XPost: alt.global-warming   
      
   Shell makes $20bn loss as Covid crisis downgrades assets   
   Jillian Ambrose, The Guardian   
   There is continuing coverage of Royal Dutch Shell's financial results   
   for 2020, which were published yesterday morning. The Guardian says   
   the company "plunged to a loss of almost $20bn (£14.7bn) last year   
   after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global oil market   
   stripped about $22bn from the value of its oil and gas assets". The   
   paper continues: "The oil company was forced to write down its assets   
   after a slump in oil and gas market prices, leading the company to a   
   loss of $19.9bn compared with a profit of $15.3bn the year before. The   
   adjusted financial result - which excludes the heavy hit to the value   
   of its assets - fell by more than 80% to a profit of $4.8bn for the   
   year, the company's weakest full-year profits in at least two   
   decades." Despite the 2020 results the oil giant said that it would   
   raise its dividend this quarter, reports the Times, "helping to send   
   shares up by about 1% in early trading". The 4% increase in the   
   dividend will be "the second slight increase since Shell slashed its   
   dividend by two-thirds in the first quarter of 2020, says Reuters -   
   adding that the cut had been the company's first since the second   
   world war. The Evening Standard reports that Shell CEO Ben van Beurden   
   described 2020 as an "extraordinary year", but said the company was   
   ending the year "with a stronger balance sheet, ready to accelerate   
   our strategy and make the future of energy". The Daily Telegraph also   
   has the story.   
   BBC News business correspondent Dominic O'Connell says Shell's results   
   will "quickly be forgotten", noting that "they are largely accounting   
   rather than cash losses, the result of a giant write-down in the   
   future value of the company's oil fields and prospects". However,   
   Bloomberg notes that Shell's results add "to the evidence from its   
   peers that much of the industry is still living beyond its means, even   
   after deep cuts to dividends and spending". And Washington Post energy   
   reporter Will Englund writes that "a promise by the Biden   
   administration to get serious about climate change and growing   
   confidence in a future of all-electric vehicles have started to raise   
   questions about just how viable these companies will be". Ben Marlow,   
   the Daily Telegraph`s chief city commentator, asks how the losses   
   "square with Shell's grand plan to move away from dirty fossil fuels   
   towards green energy and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050?"   
   The answer, he says, "is that it may take a miracle, as investors seem   
   to have recognised - Shell's share price is still roughly a third   
   below pre-pandemic levels". Nevertheless, Axios reports that oil   
   prices hit a 12-month high this week. The Financial Times "Energy   
   Source" column explains that this is down to rising demand and the   
   group of oil producing countries "showing unusual discipline" in   
   complying with its output cuts.   
   Elsewhere in oil news, the Times reports that BP has signed a   
   "strategic co-operation" agreement on carbon management and   
   sustainability with the Russian oil company Rosneft - of which it own   
   20%. The paper continues: "They plan to 'jointly evaluate new projects   
   envisaging the use of renewables and opportunities for carbon capture,   
   utilisation and storage, as well as developments for hydrogen' and   
   will look at opportunities for `natural forest sinks', or planting   
   trees." Environmental campaign NGO Greenpeace described the plan as   
   "nowhere near enough and BP knows it", the paper notes. Bloomberg also   
   has the story. Finally, DeSmog covers a new report that "warns that   
   pipeline construction projects worldwide have put $1tn worth of   
   pipeline investment at risk of being rendered obsolete by the energy   
   transition away from fossil fuels".   
      
   --   
   McKinsey Settles for $573 Million Over Role in Opioid Crisis   
   The New York Times, 04 Feb 2021 02:54Z   
   McKinsey & Company, the consultant to blue-chip corporations and govts   
   around the world, has agreed to pay $573 mn to settle investigations   
   into its ...   
      
   [Conspirisee!]   
   House to Vote Thu on Removing Marjorie Taylor Greene From Committees   
   The New York Times, 04 Feb 2021 03:21Z   
   The vote comes as the top House Republican leader declined on Wed to   
   take any action against Ms. Greene over her past comments. President Biden ...   
      
   UK COVID variant like a 'Category 5 hurricane,' epidemiologist says   
   New York Post, 04 Feb 2021 17:33Z   
   An epidemiologist on Thu compared the highly contagious UK variant of   
   the coronavirus to a "Category 5 hurricane" churning off the coast - as the   
   strain ...   
      
   Giant radio telescope reaches milestone en route to construction start   
   Science Magazine, 04 Feb 2021 14:32Z   
   The Square Kilometre Array has been a dream of radio astronomers for nearly   
   3 decades. Today, the project officially becomes the Square Kilometre Array ...   
      
   New study shows young adults were main drivers of COVID pandemic   
   KRON4, 04 Feb 2021 03:39Z   
   A new study shows that in 2020, young adults were the main drivers of the   
   pandemic.   
      
   Whale that stranded off Florida is completely new species (and already   
   endangered)   
   Livescience.com, 04 Feb 2021 13:39Z   
   A 38-foot-long (11.5 meters) whale that washed ashore in the Florida   
   Everglades in Jan 2019 turns out to be a completely new species. And   
   it's already ...   
      
   WHO team in Wuhan says discussions open, meetings frank   
   The Associated Press, 04 Feb 2021 10:36Z   
   Wuhan, China.  World Health Organization investigators looking for clues   
   into the origin of the coronavirus in the central Chinese city of Wuhan said   
   that ...   
      
   UK launches 'world first' trial mixing different Covid vaccines for first   
   and second doses   
   CNBC, 04 Feb 2021 14:56Z   
   A trial is being launched in the UK to explore whether using different   
   Covid-19 vaccines for the first and second doses works.   
      
   White House offers 'full support' for Trump-era Space Force   
   ABC News, 03 Feb 2021 21:34Z   
   Washington. The White House on Wed offered "full support" for Space   
   Force, a day after the president's chief spokesperson provoked a backlash ...   
      
   US Navy Warship Transits Taiwan Strait for First Time under Joe Biden   
   Newsweek, 04 Feb 2021 13:34Z   
   A US Navy warship sailed through the narrow waterway between China and   
   Taiwan on Thu local time, the first such operation since Democratic   
   President ...   
      
   The Earth's Magnetosphere Might be Creating Water on the Moon   
   Universe Today, 03 Feb 2021 22:30Z   
   There's no doubt that the Moon has water on its surface. Orbiters have   
   spotted deposits of ice persisting in the perpetual shadows of polar craters.   
   And recent ...   
      
   Elevated Radiation Levels Detected in Neutron Reactor Containment Building   
   at NIST in Maryland   
   NBC4 Washington, 04 Feb 2021 04:28Z   
   Elevated radiation levels were detected in the containment building of the   
   research neutron reactor at the National Institute of Standards and   
   Technology in...   
      
   Renewables expected to replace coal by 2033, says Morgan Stanley   
   The Hill, 03 Feb 2021 23:28Z   
   The forecast comes as the Biden administration is aiming to make the US   
      
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   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)