#FRACKQUAKE

Fracking likely to create stronger, more common earthquakes in B. C: study

More damaging earthquakes can be expected more often in northern British Columbia as fracking oil and gas wells increases pressure underground, says newly published research.

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"It makes earthquakes more common and it makes larger ones more common," said Allan Chapman, an independent researcher and formerly senior scientist with the B.C. Oil and Gas Commission.

"There appears to be a fairly strong relationship between this cumulative water loading underground and the magnitude of an event."

Chapman said his study suggests that homes and infrastructure in northern B.C. could be at risk from earthquakes and that current government safeguards are inadequate.

"For many of these large events there may be no warning."

Chapman looked at the Montney field near Fort St. John, B.C. For years, that area has seen intensive oil and gas development using fracking, which injects high-pressure fluids deep underground to fracture rocks and release oil and gas.

That technique has become increasingly associated with earthquakes. In parts of the Montney, a total of 439 earthquakes up to 4.6 magnitude were associated with fracking between 2013 and 2019.

Previous research has linked the pressure at which the fluids are injected to the resulting temblor.

Chapman looked at the total volumes of water injected wells within five kilometres of an earthquake epicentre. He found that areas where water volumes built up over time — sometimes from several different companies — were associated with stronger magnitudes of at least 3.0, enough to be felt on the surface.

The number of earthquakes also increased.

One part of the Montney generated about 20 earthquakes when one million cubic metres of fluids were pumped underground. That same area registered more than 160 events when injection grew to 3.5 million cubic metres.

"It makes the earthquakes more common and it makes the large ones more common," Chapman said.

He noted that fracking is expected to increase in the Montney. Many sites only have four wells on a pad.

"At full development, you're expecting to see 20 or 30 wells on a pad. What's going to happen if the amount of fracking rises substantially?"

In a statement from spokeswoman Lannea Parfitt, The B.C. Oil and Gas Commission criticized Chapman's peer-reviewed work.

"Our geological and engineering experts have concluded it is based on a number of unproven assumptions or incomplete consideration of the factors cited," the commission said in an email.

The commission said the paper didn't account for variation in rock strata, fault types and local stresses. It called Chapman's conclusions "speculation."

"Our geologists and seismic experts use sound, peer-reviewed research, data, and predictive modelling to understand, regulate and mitigate seismic activity," it said.

B.C. and Alberta have instituted what's called a "traffic light" approach to manage risk. Companies are expected to reduce pumping pressure and volume once light earthquakes are felt and to stop completely as they increase.

But Chapman points out four of the region's five biggest recent earthquakes — all over magnitude 4.0 — weren't preceded by any warnings.

"There was no precursor," he said.

"Magnitude 4 is a big event, shaking the ground for 30 kilometres. If you had one within a couple kilometres of your house, you'd be worried about damage."

Fracking has already induced earthquakes in China rated at 5.3, Chapman's study says.

"There is no upper limit."

Fort St. John, with 20,000 residents, felt five earthquakes between 2013 and 2019. The largest was rated at 4.2.

The region's bridges and dams could also be vulnerable, Chapman said.

He is joining other researchers who have already called for a no-fracking zone in areas with susceptible geology, homes and buildings.

"We do need to look at places that are too high-value. They need to have a no-frack zone around them."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2021.

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Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

All the fish in the sea, except mackerel: Scotia-Fundy fishers fight to keep 2021 mackerel quota

CANSO – “I am not shocked that the quota dropped … but the way that it was done was quite shocking to us,” Ginny Boudreau, manager of the Guysborough County Inshore Fishermen’s Association (GCIFA), told The Journal May 25 during an interview about the mackerel fishery in the Scotia-Fundy region, which spans the entire province of Nova Scotia into southern New Brunswick.

On May 14, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) issued a notice closing the mackerel fishery in Scotia-Fundy. Fishers in Guysborough County already had their traps in the water in preparation for the opening of the two-week season.

The May 14 closure notice was later amended, allowing a reduced mackerel fishery in the region. A news release from DFO on May 21 announced the reversal of the closure, stating the total allowable catch for the commercial Atlantic mackerel fishery this year would stand at 4,000 tonnes “in Atlantic Canada and Quebec, a 50 per cent reduction from last year. To help ensure all fleets have some fishing opportunities, the quota will be released in two equal amounts with one release now and one release later in the summer.”

Given the nature of the mackerel fishery in the Scotia-Fundy region – mackerel are only available during the spring migration – the quota is effectively reduced to 2,000 tonnes, as the summer quota release isn’t applicable.

Part of Boudreau’s shock at the May 14 closure notice was due to the fact that GCIFA has been taking part in the Atlantic Mackerel Advisory Committee and the Scotia-Fundy Mackerel Advisory Committee.

“That was quite a lengthy process and we assumed that the Minister [Bernadette Jordan, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard] had all the information to make a decision long before now. It was quite shocking when our fish just arrived, and everything got shut down … she couldn’t have picked a worse time to shut it down. If it had taken any longer for her to make a decision, then it wouldn’t have mattered if she opened the fishery or not because the fish would have already gone past here.”

The reason for the change on quotas is that DFO science has concluded the mackerel stock is in critical condition.

“Unfortunately, the number of spawning-age mackerel is at an historic low. Immediate action must be taken to conserve and rebuild the population,” stated the DFO release last week.

Minister Jordan added this comment to the release: “This is a difficult decision that has economic impacts on commercial harvesters and their communities, but the science is clear – stronger actions need to be taken to rebuild the Atlantic mackerel stock. I am hopeful that this decision will lead to growth in the stock over the next two years, as demonstrated by the science model. However, if the spawning biomass does not increase over the next two years, we are likely heading towards a commercial Atlantic mackerel fishery closure. I recognize that many harvesters depend on this fishery, and we will continue working with them and fishing groups across the Atlantic over the next two years to ensure the best outcome for the stock and all involved.”

Boudreau said local fishers would not welcome a closure of the mackerel fishery, but they would accept it. However, closing the fishery in some areas, such as Scotia-Fundy, and not others would not be fair.

“We were told at the rebuilding table [a working group with representatives from DFO, provincial governments, industry stakeholders, and Aboriginal partners to improve the management of the Atlantic mackerel fishery] that everyone would be treated equally,” she said.

The closure announced May 14 was seen as unfair treatment and sparked an outcry from fishers, fishing organizations and elected officials; notably Guysborough-Eastern Shore-Tracadie MLA Lloyd Hines, who represents many fishers impacted.

Hines told The Journal last Monday, “First of all, on a Friday at a quarter-to-eight in the evening – after the fishers had already deployed their traps – DFO precipitously announced the closure of Scotia-Fundy but not the Gulf fishery which included Quebec and Newfoundland. What that meant was that the trap fishermen, who in good faith – not expecting a complete closure, had already deployed their traps … all of a sudden they were given a 24-hour notice that they had to get their traps out of the water.”

He went on to say that he realized the peril the mackerel stock was facing but this shotgun approach to management was unacceptable.

“Preservation of that stock has to be the number one priority and, I have to say, what I have seen in the evolution of the fishery in Nova Scotia, is fishermen accept that and work at it.

“The need to protect the stock is not the argument. The argument was the precipitous nature that DFO employed to shut down the piece of the fishery which was in Nova Scotia,” said Hines, adding, “waiting for fishermen to put traps in the water, expend all that energy and all that money and then to pull it out; seems to me is mismanagement by DFO. That is not an acceptable outcome.”

Following the announcement regarding the closure of the Scotia-Fundy mackerel fishery, Hines was in discussion with local stakeholders, and both the federal and provincial fisheries ministers.

“Though it is a federal issue [Atlantic fisheries], I reached out to the two federal MPs who are in my area – Sean Fraser (Central Nova) and Mike Kelloway (Cape Breton-Canso) – but I also had a really good conversation with the Fisheries Minister [Bernadette Jordan]. She committed to me that she would look into the matter.”

As news spread, the issue was picked up by the media and some fishers in the impacted areas planned protests. While the mackerel fishery is small in comparison to others, such as lobster, it is an integral part of the fishing economy with knock-on effects, particularly in regard to the lobster fishery which uses mackerel as bait.

“At the end of the day,” said Hines, “the fisheries minister understood the problem very well and agreed … They cut the quota quite significantly; cut it in half from 8,000 to 4,000 tonnes and they split it into two pieces, 2,000 tonnes for Scotia-Fundy and 2,000 tonnes for Gulf.”

Local fishers were somewhat relieved by the change in the closure notice, but Boudreau said that – going forward – other issues should be addressed in regard to the status of the mackerel stock. She added, instead of always pointing the finger at the Canadian-based fishery when a stock is in peril, consideration has to be given to the international nature of the stock; and measures, or lack thereof, in place to preserve the stock in the United States. Research into copepods (the primary food source for mackerel), seal predation, gear type and the effects of the 2012 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic mackerel stock could all create a clearer picture of the road to stock preservation.

