Communicating climate change has never been so important, and this IPCC report pulls no punches

by Simon Torok, James Goldie, Linden Ashcroft, The Conversation

Condensing the IPCC report to its highlights, such as in this graphic, is an effective way to engage time-poor readers. Credit: Monash Climate Change Communication Research Hub/IPCC

On Monday, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the first installment of their sixth assessment report. As expected, the report makes for bleak reading.

But the report also makes for dry reading. Even the Summary for Policymakers, at 42 pages, is not a document you can quickly skim.It found all regions of the world are already experiencing the impacts of climate change, and its warming projections range from scary to unimaginable.

Local governments, national and international policymakers, insurance companies, community groups, new home buyers, you and me: everyone needs to know some aspects of the IPCC's findings to understand what the future might look like and what we can do about it.

With climate action more crucial than ever, the IPCC needs to communicate clearly and strongly to as many people as possible. So how is it going so far?

The most assertive report in 30 years

The grueling IPCC process and an extensive author list of 234 scientists make IPCC reports the world's most authoritative source of climate change information. Every sentence is powerful because each one has been read and approved by scientists and government officials from 195 countries.

So when the report states "it is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land," there is absolutely no denying it. In fact, the IPCC has become progressively more assertive in the 30 years it has been assessing and summarizing climate science.

In 1990, it noted global warming "could be largely due to natural variability." Five years later, there was "a discernible human influence on global climate." By 2001, "most of the observed warming […] is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations."

This week's reference to "unequivocal" human influence pulls no punches.

Why has this language changed? Partly because the science has progressed: we know more about the complexities of the Earth's climate than ever before.

But it's also because the report's authors understand the urgency of communicating the message effectively. As this week's report makes clear, limiting warming to the most ambitious 1.5℃ goal of the Paris Agreement may be (at least temporarily) out of reach within decades, and the goal of keeping warming below 2℃ is also at risk.

As the IPCC's scientific assessment reports are only published every seven years or so, this may be the authors' last chance to warn people.

Climate change communication isn't easy

Communicating any science is hard, but climate science has particular challenges. These include the complexities of the science and language of climate change, people's misunderstanding of risk management, and the barrage of deliberate misinformation.

The IPCC has standardized the language they use to communicate confidence: "likely," for example, always means at least a 2-in-3 chance. Unfortunately, research has shown this language conveys levels of imprecision that are too high and leads to readers' judgements being different from the IPCC's.

The grueling report approval process also means IPCC statements can be conservative to the point of confusion. In fact, a 2016 study showed IPCC reports are getting harder to read. In particular, despite the IPCC's efforts, the Summaries for Policymakers have had low readability over the years, with dense paragraphs and too much jargon for the average punter.

There has also been a rise in communication barriers since the final part of the IPCC's Fifth Assessment Report was released in 2014, including more fake news, and climate news fatigue.

The IPCC's complex results can appear controversial and hotly debated, because of politicization and a well-funded disinformation campaign from fossil fuel giants. And with news so often passed through social media, it's easy for people to turn to someone they trust, even if that person's information is wrong.

While there has been an increase in communication imperatives, including the urgency for action and the increase in science information, these are all taking place during a headline-stealing global pandemic.

Also, people are exhausted. Eighteen months of living with a pandemic has probably shriveled everybody's ability to take on more big problems.

On the other hand, hunger for COVID-19 information has raised familiarity with exponential curves, model projections, risk-benefit calculations, and urgent action based on scientific evidence to combat a global threat.

Remaining hopeful

To address the challenges of communicating the science, climate communicators should aim for consistent messages, draw on credible information, focus on what is known rather than the uncertainties, offer tangible action, use clear language that avoids despair, connect locally, and tell a story.

To a large extent, Australian contributors to the IPCC release this week have done just that, chiseling relevant facts from the IPCC's brick of a report into blogs and bites.

To its credit, the IPCC has also provided a plethora of communication resources in different formats. This includes videos, fact sheets, posters and, for the first time, an interactive atlas enabling you to explore past and possible future climate changes in any region.

However, there's (so far) less focus on information for different audiences, such as students, young people, managers and planners rather than just politicians and scientists.

And the atlas, while a great tool, still requires users to have some climate science literacy. For example, average users looking for future climate information may not understand that CMIP6 and CMIP5 are the next, and previous, generations of climate models used by the IPCC.

While mainly focusing on the report's terrifying findings and commitment to global warming, media coverage this week also emphasized the importance of immediate action, and sources of hope.

This is a positive approach because feeling that humanity cannot, or will not, respond adequately can lead to a lack of engagement and action, and eco-anxiety.

