AFP UK

Utah land rich in dinosaur fossils has regained protection stripped away by former President Donald Trump, easing fears that they would be ravaged by mining and other commercial activity.

“Close to 10 percent of all dinosaurs known in the world are from Utah,” said Jim Kirkland, a paleontologist who has explored Utah’s Grand Staircase monument area for nearly 50 years. “It’s pretty remarkable.”

Grand Staircase has a worldwide reputation for the quality and range of dinosaur fossils found.

At the end of 2017, Trump’s administration pulled back borders of three protected areas, two of them in Utah, opening previously safeguarded land to mining and fishing.

The move was popular with industry groups but angered conservationists, researchers, and indigenous tribes.

“When they cut the boundaries back, some sites that are near and dear to my heart, that I had discovered, were chopped out,” Kirkland told AFP.

He was left to hope that the remains of triceratops and other dinosaurs would not be obliterated in the name of corporate profit.

President Joe Biden on Friday restored environmental protections for two wild Utah expanses linked to America’s indigenous history, and also a biodiverse area of the Atlantic.

Biden signed the proclamations at a ceremony on the North Lawn at the White House, restoring the full size and status at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in Utah, as well as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts area off the east coast.

“After the last administration chipped away their protections, today I’m proud to announce the protection and expansion of three of our most treasured national monuments,” he said.

– Bones vs Coal –

For paleontologists, few regions in the world come close to the Rocky Mountains, with the dinosaur treasures buried there.

During the Late Cretaceous period  — 100 to 66 million ago years ago, just before the dinosaurs went extinct — all kinds of dinosaurs and mammals inhabited the area.

Researchers continue to be amazed by the diversity and abundance of dinosaur bones found here, along with how well they have been preserved.

A few scattered vertebrae are not enough to identify a previously unknown species. To do that, scientists need many parts of a skeleton and, ideally, specimens from several of the creatures.

“So many of our duck-billed dinosaurs, like this one, are still covered with the impressions of their skin; you can see their scales,” said Joe Sertich, dinosaurs curator at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

“The mudstone and sandstone of Grand Staircase preserve some of the best quality dinosaur bones you’ll see anywhere in the world.”

But the land is also rich in minerals such as coal and it is of interest to the tourism industry and ranchers.

Sertich believes the competing interests could co-exist, but taking away protected status opens the door to theft, vandalism, and destruction.

“When you operate a coal mine… many of these fossils are lost forever,” Sertich told AFP during a tour of the museum.

– The last dinosaur –

And while some may think that digging up dinosaur bones is not a priority, scientists say studying how they lived and died provides a better understanding of climate change threatening life today.

“By going back into dinosaur ecosystems, we learn a lot about the world around us right now,” Sertich said.

“This is the only way we can learn how evolution works on millions-of-year time scales.”

He has been combing the Grand Staircase for fossils for 17 years.

“Being able to find to find new dinosaurs every time you spend one or two weeks out in the field is unlike anything you can do anywhere,” the museum curator said.

Sertich pointed to bones from a new species of domed dinosaur that were unearthed just five meters from Trump’s shrunken boundary line.

“By preserving a place like this, we have this repository where dinosaurs can always be discovered,” Sertich said.

When Star Trek first aired in 1966, America was still three years away from putting people on the Moon and the idea that people could one day live and work in space seemed like a fantasy.

On October 12, William Shatner — Captain James T. Kirk to Trekkies — is set to become the first member of the iconic show’s cast to journey to the final frontier, as a guest aboard a Blue Origin suborbital rocket.

For fans, the 10-minute hop from a West Texas base back to Earth will be a fitting coda for a pop culture phenomenon that inspired generations of astronauts.

“I plan to be looking out the window with my nose pressed against the window, the only thing that I don’t want to see is a little gremlin looking back at me,” the 90-year-old Canadian, who will become the oldest person ever to go to space, joked in a video release.

Blue Origin’s decision to invite one of the most recognizable galaxy-faring characters from science fiction for its second crewed flight has helped maintain excitement around the nascent space tourism sector, as the novelty starts to wear off.

This summer saw flamboyant British entrepreneur Richard Branson fly just beyond the atmosphere in a Virgin Galactic vessel on July 9, beating the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos by a few days in their battle of the billionaire space barons.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX sent four private astronauts to orbit the Earth for three days as part of the Inspiration4 mission in September, which raised more than $200 million for charity.

“Bringing on a celebrity like William Shatner, who’s related to space, brings a kind of renewed novelty, and creates media and cultural attention,” Joe Czabovsky, an expert in public relations at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill told AFP.