Lois Ann Dort, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Guysborough Journ

WAIT, WHAT?!

Nova Scotia companies chosen to help build Canada's first commercial spaceport

HALIFAX — The Nova Scotia company planning to build Canada's first commercial spaceport announced on Wednesday some of the firms it has chosen to design and construct its proposed launch pad.

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Maritime Launch Services says it picked Strum Consulting, Stantec, Nova Construction and St. Francis Xavier University, among other organizations, to help it launch satellites into orbit.

"We want to get to the ground breaking and the jobs associated with that as early as we can, this year if at all possible," Stephen Matier, president and CEO of Maritime Launch Services, said in an interview Wednesday.

Stantec, a global consulting company with offices in Nova Scotia, will lead the spaceport design team, and Antigonish-based Nova Construction will be involved with building roads and with other civil construction work at the launch site, located near Canso, in northeastern Nova Scotia.*

St. Francis Xavier has been chosen to implement an air-monitoring program for the spaceport with the help of the university's FluxLab, led by Dr. David Risk.

Matier said Maritime Launch Services plans to keep as much of the building process as possible within Nova Scotia and Canada.

The company is to host an industry day in the coming months to recruit people from the Guysborough, N.S., municipality to work on the project, and Matier said up to 125 will be involved in building the spaceport. He said the company's workforce could grow up to 250 people once the launch pad is operational.

Maritime Launch Services, he said, is aiming to have the project ready by the end of 2023.

Nova Scotia's Environment Department in March granted the company an 18-month extension to begin construction on the spaceport.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2021.

— — —

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

Danielle Edwards, The Canadian Press

*STANTEC IS AN EDMONTON BASED COMPANY THAT IS EMPOYEE OWNED

Canada announces plans to land a rover on the moon in the next five years

OTTAWA — Science Minister François-Philippe Champagne says Canada plans to land a rover on the moon in the next five years

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The Canadian Space Agency says the unmanned robotic vehicle will aim to gather imagery and measurements on the moon's cratered surface, showcasing technologies from Canadian companies in a polar region of the earth's only natural satellite.

Conducted in partnership with NASA, the mission hopes to have the rover make it through an entire lunar night, which lasts about two weeks and presents major technological challenges due to the extreme cold and dark.

Lisa Campbell, president of the space agency, says it will put out a request for proposals on design and development from two companies in the coming months.

Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques, decked out in his flight suit, was also present at the virtual announcement Wednesday, and will be among the candidates for the one Canadian spot on a four-person mission to travel around the moon in the next few years.

The announcement happened to come the same day the moon drifted through the earth's shadow in the first total lunar eclipse since January 2019.

The federal government pledge falls under a $150-million lunar exploration program launched that year.

In December the government signed an agreement with the United States to send a Canadian astronaut around the moon as part of a broader effort to establish a new space station above the lunar surface.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2021.

The Canadian Press

GM's newest vehicle: Off-road, self-driving rover for moon

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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — General Motors is teaming up with Lockheed Martin to produce the ultimate off-road, self-driving, electric vehicles — for the moon.

The project announced Wednesday is still in the early stages and has yet to score any NASA money. But the goal is to design light yet rugged vehicles that will travel farther and faster than the lunar rovers that carried NASA’s Apollo astronauts in the early 1970s, the companies said.

“Mobility is really going to open up the moon for us,” said Kirk Shireman, a former NASA manager who is now Lockheed Martin's vice president for lunar exploration.

The rovers used by the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 moonwalkers ventured no more than 4 1/2 miles (7.6 kilometers) from their landers. GM also helped design those vehicles.

NASA last year put out a call for industry ideas on lunar rovers. The space agency aims to return astronauts to the moon by 2024, a deadline set by the previous White House.

Their initial rovers will be designed to carry two astronauts at a time, according to company officials. A brief company video showed a large, open rover speeding over lunar slopes, with more headlights in the distance.

This is "just a glimpse of how we see the opportunity playing out,” said Jeff Ryder, a vice president for GM Defense.

By operating autonomously when needed, Shireman noted, the rovers can keep astronauts safely away from dangerous spots like the permanently shadowed craters at the moon’s South Pole. Frozen water gathered from these dark corners could be used for drinking, growing plants and creating rocket fuel.

Autonomy could also improve efficiency, with astronauts focused on collecting rocks as a rover follows behind like a puppy, he said.

In a separate venture begun two years ago, Toyota partnered with the Japanese Space Agency to build a pressurized electric-powered lunar rover for astronauts. They're calling it the Lunar Cruiser.

GM and Lockheed Martin's vehicle will be unpressurized, meaning that riders will need to wear spacesuits at all times. There's room for both models, according to Shireman.

___

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Marcia Dunn, The Associated Press

Farmed salmon virus source, amplifies disease transmission in wild salmon: B.C. study

VICTORIA — Evidence shows a debilitating virus found in British Columbia salmon was transferred from Atlantic fish farms, which then spread from Pacific aquaculture operations into wild fish, says a study published Wednesday.

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The researchers used genome sequencing to trace the piscine orthoreovirus, or PRV, that they say was first introduced to B.C. waters from Norway about 30 years ago at the start of open-net pen aquaculture in the province.

The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, says the evidence now suggests the virus is continuously spread between farmed and wild Pacific salmon as they migrate past the farms.

PRV, which devastated salmon farms in Norway, is a disease linked to heart and skeletal muscle inflammation in farmed salmon, and kidney and liver damage in wild B.C. salmon.

The research was conducted by experts from the University of British Columbia and the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative, a partnership of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Genome BC and the Pacific Salmon Foundation.

"One of the cool things about our study is we demonstrate that this genomic technology, which has been developed to survey viral pathogens in humans, can be translated and used to study a really important fishery resource," said Dr. Gideon Mordecai, a viral ecologist at the university's department of medicine.

In an interview, Mordecai said the researchers sequenced 86 complete PRV genomes and concluded the lineage of the virus in B.C. originates from the North Atlantic.

"This is consistent with the timing of Atlantic salmon egg imports from Europe for salmon farms in the northeast Pacific," the study says.

Mordecai said evidence is mounting that B.C. aquaculture operations pass the virus to wild salmon, with increased infection rates found the closer wild salmon are to the fish farms.

"This virus has been introduced to the region," Mordecai said. "It wasn't naturally here. It's been introduced by people, and it continues to be introduced by the high infections that are in the stocked net pens and that's having an effect."

The B.C. Salmon Farmers' Association said Wednesday it will review the study but pointed to archived salmon tissue from 1977 indicating PRV was present in B.C. waters before the establishment of fish farms.

It said in a statement the PRV strain in B.C. is genetically different from the virus in Europe, while it disputed the UBC research that the disease arrived on the West Coast from Norway.

"We are not importing anything,'" the statement said. "The Atlantic salmon we farm in B.C. is 100 per cent B.C. grown. Our fish are raised in hatcheries on Vancouver Island, from brood stock born and raised on Vancouver Island."

The federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans says in a statement it supports new research to help identify and understand potential risks associated with the various strains of PRV.

"The Mordecai ... paper provides valuable information on the origin, evolution and potential transmission dynamics of PRV-1a," says the statement. "The department will be considering these findings alongside additional studies on PRV in B.C.'s coastal waters."

The department has conducted numerous studies on the effects of PRV on farmed Atlantic salmon and wild salmon, but found minimal risk to wild stocks.

Indigenous groups opposed to aquaculture in their traditional territories, especially near the Discovery Islands off northern Vancouver Island, say the proximity of fish farms to wild salmon migration routes increases their disease risk.

The federal government announced the phase out of almost 20 open-net fish farms last December in the Discovery Islands area over the next 18 months.

Mordecai, who earned his doctorate researching honey bee pathogens, said he was spurred to study salmon health after attending academic conferences where government scientists expressed confidence PRV did not pose major risk to wild salmon.

"I thought, 'Well, I better ask that question,'" he said. "The government's lines are the virus poses minimal threat to salmon. It's low risk. It doesn't cause disease and the virus is endemic to the region."

But the genome sequencing results provides evidence that salmon farms serve as a source of the virus to B.C.'s wild salmon, Mordecai said.

The study calls for more monitoring and regulation of infectious diseases threatening wild salmon.

"Although infectious disease is just one of many threats to marine organisms, fully understanding the health status of at-risk wild populations will only be possible if management agencies continue to invest in active monitoring for emerging infectious diseases," says the study.

"Our study highlights the need for robust regulation of aquaculture that may prevent future losses in wild populations, which we propose may be exacerbated by PRV-1 and other emerging infectious diseases."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2021.

