Experts say India glacier disasters "can't be avoided" without change

New Delhi — Nearly four days after the partial collapse of a glacier and the subsequent flash flooding of a valley in northern India, rescue workers were still struggling to reach 34 people believed to be trapped in a tunnel in the state of Uttarakhand on Wednesday. Rescue workers armed with heavy construction equipment, drones and even sniffer dogs were struggling to penetrate the one-and-a-half-mile long tunnel that filled with ice-cold water, mud, rocks and debris when the disaster struck on Sunday. 

Dozens dead and many missing after glacier collapse in India

Apart from the 34 people who rescuers still hope to find alive inside the tunnel, there were more than 150 others also listed as missing on Wednesday, most of them likely swept away from two hydroelectric power plants. At least 32 people from the two facilities have been found dead.

As the rescue mission races ahead, scientists have started to get a slightly clearer picture of what might have triggered part of the glacier to break off and crash into the river.

© Provided by CBS News General view of the place where members of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) conduct a rescue operation, after a part of a glacier broke away, in Tapovan in the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, February 10, 2021. 

Credit: ANUSHREE FADNAVIS/REUTERS

A team of experts from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Ecology is on ground in Uttarakhand to collect evidence that could help answer the question of what exactly caused the disaster: Was it the effects of climate change, or an avalanche caused by seismic activity, or a mix of several factors?

The team is expected to give a report over weekend, but some experts believe, based on satellite data and other evidence, that it was actually a hanging chunk of the glacier that broke off and caused a "rock and ice avalanche."

"Satellite data does show that there was a crack in the glacier," Dr Farooq Azam, a professor of glaciology and hydrology, told CBS News. "It's very much clear now that the hanging glacier falling off from 5,600 meters into the river caused the rock and ice avalanche."

He insisted that it was too soon to blame the event on climate change, arguing that more data would be needed to draw that conclusion.

© Provided by CBS News Members of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) carry the body of a victim after recovering it from debris during a rescue operation outside a tunnel after part of a glacier broke away, in Tapovan in the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, February 9, 2021. 

Credit: STRINGER/REUTERS

"We have no evidence there was a glacial lake… The lakes are normally formed because of climate change and global warming, and after some time they burst. So Sunday's event may or may not be linked with climate change," Azam told CBS News.

"We still have a lot of uncertainty in terms of what exactly could have caused Sunday's disaster," renowned expert on the Himalayas, Dr. Anjal Prakash, a lead researcher with the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told CBS News.

Without study, disasters "can't be avoided"

That uncertainty is due partly to a lack of sufficient data on the glacier — one of thousands across the Himalayan mountains that aren't being monitored. There are more than 50,000 glaciers across the Himalaya's Hindu Kush range, from Afghanistan and Pakistan into India, Nepal and Myanmar. Government agencies monitor only 24 of them. Scientists warn this could prove disastrous again in the future, and they say it must change.

© Provided by CBS News Satellites show glacier loss in Himalayas 

"This is a climate change hotspot region," said Prakash. "We must know what is happening in these areas… The government agencies either don't have the resources or lack focus."

The Himalayan glaciers are a lifeline for 240 million people across South Asia, providing drinking water, irrigation, hydropower and biodiversity. About 86 million of those people live in India.

The Indian state of Uttarakhand alone has some 1,500 glaciers, but only 15 are monitored.

"We need more focus on research in these areas, otherwise we will not be able to strike a balance between environment and economic development," said Azam, referring to the need for more hydroelectric power projects, roads and other infrastructure in the region.

India, which still relies on coal for 70% of its electricity production, is using only 40% of its hydroelectric power potential. While abandoning fossil fuels to take advantage of more of that potential may seem an environmentally friendly option, it comes with its own risks.

"Himalayas are a new mountain range and therefore very fragile. They are still settling in terms of rock formation and other things. The fragility of the environment is very high. If you disturb rocks, by tunnelling or deforestation needed for large-scale projects, then you're disturbing the ecology," Prakash told CBS News, stressing that infrastructure development must happen in an "environmentally benign way." © Provided by CBS News Houses on a mountain slope in Leh district, Jammu and Kashmir, India, November 12, 2019. A growing body of evidence shows global warming is disturbing water cycles on the roof of the world in unpredictable ways. Snow cover is shrinking, glaciers are melting, the monsoon season changing and permafrost is at risk, all with drastic consequences for a region whose ice fields hold the largest freshwater reserves outside the poles. / Credit: Prashanth Vishwanathan/Bloomberg/Getty

"If the hydroelectric projects are set up without enough study of the ecology and monitoring of the glaciers around them, disasters like Sunday's can't be avoided," Azam told CBS News.

