Europe had second-warmest year on record in 2022, EU scientists say

Kate Abnett
Tue, January 10, 2023 



By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Europe experienced its second-warmest year on record in 2022, European Union scientists said on Tuesday, as climate change unleashed record-breaking weather extremes that slashed crop yields, dried up rivers and led to thousands of deaths.

The EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said 2022 was also the world's fifth-warmest year, by a small margin. C3S records date back to 1950, but other, longer datasets confirm 2022 was the world's fifth-warmest year since at least 1850.

The last eight years were the world's eight hottest on record, C3S said.

GRAPHIC: How climate change unfolded in 2022 https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CLIMATE-CHANGE/EU-SCIENCE/zgvobrbbxpd/graphic.jpg

The planet is now 1.2C warmer than in pre-industrial times, as a result of human-caused climate change, C3S said. Copernicus said temperatures in Europe have increased by more than twice the global average over the last three decades.

"We are already experiencing the devastating consequences of our warming world," said C3S deputy director Samantha Burgess, who called for urgent action to cut CO2 emissions and adapt to the changing climate.

Last summer was Europe's hottest on record, smashing temperature records in countries including Italy, Spain and Croatia. Severe heatwaves caused more than 20,000 "excess" deaths in countries including France, Germany, Spain and Britain.

GRAPHIC: Record breaking temperatures in Europe

 https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CLIMATE-CHANGE/EU-SCIENCE/klvygzgzgvg/graphic.jpg

Combined with a dearth of rain, the heat triggered a widespread drought that initial analysis ranked as Europe's worst in 500 years. Low water levels delayed shipping along Germany's Rhine, while the lack of rain hit hydropower generation and slashed maize and soybean crop yields.

The hot, dry spell fuelled intense wildfires in countries from Spain to Slovenia, unleashing more emissions across the EU and Britain than in any summer of the last 15 years.

Britain experienced its hottest year on record in 2022, its national weather service said on Wednesday.

GRAPHIC: Temperature deviation in 2022 https://www.reuters.com/graphics/CLIMATE-CHANGE/EU-SCIENCE/egvbymymkpq/graphic.jpg

Global temperatures will only stop rising if countries reduce their emissions to "net zero" - meaning they release no more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than they remove.

The 27-country EU, Britain, Canada, Japan and others have pledged to reach that goal by 2050, with China and India aiming to achieve it later.

Despite those long-term pledges, global emissions continue to rise. Carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere averaged around 417 ppm in 2022 - the highest level for over 2 million years, C3S said.

Other parts of the world faced a year of climate devastation, as global warming continued to hit the world's poor and vulnerable populations hardest. Flooding in Pakistan killed at least 1,700 people, while drought decimated livestock populations in Somalia.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

WHITE COLLAR CRIME PAYES

Tips on shady finances 'may not get investigated' amid police constraints: RCMP note


Tue, January 10, 2023 



OTTAWA — The RCMP says many tips from Canada's financial intelligence agency about possible crimes "may not get investigated" due to a lack of policing resources and conflicting priorities.

The Mounties make the candid admission in a briefing note prepared for Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino on the working relationship between the national police force and the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, known as Fintrac.

The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain the briefing memo, which was approved by RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki last Sept. 1.

The RCMP receives financial intelligence from Fintrac, which could shed light on money laundering or terrorist financing, in two ways.

The first is through a response to a voluntary information record, which advises Fintrac of potential criminal activity and might prompt the centre to release information related to suspects.

The second is through proactive disclosures from Fintrac when they point to possible criminal activity gleaned from analysis of information the centre receives from banks, casinos and reporting organizations.

The RCMP briefing note says Fintrac's analysis is of "significant tactical importance" to the force, as it may uncover previously unknown conspirators, assets, transfers and relationships.

"In some files, assets may only be identified through Fintrac intelligence — which is key for the RCMP to obtain restraints and forfeitures," it goes on.

However, receipt of intelligence through voluntary information records, or VIRs, "can be a lengthy process," the note says.

Fintrac's turnaround time to produce a non-urgent financial disclosure can take several months, "which affects the ability to investigate in a timely manner" and can hinder probes.

"Many of the proactive disclosures provided may not get investigated based on the capacity of law enforcement to analyze the information in a timely manner, as well as conflicting operational priorities," the briefing note adds.

"Fintrac should prioritize the disclosure of intelligence based on VIRs provided by law enforcement before any proactive work."

Asked about the note, Fintrac said its proactive disclosures to law enforcement and national security agencies are key to helping protect vulnerable Canadians, fulfilling the centre's "detection" mandate and meeting international obligations.

It pointed to Project Protect, a public-private partnership combatting human trafficking for sexual exploitation, in which 90 per cent of the centre's disclosures to law enforcement were done proactively, "identifying criminals and criminal networks that were previously unknown and helping to rescue and save the lives of numerous victims across the country."

Overall, Fintrac's financial intelligence contributed to 335 major, resource-intensive investigations in 2021-22 as well as hundreds of other individual investigations at the municipal, provincial and federal levels, the centre said.

"Many of the recipients of Fintrac's disclosures have told the centre that they will not start a major project-level investigation without seeking out its financial intelligence."

The addition of almost $90 million in the last federal budget is helping Fintrac upgrade tools to ensure its financial intelligence "is even more timely and responsive," the centre added.

Mendicino's office declined to comment on the briefing note.

RCMP spokeswoman Robin Percival had little to add, saying the force's partnership with Fintrac is key in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing.

"The RCMP continues to work collaboratively with Fintrac in both an investigative context and on proactive crime prevention efforts."

The RCMP note suggests the government consider broadening the scope of federal proceeds of crime and terrorist financing legislation to include other criminal offences, as the "current narrow focus" limits Fintrac's analysis.

Percival said changes to information-sharing practices between the RCMP and its partners require legislative change, which takes time.

"The RCMP continues to work closely with the Department of Finance and Public Safety, providing recommendations on potential improvements to the anti-money laundering regime."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 10, 2023.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

'No amnesty!': Brazilian protests demand jail for rioters


Mon, January 9, 2023 



RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — “No amnesty! No amnesty! No amnesty!”

The chant reverberated off the walls of the jam-packed hall at the University of Sao Paulo’s law college on Monday afternoon. Hours later, it was the rallying cry for thousands of Brazilians who streamed into the streets of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, penned on protest posters and banners.

The words are a demand for retribution against supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro who stormed Brazil’s capital Sunday, and those who enabled the rampage.

