ONTARIO

Food of the Future challenges ideas of agriculture at APL

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 

As our population grows, our traditional methods of farming might not be able to keep up with demand. But new, innovative ideas for sustainable and “community-based indoor agriculture” have been recently highlighted by Dr. Matt Hammond and Phil Fung in a new partnership with the Aurora Public Library.

On Thursday, April 20, the duo will host Food of the Future, an Earth Day presentation, through the Aurora Public Library’s (APL) channels. The live, virtual presentation, at which the presenters will take questions from participants, has worked hand-in-hand with a model biome, which has taken pride of place in the Library Living Room since April 4 before being wrapped up this Saturday, April 22.

The biome, located near APL’s central elevator, is a mix of hydroponics and aquaculture, bringing fish into the mix.

“As Phil and Matt are so passionate about the project, they started off saying they would like to do a little sample model and then, ‘We don’t want to have a little aquarium on top of the stands? We’re going to build one that is 6.5 feet tall and we’re going to attach it to the elevator,’” explains Reccia Mandelcorn, APL’s Manager of Community Collaboration, with a chuckle. “They wanted to give people the idea that you could grow kale, microgreens, and all kinds of stuff in there. The fish are a huge draw (for visitors to APL) and we even have a contest now where kids can name the fish they’re looking at. When they go to look at the fish, the parents are talking to them about growing.”

Bringing the work of Fung and Hammond to APL is “major,” says Mandelcorn as their engineering work and work on innovation has garnered them significant recognition in recent years.

“We are getting a lot of registration not only from our local community, but from different municipalities who are really interested in this project,” she says. “I am personally really honoured that Phil and Matt decided to host this at Aurora Public Library because I think they would have been welcome in any municipality and certainly by any library and it is really big for us. I am so excited.”

Making this presentation particularly relevant for the community, she adds, is the awareness of what is happening to Ontario’s Greenbelt and to local farmlands.

“The pandemic also brought up the whole supply chain and many people are living in condos or apartments and don’t have access to community gardens. I think the whole concept of food and food instability has hit people in a way that they haven’t ever thought of before. This is a way of thinking of new ways to do agriculture that works with our changing urban environment. Even in Aurora, which is suburb, we look around us and see we are becoming more urban and we need to look at other ways of making food local and taking ownership of our food. Also, I think people are just excited about new technologies – it’s new technology that is really meaningful and what can be more meaningful than food that sustains us?”

This week’s presentation and installation is just one of the many ways APL has supported food programs. They have partnered with the York Region Food Network on several initiatives, including the Culinary Traveller program, which has resulted in the publication of some of the best-loved recipes of Aurorans who have roots in all parts of the world, as well as gardening programs.

“We are very interested in continuing our partnership with them and I think they are with us as well. If there are any other environmental groups in the area who are interested in partnering with the Library, we are very passionate,” says Mandelcorn. “Food is community, it’s culture, and certainly with our staff, we’re very passionate about environmental concerns and about good food and bringing people together. We’re happy to work with anybody!

“This is a small little piece that Phil and Matt are showing as an example of something larger that a municipality can take on as a project, but we have had people who have come through and said, ‘We can actually do this in my own space,’ so I think people are looking at this as a template for something creative they can do in their own homes. That is a very exciting side piece. We looked at it from a macro level but people are coming to say from a personal level how they can see this working within their own spaces, so I think that is very exciting, too.”

For more on Food of the Future, including registration, visit bit.ly/3Hjle8b

Brock Weir, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Auroran

P.E.I. firefighters get lessons on handling solar panel fires

Story by Thinh Nguyen • Yesterday .

When firefighters pull up to a call and find a home's solar panels on fire, can they use water to beat down the flames?

The answer is yes, but with specific precautions, said David Candy, who's training firefighters on Prince Edward Island this week.

"You can flow water on it, but it's got to be a solid screen nozzle, [it] has to be greater than 20 feet away, and you can flow ... pressures between 100 and 150 GPM [gallons per minute]," said Candy, who is with the Riverview Fire Department in New Brunswick.

Maintaining that six-metre distance is important because those panels might still be generating power, posing a risk of electrocution. Firefighters must also wear specialized gloves designed for those fighting electrical fires, he said.

That's just one of the lessons Candy is bringing to a number of fire departments on the Island, including the Borden-Carleton Fire Department.

"It actually was very eye-opening," said Shawn Jessome, the department's chief.

"We haven't seen anything on our side with solar panels. But it's becoming more and more [common] on P.E.I. to have solar panels on houses and now commercial buildings. So it's good to have that training."

Departments in Crapaud, Tyne Valley and New London are taking the program this week.

A three-step process

Candy developed the training program when he began to notice more photovoltaic systems around Atlantic Canada. The course teaches firefighters how to deal with incidents involving these systems, giving them a basic understanding of solar technology as well as the hazards and safety concerns that come with it.

