Saturday, June 19, 2021


First-of-a-kind study reveals Canada’s most vulnerable eco-regions

Nathan Howes 
WEATHER NETWORK
JUNE 19/2021

Embedded content: https://players.brightcove.net/1942203455001/B1CSR9sVf_default/index.html?videoId=6237786286001

Conservation isn't just about saving Canada's endangered species, it's also about restoring and protecting nature, so future generations can continue to reap the benefits it provides.

That's why the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) has conducted and released the first study of its kind in the country's most populated sector -- the Conservation Assessment for Southern Canada (CASC). The organization reviewed 77 ecological regions including nine crisis eco-regions, where wildlife and their habitats are the most diverse and under the greatest threats.

SEE ALSO: Canadians explore nature more to relieve COVID-19 pandemic stress

The analysis focused on endangered species and habitats, land use and wildlife corridors. Eco-regions were classified based on their biodiversity and threats compared to other eco-areas in Southern Canada. The regions cover many of the major cities, such as Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Edmonton and Vancouver, along with many smaller communities.

The study was published in the journal Biodiversity and Conservation. The full analysis and details of the eco-regions including nine crisis territories can be found here.

The eco-regions are a "great way of looking at our country through an ecosystem lens," said Dan Kraus, NCC's senior conservation biologist, who recently spoke to The Weather Network about the study.

© Provided by The Weather Network
Backus Woods nature preserve in Walsingham, Ont. Photo: Nature Conservancy of Canada.

"That way we’re able to rank these eco-regions in terms of what’s happening, what are some of the opportunities for conservation and identify places where maybe we need to accelerate our efforts to protect wildlife and wild spaces," said Kraus.

"Southern Canada is where most endangered species are and where most Canadians live. As a result, it’s where our wildlife and habitats are at the greatest risk.”

CRISIS REGIONS, AREAS WITH HIGHEST NUMBER OF THREATENED SPECIES


The nine crisis eco-regions identified represent less than five per cent of Canada. They are situated in Canada’s most heavily settled landscapes, where 70 per cent of people live, according to NCC. More than 60 per cent of Canada’s species at risk are found in these eco-regions, which generally have few existing protected areas or remaining natural areas.

Southwestern Ontario contains more than 130 of Canada’s most endangered species -- the highest of anywhere else in the country, according to the study. Other regions with a high number of species of national and global concern include parts of Vancouver Island, particularly the eastern sections, the Prairies and portions of the Maritimes including southwestern Nova Scotia and P.E.I.


© Provided by The Weather Network
Sharp-tailed snake. Photo: Marsgal Hedin.

Although the NCC began developing conservation assessments for broad areas in Canada 20 years ago, the group decided to examine the southern half of the country as a whole would help put its work into context and how it contributes to the protection of local and national biodiversity, Kraus said.

“It would also be great for the people if they can identify the ecological region they live in because ultimately the decisions about conservation, the decisions about the species we save and species we lose will be up to the people living in those regions,” said Kraus.

STUDY ALSO HIGHLIGHTS 'BRIGHT SPOTS' ACROSS CANADA


The study may paint a grim picture about the state of Canada's biodiversity in many regions, but it also has an optimistic tone to it -- to highlight "bright spots across the country where conservation is working and working well, including many Nature Conservancy of Canada projects," Kraus said.

© Provided by The Weather Network
Foxner Nature Reserve, N.B. Photo: Mike Dembeck.

"Our challenge now is to replicate some of those success stories and to amplify them, and to stop the loss of habitats and species in our country," said Kraus.

The next 10 years are going to be the “most exciting in Canada’s history for conservation,” Kraus said, as the federal government has some “ambitious” plans in terms of expanding the parks and protected areas.

“Nature Conservancy of Canada will use studies like this to help direct us to the places where conservation work is not just important, but urgent. The decisions we make in the next 10 years are going to have an effect on nature in our country forever,” said Kraus.

Thumbnail courtesy of Nature Conservancy of Canada, of the Clayoquot Island Preserve in British Columbia.

Nathan Howes can be followed on Twitter: @HowesNathan.
ATTENTION WOLF KILLERS
Culling cutlines, not wolves, key to preserving caribou herds: researcher

New research suggests wolves can be steered away from the endangered caribou herds they prey on by making the man-made trails they use to hunt harder to move along.

