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When you think about our iconic New Mexican chile — the quintessential ingredient in so many delicious and filling New Mexican dishes — you might not think about all of the essential components that got that chile from seed to your table.
In order to grow really good peppers, the ones worthy of envy in Colorado, you need to have a constant irrigation source to water the growing plants. The water makes the walls of the pepper nice and thick, giving it that juicy and spicy quality, all wrapped up in the perfect pepper.
However, for the past 22 years the American West, where our nation’s produce is mostly grown, has been in crisis. Our farmers and ranchers have been struggling to water their fields and keep their livestock hydrated.
While I was traveling around southern New Mexico this past August, I saw firsthand the water issues folks have been struggling with for years — whether there was too much water in the wrong place causing extreme flooding, or not enough water where it once normally flowed, creating drought.
Here’s what this drought means for hardworking American families: Fewer produce options in your shopping cart and higher prices at the grocery checkout. A line can be drawn from the catastrophic climate changes our planet is facing with the food that is served on the table for dinner.
Our farmers and ranchers need to be one of our first lines of defense when it comes to curbing the effects of climate change, whether that’s having access to more efficient irrigation technologies or preventing soil erosion through no-till farming. And the federal government needs to be right there alongside our agriculture producers, giving them the tools and resources they need to combat these extreme drought conditions to continue providing for America’s dinner table.
In a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, I urged the Secretary to use existing authorities to support projects and practices for western farmers and ranchers to conserve water, improve their water infrastructure and efficiency, protect highly erodible lands plagued by drought, restore western range lands’ ability to retain water by reconnecting floodplains to incised streams, and offer technical assistance for growers in drought-stricken regions.
I was proud to be a part of securing $20 billion for USDA agriculture conservation programs, but I believe the Agricultural Department needs to also use these and other funds to help protect our farmers and ranchers during these unprecedented times of extreme drought.
While there isn’t going to be a one-stop shop for all the answers to the difficult situations New Mexican and western farmers and ranchers are currently facing, there is more the federal government can be doing for our Western states who need help.
In the new year, I will continue working toward helping New Mexico and surrounding states conserve water, improve water infrastructure and efficiency, protect lands at risk of erosion and provide technical assistance for growers in regions affected by drought. These are all tangible conservation goals that can and should get done for the benefit of our farmers and ranchers, and chile lovers everywhere.
Ben Ray Luján is New Mexico’s junior U.S. Senator, elected in 2020 after serving six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the state’s 3rd district.
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When you think about our iconic New Mexican chile — the quintessential ingredient in so many delicious and filling New Mexican dishes — you might not think about all of the essential components that got that chile from seed to your table.
In order to grow really good peppers, the ones worthy of envy in Colorado, you need to have a constant irrigation source to water the growing plants. The water makes the walls of the pepper nice and thick, giving it that juicy and spicy quality, all wrapped up in the perfect pepper.
However, for the past 22 years the American West, where our nation’s produce is mostly grown, has been in crisis. Our farmers and ranchers have been struggling to water their fields and keep their livestock hydrated.
While I was traveling around southern New Mexico this past August, I saw firsthand the water issues folks have been struggling with for years — whether there was too much water in the wrong place causing extreme flooding, or not enough water where it once normally flowed, creating drought.
Here’s what this drought means for hardworking American families: Fewer produce options in your shopping cart and higher prices at the grocery checkout. A line can be drawn from the catastrophic climate changes our planet is facing with the food that is served on the table for dinner.
Our farmers and ranchers need to be one of our first lines of defense when it comes to curbing the effects of climate change, whether that’s having access to more efficient irrigation technologies or preventing soil erosion through no-till farming. And the federal government needs to be right there alongside our agriculture producers, giving them the tools and resources they need to combat these extreme drought conditions to continue providing for America’s dinner table.
In a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack, I urged the Secretary to use existing authorities to support projects and practices for western farmers and ranchers to conserve water, improve their water infrastructure and efficiency, protect highly erodible lands plagued by drought, restore western range lands’ ability to retain water by reconnecting floodplains to incised streams, and offer technical assistance for growers in drought-stricken regions.
I was proud to be a part of securing $20 billion for USDA agriculture conservation programs, but I believe the Agricultural Department needs to also use these and other funds to help protect our farmers and ranchers during these unprecedented times of extreme drought.
While there isn’t going to be a one-stop shop for all the answers to the difficult situations New Mexican and western farmers and ranchers are currently facing
|
, there is more the federal government can be doing for our Western states who need help.
In the new year, I will continue working toward helping New Mexico and surrounding states conserve water, improve water infrastructure and efficiency, protect lands at risk of erosion and provide technical assistance for growers in regions affected by drought. These are all tangible conservation goals that can and should get done for the benefit of our farmers and ranchers, and chile lovers everywhere.
Ben Ray Luján is New Mexico’s junior U.S. Senator, elected in 2020 after serving six terms in the U.S. House of Representatives representing the state’s 3rd district.
|
Word recognition is essential for fluent reading. But with an emphasis on phonics ONLY, word recognition is left either left to chance or not being taught in school, as few educationalists have ever discovered how a child develops word recognition. Empowering Learning knows exactly how this transition takes place, by developing your Word \Form Area. One of the first words you can be expected to read or write is your name and the easy way to do that is through word recognition. See my video about scaffolding easy literacy.
There are at least 7 ways that are poor strategies for developing word recognition, that can be improved, by the work done by Empowering Learning with the aid of neuroscience:
- Being stressed – when you are stressed it is very difficult to do anything and that includes reading and writing. Grounding, breathing and being relaxed will improve this.
- 3 positions for reading – try reading looking down at the desk, then with the book slightly tipped up then with the book right up in front of your eyes. Which is the best position for you? Flat on the table is normally more difficult and if you have any visual stress with the letters moving around on the page, don’t look down it puts you into negative emotions or nasty self-talk.
- Expecting that decoding words through phonics will lead to word recognition. This works for some but others drop into mild or severe learning difficulties. It is a poor strategy as neuroscience tells us that word recognition and decoding words work in different parts of the brain and it relies on luck to make this migration. Read on and see how this can be improved.
- Techniques where you look at the word, cover it and then attempt to write it. When students are looking down at a desk they are not in the best position for getting their brain to access their word form area that is part of their internal mental imagery. When students look up they will have better access to mental imagery, vital for word recognition. For example, think of a dog; looking up will give you the best picture, looking down will get you into your emotions (maybe frightened) and self-talk (thinking he will bite me). The series that works best is lookup, see an image, capture a word image and write it down (without looking down at the paper).
- Focusing on high-frequency words does not encourage word recognition, most don’t have mental images. Start with object words until the student is confident of visualising words.
- Modelling in plasticine is a useful technique, especially for the very young, but is slow and repetitive for older children and it does not encourage the student to look up and see their own mental images
- Nonsense words focus on phonics and we certainly don’t want students creating mental images of nonsense words.
Join our The Secrets of Dyslexia and ADHD, and find out how to do word recognition easily and effectively in minutes, whether or not you are Dyslexic. This work is all based on how people who do word recognition successfully do it, it is just a skill to learn.
#dyslexia #wordrecognition #nonsensewords #highfrequencywords #lookcoverwrite #decoding #empoweringlearning
If you would like to improve creativity and abilities to visualise do come and join one of my free group coaching sessions to explore mental images.
For all available resources, look up www.visualkids.co.uk. When building on skills and encouraging creativity you will find their strengths increase and learning difficulties reduce.
Click above to book your place now at one of the free coaching sessions.
My name is Olive Hickmott, I am a health and learning coach, specialising in working with neurodivergent students. I would be pleased to support you in any way I can.
You are welcome to contact me <email-pii>
Here you will find my learning platform for some of my training programmes and free live webinars www.visualkids.co.uk
You will find other useful information and Practitioner Training at http://www.empoweringlearning.co.uk
Here is my YouTube channel for more free resources: https://www.youtube.com/c/OliveHickmott
My latest books are:
The Elephants in the Classroom: using every student’s natural power of Mental Imagery to enhance learning: Neurodiversity through the lens of mental Imagery.
Bridges to Success – How to transform Learning Difficulties
#olivehickmott #visualthinking #empoweringlearning #neurodivergent #mentalimagery #creativity #mindseye #highfrequencywords #Dyslexia #ADHD #nonsencewords #wordrecognition
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Word recognition is essential for fluent reading. But with an emphasis on phonics ONLY, word recognition is left either left to chance or not being taught in school, as few educationalists have ever discovered how a child develops word recognition. Empowering Learning knows exactly how this transition takes place, by developing your Word \Form Area. One of the first words you can be expected to read or write is your name and the easy way to do that is through word recognition. See my video about scaffolding easy literacy.
There are at least 7 ways that are poor strategies for developing word recognition, that can be improved, by the work done by Empowering Learning with the aid of neuroscience:
- Being stressed – when you are stressed it is very difficult to do anything and that includes reading and writing. Grounding, breathing and being relaxed will improve this.
- 3 positions for reading – try reading looking down at the desk, then with the book slightly tipped up then with the book right up in front of your eyes. Which is the best position for you? Flat on the table is normally more difficult and if you have any visual stress with the letters moving around on the page, don’t look down it puts you into negative emotions or nasty self-talk.
- Expecting that decoding words through phonics will lead to word recognition. This works for some but others drop into mild or severe learning difficulties. It is a poor strategy as neuroscience tells us that word recognition and decoding words work in different parts of the brain and it relies on luck to make this migration. Read on and see how this can be improved.
- Techniques where you look at the word, cover it and then attempt to write it. When students are looking down at a desk they are not in the best position for getting their brain to access their word form area that is part of their internal mental imagery. When students look up they will have better access to mental imagery, vital for word recognition. For example, think of a dog; looking up will give you the best picture, looking down will get you into your emotions (maybe frightened) and self-talk (thinking he will bite me). The series that works best is lookup, see an image, capture a word image and write it down (without looking down at the paper).
- Focusing on high-frequency words does not encourage word recognition, most don’t have mental images. Start with object words until the student is confident of visualising words.
- Modelling in plasticine is a useful technique,
|
especially for the very young, but is slow and repetitive for older children and it does not encourage the student to look up and see their own mental images
- Nonsense words focus on phonics and we certainly don’t want students creating mental images of nonsense words.
Join our The Secrets of Dyslexia and ADHD, and find out how to do word recognition easily and effectively in minutes, whether or not you are Dyslexic. This work is all based on how people who do word recognition successfully do it, it is just a skill to learn.
#dyslexia #wordrecognition #nonsensewords #highfrequencywords #lookcoverwrite #decoding #empoweringlearning
If you would like to improve creativity and abilities to visualise do come and join one of my free group coaching sessions to explore mental images.
For all available resources, look up www.visualkids.co.uk. When building on skills and encouraging creativity you will find their strengths increase and learning difficulties reduce.
Click above to book your place now at one of the free coaching sessions.
My name is Olive Hickmott, I am a health and learning coach, specialising in working with neurodivergent students. I would be pleased to support you in any way I can.
You are welcome to contact me <email-pii>
Here you will find my learning platform for some of my training programmes and free live webinars www.visualkids.co.uk
You will find other useful information and Practitioner Training at http://www.empoweringlearning.co.uk
Here is my YouTube channel for more free resources: https://www.youtube.com/c/OliveHickmott
My latest books are:
The Elephants in the Classroom: using every student’s natural power of Mental Imagery to enhance learning: Neurodiversity through the lens of mental Imagery.
Bridges to Success – How to transform Learning Difficulties
#olivehickmott #visualthinking #empoweringlearning #neurodivergent #mentalimagery #creativity #mindseye #highfrequencywords #Dyslexia #ADHD #nonsencewords #wordrecognition
|
Plant a blooming tree: What to do in the garden in January, February
Gardening is a year-round activity here in north Florida. January and February may be slower months, but there is still work to be done.
One of the first things on your mind right now may be what to do with tender plants that were damaged by the recent late December hard freezes.
The advice of Terry DelValle, a fellow Extension Agent who worked in Jacksonville, is most succinct: The question of the day is, “Can I get rid of these ugly brown plants in my landscape? This answer may not be one you want to hear, but it’s better to wait to prune brown plants damaged by the cold when the new growth appears in the spring. Then, be selective as you make pruning cuts; prune just above the new bud and try to avoid leaving a stub.”
“The exception to this rule is with plants that have a strong underground root system that reliably come back each year, like gingers and firespike (Odontonema strictum). Other plants like hibiscus and firebush (Hamelia patens) should be pruned when new growth is evident. Pruning too early would expose plants to more damage in the event of another freeze.”
Rather than focus too much on the damage from the recent freezes, remember that right now, in the middle of our winter, is a great time for planting trees and woody shrubs. It’s a much better time than planting in the warmer months while the plants are actively growing and water needs are higher.
You will need to water newly planted plants now, even now during the winter, but you will find that the root balls don’t dry out as quickly now. The roots will continue growing even now in the winter and help to establish the plants before hot weather arrives. So take advantage of the cooler weather and the extra gardening time you have now, especially for your large landscape projects.
In late winter Japanese magnolias, Taiwan cherries, Okame cherries, redbuds, and red maples are among the trees you will see blooming around Tallahassee. Now is an excellent time to add some of these to your yard. Or perhaps last summer you were thinking that you need some shade trees.
It’s also a good time to plant spring bloomers such as dogwoods and even summer-flowering trees such as crape myrtles and chaste trees. All these will be fine even if we have more freezes.
You may have noticed that camellia flowers, and even buds showing color, were damaged in the hard freezes we had. But you also may have noticed that as the weather returned to normal other camellia buds opened into colorful flowers. Camellias are very hardy in our area and add lots of landscape color at a time of the year when color is scarce. This is an excellent time to shop the nurseries for new camellias to add some winter color to your landscape.
Hedges and landscaping
Perhaps you have been thinking about planting a privacy hedge? Fast-growing shrubs such as sweet viburnum and Ocala anise can do the job and now is the time to plant. Or maybe you have overgrown shrubs in front of the house that really need to be replaced with lower growing shrubs or groundcovers such as lomandra or giant liriope?
