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Dutch government objects to proposed US law restricting ASML's China exports

Sun, 17 May 2026 03:43:58 +0000

Article URL: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/dutch-government-objects-proposed-us-law-restricting-asmls-china-exports-2026-05-14/

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48163998

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Campaign spending in the 2020 U.S. election

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 07:24:03 +0000

In 2020 U.S. Senate races where...

Democrats

outspent their opponents, they

won 13 races

Republicans

outspent their opponents, they

won eight races

... and lost nine.

... and lost zero.

In 2020 U.S. Senate races where...

Democrats

outspent their opponents, they

won 13 races

Republicans

outspent their opponents, they

won eight races

... and lost zero.

... and lost nine.

In 2020 U.S. Senate races where...

Democrats

outspent their opponents, they

won 13 races

Republicans

outspent their opponents, they

won eight races

... and lost nine.

... and lost zero.

In 2020 U.S. Senate races where

Democrats

outspent their opponents, they

won 13 races

... and lost nine.

But when

Republicans

outspent their opponents, they

won eight races

... and lost zero.

Financial Sinkholes

Democrats spent hundreds of millions of dollars on Senate races that they ended up losing. Whether they can regain control of the Senate now hangs on a pair of runoffs in Georgia.

The 2020 U.S. election cost nearly $14 billion, making it the most expensive campaign in U.S. history, according to projections made by the Center for Responsive Politics. That total, which includes spending on races for the White House, the Senate and the House, is double the amount candidates spent during the last presidential election cycle. Overall, candidates spent around $7 billion on congressional races this year.

According to the Federal Election Commission, candidates who made it past their primaries spent a little over $2.2 billion, split evenly between candidates for the 435 House seats and those running for the 35 Senate seats up for election this year.

Democrats outspent Republicans in races for both the House and the Senate, but in the Senate, the difference in spending was stark. Democrats ran up a $280 million advantage, 64% more than Republican candidates’ total spending.

HOUSE CANDIDATE SPENDING

$529 million

$604 million

Spent $75M more

than Republicans

SENATE

$435 million

$716 million

$280M more

HOUSE CANDIDATE SPENDING

$529 million

$604 million

Spent $75M more

than Republicans

SENATE

$435 million

$716 million

$280M more

Despite that huge financial advantage, Democrats, who needed to pick up four seats to win an outright majority in the Senate, managed to net only one. They flipped seats in Arizona and Colorado, but lost their seat in Alabama, which Doug Jones had held since winning a special election in 2017.

In Senate races where Republicans outspent their Democratic rivals, they won every time. Democrats won just over half the races in which they outspent their Republican opponent.

SENATE CANDIDATE SPENDING

Won

Lost

$79M

$106M

$75M

Mark Kelly

flipped Arizona

South Carolina

Jaime Harrison

Kentucky

Amy McGrath

SENATE CANDIDATE SPENDING

Won

$79M

Mark Kelly

flipped Arizona

Lost

$106M

$75M

Kentucky

Amy McGrath

South Carolina

Jaime Harrison

The biggest sinkholes

The two most expensive races Democrats lost were against longtime Republican incumbents in Kentucky and South Carolina. The contests against the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, and Lindsey Graham, respectively, gained national attention and were funded by large-dollar contributions of $200 or more that overwhelmingly came from out of state.

In-state

Democrats

Ky.

97% out-of-state contributions

S.C.

93%

81%

Dem. Senate average

republicans

Ky.

90%

S.C.

86%

67%

Rep. average

In-state

Democrats

Ky.

97% out-of-state contributions

S.C.

93%

81%

Dem. Senate average

republicans

Ky.

90%

S.C.

86%

67%

Rep. average

A Republican strategist involved in several key races said the scale and out-of-state nature of Democratic fundraising helped Republicans drive home their argument that Democratic candidates were in league with national political figures such as Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Both Democratic challengers – Amy McGrath in Kentucky and Jaime Harrison in South Carolina – spent more than double the dollars per vote compared to their opponents.

Kentucky

Amy McGrath

$92

PER VOTE

Mitch McConnell

$34

PER VOTE

South Carolina

Jaime Harrison

$95

PER VOTE

Lindsey Graham

$44

PER VOTE

Despite the nearly $200 million Democrats spent on these two races – more than a quarter of what they spent on all Senate races – both Harrison and McGrath failed to significantly trim their opponents’ winning vote margins.

Harrison shattered U.S. Senate campaign fundraising records this year, amassing a stunning $109 million to unseat Graham. He spent $106 million on the race, whereas Graham spent just $60 million. Despite pre-election polls showing the candidates running neck-and-neck, Harrison still lost by more than 10 percentage points.

McGrath, who boasted a $32 million advantage in Kentucky, lost to McConnell by 20 points, the largest loss for Democrats in that race since 2002.

Mitch McConnell

Senate races against Mitch McConnell for Kentucky U.S. Senate seat

Won 40%

of votes

50%

60%

1984

Amount of

spending

+0.4

$5M

$1M

’90

’96

+13

’02

+30

’08

’14

+15

+20 pt.

vote margin

for McConnell

McGrath

37% of votes

McConnell

57% of votes

’20

$43M

Spent $75M

Mitch McConnell

Senate races against Mitch McConnell for Kentucky U.S. Senate seat

Amount of

spending

Spent $43M

$5M

$1M

Won 60%

of votes

ー

McConnell

57% of votes

+20 pt.

vote margin

for McConnell

50%

+0.4

+13

+30

+15

ー

40%

ー

McGrath

37% of votes

$75M

1984

1996

2002

2008

2020

1990

2014

LINDSEY GRAHAM

Senate races against Lindsey Graham for South Carolina U.S. Senate seat

$60M

Won 60%

of votes

ー

Graham

54% of votes

+10 pt.

50%

+10

+15

+17

ー

Harrison

44% of votes

40%

ー

Dem. candidate Bob Conley spent just $15,202

$106M

2002

2014

2020

2008

LINDSEY GRAHAM

Senate races against Lindsey Graham for South Carolina U.S. Senate seat

Won 40%

of votes

50%

60%

2002

+10

Dem. Bob Conley spent just $15,202

’08

+15

’14

+17

+10 pt.

’20

Harrison

44% of votes

Graham

54% of votes

$60M

$106M

Georgia: Democrats’ last chance

Even though the big spending in Senate races during this year’s general election did not win them an outright majority, Democrats still have one last chance to edge control of the chamber by picking up both of the two Georgia Senate seats that will be decided in a runoff election on Jan. 5.

Republican Senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue face challenges from Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff.

Senate Democrats are already calling on their supporters to funnel campaign contributions to the two Georgia candidates, as the balance in the Senate and the chance for a Democratic sweep of Congress and the White House comes into view. As of Nov. 24, both Democratic candidates had amassed at least $4.5 million in donations through ActBlue, the leading Democratic fundraising platform, with contributions likely to pile in over the next few weeks.

In Georgia, Democrats have another shot to prove that big spending can lead to big upsets in the Senate, while Republicans likely have to survive another onslaught of out-of-state spending to hold onto their seats.

Note

Georgia, Louisiana and Alaska are omitted from the top graphic because Georgia Senate races resulted in runoffs; there was no Democratic candidate for the Senate in Alaska; and multiple Democratic and Republican candidates ran for the Senate in Louisiana.

Only congressional candidates who ran in the 2020 general election are included in the data. Candidates who lost in the primaries are excluded.

Senate voting data as of Nov. 10, 2020. Campaign finance data cover the period from Jan. 1, 2019 to Oct. 14, 2020.

Sources

Federal Election Commission; Edison Research for the National Election Pool; MIT Election Data and Science Lab; Center for Responsive Politics

Edited by

Jon McClure

Reuters journalist Issam Abdallah killed by Israeli tank, investigation finds

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 19:27:09 +0000

The Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), an independent research institute that tests and analyses munitions and weapons for clients such as the Dutch defence ministry, examined the material for Reuters at its laboratories in The Hague.

TNO’s key findings were that the large piece of metal was the tail fin of a 120 mm tank round fired by a smoothbore tank gun positioned 1.34 km away from the reporters, across the Lebanese border.

Reuters presented the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) with its findings that the tank rounds were fired from within Israel and posed additional detailed questions, including whether Israeli troops knew they were firing upon journalists.

Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hecht, the IDF’s international spokesman, said: “We don’t target journalists.” He did not provide further comment.

The group of seven reporters from AFP, Al Jazeera and Reuters were all wearing blue flak jackets and helmets, most with “PRESS” written on them in white letters. There were journalists from at least another seven media outlets in and around Alma al-Chaab that day.

“The evidence we now have, and have published today, shows that an Israeli tank crew killed our colleague Issam Abdallah,” Reuters Editor-in-Chief Alessandra Galloni said.

“We condemn Issam’s killing. We call on Israel to explain how this could have happened and to hold to account those responsible for his death and the wounding of Christina Assi of the AFP, our colleagues Thaier Al-Sudani and Maher Nazeh, and the three other journalists,” she said. “Issam was a brilliant and passionate journalist, who was much loved at Reuters.”

‘Inexplicable and unacceptable’

AFP said the evidence assembled by Reuters confirmed its own analysis of the incident.

“It is absolutely essential that Israel provides a clear explanation for what happened. The targeting of a group of journalists who were clearly identified as media is both inexplicable and unacceptable,” said AFP Global News Director Phil Chetwynd.

Al Jazeera's manager of international communications, Ihtisham Hibatullah, said: "The Reuters investigation into the October 13 attack underscores Israel's alarming pattern of deliberately targeting journalists in an attempt to silence the messenger.”

International humanitarian law bars attacks on journalists as those in the news media have the full scope of protection granted to civilians and cannot be considered military targets.

