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)
Monday, November 08, 2021
NO PSYCHIATRIC TIME?!23 SKIDOO
Man who's sorry for burning B.C. Masonic buildings gets 2.5 years with time served
VANCOUVER — A British Columbia provincial court judge has sentenced a man who set fire to three Masonic buildings to 40 months in prison.
Minus time served, Benjamin Kohlman's sentence amounts to about 2 1/2 years in prison. The 43-year-old man pleaded guilty in September to arson charges for setting three fires within an hour of each other, two in North Vancouver and one in Vancouver.
Judge Laura Bakan said she accepted Kohlman was sorry for his actions and offered her hope that he would be able to deal with his addiction issues while in prison. The court heard the fires caused more than $2.5 million in damage, including the complete loss of the Masonic hall in North Vancouver.
Both Crown counsel and Kohlman's defence lawyer told the court he targeted Masonic buildings in an attempt to stop the "Illuminati using mind control" and voices directed him to start the fires.
Crown attorney Jonas Dow had asked for a prison sentence up to five years, while the defence called for a two- to three-year sentence.
Kohlman's lawyer, Jessica Dawkins, told the court her client set the fires early in the morning so no one would be harmed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2021.
The Canadian Press
Terrifying 3-Foot Scorpion Which Skewered Prey With Spines Found in China
Researchers in China have found the fossilized remains of a fearsome sea scorpion. The creature grew to over 3 feet in length and had an enlarged back limb covered with an arrangement of spines used for ensnaring prey.
The new creature is part of the mixopterid family of the eurypterids, a group of species known for their specialized front arms or "pedipalps." This family of sea scorpions more closely reflects what we think of as the traditional image of a scorpion, with a large tail and enlarged front claws, and this creature is no exception.
This mixopterid, which has been named Terropterus xiushanensis had front arms covered in spiny protrusions. These appendages were likely used as a "catching basket" used to ensnare prey. Its fearsome enlarged "tail" was tipped with a spear-like appendage.
The three Terropterus fossils discovered, one complete and two incomplete, indicate that the creature could grow to over 3 feet long. This large size is also something that is characterized by other mixopterids.
The team that discovered the eurypterid, the formal name for a sea scorpion, believes that it could have been a top predator in the shallow waters of South China between 444 and 419 million years ago.
This coincides with the Silurian period in Earth's history. Though Eurypterids first enter the fossil record in the Ordovician period between 485 and 445 million years ago, they increased in diversity significantly in the Silurian period. The creatures would be completely extinct by the Permian period of Earth's history, which began 300 million years ago.
Terropterus xiushanensis recently discovered in fossils discovered in China may have been a fearsome predator in shallow waters around 440 million years ago.NIGPAS
The discovery is an important step in establishing the diversity of creatures that existed during the Silurian period. Currently, very few large predators have been found in the shallow seas of China that existed during that period.
"Our knowledge of mixopterids is limited to only four species in two genera, which were all based on a few fossil specimens from the Silurian Laurussia 80 years ago," said doctoral researcher Wang Bo from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Wang Bo is one of the authors of a paper discussing the discovery published in the journal Science Bulletin.
The fact that the fossil record contains such pristinely preserved appendages is important in the discovery of the diverse morphological characteristics of the ancient mixopterids.
Terropterus is the oldest example of a mixopterid discovered and the first of this class of sea scorpion found that would have swum the seas of Gondwana, the supercontinent that broke apart around 180 million years ago.
Four other examples of mixopterid species, described by the paper's authors as "bizarre animals" have been discovered from the Silurian period, but these existed in the Pangea landmass of Laurasia, made up mostly of what is now North America.
The team hopes that future research in Asia may uncover more mixopterids and even additional groups of eurypterids.
