THE ILLUMINATI
Mystery rocket crashes into Moon and leaves baffling ‘double crater,’ NASA says


NASA/Goddard/Arizona State University photo

Mark Price
Sun, June 26, 2022

A “mystery rocket body” crashed into the Moon and left a “double crater,” which is an even bigger mystery to scientists.

That means it wasn’t your average rocket, NASA reported in a June 24 news release.

So far, none of Earth’s space exploring nations have taken credit — or blame — for the crash.

NASA says astronomers spotted the rocket on a collision course with the Moon last year, and were waiting to see what might happen.

It hit March 4 and apparently put on quite a show.

“Surprisingly the crater is actually two craters, an eastern crater (18-meter diameter, about 19.5 yards) superimposed on a western crater (16-meter diameter, about 17.5 yards),” NASA reported.

“The double crater was unexpected. ... No other rocket body impacts on the Moon created double craters.”

At least 47 NASA rocket bodies have created “spacecraft impacts” on the Moon, according to 2016 data from Arizona State University.

NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spotted the double crater site near the Hertzsprung crater, a “complex” impact crater on the far side of the Moon.

The double crater may indicate the rocket “had large masses at each end,” which is not the norm, NASA says.

Spent rockets typically have a heavy motor at one end and a lighter empty fuel tank at the other, scientists say.

So what was the additional heavy mass? NASA didn’t offer guesses.

“Since the origin of the rocket body remains uncertain, the double nature of the crater may indicate its identity,” NASA says.

'Biblical' insect swarms spur Oregon push to fight pests

In this photo provided by rancher Diana Fillmore, grasshoppers cover rabbit brush that they've eaten bare on rancher Diana Fillmore's land in Arock, Ore., on July 15, 2021. Farmers in Oregon already battling extreme drought and low water supplies are bracing for another grasshopper and Mormon cricket infestation. Severe outbreaks in recent years, fueled by drier, warmer conditions, have wreaked havoc. 

Diana Fillmore via AP

CLAIRE RUSH
Sun, June 26, 2022

ARLINGTON, Ore. (AP) — Driving down a windy canyon road in northern Oregon rangeland, Jordan Maley and April Aamodt are on the look out for Mormon crickets, giant insects that can ravage crops.

“There’s one right there,” Aamodt says.

They’re not hard to spot. The insects, which can grow larger than 2 inches (5 centimeters), blot the asphalt.

Mormon crickets are not new to Oregon. Native to western North America, their name dates back to the 1800s, when they ruined the fields of Mormon settlers in Utah. But amidst drought and warming temperatures — conditions favored by the insects — outbreaks across the West have worsened.

The Oregon Legislature last year allocated $5 million to assess the problem and set up a Mormon cricket and grasshopper “suppression” program. An additional $1.2 million for the program was approved earlier this month.

It’s part of a larger effort by state and federal authorities in the U.S. West to deal with an explosion of grasshoppers and Mormon crickets that has hit from Montana to Nevada. But some environmental groups oppose the programs, which rely on the aerial spraying of pesticides across large swaths of land.

Maley, an Oregon State University Extension Agent, and Aamodt, a resident of the small Columbia River town of Arlington, are both involved in Mormon cricket outreach and surveying efforts in the area.


In 2017, Arlington saw its largest Mormon cricket outbreak since the 1940s. The roads were “greasy” with the squashed entrails of the huge insects, which damaged nearby wheat crops.

Rancher Skye Krebs said the outbreaks have been “truly biblical.”

“On the highways, once you get them killed, then the rest of them come,” he explained. Mormon crickets are cannibalistic and will feast on each other, dead or alive, if not satiated with protein.

The insects, which are not true crickets but shield-backed katydids, are flightless. But they can travel at least a quarter of a mile in a day, according to Maley.

Aamodt fought the 2017 outbreak with what she had on hand.

“I got the lawnmower out and I started mowing them and killing them,” she said. “I took a straight hoe and I’d stab them.”

Aamodt has organized volunteers to tackle the infestation and earned the nickname “cricket queen.”

Another infestation last year had local officials “scrambling,” Maley said.

“We had all those high-value crops and irrigation circles,” he explained. “We just had to do what we could to keep them from getting into that.”

In 2021 alone, Oregon agricultural officials estimate 10 million acres of rangeland in 18 counties were damaged by grasshoppers and Mormon crickets.

Under the new Oregon initiative, private landowners like farmers and ranchers can request the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA) survey their land. If ODA finds more than three Mormon crickets or eight grasshoppers per square yard it will recommend chemical treatment. In some areas near Arlington surveyed in May soon after the hatch there were 201 Mormon crickets per square yard.