Dirk Meissner, The Canadian Press

THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD AND THE BIG OIL COMPANY THAT COULDN'T

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Jennifer Hiller

© Reuters/Jim Young FILE PHOTO: An Exxon sign 

is seen at a gas station in the Chicago suburb of Norridge

HOUSTON/BOSTON (Reuters) - Last December, when a week-old hedge fund named Engine No. 1 challenged Exxon Mobil to change its ways, laughter echoed through Wall Street circles, from the fund's name that recalled a famous children's book to its tiny, then-$40 million stake in what was once the world's largest publicly traded company.

Just six months later, the fund delivered a massive blow that rippled throughout the oil-and-gas industry. Engine No. 1's campaign forced Exxon to accept new board members who could bring about a reckoning over its business strategy and confront the risk of global climate change that many investors say Exxon has long been reluctant to address.

Companies with a market value of $250 billion like Exxon rarely face, much less lose, shareholder battles. But stakeholders familiar with Exxon's thinking said Wednesday's defeat was years in the making due to ongoing weak returns.

Institutional investors had grown frustrated with the company's approach to the energy transition, trailing global rivals who promised big spending on power generation, solar and wind. In addition, Exxon failed to recognize how the investment community had become more attuned to climate change issues, which helped Engine No. 1 sway big pension funds in California and New York to its side.

Sources familiar with the company's strategy say that Exxon was late to mount a defense against Engine No. 1, and even when it did, it concentrated on the threat to the company's generous dividend. But analysts had for months cautioned that Exxon's hefty indebtedness could put that dividend at risk, making its warnings of the fund's intentions less threatening.

"Exxon Mobil worked very hard to lose this battle" over years of inattention to climate change, said Robert Eccles, professor of management practice at Said Business School at Oxford University. In December, Eccles said he thought the activists had a chance to win a board fight.

Exxon did not respond to requests for comment. Company executives have said its scale and investment approach had weathered boom-bust cycles. In a statement on Wednesday, CEO Darren Woods said that Exxon has "been very actively engaged with our shareholders, sharing our plans and hearing their viewpoints and the key issues of importance to them."

A spokeswoman for Engine No. 1 declined to comment.

ENERGY EXPERIENCE WANTED

When the newly formed Engine No. 1 announced its campaign in early December, Exxon Mobil was closing out a disastrous 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic that would end with $22 billion in losses.

Engine No. 1 saw an opportunity to push for changes to the company's board, which until this year had nobody - other than CEO Woods - with experience in the energy industry, with arguments about Exxon's spending and lack of an energy transition plan.

The fund's top executives Chris James and Charlie Penner undertook a lengthy effort to recruit potential directors with the credentials to challenge Exxon, according to people familiar with the matter, eventually settling on four people all with energy experience.

The fund was able to tap into investors' discontent to turn the fight into a climate referendum that cost the two sides at least $65 million. CALSters, the California teachers' retirement fund, supported the campaign from the beginning.

Exxon sought to blunt the fund's nominees by expanding its board and adding director Jeff Ubben, who runs a sustainable investing fund. It also sought to calm investors' climate concerns by increasing low-carbon initiatives and lowering the intensity of its oilfield greenhouse gas emissions.

The company also reversed course on a massive oil and gas expansion program, though analysts expect it to pick up the pace of spending next year.

By April, however, Engine No. 1 was lining up more allies. New York's $255 billion Common Retirement Fund announced it would support the dissident slate of directors, following California's $300 billion teachers retirement fund.

FOCUS ON DIVIDEND

Exxon was taking the threat more seriously by April, but focused on investor returns, warning in a shareholder letter that Engine No. 1 wanted the company "to pursue a vague and undefined plan - which we believe will jeopardize our future and your dividend."

The company has long prized its dividend, which during pandemic-driven oil price lows grew to a yield of more than 10%. With the company's debt load rising to more than $69 billion last year, analysts raised frequent questions about whether the dividend could be maintained as Exxon was being encouraged to cut costs.

"The biggest surprise to Exxon was how the 'defend the returns' strategy did not work," said one source familiar with the company's thinking.

The tide turned further against Exxon on May 14 after two near-simultaneous events. First was the release of a damning report from influential shareholder advisory firm ISS that criticized the company's failure to adjust its spending plans.

"Investors have regularly highlighted concerns about preparedness for an energy transition, yet the board did not take action decisive enough to prompt recognition from the market until after launch of the dissident's campaign," ISS said.

That was followed by a television appearance from Woods on CNBC, where investors said he looked unprepared for host David Faber's questions about the ISS report, Exxon's strategy and the board's lack of energy experience.

Exxon for years banked on the company's size and steady dividend to blunt investor criticism, even as it made a series of risky investments such as its purchase of XTO Energy ahead of a sharp decline in natural gas prices and a 2017 purchase of Texas shale properties as oil prices were slipping.

New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, in a statement on Wednesday, said the fund for years wanted assurance that Exxon's board took the climate crisis seriously "and was acting to put the company on a path to succeed in the low carbon economy, and for years received platitudes and gaslighting in response."

Blackrock Inc, the world's largest asset manager, which supported three of four dissident nominees, said in a statement on Wednesday that Exxon invested just $10.4 billion on lower-carbon energy technologies in the last 20 years, compared with more than $20 billion in overall expenditures in 2020 alone.

On Wednesday, the company recessed its annual general meeting for an hour, as it continued to count votes. Woods then answered pre-selected questions from investors for 40 minutes, far more than the previous year's annual meeting.

Among the questions was one about an International Energy Agency report that warned that investors should not fund new fossil fuel supply projects beyond this year if the world wants to reach net zero emissions by mid-century. Woods, however, said that "if you look at the report, it outlines the continued need for investment in oil and gas."

(Reporting By Svea Herbst Bayliss and Jennifer Hiller; additional reporting by Greg Roumeliotis, Gary McWilliams and Ross Kerber; writing by David Gaffen; editing by Grant McCool)

At least 2 Exxon board members lose seats in climate fight


NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil’s shareholders have voted to replace at least two of the company's 12 board members with directors who are seen as better suited to fight climate change, bolster Exxon’s finances and guide it through a transition to cleaner energy.

The results, which Exxon called preliminary, were announced by the company after its annual shareholder meeting Wednesday. Exxon said that because of the complexities of the voting process, inspectors might not be able to certify final voting results for “some period of time.” It was unclear whether one additional board member was also unseated in the shareholder vote.

Regardless of the final tally, the outcome represents a setback for Exxon's leadership. It coincides with growing pressure on publicly traded companies to more urgently revamp their businesses to address what critics see as a intensifying global crisis.

On Wednesday, a Dutch court ordered Royal Dutch Shell to cut its carbon emissions by a net 45% by 2030 compared with 2019 levels in a landmark case brought by climate activism groups. The court ruled that the energy giant had a duty to reduce emissions and that its current reduction plans were insufficient.

The dissident slate of Exxon directors was proposed by a hedge fund called Engine No. 1, which asserted that the company's current board was ill-equipped to handle the transformations that are reshaping the energy sector.

The alternative directors put forward by the hedge fund were also backed by many of the nation's most powerful institutional investors. The vote reflected a broader push among consumers, investors and government leaders to pivot away from fossil fuels and invest in a future in which energy needs are increasingly met with renewable sources.

While the votes were being tallied, Exxon paused the shareholder meeting to allow people more time to vote. Anne Simpson, a managing director at the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, known as CalPERS and one of the institutional investors that backed the alternative slate of directors, called that move “highly unusual.”

Nevertheless, it was a “day of reckoning” for Exxon and for investors, Simpson said.

On the hot-button issue of climate change, she said, “investors are moving from talk to action, and it’s also going to reverberate around board rooms internationally."

In addition to CalPERS, which is America’s largest pension fund, other major institutional investors that joined the challenge to Exxon's leadership included the New York State Common Retirement Fund and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, known as CalSTRS.

“It’s a historic vote that represents a tipping point for companies that are unprepared for the global energy transition,” said Aeisha Mastagni, a portfolio manager at CalSTRS.

The investors who backed the alternative group of board members had complained that compared with some other oil giants, Exxon has failed to commit itself sufficiently to cleaner energy, from wind, solar or other sources.

Companies sometimes work with dissident shareholders to accept suggested changes to boards. Exxon, though, had resisted the challenge. It argued that it was already committed to addressing the climate crisis, with plans to add new board members, including one with expertise in climate change. It has also highlighted its plan, still in the early stages, to use the Houston Ship Channel to capture and store carbon dioxide offshore.

The company also said it was satisfied with its existing directors.

“Our current board of directors is among the strongest in the corporate world,” said Darren Woods, chairman and CEO of Exxon, adding that the board provided exceptional guidance during a particularly tough period for the industry.

