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Thursday, May 09, 2024

What Trump promised oil CEOs as he asked them to steer $1 billion to his campaign

Donald Trump has pledged to scrap President Biden's policies on electric vehicles and wind energy, and other initiatives opposed by the fossil fuel industry.

By Josh Dawsey and Maxine Joselow Washington Post

MAY 9, 2024 — 3:36PM

JABIN BOTSFORD, WASHINGTON POST

Former President Donald Trump shakes hands with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), who is leading the Trump campaign’s development of its energy policy, at a rally in Laconia, N.H., on Jan. 22.

As Donald Trump sat with some of the country's top oil executives at his Mar-a-Lago Club last month, one executive complained about how they continued to face burdensome environmental regulations despite spending $400 million to lobby the Biden administration in the last year.

Trump's response stunned several of the executives in the room overlooking the ocean: You all are wealthy enough, he said, that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner, he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Joe Biden's environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.

Giving $1 billion would be a "deal," Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him, according to the people.

Trump's remarkably blunt and transactional pitch reveals how the former president is targeting the oil industry to finance his reelection bid. At the same time, he has turned to the industry to help shape his environmental agenda for a second term, including the rollbacks of some of Biden's signature achievements on clean energy and electric vehicles.

The contrast between the two candidates on climate policy could not be more stark. Biden has called global warming an "existential threat," and over the last three years, his administration has finalized 100 new environmental regulations aimed at cutting air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, restricting toxic chemicals, and conserving public lands and waters. In comparison, Trump has called climate change a "hoax," and his administration weakened or wiped out more than 125 environmental rules and policies over four years.

In recent months, the Biden administration has raced to overturn Trump's environmental actions and issue new ones before the November election. So far, Biden officials have overturned 27 Trump actions affecting the fossil fuel industry and completed 23 new actions affecting the sector, according to a Washington Post analysis. The Interior Department, for instance, recently blocked future oil drilling across 13 million acres of the Alaskan Arctic.

Despite the oil industry's complaints about Biden's policies, the United States is now producing more oil than any country ever has, pumping nearly 13 million barrels per day on average last year. ExxonMobil and Chevron, the largest U.S. energy companies, reported their biggest annual profits in a decade last year.

Yet oil giants will see an even greater windfall — helped by new offshore drilling, speedier permits and other relaxed regulations — in a second Trump administration, the former president told the executives over the dinner of chopped steak at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump vowed at the dinner to immediately end the Biden administration's freeze on permits for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports — a top priority for the executives, according to three people present. "You'll get it on the first day," Trump said, according to the recollection of an attendee.

The roughly two dozen executives invited included Mike Sabel, the CEO and founder of Venture Global, and Jack Fusco, the CEO of Cheniere Energy, whose proposed projects would directly benefit from lifting the pause on new LNG exports. Other attendees came from companies including Chevron, Continental Resources, Exxon and Occidental Petroleum, according to an attendance list obtained by the Post.

Trump told the executives that he would start auctioning off more leases for oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, a priority that several of the executives raised. He railed against wind power, as the Post previously reported. And he said he would reverse the restrictions on drilling in the Alaskan Arctic.

"You've been waiting on a permit for five years; you'll get it on Day 1," Trump told the executives, according to the recollection of the attendee.

At the dinner, Trump also promised that he would scrap Biden's "mandate" on electric vehicles — mischaracterizing ambitious rules that the Environmental Protection Agency recently finalized, according to people who attended. The rules require automakers to reduce emissions from car tailpipes, but they don't mandate a particular technology such as EVs. Trump called them "ridiculous" in the meeting with donors.

The fossil fuel industry has aggressively lobbied against the EPA's tailpipe rules, which could eat into demand for its petroleum products. The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, an industry trade group, has launched a seven-figure campaign against what it calls a de facto "gas car ban." The campaign includes ads in battleground states warning that the rule will restrict consumer choice.

"Clearly, if you are producing gasoline and diesel, you want to make sure that there's enough market there," said Stephen Brown, an energy consultant and a former lobbyist for Tesoro, an oil refining company. "I don't know that the oil industry would walk in united with a set of asks for the Trump administration, but I think it's important for this issue to get raised."

Although the repeal of the EPA rule would benefit the fossil fuel industry, it would probably anger the auto industry, which has invested billions of dollars in the transition away from gasoline-powered cars. Many automakers are under increasing pressure to sell more EVs in Europe, which has tightened its own tailpipe emissions rules, and they are eager to avoid a patchwork of regulations around the globe.