In the days after the attack, Israel’s military said it was reviewing what had happened, but it has not made any findings public.

International criminal law expert Carolyn Edgerton, who has worked on war crimes cases in the Balkans, said filming Israeli tank positions at the border might have been considered a threat to the Israeli military, if that information was seen to “be of targeting value to forces in Lebanon”.

But she said in written responses to Reuters questions that two back-to-back rounds fired at a group of clearly identified journalists “is a clear violation of international humanitarian law and may also amount to the war crime of attacking civilians”.

Directly targeting civilians or civilian objects is strictly forbidden under the laws of armed conflict, such as the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which have been ratified by all U.N. member states. Neither Israel nor Lebanon are signatories to the International Criminal Court, whose 124 member states accept its jurisdiction in the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

Shells hit 37 seconds apart

The attack was the first of two deadly strikes in the space of six weeks on reporters in Lebanon covering clashes between the Israeli military and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants along the border in the wake of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas.

Two journalists from Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen were killed by a strike on Nov. 21 as they filmed near the border with Israel. Al Mayadeen blamed the IDF for their deaths. The Israeli military said in a statement it was a dangerous area to be in because of “active hostilities”.

Since the Gaza war started, Israeli forces and Hezbollah have traded fire on an almost daily basis across the border - known as the U.N. Blue Line, because it was demarcated to mark the point to where Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000.

On Oct. 13, reports of armed fighters attempting to infiltrate into Israel from Lebanon and subsequent cross-border shelling drew reporters from at least 10 Lebanese and foreign news organisations - including Italian broadcaster Rai, German daily Die Welt and the Associated Press - to the area in and around Alma al-Chaab.

A Reuters team of three drove with two colleagues from AFP to a spot to the east of the village where Al Jazeera had been broadcasting a live feed of the border earlier that day.

Russian land mines pose a persistent and deadly threat in Ukraine

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:25:16 +0000

What lies beneath

Land mines left by Russian forces in Ukraine pose a deadly threat to Kyiv's military - and civilians in liberated territory.

As Ukrainian forces slowly push ahead with their 2023 counteroffensive after more than a year of shifting battle lines, the country’s military and civilians face a deadly problem: land mines, potentially hundreds of thousands of them, scattered across roads, buried in fields and concealed in devastated cities.

There are new, advanced types that can sense movement or destroy vehicles from hundreds of meters away. Most common, however, are older, simple weapons that were produced in the tens of millions and fill the armories of both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries.

Reuters interviewed four humanitarian demining organizations and two military experts and examined technical surveys by mine-clearance groups of unexploded ordnance in Ukraine to reveal mine contamination so vast that it is most likely unprecedented in the 21st century.

Russia occupied the shaded area as of March 31, 2022, over a month after the initial invasion.

There were 19 civilian land mine accidents by this time, according to data from HALO Trust.

By Aug. 30, areas of Russian occupation were concentrated in eastern Ukraine and the number of civilian incidents had increased sharply to 141.

By June 2023, Russian troops had retreated from several major areas, which had become sites of increased land mine activity.

Because the conflict is ongoing, “there has been no empirical way to determine the area that has been contaminated” or the degree of contamination, said Mark Hiznay, associate arms director at Human Rights Watch. “Whatever the largest category you want to create, call it large, very large, severe, extreme… (Ukraine) would be in that category.”

Land mines have proved a formidable obstacle for Ukraine’s military, bogging down assaults during its counteroffensive and disabling armored vehicles. Minefields in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts have required large-scale combat engineering efforts, a difficult endeavor for even the best-equipped militaries.

As a result, Ukrainian forces have been forced to proceed at a deliberate pace, attacking Russian artillery and other fire support before attempting to create assault lanes with mine-clearing line charges and armored vehicles with plows.

Militaries and humanitarian deminers use vastly different methods for mine decontamination, so even after Ukraine’s armed forces clear lanes through minefields and recapture territory, the risk to civilians persists – and may continue for decades.

Fatal incidents

Civilian mine accidents by type of mine, according to data from HALO Trust.

A chart showing the number of fatalities in civilian mine accidents, by type of mine. On average, anti-vehicle mines caused more incidents with multiple fatalities than anti-personnel mines did.

“There are still communities interacting with (mines) every day… because they have to, as a matter of livelihood,” said Adam Komorowski, regional director for Eastern Europe, South America and the Caribbean at humanitarian deminer Mines Advisory Group. “Do I go out and take the risk that I might come across an explosive device? Or do I simply decide to not plant or harvest crops? Either way you’re making a horrific choice.”

THE WEAPONS

One of the most common types found in the Ukraine war is the PFM-1 anti-personnel mine, known colloquially as a butterfly mine, which has a plastic body about the size of a paperback book. With only 37 grams (1.3 ounces) of explosives, according to Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) documents, it is not meant to create a large blast. Rather, when a person steps on one of the mine’s “wings,” it detonates in an explosion big enough to maim.

PFM-1

These devices, known colloquially as butterfly mines, can be mistaken for harmless objects.

Illustrations showing how PFM1 anti-personnel mine works.

Used widely by the Soviet Union during its invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s, such mines can be scattered by hand, by aircraft or by rocket artillery. Metal detectors can sense their metal parts, but the mines’ odd shape and size mean that they can lie unnoticed for years, and civilians can mistake them for harmless objects.

“They are very dangerous, especially for civilian populations,” said Tymur Pistriuha, head of the Ukrainian Deminers Association. “It is like a leaf… it is green. In grass it is difficult to identify this.”

The POM-3 anti-personnel mine, by contrast, is a new design that does not need to be touched to detonate. It also can be scattered by aircraft, rockets and artillery, righting itself after landing with small mechanical “petals”. The mine, about the size and shape of a soft-drink can, inserts a small probe into the ground. When the probe detects vibration – for instance, footsteps nearby – it launches the main mine 1 to 1.5m into the air, according to GICHD documents. At that point, the 100g explosive payload detonates, spraying deadly metal fragments. Because these mines are dangerous to even approach, one way to safely disable them is to shoot them from a distance, Hiznay said.

POM-3

This anti-personnel mine does not need to be touched to detonate.

Illustrations showing how POM-3 anti-personnel mine works.

Anti-vehicle mines are also prevalent in Ukraine. Among the most numerous is the TM-62 series, which both the Russian and Ukrainian militaries have deployed. They can be placed on the surface or buried in shallow holes. The TM-62M is older and has a metal body, making it easier to detect, according to GICHD; the TM-62P3 has a plastic body. Both contain 6.5 to 7.5 kg (14 to 16.5 pounds) of high explosives designed to blast upward through the weaker belly armor of a vehicle.

TM-62 series

This mine, deployed by both Russia and Ukraine, is designed to destroy vehicles.

Illustrations showing how TM-62 anti-vehicle mine works.

If a pressure fuze is installed, 150 kg of mass on the fuze is required to trigger it. Magnetic-influence fuzes sense any metal containing iron, such as steel, and detonate when it passes a certain threshold.

The German-designed PARM mine — short for Panzerabwehrrichtmine — is concealed near places where enemy vehicles are expected to pass. When it is triggered via a tripwire, infrared sensor or remote command, it fires a high-velocity rocket with roughly 2 kg of explosives shaped to blast through a vehicle’s armor. The Ukrainian military received more than 1,500 of them from Germany in 2022.

PARM

When triggered, this mine fires a rocket to pierce the armor of passing vehicles.

Illustrations showing the various parts of a PARM mine.

Illustrations showing how PARM mines detect targets and are triggered.

GICHD has documented at least 12 types of anti-personnel mines and nine types of anti-vehicle mines in use in Ukraine. Andro Mathewson, global research officer for HALO Trust, a humanitarian demining organization, said the group’s experts had found at least 10 new types of modern mines, including the POM-3 and PARM series, in Ukraine.

The Ukraine war “is the first one I have worked in where we are dealing with a developed nation superpower as one of the present combatant armies”, Komorowsi said, referring to Russia. The “last time you had a nation of that power using land mines on any kind of industrial scale” was the Soviet Union in Afghanistan four decades ago, he said.

THE MINEFIELDS

Militaries typically plan and map out minefields so that their own forces know where the danger is. That can make humanitarian demining easier. In Ukraine, most such minefields are around the line of contact, which runs through the country’s east from the border with Russia about 150 km east of Kharkiv, south and west through Zaporizhzhia oblast to just south of Kherson city near the Black Sea coast. The line is thousands of kilometres long and the number of minefields along it has not been determined, Hiznay said.

“In the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi defensive zones the U.S. Army breached through were 2 to 5 kilometres deep,” with tens of thousands of mines per minefield, said Mick Ryan, a retired major general in the Australian Army and a combat engineer. “What the Russians have done in the south in particular might approach something like that … we are talking in the hundreds of thousands at a minimum.”

In places where Ukraine has recaptured territory, the level of mine contamination is better understood. Formerly occupied towns in Kyiv; Sumy, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv oblasts all saw a large number of mines, especially anti-personnel mines, left in place, Mathewson said.

Left:Top: An unexploded Grad rocket is embedded in a field near the city of Kherson, Ukraine. January 28, 2023. REUTERS/Nacho Doce.
Right: Bottom: An anti-tank mine is seen in a village recently retaken by Ukraine near the front line in the Donetsk region. July 8, 2023. REUTERS/Sofiia Gatilova

That creates a situation where “everything is dangerous”, Pistriuha said.

“For example, we are still in liberated areas forbidden to go into forests during mushroom season,” he said. “Our authorities do not allow people to go into the forest to pick mushrooms, because it is still not clear of mines.”

Hiznay and Komorowski said anti-personnel mines and improvised booby traps presented a huge risk to civilians in these areas.

