New Fossil Analysis Revealed a Four Legged Fishapod That Resembles to Tiktaalik

By Paw Mozter Jul 25, 2022 

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Online jokes about Tiktaalik roseae, the famous four-legged "fishapod" that first appeared on land 375 million years ago, have been going around throughout the epidemic. In the majority of depictions, Tiktaalik is seen sticking its head out of the water and getting ready to crawl on land as a hand out of frame threatens it with a stick or a rolled-up newspaper.

The punchline is that those of us who are weary of the modern world wish we could travel back in time and stop evolution in its tracks, saving ourselves from the current era of conflict, disease, and online memes.

Evolution of Tiktaalik

(Photo : David Clode/Unsplash)

The ancient creature's fossilized remnants have shown how prehistoric life emerged from the ocean and made its clumsy initial steps toward the development of four-legged terrestrial creatures.

The bones of Tiktaalik, a 375 million year old freshwater organism that grew to three meters long and had aquatic traits combined with others better adapted to life on land, were found to provide clues to the crucial period in the history of life.

While looking for fossils on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic in 2004, researchers made the initial discovery of Tiktaalik.

Tiktaalik was an amazing creature with a unique combination of gills, scales, fins, and lungs. It also had a moveable neck, strong ribs, and a head like a crocodile.

In study that was released in 2014, researchers provide the first description of fossils from the rear half of Tiktaalik. According to the report, the animal featured lengthy hind fins, a conspicuous hip joint, and a big, strong pelvic girdle. The beast's strong fins may have helped it move through the water, but they might also have enabled it to traverse mudflats and walk on riverbeds.

The largest discovery, according to Neil Shubin, an anatomy professor at the University of Chicago and the paper's lead author, was the size of the pelvis.

The animal's pelvis is the same size as its shoulder, so you can get an idea of how enormous it is by noting that.

It is also evident from these bones that the hind appendage was already emphasized in its transition to creatures with limbs, as per The Guardian.

Read more: Decline in Earth's Oxygen Caused by Fossil Fuels, Experts Suggest

A new discovery of a new fossil

It turned out that one of Tiktaalik's close cousins had done just that, choosing to return to dwell in the open sea rather than venture onto land, as per ScienceDaily.

Recent research from the lab of Neil Shubin, Ph.D., who co-discovered Tiktaalik in 2004, reports a fossil species that are similar to Tiktaalik but differs from it in that it was better suited to life in the water.

The Tiktaalik, which could reach a height of nine feet, was larger than Qikiqtania wakei, which was just 30 inches long.

The newly discovered fossil has fragments of the upper and lower jaws, the neck, and scales.

Most critically, it has a full pectoral fin and a humerus bone that is distinct and devoid of the ridges that would identify the location of muscles and joints on a limb designed for walking on land.

The top arm of Qikiqtania was smooth and curved, more adapted to a life spent paddling underwater.

The peculiarity of Qikiqtania's arm bones suggests that it resumed water paddling after its predecessors started using their limbs for walking.

We initially believed it may be a juvenile Tiktaalik because of its lower size and the possibility that some of those processes hadn't fully completed, according to Shubin.

It's extremely smooth and boomerang-shaped, but the humerus lacks the components that would support it thrusting up on land.

The fossil was discovered by Shubin, the Robert R. Bensley Distinguished Service Professor of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago, at a location about one mile east of southern Ellesmere Island in the territory of Nunavut in northern Arctic Canada, days before Tiktaalik was found.

The Inuktitut term Qikiqtaaluk or Qikiqtani, the traditional name for the area where the fossil site is located, is whence the name Qikiatania originates.

In honor of the late David Wake, a renowned evolutionary scientist from the University of California in Berkeley, the species name wakei was given.

Tiktaalik and Qikiqtania are just somewhat older than one another. According to the team's examination of its position on the evolutionary tree, it, like Tiktaalik, is situated close to the oldest known organisms with finger-like digits.

Qikiqtania had a distinctive pectoral fin that was more suited to swimming, but it wasn't fully fish-like.

Different from the jointed, muscled legs or fan-shaped fins we see in modern tetrapods and fish, its curving paddle form was a distinctive adaption.

The Qikiqtania demonstrates that some species continued on a different course that eventually didn't work out, contrary to the common belief that animals developed in a straight line from their primordial beginnings to some living creatures today.

Drum circle participants 'obstructed and harassed' lifeguards on Vancouver beach, park board says

This photo shows a crowd gathered for the weekly drum circle on Third Beach in Vancouver's Stanley Park (Credit: LeonWang/Shutterstock.co)

OMG STILL GOING SINCE I LEFT IN '72
Lisa Steacy
CTVNewsVancouver.ca Reporter
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Published July 27, 2022

Lifeguards have stopped patrolling a Vancouver beach on Tuesday nights because the crowd at a weekly drum circle has become unmanageable and unsafe, according to the park board.

The move was announced in a tweet, the board saying the decision to halt patrols at 7 p.m. was necessary to ensure the safety of lifeguards and followed an "incident" at Third Beach in Stanley Park earlier this month.

"All those who attend the drum circle are being warned of the risks associated with unsupervised swimming," the tweet continued.

TWEET EMBED: In an email, a spokesperson provided more details. On July 12, guards pulled an unconscious person out of the water and performed first aid until an ambulance arrived.

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"At the time of the incident, it is reported the number of people at Third Beach exceeded 4,000," the statement reads.

"Other lifeguards on site reported they were obstructed and harassed by individuals in the crowd, both physically and verbally, as they attempted to reach the unconscious individual."

