Unsound climate studies sneak into print: scientists

Agence France-Presse
April 14, 2023

The Palcaraju mountain in Huaraz, Peru, is at the heart of a climate lawsuit in Germany 

© Luka GONZALES / AF


Misleading studies sowing doubt about climate change are getting into peer-reviewed journals, scientists warn, citing recent papers linked to a lawsuit in Germany whose authors denied conflicts of interest.

Observers have long questioned the growing number of research journals that take fees from eager academics but often publish their work without rigorous review.

Biased authors, they say, are taking advantage of an overloaded assessment system, undermining the scientific evidence that provides the bedrock for climate action.

"The recent explosion of so-called 'predatory journals' is creating problems that are pro-actively explored by climate skeptics," said Carl Schleussner, a scientist at research group Climate Analytics.

"It opens the door to those who want to willingly get dubious research out there."

Peruvian glacier study

One study denied that human-driven warming was to blame for the melting of a Peruvian glacier and consequent flood risk.

Two of its authors are former executives of RWE, a German energy company targeted by a lawsuit over the glacier, and both are prominent climate contrarians.

Their study appeared in November 2022 in the Journal of South American Earth Sciences, which is owned by the major Dutch publisher Elsevier.

Like many others, the journal charges authors for submissions, which are then supposed to be vetted by qualified experts before being published.

The paper attacked the findings of an earlier study by scientists at Oxford University that a plaintiff in the Peruvian case -- a local farmer who says RWE's carbon emissions contributed to warming -- is citing as evidence.

Nathan Stansell, a palaeoclimatologist at Northern Illinois University, is one of the scientists whose work was cited in the German-led paper.

The paper was "fraught with misinformation, mischaracterizations and bias," he told AFP.

It presented a "debunked argument that since it was warm in medieval times, then there was nothing alarming about recent warming.

"The bulk of the paleoclimate community recognizes that the groups trying to spread this fallacy cannot compete with sound scientific data."

Two other scientists cited in the study, Ben Marzeion of the University of Bremen and Jorge Strelin of Cordoba University in Argentina, also told AFP their work was misused.

Strelin said a graphic in the study, drawing on one used in his own work, omitted data showing the sharp retreat of one glacier over recent decades.

The two ex-RWE men, lead author and geologist Sebastian Luening and chemist-turned-politician Fritz Vahrenholt, did not respond to AFP's requests to comment.

The author of the Oxford study, Rupert Stuart-Smith, submitted to the journal a formal scientific rebuttal of Luening's paper, contesting its use of certain data and detailing what he called "inaccurate or misleading assertions."

Elsevier communications executive Andrew Davis told AFP the journal's editors "did not detect unethical behaviors and it is their belief that the two research groups simply did not agree with each other."

But the publisher acknowledged the failure to include a disclosure of the authors' links to RWE in the study.

The disclosure did appear in a preliminary "pre-proof" of the paper but disappeared from the version published in November 2022.


"The publisher would like to apologize for any inconvenience caused," Elsevier said in an email to AFP.

It said the disclosure would be added back into the study after approval from the authors.
Firm denies funding study

Another paper on the Peru glacier appeared in the journal Remote Sensing, from publisher MDPI, in 2021.

The study reviewed three years of data on ice-flow velocity and assessed the risk of avalanches and floods, concluding that there was no evidence that a flood was imminent.

Stansell said this conclusion should have been dealt with in a separate study as it "seems out of place and doesn't relate directly with their principal findings".

A 2022 article by investigative media group SourceMaterial said the study was produced with funding from RWE. It cited the authors as denying this. The authors did not respond to AFP.

RWE spokesman Guido Steffen told AFP the study "was made independently from RWE and the court case and it was not funded or paid for by RWE."

Regarding the Luening study, he said: "We did neither commission that study nor play any role in producing it."

Extreme weather study slammed

In September 2022, top climate scientists called for the withdrawal of a paper that claimed scientific evidence of a climate crisis was lacking.

The peer-reviewed paper by four Italian scientists appeared in the European Physical Journal Plus, from prestigious science publisher Springer Nature.

Four scientists told AFP the study manipulated data and cherry-picked facts about extreme weather events.

In response, Springer Nature put a warning notice on the article and said it was investigating.

In late March 2023 Christian Caron, executive publisher of Springer Nature, told AFP the investigation was "progressing but still ongoing.

"Additional material received as part of the investigation is currently following the usual procedures of an extensive peer-reviewing process, which may take more time than anticipated."

Payment for publication is a time-honored part of the business model among peer-reviewed journals.