"Automakers need some degree of regulatory certainty from government," said John Bozzella, president and CEO of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, Toyota and other car companies.

"What has emerged instead is a wholesale repeal … and then reinstatement … and then repeal again of regulations every four or eight years," Bozzella said in an email.

Biden's EV policies have also sparked opposition in rural, Republican-led states such as North Dakota, where there are far more oil pump jacks than charging stations. A key figure leading the Trump campaign's development of its energy policy is Republican North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who has been talking extensively to oil donors and CEOs.

At a fundraiser on Saturday in Palm Beach, Fla., Burgum told donors that Trump would halt Biden's "attack" on fossil fuels, according to a recording of his remarks obtained by the Post.

"What would be the No. 1 thing that President Trump could do on Day 1? It's stop the hostile attack against all American energy, and I mean all," Burgum said. "Whether it's baseload electricity, whether it's oil, whether it's gas, whether it's ethanol, there is an attack on liquid fuels."

Burgum also criticized the Biden administration's policies on gas stoves and vehicles with internal combustion engines, falsely claiming that they would prevent consumers from buying both technologies.

"They've got some liberal idea about what products we need," Burgum said. "You all need EV cars. You don't need internal combustion. We'll decide what kind of car you're going to drive, and we're going to regulate the other ones out of business. I mean, it's just in every industry, not just in cars, not just in energy. They're telling people what stoves you can buy. This is not America."

While the Energy Department recently set new efficiency standards for gas stoves, they would not affect the stoves in people's kitchens or those currently on the market. The Biden campaign declined to comment for this story.

Burgum has pushed harder to address climate change than many other Republicans, setting a goal in 2021 for North Dakota — the third-largest oil-producing state — to become carbon-neutral by 2030. He has stressed, however, that the goal won't be achieved via government mandates or the elimination of fossil fuels.

Burgum's approach to climate policy makes him an unusual messenger for Trump, who has falsely called global warming a hoax invented by China. But many oil executives view Burgum — a possible contender to lead the Energy Department in a second Trump term — as sympathetic to their concerns, and he has cultivated deep support among oil donors.

Despite Trump's huge fundraising ask, oil donors and their allies have yet to donate hundreds of millions to his campaign. They have contributed more than $6.4 million to Trump's joint fundraising committee in the first three months of this year, according to an analysis by the advocacy group Climate Power. Oil billionaire Harold Hamm and others are scheduling a fundraiser for Trump later this year, advisers said, where they expect large checks to flow to his bid to return to office.

One person involved in the industry said many oil executives wanted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis or another Republican to challenge Biden. But now that Trump is the nominee, this person said, they are going to embrace his policies and give.

Dan Eberhart, chief executive of the oil-field services company Canary and a Trump donor, said the Republican onslaught of donations was not surprising.

"Biden constantly throws a wet blanket to the oil and gas industry," Eberhart said. "Trump's 'drill baby drill' philosophy aligns much better with the oil patch than Biden's green-energy approach. It's a no-brainer."

Alex Witt, a senior adviser for oil and gas with Climate Power, said Trump's promise is he will do whatever the oil industry wants if they support him. With Trump, Witt said, "everything has a price."

"They got a great return on their investment during Trump's first term, and Trump is making it crystal clear that they're in for an even bigger payout if he's reelected," she said.

John Muyskens contributed to this report.

Saturday, May 04, 2024

Centipedes used in traditional Chinese medicine offer leads for kidney treatment

AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY

A venomous, 8-inch centipede may be the stuff of nightmares, but it could save the life of those affected by kidney disease. Researchers report in the Journal of Natural Products that the many-legged critter —used in traditional Chinese medicine — contains alkaloids that in cell cultures reduced inflammation and renal fibrosis, which both contribute to kidney disease. The journal is copublished by the American Chemical Society and the American Society of Pharmacognosy.

Some 1,500 species of animals are used in traditional Chinese medicine, but little is known about many of the secondary metabolites their bodies produce for specialized functions such as immobilizing prey. The few compounds that have been studied, such as toad venom for cancer treatment, have proved to be fruitful leads for drug development. So, Yong-Xian Cheng and colleagues decided to examine the secondary metabolites produced by the Chinese red-headed centipede (Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans). The venomous centipede has been used for thousands of years in treatments for conditions including epilepsy, tuberculosis, burns and cardiovascular disease.