As Al Gore pointed out 15 years ago in An Inconvenient Truth: "There are a lot of people who go straight from denial to despair without pausing on the intermediate step of actually doing something about the problem."

Early next year, the IPCC will release two volumes about ways to adapt to, and reduce, climate change. After the confronting results of this first volume, the next two must provide messages of hope if we're to keep fighting for our planet.

'Not too late' to prevent 'runaway climate change': EU

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Sustainable Beauty: The Beauty Industry’s Role in Mitigating Climate Change

How are beauty companies taking action against climate change and what does the future hold?

08.12.21

Earlier this week, leading scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a landmark report warning that global climate change is accelerating—and human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases are the overwhelming cause.
 
Heatwaves, extreme rain and intense drought are on the rise, but the extent of future disasters will be determined by how fast governments can adapt and evolve, the report argues.
 
“From a physical science perspective, limiting human-induced global warming to a specific level requires limiting cumulative CO2 emissions, reaching at least net zero CO2 emissions, along with strong reductions in other greenhouse gas emissions. Strong, rapid and sustained reductions in CH4 emissions would also limit the warming effect resulting from declining aerosol pollution and would improve air quality,” the report reads.
 
Beauty Brands That Have Taken Action
 
While the diagnosis may seem dire, scientists say there is still time to prevent catastrophic climate change. Many global beauty companies have already taken steps to reduce emissions and halt the use of fossil fuels, including the following examples:
 

Estée Lauder

Last year, The Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) announced that it had achieved Net Zero emissions and sourced 100% renewable electricity globally for its direct operations.

Building upon this achievement, the company also met its goal to set science-based emissions reduction targets for its direct operations and value chain, positioning the company to take even more decisive action against climate change in the coming decade.
 
“Setting ambitious targets in line with the latest climate science is testament to our values and commitment to managing our business for the long term,” said Fabrizio Freda, president and CEO of ELC. “In this decisive decade for climate action, we will continue to accelerate efforts to ensure a healthy, beautiful planet for generations to come.”
 

Arbonne

Arbonne is another company that understands that reducing energy demand and moving to renewable energy is crucial to doing its part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change. By 2025, Arbonne expects to:
 

• Divert over 90% of its waste, globally
• Reduce water consumption by 20% compared to a 2019 baseline
• Reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50% compared to 2019, and then 75% by 2030
• Reduce energy consumption by 20% compared to 2019

 

L’Oréal

L’Oréal has also set bold, measurable targets for 2030 on climate, water, biodiversity and natural resources, in accordance with what scientific experts demand and what our planet needs.
 
Since 2005, the Group has reduced the CO2 emissions of its plants and distribution centers by 81% in absolute terms, exceeding its initial target of 60% by 2020, while production volume increased by 29% over the same period.
 
Furthermore, at the end of 2020, L’Oréal had 72 carbon neutral sites (meaning they use 100% renewable energy), including 19 factories.
 
These companies and many more are making progress to reduce the impact and severity of climate change. They have set ambitious goals for themselves and acted on them, but it will likely take an effort from the whole industry to limit global warming.
 

 

Working Together to Make a Difference
 
“The cosmetics industry produces more than 120 billion units of packaging annually—the problem is larger than any individual brand, vendor or corporation,” explains Jess Abrams, executive director, sustainable development, Shiseido Americas. “It’s all about industry alignment. This is where I see the future of sustainable beauty heading—becoming an industry that brings together vendors, suppliers, and competitors alike.”
 
(Read The Future of Sustainable Packaging: Insights from Beauty Brands & Packaging Designers)
 
This process of rallying the industry together for a common goal will be challenging, and is certainly easier said than done, but the good news is that according to the results of a representative population survey commissioned by the German Packaging Institute (Deutsches Verpackungsinstitut), the multitude of innovations in the field of sustainable packaging in recent years are being well received by consumers.
 
Nearly half of respondents – 44% – perceived clear progress in environmental friendliness of packaging, and only 15.7% saw it as having regressed. Moreover, three out of four respondents, 74.6%, confirmed that this progress has been achieved either with no compromise in functionality and convenience – or even enhancing it.
 
Business as Usual Won’t Cut It
 
The IPCC report emphasizes that many changes due to past and future greenhouse gas emissions are irreversible for centuries to millennia, especially changes in the ocean, ice sheets and global sea level. That means that the time for actions is now. There is hope for the future, as exemplified by the companies that are already making a difference, but it is debatable whether the global Beauty Industry as a whole has done enough to reduce its impact on our planet.
 
