@ginnoi From "It could all go up in flames: Why Banff and Bow Valley face mounting wildfire peril", by Bill Kaufmann discusses the ever present risk of fire for Banff, and elsewhere. With Albertans facing less snowfall, and drier fire seasons, a new trend emerges.
Alberta will have to meet that challenge or risk severe consequences.
>...Katherine Severson, director of emergency management for the Town of Banff, which she notes has been proactive in reducing the risk both at the homeowner and public lands level.
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>But she said a worst-case scenario involving a high intensity blaze, such as a category-four fire, remains an ever-present threat.
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>“If we experience those conditions then we will be up against a devastating wildfire. There’s no way to mince words on that,” Severson told a panel discussion in Banff last February.
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>“There simply isn’t enough time to do all the work in the snap of our fingers.”
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>In an interview, she said emergency responders in the town are bracing for a high-hazard fire season after the area received just 50 per cent of the normal amount of snowfall last winter.
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>“We are anticipating and preparing for an increased fire risk due to overall drought conditions and heat. There’s no secret we’ve had elevated wildfire situations and don’t expect that to change,” said Severson.
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>“It’s the new normal.”
#ClimateDefense
#AbLeg #AbPoli #CdnPoli 161
https://calgaryherald.com/feature/banff-bow-valley-alberta-wildfire-threat-prevention
#climatedefense
@ginnoi
I've already highlighted the concern of Valley Fever making its way north, but now there are other fungi to keep an eye out for.
via @ScienceDesk Aspergillus: Killer fungus could spread through parts of Europe due to climate change
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/aspergillus-fungus-europe-climate-change-lung-problems-b2744966.html?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into Climate Change @climate-change-science
#ClimateDefense
#AbLeg #AbPoli #CdnPoli 160
https://flipboard.com/@science/climate-change-gv69bl41z/-/a-MXm3zp3wS3iCqAeFM1KCfw%3Aa%3A446116872-%2F0
As gauche as Trump may be, his elementary style betrays the tactics and strategies of those in power. Maximize profits out of oil and gas investment at the expense of the domestic renewables industry.
Yet the US can't even afford that. As Trump's interference only creates a patchy adoption of renewable energy across the country, the gap between the USA and China grows larger.
BYD's Seal has received Japan's Car of the Year Award, China's investments in critical metal components chips away at US production, and Western Automakers still can't figure out how to make money on EVs.
Growing pains are a part of innovation - Trump's just proposing to extend that into probably the next decade or two. While the US drives itself into a ditch for the next 4 years, Canada should pass and get ahead as far as possible.
Quebec's got a take.
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/quebec-passes-bill-that-bans-gas-powered-vehicle-sales-by-2035-1.7147204
More signs that Western Auto Executives are just speechless in the face of EVs, batteries, and renewables rolling forward and literally costing them the market in China. Europe's carbon emission targets are also pushing them to innovate - yet VW and others still refuse.
Rules or regulations aside, people are generally going to forego their ICE car purchase until a proper EV arrives.
"If one company destroys the world and kills everyone, then the consumers will simply choose another company!" - @srslywrong
Big Mad about Big Oil's Big Apocalypse
https://youtu.be/ve-qJ6M9KWE
#ClimateChange #SocialEcology #SrslyWrong #HazelThayer #BigOil #JustStopOil #ClimateDefense #Climate #Ecology
China has so much excess manufacturing capacity for EVs, batteries, solar panels etc that it will flood emerging economies with cheap clean energy technology to drive out oil and gas.
The opposite of what OPEC (and Alberta) think.
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/yellen-faces-tough-road-chinas-excess-capacity-problem-2024-04-04/
https://mstdn.ca/@MarkhamHislop/112213348434455569
Further signs that the West has become too dug in and deeply seated with Oil and Gas. US GOV's only strategy is to slow electrification to give Domestic companies time to make the needed investments to change over.
There are anecdotes that even if the Domestic companies are selling EVs, their ability to maintain and service their own product is limited. Customers face relatively long wait times compared to ICE products. This is an incomplete roll out that shows how flat footed Western car companies are in the face of demand.
But, make no mistake, there's a movement underway to transform energy infrastructure. AB has a window of opportunity to keep up.
Whoa.
Does this mean that legacy automakers like GM, Ford, VW, etc can't compete with small EVs?
If it does, then which portion of the market can they compete in?