The weekly gathering was described as an "unsanctioned and unpermitted event" that has been drawing increasingly large and unruly crowds to the waterfront in recent weeks. The park board spokesperson said it has gotten to the point where rangers and lifeguards can’t ensure their own safety or the safety of the people participating in the drum circle.

The Vancouver Park Board will be meeting with the police department and city protective services to "establish a coordinated approach and long-term strategy to manage the congregation of large crowds and associated bylaw infractions."

Canada’s fossil-fuelled sprint away from climate safety

By Barry Saxifrage | Analysis, Climate Solutions Reporting | July 27th 2022

#2052 of 2053 articles from the Special Report: Race to a Safer World

Fossil fuel buring keeps rising in Canada, and Canadians now burn more per person than any of our peers in G7 and European Union nations.

Burning fossil fuels is the root cause of climate breakdown, ocean acidification and the choking air pollution that is killing millions every year.

For more than 30 years, Canada has been promising to do its part in solving these crises by reining in our hugely oversized fossil fuel burning. Instead, we keep cranking up the amount we burn. That's according to the data in the latest BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

This data also shows that Canada is dragging its feet on expanding climate-safe and less-deadly energy sources that we need to switch to — like hydro, nuclear, wind and solar. As a result, fossil fuels’ formidable lead in Canada’s energy use keeps growing.

Canadians now burn more fossil fuels per person than any of our peer nations in the wealthy Group of Seven (G7) or the European Union. And while nearly all these nations have managed to reduce their climate pollution since 1990, Canada hasn’t. We still emit far more.

Canada’s multi-decade failure to reduce fossil fuel burning has left Canadians and our economy increasingly exposed to the rapidly metastasizing climate crisis.

To illustrate Canada’s ever-growing fossil fuel problem, I’ve created a series of charts using the latest BP energy data.

Burning up

My first chart lets you compare Canada’s energy use last year to what we used back in 1990, the year Canada first promised to reduce climate pollution.

Back then, Canadians burned seven exajoules of fossil fuels.

(Note: An "exajoule" (EJ) is an energy metric used by BP and others to compare different sources of energy. It is roughly equal to the energy from burning 163 million barrels of oil.)

Over the next 30 years, instead of reducing our carbon burning as promised, we kept cranking it up. Last year, we burned nine exajoules worth of fossil fuels — two more than in 1990.

For scale, the combined nations of Central America currently burn about one exajoule worth of fossil fuels each year. So, Canada has increased its fossil fuel burning by two Central Americas worth since 1990. That’s the path to a chaotic climate future, not a safe one.

The chart’s green bars show how much climate-safe energy Canada uses. This increased by just one exajoule — only half as much.

Canada’s multi-decade failure to reduce fossil fuel burning has left us and our economy increasingly exposed to the rapidly metastasizing climate crisis. #ClimateCrisis #cdnpoli #FossilFuels @saxifrages writes for @NatObserver

Fossil fuels are pulling away

As my next chart highlights, fossil fuels' already formidable lead over cleaner alternatives has grown even larger.

Back in 1990, fossil fuels had a three exajoule lead over climate-safe energy sources in Canada. Now, the gap has grown to four exajoules.

Three decades ago, the climate task facing Canadians was to eliminate seven exajoules of fossil fuel energy. That’s a lot of energy to replace or cut back. But back then, we also had several decades ahead of us to engineer a graceful energy transition.

Instead of acting, Canada burned up precious decades while making the problem even larger. Today, Canadians face a much larger task — eliminating nine exajoules per year worth of fossil fuels. And we have far less time remaining to do it. The climate crisis is now hammering away with increasing fury on our communities, food supply, security, economy and the rich ecosystems we cherish and depend on.

The impacts will keep growing more dangerous until we’ve eliminated all fossil fuel burning.

Coal gains squandered

There is one form of fossil fuel that Canada has acted on — coal burning in power plants.

This effort was led by Ontario with its Cessation of Coal Use Regulation back in 2007. The provincial government calls this the "single largest greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction action on the continent." It remains Canada’s biggest climate success so far.

But, as this next chart highlights, all of Canada’s hard-won climate progress from coal cuts was wiped out four times over by our huge surge in oil and gas burning.

For those who like geeky details, coal burning declined by 0.7 EJ, while oil and gas burning surged by 2.7 EJ.

One step forward, four steps back.

On the positive side, Canadians are close to eliminating coal-burning power plants. Less than half an exajoule of coal burning remains. And Canada has laws on the books to shut down most of that.

But the flip side is that Canada has now played its coal card and, yet, fossil fuel burning continues to rise.

To make any meaningful climate progress now, Canada must make large and rapid cuts in our oil and gas burning. These now total 95 per cent of our fossil fuel burning.

However, Canada has been green-lighting economic and climate policies that do the opposite. Both oil and gas burning have risen relentlessly in Canada. Both hit all-time highs in 2019.

Global speed bumps

So far, the only thing that has slowed down Canada’s fossil burning has been two major global crises.

In 2009, the sudden global financial meltdown turned down Canada’s fossil burner — for a single year. And in 2020, the global COVID pandemic did it again.

But even these global crises were just temporary speed bumps in Canada’s determined acceleration off the climate cliff. In both cases, fossil burning rebounded strongly the next year.

In fact, it took just one year for Canada's fossil gas burning to erase the pandemic dip and surge to a record high in 2021.

