SCI-FI-TEK

B.C. fusion machine in development with goal of zero-emission energy

By Darrian Matassa-Fung 

Global News
Updated August 10, 2023 

B.C.-based company General Fusion has created a scaled-down version of the technology it plans to use to generate electricity from fusion power. It comes as more companies enter the global race to make nuclear fusion a viable source of carbon-free electricity. Aaron McArthur reports.

A company in Richmond, General Fusion, is creating a new “Magnetized Target Fusion” machine, which they say will be able to create fusion conditions of more than 100 million degrees Celsius.

“General Fusion does fusion a little bit differently than most people,” Dr. Michel Laberge said, General Fusion’s founder and chief science officer.

“Most people put this very hot gas in a donut with some big magnets. We do that but we crush it. Other people don’t crush it. When you crush something, it gets denser and it gets hotter so the fusion happens faster.”

It is expected that the machine will be ready to operate by 2025.

2:37 U.S. scientists announce nuclear fusion energy breakthrough

The goal of the company is to fundamentally transform the world’s energy grid with zero-carbon energy.

“The only way to do this, and fight climate change, is with a practical and affordable approach to fusion energy – Magnetized Target Fusion,” said Laberge. “Every decision we make at General Fusion comes back to this commitment.”

The first fundraising effort has been completed for a combined $33.5 million, which was anchored by existing investors such as BDC Capital and GIC. It also received grants from the province through the federal Strategic Innovation Fund.

“Our government is building on our thriving knowledge and innovation-based economy to create good, sustainable jobs for all British Columbians,” said Brenda Bailey, B.C. Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation. “B.C.’s $5-million contribution to General Fusion’s energy project will support a sustainable and resilient economy and advance fusion research in our province.”

2:18 Shooting for the moon: Experts encourage Canadian ‘moonshot projects’

According to the company, this machine represents a significant new pillar to accelerate and remove risk from General Fusion’s demonstration program, which is designed to leverage the company’s recent technological advancements and provide electricity to the power grid with commercial fusion energy by the early to mid-2030s.

The machine, which has been named Lawson Machine 26 (LM26), uses previous technology the company has developed, including one of the world’s largest and most power operational plasma injectors.

Over the next two to three years, General Fusion said will work closely with the UK Atomic Energy Authority to validate the data gathered from LM26 and incorporate it into the design of the company’s planned commercial scale demonstration in the UK.

General Fusion says fusion energy is the ultimate clean energy solution, the power of the sun and stars.

General Fusion machine to be built at Vancouver International Airport

Kenneth Chan
Aug 9 2023

The plasma injector has already achieved the temperature and energy confinement times required by LM26. (General Fusion)

If all goes as planned, a major hurdle in fusion-based, zero-emission clean energy innovation could be produced on Sea Island in Richmond in just three years from now.

BC-based General Fusion announced today it has plans to build a new magnetized target fusion (MTF) machine at the company’s global headquarters at 6020-6082 Russ Baker Way near the South Terminal of Vancouver International Airport (YVR).

This machine will be designed to achieve fusion conditions of over 100,000,000°C by 2025, with “scientific breakeven” conditions by 2026. This will “fast-track” the company’s technical progress.

More specifically, this further proof-of-concept will show General Fusion’s ability to “symmetrically compress magnetized plasmas in a repeatable manner and achieve fusion conditions at scale.”

General Fusion’s technology is designed to be lower cost by avoiding other approaches that require expensive superconducting magnets or high-powered lasers.

The company has also raised an additional $33.5 million in funding, with $5 million provided by the Government of British Columbia through a grant, and the remainder led by existing investors BDC Capital and GIC.

The YVR machine is intended to support further work and investment and reduce the risk of General Fusion’s commercial-scale demonstration test plan in Culham Campus of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) — located just outside of Oxford, west of London. The UK plant has effectively been delayed, with the goal now to provide electricity to the grid with commercial fusion energy by the early to mid-2030s.

“Our updated three-year Fusion Demonstration Program puts us on the best path forward to commercialize our technology by the 2030s,” said Greg Twinney, CEO of General Fusion, in a statement. “We’re harnessing our team’s existing strengths right here in Canada and delivering high-value, industry-leading technical milestones in the near term.”

In 2022, General Fusion relocated its global headquarters from Burnaby to a leased industrial property owned by the Vancouver Airport Authority.