State officials recommend the aerial application of diflubenzuron. The insecticide works by inhibiting development, preventing nymphs from growing into adults. Landowners can be reimbursed for up to 75% of the cost.

Diana Fillmore is a rancher participating in the new cost-sharing initiative. She says “the ground is just crawling with grasshoppers” on her property.

ODA recommended she treat her 988-acre ranch in Arock in southeastern Oregon. As the program’s protocol calls for applying insecticide to only half the proposed area, alternately targeting swaths then skipping the next one, this means nearly 500 acres of her land will actually be sprayed.

Fillmore decided to act, remembering last year’s damage.

“It was horrible,” Fillmore said. “Grasshoppers just totally wiped out some of our fields.” She was forced to spend $45,000 on hay she normally wouldn’t have to buy.

Todd Adams, an entomologist and ODA’s Eastern Oregon field office and grasshopper program coordinator, said as of mid-June ODA had received 122 survey requests and sent out 31 treatment recommendations for roughly 40,000 acres (16,187 hectares).

Landowners must act quickly if they decide to spray diflubenzuron as it is only effective against nymphs.

“Once they become adults it’s too late,” Adams said.

Oregon’s new program is geared toward private landowners. But the federal government owns more than half of Oregon’s total land, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has its own program for outbreaks on Western public land.

The U.S. government’s grasshopper suppression program dates back to the 1930s, and USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has sprayed millions of acres with pesticides to control outbreaks since the 1980s.

APHIS National Policy Director William Wesela said the agency sprayed 807,000 acres (326,581 hectares) of rangeland across seven Western states in 2021. So far this year, it has received requests for treatment in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Nevada and Arizona, according to Jake Bodart, its State Plant Health Director for Oregon.

In a 2019 risk assessment APHIS recognized the main insecticide used, diflubenzuron, remains “a restricted use pesticide due to its toxicity to aquatic invertebrates,” but said risks are low.

APHIS says it follows methods to reduce concerns. It instructs pesticide applicators to skip swaths and apply the insecticide at lower rates than listed on the label.

But environmental groups oppose the program. Last month, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation and the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) sued APHIS in the U.S. District Court in Portland. In their filing, they accuse APHIS of harming rangeland ecosystems and not adequately informing the public about treatment areas.

They also allege the agency violated the National Environmental Policy Act by not assessing all the alternatives to pesticides or analyzing the cumulative effects of the program.

Federal officials declined to comment on the suit because it is pending before courts.

Environmentalists say the reduction of grasshoppers diminishes the food source of other wildlife that prey on them.

“We’re very concerned about the impact of these broad, large sprays to our grassland and rangeland ecosystems,” said Sharon Selvaggio, the Xerces Society’s Pesticide Program Specialist.

Selvaggio added the sprays can be “toxic to a wide variety of insects” beyond grasshoppers and Mormon crickets, expressing particular concern for pollinators such as bees.

The two environmental groups want the agency to adopt a more holistic approach to pest management, by exploring methods such as rotational grazing.

“We’re not trying to stop APHIS from ever using pesticides again,” said Andrew Missel, staff attorney at Advocates for the West, the nonprofit law firm that filed the suit. “The point is really to reform” the program, he added.

In Arlington, the “cricket queen” Aamodt said residents had experimented with pesticide alternatives. During 2017, some covered trees in duct tape to trap the insects. The following year, local officials brought in goats to graze hillsides.

For now, those fighting against future infestations hope the new state program will bring much-needed support.

“Keep in mind that these are people that are taking time out from their own lives to do this,” said OSU Extension Agent Maley. “The volunteers made a huge difference.”

___

Rush is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

 

YIPPEE KI YAY MOFO

Villagers cheer Indonesian for capturing big crocodile with rope


4-metre long crocodile captured in Buton

Mon, June 27, 2022 
By Angie Teo

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Fellow villagers have praised an Indonesian man for capturing a crocodile longer than 4 metres (13 ft) on the island of Sulawesi using just a rope.

The giant reptile can be seen in a video being secured around the jaws by Usman, who, like many Indonesians, goes by one name. Usman said it had been roaming the area for at least two days, frightening the inhabitants.

"If we had left it, it would have come on to land and we wouldn't have been able to go into the rice fields," the 53-year-old said.

"There are also drainage channels around the roads here, places where locals fish. It would have been dangerous if it had crawled up the drainage channels. I had to take a chance," he said.