Eurypterids seen swimming in a group in a stock illustration. Researchers have discovered a new species of Eurypterid or sea scorpion which could have dominated the shallow seas of China around 440 million years ago.AUNT_SPRAY/GETTY
Nevado del Ruiz volcano (Colombia): continuing ash emissions, ashfall reported in nearby towns
Mon, 8 Nov 2021, 05:0505:05 AM | BY: MARTIN Gas and ash emissions from Nevado del Ruiz volcano yesterday (image: SGC) Images of ashfalls by local people in Manizales and Villamaría towns (image: SGC)The activity of the volcano is characterized by continuous ash emissions over the past few days. The local observatory recorded a seismic signal associated with constant emissions of ash and gas at the summit vent, but at higher intensity than usual. Ash plumes rose about 1,640 ft (500 m) above the summit and drifted into various directions, but most often W-NW direction during the past few hours. Soon after eruptions, a mild rain of ash fall set in, occurring in the Manizales and Villamaría towns including La Nubia airport that has been threatened by ash on the runway. The alert level for the volcano remains at "yellow". Source: Servicio Geológico Colombiano volcano activity update 7 November 2021
Edmonton Elks go winless at home this season, fall 19-17 to Saskatchewan Roughriders
Edmonton Elks' Walter Fletcher (25) holds on to the ball after being tackled by Saskatchewan Roughriders' Loucheiz Purifoy (5), right, and and Deon Lacey (45) during second half CFL action in Edmonton on Friday, November 5, 2021 (The Canadian Press/Amber Bracken).
The Edmonton Elks will finish a CFL season without a win at home for the first time in the team's 72-year history.
Despite a furious fourth-quarter rally, a 19-17 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Friday condemned the Elks (2-9) to an 0-7 record at Commonwealth Stadium in 2021,which is an infamous achievement in a year when the team also rebranded with a new name.
AND THAT'S ALL WE HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THAT
COP26: Fossil fuel industry has largest delegation at climate summit
ALBERTA LETS BIG OIL TALK FOR IT
By Matt McGrath
BBC Environment correspondent
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
There are more delegates at COP26 associated with the fossil fuel industry than from any single country, analysis shared with the BBC shows.
They found that 503 people with links to fossil fuel interests had been accredited for the climate summit.
These delegates are said to lobby for oil and gas industries, and campaigners say they should be banned.
"The fossil fuel industry has spent decades denying and delaying real action on the climate crisis, which is why this is such a huge problem," says Murray Worthy from Global Witness.
"Their influence is one of the biggest reasons why 25 years of UN climate talks have not led to real cuts in global emissions."
About 40,000 people are attending the COP. Brazil has the biggest official team of negotiators according to UN data, with 479 delegates.
The UK, which is hosting the talk in Glasgow, has 230 registered delegates.
So what counts as a fossil fuel lobbyist? Global Witness, Corporate Accountability and others who have carried out the analysis define a fossil fuel lobbyist as someone who is part of a delegation of a trade association or is a member of a group that represents the interests of oil and gas companies.
Overall, they identified 503 people employed by or associated with these interests at the summit.
They also found that:
Fossil fuel lobbyists are members of 27 country delegations, including Canada and Russia The fossil fuel lobby at COP is larger than the combined total of the eight delegations from the countries worst affected by climate change in the past 20 years
More than 100 fossil fuel companies are represented at COP, with 30 trade associations and membership organisations also present
Fossil fuel lobbyists dwarf the UNFCCC's official indigenous constituency by about two to one
According to Global Witness, IETA is backed by many major oil companies who promote offsetting and carbon trading as a way of allowing them to continue extracting oil and gas.
"This is an association that has an enormous number of fossil fuel company as its members. Its agenda is driven by fossil fuel companies and serves the interests of fossil fuel companies," Mr Worthy said.
"What we seeing is the putting forward of false solutions that appear to be climate action but actually preserve the status quo, and prevent us from taking the clear, simple actions to keep fossil fuels in the ground that we know are the real solutions to climate crisis."
The IETA says it exists to find the most efficient market-based means of driving down emissions. Members include fossil fuel companies but also a range of other businesses.
"We have law firms, we have project developers, the guys who are putting clean technology on the ground around the world, they're also members of our association as well," says Alessandro Vitelli, an IETA spokesman.
"We're not coming to a shuddering halt today and tomorrow, and suddenly there's going to be no emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels."
"There is a process to transition that's under way, and carbon markets are the best way to make sure that transition takes place."