A 2019 report by the U.N.'s IPCC warned that glaciers would continue to retreat over the coming years, causing more landslides and floods as they do. Another study published the same year cited satellite data gathered over 40 years to warn that the average rate of ice loss in the Himalayan glaciers had doubled in the most recent decade.

Both scientists who spoke to CBS News insisted on the need for increased monitoring of the Himalayan glaciers, which they say, regardless of the precise origins of Sunday's disaster, are indisputably vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

India disaster highlights pressure on Asia's great rivers

A glacial burst that triggered a deadly flash flood in the Indian Himalayas at the weekend was a disaster waiting to happen, and one likely to be repeated in a region transformed by climate change and unchecked infrastructure development, experts warn.

© Sajjad HUSSAIN A rescue worker during an operation near a tunnel blocked with mud and debris after the Uttarakhand disaster, which killed dozens and left more than 170 others missing

© STR The Three Gorges Dam, a gigantic hydro-power project on the Yangtze river, in China

Asia is home to some of the world's biggest waterways, from the Ganges and the Indus in India to the Yangtze and Mekong originating in China, that snake for thousands of kilometres.

They support the livelihoods of vast numbers of farmers and fishermen, and supply drinking water to billions of people, but have come under unprecedented pressure in recent years.

Higher temperatures are causing glaciers that feed the rivers to shrink, threatening water supplies and also increasing the chances of landslides and floods, while critics blame dam building and pollution for damaging fragile ecosystems

.

© Lillian SUWANRUMPHA In 2019, the once-mighty Mekong River was reduced to a thin, grubby neck of water in places

"Rivers are really at risk from development projects, dumping of solid waste and liquid waste, sand mining and stone mining," Himanshu Thakkar, from the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People, told AFP.

"Climate change is a longer-term process that has already set in. The impacts are already happening.

"So in every respect, rivers are under greater threat."

The disaster in India was apparently triggered by a glacial burst, that unleashed a wall of water which barrelled down a valley in Uttarakhand state, destroying bridges and roads and hitting two hydroelectric power plants.

Dozens have been killed and more than 170 others are missing after the accident on the Dhauliganga river, which feeds into the Ganges.

- Shrinking glaciers -

It is not yet clear what damaged the glacier and triggered the accident, but there are suspicions that construction of hydro-power projects -- in an area that is highly seismically active -- may have contributed.

"This area is prone to vulnerability, it is not appropriate for this kind of bumper-to-bumper hydro-power development," Himanshu said.

Video: Trapped men rescued in India river torrent disaster (AFP)

"Proper planning, impact assessment, proper geological assessment -- this has not happened here."

Patricia Adams, executive director from Canada-based environmental NGO Probe International, said dam building in such an area was simply too dangerous, as it makes hillsides unstable and causes landslides.

Some have also pointed to rising temperatures as a contributing factor.

A major study in 2019 suggested Himalayan glaciers had melted twice as fast since the turn of the century as in the 25 preceding years.

"The impacts of climate change in the Himalayas are real," said Benjamin P. Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore.

As well as greater danger of accidents, glacier loss in the Himalayas deprives local communities of water to drink and for agriculture, he said.

There have been other flooding disasters in the region in recent years. In 2013, some 6,000 people died when flash floods and landslides swept away entire villages in Uttarakhand as rivers swollen by monsoon rains overflowed.

- Record deluges -

In neighbouring China, flooding has also worsened on major rivers.

Last year the Yangtze, Asia's longest waterway, suffered record deluges that killed hundreds of people and submerged thousands of homes, with environmentalists saying it indicated climate change impacts were growing.

China has also built a vast dam network, although authorities insist this infrastructure helps mitigate flooding rather than adding to the problem.

Like in India, this has proved controversial, with some blaming the structures for contributing to earthquakes and landslips.

Beijing's dam building has faced criticism outside the country particularly on the Mekong River, which begins on the Tibetan Plateau in China and winds through Southeast Asia.

Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam all battled severe drought in 2019, as the tide of the river fell to record lows.

While some pointed to climate change, there were also calls for China to be more transparent about its dam operations -- Beijing has constructed 11 dams on its section of the river.

In downstream countries, dozens of hydro-power dams have been built or are planned -- many funded by Chinese-backed companies -- sparking concerns about environmental damage.

Some see sinister motives in Beijing's Mekong dam building.

