AFP UK

Scientists say they have successfully “potty trained” cows to urinate in a designated toilet area as part of a programme aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions.

The team of New Zealand and German researchers admitted the idea began as a joke but said dealing with cows’ nitrogen-rich liquid waste could have genuine long-term climate benefits.

“If we could collect 10 or 20 percent of urinations, it would be sufficient to reduce greenhouse gas emission and nitrate leaching significantly,” Auckland University’s Douglas Elliffe said.

Elliffe said the nitrogen in cow pee broke down into two problem substances over time — nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas, and nitrate, which collects in soil then leaches into rivers and streams.

Nitrous oxide accounts for about five percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and just under 10 percent of New Zealand’s total, according to official data, with more than half linked to livestock.

Researcher Lindsay Matthews said that the idea of toilet training cows so their urine could be captured and treated first occurred to him when a radio host was interviewing him in 2007 and made a throwaway joke on the matter.

“People’s reaction is ‘crazy scientists’ but actually the building blocks are there,” he said.

Working with colleagues in Germany, the scientists used food rewards to train 16 calves to urinate in a latrine pen, saying the results were similar to those you would expect from a three-year-old child.

Elliffe said the research, published this week in the journal Current Biology, provided “proof of concept” that toilet training cows was possible.

He said the challenge was to upscale the concept to train large herds and adapt it for cows in environments such as New Zealand, where the animals live outdoors rather than spending most of their time in barns.

Farming creates about half of New Zealand’s greenhouse emissions, mostly in the form of methane and nitrous oxide.

Unusually for a developed nation, New Zealand’s farm-reliant economy means methane accounts for about 43.5 percent of  the country’s emissions, almost equal to the amount of carbon dioxide generated by sources such as fossil fuels.

The South Pacific country has numerous research projects examining possible solutions, such as breeding low-methane emitting livestock, using feeds that reduce emissions and even vaccinating animals so they produce less harmful gases.

Vaccines are effective enough at preventing severe Covid-19 that there is no current need for the general population to be given third doses, according to a report in The Lancet published Monday.   

Some countries have started offering extra doses over fears about the much more contagious Delta variant, causing the World Health Organization to call for a moratorium on third jabs amid concerns about vaccine supplies to poorer nations, where millions have yet to receive their first jab.  

But a report by scientists, including from the WHO, concluded that even with the threat of Delta, “booster doses for the general population are not appropriate at this stage in the pandemic”.

The authors, who reviewed observational studies and clinical trials, found that vaccines remain highly effective against severe symptoms of Covid-19, across all the main virus variants including Delta, although they had lower success in preventing asymptomatic disease. 

“Taken as a whole, the currently available studies do not provide credible evidence of substantially declining protection against severe disease, which is the primary goal of vaccination,” said lead author Ana-Maria Henao-Restrepo, of the WHO. 

She said vaccine doses should be prioritised to people around the world still waiting for a jab. 

“If vaccines are deployed where they would do the most good, they could hasten the end of the pandemic by inhibiting further evolution of variants,” she added.

Countries like France have started distributing third jabs to the elderly and people with compromised immune systems, while Israel has gone further, offering children 12 and older a third dose five months after full vaccination. 

The Lancet study concluded that the current variants had not developed sufficiently to escape the immune response provided by vaccines currently in use. 

The authors argue that if new virus mutations did emerge that were able to evade this response, it would be better to deliver specially modified vaccine boosters aimed at newer variants, than those based on the existing vaccines.  

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has called on countries to avoid giving out extra Covid jabs until the end of the year.  

The UN health agency has set a global target of seeing every country vaccinate at least 10 percent of its population by the end of this month, and at least 40 percent by the end of this year.

It wants to see at least 70 percent of the world’s population vaccinated by the middle of next year.

But Tedros complained that while almost all wealthy countries have hit the 10-percent mark, and more than 70 percent have reached 40 percent, “not a single low-income country has reached either target”.

Chilean scientists have announced the discovery of the first-ever southern hemisphere remains of a type of Jurassic-era “winged lizard” known as a pterosaur.

Fossils of the reptile, which lived some 160 million years ago in what is today the Atacama desert, were unearthed in 2009.

They have now been confirmed to be of a rhamphorhynchine pterosaur — the first such creature to be found in Gondwana, the prehistoric supercontinent that later formed the southern hemisphere landmasses.

Researcher Jhonatan Alarcon of the University of Chile said the creatures had a wingspan of up to two meters (six feet), a long tail and pointed snout.

“We show that the distribution of animals in this group was wider than known to date,” he added.

