Monday, January 04, 2021

Solar now ‘cheapest electricity in history’:
 How much will it matter?

By Kurt Cobb, originally published by Resource Insights
January 3, 2021


The InternationalEnergy Agency (IEA), the Paris-based consortium of 30 countries, has told us in its flagship World Energy Outlook 2020 that solar-produced electricity is now the “cheapest electricity in history.” That seems like very good news, that is, until the actual expected impact of that fact is examined more closely.

For those who are concerned about climate change and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric generation, it is certainly good news—but not quite good enough to make a dent in fossil fuel emissions.

Setting aside any concerns about critical materials needed to make the solar revolution reach completion, it may surprise many readers of the “cheapest electricity in history” headline that growth in solar energy will likely NOT lead to a reduction of fossil fuel burning anytime soon. In fact, the IEA’s main forecast has natural gas consumption growing by 30 percent through 2040 while oil consumption levels off but does not decline. Coal use does continue to decline as a share of total energy.

With solar energy and other renewables expected to grow so much by 2040, how can this be so? The answer is that what the IEA calls non-hydro renewables (solar, wind, geothermal, biomass) will provide 80 percent of the INCREASE in expected global electricity demand. That means that the fossil fuel electricity infrastructure will continue to grow and that existing plants will remain in place rather than be supplanted by renewables.

Of course, for the part of the economy that runs on liquid fuels including transportation and many industrial processes requiring high heat, more renewable electricity doesn’t make much of a dent in fossil fuel use. Even where transportation is being electrified, the growth in internal combustion engine vehicles continues to dwarf those running on electricity. And then there is the existing fleet of fossil-fueled vehicles on the road. Is it realistic to expect all or most will be replaced by electric vehicles when these existing vehicles are junked?

The IEA’s main scenario is better than if all the increase in energy demand were met by fossil fuels. But as the IEA admits, under this scenario our climate change problem continues to worsen. The agency does outline scenarios in which fossil fuel use would drop and renewables would expand more robustly. But these are all outside current policy. Clearly, the agency believes there will be some policy movement, and it is actually pleading for that movement with its scenarios.

The sparkling future promised to us by the promoters of green energy most often assumes that we have far more time to make the transition than we do. And, it assumes that we can scale renewables to the level of energy consumption we have today and larger in the future. Even those who are touting energy conservation and efficiency are generally not suggesting that the global economy dramatically reduce its energy consumption. But reducing energy use seems to me to be the fastest, surest path forward for a stable economy, society and climate.

As we start the new year and people across the world pray for a return to the economy of 2019, it seems like a fool’s errand to insist that going back to 2019 only puts us on a calamitous and unsustainable path all over again. But I believe the fools are on the other side when they insist that doing more of what we’ve done in the past will solve our central problems including climate change.

Image: Solar power generation by Mouchot in Algeria (1882) 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:ROYAUMONT_Mouchot.png

“Augustin Mouchot (7 April 1825 – 4 October 1912) was a 19th-century French inventor of the earliest solar-powered engine, converting solar energy into mechanical steam power.” 
​Greta Thunberg Mocks Conspiracy Theorist Trolls In 18th Birthday Post

JESS HARDIMAN  Sunday 03 January 2021 




Greta Thunberg has taken a swipe at conspiracy theorists in a social media post marking her 18th birthday, sharing a photo of herself wearing a 'Flat Mars Society' top while giving two thumbs up to the camera.

Thunberg, who turned 18 today, thanked fans for their birthday wishes, before joking that she'd be popping down to her local boozer to chat conspiracy theories.

"Thank you so much for all the well-wishes on my 18th birthday!" she wrote.

"Tonight you will find me down at the local pub exposing all the dark secrets behind the climate - and school strike conspiracy and my evil handlers who can no longer control me! I am free at last!!"

One person said her post was 'brilliant', adding: "The conspiracy theories about you are hilarious. I'm glad you can see the funny side of it all, rather than letting it stop you. Most of them are ableist because they think your autism stops you from being able to think for yourself, but they're obviously wrong."

Someone else wrote: "You are WONDERFUL Greta! A fantastic tweet."

In an interview with the Sunday Times to mark her birthday, the climate change activist revealed that she asks to borrow clothes from friends if they have garments they don't need anymore, rather than purchase something brand new.



