Turkey's pro-Kurdish party MPs targeted in legal barrage

By Daren Butler 

   

© Reuters/SERTAC KAYAR FILE PHOTO: HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan takes part in a protest against the detention of their local politicians in Diyarbakir

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's parliament is set to consider legal bids to lift the immunity from prosecution of 21 pro-Kurdish MPs, applying more pressure on a political party targeted in a years-long crackdown and that now faces calls for its closure.

The government accuses the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), parliament's third largest, of ties to Kurdish militants and stepped up its accusations after Turkish captives were killed in Iraq earlier this month.

The HDP in response criticised President Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party (AKP) for using a failed military rescue mission to target it politically and to sow ethnic division, and the European Union has expressed concern over the legal moves.

AKP Parliament Speaker Mustafa Sentop told reporters on Thursday it was "saddening" for parliament to have to deal with so many dossiers with such charges, including "manslaughter", "spreading terrorist propaganda" and "provoking hatred".

State-owned Anadolu news agency said 20 HDP deputies and one from an affiliated party were among 25 targeted by the cases. The HDP, which has 56 members in the 660-seat assembly, denies links with Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.

The legal bids will first be handled by a parliamentary commission which will decide whether to put them to a vote in the general assembly. The timing of the process was unclear.

Nine of the HDP deputies were accused in connection with protests triggered by an Islamic State militant attack on the Syrian town of Kobani in 2014. The subsequent protests in Turkey led to the deaths of 37 people.

Ankara said this month in Iraq's Gara region the PKK executed 13 prisoners, including Turkish military and police personnel, during an army operation meant to rescue them. The PKK said the captives died during clashes.

HDP co-leader Pervin Buldan, one of those accused over the Kobani protests, said this week the government had sought to make political capital out of the Gara operation.

"They began to attack the HDP from all directions. Each day the 'shut down the HDP' chorus continues to cause uproar, show enmity towards Kurds and spread the hatred climate," she said.

Erdogan's nationalist allies have repeatedly called for the HDP's closure over links to the PKK, which Turkey, the EU and United States designate a terrorist group. The PKK has waged an insurgency in the mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey since 1984 and more than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

The crackdown on the HDP in recent years has included the arrests of thousands of party officials and members, while dozens of its elected mayors and lawmakers have been ousted.

EU foreign affairs spokesman Peter Stano said earlier this week the EU was "gravely concerned" about continuing pressure on the HDP, including "what seem to be politically motivated judicial proceedings".

(Reporting by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)

Patty Murray rebukes Rand Paul for 'harmful misrepresentations' at historic confirmation hearing for Rachel Levine

A Senate confirmation hearing is now underway for Dr. Rachel Levine, President Joe Biden's pick to serve as assistant health secretary, who would make history as the first out transgender federal official to be confirmed by the Senate.

© Biden Transition Team President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Dr. Rachel Levine to serve as assistant secretary for Health at the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, the chair of the Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, rebuked GOP Sen. Rand Paul, saying that he had made "harmful misrepresentations" after he appeared to equate gender confirmation surgery with "genital mutilation."

Paul began his questioning by saying, "genital mutilation has been nearly universally condemned," and then went on to say, "Dr. Levine, do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life changing decision as changing one's sex?"

Levine responded by saying, "Transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field with robust research and standards of care that have been developed. If I am fortunate enough to be confirmed as the assistant secretary of health, I will look forward to working with you and your office and coming to your office and discussing the particulars of the standards of care for transgender medicine."

Later, Murray criticized the line of questioning, saying to Levine, "I appreciated your thoughtful and medically-informed response to Sen. Paul's questions earlier in the hearing. It is really critical to me that our nominees be treated with respect and that our questions focus on their qualifications and the work ahead of us rather than on ideological and harmful misrepresentations like those we heard from Sen. Paul earlier and I will focus on that as chair of this committee."

Levine previously served as the Pennsylvania health secretary under Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's administration.

"Dr. Rachel Levine will bring the steady leadership and essential expertise we need to get people through this pandemic -- no matter their zip code, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability -- and meet the public health needs of our country in this critical moment and beyond," Biden said in a statement on the nomination at the time it was announced. "She is a historic and deeply qualified choice to help lead our administration's health efforts.



The hearing to consider Levine's nomination comes the same day that the House is slated to vote on the Equality Act, which will amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect people from being discriminated based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and other services as well as access to public accommodations such as restaurants.

