SYRIAN KURDISTAN

18 villages west of Kobanê face thirst as earthquake damaged water treatment plant

18 villages to the west of Kobanê faced thirst because their groundwater became unusable after the severe earthquake in North Kurdistan.

ANF
KOBANÊ
Saturday, 18 Feb 2023,

The earthquake that struck North Kurdistan, Turkey, Syria and Northern and Eastern Syria, damaged schools, buildings, water lines and sewers.

One of the regions affected by the earthquake is the Euphrates region. 13 schools and drinking water treatment tanks were damaged in Kobanê alone. The capacity of the treatment plant located in the west of the city is 480 cubic meters and 50,000 residents from 18 villages drink its water.

In the examination carried out by the Autonomous Administration, it was determined that water could not be supplied to 18 villages after the damage caused by the earthquake. The facility, which had been damaged after it was targeted by ISIS mercenaries with rockets and artillery in 2014, now needs to be repaired because of the damage suffered in the earthquake.

Co-chair of the Euphrates Region Water Directorate, Mesud Bozi, told ANHA: "If we do not take measures quickly, the 50,000 residents of the 18 villages taking water from the station will face a very serious problem."

Bozi continued: "The facility is very old and needs to be repaired as soon as possible. The residents are in urgent need of water. We are now delivering water to these villages by tankers. But it appears clear that a new facility needs to be built to provide uninterrupted water for the region."

Bozi said; "Not just the rural areas in the west of the city were affected, but some water networks in the Kobanê canton were also damaged and are being repaired with our limited resources."

OP-ED
America’s Exceptionalism in Mass-Shooting

Sufian Siddique
FEBRUARY 16, 2023

A gunman killed three students and critically injured five others on Monday night at Michigan State University’s main campus, before he was found dead hours later, apparently from a self-inflicted gunshot. Investigators had no information about the motive and the university was not aware of any threats made to the campus before the bloodshed.

Amid an unrelenting surge of gun massacres, many have wondered why the United States- the world’s leading country in mass shootings over the last century, is more prone to mass shootings than any other country. Gun violence, though, is prevalent in many parts of the world, for instance in most parts of Latin America. But in America, no form of violence is seen as more uniquely American than public mass shootings by “lone-wolf” gunmen. According to Gun Violence Archive, 39 mass shootings have already taken place across the country in just the first three weeks of 2023. Last year the country witnessed around 647 cases of mass shooting with the consequence of more than 44,000 death tolls due to gun violence overall.

Like its political establishment, American public discourse has long firmly been divided over what causes this epidemic. The critics of this national sickness focus their fire on the second amendment of the American constitution and the nefarious political influence of the National Rifles Association (NRF). But here comes down to the question: will a mere constitutional amendment and the neutralization of special interest groups like the NRF lead to the solution to the endemic prevalence of lone-wolf mass shootings? The answer is: not likely, as the problem is deeply rooted in America’s culture itself: the culture of rugged individualism built on its deep-seated historical myth.

NEW ZEALAND
Cyclone Gabrielle: Severity of damage 'not been seen in a generation' - PM Chris Hipkins 

AND AN EARTHQUAKE TOO BOOT

Chris Hipkins and Kieran McAnulty. Photo: RNZ

At least 2500 people have been displaced by Cyclone Gabrielle this week, according to the latest estimates, Emergency Management Minister Kieran McAnulty said on Tuesday afternoon.

Around 1000 of those are in the Far North and another 1000 in Hawke's Bay. The rest are mostly from Auckland, with some also in Bay of Plenty and Waikato.

But little is known about the situation in the east, with communications minimal and access hampered due to continued high winds and rain.

Wairoa is of particular concern, with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) "working very hard" to find out what is happening in the northern Hawke's Bay region.

Photo: Supplied / Hamish Simpson

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins, speaking to media with McAnulty, said the Telecommunications Emergency Forum "has been activated and is working closely with NEMA and local Civil Defence organisations".

"The first priority... remains the restoration of regional cellphone signals. High winds and ongoing poor weather is hampering progress in that area."

There has also been a fibre cut affecting Taupō, Hastings and Napier and other areas.
Comparisons to Cyclone Bola

Hipkins called Cyclone Gabrielle the most significant weather event in New Zealand so far this century.

"The severity and the breadth of damage we are seeing has not been seen in a generation."

Asked how it compared to 1988's destructive Cyclone Bola, Hipkins said he "wasn't around in this kind of role" then so could not immediately compare the two. Officials were still building a picture of the impact of the cyclone, he said.

"In the last 24 hours or so, Fire and Emergency New Zealand have 1842 incidents related to Cyclone Gabrielle in their system… Two-hundred defence force personnel have so far been deployed and there are more on standby."

Transpower had announced a national grid emergency, following the loss of power to the Hawke's Bay and Gisborne, with potential for extended periods of outages, Hipkins said.

