industryterm:oil

  • But it is worse than that, par Marc Doll
    https://www.facebook.com/SoilLifeQuadra/posts/10156656875720199

    I realize there is something I have known for some time but have never said, and, since I have just spent another 4 hours of my life in climate change academia I have to get this out of my system.

    Please understand that many you reading this won’t live to an old age... and likely will start scrolling after one or 2 more paragraphs... (edit...Ok I was wrong on this point. This is now my 2nd most shared post of all time..(edit)...make that my most shared)

    The IPCC report and Paris accord are incredibly overly optimistic and that commits the world to a target that means the death of hundreds of millions if not more.

    But it is worse than that.

    Even the commitments made by countries in the Paris accord don’t get us to a 2 degree world.

    But it is worse than that.

    The 2 degree target is now unattainable (unless of course the entirety of civilization does a 180 today...) and is based on geo-engineering the climate of the earth as well as the sequestering of every molecule of carbon we have produced since 1987, as well as every molecule we are producing today,as well as every molecule we produce tomorrow.... with magical technologies that don’t exist, wont exist and, even if they did would likely cause as many if not more problems than they fix.

    But it is worse than that.

    The 2 degree target of the IPCC does not factor in the feedback loops such as the increase absorption of heat due to a drastic reduction in the albedo (reflectivity) effect caused by the 70% loss of arctic ice,..- the release of methane from a thawing arctic. (there is more energy stored in the arctic methane than there is in coal in the world). This is called the methane dragon. If the process of the release of the methane, currently frozen in the soil and ocean beds of the arctic, which may have already begun, but if it spins out of control we are looking a an 8 degree rise in temperature.

    But it is worse than that.

    The report which gives us 12 years to get our head’s out of our arses underestimated the amount of heat stored in the world’s oceans, as we descovered in mid-January by 40%... so no , we don’t have 12 more years.

    But it is worse than that.

    The IPCC report ignores the effects of humans messing up the Nitrogen cycle through agricultural fertilizers and more... Don’t go down this rabbit hole if you want to sleep at night.

    But it is worse than that.

    Sea level rise will not be gradual. Even assuming that the billions of tons of water that is currently being dumped down to the ground level of Greenland isn’t creating a lubricant which eventually will allow the ice to free-flow into the northern oceans; it is only the friction to the islands surface that is currently holding the ice back. Then consider the same process is happening in Antarctica but is also coupled with the disappearance of the ice shelves which act as buttresses holding the glaciers from free flowing into the southern ocean. then factor in thermal expansions; the simple fact that warmer water takes up more space and It becomes clear that we are not looking at maintaining the current 3.4mm/yr increase in sea level rise (which incidentally is terrifying when you multiply it out over decades and centuries.) We will be looking at major calving events that will result in much bigger yearly increases coupled with an exponential increase in glacial melting. We know that every increase of 100ppm of C02 increases sea level by about 100 feet. We have already baked in 130 feet of sea level rise. It is just a question of how long it is going to take to get there... and then keep on rising..

    But it is worse than that.

    Insects are disappearing at 6 times the speed of larger animals and at a rate of about 2.5% of their biomass every year. These are our pollinators. These are links in our food chain. These represent the basic functioning of every terrestrial ecosystem.

    But it is worse than that.

    58% of the biomass of vertebrae life on earth has been lost since 1970. That is basically in my lifetime!

    But it is worse than that.

    The amount of Carbon we add to the atmosphere is equal to a yearly a human caused forest fire 20% bigger than the continent of Africa. Yes, that is every single year!

    But it is worse than that.

    Drought in nearly every food producing place in the world is expected to intensify by mid-century and make them basically unusable by the end of the century... Then factor in the end of Phosphorus (China and Russia have already stopped exporting it knowing this) and the depletion of aquifers and you come to the conclusion that feeding the planet becomes impossible.

    But it is worse than that.

    We can no longer save the society that we live in and many of us are going to be dead long before our life expectancy would suggest.

    If your idea of hope is having some slightly modified Standard of living going forward and live to ripe old age... there is no hope. This civilization is over...

    ..but there is hope..

    There is a way for some to come through this and have an enjoyable life on the other side. Every day we delay can be measured in human lives. There will come a day of inaction when that number includes someone you love, yourself or myself.

    So we have 2 options.

    Wake the fuck up. If we do we will only have to experience the end of our society as we know it aka...the inevitable economic collapse which is now unavoidable, but be able to save and rebuild something new on the other side. This would require a deep adaptation. Words like sustainability would need to be seen as toxic and our focus needs be on regeneration. Regeneration of soil, forests, grasslands, oceans etc.... This is all possible.

    Option 2 is the path we are on thinking that we can slowly adapt to change. This not only ensures we experience collapse but also condemns humanity to not just economic and social collapse but in a 4-6 or even an 8 degree world... extinction.

    I am sick of pipeline discussions. I am sick of any argument that is predicated on the defeatist assumption that we will continue to burn oil at an ever increasing rate simply because it is what we have always done. Fact is if we do we are not just fucked, we are dead. I am sick of people who don’t understand how their food is produced, and its effect on the climate.(both carnivores who eat feed-lot meat and vegans who eat industrially-produced-mono-cropped-veggies as they are equally guilty here. The consumption of either is devastating). I am sick of the tons of shiny new clothes people are wearing without realizing 1 Kg of cotton takes over 10 thousand Liters of water and incredible amounts of energy to produce. I am sickened by the amount of that same clothing hits the landfill in near new condition. I am sick of the argument that our oil is less poisonous than someone else’s. Firstly, no it isn’t and secondly, It doesn’t fucking matter. I am sick of people that can’t even handle the ridiculously-small, only-the-tip-of- the-iceberg-of-changes we need to accept; a carbon tax. I am sick of the fact that the political will seems only capable of focusing on the individual consumer through small measures like a carbon tax but no elected Party seems to have the fortitude to enact policies that take it to the small handful of companies that are responsible for 70% of our current C02 production. I am sick of my own hypocrisy that allows me to still use fossil fuels for transportation. I am sick of those who use hypocrisy as an argument against action. I am sick of the Leadership of my country that argues we can have economic growth and survivable environment... we can’t. I am sickened by the normalizing of the leadership of our Southern neighbour who as the most polluting nation in the world officially ignores even the tragedy that is the Paris accord. I am sick of the politicians I worked to get elected being impotent on this subject. Naheed and Greg I’m looking at you. (BTW...Druh, you are an exception) I am sick that the next image I put up of my kids, cheese, pets or bread is going to gain immeasurably more attention than a post such as this which actually has meaning... I am sick about the fact that all the information I referenced here is easily discoverable in scientific journals through a simple google search but will be characterized by many as hyperbolic.

