The Week

President Trump has spent the last few days asking his friends, aides, and associates if they would like pardons even those who are not facing any charges, a senior administration official told The Washington Post.In one case, the official said, Trump offered a pardon to a person who declined the chance at clemency, saying they weren't in any legal trouble and hadn't committed any crimes. "Trump's response was, 'Yeah, well, but you never know. They're going to come after us all. Maybe it's not a bad idea. Just let me know,'" the official recounted.Trump has taken a great interest in pardoning people, the Post reports, even calling families to personally let them know he granted a pardon. A person familiar with the matter told the Post that Trump was talked out of pardoning himself, family members, and controversial figures like Rudy Giuliani. An aide said there was also a brief discussion about possibly issuing pardons related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, but that idea went nowhere.While Trump has held a few ceremonial events in recent weeks, journalists have been kept away from the White House, largely because the president is "just not in a place where they would go well," one official told the Post. Trump is constantly flip-flopping, another administration official said, talking about his future but uncertain of where he will be. "He goes between, 'Well, I'm going to go to Florida and play golf, and life is honestly better,' and then in the next moment, it's like, 'But don't you think there's a chance to stay?'" the official said. Read more at The Washington Post.More stories from theweek.com 5 more scathing cartoons about Trump's 2nd impeachment Lindsey Graham seemed very pleased with Biden's secretary of state nominee Chief Justice John Roberts reportedly wants no part of Trump's impeachment trial

View original post here:
Chicago Weather: Clearing And Chilly - Yahoo News

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Members of Arizonas San Carlos Apache tribe filed a property lien on Thursday in an attempt to regain control over land that the U.S. government is poised to give to Rio Tinto Ltd for the Resolution Copper mine.

The latest maneuver by tribal members opposed to the project asks a court to find that the U.S. government has illegally occupied the land for more than 160 years and has no right to give it to anyone.

The United States of America does not own that land, Apache Stronghold, a non-profit organization comprised of mine opponents, said in a court filing.

The mine could supply a quarter of U.S. copper demand if developed, but eventually destroy the land, known as Oak Flat, or Chichil Bildagotee, considered by Native Americans to be the home of religious deities.

Rio Tinto had no immediate comment

Rio and development partner BHP Group Ltd have sought for years to access the underground copper deposit, about 70 miles (113 km) east of Phoenix in the Tonto National Forest.

The deposit sits below land that belonged to the tribe before the United States existed. An 1852 treaty between U.S. officials and the tribe that is still in force set aside the land for the Apaches use.

In 2014, the U.S. Congress and then-President Barack Obama approved a plan to let Rio exchange land it already owns for land above the copper, with the caveat that the swap could not occur until an environmental study was published. The outgoing Trump administration plans to publish that study on Friday, clearing the way for the exchange within 60 days.

Tribal members have also filed a lawsuit seeking to block the studys publication.

The lien is essentially a next line of defense if that lawsuit fails. Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld 19th century land treaties between Washington and Oklahoma tribes, a precedent that could bolster the Apaches lien request.

Rio has promised to seek the tribes consent for the mine. Even if Rio were to gain control of the land, the company still needs federal permits, a process that both sides acknowledge could take years.

Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Peter Cooney

Read more here:
Native Americans say U.S. does not own land it is about to give to Rio Tinto - Reuters

(MENAFN - Comserve) Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, Japan, Japan, Jan 19, 2021, 08:05 /Comserve / -- The key players profiled in the report include as E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (US), 3M Company (US), Kimberly Clark Corp (US), Ansell Limited (US), Sioen Industries (Belgium), Teijin Limited (Japan), and Lakeland Industries, Inc. (US).

The protective clothing market is estimated to grow from USD 8.8 billion in 2019 to USD 11.9 billion by 2024, at a CAGR of 6.3%. The protective clothing market is largely driven by the stringent regulations pertaining to the safety of personnel in developed economies. The rising number of workplace-related injuries is leading to the increased concern of the employers about ensuring the safety of their workers. The rising concern of both the employers and employees regarding the safety at the workplace is expected to drive the protective clothing market.

Request to Fill The Form To get Sample Copy of This Report:[...]

"The Final Report will cover the impact analysis of COVID-19 on this industry (Global And Regional Market)."

With COVID-19 resulting in the economic fallout, numerous economies are working on game-changing improvements to protect their employees and clients. While focusing on the ongoing challenges, the leaders are embracing new plans in order to manage and stay afloat in this competitive environment.

The key players profiled in the report include as

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (US),3M Company (US),Kimberly Clark Corp (US),Ansell Limited (US),Sioen Industries (Belgium),Teijin Limited (Japan), andLakeland Industries, Inc. (US).

**This detailed analysis includes market size and forecasts, covering regional analysis, trends, opportunities and COVID-19 analysis. The analysis also includes key players with business strategies and key indicators that influence market growth.

'PBI is expected to be the fastest-growing segment by material type of the protective clothing market, in terms of value, between 2019 and 2024.The PBI segment is expected to witness the highest growth in terms of value, during the forecast period. PBI's ability to blend easily with other materials will play an important role in driving the market growth. Moreover, it does not melt or burn at normal temperature. These characteristics of PBI over other material types are estimated to boost its demand in the protective clothing market.

'The thermal application segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the overall protective clothing market, in terms of value, between 2019 and 2024.The thermal application segment is the largest application of protective clothing due to its wide application across different industries such as oil & gas, manufacturing, construction, and others. The growing manufacturing projects, especially the high-rise buildings, offer a huge potential for the thermal protective clothing market. The oil & gas industry is expected to drive the demand for protective clothing in the thermal application due to the growth in exploration & production in the oil & gas field.

'Rising demand from the construction, manufacturing, and oil & gas industries to drive the demand for protective clothing in North America.The North America protective clothing market is estimated to witness considerable growth during the forecast period. The regulations that mandate the use of protective clothing at manufacturing facilities are driving the market in the region. The mandate by the government, coupled with the awareness among the workers, is leading to the growth of the protective clothing market in the region. The increasing number of accidents in these industries has led to the rising demand for protective clothing. The workers involved in ground activities are exposed to erection, repair, demolition, maintenance, painting, land clearing, earth moving, grading, drilling, blasting, and concreting. Thermal, chemical, mechanical, visibility, and biological/radiation applications of protective clothing help the individual to work efficiently in risky operations by providing the necessary protection.

Request to Fill The Form To get Sample Copy of This Report:[...]

"The Final Report will cover the impact analysis of COVID-19 on this industry (Global And Regional Market)."

In the process of determining and verifying the market size for several segments and subsegments gathered through secondary research, extensive primary interviews were conducted.

By Company Type: Tier 1 - 46%, Tier 2 - 31%, and Tier 3 - 23%By Designation: C-Level - 46%, Director Level - 27%, and Others - 27%By Region: North America - 33%, Europe - 27%, APAC - 27%, South America - 7%, Middle East & Africa - 6%,

The key players profiled in the report include as E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (US), 3M Company (US), Kimberly Clark Corp (US), Ansell Limited (US), Sioen Industries (Belgium), Teijin Limited (Japan), and Lakeland Industries, Inc. (US).

Research CoverageThis report segments the market for protective clothing on the basis of material type, application, end-use industry, end user type, and region, and provides estimations for the overall market size across various regions. A detailed analysis of key industry players has been conducted to provide insights into their business overviews, products & services, key strategies, new product launches, expansions, agreements, and acquisitions associated with the market for protective clothing.

