UN buys huge ship to avert catastrophic oil spill off Yemen


Gareth Evans - BBC News
Thu, March 9, 2023 

The FSO Safer has been abandoned since 2015 and is carrying 1.1m barrels of oil

The UN has purchased a huge ship that it hopes will prevent an environmental catastrophe off the coast of Yemen.

For years, more than a million barrels of crude oil have been sitting on a decaying supertanker in the Red Sea.

There are fears the vessel could soon break apart or explode, risking one of the worst oil spills in recent memory.

But on Thursday, the UN said it had purchased a crude carrier that would head to Yemen and remove the oil from the stricken ship.

"The purchase of this suitable vessel... marks the beginning of the operational phase of the plan to safely remove the oil and avoid the risk of an environmental and humanitarian disaster," Achim Steiner from the UN Development Programme (UNDP) said, adding that it was a "major breakthrough".

A UNDP statement said the ship - which it purchased from major tanker company Euronav - was undergoing routine maintenance in China and would arrive for the operation in early May.

"A major spill would devastate fishing communities on Yemen's Red Sea coast, likely wiping out 200,000 livelihoods instantly. Whole communities would be exposed to life-threatening toxins. Highly polluted air would affect millions," it said.

The organisation added that a potential oil spill could cost up to $20bn (£16.7bn) to clean up.

The UN had been searching for years for a solution and appealed for donations. The planned operation is estimated to cost $129m of which $75m has been received and another $20m has been pledged, it said.

The stranded ship - the FSO Safer - was left abandoned off the port of Hodeida after Yemen's civil war broke out in 2015. It has not been serviced since.

It was constructed as a supertanker in 1976 and converted later into a floating storage for oil. It is anchored near the Ras Isa oil terminal, which is controlled by Yemen's rebel Houthi movement.

The 376m (1,233ft) vessel holds an estimated 1.14m barrels of crude oil.

The Safer's structural integrity has deteriorated significantly since maintenance operations were suspended in 2015, when the Houthis seized large parts of Yemen and a Saudi-led coalition intervened in support of the government. The ensuing conflict has reportedly killed more than 150,000 people and left more than 23 million in need of aid.

Mr Steiner told reporters on Thursday: "Let me be very clear - this is a risky operation and things could go wrong." He added that it could still be suspended if they fail to raise enough funds.

CANADA'S SPY AGENCY
Climate change is posing a serious threat to Canada — and British Columbia in particular, according to CSIS

Fri, March 10, 2023 

Director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, David Vigneault, waits to appear before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa in February. According to a report from the agency, rising sea levels have the potential to destroy 'significant parts' of the westernmost province. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press - image credit)

Canada's spy agency says climate change is threatening the nation's prosperity and security, and has identified British Columbia as a region of particular concern.

A newly released analysis by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) that was prepared in April 2021 and only recently disclosed to The Canadian Press spells out several concerns presented by global warming.

They include looming threats to water and food security, Arctic sovereignty, and coastal security — the latter of which could greatly impact British Columbians.

According to the report, rising sea levels could cause "irretrievable loss of infrastructure and even entire communities" with the potential to destroy "significant parts" of the westernmost province.

Taking steps to lessen the severity of flood and weather risks may be impractical, and buying insurance or rebuilding after a calamity will simply be too expensive in some cases, the brief says.

CSIS does not detail what regions will be hardest hit, but according to the provincial government, three quarters of B.C.'s population lives along the coast.

Preparing for sea-level rise

"This report is is sobering, but it's not a surprise," said Melissa Lem, president of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE).

"We know that if we continue with business as usual that climate change will have wide-ranging effects on every aspect of society."

Vancouver city planners estimate that sea levels could rise up to two metres in the next 80 years.

Ben Nelms/CBC

Lem, speaking Thursday on The Early Edition, said rising sea levels are already affecting the province's health-care system. She said plans to construct the new St. Paul's Hospital in city are already buffering for this reality.

"They're planning to raise the lot by over a meter to protect this new $1.9-billion facility, but unfortunately everything around it is still going to be flooded when a severe weather event happens," said Lem.

