Squid Game & The Rise Of Anti-Capitalist Entertainment

Laura Pitcher 5 hrs ago

At this point, if you haven’t watched Squid Game, chances are you’ve had it recommended to you countless times. The Korean drama is quickly becoming one of the most watched foreign language productions of all time and is currently the top show on Netflix in 90 countries. Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos has hypothesized that it might be their biggest show ever and a South Korean broadband firm has even sued Netflix after the intense traffic surge from the show.

So what is it about the gore-filled survival show – where cash-strapped contestants quite literally fight until death in childhood games for money while rich VIPs watch – that has captivated a gigantic audience globally? Perhaps it’s the fact that it’s barely fiction at all. Squid Game perfectly mirrors our social realities, exploring themes like class struggle and economic anxieties through one dramatic competition.

Squid Game follows a series of movies and television shows that have gained success recently for their critiques of capitalist society, including Korean smash-hit Parasite in 2019, co-written and directed by Bong Joon Ho. US satire Sorry to Bother You was also a critical success in 2018, proving a sustained thirst for anticapitalist entertainment.

This comes as little surprise when considering the growing shift away from capitalism in recent years, exacerbated by the financial struggles that arose during the global pandemic. It’s why people like Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have risen to political stardom and socialism is officially part of the zeitgeist.

In an era where it’s cool to hate capitalism, the entertainment that critiques it has become cooler than ever. But does that amount to political progress? Anti-imperialist organizer Rhamier Balagoon for the Black Alliance for Peace says not. “Under capitalism, anything can become a commodity and ultimately de-radicalized,” they told Refinery29. “Hollywood, through corporate America, makes room for these performative gestures that allow people to romanticize the idea of resistance against a violent system.”

Balagoon is yet to watch Squid Game but sees the rise of anticapitalist entertainment as a way for liberals to dip a toe into seemingly radical discourse without taking part in organizing. Billionaire Jeff Bezos recently proved this point with a tweet saying he “can’t wait” to watch the show. The irony is not lost on many that Bezos’ own workers operate in often unsafe and poor working conditions.

Another indication that the radically anticapitalist messaging of Squid Game has gone over the heads of people is that many viewers are walking away from the show with the notion that the characters in the game “chose to be there,” despite them all coming from a place of poverty and life-threatening debt. This captures just how far we are from breaking down the current illusion of free will in a capitalist society; one of the show’s beloved characters, Ji-yeong, reveals that she has just been released from prison for killing her abusive father before entering the game.

“The idea of free will has very effectively been weaponized by white supremacist capitalism to gaslight people into believing that they are responsible for the shitty circumstances that capitalism puts them in,” says Bobo Matjila, online philosopher and co-host of the Bobo and Flex podcast. “A society that believes in free will also implicitly believes that everyone is responsible for their circumstances and material conditions despite how much they’ve been marginalized and oppressed by said society.”

CLASS CONCIOUSNESS IS UNDERSTANDING;

'WE ARE CAPITALISM' 

Balagoon agrees, saying that every person is still currently forced to participate in capitalism. “There’s no real way that we can opt out of it aside from a revolution that we can actually overturn the system,” they say. “You can be as anticapitalist as you want but at the end of the day you still need to wake up and go to work.”

To give due credit to Squid Game writer and director Hwang Dong-hyuk (who wrote the show in 2009 but was rejected by studios for 10 years and had to sell his laptop at one point due to financial struggles), much of the anticapitalist messaging seems to have been watered down in the English translation. In a viral Tiktok, Youngmi Mayer, co-host of the Feeling Asian podcast, explains that English-language viewers lost many nuances in crucial scenes like the marble scene in episode six, titled “Gganbu.” In the current English translation, Oh Il-nam says: “We share everything.” In Korean he says: “There’s no ownership between me and you.” It’s worth also noting that many translators are underpaid and overworked, which is why Mayer says “it’s the fault of the producers.”

Translation issues aside, the popularity of Squid Game, two years after Parasite, shows that anticapitalist entertainment is going nowhere, nor should it. New releases shouldn’t, however, be interpreted as progress that we haven’t yet made.

“As good as these shows are, I don’t think any of them are effective in shifting viewpoints because these shows are descriptive but not prescriptive,” says Matjila. “They do a great job of describing the horrors of existing under late-stage capitalism but they don’t do very much as far as prescribing a solution for these horrors.” As a result, Matjila says, we risk coming away from these shows feeling more politically active than we are.

Simply put, we should all continue to enjoy Squid Game and other similar shows that follow. We’re largely enjoying them because they’re so relatable. However, we should also be aware that anticapitalism is being remarketed to us by the billionaires at Netflix. And really, by watching the show, are we any better than the VIPs who lap up the entertainment? Perhaps that’s the most disturbing twist of all.

PREHISTORIC WATER BABIES
Tiny rare fossil found in 16 million-year-old amber is 'once-in-a-generation' find
By Ashley Strickland, CNN 2 hrs ago

Microscopic tardigrades have thrived on Earth for more than 500 million years, and may well outlive humans, but the tiny creatures don't leave behind many fossils.

© Holly Sullivan/Harvard/NJIT

 This is an artistic reconstruction of microscopic tardigrades that are often found living in moss.

Hiding in plain sight, the third-ever tardigrade fossil on record has been found suspended within a piece of 16-million-year-old Dominican amber.

The find includes a newly named species, Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus, as a relative of the modern living family of tardigrades known as Isohypsibioidea. It's the first tardigrade fossil from the Cenozoic, our current geological era that began 66 million years ago.

The study published Tuesday in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Beneath a microscope, tiny tardigrades look like water bears. Although they are commonly found in water -- and at times, serving as the nemesis in "Ant-Man and the Wasp" -- tardigrades are known for their ability to survive and even thrive in the most extreme environments.

These tiny, pudgy animals are no longer than one millimeter. They have eight legs with claws at the end, a brain and central nervous system, and something sucker-like called a pharynx behind their mouth that can pierce food. Tardigrades are the smallest-known animal with legs.

All of these details are incredibly well preserved in the new fossil specimen, down to its tiny claws.

"The discovery of a fossil tardigrade is truly a once-in-a-generation event," said Phil Barden, senior author of the study and assistant professor of biology at New Jersey Institute of Technology, in a statement.

"What is so remarkable is that tardigrades are a ubiquitous ancient lineage that has seen it all on Earth, from the fall of the dinosaurs to the rise of terrestrial colonization of plants," Barden said. "Yet, they are like a ghost lineage for paleontologists with almost no fossil record. Finding any tardigrade fossil remains is an exciting moment where we can empirically see their progression through Earth history."

The fossil allowed researchers to see evolutionary aspects that aren't present in modern tardigrades, which means they can understand how they've changed over millions of years.

At first, the researchers didn't even notice the tardigrade was trapped in the piece of amber.

"It's a faint speck in amber," said Barden. "In fact, Pdo. chronocaribbeus was originally an inclusion hidden in the corner of an amber piece with three different ant species that our lab had been studying, and it wasn't spotted for months."

© Phillip Barden /Harvard/NJIT 

This 16-million-year-old Dominican amber includes a tardigrade fossil as well as three ants, a beetle and a flower.

Close observational analysis helped the researchers determine where the new species belongs on the tardigrade family tree.

"The fact that we had to rely on imaging techniques usually reserved for cellular and molecular biology shows how challenging it is to study fossil tardigrades," said Javier Ortega-Hernández, study coauthor and assistant professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University, in a statement. "We hope that this work encourages colleagues to look more closely at their amber samples with similar techniques to better understand these cryptic organisms."