There’s no need to wait until spring. If you’re doing the work yourself, mild winter days are much more pleasant than the hot days of late spring. And if you’re considering hiring a nursery or landscape company, they will be backed up with work for months come spring. If you’re considering a complete redesign for a landscape area, definitely act now, as the landscape designers’ and installers’ schedules quickly back up as we move into spring.
January to February is also the time to do most of your normal pruning before spring growth begins. The exception to this would be with spring-blooming plants such as azaleas, loropetalums, and spiraea. Delay pruning them until after they flower in the spring. But evergreen shrubs, deciduous fruit trees and vines, crape myrtles, and roses are among plants to prune before spring growth begins.
When pruning crape myrtles, just remove crossing, rubbing, or poorly placed branches. Generally, if you don’t cut back the tops or the ends of branches you will end up with a prettier plant that’s much easier to manage in the future.
Let the crape myrtles just grow in natural tree form. Only prune to remove poorly spaced branches. If the crape myrtle is too large for the site, consider just replacing it with a variety that won’t grow so large rather than continually trying to cut it down to size. There are crape myrtle varieties of all sizes.
If the mulch is thinning around your trees and shrubs, take time to replenish it now. This job is much more pleasant in the cooler weather and will help slow emergence of weeds in the spring. There is no need to remove the old mulch. Just add to it.
One of the most readily available and easy- to-work-with mulches is pine straw. If you have falling leaves or pine needles in your lawn, you can even gather them into a pile using your lawn mower and use them as mulch. Cover with a little fresh pine straw to improve the appearance and to keep the leaves from blowing.
You can add seasonal color to your yard now with annuals such as pansies, violas, snapdragons, diascia, nemesia, and petunias. Visit your local nursery to make selections of these and other cool-season flowers. Don’t forget to fertilize them lightly every four to six weeks to keep them growing well.
Vegetables and fruit trees
Cool-season food plants such as arugula, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bunching onions, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, collards, kale, lettuce, mustard, radish, spinach, Swiss chard, celery, potatoes, and English peas can also be planted in areas that receive enough sun. Plant deciduous fruit trees and vines such as pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, persimmons, figs, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, pecans, chestnuts, mayhaws, and pawpaws.
Use our generally mild north Florida winter to have your landscape and garden ready for spring. Plant, prune, mulch, and plan, and enjoy the winter flowers and the harvest from cool season vegetables and herbs.
David W. Marshall is a landscape consultant with Tallahassee Nurseries and an Extension Agent Emeritus with UF/IFAS Extension Leon County, an Equal Opportunity Institution. For gardening questions, email the extension office at <email-pii>.
|
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Plant a blooming tree: What to do in the garden in January, February
Gardening is a year-round activity here in north Florida. January and February may be slower months, but there is still work to be done.
One of the first things on your mind right now may be what to do with tender plants that were damaged by the recent late December hard freezes.
The advice of Terry DelValle, a fellow Extension Agent who worked in Jacksonville, is most succinct: The question of the day is, “Can I get rid of these ugly brown plants in my landscape? This answer may not be one you want to hear, but it’s better to wait to prune brown plants damaged by the cold when the new growth appears in the spring. Then, be selective as you make pruning cuts; prune just above the new bud and try to avoid leaving a stub.”
“The exception to this rule is with plants that have a strong underground root system that reliably come back each year, like gingers and firespike (Odontonema strictum). Other plants like hibiscus and firebush (Hamelia patens) should be pruned when new growth is evident. Pruning too early would expose plants to more damage in the event of another freeze.”
Rather than focus too much on the damage from the recent freezes, remember that right now, in the middle of our winter, is a great time for planting trees and woody shrubs. It’s a much better time than planting in the warmer months while the plants are actively growing and water needs are higher.
You will need to water newly planted plants now, even now during the winter, but you will find that the root balls don’t dry out as quickly now. The roots will continue growing even now in the winter and help to establish the plants before hot weather arrives. So take advantage of the cooler weather and the extra gardening time you have now, especially for your large landscape projects.
In late winter Japanese magnolias, Taiwan cherries, Okame cherries, redbuds, and red maples are among the trees you will see blooming around Tallahassee. Now is an excellent time to add some of these to your yard. Or perhaps last summer you were thinking that you need some shade trees.
It’s also a good time to plant spring bloomers such as dogwoods and even summer-flowering trees such as crape myrtles and chaste trees. All these will be fine even if we have more
|
freezes.
You may have noticed that camellia flowers, and even buds showing color, were damaged in the hard freezes we had. But you also may have noticed that as the weather returned to normal other camellia buds opened into colorful flowers. Camellias are very hardy in our area and add lots of landscape color at a time of the year when color is scarce. This is an excellent time to shop the nurseries for new camellias to add some winter color to your landscape.
Hedges and landscaping
Perhaps you have been thinking about planting a privacy hedge? Fast-growing shrubs such as sweet viburnum and Ocala anise can do the job and now is the time to plant. Or maybe you have overgrown shrubs in front of the house that really need to be replaced with lower growing shrubs or groundcovers such as lomandra or giant liriope?
There’s no need to wait until spring. If you’re doing the work yourself, mild winter days are much more pleasant than the hot days of late spring. And if you’re considering hiring a nursery or landscape company, they will be backed up with work for months come spring. If you’re considering a complete redesign for a landscape area, definitely act now, as the landscape designers’ and installers’ schedules quickly back up as we move into spring.
January to February is also the time to do most of your normal pruning before spring growth begins. The exception to this would be with spring-blooming plants such as azaleas, loropetalums, and spiraea. Delay pruning them until after they flower in the spring. But evergreen shrubs, deciduous fruit trees and vines, crape myrtles, and roses are among plants to prune before spring growth begins.
When pruning crape myrtles, just remove crossing, rubbing, or poorly placed branches. Generally, if you don’t cut back the tops or the ends of branches you will end up with a prettier plant that’s much easier to manage in the future.
Let the crape myrtles just grow in natural tree form. Only prune to remove poorly spaced branches. If the crape myrtle is too large for the site, consider just replacing it with a variety that won’t grow so large rather than continually trying to cut it down to size. There are crape myrtle varieties of all sizes.
If the mulch is thinning around your trees and shrubs, take time to replenish it now. This job is much more pleasant in the cooler weather and will help slow emergence of weeds in the spring. There is no need to remove the old mulch. Just add to it.
One of the most readily available and easy- to-work-with mulches is pine straw. If you have falling leaves or pine needles in your lawn, you can even gather them into a pile using your lawn mower and use them as mulch. Cover with a little fresh pine straw to improve the appearance and to keep the leaves from blowing.
You can add seasonal color to your yard now with annuals such as pansies, violas, snapdragons, diascia, nemesia, and petunias. Visit your local nursery to make selections of these and other cool-season flowers. Don’t forget to fertilize them lightly every four to six weeks to keep them growing well.
Vegetables and fruit trees
Cool-season food plants such as arugula, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, bunching onions, carrots, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage, collards, kale, lettuce, mustard, radish, spinach, Swiss chard, celery, potatoes, and English peas can also be planted in areas that receive enough sun. Plant deciduous fruit trees and vines such as pears, peaches, plums, nectarines, persimmons, figs, blueberries, blackberries, grapes, pecans, chestnuts, mayhaws, and pawpaws.
Use our generally mild north Florida winter to have your landscape and garden ready for spring. Plant, prune, mulch, and plan, and enjoy the winter flowers and the harvest from cool season vegetables and herbs.
David W. Marshall is a landscape consultant with Tallahassee Nurseries and an Extension Agent Emeritus with UF/IFAS Extension Leon County, an Equal Opportunity Institution. For gardening questions, email the extension office at <email-pii>.
|
Climate change has been called one of the most significant challenges of our generation. While some organizations have made progress in lowering their emissions during the last few years by transitioning to renewable energy such as wind and solar, much more needs to be done to reduce their carbon dioxide and methane emissions – the two gases that scientists say contribute the most to climate change.
The World Nuclear Association estimates that energy-related greenhouse gas emissions account for the majority of human-caused emissions, estimated at about 80% in the United States and the European Union.1 Unfortunately, the International Energy Association (IEA) reported that total energy-related greenhouse gas emissions worldwide increased to an all-time high of 41.3 Gt CO2-equivalent in 2022.2 From utilities to energy companies, clearly there is a lot of work to do. It doesn’t help that traditional methods to calculate emissions are labor intensive and require extensive time to develop insight for reporting requirements.
The good news is that visionary leaders around the world have committed to lowering emissions and are actively implementing and developing reduction plans. To achieve their commitments, organizations face two challenges: establishing a consolidated system of record for emissions reporting and integrating this system with sensing technology that can reduce emissions.
A consolidated system of record
The appropriate strategy for reducing emissions looks different at each organization, and depends on the industry, footprint and operational structure. Some companies may have a reduction strategy that includes a mix of improving operational efficiency, optimizing energy consumption, and investing in new fuels such as hydrogen. It could also include other elements such as implementing carbon capture, expanding battery energy storage systems and developing carbon offset credits.
The challenge with most of these strategies is that they require leaders to effectively measure and report emissions at an asset level across a multitude of operations. Then, that data must be accessible, accurate and actionable at the enterprise level, creating a system of record that helps facilitate better decision making and reporting.
Many companies have thousands, or even tens of thousands, of assets across multiple production lines, plants and geographies. The high volume of data makes identifying meaningful insights that much more difficult. That’s why organizations are beginning to invest in enterprise emission management software solutions. Many of these digital and software-as-a-service (SaaS)-led solutions aggregate data and allow leaders to more effectively view their overall emissions profile, take actions to reduce emissions and report the results for regulatory compliance.
For example, Honeywell’s emissions management solution – powered by our industrial-grade software Honeywell Forge – can monitor data from across an organization in near real time. The solution can analyze the intensity of different greenhouse gases – including methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide – while providing visualization to understand the economic and environmental impacts of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
Software that integrates with sensing
When establishing a consolidated system of record, that system must be sensor-agnostic so that it can collect data from sensors and hardware on assets across a company. Organizations must have the right software and hardware to measure their emissions outputs.
In the past, industrial personnel walked around plants and operations using handheld equipment to detect invisible leaks. Today, Internet of Things (IoT)-linked detectors and gas cloud imaging (GCI) cameras can sense and quantify leaks in near-real time. Not only can these leaks be reported back through the software system as outputs of the company’s overall emissions, but they alert operations who can analyze and take actions to reduce and stop the leaks.
Industrial IoT that integrates sensing with software systems is helping operators identify emissions problems they didn’t even know existed. Take for example, the Honeywell Rebellion Gas Imaging System, that uses hyperspectral imaging technology coupled with machine learning analytics to pinpoint gas and emissions leaks. GCI cameras are now being used to capture methane and hydrogen sulfide leaks during routine maintenance.
This integration is critical to tackling methane leaks, which are significant contributors to climate change and can be extremely costly to companies. According to the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership, losses in 2021 cost the oil and gas industry $19 billion.3 Just as important, organizations must comply with more stringent government emission standards to avoid costly fines and meet their own sustainability targets.
Investing for the future with digital transformation
During the next few years, we will see an acceleration of disruptive technology solutions that help organizations reduce their emissions and meet their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. New emissions technologies will enable industries to better measure and analyze leaks while also driving greater efficiency, resiliency and accountability. Having a system of record in place will be a key underlying component to connect emerging sustainable technology and achieve sustainability goals at an enterprise level.
1 World Nuclear Association, Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Electricity, October 2022. [Accessed September 13, 2023]
2 International Energy Association, CO2 Emissions in 2022, March 2023. [Accessed September 13, 2023]
3 Oil & Gas Methane Partnership, More About Methane. 2023. [Accessed September 13, 2023]
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Climate change has been called one of the most significant challenges of our generation. While some organizations have made progress in lowering their emissions during the last few years by transitioning to renewable energy such as wind and solar, much more needs to be done to reduce their carbon dioxide and methane emissions – the two gases that scientists say contribute the most to climate change.
The World Nuclear Association estimates that energy-related greenhouse gas emissions account for the majority of human-caused emissions, estimated at about 80% in the United States and the European Union.1 Unfortunately, the International Energy Association (IEA) reported that total energy-related greenhouse gas emissions worldwide increased to an all-time high of 41.3 Gt CO2-equivalent in 2022.2 From utilities to energy companies, clearly there is a lot of work to do. It doesn’t help that traditional methods to calculate emissions are labor intensive and require extensive time to develop insight for reporting requirements.
The good news is that visionary leaders around the world have committed to lowering emissions and are actively implementing and developing reduction plans. To achieve their commitments, organizations face two challenges: establishing a consolidated system of record for emissions reporting and integrating this system with sensing technology that can reduce emissions.
A consolidated system of record
The appropriate strategy for reducing emissions looks different at each organization, and depends on the industry, footprint and operational structure. Some companies may have a reduction strategy that includes a mix of improving operational efficiency, optimizing energy consumption, and investing in new fuels such as hydrogen. It could also include other elements such as implementing carbon capture, expanding battery energy storage systems and developing carbon offset credits.
The challenge with most of these strategies is that they require leaders to effectively measure and report emissions at an asset level across a multitude of operations. Then, that data must be accessible, accurate and actionable at the enterprise level, creating a system of record that helps facilitate better decision making and reporting.
Many companies have thousands, or even tens of thousands, of assets across multiple production lines, plants and geographies. The high volume of data makes identifying meaningful insights that much more difficult. That’s why organizations are beginning to invest in enterprise emission management software solutions. Many of these digital and software-as-a-service (SaaS)-led solutions aggregate data and allow leaders to more effectively view their overall emissions profile, take actions to reduce emissions and report the results for regulatory compliance.
