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Business

Keystone cleanup turns remote Kansas valley into a small town

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WASHINGTON, Kan., Dec 18 (Reuters) – Farmer Bill Pannbacker got a call earlier this month from a representative from TC Energy Corp , telling him that its Keystone Pipeline, which runs through his farmland in rural Kansas, had suffered an oil leak.

But he was not prepared for what he saw on his land, which he owns with his wife, Chris. Oil had shot out of the pipeline and coated what he estimated was nearly an acre of pasture uphill of the pipe, which is set into a valley.

The grass was blackened with diluent bitumen, one of the thickest of crude oils, which was being transported from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

The rupture on Dec. 7 is the third in the last five years for the Keystone Pipeline, and the worst of the three – more than 14,000 barrels of crude has spilled and cleanup is expected to take weeks or months.

TC has not said when repairs could be completed and a 96-mile (155-km) segment of the pipeline will restart. Crews will remain busy on site through the holidays and completion of the cleanup depends on weather and other factors, the Canadian company said in a statement.

“We are committed to restoring the affected areas to their original condition or better.”

BEEHIVE OF WORKERS

Keystone’s two previous spills happened in unincorporated areas in North Dakota and South Dakota. And while the city of Washington, Kansas, is small with just over 1,000 residents, it is surrounded by farms where wheat, corn, soybeans are planted and cattle are raised. The spill in Washington County affected land owned by several people.

The once-quiet valley is currently a construction site buzzing with some 400 contractors, staff from pipeline operator TC Energy, and federal, state and local officials. They are working into the night, leaving a glow from the high-intensity lamps seen from miles away.

Cranes, storage containers, construction equipment and vehicles stretch for more than a half mile from the site of the rupture. The valley has become almost a small town, with several Quonset-style huts erected for workers.

Aerial photos showed a large, blackened swath of land that almost looks like an airborne object is throwing a shadow over the land. Pannbacker said that pasture was used for cattle grazing and calving, but with calving season over, there were no livestock there at the time.

The oil-blackened grass on the land, which is owned by Pannbacker and his sisters as part of a family trust, is now completely gone. It was scraped away and is now confined to a giant mound of dirt that is noticeably darker at the bottom. But oil droplets on plants further up the hill were still visible.

WIDER GROUP AFFECTED

Living in rural Kansas, the Pannbackers are used to preparing for harsh weather, but not an oil spill. Residents have been largely unconcerned despite the accident, even as the area will resemble a work site for the near-future.

“How many people have experienced an oil spill? Who knows what it’s like?” said Chris Pannbacker. “It’s not like a tornado or a natural disaster.”

Kansas State Representative Lisa Moser in a Facebook post said there are 14 landowners who are being compensated for either the spill or the use of their property during cleanup.

TC said it is discussing compensation with landowners but would keep details private. The company said it has stayed in regular contact with landowners. Pannbacker said TC has not yet discussed compensation with them yet.

Pannbacker says he does not expect the grass on the pastureland to return for at least two or three years; there is a well site on the pasture used for the cattle that they will not be using either.

Reporting by Erwin Seba in Washington, Kan.; additional reporting by Rod Nickel; writing by David Gaffen
Editing by Marguerita Choy

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Malaysia landslide kills 12 at campsite, more than 20 missing

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  • Landslide ripped through farm campsite around 3 am
  • Eight injured, at least 50 found safe
  • Almost 400 people involved in search and rescue – police

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 (Reuters) – A landslide killed at least 12 people while they slept at a campsite in Malaysia early on Friday, officials said, as search teams scoured thick mud and downed trees for more than 20 people still missing.

The landslide in Selangor state, on the outskirts of capital, Kuala Lumpur, occurred about 3 a.m. (1900 GMT), tearing down a hillside into an organic farm with camping facilities, the state fire and rescue department said in a statement.

Teh Lynn Xuan, 22, said she was camping with 40 others when the landslide struck. She said one of her brothers died, while another is in the hospital.

“I heard a loud sound like thunder, but it was the rocks falling,” she told Malay-language daily Berita Haria. “We felt the tents becoming unstable and soil was falling around us. Luckily, I was able to leave the tent and go to someplace safer. My mother and I managed to crawl out and save ourselves.”

