We like to own sleek gadgets, and just when they outrun their usefulness faster than child celebrities, we just dump them like abandoned pets. The question is: How much are we dumping them, and what happens next? Does e-waste have an afterlife?

These discarded electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) are what we call e-waste. Where do they go when it’s time to meet their maker? Dumpsters, of course. What happens next is intriguing.

Which is nothing. Well, almost. That is the issue at hand here.

The Size

We have discussed the recycling of plastic here before, and sadly, the story is not too different when it comes to electronic devices. First, let’s look at the staggering amount of e-waste in our country, and before that, let’s establish this: globally, we produce about tons of plastic waste every freaking year. Actually, that’s a small number, considering that in Malaysia alone, the amount goes up to 34.4 tons.

The report here quotes the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) and the UNITAR (no, not that Unitar, but the United Nations Institute for Training and Research): the volume of so-called e-waste, which includes mobile phones, TVs, and vapes, is “rising five times faster than documented recycling.”

“We are currently wasting US$91 billion (RM431 billion) in valuable metals due to insufficient e-waste recycling,” a spokesperson was reported as saying in that report.

The E-Waste Danger

E-waste is a different class of waste altogether. Sure, they may not smell like the trail of garbage juice left behind by the municipal trucks, but they are certainly a bigger health threat. The e-waste rogue’s gallery includes:

Toxic Chemicals: E-waste contains hazardous substances like lead, mercury, cadmium, and beryllium, which can be pretty much of a bother to our insurance agencies.

Health Risks: Improper handling and recycling of e-waste can lead to health issues, particularly for workers in informal recycling sectors, including children and pregnant women, the very two categories of people we want to save first.

Environmental Impact: E-waste can contaminate soil and water sources, leading to ecosystem damage and affecting food chains, if we are not already doing enough damage.

Resource Waste: E-waste includes valuable materials that could be recycled and reused, but often they’re not, leading to a waste of finite resources. In short, bleak, very bleak.

Sure, the EEEs made life much easier and deadlier. Unfortunately, they have only a slightly longer lifespan than an average frog and can easily be outlived by a not-so-average frog (Goliath, a good 20 years before checking in an amphibian old folks home).

Look, the issue is that efforts in recycling alone are not enough, as this report from the UN notes that the generation of e-waste outpaces recycling as it is “rising five times faster than documented recycling capacity.”

The Solution

In Malaysia, we do have an agency dealing with e-waste under the Department of Environment, and the last reported activity was somewhere last year. Then there are private companies and organisations that deal with EEEs, as listed here, including a Buddhist organisation that talks about materials dealing with the afterlife. The same agency also included ways of dealing with them with this super-friendly info graph that did not neglect the often-forgotten scooter riders:

The EPR

One of the often-proposed measures that would need the cooperation of the manufacturers is the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, EPR can be defined as an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of the product’s life cycle.

Right now, we do have an entity called MAREA (Malaysian Recycling Alliance), a collaborative effort between 10 industry bigwigs and the government to deal with EPR, but so far there has been no mention of EEEs; it deals mostly with plastic stuff.

The Opportunity

It took pictures of turtles strangled by plastic to wake a few up and smell the garbage bin, and heaven knows pictures of which cute animal died of drinking contaminated water to start looking at our mobile phones as future hazards.

Plus, there ought to be a lot more awareness in the gold mine that is supposed to be these waste EEEs. Or urban mine, as the UN calls it, because these materials contain high-value, recoverable materials such as gold, silver, copper, and platinum, valued in this 2019 news at US$57 billion.

That figure alone should send scrap metal merchants circling over the landfills looking for corpses of old Oppos and Acers. – NMH

The post E-Waste: The Afterlife Of Electronic And Electrical Equipment first appeared on NMH.

Here’s a scenario. You have your fill of Coke (or Pepsi, whichever) and you decide to throw the can or plastic bottle onto the nearest trashcan, but (in extreme close-up) a hand reaches out and prevents you from doing so.

It’s your self-appointed saint of recycling friend (your fault for having such friends in the first place), who, like Moses coming back from the flaming bush with his flame retardant beard bellowing, “Thou shalt recycle!”.