– Pioneering show – 

The original Star Trek was canceled after only three seasons, but went on to spawn more than a dozen movies and several spin-off series, including some that are ongoing.

Shatner, as the plucky and decisive Kirk, commanded the USS Enterprise on a five-year-mission “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

His actual voyage to space will be far shorter, taking the crew just beyond the Karman line, 62 miles (100 kilometers) high, where they will experience four minutes of weightlessness and gaze out at the curvature of the planet.

He will be joined by Audrey Powers, Blue Origin’s vice president of mission and flight operations, Planet Labs co-founder Chris Boshuizen, and Glen de Vries, a co-founder of clinical research platform Medidata Solutions.

Star Trek turned American attention to the stars as the US space program was in its offing, landing a man on the Moon towards the end of its run in 1969.

It broke ground by tackling complicated moral questions, and was notable for its diverse cast at a time when the country was struggling through the Civil Rights era. 

The Enterprise crew included an Asian-American helmsman, a half-human half-Vulcan science officer, and a Russian-born ensign.  

Shatner made history in 1968 when he kissed Black co-star Nichelle Nichols, who played Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, in the first interracial kiss on American television.

– Influential – 

The show is also closely intertwined with the US space program.

In 1976 the first Space Shuttle was named “Enterprise” following a letter writing campaign by fans that swayed then-president Gerald Ford.

NASA hired Nichols in the 1970s to help recruit new astronauts, and numerous other cast members have voiced official documentaries or given talks for the agency.

Astronauts have returned the favor, posing in Star Trek uniforms for mission-related posters and embracing the show’s motifs. 

“For 50 years, Star Trek has inspired generations of scientists, engineers, and even astronauts,” NASA astronaut Victor Glover said in a 2016 video that drew parallels between research on the Enterprise and the scientific instruments on the ISS today.

Another mega-fan: Bezos himself.

Amazon’s Alexa was said to be inspired by the conversational computer in Star Trek, and Bezos — wearing heavy makeup sporting an egg-shaped head — appeared in a cameo in the 2016 film “Star Trek Beyond.”

Shatner’s star power and wit — he joked to CNN’s Anderson Cooper that the New Shepard rocket, which has been mocked for its phallic appearance, was in fact “inseminating the space program” — could provide a welcome distraction for Blue Origin.

The company is under a cloud of allegations, made by a former senior employee, about a “toxic” work culture with rampant sexual harassment and decision making that prioritized speed over safety.

Blue Origin denied the claims and said the employee was sacked two years ago for issues involving US export control regulations.

Starving microorganisms capable of surviving in extreme conditions have already managed to “eat” a nail in just three days.

In Chile, a scientist is testing “metal-eating” bacteria she hopes could help clean up the country’s highly-polluting mining industry.

In her laboratory in Antofagasta, an industrial town 1,100-kilometers north of Santiago, 33-year-old biotechnologist Nadac Reales has been carrying out tests with extremophiles — organisms that live in extreme environments.

Reales came up with her idea while still at university as she was conducting tests at a mining plant using microorganisms to improve the extraction of copper.

“I realized there were various needs in the mining industry, for example what happened with the metallic waste,” she told AFP.

Some metals can be recycled in smelting plants but others, such as HGV truck hoppers that can hold 50 tons of rock, cannot and are often discarded in Chile’s Atacama desert, home to the majority of the country’s mining industry.

Chile is the world’s largest producer of copper, which accounts for up to 15 percent of the country’s GDP, resulting in a lot of mining waste that pollutes the environment.

In her research, Reales, who now runs her own company Rudanac Biotec, concentrated on iron-oxidizing bacteria called Leptospirillum.

She extracted the bacteria from the Tatio geysers located 4,200 meters above sea level, some 350 kilometers from Antofagasta.

The bacteria “live in an acidic environment that is practically unaffected by relatively high concentrations of most metals,” she said.

“At first the bacteria took two months to disintegrate a nail.”

But when starved, they had to adapt and find a way of feeding themselves.

After two years of trials, the result was a marked increase in the speed at which the bacteria “ate,” devouring a nail in just three days.

– Surprising benefit –

Reales says “chemical and microbiological tests” have proved the bacteria are not harmful to humans or the environment.

“We’ve always seen a lot of potential in this project that has already passed an important test in the laboratory,” said Drina Vejar, a microbiologist who is part of a four-person team working with Reales.

“It’s really necessary at this time when we have to plan for a more sustainable development, especially in all these cities with so many polluting industries.”

Mining companies have shown interest in the research but while Rudanac Biotec previously benefitted from a state fund for start-ups, the company needs investment to move on to its next stage of trials.

Reales says she needs money to see if her method will “eat a medium sized beam or a hopper.”