The Chinese Communist Party "now control some of the mightiest rivers in the world on which millions and millions of people in downstream neighbouring countries depend for their food, their agriculture, and shipping, and their security", said Adams from Probe International.

mba-sr/leg

Methane Is Blowing More Holes in the Arctic

The Siberian tundra is still out here exploding. A new study from the Woodwell Climate Research Center has identified three new craters in the region’s increasingly volatile permafrost, and the climate crisis is to blame.

© Photo: Vasily Bogoyavlensky (Getty Images) A photo taken

 on August 25, 2014 shows a crater on the Yamal Peninsula, northern Siberia.

Researchers have been seeing giant holes form in western Siberia’s Yamal Peninsula for years. The first, discovered by workers back in 2014, measured 262 feet (80 meters) in diameter. Since then, scientists have found another six craters on Yamal and the nearby Gydan peninsula, most recently discovering a crater as deep as half a football field last year. While researchers have suspected explosive methane gas has welled up into the tundra as it thaws and caused the explosions, it’s been an area of active research.

“These craters represent an Earth system process that was previously unknown to scientists,” Sue Natali, Arctic program director at Woodwell Climate Research Center and co-author on the study, said in an emailed statement.

To learn more about how these holes form, the researchers used satellite data from Siberia’s Yamal and Gydan peninsulas—a combined area of 126,255 square miles (327,000 square kilometers)—to create an artificial intelligence-based model of the region with Google Earth Engine’s cloud computing platform. The model located all seven of the previously-discovered craters, and also indicated that three more of them have formed.

The researchers found that the craters begin forming deep underground, in pockets of thawed earth known as taliks. These taliks frequently form beneath Arctic lakes when the water within them warms. Methane can build in these pockets. As pressure grows, it can lead to explosive results.

In addition to uncovering the three new holes, the model showed previously unseen stark changes across the two peninsulas. It found that between 1984 and 2017, about 5% of the examined area has seen observable ecosystem changes, including “shifts in vegetation, elevation, and water extent.” Entire lakes have disappeared, draining out completely as the permafrost—frozen ground made of soil, rocks, and water—that forms their outer edges and bottoms melted away amid rising temperatures. Huge swaths of the region have also become greener because higher air and soil temperatures have increased plant growth. Due to permafrost thaw and ice melt, parts of the region are also sinking.

All of these changes spell trouble for Arctic ecosystems and the rest of the world. As lakes drain, fish and other wildlife are being left without a home and Indigenous communities have seen their water supplies dry up. Arctic greening is also an issue, since taller and heartier foliage can trap more snow beneath them. That in turn can lead to more rapid thawing of permafrost because the snow acts like a blanket that can actually keep the ground relatively warmer than the frigid air above it.

Permafrost thaw itself is dangerous. It’s left coasts more vulnerable to dangerous erosion, and it threatens to unleash the planet-warming methane currently stored safely beneath the ground into the atmosphere. The craters are the most dramatic example of that, but they’re hardly the only way methane and carbon dioxide escape from the tundra. Scientists have found that the Arctic is emitting more carbon from formerly frozen soils than it takes up, creating a dangerous situation for the climate.

As the planet continues to warm, the researchers expect these changes will occur more quickly. That includes the methane explosions, since they’re more likely to occur when the ground’s pressure rises or ice on the ground thaws and breaks suddenly. Many of these changes won’t be reversible, either. So for the sake of the Arctic and the rest of the planet, we better get global warming under control.

CLEAN GREEN SAFE NUCLEAR POWER
Audit raises concerns about wildfire risks at US nuclear lab


ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — One of the nation’s premier nuclear laboratories isn’t taking the necessary precautions to guard against wildfires, according to an audit by the U.S. Energy Department’s inspector general.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The report comes as wildfire risks intensify across the drought-stricken U.S. West. Climatologists and environmentalists have been warning about worsening conditions across the region, particularly in New Mexico, which is home to Los Alamos National Laboratory and where summer rains failed to materialize last year and winter precipitation has been spotty at best.

The birthplace of the atomic bomb, Los Alamos has experienced hundreds of millions of dollars in losses and damage from major wildfires over the last two decades. That includes a blaze in 2000 that forced the lab to close for about two weeks, ruined scientific projects, destroyed a portion of the town and threatened tens of thousands of barrels of radioactive waste stored on lab property.

Watchdog groups say the federal government needs to take note of the latest findings and conduct a comprehensive review before the lab ramps up production of key plutonium parts used in the nation’s nuclear arsenal.

