2035 or 2050? A realistic clean electricity goal for Alta. could fall between the two

Story by The Canadian Press 



CALGARY — As politicians spar over whether 2035 or 2050 should be the deadline to attain a net-zero electricity grid in Alberta, the correct answer may lie somewhere in the middle.

The pace of the energy transition is the crux of the latest political spat between Alberta and the federal government, with Premier Danielle Smith vowing last week that her province will not comply with Ottawa's draft clean electricity regulations aimed at getting Canada's electricity grid to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.

Alberta has instead stated it will aim to meet a 2050 time frame, which it says is realistic given the province has limited access to hydroelectric power and currently depends heavily on natural gas for electricity generation.

But some of the province's largest power generators have set their own internal targets for clean electricity production that — while less aggressive than Ottawa's 2035 target — are more optimistic than what the provincial government has said is achievable.

For example, Edmonton-based Capital Power Corp. believes it is on track to hit net-zero electricity generation by 2045, five years earlier than the province's stated goal.

"We do not believe 2035 is possible. From an Alberta perspective, it is not doable," said Capital Power CEO Avik Dey in an interview. "However, we do believe 2045 is achievable."

Calgary-based TransAlta Corp. — which in 2021 completed converting its Canadian coal-fired generating facilities to cleaner-burning natural gas, nine years ahead of Alberta’s coal phaseout plan — also recently accelerated its own net-zero plan, indicating this year that it is now on track to meet its goals by 2045, five years earlier than its previously announced target.

That doesn't mean the challenges facing the province aren't immense. Smith has stated transitioning Alberta's electricity grid to clean power could cost upwards of $400 billion, and many experts say that's a fair estimate given the work that will be required.

"We're being asked to rebuild our complete electric system that took 130 years to build, in 10 to 15 years," said Duane Reid-Carlson, president of Calgary-based energy consulting company EDC Associates Ltd.

"Theoretically, it's possible — we can take a stab at all of this. But jamming it into a short period of time is really going to cause the bubble to burst in some places. It's going to be painful for the economy and for the consumer at large."

Most analysts believe getting Alberta's electricity grid to net-zero will require a mix of sources: wind and solar with battery storage, hydrogen, nuclear power in the form of small modular reactors, and carbon capture and storage to offset the emissions from the natural gas-fired generation that will still be required in periods of peak demand and as a backup.

"All of these things are technically available, but many of them are unproven technologies at the scale and size and application that we're talking about," Reid-Carlson said, adding he believes moving too fast could put pressure on grid reliability and cause electricity prices to spike for consumers.

Related video: Federal government unveils electric grid decarbonize plan (cbc.ca)

Duration 2:02   View on Watch

"A 2050 timeline would be more palatable, because we'd have a little more runway to make sure all these technologies work."

Blake Shaffer, an associate professor of economics and co-director of the Net Zero Electricity Research Initiative at the University of Calgary, said it's not a foregone conclusion that electricity costs for consumers will rise due to the energy transition. Some economic models show consumer prices actually falling as cheaper resources — especially renewables, which have tumbled in cost over the last decade — come onto the grid, he said.

While Shaffer agrees that hitting a 2035 target is a stretch, he said a few adjustments to the federal clean electricity regulations would make it easier for Alberta to come into compliance sooner rather than later.

For example, the government could extend the end-of-life provisions in the draft rules to give newly commissioned natural gas-fired plants a bit of extra time to install carbon capture or other abatement technologies, Shaffer said.

The feds could also expand the number of hours per year that the draft rules will allow gas plants to run unabated as "peakers" — a term that refers to a plant's ability to be switched on during times of peak demand or when wind and solar production is low.

Shaffer said this kind of flexibility wouldn't actually lead to a dramatic increase in greenhouse gas emissions because carbon pricing will discourage generators from using fossil fuels unless absolutely necessary.

It would, however, help ensure grid reliability and make it far easier for companies to accomplish the transition, he said.

"They're actually not huge asks," Shaffer said. "Tweaking these parameters would make it all more feasible."

In addition to tweaking the regulations, Capital Power's Dey said the federal government also needs to come through with its promised carbon contracts for difference mechanism.

The framework, which Ottawa is currently working to develop, is intended to reduce the private sector's risk of investing in pricey emissions-reduction projects by essentially guaranteeing the future price of carbon.

Capital Power itself is waiting for such a framework to be finalized before making a final investment decision on its proposed installation of carbon capture and storage technology at its Genesee power plant near Edmonton.

While the industry definitely needs federal support to get over the net-zero finish line, Dey said, he added he's been pleased so far with the number of government commitments that have already been made.

"The energy transition isn't a destination, it's a journey. You can't just flip the switch and say we're going to get there," he said.

"That being said, I do think there's a path — if you accommodate it and you extend to 2045 — where industry gets there and it doesn't unnecessarily burden the consumer."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 23, 2023.