More than 90 people were caught in the landslide and 59 have been found safe, with 22 still missing, according to the fire and rescue department.

In addition to the 12 dead, eight were hospitalised, it said.

One of those taken to the hospital was pregnant, while others had injuries ranging from minor cuts to a suspected spinal injury, health minister Zaliha Mustafa told a news conference.

District police chief Suffian Abdullah said the dead were all Malaysians and included a child about 5 years old.

Almost 400 people from several agencies had been deployed, with search-and-rescue efforts ongoing, he told a news conference.

The landslide came down from an estimated height of 30 metres (100 ft) above the campsite, and covered an area of about one acre (0.4 hectare), according to the fire and rescue department’s state director.

Footage from local television showed the aftermath of a large landslide through a steep, forested area beside a road, while other images on social media showed rescue workers clambering over thick mud, large trees and other debris.

Reuters Graphics

“I pray that the missing victims can be found safely soon,” Malaysia’s minister of natural resources, environment and climate change, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, tweeted on Friday morning, one of several ministers who were heading to the scene. “The rescue team has been working since early. I’m going down there today.”

The disaster struck about 50km (30 miles) north of Kuala Lumpur in Batang Kali town, just outside the popular hilltop area of Genting Highlands, an area known for its resorts, waterfalls and natural beauty.

News agency Bernama tweeted that all campsites and water recreation areas around Batang Kali had been ordered to close immediately until further notice, citing the minister of home affairs.

Pictures posted on the Father’s Organic Farm Facebook page show a farmhouse in a small valley, with a large area where tents can be set up.

Selangor is the country’s most affluent state and has suffered landslides before, often attributed to forest and land clearance.

The region is in its rainy season but no heavy rain or earthquakes were recorded overnight.

A year ago, about 21,000 people were displaced by flooding from torrential rain in seven states across the country.

Reporting by Rozanna Latiff, Angie Teo, Yantoultra Ngui and Hasnoor Hussein; Writing by Lincoln Feast; Editing by Ed Davies and Gerry Doyle

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World

COP27 delivers climate fund breakthrough at cost of progress on emissions

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  • COP27 climate summit ends after marathon weekend negotiations
  • Final deal delivers on creating historic climate finance fund
  • Negotiators say some blocked tighter emissions targets

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Countries closed this year’s U.N. climate summit on Sunday with a hard-fought deal to create a fund to help poor countries being battered by climate disasters, even as many lamented its lack of ambition in tackling the emissions causing them.

The deal was widely lauded as a triumph for responding to the devastating impact that global warming is already having on vulnerable countries. But many countries said they felt pressured to give up on tougher commitments for limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in order for the landmark deal on the loss and damage fund to go through.

Delegates – worn out after intense, overnight negotiations – made no objections as Egypt’s COP27 President Sameh Shoukry rattled through the final agenda items and gavelled the deal through.

Despite having no agreement for a stronger commitment to the 1.5 C goal set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, “we went with what the agreement was here because we want to stand with the most vulnerable,” Germany’s climate secretary Jennifer Morgan, visibly shaken, told Reuters.

When asked by Reuters whether the goal of stronger climate-fighting ambition had been compromised for the deal, Mexico’s chief climate negotiator Camila Zepeda summed up the mood among exhausted negotiators.

“Probably. You take a win when you can.”

LOSS AND DAMAGE

The deal for a loss and damage fund marked a diplomatic coup for small islands and other vulnerable nations in winning over the 27-nation European Union and the United States, which had long resisted the idea for fear that such a fund could open them to legal liability for historic emissions.

Those concerns were assuaged with language in the agreement calling for the funds to come from a variety of existing sources, including financial institutions, rather than relying on rich nations to pay in.

The climate envoy from the Marshall Islands said she was “worn out” but happy with the fund’s approval. “So many people all this week told us we wouldn’t get it,” Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner said. “So glad they were wrong.”

But it likely will be several years before the fund exists, with the agreement setting out only a roadmap for resolving lingering questions including who would oversee the fun, how the money would be dispersed – and to whom.

U.S. special climate envoy John Kerry, who was not at the weekend negotiations in person after testing positive for COVID-19, on Sunday welcomed the deal to “establish arrangements to respond to the devastating impact of climate change on vulnerable communities around the world.”