Their reputation relies on being the gold standard in scientific publishing, through external reviewers who are supposed to weed out false papers and reject sketchy or biased use of data.

But the low-cost advantages of publishing on the internet have led to an explosion of peer-reviewed journals and, say some, standards have fallen.

Ivan Oransky, co-founder of Retraction Watch, a blog that tracks thousands of withdrawals of academic papers each year, told AFP some authors sought to get unsound work published in journals with a lax peer-review system that used unqualified reviewers.

"A lot of junk gets through peer review," he said. "It is really time that everybody admitted that, so that we can try and do better."

© 2023 AFP

Marjorie Taylor Greene stuns experts with scientifically illiterate rant on climate change

Brad Reed

RAW STORY
April 15, 2023

Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks during a court hearing on April 22, 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia.

 (Photo by John Bazemore-Pool/Getty Images)

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Saturday posted a scientifically illiterate tweet about climate change that left many of her followers stunned.

In trying to play down the threat posed by a warming planet, Greene wrote a lengthy, nonsensical post that did not even attempt to discuss the actual science behind climate change.

"If you believe that today’s 'climate change' is caused by too much carbon, you have been fooled," she wrote. "We live on a spinning planet that rotates around a much bigger sun along with other planets and heavenly bodies rotating around the sun that all create gravitational pull on one another while our galaxy rotates and travels through the universe. Considering all of that, yes our climate will change, and it’s totally normal!"

In fact, scientists have found that the Earth's climate was relatively stable for thousands of years until the end of the 20th Century, when human activity pumped increased the amount of carbon being pumped into the atmosphere, which caused global temperatures to spike.

Greene is correct, however, that the Earth does revolve around the sun, which means she likely does not subscribe to the "flat Earth" conspiracy theory.

Many of Greene's followers jumped in to mock her for completely bungling the science behind climate change.

Brant Beckman, a meteorologist at South Dakota-based news station KNBN, attacked Greene for displaying a graph in her post that purportedly debunked climate change despite the fact that it had absolutely nothing to do with the amount of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere.

"If you tried to present this graph in a basic statistics course, the teacher would have thrown a chair at the chalkboard," he wrote. "These are nonsense words. Like pretending you speak German by mumbling strange words together."

WAOW meteorologist also took note that Greene's graph did not include anything about carbon dioxide emissions, so he replied to her tweet showing her a graph showing the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere over time.

Ryan Matoush, a meteorologist at KNST News Topeka, was similarly floored by Greene's total ineptitude at grasping basic scientific concepts.

"It’s absolutely mind boggling to me that someone like this holds a position of power and responsibility - where did we go so wrong??" he asked.

NASA climate scientist Chris Colose sarcastically thanked Greene for debunking his entire work by spouting utter nonsense.

"Good news climate Twitter! We forgot that the Earth spins and revolves so it’s time to pack up and go home," he joked.

'What a mess': Texas Republicans flattened by the WSJ for botching new 'energy fiasco' fix
Tom Boggioni
April 15, 2023

Oil Wells (Shuttershock)

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal pounded the Republican-controlled Texas Senate for a new proposal to avoid another disaster like the February 2021 freeze that left an estimated 10 million without power and officials scrambling as the death toll mounted.

Getting right to the point, the editorial board began their piece with "What a mess" before delving into the new proposal that will cost Texas taxpayers billions for subsidies with no guarantee the problems have been fixed.

According to the editors, "Renewable subsidies have distorted and destabilized the Texas electric grid, which resulted in a week-long power outage during the February 2021 freeze. To prevent more blackouts, Republicans in the Lone Star State now plan to subsidize gas power plants."

They then added, "The Texas Senate last week passed putative energy reforms to 'level the playing field,' as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick put it. Texans will now spend tens of billions of dollars to bolster natural-gas plants that provide reliable power but can’t make money because of competition from subsidized renewable energy."

Explaining, "Baseload plants were developed on the financial assumption that they’d run 85% to 90% of the time, but many aren’t because they are being squeezed by renewables. Coal plants are closing, and gas generators are at risk. Too few new gas plants are being built to support a growing population and industry. As a result, power is becoming unreliable, especially during extreme weather."

Noting, "Another Senate bill would create financial incentives for “peaker” gas plants that could ramp up on demand. Yet building peaker gas plants that run only 10% of the time costs about three times more than a baseload gas plant that operates 85% to 90% of the time," the editors added, "To sum up: Texas Republicans are trying to fix the enormous inefficiencies caused by federal and state renewable subsidies with state subsidies that cause more inefficiencies."