'We haven't seen anything yet': CAPE president

British Columbians are no strangers to severe weather events in recent years, including raging wildfires, catastrophic floods, marine heat waves and a horrific heat dome that killed over 600 people in summer 2021.

CSIS anticipates a higher risk of animal-borne diseases, loss of arable land and shrinking freshwater resources is coming.

Human migration might also grow to unprecedented volume due to newly uninhabitable territory, extreme weather events, drought and food shortages, and human conflict zones, CSIS says.

Ben Nelms/CBC

The spy service is also predicting an increase in ideologically motivated violent extremism from people who want to speed up climate change solutions and those more interested in preserving their current way of life.

"If you think the social disruptions we saw during the pandemic were dramatic, we haven't seen anything yet compared to climate change," said Lem.

Listen to stewards of the land: Indigenous leaders

When it comes to tackling climate change, Indigenous leaders say it is critical to listen to Indigenous people who have been stewards of the land, now known as British Columbia, since time immemorial.

Eli Enns, president and CEO of the IISAAK Olam Foundation — a non-profit educational organization focused on Indigenous-led conservation — said when the Sumas Prairie region of Abbotsford flooded in November 2021, it came as no surprise to elders of the Sumas First Nation, who predicted and warned such a flood would occur after an existing lake there was drained in the 1920s to create farmland.

"We undermine the resiliency of an environment by not respecting the Indigenous peoples of the land," said Enns, also speaking Thursday on CBC Radio.

The B.C. government did commit $100 million Monday to protecting freshwater sources in the province in partnership with First Nations.

Indigenous-led conservation efforts are not only critical to protecting the planet, said Enns, but also B.C.'s young people.

A new study from Lakehead University in Ontario that surveyed 1,000 Canadians aged 16 to 25 showed 80 per cent of respondents' mental health had been impacted by climate change. Nearly half think humanity is doomed.

"If the adults in the room were getting along with each other and working toward the benefit of all of our children and grandchildren, it would inspire more sense of hope," said Enns.

Province gives go-ahead for new gold and silver mine in central B.C.

Thu, March 9, 2023 

Vancouver-based mining company Artemis will operate the Blackwater gold and silver mine 112 kilometres southwest of Vanderhoof, B.C. (Artemis Gold Inc. - image credit)

The B.C. government has approved a construction and operation permit for a 44-square-kilometre gold and silver mine in the province's central Interior.

The mine, located 112 kilometres southwest of Vanderhoof, B.C., will be operated by Vancouver-based Artemis Gold and is expected to create 450 jobs per year, along with over 800 more per year during its construction and expansion phases, the province said.

The announcement comes three years after the province signed an economic and community development agreement with the Lhoosk'uz Dené Nation and Ulkatcho First Nation — on whose territories Blackwater is located — to share mineral tax revenue from the mine.

The province says the nations have been engaged in all aspects of the project, from exploration, to permitting and environmental assessment, while the mine's owners and both nations have a project participation agreement in place.

The B.C. government forecasts the Blackwater Mine will contribute more than $516 million to the province's average annual gross domestic product and more than $47 million in average annual provincial mineral tax.

During its 22-year lifetime, the mine will contribute a total of $13.2 billion to B.C.'s economy, including $2.3 billion in provincial revenue, the province adds.

Premier David Eby says the approval of Blackwater Mine is good news for local communities.

"The Blackwater gold project will put lots of people to work and create a wide range of opportunities and benefits for local businesses, communities and First Nations, while ensuring the highest standards of environmental protection, mitigation and sustainability," Eby said in a written statement.

The province says it has engaged the First Nations in the environmental assessment of the mine site. It adds that the mine site is connected to B.C. Hydro grid, meaning it will be powered with a sustainable source of low-carbon hydroelectricity.

Ulkatcho First Nation Chief Lynda Price says her community has been involved in Blackwater Mine's environmental assessment since 2015.

"We continue to work in collaboration with Artemis Gold Inc., Lhoosk'uz Dené Nation, and both the federal and provincial governments, to achieve the best mitigation results for all Canadians," she said in a written statement.

The province says B.C.'s mining sector had a forecast annual production value of more than $18 billion in 2022, and provides more than 30,000 jobs across B.C.

