AFP UK

In Stavanger’s harbour, the Petroleum Museum chronicles Norway’s road to riches. Now, faced with the climate crisis, a growing chorus wants fossil fuels to be relegated to history for good.

The “code red” sounded by the United Nations in early August has reignited debate about the future of the oil industry in Norway, the largest oil producer in western Europe, ahead of Monday’s legislative elections.

The Green party, MDG, — whose support the opposition centre-left, currently leading in the polls, may rely on in order to obtain a parliamentary majority — has called for an immediate end to oil prospecting and a halt to production by 2035.

“Oil belongs in a museum. It served us very well for many decades but we can now see that it is destroying our climate,” says Ulrikke Torgersen, the Greens candidate in Stavanger, Norway’s oil capital where it is often said locals have oil running through their veins.

The UN climate report, which warned of an acceleration of “unprecedented” extreme events linked to climate change, propelled the subject right to the heart of the election campaign.

Norway’s two biggest parties — the Conservatives led by Prime Minister Erna Solberg and the Labour Party led by her likely successor Jonas Gahr Store — have both refused to bid farewell to black gold.

But each camp has small factions pushing for the country to set an example by putting an end to its oil dependence and speeding up its green transition in order to respect its commitments under the 2015 Paris climate accord.

According to a poll on August 20, 35 percent of Norwegians said they were in favour of ending oil exploration.

Even the International Energy Agency (IEA) has warned that all fossil fuel exploration projects must cease immediately if the world is to keep global warming under control.

– A painful break –

A clean break would be painful for Norway: the oil sector accounts for 14 percent of gross domestic product, as well as 40 percent of its exports and 160,000 direct jobs.

Over the years, oil and gas have financed Norway’s generous welfare state, as well as costly environmental initiatives such as incentives for electric car purchases and the protection of rain forests. 

In addition, the cash cow has helped the country of 5.4 million people amass the world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund, today worth more than 12 trillion kroner (almost 1.2 trillion euros, $1.4 trillion). 

The oil industry has been quick to point out that of all the world’s oil, Norwegian crude emits the lowest amount of greenhouse gases — at least at the drilling stage.

A recent study even claimed that an end to Norway’s oil and gas production would lead to an increase in worldwide emissions, as Norwegian products would be replaced by even more polluting energy sources.

“It would be paradoxical to halt oil and gas production which has the lowest CO2 footprint at a time when the world still needs it,” said Anniken Hauglie, head of the oil lobby Norsk Olje & Gass.

“We need to get rid of other kinds of fossil fuels first, in particular coal,” she said.

And, she insisted, oil companies also have a wealth of knowledge, technology and capital that will be needed for the development of future energy solutions, such as offshore wind power, hydrogen and carbon capture and storage (CCS). 

– Students going elsewhere –

Despite paying high salaries, the oil industry is struggling to attract young talent.

At the University of Stavanger, the number of Masters students in oil engineering is shrinking like the icecap in summer.

From over 60 students in 2013, most of them Norwegians, their number has dropped to 22 this year, including only a handful of nationals.

“We need to get rid of fossil fuels, no doubt about it. Even we in Norway as an oil-producing country, we know that. But the question is how fast we should do that and how prepared we are for that,” professor Mahmoud Khalifeh told AFP.

“Even if you want to stop oil production, we need petroleum engineers to design how to properly close thousands of active wells to avoid leakages to the environment,” he added.

Camilla Abrahamsen is determined to get her degree and become a drilling engineer.

“I want to contribute to the future. Maybe try to make oil a bit greener,” the 25-year-old student said.

Does she have any doubts about her career choice?

“I’ll be old by the time we can live without oil,” she added.

Hurricane Olaf slammed into Mexico’s Baja California peninsula near the beach resorts of Los Cabos Thursday, threatening more damage in a country already reeling from an earthquake and deadly floods.

Olaf made landfall very near the city of San Jose del Cabo as a Category Two storm packing maximum winds of 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

A hurricane warning was in effect for a stretch of Baja California coastline from Los Barriles to Cabo San Lazaro.

“Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the NHC said earlier as the storm approached.

A Category Two storm is the second lowest of five levels on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale and considered capable of causing extensive damage.

A dangerous storm surge was expected to be accompanied by large and damaging waves near the coast, the NHC said, warning that heavy rainfall may trigger “significant and life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.”

Authorities set up storm shelters and school children in the state of Baja California Sur were told to stay home on Friday.

