Coal-hungry S.Africa introduces carbon tax

Yahoo – AFP, May 27, 2019

South Africa responds to 'the urgent need for action' with a carbon tax (AFP Photo/
ALEXANDER JOE)

Johannesburg (AFP) - South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law a carbon tax to cut emissions in the continent's worst polluter, the treasury said Monday, drawing cautious praise from environmentalists.

The tax, a rare step for an emerging economy, will be levied from June 1 on greenhouse gases from fuel combustion and industrial processes and emissions.

"President Cyril Ramaphosa has communicated the urgent need for action around the climate crisis," WWF said in a statement, describing it as a landmark moment for South Africa.

"While there is still much to be done for the tax to become more effective, we recognise this is a significant first step."

The tax was first planned in 2010, but has been delayed by opposition from business and industry in a country struggling with low growth and unemployment near 28 percent.

"Climate change represents one of the biggest challenges facing humankind, and the primary objective of the carbon tax is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in a sustainable, cost effective and affordable manner," the treasury said in a statement.

It said the tax was part of South Africa's efforts to meet the global climate change agreement negotiated in Paris in 2015.

Set at 120 rand (8.30 USD) per tonne of carbon dioxide, the tax will be largely offset by allowances to lower it to an effective rate of between six and 46 rand per tonne in the first three years.

South Africa -- which relies largely on coal for its energy supply -- is the 14th largest polluter in the world and the largest in Africa, according to Greenpeace.

"We definitely welcome this. It is very, very overdue," said Melisse Steele, senior campaign manager at Greenpeace.

"It is a major step, but Greenpeace has expressed our concern that we don't think that the carbon tax will be effective enough and the tax level is inadequate."

The tax is set to rise at two percent above inflation, currently at 4.5 percent, until 2022 and in line with inflation afterwards.

Dutch government issues first green bond, with triple A rating

DutchNews, May 21, 2019 

Some of the cash raised will be spend on home insulation. Photo: DutchNews.nl 

The Dutch finance ministry is on Tuesday issuing its first green state bond, the first green bond issued by a European country with a triple A credit rating. 

The government wants to use the money raised via the bond to finance sustainable projects in the years ahead. The target volume is €4bn to €6bn, but this will be increased to around €10bn in due time, the finance ministry said. 

Dutch bank ABN Amro, which claims to be a leader in this market, has arranged the subscription among investors and is coordinating allocation of the bond, which will mature in 2040. 

Finance minister Wopke Hoekstra first announced plans to issue the green bond last October, saying it would ‘represent a solid asset for any green portfolio’. 

The money raised via the bond will be used for green investments, including wind farms, large bike parks, strengthening dykes and improving home insulation.

‘If Dutch pension funds, insurers and banks want to invest in green bonds, at the moment they have to go to foreign providers,’ Hoekstra said at Monday’s presentation. ‘This green bond will help the further development of the green capital market in the Netherlands.’

Two-thirds of world's longest rivers throttled by mankind: study

Phys.org – AFP, Patrick Galey, 8 May 2019

Aerial view of where the Araguaia River splits into the Coco River (to the left)
in Brazil. Credit: Day's Edge Productions / WWF-US

Almost two in three of Earth's longest rivers have been severed by dams, reservoirs or other manmade constructions, severely damaging some of the most important ecosystems on the planet, researchers said Wednesday.

Using the latest satellite data and computer modelling software, the international team looked at the connectivity of 12 million kilometres of rivers worldwide, providing the first global assessment of human impact on the planet's waterways.

They found that out of the 91 rivers longer than 1,000 kilometres (600 miles) in length, just 21 retained a direct connection between source and sea.

Just a little over a third (37 percent) of the 242 longest rivers had retained their free flow, something experts said was having a profound effect on Earth's biodiversity.

"The world's rivers form an intricate network with vital links to land, groundwater and the atmosphere," said Gunther Grill from McGill University's Department of Geography and lead author.

"Free-flowing rivers are important for humans and the environment alike, yet economic development around the world is making them increasingly rare."

Most of the remaining free-flowing rivers were confined to remote parts of the Arctic, the Amazon and the Congo basins, the study found.

This week the UN's panel on biodiversity released a summary of its devastating assessment on the state of Nature.

The underlying report, which will be made public in the coming weeks, found that 50 percent of rivers "manifest severe impacts of degradation" from human activity.

Wednesday's study, published in the journal Nature, laid bare in intricate detail just how drastically manmade activity is impacting our waterways.