Reasons to Buy this ReportThis research report is focused on various levels of analysis industry analysis (industry trends), market ranking analysis of top players, and company profiles, which together provide an overall view on the competitive landscape; emerging and high-growth segments of the protective clothing market; high-growth regions; and market drivers, restraints, opportunities, and challenges.

The report provides insights on the following pointers:

Market Penetration: Comprehensive information on protective clothing offered by top players in the global market

Product Development/Innovation: Detailed insights on upcoming technologies, R & D activities, and new product launches in the protective clothing market

Market Development: Comprehensive information about lucrative emerging markets the report analyzes the markets for protective clothing across regions

Market Diversification: Exhaustive information about new products, untapped regions, and recent developments in the global protective clothing market

Competitive Assessment: In-depth assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of leading players in the protective clothing market

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION 191.1 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 191.2 MARKET DEFINITION 191.3 MARKET SEGMENTATION 201.3.1 YEARS CONSIDERED FOR THE STUDY 211.4 CURRENCY 211.5 LIMITATIONS 211.6 STAKEHOLDERS 212 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 222.1 RESEARCH DATA 222.1.1 SECONDARY DATA 232.1.1.1 Key data from secondary sources 232.1.2 PRIMARY DATA 242.1.2.1 Key data from primary sources 242.1.2.2 Breakdown of primary interviews 252.2 MARKET SIZE ESTIMATION 252.2.1 BOTTOM-UP APPROACH 262.2.2 TOP-DOWN APPROACH 262.3 MARKET BREAKDOWN AND DATA TRIANGULATION 272.4 ASSUMPTIONS 283 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 294 PREMIUM INSIGHTS 334.1 ATTRACTIVE OPPORTUNITIES IN THE PROTECTIVE CLOTHING MARKET 334.2 PROTECTIVE CLOTHING MARKET IN NORTH AMERICA, BY END-USE INDUSTRY AND COUNTRY 334.3 PROTECTIVE CLOTHING MARKET, BY REGION 344.4 PROTECTIVE CLOTHING MARKET, BY MATERIAL TYPE 344.5 PROTECTIVE CLOTHING MARKET: MAJOR COUNTRIES 355 MARKET OVERVIEW 36

Request to Fill The Form To get Sample Copy of This Report:[...]

"The Final Report will cover the impact analysis of COVID-19 on this industry (Global And Regional Market)."

The dynamic nature of business environment in the current global economy is raising the need amongst business professionals to update themselves with current situations in the market. To cater such needs, Shibuya Data Count provides market research reports to various business professionals across different industry verticals, such as healthcare & pharmaceutical, IT & telecom, chemicals and advanced materials, consumer goods & food, energy & power, manufacturing & construction, industrial automation & equipment and agriculture & allied activities amongst others.

For more information, please contact:

Shibuya Data CountEmail: Tel: + 81 3 45720790

MENAFN19012021004694010674ID1101458074

Go here to see the original:
Protective Clothing Market Global Forecast to 2024 by Material Type, Applications (Thermal, Chemical, and Visibility), End-Use Industry (Construction,...

Signing of the Al-Ula Declaration ending trade and other restrictions against Qatar

As reported in our previous client update, on 5 January 2021, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states, along with Egypt, signed the Al-Ula Declaration at the 41st GCC Summit held in the city of Al-Ula. This marks the end of a three and a half year boycott against the State of Qatar, which was put in place in June 2017. Although the formal text of the Al-Ula Declaration has not been made public, it is clear from public statements made by senior Saudi, UAE, Egyptian, Bahraini and Kuwaiti officials that the instrument paves the way for the re-establishment of political and economic ties between Qatar and each of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt (the Quartet).

Re-opening of borders and resumption of air and sea travel

In the past ten days, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have taken steps to re-open all land, sea and air corridors for inbound and outbound movement to and from Qatar, and the relevant authorities in both countries have issued directives and circulars to this effect.

The UAEs General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) announced the re-opening of airspace and the resumption of air traffic between the UAE and Qatar which took effect from 9 January. The announcement stated that the GCAA will resume scheduled and unscheduled flights between the two countries, in coordination with the civil aviation authorities and national carriers in the UAE, which has been facilitated through the issuance of NOTAMs (Notices to Airmen). In addition, on 8 January (and implemented on 9 January), the Chief Harbor Master (CHM) at Abu Dhabi Ports issued a Direction (CHM Direction No. 01/2021) which formally lifted the restriction on access to Abu Dhabi ports for Qatar vessels and vessels departing the UAE for Qatar as the next port of destination. This was further to a circular issued by the UAE Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure (MOEI) on 8 January, confirming that the UAE has ended all measures restricting trade with Qatar and that it has re-opened land, sea and airspace borders with Qatar. Given the MOEIs circular and the Abu Dhabi CHM Direction, we expect that the other port authorities across the UAE (e.g. Dubai Maritime City Authority, Government of Sharjah Department of Seaports and Customs, RAK Ports and Saqr Port Authority, the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority, and the Port of Fujairah) will have also issued their own CHMs or Notice to Mariners lifting the Qatar restrictions.

Similarly, Saudi Arabia had previously announced similar measures that took effect from the evening of 4 January. Based on the proposal by Sheikh Nawaf Al-Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait who led the recent mediation efforts, the agreement was reached to open airspace and land and sea borders between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. We understand from our discussions with Saudi Airlines that for the time being, only commercial flights have resumed between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The Civil Aviation Affairs (CAA) at the Ministry of Transportation and Telecommunications of Bahrain also announced the opening of Bahraini airspace for Qatar-registered aircraft, commencing 11 January. Similarly, according to the Egyptian Ministry of Civil Aviation, Egypt had reopened its airspace on 12 January, allowing Egypt Air and Qatar Airways as well as other Qatari airlines, to resume air traffic. Egypt and Bahrain can be expected to issue official instruments in relation to maritime and port access in due course.

Customs clearing procedures

In response to our inquiries, Dubai Customs has confirmed that the import and export of products to and from Qatar have resumed with effect from 9 January. We have made similar inquiries with the Saudi Customs Authority, and received verbal confirmation that all formal restrictions in relation to imports and exports between Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been lifted.

In relation to land transportation of goods, based on our discussions with customs brokers operating in the Salwa region (the Saudi-Qatar border), the import and export of products between Saudi Arabia and Qatar have still not resumed, due to technical, administrative and operational measures that still need to be put in place to clear products. Since the border has been closed for more than three years, it may take some time for the customs clearance equipment and resources at the Salwa border to be installed and to be operational. Customs brokers expect commercial activities between both countries to resume this week.

In relation to air cargo transportation, we understand that Saudi Cargo has still not resumed cargo flights between Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Bahraini and Egyptian customs authorities have yet to release any official statements in this respect.

As of the date of this alert, Qatari authorities have not issued any circulars or similar instruments in relation to resuming trade or travel between Qatar and the Quartet, despite reports of the re-opening of the Abu Samra border as of 9 January announced by the General Customs Authority (GAC). However, we understand that the position of the GAC is that, until the issuance of an official circular, all shipments from the Quartet will be rejected and will not be cleared for import.