The new species is the first definitive fossil for the modern Isohypsibioidea family of tardigrades found across both marine and land environments today.

"We are just scratching the surface when it comes to understanding living tardigrade communities, especially in places like the Caribbean where they've not been surveyed," said Barden. "This study provides a reminder that, for as little as we may have in the way of tardigrade fossils, we also know very little about the living species on our planet today."

Tardigrades can tolerate extremes better than most forms of life -- like surviving five mass extinction events on Earth -- and some recently traveled to the International Space Station. It's not the first time tardigrades have gone to space -- and there may even be some of them on the moon after a mission carrying them crashed into its surface.

The tiny animals are related to arthropods and have a deep origin during the Cambrian Explosion, when multiple species of animals suddenly appear in Earth's fossil record, 541 million years ago. More tardigrade fossils could be hiding within other pieces of amber that have already been studied -- researchers just have to look close enough and have the expertise of what they're looking for when it comes to microscopic fossils.

And tardigrades could outlive humans. It's because they would be largely unaffected by things that could potentially spell doom for Earth and human life in the future, like asteroids, supernovae or gamma ray bursts. As long as the world's oceans don't boil away, tardigrades will live on.

© Ninon Robin/Harvard/NJIT 

This is a close-up view of the newly discovered taridgrade species trapped in amber.

Ancient Indonesian woman reshapes views on spread of early humans

By Rahman Muchtar and Heru Asprihanto

© Reuters/STRINGER 

Archaelogists visit the Leang Panninge cave during a research for ancient stones in Maros regency

MAROS, Indonesia (Reuters) - Genetic traces in the body of a young woman who died 7,000 years ago furnish the first clue that mixing between early humans in Indonesia and those from faraway Siberia took place much earlier than previously thought.

© Reuters/STRINGER Parts of Besse's ancient skeleton unearthed from Leang Paningge are pictured at archaeological laboratory of Hasanuddin University in Makassar

Theories about early human migration in Asia could be transformed by the research https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03823-6 published in the scientific journal Nature in August, after analysis of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), or the genetic fingerprint, of the woman who was given a ritual burial in an Indonesian cave.

© Reuters/STRINGER

 Iwan Sumantri describes part of Besse's ancient skeleton that was unearthed from Leang Paningge

"There is the possibility that the Wallacea region could have been a meeting point of two human species, between the Denisovans and early homo sapiens," said Basran Burhan, an archaeologist from Australia's Griffith University.

Burhan, one of the scientists who participated in the research, was referring to the region of Indonesia that includes South Sulawesi, where the body, buried with rocks in its hands and on the pelvis, was found in the Leang Pannige cave complexes.

The Denisovans were a group of ancient humans named after a cave in Siberia where their remains were first identified in 2010 and scientists understand little about them, even details of their appearance.

The DNA from Besse, as the researchers named the young woman in Indonesia, using the term for a new born baby girl in the regional Bugis language, is one of the few well-preserved specimens found in the tropics.

It showed she descended from the Austronesian people common to Southeast Asia and Oceania but with the inclusion of a small Denisovan portion, the scientists said.

"Genetic analyses show that this pre-Neolithic forager... represents a previously unknown divergent human lineage," they said in the paper.

Since scientists have until recently thought North Asian people such as the Denisovans only arrived in Southeast Asia about 3,500 years ago, Besse's DNA changes theories about patterns of early human migration.

The discovery may also offer insights into the origins of Papuans and Indigenous Australian people who share Denisovan DNA.

"Theories about migration will change, as theories about race will also change," said Iwan Sumantri, a lecturer at Hasanuddin University in South Sulawesi, who is also involved in the project.

Besse's remains provide the first sign of Denisovans among Austronesians, who are Indonesia's oldest ethnic grouping, he added.

"Now try to imagine how they spread and distributed their genes for it to reach Indonesia," Sumantri said.

(Writing by Christian Schmollinger; Editing by Richard Pullin and Clarence Fernandez)

2,700-year-old toilet found in Jerusalem was a rare luxury

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli archaeologists have found a rare ancient toilet in Jerusalem dating back more than 2,700 years, when private bathrooms were a luxury in the holy city, authorities said Tuesday.

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© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Israeli Antiquities Authority said the smooth, carved limestone toilet was found in a rectangular cabin that was part of a sprawling mansion overlooking what is now the Old City. It was designed for comfortable sitting, with a deep septic tank dug underneath.

“A private toilet cubicle was very rare in antiquity, and only a few were found to date," said Yaakov Billig, the director of the excavation.

“Only the rich could afford toilets," he said, adding that a famed rabbi once suggested that to be wealthy is “to have a toilet next to his table.”

Animal bones and pottery found in the septic tank could shed light on the lifestyle and diet of people living at that time, as well as ancient diseases, the antiquities authority said.

The archaeologists found stone capitals and columns from the era, and said there was evidence of a nearby garden with orchards and aquatic plants — more evidence that those living there were quite wealthy.

The Associated Press

USA

Pipeline developer charged over systematic contamination


The corporate developer of a multi-billion-dollar pipeline system that takes natural gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale gas field to an export terminal near Philadelphia was charged criminally on Tuesday after a grand jury concluded that it flouted Pennsylvania environmental laws and fouled waterways and residential water supplies across hundreds of miles

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the sprawling case at a news conference at Marsh Creek State Park in Downingtown, where Sunoco Pipeline LP spilled thousands of gallons of drilling fluid last year. The spill, during construction of the troubled Mariner East 2 pipeline, contaminated wetlands, a stream and part of a 535-acre lake.

Energy Transfer, Sunoco's owner, faces 48 criminal charges, most of them for illegally releasing industrial waste at 22 sites in 11 counties across the state. A felony count accuses the operator of willfully failing to report spills to state environmental regulators.

Shapiro said Energy Transfer ruined the drinking water of at least 150 families statewide. He released a grand jury report that includes testimony from numerous residents who accused Energy Transfer of denying responsibility for the contamination and then refusing to help.

The Texas-based pipeline giant was charged for “illegal behavior that related to the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline that polluted our lakes, our rivers and our water wells and put Pennsylvania’s safety at risk,” said Shapiro, speaking with Marsh Creek Lake behind him.

Messages were sent to Energy Transfer seeking comment. The company has previously said it intends to defend itself.

The company faces a fine if convicted, which Shapiro said was not a sufficient punishment. He called on state lawmakers to toughen penalties on corporate violators, and said the state Department of Environmental Protection — which spent freely on outside lawyers for its own employees during the attorney general's investigation — had failed to conduct appropriate oversight.

In a statement, DEP said it has been “consistent in enforcing the permit conditions and regulations and has held Sunoco LP accountable.” The agency said it would review the charges “and determine if any additional actions are appropriate at this time.”

Residents who live near the pipeline and some state lawmakers said Mariner East should be shut down entirely in light of the criminal charges, but the administration of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf has long ignored such calls to pull the plug.

The August 2020 spill at Marsh Creek was among a series of mishaps that has plagued Mariner East since construction began in 2017. Early reports put the spill at 8,100 gallons, but the grand jury heard evidence the actual loss was up to 28,000 gallons. Parts of the lake are still off-limits.

“This was a major incident, but understand, it wasn’t an isolated one. This happened all across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” said Shapiro, a Democrat who plans to run for governor next year. He said that spills of drilling fluid were “frequent and damaging and largely unreported.”