Both these global economic crises also put a damper on Canada’s climate-safe energy. According to the BP data, Canada’s climate-safe energy peaked in 2017 and has been struggling through years of decline since.

Overall, though, Canada’s energy trends have been remarkably stable since 1990. Fossil fuel burning keeps rising. And it keeps rising much faster than climate-safe energy. The gap between climate-safe energy and climate-destructive energy keeps growing larger. And the amount of fossil fuel burning that Canadians must eliminate to preserve a livable climate keeps growing larger as well.

There is no sign in this data that Canada is turning the corner on its fossil fuel addiction.
Super burners

So far, we’ve looked at the total fossil fuel burning in Canada.

Another revealing comparison I found in the BP data is in the amount of fossil fuels burned per person.

My next chart shows fossil fuel burning per capita among Canada’s peers in both the G7 and the European Union. Combined, these 31 nations hold more than half the world's wealth, produce half the global GDP, and emit a third of the climate pollution.

Where are Canadians?

Fossil fuel burning per capita in G7 and EU nations. Data from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2022.

Yep, sadly, we are in first place — burning the most per person.

Canadians now burn nearly four times more fossil fuels per person than the global average; triple the French or British; and more than twice as much as the Germans and Japanese. Heck, even the Americans now burn less per person than we do. They used to burn a lot more than we did, but even the land of Trumpian climate denial and yahoo oil cowboys now burns less than us.

And, of course, all our oversized fossil fuel burning comes with oversized heaps of climate pollution.
Climate rogue

My final chart shows the climate progress these same nations have made since 1990.

Green bars show reductions in climate pollution. As you can see, nearly all our peers in this group have reduced their emissions. Not Canada. We are one of the few climate rogues — still polluting more.

Climate pollution changes from 1990 to 2020 in G7 and EU nations. Data from each nation's National Inventory Report to the UNFCCC.

The Europeans have cut their climate pollution — by a third.

The British have cut their climate pollution — in half.

We’ve cranked ours higher. Is this really who we want to be?

If Canadians ever want to get off our treadmill of rising fossil fuel addiction and endless climate failure, we could adopt the same carbon budget policies that have been working so well for our Commonwealth peers in the U.K.

At this point, we know what works and what doesn’t.

Continuing with climate arson isn't our only option. We can choose a different and more hopeful path.

July 27th 2022

Barry Saxifrage
Visual Carbon Columnist
@bsaxifrage

Comments

David Huntley | 12 hours ago

I do not know how to explain why Canada is doing so badly except that there must be corruption in the Cabinet.

f nordvie | 9 hours ago


5 years ago, Ontario was ahead of its schedule, to reach 2030 goals.
And none of its work, or Quebec's, or BC's, or anyone else's, counted for a dawdly-doo in the federal figures, because they were all wiped out by the petro industries in AB and SASK.

And then we got Doug Ford. I don't say "we" elected Doug Ford, bc I played no part in that.

James S | 9 hours ago


Isn't a very large portion of Canada's consumption of fossil fuels related to a very small number of industries, including oil and gas extraction/refining, cement production, and to a lesser extent steel and aluminum smelting? These per capita charts suggest that 'ordinary' Canadians are doing all that burning which I don't believe is the case. At the same time, it's a well known fact that Canadian domestic consumption is much higher than Scandinavian domestic consumption, and so 'ordinary' Canadians have much in the way of improvements to make. However, while the climate doesn't care about who is producing carbon, I think we need to keep the record straight as to the fact that key industries in Canada who are mostly international conglomerates with widely held international shareholdings, are the ones that are putting these big numbers on the backs of ordinary Canadians. It is these same companies, as well as the Canadian Banks that keep the country's carbon output high while lobbying our so-called democratic representatives to allow them to keep making money at the expense of our climate futures.

Geoffrey Pounder | 7 hours ago


"Canada's overall emissions growth over the 1990 to 2020 period was driven primarily by increased emissions from oil and gas extraction as well as transport."
"In 2020, the oil and gas sector and transport sector were the largest GHG emitters in Canada, accounting for 27% and 24% of total emissions, respectively."

Buildings, electricity, heavy industry, agriculture, "waste and others" (light manufacturing, construction, forest resources, coal production) account for the remainder. These five categories average around 9% (range: 7-12%).
"The Heavy industry sector consists of emissions from mining, smelting and refining, pulp and paper, iron and steel, cement, lime and gypsum, and chemicals and fertilizers."
Cement accounts for less than 2% (10-11 Mt) of Canada's total 730-740 Mt.
ECCC: Greenhouse gas emissions
https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/environment...

Ultimately, just about all this economic activity is driven by consumption, i.e., by consumers here and abroad. Industry does not exist for its own sake. No consumers, no industry.
Cars, light trucks, motorcycles, bus, rail and aviation account for 13% of total emissions. Not including the upstream gas and diesel production upstream to fuel them.
Fossil fuels power our cars, natural gas heats our homes, agriculture puts food on our table, forestry provides our lumber and paper products, etc.

Dorothy Henaut | 5 hours ago


Our government certainly has the power to stop subsidizing the fossil fuel industries, which is a major factor in the fact that Canada is a rogue nation, perhaps even the worst rogue nation with regard to fossil fuels and bringing on climate Armageddon.

The only reason I can see that the Trudeau government is subsidizing the ridiculous carbon capturing and opening up more oil fields in the Atlantic and elsewhere is that he lives in a millionaire‘a bubble and his reality has very little to do with the real world that is rapidly burning up.

The day when federal ministers are willing to have lunch with citizens groups and climate activists the way they do with petroleum CEOs there might be some changes.