Swedish climate activist Greta Thurnberg had this to say during a recent interview for Democracy Now: “This report doesn’t tell us what to do. It doesn’t say you have to do this, and then you have to do this. It doesn’t provide us with such solutions or tell us that you need to do this. That’s up for us. We are the ones who need to take the decisions, and we are the ones who need to be brave and ask the difficult questions to ourselves, like: What do we value? Are we ready to take action to ensure future and present living conditions?”
 
The facts about climate change and global warming are available and clear. The question is whether the Beauty Industry can be the positive influence that it has the potential to be.

Read More: What Are Others Doing?

The Future of Sustainable Packaging: Insights from Beauty Brands & Packaging Designers

A Sustainable Beauty Conversation: Suppliers Speak Out

Innersense Organic Beauty Is Now Climate Neutral Certified

Emissions from Russian Permafrost Could Spike Tenfold if Leaders Ignore UN Climate Report Warning

Aug. 12, 2021

Experts believe that as permafrost melts, it will release an increasing amount of carbon, setting off a cycle of warming nearly impossible to stop.Taken / pixabay

Russia’s permafrost could deteriorate fast and spark an accelerating loop of warming if world leaders don’t heed UN climate scientists’ call to drastically cut global carbon emissions, an expert told The Moscow Times.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report published Monday shows unequivocally that climate change is progressing more quickly than feared — with temperatures already 1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels — and that time is running out to prevent catastrophic warming. It expands upon the IPCC’s 2013 climate assessment, which came two years before nearly 200 countries signed the Paris Climate Agreement in hopes of keeping warming below 1.5 C.

“This IPCC report studies climate feedback effects in much more detail than the previous report,” the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF) Russia’s head of climate and energy research Alexei Kokorin said.

Large amounts of carbon are stored within permafrost, the layer of soil that stays frozen year-round and covers nearly 65% percent of Russia’s territory.

While this permafrost doesn’t currently emit much carbon, ​​Kokorin said its emissions could increase tenfold by 2100 if global greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise at their current pace.

Experts believe that as permafrost melts, it will release an increasing amount of carbon, leading to warming that in turn melts even more permafrost — setting off a cycle of warming nearly impossible to stop.

Kokorin also said Russia can expect to see extreme weather events with increasing frequency, with once-in-a-decade heat waves happening every five years if global temperatures rise 2 C beyond pre-industrial levels and happening nearly every year if the planet warms by 4 C.

“That could affect whether people will choose to live in Moscow. If a heatwave like the current one happens every five years, you can see it as bearable. But what if it happens almost every year? Would we have to move the Russian capital to another location?” Kokorin said.

More detailed information will be available when Russia’s national climate assessment comes out sometime next year, Kokorin said.

While the IPCC report relied mostly on scientific articles published in English, the Russian report will also include a lot of material that hasn’t been translated into English yet, potentially offering a deeper understanding of Russia’s unique climate dynamics.

Siberian Wildfire Could Become Biggest in Recorded History – Greenpeace

Updated: Aug. 12, 2021

The republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia’s largest and coldest region, has been devastated by unprecedented wildfires this summer.

Ivan Nikiforov / TASS


A wildfire raging in northeastern Siberia could become the largest in recorded history, experts from Greenpeace Russia told The Moscow Times on Wednesday.

The republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Russia’s largest and coldest region, has been devastated by unprecedented wildfires that are now larger than the rest of the world's blazes combined. Residents have been under a state of emergency for weeks as thick, acrid smoke blankets settlements and reaches cities thousands of kilometers away, while thousands of volunteers have been recruited to fight the fires

The largest of these fires has exceeded 1.5 million hectares in size, the Greenpeace environmental group's forestry head Alexey Yaroshenko told The Moscow Times.

“This fire has to grow by about 400,000 hectares to become the biggest in documented history,” Yaroshenko said. “It is impossible to contain this fire through human efforts. ... Firefighters would have to put out a line of fire 2,000 kilometers long.”

Only rain could stop or significantly slow down this fire, Yaroshenko said, but current rainfall is too weak to do so.

“In the best-case scenario we could save settlements and infrastructure that lies in the fire’s path,” he said.

Yaroshenko’s comments come days after a landmark United Nations climate report rang the alarm on global warming and called for more ambitious measures to prevent the climate from spiraling out of control.

Experts say Sakha’s fast-warming climate — the region has seen its annual average temperature rise by 3 degrees Celsius since the beginning of the 20th century — combined with a 150-year record drought and high winds has turned its vast taiga forest into a tinderbox.

Harmful forestry practices are a key factor behind the fires’ unprecedented spread, Greenpeace expert Yulia Davydova told The Moscow Times, as regional authorities aren’t required to extinguish fires in so-called “control zones” – areas far from human settlements. Logging, both illegal and legal, is another common cause, according to new data acquired by Greenpeace.

