National
Red Deer Volleyball stars named to First All-Tournament National teams
Red Deer Polytechnic Athletics is proud to announce The Granary Kitchen RDP Athletes of the Week:
1. Tess Pearman – Queens Volleyball
Hometown – Ponoka, AB
Bachelor of Education Elementary (3rd year)
Tess Pearman provided the Red Deer Polytechnic Queens Volleyball team with energy and strong play at the Canadian Collegiate Athletic Association (CCAA) National Championship. The Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Women’s Volleyball South All-Conference team selection was instrumental in helping the Queens earn bronze in Charlottetown. Pearman was also selected to the CCAA Women’s Volleyball First All-Tournament team.
In the national championship quarter-final, the student-athlete from Ponoka recorded a match high 11 kills in a sweep over the Mount Saint Vincent Mystics, Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association (ACAA) Champions (25-19, 25-19 and 25-16). In a CCAA semi-final, Pearman accumulated a team high 15 kills in a setback against the Vancouver Island University (VIU) Mariners, (PACWEST Wildcard) who eventually won their fourth consecutive CCAA title (23-25, 19-25 and 24-26). She was extremely efficient on the left side (0.467 hitting percentage) and was named the Queens Player of the Game.
The third-year outside hitter had another solid performance in the Queens’ dominant three set victory over Les Rouges de Saint-Boniface (Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference Champions) in a national bronze semi-final (25-13, 25-17 and 25-9). The Bachelor of Education Elementary student led the team with three service aces, and added six kills (0.357 hitting percentage), and 10 digs.
In the bronze medal match, Pearman accumulated 15 kills in a five set victory over the Lynx d’Édouard-Monpetit, Réseau du sport étudiant du Québec Champions (16-25, 25-22, 17-25, 25-21 and 15-12).
Pearman’s leadership and skill helped contribute to a memorable 2021/2022 season for the Queens Volleyball team. The squad remarkably went 22-1 during the regular season and playoffs, achieving ACAC gold and national bronze.
2. Cody Boulding – Kings Volleyball
Hometown – Prince George, BC
Bachelor of Kinesiology (3rd year)
Cody Boulding was an effective leader and player for the Red Deer Polytechnic Kings Volleyball team at the CCAA National Championship in Quebec. The six-foot-five middle helped guide the Kings to a national bronze medal and was selected to the CCAA First All-Tournament team.
The RDP Kings nearly completed a comeback against the host Limoilou Titans in the CCAA Quarter-final match. Down two sets and trailing in the third, the Kings pushed the Titans to five sets, but couldn’t complete the rally (19-25, 21-25, 25-23, 25-16 and 10-15). The Bachelor of Kinesiology student totaled 10 kills, two aces and a block, and was named the Kings Player of the Game.
The ACAC Men’s Volleyball South All-Conference team member provided a presence at the net and from the service line in the Kings’ three set victory over the Canadian Mennonite University Blazers, Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference Champions, in the national bronze quarter-final (25-17, 25-11 and 25-17).
The Red Deer Polytechnic Kings swept the St. Thomas Tommies, Atlantic Collegiate Athletic Association Champions, in a CCAA bronze semi-final (25-20, 25-18 and 25-18). Boulding contributed five kills and three of the Kings’ 10 service aces.
In the bronze medal final, Boulding recorded two kills and four blocks in the Kings’ four set victory over the Redeemer Royals, Ontario Colleges Athletic Association Wildcard (25-21, 25-16, 23-25 and 25-20). Boulding brought a hardworking effort throughout the entire 2021/2022 campaign. He set an example on and off the court and was important to the Kings’ success, earning ACAC gold and CCAA bronze.
For more information on Red Deer Polytechnic Athletics, the student-athletes and teams, please visit: rdpolytechathletics.ca.
Energy
Global fossil fuel use rising despite UN proclamations
From the Fraser Institute
By Julio Mejía and Elmira Aliakbari
Major energy transitions are slow and take centuries, not decades… the first global energy transition—from traditional biomass fuels (including wood and charcoal) to fossil fuels—started more than two centuries ago and remains incomplete. Nearly three billion people in the developing world still depend on charcoal, straw and dried dung for cooking and heating, accounting for about 7 per cent of the world’s energy supply (as of 2020).
At the Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Azerbaijan, António Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, last week called for a global net-zero carbon footprint by 2050, which requires a “fossil fuel phase-out” and “deep decarbonization across the entire value chain.”
Yet despite the trillions of dollars already spent globally pursuing this target—and the additional trillions projected as necessary to “end the era of fossil fuels”—the world’s dependence on fossil fuels has remained largely unchanged.
So, how realistic is a “net-zero” emissions world—which means either eliminating fossil fuel generation or offsetting carbon emissions with activities such as planting trees—by 2050?
The journey began in 1995 when the UN hosted the first COP conference in Berlin, launching a global effort to drive energy transition and decarbonization. That year, global investment in renewable energy reached US$7 billion, according to some estimates. Since then, an extraordinary amount of money and resources have been allocated to the transition away from fossil fuels.
According to the International Energy Agency, between 2015 and 2023 alone, governments and industry worldwide spent US$12.3 trillion (inflation-adjusted) on clean energy. For context, that’s over six times the value of the entire Canadian economy in 2023.
