More than a decade after a tsunami destroyed the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on Japan’s Pacific coast, the country has begun releasing the treated wastewater that has been accumulating on the site of the disaster, sparking anger in the region despite assurances by scientists that the process will not be harmful to the environment.

The water being released into the Pacific has been largely decontaminated of most dangerous elements, but contains small amounts of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that cannot be extracted through any existing treatment method.

Water releases began in late August and will continue sporadically for decades as Japan works to reduce the amount of treated water on the site of the power plant. That water is currently stored in more than 800 tanks. Japanese officials say that it is necessary to drain and remove some of the tanks so that facilities necessary for the decommissioning of the plant can be built.

Japanese officials have gone to great lengths to demonstrate their confidence in the safety of the water surrounding Fukushima. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida appeared on television eating sashimi prepared from fish caught in the area after the water releases began.

Despite such displays, as well as assessments from experts, including the International Atomic Energy Agency, that the release of water will not cause harm to the environment, protests have arisen.

Japan and South Korea have been the sites of large demonstrations against the release. The Chinese government has been among the most vocal critics, accusing Japan of behaving irresponsibly and imposing a ban on the importation of Japanese seafood.

2011 disaster

The Fukushima power plant was devastated in 2011, after an earthquake off the coast of Japan generated a massive tidal wave that swept ashore on the east coast of Honshu Island, killing some 20,000 people and inundating entire cities. The wave disabled the systems that the plant used to keep nuclear fuel rods cool, resulting in a catastrophic meltdown of one of its reactors and the release of dangerous amounts of radiation.

The Japanese government was forced to evacuate tens of thousands of residents from the region and has been working ever since to mitigate the damage and prevent further contamination.

That process has involved an ongoing effort to keep the plant’s fuel rods cool, using seawater. The process causes the water to be contaminated by a number of radioactive elements. The water is retained on site and treated by what is known as the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS), which removes almost all contaminants, with the exception of tritium.

Nuclear experts measure the amount of tritium present in a substance using units called becquerels. According to the World Health Organization, water containing up to 10,000 becquerels of tritium per liter is considered safe to drink. The treated water discharged from the Fukushima plant is being diluted to the point that it contains approximately 190 becquerels of tritium per liter.

Other countries release tritium

Japan is not the only country to release water containing tritium into oceans and rivers. Many nations that rely on nuclear power for some of their energy supply similarly release treated wastewater.

Despite its criticism of Japan’s actions at Fukushima, at least four Chinese nuclear power plants also release water containing tritium into the ocean, all of them at significantly greater concentrations than in Fukushima.

Over the length of the plan, Japan expects 22 trillion becquerels of tritium per year to be released. According to data released by the Japanese government, China’s Qinshan Phase III Nuclear Power Plant in Zhejiang province released 143 trillion becquerels of tritium in 2020. Last year, the report said, China’s Yangjiang Nuclear Power Station in Guangdong province released 121 trillion, while two other plants released 102 trillion and 90 trillion, respectively.

Other countries with nuclear power plants that release tritium include South Korea, France, Russia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

There is no clear evidence that tritium-containing water has caused environmental damage or posed a danger to humans or wildlife in the areas where it has been released, in some cases for decades.

China’s opposition

The Chinese government has taken a very public stand against the Fukushima water releases, despite engaging in the same practice itself.

A statement released by the Chinese Foreign Ministry said, in part, “The ocean is the common property of all humanity, and forcibly starting the discharge of Fukushima’s nuclear wastewater into the ocean is an extremely selfish and irresponsible act that ignores international public interests.”

Criticism from Beijing has resulted in a concerted effort on the part of many Chinese citizens to bombard Japanese government agencies and businesses with abusive phone calls. In some cases, the near-constant barrage of calls has made it difficult for some businesses to conduct their normal operations.

Shihoko Goto, acting director of the Asia program at the Wilson Center, a Washington-based think tank, told VOA that China’s decision to focus so intently on the Fukushima water release is meant to demonstrate the significant “economic leverage” it has over Japan.

“It makes clear that Japan and the Japanese economy … [are] incredibly dependent on China,” she said.

The controversy has also served as a distraction at a time when the Chinese economy is stumbling badly.

“That’s been standard practice in China in the past. When things are going well, they don’t necessarily see the need to lash out,” she said. “But given the current circumstances, it’s certainly a way for China to distract from the real issues.”

