#latest technology in agriculture

[newbusinessideas]

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[afeelgoodblog]

The Best News of Last Month - August 2024

1.Negative Power Prices Hit Europe as Renewable Energy Floods the Grid

European power markets are experiencing a notable shift as renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar, become a larger part of the energy mix. On Wednesday, power prices in several European markets, including Germany, dipped below zero due to a surge in green electricity production.

2. Taiwan introduces ban on performances by captive wild animals

Live performances by wild animals held in captivity, including performances by dolphins, tigers, and other non-domesticated mammals, will no longer be permitted in Taiwan under new Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) regulations.

3. FTC bans fake online reviews, inflated social media influence; rule takes effect in October

The FTC voted unanimously to ban marketers from using fake reviews, such as those generated with AI technology, and other misleading advertising practices.

The ban also forbids marketers from exaggerating their own influence by, for example, paying for bots to inflate their follower count.

4. Chinese drones will fly trash out of Everest slopes

Come autumn, Nepal will deploy heavy lifter drones to transport garbage from the 6,812-metre tall Ama Dablam, south of Everest. This will be the first commercial work an unmanned aerial vehicle does in Nepal’s high-altitude zone.

The heavy lifter from China’s biggest drone maker, Da Jiang Innovations (DJI), will take on tasks traditionally handled by Sherpas. Officials believe it will help reduce casualties on Everest.

5. Swiss scientists have found a way to use the whole cocoa fruit to make chocolate and not just taking beans and discarding the rest.

Kim Mishra (L) and Anian Schreiber (R) cooperated on the new chocolate making process

Food scientists in Switzerland have come up with a way to make chocolate using the entire cocoa fruit rather than just the beans - and without using sugar.

The chocolate, developed at Zurich’s prestigious Federal Institute of Technology by scientist Kim Mishra and his team includes the cocoa fruit pulp, the juice, and the husk, or endocarp.

6. Six-year-old boy found in Vietnam forest after five days

A six-year-old boy who was missing for five days has been found deep in a forest in Vietnam. Dang Tien Lam, who lives in the northwestern Yen Bai province, was playing in a stream with his nine siblings on 17 August when he wandered into the hills and got lost, local reports said.

He was found on Wednesday by local farmers who heard a child's cry while they were clearing a cinnamon field close to the forest.

7. Lego plans to make half the plastic in bricks from renewable materials by 2026

Lego plans to make half the plastic in its bricks from renewable or recycled material rather than fossil fuels by 2026, in its latest effort to ensure its toys are more environmentally friendly.

The Danish company last year ditched efforts to make bricks entirely from recycled bottles because of cost and production issues. At the moment, 22% of the material in its colourful bricks is not made from fossil fuels.

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That's it for this month :)

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[johndeerecombine]

How New Agriculture Technology Helps You in Farming

Agriculture has always been a significant part of human civilization. It has played a vital role in shaping the world's economy and societies for centuries. However, with the rising population, changing climatic conditions, and increasing demand for food, the traditional farming practices are no longer sufficient to meet the needs of modern times. Thus, the agriculture industry is rapidly evolving with the integration of advanced technologies that are transforming the way farmers grow crops and raise livestock.

The latest agricultural technologies are making farming more productive, efficient, and sustainable. These innovative technologies are empowering farmers to make informed decisions, optimize resources, reduce environmental impact, and increase profitability.

[reasonsforhope]

"On a blustery day in early March, the who’s who of methane research gathered at Vandenberg Space Force Base in Santa Barbara, California. Dozens of people crammed into a NASA mission control center. Others watched from cars pulled alongside roads just outside the sprawling facility. Many more followed a livestream. They came from across the country to witness the launch of an oven-sized satellite capable of detecting the potent planet-warming gas from space. 

The amount of methane, the primary component in natural gas, in the atmosphere has been rising steadily over the last few decades, reaching nearly three times as much as preindustrial times. About a third of methane emissions in the United States occur during the extraction of fossil fuels as the gas seeps from wellheads, pipelines, and other equipment. The rest come from agricultural operations, landfills, coal mining, and other sources. Some of these leaks are large enough to be seen from orbit. Others are miniscule, yet contribute to a growing problem.

Identifying and repairing them is a relatively straightforward climate solution. Methane has a warming potential about 80 times higher than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, so reducing its levels in the atmosphere can help curb global temperature rise. And unlike other industries where the technology to decarbonize is still relatively new, oil and gas companies have long had the tools and know-how to fix these leaks.

MethaneSAT, the gas-detecting device launched in March, is the latest in a growing armada of satellites designed to detect methane. Led by the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund, or EDF, and more than six years in the making, the satellite has the ability to circle the globe 15 times a day and monitor regions where 80 percent of the world’s oil and gas is produced. Along with other satellites in orbit, it is expected to dramatically change how regulators and watchdogs police the oil and gas industry...

A couple hours after the rocket blasted off, Wofsy, Hamburg, and his colleagues watched on a television at a hotel about two miles away as their creation was ejected into orbit. It was a jubilant moment for members of the team, many of whom had traveled to Vandenberg with their partners, parents, and children. “Everybody spontaneously broke into a cheer,” Wofsy said. “You [would’ve] thought that your team scored a touchdown during overtime.”

