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Mapping Canada’s Carbon Landscape

High-carbon landscapes play an important role in regulating the Earth’s climate by removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in natural ecosystems. If these ecosystems are disturbed, that stored carbon can be released back to the atmosphere, accelerating climate change.

A new study by WWF-Canada, led by scientists at McMaster University’s Remote Sensing Lab, has measured, for the first time, how much carbon is stored in Canada’s landscapes, and where the biggest stores can be found. The results are staggering: Canada stores a massive 405 Pg (that’s 405 billion tonnes) of carbon in its terrestrial ecosystems — equivalent to about 30 years of human-caused global greenhouse gas emissions at 2019 emission levels.

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How microorganisms can help us get to net negative emissions

Many of the common items we use in our everyday lives—from building materials to plastics to pharmaceuticals—are manufactured from fossil fuels. To reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, society has increasingly tried turning to plants to make the everyday products we need. For example, corn can be turned into corn ethanol and plastics, lignocellulosic sugars can be turned into sustainable aviation fuels, and paints can be made from soy oil. But what if plants could be removed from the picture, eliminating the need for water, fertilizer, and land? What if microbes could instead be harnessed to make fuels and other products? And what if these microbes could grow on carbon dioxide, thus simultaneously producing valuable goods while also removing a greenhouse gas from the atmosphere, all in one reactor? Too good to be true?

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The ‘Green Energy’ That Might Be Ruining the Planet

The biomass industry is warming up the South’s economy, but many experts worry it’s doing the same to the climate

Here’s a multibillion-dollar question that could help determine the fate of the global climate: If a tree falls in a forest—and then it’s driven to a mill, where it’s chopped and chipped and compressed into wood pellets, which are then driven to a port and shipped across the ocean to be burned for electricity in European power plants—does it warm the planet?

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Earth to reach temperature tipping point in next 20 to 30 years, new study finds

Earth’s ability to absorb nearly a third of human-caused carbon emissions through plants could be halved within the next two decades at the current rate of warming, according to a new study in Science Advances by researchers at Northern Arizona University, the Woodwell Climate Research Center and the University of Waikato, New Zealand. Using more than two decades of data from measurement towers in every major biome across the globe, the team identified a critical temperature tipping point beyond which plants’ ability to capture and store atmospheric carbon—a cumulative effect referred to as the “land carbon sink”—decreases as temperatures continue to rise.

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Warmer winters causing more ice-free lakes in Northern Hemisphere

Climate change is having a widespread effect on lakes across the Northern Hemisphere, a new study has found. The study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, examined 122 lakes from 1939 to 2016 in North America, Europe and Asia, and found that ice-free years have become more than three times more frequent since 1978. These ice-free years not only threaten the livelihoods of people who depend on them, but they also have the potential to cause deep ecological impacts. “Ecologically, ice acts as a reset button,” said Sapna Sharma, co-author of the study and an associate professor in the biology department at York University in Toronto. “In years you don’t have ice cover, the water temperatures are warmer in the summer. There’s a higher likelihood of algal blooms, some of which may be toxic. And it can really affect spawning times and can affect fish populations under the ice.”

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Clean Air Act saved 1.5 billion birds

US pollution regulations meant to protect humans from dirty air are also saving birds. So concludes a new continent-wide study. Study authors found that improved air quality under a federal program to reduce ozone pollution may have averted the loss of 1.5 billion birds during the past 40 years.

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In the Arctic, ‘everything is changing,’ massive animal tracking study finds

Animals across the Arctic are changing where and when they breed, migrate and forage in response to climate change, says a new study unveiling the massive scale of the change. The changes mean humans in the Arctic may have to adapt and adjust everything from hunting seasons to conservation to land use, according to scientists. “There’s changes everywhere you look — everything is changing,” said Gil Bohrer, corresponding author of the new study published online Thursday in the journal Science. The study describes the new Arctic Animal Movement Archive, which compiles data about the movements of 86 species from golden eagles to caribou to bowhead whales across the Arctic over three decades, combining the work of more than 100 universities, government agencies and conservation groups in 17 countries around the world, including more than a dozen in Canada. That allows researchers to observe changes on a scale they had never been able to before.