 

You might also like:
Jeff Bezos-backed BC energy company to build fusion plant in UK
Vancouver-based General Fusion achieves milestone in plan to build major UK test plant
Global fusion energy firm moving headquarters to Vancouver Airport for major expansion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Fusion

General Fusion - Wikipedia 

General Fusion is a Canadian company based in Vancouver, British Columbia, which is developing a fusion power device based on magnetized target fusion (MTF) 

 

Fusion News, August 9, 2023

Dr. Leigh Ann Kesler, a consultant specializing in science communication, gives updates on the latest in fusion for this week’s episode of Fusion News. Links to the articles mentioned are included below. 1. This fusion reactor is held together with tape https://spectrum.ieee.org/fusion-2662... 2. British-Japanese partnership for fusion development https://world-nuclear-news.org/Articl... https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Ener... 3. Department of Energy Announces $4.6 Million for Research on Public-Private Partnership Awards to Advance Fusion Energy https://www.energy.gov/science/articl... 4. ITER appears unstoppable despite recent setbacks https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/202... 5. Growing European fusion industry https://sciencebusiness.net/news/nucl... https://sifted.eu/articles/mapping-eu... Bonus: CFS Tour    • An Update from Commonwealth Fusion Sy...   Breaking news: https://www.ft.com/content/a9815bca-1...

Most distant star ever recorded is a million times brighter than the sun

Aliza Chasan

CBS
Wed, August 9, 2023 

The farthest star ever detected, located behind what NASA describes as "a wrinkle in space-time," is more than twice as hot as the sun and about a million times more luminous.

The James Webb Space Telescope has revealed new details about the star, dubbed Earendel, which was detected by the Hubble Space Telescope last year. Earendel, part of the Sunrise Arc galaxy, is only detectable because the galaxy cluster is so massive that it warps the fabric of space, producing a magnifying effect that astronomers can look through, according to NASA. In the months since Earendel's discovery, Webb has spotted other very distant stars, though none as far away as Earendel.

"The discoveries have opened a new realm of the universe to stellar physics, and new subject matter to scientists studying the early universe, where once galaxies were the smallest detectable cosmic objects," NASA said. "The research team has cautious hope that this could be a step toward the eventual detection of one of the very first generation of stars, composed only of the raw ingredients of the universe created in the big bang – hydrogen and helium."

Earendel is located along a wrinkle in space-time that gives it extreme magnification.

    Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA

Because of Earendel's distance from Earth, it took 12.9 billion years for its light to reach us, scientists said. The universe was less than a billion years old when the light was emitted. The star is now 28 billion lightyears away.

Based on colors observed with Webb, astronomers believe that Earendel, which means "morning star" or "rising light" in Old English, may have a cooler, redder companion star, too.

The previous oldest and most distant single star was observed by Hubble in 2018. The light from that star, named Icarus, took 9 billion years to reach Earth, according to NASA.

Victoria Strait, co-author of the initial study on Earendel, previously said that the old star offers scientists an opportunity to learn more about the past.

"As we peer into the cosmos, we also look back in time, so these extreme high-resolution observations allow us to understand the building blocks of some of the very first galaxies," she previously said.

'Wrinkle in space-time' enables James Webb to capture stunning image of most distant star ever detected

Kiley Price
Thu, August 10, 2023 

Many stars in a galaxy with a zoomed in image on the Earendel star

In March 2022, the Hubble Space Telescope detected the most distant star ever seen in the cosmos.

Now, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured an even more detailed glimpse of this ancient celestial body, revealing it to be a massive B-type star that's more than twice as hot as the sun and roughly a million times brighter. The star is known as WHL0137-LS — nicknamed Earendel — and resides in the Sunrise Arc galaxy. Light we detect now from Earendel began its journey from the star 12.9 billion years ago, which means the star began emitting its rays less than a billion years after the Big Bang, according to Live Science's sister site Space.com. Because every point in the known universe has been expanding like a cosmic balloon since then, Earendel now lies 28 billion light-years from Earth.

The telescopes were able to detect this extremely distant star due to its position behind "a wrinkle in space-time" created by a massive cluster of galaxies that’s bending and magnifying Earendel’s light through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, according to a statement from NASA.

Related: 32 jaw-dropping James Webb Space Telescope images

Image from James Webb Space Telescope of massive galaxy cluster WHL0137-08.