Canadian time changes may be a thing of the past if U.S. passes 'sunshine' law

Fri, March 10, 2023



Legislation in the United States that could trigger an end to seasonal time changes in Canada is moving forward again, as Canadians get ready to wind their clocks ahead an hour before going to bed Saturday night.

Provinces have been promising for years to ditch the time change but have cited a need for consistency with U.S. states for the delays.

Now a U.S. bill to authorize the change that has been repeatedly thwarted is back in play.

Last week, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio reintroduced the Sunshine Protection Act, which would allow daylight time to be made permanent.

Rubio said in a statement that the "ritual of changing time twice a year is stupid," and that ending the practice has bipartisan support.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said Wednesday that the province's position of wanting to remain "in-sync" with west coast American states hasn't changed, but he is "very much looking forward to getting rid of daylight-saving time."

The U.S. bill, first proposed in 2018, has repeatedly failed to get through both houses of Congress. Last March, it was approved by the Senate but stalled in the House without a vote.

If the federal bill gets through, that would allow U.S. states to enact their own changes, including those cited by Canadian provinces. More than a dozen U.S. states have passed legislation that is waiting on the federal go-ahead.

In B.C., legislation was passed four years ago to allow the province to permanently stay on daylight time.

But then-premier John Horgan said the change would depend on Washington, Oregon and California doing the same. In Ontario, Premier Doug Ford has said a switch would require New York state to also ditch the time change, while Quebec Premier François Legault has said he is open to making daylight time permanent.

Eby echoed Horgan's position, saying B.C.'s close integration with U.S. states gives rise to legitimate business concerns if the province moves to a different time zone, and the need to stay aligned is the "sole reason" changes have not already been made.

"I think all of us would be delighted to see the back end of daylight-saving time," he said. "But at the same time, we want to make sure we are aligned with major trading partners' efforts."

University of British Columbia business professor Werner Antweiler said the latest version of Rubio's bill has bipartisan support and stands a much better chance of moving through the U.S. House as well as the Senate.

If that happens, a domino effect could ensue, and B.C.'s time change at 2 a.m. Sunday morning may be its last, he said.

"It looks as if the Senate is going to re-approve the bill, and the House will take it up for a vote this time around," said Antweiler, who has followed the issue closely as a researcher. "Chances are that we are not moving back to standard time in the fall."

Most provinces as well as the territories of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories will move their clocks ahead one hour early Sunday.

Yukon and most of Saskatchewan keep their clocks the same year-round. Yukon made the switch for the last time in March 2020, and standard time is now permanent.

Government officials said in 2021 the change was a relatively smooth process.

In nearby Atlin, B.C., an unincorporated community where under 500 people live just south of the Yukon border, residents have decided to join the territory rather than change their clocks with the rest of the province.

"It's been great. It's actually best for us in some ways," said Sandryne Berger, who co-owns the Mountain Shack Cafe. "At first it was dark in the morning but still light when we finish work."

Sean Boots moved to Whitehorse with his wife in October 2019 and welcomed Yukon abandoning the time change, having grown up in Saskatchewan.

"I've always thought that the daylight-saving time changes that happen in the rest of Canada were a bit of a silly idea," he said.

"I remember the first time I experienced a daylight-saving time change was when I was in Ontario for grad school and I was just like, 'What is this? This is bananas.'"

— With files from The Associated Press

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

Chuck Chiang and Emily Blake, The Canadian Press

UEA scientists watch killer whales hunt in the Antarctic


Thu, March 9, 2023 

A pod of killer whales appeared hunting a humpback whale

Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey have described their amazement at seeing killer whales hunting from on board the RRS Sir David Attenborough.

Daisy Pickup and Dr Isabel Seguro have joined a team of 30 for two months researching the ship's science capabilities in deep polar waters.

The pair, from the University of East Anglia, have been collecting data and preparing the ship for future trips.

While on board they have also witnessed an orca pod hunting a humpback whale.

Scientists were called on deck to see the dramatic scene

"Somebody shouted 'Orcas'," said Dr Seguro. "We all ran out, very excited. We witnessed about 30 orcas, chasing a humpback whale. It was very dramatic."

"We hope the humpback got away," added Ms Pickup.