In a statement, he said he would continue to press major emitters like China to “significantly enhance their ambition” in keeping the 1.5 C goal alive.

FOSSIL FUEL FIZZLE

[1/7] A screen shows COP27 President Sameh Shoukry delivering a statement during the closing plenary at the COP27 climate summit in Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 20, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

The price paid for a deal on the loss and damage fund was most evident in the language around emission reductions and reducing the use of polluting fossil fuels – known in the parlance of U.N. climate negotiations as “mitigation.”

Last year’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland, had focused on a theme of keeping the 1.5C goal alive – as scientists warn that warming beyond that threshold would see climate change spiral to extremes.

Countries were asked then to update their national climate targets before this year’s Egypt summit. Only a fraction of the nearly 200 parties did so.

While praising the loss and damage deal, many countries decried COP27’s failure to push mitigation further and said some countries were trying to roll back commitments made in the Glasgow Climate Pact.

“We had to fight relentlessly to hold the line of Glasgow,” a visibly frustrated Alok Sharma, architect of the Glasgow deal, told the summit.

He listed off a number of ambition-boosting measures that were stymied in the negotiations for the final COP27 deal in Egypt: “Emissions peaking before 2025 as the science tells us is necessary? Not in this text. Clear follow-through on the phase down of coal? Not in this text. A clear commitment to phase out all fossil fuels? Not in this text.”

On fossil fuels, the COP27 deal text largely repeats wording from Glasgow, calling up parties to accelerate “efforts towards the phasedown of unabated coal power and phase-out of inefficient fossil fuel subsidies.”

Efforts to include a commitment to phase out, or at least phase down, all fossil fuels were thwarted.

A separate “mitigation work programme” agreement, also approved on Sunday, contained several clauses that some parties, including the European Union, felt weakened commitment to ever more ambitious emissions-cutting targets.

Critics pointed to a section which they said undermined the Glasgow commitment to regularly renew emissions targets – with language saying the work programme would “not impose new targets or goals”. Another section of the COP27 deal dropped the idea of annual target renewal in favour of returning to a longer five-year cycle set out in the Paris pact.

“It is more than frustrating to see overdue steps on mitigation and the phase-out of fossil energies being stonewalled by a number of large emitters and oil producers,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said.

The deal also included a reference to “low-emissions energy,” raising concern among some that it opened the door to the growing use of natural gas – a fossil fuel that leads to both carbon dioxide and methane emissions.

“It does not break with Glasgow completely, but it doesn’t raise ambition at all,” Norway’s Climate Minister Espen Barth Eide told reporters.

The climate minister of the Maldives, which faces future inundation from climate-driven sea level rise, lamented the lack of ambition on curbing emissions.

“I recognise the progress we made in COP27” with the loss and damage fund, Aminath Shauna told the plenary. But “we have failed on mitigation … We have to ensure that we increase ambition to peak emissions by 2025. We have to phase out fossil fuel.”

Reporting by Valerie Volcovici, Dominic Evans and William James; Writing by Katy Daigle

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Science

Fossils of car-sized dinosaur-era sea turtle unearthed in Spain

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Nov 17 (Reuters) – Plying the subtropical seas that washed the coasts of the archipelago that made up Europe 83 million years ago was one of the largest turtles on record, a reptile the size of a small car – a Mini Cooper to be precise – that braved dangerous waters.

Researchers on Thursday described remains discovered in northeastern Spain of a turtle named Leviathanochelys aenigmatica that was about 12 feet (3.7 meters) long, weighed a bit under two tons and lived during the Cretaceous Period – the final chapter in the age of dinosaurs. It is Europe’s biggest-known turtle.

It dwarfed today’s largest turtle – the leatherback, which can reach 7 feet (2 meters) long and is known for marathon marine migrations. Leviathanochelys nearly matched the largest turtle on record – Archelon, which lived roughly 70 million years ago and reached about 15 feet (4.6 meters) long.

