B.C. auditor general flags province’s inadequate management of lands, fish and wildlife
B.C. is falling short on its commitment to protect fish and wildlife habitat, according to a report released by the province’s auditor general on Tuesday.
The audit of the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development’s Conservation Lands Program identified several deficiencies, including: a lack of strategic direction ensuring government collaboration with Indigenous communities; a failure to sufficiently monitor and enforce rules on conserved lands; and a need to update management plans for species and habitat.
“Overall, we concluded that the ministry has not effectively managed the program,” Michael Pickup, auditor general, said in a statement.
Pickup noted the program — which was developed over half a century ago to provide a framework for the province to work with non-profit organizations, federal agencies and First Nations — has not revisited its goals or strategic planning for over 30 years. He also found the program lacks clarity of purpose, leaving government staff working on local or regional conservation programs without clear directives.
The report noted that even on conserved lands, the province isn’t doing enough to regulate public use, stating that “hundreds of unauthorized activities had occurred on conservation lands” between 2009 and 2020. Infractions ranged from motor vehicle use in prohibited areas to illegal harvesting activities.
The auditor general outlined a series of recommendations, including cementing a strategic plan for the program and addressing the need to be more transparent with the public. The Ministry of Forests acknowledged its shortcomings and told The Narwhal in a statement it is already working on a number of initiatives to address the audit’s findings.
“Ministry staff are currently working on a strategic plan for the Conservation Lands Program that will detail our actions to fully address the auditor general’s 11 recommendations,” a ministry spokesperson wrote in an email. “The new strategic plan will include input from the existing Conservation Lands partners, the minister’s Wildlife Advisory Council and the First Nations-B.C. Wildlife and Habitat Conservation Forum.”
As for when the public can expect to see the ministry implement the recommended changes, Pickup said at a press conference that decision is at the discretion of the province.
“Most of the responses to these recommendations indicate what they are going to do but they don’t actually indicate a specific timeline to have things done,” he said.
The report comes as steelhead and salmon populations in watersheds across the province struggle to survive, caribou herds are extirpated and numerous species suffer from habitat fragmentation and the impacts of climate change. As The Narwhal recently reported, there are thousands of species at risk in B.C. and, despite this, the current government reneged on its promise to enact species-at-risk legislation.
One of the Conservation Lands Program’s key tools to address the needs of at-risk species and important habitats is the designation of wildlife management areas, but the audit flagged a number of problems with B.C.’s management of those areas, noting around 70 per cent of the plans have not been approved and the average age of the plans is almost 20 years.
The audit noted current plans need to reflect current risks, which include the ever-evolving risks associated with climate change.
The report also pointed out that the province did not maintain an accurate inventory of its conserved lands, including non-administered conservation lands, which are areas designated for conservation purposes under the Land Act.
“The ministry needs an accurate inventory of conservation lands to monitor and report on progress and to make informed program decisions,” the report said.
The ministry said one of the ways it is addressing the auditor general’s recommendations, while working to meet provincial conservation commitments, predates the report. The Together for Wildlife Strategy, announced last summer, is the province’s plan for conserving B.C.’s biodiversity. The strategy outlines five goals and 24 actions to achieve those goals, which involve working closely with First Nations.
But according to the audit, the ministry “has not supported staff to collaborate with Indigenous Peoples when securing and managing conservation lands.” It added that while the ministry is working to provide training and guidance to its staff, there is a lack of specific direction to collaborate and engage with First Nations.
In an interview conducted prior to the audit’s release, George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy, told The Narwhal the province is working to align its conservation strategy with Indigenous Rights and community interests.
“We’re working hard to find a way forward that respects First Nations culture and values, that acknowledges and respects the importance of maintaining biodiversity and protecting species at risk, but doing it by developing an approach that doesn’t provide only one path.”
Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal
Tuesday, May 11, 2021
Canada is virtue signaling while waffling on global access to COVID-19 vaccines
Joel Lexchin,
Professor Emeritus of Health Policy and Management, York University, Emergency Physician at University Health Network, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto
Based on public statements, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that Canada is working to improve global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Based on public statements, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that Canada is working to improve global access to COVID-19 vaccines.
© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carlos Osorio - POOL Anita Anand, Canada's minister of public services and procurement, opens a box with some of the first 500,000 of the two million AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine doses that Canada secured last March through a deal with the Serum Institute of India.
This quote comes from an opinion piece in the Washington Post on July 15, 2020; the lead author, none other than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:
“…we must urgently ensure that vaccines will be distributed according to a set of transparent, equitable and scientifically sound principles. Where you live should not determine whether you live, and global solidarity is central to saving lives and protecting the economy.”
The person being quoted here in early May of this year is Mary Ng, the International Trade Minister in Trudeau’s cabinet:
“The work we have been doing and the leadership we have been providing is very much about removing all barriers to vaccine access, whether it be production or supply chain or export restrictions…We’re trying to remove all barriers to access to vaccines.”
But despite what Trudeau and Ng said, Canada is not doing all that it can to improve access. Far from it.
This quote comes from an opinion piece in the Washington Post on July 15, 2020; the lead author, none other than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:
“…we must urgently ensure that vaccines will be distributed according to a set of transparent, equitable and scientifically sound principles. Where you live should not determine whether you live, and global solidarity is central to saving lives and protecting the economy.”
