Sunday, August 30, 2020

What's the science on deep-sea mining for rare metals?

Some of the most sought-after metals and minerals on Earth lie deep — and largely untouched — in our oceans. Science and industry have been exploring those depths for decades. Here's an overview of what we know.
   
Relicanthus sp.— a new species from a new order of Cnidaria collected at 4,100 meters in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone
Here's a simple fact to start: The oceans are huge. Oceans make up about 96.5% of all Earth's water. There's fresh water in the planet, in the ground or elsewhere on land in rivers and lakes — more than 70% of the planet is covered in water — and there's more all around us in the atmosphere. But the oceans are simply huge.
Our oceans remain some of the most under-researched parts of the planet. That's one reason why there's so much interest from both non-commercial scientists and those working in industry.
And when it comes to deep-sea research, there are two main areas of interest: conservation and mining.
Grown over millions of years: manganese nodules scattered on the deep seabed of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific
That's conservation of the many known and unknown species living at depths of up to about 5,500 meters in the Abyssal zone, which is predominantly in darkness.
That makes for some very unusual creatures that scientists would like to study out of pure interest. But because of this lack of knowledge it is also virtually impossible to know how species down there will react or survive once commercial mining begins.   
That's mining for metals and minerals, such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and copper, which are found in polymetallic nodules on the same seabed that's home to those unknown creatures.
In fact, some deep-sea creatures live on those very nodules, which some people think are just waiting to be scooped up and turned into phones. 

Why are we mining for these rare elements in the deep ocean?
We need (or want) them for a range of things, including the production of rechargeable batteries and touchscreens. And we're running low of these resources on land. That's also why there's an interest in mining asteroids — they hold important metals and minerals, too.
Sticking with the oceans, though, some estimates suggest there are greater deposits of manganese, cobalt and nickel on the deep-seabed than on land. Plus, there's more besides manganese nodules. There are polymetallic sulphides and cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts.
Watch video01:02

Creatures of the deep

Since when has this been going on?
The International Seabed Authority (ISA) says it all began in 1873, and almost by chance, on an oceanography voyage conducted by a ship called HMS Challenger. The ISA says the ship's dredge hauled up "several peculiar black oval bodies which were composed of almost pure manganese oxide."
Those peculiar objects are now known as polymetallic or manganese nodules. They are often also referred to as potatoes — between 3 and 10 centimeters (1 and 4 inches) in diameter, and black. 
It wasn't until the 1960s, however, when an American mining engineer, John L. Mero, brought manganese nodules to a "broader scientific readership" with his book "The Mineral Resources of the Sea."
A manganese nodule — the size of a large potatoes, but far more valuable to industry
That's according to Dr. Ole Sparenberg, a science historian at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.
Sparenberg says Mero's book "drew the picture of an easy-to-harvest, vast, and virtually unlimited resource, which he even imagined as inexhaustible as the resource was allegedly growing faster than it could be exploited."
Mero may have been wrong about the latter notion, as more recent science suggests that areas that have been harvested for nodules show little sign of recovery even after 30 and 40 years. The nodules grow at a rate of millimeters per million years.


Sorry, what's the International Seabed Authority? 
The ISA describes itself as "an autonomous international organization established under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the 1994 Agreement relating to the Implementation of Part XI of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea."
Basically, its role is divided between encouraging and supporting both industry and science, mining and conservation.
Where are we mining?
Well, commercial deep-sea mining has yet to really get off the ground. The ISA is still working on a mining code and other regulations, which some hope will be agreed at the body's next annual meeting (which has been postponed until October 2020).
A cobalt crust collected by German researchers from a seemount off the coast of West Africa
But the ISA has entered into a number of 15-year exploration contracts. At time of writing, the ISA says that includes 30 contractors, which are often companies sponsored by their national governments.
There are deposits all around the world. But a lot of the current interest is focused on the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCZ) in the Pacific.
Eighteen of those contracts are for exploration for polymetallic nodules in the CCZ. Other contracts are for exploration in the Central Indian Ocean Basin and Western Pacific Ocean, and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Who are the main players?
Germany, for instance, has an exploration contract for polymetallic sulphides.
Polymetallic sulphides are a source of base metals, including copper, zinc, lead, and tin. They also include precious and special metals like gold, silver bismuth, selenium, tellurium, gallium or indium, which are used to make electronic components, like solar panels, and in telecommunication and other computer industries.
Other players include China, South Korea, Brazil, Russia, Japan — they have exploration contracts for cobalt-rich ferromanganese crusts. Cobalt is a vital component in batteries, including car batteries. It is a rare mineral and considered dangerous to mine on land.
Deep-sea mining presents an advantage on that score as the ocean-based resources would be "harvested" by remotely-controlled machines that suck up the nodules or scrape crusts from underwater ridges.