“Leviathanochelys was as long as a Mini Cooper while Archelon was the same size as a Toyota Corolla,” said paleontologist and study co-author Albert Sellés of the Institut Català de Paleontologia (ICP), a research center affiliated with Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

It was good to be the size of a car, considering the hazardous traffic in the ancient Tethys Sea in which Leviathanochelys swam. Huge marine reptiles with powerful jaws called mosasaurs were the largest predators – some exceeding 50 feet (15 meters) in length. Various sharks and rays as well as long-necked fish-eating marine reptiles called plesiosaurs also lurked.

“Attacking an animal of the size of Leviathanochelys possibly only could have been done by large predators in the marine context. At that time, the large marine predators in the European zone were mainly sharks and mosasaurs,” said Oscar Castillo, a student in a master’s degree program in paleontology at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and lead author of the study published in the journal Scientific Reports.

[1/2] An illustrated reconstruction of the large Cretaceous Period sea turtle Leviathanochelys aenigmatica, which lived about 83 million years ago and whose fossils were found in Catalonia’s Alt Urgell county in northeastern Spain, is seen in this undated handout image. ICRA_Arts/Museu de la Conca Della – Institut Catala de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont/Handout via REUTERS

“During the Cretaceous, there was a tendency in marine turtles to increase their body size. Leviathanochelys and Archelon might represent the apex of this process. The reason for this increase in body size has been hypothesized to be predatory pressures, but there might be other factors,” Castillo added.

Other large turtles from Earth’s past include Protostega and Stupendemys, both reaching about 13 feet (4 meters) long. Protostega was a Cretaceous sea turtle that lived about 85 million years ago and, like its later cousin Archelon, inhabited the large inland sea that at the time split North America in two. Stupendemys prowled the lakes and rivers of northern South America about 7-13 million years ago during the Miocene Epoch.

Scientists unearthed the Leviathanochelys remains near the village of Coll de Nargó in Catalonia’s Alt Urgell county after fossils protruding from the ground were spotted by a hiker in the Southern Pyrenees mountains. To date, they have found parts of the posterior portion of its carapace, or shell, and most of the pelvic girdle, but no skull, tail or limbs.

The fossils indicated that it possessed a smooth carapace similar to leatherback turtles, with the shell itself about 7.7 feet (2.35 meters) long and 7.2 feet (2.2 meters) wide. Leviathanochelys appears built for the open ocean, returning to land only rarely – for instance to lay eggs.

The presence of a couple of bony bulges on the front side of the pelvis differs from any other known sea turtle, indicating that Leviathanochelys represents a newly discovered lineage. It shows that gigantism in marine turtles developed independently in separate Cretaceous lineages in North America and Europe.

Leviathanochelys aenigmatica means “enigmatic leviathan turtle” owing to its large size and the curious shape of its pelvis that the researchers suspect was related to its respiratory system.

“Some pelagic (living in the open ocean) animals show a modification in their respiratory system to maximize their breathing capacity at great depths,” Sellés said.

Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien

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World

At COP27, climate change framed as battle for survival

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  • China, United States have leading role
  • Guterres seeks coal phase-out by 2040
  • UAE, host of 2023 talks, says will keep producing fossil fuel

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 7 (Reuters) – World leaders and diplomats framed the fight against global warming as a battle for human survival during opening speeches at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt on Monday, with the head of the United Nations declaring a lack of progress so far had the world speeding down a “highway to hell”.

The stark messages, echoed by the heads of African, European and Middle Eastern nations alike, set an urgent tone as governments began two weeks of talks in the seaside resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to figure out how to avert the worst of climate change.

“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told delegates, urging them to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels and speed funding to poorer countries struggling under climate impacts that have already occurred.

Despite decades of climate talks so far, countries have failed to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions, and their pledges to do so in the future are insufficient to keep the climate from warming to a level scientists say will be catastrophic.

Land war in Europe, deteriorating diplomatic ties between top emitters the United States and China, rampant inflation, and tight energy supplies threaten to distract countries further away from combating climate change, Guterres said, threatening to derail the transition to clean energy.

“Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing. Global temperatures keep rising. And our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible,” he said. “We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot on the accelerator.”

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, also speaking at the event, said global leaders have a credibility problem when it comes to climate change and criticized developed nations’ ongoing pursuit of gas resources in Africa, which he described as “fossil fuel colonialism.”

“We have a credibility problem all of us: We’re talking and we’re starting to act, but we’re not doing enough,” Gore said.

