Giant wood moth: ‘very heavy’ insect rarely seen by humans spotted at Australian school

Mammoth moth which can have 25cm wingspan found by builders working on Queensland primary school

A giant wood moth was found at Mount Cotton state school in Queensland by builders. While not uncommon they are rarely seen by humans in Australia. Photograph: Mount Cotton state school/Facebook


Lisa Cox
Wed 5 May 2021 

A giant moth with a wingspan measuring up to 25cm has been found at a Queensland school next to a rainforest.

Builders found the giant wood moth, the heaviest moth in the world, while constructing new classrooms at Mount Cotton state school.

Giant wood moths are found along the Queensland and New South Wales coast, according to the Queensland Museum. Females can weigh up to 30 grams and have a wingspan of up to 25cm. Males are half that size.

They have an extremely short life cycle with adults living only a matter of days. They die after mating and laying eggs.


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The school’s principal, Meagan Steward, said the moth was “an amazing find”.

Steward said due to the school’s location it was not unusual to find a range of animals on the grounds such as bush turkeys, wallabies, koalas, ducks, the occasional snake and once a turtle in the library. “A giant wood moth was not something we had seen before,” she said on Wednesday.

Giant wood moths are found along the Queensland and NSW coast. Females can weigh up to 30 grams and have a wingspan of up to 25cm. Photograph: Mount Cotton state school/Facebook

The initial ABC news report and photos of the moth generated so much media interest the school was forced to direct questions about the moth to the Queensland education department.

Chris Lambkin, the curator of entomology at the Queensland Museum, said giant wood moths, or Endoxyla cinera, could be found from coastal Queensland down to southern NSW. While not uncommon they were rarely seen by humans, she said.

Lambkin said this was likely due to several factors including the adult moths’ short life span and the fact most people lived in urban areas where the invertebrate was not found.

“The female moths also don’t fly very well,” she said.

“So most people, if they do see one, it has emerged as an adult and crawled up a tree trunk or a fence post and is waiting for the male to come along. Normally people don’t see them with their wings spread out so you don’t realise just how big they are but if you actually lift them up they’re very heavy.”

As small caterpillars, the invertebrates have purple and white banding and bore into the trunks of smooth-barked eucalypts in parks and gardens. They lose the banding as they grow into larger grubs.


‘Certainly life-threatening’: 80-year-old Australian survives 30-minute boat ride with tiger snake

Lambkin said the adult female moths don’t feed and live on fats stored as larvae while feeding inside the tree trunk.

“The first time we see them is when they’re over 2.5cm long and thick as a lead pencil,” she said.

The entomologist said little was known about the first year of the larval stage, which lasts for about three years. The adult female moths can be up to 15cm long.

There are about 60 species of wood moth in Australia, according to the Queensland Museum, but not all are as large as the giant wood moth and not all feed on eucalypts.

The builders took a photo of their find before returning the moth to the rainforest.

The year 4-5 class in the new building was asked to develop a creative writing concept after being shown a picture of the moth and decided to write about a moth invasion. “The students wrote some very creative, imaginative pieces of writing – including Mrs Wilson getting eaten by the giant wood moth,” Steward said.

Death toll in Indonesian power plant landslide rises to 10
AFP  6/5/2021

The death toll from a landslide at a hydroelectric dam project on Indonesia's Sumatra island has risen to 10, an official said Thursday, as authorities called off a week-long search for victims.

© Oktafianus Authorities have called off a hunt for victims after the death toll from a landslide at a hydroelectric dam project on Indonesia's Sumatra island rose to 10

A landslide triggered by heavy rains struck the Chinese-backed Batang Toru hydropower plant on Thursday last week, burying an estimated 13 people.

Employees were checking on the area over concerns that heavy rains could trigger landslides when the disaster struck.

At least two children are among the victims. The body of a Chinese employee of the plant was identified on Wednesday.

Another Chinese employee narrowly escaped as he fled the scene.

Local disaster mitigation agency head Hotmatua Rambe told AFP the search for the victims had ended after unearthing 10 bodies. Three victims remain missing

The Batang Toru hydropower project -- part of China's trillion-dollar Belt and Road infrastructure project -- has raised opposition as it is built in an area of rainforest that is the only known habitat of the endangered Tapanuli orangutan.

Fatal landslides and flash floods are common across the country during the rainy season.

Last month, more than 200 people were killed in a cluster of far-eastern islands and neighbouring Timor Leste as Tropical Cyclone Seroja turned small communities into wastelands of mud and uprooted trees.

Indonesia's disaster agency estimates 125 million people -- nearly half of the country's population -- live in areas at risk of landslides.

The disasters are often caused by deforestation and poor mitigation planning, according to environmentalists.

KENNEY MAKES THE UK PRESS

‘Are we in trouble?
Absolutely’: Alberta battles worst Covid

 rate in North America

Leyland Cecco in Toronto 6/5/2021

In an open field outside the prairie town of Bowden, Alberta, hundreds of people braved chilly winds and the threat of spring rain to attend their first rodeo in more than a year.

For the unmasked attendees cheering on as riders clung into bucking horses, the gathering this weekend must have seemed like a long-awaited return to normality.

But the province is currently battling the worst coronavirus outbreak in North America: this week, Alberta had an active case rate of 534 per 100,000 – more than double the country’s average, and one of the worst in the world.

And the illegal “No More Lockdowns Rodeo Rally” highlighted the challenges officials face in containing a brutal third wave in a province long averse to perceived governmental overreach.

Related: 'A precarious point': Covid cases surge in Canada's Prairies after relaxed approach

On Wednesday, the province became the first in Canada to offer the Pfizer vaccine to residents aged over 12, beginning next week, a day after premier Jason Kenney announced online schooling, increased fines for lockdown violations, and the closure of some businesses in areas with high case rates.

© Photograph: Canadian Press/REX/Shutterstock Supporters of a church that was charged with refusing to follow Covid guidelines at a protest near Edmonton in April. Alberta’s case rate is double the country’s average.

