UCP WON'T GET US THERE

Varcoe: A $61B prize for Alberta in the energy transition race

Chris Varcoe, Calgary Herald

 Provided by Calgary Herald Chevron and ExxonMobil booths are seen at the World Petroleum Congress, in Houston, Texas, U.S. December 6, 2021.

A sign near the 2021 World Petroleum Congress boldly declares: “Welcome to Houston — Energy Transition Capital of the World.”

The Texas city is hosting the international gathering this week, bringing together more than 5,000 government leaders, CEOs and industry observers to talk about the future as the energy world tilts on its axis.

Earlier this year, the Greater Houston Partnership released a report that says if the region takes decisive action to lead the low-carbon transition, the region could gain up to 560,000 jobs. If it doesn’t, Houston could lose up to 370,000 positions by 2050.

“We see this an opportunity and an obligation,” said Bob Harvey, president of the Houston business organization.

“The energy industry model that has served Houston’s economy — and that of other energy-focused regions — so well over the last few decades must adapt and change.”

This all sounds familiar for Calgary, another oil and gas city that will be home to the World Petroleum Congress in 2023.

Consider what’s at stake in this transformation for Alberta: $61 billion.

A new study released Tuesday by the economic development organizations for Calgary and Edmonton estimates the global energy transition could create an additional 170,000 jobs in cleantech and contribute more than $60 billion to the province’s economy by 2050.

However, sticking to a business-as-usual approach only generates 20,000 new jobs and $4 billion in economic activity.

“A low-carbon transformation of Alberta’s industries and economy will not be without its challenges,” the report states.

“However, Alberta stands to gain a strong market advantage by developing key clean transition technologies at home. Alberta has considerable technology strengths, energy infrastructure and assets to capitalize on, which also gives the province a unique position in the race to 
net-zero.”

A race to net-zero.

Those are important words to consider because this is a contest to adopt technology, build new infrastructure, attract investment and create jobs.

If the province isn’t ready for such reinvention, it’s going to be left behind.

Alberta will need to attract more than $2 billion annually in new investments by the end of this decade, topping $5.5 billion by 2040, to capitalize on the opportunities ahead, the study says.

That’s up considerably from less than $1 billion in spending that’s now taking place.

The report identifies six sectors with the greatest potential to pull in foreign investment and create employment: electrification, energy efficiency, agriculture technology, hydrogen, digitization, and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS).

The province has a solid foundation to build upon.

Alberta is home to more than 900 cleantech firms, 462 companies based in Calgary and 429 in the Edmonton region. Together, they directly employ almost 15,000 people, while 137,000 people work (directly and indirectly) in the broader cleantech realm, according to the report.

Aside from being home to the oilsands, the province has large natural gas supplies, extensive energy infrastructure and a skilled workforce, with the most engineers per capita in Canada.

Calgary, like Houston, sees risks facing the conventional oil and gas business as the global drive to low-carbon energy gains momentum, ESG considerations move to the fore and divestment pressures mount.

“We recognize the world is looking for lower-emitting sources of energy and we want to be well-positioned — we are well-positioned — for that,” said Energy Minister Sonya Savage, who is in Houston to speak at the gathering.

“But there continues to be a demand-pull for oil and gas.”

© Provided by Calgary Herald Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage.

Alberta has to move on both tracks.

Six of the province’s largest oilsands producers are already working together to attain net-zero emissions by 2050

TC Energy and Pembina Pipeline are developing plans for a world-scale carbon transportation and sequestration system. Dow Inc. is looking to build the world’s first net-zero carbon emissions ethylene cracker and derivatives complex at its petrochemical operations at Fort Saskatchewan.

Just last week, pipeline giant Enbridge agreed to collaborate with Capital Power on a proposed CCUS development near the Genesee Generating Station west of Edmonton. The project is expected to capture up to three million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year.

The carbon capture development “will be one of the biggest projects in the world” of its kind, Enbridge CEO Al Monaco said Tuesday.

“To hit any of the targets out there, CCUS is going to be a necessity. So I think we’re going to see a very steep ramp-up — an exponential ramp-up — in CCUS investment,” he said at the company’s annual investor day event.

“I would put the United States maybe slightly ahead, just given where they are with their incentive package … and that will likely rise. Canada, though, I would say is close behind.”

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CCS 

Policy certainty will be critical as Canada jockeys with countries such as Norway, the United States or Saudi Arabia to attract investment in the energy transition space.

Calgary Economic Development interim president Brad Parry said access to data and the decision-makers in the Canadian oil and gas sector can help the city become the “epicentre” of the energy transition.

New projects are already lifting off.

Enbridge said Tuesday it will spend $200 million on six new solar self-powering facilities across its North American pipeline network.

The Calgary-based company also earmarked another $100 million for a floating offshore wind project, situated off France’s southern coast.

