Researchers use biochar to sequester arsenic in acid mine drainage
MINING.com Editor | July 13, 2021 |

Image courtesy of the Canadian Light Source.

Researchers at the University of Arizona are working to clean up acid mine drainage that contains substantial amounts of heavy metals like arsenic and lead by sequestering the chemicals in biochar crystals.


The research team is working to reclaim landscapes impacted by mining waste to create a more sustainable industry. Its researchers recently published findings on how reducing environmental impacts through remediation processes was efficient and cost-effective.

RESEARCHERS SAY BIOCHAR MAY BE THE PERFECT SOLUTION TO FIGHT ACID MINE DRAINAGE IF THE ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ARE JUST RIGHT

Created naturally when plant matter burns, biochar can also be engineered. And the researchers say it may be the perfect solution if the environmental conditions are just right.

The report’s co-author Dr. Rob Root conducting synchrotron work at SSRL. 

Credit: Canadian Light Source

Using beamlines at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan and the SLAC National Accelerator, Jon Chorover, a professor and head of the Department of Environmental Science at the University of Arizona, analyzed the molecular interactions that occur when biochar is introduced to acid mine drainage.

Iron, another mineral found in mine drainage, interacts with the biochar to form a crystal-like structure. As these crystals grow, they attract the arsenic — similar to a magnet — and form very tight bonds. This allows the arsenic to be safely removed from the environment.

“We saw that biochar is not a perfectly homogenous material, but it actually has patchy locations that are highly reactive to the growth of these crystals, and as those crystals grow, they sequester the arsenic,” Chorover said.

Using the SM beamline at the CLS, Chorover and his team were able to visualize the surface chemistry of the biochar and reveal the fine details of these complex interactions.

Chorover believes their research will provide companies and regulators with the information necessary to maintain the environment and reduce the impact on communities located near mining operations.

An international team of geochemists has recently discovered why gold is concentrated alongside arsenic, a phenomenon that explains the formation of most deposits of the precious metal.

Tesla’s lithium extraction patent catches miners’ attention

MINING.COM Staff Writer | July 16, 2021 | 

Elon Musk. (Image by Daniel Oberhaus, Flickr).

Information obtained by Electrek revealed that Tesla filed a new patent related to the acid-free saline lithium extraction process mentioned by Elon Musk during Battery Day in September 2020.


Titled “Selective extraction of lithium from clay minerals,” the patent states that extracting lithium from ore using sodium chloride is an environmentally friendlier way to obtain the metal, compared to currently used techniques such as acid leaching. According to Tesla, it also allows for higher recoveries.

In detail, the process allows for extracting lithium from clay mineral and compositions by mixing a cation source with the clay mineral, performing a high-energy mill of the clay mineral, and performing a liquid leach to obtain a lithium-rich leach solution.

Following the release of this information, Canadian miner Spearmint Resources (CSE: SPMT) reminded Musk that not far away from his Gigafactory 1 in Nevada, the Clayton Valley lithium-clay project is being developed with the goal of supplying the local market.


THE PATENT STATES THAT EXTRACTING LITHIUM FROM ORE USING SODIUM CHLORIDE IS AN ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLIER WAY TO OBTAIN THE METAL, COMPARED TO CURRENTLY USED TECHNIQUES

In a press release, Spearmint emphasized that it has already received the technical report for the project, which includes a maiden resource estimate of 815,000 indicated tonnes and 191,000 inferred tonnes for a total of 1,006,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE).

According to Spearmint, its field team has only drilled a small number of holes to date to achieve this maiden resource and, thus, anticipates that additional targeted drilling could increase this initial calculation.

In terms of costs, recoveries and revenue, the miner estimated that to derive a base case cut-off grade for eventual lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) product, mining costs would be $2/tonne, processing costs would be $15/tonne, processing recovery would be 80% and revenue would be $10,000/tonne for Li2CO3 product.

Right next to Speamint’s property, fellow Canadian Cypress Development (TSX-V: CYP) is developing its Clayton Valley lithium project which, according to the company, hosts a world-class resource of lithium-bearing claystone adjacent to a brine field to the east and south of Angel Island, an outcrop of Paleozoic carbonates protruding up through the lakebed sediments.

