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Let's just say quite a bit happened in Washington this week. PHOTO: Clodagh Kilcoyne / Reuters
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- US Attorney-general Barr was held in contempt of Congress
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Cofounder Chris Hughes called for Facebook to be broken up
- North Korea's coal ship was seized amid heightened tensions
- The 'Holy Grail' of endlessly-recyclable plastic was discovered
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Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were freed
- A Rihanna-less Met Gala tried camp, with mixed results
- The Thai junta claimed a win amid 'unprecedented' voter fraud
- Brunei backed down on stoning executions for homosexuals
- The U.N. warned of catastrophe as 1m Gazans face starvation
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Chinese negotiators rushed to Washington to salvage trade talks
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Yes, gas produced more power this week but this looks nicer. PHOTO: NZH
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There are two stories that deserve our attention this week. One evokes deep fear and no small measure of shame for the destruction that our species has wrought on the Earth. The other brings focus to that negative energy through clarity of purpose. Here's what we've done, and what we must now do.
Mass extinctions
The United Nations this week provided us with a grim snapshot of the mass extinction event that is touching every corner of our planet. It was a herculean undertaking; collating data from 450 scientists over three years. And the results are devastating: humans have pushed one million species of plants and animals to the brink of extinction. Ocean acidification, pollution, deforestation, climate change, soil erosion, habitat loss. There is one common denominator between all these extinction-inducing phenomena.
It's natural that we make stronger emotional connections with animals that are easy to anthropomorphise, so let's start there. There are more tigers in captivity now than in the wild, and those not behind bars are dying off in droves (this in itself is a painful absurdity: animals are now safer from humans when they are in cages than in the wild). Elephant numbers are collapsing. Koala numbers have plummeted. All of these are creatures that we could look in the eye and ponder the consciousness of. And all will be tragic losses, but the real danger lies elsewhere - in the extinction of our pollinators. Honey bees, solitary bees, moths, bumblebees, hover flies, blow flies, wasps, thrips and beetles. Tiny, strange and utterly indispensable. While it's true that our nutritional staples like wheat, corn, rice and soy bean don't require insect pollination, most other fruits and vegetables do. Humans are damaging the food sources of wildebeest and humans alike.
Dire pronouncements such as the one this week predictably provoke anger, sadness, denial and a fair amount of whataboutism from various quarters. But this week we've found a truly unique response, "this'll do". In the wake of the report, Australia's PM was asked what action his government has taken to safeguard rapidly disappearing wildlife. He glibly pointed to a bill about industrial chemicals which does nothing to address the issue, and makes a mere passing reference to testing cosmetics on animals. Sadly, callous disregard for the lives of non-humans (let alone the devastating impact the loss of biodiversity will have on our own future generations) is all too common amongst the political class. The preservation of nature has until recently (and then, only in some small corners of the world) not been much of a vote-winner. The ease with which environmental concerns succumb to special interests is plain to see in the host of nominal environmental laws that achieve little, by design.
Industrial devolutions
But there's no point sinking into a malaise. So let's look at what can and is being done to ameliorate the damage. Enter Britain, where it turns out that the country's second female PM is doing what the first never could: crushing the coal industry.
Britain's electricity grid has run without any coal power generation for the first time since the Industrial Revolution. Coal was the rock on which the industrial era was built. It was the fuel that fired immense global change. And now even the chairman of one of the world's largest mining companies can admit that coal is, "not essential to human progress". Britain is illustrating that point beautifully. Since May 1 the National Grid Electricity System Operator has reported that 50% of the base load generation has come from natural gas, 20% from nuclear power, 16% from renewables and the remainder from overseas transmission cables. The grid administrators touted this "energy weekend" as not just a success – but a "new normal" to look forward to.
How has this been achieved? Investment in greener energy sources is a start. Just six years ago a full third of Britain's power came from coal-fired power plants. A concerted effort to wind down outmoded power sources means that today that in 2019 that number is just 10%. The Business Secretary has pressed forward with a plan to phase out coal entirely by 2025. Beyond that? Plans to legislate "net zero" carbon emission targets by 2050 (similar to what New Zealand tabled just this week). While small Caribbean islands and ultra-modern Scandinavian countries deserve credit for leading the charge on emissions reduction, we ought to celebrate the fact that an economy once synonymous with coal power is breathing easier without it.
There is much to be distraught, sad and guilty about. And there's much to be done.
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Istanbulis rallying for the president before the last vote. PHOTO: Burhan Ozbilici / AP
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The myth of Turkish democracy
Ekrem Imamoglu is the rightful and lawful mayor of Istanbul. On March 31 the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate won Turkey's first city with a margin of just 13,000 votes. It was a stinging blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), not least because the strongman himself once occupied that position. This vanishingly small margin (more than eight million people voted!) was scrutinised with inquisitorial zest. There was an official recount, and then another. But no amount of triple-checking would give Erdoğan his desired result .
So he did what any autocrat would do: fabricate stories about the influence of "criminal gangs" (read: CHP supporters) and demand that the electoral authorities invalidate the results. Given that this is Turkey in 2019 – a country of depleted and cowed institutions – the president got his way. And so Istanbulis will go back to the polls in June. This flagrantly undemocratic machination poses a conundrum for Imamoglu. He is well within his rights to boycott the sham vote, but doing so would hand the mayorship to the AKP. But if he stands again electoral authorities under the thumb of the AKP might just more overtly rig the election.