The hearing before the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee is also considering the nomination of Dr. Vivek Murthy to serve as US surgeon general, a role Murthy held under the Obama administration.

As surgeon general under President Barack Obama, Murthy helped lead the national response to the Ebola and Zika viruses and the opioid crisis, among other health challenges. If confirmed, Murthy would be poised to play a key role in the Biden administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic.

A number of Obama administration nominees have faced Senate confirmation hearings this week, including Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland, Interior Secretary nominee Deb Haaland and Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Xavier Becerra.

So far nine of Biden's 23 Cabinet-level nominees requiring Senate approval have been confirmed, according to a CNN tracker. But one high-profile nomination -- Neera Tanden, Biden's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget -- is in major jeopardy amid bipartisan opposition.

Levine isn't the Biden administration's only historic pick.

Earlier this month, the Senate confirmed Alejandro Mayorkas as Homeland Security secretary, the first Latino and immigrant to serve at the helm of the department, and Pete Buttigieg as transportation secretary, making him the first Senate-confirmed LGBTQ Cabinet secretary.

Why Canada should invest in 'macrogrids' for greener more reliable electricity

Blake Shaffer, Assistant professor, Economics and School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, 

Brett Dolter, Assistant Professor, Economics, University of Regina, 

Nicholas Rivers, Canada Research Chair in Climate and Energy Policy, L’Université d’Ottawa/University of Ottawa, 

and G. Kent Fellows, Research associate, public policy, University of Calgary 

As the recent disaster in Texas showed, climate change requires electricity utilities to prepare for extreme events. This “global weirding” leads to more intense storms, higher wind speeds, heatwaves and droughts that can threaten the performance of electricity systems.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ryan Remiorz Water rushes through the Carillon Hydro electric dam in Québec.

The electricity sector must adapt to this changing climate while also playing a central role in mitigating climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced a number of ways, but the electricity sector is expected to play a central role in decarbonization. Zero-emissions electricity can be used to electrify transportation, heating and industry and help achieve emissions reduction in these sectors.

Enhancing long-distance transmission is viewed as a cost-effective way to enable a clean and reliable power grid, and to lower the cost of meeting our climate targets. Now is the time to strengthen transmission links in Canada.
Insurance for climate extremes

An early lesson from the Texas power outages is that extreme conditions can lead to failures across all forms of power supply. The state lost the capacity to generate electricity from natural gas, coal, nuclear and wind simultaneously. But it also lacked transmission connections to other electricity systems that could have bolstered supply.

Long-distance transmission offers the opportunity to escape the correlative clutch of extreme weather, by accessing energy and spare capacity in areas not beset by the same weather patterns. For example, while Texas was in its deep freeze, relatively balmy conditions in California meant there was a surplus of electricity generation capability in that region — but no means to get it to Texas. Building new transmission lines and connections across broader regions can act as an insurance policy, providing a back-up for regions hit by the crippling effects of climate change.© CP Photo/Robert Galbraith The 1998 Quebec ice storm left 3.5 million Quebecers and a million Ontarians, as well as thousands in in New Brunswick, without power.

Transmission is also vulnerable to climate disruptions, such as crippling ice storms that leave wires temporarily inoperable. This may mean using stronger poles when building transmission, or burying major high-voltage transmission links.

In any event, more transmission links between regions can improve resilience by co-ordinating supply across larger regions. Well-connected grids that are larger than the areas disrupted by weather systems can be more resilient to climate extremes.
Lowering the cost of clean power

Adding more transmission can also play a role in mitigating climate change. Numerous studies have found that building a larger transmission grid allows for greater shares of renewables onto the grid, ultimately lowering the overall cost of electricity.

In a recent study, two of us looked at the role transmission could play in lowering greenhouse gas emissions in Canada’s electricity sector. We found the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is lower when new or enhanced transmission links can be built between provinces. 

© (Authors) Average cost increase to electricity in Canada at different levels of decarbonization, with new transmission (black) and without new transmission (red). 

New transmission lowers the cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Much of the value of transmission in these scenarios comes from linking high-quality wind and solar resources with flexible zero-emission generation that can produce electricity on demand. In Canada, our system is dominated by hydroelectricity, but most of this hydro capacity is located in five provinces: British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Québec and Newfoundland and Labrador.

In the west, Alberta and Saskatchewan are great locations for building low-cost wind and solar farms. Enhanced interprovincial transmission would allow Alberta and Saskatchewan to build more variable wind and solar, with the assurance that they could receive backup power from B.C. and Manitoba when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.