Pit-constrained resources at the project include 929.6 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 1,062 parts per million lithium. Inferred resources add 100.4 million tonnes at 986 ppm lithium.

Immediately west of Cypress’ asset sits the Silver Peak mine, owned by Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) — the world’s no. 1 lithium producer — and which is North America’s only lithium brine operation, continuously active since 1966.

TORIES IN MANITOBA DUMB DOWN CURRICULUM CLOSE SCHOOL BOARDS
'Everybody else needs this education': Rally held against residential schools and Bill 64


Mike ArsenaultVideojournalist
@MArsenaultCTV Contact

Published Saturday, July 17, 2021 




WINNIPEG -- Close to 100 people gathered on the front steps of the Manitoba Legislative Building to protest against inaccuracies on residential school history and Bill 64.

The rally was planned after the new Minister of Indigenous Affairs, Alan Lagimodiere said in a Thursday press conference that the architects of residential schools thought they were doing the right thing.

Organizer of the rally and school teacher, Michael Kirkness said the topic of residential schools needs to be a bigger focus in the Manitoba curriculum.


“If I had it my way, for one (the history of residential schools) wouldn’t be something that is like an anecdote within the curriculum of social studies, it needs to be something that is mandatory,” said Kirkness.

Kirkness believes Lagimodiere’s comments about residential schools represent a failure of the Manitoba education system.

In light of those comments, he’s concerned about how much authority Bill 64 will give the PC government as it relates to education.

“There has to be some kind of understanding between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people, and that revolves around education.”

Thursday, NDP Leader Wab Kinew interrupted Lagimodiere’s comments and corrected him regarding the history of residential schools.

Kinew said we have to call those comments out, and spoke about the need for education and understanding.

“Unless we have a true understanding of the situation, we’re not going to be able to move forward,” said Kinew. “If we have an MLA who does not understand the truth of residential schools, it’s going to be very hard to have a minister who can advance reconciliation.”

Lagimodiere has since apologized for his comments.

One of the many attendees at the rally was Wayne Stranger.

He was a teacher in the province, and said he saw a lack of representation for Indigenous people in the curriculum.

“What I saw in those 10 years was a lot of biases still in the system. About who we are as a people, where we come from, what our knowledge base was and is today.”

In a statement to CTV News, Minister of Education, Cliff Cullen said in part:

“Providing Indigenous Traditional Knowledge and teachings to all students remains our priority with a stronger presence and value on Indigenous knowledge and perspectives. Our Better Education Starts Today strategy commits to supporting reconciliation by enhancing all educators and students’ understanding of the Treaties, residential schools and Indigenous people’s past and present contributions.”

One commitment outlined in the Our Better Education Starts Today strategy is to increase the presence of Indigenous perspectives in the K to 12 curriculum.

Kirkness said most Indigenous people know about residential schools, but it’s something that all Canadians should know about.

“(Indigenous people) know full well about what happened, and what continues to transpire as a result of that," said Kirkness. "Everybody else needs this education. All the children that are in our system need to understand this.”

Manitoba officials' latest comments example of why Bill 64 should be scrapped, protesters say

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Proposed bill would see elected school boards dissolved, replaced with appointed education authority

CBC News · Posted: Jul 17, 2021 4:24 PM CT | Last Updated: July 17

Dozens of people are pictured on the steps of the Manitoba legislative building on Saturday, many wearing either a red shirt to protest Bill 64 or an orange one in memory of children who died at residential schools. (Justin Fraser/CBC)

People who gathered in front of Manitoba's legislative building on Saturday say recent comments from the premier and the minister of Indigenous reconciliation about colonization and residential schools were "an attempt to revise history" — and one more example, they say, of why the province's proposed education overhaul should be struck down.

That proposed legislation, known as Bill 64, would see elected school boards dissolved and replaced with a provincial education authority with people appointed by the government — something that raises concerns for Chantal Shivanna Ramraj, who teaches grades 3 and 4.