“What is really important strategically is getting the pace of transition right,” Monaco added. “That means you’ve got to be aligned with policy and economic signals — not too far ahead, but you can’t be behind.”

There will be plenty of places in the running to become the Energy Transition Capital of the World.

In this race, Calgary, Edmonton — and all of Alberta — have to be ready to compete.

Chris Varcoe is a Calgary Herald columnist.

cvarcoe@postmedia.com

NASA's IXPE X-ray telescope will study neutron stars, pulsars, black holes

By Paul Brinkmann

SCIENCE NEWS
DEC. 8, 2021 

An illustration depicts NASA's IXPE satellite pointed at a nebula in space with three identical X-ray optics imagers at top, sensors at bottom and solar arrays. Image courtesy of NASA

ORLANDO, Fla., Dec. 8 (UPI) -- NASA intends to learn more about stars, neutron stars, black holes, nebulae and other space objects by launching a new X-ray telescope satellite, the IXPE, from Florida early Thursday.

The $214 million IXPE satellite, or X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, will orbit the Earth as the first satellite dedicated to measuring the polarization of X-rays from a variety of cosmic sources, according to NASA.

Such X-rays are invisible waves similar to visible light that can help scientists understand how space objects behave.

Black holes and magnetars -- small collapsed stars that are more magnetic than any other stars in the galaxy -- will be a particular target of the IXPE mission.

NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) is prepared for launch at Ball Aerospace in Colorado. Photo courtesy of Ball Aerospace

RELATED Scientists: Next space telescope should exceed James Webb' s ability to study planets

NASA intends to use IXPE to measure the scope of magnetic fields from such objects, and to test how the objects produce such waves, Martin Weisskopf, principal scientist on the mission, said during a press conference Tuesday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

"It's a new toolkit for astronomy and astrophysics, and I can't wait to see it work," said Weisskopf, who also is a NASA chief scientist for X-ray astronomy.

The astronomy community expects to learn unexpected things about stars, pulsars and black holes, he said.

An illustration depicts NASA's IXPE satellite in space with three identical X-ray optics imagers at top, sensors at bottom and solar arrays. Image courtesy of NASA

RELATED NASA launches climate change-tracking Landsat 9 satellite

"We expect that we'll measure something that no theorist will be able to tell us why we measured it, and that's great. We'll have to modify our expectations," Weisskopf said.

Colorado-based Ball Aerospace built IXPE to expand once it reaches orbit around the Earth, said Makenzie Lystrup, vice president and general manager of civil space at the company.

The observatory has three telescopes to collect X-rays, with sensors connected by a boom and solar arrays for power.

"The mirrors and the instruments have to be about 13 feet apart, but you can't fit that inside a spacecraft [nosecone] and so we built it so ... it compresses down to about only 12 inches during launch," Lystrup said.

SpaceX plans to launch IXPE as early as 1 a.m. EST Thursday, using a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, from Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center.

The launch will be the company's fifth for NASA's Launch Services Program, following the launch of NASA's DART asteroid deflection mission Nov. 24.

The booster for the launch will be used for a fifth time, following recoveries after NASA's Crew-1 and Crew-2 astronaut missions, SiriusXM satellite SXM-8 launch and CRS-23 cargo launch to the International Space Station.

An Afghan village shrivels in worst drought in decades

By MSTYSLAV CHERNOV

PHOTO ESSAY 1 of 13

A boy pushes a wheelbarrow with canisters and his younger brother, on their way to collect water from a stagnant pool, about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from their home in Kamar Kalagh village outside Herat, Afghanistan, Friday, Nov. 26, 2021. Afghanistan’s drought, its worst in decades, is now entering its second year, exacerbated by climate change. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

KAMAR KALAGH, Afghanistan (AP) — Hajji Wali Jan brought a half-dozen plastic containers to the well in Kamar Kalagh on a recent Friday — one of the handful of days each week he and those who live on his side of this Afghan village ae allowed to use the water source.

When it was finally his turn, the 66-year-old filled one container, then a second. The stream of water from the spigot got thinner. He started on another container — but the thread of water tapered away and then stopped before the vessel was full.

The well was done for the day.

Afghanistan’s drought, its worst in decades, is now entering its second year, exacerbated by climate change. The dry spell has hit 25 of the country’s 34 provinces, and this year’s wheat harvest is estimated to be down 20% from the year before.

Along with fighting, the drought has contributed to driving more than 700,000 people from their homes this year, and the onset of winter will only increase the potential for disaster.

“This cumulative drought impact on already debilitated communities can be yet another tipping point to catastrophe,” the U.N. Food and Agricultural Organization’s Afghanistan office said in a tweet Tuesday. “If left unattended, agriculture might collapse.”

U.N. experts blamed a late 2020 La Nina event, which can change weather patterns across the globe, for causing lower rain and snowfall in early 2021 in Afghanistan, and they predict that it will continue into 2022.