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erg Changes Her Name To Sharon On Twitter After Amanda Henderson Mastermind Blunder

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Greta Thunberg Says She'll Never Buy New Clothes Again


She told the publication: "I don't need new clothes. I know people who have clothes, so I would ask them if I could borrow them or if they have something they don't need anymore.

"The worst-case scenario, I guess I'll buy second-hand."

While Thunberg said she's made many changes to her life, she added that she didn't judge others who lived differently to her - though understood why celebrities could come under fire for apparent hypocrisy.

She said: "I'm not telling anyone else what to do, but there is a risk when you are vocal about these things and don't practise as you preach, then you will become criticised for that and what you are saying won't be taken seriously."

Featured Image Credit: Twitter/Greta Thunberg




Greta Thunberg Says She’s Attacked By Trump & Putin Because They’re ‘Desperate’ Not To Address Climate Crisis

While Greta Thunberg has been hailed as a hero by many, the Swedish climate change activist been demonized by right-wing climate change deniers — including such world leaders as President Donald Trump, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro.
© Provided by ET Canada AP Photo/Virginia Mayo

In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Thunberg — who turned 18 on Jan. 3 — said that she sees those personal attacks for what they are.


“If you actually start thinking about where you are and what is being said about you and how much focus you are getting, you would develop a self-image that wouldn’t be very sane,” she explained.

RELATED: Greta Thunberg Says Pandemic ‘Has Shone A Light’ On Importance Of Science To Stop The Climate Crisis

“Since people are so desperate not to talk at any cost about the climate crisis, they are going to try to do everything to distract," she continued.

"Instead of speaking about the climate crisis they are going to try to make this a debate about me or my personality or my appearance or my parents or my sister or whatever, so you just have to come to terms with that very early on,” Thunberg added.

During the interview, she addressed the results of November's presidential election and President-elect Joe Biden's pledge to take action to battle climate change.

RELATED: Greta Thunberg Throws Shade At Donald Trump Using His Own Words

“Of course it will mean a change, mainly because it is one and not the other in charge,” she said, but warned against complacency.

“But just because of that shift we shouldn’t be relaxing and thinking everything is all right now,” she cautioned.
'Traitors': Critics slam GOP senators' 'pathetic' attempt to undermine Biden's election victory

Image via Screengrab.























Julia Conley and Common Dreams January 03, 2021

Eleven Republican senators and senators-elect drew accusations of "sedition" and "treason" on Saturday and Sunday when they released a statement announcing they will join Sen. Josh Hawley in contesting the presidential election results on Wednesday, when Congress meets to certify President-elect Joe Biden's victory.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) led his colleagues in releasing the statement, in which the lawmakers said they're being driven not by the belief that they can actually overturn the election results and deny Biden the presidency, but by a desire to make sure Americans who don't believe President Donald Trump lost the election are heard.

The senators cited one poll showing that 40% of Americans believe the election was fraudulent—a belief that has persisted as Trump, supported by numerous members of his party, has refused to concede and has spread baseless misinformation about the results.

Days after Hawley announced he plans to reject the election results in some states won by Biden, Cruz was joined by Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.), James Lankford (Okla.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Neely Kennedy (La.), Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.), and Mike Braun (Ind.), as well as Sens.-elect Cynthia M. Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), and Tommy Tuberville (Ala.) in supporting the effort.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) noted that 140 Republican House members are joining the senators and called the attempt to undermine the nation's democracy "sad and tragic."

"From the beginning of his campaign for president, Donald Trump has shown a profound disrespect for the institutions of democracy," Sanders said in a statement. "It is pathetic that 13 of my colleagues in the Senate and 140 members of the House of Representatives are now demonstrating a similar disdain for the American people by engaging in a dead-end, unconstitutional effort to overturn the will of voters.

Despite the fact that the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency declared the election "the most secure in American history"—a statement which was followed by Trump's firing of director Christopher Krebs—the senators in their Saturday statement said that "Congress should immediately appoint an Electoral Commission, with full investigatory and fact-finding authority, to conduct an emergency 10-day audit of the election returns in the disputed states."