 Provided by The Canadian Press

The recently published study adds to the debate over whether governments should depend on shooting and poisoning wolves to protect caribou, said lead author Jonah Keim.

"It's probably one of the most challenging conservation issues in the Northern Hemisphere," said Keim, an independent researcher based in New York state.

Woodland caribou herds in Alberta and British Columbia have been declining for decades. Scientists blame habitat loss — since 2000, B.C. and Alberta have lost at least 33,000 square kilometres of old-growth forest — and increasing predation as wolves and bears follow roads and seismic lines into landscapes that once offered caribou refuge.


Governments, with scientific support, have turned to maternity pens, captive breeding and killing hundreds of wolves in an effort to keep caribou around.

Maybe there's another way, Keim thought. Maybe the problem isn't the wolves — it's the artificial trails they're taking advantage of.

"How do we get at movement?" he asked.

Keim and his colleagues set up motion detector cameras on logging roads, seismic lines and game trails throughout the Parker caribou range in northeast B.C. The team recorded movements of animals past those cameras for a year.

They measured which of those features were easiest to travel by timing themselves as they walked them. They considered which ones lead into the marshy wetlands that caribou like and which went to higher ground favoured by moose and deer.

Then, they made the easy trails into the best caribou habitat harder to move through.

"We hinged trees from the sides of the features into the seismic line," Keim said. "(We) did soil mounding to create hummocks. We tried to make the feature as difficult to move down as was the adjacent habitat beside it."

They sat for another year and let the cameras roll. Then they compared the incidence of wolves or bears and caribou using the same trail on the same day to what it was before the treatment as well as to an untreated control area.

"We were able to reduce the encounter rate between wolves and caribou by 85 per cent," said Keim.

Dave Hervieux, an Alberta Environment caribou specialist, said Keim's results are consistent with other studies but only address half the problem.

"Unnaturally high and unsustainable levels of wolf predation on caribou are due to both increases in wolf travel and increases in wolf numbers," he wrote in an email.

"Linear feature restoration is a key action. However, our conclusion is that it is unlikely that linear feature restoration, as a sole action, will provide sufficient protection in the near-term for endangered woodland caribou populations."

Hervieux said the government is working with industry to restore forest cover to seismic lines, pipelines and roads.

Still, Keim said focusing "encounter management" could go a long way to reducing Alberta's and B.C.'s dependence on the annual killing of wolves.

"We know that predator removal is socially and ethically controversial and it may not be solving the true problem."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2021.

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press


Experts urge caution as Canada’s COVID-19 waste washes up on coastlines

Twinkle Ghosh 

Each year, nearly eight million tonnes of plastic pollution enters the oceans from all over the world, but for the first time in 27 years, Canadians are witnessing an unusual clutter of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) kits washing up along the country's shorelines.
© EPA/DIEGO AZUBEL A protective mask lies next to cigarette butts on a street.

Play "Microscopic plastics polluting our waterways"


According to Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup’s annual “Dirty Dozen” 2020 report, some 15,000 volunteers removed over 41,000 kilograms of litter from Canadian coasts and listed finding discarded COVID-19-related supplies among them.

Read more: Plastic pollution crisis — How waste ends up in our oceans

"This is the first time that we've seen it recorded and sort of statistically significant numbers too," Laura Hardman, leader of plastic-free oceans at Ocean Wise, told Global News Thursday.

"We just need to remember that as a society, as a whole, that whatever we dispose, whatever leaks out into our environment has implications."

The organization didn’t have a category on its data cards last year to formally track the amount of PPE-related litter but has added one for 2021, given the situation.

Play "All-female crew sailing globe to raise plastics awareness"

"I would really, really be asking for people to think responsibly about their personal impacts and to think about not only how they are disposing of masks, but also how they are using them, how they are ensuring that they don't get lost, that they don't leak out into the world," Hardman said.

While disposable masks may look like they are made of paper or natural fabric, they are manufactured using polymers that sometimes take decades or centuries to decompose.

Read more: Swirling pile of trash in Pacific Ocean is now 3 times the size of France

"That's an important consideration," Dr. Shoshanah Jacobs, associate professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of Guelph, told Global News Thursday. "These are new sorts of pollutants that are being introduced into the environment... So, we don't really know about how they'll kind of spread around quite, quite yet."

