More pandemics coming if environmental issues not dealt with: report

An international group of scientists has concluded pandemic problems are just starting unless the world moves to deal with the issues creating them.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"The factors driving pandemics are human activities — unsustainable growth in livestock production, deforestation, the wildlife trade and global connectivity," says Peter Daszak, a British expert on disease ecology and head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

The panel, which has 137 member nations, commissioned a report into the environmental roots of pandemics and new diseases including AIDS, H1N1, SARS, Ebola and COVID-19. The authors of the peer-reviewed report drew on the findings of more than 700 journal articles -- about a third published in the last year.

"Pandemics are becoming more frequent, driven by a continued rise in the underlying emerging disease events that spark them," the report says.

"Pandemic risk could be significantly lowered by promoting responsible consumption and reducing unsustainable consumption."

The report estimates mammals and birds host about 1.7 million undiscovered viruses. Somewhere between 540,000 and 850,000 could infect humans.

More than five new viral diseases emerge every year, about three-quarters of which originate in animals.

Growing human populations that push into previously unpopulated lands, as well as the deforestation required to grow crops, are a big part of the problem. The panel found about a third of the new diseases result from land-use changes, agricultural expansion and urbanization.

The trade in wildlife, which has increased more than fivefold in value over the last 14 years, also increases close contact between humans and unfamiliar animals, the report says. So does climate change, which drives migration of both people and animals.

"We are part of the animal kingdom," said report co-author Carlos Zambrana-Torrelio, a Bolivian biologist.

"We can get viruses from animals. What happens is all these human activities are putting together humans more in close contact with animals that have these viruses. In the past, we would never get so close."

It's no longer good enough to wait for pandemics to emerge and rely on a medical response, the report concludes. It points to research that is starting to be able to predict where future pandemics will arise, which animals will host the virus and the environmental and economic changes that drive them.

"Pilot projects, often at large scale, have demonstrated that this knowledge can be used to effectively target viral discovery, surveillance and outbreak investigation," it says.

The report calls for reform in how land-use changes are funded to account for biological risks. Habitat conservation should be stepped up.

People in viral hotspots need education about potential risks. Animals most likely to host dangerous viruses should be blocked from the wildlife trade, which also needs higher safety and cleanliness standards.

Government policies should discourage consumption of products that drive deforestation and habitat loss.

"We have a choice now," Daszak said.

"We can either continue business as usual and have more and more pandemics that emerge quicker, spread more rapidly, kill more people and crash our economies -- or we can shift toward preventing pandemics."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 28, 2020.

-- Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

USA

Scaled-back Thanksgiving plans leave turkey farmers in limbo

For the turkey industry, this Thanksgiving is a guessing game.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Millions of Americans are expected to have scaled-down celebrations amid the pandemic, heeding official warnings against travel and large indoor gatherings. That leaves anxious turkey farmers and grocers scrambling to predict what people will want on their holiday tables.

Kroger — the nation’s largest grocery chain — said its research shows 43% of shoppers plan to celebrate Thanksgiving only with those in their immediate household. It has purchased more turkeys than usual — in all sizes — but it’s also predicting an increase in demand for alternatives, including ham, pork roast and seafood. Kroger also expects to see more demand for plant-based meats, like a vegan roast stuffed with mushrooms and squash.

Walmart says it will still carry plenty of whole turkeys, but it will also have 30% more turkey breasts in its stores to accommodate shoppers who don’t want to cook a whole bird.

It’s not always easy to pivot. Angela Wilson, the owner of Avedano’s Holly Park Market in San Francisco, ordered turkeys last year for this Thanksgiving. She can’t cancel the order, so they’re still coming in.

But Wilson said this Thanksgiving might be busier than in the past, since customers who usually go out of town will be staying home. She’s also stocking up on smaller birds like quail and game hen.

Some farmers are making tweaks based on what they think customers will be looking for. Dede Boies raises heritage breed turkeys at Root Down Farm in Pescadero, California. The turkeys she sells for Thanksgiving were born in May, so she has spent months thinking about how the coronavirus might impact the holidays.

Boies decided to harvest some turkeys early this year. It’s a gamble, because the birds gain a lot of fat and flavour in their final few weeks, but she figures customers will want smaller birds. She’s also offering more chickens and ducks.