When wind and solar are plentiful, the flow of low cost energy can reverse to allow B.C. and Manitoba the opportunity to better manage their hydro reservoir levels. Provinces can only benefit from trading with each other if we have the infrastructure to make that trade possible.

A recent working paper examined the role that new transmission links could play in decarbonizing the B.C. and Alberta electricity systems. We again found that enabling greater electricity trade between B.C. and Alberta can reduce the cost of deep cuts to greenhouse gas emissions by billions of dollars a year. Although we focused on the value of the Site C project, the analysis showed that new transmission would offer benefits of much greater value than a single hydroelectric project

.

© (Authors) The value of enabling new transmission links 

between Alberta and B.C. as greenhouse gas emissions

 reductions are pursued.

Getting transmission built

With the benefits that enhanced electricity transmission links can provide, one might think new projects would be a slam dunk. But there are barriers to getting projects built.

First, electricity grids in Canada are managed at the provincial level, most often by Crown corporations. Decisions by the Crowns are influenced not simply by economics, but also by political considerations. If a transmission project enables greater imports of electricity to Saskatchewan from Manitoba, it raises a flag about lost economic development opportunity within Saskatchewan. Successful transmission agreements need to ensure a two-way flow of benefits.

Second, transmission can be expensive. On this front, the Canadian government could open up the purse strings to fund new transmission links between provinces. It has already shown a willingness to do so.

Lastly, transmission lines are long linear projects, not unlike pipelines. Siting transmission lines can be contentious, even when they are delivering zero-emissions electricity. Using infrastructure corridors, such as existing railway right of ways or the proposed Canadian Northern Corridor, could help better facilitate co-operation between regions and reduce the risks of siting transmission lines.

If Canada can address these barriers to transmission, we should find ourselves in an advantageous position, where we are more resilient to climate extremes and have achieved a lower-cost, zero-emissions electricity grid.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Brett Dolter receives funding from The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Energy Modelling Initiative (https://emi-ime.ca/). Brett Dolter previously provided consulting services to SaskPower.

Blake Shaffer has received funding from Natural Resources Canada, and has provided policy advisory services for the Governments of B.C., Alberta, and Canada. He previously held senior energy trading positions at Transalta Corporation and BC Hydro.

Nicholas Rivers receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

G. Kent Fellows does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment

Opinion: Texas should spark us to innovate our grid – quicker
National Post
By Tomas van Stee   

© Provided by National Post Ice and snow cling to a tree near a powerline in Toronto in a file photo from Dec. 26, 2013. Canadians, like our American neighbours, have approached electrical grid innovation with a “we'll get to it later” mentality, writes Tomas van Stee.

It’s a black swan event that should scare us. Texas and adjacent states were rocked by three days of record-setting cold that froze the apparatus of energy production, leading to four million outages and dozens of dead this past week. Could something like this happen in Canada? Actually, yes.

Canadians, like our American neighbours, have approached electrical grid innovation with a “we’ll get to it later” mentality. The Texas experience reminds us that we need to be agile innovators.

The Texas energy problems stem from a simple fact: demand exceeded supply.

We’ve always expected electrical supply would meet our needs. As jurisdictions focus on such renewables as wind and solar, it is critical to consider the demand side. What happens if the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow? Factor in a climate crisis that can test HVAC systems with deep freezes or intense heat waves, and what happens if supply falls short of demand?

For operators, innovation can be dangerous, reliability is paramount.

Electrical grid operators have provided reliable electricity for nearly 150 years. But when your focus is reliability, it becomes risky to innovate. We need a grid in this tangled industry where flexible supply and responsive demand can exist simultaneously. To do so, the energy industry must support an environment that allows innovation.

Across North America, there are programs to motivate energy users to be more “responsive,” adjusting demand to meet shortfalls in supply. However, adoption levels are low — about five per cent, on average — because the costs appear to outweigh the benefits. (Ontario leads with a 10 per cent participation rate). In Texas, 35 per cent of its energy supply went offline. It needed a 35 per cent participation rate on the demand side to avoid blackouts. Their five per cent rate fell far short.
Joe Oliver: Why devastating Texas power outages are unlikely in Ontario
Maxim Seferovic: Blame deregulation, not green energy, for Texas power failure

If Canadians wish to avoid a similar shortfall, our grid must become more responsive. How can we make a business case for this?