Campaign groups argue that the World Health Organization didn't get serious about banning tobacco until all the lobbyists for the industry were banned from WHO meetings. They want the same treatment for oil and gas companies at COP.
"The likes of Shell and BP are inside these talks despite openly admitting to upping their production of fossil gas," said Pascoe Sabido of the Corporate Europe Observatory, who were also involved in the analysis.
"If we're serious about raising ambition, then fossil fuel lobbyists should be shut out of the talks."
The BBC asked the UN body responsible for accrediting delegates about its procedures, but has not received a reply.
Hydrogen will play a critical role in Canada's goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, according to two reports from the University of Calgary released on Thursday.
The reports explore how energy produced from hydrogen can be used to help bridge today's fossil fuels-based systems and complement renewable power sources like wind and solar.
"We know now that energy efficiency is a key strategy, clean electrification is a key strategy, but they're not enough together," Chris Bataille, an industrial decarbonization specialist and one of the reports' authors, told CTV News Edmonton.
"We know we need to switch to other fuels and biofuels and a couple of other things," he said. "But hydrogen is a key strategy as well."
Bataille said hydrogen can do a lot of the same things natural gas can, but can be made using two clean methods.
"You can make it from methane and bury the CO2 underground, or you can make it from clean electricity using electrolysis."
The Simon Fraser University adjunct professor said Alberta industries like chemical production, fertilizer production and upgrading of crude oil would be the first practical applications for hydrogen technology.
"But eventually you want to start thinking about taking it into the electricity sector," said Bataille. "Blending it with natural gas in the combustion turbines that are used to make electricity and eventually completely switching them."
ALBERTA ADVANTAGES
One of the two reports that were co-authored by Bataille states that "Alberta has many advantages that make hydrogen feasible as a pathway to decarbonizing its power grid." "First, the steam and combustion turbines that are powered by natural gas today to produce electricity in Alberta can be adapted to use hydrogen. Second, Alberta has vast amounts of natural gas that can be used to produce hydrogen, and ample geology for underground carbon capture and storage for the greenhouse gases emitted in producing hydrogen," the report reads in part.
"And third, in periods where the province’s renewable energy sources produce excess electricity, that power can be used to produce hydrogen, which can be stored for later use when renewable energy is less available."
In June, a major hydrogen production company, Air Products Inc., signed a memorandum of understanding with all three levels of government to invest $1.3 billion to build a net-zero hydrogen energy complex just east of Edmonton.
The site would produce hydrogen-fueled electricity and liquid hydrogen for international markets.
According to Air Products Inc., if all goes to plan, the "landmark" site would be operational by 2024. PROVINCIAL PROJECTS
Last year, the Alberta government released its plan "to become a global supplier of clean, responsibly sourced natural gas," with its Natural Gas Vision Strategy.
The province's strategy includes the goal of exporting hydrogen globally by 2040.
"Absolutely critical in my mind to a clean and stable transition for Alberta and Saskatchewan is get your fugitives under control," said Bataille.
"It's the methane that's leaking at the well, that's leaking from the pipelines, that's being flared and incompletely combusted."
Bataille pointed out that methane that is not combusted is a 30 to 100 times more powerful greenhouse gas than CO2.
He said the process of reducing methane emissions is labour intensive but technically speaking easily done.
"One of the key things the Alberta government could get into right away, probably fairly uncontroversially, is to dramatically reduce those fugitives."
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderso
YOUR PENSION AND MINE
McAfee to be taken private by investor group that includes CPPIB in $14-billion deal
McAfee Corp said on Monday a consortium led by U.S. private equity firm Advent International will take the cybersecurity company private in a $14-billion deal.
The deal comes as a pandemic-driven shift to remote working and a rise in cyber attacks have spurred demand for antivirus and digital security software.
The company, founded by U.S. technology entrepreneur John McAfee in 1987, was the first to bring to market a commercial antivirus. Intel bought it in 2011, when McAfee himself no longer had any involvement.
In the last few years, McAfee has strengthened its main cybersecurity software business that focuses on retail via price increases, new partner programs and good retention rates. As part of the transaction, the investor group will acquire all outstanding shares of McAfee common stock for $26 per share in an all-cash deal that values McAfee at about $12-billion on an equity basis.
