Scientists Declare Climate Emergency: Earth’s Vital Signs Worsen Amid Business-As-Usual on Climate Change

TOPICS:Carbon CaptureClimate ChangeCoral Reefs

By WOODWELL CLIMATE RESEARCH CENTER AUGUST 3, 2021

Scientists reaffirm 2019 climate emergency declaration and again call for transformative change based on updated trends.

In 2019, a coalition of more than 11,000 scientists from across the globe declared a climate emergency and established a set of vital signs for the Earth in order to measure effective climate action. Now, twenty months later, a new study published on July 28, 2021, in BioScience finds that those vital signs reflect the consequences of unrelenting “business-as-usual” on climate change.

Specifically, authors of the study note an unprecedented surge in climate-related disasters since 2019, including devastating floods, record-shattering heat waves and extraordinary storms and wildfires. 2020 was the second hottest year in history, with the five hottest years on record all occurring since 2015. The study also notes that three key greenhouse gases — carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide — set records for atmospheric concentrations in 2020 and again in 2021. In April 2021, carbon dioxide concentration reached 416 parts per million, the highest monthly global average concentration ever recorded.

In response to these unprecedented findings and the ongoing climate crisis, the study calls for a phase-out of fossil fuels; strategic climate reserves for the storage of carbon and the protection of biodiversity; and a global price for carbon high enough to induce “decarbonization” across the industrial and consumption spectrum.

“The extreme climate events and patterns that we’ve witnessed over the last several years — not to mention the last several weeks — highlight the heightened urgency with which we must address the climate crisis,” said Dr. Philip Duffy, co-author of the study and Executive Director of the Woodwell Climate Research Center. “Without a plan for rapid decarbonization and large-scale investments in natural climate solutions, these climate change indicators will continue to worsen, pushing our essential ecosystems past the point of recovery.”

Other key vital signs the authors highlight:

• The total burned area in the United States increased in 2020, reaching 4.1 million hectares — the second most ever recorded.
• Brazilian Amazon annual forest loss rates increased in both 2019 and 2020, reaching a 12-year high of 1.11 million hectares deforested in 2020.
• Ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica have continued their precipitous loss of mass, while Arctic sea ice extent continues to decline to near all-time lows each summer.
• Ocean acidification is near an all-time record. Together with thermal stress, it threatens the coral reefs that more than half a billion people depend on for food, tourism dollars and storm surge protection.

“There is growing evidence we are getting close to or have already gone beyond tipping points associated with important parts of the Earth system, including warm-water coral reefs, the Amazon rainforest and the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets,” said Dr. William Ripple, a lead author of the study and distinguished professor of ecology at Oregon State University (OSU). “We need to quickly change how we’re doing things, and new climate policies should be part of COVID-19 recovery plans wherever possible. It’s time for us to join together as a global community with a shared sense of cooperation, urgency and equity.”

Reference: “World Scientists’ Warning of a Climate Emergency 2021” by William J Ripple, Christopher Wolf, Thomas M Newsome, Jillian W Gregg, Timothy M Lenton, Ignacio Palomo, Jasper A J Eikelboom, Beverly E Law, Saleemul Huq, Philip B Duffy and Johan Rockström, 28 July 2021, BioScience.
DOI: 10.1093/biosci/biab079

Christopher Wolf, of OSU, led on the study with Dr. Ripple. The study was also co-authored by Dr. Duffy; Jillian Gregg and Beverly Law of OSU; Thomas Newsome of the University of Sydney; Timothy Lenton of the University of Exeter; Ignacio Palomo of the University of Grenoble Alps; Jasper Eikelboom of Wageningen University and Research; Saleemul Huq of Independent University Bangladesh; and Johan Rockström of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.

PETRONAS SCREWED BC OVER LNG

Petronas eyes $1.3B project in Alberta to export hydrogen to Asia

Petronas and Japanese conglomerate Itochu would jointly market the ammonia produced at the Alberta facility

Author of the article: Geoffrey Morgan
Publishing date: Aug 03, 2021 • 

Petronas signboard is lighted at night in Kuala Lumpur,Malaysia. 

PHOTO BY GOH SENG CHONG /BLOOMBERG

CALGARY — The Canadian division of Malaysia’s state-owned oil giant Petroliam Nasional Berhad, or Petronas, plans to study the feasibility of building a $1.3 billion petrochemical plant in central Alberta with the goal of exporting hydrogen to an Asian markets.

Petronas Energy Canada Ltd. announced Tuesday it has teamed up with Japan’s Itochu Corp. and an unnamed Calgary-based pipeline company on a feasibility study on a facility capable of producing 1 million tonnes of ammonia per year while capturing the carbon emitted in the process.

“Ammonia is a very efficient means for the transportation of hydrogen,” said Petronas Energy Canada president and CEO Mark Fitzgerald in an interview Tuesday.

The combination of nitrogen and hydrogen, which in this case would be sourced from Petronas’ natural gas operations in northeast British Columbia, produces ammonia.

“At the end point, the user, which in this case would be markets overseas, would split it into nitrogen and then hydrogen, which would be used as a fuel source,” Fitzgerald said, adding the project would be considered a “blue ammonia” or “blue hydrogen” because it would capture the associated carbon emissions.

Both Petronas and Itochu, a Japanese conglomerate, would jointly market the ammonia produced at the facility in Asian markets, “potentially for thermal power generation in Japan, replacing hydrocarbon-based fuels for power plants, steel, chemical production and other applications.”

