NASA will soon have the technology to bust the biggest polluters

Image source: Reid Wiseman/NASA
By Mike Wehner @MikeWehner

BGR
April 20th, 2021 at 5:08 PM


Major polluters beware: NASA is watching. The space agency is best known for its exploits in exploring our solar system but NASA also spends a great deal of time looking back down at Earth from above. It’s helped to map the spread of wildfires so officials can plan and strategize, tracked damage caused by floods and hurricanes, and even observed how stressed out plants are. Now, in its longstanding effort to help combat pollution, NASA will soon be deploying a satellite capable of spotting the worst offenders by examining their emissions from above.

In a new post by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the agency reveals its plans to work with nonprofit pollution-fighting organization Carbon Mapper. The two groups will team up to collect a wealth of data regarding the sources of methane and carbon dioxide emissions using a new satellite. The spacecraft, which is scheduled to launch by 2023, will utilize advanced instruments to not only spot emissions from space but actually identify what types of gasses are being expelled.

Many of the world’s governments have agreed to put limits on the amount of greenhouse gasses they emit. These handshakes look nice on paper but the countries don’t always follow through on their promises, and no matter how serious a country takes its climate pledges, there will always be companies within those countries that push or break the limits set forth. When this happens, it can be difficult to identify the source of harmful emissions, and it leads to a lot of finger-pointing both within and between nations.



Reports using data from NASA’s Carbon Mapper satellite will make things a lot more obvious, highlighting exactly where the wealth of greenhouse gasses are coming from and, hopefully, helping to hold those responsible accountable for their actions or lack of oversight.

“JPL is excited to be pioneering this research effort, which will provide critical information about greenhouse gases and the future of Earth’s climate,” James Graf, director for the Earth Science and Technology Directorate at JPL, said in a statement. “This effort is the first time we have partnered on a space mission with a consortium of nonprofit organizations, universities, and the State of California.”

Perhaps the most novel part of this new project is the fact that Carbon Mapper is going to make all of its data public. Anyone that wants to will be able to access the emissions data, including companies, governments, and curious everyday folks. It’ll be incredibly interesting to see how the data is used and if it can actually help to highlight the worst polluters and force them to change. Public sentiment can be a very powerful motivator, and if a company is exposed as being far dirtier than it claims, you can bet they’ll shift gears in a hurry.

Why we must regulate grey water

 April 21, 2021


Dr Wei Chen, Mark Beavis, Oliver Jost, Felix von Bredow and Markus Joswig are the co-authors for a Splash special looking at what to do with all the dirty water collected from a ship’s showers, wash basins, laundries, and galleys.

The IMO’s MARPOL Annex IV is being revised to confirm the lifetime performance of Sewage Treatment Plants (STPs). This may finally bring about grey water regulation – a necessity that is long overdue.

Black water and grey water

A ship’s sewage (black water) is collected from toilets, urinals and hospitals. The IMO’s MARPOL Annex IV prohibits its discharge, except when treated by an STP or discharged at > 12nm from the nearest land. A ship’s grey water, collected from showers, wash basins, laundries, and galleys, is not regulated.


Grey water has more pollutants (measured as BOD or COD) and hence greater environmental impact than black water (Table 1). But logical attempts to regulate grey water have been to no avail.

It has been widely acknowledged that the vast majority of approved STPs are discharging ‘virtually untreated sewage’ , and the regulation need to be made effective. What may not have been recognised is that, for good technical reasons, an effective black water regulation may not be readily achieved without regulating grey water.

Most concentrated sewage vs. most stringent standard

For decades, marine regulators have assumed that a ship’s sewage is similar to sewage on land. It cannot be more wrong. A ship’s sewage is far more concentrated, since urban wastewater contains groundwater infiltration, rainwater, and grey water. Onboard vacuum collection systems push the concentrations even higher, making ship sewage the most concentrated across all industries (Table 2).

Yet, ship sewage is subject to more stringent Faecal Coliform limit when compared to the discharge standards around the world, including the EU land-based rules (Table 3).

