SANTA BARBARA Calif. (KEYT) - Powerhouse San Marcos girls water polo is the fifth seed in the CIF-Southern Section Open Division playoffs.

The Channel League champion Royals will open up at #4 Orange Lutheran on Wednesday, February 4th to begin a round-robin Pool A bracket that also includes #1 Mater Dei and 8th seed Long Beach Wilson.

San Marcos is at top-seed Mater Dei on Saturday, February 7th and home to #8 Long Beach Wilson on Wednesday, February 11th.

Pool B consists of #2 Newport Harbor, 3rd seed Oaks Christian, #6 JSerra Catholic and 7th seed Corona del Mar.

The second place finisher in Pool A will play the third place finisher in Pool B and the third place finisher in Pool A will play the second place in Pool B on Saturday, February 14th.

The winner of those games will move on to the semifinals on February 18th at Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine and will play the winners from Pool A and Pool B.

The finals are scheduled for Saturday, February 21st at Mt. San Antonio College.

Dos Pueblos is in the CIF-SS Division 1 playoff and will host Marlborough in a first round game on Friday, February 6th.

The winner of the game will play a quarterfinal game against the winner of Palos Verdes at Agoura.

Also from D1, Buena is at Foothill.

In Division 2, Santa Barbara is the top seed and will host Poly of Riverside on Thursday, February 5th in a first round game.

The winner would meet the Edison/Upland winner in a quarterfinal game on Tuesday, February 10th.

Also from D2, Carpinteria is at Temple City, Thousand Oaks hosts Woodbridge, Ventura is at Westridge and Camarillo hosts Rosary Academy.

In Division 3 Foothill Tech is at Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks in a first round game on Thursday, February 5th.

In Division 4 Santa Paula opens up the playoffs at home against Roosevelt on Thursday, February 5th while Nordhoff is at Cypress.

In Division 5 Royal hosts Sierra Vista on Thursday, February 5th.

The post CIF-SS Girls Water Polo playoff bracket announced appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

David Buzzard // Shutterstock

Alberta can have another pipeline to the West Coast — at least theoretically — but only if the oil and gas industry puts carbon capture systems in place to ensure the bitumen that flows through it is “low-emission.”

That tradeoff is at the heart of the “grand bargain” unveiled by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney in November 2025, when they both expressed support in principle for a new pipeline to connect Alberta’s landlocked oilsands to international markets.

What will make this bitumen cleaner than what currently flows through Alberta’s pipelines? The answer has nothing to do with the product itself, The Narwhal reports, but with the processes that will be used to create it.

According to the terms of Smith and Carney’s memorandum of understanding, the federal government’s support for Alberta’s new pipeline is contingent on the success of a massive carbon capture project being pitched by the Pathways Alliance, a coalition of Canada’s major oilsands companies.

If Pathways companies build the carbon capture infrastructure they’re promising, and use it to “decarbonize the production of their bitumen,” to use Smith’s words, then they can have their new pipeline and ship their product to their collective hearts’ content, the prime minister has promised. (That is, of course, if a company or consortium signs on to acquire the necessary approvals and actually build it — the memorandum stipulates the pipeline will be built by the private sector, with opportunities for Indigenous co-ownership.)

You’re likely to hear a lot more about carbon capture technology, now that Carney has adopted it as a key strategy to thread the needle and reduce Canada’s emissions without forgoing the economic benefits of the nation’s number one export. His office identified the Pathways carbon capture project as a contender for a federal “major project” designation late last year, meaning it could see fast-tracked federal approvals, and his government has extended Trudeau-era subsidies for constructing carbon capture projects.

So, what is carbon capture? And can it really save our planet from the worst impacts of climate change?

What is carbon capture and storage?

Technologies to lower carbon emissions from industrial processes, which Carney and other politicians are embracing, are known as carbon capture, utilization and storage — often abbreviated as CCUS or CCS.

These technologies capture carbon before it escapes into the atmosphere, and then bury it deep underground (“storage”) or repurpose it to make other products (“utilization”). These systems are often designed with the goal of capturing 90% of the emissions produced by an industrial process — but early carbon capture

MOUNEB TAIM / Middle East Images // AFP via Getty Images

It’s no secret that fashion has a waste problem.

The industry is estimated to generate over 101 million cubic tons of waste every year, including textile scraps, microplastics, chemical waste, and packaging materials. It’s a number that’s likely to go up in the coming years as the rate at which we buy, wear, and discard our clothes speeds up. It’s also a number that shows just how instrumental throw-away culture is to the fashion system at every stage of the supply chain.

“Waste is a factor of human existence, and as long as we’ve had big business, we’ve had waste,” Oliver Franklin-Wallis, journalist and author of “Wasteland: The Dirty Truth About What We Throw Away, Where It Goes, and Why It Matters,” told Atmos. “Fashion is in many ways the business of waste, because it’s predicated on making things obsolete.”

