Revealed: more than 120,000 US sites feared to handle harmful PFAS ‘forever’ chemicals

List of facilities makes it clear that virtually no part of the US appears free from the potential risk of air and water contamination with the chemicals

Water samples from Clover Flat landfill in Calistoga, California, have confirmed the presence of PFAS chemicals.

 Photograph: Courtesy of Brian Lilla

Carey Gillam and Alvin Chang
Sun 17 Oct 2021 

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified more than 120,000 locations around the US where people may be exposed to a class of toxic “forever chemicals” associated with various cancers and other health problems that is a frightening tally four times larger than previously reported, according to data obtained by the Guardian.


Chemicals used in packaging may play role in 100,000 US deaths a year – study

The list of facilities makes it clear that virtually no part of America appears free from the potential risk of air and water contamination with the chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).

Colorado tops the EPA list with an estimated 21,400 facilities, followed by California’s 13,000 sites and Oklahoma with just under 12,000. The facilities on the list represent dozens of industrial sectors, including oil and gas work, mining, chemical manufacturing, plastics, waste management and landfill operations. Airports, fire training facilities and some military-related sites are also included.

The EPA describes its list as “facilities in industries that may be handling PFAS”. Most of the facilities are described as “active”, several thousand are listed as “inactive” and many others show no indication of such status. PFAS are often referred to as “forever chemicals” due to their longevity in the environment, thus even sites that are no longer actively discharging pollutants can still be a problem, according to the EPA.

The tally far exceeds a previous analysis that showed 29,900 industrial sites known or suspected of making or using the toxic chemicals.

People living near such facilities “are certain to be exposed, some at very high levels” to PFAS chemicals, said David Brown, a public health toxicologist and former director of environmental epidemiology at the Connecticut department of health.

Brown said he suspects there are far more sites than even those on the EPA list, posing long-term health risks for unsuspecting people who live near them.

“Once it’s in the environment it almost never breaks down,” Brown said of PFAS. “This is such a potent compound in terms of its toxicity and it tends to bioaccumulate … This is one of the compounds that persists forever.”

A Guardian analysis of the EPA data set shows that in Colorado, one county alone – Weld county – houses more than 8,000 potential PFAS handling sites, with 7,900 described as oil and gas operations. Oil and gas operations lead the list of industry sectors the EPA says may be handling PFAS chemicals, according to the Guardian analysis.

In July, a report by Physicians for Social Responsibility presented evidence that oil and gas companies have been using PFAS, or substances that can degrade into PFAS, in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”), a technique used to extract natural gas or oil.

Water samples from Clover Flat landfill in Calistoga, California, have confirmed the presence of PFAS chemicals. 

Photograph: Courtesy of Brian Lilla

‘Permeating all industrial sectors’

The EPA said in 2019 that it was compiling data to create a map of “known or potential PFAS contamination sources” to help “assess environmental trends in PFAS concentrations” and aid local authorities in oversight. But no such map has yet been issued publicly.

The new data set shows a total count of 122,181 separate facilities after adjustments for duplications and errors in listed locations, and incorporation and analysis of additional EPA identifying information. The EPA facility list was provided to the Guardian by the non-profit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (Peer), which received it from the EPA through a Freedom of Information request. (Peer is currently representing four EPA scientists who have requested a federal inquiry into what they allege is an EPA practice of ignoring or covering up the risks of certain dangerous chemicals.)

“This shows how PFAS is permeating all industrial sectors,” said Peer’s executive director, Tim Whitehouse.

PFAS chemicals are a group of more than 5,000 man-made compounds used by a variety of industries since the 1940s for such things as electronics manufacturing, oil recovery, paints, fire-fighting foams, cleaning products and non-stick cookware. People can be exposed through contaminated drinking water, food and air, as well as contact with commercial products made with PFAS.

The EPA acknowledges there is “evidence that exposure to PFAS can cause adverse health outcomes in humans”. But the agency also says that there is only “very limited information” about human health risks for most of the chemicals within the group of PFAS chemicals.

EPA officials have started taking steps to get a grasp on the extent of PFAS use and existing and potential environmental contamination, as independent researchers say their own studies are finding reason for alarm. Last year, for instance, scientists at the non-profit Environmental Working Group issued a report finding that more than 200 million Americans could have PFAS in their drinking water at worrisome levels.

The EPA is expected to announce a broad new “action plan” addressing PFAS issues on Monday. The list of facilities handling PFAS is one part of the larger effort by the agency to “better understand and reduce the potential risks to human health and the environment caused by PFAS,” EPA deputy press secretary Tim Carroll told the Guardian.

“EPA has made addressing PFAS a top priority,” Carroll said. “Together we are identifying flexible and pragmatic approaches that will deliver critical public health protections.”

Linda Birnbaum, former director of the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and an expert on PFAS, said the EPA compilation of more than 120,000 facilities that may be handling PFAS and other recent moves shows the agency is taking the issue seriously, but more work is urgently needed.

“Unfortunately, where PFAS are used, there is often local contamination,” Birnbaum said. And while the EPA appears to be trying to get a handle on the extent of exposure concerns, progress “seems very slow”, she said.

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) asserts that PFAS concerns are overblown.

Major manufacturers have backed away from the PFOS and PFOA-related chemicals that research has shown to be hazardous, and other types of PFAS are not proven to be dangerous, according to the chemical industry organization. “PFAS are vital” to modern society, according to the ACC.

But public health and environmental groups, along with some members of Congress, say the risks posed to people by industrial use of PFAS substances are substantial.

Four US lawmakers led by Rosa DeLauro, chair of the House Committee on Appropriations, wrote to the EPA administrator, Michael Regan, on 6 October about their concerns regarding PFAS contamination of air and water from industrial facilities, saying: “For too many American families, this exposure is increasing their risk of cancer and other serious health problems.”