The Feel-good Factor

But we like making new commandments from time to time, according to time, place, whims and fancy, and level of bloodthirstiness. Okay, linking to the Gaza genocide may be a wrong comparison. Malaysians are compassionate and empathic toward what’s happening to Gazans. That is, when we are not too busy killing thousands on the road.

But forget vehicular manslaughters; not recycling can inflict guilt faster than skipping diets. It pricks the conscience, which has been fed by too many feel-good WhatsApp messages we are damned with every morning. Recycle, for you have been warned, or (brace yourselves) be a normie.

But fret not, here’s something that your sneering self-appointed angels of environment protection should know, as to how much of those sent for recycling actually gets recycled properly. That’s right; according to a study, 91% of that stuff doesn’t even get recycled in the first place.

That’s because discarded plastic containers are like the beauty pageants of recyclable material—they look good but are mostly useless for anything else.

Plastics, like what the followers of Abrahamic faiths believe, don’t have reincarnations, backed by science nonetheless. This article screams that it is impossible to recycle plastic. You can re-use it at home, but they mostly stand in for more stylish, expensive containers or other 59 ways explored here.

Heavy Metal

On the other hand, in Malaysia, metal is the most sought-after recyclable material. If you see a trash can that looks like another trash can has sexually assaulted it while it was asleep, it means someone has been at it picking up cans and other metal pieces. The culprits are usually hobos, drunks, and hybrids of both.

Yes, metal which is the Heavy Metal of the recycling industry. Recycling metal has been an activity ever since the existence of metal itself. Any metal, preferably shiny, glittery ones. Aluminum cans are especially useful because, well, you can just crumple and throw them and do your basketball practice.

Speaking of which, guess where the aluminium scraps of the world’s favourite destination are to die and reincarnate? Malaysia, of course. According to this report, Malaysia will be the leading overseas destination for aluminium scrap in 2021 “outpacing India (351,000 metric tons), South Korea (221,000), China (200,000), and Mexico (140,000) as the only other nations that have crossed the 100,000 metric tons threshold in the first 10 months.”

Yet, the damndest thing is, we are cool with buying canned drinks or anything else metal because we know that no matter where we dump them—in a proper rubbish bin or right in the middle of the road—t here will be desperate hordes of homeless poor, penniless drunks, or employees of metal recycling enterprises scavenging them and getting pocket changes.

This is helped by the fact that the health of the industry that feeds on rust is pretty shiny. Here are the numbers in the graph. Don’t bother analysing; here, take a gander at this:

Plastic and Fossil Fuel

Here’s another connection that is going to put plastic back to the mentioned Gaza comparison. Almost all of plastic is made from fossil fuel. An estimate of 12 million barrels of oil are used yearly to make plastic. Which means, oil is still going play a big part in international intrigue, the constant thirst for fuel (despite all the hoo-has about alternative energy sources) that made the middle east the most peace lacking nations in the world.

Hey, the constant war and disturbance of peace especially in that region as long as the rich and powerful are safe, helps to keep the fuel price up and the military industrial complex belly full with cash. What’s “recycle” compared to “vicious cycle”. Renewable energy be damned.

The demand for fuel will keep the plastic production alive and wiggling. Look, between 2011 and 2020, Barclays Bank have lent more than US$3 billion to single use plastic polymer producers (see graph below. Source The Guardian, UK)

We know that banks need to do loans to make money; your personal salary account be damned. The plastic companies have eager beavers dumping money on them.

And you thought by using wet, melting paper straw slurping your iced latte you are going to save the world? – NMH

Also read more articles by the author:

Peace Inwards And Outwards, Within And Without

Hollywood, Politics, Propaganda And Brainwashing

Greenwashing: Consigning Conscience to Consumers

The post The Recycled Plastic Dream. Or Is It A Nightmare? first appeared on NMH.

SHARM AL-SHEIK – Delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt agreed to debate whether rich countries should compensate poor countries most vulnerable to climate change for their suffering.