For example, Honeywell’s emissions management solution – powered by our industrial-grade software Honeywell Forge – can monitor data from across an organization
|
in near real time. The solution can analyze the intensity of different greenhouse gases – including methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide – while providing visualization to understand the economic and environmental impacts of Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
Software that integrates with sensing
When establishing a consolidated system of record, that system must be sensor-agnostic so that it can collect data from sensors and hardware on assets across a company. Organizations must have the right software and hardware to measure their emissions outputs.
In the past, industrial personnel walked around plants and operations using handheld equipment to detect invisible leaks. Today, Internet of Things (IoT)-linked detectors and gas cloud imaging (GCI) cameras can sense and quantify leaks in near-real time. Not only can these leaks be reported back through the software system as outputs of the company’s overall emissions, but they alert operations who can analyze and take actions to reduce and stop the leaks.
Industrial IoT that integrates sensing with software systems is helping operators identify emissions problems they didn’t even know existed. Take for example, the Honeywell Rebellion Gas Imaging System, that uses hyperspectral imaging technology coupled with machine learning analytics to pinpoint gas and emissions leaks. GCI cameras are now being used to capture methane and hydrogen sulfide leaks during routine maintenance.
This integration is critical to tackling methane leaks, which are significant contributors to climate change and can be extremely costly to companies. According to the Oil & Gas Methane Partnership, losses in 2021 cost the oil and gas industry $19 billion.3 Just as important, organizations must comply with more stringent government emission standards to avoid costly fines and meet their own sustainability targets.
Investing for the future with digital transformation
During the next few years, we will see an acceleration of disruptive technology solutions that help organizations reduce their emissions and meet their environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals. New emissions technologies will enable industries to better measure and analyze leaks while also driving greater efficiency, resiliency and accountability. Having a system of record in place will be a key underlying component to connect emerging sustainable technology and achieve sustainability goals at an enterprise level.
1 World Nuclear Association, Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Electricity, October 2022. [Accessed September 13, 2023]
2 International Energy Association, CO2 Emissions in 2022, March 2023. [Accessed September 13, 2023]
3 Oil & Gas Methane Partnership, More About Methane. 2023. [Accessed September 13, 2023]
|
When wildfire smoke billows from its source and lingers in the air, the haze brings coughs and questions for many Montana residents. Among them: How should I interpret air quality ratings? How does smoke affect my indoor air quality? Is it safe to walk my dog or head out for a hike today?
Montana Free Press put those questions and others to public health officials and researchers. While the answers are sometimes tricky to navigate — and leave plenty of space for personal choice — the bottom line is that there are plenty of resources available to help you make decisions about your health and comfort this wildfire season.
HOW DO I DETERMINE HOW BAD THE AIR QUALITY IS?
You can check public websites, either the state of Montana’s Today’s Air page or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Now website. Both present sensor data from specific monitoring locations and report air quality ratings based on PM2.5 readings, which measure the concentration of small airborne particles at monitoring sites.
MTFP also summarizes data from the Air Now website on the Montana Fire Report, which is updated hourly. Here’s the map we publish there:
Most weather apps aren’t the best reference because they usually report air quality in terms of ozone levels, not PM2.5 concentrations, and forecast or model conditions instead of using real-time data, said BJ Biskupiak, who runs school-health and asthma-control programs at the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. Another issue with weather apps, Biskupiak added, is that it’s not always easy to tell where the data is coming from.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality offers an email or text update system that alerts users to smoke and wildfires. The Montana Wildfire Smoke web page from Climate Smart Missoula provides guidance on understanding the health impacts of wildfire smoke and making a plan for keeping your indoor air clean.
Missoula City-County Air Quality Specialist Sarah Coefield said she gets lots of questions about differences in the numbers reported by the EPA and the DEQ sites. Both agencies measure the same thing, but present the data differently, she said.
Coefield said people should pay most attention to the colors attached to the ratings, which provide a general indication about how risky the air quality is.
If you live somewhere without an EPA air quality monitor nearby, there may be data available from PurpleAir sensors, which are installed at homes or community centers. Coefield said the EPA’s Fire and Smoke map converts PurpleAir sensor data to reflect what a more accurate air quality monitor would display.
One benefit of EPA’s Fire and Smoke map is the amount of data it includes. The map displays air quality readings from permanent PM2.5 monitors, PurpleAir sensors and even temporary monitors that may be put in place due to nearby wildfire activity.
Kerri Mueller, who also works as an air quality specialist for Missoula City-County, said that she prefers the Fire and Smoke map because it provides this additional data, helping to paint a more complete picture of air quality conditions across the state.
Coefield said that DEQ has been working hard to expand its monitoring network. A new permanent air quality monitor was recently installed in Havre, and additional monitors in Choteau, Eureka, Glasgow and Glendive are expected to go on line by the end of the year. The new monitors will add to the 21 other permanent monitors currently in use across the state.
WHAT IS PM?
PM, or particulate matter, refers to tiny particles — solid or liquid — suspended in the air. It comes from a variety of sources, from windborne sand to wildfire smoke. Air currents can carry PM2.5 thousands of miles, Biskupiak said, which is why a fire in Canada can soot up skies over, say, Bozeman.
Coefield described wildfire smoke as a “chemical stew.” It consists of gaseous pollutants including carbon monoxide, water vapor, volatile organic chemicals, or VOCs — which cause stingy eyes, scratchy throats and headaches — and solid particle pollution, like PM2.5. PM2.5, which is the tiniest version of particulate matter, is the most-often-measured component of wildfire smoke. The 2.5 indicates size — PM2.5 particles are less than two and a half micrometers in diameter, or about one twenty-fifth the diameter of a strand of hair.
Because PM2.5 is so small, it escapes entrapment by nose hairs, which filter out unwanted particles, and makes its way into the lungs and bloodstream, said Tony Ward, chair of the School of Public and Community Health Sciences at the University of Montana.
Ward said Montana has an extensive PM2.5 monitoring network because it’s the most common type of air pollution in the state.
WHAT DO THE U.S. EPA AIR QUALITY CATEGORIES MEAN?
Public health officials sort air quality into six categories based on the amount of particulate in the air. Montana’s public health department provides outdoor activity guidelines for each category. Summarized briefly, those are:
- Good — No suggested limitation on activity.
- Moderate — Sensitive people should limit vigorous activity and watch for symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath.
- Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups — Sensitive people should limit outdoor activity to light or moderate exercise and avoid activity that lasts over two hours.
- Unhealthy — Everyone should stay inside as much as possible. Sensitive people should avoid long and intense activities and others should reduce vigorous activity. Consider moving activities inside or rescheduling.
- Very Unhealthy — Everyone should stay inside as much as possible. Sensitive groups should avoid all outdoor activity and others should avoid heavy exertion.
- Hazardous — Everyone should avoid all physical activity outside. Sensitive groups should keep indoor activity levels low.
“Sensitive” refers to how likely a person is to be affected by airborne smoke, Biskupiak said. Children up to age 18 fall into this category because their lungs are still developing, and they inhale more air per pound of body weight than adults. Adults over 60 also tend to have pre-existing lung and heart conditions and less ability to fight off illness. The “sensitive” group also includes people with chronic illnesses and pregnant people. The EPA has also added people of low socio-economic status and outdoor workers to the list of populations who experience adverse health effects from wildfire smoke.
Examples of “light” activity include walking, stretching or lounging in the park. Yoga, gymnastics, canoeing and skateboarding are considered “moderate” activity, and “vigorous” exercise includes activities like running, mountain biking, wheeling a wheelchair and competitive sports.
IS IT BETTER TO STAY INSIDE?
The EPA says indoor air may actually be worse than air outside. Ward said this is where people need to perform a personal risk assessment. “There’s no safe level of breathing in PM2.5,” he said.
If you don’t have air conditioning and open windows to cool your house on a smoky day, that can introduce particles into your living space. Ideally, people would have air filtration units in their homes, Ward said. That can range from installing air purifiers in every room to rigging a box fan to act as an air filter. Air purifiers are rated based on filter size and matched to appropriate room size. Ward said that if your home only has one air filter, the best option is to create a clean-air space in a room where your family spends the most time.
The state health department provides information on how to choose an appropriate HEPA filter for your space and a weatherization assistance program. The Montana Asthma Home Control program also provides free, small HEPA filters to people with asthma.
Coefield said people may need to make a judgment call between managing heat or smoke, especially if they don’t have access to air conditioners or air purifiers. She advised letting in as much air at night as tolerable to cool down the house and cleaning it through whatever system is available. Coefield, who doesn’t have central A/C, said that she uses air purifiers and a window A/C unit in her bedroom; she knows she has at least one cool, clean space to retreat to.
“The heat will kill you faster,” Coefield said.
HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF (AND OTHERS) DURING HIGH HEAT?
Many of the same principles that apply to smoke also apply to high heat, such as limiting time outside or choosing to stay indoors.
Experts recommend wearing lightweight clothing and staying hydrated, as dehydration can sneak up on you when temperatures are hot.
“Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink water,” said Susan Teitelman, climate resiliency specialist at Climate Smart Missoula. Teitelman also advises against drinking sugary drinks and alcohol, as those beverages can dehydrate you.
If temperatures are too high inside your home, going to the river or public indoor spaces like libraries can provide a refuge.
“I always recommend finding indoor activities during those high heat events. Whether you have a gym membership, or can go to the movies — seek cool air for a little bit,” Mueller said.
Teitelman said it’s also important to check on friends and neighbors, especially older adults, and to keep an eye on pets. Waiting to walk pets until evening can reduce the risk of negative effects.
WILL WEARING A MASK OUTSIDE HELP?
Cloth and surgical masks aren’t effective against PM2.5. N95 or P100 respirators can work if they’re properly fitted and used correctly. If not worn properly, they can leak, which allows smoke to bypass the mask.
IS MY AIR CONDITIONER HELPING OR HURTING?
Air conditioners that bring outdoor air inside to cool and circulate can bring smoke in, too. Ward said having a filter on any A/C intake may help scrub out PM2.5. Alternatively, if your central A/C has a fresh air intake, set the unit to recirculate mode — that way, the A/C will draw air from inside the house, cooling it and recirculating it. Recirculation is an option for vehicles with air conditioning, too.
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO ENJOY THE SUMMER WHILE KEEPING MY LUNGS SAFE?
It’s really about strategy and assessing your personal risk.
If you’re training for a marathon, Ward said, it might not be great to stick to your training plan.
Inhaling PM2.5 is “very harmful for your body not only [in the] short term, but also long term,” he said. Harmful effects include breathing problems, exacerbated asthma, cardiovascular diseases and even lung cancer.
Keep an eye on air quality monitors, follow local smoke blogs and watch the weather. Wind patterns and pressure systems may be indicative of upcoming relief.
WHAT DOES SMOKE ACTUALLY DO TO MY LUNGS?
Respiratory and cardiovascular systems are the first to be affected by wildfire smoke. PM2.5 sinks deep into the lungs and, because it’s so small, can dissolve into the bloodstream. People with pre-existing lung or heart conditions are at particular risk for hospitalization or early death after a month of sustained wildfire smoke.
After the 2017 Rice Ridge Fire in Seeley Lake, researchers followed members of the Seeley Lake community for two years to assess the impact of heavy wildfire smoke. Up to two years after the fire, researchers found a significant decrease in lung function. A study out of the University of Montana found that higher PM2.5 concentrations in the summer are positively correlated with an increase in flu the following winter.
WHAT SHOULD I DO WHEN IT’S BEEN SMOKY FOR DAYS?
Contiguous days of smoke usually mean you’re in close proximity to fires or weather systems that draw smoke into the same region. There will usually be interims of improved air quality even during a lengthy smoke event. When there’s a break, Biskupiak said, it is important to open the windows and try to get the smoke out of your home.
Aside from those cleaner-air moments, Biskupiak recommended setting a limit on time spent outdoors, monitoring air quality on a regular basis, using air quality data to adjust exercise routines, and keeping an eye out for symptoms. Coughing, scratchy eyes and throats, shortness of breath, wheezing and chest pain could indicate too much particulate exposure.
Biskupiak said he limits how much time he spends outside during smoke events. He knows he doesn’t fall into the “sensitive groups” category, but when air quality is in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” or “unhealthy” range, he might go on an easy half-hour walk, but that’s it.
Being attuned to your individual response to wildfire smoke is important, Biskupiak said, and can serve as a guide for moderating your outdoor activity.
“It’s really more nuanced than anyone would like it to be,” Coefield said. The orange “unhealthy for sensitive groups” category might feel fine for you one day but intolerable a month later.
Human health is a spectrum, Coefield said, and it’s important to listen to your body.
Knowing how to adjust to hot, smoky conditions is becoming an essential skill as hotter and drier summers result in increased wildfire activity.
“What used to be every 10 years, every 20 years, now it’s every summer that we’re dealing with these forest fire issues,” Ward said. “The more people know how to protect themselves, the better we’ll be at adapting to this changing climate.”
A lack of access to navigators in rural locales to help Medicaid enrollees keep their coverage or find other insurance if they’re no longer eligible could exacerbate the difficulties rural residents face.
Three intervenors joined the ongoing litigation over House Bill 562 this week, arguing that the currently blocked law is critical to their plans to open specialized choice schools in their communities.
Nearly three months after a Montana Rail Link train derailed near Reed Point, releasing 419,000 pounds of asphalt into the Yellowstone River, state agencies began advising anglers this week not to eat any fish caught on a nearly 50-mile stretch of the river.
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When wildfire smoke billows from its source and lingers in the air, the haze brings coughs and questions for many Montana residents. Among them: How should I interpret air quality ratings? How does smoke affect my indoor air quality? Is it safe to walk my dog or head out for a hike today?
Montana Free Press put those questions and others to public health officials and researchers. While the answers are sometimes tricky to navigate — and leave plenty of space for personal choice — the bottom line is that there are plenty of resources available to help you make decisions about your health and comfort this wildfire season.
HOW DO I DETERMINE HOW BAD THE AIR QUALITY IS?