Meantime, Trudeau’s name is going to go down in history as the man who made Canada a rogue nation that largely affected the demise of the natural world as we know it, as well as an inestimable number of people in the world. Sometimes I wonder why he doesn’t think if that.

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“The planet already is 1.2 C hotter, yet new fossil fuel projects every day accelerate our race towards the precipice. Enough is enough."
By John Woodside | News, Energy, Climate Solutions Reporting | July 22nd 2022

How Canada’s UN climate boss Catherine McKenna plans to fight greenwashing

Canada’s former environment minister is going after organizations whose resolve doesn’t match their rhetoric on climate change.

By David Paterson
Tue., July 26, 2022

Earlier this year, scientists reported some relatively good news in the fight against climate change. A study in the journal Nature found that emissions-reductions pledges following last fall’s COP26 climate summit would keep global warming to two degrees Celsius — if they came to fruition.

But since then, the backsliding has begun. In the face of soaring fossil fuel prices, Joe Biden urged oil companies to increase production and California started to effectively subsidize gas for drivers. The European Union made the scientifically dubious choice to sometimes classify natural gas as clean energy. And in Canada, the federal government approved a $16-billion oil drilling megaproject off the coast of St. John’s run by Equinor, a Norwegian energy company.

The gulf between words and deeds is not new. Climate vows have been made and broken (including by Canada) since at least the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit back in 1992. But as scientists warn that serious emissions cuts must be made in the next 10 years pressure is growing for mechanisms to hold governments and corporations to their promises.

“Greenwashing just creates cynicism,” says Catherine McKenna, the former Canadian environment minister who helped negotiate the Paris agreement. “It rewards the bad guys. If you’re a company that doesn’t want to act, you just join on this net-zero pledge and you get to coast along.”

This spring, the United Nations tapped McKenna to head up an expert panel on net-zero pledges. The group has been charged with addressing what the UN calls the “deficit of credibility” and bringing clarity to murky waters with a set of standards for climate promises from non-state entities, such as businesses and city governments.

The scale of the challenge was laid out recently by Carbon Market Watch, an environmental advocacy group. It analyzed the net-zero commitments of 25 of the world’s largest companies and found that most fall a long way short of reaching zero. It calculated that the actions promised would trim companies’ emissions by only 40 per cent on average and many cuts won’t happen for 20 or 30 years. The authors concluded that executives were “leaving the burden squarely on the shoulders of future generations.”

The report highlights several accounting techniques deployed by corporations to reduce the apparent size of their environmental footprint. Even Ikea, which is widely recognized as being well-intentioned on environmental issues, counts the solar panels it sells to customers and the carbon in some of its furniture toward its own reduction targets.

McKenna says that businesses are genuinely confused about how to assess their environmental impact and there is demand for a fair set of rules that everyone plays by. “If you’re decarbonizing your business, that’s hard. And if you’re doing that while your competitor isn’t, that’s not good news for you,” she says. “I hear from lots of folks saying, ‘Tell us what we need to do, how we need to report and make sure everyone has to do this’.”

One idea that McKenna’s panel will consider is linking progress on net-zero targets to executive compensation, which she says could “make sure that everyone’s paying attention.”

Alongside business, the panel will also look at how cities are approaching net-zero commitments. Local governments are increasingly being seen as important players on climate change, particularly in countries like the U.S. where action at the national level has stalled.

But McKenna says city managers struggle to find room in stretched budgets for items like new low-emission busses.

“I think we need to recognize that cities do need the support, often of the state, and that it can be very challenging if you are in a big city where you’re also dealing with poverty.”


Finding solutions to problems like this will occupy the panel for months. But, as António Guterres, the United Nations’ outspoken secretary general pointed out, time is not on our side.

“The world is in a race against time,” he said in a recent speech. “We cannot afford slow movers, fake movers or any form of greenwashing.”

Hear more from Catherine McKenna on the third episode of the new MaRS podcast Solve for X: Innovations to Save the Planet.

David Paterson writes about technology for MaRS. Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, has partnered with MaRS to highlight innovation in Canadian companies.

Trudeau, farmers spar on climate plan cutting fertilizer, grain output

Jen Skerritt, Bloomberg News

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s push to accelerate the fight against climate change is sparking a showdown with the nation’s farmers, who say it’s threatening food supplies — and their profits. 

The government is proposing to cut emissions from fertilizer 30 per cent by 2030 as part of a plan to get to net zero in the next three decades. But growers are saying that to achieve that, they may have to shrink grain output significantly at a time when the world is scrambling for more supplies. Also at stake is the estimated $10.4 billion (US$8.08 billion) that farmers could lose this decade from the reduced output.

The tension comes as efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions related to energy are lagging, so policymakers are increasingly looking to other sectors, including agriculture. Climate targets on nitrogen in the Netherlands, for example, spurred protests from farmers worried they’d be forced out of business. Cattle and fertilizer are key sources of nitrogen emissions. Angry Dutch farmers brought cows to parliament, threatened to slaughter them and blockaded food distribution centers serving major supermarkets.

“If you push farmers against the wall with no wiggle room, I don’t know where this will end up,” said Gunter Jochum, president of the Western Canadian Wheat Growers Association, which represents growers who farm about 3 million acres. “Just look at what’s happening in Europe, in the Netherlands. They’ve had enough of it.”

Production losses could be significant, according to an analysis commissioned by Fertilizer Canada. Canada could lose over 160 million metric tons of canola, corn and spring wheat between 2023 and 2030 due to the plan, according to the report. That’s nearly double Canada’s expected grain production this season.