Dr Isabel Seguro is carrying out research on global warming

As well as doing their own research - taking measurements to analyse the speed of the ice melting - the pair have been helping test and prepare the RRS Sir David Attenborough's equipment for further trips for the Cambridge-based British Antarctic Survey.

"Whatever we do here is helping us set the basis for the next project," said Dr Seguro.

Daisy Pickup is part of the team preparing the RRS Sir David Attenborough for future trips

The two scientists, based in Norwich, said the team was definitely looking forward to heading home at the end of March, following many days and nights of freezing temperatures in Antarctic waters.

"We are very excited to see green again," said Ms Pickup.

The £200m RRS Sir David Attenborough is described by the British Antarctic Survey as a floating polar research laboratory AKA BOATY MCBOATFACE

"There are not a lot of trees here, so it will be really nice to see green trees.

"When all you've seen is sea for five weeks, you're ready to see a different landscape."

Photos show a female orca swimming with adopted baby pilot whale in unique case, scientists say

Alia Shoaib
Fri, March 10, 2023 

The orca female and pilot whale calf.

orcaguardians.org

A female orca appeared to adopt a baby pilot whale in the first known case of its kind.

Scientists observed the orca caring for the calf in western Iceland in 2021, a new study says.

The study noted that the orca had never had a calf of her own.

A female orca appeared to have adopted or abducted a baby pilot whale in the first known case of its kind, scientists say.

The orca, known as "Sædís," was first observed swimming with the pilot whale calf in August 2021 in the Atlantic Ocean near western Iceland.

Scientists observed that Sædís was not simply accompanying the calf but was actively caring for it.

Two other orcas, likely from Sædís' pod, were also present, but no other pilot whales were seen – which is unusual because pilot whales also travel in pods.

This marks the first scientific documentation of orcas nurturing and tending to a long-finned pilot whale calf.

The findings recently published in the Canadian Journal of Zoology document the orca's maternal care for a pilot whale calf and suggest that the relationship between the two species is more complex than previously thought.

Marie Mrusczok, the lead author, told Newsweek that there were clear signs the orca was looking after the calf.

"The orca was swimming with the pilot whale calf in the echelon position, which means the calf was swimming right behind the pectoral fin of the orca," she said.

"The echelon position allows a calf to make fewer tail fluke movements than when swimming on its own and overcome physical limitations during high-speed travel — in other words, the calf is 'carried' by the pressure wave created by the adult's larger body."

However, Elizabeth Zwamborn, an academic on the research team, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Maritime Noon show that it was unclear whether it was an altruistic adoption.

She said the relationship could be interpreted as a "lovely warm adoption story" or a case of killer whale abduction.

The female orca and pilot whale calf.orcaguardians.org

"But there's also a decent chance that she actually abducted this calf from a group of pilot whales. Off Iceland, there's been quite the interaction between both species, and oftentimes pilot whales are seen chasing the killer whales," she said.

"We don't know the reasons for it, but if there's a chance that there might be a female orca here and there that tries to take a calf from the pilot whales, that would certainly give them reason to chase."

The study noted that Sædís had never had a calf of her own, so it is possible she took in the pilot whale calf as a substitute.

Zwamborn said that the calf appeared to be emaciated and seemed to have not been fed recently, which would make sense as the female orca would probably not be able to nurse, having not birthed her own calves.

Both orcas and pilot whales have similarly close-knit family structures in the wild, which could explain the relationship.

About a year later, Sædís was observed with a group of long-finned pilot whales, but the calf was not present. Further encounters between Sædís' and the pilot whale pod indicated a deliberate attempt to acquire a new calf, the findings said.

Zwamborn told CBC that Sædís' observed interactions with pilot whales appeared to be unique and that she could have been attempting to abduct another calf.

'Shame on Marineland': 'World's loneliest orca' Kiska dies, ending tragic era of captivity in Canada

After 11 years in solitude, Canada's last captive orca dies amidst calls to 'prosecute Marineland'

Corné van Hoepen

·Contributor, Yahoo News Canada

Fri, March 10, 2023 

Kiska, also known as the world's loneliest orca, has died at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ont. on March 9.

"The ministry was advised by Marineland that the whale named Kiska passed away at Marineland on March 9, 2023. A necropsy was conducted by professionals retained by Marineland," Brent Ross, a spokesperson of Ontario's solicitor general wrote in an emailed statement to local press.