It estimated there was now a total of 60,000 large dams at least 15 metres tall severing rivers, out of a total of 2.8 million worldwide.

The blocking or damming of rivers disrupts the flow of nutrients vital to replace those lost through agriculture, and diminishes the amount of river-bourne species that can complete their life-cycles.

3,700 hydropower projects

It also lessens the sediment flows river deltas provide coastal regions with, which currently help to protect millions of people against sea level rises.

Less than a quarter of free-flowing rivers now connect to oceans, depriving estuary environment from vital nutrients and sediments.

The team warned that dams had already led to a significant fall in river fish, which provide nearly all the animal protein eaten by close to 160 million people.

A separate assessment last year from conservation group WWF said freshwater species had experienced the most pronounced decline of all vertebrates over the past century, falling on average 83 percent since 1970.

The study also identified more than 3,700 hydropower projects either planned our currently under construction, including some on rivers offering vital life support for the human populations who live along them.

While hydroelectric power are significantly cleaner in terms of emissions than oil, gas or coal, the team stressed that mega power projects involving dams and reservoirs could have unforeseen negative effects.

"Hydropower certainly has more complex environmental impacts than the often-cited positive effects of avoiding fossil fuels," Bernhard Lehner, a professor at McGill, told AFP.

"While hydropower inevitably has a role to play... countries should focus on sustainable options like solar and wind which can have less detrimental impacts on rivers and the communities, cities and biodiversity that rely on them."

The health of Earth's rivers will also be impacted as climate change accelerates, affecting flow patterns and water quality, as well as bringing more invasive species, the authors said.

When apple trees blossom, worker bees rock

Yahoo – AFP, Isabel MALSANG and Fabien NOVIAL, May 2, 2019

The national apiculture institute estimates the value of pollinization for French
farmers at two billion euros ($2.2 billion) (AFP Photo/PHILIPPE HUGUEN)

Chèvreville (France) (AFP) - In an apple orchard outside Paris, a constant hum among the blossoming trees bears witness to thousands of worker bees pollinating millions of flowers in just three weeks.

"Without bees, no pollinization, no apples, no life," sums up farmer Alexandre Prot, who decided to deal with a decline in bee populations by becoming a beekeeper as well.

"We are not worried about the lack of bees because we have our own," he said, during a tour of his 30 hives, which are backed up by another 30 that he hires during spring months to ensure his 60 hectares (150 acres) of apples are fertilised.

Prot initially took a business degree to work as an auditor on the New York and Paris commodities markets before coming back to his family's 300-hectare apple and grain farm in Chevreville, about an hour north of the French capital.

'Autonomous'

His grandfather, who planted the first apple trees, and his father both called on professional beekeepers to ensure the orchard was properly pollinated.

"Having bees lets me be autonomous with respect to my apple crop," he said.

EU map showing apple orchards by area in 2017, by country in hectares

(AFP Photo/Vincent LEFAI)

"Each year, the hives divide in two, the young queen finds a new home, and we recover the swarms" of worker bees and drones.

"So every year we enlarge our population."

Prot recovers 500 kilos (1,100 pounds) of honey per year, which he sells in the farm's store.

But it is almost a derivative product because the pollinization is the farmer's main motivation.

The national apiculture institute, ITSAP, estimates that the value of the work done by bees in helping pollinise the fruits, cereals and vegetables from the plants and trees of French farmers is two billion euros ($2.2 billion).

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has made the conservation and sustainable use of pollinators an absolute priority in dealing with a pollinization crisis that threatens global food resources.

The FAO estimates that almost 35 percent of agricultural production worldwide depends on pollinators such as bees, birds and bats, which improve yields on the 87 most cultivated food plants.

Yarrow and calendula

In France, the number of farmers who have installed their own beehives to support crops is not known, said Eric Lelong, head of the recently created trade association, InterApi.

Some apple growers call on professional beekeepers to ensure orchards are 

pollinated (AFP Photo/Fred TANNEAU)

He nonetheless believes that it is "indispensable to put a value on pollinization".

In California's almond groves, output can fall sharply unless beehives are brought in, "which explains very high prices for hive rentals," he noted.

Prot looks after his worker bees closely therefore, sowing fields of flowers, yarrow, calendula, linen and white clover near the hives.

"Since they don't all bloom at the same time, they constitute a pantry for bees from May to October, when there are no more apple blossoms."

