Friday, May 06, 2022

Wrangle over EU carbon market revamp threatens climate targets


By Kate Abnett - Yesterday 

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Officials and lawmakers negotiating an overhaul of the EU carbon market are struggling to reach a compromise over plans to levy CO2 costs on suppliers of polluting fuels, potentially putting the bloc's climate change targets at risk.

Launched in 2005, the emissions trading system (ETS) is the European Union's main tool for cutting greenhouse gases, which it does by forcing power plants and factories to buy CO2 permits when they pollute and capping the supply of permits.

The scheme has slashed emissions in those sectors by 43% since its launch, but is facing a revamp as the EU strives to hit a target of a 55% cut in net emissions from 1990 levels by 2030.

"There's no room for watering down," said European Parliament negotiator Jytte Guteland. "We need to preserve the ambition to make sure we obey the climate law," she added, referring to the legally-binding climate targets.

Diplomats and lawmakers are each divided, in particular over plans to launch a new ETS in 2026 that would impose CO2 costs on suppliers of fuels used in vehicles and to heat homes.

The revamp, proposed by the European Commission last year, is seen as critical because transport emissions are rising, and most buildings in Europe are heated by fossil fuels, churning out roughly a third of total EU emissions.

But it has faced fierce opposition from some member states, which - with an eye on gas prices soaring to record levels - fear it would raise energy bills further and hurt poorer citizens.

Such concerns led countries to this week consider compromises, including delaying the extension of the ETS to 2027 or 2028, or gradually phasing in the CO2 costs.

That could mean the EU misses it climate targets because, according to a Commission note seen by Reuters, the new ETS would deliver 45% of the extra CO2 cuts needed from those sectors to hit the 2030 goal.

Scrapping the EU proposal would mean replacing it with far tougher national policies, and the investments to match, the Commission said.

SOCIAL FUND

Negotiators said they expect the new ETS will ultimately go ahead, if policymakers can agree on measures to compensate households for potential costs.

The Commission has proposed that billions of euros of proceeds from the scheme are redirected into a fund to help citizens pay bills, subsidise electric cars and energy-saving home renovations.

Parliament's lead negotiator, Peter Liese, said the lawmakers' position was that the fund should be launched before the new ETS, which would require the 27-country bloc's budget to pay into it.

Some EU countries want to avoid that route because changes to the budget need unanimous approval from all member states.

Negotiators are also tackling a long list of issues concerning the existing ETS, which is being redesigned to cut emissions faster, cut free CO2 permits for industry and add shipping to the scheme.

To get a law in place this year, the European Parliament and EU countries will have to agree on positions in coming weeks to give themselves time to negotiate the final rules.

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by John Chalmers and John Stonestreet)
BERNIE OPPOSES SOCIALISM FOR THE RICH

Bernie Sanders' Plan to Cut NASA's $10bn Second Lunar Lander Crushed

Ed Browne - Yesterday 
Newsweek
© Yana Paskova/Getty


The U.S. Senate has voted overwhelmingly to ensure that NASA is given funding for an extra $10 billion so that it has not one but two lunar landing systems ready to work this decade, crushing a motion by Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders aiming to scrap the idea.

Sanders has criticized the proposed NASA payment, which would come from federal funding, as a multi-billion dollar "bailout" to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, whose private space company Blue Origin would be a possible recipient of the money.

Laying out the motion in a hearing in April, Sanders used Bezos' lack of federal income tax payments and his purchase of a reportedly $500 million yacht as a reason to deny him and Blue Origin of the potential NASA payout. "So no, count me in as someone who does not think that the taxpayers of this country need to provide Mr. Bezos a $10 billion bailout to fuel his space hobby," he sai
d

The controversy surrounds NASA's plans to send astronauts back to the moon for the first time in decades as part of the Artemis program. The moon landing mission will see astronauts initially travel to the moon using NASA's Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion capsule before switching into another spacecraft for the descent to the moon's surface.