More than 150 advocacy groups also sent a letter to Regan calling for urgent action to address industrial discharges of PFAS chemicals, noting that many of the chemicals “have been linked at very low doses to serious health harms”.

Fears and foamy water

One of the sites on the EPA list is the Clover Flat landfill in Calistoga, California, a small community in the Napa Valley area that is popular for its vineyards and wineries. The landfill sits on the northern edge of the valley atop the edge of a rugged mountain range.

Clover Flat has taken in household garbage, as well as commercial and industrial waste since the 1960s, but over time the landfill has also become a disposal site for debris from forest fires.

Though the EPA list does not specifically confirm Clover Flat is handling PFAS, the community has no doubt about the presence of the toxic chemicals. A May 2020 water sampling report requested by regional water quality control officials showed that PFAS chemicals were present in every single sample taken from groundwater and from the leachate liquid materials around the landfill.

Close to 5,000 people live within a three-mile radius of the landfill, and many fear the PFAS and other toxins taken in by the landfill are making their way deep into the community.

Napa Valley resident Dennis Kelly lives downhill from the landfill and worries about contamination from the waste.

 Photograph: Courtesy of Brian Lilla

Geoffrey Ellsworth, mayor of the small city of St Helena in Napa county, said multiple streams cross the landfill property, helping rains and erosion drive the chemical contaminants downhill into creeks and other water sources, including some used to irrigate farmland. He has been seeking regulatory intervention but has not been successful, he told the Guardian.

A small group of Napa Valley residents have been working on a documentary film about their concerns with the landfill, highlighting fears that exposures to PFAS and other contaminants are jeopardizing their health.

“The water is full of foam and looks soapy and smells funny,” said 69-year-old Dennis Kelly, who lives on a few acres downhill from Clover Flat. His dog Scarlett has become sick after wading through waters that drain from the landfill into a creek that runs through his property, Kelly said. And for the last few years he has suffered with colon and stomach cancer.

Kelly said he fears the water is toxic, and he has noticed the frogs and tadpoles that once populated the little creek are now nowhere to be found.

How to Build an Offshore Wind Farm

These huge construction projects can feature turbines taller than some skyscrapers

By Benjamin Storrow, E&E News on October 15, 2021

Aerial view of the construction site of an offshore wind farm in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province of China. Credit: Liang Wendong Getty Images

Let’s talk about building an offshore wind farm. For starters, it’s not your average construction job.

Vineyard Wind I, the country’s first major project, is planning to use turbines longer than the John Hancock building, which is Boston’s tallest skyscraper at 790 feet. And whoa, boy, these things are heavy. Just take the nacelle—that's the long narrow piece that houses the motor and sits right behind the blades. It weighs a whopping 794 tons. That’s almost as much as two fully loaded 747 airplanes.



Today, we’re going to break down how to actually install an offshore wind turbine. Let’s get started.

PICK A FOUNDATION

The type of foundation a developer uses generally reflects the depth of the surrounding waters. In the Vineyard Wind project area—some 15 miles off Martha’s Vineyard—water depths range from 115 feet to almost 200 feet deep. That’s relatively shallow as far as these things go, which means you can use something called a monopile for your foundation.

A monopile is a steel tube that is driven into the seabed. Vineyard Wind’s monopiles will measure up to 34 feet in diameter and 312 feet from end to end. About half the structure will be buried beneath the seabed, according to the company’s federal environmental permit.

In deeper water, developers use something known as a jacket. Jackets are sort of like tripods. They have three or four legs that are anchored to the seafloor. Vineyard’s permit provides for up to 10 jackets.

PICK A TURBINE

Offshore wind turbines have been getting bigger. A lot bigger.

Consider this example: The five turbines used at the Block Island Wind Farm off Rhode Island are each capable of producing 6 megawatts of electricity. They measure about 300 feet from waterline to rotor and boast 242-foot-long turbine blades.

Now contrast that to the turbines Vineyard Wind plans on using. They will be able to generate 13 MW and measure almost 500 feet from the waterline to rotor. Its blade stretches more than 350 feet—that’s almost as long as a football field. Just one turbine can generate enough power for 16,000 homes.

PICK A BOAT

There are about 50 boats in the world capable of installing offshore wind turbines, according to the Government Accountability Office. These ships are sometimes called jackup boats because they have legs that are lowered onto the seafloor and lift the vessel up and out of the water when installing a turbine.

There are two challenges with jackup boats. The first: None of them are American. That’s problematic because the United States has a law prohibiting foreign-flagged vessels from traveling between American ports.

Developers have a way around the law. When Deepwater Wind built Block Island Wind Farm, it used a Maltese-flagged ship named the Brave Tern. The Brave Tern anchored off Rhode Island and was fed parts and equipment by a small fleet of barges and transport vessels.

Vineyard Wind plans on using a similar strategy. Its problem is that there are few jackup boats with cranes tall enough and strong enough to install the Haliade-X. In fact, there are only three boats in existence today capable of installing a Haliade-X, according to researchers at Tufts University. Vineyard Wind contracted with the Deme Group, a Belgium-based company that owns one of them: a 438-foot vessel named the Sea Installer.

SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

Paul Murphy is one of the few Americans with experience building an offshore wind farm. He oversaw the construction of the Block Island Wind Farm and is one of the people leading Ørsted A/S’s South Fork, Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind developments off southern New England. We asked him how to actually assemble one of these projects.

His advice: “The best way to build a project in the middle of the ocean is to spend as little time in the middle of the ocean as possible.”

That means doing a lot of the work onshore. In Ørsted’s case, its first two projects will be put together at a staging ground in New London, Conn. Vineyard Wind will use the Marine Commerce Terminal in New Bedford, Mass.