"The galaxy cluster, located between us and Earendel, is so massive that it warps the fabric of space itself, which produces a magnifying effect, allowing astronomers to look through the cluster like a magnifying glass," the statement said.

Peering through this gravitational lens, scientists captured the crimson rays shining off Earendel, as well as a kaleidoscope of star clusters in the Sunrise Arc. The small dots on either side of Earendel are two images of another ancient star cluster estimated to be at least 10 million years old, which "shows us how the globular clusters in our own Milky Way might have looked when they formed 13 billion years ago," the statement said. The image also revealed what may be a cooler, redder cosmic companion star that orbits Earendel

The JWST's primary mirror has six times the light-gathering power of the Hubble telescope, which enables it to capture longer and dimmer light wavelengths. As a result of this technology, JWST has helped make countless discoveries about our universe during its first year of operations — from the spiral "Phantom Galaxy" 32 million light-years from Earth to clear traces of carbon-based molecules in the Orion Nebula. Scientists have also detected other distant stars in the universe, but Earendel remains the farthest star on record.

"The discoveries have opened a new realm of the universe to stellar physics, and new subject matter to scientists studying the early universe, where once galaxies were the smallest detectable cosmic objects," the statement said. "The research team has cautious hope that this could be a step toward the eventual detection of one of the very first generation of stars, composed only of the raw ingredients of the universe created in the big bang — hydrogen and helium."

HINDUTVA CROCODILE TEARS

Modi Briefly Addresses Manipur Violence in Over Two-Hour Speech

Bibhudatta Pradhan and Debjit Chakraborty
Thu, August 10, 2023 


(Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at his political opponents in a more than two-hour long speech - accusing the opposition of historical mis-governance, corruption and nepotism — and only briefly touched on the ongoing deadly violence in the state of Manipur that led to the no confidence vote against his government.

Before the vote, Modi said the main opposition Congress party’s politics is behind the ethnic clashes in the northeastern state, that has killed more than 150 people and displaced 50,000 others.

“Today, the Manipur situation is being presented in such a manner as if this is a recent problem,” said Modi on Thursday. “I want to say this with full seriousness today that if there is one cause of all these troubles in the northeast, it is the Congress. It’s their politics that’s responsible for it.”

As expected, his government easily defeated the no trust motion in a voice vote as opposition lawmakers walked out in protest during Modi’s reply.

The no confidence motion was an attempt by the opposition to ramp up pressure on Modi ahead of elections expected next summer. It was also to compel him to speak on the violence. His first comments came months after the conflict erupted when a video surfaced in the third week of July of two women being paraded naked and allegedly raped in Manipur on May 4.

This is the second no confidence vote that Modi has faced since coming to power nearly a decade ago. The first was in 2018 when the opposition filed a motion saying his government failed on economic, defense and foreign policies, a move he also defeated. The latest no trust vote was over the conflict between two ethnic groups — the Christian Kukis and the Hindu Meiteis - over access to affirmative action benefits in the state bordering Myanmar.

Modi’s opponents say the Hindu-dominant Bharatiya Janata Party has made the South Asian country less tolerant of religious and ethnic minorities with violence in Manipur and the recent Hindu-Muslim clashes near the capital New Delhi.

Rahul Gandhi, leader of the Congress party, who was reinstated as a lawmaker this week after a stay on his defamation conviction by India’s top court, on Wednesday said Modi’s administration was doing little to bring peace to the region.

Modi during his speech touted development projects his government has undertaken in the Himalayan reaches of India’s northeast. He also spoke about the various religious riots and incidents of alleged state-sponsored violence under his predecessors. He also spoke about the 1962 war against China, when India’s northeastern states were theaters of action.

“I want to assure the people of Manipur — the mothers, sisters and daughters — the country is with you. We will together find a solution to this challenge and peace will be restored,” said Modi. “We will take every step to bring Manipur back to the development track.”

Highlighting India’s achievement during his tenure, Modi said India will become the third-largest economy in the world, when he retains power for the third term after 2024 elections.

“Opposition’s no confidence has always been lucky for us,” said Modi. “Today, I can see you have decided that the BJP and the ruling coalition will come back in 2024 elections with a grand victory, breaking all previous records, with the blessings of the people,” he said referring to opposition.

--With assistance from Abhijit Roy Chowdhury and Rajesh Kumar Singh.