“These people need to be punished, the people who ordered it need to be punished, those who gave money for it need to be punished,” Bety Amin, a 61-year-old therapist, said on Sao Paulo’s main boulevard. The word “DEMOCRACY” stretched across the back of her shirt. “They don’t represent Brazil. We represent Brazil.”

Protesters' push for accountability evokes memories of an amnesty law that for decades has protected military members accused of abuse and murder during the country's 1964-85 dictatorship. A 2014 truth commission report sparked debate over how Brazil has grappled with the regime's legacy.

Declining to mete out punishment “can avoid tensions at the moment, but perpetuates instability,” Luis Felipe Miguel, a professor of political science at the University of Brasilia, wrote in a column entitled “No Amnesty” published Monday evening. “That is the lesson we should have learned from the end of the military dictatorship, when Brazil opted not to punish the regime’s killers and torturers.”

Brazilian police on Monday had already rounded up roughly 1,500 rioters, with some caught in the act of trashing Brazil's Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace, while the majority were detained the following morning at an encampment in Brasilia. Many were held in a gymnasium throughout the day, and video shared on pro-Bolsonaro social media channels showed some complaining about poor treatment in the crowded space.

The Federal Police’s press office told The Associated Press the force plans to indict at least 1,000 people, and has begun transferring them to the nearby Papuda prison.

The administration of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva says that is only the start.

Justice minister Flávio Dino vowed to prosecute those who acted behind the scenes to summon supporters on social media and finance their transport for crimes including organized crime, staging a coup, and violent abolition of the democratic rule of law. He also said authorities would investigate allegations that local security personnel allowed the destruction to proceed unabated.

“We cannot and will not compromise in fulfilling our legal duties," Dino said. "This fulfillment is essential so such events do not repeat themselves.”

Lula signed a decree ordering the federal government to assume control of security in the capital Sunday. It was approved by Congress' Lower House on Monday night, and now proceeds to the Senate.

The riot in Brasilia was a reminder of the threat to democracy posed by far-right elements that refuse to accept Bolsonaro’s electoral defeat. Since his Oct. 30 loss, they have camped outside military barracks, pleading for intervention to allow Bolsonaro to remain in power and oust Lula. When no coup materialized, they rose up themselves.

Decked out in the green and yellow of the national flag, they broke windows, toppled furniture and hurled computers and printers to the ground. They punched holes in a massive Emiliano Di Cavalcanti painting at the presidential palace and destroyed other works of art. They overturned the U-shaped table where Supreme Court justices convene, ripped a door off one justice’s office and vandalized a statue outside the court. Hours passed before police expelled the mob.

"It's unacceptable what happened yesterday. It's terrorism," Marcelo Menezes, a 59-year-old police officer from northeastern Pernambuco state, said at a protest in Sao Paulo. “I’m here in defense of democracy, I’m here in defense of the people.”

Cries of “No amnesty!" were also heard during Lula's Jan. 1 inaugural address, in response to the president detailing the neglect of the outgoing Bolsonaro administration.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has waxed nostalgic for the dictatorship era, praised a notorious torturer as a hero and said the regime should have gone further in executing communists. His government also commemorated the anniversary of Brazil’s 1964 coup.

Political analysts had repeatedly warned that Bolsonaro was laying the groundwork for an insurrection in the mold of that which unfolded in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. For months, he stoked belief among hardcore supporters that the nation’s electronic voting system was prone to fraud — though he never presented any evidence and independent experts disagreed.

Results from the election, the closest since Brazil's return to democracy, were quickly recognized by politicians across the spectrum, including some Bolsonaro allies, as well as dozens of other governments. The outgoing president surprised nearly everyone by promptly fading from view, neither conceding defeat nor emphatically crying fraud. He and his party submitted a request to nullify millions of votes, which was swiftly dismissed by the electoral authority.

None of that dissuaded his die-hard backers from their conviction that Bolsonaro belonged in power.

In the immediate aftermath of the riot, Lula said that the so-called “fascist fanatics” and their financial backers must be held responsible. He also accused Bolsonaro of encouraging the uprising.

Bolsonaro denied the president’s accusation Sunday. Writing on Twitter, he said peaceful protest is part of democracy, but vandalism and invasion of public buildings cross the line.

Authorities are also investigating the role of the federal district's police in either failing to halt protesters' advance or standing aside to let them run amok. Prosecutors in the capital said local security forces were negligent at the very least. A supreme court justice temporarily suspended the regional governor, who oversees the force, for what he termed "willful omission". Another justice blamed authorities across Brazil for not swiftly cracking down on “homegrown neofascism.”

The upheaval finally prompted municipal and state governments to disperse pro-Bolsonaro encampments outside military barracks that have lasted since the election. Their tents and tarps were taken down, and residents were sent packing.

But pro-democracy protesters on Monday sought to ensure that their message — “No amnesty!” — was heard by the authorities responsible for investigating and prosecuting, as well as far-right elements who might dare defy democracy again.

“After what happened yesterday, we need to go to the street,” said Marcos Gama, a retiree who protested Monday night in Sao Paulo. “We need to react.”

___

AP videojournalist Mello reported from Sao Paulo.

David Biller And Felipe Mello, The Associated Press

MANITOBA

School airflow upgrades years away


Mon, January 9, 2023

The COVID-19 pandemic will all but certainly be over by the time highly-anticipated ventilation assessments and upgrades to limit infectious disease transmission in Manitoba public schools are complete.

A total of $11.3 million, a combination of provincial and federal dollars, was earmarked to improve air quality in K-12 buildings during the ongoing global health crisis.

The Winnipeg School Division, the largest in the province, was allocated approximately $2.5 million — about $85 per student — for projects scheduled in 78 facilities, according to a breakdown of grant distribution.

“Testing, adjusting and balancing (TAB) contract work is underway and is expected to take at least another two years to complete and be analyzed for optimization,” division buildings director Mile Rendulic said in a statement.

To date, maintenance teams have been allowing heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) units to run continuously throughout the school day so air exchange is maximized, Rendulic said.

The school division has already purchased standalone air filters for portable classrooms and used ventilation-specific dollars to update central systems with new MERV 13 air filters, where possible, and CO2 sensors.

The Pembina Trails School Division has purchased upwards of 150 CO2 sensors for its buildings’ central HVAC systems to date. These sensors monitor return airflow from all classrooms and adjust fresh air intake accordingly.

These devices were “the most sustainable solution” to bettering air quality, given the capital city division’s existing infrastructure, per its facilities and operations department.