"This is a very significant event for the electricity network and the companies have not seen this level of damage since Cyclone Bola…

"The situation is changing rapidly and the lines companies are expecting more customers to be affected. They are working to restore power as quickly as possible... but restoration in some parts may have to wait until weather conditions improve."

Photo: Supplied/ Ray Worters

Many supermarkets in Northland have been affected and closed. People were asked to only buy what they needed, Hipkins said, urging people to avoid non-essential travel. If it was unavoidable, people should let friends and family know where they were going, he added.

"A high number of roads have been affected by surface flooding and by slips."

The latest available information is on the Waka Kotahi website, which remained the best source of information for anyone having to travel, Hipkins said.

"On behalf of all New Zealanders I want to extend all of our gratitude to our emergency responders. They are putting in the hard yards and their lives are on the line in the service of their communities.

"To the families of the volunteer firefighters who responded to events in Muriwai last night and to the wider Fire and Emergency New Zealand family, our thoughts and hopes are with all of you."

"To the men and women of the Defence Force, the linemen and women, the communication companies, the supermarkets, the transport companies getting goods to where they are needed, the roading crews that are making that all possible, thank you to you also."
Danger remains

The good news is the weather is expected to ease overnight, Hipkins said. But that did not mean the danger would ease as quickly.

"People should still expect some bad weather overnight, particularly on the East Coast… as we know from experience over the last few weeks, even if the rainfall eases off a bit, more rainfall can compound on top of the rainfall that we've already seen.

"So when it comes to slips and so on, we could still see more of that even as the weather starts to ease. We're still in for a bumpy time ahead."

The prime minister declined to put a figure on what the recovery might cost, but said insurance companies would cover a "significant portion".

"People will pick numbers out of thin air and they may be right or they may be wrong. It's really too early to put an exact number on it."

Photo: Supplied/ Leonard Powell

He said it could impact already fast-rising food prices, and would not rule out seeking international assistance.

Some farmers' land has been damaged not just by the flooding, but forestry waste known as 'slash'.

Hipkins said something would definitely need to be done to lessen the risk of slash destruction in the future.
Climate change's contribution

As for climate change's impact on the sheer scale of the storm, Hipkins rejected a suggestion that his actions since taking over as prime minister have weakened New Zealand's efforts towards reducing emissions.

As a part of his policy reset, Hipkins canned a planned biofuels mandate and extended subsidies for fuel, a major contributor to warming.

"There is significant debate about whether the biofuels mandate was the right way of reducing our emissions from transport, when there are the other alternatives and other things that we can look at," he explained.

"In terms of extending the fuel subsidies, we have to acknowledge that actually, there are people still having to get in their cars every day to drive to work, and we need to support them through what is a very, very difficult time at the moment. That does not in any way - I don't believe - undermine our commitment to tackling the causes of climate change."

He said Gabrielle's impact will have "underscored" the need to keep reducing emissions.

"It is real, it is having an impact and we have a responsibility to do something about it."

UK

Tories will fight election on ‘trans debate and culture wars’, deputy chair Lee Anderson claims
Feb 15
Written by Sophie Perry


The MP says the Tories will need to use “culture wars” and “the trans debate” to win voters over. (PinkNews/Getty)

The Conservatives should include a “mix of culture wars and trans debate” at the heart of its next election campaign, Lee Anderson, the party’s new deputy chairman, has said.

Tory MP Lee Anderson was promoted last week as part of a reshuffle of Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet.

The former Labour councillor – nicknamed “30p Lee” for comments he made about food poverty and making budget meals – defected to the Conservatives in 2018 and has become well-known in Westminster for his outspoken views.

Speaking with The New Culture Form prior to his promotion, the Ashfield MP said the party relied on Brexit and Jeremy Corbyn to win votes in 2019 but does not hold those cards for the next general election.

Lee Anderson said the Tories need to rely on “culture wars” to win votes 

(PinkNews/YouTube)

“The big thing in terms of 2019, there were three things that won us the election. It was nothing to do with me. It was Brexit, it was Boris, it was Corbyn and it was as simple as that.

“Those three things together were a great campaign, great ingredients,” he said.

In order to cling to power at the next election, which is expected to take place in 2024, the MP, who won his Nottinghamshire seat with a majority of 5,733 in 2019, believes the party will “probably” rely on a “mix of culture wars and trans debate”.

During the interview, which is available on YouTube, Anderson went on to discuss a wide range of topics, including Black Lives Matter protests, “illegal” immigration, “brainwashing” in schools and universities, and the benefits system.

Anderson told interviewer Peter Whittle that the “number one” issue for voters is immigration and the number of small boats reaching the UK coastline.

He described asylum seekers arriving on boats as “not genuine” and claimed they should have sought asylum elsewhere.

He said: “When we voted for Brexit, we promised to control our borders but it’s got worse. That’s what winds people up and that’s what fills my inbox every day.”

The MP has a long history of controversial remarks. 