The purchase price represents a premium of 22.6 per cent over McAfee’s closing share price of $21.21 on Nov. 4, the last trading day before the Wall Street Journal reported about the deal talks.
Shares, of the San Jose, California-based company, which made its market debut last year, were down more than 3 per cent at $25.36 in premarket trading, slightly below the offer price.
In a similar deal in August, U.S. cybersecurity company NortonLifeLock Inc had agreed to buy London-listed rival Avast Plc for up to $8.6-billion to create a leader in consumer security software.
The Advent-led consortium also includes private equity firms Permira Advisers LLC, Crosspoint Capital Partners and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board among others.
Goldman Sachs & Co LLC and Morgan Stanley & Co LLC are the financial advisers to McAfee.
In taking action on climate, this Arctic community wants to be a beacon to the world
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Yukon town that is seeing effects of climate change
Old Crow, Yukon, population 250, is located 130 kilometres above the Arctic Circle. (Mia Sheldon/CBC)
Our planet is changing. So is our journalism. This story is part of a CBC News initiative entitled Our Changing Planet to show and explain the effects of climate change and what is being done about it.
In Old Crow, the Yukon's northernmost community, some freezers still hum, even in late October.
That's odd. Typically, the appliances, which sit on porches, are plugged in during the summer but unplugged when it gets colder, as the frigid air does the work of refrigeration, averting the need to rely on expensive electricity.
The problem is, it isn't sufficiently cold yet.
When an Old Crow resident tells this story around a fire at a mountainside camp, the Vuntut Gwitchin elders standing nearby nod. They know all about the freezer situation.
There is snow everywhere here, 130 kilometres above the Arctic Circle, but by their standards, not much. It's cold, but not cold enough.
WATCH | How Old Crow is dealing with climate change:
A remote First Nation north of the Arctic Circle, Old Crow is seeing how climate change is impacting its landscape and wildlife populations. But the small community has big ambitions and vows to be carbon neutral by 2030. 7:58
The Porcupine caribou they rely on to hunt have returned, but the herd is late and there don't seem to be many of them in the area right now. It's not at all like those years when the mountains looked alive, there were so many caribou up there.
The caribou that have recently shown up dig through the snow for the nutritious lichen they crave and find some of it trapped under ice. This isn't good. The ice only forms because the weather has been warm enough for rain or wet snow, which eventually freezes. Snowfalls pile on top, but that ice has done damage by locking the lichen in.
Of course, the caribou can get through it with their snouts and hooves, but it takes energy they are trying to conserve. The hunters and elders in the area figure the caribou might move on to more fruitful feeding grounds.
A solitary caribou is seen on a mountain in Old Crow in late October. (Mia Sheldon/CBC)
This is the reality of the North in a changing climate. The Arctic is warming at a rate of two to three times the rest of the world, and while the signs of it may seem invisible to an outsider, they are disturbingly clear if you call Old Crow home.
'The ice is not safe to go on'
Seventy-five-year-old Elizabeth Kaye lives here and says it is deeply changed.
"I am excited to know that the caribou is here," she said. "But that excitement also changed for me because I waited so long and I should have already been done working with the caribou, all stored away and moving onto the next [task], which for me is ice fishing.
Old Crow resident Elizabeth Kaye, 75, says that by October, she is usually ice fishing. But this year, 'Here I am, still waiting.' (Mia Sheldon/CBC)
"But I can't go. The ice is not safe to go on. Way back, I used to go ice fishing in October. And here I am, still waiting."
What is especially worrying about changes in the North is a phenomenon called Arctic amplification. The more the Earth warms, the more it leads to conditions that cause additional warming.
Fabrice Calmels, research chair in permafrost and geoscience at Yukon University in Whitehorse and a collaborator on the Polar Knowledge Project, explains it this way:
"Sea and glacier ice, which used to reflect and send back solar heat energy, are melting. Therefore, more heat energy is absorbed by areas previously covered by ice, which results in additional warming. It is why if you [put] two cars under the sun, one being white, the other being black, you feel that the black one is much warmer."