Afghanistan has long seen regular droughts. But in a 2019 report, the FAO warned that climate change could make them more frequent and more intense. The past year’s drought came on the heels of one in 2018 that at the time was the worst seen in Afghanistan in years.

In the midst of the drought, Afghanistan’s economy collapsed in the wake of the August takeover by the Taliban that resulted in a shut-off of international funds to the government and the freezing of billions of the country’s assets held abroad.

Jobs and livelihoods have disappeared, leaving families desperate for ways to find food. The FAO said last month that 18.8 million Afghans are unable to feed themselves every day, and by the end of the year that number will be 23 million, or nearly 60% of the population.

Already hit hard by the drought of 2018, small villages like Kamar Kalagh are shriveling away, unable to squeeze out enough water to survive.

A collection of mud brick homes in the mountains outside the western city of Herat, Kamar Kalagh is home to about 150 families who used to live off of their livestock, particularly camels and goats, and the salaries of men who worked as porters at the Islam Qala border crossing with Iran.

That work has largely dried up as well, and now the village’s main income is from selling sand.

Ajab Gul and his two young sons dug sand from the riverbed and stuffed it into bags on a recent day. A full day’s work will earn them the equivalent of about $2.

“The grass used to grow up to here,” Gul said, holding his hand up to his nose. “When a camel walked through it, you’d just see his head. That was 20 years ago.”

Now there’s no grass and almost no livestock.

Two years ago, the village’s main well ran dry, so the residents pooled the money to pay for it to be dug deeper. For a while, it worked. But soon it grew weak again. The villagers began a rationing system: Half could draw water one day, the other half the next.

Even rationing is no longer enough. The water from the well is only enough for about 10 families a day, Wali Jan said.

When Wali Jan couldn’t fill his canisters, he sent two of his grandsons to an alternative source. They turned the chore into a game: The older boy, about 9, pushed the wheelbarrow, with his younger brother riding alongside the canisters, laughing.

They went up the hill, down the other side, through another dry riverbed — about 3 kilometers (2 miles) in all. Plodding along in hand-me-down tennis shoes too big for his feet, the older boy tripped, and the wheelbarrow tumbled over. Still, they made it to a pool of stagnant water in the riverbed, its surface covered in green algae. They filled the canisters.

When they got back to the village, their grandfather met them. He unwound his turban and tied one end of the long scarf around a handle on the front of the wheelbarrow to help the boys get it up the last slope to his family’s home.

The elderly and the very young are nearly the only males remaining in the village. Most of the working-age men have left to find jobs, elsewhere in Afghanistan, in Iran, Pakistan or Turkey.

“You don’t find anyone outside during the day anymore,” said Samar Gul, another man in his 60s. “There’s only women and children inside the houses.”

Jimmy Lai among three Hong Kong activists convicted over Tiananmen vigil


Media tycoon Jimmy Lai is among dozens of activists behind bars over a strict national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong (AFP/STR)

Holmes CHAN
Wed, December 8, 2021

Jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai was among three democracy campaigners convicted on Thursday for taking part in a banned Tiananmen vigil as the prosecution of multiple activists came to a conclusion.

Lai, the 74-year-old owner of the now-shuttered pro-democracy Apple Daily newspaper, was found guilty of unlawful assembly charges alongside former journalist Gwyneth Ho and prominent rights lawyer Chow Hang-tung.

Authorities had charged more than two dozen pro-democracy politicians and activists over a vigil last year, which commemorated the victims of Beijing's deadly Tiananmen crackdown in 1989 despite a police ban.

The trio were the only ones to contest their charges in court, meaning they were the last to receive their verdict.

They argued they went to light candles in a personal capacity and had not "incited" others to join an outlawed rally.

At one point, Chow, a trained barrister who represented herself in court, likened her actions to "tank man" -- the figure who famously stood in front of a Chinese tank during the Tiananmen crackdown and became an icon.

But District Court judge Amanda Woodcock dismissed those arguments as "frankly nonsensical" and convicted them of charges including inciting and taking part in an unauthorised assembly.

"The reality was, any intention to come out and participate in the candlelight vigil in Victoria Park that night was an act of defiance and protest against the police," Woodcock ruled.

Amnesty International described the verdicts as the latest "attack on the rights to freedom of expression and assembly" in Hong Kong and said authorities had criminalised a "peaceful, socially distanced vigil".

- Ongoing crackdown -

The convictions come as authorities crack down on dissent in Hong Kong and remould the once outspoken finance hub in the mainland's authoritarian image after huge and often violent democracy protests two years ago.

In practical terms, the latest verdicts make minimal difference to the convicted.

Lai, Chow and Ho are among dozens of activists already behind bars facing separate prosecutions under a strict national security law that Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year.

But their prosecution illustrates how much the gap has narrowed between Hong Kong and the mainland, where authorities have long sought to scrub memories and official records of Tiananmen.