It is more so when it comes to the challenging nutrient standards. Under the Baltic Sea Action Plan, local communities of up to 300 population equivalent (p.e.) are not required to remove Total Phosphorus (TP).

Conventional biological wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) on land can achieve the Total Nitrogen (TN) target of 35 mg/l or 30% without introducing nitrogen removal technologies. As such, local communities of up to 10,000 p.e. are not required to remove Total Nitrogen (TN) (Table 4).

This is not because that the land-based industries are not ambitious, or that local communities don’t care. It is quite the opposite. They have evidence based, practicable, and sustainable environmental regulations that are enforced by performance monitoring (Figure below), whereby the goal is to protect environment, using best available technologies without entailing excess costs or adverse environmental impact. In contrast, passenger ships carrying as few as 12 passengers are given nutrient standards that are considered unnecessary, not beneficial, and unviable by industries on land (Table 4).

But are these sewage nutrient standards practicable? A ship’s black water can have nutrient concentrations 10 times that of urban wastewater (Table 5). There are other challenges. Ship operators can never be as familiarised with, or dedicated to, an STP as full-time operators in WWTPs. Ships have far less space and far poorer access and have real challenges in logistics and services. Plus, ships pitch and roll….

No one complained. The IMO’s type approval regime has made impossible tasks so ‘easy’ (Figure above). Ship owners who won’t trust a Bunker Delivery Note have embraced the certification of environmental technologies. Even those ships not applicable for nutrient removal have joined in, oblivious of the implications. It may not be a surprise that the first historical and courageous withdrawal of a certification under the MARPOL Convention was to an STP type approved for nutrient removal.

Conditioning vs dilution

The assumption of ship’s black water being similar to urban wastewater is evidently wrong. The assumption of ship’s black water can be readily processed to meet the most stringent standards is not evidence based. It is logical and essential to bring concentrations of black water closer to that of urban wastewater by ‘conditioning’. Afterall, most STPs are tested using urban wastewater that already contains grey water. Large STPs tested on board cruise ships included grey water. Under Alaska’s successful permitting regime for cruise ships, grey water is regulated together with black water.

Without conditioning, the treated black water, by meeting only the percentage removal target, can still be too concentrated to be allowed into many territorial waters under the national rules. Untreated black water can be too concentrated to be legally received by even the public sewer of the port reception facilities.

Dilution, on the other hand, takes a big step in a wrong direction by using excess amounts of sea water to dilute pollutants, thus cheating the discharge standard.

Regulating grey water is a necessity

Regulating grey water together with black water makes the existing performance standard more attainable and practicable. Because grey water is often co-mingled with black water during storage and transfer on board, regulating grey water is essential for effective implementation of the proposed sewage record books.

There are other reasons too. For years, grey water related non-conformities have been persistent. Sending grey water to an STP’s final stage is a non-conformity wrongly approved and promoted by the classification societies since 2016. Ship’s grey water system is also becoming a dumping ground for regulated wastes, such as food waste and food waste derivatives, violating international marine rules and national biosecurity rules. The interferences of grey water to the Ballast Water Convention also remain outstanding. Regulating grey water can help to address these issues.

Regulating grey water can ultimately align the maritime industry to the rest of our society in protecting our coastal waters with integrated and consistent regulations, both on land and at sea.

Maritime industry needs evidence-based, practicable and sustainable environmental regulations. At a time when the MARPOL Annex IV is under revision, we can have the grey water issue raised and addressed in one hit, or we can have a piecemeal approach that drags on over decades. Which one is better for the industry, and the marine environment?

CANADA

Federal budget fails to support needed pension reform, retiree group says

The Canadian Press

TORONTO -- The Canadian Federation of Pensioners is calling for amendments to federal insolvency laws to protect members of defined benefit pensions if the employer is insolvent.

The federation, which represents 23 retiree groups with a total of about 300,000 members, renewed its call for legislative changes after the federal budget failed to mention the issue on Monday.

The federal government controls Canada's insolvency laws and could use them to protect people with defined-benefit pensions, which are supposed to be guaranteed by the employer, CFP president Michael Powell said Tuesday.

