It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, May 29, 2023
B.C. government offering e-bike rebate of up to $1,400
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Rebates will be available in June and will be based on a person's income
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A cyclist rides an e-bike on the Galloping Goose Trail in Victoria, B.C. The province is offering cash rebates on eligible e-bikes to British Columbians over the age of 19 starting June 1, 2023. (Ken Mizokoshi/ CBC)
British Columbians looking to buy a new electric bike will soon be able to get some cash back for their purchase, according to the provincial government.
In a media release issued Thursday, the B.C. government announced that rebates will be available to residents older than 19 starting next month. Rebates will be based on a person's income and range from $350 to $1,400.
To be eligible, the e-bike must cost more than $2,000 before taxes and be purchased from a participating e-bike retailer after June 1. The province has yet to publish a list of those retailers but says it will do so on this website on June 1.
Unlike past programs, people no longer need to scrap a car to get the rebate.
"E-bikes add a new dimension to everyday travel, even in rural communities," Michael Koski, executive director of the B.C. Cycling Coalition, said in a statement.
"For those struggling with the cost of a car, this funding will provide wider access to a transportation option that is affordable, efficient and eco-friendly."
Rebates will be based on a person's income and range from $350 to $1,400. (Shutterstock/moreimages)
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure says it is investing more than $6 million in the rebate program, which will help up to 9,000 British Columbians lower the cost of their e-bike.
"E-bikes are becoming commonplace in B.C. as a convenient alternative to motor-vehicle trips, but their price can put them out of reach for people," Transportation Minister Rob Fleming said in a statement.
"By making rebates available and basing the rebate amount on income, we can make e-bikes and clean transportation more affordable and accessible for everyone."
News of the rebate was welcomed by Alex Alvarez, manager at The Bike Kitchen, a cycling repair shop located at the University of British Columbia's Point Grey campus.
"I'm always a fan of more bikes on the road," said Alvarez.
He did, however, warn that some entry-level e-bikes purchased at department stores can be hard to service. In his experience, he says some of those e-bikes are outfitted with brakes that are not sufficient for such fast, heavy models.
"They are being sold as these great solutions to get rid of your car, get on a bike, but then when people have to come in for constant repairs and adjustments they end up spending more money than they expected to," he said.
Alvarez hopes the rebate program could help people pay for higher-end models that have a higher sticker price but are less likely to need continuous tune-ups.
No cellphone? No problem! The vintage radio enthusiasts prepping for disaster
Ham radio users, from teenagers to eightysomethings, are ready to communicate in the next crisis – be it a wildfire, pandemic or ‘the big one’ Glenn Morrison, president of the Desert Radio Amateur Transmitting Society, a Palm Springs-based club dedicated to everything ham radio.
Photograph: Adam Amengual/The Guardian
by Amanda Ulrich in Palm Springs THE GUARDIAN
Sat 27 May 2023
There’s an ancient fable that Glenn Morrison, a pony-tailed, 75-year-old who lives in the California desert, likes to tell to prove a point. As the lesson goes, one industrious ant readies for winter by stocking up on food and supplies, while an aimless grasshopper wastes time and doesn’t plan ahead. When the cold weather finally arrives, the ant is “fat and happy”, but the grasshopper starves.
In this telling, Morrison is the ant, and those who don’t brace themselves for future emergencies – they’re the grasshoppers.
Morrison is in the business of being prepared. He’s the president of the Desert Rats (or the Radio Amateur Transmitting Society), a club based in Palm Springs that’s dedicated to everything ham radio.
The old-school technology has been around for more than a century. In lieu of smartphones and laptops, ham radio operators use handheld or larger “base station” radios to communicate over radio frequencies. The retro devices can range from the size of a walkie-talkie to the heft of a boxy, 20th-century VCR.
Generations after its invention, one of ham radio’s biggest draws for hobbyists is its usefulness in an emergency – think wildfires, earthquakes or another pandemic. If disaster strikes and internet or cellular networks fail, radio operators could spring into action and help with emergency response communications, and be able to keep in contact with their own networks.
Left: Glenn Morrison standing with a U-band vertical antenna in his backyard. Right: Morrison’s main ‘rig’ in his home radio room.
Photograph: Adam Amengual/The Guardian
And the historically fringe world of ham radio is having a moment. In California, there are now nearly 100,000 licensed amateur radio operators, often simply called “hams”, and more than 760,000 across the country. That total greatly surpasses the number of hams from 40 years ago, even as newer technology has left radio in the dust.