One of many strange and wonderful deep-seabed creatures: Sea Cucumber Amperima sp. on the seabed in the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone
Poland, India, France, the UK, Belgian, Singapore, and, significantly, the Pacific islands of Kiribati, Cook Islands, Tonga, and Nauru have interests as well. It's significant because historically, it's been other countries, such as Australia, that have wanted to benefit from resources owned by the Pacific islander states.
Sounds great. What's the catch?
The problem is that the science seems to be lagging behind the more commercial interests in deep-seabed research. But it is catching up. And the concerns — while yet to be fully verified — have long existed.
A now nine-year-old study led by Dmitry M. Miljutin in France suggested that "about 1 square kilometers of sea floor will be mined daily, or about 6,000 square kilometers over the 20-year life of a mine site. […] Thus, the vast deep-sea seafloor will be seriously disturbed during the mining operations."
More recently, a study published this year by James Hein, Andrea Koschinsky and Thomas Kuhn suggests nodule collectors "will crush any organisms that are unable to escape and compact the sediment, reducing its habitability for sediment infauna."
Just waiting to be scooped up? Manganese nodules provide a habitat for many deep-seabed creatures
Additionally, the authors write that nodule mining could alter the geochemical composition of the sediment and water and cause "a short-term release of potentially toxic metals."
It's all "ifs and conditionals" at this point, but that's precisely why scientists want more time research the impact of deep-sea mining.
Watch video01:21

The big space treasure hunt

For instance, it's unclear how sediment will disperse when it's disturbed by a nodule harvester. The harvester may create so-called plumes — clouds — of sediment that could move unevenly across the seabed. Some creatures in the ocean's Abyssal zone live on the nodules and others, such as single-celled creatures called xenophyophores, use the sediment as covering, a safe habitat.
There are also concerns that ships above the harvesters will dump waste sediment and that that could suffocate plankton.   
The ISA has designated Areas of Particular Environmental Interest (APEIs).
In the US, the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research says that the "APEIs were placed across the CCZ to protect and represent the full range of biodiversity and habitats in the region."
But the APEIs directly border those mining "claim areas." And some research suggests the sediment could resettle up to 10 kilometers away from a harvesting site, with unknown consequences.
Watch video02:55

Student mission: Saving the sea

One such area of concern is out in the Atlantic: the Lost City Hydrothermal Field. 
Engineers are working on harvester technology that may reduce those plumes of sediment, but that's also a work in progress.
What we do know for certain is that areas where harvesting has been tested have so far shown little sign of recovery. There are two examples:
One test was conducted in 1989 — the DISCOL experiment led by Hjalmar Thiel, a scientist based in Hamburg. And the other was done by the Ocean Minerals Company out of the USA in the area of a French mining claim in the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone.
Decades later, the tracks of the dredgers could still clearly be seen.

  • SPLASHING ABOUT IN THE COAL PIT

    From mining to tourism

    In the days of the former East Germany, more than 65,000 miners were employed in Lausatia's coal mining sector. Thousands lost their jobs when mines shut down in the 1990s. To compensate, the region decided to boost its tourism sector, and the transformation has been ongoing ever since. Almost 37,000 acres of land ravaged by mining will eventually become Europe's biggest water
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Germans are 'waking up' to anti-Black racism after George Floyd protest

GERMAN CULTURE RACIST SAY IT AIN'T SO AFTER ALL THEY INVENTED ARYAN ARCHAEOLOGY 


Ann-Kathrin Pohlers,NBC News•August 16, 2020

Malick Gohou says it’s happened when he has dressed in a suit on his way to work. It’s happened as he walks on the street of his hometown in Heidelberg, Germany, wearing jeans and a T-shirt. It’s happened when he’s out on the town with friends.

Gohou, 26, says he’s lost count of how many times the police have stopped him to check his ID or ask what he’s doing, but he estimates it’s somewhere from 20 to 30. Last month, he had to have pictures taken of his face and hands because “a guy who fit his description” had gotten into a brawl somewhere.

“I’m being stopped in situations where I’m like, ‘This can’t have anything to do with my behavior,’” said Gohou, whose father is from the Ivory Coast and whose mother is half-German and half-Polish. “This happens one time, two times – OK, fine – but after that, you’re like, this can’t be a coincidence anymore.”
Image: Malick Gohou with his father Deme Gohou who came to Germany from the Ivory Coast in 1980. (Courtesy Malick Gohou)

Though officially banned in Germany, where there are estimated to be around a million people of Black descent in Germany, racial profiling is regularly experienced by people of color, according to activists and residents. Protests held in the wake of George Floyd’s death have helped the issue gain prominence and even resulted in a change to the laws in two cities. Now, activists are hoping that these changes will come into force around the country.