Financial flows and designations under Counter-Terrorism Laws

The restrictions originally imposed on Qatar in June 2017 included measures introduced by a UAE Central Bank (UAECB) circular that placed six Qatari banks on a watch-list, which mandated UAE banks to undertake enhanced due diligence and screening of any remittances from those banks.

Pursuant to UAE Federal Law No. 7 of 2014 on Combatting Terrorism Offences (the UAE CTF Law) and UAE Cabinet Resolution No. 35 of 2014 concerning the UAEs Terrorist Watch List System (the latter of which has since been repealed and currently replaced by Cabinet Resolution No. 74 of 2020), the UAE issued Cabinet Resolution No. 18 of 2017 Endorsing the List of Designated Terrorist Organizations and Individuals (Cabinet Resolution 18) on 9 June 2017.

Cabinet Resolution 18 designated 59 individuals and 12 entities that were either Qatari, Qatari-based or Qatari-linked, as Designated Terrorist Organizations and Individuals. Those providing support, including financial support, to such individuals or entities faced criminal penalties under the UAE CTF Law. As the UAE CTF Law is fully applicable in both of the UAEs financial free zones (the Dubai International Financial Centre (the DIFC) and the Abu Dhabi Global Market (the ADGM)), the restrictions on dealing with such individuals and entities fully extended to financial institutions based in those jurisdictions.

On the same day, the UAE Central Bank (UAECB) issued two Notices Notice 156 and Notice 157. Notice 156 required those regulated by the UAECB to immediately check existing clients accounts and instruments against the designations made under Cabinet Resolution 18, and to inform the UAE Central Bank accordingly. Notice 157 required all UAECB regulated entities to implement Enhanced Due Diligence measures (as defined under the UAEs AML Law and AML Implementing Regulations) for any accounts or transactions involving the following six Qatari Banks: (i) Qatar Islamic Bank, (ii) Qatar International Islamic Bank, (iii) Barwa Bank, (iv) Masraf al Rayan, (v) Qatar National Bank, and (vi) Doha Bank. Notice 157 also required weekly update reports on its implementation to be sent to the UAECB.

The DIFCs financial regulator the Dubai Financial Services Authority (the DFSA) and the ADGMs financial regulator the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (the FSRA) issued letters on 12 June 2017, requiring their regulated entities (both financial institutions and designated non-financial businesses and professions DNFBPs) to implement the same requirements under UAECB Notices 156 and 157.

Following the signing of the Al-Ula Declaration, we have yet to see any announcement being made by the UAECB, the DFSA or the FSRA. As such, the position outlined above remains applicable until further notice.

Next steps

Based on official announcements and various measures introduced by public authorities in the Quartet, all restrictions on trade with Qatar that were put in place in June 2017 have now been lifted and Saudi and UAE companies are no longer prohibited from engaging in direct commercial dealings with Qatari counterparties. This includes resuming prior distribution and shipping arrangements between Saudi or the UAE and Qatar.

However, despite the formal lifting of the prohibitions against Qatar, it will likely take some time before the administrative decisions are implemented to fully restart the shipment of goods between the Quartet and Qatar, and before customs clearance procedures are normalized. This is particularly noteworthy in light of the absence of any official statements or circulars issued by the State of Qatar in relation to resuming trade or travel between Qatar and the Quartet or lifting of any countermeasures imposed by Qatar in response to the boycott put in place in 2017.

Accordingly, it is still too early to tell how the lifting of the trade restrictions in relation to Qatar will be implemented in practice. We are watching this space carefully, and we continue to engage with various government agencies and authorities in Qatar and the Quartet for clarification and updates. We will issue follow up updates as new developments emerge.

Read more:
Lifting of restrictions with Qatar - what you need to know Blog Middle East Insights - Lexology

National Review

Rand Paul would like you to know that while he didnt agree with the [Capitol] fight that happened January 6, he doesnt believe that President Trump whose batty two-month crusade to convince his supporters the election was stolen served as the proximate cause of the fight should be disqualified from holding office again in the future. Language tends to be intemperate these days, but I didnt agree with the fight errs in the opposite direction: Its far too tame a response to the sickening display of January 6. This was no ordinary fight. It was an attempt to violently disrupt the counting of electoral votes, and hence the peaceful transfer of power to the next duly elected administration. It stunned America and shamed us before the world. It made us look like a banana republic. It resulted in several deaths and might have led to a physical attack on, or even the murder of, the vice president as he was conducting the most important business of his term. Trumps actions may not have met the legal definition of incitement, but he tossed a match on kindling he had carefully placed and thoroughly soaked with kerosene. As Dan McLaughlin has written, Trump must face consequences sufficiently spectacular to deter any repetition so long as our national memory endures. But if Senator Paul has his way, apparently, Trump will suffer no consequences whatsoever and reenter private life as the heavy favorite to be the next Republican presidential nominee. This is madness. Abraham Lincolns party was fine without Trump for 150 years and it will long survive him. The parties being largely ruled from the ground up, its not feasible to eject Trump from a GOP he seized control of in 2015 and has since disgraced, but it is possible for 17 Republican senators to convict and disqualify him from holding any future high office in the United States. This is the right thing to do and its also the prudent thing to do, for the sake of the party as well as the country. The GOP cannot afford to spend the next four years trying to explain away Trumps indefensible actions. It has to move on, and there is only one way to do that. Paul foresees a colossal schism in the party should Trump be convicted and barred from future office-holding, warning that one-third of the party will walk away from the GOP in that scenario. Hes wrong: One of the curses (but also, sometimes, one of the blessings) of our culture is our notoriously short collective memory. Should Trump be disqualified this winter, the discussion will quickly move on to other topics. Who should be the new partys standard-bearer? Don Jr.? I very much doubt it. Its unclear that even Trump Sr. would be enthusiastic about that, having repeatedly ridiculed his younger namesake as, among many other things, not the sharpest knife in the drawer. For five years weve seen various other Republican politicians attempt to ape Trumps combination of posturing and populism, and it never works. Senator Josh Hawley has spent two years reverse-mortgaging his reputation in an attempt to extract equity out of the Trump bank, and it has gotten him nowhere. A Politico/Morning Consult poll taken in November put him at 1 percent in the polls, and that was before his shameful performance on January 6. Though some of Trumps ideas about trade and immigration may continue to have sway in some parts of the party, Trumpism as a whole is too closely tied up with one man to be handed off to a new leader. It would die with Trumps political career, and the party would move on. A disqualified Trump would, of course, rain hellfire on the senators who disqualified him, as well as any other perceived backstabbers. But four years from now, when ten Republican senators face reelection, Trumps rage will be background noise at worst. Six years from now, when Ben Sasse, Mitch McConnell, Susan Collins, and 17 of their Republican colleagues face the voters, it wont be any noise at all. Trump himself has a short attention span and a fear of being boring; even he wont be able to keep up the insults for four years, much less six, on whatever cable-news perch from which he chooses to harangue the nation. It is true that Trump is the only thing that consistently fascinates Trump. But America does not love a sore loser, and his victim act will begin to go stale by the next time voters go to the polls. Gradually, even many of his most ardent supporters will begin to realize the man is embarrassing. Among those who persist in believing the fantasy that Trump was robbed and that any lawmakers who voted against him are sworn enemies, how will this play out at the ballot box? It wont, because voting will remain a binary choice. Trump, being disqualified, wont be able to run as a third-party candidate and divide the party. The primary motivating force for voters will continue to be, as it has been for years, visceral dislike for one partys style and policies. Joe Biden has signaled in many ways that, far from being a unifying president, he will consider it a core duty to focus on punishing and antagonizing Trump supporters via appointments and policies specifically designed to irritate them. Biden has watched Trump play the role of Troll-in-Chief for the last four years and decided he wants in on the action. Kamala Harris, should she become president, would be even more despised by both conventional Republicans and Trumpists. So never fear, Senator Paul: Post-Trump, Republicans will close ranks quickly. The main thing the American Right stands for is hating what Democrats do, and Democrats are preparing to embark on a presidency full of policies that are easy to hate.