Agriculture emissions have soared in recent decades as farmers apply more fertilizer to increase output. Emissions from crop soils rose 87 per cent to about 7.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide over three decades through 2020, according to the latest data from Environment and Climate Change Canada. By comparison, emissions from oil and gas extraction more than tripled by 69 metric tons of carbon dioxide in the same period.

Farm groups say the additional fertilizer is resulting in more food. Spring wheat yields rose more than 40 per cent in the last decade through 2020, compared with the 1990s, Statistics Canada data show. Similarly, canola yields rose 56 per cent over the same period.

“We are talking about the food supply,” said Karen Proud, chief executive officer of Fertilizer Canada, an industry group that represents major manufacturers and retailers, including Nutrien Ltd., and Koch Fertilizer Canada. “Canada is already among the top countries that use nitrogen efficiently. We don’t have much room to go before we start affecting yields.”

While the reduction target is “ambitious,”  it does not “represent a mandatory reduction in fertilizer use” and action will focus on improving nitrogen management, Cameron Newbigging, spokesman for Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada said in a statement. The approach for achieving reductions is still under development and the government is accepting feedback until Aug. 31 and will develop “next steps in the approach” once the consultations are complete, he said. 

Farmers are already trying to reduce their fertilizer usage because costs have skyrocketed. They’re using specialized equipment to apply it more efficiently, Wheat Growers’ Jochum said. Government incentives to offset the cost of new equipment or soil testing could help reduce emissions without jeopardizing food production, said Jim Everson, president of the Canola Council of Canada.

“I hope there is an ability for the government to listen,” said Bill Campbell, president of the Keystone Agricultural Producers. “I certainly hope the policies don’t become reactionary.”

Saskatchewan grower Ian McCreary says more education is needed to help farmers cut fertilizer usage. McCreary, a member of Farmers for Climate Solutions, estimates his fertilizer usage dropped by as much as 20 per cent per acre after he spent $50,000 into equipment changes, and mapping and testing the soil on his farm to determine how much nitrogen he needs. The move probably saved him $20,000 in input costs this year and hasn’t reduced yields, he said.

“We’ve simply taken nitrogen out of areas of the field that weren’t using it anyway,” McCreary said.

Yukon First Nations get a bigger say in management of Aishihik generating station

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Joint agreement sets out tri-party terms for 50-year-old hydro generating station

CBC News · Posted: Jul 26, 2022 

Champagne and Aishihik First Nations Chief Steve Smith said agreements signed by the First Nations last week with the Yukon goverment and Yukon Energy provide a financial benefit for the CAFN and give it a greater say in how the Aishihik hydro generating station operates. (Mike Rudyk/CBC)

New joint agreements spell out the future for the Aishihik generating station and give the First Nations on whose traditional territory it sits a greater say in how it's managed.

The Champagne and Aishihik First Nations (CAFN) signed the series of agreements, which include the operation of the generating station but also broader issues including the environmental and cultural management of the Aishihik area, at its general assembly last week.

The agreement on the operation of the generating station was signed by CAFN, the Yukon government and Yukon Energy while the other agreements were signed by the territorial and First Nations governments.

CAFN Chief Steve Smith said the trilateral agreement includes financial benefits for the First Nations.

"There's also really, really strong co-management aspects to this agreement that just enable Champagne citizens to be able to have, you know, a greater say in the running of the Aishihik generating station," he said.

Andrew Hall, president of Yukon Energy, pictured here in a file photo from 2020, said the agreements create a long term process by which it, the Yukon government and the CAFN can work together. (Philippe Morin/CBC)

The hydro plant was built 50 years ago on Aishihik Lake near Haines Junction, about 110 kilometres northwest of Whitehorse. It can provide up to 37 megawatts of power. 

The station is critical, according to Yukon Energy CEO Andrew Hill, for the Yukon to address climate change and meet the energy needs of the territory's growing population.

He said the agreements create a long term process by which the utility, the territorial government and the CAFN can work together.

"It really shows the way Yukon energy can collaborate with government and the First Nation … in a tri-party type manner. And I'm not aware of us doing that before," said Hall.

Smith agreed and said the agreements are a good first step in the co-management of the dam.

"But the proof will be in the pudding, so to speak, over the next couple of years," he said, adding that he'll be interested to see how the initial challenges between the First Nations, the utility and the government are handled.

"That will really signify how far we've been able to go with this agreement," said Smith.

• First Nation says Yukon Energy isn't honouring agreement to collaborate on dam licence

The First Nations have said for a long time that the construction of the dam caused significant disruption to their traditional way of life, and left lasting impacts on fish and wildlife.

Smith said that in the past 50 years some fishing habitat has been lost, and trapping and wetlands areas have dried out, affecting moose, caribou and other game.

Written by Michel Proulx with files from Mike Rudyk

Bangladesh's garments exporters brace for slowdown after Walmart warning

By Ruma Paul and Krishna N. Das - Yesterday 

© Reuters/MOHAMMAD PONIR HOSSAINFILE PHOTO:

 Employees work at a garments factory in Bangladesh

DHAKA (Reuters) - After recovering swiftly from the havoc caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Bangladeshi garment manufacturers are now anticipating a slowdown as sales at key customers such as Walmart are hit by a spike in inflation.

The garments industry accounts for more than 80% of total exports for Bangladesh, which on Sunday became the third South Asian country after Pakistan and Sri Lanka to seek a loan from the International Monetary Fund as its foreign exchange reserves shrank and the trade deficit jumped.

