Tausi Insider

People visit the immersive video experience hosted by the National Geographic Society at a press event during COP15 in Montreal on Dec. 7. ANDREJ IVANOV/Getty Images Anyone showing up to the United Nations biodiversity conference, known as COP15, will discover it takes time just getting in the door. Having first shown proof of vaccination in order to obtain a conference badge, the would-be attendee is then handed a box of KN95 masks and a two-week supply of COVID-19 test kits. The next stop is to show a negative result from a rapid test before being admitted. For the thousands of participants, it’s a fitting reminder that the pandemic is still with us – fitting because global pandemics are a risk we all face when wildlife is destroyed or harvested in ways that expose humans to the viruses of other species. But there is another way that the pandemic reveals what is at stake as countries work toward a pact to protect nature for future generations. At COP15, a movement grows to manage n...

Statistics Canada says wholesale sales rose 2.1 per cent to $83.4-billion in October, boosted by gains in the miscellaneous goods, building material and supplies, and personal and household goods subsectors. The agency says sales were up in six of the seven subsectors it tracks. Sales for the miscellaneous goods subsector gained 5.5 per cent at $13.0-billion in October, with the bulk of the increase in the agricultural supplies industry. The building material and supplies subsector rose 3.3 per cent to $12.6-billion in October on higher sales for lumber, millwork, hardware and other building supplies. Meanwhile, the personal and household goods subsector rose 2.8 per cent to $11.6-billion. Statistics Canada says overall sales in constant dollars rose 0.9 per cent in October. https://www.tausiinsider.com/canadian-wholesale-sales-up-2-1-in-october-statscan-says/?feed_id=327842&_unique_id=641894a8dec12

The iron mine of Swedish state-owned company LKAB, in Kiruna, Sweden, on Jan. 12. JONAS EKSTROMER/AFP/Getty Images The beginning of the end of Europe’s dependency on China for precious rare earth materials may lie buried deep under the rugged reaches of northern Sweden, well above the Arctic Circle. Sweden’s iron-ore miner LKAB said Thursday it has identified “significant deposits” in Lapland of rare earth elements that are essential for the manufacture of smartphones, electric vehicles and wind turbines. The government-owned company that mines iron ore at Kiruna, almost 1,000 kilometres (nearly 600 miles) north of Stockholm, said there are more than one million tons of rare earth oxides. According to LKAB, it’s the largest known deposit of its kind in Europe. But the company warned that it could take at least a decade before mining starts. Swedish Industry Minister Ebba Busch called Sweden “a gold mine” following the discovery. Her announcement came as the EU’s executive Commission ...