Thursday, February 03, 2022

OF COURSE THEY DID

UCP denies reports of rural caucus negotiating with blockade protesters after lanes opened in 'good faith'

But UCP caucus chair says some Alberta restrictions likely

 to be lifted 'within days'

Hannah Kost · CBC News · 
The tie-up at the border crossing in the village of Coutts, Alta., has stranded travellers and cross-border truckers for days, compromising millions of dollars in trade and impeding access to basic goods and medical services for area residents. (Erin Collins/CBC)

The United Conservative Party is denying reports that its rural caucus has negotiated an agreement to temporarily end a protest blockade at a border crossing in Alberta, in exchange for discussions on lifting COVID-19 health restrictions.

"Reports have surfaced that the United Conservative rural caucus has negotiated an agreement to temporarily end the Coutts blockade pending the outcome of a rural caucus meeting to discuss the immediate lifting of the Restrictions Exemption Program (REP)," UCP caucus chair Nathan Neudorf said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.

"No such agreement has been authorized and the meeting is not to discuss lifting the REP. As the Premier has stated, Alberta will begin lifting restrictions very soon, likely within days, starting with the REP."

The statement comes after reports of a potential breakthrough that aimed to resolve the blockade that has snarled cross-border traffic at the main U.S.-Canada border crossing in Coutts, Alta, since Saturday.

Chad Williamson, a lawyer representing truckers blocking access to the crossing, said earlier on Wednesday they had spoken with RCMP and agreed to open a lane of the highway in each direction.

Trucks and other vehicles began clearing paths.

WATCH | Potential breakthrough as truckers partially open highway:

After days of impeding travel at the U.S.-Canada border in southern Alberta, protesting truckers have allowed one lane of traffic in each direction to move through the blockade. 1:20

"The truckers finally feel like their message has been heard," Williamson said.

"In a tremendous show of good faith, they are reopening one lane each way to provide unimpeded access through the town of Coutts and across the border in both ways.

"That doesn't mean the protest is over, but it signals what we hope to be ongoing cordial efforts to address the concerns of the people who have been involved in the movement down here in Coutts."

RCMP Cpl. Curtis Peters said the protesters removed vehicles from one lane in each direction, northbound and southbound, but added it may be temporary and police continue to monitor.

In a statement issued shortly after 5:30 p.m., RCMP said the move allowed area residents to move freely and would enable emergency services to provide full services. The RCMP said border access and the flow of goods and services would also resume.

"The Alberta RCMP remain on scene and our efforts continue to be focused on fully reopening services," reads the statement.

RCMP said it will also provide escorts to motorists travelling to the border.

Protester says they are hoping for negotiations

The demonstration is tied to an ongoing, nationwide protest over federal rules for unvaccinated or partially vaccinated truckers entering Canada from the U.S. The rules took effect Jan. 15.  

The United States implemented a similar mandate on Jan. 22 requiring that all U.S.-bound travellers — including truckers — show proof they've had the required shots.

The tie-up has stranded travellers and cross-border truckers for days, compromising millions of dollars in trade and impeding access to basic goods and medical services for area residents.

Earlier on Wednesday afternoon, and before the release of Neudorf's statement, a protester told CBC News that the lanes were cleared after blockade participants were told that there will be attempted negotiations involving MLAs to loosen COVID-19 public health restrictions.

"I don't know all the details exactly, but from my understanding … if they don't get what they want, they're gonna block it off again. If they drop all the mandates, then they'll continue to negotiate," the protester said.

Reprieve comes after Tuesday violence at Coutts

Police tried to peacefully break up the demonstration Tuesday, only to see others breach a nearby police barricade and join the blockade. Later, a head-on collision occurred, resulting in an assault, police said. 

No arrests were made but Peters said they intend to "restore the movement of goods and vehicles on the road, but not at the risk of public safety."

"Obviously enforcement is not the way that anyone wanted this to go," Williamson said.

Premier Jason Kenney called on protesters to end their demonstration on Tuesday.

"This kind of conduct is totally unacceptable," Kenney said during a news conference in Edmonton. "Without hesitation, I condemn those actions and I call for calm."

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley called on the premier to confirm that "no political interference" would be involved in the removal of public health orders.

"It is horrifying that any member of government caucus would think the public health of Albertans could be used as a bargaining chip to negotiate with people engaged in illegal activities," she said.

"The premier must commit that this will never happen and that he will remove any of his caucus members that believe it should."

Meanwhile, other rumoured blockades around southern Alberta largely failed to materialize by Tuesday afternoon.