(PinkNews/YouTube)

Anderson has previously made controversial remarks about LGBTQ+ issues.

Shortly after Eddie Izzard announced she would seek the Labour nomination in Sheffield, Anderson ranted on TalkTV that he would “not follow [her] into the toilets”.

Months later, he emerged as one of the Conservative Party’s most vocal critics of Scotland’s efforts to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA).

Speaking to GB News, he accused Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, of using “dirty tricks” to advance the cause for independence, seemingly insinuating that gender-recognition reform was nothing more than a political ploy.

Hundreds call out New York Times for ‘biased coverage’ of trans people in open letter

The newspaper said it has received the message from GLAAD and welcomes their feedback while defending its “journalistic mission.”

By Alessia Passafiume

Staff Reporter
Wed., Feb. 15, 2023

More than 100 journalists, writers, public figures and LGBTQ organizations signed an open letter addressed to the New York Times on Wednesday to raise concerns about what they’re calling “inaccurate, harmful trans coverage” in the newspaper.

While the Times has “long been the standard for excellence in journalism,” its coverage of transgender people over the past year has been “irresponsible,” reads the letter released by GLAAD — an LGBT media advocacy organization — and signed by the likes of Hannah Gadsby, Judd Apatow, Jameela Jamil, Gabrielle Union, Transgender Law Center and the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund.

The open letter isn’t in response to any one story, but rather what they’re calling a pattern of anti-trans coverage, the accompanying press release referencing a list of Times articles they say miss the mark and put trans people in harm’s way and further stigmatize the community.




“The Times has repeatedly platformed cisgender (non-transgender) people spreading inaccurate and harmful misinformation about transgender people and issues,” the open letter reads. “This is damaging to the paper’s credibility. And it is damaging to all LGBTQ people, especially our youth, who say debates about trans equality negatively impact their mental health, which is a contributing factor to the high suicide rates for LGBTQ youth.”

“We won’t stand for the Times platforming lies, bias, fringe theories, and dangerous inaccuracies.”

A separate yet similar letter — which has since amassed thousands of signatures from the public, Times contributors and other journalists — is addressed directly to the Times’s associate managing editor for standards.

“We’ve had enough,” GLAAD tweeted Wednesday morning with photos of a billboard van highlighting their message. “Today we are outside of the Times building to send a clear message.”



Among their demands are for the newspaper to “stop printing irresponsible information” about trans people, to meet with trans community leaders and to hire trans writers and editors.

In an emailed statement to the Star, New York Times spokesperson Charlie Stadtlander said the organization has received the letter and welcomes their feedback. Stadtlander did not say whether the Times will meet their demands when asked.

“We understand how GLAAD sees our coverage. But at the same time, we recognize that GLAAD’s advocacy mission and The Times’s journalistic mission are different,” Stadtlander wrote. “As a news organization, we pursue independent reporting on transgender issues that include profiling groundbreakers in the movement, challenges and prejudice faced by the community, and how society is grappling with debates about care.”

“The very news stories criticized by GLAAD in their letter reported deeply and empathetically on issues of care and well-being for trans teens and adults. Our journalism strives to explore, interrogate and reflect the experiences, ideas and debates in society — to help readers understand them. Our reporting did exactly that and we’re proud of it.”

GLAAD said they have not heard from the Times directly, but saw their response in the media.


Alessia Passafiume is a GTA-area based staff reporter for the Star’s Express Desk. Reach her via email: apassafiume@thestar.ca

Limiting warming below 1.8°C critical to prevent irreversible loss of ice sheets, rapid sea level rise: Study

Reaching net zero carbon emissions before 2060 is critical to avoid this catastrophe

By Rohini Krishnamurthy
Published: Wednesday 15 February 2023
Over the past century, the global mean sea level has increased by about 20 centimetres. Representative photo: iStock.

UN-mandated Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees celsius is probably insufficient to prevent an accelerated sea level rise over the next century, a new study warned.

If the global temperature rise is not kept below 1.8°C, the world could witness an “irreversible loss” of west Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets and a rapid sea level rise, the study published in Nature Communications highlighted.

Also read: Receding cryosphere: What latest WMO report warns us about

Greenland and the Antarctica ice sheet will each likely contribute about 60-70 centimetres to the global mean sea level rise over the next 130 years under a high emission scenario, the findings showed.

Reaching net zero carbon emissions before 2060 is critical to avoid this catastrophe.

“The west Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets play a crucial role in future sea level rise,” Axel Timmermann, co-author of the study and director of the IBS Center for Climate Physics, told Down To Earth.

Missing the 2060 goal could cause the ice sheet to disintegrate and melt at an accelerated pace, he explained. The average global temperature has increased by slightly more than 1°C since 1880, according to the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Watch video: Highest glacier on Mt Everest is rapidly melting

Over the past century, the global mean sea level has increased by about 20 centimetres. This could be partly attributed to the thermal expansion of seawater (increase in volume due to warming oceans), glacier and ice-sheet melt and changes in groundwater storage.

