Breast milk from Mennonite moms on farms may better protect babies from allergies

by Frontiers

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Atopic diseases, which include eczema, allergic rhinitis, asthma, and food allergy, are closely linked to allergies against airborne particles, such as pollen, dust, mold, or animal dander, or foodstuffs like peanut, milk, soy, shellfish, or wheat. Until the early 20th century, allergy was thought to be a rare disease. But since in the 1920s to 1930s and especially since the second half of the 20th century, the prevalence of allergies has exploded in Western societies. For example, the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology estimates that half of the population of the EU will have allergies by 2025: an increase by 20 percent points since 2015. Similarly, a survey from 2020 estimated that approximately 100 million (30%) Americans of all ages have allergies today.

What drives this ongoing explosion? Multiple lifestyle and environmental risk factors have been proposed. These include increases in the use of broad-spectrum antibiotics, detergents, antiseptic soap, and cesarian births, as well as changes in the home, such as decreased ventilation, increased carpeting and furnishing, and increased temperature. Another probable factor is the steady decrease in the time spent playing outside by children, resulting in less physical activity, a higher body mass index, shallower breathing patterns, less exposure to bacteria, and a greater exposure to indoor allergens.

Traditional farming lifestyle may be a protective factor

"Research on very traditional farmers in Europe and North America has pointed to another lifestyle risk factor: a decrease in the consumption of unpasteurized farm milk, large families, and exposure to farm animals and stables along with transportation by horse and buggy," says Dr. Kirsi Järvinen-Seppo, an associate professor at the Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology and the Center for Food Allergy of the University of Rochester.

"Such a lifestyle was once common around the world, but today is largely restricted in Western countries to some religious communities, such as the Amish or old order Mennonites. Allergies are far less common among them, which suggests that their traditional lifestyle may be a protective factor against the development of atopic diseases."

In a study published today in Frontiers in Immunology, Järvinen-Seppo and colleagues find evidence that this 'farm-life effect', which protects against the development of allergies, is partly passed on by mothers to their babies through breast milk.

"Here we show that breast milk from moms in a community of old order Mennonites contains higher concentrations of IgA antibodies against food allergens, dust mites, and bacteria associated with farm animals, as well as higher levels of certain cytokines, signaling proteins important for regulating the immune system," says Dr. Juilee Thakar, an associate professor at the Department of Microbiology and Immunology and the Department of Biostatistics of the University of Rochester, and a coauthor of the study.

"Our study is the first to compare the amounts of antibodies, cytokines, human milk oligosaccharides, metabolites, and important microbiota in mother's milk between women from a very traditional community and women from a nearby city. Our results indicate that women on such traditional farms generate immunity through long-term exposure to farm animals and foods such as unpasteurized farm milk and eggs. The results also suggest that babies can acquire some protection against allergic diseases through their mother's milk," says Järvinen-Seppo.

Old order Mennonites, anabaptist christians named after the Frisian reformer Minne Simens (1496-1561; commonly hollandized to Menno Siemens), are people of Swiss and South German heritage who live on traditional one-family farms with little modern technology. Their lifestyle is a reasonable proxy for that of rural communities in Western countries until the dawn of the 20th century.

Järvinen-Seppo and colleagues collected breast milk from 52 mothers with babies between two weeks and six months of age in the community of old order Mennonites of Penn Yan, New York, and from 29 mothers with a modern urban lifestyle in the nearby city of Rochester. They used questionnaires and follow-up phone calls to ask moms about their lifestyle and environment, and whether they or their babies had any symptoms of atopic diseases. They then measured the milk's concentration and activity of IgA antibodies—important for protecting the respiratory system and gut against microbes—as well as the concentration of oligosaccharides, cytokines, and metabolites of fatty acids. They also using ribosomal RNA gene sequencing to determine which species of bacteria were carried from mother to baby in milk.

As expected, old order Mennonite mothers self-reported a greater exposure to farm animals, dogs, unpasteurized farm milk, and barns, a higher rate of giving birth at home, more frequent use to bleach to sterilize the home, and a lower exposure to antibiotics and pesticides. Crucially, they also reported a lower rate of atopic diseases for themselves and their babies.

