GEOG 101: DAYS 17-18Climate Change (cont’d) and Fossil Fuels

See http://libguides.viu.ca/workshops for workshops on how to do your research more effectively and spend less time. They start today!

Housekeeping Items

• We will finish the slides on climate change and start in on fossil fuels.

• Innovative Ways to Change the World

Do you want to make a difference? Do you care about the world we live in? Join us to hear community crusader, author and founder of the Nyaka Aids Orphan Project: Jackson Kaguri. The Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project is working on behalf of HIV/AIDS orphans in rural Uganda to end systemic deprivation, poverty and hunger through a holistic approach to community development, education, and healthcare.

Date: November 5, 2014Time: 1 pm - 3 pmLocation: Nanaimo Campus, Bldg 255, Room 170

Housekeeping Items

• Also on Wednesday, there will be a showing of the film, “Chasing Ice,” about a filmmaker who travels the world looking at the effect of climate change on glacier and polar ice cap recession.

• It’s at 6 p.m. in Building 355, Room 203.• For more information, see http://www.chasingice.com/

Housekeeping Items

• On Thursday, I would like to do a role play modeling an international conference on climate change solutions. I will break you into four groups today: 1) Canada and the U.S.; 2) China; 3) developing countries most affected by climate change, and 4) leaders in renewable energy (Sweden and Germany, etc.).

• Your job will be to first determine what your position would be at an international conference and why -- research it between now and then)? Prepare a short speech for everyone. Give your speech. Offer rebuttals to what you hear, and then offer what would acceptable solutions for you. I will give you time at the beginning of class to get organized in your group and decide who’s going to do what.

BC’s Carbon Tax

• On 1 July 2008, BC brought in North America’s first carbon tax shift. It imposed a price on the use of carbon- based fuels, with all the revenues going to fund corresponding cuts in other taxes.

• BC’s carbon tax infrastructure is still in place, and though Christy Clark signed a carbon agreement with Washington, Oregon, and California in October 2013 -- http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_24406734/california-oregon-washington-and-british-columbia-sign-climate

-- she recently eliminated the target for reducing greenhouse gas reductions by 33 percent below 2007 levels by 2020, and has abolished the independence of the BC Carbon Trust.

BC’s Carbon Tax

• BC’s carbon tax shift was designed to be “revenue neutral”; all the revenues are to be used to reduce other taxes – mainly through cuts to income taxes (personal and corporate), as well as targeted tax relief for vulnerable households and communities – resulting in no overall increase in taxation • When introduced in 2008, the tax was initially set at $10 per tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). It was designed to rise by $5 per year thereafter until it reached $30 per tonne (roughly 7 cents per litre of gas) in 2012.

BC’s Carbon Tax

• A recent report’s key findings are that:• Since the carbon tax took effect (July 1, 2008), BC’s fuel consumption has fallen by 17.4% per capita (and fallen by 18.8% relative to the rest of Canada). • These reductions have occurred across all the fuel types covered by the tax (not just vehicle fuel) • BC’s GDP kept pace with the rest of Canada’s over that time.

BC’s Carbon Tax

• The tax shift has enabled BC to have Canada’s lowest income tax rates (as of 2012). • The tax shift has benefited taxpayers; cuts to income and other taxes have exceeded carbon tax revenues by $500 million from 2008-12.

• Stewart Elgie, Professor of law and economics at University of Ottawa, and the report’s lead author, says: “BC’s experience shows that it is possible to have both a healthier environment and a strong economy -- by taxing pollution and lowering income taxes.”

© 2010 Pearson Education Canada

16Fossil Fuels:

Energy Use and Impacts

PowerPoint® Slides prepared by Stephen Turnbull

Copyright © 2013 Pearson Canada Inc.

