In Silicon Valley, Big Tech Gets Bigger but Leaves Many Behind

The report found that the region's richest 25% holds 92% of the wealth, while the top 10% holds 75% of the wealth.

Stephen Shankland - CNET

Silicon Valley is emerging from the pandemic stronger than ever, according to a new report, with employment, venture capital, real estate and market capitalization among the benchmarks indicating the tech industry's growing power -- even as many in the region struggle.

Tech industry employment in the region, which had steadily stood at about 25% for years, has risen to 29%, according to the 2022 Silicon Valley Index, an annual report. The jump was caused by tech hiring that contrasted with cuts in the retail, services, hospitality, and arts and culture industries, which let people go as the pandemic weighed on business

Employment was dominated by two giants, Apple and Alphabet, Google's parent company. Together the two companies employed 13% of Silicon Valley's workers, a consolidation of power the report's authors noted.

"We used to be lots of techies spread over small and medium companies," Russell Hancock, CEO of Joint Venture Silicon Valley, which runs the annual report. Now Silicon Valley employment is concentrated in "some really, really big companies."

The annual report comes after a year in which technology played a more central role in our lives as work and school moved online for many people during COVID. The report paints a picture of remarkable business success that chiefly benefits those in the tech sector. It sold more hardware, software and services, but often left others behind. The findings reflect a profound change within Silicon Valley and the broader San Francisco Bay Area, where people who aren't in tech jobs didn't benefit from the rapid shift to work and school from home.

Wealth inequality

The report found that the region's richest 25% holds 92% of the wealth, while the top 10% holds 75% of the wealth.

"If Silicon Valley were a country, that kind of wealth disparity would be considered politically unstable," Hancock said. "We're the most bifurcated economy in the United States. The income divide and the wealth gap is just mind boggling," Hancock said in a press briefing Tuesday, adding that the region's wealth disparity would be politically unstable for a country. "The pandemic only amplified these trends."

Joint Venture Silicon Valley, which tracks trends to help governments and businesses, is scheduled to release the annual index on Wednesday. The report covers Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, as well as parts of adjacent counties. It generally excludes San Francisco, though it offers some data from the city for comparison.

The report found that a third of Silicon Valley households can't get by without financial help from friends, family, churches or the government. It used the University of Washington's self-sufficiency standard to determine poverty.

The situation is worse for minorities. The figure increases to 61% for Latinos and 46% for Blacks.

In contrast, big tech generates incredible wealth. Tech companies in Silicon Valley and San Francisco saw their total market worth drop to $6 trillion when the pandemic hit, but quickly rebounded to $14 trillion. Apple, Alphabet, Tesla and Meta (formerly Facebook) account for nearly half (48%) of that value.

Venture capital provided $95 billion, an all-time high, to startups last year, with 257 deals for more than $100 million. San Francisco startups garnered a further $50 billion in 2021.

Ontario’s 'affordable housing' task force report does not address the real problems

Brian Doucet, Canada Research Chair in Urban Change and Social Inclusion, University of Waterloo - 
The Conversation

The province of Ontario’s task force has released 55 recommendations to address the growing housing crisis. But if an affordable housing report explicitly states that building affordable housing is outside its mandate and never once mentions the term “rent control,” is it really an affordable housing report?

While there are some important ideas within this report, particularly to aid middle-class households that have recently become victims of a housing crisis, it is unlikely to make housing more affordable for those on low and moderate incomes who have struggled to find adequate shelter for decades.

The report is what you would expect if you brought together a group of bankers, developers and home builders and asked them to solve the housing crisis. The emphasis is on how to increase the supply of market-rate housing, while largely ignoring other issues central to making housing more affordable.
Housing needs

The report outlines that 1.5 million new homes are needed over the coming decade. There are two issues with this. The first is whether all these homes are actually necessary to keep pace with growth. The report claims that Ontario is 1.2 million houses short of the G7 average. This is based on data showing that Canada has the lowest number of houses per 1,000 people of any G7 nation.

But the number of dwellings per 1,000 people is not a very useful metric, particularly for comparisons between places, because people reside in households. If all 1,000 people live alone, then 1,000 dwellings are required. But if they all reside in households of five, then only 200 dwellings are required.

Dividing those 1,000 people by the average household size of the jurisdiction where they live paints a very different picture about housing needs and can help to interpret differences in rates of housing supply between cities, provinces and countries. These differences in average household size mean those same 1,000 people require an average of 507 dwellings in Germany and 441 in Japan. In Canada, because of our larger average household size of 2.47 people, this figure is only 405.