Goto said it also demonstrates that “Chinese economic coercion is not going to be limited to small countries. It’s also prepared to go against the world’s third-largest economy.”  
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Chinese scientists have succeeded in growing kidneys containing human cells in pig embryos, a world first that could one day help address organ donation shortages.  

 

But the finding, published Thursday in a study in the journal Cell Stem Cell, raises ethical issues — especially since some human cells also were found in the pigs’ brains, experts said. 

 

The researchers from the Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health focused on kidneys since they are the most commonly transplanted in human medicine. 

 

“Rat organs have been produced in mice, and mouse organs have been produced in rats, but previous attempts to grow human organs in pigs have not succeeded,” senior author Liangxue Lai said in a statement. 

 

“Our approach improves the integration of human cells into recipient tissues and allows us to grow human organs in pigs.” 

 

This is a different approach to the recent high-profile breakthroughs in the United States, where genetically modified pig kidneys and even a heart have been placed inside humans. 

 

The new research paper “describes pioneering steps in a new approach to organ bioengineering using pigs as incubators for growing and cultivating human organs,” said Dusko Ilic, a professor of stem cell sciences at King’s College London who was not involved in the research. 

 

Ilic cautioned there would be many challenges to turning the experiment into a viable solution, but “nevertheless, this captivating strategy warrants further exploration.” 

 

Gene editing 

 

A major challenge in creating such hybrids has been that pig cells outcompete human cells.

To overcome the obstacles, the team used CRISPR gene editing to delete two genes essential for kidneys to form inside a pig embryo, creating what’s called a “niche.”

They then added specially prepared human pluripotent stem cells — cells that have the potential to develop into any cell type — that filled the niche. 

 

Before implanting the embryos in sows, they grew them in test tubes containing substances that nourished both the human and pig cells. 

 

In total, they transferred 1,820 embryos into 13 surrogate mothers. The pregnancies were terminated at 25 and 28 days to assess how the experiment had worked. 

 

Five embryos selected for analysis were found to have functionally normal kidneys for their stage of development. They contained between 50 and 60 percent human cells. 

 

“We found that if you create a niche in the pig embryo, then the human cells naturally go into these spaces,” said co-author Zhen Dai. 

 

“We saw only very few human neural cells in the brain and spinal cord and no human cells in the genital ridge.” 

 

But the presence of any human cells in the pig brains raises concerns, said Darius Widera, a professor of stem cell biology at England’s University of Reading. 

 

“Although this approach is a clear milestone and the first successful attempt to grow whole organs containing human cells in pigs, the proportion of human cells in the generated kidneys is still not high enough,” he said. 

 

In the long run, the team wants to optimize its technology for use in human transplantation but admits it’s not ready yet. 

 

An important limitation was the kidneys had pig-derived vascular cells, which could cause rejection if transplanted into a human. 

 

Nevertheless, the team is already working on growing other human organs in pigs, such as the heart and pancreas.
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Hurricane Lee whirled through open waters on Thursday as forecasters warned it could become the first Category 5 storm of the Atlantic season. 

Lee was not expected to make landfall while on a projected path that will take it near the northeast Caribbean, although forecasters said tropical storm conditions were possible on some islands. Meteorologists said it was too early to provide details on potential rainfall and wind gusts. 

The Category 4 hurricane was about 1,260 kilometers east of the northern Leeward Islands. It had winds of up to 215 kilometers per hour and was moving west-northwest at 24 kph. 

The storm was expected to grow even more powerful late Thursday and remain a major hurricane into next week. 

“Lee continues to strengthen at an exceptional rate,” the National Hurricane Center said. 

U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday was given the hurricane’s latest trajectory and details of preparations underway by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, which deployed unidentified assets to Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to the White House. 

Life-threatening surf was expected to hit the Lesser Antilles on Friday and reach the British and U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Bahamas and Bermuda this weekend, the center said. 

“We will see waves between 10 and 15 feet [3 and 5 meters], so we don’t want anyone on the beaches,” said Ernesto Morales with the National Weather Service in San Juan, Puerto Rico. 

The National Hurricane Center said dangerous surf and rip currents were forecast for most of the U.S. East Coast starting Sunday. 

Lee is the 12th named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30 and peaks in September. 

Tropical Storm Margot became the 13th named storm after forming on Thursday evening. It was about 465 kilometers west-northwest of the Cabo Verde Islands. It had winds of up to 65 kph and was forecast to strengthen into a hurricane over the weekend. It was moving west-northwest at 28 kph and was expected to remain over open water. 

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in August forecast 14 to 21 named storms this season, with six to 11 of them expected to become hurricanes, and of those, two to five possibly developing into major hurricanes. 