The person being quoted here in early May of this year is Mary Ng, the International Trade Minister in Trudeau’s cabinet:
“The work we have been doing and the leadership we have been providing is very much about removing all barriers to vaccine access, whether it be production or supply chain or export restrictions…We’re trying to remove all barriers to access to vaccines.”
But despite what Trudeau and Ng said, Canada is not doing all that it can to improve access. Far from it.
Virtue signalling with little action
Canada has signed contracts for enough vaccine doses to inoculate every woman, man and child in Canada four times. Canada is accepting vaccine donations from the United States and also purchasing vaccines from COVAX (COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access — a mechanism mainly designed to ensure that low- and middle-income countries can access vaccines).
Over one-third of Canadians have received at least one dose of vaccine as of May 7, compared to vaccination rates of under two per cent in Africa. Back in January, Canada refused to donate any vaccines and that position has not changed since.
© (AP Photo/ Diomande Ble Blonde) A shipment of COVID-19 vaccines distributed by the COVAX Facility arrives in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, last February.
This pattern of virtue signalling about access to medicines and then doing nothing has a long tradition in Canada.
Back in the late 1990s, the South African government was trying to improve access to drug treatment for the staggering 22 per cent of the population that was HIV positive. At that time, triple therapy — the three-drug cocktail used to treat HIV — cost over US $10,000 per person per year, effectively putting it out of reach of the vast majority of South Africans.
South Africa wanted to encourage the use of low-cost generic drugs. The response from 39 drug companies, backed by the United States, was to take South Africa to court. Canada’s position? We supported access but we also supported the intellectual property rights of the drug companies.
This pattern of virtue signalling about access to medicines and then doing nothing has a long tradition in Canada.
Back in the late 1990s, the South African government was trying to improve access to drug treatment for the staggering 22 per cent of the population that was HIV positive. At that time, triple therapy — the three-drug cocktail used to treat HIV — cost over US $10,000 per person per year, effectively putting it out of reach of the vast majority of South Africans.
South Africa wanted to encourage the use of low-cost generic drugs. The response from 39 drug companies, backed by the United States, was to take South Africa to court. Canada’s position? We supported access but we also supported the intellectual property rights of the drug companies.
C-TAP, COVAX and the WTO TRIPS waiver
Fast forward to the present and COVID-19. In May 2020, the World Health Organization launched the COVID-19 Technology Access Pool, or C-TAP, an initiative to accelerate and broaden global access to COVID-19 vaccines under development at the time, as well as treatments and diagnostics.
C-TAP has the endorsement of 40 countries. But not Canada. No pharmaceutical company has contributed to C-TAP. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said: “At this point in time, I think it’s nonsense, and… it’s also dangerous.”
© (AP Photo/Thoko Chikondi, File) A Malawian policeman guards AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines after the shipment arrived in March at the Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe, Malawi.
COVAX is designed to give poor countries enough vaccine for 20 per cent of their population, but it is $2 billion short of even achieving that modest objective.
In the face of the failure of C-TAP and in order to supplement what COVAX could do, back in October 2020 India and South Africa asked the World Trade Organization to suspend the protection of intellectual property.
The request included patent rights, technical know-how and undisclosed data for COVID-19 products for the duration of the pandemic. This is known as the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver. The objective was to free up unused worldwide capacity to increase the production of vaccines and other products necessary for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
As many commentators have pointed out, if the waiver is approved by the WTO (and approval requires consensus among all its 159 members), nothing will change overnight. It will take many months and possibly even longer to ramp up vaccine production.
But that increased capacity is going to be needed. It is increasingly looking like we might require yearly booster shots for COVID-19 as variants multiply. That’s almost six billion doses of vaccine a year for people 15 years and older, almost double the current capacity to produce vaccines.
Moreover, when drug companies think that the pandemic is over, they are going to raise prices dramatically. Pfizer currently charges US$19.50 per dose, but chief financial officer Frank D’Amelio said that Pfizer’s normal price for vaccines is $150 to $175.
Canada’s position on intellectual property
To the amazement of just about everyone, the Biden administration just announced that the U.S. is going to support the waiver for COVID-19 vaccines.
Canada? Just like the South Africa situation, we neither support nor oppose the waiver. The Canadian government will take part in talks at the WTO about the waiver, but won’t say which side it will be taking.
COVAX is designed to give poor countries enough vaccine for 20 per cent of their population, but it is $2 billion short of even achieving that modest objective.
In the face of the failure of C-TAP and in order to supplement what COVAX could do, back in October 2020 India and South Africa asked the World Trade Organization to suspend the protection of intellectual property.
The request included patent rights, technical know-how and undisclosed data for COVID-19 products for the duration of the pandemic. This is known as the TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) waiver. The objective was to free up unused worldwide capacity to increase the production of vaccines and other products necessary for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.
As many commentators have pointed out, if the waiver is approved by the WTO (and approval requires consensus among all its 159 members), nothing will change overnight. It will take many months and possibly even longer to ramp up vaccine production.
But that increased capacity is going to be needed. It is increasingly looking like we might require yearly booster shots for COVID-19 as variants multiply. That’s almost six billion doses of vaccine a year for people 15 years and older, almost double the current capacity to produce vaccines.
Moreover, when drug companies think that the pandemic is over, they are going to raise prices dramatically. Pfizer currently charges US$19.50 per dose, but chief financial officer Frank D’Amelio said that Pfizer’s normal price for vaccines is $150 to $175.
