1 Week, 7 Stories
Energy plans, planning for a summer job, and urban planning to make our cities more liveable.
Every edition features 7 stories, from the past week. I’ll draw on my background in media, journalism, agriculture, biotech, and renewable energy to come up with an interesting selection and do my best to offer some context.
Sometimes built around a theme, sometimes random, but with a Canadian twist.
Energy Plans. Governments make them, corporations trot them out when challenged, and even homeowners and their families are known to have created an energy plan. Some plans are to save money, some to save at least one tiny piece of our environment, and some have grand aspirations. But let’s face it – many, many clean energy plans are on a road to nowhere.
The Talking Heads summed it :
… Well, we know where we're goin'
But we don't know where we've been
And we know what we're knowin'
But we can't say what we've seen
In Quebec, the Parti Québécois said the province has “no clear energy plan”, let alone a long-term vision. The province is home to low-cost clean hydropower and is investing in wind and hydrogen, but the PQ say they are getting mixed messages from Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec government. The updated 2030 Plan for a Green Economy was released in June of last year with the aspiration of becoming the “green battery of northeastern North America”, but this week was lowering expectations on its emissions targets.
Meanwhile here in sunny Alberta we are celebrating our own Emissions Reduction and Energy Development Plan which was released one year ago. Celebrating because by doing little, it has cost us little while convincing ourselves of the Environment Minister’s message that “"We are taking a practical, effective approach that supports jobs, our growing economy and the demands of safe, reliable energy." The Pembina Institute was more hard-nosed in its assessment of our progress to date and said in its new report that the Government of Alberta has yet to make meaningful progress.
What was the other verse of Road to Nowhere?
I'm feelin' okay this mornin'
And you know
We're on a road to paradise
Here we go, here we go
We all get sick at some point and often end up in a doctor’s office or clinic describing our symptoms and leaving with a one-size-fits-all answer or treatment. That is not a bad thing in many instances. But what about when the problem is more complex to diagnose and difficult to treat? Enter precision medicine or personalised medicine. That is when our environment, lifestyle, and genetic make-up (and often the genetic make-up of the disease itself) are key components of diagnosis and treatment.
With the emergence of rapid gene sequencing techniques, genetic diseases are easier to spot and treat. Research at SickKids in Toronto is a good example of how precision therapies can catch cancers early.
Despite the promise, we are not there yet says Stat News. (A great source for medicine, health, and life science news btw). There have been two decades worth of focused research and progress in the field but there is a widening gap between been the research department and what is practiced in the doctor’s office or clinic. In Calgary, the Cumming School of Medicine offers a special Precision Health Program that will help these new tools become part of general knowledge for health care practitioners.
The cost of the new diagnostic tools, the special knowledge needed, and the economics of funding research for rare or hard to detect diseases are a challenge to implementation. The result is disparity between who can benefit from precision medicine and who cannot. That is why more programs like the one at the University of Calgary are needed if we are to make the promise a reality.
On CBC Calgary radio this week there was an interesting interview with University of Lethbridge psychology professor Jennifer Mather. She is a signatory to the New York Declaration on Animal Consciousness:
Which animals have the capacity for conscious experience? While much uncertainty remains, some points of wide agreement have emerged.
First, there is strong scientific support for attributions of conscious experience to other mammals and to birds.
Second, the empirical evidence indicates at least a realistic possibility of conscious experience in all vertebrates (including reptiles, amphibians, and fishes) and many invertebrates (including, at minimum, cephalopod mollusks, decapod crustaceans, and insects).
Third, when there is a realistic possibility of conscious experience in an animal, it is irresponsible to ignore that possibility in decisions affecting that animal. We should consider welfare risks and use the evidence to inform our responses to these risks.
To sum it up, the declaration says that all vertebrates and invertebrates have some kind of consciousness. If you have a pet, you have probably had the sneaking suspicion that there is more to the furry four-legged creature pacing about the house than they let on. The declaration takes the notion further to include bees, crayfish, snakes, and just about any other critter that you can think of. A CTV report says that doesn’t necessarily mean these animals are having “internal monologues”, but as Professor Mather says they are at least self monitoring, planning for the future, and learning from their environment to make good decisions.
If this is true to its fullest extent and the Declaration were to be widely supported, the ethical implications are significant. Stevan Harnad from the University of Quebec is also one of the signatories and he offers some good insight in this short interview from Canadian Press.
I used to live on a small ranch northwest of Calgary. Neighbours were a couple of kilometres away, we relied on a well for water, had a great wood burning stove for backup heat when the power failed, and could look out the window at a stretch of fields, trees, and wildlife. I’ve been in the city now for 8 years or so and have not made peace with the noise, but enjoy high speed internet, and good coffee and a pub within walking distance. I am one of the more than 80% of Canadian’s who live in cities, but those cities need to change and adapt. For a really good look at the challenge I point you to the Spring edition of The Monitor, published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. Lots to read and because it is a free download you can take your time on thinking about where we’ll be living in a few decades.
