It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, September 05, 2021
Saskatoon tech company gets results by going carbon neutral
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The company's approach has helped it attract young talent that cares about the environment
Chris de Jong, the the marketing director of 7shifts, said his company wants to lead with its values. (Submitted by Chris de Jong)
A Saskatoon tech company, specializing in restaurant work, is investing in environmental initiatives to offset its carbon production.
And the company 7shifts has already offset 1,212 metric tons of carbon. That's the equivalent of taking 253 cars off the road, permanently.
"We see becoming carbon neutral as just an extension of our core values," said Chris de Jong, the marketing director of 7shifts.
The company creates scheduling and management platforms for the restaurant industry in North America.
In order to offset emissions, 7shifts partnered with another startup called Green Places, which is based in Raleigh, North Carolina, to help them track their carbon footprint.
Green Places determines how much money 7shifts has to pay for carbon credits, to be invested in environmental initiatives.
Staff at 7shifts such as Kirsten Zlukosky, Kris Booth, Emily Brazill and Chris de Jong (left to right) are pleased the company supports environmental initiatives. (Submitted by Chris de Jong)
The two initiatives 7shifts has focused on are renewable energy and natural solutions — which involves things like restoration, planting trees and conserving environmentally sensitive areas.
Green Places then gives data back to 7shifts on how the carbon credits are being spent.
De Jong said his company was surprised to learn their carbon footprint was bigger than expected.
"As a technology company, we don't have, a ton of things like fleet vehicles or factories," he said. "It's all bits and bytes floating through the ether. But when you combine all the things like travel, the carbon cost of our offices, the carbon cost of data and infrastructure, it really adds up."
Another reason 7shifts decided to take on the initiative was to attract younger people who are concerned about the environment. He cited a study by Deloitte earlier this year focusing on millennials and Gen Z. He said one of the main concerns for respondents was environmental sustainability and climate change.
By adopting an environmental ethos the company has attracted the applicants, De Jong said.
"They're saying: 'Hey, I want to work for 7shifts because I really believe in your mission. And you seem like a company that I want to work for," he said, adding that it felt really gratifying.
Saskatchewan is leading the country in greenhouse gas emissions per capita, according to a report published by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The report also mentioned that the province's greenhouse gas emissions have remained at relatively similar levels from 2014 to 2019.
The move to go carbon neutral within the company has also made de Jong personally reflect.
"It's forcing me to think a lot more about it and what else I can do in my life," he said. "Maybe installing solar panels on my house or choosing an electric car in the future. Or a million other small things to kind of help the environment and be more sustainable."
De Jong also said that the staff responded positively to the change and are feeling excited and proud of what they are doing.
The company has also taken other steps to be more environmentally friendly. It has an office compost, recycles and uses the least amount of energy possible inside the building.
With Files from Saskatoon Morning
How Canadian
photographer captured this stunning image of a dangerous mosquito
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Gil Wizen of Mississauga, Ont., earned a commendation from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards
CBC Radio ·
Ontario photopgrapher Gil Wizen has received a commendation from the Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards for this photo of a Sabethes mosquito that he snapped in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador. Wildlife Photographer of the Year is developed and produced by the Natural History Museum, London. (Gil Wizen/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)
When Gil Wizen took photos of a mosquito biting his knuckle, he wanted to show how beautiful it can be.
The entomologist was on a trip to Ecuador a few years ago, studying another bug (the whip spider) when he laid eyes on the Sabethes mosquito.
"The first time I saw it, I'm not going to lie, it was like a slap in the face," Wizen told As It Happens guest host Peter Armstrong.
The Sabethes mosquito is about five millimetres long and has a metallic-coloured body that shimmers in different colours.
I've got bitten so many times, I cannot tell you, but it's worth it- Gil Wizen, entomologist and photographer
According to Wizen, most of the time it shimmers in blue and green, but sometimes it turns purple. It also has six very long legs in blue and purple.
"When I see an insect that I don't know and it's that impressive, there's a moment I ask myself, 'Am I still on Earth?' Because this is so amazing," he said.
Wizen went on to capture the "beautiful bloodsucker" and now that photo is being honoured in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
It took the entomologist five years of photographing the mosquito to get the perfect shot.
He wanted to frame the mosquito head-on and show its symmetry, all the way from its legs to its wings.
The day that he took his entry photo, a cloud of mosquitoes flew over him for a few hours as he snapped the tiny creatures from different angles.
"I've got bitten so many times, I cannot tell you, but it's worth it," he said. "It's going to confuse a lot of people, but ... just sharing a brief moment with this majestic animal is totally worth it."