“We will not permit our healthcare system to be overwhelmed. We must not and we will not force our doctors and nurses to decide who gets care and who doesn’t,” Kenney said during a televised address on Tuesday.

Police are reviewing the rodeo, but local reports suggest that no officers were dispatched to break up the event, and it is unclear if any organizers or attendees had received fines for breaking the province’s rules, which limit outdoor gatherings to 10 people.

“The reason we are at this critical stage of the pandemic in Alberta, with record high daily case counts and intensive care numbers, is precisely because, for whatever reason, too many Albertans are ignoring the rules we have in place,” Kenney told reporter on Monday, adding that it was “astounding” that more than a year into the pandemic, many in the province believe the virus is a hoax or government conspiracy.

One recent poll found that 75% of Albertans believed the premier was doing a bad job of handling the pandemic – but a portion of that displeasure came from groups who feel Kenney has gone too far.

Even though the conservative leader has been wary to implement aggressive restrictions seen in other provinces Kenney has faced insurrection from within his own party, with 16 lawmakers recently publishing a letter criticizing restrictions on retail and dining.

But an unwillingness to bring in strict measures has led to a “predictable and preventable” new surge in cases, said Joe Vipond, an emergency room doctor in Calgary.

“The science was clear from the beginning. If we didn’t aim for ‘Covid zero’ and if we started to relax our restrictions in the face of variants, this is where we would end up,” said Vipond. “It was always a fool’s errand to try and vaccinate our way out of a third wave. It’s just not mathematically possible.”

With the province’s ICUs filling up, officials have said they have prepared plans to ration care if the number of patients outstrips the hospital capacity.

“I don’t care how robust your systems are, I don’t care how great your training processes are. There is no system in the world that can out-expand the exponential growth of Covid,” said Vipond. “Are we in trouble? Absolutely.”

For more wary residents, frustrations over those who ignore scientific advice are part of daily life.

On the same day as the rodeo, Amanda, a nurse who lives in the Calgary, celebrated her son’s first birthday by waving to family gathered outside their window.

Related: Tweaked Moderna vaccine ‘neutralises Covid variants in trials’

Days earlier, the nurse and her husband were told there were outbreaks in both her son’s daycare and her daughter’s class, dashing any hopes she could safely see family.

“My dad got really choked up. He’s a proud grandparent and not being able to hug his own grandkids is just so hard,” she said. “We have so many things to celebrate, new babies in the family and retirements, and we can’t we can’t do anything.”

On Tuesday, she and her family tested positive for the virus.

As a healthcare worker, she recognizes that a worsening situation could mean she’s redeployed to more dangerous work.

“Being in healthcare, I see the effects that people’s actions have on our patients,” she said. “I think people are frustrated, and doing whatever they want. And I don’t think things are gonna get better.”

Even with new restrictions in place, critics worry the measures might not be enough and aggressive case growth in the coming weeks is already baked in.

“For somebody who went into medicine with a view to protecting life and health of my fellow citizens, the hardest part about this is knowing that every single illness that we see now, every single death is a preventable one,” said Vipond.

“Unless something dramatically changes with the numbers, it’s hard to imagine how we get out of this without a healthcare disaster on our hands.”

Google 'arguably violated' labor law when it fired employees involved in unionizing, says NLRB chief
mcoulter@businessinsider.com (Martin Coulter) 6/5/2021

The National Labor Relations Board has said Google "arguably violated" US labor laws when it fired three employees involved in unionizing. REUTERS/Stephen Lam

Google 'arguably violated' labor laws when it fired employees involved in unionizing activity.

NLRB chief Peter Sung Ohr accused the tech giant of 'unlawfully discharging' three ex-Googlers.

But Google insists the company remains 'very confident' in its legal position.

Google "arguably violated" US labor laws when it fired three employees involved in unionizing activity, the acting head of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has said.

Peter Sung Ohr's comments mark the latest twist in the long-running fallout between Google execs and employees, and may underscore a more pro-labor approach at the agency under President Biden.

Google suffered backlash after firing five activist workers in the space of a month towards the end of 2019. Laurence Berland, Paul Duke, Rebecca Rivers, and Sophie Waldman became known as the "Thanksgiving Four" after the company sacked them around the holiday season, alleging they had leaked company information in violation of its policies, an allegation all of them deny.

The four were subsequently joined by Kathryn Spiers, who had created an internal pop-up notification for employees telling them they had a right to "participate in protected concerted activities" before being fired in December 2019.

The ex-Googlers subsequently filed complaints via the NLRB, alleging that Google terminated their contracts in an attempt to crush unionization efforts.

In 2020, under the Trump administration, then NLRB leader Peter Robb accused Google of illegally firing Berland and Spiers, but rejected the other three's claims.

In a new letter seen by Bloomberg, however, the agency's new acting chief Ohr said that Google had "arguably violated" federal labor laws by "unlawfully discharging" .

As a result, Bloomberg reports that the NLRB is now considering amending its original complaint to include Duke, Rivers, and Waldman, unless Google settles out of court.

In a statement shared with the site, a Google spokesperson said, "Our thorough investigation found the individuals were involved in systematic searches for other employees' materials and work, including distributing confidential business and client information."

They added: "As the hearing on these matters moves forward, we're very confident in our decision and legal position."

Insider approached Google and the NLRB for further comment.

‘There are so many hurdles.’ Indian scientists plead with government to unlock COVID-19 data

People wait in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Mumbai, India, on 29 April. AP PHOTO/RAJANISH KAKADE

By Priyanka PullaMay. 4, 2021 , 12:10 PM

Reporting for this story was supported by a journalism grant from the Thakur Family Foundation, which has not influenced the contents of this report.

Indian researchers say they urgently need better access to data collected by government agencies to help them understand and fight the country’s devastating second pandemic wave. An open letter published on 29 April that has 740 signatories so far asks the government for access to databases on COVID-19 testing and genomic sequencing and urges it to remove other obstacles to research.

