Category Archives: High Seas

Analysis: aside from climate change, local exacerbating factors are behind rising sea levels in Irish coastal cities

By Gerard McCarthy, Katherine Dooley, Amin Shoari Nejad, Andrew Parnell, Maynooth University and Zoe Roseby, Trinity College Dublin

Most Irish cities are coastal, with 40% of the population within 5km of the coast. Recent flooding reinforces the need to understand how sea levels are changing around Ireland. Galway has become the place to be for journalists reporting on impending rough weather of late and we have become familiar with images of waves reaching forgotten cars on Salthill prom.

Future sea levels around the Irish coast depend on a combination of global and local factors. Global sea level rise is driven by climate change with another 1m of sea level rise predicted by 2150, if greenhouse gas reductions fall short of targets. However, new research has shown sea level rise in Dublin and Cork greater than expected from climate change alone, pointing to local exacerbating factors that need to be understood.

In October 2017 the nation braced itself for the arrival of ex-hurricane Ophelia. The tightly wound tropical-esque storm was a contrast to the looser cyclones that traditionally lash the west coast. When Ophelia hit, the winds rose, as did the seas. Waves and storm surged along the west coast, flooding Galway. The level the seas rise to above that of the regular tide is called storm surge and Ophelia was the largest storm surge recorded by modern measurements in Galway at 1.6 m above the tide.

Galway is the textbook case for coastal flooding in Ireland: the biggest storms lead to the biggest surges, which subsequently have a high impact on a city built by the Atlantic's edge. High sea levels at the coast are a combination of factors: not only storm surges but also the tide.

While Ophelia was the highest storm surge, it was not the highest total sea level. That honour goes to Storm Eleanor that hit in early January 2018, when water levels in Galway rose to 3.7 m as the storm surge coincided with spring tides. For context, this is about 1 m above the base of the famous Spanish Arch in the city. The resultant flooding from Storm Eleanor was severe throughout the city.

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From RT Radio 1's Morning Ireland in 2018, Cian McCormack reports from Galway city, which suffered severe flooding as Storm Eleanor swept in off the Atlantic

Sea level rise in Dublin should be the easiest case to describe as it is the longest record of sea level in the Republic. However, new research has revisited Dublin's sea level records to investigate high rates of sea level rise that have been observed there. Recent sea level rise is faster than expected at approximately double the rate of global sea level rise.

The study compared sea level records for Dublin with other Irish and international records. The Dublin record had in recent years been viewed sceptically due to questions about data quality. In response to this, the Dublin record was calibrated by adjusting biased high water measurements that affect the overall calculation of average sea level. The confirmation of high rates of sea level risealready built into Dublin's climate action plandoes not yet unearth the cause of this rapid rise.

Unusually high sea level rise in Ireland is not the preserve of the capital. A 2021 study in the journal Ocean Science looked at sea level rise in Cork since 1842 and found that relative sea levels had risen by over 40 cm, nearly 50% more than the 27 cm expected for the region.

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From RT Archives, Carole Coleman reports for RT News in 1997 on a project to enable meteorologists and scientists to predict where floods will occur across Ireland

Higher rates of relative sea level rise are expected in the southwest of Ireland due to Glacial Isostatic Adjustment whereby the removal of large ice sheets that covered Ireland during the last ice age causes land subsidence in the southwest and land uplift in the northeast of Ireland. However, models of this effect still leave nearly 20% of sea level rise in Cork unaccounted for. This could be due to local subsidence in Cork Harbour due to manmade or natural factors, or a wider signal of subsidence along the northwest European shelf, or the models for Glacial Isostatic Adjustment could be inaccurate.

These two reports point to an important question for both Cork and Dublin: what are the local factors causing higher than expected sea level rise? Understanding this is key to adjust future climate projections of sea level rise for use in local adaptation.

In the future, tides will continue to rise and fall in line with the orbits of the celestial bodies. The future of storms remains uncertain, but the critical future factor will be mean or average sea level. This will rise as the oceans swell with meltwater from land ice, such as glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and as seawater expands due to warming. While warming waters were the largest single factor in sea level rise in the 20th century, melting land ice is likely to be largest single factor entering the 21st century.

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From RT Six One News, flooding in Cork as Storm Barra hits in December 2021

The 2021 Intergovernmental panel for Climate change report estimates a 1m sea level rise by 2150 under a moderate greenhouse gas trajectory. This would put the floodline of another Storm Eleanor at 2m above the base of the Spanish Arch in Galway. The arch that survived the Lisbon tsunami of 1755 has seen extreme seas before, but the devastation to homes, businesses and places of historical, cultural and personal significance will be severe if this scenario comes to pass.