“We’ve invested so much time and energy and love into these birds, and the whole point is that they go and they are celebrated with people for these great meals. We’re just really hoping that still happens,” Boies said.

Butterball — which typically sells 30% of America’s 40 million Thanksgiving turkeys — said it’s expecting more gatherings, but it’s not convinced people will want smaller turkeys. Its research shows that 75% of consumers plan to serve the same size turkey or a larger turkey than they did last year.

Butterball says about half its turkeys will be in the 10-16 lb. range and half will be in the 16-24 lb. range, the same as usual. Anyone looking for a specific size should plan to shop early, said Rebecca Welch, senior brand manager for seasonal at Butterball.

“Don’t be afraid to go big,” she said. “It’s just as easy to cook a large turkey as it is a smaller one, and it means more leftovers.”

Nancy Johnson Horn of Queens, New York, usually shares a big turkey with her in-laws, her parents and her own family of five. But Horn, who writes The Mama Maven blog, said that gathering won’t happen this year because her kids are attending school in-person and she is worried about spreading the virus.

“As much as it hurts me, I will have to cook myself this year,” she said. She’s not sure what will be on the menu. She’s only cooked a whole turkey once in her life and she’s never made mashed potatoes.

This Thanksgiving comes at an already tenuous time for the $4.3 billion U.S. turkey industry. Thanks to better technology for carving breast meat, per capita consumption of turkey nearly doubled over the 1980s, peaking at 14.4 pounds per person in 1996, according to Mark Jordan, executive director of LEAP Market Analytics in Jonesboro, Arkansas.

But interest in turkey has been steadily falling, thanks in part to price increases five years ago when flocks were hit by bird flu. Annual consumption is now around 12 pounds, Jordan said.

Turkey sales have even been falling at Thanksgiving as consumers explore alternatives, according to Nielsen data. Last November, Americans spent $643 million on turkey, down 3.5% from the previous year. They spent $1.9 billion on beef, which was up 4%. And they spent $12 million — or more than double the prior year — on alternatives like plant-based meat.

Jordan thinks the uncertainty about Thanksgiving demand will hurt groceries hardest. If they discount turkeys, they can sell them but it will hurt profits. If they keep prices high and consumers pass, they’ll be stuck with a lot of turkeys.

“I don’t see many ways that they win this holiday season,” Jordan said.

The uncertainty may well see a repeat at Christmas — both in the U.S. and beyond.

Christmas turkeys are a staple in Britain, where turkey farmers are also bracing for slimmed-down festivities after the government told people not to meet in groups of more than six.

Richard Calcott raises 2,000 Christmas turkeys each year at Calcott Turkeys in Tamworth, England. He bought his turkey chicks — known as poults — in February and March, and it was too late to switch to a smaller breed when pandemic restrictions took hold.

He has tweaked their diets to reduce the weight of each turkey by around 2.2 pounds by the time they’re ready for market. Still, Calcott said he continues to get some orders for larger birds.

“It’s been a very difficult year for a lot of people this year,” he said. “Christmas will be a good time to get families back together.”

___

AP Video Journalist Haven Daley contributed from San Francisco. AP Writer Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.

Dee-Ann Durbin, The Associated Press

'They came with dogs:' Genomes show canines, humans share long history

EDMONTON — Somewhere near Lake Baikal on the Siberian steppes, archeologists were opening 7,000-year-old graves. 

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The bodies had been carefully interred. One was buried with a long, carved spoon. Another had been honoured with a necklace of elk teeth.

"They look like people being buried — except they're dogs," said Robert Losey, a University of Alberta archeologist.

Those ancient pets are not only moving evidence of their owners' esteem, they're now part of research hinting at how far back dogs and humans go.

"We don't just have a human history that's independent of everything else on Earth," said Losey, one of 56 international authors of a paper published Thursday that links human and canine genetics.

"We've been successful by relying on and altering the histories of other species."

The first dog probably emerged from a type of wolf, but no one knows when, or where, or who domesticated it. It was a while ago. The oldest dog burial dates back about 14,000 years.

Losey and his many colleagues sequenced the genomes of 27 ancient dogs — including the one with the elk-tooth collar — with a maximum age of about 11,000 years. They compared them with genomes of 17 ancient humans who lived in roughly the same time and place as the dogs.