Beneficial microbes and metabolites in human breast milk

The researchers show that breast milk from the old order Mennonite mothers contained more IgA1 and IgA2 antibodies against peanut, egg ovalbumin, dust mites, and the bacterium Streptococcus equii, a pathogen of horses. The milk from Mennonite mothers contained milk microbes, such as bacteria from the families Prevotellaceae, Veillonellaceae, and Micrococcaceae, and higher concentrations of certain oligosaccharides and fatty acids.

Coauthor Dr. Antti E. Seppo, an associate professor at the Department of Pediatrics of the University of Rochester, concludes: "Our findings indicate that that breast milk from old order Mennonite mothers contains higher levels of beneficial antibodies, microbes and metabolites that help to 'program' the developing gut microbiota and immune system of their babies. These may protect infants against developing allergic diseases. This is important, because it can help explain why atopic diseases are currently exploding in Western populations, and perhaps one day these insights may help to prevent or mitigate these diseases."

Breastfeeding mothers do not transfer COVID through milk: study

More information: Traditional farming lifestyle in Old Older Mennonites modulates human milk composition, Frontiers in Immunology (2021). DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2021.741513

Journal information: Frontiers in Immunology 

Provided by Frontiers 

 

Study: Despite partisan divide, workplace vaccine mandates have strong support

by Peter Ramjug, Northeastern University

There was wide public acceptance of workplace vaccine requirements, 

according to a U.S. survey by researchers at Northeastern and several partner 

institutions. Deep divisions, however, exist between Democrats and 

Republicans. Credit: Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University

A solid 60 percent of U.S. residents support government-mandated COVID-19 workplace vaccinations, but there was a wide gap between Democrats and Republicans, according to a poll taken after President Biden ordered businesses with at least 100 employees to require vaccination or undergo weekly testing.

The U.S. study by the COVID States Project, a collaborative effort by researchers from Northeastern, Harvard, Northwestern, and Rutgers, found support for workplace immunizations among men and women as well as people of different races, ethnicities, and age groups.

But the study found a partisan chasm of 46 percentage points between Democrats and Republicans, with Democrats overwhelmingly in favor of backing vaccination requirements for businesses—81 percent to 35 percent for Republicans. Independents came in in the middle at 53 percent.

The findings of the August-September survey of 7,000 U.S. residents may tick a few points up or down once the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal agency that oversees workplace safety, issues a more detailed rule later this year, says David Lazer, university distinguished professor of political science and computer sciences at Northeastern.

"There will be positive or negative reactions accordingly," adds Lazer, one of the researchers who conducted the study. "It'll be interesting to see how the OSHA rule manifests."

Currently, one in four companies have instituted a vaccination requirement and an additional 13 percent of companies plan to put one in place, according to a White House report issued on Oct. 7.

Large companies, each with tens of thousands of employees, such as AT&T, Bank of America, CVS, and others, already have a mandate. The report added that almost 2,500 hospitals, representing 40 percent of all U.S. hospitals, have announced vaccination requirements for their workforce.

"Businesses have more power than ever before to change the arc of this pandemic and save lives," Biden said at a vaccine event in Chicago.

But the Northeastern-led survey found that 27 percent of respondents opposed workplace vaccine requirements, which may complicate efforts.

Still, researchers found that, outside of the workplace, public support for vaccine mandates overall remains high, increasing slightly in September compared to the summer. They found similar levels of support when they asked respondents if people should be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine to board a flight, go to school, or attend a university.

However, there remained a sharp political divide between Democrats and Republicans on those questions, just as there was on the topic of company vaccine requirements.

Vaccine-hesitant workers at companies impacted by the president's order could, in theory, bypass the requirement by landing a job at an employer with fewer than 100 employees. "Given the current state of the labor market, it may well be that people can find positions," Lazer says.