It should also be noted that Ontario’s average household size is significantly larger than the Canadian average — at 2.58 people per household, it is the second-highest in the country after Alberta.

Between 2006 and 2016, the number of households in Ontario rose by 614,415. During that same 10-year span, there were 689,625 new occupied dwellings. Some of these replaced existing homes, but most condos, apartments and new developments constituted significant net gains.

While we will need to wait for further data from Statistics Canada on the actual number of households in 2021, Ontario’s population grew by an average of 155,090 per year between 2016 and 2021.

If the average household size remains similar, this is roughly 60,000 new households per year, well short of the 150,000 annual new dwellings the report calls for. It is also lower than the average of 79,085 housing starts per year between 2016 and 2021.

But an “average” household doesn’t actually exist. Within these averages, there are a growing number of one-person households, as well as many families who have to move far away from jobs to find appropriate and affordable housing. All this relates to the second issue: the report gives no guidance as to what kind of housing this should be. How many one- or three-bedroom units are required? How many rentals are needed, and where?

The implicit message is that the market knows best. The reality is that, in urban areas, the market produces a lot of small units popular with investors, and suitable for one- and two-person households, but very few dwellings large enough for families.
Changing zoning rules

Within this report, there are some important and long overdue recommendations. The task force suggests eliminating single-family zoning. As I and others have previously articulated, there are many good reasons to do this.

Read more: Urban planning as a tool of white supremacy – the other lesson from Minneapolis

In around 70 per cent of Toronto, it is impossible to construct town homes, duplexes or triplexes (as is common in Montréal), small apartments or anything else that can increase the number of people living in these areas. This is partly why many neighbourhoods are losing population.

The report recommends permitting four units (and up to four storeys) on any residential parcel in the province. Ontario would be joining places like Minneapolis, California and New Zealand in doing away with this restrictive land-use zoning. Within Ontario, Kitchener has been allowing up to three units on most properties since 2020.

Other positive recommendations include permitting the conversion of underused or vacant commercial properties into residential ones, and allowing secondary suites and multi-tenant housing. Eliminating minimum parking requirements near transit and reducing taxes on purpose-built rental properties are also good ideas.

Importantly, the report stresses intensification within existing built-up areas as the priority, rather than developing new housing on greenfield lands. This is a big step towards curbing automobile-dependent sprawl and is in line with the recent decision in Hamilton to stop its urban boundary expansion.
What’s missing

Equally important is what’s not in the report. There were no housing advocates, people with lived experiences of poverty or non-profits working with those struggling with eviction, foreclosure or homelessness on the task force. Incorporating their knowledge is important — for example, intensification can lead to an erosion of housing options for those on low incomes.

It is troubling that this report explicitly states that building new affordable housing was not part of its mandate.

Also absent from this report is any mention of rent control. In Ontario, sitting tenants enjoy some degree of rent control, but when a new unit is built or an existing one becomes vacant, landlords can charge whatever they like. This creates huge incentives to evict sitting tenants via “renoviction.”


© (Marcos Paulo Prado/Unsplash)Investors favour small or one-bedroom units over larger family-sized housing.

It is also worrying that there is no discussion of the role that investors play in fuelling the housing crisis. The report simply dismisses any attempts to cool the market by reducing demand from speculators. In Ontario, a quarter of all home buyers are investors, up from 16 per cent a decade ago.

Instead of incorporating a range of ideas and approaches, the report reads like a blueprint for how to build more market-rate housing. Unfortunately, there is little empirical evidence to indicate that on its own, market-driven upzoning, laneway housing or mixed-use zoning produces the kind of housing that is accessible to households on low and moderate incomes.
Middle-class solutions

We talk a lot about housing today not because of some newfound concern for the poor, who have been suffering through a crisis for generations, but because it has now become a middle-class problem.

The tasks force’s recommendations are squarely aimed at this middle-class interpretation of the housing crisis. Policies to encourage the construction of $1 million townhomes to help those priced out of $1.5 million semis will assist some people to find a home. But these measures will do very little for those on low and moderate incomes.

Instead, a range of policies are needed to curb speculation, increase the supply of non-market, genuinely affordable housing and ensure tenants have adequate protections through strong rent-control policies.

Market-rate housing that meets residential demand and keeps up with growth is important, but this supply is no panacea. An affordable housing strategy focused primarily on adding more of this housing without critically asking who it’s for and implementing policies to match housing supply with housing need is unlikely to resolve the housing problem any time soon.