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-scraps-low-cost-car-plans-amid-fierce-chinese-ev-competition-2024-04-05/
https://mstdn.ca/@MarkhamHislop/112219456471761467
To follow up on Markham Hislop's comments, China's EV and battery companies are ramping up competition. Western domestic companies can barely figure out how to even make profit.
AB can still position itself properly by treating our Renewables Industry with the merits deserved. There is an incredible potential in AB for electric/renewable infrastructure if AB GOV was not so dedicated in mismanaging its energy file.
Keen observers will already point out that the AB Renewables industry is subject to exclusion zones due to protecting “pristine viewscapes”, but the Oil and Gas industry can reform the entire countryside with earthquakes caused by industrial activity.
Microplastics and health
We're immersed in plastics and #fossilfuel companies want to keep it coming. We need to phaseout #plastics as rapidly as possible: Study links microplastics in arteries to huge increase in heart disease and death #microplastics #plastics #health https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/03/07/microplastics-found-in-human-arteries-linked-with-death-risk-increase/72877351007/
Worse still, according to Phillip Meintzer, it appears “According to information obtained from the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER), from 2010 to 2023, Alberta collected just 71 cents from oilsands operators to put toward cleaning up the vast toxic tailings spread across the landscape and to remediate mine sites. That’s less than one dollar collected over 13 years from some of the richest companies on the planet, which posted $38.3 billion in combined profits in 2022 alone.”
AB is holding a lot of baggage for Oil and Gas. Albertans should be asking Oil and Gas to pay up and clean up. To Premier Smith - AB’s strategy should not be a radio host’s strategy of selling messages like ad spots.
Premier Smith’s hard and soft renewables moratorium is part of a misguided attempt to squeeze any remaining value out of Oil and Gas Stranded Assets at the expense of other industries. AB would do well to note the other big players are repositioning themselves for the electrified future.
So far, and perhaps in misguided fashion, companies like Toyota are offering hydrogen as an answer. But these alternatives are late. Toyota appears to be trying to soak up whatever they can from their hybrid models until they absolutely cannot. By then, it’s unclear whether Toyota will be able to even keep up - let alone match the environment of EV components that already exist in their superpower neighbour.
“According to a recent report by industry data provider MarkLines, Japan’s top automakers, Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Subaru, saw a 19.8% year-on-year decline in their car sales in China in the first half of 2023.”
https://asiafundmanagers.com/us/japan-loosing-ground-in-the-electric-vehicle-race/
The West is behind. Western countries have entangled themselves with Oil and Gas companies, and the existing power structures are simply trying to avoid being dethroned or slowing that process down. For Domestic Automakers, the West is trying to buy time for domestic business to at least reinforce positions in niche offers like trucks.
According to Kevin Dugan of the Intelligencer: “But if the U.S. is going to have a meaningfully electrified fleet, it needs the Big Three to sell these cars, which means making models that both appeal to the masses and earn them a profit — something that they haven’t quite figured out how to do.”
While pros and cons can be found in any technology, EVs promise efficiency. Over time, as battery chemistries are further mastered, this promise will be joined with lower costs of production.
https://www.motortrend.com/news/evs-more-efficient-than-internal-combustion-engines/
Chinese automakers have been cutting their teeth on EV technology - certainly not without its dangers or issues. But those lessons are already being built upon.
China is most likely the only major market where electrification is well underway. China’s renewables roll out, battery chemistry research, and EV companies have positioned themselves, and are posturing for what appears to be a second Asian Invasion of the North American car market by way of EVs and battery technology.
The West is behind on the electrification race. At this point the strategy is to buy time, but AB leaders should not be selling Albertans down the river to nowhere while we’re buying that time.
AB GOV caught flat footed somehow in the face of back to back to back drought conditions. Smith and the UCP have no answer to why they abandon farmers year over year while the climate is literally changing before our eyes.
“southern Alberta is experiencing an exceptional drought, the driest it has been in the past 50 years…”
UCP planning begins in earnest in 2023. In the meantime, farmers cannot even pivot to renewables generation in peace.
“’It's unlikely to think this kind of pause and decision will have no impact on investment,’ said Sara Hastings-Simon of the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy. ‘It's hard to know how large [the impact] is, but we're in a competitive market to attract capital.’”
Canada will continue to incentivize for an electrified future. AB's devastating “own goal" for stranded gas generation and renewable moratorium will have unknown and potentially long lasting impact.
"CBC News has learned that Ottawa will release final regulations it says will ensure that all new passenger cars sold in Canada by 2035 are zero-emission vehicles, a senior government source said.”