For three decades, Hong Kong's annual June 4 candlelight vigil would attract tens of thousands of people, which -- with its slogans for democracy and ending one-party rule in China -- became a symbol for the political freedoms enjoyed in the city.

But Hong Kong authorities have banned the last two vigils citing both the coronavirus pandemic and security fears.

This year, Beijing made it clear it will no longer tolerate Tiananmen commemorations in Hong Kong or Macau, the only two places within China where public remembrance could take place.

Multiple organisers of the annual vigil -- including Chow -- were charged with the national security crime of subversion while a June 4 museum they ran was closed by authorities and its exhibits carted away.

Unlawful assembly prosecutions have been brought against activists who took part in both the 2020 and 2021 banned Tiananmen vigils.

Previously, 16 politicians and activists -- including prominent campaigner Joshua Wong -- were sentenced to six to 10 months in jail over their roles in the vigil, with a few granted suspended sentences.

Lai, Chow and Ho and the remaining activists who pleaded guilty -- most of whom are also in custody -- will be sentenced on Monday.

hol/jta/qan/reb

Record number of journalists jailed in 2021: CPJ

The number of journalists jailed around the world hit a new record in 2021, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said Thursday, with China and Myanmar having put a quarter of the 293 media workers behind bars.

© Ed JONES The New York-based CPJ counted 24 journalists killed around the world this year

In its annual report, the CPJ listed 50 journalists imprisoned in China, 26 in Burma, 25 in Egypt, 23 in Vietnam and 19 in Belarus.

Adding those jailed in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Ethiopia and Eritrea, the CPJ said a total of 293 journalists were in prison worldwide as of December 1 -- up from 280 the year before.

"This is the sixth year in a row that CPJ has documented record numbers of journalists imprisoned around the world," said Joel Simon, executive director of the group.

"Imprisoning journalists for reporting the news is the hallmark of an authoritarian regime," he said in a statement.

For 40 years, the CPJ has denounced journalists being murdered, imprisoned, censored, physically hurt and threatened.

"It's distressing to see many countries on the list year after year, but it is especially horrifying that Myanmar and Ethiopia have so brutally slammed the door on press freedom."

The association also counted 24 journalists killed around the world this year.

Mexico "remained the Western hemisphere's deadliest country for journalists, with three murdered for their reporting and the motives for six other killings under investigation," the CPJ said.

India was also high on the list, with four journalists killed this year.

The CPJ said the number of journalists behind bars reflects "increasing intolerance for independent reporting around the world."

The report noted restrictive environments for journalists around the world, including laws used to target reporters in Hong Kong and Xinjiang, the coup in Myanmar, the war in northern Ethiopia and the crackdown on the opposition in Belarus.

nr/dax/jh/dva

EU seeks to clarify status of delivery app workers


The proposal by the EU executive is an effort to sort out once and for all the employment status of millions of drivers and delivery people (AFP/Philippe LOPEZ)

Alex PIGMAN
Wed, December 8, 2021

The EU will propose a set of criteria on Thursday to determine whether a gig worker in Europe using platforms like Uber, Bolt or Deliveroo should be considered an employee.

The proposal by the EU executive is an effort to sort out once and for all the employment status of millions of drivers and delivery people that the major platforms insist are self-employed.

The debate has clogged up courts across Europe for almost a decade, with judges handing out more than a hundred decisions across the bloc's 27 member states, with hundreds more still pending.

Those decisions can vary markedly, with Belgium on Wednesday denying a small group of Deliveroo workers the designation of employees, while Uber lost in court in non-EU Britain over its service in London.

The potential for an EU-wide redesignation of platform workers sent the share prices of Deliveroo and other platforms plummeting in recent days over fears that their business model was under threat.

"For too long platform companies have made huge profits by dodging their most basic obligations as employers at the expense of workers while peddling the lie that they provide choice to workers," said Ludovic Voet, the head of ETUC, a confederation of EU trade unions.

"The commission's proposal should finally give workers real certainty about their employment status," he added.

According to early leaks of the EU plan, if two of the five criteria are fulfilled, Uber and others could no longer think of themselves exclusively as tech platforms, but would be forced to behave as bricks and mortar firms with labour laws to obey.

Reports said the criteria include whether an app determines pay levels for workers, makes demands on appearance such as the use of uniforms and equipment or restricts a worker's ability to refuse jobs.

The designation would however be rebuttable by the platforms, with companies given a chance to prove the self-employment status of their workers with national laws the final arbiter.

- 'Dire consequences' -

The European Union has very little power over work-related policy in the EU member states and right now platforms face a wide array of national rules on their professional ties to workers.

In Spain, all workers who deliver food must be recognised as employees by the apps they use to work, a situation that pushed Deliveroo to abandon the market.

In other countries, courts have ordered apps to enter collective bargaining agreements even if the workers remain self-employed, a model that some platforms, including Uber, would prefer.

