It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, June 13, 2022
Canada lags behind other countries in providing school food programs to children in need
UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO
Canada is at the back of the pack when it comes to students accessing nutrition programs at school, shows a new study.
A University of Waterloo-led international study of more than 10,000 children in six different countries found that approximately half of all students received breakfast or lunch at school in countries such as the United States or Chile. However, only five per cent of students in Canada participated in a school meal program.
Canadian schools also fell short for the most vulnerable students, with only 27 per cent of students with the highest level of food insecurity participating in school meal programs in Canada. This is compared to more than two-thirds in the United States and Chile, both of which have national school nutrition policies.
“Schools are important places to provide meals for children, especially among low-income students who may not have reliable access to healthy foods at home,” said David Hammond, principal investigator and a professor in the School of Public Health Sciences at Waterloo.
Most countries around the world offer some form of school meal program aimed at providing nutritious food to students. “Across all countries surveyed, we found that participating in a free school meal program was associated with higher fruit and vegetable intake during school lunch. Children participating in school meal programs also reported eating less unhealthy food in the countries with the most comprehensive policies,” Hammond said.
Researchers surveyed 10,565 youth aged 10-17 from Canada, Australia, Chile, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the U.S. through the 2019 International Food Policy Study.
“In countries without national school nutrition guidelines, such as Canada and Australia, the responsibility for school meal programs falls to individual school boards, community organizations, or charities. Despite their best efforts, this approach is no match for comprehensive provincial or national programs when it comes to feeding children with the great need.”
Karen Hock, a Waterloo Public Health Sciences doctoral student and first author of the paper, said the COVID-19 pandemic has also demonstrated the importance of school meal programs, especially among disadvantaged students.
“Countries such as the United Kingdom and New Zealand have recently expanded their school meal programs in response to the pandemic to ensure that students in need can continue to access adequate nutrition, which is fundamental for their long-term health and well-being,” Hock said.
Hock believes school meal programs are a valuable way to promote healthy dietary intake in children and support those in need. “It’s unfortunate that Canada is the only G7 country without a national school meal program.”
A picture of Gaia, one of the Gifted dogs (from Brazil) searching for her toy in the light (on the left) and in the dark (on the right). Credit: Shany Dror
Many dog lovers want to know what goes on in their furry friends' minds. Now scientists are finally getting closer to the answer. In a new study just published in the journal Animal Cognition, researchers from the Family Dog Project (Eötvös Loránd University University, Budapest) found that dogs have a multi-modal mental image of their familiar objects. This means that when thinking about an object, dogs imagine the object's different sensory features, for instance, the way it looks or the way its smells.
The group of scientists assumed that the senses dogs use to identify objects, such as their toys, reflect the way the objects are represented in their minds. "If we can understand which senses dogs use while searching for a toy, this may reveal how they think about it," explains Shany Dror, one of the leading researchers of this study. "When dogs use olfaction or sight while searching for a toy, this indicates that they know how that toy smells or looks like."
In previous studies, the researchers discovered that only a few uniquely gifted dogs can learn the names of objects. "These gifted word learner dogs give us a glimpse into their minds, and we can discover what they think about when we ask them 'where is your teddy bear?'" explains Dr. Andrea Sommese, the second leading researcher.
In the first experiment, they trained three gifted word learner dogs and 10 typical family dogs (i.e., dogs that do not know the name of toys), to fetch a toy associated with a reward. During the training, dogs received treats and were praised for choosing this toy over a few distractor toys.
The researchers then observed how the dogs searched for the targeted toy, always placed among four others, both when the lights were on and off. All dogs successfully selected the trained toys, both in the light and in the dark. However, it took them longer to find the toys in the dark. Only the gifted word learner dogs participated in the second experiment. Here, the researchers aimed to find out what these dogs think about when they hear the name of their toys.
Credit: Eötvös Loránd University
"Revealing the senses used by the dogs to search for the named toys gave us the possibility to infer what these dogs imagine when they hear, for example, 'teddy bear,'" explains Dr.. Claudia Fugazza, co-author of the study.
The gifted dogs were successful in selecting the toys named by their owners in the light and the dark. This reveals that, when they hear the name of a toy, they recall this object's different sensory features and they can use this "multisensory mental image" to identify it, also in the dark.
"Dogs have a good sense of smell, but we found that dogs preferred to rely on vision and used their noses only a few times, and almost only when the lights were off," clarifies Prof. Adam Miklósi, head of the Department of Ethology at ELTE University and co-author of the study. "Dogs sniffed more often and for longer in the dark. They spent 90% more time sniffing when the lights were off, but this was still only 20% of the searching time."
To conclude, the dogs' success in finding the toys and the different senses used while searching in the light and the dark reveals that, when dogs play with a toy, even just briefly, they pay attention to its different features and register the information using multiple senses.Exceptional learning capacities revealed in some gifted dogs
More information:Shany Dror et al, Multisensory mental representation of objects in typical and Gifted Word Learner dogs,Animal Cognition(2022).DOI: 10.1007/s10071-022-01639-z
Claudia Fugazza et al, Word learning dogs (Canis familiaris) provide an animal model for studying exceptional performance,Scientific Reports(2021).DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-93581-2
EÖTVÖS LORÁND UNIVERSITY (ELTE), FACULTY OF SCIENCE
IMAGE: DOGS IMAGINE THE OBJECT’S DIFFERENT SENSORY FEATURESview more
CREDIT: CREDIT: COOPER PHOTO
Many dog lovers want to know what goes on in their furry friends’ minds. Now scientists are finally getting closer to the answer. In a new study just published in the journal of Animal Cognition, researchers from the Family Dog Project (Eötvös Loránd University University, Budapest) found out that dogs have a “multi-modal mental image” of their familiar objects. This means that, when thinking about an object, dogs imagine the object’s different sensory features. For instance, the way it looks or the way its smells.