Nonetheless, most of the reported civilian land-mine injuries since the invasion have been related to anti-tank mines, Mathewson said. Between February 2022 and May 2023, HALO trust data show, 855 civilians were reported hurt or killed in 550 mine-related accidents.

“The most dangerous thing you can really do right now in Ukraine is drive on an unpaved road,” he said. “If you think about an anti-tank mine that is designed to take the treads off or disable a 30-ton tank, you can imagine what it does to a 2-ton car.”

THE REMOVAL

Mines’ military purpose is to hinder enemy movement, forcing vehicles and troops to avoid certain areas, spend time clearing mines or risk crippling casualties. “Kill and maim enemy soldiers — at heart, that’s what these things do,” Ryan said. Over the winter, Russian forces repeatedly assaulted the Ukrainian city of Vuhledar, but the attacks were stalled by anti-vehicle mines, said Ryan and Jack Watling, senior research fellow for land warfare at Royal United Services Institute.

Armies don’t clear all mines when they advance. Instead they create lanes through which offensive forces can assault enemy positions, Watling said. Because of that, he said, they can use tools that are faster and more destructive, such as “line charges” – ropes of explosives that are fired into a minefield and detonated, triggering mines.

The faster that process is, the less time the assaulting force will be exposed to enemy fire, he said.

Clearing a path

Ropes of explosives are fired into a minefield and detonated, triggering mines.

Illustrated graphic explaining how line charges work.

“The problem is not the mine,” Watling said. “The mines are an unpleasant harassing capability that can be dealt with if you have time. It’s mines covered with (enemy) fire — that is the problem.”

Watling and Ryan said other methods, such as plows or rollers mounted on armored vehicles, could also be used depending on circumstances. Military minefields almost always contain a mix of anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines to prevent infantry from advancing on foot.

Humanitarian demining is more painstaking. First, in cooperation with mine-action authorities in the country in question, workers will do a non-technical survey to learn about levels of contamination. That involves talking to communities, learning what they have seen, heard and experienced, and sifting through reports and records of battles and emplacements, Komorowski and Pistriuha said. Demining workers adhere to the International Mine Action Standards, a United Nations framework developed in the mid-1990s, augmented with national standards of the country in which they are operating.

Using survey information, experts will create polygons on a map showing areas of focus, Hiznay said. The next step is a technical survey, which involves searching for the edges of minefields using equipment such as ground-penetrating radar and metal detectors. Dogs and rats can be trained to detect the explosives in mines, the demining experts said. Surveyors mark the edges of the minefields and note what types of devices may be there.

A sapper of the State Emergency Service inspects an area for mines and unexploded shells in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine on March 21, 2023. REUTERS/Viacheslav Ratynskyi

At that point demining begins, with a priority placed on areas that are important to the local population, such as agricultural fields, water sources, urban areas and roads. There are two general types of clearance, Komorowski said, both involving highly trained workers in protective gear.

“One, no-touch mines. If you find those, you blow them in situ,” he said. “Two, a conventional anti-personnel mine is generally activated by pressure on the top. If you excavate it from the side and safely remove it and unscrew the fuze… you remove the explosive and it’s just an inert bit of plastic and metal.”

Once that is finished, before land is handed over for safe civilian use, “quality control” will be performed using different mine-detecting methods, he said.

Demining vehicles

Depending on configuration, topography, and soil type, these machines can clear soil 20 to 30 cm deep.

Illustrations showing how demining vehicles work.

THE FUTURE

The destruction in June of the Nova Kakhovka dam and resulting flooding in southern Ukraine has most likely displaced many mines along the Dnipro River’s left bank, creating more danger, HALO trust said.

Ukraine is a signatory to the 1997 Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, and had been destroying its anti-personnel mines when the war began. Human Rights Watch reported in January that it had found evidence that rocket-scattered PFM-1 mines had been used against Russian forces in Izium; Ukraine's foreign ministry said at the time that the country’s forces strictly adhered to the convention and that the report would be “properly analyzed by the relevant institutions”. Ukraine’s foreign ministry did not respond to a recent request for comment.

Russia, which is not a signatory, has widely used anti-personnel mines. Russia’s defence ministry did not respond to a written request for comment.

Militarily, Ukraine’s counteroffensive is trying to punch through Russian minefields. On the humanitarian side, non-technical surveying has begun, but working near the front is impossible. For now, demining organisations are trying to help civilians avoid danger and restore normalcy to everyday life.

“The scale of tragedy is tremendous,” said Pistriuha, who is from Kyiv. “That’s why we cannot solve this problem just by ourselves. Only the world community, our partners, can help us with support for humanitarian demining.”

Opening illustration by

Adolfo Arranz

Sources

HALO Trust; Armtrac; Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining; Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.

Edited by

David Crawshaw and Simon Scarr

Sea drones, missile strikes and blockade: Ukraine's counteroffensive in Crimea

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 15:25:15 +0000

Ukraine War Analysis

Sea drones and the counteroffensive in Crimea

On Thursday, Russia reported its forces had repelled a Ukrainian drone attack on its warships in the Black Sea. The attack comes days after Ukrainian forces targeted the Crimean Bridge and a number of other unspecified targets on the Crimean peninsula in a flurry of rocket and drone attacks, according to Russia's Defence Ministry.

The reports highlight Ukraine’s counteroffensive in Crimea, which is being mostly waged through drone and long-range missile strikes.

Damage following an alleged attack on the Crimean Bridge that connects Russia with occupied Crimea, July 17, 2023. Сrimea24tv/Handout via REUTERS.

In the Black Sea, Ukraine has opened a new era of naval warfare by employing suicide sea drones — drones armed with explosives designed to ram into targets and detonate.

“Ukraine has employed explosive uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) as formidable weapons against Russian fleets and even infrastructure”, said Scott Savitz, a senior analyst of the research organisation RAND Corporation.

According to Savitz's analysis, the ability of seafaring drones to carry large explosive payloads and strike at the waterline of ships makes them more dangerous than aerial weapons like missiles and bombs. The drones’ relatively low cost also allows Ukraine to stage attacks with large numbers, which are difficult to detect by Russian warships despite their scale.

Ukraine has employed explosive uncrewed surface vessels as weapons against Russian fleets and infrastructure.

In 2022, President Zelenskiy launched a fundraising campaign to build a fleet of naval drones to protect Ukrainian cities against Russian missile strikes launched from ships in the Black Sea.

The attack on Sevastopol harbour

According to Moscow, on Oct. 29, 2022, Ukraine used naval drones to attack Russian warships in the port of Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. The attack did not sink any ships, but it compelled Moscow to build up defences in Crimean ports and discouraged them from sailing warships beyond the protection of the port’s defences.

On October 29, 2022, Ukraine used naval drones to attack Russian warships in the port of Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Investment in security and camouflage

These repeated attacks using naval drones have forced Russia to build up the security at the entrance to the military port of Sevastopol and around its warships based there. Measures include the addition of nets, pontoons and barriers, as well as the deployment of dolphins trained to detect enemy divers.

Ukrainian repeated attacks have forced Russia to build up the security at the entrance to the military port of Sevastopol.

According to H. I. Sutton, an independent defence analyst, Russia is also attempting to camouflage its warships by painting the bow and stern in dark colours. This technique — which hearkens back to World War One “dazzle” camouflage, designed to disguise a ship’s heading and speed at sea — aims to confuse modern operators of suicide drones and satellites and prevent them from easily identifying important ships. According to Sutton, all these measures demonstrate that “the Russian Navy takes the maritime drone threat seriously.”

Russia is also attempting to camouflage its warships by painting the bow and stern in dark colours.

Crimea counteroffensive strategy

While he's been reticent about Ukraine's goals for their ongoing counteroffensive, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Ukraine's forces will not rest until Crimea is brought back under Ukrainian control.

Moscow has made clear that Crimea must be held at all costs.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made several visits to the peninsula throughout the war to underscore his claim that Crimea is Russian soil. (After the last major attack on the Crimean Bridge, he drove across it in a Mercedes to prove it safe.) Former president and security council deputy chair Dmitry Medvedev has said that Russia could use nuclear weapons to defend the peninsula if Ukraine or NATO threatened to wrest it out of Russian hands.

Crimea houses the main base for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet at Sevastopol and supply lines for Russian forces occupying southern areas in mainland Ukraine. Kyiv could be seeking to cut off Russian forces in Crimea and make Moscow’s occupation untenable.

The Crimean Peninsula is connected to Russian-occupied southern Ukraine through just three vulnerable main roads that pass through swampy areas. The Crimean Bridge is the only link directly to Russia. The Russian army's main advantage lies in its naval strength, but Ukraine has discovered a way to block it.

Crimea’s unique geography could enable Ukraine to blockade it both by land and sea.

Water in Crimea

Crimea has historically relied on the North Crimean Canal, flowing in from the Ukrainian mainland, for up to 85% of the water it needs for crop irrigation, industry and drinking water. But that canal, like irrigation canals across a wide swathe of southern Ukraine, was fed from the reservoir above the Nova Kahkhovka dam, which was destroyed in June.

Ukraine and Russia blame the other for destroying the dam, which inundated territory on both sides of the river that divides their forces. The Russian-backed head of Crimea warned the peninsula could face a potentially serious threat to Crimea’s water supply in time.

Ukraine had earlier blocked the canal after Russia's 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea, which led to severe water shortages. Before the war, Russian President Vladimir Putin held frequent meetings on Crimea's water problems, trying to devise plans — from drilling wells to building desalination plants — that would allow the peninsula to become fully autonomous when it came to water.

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Life in occupied Crimea

According to Yevheniia Horiunova, Associate Professor of V.I. Vernadsky Taurida National University in Kyiv, daily life in Crimea has changed dramatically since Russian occupation. The overall population of the peninsula has decreased by 25-28%, the birth rate has fallen by 24%, average earnings have declined and more than 40% of companies in Crimea are unprofitable.

