CDCA e A Sud alla COP30 a Belém

Posted by salvatore on 10:23 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Dinesh Sharma on The Wire, March 28th, 2018] New Delhi: Here is more evidence why we need to worry about climate change. A new study says extreme rainfall events are on the rise in India and attributes the trend to human-made emissions, what scientists call anthropogenic warming. Not just this, the trend is likely to become more prominent by mid-century, particularly in southern and central India. While previous studies have shown a rising trend of extreme rainfall events, this study has sought to link it with anthropogenic emissions. Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IITGn), used historical datasets about daily rainfall and temperature from about 7000 meteorological stations of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), converted it into grids of one-degree spatial resolution. An analysis of observed changes in yearly maximum rainfall for the period of 1979-2015, showed that rainfall has increased over the majority of India except in the Gangetic plain, northeastern India, and Jammu and Kashmir. The decline in the Gangetic plain region can be attributed to a significant reduction in the monsoon season rainfall driven by increased atmospheric aerosols and warming of the Indian Ocean. The increase in precipitation is more prominent in southern India than in north India from 1979 to 2015. Along with extreme precipitation, the study has found that dew point temperature – temperature at which air gets saturated with moisture – has also increased during the period 1979-2015. With warming, water holding capacity of the atmosphere increases by 6% per degree rise in temperature, according to the Clausius-Clapeyron equation, the study says. The scaling relationship between extreme precipitation and dew point temperature shows over 7% increase per unit rise in dew point temperature for the majority of south India. Dew point temperature is a measure of atmospheric humidity, which affects extreme precipitation in the tropical regions. It is considered a better predictor of rainfall extremes than surface air temperature. In addition to past weather data, researchers used simulations from two sets of models – Coupled Model Inter comparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) and Climate of 20th Century Plus (C20C+) – to determine the impact of anthropogenic emissions on extreme rainfall events, under both ‘historic’ and ‘historic natural’ scenarios. This showed that anthropogenic warming leads to more extreme rainfall events in India. While ‘historic natural’ scenario includes only natural factors, ‘historic’ included both natural and anthropogenic factors. “We find that in south and central India, precipitation extremes are more sensitive to warming than north India, which means that south and central India may witness more rainfall extremes in response to climate warming,” explained Vimal Mishra, head of the Water and Climate Lab at IITGn who led the study, while speaking to India Science Wire. “Rainfall extremes in the ‘historic’ scenario are higher by 10-30% than the ‘historic natural’ scenario, indicating the robust impact of anthropogenic warming on the intensity of extreme rainfall,” he said. The frequency of precipitation extremes is projected to rise more prominently in southern and central India in the mid and end of the 21st century under the greenhouse gases concentration trajectory, RCP 8.5 (representative concentration pathway 8.5), which represents the highest emission scenario. “Since there is a significant impact of climate warming on extreme rainfall over India, we can expect detrimental impacts of these on infrastructure as...

