A tiny rainforest country is growing into a petrostate. A US oil company could reap the biggest rewards kyberswap Guyana’s destiny changed in 2015. US fossil fuel giant Exxon discovered nearly 11 billion barrels of oil in the deep water off the coast of this tiny rainforested country. It was one of the most spectacular oil discoveries of recent decades. By 2019 Exxon and its partners US oil company Hess and China-headquartered CNOOC had started producing the fossil fuel.? They now pump around 650000 barrels of oil a day with plans to more than double this to 1.3 million by 2027. Guyana now has the world’s highest expected oil production growth through 2035. This country — sandwiched between Brazil Venezuela and Suriname — has been hailed as a climate champion for the lush well-preserved forests that carpet nearly 90 of its land. It is on the path to becoming a petrostate at the same time as the impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis escalate. While the government says environmental protection and an oil industry can go hand-in-hand and low-income countries must be allowed to exploit their own resources critics say it’s a dangerous path in a warming world and the benefits may ultimately skew toward Exxon — not Guyana. Since Exxon’s transformative discovery Guyana’s government has tightly embraced oil as a route to prosperity. In December 2019 then-President David Granger said in a speech “petroleum resources will be utilized to provide the good life for all … Every Guyanese will benefit.” It’s a narrative that has continued under current President Mohamed Irfaan Ali who says new oil wealth will allow Guyana to develop better infrastructure healthcare and climate adaptation.
Aged 15 New Zealander Sam Ruthe has already run a four-minute mile. He would ‘love to try and qualify’ for the 2028 Olympics paraswap Sam Ruthe had the eyes of thousands on him when he stepped onto a running track in Auckland just over a week ago. Undaunted by the occasion Ruthe went on to become the first 15-year-old to run a sub-four-minute mile even managing a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders as he crossed the finish line. The race was almost entirely engineered for the high school student to break the fabled four-minute barrier – a feat first achieved by Roger Bannister more than 70 years ago – but the weight of running history was a burden that Ruthe seemed to bear lightly. The first three laps he later said in a video documenting the race “felt pretty comfortable – nothing too crazy.” Perhaps the most intimidating part of his achievement occurred when Ruthe returned to school the next day only to be immediately called into the principal’s office. “He’s like ‘Alright so you’re gonna have to go up on stage and we’ll get the whole school to clap you’” Ruthe tells CNN Sports’ Patrick Snell. “It was really scary actually. I headed into class and everyone thought I was famous.” It’s easy to forget given his history-making performance last week that Ruthe is like most other 15-year-olds in New Zealand. He goes to school spends time with his friends and helps with chores around the house. He also just happens to be one of the most exciting middle-distance runners on the planet one of the latest star athletes to emerge from sports-mad New Zealand.
Of course he said yes to coming back to the series which eventually required him to live in Italy for a few months for filming. hop exchange During production White revealed to Gries that Greg is “very sinister.” That became rather irrefutable by the season’s climax which saw Tanya’s demise orchestrated by her now-husband. Come Season 3 Gries had to rewrite Greg’s backstory again this time drawing from some unlikely sources for inspiration like HBO docuseries “The Jinx” about late convicted killer Robert Durst and the case involving the man who came to be known as the Tinder Swindler. Gries said he was struck by Durst’s “kind of seemingly even keel personality” which served as a model for where Greg was headed someone “who doesn’t really show a great deal of emotion doesn’t seem to get too angry just gets a little bit irritated and is dangerous.” “There’s a bridled rage underneath. And those kind of people I find – at least with respect to Gary Greg Gary – fascinating” he said. And yet while searching for an empathetic way back to portraying his character Gries kept wondering if there was anything still redeeming about Greg. An important “wake up moment” came during a decisive conversation he had with White just before filming in Thailand in which the show’s creator said of Greg in no uncertain terms: “He’s a psychopath.” “And that was it. It was like ‘back to the drawing board.’ And it really did help me” Gries said. The penultimate episode of the series will air on Sunday an evening that thanks to “Lotus” and other shows has again become a night of appointment viewing amid a general move away from binge watching. Gries said he appreciates the shift. “We’re a society that in a weird way doesn’t understand the beauty of waiting. The beauty of the space between the notes” he shared. “If I binged ‘White Lotus’ I’d feel like I just ate too many chocolates. It just wouldn’t be the same. You need to process this.” “The White Lotus” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO with the episode available to stream on Max. HBO and Max like CNN are owned by the same parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
Look of the Week: Naomi Watts is twinning with her canine co-star orbiter finance What’s white and black and red all over? Naomi Watts and her 145lb co-star Bing a Great Dane taking a dog walk on the crimson carpet for the New York premiere of “The Friend.” Directed by Scott Mcgehee and adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s 2018 novel of the same name the film — set to release in US theaters on March 28 and in the UK on April 25 — follows a solitary writer and teacher named Iris whose life is upended after a close friend bequeaths his giant pet dog to her following his death. In front of the cameras Monday evening the “Mulholland Drive” actor and Bing looked like they were cut from the same cloth — both in temperament and in their matching black polka dots. Watts was dressed in a white gown with fur-tufted spots that bore a striking resemblance to Bing’s own coat but the Cruella de Vil comparisons ended there. Instead Watts and Bing were captured in the throes of lots of paw-shakes puppy kisses and head scratches. The dress that Watts wore titled the “Domino” and designed by Jacquemus debuted during the Spring-Summer 2025 Paris couture shows in January. The look was both elegant and offbeat with a high-cowl neck and open-back asymmetrical waistline that mimicked a French tuck. It was styled with a skirt that sprouted furry black polka dots which close up were unnervingly reminiscent of body hair. But from afar they gave the impression of soft-edged dabs of watercolor bleeding downstream. The look was styled by Jeanann Williams who has also been working with “The White Lotus” star Leslie Bibb. Williams’ decision to coordinate Watts with Bing was a new take on method dressing — the thematic styling trend that has dominated celebrity red carpets since Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” in 2023. Since then the sartorial trope which connects actors to their on-screen characters through clothes has become somewhat tired — with some observers claiming that the 7-month-long “Wicked” press tour in which Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande became prisoners to the colors green and pink was peak saturation.
‘White Lotus’ villain Jon Gries reveals the true crimes that inspired his twisty take on Greg/Gary fixedfloat exchange When Season 3 of “The White Lotus” premiered last month the shock was palpable when returning character Belinda recognized a familiar face at the resort in Thailand: Greg Hunt the wily suitor of the late Tanya McQuoid. As the season has unfolded Greg played by Jon Gries has emerged as an antagonist particularly after Belinda dove into the investigation surrounding Tanya’s death and learned that Greg who now goes by Gary evaded questioning by authorities. On a show famous for reinventing itself the same has been asked of the actor who says that playing the ever-shifting character has been a welcome challenge and like “White Lotus” itself full of twists. “In the beginning I totally played him for a guy who was you know on his last legs” Gries said in a recent interview with CNN referencing Greg’s very apparent ill health in the first season of “White Lotus” which premiered to rave reviews in summer 2021. He added: “When you play a character you want to find his empathetic side and you want to understand where they came from and what got them to where they are.” But when he was contacted by creator Mike White about appearing in Season 2 Gries realized he would have to adjust his framing of Greg despite having previously imagined a “comprehensive history” for him on his own. “White said ‘I’m writing it right now and I’m writing you and I just need to know here and now: If you’re in I’ll continue writing. If not I’ll stop’” Gries recalled.