The latest climate model projections presented in the sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have differing views on how quickly the major ice sheets will respond to global warming, according to the study.

The team highlighted that melting ice sheets, likely the largest contributor to sea level change, are the hardest to predict as the physics governing their behaviour is complicated.

Computer models do not consider the fact that ice sheet melting has an impact on ocean processes. This, in turn, can interact with the ice sheet and the atmosphere, Jun Young Park, a graduate student and one of the study’s authors, said.

Read more: What’s going on with the Greenland ice sheet?

“The response of ice sheets to future climate change depends on the atmosphere and ocean warming and these factors are partly determined by what the ice sheets do,” Timmermann explained.

Capturing the two-way coupling between the different components has been challenging, he added.

So, researchers from the Republic of Korea, the US and Australia used a model that captures the interactions between ice sheets, icebergs, the ocean and the atmosphere in both hemispheres.

Their simulations showed that ice sheets’ contributions to sea level may continue to speed up even if global surface temperatures increase at a reduced rate after 2100.

By 2150, global sea level rise is estimated to rise by roughly 1.4, 0.5 and 0.2 metres under high, mid and low-emission scenarios, respectively.

The increase could be avoided under a low greenhouse gas emission scenario, with temperatures staying below 1.5 °C.

“According to our simulations, limiting 21-century global surface temperature rise to 2 °C above the pre-industrial level would be insufficient to slow the global sea level rise rate over the next 130 years,” the researchers wrote in their study.

A 2022 study warned that changing water circulation linked to climate change is probably destabilising the east Antarctic ice sheet, which is about the size of the US. The findings also underscored the need to keep global temperature rise to 1.5°C.

UN chief says rising seas a ‘death sentence’ for some countries

UN secretary general warns that low-lying communities and entire countries could disappear under rising sea levels.

A mother and daughter wade through water caused by rising sea levels and land subsidence north of Jakarta, Indonesia in 2020 

[Willy Kurniawan/Reuters]

Published On 15 Feb 2023

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned of the threat posed by rising sea levels to hundreds of millions of people living in low-lying coastal areas and small island states as new data reveals seas have risen rapidly since 1900.

In a stark address to the first UN Security Council debate on the implications of rising sea levels for international peace and security, Guterres said countries such as Bangladesh, China, India and the Netherlands were threatened as were big cities such as Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Jakarta, Lagos, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Maputo, New York and Shanghai.

“The danger is especially acute for nearly 900 million people who live in coastal zones at low elevations — that’s one out of 10 people on Earth,” he told the council on Tuesday.

Climate change is heating the planet and melting glaciers and ice sheets which, according to NASA, has resulted in Antarctica shedding some 150 billion tonnes of ice mass each year on average, Guterres said. Greenland’s ice cap is shrinking even faster and losing 270 billion tonnes per year.

“The global ocean has warmed faster over the past century than at any time in the past 11,000 years,” the UN chief said.

“Our world is hurtling past the 1.5-degree warming limit that a liveable future requires and, with present policies, is careening towards 2.8 degrees – a death sentence for vulnerable countries,” he said.

Developing countries, in particular, must have the resources to adapt to a rapidly changing world and that means ensuring the $100bn climate finance commitment to developing countries is delivered, Guterres said.

The UN chief offered examples of the effect of a warming planet and rising sea levels on communities and countries stretching from the Pacific to the Himalayan river basins.

Ice melting in the Himalayas has already worsened flooding in Pakistan, he said. But as the Himalayan glaciers recede in the coming decades, the mighty Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers will shrink. Hundreds of millions of people living in the river basins of the Himalayas will suffer the effects of both rising sea levels and the intrusion of saltwater, Guterres said.

“We see similar threats in the Mekong Delta and beyond. The consequences of all of this are unthinkable. Low-lying communities and entire countries could disappear forever,” he said.

“We would witness a mass exodus of entire populations on a biblical scale.”

With rising sea levels creating new arenas for conflict as competition for freshwater sources and land intensifies, the secretary general said the climate crisis needs to be addressed at its root cause: reducing emissions to limit warming. Understanding the link between insecurity and a changed climate also requires developing early-warning systems for natural disasters, and legal and human rights provisions are also needed, particularly to address the displacement of people and loss of territories.

“People’s human rights do not disappear because their homes do,” Guterres said.

The meeting of the Security Council heard speakers from some 75 countries all voicing concern about the effect of rising sea waters, the Associated Press reported.

Speaking on behalf of the Alliance of Small Island States, Samoa’s UN ambassador Fatumanava-o-Upolu III Pa’olelei Luteru said alliance members were among the lowest to emit the greenhouse gases that had caused global warming and climate change.

“Yet, we face some of the most severe consequences of rising sea levels,” Lutero said, according to AP.

“To expect small island states to shoulder the burden of sea level rise, without assistance from the international community will be the pinnacle of inequities,” he said.

