Comet Leonard shines amid the Northern Lights and a meteor shower in stunning footage captured by a Chinese spacecraft as the bright green iceball passes by Earth for the first time in 70,000 YEARS

Comet Leonard was discovered in January 2021 by astronomer Gregory Leonard

He saw it in images that were taken from Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona

The ball of ice will make its closest approach to the Sun on January 3, 2022

After its closest approach, if it doesn't disintegrate, it will leave the solar system

By RYAN MORRISON FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED:  24 December 2021

A Chinese satellite captured a stunning view of Comet Leonard as it made its closest approach to Earth, with a strong Aurora visible in the foreground.

Since its discovery in January this year, the comet has been fast approaching both the Sun and Earth, at nearly 160,000 miles per hour.

The image was captured by Yangwang 1, which is a small satellite launched by Chinese technology company, Origin Space, based in Guangdong, China.
Scientist who warned the world of Omicron variant says China's 'Zero Covid' policy WON'T WORK against super-transmissible mutant strain as city of 13 million is locked down, and other top stories from December 26, 2021.

It took it from a short clip while the comet was close to Earth on December 12, which is the closest it has come to our planet in 70,000 years.

A Chinese satellite captured a stunning view of Comet Leonard as it made its closest approach to Earth, with a strong Aurora visible in the foreground
Stunning Comet Leonard approaches Earth amid a meteor shower


LEONARD: AN INBOUND LONG PERIOD COMET


Catalogued as C/2021 AI, comet Leonard is named after the astronomer that first discovered it.

Gregory J Leonard spotted the comet using the Mount Lemmon Observatory on January 3, 2021 .

This was a year before it hit perihelion (the closest approach to the sun).

It last appeared in the inner solar system 70,000 years ago and so is on a 70,000 year orbit of the sun.

This will be its last orbit as it is on a hyperbolic trajectory, meaning it will leave the solar system after its close approach to our host star.
The images comes after two satellites designed to observe the Sun captured video of Comet Leonard as it sped past the Earth on its one way trip past our host star.

Yangwang-1 is a commercial space telescope that was launched earlier this year to image the universe in visible and ultraviolet light.

It is also working on the search for near-Earth asteroids that could one day be mined for resources and returned to Earth.

It was the first commercial Chinese space mission, and was available for use by commercial and non-commercial uses, according to Origin Space.

The spacecraft captured the image of Comet Leonard, seen amidst a sky full of satellites and distant stars, on December 12, 2021.

It is just the latest in a series of aurora images captured by the commercial telescope.

The ball of ice and dust is about half a mile wide, and was discovered in January 2021 by Gregory Leonard, who spotted it in images taken from the Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona.

Back garden astronomers, telescopes around the world, and a range of space observatories have captured images of the bright green comet.

The colorised image, shared by Origin Space, shows the comet with its extended tail visible across the night sky

This is similar to images captured by the NASA Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory Aspacecraft (STEREO-A), and the European Space Agency (ESA) Solar Orbiter observatory.

STEREO-A has been focused on following the green comet since November, and the team from NASA were able to produce a short animation from dozens of images.

NASA published a 'difference image' to highlight 'outbursts' from the comet, caused when it throws off volatile material like gas and water ice - changing its brightness.

The ESA spacecraft, a joint project with the US space agency, captured a video of the comet streaking across its field of view between December 17 and 19, 2021.
Comet Leonard hurtles through space with Milky Way in the background




A pair of satellite designed to observe the sun have captured video of the bright green Comet Leonard, as it speeds past the Earth for the first time in 70,000 years

Comet Leonard will make its closest approach to the Sun in millennia on January 3, 2022, and ahead of that event both solar observing satellites were pointed in its direction.

NASA produced an animated 'difference image' with a grainy grey background designed to highlight the comet and its tail as it streaks through space.

This was created by subtracting the current frame from the previous frame to highlight differences between them.

Difference images are useful for seeing subtle changes in Leonard’s ion tail, which is the trail of ionised gases streaming from the comet’s body.




The ball of ice and dust is about half a mile wide, and was captured by the NASA Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory Aspacecraft (STEREO-A) (right), and the European Space Agency (ESA) Solar Orbiter observatory (left)

It can be seen getting brighter and longer towards the end of the short clip.

The video captured by the Solar Orbiter Heliospheric Imager (SoloHI) which is a camera on board the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, shows it streak diagonally across its field of view, with the Milky Way, Venus and Mercury also visible.

During the short sequence, Solar Orbiter moves toward a sidelong view of the comet, revealing more of its tail as it moves through space.

More video could be published of the comet, as SoloHI continued to observe the comet until it left its field of view today.

Its closest pass of the the Sun, on January 3, 2022 will take it within 56 million miles of our star, which is about half the distance between Earth and the Sun.

If it doesn’t disintegrate on its way to the Sun, then Comet Leonard's trajectory will fling it into interstellar space, never to return.

But according to scientists, it may already be splitting up less than a year after it was first discovered, or it will begin to split up soon.

When a comet's orbit brings it close to the Sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets.


It will make its closest approach to the Sun in millennia on January 3, 2022, and ahead of that event both solar observing satellites were pointed in its direction

Comets – also called 'cosmic snowballs' or 'icy dirtballs' – are conglomerations of frozen gas, dust and ice left over from the formation of the solar system.

They go around the Sun in an orbit that's highly elliptical, meaning they're not perfectly circular, and can spend hundreds and even thousands of years in the darkest depths of the Solar System before returning for their 'perihelion'.

But Comet Leonard has a hyperbolic orbit, meaning once it passes the Sun it will be ejected out of the Solar System and never seen again by Earthlings.


Comet Leonard was discovered in January 2021 by Gregory Leonard, who spotted it in images taken from the Mt. Lemmon Observatory in Arizona


When a comet's orbit brings it close to the Sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases into a giant glowing head larger than most planets

Comet Leonard likely spent about 35,000 years coming inbound from about 323 billion miles (520 billion km) away and may have last visited the inner solar system about 70,000 years ago.