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Upon successfully completing this chapter, you will be able to

• Identify the principal energy sources that we use• Describe the nature and origin of coal and evaluate its

extraction and use• Describe the nature and origin of natural gas and evaluate its

extraction and use • Describe the nature and origin of oil and evaluate its

extraction, use, and future availability• Describe the nature, origin, and potential of alternative fossil

fuel types and technologies• Outline and assess environmental impacts of fossil fuel use• Evaluate political, social, and economic impacts of fossil fuel

use • Specify strategies for conserving energy and enhancing

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Central Case: On, Off, On Again? The MacKenzie Valley Natural Gas Pipeline

• Proposal to develop three major natural gas fields• Delayed 10 years because of deep opposition• Many who opposed the pipeline became supporters• Potential effects: fragmentation of habitat, damage breeding

areas, deforestation, increase GHG emissions• Natural gas from the region may go straight into the

production of oil from Alberta’s tar sands

“We’ve embarked on the beginning of the last days of the age of oil.”

– Mike Bowlin, Chair, ARCO

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Sources of Energy

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We use a variety of energy sources

• Renewable energy = supplies of energy will not be depleted by our use • Sunlight, geothermal energy, and tidal energy

• Nonrenewable energy = at our current rates of consumption we will use up Earth’s accessible store of these sources in a matter of decades to centuries • Oil, coal, natural gas, nuclear energy (uranium)• To replenish the fossil fuels we have depleted so far would

take millions of years (we have consumed half of what it took 50 to 300 million years to create in approximately 125 years!)

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We use a variety of energy sources (cont’d)

• Fossil fuels = highly combustible substances formed from remains of organisms from past geologic ages

• Electricity = a secondary form of energy that is easier to transfer and apply to a variety of uses

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We use a variety of energy sources (cont’d)

• Nonrenewable• Crude oil • Natural gas • Coal• Nuclear energy (uranium)

• Renewable • Biomass energy • Hydropower • Solar energy • Wind Energy • Geothermal energy • Tidal and wave energy • Chemical fuels (wood, dung, methane from biogas digesters,

biofuels)

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See charts about nuclear energy from CAG

Fossil fuels are indeedcreated from fossils

• Fossil fuels we burn today were formed from the tissues of organisms that lived 100-500 million years ago

• Fossil fuels are produced only when organic materials is broken down in an anaerobic environment = one that has little or no oxygen• Bottoms of deep lakes,

swamps, and shallow seas • Organic matter is eventually

converted into crude oil, natural gas, or coal.

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Fossil fuels were formed from plants and animals that lived 300 million years ago in primordial swamps and oceans (top). Over time the plants and animals died and decomposed under tons of rock and ancient seas (middle). Eventually, many of the seas receded and left dry land with fossil fuels like coal buried underneath it (bottom). Ten feet of prehistoric plant debris was needed to make one foot of coal.

Fossil fuel reserves are unevenly distributed

• Some regions have substantial reserves, whereas others have very few

• How long a nation’s reserves will last depends on:• How much the nation extracts, consumes• How much it imports from and exports to other nations• Nearly 67% of the world’s proven reserves of crude oil lie

in the Middle East• The U.S. possesses more coal than any other nation

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Developed nations consume more energy than developing nations

• Industrialized nations• Use energy for transportation, industry, and domestic and institutional uses

• Developing nations • Use energy for subsistence activities • Agriculture, food preparation, and home heating• Often uses human manual or animal energy instead of fossil fuel-driven machines

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Regions vary greatly in energy consumption

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It takes energy to make energy

• Net energy = the difference between energy returned and energy invested• Net energy = energy returned – energy invested

• Energy returned on investment (EROI) = energy returned/energy invested• Higher ratios mean we receive more energy than we invest• Ratios decline when we extract the easiest deposits first and now

must work harder to extract the remaining reserves

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Coal, Natural Gas, and Oil

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Coal is the world’s most abundant fossil fuel

• Coal = organic matter (woody plant material) that was compressed under very high pressure to form dense, solid carbon structures

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Coal use has a long history

• The Romans used coal for heating in the second and third centuries in Britain

• The Chinese have used coal for 2,000 - 3,000 years• Commercial mining began in the 1700s

• The invention of the steam engine expanded coal’s market

• Coal helped drive the Industrial Revolution and the steel industry

• In the 1880s, people used coal to generate electricity• Fossil fuel dependence has allowed a temporary “economy on steroids”

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Coal is mined from the surface and from below ground