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During his classes, he talks about a three-step process when firefighters pull up to the scene of a fire.

First, they need to do a 360-degree walkaround and look up to see if there are any solar panels on the house. They also need to watch out for any ground-mounted solar systems.


Solar panels are becoming more popular on P.E.I. as a safe source of electricity, but they come with some hazards for firefighters.© CBC

Step two is to shut down any solar panel connections.

"As you walk around the building, there's disconnects that are part of the system. They're the built-in safety feature. We want them to shut down any components that can be shut down."

Step three is to watch out for the remaining electrical hazards, since solar roof panels might still be generating power during normal daylight conditions. They will have to be disconnected, Candy said, "or they have to be covered with a heavy black canvas or opaque material, so it doesn't generate power."

Preparation is key

It's important to control the safety risks that come with solar panels, just like any other kinds of utilities, Candy said.

When propane started to become more popular in homes, many fire departments had concerns about dangers that were different from what they were used to, Candy noted. Training helped them mitigate problems associated with that energy source, he said — and he's expecting the same with solar panels.

"We have a whole lot of utilities that we're controlling now… the solar voltaic is something new. They're extremely safe, but still, there are some challenges and risks.

"And we want to make sure that firefighters are properly prepared because the more information and training you have prior to the emergency happening, it's going to make it safer for the members responding."

As for homeowners, Candy said they need to make sure their panels are set up by a qualified installer and the components meet national electrical codes.

After taking the course, Jessome said his department intends to scout its coverage area and see which houses and businesses have solar panels.

Eventually, the department will send a questionnaire to these property owners to find out the panels' output, where the disconnects are, and whether there's a backup battery.

"I hope to see more fire departments do this training," Jessome said. "It's very valuable and has a lot of information into it."

Up in smoke: Human activities are fuelling wildfires that burn essential carbon-sequestering peatlands

THE CONVERSATION

Mike Waddington, Professor, School of Earth, Environment & Society, McMaster University 

Sophie Wilkinson, Assistant professor, Resource and Environmental Management, Simon Fraser University

 • Yesterday

For centuries, society has scorned bogs, fens and swamps — collectively known as peatlands — treating them as wastelands available to be drained and developed without realizing they’re important buffers against climate-changing carbon emissions.

Smouldering fire in a drained peatland near Fort McMurray, Alta. produces smoke from underground. These ecosystems are affected by rising temperatures, drought, wildfire and various human actions including drainage.© (Leyland Cecco)

It’s only recently that humans have realized how vital these wetlands are to regulating our climate, despite negative connotations in derisive expressions like “swamped,” “bogged down” and “drain the swamp.”

Draining the swamp, wherever it might be, could be a catastrophic mistake for humankind as climate change throws punches that these ecosystems can handle much better than others.

But as the changing climate exacerbates the extent of droughts and wildfires, especially in the vast peatlands of the north, these ecosystems are now fighting a losing battle.
Threats to carbon-sequestering peatlands

A majority of all the world’s peatlands are found in northern regions. Layered by waterlogged peat topped by living mosses, these peatlands absorb and expel carbon, typically storing a little more than they give off, making them carbon sinks over time. 

Over thousands of years, peatlands have accumulated massive amounts of carbon.

Collectively, peatlands hold more carbon than all the world’s forests. Peatlands account for just three per cent of the world’s land mass but hold about a third of the planet’s stored soil carbon, making them Earth’s most carbon-dense ecosystems.

However, peatlands are under pressure everywhere. They are affected by rising temperatures, drought, wildfire and various human actions, including drainage. In this process of draining, the water from the peatlands is allowed to run off through dug-out ditches, thus making the wetland drier.

Individual bogs are drained for agriculture, mining, urban development, wind turbine placement or peat harvesting. So far, between seven and 10 per cent of all northern peatlands have been drained.

Fire and bogs

Wildfires are becoming more frequent and more severe, meaning peatlands will have to be at their best to continue absorbing carbon.

Healthy peatlands are remarkably resilient to the impacts of fire. A significant amount of carbon is lost both to burning itself and through burn damage that impairs the growth of carbon-sequestering mosses. But these ecosystems are typically able to recover and restore their climate-regulating function within 10 to 30 years.

Related video: Wildfire Smoke Might Be Coming For Your Favorite Vegetable (The Weather Channel)  Duration 0:43   View on Watch

However, when bogs have been damaged, especially by drainage, they become vulnerable to wildfire.

Even without fire, drained bogs are net contributors of carbon. When they burn, they burn much more deeply because their peat reserves are dry and dense. These self-propagating smouldering fires can spew millions of tonnes of carbon and harmful, toxic smoke into our atmosphere.