"Based on the comments of this government, we can imagine who they will appoint," Ramraj said at the "no truth, no reconciliation" rally against residential school denial and Bill 64 put on by community group Protect Ed MB.

"And we can imagine what directives they will give teachers."

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister drew ire last week when, in response to the toppling of two statues of British queens on Canada Day, he made comments that were widely criticized as suggesting colonization was done with good intentions.

• ANALYSIS
  3 strikes and you're outed: Brian Pallister makes another inflammatory comment about Indigenous relations

• Political experts say Manitoba PCs will have a hard time recovering from residential school blunder

Those comments, which he later stood by, led to the resignation of his Indigenous relations minister, Eileen Clarke, who was later replaced by backbench MLA Alan Lagimodiere as the new minister of Indigenous reconciliation.

Lagimodiere immediately sparked criticism when he said the people who ran residential schools believed "they were doing the right thing" — a statement for which he issued an apology late Friday afternoon.

Chantal Shivanna Ramraj teaches grades 3 and 4 and was among the protesters on the legislative grounds on Saturday. (Justin Fraser/CBC)

High school history teacher Michael Kirkness said many educators were deeply offended by those comments.

"We feel that it's our duty to not only teach … our history properly, but make sure that the powers that be aren't rewriting history to suit their own ends," said Kirkness, who is from Fox Lake Cree Nation and is the son and grandson of residential school survivors.

He called the officials' comments "completely tone deaf" and said he thinks Pallister should step down as premier.

"It's pretty clear that they don't really have any idea as to how to tackle these issues pertaining to the legacy of residential schools," Kirkness said.

Michael Kirkness, who teaches high school students history, said educators like him feel a duty to make sure students are learning what really happened. (Justin Fraser/CBC)

Leaders 'need to self-educate'

While many at the rally were those who teach, others were there to learn.

Wanda Guenette and her friend Leora Almstrom said they've been working recently to educate themselves on the history of residential schools in Canada.

Leora Almstrom and Wanda Guenette say they've been working to learn more about Canada's history of residential schools — and they want provincial leaders to do the same. (Justin Fraser/CBC)

"We have been told lies for most of our education. And it's a bit daunting to me, because I actually at one point represented Canada," said Guenette, a retired Team Canada volleyball player.

Almstrom agreed.

"I feel, as a Métis, that I don't know enough. I am ignorant of the truth and I seek the truth. And whatever I can do to learn more, to be educated, I'm on that mission," she said.

They said they wish Manitoba's government officials would put in the same work.

"They need to self-educate. I mean, there are people here self-educating, people out there are self-educating, and our leaders are just spewing things that they think are right and it's not," Guenette said.

• Manitoba may pull out red pen, make changes to controversial school reform legislation

• Loss of local voice, potential school closures worry rural residents opposed to Manitoba's Bill 64

Fifteen-year-old Dominic Eidse said his English teacher spent time last year teaching his class about genocides.

The soon-to-be Grade 10 student said it had a huge effect on him, and he hopes those kinds of lessons — including lessons about Canada's own history — will become more common in schools.

High school student Dominic Eidse was also among those at the rally on Saturday. (Justin Fraser/CBC)

"I think it's a very important thing to know to keep it from happening again," he said.

"There were so many things that I didn't know before this year."

Cliff Cullen, Manitoba's education minister, has previously suggested changes could be made to Bill 64 over the summer. 

The legislation is expected to get a second reading in the legislature this fall before being subject to committee hearings. By the end of June, nearly 500 people had registered to speak at those hearings — the largest number on record, according to Legislative Assembly of Manitoba staff.

With files from Erin Brohman and Riley Laychuk

France: Over 100,000 protest against vaccination, COVID passes


CONSTANTIN GOUVY
PARIS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JULY 17, 2021

Visitors enjoy the view from the Eiffel Tower in Paris, Friday, July 16, 2021. The Eiffel Tower is reopening Friday for the first time in nine months, just as France faces new virus rules aimed at taming the fast-spreading delta variant. The "Iron Lady" was ordered shut in October as France battled its second surge of the virus.
MICHEL EULER/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Over 100,000 people protested across France on Saturday against the government’s latest measures to push people to get vaccinated and curb rising infections by the delta variant of the coronavirus.