The tech companies lobbied hard against any EU-wide reclassification, citing a survey by Copenhagen Economics that 250,000 people would be forced out of delivery work if the decision applied for all.

They also worry that the criteria will be too vague, with different interpretations bringing on even more court cases instead of legal certainty.

This would have "dire consequences for platform workers themselves, restaurants and the wider EU economy," said Delivery Platforms Europe in a statement.

The commission's proposal will be negotiated with the European Parliament and among the EU's 27 member states in a process that could see significant changes to the project.

arp/dc/rl

New Zealand plans to phase out tobacco sales

THE GOAL OF THE ANTISMOKING LOBBY

The measures mean that today's young teens will never be able to buy cigarettes legally (AFP/Khalil MAZRAAWI)

Wed, December 8, 2021

New Zealand announced plans Thursday to effectively ban smoking by progressively lifting the age at which tobacco products can be bought, in a "world-first" bid that means today's young teens will never be able to buy cigarettes legally.

New Zealand currently outlaws tobacco sales to under-18s and Associate Health Minister Ayesha Verrall said that from 2027, the age ban would increase by one year annually to keep the cohort smoke free.

"We want to make sure people never start smoking... as they age, they and future generations will never be able to legally purchase tobacco, because the truth is there is no safe age to start smoking," she said.

She added that the government would also legislate to restrict where tobacco is sold and only allow products with low nicotine levels into the market, to reduce the prospects of people becoming addicted.

Verrall said the measures maintained New Zealand's role as a global trailblazer in restricting tobacco, with actions such as banning cigarette sponsorship of sports in 1990 and banning smoking from bars in 2004.

"This is a historic day for the health of our people," she said.

"Smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death in New Zealand and causes one in four cancers."

She said the health toll was particularly heavy on Maori and Pacific communities, where smoking rates are around double the 13.5 percent recorded in the rest of the population.

The government aims to reduce that to five percent by 2025 and estimates achieving the goal would save the health system NZ$5.5 (US$3.6 billion) in future expenditure.

Lobby group Action on Smoking and Health said the planned changes meant that was now a realistic prospect, hailing the government for challenging "Big Tobacco".

"This collection of complementary measures will be the envy of countries struggling to combat the death and misery caused by smoked tobacco," ASH chairman Robert Beaglehole said.

"We will lead the world in tobacco control."

British American Tobacco New Zealand said the measures were "untested, unproven and without any scientific evidence of effectiveness".

"The combined impacts are effectively a gradual prohibition, which simply pushes supply underground to the black market," it said in a statement.

ns/arb/jah

New Zealand plans lifetime ban on cigarette sales for future generations: How will it work?

Plan is to make it illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone aged 14 and under from 2027. The ban will remain in place for the rest of the person’s life

09 December 2021 - 11:12BY BYRON KAYE

Currently, 11.6% of all New Zealanders aged over 15 smoke, according to government figures, with four in five smokers having started before the age of 18. Stock image.
Image: 123RF/GIN SANDERS

New Zealand on Thursday said it wants to ban young people from buying cigarettes for life, one of the toughest approaches in the world to curbing smoking deaths.

New Zealand is already one of 17 countries where plain cigarette packaging is compulsory. It also bans sales to anyone under 18, but it says those measures are not enough to reach its goal of a national adult smoking rate of less than 5% by 2025.

“We want to make sure young people never start smoking, so we will make it an offence to sell or supply smoked tobacco products to new cohorts of youth,” New Zealand associate minister of health Ayesha Verrall said in a statement.

Currently, 11.6% of all New Zealanders aged over 15 smoke, according to government figures, with four in five smokers having started before the age of 18.

A LIFETIME BAN

New Zealand plans to make it illegal to sell cigarettes to anyone aged 14 and under from 2027. The ban will remain in place for the rest of the person’s life. That means a person aged 60 in 2073 will be banned from buying cigarettes, while a person aged 61 would be allowed to do so.

WHY 14 AND UNDER?

New Zealand health authorities say smokers typically take up the habit during youth, with four in five New Zealanders who smoke beginning by age 18 and 96% by age 25. By stopping a generation from taking up smoking, they hope to avoid about 5,000 preventable deaths a year.

SA 'taking baby steps' in reducing smoking — WHO report

SA is one of the countries that is steadily reducing its smoking rates thanks to its anti-tobacco policies, a new report from the WHO said.

NEWS

2 weeks ago

WHAT OTHER CHANGES ARE PLANNED?

Under the proposed legislation, which the government plans to bring into law by the end of next year, it will first limit the number of stores that can sell cigarettes from 2024. It will then lower the level of nicotine — the most addictive ingredient — in cigarettes from 2025, to make them easier to quit. Finally, it will bring in the “smoke-free” generation from 2027.

HOW WILL THE RULES BE ENFORCED?