Ports were closed for smaller boats and flights were cancelled at the Los Cabos and La Paz airports.

The storm was forecast to churn over the southern coast of Baja California before heading west out over sea again late Friday or early Saturday.

“Gradual weakening is expected through Friday as Olaf interacts with land. Further weakening is likely over the weekend after Olaf moves away from Baja California Sur,” the NHC said.

The hurricane comes at a time when Mexico is still recovering from a 7.1-magnitude earthquake and major flooding elsewhere in the disaster-prone country.

Fourteen patients at a hospital in the town of Tula in the central state of Hidalgo died this week after flooding disrupted the power supply and life-sustaining oxygen treatment.

Tens of thousands of residents were affected after a river in the town burst its banks, forcing people to leave their homes.

Jenny Casillas, a housewife in her 40s, told AFP on Thursday that the water reached the roof of her house in less than 10 minutes 

“From one moment to the next, everything got out of control,” she said.

Then came the earthquake that left at least one person dead on Tuesday in the southern state of Guerrero, damaged buildings and was felt hundreds of kilometers away.

“The rain didn’t let up and then to top it all came the earthquake,” said Marisela Maya, 31, who works at a clinic in Tula.

“It will be difficult for us to climb out of this situation,” she said.

A super typhoon that rapidly formed in just 48 hours is threatening both the Philippines and Taiwan with destructive winds and torrential rains over the coming days.

Chanthu was about 580 kilometres (360 miles) southeast of Taiwan’s southernmost tip on Friday morning, packing gusts of up to 234 kilometres (145 miles) an hour, according to Taiwan’s central weather bureau.

The Philippine state weather agency said the typhoon was expected to graze the northeastern tip of the country later Friday.

The agency warned of “destructive” winds in Santa Ana town, where around 35,000 people live, and the eastern part of the remote Babuyan Islands. 

Rough seas will throw up 2.5 to 10-metre waves, it added. 

The Cagayan governor has ordered government and private sector workers, except those in frontline services, to stay home and “fortify” their houses, said Rogelio Sending, the provincial information officer.  

Most projections forecast the storm will then continue to swing northeast and could hit Taiwan directly over the weekend. 

“It will be closest to Taiwan on Saturday and Sunday. (The public) should take precautions against strong winds and downpours,” said Taiwanese forecaster Hsu Chung-yi.

Meteorologists have marvelled at how quickly Chanthu morphed into a powerful storm after it first emerged on Monday in between Guam and the Philippines. 

“Chanthu went from a depression to a cat(egory)-5-equivalent typhoon in 48 hours,” Sam Lillo, a researcher at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, wrote on Twitter. 

Only five other storms, all this century, have done that, he added. 

Over just two days, Chanthu’s wind speeds went from 30 miles per hour to 160 miles per hour at their height. 

Scientists have long warned that typhoons are becoming more powerful, and strengthening more rapidly, as the world becomes warmer because of man-made climate change. 

“This week, Super Typhoon Chanthu provided another stark example of how quickly a storm can strengthen,” NASA wrote in an article about the storm on its Earth Observatory blog. 

A super typhoon is also known as a category five hurricane in the US. The Earth tends to experience around five storms of that power a year. 

Meteorologists say that while Chanthu is powerful, it is small in size and will be unpredictable. 

“Small tropical cyclones are capable of very rapid intensity changes, both strengthening and weakening,” hurricane scientist Jeff Masters wrote on Yale Climate Connections.   

Taiwan is regularly hit by tropical storms in the summer months. 

In a rare exception to the rule, not a single typhoon made landfall last year, the first time in 56 years. 

That helped fuel the worst drought in decades until heavy rains set in a few months ago and brought needed relief.

The Hong Kong Observatory’s projection has Chanthu reducing from a super to a severe typhoon on Sunday as it nears Taiwan’s southeastern coast.

Hurricane Olaf slammed into Mexico’s Baja California peninsula near the beach resorts of Los Cabos Thursday, threatening more damage in a country already reeling from an earthquake and deadly floods.

Olaf made landfall very near the city of San Jose del Cabo as a Category Two storm packing maximum winds of 100 miles (160 kilometers) per hour, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

A hurricane warning was in effect for a stretch of Baja California coastline from Los Barriles to Cabo San Lazaro.

“Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the NHC said.

A Category Two storm is the second lowest of five levels on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale and considered capable of causing extensive damage.

A dangerous storm surge was expected to be accompanied by large and damaging waves near the coast, the NHC said, warning that heavy rainfall may trigger “significant and life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.”