Making the economics work for a real-time supply and demand match.

One measure is to increase the reliability of responsive energy programs. In these programs, grids incentivize energy users to reduce usage during expensive periods, leading to lower demand. Such programs exist in deregulated markets, such as Alberta’s and Ontario’s, and in Canada’s regulated markets. Recent events, however, give some cause to pause. In Alberta, the grid operator (the Alberta Electrical System Operator) is seeking comments about proposed changes to its Coincident Peak Demand program, and in 2019, it cancelled a possible Demand Response program. In Ontario, last year’s Global Adjustment hiatus (a pause in its largest energy program), added an extra year to ROI for energy storage and load-shifting projects. These events demonstrate the uncertainty of market conditions. While there may be financial benefits when innovating an energy program, investors want the security of stable pricing.

The industry’s complicated nature needs to be addressed. In Alberta, for example, there are nearly 6,000 generators that can connect to the grid — useful additional capacity. But connecting to the grid is complicated, time-consuming and costly. An energy user could spend a year and up to $50,000 applying for their peak demand program, and still be refused. Capable industry participants across North America are hungry to participate but are discouraged by current market rules.

Don’t forget the little guys, and homeowners! To create a more responsive grid, operators need to stop picking winners and let the market regulate itself. I’ve often wondered: Why do our regulated utilities require a minimum 5MW load to participate (this is a huge amount of energy — think auto-plant size). Why is the peak demand program in Alberta limited to natural gas generators? Why are only large businesses allowed to join Ontario’s largest peak demand program? Many companies with IoT devices or homeowners with smart appliances can represent that same volume — why exclude them? Ontario is a leader, having invested $10B in smart meters. This is great, but Ontario is not using that data.

Connect the dots to secure our future and avoid catastrophic blackouts.

Across Canada, we need to innovate and create an environment where supply and demand can meet in real time. The market needs to become far more responsive to future-proof us. The industry needs to open the game to everyone who wants to participate. Make a set of rules and stick to them — providing the security and confidence to invite investment. Finally, make the rules clear. Responsive demand will increase participation and remove barriers to innovation.

Let’s play by the rules we propose to our children: everyone is welcome, the rules are fair, and we share.

Tomas van Stee is an active commentator on energy and economic policy. Currently, he is the Founder and CEO of EnPowered in Waterloo, Ont.

Mandryk: Texas power fiasco underscores need for strong SaskPower

Murray Mandryk 

You don’t mess with Texas … unless you are cold weather …. or perhaps deregulation of your utilities.

© Michael Bell SaskPower crews work on electrical lines at Pense last month as fog limited visibility. MICHAEL BELL / Regina Leader-Post

The oil-rich Lone Star State that perhaps most personifies American ideals of free enterprise, independence and freedom found itself last week crippled not only by a winter snowstorm but also by the outcome of those ideals.

Of course, the first reaction in a Canadian province like Saskatchewan is our usual sympathetic smugness that we are hardier … and simply better regulated.

While it seems as if we here in Saskatchewan are inching away from the vestiges of our social democratic roots, we remain prideful of publicly owned SaskPower’s mandate of supplying affordable electricity to all 691,900 square kilometres of this province. (We are only slightly smaller than 695,602-square-kilometre Texas.)

But does that mean SaskPower and this province are immune from big Texas-like problems we just witnessed? To a large extent we are, but not completely.

If there is a lesson to be learned from Texas, it is the vital need for stable, affordable-for-all and well-regulated electrical power generation. We mostly get that here, but we do have a penchant to forget that lesson.

What Texas faced last week was its perfect storm — both, in terms of weather and governance policies catching up with them.

Unaccustomed to the -20 C temperature, about 4.7 million Texas homes and businesses were left without electricity, heat and running water because of a lack of insulation. Dozens died from either the cold or the storm’s ensuing traffic accidents and even carbon monoxide poisoning as people desperately tried to stay warm.

Gas intakes at plants and in homes froze in place, not designed for extreme weather, and power lines fell to sleet and freezing rain.

However, much of the blame centred around wind turbines that account for 15.7 per cent or 30,000 megawatts of Texas’s total power production. (This is a state that strongly supports fossil fuels over renewables.)