The New Zealand authorities have not said how they plan to police the ban, nor which retailers would be barred from selling tobacco products. More detail is expected to be provided when legislation is brought before parliament next year.

WILL NEW ZEALAND BE THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST ANTI-TOBACCO JURISDICTION?

Not quite. The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan banned cigarette sales outright in 2010 (though it lifted the ban temporarily in 2020 to stop black market imports from India during a Covid-19 border closure, Al-Jazeera reported).

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?

The New Zealand government says it wants to introduce the changes in phases to lessen the economic shock on retailers and give people with mental health issues — a group with far higher smoking rates — time to manage the change.

The restrictions are expected to be rolled out from 2024, beginning with a sharp reduction in the number of authorised sellers, followed by reduced nicotine requirements in 2025 and the creation of the “smoke-free” generation from 2027.

Reuters

Disabled models breaking taboos on Ivory Coast catwalk




Fashion breakthrough: One of the models on the catwalk in Abidjan (AFP/Sia KAMBOU)

Christophe KOFFI
Wed, December 8, 2021

Twenty models with disabilities have taken to the catwalk in Ivory Coast in a ground-breaking assault on taboo and stigma.

Decked out in a red suit, traditional Sahelian boubou robes, multi-coloured African bogolan prints and a blue tunic with printed motifs, the models showed off the latest creations of Abidjan designers in an event dubbed "Strong and Beautiful Together."

Grace Beho had her right forearm amputated after a road accident.

The women paraded in front of an enthusiastic audience in an Abidjan hotel (AFP/Sia KAMBOU)

Six months ago, she created the Mougnan Foundation, an organisation set up to improve the quality of life for disabled Ivorian women. Its name means "moving forward despite difficulties" in the Guere language of western Ivory Coast.

"I think that the women who are going to be watching us and who do not yet have confidence in themselves... are going to assert themselves and show themselves to the world as they are," she said as she stepped off the stage.

Leslie Antsere, who suffers from neurofibromatosis, a genetic disease which can cause disfiguring tumours, said she was delighted to take part in an event that had stopped her from "feeling ashamed."

The MC at the fashion show, Nelly Aka, was sporting high heels despite a foot disability.

"Even in a situation of disability, we can go beyond ourselves and do many things," she said.

"Overcoming disability is about accepting yourself -- the way people look at you and criticise you will not affect who you are," she said.

A model called Sylvia, dressed in a green-and-white dress, opened the show, coming down the catwalk on crutches by the side of a swimming pool in front of an enthusiastic audience in a hotel in the Ivorian economic capital.

The event took place on December 3 -- the UN's International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Two of the women who were helping to break the taboo in Ivory Coast (AFP/Sia KAMBOU)

- 'Marginalised' -

Officially, Ivory Coast has 453,000 people who are disabled in some way, two percent of the population. For them such an event is unheard of.

"Even mentioning a disabled person in the world of beauty is taboo in Ivory Coast," said Ange Prisca Gnagbo, one of organisers for the special evening.

"They are sidelined in all the beauty shows," she added.

But such practices are entrenched in Ivory Coast, where disabilities are often viewed -- as elsewhere in Africa -- as an affliction.

"Many disabled women are very vulnerable, rejected and marginalised. So they hide away for fear of being judged," said sociologist Yves Ouya.

For Dr Abdoudramane Coulibaly, consultant at the World Health Organization and head of a disability NGO, the issue also faces a lack of political will.

"Let's suggest to able-bodied people that they walk with crutches for a day -- (that way) we will be gain more understanding than with big speeches," he suggested.

"My dream is that in the coming decades I will see a handicapped person making a name for himself or herself in areas where the doors have been closed," said Beho.

ck/pid/pvh/ri

Deck the T. Rex With Christmas Sweaters, 

Fa La La La La


Rotem Rusak
Wed, December 8, 2021

‘Tis the season for celebration. And all creatures, great and small, should get to partake in the festivities. And one very great one has got out their Jurassic jumper, just in time for the holidays. London’s Natural History Museum has dressed its animatronic Tyrannosaurus Rex in its very own Christmas sweater.

British Christmas Jumpers

The museum shares:
Our animatronic T. rex is getting into the Christmas spirit. It’s been kitted out in its very own theropod-size seasonal sweater, made from 100% recycled materials.

A joyous dino, who also cares about the environment? We 100 percent needed this holiday cheer. The sweater, of course, had to be custom-made. Because how else would the King of the Dinosaurs get his little arms in? The sweater was designed by the brand British Christmas Jumpers. And the good news is you can match your favorite sweater-clad dinosaur. Just pre-order an adult-sized version of the sweater from the Natural History Museum’s online shop. Happily, the sweater also comes in children’s sizes.