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

Read more:

The Ontario government’s shameful snub of affordable housing 

Giving developers free rein isn’t the solution to the GTHA housing challenges

Brian Doucet receives funding from SSHRC and the Canada Research Chairs program. Some of his research is conducted in partnership with the Social Development Centre Waterloo Region. He has co-written reports on housing and mobility for local governments in Ontario.

More major development open to Alberta Indigenous Opportunities backing

The provincial government has expanded the mandate of the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation (AIOC) to include financially backstopping projects and related infrastructure in the agricultural, transportation and telecommunications sectors.

The AIOC, created in 2019, was initially set up to provide loan guarantees to natural resource projects only.

“Other tribes, nations, talk about sovereignty, which is good … but in order to really attain true sovereignty as a government representing a tribe or people, you have to have financial sovereignty. So important. And this is what this fund is going to help create,” said Makiinima, Chief Roy Fox of the Kainai/Blood Tribe.

The Southern Alberta First Nation hosted the government announcement at the Kainai Forage facility on Feb. 14.

“Kainai Forage operations is an amazing success story that represents some of the best of Indigenous entrepreneurship in Canada,” said Premier Jason Kenney, who was among the handful of provincial politicians at the announcement. “I feel very confident that within a few years this will be the largest producer and exporter of premium timothy hay in the country and maybe the world.”

Along with their forage operations, the Kainai/Blood Tribe has developed the largest irrigation project in Canada and is the second largest irrigation farm in the world, said Fox. They also have infrastructure that supports 25,000 acres of irrigated land.

As well, the Kainai/Blood tribe is the second biggest oil and gas producer on any First Nations reserve in Canada.

“Adding agriculture, transportation and telecommunications opens possibilities for First Nations that are less involved with natural resources,” said Kenney.

Joining Kenney were ministers Rick Wilson (Indigenous Relations) and Nate Horner (Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Economic Development), as well as newly appointed AIOC chair Stephen Buffalo.

“(With) this new extended mandate there’s going to be even more chances for Indigenous-owned businesses to find new partners and invest in companies and generate wealth,” said Wilson.

To date, AIOC has backstopped $160 million in loan guarantees for three Indigenous natural resource projects. In September 2020, the Cascade Power Project, involving six First Nations, received AIOC’s first loan guarantee at $93 million. In April 2021, a $27 million loan guarantee went to Frog Lake First Nation to invest in the Strathcona Resource’s Lindbergh Cogeneration facility. In September 2021, eight First Nations and Métis communities in the Wood Buffalo region received $40 million in loan guarantees to finance the Northern Courier Pipeline System.

Last month, the AIOC announced capacity grant funding for the Ermineskin Cree Nation for their Neyaskweyahk Energy Project, a proposed solar power generation facility to be built on ECN’s reserve land.

This expansion of the AIOC’s mandate, said Buffalo, “illustrates our organization’s strength and stability to continue to support the health and well-being of our communities.”

Last November, there was a major turnover at AIOC with Chief Executive Officer Alicia Dubois and board chair Cody Church departing. Buffalo, vice-chair at the time, stepped into the chair position.

Like the proposed projects for natural resource development, projects in these three new sectors require a minimum of Indigenous investment of $20 million.

“These sectors are industry that many Indigenous communities have vested interest in expanding and further strengthening and improving the well-being and economic success of their communities. By supporting First Nations and Métis communities in accessing funding … many Indigenous communities will continue to prosper,” said Buffalo.

AIOC has $1 billion of Alberta government funding for loan guarantees.

Responding to questions from Windspeaker.com after the announcement, Indigenous Relations spokesperson Adrienne South said the expanded mandate was not due to decreased interest by Indigenous communities in the natural resource development field.

“The expanded mandate aligns with Alberta’s Recovery Plan. We are confident that we will continue to see strong natural resource applications even with a mandate expansion,” said South.

She added that the AIOC’s board of directors was diverse with experience in a variety of fields and could meet the needs of the new mandate.

“They are well-positioned to make investment decisions across a variety of sectors that will flow money back into Indigenous communities. The board will continue to review applications for commercially viable projects that will put money back into Indigenous communities,” said South.

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com

Canada has existing options if Line 5 shuts down, environmental report argues


WASHINGTON — Viable alternatives to Line 5 already exist if the controversial cross-border pipeline gets shut down, says a new report from an Canadian environmental group looking to bridge the ideological gulf in the public debate over North America's continuing dependence on fossil fuels.

The report, commissioned and released Wednesday by the Toronto-based group Environmental Defence, recommends upgrading Enbridge Inc.'s new Line 78 pipeline to handle the bulk of the energy Line 5 currently delivers to Ontario and Quebec, as well as several Midwestern states.

