Southeast Alaska: After 65 years of waiting, an acid waste-generating abandoned mine in the Taku River watershed may finally be cleaned up. Posted & Edited By MARY KAUFFMAN - The Tulsequah Chief Mine, located near the confluence of the Tulsequah and Taku Rivers in British Columbia, has long been a source of acid mine contamination as well as frustration for those downstream in Alaska. The former gold mine, which ceased operation in 1957, has been a political and legal football for decades. In mid-August, however, a court-mandated deadline ended for a creditor owed money by the Tulsequah Chief’s bankrupt owner, Chieftain Metals.

West Face Capital, the creditor, had until August 11, 2022 to reappoint a receiver in hopes someone would buy the mine. Before that, the B.C. government was reluctant to begin the estimated $100 million cleanup.

British Columbia on August 12, 2022 announced the end of the bankruptcy receivership for Chieftain Metals, owner of the abandoned Tulsequah Chief mine. The receivership hindered B.C.’s efforts to clean up the site and was the major obstacle in the way of mine closure and cleanup. Now that receivership is over, the Taku River Tlingit First Nation, the Douglas Indian Association and the Southeast Indigenous Transboundary Commission (SEITC) are calling on the B.C. government to honor its commitment to end decades of toxic acidic mine discharge into the transboundary Taku watershed.

The Tulsequah Chief Mine is a historic underground copper/lead/zinc mine which was operated by Cominco from 1951 to 1957. The mine is located on the Tulsequah River about 6.2 miles upstream from its confluence with the Taku River, in the traditional territory of the Taku River Tlingit First Nation.

“This is very good news. The receivership hindered B.C.’s efforts to stop the pollution from Tulsequah Chief and clean up the site and was the major procedural hurdle to clear. Now, our First Nation and Alaska Native Tribal governments call on B.C. to start taking specific steps toward turning its commitments into action,” said Charmaine Thom, Taku River Tlingit First Nation Spokesperson.

“We are celebrating this long overdue step. We strongly support the TRTFN and will do all we can to ensure B.C. makes good on its commitment to solve the Tulsequah Chief problem. In 2015, then B.C. Mines Minister Bill Bennett came to Juneau and promised to address this situation; seven years later we are still waiting,” said Douglas Indian Association President Clarence Laiti.

“Salmon and other traditional foods are the foundation of our culture and transboundary rivers such as the Taku have nourished our communities since time immemorial. We are in solidarity with the TRTFN and urge the B.C. government match its commitments with real on the ground action to clean up the Tulsequah Chief mine,” said Southeast Indigenous Transboundary Commission Chair Robert Sanderson, Jr.

“We’re thrilled that the last bureaucratic hurdles are being cleared and we urge the B.C. government to move quickly to fix this decades-long mess,” said Breanna Walker, director of Salmon Beyond Borders. “While we are optimistic this source of acid mine waste contamination will soon be brought under control, it does not obscure the fact this took far too long and much larger mines loom on the horizon."

Elsewhere in the Taku watershed, as well as the transboundary Stikine and Unuk river systems, a modern day gold rush is underway. 

“In the Taku watershed alone, B.C. is allowing mining speculators to stake hundreds of square miles of claims literally right up to the U.S. border — and the situation is even worse in the Stikine and Unuk watersheds,” said Walker. “In the Unuk, for example, 88% of the B.C. side of the watershed is staked with B.C. mining claims. We waited 65 years for B.C. to initiate cleanup of Tulsequah Chief, and it was a tiny mine compared to those now operating and planned in the transboundary region.” - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

Ketchikan: Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce and Alaska Southern Southeast Builders Industry Association Announce Services Agreement - The Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce announced they have entered into a definitive managed services agreement with the Alaska Southern Southeast Builders Industry Association (SSEABIA).

Under the terms of the agreement, which has been unanimously approved by both The Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors and The Alaska Southern Southeast Builders Association Industry Boards of Directors, both organizations will operate as separate legal entities.  The two will share the space currently occupied by the Chamber of Commerce on the second floor of  the Plaza. The Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce will direct marketing, publicity, membership, and events management for SSEABIA, and Michelle O’Brien will fill dual roles as Executive Director of both organizations.

Current Acting Executive Offer for SSEABIA, AJ Pierce, stated "This partnership exemplifies what our community is about, and that's working together for the common good. This comes at a time when we all need to support each other in creative ways to not only address our affordable housing issues which impact our entire economy, but also to continue to grow awareness of our vibrant construction industry." - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

Risk of volcano catastrophe 'a roll of the dice'
Mount Rinjani, Indonesia (stock image).
Credit: © Wirestock Creators / stock.adobe.com

Nature: Risk of volcano catastrophe 'a roll of the dice' - The world is "woefully underprepared" for a massive volcanic eruption and the likely repercussions on global supply chains, climate and food, according to experts from the University of Cambridge's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk (CSER), and the University of Birmingham.

