

by University of Vienna

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

When listening closely, the melodies of human languages and animal vocalizations are very similar. However, it is not yet fully resolved if similar patterns in languages and animal vocalizations also have similar meanings. Researchers of the University of Vienna present a new method to decode the meaning of animal vocalizations: the comparison of their melodies with human languages. The proposal was published in the journal Philosophical Transaction of the Royal Society B.

Dog barking, birdsong and human languages sound very different at first hearing. However, when analyzing these vocalizations more closely, one can find many similarities: for example, almost all human languages and animal vocalizations are structured by pauses and variations in their syllable length and pitch. Only the precise specifications of these characteristics differ between different human languages and animal vocalizations. In a review article, Theresa Matzinger and Tecumseh Fitch from the departments of English and Cognitive Biology took a closer look at the melodies of different languages and the vocalizations of non-human tetrapod species.

Similarities in the melodies of languages and animal vocalizations are conditioned by evolution

The similarities between melodies of different languages and animal vocalizations can be explained by their parallel evolution. Because of their shared evolutionary pathways over long timespans, humans and other tetrapods have similar vocal tracts and brain structures responsible for vocal production. Differences in the melodies of their vocalizations result from individual adaptations of different groups to the conditions in their respective environment. These individual adaptations are flexible: for example, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, birds sang with a lower pitch and amplitude to react to the reduced traffic noise.

Investigations of how animals perceive language-universal melodic structures are promising

"It has been widely investigated how animals produce sounds and how their vocalizations are structured. However, there is hardly any data on how animals perceive and interpret the melodies in their vocalizations", explains Matzinger, who currently works as a guest researcher at the University of Toruń (Poland). But how should researchers start to investigate the meaning of melodic patterns in animal vocalizations? "Promising candidates for the investigation of animals' interpretation of melodic patterns are those melodic patterns that occur and are interpreted similarly across all human languages", says Matzinger.

For example, syllables that are articulated longer than others are interpreted as boundaries between sentences or phases independently of the speakers' native language. This similar function of lengthened syllables across languages makes it likely that very basic physiological and cognitive processes are responsible not only for the production but also for the perception of melodic patterns. It is highly probable that because of the parallel evolution between humans and other tetrapods, other tetrapods also interpret lengthened sounds as phrase boundaries. A next important step in decoding the meaning of melodies in animal vocalizations would therefore be to experimentally test the perception and interpretation of lengthened sounds in animals.

The research was published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.


Explore furtherAncestors may have created 'iconic' sounds as bridge to first languages

More information: Theresa Matzinger et al, Voice modulatory cues to structure across languages and species, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2021).

  DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0393

Provided by University of Vienna

Op-Ed

Artists Can Help Us Imagine a New Relationship with the Earth. That’s Why We Need Their Voices at COP26

Art and science are partners in this urgent conversation.

Christopher Smith, November 9, 2021

Tongan artist and climate activist, Uili Lousi is seen with John Gerrard's Flare Oceania (2021) on November 5 in Glasgow, on the occasion of COP26. 

Photo: Peter Summers/Getty Images.

One of the most famous images of German romanticism is Caspar David Friedrich’s painting from 1818, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog. A man with his back to us stares out over a mountainous landscape. His thoughts are unknowable, the landscape is sublime yet empty—it is nature at its most inscrutable.

This image reminds us of the unique ability of art to question the relationship between humanity and nature. And it is because of this ability that we must ensure that art has a place at high-level climate discussions such as COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference summit taking place in Glasgow this month. Our task must be to adapt and mitigate. We need to think through how to live in a broken world and how to begin to mend it. Here, arts and humanities are key alongside political action and scientific education.

There are three ways in which art is core to helping solve the climate emergency, the most pressing challenge facing the globe.

An LED installation by artist collective Still/Moving projects a message across the River Clyde to delegates attending COP26 on November 03, 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland. Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images.

We Need Powerful Depictions of Nature

Artistic expressions of the devastating challenge of climate change offer an immediacy that graphs and data, which are often complex or overwhelming, cannot match. It is artists who can bring simplicity to the message. I remember hosting Wolfgang Buttress, the brilliant artist and architect behind the Hive sculpture that is currently in Kew Gardens, when it was chosen as part of the British Pavilion for the World Expo in Milan in 2015. As part of the UK events around the Expo, Buttress presented a three-minute film of his soundscape of bees and light, and most of the audience was in tears, moved to the core by the music and the extraordinary complexity of the creatures’ behaviour. The takeaway was clear: Without bees, there is no humanity.

No words or data could communicate as poignantly as that film—and that is just one example of how art has a specific power to change perspectives and behaviour. If we want the innovation being created in the fields of environmental science to really catch hold, we need strong messaging. And it is precisely for that reason that art, like John Gerrard’s Flare Oceania, are rightfully being showcased alongside COP26 in Glasgow. They will be essential to sustaining thoughtful pressure on ourselves and our leaders.



A couple stands underneath Wolfgang Buttress’ illuminated Hive Installation at Kew Gardens in London, England. Photo: Jack Taylor/Getty Images.
We Need to Locate Humanity in the Environment

The system is broken, but we are still part of it. Art, which reflects us back at ourselves, reminds us of this. We must insist on our position in this complex world—we cannot survive elsewhere. Yet more of us are living in cities, and few of us can or should travel to the most endangered of parts of this world to experience them. Many people today see little of nature or the realities of our impact on the natural world.