Japan’s economy, trade and industry ministry has a goal of securing 30 million tonnes of ammonia by 2050 in an effort to reach a net-zero carbon emissions goal by 2050.

Fitgerald said Petronas, which operates in over 90 countries, believes Canada is an ideal place to develop the blue ammonia/blue hydrogen facility because of the country’s vast natural gas reserves, its hydrogen strategy and willingness to support carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) investments.

“Both the Alberta government and the government of Canada have committed to working with private sector companies such as ourselves to really drive that hydrogen strategy for Canada. We have an abundant supply of natural gas, which transitions to blue hydrogen,” he said.

Alberta’s Associate Minister of Natural Gas and Electricity Dale Nally said his government was pleased by Petronas’ and Itochu’s decision to pursue an ammonia production facility in Alberta.

“This is an incredible opportunity for Alberta’s natural resources to reach new markets and further display the innovation that powers our dynamic energy sector,” the minister said in an email.
If the companies decided to proceed with the project, they expect to start construction in 2023 and produce ammonia in 2027. The companies believe construction on the project will create 10,000 direct and indirect jobs and 3,300 permanent jobs once the facility is operational.

Fitzgerald declined to name the local pipeline company participating in the project’s feasibility study.

Both TC Energy Corp. and Enbridge Inc. have previously worked to develop westbound natural gas pipelines for proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects on the B.C. coastline including the Prince Rupert Natural Gas Transmission line, which is fully permitted by regulators, and the WestCoast Connector Gas Transmission line.

As the LNG facilities associated with those projects have been scrapped in recent years, officials in the Alberta government are hopeful the pipelines could be repurposed to transport hydrogen to the West Coast before ultimately being exported to Asia.

Tunisia crisis: Democrats, despots and the fight for power

By Magdi Abdelhadi
North Africa analyst
Published1 day ago

Supporters of Tunisia's president have welcomed his dramatic decision

The eyes of many people are on the small country in North Africa that set the Middle East on fire when in 2011 it toppled a dictator that had ruled it for 27 years.

Tunisia - the birthplace of the so-called Arab Spring - shook the tectonic plates of power in a vast and strategic region, and no-one knows when and how they will settle back: in the same old despotic order or a new one that is yet to be born?

That question has become even more pressing after 25 July, when the secular President Kais Saied stunned the world by announcing the suspension of parliament, the sacking of the cabinet and assuming emergency powers citing an imminent threat to the Tunisian state.

These extraordinary measures are supposed to last for 30 days. No-one knows yet whether he will extend the emergency powers, or if he will embark on something else.

For Tunisia watchers the development came as no surprise. The poster child of the "Arab Spring" has long been moving inexorably towards the precipice.

Yearning for a strongman

A stagnant economy (it shrunk by 8% last year), growing unemployment (estimated at 17%), and a fractious political class have convinced a growing number of Tunisians that democracy is not delivering for them.

Tunisia's military has been deployed around parliament

Add to that the devastating impact of Covid-19. Tunisia has some of the highest infection rates in Africa.

All of this has created among a large number of Tunisians a sense of hopelessness and a loss of faith in parliament and the country's political parties.

That explains why Mr Saied's draconian measures were met with jubilation on the streets.

His supporters were simply fed up with parliament, and yearned for someone, a strongman perhaps, who could fix the country.

But can Mr Saied really fix it?

"A replacement strongman is not the answer to Tunisia's problems," The Economist publication warned in a recent editorial.

Autocrats rejoice

Of course, not everyone in Tunisia was happy. Foremost among them was Ennahda, the Islamist party that has the biggest block in parliament.

It denounced Mr Saied's move as a coup. Other parties as well as independent observers concur.

 Supporters of Ennahdha believe the president has staged a coup

Regionally, the autocrats - from Egypt to the Gulf - were rubbing their hands with glee, and rushed to express support for Mr Saied. The democrats feared the worst and sounded the alarm.

Article 80 of the constitution, which Mr Saied cited as the basis for his dramatic intervention, does give him the right to take extraordinary measures under exceptional circumstances.

But nowhere does it say he has the right to suspend parliament, revoke parliamentary immunity for all its members and sack the government.

That's why many have concluded that Mr Saied had carried out some kind of a "coup".

The judgement is qualified, because Mr Said is not a military general, and he was elected in a free and fair poll in 2019.

Opinion is divided between those who believe legitimacy comes only from the constitution, and those who believe the people are the ultimate arbiter.

However, in moments of profound crisis the boundaries between what is purely legal and what is political are blurred.

 President Kais Saied won elections by a landslide

For the moment, Mr Saied appears to have the power of the street, so to speak.

But no-one is denying that this is a slippery slope that could spell the end for Tunisia's precarious transition to inclusive government.

Many commentators have drawn parallels with what happened in Egypt in 2013, when Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, then minister of defence and now president, intervened to remove the elected Muslim Brotherhood president, to the jubilation of huge crowds on the streets, in scenes similar to Tunisia after Mr Saied's announcement.

But there are important differences.

Mr Saied was elected with some 70% of the vote, and the army has not played any major role in Tunisian politics, while in Egypt it has been the bedrock of the state for nearly 70 years.

Crucially, Tunisia, unlike Egypt, still has a strong trade union movement and civil society.