Critics say this power imbalance is clear in the 2016 contract Guyana signed with Exxon. Under the agreement Exxon keeps 75 of everything it makes from its oil operations in Guyana with the remaining 25 shared equally between the company and the government which also takes a 2 royalty. lido fi “It was a bad deal” Ali said in the BBC interview but he has rejected the idea of unilaterally changing the agreement which was signed by the previous government. He says the next contract with Exxon will be on different terms. An Exxon spokesperson said the contract is “globally competitive for countries at a similar stage of exploration” and said Guyana is averaging 1 billion a year in “oil profits.” Exxon has also faced a number of lawsuits over its potential environmental impact many filed by Melinda Janki a Guyanese international lawyer who drafted the country’s Environmental Protection Act back in the 1990s. A big victory for Guyana’s people and environment came in 2023 when the court ruled Exxon should have unlimited liability for the costs of any oil spill. Exxon has since appealed the ruling and has posted a 2 billion guarantee while it awaits the appeal outcome. Exxon said this commitment supplements “its robust balance sheets … and the insurance policies they already had in place.” Janki says this isn’t enough. Offshore oil spills can be extremely expensive to deal with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill cost nearly 70 billion to clean up. The push and pull between those who say oil offers Guyana a brighter future and those who fear the industry’s impact will continue. Exxon said it’s had a positive impact on the country including employing more than 6200 people investing more than 2 billion with local Guyanese businesses since 2015 and spending more than 43 million on community projects.
A federal judge on Tuesday afternoon temporarily blocked part of the Trump administration’s plans to freeze all federal aid a policy that unleashed confusion and worry from charities and educators even as the White House said it was not as sweeping an order as it appeared. captcha kra17 cc The short-term pause issued by US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan prevents the administration from carrying through with its plans to freeze funding for “open awards” already granted by the federal government through at least 5 p.m. ET Monday February 3. captcha kra17 cc The judge’s administrative stay is “a way of preserving the status quo” while she considers the challenge brought by a group of non-profits to the White House plans AliKhan said. https kra17 at entry login “The government doesn’t know the full scope of the programs that are going to be subject to the pause” AliKhan said after pressing an attorney for the Justice Department on what programs the freeze would apply to. AliKhan is expected to consider a longer-term pause on the policy early next week. kra28 at The White House budget office had ordered the pause on federal grants and loans according to an internal memorandum sent Monday. Federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance” White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Matthew Vaeth said in the memorandum a copy of which was obtained by CNN citing administration priorities listed in past executive orders. http kra17 cc https://kra27-at.com
В чём заключается накрутка поведенческих факторов Накрутка поведенческих факторов — это умышленное изменение поведения «псевдопользователей» или малоинформированных посетителей с целью обмануть поисковые алгоритмы. Методы могут отличаться но общая идея сводится к тому чтобы поисковая система «подумала» что сайт очень интересен и полезен: тут Повышение CTR в выдаче за счёт организованных массовых кликов по ссылке сайта. Увеличение времени на сайте при помощи ботов которые имитируют просмотр нескольких страниц. Понижение показателя отказов за счёт автоматической или скриптовой навигации: «пользователи» якобы переходят по внутренним ссылкам хотя на самом деле это делают программы. Владельцы сайтов надеются что такой обман приведёт к росту позиций. Но поисковые системы совершенствуют свои алгоритмы чтобы выявлять подобные «нарушения».
A tiny rainforest country is growing into a petrostate. A US oil company could reap the biggest rewards swell Guyana’s destiny changed in 2015. US fossil fuel giant Exxon discovered nearly 11 billion barrels of oil in the deep water off the coast of this tiny rainforested country. It was one of the most spectacular oil discoveries of recent decades. By 2019 Exxon and its partners US oil company Hess and China-headquartered CNOOC had started producing the fossil fuel.? They now pump around 650000 barrels of oil a day with plans to more than double this to 1.3 million by 2027. Guyana now has the world’s highest expected oil production growth through 2035. This country — sandwiched between Brazil Venezuela and Suriname — has been hailed as a climate champion for the lush well-preserved forests that carpet nearly 90 of its land. It is on the path to becoming a petrostate at the same time as the impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis escalate. While the government says environmental protection and an oil industry can go hand-in-hand and low-income countries must be allowed to exploit their own resources critics say it’s a dangerous path in a warming world and the benefits may ultimately skew toward Exxon — not Guyana.