The pipeline developer continued to rack up civil violations even after Mariner East became one of the most penalized projects in state history. To date, DEP said Energy Transfer has paid more than $20 million in fines for polluting waterways and drinking water wells, including a $12.6 million fine in 2018 that was one of the largest ever imposed by the agency. State regulators have periodically shut down construction.

But environmental activists and homeowners who assert their water has been fouled say that fines and shutdown orders have not forced Sunoco to clean up its act. They have been demanding revocation of Mariner East’s permits.

Carrie Gross, who has been living with the roar of Mariner East construction in her densely packed Exton neighborhood all day, six days a week, for much of the last four years, fears that criminal charges will be just as ineffectual as DEP's civil penalties.

“I would say this is just another example of Energy Transfer paying to pollute, and that’s part of their cost of doing business. Until somebody permanently halts this project, our environment and our lives continue to be in danger,” Gross said.

The dental hygienist lives about 100 feet from the pipelines and works about 50 feet from them. She said she worries about the persistent threat of sinkholes, a catastrophic rupture or an explosion even after construction is over.

Shapiro’s news conference was originally rescheduled for Monday, but was abruptly postponed after the state environmental agency provided last-minute information to the attorney general’s office. The new information led to the filing of two additional charges, Shapiro said.

Energy Transfer acknowledged in a recent earnings report that the attorney general has been looking at “alleged criminal misconduct” involving Mariner East. The company said in the document it was cooperating but that “it intends to vigorously defend itself.”

The various criminal probes into Mariner East have also consumed DEP, which has spent about $1.57 million on outside criminal defense lawyers for its employees between 2019 and 2021, according to invoices obtained by The Associated Press.

The money was paid to five separate law firms representing dozens of DEP employees who dealt with Mariner East. Together, the firms submitted more than 130 invoices related to Mariner East investigations, performing legal work such as reviewing subpoenas and preparing clients to testify, the documents show.

When Mariner East construction permits were approved in 2017, environmental advocacy groups accused the Wolf administration of violating the law and warned pipeline construction would unleash massive and irreparable damage to Pennsylvania’s environment and residents.

“If we have a system where ... the punishment, the fines, are basically seen as just a price of doing business, then we’ll continue to have violations in the commonwealth,” said David Masur, executive director of Philadelphia-based PennEnvironment.

State officials “have a huge stick they could wield," he added. “Maybe they just have to stop hesitating and use it.”

The Mariner East pipeline system transports propane, ethane and butane from the enormous Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale gas fields in western Pennsylvania to a refinery processing center and export terminal in Marcus Hook, outside Philadelphia.

Energy Transfer also operates the Dakota Access oil pipeline, which went into service in 2017 after months of protests by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others during its construction.

Michael Rubinkam, The Associated Press

SASKATCHEWAN
Let it burn policy does not work for Chiefs


The Chiefs of both Red Earth and Shoal Lake Cree Nations have said the province is not taking enough action on two fires that are filling their communities with smoke and causing evacuations.

Both Marcel Head and Fabian Head said that the government needs to treat the fires near their communities the same as they did the fires near Prince Albert and Smeaton earlier this summer. Both Chiefs flew over the Pasquia Hills and the Crackling Fire on October 4 with the Public Safety Agency.

“There was absolutely no machinery, no crews, no aircraft, no air tankers fighting the blaze. There was something obviously wrong,” said Marcel Head, Chief of the Shoal Lake Cree Nation. “We will find out what the problem is. If the premier is listening, we’re telling the province to get their act together and put some resources and put some manpower and heavy equipment into our area and fight these fires.”

He stated that the province has opted to let some fires burn but the communities most impacted need to be included in the discussions.

The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency says that is not the case and that the Chiefs may not have seen the work that is being done because of either the smoke or the decision of the pilot not to fly near the head of the fire, where the resources are deployed.

“The Saskatchewan Public Safety Agency (SPSA) is responding to several fires in the area near Hudson Bay, Sask., including Red Earth Cree Nation and Shoal Lake Cree Nation, by recalling and redeploying crews from across the province and attacking the fire with tanker, helicopter and ground crews,” said Christopher Clemett, acting executive director of the Agency, on October 5. “Crews have also been redeployed to address smaller fire starts in the area in order to prevent them from growing into larger fires.”

He also said that some of those crews are from the evacuated area.

“Currently, four Type 2 crews (including three from Red Earth Cree Nation and Shoal Lake Cree Nation) have been deployed on fires in this area. Additional Type 3 firefighters from Shoal Lake have been hired for these fires. Weyerhaeuser forestry staff and equipment have also been assisting with fire response efforts,” stated Clemett.

Both Chiefs, however, say they have had difficulty in communicating with the province and see a difference in the action taken when a community such as Prince Albert has a fire nearby and their communities.

“This let it burn policy won’t work for our people,” said Fabian Head. “Our hunting lands, our ancestral lands are at stake. Our trapping lands are at stake.”

Both Chiefs say they are serious about the threat to their communities and that it needs to be dealt with.

“At what point do you declare a real state of emergency where you have to call upon the Canadian armed forces to come put out these fires,” asked Marcel. “We’re that serious. We can’t rely on the policy that tells us, let it burn. We’re not going to allow that. We’re going to make sure that these fires are attended to properly.”

“If there’s any resources out there that we can utilize, we’ll put out the fire ourselves if it comes to that,” he said.

For its part, the SPSA says it has a protocol on how it responds to fires and starts by evaluating their ability to meet their protection objectives, it identifies values that are at immediate or potential risk, makes sure it is safe to respond and then provides a response that will minimize the impact. It also says it does not have a let it burn policy.

Some members of the Red Earth community have been evacuated since Thursday, Sept 30, including the elderly, those with chronic conditions such as asthma and mothers with young children.

Many of them are in Prince Albert but some are in Nipawin and others in Tisdale.

Fabian Head said that Red Earth evacuated four chartered bus loads numbering over 200 people on Oct. 5 and others left the community by driving.

“We were getting calls throughout the weekend from our members saying they were having difficulties with the smoke,” Fabian said.

Finding hotels for evacuees has been difficult first with COVID and vaccination requirements by some hotels. People want to go home, Marcel said, but band officials are asking them to stay put until the situation is safer.

The bands knew, along with the province, that the Bell fire had been burning near Hudson Bay all summer long but cooler weather in August slowed its growth. That has changed and the weather for the last few weeks has been warm and dry.

Of more immediate concern are the fire in the Pasquia Hills and the Crackling Fire, both of which are nearer to the two communities and the Chiefs say some of the decisions are having a negative impact now.

“Because the fire season was coming to a close, the crews were told to slow down or stop fighting and now we’re in this situation because of those decisions as well, where we’re not included,” Fabian said. “We need to work together with the federal and provincial governments in terms of mitigation and prevention of some of these disasters.”

Marcel said that Shoal Lake has been communicating with the Hudson Bay fire base all summer, trying to assess the situation.

“It’s always the same thing; we have limited resources, limited equipment and limited manpower to fight these fires,” he said of the provincial response.

“We saw the smoke that was coming out of the Pasquia Hills throughout the summer,” said Marcel. “We tried to contact the fire base in Hudson Bay but it’s always the same thing and there was just lip service that they’ve been doing up to this point.”

Both Chiefs point out that the resources were not limited when fires were burning near the edge of Prince Albert in May and north of Smeaton in July and August.

The Bell fire is very large and Fabian is worried that the smoke will linger as the fire will not be able to be extinguished for weeks at the earliest.