You can check public websites, either the state of Montana’s Today’s Air page or the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Air Now website. Both present sensor data from specific monitoring locations and report air quality ratings based on PM2.5 readings, which measure the concentration of small airborne particles at monitoring sites.
MTFP also summarizes data from the Air Now website on the Montana Fire Report, which is updated hourly. Here’s the map we publish there:
Most weather apps aren’t the best reference because they usually report air quality in terms of ozone levels, not PM2.5 concentrations, and forecast or model conditions instead of using real-time data, said BJ Biskupiak, who runs school-health and asthma-control programs at the state Department of Public Health and Human Services. Another issue with weather apps, Biskupiak added, is that it’s not always easy to tell where the data is coming from.
The Montana Department of Environmental Quality offers an email or text update system that alerts users to smoke and wildfires. The Montana Wildfire Smoke web page from Climate Smart Missoula provides guidance on understanding the health impacts of wildfire smoke and making a plan for keeping your indoor air clean.
Missoula City-County Air Quality Specialist Sarah Coefield said she gets lots of questions about differences in the numbers reported by the EPA and the DEQ sites. Both agencies measure the same thing, but present the data differently, she said.
Coefield said people should pay most attention to the colors attached to the ratings, which provide a general indication about how risky the air quality is.
If you live somewhere without an EPA air quality monitor nearby, there may be data available from PurpleAir sensors, which are installed at homes or community centers. Coefield said the EPA’s Fire and Smoke map converts PurpleAir sensor
|
data to reflect what a more accurate air quality monitor would display.
One benefit of EPA’s Fire and Smoke map is the amount of data it includes. The map displays air quality readings from permanent PM2.5 monitors, PurpleAir sensors and even temporary monitors that may be put in place due to nearby wildfire activity.
Kerri Mueller, who also works as an air quality specialist for Missoula City-County, said that she prefers the Fire and Smoke map because it provides this additional data, helping to paint a more complete picture of air quality conditions across the state.
Coefield said that DEQ has been working hard to expand its monitoring network. A new permanent air quality monitor was recently installed in Havre, and additional monitors in Choteau, Eureka, Glasgow and Glendive are expected to go on line by the end of the year. The new monitors will add to the 21 other permanent monitors currently in use across the state.
WHAT IS PM?
PM, or particulate matter, refers to tiny particles — solid or liquid — suspended in the air. It comes from a variety of sources, from windborne sand to wildfire smoke. Air currents can carry PM2.5 thousands of miles, Biskupiak said, which is why a fire in Canada can soot up skies over, say, Bozeman.
Coefield described wildfire smoke as a “chemical stew.” It consists of gaseous pollutants including carbon monoxide, water vapor, volatile organic chemicals, or VOCs — which cause stingy eyes, scratchy throats and headaches — and solid particle pollution, like PM2.5. PM2.5, which is the tiniest version of particulate matter, is the most-often-measured component of wildfire smoke. The 2.5 indicates size — PM2.5 particles are less than two and a half micrometers in diameter, or about one twenty-fifth the diameter of a strand of hair.
Because PM2.5 is so small, it escapes entrapment by nose hairs, which filter out unwanted particles, and makes its way into the lungs and bloodstream, said Tony Ward, chair of the School of Public and Community Health Sciences at the University of Montana.
Ward said Montana has an extensive PM2.5 monitoring network because it’s the most common type of air pollution in the state.
WHAT DO THE U.S. EPA AIR QUALITY CATEGORIES MEAN?
Public health officials sort air quality into six categories based on the amount of particulate in the air. Montana’s public health department provides outdoor activity guidelines for each category. Summarized briefly, those are:
- Good — No suggested limitation on activity.
- Moderate — Sensitive people should limit vigorous activity and watch for symptoms like coughing and shortness of breath.
- Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups — Sensitive people should limit outdoor activity to light or moderate exercise and avoid activity that lasts over two hours.
- Unhealthy — Everyone should stay inside as much as possible. Sensitive people should avoid long and intense activities and others should reduce vigorous activity. Consider moving activities inside or rescheduling.
- Very Unhealthy — Everyone should stay inside as much as possible. Sensitive groups should avoid all outdoor activity and others should avoid heavy exertion.
- Hazardous — Everyone should avoid all physical activity outside. Sensitive groups should keep indoor activity levels low.
“Sensitive” refers to how likely a person is to be affected by airborne smoke, Biskupiak said. Children up to age 18 fall into this category because their lungs are still developing, and they inhale more air per pound of body weight than adults. Adults over 60 also tend to have pre-existing lung and heart conditions and less ability to fight off illness. The “sensitive” group also includes people with chronic illnesses and pregnant people. The EPA has also added people of low socio-economic status and outdoor workers to the list of populations who experience adverse health effects from wildfire smoke.
Examples of “light” activity include walking, stretching or lounging in the park. Yoga, gymnastics, canoeing and skateboarding are considered “moderate” activity, and “vigorous” exercise includes activities like running, mountain biking, wheeling a wheelchair and competitive sports.
IS IT BETTER TO STAY INSIDE?
The EPA says indoor air may actually be worse than air outside. Ward said this is where people need to perform a personal risk assessment. “There’s no safe level of breathing in PM2.5,” he said.
If you don’t have air conditioning and open windows to cool your house on a smoky day, that can introduce particles into your living space. Ideally, people would have air filtration units in their homes, Ward said. That can range from installing air purifiers in every room to rigging a box fan to act as an air filter. Air purifiers are rated based on filter size and matched to appropriate room size. Ward said that if your home only has one air filter, the best option is to create a clean-air space in a room where your family spends the most time.
The state health department provides information on how to choose an appropriate HEPA filter for your space and a weatherization assistance program. The Montana Asthma Home Control program also provides free, small HEPA filters to people with asthma.
Coefield said people may need to make a judgment call between managing heat or smoke, especially if they don’t have access to air conditioners or air purifiers. She advised letting in as much air at night as tolerable to cool down the house and cleaning it through whatever system is available. Coefield, who doesn’t have central A/C, said that she uses air purifiers and a window A/C unit in her bedroom; she knows she has at least one cool, clean space to retreat to.
“The heat will kill you faster,” Coefield said.
HOW CAN I PROTECT MYSELF (AND OTHERS) DURING HIGH HEAT?
Many of the same principles that apply to smoke also apply to high heat, such as limiting time outside or choosing to stay indoors.
Experts recommend wearing lightweight clothing and staying hydrated, as dehydration can sneak up on you when temperatures are hot.
“Don’t wait until you’re thirsty to drink water,” said Susan Teitelman, climate resiliency specialist at Climate Smart Missoula. Teitelman also advises against drinking sugary drinks and alcohol, as those beverages can dehydrate you.
If temperatures are too high inside your home, going to the river or public indoor spaces like libraries can provide a refuge.
“I always recommend finding indoor activities during those high heat events. Whether you have a gym membership, or can go to the movies — seek cool air for a little bit,” Mueller said.
Teitelman said it’s also important to check on friends and neighbors, especially older adults, and to keep an eye on pets. Waiting to walk pets until evening can reduce the risk of negative effects.
WILL WEARING A MASK OUTSIDE HELP?
Cloth and surgical masks aren’t effective against PM2.5. N95 or P100 respirators can work if they’re properly fitted and used correctly. If not worn properly, they can leak, which allows smoke to bypass the mask.
IS MY AIR CONDITIONER HELPING OR HURTING?
Air conditioners that bring outdoor air inside to cool and circulate can bring smoke in, too. Ward said having a filter on any A/C intake may help scrub out PM2.5. Alternatively, if your central A/C has a fresh air intake, set the unit to recirculate mode — that way, the A/C will draw air from inside the house, cooling it and recirculating it. Recirculation is an option for vehicles with air conditioning, too.
HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO ENJOY THE SUMMER WHILE KEEPING MY LUNGS SAFE?
It’s really about strategy and assessing your personal risk.
If you’re training for a marathon, Ward said, it might not be great to stick to your training plan.
Inhaling PM2.5 is “very harmful for your body not only [in the] short term, but also long term,” he said. Harmful effects include breathing problems, exacerbated asthma, cardiovascular diseases and even lung cancer.
Keep an eye on air quality monitors, follow local smoke blogs and watch the weather. Wind patterns and pressure systems may be indicative of upcoming relief.
WHAT DOES SMOKE ACTUALLY DO TO MY LUNGS?
Respiratory and cardiovascular systems are the first to be affected by wildfire smoke. PM2.5 sinks deep into the lungs and, because it’s so small, can dissolve into the bloodstream. People with pre-existing lung or heart conditions are at particular risk for hospitalization or early death after a month of sustained wildfire smoke.
After the 2017 Rice Ridge Fire in Seeley Lake, researchers followed members of the Seeley Lake community for two years to assess the impact of heavy wildfire smoke. Up to two years after the fire, researchers found a significant decrease in lung function. A study out of the University of Montana found that higher PM2.5 concentrations in the summer are positively correlated with an increase in flu the following winter.
WHAT SHOULD I DO WHEN IT’S BEEN SMOKY FOR DAYS?
Contiguous days of smoke usually mean you’re in close proximity to fires or weather systems that draw smoke into the same region. There will usually be interims of improved air quality even during a lengthy smoke event. When there’s a break, Biskupiak said, it is important to open the windows and try to get the smoke out of your home.
Aside from those cleaner-air moments, Biskupiak recommended setting a limit on time spent outdoors, monitoring air quality on a regular basis, using air quality data to adjust exercise routines, and keeping an eye out for symptoms. Coughing, scratchy eyes and throats, shortness of breath, wheezing and chest pain could indicate too much particulate exposure.
Biskupiak said he limits how much time he spends outside during smoke events. He knows he doesn’t fall into the “sensitive groups” category, but when air quality is in the “unhealthy for sensitive groups” or “unhealthy” range, he might go on an easy half-hour walk, but that’s it.
Being attuned to your individual response to wildfire smoke is important, Biskupiak said, and can serve as a guide for moderating your outdoor activity.
“It’s really more nuanced than anyone would like it to be,” Coefield said. The orange “unhealthy for sensitive groups” category might feel fine for you one day but intolerable a month later.
Human health is a spectrum, Coefield said, and it’s important to listen to your body.
Knowing how to adjust to hot, smoky conditions is becoming an essential skill as hotter and drier summers result in increased wildfire activity.
“What used to be every 10 years, every 20 years, now it’s every summer that we’re dealing with these forest fire issues,” Ward said. “The more people know how to protect themselves, the better we’ll be at adapting to this changing climate.”
A lack of access to navigators in rural locales to help Medicaid enrollees keep their coverage or find other insurance if they’re no longer eligible could exacerbate the difficulties rural residents face.
Three intervenors joined the ongoing litigation over House Bill 562 this week, arguing that the currently blocked law is critical to their plans to open specialized choice schools in their communities.
Nearly three months after a Montana Rail Link train derailed near Reed Point, releasing 419,000 pounds of asphalt into the Yellowstone River, state agencies began advising anglers this week not to eat any fish caught on a nearly 50-mile stretch of the river.
|
Manatees survive Florida's first cold spell better than feared
Already famished manatees managed to avoid any mass die-offs or the need for any dramatic rescues during Florida's first significant cold snap of the season, which sent temperatures plummeting across the state around Christmas.
But with more chilly days ahead this winter, Florida wildlife officials continue to keep a close, worried watch as they struggle to keep the species afloat by hand feeding them lettuce at the Florida Power & Light Co. plant in Port St. John, for a second year in a row.
“We’re in full operational mode,” Capt. Thomas Van Trees of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Wednesday during an online update of FWC efforts to feed manatees in the wild and rescue them in the cold. "We’re really going full-steam ahead."
Thousands of pounds of lettuce have been hauled to the FPL site but lagoon water temperatures near the power plant have warmed back to about 68 degrees Fahrenheit, Van Trees said, the threshold below which can kill manatees if they're exposed too long.
About 75 manatees recently huddled near the warm water discharge area at FPL's plant in the days after the cold spell, Van Trees said. More than 1,000 manatees routinely gather near the plant each winter to escape the chilly waters that can kill them.
Why is cold weather dangerous to manatees?
Biologists warn that when coastal waters such as the Indian River Lagoon stay too cold too long, the resulting manatee death toll will be yet another setback for a threatened species already dying in record numbers.
So biologists will be checking on the manatees crowding into canals and warm-water discharge areas near power plants to see if they need rescue.
Cold is always a danger to manatees, even in the best of times when there has been plenty of seagrass for them to eat. When water temperatures dip below 68 degrees Fahrenheit for weeks at a time, manatees suffer cold-stress syndrome. That causes weight loss, fat loss, dehydration and other health problems that can kill them weeks later. Juvenile manatees are especially at risk.
Manatee rescue in Daytona
On Tuesday, FWC rescued a female manatee and her calf in Daytona. The mother manatee was swimming on its side, considered signs of cold stress and/or malnutrition. Both mother and calf are rescued together because the offspring can't survive alone in its crucial first year.
FWC logged 106 manatee rescues last year and 159 manatees in 2021, said Andy Garrett, the state agency's marine mammal rescue coordinator. “There could be more coming," Garrett said, adding that cold-stress rescues typically begin to peak in late January. "There could be carcasses that haven’t been found."
Manatees will at least have some time to adjust to seasonally cooling temperatures. Forecasters expect Brevard County — where most manatees reside — to stay mostly in the 70s over the next week, with lows in the 50s, according to the National Weather Service in Melbourne.
Could killing manatees save them?Brevard County Commissioner argues Florida should kill manatees to save them
Manatees fed lettuce at power plant: 'They're not picky eaters': Florida biologists use lettuce feedings near warm water to help manatees
The need for the feeding follows the dramatic loss seagrass along the Space Coast that led to a famine that killed hundreds of local manatees. About a third of the record total 1,101 manatee deaths in the whole state last year, happened in Brevard, where typically a third of the sea cow's population resides.