When the disintegration process is complete, what remains is a reddish liquid residue, a solution known as a lixiviant that itself possesses a surprising quality.

“After biodisintegration the product generated (the liquid) can improve the recovery of copper in a process called hydrometallurgy,” said Reales.

Essentially, the liquid residue can be used to extract copper from rock in a more sustainable manner than the current use of chemicals in leaching.

Reales says it means green mining is “totally feasible.”

That is of great interest to mining companies that could use it to improve their large scale extraction of copper or other minerals, while also reducing their pollution, something they are required to do by law.

Reales recently submitted a request for an international patent for her technology, but more importantly she hopes it will help reduce metal waste blotting the landscape in the mining regions of her country.

A fractured pipeline that spewed crude oil off the coast of California could have been leaking for a year, US investigators said Friday.

Tens of thousands of gallons of oil are feared to have leeched into waters that are home to whales, dolphins and otters since a leak was discovered last weekend.

Stretches of prime surfing coastline have been shuttered as clean-up crews raced to prevent the spoiling of beaches, and rescue animals caught up in the slick.

US news outlets reported that a ship’s anchor could have been responsible for dragging the pipeline along the seabed and splitting it open.

But Coast Guard officials investigating the incident said Friday the rupture might not be new, and could have happened as long as a year ago.

Captain Jason Neubauer said multiple ships’ anchors may have contributed to the displacement of the pipe, and it was not initially clear when the leak began.

Underwater video of the damaged pipeline shows “marine growth” around the 13-inch crack that is leaking oil — something that would not have appeared overnight.

This discovery “has refocused the … timeframe of our investigation to at least several months to a year ago,” Neubauer said.  

A routine inspection by pipeline owner Amplify Energy which took place last October showed no damage, he said.

“We’re going to be looking at every vessel movement over that pipeline and every close encroachment over the past year,” Neubauer said.    

That will include examining satellite images, radio broadcasts and vessel traffic patterns.

The nearby container ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are among the world’s busiest.

A pandemic-sparked logjam has left dozens of huge vessels at a time anchored at sea while they await a berth.

Captains ordered to wait outside the port are given specific places to set anchor, but investigators will look to see if any anchors have been dropped in the wrong place.

They will also look to see if a storm that tore through the area in January could have moved any of the ships.

Martyn Willsher, the chief executive of Amplify Energy, said this week that underwater observations revealed that 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) of the pipeline were not where they should be.

“The pipeline has essentially been pulled like a bowstring,” he told a press conference on Tuesday.

“At its widest point it is 105 feet away from where it was,” he said, adding the break in the pipeline was at the apex of this bend.

Willsher refused to speculate on the cause of that displacement and whether a ship’s anchor could be responsible, but said: “It is a 16-inch steel pipeline that’s a half inch thick and covered in an inch of concrete.

“For it to be moved 105 feet is not common.”

Officials involved in the clean up originally said well over 100,000 gallons of crude could have been spilled.

But on Thursday they said the actual amount could have been around 25,000 gallons.

A fractured pipeline spewing crude oil off the coast of California could have been leaking for a year, US investigators said Friday.

Tens of thousands of gallons of oil are feared to have leeched into waters that are home to whales, dolphins and otters since a leak was discovered last weekend.

Stretches of prime surfing coastline have been shuttered as clean-up crews raced to prevent the spoiling of beaches and rescue animals caught up in the slick.

US news outlets reported that a ship’s anchor could have been responsible for dragging the pipeline along the seabed and splitting it open.

But Coast Guard officials investigating the incident said Friday the rupture might not be new, and could have happened as long as a year ago.

Captain Jason Neubauer said multiple ships’ anchors may have contributed to the displacement of the pipe, and it was not initially clear when the leak began.

Martyn Willsher, the chief executive of pipeline operator Amplify Energy, said this week that underwater observations revealed that 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) of the pipeline was not where it should be.

“The pipeline has essentially been pulled like a bowstring,” he told a press conference on Tuesday.

“At its widest point it is 105 feet away from where it was,” he said, adding the break in the pipeline was at the apex of this bend.

Willsher refused to speculate on the cause of that displacement and whether a ship’s anchor could be responsible, but said: “It is a 16-inch steel pipeline that’s a half inch thick and covered in an inch of concrete.

“For it to be moved 105 feet is not common.”

President Joe Biden on Friday restored environmental protections for two wild Utah expanses linked to America’s indigenous history, and also a biodiverse area of the Atlantic, reversing his predecessor Donald Trump’s move to open the national monuments to mining and fishing.