In Seven Oaks, superintendent Brian O’Leary said priority has been placed on ensuring maximum airflow in each respective building and commissioning older HVAC systems; he likened the latter to a tune-up to ensure a vehicle is running smoothly.

“The things that can be done quickly are limited to cleaning coils, recommissioning, some duct work, but it takes a while to do whole systems,” O’Leary said, adding ventilation challenges are generally in older buildings and K-12 facilities built as open-area schools.

Public and independent schools have used grants to replace aging windows with new ones that open, upgrade bathroom fans, retrofit air handling units, buy control valves, and undertake duct cleaning — a general maintenance service not recommended for infectious disease control.

The most modern and advanced HVAC systems are still not good enough to 100 per cent protect a building’s occupants from airborne diseases, said Amy Li, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Waterloo.

The Ontario researcher, who studies indoor air quality and filtration devices, is a vocal proponent for a multi-layered approach — with mandatory masks as a starting point — when it comes to reducing the risk of COVID-19 transmission indoors.

“There is a hierarchy of approaches to improve indoor air quality: the first one would be source removal, the second one is ventilation, and then after that, it is air cleaning,” she said.

Li said following proper HVAC maintenance is critical and can be complemented with portable air filters effective at removing particulate matter from the air, although she indicated frequent monitoring is necessary to know when to swap out dirty filters.

One University of Toronto academic said his school-age daughter informed him a machine running a HEPA filter placed in her classroom early on in the pandemic was unplugged soon after it arrived because “it was too loud.”

As far as civil engineering Prof. Jeffrey Siegel is concerned, there is one extremely underrated, low-cost way to improve air quality: educating occupants on risk and response.

Siegel said school staff should be equipped with knowledge to make informed decisions to protect their communities during high-risk activities — be it by opening windows, promoting temporary mask-wearing, moving outdoors or cranking up a HEPA filter, among other options.

If a classroom has a CO2 sensor, the ability to observe readings over time can prove useful to identify riskier periods, he said.

“Schools, in particular, are very strapped for cash and as parents, we don’t tend to care about the HVAC system in our kids’ schools — but we really should,” Siegel said, adding emerging research shows there is reduced transmission of viruses in classrooms when ventilation and filtration is improved.

Not only does improved overall air quality reduce the COVID-19 risks, he noted, but it can also address concerns about asthma, allergies and respiratory illnesses overall — and ultimately, result in higher attendance and academic performance.

Maggie Macintosh, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Winnipeg Free Press

WAIT, WHAT?!

Canada to purchase U.S. missile defence system for Ukraine


Tue, January 10, 2023 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meets with U.S. President Joe Biden at the InterContinental Presidente Mexico City hotel in Mexico City on Tuesday. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press - image credit)

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has announced that Canada will buy a U.S.-made missile defence system for Ukraine and will welcome U.S. President Joe Biden for a visit in March.

The news came during the North American Leaders' Summit in Mexico City on Tuesday, following a meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Biden.

A PMO readout of the meeting said Trudeau informed Biden that Canada will purchase a National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) for Ukraine.

The Department of National Defence (DND) confirmed the purchase in a news release later Tuesday.

"Canada's NASAMS donation will help Ukraine strengthen its air defence systems against destructive air attacks on military sites, civilian critical infrastructure and population centres," DND said in the news release.

The release said the donation would cost approximately $406 million and would come from $500 million in aid to Ukraine that Trudeau announced in November 2022. The release did not say when the system is expected to arrive in Ukraine.

In an interview airing Tuesday on CBC's Power & Politics, Defence Minister Anita Anand told guest host Catherine Cullen the government is "working with the United States to get it to Ukraine as soon as possible."

"All options will always be on the table in terms of our support for Ukraine," Anand said.

The missile defence system was designed and developed jointly by the American defence company Raytheon and Norway-based Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.

"NASAMS provides air defenders with a tailorable, state-of-the-art defence system that can maximize their ability to identify, engage and destroy current and evolving enemy aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles and emerging cruise missile threats," Raytheon says on an online information page.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked for air defence systems in his requests for military aid.

Zelenskyy thanked Trudeau for the donation in a tweet Tuesday.

"Dear @JustinTrudeau, your true leadership in standing for democracy and human rights has been vividly proven again," Zelenskyy said in the tweet.

"Thank you for helping us to protect our sky. NASAMS procured for us by Canada will be a strong shield for our cities and citizens."

Anand said she spoke with her Ukrainian counterpart Oleksii Reznikov earlier Tuesday about Ukraine's defence needs.

"I spoke with Ukrainian Defence Minister @OleksiiReznikov this morning and heard it directly: air defence systems are Ukraine's top priority," Anand said in a tweet.

"That's why Canada is purchasing a National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) from the United States to donate to Ukraine."

Anand said in a followup tweet that this is the first air defence system Canada has purchased for Ukraine.

"In the face of Russia's brutal airstrikes on Ukraine, this air defence system will help to protect Ukrainian population centres and critical infrastructure against drone, missile and aircraft attacks," she said.

In November of last year, the United States government awarded Raytheon a $1.2 billion contract to supply Ukraine with six NASAMS units.

Canada has provided over $3.4 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an intensified invasion of the country in February of 2022.

Alexandra Chyczij, national president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC), said the UCC welcomes the purchase.

"Assisting Ukraine with the weapons Ukraine requires to defeat Russia is the best investment in the future peace, stability and prosperity of all Europe," Chyczij said in a statement.

"Ukraine needs assistance defending its cities, its hospitals, its schools, its infrastructure from vicious Russian air and missile attacks."

Biden to make first visit to Canada

The readout said Trudeau invited Biden to Canada and that the president will visit in March. It did not give a location or date.

It will be Biden's first official trip to Canada since he became president in January 2021.

A readout from the White House on the meeting confirmed the March visit.

"During the meeting, the President also stated he looks forward to traveling to Canada in March of this year," the readout said.

The PMO readout said Trudeau and Biden discussed trade issues between the two countries, including the Biden administration's "Buy America" policy and the softwood lumber dispute.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY 

CBC Young Calgary

Teen entrepreneur uses childhood illness as launchpad to help other Black girls and women


Tue, January 10, 2023

Eleora Ogundare has turned her experience as a child suffering sickle cell disease into a business, creating a line of products to help other women and girls with specific hair types and needs. (Jo Horwood/CBC - image credit)

Eleora Ogundare was diagnosed with sickle cell disease when she was eight years old.

During the course of treatments and chemotherapy for the red blood cell disorder, her hair started falling out.

