Latest news with #Waddington
Canada Standard
3 days ago
- Science
- Canada Standard
The Smoke From Canada's Wildfires May Be Even More Toxic Than Usual
This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here. More than 200 wildfires are blazing across central and western Canada, half of which are out of control because they're so hard for crews to access, forcing 27,000 people to evacuate. Even those nowhere near the wildfires are suffering as smoke swirls around Canada and wafts south, creating hazardous air quality all over the midwestern and eastern parts of the United States. The smoke is even reaching Europe. As the climate changes, the far north is drying and warming, which means wildfires are getting bigger and more intense, reports Grist. The area burned in Canada is now the second largest on record for this time of year, trailing behind the brutal wildfire season of 2023. That year, the amount of carbon blazed into the atmosphere was about three times the country's fossil fuel emissions. And the more carbon that's emitted from wildfires-in Canada and elsewhere-the faster the planetary warming, and the worse the fires. "There's obviously the climate feedback concern," said Mike Waddington, an environmental scientist at McMaster University in Ontario who studies Canada's forests. "But increasingly we're also concerned about the smoke." View our latest digests That's because there's much more to wildfire smoke than charred sticks and leaves, especially where these blazes are burning in Canada. The country's forests have long been mined, operations that loaded soils and waterways with toxic metals like lead and mercury, especially before clean-air standards kicked in 50 years ago. Now everyone downwind of these wildfires may have to contend with that legacy and those pollutants, in addition to all the other nasties inherent in wildfire smoke, which are known to exacerbate respiratory and cardiac problems. "You have there the burning of these organic soils resulting in a lot of carbon and a lot of particulate matter," said Waddington. "Now you have this triple whammy, where you have the metals remobilized in addition to that." What exactly is lurking in the smoke from Canadian wildfires will require further testing by scientists. But an area of particular concern is around the mining city of Flin Flon, in Manitoba, which is known to have elevated levels of toxic metals in the landscape, said Colin McCarter, an environmental scientist who studies pollutants at Ontario's Nipissing University. Flin Flon's 5,000 residents have been evacuated as a wildfire approaches, though so far no structures have been destroyed. But a fire doesn't need to directly burn mining operations to mobilize toxicants. For example, in Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territories, gold mining operations between 1934 and 2004 spread arsenic as far as 18 miles away, adding to a landscape with an already high concentration of naturally occurring arsenic. In a paper published last year, Waddington and McCarter estimated that between 1972 and 2023, wildfires around Yellowknife fired up to 840,000 pounds of arsenic into the atmosphere. Arsenic is a known carcinogen associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and developmental problems, according to the World Health Organization. After the 2023 Lahaina fire in Maui, officials reported elevated levels of arsenic, lead, and other toxic substances in ash samples. California officials also found lots of lead in smoke from 2018's Camp Fire. Within wildfire smoke is also PM 2.5, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (a millionth of a meter) that gets deep inside human lungs. This can exacerbate conditions like asthma and raise the risk of cardiac arrest up to 70%. One study found that in California alone, PM 2.5 emissions from wildfires caused more than 50,000 premature deaths between 2008 and 2018. Canadian ecosystems known as peatlands are especially good at holding onto toxicants like arsenic. These form in soggy places where wet plant matter resists decay, building up into layers of peat-basically concentrated carbon. Peat can accumulate over millennia, meaning it can also hold onto pollutants deposited there decades ago. "The peat soils are landscape hot spots for metals," said McCarter. "When it's dry and hot-like we've been seeing with the weather over the prairie provinces and central and western Canada-the peatlands can really start to dry out. Then the fire is able to propagate and get hot enough to start releasing some of these metals." A peat fire behaves much weirder than a traditional forest fire. Instead of just burning horizontally across the landscape, a peat fire smolders down into the ground. This is a slow burn that lasts not just hours or days, but potentially months-releasing toxic metals and particulate matter as smoke all the while. Peat fires are so persistent that they'll sometimes start in the summer, get covered over with snow in the winter, and pop up once again in the spring melt. Scientists call them zombie fires. As Canada's wildfire smoke creeps down into the United