    I am confused as to who I am more upset with. Those who have fallen for the denier propaganda, those who choose to be willfully ignorant, those who understand this issue and throw their hands up in a fit of lazy despair or those who are as cognitive as I am to the urgency of this issue yet continue living day-to-day feeling self-satisfied with their recycling, electric car, voting record or some other equally inane lifestyle modification while waiting for society to hit the tipping point so they don’t have to actually put their values into practice (which despite my recent life changes still more or less includes me). All that said...

    There is a path forward.

    But every day we delay the path forward includes fewer of us. Build community, build resilience, work for food security, think regeneration, plant food producing trees, think perennial food production, turn your waste products into resources, eat food that does not mine the soil and is locally produced, eat meat that is grass fed in a holistic or intensively rotated (ideally holistically grazed in a silvopasture ) that is used to provide nutrients to vegetation, get to know a farmer or become one yourself, park your car, do not vote for anyone who either ignores climate change or says we can have our cake and eat it too, quit your job if it is fossil fuel related (it is better than losing it... which you will), stop buying shit, stop buying expensive cars and overly large houses and then complain that local planet saving food costs more than Costco. Stop buying things that are designed to break and be disposed-of, let go of this society slowly and by your own volition (its better than being forced to do it quickly), Rip up your lawn and plant a garden with perennial veggies, fruit bushes, fruit trees and nut trees. Learn to compost your own poop (it is easy and doesn’t stink). Buy an apple with a blemish, Get a smaller house on a bigger lot and regenerate that land, Plant a guerrilla garden on a city road allowance. Return to the multi-generational house, Realize that growth has only been a thing in human civilization for 250 years and it is about to end and make preparations for this change. Teach this to your children. Buy only the necessities, don’t buy new clothes-go to the thrift store. Don’t use single use plastic or if you do re-purpose it, Unplug your garberator and compost everything, Relearn old forgotten skills. Don’t let yourself get away with the argument that the plane is going there anyway when you book a holiday. Understand that there is no such thing as the new normal because next year will be worse, Understand before you make the argument that we need to reduce human population ... meaning the population elsewhere... that it is not overpopulation in China or India that is causing the current problem... It is us and our “western” lifestyle, Understand that those that are currently arguing against refugees and climate change are both increasing the effects of climate change and causing millions of climate refugees... which will be arriving on Canada’s doorstep because Canada, due to our size and Northern Latitude, will on the whole have some of the best climate refuges. Understand that the densification of cities is condemning those in that density to a food-less future. Stop tolerating the middle ground on climate change. there is no middle ground on gravity, the earth is round, and we are on the verge of collapse.

    –----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    At last check over 25000 shares. Thank you for reading.

    Thanks to Dr. Eric Rignot, Rupert Read , Dr. Jim Anderson, everyone at Berkely Earth those that put keep C02.earth and Environmental Advanced Sciences on FB upto date and so many other climate scientists who’s work have inspired this piece. Thanks as well to the 16 yr old Gretta Thunburg who gave me the courage to take what was in my head and put it to paper,. I encourage you to dig deep. Listen to talks where scientist are talking to scientists. They are less likely then to use the conservative filters they impose on themselves and you will get to the cutting edge.

    *on a personal note, since I post about my children, I don’t accept friend requests from people I haven’t met. That said as of today, I have figured out how to enable the “follow” button on my account. I have been blown away by all the fantastic and heartfelt messages and commitments to change I have received due to this post and look forward to reading them.

  • French authorities try to stem slick from capsized ship | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-shipping-accident-idUSKCN1QV1TX

    French authorities battled on Thursday to contain an oil slick after the Italian Grande America ship capsized in the Atlantic this week.

    The Grimaldi Lines container ship capsized and sank on Tuesday, after catching fire while sailing from Hamburg to Casablanca. Britain’s Royal Navy frigate Argyll rescued all 27 crew members from the water.

    The ship was carrying 2,200 tonnes of heavy fuel when it sank some 330 km (200 miles) off the coast from La Rochelle in western France. Footage from the French navy showed thick black smoke pouring from the vessel.

    French authorities said a slick measuring 10 km (6 miles) long and 1 km wide could reach the coast of southern Brittany by the end of the weekend.

    French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and Environment Minister Francois de Rugy both said they were closely monitoring the situation.

    A Grimaldi representative in France declined to comment. Company officials in Italy could not immediately be reached for comment.

  • Oil storage tanks explode in Venezuela, while main terminal resumes shipments | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-oil-idUSKCN1QU300

    Two storage tanks exploded at a heavy-crude upgrading project in eastern Venezuela on Wednesday, according to an oil industry source and a legislator, while the country’s main oil terminal resumed shipments after a prolonged blackout.

    The tanks at the Petro San Felix project were holding diluent, which is mixed with extra-heavy Orinoco belt heavy crude to make it lighter, legislator Jose Brito said in a telephone interview.