Ambassador Amatlain Kabua of the Marshall Islands said many of the tools to address climate change and rising seas were already known.

“What is needed most is the political will to start the job, supported by a UN special representative” to spur global action, she said.


KEEP READING

How can inevitable sea level rises be dealt with?

In Pictures: Bangladeshi farmers adapt as climate crisis worsens

How sea level rise could sever a vital transport link in Canada

Greenland already locked in to huge sea level rise: Study

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA

Robot reveals clues behind what's eating away at Antarctica's "doomsday glacier"

FEBRUARY 15, 2023

Scientists got their first close-up look at what is eating away part of Antarctica's Thwaites ice shelf, nicknamed the "doomsday glacier" because of how much ice it has and how much seas could rise if it all melts — and it's both good and bad news.

Using a 13-foot pencil-shaped robot that swam under the grounding line where ice first juts over the sea, scientists saw a shimmery critical point in Thwaites' chaotic breakup, "where it's melting so quickly, there's just material streaming out of the glacier," said robot creator and polar scientist Britney Schmidt of Cornell University.

Before, scientists had no observations from this critical but hard-to-reach point on the Thwaites Glacier. But with the robot (named Icefin) lowered down a slender, 1,925-foot hole, they saw how important crevasses are in the fracturing of the ice, which takes the heaviest toll on the glacier, even more than melting.

"That's how the glacier is falling apart. It's not thinning and going away. It shatters," said Schmidt, the lead author of one of two studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature.

A robot nicknamed Icefin operates under the sea ice near McMurdo Station in Antarctica in 2020.

SCHMIDT/LAWRENCE/ICEFIN/NASA PSTAR RISE UP VIA AP

That fracturing "potentially accelerates the overall demise of that ice shelf," said Paul Cutler, the Thwaites program director for the National Science Foundation, who returned from the ice last week. "It's eventual mode of failure may be through falling apart."


The work comes out of a massive $50 million multiyear international research effort to better understand the Florida-sized glacier, which could make sea levels rise more than 2 feet if it melts, though that's expected to take hundreds of years.

At about 80 miles in width, the Thwaites Glacier is the widest on Earth. As the planet continues to warm, ice that composes the glacier is melting, like much of the sea ice that surrounds the Earth's north and south poles. The glacier's rapid changes have concerned scientists for years.

Researchers say the glacier is in a phase characterized by "rapid retreat," or "collapse," when a broader geological timeline is considered. A study conducted by marine physicist Alastair Graham at the University of South Florida last year suggested that, despite observations indicating the glacier's melting rate had slowed down compared with previous evaluation periods, it would likely accelerate soon.

"Similar rapid retreat pulses are likely to occur in the near future," the study said.


The melting of Thwaites is dominated by what's happening underneath, where warmer water nibbles at the bottom, something called basal melting, said Peter Davis, an oceanographer at British Antarctic Survey, who is a lead author of one of the studies.

"Thwaites is a rapidly changing system, much more rapidly changing than when we started this work five years ago and even since we were in the field three years ago," said Oregon State University ice researcher Erin Pettit, who wasn't involved in either study. "I am definitely expecting the rapid change to continue and accelerate over the next few years."

Pennsylvania State University glaciologist Richard Alley, who also wasn't part of the studies, said the new work "gives us an important look at processes affecting the crevasses that might eventually break and cause loss of much of the ice shelf."

Now for the good news: Much of the flat underwater area the scientists explored is melting much slower than they expected.

But that doesn't really change how much ice is coming off the land part of the glacier and driving up sea levels, Davis said.

A robot nicknamed Icefin is deployed at Thwaites glacier in Antarctica in January 2020. The pencil-shaped robot is giving scientists their first look at the forces eating away at the Thwaites glacier.

DICHEK/ICEFIN/ITGC VIA AP

Davis said the melting isn't nearly the problem. The more the glacier breaks up or retreats, the more ice floats in water. When ice is on ground as part of the glacier, it isn't part of sea rise, but when it breaks off land and then goes onto water, it adds to the overall water level by displacement, just as ice added to a glass of water raises water level.

And more bad news: the new research is from the eastern, larger and more stable part of Thwaites. Researchers couldn't safely land a plane and drill a hole in the ice in the main trunk, which is breaking up much faster.

The key to seeing exactly how bad conditions are on the glacier would require going to the main trunk and looking at the melting from below. But that would require a helicopter to land on the ice instead of a heavier airplane and would be incredibly difficult, said Eric Rignot of the University of California Irvine.

The main trunk's glacier surface "is so messed up by crevasses, it looks like a set of sugar cubes almost. There's no place to land a plane," NSF's Cutler said.

Ted Scambos of the National Snow and Ice Data Center said the recent results add to understanding how Thwaites is diminishing.

"Unfortunately, this is still going to be a major issue a century from now," Scambos said in an email. "But our better understanding gives us some time to take action to slow the pace of sea level rise."

