In North America

+Here’s a story from Reuters a few days ago:
 
The Canadian government-owned pipeline ships 300,000 barrels a day of crude and refined products from Alberta to the Pacific Coast. Work on a major expansion project on the pipeline has also been halted, Trans Mountain Corp said. "As a precaution, Trans Mountain has shut down the Trans Mountain Pipeline due to widespread flooding and debris flows in the area around Hope, BC," a company spokeswoman said in an email. She did not give any information on when the pipeline is expected to restart.
 
The Canadian government paid C$4.5 billion for the pipeline and its expansion, helping one of the world’s dirtiest fossil fuels reach export markets.
 
Here’s a report from the Glasgow COP26 conference (from Yahoo news):
 
Justin Trudeau used part of his climate change speech at  COP26 to highlight a town that burned down in  Canada following unprecedented wildfires. Earlier this year, wildfires stoked by record-breaking temperatures, tore across the North-west of the North American continent decimating everything their path - including  the small town of Lytton in British Columbia. The Canadian prime minister invoked the town as he urged world leaders at the gathering of world leaders in Glasgow to tackle the mammoth task of halting the destructive impact of global warming.
 
It all makes perfect sense. I wonder if there are any climate change sceptics left in British Columbia. And whatever happened to the phrase ‘joined-up thinking’?
 
+Also on a climate change theme I was re-watching that darkly funny film VICE (about Dick Cheney) last night and two clips stood out—the first showed solar panels being installed on the roof of the White House under Jimmy Carter’s presidency, with a voice over of Carter making a speech about the value of renewable energy—this must have been in the 1970s, well before climate change was a political issue. The second clip showed the panels being removed and junked after Reagan was elected. Given that Carter later came to be seen as something of a dippy, ineffectual liberal and only lasted one term, I can imagine Joe Biden thinking I won’t repeat that mistake. A pity. The White House is south facing and would be a good site for solar energy.