"I recognize the threat that Line 5 really does pose and I'm aware of all the factors at play that really do set us up for an ecological disaster in the making," said Michelle Woodhouse, the group's water program manager and one of the co-authors of the report.

But Woodhouse said it's equally clear that the extensive infrastructure necessary to wean North America off of oil and gas and replace it with renewable energy sources is still a long way from reality.

"We don't have all of that set up to completely shut down every pipeline right now," she said.

"I just wanted the public to know what the actual data says about our true dependence on this pipeline, and see if there was a viable way to shut it down that didn't have to compromise between protecting the Great Lakes and meeting our present-day crude oil needs."

Critics of Line 5, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, want the pipeline shut down immediately for fear of a looming ecological disaster where it crosses beneath the Straits of Mackinac, an environmentally sensitive shipping lane that links Lake Huron with Lake Michigan.

Proponents call Line 5 a vital and indispensable source of energy, especially propane, for several Midwestern states, including Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. It is also a key source of feedstock for critical refineries on the northern side of the border, including those that supply jet fuel to some of Canada's busiest airports.

Line 78 extends across the southern part of the state to link Sarnia, Ont., with junctions in northwestern Indiana at the southernmost tip of Lake Michigan, where it connects with existing lines from Superior, Wisc., where Line 5 originates. It was completed in 2015 as a replacement upgrade for Line 6B, best known as the pipeline that spilled 3.1 million litres of oil into Michigan's Kalamazoo River in 2010.

The report makes a case for upgrading Line 78 even further to carry the bulk of Line 5's crude-oil load, while the remainder — a best-case estimate of 119,000 barrels per day — could be handled by additional rail or marine tanker capacity, with only a minimal impact on the environment.

"The closure of Line 5 is inevitable — either through court order or due to a rupture," the report says, noting that either outcome would lead to energy shortages throughout the myriad regions and facilities that depend on it for energy.

"A better solution is a planned shutdown where Enbridge, the refineries and governments sort out how best to meet demand without Line 5. What this report clearly demonstrates is that options exist."

Enbridge, however, insists that's not the case.

Line 78 is already operating at full capacity serving other customers, the company said in a statement, adding that only two of the pipelines in its Mainline network — Line 5 is one — can handle the natural gas liquids that are used to make the propane that comprises nearly half the demand in Michigan alone.

"Enbridge's Mainline system is at capacity and is regularly apportioned — or oversubscribed," the statement said.

"The one thing proved by this misguided plan is that a shutdown of Line 5 would have a significant and immediate impact on the region's energy supply, businesses and hard-working families in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Canada's two largest provinces. It makes no sense."

The report says the two sections that comprise Line 78 are currently able to carry 570,000 and 500,000 barrels of oil per day, but could be upgraded to capacities of 800,000 and 525,000 respectively — what the report describes as the "ultimate design" scenario.

Line 5, by comparison, has a maximum daily capacity of 540,000 barrels, although neither pipeline is currently operating at full strength, the report notes. "This means spare capacity already exists within Line 78 to largely make up for the closure of Line 5."

The report says in the "constrained" Line 78 scenario, a Line 5 closure would leave a shortfall of 255,000 barrels per day to be made up elsewhere, while the shortfall shrinks to 119,000 barrels under the expanded-capacity model.

It estimates that two to three additional trains on routes already transporting oil could handle that additional 119,000 barrels, as could a single additional marine tanker. And it projects a nominal increase in the price of gasoline: 1.8 cents per litre.

Enbridge, however, insists that it would take too long to develop and obtain approval for the necessary increases — a conclusion already reached by Michigan's own energy task force. And it makes a point of emphasizing the environmental impact of adding trains, trucks and tankers to the network.

The plan, they argue, "would put the environment at risk as it would burn more fuel to transport energy, clog critical roads and rail lines and create unnecessary energy dislocations while raising prices."

Martin Meyers, an independent energy analyst and 40-year veteran of the industry on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border who helped in compiling the report, acknowledged that it doesn't take into account what's currently being shipped via Line 78.

But the capacity numbers, he said, are based on the company's own data, submitted to regulators in 2013 as part of the process of replacing Line 6B.

As for the problem of natural gas liquids, there is already plenty of natural gas production and refining capacity in the region south of the border to more than meet that demand, he said: "There's a significant resource that is being produced, and with growing volume."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2022.