Florida teacher shows pro-Confederacy video that rebrands Civil War as 'War To Prevent Southern Independence'

SO DID DW GRIFFITH'S BIRTH OF A NATION

Brad Reed

RAW STORY
April 15, 2023

Confederate memorial (Shutterstock)

Parents in Naples, Florida are calling foul after a teacher at their children's school showed their class a video that they are decrying as propaganda for the Confederacy.

Local news station NBC 2 reports that an unidentified teacher at the Manatee Middle School is under investigation for showing students a video that gushes about the "valiant, brave fight and the countless sacrifices by our men and women during that known as the Civil War."

What's more, the video rebrands the American Civil War as "the War To Prevent Southern Independence," which is a decidedly pro-Confederacy framing for a conflict that centered on Southern states' attempts to preserve the practice of slavery.

“To me, it looks like straight out of a Confederate sympathizer playbook,” local parent Annie O’Donnell told NBC 2.

“It was very biased seeming,” local parent Casey Smith told NBC 2 about the video. “The confederacy, as far as I’m concerned, has always been a stain on American history.”

Collier County Public Schools emphasized that the pro-Confederacy video is not part of its official curriculum, although the state of Florida does officially recognize April as Confederate History Month.

'Disgusting' new robocall smears Tennessee Three as violent 'Antifa' radicals

USA HAS 2 JUSTIN'S, CANADA HAS 1

Brad Reed

RAW STORY
April 15, 2023

Justin Pearson and Justin Jones (AFP)

A new robocall is falsely accusing the three Tennessee Democrats targeted by Republicans for expulsion from the state legislature of being violent "Antifa" radicals.

Audio of the call, which was obtained by the Tennessee Holler, describes Tennessee Democrats Justin Pearson, Justin Jones, and Gloria Johnson as "radical activists posing as elected officials” who purportedly "led an angry mob of Antifa intending violence" to the Tennessee State Capitol building earlier this month.

The robocall also falsely claimed that law enforcement officials confiscated "pipe bombs" from demonstrators protesting against the three Democrats' expulsion.

According to the Tennessee Holler, the calls were funded by right-wing organization Enlighten Tennessee, whose stated goal is to "preserve the Conservative economic principles which make Tennessee the greatest state in the country to live."

Gloria Johnson, the one Tennessee Democrat who survived the expulsion vote, reacted angrily to the robocall, which she decried as "disgusting."

"Antifa? Pipe bombs?" she asked incredulously. "I guess parents brought them in strollers with their babies and toddlers. I didn’t know they made brass knuckles for children. This is disgusting, disgraceful, and it’s going to get someone hurt."

Johnson also hinted at legal action against the call and revealed that she's "already have had my lawyer on the phone" to talk about options.

Spanish Woman, 50, Emerges from Cave After 500 Days Alone Underground: 'I Didn't Want to Come Out'

Abigail Adams
Fri, April 14, 2023 

Beatriz Flamini of Madrid began living 230 feet below ground in November 2021 as part of a project called "Timecave"

JORGE GUERRERO/AFP via Getty Images

A Spanish athlete has emerged from an underground cave after 500 days of isolation.

Beatriz Flamini, 50, of Madrid, entered the cave in southern Spain on Saturday, Nov. 20, 2021, according to the Associated Press and Reuters.

She finally exited the cave — which was about 70 meters (230 feet) underground — around 9 a.m. local time on Friday, the AP reported.

Flamini said she passed the time by exercising, reading books, drawing, painting, and knitting, per the reports.

"In fact, I didn't want to come out," she said.

JORGE GUERRERO/AFP via Getty Images

Flamini was 48 years old when she first entered the cave in Granada, according to the BBC and Reuters.

During the experiment, Flamini was monitored by psychologists, researchers and speleologists, who study caves, though they never made contact with her, per the reports.

Flamini said she lost track of time after about two months, according to the AP and BBC. However, the mountaineer thought she had only been underground for about 160 or 170 days.

"When they came in to get me, I was asleep. I thought something had happened," Flamini told reporters, per Reuters' report. "I said: 'Already? Surely not.' I hadn't finished my book."

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Alba Feixas/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Flamini's 500-day adventure was part of a project called "Timecave," according to the AP. The goal was to assess how a human would handle living underground for a long stretch of time.

As part of the experiment, experts examined the impacts of social isolation and extreme temporary disorientation on the human body, per the BBC.

"I'm still stuck on November 21, 2021," Flamini told reporters on Friday. "I don't know anything about the world."