Ten governments in 10 years

So, the eyes will be not only on Mr Saied, but also on the four organisations - known as the Quartet for National Dialogue - which in 2013 succeeded in brokering a compromise between Islamists and their secular rivals and averted protracted civil strife.

Tunisia's tourism sector has been hit by the pandemic

The deal earned them the Nobel Peace Prize in 2015.

There are calls for national dialogue. But it is hard to imagine the country going back to what it was without changes to the system that landed Tunisia in this crisis.

Some believe the fault lies with the constitution that created multiple centres of power: the president, the prime minister and the parliament.

In an ideal world that should create a well-balanced political order, with checks and balances that prevent domination by the president.

But in an extremely polarised society it was a recipe for paralysis.

Even the electoral law contributed to the chaos, giving parliamentary seats to a plethora of small parties and making a fragmented political scene worse.

As a result, Tunisia has had 10 governments in 10 years.

As problems accumulated - especially with Covid spiralling out of control - the system broke down, with the president occasionally blocking parliament and vice versa, each side tweaking the text of the law to suit its own purpose.

What happens in Tunisia will not stay in Tunisia, as the experience of the past decade has demonstrated.

Autocrats in the region are hoping it will give them more ammunition to argue that "Arabs are not fit for democracy" and the democrats are clinging to the hope that Tunisia will remain a beacon.

Could the country that gave the Arab world its memorable slogan of revolution 10 years ago,"The People Want the Downfall of the Regime", be the one that writes its epitaph, "The people can't eat democracy"?, as an angry Tunisian woman once put it.

Google May Have Created an Unruly New State of Matter: Time Crystals


Time crystals really don't like to play by the rules. 

That could be a good thing for quantum computing.

BY CAROLINE DELBERT

AUG 4, 2021

VICTOR DE SCHWANBERG/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARYGETTY IMAGES

Scientists say they've placed an elusive time crystal inside a quantum computer.

Time crystals violate some laws of physics—notably, Isaac Newton's first law of motion—in much the same way that many quantum phenomena do.

Quantum computers are built in supercooled chambers called cryostats.

Scientists from around the world claim to have harnessed a time crystal inside a quantum computer. If true, their discovery—as outlined in a July 28 pre-print research paper—could change the world virtually overnight with a limitless, rule-breaking source of energy that would bring quantum computers into the now.

As The Next Web astutely points out, this could be "the most important scientific breakthrough in our lifetimes." But to understand why, let's first examine the complicated connection between time crystals and quantum computing.

What Is a Time Crystal?

A time crystal is a special phase of matter that changes constantly, but doesn't ever appear to use any energy. This, scientists say, means it violates Isaac Newton's first law of motion, which deals with inertia—the resistance an object has to a change while in motion. A rolling marble doesn't stop unless other forces act upon it, for instance. But from experience, you know that it will eventually stop due to forces like friction. If your marble were a time crystal, though, it would literally never stop.

🤯KEEP NERDING OUT

Scientists Catch Time Crystals Interacting

Time crystals, therefore, act more like superconducting materials (such as mercury or lead). Superconductivity is a quantum phenomenon in nature wherein certain materials conduct direct current electricity without any energy loss if they are cooled below a certain temperature. They also expel magnetic fields, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Once again, that means time crystals break the rules; this time, it's the second law of thermodynamics, which states that disorder, or entropy, will always increase. Put another way: the universe is always moving toward change. But time crystals are big-time rule-breakers that don't like change, meaning their disorder remains stable over time. In fact, that makes time crystals a wholly new phase of matter.

Why does that matter? It basically means that time crystals can oscillate between forms without ever using any energy. In a Schrödinger's Cat scenario, for instance, the radioactive atoms would decay and not decay, kill the cat and not kill the cat, back and forth one million times over without using any energy. This really could go on forever (apologies to the cat), hence the name "time crystal."
Time Crystals, Meet Quantum Computing

There's a reason we bring up Schrödinger's Cat: time crystals could be a game-changer for quantum computers, which physicists often seen as the natural next step in terms of computing power—they work at the most essential molecular and even particulate level, after all. They also capitalize on ideas like the passage of electrons around solid materials (literally what electricity is!), and represent a huge challenge for computer scientists to puzzle over. Think of quantum computing like the "going to Mars" of computing.

And on a more practical level, there are ways in which quantum computers offer special access to ideas that traditional electronic computers simply cannot manage. This is also where time crystals come into play, if peer review shows that Google's research is valid.
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Electronic computers, like the one you may be reading this story on, use logical gates that switch on and off, so everything in your computer relies on just two states: on and off, light and dark, 1s and 0s, the whole binary system. Introducing qubits (quantum bits, which are often a single atom of an element with a carefully controlled electron) muddies the waters, both by adding more possible states than just on and off, and by adding an entire basis of uncertainty that complicates the picture.

Why would scientists want a complicated, less predictable form of computing? Well, a lot of questions scientists must ask themselves i​​nvolve more than two binary outcomes. This, in turn, translates into mathematical computing challenges for traditional computers.

Think about choosing a number between 1 and 100. A traditional computer would register that value in a binary format, of course, but also would register the number itself as a binary that's on or off. There are 99 other binaries representing the other numbers you didn't choose. It's a lot of variables to keep track of for something quite simple.

Now imagine the number between 1 and 100 is actually the outcome of something like animal breeding, or a plan for a warp drive. In reality, there are thousands, millions, or even more possibilities. Instead of trying to "force" a binary-based computer to do the work in an awkward way, a quantum computer might help scientists more naturally represent what happens.