James McCarten, The Canadian Press

Pacific Salmon Treaty failing to address harvest of struggling B.C. stocks: advocates


VANCOUVER — Significant numbers of salmon returning to spawn in British Columbia are being caught in southeast Alaskan fisheries, hindering Canada's efforts to preserve and rebuild stocks that are declining to historic lows, B.C. salmon advocatessay.

Canada and the United States ratified the Pacific Salmon Treaty in 1985 to manage cross-border harvesting,but it wasn't designed to deal with climate change and stocks that are in crisis, said Greg Knox, executive director of SkeenaWild Conservation Trust based in Terrace, B.C.

"We can't protect and rebuild B.C. salmon without Alaska giving us a hand, there's just no way," he said. "The productivity of a lot of our populations has gone way down, so they can't sustain high harvest levels anymore."

The treaty states that both countries should manage their fisheries to prevent overfishing and ensure they each receive benefits equal to the salmon that spawn in their respective waters. But as B.C. stocks decline, the treaty is failing to deliver that balance, said Knox, who is a member of the Pacific Salmon Commission's regional panel focused on northern B.C. and Alaska fisheries.

The Pacific Salmon Commission, which manages the treaty, is holding its annual meeting this week.

Greg Taylor, fisheries adviser for the B.C.-based Watershed Watch Salmon Society, said Alaska has an "effective veto" in the treaty process since decision-making requires consensus between B.C., Washington, Oregon and Alaska.

Alaskan law requires that certain salmon management objectives are met, he said, including targets for the number of fish that make it back to their spawning areas.

However, that's not the case for salmon that are returning to rivers in B.C., said Taylor, who previously sat on the commission's northern panel.

Alaska doesn't have an incentive to curtail its harvesting of salmon that spawn outside its jurisdiction, he said, even as the Canadian government and First Nations in B.C. have limited harvesting to help preserve stocks.

Doug Vincent-Lang, the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the state's fisheries remain in compliance with the treaty.

In reaching agreements, both countries consider "the desirability in most cases"of reducing the harvest of each other's fish.They also consider avoiding the undue disruption of existing fisheries and annual variations in salmon stocks, he said in an email.

The latest agreement requires annual assessments of harvesting rates, Vincent-Lang added.

Fisheries and Oceans Canada has said many B.C. salmon stocksare declining to historic lows due to climate change, habitat degradation and "fishing pressures."

About 60 per cent of B.C.'s commercial salmon fisheries were closed last June as part of the federal government's Pacific salmon recovery efforts.

As B.C. stocks decline, the proportional impact of a series of southeast Alaskan seine fisheries is increasing, Knox said. All of the different species migrating together are corralled in a large net known as a seine, he explained.

Genetic sampling indicated that about 650,000 sockeye from B.C. were caught by those fisheries last year, an estimate based on data from the northern panel's technical committee, said Knox.

A single Alaskan seine fishery known as district 104 caught more than 400,000 of those sockeye, he said. It operates on the state's outer coast, north of Haida Gwaii, and intercepts the migration route for many B.C. salmon.

Relocating that fishery to inside waters, where much of Alaska's seine fleet for pink salmon already operates, would significantly reduce the harvest of B.C. stocks, Knox said.

Taylor said the catch from district 104 represents a "tiny" fraction of the tens of millions of salmon Alaska's fisheries harvest each year, yet it's significant for B.C. stocks.

Canada began closing its own net fisheries that intercepted U.S. stocks in the 1990s, he added.

Alaska doesn't record the harvest of several species, including steelhead, pink and chum salmon that are bound for B.C., Knox noted.

"We currently have no real idea how many of those fish Alaska is catching, which is a huge gap and undermines our ability to meet the principles set out in the treaty."

The Southeast Alaska Seiners Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the harvesting of salmon bound for B.C.

Knox said there should be an independent review of the Pacific Salmon Treaty to assess whether it's meeting its own principles and how it could be reformed.

The treaty was last renegotiated in 2018 with the next update set for 2028.

"We can't wait another six years to wait for the treaty to try to deal with this," Knox said.

Canada has the option to call an emergency meeting to address Alaska's catch, he added.

Claire Teichman, media secretary for Fisheries Minister Joyce Murray, said Canadian and U.S. officials meet regularly about the management of fisheries under the treaty.

B.C.'s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries said in a statement that the province would continue working with various governments to encourage the reduction of bycatch in Alaska's salmon, halibut and trawl fisheries.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 16, 2022.

Brenna Owen, The Canadian Press

Study suggests climate change made B.C. floods at least twice as likely

Catastrophic floods that swamped much of southern British Columbia last fall were at least twice as likely because of climate change, suggests new research from Environment Canada.