Overall manatee deaths in Florida have declined since 2021's catastrophic mass die-off. According to the latest figures from FWC, at least 344 manatees died in Brevard through Dec. 23, about 44% of last year's (2022) 783 manatee deaths. In 2021, a record 1,101 manatees died statewide, most from starvation due to long-term pollution-driven seagrass loss.
Biologists say too much nitrogen and phosphorus from old leaky septic tank systems, sewage spills and fertilizers fuels excess algae that blocks sunlight seagrass needs to photosynthesize.
As a result, the manatee death toll got so bad that in April 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the die-off an Unusual Mortality Event. In a first-of-its kind pilot project to try to stave off further starvation, state and federal biologists fed manatees at the FPL plant last winter and through the end of March.
Manatee deaths from chronic malnutrition has been a winter problem for the past two years. The cold adds an extra stressor to manatees, already physically stressed. That has FWC officers worried about how this winter's cold will impact already weak, starving manatees.
The agency has urged the general public not to feed or give fresh water to manatees, because it can train them to rely on humans and result in them losing their instincts for finding food.
FWC takes special precautions to hide behind barriers as they feed them, to prevent manatees from associating humans with the lettuce they toss them. The agency says doing so can create other long-term behavior problems for manatees by conditioning them to expect food handouts from humans.
Teresa Calleson, a biologist with the US. Fish and Wildlife Service, said 79 manatees currently are being cared for in rehab facilities in Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Puerto Rico, with 67 of them at Florida facilities such as SeaWorld in Orlando.
Calleson said currently available facilities could accommodate another 50 manatees or even more, if necessary.
Twenty manatees died in rehab facilities last year and 25 died rehab facilities in 2021, she said.
“These animals are incredibly resilient,” Calleson said.
Van Trees urged the public to call FWC's Wildlife Alert Hotline is they see an injured or stressed manatee. He also said boaters should heed local slow-speed manatees and wear polarized glasses so they can better see sea cows ahead in the water.
"We really need the public’s help," Van Trees said, "especially if they see a manatee in distress, please let us know."
If you see a sick or injured manatee, call FWC's Wildlife Alert Toll-Free Number: 1-888-404-FWCC (1-888-404-3922), press "7" to speak with an operator.
|
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Manatees survive Florida's first cold spell better than feared
Already famished manatees managed to avoid any mass die-offs or the need for any dramatic rescues during Florida's first significant cold snap of the season, which sent temperatures plummeting across the state around Christmas.
But with more chilly days ahead this winter, Florida wildlife officials continue to keep a close, worried watch as they struggle to keep the species afloat by hand feeding them lettuce at the Florida Power & Light Co. plant in Port St. John, for a second year in a row.
“We’re in full operational mode,” Capt. Thomas Van Trees of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said Wednesday during an online update of FWC efforts to feed manatees in the wild and rescue them in the cold. "We’re really going full-steam ahead."
Thousands of pounds of lettuce have been hauled to the FPL site but lagoon water temperatures near the power plant have warmed back to about 68 degrees Fahrenheit, Van Trees said, the threshold below which can kill manatees if they're exposed too long.
About 75 manatees recently huddled near the warm water discharge area at FPL's plant in the days after the cold spell, Van Trees said. More than 1,000 manatees routinely gather near the plant each winter to escape the chilly waters that can kill them.
Why is cold weather dangerous to manatees?
Biologists warn that when coastal waters such as the Indian River Lagoon stay too cold too long, the resulting manatee death toll will be yet another setback for a threatened species already dying in record numbers.
So biologists will be checking on the manatees crowding into canals and warm-water discharge areas near power plants to see if they need rescue.
Cold is always a danger to manatees, even in the best of times when there has been plenty of seagrass for them to eat. When water temperatures dip below 68 degrees Fahrenheit for weeks at a time, manatees suffer cold-stress syndrome. That causes weight loss, fat loss, dehydration and other health problems that can kill them weeks later. Juvenile manatees are especially at risk.
Manatee rescue in Daytona
On Tuesday, FWC rescued a female manatee and her calf in Daytona. The mother manatee was swimming on its side, considered signs of cold stress and/or malnutrition. Both mother and calf are rescued
|
together because the offspring can't survive alone in its crucial first year.
FWC logged 106 manatee rescues last year and 159 manatees in 2021, said Andy Garrett, the state agency's marine mammal rescue coordinator. “There could be more coming," Garrett said, adding that cold-stress rescues typically begin to peak in late January. "There could be carcasses that haven’t been found."
Manatees will at least have some time to adjust to seasonally cooling temperatures. Forecasters expect Brevard County — where most manatees reside — to stay mostly in the 70s over the next week, with lows in the 50s, according to the National Weather Service in Melbourne.
Could killing manatees save them?Brevard County Commissioner argues Florida should kill manatees to save them
Manatees fed lettuce at power plant: 'They're not picky eaters': Florida biologists use lettuce feedings near warm water to help manatees
The need for the feeding follows the dramatic loss seagrass along the Space Coast that led to a famine that killed hundreds of local manatees. About a third of the record total 1,101 manatee deaths in the whole state last year, happened in Brevard, where typically a third of the sea cow's population resides.
Overall manatee deaths in Florida have declined since 2021's catastrophic mass die-off. According to the latest figures from FWC, at least 344 manatees died in Brevard through Dec. 23, about 44% of last year's (2022) 783 manatee deaths. In 2021, a record 1,101 manatees died statewide, most from starvation due to long-term pollution-driven seagrass loss.
Biologists say too much nitrogen and phosphorus from old leaky septic tank systems, sewage spills and fertilizers fuels excess algae that blocks sunlight seagrass needs to photosynthesize.
As a result, the manatee death toll got so bad that in April 2021, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared the die-off an Unusual Mortality Event. In a first-of-its kind pilot project to try to stave off further starvation, state and federal biologists fed manatees at the FPL plant last winter and through the end of March.
Manatee deaths from chronic malnutrition has been a winter problem for the past two years. The cold adds an extra stressor to manatees, already physically stressed. That has FWC officers worried about how this winter's cold will impact already weak, starving manatees.
The agency has urged the general public not to feed or give fresh water to manatees, because it can train them to rely on humans and result in them losing their instincts for finding food.
FWC takes special precautions to hide behind barriers as they feed them, to prevent manatees from associating humans with the lettuce they toss them. The agency says doing so can create other long-term behavior problems for manatees by conditioning them to expect food handouts from humans.
Teresa Calleson, a biologist with the US. Fish and Wildlife Service, said 79 manatees currently are being cared for in rehab facilities in Florida, Georgia, Ohio and Puerto Rico, with 67 of them at Florida facilities such as SeaWorld in Orlando.
Calleson said currently available facilities could accommodate another 50 manatees or even more, if necessary.
Twenty manatees died in rehab facilities last year and 25 died rehab facilities in 2021, she said.
“These animals are incredibly resilient,” Calleson said.
Van Trees urged the public to call FWC's Wildlife Alert Hotline is they see an injured or stressed manatee. He also said boaters should heed local slow-speed manatees and wear polarized glasses so they can better see sea cows ahead in the water.
"We really need the public’s help," Van Trees said, "especially if they see a manatee in distress, please let us know."
If you see a sick or injured manatee, call FWC's Wildlife Alert Toll-Free Number: 1-888-404-FWCC (1-888-404-3922), press "7" to speak with an operator.
|
Seaweed, red tide on Florida beaches. Here's what travelers should know
If you're planning a trip to Florida this year, there could be more than just sand on the beaches and fish in the water.
A vast forest of sargassum, a free-floating type of seaweed, is in the Atlantic Ocean and heading toward South Florida this summer. In addition, the NOAA Harmful Algae Outbreak Respiratory Forecast is predicting some coastal areas on the Gulf of Mexico coast of Florida near Tampa to have low to moderate amounts of red tide.
Traveling to Florida this year? Here's what you need to know.
Will red tide affect spring break destinations?
The Red Tide Respiratory Forecast shows the algal bloom is in low to moderate levels along the Gulf Coast, mostly near the Tampa Bay and Clearwater areas.
Sand Key South near Clearwater and Indian Rocks Pinellas County Beach Access currently have moderate amounts of red tide, according to the forecast although those could change to high in the coming days. Near Sarasota, red tide is presently low but could be measured at high by Tuesday.
Here's what the red tide risk chart means:
- Absent/Very low: No risk or very low risk of irritation for people without lung disease. For people with lung disease, leave the beach if you begin to feel the effects.
- Low: Low risk of irritation for people without lung disease. For people with lung disease, leave the beach if you begin to feel the effects.
- Moderate: Moderate risk of irritation for people without lung disease. For people with lung disease, avoid the area.
- High: A high risk of irritation for people without lung disease. For people with lung disease, avoid the area.
What is red tide and is it dangerous?
Red tide is caused by the accumulation of Karenia brevis, a single-celled organism called a dinoflagellate, according to the University of Florida Thompson Earth Systems Institute. Most dinoflagellates are harmless, but some can produce neurotoxins that can cause respiratory problems in humans. It can also attack the central nervous systems of fish and other wildlife.
In Florida, red tide is designated as a "harmful algal bloom."
The National Weather Service keeps track of red tide through the Red Tide Respiratory Forecast. It looks at current wind forecasts combined with Karenia brevis cell counts along Florida's west coast.
Sargassum's winter growth spurt is unusual
According to scientists at the University of South Florida, January was the second consecutive month the amount of seaweed doubled, reaching 8.7 million tons, or enough to fill about 3,000 Olympic size pools.
According to the Palm Beach Post, sargassum reached a peak of 22 million tons in July, a record-breaking year. This year will be another major sargassum year, possibly surpassing 2022.
Sargassum itself is harmless to humans, although the tiny organisms that live inside it may irritate the skin if there is direct contact, according to the Florida Department of Health.
The seaweed also acts as a shelter and food source for fish nurseries, migratory birds and sea turtle hatchlings. In mass quantities, it can clog canals, boat propellers and piles up several feet at the beach. As it decomposes, it emits hydrogen sulfide, smelling like rotten eggs.
More:Huge seaweed blob on way to Florida is 'like a Stephen King movie'
It's still too early to know exactly how much seaweed will reach the beaches in Florida, according to the Palm Beach Post, but it shows up in varying degrees and depths during every major growth year. It rides on the loop current, reaching the Florida Keys and areas north from Miami to Jacksonville.
Sargassum is already proving a problem in Mexico, covering the beaches of Tulum on the Caribbean Sea. It is typically not present in Tulum between October through early spring.
According to the Cancun Sun, tourists are skipping out on Tulum's beaches due to the sargassum and choosing to do more land-based tours and activities instead.
|
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Seaweed, red tide on Florida beaches. Here's what travelers should know
If you're planning a trip to Florida this year, there could be more than just sand on the beaches and fish in the water.
A vast forest of sargassum, a free-floating type of seaweed, is in the Atlantic Ocean and heading toward South Florida this summer. In addition, the NOAA Harmful Algae Outbreak Respiratory Forecast is predicting some coastal areas on the Gulf of Mexico coast of Florida near Tampa to have low to moderate amounts of red tide.
Traveling to Florida this year? Here's what you need to know.
Will red tide affect spring break destinations?
The Red Tide Respiratory Forecast shows the algal bloom is in low to moderate levels along the Gulf Coast, mostly near the Tampa Bay and Clearwater areas.
Sand Key South near Clearwater and Indian Rocks Pinellas County Beach Access currently have moderate amounts of red tide, according to the forecast although those could change to high in the coming days. Near Sarasota, red tide is presently low but could be measured at high by Tuesday.
Here's what the red tide risk chart means:
- Absent/Very low: No risk or very low risk of irritation for people without lung disease. For people with lung disease, leave the beach if you begin to feel the effects.
- Low: Low risk of irritation for people without lung disease. For people with lung disease, leave the beach if you begin to feel the effects.
- Moderate: Moderate risk of irritation for people without lung disease. For people with lung disease, avoid the area.
- High: A high risk of irritation for people without lung disease. For people with lung disease, avoid the area.
What is red tide and is it dangerous?
Red tide is caused by the accumulation of Karenia brevis, a single-celled organism called a dinoflagellate, according to the University of Florida Thompson Earth Systems Institute. Most dinoflagellates are harmless, but some can produce neurotoxins that can cause respiratory problems in humans. It can also attack the central nervous systems of fish and other wildlife.
In Florida, red tide is designated as a "harmful algal bloom."
The National Weather Service keeps track of red tide through the Red Tide Respiratory Forecast. It looks at current wind forecasts combined with Karenia brevis cell counts along Florida's west coast.
Sargassum's winter growth spurt is unusual
According to scientists at
|
the University of South Florida, January was the second consecutive month the amount of seaweed doubled, reaching 8.7 million tons, or enough to fill about 3,000 Olympic size pools.
According to the Palm Beach Post, sargassum reached a peak of 22 million tons in July, a record-breaking year. This year will be another major sargassum year, possibly surpassing 2022.
Sargassum itself is harmless to humans, although the tiny organisms that live inside it may irritate the skin if there is direct contact, according to the Florida Department of Health.
The seaweed also acts as a shelter and food source for fish nurseries, migratory birds and sea turtle hatchlings. In mass quantities, it can clog canals, boat propellers and piles up several feet at the beach. As it decomposes, it emits hydrogen sulfide, smelling like rotten eggs.
More:Huge seaweed blob on way to Florida is 'like a Stephen King movie'
It's still too early to know exactly how much seaweed will reach the beaches in Florida, according to the Palm Beach Post, but it shows up in varying degrees and depths during every major growth year. It rides on the loop current, reaching the Florida Keys and areas north from Miami to Jacksonville.
Sargassum is already proving a problem in Mexico, covering the beaches of Tulum on the Caribbean Sea. It is typically not present in Tulum between October through early spring.
According to the Cancun Sun, tourists are skipping out on Tulum's beaches due to the sargassum and choosing to do more land-based tours and activities instead.
|
Editor’s Note: Want to sleep better? During Sleep Awareness Week, sign up for CNN’s Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep.