"My hair was my confidence because the kids I was around, they had like the long, nice long hair," said Eleora, who decided with her mum to cut her hair and make the change quick, hoping kids in school wouldn't make comments.

"I felt, like, naked almost because, the thing that was like giving me confidence, I didn't have it anymore. I had to cut it all off."

Eleora is now a healthy 15-year-old, but instead of closing that chapter of her life, she decided to help others facing a similar challenge with their hair — and their sense of identity.

Strands of identity

While Eleora was battling for her health, her mum was trying to find solutions for her young daughter's hair, and with it, her sense of self.

"The struggle for them is identity, you know, trying to understand why their hair is not as silky as the next person in her class," said Eugenia Ogundare, Eleora's mother, who says hair for a Black women is "her crown."

"But then having to lose that hair was a whole different ball game altogether."

Jo Horwood/CBC

Eugenia says during months of treatments, they spent time trying out different oils, butters, and creams, eventually determining their own formula and using it to launch a line of products geared toward Black hair types.

"One of the problems Black women actually face would be the edges, so that's the first thing we get, that, 'Oh, it actually works for my edges'," said Eugenia, who has received plenty of positive feedback about the products she and her daughter work together on.

"And then we get the mothers who say, 'Oh, my daughter's hair was hard to manage. It's more manageable [now]'."

Adedoyin Omotara sells the Eleora Beauty line through both her salon, Adoniaa Beauty, and the Adoniaa Collective, a store for Black entrepreneurs at Westbrook Mall.

Jo Horwood/CBC

"It's a huge part of what makes us us, especially physically, but we need to understand the impact it has on us inside," said Omotara, who says she understands the pressures to conform that can sometimes arise for Black kids as they become more conscious of their environment and who they are.

Omotara says her own three-year-old has already questioned why his hair is so curly or difficult to comb compared to the hair of his friends.

"Especially for younger people, they need to understand that there are products that can actually work for our hair so that they don't start to put toxic product in their hair, just to want to look like another Sharon on the street or another Anita on the street."

Regaining health, hair, and herself

Now long past the illness she suffered as a child, Eleora hopes that the products created through her experience help other young Black girls feel empowered to be themselves.

"Our hair is beautiful the way it is and it's different in a good way ... it just expands our culture and really shows who we are," said the teen, who recently chose to cut her hair again.

"It wasn't as bad this time. Like, I'm more confident in it, and I also just want to teach other, like, young Black girls that, you know, like short hair or like long hair. You can rock it either way."

Jo Horwood/CBC

Omotara says the young entrepreneur's story is one that should give hope to their community.

"Whatever problems we have in our community, we remain the solution to those problems because we know where it bites the most, right? And that is why we are the ones to proffer the solution."

"I think we're making a difference in like, young girls lives," said Eleora.

"When I was younger, I kinda wish I had something like this too, to make me feel more confident. But I'm happy that I'm doing it now to help other people."

Feds may expand solar, wind across the West, including in the California desert


Janet Wilson, Palm Springs Desert Sun
Tue, January 10, 2023 

Lights from a solar transfer station taken at night from Lake Tamarisk retirement community in Desert Center, CA. December 2022

Mark Carrington, 72, thought he had found his piece of heaven in the vast California desert two years ago, when he bought a trailer pad in Lake Tamarisk Resort in Desert Center, 70 miles east of Palm Springs. He parked his RV and prepared to live out a peaceful retirement. The dark, star-spangled night skies and soaring mountain vistas of Joshua Tree National Park were a thrill.

Then the jackhammers started pounding and a pall of dust blotted the open sky.

He and other neighbors in the 55-plus community were shocked to learn a large-scale solar project called Oberon was being built on 2,600 acres of land, half a mile from their homes. Mature trees were ripped out, shrubby desert scraped bare, and the birds, rabbits, foxes and occasional desert tortoise disappeared. Then they learned two more huge projects have been proposed, including one 750 feet from their homes, Carrington said.

All told, they calculated the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and Riverside County have now approved nearly 18,000 acres of large-scale solar in the area. Another 6,000 acres of development are being weighed. And the projects, first built several miles away, are coming closer and closer, complete with truck traffic, chain link fencing and searing night lights on workstations and solar inverters.

“It’s very frustrating,” Carrington said. “When these projects are complete this will literally be like a prison compound. We will no longer be an oasis in the middle of a living desert, we will be an island in a solar sea that’s completely dead.”

More could be on the way.

Federal officials are now considering a major expansion and possible modification of designated solar zones on public lands across the West, to include five more states, wind as well as solar projects, and slopes as well as flat areas. The agency will kick off a dozen public “scoping meetings” on the redesign effort on Friday via a virtual session and an in-person meeting in Sacramento on Jan. 18.

BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said in a prepared statement that the agency “is committed to expanding renewable energy development on public lands to help lead the nation into a clean energy future, enhance America’s energy security, and provide for good-paying union jobs. She added, ”“We look forward to hearing from the public on effective ways to expand our nation’s capacity for producing solar energy while continuing to ensure robust protection of our public lands and waters.”

Chopped, destroyed ironwood trees on land cleared for Oberon solar project, Desert Center CA. in late 2022.

For Carrington and others in this tight-knit, isolated hamlet 50 miles from a grocery store, it's the latest blow in what they call the eradication of their community identity and way of life. The study also may look at amending California’s 10 .8 million acre Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, a separate, hard-fought and carefully negotiated compromise agreement between federal and state agencies, developers, environmentalists and others that designated both development zones and conservation areas.

Renewable energy trade representatives say modifying the plans could actually reduce conflicts between rural residents and developers.

"There's plenty of land," said Ben Norris, senior director of regulatory affairs for the Solar Energy Industry Association, based in Washington, D.C. “We actually think certain changes would open up more lands for solar away from populated areas,”

But residents here are not convinced.

"I don't like it," Carrington said, noting many of the slopes and what remains of the open space around them are part of carefully preserved "areas of critical environmental concern" that should not be modified. They're already battling two more proposed projects, the Easley and the Sapphire solar farms, that they knew nothing about until they started sleuthing.

Public notice is an ongoing concern. Residents of the retirement park were not notified of the potential major expansion, despite promises by BLM officials that they would be added to official lists after they discovered the two other huge solar projects.

Carrington and his neighbors in the retirement park say they also were not notified in advance by federal or county officials or the developer, Intersect Power, about the Oberon project. Now they want a 5 mile buffer zone between their rural community and any more renewables, including Easley and Sapphire.

Their timing might or might not be good.