The group of scientists assumed that the senses dogs use to identify objects, such as their toys, reflect the way the objects are represented in their minds. “If we can understand which senses dogs use while searching for a toy, this may reveal how they think about it” explains Shany Dror, one of the leading researchers of this study. “When dogs use olfaction or sight while searching for a toy, this indicates that they know how that toy smells or looks like”.
In previous studies, the researchers discovered that only a few uniquely gifted dogs can learn the names of objects. “These Gifted Word Learner dogs give us a glimpse into their minds, and we can discover what they think about when we ask them - Where is your Teddy Bear? –“ explains Dr. AndreaSommese, the second leading researcher.
In the first experiment, they trained 3 Gifted Word Learner dogs and 10 typical family dogs (i.e., dogs that do not know the name of toys), to fetch a toy associated with a reward. During the training, dogs received treats and were praised for choosing this toy over a few distractor toys.
The researchers then observed how the dogs searched for the targeted toy, always placed among 4 others, both when the lights were on and off. All dogs successfully selected the trained toys, both in the light and in the dark. However, it took them longer to find the toys in the dark. Only the Gifted Word Learner dogs participated in the second experiment. Here, the researchers aimed to find out what these dogs think about when they hear the name of their toys.
“Revealing the senses used by the dogs to search for the named toys gave us the possibility to infer what these dogs imagine when they hear, for example, Teddy Bear explains Dr. ClaudiaFugazza, co-author of the study.
The Gifted dogs were successful in selecting the toys named by their owners in the light and the dark. This reveals that, when they hear the name of a toy, they recall this object’s different sensory features and they can use this “multisensory mental image” to identify it, also in the dark.
“Dogs have a good sense of smell, but we found that
dogs preferred to rely on vision and used their noses only a few times, and almost only when the lights were off”
clarifies Prof. AdamMiklósi, head of the Department of Ethology at ELTE University and co-author of the study. “Dogs sniffed more often and for longer in the dark. They spent 90% more time sniffing when the lights were off, but this was still only 20% of the searching time”.
To conclude, the dogs’ success in finding the toys and the different senses used while searching in the light and the dark reveals that, when dogs play with a toy, even just briefly, they pay attention to its different features and register the information using multiple senses.
This research is part of the Genius Dog Challenge research project that aims to understand the unique talent that Gifted Word Learner dogs have. The researchers encourage dog owners who believe their dogs know multiple toy names, to contact them on the Genius Dog Challenge website.
A control group of yeast cells (top row) is compared to yeast cells after they have accumulated lead from contaminated water (bottom row). Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images show, at left, an overview, and at center, a closer look at the yeast cells, and at right tunneling electron microscope (TEM) images show an individual yeast cell. Credit: The researchers/edited by MIT News
A new analysis by researchers at MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms (CBA) has found that inactive yeast could be effective as an inexpensive, abundant, and simple material for removing lead contamination from drinking water supplies. The study shows that this approach can be efficient and economic, even down to part-per-billion levels of contamination. Serious damage to human health is known to occur even at these low levels.
The method is so efficient that the team has calculated that waste yeast discarded from a single brewery in Boston would enough to treat the city's entire water supply. Such a fully sustainable system would not only purify the water but also divert what would otherwise be a waste stream needing disposal.
The findings are detailed today in the journal Nature Communications Earth & Environment, in a paper by MIT Research Scientist Patritsia Statathou; Brown University postdoc and MIT Visiting Scholar Christos Athanasiou; MIT Professor Neil Gershenfeld, the director of CBA; and nine others at MIT, Brown, Wellesley College, Nanyang Technological University, and National Technical University of Athens.
Lead and other heavy metals in water are a significant global problem that continues to grow because of electronic waste and discharges from mining operations. In the U.S. alone, more than 12,000 miles of waterways are impacted by acidic mine-drainage-water rich in heavy metals, the country's leading source of water pollution. And unlike organic pollutants, most of which can be eventually broken down, heavy metals don't biodegrade, but persist indefinitely and bioaccumulate. They are either impossible or very expensive to completely remove by conventional methods such as chemical precipitation or membrane filtration.
Lead is highly toxic, even at tiny concentrations, especially affecting children as they grow. The European Union has reduced its standard for allowable lead in drinking water from 10 parts per billion to 5 parts per billion. In the U.S., the Environmental Protection Agency has declared that no level at all in water supplies is safe. And average levels in bodies of surface water globally are 10 times higher than they were 50 years ago, ranging from 10 parts per billion in Europe to hundreds of parts per billion in South America.
"We don't just need to minimize the existence of lead; we need to eliminate it in drinking water," says Stathatou. "And the fact is that the conventional treatment processes are not doing this effectively when the initial concentrations they have to remove are low, in the parts-per-billion scale and below. They either fail to completely remove these trace amounts, or in order to do so they consume a lot of energy and they produce toxic byproducts."
The solution studied by the MIT team is not a new one—a process called biosorption, in which inactive biological material is used to remove heavy metals from water, has been known for a few decades. But the process has been studied and characterized only at much higher concentrations, at more than one part-per-million levels. "Our study demonstrates that the process can indeed work efficiently at the much lower concentrations of typical real-world water supplies, and investigates in detail the mechanisms involved in the process," Athanasiou says.
