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Architects in Mendoza, western Argentina, have used hundreds of tons of recycled building material, shipping containers and discarded decorations to create an otherwise high-tech winery.
MENDOZA — Winemaking and wine tourism installations are usually built with a tasteful nod at the landscape around them. In the case of the MAAL winery in western Argentina, its environment-friendly design includes use of 300 tons of discarded construction and decoration materials found in and around the district of Mendoza.
Local architects Mora Hughes wanted to make the project a badge of their "commitment to nature," but with all the "charm of a Mendoza winery." MAAL winery is in Las Compuertas, on the outskirts of the city of Mendoza and at the heart of a celebrated winemaking region.
Their design won a bronze medal in the Architecture and Landscapes category at the 2023 Best of Mendoza's Wine Tourism awards. MAAL is an acronym of the owners' names, Matías and Alfredo, though they insist it also means Malbec As Alfredo Likes. The label only uses its own Malbec grapes and only "the way Alfredo likes it."
The winery sits on a narrow strip and is effectively a rectangular tube, with the produce introduced at one end, and passed along and processed to end up as wine in barrels at the other. Fermentation and storage happen in small concrete tanks holding between 50 and 200 hectoliters, and stainless steel vats and barrels with capacity ranging from 225 to 500 liters. The winery produces some 200,000 bottles a year, sold in eight countries including Argentina.
They used bits of flooring or roofing from wineries facing demolition, pipe segments and 20 disused shipping containers.
Wanting to minimize construction emissions, the architects decided to reuse local construction elements, including bits of flooring or roofing from defunct wineries facing demolition, pipe segments and 20 disused shipping containers. They brought in items like postal service furniture, church pews, old tractor seats, aluminum roof paneling from a local hotel, the Aconcagua, and even an old minibus still waiting to find its use. These were neatly laid out by the building site before work began.
This proliferation of recovered material prompted challenges, requiring flexibility and adaptation during construction, which meant intermittent delays. The design evolved and with the containers at least, the architects seemed at times to toy with options like kids playing with giant Lego bricks. These have ended up as a wall around the central structure, serving variously as offices, labs, storage or tasting rooms.
The winery's surfaces have kept a rough finishing that says something of their previous lives as bits of other buildings. The shipping containers were cleaned, but without wiping away their original colors, wooden beams and paneling are neatly cut but were not sanded down too much nor repainted or varnished, keeping thus their original tones. Much of the furniture is recycled or made from hard-plastic fruit crates.
The building also maximizes access to sunlight and natural air currents, through ample light shafts and air corridors that can be regulated to adjust airflow and temperatures. The only new things it seems are the winery's top-end equipment.
Mora Hughes, a studio run by Eugenia Mora and Tom Hughes, have undertaken a range of design projects around Mendoza including the Zuccardi winery and its restaurant Piedra Infinita, the Cavas Wine Lodge and private homes.
Wine tasting during the Maalwine trash recycled winery tour
Researchers have identified a possible link between climate change and the frequency of earthquakes — and the quakes may also start a vicious circle of accelerating climate change.
PARIS — Between 1900 and 1950, the Earth recorded an average of 3.4 earthquakes per year with a magnitude greater than 6.5. That figured doubled to 6.7 a year until the early 1970s, and was almost five times that in the 2000s.
Their intensity would also have increased with more than 25 major earthquakes per year, double the previous periods. This is according to the EM-DAT emergency events database, which compiled the occurrence and effects of 22,000 mass disasters worldwide in the 20th century.
Can we conclude that there is a causal relationship with the rise of human activities, as some experts suggest? The idea was first suggested in 2011 by an Australian research team led by geology professor Giampiero Iaffaldano. At the time, it reported that it had found that the intensification of the monsoon in India had accelerated the movement of the Indian tectonic plate by 20% over the past 10 million years.
Iaffaldano wrote in Earth and Planetary Science Letters that the closing and opening of ocean basins, or the emergence of high mountains like the Andes or Tibet, are geological processes that affect climate. "We have shown for the first time that the reverse is true, that the evolution of the climate can affect in return the movement of tectonic plates."
"The ice is holding back large parts of the Earth's crust locally," says geophysicist Andrea Hampel. Together with her colleagues from the Ruhr University in Bochum in Germany, she has discovered that the weight of the large glaciers on the earth slows down the movement of the continental plates.
As proof: she demonstrated with the help of computer simulations that the seismic rebound that Scandinavia experienced temporarily 9,000 years ago coincided with the rapid melting of the Fino-Scandinavian ice cap that covered the entire region at the time.
According to this simulation, the vertical pressure exerted by the ice could have prevented the spontaneous sliding of continental plates along geological faults. But like a spring, the mechanical tensions due to the movements of the earth's crust continued to accumulate and were released when the ice melted, causing more frequent and intense earthquakes in Northern Europe.
Consequences of a natural disaster that hit Jacksonville, Florida, USA, in December 2019.
Can the same phenomenon occur more widely today with global warming? Some researchers say so and speculate that this mechanism has already begun to take place, notably in Alaska. It is there that we find the largest glaciers in the world extending over several hundred square kilometers and hundreds of meters thick.
The degradation of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets will lead to an increase in the frequency of earthquakes.
In 200 years, they have lost more than 5,000 km2 of ice. "The earth rises consecutively, and this uplift occurs in two stages," explains Chris Rollins, a researcher at the University of Fairbanks in Alaska. "First, it's instantaneous due to the elastic effect of the loss of ice mass, and then it's slower as the mantle re-positions."
Southern Alaska is a red zone in the Earth's crust where many earthquakes occur due to the overlap of the North American continental plate and the Pacific plate. "As the ice melts, the faults sometimes reach their stress limit," he explains. That's what probably happened in 1958 when a magnitude 7.8 earthquake triggered a phenomenal landslide.
"Based on our models, we predict that the degradation of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets during global warming will lead to an increase in the frequency of earthquakes in these regions," says Andrea Hampel, who took over this work.
Consequences of a natural disaster, USA, February 2020.
That's not all. According to several vulcanologists, first and foremost Bill McGuire, who teaches at the University College of London, the melting of the Greenland ice cap could release the pressure that kept the volcanic vents closed and cause gigantic landslides on the seabed off the coast of this territory attached to Denmark.
"These climate change events have occurred several times in Earth's history and produce devastating mega-tsunamis," he recently warned in the magazine New Scientist.
More landslides are likely as mountain glaciers continue to shrink and alpine permafrost thaws.
Scientists have found geological traces. 100,000 years ago, the collapse of the Hawaiian volcano Mauna Loa would have caused a cataclysmic tidal wave of over 300 meters high. More recently, on Oct. 17, 2015, the melting of Alaska's Tyndall Glacier precipitated 180 million tons of rock into the waters of the deserted Taan Fjord, raising a giant 193-meter wave that flooded 20 square kilometers of land before subsiding offshore.
"More such landslides are likely to occur as mountain glaciers continue to shrink and alpine permafrost thaws," writes American geologist Bretwood Higman, lead author of a well-researched study of the cataclysm published in Nature.
Vicious cycle
A vicious cycle could be hidden in these upheavals: these earthquakes would accelerate global warming, says a team of Russian scientists. To come to this conclusion, the researchers observed two periods of sudden increases in temperature in the Arctic, in the 1930s and 1980s.