The dog genomes showed that 11 millennia ago, dogs had been domesticated long enough to produce five separate genetic lineages. That suggests the relationship between humans and dogs was old even then.

"They'd already been around for a long time, enough to differentiate groups by the end of the ice age," said Losey.

Scientists also found the movement of those different dog genomes tracked the movement of the human genomes.

"When people migrated, they didn't migrate alone," Losey said. "They came with dogs, often a genetically distinct form of dogs."

When the first farmers came to Europe from what is now eastern Turkey, they didn't adopt the dogs already living there. They brought their own. The genomes of both species track together nicely.

That didn't always happen. But Losey and his colleagues found that throughout most of prehistory, humans lighting out for new territory preferred companions they already knew.

The differences between the genetic strands weren't breeds. Losey said the variation between dogs then was much less than it is today and that most of them would have looked much alike.

"They would have been somewhat diverse," Losey said. "Most or all of them would physically mix right in with a modern dog — some all-black dogs, some all-white dogs, some with floppy ears. If my neighbour were walking one of these dogs from 10,000 years ago, you wouldn't blink an eye."

Losey, a dog lover himself, said studying the relationship between humans and dogs gives him a little insight into that long-ago pet owner who laid his friend to rest by the shores of Lake Baikal.

"There's such a huge public interest in dogs," he said.

"Every time we learn even a little bit more about their long history with people, we get additional insight into what it means to live with these animals."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 29, 2020.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

US wages and benefits grow at sluggish pace amid pandemic

WASHINGTON — Wages and benefits for U.S. workers grew slowly this summer as employers sought to hold the line on pay gains in the midst of the pandemic.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

U.S. workers’ total compensation rose 0.5% in the July-September quarter, the second straight quarter of slower growth in wages, the Labor Department said Friday. Growth was the same as in the April-June quarter. That’s down from 0.8% in the first three months of the year.

For the year ending in September, wages and benefits increased 2.4%, the slowest pace in three years. The data comes from the Labor Department's Employment Cost Index, which measures pay changes for workers that keep their jobs. The data isn't affected by the mass layoffs in the spring.

The figures suggest that businesses are holding the line on labour costs, even as they recall millions of the workers that were laid off in March and April when the coronavirus outbreak forced the closures of thousands of businesses nationwide. Still, the U.S. has regained barely more than half the 22 million jobs lost to the pandemic. The unemployment rate is a still-high 7.9%, though that is down from its 14.7% peak in April.

Pay and benefits fell in the third quarter for employees of colleges, universities and professional schools, for the first time since 2009, during the Great Recession. Compensation for those workers dropped 0.4%, compared with a gain of 0.6% in the second quarter.

Colleges and universities are struggling with declining enrollments amid the pandemic, with many classes conducted online.

Wages for state and local government employees increased just 0.1% in the third quarter, the slowest pace in seven years. State and local governments have also been forced to cut jobs as tax revenues fall. Most states are legally required to balance their budgets.

Christopher Rugaber, The Associated Press

Belarus leader threatens to leave protesters 'without hands' as strike rumbles

KYIV (Reuters) - Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko threatened to leave protesters "without hands" on Friday, sharpening his rhetoric as hundreds marched through the streets and rallied outside universities to keep pressure on the veteran leader to resign.

© Reuters/BelTA FILE PHOTO: Belarusian President Lukashenko meets with Interior Minister Kubrakov in Minsk

Students, factory workers and pensioners answered a call by exiled opposition figure Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya to launch a nationwide strike this week - a fresh move to force Lukashenko to hold new elections after months of mass protests.

The ex-Soviet country sank into crisis after opponents accused Lukashenko of rigging the Aug. 9 presidential election to extend his 26-year rule. He denies vote fraud and has held on to power, buoyed by support from traditional ally Russia.

More than 16,000 people have been detained in a violent crackdown by security forces that has prompted Western countries to impose new sanctions on Minsk.

"If someone touches a serviceman...he must leave at least without hands," Lukashenko said in a televised meeting.

Protesters rallied outside several universities on Friday in solidarity with students who were expelled this week for joining the strike, footage circulating in local media showed.

Video: https://tinyurl.com/y4hx6d5r 

Thousands protest in Belarus as opposition calls for Lukashenko to resign (ABC News)

Several hundred people at the Belarusian State University of Informatics and Radioelectronics chanted "well done!" and applauded teachers who went on strike in solidarity with the expelled students, a video by TUT.BY showed.