In Saskatchewan, current only 241 megawatts or five per cent of SaskPower’s total 4,893-megawatt generating capacity comes from wind, with another 387 mw about to be added from the Herbert-Riverhurst-Assiniboia area and an additional 300 mw in planning. Turbines here can spin in temperatures as low as -30 C (with windchill being a non-factor) and the winter average output (92 mw an hour) is actually higher than the yearly average (86 mw an hour).

Part of the Texas problem was that (unlike Saskatchewan) its peak electrical requirements come with air conditioners blasting in the summer and that its rotating blackouts were ill-advised for the extreme cold.

But in Saskatchewan, we face a similar problem with an aging/vulnerable infrastructure in need of replacement that’s become a constant battle for SaskPower and a big part of the reason for skyrocketing utility bills in the past few decades.

In response, the Saskatchewan Party in the October election committed to a 10-per-cent reduction on power bills that will likely mean less capacity for the Crown corporation to deal with infrastructure problems.

Admittedly, the Texas calamity remains unique as it was caused by not only the weather event, but also being a jurisdiction where deregulation, lack of preparedness and utility-cost-cutting have run amok for decades. Adding to the problem is that Texas removed itself from the U.S. national grid to save tax dollars.

By contrast, the protocol for SaskPower — that notably had no outages during the recent cold snap — would be to first cut exports and then purchase excess supply from neighbours.

And while several of SaskPower’s large industrial customers have guaranteed supply contracts, even they can have their power cut back to ensure homes and critical infrastructure like hospitals and care homes get power first. This is something that has happened in the past.

The end result of Texas’s go-it-alone, deregulated approach is Texans who were allowed to choose between competing providers are now being hit with $5,000 bills for five days power usage.

Again, that’s something that wouldn’t happen here, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be vigilant.

The biggest lesson from Texas should be a reassessment of SaskPower to make sure Texas doesn’t happen here.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

A New Jersey plumber drove to Texas with his family to fix burst pipes and other damage from devastating winter storm

By David Williams, CNN 

A New Jersey plumber who wanted to help Texans dealing with burst pipes and other damage after last week's winter storms drove to Houston with a truck full of tools and got to work.

© courtesy Kisha Pinnock, Esq. New Jersey plumber Andrew Mitchell, right, and his apprentice Isaiah Pinnock have been working in the Houston, Texas, area since Sunday because local plumbers have been overwhelmed with calls.

Andrew Mitchell and his wife, Kisha Pinnock, decided to make the 22-hour drive from Morristown with their 2-year-old son Blake after hearing that local plumbers were overwhelmed with calls and that some customers couldn't get help for weeks. Isaiah Pinnock, who is Kisha's brother and Mitchell's apprentice, went with them.

Before leaving New Jersey, they bought as many plumbing supplies as they could afford, Pinnock said -- because those items are currently hard to find in Texas.

The group arrived in Houston, Texas on Sunday afternoon. Pinnock's sister, who lives in Houston, connected them with several people who had been looking to hire plumbers. They quickly enlisted the services of Mitchell's Plumbing & Heating.

"By the time we got here there was already about four or five jobs lined up from my sister, and we just hit those first and then everything after that has really just been referrals from like the initial customers, like their friends and family," Pinnock, who is a lawyer, said. "Since we've been here, it has really been nonstop."

Pinnock said that her husband and brother had done about 13 jobs since they arrived, and that they have full days scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday.

Among those customers was Dedrick Dock, of Spring, Texas. He told CNN that he'd tried to get at least 15 plumbers out to his house before he heard about Mitchell's Plumbing & Heating on social media from a friend's neighbor.

Dock and his family had been staying with relatives for more than a week because of a broken pipe in the garage.

"We had to relocate for over a week because we needed to get someone out there," he said. "And of course, with the plumbers here they were already overwhelmed with the work that was going on."

The group had planned to return home next week, but now said they will stay for about two weeks, because they've gotten so many calls from people who need their help.

"I think that we made a difference, for sure," Pinnock said.

© courtesy Kisha Pinnock, Esq. Andrew Mitchell, right, and Isaiah Pinnock work in a customer's home in Texas.

'Serious concerns:' Alberta First Nations oppose coal expansion in Rocky Mountains



EDMONTON — Two of Alberta's largest First Nations have written letters to coal companies saying they will oppose any new mine proposals in the Rocky Mountains since the provincial government has consistently ignored their concerns

The Siksika and Kainai, southwest of Calgary, say new mines would threaten one of the few places that can still support traditional Blackfoot culture. The two First Nations account for about 70 per cent of the Treaty 7 population.