In Paris, separate protest marches by the far-right and the far-left wound through different parts of the city. Demonstrations were also held in Strasbourg in the east, Lille in the north, Montpellier in the south and elsewhere.

Thousands of people answered calls to take to the streets by Florian Philippot, a fringe far-right politician and former right hand of Marine Le Pen who announced earlier this month that he would run in the 2022 presidential election. Gathered a stone’s throw away from the Louvre Museum, protesters chanted “Macron, clear off!”, “Freedom,” and banged metal spoons on saucepans.

While Philippot has organized small but regular protests against the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, Saturday’s demonstration drew a larger and more diverse crowd of people broadly disaffected with politics: yellow vest activists angry over perceived economic injustice, far-right supporters, medical staff and royalists.

They denounced the government’s decision on Monday to make vaccines compulsory for all health care workers, and to require a “health pass” proving people are fully vaccinated, have recently tested negative or recovered from the virus in order to access restaurants and other public venues. President Emmanuel Macron’s government is presenting a draft law Monday to enshrine the measures.

“I will never get vaccinated,” Bruno Auquier, a 53-year-old town councilor who lives on the outskirts of Paris. “People need to wake up,” he said, questioning the safety of the vaccine.

While France already requires several vaccinations to enter public school, Auquier pledged to take his two children out of school if the coronavirus vaccine became mandatory. “These new measures are the last straw,” Auquier said.

The government warned of the continued spread of the delta variant, which authorities fear could again put pressure on hospitals if not enough people are vaccinated against the virus. The pandemic has cost France more than 111,000 lives and deeply damaged the economy.

During a visit to a pop-up vaccination center in the southwest, Prime Minister Jean Castex exhorted the French to stick together in order to overcome the crisis.

“There is only one solution: vaccination,” he said, stressing it “protects us, and will make us freer.”

At the Paris protest, a manual worker in his sixties expressed bitterness about jobs in his sector sent offshore. A 24-year-old royalist said he was there to demand “the return of God and the King.”

Lucien, a 28-year-old retail shop manager, said he wasn’t anti-vaccine, but thought that everyone should be able to do as they please with their own body. “The government is going too far,” he said. His 26-year-old friend Elise said, “I am vaccinated against diphtheria, tetanus, and polio. But the COVID vaccine is just too experimental.”

While a majority of French health care workers have had at least one vaccine dose, some are resisting the government’s decision to make vaccination compulsory for all staff in medical facilities.

At Saturday’s Paris protest, a 39-year-old green party supporter and hospital laboratory worker said she might resort to buying a fake vaccination certificate to avoid losing her job. A health care worker dressed as the Statue of Liberty called it “act of violence” to force people to get vaccinated.

In Montpellier, more than 1,000 people marched to the train station, chanting “Liberty!” and carrying signs reading “Our kids aren’t Guinea pigs.” Security officials closed the main entrance to travelers and a dozen police officers took posts in front.

The Interior Ministry said 114,000 people took part in protests nationwide.

Overnight on Friday, vandals ransacked a vaccination center in the southeast. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin asked prefects and police chiefs to reinforce security for elected officials, after several complained they had received threats in recent days over the latest anti-COVID measures.

Vaccine hesitancy is considered widespread in France, though appears to have faded somewhat as 36 million French people have gotten coronavirus vaccine doses in recent months. Millions more have gotten injected or signed up for vaccinations since Monday’s announcement.

French health care workers have until Sept. 15 to get vaccinated. The requirement for COVID passes for all restaurants, bars, hospitals, shopping malls, trains, planes and other venues is being introduced in stages starting Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the French government announced tightened border controls starting Sunday, but also said it would allow in travelers from anywhere in the world who have been fully vaccinated.

That now includes people who received AstraZeneca’s Indian-manufactured vaccine. The move came after a global outcry over the fact that the European Union’s COVID-19 certificate only recognizes AstraZeneca vaccines manufactured in Europe.