She was believed to be 47 years old.

"Marineland's marine mammal care team and experts did everything possible to support Kiska’s comfort and will mourn her loss," the theme park said in a statement to local media.

Kiska was captured at three-years-old in North Atlantic waters, alongside another orca named Kieko, star of the 1993 film Free Willy.

While Keiko was rehabilitated and moved back to familiar waters off the coast of Iceland, Kiska was moved around several North American aquariums before being transferred to her final home at Ontario's Marineland.

During her captivity at Marineland, Kiska gave birth to five calves, all who tragically died shortly after birth. Since 2011, Kiska was held in solitariy confinement, thus earning her the nickname 'the world's lonliest orca.'

Orcas, known to travel in pods are social animals. Videos began emerging of Kiska floating listlessly in her tank or bumping her head repeatedly against the tank wall — a toll solitary confinement was having on the mammal.

"We are calling on provincial authorities to make public the results of a post-mortem, and prosecute Marineland for the unlawful distress Kiska clearly experienced throughout her final years," Camille Labchuk, executive director of Animal Justice told CBC News in a statement.

Kiska's passing also marks the end of orcas being held in captivity across Canada, due to a landmark bill being passed in Canadian legislation during 2019, which bans whales, dolphins and porpoises from being held in captivity. Anyone found in violation of this bill would face up to a $200,000 fine.

An exemption of the bill was not enough to free Kiska — marine mammals already held would be allowed to remain in captivity.

Kiska's passing resulted in an outpouring of tributes posted to social media from animal activists and organizations, to members of the public who wanted to share their response.

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Megafires, drought and heat killing conifer seedlings in US west – study

Maanvi Singh
Fri, 10 March 2023 

Photograph: Susan Montoya Bryan/AP

The ancient, towering ponderosa pines and Douglas firs that dot the west are dying off at an alarming rate – and increasingly intense megafires, drought and heat are making it harder for their seedlings to grow, a new study has found.

In an expansive study, a team of more than 50 fire ecologists analysed data from more than 10,000 locations after 334 wildfires to assess how the severity of a fire and the weather conditions afterwards affected conifers across the US west.

Related: Atmospheric river comes for California as experts warn it ‘could get really ugly’

They found that over the past four decades, increasingly destructive megafires and hotter, drier conditions have already made it harder for seedlings to establish themselves post-fire, according to the study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences.

For the next few decades, the intensity of wildfires will most affect the likelihood of a forest regenerating afterward, the study found, though eventually, warm, dry climate conditions will make large sections of conifer habitats unsuitable for seedlings. If global average increases 4F (2.2C) compared to the first half of the 20th century, only 74% of the area the researchers studied will have climate conditions suitable for conifer seedlings by 2050.

Extensive projections across the range of eight major conifer species in the west suggest that while forests in the northern Rocky Mountains and Pacific north-west are expected to hold steady in the coming decades, forests in the south-west and California are most vulnerable to decline.

But the analysis also offers some good news. At least in the short term, researchers say, forest treatments to clear out the dead and dying vegetation that fuels megafires could reduce the severity of wildfires across the west – and preserve its forests.

“So the results are at least a little bit hopeful,” said Kim Davis, who led the study as a researcher at the University of Montana, and now works as an ecologist for the US Forest Service at the Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory. “Climate change is making it really hard for trees to recover. But there are some ways in which we can have a little bit of agency and promote forest recovery.”

Lukens Lake with shoreline conifer trees and grasses in Yosemite national park, California. Photograph: Anthony Brown/Alamy

Conifer species in the west have evolved with fire, even depending on fire to seed and regenerate. Some species, such as the lodgepole pine, are cued up to open up their cones and release seeds with the heat of a fire. Before European colonisation, many wildfires were left to burn naturally, and many were set intentionally by Indigenous practitioners who used controlled burns to manage overgrown vegetation.

But decades of aggressive fire suppression in many parts of the west disrupted the cycles of fire that these trees need. Without regular fire, built-up brush can crowd out seedlings and fuel more severe conflagrations that damage even established trees.