“This creates, for the first time, an institutionally stable space on the formal agenda of the COP and the Paris Agreement to discuss the pressing issue of funding arrangements required to deal with existing gaps, responding to loss and damage,” COP27 president Sameh Shoukry said at the opening plenary.

Much of the tension at COP27 is expected to relate to loss and damage – funds provided by wealthy nations to vulnerable lower-income countries that bear little responsibility for climate-warming emissions.

At COP26 last year in Glasgow, high-income nations blocked a proposal for a loss and damage financing body, instead supporting a new three-year dialogue for funding discussions.

The loss and damage discussions now on the agenda at COP27 will not involve liability or binding compensation, but they are intended to lead to a conclusive decision “no later than 2024,” Shoukry said.

“The inclusion of this agenda reflects a sense of solidarity for the victims of climate disasters,” he added. – Reuters

The post Climate Compensation Is On The Agenda At COP27 For The First Time first appeared on NMH.

SARASOTA – Hurricane Ian strengthened to a Category 4 storm as it approached Florida’s Gulf Coast on Wednesday, with residents stockpiling food, boarding up windows, and fleeing to evacuation shelters.

In a recent update, the U.S. Ian was located about 80 miles (130 kilometres) southwest of Punta Gorda, Florida, with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center (250 km per hour).

The National Hurricane Center upgraded Ian to a “extremely dangerous” Category 4 hurricane, but said the storm would weaken slightly once it reached land.

“The storm is here,” Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie said, warning of widespread power outages and the possibility of tornadoes.

“Stay indoors. Stay away from windows,” he told an early morning news conference.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis warned that people in Collier, Lee, Charlotte and Sarasota counties were no longer safe to evacuate and urged people to get off the roads and stay inside.

“It’s time to hunker down and prepare for this storm. This is a powerful storm that should be treated like a tornado was approaching your home,” he said. “This is going to be a nasty, nasty day or two days. This is going to be a rough stretch.”

Ian hammered Cuba on Tuesday and left the entire Caribbean island nation without power, and was expected to crash ashore into Florida on Wednesday evening south of Tampa Bay, somewhere between Sarasota and Naples.

The first hurricane advisory on Wednesday had put Ian’s maximum sustained winds near 120 mph (195 km per hour), ranking it a Category 3, but said the storm was expected to strengthen.

The Miami-based National Hurricane Center warned that Ian would also unleash pounding surf, life-threatening coastal flooding and more than a foot of rain in some areas.

Authorities urged more than 2.5 million residents to evacuate their homes for higher ground.

The Florida coastal zone at highest risk for U.S. landfall is home to miles of sandy beaches, scores of resort hotels and numerous mobile home parks, a favorite with retirees and vacationers alike.

“We’re right on the water, along a canal, so … this could be devastating,” Melissa Wolcott Martino, 78, a retired magazine editor in St. Petersburg, said as she and her husband loaded valuables and pets into their car for a drive to their son’s home north of Tampa on Tuesday.

By late Tuesday night, tropical storm-force winds generated by Ian extended through the Florida Keys island chain to the southernmost shores of the state’s Gulf Coast, the NHC said.

The NHC also issued storm surge warnings for much of western Florida’s shoreline, predicting coastal flooding of up to 12 feet from wind-driven high surf.

“The time to evacuate is now. Get on the road,” Florida’s director of emergency management, Kevin Guthrie, said during a news briefing on Tuesday evening, urging residents to heed evacuation warnings.

DeSantis had warned late Tuesday night that evacuation would become difficult for those who waited much longer to flee because increasing winds would soon force authorities to close highway bridges.

Urgency And Complacency

“You need to get to higher ground, you need to get to structures that are safe,” DeSantis said, adding that widespread power outages would leave millions without electricity once the storm strikes.

U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Deanne Criswell said she worried that too few Florida residents were taking the threat seriously.

“I do have concerns about complacency,” Criswell said on Tuesday. “We’re talking about impacts in a part of Florida that hasn’t seen a major direct impact in nearly 100 years. There’s also parts of Florida where there’s a lot of new residents.”

If Ian strikes the Tampa area, it would be the first hurricane to make landfall there since the 1921 Tarpon Springs storm.