In an era of climate crisis with more intense storms and more frequent wildfires, and other disasters such as global pandemics, ham radio is becoming a tool for some who want to regain a modicum of control.
“Ham radio,” Morrison said, “is like the original social media.”
“People aren’t prepared. And they keep thinking, ‘Well, that’s not going to happen in my lifetime.’ And it may not, but you never know.”
‘I’ve always wanted to be ready for what’s next’
On a balmy Saturday morning in Palm Springs, the thermostat already creeping its way towards 80F (27C), a few dozen people trickled into a local gymnasium, finding seats at folding tables set up below the basketball hoops. Volunteers with the Desert Rats, who had organized the makeshift radio testing day for new hams, handed out a stack of exams. If the hams passed the 35-question test, they could become licensed as entry-level amateur operators by the Federal Communications Commission.
‘Ham radio is like the original social media,’ Morrison says.
Photograph: Adam Amengual/The Guardian
One prospective ham was a high school student, a 17-year-old in a gray sweatshirt named Boaz, who took the course with his dad. Boaz first got into amateur radio through YouTube videos, he said, a year before the pandemic started.
“I’ve always wanted to be ready for what’s next,” he said. “If something happens and there’s no cell service, how am I going to talk to people?” Getting his driver’s license, his dad added, is Boaz’s next major goal.
Another newly christened ham, a college professor named Skip Fredricks who sported a black bandanna, tinted aviator sunglasses and a Star Wars T-shirt, said he was hoping to use amateur radio in the classes he teaches about drones. In disaster areas, where drones are sometimes used for search and rescue missions, the radios could help drone pilots communicate better, he said.
Skip Fredricks, a college professor, recently obtained his radio certificate.
Photograph: Amanda Ulrich
“In very remote areas, communication is a problem,” he said. “The ham radio support is better than just walkie-talkies – and cellphones are useless in the mountains.”
Fredricks held up his new radio certificate, proving he had passed the exam, printed on a bright yellow sheet of paper. “Pretty cool, huh?” he said, looking it over. “My students will probably be impressed.”
Ham radio and ‘the big one’ Since the early 1900s, ham radio has been used as a lifeline during storms, disasters, wars and other emergencies.
The astronaut Mamoru Mohri, wearing a headset to communicate with students and other ham operators during a mission in 1992.
Photograph: Space Frontiers/Getty Images
The radios have even cropped up in disaster movies and TV shows – most recently in scenes from HBO’s The Last of Us that show a clandestine radio operator sending messages across a zombie-ravaged country.
Living in southern California and considering the region’s web of fault lines, Morrison, the club president, often thinks about earthquakes.
“If ‘the big one’ hits, we’re not going anywhere,” he said. “You have to be self-reliant. You’re going to need food supplies and all that stuff. But also if you want Aunt Marge in Portland to know that you’re OK, then we can send her a radio gram.”
More specifically, if organizations such as hospitals, fire stations and emergency command centers call for communications assistance, qualified amateur operators can mobilize to help; many hams have “go kits” for just that purpose, with supplies including handheld radios and portable antennas.
One such emergency response took place this year, as winter storms pummeled California. In Big Bear, a remote, mountainous community that saw an onslaught of heavy snow over the past few months, amateur radio operators frequently went on the air to broadcast road closures and other local news to their networks. “I knew the roof on one market had collapsed before it was on the news because I heard it on the radio first,” Morrison said.
As an informal slogan for the American Radio Relay League, a national association for amateur radio, promises, ham radio is the ultimate backstop for “when all else fails”.
Left: Dorothy Strauber, member of the Young Ladies Radio League of Long Island, uses earphones to listen to her ham radio receiver in 1954. Right: Early radio ham operators circa 1919.
Photograph: Tom Maguire/Newsday RM/Bettmann Archive/Getty
Richard Norton, director of the league’s south-western division, first got hooked on ham radio in high school because he was drawn to the hobby’s technical side. Decades later, he’s seen newer hams’ interest shift to emergency preparedness. In the little town of Topanga outside Los Angeles, where Norton lives, many residents have thought about what they would do during an earthquake or wildfire if cell signal was lost, he said. One answer? Get a ham radio.
“Even when cellphone systems go down, our ham systems generally are working and we can communicate,” he said.
‘Working the world’
From a hushed neighborhood tucked into the base of desert mountains, about 10 miles down the road from downtown Palm Springs, Morrison took a seat at his desk and “worked the world”. Spinning a large black dial on the face of a bulky base station radio, he tuned into a realm of static and distant, garbled voices. He strained to listen, parsing faint words, then pulled forward a gold microphone.