Typically, the tall part of the turbine known as the tower comes in three, 100-foot-tall sections, Murphy said. Those are stacked and welded together onshore and outfitted with all the necessary cables and electric wiring.

They are then floated out to the wind development and installed using one of those massive jackup boats. Once the tower is securely fastened to the ocean floor, the nacelle, which houses the motor, is placed on top of it, and each of the three turbine blades are attached.

Of course, this just covers installing the actual turbines. Developers also need to run transmission cables between the turbines and into an offshore substation, which then feeds electricity into a main transmission cable running to the mainland.

All sounds simple, right?

Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2021. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment professionals.

A new fossil discovery may add hundreds of millions of years to the evolutionary history of animals


A recent fossil discovery in the Mackenzie Mountains, NWT may change how we consider animal evolution. (Shutterstock)

October 17, 2021 

Ever wonder how and when animals swanned onto the evolutionary stage? When, where and why did animals first appear? What were they like?

Life has existed for much of Earth’s 4.5-billion-year history, but for most of that time it consisted exclusively of bacteria.

Read more: Life on Earth was nothing but slime for a 'boring billion' years

Although scientists have been investigating the evidence of biological evolution for over a century, some parts of the fossil record remain maddeningly enigmatic, and finding evidence of Earth’s earliest animals has been particularly challenging.

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Hidden evolution

Information about evolutionary events hundreds of millions of years ago is mainly gleaned from fossils. Familiar fossils are shells, exoskeletons and bones that organisms make while alive. These so-called “hard parts” first appear in rocks deposited during the “Cambrian explosion,” slightly less than 540 million years ago.

The seemingly sudden appearance of diverse, complex animals, many with hard parts, implies that there was a preceding interval during which early soft-bodied animals with no hard parts evolved from simpler animals. Unfortunately, until now, possible evidence of fossil animals in the interval of “hidden” evolution has been very rare and difficult to understand, leaving the timing and nature of evolutionary events unclear.

This conundrum, known as “Darwin’s dilemma,” remains tantalizing and unresolved 160 years after the publication of On the Origin of Species.
Required oxygen

There is indirect evidence regarding how and when animals may have appeared. Animals by definition ingest pre-existing organic matter, and their metabolisms require a certain level of ambient oxygen. It has been assumed that animals could not appear, or at least not diversify, until after a major oxygen increase in the Neoproterozoic Era, sometime between 815 and 540 million years ago, resulting from accumulation of oxygen produced by photosynthesizing cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae.

It is widely accepted that sponges are the most basic animal in the animal evolutionary tree and therefore probably were first to appear. Yes, sponges are animals: they use oxygen and feed by sucking water containing organic matter through their bodies. The earliest animals were probably sponge-related (the “sponge-first” hypothesis), and may have emerged hundreds of millions of years prior to the Cambrian, as suggested by a genetic method called molecular phylogeny, which analyzes genetic differences.

Read more: Finding a rare fossilized comb jelly reveals new gaps in the fossil record

Based on these reasonable assumptions, sponges may have existed as much as 900 million years ago. So, why have we not found fossil evidence of sponges in rocks from those hundreds of millions of intervening years?

Under the right conditions, soft sponge tissue made from spongin fibres can create a distinctive fossil. (Elizabeth C. Turner), Author provided

Part of the answer to this question is that sponges do not have standard hard parts (shells, bones). Although some sponges have an internal skeleton made of microscopic mineralized rods called spicules, no convincing spicules have been found in rocks dating from the interval of hidden early animal evolution. However, some sponge types have a skeleton made of tough protein fibres called spongin, forming a distinctive, microscopic, three-dimensional meshwork, identical to a bath sponge.

Work on modern and fossil sponges has shown that these sponges can be preserved in the rock record when their soft tissue is calcified during decay. If the calcified mass hardens around spongin fibres before they too decay, a distinctive microscopic meshwork of complexly branching tubes results appears in the rock. The branching configuration is unlike that of algae, bacteria or fungi, and is well known from limestones younger than 540 million years.
Unusual fossils

I am a geologist and paleobiologist who works on very old limestone. Recently, I described this exact microstructure in 890-million-year-old rocks from northern Canada, proposing that it could be evidence of sponges that are several hundred million years older than the next-youngest uncontested sponge fossil

.
This may be an 890 million year old sponge fossil. (Elizabeth C. Turner), Author provided

Although my proposal may initially seem outrageous, it is consistent with predictions and assumptions that are common in the paleontological community: the new material seems to validate an extrapolated timeline and a predicted identity for early animals that are already widely accepted.

If these are indeed sponge fossils, animal evolution can be pushed back by several hundred million years.

The early possible sponges that I describe lived with localised cyanobacterial communities that produced oxygen oases in an otherwise low-oxygen world, prior to the Neoproterozoic oxygenation event. These early sponges may have continued living in similar environments, possibly unchanged and unchallenged by evolutionary pressure, for up to several hundred million years, before more diverse animals emerged.

The existence of 890-million-year-old animals would also indicate that biological evolution was not substantially affected by the controversial Cryogenian glacial episodes — so-called “snowball Earth” — that began around 720 million years ago.

My unusual fossil material may provide a new perspective on Darwin’s dilemma. However, radical new ideas are generally not fully accepted by the scientific community without vigorous discussion; I expect lively controversy to ensue. At some point, probably years in the future, a consensus may develop based on further work. Until then, enjoy the debate!