The cities of Berlin and Bremen both passed new anti-discrimination legislation in June. In Berlin, people who believe they are victims of racial profiling can now more easily file a complaint against law enforcement with the police needing to prove that they didn’t rely on racial profiling. Previously, the person filing the complaint needed to prove they were profiled.

In Bremen, the city’s local politicians have incorporated a ban on racial profiling into the law governing the police. It includes a proviso that identity checks are only allowed in limited form even in areas considered by police to be “places of danger” like train stations where it is legal to check anyone for ID even without cause.

For Alioune Sall these changes can’t come soon enough. Sall, 26, son of a German mother and a Senegalese father, said he has been stopped and even searched on some occasions by police around 15 times in the past eight years. He often feels singled out by police, especially when with a group of white friends.
Image: Protest Against Racism and Police Brutality In Berlin (Emmanuele Contini / NurPhoto via Getty Images file)

At a music festival several years ago in Mannheim, next to Heidelberg, he described how police officers asked him for ID, then took him to the side to question and search him.

“My friends were allowed to stay back,” Sall said. “I endure it but I don’t understand why it is that way. When you challenge the officers over it they simply deny it and then that’s that. What else is there you can do?”

When contacted for comment on these incidents, the Mannheim Police Department said in a statement to NBC News that “skin color, ethnicity or descent are principally irrelevant for police action.”

Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics

German organizations don’t collect ethnic data due to the country’s history with the persecution of minorities. Because of that, police departments do not keep statistics on the ethnicity of the people they stop and there are no reliable numbers on how many people of color are stopped by police.

However, the Justice Ministry announced in June plans to probe the scale of racial profiling in policing “to give this phenomenon a factual basis.” Several weeks later, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer called the study off, saying that racial profiling is already illegal and can be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

“Policing starts with stops and ID’ing but can also end in death as in the case of Oury Jalloh,” said Tahir Della, a spokesperson for the Initiative for Black People in Germany, an activist organization which acted as advisers to Berlin’s lawmakers during the process to pass the new anti-profiling law.

Jalloh, a 36-year-old asylum seeker from Sierra Leone, died in police custody in 2005 and his death is often pointed to by activists as an example of racism in law enforcement. Jalloh burned to death in a police cell in Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, and his body was found with his hands and feet tied to a mattress.

His name was often printed on signs held aloft during the demonstrations in June.
 George Floyd protest in Berlin (Abdulhamid Hosbas / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images file)

“There is still a very narrow understanding of racism in Germany,” Della said. “It is, so to speak, only racism when an intention can be proven. That is not how institutional racism works.”

He would like future laws to be made with the understanding that racist action is possible even without intent.

Around 33 percent of people surveyed in Germany as part of a “Being Black in the E.U.” study, conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, said they have experienced discrimination based on their ethnic background.

According to Rafael Behr, a professor at the Police Academy in Hamburg, the problem with law enforcement is that it is a dominant culture, as he calls it.

“The police assume they define what is normal and what is not, who belongs and who doesn’t belong,” he said.

“When police officers rely on their empirical values or gut feeling during stops, it can be problematic because, of course, they sometimes create a bad experience, which can then lead to bias” in future interactions, said Behr, a former police officer.

In addition to the changes to the law in Berlin and Bremen, there are other small signs that the protests this spring, and the subsequent renewed emphasis on anti-racism, is having an impact.
Image: Black Lives Matter protest Germany (Maja Hitij / Getty Images)

In Berlin, demonstrators in June revived a 20-year controversy surrounding the name of the Mohrenstraße subway station. “Mohr”, or moor in English, is a dated and offensive term for a person of color. Protesters tampered with the subway sign so it read “George Floyd Street.”

On July 3, Berlin’s BVG transit authority announced that the station would be renamed.

“We wanted to get rid of the current name as it is discriminating towards all nonwhite people,” their spokesperson told NBC News.

Politicians are now debating whether to rename the entire street in Berlin-Mitte, the city’s Senate Department for the Environment, Transport, and Climate Protection told NBC News.

For Gohou, even these small changes are giving him a sense of hope.