The crocodile's capture was lauded by others in the village of Ambau Indah.

"What Usman has done is appreciated by the community. Some even consider it a heroic act, because it saved many people who could have become victims," said Umar Siddiq Al Farizi.

In the past there had been several crocodile attacks in the area, he said. He also welcomed Usman's decision to the report the capture to authorities.

"He (Usman) considered this a rare animal whose habitat had been damaged by floods. He thought it should be protected and not killed," Umar said.

The crocodile, measuring 4.3 metres, will be released back into the wild, an official at the local Natural Resources Conservation Agency said.

(Reporting by Angie Teo and Heru Asprihanto; Editing by Ed Davies and Bradley Perrett)

GOOD NEWS

Grand Canyon won't seek volunteers to kill bison this fall



 In this July 31, 2016 photo, a park ranger and a group of motorcyclists pass a sign warning of bison within the Grand Canyon National Park in northern Arizona. Grand Canyon National Park has decided not to extend a pilot project this fall 2022 that used volunteers to kill bison to downsize the herd. New surveys show the herd roaming the far reaches of northern Arizona is closer to the goal of about 200. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)More

FELICIA FONSECA
Sun, June 26, 2022 

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — A bison herd that lives almost exclusively in the northern reaches of Grand Canyon National Park won't be targeted for lethal removal there this fall.

The park used skilled volunteers selected through a highly competitive and controversial lottery last year to kill bison, part of a toolset to downsize the herd that's been trampling meadows and archaeological sites on the canyon's North Rim.

Introducing the sound of gunfire and having people close to the bison was meant to nudge the massive animals back to the adjacent forest where they legally could be hunted. But the efforts had little effect.

“They just kind of moved a bit from where the activity occurred, and sometimes they'd come back the next day,” said Grand Canyon wildfire program manager Greg Holm.

New surveys also have shown the herd is closer to the goal of about 200, down from an estimated 500 to 800 animals when the park approved a plan to quickly cut the size of the herd. The park is now working with other agencies and groups on a long-term plan for managing the bison, an animal declared America's national mammal in 2016 and depicted on the National Park Service logo.

Hunting over hundreds of years and a genetic bottleneck nearly left the animals that once numbered in the tens of millions extinct in the U.S. Federal wildlife authorities now support about 11,000 bison in about a dozen states, including the largest herd on public land at Yellowstone National Park.

Yellowstone, which spans 3,500 square miles in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho, also is developing a new management plan for the roughly 5,500 bison there. It's working with Native American tribes, state agencies and other groups to find ways to reduce the number of bison sent to slaughter.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota regularly rounds up bison using helicopters and corrals, then transfers some of the animals to tribes, other states and national parks. Without natural predators, bison herds can grow quickly and strain the resources, the park says.

The Grand Canyon herd didn't always live within the park's boundaries, where they can be seen along the highway leading to the North Rim entrance. The bison are descendants of those brought to Arizona in the 1900s as part of a crossbreeding experiment with cattle.

The animals increasingly recognized they could be hunted on the adjacent national forest and sought refuge in the national park. Hunting isn't allowed at national parks, but the agency has authority to kill animals that harm resources, using park staff or volunteers.

Most of the bison at Grand Canyon have been removed by corralling them and transferring them to Native American tribes that have been trying to reestablish herds on their land. A controversial pilot project last fall sought skilled volunteers to shoot up to 12 of the animals.

More than 45,000 people applied for the chance. Ultimately, 10 were picked, and they were able to kill four bison. Although the animals are massive, they're quick and agile and can hide among thick stands of trees.

Grand Canyon officials say they won't repeat the program this fall, but it won't be excluded as a tool in the future. Another corralling effort is planned.

The latest bison population estimate based on aerial surveys and tracking devices shows 216 bison on the expansive Kaibab Plateau, according to Grand Canyon National Park. Agencies that manage the land and wildlife in far northern Arizona and study the bison's movement are meeting in July to start talking about the long-term plan.

Part of that discussion will include creating more gaps in the state-sanctioned bison hunting seasons outside Grand Canyon National Park to see if bison will move outside the boundaries, said Larry Phoenix, an Arizona Game and Fish Department regional supervisor.

Meanwhile, the Game and Fish Department is seeking approval to improve fencing, cattle guards and water catchments to expand the range for another herd of bison in far northern Arizona. The state imported 15 bison yearlings from a privately owned nature reserve in Montana in late 2017 and said the herd now needs more room to grow.