The study, now undergoing peer review, concludes that the likelihood of similar events in the future will only increase as global warming continues to upend normal weather patterns.

"We do find substantial ongoing increases in the probability of these kinds of events," said Nathan Gillett, an atmospheric physicist and manager of the Canadian Centre for Climate Modelling and Analysis.

In November, B.C. saw three events come together to create unprecedented flooding.

A so-called "atmospheric river" brought two days of drenching rain. It fell on already-sodden soil that couldn't absorb much more and was augmented by high temperatures that swelled bursting stream beds with snow melt.

The result was almost 15,000 people forced from their homes, major roads and bridges washed away and farms flooded in up to two metres of water. Landslides killed at least five people.

Insured losses have been estimated at $450 million; 600,000 chickens and 12,000 hogs died.

Gillett and his colleagues wanted to estimate the contribution of climate change to the disaster while it was still fresh in public memory. They turned to the science of climate attribution, which uses climate models to estimate the influence of one or more factors on weather events.

"We compared simulations with human influence and compared them with simulations without human influence," he said.

The team worked with a group at Oxford University doing similar research. To ensure the results weren't influenced by quirks in any one model, the team used more than two dozen different ones. The results were consistent across all of them.

"All of the models show an increase in this kind of event in response to human-induced climate change."

The team concluded that climate change had increased the odds of an atmospheric river like the one that swamped B.C. by at least 60 per cent.

"There's higher odds of this kind of atmospheric river event occurring now than there was back in the 19th century," Gillett said. "Where there were two events before, now there's three."

When the scientists factored in the other contributors to the disaster, they concluded that the odds of what happened to B.C. had been at least doubled by climate change, and may have been quadrupled.

And that's for the current climate, already affected by climate change. The chance of another catastrophe continues to increase as greenhouse gases keep entering the atmosphere.

"We expect that to increase as the climate continues to warm," Gillett said.

Evidence keeps mounting that climate change is already causing damaging and extreme weather. Last summer, researchers at Oxford concluded the heat dome that brought unprecedented temperatures to B.C. and set the table for a wildfire that destroyed the village of Lytton would have been all but impossible without climate change.

Gillett said, if nothing else, the conclusions point to the need to rebuild roads and buildings that are able to withstand more severe weather than in the past.

"It's important to consider when we're rebuilding infrastructure how the risks of these kinds of events are increasing, and taking that into account."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.

— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

Earth is warming too quickly for these tiny organisms to adapt

By Ashley Strickland,  CNN- Tuesday
© Matthew Nelsen/Field Museum


As global temperatures steadily rise, our planet may be changing too quickly for some of nature's most wide-ranging organisms to adapt.

Thousands of species of tiny plantlike organisms may evolve too slowly to keep up with Earth's changes as the climate crisis continues, according to new research.


© Matthew Nelsen/Field Museum

Algae enjoys a symbiotic relationship with a fungus, living inside this lichen on a rock in the Atacama Desert.

These tiny organisms are algae, something you likely picture floating as a green film on top of a pond or lake.

But when algae team up with fungus, they form colonies of lichen -- those light-colored, curly patches growing on rocks and trees in your backyard. And with lichen as their vehicle, algae have the versatility to inhabit a vast range of ecosystems around the globe, living anywhere from the Arctic tundra to the most arid desert. Lichen is the dominant vegetation, covering 7% of the planet's surface.


© Matthew Nelsen/Field Museum

Lichen takes many forms all over the world, like this spaghetti lichen growing in the Alaskan tundra.

Lichen grow on the order of millimeters per year and can be thousands of years old. Even if the middle of the lichen begins to break down and decompose, the outer edge will keep spreading out like a ring.

But these slow-growing lichens also move at a snail's pace when it comes to evolutionary change: They don't adapt quickly enough to match the pace with which our planet is shifting, especially as it heats up.
Tracking evolutionary change

Researchers studied Trebouxia, single-celled algae that live inside lichen. There are more than 7,000 kinds of these lichen with algal partners, making them common across the globe. The study published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology.

In order to understand how lichen may adapt, the researchers looked at the genetic relationships of different algae species for comparison, as well as their varied environments.

By creating family trees of algae, researchers could track its evolutionary changes. The scientists realized how long it takes for algae to get used to an environment and its temperatures, precipitation amount and seasonal changes. The algae within lichen can take hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of years to adapt to their preferred climates, according to the new study.


© Matthew Nelsen/Field Museum

As the climate changes, algae may have to disperse to new environments and may not be able to thrive in extreme habitats, like the Alaskan tundra.