This is where time crystals also offer even more promise than quantum qubit computing alone. Time crystals are stable, but pulsate at interesting intervals, meaning they might help scientists study things like repeating patterns or random numbers—with similar implications in the natural sciences and beyond.

How Did Scientists Create a Time Crystal?

For this research—which, notably, has not yet been peer-reviewed for publication in an academic journal—a group of over 100 scientists from around the world collaborated with Google Quantum AI, a joint initiative between Google, NASA, and the nonprofit Universities Space Research Association. Its goal is to expedite research on quantum computing and computer science.

In the paper, the scientists describe building a special microscopic rig where a time crystal is surrounded by superconducting qubits—special particles that are the bread and butter of quantum computing.

The quantum computer sits inside a cryostat, which is a temperature-controlled supercooling chamber that keeps all the materials at the right, extremely low temperature for advanced states like superconducting or time crystals (nuclear fusion also relies on cryostats as a way to keep equipment at the right temperature for containing fusion's extraordinary heat).

This would be, Quanta Magazine reports, the first fully successful demonstration of a time crystal. That's a pretty big deal, considering how difficult quantum computers are to build and maintain. In large part, that's because qubits are unstable, acting differently when they're under observation than when they're left alone. Time crystals, meanwhile, are stable.

It's not surprising that Google is leading the charge toward powerful quantum computing, themselves named after the mathematical term for a 1 followed by 100 zeros: a googol. But what will come of one of the world's largest and most omnipresent companies having the most cutting-edge computing technology ever seen? It might take a time crystal-powered quantum computer to make that prediction.

Toronto, Vancouver Island protests shine spotlight on media access

Elena De Luigi
The Canadian Press Staff
Wednesday, August 4, 2021 

Mounted Police reinforce the perimeter of a fence after it was breached by supporters during an eviction process at a homeless encampment in Toronto, on Tuesday, June 22, 2021.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

TORONTO -- Police and politicians' efforts to limit public access to recent events in Toronto and Vancouver Island have cast a spotlight on the role of journalists and spurred concerns over freedom of the press.

The decision by authorities in Toronto to fence off public parks last month as municipal staff and police cleared homeless encampments sparked backlash from media outlets and advocates, who have petitioned the city to allow reporters on site during the operations.

The push for media access in Toronto came on the heels of a court decision that ordered RCMP in British Columbia to allow reporters entry to blockades in Fairy Creek, where demonstrators have been protesting old-growth logging. The judge in that case, which was launched after journalists reported being blocked from the site, found police should only restrict access if there is an operational or safety concern.

In Toronto, the city has moved to dismantle several homeless encampments -- which emerged during the pandemic as many avoided shelters over fears of COVID-19 -- sparking protests and confrontations that have at times erupted into violence.

The Canadian Association of Journalists called the move to bar reporters from Toronto parks during the clearing of the camps "disappointing to witness and wholly unacceptable," and stressed media rights are enshrined in law.

"Stop arresting or threatening reporters for no good reason. That's a red line that cannot be crossed," Brent Jolly, the association's president, said in an email.

Tensions boiled over at Lamport Stadium Park two weeks ago after a large crowd refused to leave the site that authorities had fenced in. Multiple scuffles broke out and police were seen pushing those who didn't comply. By the end of the day, police said 26 people were arrested and charged with offences that included assault with a weapon, assaulting a peace officer and trespassing.



A day earlier, an encampment at Alexandra Park was cleared by city staff and police after a fence was put up. That operation also saw several people arrested, including a photojournalist with The Canadian Press who was escorted out of the closed-off area in handcuffs. He was issued a notice of trespass, which doesn't carry a charge but bars him from returning to the site for 90 days.

A spokesman for the city said staff closed off the parks during the clearings and prevented anyone from going in, "not just media," in order to speak to those living in the encampment, as well as remove tents and debris.

"We understand and appreciate the concerns raised by the media and the role they have in bearing witness and documenting city operations," Brad Ross said in a statement.

He said the city arranged pooled media coverage for the Lamport Stadium operation, which typically allows select members of the media access to an event so they can later share the material they gather with others.

"The pool arrangement was designed to allow media to see the city's actions, while ensuring the safety of all, as well as addressing the sensitivity around privacy," Ross said.



The CAJ's Jolly said, however, that the pool coverage the city set up for the encampment clearing was "inadequate" because it restricted the ability for journalists to "freely cover" evictions taking place in a public park.

"Attempting to control the work of journalists while they are doing their job is entirely inappropriate," he said, adding that a pool arrangement is generally used when there is limited space for press.

"The work journalists do is both professional and conducted in service to the public and any attempts to short-circuit that work is wholly incompatible with the long-standing tradition of a free press in Canada."

Carissima Mathen, a common law professor with the University of Ottawa, said mounting an effective legal challenge to get access to "relatively short-term" events is difficult because it likely won't be possible to get an injunction in time.

"It's possible that you could try and make the case right after the fact to get some kind of declaration, but it's usually not very practical," she said.

Mathen said it is important to consider questions like how far from a fence police and city staff are when they're carrying out their operations, whether reporters can speak with people as they come out, and how long barricades will stay up.

In the case of Fairy Creek, since it had been happening for weeks, those journalists were able to get an injunction to stop the RCMP from barring them from entering the blockades, Mathen said.

Five Toronto councillors who wrote to the city's mayor last month denouncing the "extreme show of force" during the clearing of encampments said any obstruction of media access to the operations is "undemocratic and unconstitutional."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2021.