Phoenix is confident these bison won't follow the others into the Grand Canyon, largely because the animals don't know the other herd exists.

Environmental groups are skeptical fences can keep them from straying and adding to the overall bison population in the region where they've been difficult and costly to keep in check.

They’re asking the U.S. Forest Service to do an in-depth review of the proposal that considers climate change and impacts to plants and animals like the chisel-tooth kangaroo rat.

Drought and bark beetles are killing the oldest trees on Earth. Can they be saved?


Louis Sahagún
Mon, June 27, 2022

At the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, where some of the the world's oldest trees live, scientists are concerned about a possible infestation of bark beetle. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Forest pathologist Martin MacKenzie strode forward on a narrow path through California’s mythic bristlecone pine forest in the White Mountains near the Nevada border, methodically scanning gnarled limbs for the invaders that threaten the lives of some of the world’s oldest trees.

These intruders are bark beetles, a menace smaller than a pencil eraser, but they bore by the thousands into the bark and feast on the moist inner core, where trees transport nutrients from roots to crown. Then they carve out egg galleries, where hungry larvae hatch.

A blue stain fungus carried in by the pests delivers the coup de grace — a clogged circulatory system.


For thousands of years, bark beetles were held in check or eliminated by the harsh conditions of the stony, storm-battered mountain crests where the grotesque, twisted trees have evolved an arsenal of survival strategies.

At the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, U.S. Forest Service pathologist Martin MacKenzie checks on trees with ecologist Michele Slaton, right, and spokeswoman Mary Matlick. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Now, scientists say, these living symbols of longevity, strength and perseverance may be at an evolutionary crossroads. Hotter droughts and bark beetles are for the first time in recorded history killing bristlecones, according to a recent study published in the scientific journal Forest Ecology and Management.

Since 2013, thousands of the trees that ranged in age from 144 to 1,612 years have been killed on Telescope Peak — the site of Death Valley National Park’s lone population of bristlecones — the study says. Many more have been killed in high-altitude bristlecone forests scattered across southern Utah.

On a recent morning, MacKenzie, 74, wanted to confirm that the culturally significant Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, home to Methuselah, a 4,853-year-old specimen some say is the oldest living tree on Earth, remained free of the insects.

“We’re lucky — there’s no sign of the beetles in these trees,” MacKenzie told a companion with a smile.

But minutes later, as he made his way along the path, he noticed a tell-tale color of arboreal stress: red. It had just begun to emerge on the bright green needles of a bristlecone crouched on a steep slope in the distance.

His face fell. “I have to go check it out.”

A large bristlecone pine tree has fallen over, exposing the roots, at the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Great Basin bristlecone pine trees are magical for foresters like MacKenzie.

In tough times, they die off almost entirely, leaving a few strips of bark that can continue growing for thousands of years — sideways along the ground, or diagonally skyward. They hold needles for up to 40 years and drown hungry insects in resin.

They are survivors of bristlecone pine forests pushed upslope more than 11,000 years ago, by rising temperatures that triggered major shifts in plant and animal distribution and created California’s deserts.

“Unlike people, bristlecone pines don’t die of old age,” he likes to say.

But they can be killed. The study led by U.S. Forest Service biologists Barbara Bentz and Candace Millar found that bark-beetle-caused mortality was most likely in areas where bristlecone pines are intermixed with other tree species that are known to host the beetles.

U.S. Forest Service pathologist Martin MacKenzie takes a sample from a dying bristlecone pine. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Solitary bristlecones deal with the beetles by drowning them in sap, the study says. But in hot, drought-stricken mixed forests, bark beetles first land on nearby limber and pinion pines, generating new broods that can attack bristlecones, overwhelming their defense systems.

In an interview, Millar recalled what she described as “a sense of shock when I first came upon hundreds of bristlecones killed by bark beetles on the highest slopes of Telescope Peak in Death Valley.”

The study found that bristlecone mortality at Telescope Peak and in the Wah Wah Forest in southern Utah was likely due to a combination of warming temperatures, declining precipitation, reduced tree defenses, and bark beetle attacks that originated in nearby limber and pinyon pines during a period of severe drought that began in 2013.

“Do I think this is a death knell for bristlecone pines elsewhere? Well, maybe not,” Millar said. “But it’s time to consider taking action to protect these trees.”

Proposals to control the bugs have included the sublime and the controversial. The study calls for annual surveys to provide advance notice of beetle attacks, as well as public education programs and the posting of interpretive signs.

Another idea involves devising a chemical attractant to lure the insects into baited traps, although such an effort would also risk summoning uncontrollable swarms of bugs into currently unaffected groves.