Canada’s position on intellectual property
To the amazement of just about everyone, the Biden administration just announced that the U.S. is going to support the waiver for COVID-19 vaccines.
Canada? Just like the South Africa situation, we neither support nor oppose the waiver. The Canadian government will take part in talks at the WTO about the waiver, but won’t say which side it will be taking.
© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette A police escort follows the shipment carrying just under 300,000 doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which is developed by the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies, at Pearson International Airport in Toronto on April 28.
Canada’s position for months has been that it was “merely asking questions about the patent waiver proposal, rather than opposing it.” But in a letter to the U.S. government back in March from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Canada was listed as one of the countries standing with the U.S. in opposing the waiver.
Canada is currently negotiating with drug companies over vaccine delivery schedules and is still in a battle with them about changes to how prices for patented drug will be determined.
Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC), the lobby group for the multinational companies, not surprisingly has come out strongly against the waiver. In a statement a few days after the U.S. announced its position, IMC said the “proposed waiver of TRIPS IP protections would be a disappointing step that will create greater uncertainty and unpredictability in the production, quality, and availability of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.”
How much is fear of further angering the pharmaceutical industry playing into Canada’s position on the waiver?
When it comes to standing up for access to medicines versus standing up for intellectual property rights, for Canada, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose; the more things change, the more they stay the same.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
In 2017-2020, Joel Lexchin received payments for being on a panel at the American Diabetes Association, for talks at the Toronto Reference Library, for writing a brief in an action for side effects of a drug for Michael F. Smith, Lawyer and a second brief on the role of promotion in generating prescriptions for Goodmans LLP and from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for presenting at a workshop on conflict-of-interest in clinical practice guidelines. He is currently a member of research groups that are receiving money from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. He is a member of the Foundation Board of Health Action International and the Board of Canadian Doctors for Medicare. He receives royalties from University of Toronto Press and James Lorimer & Co. Ltd. for books he has written.
Canada’s position for months has been that it was “merely asking questions about the patent waiver proposal, rather than opposing it.” But in a letter to the U.S. government back in March from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Canada was listed as one of the countries standing with the U.S. in opposing the waiver.
Canada is currently negotiating with drug companies over vaccine delivery schedules and is still in a battle with them about changes to how prices for patented drug will be determined.
Innovative Medicines Canada (IMC), the lobby group for the multinational companies, not surprisingly has come out strongly against the waiver. In a statement a few days after the U.S. announced its position, IMC said the “proposed waiver of TRIPS IP protections would be a disappointing step that will create greater uncertainty and unpredictability in the production, quality, and availability of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.”
How much is fear of further angering the pharmaceutical industry playing into Canada’s position on the waiver?
When it comes to standing up for access to medicines versus standing up for intellectual property rights, for Canada, plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose; the more things change, the more they stay the same.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
In 2017-2020, Joel Lexchin received payments for being on a panel at the American Diabetes Association, for talks at the Toronto Reference Library, for writing a brief in an action for side effects of a drug for Michael F. Smith, Lawyer and a second brief on the role of promotion in generating prescriptions for Goodmans LLP and from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research for presenting at a workshop on conflict-of-interest in clinical practice guidelines. He is currently a member of research groups that are receiving money from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council. He is a member of the Foundation Board of Health Action International and the Board of Canadian Doctors for Medicare. He receives royalties from University of Toronto Press and James Lorimer & Co. Ltd. for books he has written.
Quebec government worries about repercussions of a prolonged ArcelorMittal strike
MONTREAL — Quebec's Labour Minister says he is concerned about the economic repercussions of a strike involving 2,500 ArcelorMittal workers announced Monday evening.
Jean Boulet said today in a statement a prolonged strike could have a significant impact on the Côte-Nord region and the province's economy.
The 2,500 unionized workers are members of the United Steelworkers union and are affiliated with the Quebec Federation of Labour; they went on strike Monday evening after rejecting the employer's offer.
Workers had already rejected a previous offer in April, after a tentative agreement.
The workers are employed at several of the company's work sites including the Mont-Wright mining complex and Fire Lake mine in the Côte-Nord region, and at a pelletizing plant in Port-Cartier, Que., about 575 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.
Boulet urged both sides to return to the negotiating table with conciliators from the Labour Department.
The company said in a statement today it is ready to return to talks.
Nicolas Lapierre, regional coordinator of the United Steelworkers, said today in a statement he was ready to return to the negotiating table too, but invited ArcelorMittal to improve its offer, as members had already rejected two offers — the last one was rejected by 97 per cent of voting members.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.
The Canadian Press
MONTREAL — Quebec's Labour Minister says he is concerned about the economic repercussions of a strike involving 2,500 ArcelorMittal workers announced Monday evening.
Jean Boulet said today in a statement a prolonged strike could have a significant impact on the Côte-Nord region and the province's economy.
The 2,500 unionized workers are members of the United Steelworkers union and are affiliated with the Quebec Federation of Labour; they went on strike Monday evening after rejecting the employer's offer.
Workers had already rejected a previous offer in April, after a tentative agreement.
The workers are employed at several of the company's work sites including the Mont-Wright mining complex and Fire Lake mine in the Côte-Nord region, and at a pelletizing plant in Port-Cartier, Que., about 575 kilometres northeast of Quebec City.