Related Stories
Encampment residents, advocates call for mayor's resignation following 'brutal' clearing of Toronto parks

26 people arrested after Toronto crews dismantle encampment at Lamport Stadium

City councillors call on Tory to stop 'extreme show of force' when dismantling Toronto encampments

Ownership of Israeli NSO Group up in air amid latest Pegasus scandal

Oregon’s pension fund reconsiders its $233m investment in Novalpina Capital, which has majority ownership of Herzliya-based firm whose spyware is allegedly being misused worldwide


In this file photo taken on August 28, 2016, a woman uses her iPhone in front of the building housing the Israeli NSO group, in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

SALEM, Oregon (AP) — The future ownership of an Israeli spyware company whose product has been used to hack into the cellphones of journalists, human rights workers and possibly even heads of state is up in the air.

Major investors in a private equity firm that has majority ownership of NSO Group, the maker of the Pegasus spyware, are in discussions about what action to take. The Oregon state employee pension fund is one of the largest investors, if not the largest, having committed $233 million to Novalpina Capital, the private equity firm, in 2017.

Novalpina Capital has been saddled with both an internal dispute among its founding partners and an explosive report showing NSO Group’s spyware has been widely misused around the globe

Oregon State Treasury spokeswoman Rachel Wray told The Associated Press in an email Wednesday the department is getting involved. State officials previously said investors have limited say in private equity investments once they are completed.

“I can confirm that, consistent with our fiduciary duties to Oregon beneficiaries, and along with other limited partners, (Oregon State) Treasury is involved in discussions related to our investment in Novalpina,” Wray said Wednesday.

The development comes amid a serious disagreement among the three co-founders of London-based Novalpina Capital that, according to press reports from Britain, resulted in investors moving to strip control of the fund after concluding that relations between the three had deteriorated so much that they could no longer work together.

This Oct. 30, 2019, file photo show the Oregon State Treasury office in Tigard, Oregon. (AP/Andrew Selsky, File)

Sky News reported the dispute was about future deployment of Novalpina’s 1 billion euro ($1.18 million) fund.

On top of that internal strife, an investigation published in July by the global media consortium Forbidden Stories showed that at least 180 journalists around the world have been selected as targets by clients of NSO Group. In one case highlighted by the Guardian, Mexican reporter Cecilio Pineda Birto was assassinated in 2017 a few weeks after his cellphone number appeared on a leaked list of more than 50,000 cellphone numbers.

French President Emmanuel Macron is one of several world leaders who may have been targeted using the spyware that is capable of checking a cellphone’s emails and other data and turning on its microphone and cameras.

NSO Group denied that it has ever maintained “a list of potential, past or existing targets.” In a separate statement, it called the Forbidden Stories report “full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories.”

The company insists it only sells to “vetted government agencies” for use against terrorists and major criminals and that it has no visibility into its customers’ data. Critics have provided evidence that NSO directly manages the high-tech spying.

This studio photographic illustration shows a smartphone with the website of Israel’s NSO Group which features ‘Pegasus’ spyware, on display in Paris on July 21, 2021. (Joel Saget/AFP)

Oregon State Treasurer Tobias Read, who serves as the state’s chief investment officer, “is following and (is) concerned about the reporting surrounding Novalpina and the NSO Group,” Wray said.

Wray said she cannot get into specifics about the discussions among Novalpina’s investors because of confidentiality restrictions and Oregon’s obligations as a limited partner. Read declined an interview request.

Oregon was Novalpina’s first major investor. Stephen Peel and Stefan Kowski, two founding Novalpina Capital partners, showed up at Oregon treasury offices in the Portland suburb of Tigard in November 2017 to make a pitch to the Oregon Investment Council, which oversees the state’s $90 billion pension fund.

“As investors, we assume we have to be contrarian,” Peel told the council. “We have to find deals that other people don’t see or don’t want to do for various reasons.”

The Oregon Investment Council unanimously approved a $233 million commitment. It has so far provided to the fund $65.7 million, according to the most recent statistics. The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation and England’s South Yorkshire Pensions Authority invested $59 million and $33 million respectively.

In this Oct. 30, 2019, photo, the Oregon Investment Council conducts its monthly meeting in Tigard, Ore. (AP/Andrew Selsky)

In 2019, Novalpina Capital and the founders of NSO Group acquired a majority stake in NSO Group from another private equity firm, Francisco Partners, that the Oregon pension fund had previously invested in.

Novalpina’s largest investors are now considering picking Berkeley Research Group to replace Novalpina, the Financial Times reported. If appointed, the California-based global consulting firm would be given a mandate to return investors’ money by selling the three companies Novalpina owns, including NSO, for the highest possible price, the London newspaper said.

Berkeley Research Group did not respond to a request for comment. The group’s website says it “helps leading organizations advance in three key areas: disputes and investigations, corporate finance, and performance improvement.”

Scientists discover fossil of largest land mammal to ever inhabit the Earth
Sci-tech
Web Desk
August 03, 2021


The ancient rhino’s skull alone was roughly the size of a human torso while the animal’s shoulders would have reached five meters above the ground

The fossilized skull of the largest land mammal,
Appearing to be some strange mix of a giraffe and an elephant, Paraceratherium was in fact a giant early rhinoceros.

The ancient rhino’s skull alone was roughly the size of a human torso.