Canada's insolvency laws should give pensioners priority over other creditors if a plan is in deficit and the sponsor is insolvent, he said

Private member's bills C-259 from New Democrat MP Scott Duvall and C-253 from Bloc Quebecois MP Marilene Gill are similar proposals that Powell said he supports.

"They're somewhat different. But the core component of each is identical, which is extending super priority to the unfunded pension liability in insolvency," Powell said in a phone interview.

The two bills, introduced last year, seek changes to the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act and the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.

Duvall, who represents Hamilton Mountain in southern Ontario, agreed his bill is very similar to the Bloc proposal and both put pressure on the Liberals to change the laws.

"The Bloc bill will be debated for the first time on Friday and I will be making a speech supporting that, to make sure pensioners are secured creditors," Duvall said.

White House to Pledge Cutting Global Warming Emissions in Half


Ari Natter and Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg News


Pollution rises from the Big River Electric D.B. Wilson Station power plant in Centertown, Kentucky. Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg , Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The White House plans to pledge this week a target of reducing U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases by at least half by the end of the decade as it holds a summit on climate change with world leaders, according to two people familiar with the president’s plans.

The goal, which would represent a near doubling of a climate target set by the Obama administration in 2015, was described by people who had been briefed by administration officials who asked not to be identified discussing private matters.

The U.S. target was characterized to the people as halving U.S. emissions from 2005 levels, rather than a specific 50% reduction. One of the people said the administration was seeking to avoid laying down a numeric target, the people said.

The U.S. may also commit to working to achieve even deeper cuts, one of the people said. That mirrors an approach the Obama administration took in 2015, when it laid out a 26%-28% cut by 2025, but said it would work to achieve the higher, 28% reduction.

The White House declined to comment.

Cutting U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half would require broad action to clamp down on planet-warming pollution from power plants, automobiles, oil wells and agriculture.

The Biden administration is convening the leaders of up to 40 nations in a summit Thursday and Friday designed to raise global ambition in the fight against climate change. A major target is keeping average global temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Can PLANT extract protect you against COVID-19? Clinical trial begins for vaccine made from tobacco shrubs

Canadian-based biopharmaceutical company Medicago has developed a coronavirus vaccine candidate that is derived from a tobacco plant

The candidate uses virus-like particles, which mimic the shape of the virus to train the body to recognize it and mount an immune response

Phase I trial data found the vaccine produced 10 times as many antibodies in recipients compared to those who had been infected with the virus

Researchers from around the world are in the process of recruiting for phase III clinical trials
If successful, the new candidate could be faster and cheaper to manufacture, and easier to produce

By MARY KEKATOS SENIOR HEALTH REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM
PUBLISHED:  20 April 2021 | U

Researchers around the country are testing a new two-dose COVID-19 vaccine candidate that is plant-based.

Developed by Medicago vaccination, a biopharmaceutical company based in Canada, the shot uses a tobacco shrub to produce coronavirus-like particles.

The help the body recognize the pathogen so that it can induce an immune response and launch an attack if a person becomes infected.

If the late-stage clinical trial proves the candidate is successful, it could be faster and cheaper to make - and easier distribute - than other available vaccines.

Canadian-based biopharmaceutical company Medicago has developed a coronavirus vaccine candidate that is derived from a tobacco plant (above)

The candidate uses virus-like particles, which mimic the shape of the virus to train the body to recognize it and mount an immune response

Medicago's coronavirus vaccine is made using a tobacco plant variant and uses Virus-like particles (VLPs).

VLPs, which are molecules that closely resemble but are non-infectious because they don't contain genetic material, are added to the soil and absorbed by the plant as it grows.

It then mimics the shape of the coronavirus to train the immune system to recognize it and mount an immune response.

This is different from the vaccines authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which target just the spike protein on the outside of the virus, rather than resembling the overall structure of the virus.

'All you have to do is extract the spike protein from the plant from the leaves, and you have the vaccine,' Dr Matthew Hong, of Wake Research in Raleigh, North Carolina, told ABC News 11.