The data the satellite generates in the coming months will be publicly accessible — available for environmental advocates, oil and gas companies, and regulators alike. Each has an interest in the information MethaneSAT will beam home. Climate advocates hope to use it to push for more stringent regulations governing methane emissions and to hold negligent operators accountable. Fossil fuel companies, many of which do their own monitoring, could use the information to pinpoint and repair leaks, avoiding penalties and recouping a resource they can sell. Regulators could use the data to identify hotspots, develop targeted policies, and catch polluters. For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency is taking steps to be able to use third-party data to enforce its air quality regulations, developing guidelines for using the intelligence satellites like MethaneSAT will provide. The satellite is so important to the agency’s efforts that EPA Administrator Michael Regan was in Santa Barbara for the launch as was a congressional lawmaker. Activists hailed the satellite as a much-needed tool to address climate change. 

“This is going to radically change the amount of empirically observed data that we have and vastly increase our understanding of the amount of methane emissions that are currently happening and what needs to be done to reduce them,” said Dakota Raynes, a research and policy manager at the environmental nonprofit Earthworks. “I’m hopeful that gaining that understanding is going to help continue to shift the narrative towards [the] phase down of fossil fuels.”

With the satellite safely orbiting 370 miles above the Earth’s surface, the mission enters a critical second phase. In the coming months, EDF researchers will calibrate equipment and ensure the satellite works as planned. By next year [2025], it is expected to transmit reams of information from around the world."

-via Grist, April 7, 2024

[fatehbaz]

Chicago, Illinois is often considered to be on the periphery of the plantation. William Cronon's famous narrative of Chicago's relationships with the "Great West" positions the burgeoning city at the edge of American expansion into plantation agriculture in the Midwest and industrial farming on a national scale. [...] [W]e could also characterize the city as an anticipatory hub between the twin plantation figures of the pre-war American South and America's 20th century colonies [in Central America, the Philippines, and beyond]. During the Reconstruction years, Chicago emerged as a logistical center, channeling America's railroads and telegraph lines into itself. As parts of this communications node, Chicago newspapers and military police served to convert white anxieties about Black migration from the plantation South into new techniques and technologies of prediction that became transportable across a newly imaginable informational plane of US imperialism. [...] [I]n Chicago between 1875 and 1890, [...] white anticipations of African American migration from plantations in the South were translated into new information sciences and policing techniques that made their way to plantations in places like the Philippines. [...]

[S]uch feelings were fundamental to linking plantations which at first seem so spatially and temporally distant. [...]

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On May 3, 1879 the Chicago Tribune published a greatly anticipated investigatory series entitled, “The Negro Exodus: Causes of the Migration from the Negro’s Point of View” [...] the latest in a long sequence of deeply uneasy reports dating from 1860. From its location at the communicative center of all major US rail and telegraph lines, the Chicago Tribune undertook an imagined responsibility to inform its Midwestern audience of Black peoples’ movements and behaviors. [...] At the climax of the “Negro’s Point of View” series, [...] May 3, the Chicago Tribune presented its showstopping report from its correspondent in Vicksburg, Mississippi entitled “Letters Written by Negroes in Kansas to their Friends South”. In this report, the writer discusses his skepticism of earlier methods of [...] interviews with Black migrants. [...] [The newspaper] conducted its fact-gathering through the mass surveillance of Black peoples' letters [...] [to assess] inner motivations [...] about Black peoples’ “perceptions, enjoyments, and reasons” [...]. Such informational appetites became the anticipatory basis for 20th century enumerative practices. As Colin Koopman argues, informational fastening, or the atomization and separation of facts from Black peoples’ bodies, became commonplace during the Great Migration in the practice of racial statistics, criminology, and health policy directed at Black migrants [...].

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White Chicagoans’ prolonged concern over predicting Black behaviors and intentions materialized in 1877, when the city became a central hub of militarized response to a nation-wide railroad strike. Adjutant General Richard C. Drum, who commanded the Military Division of the Missouri (Western Frontier) in Chicago from 1873 to 1878, took control of Chicago’s military response to the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. In 1879, after his final year in the city, Drum moved to Washington, DC and proposed the establishment of the Military Information Division (MID) [...]. The MID, which formally established in 1885, maintained close ties to Chicago's local information collection system, adopting a Bertillon identification system of collecting and storing intelligence cards at the time that the National Association of Chiefs of Police established their central bureau of identification in Chicago in 1896 [...]. By the tun of the 20th century, Chicago's police force had expanded tenfold [...], and Drum's MID had amassed over 300,000 intelligence cards [...].

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The affective atmosphere into which the MID intensified its own predictive techniques later traversed the Pacific Ocean into the Philippines. Alfred McCoy argues that the American introduction of communication technologies and surveillance techniques in governing the Philippines constituted the United States’ first information revolution (McCoy 2009: 18). Colonial police trained in the anxious habits of the MID, rendered the Philippines a laboratory for securitized speculation. McCoy further contends that these informational “capillaries of empire” embedded themselves into the Philippines’ plantocratic-security state as well as US domestic surveillance practices. I add to McCoy’s argument by suggesting that trained feelings of white apprehension translated into imperial mechanisms for governing the Philippines through systems of intelligence cards, telecommunications infrastructure, policing units, and management sciences. Reminiscent of the psychological investigatory projects that saturated Chicago’s public life, the MID and its successors developed techniques for psychological examination and personality typing led by another Chicagoan, Harry Hill Bandholtz. [...] Bandholtz sharpened the MID's informational sciences by training Philippines police forces in the neurotic art of collecting every imaginable fact about Filipino behaviors [...].