When the skinny robot wended its way through the hole in the ice – made by a jet of hot water – the cameras showed not just the melting water, the crucial crevasses and seabed. It also showed critters, especially sea anemones, swimming under the ice.

"To accidentally find them here in this environment was really, really cool," Schmidt said in an interview. "We were so tired that you kind of wonder like, 'am I really seeing what I'm seeing?'"

"In the background is like all these sparkling stars that are like rocks and sediment and things that were picked up from the glacier," Schmidt said. "And then the anemones. It's really kind of a wild experience."

On thin ice: Melting of the doomsday glacier in Antarctica could raise sea levels by 65 centimetres

But scientists warn that Thwaites Glacier, which is slowly melting, would be a proverbial drop in the bucket when it comes to potential sea level rise from Antarctica.

Thwaites Glacier in 2012. Credit: NASA ICE / James Yungel, CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

Modelling shows that the thawing of just one of Antarctica’s glaciers, the Thwaites Glacier in the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, could raise global sea levels by an average of more than half a metre.

As the global climate warms, ice in the polar regions melts, causing sea levels to rise and making the salty ocean waters fresher.

It’s not that complicated.

But scientists are still poring over data to try and underscore the urgency of the potentially catastrophic impact of human-induced climate change on the global ecosystem and on civilisation itself.

Researchers from the British Antarctic Survey revealed their findings on the vulnerability of the Thwaites Glacier to collapse in two papers published (here and here) in Nature. The results come from measurements taken by drilling through approximately 587 metres of ice and using semi-autonomous underwater vehicles to measure oceanic properties around the glacier.

Their projections show that complete collapse of the Thwaites Glacier could increase global sea levels by 65 cm over a century or so.. The glacier’s collapse could also destabilise neighbouring glaciers, leading to an additional three-metre rise.

Read more: Cold comfort: How Antarctica represents two sides of climate change

Senior scientist with the Australian Antarctic Division, Dr Ben Galton-Fenzi, is a glaciologist who spoke with Cosmos about the researchers’ findings.

Galton-Fenzi, who is not part of the team that published either Nature article, notes that the Thwaites Glacier has been dubbed the “Doomsday Glacier” and has been rapidly retreating for years.

“The biggest reason why folk think it started to retreat is really due to changes in the ocean,” Galton-Fenzi explains. “Due to climate change driving a shift in the winds in Antarctica, which turns more warm water onto the shelf, you get that relatively warmer water driving the increase in melting. Then you’re actually exposing more ice to the ocean, so it then melts more.”

The glaciologist notes that much of the modelling has a relatively high uncertainty because so much ice is below sea level, but recent technological developments like autonomous vehicles has increased scientists’ ability to see below the surface.

Galton-Fenzi says sea level rise is already happening.

“The bottom line for me is that it’s already changing. Sea levels are going to go up, and the oceans are going to get fresher. If the oceans get fresher, that’s going to change things like the global overturning circulation, the ocean conveyor belt. The question is: given the amount of warming is already in the atmosphere and in the oceans, how much sea level rise are we already committed to now?

“The biggest uncertainty in future sea level comes from Antarctica. It’s massive. The projections are several tens of centimetres by the end of the century, but it could be metres. A lot of that isn’t going to come from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, it’s going to come out of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet in our backyard,” Galton-Fenzi adds.

The Nature papers come as other research published in Nature Communications notes that if global warming is not restricted to 1.8°C, then melting from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets alone will see sea levels rise around 1.4 metres.

\

Sea level rise contributions from the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, and maps projected 2150 CE Antarctic ice sheet surface elevation following different greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Credit: Jun-Young Park.

Lead author Jun-Young Park tells Cosmos that “recent research says that 1m sea level rise in 2100 CE can threaten more than 400 million people.”

VIDEO: 40 years ago Australia was at the forefront of climate change education – what happened?

“There are a lot of communities that live within what we call the low elevation coastal zone,” says University of New South Wales social sciences PhD candidate Anne Maree Kreller. “We’re talking about a meter – a lot of people live in just a meter above sea level. There are estimates that approximately 85% of the Australian population live on the coast.”

Kreller specialises in social movements and community-based decision-making.

“Start thinking about sea level rise, and you start thinking about the tides, storm surges, and you’ve got this accumulation of risks to human communities. Think about the global community, like Tuvalu and Bangladesh where people live in the Delta. What happens when you start to have storms and cyclones is really catastrophic. And the thing about sea level rise that makes it really difficult to connect to people’s daily life, is its slow moving.”

Kreller says there are two aspects to tackling sea level rises.

“One is mitigation, and stopping the use of fossil fuels and addressing this, and the other is the obviously the adaptation space and starting to ask some of those questions that are quite difficult,” Kreller explains.

Evrim Yazgin has a Bachelor of Science majoring in mathematical physics and a Master of Science in physics, both from the University of Melbourne.