The team studied the use of a type of yeast widely used in brewing and in industrial processes, called S. cerevisiae, on pure water spiked with trace amounts of lead. They demonstrated that a single gram of the inactive, dried yeast cells can remove up to 12 milligrams of lead in aqueous solutions with initial lead concentrations below 1 part per million. They also showed that the process is very rapid, taking less than five minutes to complete.
Because the yeast cells used in the process are inactive and desiccated, they require no particular care, unlike other processes that rely on living biomass to perform such functions which require nutrients and sunlight to keep the materials active. What's more, yeast is abundantly available already, as a waste product from beer brewing and from various other fermentation-based industrial processes.
Stathatou has estimated that to clean a water supply for a city the size of Boston, which uses about 200 million gallons a day, would require about 20 tons of yeast per day, or about 7,000 tons per year. By comparison, one single brewery, the Boston Beer Company, generates 20,000 tons a year of surplus yeast that is no longer useful for fermentation.
The researchers also performed a series of tests to determine that the yeast cells are responsible for biosorption. Athanasiou says that "exploring biosorption mechanisms at such challenging concentrations is a tough problem. We were the first to use a mechanics perspective to unravel biosorption mechanisms, and we discovered that the mechanical properties of the yeast cells change significantly after lead uptake. This provides fundamentally new insights for the process."
Devising a practical system for processing the water and retrieving the yeast, which could then be separated from the lead for reuse, is the next stage of the team's research, they say.
"To scale up the process and actually put it in place, you need to embed these cells in a kind of filter, and this is the work that's currently ongoing," Stathatou says. They are also looking at ways of recovering both the cells and the lead. "We need to conduct further experiments, but there is the option to get both back," she says.
The same material can potentially be used to remove other heavy metals, such as cadmium and copper, but that will require further research to quantify the effective rates for those processes, the researchers say.
"This research revealed a very promising, inexpensive, and environmentally friendly solution for lead removal," says Sivan Zamir, vice president of Xylem Innovation Labs, a water technology research firm, who was not associated with this research. "It also deepened our understanding of the biosorption process, paving the way for the development of materials tailored to removal of other heavy metals."Removing heavy metals from water with MOFs
More information:Patritsia M. Stathatou et al, Lead removal at trace concentrations from water by inactive yeast cells,Communications Earth & Environment(2022).DOI: 10.1038/s43247-022-00463-0
This story is republished courtesy of MIT News (web.mit.edu/newsoffice/), a popular site that covers news about MIT research, innovation and teaching.
Bombardier shares hit amid Montreal workers' strike, market selloff
Bombardier employees work on delivery preparations of Global aircraft in Montreal
Mon, June 13, 2022
MONTREAL (Reuters) - Bombardier Inc shares fell as much as 17.4% on Monday as workers on a key business jet program walked off the job for a day and amid a broader selloff in global markets.
The union representing 1,800 Bombardier workers said they would return to the job on Tuesday, when negotiations between the two sides resume.
The workers are mostly on the company's strong-selling Challenger business jet family, which accounted for just over a third of the company's plane deliveries in 2021.
Bombardier has said it would put a contingency plan in place to reduce the impact on operations from the strike.
The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) said 76% percent of workers rejected Bombardier's five-year contract offer.
The union is asking for higher wage increases in the last two years of the contract, arguing that Bombardier's offer of up to 2.5% falls below rising living costs.
Canada's inflation rate hit 6.8% in April, a 31-year high.
By late morning, Bombardier shares were down 8.1% at C$25.95, as the company's planned consolidation of Class A and B shares took effect on Monday. The benchmark Canada share index was down 3.1%.
Global markets, including Wall Street's main indexes opened sharply lower on Monday, on growing fears that aggressive interest rate hikes could tip the economy into recession.
(Reporting By Allison Lampert in Montreal, editing by Deepa Babington)
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M GREENWASHING ESG Fund Bosses Hit by ‘Reckoning’ as Goldman, DWS in Crosshairs Frances Schwartzkopff Sun, June 12, 2022,
(Bloomberg) -- One of the top legal firms advising asset managers on ESG says the industry needs to brace for a more rigorous enforcement of regulations, effective immediately.
There’s “a reckoning” under way, said Sonali Siriwardena, partner and global head of ESG at law firm Simmons & Simmons in London. Despite pushing through a “tsunami” of ESG rules, it’s now apparent that “regulators aren’t necessarily looking at a grace period” to allow the industry to adapt, she said.
The comments come as ESG fund managers digest the crackdown that just hit their industry. On May 31, as police searched the offices of Deutsche Bank AG and its fund unit DWS Group, the authorities who sent them were setting a precedent for environmental, social and governance investing. The allegations of greenwashing that triggered the raid have been rejected by DWS, but nonetheless prompted the departure of its chief executive.As if to underline the sense of a new regulatory era, word broke late Friday that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into the ESG claims of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s asset-management unit. That’s despite the lack of a complete ESG rulebook in the US.“I believe these are the first ripples of a wave of regulatory interventions that we are likely to see in the coming months,” Siriwardena told Bloomberg. “The number of ESG-focused funds has soared, so it’s no surprise that the regulators want to set expectations to maintain market credibility.
In fact, “regulators are under some pressure to almost have examples” as a way to encourage other asset managers to “fall in line,” she said. And for firms with global portfolios trying to navigate rules in several jurisdictions, “it’s an absolute nightmare.” Siriwardena declined to comment specifically on the allegations against Goldman Sachs, noting that the New York-based firm is a client of Simmons & Simmons.