• Subsurface mining = underground deposits are reached by digging networks of tunnels deep underground

• Strip mining = heavy machinery removes huge amounts of earth to expose and extract the coal

• Mountaintop removal = in some cases, entire mountaintops are cut off to obtain the coal 16-25

Coal varies in its qualities• Coal varies from place to place• Peat = organic material that is broken down anaerobically

but remains wet, near the surface and not well compressed• Widely used as a fuel in Britain

• Four types of coal• Lignite = least compressed• Sub-bituminous and bituminous• Anthracite = most compressed; has the most energy

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Coal varies in its qualities (cont’d)

• Coal contains impurities• Sulfur, mercury, arsenic, and other trace metals

• Sulfur content depends on whether coal was formed in salt water or

freshwater

• Coal in eastern Canada (and China) is high in sulfur because it was formed in

marine sediments

• When high-sulfur coal is burned, it released sulfate air pollutants, which

contribute to smog and acidic deposition, in addition to greenhouse

gases

• Mercury can bioaccumulate

• Ways to reduce pollution must be found

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Natural gas is the fastest-growing fossil fuel in use today

• Natural gas consists primarily of methane, CH4, and varying amounts of other volatile hydrocarbons

• Can be liquid at ambient pressures and temperatures in subsurface reservoirs (Christy Clark’s fantasy is to link the province’s entire economy to LNG exports)

• Provides 25% of global commercial energy consumption• World supplies are projected to last about 60 more years,

but we’re already increasingly relying on “fracking” to get the gas out.

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Natural gas takes a variety of forms

• Biogenic gas = created at shallow depths by bacterial anaerobic decomposition of organic matter• “swamp gas”

• Thermogenic gas = results from compression and heat deep underground

• Kerogen = organic matter that results when carbon bonds begin breaking • Source material for natural gas and crude oil

• Coalbed methane = methane from coal seams, leaks to the atmosphere during mining

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Natural gas has only recently been widely used

• The first commercial extraction occurred in 1821 but was only used locally, because it could not be transferred safely

• First used to light street lamps, then for heating and cooking

• After thousands of miles of pipes were laid, natural gas transport became safer and more economical

• Liquefied natural gas (LNG) = liquid gas that can be shipped long distances in refrigerated tankers; BC is betting its economic and financial future on LNG exports

• Canada is the world’s third-largest producer of natural gas

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Natural gas extraction becomes more challenging with time

• The first gas fields simply required an opening and the gas moved upward

• Most remaining fields require pumping by horsehead pumps

• Gas is accessed by sophisticated techniques such as fracturing technique, which pumps high-pressure salt water and toxic chemicals into rocks to crack them• Fracking – extensive environmental impacts, including potentially on local water tables

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Fracking is controversial as with the recent confrontations in New Brunswick between Mikmaq and the police over the issue

Offshore drilling produces much of ourgas and oil

• Drilling takes place on land and in the seafloor on the continental shelves

• Platforms are either strong fixed platforms or floating platforms, as with Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico

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Oil is the world’s most-used fuel

• People have used solid forms of oil (i.e., tar) for thousands of years

• Modern extraction and use began in the 1850s• First bottled and sold as a healing aid, but it is

carcinogenic• This “rock oil” could be used lamps and as a lubricant• Edwin Drake drilled the world’s first oil well, in

Titusville, Pennsylvania, in 1859• Canadians – less than 0.005% of the world’s

population – consume 2.5% of the oil – 500 times the global average

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Heat and pressure underground form petroleum

• Oil, crude oil, or petroleum (oil and natural gas)• Crude oil = a mixture of hundreds of different types of

hydrocarbon molecules• Formed 1.5 - 3 km (1 - 2 mi) underground • Dead organic material was buried in marine sediments and transformed

by time, heat, and pressure

• Refineries separate crude oil into components such as gas, tar, and asphalt

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Petroleum geologists infer the location and size of deposits• Geologists map underground rock formations• Technically recoverable oil reveals the oil that could be

extracted with current technology• Economically recoverable oil recognizes the balance

between the costs of extraction, transportation and current price of oil

• Proven recoverable reserve = oil that is technologically and economically feasible to remove under current conditions

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We drill to extract oil

• Exploratory drilling = small, deep holes to determine whether extraction should be done

• Oil is under pressure and often rises to the surface• Primary extraction = the initial drilling and pumping of available oil• Secondary extraction = solvents, water, or stream is used to remove

additional oil; expensive• We lack the technology to remove every bit of oil• As prices rise, it can become economical to reopen a well

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Primary and secondary oil extraction

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BP’s Deepwater Horizon could operate in 10,000 feet of water.