It will become harder, though, if there is a broad-based mandate, he adds. There will still be some employers who are exempt from it. Or, in the case of vaccine-opposed workers in the healthcare industry, they could avoid getting their shots by doing in-home care.

A related Northeastern survey that focused specifically on healthcare workers found that vaccination rates increased 4 percentage points to 77 percent between June and September of 2021, while those resistant to vaccines decreased only 1 percentage point to 11 percent.

In that same four-month span, an additional 4 percent of healthcare workers were immunized, according to the survey. All in all, though, attitudes toward getting the vaccine among the 23 percent of unvaccinated healthcare workers remained mostly unchanged.

The larger takeaway is that even though some healthcare employers are mandating vaccines, "it's not had a big impact yet," Lazer says.

Still, newspaper headlines in recent weeks have documented the terminations or resignations of nurses and other healthcare industry employees who refused to get their shots. But Lazer says those numbers can seem misleadingly large when read in a headline or a tweet, when in reality it's fewer than 1 percent of employees.

"The big lesson here is that the mandates seem to be working, and that there's a lot less turnover, employee-wise, than some of the headlines suggest," he says.

Survey: Healthcare workers are getting vaccinated, but more still need convincing

Provided by Northeastern University 

 

Noted COVID-19 researchers reminded that poor countries must be vaccinated to end pandemic

by Bob Yirka , Medical Xpress

A global supply forecast of doses of COVID vaccines such as Sinovac (red) and

 Pfizer (light red) and allocation across high-income countries (HIC), upper 

middle-income countries (UMIC), and low-income countries in the Advance 

Market Commitment (AMC) until the end of 2021. Credit: S. Gilbert, et al.,

 Science Translational Medicine (2021)

Two well-known vaccine researchers, Dame Sarah Gilbert, one of the co-developers of the Oxford vaccine and Richard Hatchett, head of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, have issued a reminder to the world that the pandemic will not end unless stronger efforts are made to vaccinate people living in poor countries. In their Focus piece published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the pair note that as of the end of last month, 41.5% of the world's population had received at least one dose of the available vaccines—but in poor countries, that percentage is just 1.9%.

The researchers note that the disparity becomes even more clear when looking at the high vaccination rates in some of the wealthiest countries compared to those in the poorest countries. Such inequitable distribution of vaccines, they note, has implications for everyone. Not only does it put the lives of millions of people in poor countries at continued risk, it also prolongs the pandemic—and the longer the pandemic goes, the more opportunities there are for variants to arise, possibly making current vaccines useless, or worse, allowing a much more deadly pathogen to develop.

On a more promising note, the researchers point out that the number of vaccines being produced has grown rapidly—to the point that there should soon be enough for every person on the planet. Unfortunately, that is not all there is to the story. It is much easier, they note, to create large quantities of vaccines than it is to get those vaccines to remote areas. Simply sending billions of doses of vaccines to the government of a poor country will not ensure the people living there will receive treatment.

Many poor countries have no health care system or infrastructure that allows for delivering vaccines. There are also shortages of health care providers who know how to administer vaccines—or to teach the people around them about the value of the vaccine. Thus, for the pandemic to end, there must be a massive and concerted effort by wealthy countries of the world to assist with vaccination efforts in poor countries—reiterating the phrase others have so often quoted recently, "No one is safe until we are all safe."

What is being done to distribute COVID-19 vaccines globally?

More information: Sarah Gilbert et al, No one is safe until we are all safe, Science Translational Medicine (2021). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abl9900

Journal information: Science Translational Medicine 

© 2021 Science X Network

Snowshoe hares with mismatched coats due to global warming are faring better than ever

by Bob Yirka , Phys.org

Snowshoe hare. Credit: PublicDomainPictures.net/CC0 Public Domain

A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Canada has found that despite rising temperatures due to global warming, snowshoe hares with mismatched coats are experiencing reduced mortality rates. They have written a paper describing their findings and have posted it on the bioRxiv preprint server.