The researchers mixed a sample of dried centipede powder with ethanol to extract numerous compounds from the animals and then separated and identified the constituents with techniques such as chromatography and spectrometry. The team found 12 new quinoline and isoquinoline alkaloids, including some with unusual molecular structures, along with a half dozen other alkaloids that had previously been detected in this species or in plants. In cell cultures, some of the alkaloids showed anti-inflammatory behavior, while a portion also reduced renal fibrosis. This buildup of connective tissue is associated with chronic kidney disease and is stimulated by inflammation. Finally, the researchers identified a protein that plays a role in renal fibrosis and that was targeted by the most effective dual-function alkaloid. This information could provide a lead for developing treatments for kidney disease, according to the researchers.

The authors acknowledge funding from the Shenzhen Science and Technology Program.

###

The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.

Note: ACS does not conduct research, but publishes and publicizes peer-reviewed scientific studies.

JOURNAL

Journal of Natural Products

ARTICLE TITLE

“Structurally Diverse Alkaloids with Anti-Renal-Fibrosis Activity from the Centipede Scolopendra subspinipes mutilans”

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Revealed: Tyson Foods dumps millions of pounds of toxic pollutants into US rivers and lakes

Nitrogen, phosphorus, chloride, oil and cyanide among the 371m lb of pollutants released by just 41 plants in five years

Nina Lakhani in Dakota City and Lexington, Nebraska.

Graphics by Alvin Chang

Tue 30 Apr 2024

THE GUARDIAN

Tyson Foods dumped millions of pounds of toxic pollutants directly into American rivers and lakes over the last five years, threatening critical ecosystems, endangering wildlife and human health, a new investigation reveals.

Nitrogen, phosphorus, chloride, oil and cyanide were among the 371m lb of pollutants released into waterways by just 41 Tyson slaughterhouses and mega processing plants between 2018 and 2022.

GRAPHIC

https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/06f8f332af7ca1b6cbc3e35cb7f2bfe85713ebb7/0_0_2640_2640/master/2640.jpg?width=620&dpr=1&s=none

According to research by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), the contaminants were dispersed in 87bn gallons of wastewater – which also contains blood, bacteria and animal feces – and released directly into streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands relied on for drinking water, fishing and recreation. The UCS analysis, shared exclusively with the Guardian, is based on the most recent publicly available water pollution data Tyson is required to report under current regulations.

The wastewater was enough to fill about 132,000 Olympic-size pools, according to a Guardian analysis.

The water pollution from Tyson, a Fortune 100 company and the world’s second largest meat producer, was spread across 17 states but about half the contaminants were dumped into streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands in Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri.

The midwest is already saturated with nitrogen and phosphorus from industrial agriculture – factory farms and synthetics fertilizers – contributing to algal blooms that clog critical water infrastructure, exacerbate respiratory conditions like asthma, and deplete oxygen levels in the sea causing marine life to suffocate and die.

Yet the UCS research is only the tip of iceberg, including water pollution from only one in three of the corporation’s slaughterhouses and processing plants, and only 2% of the total nationwide.

The current federal regulations set no limit for phosphorus, and the vast majority of meat processing plants in the US are exempt from existing water regulations – with no way of tracking how many toxins are being dumped into waterways.

“There are over 5,000 meat and poultry processing plants in the United States, but only a fraction are required to report pollution and abide by limits. As one of the largest processors in the game, with a near-monopoly in some states, Tyson is in a unique position to treat even hefty fines and penalties for polluting as simply the cost of doing business. This has to change,” said the UCS co-author Omanjana Goswami.

The findings come as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must decide between robust new regulations that experts say would better protect waterways, critical habitat and downstream communities from polluting plants – or opt for weaker standards preferred by the powerful meat-processing industry.
The EPA should listen to communities whose wells, lakes, rivers and streams have been contaminated and put people over corporate profitsOmanjana Goswami

A 2017 lawsuit by environmental groups has forced the EPA to update its two-decade-old pollution standards for slaughterhouses and animal rendering facilities, and the new rule is expected by September 2025. The agency has said that it is leaning towards the weakest option on the table, which critics say will enable huge amounts of nitrates, phosphorus and other contaminants to keep pouring into waterways.