Russia touts significant investments made in the area, but with much of the money going to signature infrastructure projects like the Crimean Bridge and the rest to sustain Russian military forces in the peninsula, living standards for locals fall well below the Russian average.

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Tourism once accounted for about a quarter of Crimea’s economy, but the downturn since Russia began its war against Ukraine has hurt many of the region’s small businesses, with many relying on direct government support schemes.

Swallow's Nest castle overlooking the Black Sea outside the Crimean town of Yalta. March 28, 2014. EUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov.

St. Michael the Archangel Church in the hills overlooking the Crimean town of Yalta. March 11, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Peter.

Crimea, with its craggy hills, jagged coast and mild climate, has been the Russian empire's answer to the Mediterranean Riviera since the 19th century. March 29, 2014. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov.

Sources

Scot Savitz and William Courtney (RAND Corporation); Naval drone’s information and camouflage tactics from H I Sutton (Navalnews); U S Naval Institute; Center for International Security and Cooperation (Standford); Water deficit in Crimea (The Jamestown Foundation); Natural Earth, Population of Crimea (European Comission), Land Cover of Crimea (Corine Land Cover from Copernicus); Open Street Maps; Frigate 3D model (Nikos D. from Sketchup warehouse), Minesweeper 3D model (Lazarus S. from Sketchup warehouse); Bing Maps; Digital Elevation Model (SRTM from NASA Earthdata); Planet Labs PBC.

Edited by

Jon McClure and Peter Graff

How drone combat in Ukraine is changing warfare

Fri, 31 May 2024 12:57:44 +0000

A map showing shake intensity of the quake.

The tiny, inexpensive FPV (first-person view) drone has proved to be one of the most potent weapons in this war, where conventional warplanes are relatively rare because of a dense concentration of anti-aircraft systems near front lines. FPVs - originally designed for civilian racers - are controlled by pilots on the ground and often crashed into targets, laden with explosives.

The total cost of the drone’s components, including an explosive warhead secured with cable ties, can be as little as $500 or less.

The FPV drones take off from improvised platforms several kilometres from the front line. Depending on their size, battery and payload, range varies from 5 km to 20 km or more.

A soldier operates the drone using a remote controller and a headset that allows them to see the view from the camera. Meanwhile, another soldier looks at a tablet computer with maps and gives directions.

After flying across the front line, the pilot spots the target: a tank. They will select one of its most vulnerable parts - an open hatch, the engine or ammunition stored in the turret.

Usually, the target will already have been detected by a reconnaissance drone and the FPV would zip straight to its location and fly at high speed into the target.

Every day, drone units from both armies publish videos on social media demonstrating how drones as inexpensive as $500 can effectively destroy costly artillery pieces or tanks worth millions of dollars, and showcasing their transformative role in modern warfare.

Drones have been used in warfare for decades – pilotless, radio-controlled aircraft were tested as far back as World War One. But the war in Ukraine has seen an explosion in the scale with which they're deployed. They have transformed from performing specialized functions to becoming one of the most important and widely used weapons on the battlefield.

The deployment of smaller drones, which was inconsistent at the beginning of the war, has now become extremely organised, with UAVs now integrated into Ukraine's armed forces structure. Almost every fighting brigade has an assault drone company, while most units have small reconnaissance drones.

Many brigades in both armies have specialized drone units for surveillance, artillery spotting, FPV drones, and precision bombing.

The Ukrainian government aims to make a million FPV drones in 2024. To put that into context, it's around double the number of artillery shells supplied by the entire European Union over the past year.

The process of deploying this technology on the battlefield begins with reconnaissance drones equipped with high-spec cameras that transmit real-time video back to their pilot's control screen, allowing the operator to look for enemy targets from above.

Reconnaissance drone units locate enemy targets with surveillance drones of various types and ranges.

Reconnaissance drones come in various shapes and sizes. The most popular is the Chinese-made DJI Mavic, a quadcopter used by civilians all over the world to film landscapes or events like weddings. These drones, which can cost about $1,500 to $3,000 each, are used by soldiers in trenches to survey the battlefield.

Meanwhile, specialist crews further back from the frontline fly larger, often winged reconnaissance drones equipped with cameras that cost thousands of dollars. These craft can fly and see much further into enemy territory.

When targets are spotted, their coordinates are relayed to commanders through secure messengers and entered into Kropyva, a digital map containing aggregated data on Russian targets.

This picture showcases Kropyva, an intelligence mapping and targeting system consisting of data collected from drones and other sources. Army SOS

Commanders then determine the best method to strike a particular target. Ukraine has more limited resources than its Russian adversary, so tough decisions often have to be made to conserve scarce munitions.

Because FPV drones are guided to their target, they are far more accurate than most artillery. This allows them to chase and hit moving vehicles which would otherwise have been able to evade shells. However, traditional shells can still deliver a much stronger explosive punch than drones' smaller warheads.

Depending on the target, the commanders decide to use artillery or drones to hit the target. Artillery can deliver a much bigger explosion, but drones are better at hitting moving targets.

Soldiers have learned to fear the overhead, as this often indicates they have either been spotted or are about to be attacked.

The increased use of drones in the war has forced heavy machinery such as tanks to move several kilometres further back from the front line, according to Ukrainian soldiers. Infantrymen, meanwhile, cite FPVs and drones that drop munitions as their biggest threat and say there are now so many in the air that it's difficult to move to and from trenches or reinforce dugouts.

A 3d render graphic showing different types of munitions.

In a long and large conflict, cost is key: the fewer resources used to destroy a target, the better.

FPV drones, as well as their bomb-dropping cousins, hold some significant advantages over most other types of weaponry: An FPV drone can cost less than one artillery shell, and is more accurate.

Drone technology is nonetheless most effective when used in conjunction with other types of weaponry. Even FPV drone pilots who have racked up dozens of hits on enemy targets say they would be almost powerless without infantry and artillery to hold the front line.

Long-range attacks

Drones are not just used on the battlefield: both Ukraine and Russia have hit targets hundreds of kilometres away from the front lines using long-range UAVs.

This map illustrates Ukrainian and Russian drone attacks within Ukraine and Russia, contextualizing the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. Additionally, it depicts long-range drone attacks targeting Russian oil infrastructure.

These long-range drones often hit factories making weapons, military bases or energy facilities deep inside enemy territory.

This graphic showcases a range of drones employed in attacks during the Ukrainian war, including the Bayraktar TB2, Shahed 136, Bober, Orlan-10, Lancet-3, Mavic, UJ-22, and FPV drones.

The widespread use of long-range attack drones began in the autumn of 2022, several months into the war, when Russia bought hundreds of Shahed drones from Iran and began to fly them into Ukrainian targets. They immediately proved to be extremely effective, costing less even than the air defence missiles Ukraine initially used to down them.

The Shahed follows a pre-programmed path. That journey will often include as many twists and turns as possible to confuse and exhaust Ukraine's air defences, which is one of the drone's primary functions for the Russians.

The Shahed-136, the most commonly used model, has been estimated to cost $100,000 or less, and Russia has built its own facilities to produce it. The delta-wing design of the Shahed-136 gives it a low radar signature. Combined with its ability to travel at low-altitude, this makes detection by radar difficult.

The Shahed-136, the most commonly used model, is estimated to cost $100,000 or less, and Russia has built its own facilities to produce it. Ukraine has had to adapt, deploying flak cannons and machine guns atop pickup trucks to shoot them down.

At the same time, Ukraine has been developing its own drones to strike targets deep inside Russia as a way of making up for its own lack of long-range missiles.

Early incarnations of Ukrainian long-range drones were usually downed by Russian electronic warfare systems, but Ukraine's military appears to have learnt lessons from this and has been able to strike targets deep within Russia in recent months, including factories and oil refineries.

Ukraine has developed long-range drones featuring aerodynamic designs with extended wings and propulsion systems, allowing for increased range and endurance, supported by larger fuel tanks for extended flight capabilities. Ukraine has targeted energy infrastructure deep within Russian territory in strikes aimed at disrupting supply lines and logistics.

In late January, Russian energy firm Novatek was forced to suspend operations at its huge Ust-Luga fuel processing and shipping terminal for three days after a Ukrainian drone attack started a fire. Operations at the facility, key for the export of some hydrocarbons, appeared to be affected for several weeks.

Ukraine has also developed the UJ-22 drone, featuring a winged design that allows the aircraft to deliver precision bombing strikes on static targets within a range of 800 km.

Electronic warfare against drones

Electronic warfare (EW) systems have proved to be the most effective way of stopping drones. Both sides use EW systems to jam radio frequencies in certain areas. When a drone's signal is jammed, the pilot loses the ability to control the craft or can no longer see the video signal, depending on which frequency has been disrupted.

The most effective way to stop drones has proved to be Electronic Warfare (EW). Both sides use EW systems to jam radio frequencies in certain areas. When a drone’s signal is jammed by EW, it loses its connection with the pilot.

EW is becoming increasingly dense on the front lines, according to Ukrainian pilots. Most EW systems have a limited span of frequencies, so drone pilots have responded by switching to less commonly used ones. This leads to a technological game of cat and mouse on the front lines, as EW operators seek to disrupt drones flying on constantly-shifting frequencies.

Both sides also have to contend with electronic reconnaissance systems, which can trace drones’ signals back to enemy pilots, potentially identifying their location.

Pilots have responded to this by increasing their use of signal repeaters, which act as an intermediary station for the connection between craft and pilot. Repeaters can be deployed on the ground or attached to another drone and flown in the air, increasing signal range and obscuring the pilots' positions.

While large, truck-mounted EW systems are used to protect expensive equipment, infantry units have started using smaller systems to protect their trenches - though the effectiveness of the less powerful ones can be patchy.