With weeks left to go in the wildfire season, the European Union’s Copernicus satellite monitoring service said that the Siberian forest fires have already emitted a record 505 megatons of carbon dioxide.

And satellite observations by NASA’s Earth-monitoring tool MODIS showed that smoke from the wildfires reached the North Pole for what is believed to be the first time in known history last week.

Nationwide, over 13.4 million hectares of land have been burned by wildfires — an area roughly the size of Greece — so far in 2021, Greenpeace says, citing official data.

Putin Alarmed Over 'Unprecedented' Natural Disasters in Russia

By AFP Updated: one day ago

Ivan Nikiforov / AP Photo / TASS


President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said the scale of natural disasters that have hit Russia this year is "absolutely unprecedented" as local officials ask for Moscow's help to tackle fires and floods.

A former skeptic of man-made climate change, the Russian leader called on authorities to do everything possible to help Siberians affected by the region's gigantic wildfires, as well as Russians living in the flood-hit south of the country.

Speaking at a video conference with the leaders of the affected eastern and southern regions, Putin said he received daily reports on the climate situation in the country.

"In the south (of Russia), the monthly norm of rainfall now falls in a few hours and in the Far East on the contrary, forest fires in drought conditions are spreading rapidly," Putin said.

In Russia's largest and coldest region of Yakutia, this summer's forest fires have already burned through an area larger than Portugal.

Russian weather officials and environmentalists have linked the increasing intensity of Siberia's annual fires to climate change.

"All of this once again shows how important it is for us to deeply and systematically work on the climate and environment agenda," he said.

He called on authorities to be ready to evacuate more people living in areas affected by the fires — especially the elderly — as well as provide economic support for them.

He also asked officials to calculate the effects of the fires and make plans to reconstruct houses.

The Russian leader said it was important to do everything to "save the forest riches" and "minimise damage for animals of the taiga", a word used to describe northern Russian forests.
Hundreds evacuated

Local officials pleaded for reinforcements and Moscow's economic help to deal with the human cost of damage caused by extreme weather.

Aysen Nikolayev, the head of Yakutia, said firefighters were able to save 230 houses from flames.

He said evacuated villagers had received psychological help, with local children being sent to holiday camps.

He called the scale of the fires a first "in history" and asked for help after the region's harvest was severely affected.

"We will continue to save more houses," he said, thanking Putin for his support.

This week Russia launched a national response centre and deployed additional firefighters to battle the devastating Siberian fires.

The governor of the southern Krasnodar region Veniamin Kondratyev said 132 people — mostly holidaymakers — had been evacuated in the Black Sea resort of Anapa last night amid rising floods.

"We could not predict what would happen at night," he said, adding that the region had "the same rainfall in a day as we usually get in a year."

Kondratyev said that despite difficult climate conditions, the holiday season in resort areas is "continuing and under control."

The head of Moscow-annexed Crimea, Sergei Aksyonov, said that two people have died as a result of floods on the peninsula and that over 3,000 have asked authorities for help.

Heavy smog hung over the regional capital of Yakutsk on Friday, which was declared a non-working day in much of the region over health concerns due to wildfire smoke.

For years Putin was notorious for his scepticism about man-made global warming and saying Russia stands to benefit from it.

But in recent months he has also made statements to the effect that climate change is not just a boon to Moscow.

The Russian leader this year participated in a summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden and said Moscow is interested in "stepping up international cooperation" on climate change.

Smog from the wildfires in Yakutsk.
Vadim Skryabin / TASS

In Photos: Life Amid Siberia's Devastating Wildfires

Aug. 13, 2021 - 15:32

Russia’s largest, coldest region is blanketed by thick smoke from wildfires that have torn across the Siberian taiga at an unprecedented scale.

Authorities the republic of Sakha (Yakutia) have declared a state of emergency over the rapidly advancing fires and hazardous smoke.

Here’s a closer look at the scene from the ground that locals have described as “apocalyptic”:



In Yakutsk, the regional capital of the republic of Sakha, fine particle concentrations in the air are now more than 70 times the maximum recommended safe level.
Vadim Skryabin / TASS



The wildfires have reached the Lena Pillars Nature Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Vadim Skryabin / TASS



The head of the region ordered a non-working day on Friday in Yakutsk and 10 other municipalities, urging residents to stay at home due to the harmful effects that the smoke can have on human health.
Vadim Skryabin / TASS



A Russian emergencies ministry employee battles a wildfire. The Siberian wildfires are now larger than the rest of the world's fires combined.
Russian Emergencies Ministry / TASS



Flights to and from Yakutsk have been canceled or delayed due to poor visibility.
Vadim Skryabin / TASS



Earlier this week, President Vladimir Putin ordered to send reinforcements to the region, but experts say the largest fires will be impossible for humans alone to extinguish.
Russian Emergencies Ministry / TASS


The Moscow Times

Canadian finance industry has “an obligation” to act on climate change

Global Risk Institute says there are five key takeaways for financial institutions from the IPCC report


By Steve Randall
Aug 12, 2021

This week’s report from the UN-backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has sent shockwaves through industries and governments.