Museum of Natural History


Here’s more about the design:

The navy, red, green, and white pattern features snowflakes, fir trees – and everyone’s favourite dinosaurs: Triceratops, Stegosaurus, T. rex and Diplodocus. Even the Museum’s famous Hans Sloane nautilus shell appears along the hem and cuffs.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. Doesn’t the T. Rex eat Triceratops? Well, it did. But the good news is, it’s Christmas, and everyone has called a cease-fire. That’s how this magical season works, right? And who doesn’t love a little bit of dark humor in with the holidays?

Now, all we need is to get the T.Rex its very own Christmas tree. And invite it to sing some Christmas carols. Like those classics, Growling Night and Jingle Bell Mesozoic Rock. But let’s leave Christmas stars, or any other mentions of outer space out of it. We wouldn’t want our Christmas sweater-wearing T. rex, or any of his dinosaur friends, to have a blue Christmas.

The post Deck the T. Rex With Christmas Sweaters, Fa La La La La appeared first on Nerdist.

Jurassic crocodile relative could breathe easily while drowning its prey

Mindy Weisberger 

Around 155 million years ago in what is now Wyoming, a crocodile relative clamped its jaws around a thrashing animal and dragged it below the water's surface, and the ancient reptile could still breathe comfortably as its prey slowly drowned.

© Provided by Live Science Amphicotylus milesi lunges at its Jurassic prey.

That's because the croc had specialized structures that prevented water from flowing through its mouth and into its airway. This feature is known in modern crocodilians — crocodiles and their close relatives — and scientists recently identified the same mechanism in a newly described species of croc cousin that lived during the Jurassic period (201.3 million to 145 million years ago).

This is the earliest evidence of crocodilian adaptations for submerging their heads (and prey) underwater while still being able to breathe through nostrils on top of their snouts; this ability is an important part of the group's deadly feeding habits today, and may have helped crocodilians survive the Cretaceous extinction that wiped out most of the dinosaurs.

Related: Crocs: Ancient predators in a modern world (photos)

Scientists named the newfound species Amphicotylus milesi, and it belongs to a group of early crocodile relatives called goniopholidids, which lived in the Northern Hemisphere from the Jurassic through the early Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago) and had a body plan suggestive of a semiaquatic lifestyle.

The near-intact skeleton, discovered in 1993 in Wyoming's East Camarasaurus Quarry, is the most complete goniopholidid fossil ever found. When it was alive, the reptile would have measured about 7.5 feet (2.3 meters) long and weighed up to 500 pounds (227 kilograms), study co-author Michael J. Ryan, an adjunct research professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at Carleton University in Ontario, told Live Science in an email.

A. milesi also has one of the biggest known skulls among this group of early crocs, measuring 17 inches (43 centimeters) long, and the broad, elongated snout accounts for about 60% of the skull length, the scientists reported Dec. 8 in the journal Royal Society Open Science. However, unfused sutures in some of the bones hint that the reptile was a youngster that was still growing, according to the study.

"I believe that it was approximately adult size, but reptiles like this would have had indeterminate growth — continuing to grow through their lives, but slowing down after maturity," Ryan said. "A conservative estimate would be that an 'adult' could have been half again as long and heavy," measuring nearly 12 feet long (3.7 m) and weighing up to 750 pounds (340 kg), he added.
Breathe deep

Modern crocodilians — crocodiles, alligators, caimans and gharials — can breathe through their mouths and through nostrils on top of their snouts. The nostrils have protective valves at the openings, and air travels through canals and down the back of the throat, where it passes through another valve, according to the IUCN-Species Survival Commission's Crocodile Specialist Group (CSG), a global network of experts involved in crocodilian conservation.

When a crocodilian basks on land, it typically breathes through its open mouth, and the palatal valve in the throat (also known as a gular flap) is open. However, when it is holding prey in the water, the crocodilian breathes through its nostrils and the flap is closed, which prevents the animal from inhaling water through its open mouth, according to the CSG. When this flap isn't in use, it rests in the underside of the throat, and a network of muscles lifts the flap into place to block the flow of water.

Related: Photos: Early dinosaur cousin looked like a croc

As the researchers examined the size, shape and curvature of skull structures in A. milesi, they found similarities to certain features in modern crocodiles with the gular flap, such as an extension in the roof of the mouth toward the back of the throat and a shortened bone called the ceratobranchial, which lies in the throat and supports the tongue. This combination of anatomical features in A. milesi suggests that this ancient croc relative also had a flap that would have kept it from inhaling water while drowning its prey, so long as it kept its nostrils above the water, the study authors reported.

Other crocodilian relatives dating to the late Jurassic and early Cretaceous periods have similar modifications, "suggesting that they, too, may have had a similar ability," Ryan said. "But this combination of anatomical features is unique to Amphicotylus."

Adaptations for underwater dining could help to explain why the ancestors of modern crocodiles were able to weather the mass extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period while their nonavian dinosaur contemporaries died out, Ryan explained.