Given the poor quality of housing on reserve, the two Chiefs say that the province needs to also consider that more smoke seeps into homes with inferior windows and doors.

Another concern is the proximity of the fires to the two points of egress, Highways 55 and Nine.

The fire is four kilometres from Hwy. 55 and nine to 12 kilometres from Highway 9.

“Both sides of the access is going to be cut off pretty soon if nobody tends to those fires on our side of the fire,” said Marcel. “It’s up to the province to see this as a serious matter and we’re waiting for their action.”

Susan McNeil, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Prince Albert Daily Herald

THE SMOKE HAS TRAVELED TO EDMONTON WHERE IT IS A THICK HAZE 

Air Quality Advisory

from Tue. 5, 6:16 PM MDT to Wed. 6, 7:59 AM MDT

special air quality statement in effect

Smoke from a wildfire near Hudson Bay, SK is causing elevated values of fine particulate matter in parts of Alberta.

Poor air quality and reduced visibility may continue through tonight for some areas.

###

Individuals may experience symptoms such as increased coughing, throat irritation, headaches or shortness of breath. Children, seniors, and those with cardiovascular or lung disease, such as asthma, are especially at risk.

People with lung diseases, such as asthma and COPD, can be particularly sensitive to air pollution. They will generally experience more serious health effects at lower levels. Pollution can aggravate their diseases, leading to increased medication use, doctor and emergency room visits, and hospital visits.

For more information please visit Alberta Health Services at www.albertahealthservices.ca/news/air.aspx.

Visit www.airhealth.ca for information on how to reduce your health risk and your personal contribution to pollution levels, as well as for current and forecast AQHI values.

Please continue to monitor alerts and forecasts issued by Environment Canada.

If you or those in your care are exposed to wildfire smoke, consider taking extra precautions to reduce your exposure. Wildfire smoke is a constantly-changing mixture of particles and gases which includes many chemicals that can harm your health. For more details, please consult www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/air-quality-health-index/wildfire-smoke.html.

COACHING IS ABUSE
Football Australia to investigate sexual harassment claims

Issued on: 05/10/2021 -

Australian footballer Lisa De Vanna -- seen here in 2015 -- has said she was sexually harassed and bullied during her career

 ELSA GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File

Sydney (AFP)

Football Australia pledged Wednesday to investigate historic allegations of sexual harassment in the women's game raised by former members of the national team.

Star striker Lisa De Vanna, who earned 150 caps for Australia before her retirement last month, said she was regularly subject to predatory behaviour early in her career.

Her claims come as allegations of sexual misconduct and abusive behaviour are roiling the top US professional women's football league, with the US Soccer Federation naming a former federal prosecutor to lead an investigation.

"Have I been sexually harassed? Yes. Have I been bullied? Yes. Ostracised? Yes. Have I seen things that have made me uncomfortable? Yes," the 36-year-old De Vanna told Sydney's Daily Telegraph.

"In any sporting organisation and in any environment, grooming, preying and unprofessional behaviour makes me sick."

De Vanna said incidents included being propositioned in the changing room showers and teammates pulling her down and "dry humping" her.

She said she was a teenager at the time and did not know how to handle the situation but had broken her silence because "it is still happening across all levels and it's time to speak up".

De Vanna's former manager Rose Garofano said she told the then-governing body Soccer Australia and was assured the issues would be dealt with in-house.

Another ex-player, Rhali Dobson, said she was also harassed as a youngster.

"A lot of it is pushed under the rug. It was a case of grooming when I first came on the scene," she told the Telegraph.

Football Australia, which took over running the sport in 2005, said it was unaware of the specific allegations raised by De Vanna but would investigate if she and Dobson lodged formal complaints.

The governing body said it was working with Sport Integrity Australia to set up an independent inquiry looking at the broader issue of historic abuse allegations.

"We have... been engaging with Sport Integrity Australia to develop an additional process for independently investigating allegations of a historical nature as they relate to former players and staff -- such as Lisa and Rhali," it said.

"We will announce the joint initiative with SIA once the details have been finalised."

Football Australia's move comes after independent reviews found evidence of toxic culture and abuse in women's gymnastics and hockey.

Swimming Australia this year set up an independent panel to investigate issues relating to women and girls, while admitting "unacceptable behaviour" dating back decades.

© 2021 AFP

US Olympian Morgan slams NWSL's handling of sexual harassment claims

Issued on: 05/10/2021 -

Paul Riley was fired as coach of the North Carolina Courage last week 

Maddie Meyer GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
Los Angeles (AFP)

US national team star Alex Morgan on Monday blasted the North America's top professional women's soccer league for not doing more to protect players over the last decade from sexual harassment by some of its coaches.

Morgan's comments come in the wake of The Athletic's reporting last week detailing alleged sexual misconduct by former National Women's Soccer League coach Paul Riley, spanning multiple teams and leagues since 2010.

Morgan was speaking on NBC's "Today" show on Tuesday where she was joined by two players, Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly, who previously played for Riley and went on record with allegations against him.

"I'm here to support Mana and Sinead and to continue to amplify their voices, and just show the systemic failure from the league and how wrong they did in handling Mana's case and complaint and investigation and where they failed Mana and Sinead, and probably many other women," said Morgan, who won a gold medal with the US Olympic team in 2012.

"When I look back, I tried to be as good a friend and teammate as possible to Mana in helping her file a complaint, when at the time there was no anti-harassment policy in place, there was no league HR, there was no anonymous hotline, there was no way to report.

"We've now started to put these things in place, by demand of players, not by the league being proactive. Something we ask is for the league to start being proactive, not reactive. We're asking for transparency."

Farrelly, who played for Riley at three different teams, accused the coach of "sexual coercion" while he was her coach at the Philadelphia Independence.

Riley went on to become the coach of the North Carolina Courage after the Portland Thorns sacked him. The Courage fired Riley last week.

In the fallout from the allegations, NWSL commissioner Lisa Baird resigned last week from her job.

The league had also postponed a number of weekend matches but said Tuesday that the schedule would continue going forward.

Shim said Tuesday that Riley destroyed their careers.

"He's a predator. He sexually harassed me, he sexually coerced Sinead, and he took away our careers," Shim said. "From early on, there was a possession not just from Paul but from the team that I was playing for.

"They silenced me for multiple issues, my sexuality being the most important one, and, yeah, I was just very, very uncomfortable the whole time."

In a statement to The Athletic, Riley denied wrongdoing, describing the allegations as "completely untrue."

"I have never had sex with, or made sexual advances towards these players," he told the website.

The league's player's union, the NWSLPA, has said that "systemic abuse" was "plaguing the NWSL."

The NWSL announced Sunday it had retained a lawyer to oversee a number of investigations.

US Soccer and FIFA have also said they would launch investigations into the matter.

© 2021 AFP

Trio win physics Nobel for work deciphering chaotic climate

Niklas Pollard and Ludwig Burger and Simon Johnson
Tue, October 5, 2021

In this article:

* 2021 Nobel Prize for Physics goes to three scientists

* Their work improved understanding of changing climate

* World Meteorological Organization hails decision (Adds Manabe, Hasselmann comments, background)


By Niklas Pollard, Ludwig Burger and Simon Johnson

STOCKHOLM, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Japanese-born American Syukuro Manabe, German Klaus Hasselmann and Italian Giorgio Parisi won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for work that helps understand complex physical systems such as Earth's changing climate.