In an article published in the journal Nature, they say there is a "broad misconception" that risks of major eruptions are low, and describe current lack of governmental investment in monitoring and responding to potential volcano disasters as "reckless."

However, the researchers argue that steps can be taken to protect against volcanic devastation -- from improved surveillance to increased public education and magma manipulation -- and the resources needed to do so are long overdue.

"Data gathered from ice cores on the frequency of eruptions over deep time suggests there is a one-in-six chance of a magnitude seven explosion in the next one hundred years. That's a roll of the dice," said article co-author and CSER researcher Dr Lara Mani, an expert in global risk.

"Such gigantic eruptions have caused abrupt climate change and collapse of civilisations in the distant past."

Mani compares the risk of a giant eruption to that of a 1km-wide asteroid crashing into Earth. Such events would have similar climatic consequences, but the likelihood of a volcanic catastrophe is hundreds of times higher than the combined chances of an asteroid or comet collision.

"Hundreds of millions of dollars are pumped into asteroid threats every year, yet there is a severe lack of global financing and coordination for volcano preparedness," Mani said. "This urgently needs to change. We are completely underestimating the risk to our societies that volcanoes pose."

An eruption in Tonga in January was the largest ever instrumentally recorded. The researchers argue that if it had gone on longer, released more ash and gas, or occurred in an area full of critical infrastructure -- such as the Mediterranean -- then global shock waves could have been devastating. - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

Alaska Science: Hunga volcano eruption provides an explosion of data By ROD BOYCE - The massive Jan. 15, 2022, eruption of the Hunga submarine volcano in the South Pacific Ocean created a variety of atmospheric wave types, including booms heard 6,200 miles away in Alaska. It also created an atmospheric pulse that caused an unusual tsunami-like disturbance that arrived at Pacific shores sooner than the actual tsunami.

Those are among the many observations reported by a team of 76 scientists from 17 nations that researched the eruption’s atmospheric waves, the largest known from a volcano since the 1883 Krakatau eruption. The team’s work, compiled in an unusually short amount of time due to significant scientific interest in the eruption, was published today in the journal Science.

David Fee, director of the Wilson Alaska Technical Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, is a leading author of the research paper and among four of the center's researchers involved in the work. - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

UAF scientists lead Arctic section of State of the Climate report
By HEATHER MCFARLAND
Photo Courtesy: August 2022 Report: State of the Climate in 2021 in the Arctic

Alaska Science: UAF scientists lead Arctic section of State of the Climate report By HEATHER MCFARLAND - University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists at the International Arctic Research Center are among world experts leading the State of the Climate report, which summarizes global environmental conditions in 2021.

IARC’s Rick Thoman is once again the lead editor of the Arctic chapter, which shares a comprehensive update on the region’s climate indicators, notable weather events and more. Thoman emphasized that the sections on Arctic pollution and glacier change are of particular interest to Alaskans.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists compile the annual report, which was published Aug. 31 by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society.

Several other IARC scientists are authors or co-authors of sections within the Arctic chapter. Below are highlights from their work: 

Several other IARC scientists are authors or co-authors of sections within the Arctic chapter. Below are highlights from their work: 

Tom Ballinger is lead author, Uma Bhatt, John Walsh and Rick Thoman are co-authors of the Arctic Surface Air Temperature section. 

•Temperatures across mainland Alaska were near or below average during 2021. The North Slope was colder than normal in winter and the Interior was colder than normal in fall.
• Temperatures in the Arctic basin were not notably different from normal.
• Canada’s eastern Arctic and Greenland were warmer than normal in most seasons.
• Northern Eurasia was unusually cool in winter 2021, then unusually warm (again) in spring 2021.
• Spring 2021 was the fourth warmest on record in the Arctic since 1900. - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

Mosquitoes have neuronal fail-safes to make sure they can always smell humans
Mosquito on skin (stock image).
Credit: © frank29052515 / stock.adobe.com

Science: Mosquitoes have neuronal fail-safes to make sure they can always smell humans - When female mosquitoes are looking for a human to bite, they smell a unique cocktail of body odors that we emit into the air. These odors then stimulate receptors in the mosquitoes' antenna. Scientists have tried deleting these receptors in attempts to make humans undetectable to mosquitoes.

However, even after knocking out an entire family of odor-sensing receptors from the mosquito genome, mosquitoes still find a way to bite us. Now, a group of researchers, publishing in the journal Cell on August 18, 2022 found that mosquitoes have evolved redundant fail-safes in their olfactory system that make sure they can always smell our scents.

"Mosquitoes are breaking all of our favorite rules of how animals smell things," says Margo Herre, a scientist at Rockefeller University and one of the lead authors of the paper.