Its clear message that it’s not an option to delay significant measures to meet the targets set by the Paris Agreement has sparked renewed calls for action, and the financial services industry has an important role to play.

The Toronto-based think tank, Global Risk Institute (GRI) in Financial Services, has published its top five takeaways from the IPCC report that Canada’s financial institutions (FIs) can use to seize the opportunities from building a greener economy.

"Now is the time for Canada to come together across government, industry and academia and punch above our weight," says Sonia Baxendale, President and CEO, Global Risk Institute.

Canada in the cross-hairs

The urgency for Canada to lower carbon emissions in the short term is one of the biggest calls to action and the first of the GRI’s takeaways.

With modelling projecting larger-than-average temperature increases for the country, the prospect of more catastrophic storms, droughts, and wildfires is a rallying call.

With global pressure to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels, this will impact those lenders that are most exposed to the sector.
Better data

The second takeaway is that the better data available to FIs offers greater insights into the risk and gives the industry enhanced ability to manage and price risk.

It also allows for the development of products that meet the needs of the low carbon economy, such as new insurance products; and for potentially higher premiums to reflect the risk.

Liability risk

With the IPCC report clearly linking certain specific weather events to human-made climate change, a rise in liability risk is expected.

Financial firms could face litigation if they have financed known polluting industries that lead to weather incidents.

GRI likens the potential outlook to that of the tobacco industry where exposed industries face court cases and legal suits, which may increase market and credit risk.
Financing the transition

Of course, Canada’s financial sector will continue to play a major role in financing the transition to a greener economy.

Specifically, GRI sees a doubling down on transition finance and the move to a low carbon economy.

“Financing and underwriting of fossil fuels must support energy diversification toward renewables, and transparency from firms about net zero portfolio alignment and climate-related financial risk must increase,” the report says.
Investing in the planet

The fifth takeaway is that investment in Mother Earth must be at the heart of climate change action.

With a scramble for financial resources to adapt, build resilience and invest in nature-based solutions to buffer the impacts, GRI says the financial sector should develop 'climate adaptation finance' as a tool within the sustainable finance umbrella.

"Industry must pick up the pace. We have an obligation to our stakeholders, shareholders and future generations to face an unprecedented challenge and drive the innovation needed to create a sustainable low-carbon economy today – not in the distant future,” concluded Baxendale.

Climate change can't be ignored in Calgary's civic election, advocates say

Author of the article: Madeline Smith

Publishing date:Aug 12, 2021 •

 

It was another smoke shrouded day in the city as Calgarians exercised on the Bow River pathway on Monday, July 19, 2021. PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

Advocates say climate change should be a central issue in this year’s municipal election as a new UN report sounds a “deafening” alarm about the future.

Environmental advocacy group Calgary Climate Hub is calling for city council candidates to pursue policies directly aimed at lowering greenhouse gas emissions, from setting reduction targets for city-owned utility Enmax to increasing access to public transit.

The city’s current climate resilience strategy aims for Calgary’s emissions to be 80 per cent lower than the 2005 levels by 2050, a target that many say falls short. The Climate Hub says at a minimum, net-zero emissions by 2050 must be the goal.
MORE ON THIS TOPIC

U.N. climate change report sounds 'code red for humanity'

'We're going in the wrong direction': Climate change concern prompts Farrell to plan more city oversight

Monday’s report from the scientists of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says human-caused emissions are “unequivocally” driving average global temperatures up, and some changes are already irreversible and will cause more extreme weather.

A temperature increase of 1.5 C is generally seen as the maximum the planet can withstand without widespread social upheaval. The report says that target will arrive within 20 years, and emissions need to be drastically slashed over the next decade to ensure warming doesn’t get even worse

.

Be The Change YYC Street Outreach team members distribute water, hats and other supplies to vulnerable Calgarians in the downtown core during a heat wave on June 28, 2021. PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

Calgary Climate Hub director-at-large Rob Tremblay said it’s clear that the impacts of climate change are already here, pointing to this summer’s devastating heat waves and wildfires as just the latest example. The City of Calgary’s climate team says climate change means the city will see more severe and frequent extreme weather like flooding, drought and the effects of wildfires.

“It’s not just something that’s uncomfortable. It’s something that’s deadly. There’s a big, big cost to just doing nothing when it comes to climate change,” Tremblay said.