Chinese palaeontologists have discovered fossilised remains of the largest land mammal to ever inhabit the Earth.

In a major achievement, Chinese palaeontologists have discovered fossilised remains of the largest land mammal from along the border of the Tibetan plateau.

According to a report published on the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS), a research team from the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences led by Professor Deng Tao found a new species of Paraceratherium, the largest mammal to ever walk the Earth.

While appearing to be some sort of a strange mix of a giraffe and an elephant, Paraceratherium was in fact a giant early rhinoceros.

The ancient rhino’s skull alone was roughly the size of a human torso while the animal’s shoulders would have reached five meters above the ground. Paraceratherium linxiense is named after the Linxia Basin in central China where its fossils were discovered.

According to the University of Montpellier’s rhino palaeontologist Pierre Olivier, in comments made to National Geographic, Paraceratherium would have been able “to eat flowers at the third or fourth floor of a building” today.

The animal’s very own steps would have been felt through the earth, as estimates suggest it could have weighed a whopping 20 tonnes.

Deng’s team found that early species of Paraceratherium spread to central and south Asia around 43 million years ago.

This giant mammal led an existence similar to a modern giraffe, feeding on huge amounts of plants throughout the Oligocene, a period lasting from 34 to 23 million years ago. It lived in a massive area encompassing what is now modern-day Eurasia.

The findings give palaeontologists clues as to how this rhino genus spread across what is now Eurasia. Paraceratherium likely had social structures and reproductive cycles not dissimilar from the modern elephant, living in small social groups where females would guard younger members of the species.

Ironically it was likely gomphotheres, an ancestor and relative of elephants, that likely drove Paraceratherium to extinction. Like elephants, gomphotheres were mixed browsers, feeding on both grasses and trees.

This change was not restricted to Paraceratherium’s range, as gomphothere descendants spread across the world. The engineering opened new ecological niches and, in turn, enabled animals more closely resembling modern rhinos to diversify and eventually become the horned beasts we know today.

These discoveries have provided numerous fascinating insights into the world of millions of years ago.

Is This The Next Major Threat For Natural Gas?

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Aug 03, 2021

From California to Massachusetts, some U.S. cities are enacting—or trying to enact—bylaws banning natural gas hookups in new homes, citing concerns over climate change and efforts to decarbonize energy supply.

The quest of many U.S. towns and cities to ensure that all newly built homes will be all-electric has resulted in a fierce battle in dozens of states, many of which have moved to preemptively prohibit their towns from banning natural gas in new homes.

The battle is also between the gas lobby and environmentalists, while many consumers—while supporting their state’s clean energy goals—are wary of rising energy bills and rising costs of building and maintaining an all-electric new home. 

Emissions from the commercial and residential sectors accounted for 13 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, as per Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data. These emissions are generated primarily from fossil fuels burned for heat, the use of certain products that contain greenhouse gases, and the handling of waste.

As climate change concerns and climate goals became a prominent issue at town meetings, Berkeley, California, became two years ago the first U.S. city to ban natural gas hookups in new homes, with few exceptions.

Other towns followed, or at least they tried.

Gas Ban Bylaws Pit Cities Vs States

More than a dozen states have introduced this year preemption bills to restrict local communities’ efforts to enact regulations banning natural gas hookups in new homes. As of the end of June, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming had such preemption bills introduced, according to a tally compiled by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Four other laws went into effect last year in Arizona, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. 

In March this year, Colorado homeowners and businesses called on the General Assembly to protect their right to propane and natural gas as part of a new initiative, “Protect My Gas.”

“There’s a movement underway to ban gas from homes and businesses. This effort would have severe consequences on the residents and businesses of our state: higher utility bills, new appliances and the threat of rolling blackouts,” said Dan Binning, Executive Director of the Colorado Propane Gas Association and a member of the Protect My Gas coalition.

Massachusetts Town’s Fight To Demand All-Electric New Homes

The latest chapter in the cities-vs-states battle over natural gas hookups is unfolding in Massachusetts, where a town outside Boston is taking its fight to ban fossil fuels in new homes into a second year.

Brookline, Massachusetts, passed such a bylaw in 2019, becoming the first city outside California to attempt to restrict a type of energy supply to new homes. In July 2020, however, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey rejected Brookline’s bylaw, saying it superseded state authority, although she noted that she supports efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Brookline now tries with new ordinances, and instead of outright bans, the town is rewording the proposed bylaws requiring future homeowners to agree to go fossil free in exchange for a special building permit.

“We think it will pass muster with the AG,” Brookline Town Meeting member Lisa Cunningham told Boston’s news outlet WBUR in June.

“There’s really only one way to reduce our emissions, and that is to stop using gas and stop using fossil fuels,” Cunningham told The Wall Street Journal last month.

Acton, Arlington, Concord, and Lexington also want to have the right to demand all-electric new homes by asking the Massachusetts legislature to allow them to ban gas hookups in new homes or in buildings undergoing major renovations.Related: Merger Mania Paves The Way For A New Era In U.S. Shale

Energy Choice and Energy Costs

However, many consumers are not sold on the idea of living in all-electric new homes. They are concerned that their choice of energy—natural gas or propane in this case—is taken away, and that their energy bills will be higher, especially in towns with colder winters.    

Opponents of the natural gas ban, including the American Gas Association, say that residential energy costs would be much higher without any use of natural gas at homes.