Among other problems, oil companies have struggled since the viral pandemic significantly reduced demand for fuel. Exxon lost $22 billion in 2020 and reported its largest-ever losses in the fourth quarter.

During Wednesday's shareholder meeting, Charlie Penner, head of active engagement for Engine No. 1, asserted that “no matter the outcome of today’s vote, this is a board that needs to look in the mirror.”

The two candidates whom Exxon said shareholders elected from the Engine No. 1 slate were Gregory Goff, a former CEO of Andeavor, a petroleum refining and marketing company formerly known as Tesoro; and Kaisa Hietala, a former executive vice president of renewable products at Neste. In that position, Hietala was credited with boosting the company’s renewable diesel and jet fuel offerings.

Exxon said it had not yet determined whether a third dissident board candidate put forward by Engine No. 1, Alexander Karsner, had also been elected. Karsner, a senior strategist at X, Alphabet Inc.’s innovation lab, has been an investor in energy infrastructure and clean-technology startups.

In addition to choosing the two dissident board members, shareholders elected eight current members of Exxon’s board. Just who would fill the remaining two seats on the board was too close to call, Exxon said. Vying for those two seats were four people nominated by Exxon and one who was nominated by Engine No. 1.

Exxon did not say when the final results would be released.

Across the economy, climate-related initiatives are gaining momentum in corporate board rooms. At least 25 climate-related shareholder proposals made it onto shareholder ballots this year. Those that had been voted on before the Exxon vote received support from 59% of shareholders on average, according to Institutional Shareholder Services.

That is up substantially from 2015, when Glass Lewis, a firm that advises institutional investors, reviewed 14 shareholder proposals that sought additional disclosures on climate-related issues, such as the financial risks posed by a changing climate or by climate-related regulations. None of them succeeded.

In 2017, there were 21 such shareholder proposals that went to a vote; three received over 50% approval, Glass Lewis said.

Cathy Bussewitz, The Associated Press

A growing storm over the origins in China of Covid-19 has explosive political implications for the United States at home and abroad, as well as the dueling legacies of two presidents that will be defined by the pandemic.© Getty Images

President Joe Biden on Wednesday told Americans he had ordered US intelligence agencies to report in 90 days on whether the virus originated not in animals and spread to humans but might have escaped from a Chinese laboratory.

The move deepened a mystery encompassing the pernicious spread of a deadly pathogen, an intricate epidemiological puzzle, the opacity of a totalitarian system and the bitter overtones of a superpower rivalry. It will fan doubts about the World Health Organization's capacity to tease out lessons from the current crisis in order to prevent future pandemics.



In the US, it leaves both the former Trump administration and the Biden White House facing calls for transparency about their efforts to establish how the virus started and whether politics tainted their investigative efforts. If it turns out the virus did escape from a laboratory, former President Donald Trump may be able to claim some vindication. But it would also highlight how his repeated habit of trashing the truth and bending intelligence to suit his own political ends shattered his credibility on this and other issues.

The focus on the laboratory theory in recent days multiplied calls in Washington for the US to make China pay a price for the pandemic, even before the full extent of its origins are known, adding more toxicity to a geopolitical joust that may spark a new Cold War.

But finding answers will be hard. China has every reason to cover up a virus that stained its prestige as a rising and sophisticated power with nearly 3.5 million people dead worldwide. Its nationalist leader Xi Jinping and the Communist Party have no time for shame of culpability that would mar their core case to the world -- that their one party rule is a better fit for the 21st century than democracy -- a narrative Biden has publicly vowed to combat.

Facing his own political pressure, Biden laid out two theories seen as "likely" by US intelligence on the origin of the virus in a statement on Wednesday.

The first has long been regarded as the most credible possibility by public health experts -- that there was zoonotic spread, possibly from live animals in a "wet" market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, to humans.

But while cautioning there was no definitive conclusion yet, the President said that "one element" of the US intelligence community "leans" toward the possibility that the virus escaped from a laboratory in Wuhan.

Biden's notable public statement came as he felt rising political heat after the Wall Street Journal revealed that several Chinese virologists sought hospital treatment late last year for an unidentified ailment. CNN then reported that the Biden administration had shut down a probe launched in the waning days of the Trump State Department to prove Covid-19 came from a Chinese lab. While the State Department later said the inquiry had simply been completed, several sources involved who spoke to CNN said it was their impression there was more work to be done.

The Biden administration is now facing calls to show it took the possibility of Chinese culpability sufficiently seriously especially since prominent Trump team officials and Republicans are launching a victory lap after last year promoting claims about the Wuhan lab -- mostly without any clear evidence.

But Trump supporters also appear to be making another attempt to whitewash history of his disastrous handling of a pandemic that killed hundreds of thousands on his watch.


'No cherry picking'

The medical and political priority now is a credible, in-depth, investigation.

Dr. Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst and former Baltimore Health Commissioner, said on CNN "Newsroom" that such a probe needed to be based on a scientific method, "which means you don't go into this with a preferred conclusion and then cherry pick your data to fit that conclusion."

Such concerns are why the Biden administration closed down the probe opened by ex-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, two sources told CNN's Kylie Atwood.

The Trump administration, facing election-year blame for its botched handling of a pandemic the ex-President long downplayed, had a strong incentive to find Chinese negligence, whatever the real story was. It also had a record of shaping science and intelligence for political ends and rejecting inconvenient expertise.

It now falls to the Biden administration to prove that it has the clout and willingness to track down the origin of the virus. There will be questions whether intelligence agencies, given the notorious difficulty of penetrating the Chinese security state, represent the best way of finding the truth. It is not yet clear whether China fully understands the origin of the virus. And the starting points of pandemics can be difficult to pinpoint.

"Many of us feel that it is more likely that this is a natural occurrence ... where it goes from an animal reservoir to a human. But we don't know 100% the answer to that," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious diseases expert, said at a White House Covid-19 briefing Tuesday.

But the Biden White House does have some political exposure on the issue. Last year, Democrats rebuked Trump for pulling out of the WHO on the grounds that it was dominated by China. The US rejoined the global body soon after the new President took office. If it turns out Beijing hoodwinked the WHO, which downplayed the laboratory theory, senior Trump officials can claim some vindication.


White House hardens line

In recent days, there has been a noticeable hardening of the US line toward the WHO and Beijing, and the White House has been covering its tracks.

"We have been saying that for a very long time that China needed to provide more access to the lab, cooperate more fully with the scientific investigators, and we don't think that they have met that standard," White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said on Wednesday.

Andy Slavitt, the White House's Covid-19 coordinator, said on Tuesday that the US needed a "completely transparent process from China. We need the WHO to assist in that matter. We don't feel like we have that now."

His comments raised the question of whether the WHO, in its current configuration, has the diplomatic weight and capacity to conduct an investigation that China is likely to obstruct.

"The World Health Organization is not capable of undertaking this investigation because, frankly, the Chinese won't allow it," Republican Sen. Marco Rubio argued on Fox News on Wednesday. The Florida senator is one of a number of Republicans who may run for President in 2024, and taking a hard line on China will be part of the price for entry into the primary race.


A victory lap

Trump administration veterans and supporters responded to the latest events by claiming they were right to fling accusations at China despite not yet having offered public evidence.

"We need to know what happened here. The Chinese Communist Party knows what happened here. They know who patient zero was. They know precisely where this began," Pompeo said on Fox News on Monday.

Pompeo is asking reasonable questions, even if he has political motives. The Chinese government was tardy in warning the rest of the world of the tragedy that was unfolding in Wuhan.|

And the WHO appears to have struggled to secure timely and detailed answers about what was going on in late 2019 and early 2020 as the virus erupted.

Indiana Republican Sen. Todd Young told CNN's Jake Tapper on Wednesday that the global health body needed to act fast to reestablish its reputation by persuading China to come up with more data about the origins of the virus.

"I don't see any other way for the World Health Organization to restore its credibility in the eyes of Americans and many across the world, who have seen them, frankly, place more trust in the Chinese Communist Party leadership and more deference to them than they have to the Western world," Young said.

The former head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Robert Redfield told CNN's Sanjay Gupta in documentary released in March that the most likely "aetiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory." Like other Trump officials, he could not prove it.

Trump himself gave the impression back in May 2020 that he had some information about the origin of the virus, saying, "Something happened." "It came came from China. It should have been stopped. It could have been stopped on the spot," Trump said.

The ex-President, however, frequently touted conspiracy theories, hunches and manipulated intelligence and facts to serve his own political argument. He also politicized the virus for his own ends. So, he was not seen as a particularly credible source. And the question remains -- if the Trump team had evidence of the lab theory, why did they not tell the world when they had every incentive to do so?

Claims that Trump was "right" about Covid-19 also distract from his own culpability in mismanaging a virus that he repeatedly said was not a problem.