French President Emmanuel Macron said that, while the world was distracted by a confluence of global crises, it was important not to sacrifice national commitments to fight climate change.

“We will not sacrifice our commitments to the climate due to the Russian threat in terms of energy,” Macron said, “so all countries must continue to uphold all their commitments.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the war was a reason to accelerate efforts to wean the world off fossil fuels.

“Climate security goes hand in hand with energy security, Putin’s abhorrent war in Ukraine, and rising energy prices across the world are not a reason to go slow on climate change. They are a reason to act faster,” he said.

UAE TO CARRY ON PUMPING OIL, GAS

While leaders tended to agree on the risks of global warming, their speeches revealed huge rifts, including over whether fossil fuels could play a role in a climate-friendly future, and who should pay for climate damage that has already occurred.

[1/7] United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres, Crown Prince and the Prime Minister of Bahrain Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, France’s President Emmanuel Macron, Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry, Saudi Adel Al-Jubeir, Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati and other leaders pose for a family photo during the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 7, 2022. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

Immediately after Guterres’ speech urging an end to the fossil fuel era, United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan took the stage and said his country, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, would continue to produce them for as long as there is a need.

“The UAE is considered a responsible supplier of energy, and it will continue playing this role as long as the world is in need of oil and gas,” he said.

The UAE will host next year’s U.N. conference, which will attempt to finalise agreements made last year in Britain and at this year’s Egyptian talks.

Many countries with rich resources of oil, gas and coal have criticized the push for a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, arguing it is economically reckless and unfair to poorer and less developed nations keen for economic growth.

“We are for a green transition that is equitable and just, instead of decisions that jeopardise our development,” said Macky Sall, president of Senegal and chair of the African Union.

Poorer countries that bear little responsibility for historic carbon emissions have also been arguing they should be compensated by rich nations for losses from climate-fueled disasters including floods, storms and wildfires.

Signatories to the 2015 Paris Agreement had pledged to achieve a long-term goal of keeping global temperatures from rising by more than 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, the threshold beyond which scientists say climate change risks spinning out of control.

Guterres said that goal was possible only if the world can achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. He asked countries to agree to phase out the use of coal, one of the most carbon-intense fuels, by 2040 globally, with members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development hitting that mark by 2030.

The head of the International Monetary Fund told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference that climate targets depend on achieving a global carbon price of at least $75 a ton by the end of the decade, and that the pace of change in the real economy was still “way too slow”.

The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, said in a report published on Monday that it should tackle trade barriers for low carbon industries to address the role of global trade in driving climate change.

Read more:

EXPLAINER-A field guide to climate jargon

FACTBOX-COP27: Major players at the U.N. climate talks in Egypt

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Reporting by William James, Valerie Volcovici and Simon Jessop; Editing by Richard Valdmanis, Katy Daigle, Barbara Lewis, Frank Jack Daniel, Deepa Babington and Lisa Shumaker

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Science

What caused holes in Sue the T. rex’s jawbone? Scientists are stumped

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WASHINGTON, Oct 1 (Reuters) – Sue, the biggest and best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex ever unearthed, no doubt was a fearsome beast when this predator prowled what is now South Dakota about 67 million years ago at the twilight of the age of dinosaurs.

But even this huge dinosaur, whose fossils are displayed at the Field Museum in Chicago, was not invulnerable. A prime example of this is the series of circular holes in Sue’s jawbone that continue to baffle scientists. New research seeking an explanation for these holes has managed to rule out one major hypothesis, though the answer remains elusive.

Researchers said a close examination of the eight holes – some the diameter of a golf ball – on the back half of Sue’s left lower jawbone, or mandible, determined that they were not caused by a type of microbial infection as some experts had proposed.

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The holes were found to differ from bone damage caused by such an infection, said Bruce Rothschild, a medical doctor and research associate at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, lead author of the study published this week in the journal Cretaceous Research.

Sue, measuring 40-1/2 feet long (12.3 meters), represents one of the world’s best-known dinosaur fossils. Tyrannosaurus was one of the largest land predators ever, inhabiting western North America at the end of the Cretaceous Period.