However, trucks and tractors were reportedly parked and creating obstacles for drivers on Highway 2 near Fort MacLeod, about two hundred kilometres south of Calgary, around 2:30 p.m.

With files from Erin Collins and The Canadian Press

Posted by at No comments:
Oil everywhere: Ecuador Amazonians seethe over new spill

Author: AFP|
Update: 03.02.2022

Residents of Puerto Maderos are fed up with repeated oil spills polluting their river / © AFP

There is oil in the water, on the rocks and in the sand where children normally play on the banks of the Coca River in Ecuador.

Residents of Puerto Maderos make no effort to hide their anger at the latest crude spill to hit the Ecuadoran Amazon.

"This damage is not for a month, two months... it will be 20 years" before things return to normal, said Bolivia Buenano, a merchant from the area some 120 kilometers (75 miles) from where the spill occurred.

Buenano joined a cleanup crew put together by oil transport company OCP, whose pipeline was responsible for the leak, to bring some relief to the community of 700-odd people.

No one can "bathe normally in the river, nor drink from here, there is no fish, there is nothing," she exclaimed while scrubbing a polluted containment buoy.

Buenano complained about a lack of state investment in the Amazon provinces, which hold much of the country's oil wealth but are most affected by industrial disasters such as this one.

- 'Like a waterfall' -

On Friday, almost 6,300 barrels of oil leaked into an environmental reserve in Ecuador's east, when heavy rains caused a boulder to fall on a pipeline.

Cesar Benalcazar was one of several people who rushed to the scene to stem the flow of oil.


Oil transport company OCP said 80 percent of the spilt crude has been recovered. The other 20 percent has marred a nature reserve and a major river / © AFP

"We tried to stop the crude from reaching the river, but the slope made it descend like a waterfall," said Benalcazar, 24.

OCP has said more than 84 percent of the crude has been recovered.

But not before about 21,000 square meters (226,000 square feet) of the Cayambe-Coca nature reserve were polluted and crude flowed into the Coca River -- one of the largest in the Ecuadoran Amazon and an important source for many riverbank communities.

Rains and currents spread the stain for many miles.

"We are tired because this is not a normal life. Nature is not healthy, it is contaminated," said Buenano.

"And this will continue as long as the pipeline and the crude oil network continue."

In 2020, a mudslide damaged pipelines that spilled about 15,000 barrels of oil into three Amazon basin rivers, affecting several communities.

- Biggest export -

Crude petroleum is Ecuador's biggest export product.

Between January and November 2021, the country extracted 494,000 barrels per day.

Buenano and the rest of the cleanup team mutter indignantly while filling containers with polluted sand, which they stacked together for removal later.


Puerto Maderos resident Bolivia Buenano says the damage from the oil spill will stay in Ecuador's Amazon province for decades / © AFP

"We are the forgotten of God," said Rosa Capinoa, leader of the Fecunae Indigenous organization visiting the affected areas.

"I know this is not something that can be fixed overnight, it will take a long time. Looking at this natural disaster is very painful," she told AFP.

"The oil leaves here, and we as communities do not share in the profit. All we get is a water bottle, water tanks," added Capinoa in response to OCP delivering drinking water to affected populations.

According to Ecuador's environment ministry, Friday's spill occurred within the Cayambe-Coca reserve of some 403,000 hectares, home to a vast collection of animals and plants.

From there, it spread to the Coca River.

"We feel quite outraged because we experience this every two or three years," said Romel Buenano, a 35-year-old farmer in Puerto Maderos, who is not related to Bolivia Buenano.

The 2020 disaster, he said, put an end to fishing for some time, and killed animals on the islets of the Coca.

"It is not that with the cleaning, the pollution is over," he told AFP.
Posted by at No comments:

NO MORE COAL PLANTS 

China inks $8 bln nuclear power plant deal in Argentina

Feb 02, 2022  •  

State-owned China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) has signed a contract in Argentina to build the $8 billion Atucha III nuclear power plant using China’s Hualong One technology, reviving a deal that had been stalled for years.

CNNC said on its WeChat account late on Tuesday that it had signed an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract, which comes ahead of Argentine President Alberto Fernandez’s trip to China later this week

Progress on the nuclear deal between the two nations had stalled https://www.reuters.com/article/us-argentina-china-nuclear/chinese-delegation-to-visit-argentina-to-discuss-stalled-nuclear-deal-government-source-idUSKCN1QW2OA since it was first negotiated by the administration of former President Cristina Fernandez, a left-wing populist who left office in 2015. She is now Argentina’s vice president.