This latter part of the mission is called the Human Landing System (HLS), and NASA wants to use a private company to make the spacecraft. In April 2021, NASA announced that SpaceX had won a $2.9 billion contract after presenting what the Government Accountability Office described as "the lowest-priced proposal with the highest rating."

This stoked the ire of Bezos and Blue Origin, which had also been vying for the contract albeit with a higher price tag.

Blue Origin ended up launching a legal challenge to the decision, arguing that NASA should have awarded multiple contracts which it had suggested it might. This legal challenge was ultimately struck down.

However, in October 2021, the U.S. Senate said it wanted NASA to choose a second company to build a lunar lander after all. NASA's administrator Bill Nelson appeared to support this idea in comments he made to Congress on Tuesday this week.

Nelson said that the agency would like a second lunar lander option because "with that competitive spirit, you get it done cheaper."

On Wednesday night, the Senate voted against Sanders' motion that aimed to scrap what appears to be a more expensive $10 billion HLS contract by 78-17. Among those voting for Sanders' doomed motion were Florida Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott in a notable political agreement between Sanders on the left and Rubio and Scott on the right.

Space Policy Online reported that proponents of the second contract argued it would ensure both competition and redundancy, meaning it would be a backup if one HLS option were to prove unfeasible.

It is important to note that Blue Origin will likely not certainly be awarded the contract, as defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Dynetics have also expressed interest—though Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman previously partnered with Blue Origin for the HLS tender last time.


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CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Intuit owes customers $141 million after it 'cheated' them out of free tax services

Steve Dent - Yesterday 
Engadget


TurboTax maker Intuit will pay $141 million "for deceiving millions of low-income Americans into paying for tax services that should have been free," the NY Attorney General's office wrote in a press release. It must also suspend its "free, free, free" ad campaign for TurboTax that baited customers with the promise of free tax preparation, then switched them into a paying service.

The company agreed to a settlement with all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, Ars Technica reported. The company must refund nearly 4.4 million consumers who used TurboTax's Free Edition between 2016 and 2018, later discovering they had to pay to file. Many didn't realize they had the option of of filing for free using the IRS Free File program offered through the software.

"Intuit cheated millions of low-income Americans out of free tax filing services they were entitled to," said Attorney General Letitia James. "For years, Intuit misled the most vulnerable among us to make a profit. Today, every state in the nation is holding Intuit accountable for scamming millions of taxpayers."

For years, Intuit misled the most vulnerable among us to make a profit. Today, every state in the nation is holding Intuit accountable for scamming millions of taxpayers.

A multistate investigation found that "Intuit engaged in several deceptive and unfair trade practices that limited consumers' participation in the IRS Free File Program," the New York AG wrote. Specifically, Intuit used similar names for both its IRS Free File product and commercial freemium TurboTax product and used search engine ads to steer customers looking for the former to the latter. It also "purposefully blocked its IRS Free File landing page from search engine results during the 2019 tax filing season," the NY AG wrote.

The AG office said that it marketed the freemium product through ad campaigns "where 'free' is the most prominent or sometimes the only selling point... however, the TurboTax 'freemium' product is only free for approximately one-third of US taxpayers."

Intuit released a statement expressing no regret and said the required ad changes would have little impact on its business. "As part of the agreement, Intuit admitted no wrongdoing, agreed to pay $141 million to put this matter behind it, and made certain commitments regarding its advertising practices," the company wrote on its blog.

As part of the agreement, Intuit admitted no wrongdoing, agreed to pay $141 million to put this matter behind it, and made certain commitments regarding its advertising practices.

Intuit dropped out of the the IRS's Free File Alliance last year, saying an exit would help it focus on "further innovating" without being encumbered Free File program rules. Eighteen months prior, the IRS introduced new Free File rules that prohibit members from "engaging in any practice" that would prevent their free software from showing up on Google or any other search engine. They were also required to call their apps "IRS Free File program delivered by [product name]."