“There are currently so many hurdles and so much paperwork around accessing these data,” says Partha Pratim Majumder, a genetic epidemiologist at the National Institute of Biomedical Genomics in West Bengal and one of letter’s signers.
Related

The Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, K. VijayRaghavan, released a note the next day acknowledging the problems and promising to increase access. “Our broader research community needs to be much more facilitated by our research agencies,” the letter said. But some scientists are skeptical that the situation will improve quickly; the note was low on details and previous requests for data from government agencies have often gone unanswered, they say. Why the Indian government is so reticent to share data is unclear.

The government has collected detailed data on some aspects of the pandemic. For example, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the country’s top medical research agency, captures demographic details such as age, location, and health status of everyone who submits a sample for a COVID-19 test. The data could help answer key questions, such as whether people with certain concurrent illnesses are more likely to have worse outcomes and whether vaccines are working, says Gagandeep Kang, a public health microbiologist at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, who also signed the letter. “Lots of people want to know, for instance, what mortality is by location, and whether it differs between rural and urban areas,” she says. “This speaks to the kind of care people are getting.”

But so far, scientists say, ICMR and other government agencies have dragged their feet on responding to requests for access. That has forced several groups building computer models of the epidemic to rely on public domain data, which are aggregated by state but lack granular details such as breakdowns by district, age, or gender, says L. S. Shashidhara, a developmental biologist at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune. Even modeling groups advising the Indian government on its COVID-19 response policy often don’t have these data, Shashidhara says.

Scientists also want access to more viral genome sequences generated by the Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG). Established in December 2020, the consortium’s stated goal is to sequence 5% of all new SARS-CoV-2 cases in the country, which is important to keep up with the spread of new virus variants. INSACOG has had a slow start, with just over 15,000 samples sequenced by late April, out of about 5.9 million new cases India has seen since January. And just 6200 sequences—fewer than half—have been deposited in GISAID, an international database, during this period.

In February, INSACOG identified a variant, later christened B.1.617, which was growing in frequency in Maharashtra at a time when that state was experiencing a massive outbreak. B.1.617 has spread to several other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States. But INSACOG has yet to share its analyses of whether the variant is more transmissible or more virulent. “We need multiple pairs of eyes need to look at this data, instead of just one,” Majumder says.

The authors also ask the government to remove obstacles that prevent INSACOG from stepping up the sequencing pace. INSACOG scientists currently have to jump through several bureaucratic hoops to import reagents, plastics, and other key materials. The measures, designed to protect Indian industry, are ill-advised during the coronavirus surge, says Rakesh Mishra, a genomicist at Hyderabad’s Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, one of 10 INSACOG labs. “It’s like taking a blanket away from a person in winter because the blanket is imported,” he says.

The note released by VijayRaghavan’s office says government agencies “will immediately highlight mechanisms of research access to already available datasets and put in place access to new datasets as they are formed.” It also says the government will remove import bottlenecks and INSACOG will involve more teams in data analysis, bioinformatics, and decision-making.

Although some scientists welcomed the quick response, others say the letter is too little, too late. “The note only says that government agencies will facilitate data access,” Majumder says. “The question is: when? Time is of the essence. And promises made in the past by important government functionaries have often not been fulfilled on time.”

As clock ticks down on Enbridge's Line 5, anxiety grows in Sarnia and Michigan

Enbridge vows to defy order that comes into force next week in move lawyers say will make case more difficult to argue in courts

Author of the article: Geoffrey Morgan
Publishing date:May 05, 2021 • 

A signpost marks the presence of Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline, which Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer ordered shut down in May 2021, in Sarnia, Ont. PHOTO BY CARLOS OSORIO/REUTERS

CALGARY — For Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, the impending shutdown of a pipeline that supplies fuel to his city’s biggest employers has been “hovering” for seven months.

That anxiety has been steadily building ahead of a deadline this month imposed by Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer for Enbridge Inc. to shut down its Line 5 pipeline, which crosses through Michigan, where it delivers more than half of the state’s propane needs, en route to deliver oil to Ontario, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

In November, Whitmer cancelled the easement that allows Enbridge’s pipeline to pass under the straits and provided a deadline of May 12 to shut the line down. Enbridge, for its part, has vowed to defy the order that comes into force next week in a move that lawyers say will make its case more difficult to argue in state and federal courts.

The two sides are currently in mediation and there is the potential that this fight turns into a national dispute between Canada and the U.S., leaving communities like Sarnia largely powerless in an entrenched environmental fight that could imperil thousands of existing jobs.

The Ontario government believes 4,900 jobs in Sarnia, a city of 71,500, are in jeopardy if the line is shut down next week, but Bradley said there’s a broader economic impact in his city.

“Anytime there’s uncertainty about the source of what drives a particular economy, it does have an impact when you’re trying to recruit companies and industries into the area,” he said. “When you’re in the economic development game, you’re always trying to eliminate anything that could be an impediment and the longer this goes on, the more of that anxiety is there.”

Whitmer’s Democratic administration has attempted to shut the line down twice previously on environmental grounds because the pipeline runs under the Straits of Mackinac, which divides Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. Whitmer has also opposed an Enbridge plan to bore a tunnel under the straits, encase the tunnel in concrete and put a replacement for the 65-year-old pipeline through the tunnel.

The urgency of the situation has led to the formation of a House of Commons committee in Canada, a flurry of diplomatic calls and meetings between Ottawa and Washington, D.C., advertising campaigns in Ontario and Michigan as well as legal filings, some of which are due in U.S. federal court on May 11, the day before Line 5 is required to shut down.

