Blue Hydrogen is an Environmental Dead-End
Andrew Taylor-Dawson
3 September 2021

 

A hydrogen-powered car. Photo: Mark Bourdillon/Alamy

Celebrated by the Government as part of its green energy solution, it will take more than switching to hydrogen to get the UK to net zero, says Andrew Taylor-Dawson

Hydrogen is being touted as a silver bullet for decarbonising everything from heavy industry to heating and transport. But, as many have pointed out, not all hydrogen is created equal.

The Government’s recently published UK Hydrogen Strategy commits to a “twin-track approach” of producing “green hydrogen” using renewable energy to power its extraction from water. It also plans to produce blue hydrogen produced from fossil gas, which risks continuing the UK’s reliance on fossil fuels and creating large-scale emissions harmful to the environment.

Currently, about 4% of UK production comes from electrolysis – the process of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen using renewable energy. This is ‘green hydrogen’. The rest is currently ‘grey hydrogen’, which is produced from methane gas and releases harmful emissions.

Blue hydrogen adapts this process to capture the emissions and store them underground. It is for this reason that it is being touted as a green energy solution. But the reality is very different.

Researchers at Cornell University have published a paper which suggests that “far from being low carbon, greenhouse gas emissions from the production of blue hydrogen are quite high, particularly due to the release of fugitive methane”.

The “fugitive emissions” they speak of are those released by a portion of the methane used in the process remaining unburned. They also found blue hydrogen emissions are likely to be “20% greater than burning natural gas or coal for heat and some 60% greater than burning diesel oil for heat”.

Ahead of the publication of the Government’s strategy, the chair of the UK’s Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, Chris Jackson stepped down – telling industry magazine H2 View that “I believe passionately I would be betraying future generations by remaining silent on the fact blue hydrogen is at best an expensive distraction, and at worst a lock-in for continued fossil fuel use that guarantees we will fail to meet our decarbonisation goals”.

CLIMATE LAWSUITSA Weapon in the Fight Against Fossil Fuels?
Thomas Perrett

Only Part of the Solution

Many of the large green groups such as Friends of the Earth (FOE) and Greenpeace naturally oppose the use of blue hydrogen. But green hydrogen alone is not a magic bullet for everything that it has been proposed for.

As FOE points out, the speed of transition required in areas such as heating would mean that hydrogen from purely green sources would be highly unlikely to be able to meet the UK’s heating needs by 2030 – the point at which significant in-roads into the emissions in this area need to be made. This is the case even if blue hydrogen is added into the energy mix.

In fact, Greenpeace’s investigative project Unearthed believes that to generate enough power from hydrogen would be the equivalent of 30 times the current amount of offshore wind power.

Blue hydrogen is being pushed as part of the solution at least in the short-term. But, as Unearthed goes on to point out, it is fossil fuel companies such as BP that are behind this drive. The oil giant has stated in the past how “the production of blue hydrogen helps overall global supplies of hydrogen to grow relatively quickly without relying too heavily on renewable energy”.

BP is a member of the innocuous sounding Hydrogen Council – an organisation that describes itself as “a global CEO-led initiative of energy, transport and industry companies with a united vision for hydrogen”. Read between the lines and it is clear that this group – which also includes Shell, Honda, and Airbus – is a tool for vested interests which stand to gain from a model that keeps us locked into fossil fuel usage.

As FOE argues, despite all the promises that have been made, green hydrogen won’t be able to meet our needs. It could, however, be prioritised for areas where there are not other low carbon options – for example, heavy industry.

As discussions continue about how best to achieve a workable and just transition to a low carbon economy, corporate interests that are determined to continue to rely on fossil fuels cannot be allowed to dominate the debate.

Blue hydrogen is arguably a dangerous dead-end and a solution to nothing. For heating, we need to focus on the installation of electric heat pumps. This must happen alongside massively ramping up renewable energy production. No single fuel or form of energy production will offer a quick fix.

The warnings of Chris Jackson and others should be taken seriously and pressure kept on the Government to move away from its twin-track approach to hydrogen production.