    Incroyable série de « malchances » au #venezuela

  • The Women Who Walked on Wings
    https://www.messynessychic.com/2019/02/26/the-women-who-walked-on-wings

    Gladys Roy, pictured above on the far wing, is probably the only woman in the world who could say she’s played tennis on an airplane– at least in our circle of friends. As it turns out, a lot of women did some pretty crazy stuff on airplanes in the 1920s…

    Take Gladys Ingle, for example (pictured above). She was the only female member of 13 Black Cats, the daredevil wing walkers who did some of Hollywood’s best stunt work in the 1920s. Gladys was able to hop from one plane to another in mid-air without any protective gear (and lived to the age of 82). Sadly Gladys Roy (playing tennis and not to be confused with Gladys Ingle) was killed at the age of 25 when she was struck by a whirling propeller.
    Gladys Ingle, a female “Black Cat”

    The origins of wing-walking were pretty practical: pilots would often need to venture onto their plane’s wings in-flight to make technical adjustments. The earliest documented case was in 1911, but it was the dashing American Army Pilot Ormer Locklear who saw dollar signs on the horizon with wing-walking.
    He founded the Locklear Flying Circus, bringing his skills as an expert, ex-Army pilot to the new spectacle of “barnstorming” (another name for wing walking) to train a generation of walkers.

    “I don’t do these things because I want to run the risk of being killed,” Locklear said in 1919, “I do it to demonstrate what can be done. I am convinced that someday we will all be flying.” Above all, it was Locklear who cranked up the romance factor of the whole thing. He took his skills to Hollywood, worked with greats like Cecil B. de Mille, but died tragically during production for a movie called The Skywayman while performing a nocturnal stunt where his plane crashed into an oil well.

    His female equivalent in the movie industry was the aptly named Ethal Dare, who earned the nickname “the Flying Witch” for her larger-than-life stunts, such as the “Breakaway” and “the Iron Jaw Spin.” During the latter trick, Dare would suspend herself by rope with a special mouthpiece, and twirl non-stop in the plane’s propwash like a spinning top in the sky.

    Lillian Boyer

    That women were also so heavily involved in the spectacle, when they didn’t even have the right to vote, wasn’t just remarkable – it was liberating. “These were heady days for young women,” explains author Janann Sherman in Tennessee Women: Their Lives and Times, “at the climax of the woman suffrage movement.” Consider Lillian Boyer, a textbook case of chasing the good ‘ole American Dream…
    Lillian Boyer

    Boyer was a small-town waitress in Nebraska, and had always dreamt of taking to the skies, and when two customers invited her along for a flight she seized the opportunity to try barnstorming then and there, walking right out onto the wing of the plane. It was love at first walk. She’d complete 352 shows in her lifetime and become an active stunt-woman throughout the 1920s, branching out into parachute jumping, automobile-to-airplane jumps.
    Lillian Boyer

    The list of lady walkers goes on, and on. There was Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie, who in addition to dancing the Charleston on her plane’s wings, became the first woman to get an airplane mechanic’s license, become a female transport pilot, and be appointed to a federal position as an aviatrix…
    Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie

    And there was Bessie Coleman, one of America’s greatest stuntwomen, and the first female African American wing walker. “The air is the only place free from prejudices,” she said, “I knew we had no aviators, neither men nor women, and I knew [African Americans] needed to be represented along this most important line, so I thought it my duty to risk my life to learn aviation.”
    Bessie Coleman in tailor made officer’s uniform posed standing on the running board of a Ford Model T automobile with nose and right wing of her Curtiss JN-4 Jenny to her left.

    That tenacity has taken wing-walking into 2019 in as fierce shape as ever. UK walker Norma Howard took to the skies in 2018 at 91-years-old, and AeroSuperBatics’ Breitling Wing Walkers, a company run for and by female barnstormers, is going strong. Who knows, maybe you’re the next member they need. And if it means we’d get to wear a club jersey like that of Gladys Ingle’s 13 Black Cats, you can count us in too…

  • Mark Zuckerberg Is Trying to Play You — Again
    https://theintercept.com/2019/03/06/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-privacy

    If you click enough times through the website of Saudi Aramco, the largest oil producer in the world, you’ll reach a quiet section called “Addressing the climate challenge.” In this part of the website, the fossil fuel monolith claims, “Our contributions to the climate challenge are tangible expressions of our ethos, supported by company policies, of conducting our business in a way that addresses the climate challenge.” This is meaningless, of course — as is the announcement Mark Zuckerberg made (...)

    #Facebook #cryptage #manipulation #écoutes #BigData

  • Venezuela’s PDVSA declares emergency as tankers returning : document | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-tanker-idUSKCN1QN2J3

    Plans by the German operator of a portion of the Venezuelan state oil company’s tanker fleet to return 10 vessels because of unpaid fees prompted a unit of state-run PDVSA on Tuesday to declare a maritime emergency, according to a document from the state-run firm and sources.

    PDVSA’s weak finances, the result of mismanagement, a sharp decline in oil output and U.S. sanctions designed to oust President Nicolas Maduro, have prompted dozens of suppliers and partners to stop working for the company.

    The United States and more three dozen other countries have thrown their support behind an interim government being formed by the country’s congress chief, Juan Guaido.

    PDVSA’s maritime arm, PDV Marina, lacks about 160 people, including captains, machinists and operators, to immediately take back the 10 vessels from Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), according to a notification by PDV Marina’s security department that was viewed by Reuters.

    BSM officially notified PDV Marina’s top authorities of its “unilateral decision to deliver the fleet operated by the company due to lack of payment and cash flow for paying pending salaries and staff onboard,” putting PDVSA in a “critical situation to receive the tanker fleet,” the document said.

    PDVSA did not respond to a request for comment. A BSM representative was not immediately available to comment after working hours.

    BSM last month confirmed its crews would abandon PDVSA vessels Rio Arauca and Parnaso, held in Portugal due to unpaid fees to several companies. A third vessel operated by BSM, the Icaro, was seized in Curacao by a group of shipping companies claiming unpaid bills from PDVSA.

    BSM operated a fleet of 13 tankers owned by PDVSA and two very large crude carriers jointly owned by PDVSA and China’s PetroChina. The amount owed by PDV Marina to BSM is at least $15 million, according to a source at the company and a document seen by Reuters.

    Over a dozen tankers with Venezuelan oil around the world have been arrested in recent years by authorities or otherwise prevented from leaving because PDVSA has not paid for services.