That does not, however, mean that public health should be compromised and people should give up on masks and PPEs Jacobs said.

"But surely we could have anticipated the need to provide proper disposal outlets and venues and also proper messaging to the public with respect to how we manage these important health-saving devices to ensure that it doesn't compromise the environment."

"If people are comfortable and able to use reusable masks, obviously that's a great thing," Jacobs said, but emphasized the need "to be supporting people" who are not, and guiding them on "proper disposal" of the single-use masks.

Hardman agreed.

Caught off guard

At the onset of the pandemic, Hardman said Canadians were caught off guard and were very "quick to react and we were put in a position where we had to change our behaviour."

As a result, she noted, a lot of single-use masks were given out initially. And whilst that was a great initiative, she said, "one of the things that we need to do as a society is to keep thinking about when single-use is necessary and when we can opt for a reusable alternative."

"I feel that, again, this is a message that continually needs to be, it should be, reinforced," Hardman said.

"It is for all of us to take responsibility for what we are, what we are purchasing and that we are handling it and we are disposing of it correctly, by making sure that we are putting the right things in recycling streams and are always doing it right."

"Canadian entrepreneur working to turn plastic waste into clean fuel"


For Jacobs, it's not really "a littering problem."

"It's a mask and PPE disposal problem. It may also be that people just really don't know how," she said.

The question we need to ask here, she said, is if "we need to have separate receptacles for PPEs, can they go in regular garbage or do we need to launch an education program" to make people aware of how to handle these products.


At this point, Jacobs said, it is of utmost importance that we follow "the guidelines or the advice of municipalities that are involved in waste management."

Video: Scientists find microplastics deep in Arctic ice

While recycling schemes differ between municipalities, Hardman said most of them are "very good" at keeping their websites updated.

"You can see very clearly what material can be recycled within a jurisdiction," she said. "So I think it is for the citizens to make sure that we are checking up on that. It is for municipalities to keep that information up to date, and it is for businesses to provide us with clear and transparent information about how a certain material can be handled."
How big is our plastic problem?

According to the United Nations, more than eight billion tons of plastic have been produced globally over the last 65 years, of which only a fraction has been recycled.

In 2020 alone, the proportion of single-use food packaging litter found on Canadian coastlines doubled. According to the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup report, single-use food and beverage litter jumped "from 15.3 per cent of all litter in 2019 to 26.6 per cent in 2020.”

Read more: Whale dies after 80 plastic bags found crammed in its stomach

Once plastic gets into the ocean, it can be hard to filter it back out. Instead of biodegrading, most plastics simply break into smaller fragments until they become known as micro-plastics, which are less than five millimetres in size.

By 2050, the World Economic Forum predicts that the oceans will hold more plastic than fish. The biggest polluting countries of the world so far are all in Asia, with China contributing the most.

Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Sri Lanka are among the top five. Canada and the United States not far behind.

Montreal police filmed kneeling on Black teen's neck





Duration: 01:41 

The video was filmed by a passerby in front of a bus stop in the city's Villeray district on June 10.

 cbc.ca
Families speak out against police violence at BLM Toronto Juneteenth event in Ottawa

Several Black and Indigenous families whose loved ones have been harmed and killed by police came together in Ottawa to mark Juneteenth and demand accountability and changes to the justice system.
© Provided by The Canadian Press

Black Lives Matter Toronto organized the gathering on the steps of the prime minister's office, where 10 families from across the country shared their harrowing experiences and called for a defunding of the police system.

The event came on what's also known as Juneteenth, which commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S. and has been declared a federal holiday south of the border.

Black Lives Matter Canada co-founder Syrus Marcus Ware says while Juneteenth is about celebrating liberation and justice, it's also a day to highlight activism and the struggle for freedom.

The visual artist, activist and scholar says the group wanted to come together on Juneteenth to show that they're still living with a lot of the same conditions and racism that the police force was built on.

BLM dubbed the event as Canada's first gathering of Black and Indigenous families affected by police violence, and the group hopes to bring them back together on Juneteenth next year.

"Juneteenth is a day to come together and to continue our activism and to say, 'Until we are all free, the work is not done,'" Ware said in a phone interview after Saturday's gathering, which was livestreamed on the BLM Toronto Facebook page.