Field Museum paleontologist and study co-author Jingmai O’Connor noted that about 15% of all known T. rex specimens have holes similar to Sue’s.

The researchers explored whether the holes had been caused by an infection involving microbes called protozoans. One common protozoan disease known to occur in birds, which evolved from feathered dinosaurs, as well as in people is called trichomoniasis, caused by a parasitic protozoan. Trichomoniasis in people, though not birds, is a sexually transmitted disease.

O’Connor noted that one falcon diagnosed with trichomoniasis had shown damage in its jaw, but it differed from Sue’s holes.

The bone around Sue’s holes showed signs of healing, indicating that whatever caused them did not kill the animal. Similarities were observed between Sue’s healing and the healed breaks in other fossilized bones as well as healing bone seen around holes made in the skulls of ancient Inca people in Peru.

The cause of Sue’s holes remains a puzzle.

Rothschild proposed the possibility of claw damage during mating, or as he put it: “mounting from back or top with claws striking the posterior mandible.” Sue has a feminine name – honoring the woman who discovered the fossils in 1990 – but the dinosaur’s sex is unknown.

“I honestly have no clue what formed them,” O’Connor said. “I really do not think they are bite marks or claw marks.”

“A pathology that commonly affected T. rex individuals, that caused large holes to open up in the jawbone but only in the back of the jawbone, but didn’t kill the T. rex because the holes started to heal, at least in Sue – it’s weird,” O’Connor added. “So many hypotheses have been put forth only to be shot down. It’s a good paleontology mystery – my favorite.”

The holes were not the only examples of damage endured by Sue, a dinosaur that lived about 33 years.

“Sue was quite old when it died and it shows numerous injuries and pathologies,” O’Connor said. “It had gout in its hands. It had fallen on its right side, busting its ribs – they healed, though. It had torn a ligament in the right arm – healing. It had a horrible bone infection in its left leg. It had arthritis in its tail. It would not have been a happy camper the last year of its life.”

(The story refiles to fix typo in paragraph 13, ‘shot down’.)

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Reporting by Will Dunham; Editing by Daniel Wallis

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World

‘Spanish Stonehenge’ emerges from drought-hit dam

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CACERES, Spain, Aug 18 (Reuters) – A brutal summer has caused havoc for many in rural Spain, but one unexpected side-effect of the country’s worst drought in decades has delighted archaeologists – the emergence of a prehistoric stone circle in a dam whose waterline has receded.

Officially known as the Dolmen of Guadalperal but dubbed the Spanish Stonehenge, the circle of dozens of megalithic stones is believed to date back to 5000 BC.

It currently sits fully exposed in one corner of the Valdecanas reservoir, in the central province of Caceres, where authorities say the water level has dropped to 28% of capacity.

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“It’s a surprise, it’s a rare opportunity to be able to access it,” said archaeologist Enrique Cedillo from Madrid’s Complutense University, one of the experts racing to study the circle before it gets submerged again.

It was discovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier in 1926, but the area was flooded in 1963 in a rural development project under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.

Since then it has only become fully visible four times.

The dolmen of Guadalperal, also known as the Spanish Stonehenge, is seen due to the receding waters of the Valdecanas reservoir in the outskirts of El Gordo, Spain, August 3, 2022. REUTERS/Susana Vera

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Dolmens are vertically arranged stones usually supporting a flat boulder. Although there are many scattered across Western Europe, little is known about who erected them. Human remains found in or near many have led to an often-cited theory that they are tombs.

Local historical and tourism associations have advocated moving the Guadalperal stones to a museum or elsewhere on dry land.

Their presence is also good news for Ruben Argentas, who owns a small boat tours business. “The dolmen emerges and the dolmen tourism begins,” he told Reuters after a busy day spent shuttling tourists to the site and back.

But there is no silver lining for local farmers.

“There hasn’t been enough rain since the spring… There is no water for the livestock and we have to transport it in,” said Jose Manuel Comendador. Another, Rufino Guinea, said his sweet pepper crop had been ravaged.

Climate change has left the Iberian peninsula at its driest in 1,200 years, and winter rains are expected to diminish further, a study published by the Nature Geoscience journal showed.

