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)
Thursday, November 18, 2021
WHY HE RAN FOR POTUS; ANTIOBAMA
Trump was 'beside himself with fury' after Obama roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents' dinner: book
Eliza Relman,Sonam Sheth Tue, November 16, 2021, Then-President Donald Trump and then-first lady Melania Trump with former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama at the state funeral of former US president George H.W. Bush in 2018.MANDEL NGAN/Getty Images
Chris Christie writes that Trump was "beside himself with fury" at the 2011 correspondents' dinner.
Obama famously skewered Trump for his promotion of the racist "birther" conspiracy theory.
"I spoke to Donald after the dinner," Christie said. "He was pissed off like I'd never seen him."
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie writes in his new memoir that Donald Trump was "beside himself with fury" when then-President Barack Obama roasted him at the 2011 White House Correspondents' dinner.
Obama famously made a flurry of biting jokes about Trump and his promotion of the racist "birther" conspiracy theory at the annual Washington dinner.
At one point, Obama joked that since his long-form birth certificate had been released, Trump could move on to other outrageous conspiracy theories. Trump, then the host of NBC's "The Celebrity Apprentice," sat in the audience and glowered.
"It was fascinating and excruciating all at once," Christie, who also attended the dinner, writes of watching Obama's roast and Trump's reaction in his book, "Republican Rescue: Saving the Party from Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden."
Obama "never turned his eyes away from the man who'd been questioning his right to be president. He showed no mercy on Donald Trump."
Christie said Trump was furious after the event. Some have speculated that the evening of public humiliation helped fuel Trump's desire to run for president four years later.
"I spoke to Donald after the dinner," Christie said. "He was pissed off like I'd never seen him before. Just beside himself with fury."
In his book, Christie is critical of Trump's aggressive promotion of the birther conspiracy theory, which Trump pushed until September 2016, and writes that it "paved the way for wave after wave of other conspiracies to come, wild fantasies, far-fetched assertions, bizarre allegations, and outright lies."
He added, "It showed that personal falsehoods, even when plainly disproven, can still do political damage. Lies, even discredited lies, never really go away."
But despite what Christie writes were Trump's obvious lies, the former New Jersey governor delivered Trump significant political momentum when he became one of the first prominent Republican politicians to endorse his 2016 presidential bid.
ECOCIDE
Brazil's Amazon deforestation surges to worst in 15 years Dubai Air ShowBrazilian
President Jair Bolsonaro gestures inside of a Brazilian Air Force Embraer KC-390 at the Dubai Air Show in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sunday, Nov. 14, 2021. The biennial Dubai Air Show opened Sunday as commercial aviation tries to shake off the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell)
DAVID BILLER Thu, November 18, 2021
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — The area deforested in Brazil's Amazon reached a 15-year high after a 22% jump from the prior year, according to official data published Thursday.
The National Institute for Space Research’s Prodes monitoring system showed the Brazilian Amazon lost 13,235 square kilometers of rainforest in the 12-month reference period from Aug. 2020 to July 2021. That's the most since 2006.
The 15-year high flies in the face of Bolsonaro government’s recent attempts to shore up its environmental credibility, having made overtures to the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden and moved forward its commitment to end illegal deforestation at the United Nations climate summit in Glasgow this month.
Before Jair Bolsonaro’s term began in Jan. 2019, the Brazilian Amazon hadn’t recorded a single year with more than 10,000 square kilometers of deforestation in over a decade. Between 2009 and 2018, the average was 6,500 square kilometers. Since then, the annual average leapt to 11,405 square kilometers, and the three-year total is an area bigger than the state of Maryland. “It is a shame. It is a crime,” Márcio Astrini, executive secretary of the Climate Observatory, a network of environmental nonprofit groups, told The Associated Press. "We are seeing the Amazon rainforest being destroyed by a government which made environmental destruction its public policy."
Bolsonaro took office with promises to develop the Amazon, and dismissing global outcry about its destruction. His administration has defanged environmental authorities and backed legislative measures to loosen land protections, emboldening land grabbers. This week at a conference in the United Arab Emirates to attract investment, he told the crowd that attacks on Brazil for deforestation are unfair and that most of the Amazon remains pristine.
Brazil's environment ministry didn't immediately respond to an AP email requesting comment on the Prodes data showing higher deforestation.
The state of Para accounted for 40% of deforestation from Aug. 2020 to July 2021, according to the data, the most of any of nine states in the Amazon region. But its year-on-year increase was slight compared to Mato Grosso and Amazonas states, which together accounted for 34% of the the region's destruction. The two states suffered 27% and 55% more deforestation, respectively.
And early data for the 2021-2022 reference period signals further deterioration. The space agency’s monthly monitoring system, Deter, detected higher deforestation year-on-year during both September and October. Deter is less reliable than Prodes, but widely seen as a leading indicator.
“This is the real Brazil that the Bolsonaro government tries to hide with fantastical speeches and actions of greenwashing abroad,” Mauricio Voivodic, international environmental group WWF's executive director for Brazil, said in a statement after release of the Prodes data. “The reality shows that the Bolsonaro government accelerated the path of Amazon destruction.”