And then came climate chaos. In recent years, prolonged droughts and record-breaking heatwaves have not only ushered in an era of more intense and destructive wildfires, but have also created a hostile environment for seedlings. “It’s a double whammy,” said Davis.

Unlike older trees, seedlings have small root systems that cannot reach for water below the top layer of soil. And they lack the thick bark that insulates trees from heat waves.

As the west warms, the regions that can comfortably support seedlings are rapidly shifting and shrinking. The study’s findings are in line with other recent research mapping the devastating effects of climate crisis on western conifers. In another report published this month, researchers at Stanford University found that global heating has already left a fifth of all conifers in California’s Sierra Nevada stranded in climates that cannot support their species. While resilient, ageing pines and firs across lower elevations of the range are hanging on to life, new generations of young trees are failing to establish themselves.

Climate change is making it really hard for trees to recover. But there are some ways in which we can have a little bit of agency and promote forest recovery

Kim Davis

Both studies show that conifers, which can live for decades or centuries, simply cannot keep up with the velocity of climate crisis. But if western states work quickly to reduce the severity of wildfires, they can help forests survive – at least in the short term, said Marcos Robles, lead scientist for the Nature Conservancy in Arizona.

Clearing landscapes – mechanically and with fire – and restoring fire-wrecked forests, can help conifers regenerate in the coming decades.

Controlled fires, for example, thin out the fire-fueling brush so that flames can’t burn as fiercely, allowing more trees to survive. Those trees, in turn, help shade and cool the forest post-fire, reducing temperatures by up to 5F (2.8C), and allowing seedlings a chance to grow and survive. In some high-elevation forests, planting trees after wildfires could also help forests recover, the study suggests.

“This study really spells out the point that we stand to lose our forest,” said Don Hankins a pyrogeographer and Plains Miwok fire expert at California State University, Chico. “But there is a path forward.”

Hankins, who was not involved in the study, said that recent examples show that thoughtful fire management can transform a forest’s fate. When the Bootleg fire hurtled toward the 30,000 acre Sycan Marsh Preserve in Oregon, it weakened and slowed as it hit areas that had been thinned and treated with controlled burns.

In the aftermath, “we were looking at an island of green, surrounded by a dead forest”, Hankins said.

State and national authorities are increasingly prioritising wildfire management, and the federal government has allocated $3bn toward a 10-year plan to treat 20m hectares. The analyses and maps generated by the study could help officials decide which regions to tackle first, said Robles.

“But even with this federal investment, the pace of wildfire treatments is probably not going to be sufficient,” said Robles, a co-author of the PNAS study. In California and other western states, landscape management efforts stalled and lagged due to bureaucratic hurdles, staffing and funding shortages. Authorities could consider letting some low-severity wildfires that occur away from communities burn naturally.

“Right now, we have a short term opportunity to change the trajectory of our forests,” Robles said.

Texas youth organizers take aim at the biggest oil field in the world

Aliya Uteuova
Fri, 10 March 2023 

Photograph: Nick Oxford/Reuters

A first-of-its-kind municipal climate charter in Texas could throw a wrench in US fossil fuel extraction. Residents of a major Texas city just west of the Permian Basin, the largest oil field in the US, will have the chance to vote on the package this spring.

If the proposal passes, the city of El Paso would adopt a comprehensive climate policy that would include prohibiting the use of city water for extraction projects outside city limits, such as in the Permian Basin, which makes up roughly 40% of all US oil production.

“El Paso is on the verge of potentially passing one of the most progressive pieces of climate legislation in the country,” said Deirdre Shelly, campaigns director for the national Sunrise Movement.

Related: Oil wells guzzle precious California water. Next door, residents can’t use the tap

Proponents say the climate charter would prepare El Paso to withstand extreme weather events and accelerate the city’s transition to renewables, requiring 80% of its energy to come from carbon free sources by 2030. It also encourages rooftop solar development, proposes establishing a climate department and could move the ownership of El Paso Electric into the city’s hands. The utility company was purchased in 2020 by a JP Morgan-tied fund.

“We’re battling the fossil fuel giants in our community,” said Ana Fuentes, a 25-year-old resident of El Paso and a campaign manager for the local Sunrise chapter. “This charter would allow people to have the platform and a space where our concerns will be prioritized over the bottom line of fossil fuel oligarchs.”