 Bloomberg Businessweek

A Class Action Suit Alleges Ford’s Hybrids Will Randomly Burst Into Flames

Lawrence Hodge
Thu, August 10, 2023 

Ford Maverick Hybrid


Ford seems to have mounting troubles. Between quality control issues, recalls and its inability to keep up with customer demand, the company seems like it’s stretched thin. Now you can throw a class action suit into the mix. The Detroit Free Press reports that a class action suit against the automaker has been filed over its hybrid vehicles. Owners allege that the hybrid engines can spontaneously burst into flames.

The suit was filed in Detroit on behalf of six plaintiffs by the law firm Hagens Berman. In it, the owners allege that Ford and Lincoln vehicles equipped with the 2.5-liter hybrid engine or plug-in hybrid drivetrain can explode and cause fires. From the suit:

Ford Motor Company (“Ford”) sold Ford Escapes, Ford Mavericks, and Lincoln Corsairs equipped with faulty engines that can suffer a “block breach,” which is Ford’s euphemistic language for the engine seizing and shattering the engine rods and connecting bearings, which can be propelled through the engine block itself or the oil pan.

The owners further allege that Ford knew about the problem and issued a recall to fix it that failed to actually fix anything. Outside of the six owners, the suit says that this issue could potentially affect over 125,000 vehicles, specifically certain 2020-2023 Ford Escape and Maverick hybrids and the Lincoln Corsair hybrid.

The suit also details the dangerous fires and confusion that the plaintiffs allegedly dealt with. One owner of a 2022 Maverick Hybrid, aware of the problem, got in contact with his dealer for a fix. From Freep:

The dealer repeatedly said no parts were available to do the fix. But several months later, Dyne read that no new parts were needed to do the fix. Ford corporate intervened to help with the dealership.

Another owner of an Escape Hybrid and his wife narrowly escaped being trapped in a vehicle fire when their Escape burst into flames on the side of an Arizona highway.

On April 5, 2022, (Capps) and his wife were driving to Mesquite, Nevada, from Kingman, Arizona. They were about 40 miles north of Kingman, around 12:30 p.m.” at an intersection when they noticed the vehicle wasn’t driving properly, the lawsuit says. White smoke began billowing from under the car and Capps immediately turned around to pull off the road.

The car gave the message “zero oil pressure” and “engine shut down.” The vehicle rolled into a pull-off and it was turned off, the lawsuit says. Another vehicle pulled in and a person yelled at Capps and his wife to get out of the vehicle because it was on fire.

A spokesperson from Ford gave a statement to Freep about how the company thought the fix they rolled out would work.

“As we indicated in our submission to the federal regulator, we expected the initial repair to be effective, but continued to monitor the performance of the vehicles,” the statement read.

There also seems to be a little owner blaming in the statement, with the spokesperson saying Ford learned of owners still driving their vehicles after engine block breaches. Whatever happens in this case though, Ford might want to do the right thing. Hagens Berman has a history of suing Ford and winning.

 Jalopnik

6 Western nations demand Russia return two regions it took from neighboring Georgia 15 years ago

Thu, August 10, 2023 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Six Western nations marked the 15th anniversary of Russia’s takeover of 20% of Georgia’s territory by demanding on Thursday that Moscow return the South Ossetia and Abkhazia regions.

A joint statement by the six members of the U.N. Security Council — the United States, United Kingdom, France, Albania, Japan and Malta — said Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008 “marked a more aggressive trend” in its policy toward its neighbors, something being witnessed today in Ukraine.

The statement, following closed council consultations on Georgia, said the six countries “are resolute” in reaffirming the country’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity “within its internationally recognized borders.”

In August 2008, Russia fought a brief war with Georgia, which had made a botched attempt to regain control over the breakaway province of South Ossetia. Moscow then recognized the independence of South Ossetia and another breakaway Georgian province, Abkhazia, and set up military bases there.


The statement, read by Albanian Ambassador Ferit Hoxha outside the Security Council surrounded by diplomats from the five other countries, condemned Russia’s “brutal invasion” and continued occupation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia and its “steps toward annexation of these Georgian regions.”

The Western nations also reiterated their condemnation of Moscow for “continuous provocations which go in parallel with the Russian Federation’s unprovoked and unjustified aggression against Ukraine.”

They pointed to Russia’s continued military drills in Georgia’s territory, sea and airspace as well as its erection of barbed wire fences and other barriers, its unlawful detentions and abductions of local people, discrimination against ethnic Georgians, and deliberate damage to Georgian cultural heritage.