As Sanders noted, dozens of attempts by Trump and members of the Republican Party have failed to convince state and federal courts of any wrongdoing in states including Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The U.S. Supreme Court has also declined to take up two cases claiming election fraud.

"In the two months since the election, more than 80 judges, including some who were appointed by the president, have rejected Donald Trump and his allies' attempts to overturn the election," the senator said. "There are no cases pending that will have any impact on the results. There have been numerous recounts, audits and verifications, including in the most closely contested states."

Despite the lack of evidence to support the Republicans' claim that another audit is needed, the fact that the senators and members of the House are challenging the electoral college results in certain states will require both the House and the Senate to debate the results of each state in question, and vote on the contest. The certification of Biden's victory could be delayed by several hours, but because Democrats control the House and a number of Republicans have rejected Cruz and Hawley's efforts, the president-elect is ultimately expected to be certified as the winner this week.

On CNN Sunday morning, anchor Jake Tapper said he had invited all the senators planning to challenge the election results to appear on "State of the Union," but that all declined to be interviewed about their decision to join Hawley's effort.

"It all recalls what Ulysses Grant wrote in 1861: There are two parties now, traitors and patriots," Tapper said.

Beto O'Rourke, who challenged Cruz in the senator's re-election campaign in 2018, accused his former opponent of "sedition" and wrote that while Cruz likely knows "the current attempt will fail, it will now be much more likely that a future one will succeed."

Republicans including Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) and Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) have publicly denounced their colleagues' efforts in recent days, seeking to distance themselves from the electoral challenge.

Walter Shaub, former director of the Office of Government Ethics, questioned the integrity of those lawmakers on Sunday.

"If you're a senator who has to issue a statement condemning the large-scale and multi-front effort of your party to destroy democracy, isn't it time to rethink your support for that party?" Shaub tweeted.



'A very bad example': Alberta ER doc slams politicians' international travel

Paige Parsons CBC

An Edmonton emergency room doctor says revelations that provincial MLAs travelled internationally over the holidays leave her disappointed, frustrated and angry. 

"I think it sends a terrible message. I think it sets a very bad example," said Dr. Shazma Mithani in an interview with CBC News Network on Sunday.

"It also completely trivializes and dismisses the public health roles that my colleagues and I have fought so hard to get out there, that Dr. Hinshaw has put so much work and effort getting together."

Both the Government of Alberta and the federal government have advised Canadians against non-essential travel out of the country until further notice. 

All international travellers must isolate for 14 days upon returning to the province unless they are participating in the international border testing pilot.

"When people in positions of power are disregarding these rules and these suggestions and trying to bend the rules in their favour it sends a terrible example to the rest of Albertans to follow those rules," Mithani said. 

Mithani is a spokesperson for the emergency medicine section of the Alberta Medical Association but she was not speaking on behalf of the organization Sunday.

 

CBC has confirmed that six UCP MLAs travelled out of the country over the holidays.
Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard travelled to Hawaii.
Calgary-Klein MLA Jeremy Nixon travelled to Hawaii.
Calgary-Peigan MLA Tanya Fir travelled to Las Vegas.
Red Deer-South MLA Jason Stephan travelled to Arizona.
Lesser Slave Lake MLA Pat Rehn travelled to Mexico.
Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo MLA Tany Yao is still in Mexico.

On Friday, after news of Allard's travel broke, Premier Jason Kenney said multiple MLAs and UCP staff had travelled for the holidays, but did not say how many. He said Allard was the only cabinet minister who left the country. 

Kenney also confirmed that his chief of staff, Jamie Huckabay, travelled to the United Kingdom and returned to Canada via the United States on Boxing Day. Several days prior, Canada halted flights from the United Kingdom where a new strain of coronavirus emerged. The current suspension is in effect until Jan. 6

Kenney said he was not happy to learn about the travel, but said he would not discipline the MLAs or staff for taking trips. On Friday, he issued a directive that going forward, members of the government are not to travel internationally unless it's on government business. He said he takes responsibility for not having previously made it clear to senior members of government that they should not travel internationally given their position of public trust.

Last week in Ontario, Rod Philips resigned as the province's finance minister around 48 hours after his trip to the Caribbean was made public. Premier Doug Ford said he was extremely disappointed in Phillips for travelling abroad, and said the resignation demonstrated his government's commitment to holding itself to a higher standard.