Senator Elizabeth Warren once called the Free File Alliance "a front for tax prep companies who use it as a gateway to sell expensive products no one would even need if we’d just made it easier for people to pay their taxes." Other countries including the UK and Japan allow return-free filing for many citizens, but Intuit, H&R Block and other companies have lobbied against such a move in the US.


The payouts, amounting to about $30 per person for each tax year, is supposed to take place within 30 days of the signing of the agreement. After that, the Attorneys General of each state will "have sole discretion concerning the administration and distribution of the Settlement Fund."

Ethics Commissioner to investigate allegations made against CRTC chair

MobileSyrup - Yesterday.

Canada’s Integrity Commissioner referred TekSavvy’s request to investigate CRTC commissioner Ian Scott to the Interest and Ethics Commissioner (CIEC).

TekSavvy filed the disclosure with the Integrity Commissioner on March 1st. It states Scott held various meetings with litigants. This included 11 with Bell, Rogers or Shaw, while a file on wholesale internet rates was open and active.

“…Since your allegation with regard to Mr. Scott’s ex parte meetings may concern a possible breach of the Conflict of Interest Act, I must refer your disclosure to the Office of the CIEC,” the Integrity Commissioner told TekSavvy, according to a press release.

The CIEC will prepare a report for the Prime Minister outlining the allegations, their analysis, and conclusions.

TekSavvy’s main point of contention is a meeting Scott had with Bell CEO Mirko Bibic at an Ottawa bar in December 2019. The meeting took place after the CRTC released a decision saying telecom companies should lower wholesale internet rates. Bell was among the telecom giants who filed an application to reverse the ruling. The meeting between Scott and Bibic took place a week after Bell filed the application. The CRTC soon reversed its original decision.

The news from the CIEC comes after the Information Commissioner said the CRTC broke disclosure rules. The ruling results from three access to information requests TekSavvy filed asking for details on meetings Scott held with lobbyists and executives from Bell, Shaw, and Telus.

Source: TekSavvy



Canada’s Information Commissioner says the CRTC broke disclosure rules

MobileSyrup - Apr 29

Canada’s Information Commissioner has ruled the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) broke disclosure laws when dealing with information requests from TekSavvy.

The internet service provider filed three requests in June 2021, looking into meetings Chair Ian Scott took with lobbyists and executives from Bell, Shaw and Telus.

The Commission took eight months to respond to the requests, which TekSavvy says were only “partially fulfilled” in February. Under the Access to Information Act, federal institutions have 30 days to respond to requests. Institutions often impose extensions for a variety of reasons.

But if institutions fail to respond within the 30 days or the agreed-upon extended timeline, it equates to refusing to grant access to the requested information.

The party seeking the information can ask the federal court to review the process and examine if the institution was correct in refusing access.

The Information Commissioner’s office found all three delays were related to “an extended period of time needed to review the responsive records as well as additional time required to seek clarification from a third party consultation.”

According to a blog post on TekSavvy’s website, the request on Bell focused on a December 2019 meeting between Scott’s CEO Mirko Bibic.

The two met days after the telecom giant filed an application with the CRTC to overturn a ruling that would have lowered internet prices for Canadians.

Organizations, including TekSavvy and the Competitive Network Operators of Canada, have stated Scott should remove himself from decisions surrounding internet decisions because the meeting exhibited personal bias. The CRTC denied the recusal request.

Scott has since stated the meeting was appropriate, and he broke no rules.

MobileSyrup has asked the CRTC for comment and will provide an update once available.

Image credit: screenshot/CRTC
Edmonton newcomer centre desperately seeks funding, new space

An organization that provides support to newcomers arriving in Edmonton is desperate for a new space and funding to continue its operations.


© Global News
Megan Klein, executive director of the Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers, stands with a pile of overflowing donations Thursday, May 5, 2022.