The discovery was also “the oldest known pterosaur found in Chile,” the scientists reported in the scientific journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.  

Light rain gave some breathing room to crews struggling on Monday to battle a “monster” wildfire in Spain that has killed a firefighter and forced roughly 2,600 people from their homes.

About 500 firefighters and 51 water-dropping planes have been tackling the blaze, which officials believe was started deliberately last Wednesday in the southern Malaga province, the regional government said.

Firefighters were joined on Sunday by some 260 soldiers from the military’s emergency brigade as they battled to control the blaze in the Sierra Bermeja mountains.

TV footage showed older residents who had been evacuated to the town of Ronda breaking into applause as it began to rain.

But firefighters said the rain would not be enough to bring the blaze under control.

“The rain will not put out the fire,” said regional fire chief Juan Sanchez.

“But in places where we have it under control, it will help shorten the time to extinguish it completely.”

– ‘Ray of hope’ –

The fire, described by local emergency services as “complex and exceptional”, has so far destroyed some 8,000 hectares (20,000 acres).

Erratic winds, scorching temperatures and low humidity levels had helped to turn the blaze into a “hungry monster”, the region’s deputy fire chief Alejandro Garcia said last week.

Authorities had on Sunday removed some 1,600 people from six villages as a precaution. 

Roughly 1,000 people, who had been evacuated from the coastal resort of Estepona when the blaze first began, were on Monday allowed to go back home.

“Controlling it today seems like too much to ask but there is a ray of hope,” regional environment minister Carmen Crespo told news radio Ser.

Two firefighters were injured from falls on Sunday, the regional government said, while a 44-year-old firefighter died on Thursday. His funeral was held on Sunday.

Southern Spain is the latest area around the Mediterranean basin to be hit by wildfires this summer, a seasonal phenomenon that climate scientists warn will become increasingly common because of man-made global warming.

Large fires have already ravaged parts of Greece, Italy, Turkey, and Algeria.

The UN’s rights chief warned on Monday that environmental threats were worsening conflicts worldwide and would soon constitute the biggest challenge to human rights.

Michelle Bachelet said climate change, pollution and nature loss were already having a severe impact but that countries were consistently failing to take action to curb the damage.

“The interlinked crises of pollution, climate change and biodiversity act as threat multipliers, amplifying conflicts, tensions and structural inequalities, and forcing people into increasingly vulnerable situations,” Bachelet told the opening of the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“As these environmental threats intensify, they will constitute the single greatest challenge to human rights of our era.”

The former Chilean president said the threats were already “directly and severely impacting a broad range of rights, including the rights to adequate food, water, education, housing, health, development, and even life itself”.

She said environmental damage usually hurt the poorest people and nations the most, as they often have the least capacity to respond.

Bachelet said recent months have unleashed “extreme and murderous climate events”, while drought was potentially forcing millions of people into misery, hunger and displacement.

– ‘Set the bar higher’ –

Bachelet said tackling the crisis was “doable”, suggesting that spending to revive economies after the Covid pandemic could be focused on environmentally friendly projects.

But she said countries had not taken this approach consistently — and were even failing to fund and implement commitments made under the Paris climate accords.

“We must set the bar higher — indeed, our common future depends on it,” the UN rights chief said.

Bachelet said that at the 12-day COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, set to begin on October 31, her office would push for more ambitious, rights-based commitments.

Bachelet also said environmental activists were threatened, harassed and killed often with impunity.

– No Xinjiang access –

In her opening global update, Bachelet touched on the human rights situations in several countries, including Chad, the Central African Republic, Haiti, India, Mali and Tunisia.

On China, she said no progress had been made in her years-long efforts to seek “meaningful access” to Xinjiang but that her office planned to assess the claims about violations.

Rights groups believe at least one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in the northwestern region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour. Beijing has strongly denied the allegations.

In the West Bank, Bachelet said she deplored “continued and increasing instances of excessive or entirely unwarranted use of force” against Palestinian civilians by Israeli security forces.

She said 54 Palestinians, including 12 children, had been killed so far this year — more than double the figure for 2020 — with more than 1,000 people injured by live ammunition.

“I am also deeply concerned by crackdowns on dissent by the government of the State of Palestine in recent months,” she added.

The UN rights chief warned Monday that environmental threats were worsening conflicts worldwide and would soon constitute the biggest challenge to human rights.

Michelle Bachelet said climate change, pollution and nature loss were already severely impacting rights across the board and said countries were consistently failing to take the necessary action to curb the damage.