At infantry level, smaller EW devices and "drone guns" are used to jam incoming UAVs.

Serhiy, a Ukrainian infantry platoon commander from the 59th Brigade fighting in the east of the country, said his unit's homemade EW system, as well as their portable EW devices or "drone guns", had become less effective due to Russian UAVs changing frequencies. He declined to give his full name as Ukrainian soldiers are told not to divulge their identities for their safety.

Next-generation drones with AI

In response to the increasing challenges posed by EW systems, both Ukraine and Russia are racing to develop drones guided by artificial intelligence. These drones identify and lock onto their targets without the need for communication with their pilot, making them impervious to signal jamming.

This graphic explains how more advanced drones can use Artificial Intelligence to identify and lock onto targets. The drone is able to identify and lock onto a target using an onboard AI system, after which it can guide itself into its target without the pilot's input.

AI target identification is already being used by both sides in a small number of drones.

"You cannot jam such a drone, because there is nothing to jam," said a 20-year-old Ukrainian drone pilot from the 92nd brigade who goes by his call sign Darwin. Ukrainian drone industry figures say the technology still needs to be developed further before it can be widely used.

Nevertheless, many manufacturers, politicians and pilots say they believe AI systems could be at the heart of drone warfare in the future. Some predict that EW protection could become so widely used as to render most conventional FPV drones useless.

Videos of FPV drone attacks

The videos have been verified by Eleanor Whalley, of Reuters' Visual Verification team. They were sourced from Telegram channels or provided by various drone units of the Ukrainian Army (including the Azov Brigade in Kremina, the 110th Mechanised Brigade in Lastochkyne and Avdiivka, and the State Border Service of Ukraine in Vodyane and Hryanykivka).

Videos of the drone unit and additional work by

Inna Varenytsia

Sources

Royal United Services Institute (RUSI); ACLED: Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (Drone attacks from Feb. 24, 2022, to March 12, 2024); Institute for the Study of War with American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project (Russian-occupied territory data as of 3 p.m. EST, March 12); Council on Foreign Relations; CSET: Center for Security and Emerging Technology.

Edited by

Mike Collett-White, Simon Scarr and Pravin Char

How the Arizona and Florida court rulings change abortion access

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 17:38:50 +0000

How new rulings restrict abortion access

Abortion restrictions in Arizona and Florida will increase the distance to the nearest abortion clinic for millions of people

Courts in Arizona and Florida have moved to further restrict reproductive rights in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2022 decision that overturned the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that had legalized abortion nationwide.

Arizona’s top court on April 9 revived a ban on nearly all abortions under a state law dating to 1864, some 48 years before it gained statehood. Florida's top court on April 1 cleared the way for a Republican-backed law banning abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, down from 15 weeks, to take effect in May.

The two rulings put the two states in the “most restrictive” category for abortion access and policies, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that advocates for reproductive rights and tracks abortion access.

Arizona’s near-total ban means that any woman who wants to end a pregnancy must leave the state to do so unless her life is determined to be at risk. Florida’s law means that women after six weeks of pregnancy - before many know they are pregnant - would need to leave the state to do so. Both rulings could lead to the closure of clinics that provide abortions in the two states.

How distance to the nearest clinic changes under new restrictions

Florida’s new restrictions would put the Miami and Tampa metropolitan areas - with a combined population of roughly 9 million people - more than 500 miles (800 km) away from the nearest clinic in a state that does not have a near-total or six-week ban on abortion.

The Nov. 5 U.S. elections could change the state of play in the two states. Florida’s top court has approved a ballot measure that will ask voters whether to amend the state constitution to bar laws that “prohibit, penalize, delay or restrict abortion” before fetal viability “or when necessary to protect the patient's health.” In Arizona, abortion rights advocates have said they gathered enough signatures to create a ballot measure that will ask voters whether to amend the state constitution to prohibit any “law, regulation, policy or practice” interfering with abortions before fetal viability or later if needed to “protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant individual.”

Source

Guttmacher Institute

Additional reporting by

Brendan Pierson, Nate Raymond and Joseph Ax

Edited by

Julia Wolfe and Will Dunham

The collapse of insects

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 04:30:04 +0000

The collapse

of insects

The most diverse group of organisms on the planet are in trouble, with recent research suggesting insect populations are declining at an

unprecedented rate.

The collapse

of insects

The most diverse group of organisms on the planet are in trouble, with recent research suggesting insect populations are declining at an

unprecedented rate.

The collapse

of insects

The most diverse group of organisms on the planet are in trouble, with recent research suggesting insect populations are declining at an

unprecedented rate.

The collapse of insects

The most diverse group of organisms on the planet are in trouble, with recent research suggesting insect populations are declining at an unprecedented rate.

As a boy in the 1960s, David Wagner would run around his family’s Missouri farm with a glass jar clutched in his hand, scooping flickering fireflies out of the sky.

“We could fill it up and put it by our bedside at night,” says Wagner, now an entomologist.

That’s all gone, the family farm now paved over with new homes and manicured lawns. And Wagner’s beloved fireflies – like so many insects worldwide – have largely vanished in what scientists are calling the global Insect Apocalypse.

As human activities rapidly transform the planet, the global insect population is declining at an unprecedented rate of up to 2% per year. Amid deforestation, pesticide use, artificial light pollution and climate change, these critters are struggling — along with the crops, flowers and other animals that rely on them to survive.

“Insects are the food that make all the birds and make all the fish,” said Wagner, who works at the University of Connecticut. “They’re the fabric tethering together every freshwater and terrestrial ecosystem across the planet.”

At the base of the chain

An example of a North American food chain with insects feeding small- and medium-sized animals.

Red-tailed

hawk

Eats

American

red fox

Yellow

Perch

Eastern

ribbon snake

Deer mouse

Blackbird

Pickerel frog

Insects

Darkling

beetle

Blow fly

Bee

Butterfly

lave

Grasshopper

Moth

Mayfly

nymph

Dragonfly

nymph

Dragonfly

Yellowjacket

Eats

*illustrations not to scale

At the base of the chain

An example of a North American food chain with insects feeding small- and medium-sized animals.

Red-tailed

hawk

Eats

American

red fox

Yellow

Perch

Eastern

ribbon snake

Deer mouse

Blackbird

Pickerel frog

Insects

Darkling

beetle

Blow fly

Bee

Butterfly

lave

Grasshopper

Moth

Mayfly

nymph

Dragonfly

nymph

Dragonfly

Yellowjacket

Eats

*illustrations not to scale

At the base of the chain

Diagram shows an example of a North American food chain with insects feeding small- and medium-sized animals.

Red-tailed

hawk

Eats

Eastern

ribbon snake

American

red fox

Yellow

Perch

Deer mouse

Blackbird

Pickerel frog

Insects

Darkling

beetle

Blow fly

Bee

Butterfly

lave

Grasshopper

Moth

Mayfly

nymph

Dragonfly

nymph

Dragonfly

Yellowjacket

Eats

*illustrations not to scale

At the base of the chain

Diagram shows an example of a North American food chain with insects feeding small- and medium-sized animals.

Red-tailed

hawk

Eats

American

red fox

Eastern

ribbon snake

Yellow Perch

Eats

Deer mouse

Blackbird

Pickerel frog

Insects

Darkling

beetle

Butterfly

lave

Mayfly

nymph

Dragonfly

nymph

Cockroach

Butterfly

Grasshopper

Dragonfly

Yellowjacket

Bee

Blow fly

Moth

Detritivorous

(Eats dead plants

or animals)

Insectivorous

Herbivorous

Aquatic

Herbivorous

Detritivorous

Herbivorous

Eats

*illustrations not to scale

At the base of the chain

Diagram shows an example of a North American food chain with insects feeding small- and medium-sized animals.

Red-tailed

hawk

Eats

American

red fox

Eastern

ribbon snake

Yellow Perch

Eats

Deer mouse

Blackbird

Pickerel frog

Insects

Darkling

beetle

Butterfly

lave

Mayfly

nymph

Dragonfly

nymph

Cockroach

Butterfly

Grasshopper

Dragonfly

Yellowjacket

Bee

Blow fly

Moth

Detritivorous

(Eats dead plants or animals)

Herbivorous

Aquatic

Herbivorous

Insectivorous

Detritivorous

Herbivorous

Eats

*illustrations not to scale

The tree of life

It’s easy to think insects are doing OK. After all, they’re nearly everywhere — crawling through rainforest canopy, burrowing into soil, skimming freshwater ponds or, of course, flitting through the air.

On the biological “tree of life” — which classifies organisms to describe their evolutionary and genetic relationship to one another — insects fall under the branch, or phylum, called Arthropods, one of the 40 branches of the Animal Kingdom.

In terms of diversity, insects are unrivaled, representing two-thirds of the world’s more than 1.5 million documented animal species with millions more bugs likely still undiscovered, scientists say. By comparison, there are roughly 73,000 vertebrates, or animals with a backbone from humans to birds and fish — these represent less than 5% of the known Animal Kingdom, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Animal Kingdom

Over 1.5 million species

Split into 39 groups

known as

Phyla

Arthropods

Molluscs

Vertebrates

All animals with a backbone such as fish, birds and mammals

Invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages

73,000 species

Arthropods

can be split into 5

Subphyla

Animals with six legs

Hexapods

Chelicerates

Spiders, ticks and mites

110,000 species

With over

1 million species,

insects make up around two thirds of all animal species on Earth

The hexopods

can be split into 4

Classes

Insects

Finally, insects

can be split into 29

Orders

Beetles

Flies

With over 387,000 species, beetles make up around 24% of all animal species.

Animal Kingdom

Over 1.5 million species

Split into 39 groups

known as

Phyla

Arthropods

Molluscs

Vertebrates

All animals with a backbone such as fish, birds and mammals.