If you’re scheduling an appointment for a vaccination — whether for Covid-19, the flu or for travel to another country — make sure you’re getting a long, restful night’s slumber before you head to the doctor.
Sleeping less than six hours the night before you get the shot may limit your body’s response to the vaccine, reducing protection against the virus or bacteria, according to a new study.
“Good sleep not only amplifies but may also extend the duration of protection of the vaccine,” said senior author Eve Van Cauter, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine, in a statement.
But there was one odd detail in the study’s findings: The impact of poor sleep on immune response to a vaccine was only scientifically relevant in men.
“Research that used objective measures of sleep deprivation, such as that of a sleep lab, found a decrease in the ability to respond to the vaccine that was particularly and statistically significant in males, but not females,” said study coauthor Dr. Michael Irwin, distinguished professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine.
Why would a man’s immunity be affected when a woman’s was not?
“There are known sex differences in immune response to foreign antigens, like viruses, and also to self antigens, like in autoimmune disorders, said Dr. Phyllis Zee, neurology professor and director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
“In general, women have stronger immune response, including (to the) flu vaccine,” said Zee, who was not involved in the study. “The evidence is that these differences reflect hormonal, genetic and environmental differences, which can change over the lifespan, so these differences may be less prominent among older adults.”
Regardless of your gender, if you’re sleep-deprived, jet-lagged, work a night shift or otherwise have swings in your sleep-wake cycle, consider delaying the vaccination, said Irwin, who directs UCLA’s Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and Mindful Awareness Research Center.
“If I was working with patients to give them a vaccination, I would inquire whether they’re having problems with sleep and whether they were sleep deprived the night before,” Irwin said. “If they are, I would ask them to come back when they are fully rested.”
What is good sleep?
The body needs to move through four stages of sleep several times a night. During the first and second stages, our bodies start to decrease their rhythms. Doing so prepares us for the third stage — a deep, slow-wave sleep where the body is restoring itself on a cellular level, fixing damage from the day’s wear and tear and consolidating memories into long-term storage.
Rapid eye movement sleep, also called REM sleep, is the final stage. Studies have shown that missing REM sleep, which is also when we dream, may lead to memory deficit and poor cognitive outcomes, as well as heart and other chronic diseases and early death.
On the flip side, years of research has found sleep — and especially the deepest, most healing kind — boosts immune response.
Most adults need seven to eight hours of relatively uninterrupted slumber to achieve restorative sleep, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sleeping six or fewer hours a night — which many people do, especially during a busy work week — can cause a host of health problems.
Objective research showed association
The new study, published Monday in the journal Current Biology, undertook a meta-analysis on existing research on sleep and immune function after vaccination against influenza A and Hepatitis A and B.
When only studies that used self-reported sleep duration were analyzed, antibodies were reduced in people who slept less than six hours, but the association between a lack of sleep and immunity after vaccination was not scientifically significant.
However, when only studies that used objective measures — such as requiring people to come to a sleep lab, or when devices that can accurately track sleep were used — there was a “robust” association, especially for men, Irwin said.
One explanation for the difference between the findings of objective and self-reported research is that people typically overestimate the amount of sleep they get each night, the study said.
People who got less than six hours of sleep produced fewer antibodies than people who slept for seven hours or more, according to the analysis. The reduction in immune response affected adults between 18 and 60 more than people over the age of 65.
That wasn’t surprising, the statement said, because “older adults tend to sleep less in general, (so) going from seven hours of sleep per night to less than six hours is not as big of a change as going from eight hours to less than six.”
Immune response is the same
The study did not include analysis of antibody response to Covid-19 vaccines, because there are not yet adequate studies on sleep in Covid-vaccinated people, Irwin said. But he believes the results would still apply.
“How we stimulate the immune system is the same whether we’re using an mRNA vaccine for Covid-19, or an influenza, hepatitis, typhoid or pneumococcal vaccine,” Irwin said. “It’s a prototypical antibody or vaccine response, and that’s why we believe we can generalize to Covid.”
The team did perform an analysis which showed that, if a person arrived for a Covid-19 vaccination without adequate sleep, their antibody response to the vaccine would be weakened by the equivalent of two months — based entirely on their body’s initial response.
“You would have already lost two months of immunity, so to speak, even though you just got the shot,” Irwin said. “If you have a poor immune response, you are less likely to get full protection from Covid.”
More studies are needed to detect the nuances of poor sleep’s impact on the immune system, Zee said. Still, the information supports current practice in her sleep clinic.
“I already tell my patients to get regular sleep to enhance immune function,” she said. “Now we have even stronger evidence to give this type of advice.”
Not sure how to establish a new habit? Here’s how to do it in five steps, according to science.
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Editor’s Note: Want to sleep better? During Sleep Awareness Week, sign up for CNN’s Sleep, But Better newsletter series. Our seven-part guide has helpful hints to achieve better sleep.
If you’re scheduling an appointment for a vaccination — whether for Covid-19, the flu or for travel to another country — make sure you’re getting a long, restful night’s slumber before you head to the doctor.
Sleeping less than six hours the night before you get the shot may limit your body’s response to the vaccine, reducing protection against the virus or bacteria, according to a new study.
“Good sleep not only amplifies but may also extend the duration of protection of the vaccine,” said senior author Eve Van Cauter, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago’s Department of Medicine, in a statement.
But there was one odd detail in the study’s findings: The impact of poor sleep on immune response to a vaccine was only scientifically relevant in men.
“Research that used objective measures of sleep deprivation, such as that of a sleep lab, found a decrease in the ability to respond to the vaccine that was particularly and statistically significant in males, but not females,” said study coauthor Dr. Michael Irwin, distinguished professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at the UCLA Geffen School of Medicine.
Why would a man’s immunity be affected when a woman’s was not?
“There are known sex differences in immune response to foreign antigens, like viruses, and also to self antigens, like in autoimmune disorders, said Dr. Phyllis Zee, neurology professor and director of the Center for Circadian and Sleep Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
“In general, women have stronger immune response, including (to the) flu vaccine,” said Zee, who was not involved in the study. “The evidence is that these differences reflect hormonal, genetic and environmental differences, which can change over the lifespan, so these differences may be less prominent among older adults.”
Regardless of your gender, if you’re sleep-deprived, jet-lagged, work a night shift or otherwise have swings in your sleep-wake cycle, consider delaying the vaccination, said Irwin, who directs UCLA’s Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology and Mindful Awareness Research Center.
“If I was working with patients to give them a vaccination, I would inquire whether they’re having problems with sleep and whether they were sleep deprived the night before,” Irwin said. “If they are, I would
|
ask them to come back when they are fully rested.”
What is good sleep?
The body needs to move through four stages of sleep several times a night. During the first and second stages, our bodies start to decrease their rhythms. Doing so prepares us for the third stage — a deep, slow-wave sleep where the body is restoring itself on a cellular level, fixing damage from the day’s wear and tear and consolidating memories into long-term storage.
Rapid eye movement sleep, also called REM sleep, is the final stage. Studies have shown that missing REM sleep, which is also when we dream, may lead to memory deficit and poor cognitive outcomes, as well as heart and other chronic diseases and early death.
On the flip side, years of research has found sleep — and especially the deepest, most healing kind — boosts immune response.
Most adults need seven to eight hours of relatively uninterrupted slumber to achieve restorative sleep, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Sleeping six or fewer hours a night — which many people do, especially during a busy work week — can cause a host of health problems.
Objective research showed association
The new study, published Monday in the journal Current Biology, undertook a meta-analysis on existing research on sleep and immune function after vaccination against influenza A and Hepatitis A and B.
When only studies that used self-reported sleep duration were analyzed, antibodies were reduced in people who slept less than six hours, but the association between a lack of sleep and immunity after vaccination was not scientifically significant.
However, when only studies that used objective measures — such as requiring people to come to a sleep lab, or when devices that can accurately track sleep were used — there was a “robust” association, especially for men, Irwin said.
One explanation for the difference between the findings of objective and self-reported research is that people typically overestimate the amount of sleep they get each night, the study said.
People who got less than six hours of sleep produced fewer antibodies than people who slept for seven hours or more, according to the analysis. The reduction in immune response affected adults between 18 and 60 more than people over the age of 65.
That wasn’t surprising, the statement said, because “older adults tend to sleep less in general, (so) going from seven hours of sleep per night to less than six hours is not as big of a change as going from eight hours to less than six.”
Immune response is the same
The study did not include analysis of antibody response to Covid-19 vaccines, because there are not yet adequate studies on sleep in Covid-vaccinated people, Irwin said. But he believes the results would still apply.
“How we stimulate the immune system is the same whether we’re using an mRNA vaccine for Covid-19, or an influenza, hepatitis, typhoid or pneumococcal vaccine,” Irwin said. “It’s a prototypical antibody or vaccine response, and that’s why we believe we can generalize to Covid.”
The team did perform an analysis which showed that, if a person arrived for a Covid-19 vaccination without adequate sleep, their antibody response to the vaccine would be weakened by the equivalent of two months — based entirely on their body’s initial response.
“You would have already lost two months of immunity, so to speak, even though you just got the shot,” Irwin said. “If you have a poor immune response, you are less likely to get full protection from Covid.”
More studies are needed to detect the nuances of poor sleep’s impact on the immune system, Zee said. Still, the information supports current practice in her sleep clinic.
“I already tell my patients to get regular sleep to enhance immune function,” she said. “Now we have even stronger evidence to give this type of advice.”
Not sure how to establish a new habit? Here’s how to do it in five steps, according to science.
|
On a brisk winter's day in Sydney, most people find the seawater temperature near freezing. But for coral, it's far too warm.
Rising water temperatures continue to threaten coral populations around the world, with a top United States science body recording ocean temperatures at an all-time high.
Experts warn the future for coral ecosystems is bleak.
Senior research fellow Selina Ward from the University of Queensland said an increase by just one degree above maximum summer temperatures can be enough to cause damage.
"If it's only one degree, it then might take three months to have a bleaching event, if we've got a two-degree, or three-degree maximum it might be as little as four weeks," she said.
And the consequences of losing coral reefs aren't just devastating for marine life, Dr Ward warned.
"If we look at Australia, there's about 65,000 jobs associated with the Great Barrier Reef, but if we look at the world, there are millions of people who feed on coral reefs.
"Reefs protect island nations from swell, so without them, those island nations are at risk if we add increased intensity of cyclones and storm activity, some sea level rise, you can see that these problems are really very severe."
A team of Sydney scientists are getting creative about how to provide these underwater gardens with the best chance of survival against global warming, starting with coral found in Sydney Harbour.
With a passion for coral conservation, Jen Matthews is leading the ground-breaking research, after she was awarded a Biodiversity Fellowship by the University of Technology Sydney.
Half-way through a three-year research project, Dr Matthews and her students are hoping that tweaking what corals eat to include more fat, will help to shield them from heat stress.
"Just like every organism, corals require an optimal nutrition to grow, reproduce and survive diseases and environmental changes," Dr Matthews said.
"But we actually know very little about what is an optimal nutrition for corals."
With the help of her students, native and invasive coral was collected from Cobblers Bay and off the Manly heads to be dissected and tested under different heat conditions in controlled aquariums at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science laboratories.
The specimens are then biopsied before scientists use DNA genotyping and lipidomics to understand a coral's ideal nutrition when faced with thermal stress.
Using these findings, researchers will give corals what a nutritional supplement is to humans, but instead of vitamin C, it's fat.
"Essentially, you can feed these little fat balls to the coral, and they take them, and they eat them", Dr Matthews said.
"Corals are like jellyfish, they're related to jellyfish but just upside down. They have tentacles that surround their mouth in the middle, so you can actually feed them with tiny little particles."
'This research is really important'
Sydney Institute of Marine Science chief executive officer Martina Doblin applauded the project saying most people wouldn't think of Sydney Harbour as having its own coral reef.
"This research on soft corals in Sydney Harbour is really important," Dr Doblin said.
"Because we want to understand how they're going to respond, or how they're responding in real-time to changes in climate.
"People may not know that corals exist outside the Great Barrier Reef marine system, and there are soft corals in Sydney Harbour that look a bit different."
If the experiment proves successful, Dr Matthews plans to take the technique to the Great Barrier Reef.
Great Barrier Reef severely bleached
The repercussions of global warming are evident on our seas, as coral ecosystems continue to be decimated by marine heatwaves.
An aerial survey by the Australian Institute of Marine Science in 2022, found that 43 per cent of the 719 reefs on the Great Barrier Reef had been severely bleached, in the reef's fourth mass bleaching event in seven years.Loading...
It's hoped this research may provide reefs with an opportunity to reprieve and increase the growth rate of surviving corals.
"When corals bleach, they lose the relationship with this tiny algae that lives in their tissues and normally gives them all the nutrients they need to survive. When they bleach, they don't get these nutrients ... they starve to death", Dr Matthews said.
Dr Ward said innovative approaches like this one may help treat reefs in the future if they're scaled up.
"If corals can feed well, they've got a better chance at surviving a bleaching event. The idea of providing them with food, rather than leaving it to chance is a really clever one.
"Whilst this might not save the entire Great Barrier Reef right now, these strategies are a really good place to start", Dr Ward said.
Although as Dr Ward points out there's no panacea to saving reefs.
"The window for saving the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs in the world is getting smaller and smaller", she cautioned.
"In order to save our reefs now, the most important thing is that we reduce our carbon emissions, we reduce them as quickly as possible."
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On a brisk winter's day in Sydney, most people find the seawater temperature near freezing. But for coral, it's far too warm.
Rising water temperatures continue to threaten coral populations around the world, with a top United States science body recording ocean temperatures at an all-time high.
Experts warn the future for coral ecosystems is bleak.
Senior research fellow Selina Ward from the University of Queensland said an increase by just one degree above maximum summer temperatures can be enough to cause damage.
"If it's only one degree, it then might take three months to have a bleaching event, if we've got a two-degree, or three-degree maximum it might be as little as four weeks," she said.
And the consequences of losing coral reefs aren't just devastating for marine life, Dr Ward warned.