Boulet urged both sides to return to the negotiating table with conciliators from the Labour Department.
The company said in a statement today it is ready to return to talks.
Nicolas Lapierre, regional coordinator of the United Steelworkers, said today in a statement he was ready to return to the negotiating table too, but invited ArcelorMittal to improve its offer, as members had already rejected two offers — the last one was rejected by 97 per cent of voting members.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2021.
The Canadian Press
Box fan air cleaner greatly reduces virus transmission
Decades-old public classrooms with inadequate ventilation can be made safer with the use of a cardboard frame, air filter, and a low-cost box fan.
IMAGE: LOW-COST PORTABLE AIR CLEANER FOR REDUCING VIRUS SPREAD IN PUBLIC SCHOOL CLASSROOMS. view more
CREDIT: RUICHEN HE, JIARONG HONG
WASHINGTON, May 11, 2021 -- Improved ventilation can lower the risk of transmission of the COVID-19 virus, but large numbers of decades-old public school classrooms lack adequate ventilation systems. A systematic modeling study of simple air cleaners using a box fan reported in Physics of Fluids, by AIP Publishing, shows these inexpensive units can greatly decrease the amount of airborne virus in these spaces, if used appropriately.
A low-cost air cleaner can be easily constructed from a cardboard frame topped by an air filter and a box fan. The air filter is placed between the fan and the cardboard base. The fan is oriented so that air is drawn in from the top and forced through the filter, discharging cleaned air downward.
The investigators measured the clean air delivery rate of the air cleaning system in experiments conducted at two independent laboratories. Tobacco smoke was used to simulate the airborne virus, since the virus is known to travel through the air after exhalation in droplets about the same size as smoke particulates.
The experimental measurements were incorporated into a detailed computational model of a classroom. In addition to the box fan air cleaner, a ventilation unit known as an HUV, or a horizontal unit ventilator, was included in the simulation. This type of ventilation system is very common in public schools and is usually placed along an outside wall, drawing in air near the floor and exhausting it at the top to circulate fresh air around a classroom.
A cloud of virus particles was assumed to enter the simulation from an infected individual. The investigators assumed this individual was the instructor and experimented with different placements of the box fan air cleaner.
"Placing the air cleaner near the potential infector is the most effective way to reduce the aerosol spread," said author Jiarong Hong.
The simulations showed the best results were obtained by shifting both the box fan air cleaner and the infected instructor to a location near the HUV.
"At this location, owing to its proximity to both the infector and the HUV, the air cleaner extracts the majority of aerosols, leaving only a small percentage suspended in the air," Hong said.
Although placing the air cleaner near an infected individual is best, it is not always possible to know who is infected. In this situation, the investigators recommend placing the air cleaner near the HUV, with the air cleaner outflow pointing toward the inlet of the HUV.
"In addition, we find that in large classrooms, distributing multiple air cleaners in the space is more effective in controlling aerosol spread than simply enhancing the flow rate of the HUV or air cleaners alone," Hong said.
###
The article "Airborne transmission of COVID-19 and mitigation using box fan air cleaners in a poorly ventilated classroom" is authored by Ruichen He, Wanjiao Liu, John Elson, Rainer Vogt, Clay Maranville, and Jiarong Hong. The article will appear in Physics of Fluids on May 11, 2021 (DOI: 10.1063/5.0050058). After that date, it can be accessed at https:/
ABOUT THE JOURNAL
Physics of Fluids is devoted to the publication of original theoretical, computational, and experimental contributions to the dynamics of gases, liquids, and complex fluids. See https:/
Discovery of new geologic process calls for changes to plate tectonic cycle
VIDEO: ELEMENTS OF A NEWLY DISCOVERED PROCESS IN PLATE TECTONICS INCLUDE A MASS (ROCK SLAB WEIGHT), A PULLEY (TRENCH), A DASHPOT (MICROCONTINENT), AND A STRING (OCEANIC PLATE) THAT CONNECTS THESE ELEMENTS... view more
CREDIT: ERKAN GÜN/UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO
TORONTO, ON - Geoscientists at the University of Toronto (U of T) and Istanbul Technical University have discovered a new process in plate tectonics which shows that tremendous damage occurs to areas of Earth's crust long before it should be geologically altered by known plate-boundary processes, highlighting the need to amend current understandings of the planet's tectonic cycle.
Plate tectonics, an accepted theory for over 60 years that explains the geologic processes occurring below the surface of Earth, holds that its outer shell is fragmented into continent-sized blocks of solid rock, called "plates," that slide over Earth's mantle, the rocky inner layer above the planet's core. As the plates drift around and collide with each other over million-years-long periods, they produce everything from volcanoes and earthquakes to mountain ranges and deep ocean trenches, at the boundaries where the plates collide.
Now, using supercomputer modelling, the researchers show that the plates on which Earth's oceans sit are being torn apart by massive tectonic forces even as they drift about the globe. The findings are reported in a study published this week in Nature Geoscience.
The thinking up to now focused only on the geological deformation of these drifting plates at their boundaries after they had reached a subduction zone, such as the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean where the massive Pacific plate dives beneath the smaller Philippine plate and is recycled into Earth's mantle.