The estimate of 1m of sea level rise by 2150 will differ depending on the future trajectories of greenhouse gas emissions. These are described by socioeconomic pathways and range from a sea level rise prediction based on a 'green world, up to the scenario that fossil fuel exploitation and usage was to dramatically increase.

Due to the actions being taken globally and locally on climate action, sea level rise based on the highest emission scenario is unlikely. In order to reach that level, high fossil fuel development worldwide throughout the 21st century would be required, whereas action taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions has thankfully already begun.

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From RT Radio 1's Today with Sean O'Rourke in 2019, Prof Peter Thorne from Maynooth University on how Dublin and other coastal cities face devastating floods due to rising sea levels

However, we would also not put forward the green world lowest emission scenario. This would require global emissions to be cut to net zero by 2050, while Ireland and many other countries have not met their pledges on emissions to date. It was found that Ireland was only 7% below 2005 levels despite pledging to be 20% below 2005 levels by the year 2020.

As a result, we consider sea level projections associated with a moderate greenhouse gas trajectory (known as SSP2-4.5) to best represent our current trajectory. This future is yet to be written, though, and better understanding of changing local Irish sea levels that allows effective adaptation in concert with action on climate change will effectively lower the line of future sea level.

Dr Gerard McCarthy is an Associate Professor at the ICARUS climate centre and Department of Geography at Maynooth University. Katherine Dooley is an MSc in Climate Change graduate from Maynooth University. Amin Shoari Nejad is a PhD student in the Hamilton Institute and ICARUS climate centre at Maynooth University. Prof Andrew Parnell is a Professor of Statistics at the Hamilton Institute at Maynooth University. Dr Zoe Roseby is a postdoctoral researcher in Department of Geology at TCD.

The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RT

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Why sea levels are rising higher than expected in Dublin and Cork - RTE.ie

Could China defeat a Great Wall in Reverse? Suppose General David Berger, the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps, gets his way and transforms the corps into an island-hopping, missile-toting force able to transmute the first island chain into a Great Wall in reversea barricade against sea and air movement between the China seas and the Western Pacific. Chinese Communist Party magnates might be deterred for a time from misadventures in the South China Sea, Taiwan Strait, or East China Sea, but they would not meekly acquiesce in their imprisonment within coastal waters. After all, China must take to the high seas to make its dream of national rejuvenation come true. The leadership sees compelling economic, military, and diplomatic reasons to make Chinas weight felt in world affairs.

All of these demand access to the high seas. All demand that Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) commanders devise some way to rupture the allied Great Wall.

What are Beijings options? Well, military overseers must first decide whether to undertake a broad or narrow offensive against the east wall. According to strategist Edward Luttwak, the choice between a broad or narrow offensive is the pivotal choice in theater strategy. In other words, PLA forces could act all along the first island chain more or less simultaneously in hopes of battering down what could be a thinly guarded perimeter. They could disperse forces in space while concentrating multiple offensives at the same time in hopes of scoring a breakthrough somewhere along the line. Coordination among these offensives would be at a premium to ensure they took place at once, preventing island defenders from shifting from side to side to reinforce one another at points of impact.

Or Chinas commanders could leave token forces along the line to fix allied defenders in place, then, probably after feinting somewhere else along the island chain, mass combat power to launch a single massive blow at the wall. They could take advantage of what Carl von Clausewitz calls cordon-warfare, meaning trying to hold a distended line against a foe that enjoys the option of hurling most or all of its might against one sector of the line. Mathematicians describe a line as infinitely many points arranged in succession. That conveys the scope of the problem. Its hard to be stronger than an antagonist at infinitely many points on the map. The attempt stretches and thins out the defense, potentially leaving it inferior to an antagonist at any one point.

That being the case, Clausewitz warns against trying to guard long perimeters. Commanders should keep the line as short as possiblealthough thats not really an option along the first island chain. After all, the islands are where the islands are. If forced to mount such a defense, Clausewitz counsels defenders to make sure they can supply fire support all along the line. This constitutes the difference-maker for sentries patrolling the ramparts. For him fire support meant cannon artillery; today it means ordnance delivered from sea, air, and ground forces, chiefly by guided missiles and other precision armaments.

So the first and paramount decision before PLA commanders and their political masters is: broad or narrow?