'You don't need all the background and all the other support systems, and all the machinery and all the equipment that goes into making a virus.'

This could make the vaccine faster and cheaper to producer than other vaccines on the market, such as from Pfizer or Moderna.

It also does not need to be stored at freezing temperatures, making it easier to send to clinics.

Additionally, because the particles are derived from plants, it could limit the number of adverse reactions experienced by people who get the shot.

This is especially relevant in light of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FDA suggesting clinicians stop using the Johnson & Johnson last week after nine reports of rare, but serious, blood clots out of more than 7.2 million vaccinations.

Dr Mark Carlson the principal investigator for Be Well Clinical Studies, the Nebraska arm of the trial, says this new candidate has seen no links to blood clots.

'Thus far, the safety profile from the Medicago pre-clinical data a well as the phase one and phase two data has identified nothing concerning regarding blood clotting or any other safety flags,' Carlson told KETV

Early data from the phase I trial found the vaccine produced 10 times as many antibodies in recipients compared to those who had been infected with the virus.

Currently, Medicago is recruiting 30,000 participants across the U.S. and worldwide for its phase III trial.

To qualify, volunteers must be aged 18 years or older and have not either had COVID-19 or been vaccinated.

This is increasingly difficult in America, where 50.7 percent of the adult population has had at least one dose, according to the CDC.

'Our pool of potential subjects is shrinking daily, and so Medicago is trying to amplify this trial as quickly as possible,' Carlson told KETV.

Medicago is hoping to have results of the study available by fall 2021 to submit to U.S. regulators for review.

Crescent moon-shaped lake appears in Dubai desert

After the Pink Lake in RAK and Love Lakes in Al Qudra, there's a new Instagram-worthy landmark



One of the UAE's hidden gems emerged on social media at Ramadan - the crescent moon lake at Al Qudra desert area in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The National








A crescent-shaped lake appeared in the Dubai desert, just in time for Ramadan.

Moon Lake is in the middle of Al Qudra desert, surrounded by golden sand dunes.

The National went in search of the new landmark with a drone, and took these remarkable photographs.

The crescent moon lake was first pictured by Dubai-based photographer and videographer, Mostafa, who published images on his Instagram account @100.pixels.

He described the lake as a “hidden gem, full of wildlife and barely untouched nature”

.


"You will find a lot of oryx in the area. The views during sunset and sunrise are amazing," he said

The discovery comes after pictures of a pink lake on the coast of Ras Al Khaimah went viral on Instagram.

Scientists investigated the mysteriously rosy colour, and suggested the natural oddity was caused by red algae in the salty water.

This lake is likely to be man-made like the nearby Love Lakes, which have proved to be popular with tourists.

If you want to go in search of the crescent moon lake, the Google Map co-ordinates are 24.7874218, 55.3065662.

Be warned, you will need a 4x4 to cross the desert, as there is no paved road.
In pictures: the pink lake in Ras Al Khaimah




A small pool on the shoreline of Saraya Island in Ras Al Khaimah has turned pink. Pawan Singh / The National










Updated: April 21, 2021 

UK

Unions have asked the PM to reject the race commission’s report. Here’s why

Dr Patrick Roach

18th April, 2021

No matter your race, ethnicity or background, we all deserve fair treatment for the effort we put in. And we all deserve fair pay, a chance to progress, and dignity at work. Last year, in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests, the Prime Minister made a commitment “to tackle the substance of the problems” and set up the commission on racial and ethnic disparities.

We hoped the commission would recommend action to achieve equality in UK workplaces and wider society. But instead, the commission’s report denies the lived realities and experiences of Black and minority ethnic people, creating the impression that it is BME workers’ perceptions and choices that are the problem.

It attempts to turn the clock back, to the time before the Macpherson Inquiry into the death of Stephen Lawrence – a time when racism was wrongly portrayed as ‘a few bad apples’, rather than the consequence of structural and systemic institutional failings.

The commission got it wrong. Racism is not anecdotal, as the chair Tony Sewell suggested. It is real and systemic in a country where, whatever the progress of recent decades, the system remains stacked against people by race, class and gender.