The group recently published its platform for the Oct. 18 municipal vote, and is urging Calgarians to ask council candidates about tackling climate change locally. The Climate Hub won’t be endorsing any candidates ahead of the vote, but has published a questionnaire on climate and equity issues sent to mayoral candidates throughout July.

“The traditional policy levers aren’t necessarily the city’s jurisdiction, but I want to make sure council candidates aren’t using that as an excuse not to address climate change,” Tremblay said.

“The city needs to say, ‘What can we do?’ and not just cede that (responsibility).”

Smoke from wildfires obscured downtown Calgary beyond the teepees of the Calgary Stampede Elbow River Camp on July 18, 2021. PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

University of Alberta urban and regional planning faculty lecturer Neal LaMontagne echoed that cities are limited in some of the options they have for addressing climate change. But they also have a huge hand in transportation and development, which can be critical to the state of emissions.

“One of the courses I teach is planning history, and that’s the trajectory I’ve seen: from ‘How do we reduce our greenhouse gases?’ to ‘Let’s not think about urban environments and nature in opposition,'” he said.

“We know what a sustainable and a climate-resilient city can look like. We’re learning more what that can look like on the prairies in a meaningful way,” he said.

Cities also have the power to mandate things like sustainable building standards, which can make a big difference. The majority of Calgary’s carbon footprint comes from the energy required to heat and power buildings, adding up to slightly more than two-thirds of emissions.

LaMontagne said strengthening regulations is one step, but it’s also important to build sustainability into a city in a way that people directly feel the benefits — like ensuring quick access from neighbourhoods to shops and services without having to drive there.

“The big move, which is on all of our collective behaviour, comes from making a city that’s just really wonderful to live sustainably in.”

— With files from Reuters

 

British Columbia

Long-term Vancouver tenants in prime beachside neighbourhood say they're being renovicted

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Residents allege owners of Alberta-based Avala Equities have no intention to move in

Maryse Zeidler · CBC News · Posted: Aug 15, 2021 

Linda (Lulu) Millburn at her home in Kitsilano. Millburn and her neighbours allege the landlord plans to renovate suites after tenants have been evicted in order to charge higher rents, a process nicknamed renoviction. (Tuulikki Abrahamson)

Four long-term tenants of a century-old housing complex in Vancouver are contesting an eviction notice from their landlord — a real estate investment firm that claims to be moving family members into the dilapidated suites. 

The property at 1540 Yew Street, close to the beach in the city's trendy Kitsilano neighbourhood, consists of a two-storey walk-up with nine units and a laneway house with two units, which were all built around 1910. 

Linda Millburn, 76, has lived in her two-bedroom suite in the laneway house since 1981 and currently pays $719 a month in rent. Millburn, who goes by Lulu, says she was "shattered" when she got the eviction notice in April. 

"I was numb," Millburn said. "I thought if I ever started crying about it, I'd never stop." 

Millburn and her neighbours have a hearing scheduled for Aug. 23 with the province's Residential Tenancy Branch which handles disputes between landlords and tenants. 

Renoviction allegations

The property was recently purchased by Avala Equities — an Alberta-based, family-owned and operated real estate investment firm — for $4,525,000. 

The company did not respond to requests for comment from CBC News. 

According to documents submitted to the Residential Tenancy Branch, Millburn and three other residents got a two-month notice to end tenancy for the landlord's use of the property from four different landlords, all from the Jakovljevic family which owns Avala Equities. 

The property at 1540 Yew Street in Vancouver is more than 100 years old and under a heritage review. (Google Maps)

But Millburn and her neighbours say that's not legal because the property is technically owned by a corporation.

They also allege the owners are being dishonest about their intentions and are actually planning to renovate the property and charge much higher rents — a process known as a "renoviction."

Tenancy laws in British Columbia limit how much landlords can increase rent each year, meaning that long-term tenants like Millburn pay far less than the going rate for a property. In Vancouver's red-hot real estate market, some landlords use renovictions to oust long-term tenants and make more money. 

• B.C. to extend rent freeze to end of 2021, increase protections against 'renovictions'

Property under heritage review

The property is zoned for a height of up to four storeys. 

But Millburn says a development application for the property was cancelled after it caught the attention of Heritage Vancouver, which applied for a heritage review. On its website, Heritage Vancouver says the 110-year-old property is "a surviving example of early Vancouver laneway housing."

The renters also point to Avala Equities' website, which states "we specialize in the acquisition and repositioning of mismanaged and undervalued properties in strategic locations of Western Canada."

• Victoria's affordability gap keeps tenants on edge — and sometimes pushes them over it

A page for the 1540 Yew Street property says "our goal is to take this neglected building and develop the property into a modern and well-maintained building."