In a decision hailed by the U.N. weather agency as a sign of a consensus forming around man-made global warming, one half of the 10-million Swedish crown ($1.15-million) prize goes in equal parts to Manabe, 90, and Hasselmann, 89, for modelling earth’s climate and reliably predicting global warming.

The other half goes to Parisi for discovering in the early 1980s "hidden rules" behind seemingly random movements and swirls in gases or liquids, which can also be applied to aspects of neuroscience, machine learning and starling flight formations.

"Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann laid the foundation of our knowledge of the Earth’s climate and how humanity influences it," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement. "Giorgio Parisi is rewarded for his revolutionary contributions to the theory of disordered materials and random processes."

Hasselmann, who is at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, told Reuters from his home that he did not want to wake up from what he described as a beautiful dream.

"I am retired, you know, and have been a bit lazy lately. I am happy about the honour. The research continues," he said.

The Academy said Manabe, who works at Princeton University in the United States, had laid the foundation in the 1960s for today's understanding of Earth's climate after moving to the United States from Japan to continue his research.

"In the context of the competition of the Cold War era, America in the 1960s was putting a tremendous amount of effort into scientific research," he said in an interview with Japanese broadcaster NHK after learning of his award.

"Being invited to America was my good fortune, rapid development in electronic calculators was also my good fortune, and so with an accumulation of good fortune I am here today."

Hasselmann, the Academy said, had developed models about 10 years later that became instrumental in proving that mankind's carbon dioxide emissions cause rising temperatures in the atmosphere.

Parisi, who dialled into the media briefing announcing the winners, was asked for his message to world leaders due to meet for U.N. climate change talks in Glasgow, Scotland, from Oct. 31.

"I think it is very urgent that we take real and very strong decisions and we move at a very strong pace," said the 73-year-old laureate who works at Sapienza University of Rome.

Scientists have spent decades urging climate change action on an often reluctant society, Hasselmann said in a recording published on the Nobel Prize's website.

"It is just that people are not willing to accept the fact that they have to react now for something that will happen in a few years," he said.

GLOBAL WARMING

Work on climate changes has been recognised by Nobel prizes before.

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the U.N. climate panel received the Peace Prize in 2007 for galvanizing international action against global warming, and William Nordhaus won one half of the 2018 Economics prize for integrating climate change into the Western economic growth model.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is also seen as a strong contender for this year's Peace Prize, due to be announced from Oslo on Friday.

"Sceptics or deniers of scientific facts ... are not so visible anymore and this climate science message has been heard," World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said of this year's award.

Physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week after Americans David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian won the prize for medicine

 https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/julius-patapoutian-win-2021-nobel-prize-medicine-2021-10-04 

on Monday for the discovery of receptors in the skin that sense temperature and touch.

The Nobel prizes were created in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel and have been awarded since 1901 with only a handful of interruptions, primarily due to the two world wars.

As last year, there will be no banquet in Stockholm because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The laureates will receive their medals and diplomas in their home countries.

The physics prize announcement will be followed in the coming days by the awards for chemistry, literature, peace and economics. ($1 = 8.7290 Swedish crowns)

(Ludwig Burger reported from Frankfurt; Additional reporting by Terje Solsvik in Oslo, Supantha Mukherjee and Anna Ringstrom in Stockholm, Johan Ahlander in Gothenburg, Kirsti Knolle in Berlin, Emma Farge in Geneva, Chizu Nomiyama in New York and Angelo Amante in Rome, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Jon Boyle)

Physics Nobel: deciphering climate disorder to better predict it

Issued on: 05/10/2021 - 

US-Japanese scientist Syukuro Manabe who has been awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in physics

 KENA BETANCUR AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

The Nobel Prize in Physics has gone to three scientists who sought to predict the long-term evolution of a complex system such as the climate by modelling variables -- weather, human actions -- that create disorder within those systems.

What is the link between the modelling of global warming, which earned Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann half the prize, and the work of the third winner, Giorgio Parisi, who focused on the underlying disorder of matter?

All three study complex systems: large-scale climate or the behaviour of certain materials at an infinitely small scale. From the erratic fluctuations within these systems, the three physicists succeeded in teasing out simpler behaviours and reliable predictions.

"We recognised that emerging phenomena sometimes require us to look at all the individual complicated physical mechanisms and knit them together to make a prediction," said Nobel Physics Committee member John Wettlaufer, on hand when the awards were announced in Stockholm on Tuesday.

Climate "is THE complex system par excellence," said Freddy Bouchet, a physicist at France's National Centre for Scientific Research.

A large number of variables, in other words, interact -- atmosphere, oceans, soils, vegetation -- rendering any reliable forecast beyond a few weeks elusive.

But alongside and within this observable chaos there are also clear trends that can be linked to well-identified causes, such as long-term global warming attributable to human activity.

- Hidden rules -

"In climate science, the random and the systematic overlap," said Bouchet. "The mathematical tools developed by Klaus Hasselmann have made it possible to separate the two in order to better understand the evolution of climate."

Being able to tease out patterns in what is random -- the signal in the noise -- is fundamental to understanding the evolution of extreme weather such as heat waves, storms and hurricanes.

The models developed by the Japanese-American Syukuro Manabe have succeeded in cracking the signature code of climate subsystems.

"These are the first models which made it possible to calculate the effect of the increase in carbon dioxide of anthropogenic origin on global warming at the core of contemporary climate models", Bouchet said.

Giorgio Parisi, for his part, made a major contribution to the theory of these complex systems by revealing the hidden rules that govern them.

Co-winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physics, Klaus Hasselmann of Germany 

Daniel Bockwoldt AFP/File

"I started to lay the foundations of this science -- which did not exist at the beginning of the 1980s -- by studying nature through mathematics", the Italian researcher told Corriere della Sera newspaper earlier this year.

It is a science that allows us, for example, to explain the changing form of a cloud of starlings in flight.

Parisi provided the mathematical tools to understand how random processes can play a decisive role in the development of large structures, such as those governing climate.

Today, they are applied in biology, neuroscience and artificial intelligence.

© 2021 AFP

How climate models got so accurate they earned a Nobel Prize

Climate modelers are having a moment.

Kieran Mulvaney 

NAT GEO

© Photograph courtesy NASA This composite image of southern Africa and the surrounding oceans was captured by six orbits of the NASA/NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership spacecraft on April 9, 2015, by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument. Tropical Cyclone Joalane can be seen over the Indian Ocean. Winds, tides and density differences constantly stir the oceans while phytoplankton continually grow and die. Orbiting radiometers such as VIIRS allows scientists to track this variability over time and contribute to better understanding of ocean processes that are beneficial to human survival on Earth.

Last month, Time Magazine listed two of them—Friederike Otto and Geert Jan van Oldenborg of the World Weather Attribution Project—among the 100 Most Influential People of 2021. Two weeks ago, Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University was a guest on the popular CBS talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! And on Tuesday, pioneering climate modelers Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselman shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with theoretical physicist Giorgio Parisi—a recognition, said Thors Hans Hansson, chair of the Nobel Committee for Physics, that “our knowledge about the climate rests on a solid scientific foundation, based on a rigorous analysis of observations.”

Climate modelers are experts from earth or planetary science, often with experience in applied physics, mathematics, or computational science, who take physics and chemistry to create equations, feed them into supercomputers, and apply them to simulate the climate of Earth or other planets. Models have long been seen by climate change deniers as the soft underbelly of climate science. Being necessarily predictive, they have been tarred as essentially unverifiable and the result of flawed input producing unreliable results.