Posted by salvatore on 10:31 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted on BankWatch, March 16th, 2018] Multilateral development banks have supported no fewer than 82 hydropower projects across southeast Europe, including in protected areas, according to a study by CEE Bankwatch Network released today. The study finds that the number of hydropower projects in the region that enjoy financial support from multilateral development banks and commercial banks, is even greater than previously known. Since 2005, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the World Bank Group have extended loans and guarantees totalling EUR 727 million to no fewer than 82 hydropower plants. This includes 37 projects in protected areas like national parks and Natura 2000 sites, or internationally recognised areas of high biodiversity value such as Important Bird Areas. The EBRD is the biggest known hydropower financier in the Balkans. The bank has supported a total of 61 plants with EUR 126 million, 29 of them inside protected areas, or internationally recognised biodiversity hotspots. Although the bank has been more cautious in recent years, it is still considering financing for the Babino Selo plant on the Vrbas and Neretvica cascade in Bosnia-Herzegovina, both of which are planned in biodiversity-rich areas. The study, which updates a report released in 2015, also finds that commercial bank money is playing a key role in enabling controversial hydropower projects. Commercial bank financing is harder to track due to the lack of transparency in the sector, but the study authors have identified 158 plants with such financing, of which 55 are in protected areas or internationally recognised areas of high biodiversity value. The most prolific commercial banks – as far as identified – are Austria’s Erste & Steiermaerkische Bank and Italy’s Unicredit Group, for which 28 loans each were found. Among others, Erste has financed a cluster of seven plants on the borders of Serbia’s Kopaonik National Park. These, together with another eight plants in the area financed from other sources, have left large stretches of the local streams with little or no water for much of the year. “The financiers need to take their share of the responsibility and ensure compliance with local and international standards. Reckless investment decisions can ruin hundreds of pristine Balkan rivers for good,” says Igor Vejnovi?, Bankwatch’s Hydropower Policy Officer and co-author of the study. “The EBRD and EIB will be updating their environmental and social policies this year. This is a crucial opportunity to tighten their rules and exclude financing for hydropower in sensitive areas,” adds Pippa Gallop, Bankwatch’s Research Co-ordinator and co-author of the study. “The Balkan rivers are of outstanding value within Europe. The dam tsunami is threatening biodiversity and local communities. It is unacceptable that also commercial banks like the Austrian Erste Bank and Italian Unicredit are supporting even the worst projects. They have decent rules on financing hydropower in theory, but aren’t implementing them properly in practice. Many of the plants they have financed would never be allowed in their home countries. They have to stop the financing of hydropower in the Balkans,” says Ulrich Eichelmann of Riverwatch. “The good news is that more than a thousand planned hydropower plants have no financing yet, so there is still much that can be done to save the Balkans’ unique rivers,” says Gabriel Schwaderer, Executive Director of the EuroNatur Foundation....

No alle trivelle nel mare Adriatico

Posted by salvatore on 10:00 am in Notizie | Commenti disabilitati su No alle trivelle nel mare Adriatico

Riceviamo e diffondiamo Trivelle nel mare Adriatico, domenica 8 aprile otto flash-mob in 5 regioni adriatiche Otto eventi in cinque regioni adriatiche domenica 8 aprile per dire no ai progetti di prospezione petrolifera con l’air gun approvati dal Ministero dell’Ambiente e in via di autorizzazione definitiva da parte del Ministero dello Sviluppo Economico. Gli attivisti di diverse associazioni, dopo l’esito sfavorevole dei ricorsi al Consiglio di Stato, non demordono e rilanciano la lotta con un evento in contemporanea in Emilia Romagna, Marche, Abruzzo, Molise e Puglia con appuntamenti a: Rimini, Ancona, S.Benedetto del Tronto, Giulianova, Pescara, Vasto, Termoli e Bari. Alcune di queste iniziative erano già in programma nell’ambito della carovana “No Hub del Gas” in vista della manifestazione di Sulmona del prossimo 21 aprile contro il grande gasdotto Rete Adriatica che, con il TAP, i pozzi e gli stoccaggi che vogliono realizzare, dovrebbe trasformare l’Italia in un “Hub del Gas”. L’air gun è una tecnica di ricerca di idrocarburi estremamente dannosa per la fauna marina, come dimostrato da decine di studi, a partire dagli effetti negativi su cetacei, pesci e tartarughe. Uno dei più recenti ha confermato che durante le violente esplosioni di aria compressa si aprono “buchi” di zooplancton, la base della catena alimentare del mare, a destra e a sinistra per 1,2 km! Si consideri che le barche che realizzano queste prospezioni compiono decine e decine di passaggi su linee parallele. Questo fa capire il potenziale impatto sulla biodiversità e sulla pesca in Adriatico, a parte l’assurdo di indirizzare questo mare per i prossimi decenni a future perforazioni alla luce dei risultati che potrebbero avere queste prospezioni, con buona pace degli accordi di Parigi sul clima! Lo stesso Ministero dell’Ambiente nei decreti favorevoli di Valutazione di Impatto Ambientale ha ammesso il potenziale impatto dei progetti, imponendo un limite di ben 100 km tra due barche qualora impegnate ad usare l’air gun in contemporanea. Visto che per gli impatti il limite deve essere considerato in ogni direzione perché gli animali non conoscono i confini tra stati, arriviamo al paradosso che il Governo italiano ha imposto limiti che, se non si vogliono avere danni ai cetacei e all’altra fauna marina, dovrebbero essere rispettati in altri paesi! Tra l’altro, in termini di popolazioni animali, almeno per i cetacei e le tartarughe, l’Adriatico dovrebbe essere considerato unitariamente. Complessivamente in questi anni il ministero dell’Ambiente ha emanato 9 provvedimenti di V.I.A. favorevoli all’uso dell’air gun in Adriatico su ben 11 zone: su alcune aree si potrà passare con l’air gun due volte, nel mare davanti alle Marche, o addirittura tre, davanti alla Puglia. Quello per Spectrum Geo, come detto, è relativo a due istanze di prospezione su circa 3 milioni di ettari. La seconda area, per grandezza è quella relativa a un progetto della società Petroleum Geo-Services Asia Pacific Pte.Ltd. che riguarda 1,4 milioni di ettari di mare tra Gargano e Canale di Otranto. E’ interessante notare che di queste 9 ben 5 si stanno fermando in conferenza dei servizi con preavviso di rigetto nonostante la V.I.A. favorevole. Segno che alcune obiezioni possono essere ancora avanzate. A questi progetti in questi giorni si è aggiunta l’ennesima richiesta di Valutazione di Impatto Ambientale da parte dei petrolieri, depositata dalla Edison per il Permesso di ricerca idrocarburi “d 84 F.R-.EL” per svolgere prospezioni...