The new research shows much earlier damage to the drifting plate further away from the boundaries of two colliding plates, focused around zones of microcontinents - continental crustal fragments that have broken off from main continental masses to form distinct islands often several hundred kilometers from their place of origin.
"Our work discovers that a completely different part of the plate is being pulled apart because of the subduction process, and at a remarkably early phase of the tectonic cycle," said Erkan Gün, a PhD candidate in the Department of Earth Sciences in the Faculty of Arts & Science at U of T and lead author of the study.
The researchers term the mechanism a "subduction pulley" where the weight of the subducting portion that dives beneath another tectonic plate, pulls on the drifting ocean plate and tears apart the weak microcontinent sections in an early phase of potentially significant damage.
"The damage occurs long before the microcontinent fragment reaches its fate to be consumed in a subduction zone at the boundaries of the colliding plates," said Russell Pysklywec, professor and chair of the Department of Earth Sciences at U of T, and a coauthor of the study. He says another way to look at it is to think of the drifting ocean plate as an airport baggage conveyor, and the microcontinents are like pieces of luggage travelling on the conveyor.
"The conveyor system itself is actually tearing apart the luggage as it travels around the carousel, before the luggage even reaches its owner."
The researchers arrived at the results following a mysterious observation of major extension of rocks in alpine regions in Italy and Turkey. These observations suggested that the tectonic plates that brought the rocks to their current location were already highly damaged prior to the collisional and mountain-building events that normally cause deformation.
"We devised and conducted computational Earth models to investigate a process to account for the observations," said Gün. "It turned out that the temperature and pressure rock histories that we measured with the virtual Earth models match closely with the enigmatic rock evolution observed in Italy and Turkey."
According to the researchers, the findings refine some of the fundamental aspects of plate tectonics and call for a revised understanding of this fundamental theory in geoscience.
"Normally we assume - and teach - that the ocean plate conveyor is too strong to be damaged as it drifts around the globe, but we prove otherwise," said Pysklywec.
The findings build on the legacy of J. Tuzo Wilson, also a U of T scientist, and a renowned figure in geosciences who pioneered the idea of plate tectonics in the 1960s.
The research was made possible with support from SciNet and Compute Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.
CAPTION
Elements of a newly discovered process in plate tectonics include a mass (rock slab weight), a pulley (trench), a dashpot (microcontinent), and a string (oceanic plate) that connects these elements to each other. In the initial state, the microcontinent drifts towards the subduction zone (Figure a). The microcontinent then extends during its journey to the subduction trench owing to the tensional force applied by the pull of the rock slab pull across the subduction zone (Figure b). Finally, the microcontinent accretes to the overriding plate and resists subduction due to its low density, causing the down-going slab to break off (Figure c).
CREDIT
Erkan Gün/University of Toronto
Clue to killer whale cluster
Why do more than 100 gather off WA every year?
IMAGE: KILLER WHALE BREACHING IN BREMER BAY, WEST AUSTRALIA view more
CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY NATURALISTE CHARTERS, WA
A Flinders University researcher has finally fathomed why large numbers of killer whales gather at a single main location off the Western Australian southern coastline every summer.
In a new paper published in Deep Sea Research, physical oceanographer Associate Professor Jochen Kampf describes the conditions which have produced this ecological natural wonder of orcas migrating to the continental slope near Bremer Bay in the western Great Australian Bight from late austral spring to early autumn (January-April).
"The aggregation is connected to the local marine food web that follows from the upwelling of benthic particulate organic matter (POM) in a confined region near the seafloor plateau near the head of the Hood Canyon," says Associate Professor Kampf, from the Flinders University College of Science and Engineering.
But how and why does this feeding aggregation occur?
Detailed modelling of the three submarine canyons in the region has demonstrated how the process favours the Hood Canyon over the adjoining Bremer and Whale canyons.
"We showed that the shape and position of the Hood Canyon on the continental slope enables it to funnel significantly more benthic particles onto surrounding areas, and this is supported by smaller scale undulations which cause the slope upwelling of POM."
Whale watching is a popular pursuit at the Bremer Bay Canyon hotspot, located 70km offshore from Bremer Bay in the Fitzgerald River National Park.
Naturaliste Charters whale watching tour operators in Bremer Bay says the eco-wilderness expeditions over several years have identified more than 275 regular killer whales at the location, between January and April, with this year's aggregation attracting some new animals.
"This large aggregation of killer whales at Bremer Bay come to the same confined region every year over a seafloor plateau near the head of the Hood Canyon where the total water depth is between 800m and 1000m.
The hydrodynamic modelling framework of the 'Orca Plateau' explains how the Hood Canyon produces a concentrated flow of POM at great depth that provides the diet for deep-sea crabs, squids and other filter feeders upon which killer whales feed.
"Explaining the feeding aggregation of these populations is an important step forward in explaining this natural phenomenon," he says.
The Naturaliste Charters website says: "Every year in summer, this newly discovered remote marine wilderness hot spot off the WA coast becomes the epicentre for an unbelievable intensity of life, including whaler sharks, giant squid, sperm whales, masses of sea birds and the largest aggregation of killer whales in the Southern Hemisphere".