Sabethes mosquitos have another noteworthy feature, which made the process of capturing its photo more difficult.
The first and second pair of legs have "hair extensions" that look like feathers or paddles. A lot of people call those ornaments 'leg warmers.'
But the hind legs are extremely long, resembling antennas, and they curve upward when the mosquito bites.
"The mosquito also swings them ... waves them around from side to side and that's because they are sensory," Wizen said.
Wizen is a Mississauga, Ont., wildlife photographer and entomologist. (Sean McCann/Submitted by Gil Wizen)
"Those legs help the mosquito detect if someone is going to swat it. And that's how they evade us when they bite us. If we try to swat it, sometimes they take off faster. They feel the air currents coming in and they take off."
Sabethes mosquitoes can also carry tropical diseases, like yellow fever and dengue.
But only the females, like in other mosquitos, bite humans and take blood as a meal when they are ready to lay eggs.
"That one will stick with you for a few hours, the pain," Wizen said.
Written by Mehek Mazhar. Interview with Gil Wizen produced by Kate Swoger.
Warming Arctic linked to polar vortex outbreaks farther south
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Warmer air weakens the vortex, which normally keeps cold air trapped in Arctic, letting it go south
The Associated Press ·
A man snowboards down Congress Avenue after a heavy snow in Austin in February 2021. A new study is the first to show the connections between changes in the polar region and February's Valentine's Week freeze that triggered widespread power outages in Texas, killing more than 170 people and causing at least $20 billion US in damage. (Jay Janner /Austin American-Statesman/The Associated Press)
Warming of the Arctic caused by climate change has increased the number of polar vortex outbreaks, when frigid air from the far north bathes other parts of the Northern Hemisphere in killer cold, a study finds.
The study published this week in the journal Science is the first to show the connections between changes in the polar region and February's Valentine's Week freeze that triggered widespread power outages in Texas, killing more than 170 people and causing at least $20 billion US ($25 billion Cdn) in damage. Extremely cold temperatures also hit much of Canada that month.
The polar vortex normally keeps icy air trapped in the Arctic. But warmer air weakens the vortex, allowing it to stretch and wander south. The number of times it has weakened per year has more than doubled since the early 1980s, said study lead author Judah Cohen, a winter storm expert for Atmospheric Environmental Research, a commercial firm outside of Boston.
"It is counterintuitive that a rapidly warming Arctic can lead to an increase in extreme cold in a place as far south as Texas, but the lesson from our analysis is to expect the unexpected with climate change," Cohen said.
Climate scientists are still debating how and whether global warming is affecting cold snaps. They know it's reducing the overall number of cold days, but they are still trying to understand if it leads to deeper cold snaps.
Ivan Gonzales, left, works with his brother-in-law Gabriel Martinez to assist a motorist using a carpet up a hill along the snow-covered Cherrywood Road in Austin, Tex., on Feb. 16. (Bronte Wittpenn/Austin American-Statesman/The Associated Press)
Cohen's study is the first to use measurements of changes in the atmosphere to help explain a phenomenon that climate models had struggled to account for.
The study "provides a potentially simpler interpretation of what's going on," said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann, who wasn't part of the study.
Cohen was able to show how there have been dramatic differences in warming inside the Arctic itself, which drives how the polar vortex can stretch and weaken.
When the area north of England and around Scandinavia warms more than the area around Siberia, it stretches the polar vortex eastward and the cold air moves from Siberia north over the polar region and then south into the central and eastern part of the United States.
"The Texas cold blast of February 2021 is a poster child" for the link between a changing Arctic and cold blasts in lower latitudes, said climate scientist Jennifer Francis of the Woodwell Climate Research Center on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. She helped pioneer the Arctic link theory, but wasn't part of Cohen's research.
"The study takes this controversial hypothesized linkage and moves it solidly toward accepted science," she said.
Global warming threatens the existence of an Arctic oasis
The University of Helsinki's Environmental Change Research Unit (ECRU) took part in an international study investigating the millennia-long history of the most important oasis in the Arctic and the potential effects of climate change on its future.
The North Water Polynya is an area of year-round open water located between northwest Greenland and Ellesmere Island, Canada, in northern Baffin Bay, which is otherwise covered by sea ice roughly eight months of the year. The area is known as an Arctic oasis, and one of the main migration routes of Greenland's original population runs just north of the area.
In the study, microfossils and chemical biomarkers preserved in marine and lake sediments were analyzed as keys to the past, exposing historical variation in the North Water Polynya in the past 6,000 years.