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Ultimately, the US colonial plantocracy in the Philippines built its authority around information infrastructures which had been trained on apprehensive practices and feelings emanating from Chicago’s racialized geography. [...] [T]he informational networks that extended from the image of the American South, through the anticipation of Chicago's public, [...] animated the governance of colonial plantations in the Philippines [...].

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All text above by: Jolen Martinez. "Plantation Anticipation: Apprehension in Chicago from Reconstruction America to the Plantocratic Philippines" (2024). An essay from an Intervention Symposium titled Plantation Methodologies: Questioning Scale, Space, and Subjecthood. The symposium was introduced and edited by Alyssa Paredes, Sophie Chao, and Andrés León Araya. The symposium was hosted and published by Antipode Online, part of Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography. Published online 4 January 2024, at: antipodeonline.org/2024/01/04/plantation-methodologies/ [In this post, bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[danikamariewrites]

can i please request azriel x reader who is a brilliant inventor, she is groundbreakingly smart and she comes up with solutions quicker than anyone. She is very known and well-respected for her quick mind through all the courts and lords and courts try to recruit her for reader to be in their courts. She invents the best inventions like:

- a magical mirror that allows users to glimpse other courts and realms during the annual Starfall event, providing a unique and enchanting view of the world beyond their own.

- Enchanted gemstones that can regulate temperature and create pleasant, cool microclimates within Summer Court, making the sweltering summer season more bearable.

- Quills imbued with the magic of the Night Court, which write in a language only decipherable by those who have undergone the Night Court’s trials, ensuring secret communication.

- Cloaks made from enchanted materials that can protect wearers from various magical and physical threats in the dangerous world of Prythian.

- Mechanical attachments for Illyrian warriors that temporarily enhance their flying abilities, allowing for greater maneuverability and speed during aerial combat.

she makes personal devices for the ic aswell. like gauntlets to help enhance hand-to-hand combat or magical swords, and so on❤️❤️ i’m a woman in stem so this is just amazing idead fr

Inventor 

Azriel x reader

A/n: omg anon ur brain is insane, like this is such a good idea!

Warnings: none

Walking in the house Azriel heard you humming from work room. He smiled to himself as he framed the door open. You were sat at your desk working on your latest invention.

Azriel loved your brain. It is a vast, endless sea of ideas and knowledge. Each creation a new unique wave flowing from you. You grew up on the continent and attended a school that encouraged creativity. Once you moved to the Night Court you made a name for yourself.

Every court wanted you to solve their problems or help create something for agriculture or to consult on new medical technology. And of course you’d help. You’d never want anyone to suffer. Once you told Azriel that inventing things to help people, big or small, made you unbelievably happy.

Azriel walked up behind you placing a kiss on the back of your head. You turn to face him and Az jumps, not expecting your giant magnified eyes. Removing your goggles you smile up at your mate. “Hi babe, how was your day?”

“It was good. What are you working?” He asks looking down at what you are currently tinkering on. “Oh, it’s a small light for Nesta. It can attach to her book so she can read in bed without bother Cassian.” You said with a giggle. Azriel rolled his eyes at his brothers childish complaints.

“If this one works I’m going to make ones for Gwyn and Em too. This is the third prototype, I can’t seem to get the button right so fingers crossed it works.” You pick up the small light and click the button.

The small, but bright light illuminates your work space. Your lips break out into a wide grin. As you hold up the light Azriel smiles at you. “That’s amazing my love! Excellent job, Nesta is going to love it.”

Turning it off you set the book light down. “I’m going to get a box for this, will you fly me to the House of Wind so I can give it to Nes?” “Of course love. I’ll wait here for you.” You kissed his cheek and hurried out of your work room.

He looked around in awe of everything hanging or on shelves in the room. Azriel always prided himself on knowing what was knew or what you made improvements on. It was a fun game for him.

Your voice broke him from his thoughts as you tugged him out of the room. Your excitement to deliver something so small to your friend infectious.

[astrojulia]

Astro Observations from the Deep Sea #1

Navigation:   ੈ♡˳Masterlist    

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Mars in the 11th house is all about being curious about space and NASA. They're the ones who are interested in exploring the latest technology and having the newest gadgets, like the coolest cell phone or cutting-edge tech.

People with Saturn Rx seriously struggle to say "no" to others. Saturn is the planet of limits, and when it's in retrograde, it makes everything even more internal. So, Saturn Rx brings a lack of internal limits, which means no boundaries.

Air Venus are all about those stimulating conversations and valuing intelligence. But here's the thing nobody mentions—they absolutely adore people with an attractive voice and those who smell amazing. Yeah, they're all about that fragrance!

You know why Virgo are obsessed with cleanliness? It's because they willingly take on tasks that no one else wants to do. They're like the superheroes of necessary chores, always looking out for the betterment of those around them.

Aries Dominant have a hard time trusting their own intuition. It's like they struggle to listen to their gut, even when it's screaming at them. It's a challenge for them to follow advice, even if it's coming from their own minds.

Moon-Jupiter aspects are often associated with a big appetite. But let me tell you the real deal: people with this combo turn to food for comfort during tough times.

Saturn Aries are total lone wolves. They rely less on others and take care of things themselves. It's like they're invisible or something. And hey, the same goes for people with a Stellium in the first house—they're independent warriors, handling things solo.