Ancient bristlecone pine cone. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Bristlecone pines, identifiable by their bottlebrush-like branches with short needles, are found in semiarid portions of the Great Basin, which extends from California’s Sierra Nevada range east to the Rocky Mountains.

But the ones found in the White Mountains are the oldest. The slow growers are only about 25 feet tall and expand 1 inch in diameter every 100 years.

Of particular concern for researchers is the oldest of the bunch, Methuselah. Its precise location is carefully guarded to prevent vandalism, although its surrounding grove is a tourist attraction that draws 30,000 people a year.

In certain urgent situations, such as to protect Methuselah from potentially fatal infestations, the study suggests that “a highly aggressive defensive strategy would be to manually remove nearby pines that are known hosts to mountain bark beetles.”

In tough times, bristlecone pines die off almost entirely, leaving a few strips of bark that can continue growing for thousands of years. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)

Whether Methuselah warrants the title “oldest living thing,” however, is debatable. Researchers in Chile a month ago announced that an ancient cypress there known as Gran Abuelo may be 5,400 years old. If confirmed, it would beat Methuselah by about six centuries.

In the meantime, the daunting task of keeping an eye out for bark beetle attacks in public lands belongs to forest pathologists like MacKenzie.

After a hike, MacKenzie entered the shade of the bristlecone pine tree with troublesome shades of red and looked at its bark and needles, his eyes alive with anticipation.

There were plenty of red needles indicating stress, but no evidence of beetles.

“Drought killed the tree — not beetles,” he said. “But I noticed some other trees in the area that I have to check out.”



This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

A shale booster shot: 'Re-fracs' rise as cheap way to lift U.S. oil output


 Workers connect hoses between a pipeline and water tanks at a Hess fracking site near Williston

Sun, June 26, 2022 
By Liz Hampton

(Reuters) -U.S. shale oil producers are returning to existing wells and giving them a second, high-pressure blast to lift output for a fraction of the cost of a finishing a new well.

These "re-fracs" are taking hold as shale oil producers look to take advantage of $100 a barrel crude without making big investments in new wells and fields.

A global oil shortage has triggered calls from U.S. President Joe Biden for shale producers to spend more of their profits on increasing output. But shale firms have been under pressure for years from shareholders to focus on returns rather than production growth.

Their reluctance to invest in more output has led to tensions between the oil industry and the White House, which is under pressure to rein in record $5 per gallon fuel prices that have contributed to decades-high inflation.

Re-fracing can be something of a booster shot for producers - a quick increase in output for smaller investment than a new well. While some producers have dabbled in re-fracturing wells in the past, the technique is winning broader adoption as technology improves, aging oilfields erode output, and companies try to do more with less.

Shortages of steel, diesel, frac sand and workers have doubled oilfield inflation since January, making this discount method of boosting output even more attractive.

A re-frac can be up to 40% cheaper than a new well, according to experts. More importantly, it can double or triple oil flows from aging wells, said Garrett Fowler, chief operating officer for ResFrac, which helps producers optimize the technique. His firm has seen about twice as many inquiries related to re-fracs compared to prior years.

For oil producers, re-fracs are a cheap way to add output to existing pipelines. Their shorter completion time means re-fracs can be scheduled between work on new wells, said Catherine Oster, who manages Devon Energy's mid-continent properties.

"You go back and find where you maybe under-completed and under-fracked in the beginning," said Oster. Besides, "we’ve made the infrastructure investment. As you learn about your resource, you get those technical learnings" that help decide which wells will benefit from a second shot, she said.

HOW RE-FRAC WORKS

The most common re-frac method involves placing a steel liner inside the original well bore and then blasting holes through the steel casing to access the reservoir. In some cases, the process uses half as much steel and frac sand than a new well, said ResFrac's Fowler.

U.S. oil production remains about a million barrels per day (bpd) below the 12.8 million bpd peak in early 2020. Limiting output is the rapid decline rate of shale wells, which can see production fall by 70% in their first nine months. Flat spending could restrain output to current levels.

While U.S. oil futures are around $104 per barrel, up 40% from a year ago, production costs are higher on material and labor shortages. Some producers are holding back new spending over fears of a recession.

Drill pipe, labor and frac sand costs have driven drilling and well-completion service costs about 20% higher from a year ago, Texas shale producer Callon Petroleum said this month.

Callon and Hess Corp, which drills in North Dakota's Bakken shale, recently hiked capital spending budgets over the costs. Hess added $200 million to its spending, half due to inflation, while Callon added about $75 million.