The polynya's high rate of primary production, for which, in marine environments, diatoms and other microalgae are responsible, maintains a diverse and unique ecosystem that serves as a safe haven for a range of species in Arctic conditions, which are otherwise harsh. Keystone Arctic species, such as the polar bear, the walrus and the narwhal, also thrive there. For the indigenous populations reliant on hunting and fishing, this area, the largest polynya in the northern hemisphere, has been a lifeline.
According to the study, the polynya was stable and its primary production was high roughly 4,400–4,200 years ago, at the time when people arrived in Greenland from Canada over the frozen Nares Strait.
A millennium of instability and new heat records
However, the polynya's stability has varied over the last millennia: during the warmer climate periods 2,200–1,200 years ago, the area was unstable and its productivity fell drastically. When primary production rates are low, significant reductions are seen in the populations of organisms in the upper levels of the food web, such as zooplankton, fish and marine mammals.
"According to archaeological finds, there were no inhabitants in the area during this period. It's a mystery that can potentially be explained, in light of the research findings, by conditions that were unfavorable to people reliant on hunting and fishing," says researcher Kaarina Weckström from the Environmental Change Research Unit, University of Helsinki.
The researchers point out that air temperatures have never reached the current level in northwest Greenland in the 6,000-year-long period of the polynya's history studied. Global warming and reduction in sea ice caused by human activity have led to the polynya's instability. The area is maintained by favorable ocean currents and winds, and particularly by an ice bridge located north of the polynya, which prevents drift ice in the Arctic Ocean traveling further south. It is the annual formation of this natural block that the warming of the climate is now threatening.
"This area, the Arctic's most important oasis, is likely to disappear if temperatures continue to rise as forecast. It would be important to at least slow climate change down, in order for Arctic indigenous peoples to have some kind of a chance to adapt to their future living conditions. Then again, as the history of the polynya suggests, if we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate the rising air temperature, both Arctic sea ice and the polynya can be restored," Weckström sums up.
More information:Sofia Ribeiro et al, Vulnerability of the North Water ecosystem to climate change,Nature Communications(2021).DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-24742-0
Should I stay or should I go: Oil, gas workers consider prospects amid global energy transition
By Heather Yourex-West Global News Posted September 2, 2021 WATCH: As the world transitions away from fossil fuels, jobs in the oil and gas industry will continue to disappear. The concept of a 'just transition' suggests a healthy economy and clean environment can and should co-exist. But as Heather Yourex-West explains, that transition is easier said than done.
For Jenine Campbell-Cove, a career in the oil and gas industry just made sense.
A member of the Saulteau First Nation, in northeast British Columbia, Campbell-Cove was 19 when she began working on a pipeline.
“I learned how to do everything … run equipment, welding, labouring — it’s so multi-faceted and it was really great,” Campbell-Cove says.
Her career in oil and gas lasted nearly two decades, but several years ago she began pursuing a career change. After years of ups and downs, her future prospects in the industry seemed uncertain and Campbell-Cove didn’t want to be left behind.
“I had been trying to get out of it for so long, but what do you do when you don’t have any transferable skills or education?” she said.
“I know a lot of people were like, ‘What do we do? What are we going to do? What can we do?’ And the answer was always the same: we can’t do anything.”
An injury finally forced the mother out of the industry last year, but she says making the transition wasn’t easy. Campbell-Cove ultimately had to relocate in order to find work and she believes more needs to be done to help other workers who are trying to make a career change.
Jim Stanford, an economist and the director of the Centre for Future Work, says Alberta workers have been “left to their own devices” in bearing the pain of energy market disruptions and he believes governments need to begin planning to ensure those still working in the industry are prepared for what’s to come.
“There’s no doubt anymore that we are transitioning away from fossil fuels and that transition is happening faster than we expected,” Stanford said.
“Just burying our heads in the sand isn’t helping workers.”
According to Energy Safety Canada, the oil and gas industry has shed over 40,000 jobs since August 2014. The labour pool is shrinking, too, as more workers pursue opportunities in other fields.
Stanford believes the industry will continue to shed jobs over the next several decades.
“I think we have a very clear idea of the timeline. The world has recognized we need to get to net zero by 2050, so that’s a runway of less than 30 years and the more we delay, the harder it becomes,” he says.
“A vital lesson of transition planning is if you start soon and do it gradually, the impact on workers and communities is much, much reduced.
“Our research shows that you can phase out direct fossil fuel employment in Canada over a 20-year period and almost all of the adjustment can be taken up through early retirements and other voluntary transitions.”