“The interlinked crises of pollution, climate change and biodiversity act as threat multipliers, amplifying conflicts, tensions and structural inequalities, and forcing people into increasingly vulnerable situations,” Bachelet told the opening of the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“As these environmental threats intensify, they will constitute the single greatest challenge to human rights of our era.”

The former Chilean president said the threats were already “directly and severely impacting a broad range of rights, including the rights to adequate food, water, education, housing, health, development, and even life itself”.

She said environmental damage usually hurt the poorest people and nations the most, as they often have the least capacity to respond.

Bachelet said recent months have unleashed “extreme and murderous climate events”, citing the fires in Siberia and California, and floods in China, Germany and Turkey.

She also said drought was potentially forcing millions of people into misery, hunger and displacement.

– ‘Set the bar higher’ –

Bachelet said that addressing the environmental crisis was “a humanitarian imperative, a human rights imperative, a peace-building imperative and a development imperative. It is also doable.”

She said spending to revive economies in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic could be focused on environmentally-friendly projects, but “this is a shift that unfortunately is not being consistently and robustly undertaken”.

She also said that countries had “consistently failed to fund and implement” commitments made under the Paris climate accords.

“We must set the bar higher — indeed, our common future depends on it,” the UN rights chief said.

Bachelet said that at the 12-day COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, set to begin on October 31, her office would push for more ambitious, rights-based commitments.

Bachelet said that in many regions, environmental human rights defenders were threatened, harassed and killed, often with complete impunity.

She said economic shifts triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic had apparently prompted increased exploitation of mineral resources, forests and land, with indigenous peoples particularly at risk.

“In Brazil, I am alarmed by recent attacks against members of the Yanomami and Munduruku peoples by illegal miners in the Amazon,” she said.

– No progress on Xinjiang visit –

In her opening global update, Bachelet touched on the human rights situations in several countries, including Chad, the Central African Republic, Haiti, India, Mali and Tunisia.

On China, she said no progress had been made in her years-long efforts to seek “meaningful access” to Xinjiang.

“In the meantime, my office is finalising its assessment of the available information on allegations of serious human rights violations in that region, with a view to making it public,” she said.

Rights groups believe at least one million Uyghurs and other mostly Muslim minorities have been incarcerated in camps in the northwestern region, where China is also accused of forcibly sterilising women and imposing forced labour.

Beijing has strongly denied the allegations and says training programs, work schemes and better education have helped stamp out extremism in the region.

“Insane” — that was teenager Barbara Stowe’s reaction 50 years ago when her parents and the other founders of Greenpeace decided that they would send a boat to halt US nuclear tests.

But their conviction won over Stowe and her brother Robert, who witnessed these pathbreaking meetings in the family home in Vancouver to send a ship to Amchitka in Alaska.

“I have to say that my dad, my parents, the Bohlens, Bob Hunter, Ben Metcalfe, they were visionaries, they were empowered with the idea which is somewhat crazy that a single individual or a small group of individuals can actually effect change that can change the world,” said Robert Stowe, a 66-year-old neurologist.

“For them it was partly an issue of the fact they felt they had to take a stand, regardless of whether or not it would be effective.”

On September 15, 1971, a crew of 12 Canadians and Americans who had left their country after the Vietnam war, set out from Vancouver Island in an 80-foot boat called the Phyllis Cormack, which was renamed Greenpeace.

Their mission was to steam to the Aleutian island of Amchitka and protest, or even prevent, the detonation of an underground nuclear test.

The boat didn’t make it to Amchitka. US president Richard Nixon delayed the test and the crew were arrested in the Aleutian port of Akutan by the US Coastguard on a technicality.

At this time Greenpeace — now one of the best known names worldwide — was called Don’t Make a Wave but a name change was decided at a meeting to flesh out the daring and unprecedented mission to Alaska.

– ‘A green peace’ –

“Bill Darnell was leaving the meeting and my dad flashed the peace sign, and Bill said ‘make it a green peace’,” Robert Stowe said. 

“Barbara and I were arguing with him at the breakfast table saying ‘Come on dad, Greenpeace is no word’. He said ‘No I think that’s it’.

“That’s how the name was formed. Initially it was two words, but when we had the buttons (badges) printed, the space between the two words was taken out.”

Barbara Stowe, a 65-year-old writer, said her first reaction to the Alaska mission was “This is insane.

“And then I saw it could be done,” she said.

“My father said we’ll have a rock concert and again I thought it was insane. But when he got Joni Mitchell and raised 17,000 (Canadian) dollars (to rent the boat), I had to start seeing that the impossible could be done and it was really exciting seeing the energy rise.”

– ‘Pacifism is a discipline’ –

The boat was intercepted by the US Coastguard and the mission foiled but the media coverage and the “mindbomb” paid off for Greenpeace, which has now added global warming to its long list of campaign battles.

