AFP UK

Leaders of Suriname and Guyana say newly-discovered oil reserves must be tapped to help better living conditions in their countries, among the poorest in South America

Emerging as potential oil powers while the world seeks to wean itself off planet-warming fossil fuels, poverty-stricken South American neighbors Guyana and Suriname say they have to cash in while they can.

The former Dutch colonies are among the world’s most tree-covered countries, hosts to the so-called forest “lungs” that sequester massive amounts of planet-warming carbon dioxide.

Their economies and populations small, the countries have traditionally emitted little CO2 or other greenhouse gasses from fossil fuel use — in fact Suriname is one of only three carbon-negative countries in the world and Guyana claims carbon neutrality.

But some fear this could change with the recent discovery of rich offshore oil deposits in an area known as the Guyana-Suriname Basin.

Guyana, a country of 800,000 people, was recently found to have proven reserves of at least 10 billion barrels of oil, likely much more according to experts.

This makes it the country with the highest reserves per capita in the world — which consumes 99.4 million barrels of oil per day.

Early assessments suggest the reserves of Suriname, a country of 600,000 people, may not be far behind.

“It will be hard to remain carbon neutral as a country (involved in the) petroleum sector,” economist Steven Debipersad of the Anton de Kom University in Suriname’s capital Paramaribo, told AFP.

The projected $10 billion Suriname stands to make in the next 10 to 20 years, will likely bring economic growth at the cost of the environment, he said.

The country’s GDP today is about $3 billion.

– Hungry ‘every day’ –

Their presidents insist Guyana and Suriname cannot be expected to turn their backs on a chance to fill their countries’ coffers and raise the quality of life for their people.

The countries are among the poorest in South America, with vast swathes of their populations living without electricity, clean water or access to adequate health services.

In a Paramaribo ghetto named Texas, dirty sewer water flows among dilapidated wooden homes.

Resident Edison Poekitie, a 23-year-old musician, scrapes by on no more than $50 a week. Does he go hungry?

“Every day!” he told AFP. “It’s hard out here, really hard.”

The community, he added, needs “water pipes, cables, new roads without potholes, schools, better houses, playgrounds…”

Poekitie said he hoped the government would spend the oil money “wisely,” a sentiment echoed by 45-year-old food truck owner Brian Braithwaite in a poor neighborhood of the Guyanese capital Georgetown.

“Hopefully they do something so that… people (who) live on the street can do better,” Braithwaite said.

– ‘Oil curse’ –

Both presidents have vowed to make judicious use of their windfall petroleum profits, though some are worried that will undercut the sovereign wealth funds set up to guard some money for future generations.

“We are quite aware of the oil curse,” Suriname President Chan Santokhi told AFP, alluding to neighbor Venezuela and other resource-rich countries such as Angola and Algeria that were unable to turn oil wealth into social and economic progress.

“We… should also get the opportunity to benefit from the production of oil and gas and its income” to address a biting economic crisis “and help our people to have better lives,” he insisted.

For his part, Guyanese President Mohamed Irfaan Ali wants to use the oil income to “create wealth for now, and future generations.”

Both speak of using the money to diversify their economies with investments in agriculture, tourism, housing, education and health care.

Eventually, “the oil and gas will be gone, but the food security should be guaranteed,” said Santokhi.

– Oil money for green energy –

Oil extraction and refining are major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions.

Though they have historically emitted little, Suriname and Guyana are both deeply affected by global warming — in the crosshairs of worsening tropical storms and of flooding from rising sea levels.

Presidents Santokhi and Irfaan Ali believe they can maintain their countries’ carbon balances by using oil money to protect their forests and invest in green energy.

Defending the forests that cover about 87 percent of Guyana and 93 percent of Suriname is also economically sage: both countries can sell so-called carbon credits to polluters who need to offset emissions.

For Guyana, carbon credits are worth about $190 million per year, said Irfaan Ali.

Monique Pool, director of the Green Heritage Fund of Suriname, is not convinced by the two-pronged approach.

“Carbon credit will give us more money faster than oil and gas and for longer because it will be sustainable,” she told AFP.