    The two tankers retained in Portugal arrived in 2017 for repairs and were caught in the middle of legal fights between PDVSA and creditors.

    In Curacao, a PDVSA operated refinery got a court order to free the seized tanker Icaro and place its oil in storage until the dispute is resolved. The vessel remains anchored in Curacao waters, according to Refinitiv Eikon vessel data.

    • Venezuela’s PDVSA says still working with German shipping firm | Reuters
      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-pdvsa-tankers-idUSKCN1QO25V

      Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA said on Thursday it has not halted business with maritime contractor Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM), after the German firm notified it would remove crews operating 10 of 15 PDVSA vessels over unpaid fees and return the tankers.

      PDVSA’s maritime arm PDV Marina declared an emergency on Tuesday due to lack of staff to immediately receive the vessels that BSM proposed to return to Venezuelan ports due to unpaid bills of at least $15 million.

      The vessels - Nereo, Proteo, Zeus, Hero, Eos, Teseo, Rio Caroni, Rio Apure, Rio Orinoco and Arita - had BSM crews onboard on Thursday, a source from the company said, adding that payment is being negotiated with PDVSA.

      Three other vessels operated by BSM for PDVSA remain anchored in Portugal and Curacao until the resolution of legal disputes linked to fees that PDVSA owes to maritime agencies, port authorities and shipyards.

      Our subsidiary PDV Marina continues working with BSM... PDV Marina offers maritime transportation of hydrocarbons and tug boat services, reaching satisfactory daily rates,” it said via a Twitter post.

      PDVSA did not elaborate on its plans to operate the returned vessels. BSM had no immediate comment on the returns of the vessels.

      PDVSA’s financial problems are complicating the state-run firm’s ability to hire 160 captains, machinists and operators needed to operate the 10 vessels, the source said. PDVSA is offering to pay staff in Bolivars.

      ECB pushes out rate hike, offers cheap cash to banks
      PDV Marina does not have staff enough for all the vessels. That is not new. PDVSA owes everybody money, even its own crew,” said a tanker inspector in Venezuela who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation. 

      BSM operates a fleet of 15 PDVSA vessels, including eight Aframaxes mostly used for moving oil between Venezuela’s domestic ports and the Caribbean; four Suezmaxes previously serving export destinations but recently also navigating Venezuelan waters; the Aframax Arita covering routes to Asia; and two very large crude carriers jointly owned by PDVSA and PetroChina.

      The German company’s crew last month abandoned two vessels anchored in Portugal - the Rio Arauc_a and the _Parnaso - after keeping staff aboard for more than 20 months. The firm has said legal responsibility for the vessels rests with the arresting parties.

      Over a dozen tankers with Venezuelan oil around the world have been arrested by authorities in recent years or otherwise prevented from sailing because PDVSA has not been able to pay for operation, hull cleaning, inspections, and other services.

  • Data is the New Oil
    https://hackernoon.com/data-is-the-new-oil-1227197762b2?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3---4

    “Data is the new oil. It’s valuable, but if unrefined it cannot really be used. It has to be changed into gas, plastic, chemicals, etc to create a valuable entity that drives profitable activity; so must data be broken down, analyzed for it to have value.”— Clive HumbyDeep Learning is a revolutionary field, but for it to work as intended, it requires data. The area related to these big datasets is known as Big Data, which stands for the abundance of digital data. Data is as important for Deep Learning algorithms as the architecture of the network itself, i.e., the software. Acquiring and cleaning the data is one of the most valuable aspects of the work. Without data, the neural networks cannot learn.Most of the time, researchers can use the data given to them directly, but there are many (...)

    #machine-learning #feifei-li #data-science #imagenet

  • Action fiche of the #EU_Trust_Fund to be used for the decisions of the Operational Committee

    Discussions have been ongoing for a number of months about possible support to the Libyan coastguards for better patrolling and rescuing at sea. The situation remains critical also at the Libyan southern border, where authorities have very limited capacity.The European Council of 22-23 June has called for action. It specifically mentioned that "training and equipping the Libyan Coast Guard is a key component of the EU approach and should be speeded up"and that “cooperation with countries of origin and transit shall be reinforced in order to stem the migratory pressure on Libya’s and other neighbouring countries’ land borders”.Italy has come forward in May 2017 with a major proposal for integrated border and migrationmanagement in Libya which responds to the above mentioned priorities.

    The dual objective of this action is to improve the Libyan capacity to control their borders and provide for lifesaving rescue at sea, in a manner fully compliant with international human rights obligations and standards. This #Action_Fiche covers the first phase of support. Additional funding should be envisaged in 2018 for its completion (for which the current estimate stands at EUR 38 million).

    https://ec.europa.eu/trustfundforafrica/sites/euetfa/files/t05-eutf-noa-ly-04_fin_11.pdf
    #Trust_Fund #Libye #frontières #externalisation #asile #migrations #réfugiés #gardes-côtes #gardes-côtes_libyens #contrôles_frontaliers

    La même chose, mais pour la #Maroc:
    https://seenthis.net/messages/763541

    • Support to Integrated border and migration management in Libya – First phase

      Summary

      The programme aims to strengthen the capacity of relevant Libyan authorities in the areas of border and migration management, including border control and surveillance, addressing smuggling and trafficking of human beings, search and rescue at sea and in the desert.
      Main objectives

      The specific objectives of the project are: 1) to enhance operational capacity of the competent Libyan authorities in maritime surveillance, tackling irregular border crossings, including the strengthening of SAR operations and related coast guard tasks; 2) to set up basic facilities in order to enable the Libyan guards to better organise their SAR, border surveillance and control operations; 3) to assist the concerned Libyan authorities in defining and declaring a Libyan SAR Region with adequate SAR Standard Operation Procedures, including finalising the studies for fully fledged operational rooms; and 4) to develop operational capacity of competent Libyan authorities in land border surveillance and control in the desert, focusing on the sections of southern borders most affected by illegal crossings.

      https://ec.europa.eu/trustfundforafrica/region/north-africa/libya/support-integrated-border-and-migration-management-libya-first-phase_en
      #integrated_border_management