Prior research has shown that snowshoe hares experience a change in coat color depending on the season. During the warm months, their coat is brown and dark, which helps them blend in to their surroundings. As autumn progresses, the dark fur falls out and is replaced with white fur helping the hare to blend in with snowy backgrounds. Research has also shown that the change in coat color is tied to the amount of daylight, not temperature. This has led to mismatches in coat color as global warming has shifted the start of snow season to later in the fall and snow disappearing earlier in the spring. For a few weeks, snowshoe hares with bright white coats stand out starkly against dark, snowless backgrounds. Logic has suggested this would result in a higher mortality rate as the hares are much easier for prey to spot. But in this new effort, the researchers have found the opposite to be true.

To learn more about the impact of mismatched coats, the researchers studied snowshoe hares living in Canada's Yukon territory. In all, they tracked 347 hares using accelerometers as they progressed through the seasons from 2015 through 2018. They were able to verify that the hares went through periods of mismatched coats each spring and fall and found that they thrived instead of falling to predators. Their data showed the mortality risk for the hares during the autumn months was reduced by approximately 86.5%, likely because they foraged between 17 to 77 minutes less during the autumn changeover. But they did not seem to suffer from more hunger because their metabolism rates were lower, another change the hares went through each winter as their coats became more insulated in preparation for the colder monthsResearch identifies how snowshoe hares evolved to stay seasonally camouflaged

More information: Joanie L. Kennah et al, Coat color mismatch improves survival of a keystone boreal herbivore: energetic advantages exceed lost camouflage, bioRxiv (2021). DOI: 10.1101/2021.09.24.461654

© 2021 Science X Network

 

Stress in Earth's crust determined without earthquake data

by Los Alamos National Laboratory

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a method to determine the orientation of mechanical stress in the earth's crust without relying on data from earthquakes or drilling. This method is less expensive that current approaches, could have broad applicability in geophysics and provide insight into continental regions lacking historical geologic information.

"We utilized the nonlinear elastic behavior in rocks and applied a new technique to monitor the orientation of the maximum horizontal compressive stress in rocks in parts of Oklahoma and New Mexico," said Andrew Delorey of Los Alamos. "The orientation of that maximum horizontal compressive stress reveals which fractures in the rock will be active."

North-central Oklahoma was selected because induced seismic activity has been ongoing in the region after decades of injected wastewater from oil and gas operations. That seismic activity occurs on faults optimally oriented in the regional stress field. North-central New Mexico was selected to compare the results to a geologic setting straddling a continental rift separating the Colorado Plateau from a stable section of the earth's crust.

The scientists determined that the earth exhibits stress-induced anisotropy of nonlinear susceptibility that is aligned with the maximum horizontal compressive stress in these two different geologic settings. Rocks become stiffer when compressed and softer when extended, but this effect isn't instantaneous. The rate is faster in the orientation where the ambient stress field is most compressive. By measuring this rate in different orientations, scientists can determine the orientation where ambient stress is most compressive.

Determining the geophysical stress orientation, or the direction of maximum horizontal compressive stress, is usually determined by drilling narrow, deep boreholes. However, borehole drilling is expensive and only provides a single data point.

Additionally for vast regions, the geophysical data simply hasn't been collected because it is too expensive. This method provides an alternative.

Their approach could be essential for the oil and gas industry trying to avoid hazards and optimize production. In the case of hydro fracking, the fractures will open in the direction of the minimum horizontal compressive stress, which scientists can now determine before any drilling.

"Estimation of the orientation of stress in the Earth's crust without earthquake or borehole data,"  by Andrew A. Delorey, Christopher W. Johnson, and Paul A. Johnson and Götz Bokelmann of the University of Vienna was published in September in Nature's "Communications Earth and Environment journal.

Wastewater has not significantly altered seismic stress direction in southern Kansas

More information: Andrew A. Delorey et al, Estimation of the orientation of stress in the Earth's crust without earthquake or borehole data, Communications Earth & Environment (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s43247-021-00244-1

Journal information: Communications Earth & Environment  , Nature 

Provided by Los Alamos National Laboratory 

BHP completes its first delivery of carbon neutral copper
MINING.COM Staff Writer | October 8, 2021 

Credit: Southwire

BHP and US copper cable and wire manufacturer Southwire have completed their first transaction involving the delivery of carbon neutral copper from BHP’s mines in Chile to Southwire’s processing activities in the US state of Georgia.