SEC officials are examining Goldman Sachs’s mutual-fund business, and are trying to ascertain whether some investments are in breach of ESG metrics promised in marketing materials, according to people familiar with the matter. The inquiry is tied to two funds in that business.And as scrutiny around ESG picks up, other major financial firms are adjusting their businesses to ensure that clients get more say over environmental, social and governance matters. BlackRock Inc. said on Monday it is expanding efforts to give clients invested in index funds the ability to vote their own shares on issues such as executive compensation and climate change. The DWS case, meanwhile, is the first of its kind in Europe. Though the firm has been under investigation for alleged greenwashing since last year, a sense of complacency had set in. DWS had continued to expand its ESG business and clients seemed largely undeterred by doubts around the reliability of its ESG statements.
The decision by German authorities to suddenly shift gears coincides with a sense of unease among asset managers that the rules by which they need to abide are uncomfortably vague. What’s more, some regulators in Europe agree. According to the head of France’s financial supervisory authority, Robert Ophele, the lack of clear guidance around European ESG rules actually “fuels greenwashing.”
Europe’s landmark ESG rulebook for asset managers — the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation — was enforced in March 2021. By being first, Europe was hoping to set a global benchmark. But the speed with which SFDR was pieced together has left it “incomplete and imperfect,” the European Securities and Markets Authority recently acknowledged.
Siriwardena said she sees a “huge divergence” in how SFDR is being interpreted not just by asset managers but by their watchdogs. “The whole proposition for Europe is a uniform approach. What we’re seeing in practice is that’s hardly the case.”
One of the main requirements of SFDR is for fund managers to categorize their products so clients know how green they are. An article 6 designation shows ESG has been considered, but isn’t really relevant. Article 8 denotes products that promote ESG characteristics. Article 9 — the highest ESG category in the rulebook — reflects an asset manager’s view that products under that label prioritize sustainability.
According to Ophele at the French regulator, the rules for Article 8 are so imprecise that interpretations vary wildly. “It’s fair to say that every national competent authority is implementing its own approach, if any,” he said in a recent interview.
Luke Sussams, an ESG strategist at Jefferies, said “the bar for Article 8 is so low because any quantification or prescription from the EU and from the highest level just isn’t there.” And “what we’re learning is the market is more than happy to take advantage of that ambiguity.”
Jefferies’ research suggests that “the names that are most held across the Article 8 funds have no real discernible ESG impact in the real economy,” he said.
But since SFDR was enforced more than a year ago, asset managers “have felt the pressure to have as many funds as possible meeting at a minimum Article 8 requirements,” said Hortense Bioy, global head of sustainability research at Morningstar Inc.
“Many distributors and fund buyers across Europe have said they would only consider funds in Article 8 and 9 categories going forward,” she said. So having those products on the shelf “has become a commercial imperative for fund companies.”
Siriwardena said clients will need to be able to “answer for themselves” whether they can defend their SFDR allocations. And there are some early signs that investors are starting to treat Article 8 with more caution. Morningstar data show that Article 8 funds experienced their first net outflows on record last quarter.
According to Germany’s public prosecutor, the raid of DWS was based “on suspicion of capital investment fraud” and misleading ESG marketing practices. The authorities investigating the firm may now have more material to test those suspicions.
“What happened at DWS is going to push asset managers to be much more careful about the things they’re saying,” said Sasja Beslik, chief investment officer at NextGen ESG. “This marks the biggest hit we’ve seen to the hot air and the empty promises over the past years.”
Drilling vs returns. U.S. oil producers' tradeoff as windfall tax threatens
Liz Hampton Sun, June 12, 2022, FILE PHOTO - Pump jacks operate at sunset in Midland
(Reuters) - U.S. oil producers profiting from sky-high prices are doling out billions to shareholders and building cash reserves, a strategy irking lawmakers and voters struggling with record fuel prices while winning over Wall Street.
Soaring fuel prices have boosted inflation to a 40-year record and are expected to drive up U.S. gasoline by more than a dollar to $6 a gallon by August. That prospect has some officials arguing the industry's focus on returns is benefiting a few at the expense of consumers.
The tradeoff between rising payouts for just a single quarter and more spending on production has deprived the market of nearly half a million barrels of new oil daily, based on Reuters' estimates of potential output if half of existing investor payouts flowed to new oil and gas drilling.
Earnings from major U.S. shale, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. oil output, could hit $90 billion this year, up from $37 billion in 2021, according to consultancy BTU Analytics, a FactSet Company. Its estimate covers only 32 publicly traded oil and gas producers.
Executives are facing calls in Washington for windfall levies, which could cut into energy profits. A group of more than 30 lawmakers recently urged a Congressional vote on a new oil tax.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday slammed oil companies, saying they are intentionally holding off drilling more to pump up oil and share prices. [nL1N2XX1VP]
"They're buying back their own stock, which should be taxed, quite frankly," Biden said.
Executives and investors have argued that fuel prices are set by the market and retailers, not producers. Materials and labor shortages have limited how fast they can ramp up output, and to spend a lot more on new drilling would erode capital efficiency and lead investors to exit.
Though analysts and oil executives do not expect a windfall tax to pass here, Britain recently imposed a 25% oil profit tax to offset consumer energy bills, giving hope to some U.S. lawmakers proposing the tax. And resistance to the tax may shrink as fuel prices soar and corporate earnings follow.