"These two periods were preceded by major earthquakes in a region 2,000 km away," explain the authors. But it took time for the tectonic waves to reach the ice shelf from the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska: between 15 and 20 years, at a rate of about 100 km per year.
If this hypothesis is confirmed, it would mean that large quantities of methane, the most powerful greenhouse gas, will be released by the tremors that have occurred since then.
As material costs skyrocket, an old practice is becoming popular again: reusing building materials. In Germany, the first projects are already underway – and so far, results are promising as a model for sustainable cities.
BERLIN — At first glance, Huthmacher Haus at Number 2 Hardenbergplatz in Berlin is nothing special: a large white concrete block.
The 60-meter-tall building opposite the Zoologischer Garten train station is rather inelegant – perhaps an acquired taste for lovers of post-War architecture. Having been built in 1957, non-architecture buffs might be more interested in the iconic yellow giraffe painted on the façade, a reference to the zoo around the corner.
Three years ago, investor Newport Holding wanted to tear the building down and replace it with a 95-meter-tall office complex. But the German historic monuments commission was against the idea – and suddenly, what was considered a useless concrete building became an example of a sustainable approach to using building materials.
The current owners, Bavarian company Bayerische Hausbau, want to renovate the building, preserving as much as possible and laying the groundwork for the materials to be reused in the future – an approach called urban mining.
The German Federal Environment Agency defines urban mining as “managing anthropogenic sites with the aim of obtaining durable goods and stores of secondary raw materials.” Or, in simpler terms: before a partial renovation begins, the construction company checks which raw materials in the building could be reused. That information is recorded for future generations, and as much material as possible is reused.
With the ongoing energy and supply chain crisis, concrete, bricks and metal have become scarce and expensive. The construction industry uses a lot of resources and creates a huge amount of waste. Urban mining could be an important source of raw materials for future construction needs.
Step one: inventory
Huthmacher Haus is still in the early stages of the process. The first step is to identify materials used in the building's 16 storeys. Then, the company can evaluate whether these can be reused, and create a digital model of the results and estimate the materials’ carbon footprint.
This report is called a “Building Circularity Passport.” Future owners will know exactly how Huthmacher Haus was made and which elements of the building could be reused. If the building is eventually torn down, this approach should cut material waste in half.
“It’s a pilot project for us,” explains Hannes Giese, who is responsible for the renovation of the building at Bayerische Hausbau. One of the challenges, he says, is dealing with old documents from the 1950s, some of which are hand-written. The building has already been renovated a number of times, and not all of the changes were noted in the plans.
If we want construction to continue at this rate in the future, we will have to reuse building materials
“To get a clearer overview, we removed some materials from the third floor," he says. Preliminary results showed that heating pipes could easily be reused. Giese is convinced that in future this approach will save money and effort. Alloys in these pipes, for example, will not have to be created again from scratch. “Although we haven’t yet completed the project, all the signs suggest that having a precise summary of the materials used is worth it financially," he says.
Identifying all of the materials used sounds simple, but it is not an easy task, as Matthias Heinrich knows. He is a team leader at the Environmental Protection Encouragement Agency (EPEA), part of the international construction consultancy Drees & Sommer.
“Often, the relevant data exists, but it is difficult to bring it all together. The specialists can’t always examine everything in detail on site. Often they have to randomly drill a hole into the wall to check what is behind it,” Heinrich explains.
That raises the question of whether it is even worth it. “We don’t have any other choice,” says Heinrich. “If we want construction to continue at this rate in the future, we will have to reuse building materials as much as possible.”
An excavator operating between mountains of sand at the Molkenmarkt construction site in Berlin, Germany.
Germany and the European Union are seeing a shortage of raw materials, including sand and gravel. Authoritarian states like China are unreliable suppliers. “Urban mining will help us to become more independent,” says Heinrich. “What’s more, the materials are in a much more usable state. I don’t have to process the ore from a mine. I can use it as it is to make a steel beam.”
Even if the cost saving isn’t enough of a motivation, sooner or later, planned regulations in Germany and the EU more widely will force the construction industry to start recycling materials. The German government wants to introduce a “digital resources passport” for every newbuild project.
“In the future, we will be able to see the whole life cycle of buildings,” says Housing Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD). What Bayerische Hausbau is doing in Berlin is not yet obligatory for newbuilds. There is still no date for when this legislation will come into force, but all construction companies applying for an Efficiency House 40 standard on newbuild projects already have to go through a preliminary phase, the “seal of quality for sustainable buildings”.
The idea of reusing building materials isn't new. In the past, whole castles were dismantled stone by stone so that villagers could build new houses. Heinrich believes the reason why so many construction companies are nervous about urban mining lies in a widespread myth: “There is still a common misconception that used materials are lower quality,” he says.
So far, there are hardly any companies in Germany using the method. “Urban mining is still quite a niche practice,” Heinrich admits. One of the few examples is in the town of Neustadt in Schleswig-Holstein.
The wooden façade was made from old oak beams.
Architect Ute Dechantsreiter, who specializes in using recycled building materials, working on the plans for a new office block for the municipal department of works. She used 300-meter high dividing walls taken from an old tower block in Hamburg. The wooden façade was made from old oak beams. The carpets were made from another recycled material – old fishing nets from the region.
“Not only did we avoid creating 8 tons of waste, and using 60,000 kilowatt-hours of energy to construct new dividing walls, but we also significantly reduced the costs for the newbuild project,” wrote Dechantsreiter in an article for the industry magazine Deutsche Bauzeitung.
Heidelberg thinking bigger
One German city that is thinking bigger is Heidelberg, in Western Germany. “By 2050, at the latest, we want to be environmentally neutral and reduce the municipality’s energy use by half,” Mayor Jürgen Odszuck said last summer. “We will only achieve that if we now address the huge amount of energy and resources used in the construction sector.”
Heidelberg plans to start with the Patrick Henry Village, a former housing estate for American soldiers. In the long term, the plan is to create homes for 10,000 people and offices for around 5,000 employees. At the moment there are still 325 buildings to renovate or tear down.
Seen through the lens of urban mining, the site is not a rubbish heap, but a gigantic store of raw materials. “We have already completed the evaluation,” explains EPEA expert Heinrich. The village contains around 465,884 tons of material. Around half of this is concrete, a fifth is bricks and five per cent is metals.
According to Heinrich, reprocessing projects show that the loss rate in metals is between five and 10%. “For concrete, it’s around 20%, depending on its composition and pollution level,” he says.
“Over the next ten to fifteen years, the shortage of raw materials in Germany will not improve. Prices will rise rather than fall,” he says. Heinrich is convinced that urban mining will become more widely practiced: “As soon as people see that this approach is worth it financially, that will happen automatically.”
The ongoing strike of garbage collectors in France shows us why we try so hard to hide how much garbage we throw out. As trash piles up in the streets, philosopher Gaspard Koenig reminds us that it wouldn't be so hard to recycle and compost more of it.
-Essay-
PARIS — The strike of garbage collectors can be felt in many cities across France, but it is particularly impressive in the capital, Paris. After just one week, the streets have been invaded by mountains of trash, already estimated at more than 5,000 tonnes.
On some sidewalks, barricades of trash in torn-open bags have piled up above head height. In narrow alleys, the smell is unbearable. Rats are already enjoying an unexpected feast. As we know from Albert Camus’ The Plague, this is not a good sign.