Flamini may have set a world record, too. Her team believes she holds the record for surviving the longest time while underground, though the Guinness Book of Records has yet to confirm.


Alba Feixas/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Flamini said she never considered pressing the panic button she was given, according to Reuters. She even pressed on through a fly invasion, which left her covered in bugs.

The extreme athlete also experienced "auditory hallucinations" while in the cave, per the BBC's report. She needed assistance standing up while speaking with reporters because of balance issues.

Still, Flamini was thrilled by the experience, which she called "excellent" and "unbeatable," according to the AP and BBC.

"You have to remain conscious of your feelings," Flamini said, per Reuters' report. "If you're afraid, that's something natural but never let panic in or you get paralyzed."

Read the original article on People.

N.L. Hydro aims to reuse poles treated with toxic substance recently banned by feds
CBC
Fri, April 14, 2023 

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro plans to dismantle about 2,400 poles from an out-of-service line between Churchill Falls and Muskrat Falls. It hopes to reuse the wood, even though it's treated with a soon-to-be banned substance. (Patrick Butler/Radio-Canada - image credit)

Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro says it needs to dismantle nearly 2,400 electrical poles and plans to reuse the wood, even though it's been treated with a toxic substance recently banned by Ottawa.

The Crown corporation must decommission a 269-kilometre power line linking Churchill Falls and Muskrat Falls that hasn't been used since 2021, according to environmental assessment documents filed last month.

NL Hydro hopes to keep the poles, despite the fact they are coated with a toxic substance called pentachlorophenol (PCP), for future emergency repairs elsewhere in its transmission system.

Health Canada announced last fall that wood treated with PCP, a material it says presents concerns to humans and the environment, can no longer be used as of next October.

NL Hydro is seeking a "legal remedy" exempting it from the new federal rules and plans to leave the base of each of the 2,372 poles in the ground, meaning thousands of pieces of wood treated with PCP would be permanently embedded in the soil.

"Excavation of the underground segment of the pole could disrupt existing vegetation and increase risk of sedimentation in the area. It is utility practice to cut the pole at the base to avoid any further disturbance around the structures," said Jill Pitcher, a spokesperson for the province's main electricity generator.

Pitcher's emailed statement added that "the potential reuse of some PCP treated materials in the short term will not negatively impact wildlife."

Canadian electrical utilities have used PCP to preserve electricity and telephone pole since the mid-1930s and PCP-treated poles installed prior to next October do not have to be removed or replaced under the new rules.

Striking a balance

Nicolas Reynier, a research scientist at Natural Resources Canada, said in a French interview with Radio-Canada that in an ideal world, each PCP-treated pole on the line would be removed in its entirety, as would the soil surrounding every pole's base. That material would then be sent to a specialized facility that could extract the PCP, as well as highly toxic byproducts known as dioxins and furans.

But such a process, as well as the transportation needed, would be extremely expensive, said Reynier, who studied PCP and soil decontamination for four years at Quebec's Institut national de la recherche scientifique.

In fact, N.L. Hydro's environmental assessment submission, prepared by Stantec Consulting, said it "investigated the alternative of transporting treated wood to an approved recycling facility out-of-province; however, this alternative was cost-prohibitive."

"From the point of view of the life cycle of the pole, these poles have already been treated, they've already been in service for several decades…. Disposing of them in a landfill [without removing the toxic substances] isn't much better environmentally," Reynier said.

"It's not a good idea to reuse these poles that contain PCP, but seeing it's been years or even decades since they were installed, the potential of this substance to make its way into the environment is very low. If there was any pentachlorophenol that could have 'escaped' from the pole, it has already," he said.

Pam Miller, the founder of Alaska Community Action on Toxics, a group fighting for a global ban on PCP, said despite the potential costs, "there should be no exemption given the known environmental and health harms associated with this substance and the fact that there are safe and available alternatives."

"I do think it's problematic to leave PCP-treated wood below ground level as it will continue to leach into surrounding soil and groundwater, potentially exposing wildlife and people to this highly hazardous chemical."

Supply chain concerns

Health Canada's ban on PCP was based on input from officials in Switzerland, New Zealand, and Japan, as well as the European Commission, according to the department's website.

N.L. Hydro said as a member of industry group Electricity Canada it's advocating for "continued use of PCP-treated materials to mitigate short term supply chain risk and potentially reduce landfill waste."

In a statement, Health Canada said it is currently reviewing a submission from Electricity Canada.

"Due to stakeholder concerns, this application is being fast-tracked," wrote spokesperson Nicholas Janveau in an email.