We need answers from the Prime Minister. Do the denials of institutional and structural racism of the report reflect the government’s direction of travel on race equality? Did the manner of the report’s publication intend to cause division, rather than calm? And what role did the government play in determining the report’s conclusions and recommendations?

Unions are clear: the report reinforced institutional racism by denying the facts of everyday racism. And that denial, if left unchallenged, could have a chilling effect on efforts to achieve workplace equality for BME workers in both the public and private sector. That’s why more than 30 trade union general secretaries have written to the Prime Minister repudiating the report.

Institutional and structural racism are real. They scar our country, hold back our economy, and undermine BME workers’ life chances. The Black and minority ethnic unemployment rate is almost double that of white workers. Black people are twice as likely to be trapped by poverty. Black workers are more likely to be in lower paid, insecure jobs or on zero-hours contracts. Black job-seekers are more likely to be refused a job, and one study found they must make 60% more job applications before being invited to interview.

Black workers in London, the region with the highest BME population, experience a 24% ethnicity pay gap. And Black workers are less likely to have received financial support during the pandemic, with young people from BME backgrounds more likely to be unemployed than white workers at every qualification level.

Racial discrimination occurs regardless of place and class, as shown by the fact that so many BME people live and work in the UK’s wealthiest city, yet fail to reap the rewards. And BME graduates from top universities find it harder to progress in their career than other workers.

Structural racism has played out during the pandemic, with BME people being three times more likely to die from coronavirus. This is not mere coincidence but reveals deeper structural issues to do with where people live, how much they earn and the jobs they do.

Unions propose an alternative approach to workplace equality – one that unites the interests of Black and minority ethnic workers with the interests of all workers. Today’s working class is multi-ethnic and multi-faith. Alongside specific action on racism, action to defend working class interests will reduce inequalities of class and race together.

In 2017, the government commissioned a report on race in the workplace from Ruby McGregor-Smith. She was clear that structural racism and unconscious bias are real obstacles to Black and minority ethnic working people. She recommended action on unconscious bias and recruitment and progression. The recommendations do not go far enough, but implementing them would be a start.

Unions believe ministers should go further and require employers to disclose and act to close ethnicity pay gaps. And every employer must be made responsible for protecting their workers from racist abuse by customers or clients.

Real equality at work, though, will come when everyone has a decent, secure job, with fair pay and in a safe workplace. That is why any race equality initiative must include action on the epidemic of insecure work that disproportionately traps BME workers in low-paid, casualised, risky occupations.

No working person should be paid less than a real living wage. No working person should have their life chances limited by the everyday precarity of insecure jobs. Business models based on denying workers’ rights are undercutting decent employers and making profits from exploitation.

The Conservatives promised an employment bill to improve rights and fairness at work following the 2019 election. But it has been delayed again and again. If the government is serious about race equality for working Britain, it will announce an employment bill in the Queen’s speech in May, with a clear mandate to stamp out insecure work.

Action to defending working class interests can reduce inequalities of class and race together. Unions reject attempts to divide working people, and set their interests against one another. We will not stop campaigning, organising and bargaining for decent work, fair wages, safety and an end to racism and discrimination – for BME workers and for everyone. We stand for all working people.

Dr Patrick Roach is general secretary of the NASUWT, the teachers' union. He is currently chair of the TUC anti-racism task force.@PatrickR_NASUWT

View all articles by Dr Patrick Roach

UK

York "must confront uncomfortable truths" after review into Rowntree Company sparked by Black Lives Matter protests exposes slavery links and racial injustices

York must confront “uncomfortable truths” about its past, according to a city councillor, after a review into the history of the confectioners the Rowntree Company exposed historic racial injustices that pose questions about the legacy of social reformer Joseph Rowntree.

By Victoria Finan
Saturday, 17th April 2021

Four charities and trusts that still bear the name of Joseph Rowntree (pictured), who set up the company, united earlier this week to express they were “appalled” at the review’s findings, and have committed to further research as well as apologising on behalf of their predecessors.