In Georgetown, activist Christopher Ram agreed the oil should be left in the ground, expressing fear of exploitation by ruthless companies in the absence of “good governance.”

Instead, “I would go to the international community and say: ‘We are a small country, we’ve always been good to the environment, we want to stay that way… help us get the benefits we would have got with oil’.”

But 53-year-old Cynthia Neel, who sent her daughter from Suriname to the Netherlands at the age of six for education and a chance at a better life, is hopeful of positive change.

“I hope that with the oil the children will no longer have to leave,” she told AFP.

While the rainy season usually begins around June, the rainfall had been particuarly heavy since August

More than 600 people are now known to have perished in the worst floods in a decade in Nigeria, according to a new toll released Sunday.

The disaster had also forced more than 1.3 million from their homes, said a statement by Nigeria’s ministry of humanitarian affairs, released on Twitter.

“Unfortunately, over 603 lives have been lost as of today October 16, 2022,” said Humanitarian Affairs Minister Sadiya Umar Farouq.

The previous toll from last week stood at 500, but the numbers had risen in part because some state governments had not prepared for the floods, said the minister.

The flooding also completely destroyed more than 82,000 houses and nearly 110,000 hectares (272,000 acres) of farmland, said Umar Farouq.

While the rainy season usually begins around June, the rainfall had been particuarly heavy since August, said the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

In 2012, 363 people died and more than 2.1 million were displaced by flooding. 

Sub-Saharan Africa is disproportionately affected by climate change and many of its economies are already struggling from ripple effects of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Rice producers have warned that the devastating floods could impact prices in the country of some 200 million people where rice imports are banned to stimulate local production.

The World Food Programme and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization said last month that Nigeria was among six countries facing a high risk of catastrophic levels of hunger.

Just Stop Oil wants an end to new fossil fuel licensing and production

Climate activists on Sunday sprayed orange paint over an Aston Martin showroom in central London, as the government vowed new powers for police to halt an intensifying wave of “direct action” protests.

Members of the group Just Stop Oil also staged a sit-in protest on Park Lane where the sports carmaker’s store is located in an exclusive area of the British capital.

The action came after two Just Stop Oil activists hurled tomato soup over one of Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” paintings at London’s National Gallery on Friday.

Another spray-painting protest by the same group on Friday targeted the headquarters of London’s Metropolitan Police, who arrested 28 demonstrators.

Then on Saturday, Animal Rebellion protesters poured milk onto shop floors and displays at high-end retailers across Britain including Harrods in London, demanding the world end cattle farming.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman said she was introducing stronger legislation this week to counter citizen protests by groups such as Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion.

Under the plan, the government would be able to apply for legal injunctions to outlaw such protests ahead of time, and make it easier for police to protect “essential” goods, services and infrastructure.

“I will not bend to protestors attempting to hold the British public to ransom,” the hardline Braverman said in a statement.

“This serious and dangerous disruption, let alone the vandalism, is not a freedom of expression, nor a human right. It must stop.” 

But outside the Aston Martin showroom, 19-year-old pregnant mother Chloe Thomas said she was fighting to protect the next generations of humanity.

“How do I explain to my daughter in the years to come where the animals went, where the culture went, where the beauty went, why there are no bees and why I can’t put food in her tummy?” she said.

Just Stop Oil has stepped up its campaign since the new UK government of Prime Minister Liz Truss vowed to allow new drilling for offshore fossil fuels, to counter a surge in energy prices triggered by Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Rain started to fall on Saturday morning in the southern Greek island, a popular holiday destination

Two people were killed after torrential rain brought major flooding to the Greek island of Crete, firefighters said on Sunday.

Rain started to fall on Saturday morning in the southern Greek island, a popular holiday destination, hitting the Heraklion region particularly hard.

Greek firefighters said the body of a 49-year-old woman was found in the sea on Sunday, raising the death toll to two from the floods.

On Saturday, a man in his 50s was found dead after he was trapped in his car as torrential rains began.

The two individuals were going to Heraklion for work, Greek public television ERT reported.

A second missing individual was found alive on Saturday evening.