Morrison listening for contacts at his home.
Photograph: Adam Amengual/The Guardian
“Uh, Whiskey, Bravo, six, Romeo, Lima, Charlie,” Morrison said into the static, adopting the upbeat lilt of a radio DJ. The illogical string of words represents WB6RLC, his call sign, or the unique signature assigned to each ham that inevitably becomes as important as a name. Morrison’s sign was printed in bold letters on his hat, and the back of his T-shirt proudly displayed the Desert Rats club logo: a grinning rodent, its tail wrapped around a radio antenna.
Still spinning the radio dial, Morrison stumbled into a perfunctory conversation between someone around the general Nevada and Utah “call area” (the designation for where a radio license was issued) and a man in Barcelona.
On a computer monitor connected to his radio, Morrison pulled up a comprehensive list of 215 countries, territories and other areas he’s “worked”, or contacted, from this small town in southern California: Argentina. Australia. Algeria. American Samoa. “And those are just the A’s,” he said.
Around Morrison’s one-story home, everything revolves around radio. Desert Rats sketches and maps adorn the walls. A tangle of antennas sprouts from the corner of his roof. The camper van parked in his driveway is equipped with a “mobile station” radio for any necessary on-the-go calls. There are radios in every room of his house, save for the guest bathroom.
And Morrison’s main radio room, where he overheard the Barcelona conversation, is the crown jewel. The small space attached to his garage has a command center-style feel, with an entire wall devoted to dozens of vintage radios, some over a hundred years old, that Morrison sources from flea markets and friends.
“Sometimes they just find me,” he added.
Morse code keyers and cables in Morrison’s home.
Photograph: Adam Amengual/The Guardian
Beyond using the radios for emergency communications, hams find meaning in the hobby for its own sake, and in the almost-instant network it provides. Every Monday night, the Desert Rats host a radio “net”, similar to a public conference call, where amateur operators check in and go through a simple verbal roll call of names and call signs. That type of basic welfare check was particularly important three years ago, during the very first isolating, stay-at-home phase of the pandemic.
“It gave me something to do,” Morrison said. “I’d go to my radio shack in the garage, flip on the radio and find somebody, God knows where, to talk to.” More than an ‘old guys’ club’
Back in the Palm Springs gymnasium, volunteers with the Desert Rats graded exams, their own handheld radios holstered at the hip. Annie Larson, head of membership for the club, buzzed around the room’s periphery, glancing at some of the complex test questions about signal frequencies and the properties of radio waves. “I don’t know if I would pass today,” she joked.
Larson, who recently turned 80, has been a licensed ham for more than a decade, but she doesn’t think of herself as a “tech-y” person. “I’m just interested in being able to take care of myself in an emergency,” she said.
Larson grew up in Idyllwild, a small town lodged in the mountains that loom above Palm Springs. The community, heavily wooded and right on the doorstep of Mount San Jacinto state park, is often threatened by wildfires. A few years ago, as one blaze moved closer and closer to the town, Larson ignored local evacuation warnings and stayed behind with a few park rangers. Having her radio with her was a great reassurance.
Annie Larson has been a licensed ham for more than a decade.
Photograph: Adam Amengual/The Guardian
“I could listen to it at night and just leave it on,” she said, instead of needing to constantly check her phone. “If something came up, I was available.”
While amateur radio used to be something of a boys’ club (and “it still is a little bit”, she added), Larson said she sees more female operators today; about a quarter of those at the Palm Springs testing day were women. And with the wide-ranging impacts of the climate crisis, Larson thinks the hobby is relevant for all.
“People used to think it was like this old guys’ club, guys just putzing around,” she said. “But it really is important, because the population is increasing and there are many more disasters.”
Fortunately, within the Desert Rats club, hams remain a tight-knit bunch. As the latest batch of radio operators received their certificates after the testing day, some were emotional as they walked out into the desert heat. Morrison stood by the exit, congratulating and shaking hands with each person.
“We’ll catch you on the air,” he called behind them.
UK Rail strikes: Hopes of a resolution have been indefinitely delayed
After a year of walkouts and failed talks, the unions, ministers and operators are as far apart as ever
Almost a year since the first national rail strike was called, another series of stoppages loom. Passengers who have been spared the usual round of disruptive bank holiday engineering works this weekend won’t be so lucky in the second half of the half-term break. Strikes by drivers and crew will more or less wipe out services on Wednesday and Saturday, shred schedules on Friday, and add a bit of scattergun disruption in between.