Calmels studies permafrost thaw in Old Crow, which over the years has hosted climatologists, hydrologists and permafrost researchers. He says there are sensors throughout Old Crow evaluating the extent of the permafrost thaw. It is mapped, too, in order to measure and rank the risk in building on that land.
The scientists and the community work in concert to find ways to adapt and mitigate the effects of warming, but the data only backs up the experiences of people who have lived on the land.
Declaring an emergency
The elders appreciate the scientific work, but none of them standing around that crackling fire, waiting for the hunters to secure the caribou, need an international conference like COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, to tell them the gravity of climate change.
The still-open water, thawing permafrost and eroding shorelines — which make some waterways inaccessible — offer evidence that screams at them.
This is why Old Crow has had it. More than fatigue, there is fear in waiting for the world's largest carbon emitters to care enough to act.
So in May 2019, the young chief, Dana Tizya-Tramm, declared a climate emergency, making this one of the first Indigenous communities to do so.
WATCH | Old Crow chief wants to inspire global climate action:
Turn captions Old Crow Chief Dana Tizya-Tramm talks to Adrienne Arsenault about his passion for fighting climate change and why he thinks if his Yukon village can promise to be carbon neutral by 2030, larger communities can too. 6:18
If you read the declaration, Tizya-Tramm says, "it's not asking anyone for anything. It's putting the world on notice at any table we sit at, internationally through the Arctic Council, nationally with the prime minister, regionally, climate change is going to be the No. 1 issue driving the conversation."
Once the declaration was issued, the First Nation got to work. For one thing, it pledged to be carbon neutral by 2030.
On the face of it, that seems a bit of a lofty, unreachable goal. Tiny Old Crow, 250-people strong, is a fly-in community that relies on diesel being flown in several times a year. The fuel the community needs to power the diesel generators every year produces emissions equivalent to 500 transatlantic flights.
Tizya-Tramm wants to find a way to turn off the generators for good. A solid start is the 2,000-panel solar project that sits alongside treasured berry patches. For a place with 24-hour sunshine in the summer, this has enormous promise.
Tizya-Tramm says it is the largest solar project in the North. When it turned on this summer, it enabled the community to turn off the diesel generators for the first time in nearly 50 years. Over the course of a year, that solar project will save 189,000 litres of diesel fuel.
Turning to the sun
The solar panels sit right outside the window of elder Lorraine Netro.
She used to have a clear view of the berry patch, which provided more than cranberries and blueberries — the act of picking is important culturally, physically and mentally. Looking at those huge solar panels, which now displace a little bit of the patch, took some getting used to, Netro admits.
The solar panels that the community recently installed will meet a quarter of its energy needs. (Mia Sheldon/CBC)
"But we had to make that decision. As elders in this community.... How are we going to be part of this [climate] solution?"
Acting in the common good is a huge motivator for Vuntut Gwitchin and their chief, who wants their work to signal what is possible to everyone else.
"If my community with a single solar project can satisfy one quarter of our energy needs, if 250 people in a small village 80 miles north of the Arctic Circle can displace 189,000 litres of diesel fuel of their own volition, then we're showing community is where the strength is," he said.
The community is also about a year into a feasibility study on whether wind can help supply more power during the darkest winter months.
Then, there is the willow shrub, which seems especially fond of climate change. Thanks to warmer, wetter weather, it is growing taller and thicker than anyone ever remembers.
This poses a curious problem. The shrub chokes trails for animals and people, blocks access to berry patches and may be another contributor to shifting caribou migration patterns.
These willow shrubs have the potential to become a major energy source for people in Old Crow. (Jared Thomas/CBC)
The shrub is a pain. But in it, Old Crow also sees opportunity.
Hunter and Deputy Chief Paul Josie, standing next to a shrub growing taller than him, says it happens to be an excellent biofuel. It grows so quickly that it can be harvested three or more times in seven-year cycles.
"It means putting it through a chipper and drying it to produce energy and heat," he said.
Aiming for a 'ripple effect'
This is where the wheels of leadership go into overdrive. There are willow shrub fuel projects elsewhere in the North and across the continent, so why not Old Crow?