The time to save our peatlands is now

As climate change accelerates over the coming decades, the interplay between degraded peatlands and hotter fires significantly changes the carbon equation in the environment.



A burned peatland in the Fort McMurray wildfire. It is critical to keep our peatlands from burning up,© (Mike Waddington)

In our recently published paper, we found that the direct threat from drainage, coupled with climate-change enhanced wildfires, is accelerating the release of carbon from these peatlands. Simply put, our actions are turning climate-friendly peatlands into liabilities, with potentially devastating consequences.

Our study of natural, degraded and restored forms of peatlands in boreal and temperate regions revealed that the once stable carbon-storing power of our northern peatlands is gradually losing to the effects of fire, and drained peatlands are the biggest culprits for this.

Compromising the healthy peatlands that remain — even if it’s for otherwise beneficial uses such as growing food or helping us move away from fossil fuels — could backfire badly, especially as climatic conditions worsen.



Sophie Wilkinson demonstrates the resistance of moss to an experimental fire in a bog during a project conducted in partnership with FP Innovations, Alberta Agriculture and Forestry and the Canadian Forest Service.© (Greg Verkaik)

We found that without deliberate restoration efforts for already drained peatlands, and protection for those that remain, our carbon-collecting northern bogs could flip to carbon contributors by the end of this century. This will further accelerate the overall pace of global warming and climate change.

Fire is natural, of course, and some peat will always burn, but the degree and frequency of wildfire is making it harder for peatlands to recover their ability to store carbon after a fire.

Our research shows that it is not only critical to keep our peatlands from burning up, but that there is also an important and viable opportunity to mitigate this impending disaster. But the window for action is shrinking quickly.

Canada is home to one-third of the world’s northern peatlands and a proven force in restoring drained bogs.

The looming peat fire crisis demands that Canada prioritize protecting its intact peatlands and accelerate their restoration. Reviving the carbon-storing capacity of peatlands would delay their broader conversion from climate benefactors to liabilities, providing precious time to act on climate change.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:

How scientists are restoring boreal peatlands to help keep carbon in the ground

Peatlands protect against wildfire and flooding, but they’re still under attack in Canada

Sophie Wilkinson receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

Mike Waddington receives funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Blazing Star Environmental, McMaster University, Ganawenim Meshkiki, and Henvey Inlet Wind LP.

Canada’s support of Line 5 pipeline to come under scrutiny of United Nations

Story by The Canadian Press • Windspeaker.com

Canada is being called out by Indigenous nations on both sides of the border for its support of the continued operations of Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline.

A report signed by the Anishinabek Nation, which represents 39 First Nations in Ontario, along with 10 tribes in Michigan and two tribes in Wisconsin, as well as a handful of environmental organizations, was submitted earlier this month to the United Nations Human Rights Council as part of the fourth universal periodic review of Canada.

The periodic review is a mechanism of the human rights council aimed at improving human rights situations in countries by hearing periodic scrutiny.

The Canadian government must work with Anishinaabe people on both sides of the “international border (which) creates an artificial divide between our Canadian and American families,” said Grand Council Chief Reg Niganobe of the Anishinabek Nation.

Niganobe joined Indigenous leaders from Canada, including Assembly of First Nations National Chief RoseAnne Archbild, in addressing media at the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York on April 19.

“At the United Nations we will continue to seek clarity on the application of the principles of free, prior and informed consent when it comes to state actors and Indigenous peoples who do not live within their domestic jurisdiction,” said Niganobe.

Niganobe is part of an international delegation of environmental and Indigenous groups attending the UN forum to call on Canada and the United States to shut down the Line 5 pipeline.

Line 5 is a 70-year-old pipeline owned and operated by the Canadian company Enbridge in traditional Anishinaabe territories. It transports 87 million litres of crude oil and natural gas daily just over 1,000 km crossing through Wisconsin into Michigan and terminating in Ontario. The line runs under the Straits of Mackinac, a channel connecting the Great Lakes of Michigan and Huron.

The operation of the line is an “urgent issue.” Tribal Nations and environmental groups are concerned an oil spill could decimate fisheries, damage animal and plant species, pollute sacred places and cultural resources, and jeopardize access to drinking water.

The submission to the UN Human Rights Council says one study found that 4.2 million litres of oil has spilled from Line 5 over 33 incidents since 1953.

“Tribes in the U.S. and Canada…have worked for years to decommission Line 5 given the risks a catastrophic oil spill poses to their health, culture and environment,” says the submission.

It states “a catastrophic oil spill” could contaminate more than 375,000 acres of land and wetlands, 450 lakes and thousands of shorelines and rivers.

“It would irreversibly devastate the environment, impacting Indigenous communities’ livelihood, ability to practice their culture, and way of life,” the submission goes on to say.