“The threat and risks of wildfire to the lab and northern New Mexico will continue to increase because of climate warming, drought and expanded nuclear weapons production,” said Jay Coghlan, director of the group Nuclear Watch New Mexico.

The audit released this month found that cutting back vegetation along power lines and other measures to reduce the risk of catastrophic fires were not always done, increasing the potential for another devastating fire like the Cerro Grande Fire in 2000.

Federal auditors said not all fire roads were maintained to ensure safe passage for firefighters and equipment responding to blazes on lab property.

The audit also cited federal policy that requires a comprehensive, risk-based approach to wildfire management — something the inspector general's office said had not been developed by the contractor that manages the lab for the U.S. government. It also pointed to a lack of oversight by Energy Department field staff.

“Without documenting planning and preparedness activities, there was no assurance that all prevention and mitigation options were considered and that the site was fully prepared for wildland fire events," the audit says.

The report included photos that depicted overgrown areas. In Los Alamos Canyon, for example, specialists indicated there were about 400 to 500 trees per acre. Auditors said the ideal number should be 40 to 50 trees per acre.

Lab spokesman Peter Alden Hyde said that since the audit was conducted in late 2018 and early 2019, the lab has adopted “an aggressive approach” to wildfire management on its 39-square-mile (101-square-kilometre) campus. That has included thinning vegetation along access routes, improving fire roads and recently removing thousands of trees downed by wind storms.

“We continue to review our wildfire and forest health plans and have already implemented most of the recommendations the Department of Energy offered to improve our efforts to protect the public, the environment and the laboratory,” he said.

It was not immediately clear how many acres were thinned during the last year or whether the lab had any major projects planned for 2021.

Susan Montoya Bryan, The Associated Press

'Rivers of gold' rush through the Peruvian Amazon in stunning NASA photo

The Peruvian Amazon glitters like gold in a gorgeous new photo taken aboard the International Space Station.

© Provided by Live Science Mining pits glitter like gold

 in this aerial photo of the Peruvian Amazon

While that glow is just sunlight reflecting off hundreds of pits of muddy water, there is plenty of gold in them thar hills. Each glistening pool is a gold-prospecting pit, according to NASA's Earth Observatory website, likely dug by independent miners looking to unearth some of the Amazon's ancient treasures.

"Each pit is surrounded by de-vegetated areas of muddy soil," Justin Wilkinson, a grant specialist at Texas State University, wrote for Earth Observatory. "These deforested tracts follow the courses of ancient rivers that deposited sediments, including gold."

Peru's Madre de Dios state, shown in this picture, is home to one of the largest independent gold mining industries on Earth, Wilkinson wrote. As many as 30,000 small-scale miners (working outside of government regulations) prospect illegally in the area, tearing up the rainforest with excavators and dump trucks in order to unearth the gold underneath.

Illegal mining can be a boon to impoverished workers in Madre de Dios, but a detriment to the Amazon; according to a 2011 study in the journal PLOS One, gold mining is the single greatest cause of deforestation in the region.

These unregulated operations also pose a risk to local communities. Miners mix sediments with boiled mercury in order to separate gold from other minerals, according to Nature.com. As a result, up to 55 tons (50 metric tons) of mercury end up in rivers or the atmosphere every year. Locals who eat a lot of fish from these polluted rivers are more than three times as likely to have mercury poisoning than non-fish-eaters, a 2012 PLOS One study found.

But from space, these harsh realities blur out of focus. For the astronaut who took this photo on Dec. 24, 2020, the world far below was just a river of gold.

Originally published on Live Science.

SASKATCHEWAN

For Peat’s Sake’: Group opposed to peat moss mining in the La Ronge area ups the ante


A group opposed to a peat moss mining project south of La Ronge hopes to raise awareness through an online speaker series starting this week.

Starting on Feb. 10, the group is holding an online speaker series featuring Elders and Indigenous conservation activists from northern Saskatchewan. They hope to raise awareness about the importance of peat bogs, or muskeg, to traditional ways of life and land-based food sources.

Quebec-based company Lambert Peat Moss Inc. raised the ire of some La Ronge area residents when it went public with a proposal to extract peat moss from four locations near the Lac La Ronge provincial park.

Eleanor Hegland, an educator at the Lac La Ronge Indian Band’s Bell's Point Elementary School, spoke with the Northern Advocate on location in the muskeg south of La Ronge.

Hegland said the loss of muskeg caused by peat moss mining would disturb the ecological balance of the region and rob her descendants of their ability to live off the land. She said she was ripped away from her home in the bush as a child and taken to residential school. Mining in the muskeg would be a repeat of the same colonialism that took her away from her land and put her in residential school as a child, she said.