Both Ford and Kenney said they did not know about their cabinet ministers' plans to travel abroad.

Allard apologized for the trip on Friday, calling it a "lapse in judgement." 

On Sunday, a banner reading "Welcome Home #AlohaAllard" was hung between two Christmas trees outside Allard's constituency office in Grande Prairie, Alta.

The lei-festooned display was put up by Aaron Penson, who is the president of the Alberta Party's Grande Prairie Constituency Association. He worked on the display with Todd Russell, a former Alberta NDP candidate. Penson said he wanted to put it up as a concerned citizen.

Pictures of the display were shared on social media by MyGrandePrairieNow.com.

"I think the message is that Albertans are furious," he said. 

"When our supposed leaders are skirting the rules, travelling on technicalities, claiming family traditional vacations are essential travel — yeah, we're angry and I was looking for a way to display that," he said.

He said they put up the display as a way to give people a "therapeutic" way to get their frustration and anger out by writing cards about the family traditions they have missed out on themselves and hanging them on the display.

Penson said he and Russell met around 7 a.m. Sunday morning to get the display up as the sun came up. Then they posted about it on social media and encouraged people to come check it out for themselves and add Christmas cards.

He said he hopes Allard takes responsibility and resigns, but said he doesn't expect that will happen. 

By 3 p.m. Sunday, the banner and trees had been removed.

 

Travel not limited to MLAs

Provincial officials weren't the only Alberta politicians who travelled over the holidays.

Calgary-Signal Hill Conservative MP Ron Liepert travelled twice to Palm Desert, Calif., since March, his office confirmed Saturday, and St. Albert. Coun. Sheena Hughes travelled to Mexico.

In a statement Sunday, St. Albert Mayor Cathy Heron said she was aware of Hughes' trip and was disappointed by her choice but did not express those concerns. She said in hindsight she should have made her concerns known.

"Councillors do not work for the mayor, and therefore I had no authority to limit her travel or ask that she stay in Alberta. Likewise, while many may feel her decision was in poor taste, she has not broken any laws that I'm aware of. Therefore, there's no basis for council to vote to sanction her," Heron wrote.

Mithani said Sunday that the multiple accounts of politicians travelling is upsetting for her colleagues who are feeling strain under the weight of increasing COVID-19 cases in hospitals.

"People are still coming in very sick with COVID-19, and we are really starting to be profoundly affected by that in our healthcare system," she said. "All of the ICUs in the province are overflowing, they've taken over other parts of the hospital, our COVID units are overflowing, and now our emergency departments are really having challenges getting patients in because the other units are full.

"We're all very frustrated to see this complete disregard for public health measures in the face of us fighting one of the hardest battles of our career.

© Facebook Fort McMurray - Wood Buffalo MLA Tany Yao.

On Sunday, UCP officials said that Tany Yao is the latest MLA connected to the party who has left Canada during the holiday season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yao, who represents constituents in the riding of Fort McMurray - Wood Buffalo, is currently out of the country.

A spokesperson for the United Conservative Party said he is in Mexico and cannot be reached.


"We are attempting to contact [Yao] to advise him to return as per the premier’s directive," Tim Gerwing said Sunday. "We have no other information at this time."

Yao is now the sixth MLA who has been confirmed to have travelled. Three high-level staffers for the UCP also left Canada.

Read more: Alberta’s COVID-19 travel controversy brings attention to Kenney’s recall legislation promise


The other elected officials who the party has confirmed travelled recently include Jason Stephan, the MLA for Red Deer-South, who visited Arizona, as well as Jeremy Nixon, MLA for Calgary-Klein and Tracy Allard, the minister of municipal affairs, both of whom visited Hawaii.

Pat Rehn, the MLA for Lesser Slave Lake, also visited Mexico. Tanya Fir, MLA for Calgary-Peigan travelled to Las Vegas.

Three high-level staffers also left the country: the premier's chief of staff Jamie Huckabay visited the U.K., while Michael Forian and Eliza Snider, both press secretaries for ministers in the party, went to Mexico.