"After careful review of all proposed metallurgical coal projects, and in response to the government of Alberta's failure to address the Siksika Nation's concerns ... Siksika has formally adopted a position opposing any new applications," says one letter from Chief Ouray Crowfoot.

The letter has been sent to Montem Resources, Atrum Coal and Cabin Ridge Coal — companies with exploration leases on land that was previously protected from surface mines. The Kainai Nation, also known as the Blood Tribe, has sent similar letters.


"The Blood Tribe has communicated its serious concerns with proposed metallurgical coal projects in the Crowsnest Pass Region that will threaten the rivers and environmental integrity of the region," said a release from the First Nation, which stressed its concerns over the headwaters of the Oldman River.

"(The) Blood Tribe will oppose any new applications for metallurgical coal projects in the Crowsnest Pass Region."

The letters do not apply to a proposal, currently before regulatory hearings, from Benga Mines.

"We've got to make sure our treaty rights are not impacted," said Scotty Many Guns, a Siksika consultation officer who works with industry. "Alberta isn't listening."

Last spring, the United Conservative government revoked a policy without public input that had protected the summits and eastern slopes of the Rockies from surface coal mines since 1976. That led to the sale of coal exploration leases on thousands of hectares of land, some of which is home to endangered species and the water source for much of southern Alberta.

The government recently reinstated the policy, but did not dissolve the leases it sold in the interim.

Many Guns said land in southwest Alberta is traditional Blackfoot territory that has been used for thousands of years. It remains a hunting ground, a garden of edible and ceremonial plants and a gathering site.

The headwaters of the Oldman River must be protected, said Many Guns. Even the teepee rings that dot the area have cultural meaning.

"Crowsnest Mountain is one of the most sacred sites we have, like Mount Fuji to the Japanese," he said. "We used it in the past, we use it today and in the future we will still be using this area."

Lawyer Clayton Leonard, who works with the Kainai and Siksika, said the government hasn't taken their concerns seriously enough.

"Siksika's tried for a couple years now to communicate to Alberta that what's needed is a government-to-government process," he said. "That process needs to be a wide-open discussion of what are the concerns and interests of the Blackfoot and what can government do to work with them."

At least one coal company is urging the government to take those concerns seriously.

"Cabin Ridge recognizes and respects Indigenous rights and the importance of reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples," Brad Johnstone, that company's chief development officer, said in an email

"Cabin Ridge encourages the Government of Alberta to fully consult Indigenous Peoples as part of its announced consultation process on development of a modern coal policy."

Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage has said public consultations are to begin March 29. That will have to do, said department spokesman Kavi Bal.

"The consultation process is being designed to hear all of the perspectives on future coal development from Albertans, including First Nations," he said in an email.

The Siksika are part of a legal challenge of the province's original decision to revoke the protection policy.

The letters sent this week go much further than the court action.

"Both nations have spoken quite clearly that in the current circumstances, the answer is no to further coal development," Leonard said. "When we hear what Alberta's going to propose, we'll assess it."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 24, 2021.

— Follow @row1960 on Twitter

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

A real-life Lorax

Palm oil hasn't made headline news as a quiet killer. Though it's high in saturated fat, there remains a lot of controversy as to whether it's good for you—or not. One thing we do know for sure is that palm oil is having a disastrous impact on the environment and on an array of wild animals. This is because to get that precious oil, massive swaths of planet Earth are being damaged. The situation is like a real-life The Lorax, where forests are being destroyed to keep "biggering and biggering" a profitable industry.






1/10 SLIDES © CLARBONDIOXIDE/GETTY IMAGES

Why More People Need to Be Talking About How Palm Oil is Damaging the Environment (msn.com)

Study reports "shocking" findings of microplastics in the Arctic
Mia Gordon 

WEATHER NETWORK

2/25/2021

They are impossible to see with the naked human eye: tiny fibers no bigger than a few millimeters in size, yet they are showing up in abundance in the world’s most remote places. Every year billions and billions of microplastics are invading the Arctic Ocean and now a B.C. company is trying to figure out how they got there to investigate their potential impacts on marine life.

Play Video
From your laundry to the ocean, how microfibres are impacting the Arctic

Earlier this year, Ocean Wise released the most comprehensive study to date on Arctic microplastics and according to scientists, the results they found are troublesome.

“What we found is shocking, but at the same time not terribly surprising,” says Dr. Peter Ross, lead author of the study.