"Techniques like re-fracturing will allow the industry to continue to harvest the oil and gas out of these reservoirs," said Stephen Ingram, a regional vice president at top U.S. hydraulic fracturing firm Halliburton .

Another benefit, say oil service executives, is re-fracs do not require additional state permits or new negotiations with landowners. The disruption to the environment also is less because well sites will already have road access, they said.

"Considering inflation, supply chain issues, and rising wages, now is a great time for operators to start looking at wells for re-frac opportunities," said Matt Johnson, CEO of energy consultancy Primary Vision Network.

(Reporting by Liz Hampton in DenverEditing by Marguerita Choy)

FORWARD TO THE PAST
Germany Pushes for G-7 Reversal on Fossil Fuels in Climate Blow




Sat, June 25, 2022 

(Bloomberg) --

Germany is pushing for Group of Seven nations to walk back a commitment that would halt the financing of overseas fossil fuel projects by the end of the year, according to people familiar with the matter. That would be a major reversal on tackling climate change as Russia’s war in Ukraine upends access to energy supplies.

A draft text shared with Bloomberg would see the G-7 “acknowledge that publicly supported investment in the gas sector is necessary as a temporary response to the current energy crisis.”

The caveat in the proposal is that such funding is done “in a manner consistent with our climate objectives and without creating lock-in effects.”

The text remains under debate and could change before G-7 leaders hold their summit in the Bavarian Alps starting Sunday hosted by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The UK opposes the proposal, two of the people said. A German government spokesman declined to comment.

A person familiar with the discussions said Italy wasn’t actively opposing the German proposal. Italy, like Germany, is highly dependent on Russian gas. On Friday, speaking during a press conference in Brussels, Prime Minister Mario Draghi said Italy has managed to reduce Russian gas imports from 40% last year to 25% at the moment. This has been possible also by signing new gas deals in countries including Congo, Algeria and Angola.

A government spokesperson said Italy did not support Germany’s idea.

Asked about the proposal on Air Force One as US President Joe Biden flew to Europe, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he did not want to preempt discussions at the summit. “Our position last May was that the president was clear that he did not feel like these investments were the right course of action,” he told reporters. “I know of no such change to that policy.”

Canada, the world’s sixth largest energy producer, has shown it’s willing to support new fossil fuel infrastructure if it fits within the country’s overall emissions reduction plan, a senior official said. But the official would not say if Canada supports the language in the German proposal, stressing it’s a preliminary document.

The debate comes as Europe in particular struggles for alternative sources of fuel to Russian gas. The German government has warned that Russia’s moves to limit supply risk a Lehman-like collapse in the energy markets, with Europe’s largest economy facing the unprecedented prospect of businesses and consumers running out of power.

Germany has responded to the cuts by reviving coal plants and providing financing to secure gas supplies, while continuing with plans to phase out nuclear energy. The World Nuclear Association, an industry lobby group, is urging the G-7 to boost access to nuclear technologies.

Germany Warns of Lehman-Like Contagion From Russian Gas Cuts

Italy has said it will monitor the potential need to trigger emergency energy plans. Any such move could also see it boost coal production.

A G-7 shift from a commitment initiated last year and firmed up in May would be a u-turn in global efforts to fight climate change. It would make it harder to rally the rest of the world around more stringent targets and direct investments toward cleaner sources of energy.

It would also go against International Energy Agency advice that no new oil and gas projects should be developed if the world is to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

G-7 ministers, in making their commitment to end direct international financing of fossil fuels by the end of 2022, acknowledged for the first time that fossil fuel subsidies were incompatible with the Paris Agreement. The group also reaffirmed a commitment to end “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies by 2025.

The ministers acknowledged, however, that investment in the LNG sector was a necessary response to the current crisis “in a manner consistent with our climate objectives and without creating lock-in effects.”

“This would be a huge setback from the progress we made last month at the G-7 energy and environment ministers when we finally brought Japan, the last G-7 holdout, into the commitment to end such financial support for fossil fuels,” said Alden Meyer, a senior associate at climate change think E3G.

“Where we saw Chancellor Merkel being the climate chancellor at the last G-7 summit Germany hosted, Scholz could go down in history as the climate backtracking Chancellor, which I think would be a real mark on his record, and we don’t need to do this,” he added.