Artists can transport us to these places and render them unforgettable. Last year, artist Adam Laity was presented with the award for Best Climate Emergency Film at a recent virtual ceremony held by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the UK’s national art research funding agency of which I am executive chair. Laity’s work, called A Short Film About Ice, combines stunning visuals and aerial footage of Arctic landscapes with poetry and literary extracts from authors such as Lord Byron and Allen Ginsberg. This is a place where most of us will never travel to, but we must consider it—it is where we are seeing some of the most drastic effects of climate change.

Touching on themes of cultural responsibility and eco-anxiety, Laity’s work shows us that humans and nature are interconnected in ways that are hard to understand, and that the lack of understanding has caused the break-down of our global climate system.

Still from Adam Laity’s A Short Film About Ice. Courtesy the artist and the AHRC.

These are two poles of a crucial dialogue over the relationship of humanity and the natural world, which has been a critical theme for art. In different ways, two of the most famous English artists, J. M. W. Turner and John Constable, placed the human as a tiny figure within vast landscapes or seascapes; mastered not mastering. Sculptor Andy Goldsworthy’s landscape interventions challenge notions of what is a real or an artificial landscape and focus our attention on the passage of time.

Each of the three examples uses scientific research. Turner and Constable were fascinated by optics and meteorology; Goldsworthy researches archaeology and Laity worked closely with the scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. Art and science are partners in this shared conversation.

Installation view of Hyundai Commission “Anicka Yi: In Love With the World” at Tate Modern, October 2021. Photo by Will Burrard Lucas.
We Need to Imagine a New Relationship with the Earth

Running concurrently to COP26 at the Glasgow Science Centre, artist and AHRC-funded art researcher Wayne Binitie, is displaying a piece of the Antarctic ice core which contains within it air captured from 1765, a key final moment of the pre-industrial era. We now know that ice cores contain traces of growing pollution—in Binitie’s work, you can see the impact of the amount of fuel burnt to support the Roman empire’s economy.

As this piece of ice slowly melts, it releases air from a time before machines and we are forced to reflect on our history, the impact we have had on our world, and the shocks to the Earth’s system which we have inflicted. It is an example of the collective conversation that we can encourage when art takes centre stage at crucial moments for climate action, and especially when art is in conversation with science, giving it shape and visibility, translating it into immediacy, and feeding back into core questions.

Sculptor Wayne Binitie looks at his glass sculpture containing air from the year 1765 which is on display at a new immersive exhibition ‘Polar Zero,’ created in collaboration with British Antarctic Survey and global engineering and design firm Arup, at the Glasgow Science Centre to coincide with the Cop26 summit. Photo: Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images.

The arts have rightly taken a central place at key climate summits, for art has always shown us to ourselves—it is an unflinching mirror. Art is as important for policy makers as it is for the rest of us. And we need to see far more of this, but not only as illustration Rather it is precisely the role of the artist as a thinker and a radical that we need to see more of, not depicting other people’s debates but asking the questions we need to ask and answer, and sometimes are too keen to avoid.

Caspar David Friedrich portrayed a man alone before nature. Today, all of us need to face up to what we have done to our planet, and what we now need to do.

Christopher Smith is a professor and executive chair of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), the UK’s national art research funding agency.

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Tracked bottom-crawling robot gathers valuable deep-sea data

By Ben Coxworth
November 05, 2021

The Benthic Rover II autonomously moves across the deep ocean floor for a year at a time
MBARI

Although the deep ocean floor may seem isolated from life on the rest of the planet, it actually plays a vital role in the global carbon cycle. Scientists are now gaining a better understanding of that role, thanks to a tracked robotic underwater rover.

Known as the Benthic Rover II, the deep-sea autonomous vehicle was designed by a team at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI).

For the past seven years, it has been continually in use at a site named Station M, located 225 km (140 miles) off the coast of central California. There, it's been gathering data on the manner in which organisms on and in the abyssal seafloor recycle the carbon that continuously falls from above – that carbon is contained within organic matter such as dead plants and animals, and excreted waste.

The Benthic Rover II measures 2.6 m long by 1.7 m wide by 1.5 m high (8.5 by 5.6 by 4.9 ft)
MBARI

At the start of each of its one-year cycles, the largely titanium-bodied rover is lowered into the water from the deck of a crewed surface support vessel, then released and allowed to fall 4,000 m (13,123 ft) down to the bottom – it's rated to a maximum depth of 6,000 m (19,685 ft). Once it lands on its dual rubber tank-like tracks, it first checks the direction of the current, then proceeds to move forward to an undisturbed section of seafloor.

It subsequently sets about measuring the amount of freshly fallen phytoplankton and plant debris in the area, using a blue light that causes the chlorophyll in them to fluoresce. It also records the water temperature and oxygen concentration, plus it measures the oxygen consumption (and thus carbon dioxide output) of organisms living in the mud.

The latter is achieved utilizing two transparent respirometer chambers, which are lowered onto the mud then left in place for 48 hours. Once that time period is up and the chambers are raised, the rover moves forward by 10 m (32 ft) and performs all of the tests over again – it continues doing so for approximately one year, during which time it's powered by onboard batteries.