“For us, we need this to survive. We still have lots of medicine in the muskeg that we use to keep us healthy,” Hegland said.

“For me, even being put in a residential school and taken out of my trapline as a young girl and I was sent to Prince Albert. In the Little Red River Park, that’s where I got my ability to think of home. The trees, the flowers and the different seasons. To me it was so powerful.”

Lambert sent a letter to La Ronge area residents last fall as part of the consultation process. The project would last 80-100 years and would be done in sections.

“It is important to note that an entire area is not all harvested at once. Rather, small areas are harvested and then reclaimed as the next area would be harvested,” the letter said.

“Lambert has developed procedures that increase peat productivity, while reducing the potential effects on the environment… Lambert will implement a progressive restoration process that will aim at restoring peat fields soon after they are no longer needed for the project.”

The company promised to implement a restoration plan that would “aim to re-establish vegetation cover and restore the movement and distribution of water” that Lambert said would lead to the return of peatland to its natural state.

But residents who use the muskeg on a regular basis say they can’t wait that long. Nor do they believe that Lambert will be able to fully restore the area once it is mined.

One of the parcels of land intended for development is near Potato Lake, which is abundant in wild rice and is also used for recreation, fishing, trapping and the gathering of ingredients for medicines used by traditional healers.

WSP Consulting is conducting an environmental impact assessment (EIA) for Lambert.

Janna Foster-Willfong, a team lead in environmental impact assessments at WSP said in an email on Jan. 15 that the EIA cannot be submitted without a completed consultation and engagement report.

The report would need to show what activities were undertaken by Lambert, what input was received and how Lambert addressed or accommodated any concerns that were raised, she said.

“The wildlife and wildlife habitat, caribou, vegetation and socio-economic chapters are still underway. It will be a long while before the EIA will be finalized because there remains a lot of consultation and engagement to be completed,” Foster-Willfong said.

“Online consultation and engagement has been challenging and face-to-face meetings are so much better; therefore, much of the consultation and engagement is awaiting the return of in-person meetings.”

Local author and conservationist Miriam Korner, who runs her dog team and forages near Potato Lake, started a group called, For Peat's Sake - Protecting Northern Saskatchewan Muskegs.

A Change.org petition launched by Saskatoon resident Chantal Barreda in October to oppose the project now has over 20,000 signatures.

“Feb. 2 was world wetlands day. The most important thing to realize is how important the wetlands are on a global scale. So if something in northern Saskatchewan is threatened it does not only concern the people in northern Saskatchewan. It concerns us all because this is a very effective and simple way to have a carbon sink,” Korner said.

“I think we need to start to look not just regionally in our areas but start to have an understanding of how our actions locally influence things on a global level. The peat has the ability to capture carbon but if that peat is taken it will actually be a carbon producer.

It turns from a carbon sink to a carbon producer and while that process is happening the peatlands are drying out. What that means for northern Saskatchewan is a higher risk of forest fires.”

Shane Bird, a youth worker at the Northern Lights School Division and member of the Lac La Ronge Indian Band, rediscovered his connection to the land and his roots by spending time in the muskeg. Now he takes youth out on the land to make that same connection for themselves.

Bird spoke with the Northern Advocate while preparing a fire to make muskeg tea with a plant that grows in wetlands and is called maskêkopakwa in Cree.

“It’s to empower the youth with that knowledge so that they can pass it on to their future generations,” Bird said.

“I think it’s important because it’s our lost identity, it’s our connection to mother earth and to the land; to the water, the fire, the sun and the earth. It’s something that we have lost along the way through intergenerational trauma.”

One of the youths in Bird’s group is 19-year-old Tyrell Tremblay. Tremblay said that he has been coming to the muskeg since he was a boy with his family.

“This is where we do a lot of hunting and a lot of our medicines come from the muskeg. I want my kids to experience it and to hunt on these lands and to gather medicine from it. There’s a lot of flu going around and we need our medicine,” Tremblay said.

“They are taking our medicine away and affecting our people’s mental health. Keep in mind that you’re affecting a whole community, you’re affecting a lot of people when you destroy this. It would disconnect me from my land and my way of life. This is all medicine right here and it helps with your mental health being out here. It’s therapeutic.”

Reconnecting with her traditional way of life through the muskeg helped Hegland heal from her experience in residential school. She wants youth like Tremblay to maintain their connection to the same land that she was so violently taken away from.