"The features now recognized in Amphicotylus allowing for a feeding strategy that nonavian dinosaurs did not have might have contributed to their survival of the Cretaceous extinction — by staying and feeding in the water," Ryan said.

Originally published on Live Science

Researchers discover how a prehistoric creature the size of a giraffe was able to fly

Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY

Wed, December 8, 2021, 

Imagine a giraffe, but with a 40-foot wingspan and a massive beak.

That was the Quetzalcoatlus, a type of pterosaur that dominated the skies millions of years ago. Neither a bird nor a dinosaur, the pterosaur was around for millions of years alongside the likes of the Tyrannosaurus rex and is one of the most recognizable creatures from prehistoric times.

However, not much is known about the giant Quetzalcoatlus. It is regarded as the biggest flying creature to ever exist, but there is skepticism as to whether it did fly, and if it did, how it got in the air.

Now, a group of researchers say they have figured out the Quetzalcoatlus did in fact fly and have learned how it did so by discovering two new types of pterosaurs. Their findings were published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology on Wednesday.

Matthew Brown, director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Vertebrate Paleontology Collections and co-author of the study, told USA TODAY the findings are 50 years worth of research put together. He added it took so long to understand how the species functions because their bones are as thick as a "potato chip," so it required more time to carefully inspect them.

An artist’s interpretation of Quetzalcoatluswading in the water.

There are few fossils of the Quetzalcoatlus, but Brown said there were hundreds of bones for a smaller type of pterosaur, which instead had a wingspan of 18 to 20 feet. From there, the team brought in an aerospace engineer and biomechanic.

"You kind of have to shift your mindset to think about these as living, breathing animals and not just dead skeletons sitting in a drawer," Brown said. "Part of that is looking at modern animals that are alive today that have similar body types."

Together, the team determined that these animals leaped over 8 feet into the air in order to take flight.

"(The team) applied a lot of the aerospace knowledge to understanding how something like airfoil works and how much speed you need to generate lift," Brown said. "There are a couple of models that have been proposed, but the one that that is more attractive is that they're jumping up in the air and then flapping their wings."

Show-Me-a-saurus!: Skeleton of a new type of dinosaur unearthed in Missouri

Supersaurus: Scientists may have found the longest dinosaur in the world

Ferocious sea creature: Researchers discover skull of deadly, fast swordfish-like reptile with a 3-foot-long skull

Kevin Padian, co-author of the study and an emeritus professor of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley, added the creatures had large breastbones, so they were "terrific flyers." With its long jaws, the Quetzalcoatlus often ate crabs, worms and clams from rivers and lakes.

Brown said this analysis will hopefully lead to being able to connect all the different types of pterosaurs; there have been an estimated 100 types discovered. The biggest goal is to be able to find a complete skeleton of a Quetzalcoatlus, but for now, Brown is grateful for the team's work.

"It's exciting working with these materials," he said. "This was an early Christmas for us."

Follow Jordan Mendoza on Twitter: @jordan_mendoza5.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A giant, giraffe-sized pterosaur leaped in the air to fly, study says

Hydras can live forever, and the key to their immortality is in the genes

Scientists have some new insights into the workings of one of the few animals that can arguably live forever.

 

© Provided by CNET Hydras are regenerative all-stars. David Plachetzki

Eric Mack 

Hydras are tiny organisms related to jellyfish. They have simple bodies, made up of a cylindrical tube called a body column, with a head structure at the top and a sticky foot on the opposite end (which they use to hold themselves in place). What's remarkable about hydras is that they don't seem to age, thanks to some incredible regenerative powers. Chop off a hydra's head and it just grows right back.

Hydra are regenerative all-stars.

This process has long been a source of fascination for researchers eager to understand how it works down to the genetic level. A new study published Wednesday in Genome Biology and Evolution digs into how a hydra's genes are regulated -- a field known as epigenetics -- to allow it to keep growing back and always be heads up.

A key finding is that the process for head regeneration is different than the one for reproducing, which happens through an asexual process called "budding." Hydras reproduce by forming "buds" along the body column that eventually develop into new, independent animals with their own heads.

"Even though the result is the same (a hydra head), gene expression is much more variable during regeneration," says Aide Macias-Muñoz, a biologist at the University of California, Irvine and the paper's lead author.

The study provides some new insights into the processes behind regeneration, which have been something of a mystery to scientists. It finds that hydras use sequences of DNA called "enhancers" that regulate regeneration on the genetic level.

Macias-Muñoz says this suggests that some of the mechanisms hydras use were passed down through evolution, and may even have made it all the way down to mammals, including humans.

This prompts some fascinating questions. If some of the same genetic programming that allows hydras to regenerate was passed down to humans, is the fountain of youth present in the guts of our own cells, just waiting to be tapped?

Unfortunately, we're still far off from being able to answer such massively consequential questions, but Macias-Muñoz and colleagues believe that digging deep into the genomes of hydras and other species is an important step down that road.