This time in 2022, the mere prospect of the biggest rail strike in decades was causing consternation. Now, though, the latest guaranteed upheaval has not even produced a round of talks between unions and industry – let alone ministers – to try to head off the disruption.
A gloomy stalemate has taken hold in recent months, and it is hard to see from where any imminent change will come. The one tectonic shift in a year of attrition was the settling of a 9% pay deal with staff at Network Rail in March: a moment that both deprived the biggest union, the RMT, of its greatest leverage in strikes, and also fuelled belief in government and the industry that a similar deal could be done at train operators.
Instead, a pay offer that the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) negotiators made to RMT general secretary Mick Lynch crumbled, whether due to duplicitous legalese in the written detail (as the union maintains) or because Lynch could not persuade a hardline union executive (as the train companies maintain).
The RDG and ministers have refused to budge, and demand a referendum of union members. But the deal in detail holds even less for the train operators’ staff, and union members have voted for another six months of potential strikes, starting with Friday’s.
Since then, some informal contact is understood to have taken place between industry and union – but Lynch’s recent call for a summit with government was met with a scathing RDG rejoinder that the only summit the RMT needed was “between its negotiating team and its executive committee”. This is a political dispute created by the Tories. Any chance of resolving it may only come from a change of governmentDave Calfe, Aslef
The union is likewise reballoting for another six months of strikes in England – while announcing a whopping deal for drivers in Wales, a 20% rise over the next two years to £71,000, when a further guaranteed inflation-linked increase applies.
The Welsh bonanza, according to the union, delivers what the government claims to want – changes to terms and conditions, extra productivity and “modernisation”, not just gold-plated pay.
But while driver delegates in Cardiff this week for Aslef’s annual assembly will have been toasting their hosts, it’s hard to see any kind of similar resolution elsewhere.
At Westminster, ministers have freely admitted that any pay deal is now seen in the context of wider public sector pay disputes with nurses and teachers – even if the rail staff are employed by private firms. For some in government, the £1bn-plus in lost revenue is worth it to cap wider pay; for others, some suspect, in latter-day Thatcher versus the miners mode, victory over the unions is all.
The irony in the ideological dispute is that train drivers, backing renationalisation, have seen pay soar under privatisation. And in normal times, with their own money at risk, private train operators would rather shell out for drivers than face them down and lose much more in stoppages.
In Cardiff, Aslef’s president Dave Calfe told drivers to “keep the faith”, adding: “This is a political dispute, created by the Tories, and any chance of resolving it may only come from a change of government, which is still 18 months away.”
Both sides might want to be careful what they wish for. Much-needed passengers, meanwhile, might simply be careful not to rely on the train for a long time yet.
Filipinos break ground, bring controversy to Broadway with reboot of Here Lies Love
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Celebrating an all-Filipino cast, producers say they are not shying away from criticism of the Marcos regime
Casting for Here Lies Love, which has an all-Filipino cast, wook producers all over the globe. The show received submissions from Canada, the United States, the Philippines and more than a dozen countries. (Submitted by Here Lies Love)
In a church basement on Manhattan's Upper West Side, the cast of Broadway's Here Lies Love is gathering for the show's first press conference.
But the atmosphere feels more like a big family party than an official engagement.
That may have a lot to do with the historic nature of the musical's all-Filipino company, a Broadway first.
The disco-themed musical was conceived by Grammy-winning musicians David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, and written and developed by Alex Timbers. But the story is decidedly Filipino — albeit a controversial interpretation of the country's history. It centres on the Philippines' infamous first lady Imelda Marcos and her late dictator husband, Ferdinand Marcos, during a pivotal moment in the country's history – their rise and fall from power, ending in the People's Power revolution in 1986.
Here Lies Love first opened off Broadway in 2013. But not with an all-Filipino cast like this.
The show will make its Broadway debut this July with Filipino producers at the helm. They include a pair of Filipino Tony winners – Lea Salonga of Miss Saigon fame and theatre and film designer Clint Ramos, who were both instrumental in finding the talent.
"We're extremely proud. And we also feel like this is the time," said Ramos. "We're in the middle of a Filipino Renaissance not only in the Americas, but all over the world."
Tony Award-winning theatre and film designer Clint Ramos is one of the lead producers for Here Lies Love. The Philippines-born industry veteran was also part of the off-Broadway run of the show. (Marc J. Franklin)
As with all productions, casting is about finding the right people. It wasn't a sure bet that the show would feature an all-Filipino company.
Salonga recalls the moment they cast the final actor, Filipino-American Moses Villarama, who plays a DJ.