“The protests are the first step and we have to start somewhere,” he said. “Many white people are now waking up to what’s been going wrong. Before it was black people advocating for black people and now you see white people protesting for civil rights everywhere. It does feel like our generation is changing something.
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200 000 years ago, humans preferred to kip cozy

Humans prepared beds to sleep on right at the dawn of our species -- over 200 000 years ago
UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND


IMAGE
IMAGE: BORDER CAVE IN THE LEBOMBO MOUNTAINS. PANORAMA FROM DRONE IMAGES. A. KRUGER view more 
CREDIT: A. KRUGER

Researchers in South Africa's Border Cave, a well-known archaeological site perched on a cliff between eSwatini (Swaziland) and KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, have found evidence that people have been using grass bedding to create comfortable areas for sleeping and working on at least 200 000 years ago.
These beds, consisting of sheaves of grass of the broad-leafed Panicoideae subfamily were placed near the back of the cave on ash layers. The layers of ash was used to protect the people against crawling insects while sleeping. Today, the bedding layers are visually ephemeral traces of silicified grass, but they can be identified using high magnification and chemical characterisation.
The Border Cave study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, the CNRS (University of Bordeaux), and Université Côte d'Azur, France, the Instituto Superior de Estudios Sociales, Tucumán, Argentina, and the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, Belgium. The research was published in the high impact journal Science.
"We speculate that laying grass bedding on ash was a deliberate strategy, not only to create a dirt-free, insulated base for the bedding, but also to repel crawling insects," says Professor Lyn Wadley, principal researcher and lead author.
"Sometimes the ashy foundation of the bedding was a remnant of older grass bedding that had been burned to clean the cave and destroy pests. On other occasions, wood ash from fireplaces was also used as the clean surface for a new bedding layer."
Several cultures have used ash as an insect repellent because insects cannot easily move through fine powder. Ash blocks insects' breathing and biting apparatus, and eventually dehydrates them. Tarchonanthus (camphor bush) remains were identified on the top of the grass from the oldest bedding in the cave. This plant is still used to deter insects in rural parts of East Africa.


"We know that people worked as well as slept on the grass surface because the debris from stone tool manufacture is mixed with the grass remains. Also, many tiny, rounded grains of red and orange ochre were found in the bedding where they may have rubbed off human skin or coloured objects," says Wadley.
Modern hunter-gatherer camps have fires as focal points; people regularly sleep alongside them and perform domestic tasks in social contexts. People at Border Cave also lit fires regularly, as seen by stacked fireplaces throughout the sequence dated between about 200 000 and 38 000 years ago.
"Our research shows that before 200 000 years ago, close to the origin of our species, people could produce fire at will, and they used fire, ash, and medicinal plants to maintain clean, pest-free camps. Such strategies would have had health benefits that advantaged these early communities."
Although hunter-gatherers tend to be mobile and seldom stay in one place for more than a few weeks, cleansing camps had the potential to extend potential occupancy.


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Is Africa a victim of bias by international investors?

African leaders are flagging "unjustifiably" high borrowing rates charged by global investors. International organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank are equally complicit in perpetrating the bias, experts say.





The economic blow dealt by the coronavirus pandemic has reignited a sentiment that Africans have shared for years: Their growth is inhibited by widespread discrimination by the international investor community.

As the virus batters the continent's economy and throws government budgets into chaos, the spotlight has shifted onto the exorbitant amounts of money that African nations spend on debt repayments even as large creditors like China, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the G-20 nations offer debt relief to deal with the current predicament.

African countries on average spend more on interest payments than on doctors and clinics at home, with Ghana spending five times its health care budget on servicing debt. Africa's top oil producer, Nigeria, which is reeling from a crash in oil prices, could only manage to collect revenue equal to its debt-servicing costs in the first quarter.

Amid the economic pain, African leaders and experts are flagging the "unfair" risk premium put on African countries — which results in them having to pay more for debt than other emerging nations — as an unnecessary burden. They say the risk premium is rooted in bias and is often based on a misplaced presumption of risk by international investors.

"When you look at the risk premium put on African countries you just question, why," Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana's finance minister, told Bloomberg in July. "There is no basis for us borrowing at 6%, 7%, or 8% while other countries borrow at cheaper rates."

Africa has its problems: conflicts, political instability and rampant corruption in certain countries, lack of infrastructure, and stifling bureaucracy and regulations. But experts say that even if one accounts for all these factors, a 2.9% risk premium, as was revealed by a 2015 report, is unjustified.
Argentina vs. Angola

They cite the example of Argentina to stress their point. The Latin American country, which has reneged on its debt on nine occasions, issued a 100-year bond in 2017 with a coupon of 7%, which to the surprise of many was oversubscribed. By comparison, Angola hasn't defaulted since the end of its civil war in 2002 and yet is charged a higher rate of over 9% that too for much shorter-dated bonds.

"If this is a country [Argentina] with a history of defaulting on its loans, this is a country that's at junk status and is still capable of issuing $2 billion in debt that's oversubscribed up to $9 billion, and they don't have to pay back for 100 years. So, what exactly is the risk that is being built into the model when it comes to the African countries," said Gyude Moore, a senior policy fellow at the Center for Global Development and former minister of public works in Liberia.