Aquarius or Pisces rising are masters at escaping reality. They love diving into unconventional realms and exploring beyond the ordinary. They're like the dreamers and the wanderers, always seeking something more.

Being away from someone with a stellium in the 1st house for a long time can be freaky because they go through crazy changes over the years. It's like they're constantly transforming right before your eyes.

Moon in the 9th/12th house tend to lean towards vegetarianism. They're super sensitive to energies, including the vibes in their food.

If you're missing an element in your chart (like a big fat zero), you might become dependent on others for certain things. It's like asking for help is your kryptonite.

Mars is not only about action but also about agriculture. So, if you've got Mars in the 1st or 10th house, you might secretly have a green thumb. You could be a farmer at heart, my friend.

Pluto in the 11th house turns people into hardcore fanatics when comes to their games. They get obsessed with specific video games or series. They might have other interests too, but they'll always come back to their beloved favorite. It's like they're stuck in a loop!

People with the same rising sign as you (and the same houses) tend to complain about the hidden stuff happening in the 12th house of others. But here's the kicker—they do the same exact thing without even realizing it. Like Taurus ascendants, they can be a bit rude without noticing, and then they complain about it when someone else does it. Classic case of "do as I say, not as I do."

3rd house - 6h house aspects can indicate someone having a really hard time with routine because their mind is always elsewhere.

Pisces - Taurus aspects can bring a really strong imagination and artistic sensibility, which they channel into practical endeavors that manifest in the material world and can make them great artists

(CC) AstroJulia Some Rights Reserved

[blueiscoool]

6,000-Year-Old Sandals Found in a Spanish Cave are Europe’s Oldest Shoes

New analysis has identified the oldest shoes ever discovered in Europe, according to a study published this week in the journal Science Advances.

The 22 woven sandals date from 6,000 years ago, radiocarbon analysis found in the study led by researchers at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and Alcalá University in Spain.

The ancient footwear, along with Mesolithic baskets and other tools, was first discovered back in 1857, when a cave in southern Spain was looted by miners. However, when the artifacts were first dated, in the 1970s, they were identified as being about 1,000 years more recent than this latest analysis found.

The very dry conditions within the cave were ideal for preserving perishable materials, the researchers said, and allowed the preservation of a prehistoric burial site complete with partially mummified corpses, accompanied by baskets, wooden tools, sandals and other goods.

The objects are “the oldest and best-preserved set of plant fiber materials in southern Europe so far known,” María Herrero Otal, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement, adding that they demonstrate “the ability of prehistoric communities to master this type of craftsmanship.”

When Spanish archaeologist Manuel de Góngora y Martínez visited the cave in 1867, 10 years after the looting, he gathered the remaining artifacts, including the sandals, and gave them to museums in Madrid and Granada, where they have been studied by researchers, the study added.

The sandals were made of grasses as well as other materials, including leather, lime and ramie bast, a type of natural fiber.

Using the descriptions provided by Góngora, the study hypothesizes that the bodies were buried wearing the sandals.

Some sandals had clear signs of wear, while others appeared never to have been worn, suggesting that some people had clothing made especially for their burial.

The researchers also studied several baskets and other wooden artifacts in the collection. These objects “open up groundbreaking perspectives on the complexity of Early-Middle Holocene populations in Europe,” they said, adding that most knowledge of past societies is drawn from durable artifacts rather than perishable ones such as baskets. The Holocene is the current geological epoch, which began 11,700 years ago.

Both the baskets and sandals suggest that the makers had an extended knowledge of the plant resources in the local environment as well as a high level of expertise, the researchers noted.

“The quality and technological complexity of the basketry makes us question the simplistic assumptions we have about human communities prior to the arrival of agriculture in southern Europe,” Francisco Martínez Sevilla, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement.

The study also found that the objects were deposited at the site at two very different times during the Early and Middle Holocene eras. The first phase was related to the Early Holocene hunter-gatherer populations, and the second phase to Middle Holocene farmers, researchers said.

By Issy Ronald.

[gothhabiba]

Israeli Agriculture. Development of a Resource in Service of an Ideology

Israel’s agricultural system is characterized by an intensive system of production employing the latest engineering techniques and biotechnology. It contributed 3% to GDP and employed 2% of the population in 2006. Agricultural output in 2008 was worth about $5.5 billion, of which 20 percent was exported (Statistical Abstract of Israel, 2008). Israel’s agricultural system has evolved in large measure due to political and historical factors that extend back beyond the establishment of the state of Israel. In Israel, endogenous drivers of agricultural policy, including religion, culture, socioeconomics and demographics, take on monumental importance. Foremost among these is the role of Zionism in shaping agricultural and water policy. Agriculture was integral to the realization of the Zionist project since its inception. The settlers were led by a pioneering spirit and a back to the earth ethos, which aimed to wed the people to the land. This agrarian vision had two branches – conquering the land through its transformation and redemption, and simultaneously the creation of a new Jewish man. «In exile, the story goes, the Jewish people have been separated from nature, forbidden to work the soil and forced to be urban. The Jewish people will go back to the land, and they will be rebuilt by the land. In their return Jews will again tend to the earth and draw strength from their renewed biological rootedness» (Schoenfeld, 2004: 6)[.]