Politically, it is possible that the increasingly unsanitary conditions will end up turning public opinion against the strikers — or at least, the boss of one of the largest French labor organizations, the CFDT, thinks it may. Let us remember the UK's 1979 “Winter of Discontent," when a strike that led to garbage piling up in the streets of London, contributed to Margaret Thatcher’s election victory the following spring.
The reality of waste
As we slalom through banana peels, dog food and leftover blanquette, it's worth asking why garbage collectors hold so much power over our lives. We have become dependent, unable to manage our own waste. An average French person produces almost 600 kilograms (1,322 lbs) of waste per year — a figure that is only increasing.
We close the trash bin lid and wash our hands off it.
Most of our current problem is organic waste, which makes up a third of our trash, according to Zero Waste France. We have a simple solution at our disposal: composting. There is no reason to truck our potato peels dozens of kilometers to be incinerated. We could simply let them decompose, thanks to the natural phenomenon of microorganisms. Wait a year and the waste becomes an excellent soil conditioner.
Thousands of earthworms work for us, munching our kitchen scraps.
Those who wish to accelerate the process can even buy a vermicomposter for their apartment. Many municipalities, including Paris, provide them free of charge. In a closed and odorless box, thousands of earthworms work for us, munching our kitchen scraps.
As garbage collectors' strikes continue in Paris, rubbish accumulates in the streets of the capital.
In the city, composting requires some collective organization, but nothing complicated in comparison to the dizzying logistics of daily garbage collection. Public parks and shared vegetable gardens are already used for this purpose. Other cities like Nantes have added composting facilities in some neighborhoods. And of course, collection of compost is also possible, like in the French city of Besançon, where it is done by bicycle.
According to the Ordif waste collection surveillance organism, less than 1% of household waste in the Île-de-France region is composted. But the practice is bound to become more widespread. On Jan. 1, 2024, all local authorities will be required to provide citizens with a solution for sorting organic waste. Hopefully, this will convince people to reduce their waste output by making it possible to charge garbage fees based on volume.
Sight unseen
The main obstacle to this necessary evolution is not economic, but cultural. Raised in the cult of cleanliness, we do not want to see our waste. We refuse to understand its role in the cycle of life. We pay to dispose of it, even though recycling would be more convenient.
Let's combine modern hygiene with the rediscovery of a form of ecological rationality.
This denial also applies to our excrement. Paris and its suburbs were major market gardening areas throughout the 19th century because the city's "sludge" was recovered to fertilize vegetable gardens. In a recent interview with Thinkerview, agronomist and soil specialist Claude Bourguignon notes how the systematizing of waste collection and expansion of the sewer system deprived us of this precious resource.
Don't get me wrong: this does not mean returning to the time when people walking on the streets of Paris risked receiving a chamber pot on their heads. But knowledge and technology should allow us to combine modern hygiene with the rediscovery of a form of ecological rationality and end the fear of the garbage collector’s strike!
Humans and animals have strategies to deal with their surroundings, including the impacts of climate change. But what about trees? Researchers in Spain have identified mechanisms in plant life to learn over time from unfavorable environmental situations.
OVIEDO — When it doesn't rain, humans look for water under rocks. Throughout history, we have developed more or less effective techniques (and more or less respectful of the environment) to always have something to drink. Reservoirs, wells or desalination plants help us, when available, to cope with periods of drought.
Animals also have strategies to deal with lack of water, such as moving (sometimes long distances) in search of new reserves or reducing hydration needs by lowering physical activity.
But how does a tree survive?
These living beings are anchored to the same place, where they spend tens, hundreds and even thousands of years. For this reason, their strategies to deal with stressful situations, such as a drought, a heat wave or a plague, are very different from those of animals.
New research has discovered something incredible: trees have a kind of climatic memory in their genes.
Plants transmitting information
“We humans have many resources to deal with these situations, from fight or flight, to building tools and shelters," says Lara García-Campa, a researcher in plant physiology at the University of Oviedo in northern Spain. "Animal survival lies to a large extent in experience, which allows us a better evaluation, anticipation and response to a risk. And this experience is based on memory.”
García-Campa explains that while plants have neither the ability to move, nor complex memory based on a nervous system like that of animals, "they have simpler systems at the cellular level, which trigger different strategies than those of animals."
The latest research published by García-Campa and other researchers from University of Oviedo has concluded that trees have mechanisms to remember unfavorable environmental situations, respond better and better to stressful situations, and transmit this information to their offspring.
The meaning of adaptation
The first time we touch fire, we burn. But most likely this will not happen again. Human beings, like many other species, remember the situation and its negative consequences in order to avoid them in the future. In fact, it is very likely that this first contact with fire never happened. Our parents or grandparents have warned us about the probabilities of burning ourselves and transmitted information as part of a memory collective that is accumulating useful knowledge for our species.
Human memory is based on a complex nervous system that plants lack. However, this does not mean that they do not have their own systems to transfer information internally and between generations.
They remember to learn from the past and reduce future damage.
The study of the memory of plants, of their ability to retain information from past stimuli and respond to them in the future, has shown that plants have different mechanisms to remember. They are very different mechanisms from those of animals, but they pursue the same objective: learning to adapt to changes.
Some plants, for example, reduce or increase the concentration of a certain chemical in certain tissues in response to a stressful event. They maintain this concentration for a period of time and use it as a signal for a recovery response.
Others exhibit epigenetic responses, modifying the way their genes are expressed to respond more effectively to future stress situations. "Whenever we talk about adaptation, we should understand it as a coordination of several processes rather than one of them taking the lead," explains García-Campa.
This research at the University of Oviedo has deepened the knowledge of a new genetic response that trees use to remember unfavorable environmental situations such as heat waves or periods of drought. This mechanism allows them to better respond to successive unfavorable periods, increasingly frequent in the context of climate change, and transmit the "knowledge" to their offspring.
"Plants are capable of perceiving, remembering, and learning from negative experiences in order to better deal with them the next time they occur."
"When plants perceive stress for the first time, they set off alarms, like any other living being," says García-Campa. "In the first place, general response mechanisms are activated, which are sufficient to face low stress levels. These mechanisms mainly try to prevent oxidative damage in the cell and to maintain the integrity of the different structures and organelles that make up the cells. But if the stress is more intense, a molecular machinery is activated with more advanced and, generally, more specific responses."
As García-Campa explains, this response is based on activating specific genes that until then were asleep and on modifying the way in which these genes are transcribed (translated into proteins) through a mechanism known as alternative splicing.
"This process can originate different proteins from the same gene," she points out. "In the same way that when we prepare a recipe we must adapt it to the ingredients we have, cells, through transcription and alternative splicing, can adapt the functioning of genes so that they respond better in certain situations."
Once the drought or heat wave passes, plants remember this and maintain a small number of alternative genetic forms, allowing them to respond quickly and efficiently when the situation repeats itself in the future. That is, they remember to learn from the past and reduce future damage.
Close to the point of no return
The University of Oviedo study was carried out in pine trees, but the mechanism has been described in other species, which makes the researchers think that it is probably somewhat widespread. "Therefore, plants, just like animals, are capable of perceiving, remembering, and learning from negative experiences in order to better deal with them the next time they occur," adds García-Campa.
That's because it is most likely that they will appear again. According to the special report on land and climate change from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the health and functioning of both individual trees and forest ecosystems are being affected with increased frequency, severity and duration by extreme weather events, such as heat waves, droughts and floods.
Unfortunately we are close to a point of no return.