"I was shocked," said lead study author Matthew Nelsen, a research scientist at Chicago's Field Museum. "I should have known better from the other papers I've read, but I was disturbed to see it. It's so close to home, on a group of organisms near and dear to my heart."


© Matthew Nelsen/Field Museum

Lichen housing Trebouxia algae can be seen growing on rocks in the Czech Republic.

A symbiotic relationship

When it comes to lichen, the algae supply food in the form of sugars while the fungus serves as a habitat, creating a symbiotic relationship. And over time, lichen have evolved to appear in the most extreme environments, including around volcanoes.

Their purpose varies depending on where they live, but lichen create oxygen, prevent erosion, provide nesting material, retain moisture and contribute to water cycling in ecosystems. They also serve as a food source for many species including some mammals, like reindeer.

"When you see a lichen, you're basically looking at all fungal tissue, with some algal cells hidden away and protected inside," Nelsen said. "Loosely speaking, it's like a greenhouse -- the fungus creates a more hospitable environment for the algae."

The level of diversity is just part of what makes lichen so charismatic to Nelsen. There are about 20,000 species of fungi that help form lichens -- more than all of the species of mammals and birds combined.

"They may be a bit more subtle and not as cute, but it's still a substantial amount of diversity out there," Nelsen said. However, he noted that lichen can appear stunning and almost otherworldly in nature.

A changing world

If the planet continues to warm at its current rate, that will outpace what many Trebouxia can adapt to, which could cause ripple effects.

"In this study, we set out to learn how rapidly the climate preferences of these algae have evolved over time, and relate them to predictions about future rates of climate change," Nelsen said.

"We found that the predicted rate of modern climate change vastly exceeds the rate at which these algae have evolved in the past. This means that certain parts of their range are likely to become inhospitable to them."

Algae and lichen have been able to survive previous shifts in Earth's global temperatures, but climate change is causing those to occur much more quickly.

"Closely related algal species tend to have similar climatic preferences, as predicted by their evolutionary relationships," Nelsen said. "The most closely related ones might live in really similar climates, whereas distantly related species might differ more in their climatic tolerance."

Future impacts

When a climate changes, it's not uncommon to see plants or animals appear in new environments, where they compete with existing species. While it doesn't mean that the 7,000 Trebouxia algae will simply disappear, it indicates that changes are on the horizon. If the algae partner of lichen begins to die out, the fungus might be taken out as well, or the algae may have to slowly move to another area.

"I think we're going to see the ranges of these things shift, and that could lead to some shuffling of the relationships with fungi-- we might get partnerships that weren't there previously," Nelsen said.

"Since algae are the food source for the fungus, they're the ones photosynthesizing and making sugars to give to the fungus. If they're forced to move, then the fungal partner would either have to move too, or develop a new partnership."

Going forward, Nelsen wants to determine how these lichen survive and even thrive in extreme and diverse environments, test the temperature range limits of algae they can withstand, and understand more about the fungus component of lichen and how it reacts to change.

Nelsen believes lichen research could be applied to other aspects of understanding how climate change will unfold.

"They have interesting stories behind them, and it's just kind of up to us to try to figure out what exactly they're doing out there in nature," Nelsen said.

Coastal GasLink pipeline to go 'significantly' over budget, says TC Energy


CALGARY — The company behind the Coastal GasLink pipeline continues to expect to go "significantly" over budget for the project and will also deliver a delayed completion date

© Provided by The Canadian PressCoastal GasLink pipeline to go 'significantly' over budget, says TC Energy

However, TC Energy Corp. said Tuesday it still expects the pipeline to be finished ahead of LNG Canada's export terminal at Kitimat, B.C., which is also currently under construction.

Calgary-based TC Energy was selected by LNG Canada in 2011 to design, build, own and operate Coastal GasLink. Construction began in 2019, with an originally anticipated completion date of 2023.

TC Energy said as part of its fourth quarter earnings report Tuesday that construction of the pipeline is now approximately 60 per cent complete. The 670-kilometre project is intended to move 2.1 billion cubic feet per day (bcf/d) of natural gas to LNG Canada's terminal, where it will be converted into a liquified state for export to global markets.

But head of corporate development Bevin Wirzba acknowledged in a conference call with analysts that TC Energy remains at odds with LNG Canada over projected cost increases and schedule delays. The company has previously blamed permit delays and the impacts of COVID-19 for the issues.

Wirzba declined to put a dollar value on the project's cost overruns, though he said TC Energy is engaged in a "constructive dialogue" with LNG Canada right now to resolve the dispute. He said no suspension of construction is expected while talks take place.