Comet Leonard makes its closest approach to Earth on Sunday, December 12, prior to its perihelion on January 3.

The comet has a green tail because its icy rock interior heats up the closer it gets to the Sun, first emitting a blue dust, then yellow or white and finally green.

When it turns this teal colour, it means the comet is warm, contains lots of cyanide and diatomic carbon and the potential for it to break up is at its highest.

 Animation shows the trajectory of Solar Orbiter around the Sun

DIFFERENT TYPES OF SPACE ROCKS

An asteroid is a large chunk of rock left over from collisions or the early solar system. Most are located between Mars and Jupiter in the Main Belt.

A comet is a rock covered in ice, methane and other compounds. Their orbits take them much further out of the solar system.

A meteor is what astronomers call a flash of light in the atmosphere when debris burns up.

This debris itself is known as a meteoroid. Most are so small they are vapourised in the atmosphere.

If any of this meteoroid makes it to Earth, it is called a meteorite.

Meteors, meteoroids and meteorites normally originate from asteroids and comets.

Canadian scientists involved in James Webb space telescope say it's a dream come true

This photo provided by NASA, the James Webb Space Telescope is separated in space on Saturday, Dec. 25, 2021. NASA's James Webb Space Telescope soared from French Guiana on South America's northeastern coast, riding a European Ariane rocket into the Christmas morning sky. The $10 billion infrared observatory is intended as the successor to the aging Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA via AP)

Virginie Ann, The Canadian Press
Published Saturday, December 25, 2021 

MONTREAL - As the world tuned in on Christmas morning to see NASA's James Webb Space Telescope lift off, Canadian scientists who played a crucial part in its creation were emotional.

The collaboration between European and Canadian space agencies soared from French Guiana on South America's northeastern coast on Saturday, riding a European Ariane rocket into the Christmas morning skies.

Rene Doyon, principal investigator of the telescope, said seeing the launch in-person was the best Christmas gift he could have ever hoped for. COVID-19 requirements meant most Canadian scientists who worked on the project had to stay home.


“It was an intense moment, absolutely incredible emotions after 20 years of working on the project,” Doyon said in an interview Saturday.

“I could have never imagined that it would have happened on Christmas. It was a good moment for Canada.”

Nathalie Ouellette, outreach scientist for the Webb at the Universite de Montreal, was with her family watching the long-awaited launch in Montreal.

“To see the telescope leave Earth … what a joy for Christmas,” Ouellette said.

“I cried. We took a video to commemorate the moment. The launch went perfectly.”

The telescope will search for unprecedented details on the first galaxies created after the Big Bang, and on the development of potentially life-friendly planets beyond our solar system.

For Lisa Campbell, president of the Canadian Space Agency, the launch was the culmination of a 30-year-old dream.

“What an exceptional day,” Campbell said.

“It's the most powerful and complex space observatory ever built.”

Canada has been working on the James Webb Space Telescope almost from the start and will be among the first countries to study its discoveries, she said.

“It is a new step in astronomy, in understanding the universe, and our place in it,” Campbell said.

“And these scientific discoveries will be possible thanks to Canada's expertise in astronomy.”

At least half of the 600 scientists in the Canadian Astronomical Society have been involved with the telescope and dozens of engineers are part of its design team.


Ouellette noted that the Webb's work is only beginning.

Most people are familiar with Hubble Space Telescope - which was launched in 1990 - but the Webb is set to be 100 times more powerful, she said.

“We often talk about Webb as Hubble's successor,” she explained.

“Webb is much bigger, it will capture more distant objects with low luminosity, look further into the history of the universe.”

The $10 billion telescope started to hurtle toward its destination 1.6 million kilometres away, or more than four times beyond the moon, on Saturday. It will take a month to get there and another five months before its infrared eyes are ready to start scanning the cosmos.

Key to that work will be the Fine Guidance Sensor, which helps aim the telescope, and the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph, which helps analyze the light it observes.

Both have been designed and built in Canada.

“We are the eyes of the telescope, it's Canadian eyes that allow all observations,” Ouellette said. “Canada has never been involved at this level in this kind of project.”

Innovation Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne issued a statement to congratulate Canadian's expertise, saying past investments in space technologies made it possible for the country to be “an active partner in this exciting mission.”

“Once again, Canada's space sector is pushing the frontier of science and, more so, of astronomy,” Champagne said. “Webb is the largest space science project in the 60-year history of Canada's space program.”

For Daryl Haggard, a professor of physics at Montreal's McGill University and James Webb Space Telescope co-investigator, the telescope is an undeniable source of pride.

“We were looking at the launch video, and my husband was pointing out that he could see the logo for NASA, but also the Canadian Space Agency, right there on the rocket,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion.

“It's pretty awesome.”

Haggard said she hopes the project will put Canada on the map for its astronomical expertise.

People usually refer to Canadarm from the Canadian Space Agency, but this country does much more than that, she said. Canadarm is a robotic arm that supported American space shuttle missions for about 30 years from 1981.

In exchange for Canada's contribution on the telescope, the country is guaranteed at least five per cent of the telescope's observation time, once data starts to come in about six months.

Campbell said this will allow Canadian scientists to further their studies on exoplanets and black holes among other things.

“We will be able to see phenomena at the origin of the creation of our universe, its history,” she said.

“We often wonder why we explore space, but it will tell us so much.”

- With files from The Associated Press

- With files from Bob Weber in Edmonton

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 25, 2021.