Companies in this story: (TSX:CPX; TSX:TA)

Amanda Stephenson, The Canadian Press

More Canadian agricultural producers denounce 'mass' foreign worker application rejections

Story by Bryan Passifiume • POST MEDIA

© Provided by National Post

Struggling to find workers, agricultural operators are sounding the alarm over problems with Canada’s immigration bureaucracy.

This week, the Canadian Mushroom Growers’ Association echoed concerns expressed last week by KT Ranches in National Post , claiming chronic and often inexplicable rejections of temporary foreign worker applications by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) are creating grief for farmers.

“We’re starting to see these mass refusals,” said Mushrooms Canada’s Janet Krayden in an interview with National Post. She said their members started getting hit with a flurry of unexplained rejections late last fall.

“This is not just cattle — this is all of ag right now.”

Last week, KT Ranches co-owner Tracey Carson spoke of their battles with IRCC’s seemingly arbitrary and often confusing rationale in approving workers.

In one case, IRCC rejected a work permit for a Kenyan-trained veterinarian hired as a herdsman at the Okanagan-based cattle ranch. He was rejected both because IRCC officers were concerned he didn’t have the ability to perform the job, and they weren’t convinced he’d leave the country after his permit expired because of “family ties” within Canada — despite him not having any family in the country.

Krayden said Canada’s mushroom farmers are experiencing the same thing, specifically concerning Vietnamese applicants inexplicably rejected for family ties within Canada, despite none of them actually having relatives in this country.

“I have two farms that are struggling right now with those kind of mass refusals from Vietnam,” she said.

“But I’ve been told by immigration consultants that this is happening (with applicants) beyond Vietnam.”

What’s even more astounding, she said, is that nearly all of the rejections found themselves inexplicably reversed upon appeal.

“We’ve never seen this before, that they would be refused because they have family in Canada,” Krayden said.

“There might be some archaic regulation that’s on the books, but it doesn’t make sense — it’s a new systemic issue that’s causing mass refusals for agriculture right now.”

Questions to IRCC by National Post weren’t returned by deadline.

'Agricultural disasters' spread in Alberta, but local leaders say Ottawa's ignoring requests for help

Farmers struggling to find foreign workers blame Canada's baffling immigration bureaucracy

Related video: Canadian government launches recognized employer pilot for temporary foreign workers (Global News)   Duration 1:38   View on Watch

Despite current immigration policy listing agriculture as an “essential” occupation, Krayden said current trends suggest the exact opposite.

Data released by Mushrooms Canada earlier this year list a 12.3 per cent job vacancy rate within the industry, while some farms report vacancies far exceeding that number.

Across the entire sector, the national job vacancy rate for Canadian agricultural producers reached 5.4 per cent, according to data published online by the Canadian Agricultural Human Resource Council.

Three provinces — Prince Edward Island, Ontario and British Columbia — reported vacancy rates higher than the national average, reporting 5.71, 6.09 and 7.95 per cent respectively.

That same data suggests 47 per cent of Canada’s 192,408 farms are unable to find enough workers, and 34 per cent of farms report zero Canadians applying for posted jobs.

Thirty-five per cent of Canadian farms employ temporary foreign workers, and a little under half anticipate the need to hire more workers over the next five years.

Unlike many other agricultural operations, mushroom farming is a year-round enterprise, and therefore doesn’t rely on seasonal workers.

Of the 6,500 workers growing mushrooms in Canada, around 2,500 are temporary foreign workers, typically granted two-year work permits.

Labour shortages on Canadian mushroom farms are leading to a loss of crops and productivity, Krayden said.

Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, she said, is out-of-date — particularly since the i ntroduction of Canada’s Agri-Food immigration pilot that provides a pathway to permanent residence for qualified, non-seasonal agriculture workers.

Krayden said the organization met with IRCC officials over the summer to air their concerns.

“We’re still asking them to resolve it, but they keep saying, ‘We can’t see any reason that’s provoking this.’ But they’re not helping,” she said.

Errors by IRCC officers are also sparking concern.

Last week, Carson, of KT Ranches, told National Post of mistakes made by IRCC officers preventing the family of one of her herd managers from applying for a visa.

Krayden said such errors are becoming more frequent — particularly when processing extensions for workers already in Canada.

“They make the same mistakes again and again and again,” she said, reporting applications being held up because of errors like incorrect dates or work permits being issued with wrong job classifications.

“They’re causing all of these work processing issues for themselves, and it’s bogging the entire system down,” she said.

“The seasonal ag worker program brings in like 60,000 workers on an annual basis in Canada, but our farms aren’t like that — we don’t have this seasonal push.”

• Email: bpassifiume@postmedia.com | Twitter: bryanpassifiume

US sues SpaceX, alleges hiring 

discrimination against asylum seekers, 

refugees

Updated Thu, August 24, 2023 

FILE PHOTO: Illustration shows SpaceX logo and Elon Musk silhouette


By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Justice Department sued Elon Musk-owned rocket and satellite company SpaceX on Thursday for allegedly discriminating against asylum seekers and refugees in hiring.