Ironwood trees leveled for new large-scale solar farm in Desert Center, CA
Push is on for large renewables across the West, amid rural objection

With climate change and its impacts taking hold, federal officials are now weighing broadly expanding but also potentially modifying development zones for large-scale solar and wind projects across the West, including in the California desert, where industrial renewables proposals have faced local backlash. Neighboring San Bernardino County in 2019 banned large renewables projects on 1 million acres of private land, including near 14 rural communities, after loud protests from residents.

To do it, the BLM may amend its sweeping 2012 Western Solar Plan and a related "programmatic environmental impact statement" that governs commercial solar development on public lands in six southwestern states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. A new, sweeping environmental impact study designed to cover millions of acres in one fell swoop will weigh adding energy development zones in five more states: Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming, and may include wind power areas and hilly slopes left out of the original plan. Ultimately, as with the current plan and its accompanying PEIS, it could streamline renewable development in designated areas, and allow set-asides of other lands when habitat and species destruction can’t be avoided.

Most of the approvals issued by BLM since 2012 for solar projects have actually occurred via variances for work outside the designated areas.

Industry trade officials are highly supportive. They say while initial mapping of so-called solar energy zones, or SEZ’s, was done with good intentions by the Obama administration, they have not worked perfectly on the ground. They say it’s time for an update that might better avoid rural communities and truly expedite clean energy.

Norris with the solar industry group noted the current plan and PEIS only allow projects on flat land and with high solar radiation, which was done to fit now largely out-of-date technology.

“Easing those limits would, first, align the document with current 2023 technologies, and second, allow companies to consider more sites that could present lower potential for issues with surrounding communities.” said Norris. ”We very much appreciate BLM’s efforts to take another look at this high level environmental review document.”

He said North Dakota should also be added, and added that a 2021 Department of Energy report had found up to 10 million acres of renewable projects are needed to decarbonize the country’s electric grid by 2050. The 2012 Western Solar Plan designated about 285,000 acres as priority solar energy zones and excluded about 79 million acres from solar development. The plan also identified 19 million acres available for development under a variance process.

But Carrington and neighbors say despite being told by BLM they would be notified 15 days in advance of any new activity, they learned about the potential huge redesign effort accidentally, when he was searching for a phone number of a local staffer on the proposed Easley project. They’re also not happy that the California meeting will be in Sacramento, not in eastern Riverside County.

“How are we supposed to get there?” Carrington asked. “They should come here, and see where it’s happening.”

BLM press secretary Brian Hires, in response to questions from The Desert Sun, said in an email that the proposed update includes lands across California. ”The BLM determined that holding a meeting in Sacramento would allow for significant public participation.” He also noted the agency “will hold two virtual meetings accessible to the public for those that are not able to attend an in-person meeting.”

The study may also look at California’s 10 .8 million acre Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, a separate, hard-fought and carefully negotiated compromise agreement between federal and state agencies, developers, environmentalists and others that designated both development zones and conservation areas.
Choking dust, lost views and water worries

The clock is ticking. BLM is pushing to meet a 2020 mandate set by Congress under the Trump administration, requiring them to authorize at least 25 gigawatts of renewable power by 2025,, enough to power close to 19 million homes.

Within a week of taking office, President Joe Biden signed an executive climate change order that in part requires the Secretary of the Interior to “review siting and permitting processes on public lands” to increase “renewable energy production on those lands . . . while ensuring robust protection for our lands, waters, and biodiversity and creating good jobs.”

As of last month, BLM, which reports to the Interior Secretary, had permitted 34 projects expected to produce 8,140 megawatts of electricity, about a third of the required 25 gigawatts by 2025, Hines said. Projects to produce nearly 3 gigawatts more are undergoing federal environmental reviews. Those totals include about one gigawatt built or is underway in and around Desert Center, enough to power about 750,000 homes.

Teresa and Skip Pierce, retiree residents of Lake Tamarisk Resort retirement community in Desert Center, CA

Teresa Pierce, 70, and a resident of the Lake Tamarisk retirement community for six years, is helping spearhead community opposition to more huge projects in their area. She said industrial projects on fragile desert landscapes are the wrong path to slowing greenhouse gas emissions from power production.

“Really it should be on every rooftop in California and the nation,” she said. They “should not destroy deserts, since they sequester the carbon dioxide (the main greenhouse emitted into the atmosphere), and therefore disturbing the soil releases it.”

Norris with the solar trade group and some national environmental groups say rooftop solar and commercial solar are both needed.

Area environmentalists and tribal members who’ve opposed specific projects in the past are keeping a wary eye on the proposal, which they note is in the early stages. They also point out that any increased commercial development must be examined in the context of separate federal and state proposals, dubbed “30 by 30,” to preserve nearly a third of available and valuable open spaces by 2030.

"We look forward to seeing concrete proposals once scoping is complete," said Chris Clarke, associate director of the California deserts program for the National Parks Conservation Association. "We strongly feel that the DRECP should be taken as a working model and not amended or weakened, and that overall landscape level planning in other states is a must, and that planning HAS to protect areas of significant resource conflict from development. This process absolutely must not undermine the administration’s 30 by 30 goals."

Close to home, Pierce said the traffic from Oberon construction is “horrible,” and she and other mostly older residents now suffer from allergies, aggravated COPD and other woes from the dust. Those and other concerns were laid out in a comment letter submitted to Riverside County planners last week about the proposed Easley project, signed by scores of residents. They include the possibility of dangerous silica being present in windblown construction dust, excessive water being drawn from an ancient underground aquifer for the solar projects, and the loss of dark night skies and daytime hiking routes.

Fugitive dust from the Oberon commercial solar construction project, one-half mile south of Lake Tamarisk retirement community in Desert Center, CA. Taken December 11, 2022 at 9:30am during 16 mph southwest winds, with gusts to 30 mph.

Solar developer pushes back

An Intersect Power representative gave a different version of what has occurred with the Oberon project, and said the Easley project is in the very early stages.

“The Oberon project represents one of the largest habitat mitigation efforts of any single energy development project in California’s history, and is a great example of clean energy and conservation going hand-in-hand,” wrote Elizabeth Knowles, Intersect’s Director of Community Engagement, in an email. “This project will permanently protect nearly 6000 acres of high quality desert habitat for the Mojave desert tortoise, the desert kit fox, migratory birds, and other protected species.”

While that habitat is off-site, she said, “the Oberon … development footprint also avoids about 2,000 acres of sensitive on-site habitat for wildlife, ensuring habitat connectivity between conservation areas north and south of the project. The Oberon project is also complying with hundreds of conservation and mitigation measures to protect public health and safety and the environment.”