African economic powerhouse South Africa is also a victim of this alleged bias. The country is charged higher rates by bondholders than say a Brazil, which is assigned a similar credit score by S&P Global Ratings. Similarly, Kenya pays more for a 10-year dollar debt than similarly rated Bolivia.

Mma Amara, a research associate at the Center for the Study of the Economies of Africa (CSEA), says this discrimination was one of the factors pushing African nations to borrow from China, which offers better rates than private creditors and lays down less stringent conditions than multilateral institutions like the IMF.

Africa's checkered credit history

One reason that experts give to justify this disparity is that the continent has a limited credit history and that too is checkered with credit reliefs, renegotiations and debt restructuring.

"Even though the entire world was hit by the virus, it's only African countries that have come out to say that they can't pay their debts," Amara told DW. "It just speaks to their sentiments. Investors feel that the African countries are susceptible to asking for debt restructuring or defaulting on debts or asking for more favorable terms."

The wrongful diversion of debt — often raised to finance infrastructure projects — to instead balance budgets and support currencies is another obvious red flag for risk. The IMF says in only one in four cases did they see the debt that was contracted was used for infrastructure.

Charles Robertson, the global chief economist at Renaissance Capital, says there is no "obvious" discrimination against African borrowers and cites the example of Morocco, which can borrow extremely cheaply. He attributes the low rate of domestic savings for high local borrowing costs in sub-Saharan Africa.

"This is not because locals discriminate against their own governments — it is because there are not many savings," he told DW. "If Morocco cannot borrow at 2-3% externally, it can borrow at 2-3% internally. But if Nigeria (or Ghana) cannot borrow at single-digit rates externally, their only alternative is to borrow at double digits internally."

He argues that some sub-Saharan countries in fact borrow at lower rates than they should as implied by their credit ratings because they help global investors diversify their loan book.
Lack of credible data

Moore rejects the savings argument, pointing that Angola's savings as a proportion of GDP were higher than that of Argentina. He blames credit rating agencies' "unfamiliarity" with the region as a key reason for the risk premium.

"The three rating agencies will at best have an office in South Africa that is responsible for the entire continent. So how much do they know," he told DW. "But there's a Fitch office for Mexico. There's one for Brazil. There's one for Chile."

The presumption of risk also emanates from a lack of credible information and data that investors in the West have about Africa, often prompting them to paint the entire continent with the same brush.

Chinese in Zambia: Tension with the new arrivals

'IMF data strengthens the bias'

Amara from CSEA blames a lack of representation of Africans in key decision-making roles in global financial institutions for the problem and goes to bat for a more inclusive governance framework.

Moore, however, stresses that lack of representation is not the issue, but it's the general perception of the continent in those institutions. He points out that a current deputy managing director of the IMF is a former Liberian finance minister and that the World Bank always has vice presidents for the region.

"It's not just the country of origin, it's the mindset of the institution. So, you can have African economies at the World Bank. If you think in the World Bank's mindset, then it doesn't matter if it's African or not," he said. "In these organizations, there is no reward for going against the grain. So, people working within those institutions are beginning to think and write in the way that the institutions think."

He says the IMF, which has far more access to African books than the rating agencies, is part of the problem. In December last year, the IMF warned that 40% of African nations were at moderate or high risk of distress. This after the continent raised $55 billion in international markets in the past two years, taking advantage of record commodity prices and yield-hunting investors in an ultralow interest rate environment. Some African analysts dismissed the IMF's concerns, citing the continent's relatively low debt levels. The debt-to-GDP ratio in most African countries is below the IMF's suggested 55% threshold.

"We have assigned way more responsibility to the rating agencies than we have to the IMF. The IMF ranks African governments in terms of the risks of debt distress and that ranking because of the access they have to our books plays a very big role in the decisions of rating agencies," Moore said.

"The data coming from the IMF strengthens the bias that already exists within the rating agencies."

Moore says African nations need to work in unison to expose the bias and call on international institutions, rating agencies and bond contractors to explain the rationale behind high risk premium.

"There ought to be an African push to be able to clarify the ratings and the costs of this. What is responsible for driving the premium on African debt? Because it can't simply be governance. It can't simply be lack of data."

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That sinking feeling: Canadians losing faith in price index and that has central bankers worried
MAGICKAL THINKING
Kevin Carmichael:
If we think prices are rising, they probably will, 
which means interest rate hikes sooner than BoC wants

 Author of the article:Kevin Carmichael

 Publishing date:Aug 26, 2020 • 

The Bank of Canada is in the middle of a major review of how it sets interest rates. 
PHOTO BY CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS FILES

 The Bank of Canada is starting to worry about inflation.

