News roundup, 7 March 2025

- The Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the main agency responsible for cyberintelligence in Canada, is warning that some foreign powers (China, Russia, and Iran are specifically named) will "very likely" use artificial intelligence to try to influence the outcome of the impending federal election. No doubt this is a real risk, but it's kind of odd that they omit the United States from that list; if anything Trump has a much more direct interest in the outcome of the election than Putin, Xi, or Khamenei do. I guess they still find it too weird to say that, but they'd better get over it and start planning for it.

- Trump is once again pausing some of the tariffs imposed on Canada for another month. In response, the feds are deferring their second round of retaliatory tariffs, though the previous ones will remain in place for the time being. Manitoba premier Wab Kinew is not falling for it; the ban on US liquor in provincial liquor stores will remain in place, and Manitoba Hydro will be reviewing export contracts. Ontario's Doug Ford isn't falling for it either; he's slapping a 25% export duty on electricity from the province. BC's David Eby is slapping a toll on American commercial vehicles using the Alaska Highway. And Ottawa and the provinces have agreed to the free flow of alcohol between provinces.

- The CEO of Brown-Forman, maker of Jack Daniels, is quite indignant at Canadian provinces pulling his product from the shelves. He calls the move "worse than a tariff".

- Cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are worrying to Canadian weather and flood forecasters, who say this will impact their ability to predict dangerous situations.

- Denmark's division of PostNord (the postal service that country shares with Sweden) is completely eliminating traditional letter mail as of the end of this year, and will focus solely on parcel delivery. Pelle Dragsted, an MP with the leftwing Red-Green Alliance party, blames the introduction of competition from private companies for the decline in letter mail. This is at least partly correct, since private companies aren't bound by existing collective agreements and can thus pay their workers less. Of course, some of it is just cultural - Denmark is one of the most digitized countries in the world according to the article. Hardly anybody uses cash, and people have smartphone apps that serve as health cards and drivers' licenses. Even if the postal service didn't have to compete with the private sector, they'd still be having to compete with the digital world.

- Beckham Severight, the teen convicted of dangerous driving in the death of cyclist Rob Jenner, has been sentenced to three years in prison; this includes time served.

- Butterfly populations across the US have declined by 22% overall between 2000 and 2020. Some species had declined by as much as 50%; most worrisome though is the fact that there is no obvious pattern to the declines, though habitat loss, climate change, and pesticides are all suspected of being factors.

- The US Department of Defense is purging its websites of thousands of images that could be associated with anything that might offend the regime. Among the photos considered for removal is an image of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Whether the image is being removed for reminding the public that the US was the first and only country to use nuclear weapons in warfare, or for containing the word "gay", is not known.

A little good news

Too often we've been getting bad news on the environmental front. However, this week there have actually been a few good news stories. Firstly, cod on the Grand Banks have recovered dramatically, though conservationists warn that it's too soon to reopen the fishery.

Secondly, a species thought to have been extinct since the mid 19th century has been rediscovered:

A 'mythical' fly has been rediscovered after 160 years.

Thought to be the first fly driven to extinction by humans, it was also considered one of Europe's few endemic animals to have disappeared for good.

The bizarre fly was considered 'mythical' due to its orange head, its preference for living on dead animal carcasses, and the fact it was rarely sighted even in the 19th Century.

The discovery of the fly living in Spain is "sensational", say scientists.

From the BBC. But perhaps the best news is this:

The protective ozone layer in the earth's upper atmosphere has stopped thinning and should largely be restored by mid century thanks to a ban on harmful chemicals, UN scientists said on Thursday.

The "Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2010" report said a 1987 international treaty that phased out chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) — substances used in refrigerators, aerosol sprays and some packing foams — had been successful.

From the Telegraph. This is something to remember -- an international agreement to phase out a dangerous pollutant got positive results within 23 years. So maybe something can be achieved on the climate front too...

Decline of pollinators having an effect

Notwithstanding the potential breakthrough on colony collapse disorder, it's worth noting that even if that turns out to be successful, there are a lot of other problems facing pollinators in many parts of the world. Given this, it shouldn't be surprising that it's having an effect:

A decline in bees and global warming are having a damaging effect on the pollination of plants, new research claims.

Researchers have found that pollination levels of some plants have dropped by up to 50 per cent in the last two decades.

The "pollination deficit" could see a dramatic reduction in the yield from crops.

The research, carried out in the Rocky Mountains, Colorado, is the first to show that the effect is real and serves as a "warning" to Britain which if anything has seen an even greater decline in bees and pollinators.

"This serves as a warning to other countries," said Professor James Thomson at the University of Toronto, who carried out the research.

"For quite some time people have been suggesting that pollinators are in decline and that this could have an effect on pollination.

"I believe that this is the first real demonstration that pollination levels are getting worse. I believe it is a significant decline. I believe the pollination levels have dropped by as much as 50 per cent.

This is serious, as it could significantly affect the world's food supply if it happens in a lot of places. Interesting too is the explanation Thomson offers for the decline:

"Bee numbers may have declined at our research site, but we suspect that a climate-driven mismatch between the times when flowers open and when bees emerge from hibernation is a more important factor."

Interesting. So for instance if the bees come out of hibernation based on temperature, while the flowers opened based on some internal clock, any significant climate change could cause the bees to emerge too early to pollinate the flowers. Similar concerns have been raised about possible mismatches between emergences of boreal forest insects and the migrations of songbirds that prey on them. This could cause a decline in the birds and/or an increase in insect damage to the forest, with unpredictable results. Just another example of what a messy experiment we're conducting with the biosphere...

Some good environmental news for once

The Large Blue has been reintroduced to the UK:

Conservationists are hoping a wildlife success story - the large blue butterfly's return to the UK - will continue this year with a new record for numbers flying at a site where it was reintroduced.

The large blue had vanished from the British countryside by 1979, but a successful reintroduction project over the past 25 years has seen it return to 25 sites, including the National Trust's Collard Hill near Glastonbury, Somerset where it was brought back in 2000.

Last year a record 827 large blue butterflies emerged and flew on the National Trust site - a 22% increase on 2008, which in turn had been a record year.

Unfortunately, this seems to be the exception to the rule; this species and many others are declining on the European mainland.