Because the rover can't transmit directly to the shore (radio waves don't travel well through water), a Wave Glider autonomous surface vehicle travels out to Station M four times a year. The rover then transmits its location and operational status through the water in the form of acoustic pulses, which are picked up by the Glider – it in turn relays the information to the shore via satellite.

The Benthic Rover II uses onboard cameras to record images of sea life, such as this rattail fish (Coryphaenoides sp.)

MBARI

After a year, the rover is hauled back up to a ship on the surface, so its batteries can be changed, its recorded data can be downloaded, and any required maintenance can be performed. It's then returned to the seabed.

In a recently-published paper, MBARI scientists have outlined some of the ways in which the Benthic Rover II has contributed to our knowledge of the abyssal seafloor. Among these is the discovery that between November 2015 and 2020, there was a large increase in the amount of dead phytoplankton and plant matter sinking to the bottom, accompanied by a decrease in dissolved oxygen in the water above the seabed.

The researchers state that if traditional short-term data-gathering equipment had been used, these changes would not have been detected.

You can see the rover in action, in the video below.

Deep-sea rover provides long-term data on carbon cycle and climate change

Source: Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute

‘No power to stop it’: optimism turns to frustration over east Africa pipeline

Promised an income, those affected by $20bn oil project are losing their land and resources instead

Adrin Tugume shows the documents she signed that promised her compensation, which she has yet to receive. 

Photograph: Nicholas Bamulanzeki/Floodlight

Alex Tumuhimbise in Kijungu for Floodlight and Internews’ Earth Journalism Network
Sun 7 Nov 2021

LONG READ

A bumpy, mud-spattered road leads deep into Kakumiro district in western Uganda, where the longest heated oil pipeline in the world will pass through its homes, farms and wetlands.

The villagers in the Kijungu settlements welcomed the project when the route was announced in 2017, hoping that the government and companies involved would buy their land and change their lives for good. Their optimism has since given way to frustration.

Adrin Tugume, 53, depends on her land to feed her 10 children and sell bananas, cassava, beans and maize. Although construction is not yet under way, she has been asked to stay off the portion of land where the pipeline will be built.

“I was stopped from using my land for three years. It is where we get food for our children. My land had several crops, trees and herbal medicines, which I use to treat people locally,” she said. “I am not happy at all. I wish they could get another route for this pipeline and leave our land. We are only going to suffer instead of gaining and getting our lives changed.”

Local residents say they have been offered a pittance for their properties, and their compensation has not yet materialised.

Edison Basheija, 73, has vowed never to accept the 39,715 Ugandan shillings (£8.30) he was offered for his land. “I have two wives and several children and grandchildren. Our survival depends on land,” he said.

Edison Basheija shows documents he signed allowing the east African crude oil pipeline to pass through his land.

 Photograph: Nicholas Bamulanzeki/Floodlight

Local activists fighting the project have been arrested and detained in recent months, and they say they are the target of intentional intimidation by the government. Ugandan authorities claim the group is violating registration laws for non-governmental organisations.

The opposition to the project is not just about humanitarian concerns. The east African crude oil pipeline (EACOP) will transport oil 900 miles (1,450km) from the shores of Lake Albert on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo through Tanzania to the port of Tanga on the Indian Ocean. In April, Uganda and Tanzania signed agreements with the French oil and gas company Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The pipeline will pass through the habitats of at-risk species. It could jeopardise community water sources and pollute the air, and its construction will be intrusive and noisy. In Shinyanga in Tanzania, local government authorities have admitted that environmental disturbance is inevitable.

The $20bn (£14.8bn) project – forecast to deliver 1.7bn barrels of crude oil starting in 2024 or 2025 – comes as world leaders are aiming to divest from fossil fuels. The pipeline will contribute to the climate crisis, locking in more oil use and planet-heating emissions for decades to come.

Total did not respond to a request for comment, while CNOOC’s spokesperson said it was committed to avoiding environmental damage.

Buffalo gather around the a wetland site in Murchison Falls national park in Uganda. Photograph: Nicholas Bamulanzeki/Floodlight

In the Murchison Falls national park in Uganda, heavy trucks and road construction machinery are generating noise and appear to be fighting for space with animals. The Ugandan government has argued that the paved routes will attract tourism, but environmental activists view the asphalt roads as a means to make oil extraction easier.

Total is planning to drill more than 400 oil wells at its Tilenga project, which is inside the ecologically fragile national park. CNOOC will develop its Kingfisher project with 31 wells, about 90 miles to the south. Pipelines from the two sites will merge at Kasenyi, where oil will be processed and separated from other fluids. Then it will be pumped across the Albertine Rift valley to begin its journey to a port in Tanzania. Along the way, the pipeline will cross the basin of Lake Victoria, Africa’s largest lake, which is an essential watershed for more than 40 million people in the region and feeds into the Nile.

The pipeline will be buried up to two metres underground, will be 61cm wide and heated to 50C, so that the crude oil does not solidify, according to the project managers. Above ground, a corridor 30 metres wide would be cleared of all structures, trees and shrubland.