The review, which was commissioned in the wake of last year’s Black Lives Matter protests, has shown the Rowntree Company may have benefitted from cocoa products made by enslaved people, and also from a form of slavery known as colonial indenture in the late 19th and early 20th century.

This saw thousands of people from India and Southeast Asia recruited to work on plantations in Caribbean and West Africa where they worked unpaid until they had “worked off” the cost of their transportation.

Four charities and trusts that still bear the name of Joseph Rowntree, who set up the company, united earlier this week to express they were “appalled” at the review’s findings, and have committed to further research as well as apologising on behalf of their predecessors.

They have also acknowledged that some parts of the injustices were known within the organisations and that not enough attention has been paid to this element of the Rowntree story

The review, by the Rowntree Society, said: “Although what is known has not been actively ‘hidden’, it has not formed part of the public presentation of Rowntree history.”

There is no suggestion that Joseph Rowntree himself was aware or complicit in the historic practises, but, the review states that “it is clear that we need to confront uncomfortable questions about the Rowntree family and company’s participation in colonialism and racialised exploitative working practices.

Catherine Oakley, Executive Director of the Rowntree Society said: "Some parts of these wide-ranging histories have already been covered in academic research, others less so. On one level, it has been known that the Rowntree company operated during the period of colonial era trade, but the details of the company's global operations in Africa and the Caribbean haven't been a part of the established Rowntree story. We've started a process of mapping these colonial contexts across a long historical period ranging from the 1820s to the 1980s, bringing existing sources together, and putting them into new focus."

The review further found in the 1980s, the company’s South African subsidiary abused its black workforce, “including summary dismissal and forced unemployment to suppress unrest” during the period of apartheid.

Coun Darryl Smalley, City of York Council’s executive member for culture, leisure & communities, said: “The Black Lives Matter movement, which has inspired research such as this to take place, has helped to shine a light on the uncomfortable truths and history which as a city we must confront.

“Just as we have a moral obligation to speak out against the injustice we’re witnessing across the world, we also can’t ignore the fact that racism, unfortunately, is not only a part of our history but is still present in our society.”

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation, one of the largest anti-poverty charities in the UK, is offering specialist support to staff from black and other minority ethnic communities in the wake of the review.

A spokesperson for Quakers in Britain said: “Building a true picture of the history and legacies of racial exploitation in Quaker companies is an important part of owning and understanding our own history, and is informing our ongoing work to become an anti-racist church.”

Pressure group CharitySoWhite which campaigns for better representation across the third sector for black and other minority ethnic communities, tweeted: "This is the sort of soul searching and radical honesty that we need to see from every charity, every funder, every philanthropist."

4th request to federal government to join coal mine environmental review in Alberta

A fourth request has been made to the federal government to get involved in the environmental review of a coal mine proposed for Alberta's Rocky Mountains.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Landowners, Indigenous people and environmental groups have sent a letter to Environment Minister Jonathan Wilkinson asking for a joint federal-provincial review of Montem Resource's Tent Mountain project.

"It's important for the minister to understand that the concern is quite widespread," said Bobbi Lambright of the Livingstone Landowners Group, one of the signatories to the letter.

The others are the environmental law firm Ecojustice, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and Niitsitapi Water Protectors. Their request for federal participation joins others from the Siksika and Blood First Nations, rancher Macleay Blades and an 18,000-name petition presented by Edmonton NDP MP Heather McPherson.

The petition goes further in requesting a general review of all potential coal projects in the area.

Ecojustice lawyer David Khan said one reason the mine needs federal review is that it would span the Alberta-British Columbia boundary.

"Some of the leases themselves are in B.C.," he said.

The letter spells out a long list of other reasons why the signatories believe Ottawa should be involved.

It says the mine would be in an environmentally sensitive region, would affect areas of federal authority such as fisheries and species at risk, and could pollute water flowing into the United States.

The letter adds the mine could make Canada's greenhouse gas targets harder to reach and would be one of similar developments that would have significant cumulative impacts.