The rains forced the evacuation of several homes and unleashed extensive damage in seaside villages, where streets became rivers carrying away everything in their path, local media reported.

The flash floods pushed several cars into the sea along the beach of the seaside resort of Agia Pelagia, with some almost completely submerged in the water surrounded by debris. 

The beach was covered in scrap including plastic bottles and toys, next to straw umbrellas.

The flooding also damaged more than 15 shops, mainly fine restaurants, in Agia Pelagia, popular with wealthy diners.

The Civil Defence department said it was mobilised and asked all citizens to be vigilant on Sunday in Crete and the surrounding islands of Rhodes, Karpathos, Kastellorizo and Kasos. 

The sea is swallowing homes, tracks and California's beautiful beaches

Steve Lang can see catastrophic erosion worsened by climate change happening in real time along one of the world’s most scenic railroad lines, where the sea is swallowing homes, tracks and California’s beautiful beaches.

“Every day I come here and watch this, and it makes me want to cry,” the 68-year-old tells AFP on rail tracks he crosses to go surfing.

Powerful waves wash in from the Pacific over the rails where the “Pacific Surfliner” runs, ferrying sightseers through the stunning coastal landscapes of southern California.

Not long ago, the railway was cushioned by hundreds of feet (tens of meters) of golden sand. But violent southern swells have washed that sand away.

With the beach gone, there was nothing to protect the rails from the fury of Tropical Storm Kay as it lashed the coast in September, eating away at the land on which they stood.

The track, which carries 8.3 million passengers annually between San Diego and San Luis Obispo, is now closed for emergency work. 

– Climate change – 

In the luxury Cyprus Shore settlement, an enclave of about a hundred plush villas that was once home to former president Richard Nixon, residents look on uneasily.

Without the beach to protect it, the hillside on which it is built is being eaten away and multi-million dollar homes are sliding towards the sea.

The cliffside parking lot is collapsing and two villas with cracked walls are now officially uninhabitable.

“These homes were valued at minimum $10 million each,” says Lang.

“We’ve been trying to raise the alert for years, but we don’t get much traction.”

The tragedy of the encroaching waters is not limited to San Clemente, says acting mayor Chris Duncan, but a problem for the whole state.

“This area here in Cyprus Shore… is a microcosm,” he says.

“The entire California coast is threatened by climate change and threatened by coastal erosion.”

Erosion is a natural phenomenon that has helped shape our continents over millennia.

But scientists say it is being speeded up by the warming of the planet; exacerbated by rising sea levels brought about by melting ice caps and glaciers, and by the more powerful waves that warmer oceans hold.

Humanity’s unchecked burning of fossil fuels since the industrial revolution has pushed average global temperatures up by 1.2 degrees celsius. They are expected to continue rising.

– ‘Lost battle’ – 

By 2050, between $8 billion and $10 billion of infrastructure could be underwater in California, and other construction valued at $6 billion to $10 billion will be in a high-tide hazard zone, according to a 2019 study released by California’s state legislature.

In San Clemente, local transport authorities are trying to stabilize the shifting tracks.

Every day, tons of rocks are dumped to reinforce the seawall and protect them, in a $12 million project expected to last more than six weeks.

But “it’s a losing battle,” Duncan sighs. 

The line was closed in September 2021 to add 18,000 tons of rock, and that didn’t solve the problem.

“While the rock might temporarily stabilize the slope, it causes exponential sand loss,” he says.

“Because now when the waves hit, it doesn’t hit a soft beach. It hits a hard rock, bounces off, takes all other sand with it.”

Duncan wants federal money to build back the beaches.

“I’m talking about breakwaters, about living shorelines, about possibly groins where it might be appropriate.”

Some advocate a more radical solution to save the railway line.

“The best would be to move (the track) back away from the coast,” says Joseph Street, a geologist at the California Coastal Commission.

“But of course that’s obviously a big, big effort to do that, very expensive.”

And, he points out, it does nothing to protect the homes that are at risk behind the track.

– Retreat –

“A lot of our urban planners and decision makers have really dragged their feet on responding to this problem,” says Stefanie Sekich-Quinn, of Surfrider Foundation. 