Why is there something not nothing? The big bang isn’t the only answer
News Post || Tech News The idea that the universe started in the big bang revolutionised 20th-century cosmology. But it seems increasingly unlikely it was a case of something from nothing
17 November 2021 By Joshua Howgego Louis Koo/Getty Images
“NO QUESTION is more sublime than why there is a Universe: why there is anything rather than nothing,” philosopher Derek Parfit once wrote. Ads
Sublime it might be, but the question has traditionally exercised philosophers and theologians. Creation myths, a feature of many cultures, satisfied a deep-seated need for meaning and narrative drive in our existence (see “Why do we exist?”). Scientific thought, insofar as it paid attention to such matters, assumed the cosmos had always been there in an eternal, unchanging state.
Then came the greatest scientific revelation of the past century, arguably of all time: what came to be known as the big bang.
Its seeds were sown by Albert Einstein with general relativity, his theory of gravity, back in 1915, and by Edwin Hubble and others in the 1920s. Their astronomical measurements showed that far-off galaxies were receding from us, as if the universe were expanding.
As late as the 1940s, physicists including Hermann Bondi, Thomas Gold and Fred Hoyle were explaining these observations in terms of an eternal, steady state universe that expanded through the continuous creation of matter. Today, we can cross this possibility off the list.
That is partly because it is hard to square with the way gravity works, only pulling inwards, not pushing outwards. But it is mainly down to the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation in the 1960s. This all-pervasive radiation was exactly what you would expect to see …
Husband-and-Wife Team of Astronomers Create New Method To Look Back in Time To Understand Galaxy Evolution
ByUNIVERSITY OF TOLEDONOVEMBER 16, 2021
A husband-and-wife team of astronomers at The University of Toledo established the star formation history of a post-starburst galaxy using its cluster population.
A husband-and-wife team of astronomers at The University of Toledo joined forces for the first time in their scientific careers during the pandemic to develop a new method to look back in time and change the way we understand the history of galaxies.
Until now forging parallel but separate careers while juggling home life and carpooling to cross country meets, Dr. Rupali Chandar, professor of astronomy, and Dr. J.D. Smith, director of the UToledo Ritter Astrophysical Research Center and professor of astronomy, merged their areas of expertise.
Working along with UToledo alumnus Dr. Adam Smercina who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics in 2015 and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washington, they used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to focus on a post-starburst galaxy nearly 500 million light years away called S12 that looks like a jellyfish with a host of stars streaming out of the galaxy on one side.
S12, a post-starburst galaxy located nearly 500 million light years away, is on the right. It looks like a jellyfish with a host of stars streaming out of the galaxy on one side. Credit: Dr. Rupali Chandar, professor of astronomy at The University of Toledo
Smercina, the “glue” that brought Smith and Chandar together on this research, worked with Smith as an undergraduate student starting in 2012 on the dust and gas in post-starburst galaxies.
While spiral galaxies like our Milky Way have continued to form stars at a fairly steady rate, post-starburst galaxies experienced an intense burst of star formation sometime in the last half billion years, shutting down their star formation.
The resulting breakthrough research published in the Astrophysical Journal outlines their new method to establish the star formation history of a post-starburst galaxy using its cluster population. The approach uses the age and mass estimates of stellar clusters to determine the strength and speed of the starburst that stopped more stars from forming in the galaxy.
Using this method, the astronomers discovered that S12 experienced two periods of starburst before it stopped forming stars, not one.
Dr. J.D. Smith, director of the UToledo Ritter Astrophysical Research Center and professor of astronomy at The University of Toledo. Credit: Daniel Miller, The University of Toledo
“Post-starbursts represent a phase of galaxy evolution that is pretty rare today,” Smith said. “We think that nearly half of all galaxies went through this phase at some point in their lives. So far, their star-forming histories have been determined almost exclusively from detailed modeling of their composite starlight.”
Smith has studied post-starburst galaxies for more than a decade, and Chandar works on the stellar clusters in galaxies that are typically about three or four times closer than those in Smith’s data.
“Clusters are like fossils — they can be age-dated and give us clues to the past history of galaxies,” Chandar said. “Clusters can only be detected in these galaxies with the clear eyed-view of the Hubble Space Telescope. No clusters can be detected in even the highest quality images taken with telescopes on the ground.”
Smith has led several large multi-wavelength projects to better understand the evolutionary history of post-starburst galaxies. He discovered, for example, that the raw fuel for star formation — gas and dust — is still present in surprising quantities in some of these systems including S12, even though no stars are currently being formed.
Dr. Rupali Chandar, professor of astronomy at The University of Toledo. Credit: Daniel Miller, The University of Toledo
“While studying the light from these galaxies at multiple wavelengths has helped establish the time that the burst happened, we hadn’t been able to determine how strong and how long the burst that shutoff star formation actually was,” Smith said. “And that’s important to know to better understand how these galaxies evolve.”