Manifestazione NO SNAM

Posted by salvatore on 10:51 am in Notizie | Commenti disabilitati su Manifestazione NO SNAM

Riceviamo e diffondiamo.   APPELLO PER LE ADESIONI ALLA MANIFESTAZIONE “NO SNAM – No Gasdotto, No centrale, Stop Hub del gas” DEL 21 APRILE A SULMONA (AQ).     AI MOVIMENTI SOCIALI, ASSOCIAZIONI, COMITATI, SINDACATI, OPERATORI ECONOMICI, ORGANIZZAZIONI DI CATEGORIA, MOVIMENTI POLITICI ABRUZZESI ED ITALIANI EMAIL PER LE ADESIONI: sulmona21aprile@gmail.com   Nella seduta del 22 dicembre 2017, un Governo uscente ha approvato la costruzione della Centrale di compressione di Sulmona, anello fondamentale del progetto del mega gasdotto Snam Rete Adriatica, contro il parere di tutte le istituzioni locali, e contro una risoluzione della Commissione Ambiente della Camera. Il 7 marzo, nonostante le elezioni abbiano poi sancito la sconfitta politica di chi ha governato negli ultimi anni, è stato firmato il Decreto autorizzativo finale contro il quale ora ci sono diversi ricorsi al TAR già depositati. Invece il procedimento amministrativo per l’approvazione del gasdotto nel tratto Sulmona – Foligno stesso è ancora in corso anche se con ogni probabilità i fautori dell’opera a livello governativo proveranno ad imporne comunque la chiusura quanto prima. Il gasdotto Snam Rete Adriatica Brindisi-Minerbio, del diametro di ben 120 cm, è un’infrastruttura di quasi 700 km di lunghezza che a sua volta si collega al TAP proveniente dall’Azerbaigian. Dovrebbe attraversare tutte le aree a più elevato rischio terremoti dell’Italia centrale, compresi ben tre crateri sismici tra Umbria, Marche ed Abruzzo, e lo stesso territorio di L’Aquila per oltre 20 km, nonché le zone di alto pregio naturalistico dell’Appennino. Come detto, prevede a Sulmona, zona in categoria 1 di rischio sismico, la costruzione della centrale di compressione e spinta oggi autorizzata. Queste opere servono esclusivamente al progetto di trasformare il nostro paese in un HUB DEL GAS, per l’import/export di metano, riservato al profitto del proponente. Sono scelte imposte dall’alto, non giustificate da finalità di pubblica utilità, perché il gas che attraverserà il metanodotto non serve al fabbisogno del Paese ma alle operazioni commerciali private della Snam sul mercato internazionale degli idrocarburi. Con una vera e propria beffa, si scaricano i costi di un’infrastruttura inutile e dannosa sulle bollette di tutti gli italiani e tutti i rischi sulle comunità locali, che dovranno pagarne i pesanti effetti sul turismo, sull’agricoltura, su un’economia locale già messa gravemente in ginocchio. La decisione di trasformare l’Italia in un HUB DEL GAS è stata presa senza alcun dibattito pubblico e senza Valutazione Ambientale Strategica, in un paese che è tra i più vulnerabili in Europa per il rischio sismico e quello idrogeologico e che al tempo stesso ha una alta densità di popolazione, la più grande concentrazione al mondo di beni artistici ed enormi valori ambientali, paesaggistici e naturalistici. Un Italia che dovrebbe puntare le proprie risorse sul risanamento ambientale, sulle bonifiche e sulla valorizzazione della propria bellezza senza farla, invece, sfiorire. Infine vogliamo richiamare l’assoluta urgenza di abbandonare le fonti fossili che stanno mettendo a rischio il clima del Pianeta per puntare su efficienza, tecnologie e rinnovabili. La realizzazione di queste opere va esattamente nella direzione opposta costituendo un vincolo per decenni alle politiche sane di salvaguardia della vivibilità dell’ambiente in cui viviamo. Chiamiamo allora la Vostra adesione alla Manifestazione che si terrà sabato 21 aprile alle ore 15 a Sulmona per manifestare assieme contro questa Grande opera dannosa.   EMAIL PER LE ADESIONI: sulmona21aprile@gmail.com Coordinamento NO HUB DEL GAS – ABRUZZO...