Caley Gibson - Yesterday 
GLOBAL NEWS

The Edmonton Mennonite Centre for Newcomers says its refugee donation centre located on 82 Street at 117 Avenue is bursting at the seams.

The centre has long been used to provide language training to immigrants and newcomers. But now, many of the classrooms, closets and conference rooms are overflowing with donations as the centre's limited staff try to sort, organize and disperse the items to newcomers who arrive in the city with nothing.

"They have access to everything. I leave them to pick and choose what they want," settlement practitioner Dalia Abdellatif said.

"Most of the people are coming for kitchen items, because this is the first thing they want in their house, so they can cook for their children."

Read more:

As Edmonton continues to welcome newcomers from Ukraine and other parts of the world, EMCN is seeking a low- or no-cost space for a new coordinated donation centre. The centre hopes the new space could hold all of the donated items currently crowding up its other location.

"Our city needs a permanent home for donations intended for refugees, victims of emergencies, and others needing to make a fresh start," said Megan Klein, executive director of EMCN.

"The Refugee Donation Centre in EMCN's language classes building is just a bootstrap operation until a more permanent solution is established. We felt like we had to do something to fill the service vacuum left in our city when the Edmonton Emergency Relief Services Society was forced to close its doors back in August 2021."

According to Klein, their current space is less than ideal as it was intended to be a learning centre. Instead, donated goods are left piling up at the back door as they don't have the staff resources to get the items up to the second floor.

Read more:

EMCN is also seeking additional funding to continue its operations, after its current funding ran out at the end of March. As more newcomers continue to arrive in Edmonton, the organization says it can no longer meet the needs of incoming refugees and immigrants without more financial support.


"There is a critical need for this service since refugees need all basic household items," Klein said. "As refugees arrive in our city, they will have to dip into their very small resettlement allowance for these items. Arrivals of newcomers fleeing the crisis in Ukraine are not even provided a standard refugee allowance as they are not designated as refugees when arriving under the Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel program.

"Without access to unrestricted supports like EMCN's donation centre for refugees, many vulnerable families will simply go without basic necessities."

Read more:

EMCN is seeking funding from both the municipal and provincial governments in hopes of opening a New Start Essentials Market. Ideally located in northeast Edmonton, the market would offer wraparound services like food, employment, housing and family supports while also operating as a donation centre.

"We do need a space that has a shipping and receiving side so that we can bring in some goods, including some larger goods," Klein said. "And a place that has easy access to transit."

The goal would be to support newcomers and also be able to serve people affected by fires, floods and other emergencies, bridging the gap created when EERSS shuttered.

EMNC said it needs to find a new permanent home for the donation centre by this September, when teachers and students return to the building for on-site English classes and childcare.

- With files from Kirby Bourne, 630 CHED

Stollery Children’s Hospital ER seeing ‘unprecedented’ wait times, surge in patients: Edmonton doctor

Karen Bartko - Yesterday
Global News

Emergency room wait times have been a concern for many years in Edmonton and now a local doctor says the city's children's hospital is in the midst of an unprecedented, unsustainable situation.

Dr. Shazma Mithani, an emergency room physician at both the Royal Alexandra Hospital and Stollery Children's Hospital, said the latter is seeing patient volumes and wait times exceeding even the worst pre-pandemic situations.

"It's been extremely busy," Mithani said on Thursday.

"It's just continuing to get worse and it's almost become the new baseline in terms of patient care and what we're seeing there."

The Stollery operates 236 beds and is the largest children’s hospital (by bed count) west of Toronto.

Read more:
Calgary parents face long lineups at Alberta Children’s Hospital ER

Mithani said there's several reason for the surge in patients, including COVID-19, other viruses, and mental illness.