The central goal of Zionism was to create a geographical Jewish presence in Israel/Palestine. Collective agricultural settlement of the land was seen as an integral part of this process due to its role in population dispersal, securing peripheral areas and nurturing a bond between the Jews and their homeland. The other important goal for agriculture was self-sufficiency, in light of Israel’s inability to trade with her neighbours. For these reasons, Israeli is one example of a country pursuing agriculture despite its unprofitability, not to mention the unsuitability of the ecological environment to the agricultural activity (Da’na, 2000: 419)[.] This can be most clearly evidenced through Israel’s policy of water development. As Lipchin remarks (2003: 69): «In a country with naturally scarce water resources it is astonishing to see that Israel’s water policy does not reflect this natural scarcity». For example, for a long time much of Israel’s land mass was used to grow cotton, a water and pesticide hungry plant, rather than food (Richter & Safi, 1997: 211).

[...] Zionist ideology [...] interfaces with agricultural policy in numerous other ways, contributing to the unique character of the Israeli agricultural system. These include: the establishment of collective farms, including kibbutzim and moshavim, to defend against attackers in the early years; large capital inflows from the Jewish Diaspora, the United States and German reparations, permitting modern technologies; a preference for expensive Hebrew labour, including prohibitions against Arab labour; and large subsidies to the agricultural sector of inputs such as water, due to their strategic importance in laying claim to the land. Along with the agrarian vision, the Jews brought with them a European modernizing initiative, which saw the need to redeem the landscape and shape it to the settlers´ will. This implied a series of sweeping changes in agricultural production methods and land use patterns, which would transform the country.

– 2009. Leah Temper, “Creating Facts on the Ground: Agriculture in Israel and Palestine (1882-2000),” Historia Agraria 48, pp. 75-110.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil sees temperature rises of up to 3ºC in 60 years

Over the last 60 years, warming in some Brazilian regions has been greater than the global average, reaching up to 3ºC in average daily maximum temperatures in some regions, the report Mudança do Clima no Brasil (“Climate Change in Brazil”) found. According to the study, since the beginning of the 1990s, the number of days with heat waves in Brazil rose from seven to 52 by the beginning of the current decade.

“Extreme events—like severe droughts and heat waves—will become more frequent, with the likelihood of unprecedented climatic events,” the report points out.

Launched this week, the study is a cross-section of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and other current scientific studies—the result of an effort that brought together the Ministry of Science, Technology, and Information and the social organizations of the Rede Clima, WWF-Brasil, and the Alana Institute.

Based on the unprecedented projections for the next 30 years presented by the IPCC, the researchers also concluded that if the 2°C limit is reached, critical thresholds for human health and agriculture will be exceeded more frequently by 2050.

Continue reading.

[queerpyracy]

When you’re told there’s a simple solution to a very complex problem, you’re probably not getting the whole story.

Today’s meat consumption is a good example. Meat and dairy are increasingly under the world’s microscope as livestock—which rely on huge quantities of feed crops and occupy nearly 80 percent of global farmland—accounts for between 14 percent and 30 percent of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It’s also the source of more frequent antimicrobial-resistant pathogens, and much of the global livestock and seafood industries have been exposed for unsafe and abusive working conditions.

This complex web of problems requires more than one answer. And yet “alternative proteins”—from plant-based to lab-grown “fake” meat and dairy—are being promoted as a simple solution. Products like the Impossible Burger, with its 15-plus ingredients, are now in supermarkets and fast food establishments worldwide. Lab-grown chicken has been on the market in Singapore since late 2020 and will likely soon be approved in the U.S. and elsewhere. These products are being sold as a “win-win-win” for animals, people, and the planet. According to Patrick Brown, the outspoken CEO of Impossible Foods, livestock is “the most destructive technology on earth,” and meat substitutes are “the last chance to save the planet.”

Dramatic claims about plant-based meat, lab-grown meat, and “cellular agriculture” have already succeeded in drawing billions of dollars to the sector, including from big-name investors like Bill Gates and Richard Branson. Governments are now paying attention as well. China is readying major investment in lab-grown meat as part of its latest Five-Year Agricultural Plan, and the U.S. government is ploughing $10 million into a National Institute for Cellular Agriculture. Denmark is also backing alternative proteins through a $98 million plant-based food fund.

But these products and their sustainability credentials rest on shaky ground, as I show in a new report out today, “The Politics of Protein,” from the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food).

[Keep Reading]

[mariacallous]

In July, the local government of the Italian region of Sardinia suspended the construction of hundreds of new wind turbines, claiming that it would destroy the island’s beautiful landscape. In October, the government then announced its intention to stop the construction of new wind farms altogether, also adding solar panels to the ban.

These decisions followed mounting protests by large groups of activists who opposed these renewable energy developments, advocating instead for the use of natural gas to produce electricity. In August, unknown people set fire to two wind farms that were due to be installed in the north of the island. Similar attacks destroyed solar panels destined to be constructed on local farmland.

Under its new plans, Sardinia is betting instead on developing its natural gas infrastructure while delaying the shutdown of its coal-fired power plants, which now produce more than 60 percent of the electricity needed by the island of 1.6 million people.

The opposition to renewables in Sardinia is a blow not only to other Italian local governments, which are facing tough decisions on how to curb greenhouse gas emissions. It is also a major setback for the central government in Rome and especially for the European Union and its European Green Deal, the ambitious climate plan for the entire continent.

The ongoing battle in Sardinia is the latest example of the struggle European countries are facing in reaching their ambitious decarbonization plans in the continent. Countries such as France, Germany, and Spain have been facing opposition to these projects over the past few years, raising questions about the attainability of a central element of the EU’s green strategy.