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World fails to meet a single target to stop destruction of nature – UN report

The world has failed to meet a single target to stem the destruction of wildlife and life-sustaining ecosystems in the last decade, according to a devastating new report from the UN on the state of nature.

From tackling pollution to protecting coral reefs, the international community did not fully achieve any of the 20 Aichi biodiversity targets agreed in Japan  in 2010 to slow the loss of the natural world. It is the second consecutive decade that governments have failed to meet targets.

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Two-fifths of plants at risk of extinction

Plant “species are disappearing faster than we can find and name them”, says Alexandre Antonelli, the director of science at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, which has released a report on the state of the world’s plants and fungi. Two-fifths of the world’s plants are at risk of extinction,  says the report. And some things are getting worse: almost 40% of vascular plants are under threat today, compared with 21% in 2016. We are “ignoring the potential treasure chest of wild species” that offers potential fuels, foods and medicines to humanity, says conservation scientist Colin Clubbe.

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Songbirds sing, like humans flock, for opioid reward

What do songbirds and humans have in common? We crave social interaction, and the chemical rewards that flood our brain when we get it. When songbirds sing during non-mating seasons, it’s because singing releases an opioid  naturally produced in their brain — a compound with the same biological makeup of the highly addictive painkillers.

The authors believe birds and mammals share the common ancestor in which these social rewards evolved, so there’s a chance parts of their work can be generalized to humans.

In this case, the importance of sociality to both humans and songbirds cannot be understated. When humans don’t receive enough social interaction, they might become depressed or experience other negative mental health conditions because their brains aren’t producing those endogenous chemicals anymore. For example, people with social anxiety might not want to hang out in social groups, because they might have negative interactions. By studying birds, maybe they can find ways to promote positive social interactions.

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Historic Amazon rainforest fires threaten climate and raise risk of new diseases

The fires in the Amazon region in 2019 were unprecedented in their destruction. Thousands of fires had burned more than 7,600 square kilometers by October that year.  In 2020, things are no better and, in all likelihood, may be worse.

Despite the surge in fires, international attention has waned in 2020, likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet the degradation of the Amazon rainforest has profound consequences from climate change to global health.

The Amazon rainforest covers approximately eight million square kilometers—an area larger than Australia—and is home to an astounding amount of biodiversity.

It helps balance the global carbon budget by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and plays a key role in the global water cycle, stabilizing global climate and rainfall. If the annual fires burning the Amazon are not curtailed, one of the world’s largest carbon sinks will progressively devolve into a carbon faucet, releasing more carbon dioxide than it sequesters.

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Damage uncovered on Antarctic glaciers reveals worrying signs for sea level rise

 A n ew study into the structural damage of two major Antarctic glaciers reveals that ice shelf weakening has rapidly evolved in recent years. Multi-satellite imagery identified damage areas, sparking concerns that structural weakening could lead to major ice shelf collapse in the decades to come. This collapse, in turn, reduces the glaciers’ ability to hold back major sections of the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet from running into the ocean.

Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier are located in the Amundsen Sea Embayment. The fastest-changing outlet glaciers in the region, they account for Antarctica’s largest contribution to global sea level rise. Scientists have anticipated for at least 20 years that these glaciers will be the first to respond to climate change. 

If the ice shelves of these two glaciers collapse, it could trigger large-scale disintegration of the nearby West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which holds enough ice to raise global sea level by about 10 feet. The glaciers provide a natural buffering system that is holding back the enormous ice sheet upstream, but if structural damage is weakening the ice shelves, rapid outflow into the ocean could occur in the coming years.

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As atmospheric carbon rises, so do rivers, adding to flooding

When it comes to climate change, relationships are everything. That’s a key takeaway of a new UO study that examines the interaction between plants, atmospheric carbon dioxide and rising water levels in the Mississippi River.

Using data covering more than two centuries, researchers demonstrated that as carbon levels in the atmosphere have risen due to the burning of fossil fuels, the ability of plants to absorb water from the air has decreased. That means more rainfall makes its way into rivers and streams, adding to their potential for damaging floods.