The UCP has come under heavy fire over the past several days after Premier Jason Kenney did not discipline those in his party who left Canada, despite advice from both the provincial and the federal government to avoid non-essential travel amid the pandemic.
Kenney said at a news conference Friday he was instead issuing a new “clear directive” to government officials, including support staff like press secretaries, not to travel internationally.

The premier added at the time that he did not have exact details on how many officials have left Canada.

“I don’t have a comprehensive list of everybody amongst the hundreds of government political staff and senior officials and others who may have travelled abroad… I regret not having issued a very clear directive against international travel.”

Read more: #ResignKenney trends on Twitter after at least 8 Alberta MLAs and staff travel over holidays


The officials travelled while Alberta was under strict restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 that prevented many people from celebrating Christmas with their families

VIDEO Alberta political expert weighs in on UCP travel controversy

Ontario Finance Minister Rod Philips previously resigned Thursday after returning from a two-week vacation in the Caribbean. On Friday, the federal NDP removed MP Niki Ashton from her critic roles after she travelled to see her ill grandmother in Greece.


On Sunday, two Liberal MPs resigned from their government roles after travelling abroad.

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The Trans Mountain project faces a year of challenges and opportunity

David Thurton CBC 
© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jason Franson Ian Anderson, president and CEO of Trans Mountain, speaks during an event to mark the start of right-of-way construction for the Trans Mountain Expansion Project in Acheson, Alta., Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2019.

After a hiatus of about two weeks, construction on the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is expected to resume today.

The return to work marks the beginning of a critical year for the federal government-owned pipeline. In 2021, the project plans to make significant progress on work to twin the existing 1,500 kilometre Alberta-to-British Columbia pipeline. Hiring and project spending are expected to increase as additional sections of the pipeline are built.

But 2021 could bring with it more headaches and setbacks for the pipeline's Crown corporation and the project's owners — Canadian taxpayers.

Safety lapses tell a story

Trans Mountain ended 2020 on a relative high note. Construction accelerated as the worksite COVID-19 caseload remained relatively low, and the existing pipeline also remained full. Trans Mountain's CEO Ian Anderson said that, coming off a bleak year for the industry — when a bottle of olive oil was worth more than a barrel of Canadian oil — the project's performance was a surprise.

"I fully expected to lose some volume but we didn't," Anderson told CBC News in a year-end interview.

Anderson spoke to CBC before Trans Mountain Corporation took the surprising step last month of halting project construction temporarily. (Trans Mountain declined CBC's requests for follow-up interviews.)

But the sudden shutdown was likely the last resort, said a former top energy industry executive in Calgary.

"Major construction projects never want to stop once they get going," said Dennis McConaghy, a former executive vice president at TransCanada, now called TC Energy.

The abrupt move to halt construction on Dec. 18 happened after a worker was seriously injured at a work site at Trans Mountain's Burnaby Terminal in British Columbia. Few details have been released but, in announcing the shutdown, Anderson referred to safety incidents he called "unacceptable" and "inconsistent" with his corporation's safety record.

In October, a contract worker on the project, Samatar Sahal, was struck and killed by a piece of equipment.

Trans Mountain hasn't said whether these latest incidents are one-offs or point to systemic problems with the project. But the pipeline corporation said it has spent the last several days reviewing updated safety plans contractors have developed.

"This safety stand-down provided time for Trans Mountain, its contractors and its employees to re-focus on safety," said a statement issued by the corporation on Thursday. "We are confident construction will commence on a staggered basis over the coming week."

A frequent critic of the expansion said that, while worker safety should always be the paramount concern, the pause and the recent decision to part ways with some contractors are early signs of problems.

"Obviously, no one wants to see any risks to the workers in terms of occupational health and safety. Those to me suggest rushing through and trying to meet these deadlines," said Eugene Kung, a staff lawyer at West Coast Environmental Law. "And to me, what that means ultimately is likely higher project construction costs and a delayed in-service date."
What killing Keystone XL means for TMX

This month, U.S. President-Elect Joe Biden assumes office after campaigning to kill the Keystone XL pipeline — a pipeline construction project that would stretch from Hardisty, Alta. to Steele City, Nebraska.

The Alberta government has pinned its hopes on the completion of that project. The province said it would invest $1.5 billion in Keystone as equity in 2020, backed further by another $6 billion project level credit facility in 2021.

