Severe drought leads to urgent order for Manitoba Hydro to raise rates by 4% on Jan. 1

CBC News

Crown corporation requested 3 consecutive rate hikes of 3.5%. Story here.

SHOULD WE WORRY ABOUT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE? NEW RESEARCH SUGGESTS - WE PROBABLY SHOULD!

by Larry Powell

Chat GPT generated this image, representing AI. No humans are present.
Author: Alenoach.

Findings by a team of Dutch scientists, just published in *Science Direct show, AI systems globally may well have produced more than 72m tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2025 alone. That’s the equivalent of all of New York City’s carbon footprint for that year. 

They may have also consumed 765 billion litres of water in that same time span. That’s in the range of all of the bottled water consumed, worldwide.

And their power demand could approach that of a country the size of the United Kingdom.

AI data center operators do not publicly disclose the detail needed for more precise figures. So the findings are estimates only. 

"Further disclosures are urgently required," say the researchers, "to improve the accuracy of these estimates and to responsibly manage the growing environmental impact of AI systems.” They further suggest the AI sector be required to provide such vital information. 

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*ScienceDirect is a go-to resource for finding authoritative, peer-reviewed research in nearly every scientific field, leveraging digital technology for broad accessibility and efficient discovery. 

BOOK LINK

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Retraction of glyphosate review raises new questions about landmark study

Manitoba Co-Operator

An influential review that helped support global claims of glyphosate safety has been formally retracted, raising questions about the future of the pesticide. Story here.

Please also read and watch story here.

A WORK OF FICTION (OBVIOUSLY), BUT WITH A MESSAGE.

 An axe-murderer boards a plane in New York City. He’s on a mission of pure evil. Under instructions from the head of his local crime syndicate, he is to hack to death all members of a rival family in Sicily. That family is rumoured to be “horning in” on the drug and sex-trade in New York. Such a threat cannot, of course, be allowed to stand. The wife and 3 children are to be dispensed with first, while the father, bound nearby, watches helplessly. Then, it’ll be his turn - a powerful message to ayone who dares to threaten the turf of its American rivals. The assassin’s weapon-of-choice is stowed securely in the belly of the plane (with the axe’s razor-sharp head made of stone, fiendishly designed to avoid metal-detectors). He’s on his way.

The next day, an elite athlete boards an identical aircraft, also in New York, headed for a crucial competition in Paris. The world renowned track-&-field star is internationally famous for her prowess and the millions of girls who look up to her as a role-model. She’s widely known and well-loved for her generosity, donating her considerable wealth to worthy charities. Coincidentally, she’ll travel an identical distance as the assassin, producing precisely the same amount of greenhouse gases as he in the process! The moral of the story? It’s not just bad, wicked people who are aggravating our climate crisis. We are all in this, together.

How thousands of fossil fuel lobbyists got access to UN climate talks – and then kept drilling

The Guardian

Research shows oil, gas and coal firms’ unprecedented access to Cop26-29, blocking urgent climate action - and then kept drilling. Story here.

What Are the Risks and Opportunities of a Changing Arctic?

UM The Magazine of the University of Manitoba

For Churchill, Manitoba, this shift brings both unprecedented opportunities and enormous challenges. Warming could open the door to development that makes the town a hub for regional connectivity and global trade, but that same development could also threaten Arctic ecosystems already under stress.  Story here.