Invertebrate animals with a segmented body covered by an exoskeleton

73,000 species

Arthropods

can be split into 5

Subphyla

Animals with six legs

Hexapods

Chelicerates

Spiders, ticks and mites

110,000 species

With over

1 million species,

insects make up around two thirds of all animal species on Earth

The hexopods

can be split into 4

Classes

Insects

Finally, insects

can be split into 29

Orders

Beetles

Flies

With over 387,000 species, beetles make up around 24% of all animal species.

Animal Kingdom

Over 1.5 million species

Split into 39 groups

known as

Phyla

Arthropods

Vertebrates

Molluscs

Invertebrate animals with a segmented body covered by an exoskeleton

All animal species that have a backbone such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals

Second most diverse Phyla group

117,000 species

73,000 species

The arthropods

can be split into 5

Subphyla

Animals with six legs

Hexapods

Crustaceans

Chelicerates

Spiders, ticks and mites

110,000 species

With over

1 million species,

insects make up around two thirds of all animal species on Earth

The hexopods

can be split into 4

Insects

Classes

Springtails

Finally, insects

can be split into 29

Orders

Beetles

Lepidoptera

Flies

With over 387,000 species, beetles make up around 24% of all animal species.

Butterflies

and moths

Animal Kingdom

Over 1.5 million species

Split into 39 groups

known as

Phyla

Arthropods

Vertebrates

All animals with a backbone such as fish and mammals

Animals with a segmented body covered by an exoskeleton

73,000 species

Arthropods

can be split into 5

Subphyla

Animals with six legs

Hexapods

1 million

species

Insects make up around two thirds of all animal species on Earth

The hexopods

can be split into 4

Classes

Insects

Finally, insects

can be split into 29

Orders

Flies

Beetles

With over 387,000 species, beetles make up around 24% of all animal species.

Animal Kingdom

Over 1.5 million species

Split into 39 groups

known as

Phyla

Arthropods

Vertebrates

Molluscs

All invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages

All animal species that have a backbone such as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals

Second most diverse Phyla group

117,000 species

73,000 species

The arthropods

can be split into 5

Subphyla

Animals with six legs

Hexapods

Chelicerates

Crustaceans

Spiders, ticks and mites

110,000 species

With over

1 million species,

insects make up around two thirds of all animal species on Earth

The hexopods

can be split into 4

Insects

Classes

Springtails

Finally, insects

can be split into 29

Orders

Beetles

Lepidoptera

Flies

With over 387,000 species, beetles make up around 24% of all animal species.

Butterflies

and moths

Their importance to the environment can’t be understated, scientists say. Insects are crucial to the food web, feeding birds, reptiles and mammals such as bats. For some animals, bugs are simply a treat. Plant-eating orangutans delight in slurping up termites from a teeming hill. Humans, too, see some 2,000 species of insects as food.

But insects are so much more than food. Farmers depend on these critters pollinating crops and churning soil to keep it healthy, among other activities.

Insects pollinate more than 75% of global crops, a service valued at up to $577 billion per year, the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) says.
In the United States, insects perform services valued in 2006 at an estimated $57 billion per year, according to a study in the journal BioScience.
Dung beetles alone are worth some $380 million per year to the U.S. cattle industry for their work breaking down manure and churning rangeland soil, the study found.

With fewer insects, “we’d have less food,” said ecologist Dave Goulson at the University of Sussex. “We’d see yields dropping of all of these crops.”

And in nature, about 80% of wild plants rely on insects for pollination. “If insects continue to decline,” Goulson said, “expect some pretty dire consequences for ecosystems generally — and for people.”

Diversity

Dividing the more than 1 million known insect species into commonly understood categories illustrates how insects significantly outnumber all other animals.

INSECTS

1.05 million

Mammals

Birds

Molluscs

Amphibians

Other

invertebrates

Reptiles

164,000

Arachnids

Fishes

111,000

35,000

INSECTS

1.05 million

Mammals

Birds

Molluscs

Amphibians

Other

invertebrates

Reptiles

164,000

Arachnids

Fishes

111,000

35,000

11,000

88,000

11,000

35,000

81,000

INSECTS

1.05 million

111,000

164,000

11,000

88,000

11,000

35,000

81,000

INSECTS

1.05 million

111,000

164,000

11,000

88,000

11,000

35,000

81,000

INSECTS

1.05 million

111,000

164,000

Beetles

387,000

True bugs

Bees, Wasps, Ants

100,000

110,000

Butterflies, moths

Flies

150,000

Beetles

387,000

True bugs

Bees, Wasps, Ants

100,000

110,000

Butterflies, moths

Flies

150,000

True bugs

100,000

Caddisflies

Beetles

387,000

Flies

150,000

Butterflies, moths

150,000

Bees, Wasps, Ants

110,000

True bugs

100,000

Caddisflies

Beetles

387,000

Flies

150,000

Butterflies, moths

150,000

Bees, Wasps, Ants

110,000

True bugs

100,000

Caddisflies

Beetles

387,000

Flies

150,000

Butterflies, moths

150,000

Bees, Wasps, Ants

110,000

Darkling

beetles

Longhorn

beetles

Rove

beetles

Ground

beetles

56,000

Scarab

beetles

All other

beetles

Weevils

Leaf

beetles

51,000

Darkling

beetles

Longhorn

beetles

Rove

beetles

Ground

beetles

56,000

Scarab

beetles

All other

beetles

Weevils

Leaf

beetles

51,000

Rove beetles

Fireflies

56,000

Scarab beetles

27,000

Longhorn beetles

30,000

Weevils

51,000

Leaf beetles

32,500

Other beetles

97,521

Ground

beetles

40,000

Jewel

beetles

Rove beetles

Fireflies

56,000

Scarab beetles

27,000

Longhorn beetles

30,000

Weevils

51,000

Leaf beetles

32,500

Other beetles

97,521

Ground

beetles

40,000

Jewel

beetles

Rove beetles

Fireflies

56,000

Scarab beetles

27,000

Longhorn beetles

30,000

Weevils

51,000

Leaf beetles

32,500

Other beetles

97,521

Ground

beetles

40,000

Jewel

beetles

Rove

beetles

56,000

Weevils

51,000

Mammals

Birds

Amphibians

Reptiles

Fishes

35,000

Rove

beetles

56,000

Weevils

51,000

Mammals

Birds

Amphibians

Reptiles

Fishes

35,000

11,000

35,000

Rove beetles

56,000

Weevils

51,000

11,000

35,000

Rove beetles

56,000

Weevils

51,000

11,000

35,000

Rove beetles

56,000

Weevils

51,000

Longhorn

beetles

Birds

Longhorn

beetles

Birds

Longhorn

beetles

30,000

Longhorn

beetles

30,000

Longhorn

beetles

30,000

Ladybugs

Mammals

Ladybugs

Mammals

Ladybugs

6,000

Ladybugs

6,000

Ladybugs

6,000

Weevils

51,000

Fishes

35,000

Weevils

51,000

Fishes

35,000

Weevils

51,000

35,000

Weevils

51,000

35,000

Weevils

51,000

Species in the animal kingdom can be split into vertebrates and invertebrates

With over 387,000 species, Beetles make up around 24% of all animal species.

The beetle order can then be divided into families, with rove beetles and weevils making up the two largest families.

There are more species in the two most diverse beetle families than in all vertebrate classes.

There are more longhorn beetle species than bird species.

There are about the same number of ladybug species as mammal species.

There are more weevil species than fish species.

Bugs in decline

Describing a stroll through Costa Rica’s Area de Conservacion Guanacaste rainforest, evolutionary ecologist Daniel Janzen in 2019 wrote: “Gone are the spiderwebs that decades back entangled those leaves. Gone is the nighttime sparkle in the leaves reflected from thousands of lycosid spider eyes.”

The world has lost 5% to 10% of all insect species in the last 150 years — or between 250,000 and 500,000 species, according to a February 2020 study in the journal Biological Conservation. Those losses are continuing, though estimates vary due to patchy data as well as uncertainty over how many insects exist.

In the tropics, insects can be “extremely hard to identify, because there are vastly more species than (we) are used to,” Janzen, a University of Pennsylvania professor, told Reuters. “There are more species within 100 kilometres of my dwelling in a national park in northwestern Costa Rica than in all of Europe.”

Not knowing exactly what’s out there makes it harder to detect trouble. One April 2020 analysis in the journal Science suggested the planet is losing about 9% of its land-dwelling insect population each decade. Another January 2021 paper tried to paint a clearer picture by synthesizing more than 80 insect studies and found that insect abundance is declining around 1% to2% per year. For comparison, the human population is growing at slightly less than 1% per year.

“Even at the low end of 1% a year, after just 40 years you’re down more than one-third of species and one-third of individuals — a third of the entire tree of life lost,” said Wagner, who led the 2021 metastudy, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. But the reality is likely worse. Wagner’s team offered an “incredibly conservative” loss estimate, he said, noting that many insect studies are conducted in protected areas such as nature reserves. Degraded farmland or cities would likely reveal far fewer insects.

A world of dangers

The demise of insects can’t be attributed to any single cause. Populations are facing simultaneous threats, from habitat loss and industrial farming to climate change. Nitrogen overloading from sewage and fertilizers has turned wetlands into dead zones; artificial light is flooding out nighttime skies; and the growth of urban areas has led to concrete sprawl.

“Until recently, loss of land was the single greatest driver” of the decline, Wagner said. “But climate change is becoming a far more severe and ominous threat by drying out parts of the planet that were chronically wet. And that is absolutely catastrophic for a lot of insects.”

