Fort McMurray Reels Under 1.5% Infection Rate as Third Wave of COVID-19 Hits Alberta Oilpatch – The Energy Mix: Wood Buffalo, which includes the town of Fort McMurray, declared a state of emergency, CBC reports, and Health Minister Tyler Shandro said Wednesday Alberta would send a shipment of Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the area. The municipality was reporting 1,064 active cases earlier this week, the highest per capita rate in the province, with its classrooms shut down and its only hospital intensive care unit at capacity.

Those numbers are a major concern for First Nations in the area. “It’s out of control,” said Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam, who attributed the surge in new cases to the number of fossil workers flying in and out of the area.

“I am more worried about our health care system,” Adam told Bloomberg. “If that collapses, then all hell breaks loose.”

Fort McMurray Reels Under 1.5% Infection Rate as Third Wave of COVID-19 Hits Alberta Oilpatch – The Energy Mix: Wood Buffalo, which includes the town of Fort McMurray, declared a state of emergency, CBC reports, and Health Minister Tyler Shandro said Wednesday Alberta would send a shipment of Johnson & Johnson vaccine to the area. The municipality was reporting 1,064 active cases earlier this week, the highest per capita rate in the province, with its classrooms shut down and its only hospital intensive care unit at capacity.Those numbers are a major concern for First Nations in the area. “It’s out of control,” said Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation Chief Allan Adam, who attributed the surge in new cases to the number of fossil workers flying in and out of the area.“I am more worried about our health care system,” Adam told Bloomberg. “If that collapses, then all hell breaks loose.”Read More

COVID-19’s lessons for the climate movement – Open Canada: From the start, the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in mass
mobilization and collective effort that the climate movement can only
dream of. The sheer number of stories in the news, to say nothing of the
daily public health announcements and appeals for social distancing and
masking, demonstrate a level of engagement and concern never seen in
the climate movement.  

Is it possible for a similar campaign to get off the ground with
regard to the climate emergency — a far graver threat to the long-term
health of our world and those who live in it than the pandemic? The
answer is yes, but it requires changing how we communicate this
crisis.  

COVID-19’s lessons for the climate movement – Open Canada: From the start, the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in mass
mobilization and collective effort that the climate movement can only
dream of. The sheer number of stories in the news, to say nothing of the
daily public health announcements and appeals for social distancing and
masking, demonstrate a level of engagement and concern never seen in
the climate movement.  Is it possible for a similar campaign to get off the ground with
regard to the climate emergency — a far graver threat to the long-term
health of our world and those who live in it than the pandemic? The
answer is yes, but it requires changing how we communicate this
crisis.  Read More

Climate change could affect Canadian GDP more than pandemic | Investment Executive: Canada will be more than $100 billion poorer by 2050 if the
world doesn’t work harder to fight climate change, says one of the
world’s largest insurers.

That anticipated drop in gross domestic product (GDP) is much higher
than the economic effect that the Covid-19 pandemic is projected to have
on the country’s GDP, said Jerome Haegeli, chief economist for Swiss
Re, a multinational corporation that insures insurance companies, large
corporations and governments.

“That’s huge,” Haegeli said from Zurich on Thursday.

Swiss Re looked at 48 countries, as well as North America and the
European Union as a whole, to try to assess the economic effects of
climate change under different scenarios.

Climate change could affect Canadian GDP more than pandemic | Investment Executive: Canada will be more than $100 billion poorer by 2050 if the
world doesn’t work harder to fight climate change, says one of the
world’s largest insurers.That anticipated drop in gross domestic product (GDP) is much higher
than the economic effect that the Covid-19 pandemic is projected to have
on the country’s GDP, said Jerome Haegeli, chief economist for Swiss
Re, a multinational corporation that insures insurance companies, large
corporations and governments.“That’s huge,” Haegeli said from Zurich on Thursday.Swiss Re looked at 48 countries, as well as North America and the
European Union as a whole, to try to assess the economic effects of
climate change under different scenarios.Read More

Ontario Creates ‘Innovation Wasteland’ with Latest Renewables Rollback, Critic Warns – The Energy Mix: “It’s almost like dealing with a government that has an allergy to renewable energy, but it’s more than that,” Winfield told The Energy Mix.
“This is a program of extermination, for lack of a better way of
describing it. They’re going through the last vestiges of the [former]
Green Energy Act that facilitate renewables in the province and
systematically eliminating them. Other than in ideological terms, it
doesn’t make any sense.”

“Doug Ford’s government continues to demonstrate evidence-free
decision-making,” agreed Greenpeace Canada Senior Energy Strategist
Keith Stewart. “Renewable energy was always the cleanest form of power,
but in the last few years it has become the cheapest form of new
generation. We should be welcoming it into the mix, not strangling it
with red tape.”

Ontario Creates ‘Innovation Wasteland’ with Latest Renewables Rollback, Critic Warns – The Energy Mix: “It’s almost like dealing with a government that has an allergy to renewable energy, but it’s more than that,” Winfield told The Energy Mix.
“This is a program of extermination, for lack of a better way of
describing it. They’re going through the last vestiges of the [former]
Green Energy Act that facilitate renewables in the province and
systematically eliminating them. Other than in ideological terms, it
doesn’t make any sense.”“Doug Ford’s government continues to demonstrate evidence-free
decision-making,” agreed Greenpeace Canada Senior Energy Strategist
Keith Stewart. “Renewable energy was always the cleanest form of power,
but in the last few years it has become the cheapest form of new
generation. We should be welcoming it into the mix, not strangling it
with red tape.”Read More

Kenney’s Coal ‘Review’ Is Just One More Betrayal | The Tyee: To hide the deed from the public, Kenney axed the policy on a Friday before a May long weekend during a pandemic.

At the same time, Environment Minister Jason Nixon proposed to amend the Oldman River Basin Water Allocation Order to take water set aside for irrigators and conservation and give it to Aussie coal miners such as billionaire Gina Rinehart, who owns the proposed Grassy Mountain project.

Kenney’s Coal ‘Review’ Is Just One More Betrayal | The Tyee: To hide the deed from the public, Kenney axed the policy on a Friday before a May long weekend during a pandemic.At the same time, Environment Minister Jason Nixon proposed to amend the Oldman River Basin Water Allocation Order to take water set aside for irrigators and conservation and give it to Aussie coal miners such as billionaire Gina Rinehart, who owns the proposed Grassy Mountain project.Read More