Author

Elizabeth C. Turner
Professor, Earth Sciences, Laurentian University
Disclosure statement
Elizabeth Turner receives funding from Natural Science and Engineering Research Council (Canada).
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IATSE Strike Tentatively Averted After Deal Is Reached — But Some Union Members Aren't Happy

Several film and entertainment workers have expressed frustration 

over the deal struck late Saturday night to avoid an Oct. 18 strike

By Abigail AdamsOctober 17, 2021 

CREDIT: MYUNG J. CHUN/LOS ANGELES TIMES VIA GETTY

IATSE has averted a nationwide strike for now.

The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees announced late Saturday that it had reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) for a new film and TV contract. 

"Everything achieved was because you, the members, stood up and gave us the power to change the course of these negotiations," the union said Saturday in a statement to members.

About 60,000 members of the union, which represents thousands of TV and film production workers across the industry, had threatened to strike on Oct. 18 and shut down much of Hollywood if they were unable to negotiate improved working conditions, benefits, and compensation for their upcoming contract. 

RELATED: Juliette Lewis Shares Dark Side of Acting While Supporting IATSE Strike: 'Overworked and Exhausted'

In late September, the IATSE sent letters in California and New York warning that "a strike would effectively shut down" film and television production in the two states, according to Deadline.

However, some members of the union apparently are not pleased with the proposed 3-year deal, according to comments posted on social media. 

IATSE said in a statement Saturday night that the new contract addresses various "core issues" such as meal breaks, rest periods, and a living wage for those at the lower end of the pay scale.

Under the new contract, 10-hour rest periods are required daily without exclusions. Weekend rest periods of 54 and 32 hours were also negotiated. Other items achieved include improved working conditions for streaming, the expansion of sick leave benefits nationwide, and employer-funded benefits for the term.

CREDIT: CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK

IATSE president Matthew Loeb had said the union would go on strike on Oct. 18 if a deal was not reached. He called the deal "a Hollywood ending."

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

"We went toe to toe with some of the richest and most powerful entertainment and tech companies in the world, and we have now reached an agreement with the AMPTP that meets our members' needs," Loeb wrote in Saturday's statement.

CREDIT: CHRIS PIZZELLO/INVISION/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK

But some union members say on social media that several important items, such as length of shooting days and changes to new media (streaming) compensation, are not mentioned in the proposed deal. 

Several workers have expressed their frustrations in a post on an Instagram page called "IATSE Stories," where film and entertainment workers can share their experiences and "build solidarity" with others in the industry.

Some members also commented on the IATSE's announcement on Twitter. A ratification vote will now likely come at a later date, per Variety.

RELATED: What You Need to Know About the Potential IATSE Strike

However, Mike Miller, Vice President and Motion Picture Director for IATSE, believes that both union members and employers will "benefit" from the deal.

"This settlement allows pre-production, production and post-production to continue without interruption," Miller said in the statement. "Workers should have improved morale and be more alert. Health and safety standards have been upgraded."

Enbridge fails to meet aquifer cleanup deadline in Minnesota

The Associated Press
Sunday, October 17, 2021 


The Enbridge logo is shown at the company's annual meeting in Calgary, Alta., Wednesday, May 9, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

Enbridge has failed to meet a deadline set by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for cleaning up a site where an aquifer ruptured during construction of the Line 3 oil pipeline, DNR officials said.

The agency had given the company until Friday to repair the damage that caused the artesian aquifer near Clearbrook to leak at least 24 million gallons of groundwater.

Regulators will require compensation for the additional time it takes to stop the groundwater flow.

The DNR has already ordered Enbridge to pay US$3.32 million for failing to follow environmental laws.

Regulators also announced they are investigating two separate sites where the company may have caused additional groundwater damage, the Star Tribune reported.

A company spokeswoman says Enbridge is co-operating with the Minnesota DNR to correct uncontrolled groundwater flows at Clearbrook, and is working with officials while they evaluate two other locations.

Line 3 starts in Alberta, Canada, and clips a corner of North Dakota before crossing Minnesota en route to Enbridge's terminal in Superior, Wisconsin.

Winona LaDuke, who heads the Honor the Earth Indigenous environmental group, called the company's failure to meet the deadline alarming. "If Enbridge can't meet basic safety requirements, they should not be allowed to operate a pipeline," she said, adding that it "doesn't bode well for the future."

Related Stories
Protests continue at Minnesota Line 3 oil pipeline project
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Enbridge says Line 3 'substantially complete,' will be in service on Friday
Pipeline anchor strike may have occurred months before spill

Rolls-Royce launches mtu hydrogen solutions for power generation

- From 2022 mtu Series 500 and Series 4000 ready for 25% hydrogen

- From 2023 mtu engines and conversion kits available for 100% hydrogen

MANKATO, Minn., Oct. 15, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Rolls-Royce is further developing its mtu gas engine portfolio for power generation and cogeneration to run on hydrogen as a fuel and thus enable a climate-neutral energy supply. Already today, gensets powered by mtu Series 500 and Series 4000 gas engines can be operated with a gas blending of 10 percent hydrogen. Beginning in 2022, operation with a hydrogen content of 25 percent will be possible. "After intensive tests on test benches and pilot installations at customers in 2022, Rolls-Royce will continuously market new mtu Series 500 and Series 4000 gas engines beginning in 2023 for use with up to 100 percent hydrogen, and on a design to order basis conversion kits to allow already installed gas engines in the field to run on 100% hydrogen," said Perry Kuiper, President Sustainable Power Solutions at Rolls-Royce Power Systems.

Power plants with hydrogen engines support energy transition

"The decarbonization of power generation requires reliable, flexible, but also climate-neutral, power plants to supplement the fluctuating generation from wind and sun. We assume that natural gas will initially be the primary fuel in the development of the hydrogen ecosystem, but we see hydrogen as technically and economically possible. That is why we continue to develop our gas engines for use with green hydrogen - whether as a 10 or 25 percent admixture or for 100 percent," explains Andreas Görtz, Vice President Power Generation at Rolls-Royce Power Systems.