Biden signed the proclamations at a ceremony on the North Lawn at the White House, restoring the full size and status at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in Utah, as well as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts area off the east coast.

“After the last administration chipped away their protections, today I’m proud to announce the protection and expansion of three of our most treasured national monuments,” he said.

Trump downgraded the three monuments in a move popular with industry groups but outraging environmentalists and indigenous tribes.

Biden also became the first US president to issue a proclamation for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which coincides with the increasingly controversial national holiday celebrating explorer Christopher Columbus.

“For generations, federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace native people and eradicate native cultures. Today, we recognize indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength, as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made,” Biden said in the proclamation.

In a separate proclamation celebrating Columbus, Biden emphasized the immigration from Italy over subsequent centuries after the navigator opened up the Americas to Europeans, while on a voyage searching for a route to Asia.

With increasing focus on the terrible costs paid by peoples already living on the continent as European settlers expanded westward, Columbus is often seen today as a problematic figure.

Biden reflected this, saying, “We also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on tribal nations and indigenous communities.”

“It is a measure of our greatness as a nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light,” Biden said. “For Native Americans, western exploration ushered in a wave of devastation.”

A US woman who got up close and personal with a grizzly bear so she could take a photo has been jailed for four days.

Samantha Dehring got within a few feet of the enormous animal and her three cubs so she could snap her picture in Yellowstone National Park in May.

The 25-year-old was with a group of other tourists when the razor-clawed creature arrived.

As other visitors backed away to the safety of their vehicles — following instructions from park rangers — Dehring went towards the bear and snapped away.

“Approaching a sow grizzly with cubs is absolutely foolish,” said Acting United States Attorney Bob Murray in Wyoming, where the bulk of the sprawling reserve is located.

“Here, pure luck is why Dehring is a criminal defendant and not a mauled tourist.”

“Wildlife in Yellowstone National Park are, indeed, wild. The park is not a zoo where animals can be viewed within the safety of a fenced enclosure. They roam freely in their natural habitat and when threatened will react accordingly.”

Park rules say visitors should stay at least 100 yards (90 meters) away from bears and wolves.

Dehring admitted the offense and was jailed for four days and fined $1,000.

Yellowstone was the first national park established in the United States. It stretches for more than 3,000 square miles (7,700 square kilometers) and includes attractions such as Old Faithful, a huge geyser. 

The park was the inspiration for Jellystone Park in the 1960s cartoon “Yogi Bear”, featuring a friendly, but permanently hungry, bear whose chief preoccupation is snaffling visitors’ “pic-a-nic baskets.”

President Joe Biden on Friday restored environmental protections for two wild Utah expanses linked to America’s indigenous history, and also a biodiverse area of the Atlantic, reversing his predecessor Donald Trump’s move to open the national monuments to mining and fishing.

Biden signed the proclamations at a ceremony on the North Lawn at the White House, restoring the full size and status at Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in Utah, as well as the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts area off the east coast.

“After the last administration chipped away their protections, today I’m proud to announce the protection and expansion of three of our most treasured national monuments,” he said.

Trump downgraded the three monuments in a move popular with industry groups but outraging environmentalists and indigenous tribes.

Biden also became the first US president to issue a proclamation for Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which coincides with the increasingly controversial national holiday celebrating explorer Christopher Columbus.

“For generations, federal policies systematically sought to assimilate and displace native people and eradicate native cultures. Today, we recognize indigenous peoples’ resilience and strength, as well as the immeasurable positive impact that they have made,” Biden said in the proclamation.

In a separate proclamation celebrating Columbus, Biden emphasized the immigration from Italy over subsequent centuries after the navigator opened up the Americas to Europeans, while on a voyage searching for a route to Asia.

With increasing focus on the terrible costs paid by peoples already living on the continent as European settlers expanded westward, Columbus is often seen today as a problematic figure.

Biden reflected this, saying, “We also acknowledge the painful history of wrongs and atrocities that many European explorers inflicted on tribal nations and indigenous communities.”

“It is a measure of our greatness as a nation that we do not seek to bury these shameful episodes of our past — that we face them honestly, we bring them to the light,” Biden said. “For Native Americans, western exploration ushered in a wave of devastation.”

Italian Giorgio Parisi, winner of the 2021 Nobel Physics Prize, slammed Friday the lack of funding for research in Italy, saying it invested one of the lowest amounts in Europe.

“Research is underfunded and the situation has worsened over the past 10-15 years,” he told a press conference with the foreign press in Rome.

“I was pleased to see that Mario Draghi’s government is committed to increasing the research budget, we are at the bottom (of the list of funding amounts)” in the European Union, he said.