"The lawsuit alleges that, from at least September 2018 to May 2022, SpaceX routinely discouraged asylees and refugees from applying and refused to hire or consider them, because of their citizenship status, in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act," the Justice Department said in a statement.

In job postings and public statements over several years, SpaceX wrongly claimed that under federal regulations known as export control laws, SpaceX could hire only U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, sometimes referred to as "green card holders," the Justice Department said.

The Justice Department also pointed to online posts from the company's billionaire owner Musk as example of "discriminatory public statements."

The lawsuit cited a June 2020 post on X, formerly called Twitter, by CEO Musk to his then 36 million followers that said: "U.S. law requires at least a green card to be hired at SpaceX, as rockets are advanced weapons technology."

SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

"Our investigation found that SpaceX failed to fairly consider or hire asylees and refugees because of their citizenship status and imposed what amounted to a ban on their hire regardless of their qualification, in violation of federal law," said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s civil rights division.

Clarke also said SpaceX recruiters and high-level officials "actively discouraged" asylum seekers and refugees from seeking work opportunities at the company.

The United States seeks fair consideration and back pay for asylum seekers and refugees who were deterred or denied employment at SpaceX due to the alleged discrimination, the Justice Department said.

The lawsuit also seeks civil penalties in an amount to be determined by court and policy changes to ensure SpaceX complies with the federal non-discrimination mandate going forward.

(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in WashingtonAdditional reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Paul Grant, Susan Heavey and Frances Kerry)

Opinion

A letter has laid bare the scale of poverty in Britain – but will Rishi Sunak be moved?

Polly Toynbee

THE GUARDIAN
Thu, 24 August 2023 



There never was an official description of dereliction and destitution. The social security “safety net” is whatever sum the government of the day pays, with no definition of what it’s supposed to cover. Even though Labour’s tax credits greatly raised the level, no minister ever got trapped into defining the details of what a baseline might look like.

After massive benefit cuts and freezes, despite rising rents and living costs, how could this government explain how someone is supposed to live on the current £85 a week for an adult, or £67 for under-25s? Lee Anderson’s claim that 30p is ample for a day’s food only megaphoned how out of touch a Tory deputy chair can be, as he rubbished “do-gooders” running food banks he said no one needs. Most ministers these days make sure they know the price of a pint of milk and loaf of bread, but as for that miserable £85 a week, how to spend it is a matter for individual choice, they say.

Today, the full array of medical royal colleges, as well as healthcare and children’s organisations, join the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Trussell Trust in writing to the prime minister calling for an “essentials guarantee” so universal credit covers basic survival.

Their letter says: “Every day, we see people unable to afford enough food because their incomes are simply too low. We hear heartbreaking stories from people who are forced to miss hospital appointments because they can’t afford the bus fare, from people who are missing or reducing their medication because they can’t afford the prescription, or from people with diabetes who risk serious complications from going without food.”

They tell him nine out of 10 people on universal credit go without at least one essential. The NHS can’t cure the ailments of poverty, as all the research by Prof Michael Marmot has shown over many years. The NHS Confederation says “80% of what effects health is what happens outside the NHS”. Andy Bell, head of the Centre for Mental Health, says: “Poverty is toxic to our mental health.” Forget the guff about executive stress: it is hardship and debt that causes mental health deterioration.

Here are the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s “essentials”, calculating £120 a week as the barest minimum for one adult: £37 for food, £35 for energy, £6 for clothes and shoes, £8 communications (phone/internet), £16 travel, £13 everything else – toiletries, bank charges, cleaning materials. That’s still hardship: a life of no pleasure, no respite from counting each penny, but not utter destitution, which the foundation defines as the lot of those on incomes below £95 a week.

What would an essentials guarantee of £120 cost? The foundation says the price is £22bn a year more on universal credit. That’s quite a hefty sum, but even in these straitened times there are always choices. A new Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS)report lays out damaging effects of the tax system. The report shows how income from capital being taxed less than income from hard work “distorts the labour market”. Equalising these would bring in £8bn in revenue.

Wealth taxes could yield much: a report for the IFS Deaton review of inequality finds: “At a threshold of £2m, it would cover just the top 1% of adults, but at the same rate (1% for a limit of five years) would still raise more than £80bn after non-compliance and administration costs”.

The report also shows VAT zero rates and exemptions cost £100bn in forgone revenue. “They place a large compliance burden on firms and are a very poorly targeted way to redistribute income to lower-income households.” Gingerbread men pay VAT if they have chocolate buttons, but not with dots of sugar.

Related: Benefit backlog costing disabled people £24m a month, says Citizens Advice

Other tax perversities abound: why is flying taxed less than driving? Or look at the latest public accounts committee report on the disaster caused by cutbacks in HMRC staff: “eye-watering” losses mean £42bn is now uncollected due to “failure to better resource compliance”. (If you do want to pay, the HMRC helpline has shut down for the summer.)