Suppose the verdict is to launch a narrow-front offensive while holding elsewhere. The hammer could fall at a number of candidate sites. PLA commanders would need to decide whether to force the straits that allow egress into the Western Pacific, confining the effort to water, or to overrun an island or two overlooking one of the straits. In the ideal case they would opt to seize ground, assuming Beijing were confident in its as-yet-untried capability for amphibious warfare. That would let the PLA harness the logic of island-chain defense, emplacing its own missile-armed forces on the islands to help clear nearby waters and skies of defenders and threaten allied forces elsewhere along the island chain. It would break the chain at least temporarily.

But, as is commonly the case in martial affairs, the circumstances are far from ideal. Two favorite PLA Navy avenues into the Western Pacific are Miyako Strait, flanked by Okinawa to the north, and the Luzon Strait, flanked by Taiwan to the north and the Philippine island of Luzon to the south. Its hard to envision PLA marines storming the beaches of Okinawa, an island that plays home to powerful U.S. and Japanese forces. Invading Okinawa has been tried before, at sanguinary cost to the invaders and defenders. Its also hard to imagine their assaulting Luzon, an island of major dimensions that has witnessed its share of bitter insurgencies over the past century-plus. So Chinese commanders might satisfice by grabbing one island adjoining one of these waterways, or settle for some more distant position that still lies within missile reach of contested waters.

If PLA amphibian forces could punch through the island barrier, they could create what the English soldier B. H. Liddell Hart called an expanding torrent through an enemy defense-in-depth. In other words, the PLA would spill through a breach into the Western Pacific en masse. The danger of expanding-torrent operations for China would be that the allies might close the breach behind PLA sea and air forcespreventing them from returning home to refuel, resupply, and rearm. The prospect of seeing precious assets waste away could give China pause.

Or China could go big, trying to accomplish some of its cherished political aspirations that also carry immense military value. In particular, conquering Taiwan would solve a multitude of problems, including military problems. It would grant the PLA a position overshadowing the Luzon Strait, helping guarantee access to the Pacific for PLA Navy submarines and surface forces, and overshadowing the southern tip of the Ryukyu island chain to Taiwans north. Wresting the Senkaku Islands from Japan would be a distant next-best alternative for Beijing. Still, it would provide the PLA a foothold on the allied Great Wall, bestowing the military benefits of such a redoubt.

In any of these contingencies, on the other hand, the PLA would risk seeing soldiers stranded on Pacific isles should U.S. and allied forces reclaim command of the waters and skies along the first island chain. The specter of such a humiliating turn of events could deter Beijing from acting. It would call Xi Jinpings leadership into question in the court of public opinion, a dangerous thing for any authoritarian ruler. And it would call into question the PLAs image of competence, an image built up and carefully husbanded over the past quarter-century. Rank-and-file Chinese citizens might rally to the flag amid such a crisis; or they might turn against the Chinese Communist regime, potentially with fatal results for Xi & Co.

Attempting a breakout into the Western Pacific, then, promises China the greatest of rewards, but it could have mortal consequences should operations go badly. Its up to allied militaries to design forces, tactics, and operations to ensure that PLA operations would go badly, and to convince Beijing they would. The allies can start by exercising foresightand looking at the problem through Chinese eyes.

Therein lies wisdom.

A 1945 Contributing Editor, Dr. James Holmes holds the J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and served on the faculty of the University of Georgia School of Public and International Affairs. A former U.S. Navy surface warfare officer, he was the last gunnery officer in history to fire a battleships big guns in anger, during the first Gulf War in 1991. He earned the Naval War College Foundation Award in 1994, signifying the top graduate in his class. His books include Red Star over the Pacific, an Atlantic Monthly Best Book of 2010 and a fixture on the Navy Professional Reading List. General James Mattis deems him troublesome. The views voiced here are his alone.

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How China Would Wage War Against the 'Great Wall In Reverse' - 19FortyFive

Right now, right in your backyard, world-class craft breweries are serving up fresh, hand-crafted selections along with diverse food options, and in inviting spaces where people are kicking back, sharing stories, and remembering what community is all about.

Sounds good, right?

That is the bounty of the Coasts amazing craft brewing scenes.

Over twenty-five independent craft breweries (read: small, family & friend-owned businesses where the wares they make, and jobs they create, are all local) sprinkled up and down Highway 1 are breaking liquid bread at nearby tasting rooms, and in doing so, reviving the simple concept of appreciating a well-crafted artisan product while reconnecting with friends and neighbors.