To this end, the 51 Tribal Nation signatories admonish Canada for its continued support of Line 5, which includes legal and diplomatic action while excluding Indigenous communities from directly being involved in the decision-making process.

They also say that Canada’s stand is in direct contradiction to the seven international human rights treaties the country has ratified and its passage of United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples legislation.

They call on Canada “to abandon its current posture in the Line 5 litigation in U.S. courts, respect and protect the rights of Indigenous Peoples, and prioritize the pursuit of a sustainable future.”

“Line 5 could effectively be shut down,” said Niganobe. But Canada and Enbridge “choose to keep that line in operation for no reason at all…there are more effective things they can do that they’re not doing.”

The Tribal Nations’ submission points out that Line 5 “exacerbates the climate crisis” with its upstream and downstream greenhouse gas emissions amounting to approximately 87 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually.

Windspeaker.com contacted Natural Resources Canada for comments as NRC is mandated to develop Canada’s natural resources. However, NRC directed Windspeaker.com’s inquiry to Global Affairs Canada, which, in part, promotes international trade.

"Canada is committed to working in partnership with Indigenous Peoples and will engage with Indigenous groups on the Universal Periodic Review report on Line 5. Canada takes into account all reports sent to the UN and is reviewing the one sent by Indigenous and environmental groups," said Global Affairs in an email statement.

"We encourage civil society and Indigenous Peoples to propose recommendations to help us better defend and promote human rights. We look forward to receiving the next set of recommendations.”

The next session of the UN Human Rights Commission’s universal period review of Canada will take place Nov. 6 thru Nov. 17.

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

How scientists are creating stronger coral reefs faster than ever

Story by Li Cohen • Yesterday 

A new project in the Caribbean is setting out to save coral reefs – and the world.
Ocean Shop Project, spearheaded by climate scientist Doctor Deborah Brosnan,
Duration 2:34
CBS News
It takes hundreds of years for coral reefs to grow. Scientists found a way to do it in months.
View on Watch

The Ocean-Shot Project, spearheaded by climate scientist Dr. Deborah Brosnan, launched in 2021 to develop a "massive, first-of-its-kind" coral reef restoration initiative in the Caribbean country Antigua and Barbuda.

"We lose more coral reefs in a day that we can restore in a decade," Brosnan told CBS News. "Our progress towards protecting coral reefs – which ultimately protect us – is too slow. So Ocean-Shot is about literally rebuilding the reefs, the architecture of the reefs, for the future."

What sets this project apart from other coral reef restoration projects is its focus – the architecture of the reef itself. While many initiatives prioritize saving the corals, Ocean-Shot tacks on the additional focus of developing the base for those corals to grow and thrive.


Ocean-Shot is growing more resilient coral species and developing reefs in the Caribbean in an effort to help marine ecosystems – and humanity – combat the climate crisis. 

Credit: Ocean-Shot

Coral secretes calcium carbonate, creating a sort-of concrete around itself that becomes the structure for the reef. But that process can take "hundreds and thousands of years," Brosnan said. And with coral bleaching events only anticipated to become more intense in the coming decades as global and ocean temperatures warm, this can be a problem for reefs that need to be able to recover.

"What we're doing is we're saying, 'let's learn from the corals, let's learn from nature,'" Brosnan said. "And let's make this happen quickly."

To make that happen, her team is creating reef structures in a lab and then planting them in the ocean, a process that Brosnan likened to "gardening." The team is also planting "resilient corals" among the structures that have already survived several bleaching events.



Ocean-Shot deployed a coral reef into the ocean near Antigua and Barbuda, an effort that has already brought in new marine life to the area.

 / Credit: Ocean-Shot

Nearly six months ago, her team deployed their first set of these structures, called modules, into the ocean around Antigua and Barbuda. And it's already seeing significant success.

"We've got 97-98% survival of the corals we've transplanted. And we now have 26 new species that have moved in by themselves ...everything from parrot fish to commercial fish to commercial lobster," Brosnan said. "We saw a whole ecosystem start to recognize these reefs as home and just move right on in. So what it told us is that if we provide the living structure, the ecosystem will respond in return."

Thriving coral reefs doesn't just help marine life thrive, Brosnan said, but it also helps humanity survive.

Coral reefs are essential to protecting coastlines from erosion, and when reefs are close to the ocean surface, Brosnan said they can break up about 95% of incoming wave energy. This allows for the power of strong waves to break up before hitting shore, protecting those on the coast as well as beaches as a whole and making communities and coastlines more resilient against rising sea levels and climate change, she said.

Coral reefs are also a crucial source of food and income for more than half a billion people across the world, according to NOAA, with the net economic value of reefs estimated to be "tens of billions of U.S. dollars per year."