The pilot forms part of a collaboration between BHP and Southwire under a memorandum of understanding signed in March 2021 that reflects BHP’s Climate Transition Action Plan commitment to support industry to develop technologies for improved traceability and the pursuit of carbon neutral production.

In a first for BHP, the pilot involved tracing BHP copper cathodes and associated greenhouse gas emissions through Southwire’s rod production operations utilizing supply chain traceability provider Circulor’s blockchain-based technology and BHP’s carbon offsetting capabilities.

“The pilot aims to leverage BHP’s carbon offsetting capabilities to offer Southwire a carbon neutral copper product during the transition period as we pursue operational decarbonization, and is achieved by the retirement of high-quality carbon offsets against emissions from the production, transportation and Southwire’s processing of the designated copper shipments,” BHP said in Friday’s news release.

The carbon offsets were sourced from a project in Peru that provides additional sustainability co-benefits, such as biodiversity conservation, improved water quality and support for local communities, it added.

Through this collaboration, the global miner aims to enhance supply chain transparency and demonstrate the broader downstream demand potential for carbon neutral products across the copper value chain, underpinned by credible greenhouse gas emissions measurement, reporting and tracing.

“We are taking concrete action to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the copper value chain. Partnerships like the one with Southwire enable industry to collaboratively move forward in building a low-carbon world and to reduce emissions from existing products,” BHP’s Minerals Americas President Rag Udd said in the media statement. “

We are committed to helping lead this change, to create social value through sustainable copper production practices, and to working together to support greenhouse gas emission reductions in the copper value chain.”

“This is our first ever ‘carbon neutral’ sale of any of our commodities. The pilot helps improve understanding of greenhouse gas emissions in the copper value chain and demonstrate the role high-quality offsets can play, as a complement to operational decarbonization,” said BHP’s Group sales and marketing Officer, Michiel Hovers.

Antofagasta to test use of hydrogen in mining equipment
Cecilia Jamasmie | October 8, 2021 |

Pilot project to advance the use of hydrogen in large mining equipment has been set up at the 

Centinela copper mine. (Image courtesy of Minera Centinela.)

Antofagasta (LON: ANTO) has become the first mining company in Chile to setup a pilot project to advance the use of hydrogen in large mining equipment, especially haulage trucks.


The pilot, set at the company’s Centinela copper mine in Chile’s north, is part of $1.2 million HYDRA project, developed by the Australian government, Brisbane-based mining research center Mining3, Mitsui & Co (USA) and ENGIE. Chilean development agency Corfo is also a partner.

The initiative, part of Antofagasta’s strategy to combat climate change, aims to build a hydrogen-based hybrid engine with batteries and cells as well as to understand the element’s real potential to replace diesel.

“If this pilot delivers favourable results, we expect to have extraction trucks using hydrogen within five years,” Centinela’s general manager, Carlos Espinoza, said in the statement.

Chile’s mining sector employs over 1,500 haulage trucks, each consuming 3,600 litres of diesel a day, according to the mining ministry. The vehicles account for 45% of the industry’s energy consumption, generating 7Bt/y of carbon emissions.

As part of its Climate Change Strategy, Antofagasta has adopted measures to mitigate the possible impacts of its operations. In 2018, it was one of the first mining companies to commit to a goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 300,000 tonnes by 2022. Thanks to a series of initiatives, the group not only met its objective two years earlier, it also nearly doubled it, achieving a 580,000-tonne emissions cut by the end of 2020.

Earlier this week, the copper producer joined other 27 members of the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM) to commit to a goal of net zero direct and indirect carbon emissions by 2050 or sooner.

The London-listed miner, which has four copper operations in Chile, plans to run its Centinela mine solely on renewable energy from 2022 onwards.

Antofagasta had previously signed a deal with Chilean electricity producer Colbún SA to power its Zaldívar copper mine, a 50-50 joint venture with Canada’s Barrick Gold, with renewable energy only.