Last July, Sunrise El Paso and Austin-based Ground Game Texas submitted nearly 40,000 petition signatures to get the climate charter on the ballot for the November 2022 election, but due to a prolonged verification process, the vote on the plan will take place in the 6 May election. Roughly half of the petition signers were people under the age of 35.

“Something [we] talk a lot about a lot is climate anxiety, and I think we all feel it and it shows in those numbers,” Fuentes said.

The climate charter has the potential to disrupt drilling in the Permian Basin. The proposed policy would ban the use of city water for fossil fuel activities outside of El Paso limits. The annual amount of freshwater used for fracking the Texas side of the Permian Basin was estimated at 72bn gallons in 2019. That is a 2,400% rise from 2010, according to the US Geological Survey.

“We would be able to preserve the water within our desert community for household use, instead of having that water be sent to fracking and fossil fuel projects outside the city,” said Fuentes.

Fracking depletes large amounts of water that is scarce in desert communities like El Paso. On top of that, this process of extracting natural gas has been shown to cause groundwater contamination.

Water used for fracking is “laced with chemicals [and then] percolates through to people’s agricultural fields and sometimes wells where people drink them”, said Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University. The fossil fuel activities in the Permian Basin, which have been termed a “carbon bomb” by environmentalists, release planet-heating methane and volatile organic compounds associated with poor air quality that can degrade human health.

Related: Red states leading the US in solar and wind production, new report shows

The El Paso chamber of commerce, a membership group representing the interest of businesses, wrote in an emailed statement that it opposes the climate charter, stating that the proposition “has the right end game in mind – an improved climate, but doing so will cost us the very livelihoods it seeks to enrich”. The chamber claims that the climate charter would pose a “clear detrimental effect to local businesses and regional economy”, according to the findings from the economic impact report that the chamber paid for.

Sharon Wilson, an organizer with the nonprofit Earthworks who previously worked in the oil and gas industry, said this type of fear mongering from industry stakeholders is par for the course when environmentalists propose bold climate action.

“The oil and gas industry actually uses some of the same tactics that the tobacco industry used to deceive the public about the harm of tobacco,” said Wilson. Indeed, there is a documented history of companies like Exxon and Chevron borrowing from the tobacco industry’s playbook.

“At some point the tobacco industry was not allowed to advertise anymore and that needs to happen with the oil and gas industry.” Wilson said. “Smoking is a choice, breathing air is not.”

Students protest pension reform in France as union cuts power to Stade de France in ‘symbolic move’

Euronews
Fri, 10 March 2023 

Young people across France took to the streets on Thursday to protest the government’s attempt t to raise the retirement age to 64.

Several hundred students protested in Paris as part of nationwide strikes and demonstrations - with some blocking access to universities and high schools.

The protest briefly turned violent as a group of young people broke away, vandalizing bus stops and setting a car on fire.

The energy branch of France's prominent union, CGT, cut power to the Stade de France and several construction sites of the infrastructure for the 2024 Paris Olympics on Thursday.

Cédric Liechti, the Secretary General of CGT Energy, said the move was a “symbolic action”.

“For two and a half months now, more than 90% of workers and more than 70% of French people have rejected this reform which will bring the entire French people to their knees. The government refuses to hear, refuses to apply democracy and the majority of the people.”

A man plays the trumpet in front of a barricade during a demonstration in Lyon, central France. - AP Photo

President Emmanuel Macron wants to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 and make other changes he says are needed to keep the public pension system financially stable as the population ages.

But opponents argue that wealthy taxpayers or companies should pitch in more to finance the system instead.

“I don’t want to work all my life and be exhausted at the end,” said Djana Farhaig, a 15-year-old who protested in Paris. “It is important for us to show that the youth is engaged for its future.”

Demonstrations also took place in Rouen, where some 400 people marched. And in Toulouse, where 400 to 500 people gathered.

Blockades were also organised in several high schools and universities.

In Strasbourg, three university buildings were reportedly blocked. In Lille, for the second consecutive day, the Moulins campus of the university was blocked by 50 to 100 students with banners and drums, according to the faculty.