“The current rule is out of date, inadequate and catastrophic for American waterways, and highlights the way American lawmaking is subject to industry capture,” said Dani Replogle, an attorney at Food and Water Watch. “The nutrient problem in the US is at catastrophic levels … it would be such a shame if the EPA caves in to industry influence.”

The meat-processing industry spent $4.3m on lobbying in Washington in 2023, of which Tyson accounted for almost half ($2.1m), according to political finance watchdog Open Secrets. The industry has made $6.6m in campaign donations since 2020, mostly to Republicans, with Tyson the biggest corporate spender.

“We can be sure Tyson and other big ag players will object to efforts to update pollution regulations, but the EPA should listen to communities whose wells, lakes, rivers and streams have been contaminated and put people over corporate profits,” said Goswami.

“Meat and poultry companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to comply with EPA’s effluent limitations guidelines,” said Sarah Little from the North American Meat Institute, a trade association representing large processors like Tyson. “EPA’s new proposed guidelines will cost over $1bn and will eliminate 100,000 jobs in rural communities.”

Tyson did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

The American Association of Meat Processors said the EPA’s one-size-fits-all approach could put its small, family-owned members out of business.

Nebraska is a sparsely populated rural state dominated by agriculture – an increasingly consolidated corporate industry which wields substantial control over the economy and politics, as well as land and water use.

Millions of acres in Nebraska are dedicated to factory farming, with massive methane-emitting concentrated animal feeding operations (Cafos) scattered among fields of monocropped soybean, corn and wheat – grown predominantly for animal feed and ethanol. Only a tiny fraction of arable land is dedicated to sustainable agriculture or used to grow vegetables or fruits.

Tyson’s five largest plants in Nebraska dumped more than 111m lb of pollutants into waterways between 2018 and 2022, accounting for a third of the nationwide total. This included 4m lb of nitrates – a chemical that can contaminate drinking water, cause blood disorders and neurological defects in infants, as well as cancers and thyroid disease in adults.

Tyson’s largest plant is located in Dakota City on the Missouri river – America’s longest waterway which stretches 2,300 miles across eight states before joining the Mississippi. It’s a sprawling beef facility, which generates a nauseating stench that wafts over neighboring South Sioux city, known locally as sewer city, where many plant workers live. (Another beef processing plant is located next to Tyson.)

Earlier this month, the Guardian saw multiple trucks waiting to offload cattle for slaughter – after which the carcasses are rendered, processed and packaged in different parts of the facility. The plant produces vast quantities of wastewater which is stored (and treated) in lagoons on the riverbank, before being released into the Missouri river which provides drinking water for millions of people.

The Dakota City plant is a major local employer and Tyson’s single largest polluter, dumping 60m lb of contaminants into waterways between 2018 and 2022, according to UCS analysis.

View image in fullscreen

Every year in November around 30,000 Sandhill Cranes begin their annual migration from the North Platte River in Nebraska to Southern Arizona. Photograph: Christopher Brown/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

“This Tyson plant helped put me through college and supports a lot of migrant workers, but there’s a dark side like the water and air pollution that most people don’t pay attention to because they’re just trying to survive,” said Rogelio Rodriguez, a grassroots organizer with Conservation Nebraska, which is part of a coalition pushing for stronger state protections for meat processing plant workers.

“If regulations are lax, corporations have a tendency to push limits to maximize profits, we learnt that during Covid,” said Rodriguez, whose family works at the plant. A deadly Covid outbreak at the Dakota City plant in April 2020 sickened 15% of the workforce and led to substantial community spread.

A few miles south of the Dakota City Tyson plant, the Winnebago tribe is slowly recuperating and reforesting their land, as well as transitioning to organic farming.

“We’re investing a lot of money to look after the water and soil on our lands because it’s the right thing to do, yet a few miles north the Tyson plant lets all this pollution go into the river. Water is our most important resource, and the Missouri river is very important to our culture and people,” said Aaron LaPointe, a Winnebago tribe member who runs Ho-Chunk Farms.

The water problem – and lack of accountability – goes beyond Tyson.

Last year Governor Jim Pillen, whose family owns one of America’s largest pork companies, was widely criticized for calling a Chinese-born journalist at Flatwater Free Press a “communist” after she exposed serious water quality violations at his hog farms. Earlier this month, the Nebraska supreme court ruled that the state environmental agency could charge the same investigative news outlet tens of thousands of dollars for a public records request about nitrates.