Whatever Covid-19's origin, history will condemn Trump for his neglect and denial once it reached US soil. He actually hampered US preparedness early in the crisis because he failed to pressure Beijing for answers.

As he sought a China trade deal to burnish his reelection campaign, he fawned over China's President. Trump said in early 2020 that the Chinese were "working very hard" and doing "very well." Of Xi, Trump tweeted, "He is strong, sharp and powerfully focused on leading the counterattack on the Coronavirus."

It was only when the impact of the virus became clear on his own election prospects that he changed his tune, bolstering the idea he has a political motivation in blaming China for pandemic.

China slams Taiwan over foreign minister's comments in CBC interview
Brennan MacDonald 

© Andy Wong/The Associated Press Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian accused Taiwan of 'clumsy political manipulation' after Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu gave an interview to CBC News calling on fellow democracies to voice more…

A spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry accused Taiwan of "clumsy political manipulation" and "grandstanding" after Taiwan's foreign minister gave an interview to CBC News which called on other democracies to support Taiwan publicly in the face of an increasingly hostile Beijing.

"Under the guise of so-called democracy and freedom, the Taiwan authorities have repeatedly taken advantage of Hong Kong affairs to maliciously slander and denigrate the mainland," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian in a press conference Wednesday.

"It's real purpose is to disrupt Hong Kong and seek 'Taiwan independence.' Its clumsy political manipulation for grandstanding will not succeed, and will only invite humiliation on itself."


In an exclusive Canadian interview broadcast Monday, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu told CBC News Network's Power & Politics that Taiwan looks at the dismantling of freedoms in Hong Kong as a sign of Chinese expansionism.

"If you look at the Chinese actions, it doesn't stop in Hong Kong. Look at Chinese military activities in the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait and South China Sea. What we see is an authoritarian regime trying to expand its influence beyond the first island chain," Wu told host David Common. "In the Chinese expansion, Taiwan stands on the front line."

Taiwan has been sounding the alarm about China's military actions this year. China has flown warplanes into Taiwan's air defence identification zone and deployed an aircraft carrier group near the island for exercises in April — drills that China said will be conducted on a regular basis going forward.

"Under these kinds of circumstances, we hope fellow democracies can voice more in support for Taiwan, especially looking at Taiwan's position as a frontline state and showing support for Taiwan being a democracy," said Wu.

China views Taiwan as a breakaway province that will one day be incorporated into mainland China under the "one country, two systems" framework — a proposition the island democracy rejects.

"Taiwan is an inalienable part of China's territory and there is no so-called 'foreign minister' of Taiwan," Zhao said Wednesday.

THE LAW IS AN ASS DEPT.

Judge ends trial of 3 accused after Hillsborough disaster

SALFORD, England (AP) — A judge ended the trial of two retired police officers and a lawyer accused of altering police statements following the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster, ruling Wednesday that there was no case to answer.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Lawyers for the two former officers — Donald Denton and Alan Foster — and Peter Metcalf, who was an attorney for the force in 1989, applied to have the case against them dismissed after four weeks of evidence.

It had been alleged the three people were involved in a process of amending officers’ statements to minimize the blame on South Yorkshire Police following the disaster at the FA Cup semifinal match that left 96 Liverpool fans dead. They were each accused of two counts of doing acts tending and intended to pervert the course of justice.

The trial judge, Justice William Davis, said the amended statements were intended for a public inquiry into safety at sports grounds that began in 1990 and that was not a course of public justice which could be perverted.

The judge said there was no case fit for consideration by the jury based on any of the six counts in the indictment.

Prosecutors said they would not be appealing against the ruling.

“What has been heard here in this court will have been surprising to many,” said Sue Hemming, director of legal services at the Crown Prosecution Service. “That a publicly funded authority can lawfully withhold information from a public inquiry charged with finding out why 96 people died at a football match, in order to ensure that it never happened again — or that a solicitor can advise such a withholding, without sanction of any sort, may be a matter which should be subject to scrutiny.”

Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, who has been heavily involved in the campaign for justice for Hillsborough victims, posted on Twitter: “To have a case of this magnitude ruled out on a technicality beggars belief.”

Metcalf, a police attorney, was charged with allegedly suggesting changes to officers’ statements. Denton, a former chief superintendent, was accused of overseeing the changes to the statements and Foster, a former detective chief inspector, was accused of being central to the process.

Sir Norman Bettison, a chief inspector in 1989 who went on to become chief constable of two other police forces, was charged with misconduct in a public office as part of the investigation into the disaster but the charges against him were dropped in 2018.

The match commander on the day of the disaster, David Duckenfield, was charged with gross negligence manslaughter in 2017. He was cleared in 2019 at a retrial after the jury in his first trial was unable to reach a verdict.

The tragedy at the stadium in Sheffield unfolded when more than 2,000 Liverpool soccer fans flooded into a standing-room section behind a goal, when the 54,000-capacity stadium was nearly full for the match against Nottingham Forest. The victims were smashed against metal anti-riot fences or trampled underfoot. Many suffocated in the crush.

The original inquest recorded verdicts of accidental death. But the families challenged that ruling and pressed for a new inquiry. They succeeded in getting the verdicts overturned by the High Court in 2012 after the far-reaching probe that examined previously secret documents found wrongdoing and mistakes by authorities.

___

More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

The Associated Press

Stinkweed to false flax: oilseeds race to reap biofuel bonanza

By Karl Plume and Rod Nickel 

© Reuters/KARL PLUME

 Bottles of covercress seeds and oil are seen at an Illinois

 State University laboratory in Normal

ARENZVILLE, Illinois (Reuters) - A disparate group met in an Illinois field on a windy spring morning to study a crop some call stinkweed.


Botanists, businessmen, farmers and federal lawmakers, they all gathered to peer at the waist-high plant usually considered a pest and uprooted on sight because of its foul odor, toxicity and the grim taste it leaves in the milk of grazing cattle.

This was a new version created by gene-editing, though. The compound that made it stinky and poisonous in large doses was suppressed, leaving an oilseed crop that its backers say could help the world transition to a lower-carbon economy via biofuels, as well as meet growing demand for livestock feed.

The group of about 25 people came to survey one of the first large-scale plantings of covercress, the genetically tweaked version of stinkweed, or pennycress.

It is among a handful of crops that could provide alternatives to the world's most widely used oilseeds, soybeans and canola, crushed to produce oil used in cooking and biofuels, plus high-protein meal for pigs and chickens.

"How often is a brand new oilseed introduced?" Brian Engel, director of biofuels at agribusiness giant Bunge Ltd, told Reuters after visiting the field in Arenzville.

"We're going to do everything we can to get that seed crushed and get the oil and meal into the marketplace."

Supplies of soybeans and canola are dwindling rapidly, with not enough produced to keep up with global demand for food and feed products, let alone greener fuels like renewable diesel. Prices have rocketed, contributing to food inflation around the world.

The new candidates, which include carinata and camelina - known as false flax - also represent potential "cover crops", off-season sources of revenue for farmers to help insulate them from market downturns.

"The solution to this feedstock problem is going to come from a whole lot of sources," said Jerry Steiner, executive board chairman at startup CoverCress Inc, which is selling the edited stinkweed and has raised $22 million in funding, including from big players like Bayer AG and Bunge.

The company expects plantings of up to 1,000 acres this fall, swelling up to 3 million acres by 2030, saying gene-editing is more accepted by consumers than genetic modification, which introduces new genes.

LOW-CARBON ECONOMY

But it's early days for the new players.

While demand for oilseeds is rising, it is tough for niche crops to break through as they must meet tough regulatory standards, for biofuels in particular, and be produced at scale to be commercially viable. Scaling up production can take years, requiring financial commitment and risk for both the developers and the farmers who grow the new crops.

Yet the companies behind covercress and carinata spy an opportunity as governments from Canada and California to Europe impose mandates to reduce the carbon-intensity of fuel in an effort to meet stringent climate goals.

Crops like covercress are particularly appealing because they soak up carbon dioxide in the off-season, when fields would otherwise be fallow.

This new reality is putting pressure on refiners to produce fuel from crops instead of fossil fuels and, as a consequence, biofuel demand is forecast to grow exponentially in coming years as more renewable diesel production capacity comes online.

A soaring global appetite for animal feed and vegetable oil has already whittled down stockpiles of soybeans and canola. Farmers say they can't significantly expand plantings because they must rotate crops to keep soils healthy.

Global supplies of soybeans, by far the world's most widely used oilseed, are set to hit a five-year low of 86.5 million tonnes by September, while demand is expected to reach a record high, the U.S. Department of Agriculture says. Demand from soybean processors that crush it into oil and meal has swelled 45% over the past decade, while production has grown just 37%.