The astronomers used well-studied cluster masses and star formation rates in eight nearby galaxies to develop the new method, which could be applied to determine the recent star formation histories for a number of post-starburst systems.
The researchers applied their different approach to S-12, which is short for SDSS 623-52051-207, since it was discovered and catalogued in the Sloan Digitized Sky Survey (SDSS).
“It must have had one of the highest rates of star formation of any galaxy we have ever studied,” Chandar said. “S12 is the most distant galaxy I’ve ever worked on.”
The study indicates star formation in S12 shut off 70 million years ago after a short but intense burst formed some of the most massive clusters known, with masses several times higher than similar-age counterparts forming in actively merging galaxies. The method also revealed an earlier burst of star formation that the previous method of composite starlight modeling could not detect.
“These results suggest that S12’s unusual history may be even more complicated than expected, with multiple major events compounding to fully shut off star formation,” Smith said.
Reference: “The Star Formation History of a Post-starburst Galaxy Determined from Its Cluster Population” by Rupali Chandar, Angus Mok, K. Decker French, Adam Smercina and John-David T. Smith, 20 October 2021, The Astrophysical Journal. DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac0c19
The research was funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA.
Chandar and Smith are two of four UToledo astronomers leading some of the first research projects on NASA’s new James Webb Space Telescope scheduled to launch in December.
The moral case for destroying fossil fuel infrastructure
If someone has planted a time bomb in your home, you are entitled to dismantle it. The same applies to our planet
‘We are deep into the catastrophe; the hour is late, but the escalation has only just begun.’
Photograph: NASA/REUTERS
Andreas Malm Thu 18 Nov 2021
The climate struggle has entered a new phase. It is marked by a search for different tactics: something that cannot be so easily ignored, a mode of action that disrupts business-as-usual for real, some way to pull the emergency brake. This search has only just begun, but the signs are there.
In Berlin, half a dozen young climate activists calling themselves ‘The Last Generation’ recently went on a hunger strike, eventually refusing liquids and becoming quite frail before calling the action off. But there are other things than our own bodies that can be shut down. In conjunction with this summer’s Ende Gelände camp against fossil gas, a group calling itself ‘Fridays for sabotage’ claimed responsibility for rupturing a piece of gas infrastructure and urged the movement to embrace this tactic: ‘There are many places of destruction, but just as many places of possible resistance.’ This followed the development of a veritable archipelago of forest occupations in Germany, some of which have damaged equipment for coal extraction.
To stay in the global north, the long and bitter struggles of Indigenous peoples against never-ending new pipeline projects in Canada and the US have spawned some desperate militancy: trains carrying crude oil have been derailed by activists mimicking the signal of emergency brakes. Diplomats in last-ditch effort to bring world leaders to Cop26 table
Fossil capital should take notice. New forms of resistance are coming.
Parts of the earth are becoming unliveable. Facts like that, however, are in no real need of repetition. By now everyone knows, at some level of their consciousness, what is at stake. And still our governments allow fossil fuel companies to expand their installations for taking oil and gas and coal out of the ground. They cannot even bring themselves to stop showering such companies with trillions of dollars of subsidies.
One doesn’t need to look at rogue denialists like Bolsonaro or Trump or, for that matter, the far-right government of Modi, which presides over a transition to ever-more fossil fuels: any well-mannered state will do.
Take France, whose president poses as the most enlightened climate diplomat. The largest private company headquartered in that nation, Total, will this year commence construction of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, slated to be the longest in the world, cross 230 rivers, bisect 12 forest reserves and drive 100,000 people from their land: all to carry even more crude oil to the world-economy for burning. Macron backs the pipeline as an amazing opportunity to increase ‘French economic presence’ in the region.
Or take the US, where Biden is surpassing his predecessor in generosity to fossil fuel companies, showering them with drilling licenses at a pace not seen since George W Bush. Two dozen fossil fuel projects – new pipelines, new gas terminals – underway in that country would alone cause emissions equal to 404 coal-fired power-plants.
Overall, the production of fossil fuels needs to be brought down to zero as fast as humanely possible, but in the real world, producers are planning to increase extraction as if there is no tomorrow. One recent paper shows that the bulk of all known reserves must be left in the ground for there to be at least a slim chance of avoiding more than 1.5C degrees of warming; to be more exact, by 2050, some 90% of all the coal would have to remain untouched, 60% of the oil, 60% of the gas, 99% of the unconventional oil.
But these are, the researchers stress, likely to be underestimates, since the modelling is based on a 50% chance of meeting the 1.5C degrees target and does not include feedback mechanisms. If the chance is raised to 70 or 80% and the recursive loops of a climate system breakdown – notably forest fires – were accounted for, even more would have to stay underground: nearly all fossil fuels, starting about tomorrow. By its very nature, fossil capital cannot countenance such a limit. Compulsively, uninhibitedly, it instead digs around for more and more to extract and then some more.
For every day that passes, this conclusion receives further confirmation: the ruling classes of this world are constitutionally incapable of responding to the catastrophe in any other way than by expediting it. Unfortunately, COP26 did not produce any compelling reasons to revise that conclusion. Less than a week after the end of the summit, the Biden administration held the largest federal offshore drilling auction in US history.