States, it's also transforming. Chemical reactions between gases and sunlight create ozone, which further exacerbates lung conditions like asthma. "Once you get six hours to a day or so downwind, the ozone formation inside smoke plumes can start being problematic," said Rebecca Hornbrook, an atmospheric chemist at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, who studies wildfire smoke. People fleeing Canada's fires have to worry not just about losing their homes, but also losing their health. More than 40% of wildfire evacuations happen in communities that are predominantly Indigenous-an irony given that First Nations people know how to reduce the severity of these conflagrations, with traditional burning practices that more gently clear out the dead vegetation that acts as wildfire fuel. That strategy of prescribed burns, though, has only recently been making a comeback in Canada. "Let's not forget that it's immediately affecting a lot of, in particular, First Nations communities in the northern parts of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan," said Waddington. This haze is already bad for human health, and now there's the added potential for arsenic and other toxicants in the Canadian landscape to get caught up in wildfire smoke. "It's a bad-news scenario," Waddington said. "It's quite scary." Source: The Energy Mix
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Climate
- Yahoo
The smoke from Canada's wildfires may be even more toxic than usual
More than 200 wildfires are blazing across central and western Canada, half of which are out of control because they're so hard for crews to access, forcing 27,000 people to evacuate. Even those nowhere near the wildfires are suffering as smoke swirls around Canada and wafts south, creating hazardous air quality all over the midwestern and eastern parts of the United States. The smoke is even reaching Europe. As the climate changes, the far north is drying and warming, which means wildfires are getting bigger and more intense. The area burned in Canada is now the second largest on record for this time of year, trailing behind the brutal wildfire season of 2023. That year, the amount of carbon blazed into the atmosphere was about three times the country's fossil fuel emissions. And the more carbon that's emitted from wildfires — in Canada and elsewhere — the faster the planetary warming, and the worse the fires. 'There's obviously the climate feedback concern,' said Mike Waddington, an environmental scientist at McMaster University in Ontario who studies Canada's forests. 'But increasingly we're also concerned about the smoke.' That's because there's much more to wildfire smoke than charred sticks and leaves, especially where these blazes are burning in Canada. The country's forests have long been mined, operations that loaded soils and waterways with toxic metals like lead and mercury, especially before clean-air standards kicked in 50 years ago. Now everyone downwind of these wildfires may have to contend with that legacy and those pollutants, in addition to all the other nasties inherent in wildfire smoke, which are known to exacerbate respiratory and cardiac problems. 'You have there the burning of these organic soils resulting in a lot of carbon and a lot of particulate matter,' said Waddington. 'Now you have this triple whammy, where you have the metals remobilized in addition to that.' What exactly is lurking in the smoke from Canadian wildfires will require further testing by scientists. But an area of particular concern is around the mining city of Flin Flon, in Manitoba, which is known to have elevated levels of toxic metals in the landscape, said Colin McCarter, an environmental scientist who studies pollutants at Ontario's Nipissing University. Flin Flon's 5,000 residents have been evacuated as a wildfire approaches, though so far no structures have been destroyed. But a fire doesn't need to directly burn mining operations to mobilize toxicants. For example, in Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territories, gold mining operations between 1934 and 2004 spread arsenic as far as 18 miles away, adding to a landscape with an already high concentration of naturally occurring arsenic. In a paper published last year, Waddington and McCarter estimated that between 1972 and 2023, wildfires around Yellowknife fired up to 840,000 pounds of arsenic into the atmosphere. Arsenic is a known carcinogen associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and developmental problems, according to the World Health Organization. (After the 2023 Lahaina fire in Maui, officials reported elevated levels of arsenic, lead, and other toxic substances in ash samples. California officials also found lots of lead in smoke from 2018's Camp Fire.) Within wildfire smoke is also PM 2.5, particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns (a millionth of a meter) that gets deep inside human lungs. This can exacerbate conditions like asthma and raise the risk of cardiac arrest up to 70 percent. One study found that in California alone, PM 2.5 emissions from wildfires caused more than 50,000 premature deaths between 2008 and 2018. Canadian ecosystems known as peatlands are especially good at holding onto toxicants like arsenic. These form in soggy places where wet plant matter resists decay, building up into layers of peat — basically concentrated carbon. Peat can accumulate over millennia, meaning it can also hold onto pollutants deposited there decades ago. 