The environmental NGO advocates moving the line away from the coast, an option put forth in a 2009 federal report.

California has a handful of such initiatives. On the same rail line, authorities in nearby San Diego announced this year a $300 million project to relocate a portion of tracks further inland.

But in San Clemente, that’s really a last resort, says Duncan.

“People are going to want officials like me to work to save our homes, to save our rail corridor, and not just give up,” he says.

Rescue workers perform a search along the beach of the popular resort of Agia Pelagia, on the southern Greek island of Crete, following flash floods cause by torrential rain, on October 15, 2022

A man was found dead and two people were missing on Saturday after torrential rain brought major flooding to the Greek island of Crete, emergency workers said.

The victim, a man in his fifties, was trapped in his car as the rains began to fall in the southern Greek island, a popular holiday destination.

Local media reported extensive damage in seaside villages, where streets have become rivers carrying away everything in their path.

According to emergency services, a woman was slightly injured when she too became trapped in a car. 

At least nine vehicles surrounded by water still need to be rescued.The emergency services received over 450 calls within an hour on Friday morning as the extent of the problem became clear.

Eight tourists and a security guard were also stranded in the Archaeological Museum in the coastal resort town of Sitia.

All the gorges on the island, popular hiking spots for tourists, were closed to the public until further notice.

The mayor of Sitia told the Skai TV channel, “The situation was out of control and the (weather) phenomena in the region were exceptional.” 

Scientists say human-induced climate change is amplifying extreme weather — including the floods, heatwaves, droughts seen in several parts of the planet — and say these events will become more frequent and more intense.

A senior official for the Heraklion region, Nikos Syrigonakis, urged residents to limit their movements.

“This is a difficult day,” he added. 

The Civil Defence department said it was mobilised and asked all citizens to be vigilant in Crete and the surrounding islands of Rhodes, Karpathos, Kastellorizo and Kasos.

Tara left Lorient, France, in December 2020 for a 70,000-kilometre journey

After a near two-year “Microbiome” mission around the world, scientists said on Saturday they had gathered thousands of samples of marine micro-organisms in a bid to better understand ocean plankton and pollution.

The survey was carried out from the 33-year-old Tara research schooner, which returned to her home port of Lorient on France’s western coast at the weekend.

From Chile to Africa, via the Amazon and the Antarctic, nearly 25,000 samples were collected over the 70,000-kilometre (43,000-mile) route.

“All this data will be analysed,” Tara Ocean Foundation director Romain Trouble told a press conference.

“Within 18 months to two years we will start to have the first discoveries from the mission,” he said.

At the base of the food chain, micro-organisms were the “invisible people of the sea”, accounting for two-thirds of marine biomass, said Trouble.

“They capture atmospheric CO2 (carbon dioxide) and supply half of the oxygen we breathe.”

Trouble said the mission sought to find out how it all works.

“How do all these marine viruses, bacteria, micro-algue manage to interact to produce oxygen?”

“And how will that change tomorrow with climate change and pollution?”

The Tara team paid particular attention to the impact on the oceans of the River Amazon, which has a water flow rate of 200 million litres (53 million gallons) per second.

They wanted to test a theory that deforestation and the spread of agriculture has increased nitrate fertiliser discharge, leading to an abundance of toxic algae along river banks and coasts, particularly in the Caribbean.

The 22-month odyssey also sought to trace the sources of plastic pollution at river mouths, to understand distribution and the types of material involved.

The mission was Tara’s 12th global journey and involved 42 research institutions around the world.

Next spring, Tara sets off to research chemical pollution off European coasts. 

This picture provided by NASA on October 14, 2022 shows the Swift’s X-Ray Telescope capturing the afterglow of GRB 221009A about an hour after it was first detected

Astronomers have observed the brightest flash of light ever seen, from an event that occurred 2.4 billion light years from Earth and was likely triggered by the formation of a black hole.

The burst of gamma-rays — the most intense form of electromagnetic radiation — was first detected by orbiting telescopes on October 9, and its afterglow is still being watched by scientists across the world.