View post:
Crews Prepare To Clear Roadways As Chances Of Snow, Ice Increase - Yahoo News

Following the war between Armenians and Azerbaijanis in the 1990s, deminers spent decades and tens of millions of dollars clearing the former battleground of land mines and unexploded ordnance.

Now, after 44 days of renewed fighting, they have to start again.

According to a survey of local media reports, at least 11 people have been killed by leftover explosives following the cessation of hostilities on November 10.

In the deadliest single incident, four members of an Azerbaijani family who were visiting their former home in the region of Fuzuli were killed when their car hit a land mine on November 28, the Azerbaijani general prosecutors office reported.

The only member of the Russian peacekeeping mission who has thus far been killed in action was a sapper who died as a result of an explosion on December 17.

Among the other victims: an Azerbaijani sapper, another Azerbaijani civilian visiting his former home in Fuzuli, an Azerbaijani colonel working with Russian and Armenian colleagues to recover bodies from the battlefield, two Armenian sappers, and an Azerbaijani soldier.

Until the war started this September, the last fatality as a result of unexploded ordnance on what used to be the Armenian side of the line of control was registered in 2018. The last time someone other than a deminer died was in 2015. On the Azerbaijani side, the last fatal accident was recorded in January.

But following the war, in which Azerbaijan managed to retake a large part of the lands it had lost to Armenians in the first war, a large swath of territory has again been rendered deadly. Much of that is due to the use by both sides of cluster munitions, which contain small bomblets intended to explode on impact but which have a high failure rate, leaving duds that act like anti-personnel landmines for years and even decades, Human Rights Watch said in a December 11 report on their use in the recent conflict.

There also has been some apparent laying of new anti-tank and anti-personnel land mines. The Azerbaijani prosecutors office said that the explosion that killed the family of four was the result of an anti-tank land mine laid by retreating Armenian forces. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the explosion that killed the Azerbaijani colonel (which also wounded a Russian peacekeeper) was caused by a mine. Halo Trust, the UK-based organization that carries out demining in Armenian-controlled Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding territories, said in a post-war report that [n]ew use of anti-vehicle mines has also been reported and that [t]he extent of landmine contamination from the current conflict is unknown.

Neither side has acknowledged using land mines in the recent conflict.

A spokesperson for the Azerbaijan National Agency for Mine Action (ANAMA) blamed Armenia for laying the mines that have been found on territory now controlled by Baku. The Armenian army, while being pushed away, were putting mines almost everywhere in order to delay the Azerbaijani army, the spokesperson, Sabina Sakarova, said in response to written questions from Eurasianet.

There are several countries and agencies already involved in the UXO-clearing process. On the Armenian-controlled side of the line of contact, Russian peacekeepers have been clearing up material, while Halo is carrying out assessments of the work that lies ahead.

On the Azerbaijani-controlled side, ANAMAs work is being supplemented by Turkish military mine-clearance experts. Azerbaijans Defense Ministry reported that 136 Turkish soldiers arrived in early December and have begun training their Azerbaijani counterparts. The Turkish soldiers themselves also will be involved in clearing Azerbaijans newly retaken territories.

The amount of ordnance reported to have already been cleared since the war ended is substantial.

Russian military engineers had neutralized more than 6,000 explosive objects as of December 17, a peacekeeping officer in Karabakh said. ANAMA says that the explosives it has found as of December 20 include 1,376 pieces of unexploded ordnance, 4,507 pieces of anti-personnel mines and 1,344 pieces of anti-tank mines.

But deminers on both sides are only beginning to assess the work ahead of them.

To clean up its newly retaken territories, ANAMA is planning a substantial expansion, to increase its staff from under 500 to on the order of 12,000-15,000, Sakarova said. Halo says it is planning to roughly double its staff, from 130 before the war up to 250.

Azerbaijani officials have given varying timelines as to how long clearing their side will take, but ANAMAs head of operations, Idris Ismayilov, has said that "it will take up to 10 years to completely demine the territory but people would be able to return to their ancestral lands in between three and five years.

Halo has not given an estimate of how long it will take to render the Armenian-controlled land safe, and organization officials did not respond to requests by Eurasianet for comment. But in an interview with local news website EVN Report, the organizations director for Europe, Nick Smart, said that to clean up a single site an ammunition dump just outside the regional capital of Stepanakert that was destroyed during the war would take two years and $2.6 million.

The organization was still working on assessments of the cities of Stepanakert, Martakert, and Martuni. It hadnt even started yet on surveying rural areas, but I would imagine there will be a big problem there, Smart said. Planting season will be on us in no time. Farmers are going to want to get on and plow their fields and to do so right now would be very dangerous.

See the article here:
Following war, Armenia and Azerbaijan reckon with unexploded ordnance - Eurasianet

There are those who would take a gamepad over mouse and keyboard combo any day. It may be necessary for their hacking and slashing agenda, and there's certainly merit to using literally anything else over a mouse and keyboard for driving games. But if you want to exhibit any level of accuracy, a responsive gaming mouse is the best piece of kit in your arsenal to land those winning headshots.It's

This year has seen an explosion of 'esports' branded gaming mice coming out, whatever that really means. As such, the latest trend has seen companies fighting for the crown of lightest gaming mouse, while DPI figures have also been steadily climbing to reach unnecessarily astronomical heights. I mean, how many dots per inch do we need, really? Chill out guys.

Anyway, here are the nominees for this years best gaming mouse. While these nominations may not be perfect for everyone's grip style, they each have something special to offerbe it heaps of customization like the Naga Pro, or cheap, sleek, ambidextrous chops like that of Logitech's G203.

Logitech G203One of the most affordable big brand gaming mice around today, the G203 does the bare minimum and does it in style. It's sleek, it's light, and it's certainly one for smaller hands. But into that tiny shell, it manages to pack a more than capable 8,000 DPI, and sports enough buttons for the standard FPS player, though it may be unacceptable to an MMO enthusiast. Still, you can't argue at such impeccable quality for that priceplus, you still even get tri-zone Lightsync RGB.

Razer Naga ProThe Naga Pro comes with three interchangeable panels, each with a different number of programmable buttonsone for every occasion. While it doesn't follow the feather-weight trend, it makes up for its 117g with excellent battery life, extreme speeds, pinpoint accuracy, and boatloads of comfort. Unfortunately you do have to put up with that edgy Razer style, and Razer Synapse software which aren't to everyone's tastes. Plus there's a bit of a hefty price tag, especially if you want a dock charger for it.