Amazingly, this might just blow up in Erdoğan's face. Smaller non-aligned parties and the Kurdish bloc have sensed the overreach and thrown their combined weight behind the CHP. If their voters fall in line behind the CHP it would not be mathematically possible for AKP to claim a tight win in the second vote. They haven't stopped there; they are seeking another vote on all of the offices up for grabs on March 31; including the ones that the AKP won. Having had the mayoralty snatched from them, the opposition may be on the verge of turning a rout into victory.
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The United Nations compound in Betumbo. PHOTO: Robert Carrubba / Reuters
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A trust and information deficit
The Democratic Republic of Congo is in the midst of the second-worst ebola outbreak in history. Of the 1572 recorded cases, two-thirds of patients have died. Thankfully it has not reached the severity of the 2013-2016 outbreak (which claimed 11,000 lives) due to comprehensive 'ring' vaccination techniques. But aid groups have not been welcomed with open arms. On the contrary, there have been several clashes between militants and the security forces guarding Médecins Sans Frontières and United Nations treatment clinics. Unfortunately, the complexity of the situation has escaped much of the coverage.
In North Kivu, the epicentre of the current outbreak, locals view the international aid groups conspiratorially. Having suffered through two recent wars and the affliction of malaria (and a whole host of other diseases of poverty) they are suspicious of the massive influx of foreigners. Why all the attention? Why now? Suspicion is manageable – violence isn't. And that's exactly what aid groups are dealing with in the capital of North Kivu, Betumbo. Nine people died in heavy fighting between the army and militias near the ebola clinic this last week. There are dozens of armed groups around Butembo that have complicated relief efforts; a mess of competing warlords all vying for influence. The violence in eastern DRC is multifaceted, persistent and much of it traces back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
Then there is the glaring information gap between the villagers who live in North Kivu and those who simply hear about these events through the media. Much has been made of the fact that ebola patients have willingly left treatment clinics and returned home; possibly spreading the disease further. But put yourself in the position of someone who doesn't have the answers or know all the facts. You've been told that you have a 60% chance of death, by people in white hazmat suits – the same people who have been setting fire to the corpses of other people in your village. How many would willingly choose to expire in a field hospital, isolated from loved ones?
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Incredible. PHOTO: AFP
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A Pakistani popcorn seller built his own plane
No summary can do this story justice: please read Muhammad Fayyaz's story.
Undersea chemistry
The hydrothermal vents at the bottom of our oceans produce extraordinary life. A crushing mixture of heat, pressure and chemicals streaming out from under the ocean floor mean that only the hardiest microorganisms survive. It's now believed that said microorganisms may carry unheralded antibacterial powers. So much so that the U.S. army is investigating whether the antidote to superbugs and biological weapons lies several kilometres under the surface of the Atlantic.
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If you are a criminal and see this sign: don't worry. PHOTO: The Independent
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Blind spots
London is among the most heavily-surveilled cities on Earth. CCTV cameras hang off just about every building you care to pass by. Now it seems this blanket surveillance is well and good, but apparently not enough. So the Metropolitan Police has rolled out eight trials of facial-recognition technology. Through which they have wrongly identified innocent Londoners as criminals a laughable 96% of the time. One of the trials had a 100% fail rate! What happened to good old-fashioned detective work?
Heartless law
Governor Brian Kemp of the US State of Georgia this week signed into law an absurd new restriction on abortions. The 'heartbeat' law bans abortion if a foetal heartbeat can be detected, or in other words: at six-weeks. What makes this piece of legislation ludicrous is that many women don't even find out they are pregnant until a month AFTER they have missed a period. This means that the state can make legal decisions over the pregnancies of women who may not even be aware they are pregnant.
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Quote of the week
"No, oof, no."
– Outgoing European commission president Donald Tusk responds to reporters when asked whether the EU leaders had discussed Brexit during a meeting in Romania. No, they have bigger fish to fry: divvying up the top jobs in the bloc for the next five years. Tusk, an Anglophile, has shown saint-like forgiveness and patience in his dealings with his back-biting British counterparts. His successor may be less inclined to.
Headline of the week
Amelie director Jean-Pierre Jeunet says 'non' to sequel because 'Paris is ugly now'
– Simple outstanding work from the sub-editors at The Independent
Special mention
The high-frequency-trading super-computer that lost $20m of a Hong Kong real-estate tycoon's fortune. To be clear: we don't wish anyone to be robbed by a robot, but if its a choice between this and a Terminator-style situation, the choice is clear.
Some choice long-reads
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EDITOR'S NOTE: Several weeks ago we lauded the lengths that Indian electoral officials will go to in order to ensure that all Indians can cast their vote. This is unequivocally a good thing... for those who wish to take part in India's democracy. But as Indian-administered Kashmir goes to the ballots, some districts are reporting a turnout of less than 3%. There are some issues within a nation that simply can't be addressed at the ballot box.
Tom Wharton
@trwinwriting
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