"If the conservative government in the U.K. can support a windfall tax, we should be able to pass" a U.S. equivalent, said Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, and a co-sponsor of the tax proposal.
The goal is to raise $45 billion a year with proceeds funding payments to consumers.
But a windfall tax would kill the incentive to drill more, said oil executives, and take away some of the earnings that fund new technology advances that led to the U.S. shale revolution which turned the United States into the world's top producer. It would also lessen oil firms' ability to raise outside financing.
"This is a terrible idea," said Mike Oestmann, chief executive of shale producer Tall City Exploration. "If you want less of something, or some behavior, or some industry, tax it more heavily."
PUMPING UP OUTPUT, NOT PRICES
Motivating windfall tax advocates is the idea that U.S. energy companies are holding off production to maintain high prices and earnings. Companies returned some $9.51 billion to investors in the first quarter, according to energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie.
If oil producers had spent half of the $9.51 billion on new drilling, it would fund some 660 new shale wells, according to Reuters analysis using energy tech firm Enverus' average costs of $7.14 million per shale well last year.
Output varies per basin but on average, a new well can deliver some 672 bpd of oil, according to BTU Analytics. Based on the additional wells and the average new shale-oil output, production could be boosted some 450,000 bpd.
Those extra barrels could lift U.S. production this year beyond the pre-pandemic record of 12.23 million bpd in 2019. The government projects output to rise 720,000 bpd to 11.92 million bpd in 2022.
MAKING ENERGY STOCKS ATTRACTIVE AGAIN
Between 2006 and 2019, the top 50 U.S. oil producers spent $170 billion more in capital expenditures (capex) than they collected from operations, using debt and equity to cover the deficit, estimates independent oil analyst Paul Sankey.
"Effectively, there were no returns" for shareholders, he said.
Investors last decade shunned energy companies for their lack of returns and knocked their weighting in the S&P 500, a measure of shareholder interest, to less than 3% in 2020, from more than 16% in 2008. S&P energy stocks today are 5.1% with burgeoning earnings on high oil and gas prices.
The change in sentiment came as producers shifted to a strategy of investing just a third of their cash flow into drilling and other capital expenses, compared with most of their cash flow two years ago, according to the latest data from Enverus. Focusing on shareholder returns over new production is not going away with the rise in energy prices. U.S. crude prices are up about 60% so far this year.
"Not one large public (shale producer) increased capex in Q1 for increased activity," said Kaes Van't Hof, finance chief at shale firm Diamondback Energy Inc, in a recent twitter post.
That willingness to hold the line on production and reward investors via dividends and buybacks "is changing the investment aura,” making energy stocks attractive again, said Matthew Stephani, president of Cavanal Hill Investment Management, part of BOK Financial Corp.
The S&P 500 oil and gas sector is up more than 60% year-to-date, outperforming the broad-market index average, which is down for the year.
Will investors accept a return to higher spending and lower shareholder returns? They will not, say portfolio managers and investors.
"As an investor, I think this is a good balance. The companies have shown they can’t be trusted," said Chris Duncan, who tracks shale firms for asset manager Brandes Investment Partners.
(Reporting by Liz Hampton in Denver; Editing by Marguerita Choy)
Inside the secretive world of shipping Russia's tainted oil
Louis Ashworth
THE TELEGRAPH Sun, June 12, 2022
Yang Li Hu, a 12-year-old Chinese oil tanker with a bright blue and red hull, was laden with oil as it set sail from the port of Kozmino on Russia’s far eastern tip.
The journey, which began on May 17, was headed towards Gwanyang, in South Korea.
Outside Kozmino, however, it was joined by a larger vessel, Yuan Qiu Hu. Floating alongside one another, the pair underwent a ship-to-ship transfer — an operation experts say can be used to obfuscate the seaborne movement of goods.
With the job done, Yuan Qiu Hu sailed off to Lanshan, China, while Yang Li Hu headed back to Kozmino.
It was hardly a subtle move: the transfer was easily picked up by marine analysts, for whom it was straight out of a familiar playbook.
There are a number of methods. One of the most popular is to ‘go dark’, switching off a vessel’s automatic identification system so its position is no longer broadcast. Such ‘dark activity’ has tripled across Russia-affiliated oil tankers since the start of the conflict, according to consultancy Windward.
Illicit ship-to-ship transfers are another common trick. While cargo transfers are logged at ports, there is no such jurisdiction at sea, meaning it’s easy to hide where a vessel acquired its goods.
Meanwhile, there has been a concerted effort by some Russian operators to get ships off their books – transferring them to alternative owners in a way that may help them avoid future sanctions. Since the invasion started, some 180 vessels have changed from a Russian to non-Russian owner – a far faster rate than in previous years.
It has been a boom time for many European shippers. As international firms such as Shell moved to wipe their hands of Russian oil, a slew of Mediterranean operators stepped in to fill the gap. While Russian export levels are little changed, the make-up of companies handling the oil has.
The volume of fuel collected from Russian ports by vessels owned, managed or flagged in Greece, Cyprus or Malta has tripled since the start of the conflict according to Refinitiv data analysed by Global Witness, a human right NGO.
“If that's not profiteering, I'm not quite sure what is,” says Louis Wilson from Global Witness.
“Right now the fear is pretty low, and the greed is pretty high,” adds Ami Daniel, chief executive at Windward.
But time may be running out. Last week the European Union said it would ban seaborne Russian oil imports, which represent more than two-thirds of all deliveries of Putin’s crude to the bloc, by the end of the year. Greece, Malta and Cyprus pushed back against the move.