Robert Stowe said the Quaker principles and unshakeable faith that helped shape the movement had paid rich dividends.

“If you have deep conviction that something is wrong and needs to be stopped or changed, and speak from the heart, people will listen to you,” he said.

“We have maintained our activism over the years although perhaps not as intensely as when we were teenagers,” Stowe admitted.

“I’m really moved by the action of Greenpeace activists in countries like China or Russia, where they risk long jail sentences.”

Barbara Stowe underscored the institution’s underlying commitment to non-violence.

“Pacifism is a discipline, difficult to apply when you’re young but the minute you use violence it’s going to come back against you,” she said.

When the French secret service “bombed the Rainbow Warrior to the bottom of the Auckland harbour and killed the photographer Fernando Pereira, that gave Greenpeace the biggest boost it ever had, its popularity rose enormously,” she said, of the infamous July 10, 1985 operation against the Greenpeace vessel.

Half a century after a small group of radicals created Greenpeace, the head of the environmental organisation warned that it still has far to go on the climate crisis before it can truly celebrate.

Created on September 15, 1971 when a boat of the same name tried to stop a US nuclear test, Greenpeace has become one of the world’s best known action groups with its headline-grabbing stunts.

But the organisation’s 50th anniversary is expected to be a subdued affair, Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, told AFP.

“There is not a lot to celebrate right now. We are in a climate emergency,” Morgan said in an interview at the group’s headquarters in a modest office block on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

Morgan said she was “deeply worried” that the world’s response would fall short at the crucial COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in October.

“Everything that we’ve done over those 50 years, we have to pull together now and deploy it into creating absolutely radical and deep change. Time is running out.”

– ‘Change the world’ –

Greenpeace’s journey began idealistically, if unsuccessfully, with that first sailing from the Canadian port of Vancouver. The bid by the boat “Greenpeace” to halt a nuclear test off the Alaskan coast was cut short when the police intervened.

Since then, the organisation achievements include helping to stop commercial whaling, targeting fossil fuel companies, working to stop toxic dumping and protecting Antarctica, Morgan said.

Surrounded by memorabilia from Greenpeace’s history including colourful campaign posters and a ship’s door kicked in by Russian officials in 2013, Morgan says the organisation’s core principles remain the same today.

“Greenpeace started as an idea that individuals could change the world with an idea and a bit of hope,” said Morgan, who took the helm of the group in 2016.

“I think over 50 years Greenpeace has achieved really miraculous things.”

There has also been tragedy among the triumphs. 

In 1985, the French secret service bombed Greenpeace’s flagship vessel the “Rainbow Warrior” while it was docked in Auckland, New Zealand, killing Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira.

Greenpeace activists “mark that date every year” and the organisation remains wary of governments, with activists in Brazil, Indonesia and China in particular facing personal risk.

– ‘Tipping point’ –

Greenpeace has vastly expanded since the early days and now has than 3,500 staff operating in some 55 countries – almost as big as some of the multinational firms it targets.

But Morgan insisted the group was still “radical” despite the emergence of younger rivals such as Extinction Rebellion, which has gathered huge attention with activists gluing themselves to buildings or blocking roads and bridges.

Known in the past for its own stunts, Greenpeace is now increasingly embracing other strategies including climate-based legal action against governments and polluters.

Morgan said Greenpeace was also cooperating more with other environmental groups and with indigenous people — things she said the group should have done more often.

It would also be involved with the COP 26 summit, a “fundamental moment for the planet” that she feared countries might not seize.

“I’m deeply worried, what I see right now is governments that are almost acting as if we’re back in the 1980s” in terms of their levels of urgency on climate, she said.

She also called for the summit to be postponed if developing countries are not able to attend because of a lack of Covid-19 vaccines.

For its anniversary, Greenpeace has planned small-scale events in offices around the world on Thursday.

At a celebratory event in Germany in August, Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the group as “persistent, combative, steadfast and persuasive”.

So what lies ahead for Greenpeace over the next 50 years? 

“I guess the goal would be that Greenpeace doesn’t exist anymore,” said Morgan.

But assuming the environmental campaign will face more battles ahead, she said she hoped Greenpeace could help create a “tipping point where there was a movement into hope”.

Dozens of critically endangered orangutans in Malaysia have been tested for the coronavirus, with vets in protective suits undertaking the tricky task of giving the apes nasal swabs.

The antigen tests on 30 of the red-haired creatures in Sabah state on Borneo island were conducted last Tuesday, and all came back negative, wildlife officials said. 