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Additional reporting by Susana Vera, writing by Anna Valderrama and Andrei Khalip; editing by John Stonestreet

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World

Heatwave scorches Europe; health warnings issued

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  • WMO issues warning on air quality in towns and cities
  • UK declares first red heat warning for Monday, Tuesday
  • Wildfires ablaze in France, Spain and Portugal

LEIRIA, Portugal/LONDON, July 15 (Reuters) – Hundreds more people were evacuated from their homes as wildfires blistered land in France, Spain and Portugal on Friday, while officials in Europe issued health warnings for the heatwave in the coming days.

More than 1,000 firefighters, supported by water-bomber aircraft, have battled since Tuesday to control two blazes in southwestern France that have been fanned by scorching heat, tinder-box conditions and strong winds.

While temperatures dipped a little in Portugal, they were still expected to top 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in some places, with five districts on red alert and more than 1,000 firefighters tackling 17 wildfires, authorities said.

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In Spain, a new wildfire broke out in the south of the country after blazes in the west in the past week.

More than 400 people were evacuated from the hills of Mijas, a town popular with northern European tourists in the province of Malaga. Beachgoers in Torremolinos, some 20 km away, could see plumes of smoke rising above the hotels lining the coast.

Meanwhile, the worst drought in over 70 years reduced Italy’s longest river, the Po, to little more than a trickle in places, with temperatures expected to rise next week.

Officials are worried about the effects on people’s health and on healthcare systems already challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic as the searing heat sweeps the continent, with warnings issued for worse to come in Britain in particular.

The World Meteorological Organization said the heatwave would worsen air quality, especially in towns and cities.

“The stable and stagnant atmosphere acts as a lid to trap atmospheric pollutants, including particulate matter,” Lorenzo Labrador, WMO scientific officer, told a Geneva press briefing.

“These result in a degradation of air quality and adverse health effects, particularly for vulnerable people.”

Portuguese Health Minister Marta Temido said on Thursday the health system faced a “particularly worrying” week due to the heatwave and said some hospitals were overwhelmed.

From July 7 to July 13, Portugal registered 238 excess deaths due to the heatwave, the country’s DGS health authority said. Spain registered 84 excess deaths attributable to extreme temperatures in the first three days of the heatwave, according to the National Epidemiology Centre’s database.

UK WARNING

A church is pictured during sunset as a heat wave hits Europe, in Oisy-le-Verger, France, July 14, 2022. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol

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Britain’s weather forecaster issued its first red “extreme heat” warning for parts of England on Monday and Tuesday. read more

“Exceptional, perhaps record-breaking temperatures are likely early next week,” Met Office Chief Meteorologist Paul Gundersen said.

“Nights are also likely to be exceptionally warm, especially in urban areas,” he said. “This is likely to lead to widespread impacts on people and infrastructure.”

The highest recorded temperature in Britain was 38.7 C (101.7 F) recorded in Cambridge on July 25, 2019.

Hannah Cloke, climate expert at Britain’s University of Reading, said the heatwave showed climate change was here and there was an urgent need to adapt.

“We are seeing these problems now and they are going to get worse. We need to do something now,” she told Reuters.

“It’s harder to cope with these types of temperatures in the UK because we’re just not used to them.”

In Portugal, the highest temperature on Thursday was recorded in the northern town of Pinhao at 47 C (116.6 F), just below the record.

Raymond Loadwick, 73, a retiree from Britain now living in the Portuguese district of Leiria, had to leave his home with his dog Jackson when flames started to burn down a hill packed with highly flammable eucalyptus and pine trees on Tuesday.

When he returned a day later, his white house stood untouched but the vegetation around it had turned to ashes and his fruit trees were burned down. Loadwick is scared fires will happen more often in the future: “You have to be on your guard,” he told Reuters.

In France’s Gironde region, 11,300 people have been evacuated since the wildfires broke out around Dune du Pilat and Landiras. Some 7,350 hectares (18,000 acres) of land have been burnt. Authorities said the fires had not yet been stabilised.

Elsewhere in Spain, the wildfires that have been burning in parts of Extremadura, which borders Portugal, and the central Castille and Leon region forced the evacuation of four more small villages late on Thursday and on Friday.

The flames are now threatening a 16th century monastery and a national park. Several hundred people have been evacuated since the fires started and 7,500 hectares of forest have been destroyed in the two regions.