Petroleum products have many uses

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We may have already depleted half our oil reserves

• Some people calculate that we have used up about 1.1 trillion barrels of oil

• Reserves-to-production ratio (R/P ratio) = the amount of total remaining reserves divided by the annual rate of production (extraction and processing)• At current levels of production (30 billion barrels/year), we have about

40 years of oil left

• We will face a crisis not when we run out of oil, but when the rate of production begins to decline (i.e. ‘peak oil’)

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Peak Oil

production de

man

d

peak oil

crunch time

See http://www.oildecline.com/

Hubbard’s peak = Geologist M. King Hubbard predicted that U.S. oil production would peak around 1970 (it did)

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Geologist Kenneth Deffeyes contends that we already passed peak global production in 2005

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The end of oil

• How do you think your life would be affected if our society were to suffer a 50% decrease in oil avail-ability over the next 10 years, as some observers have predicted? (see National Geographic’s “Aftermath: A World Without Oil” – possibly on Youtube.com)

• What steps would you take to adapt to these changes?

• What steps should our society take to deal with the coming depletion of oil?

• Do you think the recent surges in the price of oil and gasoline are an indication that such changes are beginning?

weighing

the issues

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“Unconventional” Fossil Fuels

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Canada owns massive deposits of oil sands• Oil sands (tar sands) = sand deposits with 1 - 20%

bitumen, a thick form of petroleum rich in carbon, poor in hydrogen• Degraded and chemically altered crude oil deposits• Removed by strip mining

• Requires special extraction and refining processes to become useful

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Oil shale is abundant in the American West

• Oil shale = sedimentary rock filled with kerogen (organic matter) that can be processed to produce liquid petroleum• Can be burned like coal or baked in hydrogen (called prylosis) to

produce liquid petroleum

• More than 40% is found in the U.S., mostly on federally owned land in the west

• Low prices for crude oil have kept investors away • As oil prices increase, oil shale is attracting attention

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Methane hydrate is another form of natural gas

• Methane hydrate (methane ice) = molecules of methane in a crystal lattice of water ice molecules

• Occurs in arctic locations and under the seafloor• Formed by bacterial decomposition in anaerobic environments

• Immense amounts could be present, from twice to 20 times the amount of natural gas

• Extraction could destablize marine ecosystems• Landslides and tsunamis release of large amounts of methane (a greenhouse gas)

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Alternative fossil fuels have significant environmental impacts

• Low Energy Returned on Energy Invested (EROI) ratios: about 3:1 compared to the 5:1 ratio on crude oil

• These fuels exert severe environmental impacts• Devastate landscapes• Pollute waterways

• Combustion pollutes the atmosphere just as much as crude oil, coal, and gas

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Environmental Impact of Fossil Fuel Use

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Fossil fuel emissions cause pollution and drive climate change

• Alter flux rates in Earth’s carbon cycle• Release more carbon dioxide then they burn

• Pollutants and hydrocarbons cause severe health problems• Mercury from coal-fired power plants

• Contaminates water supplies and freshwater ecosystems• Run-off into water supplies, enter groundwater supplies

FIGURE 15.1516-51

Some emissions from fossil fuel burning can be “captured”

• Carbon capture and storage (CCS)• Sequestration = storage of materials in geologic reservoirs on a long timescale

• Many environmentalists are skeptical about CCS• Technology unproven• True impacts are not known• Can increase acidification of ocean water (if carbon is stored in the deep ocean)

FIGURE 15.1516-52

Coal mining affects the environment

• Strip mining causes severe soil erosion and chemical runoff• Acid drainage = sulfide minerals on exposed rock surfaces react

with oxygen and rainwater to produce sulfuric acid• Mountaintop removal causes enormous damage