It also may prove one of the costliest, with data modeling service Enki Research projecting storm-related damages ranging from RM175.81 billion to more than RM277.59 billion.

Ian churned across the southeastern edge of the Gulf of Mexico headed for Florida after thrashing Cuba, knocking out the electrical grid for 11 million people and ravaging the western end of the island with violent winds and flooding.

Cuba has slowly begun to restore power across the eastern end of the island, the state electricity provider said early on Wednesday.

Cuba’s already frail grid, largely dependent on antiquated, Soviet-era oil-fired generation plants, had been faltering for months ahead of the storm. But officials said Hurricane Ian had proven too much, knocking out power even in far eastern Cuba, which was largely unaffected by the storm.

In Florida, to ease traffic congestion during evacuations, authorities suspended toll collections along major highways in central areas of the state and the Tampa Bay area.

Some residents, such as Vanessa Vazquez, 50, a software engineer in St. Petersburg, said they planned to ride out the storm at home despite evacuation warnings.

“I’m staying put,” Vazquez said. “I have four cats and I don’t want to stress them out. And we have a strong house.”

Schools To Shelters

Nearly 60 Florida school districts had canceled classes due to the hurricane, DeSantis said. More than 175 evacuation centers were opened statewide, many of them school buildings converted to shelters.

“This is a mobile home community, and they really need this shelter,” said Fabiola Galvan Leon, a preschool teacher acting as a bilingual translator for hundreds of evacuees who flocked to Reddick Elementary School in Wimauma, southeast of Tampa.

Commercial airlines reported more than 2,000 storm-related U.S. flight cancellations, with the St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport and Tampa International Airport shut down on Tuesday.

Shelves at a nearby Walmart store had been stripped almost bare, though some shoppers wandered the aisles hurriedly grabbing the last boxes of water, canned goods and loaves of bread.

The Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) announced it was closing its Florida theme and water parks on Wednesday and Thursday while the National Football League’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers relocated to Miami, where they will practice this week ahead of their game against the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday.

The storm’s approach also disrupted the Gulf Coast energy industry as personnel were evacuated from 14 production platforms and rigs, halting about 11% of the region’s oil output. – Reuters

– NMH

The post Hurricane Ian Intensifies As Millions Flee Florida first appeared on NMH.

Russian President Vladimir Putin exacerbated the pain in global energy markets by announcing a partial Russian military mobilization, threatening to further tighten global fuel supplies.

European gas and power prices have skyrocketed as Russia reduces fuel exports in retaliation for Western sanctions over its invasion of Ukraine, leaving consumers with astronomical bills and utilities in a liquidity crisis.

“We have intervened to prevent businesses from collapsing, protect jobs, and limit inflation,” said Britain’s finance minister, Kwasi Kwarteng.

While many businesses are facing higher bills, more than 20 British power providers have gone bankrupt, many of them due to a government price cap that prevented them from passing on the full impact of rising fuel costs to consumers.

European gas prices rose on Wednesday, after Putin’s announcement, hitting RM957.58 per megawatt hour (MWh), still below this year’s peak of around RM1549.29 but more than 200% higher than a year ago. Oil prices rose 2%.

The European Union, which once relied on Russia for about 40% of its gas needs, has been racing to find other supplies.

“The (Russian) move could possibly lead to calls for more aggressive action against Russia in terms of sanctions from the West,” said Warren Patterson, head of commodities research at ING.

Germany’s Uniper, once heavily reliant on Russian gas imports, has been among the most high-profile casualties, facing a liquidity crunch as Russia turned off the tap and sent prices soaring.

After efforts to shore up the utility with a multi-billion euro cash injection proved inadequate, the government agreed to buy the remaining stake owned by Finland’s Fortum (FORTUM.HE) to keep the company running, giving the state a 99% holding. read more

‘Do Everything Possible’

“The state will … do everything possible to always keep the companies stable on the market,” German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said, announcing the Uniper move and other steps to help Germany avoid energy rationing this winter. read more

The agreement involves a capital injection of 8 billion euros (RM36.15 billion), Uniper said, a move that brings the government’s total capital injection so far to at least 29 billion euros.