The pipeline would skirt the Murchison Falls’ Ramsar site, a wetland designated as being of international importance that is home to a diverse species of birds, including critically endangered shoebill storks. The drilling could also harm the Ugandan species of Rothschild’s giraffes, giant pangolins, spotted hyenas and white-headed vultures, all of which are on the IUCN’s red list of threatened species. Other animals affected may include lions, chimpanzees, buffalos, hippos, hartebeests, waterbucks, warthogs, oribis, Uganda kobs and grey duikers.

In Tanzania, too, an environmental impact statement prepared for the companies noted that vulnerable or endangered species had been found in the pipeline’s path, including elephants, hippos and lions.

Elephants in Murchison Falls national park in Uganda, where the Nile River meets Lake Albert. 

Photograph: Nicholas Bamulanzeki/Floodlight

Activists and hundreds of local and international civil society organisations in April launched a campaign called #StopEACOP, condemning the oil extraction and pipeline for its threats to endangered species in the park and other conservation areas. They also asked international banks and other financial institutions to stop financing the projects.

Gloria Sebikari, a spokesperson for the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), said a number of biological baseline surveys were being undertaken in an effort to understand the “behaviour, ranging patterns and habitat utilisation” of involved species.

“The information from the studies is being used in designing appropriate mitigation measures for the impacts of oil and gas activities on biodiversity, monitoring wildlife population dynamics, and also in the preparation of species-specific management plans,” she said.

The PAU maintains that the oil companies have secured all the necessary environmental and social impact approvals to move forward with the project.

While addressing local leaders in Kakumiro district in October 2021, Zakalia Lubega, a corporate affairs manager for CNOOC, said the company had “developed environment, social, monitoring and management plans” that were “going to be our bible during the project development”. He said the plans would make sure the “relevant mitigation measures” were in place.

Local advocates, though, say the government is not requiring any protections for the drilling, processing sites or pipeline.

A 2020 report by Oxfam that surveyed communities along the path of the pipeline found they feared it could “burst and explode, causing property damage, injuries and major disruption of the aquatic life of [Lake Victoria]”. “A spill would not only affect Uganda but rather become a transboundary issue affecting all the east African states,” the report noted.

The environmental and social impact assessment reports also failed to include mitigation agreements in case of oil spills, and had no detailed plan on combating climate change, said Brian Nahamya, a programme associate at Global Rights Alert, an 

He said the National Environment Management Authority, the government agency responsible for approving the project, was “pursuing its mandate to impress oil companies and the central government without putting the interests of the country at the centre for sustainable exploitation of oil”.

Tourists admire a kob in the Murchison Falls national park. 

Photograph: Nicholas Bamulanzeki/Floodlight

The pipeline project is in direct conflict with the recommendation by the International Energy Agency that there must be no new fossil fuel development if global heating is to be limited to 1.5C.

The #StopEACOP campaigners estimate that the pipeline would lead to more than 34m tonnes of CO2 each year, exacerbating the global climate emergency. That is equivalent to the emissions from nearly 7m passenger vehicles driven for a year.

The pipeline’s developers are not unaware of these impacts. A recent study claimed Total was aware of evidence about the climate consequences of burning fossil fuels as early as 1971. In a statement to the Agence France-Presse, a spokesperson said the company “openly acknowledged the findings of climate science 25 years ago”, as well as “the link with the petroleum industry”.

This year, Total renamed itself TotalEnergies and announced new clean energy goals, in a climate branding push that campaigners say belies the company’s investment in EACOP. Meanwhile, China recently announced that it would not build new coal plants abroad, but it is continuing to invest in Uganda’s CNOOC.

Several local non-governmental organisations launched a lawsuit against the project, alleging that it poses imminent dangers to the climate, environment, biodiversity and human rights.

Onesmus Mugyenyi, deputy executive director of Advocates Coalition for Development and Environment, based in Kampala, argued that some of the money going into the new oil projects should go to clean energy.

Uganda’s investment in renewable energy has so far been limited. According to a June 2020 report by International Growth Centre, a UK research centre, solar power accounts for 4% of Uganda’s energy production, just 1% of the country’s 2040 goals.

According to the project resettlement action plan prepared for Uganda by the government and EACOP partners, almost 4,000 people will be affected by the pipeline. It will cut through 219 residential dwellings and 1,157 additional structures. including grain stores, livestock enclosures and outhouses. In Tanzania, more than 2,000 will be directly affected.

And there is still frustration at the delay of payment to those who sold their land. Local activists have condemned the government’s failure to address the delayed compensation.

Under Uganda’s guidelines, people affected by the pipeline should be resettled or compensated with cash based on what they will have to spend to replace their land.

Geresemu Busingye has been waiting several years for compensation for his land. Photograph: Nicholas Bamulanzeki/Floodlight

Geresome Busingye, an elder of a village in the Kijungu settlements, said he had exhausted his appeals in the land valuation process and that he was praying that the president would intervene. “I welcomed the government’s project because I have no power to stop it,” he said. “I am not happy because my land and crops were undervalued. I no longer have the energy to move to different offices to seek help. I signed the compensation disclosure forms because I have no other alternative.”

Nahamya said the compensation delays violate property ownership rights and “go against best international standards and practices for land acquisition and resettlement … There are a number of environmental and human rights issues that remain unresolved.”

Those behind the EACOP have acknowledged that the project presents “many challenges”. Fred Bazarabusa, the land and community engagement officer, told local leaders in Kakumiro: “We have realised that there are many challenges in this project and the failure to pay the affected people will pile [on] more challenges.”