China Gold, CNMC criticized for environmental failings
Reuters | September 6, 2021

The Yangtze River turning red, possibly due to industrial pollution.
Credit: Pinterest

China’s environment ministry on Monday criticised state-run metal producers China Gold and CNMC for polluting their surroundings and failing to adequately address previously identified problems, with a particular focus on tailings dams.


The Ministry of Ecology and Environment said last month it would send inspection teams to China National Gold Group and CNMC, or China Nonferrous Metal Mining Group Co, in the central government’s latest round of audits aimed at cleaning up heavy industry.

Inspectors found flue gas leaks from a copper smelting furnace belonging to CNMC unit China Daye Non-ferrous Metals Mining, in Hubei province, as well as excessive concentrations of toxic impurities lead, arsenic and cadmium in a nearby rainwater pipe network, a ministry statement said.

Daye Nonferrous, one of China’s biggest copper producers, also failed to build a flood interception ditch for a tailings dam at its Fengshan copper mine despite being told to do so as far back as 2012, the ministry said, adding that the dam was only some 800 metres from the Yangtze river.

Tailings dams are commonly used by mining firms to store waste remnants of ore. They have been under close scrutiny globally since the 2019 collapse of one in Brazil which killed around 270 people.

Daye has over the years dealt with calls for it to rectify outstanding environmental problems “in a perfunctory manner”, the ministry said.

Daye and CNMC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The ministry’s report on China Gold centered on its operations in the southern regions of Yunnan, Guangxi and Guizhou, which were described as being rich in minerals but having fragile ecosystems.

In Guangxi, inadequate work on tailings dams belonging to a unit of China Gold had created reddish-brown ponds with excessive levels of arsenic and cyanide, the ministry said.

China Gold did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the findings.

(By Tom Daly; Editing by Jason Neely)

See 7 Breathtaking New Photos Of The ‘King Of Planets’ Taken This Week By NASA’s Juno Spacecraft

Jamie Carter
Senior Contributor
Science
I inspire people to go stargazing, watch the Moon, enjoy the night sky

Jupiter's Folded Filamentary Region as photographed by NASA's Juno spacecraft during its Perijove ... [+]

 NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS/KEVIN M. GILL

NASA’s Juno spacecraft orbiting Jupiter has sent back another batch of stunning photos of the giant planet.

The $1.1 billion spacecraft, which recently marked the tenth anniversary of its launch, has been orbiting Jupiter since 2016, but recently entered a new second phase of its mission after completing its core five-year survey of the giant planet.

The new images from its 36th perijove (close flyby) include glimpses of Jupiter’s hurricanes, cyclonic storms and cloud tops during a three-hour dive that took it to just 2,600 miles from the planet’s poles.

All of these stunning new images are the fruits of a fleet of incredible “citizen scientists,” who after each perijove download the raw data from JunoCam—the spacecraft’s on-board two-megapixel camera—via the NASA mission’s special website. They then painstakingly post-process and colour-correct them to create the wonderful images you see here.

'Citizen scientist' Kevin M. Gill's image shows Juno approaching Jupiter on its 36th perijove.

NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS/KEVIN M. GILL

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The key Twitter accounts to follow include Kevin M. Gill, Brian Swift, Andrea Luck, Björn Jónsson and Seán Doran, to name but a few.

Together they’ve produced the highest-resolution—and surely the most beautiful—images of Jupiter ever taken.

Luckily, that’s not the end of the story. Juno was recently granted an extension of 42 orbits by NASA that will take its mission to at least until September 2025. 

The spacecraft flies on an unusual elliptical orbit of Jupiter, which takes it far from the planet only to swing in close every 43 days.

It was formerly 53 days, but its recent flyby of Ganymede meant that the moon’s gravitational pull reduced the length of its orbit.

During that flyby Juno had just 25 minutes to take five photographs of Ganymede, but it’s not the only one of Jupiter’s so-called “Galilean Moons” that the spacecraft will visit.