Germany was more reliant than many others in Europe on Russian gas, mostly supplied via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Russia halted flows through the pipeline, blaming Western sanctions for hindering operations. European politicians call that a pretext and say Moscow is using energy as a weapon.

The German government has already put Gazprom Germania, a unit of Kremlin-controlled Gazprom, and a subsidiary of Russian oil company Rosneft (ROSN.MM) under trusteeship – a de facto nationalisation. Smaller companies have also asked for help.

Fortum Chief Executive Markus Rauram said selling the firm’s stake in Uniper was a painful but necessary step, adding that the company which is majority owned by the Finish state lost about 6 billion euros with its Uniper investment.

Russia’s gas flows to Europe via Ukraine have continued but at lower levels. Gazprom (GAZP.MM) said it would ship 42.4 million cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine on Wednesday, in line with recent days.

Eastbound gas flows via the Yamal-Europe pipeline to Poland from Germany were halted on Wednesday, while Russian supply via Ukraine held stable.

In the United States, Democratic and Republican senators on Tuesday proposed that U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration use secondary sanctions on international banks to strengthen plans for price cap by G7 countries on Russian oil.

Moscow has said it would cut all oil and gas flows to the West if such cap was implemented.

The move by U.S. lawmakers came hours before Putin ordered Russia’s first mobilisation since World War Two, warning the West that if it continued what he called its “nuclear blackmail” Moscow would respond with its vast arsenal. 

Several countries have banned imports of Russian crude and fuel, but Moscow has managed to maintain its revenues through increased crude sales to Asia. – Reuters

– New Malaysia Herald

The post Europe Is Burning Cash To Assist Businesses In Midst Of An Energy Crisis. first appeared on NMH.

“I have more difficulties than a daily wage labourer,” said Singaram Soosaiyamutthu, who moves around on the palms of his hands after an air strike in 2009 took both his legs and injured his left arm.

That was during the final stages of a 26-year civil war between the Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam militant group (LTTE).

The current economic crisis is a second blow for Soosaiyamutthu’s northern coastal district of Mullaitivu, which was ravaged by the war’s final offensive and has a predominantly Tamil population.

Many residents work as day labourers to make ends meet, he says, but he cannot.

“If I go for daily wage labour, nobody will hire me, and it’s also not possible for us to go and work like this, is it?” he asked.

He worked as a fisherman before the economic crisis, Sri Lanka’s worst in seven decades, dried up fuel supplies, forcing him to turn instead to peanut farming to earn money.

“Even if we have to control our own hunger, we can’t tell our children, ‘Look kid, this is all there is to eat, now just go to bed,’ can we?” he said.

His family is among 6.2 million Sri Lankans estimated to be food insecure by a U.N. agency, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), as food inflation hit an eye-watering 93.7% last month.

Sri Lanka’s financial crisis is the result of economic mismanagement and the coronavirus pandemic, which destroyed its tourism sector, a key revenue earner.

For months the population of 22 million has struggled with power cuts, rampant inflation, a plummeting rupee and a shortage of foreign exchange reserves that made it difficult to pay for imports of food, fuel and medicine.

Mullaitivu is Sri Lanka’s second poorest district, with 58% of households living in poverty, a Save the Children survey showed in June, and it has the largest number of those saying they lost all their income due to the crisis, about a quarter.

Nationwide, 31% of adult respondents said that, like Soosaiyamutthu, they cut back their food intake to feed their children.

“With this economic crisis, they are being pushed from bad to worse,” said Soma Somanathan, the founder of a charity, Tears of Vanni, that helps people in the region.

“They are actually being pushed back to the stage where they were directly after the war,” added Somanathan, who is based in Sydney.

Sri Lanka is extending a welfare effort that covers 4 million homes to include those hit hardest by the crisis, said Neil Hapuhinne, secretary of the social empowerment ministry, and plans direct monthly cash transfers to 600,000 more people.