In Catalonia in the northeast, authorities suspended camping and sporting activities around 275 towns and villages to prevent fire risks and restricted farm work involving machinery.

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Additional reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten in Paris, Emma Pinedo, Elena Rodriguez and Christina Thykjaer in Madrid, Hannah McKay in Torremolinos, William James in London and Emma Farge in Geneva; Writing by Alison Williams; Editing by Frances Kerry and Hugh Lawson

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Italy declares state of emergency for drought-stricken north

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ROME, July 4 (Reuters) – Italy on Monday declared a state of emergency for areas surrounding the river Po, which accounts for roughly a third of the country’s agricultural production and is suffering its worst drought for 70 years.

The government decree will allow authorities to cut through red tape and take action immediately if they think it necessary, such as to impose water rationing for homes and businesses.

The Po is Italy’s longest river which runs for more than 650 km (400 miles) through the wealthy north of Italy. However, many stretches of the waterway have run dry and farmers say the flow is so weak that sea water is seeping inland, destroying crops. read more

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The government said in a statement that the emergency measures would cover lands that bordered the Po and the water basins of the eastern Alps.

More broadly, it also introduced a state of emergency in five northern regions – Emilia-Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto – earmarking an initial 36.5 million euros ($38 million) of funds to help them tackle the water shortage.

“The state of emergency is aimed at managing the current situation with extraordinary means and powers, with relief and assistance to the affected population,” the government said.

It added that further measures could be taken in future to deal with the drought which water authorities say is increasingly impacting central Italy after an extremely dry winter and spring followed by an exceptionally hot early summer.

Italian media have reported that Prime Minister Mario Draghi was also considering appointing a commissioner to coordinate the drought response, in a similar way to which the government created a commissioner to oversee the coronavirus crisis.
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Reporting by Angelo Amante, editing by Giulia Segreti and Alex Richardson

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Rescue teams scan mountains for missing after Italian glacier collapse

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CANAZEI, Italy, July 4 (Reuters) – Helicopter crews and drones flew over the Italian Alps on Monday searching for 13 people missing after part of a mountain glacier collapsed, killing at least seven people in a disaster experts linked to rising temperatures.

Much of Italy has been baking in an early-summer heatwave and scientists said climate change was making previously stable glaciers more difficult to predict. read more

Sunday’s avalanche took place on the Marmolada, which at more than 3,300 metres is the highest peak in the Dolomites, a range in the eastern Italian Alps straddling the regions of Trento and Veneto.

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Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said the disaster was linked to environmental factors.

“Today Italy weeps for these victims,” Draghi said during a visit to meet rescue teams.

“But the government must think about what has happened and take steps to ensure that what happened is unlikely to do so again or can even be avoided,” he added.

Seven people were killed and two of the eight people injured were in a serious condition, said Maurizio Fugatti, president of the Trento region.

Punta Rocca summit is seen after parts of the Marmolada glacier collapsed in the Italian Alps amid record temperatures, killing at least six people and injuring several, at Marmolada ridge, Italy, July 4, 2022. REUTERS/Borut Zivulovic

Three people from the Czech Republic were among those unaccounted for. An Austrian tourist who was earlier reported missing has now been traced, the local authorities said.

“This is the first such accident in the history of the mountain,” said Gino Comelli, who was helping to coordinate rescue efforts.

The peak was too unstable for rescuers to try to approach on foot, Comelli said, adding that recent hot weather had been a factor in the collapse.

Pope Francis said he was praying for the victims and their families.

“The tragedies that we are experiencing with climate change should force us urgently to pursue new ways that respect people and nature,” he said on Twitter.

Rising average temperatures have caused the Marmolada glacier, like many others around the world, to shrink steadily over recent decades.

“The Marmolada glacier collapse is a natural disaster linked directly to climate change,” said Poul Christoffersen, a professor in Glaciology at the University of Cambridge.

“High elevation glaciers such as the Marmolada are often steep and relying on cold temperatures below zero degrees Celsius to keep them stable,” he added.

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Additional reporting by Emilio Parodi and Angelo Amante; Writing by Giulia Segreti and Keith Weir; Editing by Janet Lawrence

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