'The peat soils are landscape hot spots for metals,' said McCarter. 'When it's dry and hot — like we've been seeing with the weather over the prairie provinces and central and western Canada — the peatlands can really start to dry out. Then the fire is able to propagate and get hot enough to start releasing some of these metals.' A peat fire behaves much weirder than a traditional forest fire. Instead of just burning horizontally across the landscape, a peat fire smolders down into the ground. This is a slow burn that lasts not just hours or days, but potentially months — releasing toxic metals and particulate matter as smoke all the while. Peat fires are so persistent that they'll sometimes start in the summer, get covered over with snow in the winter, and pop up once again in the spring melt. Scientists call them zombie fires. As Canada's wildfire smoke creeps down into the U.S., it's also transforming. Chemical reactions between gases and sunlight create ozone, which further exacerbates lung conditions like asthma. 'Once you get six hours to a day or so downwind, the ozone formation inside smoke plumes can start being problematic,' said Rebecca Hornbrook, an atmospheric chemist at the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, who studies wildfire smoke. People fleeing Canada's fires have to worry not just about losing their homes, but also losing their health. More than 40 percent of wildfire evacuations happen in communities that are predominantly Indigenous — an irony given that First Nations people know how to reduce the severity of these conflagrations, with traditional burning practices that more gently clear out the dead vegetation that acts as wildfire fuel. That strategy of prescribed burns, though, has only recently been making a comeback in Canada. 'Let's not forget that it's immediately affecting a lot of, in particular, First Nations communities in the northern parts of Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan,' said Waddington. This haze is already bad for human health, and now there's the added potential for arsenic and other toxicants in the Canadian landscape to get caught up in wildfire smoke. 'It's a bad-news scenario,' Waddington said. 'It's quite scary.' This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The smoke from Canada's wildfires may be even more toxic than usual on Jun 5, 2025.
USA Today
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
'Ted Lasso' cast member reveals big update about season 4: 'Believe it'
'Ted Lasso' cast member reveals big update about season 4: 'Believe it' Show Caption Hide Caption Hannah Waddingham on 'Mission Impossible,' new 'Ted Lasso' teasers Hannah Waddingham, who plays Rebecca Welton in Ted Lasso, teased season 4 of the series and praised the 'feminist men' behind the comedy-drama! Global - Capital FM 'Believe it'. Filming for Season 4 of "Ted Lasso" is set to start this summer, one of the award-winning comedy-drama show's cast members confirmed to a British radio station, calling it "a beautifully drawn script." English actress Hannah Waddington, who plays AFC Richmond football team Owner Rebecca Welton in the series, said filming for the show begins in July while teasing crumbs about the upcoming season during an interview with Capital FM Radio. The announcement of the new season came from Apple TV+ on March 14 but included few details about the one-season renewal, although USA TODAY previously reported it is expected that 10 new episodes will air in 2026. "We thought' we'd mourned the loss and now its rising from the dead," Waddington said. During a March edition of Jason and Travis Kelce's podcast, "New Heights," series star and executive producer Jason Sudeikis told the Kelces' his main character, Ted Lasso, coaches a women's team during the upcoming season. 'Ted Lasso' fans can believe it: The show is back for a Season 4, with Ted coaching women 'Our writers are literally real Jedi Knights' During Waddington's nearly 15-minute May 21 interview, the Emmy-winning actress praised the 'feminist men' behind the series and called the show's writers "real Jedi Knights." "They're just incredible," Waddington said. "And we've got like a full room of real feminist men. So we've got all the fabulous women there, but men that are in there, I think you really see it in the scripts... it's just so beautifully drawn." During the interview, the hosts presented Waddington with a pink box of shortbread biscuits, which Ted Lasso repeatedly gives to her character in the show. She also spoke about her work with Tom Cruise on the new release of 'Mission Impossible − The Final Reckoning' in theaters May 23. Contributing: Marco della Cava Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@ and follow her on X @nataliealund.