In December 2021, as that project neared final approval over objections from area environmentalists,, an Intersect spokesman said in total 80 acres or less of woodlands would be cleared on the 2,600 acre site, and areas of impact in a buffer zone had been reduced to about 55 acres.

Knowles said the public was notified about the Oberon project via BLM press releases and notices published in the Federal Register. The latter is a voluminous daily record of legal activity by more than 400 public agencies and the White House. She said while the Easley project “is in the very early stages of development and design decisions have not yet been finalized,” it could not be moved to a new location.

“We actively explored siting the Easley project in alternative locations, including east of Hwy 177, but the area was technically prohibitive,” she said.

But, she added, “the Lake Tamarisk community is actively involved in the public process for the Easley project. Since being made aware of their concerns, we have been in close contact with (them) and surrounding neighbors to understand and address any questions and concerns they have regarding our projects in the Desert Center Area. We will continue to work with them throughout the planning, construction and operations of the project.”

Carrington and Pierce said Knowles and other Intersect staff had met with them on Pierce’s patio, and the company might consider dimming or redirecting powerful night lights to help keep the skies above dark. But they said such small measures would do little.

“What’s occurring is just a pure disregard for us as a community, and us as human beings,” Pierce said.

In addition to Sacramento, BLM will hold public scoping meetings in Phoenix, Arizona; Grand Junction, Colorado; Washington, DC; Boise, Idaho; Billings, Montana; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Reno, Nevada; Bend, Oregon; Salt Lake City, Utah; Spokane, Washington and Cheyenne, Wyoming. A second virtual meeting will be held on Feb. 13.

Public comments will be accepted for 15 days after the last public scoping meeting. For the most current information, to register for the virtual sessions. and to view related documents, visit BLM’s ePlanning web site at https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2022371/570.

Janet Wilson is senior environment reporter for The Desert Sun, and co-authors USA Today's Climate Point. She can be reached at jwilson@gannett.com and on Twitter @janetwilson66

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Feds may expand solar and wind across the West, including the CA desert

Biden's climate agenda has a problem: Not enough workers


A wind farm shares space with corn fields the day before the Iowa caucuses, where agriculture and clean energy are key issues, in Latimer, Iowa

Tue, January 10, 2023 
By Nichola Groom and Valerie Volcovici

(Reuters) - U.S. clean energy companies are offering better wages and benefits, flying in trainers from overseas, and contemplating ideas like buying roofing and electric repair shops just to hire their workers as firms try to overcome a labor shortage that threatens to derail President Joe Biden's climate change agenda.

The Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law last year, provides for an estimated $370 billion in solar, wind and electric vehicle subsidies, according to the White House. Starting Jan. 1, American consumers can take advantage of those tax credits to upgrade home heating systems or put solar panels on their roofs. Those investments will create nearly 537,000 jobs a year for a decade, according to an analysis by BW Research commissioned by The Nature Conservancy.

Graphic: The Inflation Reduction Act's green jobs promise https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-LABOR/CLEANENERGY/movakkxyyva/chart.png

But with the U.S. unemployment rate at an historic low of 3.5%, companies say they fear they will struggle to fill those jobs, and that plans to transition away from fossil fuels could stall out. Despite layoff announcements and signs of a slowdown elsewhere in the economy, the labor market for clean energy jobs remains tight.

"It feels like a big risk for this expansion. Where are we going to find all the people?" said Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association trade group.

The shortage is anticipated to hit especially hard in electric vehicle and battery production and solar panel and home efficiency installations, forcing some of the companies into bold new approaches to find workers.

Korea's SK Innovation Co Ltd, which makes batteries for Ford Motor Co's F-150 Lightning all-electric pickup truck in Commerce, Georgia, has pumped up pay and benefits as it ramps up its U.S. workforce to 20,000 people by 2025 from 4,000 today.

The battery maker is advertising pay between $20 and $34 an hour, above Georgia’s median hourly wage of $18.43, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. It is also covering 100% life insurance costs and matching retirement plan contributions up to 6.5%, above the national average of 5.6%, according to the Plan Sponsor Council of America. And the company is providing free food on the job.

"Georgia’s talent pool is not really massive. But we are trying to improve some of our policies to better source and retain workers," said an SK official who declined to be named, citing the sensitivity of the matter.

Georgia state officials said SK's hiring has been a success considering how quickly production had to ramp up to meet the company's obligations to automakers.

While national residential solar installer SunPower Corp is recruiting aggressively, Chief Executive Peter Faricy said the company is also looking at what he called "crazy ideas" to secure labor – including buying up companies just for their workers.

"I’m not suggesting we will do this, but I want to give you an order of magnitude of what we’re considering. Like, should we acquire a roofing company and make them all solar installers? Do we go buy an electrical company and acquire 100 electricians?" he said.

SunPower also held talks within the last year with panel manufacturer First Solar Inc about developing a solar panel that would be easier to install, enabling crews to outfit two homes a day instead of just one, Faricy said.

SunPower’s competitor, Sunrun Inc, is deploying drones to survey roofs ahead of installation, reducing the number of workers required to scale roofs. It is also rewarding top crews with office parties.

"As best you can game-ify the experience for the employee... it just makes the industry more fun, more attractive," Chris McClellan, Sunrun's senior vice president of operations, said in an interview.

Offshore wind developer Orsted, a Danish company that is planning to build projects off the East Coast, hopes to fly in employees from projects in the United Kingdom and Asia to help train staff. State reports have indicated that New York and Massachusetts face large offshore wind workforce gaps.

“We’re creating sort of an ecosystem where we don't just have an offshore wind academy, but really train the trainers of the future,” said Mads Nipper, Orsted’s CEO, told Reuters.

The Biden Administration has repeatedly promised that new green energy jobs would be well-paying union jobs.

But many of those jobs have lagged the fossil fuel industry in pay, according to a 2021 study by BW Research, as clean energy companies have sought to contain costs to compete with entrenched industries. The IRA seeks to address that by tying prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements to the subsidies.

Those provisions -- and the hiring challenges -- have put pressure on some employers to use unionized labor.

Learning from its earlier hiring challenges in Europe and Asia, Orsted signed an agreement with North America's Building Trades Unions to secure workers.

Even Amazon.com Inc, a company that has been embroiled in disputes with workers trying to organize, has used union labor to build the electric charging infrastructure for its fleet of electric delivery vehicles in Maspeth, Queens, NY.

Amazon did not respond to requests for comment.