“When we look at the samples we collected in Norway, through the North Pole, down through the Canadian Arctic we see something rather surprising, an average concentration of 49 particles of plastic per cubic meter of seawater just below the surface” Ross said.

Samples from 71 different locations across the European and Northern American Arctic were collected by One Ocean Expeditions and Fisheries and Oceans Canada. The samples were then brought back to a research team at Ocean Wise, who found plastic particles in 70 out of the 71 samples.

© Provided by The Weather Network

Credit: Brian Yurasits via Unsplash

“We found a surprising dominance of fibers...averaging about 11 to 14 microns in size, and they were all different colours. There were red ones, green ones, yellow ones. And When we look at the identity of those fibers, we find that 73 percent are polyester,” Ross told The Weather Network.

The study also observed almost three times more microplastic particles in eastern Arctic compared to the west, which suggests that ocean currents are transporting these fibers from countries surrounding the Atlantic Ocean.

This research also provided a concrete connection between microplastics in the Arctic and textiles from laundry, something that Ocean Wise has been working on for several years.

“The physical dimensions of the fibers that we found in the Arctic samples were very similar to those that we found in our research on microfiber shedding from textiles. So it provided evidence and support to the notion that we are getting microfibers from clothes into this environment,” said co-author Dr. Anna Posack.

  

© Provided by The Weather NetworkCredit: Aaron Burden via Unsplash

Whenever we do a load of laundry at home, millions of fibers shed from your clothes and end up in our greywaters. This water travels to a treatment facility where about 95 percent of these fibres are trapped in sludge, but there is still a significant amount that is released into the environment.

Since research on microplastics is still relatively new, the team isn’t entirely sure about the exact impacts these fibers could have on marine life, but what they do know is that it is not nutritional for them.

In hopes of protecting the environment from the still unknown side effects of these microplastics, Ocean Wise has teamed up with different Canadian companies like Joe Fresh and Arc'teryx to create clothes made with textiles that don’t shed as much.

You can find out more about the partnerships in the Ocean Wise feature “Me, My Clothes, and the Ocean.”

Thumbnail credit: doble-d. iStock. Getty Images.

California's iconic redwoods threatened by climate change
Jeff Berardelli 

California's iconic coastal redwoods, some standing since before Julius Caesar ruled Rome, are in a fight for their lives. They are increasingly threatened by wildfires that are larger and more intense due to the impact of human-caused climate change.

© Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Big Basin Redwoods State Park, San Jose, California, wildfire.

And it's not just the redwoods — giant sequoias and Joshua trees are also in trouble. These majestic trees are unique to the West Coast and are an integral part of the fabric of California's storied landscape. But the experts who know and love these trees are genuinely worried about their future.

Last year, 4.2 million acres burned in California's worst fire season on record. Scientists say as the climate warms these fires will grow bigger at an accelerating pace. And although the giant redwoods and sequoias have been historically resilient to natural wildfire, these unnaturally intense fires are starting to overwhelm their defenses, with fires reaching higher up into their crowns

It is estimated that 10% of the ancient redwoods that burned during the 2020 fire season in places like the Big Basin Redwood State Park, 50 miles south of San Francisco, will die.

A couple of hundred miles to the east, in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, 350 giant sequoias were killed as flames shot hundreds of feet high, burning far up to the canopy. To the south, in the Mojave Desert, about 1.3 million Joshua trees burned as firenadoes tore through invasive grass.

© Provided by CBS News Charred Joshua Trees are seen during the Bobcat Fire in Valyermo, California, on September 18, 2020. / Credit: KYLE GRILLOT/AFP via Getty Images

CBS News visited Big Basin State Park earlier this month and met with two longtime forest scientists, Todd Keeler-Wolf, a vegetation ecologist, and Joanne Kerbavaz, the senior scientist at Big Basin.

"This fire was on a scale and of an intensity that there are no records of fires that have been that big in this vicinity," Kerbavaz said of the August fire which raged through almost the entire park, engulfing 18,000 acres.

It started as part of a lightning siege of 14,000 strikes which sparked 350 fires statewide. Lightning events like that are almost unheard of in California; this one was a result of a surge of moisture from a decaying tropical system off of Baja California.

While that lightning event can be considered just weather chance, it coincided with a sweltering summer heat wave which was undoubtedly made worse by climate change. This heat, on top of a long-term climate-driven drought, dried out vegetation, turning it into a tinderbox just waiting for lightning bolts to spark fires.