Posted by salvatore on 9:26 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Tom Tuite on The Irish Times, March 26th, 2018] Court hears ‘glitch’ caused breach during Dublin waste plant’s first week in operation. The operator of the Poolbeg incinerator has been fined €1,000 and ordered to pay €14,000 in costs after a “glitch” led to breaking its environmental protection licence during its first week. The power plant at Pigeon House Road, Poolbeg, Dublin 4, which began operations in June last year, aims to converts waste that cannot be reused or recycled into clean energy to produce 60 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 80,000 homes. It is run by the Dublin Waste to Energy project – a public private partnership between Dublin City Council and recycling and energy company Covanta. Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd faced six counts of breaking conditions of a licence for the facility granted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Summonses had been issued after which the case was first listed before Dublin District Court in November and had been adjourned until yesterday/today (mon) when a guilty plea was entered to three of the charges. The remaining three counts were dropped. Solicitor Brendan Slattery, for the EPA, told Judge Flann Brennan the plant required and held a licence from the EPA. The charges related to events in June last year when the facility just commenced operation, he said. He said the incineration plant was one of two of its type in Ireland and the court heard this was the first prosecution of its kind. Guilty plea The operator pleaded guilty to failing to ensure on June 6th last that the incineration plant was operated in such a way that gas resulting from the process was raised at a temperature of 850 degrees Celsius. There was also a guilty plea to a charge for failing to ensure an auxiliary burner was switched on automatically when the temperature fell below 850 degrees Celsius. Dublin Waste to Energy also pleaded guilty that between June 1st and June 2nd last, both dates inclusive, it failed to ensure, in the event of an incident occurring at the facility, that the EPA was notified by 10am the following working day; and that it failed to notify in a format specified by the agency of any breach of one or more of the conditions of the licence. The court heard Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd had no prior criminal convictions and there were no other prosecutions pending. The charges were contrary to Section 8 and 86 (6) of the Environmental Protection Agency Act 1992. Shane Murphy SC, for Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd, told the court it was caused by a “glitch” and happened in the plant’s first week in operation when testing was being carried out. He asked the court to take into account the guilty plea, the lack of previous convictions as well as the fact that the facility had been under rigorous supervision and there was no evidence of environmental damage. “It is very much regretted on behalf of my client.” The court heard the offences carried a fine of up to €4,000 per offence. Judge Brennan said it was a “major factor” that no other prosecutions were “coming down the line”. He also took into account Dublin Waste to Energy Ltd’s co-operation and that the incidents took place during a special period when the plant had just opened. The testing phase had...