Mist and microlightning solflare To recreate a scenario that may have produced Earth’s first organic molecules researchers built upon experiments from 1953 when American chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey concocted a gas mixture mimicking the atmosphere of ancient Earth. Miller and Urey combined ammonia NH3 methane CH4 hydrogen H2 and water enclosed their “atmosphere” inside a glass sphere and jolted it with electricity producing simple amino acids containing carbon and nitrogen. The Miller-Urey experiment as it is now known supported the scientific theory of abiogenesis: that life could emerge from nonliving molecules. For the new study scientists revisited the 1953 experiments but directed their attention toward electrical activity on a smaller scale said senior study author Dr. Richard Zare the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and professor of chemistry at Stanford University in California. Zare and his colleagues looked at electricity exchange between charged water droplets measuring between 1 micron and 20 microns in diameter. The width of a human hair is 100 microns. “The big droplets are positively charged. The little droplets are negatively charged” Zare told CNN. “When droplets that have opposite charges are close together electrons can jump from the negatively charged droplet to the positively charged droplet.” The researchers mixed ammonia carbon dioxide methane and nitrogen in a glass bulb then sprayed the gases with water mist using a high-speed camera to capture faint flashes of microlightning in the vapor. When they examined the bulb’s contents they found organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds. These included the amino acid glycine and uracil a nucleotide base in RNA. “We discovered no new chemistry; we have actually reproduced all the chemistry that Miller and Urey did in 1953” Zare said. Nor did the team discover new physics he added — the experiments were based on known principles of electrostatics. “What we have done for the first time is we have seen that little droplets when they’re formed from water actually emit light and get this spark” Zare said. “That’s new. And that spark causes all types of chemical transformations.”
A tiny rainforest country is growing into a petrostate. A US oil company could reap the biggest rewards kyberswap Guyana’s destiny changed in 2015. US fossil fuel giant Exxon discovered nearly 11 billion barrels of oil in the deep water off the coast of this tiny rainforested country. It was one of the most spectacular oil discoveries of recent decades. By 2019 Exxon and its partners US oil company Hess and China-headquartered CNOOC had started producing the fossil fuel.? They now pump around 650000 barrels of oil a day with plans to more than double this to 1.3 million by 2027. Guyana now has the world’s highest expected oil production growth through 2035. This country — sandwiched between Brazil Venezuela and Suriname — has been hailed as a climate champion for the lush well-preserved forests that carpet nearly 90 of its land. It is on the path to becoming a petrostate at the same time as the impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis escalate. While the government says environmental protection and an oil industry can go hand-in-hand and low-income countries must be allowed to exploit their own resources critics say it’s a dangerous path in a warming world and the benefits may ultimately skew toward Exxon — not Guyana. Since Exxon’s transformative discovery Guyana’s government has tightly embraced oil as a route to prosperity. In December 2019 then-President David Granger said in a speech “petroleum resources will be utilized to provide the good life for all … Every Guyanese will benefit.” It’s a narrative that has continued under current President Mohamed Irfaan Ali who says new oil wealth will allow Guyana to develop better infrastructure healthcare and climate adaptation.