Astrophysicist Brendan O’Connor told AFP that gamma-ray bursts that last hundreds of seconds, as occurred on Sunday, are thought to be caused by dying massive stars, greater than 30 times bigger than our Sun.

The star explodes in a supernova, collapses into a black hole, then matter forms in a disk around the black hole, falls inside, and is spewed out in a jet of energy that travels at 99.99 percent the speed of light.

The flash released photons carrying a record 18 teraelectronvolts of energy — that’s 18 with 12 zeros behind it — and it has impacted long wave radio communications in Earth’s ionosphere.

“It’s really breaking records, both in the amount of photons, and the energy of the photons that are reaching us,” said O’Connor, who used infrared instruments on the Gemini South telescope in Chile to take fresh observations early Friday.

“Something this bright, this nearby, is really a once-in-a-century event,” he added.

Gamma-ray research first began in the 1960s when US satellites designed to detect whether the Soviet Union was detonating bombs in space ending up finding such bursts originating from outside the Milky Way. 

“Gamma-ray bursts in general release the same amount of energy that our Sun produces over its entire lifetime in the span of a few seconds — and this event is the brightest gamma ray burst,” said O’Connor.

This gamma-ray burst, known as GRB 221009A, was first spotted by telescopes including NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and Wind spacecraft on Sunday morning Eastern time. 

– 1.9 billion-year-old movie –

It originated from the direction of the constellation Sagitta, and traveled an estimated 1.9 billion years to reach Earth — less than the current distance of its starting point, because the universe is expanding.

Observing the event now is like watching a 1.9 billion-year-old recording of those events unfold before us, giving astronomers a rare opportunity to glean new insights into things like black hole formation.

“That’s what makes this sort of science so addictive — you get this adrenaline rush when these things happen,” said O’Connor, who is affiliated with the University of Maryland and George Washington University.

Over the coming weeks, he and others will continue watching for the signatures of supernovas at optical and infrared wavelengths, to confirm that their hypothesis about the origins of the flash are correct, and that the event conforms to known physics.

Unfortunately, while the initial burst may have been visible to amateur astronomers, it has since faded out of their view.

Supernova explosions are also predicted to be responsible for producing heavy elements — such as gold, platinum, uranium — and astronomers will also be on the hunt for their signatures.

Astrophysicists have written in the past that the sheer power of gamma-ray bursts could cause extinction level events here on Earth.

But O’Connor pointed out that because the jets of energy are very tightly focused, and aren’t likely to arise in our galaxy, this scenario is not something we should worry much about.

This picture provided by NASA on October 14, 2022 shows the Swift’s X-Ray Telescope capturing the afterglow of GRB 221009A about an hour after it was first detected

Astronomers have observed the brightest flash of light ever seen, from an event that occurred 2.4 billion light years from Earth and was likely triggered by the formation of a black hole.

The burst of gamma-rays — the most intense form of electromagnetic radiation — was first detected by orbiting telescopes on October 9, and its afterglow is still being watched by scientists across the world.

Astrophysicist Brendan O’Connor told AFP that gamma-ray bursts that last hundreds of seconds, as occurred on Sunday, are thought to be caused by dying massive stars, greater than 30 times bigger than our Sun.

The star explodes in a supernova, collapses into a black hole, then matter forms in a disk around the black hole, falls inside, and is spewed out in a jet of energy that travels at 99.99 percent the speed of light.

The flash released photons carrying a record 18 teraelectronvolts of energy — that’s 18 with 12 zeros behind it — and it has impacted long wave radio communications in Earth’s ionosphere.

“It’s really breaking records, both in the amount of photons, and the energy of the photons that are reaching us,” said O’Connor, who used infrared instruments on the Gemini South telescope in Chile to take fresh observations early Friday.

“Something this bright, this nearby, is really a once-in-a-century event,” he added.

“Gamma-ray bursts in general release the same amount of energy that our Sun produces over its entire lifetime in the span of a few seconds — and this event is the brightest gamma ray burst.”

The gamma-ray burst, known as GRB 221009A, was first spotted by telescopes including NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and Wind spacecraft on Sunday morning Eastern time. 