Since the dawn of industrialization, our economy has operated on a linear model of consumption—a “take-make-waste cycle,” according to Valérie Boiten, senior policy officer at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Fashion is a particularly egregious culprit. Two percent of the world’s energy goes into producing fast-fashion items, and the industry as a whole is responsible for up to 8% of global carbon emissions, according to the UN Environment Program. Meanwhile, the lifespan of clothes is getting shorter thanks to worsening garment quality and an ever-accelerating trend cycle. On average, a fast-fashion garment is worn just seven times before it is discarded.

The repercussions are dire, with textile waste often burned or dumped. “[Those] pathways all lead to the release of pollutants, including hazardous chemicals, threatening species and habitats,” said Boiten. Microplastics can follow those pathways, too—and since more than 50% of clothing is made of plastic, textiles account for up to 35% of microplastics released to oceans worldwide.

But at what point does a garment actually become waste? “Is it the moment somebody throws the garment away because they don’t need it anymore?” asked Bobby Kolade, founder of Buzigahill, a Kampala, Uganda-based brand repurposing the Global North’s second-hand garments and sending them back to the countries from which they came. “Is it the moment the garment can’t be sold, resold, and re-worn? In which case, is it a resource or is it a discard?”

Here’s just a few of the ways that excess and waste are instrumental to how the fashion system works.

Raw Materials

About 40% of the fibers that end up in our clothes are agricultural products.

Crops like cotton are wat

Evan Simon // Floodlight

On ground that was once the Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island, trucks unload food scraps and yard waste, filling the air with the sharp tang of decaying garbage. Machines hum as they separate plastics and other contaminants from fruit and vegetable peels, leftovers and leaves, while speakers play fake bird sounds to keep scavengers away. Still, seagulls perch atop the slowly transforming compost, now resting in concrete bunkers. Nearby, heaps of dark, rich finished compost sit ready for gardens and parks. This is where organic waste from the country’s largest city gets a second life.

Opened in 1991 to process yard trimmings, the Staten Island Composting Facility has become a pillar of the city’s composting efforts. It recently underwent an expansion, boosting its capacity by nearly 2,000% to accommodate a growing volume of food scraps and yard waste collected from neighborhoods across the city.

In October 2024, New York City took a major step in tackling its trash problem by making curbside composting mandatory. Residents are asked to separate peels, leftovers and leaves and place them in a lidded brown bin on their recycling day, when sanitation workers collect them.

There should be a steady supply of organic waste. About a third of the city’s total waste stream is compostable, and composting offers many benefits. The initiative aims to keep food scraps and yard waste out of landfills, cut planet-warming emissions and even help curb the city’s rat problem. (The sanitation department says that composting bins actually help reduce rodent activity when the lids are consistently kept closed.)

When organic materials decompose in landfills, they release methane — a greenhouse gas about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Composting would also save on the estimated $215 million per year that the city spends exporting solid waste to landfills and incinerators.

The city’s Department of Sanitation has hailed the expansion as a success. For instance, between Nov. 16 and 22, it collected more than 6 million pounds of material, surpassing records set earlier this past spring. But Floodlight and Sentient have found that researchers and advocates are not convinced the program is working as well as it could. An examination of the data reveals that inconsistent enforcement and inadequate education and outreach have contributed to lower participation than w

DC Studio // Shutterstock

At some point, many people find themselves quietly wondering: Do I need therapy? The question tends to arrive after a stressful week, during a tough conversation, or while lying awake at night trying to make sense of everything on your mind.

If you’re asking that question, you’re already doing something important: paying attention to how you’re feeling. This guide from Spring Health will help you figure out when it’s time to get support, what the research says about therapy’s benefits, and how to take the next step if you choose to.

That said, if you’re currently in crisis, don’t hesitate to call or text 988 to reach the 24/7 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

How Do I Know if I Need Therapy?

First things first: There’s no minimum threshold to start therapy. You don’t need to be diagnosed with a mental health condition like bipolar disorder or be experiencing a mental health crisis to benefit from professional mental health support.

Therapy can help with both mental health conditions and life challenges. Everything from symptoms of anxiety, depression, or PTSD to stress, burnout, relationship difficulties, grief, or simply wanting to understand yourself better can be addressed by therapy.

Basically, if you’re reading this article and wondering whether therapy is for you, that curiosity itself might be worth exploring.

17 Signs You Might Benefit From Therapy

There are many reasons to consider therapy, so keep in mind that this isn’t an exhaustive list. And you don’t need to check every box on this list to benefit from therapy. But if anything here resonates with you, booking a session with a mental health provider might be helpful.

1. Your emotions feel overwhelming or out of control

When everyday feelings become too intense to manage, or you find yourself having emotional reactions that seem disproportionate to the situation, therapy can help you develop healthier ways to process and regulate those emotions.

2. You’re struggling with anxiety or constant worry

If worry follows you everywhere, making it hard to concentrate, sleep, or enjoy your day, it might be time to start therapy for anxiety. Persistent anxiety isn’t something you have to live with, and it can improve with the right support and coping strategies.

3. You feel hopeless or stuck

Feeling like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, or that nothing will ever change, can be a sign of depression. These feelings can be serious, and therapy can help you identify causes, build coping tools, and explore additional care options if needed.

4. Your sleep or eating habits have changed significantly

Whether you’re sleeping too much