• Material slides downhill, destroying immense areas of habitat

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Put in image

Coal mining affects the environment (cont’d)

• Subsurface mining is harmful to human health• Inhalation of coal dust can lead to fatal black lung disease

• Mining companies in theory must restore landscapes (often they don’t), but the impacts are still severe

• Costs to repair damages of mining are very high• These costs are not included in the market prices of fossil fuels,

which are kept inexpensive by government subsidies

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Oil and gas extraction can alter the environment

• Road networks• Extensive infrastructure

• Housing for workers• Access roads• Transport pipelines• Waste piles for removed soil

• Ponds constructed for collecting toxic sludge that remains after oil removed

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Political, Social, and Economic Aspects

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Oil supply and prices affect the economies of nations (cont’d)

• OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) resolved to stop selling oil to United States in 1973 as a consequence of U.S. support for Israel• Created panic and oil prices skyrocketed• Spurred inflation• Huge impacts in North America, but even more so in Europe and developing countries

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Oil supply and prices affect the economies of nations

• Our economies are utterly tied to fossil fuels• We are vulnerable to supplies becoming suddenly

unavailable or extremely costly • Gives seller nations control • In Canada, imports outweigh exports

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Oil supply and prices affect the economies of nations (cont’d)

• Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed offshore drilling systems and spiked oil prices, not to mention causing extensive ecological damage

• Because the politically volatile Middle East has the majority of oil reserves, crises are a constant concern for the U.S.

• Despite political disagreements, the U.S. has a close relationship with Saudi Arabia because Saudi Arabia owns 22% of the world’s oil reserves

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Residents may or may not benefit from their fossil fuel reserves (e.g. Nigeria)

• Extraction of fossil fuels can be extremely lucrative• Jobs to thousands of employees• Supply dividends to thousands of investors• Government assistance to residents of the area

• Local residents have frequently suffered• Money often has not trickled down• Few environmental regulations leads to environmental degradation

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We need to conserve energy and find renewable sources

• Energy conservation = the practice of reducing energy use to:• Extend the life of our nonrenewable energy supplies• Be less wasteful• Reduce environmental impact

• 2008: 83% of Canadians planned to buy a more fuel-efficient car next time around, 51% had been cutting down on driving• Impacted on SUV and light truck industry

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Should non-renewable resource revenues be used to subsidize renew resource development of other social goals?

• Norway, with a healthy royalty on fossil fuel extraction, helps fund its extensive social programs through this means (see http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2014/01/15/If-Every-Norwegians-a-Millionaire-Whys-Alberta-in-Hock/)

• In Canada, jurisdictions like Alberta demand almost nothing of oil companies and the Heritage Fund is now virtually defunct

• Some have advocated that, since fossil fuel extraction is non-renewable, it should at least subsidize the development of alternatives for future generations.

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Personal choice and increased efficiency are two routes to conservation

• Individuals can reduce energy consumption• Society can make energy-consuming devices more efficient

• Increase fuel efficiency• Improve the efficiency of power plants• Cogeneration = excess heat produced during electrical generation is

used to heat buildings and produce other types of power

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Personal choice and increased efficiency are two routes to conservation (cont’d)

• Improvements in home design can reduce energy required to heat and cool them

• Scores of appliances have been re-engineered to increase energy efficiency

• Consumers need to vote with their wallets by buying energy-efficient products

• But, ultimately, these personal initiatives – while important – will be of limited value unless governments and the corporations they serve are brought to heel.

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Conclusion• Conserving energy is better than finding a new reserve as it

lessens impacts on the environment while extending access to fossil fuels

• The only sustainable way of guaranteeing a reliable long-term supply of energy is to ensure sufficiently rapid development of renewable energy sources

• Fossil fuels have helped us build our complex industrialized societies but now fossil fuel production will begin to decline

• We can encourage conservation and develop alternative energy sources or wait until fossil fuels are depleted

• Renewable energy sources are becoming feasible and economical • Easier to envision giving up on our reliance on fossil fuels • Win-win future for humanity and the environment

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