While the trouble facing Keystone XL might be a setback for Canada's oilpatch and the Alberta government, it could offer a further compelling argument for Trans Mountain's backers, who are always defending the pipeline against fierce criticism.

"It is highly likely that Joe Biden will find some way to disable construction of the Keystone XL in the United States," said McConaghy, who oversaw the Keystone XL project for Trans Canada. "I say that with a great deal of sadness, disappointment and anger."

"So as far as 2021 is concerned, I think the efforts to get TMX built get even more critical than they were before."

The fate of Keystone XL will have little impact on Trans Mountain because Trans Mountain already has guaranteed long-term contracts with shippers for 80 per cent of its capacity, Anderson told CBC News.

"I don't think there is a material direct effect of Keystone XL or Line 3 on Trans Mountain," Anderson said. "I think the markets we're serving are different. And I think the attractiveness of those markets is what our shippers are looking for."
When might Indigenous communities buy into Trans Mountain?

While the federal government is embarking on its third year of ownership of the Trans Mountain pipeline project, its stated plan is to sell it.

Both Trans Mountain and the federal Department of Finance say the pipeline hasn't been "de-risked," with only 20 per cent of the $12.6 billion project complete. So no sale is likely in the near term.

In the meantime, the government is engaging with more than 120 Indigenous groups to talk about future ownership or some other form of economic participation.

© CBC Crews connect two pieces of pipe near Edmonton in March as part of the Trans Mountain expansion project.

The head of the National Coalition of Chiefs said he expects First Nations and Métis leaders will at least decide this year what their economic participation in the Trans Mountain project would look like. The coalition has been working with communities interested in sharing the pipeline's economic benefits.

"I think 129 communities are going to decide amongst themselves that they want to move forward with a certain percentage, or a large percentage," said Dale Swampy, president of the coalition. "I think that's important. It'll give the government some headway about how they are going to deal with this."

A Department of Finance report concluded that a form of revenue-sharing or a purchase of an equity stake in the pipeline would be Indigenous communities' "preferred" options for participating in the project.

Both options come with advantages and disadvantages in terms of revenue, and in terms of how much Indigenous communities are willing to bear the risk of a spill, said Swampy.





IN THE HOOD
Alberta Avenue Community League working to turn park into memorial for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls

Dylan Short 

The Alberta Avenue Community League is embarking on a multi-year process to turn an unnamed park into a memorial for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

© Provided by Edmonton Journal
 Supporters of a project, including 2020 Stars of Alberta Volunteer Award winner Kathy King, centre, to turn an unnamed park near 90 Avenue and 120 Street into a memorial for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls join together for a photo in Edmonton on Dec. 31, 2020.

Liz John-West, a member of the community league, said the idea came as a City of Edmonton staff member reminded them there are several unnamed parks in the community. Upon reflection, she said the group decided to pick a park and develop it into a tribute to the women and girls from the community who have been lost.

“A lot of the women have been taken from Alberta Avenue neighbourhood,” said John-West. “It would be so neat to kind of create a place of honouring these women, at the same time kind of use this opportunity to educate the public.”

A park located near 90 Street and 121 Avenue has been tapped to be developed. It has three connecting pathways that the community league would like to incorporate into the memorial.

John-West said they are currently working with the City of Edmonton to move through the park naming process and development approvals. The park is expected to take three to five years to complete and while it is still in the earliest phases of planning, the league wants Indigenous leaders from around the community to guide the memorial.

“The other track is the naming piece and we want to gather elders together to help us to name this park,” John-West said.

The group has already begun fundraising after holding a silent auction and receiving community donations to go towards the park. John-West, who helped develop Giovanni Caboto Park, said the park could cost around $750,000 by the time it is completed.

The funds will be used to help pay artists for work featured in the park, though John-West says no decisions have been made on what art will be used.

“I thought it was just a really neat opportunity to create this awareness,” John-West said.
© Ian Kucerak Supporters of a project, including 2020 Stars of Alberta Volunteer Award winner Kathy King, centre, to turn an unnamed park near 90 Avenue and 120 Street into a memorial for missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls join together for a photo in Edmonton on Dec. 31, 2020.