Experts say the fight over Line 5 is also indicative of a broader and evolving fight over oil and gas pipelines in North America. Previously, pipeline opponents would vigorously fight new pipeline proposals — like the Keystone XL pipeline project — and in the process deal a major blow to the growth aspirations of upstream oil and gas companies. Now, the fight has moved from new pipelines to existing ones including Line 5 and the Dakota Access Pipeline and the effect of targeting existing pipelines is that more people and more industries are affected, even outside of the oil and gas industry.

“This is a natural evolution of the anti-pipeline movement,” said James Coleman, associate professor of law at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law in Dallas, adding that politicians have been willing to shut down existing pipelines particularly when there is a repair, replacement or new easement needed.

This is a natural evolution of the anti-pipeline movement

JAMES COLEMAN, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF LAW, SOUTHERN METHODIST UNIVERSITY DEDMAN SCHOOL OF LAW

“Frankly, it has gotten much harder to build pipelines over time. Sometimes people say that means we don’t need increased capacity but what it also means is we don’t shut down old pipelines,” Coleman said.

Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage said the Line 5 pipeline dispute, as well as the Dakota Access Pipeline, are some of the first examples of groups opposed to oil and gas development targeting existing pipelines and their efforts to shut the lines down “hurts people,” in addition to the oil and gas industry.

“People can understand it, they can relate to it, whereas a future pipeline doesn’t impact them in the same way and it doesn’t resonate with people in the way they live their life everyday,” Savage said.

In Michigan, home to the Big Three automakers, the Michigan Manufacturers Association said in a letter supporting Enbridge and Line 5, that the supply of energy “underpins all aspects of manufacturing.” The association threw its weight behind the pipeline, saying its members drive the state’s economy and provide jobs for 628,800 residents and 20 per cent of the state’s GDP.

“Energy costs affect not just the manufacturing process but also the transportation of raw materials to our manufacturing facilities and finished products made in Michigan to their markets within Michigan and beyond,” Caroline Liethen, the association’s director of environmental and regulatory policy, said in a letter to the Michigan Public Service Commission on April 12.

United Auto Workers members leave the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles Warren Truck Plant in Warren, Michigan. PHOTO BY GREGORY SHAMUS/GETTY IMAGES FILES

She added that “energy costs are also a major contributing factor in Michigan’s ability to retain a strong, globally competitive manufacturing sector and attract new investment by manufacturers looking to site new facilities.”

Industry groups in Michigan opposed to the shutdown of the line have launched TV, radio, billboard and social media advertising campaign “to explain just how vital this piece of infrastructure is,” said Derek Dalling, executive director of the Michigan Propane Gas Association.

Michigan is the largest consuming market for propane in the U.S. and Dalling said his association’s member companies are preparing contingency plans in case the line is shut down, including looking for truck drivers that would go as far afield as Indiana and New England to source propane and investing in new railway infrastructure.

“If Line 5 were to go down, by our calculations, we are the smallest piece of the fuels that go through Line 5,” Dalling said, adding that small piece accounts for 55 per cent of all propane demand in Michigan. “Our small piece does account for over 400 million gallons per year diverted from Line 5. That would be almost 10,000 propane rail cars to account for what’s going through Line 5,” he said in an interview with the Financial Post.

In an effort to avoid the line shutting down, Minister Savage has been working with her counterparts in Ontario and Saskatchewan as well as federal Natural Resources Minister Seamus O’Regan to coordinate a legal response to the impending shut down of the line. Alberta has also recruited its Washington, D.C. envoy James Rajotte to make the case for Line 5 in the U.S. Capitol.

O’Regan has also raised the issue directly with U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, while Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the U.S., has met with Governor Whitmer to discuss the issue.

“As the minister has repeatedly made clear, the continued safe operation of Line 5 is vital for energy security on both sides of the border,” said Ian Cameron, spokesperson for O’Regan.

Legal experts contacted by the Financial Post say the best case scenario for Canada is to reach a diplomatic resolution to the problem, but the federal government does have additional legal options including recourse to the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty between the two countries if diplomatic talks fail.

The treaty states that “no public authority in the territory of either party shall institute any measures… which are intended to, or which would have the effect of, impeding, diverting, redirecting or interfering with in any way the transmission of hydrocarbon in transit.”

Calgary-based Enbridge, which owns and operates Line 5 and also plans to bore a tunnel underneath the Straits of Mackinac to encase a replacement for the pipeline, references the treaty in its legal filings opposing Michigan’s demands to shut the line down.

“We argued that the state is prohibited from interfering with the operation of an international pipeline, like Line 5, because that operation is a matter reserved for the federal government,” Enbridge spokesperson Tracie Kenyon said in an emailed statement

.

A tank farm at the Enbridge pipelines terminal in Sarnia. 

PHOTO BY PAUL MORDEN/THE OBSERVER/POSTMEDIA NETWORK FILES

“We will not stop operating the pipeline unless we are ordered by a court or our regulator to do so, which we view as highly unlikely,” Kenyon said.

Enbridge is currently in mediation with Michigan over the issue, but lawyers in the U.S. do not expect a negotiated solution to the problem.

“That judge orders mediation in every case — always,” said Margrethe Kearney, Grand Rapids, Michigan-based senior attorney at the Environmental Law and Policy Centre, adding that the likelihood of an agreement is lower than if Enbridge and Michigan had embarked on mediation on their own initiative.

Kearney’s group is opposed to Line 5 and the replacement project and she argues that there are exceptions in the 1977 treaty that would allow Michigan to demand the pipeline cease operations.

Article 4 of the treaty also notes that the transit pipeline will be subject to regulations by the “appropriate governmental authorities,” including on pipeline safety, technical pipeline construction and operation standards and environmental protection. Kearney said she questions whether the treaty applies to Line 5 in this situation.

In addition, she said Enbridge’s plan to continue operating the pipeline despite the state government’s order to shut the line down will hurt the company’s ability to argue that it is a responsible pipeline operator.

“I have represented a lot of very large companies and I never advised them to ignore a government order. It never, in the long run, was the right way to go,” she said. “I think it’s a very risky and dangerous thing that Enbridge is doing by refusing to comply with the state’s order.”