In addition, they are vulnerable to new pests and diseases that increase their range as temperatures rise, as well as being affected by longer fire seasons.
“Plant cells have great cellular plasticity and are able to cope with adverse conditions and learn from them. But investing efforts in alleviating stress also has negative physiological consequences such as slowing down growth," concludes García-Campa.
“In addition, climate change is faster than the rate of adaptation of plants, so unfortunately we are close to a point of no return in which environmental reality exceeds the maximum capacity of acclimatization of many species. We must not forget our responsibility to ourselves and to future generations now that we still have time and can take giant steps towards a more sustainable world."
Ukrainian authorities have applied a new methodology based on environmental inspection to tally a $54 billion price-tag from the Russian invasion. It’s a moment to add up the many costs of the first year of war.
Ukraine has already suffered irreversible losses in the year since the Russian invasion began. Above all, of course, has been the loss of human life. On top of that, Ukrainian and international officials have estimated massive damage to property and infrastructure, as well as the loss of cultural patrimony.
Stay up-to-date with the latest on the Russia-Ukraine war, with our exclusive international coverage.
But now, for the first time, there is an estimate of the cost of the environmental damage of the war on Ukraine: $54 billion.
Ruslan Strilets, Ukraine’s Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources, explained that experts have applied a new methodology based on environmental inspection to tally the cost.
“This includes land, air, and water pollution, burned-down forests, and destroyed natural resources,” he said. “Our main goal is to show these figures to everyone so that they can be seen in Europe and the world so that everyone understands the price of this environmental damage and how to restore it to Ukraine.”
The greatest damage so far has been to forests: nearly 3 million hectares (11,583 square miles) have been damaged due to Russian aggression. This is almost one-third of Ukraine's forested area. Almost 500,000 hectares are now under temporary occupation or in the combat zone.
National parks, occupied
Strelets also noted that 10 national parks, eight nature reserves, and two biosphere reserves are currently under Russian occupation. He said 600 species of fauna and 750 species of flora are "under threat of extinction."
More 170,000 residential buildings have been destroyed across Ukraine in one year of the war.
Also, the vast territories of Ukraine are polluted with mines. Considering the scale of mine pollution, de-mining efforts may last up to 70 years.
The damage has been tallied for the first year of the war.
Dead and wounded
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has confirmed 8,101 civilian deaths and 13,479 injuries in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion began. However, these figures do not consider the number of dead and wounded in the occupied territory.
In the year since the start of the full-scale war, the Ukrainian army has lost up to 13,000 soldiers, Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the head of the Presidential Office, said in December.
Most acknowledge that death tolls of soldiers on both sides of the war are hard to verify, both because of access to the front line and because the warring parties tend to play down their own losses and inflate the losses of the enemy.
More 170,000 residential buildings have been destroyed across Ukraine in one year of the war. This is the data as of January 2023 provided by the Ministry of Communities, Territories, and Infrastructure Development of Ukraine. However, these statistics continue to grow daily as the war continues after the Russian army shells Ukrainian cities, villages, and towns.
The most striking example of the destructive actions of the occupiers is Mariupol, which was destroyed by bombing last spring. Half of the city's residential buildings and 95% of its infrastructure were destroyed. Now the Russians are demolishing the damaged buildings to hide the traces of their crimes.
In the Luhansk region, Sievierodonetsk, Popasna, Rubizhne, Shchastia, and Kreminna were also largely destroyed during the fighting. According to the authorities, Lysychanska was a little more "lucky": infrastructure and residential buildings there have been destroyed by 60%.
The number of destroyed smaller towns and villages is not yet known
Also, in the Donetsk region, Volnovakha, Vuhledar, Maryinka, and Lyman are practically in ruins, and Soledar was destroyed.
The cities of Kupiansk and Izyum, which have already been de-occupied in the Kharkiv region, were also severely damaged. Since leaving Kherson in November, Russian troops have been shelling the city daily, and 30-40% of the buildings there have been damaged.
Beyond these large and medium-sized cities, the number of destroyed smaller towns and villages is not yet known; they could be dozens or even hundreds.
Russia has destroyed more than 500 objects of Ukraine’s cultural infrastructure (museums, theaters, historical buildings, etc.), reports the Ministry of Culture and Information.
"A total of 1,322 objects of cultural infrastructure have already been damaged due to Russian aggression in Ukraine. Almost a third of them – 505 objects – have been destroyed. Cultural infrastructure suffered the greatest losses and damages in the regions of Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Luhansk.”
A final point is worth remembering: the data given on Ukrainian civilian casualties and physical destruction during the year of war is feared to be significantly higher, since the toll in territories under the control of the Russian army is still unknown.
To meet the need, Uganda trains farmers to grow the nutrient-rich fungi. Many beneficiaries are women seeking financial independence.
BUSHENYI — Dorothy Basemera Otim loves a hot bowl of wild mushroom gravy. The retired Ugandan news editor and television personality says for as long as she can remember, she has looked forward to the annual season when suddenly mushrooms spring out of the ground. But lately, that has been rare and unpredictable.
“In the last three years mushrooms have come twice and in different seasons,” she says, as she bends over to pluck some.
Otim thinks wild mushrooms have become rarer because not many parts of the half-acre plot she lives on lie undisturbed long enough to create the right conditions for them to grow. Like many Ugandans in urban areas, she now grows her own vegetables about three times a year, which means the ground is continually turned. The only place mushrooms appear in is the small corner under a mango tree where the dark shadow prevents vegetables from growing.
Vanishing wild mushrooms
The clearing of natural forests to create space for agriculture and human settlement has led to a steep decline in wild mushrooms, which used to be a cheap source of nutrients and were used as medicine by communities across Uganda. A report published in 2019 in the Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine found that the pressure on natural resources has mostly affected rural communities in Uganda and sub-Saharan Africa, where forests and grasslands that used to be communal have been either fenced off for conservation or leased to large-scale agriculture.
Mushroom farming has empowered women who had no source of income.
Wild mushrooms depend on carbon matter provided by dead roots and rotting timber to grow, says Robert Mulebeke, dean of the faculty of agriculture at Kyambogo University. The rotting process can take place only if land is undisturbed for at least two years, he says.
“Today there is very little land left to allow the rotting of wood for the growth of mushrooms,” Mulebeke says.
Female financial empowerment
With the decline in access to wild mushrooms, the Ugandan government sees mushroom farming as a great opportunity to fill the gap while at the same time creating jobs. The government has established 30 centers that offer farmers free training across the country in collaboration with Agromush, an organization that supplies mushroom-growing products and training, says Jane Mayambala, who heads the mushroom growing section at the government-run Uganda Industrial Research Institute.
“We give our farmers scientific knowledge of how to grow the fungi and seeds, which are micro, and this is done by people with microbiological skills to separate the two,” she says.
Mushroom farming has empowered women who had no source of income and used to stay at home while husbands provided for their families, Mayambala says. About 80% of the mushroom farmers the institute trains are women in villages who say they want financial independence, she says.
Ugandans love mushrooms because they are a healthier alternative.
In Kyamuhunga, Bushenyi district, women from Kibazi Women Group, one of the groups Mayambala has trained, meet in the home of a local leader to prepare gardens for their mushroom project. Perry Kengonzi, the group’s chairperson, says the women pool their resources to buy seeds.
As they prepare for planting, the women fetch water and soak bean husks that they sterilize the next morning by hard-boiling to provide an environment free of germs for seed germination, says Innocent Ngabirano, one of the members. Aisha Twikirize says learning how to grow mushrooms has changed the financial trajectory of the women’s families.