Neighbourhood residents have not yet been consulted on the development as it is still in the earliest phases of planning, John-West said, but the City of Edmonton has assigned a project coordinator to help guide the group through the next steps to get their approvals.

Mary-Ann Thurber, a spokeswoman with the City of Edmonton, said the process to decide on a name requires “significant public engagement” before one can be picked. She said no formal application has yet been submitted.

“While the city understands the significance of this name, and is committed to working with the community to support this project, we are still very early in the process,” said Thurber in an email.

The national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls released its final report in 2019 , delivering 231 calls for justice. Many of those recommendations call for more awareness around the issue and a better understanding among Canadians of Indigenous cultures and history.

dshort@postmedia.com

The US is getting an official women’s history museum

The Smithsonian Women’s History Act will establish a women’s history museum on the National Mall. Supporters say it’s long overdue.

Visitors walk the National Mall in Washington, DC, on March 13, 2020.
 Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post via Getty Images

It has gotten less attention than expanded unemployment insurance or the battle over stimulus checks, but tucked into the year-end legislation passed by Congress last week was a provision that could change the way the United States commemorates its history.

The legislation included the Smithsonian Women’s History Act, the culmination of a years-long effort to establish a women’s history museum in Washington, DC. Backed by Democrats like Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York and Republicans like Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the act authorizes the creation of the museum on the National Mall, funded by a combination of federal and private money.

“For too long, women’s stories have been left out of the telling of our nation’s history, but with this vote, we begin to rectify that,” Maloney said in a statement last week.

The omnibus legislation also included a provision to establish a National Museum of the American Latino, which will focus on “Latino contributions to life, art, history, and culture in the United States.” Both will be located on or around the National Mall, with an exact location to be specified within two years, according to CNN.

The bills establishing the museums were blocked earlier this month by Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, who argued that they were divisive. “At this moment in the history of our diverse nation, we need our federal government and the Smithsonian Institution itself to pull us closer together and not further apart,” he said.

But many say that, on the contrary, the museums are long overdue. “Having a museum that features women’s experiences in US history should not be a controversial undertaking by any stretch of the imagination,” Kali Nicole Gross, a professor at Emory University and Rutgers University and co-author of A Black Women’s History of the United States, told Vox. “The fact that it is shows that we have a long way to go still.”

The legislation is the culmination of a years-long process

The idea of a women’s history museum has been before Congress since at least 1998, when Maloney introduced legislation to study the issue. It didn’t pass then, but a congressional commission on the matter was created in 2014, according to CNBC.

Then, in February 2020, the House passed the Smithsonian Women’s History Act to establish the museum. But passage of both this bill and legislation to establish the Museum of the American Latino was blocked in the Senate by Lee, who said the US does not need “separate but equal museums,” according to CNN.

The Smithsonian “should not have an exclusive museum of American Latino history or a museum of women’s history or museum of American men’s history or Mormon history or Asian American history or Catholic history. American history is an inclusive story that should unite us,” he added.

But many disagreed, and both proposals ended up included in the omnibus legislation passed last week that included $600 stimulus checks and other Covid-19 relief.

Lawmakers have applauded the plans for both museums, expressing hope that they will tell the stories of Americans too often left out of history classes and textbooks.

“With this vote, Latinos and Latinas across our nation will finally have their stories, struggles, and impact on our country validated by the United States Congress,” Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said in a statement after the legislation’s passage.

And Maloney said in a statement that it was “fitting” that the bill establishing the women’s history museum was passed “as we mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment and in the year in which we elected our first woman vice president.”

There’s a lot of work left to be done

The museums will likely take years to build. The National Museum of African American History, the most recent addition to the Smithsonian, was authorized by Congress in 2003 and opened in 2016, CNN notes.

And in the planning process, the key will be an “expansive view” of women’s history, Gross said, including women of different abilities, trans and queer communities, and the experiences of women from all walks of life: “women who were performers, women who were writers, women who were seamstresses, women who were farmers, women who were domestics,” she explained. “I want it all.”

Such an expansive view could also extend to more experiential ways of teaching history, Gross said, including the history of street harassment in the US. “From the first women starting to work and having to navigate public streets, there were all kinds of perils,” she explained, especially for Black women. “They carried hatpins; they learned how to use their purses and bags defensively to protect themselves.”