A 1990 National Geographic article put it this way: “Critics say that modeling is in its infancy and cannot even replicate details of our current climate. Modelers agree, and note that predictions necessarily fluctuate with each model refinement.”

However, more recent analyses, dating back decades, have found that many of even the earliest models were remarkably accurate in their predictions of global temperature increases. Now, as computing power increases and more and more refinements are added to modeling inputs, modelers are more confident in defending their work. As a result, says Dana Nuccitelli, author of Climatology versus Pseudoscience: Exposing the Failed Predictions of Global Warming Skeptics, “there’s definitely been a shift away from outright climate science denial; because the predictions have turned out to be so accurate, it’s getting harder and harder to deny the science at this point.”

© Illustration by Niklas Elmehed, Nobel Prize Outreach Nobel Prize winners Syukuro Manabe, Klaus Hasselmann and Giorgio Parisi

That 1990 article quoted Manabe—generally considered the father of modern climate modeling—as saying that, in some early models, “all sorts of crazy things happened … sea ice covered the tropical oceans, for example.” But in a seminal 1970 paper, the first to make a specific projection of future warming, Manabe argued that global temperatures would increase by 0.57 degrees Celsius (1.03 degrees Fahrenheit) between 1970 and 2000. The actual recorded warming was a remarkably close 0.54°C (0.97°F).

A 2019 paper by Zeke Hausfather of the University of California, Berkeley, Henri Drake, and Tristan Abbott of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Gavin Schmidt of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies analyzed 17 models dating back to the 1970s and found that 14 accurately predicted the relationship between global temperatures as greenhouse gases increased. (The estimates of two were too high, and one was too low.) That’s because the fundamental physics have always been sound, says Dana Nuccitelli, research coordinator at Citizens’ Climate Lobby and author of Climatology versus Pseudoscience: Exposing the Failed Predictions of Global Warming Skeptics.

“We’ve understood for decades the basic science that if you introduce a certain amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere we would get a certain amount of warming,” he says. “These predictions in the 1970s were remarkably accurate, but they were also using quite simplified climate models, in part because of our level of understanding of climate systems but also because of computation limitations at the time. It’s certainly true that climate models have come a long way.”
The more things change…

In the realm of climate modeling, “What hasn’t changed over the years is the overall assessment of just how much the world would warm as we increased CO2,” says Hayhoe, who is also Chief Scientist for the Nature Conservancy and author of Saving Us: A Climate Scientist’s Case for Hope and Healing in a Divided World. “What has changed is our understanding at smaller and smaller spatial and temporal scales. Our understanding of feedbacks in the climate system, our understanding of, for example, just how sensitive the Arctic really is.”

As that understanding has increased, she says, so it has allowed the development of what she refers to as “the cutting edge of climate science today”—individual event attribution, the specialty for which Otto and van Oldenberg were recognized in Time, which for the first time is able to draw strong links between climate change and specific weather events, such as heat waves in the western United States or the amount of rain deposited by Hurricane Harvey.

“We couldn’t do that without models,” Hayhoe says, “because we need the models to simulate a world without people. And we have to compare an Earth with no people to the Earth we’re living on with humans and carbon emissions. And when we compare those two Earths, we can see how human-induced climate change has altered the duration, the intensity, and even the damages associated with a specific event.”

In Hayhoe’s case, the actual act of modeling involves “looking at thousands of lines of code, and it’s so intense that I often do it at night, when people aren’t emailing and the lights are off and I can focus on this bright screen in a dark room. Then I blink and it’s suddenly four-thirty in the morning.”

Much of the work, she says, requires trying to find things that are wrong in the models, to ensure they reflect reality. “If it doesn’t quite match up, we have to look harder because there’s something we didn’t quite understand.”

Whereas such discrepancies can be flaws in the models, they can sometimes reflect errors in observations. For example, a series of studies in 2005 found that satellite data which appeared to show no warming in the lower atmosphere, or troposphere, and which were used to cast doubt on global warming models, were themselves flawed. The models, supported by data from weather balloons, were right all along.

The irony, says Michael Mann, Distinguished Professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State University and author most recently of The New Climate War, is that “climate scientists were dismissed as alarmists for the predictions that we made, but the predictions, if anything, turned out to be overly conservative and we’re seeing even greater impacts than we expected to see.”

The apparent looming collapse of the system that drives Atlantic Ocean currents is, he says, one such example. “It is something that we anticipated could happen, but it is not only happening, it is happening sooner than we expected, he notes.” Manabe, he points out, was one of those to first raise the possibility decades ago. “It just underscores that what’s happening in climate science is the worst thing that can actually happen to a climate modeler: to see your worst predictions come true.”

Modelers do acknowledge that the science isn’t perfect; even now, uncertainties remain, and not just one kind.

“Do we have all the physical processes in the model? And if we have them in there, are they correctly represented or not?” asks Hayhoe rhetorically. “Then there’s a second source of uncertainty called parametric uncertainty." Additionally, she says, some processes take place on such small scales—for example, among cloud particles—that they cannot be measured directly but must be inferred. Obviously that adds some uncertainty.” However, the greatest uncertainty, she says, lies not with the physics, but with our own collective behavior, and how much we are prepared to allow global levels of greenhouse gases to rise.

“If we didn’t know that carbon emissions produced all these impacts on us, that it isn’t just a curiosity of global temperature increase but is also our food, our water, our health, our homes, then we wouldn’t act,” Hayhoe says.

“That’s why I do what I do, and that’s why models are so important, because they show what’s happening right now that we’re responsible for, and what’s going to be happening in the future. I’m looking forward to the day when we can just use climate models to simply understand this incredible planet, but right now, these models are telling us, ‘Now is the time to act!’ And if we don’t, the consequences will be serious and dangerous.”

‘Scenes of horror’ as torrential rains flood Marseille with water-swept trash

Issued on: 05/10/2021

Seagulls walk on a beach covered with waste following torrential rain in Marseille, southern France, on October 5, 2021. 

© Nicolas Tucat, AFP

Text by: FRANCE 24
Video by: Catherine VIETTE

Heavy rains swept across much of southern France between Sunday and Monday, inundating the city of Aix-en-Provence and leaving France’s second-largest city Marseille under a blanket of trash that had piled up on the streets following a rubbish-collector strike.

Thousands of cans littered Marseille’s popular Borély beach, along with mounds of plastic and rubber tyres. Some volunteers working to clean the area even picked up dead rats.

“This happens often in Marseille. Every year, around the same time, we have trash washing up on the beach because of the rain, but this time there was also the rubbish-collector strike,” Isabelle Poitou, a spokeswoman for environmental group MerTerre, told the AFP news agency.

According to Météo France, the national meteorological service, "the equivalent of several months of rain" pounded Marseille between Sunday and Monday. After the Huveaune river burst its banks, larger trashed items, such as gas bottles, fridges and car parts, added to the mounting trash piles.

“All the trash started piling up and got swept away with the torrent from this morning and blocked the sewers,” said one homeowner who declined to give her name.

Marseille’s Deputy Mayor Christine Juste spoke of “scenes of horror”, with some city officials blaming the disaster on the previous administration.

They “continued to build concrete everywhere,” said Marseille urban planner Mathilde Chaboche, adding that past officials had ignored the fact that “nature needs space for water to flow”.

In the city of Aix-en-Provence, the water itself was a bigger issue with rescuers having to pluck people to safety as the floods turned backyards into small lakes.