The ability and political will of each European country to translate Europe’s plans and goals into actual national laws and policies will be crucial in reaching the continent’s ambitious climate targets. But the risk that a two-speed—or even multispeed—Europe could ultimately derail the overall plans is growing, and it will test the new European Commission’s determination to achieve sufficient progress during its upcoming mandate.

“The commission’s legacy will depend on its ability to push forward vital green policies within a maelstrom of political and domestic discontent,” said Mats Engström, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “The climate team’s members must also bridge political divides within the commission to deliver on its Green Deal promises. Whether it succeeds in this task will be closely scrutinized over the upcoming five-year term.”

The European Green Deal, a policy framework to achieve climate neutrality—meaning full decarbonization—by 2050, was approved in 2020. Subsequent legislation set a 55 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. EU institutions are currently assessing the feasibility of an intermediate goal of a reduction of 90 percent by 2040, which has also been proposed by the commission.

Replacing fossil fuel energy production with renewables is just one aspect of the bloc’s goals. Others include recovering Europe’s biodiversity, making its food system more sustainable, and creating a well-functioning circular economy, all while making its industries greener.

These policies will affect all sectors of the bloc’s economy—households, industry, services, and agriculture—with the aim of also making it more competitive globally.

Analysts at Brussels-based think tank Bruegel published a report in October that identified four areas of risk that may derail the achievement of the EU’s climate goals, which also appear to be intertwined: geoeconomic instability, technological progress, exacerbated inequality, and policy credibility.

“A global economy with more trade disputes and greater risk of conflict endangers the massive capital investment needed for the transition, while the cost of clean technologies is a primary determinant of the economic viability of decarbonisation,” the analysts wrote. They added: “Climate policies will affect people’s everyday lives in disruptive ways, meaning that regressive outcomes must be guarded against, balanced with a concrete commitment to the established climate policy pillars.”

In a September report, the European Commission—the executive arm of the EU—listed a number of key achievements already reached. EU’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 32.5 percent from the 1990 baseline, while the European economy has grown by 67 percent over the same period, demonstrating the decoupling of growth from emissions.

However, the commission warned that although the installation of renewable power plants has been at a record high over the past few years, the pace toward EU energy efficiency and renewable targets must be further increased to ensure their achievement.

The bloc’s executive also warned about the significant challenge to the continent’s competitiveness due to rising competition with China, high energy price differentials compared to industrial competitors such as the United States, and potential strategic dependencies on clean energy technologies.

At the same time, European citizens still face high energy bills, which—combined with the rising cost of living—further reduce their purchasing power.

“The sectors in which it goes pretty well are the sectors where the economic case is there,” said Linda Kalcher, the executive director at Strategic Perspectives, another Brussels-based think-tank. “For instance, as long as there are schemes that actually support households to buy heat pumps or electric vehicles, we see that there is high uptake on them. The areas where it’s still not economically beneficial, like renovating the building stock, are obviously very slow.”

This September’s Eurobarometer, a survey conducted over the previous few months on behalf of European institutions, found that 81 percent of the sample agree that implementing a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions target will contribute to Europe’s fight against climate change and to the protection of the environment.

Yet, 53 percent said the EU should encourage member states to make their first or second energy priority enacting measures to support households in energy poverty, while 50 percent said that member states should prioritize focusing on measures to reduce energy consumption or that help citizens to produce or consume energy from renewable sources.

Conall Heussaff, a research analyst at Bruegel, said the biggest risk that could hamper the achievement of the EU’s 2030 decarbonization targets is what the think tank called the “policy credibility risk.”

“There’s a danger for divisive politics to use the energy transition as a wedge, as a way to divide the public and push against the sort of ‘elite imposition’ on people’s lives,” he said.

Political disputes about climate policy were evident in the run-up to European Parliament elections in June in relation to several policy measures, including the phaseout of internal combustion engines, the so-called nature restoration law, and gas boiler sales bans in Germany. These laid bare the divisive nature of policies with a direct impact on households, businesses, and agriculture.

Experience suggests the European Green Deal policies will likely face postponements and even rollbacks in the coming years, analysts warn. These rollbacks, in turn, could stall planned investments and trigger a rise in cost for businesses and citizens that have already made investments in clean technologies.

Achieving the intermediate 90 percent emission reduction target by 2040 largely relies on replacing the current expenditure on fossil fuel with capital investments in clean technologies. According to the European Commission, the annual investment required would be around 700 billion euros ($760 billion) from 2031 to 2040.

But geoeconomic risk looms large on these plans. The disruption of clean technology supply chains potentially emerging from simmering trade tensions between the major trading blocs could derail the continent’s energy transition. So too could broader economic shocks, which might destabilize the macroeconomic situation by driving up interest rates or limiting fiscal space of European countries.

Trade tensions—particularly with China, which dominates the market for critical raw materials and many green technologies, such as solar panels and batteries—could slow down the energy transition and increase its costs.

At the same time, the initial capital investment for technologies such as wind, solar, and batteries comprises the largest share of the total cost of their implementation. Rising interest rates could therefore slow down such investments.

Increased geopolitical instability—and the possible reelection of former U.S. President Donald Trump, some argue—could also trigger higher defense spending by European countries, limiting their fiscal space to finance the energy transition. The slower development of technologies could also have a negative impact. All pathways to a net-zero economy partially rely on technologies which are so far unproven on a large scale.