Authorities set up storm shelters and school children in the state of Baja California Sur were told to stay home on Friday.

Ports were closed for smaller boats and flights were cancelled at the Los Cabos and La Paz airports.

The hurricane comes at a time when Mexico is still recovering from a 7.1-magnitude earthquake and major flooding elsewhere in the disaster-prone country.

Fourteen patients at a hospital in the town of Tula in the central state of Hidalgo died this week after flooding disrupted the power supply and life-sustaining oxygen treatment.

Tens of thousands of residents were affected after a river in the town burst its banks, forcing people to leave their homes.

Jenny Casillas, a housewife in her 40s, told AFP on Thursday that the water reached the roof of her house in less than 10 minutes 

“From one moment to the next, everything got out of control,” she said.

Then came the earthquake that left at least one person dead on Tuesday in the southern state of Guerrero, damaged buildings and was felt hundreds of kilometers away.

“The rain didn’t let up and then to top it all came the earthquake,” said Marisela Maya, 31, who works at a clinic in Tula.

“It will be difficult for us to climb out of this situation,” she said.

Tropical storm Olaf strengthened into a hurricane in the Pacific on Thursday as it churned towards the beach resorts of Los Cabos on Mexico’s Baja California peninsula, meteorologists said.

Olaf was packing maximum winds of 90 miles (145 kilometers) per hour, making it a Category One hurricane, the lowest on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.

At 7 pm (0000 GMT Friday) the storm was located about 45 miles southeast of the seaside resort of Cabo San Lucas and moving northwest at 10 mph, it reported.

Mexico’s National Meteorological Service warned that Olaf was likely to make landfall as a Category Two storm.

A hurricane warning was in effect for a stretch of Baja California coastline from Los Barriles to Cabo San Lazaro.

The storm was expected to move near or over the southern part of the peninsula on Thursday night and on Friday, forecasters said.

“Preparations to protect life and property should be rushed to completion,” the NHC said.

A dangerous storm surge was expected to be accompanied by large and damaging waves near the coast, it added, warning that heavy rainfall may trigger “significant and life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides.”

Authorities set up storm shelters and school children in the state of Baja California Sur were told to stay home on Friday.

Ports were closed for smaller boats and 24 flights were cancelled at the Los Cabos and La Paz airports.

The hurricane comes at a time when Mexico is still recovering from a 7.1-magnitude earthquake and major flooding in parts of the country.

Fourteen patients at a hospital in the town of Tula in the central state of Hidalgo died this week after flooding disrupted the power supply and life-sustaining oxygen treatment.

Tens of thousands of residents were affected after a river in the town burst its banks, forcing people to leave their homes.

Jenny Casillas, a housewife in her 40s, told AFP on Thursday that the water reached the roof of her house in less than 10 minutes 

“From one moment to the next, everything got out of control,” she said.

Then came the earthquake that left at least one person dead on Tuesday in the southern state of Guerrero, damaged buildings and was felt hundreds of kilometers away.

“The rain didn’t let up and then to top it all came the earthquake,” said Marisela Maya, 31, who works at a clinic in Tula.

“It will be difficult for us to climb out of this situation,” she said.

Feeling sluggish at work? Poor ventilation and pollution might play a part.

A new study by scientists at Harvard has found that the air quality inside an office can have a significant impact on employees’ cognitive function, including response times and ability to focus.

“We have a huge body of research on the exposure to outdoor pollution, but we spend 90 percent of our time indoors,” Jose Guillermo Cedeno Laurent, a research fellow and lead author of the paper published Thursday in Environmental Research Letters, told AFP.

The limited amount of prior studies on indoor settings had focused on measures like thermal comfort and satisfaction, rather than on cognitive outcomes, he added.

Cedeno Laurent and colleagues designed a study that followed 302 office workers across six countries (China, India, Mexico, Thailand, the United States of America, and the United Kingdom) over a period of a year.

It ended in March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic brought global lockdowns.

All participants were aged between 18 and 65, worked at least three days in an office building, and had a permanent workstation within the office.

Their workspaces were fitted with an environmental sensor to monitor real time concentrations of fine particulate matter 2.5 micrometers and smaller, PM2.5, as well as carbon dioxide, temperature, and relative humidity.

The participants were given a custom-designed app on their phones to carry out the cognitive tests. They were prompted to take the tests at prescheduled times or when the sensors detected PM2.5 and CO2 levels that fell below or exceeded certain thresholds.