The company, majority-owned by Chile’s Luksic family, one of the country’s wealthiest, had hoped to have Zaldívar fully converted to renewables last year. The global pandemic has delayed the plan.

Antofagasta has simultaneously converted all its electricity supply contracts to use only clean energy sources. By the end of 2022, all four of the group’s operations will use 100% renewable energy, it said.

Donald Trump’s own treasury secretary blocked Ivanka World Bank role – report

Steven Mnuchin said to have stopped move likely to have upset world leaders, which ‘came incredibly close to happening’

Canadian foreign minister Chrystia Freeland, Ivanka Trump, International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde and German chancellor Angela Merkel are seen during a panel in Berlin. 

Photograph: Markus Schreiber/AP

Martin Pengelly in New York
THE GUARDIAN
Mon 11 Oct 2021

Only direct intervention from his own treasury secretary stopped Donald Trump nominating his daughter, Ivanka Trump, to lead the World Bank, according to a new report.

The Trump kids look likely to turn on their dad – and I suspect Ivanka will go first
Arwa Mahdawi

Citing two anonymous sources, the Intercept said the appointment “came incredibly close to happening” in January 2019, but for Steven Mnuchin’s decision to step in.

Mnuchin, a Goldman Sachs banker and film producer, stayed in the post for all Trump’s four years in office, a rare feat among Trump’s cabinet picks and advisers.

The head of the World Bank is always chosen by the US. In January 2019, Jim Yong Kim resigned. Rumours abounded that Ivanka Trump, an executive in the Trump Organization before her father entered politics, would be chosen.
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Three months later, Trump told the Atlantic: “I even thought of Ivanka for the World Bank … she would’ve been great at that because she’s very good with numbers.”

If he had nominated his daughter, Trump said, “they’d say nepotism, when it would’ve had nothing to do with nepotism. But she would’ve been incredible.”

Ivanka Trump told reporters her father offered her the job but she turned it down, as she was “happy with the work” as a senior White House adviser.

She filled that role for all four years of her father’s term – attracting widespread accusations of nepotism and profiting from her office.

She helped select the new World Bank head, David Malpass, then undersecretary of the treasury for international affairs and a controversial choice.

Scott Morris, director of the US development policy program at the Center for Global Development in Washington, told the Intercept “a growing number of countries” are not happy that the US always picks the World Bank head.

“For them to hear how close it was to being the US president’s daughter probably adds fuel to the fire that the Americans are so cavalier about this,” he said.

In April 2019, the Atlantic also reported that Trump sometimes called Ivanka “baby” during meetings, and said: “If she ever wanted to run for president I think she’d be very, very hard to beat.”

Rick Gates, a former Trump aide, has claimed Trump wanted his daughter to be his running mate in 2016.

After her father’s defeat by Joe Biden, Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner, also a former senior White House adviser, moved their family to Florida. After months of speculation, Ivanka said she would not challenge an incumbent Republican, Marco Rubio, for his US Senate seat.

Donald Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr, is a more active political presence, often polling highly with Republican voters about potential nominees for president in 2024. Like other figures, he trails his father by wide margins.

Donald Trump continues to lie about his election defeat, which he says was the result of electoral fraud. He, Donald Jr, Ivanka and other members of the Trump family remain in legal jeopardy, amid investigations of the former president’s political machinations and financial affairs.

In the Atlantic interview in which he raised the World Bank idea, Trump also called his oldest daughter “a natural diplomat” who “would’ve been great at the United Nations”.

In her role as a presidential adviser, Ivanka Trump endured some notably awkward moments on the diplomatic stage, from inappropriately taking her father’s seat at a G20 summit in Hamburg in 2017 to being filmed, in Osaka two years later, trying to join a conversation between world leaders.