There is little to suggest that any other government signing the Glasgow Pact will behave differently.
So what do we do?
We could destroy the machines that destroy this planet. If someone has planted a time bomb in your home, you are entitled to dismantle it. More to the point, if someone has placed an incendiary device inside the high-rise building where you live, and if the foundations are already on fire and people are dying in the cellars, then many would believe that you have an obligation to put the device out of action.
This is the moral case which, I would argue, justifies destroying fossil fuel property. That is completely separate from harming human bodies, for which there is no moral case.
And this particular moral case for direct action is, I believe, overwhelmingly strong, if the realities of the climate catastrophe are recognised. On that premise, how could the physical integrity of fossil fuel property possibly be given precedence? Boris Johnson recently made what might generously be interpreted as an attempt to do so, when he defended the Cambo oilfield, one in the endless series of fresh investments in fossil fuel infrastructure of the kind we just can’t live with: “we can’t just tear up contracts”, he said.
In this view, a contract with an entrepreneur for augmenting the device sending the flames ever higher must be honoured. It takes priority over any other concern. Just why it should have that sanctity, however, seems to me exceedingly difficult to tell.
In the meantime, we can observe that slowing down the climate catastrophe means, by definition, the destruction of fossil capital: there can be no more profiting from fossil fuels. And if governments are incapable of initiating this work, because they take their orders from the top floors, then others should do so. Not because activists can accomplish the abolition of fossil fuels – only states have that potential – but because their role is to ratchet up the pressure for it.
So could the climate movement in the global north achieve its goals by sending cadres or crowds to actually tear machines apart? An unassailable ethical imperative does not necessarily translate into efficacious action. We have received this lesson from the highways of the UK, where the main achievement of Insulate Britain has been rising fury from working-class people on the way to their jobs.
We are deep into the catastrophe; the hour is late, but the escalation has only just begun. We don’t know what exactly will work. The one thing we can be certain of is this: we are in a death spiral, we have to break out of it, and we must try something more. The days of gentle protest may be long over.
Andreas Malm is a scholar of human ecology at Lund University
NASA Mars rover snags rock sample loaded with greenish mineral
"Hypotheses are flying!" as scientists work out how the olivine got there.
NASA's Perseverance rover is expanding its Mars rock collection.
The rover has successfully gathered up another sample, and the rock has triggered some scientific speculation. "Another little piece of Mars to carry with me," the rover's Twitter account tweeted Tuesday. "My latest sample is from a rock loaded with the greenish mineral olivine, and there are several ideas among my science team about how it got there."
The rover's Twitter account went on to say, "Hypotheses are flying!" and added, "Science rules." If you're familiar with the green gemstone peridot, then you've seen examples of how olivine can appear on Earth. It's a common mineral in our planet's upper mantle.
The Perseverance rover is gathering up small chunks of Mars and placing them in sample tubes for safekeeping. It's possible scientists on Earth could get their hands on the olivine-loaded rock in the future. NASA is developing a mission to go fetch the rover's samples and bring them back to Earth for study in the early 2030s. Olivine has been found in some interesting space places. NASA's Dawn mission unexpectedly spotted the mineral in craters on the giant asteroid Vesta. The Curiosity rover, which is off exploring another region of Mars, found a "fingerprint" of olivine in a Martian soil sample.
The Perseverance rover first spent some time investigating the layered rock it sampled by abrading the surface and examining what was beneath. Perseverance has a finite number of sample tubes on board, so the team is picking out interesting candidates for collection.
NASA didn't elaborate on the olivine hypotheses that are flying around, but we can expect plenty of analysis down the line as researchers dive into the data. The Jezero Crater is slowly revealing its geologic history under Percy's watchful eye.
Descendants of dissolved Edmonton-area First Nations continue to struggle to regain treaty rights
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The First Nations continue struggle for restitution without
Chief Calvin Bruneau negotiated the purchase of a gas station as a source of revenue for the Papaschase First Nation, which is not recognized by the federal government. (Stephen Cook/CBC)
For descendants of two First Nations in the Edmonton region, seeking justice for historical wrongs has been a hard-fought battle beset by legal challenges and divided leadership.
The Papaschase First Nation and Michel First Nation once held lands around Amiskwaciy Waskahikan — what is now Edmonton — but through the course of the 19th and 20th centuries lost federal recognition and were left landless.
"We no longer had Crown lands, which meant then individual people had to hold the state accountable for the dispossession of illegal lands," said Jodi Calahoo-Stonehouse, executive director of the Yellowhead Indigenous Education Foundation and Michel First Nation member.
The Friends of Michel Society took the federal government to court in 2001 to assert rights on behalf of members and descendants, but the case was dismissed in 2015.
Multiple organizations now claim to represent the Michel First Nation and its descendants.
"People have become so frustrated over the years and divided amongst our community," Calahoo-Stonehouse said.
Those divisions are similar in other dispossessed nations and are a colonial legacy, she said.