“The most deserving will be identified and helped,” Hapuhinne added, after 51.3 billion rupees (RM662.11 million) was disbursed to 3.2 million households this year.

A loan of RM907.00 million from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) will also alleviate the food crisis, while the government has turned to the World Bank and U.N. agencies.

At dusk in Mullaitivu, Soosaiyamutthu dropped his spade at the end of the day. It will be two months before he can gauge the success of the peanut harvest.

“If prices went down, we wouldn’t struggle this much,” he said. “Now, even being 10% OK is a struggle. That’s how expensive things are.” – Reuters

The post Sri Lankan Crisis Pushing War-Torn Tamils To The Brink first appeared on NMH.

Floods caused by heavy monsoon rains and glacier melt in the northern mountains have killed over 1,391 people and destroyed homes, roads, railway tracks, bridges, livestock, and crops.

Huge areas of the country have been inundated, and hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. According to the government, nearly 33 million people’s lives have been disrupted. The damage is estimated to be RM134.94 billion in Pakistan, and both the government and Guterres have blamed the flooding on climate change.

The U.N. On Saturday, the secretary-general landed in Sindh province before flying over some of the worst-affected areas on his way to Balochistan, another badly hit province.

“It’s difficult not to be moved by such detailed descriptions of tragedy,” Guterres said after landing in Sindh, according to a video released by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif‘s office.

“Pakistan needs massive financial support. This is not a matter of generosity, it is a matter of justice.”

A video released by Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb showed Guterres seated next to Sharif viewing flood-damaged areas from an aircraft window. “Unimaginable,” Guterres said, surveying the damage.

In July and August, Pakistan got 391 mm (15.4 inches) of rain, or nearly 190% more than the 30-year average. The southern province of Sindh has seen 466% more rain than average.

Guterres said on Saturday the world needed to understand the impact of climate change on low-income countries.

“Humanity has been waging war on nature and nature strikes back,” he said.

“Nature strikes back in Sindh, but it was not Sindh that has made the emissions of greenhouse gases that have accelerated climate change so dramatically,” Guterres said. “There is a very unfair situation relative to the level of destruction.” – Reuters

• New Malaysia Herald

The post U.N. Chief Travels To Flood-ravaged Areas In Pakistan first appeared on NMH.

With Britain in the grip of a long recession caused by a near-quadruple in home energy costs, Truss, who was named prime minister on Tuesday, has vowed she will take urgent steps to safeguard consumers.

Financial markets have been worried by an increase in government borrowing to pay the assistance package, as well as Truss’ commitment to lower taxes. The pound plummeted to levels last seen in 1985 versus the dollar on Wednesday.

Truss is due to present her plan to parliamentarians at about 1000 GMT.

According to Deutsche Bank, the energy price offset and planned tax cuts might cost 179 billion pounds, or over half of what Britain spent on the COVID-19 epidemic.

The government is also expected to set out new sources of energy supply including the issuance of up to 130 oil and gas exploration licences in the North Sea and a scrapping of a ban on fracking if local communities agree.

“We will take action immediately to help people and businesses with bills but also… to tackle the root cause of these problems, so that we are not in this position again,” Truss said in a statement.

“We will set out our plans to deliver on that promise and build a prosperous Britain for everyone.”

Daunting Challenges For Britain

With industrial unrest also spreading, Truss faces one of the most daunting sets of challenges for an incoming leader in Britain’s post-war history.

Her plan is expected to cool inflation – which at 10.1% is already the highest of any leading economy – but it will add more than 100 billion pounds to Britain’s borrowing, putting more strain on public finances with the energy crisis possibly lasting into next winter.

It also marks a major turnaround from her rejection of “handouts” during the early stages of the Conservative Party leadership campaign.

Charities had warned that millions of households face destitution this winter if the cap on average energy prices were allowed to jump 80% in October and again in winter.

Companies are also at risk. Many have received new energy bills that they say threaten to put them out of business.

According to two sources familiar with the government’s discussions, Truss will announce dozens of new North Sea exploration licences in a bid to boost domestic production.