“When we sell, we can afford textbooks and school fees for our children,” Twikirize says.
Another member, Gorret Ninsima, says mushroom farming has enabled women to stop depending on men for the daily needs of their families.
“We are self-sufficient now,” she says.
Dorothy Basemera Otim picks wild mushrooms at her compound in Kampala, Uganda.
One reason mushroom farming has become attractive is its low startup cost, says Allen Kiiza, head of special projects at the Mushroom Training and Resource Centre in Kyanamira, in southwestern Uganda. Founded in 2007, the center trains about 800 farmers a year and is one of the oldest mushroom farms in Uganda, Kiiza says.
“We use agricultural waste such as coffee husks, sorghum and cotton hulls, and maize cobs as substrate material for growing mushrooms,” Kiiza says.
For many, mushroom farming has been life-changing. Julius Ndyayebwanta’s mushroom farm has 70 hanging bags known in the industry as gardens. He harvests 6 kilograms (13 pounds) worth 60,000 Ugandan shillings ($16) a day, most of which he supplies to homes and restaurants in the area.
“The demand is so high that I’m struggling to keep up,” Ndyayebwanta says.
Mushroom farming has been so good that Ndyayebwanta quit his job at Kitazigolokwa Primary School in Lyantonde district, where he taught English eight years, to venture into it.
“I was always at school,” he says. “All the time being reminded to stay smartly dressed, but they forgot that to be a good example, one needs money to buy nice clothes. When I figured the life of a teacher is a sacrifice, I quit.”
Ndyayebwanta says mushroom farming has also given him more time, which he uses to operate a boda boda, as motorcycle taxis are known in East Africa. Overall, he earns at least double his former teaching salary.
Ugandans love mushrooms because they are a healthier alternative, especially for people dealing with ailments like diabetes, which has become increasingly common in the country. Joseph Kakurungu says he was diagnosed with gout, a disease that stopped him from eating meat.
“I had to revert to eating mushroom for a meal that has no fat, and along the way I got hooked to its soup,” Kakurungu says. “I must add fresh mushrooms to everything I eat.”
Otim, the retired news editor, says farmed mushrooms are a good alternative, but they are not as good as wild ones.
“The taste is fine,” she says. “The fiber is tasty like fatless meat, but the aroma of wild mushrooms makes them a better choice.”
Mass consumption is encouraged in the West, but people, particularly women, and the planet pay the price for exploitative capitalism. So, we need to be clear that taking care of each other and tackling the climate crisis are inextricably linked.
Discussing consumption is never easy. The conversation gets even more complex when you consider the political action (or lack thereof) of the person who is consuming. How do we manage the instinct of somehow holding the individual solely responsible for the climate crisis.
There is a capitalist system that drags us towards mass consumption, but when more than one person rethinks the consumption model, we sow a seed that will bear fruit if we all water it.
Leticia Toledo and Maria Victoria Coronado drew attention to this in their article 'Slow-burn Consumption': “We live in a capitalist and patriarchal economic system, the existence of which is based on unlimited growth, which consumes raw materials and human energy to generate money," they write. "In this context, the only jobs that are considered to exist are those that produce goods and services that can be monetized."
Unpaid jobs — which account for two-thirds of the total time available — are left out of the calculation, despite being those that sustain life and that are mostly performed by women. In the same way, the dominant economic logic forgets that we are part of planet Earth, an ecological system with its own timelines and limits, which we depend on to satisfy our needs.
So how do we rethink consumption and provide people with dignified lives?
Economics of equality
Mercedes D'Alessandro, an Argentine economist and writer, defines feminist economics as an economic perspective that seeks to give more value to the role of women in the system of production. The economist studies issues such as poverty or inequality from a gender-based perspective, understanding that gender relations sustain and reproduce economic activity and contribute to generating poverty and inequality.
For this reason, when we talk about closing the wage gap, we cannot just stay on the surface, thinking that equal salaries are enough. Basically, we are talking about the need to transform the way we organize our daily economic life and also to change how we think about it.
Consumerism is associated with economic growth and the disappearance of poverty, but this is a myth.
The current economic system generates disadvantages every day for women, particularly women of color, women in precarious jobs, refugees, and migrants. It tends to reinforce inequalities, which are not errors or exceptions. It is the way capitalism works. It is a system that harms those who are caregivers, nurses, teachers, cleaners, mothers, grandmothers, and those working in public health care systems
What's more, if we introduce an ecological outlook to this feminist economy, as Leticia Toledo and Maria Victoria Coronado have stated, it means understanding that what we consume comes from the planet we inhabit, with its own timelines and limits, because neither fossil fuels nor minerals are infinite.
Workers at a garment manufacturing factory in Lianyungang, China
At Youth x Climate Spain, a youth-led organization that focuses on raising awareness and taking action on the issue of climate change, we denounce events that celebrate capitalism such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Consumerism is often associated with economic growth and the disappearance of poverty, but this is a myth. To maintain this level of consumption in privileged countries, it is necessary to continue exploiting workers in the Global South.
Let's talk about the highly exploitative textile industry, who exploits working women and has a devastating ecological impact.
With our consumption, we can oppress.
On the one hand, of the 75 million people who work in the world of clothing, 80% of these are women between the ages of 18 and 35. The majority live in countries with few legal protections and are exploited by large companies for one or two dollars a day.
The textile industry is also responsible for 10% of CO2 emissions worldwide. A study carried out by researchers from Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia revealed that the sector produces 92 million tons of waste per year and consumes 79 billion liters of water.
Workers facing inhumane labor conditions and being obliged to handle dangerous chemicals for human health are the price to pay to be able to sell mountains of cheap clothes.
Caring for others, and the environment
At Youth x the Climate, we encourage clothing exchanges, second-hand shopping and the promotion of local businesses. We stress the importance of educating and uniting collectives in order to stop this system that prioritizes lining the pockets of a few over caring for the lives of many.
Ultimately, we live in a consumerist system that encourages quick solutions. Take giving gifts, for example. Many times, when giving gifts, we do not think about others: neither the receivers of the gifts nor who has manufactured what we give away and under what conditions.
Consumption has many consequences. Activist Sara Boureiyi put it best: “With our consumption, we can oppress.” Racism, feminism and environmentalism are interrelated when we talk about consumption. It is difficult to raise the climate crisis as a priority when there are other emergencies.
However, it is impossible to address these problems exclusively. We are eco-dependent — we must not only take care of each other but also of the land we live on.
The more time passes, the more urgent the situation becomes. And we can't just propose easy solutions that don't go to the heart of fixing our exploitative and broken systems of manufacture and consumption.
The TV series “The Last of Us,” where a fungal infection creates a pandemic that turns people into violent zombies offers hints of what could become more possible as global warming creates the conditions for the spreading of killer fungi.
Let's face it: having just gone through a pandemic where denialist political discourse turned a significant part of the population into something resembling zombies, the prospect of a new pandemic where a microorganism itself devours the victims' brains is an unsettlingly real prospect.
The TV series, based on the video game of the same name, begins with an interview program from the 1960s, where a scientist argues that humans should be less concerned about viruses and bacteria, and more afraid of fungi, which can control the behavior of insects, and with global warming, could in theory adapt to a temperature closer to the human body and infect us.