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Coal exit benefits outweigh its costs

Coal combustion is not only the single most important source of CO2, accounting for more than a third of global emissions, but also a major contributor to detrimental effects on public health and biodiversity. Yet, globally phasing out coal remains one of the hardest political nuts to crack. New computer simulations by an international team of researchers are now providing robust economic arguments for why it is worth the effort: For once, their simulations show that the world cannot stay below the 2 degrees limit if we continue to burn coal. Second, the benefits of phasing out coal clearly outweigh the costs. Third, those benefits occur mostly locally and short-term, which make them useful for policy makers.

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Yes, more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere helps plants grow, but it’s no excuse to downplay climate change

The alarming rate of carbon dioxide flowing into our atmosphere is affecting plant life in interesting ways—but perhaps not in the way you’d expect. Despite large losses of vegetation to land clearing, drought and wildfires, carbon dioxide is absorbed and stored in vegetation and soils at a growing rate.

This is called the “land carbon sink,” a term describing how vegetation and soils around the world absorb more carbon dioxide from photosynthesis than they release. And over the past 50 years, the sink (the difference between uptake and release of carbon dioxide by those plants) has been increasing, absorbing at least a quarter of human emissions in an average year.

The sink is getting larger because of a rapid increase in plant photosynthesis, and new research shows rising carbon dioxide concentrations largely drive this increase. So, to put it simply, humans are producing more carbon dioxide. This carbon dioxide is causing more plant growth, and a higher capacity to suck up carbon dioxide. This process is called the “carbon dioxide fertilization effect”—a phenomenon when carbon emissions boost photosynthesis and, in turn, plant growth.

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Microplastics: A macro problem

The amount of plastics accumulating in the environment has exploded since the end of World War II. The sharp exponential increase matches a rise in the rate of plastic production worldwide. Since the 1940s the amount of microscopic plastics has doubled about every 15 years.

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What to do when cutting emissions alone is no longer enough

Global emissions reach about 40 billion tons each year. The oceans and certain land features naturally absorb about half of the atmosphere’s carbon. But beyond that organic help, there remains a huge amount to contend with, something scientists have been addressing with a concept called negative emissions. Broadly, this means pulling CO2 out of the air and permanently storing it, often underground, where it originated.

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Methane emitted by humans vastly underestimated, researchers find

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas and large contributor to global warming. Methane emissions to the atmosphere have increased by approximately 150 percent over the past three centuries, but it has been difficult for researchers to determine exactly where these emissions originate; heat-trapping gases like methane can be emitted naturally, as well as from human activity. Researchers measured methane levels in ancient air samples and found that scientists have been vastly underestimating the amount of methane humans are emitting into the atmosphere via fossil fuels. In a paper published in Nature, the researchers indicate that reducing fossil fuel use is a key target in curbing climate change.

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Carbon emissions from energy ‘flat’ in 2019: IEA

The International Energy Agency shared some news that climate activists received with cautious optimism: after two straight years of increases, carbon emissions worldwide were flat in 2019. At about 33 gigatonnes, the figure was still significantly higher than what it was in 1995 (around 22 gigatonnes), which is why many environmentalists cautioned against complacency. According to the IEA, the biggest reason emissions didn’t rise is that developed countries are becoming less reliant on coal power.

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Greener spring, warmer air

Advanced leaf-out, or early sprouting and opening of leaves, is a direct response to climate change. In the northern hemisphere, leaf-out has advanced at a rate of 4-5 days per decade on average since 1980s, according to a synthesis of over 40 satellite-derived phenology studies across decades and regions. Scientists are curious to know if, in turn, this advancement would affect climate by modulating seasonal cycles of surface energy, water, and carbon budgets.

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More plastic is on the way: What it means for climate change

With the recent fracking boom causing low gas prices, fossil fuel companies are seeking other ways to bolster their profits—by making more plastic. Just as the world is starting to address its enormous plastic pollution problem, these companies are doubling down on plastic, with huge potential consequences for climate and the environment.

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Hundreds of bird species in India are declining

India’s first major report on the state of bird populations reveals declines in hundreds of species. The report was drawn from 10 million citizen-scientist observations on the bird-spotting app eBird. Birds of prey and waterbirds seem to have been hit particularly hard owing to habitat destruction, hunting and the pet trade.