Argentina’s government said in a statement that the construction project “involves an investment of over $8 billion” for engineering, construction, acquisition, commissioning and delivery of a HPR-1000 type reactor.

“Atucha III will have a gross power of 1,200 MW and an initial useful life of 60 years, and will allow the expansion of national nuclear capacities,” it said, adding that construction was set to start at the end of this year.

Details of financing of the nuclear power plant deal were not available. The reactor will be installed in the town of Lima in the province of Buenos Aires.

China developed Hualong One, a third generation pressurized water nuclear reactor power plant technology, to rival the Westinghouse-developed AP1000 and Europe’s Evolutionary Pressurised Reactor (EPR) technology.

China has started operating its own Hualong One reactor in the southeast Chinese province of Fujian. The Argentina project will be the second overseas location using Hualong One technology after Pakistan. (Reporting by Shivani Singh in Singapore and Adam Jourdan in Buenos Aires; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Paul Simao

Posted by at No comments:
Toronto is getting the largest solar power generating wall in North America

Power generation infrastructure is rarely much to look at, often hidden away in elaborate structures to obscure the ugly bird's nests of wires and switches. Solar power is much in the same boat, known for ugly black photovoltaic arrays that would be hard to imagine in the heart of a built-up urban centre.

A relatively recent innovation is changing these preconceived notions of power generation being ugly, the advent of photovoltaic walls integrated into building cladding opening up the doors for green energy production in the most unexpected places.

Known as building-integrated photovoltaics, or BIPV, these panels replicate the exterior finishes of typical buildings you see walking down any city street, all while harnessing the green energy of the sun. In most cases, passersby would have few clues alerting them to the eco-friendly power plants hidden in these panels.

Though it's still in its infancy, the technology is taking a big leap right here in Toronto, where an enormous 7,000-square-foot wall — the largest BIPV wall in North America to date — is being installed.

Located in an industrial area just north of Rexdale Blvd. in Etobicoke, the record-breaking wall from manufacturer Mitrex is expected to generate 90,000 kWh of energy for the building annually, slashing its carbon footprint in the process.

And while these power-producing panels can take on just about any look like stone or even wood, it seems that the record-breaking solar wall being assembled in Etobicoke is taking less of an aesthetically daring approach.

Using three coloured variants in combination with stone cladding, this example of a BIPV wall might not win any design awards, but the variety of finishes the technology has sweeping implications for how we design cities.



Customized solar facade panels being installed to form the continent's largest BIPV wall.

It's a growing and competitive market in Canada.

Previously dominated by Onyx Solar in Spain, Mitrex and other Ontario-based manufacturers like Elemex have since entered the ring, and BIPV has been taking off in more Canadian markets like Alberta and Quebec, with a few examples in those provinces displaying the technology's architectural range.

And while you'd think these systems would add astronomical construction costs to a new building, they're actually relatively cheap, and can pay for themselves through off-grid power generation in just a few years.

Of course, such technology is always going to face an uphill battle against the well-established building materials traditionally used in new construction. Developers and contractors often stick with the products they know and the existing relationships they have with material suppliers.

Green energy incentives like federal funding of $10 billion through the Canada Infrastructure Bank towards green power projects are among the policy moves from above that might be able to sway more movers and shakers to implement this tech in the future.
Posted by at No comments:
A ‘Dachau’ song so shocking and transformative, there’s nothing else like it







FORWARD
January 31, 202
2Image by Getty Images

Inspired in part by all the Jewish artists on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Songs, the Forward decided it was time to rank the best Jewish pop songs of all time. You can find the whole list and accompanying essays here.

“Some white folks think it’s hip to have Blacks in their band. I have Jews, man. They understand suffering.” Thus spoke Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) years ago, on the cusp of my joining his Magic Band in 1980. He wasn’t kidding, either (well, maybe a little). But “Dachau Blues” is no joke. Surely it is the single most shocking, convincing evocation of the Holocaust ever committed to music of any sort. The only other comparison I can think of — for sheer sonic mayhem suffused with righteous Jewish anger — is Arnold Schoenberg’s “A Survivor from Warsaw.”

That “Dachau Blues” was composed and sung by a non-Jewish person boggles the mind (you could describe Van Vliet’s religious outlook as pantheistic, tempered by a healthy streak of animism).