Its new orbital path will take it to within 200 miles/320 kilometers of Europa on September 29, 2022 and then to within 900 miles/1,500 km of Io on both December 30, 2023 and February 3, 2024.

There are four Galilean moons around Jupiter, the other being Callisto. These icy Jovian moons were first discovered by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610.

Jupiter's Folded Filamentary Region as photographed by NASA's Juno spacecraft during its Perijove ... [+]

 NASA/JPL-CALTECH/SWRI/MSSS/KEVIN M. GILL

At around 390 million miles/628 million kilometers from Earth, Juno is the furthest solar-powered spacecraft in NASA’s fleet. It’s part of NASA’s New Frontiers program of medium-sized planetary science spacecraft.

Juno launched on August 5, 2011 from Cape Canaveral, Florida and arrived at Jupiter on July 4, 2016. It then orbited Jupiter 35 times before a mission extension.

In August Jupiter went into “opposition” as seen from Earth. Caused by Earth passing between Jupiter and the Sun, this annual event means the planet is both shining at its brightest and is well-positioned for the next few weeks and months. But hurry! The giant planet is almost past its best as seen from Earth—though most definitely not from orbit.

Climate change pushes New Zealand to warmest recorded winter

Nick Perry
The Associated Press Staff
Monday, September 6, 2021 


WELLINGTON, NEW ZEALAND -- The southern winter that just ended in New Zealand was the warmest ever recorded, and scientists say that climate change is driving temperatures ever higher.

For the three months through August, the average temperature was 9.8 Celsius (50 Fahrenheit), according to New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

That's 1.3C above the long-term average and 0.2C higher than the previous record posted last year. Scientists have been keeping records since 1909, but most of the warmest winters have been recent.

Nava Fedaeff, a meteorologist at the institute, said that on top of a background of global warming, this year there were more warm winds than usual from the north and warmer sea temperatures.

She said the underlying warming trend can be tracked through carbon dioxide concentration, which has increased in New Zealand from 320 parts per million 50 years ago to about 412 parts per million today.

Fedaeff said snowfall at lower elevations was well below average this winter as it was often replaced with rain, which could make for lower river levels later in the year because there will be less snowmelt. That could impact irrigation for farms, she said.

There were also more extreme weather events, Fedaeff said, including severe flooding in some places and dry spells in others.

Professor James Renwick, a climate scientist at the Victoria University of Wellington, said that in the short term at least, some New Zealand farmers with cow or sheep herds might benefit from a longer grass-growing season.

But he said the changes were also putting pressure on natural ecosystems and over time, more species would face extinction. He said it was imperative for humans to slow the rate of greenhouse gas emissions.

"If we don't get on top of warming soon, there is going to be grief for large sections of the world," Renwick said.

Renwick said that New Zealand had talked a lot about climate change but had so far done little to curb its emissions. But he said there were now good government policies in place, including a pledge to become carbon-neutral by 2050.

He said there were plenty of natural resources like wind, sun and water that could provide renewable power for the nation's energy needs.

"New Zealand could become world-leading in green energy and a green economy," he said.


Jago Haag, 9, plays at the water's edge at sunset, in Auckland Saturday, Sept. 4, 2021. (Sylvie Whinray/New Zealand Herald via AP)

UCP EVANGELICAL'S SPEAK IN TONGUES

Places of worship granted mask exemption in new Alberta restrictions

By Jessie Weisner Global News
Posted September 6, 2021


With new temporary public health restrictions in effect, the province has implemented some exemptions. As Jessie Weisner explains, places of worship are included on that list.

Alberta places of worship have received an automatic exemption for wearing masks indoors during religious services.

The new public health restrictions implemented on Sept. 4 outlined a provincewide mask mandate on most indoor public spaces.

Exemptions apply to farming and ranching operations, fitness facilities and places of worship.


READ MORE: Exemptions given to Alberta rodeos, Calgary & Fort McMurray Pride events to serve liquor past 10 p.m.

That comes as a disappointment to some Calgary churches.