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Restore soil to absorb billions of tonnes of carbon: study

Last year the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the world needed to work harder to retain the land’s ability to absorb and store planet-warming greenhouse gases and prevent it turning from a carbon sink to a source. Restoring and protecting the world’s soil could absorb more than five billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year—roughly what the US emits annually.

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New set of targets to protect the natural world

Science and scientists are converging around the knowledge that our planet, with us in the driver’s seat, is moving into the Anthropocene. This is a new geological epoch in which humanity’s actions are changing the face of the earth and how planetary systems—such as global nitrogen and phosphorus cycles – work. Key to mitigating our influence on the natural planet are goals and targets. The Sustainable Development Goals are overarching global societal goals established by the United Nations. They knit together other conventions, including those designed to protect biological diversity and mitigate climate change.

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Deaf moths evolved noise-cancelling scales to evade predators

Some species of deaf moths can absorb as much as 85 per cent of the incoming sound energy from predatory bats—who use echolocation to detect them. The findings, published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface today, reveal the moths, who are unable to hear the ultrasonic calls of bats, have evolved this clever defensive strategy to help it survive.

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Fallowing cattle-feed farmland simplest way to alleviate western water shortage

All over the world, the rate at which humans consume fresh water is now approaching or surpassing the rate at which water sources are being naturally replenished, creating water shortages for people and ecosystems. In the western US, water shortages are becoming more frequent and more severe, and are putting many species of fish inhabiting western rivers at risk—but the scarcity of water is also risking the growth of cities in the region like Los Angeles and Phoenix. An important new study published this week in Nature Sustainability finds that irrigated crop production accounts for 86 percent of all water consumed in the western US—and of all the water used on western farms, by far the largest portion goes to cattle-feed crops such as alfalfa and grass hay. To alleviate the severe shortage of water in the region—especially in the Colorado River basin—the study’s authors suggest that rotational fallowing farmland, leaving the land uncultivated for a period of time, could be a simple and affordable means of dramatically reducing water use in the region.

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Microplastics affect the survival of amphibians and invertebrates in river ecosystems

Concern about contamination caused by microplastics is growing; owing to their abundance, ubiquity and persistence over time, microplastics pose a potential risk for organisms and ecosystems. Yet studies into their distribution in freshwater systems in both lakes and rivers and their effects on the organisms in these waters are few and far between, and there is very little information about their potential effect on the functioning of these ecosystems.

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Recycling in the US is broken. How do we fix it?

Recycling in the U.S. is broken. In 1960, Americans generated 2.68 pounds of garbage per day; by 2017, it had grown to an average of 4.51 pounds. And while many Americans dutifully put items into their recycling bins, much of it does not actually end up being recycled. This post will explain why, and talk about potential solutions.

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Invisible plastics in water

A Washington State University research team has found that nanoscale particles of the most commonly used plastics tend to move through the water supply, especially in fresh water, or settle out in wastewater treatment plants, where they end up as sludge, in landfills, and often as fertilizer.

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Heat stress may affect more than 1.2 billion people annually by 2100

Heat stress from extreme heat and humidity will annually affect areas now home to 1.2 billion people by 2100, assuming current greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Rutgers study. That’s more than four times the number of people affected today, and more than 12 times the number who would have been affected without industrial era global warming. Rising global temperatures are increasing exposure to heat stress, which harms human health, agriculture, the economy and the environment. Most climate studies on projected heat stress have focused on heat extremes but not considered the role of humidity, another key driver.

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Why Canada should drop its net-zero pledge to cut carbon emissions

At the climate summit held in Paris in December 2015, the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed to reducing Canadian emissions of greenhouse gases (most importantly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels) to 30 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

Last fall, the prime minister made a new commitment, promising that by 2050 Canadian emissions would be net-zero. This means emissions would be drastically reduced and any remaining emissions would be offset by using negative emissions technologies, such as tree planting or carbon capture from the air, to take an equivalent amount of carbon out of the atmosphere.

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Grasshoppers and Climate Change

Carbon dioxide enrichment, as a result of climate change, is resulting in greater plant biomass, but at the same time, leading to nutrient dilution, a decreasing concentration of essential minerals in prairie grasses. Data collected over the past two decades showed the number of grasshoppers declining, most likely a result of declines in nutrient levels.