CAPTION
Killer whale and calf, Bremer Bay
CREDIT
photo courtesy Naturaliste Charters, WA
The paper, Modelling of physical drivers of a large feeding aggregation of killer whales (Orcinus orca) in the western Great Australian Bight, Australia (2021) by Jochen Kämpf has been published in Deep Sea Research Part 1: Oceanographic Research Papers (Elsevier) Vol 171 DOI: 10.1016/j.dsr.2021.103526
CAPTION
Killer whales, birds on Bremer Bay, WA
CREDIT
Photo courtesy Naturaliste Charters
Recycling critical metals in e-waste: Make it the law, experts warn EU, citing raw material security
Led by the World Resources Forum, consortium designates recycling, reuse of key elements in four electronic, electrical product categories as 'critical'
End-of-life circuit boards, certain magnets in disc drives and electric vehicles, EV and other special battery types, and fluorescent lamps are among several electrical and electronic products containing critical raw materials (CRMs), the recycling of which should be made law, says a new UN-backed report funded by the EU.
A mandatory, legal requirement to recycle and reuse CRMs in select e-waste categories is needed to safeguard from supply disruptions elements essential to manufacturers of important electrical and electronic and other products, says a European consortium behind the report, led by the Switzerland-based World Resources Forum.
The CEWASTE consortium warns that access to the CRMs in these products is vulnerable to geo-political tides. Recycling and reusing them is "crucial" to secure ongoing supplies for regional manufacturing of electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) essential for defence, renewable energy generation, LEDs and other green technologies, and to the competitiveness of European firms.
Today, recycling most of the products rich in CRMs is not commercially viable, with low and volatile CRM prices undermining efforts to improve European CRM recycling rates, which today are close to zero in most cases.
The report (available post-embargo at cewaste.eu) identifies gaps in standards and proposes an improved, fully tested certification scheme to collect, transport, process and recycle this waste, including tools to audit compliance.
"A European Union legal framework and certification scheme, coupled with broad financial measures will foster the investments needed to make recycling critical raw materials more commercially viable and Europe less reliant on outside supply sources," says the consortium.
"Acceptance by the manufacturing and recycling industry is also needed, as the standards will only work when there is widespread adoption."
The report follows the 2020 EU action plan to make Europe less dependent on third countries for CRMs by, for example, diversifying supply from both primary and secondary sources while improving resource efficiency and circularity.
Adds the consortium: "By adopting this report's recommendations, the EU can be more self-sustaining, help drive the world's green agenda and create new business opportunities at home."
The project says the following equipment categories contain CRMs in concentrations high enough to facilitate recycling:
- Printed circuit boards from IT equipment, hard disc drives and optical disc drives
Batteries from WEEE and end of life vehicles
Neodymium iron boron magnets from hard disc drives, and electrical engines of e-bikes, scooters and end-of-life vehicles (ELVs)
Fluorescent powders from cathode ray tubes (CRTs; in TVs and monitors) and fluorescent lamps
Recovery technologies and processes are well established for some CRMs, such as palladium from printed circuit boards or cobalt from lithium-ion batteries.
For other CRMs, ongoing recycling technology development will soon make industrial scale operations possible but needs financial support and sufficient volumes to achieve cost-efficient operations.
Of 60+ requirements in European e-waste-related legislation and standards, few address the collection of CRMs in the key product categories, the consortium found.
They propose several additional technical, managerial, environmental, social and traceability requirements for facilities that collect, transport, and treat waste, for integration into established standards, such as the EU 50625-series.
The overall scheme was tested at European firms in Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, as well as in Colombia, Rwanda and Turkey.
"Greater CRM recycling is a society-wide responsibility and challenge," says the consortium. "The relevant authorities must improve the economic framework conditions to make it economically viable."
CEWASTE project recommendations include:
- Legislate a requirement to recycle specific critical raw materials in e-waste
- Use market incentives to spur the economic viability of recovering CRMs and to stimulate the use of recovered CRMs in new products
- Create platforms where demand for recycled components, materials and CRMs can meet supply
- Raise awareness of the importance of CRM recycling
- Consolidate fractions of CRM-rich products into quantities more attractive for recyclers
- Improve access to information on CRM-rich components and monitor actual recycling
- Enforce rules around shipment of CRM-rich fractions outside the EU and respect of technical standards along the value chain
- Integrate CEWASTE norms and requirements into the European standard for e-waste treatment (EN 50625 series) and make the whole set legally binding
* Support more targeted private investments in new technology research and development.
###
The consortium
World Resources Forum Association (Coordinator)
The World Resources Forum Association (WRFA) is an independent non-profit international organization that serves as a platform connecting and fostering knowledge exchange on resources management amongst business leaders, policy-makers, NGOs, scientists and the public. WRFA has an international reputation for its flagship conference, the World Resources Forum (WRF). http://www.
Oeko-institut
Oeko-Institut is a leading independent European research and consultancy institute working for a sustainable future. Founded in 1977, the institute develops principles and strategies for realising the vision of sustainable development globally, nationally and locally. Work is organised around the subjects of Chemicals Management and Technology Assessment, Energy and Climate, Immission and Radiation Protection, Agriculture and Biodiversity, Sustainability in Consumption, Mobility, Resource Management and Industry, Nu-clear Engineering and Facility Safety as well as Law, Policy and Governance. http://www.
European Electronics Recyclers Association
EERA is a non profit organisation which represents and promotes the interest of recycling companies that are treating waste from electrical and electronic equipment. Its membership includes 35 specialist recycling companies (pre- processors and end- processors ) across 23 countries in Europe. http://www.