Stephen Buhler says he would be happy to transition out of the industry now — if he could find the work.
The journeyman machinist has worked in oil and gas since graduating from high school 13 years ago. He worries about the future viability of the industry and about climate change, too.
It’s why he volunteers with Iron & Earth, a non-profit advocacy group of oil and gas workers calling on the government to help workers in the sector transition to jobs in other fields. “For me, personally, I would love to see more work in renewable energy projects, maybe geo-thermal projects or helping support wind and the solar industry, as well.”
Of course, not everyone currently employed in the industry is looking to transition out.
Iggy Domalgaski is the CEO of Tundra Process Solutions, supplying equipment to the oil and gas industry and other sectors.
Domalgaski believes his company will continue to work with the industry for the rest of his career and many more years to come, but he also concedes things are changing, too.
“We’ll always continue to focus on oil and gas but a lot of these big capital projects like building large oil sands facilities those aren’t really happening anymore, so naturally over time our business has diversified and will continue to diversify.”
According to forecasts from International Energy Agency the global demand for oil will rise until at least 2026, though multiple forecasters project that demand will peak within the next 20 years.
3:00Could decarbonization be Canada’s path to reach climate goals?
CTVNewsEdmonton.ca Digital Producer Saturday, September 4, 2021
EDMONTON -- The union representing nurses says Alberta Health Services (AHS) informed them it will “immediately” begin filling staffing shortages by hiring contract nurses from three agencies across Canada.
In a statement on Saturday, United Nurses of Alberta (UNA) disclosed it received an email notifying them that “AHS will use contracted resources to address short-term contracting issues” as the hospital system deals with surges in patients due to the fourth wave of COVID-19.
According to the UNA, the three nursing agencies are Toronto-based Greenstaff Medical Canada, Northern Nursing Solutions from Airdrie, Alta., and Vancouver’s Brylu Staffing.
AHS also told the union it was withdrawing a previous labour relations board complaint against the UNA where the health care authority alleged the union participated in bargaining in bad faith by making public statements that AHS was in talks with Greenstaff.
AHS told the UNA it would disclose when a contract with any of the agencies was reached. The UNA says it has not received information from AHS about what staffing agencies will pay nurses.
“UNA nurses have not received any pay increases for the past five years and will continue to press the employer in negotiations to being to take negotiations seriously for Registered Nurses and Registered Psychiatric Nurses, and to address the chronic staffing crisis faced by Alberta health care facilities,” the UNA said.
In August, the UNA said Greenstaff Medical offered to pay nurses it employs to work at AHS facilities $55 an hour for general acute care and up to $75 an hour for ICU and emergency department shifts, as well as weekend premiums, a housing allowance, and shift differentials. Union member nurses working for AHS are currently paid between $36.86 and $48.37 per hour.
'SIGNIFICANT' CAPACITY ISSUES: AHS
Kerry Williamson, AHS spokesperson told CTV News Edmonton in a statement, that Alberta is facing "significant" capacity issues, particularly in ICUs.
"We are doing all we can to open additional capacity, however our biggest challenge right now is finding available healthcare workers to staff those surge beds," Williamson said. "This critical staffing challenge is limiting our ability to open additional beds, which in turn is placing strain on our ability to care for patients.
"In order to alleviate this staffing challenge, AHS is again working with contract staff supplied by staffing agencies, as a last resort to prevent further disruption of services and patient care."
Williamson added that there are no specifics about the use of third-party nurses as conversations with the agencies have just begun. Registered nurse Linda Wright attends to a patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at Surrey Memorial Hospital in Surrey, B.C., Friday, June 4, 2021.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward
UNA receives confirmation Alberta hiring contract nurses to address staffing shortage
The United Nurses of Alberta says the province is bringing on contract workers to address a staff shortage.
The United Nurses of Alberta says the province is hiring contract nurses to address severe staffing shortages in hospitals.
The UNA says it received an email from Alberta Health Services’ lead negotiator Kim LeBlanc Friday, notifying the union that “as is our current practice and allowed by the collective agreement, AHS will use contracted resources to address short-term contracting issues” during the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the letter, AHS says it will immediately begin working with three staffing agencies: Toronto-based Greenstaff Medical Canada, Northern Nursing Solutions of Airdrie and Brylu Staffing of Vancouver.
As a result, the UNA says AHS is withdrawing its Aug. 16 Labour Relations Board complaint against the association.
AHS alleged in the complaint the union bargained in bad faith by making public statements that AHS was in discussions with Greenstaff Medical Canada and other third-party recruiters to hire registered nurses to work in Alberta at rates significantly higher than those paid under the UNA collective agreement.