"Oh my God," was Salonga's first reaction. "Then it sank in: The cast of Here Lies Love is fully Filipino."
Race-based rejections
She said she's still processing the unprecedented moment for Broadway, the epicentre of musical theatre.
The achievement is an emotional one for Salonga and many of her castmates because of their own struggles for representation and roles in the entertainment industry.
"It's something that I felt incredibly proud of."
More than 30 years ago, Salonga was cast as the leading actress on Broadway's Miss Saigon, playing a Vietnamese girl who falls in love with an American soldier.
That role catapulted her into fame. But even with her Tony win and other accolades, she says she still experienced many rejections.
"I was in for a rude awakening," she said. "I was told that I couldn't audition for certain shows because of my racial background."
Jose Llana, who plays former Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos in Here Lies Love, feels the same way. He's been in the industry almost as long as Salonga and has a long list of credits on big musicals such as Rent and The King and I.
"You know, the opportunities for Asian Americans, particularly Filipino Americans, are very small," he said. "We're hopefully adding now to the library of Asian roles that Filipinos can play."
Lea Salonga, shown here arriving at the White House for a state dinner with U.S. President Joe Biden and the South Korea's President Yoon Suk Yeol on April 26, says she was told her racial background prevented her from auditioning for certain Broadway shows. (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)
For Arielle Jacobs, who plays Imelda Marcos, landing the role struck a personal chord.
"This is the first time I'm getting to play on my own heritage, so I feel like I don't have to hide. I feel like I don't have to pretend to be somebody that I'm not," she said.
Despite the elation over the historic casting, the show has not been without controversy. Some critics have taken to social media, calling the musical a too-glossy retelling of the Marcos family's criminal and violent past. With a disco ball as its logo, Here Lies Love is staged in a nightclub setting and highlights Imelda Marcos's life as a glamorous, jet-setting socialite.
When Ferdinand Marcos Sr. was first elected in 1965, the power couple was beloved in their country and around the world. But their nearly two-decade rule put the Philippines under a brutal martial law and ended with the storming of the presidential palace in 1986 and the Marcoses fleeing in exile to the United States.
Under his rule, tens of thousands were killed, imprisoned and tortured according to Amnesty International.
But the show's producers are not backing away from that controversy. On their Instagram account, a bold statement: Here Lies Love is an anti-Marcos show. It is a pro-Filipino show, being told in a quintessential American form: the Broadway musical.
The show is meant to offer lessons on how to deal with tyranny and to raise awareness about how people can be seduced by a charismatic leader, said Byrne.
"The story is more relevant now around the world than it was back then," Byrne said at the event, referring to the show's previous off-Broadway run. "Now it seems like democracy has been threatened around the world, even in this country."
Byrne said he would have never predicted when he created the show that it would re-open, at a time when the Marcos family is back in power.
Imelda and Ferdinand Marcos's son, Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos, Jr. was elected president last year and their family continues to polarize the Philippines. While the results were not contested, many Filipinos decried his victory, blaming the Marcos camp for whitewashing his family's history.
Bad timing — or impeccable timing?
"We're showing the party that the Marcoses had for 20 years. But we're also telling a story about how the hangover happened after that party," said Llana.
Salonga, who is a massive celebrity in the Philippines, is well aware of the gravity of staging a musical about a family that is currently in power.
"I just think that the timing of this, it's either bad timing, or impeccable timing," she said. "How you interpret it is really a personal decision to make."
On the show's Instagram page, one of the first post clearly explains itself in response to the critics: "History repeats itself. Democracies all over the world are under threat. Here Lies Love offers an innovative template on how to stand up to tyrants."
At the press preview, all talk of controversy and critics seem to be drowned out by the celebration of the groundbreaking cast.
The hope for the cast is that this production of Here Lies Love is just the beginning.
"I'm most excited about the future projects that are written by Filipinos where they're writing their own stories," said Llana.
"Hey if we're able to do it for Here Lies Love, we'll be able to do it for another show," said Salonga.
"Here I am playing a real life character from the Philippines in a story set in the Philippines. I don't think the whole magnitude of that has sunk in completely, It'll probably hit me like a ton of bricks on opening night."
In Here Lies Love, Jose Llana plays Former Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos, Arielle Jacobs plays former Philippine first lady Imelda Marcos and Conrad Ricamora plays former opposition Leader benigno Aquino. (Harold Julian)
Kris Reyes CBC’s correspondent based in New York. She is a multimedia journalist with more than 15 years of experience in broadcast and digital newsrooms in the U.S. and Canada, as a host, producer, anchor and reporter.