Razer DeathAdder Pro V2A little more reserved than the Naga Pro, but just as nippy with a 20k sensor. The DeathAdder Pro V2 manages to marry its no-frills 6 button setup, and simple ergonomics with the flawless tracking Razer prides itself on. It's not the lightest, stepping in to the ring at 2.9oz, but it sure packs a punch. Don't punch it back, though, because the buttons are a little flimsy. Still, it's big enough for larger hands, unlike the G203, but does come with a much mightier price tag.

New Year's Eve is the unveiling for the winner of each category, so check then to find out which of these nominee bagged Best Gaming Mouse of 2020. And while you wait, feel free to browse our list of best gaming mice so far, to get an idea of which of these might take the crown as queen of the gaming rodents.

PC Gamer Hardware Awards 2020: The nominees

Logitech G203 LIGHTSYNC Wired...

Follow this link:
PC Gamer Hardware Awards: What is the best gaming mouse of 2020? - PC Gamer

Our deficiencies have always driven us, even among our distant ancestors, back in the last Ice Age. Having neither the speed and strength to hunt large prey, nor sharp teeth and claws to tear flesh, we improvised spears, flint knives, scrapers. Lacking a thick pelt, we took the fur of other animals. As the ice receded, we devised more means of survival and comfort stone dwellings, plows, wheeled vehicles. All these inventions allowed small oases of civilization to be wrested from a natural wilderness that seemed endless.

The idea of a natural world that dwarfed humanity and its creations long persisted, even into modern times only to run, lately, into concerns that climate was changing, and species were dying through our actions. How could that be, with us so small, and nature so large?

Now a new study in Nature by a team of scientists from the Weizmann Institute in Israel upends that perspective. Our constructions have now indeed, spookily, just this year attained the same mass as that of all living organisms on Earth. The human enterprise is growing fast, too, while nature keeps shrinking. The science-fiction scenario of an engineered planet is already here.

It seems a simple comparison, and yet is fiendishly difficult in practice. But this team has practice in dealing with such impossible challenges. A couple of years ago they worked out the first part of the equation, the mass of all life on Earth including that of all the fish in the sea, microbes in the soil, trees on land, birds in the air, and much more besides. Earths biosphere now weighs a little less than 1.2 trillion tonnes (of dry mass, not counting water), trees on land making up most of it. It was something like double that before humans started clearing forests and it is still diminishing.

Heavyweights. Andreas C. Fischer / shutterstock

Now, the team has delved into the statistics of industrial production and mass flows of all kinds, and reconstructed the growth, from the beginning of the 20th century, of what they call anthropogenic mass. This is all the things we build houses, cars, roads, airplanes, and myriad other things. The pattern they found was strikingly different. The stuff we build totted up to something like 35 billion tonnes in the year 1900, rising to be roughly double that by the middle of the 20th century. Then, that burst of prosperity after the second world war, termed the Great Acceleration, and our stuff increased several-fold to a little over half a trillion tonnes by the end of the century. In the past 20 years, it has doubled again, to be equivalent to, this year, the mass of all living things. In coming years, the living world will be far outweighed threefold by 2040, they say, if current trends hold.

Most of the weight is in concrete. Lijphoto / shutterstock

What is this stuff that we make? It is now of extraordinary, and exploding, diversity. The number of technospecies now far exceeds the estimated 9 million biological species on Earth, and counting them exceeds even the formidable calculating powers of this team. But our stuff can be broken down into ingredients, of which concrete and aggregates take a gargantuan share about four-fifths. Then come bricks, asphalt, and metals. On this scale, plastics are a minor ingredient and yet their mass is still greater, now, than that of all animals on Earth.

Its a revealing, meticulous study, and nicely clear about what the measurements include and exclude. They do not include, for instance, the rock and earth bulldozed and landscaped as foundations for our constructions, nor all of the waste rock generated in mining the ingredients: currently, nearly a third of a trillion tonnes of such material is shifted each year. Add in the Earth material that we use and abuse in other ways, in plowing farmland, and letting sediment pile up behind dams, and humans have cumulatively used and discarded some 30 trillion tonnes of Earths various resources.

Whichever way that you cut the cake, the teamsfinal point in its groundbreaking study hits home, and chimes with that of another recent analysis we both worked on. Since the mid-20th century, the Earth has been set on a new, human-driven trajectory one that is leaving the stable conditions of the Holocene Epoch, and is entering the uncertain, and rapidly changing, new world of the Anthropocene. The weight of evidence, here, seems unarguable.

This article byJan Zalasiewicz, Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Leicester and Mark Williams, Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Leicester is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The rest is here:
Tipping point? Humanitys stuff now weighs more than all living things - The Next Web

Slash and burn deforestation is one of the principal threats to the regional environment. | AP

A third of the Amazonian rainforest is threatened by extreme pressure. For the last few years, the deterioration has intensified. The following is a special interview with Julia Jacomini from a publication of the Amazonian Network of Socioenvironmental Information (RAISG), which puts the latest data about the rainforest into perspective, in the first additions to the original document published in 2012.

Atlas: The Amazon Under Pressure was released on Dec. 8 by the Socioenvironmental Institute (ISA). The document, the first version of which was published in 2012, includes a series of indicators that together represent an X-ray of the regions current situation. The time period of the study, based on the majority of the statistics, is between 2000 and 2018 and includes different degrees of data classified as pressures and threats and symptoms and consequences.

As geographer and researcher Julia Jacomini explains, in an on-line telephone interview, in the 2020 Atlas, we classify as pressures and threats all infrastructural works, including roads and hydroelectric plants, extractive activities like drilling for oil and mining (including prospecting for precious metals and stones) and mixed crop and animal farming. We also have data we call symptoms and consequences, like deforestation, slash and burn clearing, and variations in carbon density, which has been incorporated recently in the Amazon Web of Georeferenced Socioenvironmental Information (RAISG) analyses.

In recent decades we have witnessed very rapid growth of pressures and threats and of the symptoms and consequences of human activities in the entire Amazon region. The first analysis in 2012 revealed what was already a complicated picture, now all these matters have become more acute. Unfortunately, not a single threat has ceased to exist. Now all threats are increasing.

The document points out that, beginning in 2012, there was a resumption of the rise in deforestation that intensified between 2015 and 2018, when the size of the affected area tripled. The final results show that, between 2000 and 2018, more than 500,000 square kilometers of Amazon forest were cleared, a territory the size of Spain. Among the main pressures leading to this deforestation is mixed crop and animal farming, responsible for 84% of the total, according to Julia. All these threats accumulate, leading to the current situation: 30% of the Amazon is under high or very high pressure. This means that apart from the evaluation of each theme separately, we attempt to make an integrated analysis of all the data.

If, on one hand, the scene is far from hopeful, it has demonstrated that what has happened to the protected natural areas and Indigenous territories is an excellent indicator of what we have to do to protect the forest. Almost 90% of the deforestation, in these last 18 years, occurred outside of Indigenous territories and nature preserves, Ms. Jacomini emphasizes.

Julia Jacomini is a researcher with ISA and RAISG. She has a degree in Geography from UNESP-Rio Claro, specialized in Applied Geoprocessing at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, and has a Masters in Latin American Integration from the University of So Paulo. [Brazilian custom is to refer to individuals by their first name, such as Lula and Dilma.]

Julia Jacominis interview with IHU (Humanitas Institute, Unisinos)

IHUWhich indicators are studied and presented in Atlas: The Amazon Under Pressure?