“Part of me wasn’t surprised when I went and looked online on the website and found the exemption, and part of me is disappointed that churches — talking for Christian churches here — but that we would need it,” said pastor John Van Sloten with Marda Loop Church.

“I don’t understand why we as a church wouldn’t want to love others by wearing a mask. I mean, how small a thing.”

READ MORE: Effectiveness of new Alberta COVID-19 health restrictions under scrutiny

An emailed statement from Alberta Health read: “Chief medical officer of health orders for indoor public masking have always included exceptions. The list of exceptions has varied over time as our understanding of COVID-19 has evolved.”

“There are also general exceptions in the order to facilitate activities that would be impractical or impossible to do while masked,” it said.

“Some examples include: consuming food or drink while seated, taking communion, establishing identity, medical emergencies or receiving care or assistance when a mask cannot be worn.”


READ MORE: Alberta introduces new COVID-19 measures, offers $100 incentive to increase vaccine numbers

When asked for clarification on why churches were automatically given an exemption, Alberta Health said: “Throughout the pandemic, we’ve recognized the importance of faith communities to the quality of life and well-being of their members.”

“We continue to work with churches, schools, employers and other organizations to balance overall community safety with the need to minimize the impact of restrictions

Restrictions on religious gatherings have caused protests across the province.

Throughout the pandemic, a number of churches in Alberta held multiple services while gatherings weren’t allowed, with some pastors arrested and charged for defying orders.


Alberta weddings and events hit by latest COVID-19 restrictions

Legal battles are ongoing.

READ MORE: COVID-19: Calgary police arrest 2 church service organizers for violating new court order

Rev. Dr. Greg Glatz with Knox United Church says the exemption appears to play to that controversy.

“The exemption for faith communities not to have to wear masks is ridiculous. It seems like it’s pandering to a political or religious base. It’s not based on science, and it will only increase the occurrences of COVID-19,” he said.

READ MORE: Alberta weddings and events hit by latest COVID-19 restrictions

Pastor Van Sloten has implemented a mandatory vaccine policy at his church, saying it’s a small action to protect all of his parishioners.

“It is disappointing that the exemption is needed, and probably that it will be taken up by some faith communities. I really do believe the Christian thing to do is, I mean, wear a little mask over your face,” he said.

“You can still sing. We can still do all the other things we’re doing as a community. Nobody said we can’t do that. Why not wear a mask for the sake of those who need us to?”

Alberta Health added masking is still strongly encouraged, even in places with an exemption.

 

Hearings for Fairy Creek Old Growth Protest

The Canadian Press - Sep 6, 2021 /  | Story: 344926

Photo: The Canadian Press

RCMP officers assess the situation at an anti-logging protest in Caycuse, B.C., on Tuesday, May 18, 2021.

 The ongoing battle over old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island is heading back to court

 where a forest company will seek to extend an injunction order and the RCMP and protesters

 will face off over police powers.

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jen Osborne

The ongoing battle over old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island is heading back to court where a forest company will seek to extend an injunction order and the RCMP and protesters will face off over police powers.

British Columbia Supreme Court is scheduled to hear four civil applications in Nanaimo connected to the yearlong dispute over logging in the Fairy Creek area, located north of Port Renfrew.

More than 800 people have been arrested in the area since May after Teal Jones Cedar Products Ltd. was granted an injunction prohibiting blockades at entry points to an area where it is harvesting trees.

The court's decision on the applications, which are set to be heard Sept. 14 to 17, could change the nature of the dispute, Victoria lawyer Matthew Nefstead said Friday.

"If the injunction expires and isn't renewed, then obviously that completely changes the landscape in terms of the interface between police and protesters and loggers," said Nefstead, who is representing several members of a group opposed to old-growth logging known as the Rainforest Flying Squad.

None of the statements made in the applications have been tested in court.

Teal Cedar Products says in court documents it is seeking to have the injunction order extended by one year to Sept. 26, 2022, because without the court order and the presence of the RCMP, protesters will impede forestry operations that are worth $32 million to the B.C.-based company.