Elaine Ganley in Montpellier and Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

Taliban will 'hang me': Afghan interpreters plead with Canada for help



John Vennavally-Rao

Toronto Correspondent, CTV National News
Solarina Ho

CTVNews.ca Writer

Published Friday, July 16, 2021


TORONTO -- With Taliban insurgents making rapid territorial gains across Afghanistan in recent weeks, chilling new audio from a local interpreter who worked with the Canadian Forces illustrates how much danger he and others like him are facing in their own country.

In an audio file posted on YouTube, one interpreter located in Helmund province tells how he and others risked their lives alongside Canadian soldiers to support the mission against the Taliban from 2010 to 2011. He now asks why Ottawa and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are not moving more quickly to get his family to safety.

“Mr. Trudeau, I am a father. My daughter is a year-and-a-half old. From one father to another, I beg you to please help me and my family to get out of Afghanistan before the Taliban find us,” he said.

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"If Canada does not act immediately, me and my wife, my daughter, and my brothers will be captured by the Taliban. They will hang me, shoot me and cut my head off. They will kill my wife and daughter. They will kill my brothers … you promised me my family would one day come to Canada [and] enjoy the peace that your family enjoy every day.”

Canadian veterans have expressed, with growing urgency, the need for Canada to help Afghan translators and interpreters who worked with Canadian soldiers during the war come to Canada with their families.

Canada’s immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marco Mendicino says the government is working on a plan to help the families, but did not offer clarity on when that plan might take effect.

"We know that Afghans put their own lives at risk by helping the Canadian effort in the war there, and we want to do right by them,” he said Friday. “And so we hope to have more to say about that in the very near future.”

Sayed Shah is worried about his two brothers who are facing threats because of his work with the Canadian Forces more than a decade earlier. The Taliban knows him well, Shah said, and he is certain if they take over Kandahar and Kabul, his brothers will die. He already lost five members of his family in 2013 when they were killed by a roadside bomb detonated by the Taliban.

“They are at risk because of me, because I worked with the Canadian army,” he said. “I put my family at risk.”

A former battlefield interpreter who worked with the Canadian military between November 2007 and March 2010, Shah was able to come to Canada under the original special immigration program. The soldiers who supported his visa application credited his bravery under intense Taliban fire with saving Canadian lives. Now, with the Taliban closing in on Kandahar, he is seeking similar protection for his brothers, who are now in hiding.

“If they're not evacuated from Afghanistan they will be targetted and killed,” Shah said.

Ottawa previously announced it was establishing a dedicated refugee stream for “human rights defenders” including journalists and others who may seek asylum to escape persecution in their country.

With a Sept. 11 departure deadline looming, other NATO allies have already announced evacuation plans for thousands of Afghans. The U.S. said this week that flights for eligible Afghan citizens would begin by the end of July.

The interpreters were critical to NATO operations in the Middle East, including the more than 40,000 Canadian soldiers who served in Afghanistan. Many Afghans risked their lives helping on the front lines.

A special immigration program set up in 2009 and ended two years later helped bring some 800 former interpreters and their families over to Canada, but thousands were left behind. Many now face the possibility of torture or death over their role in helping Canadian troops, advocates say.

The sudden overnight withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan at the beginning of July after nearly two decades of fighting accelerated the Taliban’s movement across the country, with Taliban officials saying the group now has control of more than 85 per cent of the territory -- a figure that is disputed by others.

With files from CTV National News Parliamentary Bureau Reporter Annie Bergeron-Oliver, CTVNews.ca writer Christy Somos and The Canadian Press

 

Neutrogena Beach Defense and Ultra Sheer aerosol spray sunscreens recalled by Health Canada due to elevated benzene levels

Recall on certain sunscreens

Casey Richardson - Jul 17, 2021 / 4:24 pm | Story: 340296

Photo: Contributed

A recall was issued on Saturday by Health Canada for Neutrogena Beach Defense and Ultra Sheer sunscreens in aerosol spray form due to high levels of benzene.