Big ag’s influence on state politics is “endemic”, according to Gavin Geis from Common Cause Nebraska, a non-partisan elections watchdog.

We found unhealthy pesticide levels in 20% of US produce – here’s what you need to know

“The big money spent on lobbying and campaigns by corporate agriculture has played a major role in resisting stronger regulation – despite clear signals such as high levels of nitrates in our groundwater and cancers in rural communities that we need more oversight for farmers across the board,” said Geis.

“We’ve created a system with no accountability that doesn’t protect our ecosystem – which includes the land, water and people of Nebraska,” said Graham Christensen, a regenerative farmer and founder of GC Resolve, a communication and consulting firm. “The political capture is harming our rural communities, we’re in the belly of the beast and need help from federal regulators.”

Indigenous Americans lived and farmed sustainably along the Missouri River until white colonial settlers forcibly displaced tribes, and eventually dammed the entire river system – mostly for energy and industrial agriculture. Today, major river systems like the Missouri River – and its communities – face multiple, overlapping threats from dams, the climate crisis, overuse and pollution.

Oxygen depleting contaminants like nitrogen and phosphorus from Tyson plants in the midwest have been shown to travel along river-to-river pathways, causing fish kills and contributing to dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico. When the river is drier due to drought or high temperatures, pollutants become more concentrated and can form sediments – which are then dislodged during floods and taken miles downstream.

Global heating is making extreme weather increasingly common, and as droughts dry up underground aquifers, tribes will probably need to turn to the Missouri for drinking water, according to Tim Grant, director of environmental protection for the Omaha tribe. “We’re very concerned about what’s in the river, it’s an important part of our culture and traditions,” said Grant, who has started testing the fish for toxins.

The UCS research also found Tyson plants located close to critical habitats for endangered or threatened species – including the whooping crane, the tallest and among the rarest birds in North America.

There are currently only 500 or so wild whooping cranes – up from 20 birds in the 1940s – which stop to feed and rest along a shallow stretch of the Platte River, a tributary of the Missouri in central Nebraska, as they migrate between the Texas Gulf coast and Canada. The majestic white birds feed in the cornfields that surround the Platte River, outnumbered by the slate gray sandhill cranes that also migrate through Nebraska each spring.

Tyson’s sprawling Lexington slaughterhouse and beef processing plant is situated less than two miles from the Platte River – among four federally designated critical habitats considered essential to conservation of the whooping crane.

“The cumulative effects of exposure to these industrial toxins could pose a long-term threat to the cranes’ food sources, reproductive success and resilience as a species,” said George Cunningham, a retired aquatic ecologist and Missouri River expert at Sierra Club Nebraska.

“Poor environmental regulation is down to the stranglehold industrial agriculture has on politics – at every level. It’s about political capture.”

Wednesday, April 24, 2024

A specimen of the Celestus occiduus housed at the Natural History Museum, London. Photo by Simon J. Tonge via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 3.0 DEED. This is the same lizard species that is being repatriated to Jamaica, though not the specific specimen.

Culturally, many Jamaicans have a horror of lizards, shuddering at the mere thought of one. As such, many did not share the excitement of Jamaican and British scientists over a recent announcement by the University of the West Indies (UWI) that a specimen of the Jamaican Giant Galliwasp — presumed extinct — will be going home to Jamaica on April 24, having been in the Hunterian Collection at the University of Glasgow, Scotland since 1888.

An official handover ceremony will celebrate the Giant Galliwasp making the Natural History Museum of Jamaica in Kingston its new home, where it will be made accessible to the public. UWI announced the repatriation of this extraordinary creature, housed in a glass stoppered jar and preserved in ethanol, on social media:

The university also noted that the return of this impressive lizard has added significance for Jamaica and the region: “This repatriation exercise is momentous as it is the first repatriation of a natural history specimen in the Caribbean. It symbolises an important milestone for scientific research, cultural heritage preservation in the region, and repatriation as part of the reparatory justice for the Caribbean.”

UWI Vice Chancellor Sir Hilary Beckles, who chairs the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Reparations Commission, added, “By returning the galliwasp to its rightful place, we take a small but significant step towards laying the foundation for a regional and international discussion on repatriation.”