Dozens, some holding posters saying "solidarity is our weapon", protested near the law faculty of the university, according to a picture published by Radio Svoboda.

More than 100 people protested in front of a school in Minsk, a day after police detained the father of three students who had joined the protests.

"Support students and teachers. Remind the regime: we will not let the future of our country be ruined," Tsikhanouskaya said in a statement.

Dozens of factory workers have been laid off as punishment for joining the strike, according to information given by the strike groups.

The authorities have also closed several cafes and restaurants for supporting the strike, TUT.BY reported.

That included the Brø bakery in Minsk, whose founder Ilya Prokhorov wrote on Facebook that the shop had been shut by the authorities on sanitary grounds.

Lukashenko partially closed the country's land borders, replaced his interior minister and named three security hawks to new roles on Thursday in an attempt to tighten his grip.

(Writing by Matthias Williams; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

It’s Hard to Enforce Pandemic Health Rules on Halloween. Just Look at What Happened in 1918

The COVID-19 pandemic has already played out like a horror movie script, and yet some Americans are still determined to celebrate Halloween on Oct. 31—trading their normal face masks for costume masks, and planning socially distant festivities.

TIME  OCT 30 2020© Influenza Encyclopedia/University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine and Michigan Publis... Newspaper headlines about Halloween precautions, 1918

It will no doubt be an unusual holiday, but the cancellation of large costume parties and street celebrations also makes Halloween 2020 eerily similar to one earlier celebration in particular: Halloween 1918, which fell during the deadliest pandemic of the 20th century.

In the 1918 flu pandemic, as during this current pandemic, the virus hit different cities at different times. By Halloween, deaths in East Coast cities were on the decline, after a second wave that had been even deadlier and more contagious than the first wave the prior spring. Further west, the flu was raging.

Just as the state of the pandemic varied, so too did the precautions that cities took for Halloween. Newspaper articles in the digital archive of the Influenza Encyclopedia, produced by the Center for the History of Medicine at the University of Michigan, provide a glimpse at the range of Halloween safety protocols in major cities nationwide.

One thing they make clear: it’s already hard enough to enforce safety protocols on a day like Halloween, but that challenge gets even more intense during a pandemic.

To avoid another surge, some cities urged residents to stay home, banned Halloween parties and street “jollifications,” and urged youngsters to celebrate quietly. In Rochester, N.Y. the Safety Commissioner told police to keep the noise levels down, out of consideration for the high number of people sick with flu or pneumonia who need “rest and quiet” to get better.

In Maryland, concerned that warm weather would bring people out and too close together, the Baltimore Health Commissioner banned “frolics” such as street celebrations, arguing that “while the epidemic’s sweep was becoming milder, it was still dangerous to permit large assemblages of persons.” Residents were encouraged to wear masks but not to attend masked balls, the Halloween edition of the Baltimore American quipped, and they were advised to avoid activities like blowing horns, which are “particularly dangerous” in terms of spreading germs. The city’s health commissioner also had to clarify that “dancing, which was listed as objectionable from the start, is still regarded as nonessential,” according to the paper.

In Pittsburgh, “ticklers and brushes are particularly forbidden, and confetti throwing will not be allowed because in contact with the hands clothes and the persons of the people throwing enhances the danger of spreading influenza,” reported the Oct. 30 Pittsburgh Gazette Times.

Indoor Halloween parties were banned as well. “Halloween parties are taboo, as are all other indoor gatherings, as the danger of spreading the influenza is still great,” declared Denver Mayor W.F.R. Mills, according to the Denver Post.

In some Midwestern cities, Halloween went on as normal. In Missouri, Kansas City banned Halloween parties of more than 30 people, but in St. Louis, police reported that “the usual number of street lights [had been] extinguished” and “bread boxes overturned” during the night’s festivities. The day after Halloween, an Ohio State Journal headline read “Big Throngs Defy The Health Rules: Thousands of Columbus People Jollify on Halloween Despite Flu Bans.”