The project plans to pay those impacted an additional 15% for each year their payment has been delayed since 2018, he said.

Ezra Twinomujjuni, the leader of an informal group of pipeline-affected residents in Kakumiro. 

Photograph: Nicholas Bamulanzeki/Floodlight

But local frustration over the project is not just about money. For many, this upheaval is not an entirely new experience. Some in Kakumiro were resettled there in 1992, when their lands were acquired to create the Mpokya forest reserve. The oil project has now plunged communities into land conflicts, as wealthy individuals have shown up to claim properties that people have been living on for decades.

“Before the pipeline project was announced, we were living peacefully,” said Ezra Twinomujjuni, the leader of an informal group of pipeline-affected residents in Kakumiro. “If our issues are not worked on, I will mobilise my people and we will reject the project.”

Emily Holden contributed to this story

Jason Kenney's Best Summer Ever about to be musically roasted by Grindstone crew

Author of the article:Fish Griwkowsky
Publishing date:Nov 04, 2021 • 

Donovan Workun and Abby Vanderberghe

 as Premier Jason Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw. 

PHOTO BY SUPPLIED /Postmedia

In the midst of a global pandemic with a rising Delta variant, you could almost hear the collective eyeroll scraping province-wide when Premier Jason Kenney boldly declared 2021 would be the “Best Summer Ever.”

And we all certainly, tragically witnessed how that act of questionable branding played out — Alberta reliably leading the country in COVID-19 infection stats as numbers inevitably continued an upward trend, and with it the premier’s approval rating dropping to 22 per cent in October, the lowest of all Canadian premiers.

A feeling of mass frustration and helplessness was — and clearly is — widespread. But after a series of hilarious, biting parody videos of Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s once-frequent online updates, which culminated in a streaming Christmas special last year, a number of the brighter minds over at Grinsdtone Theatre have turned this awful backdrop into — what else — comedy theatre.

Specifically, as a musical, no less.

Starting Nov. 10, and running most nights at 7 p.m. through Nov. 21, Jason Kenney’s Hot Boy Summer the Musical will play at Campus Saint-Jean over in Bonnie Doon.

Directed by Byron Martin, who co-wrote the play with Simon Abbott, the premier is played by Donovan Workun as its hard-done-by main character. He’s backed by Abby Vanderberghe as Hinshaw, Stephanie Wolfe as Rachel Notley and Malachi Wilkins as Justin Trudeau who happens to be Notley’s boyfriend in this Kenney-centric college summer world.

“They’re all in summer semester at Alberta University,” explains Martin, “and Kenney’s just won student union president. And he promises his frat the best party ever.”

Martin assures audiences of a number of things, including the material being fresh.

“We did 90 per cent of the writing in the last six weeks — we turned this around in a crazy fast amount of time,” he explains. “People are going to come and see, basically, a classic frat movie, so it’s kind of interesting because everything we wrote had to kind of fit into that world.”

Rounding out the cast are Kathleen Sera, Mark Sinongco, Tyre Banda and Sarah Dowling playing various roles including Tyler Shandro in the ‘80s frat party song cycle about Kenney trying to throw this perfect party, despite scolding opposition from his various buzzkills including, you know, the earth-wide plague.

And, speaking of which, proof of vaccination is absolutely required to get in.

Kenney is very much the hero of the play; Notley and Trudeau the villains.

“It’s pretty heavy satire,” Martin notes. “It’s kind of like this is the play he wrote with the ‘War Room’ when he disappeared for all those weeks.”

Asked if he hopes the premier shows up, Martin laughs, “I’m kind of terrified he will. I kind of hope so. I don’t know, it depends if he has a sense of humour.

“I’m also nervous for Notley to see it, because we don’t actually see her as a villain.

“Malika is so funny as Justin Trudeau, he’s been killing me. And so, if you’re a conservative who complains about Trudeau all the time like people I know? They’re going to love it.”

Songs in the cycle include Kenney singing about a rodeo, Trudeau trying to woo Notley to Ottawa and a theatre version of former municipal affairs minister Tracy Allard singing a number called Aloha.

Tickets are $30, available at grindstonetheatre.ca, and keep an eye out for our a review in the Journal next week.

fgriwkowsky@postmedia.com

@fisheyefoto

IT WAS LOST TWO DECADES AGO

Alberta losing PR fight to anti-oil-sands groups, says head of inquiry

JAMES KELLER

GLOBE AND MAIL
CALGARY

An oil drilling rig operates near Cremona, Alta., on July 12. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has contended that the province has been the victim of a foreign-funded campaign to block fossil fuel projects.

JEFF MCINTOSH/THE CANADIAN PRESS

The commissioner of a widely criticized Alberta public inquiry into the funding of environmentalists says his report should be a wake-up call for the province’s government and oil sector that they are losing the public-relations fight over resource development.

In 2019, the Alberta government appointed Steve Allan, a forensic accountant, to investigate the role of foreign money in opposing the oil sector. His final report was released in October. The inquiry was a key election promise from United Conservative Premier Jason Kenney, who has contended that the province has been the victim of a foreign-funded campaign to block fossil fuel projects.

Mr. Allan said in an interview that the oil industry should take lessons from the environmental movement, which he noted has been effective at opposing development in Alberta’s oil sands.