High Seas is one of seven stellar selections included in a Coast Mixed Pack shipping to 33 states via Half Time Beverage (pre-sale starts Monday; watch DrinkBay.Beer)

This April 22-24, were raising a glass to toast members of the Bay Area Brewers Guilds Coast chapter, and celebrate these neighborhood breweries, from Carmel-by-the-Sea to Pacifica.

And word class is no empty praise. At least six have resident brewers whove earned industry accolades for being among the best in the world, with multiple medals over multiple years to prove it: Alvarado Street Brewery, Peter Bs Brewpub, Discretion Brewing Co., New Bohemia Brewing Co., Corralitos Brewing Co. and Pacifica Brewery.

Two of these breweries, Alvarado and Pacifica, are joining Humble Sea Brewing Co. and Other Brother Beer Co. in providing releases for a special Coast Mixed Pack available as a beer box shipping to consumers in 33 states later this month. Pre-sale starts this week for Coast Brewer Weekend (watch DrinkBay.Beer for the announcement)

With such a collaborative bunch, a highlight for the upcoming weekend will be Discretions new IPA release, Cool Cats, certain to be of high pedigree given Hop Dogmas and Pacificas participation.

Discretion is ready for some fun, with live music, a special collaboration release with Hop Dogma and Pacifica, and some -- ahem -- friendly competition.

Cool Cats will be available at Discretion directly (draft and to go) starting Friday, April 22, or make plans around the brewerys other Brewer Weekend events -- its 1st annual ping pong tournament and live music in the beer garden on Sunday, April 24.

More than just the quality of the products, diverse beer styles, and settings for conviviality, local breweries are active in their communities is so many ways. Steel Bonnet, for example, will be doing a fundraiser on Saturday, April 23, for Wings Advocacy, with live music and food from Adobo.

Hop Dogmas yummy cupcake pairing flight includes the award-winning Venti Is Large coffee stout.

Further north, Hop Dogma is pairing cupcakes and a brownie with five selections, including its GABF multi-medal-winner, Venti Is Large coffee stout.

Brewer Weekend listings fully take over Monday at DrinkBay.Beer/Weekend, including highlighting more pairings (like Half Moon Bay Brewing Co. for brunch; Fruition Brewing Co. for oysters and seafood; Brewery Twenty Five for its collaborations with local businesses like roasters and pastry shops; and more), and you can even find some mid-week fun to get warmed up right now (Tuesday Trivia at Pedro Point Brewing Co.; Vinyl Night on Wednesday at Other Brother Beer Co.).

So whether sharing lifes travails or partaking in some friendly competition, come out and raise a glass to your local brewery for Coast Bewer Weekend. Cheers.

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25+ World class breweries on the Cali Coast: Brewer Weekend kicks off April 22 - Lookout Santa Cruz

By Nicholas P. Sullivan 6 minute Read

Commercial fishing, one of the oldest industries in the world, is a stark exception. Industrial fishing, with factory ships and deep-sea trawlers that land thousands of tons of fish at a time, are still the dominant hunting mode in much of the world.

This approach has led to overfishing, stock depletions, habitat destruction, the senseless killing of unwanted bycatch, and wastage of as much as 30% to 40% of landed fish. Industrial fishing has devastated artisanal pre-industrial fleets in Asia, Africa, and the the Pacific.

The end product is largely a commodity that travels around the world like a manufactured part or digital currency, rather than fresh domestic produce from the sea. An average fish travels 5,000 miles before reaching a plate, according to sustainable-fishing advocates. Some is frozen, shipped to Asia for processing, then refrozen and returned to the U.S.

A researcher at the advocacy group Oceana uses GPS data to trace the activity of fishing boats. [Photo: Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images]But these patterns are starting to change. In my new book, The Blue Revolution: Hunting, Harvesting, and Farming Seafood in the Information Age, I describe how commercial fishing has begun an encouraging shift toward a less destructive, more transparent postindustrial era. This is true in the U.S., Scandinavia, most of the European Union, Iceland, New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, the Philippines, and much of South America.

Changes in behavior, technology, and policy are occurring throughout the fishing industry. Here are some examples:

Aquaculture is the fastest-growing form of food production in the world, led by China. The U.S., which has exclusive jurisdiction over 3.4 million square miles of ocean, has a mere 1% share of the global market.

But aquaculture, mostly shellfish and kelp, is the third-largest fisheries sector in the Greater Atlantic region, after lobsters and scallops. Entrepreneurs are also raising finfishincluding salmon, branzino, barramundi, steelhead, eels, and kingfishmostly in large, land-based recirculating systems that reuse 95% or more of their water.