“It’s so important that the youth learn this and we want our future generations to have the same inherent right that we had to the heritage of the beautiful land, clean water, muskegs and the birds and the animals so that they’ll be able to sustain themselves,” Hegland said.

“I’m here because it’s my heritage to protect the land. It was left to me clean and it provided all the things I needed. So I want to protect the environment and the water and to teach the young people that the land provides for us and the planet earth is for all of us.”

To attend the speaker series you can visit the group’s Facebook page called, For Peat's Sake - Protecting Northern Saskatchewan Muskegs.

Michael Bramadat-Willcock, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Northern Advocate

15 new record lows set in Alberta as extreme cold continues

© Provided by Global News Extreme cold warnings are issued when very cold temperatures or wind chill creates an elevated risk to health such as frost bite and hypothermia.

Environment Canada says 15 new record lows were set in Alberta on Monday due to an “unseasonably cold” arctic ridge of high pressure.

This is in addition to 26 records that were broken over the weekend, the national weather agency said.

Of the 15 communities with new record lows on Monday, the coldest was in Red Deer, which saw temperatures drop to -43.9 C — breaking the city’s previous record of -40.6 C, set back in 1936.

Dangerously cold temperatures grip Prairie provinces

 

The record low temperatures seen throughout the province on Feb. 8 include:

Breton

New record of -37.5 C

Old record of -32.0 C set in 1994

Records in this area have been kept since 1939

Cold Lake

New record of -36.6 C

Old record of -35.8 C set in 1994

Records in this area have been kept since 1952

Edmonton (at the Edmonton International Airport)

New record of -40.8 C

Old record of -35.8 C set in 1979

Records in this area have been kept since 1959

Elk Island National Park

New record of -40.9 C

Old record of -35.6 C set in 1979

Records in this area have been kept since 1966

Hendrickson Creek

New record of -41.2 C

Old record of -35.5 C set in 2017

Records in this area have been kept since 1995

High River

New record of -33.2 C

Old record of -33.0 C set in 1994

Records in this area have been kept since 1913

Highvale

New record of -33.8 C

Old record of -32.0 C set in 1979

Records in this area have been kept since 1977

Lac La Biche

New record of -39.2 C

Old record of -38.9 C set in 1979

Records in this area have been kept since 1944

Lacombe

New record of -40.5 C

Old record of -39.4 C set in 1936

Records in this area have been kept since 1907

Milk River

New record of -32.4 C

Old record of -31.7 C set in 2017

Records in this area have been kept since 1994

Red Deer

New record of -43.9 C

Old record of -40.6 C set in 1936

Records in this area have been kept since 1904

Red Earth Creek

New record of -39.5 C

Old record of -35.8 C set in 2019

Records in this area have been kept since 1994

Taber

New record of -35.7 C

Old record of -35.5 C set in 1994

Records in this area have been kept since 1947

Vegreville

New record of -41.7 C

Old record of -37.0 C set in 1994

Records in this area have been kept since 1918

Wainwright

New record of -37.5 C

Old record of -36.0 C set in 1994

Records in this area have been kept since 1966

As of 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, an extreme cold warning remained in place for all of Alberta, with wind chill values between -40 and -55 expected.

"This prolonged cold snap is expected to persist into the weekend for many areas of Alberta," Environment Canada said. "There will be some moderation in temperature at times, typically during daylight hours."

Extreme cold warnings are issued when very cold temperatures or wind chill creates an elevated risk to health such as frostbite and hypothermia.

Environmental law group to challenge Alberta oil inquiry in court


CALGARY — An environmental law charity is to ask a judge today to shut down Alberta's inquiry into the purported foreign funding of anti-oil campaigns.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Ecojustice argues in its written submissions that the inquiry was formed for an improper purpose, which the law charity says was to intimidate those concerned about the environmental effects of oil and gas development.

The group also contends there's a reasonable apprehension of bias and that the inquiry is dealing with matters outside of Alberta's jurisdiction — arguments the provincial government disputes in its submissions.

Lawyers for the provincial government say cabinet is entitled — and mandated — to decide what's in the public interest and what issues warrant a public inquiry.

The inquiry was one plank of the so-called fight-back strategy the United Conservatives touted during the 2019 election campaign.

The deadline for the inquiry headed by forensic accountant Steve Allan has been delayed three times and its budget has been increased by $1 million to $3.5 million.

The hearing before Court of Queen's Bench Justice Karen Horner has been scheduled for two days. Its initial April 2020 court date was pushed back due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11, 2020.