According to an American Gas Association study from 2019, the total annual residential energy cost for appliances in a typical new natural gas home is $879 lower than the electric home, $924 lower than the oil home, and $965 lower than the propane home. For space heat alone, residential consumers of natural gas can save $525 a year relative to electricity consumers, $593 a year compared to oil customers, and $655 a year compared to propane customers, according to the association.

The National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) said in two separate studies this year that all-electric homes cost more upfront and that American consumers still prefer gas to electricity for cooking.

NAHB’s What Home Buyers Really Want, 2021 Edition survey showed that consumers generally prefer electricity (51 percent) to gas (33 percent) for their air heating and cooling systems, but prefer gas (51 percent) to electricity (39 percent) for cooking. Consumers were split on electricity (45 percent) versus gas (40 percent) for water heating systems, with 15 percent indicating no preference.

Total added construction costs for all-electric homes range from around $11,000 to $15,000 for cities with colder climates such as Denver and Minneapolis, a study prepared for NAHB showed earlier this year. In warm climates such as in Houston, the total added construction costs range from $3,988 to $11,196.

Overall, the study found that all-electric homes cost more upfront in comparison to gas homes. Electric homes in cold climates were also found to have higher ongoing utility costs, NAHB said.

Higher costs for homes could be a big hurdle to lower-income households, opponents of the all-electric buildings say.

“Jurisdictions considering electrification should evaluate these impacts on consumers and work with stakeholders to develop supporting economic measures,” NAHB says.  

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

Indonesia Begins Construction of SE Asia's Largest Solar Power Plant

A worker inspects solar panels installed on the roof of Santika Premiere Hotel in Palembang, South Sumatra, on July 7, 2021. (Antara Photo/Nova Wahyudi)

BY :KEZIA KHO, GRACE NADIA CHANDRA
AUGUST 04, 2021

Jakarta. Indonesia is stepping up its efforts to reach clean energy targets with the construction of a 145 megawatt (MW) floating solar power plant, set to be the largest in Southeast Asia.

The project, with constructions underway in West Java, secured financing from state utility company Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) and Masdar of United Arab Emirates on Tuesday.

Solar may be Indonesia's best shot of reaching its short-term clean energy target, an energy expert told the Jakarta Globe. The government aims to have 23 percent of energy coming from new and renewable sources by 2025, but by the end of last year, it was only halfway to the target.

"In the short-term until 2025, the energy source with the most potential to accommodate the country's target is probably solar, because it is relatively the fastest to develop compared to other renewable sources,” said executive director of energy research company ReforMiner Institute, Komaidi Notonegoro.

Director General of New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Chrisnawan Anditya, said that one of government’s priorities is indeed solar power plants. Besides being fast to create and having a high development potential in the tropical archipelago, they are competitive in price.

In fact, solar panel prices have dropped 60 percent in the last 6 years. With financing schemes from solar developers, Indonesians can even order home panels to be installed for free.

While solar power is now the cheapest it ever was — and the fastest growing renewable energy source worldwide — as of May last year, it amounted to less than 6 percent of Indonesia’s total power generation. The country still depends largely on coal and fossil fuel-fired plants, accounting to some 85 percent of national electricity sources.

On the other hand, the true potential of solar power remains untapped. The country has the potential to generate 207 gigawatts (GW) of solar power, but only around 0.09 GW or less than 0.1 percent has been utilized. The National Energy Policy (KEN) aims to increase solar power generation to 6.5 GW in 2025 and 45 GW in 2050.

One of the biggest solar power developers in the country, SUN Energy, has also announced plans to increase their Southeast Asian portfolio from 180 megawatts peak to 2 gigawatts peak, with its COO saying that "the wave of renewable energy is here to stay".

Issues to overcome
While the industry is promising, one reason there hasn’t been a mass adoption is that solar is still generally most accessible to upper-middle class citizens, said Notonegoro, who has over 20 years of research experience in renewable energy.

“In some ways, it should be cheaper to use solar,” he said. “But if we count 24 hours, in one full day, there are some issues, because solar energy is intermittent.”

This means that solar energy cannot be used to generate power for a full day, as panels may only capture 4 to 7 hour of daylight. After that, users have to either use batteries, buffers, or backups from other sources such as state electricity or a diesel-powered generator.

Notonegoro predicts residential projects may be most prominent in upscale neighborhoods such as Menteng, Pondok Indah, Bintaro or BSD in Greater Jakarta.

To push the industry, he views that PLN, the single buyer of Indonesia’s electricity market, needs to guarantee it would purchase power produced from renewable sources.

“All renewables whether they are solar, geothermal or others, must be 100% absorbed by PLN,” he said. “It will be pointless if they’re developed but no one buys them.”

There is also an issue of rooftop PVs requiring large surface areas of land, which is why they are easier to install in factories than houses. “It's especially true for minimalist houses which have not enough space and the power generated may not be big enough,” he added.

As of June, there are 3,913 users of rooftop PVs in Indonesia, according to government data. While households account for the largest user segment, around 82 percent of all users, the largest power generation goes to industries, with only 25 users utilizing 29.8 percent of the total capacity.

Government efforts to ease pricing
Back in 2018, the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources issued a regulation which allows PLN customers to pay 65 percent of their total tariff if they switch to rooftop PVs.

Next regulation anticipated to ease pricing is the proposed Presidential Regulation regarding tariffs for purchasing electricity sourced from new and renewable energy. The draft, published last year, outlines different tariff schemes that would simplify purchasing, for example ceiling prices, feed-in tariff and contract prices.