World-renowned politician and economist Yanis Varoufakis on the state of the UK economy

The former Greek Finance Minister talks about the incoming recession, digital economies and calls for a bolder financial attitude

Yanis Varoufakis spoke at the Union on 7th February

REVA CROFT FOR THE CAMBRIDGE UNION

by Lewis Andrews 
Wednesday February 15 2023, 1:28pm

Yanis Varoufakis is an international figure. Since teaching at Cambridge in the 1980s, the academic has held posts at universities around the world. And this is even before the event that would change his life dramatically — becoming Finance Minister for Alexis Tsipras’ Syriza government in 2015.

The game-theory expert’s political career has continued with great steam since those infamous negotiations during the Eurozone crisis, where he voted against the European bailout terms agreed by the Syriza party. He seemingly offers his economic insight and radical sentiments to all those willing to listen — indeed proving itself to be an audience that spans the world over. Varoufakis has been re-elected to the Hellenic Parliament, seen his party begin a campaign in Germany and headed a general global effort to realise a new “transnational” politics.

“Parliament is soul destroying”

Our conversation would similarly snake from an immense variety of economic, political and sociological topics. First however, as he returns to talk at the Union for the third time in four years, I thought it necessary to ask whether he has a special fondness for this city — which would be great praise from a man as well travelled as he. I added too whether he felt his politics particularly resonates with students in the debating chamber. He explained that in Cambridge he feels “utterly at home, especially after 2015 when I inadvertently, genuinely inadvertently, left academia for politics. Coming back to universities, and particularly this one, is an oasis in the desert.”

He adds that “Parliament is soul destroying. Imagine for a moment you are sitting at a front bench, and you come up with a fantastic argument, and then your opposite number suddenly thinks ‘Ah! That’s a good point!’. If he says so, he has lost his job. Whereas in a university the whole point is to let the ideas clash and learn from one another.”

That is not to say that he withholds criticism of the university. He dislikes a tendency he sees to demand definitive conclusions from Economics students — where departments “have lost touch with real existing capitalism”. Instead, he celebrates the beautiful “indeterminism” of macroeconomics, where you can unashamedly assert “you know what- I don’t know!” With radical policy, he implies, it necessitates that you must be willing to take risks outside of the familiar model (in his last Union talk he expressed unlikely common ground with Michael Gove, who famously stated “[we] have had enough of experts”). He calls this process the “mathematization” of economics, where “there lies a structural institutionalised inability to say anything about capitalism… my heart bleeds”.

I turn our attention to the UK economy. With the IMF saying last week that Britain is the only leading economy likely to slide into recession this year, and the Bank of England adding that, though shorter than expected, a recession is due, what advice would he give to the present government?

“[Liz Truss] is verging on a sad variety of madness”

“It is a result of a decade or two of extremely low investment, during a period of exuberate financialization. The City of London, as far as I’m concerned — though it is an unpopular opinion — is a drag on the British economy… Investment, this is the one pillar of any genuine growth strategy that has been missing in the UK for decades”

Never afraid to tackle large, sweeping topics in a matter of moments, he cites Margret Thatcher’s “de-industrialisation” of the UK economy as instigating our troubles, where money was moved into the City. This is a long way back to reach for an answer to my question, but one which reflects the boldness of Varoufakis’ approach. As a counter-example to his emphasis on investment, he lambasts the tactics of Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt who are “trying to stablise prices through austerity… Even if it stabilises prices, you do so by killing off investment further. If you are a businessperson, why would you invest in an economy where aggregate demand is going to be depleted as a result of austerity?”

Getting things in order with John Bercow

Seeking further comment on recent happenings, I ask his opinion on Liz Truss’ so-called attempt at “trickle-down economics”. From his latest Guardian article, it is easy to discern that he is not a fan- though that, by now, should be clear. I therefore, perhaps insincerely, query his opinion on her recent claim in The Spectator that she was ousted by “the left-wing economic establishment”? Though I suspected the answer, his frankness still comes as a surprise:

“She is verging on a sad variety of madness. To describe the treasury as ‘the left-wing establishment’ and in the same breath to blame the markets for imposing a left-wing agenda! The whole point about Thatcherism, which was supposed to be represented [by that government], is that ‘the markets know best’ and ‘there is no alternative’. What is she taking…?”

We conclude by talking about digital economies, and the thesis he developed from watching the dynamic and dizzying movements of game economies. “We are moving away from capitalism”, he remarkably suggests, “there is capital… [but] there is no division between those who own the capital goods and those who supply their labour to those who own the capital goods.” It is from here that he has conceived his new project: a book called ‘Techno-Feudalism’. Once more, audacious and memorable statements remind the listener why he captured the imagination of so many Europeans in 2015, and why he continues to draw attention around the globe. The Union no doubt looks forward to his next visit.