Though the average rate of bee colony collapse in France rose to 30 percent in 2017-2018 owing to humid conditions and attacks by Varroa mites according to the agriculture ministry, Prot says that he did not lose a single colony.

'Let nature do its work'

The farmer has chosen to produce apples under an "eco-responsable" label, as have 65 percent of all apple farmers in France.

The national apiculture institute estimates the value of pollinization for French 

farmers at two billion euros ($2.2 billion) (AFP Photo/PHILIPPE HUGUEN)

Situated between wholly commercial production methods and organic ones, the method provides for stable output from one year to the next, which is necessary to obtain contracts with major distributors, while it reduces the use of pesticides.

"The approach is to let nature do its work, as much as it can, while not ruling out interventions" if the crop is threatened by mould or pests, Prot said.

Use of crop protection products or chemicals such as copper or sulphur must take place while bees are asleep in their hives.

Before reaching that point, farmers who keep bees use other methods aimed at "orienting" natural processes, such as installing "insect hotels" in orchards so that wild drones passing through can help pollinate flowers.

Nests for birds that eat insects and worms are another tool, as are perches for raptors that eat mice and voles which damage apple tree roots.

To thwart night butterflies whose larva infest the apples themselves, Prot resorts to "sexual confusion" by spraying female pheromones that disorient males who cannot find the mates they expect and do not therefore reproduce.

That means no larvae, no worms in the apples and no need for pesticides.

Ancient human relative explains mountain gene mutation

Yahoo – AFP, Patrick GALEY, May 1, 2019

The Tibean Plateau runs north of the Himalayas (AFP Photo)

Paris (AFP) - The fossilised remains of an early human cousin found in the mountains of Tibet proves mankind adapted to live at high altitude far earlier than previously thought, scientists said Wednesday.

A jawbone dating from at least 160,000 years ago of a Denisovan -- a now-extinct branch of humanity -- is the first of its kind discovered outside of southern Siberia, and experts believe it holds the key to understanding how some modern-day humans have evolved to tolerate low-oxygen conditions.

Contemporaries of the Neanderthals -- and like them, possibly wiped out by anatomically modern man, Homo sapiens -- the Denisovans first came to light a decade ago.

Their existence was determined through a piece of finger bone and two molars unearthed at the Denisova Cave in southern Siberia's Altai Mountains and dated to some 80,000 years ago.

But the new remains -- discovered in passing by a local monk nearly thirty years ago -- has led researchers to conclude that Denisovans were far more numerous, and far older, than previously thought.

"To have beings, even if a little archaic, living at 3,300 metres (11,000 feet) on the Tibetan plateau 160,000 years ago.... That's something that no one could have imagined until today," said Jean-Jacques Hublin, director of the Max Planck Institute's Department of Human Evolution.

The bone, found in the Baishiya Karst Cave in Xiahe, China, was donated by the monk to a local museum, before scientists set about analysing its composition. It was so old no DNA could be extracted.

But Hublin and his team used the latest protein analysis to date one of its teeth and to link it genetically to Denisovan specimens found in Siberia.

"From my point of view it's confirmation of a working hypothesis I've had for a while: Nearly all Chinese and east Asian (hominim) fossils between 350,000-50,000 years ago are probably Denisovan," said Hublin, lead author of the study published in Nature.

The bone, found in the Baishiya Karst Cave in Xiahe, China, was donated by the 

monk to a local museum, before scientists set about analysing its composition 

(AFP Photo/Jean-Jacques HUBLIN)

'Extraordinary'

A recent research paper suggested that humans only reached the Tibetan plateau -- a vast area of mountainous terrain north of the Himalayas -- around 40,000 years ago.

"Here we have something that's four times older," said Hublin. "It's absolutely extraordinary."

The jawbone discovery also solves a riddle that has troubled anthropologists for years.

In 2015 researchers found that ethnic Tibetans and Han Chinese living at altitude had buried in their genetic code an unusual variant of a gene, EPAS1, which regulates haemoglobin, the molecule that hauls oxygen around the blood.

At high altitude, common variants of the gene overproduce haemoglobin and red blood cells, causing the blood to become thick and sludgy -- a cause of hypertension, low birthweight and infant mortality.

But the variant found in Tibetans increases production by much less, thus averting hypoxia problems experienced by many people who relocate to places above 4,000 metres in altitude.

The mutation is nearly identical to that found in the DNA of Denisovans discovered in Siberia -- at an altitude of less than 700 metres.