Exclusive-Japan pushes to remove zero-emission vehicle target from G7 statement, draft shows



Mon, June 27, 2022 
By Makiko Yamazaki and Kate Abnett

TOKYO/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Japan is pushing to remove a target for zero-emission vehicles from a G7 communique expected this week, according to a proposed draft seen by Reuters, a move that would water down language on climate change from the leaders' summit in Germany.

The pressure from Tokyo, an influential member of the Group of Seven rich nations, comes as the Japanese auto industry has faced scrutiny from green investors who say it has been slow to embrace zero-emission vehicles and lobbied against regulations that would encourage quicker transition to the technology.

Reuters reported last week that Toyota Motor Corp's head lobbied the Japanese government to make clear it supported hybrid vehicles as much as zero-emission battery electrics. G7 leaders are meeting in the Bavarian Alps for a summit where climate change figures on the agenda.

Japan has proposed removing a reference to a "collective goal of at least 50% zero-emission vehicles by 2030", according to a draft of the communique reviewed by Reuters.

In its place it has proposed a less concrete target of "significantly increasing the sale, share and uptake of zero-emission light duty vehicles recognising the range of pathways that members are adopting to approach these goals", according to the draft.

A person familiar with the matter confirmed that Japan had proposed the changes, declining to be identified because of the sensitivity of the issue. It was not clear whether the proposed changes would be in the final version of the communique, which is due to be released at the end of the summit on Tuesday.

Japan's foreign ministry said it was not immediately able to comment.

AUTO INDUSTRY WANTS RANGE OF OPTIONS

Separately, Japan had pushed to remove a goal for all new car and van sales in G7 countries to be "zero emission vehicles" by 2035, in the G7 climate ministers' communique in late May, according to sources familiar with the discussions and a draft communique seen by Reuters.

Ultimately the 2035 target was not included in the final statement, which pledged instead to achieve a "highly decarbonised road sector by 2030" by "significantly increasing" zero-emission vehicle sales.

Reuters reported last week that Toyota Motor Corp's head lobbied the Japanese government to make clear it supported hybrid vehicles, which burn fossil fuels, as much as zero-emission battery electrics.

Both Japan's auto industry lobby and leading automaker Toyota say automakers should not be limited to specific technologies and needed to keep a range of options towards reaching a goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

Toyota, the world's biggest automaker by sales, has said fossil fuels, not internal combustion engines, are the problem. As well as the hybrids it popularised more than two decades ago with the Prius, it also champions hydrogen technology, although that has so far not caught on the way battery-electric cars have.

Energy and climate think-tank InfluenceMap has rated Toyota the worst among major automakers for its lobbying record on climate policy, which includes public statements and interaction with governments.

(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki in Tokyo and Kate Abnett in Brussels; Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by David Dolan and Alex Richardson)

Climate activists block IMF Paris office doors

Mon, June 27, 2022 


Climate activists on Monday blocked entry to the International Monetary Fund's Paris office with some gluing their hands to its doors, demanding developing countries' debt be scrapped to help tackle climate change.

The Paris protest is part of a "Debt for climate" global campaign calling on wealthy-nation leaders attending the G7 summit in Germany to cancel the debts of poorer and less industrialised countries, known as the global south.

While low-emitting countries in the global south contribute the least to climate change, they tend to be the hardest-hit by the consequences, experts say.

"We need to give these countries the resources to fight against the climate crisis. They are the first victims and the last ones responsible," said an Extinction Rebellion activist calling herself "Chalou", one of dozens in front of the IMF building in Paris' wealthy 16th district.

Several activists from Extinction Rebellion, Youth for Climate and 350.org glued their hands to glass doors at the building's entrance, while others sat in front with their arms linked together inside tubes to make it harder to move them.

The group spread a banner reading "G7 responsible, IMF guilty" in front of the building, while some activists scattered fake banknotes marked with the slogan "Stop fossil fuels".

"The debt crisis is first and foremost the result of an unjust financial system dominated by the richest countries," activist groups Extinction Rebellion, Attac-France and Youth for Climate France, who organised the Paris action, said in a statement.

"The G7, the IMF and the World Bank have historical responsibilities in the development of this vicious circle of debt (and) over-exploitation of resources", they added.

Environmental activists have organised a string of protests in recent weeks to refocus attention on climate change, as the energy crisis and war in Ukraine dominate the news agenda.

tmt-abd/ech/tgb/lth

‘Stop financing wars’: Protesters at G7 demand concrete action

By Daniel Niemann and Kirsten Grieshaber

 The Associated Press
Posted June 25, 2022 


At a news conference in Berlin on Wednesday, German Economy Minister Robert Habeck accused the Russian-owned Gazprom of reducing its gas supplies to Germany as “a political decision and not a technical, justifiable decision.” Stating that Germany is not affected by a gas-supply problem at the moment, he also warned that there was still a possibility of further energy supply restrictions from Russia, saying that “it is not over yet. It may just be the beginning.” – Jun 15, 2022

About 4,000 protesters gathered in Munich as the Group of Seven leading economic powers prepared Saturday to hold their annual gathering in the Bavarian Alps in Germany, which holds the G7 rotating presidency this year.