WEEE Forum
The WEEE Forum is the world's largest multi-national centre of competence as regards operational know-how concerning the management of waste electrical and electronic equipment (or 'WEEE', for short). It is a not-for-profit association of 43 WEEE producer responsibility organisations across the world and was founded in April 2002. Through exchange of best practice and access to its reputable knowledge base toolbox, the WEEE Forum enables its members to improve their operations and be known as promoters of the circular economy. http://www.
Austrian Standards
Austrian Standards International - Standardization and Innovation is the recognized standardization body in Austria, a non-profit service organization founded in 1920 and part of a national and international standardization network: i.e. the Austrian member of the European Committee for Standardization CEN, the International Organization for Standardization ISO and the European Telecommunications Standards Institute ETSI. Austrian Standards International cooperates with OVE which is the responsible for standardization in the electrotechnical field being member of CENELEC and IEC. http://www.
SGS Fimko Oy
SGS Fimko Oy belongs to the world's leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company SGS. With more than 95 000 employees, SGS operates a network of more than 2400 offices and laboratories around the world. SGS Fimko Oy has been operating in Finland since 1924 and today employs about 120 professionals in six locations. SGS Fimko Oy provides diverse inspection, testing, verification and certification services and holds Notified Body status as well as several accreditations. http://www.
Sofies
Sofies provides strategic sustainability consulting, project management and services. Using an integrative approach based on industrial ecology, Sofies successfully addresses growing environmental and socioeconomic challenges. It is a Geneva-based international group, with branches in Zurich, UK and India, with a unique expertise in WEEE management and policy-making. Sofies has a track record in 25+ countries across Europe, Asia and Africa. http://www.
United Nations University
United Nations University (UNU) is as a UN Organization a global think tank and postgraduate teaching organisation headquartered in Tokyo hosted by Japan. The Sustainable Cycles (SCYCLE) is a Programme hosted by the UNU Vice Rectorate in Europe based in Bonn, Germany. Its activities are focused on the development of sustainable production, consumption and disposal patterns for electrical and electronic equipment, as well as other ubiquitous goods. UNU-ViE SCYCLE is leading the way in global quantification of e-waste product flows, with more detailed e-waste generated/arising analyses carried out in individual EU Member States, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Italy, Romania and the Czech Republic. http://www.
ECOS
ECOS is a non-profit organisation working to promote environmental aspects in the development of standards and specifications at European and international level, especially those produced in support of EU environmental laws and policies. ECOS' mission is to influence the development of ambitious strategies to reduce and control sources of environmental pollution, and to promote resource and energy efficiency, environmental health and sustainable development. http://www.
Once we're past the fear stage, where do
we place the blame for the COVID-19
pandemic?
In a time of a global crisis such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, it is easy to note how people move through different phases to buckle up for such unprecedented and arduous times.
In the very beginning of the pandemic last year, we observed "an epidemic of fear", where it was all about the calamitous nature of a totally unknown virus and its worrying contagiousness and mortality rate. A few months later, with lockdown and restrictions already in place across the world, the fear was replaced by "an epidemic of explanations", where people even in their naivety, started to seek a sense of comfort by placing the blame on someone or something out of their control.
This is why a research team at the SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Polish Academy of Sciences sought to figure out whether the government was indeed the main culprit for the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in the eyes of the public. After all, it fitted best the role of an actor of higher authority, allegedly powerful enough to protect the community and resolve the issue at hand and provide the necessary comfort. In the meantime, it comes as an easy target to point a finger at for 'not doing enough'. On the other hand, the public could as well be explaining the situation with the virulence of the Coronavirus or with the irresponsible behaviour of others in the society. Regardless of the answer, the team was interested in understanding what's behind one's reasoning: was it their political views, well-being or emotions?
To test their hypotheses, the researchers chose to conduct their study in Poland: a country currently politically divided between Liberalism and Communitarianism, with the latter being the ruling party at the time of the survey, which took place between May and June 2020. A total of 850 Polish adults fully diversified in terms of gender, age, and education participated. The findings are now published in the open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal Social Psychological Bulletin.
As a result, the study concluded that not only was it the government and the system that most of the participants attributed responsibility to for the COVID-19 incidence rates, but that the political views and party preferences of the participants played an incomparably more significant role in their responses than factors such as anxiety, stress and depression levels or overall self-reported well-being. In fact, amongst the mental health symptoms, the study found that only increased anxiety was statistically significantly related to the tendency to blame the government and its decisions. This could be explained by the fact that people experiencing higher anxiety levels are more likely to exaggerate external responsibility, note the scientists. Curiously, the more educated participants were found to be more likely to emphasise governmental responsibility.
Furthermore, the people with lebaral views who did not support the ruling communitarian party blamed the government to a higher degree than their counterparts, who would often place the responsibility for the spread of COVID-19 on non-governmental factors.
In their study, the research team uses several theories to explain this finding, including the Terror Management Theory, which notes that reminding people of their mortality induces an existential threat that also leads to an increased need for protection provided by worldview-based beliefs. On the other hand, the theories of attribution and social roles suggest that people see the 'adequate protection against epidemic' as part of the government's duties.
In conclusion, the authors remind that their observations during the survey are consistent with previous reports as a result of natural disasters.