 Not because it sees any, mind. The Consumer Price Index (CPI), in which the central bank insists that it still has confidence, suggests inflation is non-existent. The CPI rose only 0.1 per cent in July from a year earlier, suggesting deflation is a bigger risk than runaway prices.

 That sinking feeling: Canadians losing faith in price index and that has central bankers worried

 Still, Carolyn Wilkins, senior deputy governor at the Bank of Canada, conceded in a speech on Aug. 26 that a growing number of Canadians are losing faith in the CPI and therefore in the central bank’s assurances that inflation is under control.

 That matters because there is a self-fulfilling element to cost dynamics: If we think prices are rising, they probably will. And if the central bank can’t control expectations, it might have to raise interest rates sooner than it would like in order to stay within range of its inflation goal, which at the end of the day is its only job.

 “There is one area where we need to dig in more. That is the measure of our inflation target,” Wilkins said. “Many people feel that inflation is higher than reported.”

 Wilkins’s comments are the clearest signal yet that policy-makers think they could have a problem on their hands that is separate from the immediate concern of facing down the COVID-19 recession.


The Bank of Canada is in the middle of a major review of how it sets interest rates. While holding consultations last year, it discovered that a critical mass of Canadians think the CPI is an abstraction that has little connection to their daily lives. The lockdowns exacerbated the problem, as shopping patterns shifted dramatically. We essentially stopped spending on recreation and travel, and instead bought more at grocery stores. Yet the CPI continued to factor in what was happening with movie tickets and restaurant meals even though those things no longer mattered to people.

 “The price of meat has risen by more than four per cent since February,” Wilkins said. “That doesn’t feel like low inflation to me or to many families, yet measured inflation is close to zero when you consider the full basket of goods and services.”

 Evidence that the public is becoming skeptical of the way statisticians measure inflation adds a new dimension to the Bank of Canada’s research program.

 When policy-makers started thinking about the issues they should explore back in 2017, the emphasis was on whether there might be a better way to set interest rates than targeting an annual two-per-cent increase in the CPI, the Bank of Canada’s approach since the early 1990s.
It’s critical that we measure inflation as accurately as possible so Canadians have confidence in our target
CAROLYN WILKINS

 That work is coming along. Rhys Mendes, the central bank’s managing director of international economic analysis, presented at a virtual conference on Aug. 26 an overview of preliminary results of the “horse race” officials are conducting between a set of popular theories on how central banks should conduct monetary policy.

 So far, the current regime is performing well. Adding an employment goal to the inflation target also produces positive outcomes, as does a framework that attempts to achieve an average rate of inflation over a longer period of time. Mendes had fewer positive things to say about two other approaches that are popular with academics: price-level targeting, which would require setting interest rates to achieve a specific increase in the CPI rather than a rate of change; and the idea that central banks should target a certain change in nominal gross domestic product.

 To be sure, the Bank of Canada’s research so far detects only marginal differences between all the approaches. “I’m not sure the gains would justify shifting away from the current mandate,” said Mendes, who early in his presentation made clear that he was speaking for himself and not Governor Tiff Macklem, Wilkins and the other members of the Governing Council.

The research is primarily based on models, including some that attempt to forecast how the various regimes would affect income inequality. But the Bank of Canada’s economists aren’t relying entirely on their mathematical prowess and the power of their computers. They also conducted human trials in which they explained the various policy regimes in detail and then gave subjects $25 to spend. The idea was to observe what actual people would do with real money based on their sense of how inflation would eat away at their present wealth. The result: mostly irrational behaviour, as participants tended to be more persuaded by “trends” than the calculations of central bankers and statisticians, among other things.

 Wilkins pledged to make the CPI more believable. The central bank and Statistics Canada already are working on an alternate inflation measure that has re-weighted the items in the CPI basket to reflect current spending patterns. Last month, the Bank of Canada said the alternate calculations suggested inflation was a little hotter than the official reading, but not so much so that it was ready to abandon the CPI.

 At least not yet.

 “Last year during our consultations, we heard loud and clear that the measure of inflation needed to be considered,” Wilkins said. “This work continues now at an accelerated pace,” she added. “It’s critical that we measure inflation as accurately as possible so Canadians have confidence in our target; and we must address public perceptions in our analysis and communications.”

 Financial Post

 • Email: kcarmichael@postmedia.com | Twitter: CarmichaelKevin





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Researchers Discover Method to Produce Plastics Without Using Fossil Fuels

 Researchers have identified a formerly unknown method through which certain bacteria create the chemical ethylene

 —a discovery that could pave the way for producing plastics without using fossil fuels.

Download PDF Copy
Written by AZoM Aug 28 2020

Ethylene production plants like this one may one day use bacteria rather than fossil fuels. Image Credit: The Ohio State University.