"If we look at Australia, there's about 65,000 jobs associated with the Great Barrier Reef, but if we look at the world, there are millions of people who feed on coral reefs.
"Reefs protect island nations from swell, so without them, those island nations are at risk if we add increased intensity of cyclones and storm activity, some sea level rise, you can see that these problems are really very severe."
A team of Sydney scientists are getting creative about how to provide these underwater gardens with the best chance of survival against global warming, starting with coral found in Sydney Harbour.
With a passion for coral conservation, Jen Matthews is leading the ground-breaking research, after she was awarded a Biodiversity Fellowship by the University of Technology Sydney.
Half-way through a three-year research project, Dr Matthews and her students are hoping that tweaking what corals eat to include more fat, will help to shield them from heat stress.
"Just like every organism, corals require an optimal nutrition to grow, reproduce and survive diseases and environmental changes," Dr Matthews said.
"But we actually know very little about what is an optimal nutrition for corals."
With the help of her students, native and invasive coral was collected from Cobblers Bay and off the Manly heads to be dissected and tested under different heat conditions in controlled aquariums at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science laboratories.
The specimens are then biopsied before scientists use DNA genotyping and lipidomics to understand a coral's ideal nutrition when faced with thermal stress.
Using these findings, researchers will give corals what a nutritional supplement is to humans, but instead of vitamin C, it's fat.
"Essentially, you can feed these little
|
fat balls to the coral, and they take them, and they eat them", Dr Matthews said.
"Corals are like jellyfish, they're related to jellyfish but just upside down. They have tentacles that surround their mouth in the middle, so you can actually feed them with tiny little particles."
'This research is really important'
Sydney Institute of Marine Science chief executive officer Martina Doblin applauded the project saying most people wouldn't think of Sydney Harbour as having its own coral reef.
"This research on soft corals in Sydney Harbour is really important," Dr Doblin said.
"Because we want to understand how they're going to respond, or how they're responding in real-time to changes in climate.
"People may not know that corals exist outside the Great Barrier Reef marine system, and there are soft corals in Sydney Harbour that look a bit different."
If the experiment proves successful, Dr Matthews plans to take the technique to the Great Barrier Reef.
Great Barrier Reef severely bleached
The repercussions of global warming are evident on our seas, as coral ecosystems continue to be decimated by marine heatwaves.
An aerial survey by the Australian Institute of Marine Science in 2022, found that 43 per cent of the 719 reefs on the Great Barrier Reef had been severely bleached, in the reef's fourth mass bleaching event in seven years.Loading...
It's hoped this research may provide reefs with an opportunity to reprieve and increase the growth rate of surviving corals.
"When corals bleach, they lose the relationship with this tiny algae that lives in their tissues and normally gives them all the nutrients they need to survive. When they bleach, they don't get these nutrients ... they starve to death", Dr Matthews said.
Dr Ward said innovative approaches like this one may help treat reefs in the future if they're scaled up.
"If corals can feed well, they've got a better chance at surviving a bleaching event. The idea of providing them with food, rather than leaving it to chance is a really clever one.
"Whilst this might not save the entire Great Barrier Reef right now, these strategies are a really good place to start", Dr Ward said.
Although as Dr Ward points out there's no panacea to saving reefs.
"The window for saving the Great Barrier Reef and other reefs in the world is getting smaller and smaller", she cautioned.
"In order to save our reefs now, the most important thing is that we reduce our carbon emissions, we reduce them as quickly as possible."
|
Scientists think they can bring thylacines back to life within the next decade and the ABC collected your vote, your insights and your questions about this de-extinction project.
There is a plan to edit the genome of a related species — the dunnart — to resemble the thylacine's DNA, then use another relative as a surrogate to gestate the reincarnated baby thylacines.
Voting has now closed, read back on the perspectives of four experts from diverse fields or proceed to results.
Yes, bring it back!
Consultation with Aboriginal people "from the very start of it" is a priority for Rodney Dillon, chairperson of the Aboriginal Heritage Tasmania, who says the team reconstructing the thylacine does not own what they aim to create.
"It was taken away from us without us having a say in it. I think it would be good for us, as part of our culture, to have this icon back," Mr Dillon says
"When we think of thylacines, they were part of our family. Our people lived with thylacines for over 50,000 years.
"It's good they're helping to get it back, but it's important for them to know who it belongs to."
Mr Dillon envisions the release of the lab-grown thylacine beyond Tasmania, citing evidence of the creature's earlier distribution.
"There are indications it was up in the north-west [of mainland Australia]," he says.
"Those people would feel a belonging to it too. It's just they lost it earlier than we did."
Professor of Environmental Sustainability at the University of Tasmania, Barry Brook, also supports its return.
"The thylacine used to be a very important part of the Tasmanian ecosystem and had been for thousands, probably millions of years. Restoring that would, I think, restore ecosystem function," he says.
He says the return of this iconic Tasmanian species may suppress feral cats.
"There's evidence on the mainland that dingoes suppress cat numbers; thylacines could probably play a similar role," Professor Brook says.
He says the cloned animal would not have to be an exact genetic replica of the Tasmanian tiger.
"As long as it's a functional organism that effectively fulfils the same sort of ecological role," he says.
"If it were a wild animal again, back in the ecosystem, it would be the biggest tourism drawcard you could ever imagine for Tasmania."
No, don't even try!
Bringing back the thylacine is not possible and should not be attempted, according to Jack Ashby, assistant director of the Museum of Zoology at Cambridge University.
"I don't believe it's possible to go from a theoretical genome on a computer screen to a viable embryo of a real species, particularly by editing the genome of such a distantly related animal as a dunnart," Dr Ashby says.
"To say you can go from a 5cm-long animal to a 20-kilo thylacine is crazy."
Dr Ashby is sceptical of claims that the genetic technologies invented for the project would have broader conservation benefits or be preferable to proven methods such as habitat protection, restoration, and controlling invasive species.
He also has concerns about the welfare of the animals that would be used in the project.
"There are going to be a lot of misses on the way where animals will have died and that's a big deal if unlikely to work in the first place," Dr Ashby says.
He's also worried that attempting to revive the thylacine may make us more apathetic about extinction.
"The message that extinction is forever is fundamentally undermined by even starting this project," he says.
"That's a really dangerous message, particularly when it's likely to be impossible."
Proceed with caution
It is important that the community have an informed discussion about reviving the species so if the decision is made to bring it back it can thrive, says futurist Sinead Bovell.
"If we could do it right now, I don't think we're ready," she says.
"The last thing we want to do is go down this route and then realise that we're just on the path to extinction again because we haven't got our act together.
"There are really important points in the science to consider, it's a really worthwhile conversation … so I'm pro keeping these conversations moving forward."
Ms Bovell emphasises that the scientists involved should communicate openly and clearly with the public, including "what it is that they're working on, who is funding it, and why they believe it is important".
That's a snapshot of four key perspectives in this de-extinction debate. Voting has closed, read results here.
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Scientists think they can bring thylacines back to life within the next decade and the ABC collected your vote, your insights and your questions about this de-extinction project.
There is a plan to edit the genome of a related species — the dunnart — to resemble the thylacine's DNA, then use another relative as a surrogate to gestate the reincarnated baby thylacines.
Voting has now closed, read back on the perspectives of four experts from diverse fields or proceed to results.
Yes, bring it back!
Consultation with Aboriginal people "from the very start of it" is a priority for Rodney Dillon, chairperson of the Aboriginal Heritage Tasmania, who says the team reconstructing the thylacine does not own what they aim to create.
"It was taken away from us without us having a say in it. I think it would be good for us, as part of our culture, to have this icon back," Mr Dillon says
"When we think of thylacines, they were part of our family. Our people lived with thylacines for over 50,000 years.
"It's good they're helping to get it back, but it's important for them to know who it belongs to."
Mr Dillon envisions the release of the lab-grown thylacine beyond Tasmania, citing evidence of the creature's earlier distribution.
"There are indications it was up in the north-west [of mainland Australia]," he says.
"Those people would feel a belonging to it too. It's just they lost it earlier than we did."
Professor of Environmental Sustainability at the University of Tasmania, Barry Brook, also supports its return.
"The thylacine used to be a very important part of the Tasmanian ecosystem and had been for thousands, probably millions of years. Restoring that would, I think, restore ecosystem function," he says.
He says the return of this iconic Tasmanian species may suppress feral cats.
"There's evidence on the mainland that dingoes suppress cat numbers; thylacines could probably play a similar role," Professor Brook says.
He says the cloned animal would not have to be an exact genetic replica of the Tasmanian tiger.
"As long as it's a functional organism that effectively fulfils the same sort of ecological role," he says.
"If it were a wild animal again, back in the ecosystem, it would be the biggest tourism drawcard you could ever imagine for Tasmania."
No
|
, don't even try!
Bringing back the thylacine is not possible and should not be attempted, according to Jack Ashby, assistant director of the Museum of Zoology at Cambridge University.
"I don't believe it's possible to go from a theoretical genome on a computer screen to a viable embryo of a real species, particularly by editing the genome of such a distantly related animal as a dunnart," Dr Ashby says.
"To say you can go from a 5cm-long animal to a 20-kilo thylacine is crazy."
Dr Ashby is sceptical of claims that the genetic technologies invented for the project would have broader conservation benefits or be preferable to proven methods such as habitat protection, restoration, and controlling invasive species.
He also has concerns about the welfare of the animals that would be used in the project.
"There are going to be a lot of misses on the way where animals will have died and that's a big deal if unlikely to work in the first place," Dr Ashby says.
He's also worried that attempting to revive the thylacine may make us more apathetic about extinction.
"The message that extinction is forever is fundamentally undermined by even starting this project," he says.
"That's a really dangerous message, particularly when it's likely to be impossible."
Proceed with caution
It is important that the community have an informed discussion about reviving the species so if the decision is made to bring it back it can thrive, says futurist Sinead Bovell.
"If we could do it right now, I don't think we're ready," she says.
"The last thing we want to do is go down this route and then realise that we're just on the path to extinction again because we haven't got our act together.
"There are really important points in the science to consider, it's a really worthwhile conversation … so I'm pro keeping these conversations moving forward."
Ms Bovell emphasises that the scientists involved should communicate openly and clearly with the public, including "what it is that they're working on, who is funding it, and why they believe it is important".
That's a snapshot of four key perspectives in this de-extinction debate. Voting has closed, read results here.
|
To be or not to be, that is the lesson: whether it is nobler in the mind to decipher an important verb in Nepali, or skip it altogether. While I am no Shakespeare, the verb we are about to discuss is of utmost importance, because it helps us define or describe an entity’s properties.
The verb is ‘to be’, which in Nepali is हुनु (hunu). Why is it important? Basically speaking, hunu is what linguists call a ‘copula’. A copula is a word that helps link a subject with its complement (with an ‘e’ and not an ‘i’), such that the subject is the word used. In this case, since our copula is a verb, we can also call it a copulative verb. Copula helps us connect two things in a sentence, either defining or describing the subject in question. Take the following sentences that use the copula ‘to be’:
The sky is blue. [Of the sky, its description is blue]
I am John. [About myself, that person is John]
The verb is extremely irregular, as in the case of copulas in many languages. While English and Nepali both have only one copulative verb, Nepali has two forms of the copula for the past tense, three for present and one for future, whose meanings change according to the tense used. Nepali also inflects the verb heavily, so please do take care while conjugating verbs. Before we learn the different types of copula, it is important to learn the factors that Nepali considers before using the copula.
ESSENCE VS. STATE
As discussed in Sentence Structure, a sentence that employs a copula in Nepali appears in the following order:
Subject + Subject Complement + Copula
ऊ जन हो (ū jan ho)
[he + John + is]
He is John.
The subject complement (can also be called as the predicate) is the word that either renames or subject or describes now. When you dig in deeper, you will see that renaming or describing something are actions that talk more about the fundamental nature of the subject. In other words, what you want to address is either the essence or the state of the subject.
Take the following statements:
- He is John.
- He is tall.
In statement 1, what you want to talk about is that the person ‘he’ is actually John, or that ‘he’ and ‘John’ are the same people. In the first statement, you do not introduce two different ideas, but rather show that the two seemingly different ideas are really just the same thing. The subject and subject complement are identical. If you look at it in this way, you may also call it as renaming the subject, as you are presenting the same thing in just another word.
In statement 2, what you want to talk about is that the person introduced ‘he’ has an associated property, that being ‘tall’. These two can exist independently and thus can be mutually exclusive to each other; they are two vastly different ideas. The subject and subject complement are not identical, but rather that the subject currently has a property that is conveyed by the subject complement. If you look at it in this way, you may call the whole process as describing the subject.
Thus, we come to the definitions of essence and state; statement 1 conveys the essence of the subject, while statement 2 conveys the state of the subject. In short, the essence is the immutable description of the subject so that it has a one-one correspondence, while the state is the description of the subject’s features that do not have a one-one correspondence. Mind you that while it is somewhat similar to Romance languages (sum– vs sto-), it is not exactly identical and thus should not be applied as such.
I know what you are all thinking; the word is rather eerily similar to an English word of the same spelling. While the English word does carry a negative connotation, this one does not because it is a rather fundamental part of a sentence. So, please bear with me and understand that Nepali people are not really degrading people after every other sentence, but rather expressing a statement.
हो (ho) is the definer. It renames things to show that in essence, the subject and the subject complement are really the same thing. It is defining the subject, such that one can be familiar with it with another namesake. Take the following statements:
- I am John.
- She is (the) doctor.
- You are (a) student.
- My name is Sarah.