What if, Chief Tizya-Tramm wonders, these projects can do more than cut down on the need for greenhouse gas-emitting diesel energy? What if they can bring jobs and income for the community?
"Instead of youth delivering newspapers like you might see in a neighbourhood in the city, our youth will be harvesting our willow species to burn in our incinerators," he hypothesized.
"Our solar panel project alone is generating about $410,000 dollars a year through a disruptive business model through our electricity purchase agreement with the local utility. Where we used to export that money, we're now bringing it back into the community."
To fight climate change, deputy chief Paul Josie wants to keep the community's traditional ways alive while looking to new, sustainable technologies. (Mia Sheldon/CBC)
Tizya-Tramm was invited to COP 26 but didn't go. The last time he went to a COP conference, he left early, feeling the voices of Indigenous people were marginalized. This time around, he sent a video instead.
"We can't give our power to any politician, to any CEO, to anyone," Tizya-Tramm said, capturing the essence of his message. "This is a time when we must embody and take our power as a household, as a family, as a community."
Tizya-Tramm and Josie both recently had baby daughters, and they keep their little ones and their futures in mind all the time. The challenge is how to keep the traditional ways alive, helped along with new, sustainable technology.
"I want to have all those cultural traditions ingrained in [my daughter's] life," Josie said with a smile. "We want to make these changes to start the ripple effect."
Nfld. & Labrador
Vale shopping low-carbon N.L. nickel to burgeoning EV sector; with pledges to get greener
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Company confirms it's in talks with suppliers to electric
Nickel rounds come off the production line at the new Long Harbour Processing Plant in this November 2014 photo. The plant has now reached 80 per cent of its annual production capacity of 50,000 tonnes. (Terry Roberts/CBC)
Vale is aggressively promoting the low-carbon footprint of its mining and processing operations in Newfoundland and Labrador, with hopes of positioning its eastern Canadian operations as a preferred supplier to the burgeoning battery electric vehicle market.
The company is touting a third-party assessment of its N.L. operations that revealed nickel rounds produced in the province go to market at a substantially lower environmental cost than the industry standard.
Vale is also promising to do even better from an emissions standpoint at its northern Labrador mine in Voisey's Bay, often referred to as one of the most significant mineral discoveries in Canada, and at its innovative processing plant in Long Harbour, Placenta Bay.
"Vale is committed to reducing the carbon footprint of its operations," a company spokesperson wrote in a statement to CBC News.
From diesel to wind power in Labrador
According to the company, plans are in the works to develop wind-powered energy at Voisey's Bay, with the potential to reduce the mine's current greenhouse gas emissions by up to 30 per cent. Vale is working with a partnership involving the business arms of the Innu and Inuit governments in Labrador, and an independent, Toronto-based power producer called Envest.
Even to the untrained eye, a metallurgical core sample from Voisey's Bay is immediately recognized as something unique, both in appearance and weight. (Eddy Kennedy/CBC)
The company is also studying the viability of converting to an electric boiler at Long Harbour to further reduce diesel use.
The Voisey's Bay mine, a remote site accessible only by air or sea, is powered by diesel generators and is the seventh-largest polluter in the province. In 2020, it reported total greenhouse gas emissions of 111,000 tonnes, according to the provincial government. The processing plant at Long Harbour was less than half that amount, at roughly 46,000 tonnes.
Emissions at Voisey's Bay are expected to increase in the short term as new underground deposits are developed, requiring greater dependence on diesel fuel, but a spokesman said Vale is "on a pathway to substantially reduce its GHG footprint" in Labrador.
Big demand, returns for nickel
With market watchers predicting strong long-term demand and high returns, and with electric vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers scrambling for a reliable and environmentally sustainable supply, nickel producers are looking to get noticed by companies like Tesla.
And Vale is playing a very familiar card in this era of climate change and ethically produced products.
Access to the nickel processing plant in Long Harbour, Placentia Bay, is tightly restricted, but beyond this sign, the operator says some 1,000 employees and contractors were working last month, refining products such as nickel, copper and cobalt. (Danny Arsenault/CBC)
In a recent news release, Vale executive Mark Travers said, "The low-carbon footprint of our Long Harbour rounds positions Vale well in the growing electric vehicle industry, in North America and beyond."