"We definitely are seeing a lot of COVID in young kids right now. With the spike in cases that we're seeing with Omicron again during this sixth wave, we are seeing a lot of kids coming in with respiratory symptoms and gastrointestinal symptoms with COVID," she said. "But we're also seeing lots of other viruses."

The ER doc said a significant number of the children coming in have respiratory issues requiring oxygen, ongoing treatment and admission to the hospital.

"On top of that, there's a growing mental health crisis that we're seeing in the paediatric population."

Read more:

Staffing issues are compounding the issue. Mithani said after two years of the pandemic, health-care workers are burnt out and fed up.

"On a typical shift, we're seeing way, way more patients than what we usually are," Mithani said.

"To just mentally juggle all of those patients at the same time can be quite challenging and certainly can be quite exhausting."


The situation has gotten so bad, the hospital has opened an overflow ER in clinic spaces.

"So essentially, we're running two parallel emergency departments at the same time: one in the main area and one in a different part of the hospital, where there's another physician over there seeing patients or just trying to get through all these people who are in the waiting room."

Mithani said some days, she'll look up and realize there's 40 or more patients in the waiting room.

"It can sometimes be pretty demoralizing to just try to catch up and to try to do what you can for the patients — and just not have the resources to do that."

Freeing up space inside the hospital is also an issue, resulting in patients sitting around in the ER waiting to be transferred: "So it's a combination of a myriad of things."


Behind the tweets: Edmonton doctors gain social media following amid COVID-19 pandemic
Long waits just for triage

Waiting to see a doctor isn't new — Mithani said isn't not unusual for her to see a patient that's been sitting around for more than six hours now.

But waiting to first be assessed by a triage nurse is now taking 45 to 60 minutes usually. On bad days, it can stretch to 90 minutes.

"It can be very dangerous, because if we have a patient who's in the waiting room, who hasn't even been fully assessed by a nurse, who is getting sicker while waiting for that assessment, our main concern is that there is going to be a bad outcome."


So what's the solution?


Mithani said the hospital has exhausted a lot of the short-term solutions such as opening up extra spaces.

Nurse are also working 16-hour mandatory overtime shifts just to keep the department running, "which in and of itself is unsafe, to have that expectation for health-care workers to work such prolonged hours."

Mithani said she's been working on an education project called Shift pERspectives, aiming to educate the public on what is and isn't an emergency, when it's ok to stay home and when parents can take their kids to their family doctor or paediatrician instead of the emergency room.

Mithani said a long-term, larger solution is hiring more staff.


"Increasing staffing, relooking at the structure of the emergency departments, trying to think more innovatively about how to flow patients through the department, making sure that there's increased bed capacity on the wards — because again, that is often a rate-limiting step for us in moving patients out of the emergency department."


Increasing youth mental health supports in the community is also key, she said.

"Not having those community supports means that many more patients come in, in crisis from a mental health standpoint and of course, have to wait for long hours in the emergency department and put extra pressure on the department," Mithani said.


Read more:

That's something Fort McMurray mother Kirsten Chiasson would like to see. The family came to the Edmonton children's hospital looking for help for their son.

"It was disgustingly busy in there and they didn't take too long to see him because of the situation. But once the doctor did see him, she saw him once and then didn't come back," Chiasson said from outside the hospital on Thursday.

Chiasson said staff at the Stollery didn't offer any more help than they could get back at home and they felt the drive to Edmonton was a waste of time and money.

She said her son previously had heart surgery at the Stollery and their experience before and now couldn't be more different.

"I just feel like this whole hospital's went way down in the past few years," Chiasson told Global News.

"It seems impossible for us to receive the help now that we need for our son."


The challenges aren't unique to the Stollery and are playing out across the province, Health Minister Jason Copping said on Thursday.

In the short term, he said Alberta Health Services is asking staff to work overtime. Efforts to hire more are ongoing, the health authority is moving resources from slower units to busier ones and patients are put anywhere there's space.

But Copping admits, it's a Band-Aid solution on a gaping wound.