Centrica And EDF UK Post Multi-Billion Profits Amidst Energy Price Cap Scrutiny

By City A.M - Feb 17, 2023

EDF UK has raked in hefty profits, with soaring electricity prices powering its rebound from last year’s losses.

The French energy giant’s UK arm recorded bumper earnings of £1.12bn compared with a £21m loss the year before, driven by the vastly improved performance of its nuclear electricity generators.

Unlike generators which rely on gas to produce power, it has benefitted from higher electricity prices across wholesale markets.

This has provided a huge boost in revenues without a comparable rise in costs.

However, its consumer supplier business lost more than £200m during the same trading period, with EDF blaming the losses on the cost of buying energy for customers – which was higher than the prices set under the energy price cap.

This comes a day after rival firm and British Gas owner Centrica unveiled £3.3bn profits for the past year, but with British Gas only making up £72m of the mega earnings.

EDF oversees the UK’s remaining nuclear fleet, operating five power stations in the UK alongside multiple wind farms.

It also supplies gas and electricity to about five million UK households.

The company revealed it invested more than £2.6bn in 2022 in its UK nuclear, renewables and customer businesses.

EDF plans to invest a further £13bn in the UK in the next three years, chiefly at Hinkley Point C, the new nuclear power station being built in Somerset that is due to open in 2027.

Energy firms are under scrutiny, with customers bracing for higher energy bills next month, with the government slashing subsidy rates in household support packages next month.

While the price cap is expected to fall, this won’t be enough to make up the difference with £400 discount being taken away from households and bills being subsidised at a rate of £3,000 per year rather than £2,500 per year.

Ofgem is also under pressure to clean up the energy market, and has begun an industry investigation into forced prepayment meters after reports inThe Times that third party debt agents working for British Gas had ignored signs customers were vulnerable and had broken into properties to install prepayment meters

UK profits boost EDF as nationalisation looms

EDF UK’s strong headline figures were mitigated by one-off impairments and depreciations.

Overall, the UK business recorded an operating loss of almost £1bn once these factors were taken into account.

Meanwhile, the wider EDF Group posted an underlying record loss for 2022 of £4.44bn, following “the decline in nuclear output” and “the impact of the exceptional regulatory measures to limit price increases for consumers in 2022”.

This follows a heavy cap on consumer prices imposed by the French government during the cost of living crisis after the pandemic, which meant EDF ended up selling the electricity at a lower price than it paid for it.

That cost the group £7.3bn over the year – which essentially scrubbed out the £7.8bn it made from market price rises.

The French government currently owns 84 per cent of EDF and is set to takeover the rest of the company in May.

Luc Remont, chairman and chief executive officer of EDF, said: “The 2022 results were significantly affected by the decline in our electricity output, and also by exceptional regulatory measures introduced in France in difficult market conditions.

“Despite all the challenges, EDF actively focused on service and support for all its residential and business customers, and made every endeavour to ensure the best generation fleet availability for the winter period.”

By CityAM

UK

NHS strikes: nurses battle for fair pay escalates

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) have ramped up strike action after the union has confirmed the biggest health worker walkout to date.

The world’s largest nursing union have confirmed nursing staff, including those working in emergency departments, intensive care units, cancer care and other services that were previously exempt from industrial action, will strike continuously for 48 hours next month.

Commencing on 1st March until Friday 3rd march at 6am, the strike will take place at 128 NHS employers in England as the government continues to refuse to negotiate the 2022-23 pay deal. During previous strikes, nurses have only walked out of hospitals for 12 hours at a time.

The RCN is calling for nurses to receive an above-inflation – which is currently sat at 10% – pay rise, however the government have dismissed this, claiming it is out of their budget.

Services will be reduced to ‘an absolute minimum’, the union has said, and hospitals will be asked to rely on members of other unions and other clinical professionals.

Pat Cullen, RCN General Secretary said: ‘It is with a heavy heart that I have asked even more nursing staff to join this dispute. These strikes will not just run for longer and involve more people but will leave no area of the NHS unaffected. Patients and nurses alike did not want this to happen.

‘I will do whatever I can to ensure patient safety is protected. At first, we asked thousands to keep working during the strikes but it’s clear that is only prolonging the dispute.

‘This action must not be in vain – the Prime Minister owes them an answer.’

However, in response to this, Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, has accused the union of putting patients at risk. Mr Barclay said: ‘We are working closely with NHS England on contingency plans, but this action will inevitably cause further disruption.’

Sir Julian Hartley, Chief Executive at NHS Providers, said: ‘This is the most worrying escalation of strikes yet. With more than 140,000 appointments already postponed as a result of the walkouts, this is a step no one wants to take.

‘A continuous 48-hour strike with no exceptions in A&E, intensive care units or cancer care services will be a huge blow – especially as even more trusts will be affected this time.’

The nurses strike announcement has come despite a new bill being passed in Parliament earlier this year, which states organisations must ensure a minimum level of workers must be available despite the rest of the workforce engaging in industrial action.

Photo by Manny Becerra