In most animals, an olfactory neuron is only responsible for detecting one type of odor. "If you're a human and you lose a single odorant receptor, all of the neurons that express that receptor will lose the ability to smell that smell," says Leslie Vosshall of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and a professor at Rockefeller University and the senior author of the paper. But she and her colleagues found that this is not the case in mosquitoes.

"You need to work harder to break mosquitoes because getting rid of a single receptor has no effect," says Vosshall. "Any future attempts to control mosquitoes by repellents or anything else has to take into account how unbreakable their attraction is to us."

"This project really started unexpectedly when we were looking at how human odor was encoded in the mosquito brain," says Meg Younger, a professor at Boston University and one of the lead authors of the paper. - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

Alaska Science - Technology: Birds migrate along ancient routes – here are the latest high-tech tools scientists are using to study their amazing journeys By TOM LANGEN - Although it still feels like beach weather across much of North America, billions of birds have started taking wing for one of nature’s great spectacles: fall migration. Birds fly south from the northern U.S. and Canada to wintering grounds in the southern U.S., Caribbean and Latin America, sometimes covering thousands of miles. Other birds leave temperate Eurasia for Africa, tropical Asia or Australia.

Using observation records and data collected through bird banding, 20th-century ornithologists roughly mapped general migration routes and timing for most migratory species. Later, using radar at airports and weather stations, they discovered how weather and other factors affect when birds migrate and how high they fly.

Today, technological advances are providing new insights into bird migration and showing that it is more complex and wonderful than scientists ever imagined. These new and constantly improving technologies are key aids for protecting migratory birds in the face of habitat loss and other threats. - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

JOE GUZZARDI: LABOR DAY VICTORY FOR MINOR LEAGUE BALLPLAYERS - Midway during the Major League Baseball owners’ lockout of its players, I promised myself that I was done.

No more universal DH, ghost runner, launch angles, tender limbs, watered down Hall of Fame standards and – most of all – no more haggling between the billionaire owners, the multimillionaire players and meddlesome, anti-baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred. I pledged not to watch or listen to one-third of any inning of any 2022 game.

Unlike more important self-help vows I’ve made, I stuck to my pledge – no small feat for a fan whose summers for the last seven decades have included daily baseball doses. - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

MICHAEL REAGAN: How much does President Biden dislike America? Let us count the ways. - Last week, our phony uniter-in-chief called about half of the country – Republicans and all red-hatted supporters of Donald Trump – semi-fascists.

His press secretary – the person who has the impossible job of trying to clarify, excuse or walk-back Biden’s daily gaffes and deranged attacks on his fellow Americans – said later that the president was not exaggerating by using the political f-word.

“When you look at the definition of fascism,” she said at a press conference without knowing what fascism is, “and you think about what [Republicans] are doing in attacking our democracy, what they’re doing in taking away our freedoms, wanting to take away our rights, that is what that is.” - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

TAYLOR KOVAR: Ask Taylor: What's Up With Gas Prices? - Hi Taylor - I am very happy to finally be paying less for gas after a rough couple of months. Do you know what exactly changed? It feels like prices ramped up and then came back down without any obvious shift in policy or world events, but maybe I’m missing something.  - Melissa

Hey Melissa - I agree! A trip to the gas station feels a lot better now than it did a few months back. It’s also true that the price drop has come without a singular, identifiable catalyst, mostly because a lot of factors play into the cost of fuel. As much as certain people want to place blame and take credit for what you pay at the pump, it’s not always that black and white.  - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

FINANCIAL FOCUS: Are you properly insured? Provided By BEN EDWARDS, AAMS® - You probably won’t see it on your calendar, but September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. And it is indeed important to be aware of the importance of life insurance. Are you adequately insured?

Many people aren’t. About 40% of Americans face some type of life insurance gap, either because they’re uninsured or underinsured, according to a 2021 survey by the research and advocacy groups LIMRA and Life Happens.

The need for life insurance is pretty straightforward: If something were to happen to you, would your family be able to continue their same lifestyle? Would the mortgage still be paid? Would your children still be able to further their education? - More...
Saturday - September 03, 2022

POLITICAL CARTOONS

Political Cartoon:  National - Poor voter turnout
by John Cole©2022, Tennessee, Lookout, TennesseeLookout.com
Distributed to subscribers for publication by CagleCartoons.com

Political Cartoon: Biden and MAGA Republicans
by Dick Wright©2022, PoliticalCartoons.com
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Political Cartoon:  Democrats Defund The Police
by Dick Wright©2022, PoliticalCartoons.com
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Political Cartoon:  Defunding the Police By Dems
by Gary McCoy, Shiloh©2022, IL
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Political Cartoon: From the mainstream to the X stream
by Dave Whamond©2022, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com
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Political Cartoon: Labor Day
by John Darkow, Columbia Missourian
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Political Cartoon:  The Lottery
by Rivers©2022, CagleCartoons.com
Distributed to subscribers for publication by CagleCartoons.com