"Unfortunately, and despite the RCMP's considerable efforts, the blockades are ongoing," say the documents. "In the absence of an injunction and enforcement by the RCMP anarchy will reign ... a situation which cannot be tolerated in a society governed by the rule of law."

A spokesperson for the company could not be immediately reached for comment.

The RCMP, in an application filed by the Attorney General of Canada, says it is asking the court to vary its injunction order to allow the Mounties to limit traffic and conduct searches in enforcement areas because of increased challenges from protesters.

The RCMP says it wants the order changed to allow officers to conduct searches of people and deny entry to those considered in breach of the injunction or refusing to be searched.

"Protesters have: buried themselves under boulders and rotting logs, suspended themselves on tripods with nooses around their necks, surrounded and trapped police officers on logging roads, disabled heavy equipment used to safely defeat obstacles and destroyed roads such that they risk collapsing," the police application asserts.

Sgt. Chris Manseau said in a statement the RCMP is preparing for the hearings and will reserve its comments for the court.

"However, we can once again confirm that all of our actions since enforcement began on May 17, 2021 are well documented, including the use of body worn cameras and we are prepared to disclose same during upcoming criminal proceedings for those arrested, any complaint process and should it be necessary, any legal applications," said Manseau.

Nefstead said another application filed by three members of the Rainforest Flying Squad asks the court to declare as unlawful RCMP exclusion zones that were established on July 20 and Aug. 21.

HOME OF OLD SOCREDS

KELOWNA ANTI VAX PROTEST AT HOSPITAL

We don't even have words'
Rob Gibson - Sep 2, 2021 

Photo: Rob Gibson
A healthcare worker watches a protest unfold outside KGH

A group of Kelowna General Hospital healthcare workers have reached out to Castanet to let the community know how upsetting they found Wednesday's protest outside the hospital.

"We don't even have words," said nurse Bruce MacKay.

He and many fellow healthcare workers at KGH considered some type of counter-protest, "but when I saw the chaos and directionlessness of the protest, I realized, oh my goodness what's the point."

Instead, Mackay and eight of his colleagues walked out the front doors linked arms and turned their backs on the protesters, who gathered in opposition to B.C.'s vaccine passport program set to launch on Sept. 13.

"We were talking about it at shift change, I just feel like that if we do nothing... Sometimes people say silence is complicit, but I didn't want to engage in a conversation."

"I was standing arms linked with my outstanding work cohorts. Turning our backs was representative of no longer wanting to listen to and work against the cacophony of disinformation."

Several other healthcare workers who spoke with Castanet, who were on-shift and unable to speak on the record, shared similar sentiments. One intensive care unit doctor walked outside and called the protest "B.S."

While watching the protest, a pharmacy technician at KGH called the situation "crazy."

"I mean I want to stop wearing a mask, but when it’s like this I don’t know. We have some COVID patients at the hospital, I just don’t get this," said the employee, who Castanet has granted anonymity to.

"We went back inside in tears," Mackay said.

Gareth Eeson, surgical oncologist, tweeted that he has "never been so disappointed in my community."

Dr. Michael Hopman, a family physician in Kelowna, called Castanet while the protest was taking place. His wife has scheduled cancer surgery and is afraid it may get cancelled because the hospital is overloaded, in part with COVID-19 patients.

"I'm all for choice, but it just seems so crazy right now... people are choosing a hard line. People are screaming out freedom. This isn't a Mel Gibson movie. This isn't Braveheart. This is real life."

"We have a choice yes, but we have a responsibility as people to make a concerted effort to help protect each other and be citizens. As a physician, I don't get it," Dr. Hopman said.

"We're here to help people," Mackay said, pointing to past vaccine successes. "Rheumatic fever, rubella, measles killed people for years, they came up with a vaccine, it was needless to die from that."

Mackay says he respects everyone's right to peaceful protest and he even understands vaccine hesitancy but he points out, "we're here to help people. We're not the frontline, you are."

Dr. Hopman's viewpoint is slightly more pessimistic, "in my professional opinion, there's a way out of this. It's called time, and death and chaos, confusion and a lot of frustration."