“I think the industry and government have really failed,” Mr. Allan said.

“It was a brilliant campaign,” he continued, referring to activism opposing Alberta’s oil industry. “It was a brilliant strategy. It was well-executed and everybody can learn from it.”

He argued that the real issue is not necessarily environmental groups and their activism, but rather the fact that foreign money is being used to influence Canadian policy debates, with what he described as inadequate disclosure.

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Mr. Allan did not appear at a news conference accompanying the release of his final report and hasn’t commented publicly since, citing legal advice. He declined to discuss the specific findings of the report for the same reasons.

The report, published after a two-year process that was plagued by delays and complaints about secrecy and unfairness, identified $1.3-billion of foreign money directed at Canadian and U.S. environmental groups. However, much of that had little or nothing to do with anti-oil work. The report identified $54-million specifically earmarked for opposition to Alberta’s oil industry. Of that, only $17-million went to Canadian organizations, though Mr. Allan said the real number is likely higher.

Foreign funding represented about 11 per cent of the overall revenue for Canadian environmental charities, according to the report, and for some groups that proportion was much smaller.

In his report, Mr. Allan went out of his way to stress that he found nothing to suggest activists had done anything illegal or improper, and he acknowledged that they appeared to be motivated by genuine concern for the environment. He also said he couldn’t link activism to the cancellation of any specific oil project.


Mr. Allan told The Globe and Mail that he hadn’t set out to prove environmentalists had done anything illegal, despite rhetoric from Mr. Kenney and others to the contrary. Rather, he said, his report shows the need for financial transparency across the entire charitable sector, including not just environmental organizations but also conservative advocacy groups that support the oil sector.

“There was nothing stopping anyone and there’s nothing that should stop them, other than we should know what they’re doing,” he said.

Environmental groups have long argued that the inquiry was based on a conspiracy theory, noting publicly available tax records show that most of their funding comes from Canadian sources. They dismissed the inquiry even before Mr. Allan’s report as a biased process that was designed to malign activists and portray them as puppets of foreign interests.

Mr. Allan said he’s disappointed the media has focused so much on his numbers, including the total of $54-million, rather than the report’s recommendations.

Those recommendations include stricter transparency and governance rules for charities; new standards for the oil industry when it comes to disclosing data about greenhouse gas emissions; using economic development as a way to advance reconciliation with First Nations; and greater co-ordination between government and industry in developing emissions-reducing technology.

The report also calls for a national natural resource development strategy led by business groups, and for the resource industry to counteract messaging from environmentalists by rebranding Canadian oil and gas.

Now that his work as commissioner is over, Mr. Allan said, he’s concerned his report and its recommendations will not be acted upon.

Alberta energy inquiry says no wrongdoing by anti-oil-sands activists

Alberta’s report on anti-energy campaigns looks like a multimillion-dollar dud

THE REAL PURPOSE OF THE REPORT
Alberta’s Energy Minister, Sonya Savage, has said the government will act on the report’s findings, though she has yet to explain exactly how it will do that. She has used the report to warn that the province is under attack.

Ms. Savage told reporters she wants to be ready to confront criticism from environmentalists. “What we want to learn from that is how they did that and where they’re going next,” she said during a recent news conference.

Members of the Alberta government have at times distorted the report’s findings. For example, the United Conservative Party caucus’s Twitter account inaccurately claimed that the report says $1.3-billion of foreign money went to Canadian environmentalists to harm the Alberta energy sector.

Mr. Allan said industry groups should already be using the report’s findings to shift strategies.

“We have a great story to tell, but one of the things I’ve heard for years is we don’t tell our story,” he said. “People in Eastern Canada don’t understand the extent of innovation and technology that we have here.”

If Democrats return to centrism, they are doomed to lose against Trump

Biden was once touted as the ‘New FDR’. That ambition is fast dying – as are Democrats hopes of remaining in power

The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, at her weekly press conference on 4 November. Photograph: Michael Brochstein/Sopa Images/Rex/Shutterstock

THERE ARE THREE PARTIES IN THE US 

PROGRESSIVES, WALL ST DEMS AND GOP, TRUMP

Samuel Moyn
Mon 8 Nov 2021 

Congress’s passage on Friday of Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill would ordinarily have been a cause for celebration. But there is a good chance it was the beginning of the end of his presidency. After all, the bill’s final days marked a new consensus around a centrist set of economic remedies, chosen out of fears of what will supposedly happen when progressives with a transformative agenda exercise too much influence on the Democratic party agenda.

Only 10 months ago, Biden came into office with great expectations – but greater terrors. Even more apparent at the start than now, Biden’s presidency has been defined by fear rather than hope. With the assault on the Capitol earlier in the month, the culmination of a four-year deathwatch for American democracy, the emergency could hardly evaporate overnight. With Donald Trump temporarily ousted, his replacement also drew 1930s comparisons. The question “is he or isn’t he?” had been asked of Biden’s predecessor for four years. To redeem the country from the fascist, was Biden going to be Franklin Roosevelt?

Like FDR, Biden led Democrats who have rightly stressed economic transformation for the sake of the poor and vulnerable but also for the angry and disaffected voters of the stagnating middle. But unlike Roosevelt, Biden’s coalition is fragile and fissures emerged to threaten his success almost from the start – fissures that broke it apart definitively last week even in the midst of Biden’s infrastructure victory.