Rolls-Royce builds expertise for H2 ecosystem

In addition, fuel cells powered by 100% green hydrogen can play an important role in future energy supply in combination with renewable energies. At its Friedrichshafen headquarters, Rolls-Royce's Power Systems division has installed a 250-kilowatt fuel cell demonstrator, which will be used to test and present future CO2-free energy systems to customers. The entire hydrogen ecosystem, including the infrastructure for supply, conversion, test benches and future production, is also being mapped in the company's own plants, thus building up expertise.

Rolls-Royce focuses its climate protection program Net Zero at Power Systems on new technologies and fuels

With its climate protection program "Net Zero at Power Systems", Rolls-Royce's Power Systems division has set itself the target of saving 35 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 2019 using new technologies. This near-term target plays an important role in the Rolls-Royce Group's ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 at the latest. In addition to new technologies, a key element in achieving these targets is the certification of key mtu engine products to run on sustainable EN 15940 fuels such as e-diesel and second-generation biofuels as early as 2023.

Press photos are available for download from https://www.mtu-solutions.com/eu/en/news-and-media/media-center.html

About Rolls-Royce Holdings plc

Rolls-Royce pioneers the power that matters to connect, power and protect society. We have pledged to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions in our operations by 2030. We joined the UN Race to Zero campaign in 2020, and have committed to ensuring our new products will be compatible with net zero operation by 2030, and all products will be compatible with net zero by 2050.

Rolls-Royce Power Systems is headquartered in Friedrichshafen in southern Germany and employs around 9,000 people. The product portfolio includes mtu-brand high-speed engines and propulsion systems for ships, power generation, heavy land, rail and defence vehicles and for the oil and gas industry as well as diesel and gas systems and battery containers for mission critical, standby and continuous power, combined generation of heat and power, and microgrids.

Rolls-Royce has customers in more than 150 countries, comprising more than 400 airlines and leasing customers, 160 armed forces and navies, and more than 5,000 power and nuclear customers.

Annual underlying revenue was £11.76 billion in 2020 and we invested £1.25 billion on research and development. We also support a global network of 28 University Technology Centres, which position Rolls-Royce engineers at the forefront of scientific research.

Rolls-Royce Holdings plc is a publicly traded company (LSE:RR., ADR: RYCEY, LEI: 213800EC7997ZBLZJH69).

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rolls-royce-launches-mtu-hydrogen-solutions-for-power-generation-301401101.html

SOURCE Rolls-Royce Power Systems

Facebook announces 10,000 EU jobs to build 'metaverse'

Issued on: 18/10/2021 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been a leading voice in Silicon Valley hype around the idea of the metaverse, which would blur the lines between the physical world and the digital one 

Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

Facebook on Monday announced plans to hire 10,000 people in the European Union to build the "metaverse", a virtual reality version of the internet that the tech giant sees as the future.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been a leading voice in Silicon Valley hype around the idea of the metaverse, which would blur the lines between the physical world and the digital one.

The technology might, for example, allow someone to don virtual reality glasses that make it feel as if they're face-to-face with a friend -- when in fact they are thousands of miles apart and connected via the internet.

"The metaverse has the potential to help unlock access to new creative, social, and economic opportunities. And Europeans will be shaping it right from the start," Facebook said in a blog post.

"Today, we are announcing a plan to create 10,000 new high skilled jobs within the European Union (EU) over the next five years."

The European hires will include "highly specialised engineers", but the company otherwise gave few details of its plans for the new metaverse team.

"The EU has a number of advantages that make it a great place for tech companies to invest -- a large consumer market, first class universities and, crucially, top quality talent," the blog post said.

- Distraction from bad news? -

The announcement comes as Facebook grapples with the fallout of a damaging scandal, major outages of its services, and rising calls for regulation to curb its vast influence.

The company has faced a storm of criticism over the past month after former employee Frances Haugen leaked internal studies showing Facebook knew its sites could be harmful to young people's mental health.

The Washington Post last month suggested that Facebook's interest in the metaverse is "part of a broader push to rehabilitate the company's reputation with policymakers and reposition Facebook to shape the regulation of next-wave Internet technologies".

But Zuckerberg also appears to be a genuine evangelist for the advent of the metaverse era, predicting in July that Facebook will transition from "primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company" over the next five years.

Facebook bought Oculus, a company that makes virtual reality headsets, for $2 billion in 2014 and has since been developing Horizon, a digital world where people can interact using VR technology.

In August it unveiled Horizon Workrooms, a feature where co-workers wearing VR headsets can hold meetings in a virtual room where they all appear as cartoonish 3D versions of themselves.

- Blurring the lines -

Metaverse enthusiasts point out that the internet is already starting to blur the lines between virtual experiences and "real" ones.

Stars such as pop diva Ariana Grande and the rapper Travis Scott have performed for huge audiences, watching at home, via the hit video game Fortnite.

In Decentraland, another online platform widely seen as a forerunner to the metaverse, you can already get a job as a croupier in its virtual casino.

"No one company will own and operate the metaverse. Like the internet, its key feature will be its openness and interoperability," Facebook said in its blog post.

It is not the only company pouring millions into developing the technology that could turn a fully-fledged version of the metaverse into reality.

Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite, announced earlier this year that it had raised $1 billion in new funding, with some of that money set to support its vision of the metaverse.

© 2021 AFP

Salvadorans march against Bukele's economic and judicial policies

Issued on: 17/10/2021 - 

People take part in a demonstration against the circulation of Bitcoin and other economic measures, as well as a decree that removed judges from their functions, 

in San Salvador, on October 17, 2021 Stanley ESTRADA AFP

San Salvador (AFP)

Thousands of protesters marched in San Salvador Sunday against President Nayib Bukele's government, including the move to make bitcoin legal tender in the country.