"What is really clear to us is that the fundamentals that underpin the need for Coastal GasLink and the LNG Canada facility (and) the needs for those projects have never been more robust," he said.

"Our shared objective with our customers is to deliver the pipeline safely and get it ahead of the LNG plant that's being constructed right now."

TC Energy has committed to providing up to $3.3 billion in additional temporary bridge financing to cover cost overruns related to the Coastal GasLink pipeline project.

The $40-billion LNG Canada export facility at Kitimat — which the federal government said in 2018 would be the single largest private sector investment in Canadian history — is now more than 50 per cent complete, according the LNG Canada website.

LNG Canada is a joint venture comprised of subsidiaries of Royal Dutch Shell plc, Petronas, PetroChina Co. Ltd., Mitsubishi Corp. and Korea Gas Corp.

In an emailed statement, LNG Canada's vice-president for corporate affairs Denita McKnight said the company remains concerned about Coastal GasLink's cost and schedule performance, but is working towards a "mutually agreeable solution."

"We remain fully committed to delivering this critical infrastructure that will connect Canadian natural gas to growing global markets, and to shipping our first LNG cargo by the middle of this decade," McKnight said.

Also on Tuesday, TC Energy raised its dividend as it reported a fourth-quarter profit of $1.1 billion.

The pipeline company said it will now pay a quarterly dividend of 90 cents per share, up from 87 cents per share.

The increased payment to shareholders came as TC Energy said its fourth-quarter profit amounted to $1.14 per share compared with a profit of $1.1 billion or $1.20 per share a year earlier when the company had fewer shares outstanding.

Revenue totalled nearly $3.6 billion, up from nearly $3.3 billion in the last three months of 2020.

TC Energy said its adjusted earnings for fourth quarter 2021 amounted to $1.06 per share compared with $1.15 per share in 2020.

Analysts on average had expected an adjusted profit of $1.07 per share, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 15, 2022.

Companies in this story: (TSX:TRP)

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

Singh says NDP will back Emergencies Act

Canadian Press

As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks with premiers about using the Emergencies Act to quell demonstrations that have paralyzed Ottawa's downtown core and several border crossings, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he would support the legislation if it is tabled. Singh says borders need to be reopened immediately and the "seige" on Ottawa needs to end.

IN 1970 THE NDP FACING POTENTIAL JAIL TIME OPPOSED THE WAR MEASURES ACT 

THE ONLY PARTY IN THE HOUSE TO DO SO.

BIG BROTHER INC.
Meta agrees to pay $90 million to settle a lawsuit alleging Facebook kept tracking users after they logged off

sjackson@insider.com (Sarah Jackson) - 

© Provided by Business InsiderMeta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Meta will pay $90 million to settle a lawsuit alleging it kept tracking users after they logged off.
The 2012 suit said Facebook used plug-ins and cookies to track visits to third-party websites containing "like" buttons.
If approved, this would be one of the 10 biggest data privacy class action settlements ever.

Meta has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a decade-old lawsuit alleging Facebook kept tracking users' internet activity after they'd logged off of the platform.

The proposed settlement was filed late Monday and still requires court approval. If approved, it would be one of the 10 biggest data-privacy class-action settlements ever, according to the document.

The 2012 lawsuit alleges that, between April 2010 and September 2011, Facebook violated privacy and wiretapping laws by using plug-ins to store cookies tracking users' visits to third-party websites that contained "like" buttons. The social media site had users' permission to track them while they were logged in but promised to stop when they logged out.

Besides the $90 million sum, which would be distributed among affected users, the settlement would require that Facebook delete data improperly collected on users through the use of this practice.

Meta did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, but a spokesperson told Variety, "Reaching a settlement in this case, which is more than a decade old, is in the best interest of our community and our shareholders and we're glad to move past this issue." As part of the settlement, Meta denies any wrongdoing.

The lawsuit was dismissed in 2017 when a federal judge said the plaintiffs failed to show they had a reasonable expectation of privacy or that they suffered economic harm. In 2020, a federal appeals court revived the case, saying there is economic harm in such a situation. Facebook tried to have the Supreme Court take up the case, but it declined, allowing the federal appeals court's decision to stand.

Last year, Facebook agreed to pay $650 million to settle a separate privacy lawsuit, this one alleging the company's tagging feature violated an Illinois law prohibiting the collection of biometric data without prior notification and written consent. On Monday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced the state is suing Meta over Facebook's now-defunct facial recognition program.