Ukraine built more onshore wind turbines in past year than England
Revelation about war-torn country is ‘terrible indictment’ of UK government, says Ed Miliband
Ukraine has completed more onshore wind turbines than England since it was occupied by Russian soldiers – despite the UK government’s promise to relax restrictions on onshore windfarms.
Only two onshore wind turbines have been installed in England since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, generating 1 megawatt (MW) of electricity in the Staffordshire village of Keele.
Ukraine’s Tyligulska wind power plant, meanwhile, the first to be built in a conflict zone, has begun generating enough clean electricity to power about 200,000 homes just 60 miles from the frontline in the southern region of Mykolaiv, with 19 turbines providing an installed capacity of 114MW.
Ed Miliband, the shadow climate change secretary, said: “This extraordinary revelation is a terrible indictment of Rishi Sunak and his staggering failure to end the onshore wind ban.
“Even governments fighting for their very survival can get on and build the clean energy infrastructure needed to tackle the cost of living crisis, the energy security crisis, and the climate crisis with more urgency than the Tories can muster.”
No 10 promised last year to dismantle an effective ban on onshore windfarms in England, which was put in place in 2015 by tightening planning restrictions in the national planning policy framework. However, the government is yet to make any changes and campaigners believe a rebellion of backbench Tory MPs threatens to pile pressure on ministers to make only modest tweaks to the framework, which would continue to hold back the rollout of English windfarms.
The ban on onshore wind, which is the cheapest source of electricity, is estimated to have cost UK billpayers £800m over the past winter when millions were plunged into fuel poverty for the first time due to rising global energy market prices, according to analysts at the Energy and Climate Change Intelligence Unit (ECIU).
British households face energy bills that are expected to remain above pre-pandemic levels until the end of the decade after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a surge in global energy markets last year. Although global prices have retreated from record highs they are likely to remain far higher than usual while European countries seek alternative energy sources to help replace Russia’s gas exports.
Miliband said the Conservatives’ “absurd ban on onshore wind” had cost every family in Britain £180 and left the energy system “dependent on fossil fuel dictators like Putin”.
Sam Richards, the founder and campaign director of Britain Remade, which campaigns for green economic growth, said: “It’s simply mind-boggling that Ukraine, while it fights for its survival, has built more onshore wind capacity than England.
“The government should start by dropping its ban on new onshore windfarms in England – at the stroke of a pen unlocking the cheapest source of energy available.”
A government spokesperson said: “Since 2010, we’ve increased the amount of renewable energy capacity connected to the grid by 500% – the second highest amount in Europe – installing 3,790MW of additional capacity across all renewables in 2022 alone.”
“We continue to support more renewable projects to come online, including onshore wind if there is local community backing, as clean, more affordable energy brings down costs for consumers and boosts our long-term energy security.”skip past newsletter promotion
The Labour party has put forward plans to end the onshore wind ban and make Britain “a clean energy superpower” by 2030. Part of its plan includes setting up publicly owned energy company, GB Energy, to produce “cheap, clean power in Britain, for Britain”.
Ukraine’s largest private energy investor, DTEK, said its Tyligulska windfarm was on track to become the largest onshore windfarm in eastern Europe once complete.
Maxim Timchenko, DTEK’s chief executive, said the farm was “a symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to Russian attempts to freeze Ukraine into submission”, which would help to “build Ukraine back greener and cleaner and become a key partner in Europe’s energy future”.
In January, the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, told the World Economic Forum in Davos that there would be no investment in new oil and gas fields in Britain under a Labour government.
Starmer is expected to set out his energy plans next month, including a pledge to ban all new North Sea oil and gas licences, the Sunday Times reported.
A massive, rare sea turtle washed up on P.E.I. It was likely on its way to be with family
A massive sea turtle was found dead on the shores of Fernwood, P.E.I. last Friday. (Submitted by Tom Sherry)
A large and increasingly rare type of sea turtle washed up on P.E.I.'s shores last Friday.
A dead leatherback sea turtle was confirmed to have been discovered in the community of Fernwood on May 19, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said in an email to CBC News.
The DFO responded to some local residents' call about the turtle, with help from the Halifax-based Canadian Sea Turtle Network.
Leatherback sea turtles are the world's largest living turtles. The species faces world-wide population decline, and is considered to be endangered in Canada.
Kathleen Martin, executive director of the Canadian Sea Turtle Network, said the turtles are known to enter Canadian waters this time of year to feed on jellyfish.
Then, they head south and instinctively return to the same beaches where they hatched to nest – a behaviour called "natal homing."