With no current way to develop drugs or vaccines for such an infection, we would be lost.How much of this is a true story? There really are fungi that infect and alter the behavior of insects. One of these, the Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, inspired the creator of the videogame "The Last of Us." Popularly known as Cordyceps, the fungus produces spores – reproductive cells – that infect ants and multiply in the haemolymph, an insect's blood. After a few days, ants begin to show changes in behavior.
A study published by biologist David Hughes, a consultant for the game and for other zombie films, explains this process: the infected ants move away from the anthill, show muscle spasms and climb onto leaves or branches about 25 centimeters from the ground, sinking their jaws into the branch and remaining there, while the fungus eats them from the inside and eventually forms filaments that project out of their bodies and produce more spores. With the “possessed” ant hanging over the path where healthy insects pass, the probability of new spores falling on more ants is high.
Reality or fiction?
This highly specialized strategy is the result of a co-evolution between parasite and insect that took thousands of years to achieve such success – for the fungus, that is, because hanging with its jaw locked on a leaf while another organism controls its muscles does not seem to be good for the ant. Natural selection has ensured the greatest chance of reproduction for the fungus. For example, the fact that infected ants leave the anthill to hang nearby is essential. If they showed symptoms of the disease while still inside the nests, the colony would probably dispose of them. The ideal environment for fungus to grow is also cooler and wetter than the anthill's interior. And keeping the victim hanging from a leaf or branch ensures the fungus that its spores will land on passing ants, infecting a greater number of new hosts. If the ant died on the ground, the chances of the spores spreading would be much lower.
It's still not clear how the fungus takes control of the host's body; but contrary to fiction, the parasite does not invade the brain. Instead, according to recent studies, it's likely that some substance interferes with muscle contraction. Hughes research detected an increase in the production of toxins, and greater activation of the genes related to the production of ergot alkaloids, which are compounds produced by fungi that can change behavior and cause seizures and hallucinations.
Fungi produce compounds including psilocybin and the chemical precursors to LSD, both of which are potent psychedelics. Historical cases of ergotism, also called St. Anthony's Fire, caused by eating rye contaminated with fungi are well documented. Ergotism causes epilepsy, convulsions, hallucinations and gangrene.
The fungus is successful at spreading its spores by taking advantage of the cicadas' flight, and by sexual activity.
The ergot alkaloids are structurally similar to neurotransmitters like serotonin, and can cause reduced blood flow and sometimes tissue necrosis, especially in the extremities. They can also stimulate the central nervous system, which can trigger changes to the mental state including hallucinations and depression.
Literature documents several “epidemics” of ergotism. The most recent reports are from 1928 in England and 1951 in France, both caused by rye bread contaminated with the fungus Claviceps purpurea. The effects were a state of delirium, suicidal thoughts, a feeling of intense pain and burning, gangrene and loss of limbs.
A zombie fungus that attacks cicadas, of the Massospora cicadina species, uses a hallucinogenic compound that makes insects fly madly, spreading spores widely. And that's only after the fungus eats away the cicada's genitals and buttocks!
Male cicadas usually sing to attract females. Even after losing their genitals, infected males continue to make music and, if they attract a female, transmit the fungus. The male's behavior is also altered: he moves his wings in a way that imitates females, thus attracting other unsuspecting males who also end up becoming infected. The fungus is so successful that it manages to spread its spores not only by taking advantage of the cicadas' flight, but also their sexual activity.
Global warming to the rescue?
Is it possible, then, for a zombie fungus to infect humans – maybe as a result of climate change, as "The Last of Us" suggests?
It's unlikely. These parasites are highly specialized: one species of parasite infects only one species of host. Fungi that infect certain ants are not the same as those that infect caterpillars or cicadas. They are not even the same ones that infect other species of ants. Remember that the parasite needs thousands or millions of years of co-evolution before it can take over the host.
Furthermore, global warming seems unfavorable to the parasite.
Ophiocordyceps unilateralis of ants is not the only fungus of this type. Hundreds of species of Cordyceps infect different insects, and more than 30 cause changes in behavior. A well-known type, which became popular for quite different reasons, is the Ophiocordyceps sinensis, also called “Himalayan Viagra.” This fungus, which attacks caterpillars, is used in traditional Chinese medicine as an aphrodisiac and remedy for sexual impotence, and is also claimed to cure cancer and diabetes. It is also found in health food stores as an energy booster, at an average price of $125 USD per gram (although its effectiveness for anything other than parasitizing caterpillars has never been confirmed by science). Demand and global warming, however, have landed the fungus on the endangered species list. The parasite thrives in low temperatures, and with climate change and overexploitation, its numbers have plummeted.
The series was right in attributing the origin of the pandemic to grains contaminated with the fungus. But in nature, spores are transmitted by wide disperson; in the series, the infection is spread through bites and aggressive behavior of human zombies. In real life, infected insects do not show this kind of behavior: the only thing resembling a bite is the ant's jaw, stuck in a leaf, and spores are dispersed through the air and fall to the ground. In this sense, the series' infection is more like the rabies virus than zombie fungus. The creators of the series justified this change (in the game, spores are dispersed through the air) to avoid having actors wear masks all the time.
Another part of the series' doomsday prediction: the idea that humanity would lose a war against fungi because it would be impossible to develop a cure. It is true that our cells are much more like those of a fungus than a bacterium, which makes it difficult to develop a drug that kills the fungus but preserves human cells. There are few antifungals on the market. But it's certainly not impossible, given the right incentives – such as a global health emergency – to find or invent more. And the solution may come from another fungus.
The regions of the world where mosquitoes can comfortably exist are expanding.
Researchers working with the zombie ant fungus have recently discovered two species of fungus that infect the zombie fungus. The mechanism is still not well understood, but researchers report that the Cordyceps is consumed by parasitic fungi, and that in some cases, the new fungus “castrates” the Cordyceps, leaving it unable to reproduce, and then devours it. Fungi and bacteria compete for space and nutrients, and it's not uncommon for them to produce compounds that kill competitors. That's how we discovered most antibiotics, which are produced by bacteria.
While the zombie pandemic is just fiction, global warming may indeed make the world more conducive to emerging diseases – caused not by highly specialized fungi, but more likely by mosquito-borne viruses becoming endemic in regions that were once too cold, or by bringing people into more regular contact with other species that can exchange microorganisms with us.
The regions of the world where mosquitoes can comfortably exist are expanding, creating new possibilities for insects that transmit diseases such as dengue, Zika, yellow fever, chikungunya and malaria to become endemic where they once couldn't survive.
Global warming also reduces the habitat of species accustomed to milder climates, which tend to migrate to more favorable regions. If species that were once geographically separated are forced into closer contact, this could favor the passage of viruses and bacteria – and fungi – from one species to another, increasing the number of possible hosts.
Close-quarters animal husbandry also facilitates the transmission of disease, and contact with humans facilitates the "leap," or spillover, of microorganisms that can adapt to a human host. This was the case with avian and swine influenza. Illegal markets of wild animals also put humans in contact with animals that can be reservoirs of microorganisms, which we wouldn't otherwise encounter in nature.
The apocalypse, if it comes from a pandemic more uncontrollable and aggressive than COVID-19, is much more likely to result from this set of irresponsible human attitudes than from a zombie that attacks ants.
Greener than renewables, safer than oil and gas, nuclear power is deeply misunderstood — to the detriment to humans and our planet.
-OpEd-
When Russian forces attacked the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, back in March, many watched on in horror.