It is a difficult step for a Continent so dependent on Russian energy, but one that has seemed increasingly inevitable as the conflict dragged on.
“It's a moral issue,” says Bjarne Schieldrop, a commodities analyst at Swedish bank SEB. “For Europe, it's very hard to swallow that we are giving money to Russia every day, and they can continue to bombard and destroy.”
The decision will prompt a historic shift in the structure of global markets, breaking a relationship that has long underpinned the economies of both sides. Before the invasion of Ukraine, about 60pc of all Europe’s diesel was coming from Russia.
It may have been Britain that added the crucial ingredient to the latest round of sanctions, as it vowed to ban Russia-affiliated vessels from Lloyd’s of London, the insurance market.
Around 90pc of global shipping insurance is provided by the so-called International Group of P&I [protection and indemnity] Clubs, many of which are based in Europe. There’s also a complicated but crucial reinsurance market centred around Lloyd’s.
Analysts in the trading and shipping sector say the ban will drive up costs for companies moving Russian oil, who will be forced into the hands of smaller, less established players and banned from some ports as a result.
There is likely to be stratification as a result, with the emergence of a distinct fleet of vessels whose controllers are either Russian, or have made peace with running fuel for Putin.
“In effect, you’re getting a two tiered market created: those who will do business with Russia and those who won't,” says Daniel.
While shipping Russian oil isn’t currently illegal, that hasn’t stopped traders getting ready for a shift.
Michelle Wiese Bockmann, an analyst at maritime intelligence group Lloyd’s List, says the beginnings of a shadowy fleet that may end up moving Russia crude is becoming apparent.
She has identified a slew of Cameroon-flagged vessels previously tracked moving Iranian or Venezuelan crude, which have recently shifted to conduct operations at Russian ports on the Black Sea or Baltic.
These vessels are part of a black fleet – which also operates under the flags of countries with shipping jurisdiction such as Gabon or Belize – that serves about 2pc of the global seaborne market by moving sanctioned oil on behalf of Caracas, Tehran and Pyongyang. Little is known about how they are insured, and most cannot dock at regular ports.
It’s a tempting model for Russia as its seaborne oil trade prepares for pariah status.
“There's a template there for the Russians to use that has been developed in response to prior sanctions on oil shipping,” says Bockmann.
But it won’t be simple for Moscow. “[Russia is] quite an order of magnitude bigger than Venezuela and Iran,” says Erik Broekhuizen, a consultant at Poten & Partners.
He estimates Russia will need to build a new fleet of more than 70 vessels if it wants to maintain output, adding: “Finding these vessels and arranging insurance for them outside the EU and UK markets could be very challenging.”
Until then, Russia may have little choice but to curb production.
That doesn’t mean the ban will be a clean-cut win for Brussels, however. Planned regulations risk flopping if they overwhelm shipping companies increasingly tangled in a web of international sanctions.
A schism will also have big potential consequences for the global economy.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley say Europe’s move to wean itself off Russian diesel has the potential to leave global markets “tighter-for-longer”. The Wall Street bank says crude oil flows from Russia into north-west Europe are already down around a million barrels a day for pre-invasion levels.
“No one region is going to be able to step in and do this,” says Tim Smith, oil and tanker director at Maritime Strategies International.
Meanwhile, Moscow will need to find new buyers or face further pressure to cut capacity.
Widespread qualms over buying oil from the Kremlin have forced its top producers to reduce prices. Urals crude, a benchmark for the country’s oil, has been trading at a discount of around $30 dollars a barrel to Brent crude through most of the war.
This deep discounting hasn’t gone unnoticed by other buyers. India has taken advantage of bargain-price barrels, with its imports soaring to nearly a million barrels a day in recent weeks.
This has gone a long way to offsetting the drop in demand from Europe, meaning total Russia oil exports are fairly unchanged on pre-war levels.
Still, India’s refineries are already at full capacity, and it has long-term contracts with other suppliers including the Saudis, UAE and Iraqis that it may be loath to renege upon.
Chinese companies have also been exploring purchases, although the country’s oil importers haven’t visibly gone on a spending spree as of yet. Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING, says that may change as China emerges from lockdowns.
Beyond those, Russia’s options may be more limited, but the world is too reliant on Moscow’s oil to leave the country completely in the cold – and as long as there’s a saving to be made, Putin is bound to find buyers.
“If the world stopped consuming [Russian oil], it would blow up,” says SEB’s Schieldrop. “Everyone knows that.”
We Let Monkeypox Spread for Too Long. If It Infects Our Pets, There’s No Getting Rid of It
David Axe
ROLLING STONE Sun, June 12, 2022 Monkeypox Virus monkeypox-airborne.jpg -
Credit: Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images
There was an undetected monkeypox outbreak already underway in the United States before health officials in Europe and the U.S. sounded the alarm about the dangerous viral disease back in May. That’s a problem. For every day that a virus spreads unmonitored and unchecked, there’s greater risk of it finding a permanent home in a country it was only visiting. In the case of the pox — in our pets.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that there are two strains of the virus circulating in the country, which indicates it’s probably been here much longer than originally thought. It’s not clear when that other outbreak began, but it could have potentially been months ago.
Monkeypox, which causes a rash and fever and is fatal in a very small percentage of cases, isn’t nearly as transmissible as Covid-19. But unlike the novel coronavirus, it spreads easily to and from certain animal populations — rodents in particular.