It would also affect Indigenous rights, something Alberta's regulatory agency is forbidden by law from considering.

Khan noted that Montem's coal output, at least at first, would be just shy of a threshold triggering an automatic federal review.

"We certainly are concerned whether they've been manipulating volumes to get out of a federal assessment," he said.

Company materials say Canada's Impact Assessment Agency has already told Montem it won't get involved in a review. Communication to that effect does not appear on the agency's public registry.

Lambright said Ottawa conducts better reviews.

"One of the concerns with the Alberta Energy Regulator process is that it's not transparent. It's very difficult to find out what's going on and there's very limited opportunity for meaningful public input."

She said the joint federal-provincial review of the proposed Grassy Mountain mine offered much better access to information and opportunity for discussion.

The requests for federal involvement now go to the Impact Assessment Agency. The minister has 90 days to respond and can overrule the agency's initial decision. The first request was made on March 2.

A spokeswoman for Wilkinson said he couldn't comment until after the requests are processed.

"Lots of times these decisions end up in court or are judicially reviewed," said Moira Kelly.

Alberta's coal controversy began last May when the United Conservative government quietly revoked a policy that had protected the summits and eastern slopes of the Rockies from open-pit coal mines since 1976.

Concerns grew, both over the threat to a beloved landscape and the potential for water contamination from selenium, common in coal mining.

Facing a huge public backlash, the government restored the policy and its protections in February. However, it failed to cancel exploration leases sold in the interim and several companies have been drilling and road-building in an area where much of Alberta's drinking water originates.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 6, 2021.

— Follow @row1960 on Twitter

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said the latest request was the third to be made of the federal government.

TWEEDLE DEE & TEEDLE DUM

Environmentalists dismayed by Ecuador presidential candidates

AFP 2021-04-07

Environmental activists will feel stuck between a rock and hard place when forced to choose a new president

.

© Rodrigo BUENDIA Ecuadorans must choose between Andres Arauz (left) and Guillermo Lasso to be their next president, but environmentalists are not impressed LASSO WON

THE LEFT AND RIGHT WING OF CAPITALISM

Leftist Andres Arauz faces the right-wing Guillermo Lasso in a run-off election with both vowing to continue oil and mineral extraction, which has already devastated a sixth of Ecuador's Amazon jungle.

"Ecuador remains immersed in an extractivist policy. That is to say that both candidates believe Ecuador's future is in oil and that has nothing to do with reality," Carlos Larrea, the director of the socio-environmental unit at the Simon Bolivar University, told AFP.

© Rodrigo BUENDIA Should he be elected, former banker Guillermo Lasso (C) has pledged to reduce the use of fossil fuels, "stop" deforestation and launch projects to generate electricity using renewable sources

"Extractivist" policy refers to plans for extracting natural resources for export.

It's left the Environment Front -- a collective of 60 ecological and human rights organizations -- feeling glum about the future government of one of the most biodiverse countries in the world.

Having evaluated their election manifestos ahead of the February 7 first round, the Environment Front gave Arauz a "worrying" score of 63.6 out of 100, while Lasso was deemed "toxic" to the natural habitat with just 36.5.

© CAMILA BUENDIA Andres Arauz, who plans to switch to clean energy instead of fossil fuels for generating electricity and for the public transport system, speaks during a campaign rally with rappers in Quito on April 1, 2021

"We're starting off with candidates that are not green, which is why we're demanding compromises from them," Natalia Greene, the vice-president of the CEDENMA group of organizations defending nature, told AFP.

It could have been different, though, had Lasso not defeated socialist indigenous campaigner Yaku Perez to make it into the runoff round of voting.

Perez, a long-time campaigner against mining and for the defense of water, scored 93.4 in the Environment Front evaluation.

He's a member of Pachakutik, the political arm of Ecuador's largest indigenous movement battling the mass exploitation of natural resources in their lands.

Ecuador officially recognizes the rights of "Pacha Mama" -- an indigenous deity that means "Mother Earth" in the Quechua language -- such as her existence and the maintenance and regeneration of her cycles of life.