"Citizens observe governmental activities during the epidemic period and evaluate government responsibility. In the light of the results of previous studies on the social perception of natural disasters, we think that this is a rather general phenomenon. Looking for an explanation of the epidemic effects, people tend to blame salient external causes," say the researchers.
###
Research article:
Skarzynska, K., Urbanska, B., & Radkiewicz, P. (2021). Under or Out of Government Control? The Effects of Individual Mental Health and Political Views on the Attribution of Responsibility for COVID-19 Incidence Rates. Social Psychological Bulletin, 16(1), 1-21. https:/
Visit the Social Psychological Bulletin's website and follow the journal on Twitter.
Corresponding author:
Prof. Krystyna Skarzynska
Email: kskarzyn@swps.edu.pl
Additional information:
About Social Psychological Bulletin (SPB):
Social Psychological Bulletin (Psychologia Spoleczna) is an open-access quarterly journal that publishes original empirical research, theoretical review papers, scientific debates, and methodological contributions in the field of basic and applied social psychology. SPB actively promotes standards of Open Science, supports an integrative approach to all aspects of social psychological science and is committed to discussing timely social issues of high importance.
About PsychOpen:
Offered by Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information (ZPID), PsychOpen is an online platform for publishing primary scientific contributions in psychology. All publications in PsychOpen are accessible free of charge (open access). Journals published on PsychOpen GOLD must meet clearly defined quality standards such as peer review of the submitted articles, an international editorial board, and English-language metadata. PsychOpen supports the psychological research community in their specific communication needs (community-based publishing). Publication projects are developed within the community and are supported by the community. In this context, emphasis is placed on European psychology.
About Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information:
The Leibniz Institute for Psychology Information (ZPID) is the supra-regional scientific research support organization for psychology in German-speaking countries. It supports the entire scientific work process from gathering ideas and researching literature to documenting research, archiving data and publishing the results, based on an ideal-type research cycle. It is committed to the idea of open science and sees itself as a public open science institute for psychology.
Parallel universes cross in Flatland
Physicists at the University of Bath in the UK observe modified energy landscapes at the intersection of 2D materials.
IMAGE: 2D SHEETS INTERSECT AND TWIST ON TOP OF EACH OTHER, MODIFYING THE ENERGY LANDSCAPE OF THE MATERIALS view more
CREDIT: VENTSISLAV VALEV
In 1884, Edwin Abbott wrote the novel Flatland: A Romance in Many Dimensions as a satire of Victorian hierarchy. He imagined a world that existed only in two dimensions, where the beings are 2D geometric figures. The physics of such a world is somewhat akin to that of modern 2D materials, such as graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides, which include tungsten disulfide (WS2), tungsten diselenide (WSe2), molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and molybdenum diselenide (MoSe2).
Modern 2D materials consist of single-atom layers, where electrons can move in two dimensions but their motion in the third dimension is restricted. Due to this 'squeeze', 2D materials have enhanced optical and electronic properties that show great promise as next-generation, ultrathin devices in the fields of energy, communications, imaging and quantum computing, among others.
Typically, for all these applications, the 2D materials are envisioned in flat-lying arrangements. Unfortunately, however, the strength of these materials is also their greatest weakness - they are extremely thin. This means that when they are illuminated, light can interact with them only over a tiny thickness, which limits their usefulness. To overcome this shortcoming, researchers are starting to look for new ways to fold the 2D materials into complex 3D shapes.
In our 3D universe, 2D materials can be arranged on top of each other. To extend the Flatland metaphor, such an arrangement would quite literally represent parallel worlds inhabited by people who are destined to never meet.
Now, scientists from the Department of Physics at the University of Bath in the UK have found a way to arrange 2D sheets of WS2 (previously created in their lab) into a 3D configuration, resulting in an energy landscape that is strongly modified when compared to that of the flat-laying WS2 sheets. This particular 3D arrangement is known as a 'nanomesh': a webbed network of densely-packed, randomly distributed stacks, containing twisted and/or fused WS2 sheets.
Modifications of this kind in Flatland would allow people to step into each other's worlds. "We didn't set out to distress the inhabitants of Flatland," said Professor Ventsislav Valev who led the research, "But because of the many defects that we nanoengineered in the 2D materials, these hypothetical inhabitants would find their world quite strange indeed.
"First, our WS2 sheets have finite dimensions with irregular edges, so their world would have a strangely shaped end. Also, some of the sulphur atoms have been replaced by oxygen, which would feel just wrong to any inhabitant. Most importantly, our sheets intersect and fuse together, and even twist on top of each other, which modifies the energy landscape of the materials. For the Flatlanders, such an effect would look like the laws of the universe had suddenly changed across their entire landscape."
Dr Adelina Ilie, who developed the new material together with her former PhD student and post-doc Zichen Liu, said: "The modified energy landscape is a key point for our study. It is proof that assembling 2D materials into a 3D arrangement does not just result in 'thicker' 2D materials - it produces entirely new materials. Our nanomesh is technologically simple to produce, and it offers tunable material properties to meet the demands of future applications."
Professor Valev added: "The nanomesh has very strong nonlinear optical properties - it efficiently converts one laser colour into another over a broad palette of colours. Our next goal is to use it on Si waveguides for developing quantum optical communications."
PhD student Alexander Murphy, also involved in the research, said: "In order to reveal the modified energy landscape, we devised new characterisation methods and I look forward to applying these to other materials. Who knows what else we could discover?"
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