A bargaining update published by UNA on Aug. 13 made specific references to pay rates included in postings by Greenstaff Medical Canada. UNA’s director of labour relations David Harrigan says the email did not indicate the rates AHS expects to pay the staffing agencies for contract nurses, but it’s likely to be significantly more than nurses currently make.
“If you’re a nurse who’s been working 16 hours a day for the past 16 months, and the employer is saying you’re not good enough and I’m cutting your pay, to hear that they’re now bringing in agency nurses, who will earn anywhere from $55 to $75 an hour, which is like $25 more than the top RN makes, there is just no better way for this government to say we have absolutely no respect for nurses,” Harrigan said.
AHS confirmed it’s hiring contract nurses because it’s experiencing significant capacity issues, particularly in intensive care units, which are at 95 per cent capacity.
“We are doing all we can to open additional capacity, however, our biggest challenge right now is finding available health-care workers to staff those surge beds,” said AHS spokesperson Kerry Williamson.
“This critical staffing challenge is limiting our ability to open additional beds, which in turn is placing strain on our ability to care for patients.”
Williamson added this is permissible under the existing collective agreement.
The UNA says nurses have not received any pay increases for the past five years. The union is currently in contract negotiations with the province and is seeking formal mediation.
Health-care workers attend to a COVID-19 patient in the intensive care unit at the Peter Lougheed Centre in Calgary on Nov. 14, 2020. (Leah Hennel/Submitted by AHS)
Alberta is working with out-of-province staffing agencies to bring in contract nurses, as hospitals contend with staff shortages and full beds due to the surging fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United Nurses of Alberta (UNA), the union representing more than 30,000 nurses in the province, says it was notified on Friday by Alberta Health Services (AHS) that the province plans to immediately bring in contractors to address staffing shortages.
AHS is working with Toronto-based Greenstaff Medical Canada, Vancouver's Brylu Staffing and Northern Nursing Solutions of Airdrie, Alta., the nurses' union said in a news release.
As of Friday, 515 COVID-19 patients were in Alberta hospitals, including 118 in intensive care beds. More than 20 municipalities across the province had reductions in acute care beds, many due to staffing shortages.
The province's ICUs were at 95 per cent capacity, and as many as 60 per cent of scheduled surgeries were being postponed in some areas.
AHS said the move to hire contract nurses from staffing agencies is a "last resort."
"We are doing all we can to open additional capacity. However, our biggest challenge right now is finding available health-care workers to staff those surge beds," AHS confirmed in an emailed statement. "This critical staffing challenge is limiting our ability to open additional beds, which in turn is placing strain on our ability to care for patients."
Provincial modelling has suggested that up to 700 people could be in hospital with COVID-19 by the end of this month.
"This is a last resort, as our local supply of nurses is close to being exhausted," AHS said.
Nurses are exhausted, union says
Two weeks ago, AHS invoked emergency work rules for nurses, which could force them to work mandatory overtime or cancel time off to address staffing gaps.
David Harrigan, UNA's director of labour relations, said nurses are exhausted.
"It's not unusual to have [hospitals] over capacity and understaffed. You know, in some ways I can see why AHS has to bring in contractors because it is a real crisis," he told CBC News. "But the answer is to sit down and say ... how can we retain employees instead of abusing current employees?"
AHS is also withdrawing a labour relations board complaint it had made against the UNA, the union said. The complaint alleged that the union was bargaining in bad faith by publicly stating that AHS was discussing hiring registered nurses with third-party recruiters at higher rates than those paid under the collective agreement.
"They publicly accused UNA of being dishonest, because we said that they were in discussions with contract nurses. And then on Friday ... they wrote to us that, in fact, they are in discussions," Harrigan said.
A job posting from Greenstaff Medical Canada on Indeed.com, posted one month ago, said it was urgently hiring for casual RN positions in Edmonton, with wages starting at $75 per hour. The top rate an RN can make in Alberta right now is $48 per hour.
"Nurses have been working 16 hours a day, overworked, for 16 months. Their employer is saying to them, 'Thanks a lot. By the way, we're going to cut your wages.' And now they turn around and bring in people that they will pay $55 to $75 an hour," Harrigan said. "There's just no better way to show the public and the nurses that they have zero respect for health care."
The UNA said that AHS has now committed to disclosing when it reaches a contract with any staffing agencies but that it has not said what rate it expects to pay the contract nurses.
The union is currently calling for a two per cent wage increase, saying nurses haven't received a raise in five years; AHS has proposed a three per cent salary rollback.