Bangladesh's $416 billion economy has been one of the fastest-growing in the world for years, but rising energy and food prices because of the Russia-Ukraine war have inflated its import bill and the current account deficit.

Walmart, a U.S. bellwether for the retail sector that caters to cost-conscious shoppers, cut its full-year profit forecast on Monday and pledged to reduce prices of clothing and general merchandise more aggressively than it did in May to reduce a spring backlog.

"Orders have slowed down," said Faruque Hassan, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA).

"Western countries are raising bank interest rates. That's why people are giving priority to food and mortgages. Demand for clothing is less. This will hamper our export."

Bangladesh's garments exports last shrank in July 2021 when COVID-19 cases were high around the world. Since then, sales have surged, growing by a multi-month high of 60% year-on-year in March this year and 41% in June, according to BGMEA data.

Two Bangladeshi garments suppliers to Walmart said other Western customers were also sitting on huge inventories.

"If Walmart's cut-price sales do not help, we are going to have a tough time," said Siddiqur Rahman, owner of Laila Styles that supplies to Walmart, H&M and Zara.

"Our orders could look up from October onwards for Christmas demand. But if retailers' inventory is full, they will refrain from placing orders."

The European Union accounts for about 60% of Bangladesh's total garments sales, followed by about 20% to the United States. Other buyers include Japan, Australia, India and China.

Industry players now hope sales to the smaller markets will help them see through the current slowdown without too much damage, while they try to optimise manufacturing.

"Of course there are some price cuts, some discounting and some orders on hold - it's a part of business," said Abdus Salam Murshedy, managing director of the Envoy Group that sells to Walmart, VF Corp, Zara, American Eagle Outfitters and others.

"It will depend on the war, how long it lasts. Our growth will be challenged. We will have to become more efficient, automate more."

(Reporting by Ruma Paul in Dhaka and Krishna N. Das in New Delhi; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Health-care union members vote to accept tentative wage deal with Alberta Health Services

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20,000 members employed by AHS to get a 4.25 per cent

increase over four years

Michelle Bellefontaine · CBC News · Posted: Jul 26, 2022 

Health Sciences Association of Alberta president Mike Parker says the deal falls short of what is required for members to deal with inflationary pressures. (Health Sciences Association of Alberta)

A tentative agreement between the Health Sciences Association of Alberta and Alberta Health Services was passed by 85 per cent of members who voted on the four-year deal.

The agreement, which runs from April 1 to March 31, 2024, gives the 20,000 members who work for AHS a 4.25 per cent increase over four years.

The pay raises breakdown to a one per cent increase retroactive to October 2021, 1.25 per cent on Sept. 1, 2022 and two per cent on April 1, 2023.

The agreement falls short of the wage increases the HSAA bargaining committee was asking for: 2.6 per cent the first year, 4.2 per cent the second year, 4.7 per cent in the third year and around 3.7 per cent in the fourth year. 

​​​The​ union ​represent​s​​ ambulance paramedics, respiratory therapists, social workers, speech language pathologists and other ​health-care workers.

AHS negotiators had been asking for wage rollbacks – as much as 11 per cent for pharmacy technicians and social workers and eight per cent for respiratory therapists. 

• Union representing Alberta nurses reaches tentative collective agreement with AHS

• Alberta government seeking 11 per cent wage cuts for some health-care workers

The union said speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, health information management workers, therapy assistants, diagnostic sonographers, pharmacists, physiotherapists, dieticians and advanced care paramedics had faced potential salary rollbacks ranging from nearly nine per cent to 0.28 per cent.

HSAA president Mike Parker says the deal falls short of what is required for members to deal with inflationary pressures. 

"It does not reflect the current economy in this country. It does not reflect the sacrifices our members have given to this province," he said.

• Alberta nursing union votes to ratify new collective agreement

"But in the end our membership has chosen to focus on the task at hand, that's taking care of Albertans."

The tentative deal was reached at the end of June following a recommendation from a mediator. 

The AHS board still needs to approve the agreement, which is expected at its board meeting on Thursday. 

Neither the health authority nor the government will comment until then.

A green hydrogen economy depends on this little-known machine

Cell stacks inside the electrolyzer area at a green hydrogen plant in Puertollano, Spain, in May. The device uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. If that electricity comes from wind turbines, solar panels or a nuclear reactor, the whole process gives off no greenhouse gases. | BLOOMBERG

BY DAVID R. BAKER
BLOOMBERG
Jul 25, 2022

Solar power depends on the solar cell. Wind power, the wind turbine.

T he key to the green hydrogen economy is a little-known machine with a name out of 1950s science fiction — the electrolyzer. And after a century of obscurity, the electrolyzer’s moment has come.

The device uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen. If that electricity comes from wind turbines, solar panels or a nuclear reactor, the whole process gives off no greenhouse gases. Factories, power plants, even jet aircraft can then burn that hydrogen without warming the earth.

There are other ways to make hydrogen fuel, from natural gas or even coal. But the ways to do it carbon-free, with no emissions that need to be trapped and stored, rely on the electrolyzer.

“I don’t think people grasp what an electrolyzer is,” said Andy Marsh, chief executive officer of Plug Power Inc., which makes the devices. “It is the building block of green hydrogen.”

Unlike wind turbines and solar cells, electrolyzers aren’t immediately easy to understand. Larger ones can look like a jumble of tubes and pipes, while smaller, more modular versions are collections of electronics and machinery crammed into boxes the size of a shipping container or even a fridge.