In the United States, demand for soybean oil could outstrip production by up to 8 billion pounds annually within two years if just half the announced refinery expansion projects are completed, according to BMO Capital Markets.

A consequent surge in prices for soybeans and canola has helped drive the United Nation's broader food price index to its highest level since 2014, stinging developing countries.

'IT IS A RARE CROP'

This year, for the first time, Argentine farmer Horacio Merialdo plans to sow carinata, a towering plant crowned with yellow flowers, another new oilseed hoping to make it big.

Merialdo said he would plant carinata in the off-season from growing soybeans, and its deep roots would carve channels that allow rain to seep deep into the soil, and stop weeds flourishing, benefiting the later soybean crops.

He is using seeds supplied by Nuseed, part of Australian agrichemical company Nufarm Ltd, which launched commercial sales last year of carinata in Argentina.

Those plantings are currently less than 100,000 hectares, but the company expects them to double within two years and rise exponentially in subsequent years as it expands production to the United States, Paraguay and Uruguay.

"We experienced the industry repeatedly asking us to go faster, so we've ramped up those plans," said Alex Clayton, Nuseed's business development lead for carinata.

Yet the perils of plowing his own, experimental furrow are not lost on Merialdo.

"The prospects are good but the risk is that it is a rare crop, with a single price maker and a single buyer," said Merialdo, who farms in the Pampas grain-belt town of Suipacha, in Buenos Aires province. "So there is less certainty."

'I CAN'T PRODUCE ENOUGH'

Nuseed currently sells all carinata production to Saipol, France's largest biodiesel producer.

Saipol itself is also working on developing new crops, such as the flowering oilseed camelina, to produce biodiesel alongside the fuel it makes largely from rapeseed, a close cousin of canola, said CEO Christophe Beaunoir.

Unlike some new oilseeds like covercress, which have not previously been cultivated, farmers already grow camelina in small quantities for use in fish rations and in health products for dogs and horses.

Smart Earth Seeds, a Canadian seed developer and producer of camelina oil, said the crop was now catching the demand wave lifting soybean and canola prices, more than tripling the company's sales this year.

"I just can't produce enough," CEO Jack Grushcow said.

REFINERS: CAUTIOUS INTEREST

Yet it is a long road for new hopefuls.

"The trick will be whether we can get enough farmers to be interested and comfortable," CoverCress CEO Mike DeCamp said.

Whole seeds will be sold as poultry feed, with crushing into oil and meal expected to begin in 2025, he added.

Niche crops' use in biofuels is so far limited. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was reviewing one fuel facility's request for approval of carinata as a credit-generating feedstock under the Renewable Fuel Standard. Camelina is already approved.

With production of such oilseeds currently small, refiners are cautious about building plants that rely on them.

Covenant Energy will produce renewable diesel from canola at its planned Saskatchewan refinery, but the facility will also be able to use carinata and camelina, CEO Josh Gustafson said.

Joel MacLeod, CEO of Tidewater Midstream and Infrastructure, is planning to produce 3,000 barrels per day of renewable diesel and renewable hydrogen in total at its refinery in Prince George, British Columbia.

"On camelina and carinata, we definitely have an interest," he said. "But we can't have massive swings in our blend, month over month."

(Reporting by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg and Karl Plume in Arenzville, Illinois; additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein in Buenos Aires and Sybille de La Hamaide in Paris; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Pravin Char)

HPV vaccine shows success in gay, bisexual men

MONASH UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

A study by Monash University and Alfred Health found a 70 per cent reduction in one type of human papillomavirus (HPV) in gay and bisexual men after the implementation of the school-based HPV vaccination program.

The HYPER2 study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, and led by Associate Professor Eric Chow, found there was a significant reduction in all four vaccine-preventable genotypes in gay/bisexual men aged 16-20 years following the introduction of the vaccine for boys in 2013.

Australia is one of the first and few countries that have both boys and girls vaccination programs for HPV. The vaccine covers four genotypes: 6/11/16/18. Genotypes 6/11 cause about 90 per cent of the genital wart cases and genotypes 16/18 cause about 70 per cent of cervical and anal cancers.

This is the first study to show that the implementation of the gender-neutral program can reduce high-risk anal HPV and potentially reduce the incidence of anal cancer in gay and bisexual men.

This repeated cross-sectional study recruited 400 gay and bisexual men with a median age of 19 years from sexual health clinics and the community in Melbourne.

The results are compared with the HYPER1 group of 200 gay/bisexual men pre-vaccination in 2010-2012 and the HYPER2 group of 200 gay/bisexual men post-vaccination in 2017-2018.

It showed a reduction in anal quadrivalent genotypes from 28 per cent down to 7.3 per cent and penile quadrivalent genotypes also lower in the post-vaccination group 6.1 per cent compared to 11.9 per cent.

Anal cancer incidence has increased globally among men over the last three decades. It is overrepresented among gay and bisexual men, particularly those living with HIV.

A meta-analysis estimated the incidence of anal cancer to be 45.9 per 100,000 among HIV-positive MSM. Results from the HYPER2 study suggest that male vaccination may lead to a potential reduction in anal cancer among gay and bisexual men in Australia, which is similar to the reduction in cervical cancer among Australian women after the HPV vaccination program launched in 2007.

"Australia has a very successful HPV vaccination program for both boys and girls with high vaccine coverage," Associate Professor Chow said.

"The vaccine is effective in reducing HPV-related diseases and showing some promising evidence that this may lead to a reduction in HPV-related cancer in the future."

###

Read the full paper in The Lancet Infectious Diseases titled: Prevalence of human papillomavirus in young men who have sex with men after the implementation of gender-neutral HPV vaccination: a repeated cross-sectional study

DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30687-3

The HPV Vaccine Now Targets the Strains That Are Most Common in Black and Latina Women

Gabrielle Perry 

Editor's Note: We at POPSUGAR recognize that people of many genders and identities, including but not limited to women, may or may not have female sex organs, such as a cervix or vagina. This particular story includes language from experts, government agencies, and studies that generally refer to people with female sex organs as women.

© Pexels / RF._.studio The HPV Vaccine Now Targets the Strains That Are Most Common in Black and Latina Women

It's been roughly two decades since the US launched a nationwide vaccination effort against the human papillomavirus (HPV), a sexually transmitted virus that increases the likelihood of developing certain cancers. While the campaign is widely viewed as a success, it has led only to a stagnant reduction in infection rates in the Black and Latinx communities - and not just because, historically, these communities have been more likely to express vaccine hesitancy. The first two vaccines created to slow HPV transmission did not address the strains of the virus that are most common in women who researchers identify as Black or Hispanic, the demographic that is also most likely to be diagnosed with HPV-associated diseases, including cervical cancer.

Young millennials like myself and older members of Gen Z may recall getting Gardasil-4 or Cervarix-2, the first vaccines that were developed to curb the spread of HPV. Gardasil-4 and Cervarix-2 were administered to young people and children as young as 9 years old, and required a two- or three-dose regimen, depending on the person's age at the time of their first dose. However, despite the success of these vaccines following their rollout in 2006, the Black and Latinx communities have continued to experience disproportionate levels of HPV-associated cancers. Thus, the creation of the Gardasil-9 vaccine - the latest HPV vaccine that expands protection against multiple strains of high-risk HPV - is essential in addressing this disparity.

Gardasil-9 is now the primary HPV vaccine in the US and has proven to be nearly 100 percent effective at preventing HPV-associated diseases, especially when administered early in life. But what does this mean for those who were already vaccinated, or are perhaps considering it for the first time? Here's what you need to know to protect yourself and those you care about most.

How Is Gardasil-9 Different From Previous HPV Vaccines?

First, let's talk about the basics. Though most HPV infections resolve on their own within two years of transmission, nearly 80 million Americans are currently living with the virus, with 14 million HPV infections occurring annually. The 37 known strains of HPV are divided into "high-risk" and "low-risk" categories. Low-risk strains are known to carry a lower risk of a person who contracts HPV later being diagnosed with HPV-associated cancers, and their symptoms are typically milder in nature. In contrast, high-risk strains present the highest risk of causing cervical, oropharyngeal, anal, and other types of cancers. Overall, 14 of the 37 strains of HPV are considered high-risk strains, with strains 16 and 18 causing 70 percent of cervical cancers and precancerous lesions.

Despite the Gardasil-4 and Cervarix-2 vaccines being responsible for massive decreases in HPV and HPV-associated cancers, more recent studies have shown that not all Americans benefited equally. A 2013 study conducted by researchers at Duke University School of Medicine found that white people tend to primarily contract HPV strains 16, 18, 33, 39, and 59, while Black participants in the study carried strains 31, 35, 45, 56, 58, 66, and 68. Moreover, a study published in 2015 by the American Association For Cancer Research found that some of the same strains that affected Black women at higher rates were even more common in Hispanic women living along the Texas-Mexico border.