“By the grace of God, the world narrowly averted a nuclear catastrophe last night,” said the United States ambassador to the United Nations the next morning. When power was cut to Chernobyl five days later, the Ukrainian Foreign Minister tweeted that its reserve diesel generators only had a 48-hour capacity and that radiation leaks were “imminent.” And several months later, in an August video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky discussed the ongoing occupation of Zaporizhzhia, claiming that “every minute the Russian troops stay at the nuclear power plant is a risk of a global radiation disaster.”
None of these statements were accurate.
Commentators, either through ignorance or willful denial, misunderstood the layers of redundant safety systems built into nuclear plants like Zaporizhzhia. If power from the grid was cut, generators would turn on; if primary coolant was lost, a secondary system would kick in.
A “catastrophe” or “disaster” would require a lengthy series of human errors and system malfunctions. Such a chain of events might hypothetically occur, as it did at Three Mile Island, but it couldn’t happen from shelling and loss of power alone. A reactor would not and could not go off like a bomb.
Lessons from Ukraine war
Meanwhile, the highly radioactive mass inside Chernobyl is basically invulnerable, surrounded by a huge cement and metal sarcophagus, as well as an even bigger, $1.6 billion, airplane hangar-like structure designed to withstand earthquakes and tornadoes. A recent International Atomic Energy Agency report concluded that, even without electricity, Chernobyl’s 25-year old uranium fuel rods were covered with enough water to prevent them from becoming dangerous.
But the fact that so many people didn’t understand all the safeguards that were — and still are — in place is predictable. After all, nuclear power has always been overshadowed by rhetoric: overpromising techno-utopians on one hand, and fear-mongering doomsayers on the other. These twin narratives have dominated public opinion since Marie and Pierre Curie publicized both the terrible dangers and wondrous benefits of radiation, and they have persisted through recent coverage of the war in Ukraine.
Both narratives date from a time when no one cared how much carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere. Today, when emissions are of paramount importance, the way we value technologies has changed. And nuclear power has a previously unacknowledged upside: It emits practically nothing.
RUSSIA, January 2023: A view of a spray pond of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Energodar
Like wind and solar power, nuclear generates electricity without burning fossil fuels. But the mining and manufacturing processes behind wind turbine blades, solar panels, and uranium pellets do have carbon footprints. Considering this, an analysis by Our World in Data concluded that nuclear generates three tons of greenhouse gasses per terra-watt hour (TWh) of electricity produced, while wind generates 4, and solar 5.
Then there’s safety: The same analysis estimated the fatality rate for nuclear at 0.07 deaths per TWh, higher than wind, 0.04, and solar, 0.02. But lower than natural gas, estimated at 2.8 deaths per TWh, and much lower than coal power, at 24.6. Though risks can be complicated, and estimating deaths can often be speculative, there’s now plenty of evidence that, with climate impacts and other elements factored in, nuclear is way safer than many alternatives.
Yet, in a poll conducted by The Economist and YouGov, a market research company, shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, 47 percent of Americans said they didn’t think nuclear power plants were safe.
To be clear: nuclear power has real downsides. Uranium mining is destructive and toxic. Spent fuel has to be carefully and expensively sealed and stored. And, however small, there is the risk of radiation releases and meltdowns. The small amount of radiation that escaped from Three Mile Island — long dismissed as harmless by experts and the government — has led to localized increases in several kinds of cancer, according to a 2022 paper published in the journal Risks Hazards Crisis Public Policy. Wind and solar power may well be cheaper and less risky. But that doesn’t mean nuclear power is as bad as people think it is.
Toxic media coverage
Rather than actual statistical risk, the majority of citizens rely on risk perception, according to Paul Slovic, a professor at the University of Oregon and an expert on risk and decision making. In a 1987 article published in the journal Science, Slovic writes, “For these people, experience with hazards tends to come from the news media.” He cites a study from 1980, in which various groups were asked to rank 30 activities and technologies in order of risk. College students and members of the League of Women Voters assigned number 1, the highest risk, to nuclear power, ahead of hand guns and smoking. Experts ranked nuclear power at 20; motor vehicles at 1, smoking at 2, and hand guns at 4.
Slovic blamed this massive gap on “extensive unfavorable media coverage,” “deep anxieties,” and a “strong association between nuclear power and the proliferation and use of nuclear weapons.”
Utilities worked hard to separate weapons from reactors by replacing the word “atomic” with “nuclear.” But activists re-conflated the two by coining the term “nukes.” A 1979 protest march in Washington, D.C. — held a month after the Three Mile Island accident, which occurred near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania — used the slogan: “In every Harrisburg, there’s a Hiroshima waiting to happen.”
Russia, January 2022. Pressure gauges are pictured at Unit 1 of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Energodar.
This surge in anti-nuclear activism corresponded to a market-driven decline in the power sector. Dozens of nuclear reactors then on order were cancelled. Three Mile Island took the blame, and activists took the credit. But, in fact, all kinds of proposed power projects were being cancelled, as the country entered recession following the 1973 oil crisis.
When the U.S. again needed electrical generating capacity, in the early 2000s, policymakers chose to incentivize natural gas. As gas replaced coal, overall power sector emissions went down, but they could have come down farther if nuclear had taken coal’s market share instead.
It’s hard to tell the truth about radiation. There’s a lot we still don’t know — for example, how much radiation is harmful is hotly debated to this day. What’s needed is a clear-eyed assessment of costs and benefits, free from fear, free from corporate and institutional bias, and free — most of all — from hyperbolic political and media narratives. Strip away the fear and look at the facts, and we’d see that nuclear energy has always been relatively safe, while climate change is very dangerous.
The oil and gas sector is counting its billions, and preaching renewables. The math doesn't compute.
-Analysis-
PARIS — It’s been a gigantic week for the “Big Five.” Texas-based Exxon kicked things off, announcing a record $55.7 billion in annual profit. Fellow American oil giant Chevron followed, with $36.5 billion, UK multinational Shell was next with $39.9 billion, joined by London-based BP at $27.7 billion in gains, and to finish the week off in France with TotalEnergies posting its own all-time record net profits of $36.2 billion.
After the industry crisis during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, demand has returned to growth; and the war in Ukraine sparked an energy crisis that has pushed up prices leading to a staggering rise in earnings. The toasts in the corporate board rooms, however, come with the spotlight shining on the oil and gas sector like never before.
The Big Five today stand at the intersection of two of society’s deepest problems: wealth disparity and climate change.
In the short term, TotalEnergies announced that it will use some of the profits to lower the cost of gas and oil for its consumers as many families are currently struggling to pay increasingly expensive bills and gasoline.
With Plenitude
All the energy giants also emphasized this week that the focus of their future investments is in renewable energies. It is by now a reflex response to criticism from environmental protection organizations and consumers. Whether the top company leaders would forego profits to fight climate change is another question.
Will they forego profits to fight climate change?
Energy companies want to "present themselves as being on the right side of history and part of the solution," economist Maxime Combes told French daily Le Monde. Others simply call it “greenwashing.”
A more long-term attempt to reposition its messaging comes from Italy, where the Eni Group (in the top 10 of Western oil & gas firms) founded a separate entity in 2021 called Plenitude, a renewable energy company with the goal of offering gas and electricity supplies derived from renewable sources to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In the past days, Plenitude has been the main sponsor of the Sanremo festival, the iconic Italian song contest that is watched annually by an average of more than ten million viewers per night.