These are just a few examples: there is money, there are choices. How will the prime minister, back from his California holiday, respond (if at all) to the letter? He will be far more concerned by this week’s backbench rumblings demanding tax cuts than with considering an essentials guarantee.

Labour will not be promising more benefits, after Keir Starmer’s refusal to abolish the two-child limit. Nor is Rachel Reeves offering tax rises. (That doesn’t tell us what they will do in office: past Labour governments are a better guide.) Caution to the point of strangulation is their pre-election policy, wary of public opinion: that £2m mansion tax – utterly reasonable – was a lead-balloon Labour policy in 2015.

In Ipsos’s long-running issues index, “poverty/inequality” ranks only eighth in people’s concerns. The English (more than British) problem has always been meanness of spirit over benefits. But in upcoming research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, focus groups with swing voters in “red wall” seats overflowed with passion and anger over hardship, and not just for themselves but those all around them. That suggests “cost of living” at the top of the issues index reflects concern for others: that the “poverty/inequality” category may not reflect how people actually think.

The question is whether we are now at one of those pivotal moments of change in the political psyche where the scale of debt, struggle, hunger and children going without is finally cutting through the carapace of traditional English thinking that has delivered Tory governments most of my lifetime.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

Asylum seekers in Greece ‘facing two great injustices of our time’


Ashifa Kassam
Thu, 24 August 2023 

Photograph: Achilleas Chiras/AP

Refugees and migrants in Greece are facing off against the “two great injustices of our times”, Amnesty International has said, as it linked wildfires and scant access to legal migration routes to the deaths of 19 people believed to be asylum seekers.

As wildfires continue to rage across swathes of Greece, authorities in the country said they were working to identify the charred remains of 18 people found this week in the dense forests that straddle the country’s north-eastern border with Turkey.

Given there were no reports of missing people in the area, officials said it was possible the victims, who include two children, were asylum seekers who had entered the country irregularly. One day earlier, the body of another person believed to be an asylum seeker was found in the same area.

In recent days the fires have ripped through an area that had increasingly become a crossing point for thousands of refugees and migrants, Amnesty International said in a statement. Their arrival on EU soil had been “systematically” met with “forced returns at the border, denial of the right to seek asylum and violence”, it added.

“The 19 people killed by wildfires in northern Greece appear to be victims of two great injustices of our times,” said Adriana Tidona, a migration researcher with the organisation.

“On the one hand, catastrophic climate change … On the other hand, the lack of access to safe and legal routes for some people on the move, and the persistence of migration management policies predicated on racialised exclusion and deadly deterrence, including racist border violence.”

The presence of hundreds of asylum seekers in the fire-ravaged area was flagged this week by Alarm Phone. “We are in contact with 2 groups of around 250 people in total who are stranded on different islets of the Evros River,” the NGO wrote on social media. “They say ‘the fires are getting very close to us now. We need help as soon as possible!’”

Pleas for help had gone unanswered by authorities for days, it added. “They fear for their lives as the wildfires approach and the air is unbreathable.”

As the wall of flames advanced through the forests, people had been left grappling with an impossible dilemma, said Vassilis Kerasiotis, the director of the NGO HIAS Greece. “The problem is that the asylum seekers have legitimate fears of being pushed back to Turkey. That’s why they’re hiding instead of going to the nearest Greek authority.

“The fact that in the face of a fire, people are hiding in the forest instead of trying to get to safety tells you of the fear they have of being deported.”

As Greek authorities increasingly seek to deter migration by creating what Kerasiotis described as a “hostile” environment, asylum seekers are likely to have been pushed deeper into the forests, potentially amplifying the risks they face from the fires. “This is a clear example of the policy of fear, unfortunately,” he said.

Added to these dangers is a wave of racist incidents in which asylum seekers have reportedly been targeted, fuelled in part by social media posts such as that of a far-right MP who made baseless claims on Facebook that accused refugees and migrants of starting the fires.

Soon after, three men were arrested for allegedly detaining 13 asylum seekers in a cargo trailer. Media linked the arrests to a video circulating on social media that showed a man unbolting the door of a cargo trailer to reveal what appeared to be several young people crouched inside. As the video rolled, the man linked them to the fires and encouraged others to “round them up”.

On Tuesday, Greece’s supreme court prosecutor, Georgia Adilini, said he had asked the prosecutor in north-eastern Alexandroupolis area to investigate the incidents of alleged racist violence.

John Kerry suggests he disagrees with the UK Government on North Sea oil and gas


Alistair Grant

THE SCOTSMAN
Thu, 24 August 2023 

John Kerry. Picture: AP Photo/Alastair Grant

The US climate envoy has suggested he disagrees with the UK Government’s policy on North Sea oil and gas as he cast doubt on whether new drilling will even go ahead.

John Kerry, President Joe Biden’s net zero chief, said the transition away from fossil fuels had to be sped up.