"That was something that no one really understood, because the Denisovans weren't known to live at altitude, so they didn't really need that gene to survive," said Hublin.

"Now we know why. It's not the DNA from Denisovans from (Siberia), it's the DNA from the Denisovans of Tibet."

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"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“… Your Story

Several hundred thousand years ago, Humans began to form into the Human that you recognize today. That's just yesterday. Don't confuse this with Human development. You have had that going on for a very long time. But the DNA that is within your body is not the DNA that developed naturally on the planet. Yours is outside of the system of Earth-based evolutionary processes, and the scientists are starting to see this. The "missing link" that they speak of is not Human.

So again, we tell you that the ones who came to help seed you approximately 100,000 to 200,000 Earth years ago were the Pleiadians who had gone into graduate status and who had changed consciousness. They had become quantum with free choice, and you have parts of their DNA within you.

New information for you: The seeding process was not a one-time event. This is why we give you these large sections of time where the Pleiadians worked with you. It was done over time and in many places. It was not all simultaneous, and this was for reasons that will remain unknown to you for now, but will later explain why you will find other Human types that now are extinct. Now you only have one Human type, and that is counterintuitive to all mammal development on the planet. This was a design, and it took more than 100,000 years to create this for humanity as you know it.

It's your Human bias that has the creation story of the knowledge of light and dark being given to Humans in one day in a garden involving a talking snake and other mythology. Spiritual logic should tell you that these stories are simply metaphors of a real truth, that indeed there was a major shift of consciousness, but over a longer period of time and not instantly. The same mythology has the earth created in seven days. However, this only represents a numerological truth [7 is the number of divinity], meaning that there was a divine design in the creation of the planet. It's time to start using spiritual logic within the teachings you have about spiritual history, for the revelations will be wonderful and lead to fuller understanding.

Now, what really is in your DNA? It's the Pleiadians' code, and it's the ones before them, and even the ones before them. You can't remember it, for that is not the set-up. The system is that your Akashic record is only from Earth, but your "divine remembrance" will take you back to the beginning, where system after system after system created that which you see as the divinity within the galaxy and the Universe.

Who are they? They're your "divine" parents. They're the seed divinity in you and they visit here. They're not all Pleiadians, did you know that? Instead, they're from all over the galaxy. You see, they also represent the seeds of the Pleiadians, and they keep you safe. You wouldn't have it any other way, would you? "Safe from what?" you might ask. ….”

"The Timing of Creation"– Aug  12, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Text version)

“…. The First Look

About 200,000 years ago is when it literally began. The concept of the "divine seeding" of planet Earth happened at that point, and the fields metaphorically started to be ploughed. There is an issue and we're going to call it the way species work with Gaia. This is something that happened simultaneously with the grid creation of Gaia. For now we give you something that no one has thought about. When we speak of the grids of the planet, you make an assumption that these grids always existed on the planet. For the planet is old and you might say, "Well the grids have always been there." But I'm here to tell you that only one was always there, and that's the magnetic grid. But it was spiritually void. That is to say, it only had that which was created from the Earth's core movement. Today, when we talk about the grids of the planet, our conversation involves the consciousness of humanity, which is imbued upon the magnetic grid. We also tell you about the Crystalline Grid and about the Grid of Gaia consciousness. Both of these react to Human compassion.

Now, here is the puzzle: If you don't have divine Human consciousness, then what about the grids? Do they exist without the Human Being? The answer is that they needed to be created simultaneously with the seeding of divine DNA. So what the Pleiadians did was not only to start the seeds of humanity's change into divine DNA, but they created the conscious grids of Gaia as well. They had to, for the conscious grids of Gaia are a confluence of humanity's decisions brought to Gaia's energy. The consciousness that we are talking about is the spiritually sanctioned Human Being that exists with a piece of God inside him, and with DNA that has 23 chromosomes instead of the common 24 that all the others have through biological evolution.

Let us back up and say it again and make it simpler, my partner [admonition to Lee to speak more plainly]. The triad of grids on this planet that we have spoken of over and over are the consciousness grids of Gaia, and were created at the same time as the seeding of humanity with Pleiadian DNA. For all the teachings we've been giving, especially about the Crystalline Grid, these grids have been reacting to Human consciousness and compassion. Therefore, the very essence of the current Gaia energy is also related to the creation of humanity.