Watch the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope—the most powerful space telescope ever made. This mission is scheduled to lift off at 7:20 a.m. EST (12:20 UTC), Dec. 25, 2021, aboard an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe’s Spaceport in French Guiana. With revolutionary technology, Webb will observe a part of space and time never seen before, providing a wealth of amazing views into an era when the very first stars and galaxies formed––over 13.5 billion years ago. It can explore our own solar system’s residents with exquisite new detail and study the atmospheres of distant worlds. From new forming stars to devouring black holes, Webb will reveal all this and more! It’s the world’s largest and most powerful space telescope ever built. Webb is an international collaboration between NASA, ESA (European Space Agency), and CSA (Canadian Space Agency). Thousands of engineers and hundreds of scientists worked to make Webb a reality, along with over 300 universities, organizations, and companies from 29 U.S. states and 14 countries! Ready to #UnfoldTheUniverse? The greatest origin story of all unfurls soon. Learn more at https://nasa.gov/jwst

 

Scientists tested air at the Pic du Midi observatory for four months and all samples contained microplastics  Photo: AFP/File

Environment

No mountain high enough: Study finds plastic in 'clean' air

Dec. 24  04:07 am JST  1 Comment

PARIS

From Mount Everest to the Mariana Trench, microplastics are everywhere – even high in the Earth’s troposphere where wind speeds allow them to travel vast distances, a study shows.

Microplastics are tiny fragments -- measuring less than 5 millimeters -- that come from packaging, clothing, vehicles and other sources and have been detected on land, in water and in the air.

Scientists from the French national research institute CNRS sampled air 2,877 meters above sea level at the Pic du Midi Observatory in the French Pyrenees, a so-called "clean station" because of the limited influence exerted on it by the local climate and environment.

There they tested 10,000 cubic meters of air per week between June and October of 2017 and found all samples contained microplastics.

Using weather data they calculated the trajectories of different air masses preceding each sample and discovered sources as far away as North Africa and North America.

The study's main author Steve Allen of Dalhousie University in Canada told AFP that the particles were able to travel such distances because they were able to reach great altitudes.

"Once it hits the troposphere, it's like a superfast highway," he said.

The research also points to microplastic sources in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean.

"The marine source is the most interesting," Allen said. "Plastic leaving the ocean into the air that high -- it shows there is no eventual sink for this plastic," he said. "It's just moving around and around in an indefinite cycle."

While the amounts of miroplastics in the samples at the Pic du Midi don't pose a health risk, study co-author Deonie Allen notes that the particles are small enough for humans to breathe in.

And she says their presence in a zone thought to be protected and far from pollution sources should give pause.

"It questions the relationship we have with plastic," she said, adding that the problem is global.

Allen said that it also shows that disposing of plastic by shipping it abroad is a flawed strategy.

"It's going to come back to you," he said.

© 2021 AFP

‘Net-zero is not enough’: A new book explains how to end fossil fuels

Sociologist Holly Buck wants you to know that fossil fuel phaseout isn’t a "fringe" idea.

Verso Books / Holly Jean Buck / Grist


Emily PontecorvoReporter
PublishedDec 22, 2021

In just a couple of years, “net-zero” pledges have become the gold standard of climate action. According to one online tracker, more than 4,000 governments and companies around the world have pledged to go net-zero. But as the concept has caught on, it has invited fierce backlash from climate advocates who worry that it is malleable to the point of meaninglessness.

In her new book, Ending Fossil Fuels: Why Net Zero is Not Enough, sociologist Holly Jean Buck explains how striving for net-zero emissions opens up a wide range of possible futures, some of which could include lots of oil and gas. Buck argues that in addition to focusing on emissions, climate policy should be directed at phasing out fossil fuels.

A net-zero pledge is a promise to achieve a state of equilibrium. It implies that any planet-warming emissions you dump into the atmosphere will be offset by actions to pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. In theory, if the whole world achieved this balance, the planet would stop heating up. But Buck writes that the phrase creates ambiguity that can be exploited by policymakers and corporate interests.

Focusing on net-zero could lead us toward a “near-zero emissions” world powered by renewable energy, or it could also lead us toward a “cleaner fossil world” where we continue burning oil and gas and build a vast network of infrastructure to capture the resulting carbon and bury or reuse it. Indeed, companies and policymakers are already promising to produce “lower carbon” fossil fuels. The U.S. Department of Energy has a new Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management focused entirely on meeting climate goals while minimizing the environmental impacts of fossil fuels.

Buck concedes that this cleaner fossil fuel future is technically possible but argues that ending fossil fuels is more desirable, with benefits for human health and the potential to rebalance power, restore democracy, and end corruption. The book is a guide for anyone who agrees and wants to fight for this version of the future. It asks readers to grapple with the complex realities of what a managed fossil fuel phaseout would mean in terms of geopolitics, culture, the built environment, data, and political power.

Ultimately, the book is not just about ending fossil fuels, but about building the capacity to face the end of all kinds of things — whether the end of single-use plastics, or the end of living near the coast because of climate risks. Buck invites readers to think of the end of things not as something negative, but as a way of “taking control of our own destiny.”

Grist spoke with Buck about her perspective on net-zero, her argument for public ownership of the fossil fuel industry, and why the language we use to talk about climate action is so important.

This conversation has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.

Q.The book is about ending fossil fuels. How do you see this book in relation to the long-running movement to “keep it in the ground”?

A.It’s something I struggled with while writing the book, because there is obviously this vibrant movement that has had some amount of success in terms of shifting the discourse and social norms. At the same time, I’m concerned that shift could be mistaken for a shift in material reality. So the book is asking the movement, how do we convince people that it’s more than just a slogan or an aspiration, and that we have roadmaps for what we would need to do?

It’s also aimed at what I see as an audience of climate professionals, people who I am gently, and in solidarity, critiquing to some extent. I think there’s a lot of people who want to be more radical within the work of climate policy, and it’s an invitation to say, you know what, these radical things actually are more possible than we think. You’re not going to be fringe if you talk about them.

Q.The second part of the title is “why net-zero is not enough” — and elsewhere in the book you call net-zero a “collective delusion” — but ultimately, I don’t think this book is saying that we should aim for absolute zero emissions or advocating for some other emissions framework. Can you explain where you land with net-zero and whether it is useful?

A.I think that despite its problems, it’s useful. The utility of net-zero is both its temporal flexibility and its spatial flexibility. We have to realize that every country has its own roadmap for this transition that is shaped by history, by geography, by colonialism. It’s quite reasonable that countries will have different timelines and that countries in the Global North that have benefited from an unequal exchange should have an earlier net-zero date. They could be removing carbon — be net-negative — while other countries are still working to build out renewable infrastructure. They can balance each other out. That could ease the transition globally if we were smart and fair about it — which I know would be unprecedented given the history of injustice in all of this, but it’s something that I think we can strive for.