“Dachau Blues” (from Beefheart’s 1968 album “Trout Mask Replica”) is such strong meat that its awesome power engendered two rather extreme responses I shall bear witness to. While an undergrad at Yale in the early 1970s, a fellow student friend of mine played this song to a very sensitive intellectual Jewish woman he was dating. The song’s overwhelming maelstrom of creepiness actually made her vomit in disgust.

Some years later a good friend here in the West Village wanted to rid himself of a pair of bossy roommates who were back from a European sojourn and intent on taking over and muscling him out of his own apartment. Upon hearing his tale of woe, I suggested he play “Dachau Blues” at 6 a.m. at the loudest volume possible. That did the trick. The couple were blasted awake and immediately freaked out and threatened to call the cops or professional medical help. To no avail. My friend stood his ground and kept on playing this song — and by 6 p.m. that same day, the smarmy pair had vacated the premises for good.

In 1810, German author Heinrich von Kleist wrote a memorable short story — “St. Cecilia, or The Power of Music” — about a group of anti-religious zealots who attack a Catholic convent but are rendered neutral (in fact are driven insane) by an orchestra of nuns playing the “Gloria in Excelsis” from an old Italian Mass. Similarly, nothing, I mean nothing, on this earth can withstand the relentless transformative power and provocation of “Dachau Blues.”

Gary Lucas is a nice Jewish boy (sometimes) who was hailed as “One of the best and most original guitarists in America … a modern guitar miracle” by Rolling Stone, which recently named his song “Grace” (co-written with Jeff Buckley) as “One of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.”

Join us at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, Feb. 16, for a spirited discussion of the Greatest Jewish Pop Songs of All Time featuring Forward contributing editor and author Seth Rogovoy; executive editor Adam Langer; former Vibe and Spin editor-in-chief of Vibe, Alan Light; DJ and SirusXM host Hesta Prynn; novelist and screenwriter Jennifer Gilmore; and Forward contributing music critic Dan Epstein. Register here:



THIS WAS ONE OF THE FIRST ALBUMS I BOUGHT WAAY BACK WHEN, ALONG WITH FRANK ZAPPA'S HOT RATS!
Posted by at No comments:
CANADA
Groundhog Day: mysterious rodent deaths and cover-ups plague ceremony

Wiarton citizens smelled a rat when Willie did not make an appearance at the virtual celebration last year
Wiarton Willie takes part in the annual Groundhog day ceremony in February 2004. Photograph: Reuters Photographer/Reuters

Leyland Cecco in Toronto
THE GUARDIAN
Wed 2 Feb 2022

Every year in the Canadian town of Wiarton, devout followers of Wiarton Willie the albino groundhog learn from the rodent if the grip of winter is loosening.

The annual celebration is part of Groundhog Day, a North American tradition (and movie of the same name) which holds that if a groundhog sees its shadow after emerging from hibernation, six weeks more of winter weather are expected.

But the world of rodent-based meteorology has been shaken by revelations that Willie, a celebrity so beloved that he has statues built in his honor, died last year – and his demise was covered up by town officials.

In a break from tradition, Willie did not appear during Wiarton’s 2021 groundhog festival, which was streamed online because of the coronavirus pandemic.

As questions swirled over the missing animal, the town put out a news release, poking fun at his disappearance.

“Is Willie dead or alive? Would you question the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus?” the town wrote. “This event is not about Willie (the groundhog) and truthfully it never has been.”

Months later, however, officials admitted to the Canadian Press that the beloved rodent had died of a tooth abscess and that the news had been withheld from the public.

(Festive woodchuck fatalities aren’t unique to Canada: on Sunday, officials in Milltown, New Jersey announced the town’s animal diviner – known as Milltown Mel – had died, only days before giving his annual prediction. And in 2014, the then New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, dropped Staten Island Chuck during a Groundhog Day celebration. Chuck later died of internal injuries.)

But the recent saga of Willie has exposed years of scrambling and deception by city officials in the event of untimely rodent deaths.

Wiarton traces its annual festival back to the 1950s, when the early seasonal predictions were provided by a trio of groundhogs. In the 1980s, the first “Willie” appeared on the scene. He lived to 22 and was found dead only two days before Groundhog Day in 1999.

A funeral was held, shocking a crowd of children, who had not known Wille was dead.

But the body in the wood casket was an imposter – a previously stuffed groundhog was used instead.

“The smell [of the dead groundhog] was something you wouldn’t have wanted to be near,” Sam Brouwer, Willie’s caretaker from 1987 to 2002, told the Canadian press in 1999. “It would have been a closed-casket funeral.”