There are challenges ahead. By 2030 we’ll have more megacities of 10 million plus residents and 60% of the global population will be urban dwellers where they will face demographic, social, and environmental imbalances. An article in Forbes this week suggests that the stresses of city life are reaching the point where “you should seriously reconsider city living”. That is not possible for most of the world and the article does offer some ideas to mitigate the risks. Many cities are trying to re-develop empty office buildings into residential spaces and The Washington Post asks what about all of our parking lots? It should be no surprise that when it comes to climate change, cities are on the front lines of sustainability and an opinion piece in the Montreal Gazette outlines where transformation can take place.
There is no single solution, no practice that will work in every metro centre, no technology that will solve it all. A new Future Cities Institute was launched this month at the University of Waterloo, but for all the promise it may hold, there needs to be action.
Keep your eyes on the skylines of the world for what lies ahead and hope that what you see is not crumbling buildings.
For all their brilliance, luster, and premium price, diamonds are just a bunch of carbon atoms squeezed together about 200 kms (125 miles) below the surface of the earth at extremely high pressure and temperatures above 1600° C. Unless of course they are made in a lab like the latest start-up on the scene as reported in TechCrunch this week.
Diamonds made in the lab have the same chemical and physical properties, including durability, as the real thing. They are also cheaper and for the average buyer and look the same, though mining companies might argue otherwise. ABC News is running a series on issues related to climate change and one of its latest stories addresses whether “lab-grown diamonds as sustainable as advertised”. The answer is ‘ish’. Mimicking the temperatures and pressures that resulted in natural diamonds requires a lot of energy which has an environmental cost. Natural diamonds come from mines whether they are open-pit, underground, or underwater, but labs are far less disruptive. There is also the consideration of the labour that goes into mining for the natural product. Not only are unfair labour practices prevalent in many countries, but blood diamonds mined in conflict zones to fund war efforts, rebel movements, or terrorism are a serious concern. Noting a rare moment of agreement, a Toronto Star story says Russia has joined with the West to tackle the blood diamond trade (though arguably to protect its on industry).
While artificial diamonds are not a perfect option that start-up that I opened this story with, has managed to raise nearly $10 million in VC funding and expects to generate upwards of $20 million in revenue this year. Diamonds it seems are best friends to a lot of people.
I go to the fitness centre at the University of Calgary regularly and for the past few weeks have been hearing a lot of talk from the students about what lies ahead for the summer. While we were still shivering through January many students were looking for summer work already and have things planned out until the start of the Fall Semester. Others are not so well organized or have simply not had much success in the job hunt as is the case for many young people across the country. It is the worst for those in the 15 to 24 age bracket. The 2024 Federal Summer Jobs program was launched this week to fund full time jobs, averaging 8 weeks in duration. While not a bad start, for university students that will not likely pay tuition, let alone cover accommodation. In Alberta the Summer Temporary Employment Program which supported summer employment with wage subsidies to employers was cancelled this year and it is contributing to what was already described as a thin summer job market in the province.
An alternative to a straight up, paid summer jobs are internships. These are often unpaid opportunities to work in a specific industry or sector alongside experienced staff. They are also harder to find as demand is exceeding supply. What was seen as a chance to get specific experience and exposure to employers is now described by Fortune magazine as being broken and leaving many students without a chance at securing a valuable work experience.
For all those who trying to find summer work and minimize student loan debt, good luck in the search and leave me a comment or send a message if you need some mentoring advice in the PR and communications field.
The voting is complete, and the ballots have been counted. The results were not even close as the common earthworm ( Lumbricus terrestris ) took 38% of the vote to become the invertebrate of the year in the United Kingdom. The shrill calder bee was a distant second with only 15% of the vote.
While we wait for the earthworm to complete its victory lap, it is worth considering the important role of these champions. They turn over the soil, are a source of food for the early bird, and chew their way through dead plants, fallen leaves, and fungi. Our native North American earthworm was mostly wiped out during the ice age and what we are used to seeing in Canada now is actually an invasive species introduced by European settlers. While the wriggly ones have proven to be important in agriculture and gardening, they can become a problem in forests and there is a case to be made for managing earthworms. A paper in Nature Ecology & Evolution says that earthworms are a part of a pool of overlooked invasive species that need to be managed. Only the abstract of the paper (which included a Canadian author) is available to non-subscribers, but PhysOrg offers a good summary of how we should view our alien visitors.
So unless there is a judicial recount, raise a glass to our (mostly) friend - the earthworm.
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I’m available for contract and freelance work with not-for-profits and charities. With 40 years of experience behind me and lots of time ahead of me, I’m here to help you make a difference in your media relations, public relations, and general communications needs.