It will be interesting to see if the museum could find a way to recreate or use “that embodied experience” to teach about the misogyny that has been a major part of American history, Gross said.

Neither the women’s history museum nor the Museum of the American Latino will start from zero. According to the Washington Post, they will build on the work of the American Women’s History Initiative, established in 2018, and the Smithsonian Latino Center, founded in 1997. The Women’s History Initiative has launched several exhibitions and has continued to produce virtual events during the pandemic, including forthcoming programs on female spies during World War II and sexism in science.

Officials at the Smithsonian say their work on such programs will help make the new museums a success. “The Smithsonian has unparalleled experience building national museums, and is already doing significant work to tell the stories of American Women and Latinos,” the institution said in a statement to CNN. “We look forward to building two world-class museums to further amplify these stories and help our country learn more about the impact that women and Latinos have had on the fabric of our nation.”

And however they approach the task ahead, the goal should be to make sure “that any woman can walk into that museum and learn about something that they can relate to,” Gross said.


Climate change is disrupting the Arctic eco-system as parts of the sea aren’t freezing

Research into tiny zooplankton at the centre of Arctic food web reveals changing habits that could impact the entire eco-system

By Tom Bawden
January 3, 2021 
The copepods are choosing not to hibernate (Photo: SAMS)

The tiny zooplankton at the centre of the Arctic food web are being forced to end their winter ocean hibernation early in areas where the sea ice is melting – throwing the entire local eco-system into disarray, a team of scientists has found.

The plankton, known as copepods and measuring just 5mm long, have traditionally dived a few hundred metres down into the water to hibernate in the winter, when there is no natural light as the sun is constantly below the horizon.

And they have typically returned to the surface when the ice has melted, the light returned and the algae they eat come into bloom.

But in areas where the sea ice melted in the summer and never froze back, it appears that these creatures are being forced to radically change their lifestyles.
Thawing ice

The thawing of the ice has thrown nature into disarray, making the timing of the spring bloom vary from one year to the next and so much harder to predict.

As a result, the plankton appear to be coming up to the surface early – in some cases as early as January – to make sure they don’t miss out on their algae breakfast when the spring bloom appears.
The environment is changing 
(Photo: BJ KIRSCHHOFFER/POLAR BEARS INTERNATIONAL/AFP/Getty)

Even if that’s far too early, they seem to be working on the basis that it’s better to be early and wait than risk being too late and finding no food left when they surface.

This change in habit is not undertaken lightly, given the energy required in getting up to the surface – so ideally you don’t want to hang around too long for your breakfast after the journey up, according to Laura Hobbs, of the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS).
No small trip

“Getting up to the surface isn’t trivial, it takes a huge amount of energy. If we scale that up into human terms that’s the equivalent of swimming fifty miles or so. Swimming all that way too early uses up a lot of energy, and it’s then a long time to wait for your next meal,” said Dr Hobbs, also of the University of Strathclyde.

She has calculated that swimming up from 200 metres is about 40,000 body lengths of a copepod.

In some cases, copepods may be choosing to forgo their hibernation altogether, staying close to the surface throughout, to make sure they don’t miss out, Dr Hobbs said.

She has analysed 10 years’ worth of data collected by SAMS, The Arctic University of Norway and the University Centre in Svalbard from Kongsfjorden, a fjord in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard, after the ice melted once and for all 14 years ago.
Breakfast dilemma

“The location in which we gathered our data has been ice free since 2006, meaning more light can penetrate the ocean, causing the spring bloom to begin early,” said Dr Hobbs.

“Imagine you’ve been getting up for breakfast at 8am but one day you find the food’s all gone. Can you bank on enough food being there if you ‘lie in’?

“It’s maybe better to get up earlier, say 4am, and risk having to wait a long time. Over a year of the copepod’s life cycle, missing breakfast completely is fatal.”

Copepods are one of the most abundant creatures on the planet and their high fat content make this zooplankton a crucial part of the ocean food web, providing fodder for fish, insects and even other zooplankton.

It’s unclear exactly what the effect of their changing habits will be on the broader environment in which they live but since they lies at the centre of the eco-system it seems likely to be considerable, researchers say.