Aged 15 New Zealander Sam Ruthe has already run a four-minute mile. He would ‘love to try and qualify’ for the 2028 Olympics paraswap Sam Ruthe had the eyes of thousands on him when he stepped onto a running track in Auckland just over a week ago. Undaunted by the occasion Ruthe went on to become the first 15-year-old to run a sub-four-minute mile even managing a nonchalant shrug of the shoulders as he crossed the finish line. The race was almost entirely engineered for the high school student to break the fabled four-minute barrier – a feat first achieved by Roger Bannister more than 70 years ago – but the weight of running history was a burden that Ruthe seemed to bear lightly. The first three laps he later said in a video documenting the race “felt pretty comfortable – nothing too crazy.” Perhaps the most intimidating part of his achievement occurred when Ruthe returned to school the next day only to be immediately called into the principal’s office. “He’s like ‘Alright so you’re gonna have to go up on stage and we’ll get the whole school to clap you’” Ruthe tells CNN Sports’ Patrick Snell. “It was really scary actually. I headed into class and everyone thought I was famous.” It’s easy to forget given his history-making performance last week that Ruthe is like most other 15-year-olds in New Zealand. He goes to school spends time with his friends and helps with chores around the house. He also just happens to be one of the most exciting middle-distance runners on the planet one of the latest star athletes to emerge from sports-mad New Zealand.
Of course he said yes to coming back to the series which eventually required him to live in Italy for a few months for filming. hop exchange During production White revealed to Gries that Greg is “very sinister.” That became rather irrefutable by the season’s climax which saw Tanya’s demise orchestrated by her now-husband. Come Season 3 Gries had to rewrite Greg’s backstory again this time drawing from some unlikely sources for inspiration like HBO docuseries “The Jinx” about late convicted killer Robert Durst and the case involving the man who came to be known as the Tinder Swindler. Gries said he was struck by Durst’s “kind of seemingly even keel personality” which served as a model for where Greg was headed someone “who doesn’t really show a great deal of emotion doesn’t seem to get too angry just gets a little bit irritated and is dangerous.” “There’s a bridled rage underneath. And those kind of people I find – at least with respect to Gary Greg Gary – fascinating” he said. And yet while searching for an empathetic way back to portraying his character Gries kept wondering if there was anything still redeeming about Greg. An important “wake up moment” came during a decisive conversation he had with White just before filming in Thailand in which the show’s creator said of Greg in no uncertain terms: “He’s a psychopath.” “And that was it. It was like ‘back to the drawing board.’ And it really did help me” Gries said. The penultimate episode of the series will air on Sunday an evening that thanks to “Lotus” and other shows has again become a night of appointment viewing amid a general move away from binge watching. Gries said he appreciates the shift. “We’re a society that in a weird way doesn’t understand the beauty of waiting. The beauty of the space between the notes” he shared. “If I binged ‘White Lotus’ I’d feel like I just ate too many chocolates. It just wouldn’t be the same. You need to process this.” “The White Lotus” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. EDT on HBO with the episode available to stream on Max. HBO and Max like CNN are owned by the same parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
Look of the Week: Naomi Watts is twinning with her canine co-star orbiter finance What’s white and black and red all over? Naomi Watts and her 145lb co-star Bing a Great Dane taking a dog walk on the crimson carpet for the New York premiere of “The Friend.” Directed by Scott Mcgehee and adapted from Sigrid Nunez’s 2018 novel of the same name the film — set to release in US theaters on March 28 and in the UK on April 25 — follows a solitary writer and teacher named Iris whose life is upended after a close friend bequeaths his giant pet dog to her following his death. In front of the cameras Monday evening the “Mulholland Drive” actor and Bing looked like they were cut from the same cloth — both in temperament and in their matching black polka dots. Watts was dressed in a white gown with fur-tufted spots that bore a striking resemblance to Bing’s own coat but the Cruella de Vil comparisons ended there. Instead Watts and Bing were captured in the throes of lots of paw-shakes puppy kisses and head scratches. The dress that Watts wore titled the “Domino” and designed by Jacquemus debuted during the Spring-Summer 2025 Paris couture shows in January. The look was both elegant and offbeat with a high-cowl neck and open-back asymmetrical waistline that mimicked a French tuck. It was styled with a skirt that sprouted furry black polka dots which close up were unnervingly reminiscent of body hair. But from afar they gave the impression of soft-edged dabs of watercolor bleeding downstream. The look was styled by Jeanann Williams who has also been working with “The White Lotus” star Leslie Bibb. Williams’ decision to coordinate Watts with Bing was a new take on method dressing — the thematic styling trend that has dominated celebrity red carpets since Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” in 2023. Since then the sartorial trope which connects actors to their on-screen characters through clothes has become somewhat tired — with some observers claiming that the 7-month-long “Wicked” press tour in which Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande became prisoners to the colors green and pink was peak saturation.