    • Support to Integrated border and migration management in Libya - Second phase

      Summary

      The Overall Objective of the programme is to develop the overall capacity of the relevant Libyan authorities and strengthen institutional reform in the areas of land and sea border control and surveillance; addressing smuggling and trafficking of human beings; Search & Rescue at sea (SAR); and on land contributing to a human response of the migration crises in respect of international and human right laws.
      Main objectives

      The specific objectives of the project are as follows:
      1. Capacity development and institutional strengthening of the relevant authorities (including #LCGPS and #GACS) covering all sea and land borders including the development SOPs of land and sea based SAR operations;
      2. Further development of the capacity and the integration of the LCGPS and GACS fleets by supply of new SAR vessels as well as an accompanying maintenance programme;
      3. Development of the MRCC communication network along the coast through a step by step approach;
      4. Further development of the land border capacity of the relevant authorities and the engagement through community based engagement and cross border programs, particularly in the West and South.

      Additional cross-cutting objectives of the activities will be:
      – The improvement of the operational cooperation between the relevant Libyan agencies and bodies as well as the cooperating with UN agencies and their partners on coordination of activities, information sharing, processing and SOPs;
      – The improvement of the human rights situation for migrants and refugees, particularly for women and children, including through ensuring that the Libyan authorities targeted by this action comply with human rights standards in SOPs in SAR operations;
      – The concern for the environment, in particular for the hygienic and living environment for migrants in the detention centres and for the reutilisation of oil and the maintenance protocols of the ships.

      https://ec.europa.eu/trustfundforafrica/region/north-africa/libya/support-integrated-border-and-migration-management-libya-second-phase_en

  • #immutability is a Double-Edged Sword: #blockchain and Data #privacy
    https://hackernoon.com/blockchain-data-privacy-immutability-e78965d55ea5?source=rss----3a8144ea

    You might have heard people say something like “data is the new oil”. This phrase captures the fact data is now a highly valuable commodity. But how does the value of data impact personal privacy? This article explains the central threats to privacy inherent in how data is stored and shared on the internet, and how blockchain #technology can eliminate these threats. It also addresses an issue that is not receiving enough attention from blockchain enthusiasts, which is the privacy problems that immutability creates.Ev on Unsplash.comData is a Valuable CommodityIn the past few years, individuals using digital technologies have generated vast amounts of data. 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated each day by individuals browsing the internet, interacting on social networks, using (...)

    #startup

  • How These Companies Are Using #cbd #technology To Solve Pain Relief
    https://hackernoon.com/how-these-companies-are-using-cbd-technology-to-solve-pain-relief-403a50

    Image sourceNo one should have to live with chronic pain. There are pharmaceutical options to help give you some relief, but depending on your body, these might come with side effects and require varying dosages. Many people are turning to plant-based CBD oil as an alternative: several brands are all-natural, organic, and you cannot build a tolerance for it.CBD — short for cannabidiol — comes from #cannabis. Unlike marijuana, though, which contains the psychoactive THC that gets you high, CBD is derived from the hemp branch of cannabis. While further research is necessary, there is evidence suggesting that CBD products (such as oil and tinctures) can relieve pain symptoms, help with anxiety and depression, smooth the skin when applied topically, and provide other various benefits. Floyd’s of (...)

    #cannabis-medical #cbd-oils

  • Is Climate the Worst Casualty of War?
    https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/07/31/climate-worst-casualty-war

    the big environmental organizations seem to have tacitly agreed that the U.S. military is the entity we won’t talk about when we talk about the biggest contributors to climate change.

    The Pentagon uses more petroleum per day than the aggregate consumption of 175 countries (out of 210 in the world), and generates more than 70 percent of this nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions, based on rankings in the CIA World Factbook. “The U.S. Air Force burns through 2.4 billion gallons of jet fuel a year, all of it derived from oil,” reported an article in the Scientific American. Since the start of the post-9/11 wars, U.S. military fuel consumption has averaged about 144 million barrels annually. That figure doesn’t include fuel used by coalition forces, military contractors, or the massive amount of fossil fuels burned in weapons manufacturing.

    #guerre #écologie #pollution #pétrole

  • Twelve Empty Supertankers Reveal Truths About Today’s Oil Market - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-21/twelve-empty-supertankers-reveal-truths-about-today-s-oil-market

    They are slowly plowing their way across thousands of miles of ocean toward America’s Gulf of Mexico coastline. As they do, twelve empty supertankers are also revealing a few truths about today’s global oil market.

    In normal times, the vessels would be filled with heavy, high sulfur Middle East oil for delivery to refineries in places like Houston or New Orleans. Not now though. They are sailing cargo-less, a practice that vessel owners normally try to avoid because ships earn money by making deliveries.

    The 12 vessels are making voyages of as much as 21,000 miles direct from Asia, all the way around South Africa, holding nothing but seawater for stability because Middle East producers are restricting supplies. Still, America’s booming volumes of light crude must still be exported, and there aren’t enough supertankers in the Atlantic Ocean for the job. So they’re coming empty.

    What’s driving this is a U.S. oil market that’s looking relatively bearish with domestic production estimates trending higher, and persistent crude oil builds we have seen for the last few weeks,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities strategy at ING Bank NV in Amsterdam. “At the same time, OPEC cuts are supporting international grades like Brent, creating an export incentive.

    The U.S. both exports and imports large amounts of crude because the variety it pumps — especially newer supplies from shale formations — is very different from the type that’s found in the Middle East. OPEC members are likely cutting heavier grades while American exports are predominantly lighter, Patterson said.

    • Trois jours plus tard, Bloomberg remet une couche…

      des supertankers traversent l’Atlantique chargés d’eau de mer (sur ballast, quoi…)

      Rise of Shale Oil and OPEC Cuts Leave Supertankers Empty - Bloomberg
      https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-02-24/rise-of-shale-oil-and-opec-cuts-leave-supertankers-empty

      Supertankers hauling seawater across the Atlantic? That’s just one of the odder results of the U.S. shale boom.