Line 3 did something rare for a pipeline that exports Canadian crude: It got built

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A look at the Line 3 oil pipeline — what it does and doesn't do, and what it's damaged

Alexander Panetta · CBC News · Posted: Oct 11, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

The Enbridge Line 3 pipeline seen during construction in Park Rapids, Minn., on June 6. (Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters)

A phenomenon recently unfolded that represents a rarity in this era of vocal opposition to Canadian fossil-fuel projects.

A major pipeline project exporting oil from Canada was just completed and it began operating with relatively little national attention.

The Line 3 project attracted much less scrutiny than Keystone XL from American protesters, media and politicians.

It didn't even appear to be the top pipeline story in Canada last week — that distinction likely belonged to Line 5, which is escalating as a political irritant between Canada and the U.S.

Yet Line 3 was up and running on Oct. 1, adding 370,000 barrels per day in new exports from Alberta to Wisconsin, which is more than half the output the scrapped Keystone XL project was supposed to achieve.

• Tea and sympathy: Canadian frigate helps Royal Navy solve a high-seas catering crisis

As a result, Canadian oil exports to the United States just reached one of their highest-ever weekly volumes, according to the latest U.S. numbers.

However, the process of getting the pipeline built through Minnesota illustrated the risks of completing such a project in this era.

The project's legacy

Its legacy includes an environmental disaster, a controversial arrangement with police, and legal fights and protests that are ongoing.

So was it a game-changer — either for Alberta's oil sector or for the climate?

Winona LaDuke, an Indigenous activist, economist and former Green Party U.S. vice-presidential candidate, seen here at a protest in Park Rapids, Minn. back in June, says she was arrested multiple times for protesting the Line 3 project. (Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters)

An energy economist at the University of Alberta doubts it will have a significant impact on either oilsands investment or on greenhouse gas emissions.

Andrew Leach has a new paper out in the Alberta Law Review that suggests we're unlikely to see any brand new oil export pipelines ever built from Canada. 

This particular project by Alberta-based Enbridge involved changes to a line built in 1968 that had seen its capacity erode over time. The renovation restored that original capacity, installed a slightly wider pipe and altered parts of the route.

Leach said the project is unlikely to prompt a flood of new investment in Alberta.

A map of the Line 3 route. The new project refurbished and expanded the capacity of the aging pipeline and altered part of the original route. (CBC News)

Pipelines are, in his estimation, a sideshow to the main factor that drives investment decisions in the oilsands: Global oil prices.

For example, he says, pipeline shortages or availability might affect the value of a barrel of oil by at most $12, but oil prices, on the other hand, have swung by multiple times that amount in recent years.

"Oil prices are the big one," he said.

"The overall oil market is weaker than it used to be, which is most of what's driving the … declining growth in oilsands production." 

This project did, however, leave an impact in Minnesota. 

Massive damage to aquifer

That impact includes a massive amount of damage to a water source in the northeastern part of the state. An aquifer was punctured during construction and that has led to a leak of many millions of gallons of groundwater. 

Enbridge has been fined $3.32 million by the state of Minnesota and ordered to repair the damage.  

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources found that the company failed to follow environmental laws and did not respect the conditions of its construction plan when it dug a trench far larger than allowed.

Demonstrators locked themselves to Enbridge equipment during a protest against the pipeline in Hubbard County, Minn, back on June 7. Enbridge spent more than $3 million on a fund that paid Minnesota police forces to protect the project. (Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters)

The company incurred another cost that speaks to local opposition to its work: paying for policing.

Enbridge was ordered by state regulators to pay into an escrow account that would fund Minnesota police operations to protect the project. It was a condition for Enbridge receiving state approval for its project in 2018. 

The latest figures provided to CBC News by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission last week said the account had paid out $3.1 million.

This has drawn outrage from activists and critical coverage from some media in the U.S. and U.K. 

"It's brutal," said Winona LaDuke, an economist, ecologist, Indigenous activist, and two-time U.S. vice-presidential candidate for the Green Party.

"It's brutal what they've done to our society. It's brutal what they've done to our legal system and regulatory system. And it's brutal what they've done to our environment and to Indigenous people. Nobody gets a tiara for putting in this pipeline. This is horrible."