Director General of New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Anditya said he hopes the regulation will soon be approved.

“I have to be optimistic [that we can reach our targets],” he said. “All eyes are on us, to see whether on December 31, 2025, targets are achieved.”

He emphasized that the shift to new and renewable energy needs strong support from all stakeholders.

“When the Presidential Regulation is issued, the development of new and renewable sources cannot just rely on the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources. Many ministries will need to be involved, including the Ministries of Finance, State-Owned Enterprises, Agrarian Affairs, Maritime Affairs and so on,” he said. “They each will provide legal aspects to synergise the development of renewable energy.”

The urgency to shift to clean energy isn't just than a matter of fulfilling the 2025 target or the Paris Agreement, to which Indonesia is a signatory.

Today’s atmospheric carbon levels are the highest they have been in hundreds of thousands of years, leading to catastrophic rise in global temperatures.

Lowering carbon emissions cannot be done without reforms within the power sector, which is responsible for nearly two-thirds of emission growth globally.

 

Net zero targets 'unrealistic' says Oxfam report

By Beth Timmins
Business reporter, BBC News

Published

IMAGE SOURCE

Three millions trees are being planted in the Italian city of Milan by 2030, in order to fight climate change

Oxfam says governments and companies are "hiding behind unreliable, unproven and unrealistic carbon removal schemes" in order to hit targets.

Global attempts are being made to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050.

But the charity claims net zero targets are often a "greenwashing exercise".

Net zero means any emissions that can't be stemmed by clean technology in 2050 will either be buried using carbon capture and storage, or soaked up by plants and soils.

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Reaching net zero will also mean phasing out the internal combustion engine and dramatically increasing renewable energy technologies, such as wind and solar, while decreasing fossil fuel pollution.

Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of charity's UK branch, said companies and governments are using the "smokescreen" of net zero to continue "dirty, business-as-usual activities".

"A prime example of the doublethink we are seeing is the oil and gas sector trying to justify its ongoing extraction of fossil fuels by promising unrealistic carbon removal schemes that require ludicrous amounts of land," he told the BBC.

Nafkote Dabi, climate policy lead at Oxfam and co-author of the report, told the BBC that there is only 350 million hectares of land that can be used globally for afforestation and carbon removal without compromising food security.

Oxfam calculated that the total amount of land required for planned carbon removal could be five times the size of India, or the equivalent of all the farmland in the world

Researchers found the net-zero plans of Shell, BP, TotalEnergies and ENI could require a vast area of land

IMAGE SOURCEimage 

The charity analysed the net zero targets of four of the largest oil and gas producers: Shell, BP, Total Energies and ENI. The researchers found that their net zero plans alone could require an area of land twice the size of the UK.

"It's really worrying that only four companies could use so much of the remaining land available for the world," Ms Dabi explained.

"If all energy sectors follow the same plan, they would require 500 million hectares of land, which means worsening existing hunger issues in the global south."

In 2019, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found that if governments and companies that if governments and companies rely on reforestation only, by 2050, food prices could increase by 80% globally.

Ms Dabi added that emissions reduction is the "most urgent solution that needs to happen" and explained that relying on tree planting could lead to the displacement of communities which could in turn create more food shortages.

A recent analysis by the Transition Pathway Initiative, in partnership with the London School of Economics, found that none of the major oil companies' net zero targets currently align with a 1.5C future.

A spokesperson for BP commented: "We do not intend to rely on offsets to meet our own 2030 emissions reduction targets or aims." However, a spokesperson told the BBC that they "may help us to go beyond those aims if we can".

ENI responded that they did not "support these estimations" and said its progress toward carbon neutrality is audited independently.

Shell meanwhile said is was engaged with the investor group Climate Action 100+ and the Science Based Targets initiative as they develop new reporting, accounting and target-setting frameworks for the oil and gas industry.

Total Energies responded that it "prioritises lands concessions rather than lands purchase" and "will also develop other types of carbon removal techniques such as carbon sequestration in agricultural soils that avoids conflicts of uses".

A number of large oil and gas firms, such as Sinopec, ExxonMobil and Saudi Aramco, have not yet made a net zero pledge.

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In 2019, the UK government was the first among the G7 countries to make a net zero commitment by 2050 and currently more than 120 countries, including those in the EU, the US, China and Japan, have pledged to reach net zero by mid-century.

A swathe of corporate net zero climate commitments have also been made by a range of companies and investors, including British Airways, Unilever, Citigroup and BlackRock.

A government spokesperson from the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy told the BBC: "We are absolutely committed to meeting our world-leading climate commitments, having already slashed emissions by 44% over the past three decades, and will publish our Net Zero Strategy later this year.

"While we are working hard to drive down demand for fossil fuels, there will continue to be ongoing demand for oil and gas over the coming years, as recognised by the independent Climate Change Committee," the spokesperson added.

To meet the Paris targets, the world collectively needs to be on course to have cut carbon emissions by almost half by 2030, with the sharpest cuts being made by the biggest emitters, according to the UN.

A recent report by the research group Oxford Net Zero by the research group Oxford Net Zero based at the University of Oxford and the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit concluded that if entities with net zero targets set "robustness measures in place swiftly and those without come to the table equally quickly, net zero can be the window through which decarbonisation delivers the Paris Agreement".

On current plans, the UN estimates that we are on track to have reduced emissions by 1% compared to 2010 levels.