This year’s edition was often interrupted by the company's promotional spots reminding viewers how committed Eni is to the fight against climate change. However, as the Italian online daily newspaper Il Post explains, Plenitude produced operating profits of 497 million euros in 2022 — a relatively small figure when compared to that produced by all of Eni's other businesses and amounting to a net profit of 10.8 billion euros.
Such ratios can be found across the industry. According to an IEA study published in June 2022, the world's 20 leading oil and gas operators had spent only about $10 billion on clean energy technologies, particularly in the offshore wind and solar sectors. This is more than double the 2020 investment, but is still less than 4% of companies’ total investment in exploration and production activities. In other words, they're still busy drilling for good ol' fashioned oil and gas.
It may be upsetting to see these giant energy companies count their massive profits — but it's that last little number we all need to be watching.
In southern Ecuador, a women-led agricultural program offers valuable lessons on sustainable farming methods, but also how to end violence.
SARAGURO — Here in this corner of southern Ecuador, life seems to be like a mandala — everything is cleverly used in this ancestral system of circular production. But the women of Saraguro had to fight and resist to make their way of life, protecting the local water and the seeds. When weaving, the women share and take care of each other, also weaving a sense of community.
With the wrinkled tips of her fingers, Mercedes Quizhpe, an indigenous woman from the Kichwa Saraguro people, washes one by one the freshly harvested vegetables from her garden. Standing on a small bench, with her hands plunged into the strong torrent of icy water and the bone-chilling early morning breeze, she checks that each one of her vegetables is ready for fair day. Her actions hold a life of historical resistance, one that prioritizes the care of life through the defense of territory and food sovereignty.
Mercedes' way of life is also one that holds many potential lessons for how to do agriculture and tourism better.
In the province of Loja, work begins before sunrise. At 5:00 a.m., the barking of dogs, the guardians of each house, starts. There is that characteristic smell of damp earth from the morning dew. Sheep bah uninterruptedly through the day. With all this life around, the crowing of early-rising roosters doesn't sound so lonely.
Sunday is an important day for Mercedes. It is time for the fair, where she can sell her products. She knows that she has no time to lose, so she takes her knife to harvest. Mercedes prefers to sow “a little bit of everything”, so the plants, in their variety, will nourish each other without wearing down the soil on which they live. She rapidly identifies which plants are ready for harvest: a bit of lettuce, a bit of rosemary, a bit of parsley.
Rural Women's network
Mercedes Quizphe is president of the Mashi Pierre Foundation and coordinator of the Rural Women's Network. "Mechita" defines herself as a Chasqui Warmi (woman) from the Saraguro people. More than 20 years ago, Mercedes was widowed and left in charge of her eight sons and daughters. Shortly after, her mother, who had also been her refuge, passed away.
Mercedes would have to face a reality many struggle with, according to the last national census, carried out in 2010 in Ecuador. 339,656 (4.7%) women are “single mothers”. Friends and neighbors invited her to grow her own food, and to activities and workshops that, although she did not know it at the time, would get her involved in a life of activism for food sovereignty.
One by one, she cleaned the vegetables so that they look "pretty" for sale. She says proudly that the dried leaves will serve as compost. “Here nothing is wasted," she says.
The ashes of the firewood, the plants that will not be for sale, and the feces of the chickens and cuys (animal native to the region) are used to make natural fertilizer, which makes chemical-free food, as well as a circular production system, which is very different to what happens in the production systems in the rest of the world.
The cost of food waste
Isabel Pazmiño, a member of the Food Bank, says that Ecuador wastes 939,000 tons of food per year. This would feed 1.5 million people, or 8.8% of the population. According to the latest report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), worldwide food waste has reached 1,600 million tons. This also has environmental impacts. “The carbon footprint of food waste is estimated at 3.3 billion tons of CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gases released into the atmosphere per year,” the report says.
According to United Explanations, one of the main causes of food waste is the "perfection myth", which emphasizes that the products on the shelves are the "best quality" depending on their appearance. However, the aesthetics of the product is not related to its nutritional value.
At Mercedes' house, the water jet suddenly stops working. She gets down from the bench and puts down her vegetables, quickly but carefully, in three baskets. She cleans the space and recounts all the times she has fallen sick from washing the vegetables in cold water at dawn. She runs to take a shower, changes her clothes and puts on the typical attire of her community. A long black skirt with a sash with gold embroidery, an embroidered pastel pink blouse, a blue poncho, a hat with an inner brim.
She also wears a distinctive necklace of beads that Mercedes herself wove, symbolizing one of the most recognized crafts of her town. For the Saraguro people, it is important to always carry their identity. “They see us in our attire, our elegance, our smile, and with that we show that our identity is very important. That's the pride we carry as indigenous peoples and nations,” Mercedes says happily.
The road to the fair in the center of Saraguro is long, even more so when the wrists start to hurt due to the weight of the baskets. When the load is too much, Mercedes must take a taxi, which will cost approximately $1.50. That's a steep price, considering that she will earn between 50 and 75 cents for a lettuce that required approximately 3 months of care until it was harvested.
Even so, the value of their produce increases the further it travels. According to the Center for Asia-Pacific Studies, products like lentils are sold 117% more expensive after they leave the production site. That is to say, in the cities they can be six times more expensive. However, those who planted and harvested these products do not receive any extra profit. “It's hard to see that you work so much and you don't get paid fairly. You never get paid fairly, and you wear out your body, energy, and mind. We want our work to be fairly recognized,” says Mercedes.
At the market, people offer their products and in the background music plays. There’s a special area in the market for women-led exclusively agro-ecology. “The difference is that the compañeras have a certificate that guarantees that all the products are grown just like in my garden — no chemicals, no fumigation and made by women,” says Mercedes.
The women talk about life, children, rising prices, the farms, the government, love, husbands, caring, violence, fears. Mercedes knows the fear well. "That fear of many compañeras who say: no, I don't want to split from my husband, I'm not going to make it alone. But I've had the opportunity to go through all that and yes, you can get out, you can live."
Mercedes' story is that of many indigenous women who have grown up with the phrase "even if he hits or kills, he's a husband". Many of these women found the strength to leave violent environments through social outreach programmes.
Strengthening the community
The book How We Learned to Fly collects the testimonies of the indigenous women of Saraguro who, through collective and feminist processes, have broken cycles of violence.
In a weaving workshop she leads, Mercedes hears women's stories the violence they have experienced, violence she experienced herself. Mercedes tells them her story. For her, it is not just making a bracelet, but tying knots with the women in the workshop to weave and strengthen each other. “If a neighbor or relative has a need, we lend our hands to help take care of the children, so they can do their paperwork. In our communities, we still maintain that collective support, especially women.”
Mercedes is recognized as a feminist indigenous woman who has participated in sit-ins, protests and has strengthened connections with women from her community. She recounts when she and her compañeras were in a sit-in in the province of Loja to demand justice for a girl who had been raped in Saraguro. They confronted the police who wanted to displace them, but like the necklaces they weave, they linked arms, wove themselves together and couldn’t be separated or moved.
Mercedes and her companions call themselves the Chasqui Warmi Quna. They have held leadership workshops on handicrafts, ecological pesticides, and the patriarchal and capitalist system. "Community tourism is not sweeping the house for the tourist to come, it is sweeping the house for the family and sharing activities together," says Ricardo, Mercedes' son.