Recently published in the Science journal on August 27th, 2020, the study demonstrated that the microorganisms produced ethylene gas as a byproduct of metabolizing sulfur, which they require for their survival.

However, according to Justin North, the study’s lead author and a research scientist in microbiology at The Ohio State University, the process used by the bacteria to do that could render it highly useful in manufacturing.

We may have cracked a major technological barrier to producing a large amount of ethylene gas that could replace fossil fuel sources in making plastics. There’s still a lot of work to do to develop these strains of bacteria to produce industrially significant quantities of ethylene gas. But this opens the door.

Justin North, Study Lead Author and Research Scientist in Microbiology, The Ohio State University

The team from The Ohio State University worked on the new study with collaborators from Colorado State University, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

According to North, the chemical sector extensively uses ethylene to make almost all kinds of plastics. Ethylene has been utilized more than any other organic compound in manufacturing.

At present, oil or natural gas is used for producing ethylene. While other scientists have identified microorganisms that can also produce ethylene, there had been a technological hurdle to using this chemical—the requirement for oxygen as part of the procedure, stated Robert Tabita, the study’s senior author and professor of microbiology from The Ohio State University.

Oxygen plus ethylene is explosive, and that is a major hurdle for using it in manufacturing. But the bacterial system we discovered to produce ethylene works without oxygen and that gives us a significant technological advantage.

Robert Tabita, Study Senior Author and Professor of Microbiology, The Ohio State University

Tabita is also an Ohio Eminent Scholar.

The finding was made in Tabita’s laboratory at The Ohio State University when scientists were analyzing the Rhodospirillum rubrum bacteria. The team observed that the bacteria were getting the sulfur they required to grow from methylthio ethanol.

We were trying to understand how the bacteria were doing this, because there were no known chemical reactions for how this was occurring.

Justin North, Study Lead Author and Research Scientist in Microbiology, The Ohio State University

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That was the time when North decided to observe the kind of gases being produced by the bacteria—and identified that ethylene gas was one of them.

In association with collaborators from Colorado State University and the two national laboratories, North, Tabita, and other collaborators from The Ohio State University successfully identified the formerly unknown process

There is more: The team also noted that dimethyl sulfide was being used by the bacteria to make methane—a powerful greenhouse gas.
North added that the entire study was carried out in the laboratory; hence, it remains to be seen how common this process is in the actual setting.
However, the team has identified one scenario in which this recently identified process of ethylene production may have real-life impacts.
Ethylene is a crucial natural plant hormone that, in the correct proportions, is integral to the growth and health of plants. However, high quantities of this hormone are also dangerous to the growth of plants, stated Kelly Wrighton, the study’s co-author and associate professor of soil and crop science from Colorado State University.
“This newly discovered pathway may shed light on many previously unexplained environmental phenomena, including the large amounts of ethylene that accumulates to inhibitory levels in waterlogged soils, causing extensive crop damage,” stated Wrighton.
North added, “Now that we know how it happens, we may be able to circumvent or treat these problems so that ethylene doesn’t accumulate in soils when flooding occurs.”
According to Tabita, this research is the outcome of a happy accident.
“This study, involving the collaborative research and expertise of two universities and two national laboratories, is a perfect example of how serendipitous findings often lead to important advances. Initially, our studies involved a totally unrelated research problem that had seemingly no relationship to the findings reported here,” added Tabita.
While exploring the function of one specific protein in bacteria sulfur metabolism, the team observed that a completely different set of proteins was surprisingly involved as well. This resulted in the discovery of new metabolic reactions and the unanticipated production of huge quantities of ethylene.
“It was a result we could not predict in a million years. Recognizing the industrial and environmental significance of ethylene, we embarked on these cooperative studies, and subsequently discovered a completely novel complex enzyme system. Who would have believed it?” Tabita concluded.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Science Foundation funded this study.
Other co-authors of the study were Kathryn Byerly, Guanqi Zhao, Sarah Young, Srividya Murali, and John Wildenthal from The Ohio State University; Adrienne Narrowe from Colorado State; Weili Xiong and Robert Hettich from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory; and William Cannon from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

Journal Reference:

North, J. A., et al. (2020) A nitrogenase-like enzyme system catalyzes methionine, ethylene, and methane biogenesis. Science. doi.org/10.1126/science.abb6310.
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GAS MADE BY BACTERIA MAY ONE DAY REPLACE FOSSIL FUELS IN PLASTIC PRODUCTION, SCIENTISTS SAY 

BY KASHMIRA GANDER ON 8/28/20 

A type of bacteria can produce a key ingredient of plastics. That's according to scientists who hope their discovery may one day see fossil fuels replaced in manufacturing.