She is also expected to lift a ban on fracking, which involves extracting shale gas from rocks by breaking them up with water and chemicals at high pressure. It was banned in 2019 after the oil and gas authority said it was not possible to predict the magnitude of earthquakes it might trigger.

Neither of the proposals will provide any short-term relief however as it typically takes between five to 10 years from initial exploration until oil and gas is produced from a field. Fracking projects will require a lengthy planning process.

“If we want energy sufficiency, we have to look at every source including clearly new nuclear or more renewables,” the minister for levelling up, Simon Clarke, told Sky News. “We also ought to look at technologies like fracking… There is a balanced approach to this question.” – Reuters

The post Britain To Unveil RM517.48 Billion Strategy To Reduce Energy Costs first appeared on NMH.

There were no immediate reports of casualties, but the media did report some damage.

According to the China Earthquake Networks Centre, the epicenter was in the town of Luding at a depth of 16 km (10 miles), about 226 km (140 miles) southwest of Chengdu, a city of about 21 million people.

“The shaking was quite strong and it lasted for a while,” said Shirley Li, who lives on the 30th floor of an apartment block in Chengdu, which is under a COVID-19 lockdown, after suffering summer heatwaves.

“It’s been a hard time for us – heatwaves, the COVID lockdown and now the earthquake.”

An aftershock of a magnitude of 4.2 struck the city of Yaan, about 100 km (60 miles) southwest of Chengdu, minutes later.

Earthquakes are common in the southwestern province of Sichuan, especially its mountains in the west, a tectonically active area along the eastern boundary of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau.

In Luding, the quake was so strong it was hard for some people to remain standing while cracks appeared on some houses, according to state media China News Service.

Video clips posted on social media showed lights swinging while people rushed out of buildings into the streets.

A total of 39,000 people live within a 20-km (12.5 miles) radius of the epicentre and 1.55 million within a 100-km (62 miles) radius, according to state television.

The quake was Sichuan’s biggest since April 2013 when a magnitude 7.0 quake hit the city Yaan, killing more than 100 people and injuring thousands.

“We heard the alarm sound via speakers 20 or 30 seconds before the earthquake,” said a Chengdu resident surnamed Yang.

Speakers broadcasting earthquake alarms are installed in communities and kindergartens and primary schools, Yang said.

The most powerful Sichuan earthquake on record was in May 2008 when a magnitude 8.0 quake centred in Wenchuan killed almost 70,000 people and caused extensive damage.

Monday’s quake was felt as far away as Changsha in Hunan province and Xian in Shaanxi province hundreds of kilometres away, according to social media posts. – REUTERS

The post Sichuan Struck By Province’s Strongest Earthquake Since 2013 first appeared on NMH.

The energy regulator announced last week that the price cap for millions of British households would increase by 80% to an average of 3,549 pounds (RM18643.50) per year beginning in October, but with no cap for businesses, some have reported seeing increases of more than 300% on their energy bills.

Members of the British Beer and Pub Association’s board of directors wrote to Prime Minister Boris Johnson asking for a moratorium on levies, the implementation of an energy price cap for small businesses, and additional grant support for pubs.

Rising Energy Costs

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, the frontrunner to succeed Johnson in a leadership election scheduled for September 5, has said she favours tax cuts to help households and businesses cope with rising energy costs.

“As more fixed price contracts come up for renewal this is only worsening. The time to act is now,” the leaders of J.W Lees Brewery, Greene King, Admiral Taverns, St Austell Brewery, Drake and Morgan and Carlsberg Marstons said in the letter.

“Without swift and substantial intervention from government there is no doubt we will witness a huge number of pubs close their doors for good, leaving individuals without jobs during a cost-of-living crisis and communities without its social heartbeat.”

The group said the rise in energy bills was hitting the industry just as it was starting to recover from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Having survived the unprecedented challenges arising from the pandemic, pubs and breweries are once again faced with an existential threat because of circumstances beyond their control,” Kevin Georgel, Chief Executive of St Austell Brewery said.

“The cost of energy threatens to cause mass business failure.” – Reuters

The post UK Pubs Warned Of Mass Closures If Gov’t Does Not Solve Energy Crisis first appeared on NMH.