The decommissioning project, whose environmental assessment has only just begun, will take five years, with about 50 kilometres of work completed each year between May and September.

N.L. Hydro says many of the poles will not be reused "due to the age of the infrastructure."

UPEI classes to resume Monday after deal ends 4-week strike


CBC
Fri, April 14, 2023 

UPEI faculty members walk the picket line at a campus entry point on April 13. Rallies planned for Friday by the union and by students were cancelled in light of the news of a tentative agreement. (Laura Meader/CBC - image credit)

A tentative agreement reached early Friday has now been ratified, ending a labour dispute at the University of Prince Edward Island on the 26th day of a strike by the union representing faculty members.

UPEI Faculty Association president Michael Arfken said 98 per cent of members voted in favour of the agreement.

"That's a strong vote in support of the agreement and support of the union," Arfken said. "We're very pleased, and our members are excited to be going back to campus, and going back to campus with some of the supports they need to preserve the educational quality of our institution."

Among the highlights in the deal, Arfken cited:

UPEI committing to hire 20 additional full-time faculty members.


More research support for faculty.


More supports for sessional staff and the adjustment of clinical nursing instructor ratios.


An annual three-per-cent wage increase for union members over four years.

"Those are some pretty meaningful changes," Arfken said, adding that the wage increase is a "significant improvement" over what was originally offered.

"We recognize it's a compromise, but we're comfortable with where it landed for the time being."

Laura Meader/CBC

Classes resume Monday

With the agreement ratified, the strike will now end and faculty will return to work.

Classes are set to resume Monday, following an emergency meeting of the university's senate Friday afternoon to finalize a return-to-class plan.

Here's some of the major details of the university's plan:

There will be no formal final examination period, which allows for instructional and assessment times to be extended while keeping the winter semester end date the same.

The last day of instruction will be April 28. For the Atlantic Veterinary College, it will be May 5.

Instruction or assessments after April 28 will be virtual. Any instruction or assessments after April 15 for the classes of 2023 and 2024 will also be done online.


Assessments may happen during class time, through take-home, or online, until April 28.


The deadline to discontinue without academic penalty has been extended to April 18.


Students will have the option to appeal for their grades to be shifted to pass/fail after their final numerical grades are determined.

Convocation dates won't change.

Instructors agree to "make every reasonable effort" to accommodate the needs of individual students as related to issues arisen from the strike.

Steve Bruce/CBC

A UPEI Student Union survey sent out to full-time students found the vast majority of students preferred either a refund (53.9 per cent), or for credits to be awarded as normal or on a pass/fail basis (42.8 per cent).

Only 3.2 per cent of 2,273 respondents wanted an extended semester.

Premier meets with UPEI, faculty association

Premier Dennis King said he met with UPEI officials and faculty association representatives Thursday, and said he learned a settlement was reached shortly after midnight Friday.

"I commend representatives of both sides for putting the interests of students first and working hard to reach an agreement that works for both sides," King said in a news release.

"I want to thank both parties for hearing me out yesterday so that our students can get back to the classroom on Monday and finish their semester."

I think if the board of governors had been willing to work with us from Day 1, much if not all of this could have been avoided. - Michael Arfken, UPEI Faculty Association president

Faculty association members have been on the picket line for nearly four weeks, since March 20. The strike put a stop to university classes and left students wondering when — or whether — the semester might resume.

The UPEIFA's last collective agreement had been set to expire on July 1, 2020, but the parties signed a two-year extension that ended last June.

"I will say, it shouldn't have been necessary to go on strike for four weeks to achieve this agreement," Arfken said. "I think if the board of governors had been willing to work with us from Day 1, much if not all of this could have been avoided."

The two sides had been in negotiations on and off since April 2022.

The primary sticking points at the bargaining table were workloads, improved health and safety, higher pay, and the hiring of more full-time faculty members to cope with a growing student body.

ALBERTA 

FIRST IT WAS TAR SANDS TAILINGS NOW THIS

Coal mine wastewater spill spurs AWA’s call for better oversight

Local Journalism Initiative
Fri, April 14, 2023 

Two unreported incidents of coal wastewater releases by CST Canada Coal’s (CST Coal) operations in Grande Cache have prompted the Alberta Wilderness Association (AWA) to call for more stringent oversight by the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER).

“One of our major concerns is we're wondering when was the last time these facilities had a safety inspection done, and what was found during those safety inspections,” said Devon Earl, conservation specialist with the AWA.