Cooperating with billionaire philanthropist and entrepreneur John Paul Dejoria was an essential part of this project's success, Brosnan said, as was the support of the country's prime minister, Gaston Browne. Brosnan said the project could be scaled up around the world with enough support.

At the end of the day, Brosnan said, "our planet is at stake."

"We're helping the reef through this transition of what our planet used to be like, to what it really is like today and what it's going to be like in the future," she said. "Corals are more resilent. If we create the right conditions for them, they will thrive."

Canada watchdog pans gov't emissions-tracking, tree-planting efforts

Story by By Nia Williams • Yesterday

(Reuters) -Canada is failing to track the impact of specific government climate regulations on carbon emissions and is unlikely to meet a commitment to plant 2 billion trees by 2031, reports from the country's official environment watchdog said on Thursday.

By 2030, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's Liberal government aims to cut emissions 42-45% below 2005 levels. Canada's national greenhouse gas inventory report, released last week, showed the country managed an 8.4% cut in 2021.

But the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, Jerry DeMarco, presented five performance audit reports that criticised many aspects of Canada's climate and biodiversity policies.

"When I look at all of the...reports that have flagged these grave concerns over the years, it's clear that we have been repeatedly ringing the alarm bells. Now, these bells are almost deafening," DeMarco told a news conference in Ottawa.

DeMarco said Canada's failure to track how specific policies impact emissions means the federal government does not know whether it is using the right tools to meet its climate targets.

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He also warned Natural Resources Canada fell well short of the goal of planting 60 million trees in 2022, which put in jeopardy its 2 billion trees by 2031 goal.

DeMarco said while it was still possible for the government to get back on track meet its 2031 target with "significant changes", the carbon sequestered by the trees would be less than forecast.

"They will not be able to meet their target for carbon sequestration by 2030, which means they have to find real reductions elsewhere, whether it's oil and gas, transportation or something else, to reach their 40 to 45% (emissions cut) target by 2030," DeMarco said.

In a statement, Canada's Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said the government would "double down" on tree-planting efforts and implement many of the commissioner's recommendations.

Canada's Minister of Environment and Climate Change Steven Guilbeault said the government would refine its reporting of carbon emissions.

"We won't stop fighting climate change while we figure it out reporting methodologies," Guilbeault told reporters in Ottawa. "The bottom line is that Canada is bending the emission curve downward."

(Reporting by Nia Williams in British Columbia; editing by Diane Craft and David Gregorio)

Climate change is fueling deadly heat waves in India. It’s putting the country’s development at risk, study says

Story by Helen Regan •  CNN news - Yesterday 

Deadly heat waves fueled by climate change are threatening India’s development and risk reversing its progress on poverty alleviation, health and economic growth, a new study has found.

Heat waves have already critically impacted the country, leading to power outages, increased dust and air pollution, and accelerated glacial melt in the north of India, researchers from the University of Cambridge said in the study published in the journal PLOS Climate on Wednesday.

Since 1992, more than 24,000 people have died because of heat waves in India, the study said.

And the impacts are expected to get worse as heat waves become more frequent, intense and lethal due to the climate crisis.

“India is currently facing a collision of multiple cumulative climate hazards,” said the researchers.

“Long-term projections indicate that Indian heat waves could cross the survivability limit for a healthy human resting in the shade by 2050.”

The study shows that millions more people in India are vulnerable to climate change than first thought. More than 90% of the country could be severely impacted by heat waves, falling into an extreme heat “danger” zone, according to the heat index, the study found.

The heat index is how hot it feels and considers both air temperature and humidity to assess the heat’s impact on the population.

Last year, India experienced a searing heat wave, during which parts of the country reached more than 49°C (120°F).

In 2022, India experienced its hottest April in 122 years and its hottest March on record, the study said. And it experienced extreme weather on 242 out of 273 days between January and October 2022, the researchers found.

Such repeated heat stress will upend millions of lives and livelihoods.

“Estimates show a 15% decrease in outdoor working capacity … during daylight hours due to extreme heat by 2050,” the study found. “The increased heat is expected to cost India 2.8% and 8.7% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and depressed living standards by 2050 and 2100, respectively.”

By mid-century, 70 Indian cities are expected to have more than 1 million inhabitants, according to the study.

Extreme heat will pose a threat to the energy security and health of those people, and reverse progress in inequality and poverty reduction, the researchers found.

“My family in Kolkata is suffering from current heat waves leading to frequent load shedding,” said the author of the study, Dr Ramit Debnath, in a reference to enforced power outages that reduce strain on the grid. “The climate-energy nexus is becoming more relevant,” he added.

Typically, it’s the poorest and most vulnerable who will suffer the most.

Heat waves will “have unprecedented consequences on the low-income population” the study said. As an example, the authors point to the rapidly urbanizing capital New Delhi, which “has a high level of construction activities, mostly involving a low-income labor force, who are also at severe risk from heat wave impacts.”