Corrine Case, an electrician represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said she was paid $43 an hour to install the charging system at Amazon.

A single mother, Case said she was excited about the job security offered by the rising demand for electricians to install charging stations.

“Our field is constantly changing because of new energy sources and to be a part of that is amazing,” she said.

FREE WORKER TRAINING

In their hunt for workers, solar, wind and electric vehicle companies have expanded programs offering free and subsidized training to military veterans, women and the formerly incarcerated.

SK told Reuters that it has been recruiting at military job fairs and American Legion chapters and collaborating with programs like the Georgia National Guard’s Work for Warriors and the Manufacturing Institute’s Heroes MAKE America.

Some solar companies have tried to recruit veterans, saying the skills learned in military life translate well to the industry.

Utility scale solar developer SOLV Energy, SunPower and Nextracker last year teamed up with nonprofit Solar Energy International to fund a women-only training program for solar installers. More than 30 women attended the week-long course in Colorado.

In October, the nonprofit Solar Hands-On Instructional Network of Excellence (SHINE) teamed up with the Virginia Department of Corrections on a pilot program to train 30 prison inmates and recently incarcerated people in solar panel installation. SHINE’s director David Peterson said the group is discussing expanding the program.

In California, the nonprofit Grid Alternatives has trained 150 inmates at the Madera County jail in solar installation since 2017 and is expanding its program this year to other facilities in the state. Potential employers are more open to hiring the formerly incarcerated once they see they have received some training, Tom Esqueda, the nonprofit's outreach manager, said.

In Los Angeles, nonprofit Homeboy Industries, which works to rehabilitate former gang members, is using the potential job opportunities for solar panel installers to help recruits for its state-funded jobs program. Homeboy trains 50-60 people a year as solar panel installers.

More than 80% of the people who have gone through the training in the last year have found jobs in solar, according to Jackie Harper, who oversees the program.

“I’m going to be sticking with this,” said Marco Reyes, 28, who went through the program after his release from prison in February and earns $23 an hour as an installer in Valencia, California.

He now plans to train in the electrical end of solar installation, which would bump up his pay.

“Everyone has a chance to move up the ladder into a better position,” he said. “This job to me is a life changer.”

(Reporting by Nichola Groom and Valerie Volcovici; Edited by Richard Valdmanis and Suzanne Goldenberg.)

Political vacuum in Haiti deepens as senators' terms expire
 

DÁNICA COTO and EVENS SANON
Tue, January 10, 2023 


PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — Haiti awoke Tuesday stripped of its last democratically elected institution — this time, its Senate — an alarming development that solidifies what some call a de facto dictatorship nominally in charge of a country wracked by gang violence.

While only 10 senators had been symbolically representing the nation's 11 million people in recent years because Haiti had failed to hold legislative elections since October 2019, their terms expired overnight, leaving Haiti without a single lawmaker in its House or Senate amid a spiraling political crisis. Organized crime groups have been running virtually unchecked since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, who himself had been ruling by decree.

“It's a very grim situation,” said Alex Dupuy, a Haitian-born sociologist at Wesleyan University, "one of the worst crises that Haiti has had since the Duvalier dictatorship.”

The bloody regime of Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, who fled the country in 1986, marked the last time Haiti lacked elected officials.

The Parliament building in downtown Port-au-Prince remained deserted on Tuesday, with only security guards at the gate. Similar scenes were evident outside Haiti's non-functioning Supreme Court and electoral commission.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who assumed leadership of Haiti with the backing of the international community after Moïse was killed, has failed to hold general elections despite multiple pledges over the last year and a half to do so. His latest promise, on Jan. 1, was that the Supreme Court would be restored and a provisional electoral council tasked with setting a reasonable date for elections.

But Henry offered no timeline, even as he asked Haitians to trust each other and “take me at my word when I speak of my government’s desire to do everything possible to reconstitute our democratic institutions.”

“There are no powers to check his decisions,” Dupuy said. “As long as that situation continues, Henry is going to be behaving like a dictator.”

A spokesman for Henry's office declined to comment.

The U.N. has warned that security in Haiti needs to improve before elections are held. Reported kidnappings soared to more than 1,200 last year, double what was reported the previous year, according to the U.N., and at least 280 killings were reported in November alone, the highest monthly record.

Briefing the U.N. Security Council in December, Helen La Lime, who was appointed Haiti’s U.N. special envoy in October 2019, described what she called “alarmingly high levels of gang violence” in Haiti, which has fewer than 9,000 active police officers nationwide.

The gangs increasingly rely on kidnappings to fund their operations, with experts estimating that they control about 60% of Port-au-Prince.

“We are scared to step out of our houses,” said Daniel Jean, 25, who sells phone chargers and other equipment in the capital. “We are cornered: kidnapping, extortions. Gangs are killing people because we don’t have ransom.”

Haitians have lost all trust in the democratic process, Jean said, adding that he won't vote if the same politicians and parties appear on the ballot: “They have more influence than the gangs. They control all the gangs.

“This is why the country is not going to move forward until the international community ... comes in to help,” he said.

Henry requested the immediate deployment of foreign troops in October after the most powerful gang seized control of a key fuel terminal, cutting off supplies to hospitals, schools, businesses and homes.

But the United States and Canada, among others, have responded only by implementing sanctions, not sending troops.

“Haiti needs stability,” decried Andrea Marcele, 29, who sells yams, lemons, carrots and other goods in the streets of the capital after migrating from the northern region of Grand-Anse.

“The country has no president ... no elected officials,” she said. “Everybody is hungry for power. We are paying the consequences.”

As the situation worsens, Haitians increasingly flee by plane or aboard rickety boats, desperately risking their lives to reach some safety and economic security. Many aim for the Bahamas, or Florida. President Joe Biden's administration intercepted tens of thousands last year, sending them back to Haiti.

Rodelie Kator, 49, sells rice, beans and other goods, hoping to send her 18-year-old son to Chile or Brazil, popular destination points for Haitians who then try to reach Mexico and cross into the United States.

“I’m hoping for a better life for my son,” she said. “I don’t want to witness him being killed.”

Kator said she wishes he could stay in Haiti because she has seen in the news “what my brothers and sisters have to go through to get to Mexico. ... being treated like animals.”

But Haiti holds no promise for her son, even as Biden announced last week that his administration would immediately turn away Haitians and other migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Haitian economist Enomy Germain tried to use this moment, with zero elected officials in Haiti, to encourage his countrymen.

“This date will have marked the beginning of the end of a political class without vision — without regard for the common good and without balance — if you good people get involved," he tweeted. "Know that tomorrow will not be better without you.”