Scientists discovered the process the electrolyzer employs — electrolysis — more than two centuries ago, and commercial electrolyzers hit the market in the 1920s. They were the main way to produce hydrogen until the 1960s, when a process using steam to strip hydrogen from natural gas supplanted them. Almost all of the hydrogen used around the globe today — in oil refineries, fertilizer plants and chemical facilities — comes from natural gas. Demand for electrolyzers dried up.

That has now changed — in just the last few years. Measured by the amount of power the machines consume, worldwide electrolyzer sales doubled from 200 megawatts in 2020 to 458 in 2021, according to BloombergNEF, a clean energy research group. They’re expected to triple this year, reaching anywhere from 1,839 megawatts to 2,464 megawatts, BNEF predicts. It may be the kind of hockey-stick moment solar power experienced a decade ago.

“It’s going to be difficult to supply all the demand,” said Amy Adams, vice president of fuel cell and hydrogen technologies at Cummins Inc., a veteran engine maker that has jumped into the business. “Can everybody scale up the supply base as fast as people would like?”

Andy Marsh, president and chief executive officer of Plug Power Inc., testifies during a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. on July 19. | BLOOMBERG

Even more explosive growth likely lies ahead. Electrolyzer “gigafactories,” each able to make enough electrolyzers in one year to use at least 1,000 megawatts of power, have been announced in Australia, China, India and Spain.

“When somebody says they’re going to build a gigafactory, they’re talking about in a year having more capacity than is installed in the world today,” said Patrick Molloy, a manager in the climate aligned industries program at the U.S.-based RMI energy and climate think tank.

The amount of hydrogen each megawatt of electricity can produce varies, making comparisons between products and projects difficult. The most popular electrolyzer technology needs between 51 and 54-kilowatt hours of electricity, on average, to produce one kilogram of hydrogen, according to BNEF.

The underlying idea may be old, but there’s plenty of innovation. Electrolyzers come in three basic flavors — alkaline, proton-exchange membrane (PEM), and solid oxide — with different pros and cons. All involve water reacting with oppositely charged electrodes and an electrolyte, sometimes liquid, sometimes solid. Competitors are vying to perfect each technology. They’re paring down the use of such expensive catalysts as iridium and figuring out better ways to build a product that, until now, was largely assembled by hand.

Driving all of this is the need for a clean, carbon-free fuel. Solar and wind power now cost less than new fossil fuel generation in much of the world, but storing that electricity in bulk remains difficult and expensive. And some things, like steel mills and jet planes, can’t easily run on electricity. A molecule that can be produced, stored, shipped and used without pumping heat-trapping carbon into the atmosphere would work far better. Governments and companies worldwide are betting hydrogen will be that molecule.

“You need long-term energy storage, and you need it transported place to place,” said KR Sridhar, chief executive officer of Bloom Energy Corp. a veteran cleantech company now diving into the electrolyzer market. Large-scale batteries, he said, only provide energy for a few hours and aren’t portable. “You will not charge a big battery in Australia, ship it to Japan, discharge it and ship it back to Australia,” Sridhar said.

Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe. But here on Earth, it’s typically bound together with oxygen, nitrogen, carbon or other elements. To use hydrogen as a fuel, it must be cleaved off of those compounds. That can be done in a dizzying array of ways, each represented by a specific shade on a constantly expanding color wheel. The dominant form of hydrogen today, pulled from natural gas, is “gray hydrogen.” Capture the CO2 from that process, and it’s called “blue.” Strip the hydrogen from water using renewable power and an electrolyzer, and you get “green hydrogen.” Plug the electrolyzer into a nuclear plant, and it’s “pink.” Green hydrogen now costs far more than gray or blue: as much as $9.62 for a kilogram of green hydrogen, compared to $2.72 for blue, according to BNEF. But that likely won’t last. BNEF predicts that by 2030, green hydrogen will be cheaper than blue in every country the analysis service tracks.

For many hydrogen advocates, the electrolyzer is the missing piece to fulfill renewable power’s promise. It can take the excess electricity streaming from solar plants at noon and turn it into a fuel for use any time.

“That’s one of the things about electricity — we as consumers want it when we want it, and renewables don’t always work that way,” said Ian Russell, Bloom Energy’s director of development engineering.

Two of Bloom’s electrolyzers perch behind a low industrial building in Fremont, California, just up the freeway from Tesla Inc.’s original auto plant. Seven feet tall, their smooth, rounded covers pop out and up to reveal a mass of circuit boards, red and orange wiring, and a metal core that holds the “hot box” where water vapor separates into hydrogen and oxygen. The core runs between 750 and 800 degrees Celsius — a scorching 1,472 degrees Fahrenheit — but touch its exterior, and it feels warm. The only sound is the whir from a row of fans at top.

Hydrogen storage tanks, an electricity substation and electrolyzer at a green hydrogen plant in Puertollano, Spain, on May 19. | BLOOMBERG

Bloom built its business on fuel cells, devices that generate electricity through an electrochemical reaction rather than combustion. Now the San Jose company is selling solid-oxide electrolyzers using most of the same technology, but in reverse. Hydrogen fuel cells combine hydrogen and oxygen into water as they produce power — electrolyzers do the opposite. They’re almost mirror images of each other.

“We’re building on our track record of fuel cells,” Russell said. “The manufacturing technologies, the field service program we have in place, the global supply chain — we already know how to do this.”