CO2 concentrations serve as a proxy for ventilation levels. Outside, concentrations are around 400 ppm (parts per million), while 1000 ppm is cited as an upper limit for indoors.

There were two tests. The first required employees to correctly identify the color of displayed words that spelled out another color. 

This evaluated cognitive speed and the ability to focus on relevant stimuli when irrelevant stimuli are being presented.

The second test involved basic addition and subtraction with two-digit-long numbers, to assess cognitive speed and working memory.

– Open a window –

Results showed that an increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of PM2.5 led to about a one percent reduction in response times to both tests, and more than a one percent reduction in accuracy.

For a frame of reference, the outdoor PM2.5 levels in the US capital Washington were 13.9 micrograms per cubic meter on Thursday, according to the IQAir tracking site, while it was 42 micrograms per cubic meter in New Delhi.

In terms of C02, an increase of 500 ppm (parts per million), which is not an unusual level of variation, led to a more than one percent drop in response times, and more than two percent drop in accuracy across both tests.

The research comes as US Congress is poised to pass an infrastructure package, and Cedeno Laurent argues now is the time to plan to for energy efficient, high performance buildings that provide the right amount of ventilation and air filtration.

While past studies have shown that prolonged exposure to PM2.5 inflames the central nervous system and crosses the blood-brain-barrier to cause long term neurodegenerative disease, this is the first to show short term effects, he added.

For employees returning to in-person office work, there are some solutions.

Opening a window is one, said Cedeno Laurent. If the outdoor air quality isn’t good, upgrading the building’s filtration systems or adding high quality portable air cleaners are good ideas.

US authorities on Thursday said they intend to re-establish environmental protections to a bay in Alaska that would block a controversial gold and copper mine project.

The Bristol Bay watershed “is an Alaskan treasure that underscores the critical value of clean water in America,” said Environmental Protection Agency chief Michael Regan.

“What’s at stake is preventing pollution that would disproportionately impact Alaska Natives, and protecting a sustainable future for the most productive salmon fishery in North America,” he said.

Bristol Bay is home to a vast wild salmon run. The exceptional quality of the water in the rivers and marshy areas provide ideal habitat for the fish.

The EPA tried to block the mining project in 2014 under president Barack Obama, emphasizing the  negative impact the mines would have on local fisheries.

But the Donald Trump administration authorized Pebble Limited Partnership, a subsidiary of the Canadian group Northern Dynasty Minerals, to apply for an operating license by lifting environmental protections.

Last year the US Army Corps of Engineers said the project is “against the public interest” and could not grant a mining permit as currently planned.

Thursday’s EPA decision is aimed at ensuring that the project is stalled for the long term, including if a revised application is presented, by using a provision of the Clean Water Act.

The EPA said it has begun the process of cancelling the 2019 notice of withdrawal of the environmental protections that took place under Trump.

Bristol Bay supports commercial, subsistence, and recreational fisheries worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the EPA said, adding that it creates thousands of jobs.

“The salmon populations are critical to the health of the entire ecosystem, which is home to more than 20 fish species, 190 bird species, and more than 40 terrestrial mammal species, including bears, moose, and caribou,” the EPA said.

A firefighter was killed on Thursday battling a wind-fuelled wildfire in southern Spain which forced the evacuation of hundreds of people and closed a key highway, local officials said.

The 44-year-old was one of around 400 firefighters tackling the flames which had broken out late Wednesday in the Sierra Bermeja mountains in the southern province of Malaga, the Andalusia regional government said in a statement.

“You can imagine the pain and sadness at his command post,” Carmen Crespo, environment minister in the regional government of Andalusia, told a news conference, adding an investigation had been opened into his death.

She said the fire was “very complicated and very difficult. Dangerous, very dangerous”.

Firefighters were backed by 29 water-dropping aircraft in their battle against the blaze during the day.

The regional government said around 1,000 people were evacuated from their homes — mainly from the municipality of Estepona, an area popular with British pensioners and holidaymakers.

Several told Spanish public television they were given only minutes to leave by police.

Firefighters said strong winds, gusting up to 60 kilometres (40 miles) an hour, hot and dry conditions and the steep mountain slopes were making their task difficult although they hoped cooler night temperatures would help them gain the upper hand.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed condolences on Twitter to the family and colleagues of the firefighter who died.

“The commitment, dedication and courage of forest firefighters is commendable,” he added.

Local officials suspect the blaze may have been deliberately started.