In Indianapolis, the top health official lifted the ban on public gatherings just for Halloween, allowing residents to “go ahead and have all the Halloween parties they wanted to,” as long as they stayed away from the streets in the downtown area, according to an article in the Halloween edition of the Indianapolis Star. But being allowed to celebrate didn’t necessarily translate to doing so: an Indianapolis News article did predict fewer, and less rowdy, festivities than usual due to the seriousness of both the virus and World War I, which was still going on.

On the other hand, even where cities tried to target large gatherings, local newspaper coverage of scattered incidents of individual mischief-making suggests that the tricks part of trick-or-treating was especially pronounced.

Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter

In Dallas, “unusually rough and boisterous” celebrations lasted long after midnight. A piano was stolen and so was a horse; an 8-year-old jumped off a barn and miraculously managed only to sprain an ankle; a 2-year-old caught fire, and survived with only “slight” injuries.

In Birmingham, Ala., cabin fever was blamed for the city’s noisiest Halloween ever. “After almost a month of confinement and smarting under the bitterness of a closed city ordinance all of Birmingham ‘cracked under the strain Thursday night,'” according to the Nov. 1 Birmingham News. Revelers tipped over cars, stole porch swings, switched signs and uprooted gates in front of houses. The paper also speculated that excitement over World War I winding down may have also fueled celebrations: “Maybe the fact that Turkey had just surrendered, Austria was about to pull a collapse, and Germany was hanging groggily to the ropes, had something to do with the unusual display.”

It’s unclear what kind of effect these rowdy Halloweens had on case counts more than a century ago, especially given that it wasn’t the only event drawing people into crowds around that time: Election Day was just a week later, and people flocked to the streets again to celebrate the end of World War I just days after that.

Regardless of Halloween’s role, a long winter was ahead, and the flu did continue to spread at pandemic levels well into 1919, spiking in the following winter and in early 1920 as well. In the end, about 675,000 Americans and 50 million people died, and about 500 million people were infected globally.

Then, as now, even though they lacked much of today’s concrete knowledge about the nature of the virus, public health experts knew that social distancing and wearing masks slowed the spread of flu, and could do so on Halloween too. And so the same precautions they urged more than a century ago are getting new life, in hopes that Halloween won’t make this year even scarier than it already is.

Researchers in Toronto are in the early stages of developing what’s being called a "world-first" treatment for Parkinson’s disease.© Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre Sunnybrook's Dr. Nir Lipsman is co-leading a study with Dr. Lorraine Kalia and Dr. Suneil Kalia of University Health Network on a new treatment for Parkinson's

Currently in its first phase of clinical trials, the ultimate goal of the new treatment would be to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s, prevent further decline in patients and reduce the amount of medications that people need to take for the illness, according to Dr. Nir Lipsman, the study’s co-principal investigator and a neurosurgeon at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

4:06     https://tinyurl.com/y3m2khnh
More Parkinson’s surgeries available, but still not enough

“That’s ultimately the goal — to change both the day-to-day activities of patients but also the course of their illness,” he said. “We’re still, again, (in) early days, but this is a critical first step.”

Parkinson's is a neurodegenerative disorder where patients experience tremors, muscle rigidity and have difficulty with balance, among other symptoms.

More than 100,000 people in Canada have been diagnosed, according to Parkinson Canada, and there is no cure.

Read more: Why are my hands shaking? What to know about tremors

The Toronto researchers, who are based at Sunnybrook as well as University Health Network, are using a focused ultrasound technology to deliver a treatment directly to the regions in the brain that are affected by Parkinson’s.



Gallery: These common diseases are detectable in DNA (Espresso)

https://tinyurl.com/y3m2khnh


This is done by non-invasively opening a passage in the blood-brain barrier — the physical obstacle in the body that prevents compounds, including potentially useful therapies, from gaining access to the brain, Lipsman said.

“What an ultrasound allows us to do is create a kind of temporary window in that blood-brain barrier to allow the delivery of therapies to the brain that ordinarily cannot get in,” he added.

“Now what we can do is open the blood-brain barrier entirely non-invasively with the patient in the MRI scanner, so they don’t have to have skin incision or holes in the skull.”

Researchers are looking at whether delivering an enzyme called Glucocerebrosidas to the brain will help prevent the build-up of a protein that is associated with Parkinson's called alpha-synuclein.

4:59
https://tinyurl.com/y3m2khnh
Larry Gifford on living with Parkinson’s


The goal for this phase of the trial is to have six people undergo three rounds of treatment, with follow up for at least six months. Three patients are already signed up.