Demonstrators, including feminist groups, human rights organizations, environmentalists and members of political parties, shouted slogans and carried signs reading, "Bitcoin is fraud," "No to dictatorship," "Democracy is not up for negotiation, it is defended" and "Enough authoritarianism."

"People are starting to get tired of this authoritarian government, (it's) anti-democratic," Ricardo Navarro, head of the environmentalist NGO Salvadoran Center for Appropriate Technology, told AFP.

"He is already taking us down a cliff with his bad ideas that are already affecting the economy with this bitcoin."

El Salvador, which has used the US dollar for two decades, became the first country in the world last month to legalize bitcoin as a national currency, which the government says will help revitalize its struggling economy.

Authorities are hoping the use of the digital cryptocurrency could help the country retain the more than $400 million worth of financial fees lost when Salvadorans send remittances home from abroad. Such payments make up some 22 percent of the country's GDP.

Members of the political opposition said their protest participation Sunday was also about other policies from Bukele and his congressional allies.

"He attacked judicial independence," Medardo Gonzalez, former leader of the Farabundo Marti Front for Liberation party, told AFP, referring to the recent legislative vote to remove judges over 60 or who have served more than 30 years.

"That is only something a dictatorial government would do and we don't want that in El Salvador," Gonzalez said.

And head of the Salvadoran Trade Union Front Wilfredo Berrios told AFP he had come to the protest to march against water privatization, as Congress debates a law that would guarantee water access for the whole population and ban any private takeover.

A woman holds a poster that reads, "It's because I love you El Salvador" during a demonstration against bitcoin and other economic measures, as well as a decree that removed judges from their functions, in San Salvador October 17, 2021 

Stanley ESTRADA AFP

Bukele downplayed the discontent, even saying protesters had harassed bystanders who didn't participate in the march.

"In just 12 seconds, they censor the freedom of expression of a senior, push a person using a mobility aid, and try to censor a media outlet," Bukele tweeted, alongside a video showing marchers jostling in the streets.

"This is our opposition."

© 2021 AFP

Bare shelves, no holidays… At last, a biblical kind of Christmas

There’s nothing to buy and no chance of going anywhere anyway. Thank goodness for Boris Johnson and his empty promises

Empty shelves at a TK Maxx store in Swansea.

 Photograph: Robert Melen/Alamy

Ed Cumming
Sun 17 Oct 2021 

“Christmas won’t be Christmas without any presents,” says Jo at the start of Little Women. BoJo is going one better. This Christmas, not only will there be no presents, but there will be no anything. After cancelling Christmas altogether last year, this time around he is creating a kind of half-Christmas, Christmas methadone, to ease us back into the festival. There is nothing the man will not do to get himself compared to Churchill. Thanks to his foresight and the happy accidents of the global economy, we will be able to wallow in our beloved blitz spirit, making do and mending, with a safe low dosage of consumerism to tide us over.

There will be no PlayStation 5 under where the Christmas tree used to be. There will be no jokes in Mrs Brown’s Boys, as usual, but none in the Christmas crackers either. There’s no petrol or HGV drivers, of course, but correspondents also report shortages of tennis balls, merlot, white bread, sardines, M&S chicken kievs, fish sauce, frozen apple strudel, tinned sardines, spring onions, fire alarms, an effective opposition, chocolate Hobnobs, cat vaccines, cat worming pills, bubble bath, Leon fish-finger wraps, marmalade, butter beans, dog-poo bags, goats, crisps, decaf coffee, bulbs (plant), bulbs (light), pigs, blankets, pigs-in-blankets, roofing lead and Harry Potter merchandise, especially wands. The last is hard to take; usually there are more wands than you can shake a stick at.

On the off-chance you manage to get to 25 December with a full tank and are able to dodge Insulate Britain’s armed roadblocks, you’ll arrive at houses that are too expensive to heat. The environmentalists ought to be encouraging the free movement of cars this Christmas; there are few people more persuasive on the subject of double-glazing than a chilly mother-in-law. There won’t be any turkeys, or at least not dead ones. There are plenty waddling around in barns, but there’s nobody to slaughter them. For the handful that do make it to Bernard Matthews’ big barn in the sky, there’s nobody to drive them to the shops. In a delicious irony, there are shortages of everything except shortages. Like it or not, this is what leadership looks like.

Nobody could accuse this government of neglecting traditional values. This brave, embattled group of officials have worked out the kind of country they want and are going full tilt towards achieving it. They have looked at our tiny lives and realised that while we pretend to crave the choices occasioned by being a modern nation, really we hate them. We scroll Netflix for an hour, increasingly furious, before giving up and going to bed. With the entire history of recorded music in our pockets we turn again and again to Ed Sheeran. We thumb through a hundred cuisines on Deliveroo before deciding to order Domino’s. We don’t know what to do with choice.


Nestlé says worker shortage could hit Quality Street supplies at Christmas

Through the government’s careful husbandry of shortages, it is removing mundane consumer decisions like what cereal to buy or what milk to put in your flat white, and replacing them with more existential queries, like “will my children starve?” and “will I be able to heat my home?”. In doing so it is creating meaningful experiences for a generation that has grown soft. The joy of selecting from 20 types of pasta is nothing compared to knowing you have snaffled the last packet in Islington. You probably take turning the lights on for granted, but you won’t when they’ve been off for a month. Up and down the country, people who will never know what it’s like to fight in a war are getting a taster of the same esprit de corps on petrol station forecourts.

