Canada unveils new critical minerals strategy eyeing ‘generational opportunity’ – National | Globalnews.ca: Canada has a new plan to spend billions on boosting its critical minerals
sector amid a “generational opportunity” to secure the supply chains
that will power everything from electric vehicles to solar panels and
wind turbines.

The federal government unveiled its roadmap Friday that focuses on
driving exploration and building sustainable infrastructure in order to
avoid the economic risks that come from relying on international
partners that don’t share common values, alluding to the challenges
facing European allies struggling with Russia’s weaponization of energy
supplies.

Minister of Natural Resources Jonathan Wilkinson
said the strategy – backed by nearly $4 billion in the 2022 federal
budget – will help create jobs across the country and grow the economy.

Wilkinson called it a “roadmap to making Canada a clean energy and technology supplier of choice in a net-zero world.”

This Planet Is Drying Up. And these Are the Consequences: MADRID, Dec 1 2022  (IPS) – Drought
is one of the ‘most destructive’ natural disasters in terms of the loss
of life, arising from impacts, such as wide-scale crop failure,
wildfires and water stress.

In other words, droughts are one of the “most feared natural
phenomena in the world;” they devastate farmland, destroy livelihoods
and cause untold suffering, as reported by the world’s top specialised bodies: the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD).

They occur when an area experiences a shortage of water supply due to
a lack of rainfall or lack of surface or groundwater. And they can last
for weeks, months or years.

Exacerbated by land degradation and climate change, droughts are
increasing in frequency and severity, up 29% since 2000, with 55 million
people affected every year.

By 2050, droughts may affect an estimated three-quarters of the world’s
population. This means that agricultural production will have to
increase by 60% to meet the global food demand in 2050.

This means that about 71% of the world’s irrigated area and 47% of
major cities are to experience at least periodic water shortages. If
this trend continues, the scarcity and associated water quality problems
will lead to competition and conflicts among water users, adds the
Convention.

Migration to other social media platforms shows no signs of slowing following Elon Musk’s chaotic takeover at Twitter, report says: A new report is helping visualize the changes many Twitter users face
as both new and old social media platforms vie for their attention. The
movement has been dubbed the #TwitterMigration, a hashtag referring to
users relocating to other online communities.

Twitter has always been chaotic but it has been even more so in the midst of Elon Musk’s turbulent takeover. Since Musk closed the $44 billion deal to purchase the bird app, he’s shared conspiracy theories, antisemitic rhetoric has spread rapidly, and users will soon have to pay $8 to be verified on the platform.

In
response to his antics, users are either maintaining their accounts and
starting new profiles elsewhere or moving to other social networks
entirely to share their thoughts.

The movement shows no signs of slowing, according to a report published on Friday by Dewey Square Group, a political consulting firm.

What Caused Alberta’s Record Quake? Check Drilling, Experts Say | The Tyee: The oil and gas industry operates oil wells in the region and there
are numerous well pads near the epicentre of the quake. Around 50,000 of
700,000 oil and gas wells drilled in Alberta are used to dispose of
waste or produced water.

I was doing some work around Peace River a couple of years ago. I took this picture on the way to a service call. It’s a beautiful area.

The Alberta Energy Regulator did
acknowledge wastewater disposal wells in the area. “While there are
fluid disposal operations in the region, none are in the immediate
vicinity of the seismic events, nor have there been changes in the rates
of fluid disposal over the past year,” the AER wrote in an email to The
Tyee.

The regulator made no mention that fluid injection can unpredictably cause tremors tens of kilometres away from the triggering drill site. Or that earthquakes can occur kilometres below the injection site.  Texas studies show that even shallow waste water disposal can cause deep earthquakes.

Water injection as a byproduct of drilling for oil and gas has generated tremors measuring 5.0 or higher in Oklahoma and other oil and gas regions such as British Columbia.

Earthquakes ranging
from magnitudes of 5.0 to 5.9 are readily felt and can cause damage to
buildings. Earthquakes 6.0 and up can damage even structures made to be
earthquake proof.

In the 1980 and 1990s water injection to recover oil in the Eagle West field started a swarm of quakes around Fort St. John, B.C., which until then had been classified as a low seismic area.

The record breaking Alberta quakes follow a similar swarm of tremors caused by a fracking operation in northern B.C. just three weeks ago.

Expert calls for ‘detailed investigation and review’