Vale describes its Long Harbour operation as "one of the world's lowest emission nickel processing plants."
In operation since 2014, the Long Harbour refinery produces nickel using what's called hydrometallurgy, rather than the more traditional pyrometallurgy, avoiding the need for high-emission smelters and smokestacks.
An assessment by British-based Intertek Group — an assurance, inspection, product testing and certification company — found that nickel rounds produced in Long Harbour have a carbon footprint of 4.4 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per tonne of nickel.
The global average emissions for Class 1 nickel is 13 tonnes of CO2 per tonne of nickel, and 45 tonnes for class 2 nickel, according to Vale.
Vale a major employer
With data like that in hand, Vale has betting big on its Newfoundland and Labrador operations.
"Customers in this fast-growing market want high-purity, responsibly sourced nickel, and Vale is ready to supply it," said Travers.
CBC was unable to arrange an interview with Travers, but in a followup to a series of questions, Vale officials confirmed talks are ongoing with companies that produce parts and equipment for electric vehicle manufacturers, including battery producers and battery materials producers.
The areas highlighted in red indicate the location of confirmed mineral deposits at Voisey's Bay in Labrador. Underground mining operations are being established at Reid Brook and Eastern Deeps. (Wheaton Precious Metals)
The company would not provide any details about contracts or commitments, but said Vale is keen to "understand their needs, considering current and future volumes, and how we can fulfil part of it and grow our exposure."
That's good news for the hundreds of people working for Vale in the province. Up to last month, the company said there were some 1,000 employees and contractors working in Long Harbour, while a labour leader says the number of unionized workers at Voisey's Bay has swelled to 800.
Vale push is timely
About five per cent of Vale's Class 1 nickel production is sold to the electric vehicle industry, while the biggest demand is from stainless steel producers.
Vale's push into the EV sector is timely on a number of fronts. First, there were an estimated 20 million electric vehicles on the roads by 2020, according to the International Energy Agency, with more than 50,000 electric vehicle registrations in Canada last year.
By 2035, the federal government will require that all cars and passenger trucks sold in Canada be zero-emitting, part of a strategy to meet Canada's climate targets, including a net zero emissions commitment by 2050.
It sets the stage for a scenario in which fossil fuels are slowly phased out while the market for the lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars grows.
Nickel is a critical ingredient in these batteries, and experts believe that as battery technology evolves, the role of nickel will become even more important as producers look to maximize performance and reduce costs.
Expanding underground
Second, Vale is in the midst of a significant transformation at its Newfoundland and Labrador operations, one that will extend the life of the Voisey's Bay operation.
Operations at Vale's open-pit mine and concentrator in Voisey's Bay began in 2005, with billions in minerals being extracted from the famous Ovoid, at what insiders say was a low cost to Vale.
But the surface mine is nearly exhausted, and Vale has now expanded underground, with the first ore from its Reid Brook deposit reported in June. A second deposit, Eastern Deeps, is scheduled to go into operation next year.
By 2025, Vale expects to be producing 40,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate, with another 20,000 tonnes of copper and 2,600 tonnes of cobalt as byproducts.
Up to 2019, nickel production in Newfoundland and Labrador represented about 22 per cent of the Canadian total, according to the Natural Resources Canada website.
The future is also bright for the Long Harbour refinery, which has reached about 80 per cent of its annual production capacity of 50,000 tonnes.
As part of its development agreement with the province, Vale was given permission to export up to 633,000 tonnes of nickel in concentrate to its smelters in Ontario and Manitoba, while the Long Harbour refinery was being completed.
With Long Harbour now processing 100 per cent of the concentrate shipped out of Voisey's Bay, Vale has begun returning some of the product it shipped out of the province.
"We are now seeing the vision for the plant — processing Voisey's Bay concentrate supplemented with other feed sources. The other feed sources provide a future for the Long Harbour plant that will extend past the time that the deposits in Voisey's Bay are exhausted," a Vale spokesperson said.