In the Pacific, Hurricane Jova churned through open waters far from Mexico’s southwest coast as a Category 4 storm. It posed no threat to land. 

It was about 965 kilometers southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, and was moving west-northwest at 28 kph with winds up to 230 kph. The storm was expected to weaken starting late Thursday. 
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As delegates gather in Kenya for the inaugural Africa Climate Summit, seeking ways to combat the effects of climate change, activists are screening films illustrating the impacts of global warming in Africa and calling for climate justice for the continent. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi. Camera — Amos Wangwa
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Earth has sweltered through its hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever measured, with a record warm August capping a season of brutal and deadly temperatures, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Last month was not only the hottest August scientists ever recorded by far with modern equipment, it was also the second hottest month measured, behind only July 2023, WMO and the European climate service Copernicus announced Wednesday.

August was about 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial averages. That is the threshold that the world is trying not to pass, though scientists are more concerned about rises in temperatures over decades, not merely a blip over a month’s time.

The world’s oceans — more than 70% of the Earth’s surface — were the hottest ever recorded, nearly 21 C, and have set high temperature marks for three consecutive months, the WMO and Copernicus said.

“The dog days of summer are not just barking, they are biting,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. “Climate breakdown has begun.”

So far, 2023 is the second hottest year on record, behind 2016, according to Copernicus.

Scientists blame ever warming human-caused climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas with an extra push from a natural El Nino, which is a temporary warming of parts of the Pacific Ocean that changes weather worldwide. Usually an El Nino, which started earlier this year, adds extra heat to global temperatures but more so in its second year.

Climatologist Andrew Weaver said the numbers announced by WMO and Copernicus come as no surprise, bemoaning how governments have not appeared to take the issue of global warming seriously enough. He expressed concern that the public will just forget the issue when temperatures fall again.

“It’s time for global leaders to start telling the truth,” said Weaver, a professor at the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of Victoria in Canada. “We will not limit warming to 1.5 C; we will not limit warming to 2.0 C. It’s all hands on deck now to prevent 3.0 C global warming — a level of warming that will wreak havoc worldwide.”

Copernicus, a division of the European Union’s space program, has records going back to 1940, but in the United Kingdom and the United States, global records go back to the mid-1800s and those weather and science agencies are expected to soon report that the summer was a record-breaker.

“What we are observing, not only new extremes but the persistence of these record-breaking conditions, and the impacts these have on both people and planet, are a clear consequence of the warming of the climate system,” Copernicus Climate Change Service Director Carlo Buontempo said.

Scientists have used tree rings, ice cores and other proxies to estimate that temperatures are now warmer than they have been in about 120,000 years. The world has been warmer before, but that was before human civilization, seas were much higher and the poles were not icy.

So far, daily September temperatures are higher than what has been recorded before for this time of year, according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer.

While the world’s air and oceans were setting records for heat, Antarctica continued to set records for low amounts of sea ice, the WMO said.

“Antarctic sea ice extent was literally off the charts, and the global sea surface temperature was once again at a new record,” WMO’s secretary-general, Petteri Taalas, said in a statement released to the media. “It is worth noting that this is happening BEFORE we see the full warming impact of the El Nino event, which typically plays out in the second year after it develops.”

A strong El Nino coincided with the all-time high temperatures in 2016. The U.N. weather agency earlier this year rolled out predictions that suggest Earth would within the next five years have a year that averages 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than in the mid-19th century. Each year at or near 1.5 matters.

It also predicted 98% chance of breaking the 2016 record between now and 2027.

The new readings on high global temperatures came as WMO released Wednesday its latest bulletin on air quality and climate, noting that extreme heat, compounded by wildfires and desert dust, has had a measurable impact on air quality, human health and the environment.

WMO scientific adviser Lorenzo Labrador lamented the deteriorating air quality around the globe and cited “record-breaking wildfire season” in many parts of the world, including western Canada and Europe.

“If heat waves increase as a result of El Nino, we may probably expect a further degradation in air quality as a whole,” he said. 
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Green hydrogen is being touted around the world as a clean energy solution to take the carbon out of high-emitting sectors like transport and industrial manufacturing.

The India-led International Solar Alliance launched the Green Hydrogen Innovation Centre earlier this year, and India itself approved $2.3 billion for the production, use and export of green hydrogen. Global cooperation on green hydrogen manufacturing and supply is expected to be discussed by G20 leaders at this week’s summit in New Delhi.

What is green hydrogen?