In particular, progress on carbon removal technologies will be key, because if it proved to be insufficient, other sectors such as agriculture or industry could be required to reduce emissions more quickly. “To succeed, the 2040 climate and energy policy framework needs to be designed to be resilient to such risks,” Bruegel’s analysts said in their October report.

The green transition envisaged by the EU will need to have the buy-in of all the bloc’s governments as well as its citizens to overcome the risks to its success. It will require European leaders to ensure the timely and thorough implementation of existing EU legislation, while limiting political concessions to the many different groups opposing the changes needed.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Biotechnology and the future of humanity

Cornucopia?

But to return to the issue of the production of agricultural goods using GM technology, although we know that poverty is not caused either by an actual scarcity of physical necessities or any inability to produce them, what about the claim of the corporations that GM will increase yields and hence be of benefit to us human inhabitants of Planet Earth, if only by reducing prices? Is even that to be believed? Well, there are plenty of indications that claims of huge increases in yield are somewhat exaggerated. In 1997 30,000 acres of Monsanto’s GM Roundup Ready cotton failed in Mississippi. Growers faced $100,000 in losses each. In 1996 Monsanto’s ‘New Leaf’ GM potatoes (containing the Bt gene) were planted in Georgia in the ex-Soviet Union. Yield loss was up to 67% of the entire crop. Many farmers were forced into debt. Also in 1996 2 million acres of Monsanto’s GM cotton were planted in the southern US. This contained the Bt gene that is supposed to make it immune to the bollworm, a major pest of cotton. However nearly 50% of the acreage planted suffered a severe infestation: just a few teething troubles before the corporations save us all from hunger and environmental degradation? Or could it be clear evidence that talk of ‘feeding the world’ with GM technology is pure lies and only increased sales and profits matter? While this system, by its irrationality, plunges many into poverty it elevates others to great wealth, power and privilege and these elites will do all in their power to maintain and extend it regardless of the cost to humans, other species or life in general. It is for this reason that when we come to consider our response to GM technology, the latest stage in the industrialisation of food production, we must aim to build an autonomous, collective, revolutionary response rather than being dragged onto the terrain of reformism.

[the-exhausted-xexandaler]

Tears of the Kingdom hot take; It’s not actually the latest in the canon… it would’ve been the first in a repeating cycle.

I’m not talking about like how Majora’s Mask does it with the Song of Time reverting Link to the start of the three day deadline. I mean a cosmic repetition. Let’s break it down:

Bomb Flowers are commonly seen around the caves and underground, yet only super tech from an ancient civilization can make explosives artificially. Bomb Flowers are also nowhere at all in BotW, but plentiful in TotK. It may be true that the BotW had bomb Arrows and barrels, but no organic bomb flowers.

The master sword broke and was ‘restored’ by the light dragon who (it’s already been a few months since the game came out so spoilers are a go ahead), in other words Zelda, an incarnation of the Goddess Hylia who is said in multiple places to be the Goddess of Light and/or Time. The sword is now filled with so much holy, godly energy that if Link didn’t have his arm on loan from the original king he probably wouldn’t have been able to handle.

Notice how Ganondorf was specifically called ‘Demon King’ in multiple accounts of TotK’s plot and takes an appearance similar to the original Demon King Demise. If Zelda hadn’t been able to restore the Master Sword over 10,000 years, he might’ve conquered the world or had to be sealed by the gods all over again.

Ganondorf is also the origin of all monsters. Bokoblins? Moblins? Hinox? All from Ganondorf’s malice.

Bokoblins in both BotW, TotK and Skyward sword hold similar appearances. About human sized goblin creatures.

While the Moblins of BotW and TotK don’t look like Moblins in SS, the Boss Bokoblins do. Large stocky body that lumber over to whack the incarnated hero with lots of sticks.

Freaking floating islands that no doubt would have been Skyloft and it’s accompanying islands a few thousand years down the road.

The map of the regions in SS matches pretty well with BotW and TotK. Eldin Volcano matches up with Death Mountain in the Eldin and Akala regions to the NE.

Faron’s woods matches up with Lanayru, Nacluda and Faron regions being a mix of both a well forested and very watery region.

Lanayru Desert matches up with the Gerudo region pretty nicely with the exception of the robots and greenery, but oh oh the Zonai have a depo deep underground and a swarm of well learned ladies who could easily learn how to reverse engineer the technology for agriculture and mining especially given the Gerudo highlands that are literally a light jaunt away.

The boss Scaldera is eerily alike a pillbug version of a Talos or more likely to be akin to the Marbled Gohma, a similarly single eyed creature that lives in a volcanic region.

The Mucktorok is a being that creates vile sludge that could poison the resilient Zora, likely would be able to even poison a legendary dragon in a strong enough dosage.

The Gibdos in TotK may be more humanoid and more similar to moths, but Lanayru Mining facility has had an awful infestation by a seemingly immortal species of Scorpions.

Rito species could easily be seen as an evolutionary upgrade to the Loftwings, but could also be seen as a predecessor. The Loftwings aren’t simple birds, but a clever species able to respond to complex instructions and respond to the unique whistles of their chosen riders. This is especially likely as the region might’ve just kept growing colder and colder until the Rito race have to adapt to new surroundings.

Nit every Goron had been corrupted by the Marbled Gohma. The young could have fled Death Mountain after all the corrupted Gorons killed eachother over the Marbled Roast. Maybe becoming a race of nomads like they were in SS.