"When a band has been dispossessed of their lands, they no longer reside together … and so they don't actually particularly know each other intimately or that well."
Jodi Calahoo-Stonehouse says divided leadership is an impact of colonialism as members of the Michel First Nation were scattered. (Nathan Gross/CBC)
The Michel Band was created in 1878 through an adhesion to Treaty 6, an agreement between the Canadian Crown and First Nations covering central Alberta and Saskatchewan. It was pressured to give away land in the ensuing decades, according to band history. Some families chose enfranchisement — surrendering their First Nation status for the same rights as non-Indigenous Canadians.
Calahoo-Stonehouse says government antagonism, unfair restrictions enforced by the Indian Act and racist attitudes from settler neighbours put members in a precarious position.
The entire band was enfranchised in 1958. Many have been able to regain status through Bill C-31, which amended the Indian Act to return status to certain individuals including those who were enfranchised, but despite this the federal government does not recognize the band.
Governance structures
Hadley Friedland, a University of Alberta associate professor specializing in Indigenous law, said in lieu of existing legal structures, descendants of landless nations have used societies and corporations as vehicles for representation.
"These aren't governing structures, they're ill-suited for that," Friedland said. "But there's not really another choice."
There are no provisions in the Indian Act for a dissolved band to regain recognition. The minister of Indigenous-Crown Relations would have to make a discretionary decision, Friedland said.
Papaschase claims
Another Edmonton-area band, the Papaschase First Nation, signed an adhesion to Treaty 6 in 1877. They were sequestered to reserve lands in southeast Edmonton but, according to band history, members were later removed from the land and forced to take scrip — financial vouchers in exchange for land rights — or join nearby First Nations.
In 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled the Papaschase First Nation could not pursue a land claim. It said a group of Papaschase descendants indicated in 1974 they planned to proceed with a land claim "in the near future" and that too much time had passed to proceed.
"They don't want to admit that they were wrong, that it was basically all fraud that was committed," said Chief Calvin Bruneau, who is in his third term as head of the Papaschase Descendants Council.
The lack of federal recognition imposes roadblocks, he said.
"Because of that we don't get funding like every other nation."
Also, some political entities use the lack of recognition as an excuse not to engage, he said.
Bruneau has focused on building relationships with businesses and governments. In 2018, the Assembly of First Nations officially recognized the Papaschase First Nation as a member.
The next year, the nation bought a gas station in south Edmonton on former reserve lands. Bruneau wants to see the Indigenous-staffed business become tax exempt as with other First Nation-operated businesses on reserve land.
He sees the gas station as building an economic capacity and a precedent for getting land back.
"In terms of reconciliation and compensation, yes, you need to recognize us as a nation," he said.
"And then we can start dealing with all the issues of the surrender and other things that they did."
The gas station features a mural of Papaschase ancestors and sells Indigenous craftwork. (Craig Ryan/CBC)
Another group claiming to represent Papaschase descendants, formed this year, contests the validity of Bruneau's 2019 re-election.
Members of Papaschase First Nation #136 Association have filed against the federal government but the claim was struck down as having been decided in 2008.
Chief Darlene Misik, who is also the group's lawyer, said their argument is that "treaty children" could not have legally taken scrip. They are now in the process of appealing.
"We maintain that we continue to be treaty peoples and we want our treaty promises upheld."
Moving forward
Calahoo-Stonehouse said since the discovery of unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, there is a societal shift as Canadians grapple with the impact of genocide.
Indigenous-Crown Relations and Northern Affairs Minister Marc Miller pledged to return stolen land when he assumed office in October.
"Now I'm seeing good steps forward," Calahoo-Stonehouse said.
"And the hope is that the Canadian state will be able to reconcile these harms that were done and that we move forward together as our ancestors and predecessors intended by signing treaty together."
GOOD NEWS NEW CITY COUNCIL
City of Edmonton reverses decision to privatize bus cleaning, saving more than 100 jobs
Author of the article: Dustin Cook Publishing date: Nov 18, 2021
Harjas Grewal with Bee-Clean sanitizes the high touch surfaces is a Calgary Transit Bus. The City of Edmonton announced Thursday that it will no longer pursue contracting out bus cleaning duties, which will save more than 100 city jobs.
PHOTO BY AZIN GHAFFARI /Azin Ghaffari/Postmedia
The City of Edmonton has reversed its contentious decision to contract out bus cleaning, which would have cost more than 100 employees their jobs. In a joint statement Thursday sent to employees from city manager Andre Corbould and Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 569 president Steve Bradshaw, they announced the request for proposals (RFP) process has ended and the city decided not to move forward with a contract for Edmonton Transit Service bus cleaning and refuelling.
“This RFP has undoubtedly caused a lot of tension within the workplace and a lot of personal stress for those of you who may have been impacted,” the statement read. “We hope this news alleviates some of those tensions and concerns and that together, we can work toward rebuilding a culture where everyone feels secure and respected.”