Posted by salvatore on 11:15 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Mark Olalde on Climate Home News, March 14th, 2018] Schemes that favour coal companies in Appalachia have left a national shortfall experts said was ‘one of the biggest public failures that has gone under the radar’. As the US coal industry winds down, does it have enough money set aside to clean up the vast pits, walls and broken mountains left behind? A Climate Home News investigation has found the answer is no. Particularly in Appalachia, the land, water and health of mining communities have been put at risk by a critically underfunded system supposed to clean up after mines close. According to national data compiled and published for the first time on Thursday, mining companies and state governments hold just $9.2 billion nationwide to ensure mining land is reclaimed if operators go bust. Experts told CHN that amount falls far short of what is needed to rehabilitate more than two million acres of mining permits the system is supposed to cover. In the major coal states of Appalachia, coal production has halved in the past decade. But even as many mines slide toward closure, most states in the region rely on a system of pooled risk that lets companies put up just a fraction of the total costs of reclaiming their mines. “There is not enough money in the bonds to truly remediate those problems if there were some large-scale walking away from those bonds,” said Scott Simonton, coordinator of Marshall University’s environmental science programme. With the industry struggling to compete with cheap gas and renewable energy, mass bankruptcies could leave taxpayers with the bill for clean up. Left untreated, closed mines raise a range of environmental and community health risks, from sinkholes to acid contamination of water courses. “It is one of the bigger public failures that has gone under the radar,” said Patrick McGinley, a law professor at West Virginia University who has 40 years’ experience in the industry. The data covers all 23 states that produce 99% of US coal and about 5,000 mining permits.* It was gathered from responses to dozens of records requests submitted to the state environmental and mining agencies in charge of each state’s programme. Due to greatly varying costs of reclamation from state to state and mine to mine, there is no precise way to estimate how much should be held nationally. But McGinley said the level of bonding in general was too low and in Appalachian states in particular was “preposterous, absolutely ridiculous”. The communal funds, known as ‘bond pools’ or ‘alternative bonding systems’, have left eastern states with less money per acre – an imperfect but useful measure of the strength of a state’s bonding system – for environmental clean-up than most western states. CHN found Appalachian states hold between $2,373 per acre (Ohio) and $4,604 per acre (Maryland). Colorado, one of the best-protected mining states, holds $10,732 for every acre, and Texas bonds are $7,655 per acre. Bond pools collect money from mining companies, and if one of them goes out of business, the pool guarantees to pay any costs that exceed other money they have set aside. But if market conditions get tough and several companies fail at once, the funds will not cover all their liabilities. “How does taking 50 properties like that and adding them up make them any more credit-worthy?”...

Posted by salvatore on 1:35 pm in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Kathiann M. Kowalski on EnergyNews, March 15th, 2018] Natural gas burns cleaner, but two recent explosions in Ohio show how accidental and “fugitive” emissions compromise some climate benefits. An explosion at a well pad in eastern Ohio last month forced nearby residents to evacuate for three weeks while crews worked to cap a gas leak. Just two weeks earlier, a gas pipeline in an adjacent county ruptured and caused several fires. The incidents illustrated a risk related to natural gas production, not just to a community’s safety but the planet’s climate, too. Both blasts triggered an uncontrolled release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Such accidental and other “fugitive” emissions are poorly tracked and compromise some of the benefits from the recent shift to natural gas. In Ohio, most of the state’s progress in cutting greenhouse gas emissions has come from natural gas displacing coal for electricity generation. Natural gas releases fewer carbon emissions than coal when burned, but the accounting on climate progress often ignores upstream releases during extraction, processing and distribution. Two big accidents Tallgrass Energy estimated 23.5 million cubic feet of gas were released as a result of the January 31 explosion on its Seneca Lateral Pipeline. The pipeline transports gas from the MarkWest processing plant to the Rockies Express Pipeline. The company shut down flow to that part of the pipeline the same day, cutting off the emissions. “Our emergency response plan worked as it was supposed to during this incident, and we’re grateful for the fast and efficient efforts of first responders to help us secure the site safely,” TallGrass spokesperson Phyllis Hammond said. “Working together we ensured there were no injuries.” The well pad explosion involved a blowout that led to uncontrolled venting of gas, according to a February 17 memo from on-scene coordinators for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “Natural gas, produced water, and brine [have] been discharged along with unknown condensate components,” the report noted. It estimated the volume at that time to be 100 million cubic feet per day. A video from environmental advocacy group Earthworks showed that gases continued to escape from the site, owned by XTO Energy, on March 5. A spokesperson for the company, Karen Matusic, said the gases were primarily methane, a nontoxic, odorless and colorless gas. “The volume of emissions and the length of time this volume has been emitted to the atmosphere are very unusual,” said Bruce Baizel, energy program director for Earthworks. “So this event has large climate implications, assuming the bulk of what we see is methane.” The two recent Ohio accidents and similar events don’t tell the whole story, however. “Hundreds and thousands of smaller emission sources happen every day at oil and gas facilities,” Baizel said, adding that the story of those emissions is largely untold. Ongoing emissions Leaks or intentional flaring of methane happens at some sites on an ongoing basis. In contrast to the recent large accidents, those releases are largely preventable, said Melanie Houston, who heads the Ohio Environmental Council’s climate programs. Controlling those emissions “would require a little bit of upfront costs from the industry, but they would be able to recoup those costs and capture more of their resource,” she said. Methane “can cause very rapid warming over a short time period,” said Amy Townsend-Small, an environmental scientist at the University of Cincinnati. “The kinds of climate tipping points that we...