I do think we need absolute zero emissions at the end of the century. We have the technology on the horizon to get there by 2100, and if I was writing this book today — I wrote it a year ago — I would be more explicit about saying we should be working towards that.

Q.Is that just in hindsight, or have things changed for you or in the world to make you think that should be the goal?

A.It’s more hindsight. If we say we want full decarbonization by 2030, that just doesn’t seem credible based on the world that we’re in right now and how reliant we are on fossil fuels. But we should be spelling out what this other version of the world looks like in greater detail. I think that’s the next step — saying, OK, full zero by 2100, what will that entail?

Q.One of the things you critique in the book is the way experts have labeled certain industries as “hard to decarbonize” — that it masks the fact that distinctions of “difficulty” are political and economic, not just technical. How do you wish that people talked about this?

A.I’m semi-optimistic about what’s happening in this space. We have initiatives like the Science-Based Targets Initiative that are working to define what’s hard to decarbonize from a technical standpoint. Civil society groups can also make their way into those conversations, so that we will have a set of social norms about what’s hard to decarbonize.

What’s important is having a way to update those norms. Things that were regarded as hard to decarbonize 10 or 15 years ago, now we’re starting to see the private sector — if you believe them — take interest in decarbonizing. With shipping, for example, we’ve seen some interesting investments and commitments to developing methanol or ammonia or hydrogen that could actually decarbonize shipping if we got going with them. So we have to update our assumptions about what’s hard regularly.

Q.The book provides examples where fossil fuels with carbon capture might be a desirable option, whether it’s to save jobs, or in a geopolitical context where it’s the only solution oil-dependent countries with authoritarian governments accept. Do you think there is room for those kinds of solutions?

A.The primary aim was to help people understand the arguments that we’re going to face when we argue for phaseout. We need to know what those arguments will be and figure out compelling ways to counter them. That said, there is some ambiguity there. And part of that is because what I really believe is that this should be up to people to decide.

This is a really tricky thing about the idea of energy democracy. What if you have an overwhelming majority in a place that wants electricity from gas with carbon capture and storage over 100 percent renewables because they’ve appraised the trade-offs and that’s what they think is better? Are we going to say, “OK, that’s what people wanted”? These are hard questions. I don’t have the answer, but I think we need to be talking about that because it’s going to come up.

Q.Towards the end, you make an argument for public ownership of fossil fuel companies. I’m wondering why you’re so optimistic about public ownership, or why anyone should be, given that we have many public institutions that don’t work very well today?

A.This isn’t something that I see working without a broader revolution to a better form of democracy than this neoliberalized, dysfunctional form of democracy that we have right now. So I think you’re absolutely right that this vision of public ownership of things like fossil fuels doesn’t work with what we have today.

This is why the book is actually about a lot more than fossil fuels. It’s about developing democratic planning capabilities for ending all sorts of things that are harming us, whether that’s single-use plastics or pesticides or even social practices. I do think that things like ending fossil fuels or breaking up tech companies can create a self-reinforcing loop with being able to build democratic power. I know this sounds like idealist, activist stuff, but what’s the alternative? The alternative seems totally bleak, so we might as well try for the best case.

Q.In this book, and throughout your other work on climate change, you’re often advocating for new language. Why is that so important to you?

A.This is fundamentally, for me, a cultural shift as much as it would be a shift in energy or infrastructure. For example, do we talk about “ending,” do we talk about “managed decline,” do we talk about “phaseout”? How do we understand that as something that’s actually empowering? Not a decline, but opening up space to build something new that’s amazing. Language is important for unlocking these things. And it needs to be a language that resonates with people in rural areas, with conservative voters, with workers in fossil fuel industries. If it doesn’t work there, it’s going to fail.

I don’t go very far proposing what this language should be because it needs to be invented in conversation with the people who live in all of these places, otherwise it’s not going to take hold. So creating new language is also about listening as much as it is about generating.

What Canada can learn from Iceland's four-day work week trial

THAT WE ALSO NEED A FOUR HOUR DAY  & FULL PAY

Sarah Turnbull

CTVNews.ca Producer
Thursday, December 23, 2021

LONG READ

Iceland is paving the way when it comes to striving for better work-life balance, having just wrapped up a series of trials shortening the typical five-day work week to four.

Starting in 2015, Reykjavik City Council and the Icelandic government launched the initiative spurred by pressure from trade unions and civil society organizations. Their goals were to reimagine citizens’ relationship with work and to determine if compressing office hours would actually enhance productivity.

Jack Kellam, a researcher at U.K.-based think-tank Autonomy, which studied Iceland’s approach, said the experiment proved successful. For the most part, employers found employee well-being increased as stress and burnout decreased and productivity stayed the same or rose.

“Over a course of a number of years, in which trials took place in these workplaces, results showed it had a transformative effect for these workers,” he said in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Nov 2.

He said many participants said they went to work better rested, better prepared, and more motivated for the working day.

“Workers managed to gather their existing working practices and working conditions and made changes to try and make them more efficient and productive…simple things like cutting out meetings, moving to emails,” he said.

The two trials, launched in 2015 and 2017, ultimately involved over 2,500 workers, or more than one per cent of Iceland’s entire working population, and included both nine-to-five and shift workers from a variety of sectors including health care and social services.

Importantly, employee compensation remained at pre-trial levels despite the drop in hours.

According to Autonomy’s summary report, many participants expressed enjoying more time with their families.

One father said, “My older children know that we have shorter hours and they often say something like 'Is it Tuesday today, dad? Do you finish early today? Can I come home directly after school?' and I might reply 'Of course.' We then go and do something — we have nice quality time.”

Others said they experienced less stress at home, more personal time, and better physical and mental health.

Fewer hours at work also reportedly increased productivity, as participants cut back on coffee breaks, water cooler chat, and unnecessary meetings. Many said they perceived Friday off as a “carrot” that kept them going.


“The overarching picture that emerges… is that the Icelandic trials strongly challenge the idea that a reduction in working hours will lower service provision. On the contrary, they show that productivity can, in many instances, be increased through working time reduction,” Autonomy’s report reads.

The trials also proved revenue-neutral for the city council and the government.

Following the experiment, Icelandic trade unions and their confederations secured permanent reductions in working hours for “tens of thousands” of their members across the country.

“In total, roughly 86 per cent of Iceland’s entire working population has now either moved to working shorter hours or have gained the right to shorten their working hours,” the report reads.

Kellam says that while the COVID-19 pandemic wasn’t a factor in the trials, as they’d finished before the disease arrived, the results are even more relevant today as people shift to an at-home work setup and studies show workers are placing more value in work-life balance.

“Prior to the pandemic the four-day work week or short working week was primarily being led by private-sector companies, businesses and so on, but I think we’ve increasingly seen public sector organizations taking interest,” he said.

“It’s given people an opportunity to reflect on their life, what they value and prioritize.”

He also said that a shortened work week policy should be implemented alongside parallel policies including a strict disconnect rule, – encouraging employees to officially “sign off” from work when they’re finished – raising base salaries so that people don’t feel compelled to have to work longer hours, and a lead-by-example approach, so employees feel empowered to make necessary scheduling changes.

These policies shouldn’t be reserved for only white-collar jobs either, Kellam said.

“Something we’re trying to do as a think-tank in our research is to show that a four-day week is a possibility across quite a wide range of sectors, it doesn’t just have to be confined to office work,” he said. “It’s about a more efficient way of sharing around the necessary labor of our economy.”

CANADIAN EXAMPLE

While Canada hasn’t initiated an experiment at this scale, some businesses owners are taking steps to shorten the work week.

Jamie Savage, CEO and founder of Toronto-based recruitment company The Leadership Agency, implemented a four-day work week for her employees in October 2020.

Savage said she initiated the move in response to observations of burnout midway through the pandemic.

“I saw emails coming in at one o’clock in the morning, working on Sundays, and I was like I’m tired and overwhelmed, I can only imagine how my team feels…I said, ‘we need to make a change, this is going to be irreversible damage if we don’t do something about it,’” she told CTVNews.ca in a phone interview.

“Two days later we were a four-day work week company.”

She said it took about three months for the policy to become effective as staff adapted to the change.

“We had to come up with stakeholder communication strategies, making sure our clients knew that their needs were going to be met, come up with time management strategies, and the biggest thing, we never wanted this to feel like it was going to be in exchange for something,” she said.

That included ensuring that her employees knew their pay wouldn’t be docked and there wasn’t an expectation they were to work overtime on the other days of the week.

Savage said that while there have been growing pains, the results a year in have been positive both culturally and financially.

“People started to invest in their physical health and well-being, we started to see this come alive. And since then, our revenue has more than doubled,” she said.

Leading by example is another key element of success, Savage noted.

“It was a real learning curve for me personally and the managers…people need to know it’s safe, we’re doing it, we’re walking the walk, talking the talk, and they’re safe to do it as well,” she said.

GOVERNMENT BACKING

As for a federal pilot, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau didn’t rule out the idea last year when asked about the possibility of implementing a four-day work week program following the pandemic.

“I think there are a lot of people thinking creatively about what the post-COVID world could look like,” he said, speaking to reporters in May 2020. “And I look forward to hearing a wide range of suggestions. But right now, we’re very much focused on getting through this particular crisis.”

In a statement to CTV News, Michelle Johnston, the director of communications for the Minister of Labour Seamus O’Regan, said only that the government encourages a flexible and respectful work arrangement for federally regulated employees.

“In the 2021 platform we committed to working with federally regulated employers and labour groups to co-develop a new policy for the right to disconnect so that, where appropriate, workers can disconnect at the end of a workday without worrying about job security and restore healthy work-life balance,” the statement reads.

The Ontario Liberals have indicated that if elected in June 2022, they would launch an initiative to “analyze the potential for a four-day work-week.”

“I want us to understand if it has merit here,” Leader Steven Del Duca told his party on Dec. 17. “We’re a party that believes in science, expertise and evidence-based decision-making and so I want us to gather the facts in an open and transparent way.”

The Nova Scotia municipality of Guysborough also experimented with a nine-month shortened work week trial in 2020 amid pandemic scheduling shake-ups.

Quebec looks beyond hydroelectricity as last planned megaproject set to wrap

Quebec’s hydro dams have long provided its residents cheap electricity and bragging rights in the race to reduce global carbon emissions, with Premier François Legault suggesting the province could become the “green battery of North America.”

But as the premier signs lucrative export deals with states such as Massachusetts and New York, the province’s utility has acknowledged that the Romaine-4 hydroelectric project — scheduled to enter service next year — could be the last major dam project for the foreseeable future.

Francis Labbé, a spokesman for Hydro-Québec, confirmed that the utility doesn’t have other hydro projects on the horizon. He said such projects take at least a decade to plan and build, adding that they don’t come cheap — as Romaine’s $7.3-billion price tag attests.

In the meantime, prices for other kinds of renewable energy — such as wind power — have fallen, making them more attractive options.

“It may come to a point where we come to the conclusion that we need another hydroelectric project but right now, considering the delays, considering the cost, considering that we have other options, we will not go in this direction,” Labbé said in a recent interview.

Quebec started building the four-part Romaine project — described at the time as the biggest construction project in Canada — in 2009. The commissioning of Romaine-4, the last of the dams, was pushed back to 2022 from 2020 after a series of delays, including the pandemic and other health and safety concerns.

Labbé said the dam and reservoir are complete and work is underway on the power station. When it is commissioned next fall, it should supply about eight terawatt hours, enough to power about 450,000 homes.

While Labbé says the utility has enough power in reserve to serve the province and its export contracts until 2025 or 2026, it will be putting out a call for tenders for projects to provide 300 megawatts of wind power and 480 megawatts of renewables, which could include wind and solar.

That’s in addition to the Apuiat wind energy project developed with the Innu of the Côte-Nord region, which should provide some 200 megawatts when it’s commissioned in 2024.

François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, says the megaprojects that propelled the company to early success are “a development model of the past.”

“If you look at the projects from the 1960s to the end of 1990s, if they were to redo this, it would never happen the way it did,” he said in a recent phone interview. “The environmental assessments would be a lot more robust, more complicated. We wouldn’t be able to trample Aboriginal rights like they have.”

Bouffard says the early dams relied on flooding large tracts of land, without regard for the Indigenous inhabitants of the area and without bothering to remove the vegetation underneath, which led to mercury contamination in fish.

While he says the Romaine project has corrected some of those early mistakes by logging the area before the reservoir was created, he notes that Hydro-Québec still encounters opposition when it tries to build transmission lines through wilderness — something that came up when Maine residents voted against allowing lines to pass through their state in a referendum this fall.

“Nothing is really carbon-free,” he said.

In the absence of future hydropower projects, the company has been moving into other domains. In addition to wind partnerships, Hydro-Québec recently inaugurated its first two solar energy plants. It has also formed a subsidiary designed to help customers improve their energy efficiency, and it is working on large-scale batteries that can store surplus energy.

Experts say that far from becoming redundant, Quebec’s massive hydro dams will become more important than ever as the province shifts to alternate sources of power.

Louis Beaumier, the executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, agrees that building more “titanic” dam projects doesn’t make sense, largely due to the cost.

Read more: Hydro-Québec project facing ‘green’ opposition in Maine ahead of Tuesday’s referendum

But he says the main advantage of hydro power is that, unlike wind or solar, it provides a consistent stream of power that can be increased or decreased fairly easily to meet fluctuating demand. The power stored in the province’s reservoirs amounts to “the biggest battery you can every build,” he said, and one that puts Quebec in a uniquely advantageous position of being able to move forward with new technologies while always having hydro as a backup.

Bouffard and Beaumier agree that the Crown corporation will have to adjust to yet more changes in the coming years. With the Quebec government as its only shareholder, Hydro-Québec’s mandate is to bring in revenue for the province, meet provincial electricity needs and keep rates low — all at once.

Increasingly, the province has looked to expand sales to the United States in order to grow. Legault has made no secret of his desire to see the province expand exports to the northeastern United States — even as the province was dealt a blow when Maine voters rejected a plan to run transmission lines through their state on their way to Massachusetts. (Legault has said he remains confident the project will go ahead).

Bouffard believes the future of the company may lie outside North America altogether, as it looks to sell its valuable expertise to developing countries. Beaumier, for his part, says the company should also play a role domestically as the federal government moves toward its goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. He said Hydro-Québec could be doing more in helping to meet those goals.

Hydro-Québec’s Labbe underplayed the extent of the culture shift that is underway at the utility. He notes that while Romaine is the last major project planned, the company still has plenty of work to do managing and maintaining its 62 existing power stations. Plans are already underway to make several of them more efficient.

“This is far from the end of hydroelectricity in Quebec,” Labbé said.

© 2021 The Canadian Press

Thousands again take to the streets in Sudan to call for return to civilian rule

Issued on: 25/12/2021

Protesters march during a mass demonstration demanding civilian rule in the south of Sudan's capital Khartoum on December 25, 2021. © AFP

Text by: NEWS WIRES|
Video by: FRANCE 24

Thousands of Sudanese protesters rallied Saturday two months on since a military coup, demanding soldiers "go back to the barracks" and calling for a transition to civilian rule.

Waving flags, beating drums, dancing and chanting, crowds marched on the streets of Khartoum despite a heavy deployment of security forces -- who later fired tear gas canisters to break them up.

Officers had earlier blocked bridges connecting the capital to suburbs, cut phone lines and restricted the internet ahead of the planned protests.

At least 48 people have died in crackdowns during weeks of protests, according to the independent Doctors' Committee, and Khartoum's state governor has warned that security forces "will deal with those who break the law and create chaos".

Demonstrators converged on the presidential palace in Khartoum, the headquarters of the military government in control since General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan seized power on October 25.

Burhan held civilian leader Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok under effective house arrest for weeks, but reinstated him on November 21 under a deal promising elections for July 2023.

The move alienated many of Hamdok's pro-democracy supporters, who dismissed it as providing a cloak of legitimacy for Burhan's coup.

>> Despite deal, Sudanese rally to demand military rulers leave

Protesters online had encouraged supporters with slogans, including demanding "no negotiations" with the army.

As well as rallies in Khartoum and its suburbs, protesters also marched on the streets of Madani, a town around 150 kilometres (more than 90 miles) to the south, witnesses said.

Internet cut at dawn

Security forces with cranes used shipping containers to block the bridges across the Nile river connecting Khartoum to the cities of Omdurman and North Khartoum, and web monitoring group NetBlocks reported mobile internet was cut at sunrise on Saturday.

Activists reported the arrest of several colleagues beginning Friday night, and Volker Perthes, the UN special envoy to Sudan, urged the authorities to "protect" the protests not to stop them.

"Freedom of expression is a human right," Perthes said Saturday, adding that it includes "full access" to the internet. "No one should be arrested for his or her intention to protest peacefully."

"We draw the attention of the world and ask them to monitor what happens in Sudan on the issue of the revolutionary movement for freedom and democracy", said the Doctors' Committee, which is part of the pro-democracy movement.

Khartoum's governor warned that "approaching or attacking buildings of strategic sovereignty is punishable by law".
Rape used as a 'weapon'

At rallies last Sunday, held on the third anniversary of mass demonstrations that led to the ouster of veteran strongman Omar al-Bashir, crowds began a "sit-in" protest outside the presidential palace.

Within hours, security forces dispersed the thousands of protesters with truncheons and firing tear gas canisters.

Activists have condemned sexual attacks during those protests, in which the UN said at least 13 women and girls were raped.

The European Union and the United States issued a joint statement Thursday condemning the use of sexual violence "as a weapon to drive women away from demonstrations and silence their voices".

 Eye on Africa: Multiple allegations of rape during Sudan protests

Sudan, one of the world's poorest countries, has a long history of military coups, enjoying only rare interludes of democratic rule since independence in 1956.

Over 14 million people, a third of Sudan's population, will need humanitarian aid next year, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the highest level for a decade.

Activists say more demonstrations are planned for December 30.

(AFP)

A New Chapter for Baghdad's Book Street
December 25, 2021 
Agence France-Presse

Iraqis shop for books and stationery along Al-Mutanabbi Street, home to the city's book market in central Baghdad, Feb. 1, 2019.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ —

The Iraqi capital Baghdad on Saturday celebrated the renovation of the historic heart of its book trade, in the latest sign of an artistic renaissance after decades of conflict and strife.

In a city where explosions once could mean only one thing—violence—colorful fireworks lit up the sky during festivities organized by Baghdad municipality to inaugurate the renovated Al-Mutanabbi Street.

Its new look comes alongside art exhibitions, gallery openings, book fairs and festivals reflecting a fledgling cultural renaissance, and recalling a golden age when Baghdad was considered one of the Arab world's cultural capitals.

Al-Mutanabbi Street was first inaugurated in 1932 by King Faisal I and named after the celebrated 10th century poet Abul Tayeb al-Mutanabbi, who was born under the Abbasid dynasty in what would become modern-day Iraq.

A narrow street in the heart of old Baghdad, Al-Mutanabbi has long drawn students and young people, usually on Fridays. But it is also frequented by intellectuals and older bibliophiles.

Normality still hangs by a thread in the Iraqi capital, where rocket and drone attacks sometimes target its highly fortified Green Zone, and where a July suicide attack on a market killed more than 30 people.

There was high security for the costumed performers and musicians who performed along the car-free road of new cobblestones.

The road is lined with shops, freshly-painted and sparkling, but most were closed. Fairy lights garlanded the ornate brick facades and wrought iron balconies.

Private-sector banks financed the work, which began in August.

'Islet of beauty'

"Since the 1960s, I would come here every week to look at the books on the stalls and to meet friends," veteran journalist and writer Zoheir al-Jazairi told AFP, delighting over the street's latest transformation.

"It's an islet of beauty in the heart of Baghdad. You notice the difference compared to the rest of the city," he said, lamenting the oft-neglected heritage of the capital.

Stretching for just under one kilometer (0.6 miles), the street begins with a statue of its namesake overlooking the Tigris River and ends with an arch adorned with the poet's quotes.

Visitors can find Arabic translations of American best-sellers side-by-side with textbooks.

There are titles in an array of languages, and every once in a while a hidden treasure can be found nestled between the selections.

Years of violence

Years of sectarian violence followed the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Iraq's former dictator Saddam Hussein.

The rise of the Islamic State jihadist group in 2014 saw more brutality and bloodshed.

Iraq is trying to recover from its years of violence but remains hobbled by political divisions, corruption and poverty.

Even Al-Mutanabbi Street, a center of intellectual life with its cafes and books, could not escape past violence.

In March 2007, a suicide car bomb killed 30 people and wounded 60 others there.

Street transformed

Mohamed Adnan, 28, took over a bookshop from his father, who died in the blast.

"He was killed, our neighbors too and several others who are dear to us," said the history graduate, welcoming the renovation.

"I wish those who left were alive to see how the street has transformed," he said.

On the banks of the Tigris a singer hummed traditional ballads, beneath the fireworks.

How art restorers uncover hidden details in artworks

From Jan Vermeer to Renoir: Hidden paintings have been found concealed behind famous artworks in 2021. How do art restorers reveal these details?


Amorous intentions: Vermeer's 'Girl Reading a Letter an at Open Window'

Experts of the Dresden State Art Collections were astonished when they closely examined Vermeer's "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window" using technical equipment: Under a layer of paint hid a youthful Cupid.

The artist had painted the figure on the wall behind the girl, who seems to be reading innocently. After two years of work to reveal the original, the painting was presented to a surprised audience.

Alongside Rembrandt and Rubens, Dutch painter Jan Vermeer (1632-1675) is considered one of the most famous artists of the Baroque period. His "Girl Reading a Letter" was and is considered one of the best works of the Dutch Golden Age between 1600 and 1700, during which the Netherlands prospered politically, commercially and culturally.

With only 37 paintings, Vermeer's oeuvre is rather small, contributing to the excitement that the finding in Dresden triggered in the world.

The museum is now celebrating the painter with the exhibition "Johannes Vermeer. On Reflection."


FROM REMBRANDT TO PICASSO: ARTWORKS THAT WERE PAINTED OVER
Rembrandt's legendary 'Night Watch'
Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum closely examined Rembrandt's most famous painting over the past two years, using state-of-the-art technology. It turned out that Rembrandt first made a sketch on the canvas, painted over it and made several changes as he was going along. "We have discovered the genesis of 'The Night Watch,'" director Taco Dibbits said, calling it a "breakthrough."
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"Uncovering parts of paintings that have been drawn over is not always as meaningful as in the case of Vermeer," says Maria Galen, expert for modern art and gallery owner in the western German city of Greven.

"Vermeer used the figure of cupid four times — as a 'picture-in-picture,'" according to Uta Neidhardt, senior art conservator at the Dresden Museum.

Research and state-of-the-art laboratory tests have unambiguously confirmed that the love god, painted in brown and ochre tones, was covered up by a different hand that also covered up the amorous statement Vermeer originally wanted to make. But the case is not always this clear.

Searching for the perfect picture

What complicates the matter is the fact that pictures can be painted over in the most varied of ways.

Cologne's Wallraf-Richartz Museum is currently holding an exhibition called "Revealed! Painting techniques from Martini to Monet." A section of the exhibition engages with such artistic interventions.

"Painters have always sought the perfect picture," says Iris Schaefer, chief art restorer at the museum. "There are only a few paintings, which are free of pentimenti," she adds.

"Pentimenti," the singular form of which is "pentimento," essentially means the presence of images that have been painted over. This includes corrections, changes in motif and color, and even artistic interventions to the point of complete destruction of artworks.

An X-ray of Renoir's 'A Couple' revealed a completely different picture

But what drives artists to change their work? "There were many reasons for that," Schaefer says. Sometimes artists had doubts regarding their self-worth, often actual life crises. Then again, criticism from observers, art dealers or buyers had consequences for the artwork.

But were "pentimenti," or later changes in a painting by someone else, also executed to adjust the artwork to new moral ideals? According to Schaefer, it is not always easy to differentiate between the two.

In order to reveal the secrets of old paintings, restorers today use a growing arsenal of investigative methods. Even observing with the naked eye can reveal brush strokes which point to possible overpainting. Stereo microscopes allow 3D-vision with up to 90 times magnification. X-rays, infrared and ultraviolet rays seep into different depths of the picture's surface and convey painting canvases or signature lines.

Art technologists at the Wallraf-Richartz Museum were astonished when they X-rayed "A Couple" by August Renoir (1841-1919).

Instead of the man and woman standing together at a park seen on the 1868 oil-on-canvas painting, the X-ray revealed a completely different image of two women sitting opposite to each other. "We thought we had pulled out the wrong painting from the developer fluid," Schaefer remembers.

Art restorers are now analyzing Rembrandt's 'The Blinding of Samson'

The chemistry of color

Even more astonishing is the macro X-ray fluorescence analysis, or MA-XRF, which is a sophisticated method that allows the observer to look under the surface of an object without causing any damage.

The process helps recognize the composition of colors and comprehend the painting process. As part of a big research project, the Frankfurt Städel Museum has already exposed unknown parts of the Altenberger altarpiece using a process called "Element mapping."


FRIENDS AND FAMILY: REMBRANDT'S SOCIAL NETWORK
Portrait of Rembrandt by Jan Lievens (1629)
An old friend of Rembrandt's, Lievens captured the painter known for his impressive self-portraiture. The two artists, friends since childhood, shared a studio in Amsterdam until 1631, when Lievens began to travel for his career. Rembrandt, in contrast, never went abroad, although he is said to have been inspired by the Italian masters
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Since spring 2021, one of the main paintings in the museum, Rembrandt's "The Blinding of Samson" is under the scanner.

The master's works are being researched not only from the point of view of art history, but also using the latest technology, as was the case during the huge research and restoration project called "Operation Night Watch" that was carried out by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

During Rembrandt's time, the owners of his famous painting "The Night Watch" had cut it with scissors so it could pass between doors. The restoration process allowed experts to reconstruct the missing pieces of the work.

Cologne art restorer Iris Schaefer admires the global museums in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, London and Washington, which have financial resources for devices that cost millions. "Incredible to see all that's possible," she says, although artists were not always happy with everything that resulted from technology and the art of restoration.
A change in attitudes

In the past centuries, artists restored their own works and thanks to their skills, they were also hired to maintain and improve other artworks. Even in the 19th century, it was common to overpaint and regild damaged artworks. "I cannot believe that artists were happy with this," Schaefer says.

An MA-XRF image of 'The Blinding of Samson'

Only around 1900 did painters begin specializing as restorers and the profession was born.

To become a restorer in Germany today requires a university degree. Art history is mandatory as is an understanding of technology. "Our profession is linked to a code of conduct," Schaefer says. "There are strict rules regarding intervention in art and cultural objects." The integrity of the artwork has the highest priority. "There has been a change of attitude here," she adds.

A change that has also proven beneficial for Vermeer's "Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window." For a long time, the painting stood for the meager interior of a chaste soul. The empty wall with the girl's dainty silhouette emphasized the contemplative stillness of the work.

After 200 years, the painting now tells a completely different story: behind the girl is a naked youth. The window is open, the curtain in front of Cupid is drawn to a side, a bowl of fruit spills over with shiny apples and delicate, fuzzy peaches, possibly displaying the tension between external calm and inner tumult, or even longing for love. Vermeer's original secret seems to have been revealed.

This article was translated from German.

German arms exports hit new record during Merkel's last days

The former government approved almost €5 billion in warships and missile defense deals as it prepared to leave office. New Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was then finance minister, has also received criticism.

 

ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems was given approval to deliver three warships to Egypt and a submarine to Singapore

Germany's weapons exports reached a record level this year, thanks to the last-minute approval of deals worth nearly €5 billion ($5.6 billion) by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration.

The data, from the Economy Ministry, was requested by a lawmaker with the socialist Left party, and published by DPA news agency on Saturday.

The figures reveal that the agreements were signed off during Merkel's last nine days in power.

Arms exports hit new record

The last-minute deals brought Germany's total weapons exports to a record €9.04 billion for the whole of 2021, according to the ministry.

The previous record high for German arms exports was €8.015 billion in 2019.

Egypt is the main recipient of German arms, despite criticism over its human rights violations and involvement in conflicts in Yemen and Libya. 

Under the last-minute agreements, Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems will deliver three warships to Egypt and a submarine to Singapore, while Diehl Defence will deliver 16 air defense systems to Egypt.  

Details of the deals were released just a day before Olaf Scholz was elected chancellor earlier this month, although the exports' value was not known at the time. 

The last-minute deals were approved despite the fact that the government was only acting in an executive capacity, when major decisions are usually avoided.

Scholz was Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister in Merkel's grand coalition between the conservative bloc and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and would have been privy to the deals.

Scholz acted like a 'crook'

Sevim Dagdelen, the socialist Left party's foreign policy expert, hit out at Scholz on Twitter, accusing him of acting like "a real crook."

She called for the export of "murder tools" to be halted.

In a separate interview with DPA news agency, Dagdelen slammed his party's criticism of arms sales to authoritarian regimes as inconsequential.

Germany's new coalition of the SPD, climate-friendly Greens and neoliberal FDP has spoken out in favor of a restrictive arms export policy. 

The coalition agreement stipulates that they plan to curb exports to countries outside of the EU and NATO.

With material from DPA news agency

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