I think it’s a very risky and dangerous thing that Enbridge 

is doing by refusing to comply with the state’s order

MARGRETHE KEARNEY, SENIOR ATTORNEY, ENVIRONMENTAL LAW AND POLICY CENTRE

For Ottawa, invoking the treaty would set off a round of arbitration with U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration, which has so far shown some antipathy towards Canadian pipelines carrying oilsands crude into the U.S., as evidenced by his cancellation of the Keystone XL project on his first day in office.

“Typically, in a situation like this, the government would expect that the company would be taking the lead in exhausting all of its legal options,” said Sander Duncanson, partner in Calgary at Osler, Hosking & Harcourt LLP.

“Once you’re into a dispute mechanism, you’re acknowledging that there is now a formal legal dispute between the two countries and I can imagine that the federal government would prefer not to do that if they can avoid it,” Duncanson said.

Despite the cancellation of Keystone XL, legal experts say the Biden administration has taken a more nuanced approach to existing pipelines and has even taken the Trump’s administration position in court to support two separate pipelines through the U.S., which are the Dakota Access Pipeline and the PennEast Pipeline through Pennsylvania.

Enbridge owns a stake in both of those pipeline projects.

A protest against the Dakota Access pipeline in California, in 2016. 

PHOTO BY LUCY NICHOLSON/REUTERS FILES

“The Biden administration did not reverse the Trump position that was filed in that court case and so I saw that as a positive development,” said Mark Warner, principal at MAAW Law in Toronto.

Though Biden has taken a softer, more nuanced stance on existing pipelines in the U.S., Warner said that forcing the U.S. government into arbitration over the Line 5 issue could have the unintended consequence of forcing the president into a corner.

“I think it is a threat,” Warner said of the potential invocation of the treaty. “If you’re going to make a threat, you better be prepared to live with it.”

In Sarnia, Mayor Bradley said he believes the Line 5 dispute has highlighted the need for Canadian governments to safeguard existing trade with the U.S.

Bradley said the ad-hoc House of Commons committee dealing with this issue should be turned into a permanent standing committee and Canadian diplomats need to take lessons from the Line 5 event to prepare for potential future trade challenges.

“Do we want to get into trying to stop trade in certain sectors? I don’t think so,” Bradley said, noting that if the Line 5 precedent is allowed to stand, there could be other parts of the Canadian economy targeted in the future, whether in Ontario or in other provinces.

“This issue won’t go away with just a solution on Line 5,” Bradley said

MORE ON THIS TOPIC

Ontario relieved Ottawa fighting for Line 5, but fears pipeline could become politically toxic

Suncor, Imperial scramble to make contingency plans in case Michigan’s order cuts off Ontario’s oil supply

Sarnia fears thousands of job losses if Michigan blocks Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline

Frustrated Canada presses White House to keep Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline open

Enbridge CEO says Line 3 and Line 5 pipelines in U.S. are ‘absolutely critical’
By Staff The Canadian Press
Posted May 5, 2021 

View image in full screen

Enbridge president and CEO Al Monaco prepares to address the company's annual meeting in Calgary, Wednesday, May 9, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

The CEO of Enbridge Inc. says the company’s Line 3 and Line 5 pipelines in the United States are “absolutely critical” as each faces ongoing hurdles thrown up by environmental, political and other opponents.


During the Calgary-based energy infrastructure company’s annual general meeting on Wednesday, Al Monaco said Enbridge must continue to fight for those pipelines for its benefit as well as the benefit of the shippers who move products on them and the consumers who need those products.

Enbridge’s Line 5 is facing a looming May 12 shutdown ordered by Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer last fall after accusing the company of violating terms of a 1953 deal that allowed the line to traverse the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Michigan and Lake Huron.

READ MORE: Michigan agency to include climate in Line 5 tunnel permit review

Watch below: (From January 2021) Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded to questions Wednesday regarding the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline project, as well as an attempt by Michigan to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5.

VIDEO 2:27 Trudeau questioned on cancellation of Keystone XL project, impacts of calls to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5Trudeau questioned on cancellation of Keystone XL project, impacts of calls to shut down Enbridge’s Line 5 – Jan 27, 2021

The 68-year-old conduit has never leaked and Enbridge has said it will ignore the order because the state doesn’t have the authority to shut down the pipeline.

Meanwhile, the $9.3-billion Line 3 pipeline replacement project is under construction with a completion target of late this year, despite ongoing protests and court challenges.

READ MORE: Arguments made in Minnesota appeals court over Enbridge’s Line 3 project

Watch below: Some Global News videos about the Line 3 project.

1:41Enbridge Line 3 replacement pipeline delayed



Enbridge Line 3 replacement pipeline delayed

Enbridge shows off early stages of Line 3 replacement near Morden

Construction begins on Line 3 pipeline project as Trans Mountain faces hurdles

In response to an investor’s question of how much Enbridge spends to defend itself from legal challenges, Monaco said “a lot,” but added that such costs are part of the business now.

“The infrastructure assets we own as a company and the ones we’re developing and replacing, like this, and modernizing, I think are absolutely critical to the energy future no matter what the degree of change in the energy landscape is,” he said.

“But I have to say, this is really part of the business today. We expect to have legal challenges and, frankly, it’s the management team’s job to manage those.”

© 2021 The Canadian Press

Varcoe: Halting Line 5 would create oil shortages, pain for consumers, says Suncor CEO

Analysts say a disruption in Line 5 would hit consumers in the region and the effect would ripple across Canada

Author of the article: Chris Varcoe • Calgary Herald

Publishing date: May 05, 2021 • 

In this 2017 file photo, nuts, bolts and fittings are ready to be added to the east leg of the Line 5 pipeline near St. Ignace, Mich. PHOTO BY DALE G YOUNG/DETROIT NEWS VIA AP, FILE


The head of oilsands giant Suncor Energy isn’t pulling any punches about Line 5.