Industrial-scale ocean salmon farming in Norway in the 1990s was largely responsible for the perception that farmed fish were bad for wild fish and ocean habitats. Today this industry has moved to less dense deep-water offshore pens or land-based recirculating systems.

Virtually all new salmon farms in the U.S.in Florida, Wisconsin, Indiana, and several planned for Maine and Californiaare land-based. In some cases, water from the fish tanks circulates through greenhouses to grow vegetables or hemp, a system called aquaponics.

There is heated debate over proposals to open U.S. federal waters, between 3 and 200 miles offshore, for ocean aquaculture. Whatever the outcome, its clear that without a growing mariculture industry, the U.S. wont be able to reduce and may even widen its $17 billion seafood trade deficit.

This kind of progress isnt uniform throughout the fishing industry. Notably, China is the worlds top seafood producer, accounting for 15% of the global wild catch as well as 60% of aquaculture production. Chinese fishing exerts huge influence on the oceans. Observers estimate that Chinas fishing fleet may be as large as 800,000 vessels and its distant-water fleet may include up to 17,000 vessels, compared to 300 for the U.S.

According to a study by the nonprofit advocacy group Oceana using Global Fishing Watch data, between 2019 and 2021 Chinese boats carried out 47 million hours of fishing activity. More than 20% of this activity was on the high seas or inside the 200-mile exclusive economic zones of more than 80 other nations. Fishing in other countries waters without authorization, as some Chinese boats do, is illegal. Chinese ships often target West African, South American, Mexican, and Korean waters.

Most Chinese distant-water ships are so large that they scoop up as many fish in one week as local boats from Senegal or Mexico might catch in a year. Much of this fishing would not be profitable without government subsidies. Clearly, holding China to higher standards is a priority for maintaining healthy global fisheries.

There is no shortage of gloomy information about how overfishing, along with other stresses like climate change, is affecting the worlds oceans. Nonetheless, I believe it bears emphasizing that more than 78% of current marine fish landings come from biologically sustainable stocks, according to the United Nations. And overharvested fisheries often can rebound with smart management.

For example, the U.S. East Coast scallop fishery, which was essentially defunct in the mid-1990s, is now a sustainable $570 million a year industry.

Another success story is Cabo Pulmo, a 5-mile stretch of coast at the southeast end of Mexicos Baja Peninsula. Once a vital fishing ground, Cabo Pulmo was barren in the early 1990s after intense overfishing. Then local communities persuaded the Mexican government to turn the area into a marine park where fishing was barred.

In 1999, Cabo Pulmo was an underwater desert. Ten years later, it was a kaleidoscope of life and color, says ecologist Enric Sala, director of National Geographics Pristine Seas Project, observed in 2018.

Scientists say that thanks to effective management, marine life in Cabo Pulmo has recovered to a level that makes the reserve comparable to remote, pristine sites that have never been fished. Fishing outside of the refuge has also rebounded, showing that conservation and fishing are not incompatible. In my view, thats a good benchmark for a postindustrial ocean future.

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The information age is starting to transform fishing worldwide - Fast Company

The expensive battle to maintain these aging veteran vessels.

BUFFALO, N.Y. Whenever they figure out repairs for the USS The Sullivans, there might be some thought to the future to better protect these ships, including the less fragile and bigger Little Rock. But it will be expensive.

They survived war on the high seas but Mother Nature can really hurt them. A smaller warship like the USS The Sullivans with its three-eighths of an inch thin hull can be affected not just by the river ice, but more-so wind-whipped waves off Lake Erie.

We spoke today with some experts with the Historic Naval Ships Association for their perspectives.

Tim NeSmith is the ship superintendent with the USS Kidd Memorial in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He used this analogy to explain what can happen with a ship like USS The Sullivans. "Think of these ships as your grandmother because they're all about to turn 80 years old, the ones that were built before World War II. So folks who are up in age, their skin begins to get thin and the ship's hulls overtime begin to thin out. Particularly at what we call the latt line where the water - the water line is. You've got all that movement, the winds splashing the waves against it. That area begins to thin out".

With Buffalo's destroyer they are using an adhesive epoxy to seal hull cracks and leaks but it's definitely not a long term fix according to NeSmith and other experts. He says they may also use metal patches but that may require actually moving and towing the ship to put it a drydock, which may not be possible with the ship's condition.