Despite this spending, between 1995 and 2023, global fossil fuel consumption increased by 62 per cent, with oil consumption rising by 38 per cent, coal by 66 per cent and natural gas by 90 per cent.
And during that same 28-year period, despite the trillions spent on energy alternatives, the share of global energy provided by fossil fuels declined by only four percentage points, from 85.6 per cent to 81.5 per cent.
This should come as no surprise. Major energy transitions are slow and take centuries, not decades. According to a recent study by renowned scholar Vaclav Smil, the first global energy transition—from traditional biomass fuels (including wood and charcoal) to fossil fuels—started more than two centuries ago and remains incomplete. Nearly three billion people in the developing world still depend on charcoal, straw and dried dung for cooking and heating, accounting for about 7 per cent of the world’s energy supply (as of 2020).
Moreover, coal only surpassed wood as the main energy source worldwide around 1900. It took more than 150 years from oil’s first commercial extraction for oil to reach 25 per cent of all fossil fuels consumed worldwide. Natural gas didn’t reach this threshold until the end of the 20th century, after 130 years of industry development.
Now, consider the current push by governments to force an energy transition via regulation and spending. In Canada, the Trudeau government has set a target to fully decarbonize electricity generation by 2035 so all electricity is derived from renewable power sources such as wind and solar. But merely replacing Canada’s existing fossil fuel-based electricity with clean energy sources within the next decade would require building the equivalent of 23 major hydro projects (like British Columbia’s Site C) or 2.3 large-scale nuclear power plants (like Ontario’s Bruce Power). The planning and construction of significant electricity generation infrastructure in Canada is a complex and time-consuming process, often plagued by delays, regulatory hurdles and substantial cost overruns.
The Site C project took around 43 years from initial feasibility studies in 1971 to securing environmental certification in 2014. Construction began on the Peace River in northern B.C. in 2015, with completion expected in 2025 at a cost of at least $16 billion. Similarly, Ontario’s Bruce Power plant took nearly two decades to complete, with billions in cost overruns. Given these immense practical, financial and regulatory challenges, achieving the government’s 2035 target is highly improbable.
As politicians gather at high-profile conferences and set ambitious targets for a swift energy transition, global reliance on fossil fuels has continued to increase. As things stand, achieving net-zero by 2050 appears neither realistic nor feasible.
Authors:
Business
Taxpayer watchdog calls Trudeau ‘out of touch’ for prioritizing ‘climate change’ while families struggle
From LifeSiteNews
The prime minister told a G20 panel this week that fighting so-called ‘climate change’ should be more important to families than putting food on the table or paying rent.
Canada’s leading taxpayer watchdog blasted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for being completely “out of touch” with everyday Canadians after the PM earlier this week suggested his climate “change” policies, including a punitive carbon tax, are more important for families than trying to stay financially afloat.
In speaking to LifeSiteNews, Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) federal director Franco Terrazzano said Trudeau’s recent comments show his government “continues to prove it’s out of touch with its carbon tax.”
“Canadians don’t support the carbon tax because we know it makes life more expensive and it doesn’t help the environment,” Terrazzano told LifeSiteNews.
Terrazzano’s comments come after Trudeau told a G20 panel earlier this week that fighting so-called “climate change” should be more important to families than putting food on the table or paying rent.
Speaking to the panel, Trudeau commented that it is “really, really easy” to “put climate change as a slightly lower priority” when one has “to be able to pay the rent this month” or “buy groceries” for their “kids,” but insisted that “we can’t do that around climate change.”
Terrazzano said that the Trudeau government’s carbon tax in reality “impacts nearly all aspects of life in Canada by making it more expensive to fuel up our cars, heat our homes and buy food.”
“The carbon tax also puts a huge hole in our economy that we can’t afford,” he said to LifeSiteNews, adding that if Trudeau really wanted to help Canadians and “prove it understands the struggles facing Canadians,” then it should “scrap the carbon tax to make life more affordable.”
On Thursday, Trudeau, who is facing abysmal polling numbers, announced he would introduce a temporary pause on the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) for some goods.
Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre this afternoon said about Trudeau’s temporary tax holiday that if he is serious about helping Canadians, he would cut the carbon tax completely.
People’s Party of Canada (CPC) leader Maxime Bernier called the move by Trudeau a cheap trick to try and “bribe” Canadians, noting that it will not work.
“What a ridiculous gimmick. Bribing Canadians temporarily with borrowed money,” Bernier wrote.
“When the real solution is to stop growing the bureaucracy, cut wasteful spending, stop sending billions to Ukraine, eliminate subsidies to businesses and activist groups, stop creating new unsustainable and unconstitutional social programs, eliminate the deficit, and THEN, cut taxes for real. None of which he will do of course.”
As reported by LifeSiteNews, a survey found that nearly half of Canadians are just $200 away from financial ruin as the costs of housing, food and other necessities has gone up massively since Trudeau took power in 2015.
In addition to the increasing domestic carbon tax, LifeSiteNews reported last week that Minister of Environment Steven Guilbeault wants to create a new “global’ carbon tax applied to all goods shipped internationally that could further drive-up prices for families already struggling with inflated costs.
Not only is the carbon tax costing Canadian families hundreds of dollars annually, but Liberals also have admitted that the tax has only reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 1 percent.
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