In her 22 years at Big Basin, Kerbavaz says she has witnessed a shift: a once nurturing climate has experienced significant change.

"There's a consensus that things are getting hotter and drier, and most of us who lived in this area can feel that," she said. "And there is a consensus that fog patterns have changed, and that we know that in the redwood forest fog patterns are essential to maintain the redwood forests in this climate."

She is concerned that in the coming decades, if the fog continues to shrink, the habitat suitable for redwoods that live further away from the ocean will also shrink.

© Provided by CBS News Big Basin Redwoods State Park in California was hit by a wildfire in August 2020 that burned roughly 97% of the park's 18,224 acres. State Parks safety officer and ranger Gabe McKenna, center, looks at the damage. The park contains 4,400 acre of old-growth redwood forest and 11,3000 acres of secondary growth. / Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Since 2000, the western U.S. has been experiencing a megadrought, one of its worst droughts in 1,200 years. On top of that, since 1970, summers in California have warmed by 2 to 3 degrees Fahrenheit. These types of climate conditions, warmer and drier, set the stage for a longer fire season with larger, more intense fires.

For the redwoods — despite their extensive root system, bark 12 inches thick, and having survived repeated fires over their thousands of years of existence — these recent intense fires are overwhelming their natural defenses.

Keeler-Wolf has the duty of surveying the wreckage from the August fires. Pointing up at a huge ancient redwood, he talks about the immensity of the fire.

"It affected the entire tree right up to the very top. This one is a candidate for being pronounced dead, but we haven't pronounced it yet," he said.

Both scientists agree that these coastal redwoods are very resilient. Even when they are heavily damaged from fires, they can re-sprout new trees from their trunks and even their roots.

Kerbavaz explained, "There's also dormant buds by the base that can re-sprout and actually form new trees. Even before the flames were out the plants were starting to come back. Redwoods were re-sprouting at the same time as adjacent areas were still burning."

Although approximately 1 in 10 of the burned redwoods will not make it, historically speaking, Kerbavaz says 90% should survive. But the loss of so many ancient trees, some of which had been standing for thousands of years, means that things will never look quite the same.

"I am hoping for a long lifetime, but realistically, in the next 40 years it may not look like it looked in the 40 years before. A lot of the trees have been burned. So, we do expect the trees to come back, but in some cases they will look quite different," said Kerbavaz

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© Provided by CBS News Torched trees smolder in the Alder Creek grove of Giant Sequoia National Monument in Springville, California, on October 28, 2020. The Castle Fire burned through portions of roughly 20 giant sequoia groves on the western slopes of the Sierra, the only place on the planet they naturally grow. / Credit: Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Sequoias posses many of the resilient qualities of the redwoods, but unlike the redwoods they cannot re-sprout with ease. That, combined with the fact that they live much further inland, away from the moist marine layer of the Pacific Ocean, makes them even more vulnerable to wildfire.

Park Williams is a Columbia University scientist and expert on the connection between fires and climate change. Through is research, he has observed an unprecedented difference in the climate and its impact on the forests. At a meeting in New York City in mid-January, I asked Park what his research has revealed.


Jeff Berardelli: It seems to be happening to the Joshua trees, to the sequoias and to the redwoods. And those are all different microclimates. So what is going on?

Park Williams: Well, there are a lot of things going on, but the one thing that all forests across the western U.S. are experiencing is warming. And so as we warm up the atmosphere, these forests are more likely to burn.

Jeff Berardelli: These fires are able to burn higher up on these trees, causing these trees to die where they wouldn't have died years ago. Is that right?

Park Williams: We know that fires were very common in these forests over the last millennia. These trees are designed to be able to tolerate fire, but they can only tolerate fire if these fires aren't giant catastrophic events. These giant fires with flames that are hundreds of feet tall managed to kill many hundreds of these ancient majestic trees.

As giant as these fires are, Williams says this may be just the beginning. As the region continues to warm, wildfires will get worse at an accelerating pace.

"The really important connection between heat and fire is it's actually exponential. And that means that for every degree of warming that you have in California, the amount of extra forest fire you get goes up more than it did in the previous degree of warming."

All of the scientists interviewed for this story agree that if we don't stop warming the planet, these majestic trees will be facing a losing battle.

"We do fear that there might be some thresholds that are crossed. So that some of the species, some of the things that live here, will no longer be able to be sustained," said Kerbavaz.