The first incident occurred on Dec. 29, 2022 when approximately 107,000 litres of coal wash water was released from CST Coal’s Grande Cache mine site. The larger of the two incidents took place on March 4, 2023 when 1.1 million litres of coal fines (water and coal fine particles) were released into the Smoky River.

She referred to the AER’s Dam Safety Program Reports, which summarize safety inspections. The latest available report for 2021 doesn’t break down into inspections of specific facilities or what the results of each inspection were. Searching for “CST” or “Grande Cache” similarly revealed no results.

It does state, “In 2021, the AER received 243 dam-related regulatory submissions (e.g., plans, reports, notifications) and conducted 98 dam inspections. No critical safety deficiencies were identified.”

The 2021 report was published in April 2022, which infers that the 2022 report (that should include details of CST Coal’s first incident) would be published sometime this month.

“We would really like to see that especially for some of these spills,” Earl said.

“When was the last time those facilities were inspected? What did they find? I think that's really important for us to be able to know and for the public to be able to know just in terms of transparency. I think that's something that should be posted online and made publicly available. We haven't been able to find that.”

Coal wastewater is known to have detrimental effects on fish and aquatic ecosystems. Selenium is a common pollutant from coal mining, and can potentially cause deformities and reproductive failure for fish. Coal mining pollutants can also interrupt seasonal migrations and lead to extirpation in affected watersheds.

“The AER needs to ensure that no fish have been harmed by these spills,” said Phillip Meintzer, AWA conservation specialist, in a prepared statement to The Fitzhugh. “If these companies are going to be permitted to operate, then they need to be held accountable for their actions, and our regulator needs to step up to the task.”

The homepage of the AER’s website, however, devotes a banner to the much-publicized Imperial Oil Kearl Oil Sands Incidents, which involves two Imperial Oil’s operations approximately 45 kilometres northeast of Fort McKay. That links to the AER’s page for Ongoing Investigations, which only includes information about the Imperial Oil Kearl incidents.

A general search for “CST Coal” on the AER site had no results regarding any of that company’s wastewater releases in Grande Cache. The site does, however, include a Compliance Dashboard page that includes 2,511 entries of incidents dating back to June 2013.

This page does include the two CST Coal incidents but leaves out the amounts involved. A tab for the AER’s Investigations does indicate that the two incidents are in Phase 1, which is when AER staff collect information and conduct a site and incident assessment.

This still leaves the AWA and the rest of the public out in the cold wondering about what happened and how bad it is.

The work of the AER is not just to regulate energy development, but in doing so it also upholds the responsibility of allocating and conserving water resources, managing public lands, and protecting the environment

Earl said that this form of public trust needs to be transparent in order for it to function for the public good.

“Their job is to make sure that industry is running in such a way that's not putting the environment and public health at risk,” Earl said.

“I think some of these incidents lately point to the fact that we might need to ramp up that oversight and make sure that we're holding companies accountable, and make sure that they're not putting human health and the environment at risk with their operations.”

CST Canada Coal Ltd. did not respond to the Fitzhugh’s request for comment by press time.

After the story went to press, however, the Alberta Energy Regulator provided an email response to several questions.

The AER confirmed that it was notified of the two incidents via the 24-hour EDGE reporting line on January 2, 2023 and March 6, 2023.

“Clean up has been complete by the CST Coal, as required. The area will be reinspected by the AER in ice free conditions,” read the statement.

When asked about the full environmental impacts of the two releases, the financial or other penalties that CST Coal faces, or how closely the AER would be following CST Coal to prevent such events in the future, the Alberta Energy Regulator said that it couldn’t comment further since these incidents are under active investigation.

Editor's note: The story was updated after publication.

Scott Hayes, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Jasper Fitzhugh

Teeth found in Dorset thought to belong to dinosaur never seen before in Britain

Joanna Davis
Fri, 14 April 2023 

Charmouth, where many fossils are found Picture: Tom Ormerod

Fossils of teeth found in Dorset, Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire are believed to be the remains of the earliest relatives of birds, a group of dinosaurs called maniraptorans.

The fossils could belong to a dinosaur never seen before in Britain, according to Natural History Museum research conducted with help from artificial intelligence.

The findings include the oldest evidence in the world of the therizinosaur dinosaur, a large herbivore with long scissor-like claws which featured in the most recent Jurassic World film.

The Natural History Museum and Birkbeck College used machine learning to train computer models to identify which extinct animal the fossils were most likely to belong to.

The researchers gave the computers data about thousands of teeth from different dinosaur species and made 3D models of the fossils to find out which extinct creatures they were from.