He made the comments after delivering the first in a series of annual lectures taking place during the Edinburgh International Festival, called the “Scottish global dialogues”.


Prime Minister Rishi Sunak previously said he wants to "max out the opportunities" in the North Sea as he confirmed hundreds of new licences for oil and gas extraction will be granted in the UK.

Senator Kerry was asked if he thinks the UK Government is sticking to its climate pledges. He said: “They’re saying at the same time that they’re going to keep on target and they’re going to meet their targets. The UK is deploying a massive amount of wind power, and the more that goes out there the more it’s going to be competitive with fossil fuels.

“Let’s see whether they actually drill. Let’s see what happens. Because I think that dynamic is shifting all over the world. There’s a change in the demand curve and there’s a change in the supply, and we’ll see how this works through.”

Mr Kerry was also asked how the UK policy to "max out" opportunities in the North Sea could possibly align with his own message on the climate crisis.

He initially answered: "It's not my job to be commenting on other countries policies specifically."

However, pushed that his comments did not align with the UK Government's position, he said: "Well then, you've got your answer."

He added: "What I've said, folks, is we have to reduce unabated burning of fossil fuel. We are also - the United States is drilling, because there is a demand level in the marketplace today."

He continued: "This doesn't have to happen by tomorrow. We have to speed up. We have to meet the goal of the Paris Agreement. We have to do what the scientists tell us keeps 1.5C alive. That's our standard in the United States, and that's the standard, I think, of most of Europe, and I think this had been the standard of the UK.

"I don't know how that plays out in terms of what they've said about every last drop, but that's not our policy."

During a visit to Shell’s St Fergus gas plant near Peterhead in July, Mr Sunak said: "My view is we should max out the opportunities that we have here in the North Sea, because that's good for our energy security, it's good for jobs – particularly here in Scotland – but it's also good for the climate because the alternative is shipping energy here from halfway around the world with three or four times the carbon emissions. So any which way you look at it, the right thing to do is to invest and to back our North Sea, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Japan begins releasing treated radioactive water from Fukushima nuclear power plant into Pacific Ocean

Lydia Chantler-Hicks
Thu, 24 August 2023 

Japan begins releasing treated radioactive water from Fukushima nuclear power plant into Pacific Ocean


Japan has begun releasing treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The controversial, decades-long project began on Thursday, amid fresh and fierce criticism from China which slammed it as “selfish and irresponsible”.

Approved two years ago by the Japanese government and greenlighted by the UN nuclear watchdog last month, the discharge is a key step in a dauntingly long and difficult process of decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi plant, including the removal of molten fuel.


The power plant was destroyed in March 2011 when a massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake generated powerful tsunami waves that caused the meltdowns of three of its reactors.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) said the release began at 1.03 pm local time (5.03am UK) and it had not identified any abnormalities with the seawater pump or surrounding facilities.

But China reiterated on Thursday its firm opposition to the plan and said the Japanese government had not proved the legitimacy of the water discharge.

South Korean protesters rally against the Japanese government's decision to release treated radioactive water into the Pacific Ocean (Getty Images)

“The Japanese side should not cause secondary harm to the local people and even the people of the world out of its own selfish interests,” China’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

China has said it would also take measures to protect the marine environment and public health, and would step up monitoring of radiation levels in its waters following the discharge.

Tokyo has in turn criticised China for spreading “scientifically unfounded claims.”

It maintains the water release is safe, noting that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has also concluded that the impact it would have on people and the environment was “negligible”.

The release of the wastewater has unsettled other countries in the region, with Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown saying that while science supported Japan’s decision, the region may not agree on the “complex” issue.

Japanese fishing groups, hit with years of reputational damage from radiation fears, have long opposed the plan. They fear it will lead to a loss of sales, including from export restrictions to major markets.

Hong Kong and Macau - both Chinese-ruled regions - are set to implement a ban on Japanese seafood from regions including the capital Tokyo and Fukushima starting on Thursday.

South Korean Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said import bans on Fukushima fisheries and food products will stay in place until public concerns were eased.

The process of pumping more than one million tonnes of treated water from the power plant is expected to take decades.

A South Korean university student is detained by police officers during a protest against the move by Japan (Getty Images)

The water will be released in smaller portions initially and with extra checks. The first discharge totalling 7,800 cubic metres - the equivalent of about three Olympic swimming pools of water - will take place over around 17 days.

According to Tepco test results released on Thursday, that water contains about up to 63 becquerels of tritium per litre, below the World Health Organization drinking water limit of 10,000 becquerels per litre. A becquerel is a unit of radioactivity.

Japan will conduct monitoring around the water release area and publish results weekly, the environment minister said.

Tepco expects the process of releasing the wastewater - currently totally more than 1.3 million metric tons - to take about 30 years.

Civic groups have launched protests in Japan and South Korea, although South Korea’s government has said its own assessment found no problems with the scientific and technical aspects of the release.