As to Christmas itself, the event has been crying out for a bit more drama. Rather than a bloated jamboree of dry turkey – a bird that at the best of times proves a choice of meats isn’t always desirable – and low-grade family conflict, Christmas 2021 will be a wholesome affair more in keeping with the original event. Small groups of us, having reverted to subsistence farming, will be sitting around on hillsides, guarding our livestock, before using the stars to navigate on foot to an inn and asking if we might sleep in the barn. We still have two months to go. Plenty of time to appreciate the irony that Brexit has helped bring about the kind of Christmas turkeys might actually have voted for.

NASA's Lucy blasts off on historic mission to Jupiter's Trojan asteroids

The asteroids are 4.6-billion-year-old relics from the solar system's earliest days.

Lucy lifts off from Cape Canaveral.

Jackson Ryan
Oct. 16, 2021 

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket flared to life under the cover of dark at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida just after 2:30 a.m. local time Saturday morning. Encased within the pencil-shaped payload fairing atop the rocket was NASA's latest interplanetary explorer: a spacecraft named Lucy.

It was the 100th launch from Cape Canaveral Space Launch Complex 41. Approximately 58 minutes after launch the probe, which is about as wide as a bus, was released from the second stage rocket booster to begin its long journey toward Jupiter's orbit. The United Launch Alliance team celebrated with hugs and clapping in its mission control room.

"It was one of the most exciting experiences of my life," Hal Levison, principal investigator of the Lucy mission, said post-launch. "It was truly awesome, in the old-fashioned meaning of the word."

Over the next two years, Lucy will use Earth's gravity twice to swing toward the solar system's largest planet. But the gas giant isn't Lucy's destination. Instead, it'll explore a series of asteroids, locked in Jupiter's orbit, known as the Trojans.

These asteroids have never been studied up close before and move as huge swarms, or camps, at the "Lagrangian points" in Jupiter's orbit. The Lagrangian points are regions where gravity's push and pull lock the camps in place, leading and trailing Jupiter in its journey around the sun in perpetuity.

The collection of amorphous space rocks is like a series of cosmic fossils, providing a window into the earliest era of our solar system, some 4.6 billion years ago. Lucy will act as a cosmic palaeontologist, flying past these eight different "fossils" at a distance and studying their surfaces with infrared imagers and cameras.

"No spacecraft has visited so many objects before, and each is a potential window into the material and conditions of the early solar system," says Alan Duffy, an astrophysicist at Swinburne University in Melbourne.

The idea of examining fossils is core to the mission's philosophy -- right down to its name. "Lucy" is derived from a hominid skeleton discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. The skeleton was dubbed Lucy because the Beatles' song Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds was playing in the scientists' camp after the find. Words from all four Beatles are contained on a plaque inside the spacecraft.

Though the early morning launch and separation was marked down as a success on Lucy's extensive to-do list, the spacecraft had to overcome one final, giant hurdle before it was ready to sail out of Earth's backyard. About one hour into its flight, the probe experienced "20 minutes of terror," as it unfurled its 24 foot wide decagonal solar panels.

The panels are critical to the spacecraft's success and will power Lucy during the 12-year journey toward the Trojans. They can supply about 500 watts of power -- about the same amount of energy necessary to run a washing machine, according to NASA. And Lucy will need every watt, because it'll be the farthest solar-powered spacecraft should it reach its destinations.

Lucy's complex trajectory and flyby dates

.SwRI/NASA

Ninety-one minutes after launch, the team acquired a signal from Lucy confirming the solar panels had deployed. "Things were splendid today," said Omar Baez, the senior launch director of NASA's Launch Services Program.

That means Lucy is alive and well and now there's a lot of ground to cover before it reaches its first object of interest: Donaldjohanson, a space rock positioned in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. That flyby will occur in April 2025.

From there, Lucy will swing toward the Trojans, reaching four worlds throughout 2027 and 2028 in the Greek camp, the swarm of rocks leading Jupiter in orbit. Another Earth flyby will help propel Lucy to its final targets, Patroclus and its binary companion Menoetius, in the Trojan camp trailing Jupiter in 2033. In total, the spacecraft will cover 4 billion miles.

Lucy's ambitious main mission won't necessarily end with Patroclus and Menoetius, either. The spacecraft's orbit will see it drift through the swarms for years to come. NASA has a good track record with extending missions -- but you'll have to keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well for the next decade.

First published on Oct. 16, 2021 at 4:13 a.m. PT.

In green, you see the leading and trailing swarms of Jupiter Trojans. That's where Lucy is headed.

NASA
NASA's Lucy mission: 20 minutes of terror will define the next 12 years

One of Lucy's engineers takes us behind the scenes of the momentous mission to the Trojan asteroids that share Jupiter's orbit around the sun.

Monisha Ravisetti
Oct. 16, 2021 


Lucy will journey to eight asteroids over the next dozen years.

Illustration by Lockheed Martin

Editor's note: This story was originally published Friday, Oct. 15. On Saturday, Lucy's liftoff was a success, with the principal investigator of the mission calling the launch "truly awesome, in the old-fashioned meaning of the word." Lucy has safely unfurled her solar arrays, too. Do read on, though, for unique insight into Lucy's launch and mission...

On Saturday, NASA's Lucy spacecraft will become the first-ever probe launched toward the Trojan asteroids, eons-old rocks trapped in Jupiter's orbit. These rocks are the fossilized building blocks of our solar system and may hold records of the giant planets' evolution.

But for Lucy to make history and ultimately unlock secrets of our corner of the universe, this weekend's liftoff must be flawless. Given the spacecraft's unique trajectory -- billions of miles will be covered over a dozen years by harnessing the power of the sun -- there are a few checkpoints poised to keep mission specialists on their toes.