The USS Kidd, a sister ship to USS The Sullivans as a World War II Fletcher class destroyer, is actually better protected in a cradle like dry dock. It's located in the Mississippi River in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and adjustable because the river there goes up and down by 40 feet.

He says the maintenance factor is crucial and difficult with these older ships. "In World War II, the Kidd and Sullivans would have had a crew of 330 people aboard at all times doing maintenance every day. Even if you were a radarman or a cook in your off time they're gonna have you chipping, scraping, painting. So that was a ready made workforce that took care of them all the time. Most museum ships today, if they had a tenth of that they're lucky."

Another in water protection option is a cofferdam used around museum battleships like the North Carolina - with water pumped in and out of a structure surrounding a ship which in this case is much larger than the Sullivans. It was built for $8 million in 2016 by the state of North Carolina.

A similar structure was built in Mobile, Alabama in the 1990s for the battlewagon at the USS Alabama Memorial Park.

The executive director there is Janet Cobb, a retired US Army Major General who says they also made her an "Honorary Admiral." She spoke about the USS Alabama now moored in that cofferdam. "Her keel is actually in about 22 or 24 feet of port sand and mud. A cofferdam was built years ago - I think in the early 1990s. And we also have cathodic protection that helps us try to monitor and prevent a lot of corrosion that eventually does always occur with anything that's in the water."

Cobb says the Historic Naval Ship Association is already offering advice and help to Buffalo. "We do have a lot of resident expertise. Some are retired military. Some are naval engineers. Whether they served or not they've got expertise in handling these ships on the maintenance side and we'll do everything that we can."

Cobb says that association will be reaching out to the Buffalo Naval and Military Park in a more formalized way next week but there have already been some initial conversations.

So would any of these protective structure ideas work in Buffalo? Paul Marzello of the Buffalo and Erie County Naval and Military Park told 2 on Your Side Photojournalist Joseph O'Rourke that there has been some thought about the future for the ships. Obviously the repair is the major task right now. But when asked he said, "A cofferdam is one of the long term solutions that we have looked at. It's a far more expensive option. We are going to look at that and some other options that we have been talking about. Can it be done? Yes. All of it requires money and resources."

We also checked with some government agencies which may have requirements with any construction of "in-water" structures in the vicinity of Lake Erie. The US Coast Guard told 2 On Your Side they would not have any major restrictions provided environmental rules were followed for such structures in the vicinity of the Great Lakes.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation noted that there would probably be a permit process and they were providing assistance at this point.

We also reached out to The US Army Corps of Engineers, which is involved with dredging of ship channels and construction of breakwalls. They have not responded so far.

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Protecting historic ships like USS The Sullivans around the country - WGRZ.com

Romania is moving forward with a plan to open slowed down natural gas projects in the Black Sea as Europe looks for new energy resources to cut dependence on Russia following its attack of Ukraine. The nations ruling coalition has reached an agreement on a long-deferred bill amending the countrys offshore law to help investments and open stalled gas production projects in the Black Sea. The planned changes are set to diminish the progressive taxation brackets and allow larger deductions to spur investments.

A much larger project, the Neptun block operated by OMV Petrom is also poised to move forward. Petrom has said that a final investment decision may be taken early next year, with production starting four years later. The deposit, estimated to hold 100 billion cubic meters of gas, could ensure the nations full independence from Russian supplies.

Lawmakers may fast track the bill after Carlyle-backed Black Sea Oil & Gas SRL said it is ready to start production as soon as the law is in place, with about 1 billion cubic meters of gas expected to be delivered annually. The bill will be submitted for parliament approval on Friday, according to ruling Social Democratic party leader Marcel Ciolacu.

News Summary:

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Assent of the Romanian coalition on the modification of the law to promote the promotion of gas on the high seas - BollyInside

There are some really twisted people out there on the high seas ... because a dead dolphin washed up on a Florida beach, and it had been fatally stabbed in the head.

Beachgoers in Fort Myers stumbled upon the female bottlenose dolphin's dead body late last month ... and there was a gash above the marine mammal's right eye.

It's horrific ... the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says a necropsy shows the dolphin was impaled in the head with a spear-like object while it was still alive.

Even worse, the NOAA says the dolphin appears to have been stabbed while in a begging position ... which is not a natural behavior for dolphins and is commonly associated with illegal feeding.

The dolphin was an adult lactating female ... and NOAA says violent acts towards dolphins are on the rise in the Gulf of Mexico. The feds say this is at least the 27th dolphin since 2002 to wash up on land with evidence of wounds from guns, arrows or sharp objects.