Kelowna's mayor and local members of Parliament and the Legislature all issued statements condemning the location of the protest outside the hospital. Similar protests took place across Canada, including in Kamloops.

The protest was organized by a group called "Canadian Frontline Nurses," a group of a handful of out-of-province healthcare workers who have been travelling the continent for several months spreading anti-vaccine messages and conspiracy theories related to the pandemic.

After huge protest at hospital, Kelowna,

 B.C. woman calls for rally in support of

 health workers

By Kathy Michaels Global News
Updated September 3, 2021 

The mayor of Kelowna says a protest in front of Kelowna General Hospital on Wednesday afternoon was misguided.

Health workers who faced jeers and harassment at rallies for “health freedoms” Wednesday deserve better, a Kelowna woman says.

“I’ve heard from a lot of them since yesterday who said the protest was pretty demoralizing,” former city councillor Michele Rule said.

READ MORE: Anti-vaccine mandate protest at Kelowna hospital draws massive crowd

“Just 18 months ago, we were cheering every night with pots and pans and doing drive-bys at the hospital every week, but it faded.

“That’s our fault. We acted like it was over, but they still had the work to do.”

The protest outside Kelowna General Hospital and other Canadian hospitals were organized by Canadian Frontline Nurses, a group founded by two Ontario nurses. It pushes messaging from which most healthcare professionals have distanced themselves.

They urged supporters to “stand up for freedom” and “reject the tyranny of mandatory vaccines.”

All that happened during the nation-wide protests makes now the right time to restart regular acts of appreciation, Rule said, to remind workers that she and the vast majority of British Columbians still appreciate the work they’ve done.

She put out a call for those who are interested to drive by Kelowna General Hospital at around 7 p.m. and show their support. She has no idea how many people will come, but she’s had some positive feedback so far.

Several hundred protest COVID-19 measures outside of Kelowna General HospitalSeveral hundred protest COVID-19 measures outside of Kelowna General Hospital

People plan to drive by, hang signs of support and maybe even dangle a few balloons, just so hospital workers know they’re valued.

“Some people may walk, but they will maintain proper distances and everyone will wear a mask because want to maintain safety rules,” she said.

“Some people can’t go, so they will bang pots and pans. Everyone is welcome to do that — the more the merrier.”

READ MORE: Hockey Manitoba rep shares thoughts on new vaccine mandates in sports

Ultimately, the aim is to wash away some of the negativity that set in Wednesday with the protest.

“That was in an inappropriate place, really inappropriate, and I thought, ‘This is something we have to do,’” she said.

“I don’t know how busy it will be. It will be busy enough. We don’t want to clog roads, or impede traffic or anything like that.”

Kelowna hospital worker speaks out against planned protest – Aug 28, 2021

Global News spoke to several health-care workers at the hospital on Wednesday, who said they respect the right to protest, but demonstrating in front of a hospital was simply the wrong place to gather.

“View from the (operating room) today. The same (operating room) that is running at <60% capacity for the 3rd week in a row due to an overwhelming # of COVID+ unvaxxed hospitalizations. I’ve never been so disappointed in my community,” Gareth Eeson, a surgical oncologist at the hospital, tweeted.

While the negativity took its toll, local politicians were quick to voice their support for health workers and condemnation of protesters.

Hundreds turn out for anti-restriction rally in Kelowna – Feb 13, 2021

“The caring people who work in this hospital have been run off their feet,” Dan Albas, MP for Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola, said in a tweet.

“It is well known the COVID ward is beyond capacity. The people who work in health care during this pandemic deserve our gratitude and support. This protest should have been held elsewhere.”

Kelowna Mayor Colin Basran also spoke out.

“I think it’s really disgusting that you have health-care workers who are under tremendous stress, keeping people alive, particularly the unvaccinated who’ve now gotten sick,” said Basran.

“And to go and protest and put further stress on them, I think is so misguided and irresponsible.”