      Crude oil has always flowed backwards and forwards across the world’s oceans. A typical voyage by one of the global fleet of around 750 of the giant ships currently in service might see it haul Middle Eastern exports across the Atlantic to a refinery on the U.S. Gulf coast, then pick up a cargo from Venezuela for delivery to China or India, before returning to the Persian Gulf.

      Vessels only earn money when they’re full, so being able to haul cargoes in both directions across the seas makes a great deal of sense for ship owners. But soaring U.S. production, OPEC output cuts and sanctions on Iran and Venezuela are turning the global crude oil trade on its head.
      […]
      Add to this a pickup in the flow of oil out of the Caribbean – Venezuela is shipping more of its crude east now that U.S. sanctions prevent it from targeting its traditional buyers on the Gulf coast.

  • How Google, Microsoft, and Big Tech Are Automating the Climate Crisis
    https://gizmodo.com/how-google-microsoft-and-big-tech-are-automating-the-1832790799

    I am not sure how Google’s mission of indexing all the world’s information came to contain the side quest of helping the world in which it sits burn. Or how Bill Gates can talk about fighting climate change at Davos while his company props up and propels its actual largest contributors. (The most impactful move Gates could probably make at this point would be to ask Microsoft to cut ties from the fossil fuel industry.) Or how Amazon can advertise services aimed to optimize the obtaining and burning of carbon with the same blase copy with which it advertises Kindle self-publishing services.

  • Le crabe EST une espèce sédentaire, et donc une ressource naturelle. Il est donc protégé par l’exclusivité de la #ZEE.

    Intéressant débat juridique, avec conséquences sur la maîtrise par la Norvège de ses ressources d’hydrocarbures.

    À noter, l’absence de position sur le traité du #Svalbard

    Abide by the claw : Norway’s Arctic snow crab ruling boosts claim to oil | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-norway-eu-snowcrab-idUSKCN1Q3115


    A fisherman holds a snow crab in Kjoellefjord, Norway, November 1, 2017.
    NTB Scanpix/Terje Bendiksby via REUTERS

    A court delivered a painful nip to European Union fishermen on Thursday by tightening Norway’s grip on snow crab catches in the Arctic, a ruling that may also let Oslo claw more control of oil and gas from other nations.

    Fishermen from the European Union must ask permission from Oslo to catch snow crab — whose meat is a delicacy for gourmets from Canada to Japan — in Arctic waters north of Norway, the Norwegian Supreme Court said in a unanimous ruling.

    The court dismissed an appeal by a Latvian fishing firm and its Russian captain against fines imposed by a lower court for catching snow crab around the remote Svalbard Islands in 2017 with only an EU license.

    Latvia’s Foreign Ministry said it would review the decision at a government meeting.

    Norway is tightening its grip,” in the Arctic, said Oeystein Jensen, a researcher in international law at the independent Fridtjof Nansen Institute in Oslo.

    The court clarifies that if you are going to fish, or search for oil and gas, you need permission from the Norwegian authorities,” he told Reuters.

    At issue was whether the snow crab was a sedentary species living on the seabed or moves around like fish, and who gets to control the stocks.

    The court agreed with non-EU member Norway that snow crabs are sedentary, like corals or oysters, and that as such under the U.N. Law of the Sea they are a resource belonging to the continental shelf of Norway extending hundreds of miles (kms) offshore.

    Had Norway lost the case, the EU could have staked a claim over the snow crab and it could have been harder for Oslo to regulate access to potential oil and gas resources beneath the Arctic seabed.

    For the Norwegian coastguard this is a big relief - they can arrest any ships fishing illegally in the Svalbard area,” chief public prosecutor Lars Fause told Reuters.

    The Latvian firm, SIA North Star, argued that the crabs are not sedentary because they scurry around and so should be regulated under regional fisheries accords signed by parties including the European Union, Norway and Russia.

    It argued that it had a valid EU permit.

    We’re very disappointed,” defense lawyer Hallvard Oestgaard told Reuters. He said that his client would consider whether to try to appeal to international tribunals.

    And SIA North Star argued that Norway is obliged under an international 1920 treaty to allow other nations access to the waters around Svalbard.

    That treaty grants sovereignty to Norway but gives other signatories rights to engage in commercial activities on and around Svalbard. Russia, for instance, runs a coal mine on Svalbard.

    But Oslo says rights to exploit resources around Svalbard extend only to a narrow band of just 12 nautical miles offshore. The court ruled that the Latvian catches were illegal under Norwegian law, irrespective of the Svalbard Treaty.

  • Exclusive : #Venezuela shifts oil ventures’ accounts to Russian bank - document, sources | Article [AMP] | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-pdvsa-banks-exclus-idUSKCN1PY0N3

    CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA is telling customers of its joint ventures to deposit oil sales proceeds in an account recently opened at Russia’s Gazprombank AO, according to sources and an internal document seen by Reuters on Saturday.

    PDVSA’s move comes after the United States imposed tough, new financial sanctions on Jan. 28 aimed at blocking Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro’s access to the country’s oil revenue.

    Supporters of Venezuelan opposition leader and self-proclaimed interim president Juan Guaido said recently that a fund would be established to accept proceeds from sales of Venezuelan oil.

  • Should #commodities Be Tokenized?
    https://hackernoon.com/should-commodities-be-tokenized-f16238143865?source=rss----3a8144eabfe3-

    What Are Commodities?Commodities are in general raw materials or good that are grown or mined. The commodities market is where they can be bought and sold, such as precious metals, gold, coffee beans, oil, grains, energy etc. People have been using physical commodities all around the world throughout history as forms of representing and storing wealth. Today, with large corporates, commodities are traded on the stock exchange, with trades in the millions of dollars worth changing hands constantly.How can #blockchain #technology Benefit the Commodities Market?Blockchain-based platforms and cryptocurrencies promise to improve the way the commodity-trading industry operates, addressing issues of trust, their inefficiencies and the complexity of transactions, which typically involve (...)