Law enforcement is investigating and asking the public for help finding these scumbags.

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Dolphin Stabbed to Death Washes Up on Florida Beach - TMZ

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WNCN) Two people were rescued from a sailboat off the coast of North Carolina Friday after the mast broke and the boat was drifting in high seas, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The rescue happened in 12-foot seas and 21 mph winds nearly 90 miles southeast of Cape Fear, which is the location of Bald Head Island, the Coast Guard said in a news release.

Two people were in a 34-foot sailboat, named Spin Drift, when the mast broke and the boat began drifting, the news release said.

An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter was sent from Elizabeth City to help the pair.

An HC-130 Hercules airplane was also sent to the scene.

The two people aboard the Spin Drift were hoisted into the MH-60 Jayhawk and taken back to Elizabeth City, according to the news release.

The vessel is now empty and is a possible hazard to other ships, the news release said.

The USCGC Richard Dixon crew, based in Puerto Rico, was 50 miles away, during a voyage to the Coast Guard Yard in Baltimore and diverted to the scene to assist.

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2 rescued after 34-ft sailboats mast breaks and boat begins drifting off NC coast - CBS17.com

There was an abundance of excitement on a beach packed full of people enjoying this Easter Sunday, April 17, as a boat of about 15 meters in length ran aground in front of them. The incident occurred on the beach of Valdelagrana, in the Cadiz municipality of El Puerto.

Beachgoers would surely have been stunned to witness the sailboat approaching the shore without stopping, eventually ending up beached. In videos circulating on social media, the vessel can be seen propped up on its starboard side on the sandy bottom of the beach. It did not appear to have suffered any structural damage though.

Numerous bathers approached the boat offering to be of assistance. A Salvamento Maritimo craft located in Cadiz also arrived on the scene, attempting to free the boat by attaching a rope to try and tow it back out into open water. They had no success with this effort.

As the tide was already going out, further attempts to refloat the vessel were futile. Now, the crew will have to wait patiently for high tide to return so that they can return to the high seas,as reported by lavozdigital.es.

Playa de Valdelagrana, Puerto de Santa Mara, Cdiz, un velero encalla en plena orilla https://t.co/47kEGuWaBU pic.twitter.com/ZeWpbpmXoD

Jos Luis Acedo (@joseluisacedo) April 17, 2022

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Observations

War has come to Europe in Ukraine. It is in the news everyday and opinions, debates, questions, the propaganda war in the media, social media rages. A midst this, a lesson for Europeans, especially young Europeans, is that peace is not always a given. That peace was assured through NATO and the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War and in the post-Cold War was this belief war will never come again. The Coal and Steel Community, the EEC and European Union were the non-military mechanisms bringing former enemies together in peace and with the vision of a peaceful Europe. The military conscription of the Cold War era was the reminder that peace was not given but there were derogations to allow the possibility of the objector of the conscience. Military conscription was folded up in this vision of a never-again war in Europe. This Ukraine War has awaken people and governments.

Now, back to expenditure on arms to reach the objective of 2% of GDP when all this while there was a reluctance to arms procurement in the past, all part of this belief in a peaceful Europe. Wasnt this the case of the Second World War too? Wasnt this short-term thinking? Isnt short-term thinking part of the European mind always pushed forward by crises of some kind in this context of democratic politics. Always reacting.

Turning to Asia, the only countries that has some kind of consistency in making sure that they had some level of arms procurement to have deterrence against its giant neighbor China and that other adversary North Korea were and are South Korea, Japan and Taiwan although it could be said that with Chinas greater expenditures on arms procurement there is a tilting the balance of military power to its favour. The Ukrainian War must have got into the heads of these countries that big Russia is also their neighbor up north if their presence in Brussels for the NATO meetings is any proof. Some would say that they are under American pressure be it true but they are not puppets of the US or manipulated by her to decide on their own their stances on the Ukrainian War.

One could think that the Chinese people evacuated by the Chinese government from Ukraine will be in a position to tell another story of the war back in China against the Chinese propaganda in support of the Russian line. Doubt they could and probably warned not to speak of their experiences of war. Would this be a lesson to the Chinese especially nationalistic young for war over Taiwan as the Chinese mainland will not be immune from Taiwanese attacks. Will there be a realization that war benefits no one, no country? That it is time to give up nationalistic ideology, historical claims for peace. Unless China thinks it can afford to sacrifice millions of Chinese lives out of 1.5 billion people. It will be a Chinese killing Chinese war from the perspective of China. It is an easy way to reduce the population size and people are expendable.