The discussion around privatizing bus cleaning and refuelling initially surfaced during last December’s budget deliberations with council opting to “complete a review of cleaning processes in transit to identify efficiencies.” This decision came with an annual budget reduction of $1.2 million, but didn’t specifically say the work would be contracted out. The savings was part of the city’s strategy to achieve a 2021 property tax freeze.
An RFP was issued by the city in June, with the union pushing back through a campaign with the support of 1,500 members.
ATU Local 569 president Steve Bradshaw said he isn’t exactly sure where the city has found the $1.2 million in annual funding to keep the jobs in house, but noted the union proposed several options for savings within the city’s budget. Advocating over the past year to save the jobs of front-line workers who have been paramount during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bradshaw said he is thrilled with Thursday’s announcement.
“I’m elated, of course. We’ve been working on this all year long. It’s been a long haul,” he said in an interview with Postmedia. “I know that as part of the RFP process, the union submitted a document proposing a number of efficiencies that the city could act on that would save some money. We totalled that up to an amount that is quite a lot more than what they anticipated in savings for contracting out. It took acting on those efficiencies and it took pulling some budget from other places.”
At least 104 city employees were projected to be affected, Bradshaw said, including 61 permanent, full-time bus cleaners, 28 full-time, temporary cleaners brought on board during the pandemic as well as 15 employees responsible for bus refuelling.
Meanwhile, the city and union are still at odds over contract negotiations after the latest collective bargaining agreement expired at the end of 2020. A vote on the latest city offer failed with 93 per cent of union members against. Bradshaw said negotiations have stalled but the city is regrouping to bring another offer forward.
With several recent discussions around privatization, Bradshaw said the union will be looking for details around job protection in the new agreement.
More to come.
Uranium & nuclear power play a critical role in the US
Nuclear power generation fusion station reactors Homestead Florida. Stock image.
Nuclear power meets approximately 20% of U.S. electricity demand. However, what is more notable, is that nuclear power generates more than 50% of the carbon-free electricity in the U.S.1 As the country and the world take steps to tackle greenhouse gas emissions, we believe that nuclear power will continue to be a critical part of the solution. Uranium is key to nuclear power
As background, nuclear power stations in the US and worldwide rely on the fission of uranium atoms to create heat. Nuclear reactors use uranium fuel that is assembled so that a controlled fission chain reaction can be achieved. The heat created by splitting the uranium atoms, typically the type known as U-235, is then used to make steam which spins a turbine to drive a generator, producing electricity.
Most U.S. reactors use enriched uranium as their fuel source. Natural uranium in the form of U3O8 concentrate, also known as yellowcake, is refined and then enriched to boost the level of the U-235 isotope from 0.71% up to 3-5%. The enriched uranium is converted into powder, which is then pressed into small ceramic fuel pellets stacked together into sealed metal tubes called fuel rods. Control rods, usually made of boron, help control the fission process, along with water.
Figure 1. A typical pressurized-water reactor
Source: United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Mapping U.S. Nuclear Power Plants
To understand the dynamics of nuclear power in the American utility market, it helps to review the history of nuclear energy in the U.S. and the footprint of nuclear plants in operation today.
According to the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC),2 the U.S. currently has 94 nuclear reactors operating at 56 power plants in 28 states. Most of the plants are east of the Mississippi River, and many are located on coastlines to take advantage of the cooling power of natural bodies of water.
Figure 2. Distribution of US nuclear power plants in operation today
The first light bulb powered by nuclear energy lit up in 1948, thanks to a prototype nuclear reactor in Tennessee. By 1951, a bigger experimental nuclear reactor, located in the desert in Idaho, successfully created more substantial batches of electricity. By 1955, the first operational plant was generating enough electricity to power the small town of Arco, Idaho.
Following these successes, the 1960s saw a push to commission additional nuclear reactors. Utility companies viewed nuclear power as an economical option, in addition to being a cleaner form of energy. Rising commodity prices in the early 1970s supported the popularity of nuclear. The oil embargo of 1973 was a catalyst to sign even more reactor deals as Americans lived through oil shortages, high energy prices and the other costs of foreign energy dependence. 1973 marked the peak of new reactor orders, with 41 orders placed that year. 3
Figure 3. The first era of US nuclear infrastructure: Most plants built between 1970-1990
Three Mile Island was a pivotal point in the popularity of nuclear energy. The partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor in 1979 near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was the first major global nuclear accident, although it resulted in no deaths or injuries to plant workers or members of the nearby community.4 Dozens of orders for nuclear reactors were canceled following the accident. However, because reactors are built on a long timeline, quite a few were already under construction and came online in the 1980s.
Though popularity dove after the 1979 episode, the incident arose from a design flaw and operator error. Only small changes were made to reactor design in the years that followed, though more substantial changes were made in operator protocols and regulatory oversight. Though public opinion of nuclear declined, safety and reactor efficiency (in terms of the percentage of time that reactors were operating) both climbed substantially.