Julia JacominiRAISG is a non-governmental network of organizations from six Amazonian countries. One of the great contributions of the publication of Atlas: The Amazon Under Pressure (2020) is to present a regional analysis that extends beyond the politico-administrative borders of those countries. Usually, we content ourselves with studies on a national scale, whereas a study like this one by RAISG provides an integrated, Amazonian standpoint.

RAISG began in 2007, ready to provide this kind of regional analysis, and published the first Atlas: The Amazon Under Pressure in 2012. Subsequently, some maps were published, but more thorough analyses were only published in 2020, in the document we are discussing. In this context, it was important to make comparisons, but from then until now some new themes were incorporated in the analyses and new methodologies were developed. For that reason, any comparisons have to be made carefully.

When it comes to pressures and threats, we consider works of infrastructure, like highways and hydroelectric plants, extractive activities such as drilling for petroleum and all sorts of mining (including riverine prospecting) and, finally, mixed crop and animal farming, all incorporated in the 2020 Atlas.

Aside from the pressures and threats, we have data we call symptoms and consequences, namely, deforestation, burn-offs, and variations of carbon density, the latter incorporated for the first time in the RAISG analyses.

IHUWhat are the main weaknesses of the current Amazon region?

Julia JacominiI want to start with the data about deforestation since it is information produced by RAISG. Each of the six countries produced its official statistics, but if we were to put them together, the periodicity and the methodologies are not contradictory. RAISG developed its own methodology, beginning with an analysis of the use of the soil, so the data may be similar to that divulged by INPE (National Institute of Spatial Studies), for instance.

The base year is 2000 and we continued analyzing the data until 2018. During this period, the largest proportion of the historical series is in 2003. Beginning that year, we have a decline in deforestation, whose smallest numbers are in 2010. As of 2012, the numbers begin to increase again, but the most rapid acceleration is between 2015 and 2018 when deforestation triples. The final results demonstrate that between 2000 and 2018 more than half a million square kilometers of rainforest were demolished, an area the size of Spain! Among the main pressures leading to this deforestation are land cleared for crops and pasture, responsible for 84% of the total.

Against the background of this desolation, there is something noteworthy: the effect of the Indigenous territories and protected natural areas. Approximately 90% of the deforestation, in the course of these 18 years, took place outside these two areas. This shows that such territories are important barriers and also highlights the importance of the activities of the Indigenous peoples and traditional communities in maintaining the surviving forest. At the same time, although they are important barriers, these territories are being ceaselessly threatened.

This tendency to destroy the Amazon forest is being pushed, in great part, by Brazil. This is because the country has more than 60% of the Amazon territory, but also because Brazilian deforestation is moving ahead faster than any other country, which raises the average of the region as a whole.

IHUWhat are the indicators that the Amazon forest is at risk and deteriorating?

Julia JacominiThere are other indicators than deforestation. In the case of cutting and burning the vegetation, we did an analysis from 2001 to 2019, showing that 13% of the Amazon had been affected by fire. This equals an area the size of Bolivia, more than a million square kilometers. Although we know that just one fire will not cause deforestation, we observe that there are various repetitions of fires, year after year, and these consecutive burns can lead to a great deterioration of the ecosystems and provoke deforestation.

The country in the Amazon region most devastated by slash and burn agriculture happens to be Bolivia, with 27% of its Amazon territory stricken by fire. Next comes Brazil. This helps us understand that, depending on the theme, some threats are more serious in some countries than others.

Mining

Mining is another very serious issue in the Amazon which affects 17% of the regions territory and is present in all the countries touched by the rainforest. However, 90% of all such activity is concentrated in four nations: Brazil, Venezuela, Guyana, and Peru. Brazil is the country that has the greatest interest in extractive areas with 75% of all such areas located within its borders. This does not imply that all these areas are already being exploited.

Prospecting is another subject presented in this study. First, it is necessary to stress that this kind of data collection is difficult, mostly because it is an illegal activity and thus has no official information source. Data collection via satellite is made difficult by the number of clouds in the Amazon and also because prospecting is a very itinerant activity, with sites that are activated and deactivated surreptitiously, according to the advance of inspectors. There is still a lot of gold mining that takes place in riverbeds with light wooden rafts that are used to move explorers and equipment from place to place. Therefore, the data we present in the report are classified as the best information available, which falls far short of substantive.

In the 2020 Atlas, we collected evidence of more than 4,400 activities of illegal prospecting in the Amazon region, of which more than 87% are actively exploiting available resources at their own risk and to the detriment of the regions natural resources. More than half of these prospecting locales are in Brazil. The runner-up is Venezuela, which accounts for 32% of this total although only 6% of the Amazon territory falls within that countrys borders. Both strip mining and panning for gold and gemstones represent great threats in both Brazil and Venezuela.

IHUWhat is going on with oil drilling in the Amazon?

Julia JacominiIn Brazil, there is little oil drilling, but in Ecuador, the situation is very grave. From a general point of view, drilling lots occupy 9.4% of the Amazon area, and most of this is in the so-called Andean Amazon in territories of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Ecuador is the country with the greatest percentage occupied in this kind of activity, 51.5% of it in Amazonian territory.

When it comes to petroleum, there are significant impacts caused by spills. Much of the activity characteristic of this pursuit involves the construction of infrastructure. It is always important to think of these pressures and threats with an eye to associated requirements, because all these explorations, including mining and generating hydroelectric power, are associated with the building of roads, which are the great vectors of deforestation. A region that is impacted by petroleum and mining will also have to deal with subsidiary needs for roadways, railways, and powerlines and, especially in the Amazon, with construction of hydroelectric facilities.

All these threats mount up, leading to the 30% of the Amazon that is currently subjected to high or very high pressure. This means that, as well as evaluating each theme separately, we attempt to make an integrated analysis of the data. The same region may be subject to more than a single pressure or threat. It follows then, that a completed roadway has more impact than one that is still in the planning stage. Thus, our analyses must also take into account the weight of each theme, depending on the stage of the work and activities, as well as how such activities are superimposed.

Returning to the problem of Ecuador, this is the most dramatic case of the pressures and threats in relation to petroleum production. According to RAISG analyses, 88% of the Ecuadorian Amazon is being affected by some kind of pressure, from the lowest to the highest, all of them in active process.

IHUWhat is the importance of thinking about these themes as connected?

Julia JacominiThe Amazon region is very large, and the realities of each nation involved in the study are quite different, so it is fundamental that we think in a connective way. Even when we consider the data within a single country, we see that there are regions more affected by one or another activity. However, when we analyze the data in an integrated way, we get a more complex and realistic image of the situation, that helps us to understand the process of accelerated deterioration. But at this moment we have highlighted the problems of mining, deforestation, and the burn-offs as the great threats that are rapidly encroaching on the Indigenous territories and the environmentally protected natural areas that, while they are important barriers of contention, are becoming increasingly fragile.

In Brazils case, the illegal prospecting on Yanomami Indigenous Land, apart from being a big threat in relation to environmental impact, has brought an additional risk to bear, as the prospectors are contaminating the local populations with the COVID-19 virus. We had high contamination rates as a result of the invasion of prospectors transmitting the virus.

IHUBy the way, how has the global COVID-19 pandemic impacted the Amazon region?