Other causes were forced to the margins along the way. Biden subordinated even critical fixes to American democracy, like reforms of courts and elections, to the economic agenda. As for his immigration policies, which mostly resembled the disgusting ones of prior presidents, they were treated with a partisan silence, provoking rage among the few principled enough to demand fewer cruelties and restrictions no matter who is imposing them. But Biden got a pass because enough agreed with the priority to address the economic reasons for Trump’s breakthrough, which are undeniable.

Yet in comparison to Roosevelt’s first “100 days” – which saw 15 major bills and gave the early phase of every presidency its name – Biden’s first 100 days were bogged down. A Covid-19 relief and stimulus bill was passed, adding $1.9tn in emergency spending to the $2.2tn of the first such bill signed by Trump in March 2020. But the real hopes fell on the big-ticket measures for “infrastructure” and welfare that Biden resolved to pursue separately. After all, the American Rescue Plan was only meant to be a temporary stopgap for an American society beset with deeper ills even beyond those that the virus laid bare.

The game was on. At first the debate seemed to be about how costly to make the bills and how to fund them. This was especially true for the American Families Plan, which was supposed to take steps towards an American welfare state – including by making relief measures for children in earlier bills permanent. Progressives in Congress, understanding the risks, were lauded for an early victory in August, refusing to back the first narrower infrastructure bill if Democrats abandoned the second more ambitious social spending bill. Centrists tried to tag progressives as the obstructionists. But the mainstream narrative remained that by holding infrastructure hostage, progressives were wisely keeping centrists from returning to form.

Even as it became clearer and clearer that the Democratic centrist senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, and like-minded Democratic colleagues in the House of Representatives, were doing damage to the ambition of the bills, a breakthrough after generations of Democratic austerity and neoliberalism still seemed possible. Then came the critical event that allowed for the centrist breakthrough last week: the election for Virginia governor last Tuesday.

In an electoral shock, Republican Glenn Youngkin won – and, more important, grizzled and uncharismatic Democratic party sage Terry McAuliffe, who had once held the governor’s office, lost. Even though McAuliffe’s reputation for decades has been one of a centrist on economics – he served as Bill Clinton’s campaign chair in the 1990s – centrists scored a narrative victory. Wasn’t it because of progressive excess that voters were turning on the party? “Wokeness derails the Democrats,” one headline ran. Lawmakers in Washington scurried to marginalize progressives by passing the infrastructure bill, with some progressives voting no, and others citing promises that Democrats will still continue on to the welfare measures.

The rush to judgment was peculiar. It is not until 2022 that the Democrats will need to show something for themselves, and there was no reason to abandon the social spending plan. Suddenly, however, progressives holding tough – since some Republicans supported the infrastructure plan – were dispensable.

The new narrative was that Youngkin won because of antiracist rhetoric many Democrats have adopted, along with elites branded as “out of touch” by other elite commentators. Centrists saw a golden opportunity to call for a return to their moderation, including in containing spending.

In an extraordinary op-ed, the New York Times called for an “honest conversation” about abandoning progressive goals across the board – including the economy, where Americans demand “bipartisan solutions” that respect inflationary risks and refuse to spend very much. The truth was that Americans had gotten bipartisan neoliberalism for decades, but no matter. One Twitter commentator snarkily noted that it was hardly surprising that “the lessons from Tuesday’s election” matched the “ideological goals” neoliberal elites “had before the election and decades before that. What are the odds!”

Democrats blew by the possibility that McAuliffe’s failures were mainly his fault, and due less to “critical race theory” that allegedly was already reshaping public education than to an abandonment of parents forced to endure school closures for years (itself an economic issue). Either way, the critical error is assuming that voters rejected progressive economic policies, which are popular across the board.

Even before the events the other day, Democrats defined what was in Build Back Better – their slogan and the name of the welfare bill – downwards. Free college was stripped out early, family and medical leave – standard across industrialized democracies for decades – were killed late, and Biden kowtowed to centrists who demanded a more marketized version not just of environmental concern but of funding government across the board, as taxes hikes were reversed. With its fate no longer hostage to infrastructure, in spite of written promises from some centrists that progressives reportedly exacted at the last minute, there is no reason to be optimistic about the final bill’s fate.

An infrastructure bill for a country in decay and decline was much needed and has itself eluded Democrats for decades. Though cut in half to win acceptance, its $1tn for a grab bag of spending – much focused on transport – is nothing to trivialize. But rarely in history has a greater looming defeat been snatched from the jaws of a political victory as the other day.

In the first year of Biden’s presidency, Democrats agreed that the only alternative to barbarism is, if not socialism, some modicum of economic change. Many agreed that opening acts of Barack Obama’s administration had been fatefully insufficient. Now, despite the lessons of the Obama presidency, Republicans are set to recapture one house of Congress after two years – or both. By contrast, FDR gained seats in both houses after delivering substantive change, and won the presidency three more times.

Of course, even if progressives were to secure a welfare package and retain influence in their party, Trump – or an even more popular Republican – could still win the presidency. But this outcome is a near certainty if the Democrats return to centrist form – as seems the likeliest outcome now.