Johnson & Johnson Inc. issued the recall of all lots of Beach Defense and Ultra Sheer aerosol spray sunscreens due to the elevated levels, which may pose serious health risks after long-term, repeated use.

The products include Neutrogena Beach Defense Kids SPF 60 Spray, Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Body Mist Sunscreen SPF 30 , Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Body Mist Sunscreen SPF 45 and Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Body Mist Sunscreen SPF 60.

Full details of the products which are recalled with lot numbers and expiration dates can be found in the graph below or on the Health Canada Website.

People are advised to stop using the recalled products and consult a health care professional if you have used any of these products and have health concerns. Continue using other sunscreen as directed on the product label.

“The potential issue was identified by testing conducted by Valisure (an independent U.S. quality assurance company) that detected elevated levels of benzene in several sunscreen and after-sun products in the U.S., including Johnson & Johnson Inc. products. Health Canada is aware that recalls are taking place in the U.S. for the same reason,” the recall notice stated.

Photo: Contributed

#POWERDEREGULATION

Alberta consumers to pay for unpaid gas, electricity bills from pandemic utility deferral program

Author of the article: Lisa Johnson
Publishing date:Jul 17, 2021 

The sun sets as the sky gives off a redish glow behind power lines along the Anthony Henday Dr. in Edmonton, May 5, 2021. Ed Kaiser/Postmedia


Alberta energy consumers will pay back, with small increases to their utility bills, the outstanding debt from a government pandemic deferral program.



The extra charges to come in the fall are meant to cover outstanding debt owed to gas and electricity providers resulting from the government utility deferral program. That operation was aimed at helping those who struggled to pay bills last year during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than 245,000 electricity customers and 181,000 natural gas customers — about 16 per cent of each customer base — took advantage of the program first announced in March last year. Of approximately $92 million in deferred payments, $13 million to $16 million remain outstanding, based on early estimates from the government.

Natural gas and electricity associate minister Dale Nally said in a statement this week the small, temporary rate rider will ensure the debt will be repaid “in the most transparent and straightforward manner.”

It’s up to the Alberta Utility Commission to now calculate the exact amount of the rate rider and when it will be added to electricity and natural gas bills. But Nally noted that the rate rider could begin in the fall and is expected to be only a fraction of a dollar for a few months for the average household.

“The program’s intention was to provide relief to those hardest hit by the pandemic while having a minimal impact on utility bills for consumers as a whole,” said Nally.

In a Saturday statement in response to questions from Postmedia, he said outstanding debt like this is often dealt with through a rate rider.

“Ultimately when it comes to the method of repayment, taxpayers and rate payers are the same people and this is the most transparent and straightforward way to cover the debt.

The Utility Payment Deferral Program Act, passed in the legislature last May, allowed for the introduction of rate riders to recover outstanding debt, but the announcement still surprised one energy expert.

Joel MacDonald at Energyrates.ca, which compares energy rates across provinces, said he has not seen a utility-related government program funded in this way in a mandatory, regulated industry.

“It’s really being forced upon Albertans,” said MacDonald, who noted the price tag could be higher than a fraction of a dollar for some industrial sites that did not qualify for the deferral but still have to pay.

He added the biggest concern is that the move could open the door for similar ratepayer-funded programs in the future.

“Are they opening up Pandora’s box?” he said, adding rate riders are normally used to pay for things like regional infrastructure upgrades.

NDP energy critic Kathleen Ganley said in a statement the UCP government needs to cover the costs of the utility deferral program and bring back the price cap.

“Downloading more costs on to Albertans and asking them to reach further into their pocket as they struggle to make ends meet is unfair and will only hurt our recovery. Albertans deserve stable and affordable electricity, not unpredictable punishing spikes,” said Ganley.

The deferral was available to electricity consumers who use less than 250,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year and natural gas consumers, who consume less than 2,500 gigajoules per year.

As sea levels rise, B.C. coastal cities could face flooding from moon's 'wobble'


Sat., July 17, 2021, 5:00 a.m.·

Waves push up on the shoreline in White Rock B.C. during a storm in March, 2016. (Bill Hawke - image credit)

A lunar cycle that happens only once every 18.6 years could combine with rising seas from climate change, and create further problems here on Earth.