Leatherback sea turtles are the world's largest living turtles. The species faces world-wide population decline, and is considered to be endangered in Canada. (Submitted by Tessa MacKinnon)
"So you end up with these beaches full of, like, sisters and aunts and mothers and cousins," Martin said.
But the discovered turtle didn't have a chance to meet its family.
It's likely the animal died last year from being entangled in fishing gear and it's just now being found, Martin said.
Tom Sherry was one of the Fernwood residents who discovered the turtle. When he got there, he couldn't believe his eyes.
"It was quite a sight," he said.
"It was kind of sad to see that it was in the water there and had been deceased possibly for a little while."
'Badly decomposed'
Two fishery officers from the Alberton Conservation and Protection detachment responded to the sighting, DFO said.
This is not the first time a leatherback sea turtle washed up P.E.I.'s shore. Those that were found before would typically be transported to the Atlantic Veterinary College for a necropsy.
But in this case, the turtle was "too badly decomposed" for wildlife pathologists to perform any kind of procedure, the AVC said in an email.
Fishery officers with the DFO pulled the animal to shore and removed the fishing gear it was entangled in. (Submitted by Tom Sherry)
Martin said what's left of the turtle is falling apart, so it's difficult to measure it accurately. A leatherback sea turtle can reach up to two metres long and weigh more than 450 kilograms, she said.
The species has been around for more than 150 million years, back to when dinosaurs walked the planet. Today, they're declining at a rate of almost 8 per cent a year, Martin said.
"They're in serious decline."
'We're like the UN of sea turtles up here'
Shown here in this file photo is a leatherback turtle that washed up on P.E.I. in the fall of 2020. It was loaded on to the back of a DFO pickup truck and brought to the Atlantic Veterinary College in Charlottetown for a necropsy. (Ralph Clark)
In Canada, they are protected under the Species at Risk Act. Martin said leatherback sea turtles from all over Central and South America have been identified in Canadian waters where they "really bulk up and eat" before heading home.
"We're like the UN of sea turtles up here, where everybody comes and hangs out," Martin said.
"It's really important that we keep them safe here … and that we do all the work we can to learn about them."
That's why it's important the DFO, the Canadian Sea Turtle Network, the AVC as well as Nova Scotia's Marine Animal Response Society all have a hand in the process of responding to any specimens found in Atlantic Canada, she said.
At the moment, the turtle — or what's left of it — is still there in Fernwood.
DFO officers had pulled it to shore and removed the fishing gear that killed the animal. The gear will likely be returned to whoever lost it, Martin said.
"Typically what you do is, at this point, let nature take its course," Martin said. "There will be things that scavenge off of that turtle and all the rest of it."
Martin said the decomposing body doesn't pose any threat to people.
She encourages people to call the Canadian Sea Turtle Network if they see anything to do with sea turtles because that can help wildlife officials bring the animals in and collect information that can help with conservation efforts.
"That's really an act of what we call citizen science," Martin said.
"That's what we need in the world right now."
BC
Making a better road to the Centre of the Universe
Closed for two years over the pandemic, the 2.2-kilometre road on Little Saanich Mountain has reopened to vehicles just in time for the resumption of school tours
The Dominion Astrophysical Observatory's 1.8-metre Plaskett Telescope, with a 72-inch mirror that weighed 5,000 pounds, was the largest operational telescope in the world when the observatory opened in June 1918.
Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
The road leading to the Centre of the Universe has been repaved and reopened, making the journey to the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory’s visitor and education centre much smoother.
(The “Centre of the Universe” moniker is an inside joke, as astronomers agree there is no physical central point to the universe — any point can be the centre from an observational point of view.)
Closed for two years over the pandemic, the 2.2-kilometre road on Little Saanich Mountain is now open to vehicles during regular working hours. After hours, the road and trails on the property are open to pedestrians and cyclists, who train by pedalling up the average six per cent grade route.
Ben Dorman, chair of the Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory, a non-profit that hosts educational programs at the centre, said the reopening “happily coincides” with the restart of school tours, where busloads of children head up the hill to visit the white-domed observatory, a national historic landmark that houses the 1.8-metre Plaskett Telescope.
“It is always something to see their little eyes light up at the sight of the telescope,” said Dorman, noting that with a 72-inch mirror that weighed 5,000 pounds, it was the largest operational telescope in the world when the observatory opened in June 1918. “It’s pretty darn big and a lot more interesting than a lesson at school.”
In its early years, the observatory contributed to a number of major scientific discoveries, he said, with the design copied around the world.