AUSTRALIA
Ecologist so troubled by Warragamba dam wall environmental impact statement she resigned
NSW parliamentary inquiry told concerns of Rachel Musgrave and another ecologist were ‘watered down’ by consultants
Warragamba dam is the primary reservoir for water supply for Sydney.
Ecologists involved in the multibillion dollar plan to raise the wall of Sydney’s main water reservoir say their input detailing the threat to endangered species in the world heritage-listed region was either watered down or ignored altogether.
The claims – made in separate evidence presented on Monday to a NSW upper house inquiry into the state government’s plan to raise the Warragamba dam wall at least 14 metres – raise fresh questions over the independence of the environmental impact statement (EIS) prepared for the project.
Rachel Musgrave, a former primary assessor for biodiversity surveys and analysis for the EIS, said she had resigned out of concern her accreditation as an ecologist might be at risk if she had signed off on the draft report as proposed. NSW government urged to consider alternatives to raising Warragamba dam wall
At stake for the proponent, the state government’s WaterNSW, was the prospect of at least $2bn in costs of offsetting the likely damage caused by inundating as much as 6,000 hectares in the Blue Mountains world heritage region to Sydney’s west. The raised wall itself may cost as much as $1.6bn.
Musgrave said she was worried the consultants hired by WaterNSW wanted her to interpret the impacts of the wall raising as “indirect” rather than direct to reduce or eliminate the cost. She said she was also overruled on issues, including the terminology used in the EIS.
“As I felt that the changes were not immaterial – these were substantive changes to the impact assessment – and I requested that my name be removed … from the report”, she said.
The request was refused, so Musgrave resigned rather than put her qualification in peril: “We have certain obligations and our code of conduct as an accredited assessor.”
A second ecologist, Ross Crates, an expert on the critically endangered regent honeyeater, told the committee his findings had been “watered down” by the consultants he and Musgrave were working for.
Crates, a postdoctoral fellow at the Australian National University, said there were as few as 350 of the birds left in the wild, with the majority of them in the Blue Mountains region.
A survey of about one-fifth of the proposed impact site had identified a minimum of 21 of the birds and seven nests, he said.
“There has been significant editing to the wording that I initially proposed for the upstream biodiversity assessment reports” in the EIS, Crates said. “That has been significantly diluted presumably to water down the envisaged impacts of the proposed development.” Words such as “will” were altered to “could”, he said. Warragamba Dam: would a higher wall have prevented Sydney flooding?
Crates said he was also concerned the EIS had been designed to exclude a major area – between zero-2.78 metres and 10.25-14 metres above the current maximum flood level – from calculations for offsets. “This will be a huge area of mapped important regent honeyeater habitat that would not be offset in the current offset calculation strategy,” he said.
Steve Douglas, an ecologist who made an independent review of the draft and final versions of the EIS, said “there’s multiple instances of selective editing to favour the proponent’s interests”.
“[They] essentially dilute the impact and make it look not as significant as it is,” he said, adding he agreed with Crates about the “inability of offsets to achieve what they’re intended to” including for endangered plants.
Guardian Australia approached the western Sydney minister, Stuart Ayres, for comment. His office forwarded the request to WaterNSW.
“The Warragamba wall-raising proposal’s EIS process is strictly governed by multiple legislative and procedural parameters and subject to state and commonwealth government review to ensure the assessment and consultation work was fully compliant and meets the highest standard,” the spokesperson said.
Adam Searle, one of the Labor MPs on the panel, said the work done by the ecologists “had been reported in a way that they didn’t agree to”.
It raised questions “whether [the consultants] edited the evidence to the advantage of the proponent [WaterNSW]”, instead of operating at arm’s length as it should, he said.
Justin Field, an independent NSW MP and chair of the committee, said the evidence heard was “extraordinary”, including that there had been inadequate resources allocated to obtaining expert studies into the project’s damage.
“The NSW government has continued to dodge questions about this project saying all will be revealed in the final EIS,” he said. “Now we see the final EIS and there are few clear answers and the integrity and adequacy of the entire EIS has been called into question by subject matter experts.”
Harry Burkitt, the general manager of the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, said “the reason the Warragamba EIS leaves so many stones unturned is because there is a group of cockroaches under every rock”.