Samuel Moyn is a professor of law and history at Yale and the author of Not Enough: Human Rights in an Unequal World

Solar technology heralds greener future in Chile


The first solar thermal power plant in South America hopes to reduce reliance on fossil fuels while maintaining jobs for the coal industry’s workers.

At the heart of the expansive Atacama Desert in northern Chile, a new green technology capable of powering a medium-sized city can be found.

The region has the highest level of solar radiation on the planet, making it the perfect location for the Cerro Dominador project — the first solar thermal power plant in South America.

Instead of solar panels, the plant uses 10,000 mirrors, which reflect the abundant sunlight toward a 250-meter (820-foot) high tower. The heat generated there is used to create steam to drive a turbine generator, which in turn produces electricity. The energy can be stored for up to 17 hours a day.

While 40% of its electricity currently still comes from coal, Chile aims to be CO2 neutral by 2050 and plans to decarbonize at least a third of its 23 coal-fired power plants. For many people in the country’s northern cities, the existing fossil fuel industry is an important source of income and the move toward green energy presents an uncertain future.

However, the technology featured in the Cerro Dominador project is set to be used for converting coal-fired power plants into thermal storage facilities. Repurposing them would ensure they still have work, while at the same time improving the quality of the air and water. The first plant using the new technology is scheduled to begin operating in 2025.

Project name: Decarbonization of the Chilean Energy Sector

Project duration: June 2019 – November 2022

Project funding: €4 million through the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Environment Ministry. The financing will support not only the conversion of coal-fired power plants but also the promotion of renewables and the development of a green economy.

A film by Claudia Laszczak

Images reveal a slow-motion burial in Canary Islands volcano no-go zone
Posted Fri 5 Nov 2021

IT IS NOT A PAINTING IT IS A PHOTO OF ASH IN FRONT OF HOUSES



A child's swing. A fountain in a courtyard. A tray of glasses abandoned under the duress of escape.

All will disappear as a cloud of dark ash blows from a volcano on La Palma island — one of Spain's Canary Islands off the coast of Morocco — and drifts to the ground inch by inch.

Inside the exclusion zone, there is destruction by lava as well as burial.

A living room furnished with a hammock sits empty in the final hours before an implacable tongue of molten rock crushes an entire house.

The house was engulfed by lava just hours after this photo was taken.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

Whether the end comes from lava or from ash, homes and fields located below the Cumbre Vieja volcano face annihilation in slow motion.

Since the eruption started on September 19, authorities have declared more than 8,200 hectares between the Cumbre Vieja volcano and the Atlantic Ocean off-limits.

Only police, soldiers, and scientists are allowed to move freely in the exclusion zone, which cuts La Palma's western shore in two.

A fountain is covered with ash spewed out by the volcano.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

A swing is almost completely engulfed by the falling ash.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

The lush land previously approximated an earthly paradise for both residents and visitors.

Spaniards and other Europeans spent holidays or retired there to be near the sea, while locals harvested banana trees in its semitropical warmth.

Now, evacuated residents line up in cars and trucks on the zone's edge, awaiting permission to make escorted trips home to rescue their dearest possessions, or at least see their endangered properties.

Pets have been left behind as people on La Palma flee their homes.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

WHY

Human time and geological time were brought into sync by the volcano.

What once seemed a given — the land beneath people's feet — became as fluid and unpredictable as the lives the eruption threw into tumult.

The creep of the lava and the build-up of ash are matched by the growing anguish of the men and women whose way of life is being erased.

Jesus Perez holds a broom as he cleans the ash from a volcano at the roof of his house on La Palma.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

Silence would reign in the exclusion zone if it were not for what residents have named "the beast".

The volcano's constant roar makes conversation almost impossible, nearly drowning out both the barking of abandoned dogs and the murmur of a flock of pigeons circling the sky in search of a coop that no longer exists.

Another sound: families weeping as they are accompanied by police to witness their homes as they succumb.

Lava flows have destroyed more than 1,000 houses in their paths.

The ash and lava are destroying neighbourhoods that no longer have residents. (AP: Emilio Morenatti)

Lava from the volcano advances and buries homes.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

The ash is jettisoned thousands of metres into the sky, but the heaviest, thickest particles eventually give way to gravity.

They accumulate into banks that slowly cover doors, pour into windows and make rooftops sag.

Some particles are so big that when they pummel a car roof or the fronds of a banana tree, it sounds like hail.

An aerial shot of a forest region near the volcano covered in ash.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

Entire houses have ash up the chimney — whole forests, right up to the canopy.

The ash has erased the distinguishing features of the landscape.

"I can't even recognise my home," Cristina Vera said while weeping.

"I can't recognise anything around it.

I don't recognise my neighbours' homes, not even the mountain.


"It has all changed so much that I don't know where I am."

Ash covers the graves at the La Palma cemetery.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

The quick relocation of more than 7,000 people has prevented the loss of human life.

But at cemeteries, the occupants go through a second burial by ash that will wipe away the markers that note the place where they were put to rest.

Yet amid the apocalypse, there are moments for the sublime to emerge.

The colours that remain gain in their brilliance against the new ebony backdrop.

A small shrub, shaken clean, becomes a luminous green globe, a sponge pulled from a coral reef, an orb from an alien world.

Lava advances as the volcano continues to erupt and engulf the region.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

A small green shrub emerges from the ash.(AP: Emilio Morenatti)

AP