As outsiders, we usually only stare in astonishment as rockets launch, engulfed in flame and smoke. But there's much more to Lucy's success than just its fiery departure from Earth. I spoke with one of the spacecraft's engineers from Lockheed Martin and got the inside scoop on what milestones her team will be watching for during liftoff.

Here's the launch sequence from the eyes of NASA.

"When the rocket lifts off from the ground, that's very visual and exciting," said Emily Gramlich, a system integration and test engineer at Lockheed Martin and a Lucy mission specialist. "As the rocket ascends, we go through the atmosphere."

During that phase, Lucy will reach its maximum speed and pressure. "Then," Gramlich continued, "we have separation from the boosters and then the bearing will deploy and open us up to outer space."

A researcher works on one of Lucy's folded solar arrays.

Lockheed Martin

Lucy's epic launch doesn't end there. Arguably the most crucial part of the launch pattern will be the unfurling of the spacecraft's two solar arrays after its 62-mile (100-km) journey up into space.

When fully open, the arrays together reach the height of a five-story building. "They are enormous," Gramlich said. It will take about 20 minutes to completely extend them from their origami-like folds.

They're so large because Jupiter's orbit, where Lucy is headed, is so far from the sun. And Lucy will need all the sun power it can get to travel those 530 million miles (853 million km).

"These 20 minutes will determine if the rest of the 12-year mission will be a success," NASA planetary scientist and principal investigator of the Lucy mission, Hal Levison, said in a statement.

"Mars landers have their seven minutes of terror, we have this," he said.

After the solar arrays stretch out in their entirety, Lucy will have another vital task: It must adjust itself so the sun can shine onto all the solar panels that make up the two arrays. Without sun, the solar panels cannot provide power. Without power, the mission is over.

"Once we've done that," Gramlich said, "the spacecraft will then move itself a little bit more so that it can also point its antenna down at the Earth, so we can get our initial acquisition."

Let me repeat that last bit: "initial acquisition." That means every step up to that point is pre-programmed. That's right. No one will be controlling the spacecraft during its most crucial moments. Each precise movement has already been coded into its software.
One of Lucy's solar arrays, fully stretched out.

Lockheed Martin

"Lucy has been encapsulated since last week and so we have not seen it … other than through a small access window," Gramlich said. "The next time it will be open is out in outer space."

NASA engineers will just have to sit tight and keep their fingers crossed until Lucy finds its cosmic footing.

Lucy's bootcamp

You name it, Lucy's been through it. Several times.

"We do an acoustic test and a vibration test in a large building on the Waterton campus," said Gramlich referring to Lockheed Martin's testing grounds in Colorado. "We shake the spacecraft really hard and then we blast it with sound to simulate mostly the launch."

The most physically intense part of Lucy's 12-year journey, she said, will be the launch happening this weekend. Once it's in space, the situation will become much calmer. But space has its own extremes, so the team has tried to ensure that Lucy will be shielded from those, too.


"We take the spacecraft and put it into a giant thermal chamber and run it through all the temperature ranges that it is going to see in space -- hot and cold, light and no light," Gramlich said.

Lucy, which is named for the famous fossil of a human ancestor, is lowered into its environmental testing chamber at Lockheed Martin Space in Littleton, Colorado.

Lockheed Martin

Lucy's complexities aren't only in regard to its mechanics. The software piloting the metal space explorer has a sizable number of integral components, like the computer, thermometer, cameras and battery. Each one had to be tested over and over again.

Gramlich explained one important device on Lucy is the star tracker that helps with navigation similar to how the north star aids in deducing what direction we're facing.

"We have extra ground support equipment to simulate the star that it might be seeing," she said. "And to rotate those stars and make sure that the star tracker detects that the stars [actually] rotated on its little simulator."
Once Lucy stabilizes and beyond

"I am beyond excited to see Lucy lift off on Saturday," Gramlich said. "We have been working towards this launch date for a long time, and there are a lot of long hours in the pandemic, and I have been just extra energetic for the last few weeks."

If all goes well on NASA's launch day on Saturday, Lucy will continue on toward the Trojan asteroids at about 39,000 mph (62,764 kph). It will use Earth's gravitational pull as leverage during the long journey and visit seven of the prized ancient rocks. It'll also make a pit stop on another world between Mars and Jupiter.

During the expedition, Gramlich said the team will check up on Lucy about once every two weeks to input commands based on newly discovered information, such as photographs and spectroscopic data, about the asteroids that Lucy sends back to Earth. Each command will take about 55 minutes to reach the craft, she said.

Lucy engineers working on the spacecraft.

Lockheed Martin

And after the mission wraps up next decade, the possibilities are endless.

"Our last flyby is in 2033," Gramlich said. "We will have done three Earth flybys by then, and have learned a lot about our trajectory and how to make it most efficient to continue exploring other asteroids."

Calling that an extended mission, Gramlich says Lucy's solar arrays can continue powering the spacecraft as it traverses through the solar system indefinitely. That means Lucy can theoretically continue sending information back about other forms of cosmic matter.

"The solar arrays that we have for Lucy are incredibly efficient and will allow us to operate the spacecraft for a long time," she said. "Even out at the distances of Jupiter. And the battery on board is also designed to be used and recharged."

But first, Lucy must get past its legendary launch.

"I am so honored that I was part of this team to see how much everybody cares and put into it," Gramlich said.

"We are just ready for a successful science mission to the Trojans."

Correction, 2:20 p.m. PT: An earlier version of this story misstated where one of the spacecraft's engineers works. Emily Gramlich works for Lockheed Martin. Also, the deck headline was changed to clarify that the Trojan asteroids share Jupiter's orbit.

First published on Oct. 15, 2021 at 5:00 a.m. PT.

Lucy stands 13 feet (4 meters), nearly fully assembled in this photo.

Lockheed Martin