The threatened shutdown of the pipeline by the state of Michigan won’t just hurt oil refiners, but consumers in Canada, says Mark Little.

Suncor Energy’s chief executive joined a chorus of Canadian business leaders, analysts and politicians warning recently about the painful ramifications if Michigan succeeds in closing Enbridge’s existing pipeline that moves western Canadian oil to Central Canada through the state.

“This is a significant month because the governor has called for the line to be shut down. We don’t think that they have the authority to do that,” Little said Tuesday on a first-quarter earnings call.

“If this line gets shut down, it takes half of the oil that flows into Ontario refineries and stops it from flowing there. This will have a consequence on the people in Ontario and Quebec.”

Built in the early 1950s, Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline ships 540,000 barrels of oil and natural gas liquids from Western Canada to refineries in Ontario, Quebec and the U.S.

The federal and provincial governments, along with the Canadian oil industry, oppose Michigan’s order that Line 5 stop operating by May 12 — something Enbridge has said isn’t within the state’s authority to dictate.

The pipeline, which runs under the Straits of Mackinac, transports oil through Michigan to Sarnia and is essential to Canadian petroleum producers moving their oil to market, as well as refiners and consumers in the region.

Citing safety concerns, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office gave notice in November the state would revoke an easement that dates back more than six decades and allows the pipeline to cross under the straits, which connects Lake Huron to Lake Michigan.

(The company has proposed constructing a tunnel for the Line 5 portion that runs under the straits, while noting the existing line has operated safely for decades.)


MORE ON THIS TOPIC

U.S. 'highly unlikely' to order Line 5 shut down as deadline on crucial pipeline nears, chief negotiator says

Looming showdown as Michigan governor orders Line 5 pipeline to Ontario shut down

Frustrated Canada presses White House to keep Enbridge's Line 5 oil pipeline open

Varcoe: Canadian MPs rally around a pipeline — who could've imagined?

Enbridge has challenged Michigan’s order in U.S. federal court, maintaining the state lacks the authority to shut down the pipeline as oversight rests with the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

A judge ordered the two sides to work with a mediator to seek a resolution and additional meetings have been scheduled.

“We will not stop operating the pipeline unless we are ordered by a court or our regulator, which we view as highly unlikely,” Enbridge’s Tracie Kenyon said in a statement.

The attempt to shut down the line has commanded the attention of federal and provincial politicians across the country, given the potential fallout.

If operations are halted, Enbridge notes refineries in Ontario, Quebec, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan would receive about 45 per cent less oil from Enbridge than they currently demand. Line 5 supplies about half of all propane demand in Michigan.

The pipeline is clearly critical for consumers — and blocking it would cause a lot of unnecessary angst.

“All you are doing is artificially constraining the market. . . . When you do that, there is going to be a product shortage. It is going to increase prices and hit consumers,” Little said in an interview.

“This is a hit to the economies and it’s being generated by this action by the governor.”

While Suncor has contingency plans to continue supplying its refineries in Montreal and Sarnia, these measures would increase the expense of doing so.

“The tougher it is to get into the marketplace, the more constraints you throw up . . . the higher the price goes,” Little said

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Suncor Energy CEO Mark Little at the Fort Hills oilsands project on Sept. 10, 2018. PHOTO BY VINCENT MCDERMOTT/FORT MCMURRAY TODAY/POSTMEDIA NETWORK

Last week, Imperial Oil CEO Brad Corson said the integrated producer is closely watching the Line 5 situation as the company uses the infrastructure to move oil to its refineries in Sarnia and Nanticoke, Ont.

Imperial also has plans ready in case the pipeline is shut down, although Corson views that as a “low probability” event.

Analysts say a disruption in Line 5 would hit consumers in the region and the effect would ripple across Canada.

A recent report by the industry consultancy Kent Group said refineries would need to find other, more expensive sources of oil if Line 5 is blocked, which would translate into higher diesel and gasoline prices in Ontario and Quebec.

“There will be a short-term spike in pricing and we think that will be six to eight cents a litre,” Vijay Muralidharan, a senior consultant with the Kent Group, a Kalibrate company, said in an interview Tuesday.

“It will be first felt in Ontario, but . . . the price increase will flow through across Canada.”

After a sharp rise in gasoline and diesel prices, other fuel supplies would likely flow into the region and ease some of the pressure, he added.

If a disruption lasted long enough, it could also affect petroleum producers by widening the price discount for western Canadian crude as oil becomes stranded in the region due to a transportation bottleneck.

Jackie Forrest, executive director of the ARC Energy Research Institute, noted there is excess crude-by-rail capacity available to move barrels to market today, but it’s likely not enough to cover all of the shipments moving on Line 5 for a protracted period of time.

“It would have knock-on effects on Canadian heavy oil prices,” said Forrest.

“It would reduce the amount of crude oil that we can put into our export pipelines and we already have quite a tight situation here.”

None of these outcomes is tenable. The pain would be felt in many parts of the country if the pipeline is suddenly stopped.

For Canada, the struggle over Line 5 continues as more voices speak out.

Chris Varcoe is a Calgary Herald columnist.

Why won’t this giant oil pipeline reveal its secret backers?

Construction on the Trans Mountain oil pipeline in Acheson, Alberta, Canada, in December 2019. Photograph: Candace Elliott/Reuters


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Carl Meyer for Canada's National Observer and Emily Holden for Floodlight
Tue 4 May 2021 


Nestled in the harbors of Vancouver, the Tsleil-Waututh Nation has lived for thousands of years within an inlet set against the mountain views of the Pacific north-west.

But across the water from Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s reserve, less than 2km away, or a little over a mile, is a jarring juxtaposition: an industrial terminal for the large Trans Mountain oil pipeline.


Oil tankers have frequented the terminal weekly for years, and now it is being enlarged so Trans Mountain can triple the amount of oil it transports from the landlocked oil sands of Alberta to the west coast. Traffic will increase by sevenfold – bringing in up to 34 giant oil tankers a month and three barges, the Canadian government-owned company has forecasted.