Ahead of the release, a few dozen protesters gathered in front of Tepco’s headquarters in Tokyo holding signs reading “Don’t throw contaminated water into the sea!”

Japan releases water from Fukushima nuclear plant into Pacific




AFP
Wed, 23 August 2023 

Japan began releasing wastewater from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday despite angry opposition from China and local fishermen.

The start of the discharge of around 540 Olympic swimming pools' worth of water over several decades is a big step in decommissioning the still highly dangerous site 12 years after one of the world's worst nuclear accidents.

Live video provided by plant operator TEPCO showed two engineers clicking on computer mouses and an official saying -- after a countdown -- that the "valves near the seawater transport pumps are opening".

Monitors from the UN atomic watchdog, which has endorsed the plan, were due to be on site for the procedure, while TEPCO workers were scheduled to take water samples later on Thursday.

Japanese officials have repeatedly insisted the wastewater release is safe.

But China's environment ministry on Thursday blasted Japan as "extremely selfish and irresponsible", saying it would "track and study" the impact of the release on its waters.

Ahead of the operation, about 10 people held a protest near the site and around 100 others gathered outside TEPCO headquarters in Tokyo, AFP journalists said.

"It's like dumping an atomic bomb in the ocean. Japan is the first country that was attacked with an atomic bomb in the world, and the prime minister of the country made this decision," said Kenichi Sato, 68.

- Multiple meltdowns -

With around 1,000 steel containers holding the water, TEPCO has said it needs to clear space for the removal of highly dangerous radioactive nuclear fuel and rubble from the wrecked reactors.

Three of the reactors at the Fukushima-Daiichi facility in northeastern Japan went into meltdown following a massive earthquake and tsunami that killed around 18,000 people in 2011.

Since then, TEPCO has collected 1.34 million cubic metres of water that was contaminated as it cooled the wrecked reactors, along with groundwater and rain that has seeped in.

TEPCO will carry out four releases of the treated water from Thursday until March 2024. The first will last about 17 days, though it is expected to take around 30 years for all of the wastewater to be discharged.

Japan says that all radioactive elements have been filtered out except the tritium, levels of which are harmless and lower than what is discharged by operational nuclear power plants -- including in China.

This is backed by most experts.

"When released into the Pacific, the tritium is further diluted into a vast body of water and would quickly get to a radioactivity level which is not discernibly different from normal seawater," said Tom Scott from the University of Bristol.

- Sushi safety -

Not everyone is convinced, with environmental group Greenpeace saying that the filtration process is flawed, and China and Russia suggesting the water be vaporised and released into the atmosphere instead.

China has accused Japan of treating the Pacific like a "sewer", and even before the release, Beijing banned food imports from 10 out of 47 Japanese prefectures and imposed radiation checks.

Hong Kong and Macau, both Chinese territories, followed suit this week.

Restaurants in Beijing and Hong Kong serving sushi and sashimi are already reeling from the restrictions.

"About 80 percent of the seafood products we use come from Japan," Hong Kong caterer Jasy Choi, who runs a small kitchen for takeaway Japanese food, told AFP.

Analysts said that while China may have genuine safety concerns, its strong reaction is also motivated at least in part by its economic rivalry and frosty relations with Japan.

The South Korean government, which is seeking to improve ties with Japan, has not objected, although many ordinary people are worried and have staged protests.

Social media posts in China and South Korea have included false claims about the release, including doctored images of deformed fish with claims they were linked to Fukushima.

People in the Japanese fishing industry oppose the release, worrying that governments and consumers will shun their seafood.

"I am worried about the future," protestor Ruiko Muto, 70, told AFP in Miharu near the power plant.

"We can't pass on the responsibility of what happened during our generation to the generation of our children and to future generations."

burs-stu/smw

Horrified reaction to climate change denial by candidates at Republican debate

Josh Marcus
Wed, 23 August 2023 

Observers and experts were dismayed as seemingly all but one candidate onstage during the first 2024 Republican presidential primary debate seemed to deny the universal scientific consensus that human behaviour is causing the climate crisis.

“Climate denial is alive and well in the year 2023,” meteorologist Eric Holthaus wrote on X, previously known as Twitter, on Wednesday night.

During the debate in Wisconsin, the candidates fielded a pre-taped question by a youth named Alexander Diaz, who spoke about how the climate crisis is “young people’s number one issue.”

Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy argue during the debate (Getty Images)

“How will you as both president and leader of the Republican Party calm the fear that the Republican party doesn’t care about climate change?” Mr Diaz asked.

The moderators of the debate then asked candidates to raise their hands if they believed in the human origins of the climate crisis.

“We’re not schoolchildren, let’s have the debate,” said Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who later insisted he never raised his hand in affirmation.

Instead of expounding on his views, he lashed out at Joe Biden for his response to the deadly Maui fires, the deadliest wildfire in more than a century in the US, a disaster that was fuelled in part by the climate crisis, according to scientists.