Ethylene gas is used in the manufacture of most plastic products, and is made from oil or natural gas. Bacteria examined in a study published in the journal Science gave off ethylene after metabolizing sulfur.

The team stumbled across the discovery by mistake. They were growing and observing Rhodospirillum rubrum bacteria and its relatives in a lab for an ongoing study, to understand what would happen if they did not have access to sulfur, which they need to live. The teachers noticed the germs were producing ethylene, among other gases.

To shed light on ethylene production, they then grew the bacteria in low and high sulfur environments and documented the proteins involved in these scenarios.

When the team turned off certain genes they thought were related to ethylene production in the bacteria, they stopped creating the gas.

Justin North, a research scientist in microbiology at Ohio State University who led the research said in a statement: "We may have cracked a major technological barrier to producing, a large amount of ethylene gas that could replace fossil fuel sources in making plastics."

He said: "There's still a lot of work to do to develop these strains of bacteria to produce industrially significant quantities of ethylene gas. But this opens the door."

Senior author Robert Tabita, professor of microbiology at Ohio State, said the bacteria produce ethylene without needing oxygen. This is important as bacteria had been found to create ethylene in previous research, but with the help of oxygen.

"Oxygen plus ethylene is explosive, and that is a major hurdle for using it in manufacturing," said Tabita. Bacteria creating the gas without oxygen "gives us a significant technological advantage," he said.

Ethylene is a plant hormone which can be harmful in large amounts. Kelly Wrighton, co-author and associate professor of soil and crop science at Colorado State University, said the study may also explain why large quantities of ethylene in waterlogged soil cause "extensive crop damage."

North said: "Now that we know how it happens, we may be able to circumvent or treat these problems so that ethylene doesn't accumulate in soils when flooding occurs."

This study is the latest example of scientists thinking about the relationship between plastics and bacteria. Earlier this year, scientists found a strain of bacteria that can feed off the material. According to the study published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology, the Pseudomonas sp. TDA1 strain consumed what is known as polyurethane.

Co-author Hermann J. Heipieper, a senior scientist at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ in Leipzig, Germany, said in a statement: "The bacteria can use these compounds as a sole source of carbon, nitrogen and energy.


"This finding represents an important step in being able to reuse hard-to-recycle PU [polyurethane] products."
A stock image shows a collection of plastic bottles.GETTY
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Scientists create ‘walking robot army’ in breakthrough - ‘Batteries and brains’

SCIENTISTS have created an army of minuscule walking robots in a new breakthrough.

PUBLISHED: Sun, Aug 30, 2020

The objects are the first microscopic robots that are made out of semiconductor components. This allows the bots to be controlled and forced to walk with standard electronic signals.

These let the machines to be integrated into more traditional circuits.

The authors’ robots, although not autonomous in their current form, can be seen as a platform to which ‘brains’ and a battery can be attached

Dr Allan Brooks and Dr Michael Strano

The researchers behind the discovery now hope they can be built into even more complex versions.

This could allow the robots to eventually be able to be controlled by computer chips and replicated en masse.


And they could also one day be built to allow them to travel through human tissue and blood, acting like surgeons.


Scientists have created an army of miniscle walking robots in a new breakthrough (Image: Getty)

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Scientists Allan Brooks and Michael Strano, who did not work in the study, wrote: “The authors’ robots, although not autonomous in their current form, can be seen as a platform to which ‘brains’ and a battery can be attached.”

The most significant area of the research saw the creation of tiny electrochemical actuators.

These were then used to form the legs of the robots.

Those legs are about 0.1mm in size, approximately the width of a human hair.

An array of microscopic robots before releas (Image: Marc Miskin)

Despite their tiny scale, the robots can be operated when stimulated with lasers, allowing them to walk.

Engineers are able to operate them by hitting the legs with an ultra-low current.

This process forced the legs to twist and then untwist, making the robots move.

The robots can be manufactured in huge quantities, with the researchers behind the new paper producing more than a million of the walking robots on just a four-inch area of silicon.

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The scientists behind the study think the robots are the first to be created that are smaller than 0.1mm that can be controlled with on-board electronics.

They are able to withstand harsh environments, continuing to work even in the face of highly acidic conditions and extreme temperature variations.

Because they can be injected through hypodermic needles, a version of the robot could be used to explore the inside bodies.

However, major limitations to the robots remain, the researchers accept.

The most significant area of the research saw the creation of tiny electrochemical actuators (Image: Express)

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They are also slower than other comparable robots able to swim.

And they are unable to sense their environments and they have to be controlled externally.

They are consequently something like ‘marionettes’, instead of fully autonomous.

While such an approach allows for impressive demonstrations of the technology, researchers note that some degree of autonomy will be required.

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