In traditional ceremonies on the water, the supertankers already dwarf the Tsleil-Waututh’s cedar strip canoes, said Charlene Aleck, the spokesperson for the Sacred Trust Initiative, which is trying to stop the expansion.

“It is that look of a David-and-Goliath fight,” Aleck said.

Last week, opponents of the project suffered a major setback in that struggle. In an expanding front of the climate movement, the Initiative and allied environmental organizations have been targeting the insurers and other financial institutions that make pipelines and other fossil fuel projects possible, ramping up public pressure on the companies.

But in response, Canadian regulators are agreeing to a request from Trans Mountain to keep the names of its insurers secret.

Nor are they alone. California officials have similarly declined to require insurers to disclose their fossil fuel investments and the projects they underwrite. In Connecticut – a US insurance hub – one lawmaker is trying to make the industry reveal its fossil fuel investments and the premiums they charge companies.

The Biden administration is also strategizing about requiring companies to be more transparent about the risks they face from climate change, as extreme weather intensifies and disrupts economies.

Charlene Aleck. Behind her is Trans Mountain’s marine terminal near Vancouver that will grow significantly as part of the project. She is standing on the Tsleil-Waututh Nation’s reserve. Photograph: Marc Fawcett-Atkinson/Courtesy of Canada's National Observer

Carmen Balber, the California-based executive director of Consumer Watchdog, said insurers helping the fossil fuel industry are working against their own interests and will ultimately leave the public to clean up the mess.

“What if doctors offered cigarettes in their waiting rooms … What if firefighters were giving out matches and flame throwers?” Balber said. “It does not make sense for the insurance industry to be causing the very disasters that they’re insuring against.”

Pressure campaigns against fossil fuel insurers have become a critical strategy in the international environmental movement.

“Basically, without insurance, there’s no project approval, there’s no project financing,” said Ross Hammond, a senior insurance strategist with the Sunrise Project.*

Hammond said until about four years ago insurers were considered to be enlightened about climate risks. They were among the first to ring alarm bells about the crisis in the 1970s.

“The problem is, what that doesn’t include is the other side of the equation … like what are the insurers themselves doing to make the problem worse?” Hammond said.

In California, in 2019, watchdog groups tried and failed to get the state’s insurance department to require insurers to disclose which fossil fuel projects they back.

Now, public advocates have their sights on Connecticut, where many insurers are based. A lawmaker there has proposed to require insurers to disclose the premiums they charge on fossil fuel projects – so the public has an idea of how risky they are. The bill was approved by a state senate committee with a bipartisan vote.

The Biden administration has also signaled that its treasury department could require certain climate disclosures from the finance sector. An upcoming order from the White House is expected to require the Federal Insurance Office to study climate disclosures as well.

The Trans Mountain pipeline, which the Canadian government bought in 2018, stretches 1,150km, or more than 700 miles, from Edmonton to Vancouver, just above the US Pacific north-west. Its expansion is meant to increase oil exports to Asia.

The Trudeau administration has faced intense political pressure over the project, which it acquired after Kinder Morgan threatened to walk away amid opposition from British Columbia. It has spent billions of public dollars buying and operating the pipeline, despite its stated climate commitments.

Steel pipe for Canadian government’s Trans Mountain expansion project a stockpile site in Kamloops, British Columbia, in June 2019. Photograph: Dennis Owen/Reuters

The type of oil from western Canada – mostly heavy crude, with high amounts of sulphur – is more complicated and expensive to refine than other types of oil. Trans Mountain has cited opposition from environmental advocates as one of the reasons it wants to keep insurers secret.

But activists point to a string of other difficulties the project has faced that could be making it harder to get insurance.

Robyn Allan, an economist and former president of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia who is an expert in underwriting, said if the company was having difficulty getting coverage, it wasn’t because of public pressure campaigns. It’s because the insurance industry would view a 68-year-old pipeline with a recent oil spill and a checkered safety record as a high-risk client.

In its letter to regulators, Trans Mountain argued that disclosing its insurers could result in a “material loss” to the company and “prejudice the competitive position of its insurers” because of “targeting and pressure” on insurance companies from groups opposed to the pipeline.

Trans Mountain did not respond to a request for comment. When the pipeline was reapproved by the Canadian government in 2019, it vowed to invest the money it earned from operating it into “Canada’s clean energy transition”.

The pipeline was also ordered to follow a set of 156 conditions, designed to mitigate a wide range of risks, from environmental issues like water quality and fish habitat, to marine shipping and effects on Indigenous communities.

In June 2020, as much as 190,000 liters of crude oil leaked from a failed compression fitting at one of Trans Mountain’s pump stations in Abbotsford, BC, according to a review by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. Some of the oil contaminated a nearby agricultural field.

Four months later, Samatar Sahal, a 40-year-old employee of one of Trans Mountain’s general contractors, died after being struck by equipment at a pipeline construction site. Then, in December, another contractor was “seriously injured” at the pipeline’s Burnaby terminal. Trans Mountain shut down construction for a few months and started up again in February after vowing to retrain workers and supervisors.

Allan also called the timing of Trans Mountain’s request to the Canada Energy Regulator “highly suspect”. The company filed its request to shield its insurers just after Indigenous youth with the Braided Warriors group had peacefully occupied the downtown Vancouver office building for AIG.

Zurich, a former insurer, has confirmed it does not intend to re-insure the pipeline, while two others, Munich Re, and HDI, will follow suit, according to environmental group Stand.earth.
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The others – AIG, Chubb, Energy Insurance Mutual Limited, Liberty Mutual, Starr, Stewart Specialty Risk Underwriting Ltd and WR Berkley – either declined to comment or did not respond.

To the Tsleil-Waututh, who called themselves the “people of the Inlet”, the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is an existential threat to their way of life.