What some are calling a "moon wobble" means that B.C.'s coastal communities already bracing for flooding from rising sea levels may also have to contend with an added phenomenon.

"Nothing about the moon is changing, this is a totally predictable effect," explained Jess McIver, an assistant professor of astronomy at UBC. "It's been wobbling in this way for millions and millions of years.

"Very, very slowly the axis the moon is orbiting the Earth around is kind of shifting ... and the tides are going to respond."

The issue came to the fore after the release of a new NASA study, published in Nature Climate Change journal earlier this month, "Rapid increases and extreme months in projections of United States high-tide flooding."

Although the study only examines impacts on U.S. coastal communities, the same effects would apply to cities in B.C. as well as other coastal areas in Canada, explained McIver. She added that the effects of moon wobble would vary by location.

She said she hopes further studies can specifically examine how the phenomenon, known formally as a "precession effect" of the lunar cycle, could impact Canadian tides.

The effect will not become significant until the 2030s, according to NASA, but that's exactly when rising sea levels are forecast to worsen.

Cities on B.C.'s coast have already begun preparing for rising sea levels, flooding and extreme tides, in addition to the other climate and weather extremes predicted by climate scientists.

And although they have long known oceans will likely encroach on some urban areas, the addition of the lunar "wobble" at almost exactly the same time could amplify the impact.

"We're going to have this overlap between this very predicted steady creep up in sea level," McIver said. "And when you combine that with this normal 19-year cadence, all of a sudden we're going to reach a point where we start seeing this flooding a lot more often."

The new study is yet another warning to low-lying cities such as Richmond, Delta, Victoria and many First Nations along the coast, said Kees Lokman, chair of landscape architecture at UBC.

Lokman is also principal investigator on a four-year research project, Living With Water, which is examining how cities and First Nations can adapt to climate change and flooding. The project is based out of the University of Victoria's Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions.

"If we don't really plan ahead, it will impact us pretty drastically, especially with these new findings," Lokman said. "Some of these rises to sea level might happen faster than we originally predicted or anticipated."

The City of Richmond is one municipality that has heavily invested in dikes and flood protections in its climate plan.

The city is built just one metre above sea level, and in 2019 was one of several B.C. municipalities to official declare a climate emergency.

"A considerable amount of upgrades and improvements to the City's flood protection infrastructure have been completed and are planned for the short-, medium-, and long-term to address infrastructure age, growth and climate change," Richmond said on its website.

The province's environment minister, in his most recent mandate letter, was tasked with creating "a coastal strategy to better protect coastal habitat" and protecting the coast's economy.

Lokman says mitigation of B.C.'s contributions to greenhouse gases should be a priority, but also how communities can adapt to rising sea levels from climate change.

He says effects from the moon wobble could also help communities and policy makers address climate change.

"These events kind of give us a peek into the future of what normal sea level rise might look like," he said.

INDIA

Kadambini Ganguly.
A symbol of women’s liberation

By ThisDay.app
PUBLISHED ON 18 JUL, 2021 

Kadambini Ganguly.

Kadambini Ganguly was the first female practitioner of Western medicine in India, the first female to gain admission in Calcutta Medical College, and she bagged the top spot as the first female to achieve various other monumental goals. Breaking barriers at a time when it was unheard of for women to even leave their households, Kadambini was one of the most liberated Indian women to have ever lived.

Born on 18th July 1861

It was the year 1861. Industries had just begun to get set up, creating an illusion of modernity. Yet workers were overworked by their employers, Indians tied by the hands of their colonizers and women were deeply oppressed by the norms of age-old patriarchy enforced by men, which made them bear the weight of every kind of subjugation. In this grim atmosphere, a baby girl was born to a family in Bhagalpur, Bihar, completely unaware that her heart and soul belonged to a time that was way ahead in the future. Little did she know that the world wouldn’t be as welcoming as she hoped to a girl like her, and with a grave vengeance, find ways to cast her out.