Hydrogen is produced by separating that element from others in molecules where hydrogen occurs. For example, water — well known by its chemical symbol of H20, or two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom — can be split into those component atoms through electrolysis.

Hydrogen has been produced and used at scale for over a century, primarily to make fertilizers and plastics and to refine oil. It has mostly been produced using fossil fuels, especially natural gas.

But when the production is powered by renewable energy, the resulting hydrogen is green hydrogen.

The global market for green hydrogen is expected to reach $410 billion by 2030, according to analysts, which would more than double its current market size.

However, critics say the fuel is not always viable at scale and its “green” credentials are determined by the source of energy used to produce it.

What can green hydrogen be used for?

Green hydrogen can have a variety of uses in industries such as steelmaking, concrete production and manufacturing chemicals and fertilizers. It can also be used to generate electricity, as a fuel for transport and to heat homes and offices. Today, hydrogen is primarily used in refining petrol and manufacturing fertilizers. While petrol would have no use in a fossil fuel-free world, emissions from making fertilizer — essential to grow crops that feed the world — can be reduced by using green hydrogen.

Francisco Boshell, an energy analyst at the International Renewable Energy Agency in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, is optimistic about green hydrogen’s role in the transition to clean energy, especially in cases where energy from renewables like solar and wind can’t practically be stored and used via battery — like aviation, shipping and some industrial processes.

He said hydrogen’s volatility — it is highly flammable and requires special pipelines for safe transport — means most green hydrogen will likely be used close to where it is made.

Are there doubts about green hydrogen?

That flammability plus transport issues limit hydrogen’s use in “dispersed applications” such as residential heating, according to a report by the Energy Transitions Commission, a coalition of energy leaders committed to net-zero emissions by 2050. It also is less efficient than direct electrification as some energy is lost when renewables are converted to hydrogen and then the hydrogen is converted again to power, the report said.

That report noted strong potential for hydrogen as an alternative to batteries for energy storage at large scale and for long periods.

Other studies have questioned the high cost of production, investment risks, greater need for water than other clean power and the lack of international standards that hinders a global market.

Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, who also sits on New York’s Climate Action Council, said green hydrogen is being oversold in part due to lobbying by the oil and gas industry.

Boshell, of the International Renewable Energy Agency, disagreed. His organization has projected hydrogen demand will grow to 550 million tons by 2050, up from the current 100 million tons.

The International Renewable Energy Agency says production of hydrogen is responsible for around 830 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. Boshell said just replacing this so-called gray hydrogen — hydrogen produced from fossil fuels — would ensure a long-term market for green hydrogen.

“The first thing we have to do is start replacing the existing demand for gray hydrogen,” he said. “And then we can add additional demand and applications of green hydrogen as a fuel for industries, shipping and aviation.”
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Israeli archaeologists on Wednesday displayed four Roman-era swords and a javelin discovered inside a cave in the Judean desert, where they had been preserved for nearly 1,900 years.

The archaeologists said the ancient weapons were believed to have been used during the Bar Kokhba revolt of Jews against the Romans in the second century.

“It’s a very unique and important discovery, which is unprecedented in Israel,” Eitan Klein, director of Israel Antiquities Authority, told journalists at an event showcasing the weapons.

“We suppose that Jewish rebels took the weapons as booty from Roman units or they were collected in the battlefield and they were hidden in a cave as a cache of swords to be used or reused in future battles.”

The weapons were found in June, deeply wedged behind a wall of stalactites and preserved in wood and leather scabbards.

Without specifying the location for fear of lootings, Klein said the discovery was made on Israeli territory in an area close to the Ein Gedi natural reserve.

“We are just beginning to understand what these could be,” said Guy Stiebel, professor at the Tel Aviv University who specializes in the Roman empire.

“It’s not just about the Jews: it’s about the Romans; it’s about the whole Roman empire.”

Stiebel said the weapons were well preserved with their iron blades, sheaths and handles still intact.

“The fact that the climate is so arid and dry in the Judean desert enables us every now and then to discover such discoveries,” he said.

Archaeology is a highly political subject in Israel and the Palestinian territories, and some discoveries have been used to justify the territorial claims of each side.
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Researchers at Oregon State University have developed a process that uses polluted water to produce hydrogen while purifying the water at the same time. VOA’s Julie Taboh reports on advances in the fossil fuel alternative.
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Greece is working with Israel on developing artificial intelligence technology that would help in early detection of dangerous wildfires, the Greek prime minister said Monday.