“It's sad and there is nothing we can do about it,” said one resident. “When the rain comes down like that, we cannot resist – it's impossible.”

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Climate change protester crashes Louis Vuitton catwalk show in Paris


Issued on: 06/10/2021

An activist walks on the ramp with a banner that says "Overconsumption = Extinction" after crashing the women's ready-to-wear collection show of designer Nicolas Ghesquiere for fashion house Louis Vuitton during Paris Fashion Week on October 5, 2021.

 © Gonzalo Fuentes, Reuters

Extinction Rebellion climate activists burst onto the catwalk at Louis Vuitton's Paris Fashion Week show Tuesday to blast the industry's impact on the environment, with a banner condemning the effect of excessive consumption on the environment.

Carrying a sign reading "overconsumption = extinction," the woman, representing Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth) France, Youth for Climate and Extinction Rebellion, marched down the same path as the models, causing a stir in the audience, a Reuters witness said.

She climbed onto the catwalk set up in the Louvre art gallery even as models were showing off the latest styles, before being wrestled to the ground and hustled away by security guards.

Extinction Rebellion, Amis de la Terre and Youth For Climate said in a statement that around 30 people were involved in planning the protest, with two arrested.

They called on the government to enforce "an immediate cut in production levels in the sector, given that 42 items of clothing were sold per person in France in 2019".

Amis de la Terre France said it targeted the LVMH-owned label to throw a spotlight on the issue of overconsumption. "LVMH is the world leader of luxury and has a responsibility when it comes to trends that push the textile industry to constantly renew collection faster and produce more," Alma Dufour, a group spokesperson, told Reuters.

In the front row, French cinema stars Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert hardly flinched, while some members of the Arnault clan, seated next to LVMH chief executive officer and chairman Bernard Arnault, glanced at each other.

The disruption hardly interrupted the flow of models who charged down the cobblestoned runway in a corridor of the Louvre to dramatic organ music punctuated with bell tolls.

Louis Vuitton did not immediately comment on the incident when contacted by AFP.

The show itself had a punk flavour, with sleeves ripped off suit jackets, leaving arms bare, and accessories including studded boots and chainmail headpieces.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP & REUTERS)

#ECOCIDE

UPDATED

US Coast Guard probes anchor strike over California oil spill: report

Issued on: 05/10/2021 - 

Environmental response crews are cleaning up oil near the Talbert Marsh and Santa Ana River mouth 

Patrick T. FALLON AFP

Los Angeles (AFP)

The US Coast Guard is investigating a possible anchor strike as the cause of a broken pipeline that has spewed tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil into the sea off California, media reported Tuesday.

Emergency responders say up to 131,000 gallons of thick, sticky fuel have fouled waters that are home to seals, dolphins and whales since a pipeline ruptured at the weekend.

A 15-mile (24-kilometer) stretch of coastline has been closed to the public, and fishing has been halted as crews scramble to clean up one of California's biggest spills in decades.

The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the Coast Guard was trying to determine if a large commercial ship set anchor in the wrong place -- and damaged the pipeline.

Martyn Willsher, the chief executive of pipeline operator Amplify Energy, said underwater observations revealed that 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) of the pipeline was not where it should be.

"The pipeline has essentially been pulled like a bowstring," he told a press conference.

"At its widest point it is 105 feet away from where it was," he said, adding the break in the pipeline was at the apex of this bend.

An oil platform and cargo container ships are seen on the horizon as environmental response crews clean the beach after an oil spill in the Pacific Ocean in Huntington Beach, California on October 4, 2021

 Patrick T. FALLON AFP

Willsher refused to speculate on the cause of that displacement and whether a ship's anchor could be responsible, but said: "It is a 16-inch steel pipeline that's a half inch thick and covered in an inch of concrete.

"For it to be moved 105 feet is not common."

Los Angeles and Long Beach are among the busiest container ports in the world.

Pandemic-sparked logjams have seen dozens of huge container vessels stationed offshore as they wait for a berth.

Ships are given designated anchor points, usually well away from underwater hazards such as pipelines.

But the Los Angeles Times cited a source with knowledge of the investigation into the oil spill, who said a wrongly placed anchor may have dragged the pipeline along the seabed.

Map of south of Los Angeles in California, showing offshore oil platforms and the area closed to fishing after oil spill 

Patricio ARANA AFP

Officials under a "Unified Command" umbrella group said there are 14 vessels trying to recover oil from the water, with a little more than 4,700 gallons collected by Tuesday.

"Our top priorities remain the safety of health and human life, protection of the environment protection of wildlife, and to find and remove that oil as we detect it," said Coast Guard captain Rebecca Ore.

Ore added that the precise quantity of oil that had leeched into the water was not known, but that the recovery effort was using a "worst-case scenario" equivalent to 131,000 gallons. This is slightly higher than the previously widely reported figure.

- Wildlife affected -

At least eight birds have been found covered in oil, with reports of other wildlife also affected.

The spill originated near the Elly platform, which was built in 1980 and is one of 23 oil and gas drilling platforms in federal waters off California, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Environmentalists have repeatedly called attention to the age of some of the facilities -- which they say are rusty and poorly maintained -- and the risks they pose.

The disaster has reignited a debate about the presence of oil rigs and pipelines near the coast of Southern California.

© 2021 AFP

Damage from 126K-gallon oil spill in Southern California likely unknown for weeks

By Jonna Lorenz OCT. 4, 2021

Cleanup workers attempt to contain oil that seeped into Talbert Marsh, home to around 90 bird species, after a 126,000-gallon oil spill from an offshore oil platform in Huntington Beach, Calif. 

Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 4 (UPI) -- Beaches and harbors are closed as cleanup continues after an oil spill off the coast of Southern California, but the full damages might not be known for weeks.

Houston-based Amplify Energy notified the Coast Guard of the spill Saturday morning after employees noticed an oily sheen in the water. The 126,000-gallon spill occurred about 5 miles off Huntington Beach in Orange County.

The oil slick is drifting south and stretches from Huntington Beach to Laguna Beach, U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Rebecca Ore said Monday.

"We've more than doubled the level of effort just since yesterday, and those numbers will go up," Ore said during a news conference held by the Coast Guard, California Department of Fish and Wildlife's Office of Spill Prevention and Response and Amplify Energy.

RELATED 126,000-gallon oil spill leaves dead wildlife on Southern California coast

The oil slick has been estimated to span anywhere from 13 to 20 square miles. Ore described the oil as isolated ribbons or pools of oil rather than one large area. Huntington Beach and Newport Beach areas have been the most heavily impacted.

The state issued fishing limitations, prohibiting the taking of fish off the Coast of Huntington Beach about 6 miles out along a 20-mile stretch.

California Department of Fish and Wildlife incident commander Christian Corbo said the department will patrol the area informing recreational and commercial fishermen of the closures.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer's office is working alongside federal investigators on the incident. Spitzer said he is alarmed that the pipeline company is using its own divers to investigate the leak.

A cause of the leak hasn't been identified. Amplify Energy President and CEO Martyn Willsher said there is a "distinct possibility" that a ship's anchor caused the damage.

Willsher said remotely controlled underwater vehicles are being used to examine the pipeline and narrow in on the source of the leak.

Shares of Amplify Energy Corp. plunged by nearly half their value, hitting a record one-day selloff and ending a streak that had pushed the stock to its highest price since Feb. 13, 2020, MarketWatch reported.