“First of all, one of the reasons our country has declined is because of the way the corporate media treats Republicans versus Democrats,” Mr DeSantis said. “Biden was on the beach while those people were suffering. He was asked about it and said no comment. Are you kidding me? As someone who has handled disasters in Florida, you’ve gotta be activated. You’ve gotta be there. You’ve gotta be present. You’ve gotta be helping people who are doing this.”

Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy then chimed in, to a mix of cheers and boos, and said the “climate change agenda” is a “hoax.”

Scientists say the climate crisis helped fuel the deadly Maui fires

“Let’s be honest, as Republican I’m the only person who isn’t bought and paid for,” he said. “The climate agenda is a hoax... The reality is, the anti-carbon agenda is the wet blanket on our economy. The reality is, more people are dying of and by climate change policies than they are of actual climate change.”

“This isn’t that complicated,” he later said. “Unlock American energy. Drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear. Put people back to work by no longer paying them more to stay at home.”

The only candidate who affirmatively acknowledged the reality of the climate crisis at length was former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley.

“If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman,” she said, quoting former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher.

“Climate change is real,” she continued. “Yes, it is. If you want to change the environment, we need to start telling China and India that they have to lower their emissions.”

An aerial view of a maintenance vehicle clearing mud near stranded vehicles along a flooded street after Tropical Storm Hilary floodwaters inundated an area of Cathedral City, California (Getty Images)

Climate experts and politicians were dismayed about the denial onstage, as the climate crisis helped fuel an unprecendented tropical storm in the California desert in recent days.

“Climate change is real, by the way,” Joe Biden wrote on X on Wednesday.

“Vivek calls climate change a hoax,” added the climate-focused Sunrise Movement in a post of their own. “We call bluff that he’s been outside this summer.”

July was the hottest month on record in human history, according to scientists, the latest indicator of the gravity and urgency of the climate crisis.

“Climate change is here. It is terrifying. And it is just the beginning,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said of the record last month.

“The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

US Judge OKs updated Great Lakes fishing agreement between native tribes, state and federal agencies


Thu, August 24, 2023

TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday approved an agreement between four Native American tribes and state and federal regulatory agencies to revise a fishing policy covering parts of three of the Great Lakes.

The deal extends for 24 years a system overseeing commercial and sport fishing in sections of lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior covered by an 1836 treaty. Those areas are entirely within the U.S. and under Michigan’s jurisdiction.

The agreement “respects and promotes tribal fishing rights and opportunities, yet it also preserves the Great Lakes fishery and recognizes the shared nature of the resource,” U.S. District Judge Paul Maloney said in a written opinion.

He overruled objections from the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians — which refused to join the talks because it contends the state has no authority over its fishing operations — and a sport fishing coalition that argued the deal would allow excessive catches of struggling species, particularly whitefish and lake trout.

In addition to the state and federal governments, participants in the deal include the Bay Mills Indian Community, the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians and the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians.

The tribes are descended from Odawa and Ojibway nations, described collectively as Anishinaabek, that under the treaty ceded lands comprising nearly 40% of Michigan’s eventual territory. They retained hunting and fishing rights.

Rising tensions between tribal commercial operations and sport anglers led to a fishery management pact in 1985, which was updated in 2000. That version was due to expire two years ago but was extended to allow continued negotiations.

“We look forward to continuing to work with our federal and tribal partners, as well as our constituents, to effectively manage these world class fisheries of the Great Lakes for the benefit of current and future generations,” said Shannon Lott, acting director of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The agreement, like its predecessors, sets zones where tribal fishing crews can operate and areas where commercial fishing is prohibited. It deals with topics such as catch limits and which gear tribal operations can use.

Particularly controversial is tribes’ use of gill nets, an effective tool that hangs in the water like a wall. Critics say they indiscriminately catch and kill too many fish. The new deal let tribes use the nets in more places, with restrictions on depth in the water they’re placed, the times of year they’re used and how much netting is deployed.

“Expanded gill netting now allowed in bays and other areas of the lakes that haven’t had them for more than 40 years will cause social and biological consequences,” said Tony Radjenoivch, president of the Coalition to Protect Michigan Resources.

Under the 2000 pact, Michigan spent more than $14 million paying tribal operations to transition from gill nets to trap nets, which are more selective.

But the latest version continues catch ceilings to keep populations from dropping too low, so the type of net the tribes use is irrelevant, Maloney said in his 139-page opinion.

“Whether they meet that harvest limit quickly by using the efficient method of gill nets, or whether they meet that harvest limit over time by using less efficient means of fishing, the tribes are still subject to the same harvest limits regardless of gear used,” the judge said.

Jim Johnson, a retired Michigan DNR fisheries biologist who submitted an affidavit supporting the sport fishing coalition, said expanded gill netting could cause further drop-offs of whitefish and lake trout. Both have plummeted in recent decades as invasive mussels unraveled Great Lakes food chains, he said.

“We're just going to have to be vigilant and hope the state will intervene in a timely fashion” if numbers fall further, Johnson said.