The introduction of non-native plants, which can dominate new environments, has also hurt insects. Because many insects have evolved to feed on or fertilize a single plant species, the disruption of the plant world can have an outsized effect. For example, the Tegeticula moth species pollinates California’s famed Joshua trees, with the succulent providing the only food source for the moth’s offspring. If Joshua trees were to disappear, so too could the moth. And vice versa.

Winners and losers

While the situation is bleak for insects at large, a few species are thriving.

“It’s generally the pest insects that are thriving because they’re the ones that breed faster and are favored by human conditions, like all the waste we produce for them to lay their eggs in,” said Sussex’s Goulson.

Climate change is also giving some nuisance species a boost. Rising temperatures are driving major outbreaks of mountain pine bark beetles, which in two decades have decimated roughly 100,000 square miles (260,000 square kilometers) of North American forest. And with warmer, wetter weather, two disease-spreading mosquitoes Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus are expected to expand in Asia, North America and Europe, putting an additional 2.3 billion people at risk from dengue fever by 2080, a June 2019 Nature Microbiology study estimated.

Beyond pests, here are some more examples of other insect groups that are in trouble:

Bees (Order Hymenoptera)

These pollinators are in peril. Threatened bumblebees include 28% of North America’s species and 24% in Europe, according to the IUCN. North America’s rusty-patched bumblebee has seen its range shrink by 87% in the last 20 years.

U.S. honeybee colonies, which are trucked across the county to pollinate cucumbers, almonds and other commercial crops, have been declining steadily for decades, with about 2.7 million colonies now compared with some 6 million in 1947. The U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization has warned that the decline in bees threatens global food security.

Butterflies and moths (Order Lepidoptera)

Bees aren’t the only pollinators being hit. Many moth and butterfly populations are also struggling due to habitat loss as well as pesticides and herbicides. As of 2010, nearly a third of Europe’s native butterfly species were declining, and 81 of the continent’s 482 species were considered threatened or near threatened, according to the IUCN.

In the western United States, the number of individual butterflies has been steadily decreasing over the past four decades, at a rate of around 1.6% every year, according to a March 2021 study in the journal Science. The iconic Monarch butterfly is one of the species in trouble. Warmer autumn temperatures, an effect of climate change, may be interfering with the butterflies’ hibernation-like period known as diapause. So rather than slowing down ahead of winter, the insects are staying awake longer, expending more energy, and eventually starving to death, scientists say. In July, the migratory monarch was added to the IUCN’s global endangered species list.

Number of Western Monarchs reported

Butterflies

1,200,000

1,000,000

800,000

600,000

400,000

200,000

1997

2021

Number of Western Monarchs reported

Butterflies

1,200,000

1,000,000

800,000

600,000

400,000

200,000

1997

2021

Number of Western Monarchs

reported have plummeted...

...despite surveys increasing

Butterflies

Surveys

300

1,200,000

250

1,000,000

200

800,000

150

600,000

100

400,000

200,000

1997

2021

1997

2021

Beetles (Order Coleoptera)

Tiger beetles, part of the ground beetle family, live in sandy coastal burrows. Being sensitive to change, they are good indicator species for environmental health. Today, around 15% of U.S. tiger beetle species and subspecies are in a state of decline or considered very rare. Conservation groups partially blame off-road vehicles for destroying the beetles’ larval burrows.

Fireflies, also known as lightning bugs, may soon blink out. Fourteen of 128 firefly species — which make up a family within the beetle order — are threatened in the U.S. and Canada, according to the conservation group Xerces Society. Urban light pollution, thought to be partially responsible, can confuse fireflies, which rely on their own nighttime bioluminescence to attract mates and repel predators.

Freshwater insects

According to IUCN data, 16% of assessed dragonfly and damselfly species are threatened, and around 10% are in decline.

While the April 2020 Science study noted a decline in insects on land, it found that freshwater insects are recovering at a rate of 11% per decade overall thanks partly to clean water legislation passed in Europe and the United States. But the situation is worsening in South Asia and Southeast Asia, where many wetland breeding grounds have been cleared for crops. Today, more than a quarter of the region’s dragonflies and damselflies are threatened.

Research bias

IUCN data from 2021 show that, of the roughly 1 million known insect species, the conservation status of only about 1% has been assessed. So while scientists are certain that insect abundance is dropping fast, they aren’t entirely sure which insects are most at risk.

Because the insect class is so vast, that 1% of insects assessed represents roughly the same number of species as the 100% of birds assessed, and twice the number of mammals assessed.

Backboned animals, particularly charismatic mammals, tend to attract more research funding than insects. A European research project looking at a vertebrate species, for example, receives nearly 500 times more funding on average than an invertebrate study.

Out of all insects assessed, one in five — or 2,270 in total — is considered threatened.

Species discovered

Every single bird species known to science has been assessed

Assessed

11,690

Proportion

properly evaluated

10,148

Reptiles

Mammals

Birds

11,162

Amphibians

36,058

Vertebrates

22,581

Fish

Crustaceans

Corals

80,122

Invertebrates

3,189

Molluscs

83,706

9,019

Other

invertebrates

Arachnids

110,615

157,755

441

917

Insects

1,053,578

There are more than a million

different insect species known to science.

99% have not yet been assessed.

12,100

of insects are assessed

Species discovered

11,690

Assessed

Proportion properly evaluated

Every single bird

species known to science has been assessed

10,148

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

11,162

36,058

Vertebrates

Amphibians

22,581

Fish

Crustaceans

Corals

80,122

Invertebrates

3,189

Molluscs

83,706

9,019

Other

invertebrates

Arachnids

110,615

157,755

441

917

Insects

1,053,578

There are more than a million

different insect species known to science.

99% have not yet been assessed.

12,100

of insects are assessed

Species discovered

11,690

Assessed

Proportion properly evaluated

Every single bird

species known to

science has been

assessed

10,148

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

11,162

36,058

Amphibians

Vertebrates

22,581

Fish

Corals

Crustaceans

80,122

Invertebrates

3,189

Molluscs

83,706

9,019

Other

invertebrates

Arachnids

110,615

157,755

441

917

Insects

1,053,578

There are more than a million

different insect species known to science.

99% have not yet been assessed.

12,100

of insects are assessed

Species discovered

11,690

Assessed

Proportion properly evaluated

Every single bird

species known to

science has been

assessed

10,148

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

11,162

36,058

Vertebrates

Amphibians

22,581

Fish

Invertebrates

Corals

Molluscs

Crustaceans

83,706

80,122

9,019

3,189

Other

invertebrates

Arachnids

110,615

157,755

Insects

1,053,578

There are more than a million

different insect species known to science.

441

917

99% have not yet been assessed.

12,100

of insects are assessed

Species discovered

11,690

Assessed

Proportion properly evaluated

10,148

Every single bird

species known to

science has been

assessed

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

11,162

36,058

Amphibians

Vertebrates

22,581

Fish

Invertebrates

Corals

Molluscs

Crustaceans

83,706

80,122

9,019

3,189

Arachnids

Other invertebrates

110,615

157,755

Insects

1,053,578

There are more than a million

different insect species known to science.

441

917

99% have not yet been assessed.

12,100

of insects are assessed

Species discovered

11,690

Assessed

Proportion properly evaluated

10,148

Every single bird

species known to

science has been

assessed

Reptiles

Birds

Mammals

11,162

36,058

Vertebrates

Amphibians

22,581

Fish

Invertebrates

Corals

Molluscs

Crustaceans

83,706

80,122

9,019

3,189

Arachnids

Other invertebrates

110,615

157,755

Insects

1,053,578

There are more than a million

different insect species known to science.

441

917

99% have not yet been assessed.

12,100

of insects are assessed

The graphic below breaks down the number of the assessed species by insect sub-groups, known as orders. Some groups have had no species assessments whatsoever and don’t feature in the graphic at all. Others may only have a very small number assessed and of those, all are threatened, such as stoneflies and mayflies.

Dragonflies and damselflies

6,016 species assessed

Each dot

represents

a species

674

threatened

extinct

Grasshoppers,

locusts and crickets

Bees, wasps and ants

1,493 assessed

525

threatened

extinct

There are still

another 385,000

beetle species

not yet assessed

or shown here

Beetles

Praying

mantises

1,781

species assessed

365

threatened

extinct

Earwigs

Butterflies and moths

Roaches and

termites

1,541 assessed

239

Mayflies

Flies

Bristletails

There are another

155,000 fly species

not yet assessed

or shown here

True bugs

There are another

103,000 true bug

species not yet assessed

or shown here

Rockcrawlers

Stick insects

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Only handfuls of

species from these

insect orders have been

assessed but many

are threatened

Net-winged

insects

Booklice

Lice

Thrips

Dragonflies and damselflies

6,016 species assessed

Each dot

represents

a species

674

threatened

extinct

Bees, wasps and ants

Grasshoppers,

locusts and crickets

1,493 assessed

525

threatened

extinct

There are still

another 385,000

beetle species

not yet assessed

or shown here

Beetles

Praying

mantises

1,781

species assessed

Stick insects

Earwigs

365

threatened

Roaches and

termites

extinct

Mayflies

Butterflies and moths

1,541 assessed

Flies

Rockcrawlers

239

Bristletails

There are another

155,000 fly species

not yet assessed

or shown here

True bugs

There are another

103,000 true bug

species not yet assessed

or shown here

Booklice

Net-winged

insects

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Thrips

Lice

Only handfuls of

species from these

insect orders have been

assessed but many

are threatened

Dragonflies and damselflies

6,016 species assessed

Each dot

represents

a species

674

threatened

extinct

Grasshoppers,

locusts and crickets

There are still

another 385,000

beetle species

not yet assessed

or shown here

1,493

species assessed

Flies

Beetles

1,781

species assessed

525

threatened

extinct

There are another

155,000 fly species

not yet assessed

or shown here

365

threatened

extinct

Butterflies and moths

Stick insects

1,541 assessed

True bugs

239

Roaches and

termites

There are another

103,000 true bug

species not yet assessed

or shown here.