Research Minister Cristina Messa promised six billion euros in funding for 60 projects on Thursday, including five billion this year.

According to 2019 data from Eurostat, Italy spent 1.45 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on research, while the EU average is 2.19 percent. It lags far behind Germany, which spends 3.17 percent.

“Italy is not a welcoming country for researchers, whether Italian or foreign,” said Parisi, who on Tuesday won the prize along with two other scientists, Japanese-American scientist Syukuro Manabe and Klaus Hasselmann of Germany.

“Research is like a vegetable garden, if you think you can water it every fortnight, things will go wrong,” he said.

“It’s worse than a plague,” curses Pedro Antonio Sanchez, fuming over the volcanic grit coating his bananas, the main source of wealth on the Canaries’ island of La Palma. 

“It’s worse than a pest or disease because it scratches (the fruit),” says Sanchez, gesturing at the black sandy deposits that have rained down from the sky since the volcano erupted on September 19. 

The volcano has caused huge damage to banana plantations in La Palma — the second-largest producer in the Atlantic Canary Islands — where the crop accounts for 50 percent of the island’s economy, industry figures show.

Once the black grit lands on the bananas, it is almost impossible to remove. 

And it causes further damage in the handling, transport and packing, with the huge bunches — which are known as “pineapples” and can weigh up to 70 kilos (150 pounds) — carried on the shoulders. 

“You have to blast it off with water or something, to be honest I don’t know how to do it,” says this 60-year-old who owns a small plantation. 

“When the dew forms overnight, it really makes the grit stick and in the morning it just won’t come off,” he says, with evident frustration. 

The skin blackens in the form of a scratch but nothing like the brownish-black markings, known as bruises, which show the fruit is ripe. 

And although the banana is perfect, it is rejected and cannot be sold. 

“European quality regulations ban the sale of bananas with more than four square centimetres of scratches per fruit, even if they are perfect inside and can be eaten without risk,” says Esther Dominguez of ASPROCAN, which represents banana producers in the Canary Islands. 

– One year’s crop lost –

“It just takes away your desire to work, makes you want to throw in the towel because they are just so ugly,” he says, his face darkening as he looks at his damaged fruit. 

“We’re in a really bad situation.”

The volcano’s eruption has predominantly hurt the Aridane valley on the western flank of La Palma, although the problem caused by volcanic ash and grit has affected a much wider area.

“It is not just the Aridane valley because the wind changes direction and ash is blown all over so 100 percent of the island is affected,” Juan Vicente Rodriguez Leal, head of the Covalle agricultural cooperative told AFP.

“So we are going to have a significant loss of at least one year’s crop,” he said, estimating losses of “around 120 to 130 million euros ($140 to $150 million)”.

The plantations are also suffering from a lack of water after the lava destroyed the area’s irrigation pipeline. 

Bananas, explains Sanchez, need a lot of water and the current shortage “is the biggest threat”. 

La Palma has long suffered from water shortages, with no rivers, lakes or reservoirs, with the island getting its water from underground aquifers or clouds whose water is collected by pine trees and transferred to the ground. 

Bananas “need a lot of irrigation every seven days. Now we’re irrigating every 15 days to save water, and although they’re not going to dry out, the fruit feels the impact,” he says. 

Two water desalination containers were delivered to the area late Tuesday, and a water tanker will be brought in next week. 

– Deliveries down 50 percent –

The harvested bananas are transported to Los Llanos de Aridane where Covalle packs and ships them.  

But since the eruption, “there has been a drop of about 50 to 60 percent” in deliveries, Covalle’s manager Enrique Rodriguez told AFP, pointing to the number of plantations “swept away by the lava”. 

Others were struggling with restricted access to plantations close to the lava flow, he said.

In 2020, La Palma produced 148,000 tonnes of bananas, or 34.5 percent of the Canaries’ overall crop, ASPROCAN figures show. 

In terms of production, it is second only to Tenerife, which is three times larger. 

Banana growers stand out for the indelible stains on their clothes, brown patches caused by the milky juice that leaks out when the teardrop-shaped magenta blossoms are cut. 

One-tenth of La Palma’s 700 square kilometres (270 square miles) is dedicated to agriculture, of which 43 percent is planted in bananas, according to the Biosphere Reserve of La Palma.

More than 80 percent of the banana plantations in the Canaries are modest plots of less than 2.5 acres (one hectare), with many farmers living hand-to-mouth. 

Although Sanchez enjoys the work, he’s had enough of living on the breadline. 

“There are months when you bring in 1,000 euros ($1,150) or a bit more but it’s normally less” — sometimes even as little as 300 euros, he says. 

“It just doesn’t make me feel like working.”