Anti-mask protesters gathered outside of Salmon Arm’s city hall – Nov 28, 2020

MEDICINE HAT

Union says nurses feeling exhausted and stressed amid fourth wave of COVID-19


(file photo/CHATNewsToday)
By Tiffany Goodwein

Sep 6, 2021 

MEDICINE HAT,-AB –Nurses at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital are feeling disrespected and exhausted as they battle the fourth wave of COVID-19. That’s according to the United Nurses of Alberta, the union representing Alberta nurses.

John Terry, a south district representative and an operating nurse at the hospital said staff shortages are wearing nurses out, as they try to care for the high volume of patients.

“Nurses at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital are being mandated daily, by mandated I mean they have been ordered to come to work. They have to pay them overtime to do that. But vacations, vacations have been cancelled and these are vacations that are owed and people want to take, and because of the shortage they are being called off of their vacation,” Terry said.

Many nurses are working double shifts and Terry said that is having an impact of the quality of care and the mental health of staff.

To address the nursing shortage, Alberta Health Services confirms they are looking to hire staff on a contract basis.

“ This critical staffing challenge is limiting our ability to open additional beds, which in turn is placing strain on our ability to care for patients. In order to alleviate this staffing challenge, AHS is again working with contract staff supplied by staffing agencies, as a last resort to prevent further disruption of services and patient care,” Alberta Health Services said in a statement.

Terry said virtually every department in Medicine Hat is facing a staff shortage and he has not heard how many contracted positions will be brought to Medicine Hat. But many of the positions being advertised are paying double what nurses in Alberta normally make.

“ We understand that we have to provide care, and we are going to provide care. But what we need is more nurses. They need to hire more nurses, and not necessarily the agency nurses and have to pay them like i said close to double what registered nurses and registered psychiatric nurses are making in Alberta right now. So it comes full circle back to feeling disrespected,” Terry said.

Nurses in the ICU at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital are facing immense, pressure, according to Terry, who said the last time he heard the ICU at the hospital is full, with most of the COVID-19 patients on a ventilator.

“That takes a lot of time to monitor a patient on a ventilator, and you know working with COVID-19 patients every day, knowing you have to go home at night, knowing that vaccination doesn’t necessarily protect you from the Delta variant…so there a lot of stress in the ICU, and those nurses are doing a phenomenal job,” he said.

On Sunday, a local doctor at Medicine Hat Regional Hospital chronicled what a 48-hour shift looked like. In a public post on Facebook, Dr. Scott Malmberg said in two days of working the COVID-19 ward he had 16 admissions, 2 ICU transfers, four discharges, and four deaths. He also said most of the patients were unvaccinated.

The full post can be read here.

Alberta Health Services said there are currently 34 COVID-19 patients in hospital and six in the ICU.

Terry said it is unknown what will happen to patients if the ICU reaches overcapacity. He said originally they were going to use the recovery room as an ICU room but the union was told those plans have changed.

Alberta health services announced last week that up to 30 per cent of scheduled surgeries, endoscopy, and outpatient visits will be postponed in the South Zone in order to free up more space.

Kim Kelly Labor Day lessons from the American union movement's hidden history

This year, find inspiration in the bravery and sacrifice of generation after generation of workers who had nothing left to give — but still gave everything they had.

Members of the United Mine Workers of America hold signs during a strike against Alabama's Warrior Met Coal at the BlackRock offices in New York on July 28, 2021.

Angus Mordant / Bloomberg via Getty Images file


Sept. 6, 2021, 3:00 AM MDT
By Kim Kelly, freelance journalist and organizer

Last week marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in U.S. history. In 1921, around 10,000 coal miners in Logan County, West Virginia, who had been trying to unionize with the United Mine Workers of America went to war against about 3,000 coal bosses, state police, private security forces and scabs. For five long, bloody days, those miners in their red bandannas — the Red Neck Army, as they called themselves — held the line, fighting like hell for their futures and their families. Over a million shots were fired, over a dozen people died, the coal bosses dropped bombs and poison gas on mining camps, and the conflict ended only because of federal intervention. Blair Mountain was a pivotal moment in U.S. labor history and a hallowed chapter in the struggle for workers’ rights.