The six countries said the Russia-Georgia conflict should be resolved peacefully based on international law, including the U.N. Charter, which requires every country's territorial integrity be recognized, “also noting the context of Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine.”

Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, called the Western statement “hypocrisy” in a tweet, saying Georgia lost territory because of a “reckless gamble.”

Russia resumed direct flights with Georgia in May, and Polyansky said Moscow’s ties with the country “are gradually improving, enabling tourist and economic exchanges.”

“But the Russophobic West is not happy and trying to drive the wedge between us at any price,” he said. “This statement is a clear illustration of this.”

Polyansky called the situation “especially sickening and hypocritical” knowing that Ukraine turned “anti-Russia” in 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea. He said Ukraine “is being sacrificed right now by the U.S. and its allies for Western geopolitical interests in a futile NATO proxy war against Russia until the last Ukrainian.”

A ‘once every 7.5 million years’ event is currently unfolding in Antarctica: ‘To say unprecedented isn’t strong enough’

Laurelle Stelle
Thu, August 10, 2023 



In the past eight years, sea ice in Antarctica has reached a new record low four times, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reports. The first three times, ice levels that have dropped in the summer have rebounded in the winter.

But this year — during what is currently winter in Antarctica — scientists have confirmed that the ice is not re-forming, leaving long stretches of the Antarctic coastline bare.
What’s happening?

According to physical oceanographer Edward Doddridge, this is the first time an event like this has been observed, the ABC reports — and it’s extremely unlikely to have happened on its own.

“To say unprecedented isn’t strong enough,” Doddridge told the ABC. “This is a five-sigma event. … Which means that if nothing had changed, we’d expect to see a winter like this about once every 7.5 million years. … There are people saying it could be natural variability … but it’s very unlikely.”

According to Doddridge and others, the most likely cause is human activity. People create air pollution through activities like burning fuel, and that pollution traps heat on our planet, heating up the atmosphere and the ocean. Some combination of warmer water and higher-energy weather patterns is likely what’s melting the ice, scientists told the ABC.
Why does the loss of Antarctic ice matter?

Polar ice is a major factor in the Earth’s “albedo,” which is the amount of light reflected from the surface instead of being absorbed. When there’s more ice, the planet’s albedo is higher, and the sun doesn’t warm it as quickly. When ice melts, the planet starts absorbing more heat.

This also creates “ice-albedo feedback,” the ABC says — a vicious cycle in which melting ice makes the ocean heat up faster, causing even more ice to melt. If too much of the polar ice is lost, it could reach a tipping point that will lead to the Earth heating up much more quickly.

Petra Heil, a sea ice physicist from the Australian Antarctic Division, told the ABC, “We might end up in a new state. That would be quite concerning to the sustainability of human conditions on Earth, I suspect.”

A much hotter environment has frightening implications for human health. It could also destroy the fish we rely on for food, the farmland where we grow crops, and the rainforests we need for oxygen.

What can be done about the vanishing ice?

The best hope for the planet is to stop the runaway air pollution causing our planet to heat up. However, it needs to happen quickly.

“I think a lot of people have the time line too long out, saying this won’t affect them,” Heil told the ABC. “I’m pretty convinced that this is something my generation will experience.”

US Supreme Court puts Purdue Pharma bankruptcy deal on hold over Sackler provision

Lawrence Hurley
Updated Thu, August 10, 2023 


WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court put the bankruptcy reorganization of opioid maker Purdue Pharma on hold Thursday, granting an emergency request from the Biden administration that raised objections about a provision that protects the Sackler family from liability for lawsuits.

The justices, in a brief order with no dissenting votes noted, blocked an appeals court decision that allowed the bankruptcy to move forward. As part of the deal, the Sackler family, which controlled the company, had agreed to pay $6 billion that could be used to settle opioid-related claims but only in return for a complete release from any liability in future cases.

The court also agreed to take up the government's appeal, meaning it will hear oral arguments in December and likely issue a ruling early next year.

The legal question raised is whether the bankruptcy court had the authority to release the Sackler family members from the claims being made by opioid victims.

Bottles of Purdue Pharma L.P. OxyContin medication sit on a pharmacy shelf in Provo, Utah 

 (George Frey / Bloomberg via Getty Images)

A Purdue spokesperson said in a statement that the company is "confident in the legality of our nearly universally supported plan of reorganization, and optimistic that the Supreme Court will agree."