Maniraptorans are thought to have walked the earth between 174 million and 164 million years ago during the Middle Jurassic era, but the new research suggests some of the dinosaurs could have existed almost 30 million years earlier.

Fossils from this time period are rare and little is known about the origins of these dinosaurs.

Simon Wills, a PhD student at the Natural History Museum, said: "Previous research had suggested that the maniraptorans were around in the Middle Jurassic, but the actual fossil evidence was patchy and disputed.

"Along with fossils found elsewhere, this research suggests the group had already achieved a global distribution by this time.

"The teeth we analysed include what are currently the only troodontid (a small bird-like dinosaur) and therizinosaur fossils ever recorded from the UK and are the oldest evidence of these dinosaurs anywhere in the world."

The Natural History Museum believes learning technology could be used more often to find out more about dinosaurs and their fossils.

First near-complete sauropod dinosaur skull found in Australia hints at ancient links between continents

The Conversation
April 13, 2023

Sauropod (Shutterstock)

In May and June of 2018, Australia’s first near-complete skull of a sauropod – a group of long-tailed, long-necked, small-headed dinosaurs – was found on a sheep station northwest of Winton in Queensland.

I was part of the dig team from the Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum that made the discovery, and subsequently had the privilege of leading the team that studied the skull. After years of work, our results are published today in Royal Society Open Science.

The skull belonged to a creature we have dubbed “Ann”: a member of the species Diamantinasaurus matildae which shows surprising similarities to fossils found halfway across the world, lending weight to the theory that dinosaurs once roamed between Australia and South America via an Antarctic land connection.


The ‘Ann’ Site, dug in 2018. Trish Sloan / Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum

A good skull is hard to find

The sauropod dinosaurs have been a source of lifelong fascination for me, and finding a sauropod skull was one of my childhood dreams. Sadly, the fossil record is biased towards preserving sauropod limbs, vertebrae and ribs, and heavily against skulls.

This makes sense when you consider the processes that act on an organism’s body after it dies, which paleontologists call taphonomy.

Large, robust limb bones are resistant to decomposition, and if they are buried rapidly they might fossilize quite readily. Vertebrae and ribs comprise a significant proportion of a vertebrate skeleton, increasing their odds of preservation.

By contrast, sauropod skulls were relatively small, made up of many delicate bones that were only loosely held together by soft tissue, and seemingly easily detached from the end of the neck. They might also have been prime targets for carnivorous dinosaurs: the only previously described sauropod braincase from Australia preserves several bite marks from fierce theropods.


The original skull bones of the sauropod dinosaur Diamantinasaurus matildae. 

Trish Sloan / Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum

The bones of the skull were found around two meters beneath the surface, scattered over an area of about nine square metres. Much of the right side of the face is missing, but most of the left is present. Sadly, many of the bones show signs of distortion (presumably a result of post mortem scavenging or trampling), which makes physical reassembly of the skull a delicate process.

Modern technology recreates an ancient animal

This being the case, we set out to reconstruct the skull digitally. We CT scanned the bones at St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne. This enabled the internal features of each bone to be observed on a computer.

Inside one bone in the snout (which we also had scanned at the Australian Synchrotron), we found replacement teeth. It has long been known that sauropods, like crocodiles today, continually replaced their teeth throughout their lives.


CT scanning a sauropod skull at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. Adele Pentland

We also scanned all of the bones with a surface scanner, enabling detailed 3D models of each bone to be made on a computer. The skull could then be reassembled in a virtual space with no risk of damage to the fossils themselves.

The teeth in the new sauropod skull were very similar to those found at other sites in the Winton area. Comparisons with Australia’s only other fragmentary sauropod skull (also from Winton) revealed additional similarities.
Meet Diamantinasaurus matildae

Our skull belongs to the species Diamantinasaurus matildae. Diamantinasaurus would have been about as long as a tennis court, as tall as basketball ring at the shoulder, and weighed ~25 tonnes – about as much as two fire engines.

Diamantinasaurus occupies a low branch on the family tree of a group of sauropods called titanosaurs. Other members of the titanosaur group (from higher branches on their family tree) include the largest land animals that ever lived, such as Patagotitan and Argentinosaurus, which exceeded 30 meters in length. Titanosaurs were the only sauropods to live right until the end of the Cretaceous Period (66 million years ago), when the age of dinosaurs came to a close.

Diamantinasaurus has a rounded snout, typical of medium- to high-level browsing sauropods. Its teeth are robustly constructed, but those from other sites show little sign of wear by soil or grit, reinforcing the idea Diamantinasaurus preferred to feed some distance above ground level.