In documents submitted to the Residential Tenancy Branch, the renters dispute the company's claim that family will be moving in. 

"Given the Jakovljevics's apparent wealth, it makes no sense that they would require residence in an old, run-down building, or in laneway houses that are in particularly poor shape," the documents say. 

Community connection

Millburn says her suite has only been painted three times in the 40 years she has lived there.

The floors are warped, she adds, and almost all the windows are sealed shut. In winter she and her neighbour keep warm with heat from the stove, she says, and there's no sink in the bathroom. 

Despite the inadequacies, Millburn says the suite is her home and she would be devastated if she had to move. 

"A lot of people that have lived here, I've seen them date and get married and have babies," she said. "And the babies are all 25 years old now." 

Millburn has lived at the property for 40 years. (Tuulikkki Abrahamson)

Liz Blackburn, whose mother lives in the main building of the complex, says Millburn is the type of person everyone knows in the neighbourhood. 

Blackburn says when her mother was hospitalized with a stroke, Millburn cared for her cat and later checked on her every day when she returned home. Millburn also helps her mother with groceries and takes out her garbage.

"I don't know where I'd be without Lulu," Blackburn said. 

• B.C. Court of Appeal upholds New Westminster's anti-renoviction bylaw

'I don't know how I would survive'

It's not just the four tenants who are worried about the evictions, Blackburn says. Tenants like her mother are worried the landlords will evict them next. 

If the landlord does decide to proceed with a renoviction and are successful, Milllburn says she would at least like to be compensated for it. According to Vancouver's Tenant Relocation and Protection Policy, Millburn would be entitled to $17,256 because of how long she has lived there. 

• Tenants facing renoviction worry about becoming homeless

Despite the large sum, Millburn would prefer to stay in her home and her community. If she is evicted, she doesn't know where she'll end up given how expensive rental rates are in the city. 

"I don't know how I would survive, to tell you the truth," she said. 

Vaccine passports are less a threat to liberty than a mark of solidarity

Anti-vaxxers in France and elsewhere claim personal freedom. But what of brotherhood?

Illustration by Dominic McKenzie. Illustration: Dominic McKenzie/The Observer

David Robert Grimes

Sun 15 Aug 2021 

In France over the past few weeks, the topic of vaccine passports has induced an avalanche of outrage. Opposition to the measure has united both the hard left and right, with more than 200,000 people taking to the streets to express their contempt. In the kaleidoscope of disparate groups involved, the only unifying banner is the assertion that Emmanuel Macron’s policy is an infringement of the French tenet of liberté.

Nor is France unique in facing such resistance. In the United States, mask and vaccine mandates have generated passionate opprobrium and legal action.

Those resolutely opposed to anything styled as a vaccination passport tend to frame the issue as a solely personal choice. That can seem superficially reasonable but it highlights a crucial misunderstanding – a presumption that vaccination is solely an individual boon. On the contrary; immunisation is, at heart, a public health measure, implemented to reduce incidence and burden of disease at a population level. That it has huge individual benefit is undeniable but viewing vaccination through this reductive, individualistic lens fundamentally distorts the reality that it is about much more than protecting oneself.

Immunisation collectively reduces reservoirs for disease, providing a firewall that protects vulnerable members of society. While a Covid infection might not do a young, healthy person lasting harm, their passing on that infection could inflict substantial, even fatal, damage to vulnerable people.

This is a consideration frequently missed in the arguments about proof of vaccination in public spaces. Those decrying it as an infringement of their liberties fail to realise that others have a reasonable expectation that they should not be needlessly exposed to a potentially deadly virus if it can be avoided.

The libertarian argument fails on another level too – unvaccinated populations still pose a threat even to the vaccinated. Apart from the fact that vaccines do not have perfect efficacy, viruses mutate with reproduction. The unimmunised, in effect, constitute a mass of human petri dishes, where mutations endowed with capacity to evade the protection afforded by vaccination swiftly arise. The reduced effectiveness of vaccination against the Delta variant is a telling reminder of this reality.
Individual rights are not absolute and must be balanced with the freedoms of others

How we proceed then is a challenging question. We can simultaneously acknowledge that individual rights exist, but also acknowledge that rights are not absolute and must be balanced with the freedoms of others. Very few of us would object to the imposition of speed limits on a shared public road or to restrictions on smoking in public places, given the recognition that these activities can harm others.

The concept of communal vaccination rests on the same principle. It is worth noting that these debates are certainly not new. In England and Wales, the Vaccination Act of 1853 mandated universal vaccination against smallpox, with fines levied on those who opted not to comply. Such was the virulence of smallpox that vaccine mandates for schools were introduced in several US states as early as 1827.