Nuclear safety
Even our greenest energy sources have negative impacts on humans. These impacts fall into three broad categories: air pollution, accidents and greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, nuclear power is responsible for the lowest mortality rate per terawatt hour (TWh) of energy produced, as shown in Figure 4. Nuclear regulation is ever-evolving and among the most stringent among the energy industries, given its visibility and the weight of public and political opinion.
Figure 4. Global nuclear energy safety
Why Nuclear Plants Are Mostly in the East Looking at the map of nuclear plants across the U.S., state-by-state factors come into play regarding which states make nuclear power and which do not.
For instance, there are no nuclear plants in western states with access to significant hydroelectric power from dams or other structures around flowing water, including Oregon, Idaho (which shut down early nuclear generators in 1994), Montana and South Dakota. On the other hand, coal-mining states and their immediate neighbors are less likely to have nuclear plants, including Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Colorado, Utah and Indiana. Biden’s view on nuclear
The Biden Administration has put environmental concerns at the top of their priority list since the outset. In the energy sector, they have announced a goal to achieve net-zero carbon electricity by 2035, according to Biden’s climate advisor, Gina McCarthy.5
The growth of renewable energy sources, including hydro, wind and solar, contributes substantially toward the net-zero carbon electricity goal. But those sources are not projected to grow fast enough to meet the demand for electricity, plus they generate variable electricity loads based on environmental conditions. Nuclear power, on the other hand, is known for being the baseload provider. Utilities run nuclear reactors around the clock, in part to maximize their economic value – nuclear plants have high capital costs to depreciate but extremely low fuel costs.
McCarthy told the Washington Post in May 2021: “…we do have nuclear facilities that provide significant baseload capacity…we do know that there are many regions in which at least the states themselves feel like the support for those facilities needs to continue while we build an infrastructure of [renewables].”
Support for the existing infrastructure means support for maintenance and upgrades to reactors. Since the wave of nuclear plant building in the 1970s and 1980s, very few new reactors have come online. Most nuclear reactors in the domestic infrastructure are near the end of their 40-year operating license. Fortunately, “uprating” reactors – small improvements to implement technological advances – can extend the productive life of reactors and even bump up their efficiency.
Biden’s team has also expressed support for development efforts on SMRs, small modular reactors. SMR design could potentially cut down on both time and cost to build new reactors going forward. A valuable source of clean energy
Without nuclear power, carbon emissions from electricity production in the U.S. would have been substantially higher over the last 40 years. To put this in perspective, if the current electricity from nuclear came from coal or oil, it would generate an additional 470 million metric tons of carbon in the atmosphere each year6 – the equivalent of an additional 100 million cars on the road.
With the drastic improvements in safety and the critically important role of baseload stability, nuclear power offers important benefits to the push for net-zero carbon energy. These characteristics remain important as the country moves toward a higher mix of renewables in its electric grid. Ranked fifteen in the world among countries most reliant on nuclear energy, the U.S. has the potential to expand its nuclear power reliance greatly.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that demand for electricity will rise 24% by 2035. The U.S. will need hundreds of new power plants to meet this demand, and these plants will need to take advantage of diverse fuel sources. It is estimated that to maintain nuclear’s 20% share of U.S. electricity generation, 20-25 new nuclear power plants will need to be operational by 2035.
Figure 5. The 30 most reliant countries on nuclear energy: The US ranks #15
Source: International Atomic Energy Agency
KENNEY FUNDS ATTACK
The Canadian energy company in the way of Whitmer’s campaign
Enbridge digs deep in its spat with Michigan’s governor.
Calgary-based Enbridge launched attack ads earlier this year targeting Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, who has called the aging line a looming ecological disaster for the Great Lakes.
OTTAWA — Enbridge, the embattled Canadian energy giant, is ramping up its offensive over the controversial cross-border Line 5 — and trying to scuttle Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's reelection bid. With six-figure ad buys and free fish giveaways, the firm is going all out to sway Michigan voters with safety pledges and warnings about potential propane shortages.
Calgary-based Enbridge launched attack ads earlier this year targeting Whitmer, who has called the aging line a looming ecological disaster for the Great Lakes and campaigned in 2018 to shut down the pipeline. Her fight against Enbridge has since escalated, now involving the Canadian government and the Biden administration.
Line 5 is the source of 65 percent of propane in the state’s upper peninsula and provides 55 percent of Michigan’s supply of the fossil fuel. At its terminus point in Sarnia, Ontario, the crude oil delivered via Line 5 diverts into three other Enbridge pipelines. These channels supply Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, with 53 percent of its crude. The pipeline supplies 66 percent of the crude in neighboring Quebec.
“It powers our economy,” said the unnamed narrator who only reveals himself as an Enbridge employee. “And building the Great Lakes Tunnel is the best long-term solution to reliably, affordably and safely deliver the energy all of us in Michigan need.”
Whitmer has argued that Line 5 is a pipeline that benefits Canada more than it does Michigan. Enbridge has moved to alleviate concerns about a potential oil spill with plans to encase the underwater portion of the pipeline with a concrete tunnel.
Michigan’s gubernatorial election is scheduled for next November. Energy prices and the outcome of pipeline treaty talks between the U.S. and Canada following Whitmer’s attempt to shutter Line 5 are poised to be potential factors in the race.