Pat Wilson, 56, of Cookstown, Ont., is the first person to participate in the study. While she hasn't had improvement so far, she has had to adjust her medication because she's seen a change in how her body reacts to it.

Wilson was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2013 and her father also had the disease. She wanted to participate in the trial to try to help others.

Read more: When Life Gives You Parkinson’s podcast: More than care givers, we are partners

"It's important because we need better treatments, longer-lasting treatments, maybe. Anything to help people in the future who might get it."

Over time, as the Toronto researchers gain experience and conduct additional trials, Lipsman said they hope they can demonstrate that they’re moving the dial when it comes to preventing neurodegeneration from taking place.

“If we can do that, then we can prevent disability, we can improve quality of life and we can prolong life as well,” he said.

GOOD NEWS

Delta Air Lines, pilot union reach preliminary deal to avoid furloughs

© Reuters/BRIAN SNYDER 

Delta Air Lines planes are parked at their gates in Atlanta

(Reuters) - Delta Air Lines Inc and the union that represents its pilots have reached a preliminary cost-cutting deal that will prevent furloughs until Jan. 1, 2022, the union said late on Thursday.

Delta MEC, a unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, said the agreement - which still needs approval from Delta's nearly 13,000 pilots - will cut monthly minimum guaranteed hours by 5%.

In September, Delta reached a tentative agreement with the negotiating committee of its pilots' union to reduce the number of furloughs by 220, bringing the new total number of job reductions to 1,721.

The airline industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak as travel has been restricted amid the pandemic, with Delta and other airlines focusing on cutting costs, boosting liquidity and restoring customer confidence.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)

First wave of ships explore green hydrogen 

as route to net zero

By Jonathan Saul and Nina Chestney   

   

© Reuters/DENIS BALIBOUSE FILE PHOTO:

 New hydrogen fuel cell truck made by Hyundai is displayed in Luzern

LONDON (Reuters) - Developers across the world are for the first time testing the use of hydrogen to power ships as the maritime industry races to find technologies to cut emissions and confidence grows the fuel is safe to use commercially.

To reach goals for the shipping industry set by the United Nations, industry leaders say the first net-zero ships must enter the global fleet by 2030. Ships powered by green hydrogen could help meet the target.

Made from electrolysis to split water into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity from renewable energy, green hydrogen is emissions free.Oil major Royal Dutch Shell last month reiterated its commitment to hydrogen, which it saw as "advantaged over other potential zero-emissions fuels for shipping".

While hydrogen's green credentials make it attractive to industrial users, including ship owners and oil majors, it is far less dense than other fuels, meaning more onboard fuel storage capacity is needed. That makes it more feasible, for now, for use in vessels on short voyages.

Swiss-headquartered technology group ABB is working on hydrogen fuel cell systems, including for passenger and cargo ships. One of its projects involves developing a fuel cell-based power and propulsion system for a new-build river vessel along France's Rhone river.

"ABB sees short-distance shipping as the first adopters of the fuel cell technology," said Juha Koskela, division president, ABB Marine & Ports.

FUEL SYSTEM PILOTS

Green hydrogen fuel costs around 4-8 times the price of very low sulphur fuel oil, estimates by risk management firm DNV GL find.

Other types of hydrogen are cheaper, but that is because they are produced using fossil fuel, which means they are not emissions free.

Green hydrogen is expected to fall in price over the next couple of decades as the cost of renewable energy and electrolysers falls.

For companies to invest en masse, however, the associated infrastructure for refuelling and transportation, including electrolysers, compressors, storage, tanks and pipelines, must also be in place.

Christos Chryssakis, of DNV GL, said it took around 20 years to establish liquefied natural gas refuelling infrastructure. He said the process could be quicker for hydrogen, but industry estimates find many billions in investment would be needed.

In Norway, regulations could accelerate the process.

Cruise ships and ferries sailing through the country's heritage-protected fjords must be emissions-free by 2026, which is prompting shipping companies to consider fuel combinations including hydrogen.

Norwegian-headquartered ship designer and ship yard Ulstein is working on building a support ship for the offshore oil sector that would use hydrogen as one power option.