The Canadian Press

ALBERTA SAFE INJECTION SITE

Suspension of iOAT could lead to patients dying, lawyer argues during injunction hearing

UCP LAWNORDER SACRIFICES LIVES

TO EVANGELICAL IDEOLOGY

Patients who suffer from severe opioid use disorder could face irreparable harms including risk of death or sexual assault if a government-funded treatment program is halted next month, an Alberta court heard Wednesday.

© Provided by Calgary Herald Civil rights lawyer Avnish Nanda.

Clinics in Calgary and Edmonton, which provide injectable opioid agonist treatment (iOAT), are slated to close in March following a decision by the United Conservative government, pending the outcome of a court challenge.


Shuttering those clinics would lead to “adverse health effects” for iOAT patients, who are likely to return to using street opioids, experience homelessness, contract sexually transmitted infections or lose access to primary care, argued Edmonton lawyer Avnish Nanda during Wednesday’s injunction hearing.

He said at least one iOAT patient, who is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, has died since the UCP government announced last year it would not renew a grant dedicated to Alberta’s iOAT program .

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The program has been described as a “last resort” for people with severe opioid addiction who have been unsuccessful with other forms of treatment such as methadone or suboxone.

Eleven iOAT patients with chronic opioid use disorder launched a legal challenge against the provincial government in September, alleging the decision to halt iOAT services violates their constitutional rights.

Justice Grant Dunlop reserved his decision Wednesday. His ruling is expected by the end of February, which will determine whether iOAT patients can continue receiving treatment until the lawsuit reaches a conclusion, even if the matter is still before the courts beyond March.

Nanda argued the pilot program, which launched in 2018 under the former NDP government, never explicitly stated an end date. He said they introduced iOAT with the intention of making it a permanent frontline treatment option.

The government’s counsel argued any perceived harm is speculative and the program was never guaranteed for an indefinite amount of time.

“iOAT is not just about treating someone’s severe opioid use disorder. It’s about addressing the broader health needs. It’s about finding a way to engage this patient in the health-care system,” Nanda told the court.

“If you remove any component to that, whether it’s wraparound services or injectable medication, it ceases to be iOAT.”

Nanda said the scope of an alternative program proposed by the government remains unknown.

He cited a cross-examination of Mark Snaterse, executive director of addiction and mental health for Alberta Health Services, who compared iOAT to the “Cadillac model” of service and said alternatives would likely be of lesser quality.

“My concern here today is that, what if we get a vehicle that just has an engine but not the transmission? What if it has no doors?” Nanda said. “What if it has certain components, parts, of what iOAT is and Alberta claims it’s iOAT, but really it’s not?”

Nate Gartke, a lawyer representing the government, acknowledged “there will be some changes” in how the service is offered.

“The current model of iOAT clinics is … a Cadillac service. It’s the gold standard. It’s attempting to provide as many treatments as possible in one location,” Gartke told the court.

“Just because a Cadillac service is not being provided, (Snaterse) still does say that it will be ‘a very good car.’ We’re not going to be providing them a car that doesn’t have a transmission or windows. We’re going to be providing them with a fully functioning service.”

Lillian Riczu, co-counsel to Gartke, said the plaintiffs have a “weak and frivolous case.”

“There will be minimal variation in the delivery method, however the variation in the delivery does not result in any harm, let alone irreparable harm to the applicants,” said Riczu, adding the same suite of ancillary services will be available through the Opioid Dependency Program in Alberta.

“Alberta’s evidence demonstrates that iOAT was a pilot study, it’s a controversial treatment and is only offered at a handful of jurisdictions around the world and in a limited number of Canadian cities.”

Nanda posed concerns about the government’s alternative treatment option, including whether there would be sufficient staffing, access to the same wraparound supports and trust in service providers.

There is no grant in place yet for the alternative service.
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Patient says iOAT provided ‘hope for a better life’

One plaintiff testified the closure of iOAT is a “death sentence” for her.

She said program staff had become “the only real family” she’s ever known. Through iOAT, she stopped using street opioids, found housing and left sex work, which previously helped support her substance use.

The program gave her “hope for a better life,” she testified in an affidavit.

But its anticipated end forced her back to her previous lifestyle.

“I returned to street opioid use because I felt like the system had abandoned me again and I knew that without iOAT I had no other option to manage my opioid use disorder.”

She also returned to sex work.

In December, she testified three men violently raped her and “dumped her in the snow.” She later tested positive for HIV at the iOAT clinic, which she believes is a result of the rape.