After talks with his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu and Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides in the Cypriot capital of Nicosia, Kyriakos Mitsotakis also said that Israel could be brought into the European Union fold when it comes to civil protection initiatives to better coordinate firefighting efforts.

Israel and Cyprus are among several countries that have dispatched firefighting aircraft and crews to help battle wildfires in Greece that consumed vast tracts of forest over the last two months, including the EU’s largest such blaze on record that claimed the lives of 20 people.

Mitsotakis said Greece could act as a proving ground for Israeli AI technology in the early detection of wildfires.

“We are already talking to Israel about AI-based solutions that will offer us early detection capabilities,” added Mitsotakis.

Netanyahu said the three leaders discussed “going well beyond” dispatching firefighting aircraft and crews by deploying AI systems for early detection.

“This is really one of those areas where when we say we’ll do it better together, there’s no question that that’s the case,” Netanyahu said.

The three leaders said they delved into how to harness recent natural gas discoveries in Israeli and Cypriot waters of the Mediterranean Sea. Netanyahu said decisions on how Israel and Cyprus will export natural gas to foreign markets will have to be made within the next three to six months.

Israel and Cyprus are looking into plans for a pipeline that would convey offshore natural gas from both countries to the east Mediterranean island nation where it would be liquefied for export by ship.

“We agreed that natural gas and renewable energy is a prime pillar of cooperation in the region, especially in light of the recent geopolitical developments and energy insecurity, especially in Europe, dictating the need for energy diversification and increase interconnectivity,” Christodoulides said.

Another project the three leaders expressed keen interest in was an undersea electricity cable stretching 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) that would link the power grids of Israel, Cyprus and mainland Greece.

“That’s something that we’re eagerly interested in pursuing, and we discussed … [including] the mechanism of how to advance this,” said Netanyahu.

Energy has been the focus of a series of ongoing meetings between the three leaders to deepen their countries’ ties since 2016, which Mitsotakis said reflected their importance on the political, economic and other levels.
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Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida announced Monday a 20.7 billion yen ($141 million) emergency fund to help exporters hit by a ban on Japanese seafood imposed by China in response to the release of treated radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.

The discharge of the wastewater into the ocean began Aug. 24 and is expected to continue for decades. Japanese fishing associations and groups in neighboring countries have strongly opposed the release, and China immediately banned all imports of Japanese seafood. Hong Kong has banned Japanese seafood from Fukushima and nine other prefectures.

Chinese trade restrictions have affected Japanese seafood exporters since even before the release began, with shipments held up at Chinese customs for weeks. Prices of scallops, sea cucumbers and other seafood popular in China have plunged. The ban has affected prices and sales of seafood from places as far away from Fukushima as the northern island of Hokkaido, home to many scallop growers.

Kishida said the emergency fund is in addition to 80 billion yen ($547 million) that the government previously allocated to support fisheries and seafood processing and combat damage to the reputation of Japanese products.

“We will protect the Japanese fisheries industry at all costs,” Kishida said, asking people to help by serving more seafood at dinner tables and other ways.

The money will be used to find new markets for Japanese seafood to replace China and fund government purchases of seafood for temporary freezing and storage. The government will also seek to expand domestic seafood consumption.

Officials said they plan to cultivate new export destinations in Taiwan, the United States, Europe, the Middle East and some southeast Asian countries — such as Malaysia and Singapore.

Kishida talked with workers at Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market last Friday to assess the impact of China’s ban and pledged to protect Japan’s seafood industry.

Kishida heads to Indonesia Tuesday to attend the annual summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, where he may face criticism over the wastewater release from Chinese Premier Li Qian, who is also attending.

Large amounts of radioactive wastewater have accumulated at the Fukushima plant since a massive earthquake and tsunami in 2011 destroyed its cooling systems and caused three reactors to melt.

All seawater and fish samples taken since the release of the treated wastewater began have been way below set safety limits for radioactivity, Japanese officials and the plant operator say.

Mainland China is the biggest overseas market for Japanese seafood, accounting for 22.5% of the total, followed by Hong Kong with 20%, making the ban a major blow for the fisheries industry.

Seafood exports are a fraction of Japan’s total exports, and the ban’s impact on overall trade will be limited unless tensions escalate and China widens its restrictions to other trade sectors, said Takahide Kiuchi, executive economist at Nomura Research Institute.

Beijing is angry over U.S. trade controls that limit China’s access to semiconductor processor chips and other U.S. technology on security grounds. Japan has also curbed exports of chipmaking technology. Such restrictions imposed by Tokyo and possible future steps could cause an escalation of Chinese trade bans against Japan, Kiuchi said.