If the pox currently circulating in the U.S. spreads to rats, hamsters, or gerbils, and becomes endemic in those species, there might be no easy way to contain it. “I do share the other scientists’ concern of containment and the virus becoming endemic in our U.S. rodent population,” sys Stephanie James, the head of a viral testing lab at Regis University in Colorado.
There is some good news. For starters, no one has died yet as a result of either recent pox outbreak. And authorities are better equipped than ever to contain the outbreaks, thanks to large stockpiles of smallpox vaccine (which works against monkeypox, too) and their years of experience with contact-tracing thanks to Covid-19.
More good news: despite some mixed messages from some health experts, the pox is not airborne in its current form. The CDC didn’t respond to a request for comment, but the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control —Europe’s version of the CDC — stressed “there is no evidence of long-range airborne transmission.”
The confusion stems from the scientific definition of “airborne.” Covid matches the definition. Monkeypox does not. The pox can ride a very short distance on spittle, but it doesn’t waft and linger in fine “aerosol” mists from breathing and talking the way airborne Covid does.
The novel coronavirus can travel across a room on aerosols or even hover in the air for hours at a time. The monkeypox in our spit, by contrast, quickly falls to the floor just a couple feet from our mouths. “Respiratory droplets may be able to spread the virus, but it is not what is fueling transmission,” says Amesh Adalja, a public-health expert at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Instead, the pox spreads through very close contact.
The bad news is we’re playing catch-up. And as that initially undetected earlier outbreak indicates, we’re not even sure how far behind we are. It’s not enough to contain and treat the pox in people. We also need to prevent it spreading to rats and hamsters and other animals.
Monkeypox, which first made the leap from monkeys or rodents to people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970, regularly flares up in Africa. But it rarely infects more than a couple thousand people a year — and killed just 33 people during its most prolonged outbreak in the DRC between 1981 and 1986.
When monkeypox spreads in places it’s not already endemic outside Africa, health officials perk up. In 2003, 47 people in the U.S. got sick with the pox after exposure to a shipment of pet rodents from Ghana to Texas. A rapid response by state and federal health officials — and a few doses of smallpox vaccine — prevented anyone dying and temporarily eliminated the virus in the U.S.
The larger of the current outbreaks began in early May, apparently triggered by a U.K. traveler’s exposure to an infected person or animal in Nigeria. Hitching a ride to Europe, the virus spread quickly through close physical contact. David Heymann, who formerly headed the World Health Organization’s emergencies department, said that men attending raves in Spain and Belgium “amplified” the outbreak — apparently through kissing and rubbing skin.
After that, the virus accompanied travelers on planes heading for countries far and wide. By June 2, the WHO had tallied 780 pox cases in 27 countries. The case count since has swelled to around 1,400. Health officials diagnosed the first U.S case on May 27.
As of Friday, 49 Americans in 16 states plus Washington, D.C. had the pox. The CDC suspects some of those cases are the result of an earlier outbreak that officials didn’t even notice until the later outbreak caused them to go back and take a closer look at some patients’ symptoms.
Pox rashes look a lot like symptoms of other diseases, including sexually-transmitted infections, or STIs. That earlier pox outbreak apparently slipped past medical professionals because they didn’t necessarily know what they were looking at. “These monkeypox cases outside of the endemic area have likely been smoldering along for some time, misdiagnosed as traditional STIs,” says Adalja, the public health expert.
That delay in confirming pox cases is worrying experts. Every day that passes in the current outbreaks increases the chance of transmission to pets and pests. If the pox becomes endemic in animal populations, we might never get rid of it. And countries such as the U.S. that once experienced just a few small pox outbreaks every 20 years or so could suffer bigger and more frequent outbreaks, just like countries in Africa already do.
That’s the worst-case scenario, but authorities can’t contain an outbreak they don’t even know is happening. It’s a troubling sign that, in the third year of a devastating pandemic, doctors, health officials and epidemiologists overlooked that earlier pox outbreak, giving the virus a head start in the race toward endemicity in animals. “I think we are dramatically under-testing, under-ascertaining cases and underestimating risk,” says James Lawler, an infectious disease expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. “We apparently didn’t learn very much from Covid.”
GREEN GLOWING ENERGY Purdue, Duke Energy study could provide blueprint for developing future power source
Andy Knight,
The Herald Bulletin,
Anderson, Ind. Sat, June 11, 2022,
Jun. 11—ANDERSON — With environmental groups continuing to pressure utilities to develop and adopt cleaner and more cost-effective technologies for generating and delivering energy to the nation's power grid, a joint research project based in Indiana may offer a road map for utilizing nuclear energy as part of a "green portfolio."
In late April, Purdue University and Duke Energy announced a plan to jointly explore the feasibility of using nuclear energy to meet long-term energy needs at the university's West Lafayette campus.
The research project focuses on studying power produced through small modular reactors (SMRs), which the International Atomic Energy Agency has indicated are among the most promising technologies when it comes to nuclear power.
"No other option holds as much potential to provide reliable, adequate electric power with zero carbon emissions," Purdue President Mitch Daniels said in a news release.
Although there are no SMRs in commercial production, a design approved last fall by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission could accelerate production, lower costs and improve safety over traditional reactors. Other designs would allow the reactors to be built with the ability to produce between 50 and 300 megawatts of electricity — instead of the nearly 1,000 megawatts generated by traditional nuclear reactors.
"While there are various designs in SMRs, the physics behind the technology is nothing new," said Dr. Seungjin Kim, head of the School of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue and one of the university's lead researchers on the project.