“I am so upset and angry with the government. It should be ashamed for what it is doing and the lives that are being ruined with the closure of iOAT,” she testified.

“The government gave us hope with iOAT, had us trust them, and now that has all been taken away, forcing us back into the streets with the violence and dangers we managed to avoid.”

She said the only reason she sought help after the December incident was because she trusts staff at iOAT and additional services were accessible at the Calgary clinic, such as the sexual transmitted infection screening.

Nanda said iOAT patients share similar stories to one another, including trauma endured prior to using opioids. He said many have a distrust of the health-care system due to prior circumstances.

“We’re really talking about the most vulnerable and marginalized group of opioid use disorder patients in Alberta,” he told the court. “It’s that only through iOAT they have aspirations, they have goals beyond the next time they use opioids. They’re talking about ambitions and plans and goals that they never thought possible.”

Nanda called the program a “one-stop shop” for medical care for patients.

“It’s the only effective treatment available and recognized for folks with severe opioid use disorder,” he said.

The injunction hearing followed the release of a University of Calgary study this week which detailed the benefits of iOAT, according to 23 patient interviews.

Clients said the service “transformed” their lives, citing improved mental health, decreased reliance on street drugs, fewer withdrawal symptoms and an overall improvement to their quality of life.

Researcher Jennifer Jackson also highlighted other studies of similar programs in the Netherlands and B.C., which showed between 13 and 20 per cent of patients die when services are scrapped.

The province is already seeing record-high opioid-related deaths. A staggering 904 fatalities were recorded between January and October — marking the deadliest year on record with two months of data still undisclosed.

“The only reasonable, factual conclusion is that, at best, there is uncertainly about whether this is iOAT or it’s not iOAT,” Nanda told the court.

“If that is the case, then the harms that I’ve described about relapse back to street opioid use all manifests.”

Myanmar protesters march for sixth consecutive day

The military junta continues to arrest senior government figures, despite ongoing protests. Protesters say they will continue until the junta ends.


Protesters carry signs reading "free our leaders" as they gather in Myanmar's economic capital Yangon


Protesters gathered across Myanmar on Thursday for the sixth straight day of anti-coup demonstrations.

In capital Naypyitaw, hundreds of people came to support the civil disobedience movement. They carried placards supporting ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and chanted anti-junta slogans. Despite previous clashes, Thursday's early marches were peaceful.

Protesters also gathered in the cities of Dawei and Mandalay, as well as the commercial hub of Yangon, where they urged employees of Myanmar's central bank not to go to work.

"We aren't doing this for a week or a month — we are determined to do this until the end when [Suu Kyi] and President U Win Myint are released," one bank employee who had joined the protest told news agency Agence France-Presse.

Watch video 02:29Myanmar's youth drive opposition to military coup

Junta arrests more government aides

Pro-junta forces arrested the deputy speaker of the parliament's lower house and a key aide to Suu Kyi, Kyaw Tint Swe, according to monitor Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. More than 200 people have been arrested since the coup, the group said.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party, said five people linked to the toppled government were grabbed from their homes overnight, and that the top leadership of the former electoral commission had all been arrested.

Watch video03:33 Myanmar military's response 'clearly escalating'

Why are people protesting?

Senior military figures seized power last week, claiming widespread voter fraud in November's elections, where the NLD won a landslide victory.

They arrested elected officials and quickly stacked political offices and the court system with loyalists.

The military originally seized power in 1962 and strictly governed the country until democratic elections in 2010. Under civilian rule, the country was embroiled in ethnic tensions and rights abuses, however Suu Kyi and her party enjoyed widespread domestic popularity.

Since the coup, people have protested in the tens of thousands and established a civil disobedience campaign. This was met with military violence, with harsh crackdowns and widespread arrests.

AUNG SAN SUU KYI: FROM FREEDOM FIGHTER TO PARIAH

Darling of democracy

Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's assassinated founding father Aung San, returned to her home country in the late 1980s after studying and starting a family in England. She became a key figure in the 1988 uprisings against the country's military dictatorship. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) was victorious in 1990 elections, but the government refused to honor the vote   PHOTOS 123456789

More international sanctions

Western nations have condemned the coup and its subsequent crackdown, with the US announcing further sanctions on Wednesday.

"I again call on the Burmese military to immediately release democratic political leaders and activists," US President Joe Biden said, as he announced sanctions. "The military must relinquish power."

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell also warned of possible sanctions.

United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, warned that all military members engaged in human rights abuses risked prosecution.


aw/rs (AFP, Reuters, AP)