Four years later, two understudy animals, dubbed “Wee Willies”, were found dead. CBC reported at the time that Willie himself was implicated in the deaths. His caretaker Francesca Dobbyn did not immediately inform the town, fearing the news would generate bad press. Despite calls for her termination, Dobbyn kept her job.

In the event of a Willie dying, the town often has to scramble to find a replacement because of the distinct appearance of the white rodents.

“With [famous groundhogs like] Punxsutawney Phil and Shubenacadie Sam, I wouldn’t be surprised if they had a different groundhog every year – people don’t really notice the difference,” Wiarton’s mayor, Janice Jackson, told the Canadaland podcast in a recent interview. “But for albinos, because they are rare, and some of them are true albinos with red eyes and others have brown eyes, there is a slight difference between them.”

When Willie died in November, the town realized all groundhogs were hibernating and a new white one couldn’t be swapped. Officials improvised, having the mayor toss her hat in the air and make the prediction instead of revealing his death.

“I didn’t want our community to be stunned on the day,” said Jackson.

Wiarton’s 2022 Groundhog Day festival will once again be a virtual event. This time, a brown groundhog will be used.
Posted by at No comments:
Wetlands: the unsung heroes of the planet
Unsplash / Dan Meyers / 01 Feb 2022

Wetlands are some of the planet’s most important ecosystems. They’re a haven for wildlife, they filter pollution and they’re important stores of carbon.

But they’re also one of the Earth’s most threatened habitats. Some 85 per cent of wetlands present in 1700 were lost by 2000, many drained to make way for development, farming or other “productive” uses. Disappearing three times faster than forests, their loss spells an existential threat for hundreds of thousands of animal and plant species.

“Healthy wetlands – critical for climate mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity, and human health and prosperity – punch above their weight in terms of benefits,” says Leticia Carvalho, Principal Coordinator for Marine and Freshwater at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). “Making sure that they continue to deliver vital ecosystem services to humanity requires… their prioritization, protection, restoration, better management and monitoring.”

Carvalho made the comments on the eve of World Wetlands Day, which falls on 2 February. This year, for the first time since it was established by Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1972, World Wetlands Day is being observed as a United Nations international day

Wetlands, which include marshes and peatlands, are the unsung heroes of the climate crisis. They store more carbon than any other ecosystem, with peatlands alone storing twice as much as all the world’s forests. Inland wetland ecosystems, also absorb excess water and help prevent floods and drought, widely seen as critical to helping communities adapt to a changing climate.

This is why Carvalho says the protection of wetlands are a priority for UNEP and a special focus of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global push to protect and revive the natural world.

“It’s encouraging that there is increasing recognition of wetlands as an invaluable but overlooked nature-based solution,” she said. “COP 26 started to shine a spotlight on the role of finance and political will. More of both need to be channeled towards wetlands, enshrined in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions, and better integrated into development plans,” she adds.

Wetlands built by humans, such as reservoirs, also contribute to human well-being and have other benefits. One project in the Baltic, for instance, aims to improve water quality in lagoons polluted by fertilizer run-off by using floating, vegetation-rich, wetlands to remove nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus.

Finally, wetlands, teeming with species, are a key ally in our fight to stop biodiversity loss. Over 140,000 described species – including 55% of all fishes – rely on freshwater habitats for their survival. Freshwater species are important to local ecosystems, provide sources of food and income to humans and are key to flood and erosion control. Yet wetland species are going extinct more rapidly than terrestrial or marine species, with almost a third of all freshwater biodiversity facing extinction due to invasive species, pollution, habitat loss and over-harvesting.

The good news is that protection, sustainable management and restoration of wetlands work. Improving management of wetlands brings health, food and water security benefits – critical to the health and livelihoods of 4 billion people reliant on wetlands’ services, says the Global Wetland Outlook. Under Sustainable Development Goal 6, Target 6, all countries are committed to protecting and restoring wetlands by 2030, and UNEP has a special role in helping to monitor and achieve that target.

The Okavango Delta in Botswana and the Pantanal in Brazil are iconic examples of inland, vegetated wetlands teeming with wildlife. But wetlands come in many shapes and sizes and are uniquely under pressure from demographic and development forces, notably from agriculture. Check out these five unexpected wetlands to learn more.