“It is striking that at the same moment in the evening, when there were strong winds in different spots, there were different outbreaks of fire,” Estepona mayor Jose Garcia Urbano told reporters.

The fire forced the closure of the AP-7 highway, which runs along the Mediterranean coast, for several hours on Thursday. Two other roads remain closed.

A 7.1-magnitude earthquake that struck southern Mexico this week originated near a section of a fault that experts worry has been building up tension for more than a century.

The powerful tremor that occurred on Tuesday near the Pacific resort city of Acapulco left at least one person dead and damaged hospitals, homes, shops and hotels.

Mexico sits in the world’s most seismically and volcanically active zone, known as the Ring of Fire, where the Pacific plate meets surrounding tectonic plates.

On September 19, 1985 an 8.1-magnitude quake devastated Mexico City, killing more than 10,000 people and destroying hundreds of buildings.

On the anniversary of that earthquake in 2017, a 7.1 quake left around 370 people dead, mainly in the capital.

– Where did latest quake occur? –

The epicenter was located 11 kilometers (seven miles) southeast of Acapulco in Guerrero state, the National Seismological Service reported.

The region is vulnerable to seismic activity due because of the Cocos and North American tectonic plates grinding against each other.

“The undersea Cocos plate is constantly trying to push below North America, the continental plate where most of Mexico’s territory sits,” said Arturo Iglesias, head of the National Seismological Service.

Within this zone lies what is known as the Guerrero gap — part of a fault stretching from Acapulco 230 kilometers northwest along the coast to the town of Papanoa.

A seismic gap is what the United States Geological Survey describes as a section of a fault that has produced earthquakes in the past but is now quiet.

– Why is it causing concern? –

Although earthquakes cannot be predicted, the Guerrero gap is a source of worry because it has not produced a significant earthquake since 1911.

“It’s an area off the coast of Guerrero that has not had a major earthquake for a long time,” said Ana Maria Soler, an expert at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

“There is no certainty. These are all questions of statistics,” she added.

Iglesias noted that it has been 110 years since the Guerrero gap produced a major earthquake.

“They typically occur every 30 to 50 years. It’s already more than that,” he said.

– What could happen? –

Although experts are reluctant to make predictions, they believe that a large earthquake, or several smaller ones, could occur in the zone.

“The northwestern edge of the gap already broke in an earthquake in 2014, so what remains can generate an earthquake of up to 7.8 magnitude, but it may be more smaller earthquakes,” Iglesias said.

Tremors in the area may also happen less frequently than originally thought, he said.

Mexico City, which together with surrounding urban areas is home to more than 20 million people, is seen as vulnerable to a quake in the Guerrero gap.

The capital sits atop a former lake bed and has an early warning alarm system using seismic monitors that aims to give residents enough time to evacuate buildings.

“It’s well known that this area (the Guerrero gap) has significant potential to generate earthquakes,” Iglesias said. 

“So much so that we have an early warning system for Mexico City,” he added

A firefighter was killed on Thursday battling a wind-fuelled wildfire in southern Spain which forced the evacuation of hundreds of people and closed a key highway, local officials said.

The 44-year-old was one of around 400 firefighters tackling the flames which spread late Wednesday in the Sierra Bermeja mountains in the southern province of Malaga, the Andalusia regional government  said in a statement.

“You can imagine the pain and sadness at his command post,” Carmen Crespo,  environment minister in the regional government of Andalusia, told a news conference, adding an investigation had been opened into his death.

She said the fire was “very complicated and very difficult. Dangerous, very dangerous”.

Over 25 water-dropping aircraft helped firefighters trying to control the blaze during the day.

Emergency services said around 900 people were evacuated from their homes — mainly from the municipality of Estepona, an area popular with British pensioners and holidaymakers.

Several told Spanish public television they were given only minutes to leave by police.

Firefighters said strong winds, gusting up to 60 kilometres (40 miles) an hour, hot and dry conditions and the steep mountain slopes were making their task difficult although they hoped cooler night temperatures would help them gain the upper hand.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed condolences on Twitter to the family and colleagues of the firefighter who died.

“The commitment, dedication and courage of forest firefighters is commendable,” he added.

Local officials suspect the blaze may have been deliberately started.

“It is striking that at the same moment in the evening, when there were strong winds in different spots, there were different outbreaks of fire,” Estepona mayor Jose Garcia Urbano told reporters.

The fire forced the closure of the AP-7 highway, which runs along the Mediterranean coast, for several hours on Thursday. Two other roads remain closed.