Zelda was able to restore herself with the help of Link, Sonia and Rauru at the end of the game, so it’s likely the other three roaming dragons that loop around Hyrule (Farosh, Naydra and Dinraal) could regain a modicum of sense in time to help restore a few regions to sense, and all three relate to the elements of the sacred dragons of Skyward Sword (Faron and Naydra have water and ice based abilities respectively, Eldin and Dinraal are fire based, Lanayru and Farosh are electric based).

[fatehbaz]

The link between warfare and technological innovation has been well documented [...]. World War II was a particularly intense crucible of technological change, and the repurposing of military technologies and industries in the forging of a new post-war consumer [economy] is crucial [...]. Processes of technological bricolage turned the machines of war onto the natural world as global powers competed to cement their economic and imperial hegemony. In Great Britain’s post-war “groundnut scheme” in its East African territories (1946-51), this collision of nature, military hardware, and technical expertise was part of efforts to both produce more fats for the British diet and to demonstrate to the world (most importantly the United States) that, through a newly energized science-led developmentalism, British colonialism still had a “progressive” role to play in the postwar world.

The aim was to produce millions of tons of peanuts across Tanganyika using the latest methods of advanced scientific agriculture. The environmental conditions in the north, where the scheme was to begin, were known to be especially trying, not least the dry climate [...]. But faith in the power of mechanized agriculture was such that any natural limits were thought to be readily surmountable.

The groundnut scheme was to be, as its Director put it in an interview with the Tanganyika Standard, a “war” with nature, and an “economic Battle of Alamein” waged over some three million acres by an army of colonial technicians - many recruited from military ranks - and local laborers, for many of whom the scheme represented their first entry into the wage labor market.

But it wasn’t just the rhetoric of war that was repurposed.

Lancaster bombers were kitted out to survey and discover “new country” in East Africa for agricultural development. [...] [T]ractors and bulldozers from military surplus stores in Egypt proved unable to tackle the hard ground and tough vegetation, so the planners turned to a novel solution: repurposing surplus Sherman M4A2 tanks. The Vickers-Armstrong factory in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne set about rearranging key elements of the tanks’ construction [...]. The tractors, christened “Shervicks” for their hybrid origins, were [...] thought to be particularly suited to large-scale earth-moving and to the kind of heavy duty “bush clearing” that was required in Tanganyika.

Officials sought to dismiss concerns that large-scale bush clearing would have wider environmental consequences, using the well-worn colonial trope that any observed changes in local climate or erosion patterns were due to the “primitive” agricultural practices of the locals, not to the earth-moving practices of the colonists.  [...] As the plants continued to wilt in the sun, [...] [t]he stakes were high. As [J.R.] of the Colonial Development Corporation put it in a letter: “Our standing as an Imperial power in Africa is to a substantial extent bound up with the future of this scheme. To abandon it would be a humiliating blow to our prestige everywhere.” The only option left was to try and bend the weather itself to the scheme’s will, by seeding the clouds for rain. [...] “Balloon bombs” (photographic film canisters tethered to weather balloons) and a repurposed Royal Navy flare gun were used to target individual clouds [...]. The scheme itself has survived as a cautionary tale of governmental hubris, but it is instructive too as a case study of how technologies of war have been turned against other foes.

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All text above by: Martin Mahony. “The Enemy is Nature: Military Machines and Technological Bricolage in Britain’s ‘Great Agricultural Experiment.’“ Environment and Society Portal, Arcadia (Spring 2021), no. 11. Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. doi:10.5282/rcc/9191. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Images and their captions are shown unaltered as they originally appear in Mahony's article. Public Domain Mark 1.0 License for images: creativecommons dot org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/]

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from the New York Times:

What’s driving ominous declines in insects?

While a growing body of research shows decreases in many insect populations, it has been hard for scientists to disentangle the possible causes. Are insects suffering from habitat loss as natural areas are plowed and paved? Is climate change doing them in? What about pesticides?

The latest insight comes from a study on butterflies in the Midwest, published on Thursday in the journal PLOS ONE. Its results don’t discount the serious effects of climate change and habitat loss on butterflies and other insects, but they indicate that agricultural insecticides exerted the biggest impact on the size and diversity of butterfly populations in the Midwest during the study period, 1998 to 2014.

Especially detrimental, the researchers found, was a class of widely used insecticides called neonicotinoids that are absorbed into the tissues of plants.

“It’s a story about unintended consequences,” said Scott Swinton, a professor of agricultural economics at Michigan State University and one of the study’s authors. “In developing technologies that were very effective at controlling soybean aphid and certain other agricultural pests, non-target species that we care about, butterflies in particular, have been harmed.”

Europe largely banned neonicotinoids in 2018, citing risks to bees. The new findings come as wildlife officials in the United States weigh whether to place monarch butterflies, which range coast to coast, on the endangered species list. (They have already found such protections to be warranted but said they were precluded by higher-priority needs.)

In addition to delighting humans and pollinating plants, butterfly species are a critical food source for other animals, notably birds, during their life stage as caterpillars. In fact, research has linked some bird declines to insect declines.

For the new study, researchers integrated multiple data sets and used statistical analysis to make comparisons between different potential drivers of decline across 81 counties in five states. They found that in the median county over the 17-year study period, pesticides were associated with an 8 percent decline in butterflies when compared with a scenario in which pesticide use remained unchanged over the same period. For monarchs, that comparative drop was a whopping 33 percent.