"The answer quite frankly — and we've talk about this before — is building capacity and that takes time," he said to reporters at the legislature on Thursday.

Read more:

The current Stollery Children’s Hospital was built in 2001, with the majority of services and beds located inside the University of Alberta Hospital and the Walter C. Mackenzie Health Sciences Centre.

As of 2021, it was seeing more than 300,000 patient visits per year, with families coming from northern Alberta, northern B.C., all the Prairie provinces and three Territories. More than 40 per cent of children treated at the Stollery are from outside the Edmonton area.

The hospital's foundation has been advocating for a stand-alone building for some time. Last year, the Alberta government and Stollery announced they were moving forward with a feasibility study on the idea.

This politician reacted to the Roe v. Wade news in the most Canadian way

MP Karina Gould was quick to ensure that American women who could make the trip knew they would be able to access abortions in Canada.

WE NEED POP UP ABORTION CLINICS ON THE BORDER


Lidia Likhodi - 
Today's Parent
© Used with permission of / © St. Joseph Communications.

When a leaked document showed the U.S. Supreme Court’s intentions to overturn Roe v. Wade, putting American women’s right to abortion in jeopardy, the outcry didn’t stop at the border. And in Canada, MP Karina Gould was quick to ensure that American women who could make the trip knew they would be able to access abortions in Canada.

In an interview with CBC News, Gould, the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development, expressed her concern for the health and safety of women seeking abortions amidst the looming decision. “We need to make sure that we are protecting this right here in Canada, and around the world,” she said. “Twenty-five million unsafe abortions happen every single year. Criminalizing abortion doesn’t mean that those abortions won’t happen—it means that those will be unsafe abortions.”


Studies show that American women who weren’t able to access wanted abortions experienced economic hardship that lasted for years, and were at higher risk of developing serious health conditions. Conversely, women who receive a wanted abortion are more financially stable, set more ambitious goals, raise children under more stable conditions and are more likely to have a wanted child later.

Related video: 'Abortion is health care,' says sexual health and rights expert (cbc.ca)

The Supreme Court opinion was reported to have been circulating since February, and leaked to the news site Politico on Monday. It showed that at least five of the nine justices support overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 ruling that guaranteed abortion rights to women across the country. In a statement Tuesday, the court confirmed the draft was authentic but noted that it didn’t represent its final opinion. The opinion relates to a pending Mississippi case, which is expected to be decided in late June or early July. It would allow states to decide their own rules around abortion. This would put women at the mercy of restrictive local governments, and force them to seek abortions elsewhere—including Canada.

“Americans who come to Canada are able to access medical services here today if they need it,” a spokesperson for Gould told Today’s Parent on Wednesday. “Americans accessing health care services in Canada would continue to have to pay for the service out-of-pocket or by their own private insurance if they are not covered by a provincial health insurance, by the Interim Federal Health Program or Non-Insured Health Benefits.”

News of the leak sparked reactions across the U.S., with President Joe Biden issuing a statement on Tuesday that he believes a woman’s right to choose is fundamental. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau followed suit on Twitter, saying: “The right to choose is a woman’s right and a woman’s right alone. Every woman in Canada has a right to a safe and legal abortion. We’ll never back down from protecting and promoting women’s rights in Canada and around the world.” Liberal states like California braced themselves to take on an influx of women seeking abortions. Demonstrations raged outside of the Supreme Court and in cities across the U.S.

In her interview with CBC, Gould said she was not only concerned about the impacts of the decision on American women, but also on Canadian women, many of whom don’t live near big cities and have to access abortion providers in the United States. The Liberal party platform promised to uphold abortion rights, and the government has already taken actions against New Brunswick over access to abortion concerns. Alberta, Manitoba, PEI, Saskatchewan, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon do not have a single rural abortion clinic. Ontario has only four, and British Columbia only a single one. This means that women in rural areas in need of an abortion have to arrange travel to obtain one.