The Jamaican Giant Galliwasp (Celestus occiduus is — or was — no ordinary lizard. Suspected to be extinct, it was endemic to Jamaica and part of a family of anguid lizards known as diploglossines, which live in South and Central America and the Caribbean.

Experts believe this particular specimen would have been collected in the 1850s. As explained by one Scottish scientist, its demise is related to the colonial sugarcane plantation system and the British colonisers’ introduction of the predatory mongoose from India to the island in 1872:

The large, glossy, forked tongue reptile, which lived in swamps and marshes as well as rocky areas and forests, might still perhaps be found in Jamaica's Negril Morass or Black River Morass, but none have yet been discovered. Its diet consisted of fruit, fish, worms, insects and small lizards. It was a burrower and produced live young.

Although not venomous, galliwasps, in general, are often feared. One well-known superstition is that if the reptile bites someone, he/she must reach water before it does: if the galliwasp reaches water first, the person dies; if the person reaches water first, the galliwasp dies.

As Jamaican biologist Damion Whyte explains, there are 11 species of galliwasps globally, 10 of which are endemic, living only in Jamaica. Another species, the endangered Giant Hispaniola Galliwasp, lives in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and faces similar challenges to its Jamaican counterpart.

A Jamaican biologist shared a story on the repatriation, urging Jamaicans to put aside their fear and prejudices:

The return of this fascinating creature is not merely symbolic. In a WhatsApp conversation with Global Voices, biologist Damion Whyte welcomed the move, pointing out that the repatriation will encourage further much-needed research on galliwasps, helping to raise local awareness of the animal and the need to respect and protect wildlife.

It could also serve as an empowering boost for the scientific and museum community in developing countries like Jamaica. “I expect it would put some life in our museums that are underfunded,” Whyte said. “We have collections that are struggling to be preserved and need funding. There is this notion that third-world countries like Jamaica can't take care of their own natural heritage; hence, the developed countries should keep these valuable collections. I would love for us to prove them wrong.”

Adding that talk of the Jamaican Giant Galliwasp has now reached the international community, with many recognising that there are several artefacts in private collections and museums that people are unaware of, Whyte added, “It now starts the conversation on whether these artefacts should be returned to where they got them from.”

Apart from its scientific value, Whyte noted the cultural and historical significance of the repatriation, which the Repair Campaign, a social movement for reparatory justice guided by the CARICOM Reparations Commission, recognised in a tweet on X (formerly Twitter):

The University of the West Indies clarified that the repatriation is part of a much larger project “within the sphere of the execution of a 2019 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between The UWI and University of Glasgow (UofG), aimed at fostering collaboration in research and education and addressing the historical legacies of colonialism.”

UWI said one of the most tangible outcomes of the MOU is the Glasgow-Caribbean Centre for Development Research (GCCDR), which “funds research projects that advance development goals in the Caribbean, facilitates academic partnerships, and raises global awareness about the ongoing impact of historical slavery.”

The university stressed that “this repatriation not only represents the return of a valuable piece of Jamaican heritage, but also signifies a commitment by the UofG to rectify past injustices and ensure Caribbean ownership of its scientific and cultural treasures.”

Taking it one step further, the University of Glasgow has been examining the Giant Galliwasp specimen and many other artefacts contained in its Hunterian Collection as part of its “Curating Discomfort” project launched two years ago. The project faces up to some difficult truths regarding many museum displays of items taken, collected, or stolen by colonial powers by helping us to understand that “museums have perpetuated ideologies of white supremacy.”

Explaining that the British Empire “used these ideologies to justify the enslavement and colonisation of peoples and lands around the world,” it added that museums developed within this context and “remain spaces that celebrate and memorialise colonial systems.” Collections, displays and labels, it said, are therefore, “a political act that [has] legacies rooted in colonialism.”

Meanwhile, Jamaica's Culture Minister Olivia Grange has once again called for reparations, which a June 2023 report estimated could amount to as much as GBP 18.6 trillion (about USD 23 trillion):

While monetary compensation is a critical aspect of the reparations movement in the Caribbean, the repatriation of artefacts — including, for the first time in the region, a Caribbean biological specimen — forms part of the complex and continuously evolving reparations process.

Although there is no update on Jamaica's request five years ago for the repatriation of Taino artefacts, it is believed to be in process. Hope also remains alive that the Jamaican Giant Galliwasp could be rediscovered, as was another famous lizard, the critically endangered Jamaican Iguana, back in the 1990s.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment