Evangelicals must denounce the Christian nationalism in Capitol riots

It’s more important than ever for evangelicals to recognize the dangers associated with mistaking our fear for faith — and our faith for politics.

Trump supporters gather before breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

January 7, 2021

By 

Jamie Aten, Kent Annan

(RNS) — The startling events in Washington on Wednesday (Jan. 6) were shocking to watch, not only for the scenes of unlawful rioters in the U.S. Capitol, but also for the sight of people waving flags and crosses in the name of Jesus and President Donald Trump. It was another brazen step for some who have harmfully traded in steadfast Christian ideals for a false white Christian nationalism.

As evangelicals, we must recognize, confess, and lament our role in allowing Christian nationalism to fuel these kinds of actions.

According to social science studies we’ve conducted, fear is a likely answer to why some evangelicals have accepted a politically driven gospel substitute, one that runs contrary to the teachings of Christ. Part of what we saw in the riots were Christian nationalists lashing out against people they perceive as “outsiders” or “different” from themselves because of their sense of insecurity.

---

RELATED: Taking the white Christian nationalist symbols at the Capitol riot seriously

---

Studies have shown that when groups feel threatened, in-group and out-group differences are more likely to be inflated. Though social psychologists have discovered this is a common mode of self-protection, it is associated with higher levels of anxiety, bias, prejudices and tribalism. It too often scapegoats those — like refugees and immigrants — whom Christians have a biblical call to care for. But understanding the causes of what happened is not enough. Too many evangelicals have accepted or turned a blind eye to a movement fueled by misinformation and lies.

What happened in the Capitol building was a culmination of these lies.

A Trump supporter carries a Bible outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

Supporting or staying silent about Christian nationalism is damaging not only our democracy but the testimony of the church. Influential evangelical pastor Tim Keller shared: “For Christians just to completely hook up with one party or another is really idolatry. … It’s also reducing the Gospel to a political agenda.” This week, it finally led to chaos in our halls of governance.

In a climate of fear and misinformation, evangelicals need to be committed to acquiring and sharing the best information available. As people who follow the one who said of himself, “I am the way, the truth, and the life,” we need to commit to seeking truth and rejecting lies, even, and maybe especially, when it is inconvenient.

As evangelicals we must respond by praying, speaking and acting in ways that testify to the hope and faith to which we hold in Christ — not in a leader or political party. We must speak out against not only today’s riots but also against the related ideologies, beliefs, hatred, racism, fear-mongering, misogyny, bigotry, white privilege, xenophobia, oppression and other injustices. We need to be rebuking a dynamic in which biblical fundamentals are being so clearly compromised.

---

RELATED: How the shofar emerged as a weapon of spiritual warfare for some evangelicals

---

Don’t get us wrong: By no means are we suggesting evangelicalism is equal to Christian nationalists. Being evangelicals ourselves, we know it is possible for evangelicals to hold a deep spiritual commitment to Christian faith and still hold wildly divergent political convictions and vote differently.

But all evangelicals need to ask if our actions are furthering unity or division, as exhorted by the Apostle Paul in his Letter to the Ephesians: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Our unity must affirm Christ’s call for us to love our neighbors, including those with whom we disagree. Scriptures should lead us to regularly care for the widow, the orphan, the hungry, the migrant, not hate our neighbors.

Regardless of our politics or who holds political office, let us not forget, as the Gospel of John teaches, that our ultimate hope rests in God’s kingdom and is misplaced if given to Caesar.

(Jamie Aten is founder and executive director of the Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College. Follow on Twitter at @drjamieaten or visit jamieaten.com. Kent Annan is director of Humanitarian & Disaster Leadership at Wheaton College. Follow on Twitter at @kentannan or visit kentannan.com. The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of Religion News Service.)

'Not worth my life': Ugandans vote in tense election

KAMPALA, Uganda — Ugandans were voting Thursday in a presidential election tainted by widespread violence that some fear could escalate as security forces try to stop supporters of leading opposition challenger Bobi Wine from monitoring polling stations. Internet access has been cut off

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Long lines of voters snaked into the distance in the capital, Kampala. “This is a miracle,” mechanic Steven Kaderere said. “This shows me that Ugandans this time are determined to vote for the leader they want. I have never seen this before.”

But delays were seen in the delivery of polling materials in some places, including where Wine voted. After he arrived to the cheers of a crowd and cast his ballot, he made the sign of the cross, then raised his fist and smiled.

Results are expected within 48 hours of polls closing at 4 p.m. More than 17 million people are registered voters in this East African country of 45 million people. A candidate must win more than 50% to avoid a runoff vote.

Longtime President Yoweri Museveni, an authoritarian who has wielded power since 1986, seeks a sixth term against a strong challenge from Wine, a popular young singer-turned-opposition lawmaker. Nine other challengers are trying to unseat Museveni.

Wine, whose real name is Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, has seen many associates jailed or go into hiding as security forces crack down on opposition supporters they fear could mount a street uprising leading to regime change. Wine insists he is running a nonviolent campaign.

Wine, of the National Unity Platform party, has said he does not believe the election is free and fair. He has urged supporters to linger near polling stations to protect their votes. But the electoral commission, which the opposition sees as weak, has said voters must return home after casting ballots.

Internet access was cut Wednesday night. “No matter what they do, the world is watching,” Wine tweeted.

“This election has already been rigged,” another opposition candidate, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, told local broadcaster NTV as polls opened, adding that “we will not accept the outcome of this election.”

The government’s decision this week to shut down access to social media in retaliation over Facebook’s removal of Museveni-linked Ugandan accounts accused of inauthentic behaviour was meant “to limit the eyes on the election and, therefore, hide something,” said Crispin Kaheru, an independent election observer.

The 76-year-old Museveni's support has traditionally been concentrated in rural areas where many credit him with restoring a sense of peace and security that was lost during the regimes of dictators including Idi Amin.

Security forces have deployed heavily in the area that encompasses Kampala, where the opposition has strong support partly because of rampant unemployment even among college graduates.

“Museveni is putting all the deployments in urban areas where the opposition has an advantage,” said Gerald Bareebe, an assistant professor of political science at Canada's York University. “If you ask many Ugandans now, they say the ballot paper is not worth my life.”

Some young people said they would vote despite the apparent risks.

“This government has ruled us badly. They have really squeezed us,” said Allan Sserwadda, a car washer. “They have ruled us for years and they say they have ideas. But they are not the only ones who have ideas.”

Asked if the heavy military deployment fazed him, he smiled and said: “If we are to die, let us die. Now there is no difference between being alive and being dead. Bullets can find you anywhere. They can find you at home. They can find you on the veranda.”

At least 54 people were killed in Uganda in November as security forces put down riots provoked by the arrest of Wine for allegedly violating campaign regulations aimed at preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

Wine has captured the imagination of many in Uganda, and elsewhere in Africa, with his bold calls for the retirement of Museveni, whom he sees as a part of a corrupt old guard.

Museveni has dismissed the 38-year-old Wine as “an agent of foreign interests" who cannot be trusted with power. Wine has been arrested many times on various charges but has never been convicted.

Museveni, who decades ago criticized African leaders over not leaving power, now seeks more time in office after lawmakers jettisoned the last constitutional obstacle — age limits — on a possible life presidency.

“I grew up when he was president. Even my children have been born when he is president,” taxi driver Mark Wasswa said as voting began. “We also want to see another person now.”

The rise of Wine as a national leader without ties to the regime has raised the stakes within the ruling National Resistance Movement party.

“(Ruling) party members and supporters ought to know that this is a watershed election to shape, determine and install a Museveni successor,” government spokesman Ofwono Opondo recently wrote in the Sunday Vision newspaper.

The African Union and East African bloc have deployed election observer missions but the European Union said “an offer to deploy a small team of electoral experts was not taken up. The role of local observers will be even more important than before.”

The EU, U.N. and others have warned Uganda's security forces against using excessive force.

Ugandan elections are often marred by allegations of fraud and alleged abuses by the security forces. The country has never witnessed a peaceful handover of power since independence from Britain in 1962.

Rodney Muhumuza, The Associated Press

Ocean acidification is transforming California mussel shells

New analyses reveal how over 60 years a critical marine species has responded to ocean acidification

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO

Research News

 

IMAGE: UC SAN DIEGO RESEARCHERS HAVE FOUND THAT THE SHELLS OF CALIFORNIA MUSSELS, A CRITICAL SPECIES FOUND ALONG THE PACIFIC COAST, ARE WEAKENING AS A RESULT OF OCEAN ACIDIFICATION. view more 

CREDIT: ROY LAB, UC SAN DIEGO

The large mollusk known as the California mussel makes its home in the rocky shoreline along the Pacific Coast from Mexico to Alaska. Considered a "foundational" animal, Mytilus californianus provides homes for hundreds of other species and offers a rich food source for species ranging from spiny lobsters to humans.

As the waters off our coasts change due to human influences, scientists at the University of California San Diego are finding that the composition of California mussel shells is weakening as it becomes more tolerant of acidic conditions.

Scientists have known that rising levels of human-produced carbon dioxide that are increasingly absorbed into the world's oceans will have an impact on sea life. But as ocean waters increasingly acidify, tracking impacts on specific species has been difficult to gauge over time. Most of what we know about species' responses to acidifying waters comes from short-term experiments that suggest these increases in ocean acidity--causing a lowering of seawater pH and less availability of carbonate ions to make shells--can lead to less fortified shells and more vulnerable animals.

But not every species from these studies responds the same way, with some even appearing to do better under these conditions. This makes long-term studies looking at how increases in temperature and ocean acidification impact species extremely valuable for understanding and ultimately making predictions about future vulnerability of these species.

Comparing new data with samples collected in the 1950s, UC San Diego Division of Biological Sciences graduate student Elizabeth Bullard and Professor Kaustuv Roy found that ocean acidification is transforming the composition of California mussel shells from mostly the mineral aragonite to the mineral calcite. The results are published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Aragonite is much stronger than calcite and makes for a better shell to protect against predators and wave energy, two things that are expected to increase with warming waters. Calcite, on the other hand, is much weaker but does not dissolve as easily as aragonite--making a better shell material if the waters are acidifying. Experts had expected aragonite, the stronger of the two substances, to emerge as the dominant mussel shell mineral due to its preference to form in warmer waters. Instead, the new study has shown that the weaker but more stable calcite mineral is now the dominant shell substance, a response linked to increases in ocean water acidity.

"We found that these mussels are indeed secreting more calcite today than they were 60 years ago," said Bullard. "Lower pH eats away the shells these animals are able to create, so it's considered a major problem for marine organisms. There are 303 species that are associated with the California mussel, so if we lose the mussel we lose other species, some of which are really important to things like our fisheries and recreation."

In the late 1950s, Caltech scientist James Dodd traveled the Pacific Coast from La Jolla to Washington state, collecting mussels along the way. His specimen sampling led to a valuable baseline of information about mussels and their shell composition, including the ratio of aragonite to calcite. One of the results of his work was a stark geographical contrast between cold northern waters, where mussels mostly featured calcitic shells, with the warmer southern waters where aragonite was the dominant shell mineral.

To find out how the shell mineral profile has changed across six decades, Bullard similarly traveled the coastline with her lab mate, graduate student Alex Neu, in 2017 and 2018 to collect new specimens in a survey that geographically replicated Dodd's sampling. With more than 100 shell samples collected, Bullard then spent days meticulously grinding each shell down to a fine dust to dissect their composition--up to 16 hours of grinding for one shell in some cases.

"If you put too much heat or pressure on aragonite it will convert to calcite," said Bullard. "Calcite is extremely stable but aragonite isn't. In order to really make sure the ratio is accurate you have to be super careful and hand grind the specimens down to a super fine powder."

Finally, project collaborator Professor Olivia Graeve and her materials science group in the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering conducted X-ray diffraction analysis on each sample to determine their mineral profiles.

"By combining our expertise in crystallography of materials with our collaborator's expertise in ecology, we were able to make a real impact on our understanding of humans' long-term effects on other species," said Graeve. "This type of interdisciplinary research is what's required to continue advancing science and engineering for the benefit of our world."

The results told a new story. Instead of a geographical boundary between north and south California mussel shells, the new survey revealed that acidic waters are reducing shell aragonite throughout the coast, leading to calcite as the dominant shell mineral.

"James Dodd's data fit in a world where the balance of temperature and ocean pH was very different from that today," said Roy, a professor in the Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution (EBE). "For me it was surprising how big the effect was in 60 years. That's not a huge amount of time as these things go, but the effect was striking."

The researchers were surprised to find that ocean pH and changing amounts of carbonate availability, not temperature, played such a strong role in influencing shell mineralogy. It's a finding that would not be possible without Dodd's critical baseline work.

"This study highlights the importance of utilizing long-term data sets and large spatial comparisons to understand and test predictions about species responses to a changing world," the authors write in the paper.

Bullard and Roy are now probing deeper into shell viability questions. They are conducting lab experiments to test how this change from aragonite to calcite might impact the strength and overall function of the mussel shell.

###

Co-authors of the paper include: Elizabeth Bullard, Ivan Torres, Tianqi Ren, Olivia Graeve and Kaustuv Roy.

A grant from NASA and the Jeanne Marie Messier Memorial Endowment Fund (EBE) supported this research.

Qatar raises carbon capture ambitions, touting green credentials

CARBON CAPTURE IS NEITHER GREEN NOR CLEAN

By Bloomberg  

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Qatar Petroleum will build facilities capable of capturing and storing more than seven million tonnes per year of carbon dioxide in the tiny peninsular nation by 2030, the company said in a statement.

The world’s biggest liquefied natural gas producer is increasingly touting its environmental credentials. LNG is less polluting than oil and coal but suppliers are still facing pressure to reduce emissions as nations seek to meet strict climate targets.

Energy Minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi previously announced plans for a two million tonnes per year facility in 2019.

In November, QP signed the world’s first long-term LNG deal that details pollution. Each cargo shipped to the buyer in Singapore will detail how much carbon was emitted in its production.

In addition to carbon capture projects, QP plans to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases it emits from its LNG plants by 25% and upstream operations by 75 per cent by 2030, according to the statement.

It also intends to reduce the amount of gas it burns off in its operations, known as flaring, by at least 75 per cent by 2030 and reduce methane leaking to 0.2 per cent by 2025.

© 2021 Bloomberg L.P.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CARBON CAPTURE (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CARBON CAPTURE IS NEITHER GREEN NOR CLEAN (plawiuk.blogspot.com)

HSBC shareholders ask bank to cut fossil-fuel lending exposure

By Bloomberg  
Tuesday, January 12, 2021


A group of HSBC holdings plc shareholders have filed a resolution urging the bank to cut its support to the fossil-fuel industry.

Amundi SA, Europe’s largest listed asset manager, and Man Group plc, the world’s biggest publicly traded hedge fund firm, were among 15 institutional investors overseeing a combined $2.4 trillion that are backing the move, according to a statement from ShareAction, the U.K. nonprofit that coordinated the plan. The money managers, along with 117 individual shareholders, asked HSBC to publish a strategy to reduce its exposure to fossil-fuel assets and set targets in line with the Paris Agreement.

Banks are major contributors to global warming via their financing and lending activities, providing the world’s biggest polluters with funding for extraction and drilling. Their role as the money pipeline for the fossil-fuel industry has attracted greater scrutiny from investors and activists in recent years. It also has coincided with the banks themselves starting to build up their green-finance businesses.

“For a long time, banks remained out of the spotlight and all the focus was on the actual carbon emitters, but it’s becoming more obvious that banks are part of the problem too,” said Jeanne Martin, senior campaign manager at ShareAction. “There’s now increased interest among investors on the role of finance firms in facilitating emissions and in decarbonization.”

In October, London-based HSBC said it would prioritize financing and investments that support the transition to a net-zero global economy and committed to cut the net-carbon emissions of its client portfolio to zero by 2050. The bank also said it planned to achieve net-zero emissions in its own operations and supply chain by 2030.

HSBC is “strongly committed to addressing climate change” and has a “clear ambition” to align its financed emissions to net zero, a company spokesperson said. The bank is a leader in sustainable finance and expects to provide as much as $1 trillion in finance by 2030 to help its customers decarbonize, the spokesperson said.

“As we work to set out the detail of our road map to net zero, we continue to positively engage with our customers, shareholders and ShareAction,” the company said in a statement.

ShareAction said investors recognize HSBC has made progress on climate-change matters, yet they’ve also called for the bank to do more and said its net-zero strategy contains no specific plans for phasing out its exposure to coal, oil and gas. The resolution covers HSBC’s project finance, corporate lending and underwriting operations and requests the bank set short-, medium- and long-term targets.

The group of shareholders that filed the resolution, which also includes Brunel Pension Partnership, Rathbone Investment Management and Sarasin & Partners, requested HSBC make reducing its coal business the priority. The investors also asked HSBC “to consider the social dimension of the transition to a low-carbon economy” when devising its strategy and to not “rely excessively” on negative emissions technologies that remove carbon when developing targets.

“We welcome the net-zero ambition, but such an ambition needs to be underpinned with a real transition plan and reflect the sense of urgency highlighted by climate science,” said Helen Price, stewardship manager at Brunel. “Without a credible transition plan, the net-zero ambition isn’t a new and improved recipe for the bank, it’s just new packaging.”

Since the Paris climate agreement was signed at the end of 2015, HSBC has helped arrange $89.1 billion of bonds and loans for energy companies, excluding solar, wind and other renewable producers, the third most among European lenders, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That includes $20.4 billion in 2020 for clients including BP plc and Saudi Aramco.

Barclays plc is Europe’s biggest lender to corporate emitters over the period, providing $92 billion of financing, followed by BNP Paribas SA with $90.5 billion, the data show. JPMorgan Chase & Co. has been the biggest lender globally since the start of 2016.

London-based ShareAction, which advocates for responsible investment, coordinated the first climate change resolution at a European bank when a group of Barclays shareholders asked the company last year to phase out financing for polluters that don’t align with the goals of the Paris accord. While only 24 per cent of Barclays shareholders supported the resolution, which was far below the threshold required for it to be adopted, a separate net-zero proposal put forward by the bank received almost unanimous support.

HSBC shareholders will vote on the resolution at the lender’s annual meeting in April.

“HSBC, being Europe’s largest bank, is a critical player in emissions output and potential reductions,” said Jason Mitchell, co-head of responsible investment at Man Group. “It has established a soft ambition of being net zero by 2050, but if we can work together on its transition plan and target-setting, then it could send an important signal to other fossil-fuel financiers of the road ahead.”

© 2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Investor pressure on companies including Enbridge, BP boosted climate disclosures in 2020
By Bloomberg  
Wednesday, January 13, 2021
 

Image: Enbridge

Companies are more than twice as likely to report climate risk data when investors actively pressure them to do so, according to a leading climate-disclosure platform.

More than 1,000 companies were asked by investors to disclose their impact on forests, climate change and water security last year, as part of an annual campaign by the nonprofit CDP. The response rate rose to 20 per cent in 2020 after lingering around 15 per cent for the previous three years, it said in a report released on Tuesday.

The 206 companies that disclosed new information to CDP after investor pressure include Enbridge Inc., Pernod Ricard SA and Nestle SA. They produce a combined 670 million metric tons of direct CO2 emissions, almost the same as Germany’s entire national fossil-fuel emissions.

“With business resilience and adaptation to systemic risks exposed by the global public health crisis, the tide is rapidly turning against companies not taking note of investor demand for disclosure,” said Emily Kreps, global director of capital markets at CDP.

Investors need companies to report data that show how vulnerable they are to climate change, and what they are doing to address it, in order to help them understand financial risks they are undertaking. In 2020, 108 institutional investors with a combined $12 trillion in assets asked companies to disclose data to CDP, which saw a particularly strong response from those based in Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe and Japan.

The campaign struggled to succeed in Oceania, where just eight per cent of companies engaged by investors ended up disclosing. The report cited failures by the Australian government — which had to deal with some of the worst wildfires and droughts in the nation’s history last year — to create a political and business environment that incentivizes companies to act on climate.

On a global level, many of the biggest names continue to resist demands to disclose their information to CDP. Amazon.com, BP plc, Facebook Inc. and Royal Dutch Shell plc have all faced calls from the campaign for four years in a row, and they still don’t disclose the full scope of their impact on the platform.

© 2021 Bloomberg L.P.

Enbridge rejects Michigan's demand to shut down oil pipeline
By The Canadian Press  
Tuesday, January 12, 2021

Image: Enbridge

Enbridge said Tuesday it would defy Michigan's demand to shut down an oil pipeline that runs through a channel linking two of the Great Lakes, contending that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's decision was based on bad information and political posturing.

The Democratic governor in November moved to revoke a 1953 state easement that allowed part of the Canadian company's Line 5 to be placed along the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac. Saying Enbridge had repeatedly violated the terms and put the lakes at risk, Whitmer gave the company 180 days – until May 12 – to turn off the flow.

Enbridge filed a federal lawsuit challenging the order shortly after it was issued. Vern Yu, president for liquids pipelines, gave a point-by-point-response to the state's termination notice in a letter Tuesday and said it wouldn't close Line 5

“Our dual pipelines in the straits are safe, fit for service and in full compliance with the federal safety standards that govern them,'' Yu said.

Mike Koby, vice-president of U.S. operations for the Calgary-based company, said Whitmer had overstepped her authority. Enbridge has “no intention of shutting down the pipelines based on these unspecified allegations,'' Koby said in an interview.

A message seeking comment was sent to Whitmer’s office.

Line 5 is part of Enbridge's Lakehead network, which carries oil and liquids used in propane from western Canada to refineries in the U.S. and Ontario. The pipeline moves about 23 million gallons (87 million litres) daily between Superior, Wis., and Sarnia, Ont., traversing parts of northern Michigan and Wisconsin.

The underwater section beneath the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan, is divided into two pipes that Enbridge says are in good shape and have never leaked.

Whitmer, however, agrees with environmentalists, Native American tribes and other critics who contend they're vulnerable to a catastrophic spill.

Enbridge reached an agreement with then-Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, in 2018 to replace the underwater portion with a new pipe that would be housed in a tunnel to be drilled beneath the straits.

The company is seeking state and federal permits for the $500 million project, which is not affected by the shutdown order.

Whitmer's order said granting the easement in a busy shipping lane vulnerable to anchor strikes was a mistake and Enbridge had made things worse, repeatedly violating a requirement that the pipelines rest on the lake bed or have other supports at least every 75 feet (22 metres).

The company also has failed to ensure that protective coating hasn't worn off and has allowed the pipes to bend excessively in some places, the order said.

In his response, Yu said problems with pipeline supports and coating had been fixed years ago and that Enbridge had taken numerous steps to prevent contact with vessel anchors after one was dragged over the pipelines in April 2018.

The allegation about bending appears to have been based on the state's flawed reading of data that could have been cleared up if officials hadn't refused to discuss technical issues over the past two years, he said.

The governor's notice is actually based on inaccurate and outdated information that ignores the current condition of the dual pipelines'' that federal regulators have described as safe, Koby said. He accused the state of bias, adding that “for the governor this is a political issue, pure and simple.''

© 2021 The Canadian Press

Environmental group concerned about native grasslands in southern Alberta
By The Canadian Press  
Thursday, January 14, 2021,

Sage grouse in Milk River Natural Area Image: Alberta Wilderness Association

An environmental group says it is opposed to the proposed sale of oil and natural gas rights in the Milk River Natural Area and other native grasslands in southern Alberta.

The United Conservative government is holding an auction, which closed at noon Wednesday.

The Alberta Wilderness Association said in a letter to the province earlier this week that it has long been interested in conservation of native grasslands. It noted that less than half of native cover remains in Alberta's Grasslands Natural Region and it is highly fragmented.

“We want to make sure they will not be disturbing any native grasslands,'' Grace Wark, conservation specialist with the group, said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Wark said the group is concerned about any development within the Milk River Natural Area because it contains grasslands that are home to threatened populations of swift fox and the greater short-horned lizard.

Alberta Energy said in a statement that the auction was a regular posting of available oil and gas leases and noted there have been no changes in government policy related to those leases.

“As is stated in the public offering document, since this lease lies beneath a natural area, established under the Public Lands Act, surface access is not permitted, nor is any other development within the natural area,'' said the statement.

“This is not unusual as there are a variety of ways that producers can develop reservoirs without disturbing the land above them, such as directional or horizontal drilling.''

Wark said that's still a concern, because the entire area consists of intact native prairie and species-at-risk habitat.

Even horizontal drilling, she said, could damage the grasslands around the Milk River Natural Area.

Wark said there are four other proposed leases outside that area that have native prairie and those parcels don't have any additional restrictions.

“All of this is a red flag for us because we want to make sure if new wells are going in, that they are happening on top of existing disturbance and that they are not continuing to fragment what little native grasslands we have left here in Alberta.''

Some of those four parcels contain endangered northern fescue grasslands.

When native grasslands get fragmented, it can disrupt life-cycle requirements for the animals that live there, Wark said. It can also interrupt migration for birds.

Alberta Energy added that obtaining a lease doesn't guarantee exploration or development.

“It's only gives a proponent rights in that subsurface panel – which they can produce only after and if they get all of the requisite regulatory approvals and surface rights access,'' said the statement. “All proposed projects continue to be subject to rigorous review by the Alberta Energy Regulator, and subject to Alberta's land-use policies, including regional plans.''

© 2021 The Canadian Press

Tower of London 'queen' raven missing, believed dead
Updated / Thursday, 14 Jan 2021 10:04

Legend has it that the Tower must maintain six ravens or else the tower and the kingdom will fall


The Tower of London's "queen" raven is missing and feared dead, but her master says there are still seven ravens in residence preventing the fall of the kingdom.

Raven Merlina, described as "free-spirited", has not been seen at the Tower for several weeks, and was first realised to be missing before Christmas when the ravens were being put to bed.

Legend has it that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London, both the Tower and the kingdom will suffer, but Yeoman Warder Chris Skaife, Ravenmaster at the Tower, has put minds at rest.

Chris Skaife, pictured in October 2020, feeding the ravens

"Just before Christmas, before we went into the lockdown, we were putting the ravens to bed, and she didn't come back.

"Now Merlina is a free-spirited raven that has been known to leave the Tower precincts on many occasion, but I'm her buddy, and so she normally comes back to us, but this time she didn't so I do fear that she is not with us anymore," he told BBC Radio 4's Today Programme.

He added: "Obviously as the Ravenmaster, my concern is looking after the kingdom.

"Should the ravens leave the Tower of London will crumble to dust, and great harm will befall the kingdom.

"Of course that is myth and legend.

"But we do have seven ravens here at the Tower of London, six by royal decree and of course I still have a spare one, so we're OK at the moment."





Charles II is thought to have been the first to insist that the ravens of the Tower be protected after he was warned that the crown and the Tower itself would fall if they left.

In a statement, the Tower of London said: "We have some really unhappy news to share.

"Our much-loved raven Merlina has not been seen at the Tower for several weeks, and her continued absence indicates to us that she may have sadly passed away.

"Though it isn't unusual for our ravens to roam outside the walls, free-spirited Merlina has previously always returned to the Tower and to the Ravenmaster and his team, with whom she shared a wonderfully close bond.

"We now have seven ravens here at the Tower, one more than the required six, so we don't have any immediate plans to fill Merlina's vacancy.

"However in time we hope that a new chick from our breeding programme will be up to the formidable challenge of continuing her legacy.

"Since joining us in 2007, Merlina was our undisputed ruler of the roost, Queen of the Tower Ravens.

"She will be greatly missed by her fellow ravens, the Ravenmaster, and all of us in the Tower community."

Australia to kill US pigeon that crossed Pacific

Published

The bird reportedly went missing during a race in the US state of Oregon in late October, \before turning up in Melbourne almost two months later.

But officials say the pigeon, which has been named Joe, poses a "direct biosecurity risk" to Australia's bird population and poultry industry.

The bird will be caught and euthanised.

Melbourne resident Kevin Celli-Bird says he found the pigeon in his back garden on 26 December.

"He was pretty emaciated so I crushed up a dry biscuit and left it out there for him," he told the AP news agency.

Some internet research led Mr Celli-Bird to discover that the bird, which is registered to an owner in Alabama, was last seen during a pigeon race in the western US state of Oregon.

But after news of Joe's appearance made headlines in Australia, Mr Celli-Bird was contacted by officials concerned about the threat of infection.

The pigeon has not yet been caught, but the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment says it will have to be put down because of the danger of infection to local birds.

"Regardless of its origin, any domesticated bird that has not met import health status and testing requirements is not permitted to remain in Australia," a department spokesperson said in a statement.

"The only possible outcome to manage the biosecurity risk is humane destruction of the bird."

It is not clear how the bird managed to make the 8,000-mile journey from the west coast of the US to southern Australia, but officials believe he is likely to have hitchhiked on board a cargo vessel.

While it is possible to legally bring pigeons into Australia, the process is difficult and can cost tens of thousands of dollars, and none have been legally imported from the US in over a decade.

Joe the pigeon is not the first animal to face trouble from Australia's strict animal import laws.