Posted by salvatore on 9:41 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Bashir Goth on Gulf News, March 16th, 2017] We often hear the platitude “water is precious” while we carry around bottles of water we can drink anytime. We bathe with it several times a day, wash our cars with it, flood our lawns and gardens with gallons of it, and waste it in every conceivable way. On rare occasions, when we wake up in the morning and we don’t find readily available water in the faucet we go crazy, frantic that we can’t brush our teeth, wash our faces, or flush our toilets for a single morning. Now, imagine, just a sip, stands between you and death, and there isn’t any to be found. This is exactly what is happening now in Somalia where according to the United Nations more than 6.2 million people face famine and starvation due to food insecurity caused by poor rainfall and lack of clean water. “Somalia is in the grip of an intense drought, induced by two consecutive seasons of poor rainfall. In the worst-affected areas, inadequate rainfall and lack of water has wiped out crops and killed livestock, while communities are being forced to sell their assets, and borrow food and money to survive,” says the report. In a country where more than 48 per cent of the population are nomads and farmers in rural areas, rain is a life giver. No wonder that Somalis measure prosperity by ‘Biyo iyo Baad’ (water and green pasture). And when there is a shortage of rain for more than two consecutive years, as preceded the current situation, the result is famine, starvation, and even the death of people and livestock. It was in 2010-2011 when the country was hit by its last, and one of the most devastating droughts in its history, which developed into a famine that killed approximately 258,000 according to the UN and its agencies. And presently Unicef lists Somalia as one of the countries of heightened concern where acute malnutrition could kill tens of thousands of children if a quick international response does not arrive. Large numbers of people have already been uprooted from their nomadic areas and moved to either urban places or other rural areas less affected by the dry conditions. The worst hit areas are in the eastern regions of the otherwise peaceful and self-declared state of Somaliland and the northern and central regions of Somalia proper. The people have lost all their livestock which is also the main income earner of the country, contributing 40 per cent of the country’s GDP. In 2015 alone Somalia exported 5.3 million heads of livestock to Middle Eastern markets, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). This explains why drought puts not only the pastoral life of people at risk but also hinders the economic recovery of the country which is already hampered by a civil war and other major geopolitical, socioeconomic and ecological challenges. Droughts are natural calamities that can happen anywhere due to environmental changes but what makes it more deadly in Somalia than other places is the continued conflict that denies relief aid to reach the needy or makes it difficult for affected nomads to travel from drought affected areas to other places where they could find help and succour, bringing the Somalis face to face with one...