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3 reasons carbon capture and storage has stalled needlessly

The idea is simple: capture and concentrate CO2 before it’s released to the air and store it deep underground where it can’t escape. Instead of adding to the climate crisis, carbon capture and storage could turn power plants and factories into CO2-sucking behemoths, filling underground reservoirs that otherwise held fossil fuels or salty water.

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Tropical forests’ carbon sink is already rapidly weakening

The ability of the world’s tropical forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere is decreasing, according to a study tracking 300,000 trees over 30 years.

The global scientific collaboration, led by the University of Leeds, reveals that a feared switch of the world’s undisturbed tropical forests from a carbon sink to a carbon source has begun.

Intact tropical forests are well-known as a crucial global carbon sink, slowing climate change by removing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in trees, a process known as carbon sequestration. Climate models typically predict that this tropical forest carbon sink will continue for decades.

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Researchers find newly uncovered Arctic landscape plays important role in carbon cycle

As the ice sheet covering most of Greenland retreats, Florida State University researchers are studying the newly revealed landscape to understand its role in the carbon cycle. They explored the composition of dissolved organic carbon in the lakes and streams on the island and found that the newly thawed landscape was feeding these bodies of water with rich carbon sources. This dissolved organic carbon that forms the basis of the microbial food web was then degraded by the intense sunlight that comes during the summer months in Greenland.

“This was a first step toward making projections as the ice sheet retreats in Greenland, and what that means for carbon cycling, especially in aquatic environments in the region”.

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Emissions: world has four times the work or one-third of the time

The past decade of political failure on climate change has cost us all dear. It has shrunk the time left for action by two-thirds. In 2010, the world thought it had 30 years to halve global emissions of greenhouse gases. Today, we know that this must happen in ten years to minimize the effects of climate change. Incremental shifts that might once have been sufficient are no longer enough.

The further bad news is that, even taken together, the proposed climate action by all countries is a long way from meeting this requirement. Rather than halving emissions by 2030, countries’ climate proposals will lead to a slight increase. Worse still, individual countries are not on track to achieve commitments that were insufficient from the outset and are now woefully inadequate.

Fifteen scientists present a snapshot of what a wasted decade means for the climate pact made in Paris, and give a whirlwind tour of the ambitious actions that we must take to get back on track.

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The New Face of the Plastics Crisis

Newcastle University research has uncovered the presence of plastic in a new species of deep-sea amphipods which has been discovered in one of the deepest places on earth. The researchers officially named the species Eurythenes plasticus in reference to the plastic it has ingested. Before our plastic waste finds its way into the bodies of marine animals, it often undergoes a long journey. Plastic waste exports frequently end up in Southeast Asia, where waste management is often insufficient or non-existent. Because most of the plastic waste cannot be recycled, it will often get burned or dumped at repositories instead. From there it finds its way into rivers and, ultimately, into the ocean. Once in the water, plastic waste breaks apart into micro plastics and spreads through the ocean where it is ingested by marine animals such as E. plasticus.

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Rainforests losing ability to absorb carbon

Tropical trees are dying from heat and drought, destroying the forest’s ability to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Decades of measurements in hundreds of locations show that the uptake of carbon from the atmosphere by tropical forests has peaked — with the turning point in the early 1990s in the Amazon and around 2015 in Africa. If the trend is allowed to continue, the typical tropical forest could become a source of carbon emissions by the 2060s. “Humans have been lucky so far, as tropical forests are mopping up lots of our pollution,” says geographer Simon Lewis. “We need to curb fossil fuel emissions before the global carbon cycle starts working against us.”

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Why thawing permafrost matters

Permafrost is ground that remains frozen for two or more consecutive years. It is composed of rock, soil, sediments, and varying amounts of ice that bind the elements together. Some permafrost has been frozen for tens or hundreds of thousands of years. Found under a layer of soil, permafrost can be from three feet to 4,900 feet thick. It stores the carbon-based remains of plants and animals that froze before they could decompose. Scientists estimate that the world’s permafrost holds 1,500 billion tons of carbon, almost double the amount of carbon that is currently in the atmosphere. Unfortunately, when permafrost warms and thaws, it releases carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. As the global thermostat rises, permafrost, rather than storing carbon, could become a significant source of planet-heating emissions.

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