"Because Blackness has no borders, because Indigeneity has no borders, because the concept of U.S. and Canada was a colonial-created construct, we know that the celebration of emancipation is felt all throughout North America. So on Juneteenth, we are definitely in a moment of celebration and activism here in Canada, saying: 'What can we do to talk about the struggles here in Canada on Juneteenth?'"

While Juneteenth specifically commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to enslaved Black people in Galveston, Texas, it's also a time to remember "there was slavery here in Canada, too," added Ware.


"This is part of why we mark August 1 as Emancipation Day, which was when the British Empire outlawed slavery. So these struggles are connected, our work is connected," he said. "And Juneteenth is a day here in Canada to talk about our colonial past, our history with slavery, and also to say, 'What is still happening for Black life? And how can we improve the conditions so that we're not living under these terrible situations where all of these families are losing their loved ones?'"

Saturday's news conference included the family of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a Toronto woman who fell to her death from a balcony while police were in her home on May 27, 2020.

Last summer the Ontario police oversight body known as the Special Investigations Unit cleared the six Toronto police officers who were in the apartment, saying their efforts to de-escalate the situation were unsuccessful but none of them broke the law.

The family's lawyer, Jason Bogle, said her relatives are still seeking accountability after the Office of the Independent Police Review Director rejected the family's application to file a complaint over the SIU findings.

"We are appealing to once again bring to the forefront that systemic racism exists in police forcing, that systemic racism has to be battled inside of police forcing, and that if the powers that be do not hold those accountable for these actions, that these situations will still occur again and again," Bogle told the gathering.

"We will not stand for it, we will continue to fight and we will find answers, whether it's by marching or by protesting or by lobbying the powers that be that change has to come."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2021.

Victoria Ahearn, The Canadian Press














Duration: 02:59 

Protesters in Ottawa are calling for police accountability and justice reform on the same day the U.S. is observing a new federal holiday that commemorates the end of slavery
cbc.ca














ALSO THE FIRST OF THE BAHAI FAITH

Duration: 01:34

At a time when incidents of racism and hate keep making headlines in Alberta and across the country, news that Canada's highest court could welcome its first person of colour is inspiring people in Edmonton that knew him. Chris Chacon has more on the early life of Mahmud Jamal.

PHENOM
One-legged woman is a world class salsa dancer














Duration: 00:44


"On this occasion, I participated in a cultural activity with our academy @fbacklatino and its director @roberteran84, also my life partner and my dance partner who would never ever change for anything or anyone." "This activity was carried out in my community and I am very happy to have participated, and even more so knowing that many people like our work, what we do and project as an academy. In addition to also observing the happiness and motivation of people when seeing a person in my condition dance, and much more considering that just in that area was where that tree was that was the one that caused the loss of my lower left limb." "This loss was not an impediment at all. from the first moment I discovered that I could dance again. nothing stopped me. I'll keep doing what I like until the end of time!"
Julian Assange fiancé calls his detention in UK ‘grotesque’

Stella Moris stands with her children Gabriel, four, left, and Max, two, as she speaks to the media, outside Belmarsh Prison, following a visit to her partner and their father Julian Assange in London, Saturday June 19, 2021. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP)

AFP
Published: 19 June ,2021

The fiance of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Saturday condemned his “grotesque” detention in Britain, after visiting him in jail for the first time in eight months.

Stella Moris, 38, went to Belmarsh prison in south London on Saturday with the couple’s two young sons. She said she had not seen Assange since he made a court appearance in January.

“The situation is utterly intolerable and grotesque, and it can’t go on,” Moris said after the visit, describing Assange as “struggling.”

For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.

The UK authorities are “driving him to deep depression and into despair”, she added.

Assange, 49, was arrested in Britain in 2019 for jumping bail after spending seven years inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London to evade extradition to Sweden and the US.

Moris is a lawyer and worked on his legal team while he was in the embassy.

In January, a judge ruled not to extradite Assange on mental health grounds, but refused to release him on bail, citing fears he would abscond.

He is detained awaiting the outcome of an appeal against the extradition ruling.

Sweden dropped a rape investigation against Assange in 2019.

He is wanted in Washington to face 18 charges relating to the 2010 release by WikiLeaks of 500,000 secret files detailing aspects of military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.

If convicted in the United States, he faces a maximum sentence of 175 years in jail.