Posted by salvatore on 1:28 pm in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Todd C. Frankel on The Washington Post, February 28th, 2018] In Congo’s sun-scorched and dusty south, thousands of miners scour underground tunnels hunting for cobalt. Many of them work by hand. That’s why they are known as creuseurs — French for diggers. They don’t use power tools. They don’t wear face masks and often no gloves. They do it because they live in one of the poorest countries in the world, and cobalt is valuable. The mineral is essential for the lithium-ion batteries found in smartphones and many electric vehicles. Most of the world’s cobalt supply comes from the Congo region. These cobalt-laden chunks of rock leave the country destined for refineries in Europe and China, where they enter the complex supply chains of some of the largest technology and automotive firms. Creuseurs know their work is physically dangerous. Death and injury from tunnel collapses are not uncommon. Children sometimes join their older brothers and fathers in the mines. But what’s less understood are the environmental health risks posed by the extensive mining. Southern Congo holds not only vast deposits of cobalt and copper but also uranium. Scientists have recorded alarming radioactivity levels in some mining regions. Mining waste often pollutes rivers and drinking water. The dust from the pulverized rock is known to cause breathing problems. The mining industry’s toxic fallout is only now being studied by researchers, mostly in Lubumbashi, the country’s mining capital. The mines provide much-needed work for the region’s millions of mostly impoverished residents. But the work’s toll on land and bodies is seen by many as devastating. Last year, Lena Mucha, 34, a German photojournalist, met with people who were directly affected by the mining activities in the region. She met with mothers who had miscarriages and photographed infants born with deformities whose fathers worked in the mines. Cobalt is mined all over the world, but 60 percent comes from Congo. As Mucha told In Sight, “we are all using cobalt … it’s difficult to not use it, but it’s important to let people know what is the story behind this.”...

Posted by salvatore on 10:19 am in News | Commenti disabilitati su

[posted by Joe Watts on The Independent, March 1st, 2018] Michael Gove has launched a searing attack on an audience of water company bosses – accusing their firms of avoiding billions of pounds in tax, overpaying executives and failing to properly invest in infrastructure. The Environment Secretary said some companies had been funnelling almost all their profits to shareholders, while having “hidden behind complex financial structures” in off-shore tax havens to avoid the Inland Revenue. In an unexpected move for a Conservative Cabinet minister, he named and shamed the chief executives of particular companies, whose representatives would have been attending the conference he was speaking at. Mr Gove has already warned water firms he will not refrain from strengthening their industry’s regulator if they refuse to give consumers a better deal, with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour promising full renationalisation if it wins power. In a speech to the Water UK City Conference on Thursday Mr Gove said: “Far too often, there is evidence that water companies – your water companies – have not been acting sufficiently in the public interest. “Some companies have been playing the system for the benefit of wealthy managers and owners, at the expense of consumers and the environment.” He went on: “They have shielded themselves from scrutiny, hidden behind complex financial structures, avoided paying taxes, have rewarded the already well-off, kept charges higher than they needed to be and allowed leaks, pollution and other failures to persist for far too long.” While there had been some acknowledgement that change had to come from the industry, he said companies are guilty of “prevarication and procrastination, ducking and diving and dragging of feet”. He set out how water companies had paid out £18.1bn to shareholders between 2007 and 2016, a figure almost equal to the total profit over the same period. Mr Gove went on: “And who made those decisions? Well, of course, it’s the people in this room – chief executives and board members of the privatised water companies. “And you must realise that in the public eye you are very handsomely remunerated.” He singled out the chief executive of United Utilities, who he said was paid £2.8m per year, Severn Trent’s chief executive, £2.42m per year, and the chief executives at Anglian and Yorkshire who he said are paid £1.2m a year, while the boss of Thames Water receives £960,000 a year. Mr Gove then turned his fire on the companies’ tax arrangements, saying some are not contributing enough to Treasury coffers, and others are “very much not”. He said: “Last year Anglian, Southern and Thames paid no corporation tax. Indeed Thames has paid no corporation tax for a decade. “Ten years of shareholders getting millions, the chief executive getting hundreds of thousands, and the public purse getting nothing. “And water companies have been able to minimise their tax obligations, even as many have failed to minimise leaks and pollution, because some of their best brains appear to be as intent on financial engineering just as much as real engineering.” He accused four water companies – Thames, Southern, Anglian and Yorkshire – of making “particularly keen use of sophisticated financial engineering”. The Cabinet minister said the companies had “set up multi-layered corporate structures of dizzying complexity” involving multiple subsidiaries with some based in offshore tax...