While India has a “climate vulnerability index” through which it assesses its vulnerability to the climate crisis, the authors believe this underestimates how heat waves impact the country’s development.

India has committed to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, a list of 17 objectives that include cutting poverty, hunger, inequality and disease, as well as promoting health, education and sanitation.

By not understanding the true threat of heat waves on its population, India risks missing out on those goals.

The study’s co-author Professor Ronita Bardhan said the recommendations could be used to build heat resilience for low-income housing as “these communities are most vulnerable to heat impacts.”

“Heat-health packages for low-income and slum dwellers are specifically critical as we show heat waves have devastating impacts on urban sustainability,” she said.

Another practical application is urban greening strategies around highly dense areas, which “can provide relief from urban heat island effects,” Bardhan said.

The authors stress “urgency” in recommending India update its extreme weather assessment to include the heat index and its impact on India’s sustainable development.

“India has demonstrated tremendous leadership in scaling up heat action plans in the last five years by declaring heat waves a natural disaster and mobilizing appropriate relief resources,” the authors said.

But “as the heat waves in India and the Indian subcontinent become recurrent and long-lasting, it is high time that climate experts and policymakers reevaluate the metrics for assessing the country’s climate vulnerability.”

World could face record temperatures in 2023 as El Nino returns

Story by By Kate Abnett • Yesterday

 People take a break under a cooling mist, in Tokyo© Thomson Reuters

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The world could breach a new average temperature record in 2023 or 2024, fuelled by climate change and the anticipated return of the El Nino weather phenomenon, climate scientists say.

Climate models suggest that after three years of the La Nina weather pattern in the Pacific Ocean, which generally lowers global temperatures slightly, the world will experience a return to El Nino, the warmer counterpart, later this year.


A woman speaks on a mobile phone as she walks through a market on a hot summer day in New Delhi© Thomson Reuters

During El Nino, winds blowing west along the equator slow down, and warm water is pushed east, creating warmer surface ocean temperatures.

"El Nino is normally associated with record breaking temperatures at the global level. Whether this will happen in 2023 or 2024 is yet known, but it is, I think, more likely than not," said Carlo Buontempo, director of the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.


A dried-up creek bed is seen in a drought-affected area near Chivilcoy

© Thomson Reuters

Climate models suggest a return to El Nino conditions in the late boreal summer, and the possibility of a strong El Nino developing towards the end of the year, Buontempo said.

Related video: El Nino Likely To Strike This Monsoon Season: Will 2023 Be A Drought Year For India? (Moneycontrol)  Duration 3:17   View on Watch

The world's hottest year on record so far was 2016, coinciding with a strong El Nino - although climate change has fuelled extreme temperatures even in years without the phenomenon.

The last eight years were the world's eight hottest on record - reflecting the longer-term warming trend driven by greenhouse gas emissions.

Friederike Otto, senior lecturer at Imperial College London's Grantham Institute, said El Nino-fuelled temperatures could worsen the climate change impacts countries are already experiencing - including severe heatwaves, drought and wildfires.



In an Argentine field, green shoots mask scars of drought

"If El Niño does develop, there is a good chance 2023 will be even hotter than 2016 – considering the world has continued to warm as humans continue to burn fossil fuels," Otto said.



Vines are seen at Petersons vineyards in Hunter Valley

© Thomson Reuters

EU Copernicus scientists published a report on Thursday assessing the climate extremes the world experienced last year, its fifth-warmest year on record.

Europe experienced its hottest summer on record in 2022, while climate change-fuelled extreme rain caused disastrous flooding in Pakistan, and in February, Antarctic sea ice levels hit a record low.

The world's average global temperature is now 1.2C higher than in pre-industrial times, Copernicus said.

Despite most of the world's major emitters pledging to eventually slash their net emissions to zero, global CO2 emissions last year continued to rise.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett, editing by Deepa Babington)

EMOTIONAL PLAGUE

America's Loneliness Epidemic Is Fueling The Far Right, Sen. Chris Murphy Says

Story by Daniel Marans • Yesterday 


Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is a mainstream progressive known for supporting a tougher U.S. approach to Saudi Arabia and stricter gun safety regulations.

In December, though, he began taking up a cause not typically on Congress’ agenda: an epidemic of loneliness in the United States that Murphy believes is quietly at the heart of the bitterness and violence wracking the country.

“We’re all searching for the reasons why there’s been a retreat to very hair-trigger hostility and violence in this country,” Murphy told HuffPost in a phone interview in March. “We’re all trying to understand why Donald Trump did so well despite the fact that he focused all his energy on tax cuts for the very elite.”

“I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s a lot of things that unite Americans that we refuse to see, and one of those things is the way that many of us are increasingly feeling very lonely, very isolated and increasingly disconnected,” he added.