Julia JacominiWe have been working on consolidating this data on a regional scale. The difficulty we have had to face is how this data is being employed by the countries in question when it comes to differentiating the Amazonian populations. Also, sometimes the countries data do not include specific information about the Indigenous populations.

The effect of the pandemic has been very problematic in the Amazon region, particularly because of the difficulty of isolating when these territories are very fragile and being subjected to invasion, as is the case with the Yanomami. In Brazil, there have been cases where frontline health workers themselves are vectors of the virus within the villages, especially because of the systemic weakness of the environmental and government agencies charged with the protection of the Indigenous peoples, with ever fewer teams and resources, with the result that supporting the traditional populations has become increasingly difficult. Venezuela has also carried out a COVID-19 survey in its Indigenous territories but as yet we have nothing consolidated on a regional scale.

IHUPutting things into perspective, relative to the first Atlas produced in 2012, what has changed from then to now?

Julia JacominiFirst, the methodology, and that has had an impact on the analyses. That is why, in the current edition, our area of analysis has widened. Before, we were considering only the Amazon basin and its political and administrative aspects. Whereas now we are contemplating the headwaters of the Amazon tributaries. This means that we are analyzing the Andean region, as well as the forested Bolivian Chaco and the Cerrado, an area of dense, herbaceous vegetation and short twisted trees in the high plains of central Brazil.

Unfortunately, none of the threats have disappeared. Rather, they are in an expansive mode. As for the comparisons, it is important to emphasize that, since the last edition, published in 2012, the RAISG analyses have improved in terms of methodology, information access, and cartographic precision. As a result, it is possible to find some disparities in relation to the 2020 data. That is why the temporal comparative analyses are merely referential.

The following data, in quotes, are citations extracted from the 2020 Atlas: The Amazon Under Pressure.

Roads

The density of roads in the Amazon, calculated from the extension of roads and territory, grew by 51% between 2012 and 2020, growing from 12.4 square kilometers to 18.7 square kilometers. The countries that led this expansion were Colombia, Peru, and Venezuela.

Hydroelectricity

In 2012, 171 hydroelectric plants were registered as functional or under construction within the RAISG limits for the Amazon, a number that does not include the headwaters located in the Andes and in the southeastern region of the Brazilian Amazon. In 2020, this number had grown by 4%, reaching a total of 177 hydroelectric facilities. Their proliferation rate was 47%, from 51 in 2012 to 75 in 2020.

Petroleum

Between 2012 and 2020, the Amazon region registered 13% growth in the number of drilling sites (from 327 to 369 in 2020). However, in the same period, the use of land by petroleum extractors diminished by 350,184 square kilometers. This does not necessarily mean that the petroleum industry is shrinking in the Amazon region as the reduction is related to lots listed as potential extraction sites which, when they have no lessees, are removed from the official database.

Mining

In the period from 2012 to 2020, the Amazon region registered an increase in the number of mining zones (52,974 in 2012 to 58,432 in 2020). However, there was a reduction in the territorial lands occupied (from 1,628,850 square kilometers in 2012 to 1,322,600 square kilometers in 2020), which does not necessarily mean that there was a diminution of such activities in the Amazon region.

Deforestation and burn-offs

The analytic methodology was improved from 2012 to 2020, invalidating direct comparisons. However, the following information was highlighted and discussed in the preceding interview.

Deforestation

Although 2003 continues to be the worst year for Amazon forests since 2000 with a total loss of 49,240 square kilometers, deforestation has accelerated since 2012, after reaching the minimum 2010 (17,674 square kilometers). The annual area lost tripled between 2015 and 2018. In 2018 alone, 31,269 square kilometers were deforested in the entire Amazon region, the largest yearly deforestation since the 2003 peak.

Between 2000 and 2008, the cumulative loss of forest native to the Amazon region was 513,016 square kilometers, a loss equivalent in size to the total landmass of Spain, as we have said before, or 8% of the total area of 6.3 million square kilometers of rainforest that existed in 2000.

The regional reality can be different from the national in each of the Amazon countries. The tendencies described above as Amazonian are strongly determined by the Brazilian situation which contains 61.8% of the Amazon territory. Outside Brazil, Bolivia and Colombia are the countries that have most closely imitated these tendencies in recent years, with a total deforestation of 425,051 sq. km. (Brazil), 31,878 sq. km. (Bolivia), and 20,515 sq. km. (Colombia). The other RAISG member countries have not exhibited clear tendencies of growth or diminution.

Slash and burn damage

Around 13% of the surface of the Amazon region burned, at least once, since 2001; in all, 1.1 million square kilometers were affected. This area is comparable in size to the whole of Bolivia, which, coincidentally, is the country most affected by the phenomenon, with up to 27% of its Amazonian territory subjected to burns. On average, each year since 2001, 169,000 sq. km. of land were burned in the Amazon region, 26,000 of them inside the Protected nature areas and 35,000 inside Indigenous lands.

IHUIn a global warming scenario, what could be the consequences for life on the planet if the deterioration of the Amazon region is not immediately braked?

Julia Jacomini The consequences are already happening, for example, in the case of the annual burn-offs. The Amazon region has some burns that are considered natural in the dry season, when part of the vegetation burns, nourishing and strengthening the forest soil. We have observed that the dry seasons have become longer and longer. So climate changes are not something in the future, they are here now. When the dry seasons last longer, so do the fires, growing increasingly severe and difficult to control, as we have seen the last two years, both in Brazil and in Bolivia. Even though it is a distinct ecology, we have the example of what occurred in the Pantanal this year, because these drought conditions make these ecologies increasingly vulnerable.

In the long term, we have an intensification of all these processes and the impacts that the loss of biodiversity brings to the Indigenous populations and traditional communities, whose lives are very integrated with nature, affecting their ability to adequately manage their territories. What is more, the environmental devastation impacts the way they organize culturally and the way they live.

IHUIs there anything else you want to say?

Julia JacominiIt is fundamental to underline the importance of strengthening this vision of the Amazon region in an integral way. That is why it is important that we strengthen the links among Amazonian countries to combat the accelerated advance of the factors we have been discussing. It is necessary to consider the Amazon region in its entirety rather than on a country by country scale.

Translated for Peoples World by Peter Lownds, Dec. 18, 2020.

Visit link:
New Amazonian Atlas reveals that a third of the rainforest is threatened - People's World

One of the tools used to clear-cut forests is called a feller buncher. Imagine an excavator or small crane, but with large, metal claws at the end. The claws grip trees by their trunk, slice through their base, and ease everything but a stump to the ground before moving onto their next target.

Waabigonikwe Raven watched this process repeat through five miles of forest in northern Minnesota earlier this month. For her, it was a disturbing sight. It feels like youre in some kind of apocalypse movie, she says. Its really hard to watch.

But for Raven, as well as many other environmentalists and Native people, the reason for the clear-cutting was even worse than the actitself. The forest was razed to create a path for the new Line 3 oil pipeline, a nearly $3 billion Enbridge Energy project to replace the previousLine 3 pipeline, which will carrytar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, to U.S. refineries. After a years-long regulatory process,Enbridge received its final permits in late November and began construction early this month.