Purdue made billions from OxyContin, a widely available painkiller that fueled the opioid epidemic. The company's tactics in aggressively marketing the drug came under increasing scrutiny as thousands of people died from opioid overdoses in recent years.

In asking the Supreme Court to intervene, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar noted that Sackler family members had withdrawn $11 billion from the company amid an effort to shield themselves from liability.

Purdue itself sought bankruptcy protection but the Sackler family members did not. Instead, they negotiated a separate deal with Purdue and some plaintiffs that would allow the company to reinvent itself in an effort to combat the opioid crisis.

Prelogar wrote that bankruptcy law prohibits such an arrangement, saying it "constitutes an abuse of the bankruptcy system" that is unfair to potential plaintiffs who did not agree to the release of the Sackler family claims.

In a May decision, the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals approved the plan over the objection of William Harrington, the U.S. government trustee monitoring the bankruptcy. The Justice Department's trustee program of which Harrington is part is aimed at ensuring that the bankruptcy system operates as required under law.

Purdue's statement criticized Harrington's role, saying that, despite having no concrete interest in the case, he has "been able to single-handedly delay billions of dollars in value that should be put to use for victim compensation, opioid crisis abatement for communities across the country, and overdose rescue medicines."

Eight states and the District of Columbia had initially opposed the plan, but they eventually signed on to a renegotiated agreement and did not join the Biden administration in asking for the deal to be blocked.

A group representing 60,000 people seeking compensation filed a brief at the Supreme Court backing the plan.

"Personal injury victims recognized that the third-party releases are necessary to a global settlement that delivers critical value to all opioid-affected communities in America through direct payments to those injured and billions of dollars of abatement funds to prevent further injuries," their lawyers wrote.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Hawaii wildfires: How climate change contributed to starting the Maui blaze

Ben Adler
·Senior Editor
Updated Thu, August 10, 2023

With at least 53 people dead and hundreds of buildings damaged or destroyed, the dramatic and deadly wildfires on the Hawaiian island of Maui are a grim reminder of how climate change is increasing wildfire risk.

According to the National Weather Service, the fires on Maui are fueled by dry vegetation, strong winds and low humidity.

Wildfires are not common in Hawaii — the Guardian called the current ones “unprecedented” — because places with a wet, tropical climate do not typically have the dried-out vegetation to provide the fuel. But rising global temperatures are changing that. According to the organization Global Forest Watch, fires do not naturally occur in tropical rainforests, but as climate change has dried out forests, tropical forest fires have become more common, increasing by about 5% per year since 2001.

Heat

A large part of the historic town of Lahaina has been destroyed by wildfires. (Dustin Johnson/Reuters)

Average global temperatures have risen 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the Industrial Revolution, and this summer has been particularly scorching. Last month was the world’s hottest on record.

Hot weather dries out vegetation, effectively making it more vulnerable to fire. Extreme heat waves have recently contributed to unusually severe and early wildfires in Canada, which sent smoke across the northern United States.

In recent summers, the Pacific Northwest and Europe have also seen extreme heat and record-breaking wildfires, and this year is no exception.

“The situation in Hawaii recalled scenes of devastation elsewhere in the world this summer, as wildfires caused by record-setting heat forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of people in Greece, Spain, Portugal and other parts of Europe, and western Canada suffered unusually severe fires,” Reuters reported.

“Climate change in many parts of the world is increasing vegetation dryness, in large part because temperatures are hotter,” Erica Fleishman, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University, told the Associated Press. “Even if you have the same amount of precipitation, if you have higher temperatures, things dry out faster.”

Drought

An aerial of Maui on Wednesday. (Vince Carter/via Reuters)

When hotter air increases water evaporation, it pushes the water cycle towards extremes of heavy rainfall and droughts, both of which have become more intense in recent years.

A 23-year megadrought has left the Southwest at the driest it is estimated to have ever been in 1,200 years. Last summer, Europe experienced its worst drought in 500 years.

Even normally rainy areas such as the Northeast saw extreme droughts last year, while the area also experienced record-breaking extreme rainfall events and above normal precipitation months later.

Hawaii was in the midst of its own drought — an extremely rare occurrence for the tropical state — which raised wildfire concerns last fall. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, moderate drought now covers more than one-third of Maui, with severe drought in some areas.