It’s also worth noting that, while these measures were extraordinarily effective at reducing infection, they too were lambasted by opponents as medical despotism. Such charges have modern echoes in the slew of recent legal challenges against vaccine mandates. In one US case last week, Judge Frank H Easterbrook upheld Indiana University’s right to mandate vaccination for returning students. Ruling that a university has the right to decide the measures necessary to keep other students safe in congregate settings, Easterbrook noted: “Vaccination protects not only the vaccinated persons but also those who come in contact with them and at a university close contact is inevitable.”

Notably, this judgment relied on a 1905 supreme court decision, Jacobson v Massachusetts, which determined that states may require members of the public to be vaccinated against smallpox or risk being fined, a case motivated by the same “liberty” canard.

President Emmanuel Macron has told the French people that with freedom comes responsibility. Photograph: Hannah McKay/Reuters

Context is critical too. Even before the advent of Covid, anti-vaccine propaganda online had led to a deadly renaissance of diseases that were once virtually eradicated worldwide. Vaccine hesitancy is a spectrum and anti-vaccine activists had proved adept at weaponising social media to terrify parents. In 2019, endemic resurgence of measles forced the World Health Organization to declare vaccine hesitancy a top 10 threat to public health.

Anti-vaccine activists, galvanised by the pandemic, have made the invocation of liberty a central theme of their messaging. One especially ugly, historically illiterate stunt is their appropriation of the yellow star used to stigmatise Jews under Nazi Germany, claiming that they’re being similarly segregated from society for their beliefs. Quite aside from being staggeringly tone deaf, this is a deplorable false equivalence.

Vaccine certification seems a reasonable requirement for communal activities and one with historical pedigree, especially when the only barrier is misguided ideological opposition. But perhaps the most pertinent issue is whether vaccine passports can help banish the spectre of the pandemic.

Despite the sound and fury, the data from France is extremely promising. The government announcement that full vaccination would be required to enter public spaces caused a massive rise in vaccination uptake in the formerly vaccine sceptical nation. This is a vital observation, as it suggests much of the apathy was owing to complacency and laissez-faire contrarianism rather than some deep-seated opposition. While those protesting might be vocal, they are very much a minority. Macron’s move, for all the vitriol against it, was probably well judged.

Vaccines remain our best hope and there are still important conversations to be had on how we most effectively and fairly maximise uptake for everyone and what form mandates and incentives should take. However, one thing is sure – vaccination goes far beyond the individual and choices made have inescapable societal impact. Ultimately, those who would invoke the liberté of the French national motto as their mantra against vaccination betray themselves when they omit the equally vital fraternité.

Dr David Robert Grimes, a physicist and cancer researcher, is the author of The Irrational Ape: Why We Fall for Disinformation, Conspiracy Theory and Propaganda

China begins nuclear treatment for contaminated water

13 August 2021

Electron beam technology is being used to treat medical wastewater in China for the first time. It is safer and cleaner than traditional methods as well as more effective at removing organic molecules such as viruses and antibiotics, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

A worker operates the electron beam system (Image: CGN)

"This is the first pilot-scale - 400 cubic metres per day - demonstration of electron beam technology for medical wastewater treatment," said Shijun He, a professor at the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology at Tsinghua University. The organisation worked with experts from the China Atomic Energy Authority and China General Nuclear (CGN) to add the technology to the wastewater treatment system dealing with medical waste in Hubei province.

The technology accelerates electrons to interact with DNA and RNA molecules in the water to kill microorganisms and destroy viruses, including the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. It also breaks down antibiotics in the water, which is something traditional sterilisation methods cannot do.

The self-shielding electron beam medical wastewater treatment unit (Image: CGN)

Sterilisation requirements vary from hospital to hospital, but a common technique used is to add disinfectant chemicals like sodium hypochlorite, a hazardous chemical that requires careful handling and leaves unwanted chemical reagent residues, said Liu Zhenwei, director general of Xiyuan Hospital. The electron beam system avoids these secondary sources of hazard and pollution. It also operates at room temperature and avoids the energy consumption of steam and heat-based treatment options. The electron beam system is self-shielding, so introduces no new radiation hazard for workers.

The IAEA celebrated China's achievement in the context of research and technical cooperation it has supported since 2010, investigating how radiation techniques can reduce the amount of unwanted organic molecules in the world's water supplies. In 2012, through this technical cooperation project, Chinese scientists developed a programme to treat wastewater. By 2017, China's first electron beam facility was inaugurated to treat industrial wastewater and in 2020 the country opened the world's largest such facility, treating up to 30 million litres of water per day.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News