Bees, wasps and ants

Praying

mantises

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Net-winged

insects

Only handfuls of

species from these

insect orders have been

assessed but many

are threatened

Bristletails

Rockcrawlers

Thrips

Booklice

Earwigs

Mayflies

Lice

Dragonflies and damselflies

6,016 species assessed

Each dot represents

an insect species

There are still

another 385,000

beetle species

not yet assessed

or shown here

674

threatened

Grasshoppers,

locusts and crickets

Beetles

extinct

1,493

species assessed

1,781

species assessed

525

threatened

365

threatened

extinct

Bees, wasps and ants

Butterflies and moths

1,541 assessed

True bugs

Flies

Stick insects

239

There are another

103,000 true bug

species not yet assessed

or shown here.

However, the vast

majority of those

which are assessed

are threatened.

Mayflies

Praying

mantises

There are another

155,000 fly species

not yet assessed

or shown here

Roaches and

termites

Caddisflies

Stoneflies

Earwigs

Bristletails

Only handfuls of

species from these

insect orders have been

assessed but many

are threatened

Booklice

Thrips

Net-winged

insects

Rockcrawlers

Lice

Dragonflies and damselflies

6,016 species assessed

Each dot represents

an insect species

There are still another

385,000 beetle species

not yet assessed or

shown here

674

threatened

Grasshoppers,

locusts and crickets

Beetles

1,493

species assessed

1,781

species assessed

extinct

525

threatened

365

threatened

extinct

Bees, wasps and ants

Butterflies and moths

1,541 assessed

Stick insects

True bugs

Flies

239

Praying

mantises

There are another 103,000

true bug species not yet

assessed or shown here.

However, the vast majority

of those which are assessed

are threatened.

Mayflies

Roaches and

termites

Stoneflies

Caddisflies

Booklice

Only handfuls of species

from these insect orders have

been assessed but many

are threatened

Net-winged

insects

There are another

155,000 fly species

not yet assessed

or shown here

Earwigs

Lice

Bristletails

Thrips

Rockcrawlers

Losses beyond insects

As insects go, so go their predators.

In North America, nearly all songbirds feed insects to their young. But since 1970, the number of birds in the United States and Canada has fallen by 29%, or roughly 2.9 billion, which scientists theorize is tied to having fewer insects in the world. Some research also has linked insecticide use with declines in barn swallows, house martins, and swifts.

“Nature is just eroding away very slowly,” Wagner said. As insects disappear, “we’re losing the limbs and the twigs of the tree of life. We’re tearing it apart. And we’re leaving behind a very simplified and ugly tree.”

Sources

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN); Xerces Society; Animal biodiversity: An introduction to higher-level classification and taxonomic richness.

Additional work and development by

Manas Sharma and Marco Hernandez

Edited by

Lisa Shumaker and Katy Daigle

Ocean Shock: Shrimp farm bulldozes Borneo. Can sea cucumbers save it?

Wed, 18 Oct 2023 20:08:44 +0000

Gargantuan as it may seem to Bondien and his relatives, the project represents only a speck in the global aquaculture industry, one of the world’s fastest-growing sources of protein. Unfolding across Asia and around the world, this revolution in farming could help mitigate the impacts of climate change — or make them even worse.

As the buildup of heat-trapping greenhouse gases causes the world’s oceans to warm, ecosystems that formed hundreds of thousands of years ago are being upended in less than a human lifespan. Across the planet, fish and other marine creatures are being forced into a desperate search for cooler waters. Even coral is on the move: Some Japanese reefs are expanding northward at up to nearly nine miles per year, researchers have found.

Tropical seas may be the hardest hit. Species in the once-stable conditions near the equator could find it much harder to tolerate even mild temperature increases than hardier cousins at higher latitudes, which are used to coping with the contrast between summer and winter.

“If you ask me what is the No. 1 concern that I have on climate change effects on fisheries, it is on these tropical, developing countries,” said William Cheung, director of science at the Nippon Foundation-University of British Columbia Nereus Program. “The sheer speed of the change will make it that much harder for marine life to adapt.”

Coral reefs, as vital to tropical fish as trees are to birds, are becoming more vulnerable to a process called “bleaching,” which occurs when a spike in water temperatures causes coral to expel the algae that provide their kaleidoscope colors, leaving them prone to starvation or disease. Today, swaths of the once-psychedelic Great Barrier Reef in Australia have turned boneyard white and largely devoid of life.

Scientists fear a similar fate could await the Coral Triangle, a huge underwater wonderland east of Borneo endowed with a trove of biodiversity comparable to the rainforests of the Amazon Basin. Millions of people depend on its bounty to survive, a large share of them Malaysians, who eat an average of 125 pounds of fish each a year — more than double the world average.

With climate change bearing down on the tropics, the search is on for a more sustainable way of getting food from the sea, one that doesn’t take more than nature can give.

Farther to the north on Borneo, an island divided among Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, villagers are raising sea cucumbers: curious-looking creatures resembling giant slugs that are typically braised and served with oysters, mushrooms and spring onions, or – if you’re in Japan – thinly sliced, flavored with wasabi and eaten raw.

These echinoderms, close relatives of sea urchins and starfish, may not appeal to every palate. But farming them has one of the lightest footprints of any form of food production, a reminder of the vast untapped global potential for harvesting oysters, mussels, clams and many other types of filter-feeders.

A couple of hours’ drive from the Sunlight Seafood shrimp farm, inhabitants of the stilted village of Mapan Mapan have created a maze of sunken enclosures fenced with a barnacle-covered mesh. Immersed waist-deep in one of these briny paddocks, sea-cucumber farmer Astinah Binti Jamari plucked one of the sandpaper-skinned creatures from the seabed. It responded by squirting her with a jet of saltwater – a defense normally used to scare away crabs.

A revolution in fish

The long road to electric cars in the U.S.

Fri, 11 Aug 2023 20:48:10 +0000

Momentum is certainly building for the transition to electric. Automakers are ramping up EV production and many new models are expected over the next few years.

However, about half of adults who are aware of electric vehicles say they are unlikely to seriously consider purchasing one, according to a Pew Research Center survey from June.

Consumers hesitant to make the switch cite concerns such as the high purchase price, limited driving range and lack of sufficient charging infrastructure.

Using a model that is a stylized portrayal of the U.S. auto market created by David Ross Keith and colleagues at MIT, we’re able to simulate the impact of policies intended to overcome these concerns about EVs.

Each scenario assumes a limited number of vehicle technologies are available to consumers; the number of cars on the road remains constant; new powertrains are supported by targeted advertising campaigns to raise awareness.

Scenario 1

Electric cars for sale!

Buyers have a choice between gas or electric cars. However, because the battery technology is new, EVs have a higher price tag and require a new refueling infrastructure.

Policymakers decide to support the new EVs in two ways over the first five years by offering a $10,000 purchase incentive and installing a modest 50,000 charging stations.

5 years later…

New car sales

gas

electric

Charging stations

About 6% of new car sales are electric, but government policies expire.

10 years later…

New car sales

gas

electric

Charging stations

Sales of EVs decline. Charging remains costly because stations are underutilized. Unprofitable stations are not replaced and the total number of charging stations declines.

25 years later…

New car sales

gas

electric

Charging stations

Though sales initially grew, there were not enough cars in operation for the charging infrastructure to be sustained.

A negative feedback loop is created by the diminishing car sales causing the number of charging stations to fall, thus making new electric cars less desirable.

In this example, some new car buyers are interested, but there aren’t enough electric cars to make charging stations profitable, nor enough charging stations for drivers to realize the potential utility of owning an electric car.

Scenario 2

What if there were more charging stations?

In this scenario, consumers still have a choice between gas or electric models. They also receive the same $10,000 purchase incentive for five years.

However, policymakers decided on a robust infrastructure package that will install 100,000 charging stations, or twice as many.

5 years later…

New car sales

gas

electric

Charging stations

Sales of EVs increase as expected, though at nearly double the rate at this point than in Scenario 1. Will the charging infrastructure be enough for sales to continue to grow?

10 years later…

New car sales

gas

electric

Charging stations

Sales of electric cars dip, but do not disappear as before. Again, some unprofitable charging stations are removed but greater demand for charging due to more EVs on the road means other charging stations are profitable and remain.

25 years later…

New car sales

gas

electric

Charging stations

Electric car sales continue to grow. With more electric cars on the road, charging stations are in high demand and the total number of stations grows as well.

In the real world

These simple scenarios allow us to explore the dynamics at play in transitioning America’s consumer auto fleet.

While electric cars have grown more popular over the past decade, their adoption has been uneven. Critics of purchase incentives, like tax credits or rebates, say these policies only support consumers already able to afford the high cost of a new electric vehicle.

About two-thirds of households who own electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles earn more than $100,000.

Income of owners of electric or hybrid cars

Meanwhile, there are about 104,000 public charging plugs available in the U.S. and, according to a report by Mobilyze.ai, that is simply not enough.

The infrastructure bill that passed Congress in November 2021 includes a $7.5 billion investment to install a half million new charging stations across the U.S. The details are unclear as to where these stations will be installed, or if they will be distributed in underserved areas.

California - the U.S. state with the largest number of EVs and the most advanced charging infrastructure - is an example of how challenging that will be.

Lower-income areas in largely Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in California continue to be significantly less likely to have access to public chargers, a study by researchers at California's Humboldt State University found.

The infrastructure bill’s investment in charging infrastructure could be the turning point in the deployment of electric vehicles in the U.S. There were about 18.5 EVs per charger, but international benchmakers suggest that at least one charger is needed for every 10-15 EVs in addition to home charging.