They were the first virus tests on orangutans in the Southeast Asian country, and were ordered after staff at a rehabilitation centre and wildlife park became infected.

“Testing for Covid-19 has been a vital tool in helping us get through this pandemic, and it is similarly important for this orangutan population,” said Sen Nathan, assistant director of the Sabah Wildlife Department. 

“The disease could prove vastly detrimental to their health and set back their rehabilitation.”

Vets will continue to closely monitor the apes and tests will be conducted regularly, officials said. 

Animals have become infected with Covid-19 on occasion. At the weekend, a zoo in Atlanta announced that several of its gorillas had tested positive. Domestic cats, dogs and at least one ferret have also been infected. 

Malaysia is fighting a serious Covid-19 outbreak driven by the highly contagious Delta variant, and has been recording thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths each day. 

Sabah, on the northeastern tip of Borneo and home to vast tracts of jungle and a kaleidoscope of rare animals, has also faced a surge in cases. 

Bornean orangutans are classified as “critically endangered” by protection group the International Union for Conservation of Nature. 

Their populations have declined by more than 50 percent over the past 60 years, according to the WWF, as the animals’ forest habitat has been progressively cut down to make way for agricultural plantations. 

Borneo is shared between Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei. 

Half a century after a small group of radicals created Greenpeace, the head of the environmental organisation warned that it still has far to go on the climate crisis before it can truly celebrate.

Created on September 15, 1971 when a boat of the same name tried to stop a US nuclear test, Greenpeace has become one of the world’s best known action groups with its headline-grabbing stunts.

But the organisation’s 50th anniversary is expected to be a subdued affair, Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, told AFP.

“There is not a lot to celebrate right now. We are in a climate emergency,” Morgan said in an interview at the group’s headquarters in a modest office block on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

Morgan said she was “deeply worried” that the world’s response would fall short at the crucial COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in October.

“Everything that we’ve done over those 50 years, we have to pull together now and deploy it into creating absolutely radical and deep change. Time is running out.”

– ‘Change the world’ –

Greenpeace’s journey began idealistically, if unsuccessfully, with that first sailing from the Canadian port of Vancouver. The bid by the boat “Greenpeace” to halt a nuclear test off the Alaskan coast was cut short when the police intervened.

Since then, the organisation achievements include helping to stop commercial whaling, targeting fossil fuel companies, working to stop toxic dumping and protecting Antarctica, Morgan said.

Surrounded by memorabilia from Greenpeace’s history including colourful campaign posters and a ship’s door kicked in by Russian officials in 2013, Morgan says the organisation’s core principles remain the same today.

“Greenpeace started as an idea that individuals could change the world with an idea and a bit of hope,” said Morgan, who took the helm of the group in 2016.

“I think over 50 years Greenpeace has achieved really miraculous things.”

There has also been tragedy among the triumphs. 

In 1985, the French secret service bombed Greenpeace’s flagship vessel the “Rainbow Warrior” while it was docked in Auckland, New Zealand, killing Portuguese photographer Fernando Pereira.

Greenpeace activists “mark that date every year” and the organisation remains wary of governments, with activists in Brazil, Indonesia and China in particular facing personal risk.

– ‘Tipping point’ –

Greenpeace has vastly expanded since the early days and now has than 3,500 staff operating in some 55 countries – almost as big as some of the multinational firms it targets.

But Morgan insisted the group was still “radical” despite the emergence of younger rivals such as Extinction Rebellion, which has gathered huge attention with activists gluing themselves to buildings or blocking roads and bridges.

Known in the past for its own stunts, Greenpeace is now increasingly embracing other strategies including climate-based legal action against governments and polluters.

Morgan said Greenpeace was also cooperating more with other environmental groups and with indigenous people — things she said the group should have done more often.

It would also be involved with the COP 26 summit, a “fundamental moment for the planet” that she feared countries might not seize.

“I’m deeply worried, what I see right now is governments that are almost acting as if we’re back in the 1980s” in terms of their levels of urgency on climate, she said.

She also called for the summit to be postponed if developing countries are not able to attend because of a lack of Covid-19 vaccines.

For its anniversary, Greenpeace has planned small-scale events in offices around the world on Thursday.

At a celebratory event in Germany in August, Chancellor Angela Merkel praised the group as “persistent, combative, steadfast and persuasive”.

So what lies ahead for Greenpeace over the next 50 years? 

“I guess the goal would be that Greenpeace doesn’t exist anymore,” said Morgan.

But assuming the environmental campaign will face more battles ahead, she said she hoped Greenpeace could help create a “tipping point where there was a movement into hope”.