The original Gardasil, a quadrivalent vaccine, was designed to prevent HPV strains 6, 11, 16, and 18; Cervarix, a bivalent vaccine, only targeted strains 16 and 18. By contrast, Gardasil-9 protects against HPV strains 6, 11, 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52, and 58 - widening the net for the communities that are most at risk for HPV-associated cancers.

"I think the original vaccines not covering more high-grade strains is not necessarily a failure of medicine or research. I think it's just a function of how science and discovery go," Ukachi Emeruwa, MD, MPH, an ob-gyn and clinical fellow in maternal-fetal medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center in New York, told POPSUGAR. "Medications and vaccinations should change - not because they were unsafe when they came out, but because we make them available as soon as we find something helpful and then change them to make them even better every time we can."
Who Should Get the Gardasil-9 Vaccine?

Gardasil-9 is recommended for young people ages 11 to 26, as well as adults up to age 45 who, after discussing their risk factors with their doctor, decide that they could benefit from being vaccinated. However, Chinedu Nwabuobi, MD, an ob-gyn at a large health system in Columbus, OH, explained that people who have already received the required doses of the Gardasil-4 or Cervarix-2 vaccines are not advised to undergo an additional course with Gardasil-9. I, personally, chose to get the Gardasil-9 vaccine recently at 28 years old, because I never completed my third dose of the HPV vaccine after receiving my first at age 11. I was informed by my own doctor that there's no specific amount of time that needs to pass before you begin your course of Gardasil-9 should you choose to do so.

If you're unvaccinated and still skeptical or hesitant to add the vaccine to your to-do list, know that there are benefits beyond cancer prevention (which is a massive one). "HPV is also associated with genital warts," Dr. Nwabuobi told POPSUGAR. "In addition, management of abnormal pap smears - which may be attributed to high-risk HPV - may include a procedure called a cone biopsy. During this procedure, a portion of your cervix that contains abnormal cells is removed surgically," which may increase your risk for premature delivery if you decide to have a baby later on. "As a maternal-fetal medicine doctor, I deal with preterm birth issues frequently, and prevention of this condition is very paramount whenever possible," Dr. Nwabuobi explained.
How Else Can These Racial Disparities Be Addressed?

Experts generally agree that more work needs to be done to ensure equitable healthcare and public health education for those who are most affected by HPV. The fact that such disparities exist suggests that preventive strategies - including identification of and treatment for precancerous lesions - aren't reaching the Black and Latinx communities the way they should, Dr. Emeruwa explained. "Until we can get to a point in which the way we share knowledge, build trust, and distribute interventions is equitable, I don't see us making a dent in that disparity."

As we've seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccination efforts are futile when a population isn't properly informed about the vaccine and granted equitable access to it. "Ultimately, I think the first step in closing the gaps is for healthcare providers to engage women of color through education and unbiased counseling," Dr. Nwabuobi said, adding that the government can also address these disparities by engaging communities of color with awareness campaigns focused on cervical cancer and by expanding healthcare coverage. It's well-documented within public health research that Black and Latina women are least likely to have health insurance coverage and access to healthcare - and by extension, preventative treatments - due to issues like poverty and systemic and medical racism.

"I think the future of women's health is understanding and respecting that medicine and health do not operate in a vacuum," Dr. Emeruwa explained. "Access to care and infrastructure that promotes healthy behavior, policy, financial resources, discrimination, racism, cultural competency, historical context - all of these and more directly impact any intervention or treatment that we develop. It's not all genetics and biology the way we used to or would want to believe." She continued: "If we want to mend and close the gaps in healthcare, our research and care have to start to investigate women's health through this more holistic lens."

Though a major overhaul is needed within the medical and public health communities, the development of the Gardasil-9 vaccine to specifically address the HPV strains that are most prevalent in Black and Latina women is indicative of an era of healthcare dedicated to addressing both bodily and societal ills.

While that work continues, you should do everything you can to reduce your risk. "Other than getting the HPV vaccine, the best way to lower your chance of getting HPV is to use latex condoms and dental dams the right way every time you have sex," Dr. Nwabuobi said, noting that you should also get routine cervical cancer screenings, starting at age 21. In the battle against HPV, it's important to arm yourself with every resource available.

Is Jeff Bezos serious about fighting the climate crisis and how will his $10bn Earth Fund be spent?

World’s richest man putting aside almost one-fifth of his colossal Amazon fortune to support environmental initiatives but has nevertheless attracted criticism

Joe Sommerlad@JoeSommerlad

Jeff Bezos, the founder and CEO of online retail behemoth Amazon, announced the establishment of the Bezos Earth Fund on 17 February 2020, a new philanthropic initiative that would see him hand out $10bn in donations to environmental groups to address the climate crisis.

“Climate change is the biggest threat to our planet,” he wrote on Instagram at the time. “I want to work alongside others both to amplify known ways and to explore new ways of fighting the devastating impact of climate change on this planet we all share.

“This global initiative will fund scientists, activists, NGOs – any effort that offers a real possibility to help preserve and protect the natural world. We can save earth. It’s going to take collective action from big companies, small companies, nation states, global organisations, and individuals.”

Mr Bezos said that the $10 billion being put forward was “to start”, implying that the fund might be replenished in future, and, since making the announcement, the richest man on earth’s net worth has ballooned by $64 billion in a year to $177 billion, according to Forbes, the result of the home shopping boom inspired by national lockdowns around the world in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Given Amazon’s ongoing dominance of global retail, almost single-handedly killing off the traditional high street over the course of its rise and rise, it is hoped that more will be forthcoming when the original amount is spent, which is expected to have come to pass by 2030.
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Mr Bezos announced the first tranche of funding on 16 November, gifting a total of $791 million (about eight per cent of the total) to 16 green groups, the majority “legacy” organisations with a proven track-record like the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Environmental Defense Fund, the World Wildlife Fund and the Nature Conservancy.

Those four are understood to have received $100 million each, with the most revealing choice being the first.

The NRDC was until recently led by Gina McCarthy, now serving as the first White House national climate advisor under President Joe Biden, suggesting Mr Bezos is backing political policy-making clout over grassroots technological innovation, at least initially

That approach comes in contrast to Amazon’s own $2 billion climate fund (distinct from Mr Bezos’s personal project) backing initiatives to get more electric vehicles on the road and capturing carbon dioxide emissions or Microsoft investing $1 billion over four years in speculative technologies to remove CO2 from the atmosphere.

Among the other recipients of Bezos Earth Fund cash are some newer startups like the NDN Collective and the Hive Fund for Climate and Gender Justice and research groups like the Rocky Mountain Institute and World Resources Institute.

The remainder is comprised of the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, the ClimateWorks Foundation, Dream Corps Green For All, the Eden Reforestation Projects, the Energy Foundation, the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the Solutions Project.

“I’ve spent the past several months learning from a group of incredibly smart people who’ve made it their life’s work to fight climate change and its impact on communities around the world,” Mr Bezos said in another Instagram post announcing the grantees.

“I’m inspired by what they’re doing, and excited to help them scale.”

As to how the money might be invested, the Environmental Defense Fund – to give one example – told The Verge that the majority of its grant will go towards launching a satellite in 2022 to monitor global methane emissions and building a platform to make that data publicly available.

But Mr Bezos’s gesture has not passed without significant criticism, not least because the amount – though still a remarkable sum and more than welcome when just two per cent of philanthropy goes towards climate causes every year – accounts for just 17.7 per cent of his estimated personal fortune.

“A reminder that Jeff Bezos has made over $48 billion during the pandemic while over 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment,” the Sunrise Movement tweeted on 28 September, before the final extent of his haul from goods sales during the pandemic became known.

“Imagine if he actually had to pay taxes and what that money could help fund.”

The Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) has also been highly critical along similar lines.

“He has an opportunity to do so much with the funds that he has provided out there, although I would still consider it chump change compared to the wealth that he has accumulated off the backs of our people,” said Gabriela Mendez, a community organiser with the nonprofit.

The CCAEJ has also attacked Amazon’s own environmental record in southern California where many of its warehouses are located and where there is a significant air pollution problem, which the group has blamed in part on the company’s bustling delivery trucks, calling on it to switch to zero-emissions vehicles (and improve worker conditions while they are at it).

Taking a similarly hardline is the Criminal Justice Alliance (CJA), which responded to the fund by saying: “No amount of greenwashing will absolve Jeff Bezos or Amazon of the harm they have inflicted on frontline communities and workers, or our planet.
Jeff Bezos
(AFP/Getty)

“If the Earth Fund wants to purport to save the planet, they should send funds directly to grassroots communities who are the least responsible and hardest hit by climate disaster and the kinds of rapacious business practices Bezos engages in.”