But even if elections were to be held, many Haitians wonder whether any candidate will be worthy of their support as they fear for their life.

“It feels like we’re heading toward a civil war,” said Marcele. “You’re walking with a coffin under your arm.”

___

Coto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry leaves after attending a graduation ceremony for new members of the country's armed forces in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Astronomers Find the Edge of Our Galaxy


Kevin Hurler
Mon, January 9, 2023 

The Andromeda Galaxy captured by the NASA Galaxy Evolution Mapper in 2012.

In the quest to find the outer limits of our galaxy, astronomers have discovered over 200 stars that form the Milky Way’s edge, the most distant of which is over one million light-years away—nearly halfway to the Andromeda galaxy.

The 208 stars the researchers identified are known as RR Lyrae stars, which are stars with a brightness that can change as viewed from Earth. These stars are typically old and brighten and dim at regular intervals, which is a mechanism that allows scientists to calculate how far away they are. By calculating the distance to these RR Lyrae stars, the team found that the farthest of the bunch was located about halfway between the Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy, one of our cosmic next-door neighbors.

“This study is redefining what constitutes the outer limits of our galaxy,” said Raja GuhaThakurta in a press release. GuhaThakurta is professor and chair of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of California Santa Cruz. “Our galaxy and Andromeda are both so big, there’s hardly any space between the two galaxies.”

Illustration: NASA, ESA, AND A. FEILD (STSCI)

The Milky Way galaxy consists of a few different parts, the primary of which is a thin, spiral disk about 100,000 light-years across. Our home solar system sits on one of the arms of this disk. An inner and outer halo surround the disk, and these halos contain some of the oldest stars in our galaxy.

Previous studies have placed the edge of the outer halo at 1 million light-years from the Milky Way’s center, but based on the new work, the edge of this halo should be about 1.04 million light-years from the galactic center. Yuting Feng, a doctoral student at the university working with GuhaThakurta, led the study and is presenting the findings this week at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle.

“We were able to use these variable stars as reliable tracers to pin down the distances,” said Yuting Feng, a doctoral student at the university working with GuhaThakurta. “Our observations confirm the theoretical estimates of the size of the halo, so that’s an important result.”

Space is vast and lonely—but we can feel a bit cozier knowing that our galactic neighbor is closer than we thought.

Astronomers find the most distant stars in our galaxy halfway to Andromeda

A search for variable stars called RR Lyrae has found some of the most distant stars in the Milky Way’s halo a million light years away

Reports and Proceedings

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SANTA CRUZ

 

IMAGE: THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS THE MILKY WAY GALAXY'S INNER AND OUTER HALOS. A HALO IS A SPHERICAL CLOUD OF STARS SURROUNDING A GALAXY. view more 

CREDIT: NASA, ESA, AND A. FEILD (STSCI)

Astronomers have discovered more than 200 distant variable stars known as RR Lyrae stars in the Milky Way’s stellar halo. The most distant of these stars is more than a million light years from Earth, almost half the distance to our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda, which is about 2.5 million light years away.

The characteristic pulsations and brightness of RR Lyrae stars make them excellent “standard candles” for measuring galactic distances. These new observations allowed the researchers to trace the outer limits of the Milky Way’s halo.

“This study is redefining what constitutes the outer limits of our galaxy,” said Raja GuhaThakurta, professor and chair of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz. “Our galaxy and Andromeda are both so big, there’s hardly any space between the two galaxies.”

GuhaThakurta explained that the stellar halo component of our galaxy is much bigger than the disk, which is about 100,000 light years across. Our solar system resides in one of the spiral arms of the disk. In the middle of the disk is a central bulge, and surrounding it is the halo, which contains the oldest stars in the galaxy and extends for hundreds of thousands of light years in every direction.

“The halo is the hardest part to study because the outer limits are so far away,” GuhaThakurta said. “The stars are very sparse compared to the high stellar densities of the disk and the bulge, but the halo is dominated by dark matter and actually contains most of the mass of the galaxy.”

Yuting Feng, a doctoral student working with GuhaThakurta at UCSC, led the new study and is presenting their findings in two talks at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle on January 9 and 11.

According to Feng, previous modeling studies had calculated that the stellar halo should extend out to around 300 kiloparsecs or 1 million light years from the galactic center. (Astronomers measure galactic distances in kiloparsecs; one kiloparsec is equal to 3,260 light years.) The 208 RR Lyrae stars detected by Feng and his colleagues ranged in distance from about 20 to 320 kiloparsecs.

“We were able to use these variable stars as reliable tracers to pin down the distances,” Feng said. “Our observations confirm the theoretical estimates of the size of the halo, so that’s an important result.”

The findings are based on data from the Next Generation Virgo Cluster Survey (NGVS), a program using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) to study a cluster of galaxies well beyond the Milky Way. The survey was not designed to detect RR Lyrae stars, so the researchers had to dig them out of the dataset. The Virgo Cluster is a large cluster of galaxies that includes the giant elliptical galaxy M87.

“To get a deep exposure of M87 and the galaxies around it, the telescope also captured the foreground stars in the same field, so the data we used are sort of a by-product of that survey,” Feng explained.

According to GuhaThakurta, the excellent quality of the NGVS data enabled the team to obtain the most reliable and precise characterization of RR Lyrae at these distances. RR Lyrae are old stars with very specific physical properties that cause them to expand and contract in a regularly repeating cycle.

“The way their brightness varies looks like an EKG—they’re like the heartbeats of the galaxy—so the brightness goes up quickly and comes down slowly, and the cycle repeats perfectly with this very characteristic shape,” GuhaThakurta said. “In addition, if you measure their average brightness, it is the same from star to star. This combination is fantastic for studying the structure of the galaxy.”

The sky is full of stars, some brighter than others, but a star may look bright because it is very luminous or because it is very close, and it can be hard to tell the difference. Astronomers can identify an RR Lyrae star from its characteristic pulsations, then use its observed brightness to calculate how far away it is. The procedures are not simple, however. More distant objects, such as quasars, can masquerade as RR Lyrae stars.

“Only astronomers know how painful it is to get reliable tracers of these distances,” Feng said. “This robust sample of distant RR Lyrae stars gives us a very powerful tool for studying the halo and testing our current models of the size and mass of our galaxy.”

This study is based on observations obtained with MegaPrime/MegaCam, a joint project of CFHT and CEA/IRFU, at the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT), which is operated by the National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, the Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) of France, and the University of Hawaii.