“Taking into consideration such risks, the Japanese government needs to carefully think about how to deal with worsening ties with China, not just over the treated water discharge but also how it should cooperate with the United States in areas of investment and trade restrictions with China,” Kiuchi said in a recent analysis.
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Nuclear fusion has excited scientists for decades with its potential to produce abundant carbon-free energy. In the Pacific Northwest state of Washington, one startup is hoping to win the race to develop the technology that finally makes that power available to consumers. From Seattle, Phil Dierking has our story. (Camera and Produced by: Philip Dierking)
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With their outsized ears and fluffy fur, rabbits are often seen as cute and harmless. Yet the creature is behind one of the globe’s most harmful biological invasions, ravaging Australia, whose efforts to limit the problem have tended only to make things worse. 

Back in 1859, a mere 24 European breeding rabbits, scientific name Oryctolagus cuniculus, disembarked from England, brought over by Thomas Austin, who enjoyed hunting parties on his Victoria estate.  

But 150 years on, and according to a 2022 study by PNAS, a peer reviewed journal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, some 200 million rabbit colonizers now roam the land of the kangaroo, devouring vegetation as they go, laying waste to native plant species, causing habitat degradation and threatening the survival of numerous native species. 

With as many as seven annual litters — each with an average of five offspring who reach sexual maturity from the age of 3-4 months — the rabbit can spread its presence very quickly. 

From its early years Down Under, the creature benefited from the general absence of predators and its ability to adapt to its new climate. 

That enabled it to spread out by some 110 kilometers (65 miles) a year. Within 70 years, it had occupied around 70 percent of Australia’s land mass.  

That made it “the fastest known invasion by a mammal anywhere in the world,” according to a report by Australia’s national science agency CSIRO.   

Counting the cost   

The rabbit may look small and placid — yet it is voracious in the extreme. Herbs, bulbs, seeds, shrubs — its appetite extends to all kinds of herbaceous plant. This contributes to desertification of the outback, deprives other species of food and also eats away at crops. 

The agricultural and horticultural damage wrought by the critters comes in at some 200 million Australian dollars ($130 million) each year, according to the Western Australian ministry for agriculture and food. 

As such, for more than a century now, the authorities have been doing all they can to try to limit the damage. 

Intensive hunting, traps, bulldozers to destroy burrows, poison or even explosives — everything has been tried. But the rabbit has resisted, and its numbers have progressed. 

In 1901, Australia decided to construct an 1,800 kilometer-long (1,118 miles) barrier in a bid to stop the furry creatures proliferating to the country’s western agricultural lands. 

Yet by the time construction was completed, rabbits had already reached the other side. An extension followed, then another, taking the fence to beyond 3,000 km (about 1864 miles) of barriers and fences. All in vain.  

Australia tried plan B — introducing predators, such as the fox. 

The “cure” proved to be worse than the disease. It turned out the fox preferred to target easier prey such as small marsupials — endemic to the country and already threatened with extinction. 

Classic cases  

In the 1950s, science was recruited to come to the rescue. 

The myxomatosis virus, a disease which causes fatal tumors in rabbits, was introduced into the country. To begin with, success looked to have been achieved, the rabbit population going from 600 million down to 100 million. But it managed to adapt and ended up developing resistance to a virus which gradually became ineffective. 

Australia tried a new angle of attack some years later: the Spanish flea, supposed to spread disease among rabbits. 

Again, the plan failed. Worse still, the parasite infected other species. 

In 1995, a new attempt at eradication followed, via a hemorrhagic fever virus, which ended up worrying the scientific community amid fears it might mutate. 

Very effective against rabbits, this highly contagious pathogen can further spread quickly to other countries via mosquitoes. Two years later, it arrived in New Zealand, likewise also laboring under a rabbit invasion. 

If Australia thought that might have been a price worth paying, there would soon be disabused. 

The stoat, introduced as a predator to the rabbit left deprived as the population dropped, fell back on targeting the kiwi, a bird endemic to the island which became threatened in turn. 

Both Australia and New Zealand represent classic cases in terms of what not to do regarding the introduction and management of invasive species, says Elaine Murphy, principal scientist at New Zealand’s Department of Conservation and an expert on introduced mammals and the threats to diversity they pose. 

While rabbit numbers look to have stabilized, now under 300 million — the Australian government says it is maintaining research into means of permanently stemming the propagation problem. 
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