Aleck said the Tsleil-Waututh have worked tirelessly on restoring local ecosystems, cleaning up clam beds that they were recently able to successfully harvest, and witnessing herring fish return and spawn, both for the first time in 60 years.

This project will just decimate everything

Charlene Aleck

“To have the traffic of the tankers, or an oil spill, would just decimate all possible rehabilitation that we’ve done,” she said. “This project will just decimate everything.”

Trans Mountain has said it has signed 59 unique, confidential agreements to compensate Indigenous groups along the pipeline route, but critics say the company didn’t get consent from proper titleholders.

Judy Wilson, secretary treasurer of the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs and chief of the Neskonlith Indian Band located east of Kamloops, maintains that the original pipeline was built through contested lands that were never ceded by Indigenous nations. She said the project should disclose its backers.

“When they’re impacting our territorial homelands like that, they should be transparent about who’s insuring it, and all aspects of the business,” Wilson said.

The Sunrise Project is a contributor to Floodlight

How we created the 'perfect storm' for pandemics

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA

Research News

The way that many of us live has created the "perfect storm" for the evolution and transmission of infectious diseases like Covid-19 according to a researcher at the University of East Anglia.

A new editorial published today describes how the world's vast population of people, pets and livestock has created an ideal breeding ground for infectious diseases which are passed between humans and animals.

It shows how we urgently need to control the transmission of pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 by using vaccination passports, maximising genetic variation in livestock, and reducing how much meat we eat.

Prof Cock Van Oosterhout, from UEA's School of Environmental Sciences, said: "We humans have been living in a non-sustainable way over the past few centuries. We now have a vast population size - not only of humans but also of domesticated animals and livestock.

"This makes an ideal breeding ground for the evolution and transmission of zoonotic infectious diseases that jump from an animal to a human host."

Prof Van Oosterhout's article shows how the world's biomass of livestock is more than 10 times higher than that of all wildlife combined.

'Genetic effective size' determines how much genetic variation can be maintained in the population, and this genetic variation is critical to counter the evolution of infectious diseases.

But the genetic effective size of the world's livestock is 80 times lower than the minimum viable population size of free-living species.

Prof Van Oosterhout said: "The combination of high livestock biomass and low genetic variation has tipped the co-evolutionary balance with zoonotic pathogens.

"Habitat destruction, illegal wildlife trade and other human activities have brought many species into contact with each other - and this facilitates a spill-over, spillback and hybridisation of the pathogens.

"Given that we are in close contact with our domesticated animals and livestock, there are many opportunities for the spill-over of viruses from animals to humans, and spillback from humans back to animals.

"Altogether, these conditions have created a perfect storm for the evolution and transmission of zoonotic infectious diseases.

"Covid-19 has shown us that humans are not immune to the evolutionary processes that drive the adaptations of pathogens.

"We urgently need to reset this co-evolutionary imbalance and control the transmission of pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 by using vaccination passports, maximising genetic variation in livestock, and reducing our consumption of animal protein. We also need to be aware of pathogen reservoirs, both locally and globally.

"It is time that we start to recognise that our health, the environment, and our global economy are all closely interlinked. Pathogens like SARS-CoV-2 will continue to evolve when allowed to infect humans, anywhere in the world. In turn, this poses a threat to the human population at large, also in countries that have the infection under control.

"Our society is facing significant threat, and we all need to do what we can both at an individual and societal level to improve our long term prospects as a species. These changes needs to be implemented globally to effectively combat pandemics," he added.

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'Mitigating the threat of emerging infectious diseases; a coevolutionary perspective' is published in the journal Virulence on May 7, 2021. This work was supported by the Earth and Life Systems Alliance (ELSA) of the Norwich Research Park.

Nocturnal migrant songbirds climb to great heights during extended flights over barriers

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE

Research News

 

When crossing the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert, great reed warblers that otherwise conduct their migratory flights strictly at night continue flying by day, but climb to previously unknown daytime cruising altitudes - from roughly 2,000 meters to well above 5,000 meters above the Earth. The findings about the heights these birds reach during daytime flights over geographic barriers reveal a previously unrecognized behavior in migratory birds and might help to explain the evolution of nocturnal migration. Each year billions of migrating songbirds traverse vast, intercontinental distances during their annual migratory sojourns. Most species preferentially fly at night and spend their days on land to rest and refuel before setting off again on the next leg of their nightly journey. However, the migratory tracks of some species involve traversing great distances over inhospitable terrain, like deserts and oceans, where landing options are few. While previous studies have shown that these birds will occasionally prolong their nighttime flights into daytime or even shift into a nonstop flight strategy when crossing formidable barriers, little is known about how these birds manage these extended flights. To better understand the flight behavior of migratory songbirds while crossing barriers, Sissel Sjöberg and colleagues equipped great reed warblers with custom-made, multisensory data loggers and tracked their annual journey between breeding sites in Europe and wintering areas in tropical Africa - a trip that requires crossing both the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert. Sjöberg et al. found that while crossing boundaries, the warblers extended their flights into the daytime. Unexpectedly, however, the authors discovered that the birds sharply gained altitude at dawn - more than doubling their nocturnal cruising altitudes, reaching upwards of 6,200 meters (roughly 20,000 feet) above sea level. At dusk, the birds rapidly descended to their mean nighttime altitudes. While Sjöberg et al. note that the explanations for the marked increase in altitude between night and day flights are not clear, they suggest that could be related to daily variation in ambient light, thermal regulation, winds, predation, vision range and exposure to solar radiation. This finding, say the authors, may help to explain why the overwhelming majority of nonsoaring long-distance migrant birds generally conduct their migratory flights during the night.

For reporters interested in trends, a 2016 Science study found that frigatebirds, which can stay aloft for months at a time, achieve these long flights by capitalizing on atmospheric conditions; by doing so, they fly over hundreds of miles a day using very little energy.
http://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aaf4374

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