    #blockchain-technology #tokenization

  • South Africa’s Landmark Oil Find Opens Prospect of Drilling Rush - Bloomberg
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-02-07/total-discovery-opens-new-petroleum-province-off-south-africa


    source: Africa Oil Corp

    South Africa’s first deep-water discovery, reported Thursday by French oil major Total SA, may prompt a rush of activity offshore by competitors as the country works to cut its reliance on imported fuels.

    The Brulpadda find, estimated at about 1 billion barrels by Total Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne, could be enough to supply South Africa’s refineries for almost four years. That’s a boon for a country that has always been short of oil and is running out of its scant domestic supply of gas.
    […]
    The field of primarily gas-condensate — a light liquid hydrocarbon — was discovered about 175 kilometers (109 miles) off the country’s southern coast in the Outeniqua Basin. The area, where Exxon Mobil Corp. and Eni SpA also hold stakes, may now draw further interest, especially since South Africa is due to introduce new legislation later this year aimed at spurring exploration.


    source: Total

    Les deux cartes proviennent de cet article du 29/01/2019
    South Africa could be days away from a massive new deepsea energy find
    https://www.businessinsider.co.za/totals-brulpadda-find-in-south-africa-2019-1

  • Venezuelan oil stuck at ports, PDVSA struggles to import fuel | Reuters
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-pdvsa-fuel-idUSKCN1PO2LA

    Venezuela’s oil inventories have started to build up at the country’s ports and terminals as PDVSA is finding it cannot export crude at its usual rate due to U.S. sanctions imposed earlier this week, according to sources and shipping data.

    Sanctions announced on Monday by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump, aimed at driving President Nicolas Maduro out of power after his contested re-election last year, have barred PDVSA’s U.S. customers from transferring payments to the firm. That is effectively limiting state-owned PDVSA from shipping that oil because Maduro’s government cannot collect the proceeds.

    As of Wednesday, Venezuela had 25 tankers with nearly 18 million barrels of crude - representing about two weeks of the country’s production - either waiting to load or expecting authorization to set sail. Most of those were anchored near the port of Jose, the country’s largest, according to Refinitiv Eikon data.

    PDVSA responded to the U.S. sanctions by prohibiting tankers loading oil bound for the United States to leave Venezuelan ports if cargoes are not prepaid.

    In addition, PDVSA’s inability to pay for crucial imports means fuel imports are delayed, adding to the glut of tankers off Venezuela’s coast.

  • Elliott Abrams Isn’t Going to Bring “Democracy” to Venezuela
    https://theintercept.com/2019/01/30/elliott-abrams-venezuela-coup

    On December 11, 1981 in El Salvador, a Salvadoran military unit created and trained by the U.S. Army began slaughtering everyone they could find in a remote village called El Mozote. Before murdering the women and girls, the soldiers raped them repeatedly, including some as young as 10 years old, and joked that their favorites were the 12-year-olds. One witness described a soldier tossing a 3-year-old child into the air and impaling him with his bayonet. The final death toll was over 800 people.

    The next day, December 12, was the first day on the job for Elliott Abrams as assistant secretary of state for human rights and humanitarian affairs in the Reagan administration. Abrams snapped into action, helping to lead a cover-up of the massacre. News reports of what had happened, Abrams told the Senate, were “not credible,” and the whole thing was being “significantly misused” as propaganda by anti-government guerillas.

    This past Friday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo named Abrams as America’s special envoy for Venezuela. According to Pompeo, Abrams “will have responsibility for all things related to our efforts to restore democracy” in the oil-rich nation.

    The choice of Abrams sends a clear message to Venezuela and the world: The Trump administration intends to brutalize Venezuela, while producing a stream of unctuous rhetoric about America’s love for democracy and human rights. Combining these two factors — the brutality and the unctuousness — is Abrams’s core competency.

  • Borneo study explores links between farm expansion and deforestation
    https://news.mongabay.com/2019/01/borneo-study-explores-links-between-farm-expansion-and-deforestation

    A nearly two-decade study of land-cover change in Borneo has identified a positive correlation between the loss of forests and the expansion of plantations, primarily for oil palms.
    The findings undermine the long-held position of industry and government representatives that plantation expansion doesn’t contribute to deforestation and that it makes use of already cleared land.
    The study also highlighted a slowdown in rates of both deforestation and plantation expansion, which the researchers attributed to declining process of crude palm oil, more stringent regulations on forest clearing, and wetter weather in 2017.
    While the expansion of plantations hit a new low in 2017, activists say the possible illegal clearing of peat forests continues unabated in Indonesian Borneo, despite repeated calls to the government for action.

    #Bornéo #plantations #déforestation #palmier_à_huile

  • « Toute technologie relève d’une manière ou d’une autre de l’assistance » : entretien avec Mara Mills
    http://syntone.fr/toute-technologie-releve-dune-maniere-ou-dune-autre-de-lassistance-entretien

    Qu’est-ce que le son nous enseigne de l’histoire occidentale ? D’où viennent les technologies audio qui nous servent aujourd’hui au quotidien ? Comment se nourrissent-elles de pratiques et de savoirs minoritaires, notamment issus de la culture sourde ? Pour nous ouvrir les coulisses de la modernité numérique, grand entretien avec Mara Mills, qui codirige le Center for Disability Studies (centre d’études sur le handicap) de l’Université de New York.

  • The rent is too damned high because money-laundering oligarchs bought all the real-estate to clean their oil money / Boing Boing
    https://boingboing.net/2019/01/27/cz-edwards.html

    In an absolutely epic Twitter thread (unrolled here) author CZ Edwards lays out an incredibly compelling explanation of spiralling real-estate prices: oligarchs need to launder a lot of oil money — think Russia, Iran, ex-Soviet basket-case states, Saudi — and so they plow the money into offshore Real Estate Investment Trust that then cleans it by outbidding any actual real-estate investors or would-be homeowners, bidding up and snapping up all the property in desirable cities, and then realizing the rental income-flows as legitimate, clean money.