Healthy wetlands – critical for climate mitigation, adaptation, biodiversity, and human health and prosperity – punch above their weight in terms of benefits.
Leticia Carvalho, Principal Coordinator for Marine and Freshwater, UNEP

Fish ponds in Yangambi, near Kisangani, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: CIFOR / Axel Fassio


1. Artificial and constructed wetlands

Not all wetlands are permanently wet and not all wetlands are natural. Artificial wetlands, such as reservoirs and fish ponds, help cool the planet and soak up carbon. Constructed wetlands make use of the natural purification processes of vegetation, soils and microbes to remove contaminants from wastewater, and when designed right can serve as biodiversity hotspots and migration stopovers. This relatively low-cost technology improves water security, making it important for climate change adaptation.

The risk of fires in Arctic peatlands is growing as temperatures rise. Photo: Greifswald Mire Center / Hans Joosten


2. Arctic peatlands

The northern circumpolar region holds almost half of the world’s soil organic carbon, largely in the form of permanently frozen peat. Given that the Arctic is seeing the fastest rate of global heating, he big fear is that, as the ice around them melts, they degrade and begin to emit masses of stored carbon dioxide as well as methane, potentially causing a catastrophic climate change tipping point.

Lake Van, a saline soda lake, is one of the world's largest endorheic lakes (having no outlet). Photo: Flickr / Carl Campbell

3. Soda lakes

Most inland wetlands are freshwater ecosystems. Soda lakes, like Lake Van in Turkey and Lake Bogoria in Kenya, are strongly alkaline and contain water that is undrinkable, but they provide valuable ecosystem services, including sought-after minerals and enzymes. These unusual habitats also provide opportunities for recreation, education and research.

Kole Wetlands, Thrissur, Kerala, southern India, one of 47 Ramsar “sites of international importance” in India. The “Kerala backwaters” are a network of brackish lagoons and lakes lying parallel to the Arabian Sea coast. Photo: Manoj Karingamadathil

4. Saltwater marshes

Not all wetlands are freshwater. Saltwater or tidal marshes, found in coastal regions particularly at middle to high latitudes, are important habitats for diverse wildlife, fish reproduction, carbon storage and coastal protection. However, they too are under threat: “Depending on the amount of sea-level rise, 20-90 per cent of current coastal wetlands may be lost by the end of the century,” says UNEP’s Making Peace With Nature report.

Danau Sentarum peatland swamp forest, West Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. Photo: CIFOR / Ramadian Bachtiar

5. Peatland swamp forests

Lowland forest ecosystems, or swamp forests, formed on peat soils are found mainly in the islands of Indonesia and Malaysia. Many of them have been deforested and drained to make way for palm oil plantations but there is growing recognition of their value as wildlife hotspots and carbon sinks. Peatlands cover only 3 per cent of the Earth’s land surface and yet are our largest terrestrial organic carbon store. Protecting and restoring peatlands can reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 800 million tons per year – equivalent to Germany’s annual emissions, according to a recent UNEP report. Learn more through this virtual journey.


The UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030, led by the United Nations Environment Programme, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and partners, covers terrestrial as well as coastal and marine ecosystems. A global call to action, it will draw together political support, scientific research and financial muscle to massively scale up restoration. Find out how you can contribute to the UN Decade.


Posted by at No comments:

 Edmonton·CBC Explains

What will climate change actually look like on the Prairies?

Expect changes to water supply and ecosystems as we

 continue to warm


Christy Climenhaga · CBC News · 
Sage grouse are among the wildlife found today at the Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan. (Jerret Raffety/Rawlins Daily Times/The Associated Press)

CBC Alberta and Saskatchewan have teamed up for a new pilot series on weather and climate change on the Prairies. Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga will bring her expert voice to the conversation to help explain weather phenomena and climate change and how it impacts everyday life.

When looking at our climate, we know our temperature is rising. Globally, annual mean temperatures have risen just over a degree since 1880.

In Canada, the warming has been more drastic.

Nathan Gillett, a research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says the Arctic is warming at a faster rate due to ice melt and more heat being absorbed.

But so are the Prairies.

"Alberta and Saskatchewan have warmed by about 1.9 C since the mid-20th century," Gillett says. "And they're projected to continue warming at more than the global rate."

According to Canada's Changing Climate Report, this century the global climate will warm by a further 1 C in a low-emission scenario compared to a further 3.7 C in a business-as-usual high-emission scenario.

What does this warming mean for life in Alberta and Saskatchewan? Let's take a closer look at what we expect to see in regards to our weather, water, and biodiversity.

Canada’s Prairies are already seeing more droughts, floods and warmer winters as the Earth’s climate warms, but what can we expect in the longer term? Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga breaks down the data. 2:29

Weather

With higher overall temperatures, you can expect shorter, warmer winters on average, with the occasional cold year.