Although the coalition wasn't allowed to participate in the negotiations, Maloney said they could appeal his ruling. Johnson said they would consider it.

Bill Rastetter, attorney for the Grand Traverse Band, said the agreement “fairly allocates the fishery resource among the competing interests."

It assures that the state, acting on behalf of sport anglers, and tribes "will continue their cooperative fishery management, in contrast to the open warfare of four decades ago,” he said.

John Flesher, The Associated Press

The intergenerational report says climate is a ‘profound’ risk to Australia. But the full picture may be even worse


Peter Hannam
Wed, 23 August 2023 

Photograph: David Gray/Reuters

Climate change and the way the world responds to it “may be the most profound driver of change” for Australia’s economy over coming decades, according to the latest intergenerational report (IGR).

The report is easily the most comprehensive attempt to quantify risks and opportunities, with an entire chapter devoted to climate change and energy. There is a fivefold increase in references to “climate change” versus the 2021 IGR, a similar ratio for “disasters” and triple the naming of “renewable”.

And, as reported on Wednesday, Treasury sought to put a price on costs, such as a loss in productivity amounting to as much as $423bn out to 2063 and falls in crop yields and tourism. But most long-term predictions tend to be unreliable, and this IGR recognises the challenges for projecting global heating’s impacts.

Related: Last decade saw Australia’s lowest productivity growth in 60 years, intergenerational report says

“The future in relation to climate change is highly uncertain,” the report says. “The extent of future climate change, and the risks and opportunities emerging from it, will be affected by many unpredictable factors.”

Treasury notes “global policy cooperation” – read: meeting the 2015 Paris climate commitments to keep warming to “well below 2C” of pre-industrial times – is among the big unknowns.

It warns “as temperature increases approach 2C, the risk of crossing thresholds which cause nonlinear tipping points in the Earth system, with potentially abrupt and not yet well understood impacts, also increases”.

That reference underscores the difficulties in anticipating how different Australian lives will be four decades hence. The report bases its guesses on three scenarios: our planet keeps warming to sub-2C, sub-3C or more than 4C.

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Planners assume a comforting gradual uptick in life expectancy, modest changes to taxes paid and a steady value of our terms of trade. Even defence outlays are flat, once they have been adjusted higher for rising “geo-strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific” (mostly from China).

If there are climate-related national security risks, they don’t get a mention. (Efforts to extract from the Office of National Intelligence have likewise proved futile so far.)

Treasury does take a stab at costing the increasing impacts from extreme weather events via its Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements. Assuming the world is on a 3C warming path, cumulative spending on DRFA will be $130bn in today’s dollars, or 3-3.6 times current levels.

That assessment, however, only assesses four “natural hazards” – bushfires, tropical cyclones, floods and storms – as they presently receive the bulk of spending.

Drought and heatwaves – two perils facing Australia this summer as landscapes dry out and global temperatures nudge record annual levels – are excluded.

Also omitted from any mention (and the previous IGR) is the Great Barrier Reef. Tourism may take a hit in a warming world but at 1C more warming, not many coral reefs are going to make it, with devastating effects on ecosystems and their visitor appeal.

Australia has already warmed 1.47C since 1910, the Bureau of Meteorology estimates (with a +/- 0.24C margin of error).

“Over the next 40 years, under a scenario where global temperatures increase by up to 3C by 2100, Australia’s national average temperature is projected to increase by 1.7C,” the IGR says. Within that, averages in parts of central and northern Western Australia are projected to increase 1.8C, with Tasmania warming “by just 1.3C”, the IGR says.

Regional temperature changes may be among the better understood shifts global heating will deliver. Still, climate researchers such as professor Andy Pitman, director of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, caution against assuming models have a good handle on how changes will play out locally.

Economists (and others) tend to draw a “linear association between warming temperatures and economic impacts”, Pitman said this week. “It’s the extremes that have the big impact on the economy”.

Related: Australia’s population to grow at slowest rate since federation, intergenerational report forecasts

The report notes correctly technological advances might help minimise damage, such as making crops more drought-resilient. Stronger infrastructure and more fire-proof housing might similarly limit future rebuilding costs.

“But the killer is, where do you build the resilience?” Pitman says. Expect pots of money to be spent unnecessarily while not enough will be outlaid where it’s needed. Climate models can’t tell us that – at least, not yet.

And as for where the funding will come from, the IGR is largely coy about impacts on budgets if coal and fossil gas royalties dive. (“Carbon capture” doesn’t appear in this IGR, compared with three hopeful mentions in 2021.)

“Company tax may be affected by structural or compositional changes in the economy which are not captured by the assumed steady profit share of GDP,” it says.

Coal, oil and gas companies supplied 4% of company tax in 2019-20. “This share is likely to increase in the near term, following recent high commodity prices and decline over time as prices are assumed to return to long-run levels,” it said.

Fossil exports, in other words, are assumed to linger if not expand – unless governments get serious about climate change.