In discussions in the press and with colleagues, Murphy makes the case that the rise of social media and the isolating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have turbocharged the United States’ already-depleted communal infrastructure and norms. That has, in turn, helped fuel growing rates of mental illness, substance abuse, violence and even, some studies show, right-wing extremism.



Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) speaks about a bipartisan bill to rein in gun violence in June 2022. The bill's passage gave him hope for more collaboration between Democrats and Republicans.© Provided by HuffPost

Rather than dismiss the uptick in right-wing extremism as evidence of some Americans’ incorrigible inclination for racism and sexism, Murphy sees the American loneliness epidemic as a phenomenon that can help explain that rise in a way that leaves room for constructive solutions without excusing hateful behavior.

“When you’re alone or lonely, that’s often followed by anger, and that’s understandable. We’ve all felt lonely in our life, and we know how frustrating that feels and how it can easily lead to anger,” Murphy said. “The right has offered an off-ramp for that anger. They have offered connections and identity based around hate messages and division.”

“That’s not where people want to go naturally,” he added. “I think folks who end up being attracted to these hate groups could be offered a much more constructive identity or a much more constructive set of connections. But they don’t see that often.”

For now, Murphy is engaged in an awareness-raising exercise without a clear set of policy goals. He aims to convince policymakers to join him but also to demonstrate to disaffected Americans that he is taking their concerns seriously.

“My hope is that we can just spend some time talking about how we feel,” he said. “If disconnected people out there feel like people in government understand how they feel and care about how they feel, then maybe they’ll be open to a conversation about policies that can help.”

There’s a lot of things that unite Americans that we refuse to see, and one of those things is the way that many of us are increasingly feeling very lonely, very isolated and increasingly disconnected.Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)

Murphy tipped his hand ever so slightly toward a suite of community-reviving policies that he anticipates both parties can get behind.

“You’re talking about reining in the rough edges of technology, especially as it applies to our lovely kids. You’re talking about rebuilding healthy local communities. You’re talking about supporting churches and civic groups and local newspapers,” Murphy said. “All those things are not easily separated into ‘right’ or ‘left.’ That’s what’s so attractive about this issue.”

Murphy’s initiative comes amid growing research about how loneliness is affecting Americans’ mental health.

About seven months after U.S. society reorganized in response to the coronavirus pandemic, 36% of Americans reported feeling lonely “frequently” — up from 25% before the pandemic, according to an October 2020 survey conducted by Harvard University.

The rate of loneliness among American young people has become a particular cause for concern. More than 3 in 5 — or 61% — of Americans ages 18 to 25 reported frequent loneliness in the Harvard study, compared with 24% of Americans ages 55 to 65.



Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), left, talks to Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) during a late March hearing on Capitol Hill. Murphy sees room for common ground on policies to combat loneliness.© Provided by HuffPost

In retrospect, Murphy believes governments did not adequately weigh the costs of school closures and other pandemic-related measures on youth mental health.

“You’d be foolish not to look back on our decision to keep many schools closed for upwards of two years and see it as a mistake,” said Murphy, who nonetheless rejects the idea that Democrats were more committed to school closures than Republicans. “It is a rewrite of history to pretend that this was a partisan issue.”

He followed that up with a caveat that Democratic-run school systems may have stayed closed longer toward the end of the pandemic, but said “Republican states were closed for a long time, too.”

Scholars have also identified a link between younger Americans’ loneliness and their heavy use of social media, which often reduces the frequency of more rewarding, in-person social interactions. Experts have found that social media has played a role in increased depression and loneliness among adolescent girls.

“It’s possible that girls are even more isolated than boys because boys’ online experience is often collaborative through online gaming — Fortnite or Minecraft — whereas girls’ online experience is often alone, scrolling through social media,” Murphy said.

At the same time, evidence suggests that among adults, men have been hit harder by the loneliness epidemic than women. The suicide rate among men, always higher than among women, also went up considerably more than the women’s rate in 2021.

“When you lose the ability to naturally connect through churches, or social clubs, or even the workplace, that often is a bigger problem for men than women,” Murphy said. “Because without those easy, natural connections, through work and institutions, men don’t do as well as women in seeking out connection proactively.”

There was no one precipitating event in Murphy’s life that prompted him to take this issue more seriously. As the father of two sons — one adolescent and the other preadolescent — Murphy has noticed the effect of technology on young people’s interactions and the world they inhabit.

I think Republicans supported that bill in part because they share my concern for where this country is heading and the new stresses that surround our kids.Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)


What’s more, Murphy credits his work crafting a bipartisan gun control and mental health bill in the Senate last June for giving him hope that Democrats and Republicans can take additional steps to address the country’s loneliness crisis. The Connecticut senator was elected shortly before the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. The fight to reduce gun violence has been a defining feature of his two terms in the Senate.