Organizers had hoped to mobilize up to 20,000 protesters in the Bavarian city and were disappointed by the low turnout at Munich’s Theresienwiese park, German news agency dpa reported.

Uwe Hiksch, one of the protest organizers, theorized said that potential participants might consider it inappropriate to challenge the world’s wealthiest democracies during Russia’s war in Ukraine.

READ MORE: Canada in ‘listening mode’, will take small Commonwealth nations’ concerns to G7: Joly

“We have the impression that many people are unsettled by the war in Ukraine,” Hiksch told dpa.

Seven years ago, 35,000 people participated in protests when the G-7 held a summit at the same site in Bavaria.

The G-7 leaders — from the United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan — are expected to start arriving in Germany on Saturday afternoon. Their summit agenda includes issues such as Russia’s war on Ukraine, climate change, energy and a looming food security crisis.

“Russia’s brutal war against Ukraine is also having an impact here,” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a video podcast Saturday, referring to rising prices for groceries, gas and energy.

Fifteen groups critical of globalization, from the international Attac network to the environmental organization WWF, called on people to participate in demonstrations for this weekend’s summit.

Their demands included a phase-out of fossil fuels, the preservation of animal and plant diversity, social justice and a stepped-up fight against hunger.

“My demands for the G7 are that they have a clear commitment to energy transition, that is, the exit from fossil fuels, all forms of fossil fuels, by 2035 at the latest, so we can stop financing wars and conflicts,” said Kilian Wolter from the environmental group Greenpeace.

Earlier Saturday, during a separate protest demanding more global equality members of the antipoverty organization Oxfam wore oversized heads of the G-7 leaders.

“We need concrete action to cope with multiple crises of our times,” Oxfam spokesperson Tobias Hauschild told The Associated Press. “That means the G-7 have to act immediately. They have to fight hunger, inequality and poverty.”

A total of around 18,000 police officers are deployed around the summit site and the protests.

Scholz said the G7 leaders would discuss the current situation triggered by the war in Ukraine “and at the same time ensure that we stop manmade climate change.”

The chancellor was set to welcome the leaders at the Elmau resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen on Saturday evening.

The G7 summit itself will take place in Bavaria’s Elmau from Sunday through Tuesday. After the meeting concludes, leaders of the 30 countries in the NATO alliance will then gather for their annual summit, which is being held Wednesday through Thursday in Madrid.

Thousands protest in Madrid against NATO summit






Sun, June 26, 2022 
By Elena Rodriguez and Michael Francis Gore

MADRID (Reuters) - Carrying the hammer and sickle flags of the former Soviet Union, thousands protested in Madrid on Sunday against a NATO summit which will take place in the Spanish capital next week.

Amid tight security, leaders of the member countries will meet in Madrid between 29-30 June as the organisation faces the unprecedented challenge of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

NATO is expected to consider the bid, opposed by alliance-member Turkey, for Finland and Sweden to join.

The Nordic nations applied in the wake of the Russian assault on Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin calls the war a special military operation he says in part responds to the accession to NATO of other countries near post-Soviet Russia's borders since the 1990s.

"Tanks yes, but of beer with tapas," sang demonstrators, who claimed an increase in defence spending in Europe urged by NATO was a threat to peace.

"I am fed up (with) this business of arms and killing people. The solution they propose is more arms and wars and we always pay for it. So, no NATO, no (army) bases, let the Americans go and leave us alone without wars and weapons," said Concha Hoyos, a retired Madrid resident, told Reuters.

Another protester, Jaled, 29, said NATO was not the solution to the war in Ukraine.

Organisers claimed 5,000 people joined the march, but authorities in Madrid put the number at 2,200.

Spain's Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said in a newspaper interview published on Sunday that the summit would also focus on the threat from Europe's southern flank in Africa, in which he said Russia posed a threat to Europe.

"The foreign ministers' dinner on the 29th will be centred on the southern flank," he told El Pais newspaper.

(Reporting by Graham Keeley, additional reporting: Elena Rodriguez, Michael Gore, Nacho Doce; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)