Indianapolis Star
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Indianapolis Star
'Ted Lasso' cast member reveals big update about season 4: 'Believe it'
'Believe it'. Filming for Season 4 of "Ted Lasso" is set to start this summer, one of the award-winning comedy-drama show's cast members confirmed to a British radio station, calling it "a beautifully drawn script." English actress Hannah Waddington, who plays AFC Richmond football team Owner Rebecca Welton in the series, said filming for the show begins in July while teasing crumbs about the upcoming season during an interview with Capital FM Radio. The announcement of the new season came from Apple TV+ on March 14 but included few details about the one-season renewal, although USA TODAY previously reported it is expected that 10 new episodes will air in 2026. "We thought' we'd mourned the loss and now its rising from the dead," Waddington said. During a March edition of Jason and Travis Kelce's podcast, "New Heights," series star and executive producer Jason Sudeikis told the Kelces' his main character, Ted Lasso, coaches a women's team during the upcoming season. 'Ted Lasso' fans can believe it: The show is back for a Season 4, with Ted coaching women During Waddington's nearly 15-minute May 21 interview, the Emmy-winning actress praised the 'feminist men' behind the series and called the show's writers "real Jedi Knights." "They're just incredible," Waddington said. "And we've got like a full room of real feminist men. So we've got all the fabulous women there, but men that are in there, I think you really see it in the scripts... it's just so beautifully drawn." During the interview, the hosts presented Waddington with a pink box of shortbread biscuits, which Ted Lasso repeatedly gives to her character in the show. She also spoke about her work with Tom Cruise on the new release of 'Mission Impossible − The Final Reckoning' in theaters May 23. Contributing: Marco della Cava
News.com.au
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
It is hoped a special screening of the Darby McCarthy documentary ‘In a Life Time' will spark renewed interest in the film
Director David Waddington hopes a special screening of the highly anticipated Darby McCarthy documentary 'In a Life Time' in outback Queensland this week will spark renewed interest in the project which desperately needs an injection of funding. A director's cut of the film will screen in the 30-seat Railway Cinema in Cunnamulla, where the Indigenous trailblazing jockey was born, on Tuesday (fully booked) and Wednesday night. Waddington and producer Chris O'Reilly are about $94,000 short of the $200,000 needed to make the film which tells the extraordinary tale of the late, great McCarthy, who rode more than 1000 winners around the world. 'This is not the final version of Darby's story,' Waddington said about the director's cut being screened in Cunnamulla, about 750km west of Brisbane. 'I'm calling it a biopic. We've still got re-enactments that we need to shoot and we need funding to do that. 'The time frame (to finish the film) has gone out the window so many times. It's so demoralising, I can tell you. 'It's all the people that are involved and put in their time and effort - actors, technicians, whatever - and it's been a very difficult road to be on. 'We haven't got any money from Queensland in the production, except for Racing Queensland who were the first cab off the rank. 'The reason the screening is happening at Cunnamulla is because Darby was born there and rode his first winner as a jockey at age 10 at Thargomindah, which is up the track a bit. 'I'm hoping something comes from this (in terms of funding for the film) because it's such a positive story. 'I've been making films my whole life and this particular film is all about becoming something from nothing which Darby did. He was an incredible human being. 'The story needs to be told and the only way to do that is what we're doing now.' Waddington said a prominent Indigenous organisation had offered $100,000 in writing to help fund the film but the money never materialised. 'I'm talking about a huge organisation,' he said. 'There's going to be a federal election (on Saturday) so there's still hope. 'Everyone who's out there now and the previous politicians, they all knew Darby one-on-one and he was highly regarded, not just for his riding ability but as an uneducated kid out of Cunnamulla who made it to the top.' McCarthy later moved to Brisbane to try his luck as a teenager and success came quickly for the Indigenous jockey, who eventually went to Europe where he rode for the Rothschilds and mixed with Hollywood royalty, including Frank Sinatra, Mia Farrow and Lee Marvin. He won the 1969 AJC Derby and the Epsom on the same day in Sydney and rode in three Melbourne Cups. McCarthy died in May 2020 at age 76. He was inducted into Queensland Racing's Hall of Fame in 2004 and was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia in 2016 for his services to racing and his work with Indigenous youth.