In response to questions about the company’s latest TV blitz, Enbridge spokesperson Tracy Larsson said ad campaigns are “one of many methods” used to convey “important factual information” about the company and its projects.
“Enbridge looks forward to continuing to provide this critical energy while advancing plans to construct the tunnel,” Larsson said in an email. “We want Michiganders to know that we all share the same goal to protect the Great Lakes and waters.”
Energy security will certainly come up during the North American Leaders’ Summit that President Joe Biden is hosting in Washington, D.C., but the topic of Line 5 won’t likely rank high at the trilateral with a stacked agenda prioritizing discussion on pandemic management, addressing migration issues and economic cooperation. The Biden administration has been cool on getting involved in the pipeline spat, reluctant to state a position until an Army Corps of Engineers review of Enbridge's proposed tunnel is complete.
“Opposition to pipelines is not going away,” Enbridge’s President and Chief Executive Officer Al Monaco told a banking conference in May. “It’s a fact of life because infrastructure, by its nature, is the point of attack for opponents because it is an easy area to attack.” Inoculation, he said, is necessary to respond to scrutiny over the oil and gas sector.
Evidence of Enbridge’s defensive campaign isn’t hard to find. The company documents its community donations and has pipeline company executives espouse environmental, social and corporate governance values in speeches and at conferences. These actions build coalitions of support, Monaco said, calling them “grassroots counters to opposition.”
Progress Michigan, a Lansing-based nonprofit opposed to Line 5, has been tracking public records of Enbridge’s ad spending with data showing the company spent at least $438,500 this spring in cable television buys. Preliminary fall and winter data shared by the group show at least $106,000 spent on ad buys in the populous Detroit area alone to promote Line 5 and Enbridge’s tunnel project.
Lonnie Scott, the group’s executive director, accused Enbridge of being a “multinational corporate polluter” using ads to attack Whitmer’s push to shut down Line 5. “Enbridge is cluttering the Detroit airwaves with a greenwashed environmentalist message because they know their talking points about the economy are a bunch of junk.”
Enbridge wants to build a pre-cast concrete tunnel to encase the 68-year-old pipeline’s route under the Straits of Mackinac. The project is under extensive review by the Corps, a process that could take years, challenging the company’s original goal to complete the 4.5-mile tunnel by 2024.
While the environmental review of the tunnel remains ongoing, the pipeline is the subject of court action and upcoming bilateral treaty negotiations. There are no alternate pipelines that can carry crude oil between Alberta and Ontario, which is why Ottawa supports the project to keep commodities flowing between western Canada and Sarnia, Ontario.
This latest round of talks was sparked by Canada’s decision to invoke the 1977 Pipelines Transit treaty last month after court-mediated talks broke down between Michigan and Enbridge. The treaty guarantees the uninterrupted transport of hydrocarbons between the U.S. and Canada. The move by Canada to invoke the treaty is an effort to suspend a lawsuit filed by Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to shut down Line 5 because a dispute settlement provision in the treaty gets the Biden administration involved.
By invoking the 1977 treaty, the Canadian government gets the U.S. State Department involved in the high-level talks on the pipeline. Formal negotiations over Line 5 are expected to launch soon.
David Holtz, spokesperson for Oil & Water Don’t Mix, a coalition of anti-Line 5 organizations, said the treaty doesn’t take away the sovereignty of the State of Michigan or the United States from acting to prevent an environmental disaster.
“If they stick to the language of the treaty, the Biden administration's basically going to be in a position to basically deny Canada's request,” Holtz said. Two arguments emerge from Line 5 debate
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government is firmly supportive of the pipeline, a stance that environmentalists and opposition New Democrats and Green Party politicians say undermine his party’s promises for aggressive climate action.
Canada’s Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, a former high-profile Greenpeace activist, reaffirmed Canada’s support for Line 5 while at COP26 in Glasgow. Shutting down the pipeline would be inconsequential in global ambitions to cut emissions, he said.
Guilbeault said for his home province of Quebec, which would see almost a 50 percent reduction in its crude supply for two refineries were Line 5 to shut down, a potential increase in tanker traffic would endanger belugas and marine mammals in the St. Lawrence River. Canadian environmental groups have repeatedly expressed concern over the federal government’s continued support of fossil fuels.
Court action could stop the pipeline, at least temporarily until Enbridge completes its proposed C$500-million tunnel, contingent on approval from the Corps.
It’s unclear how long treaty negotiations will take between the U.S. and Canada, despite remarks from the White House last week that seemed to prejudge the outcome of talks that have yet to officially start — and ahead of bilateral and trilateral meeting discussions about energy security.
“These negotiations and discussions between the two countries shouldn't be viewed as anything more than that and certainly not an indicator that the U.S. government is considering shutdown,” she said. “That is something that we're not going to do.”
A judge ruled Tuesday the matter between Michigan and Enbridge over Line 5 will be heard in U.S. federal court, rejecting Whitmer’s argument to have the case heard in state court.