Summers will get hotter with more severe heat waves. 

With the change in temperatures, precipitation is expected to increase overall, but how and when it falls will be different. 

"Globally and across Canada, as the atmosphere warms it can hold more moisture so that means we will increase in the most intense rainfall," Gillett says. "Those big storms, the amount of rain that can fall with them, is projected to be larger in the Prairies."

Ten-year-extreme daily precipitation, or those once-in-10-years events, could increase by 20 per cent in the high-emissions scenario versus five per cent in the low-emissions scenario, he says.

"More intense rainfall can drive urban flooding and increased runoff," Gillett says. "The flooding in B.C. is an example of intense rainfall events."

Hay bales float in the middle of a street on floodwaters in the Sumas Prairie flood zone in Abbotsford, B.C., on Nov. 22, 2021. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Scientists like Gillett continue to study those extreme weather events to prepare for the future.

"If we see a particular event, we know what impacts it had," he says. "It makes it easier to understand the kinds of adaptations that we'll need to take to reduce the damages associated with those kinds of events."

Water

Though models indicate an overall increase in precipitation, future droughts and soil moisture deficits are projected to be more frequent and intense across the southern Canadian Prairies during summer by the end of the century under a high-emission scenario.

So how does that work?

When you look at the water supply chapter of our changing climate, timing is very important. 

David Sauchyn, director of the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative at the University of Regina, is a lead author of a report detailing the changes we can expect in the Prairies as our climate warms.

David Sauchyn, director of the Prairie Adaptation Research Collaborative at the University of Regina, says Prairie precipitation will increase in the winter and spring, but will fall more often as rain, not snow. (Matt Duguid/CBC)

Changes to the water supply will be the most consequential, Sauchyn says. 

Precipitation will increase in the winter and spring, but will fall as rain, not snow, he says. 

"Snow is the natural storage of water," Sauchyn says. "We have really benefited from the fact that for three or four months of the year, the water stays around it doesn't run off and, come springtime, we have this storage of water that replenishes our lakes, rivers and soil moisture. 

"Many of the climate models indicate less precipitation in summer which is when we need it."

And much of the rain we do see in the summer will be lost due to evaporation. 

Another factor that will influence our water supply is the change in snowpack in the mountains.

"Most of the people in Alberta and Saskatchewan get their water from the Rockies," Sauchyn says. 

"Whether it's river water derived from the mountains or soil moisture derived from rainfall, we will see less water in summer which is when we need it most."

Models indicate drought conditions could become more frequent as our climate warms. (Richard Agecoutay/CBC News)

Biodiversity

What will this mean for our ecosystems and biodiversity on the Prairies?

"Prairie vegetation is extremely sensitive to temperature and moisture and timing of that," says John Gamon, who uses remote sensing to study plant biodiversity at the University of Nebraska.

"You can get dramatic growth responses depending on temperature and moisture."

Moisture is like a switch that can flip an ecosystem from one state to another, Gamon says. 

Sauchyn's report says as species respond to climate change, large regions of boreal forest could transition to aspen parkland and grassland ecosystems, while entire mountain ecosystems could disappear.

Projected ecosystems in Alberta under medium-emissions scenario. (Canada in a Changing Climate: Regional Perspectives Report)

Sauchyn says that the trees in island forests in Saskatchewan such as Cypress Hills or Moose Mountain could also mostly disappear.

More grassland and less forest will profoundly affect wildlife in the prairies. 

"Species have to adapt or they have to perish," says Chrystal Mantyka-Pringle, a conservation planning biologist for the Wildlife Conservation Society of Canada.

She says that species are facing a cocktail of threats, including habitat loss, invasive species or environmental pollution.

"There are winners and losers," Mantyka-Pringle says.

For example, wetland birds have increased by 30 per cent while birds of prey have doubled, she says. 

"But a lot of other species are losing because they are more vulnerable to a warmer climate.

"We've seen a 60 per cent decline in grassland birds. We've seen the same decline in aerial insectivores which are the swallows, flycatchers and songbirds.

"There's a global documentation on how insects are disappearing as well."

Mantyka-Pringle says the loser species are those with slower reproduction systems making them slow to adapt, whereas the winners are the generalist species. 

"They can move from one habitat to another," she says. "So do we want a world where we see less species but more of them or a world where we have a diversity of wildlife?"

Invasive species also pose a risk, Mantyka-Pringle says. As our climate warms and becomes more variable we can expect to see new species. 