The reconstructed skull of Diamantinasaurus matildae, viewed from the left side. Stephen Poropat / Samantha Rigby

Only two replacement teeth are present in each tooth socket, implying that Diamantinasaurus replaced its teeth relatively slowly. And finally, the teeth are restricted to the front of the snout, meaning that Diamantinasaurus, like all other sauropods, did not chew its food.
Family resemblances

We compared our sauropod skull with others from around the world. The most similar skull was that of Sarmientosaurus musacchioi, which lived in southern South America. Diamantinasaurus and Sarmientosaurus lived at around the same time (about 95 million years ago), and at around the same latitude (50°S).

We had previously hypothesised that these two sauropods were close relatives, albeit on the basis of limited evidence. The new skull shores up that idea in a big way: bone for bone, the skulls of Diamantinasaurus and Sarmientosaurus are extremely similar. This might seem strange, given the great physical distance between South America and Australia today. However, back then each of those continents retained a lingering land connection with Antarctica.

Sauropods seemingly preferred warmer climates at low to medium latitudes. However, 95 million years ago the climate was extremely warm, even by the warm standards of the Cretaceous. With polar latitudes more amenable for sauropods, these scaly behemoths – and other landlubbing animals – could trundle through lush forests at the bottom of the world between South America and Antarctica.

It is a privilege to be able to finally put a face to the name Diamantinasaurus matildae. Future discoveries will hopefully help cement its status as one of the most completely understood titanosaurs worldwide.

Stephen Poropat, Research associate, Curtin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

BETTER THAN WORK FOR FREE INTERNSHIPS
Thriving digital marketing firm shows apprenticeships are the way forward

Rob Goulding
Sun, 9 April 2023 

At the High Sheriff's Awards for Enterprise 2023, from left to right: Boodles chairman, Nicholas Wainwright MBE; High Sheriff of Cheshire, Jeannie France-Hayhurst; award-winner, Joe Worthington; award sponsor Barlow's representive, Paddy Moran (Image: David Goadby)

A NORTHWICH digital marketing firm is showing how investing in young talent is the way forward when growing a modern business.

David Goadby, creative and managing director of Authenticity Digital, had to make his own way in life from age 16, but thanks to an apprenticeship, found himself director of a digital marketing company in his mid-30s.

Handling contracts for prestige firms like Rolex, Fiat, and Wolverhampton Wonderers, David began to wonder why it was him putting-in the hours and his boss driving around in the Bentley.


In 2019, the 39-year-old took the plunge and started Authenticity in Northwich, and based on his own experience of apprenticeships, believed he could make it work for his business.

Northwich Guardian: David Goadby (left) and Joe Worthington (right) putting their heads together

David Goadby (left) and Joe Worthington (right) putting their heads together (Image: David Goadby)

Now David first apprentice, Joe Worthington, has been named runner-up Apprentice of the Year for Cheshire at the High Sheriff’s Awards for Enterprise.

David said: “I found Joe through a Linkedin post by his mum, saying he was looking for an opportunity in digital marketing.

“He ticked a few boxes for me, so we had a quick chat, and I brought him on board.

“That was still during Covid, so it was all a bit stop-start. He was in the office one day, then at home the next, which when you’re trying to pick-up projects and clients in a small business means you’ve got to have a lot of heart.

“Having the character to get through that was really impressive, and now Joe is an integral part of the business.

"If he leaves tomorrow for something bigger and better, so be it. That’s the way it goes, and if I’ve given him a start in a career, then that’s great.

“Apprenticeships work fantastically for me because I’ve got a lot of experience working with young developers, programmers, and designers over the years.

“Someone gave me a fantastic opportunity, so I’ve got to pay it forward.”

Northwich Guardian: Runner-up Cheshire apprentice of the year, Joe Worthington, hard at work

Runner-up Cheshire apprentice of the year, Joe Worthington, hard at work (Image: David Goadby)

The awards ceremony took place at the prestigious Churchill House, home of the University of Chester’s business school, on Friday, March 31.

It was attended by the High Sheriff, Jeannie France-Hayhurst, the Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire, Lady Alexis Redmond, and additional sparkle was provided by Nicholas Wainwright MBE, chairman of renowned fine jewellers, Boodles.

Award-winner Joe, 27, said: "I'm incredibly grateful for this recognition and proud to be among the top apprentices in Cheshire.

"Thanks to everyone who has supported me on this journey, and congratulations to the winner.

"I may not have won the top prize, but I was a runner-up, and I'm pretty sure this means I'm officially allowed to add ‘almost award-winning’ to my LinkedIn profile."