– 1.9 billion-year-old movie –

It originated from the direction of the constellation Sagitta, and traveled an estimated 1.9 billion years to reach Earth — less than the current distance of its starting point, because the universe is expanding.

Observing the event now is like watching a 1.9 billion-year-old recording of those events unfold before us, giving astronomers a rare opportunity to glean new insights into things like black hole formation.

“That’s what makes this sort of science so addictive — you get this adrenaline rush when these things happen,” said O’Connor, who is affiliated with the University of Maryland and George Washington University.

He added that though the initial burst may have been visible to lucky amateur astronomers, it has since faded out of their view.

Over the coming weeks, he and others will continue watching for the signatures of supernovas at optical and infrared wavelengths, to confirm that their hypothesis about the origins of the flash are correct, and that the event conforms to known physics.

Unfortunately, while the initial burst may have been visible to amateur astronomers, it has since faded 

Supernova explosions are also predicted to be responsible for producing heavy elements — such as gold, platinum, uranium — and astronomers will also be on the hunt for their signatures.

Astrophysicists have written in the past that the sheer power of gamma-ray bursts could cause extinction level events here on Earth.

But O’Connor pointed out that because the jets of energy are very tightly focused, and aren’t likely to arise in our galaxy, this scenario is not something we should worry much about.

Barges float down the Ohio River in October 2021, near the confluence with the Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois

A lack of rainfall in the central United States has brought the mighty Mississippi River to its lowest depth in years, causing headaches for shippers and squeezing farmers who rely on the busy waterway to take their product to the Gulf of Mexico.

According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), the river’s depth at shipping hub Memphis, Tennessee, is at its lowest level since 2011.

“Normally at this time of year we would see 40-plus barges moving in a tow configuration pushed by (a) towboat,” said Deb Calhoun, senior vice president of Waterways Council, a US river infrastructure advocacy group.

“Now you you’re only seeing about 24, 25… moving at one time, sometimes less, depending on how shallow the river is at any point.”

This year’s low water level is largely due to a lack of rain in the upper plains states of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota, through which the Mississippi’s major tributary, the Missouri River, flows.

In some areas, the US Army Corps of Engineers has been forced to do emergency dredging so that barges can pass through.

“It’s a very difficult time with harvest occurring now — really the worst possible time for this severe low water situation to occur,” Calhoun said.

Though the winter wheat season was largely wrapped up by early August, corn and soy harvests are in full swing, increasing as usual demand as usual cargo space.

US Department of Agriculture (USDA) figures show that about two-thirds of US sea-based grain exports last year departed from the Gulf of Mexico, most often after being shipped by barge down the Mississippi River.

One barge can carry the equivalent volume of 15 rail cars and 60 semi-trucks, according to industry representatives American Waterways Operators.

“We’re seeing a lot of inefficiencies,” said Calhoun, explaining that barges are having to be filled with less grain so they float higher.

“At this point, we are just very hopeful that rain will come.”

Meteorologists predict some rain will fall over the weekend in the southern states of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.

– Producers squeezed –

The decreased barge capacity has translated into higher shipping costs, with the USDA recording a fourfold increase in barge prices since late August.

At those levels, “we are pricing ourselves out of the export market,” said Michael Zuzolo, of Global Commodity Analytics and Consulting.

He noted that corn has been particularly hard hit, with barge traffic cut in half.

The squeeze on agricultural shipping also comes as wheat, corn and soybean yields are expected to be lower than anticipated, according to the USDA.

“It is already starting to impact the up-river prices by weakening them for the farmers,” said Zuzolo.

And as commercial storage begins to get tighter and tighter, “it’s going to start spreading into the middle part of the country that is not right near a river,” he adds.

The low-water headaches are similar to those experienced in 2012, and for some evoke memories of a historic crisis in 1988.

In 2012, Calhoun says, rocks sticking up out of the water had to be blown up by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

“We’re not there yet,” she said, but in a worst case scenario, authorities would “look at the possibility of releasing water from the Missouri River or upstate reservoirs.”