‘White Lotus’ villain Jon Gries reveals the true crimes that inspired his twisty take on Greg/Gary fixedfloat exchange When Season 3 of “The White Lotus” premiered last month the shock was palpable when returning character Belinda recognized a familiar face at the resort in Thailand: Greg Hunt the wily suitor of the late Tanya McQuoid. As the season has unfolded Greg played by Jon Gries has emerged as an antagonist particularly after Belinda dove into the investigation surrounding Tanya’s death and learned that Greg who now goes by Gary evaded questioning by authorities. On a show famous for reinventing itself the same has been asked of the actor who says that playing the ever-shifting character has been a welcome challenge and like “White Lotus” itself full of twists. “In the beginning I totally played him for a guy who was you know on his last legs” Gries said in a recent interview with CNN referencing Greg’s very apparent ill health in the first season of “White Lotus” which premiered to rave reviews in summer 2021. He added: “When you play a character you want to find his empathetic side and you want to understand where they came from and what got them to where they are.” But when he was contacted by creator Mike White about appearing in Season 2 Gries realized he would have to adjust his framing of Greg despite having previously imagined a “comprehensive history” for him on his own. “White said ‘I’m writing it right now and I’m writing you and I just need to know here and now: If you’re in I’ll continue writing. If not I’ll stop’” Gries recalled.
Critics say this power imbalance is clear in the 2016 contract Guyana signed with Exxon. Under the agreement Exxon keeps 75 of everything it makes from its oil operations in Guyana with the remaining 25 shared equally between the company and the government which also takes a 2 royalty. lido fi “It was a bad deal” Ali said in the BBC interview but he has rejected the idea of unilaterally changing the agreement which was signed by the previous government. He says the next contract with Exxon will be on different terms. An Exxon spokesperson said the contract is “globally competitive for countries at a similar stage of exploration” and said Guyana is averaging 1 billion a year in “oil profits.” Exxon has also faced a number of lawsuits over its potential environmental impact many filed by Melinda Janki a Guyanese international lawyer who drafted the country’s Environmental Protection Act back in the 1990s. A big victory for Guyana’s people and environment came in 2023 when the court ruled Exxon should have unlimited liability for the costs of any oil spill. Exxon has since appealed the ruling and has posted a 2 billion guarantee while it awaits the appeal outcome. Exxon said this commitment supplements “its robust balance sheets … and the insurance policies they already had in place.” Janki says this isn’t enough. Offshore oil spills can be extremely expensive to deal with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill cost nearly 70 billion to clean up. The push and pull between those who say oil offers Guyana a brighter future and those who fear the industry’s impact will continue. Exxon said it’s had a positive impact on the country including employing more than 6200 people investing more than 2 billion with local Guyanese businesses since 2015 and spending more than 43 million on community projects.