Coming to S.E. Asia, there was clearly no common ASEAN position. Centrality vanished. ASEAN countries were forced to choose between Russia and the US and not US and China in this real instance. Their fleeing diplomats from Ukraine did not influence or sway their home governments to vote UN resolutions opposing Russia. There must also be in their minds this anti-imperialist US which also had and has its history of destruction in South East Asia and in the Middle East and the continuation of this anti-colonial European mindset in play. Singapore had a clear and prompt position for the first UN Assembly resolution but not the second. One could not expect clients of Russian arms like Malaysia to take a stand against Russia. Vietnam as a traditional ally of Russia could not be expected to take a stand against Russia. The focus was not on the sufferings, loss of lives and destruction of Ukraine determining stands taken. The human condition was not decisive and determining but international politics, dependencies and ideology.

The lesson to be drawn is that such a war could also happen in South East Asia. It happened with Vietnam with the French and the Americans. Could it happen over the South China Sea claims opposing big China towards the other smaller South East Asian claimants? An unwarranted, unplanned incident on the high seas could ignite a war. Should not greater encouragement be given to the COC negotiations but on what terms? Big Chinas?? Especially if it forces ASEAN countries to choose China over the US. How will the divided ASEAN countries maintain the line of not being caught between China and the US? Will giving in to Chinas demands in precipitation be the way to have that peace? What compromise can be reached without being caught to choose between 2 big powers? Will this Ukrainian War provide the push to settle the South China Sea issue (s)?

It has always been very clear in my mind of the importance of ASEAN in bringing together the countries of South East Asia to go beyond divisions, conflicting self-interests and it had succeeded until now peace in South East Asia. It will be sad to see war in the South China Sea with the entry of big China into the scene without forgetting big US which has been there since a long time and which the South East Asian countries have long depended for their security, said or unsaid.

The common trait that runs, thinking of Russia and Ukraine and the possible hotspots in Asia connected to big China, is this basal human conditioning of greed, this is mine, this must be part of us, this must be part of my sphere of influence which is also exhibited by the US and Europe even if denied. It seems that since humans became sedentary possession of territory has been the law/principle/norm of the day whether it is house garden or a landmass. The rationalization for this is history. In every case of a hotspot over territory, history has always been brought in for claims. My position is that history explains but it should not be the determinant, the source of a solution for a present day solution to a dispute. It is for the people, the population of the present day to decide what the solution is. Putin or anyone else can come up with the history of Russia and Ukraine but it is the Ukrainians of today who decide if they want to be part of Russia. The same applies to Taiwan. There is a history of Taiwan being a part of China which cannot be denied but it is for the Taiwanese of today to decide if they want to be part of China. It is not for China to lay claims to South East Asia islets, reefs .. with history nor is it for the other claimants also to use history but that this whole area of islets and what else has to be decided by the Law of Sea but if they cannot be settled in this way then all these islets, bits, belong to no country and become parts of the worlds commons. Simple as that. We do not see need to dispute, to go to war to end peace. This is idealistic with the urge to possess and hence it is up to have the encourage, the political will to withdraw claims and let the South China Sea to be part of the worlds common.

Analysts, those who are against American imperialism and past European colonialism and neo-colonialism rightly so never also recognize this basal greed and possession when it comes to the other side of the divide i.e. Russia and China nor for that matter recognize the greed of the US and the European powers. Justice does not come into the picture. Without justice where can there be peace? The analysis is rather on the lines of hegemony, imperialism, balance of power, sphere of influence, Cold War and post-Cold war, history, black and white, evil and good, autocracy versus democracy, a polarization mentality, the other etc. Seldom it is pointed too this human condition of desire, greed, possessive spirit, selfishness which I think is at the core of everything which needs to be overcome, gone beyond, reformed, eradicated. Not to be accepted as natural when the dictum is that change is the only constant and hence what is considered as natural, human nature can change. Hence then the change of mentality to achieve peace not only in the world but in oneself.

I thought that a thought of the human condition has also to come into the picture because on the ground the sufferers of big power politics are ordinary people when war breaks out and the ensuing internal displaced persons or refugees.

*Paul Lim is a pensioned-off academic and out of academia but with this invasion of Ukraine puts on his thinking cap and concludes that humans are just selfish, possessive even if he/she preaches a system of values in hypocrisy and double standards when it comes to a brass-tacks situation.

The rest is here:

The Ukrainian War And South East And North East Asia OpEd - Eurasia Review