    It’s as neat and compelling a way of describing the link between oligarchy and spiraling real-estate prices as you could ask for. Shelter is not optional, so people will spend whatever it takes to get a roof over their heads. Cities are not infinitely sprawlable, so it’s possible to corner the market on places to live in them. Eventually, the parasites will devour the hosts and leave the cities empty shells (ahem, Venice), but by then the money-launderers have sold up and moved on.

    And of course, since real-estate is a great way to launder money, real-estate developers are often mobbed up af, which explains a lot about the president and his grifter inner circle.

    Edwards points out that her work on money-laundering came out of her research on a novel called “Rien’s Rebellion: Kingdom” (" Once upon a time, a nation’s fate depended on an informant, a lawyer and a warrior. They all lived under a good Monarch’s leadership. Until he was assassinated.").

    e. A few over-priced, stupid apartments? Does it really matter. Not as much, no, but that’s not where most of the laundering happens. It happens at the basic apartment building level. Because of a thing called a Real Estate Investment Trust. Let’s take... a California dingbat apartment building. Usually 4-8 apartments. (Earthquakes can be a problem...) They sell for $10-$20M, depending, and bring in $8K-16K month in revenue.

    So... let’s say you’ve got 25 money laundry clients, all with about $3 million (after you & your washing cut) they need to invest. $75 mil? Let’s buy 6 dingbats and put them in an REIT. Which hires a management team, which collects $2K rent from each apartment, each month. 6 buildings, 8 apartments each x $2K: $96K month in revenue. The management company takes 20%.

    Your money laundry clients get $76K per month of clean money- it all came from legal, legit rent investment income property. REITs clean the money better than a dry cleaner. I am oversimplifying, but not by much. There are some shell corps in there, some in Caymans or Seychelles, but also Delaware, Wyoming, North Dakota, and Nevada.

    What happens when there’s not much real estate to put in a REIT?

    Well, remember, there’s loss in money laundering? A REIT backed by money laundering doesn’t really care if it costs $5M for $10M for an apartment building. In a way, the $10M apartment building is better, because it cleans more money in one go. And they can outbid someone looking to own a 6 apartment dingbat.

    If the REIT buys a building for an inflated price, and they’re getting clean money monthly? They can just sit on it until someone legit comes along, having convinced a bank to make them a very large mortgage on an inflated price.

    Look at expensive cities. It’s not an accident.

    #capitalisme #crime #spéculation

  • How Much Will Smart #parking Solutions Improve in 2019?
    https://hackernoon.com/how-much-will-smart-parking-solutions-improve-in-2019-fa1bac32cb77?sourc

    Not all of us are as fortunate as Al Jourgensen to get good parking spots every time. On the contrary being late to every meeting or commitment has become an unspoken curse in big cities. Even if you reach the place 10 minutes early, finding an empty parking spot would take almost 20 minutes. This search burns about one million oil barrels of the world every day. There are some ways to solve this problem and improve a part of energy and fuel crisis. Smart parking solutions are on the rise thanks to trending #iot technology.Parking Problems That People FaceGeneral Parking Problems· Insufficient parking space in heavily populated areas.· Inefficient use of existing parking capacity.· Struggle to find an open parking slot in a large parking space.· Confusion in finding your vehicle in a large (...)

    #iot-solution #smart-parking #iot-services

  • 24 janvier : Dr. Jill Stein
    https://twitter.com/DrJillStein/status/1088253786102091776

    US has backed right-wing coups up and down Latin America for 100+ years. Not one was about democracy. All have been to enrich the global elite. But we’re supposed to believe this time in Venezuela - which has the world’s largest oil reserves - is different?

    Tulsi Gabbard, 24 janvier :
    https://twitter.com/TulsiGabbard/status/1088531713649713153

    The United States needs to stay out of Venezuela. Let the Venezuelan people determine their future. We don’t want other countries to choose our leaders—so we have to stop trying to choose theirs.

    Le Représentant Ro Khanna le 24 janvier :
    https://twitter.com/RoKhanna/status/1088302692001300480

    With respect Senator Durbin, the US should not anoint the leader of the opposition in Venezuela during an internal, polarized conflict. Let us support Uruguay, Mexico, & the Vatican’s efforts for a negotiated settlement & end sanctions that are making the hyperinflation worse.

    Important : Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez a retouité le message de Ro Khanna. Ça a été sa première intervention sur le Vénézuela.

    Ocasio-Cortez a ensuite retouité ce message de John Hudson commentant la nomination d’Eliot Abrams :
    https://twitter.com/John_Hudson/status/1088912260398006272

    Mike Pompeo just named Eliot Abrams his new special envoy for Venezuela. Abrams plead guilty to withholding information from Congress about the Iran-Contra affair. Pompeo says Abrams will be in charge of “all things related to our efforts to restore Democracy in Venezuela.”

    Ilhan Omar, le 25 janvier :
    https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1088829238164246528

    We cannot hand pick leaders for other countries on behalf of multinational corporate interests. The legislature cannot seize power from the President, and Venezuela’s Supreme Court has declared their actions unconstitutional.
    https://www.democracynow.org/2019/1/24/former_un_expert_the_us_is …

    suivi de :
    https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1088829933508534273

    If we really want to support the Venezuelan people, we can lift the economic sanctions that are inflicting suffering on innocent families, making it harder for them to access food and medicines, and deepening the economic crisis.

    We should support dialogue, not a coup!

    Pour l’anecdote (intéressante), Rania Khalek a commenté l’intervention d’Ilan Omar ainsi :
    https://twitter.com/RaniaKhalek/status/1088837438137688065

    This is the best and most detailed statement I’ve seen so far from a Democrat on Venezuela. @IlhanMN as well as her other colleagues who spoke out should be commended for opposing Trump’s coup attempt, this will surely provoke malicious attacks from the pro-war crowd. Very brave

    Message repris par Omar avec la réponse :
    https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1088838107389194241

    ✊ ?

    Alors tu t’en doutes, depuis c’est le déferlement de bouffées délirantes.