Hurricanes

The wildfire around Tatkin Lake in British Columbia, Canada. July 10. (BC Wildfire Service/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Studies have also shown that warmer ocean waters caused by climate change help strengthen hurricanes. In this case, Hurricane Dora, which passed south of Hawaii this week, increased the difference in air pressure to create “unusually strong trade winds,” according to the National Weather Service.

By Thursday evening, Dora had spent 122 hours as a Category 4 hurricane, the most of any Pacific hurricane on record.

“When those strong winds hit, if you already have the heat and the dryness and if you have a spark, a wildfire becomes more likely to grow rapidly,” Fleishman told CNN.
Other human factors

A wildfire in Kihei, Hawaii late Wednesday. (Ty O'Neil/AP)

When Europeans established farms in Hawaii, they brought fire-prone invasive grasses that now cover 26% of the state. The grasses grow quickly during the rainy season and then rapidly dry out if there is a drought.

“When we get these events like we’re seeing these past few days — when the relative humidity really drops low — all those fine fuels become very explosive,” University of Hawaii at Mānoa fire ecologist Clay Trauernicht told Wired.

Population growth and development are also increasing the number of places where forests and buildings sit side-by-side, increasing the deadliness of wildfires.

A window into the future

Haze from wildfires in Canada diminishes the visibility of the Empire State Building in New York City, June 7. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

A 2022 report from the United Nations Environment Programme projected extreme fires to increase up to 14% by 2030, 30% by 2050 and 50% by 2100 if humankind continues on its current path of burning fossil fuels.

Unless nations swiftly and dramatically reduce the greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming, the recent increase in wildfires is just a small taste of worse things to come, experts say.

“This is our new reality,” Mike Flannigan, research chair for predictive services, emergency management and fire science at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, told Al Jazeera in June, about the Canadian wildfires. “We’re on a downward trajectory. Things are going to get worse and worse and worse.”

WORKERS CAPITAL
Exclusive-Canadian pension funds explore $6 billion sale of renewables firm Cubico -sources
KEEPING THEIR HYDROCARBON INVESTMENTS

Thu, August 10, 2023
By Isla Binnie and Andres Gonzalez

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two of Canada's biggest pension funds are exploring options including a sale of Cubico Sustainable Investments that could value the renewable energy firm at about $6 billion or more, including debt, according to people familiar with the matter.

Montreal-based Public Sector Pension (PSP) Investment Board and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (OTPP) are looking to appoint a financial advisor in the coming weeks, the sources said, adding the sale could take several months to complete.

The sources, who requested anonymity as the matter is confidential, cautioned a deal is not guaranteed and is subject to market conditions.

Cubico's owners are aiming for a valuation of about 10 times its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) of $641 million in 2022, the sources said.

Ontario Teachers' and PSP declined to comment. Cubico did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The potential sale of Cubico comes at a time when renewable power developers and other service providers focused on energy transition have become attractive acquisition targets for infrastructure investors and corporate utilities.

Ontario Teachers' currently manages net assets worth C$247.2 billion ($184.31 billion), while PSP oversees roughly C$243.7 billion of assets.

PSP has a portfolio of hydroelectric, wind and solar assets worth $1 billion in Canada, and has invested in offshore wind development in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Ontario Teachers' has invested alongside major U.S. utility NextEra Energy in the United States, and struck a deal to finance offshore wind development with Australia's Macquarie Group.

In 2015 the two funds partnered with Banco Santander SA to launch Cubico, and became equal owners after buying out the Spanish bank's stake the following year.

Cubico operates wind and solar farms in 12 countries in Europe and America, as well as concentrated solar power and transmission line technology operations with a capacity of 2.8 gigawatts (GW).

The company is also developing and constructing over 2.2 GW of additional capacity, according to its website.

($1 = 1.3412 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Isla Binnie in New York and Andres Gonzalez in London; Editing by Anirban Sen and Chris Reese)

DESANTISLAND
Florida leprosy cases may be here to stay. Do I need to worry?

Rebecca Corey
·Writer and Reporter
Updated Wed, August 9, 2023 

Leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, is rare in the U.S., but cases are on the rise in Florida. (frank600/Getty Images)

Leprosy may sound like an affliction from a bygone era, but the disease — which historically also carries a strong social stigma — may be more present in the U.S. than you might expect, a new report indicates.