“In Canada, there is no room for encroaching on reproductive rights,” Gould’s spokesperson said. “Our Government will continue to protect this right for Canadian women.”
Inbreeding won't doom the last of the vaquitas, but fishing might: study

Vaquita porpoises are on the edge of extinction, with just 10 left in their sole habitat within Mexico's Gulf of California.


© Paula OLSON
This undated image released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows a mother and calf vaquita surfacing in the waters off San Felipe, Mexico

AFP - Yesterday 

However, a new study published Thursday in the journal Science offers some hope: the world's rarest marine mammals aren't doomed by a lack of genetic diversity, and can recover if illegal "gillnet" fishing ceases immediately.

"We're trying to push back on this idea that there's no hope, that nothing we do could save them at this point. It's just not an accurate assumption," lead author Jacqueline Robinson of the University of California San Francisco told AFP.


© -This handout pictured taken on October 18, 2017, and released by the Mexican Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat) shows scientists with a six-month-old vaquita calf

Porpoises are closely related to dolphins, and share many things in common including great intelligence.

The vaquita, whose name means "little cow" in Spanish, measures four to five feet (about 1.5 meters) in length, making it the smallest of all cetaceans.

Shy and elusive, they are known for distinctive dark circles around their eyes, and relatively large dorsal fins, which are thought to help them dissipate heat in their warm habitat.

Vaquita numbers were decimated in the 20th century as a result of being accidentally trapped and drowning in gillnets: long walls of nets hanging in open water that are used to catch fish and shrimp.

Fishermen sought in particular the totoaba, a large fish about the size of the vaquita, whose swim-bladder is prized in traditional Chinese medicine.


The totoaba itself is endangered and its fishing is illegal, but the ban isn't always respected.

The vaquita's historical abundance was unknown, but by the time of the first survey, in 1997, only around 570 remained.


There were fears that harmful mutations among the surviving vaquitas could seal the species' fate due to inevitable inbreeding.

To find out whether that was the case, the researchers analyzed the genomes of 20 vaquitas that lived between 1985 and 2017, and discovered that over the past 250,000 years their population had never exceeded a few thousand.

They also learned that their genetic diversity had always been low, relative to other cetacean species such as dolphins, orcas, and other whales.


- Benefits to low genetic diversity -

"Generally, we would think of low genetic diversity as being a bad thing. But in this case, it is somewhat advantageous for the vaquitas for their possibility of future recovery," said Robinson.

Inbreeding increases the chances offspring will inherit two copies of harmful mutations, leading to genetic disorders.

But it turned out that the frequency of these mutations are very low in vaquitas to begin with, because the population has always been small.

"So those mutations were historically weeded out much more effectively, than in a larger population, where those mutations could persist and remain hidden from natural selection," explained Robinson.

There are other species that appear more resistant to so-called "inbreeding depression," including mountain gorillas and narwhals, for similar reasons.

The team then carried out simulations to forecast the species' future.

Encouragingly, there is only a six percent chance of vaquitas' extinction if gillnet fishing is eliminated.

But if such fishing is only reduced, then the extinction risk rises drastically.

Even with an 80 percent reduction in fishing, the porpoises have a 62 percent chance of disappearing.

"While we now know that the species' ability to recover is not limited by their genetics, vaquitas have very little time left," said co-author Christopher Kyriazis of the University of California, Los Angeles, in a statement.

"If we lose them, it would be the result of our human choices, not inherent genetic factors."

la/ia/des
Thousands of pigs die after April storm knocked out power to western Manitoba hog farm

Holly Caruk - Yesterday 
CBC

© M. Spencer Green/The Associated Press
A file photo shows pigs in a barn. HyLife says 2,000 hogs died when backup generators and phone notification systems failed during a spring storm on April 24 at a facility near Kola, Man.