But despite Blair Mountain’s dramatic resolution, it remains a strangely little-known historical footnote.

But despite Blair Mountain’s dramatic resolution, it remains a strangely little-known historical footnote outside of local publications, labor history groups and labor-friendly progressive media outlets. The fact that this centennial passed mostly unmarked is not a coincidence. As Tennessee-based journalist Abby Lee Hood explained in a recent New York Times op-ed, a coal-funded nativist organization called the American Constitutional Association has worked for decades to intentionally obscure the battle’s history, as well as the even longer tradition of militant, interracial labor organizing in the coalfields. The story of Blair Mountain has been repressed by those who would prefer to keep workers in the dark about their own collective power, as have so many other working-class stories.


Even contemporary labor stories are hard to come by in most major media outlets, and labor reporters like me make up a scrappy but still tiny cohort of the media itself. And bosses are able to exploit that lack of attention for their own agendas. For example, have you heard about the 700 St. Vincent Hospital nurses in Worcester, Massachusetts, who have been on what is now the longest-running strike in state history? How about the Nabisco strike, which had exploded to include over 1,000 members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers’ International Union in five states? And speaking of coal miners, did you know that over 1,100 members of the United Mine Workers are on strike right now in rural Alabama?

The Warrior Met Coal Strike has been going on since April 1, and the striking workers and their families have been weathering economic pressure, company hostilities and violence on the picket lines with next to no media attention or support from local or state politicians. Multiple vehicular attacks on the striking workers have been documented, with several people, including a miner’s wife, hospitalized; workers have been surveilled by company drones and hassled by police, and I’ve heard stories of multiple workers’ being threatened by scabs and company employees.

Coal mining is a dangerous job, and as history has shown time and time again, so is standing up to coal bosses.

Every single one of these strikes (and many more besides) should be front-page news, and each of their rank-and-file leaders should be handed microphones and invited in front of news cameras to tell their stories and show other workers that they can do it, too. The untold history of American labor includes so many diverse voices, experiences and struggles; it has touched every person living on this stolen land, and it has shaped the way today’s workers move through society. Of course, it’s in the best interest of capital and the controlling class to tamp down as much of that generational knowledge and solidarity as possible. We can’t have workers getting ideas, you see, and robbing people of their own history is a surefire way to convince them that things have always been this way and that resistance is futile.

Troops sit outside their tents during the Pullman Railroad Strike in Chicago in 1894.

Chicago History Museum / Getty Images

Even Labor Day has a less than auspicious history. The holiday was signed into federal law with a stroke of President Grover Cleveland’s pen in 1894, during an era marked by massive strikes, widespread labor unrest and the campaign for the eight-hour workday, a movement led by labor radicals and anarchist revolutionaries. That year alone, 125,000 Pullman railroad workers across 29 railroads had walked off the job to protest wage cuts.


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But while there is some historical disagreement over its exact origins, Labor Day has subsequently been used to direct workers away from celebrating International Workers’ Day, also known as May Day, with all of its revolutionary, anti-capitalist connotations. In 1955, during a crackdown on leftist organizations and labor unions, the government designated May 1 as “Loyalty Day”; even now, the president issues a “Loyalty Day” proclamation every year on a day the rest of the world dedicates to its workers.

That history may have been buried, but workers’ bodies keep the score. This is all why it’s so incredibly important for us to remember Blair Mountain and to stand in solidarity with struggles like those of the St. Vincent nurses, the Nabisco workers and the Warrior Met Coal Strike. With each new labor conflict, we have a fresh opportunity to stand up against capitalist tyranny, support our co-workers and communities and take back more of what’s been stolen from us.

This Labor Day, take a moment to remember those collective radical roots and find inspiration in the bravery and sacrifice of generation after generation of workers who had nothing left to give but still gave everything they had. As Florence Reece, a coal miner’s daughter turned lifelong labor activist, wrote back in 1912 as her father held the picket line, which side are you on?