In December, the CJA appealed to the beneficiaries of his donations to redirect 10 to 25 per cent of the capital into a pooled fund to be redistributed at a community level.

To appease transparency concerns about the Bezos Earth Fund, the retail magnate announced on 9 March that Dr Andrew Steer, former head of the World Resources Institute, would be serving as its CEO and president.

“The Earth Fund will invest in scientists, NGOs, activists, and the private sector to help drive new technologies, investments, policy change and behaviour,” Dr Steer subsequently wrote on Twitter.

“We will emphasise social justice, as climate change disproportionately hurts poor and marginalised communities.”

CANADA

Over 100 arrests so far at B.C. protests against old-growth logging: RCMP


LAKE COWICHAN, B.C. — Police say 55 people were arrested Tuesday as they enforced a British Columbia court injunction ordering the removal of blockades aimed at preventing old-growth logging on southwestern Vancouver Island.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The RCMP say the protesters who gathered along a forest service road west of Lake Cowichan were given a chance to leave or face arrest, and nine of those taken into custody had been arrested in previous days.

The Mounties say more than 100 people have been arrested since enforcement of the court injunction began last week to allow workers with the Teal-Jones Group to resume logging in that area and in the Fairy Creek watershed to the south, near Port Renfrew.

Sgt. Chris Manseau says police enforcement was initially planned for just one location Tuesday at a camp near Port Renfrew, but some officers were redeployed as protesters gathered along the McClure forest service road.

He says in a statement that arrests were expected to continue there Wednesday.

Activists say very little of the best old-growth forest remains in B.C. and Fairy Creek is the last unprotected, intact old-growth valley on southern Vancouver Island.

Teal-Jones has said it plans to harvest about 20 hectares at the north ridge of the 1,200-hectare watershed out of 200 available for harvest.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 26, 2021.

Ongoing arrests of old growth defenders ignite questions about injunctions

Fourteen people were arrested on Saturday at Caycuse Camp, police say, in one of eight blockades in Pacheedaht and Ditidaht territories. Those present say the day’s arrests amplified concern about the legality of methods used by RCMP officers who are enforcing a court-ordered injunction meant to restrict opposition to logging.

While people have been protesting logging of old growth in what has become widely known as the “Fairy Creek Blockades” since last summer, events escalated after police started enforcing the injunction won by Surrey-based logging company Teal-Jones.

“There were families, Elders, youth, and everyone in between there,” reports xʷ is xʷ čaa, also known as Katie George-Jim, in an Instagram Live video she posted on her account the day following the arrests.

George-Jim was aggressively arrested on Thursday, May 20 and charged with assaulting a police officer and obstructing justice.

She has been vocal about her inherent rights and responsibilities to protect her ancestral lands, while amplifying her uncle Bill Jones’ claims about false authority in who’s green-lighting logging agreements with the Pacheedaht Nation.

While Frank Queesto Jones and Chief Councillor Jeff Jones have been documented for speaking out against the logging protests, Bill Jones has publicly criticized their authority to speak on behalf of his community, calling a public letter released by the men intentionally “contradictory and confusing,” according to a media release statement.

More than 100 people had gathered outside the Caycuse Camp Saturday morning, where police had drawn a line using yellow tape, and parked their vehicles, blocking access to the main site where at least one “tree-sitter” remains installed in an old growth tree, according to sources.

Defenders walked past the line and gathered around the RCMP vehicles, George-Jim says.

“People sat around the RCMP vehicles, sharing love, talking about why we’re all there,” she says. “We were able to start a fire for fish and other traditional foods. There was another fire under the road for the youth and children, set up by an auntie.”

Teal-Jones is the owner of a forest tenure granted by the province of B.C. called Tree Farm Licence 46 (TFL 46), located on Vancouver Island, north of Port Renfrew, north of the San Juan River, southwest of Cowichan Lake.

It is bounded on the south-west in part by Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park and Pacific Rim National Park Reserve and is 59,432 hectares in size.

On April 1, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Frits Verhoeven granted Teal-Jones an injunction banning roadblocks “and other conduct intended to obstruct Teal’s logging activities and the related activities of its contractors.”

“The protesters have serious and passionate concerns about the environment. There is no doubt that climate change is real, and poses a grave threat to humanity’s future … But as I have said, the effect of old growth forest logging on climate change and biodiversity is not before me, and is not for me to say,” Verhoeven stated.

After supporters crossed the temporary exclusion zone line on Saturday around noon, they sat around the RCMP vehicles that were parked, cooking fish and wild meats, says George-Jim. Several hours later, the group got word that more RCMP vehicles were on the way to the site.

IndigiNews spoke with three people who were also present at the event: Elder Rose Henry (who was taken from her Tla’amin Nation community during the Sixties Scoop and has been standing with Indigenous sovereignty movements for years), Ojisto Henhawke from the Mohawk Nation, and Asiyah Robinson.

When the group got word several hours later that more police were on the way, kids were escorted to cars for safety, Henhawke says.

According to multiple witnesses, police showed up, parked their vehicles, formed a line, and started marching towards the group, ushering people back behind the exclusion zone, while also threatening to make — and actually making — arrests.

Witnesses shared concerns about the RCMP officers’ conduct — alleging that they moved the temporary exclusion zone parameters after establishing them, and targeted Indigenous and racialized people, taking them into custody first and letting them out last.

“The rule was that you wouldn’t be arrested if you were external to the exclusion zone,” Robinson tells IndigiNews at the Fairy Creek headquarters the day after the May 22 arrests. “We realized that they had moved this arbitrary line, because they were threatening everybody with arrest.”

One of the first people to get arrested was an Indigenous youth, Robinson says, adding that he was standing next to her when he was grabbed by his arms and legs and carried into a police vehicle.

“I got so frustrated, I got so angry, because there was absolutely no reason,” Robinson says. “We were walking, we were following, we weren’t harassing anyone, and they put their hands on me.”

Officers ushered Robinson back with others, asking about her well-being, while also putting her in an uncomfortable position, she says.

As Robinson and others were pushed back by police and separated from the others, she says officers physically put their hands on her shoulders to usher her back, and asked her “Are you okay little one?” and told her to “Watch out for your friends’ toes.”

But it didn’t come across as genuine concern to her, she says, as what police were saying and doing didn’t align.

“Do not be the reason that I do not have space, that I have high anxiety, and then ask me if I’m okay,” Robinson says. “The road was clear at that point. It was a power move. It had to do with control and abuse of power.”

Robinson says she’d never been approached by so many police and it brought up a lot of feelings around “military police powers who abuse power.”

“It circles back to land. Everything is about the land and all of us are fighting for that, and they understand that and that’s why they’re trying to take it,” she says. “They understand it’s our connection, they understand it’s how we relate to each other, that it’s our family and our food source.”

Robinson says that night, feeling frustrated and terrified, she gathered with a group of supporters outside the Lake Cowichan police detachment to wait for the arrestees to be released.

Aya Clappis, a Nuu-chah-nulth and Somali land defender, posted a live update on Instagram which shows people greeting and embracing people as they’re released from custody.

“Where are the Indigenous youth?” George-Jim can be heard calling out in the video.

“Why were the Indigenous people separated from the white people?”

As documented in the Instagram live video, Indigenous and racialized youth were some of the last to be released.

Claims about the shifting exclusion zone, the targeted arrests and the intimidation tactics used by police were all put to Sgt. Chris Manseau, a spokesperson for the B.C. RCMP.

“I have been told that all 14 that were arrested were inside the temporary access control area, contrary to the court-ordered injunction. I do not believe that any were outside of it,” writes Manseau in an email to IndigiNews on May 25.

“As for the timing of the arrests and releases, those are based purely on circumstances at the time (location, behaviour, etc.),” he says. “I hope that by being open with the media, and inviting them daily to observe the enforcement, they can show what is truly occurring to the public.”

The RCMP’s openness with the media was called into question last week by the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ).

In a statement, the CAJ calls out the RCMP for continuing “to block, detain and harass journalists as they try to cover the enforcement of injunctions,” and “respectfully calling on courts to limit the powers of the RCMP, and other police agencies, when issuing injunctions.”

All 14 people arrested at the Caycuse site were released without charge, police say.

According to a CBC report, six people were also arrested on May 22 at another blockade called “Waterfall Camp” and two people known as “tree sitters” were taken down by police, according to Manseau.

On May 24, the B.C. RCMP reported that since they began enforcing the injunction, officers have arrested 53 individuals — 46 for breaching the injunction (civil contempt of court) and 7 for obstruction.

Yesterday, police continued to enforce the injunction and attempt to dismantle the blockades, according to independent photographer Mike Graeme, who has been reporting on the ground for weeks.

IndigiNews will be on the ground following the story as it unfolds.

Emilee Gilpin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Discourse