"Rather than wait for hydrogen bunker infrastructure to be matured, we went for a hybrid design using a containerised solution for the hydrogen storage tanks," Ulstein's Nick Wessels said.

The company is also working on a separate hydrogen project for wind installation turbine vessels, he said.

Municipalities in Norway have launched a tender process, which includes the development of hydrogen-powered, high-speed vessels by 2022, officials say.

Other countries are also making strides.

Belgium's Compagnie Maritime Belge (CMB) built its first hydrogen-powered passenger shuttle boat, which hit the waters in 2017 in Belgium. It will provide a hydrogen ferry for Japan by April next year - the first hydrogen ferry in Asia - and is involved in a tug boat project with the port of Antwerp, CMB's chief executive Alexander Saverys said.

Other ports are working on hydrogen options at terminals.

The Spanish port of Valencia said it will deploy prototype machinery, including for box container handling operations, early in 2021, while Britain's Felixstowe port is looking into hydrogen, based on its proximity to offshore windfarms and a nuclear power plant.

SHORT TRIPS VERSUS OCEAN TRADE

The shipping industry, which is responsible for 2.89% of global CO2 emissions, is in the midst of a transition to fuels that would reduce those emissions by 50% by 2050 from 2008 levels.

A study by the non-profit Global Maritime Forum (GMF), which mapped out 66 projects looking at zero emissions in shipping, showed 19 of the 21 initiatives relating to fuel production used hydrogen in some form.

The majority of these anticipated using hydrogen to make other products, such as ammonia, methanol or ethanol, to improve the schemes' viability. Seven are pure hydrogen projects.

Some in the shipping industry remain unconvinced hydrogen is safe as a power source for larger vessels carrying large amounts of fuel onboard.

But for many, the bigger question is economics.

"The big challenge using hydrogen for deep sea shipping is the cargo volume you would lose to have enough hydrogen stored for long voyages, which could be a commercial killer," Kasper Søgaard, GMF head of research, said.

Ulstein's Wessels expects the need for backup fuel options will persist until there leap in technology and infrastructure.

"I don’t think you can build a completely hydrogen-powered vessel of large size at this point in time. There will still need to be another accessible power source like diesel," he said.

(Reporting by Jonathan Saul and Nina Chestney; editing by Barbara Lewis)

Canada Dry to pay $200K court settlement after B.C. man questions ‘made from real ginger’ slogan

By Jon Azpiri Global News
Posted October 29, 2020 

A class-action lawsuit against the makers of Canada Dry ginger ale has been settled for $200,000. Mott's Canada Dry

A class-action lawsuit against the makers of Canada Dry ginger ale has been settled for $200,000.


A B.C. man alleged that the advertising slogan “Made from Real Ginger” was misleading as the product contained no ginger.

1:48 Woman sues Canada Dry over ginger content in its ginger ale

Victor Cardoso claimed he bought the product because ginger had medicinal benefits.

In September of last year, the plaintiff filed a notice of application “to concede that Canada Dry Ginger Ale contains small amounts of ginger derivatives,” according to the decision.

Court documents say Canada Dry Mott’s Inc. agreed to pay $200,000, and more than $18,000 in disbursements, but “expressly denies liability and is not required to change its product labelling or advertising for products marketed in Canada.”


READ MORE: Put down the pop: Why ginger ale isn’t the cure for upset stomachs

Around $100,000 of the settlement will cover legal costs even though lawyers spent more than $220,000 researching and litigating the case. The remainder of the settlement will go to the Law Foundation of British Columbia.

“I am concerned that an award whereby counsel receives more than the amount being paid… on behalf of their collective client class could be viewed adversely by the public,” Justice Karen Douglas wrote.

“The ultimate purpose of the class-action vehicle is to benefit the class, not their lawyers.”

READ MORE: Why is there a shortage of canned soda pop in Canada?

Cardoso and a plaintiff from Alberta both received $1,500 honourariums.

Ginger ale has long been considered a home remedy for an upset stomach, but dietitians say the high sugar content in ginger ale might actually make you feel worse — especially if you drink too much of it.

A similar lawsuit south of the border led the makers of the soft drink in the U.S. to stop using the phrase “Made from Real Ginger” on package labels.

— With files from Laura Hensley
© 2020 Global News, a division of Corus

THIS DOES NOT APPLY TO GENUINE GINGER ALE FROM JAMICA