Moris said Saturday she “hoped” the family would stay in Britain if the appeal by US prosecutors is blocked.

She has visited Switzerland and along with the UN special rapporteur on torture and Geneva’s mayor, called for Assange’s immediate release.

Read more:

Imprisoned Wikileaks’ founder Assange denied bail by London court

Assange ‘free to return home’ once legal challenges in UK over, says Australia PM

WikiLeaks founder Assange stripped naked and handcuffed, lawyer tells court


Ontario town divided on becoming nuclear waste site

Duration: 03:52 

A small Ontario town is deeply divided over whether to become the storage location for Canada’s nuclear waste. Advocates against the project accuse the waste management group behind the project of trying to garner support by putting money into their town.



BILLIONAIRES BUILD NUKES
UK gets glowing salute from Bezos-backed General Fusion: Nuclear energy company to build plant in Oxfordshire

Biz will develop Magnetized Target Fusion technology at the site
Fri 18 Jun 2021 

General Fusion – the Canadian-based atomic outfit backed by Jeff Bezos and a battalion of other major investors – is to build a test facility in Oxfordshire to showcase its power-generating technology.

Following a COVID-friendly handshake, the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) has given General Fusion the green light to proceed with its Fusion Demonstration Plant (FDP) at UKAEA's Centre for Fusion Energy Campus in Culham.

The campus – a Royal Navy airbase until it was handed to the UKAEA in 1960 – is home to a cluster of fusion development technologies.

The building of the new plant is expected to start in the second half of next year and should be up and running in 2025.


According to the announcement, the FDP will feature General Fusion's proprietary Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) technology. If successful, it could lead to the creation of a commercial pilot plant.

Writing in the company's blog, General Fusion chief exec Christofer Mowry explained: "At 70 per cent of full scale, it will be powerful enough to heat hydrogen plasma fuel to fusion temperatures of 150 million degrees.

Brit startup plans fusion-powered missions to the stars

"Utilising our pulsed Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) technology, the FDP is designed to refine those technical performance metrics that will become the measure of our technology's ability to economically produce energy, durably operate as a power plant, and easily follow the fluctuating demands of electricity on power grids."

According to General Fusion, just 1kg of fusion fuel can power 10,000 homes for a year.

Earlier this month TerraPower – the Bill Gates-founded nuclear company – and Warren Buffett-owned PacifiCorp revealed they were hooking up to build a Natrium reactor at a decommissioned coal plant in Wyoming, US.

The project is based around a 345MW sodium-cooled fast reactor with a molten salt-based energy storage system.

According to boffins, the storage technology can boost the system's output to 500MW of power for more than five and a half hours when needed, which is equivalent to the energy required to power around 400,000 homes. ®


The Jeff Bezos-backed company General Fusion is building a nuclear fusion plant, which is due to switch on in 2025
insider@insider.com (Isobel Asher Hamilton) 
© Provided by Business Insider Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images


Nuclear fusion company General Fusion is building a demonstration facility in the UK.

Jeff Bezos has been an investor in General Fusion for over a decade.

The new facility will begin construction next year, and should be operational by 2025

General Fusion, a Canadian company
 backed by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, announced Thursday it's building a nuclear fusion facility in the UK.



General Fusion and the UK Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) announced the project together, which will see General Fusion build a fusion demonstration plant in the village of Culham, near Oxford.

The facility will be a proof-of-concept, allowing General Fusion to demonstrate its Magnetized Target Fusion (MTF) technology before going on to build its first commercial facility.

According to General Fusion, construction will begin in 2022, and it is expected to be about three years before the plant is able to open.

"This new plant by General Fusion is a huge boost for our plans to develop a fusion industry in the UK, and I'm thrilled that Culham will be home to such a cutting-edge and potentially transformative project," the UK science minister, Amanda Solloway, said in a statement.

The BBC reports Bezos has been an investor in General Fusion for over a decade, and the company raised $100 million in its latest funding round.

Nuclear fusion is still an experimental energy source. It differs from nuclear fission, which is what modern nuclear power plants use to generate energy.

Whereas fission involves splitting atoms, fusion happens when two atoms collide and form one heavier atom. Commercially viable fusion has been highly sought after, as it would theoretically produce much more power than fission as well as far fewer radioactive byproducts.

Read the original article on Business Insider