What's happening

A recently posted research letter in a journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there’s evidence that leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, has become “endemic,” or regularly occurring, in the Southeastern U.S., particularly in central Florida, where reported cases have more than doubled over the past decade.

The authors of the letter note that about 34% of new cases in the U.S. from 2015 to 2020 appeared to be locally acquired, and that several patients weren’t exposed to “traditional risk factors,” such as close, prolonged contact with someone infected with leprosy, interaction with armadillos (which can be carriers of the disease) or having traveled to an area where the disease is common.

Leprosy is an infection caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae. It manifests as lesions and darker or lighter patches on the skin that may be reddish in color if inflamed, and lumps, particularly on the earlobes and face. If it's left untreated, nerve damage can occur that can cause tingling and eventual paralysis of hands and feet, loss of sight and eyebrows, and deformity of the nose, as nasal cartilage collapses.
Do I need to worry?

“The CDC has been clear that because the risk of leprosy in the United States remains very low, and because most people do not develop the disease following exposure, this should not be a cause of widespread alarm,” Dr. Jose Lucar, an infectious disease physician at the George Washington University School of Medicine, tells Yahoo Life. “[The CDC] also noted that a travel alert is not necessary to the parts of the country where local cases of leprosy are being reported, including central Florida.”

Here’s why experts say you shouldn’t stress.

Leprosy doesn’t spread easily. Transmission still isn’t completely understood, although it’s believed to spread primarily through respiratory droplets. But while illnesses such as influenza or COVID-19 are easily acquired through droplets, the bacterium responsible for leprosy is so slow-growing that only extensive exposure will result in an infection. “Because it's so slow to reproduce, very prolonged close contact with untreated leprosy over several months is really needed to acquire the infection,” Lucar explains. “And we know that people don't get leprosy through casual contact, like hugging, shaking hands or sitting next to someone with the disease.”

Most people have natural immunity to leprosy. The mycobacteria responsible for it are closely related to other bacteria, Dr. Nutan Gowda, a dermatologist at UMass Memorial Medical Center, told Yahoo News. “There are different mycobacteria in the soil, in the water, in the air that we’re exposed to on a daily basis, without even being aware of it. And that's how we develop immunity.”

Some people are more susceptible to infection than others. Lucar says genes may also play a role. “We know through a number of studies that there are genetic factors related to the immune system, to its response to infections, that can make some people more susceptible to the infection than others," he notes. "So people who develop leprosy may have genes that make them more susceptible to infection.” But that accounts for a relatively small percentage of the population, with the CDC saying that over 95% of people worldwide have natural immunity. Each year, about 150 people in the U.S. are diagnosed with leprosy, and even health care workers rarely contract the disease.

Treatments are extremely effective. Leprosy is curable, especially with early diagnosis and treatment, which involves a combination of antibiotics. But while the completion of antibiotic therapy takes anywhere from six months to two years, a person is no longer contagious within days of starting treatment.

Computer illustration of Mycobacterium leprae, the rod-shaped bacterium that causes leprosy. (Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library/Getty Images)

What can I do about it?

While leprosy doesn’t present a major health threat, simple measures such as treating people who have the disease so they aren’t contagious and avoiding contact with armadillos (or wearing gloves and washing your hands if you do have contact with them) are important steps, Lucar says.

But more broadly, Nutan, who worked and trained at a leprosy clinic in north India, where the disease is endemic, points out that this news from Florida may also be a cautionary tale of the collective effort needed to fight global warming as more diseases emerge in unfamiliar places.

“We have infections that are appearing in areas that we never used to see before — not because of travel, but because the bacteria and viruses have new areas where they can thrive because of global warming,” Nutan says.

“Usually you don’t see leprosy in temperate climates," she adds. "We see it around the equator belt and where it is much warmer. But nowadays, we see bacterial illnesses that we used to see more in hotter parts of the country up in the Northeast, just because it's so much warmer now. So is that playing a factor? I don't think we have thought about that.”
The main takeaway

The researchers’ findings mean that clinicians or public health authorities in the U.S. may now consider Florida when conducting contact tracing for leprosy cases in the U.S. But it also illuminates gaps in leprosy research in the U.S. — especially regarding how the disease is spread.

“This essentially raises the need for further research into what other environmental sources may be playing a role in the transmission of infection,” Lucar says. “But this should not be a cause for public concern in general.”