Canada’s Trump Card in the Trade War with the U.S.

The plaintiffs sued, alleging that the city had knowingly allowed them to drink lead-contaminated water. The Jackson residents also alleged that the government deliberately hid information about the toxicity of the water and told them to boil it, which can concentrate lead. As the court opinion described, the city’s water system is fraught with “vexing shortcomings” besides lead, such as E. Coli and other bacteria, which violate the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The court of appeals said, while the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that no one can be deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process, it does not include a right to clean drinking water. Further, the court said that the people in Jackson did not have a constitutional right to truthful information from public officials during a public health crisis.

As Mother Jones reports, at least nine states, including New York and Massachusetts guarantee the right to clean drinking water in their constitutions as does Uruguay and South Africa. Mississippi does not. The United Nations has recognized access to safe drinking water as a human right since 2010. According to the organization Human Right 2 Water, only 31 countries include the right to water in their constitutions. Some others specify rights to health or life, that may implicitly include the right to clean water.

Now, another waterway—the Bab al-Mandeb Strait—has become a major choke point in the war. It lies between Yemen and Djibouti, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden, and is used to ship oil to Europe by avoiding the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s allies, the Houthis in Yemen have seized control of strategic territory along the Red Sea coast, including an island in the Bab al-Mandeb Strait and the city of Mocka. That will allow them to decide which ships can pass, and for now they are not permitting any vessels belonging to Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has backed the Yemeni government against the rebel Houthis, a surrogate for Iran.

If both straits were closed to all shipping it would threaten in total up to 25 percent of the world’s gas and oil supply and ten percent of global shipping containers. The news outlet Zeteo reported that a Trump administration official said that they viewed these recent developments as Iran and the Houthis launching a “Tet Offensive” against the world economy, referring to the Vietnam War, when the south of that country was overrun by forces from the north, changing the course of the conflict.

Meanwhile, a drone attack on a Saudi oil pipeline allegedly by Iraqi militants allied with Iran caused the Saudi Arabian government to shut it down. The pipeline runs to the Red Sea, avoiding shipping in either strait.

Potash is a group of minerals that contain potassium—a vital nutrient for crops and a key component in fertilizers. The soft, crumbly compound increases water retention in plants, improves crop yields, and influences the taste, texture, and nutritional value of many foods.

As bad as things get between the U.S. and Canada, potash has been off limits—a third rail in a bruising trade war because taxing it would severely affect farmers and consumers. As Jayash Paudel of University of Oklahoma writes in The Conversation, when fertilizer prices spike, farmers tend to cut phosphorus and potassium first and nitrogen last. But restoring potassium in soil takes time, with several pounds of fertilizer for every pound of soil-test potassium recovered, spread over years. So, even a one-year restriction on potash access can have an impact.

That has not stopped many Canadians from calling potash their greatest weapon to leverage against Trump. That’s because Canada is the world’s largest producer of potash, primarily sourced from vast deposits in Saskatchewan. Its biggest customer is the United States, where 85 percent of the mineral used in the U.S. comes from Canada. 

Choking off potash to the U.S. “would kill the American agricultural sector 'overnight,'" Premier of Ontario Doug Ford said at a news conference. Premier of Saskatchewan Scott Moe was opposed to the move, saying it would backfire and harm Canadians. Akaash Maharaj of the University of Toronto told the National Post that if Canada were to place export tariffs on potash, it would provoke a crisis in the United States and add to spiraling food costs as there are few sources other than Belarus and Russia, both of which are restricted by sanctions.

Maharaj adds that Canada would take a tremendous economic hit if it placed export taxes on potash, including lost markets and job losses. Worse, he says, Trump would respond with tariffs across the board on absolutely everything, calling the potash debate a “a high-stakes game of chicken.”

Now, the University of Bath has put the Big Bad Wolf on notice, not to blow off the first little pig’s house made from straw. Their new research says the UK could meet its housing targets and cut greenhouse gases by replacing high-emission materials like concrete and steel with straw. 

Buildings and construction account for roughly 40 percent of global greenhouse gases, so swapping out materials could make a significant difference. Also, because of high insulating properties, straw bale houses need almost no conventional heating and have better moisture regulation and indoor air quality.

Crops used for the straw can be grown locally, helping the local economy, and because it absorbs carbon dioxide as it grows, buildings made from it can be seen as having zero, or even a negative carbon footprint. Typically, straw is used as livestock bedding and feed or ploughed back into fields to improve the soil. It’s also used for energy generation, horticulture, and even mushroom cultivation. 

The researchers say the biggest barrier to adopting straw houses is not the availability of the raw material—there’s plenty—but rather the need for better supply chains and regulation, as well as greater acceptance in the construction industry. If those challenges are overcome, the UK could develop up to 300,000 new homes each year and store between 1.8 and 3.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. If it catches on, it could be the last straw on high carbon housing.

The study was published in the journal Buildings.