Google doodle honours Kadambini Ganguly, one of India's first female doctors


Unlike the fate of other girls in India during that era, Kadambini’s father was a Brahmo reformer who fought for women’s emancipation and established the women's organisation- Bhagalpur Mahila Samiti in 1863. Her sheer will in addition to the blood running in her veins drove her to break free from the patriarchal system and step out from the shadows of conservative men.

Unsympathetic to the whispers from upper-class Bengalis who judged her every move, Kadambini enrolled herself into school irrespective of society’s views on women’s education at that time. To add more salt to the wound, she became the first female to pass the University of Calcutta entrance examination, despite the varsity not admitting female students back then.

However, merely receiving an education was not all that Kadambini had planned for herself. She had no intention of pleasing her neighbours or anyone else who thought differently. She wanted to pursue a career in medicine, a field where women were barely respected. Every time she stood in front of the building of Calcutta Medical College (CMC), she longed to walk its corridors and hold a degree that had its name written on it.


In 1883, Kadambini got married to a widower named Dwarkanath Ganguly, which raised the eyebrows of anyone who heard the news. Although they both received disapproval over their union, they led a healthy married life, with Dwarkanath supporting every move of his wife.

Vowing to ensure Kadambini gets everything she deserves, he stood alongside her in the battle to get admitted to CMC, which she finally achieved in 1884, becoming the first woman to ever do so.

Yet life didn’t prove to be easy, for there were other obstacles which she hadn’t predicted. Filled with jealousy and the need to dominate women, one of her disgraceful professors deliberately failed her in 1888, robbing her from ultimately receiving the MB degree she so desperately wanted. Despite starting her private practice, she was unsuccessful as the British doctors were condescending over her not having an MB degree, on top of an already prevalent gender bias. She was called something akin to a 'whore' in a Bengali periodical as well, for leaving her household of 8 children to work in a profession where she didn’t belong.

After being cornered from all sides, Kadambini decided to take a leap and go abroad to further her studies. She was the only female out of 14 successful candidates to receive the Triple Diplomas of the Scottish College after training in Dublin, Glasgow and Edinburgh, and also became the first woman from South Asia to achieve this rare phenomenon

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Actress Solanki Roy playing Kadambini in the televised series 'Prothoma Kadambini’ (Screengrab)

Kadambini had earlier already garnered the attention of legendary women like Florence Nightingale and Anne Besant, which after her return to India was joined by plenty of others. She was even hired to treat Nepal’s queen’s mother and many other high-profile cases. Kadambini was born to be the first woman to liberate herself from various oppressions.

In the session of INC in 1890 in Calcutta, Kadambini gave a lecture in English - becoming the first woman to do so at the INC.

She went on to actively support women’s emancipation along with her husband, calling out institutions that discriminated against females, like CMC who felt so threatened by her voice that they ultimately opened their college for all women in 1915.

According to American historian David Kopf, Kadambini was “the most accomplished and liberated Brahmo woman of her time."

Despite being occupied in various other fields, she never gave up her medical career, pursuing it right till her last breath quite literally as she died of Tuberculosis in 1923 just after operating on a patient. Yet Kadambini lives forever in the hearts of many as a symbol of liberation, a pioneering woman and a skilled doctor who broke barriers.

This was story was first published on This Day.app.

Vaccination: Canada outperforms the United States

Mandy Sims July 18, 2021

For the first time since the pandemic began, the percentage of people who have received two doses of the vaccine in Canada is higher than in the United States, Global News reports.

According to the site covid19tracker.ca, 48.7% of the Canadian population is now fully vaccinated.

In the United States, 48.4% of Americans have had two injections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

About 45,027,522 doses have been administered across Canada since the vaccination campaign began, as of Saturday afternoon.

So far, 69.4% of Canadians have received at least one dose, compared to 55.9% of Americans.

While the United States has begun its lion vaccination campaign, the latter has seen a significant slowdown in its pace over the past three months. During this time, Canada solved distribution problems and was able to speed up the pace of vaccination.