"Winter ticks are moving further north and moose are struggling with the tick infestations," she says. "So the changes aren't just individual species, but it's the community composition of different species and how they relate to each other."

Erin Bayne, professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta, says we are seeing more non-native species from the south moving north. 

"They can be invasive and have negative effects on agriculture," Bayne says. "For example, the white tail deer is not a native species to Alberta.

"It started spreading across Canada within the last 50 to 100 years. The only reason it can make it in Alberta is because the winter is warmer."

More non-native species from the south are moving north to the Prairies such as whitetail deer, says Erin Bayne, professor of biological sciences at the University of Alberta. (The Associated Press)

Extreme weather events also affect wildlife as they become more frequent.

"The immediate mortality of animals from some of those events can have consequences to short-term population dynamics," Bayne says. "It's also destroying habitats for certain species. 

"A thousand years ago these same kinds of events would be significant but the populations of animals would have been much larger. They would have been more resilient to this change."


Christy Climenhaga

CBC Meteorologist

Christy Climenhaga, CBC Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatchewan's Meteorologist, covers weather and climate change stories for the prairies.

Posted by at No comments:
Braid: Federal MPs got to vote on their leader. Why can't Alberta MLAs?

The UCP still agonizes every day over rules for a leadership vote by members on April 9

Author of the article:Don Braid • Calgary Herald
Publishing date:Feb 01, 2022 • 

Premier Jason Kenney provides an update on Alberta’s COVID-19 response at the McDougall Centre on Tuesday, January 4, 2022.
 PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI/POSTMEDIA

Premier Jason Kenney’s UCP opponents have been trying to force a vote on his leadership for months. In Ottawa, the federal Conservatives worked up a ballot in what seemed like a few days.

On Wednesday, in secret, 73 MPs voted to kick out Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole, under a process that is not merely political but federal law.

All it took to turf him was 50 per cent plus one of the MPs who voted. In the end, only 38 per cent of those who voted still wanted O’Toole in the job.

Alberta has no such formal process for removal of a leader by his or her caucus. Maybe it should.

Kenney has faced months of opposition from his own people, often publicly, along with the most Byzantine backroom plotting in the history of modern Alberta politics.

The party still agonizes every day over rules for a leadership vote by members on April 9. Because of the sloppy, ill-defined process, discontent and mistrust boil in the party.

On Tuesday, Kenney was asked if he though O’Toole should be allowed to stay. As he answered he sometimes looked like he’d laugh out loud, because the parallels between him and O’Toole were so obvious.

“I’m pretty focused on a number of very difficult issues here right now. I’m not getting caught up in federal politics,” he began.

“I would just say this to my friends in the federal Conservative party — I don’t think in the long run it makes sense to change leaders after every election. I think stability and continuity are important conservative principles.

“I would also just encourage my friends in the federal Conservative party not to say or do things right in the heat of the moment that they might end up regretting, on either side of this debate. What the public expects is for the opposition to hold the government to account.

“Remember, whatever differences they have, those differences pale in comparison to the differences they have with the governing party (insert NDP here), and to focus on those things that unite them, not on the issues that divide them.

“That would be my encouragement, just to be patient with one another and seek through this difficult time to be respectful and patient with each other and not to say things they might end up regretting six months or a year down the road.”

It’s exactly the argument Kenney makes with his own MLAs, and maybe to his mirror. The federal MPs clearly weren’t listening.

In Kenney’s own cause some members have come to believe he never listens to them, while wielding ultimate authority over their workplace and chances for advancement.

The conflicts have shattered public faith in Kenney’s government and destroyed any hope of caucus solidarity behind his moderate policy on COVID-19.

That federal vote on O’Toole only happened because a Conservative MP from southern Ontario, Michael Chong, pushed for years to give regular caucus members more influence over their leadership.

Perhaps motivated by his experience with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the ultimate Iron Man of party leaders, Chong finally got the bill passed in 2015.

It was a kind of legislative miracle — the Reform Act, a law that placed the fate of the leader in the hands of his own caucus.

Such a law in Alberta might have made Kenney more alert to rising discontent in his own group. The dissidents could have blown off steam internally, knowing they could fire him directly if he didn’t listen.

One reason it has never happened, and probably never will, is that Alberta leadership contests have evolved into money-raising events for the party itself.

With membership sales and event fees, the April 9 vote will rake in a minimum of $300,000 for UCP central (although the party says it will just recover costs.)

On Tuesday Jason Kenney almost laughed at the ironies. Briefly.

And then, Erin O’Toole was on his way.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald
Posted by at No comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)