He said the reactors generate heat via nuclear fission, and electricity comes from a conventional power conversion cycle, such as a turbine or a generator. Simpler designs — and thus lower overhead and maintenance costs — along with enhanced passive safety features and similar economic benefits as traditional nuclear power plants are among the most promising aspects of the technology behind SMRs.
Officials at Duke Energy see SMRs as a carbon-free and reliable source of power, which makes researching and developing them an important component in the company's effort to reach a 50% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 2030.
"If you really want to decarbonize and get to net zero, nuclear has to be part of the mix," said Chris Nolan, vice president of nuclear regulatory affairs policy and emergency preparedness for Duke Energy. "The reason is, you can't rely on coal and gas in a net zero environment and really, nuclear is the only dispatchable generation that can provide power at any time."
Nolan noted that solar panels are dependent on sunlight, and windmills are dependent on the wind — "While those sound like redundant statements, they're very profound when you need to provide power to your customers," he said — and the company currently operates 11 nuclear power plants across six sites in North and South Carolina. Those plants generate more than half the electricity used by Duke customers in those states.
The announcement of the Purdue-Duke Energy collaboration came three months after the Indiana Legislature passed a bill that creates a framework for studying SMR technology. Senate Bill 271, signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb in March, provides guidelines for state regulators evaluating SMR projects if utilities decide to build them.
With coal still the state's dominant energy source — albeit declining — and renewables like solar and wind still struggling to win support in many counties, nuclear energy is being touted by some as a logical choice to include in the state's "all-of-the-above" approach to charting its energy future.
Per Indiana law, Duke Energy and other utilities submit updated integrated resource plans to the state every three years. The plans are intended as a 20-year road map, detailing how utilities will meet customer needs and comply with relevant government guidelines for producing and distributing electricity.
Duke's most recent IRP, provided in December 2021, does not mention integrating SMRs or other nuclear power production, but company officials stress that doesn't mean examining the technology isn't a priority.
"In the later years of the plan, we acknowledge that we will need new technology, zero-emitting carbon technology," said Angeline Protogere, a communication consultant with Duke Energy. "SMRs, nuclear, is not part of the integrated resource plan that we submitted, but certainly one of the reasons that we're looking at this is we know that in the later years of our plan, we need to look at zero-emitting technology."
The research project with Purdue — which currently purchases about 50% of its campus electricity from Duke — could also reveal new ideas not only for potentially replacing fossil fuel power plants with SMRs, but also for deploying them to meet energy needs in hard-to-reach rural areas.
"As long as there is pre-existing infrastructure for the power grid, there shouldn't be too many technical challenges," Kim said. "That being said, any desired site should be evaluated for its adequacy for SMRs based on the rigorous criteria set by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, just like all other nuclear power plants."
Climate change: Investment in mining 'needs to nearly double' to achieve net zero, BofA says
Current levels of metals needed to decarbonize economies won't be sufficient to reach climate targets, a recent Bank of America (BAC) note cautioned, and investment in mining needs to double by 2050 in order to satisfy the growing demand for low carbon technologies.
"Raw material markets are tight already and will likely get tighter going forward," the analysts wrote. "Based on the current resource endowment and market balances, we don't expect the 1.5°C global warming target to be achieved by 2050: 1.7-1.8°C looks likely. One solution to resolving shortages and constraints, as ever, lies in investment."
A chart showing the shortfall in metal mining investment. (BofA)
The cost of shifting from fossil fuels to low carbon alternatives won't be cheap, the note stated, citing UN estimates that adoption will cost developing countries alone $140-$300 billion per year by 2030.
"To prevent metal shortages and achieve net zero, mining [capital expenditure] needs to nearly double," the analysts stated.
Due to the urgent nature of addressing the climate crisis, returns could be sizable. Using somewhat simplified calculations, the analysts suggested "the return on mining investment could be an impressive +94- 317%."
Metal supply 'putting net zero at risk'
While markets have tended to focus on copper and nickel, the note highlighted 27 different metals — aluminum, molybdenum, chromium, cobalt, manganese, silicon, steel, and more. — needed to be mined for green technologies.
These raw materials make up essential components for applications that range from renewable energy generation and storage to electric vehicles.
Mine workers wait for the mine shaft lift while 6780 ft underground in the Resolution Copper exploratory mine shaft in Superior, Arizona, March 30, 2021. REUTERS/Caitlin O'Hara
Although many of the technologies needed to achieve net-zero targets have been developed, scaling these technologies will require vast amounts of minerals and metals relative to current levels. Between 2020 and 2030, for instance, the analysts contend that nickel demand could grow by 40% while lithium demand could increase by 38%.
In other words, it appears that demand will outstrip supply unless mining capacity increases — and that supply-demand imbalance could impact how rapidly decarbonization occurs.
"Mined raw materials are key to the energy transition but a dearth of many metals important for future technologies (MIFTs) is putting net zero at risk," the analysts wrote. "The world is only slowly waking up to this threat. And China being the biggest producer of many critical resources exacerbates supply risk for the Western world.”
There are other options that could also help alleviate the supply crunch for these metals, the analysts added. These include battery innovation that uses more widely available raw materials, metal recycling, and nuclear power.
Despite whether or not nations and companies are able to innovate their way to greener solutions or whether they double down on extraction in order to facilitate that transition, something will need to be done to blunt rising temperatures. According to the World Meteorological Association, 2015-2021 were the seven warmest years on record.
"As such, decarbonization is not discretionary, but imperative, in our view," the analysts stated. "Beyond the debate on whether current net-zero targets are ambitious enough, we think the critical question to answer is 'What can we actually achieve?' with the current resource endowment."