The payments to police

In an interview with CBC News, LaDuke said she herself was arrested several times, charged with trespassing and unlawful assembly, and spent three nights in jail while protesting Line 3.

She said there have been 900 arrests over the project.

LaDuke accused Minnesota police of "prostituting" themselves, being paid by a foreign company to arrest American protesters.

Enbridge's response to opponents: Oil will still be used for years — for transportation and heating, and for manufacturing products such as medical equipment, seen here. New pipelines, the company says, are the safest and cleanest way to transport it. (Kathleen Flynn/Reuters)

As for the company, she said: "They've really ... made a mess of northern Minnesota. They should not be proud of themselves. Canada should not be proud of Enbridge."

She said Canada should be having a real conversation about whether the oil economy is worth having its companies arrest foreign citizens.

Company: 'We are very proud' of project

The company vigorously defended the project. 

In an email exchange with CBC News, it said this newer, safer pipeline, with thicker steel and more advanced coating than the 1968 original, will more securely carry oil — oil that people still rely on to drive, cook and build products, from medical supplies to winter coats.

"This was the largest project in our company's history, and we are very proud of that achievement," Enbridge spokesperson Jesse Semko said in an email.

As for the relationship with Minnesota police, he said the company was required to pay into the fund by state regulators.

And he said that to receive payments, local authorities had to submit written, itemized requests for reimbursement to the state-appointed manager of the fund.

He said police made decisions on law enforcement after receiving tips from company employees working on the route.

"Our security workers were armed only with cellphones," Semko wrote. "They contacted police when protesters endangered themselves or our workers."

Workers attempt to cut activists free after they chained themselves to a speedboat during demonstrations against Line 3 in Park Rapids, Minn., on June 8. (Nicholas Pfosi/Reuters)

Construction is over. But opposition isn't.

There will be several days' worth of protests this week in Washington against this and other pipeline projects and Line 3 opponents are still hoping to block it in tribal and federal courts.

 

Artificial intelligence suggests a new narrative for the Out of Africa process

by Estonian Research Council

West African migrations. Credit: Saoni Banerji/Wikimedia

Researchers from Estonia and Italy developed an innovative method by combining neural networks and statistics. Using this newly developed method, they refined the "Out of Africa" scenario. The researchers claimed that the African dynamics around the time of the Out of Africa expansion are more complex than previously thought.

Archaeologists and geneticists agree that all modern humans originated somewhere in Africa around 300 thousand years ago. The population movement that colonized the rest of the globe occurred approximately 60-70 thousand years ago. Both Y-chromosomal data (which follows patrilineal lineage) and the Mitochondrial genome (which follows the matrilineal line) agree on this. However, the exact relationship between the people who left Africa and the human populations currently inhabiting the continent is not fully understood.

A simplistic model would see the first phase of within-Africa population subdivisions, followed by a separation between the ancestors of modern Eurasians and the ancestors of modern East or North-East Africans. New research on this topic, recently published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, argues that the Out of Africa expansion was preceded by a significant population turnover from East to West Africa. This event likely homogenized West and East Africans. This turnover, which may account for up to 90% of the contemporary West African gene pool, increased the affinity between West Africans and Eurasians. This event better explains the lower bound (~60 thousand years ago) inferred from genetic data for the separation time between Africans and non-Africans.

"A similar hypothesis was proposed before for the Y chromosome. But this is the first time we demonstrated it for autosomal DNA," said Francesco Montinaro, a Lead author in this study from the University of Bari. Autosomal DNA comes from both parents, instead of Y-chromosome or Mitochondria, which comes only from one of our parents.

"It is fascinating to see how our understanding of the human past becomes ever more complex and detailed. Our new model can give us a clue why West Africa shows such a young separation time from the out of Africa populations," said Vasili Pankratov, a lead co-author from the University of Tartu.

Researchers shed new light on the origins of modern humans

More information: Revisiting the Out of Africa event with a Deep Learning approach, American Journal of Human Genetics (2021). doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.09.006

Journal information: American Journal of Human Genetics 

Provided by Estonian Research Council