The grounds also house the National Research Council Canada’s Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre, the leading centre for astronomy and astrophysics in Canada. Workers with the National Research Council build and test instruments at the site.
Funding from the Victoria Foundation’s Community Grants Program, which helps subsidize field trips to the observatory, allowed the Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory to provide almost 90 school tours involving more than 4,300 students last year to learn about the universe.
In-person school visitors are given tours of the dome and the Plaskett Telescope, presentations on B.C. school curriculum topics, planetarium shows, gallery tours, astronomy demonstrations and hands-on activities.
The Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory also hosts Star Parties, public events that run 7 to 11 p.m. every other Saturday over the summer months.
Each session promotes scientific literacy with different speakers and topics, such as light pollution and its impact on ecosystems.
During the Star Parties, participants can peer at the stars through a number of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s telescopes, set up outdoors on the interpretive centre’s deck and in the parking lot between the centre and the dome, weather permitting.
The programs are also now more accessible to those who can’t be there in person, with YouTube videos and live streaming of some events.
“We offer a passport to science for different groups, such as schools, clubs, retirement homes and Scouts,” said Dorman.
Contributions to Friends of the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory are tax deductible. Every donation of $100 can support 50 students in one school tour, the group says.
The U.S. national debt clock is seen in midtown Manhattan, on Thursday, May 25, 2023. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Finally, President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have reached a deal to avert an embarrassing — and potentially disastrous — U.S. default. It’s hard to view this as a celebratory moment given how close the nation came to being unable to pay its obligations to investors, the military, hospitals and more. But there’s relief that the worst-case scenario has been avoided and that there is still some possibility for bipartisanship in U.S. politics. That is a low bar, but Mr. Biden and Mr. McCarthy cleared it.
The agreement “in principle” still has to pass Congress this week, which is not a given, especially in the House, where far-right members are already bashing it. The June 5 deadline for default leaves little room for antics.
If this passes, the nation won’t face another debt limit crisis until 2025. The basics of the deal appear sensible, and most Americans will probably approve of them.
It imposes spending caps, but they are not onerous, as the cuts in the initial House Republican bill were. After several years of discretionary budget increases, this will force what is essentially a two-year pause at most federal agencies. Unspent coronavirus funds will also be clawed back — a reasonable compromise that this Editorial Board had advocated in recent weeks. The deal avoids the mistake the Obama-Biden White House made in 2011 when it agreed to caps for a decade that slowed the recovery and hampered its ability to do much in its second term.
If any sort of political center still exists in Washington, the tentative deal is about as close as it comes to finding it. Both sides got some of what they wanted: Republicans achieved some cuts, including to Internal Revenue Service funding, and Democrats preserved spending on important domestic programs, from the environment to education, at about current levels. Even on contentious issues such as tying work requirements to government assistance, Mr. Biden and Mr. McCarthy appear to have taken the least controversial route, which is increasing them for older food stamp recipients with no children.
What should not happen now is for Americans to breathe a sigh of relief and move on. Yes, a last-minute compromise occurred, but a dangerous precedent has been set. House Republicans have now used the debt limit twice to create a hostage-like situation that brings the nation close to an unthinkable default. Expect that a future Republican Congress would be willing to go over the cliff to extract more.
The debt limit itself needs to be scrapped. Enacted in World War I, it was created so Congress would not have to keep approving debt issuances. A century ago, the limit was set high to avoid hitting it. Over time, the debt ceiling took on a different role as a useful check on bipartisan spending largesse. It played a role in the 1990s in pushing lawmakers to reduce the national deficit and enact a balanced budget at the turn of the century. In recent years, as the normal budget process in Congress has broken down, the debt ceiling has functioned as one of the few moments of reckoning on the increasingly alarming fiscal outlook.
But this latest deal has shown that this isn’t a substitute for coming up with an actual, forward-looking fiscal strategy. Republicans employ the debt limit to force cuts to nondefense discretionary spending, which is only about 16 percent of total government expenditures. But this slice is not a key driver of the nation’s debt problems. The refusal of either party to tackle rapidly rising Social Security, Medicare and health-care costs — along with Republicans’ opposition to any tax increases — means the debt limit isn’t forcing the tough choices that are needed.
Almost no other nation has anything like a debt ceiling because it no longer makes any sense. Congress has already approved the spending that forced the debt to rise; there should be no question, much less the possibility of an economic cataclysm, when the bills come due. Members of both parties have called for an end to the debt limit because it risks too much for the United States — and the entire global financial system, as well as the livelihoods of federal workers, veterans and businesses who need to be paid.