Manitoba-based hog production company HyLife said roughly 2,000 hogs died near Kola, Man., about 300 kilometres west of Winnipeg near the Saskatchewan border, when backup generators and phone notification systems failed.

"During extremely challenging and lengthy weather conditions, which resulted in highway closures, travel advisories and dangerous driving conditions, our employees were not able to access one of our sites," Dave Penner, chief operating officer of farms for HyLife, said in an email on Wednesday.


"HyLife regrets this loss and commits to doing everything necessary to prevent this from happening again."

On April 24, a spring storm walloped southern parts of the province with rain and snow, causing flooding and power outages.

Manitoba Hydro reported numerous outages that day, including in the Virden, Man., area, which is about 30 kilometres from Kola.

The power company said nearly 5,000 customers in that region were affected, from around 10 p.m Sunday until about noon the following day.


Problem unusual: Manitoba Pork


Manitoba hog producers follow national guidelines for handling pigs and are required to have plans in place for emergencies — including backup systems to ensure ventilation, temperature regulation and feeding and watering continue.

"We have a situation where both [the] primary power source and the backup power source failed," said Cam Dahl, general manager with Manitoba Pork, the province's industry association.

"This is something that is extremely unfortunate and it's also very unusual."

"[Ventilation is] both for cooling, as well as to ensure that hydrogen sulphide levels — which is produced in hog manure — is kept out of the barns," Dahl said.

The province's chief veterinary office is investigating but won't release any details.

It's unclear whether the company could face penalties. HyLife produces 3.4 million hogs a year, with the majority of its barns in Manitoba.

"My understanding, at this time, is that this is an accident," Dahl said.

"It was the perfect storm coming together that created that loss of primary and secondary power, rather than a failure on people's parts, that's my understanding."

Both HyLife and Manitoba Pork said practices would be reviewed.

"When something unfortunate like this happens, it is taken seriously by not only producers' representatives like us, but by individual producers," Dahl said.

Industry needs oversight: Humane Society

People with knowledge of the industry say in a situation where ventilation is lost, animal deaths are likely due to overheating or breathing in concentrated toxic gases — or both.

"There is a level of suffering and essentially suffocating that occurs in either situation," said Brittany Semeniuk, an animal welfare specialist with the Winnipeg Humane Society.

"It's not ideal and it's definitely not a humane death."

Semeniuk says the deaths illustrate the difficulties of ensuring animal safety in industrialized farming, especially in cases of emergency.

"Even if someone was at the facility, it would be very, very difficult — basically impossible — to safely evacuate these animals," said Semeniuk.

The Humane Society would like to see more transparency and third-party oversight around industrial farming practices.

"There's really no way to have the public know what is going on behind closed doors other than what the facilities are willing to show," she said.

"Until we address the way we house these animals and we raise these animals in mass quantities for food production, there are going to continue to be tragedies like this."
2 cougar kittens shot, killed; B.C. Conservation Officer Service seeking public help

The province’s Conservation Officer Service is seeking the public’s help after two cougar kittens on Vancouver Island were illegally shot and killed.

© B.C. Conservation Officer Service

The Conservation Officer Service says it’s illegal to kill cougar kittens (any cougar with spots or under one year of age) or cougars in a family unit.

According to the COS, the poaching incident happened in the Cowichan Valley area within the past week, near Hill 60 Forest Service Road, with the paws and heads of the kittens being removed.

The COS says it’s illegal to kill cougar kittens (any cougar with spots or under one year of age) or cougars in a family unit.

It also said poaching wildlife is a serious offence under the B.C. Wildlife Act.
“The killing of cougar kittens shows a blatant disregard for ethical hunting and wildlife conservation,” said Duncan Conservation Officer Mark Kissinger.

“Thankfully, this is not the type of offence we see frequently.”

Anyone with information regarding the incident is asked to call the Report All Poachers and Polluters hotline at 1-877-952-7277.

Doyle Potenteau - Yesterday 
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