Critics have long opposed the pipeline because of its contribution to climate changeand the more immediate environmental risks it poses. In Minnesota, more than 200 bodies of water and nearly 80 miles of wetlands sit along the 330-mile route where Line 3 will carry a daily load of 760,000 barrels of crude oil.If spilled, the sinking, toxic sludge could be a disaster for wildlife and humans alike. Thewetlands the pipeline crosses are thriving habitats for native and migratory birds, as well as a diverse array of other species. For localNative communities, the pipeline threatensancestral lands and a critical modern lifeway:wild rice beds. Italso violates treaty rights, they argue.

Environmentalists dont need to look back far to find an example of the disasters that can happen with such projects. In 2010, an Enbridge pipeline in Michigan spilled more than 1.2 million gallons of tar sands crude oil into the Kalamazoo River. Nearly 4,000 birds and other wildlifeincluding Canada Geese, Great Blue Herons, and hundreds of turtlesrequired care from issues relating to the oil. More than 150 animals died, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Line 3 opponents haven't forgotten that day, and say the lesson is clear: Pipelines spill, and we need to stop using them, not build more. Despite Enbridge having the legal go-ahead to start building, people like Raven say theyll remain on the frontlines to try to stop construction and keep watch on the land. Thats why she and dozens of others have braved the cold to witness Enbridges work, which has included clearing the forest, making road approaches, and stringing pipe. Some activists are also putting their bodies into the fight, standing in the way of Enbridges machinery and, in at least one case, tying themselves to the very trees workers were trying to fell.

Even though we're focusing right now on the construction in Minnesota, Raven says, the line will be put underneath very crucial wetlands, including the Mississippi River that flows all the way south and will affect people that live down there too.

The environmental harm from the project and others like it begins even farther to the north, where tar sands oil companies in Alberta are tearing down forests en masse and creating poisonous tailings ponds so big theyre visible from space. These tailings pondspools of wastewater and other tar sands mining byproductsare a death trap for birds that land in them. They can leak into nearby rivers and groundwater sources, too.

The crude oil carries its potential danger south as its piped into the United States. Tar sands crude is thicker than conventional oil and must be diluted with chemicals so it can travel through pipelines. Safety advocates have argued that tar sands crude is more corrosive than conventional oil, thus making it more likely to spill. Studies have disputed that claim. But when tar sands oil does spill, it sinks and is tougher to clean up than conventional oil.

After the Kalamazoo River spill, a woman who lived nearby, Deb Miller, told CBC News that Enbridge did the bare minimum required by law when cleaning up the accident and addressing its fallout. She said many of her neighbors moved from the area to escape the spills aftermath.

Enbridge does what they have to do and only that,she told the Canadian broadcaster. When it affects people, residentsthere's a high road and there's a low road. And unfortunately, I think [Enbridge] found that low road.

Earlier this month, 22-year-old Liam DelMain climbed up a tree that stood in the way of Enbridges feller bunchers. Their plan was to stay there for as long as it took to stop the machines.

Line 3 is a threat to the waters I hold dear, and that we all rely on, said DelMain, who uses they/their pronouns, in a statement released at the time by Giniw Collective, an organization fighting the pipeline thats led by Indigenous women. I am here, putting my body on the line, because I have been left with no other choices.

The tree DelMain called home for 10 days before their arrest is part of a young forest. Like much of the country, generations of logging decimated Minnesotas forests. Today, the forests are younger andmore fragilethan the ones before industry laid claim. These trees havent even had a chance to live a full life, says Raven, whos a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Band of Ojibwe. They're not just treesthey're also homes for birds and squirrels and other species.

Clear-cutting tracts of forest to make way for the pipeline could force birds and other animals elsewhere, but thats not the only habitat at risk with Line 3.Where the pipeline doesnt cut through forest, it will often cross water. Throw a stick [in Minnesota] and youre gonna hit a lake, says Tara Houska, a long-time environmental activist and founder of Giniw Collective.

Among the many bodies of water the new Line 3 route crosses are beds for wild ricea sacred and critical grain for Native people in the region. Protecting wild rice waters has been a major sticking point for pipeline opponents, who argue that simply installing the pipe damages wild rice habitat and that any spill would be catastrophic.

That's the economy of the people that have been here since before Minnesota [was a state], Houska says. Thats on top of an ongoing history of violations of treaty rights.

In the middle of the 19th century, the Ojibwe people in present-day Minnesota saw their fur trade fall apart, taking a major part of the tribes livelihood with it. The Ojibwe became increasingly reliant on payments from the government, which led to an 1855 treaty between the U.S. government and the tribe. The Ojibwe people ceded much of their remaining land in the territory in exchange for the creation of Leech Lake and Mille Lacs reservations, as well as the promise of continuing payments from the federal government.

While there have been numerous disputes over the treatys exact meaning, tribal members argue that they still have rights to hunt, fish, and gatherincluding harvesting wild riceon the ceded lands. Theres no specific clause in the 1855 treaty granting those rights, but tribal legal experts say the context in which the document was signed makes clear that the drafters intended that Native people have hunting and fishing rights.

Line 3s new route skirts around the reservations, but opponents say that running the pipeline through disputed territory imperils Native peoples ability to use the lands their ancestors had for generations.

However, Gov. Tim Walz, to the ire of environmental and tribal groups, has allowed the pipeline to move forward despite protest from people as high-ranking as his second in command: Minnesotas lieutenant governor, Peggy Flanagan, whos a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and has long opposed Line 3.

To me, this is a huge blow to any semblance of attempting to demonstrate progressive leadership, Houska says.

Four days before Minnesotans elected Tim Walz as governor in 2018, the Democrat called climate change an existential threat.

If Washington won't lead on it, Minnesota will. Minnesota's future is in the green economy, he tweeted.

In the two years since, Walz has been under pressure from all sidesclimate and conservation activists, Native organizations, and labor unions that want the pipeline built. He saw nearly all members of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agencys environmental justice advisory group resign over the Line 3 approval, calling it a war on Black and brown people. His own government determined that the social cost of carbon from Line 3 would reach over $280 billion by 2050.

While his administration has tried to fight Line 3 at certain points over the past years, Walz ultimately let the regulatory process play out. That wasnt enough for pipeline opponents, who say the governor hasnt kept his promises.

Walz has said that he would do things in favor of Indigenous people and he's clearly not following up with that, Raven says. He must not be watching the same thing that we're watching, like seeing trees being clear cut and their roots being dug up and destroyed.

Line 3 opponents look with envy across the Great Lakes to Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in November forced Enbridge to close its Line 5 oil pipeline over environmental and climate concerns. That was extremely powerful to see somebody say no, for once, Houska says. But that just didn't happen in Minnesota.

While Minnesotas approval of Line 3 is a loss for advocates, Houska says she was reminded about how important direct action and demonstration are after seeing the publicshift following the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police last summer.You got millions of people marching in the streets, and all of a sudden the conversation on police and police brutality has tipped forward ahead to abolishing the police outright, she says.

For the climate, environmental, and Indigeneous justice movements, Houska says it will be critical to continue with both policy efforts and front-line activismthe kind that putspeople in the way of clear-cutting machinery in the middle of the Minnesota northwoods. Activists are not backing down:Just last week, 22 people protesting Line 3 were arrestedfor trespassing and unlawful assembly near the town of Palisade.We have to be willing to be uncomfortable to get something done,Houska says.

Link:
As Construction Begins on a Minnesota Oil Line, Native Activists Keep Fighting - National Audubon Society