The company shut down production and pipeline operations in the area, and the 17-mile pipeline was suctioned at both ends to prevent more oil from being released, CNN reported.

The pipeline is connected to an offshore platform called Elly. Divers are inspecting the pipeline searching for the exact cause of the leak, which is still unknown.

The 126,000-gallon spill amounts to about 20% of an Olympic-sized pool and is much smaller than the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill that released 134 million gallons in the Gulf of Mexico and the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska that totaled 11 million gallons.

In California, 4.2 million gallons of crude oil spilled near Santa Barbara in 1969 and 417,000 gallons spilled at Huntington Beach in 1990.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley told CNN that damage to protected wetlands in the area are still being assessed and could take a couple of weeks.

The oil slick covered 13 square miles and continued to grow Sunday, as dead fish and birds washed ashore in some places and wildlife rescuers raced to save oil birds, the New York Times reported.

About 3,150 gallons of oil were recovered overnight. The cleanup operation involved 14 boats.

The Oiled Wildlife Care Network has received 300 calls to its hotline and observed 20 oiled birds. The first live oiled birds to be recovered included a brown pelican, an American coot and a sanderling.

The city of Huntington Beach urged residents not to try to rescue oiled wildlife themselves but to call the hotline. The Orange County Health Care Agency urged people who may have come in contact with contaminated materials to seek medical attention.

Records show slow response to report of California oil spill

BRIAN MELLEY, MATTHEW BROWN AND STEFANIE DAZIO
Mon, October 4, 2021

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard received the first report of a possible oil spill off the Southern California coast more than 12 hours before a company reported the major leak in its pipeline and a cleanup effort was launched, records show.

Oil spill reports reviewed Monday by The Associated Press raise questions about the Coast Guard’s response to one of the state’s largest recent oil spills as well as how quickly Amplify Energy, the company operating three offshore platforms and the pipeline, recognized it had a problem and notified authorities.

Two early calls about the spill came into the National Response Center, which is staffed by the Coast Guard and notifies other agencies of disasters for quick response. The first was from an anchored ship that noticed a sheen on the water and the second, six hours later, from a federal agency that said a possible oil slick was spotted on satellite imagery, according to reports by the California Office of Emergency Services.


The spill sent up to 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of heavy crude into the ocean off Huntington Beach and it then washed onto miles of beaches and a protected marshland. The beaches could remain closed for weeks or longer, a major hit to the local economy. Coastal fisheries in the area are closed to commercial and recreational fishing.

Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaimed a state of emergency in Orange County, directing state agencies “to undertake immediate and aggressive action to clean up and mitigate the effects" of the spill.

Experts say it’s too early to determine the full impact on the environment but that so far the number of animals found harmed is minimal.

Investigators are looking into whether a ship’s anchor may have struck a pipeline on the ocean floor, Coast Guard officials said Monday.

Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher said company divers were inspecting the area of the suspected leak reported Saturday, and he expected that by Tuesday there would be a clearer picture of what caused the damage. Willsher said an anchor from a cargo ship striking the pipeline is “one of the distinct possibilities” behind the leak.

Cargo ships entering the twin ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach routinely pass through the area. Backlogs have plagued the ports in recent months and several dozen or more of the giant vessels have regularly been anchored as they wait to enter the ports and unload.

“We’re looking into if it could have been an anchor from a ship, but that’s in the assessment phase right now,” Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jeannie Shaye said.

Shaye said the Coast Guard was not notified of the disaster until Saturday morning, though records show its hazardous spill response hotline received the first report of a possible oil slick Friday evening.

A foreign ship anchored off the coast witnessed an “unknown sheen in the water near their vessel” at 6:13 p.m. and the report was called into the response center just after 8:22 p.m., according to the state report.

Lonnie Harrison Jr., vice president of Colonial Compliance Systems Inc., which works with foreign ships in U.S. waters to report spills, said one its clients reported the sighting.

Harrison, a retired Coast Guard captain, said the ship was not involved in the spill and was later given clearance over the weekend to enter the port to refuel after determining it wasn’t contaminated by the slick.

About six hours after the first report was received, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that satellite imagery spotted a possible oil slick more than 3 miles (5 kilometers) long. The report by the National Response Center said the image of a “possible oil anomaly” was probably associated with the first report.

“Although there were numerous vessels within immediate proximity to the anomaly, none were clearly associated with the anomaly,” the report said. “These factors prevented the possible identification of a point source. Still, the NRC report allows for high confidence that this was oil.”

The company that operates the pipeline first reported the spill to the Coast Guard’s response center at 8:55 a.m. Saturday. However, the report said the incident occurred at 2:30 a.m.

Federal and state authorities require rapid reporting of a spill. Failure to do so led to criminal prosecutions against Plains All American Pipeline, which caused a coastal spill near Santa Barbara in 2015, and Southern California Gas Co. for a massive well blowout later that year.

A 2016 spill response plan for the Amplify platforms submitted to federal regulators called for immediate notification of federal officials when more than one barrel of oil is released into the water. Releases greater than five barrels — or that threaten state waters or the shoreline — require immediate notification of the state fire marshal and California wildlife officials.

The pipeline was supposed to be monitored under an automated leak detection system that would report problems to a control room staffed around the clock on the oil platform known as Elly.

The system was designed to trigger an alarm whenever a change in the flow of oil is detected. But how fast it can pick up on those changes was expected to vary according to the size of the leak. For a large leak — 10% or more of the amount of oil flowing through the pipeline — the detection time was estimated at 5 minutes. Smaller leaks were expected to take up to 50 minutes to detect, according to the response plan.

The spill plan warned that a break in the pipeline could cause “substantial harm to the environment” and that in a worst-case scenario 3,111 barrels (131,000 gallons) of oil could be released from the pipeline.

Willsher said required agencies were notified “instantly” when the company recognized the leak was from its pipe. Records show the spill was not reported by Amplify Energy, but by Witt O’Brien’s, a crisis and emergency management firm listed on the spill response plan as the point of contact to notify the NRC.

The report said the leaking pipe had been shut off but containment was not confirmed. The cause of the rupture was unknown.

Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said he has investigators looking into whether he can bring state charges for the spill even though the leak occurred in waters overseen by the U.S. government. Other potential criminal investigations were being pursued by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, officials said.

Safety advocates have pushed for years for federal rules that would strengthen oil spill detection requirements and force companies to install valves that can automatically shut down the flow of crude in case of a leak. The oil and pipeline industries have resisted such requirements because of the high cost.

“If the operator had more valves installed on this line, they’d have a much better chance at having the point of failure isolated by now,” said Bill Caram with the Pipeline Safety Trust, an organization based in Bellingham, Washington.

The pipeline was built using a process known as electric resistance weld, according to a regulatory filing from the company. That welding process has been linked to past oil pipeline failures because corrosion can occur along seams, according to government safety advisories and Caram.

Annual reports filed with federal regulators in 2019 and 2020 showed inspections for the inside and outside of the pipe revealed nothing requiring repairs.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Biesecker in Washington, Bernard Condon in New York, and Amy Taxin in Huntington Beach, California, contributed to this report.

 16 PHOTOS
California Oil Spill

Oil floats on the water surface after an oil spill in Huntington Beach, Calif., on Monday, Oct. 4, 2021. A major oil spill off the coast of Southern California fouled popular beaches and killed wildlife while crews scrambled Sunday, to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands.

(AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

SEE

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/10/northern-california-environmentalists.html

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2021/10/oil-spill-hits-california-beaches-after.html