“I think Republicans supported that bill in part because they share my concern for where this country is heading and the new stresses that surround our kids,” he concluded.

Murphy’s interest in loneliness is also the product of his efforts to understand the appeal of far-right ideology to young people. To that end, the Connecticut senator spent the summer consuming literature and media by and about the “New Right,” a broad term for the unconventional forms of right-wing ideology gaining traction among some young men, in particular. The designation typically includes welfare state-supporting Catholic fundamentalists like Sohrab Ahmari and monarchists like Curtis Yarvin, but also mainstream economic populists like popular YouTube host Saagar Enjeti.

Although Murphy says that the New Right is “in many ways very dangerous,” because of what he describes as the movement’s “antidemocratic” and “theocratic elements,” he sees room for common ground in the movement’s insistence on community taking precedence over unbridled capitalism.

“If you study the developing New Right inside the conservative movement, you’ll see early signs of a potential realignment amongst people in this country who may not share the same views on abortion or civil rights, but who do believe that our economy and the state of American kids and families have become so unhealthy that government has to take some new action,” Murphy said.

“To the extent I think there’s a realignment coming, it only comes through a rejection of neoliberalism,” he said, referring to the ideology behind the laissez-faire capitalist policies that have taken root in the United States since the 1970s. “Changing the incentives inside the market [is] not going to cure the psychological rot in this country.”

'This was fear': Imperial CEO hears of impacts from oilsands leaks, apologizes

Story by The Canadian Press • Yesterday 


OTTAWA — The head of Imperial Oil heard Thursday how a nine-month delay before informing downstream communities about a seeping tailings pond on a company oilsands mine created weeks of fear and rumours.



"This was not uncertainty, this was fear," Conservative member of Parliament Laila Goodridge told Imperial CEO Brad Corson, who was testifying before the House of Commons environment and sustainability committee.

The hearing was struck after two releases of toxic oilsands tailings water from the Kearl mine north of Fort McMurray, Alta. The committee was questioning Corson on why it took so long for First Nations and governments to find out what was happening with both the tailings pond seepage and overflow from a mine containment pond.

Goodridge, who represents Fort McMurray, said she visited one of the First Nations communities during that nine-month gap.

"I had elders telling me, 'We don't know what's going on, but don't drink the water,'" she said. "There was just a vacuum of information.

"People were afraid."

Corson repeatedly apologized for keeping people in the dark.

"I am deeply apologetic," he said.

"Imperial strives to build strong and lasting relationships with Indigenous communities based on mutual respect, trust and shared prosperity. We have broken this trust."

Seepage, originally described as discoloured water, was discovered in May. Corson acknowledged Imperial knew by August it was tailings, which have since been found to have left levels of toxic chemicals exceeding environmental limits in immediately adjacent waters.

But no notification was provided until February to leaders of six area First Nations.

"We did not speak directly with the leaders and we did not provide regular updates," he said. "We didn't want to go back to the communities until we fully understood the situation and had a plan."

Corson faced repeated questions about what Imperial was doing to clean up the mess.

He repeated findings that suggest no effects to area wildlife or to downstream drinking water.

He blamed the overflow on equipment and process failures, and the seepage on a layer of groundwater that was shallower than anticipated.

He said the company has 200 people working on remediation. It has dug trenches to intercept the ongoing seepage and installed more than 300 wells to pump it out and monitor its composition. It won't happen again, he said.

"I do believe (the pond) is a safe structure," he said.

Michael McLeod, an MP from the Northwest Territories riding of Deh Cho downstream from Kearl, was skeptical.

"As long as (the tailings ponds) exist, we're under the threat of leakage," he said.

"I've had the reassurances all my life that this isn't going to happen. Yet here we are."

Corson said he supported plans from federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to create a working group with different levels of government, First Nations and industry to improve communication around what goes on in the oilsands. The group would also address concerns about seepage from all oilsands tailings ponds.

"The concept of bringing stakeholders together ... to work together to improve the communication process and to improve the management of tailing for this industry is positive," he said.

On Monday, the committee heard from First Nations leaders, who expressed fear and anger about how their communities were left ignorant about what was going on while their people continued to use lands next to the releases. They said the Alberta Energy Regulator has lost its credibility and called for it to be disbanded.

Next Monday, the committee expects to hear from Laurie Pushor, head of the Alberta regulator.

The committee hearings are one of three investigations going on into the Kearl releases. Alberta's Information Commissioner has begun a probe into whether the regulator had a duty to inform the public as soon as it heard about the problem, and the regulator's board is commissioning its own third-party review.

The environmental group Greenpeace is also calling for Imperial to be charged over releases of the toxic wastewater.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 20, 2023.

— By Bob Weber in Edmonton

The Canadian Press