Plug Power also started with fuel cells before adding electrolyzers, and several competitors sell both. Cummins in 2019 spent $290 million to buy Hydrogenics Corp. for its fuel cells, thinking they could help decarbonize Cummins’s customers in mining and heavy transportation. But Hydrogenics had also developed electrolyzers, and now those look like the better business, said Managing Director Alex Savelli.

“We came to realize the electrolyzer opportunity is probably as big if not bigger, and probably will happen sooner, than the fuel cell,” he said. “Sometimes, it’s OK to get lucky.”

Each type of electrolyzer has its selling points. Alkaline electrolyzers, for example, tend to be the least expensive and have become the technology of choice for Chinese manufacturers. They’re trying to undercut their global competitors on price — just as happened with solar cells a decade ago — and BNEF reports that Chinese alkaline electrolyzers currently cost 73% less than comparable units made in the West. PEM technology uses more rare metals and costs more, but it can start faster than alkaline, something worth considering if the power source is as variable as the sun and the wind.

Hydrogen has become a priority for the Chinese government, and electrolyzers are a big part of the push. Electrolyzer deliveries there may top 1,600 megawatts this year, mostly on orders from state-owned businesses such as oil and gas giants Sinopec and CNPC, as well as high-emitting companies like coal-based chemical company Ningxia Baofeng Energy Group. If anything, demand is rising faster than production. And the companies making the machines — including one of the world’s largest solar manufacturers, Longi Green Energy — don’t want to limit themselves to the Chinese market.

“It’s quite difficult to order electrolyzers now,” said Mao Zongqiang, a professor at the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “The supply can’t meet the demand.”

The customers could, in the end, span many industries. Oil companies need hydrogen for their refineries, where it helps lower the sulfur content of fuel, although many have their own way of producing it from their own natural gas. But semiconductor and LED factories use hydrogen, too, and could benefit from on-site production. Electrolyzers would provide that. Owners of solar plants and wind farms may want to add electrolyzers, just as they’re adding batteries to their projects today.

“We’re just at the beginning of where this industry’s going,” said Ole Hoefelmann, general manager of Plug Power’s electrolyzer business.

World’s first hydrogen trains enter regular passenger service

By Keith Fender | July 26, 2022

Alstom-built equipment begins operation on regional line in Germany

A hydrogen-powered train operated by EVB rests at the station in Bremervörde, Germany, after a trip from Buxtehude on Monday, July 25 — the first day of regular operation for the equipment. (Russell Sharp)

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BREMERVORDE, Germany — The world’s first hydrogen-powered trains in regular passenger service are now in operation, having begun service July 25 on a German regional rail line between Cuxhaven and Buxtehude, via Bremervörde. Bremervörde is around 40 miles southwest of the city of Hamburg.

The initial service is being billed as “preliminary,” in case operating adjustments are needed before a reliable service can be officially launched, so older diesel multiple-unit trainsets remain as a backup for the next few months. Once the required level of reliability is achieved, a big public opening ceremony and inauguration by the Governor of the state of Lower Saxony is planned for later this year.

The 14 two-car LINT trains were built by Alstom at its Salzgitter, Germany, shop. They are owned by the state of Lower Saxony and leased to the concession operator Eisenbahn und Verkehrsbetriebe Elbe-Weser (EVB), also owned by the State of Lower Saxony, which operates both passenger and freight train service on its own 150-mile network and elsewhere. The 14 hydrogen-powered trains join a fleet of 40 locomotives and 20 DMUs.

The trains cost $86 million (including a 30-year maintenance contract), part of which has been funded by the German federal government. They are based at the EVB shop in Bremervörde, where a hydrogen fuelling station has been provided. Initially this uses hydrogen supplied by the chemical industry, although plans call for use by 2024 of “green hydrogen.” This will be made by electrolysis of water using power generated by solar panels and wind turbines, both widespread in northern Germany.

The Alstom-designed iLINT train, which uses hydrogen fuel cells and batteries, was introduced in 2016 at the Innotrans trade fair in Berlin [see “Alstom unveils hydrogen-powered train …,” Trains News Wire, Sept. 20, 2016]. Test operation on the EVB line began in 2018, and since then, the two prototype trains have been tested and displayed all over Europe. Each train can operate around 620 miles on a full set of hydrogen cylinders, weighing about 1,600 kilograms (3,530 pounds).  Trial operation has shown that every 2 pounds of hydrogen can replace a gallon of diesel fuel. The hydrogen is used in roof-mounted fuel cells to generate electricity, which is either used directly for traction or stored in onboard batteries. The train recovers energy from braking and stores this in the battery, as well.

Two more hydrogen train fleets are on order in Germany, both also benefitting from federal government subsidies. Twenty-seven more Alstom iLINT trains will enter service on regional routes west of Frankfurt am Main in December this year. These trains will utilize a new hydrogen fueling station built alongside an existing major chemical works at Frankfurt Höchst. A smaller fleet of seven Siemens hydrogen/battery trains, the Mireo Plus-H, are on order for use beginning in 2024 on a commuter rail line currently being rebuilt for passenger use north of Berlin.

No additional orders have followed this initial purchases of hydrogen trains, as large numbers of cheaper battery/EMU trains have instead been ordered from multiple manufacturers for use in Germany. The rail industry there, and around the world, will be looking carefully at the operating economics of the new hydrogen trains in Lower Saxony.

A schematic diagram shows features of the hydrogen-powered iLINT trainset. (Alstom)

— Updated at 12:15 p.m. CDT on July 27 to correct train’s route, add additional details on EVB.