These are the attributes of the Pleiadians work 200,000 years ago, and it was done quantumly in ways that you have no conscious awareness of at the moment. For these things are beyond your ability to understand right now, since you are still in a single-digit dimensionality. But the result back then was "a conscious Gaia." So you might say Gaia itself was actually created quantumly from the Seven Sisters energy, just like you.

The Gaia that existed before then was still Gaia, but not as it is now. It was a Gaia that was creating the dirt on the earth and the energy of biological life of the earth. It was the mother of all life on the planet, but not a Gaia that responded to Human consciousness. That's very different. So Gaia greatly expanded when the Pleiadians came, and that was by design.

It took 110,000 years for this to settle itself, and for the ground to be ready for more than 16 species of Human Beings to leave so that only one was left. When that occurred at approximately 90,000 years ago is when you can start calibrating who Humans were and who they became.

The Others

Now, what about all of those other types of Humans, and how did they leave? I'm  going to give you an attribute of something that exists even today. This is difficult for my partner, for he has not heard this before. This information has not been brought in this fashion before. Go slowly, my partner.

The variety of species on this planet comes and goes accordingly as they are needed for the energy they create. So one of the tasks of Gaia is to create and eliminate species. When they are no longer needed for the purpose of Gaia's development, they cease to exist and they die out. If new life is necessary, if new concepts of life are needed, Gaia is cooperative and they are then created. The actual creation of species is something that environmentalists have not clearly seen. That is to say the mechanics of how it works is not fully recognized as something that is strongly coordinated with your weather. But you have already seen the mechanics of some of this in your long-term studies, for you have already noted the coming and going of many species through the ages. It's ongoing.

The Appropriateness of the Elimination of Species

Now, along come Humans and they see all this coming and going of living things, but they want to save them all - all the species that exist. For in their linear mind, all species should remain and exist, since they are here. The attribute of Gaia, however, is to eliminate them, cull them out, to bring in new ones. I just gave you the mechanics of the reasons species come and go. It's appropriate and is a natural building process for new species.

When the Pleiadians started to create the grids of the planet, Gaia cooperated in what was to come, knew the purpose, and what was needed for survival of this new spiritual Human. Gaia knew this since the energy of Gaia had seen it before [reason given below]. So the old attribute, which needed many kinds of Human Beings, slowly died out. It was natural. There was not a war. There were no horrible plagues. There were no volcanoes or tsunamis that consumed them. Through attrition, appropriateness, and 110,000 years, they disappeared.

So approximately 110,000 years ago, there was only one kind left, and this is science, for everything that you study will bear this out, and anthropologists have already seen it and have asked, "What happened back then at this time that would have eliminated these other kinds of Human variety?" It's a puzzle in science that I have just answered, for science looks only for physical events as triggers. But instead, it's the marriage of Gaia consciousness that you call "Mother Nature," which facilitated this. It's the same today when you see a variety of species diminish as Humans take over a greater portion of the earth. I'll call this "the appropriate elimination of unique life forms, which allow for the growth of global awareness and quantum evolution." Some species only exist to allow others to climb the ladder of nature, then they disappear. Gaia knows what the ladder looks like. You don't. ... ”

"The Physics of Consciousness - The Future Revealed" - June 29, 2014 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

“ …You're a young civilization, dear one, so young that it's difficult to even give you a perspective of how young you are. Your solar system, with your civilization as part of it, hasn't even orbited the galaxy one time yet! It has only moved a fraction of the distance of one revolution [rev]. It takes almost 200 million Earth years to travel around the center of the galaxy one time [one rev]. How does it make you feel to know that there are societies and civilizations on other worlds far from you who have been around three revs? The Pleiadians (your seed biology) – half a rev. This is just to show you how old some life is in this galaxy. Some of them visit you, but none of them, none of them are able to influence you to the degree that you can influence yourselves. The galaxy teams with life and you're well hidden, by the way. Until now.

We've seen planetary maturity happen before, so I want to give you a bigger picture. Your age as a Human on this planet starts to explain why the earth has been through such a horrendous time. Historic Earth civilization history looks ugly to you, doesn't it? Your past and your history are filled with survival energy: killing, ugly weaponry, mass destruction and no elegance or respect for life at all. Torture was common, and public execution was a sport. Dear one, all those planets went through that! They all did, because civilization does this; it builds itself through time and growth. Part of growth doesn't always go the way of maturity. It has the ability to destroy itself, or the seeds of its knowledge, along the way. Sometimes that happens, and sometimes it does not. As you know, your Earth just passed a point where that was a possible scenario. …”