A federal judge on Tuesday afternoon temporarily blocked part of the Trump administration’s plans to freeze all federal aid a policy that unleashed confusion and worry from charities and educators even as the White House said it was not as sweeping an order as it appeared. captcha kra17 cc The short-term pause issued by US District Judge Loren L. AliKhan prevents the administration from carrying through with its plans to freeze funding for “open awards” already granted by the federal government through at least 5 p.m. ET Monday February 3. captcha kra17 cc The judge’s administrative stay is “a way of preserving the status quo” while she considers the challenge brought by a group of non-profits to the White House plans AliKhan said. https kra17 at entry login “The government doesn’t know the full scope of the programs that are going to be subject to the pause” AliKhan said after pressing an attorney for the Justice Department on what programs the freeze would apply to. AliKhan is expected to consider a longer-term pause on the policy early next week. kra28 at The White House budget office had ordered the pause on federal grants and loans according to an internal memorandum sent Monday. Federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance” White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Matthew Vaeth said in the memorandum a copy of which was obtained by CNN citing administration priorities listed in past executive orders. http kra17 cc https://kra27-at.com
В чём заключается накрутка поведенческих факторов Накрутка поведенческих факторов — это умышленное изменение поведения «псевдопользователей» или малоинформированных посетителей с целью обмануть поисковые алгоритмы. Методы могут отличаться но общая идея сводится к тому чтобы поисковая система «подумала» что сайт очень интересен и полезен: тут Повышение CTR в выдаче за счёт организованных массовых кликов по ссылке сайта. Увеличение времени на сайте при помощи ботов которые имитируют просмотр нескольких страниц. Понижение показателя отказов за счёт автоматической или скриптовой навигации: «пользователи» якобы переходят по внутренним ссылкам хотя на самом деле это делают программы. Владельцы сайтов надеются что такой обман приведёт к росту позиций. Но поисковые системы совершенствуют свои алгоритмы чтобы выявлять подобные «нарушения».
A tiny rainforest country is growing into a petrostate. A US oil company could reap the biggest rewards swell Guyana’s destiny changed in 2015. US fossil fuel giant Exxon discovered nearly 11 billion barrels of oil in the deep water off the coast of this tiny rainforested country. It was one of the most spectacular oil discoveries of recent decades. By 2019 Exxon and its partners US oil company Hess and China-headquartered CNOOC had started producing the fossil fuel.? They now pump around 650000 barrels of oil a day with plans to more than double this to 1.3 million by 2027. Guyana now has the world’s highest expected oil production growth through 2035. This country — sandwiched between Brazil Venezuela and Suriname — has been hailed as a climate champion for the lush well-preserved forests that carpet nearly 90 of its land. It is on the path to becoming a petrostate at the same time as the impacts of the fossil fuel-driven climate crisis escalate. While the government says environmental protection and an oil industry can go hand-in-hand and low-income countries must be allowed to exploit their own resources critics say it’s a dangerous path in a warming world and the benefits may ultimately skew toward Exxon — not Guyana.
Mist and microlightning solflare To recreate a scenario that may have produced Earth’s first organic molecules researchers built upon experiments from 1953 when American chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey concocted a gas mixture mimicking the atmosphere of ancient Earth. Miller and Urey combined ammonia NH3 methane CH4 hydrogen H2 and water enclosed their “atmosphere” inside a glass sphere and jolted it with electricity producing simple amino acids containing carbon and nitrogen. The Miller-Urey experiment as it is now known supported the scientific theory of abiogenesis: that life could emerge from nonliving molecules. For the new study scientists revisited the 1953 experiments but directed their attention toward electrical activity on a smaller scale said senior study author Dr. Richard Zare the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor of Natural Science and professor of chemistry at Stanford University in California. Zare and his colleagues looked at electricity exchange between charged water droplets measuring between 1 micron and 20 microns in diameter. The width of a human hair is 100 microns. “The big droplets are positively charged. The little droplets are negatively charged” Zare told CNN. “When droplets that have opposite charges are close together electrons can jump from the negatively charged droplet to the positively charged droplet.” The researchers mixed ammonia carbon dioxide methane and nitrogen in a glass bulb then sprayed the gases with water mist using a high-speed camera to capture faint flashes of microlightning in the vapor. When they examined the bulb’s contents they found organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds. These included the amino acid glycine and uracil a nucleotide base in RNA. “We discovered no new chemistry; we have actually reproduced all the chemistry that Miller and Urey did in 1953” Zare said. Nor did the team discover new physics he added — the experiments were based on known principles of electrostatics. “What we have done for the first time is we have seen that little droplets when they’re formed from water actually emit light and get this spark” Zare said. “That’s new. And that spark causes all types of chemical transformations.”