In each of the above cases, you are making a statement by introducing two elements, namely the subject (leftmost word) and the subject complement (rightmost word). Now, by using the copula ‘to be’ (or its various forms), you are showing that the two concepts are essentially the same. You are renaming the subject, such that you show the subject complement is really the subject as well. In Nepali, the statements would be:
- म जन हुँ (ma jan hum̐) [Note that using ho is also acceptable]
- ऊ चिकित्सक हो (ū cikitsak ho)
- तिमी विद्यार्थी हौ (timī vidyārthī hau)
- मेरो नाम सारा हो (mero nām sārā ho)
In simple terms, when you say that A B ho, then you are saying that A is in essence, B, and thus can be said that A and B are the same objects. In the first statement, you are renaming ‘I’ as ‘John’. In the second statement, you are saying that ‘She’ is essentially the same as ‘(the) doctor’. In the third statement, you are saying that ‘you’ and ‘student’ are in essence, same. In the fourth statement, you are saying that ‘your name’ and ‘Sarah’ are essentially identical concepts.
Care must be taken that the verb does conjugate according to the subject as well, like all the other Nepali verbs.
म जन हुँ (ma jan hum̐) [first person]
= I am John.
तिमी जन हौ (timī jan hau) [second person, medium respect]
= You are John.
You can find out the various forms of the conjugation in the spreadsheet here.
छ (cha) is the describer. It describes an object’s characteristics, states, location, or possession. Aside from showing characteristics, it is also used to show that an object exists. Thus it can be said that it shows the state and existence of an object. Note that the characteristics and states an object can take vary; factors include temperature, size, weight, shape, colour etc.
When used with appropriate case markers or postpositions, it can also be used to show existence. Chief among these case markers are सँग (sam̐ga), which is the Nepali equivalent of with, and मा (mā) which is the Nepali equivalent of on. When used this way, the first can also mean ‘to have’ in the sense of ‘I am in possession of an object’ and the second can mean ‘An object is on another object’.
- House is red. [describing colour]
- You are tall. [describing size]
- Here is (a) house. [describing location, or showing that the house exists ‘here’]
- Today is hot. [describing temperature/ state of weather]
- With me is (a) pen. [displaying possession] = I have (a) pen.
- Pen is on (the) book. [showing location]
In each of the sentences above, you are describing some property of the subject. For example, the first statement is describing the house as having the property of being ‘red’. In each of the sentences, the subject and the subject complement are related, but they are not exactly identical. Rather, the subject has the property of the subject complement but at the same time, are not the complement. They are independent of each other. Word for word, the Nepali statements that lead to the above sentences are below:
- घर रातो छ (ghar rāto cha)
- तिमी अग्लो छौ (timī aglo chau)
- यहाँ घर छ (yahām̐ ghar cha)
- आज गर्मी छ (āja garmī cha)
- मसँग कलम छ (ma-sam̐ga kalam cha)
- कलम किताबमा छ (kalam kitāb-mā cha)
When you say that A B cha, you are saying that A has the property of being ‘B’-like, or that B is the description of A. It can also mean that A has B in its existence, or that A has the possession of B. In the first statement, the ‘house’ has the property of being ‘red’. In the second statement, ‘you’ have the property of being ‘tall’. In the third statement, ‘here’ has a ‘house’ in its existence, or that the ‘house’ exists in a location called ‘here’. In the fourth statement, ‘today’ has the property of being ‘hot’. In the fifth statement, ‘with you’ is the possession of a ‘pen’. In the sixth statement, the ‘pen’ exists on the ‘book’, or that the ‘pen’ is on the ‘book’.
You should take care of the conjugation according to the subject, but when you use the postposition sam̐ga, the perspective will always be in third person thus takes up third-person conjugation. That is because sam̐ga does not take a nominative case and thus, cannot determine the verb conjugation.
हुन्छ (huncha) is the weird one here; although it is a conjugation of hunu, it does not always connote the meaning of ‘to be’. It could also mean ‘to become’ or ‘to happen’. It is also used to state facts or ideas that are generally known or holds for the given subject. When you are describing facts this way, the complement will always be a quality-describing word, sending a meaning of ‘Generally speaking, X is Y’. It is also used to affirm a statement, indicating whether the subject is okay or not.
In Nepali, the present tense can also be used to denote the future. Although we have dedicated future tense, it is more likely for people to state the general future with the present tense. This is especially true with ‘huncha’, as it is also used to describe things that will ‘become’ or ‘happen’. This is why translations often include ‘will’ to provide some context behind the translation. Now, let’s look at a few sentences in English where ‘huncha’ will be used in Nepali:
- He (will) become(s) (a) doctor. [to become]
- (The) eclipse happens today. [to happen]
- In cold (temperatures), water becomes / is cold. [stating facts]
- Houses of this village are red. [stating claims that applies in a general sense to the entity being talked about here]
- Blue (item) is right/fine. [describing affirmation]
In each of the sentences above, you are either describing events that will happen, become or stating general claims. It has also been used to describe affirmation, as to indicate whether something ‘belongs’ well or not to your ideals.
- ऊ डाक्टर हुन्छ (ū ḍākṭar huncha)
- आज ग्रहण हुन्छ (āja grahaṇ huncha)
- चिसोमा पानी चिसो हुन्छ (ciso-mā pānī ciso huncha)
- यो गाउँका घरहरू रातो हुन्छन् (yo gāum̐-kā ghar-harū rāto hunchan)
- निलो ठीक हुन्छ (nilo ṭhīk huncha)
In the first statement, ‘he’ becomes a ‘doctor’, indicating he is not a doctor yet will soon will become one. In the second statement, the ‘eclipse’ will occur ‘today’, describing an event that occurs. In the third statement, ‘water’ is described as ‘cold’, along with a condition ‘in cold (weather)’. This describes a fact that cannot be negated, or denotes some property that occurs when certain conditions are met. In the fourth statement, ‘houses’ are ‘red’ along with the condition ‘in this village’. Huncha can also be used to describe the habits or features of something like a group (or an individual) in general. By using so, you describe that the quality is a ‘feature’ and not only a state it currently possesses. This also indicates a type of habitual existence in this sense. In the fifth statement, ‘blue’ is being ‘fine’, indicating an affirmation to your thoughts currently. Note that apart from statement 1, the complement is almost always an adjective or an adverb.
CHA VS HUNCHA
With both cha and huncha seem to do the same thing as describing, what is the difference then? The difference is that, huncha always denotes an internal quality that cha does not describe. Cha can only describe what you can observe. Huncha on the other hand, applies that description to the species in question in a general matter-of-fact sense. For example, if I looked at a cup and was asked to describe it, I would say that it looks green and small to me. These are described using cha. However, after that I wanted to comment how cups are made of ceramic as a general matter-of-fact, so I’d say that the cup is ceramic in nature. This description of an individual trait vs. a general trait is one difference between cha and huncha. Here is an example of the subtle difference, although both sentences translate into ‘water is cold’:
पानी चिसो छ (pānī ciso cha)
An observation that the water is cold currently. It could have been hot before, and might be hot later, but as of now this particular water is cold. This is an individual trait, and other water(s) may be in some other state like hot or jelly-like.
पानी चिसो हुन्छ (pānī ciso huncha)
Stating that coldness is a general trait of water. It is a persistent trait such that coldness and water have a correlation that cannot be changed otherwise. It won’t turn into something else and will remain cold as it is something the water will always be. This is a very general trait, and it applies to all water(s) out there. This is akin to describing that all stars are bigger than an atom.
Of course, water is not always ‘cold’ through experience, so the statement is pragmatically incorrect (despite being grammatically correct). Contextually, statements such as this could describe water of a particular place instead, such as water in the Arctic sea, but it requires more supporting evidence than just a simple ‘water is cold’.
The future form of both हो (ho), छ (cha) and हुन्छ (huncha) is हुनेछ (hunecha). This will be quite simple, as the three present forms all collapse into one word in the future (although huncha itself denotes some sense of future). In its meaning, हुनेछ (hunecha) usually means ‘will be’. Take these examples:
ऊ बाह्र वर्ष हुनेछ (ū bāhra varṣa hunecha)
= He will be twelve year(s).
घर रातो हुनेछ (ghar rāto hunecha)
= House will be red.
लुगा ठीक हुनेछ (lugā ṭhīk hunecha)
= Clothe(s) will be fine.
In the first statement, the present form would use ho while the second would use cha. In both cases, they indicate the future and the distinction between ho and cha is lost. The third statement uses huncha, but needs more context because huncha already displays some sort of future action.
What does it mean by that? Since huncha carries a meaning of ‘to become/ to happen’, using the present tense suffices enough to indicate that one will become something or someone in the future. Using the future tense will thus indicate a very strong future, something that will happen by obligation rather than a casual statement.
Furthermore, Nepali uses present tense as if it were future tense, because all future tense conjugations denote a strong obligatory action that occurs in the future. The casual sense of a future time is thus denoted by the present tense instead, making future tenses quite obsolete compared to other two tenses.
Personally, I would suggest not learning the future tense until much later, because it is not frequently used to denote a future action. Instead, the present tense is used.
- He was John.
- You were (a) student.
- House was red.
- Pen was on (the) book.
- Blue (item) was right/fine.
The sentences above describes locations, identities that were present in the past but is perhaps no longer the case today.
- ऊ जन थियो (ū jan thiyo)
- तिमी विद्यार्थी थियौ (timī vidyārthī thiyau)
- घर रातो थियो (ghar rāto thiyo)
- कलम किताबमा थियो (kalam kitāb-mā thiyo)
- निलो ठीक थियो (nilo ṭhīk thiyo)
In the first statement, ‘he’ was ‘John’ but perhaps he’s someone else today. In the second statement, ‘you’ were a student, but you are no longer one now. In the third statement, the ‘house’ used to be red, but now it is in a different colour. In the fourth statement, the ‘pen’ was on the ‘book’ but now it is no longer there. The fifth statement finally describes an earlier affirmation, one that was given some time ago but not now. The first two statements use ‘ho’ in the present tense and the last two use ‘cha’. The last one would use ‘huncha’.
One note is that the only function of huncha carried by thiyo is when it is describing an earlier affirmation. The rest is covered up by bhayo with a caveat.
भयो (bhayo) is the past for of huncha, so it must follow the same rules as huncha does, except in the past. However, since huncha is also used to describe facts, general descriptions and universal truths as well, bhayo cannot be used to that respect because it would be self-contradictory.
- He became (a) doctor.
- (The) eclipse happened today.
The two properties properly carried by bhayo are that, something either happened, or became. Thus:
- ऊ डाक्टर भयो (ū ḍākṭar bhayo)
- आज ग्रहण भयो (āja grahaṇ bhayo)
The first statement covers the event of ‘he’ becoming a ‘doctor’ in the past. The second statement describes the ‘eclipse’ that happened ‘today’. In some sense, bhayo either only means ‘became’ or ‘happened’ or ‘finished’ (finished describes an action that was completed, or happened). Why can’t it be used to describe past facts, then?
The reason why is because, just because the general statement held true in the past and now it doesn’t, does NOT mean that the past statement suddenly became false. Rather, it became a property that was something habitual to it, but is not currently. This is thus described by the past habitual conjugation of hunu, which we will view later when we learn about past conjugation. Yes, hunu as a verb be conjugated like any other verb as well! It is only that it has different forms in different tenses.
This is a word I throw around a lot, but not really explained in depth. Basically, a universal fact is a statement which corresponds to reality regardless of time and space. For example, fire is always hot, so it is a universal fact since it corresponds to reality. Thus, you can say “आगो तातो हुन्छ (āgo tāto huncha)” to mean “Fire is hot” in a general sense but never “आगो तातो भयो (āgo tāto bhayo)” or “आगो तातो थियो (āgo tāto thiyo)” to say “Fire was hot” in contraction to the general sense established before.
Not that both sentences above are grammatically correct. Use of the latter is acceptable, but only when you describe “Fire is hot” in the sense of an observation (thus, using cha) and not a general sense (which uses huncha). The former is also correct, but sounds very weird to a native speaker, because it would imply the fire was initially not hot, which does not correspond to reality. In this sense, it implies that the fire became hot.
- A copula is a word that helps link a subject with its complement.
- The essence is the immutable description of the subject so that it has a one-one correspondence.
- The state is the description of the subject’s features that do not have a one-one correspondence.
- हो (ho) is the definer. It renames things to show that in essence, the subject and the subject complement are really the same thing.
- छ (cha) is the describer. It describes an object’s characteristics, states, location, or possession. Aside from showing characteristics, it is also used to show that an object exists.
- हुन्छ (huncha) is used to show actions that become or happen, and to state universal facts or statements that apply to the subject in general.
- The past form of हो (ho), छ (cha) and हुन्छ (huncha) is थियो (thiyo).
- भयो (bhayo) is the past form of huncha in the sense of ‘became’ or ‘happened’. It cannot be used to negate universal facts.
- A universal fact is a statement which corresponds to reality regardless of time and space.
- Like all verbs, every form of hunu must be conjugated so it matches the status of the subject.
A. FIND IF THE WORD PAIRS (A, B) CAN BE PAIRED USING A NEPALI COPULA IN THE STATEMENT “A B copula”.
0. I, John = Yes, since “I am John” is a statement linked by a copula
1. Today, Mary
2. Mary, tall
3. House, red
4. Party, yesterday
B. FIND THE APPROPRIATE NEPALI COPULA THAT FITS (A.), IF THERE EXISTS ONE.
C. MATCH THE OPTIONS TO THE CORRECT BLANKS.
[ho, cha, huncha, thiyo, bhayo]
1. asti nayām̐ varṣa __. (day before yesterday was New year)
2. kām __. (work is completed)
3. kitāb kālo __. (book is black)
4. ū rām __. (he is Ram)
5. himāl aglo __. (mountain is tall)
D. DETERMINE IF THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS TAKE ho, cha OR huncha.
1. She is Mary.
2. The water is blue.
3. Leaf is green. (general fact)
4. Paper was white.
5. Feast happened yesterday.
E. TRANSLATE THE SENTENCES IN (E.) USING THE CORRECT FORM OF THE COPULA.
F. TRANSLATE THE FOLLOWING NEPALI PARAGRAPH INTO ENGLISH.
म शिशिर हो । म ७ वर्ष हुँ । मेरो किताब कालो छ । मेरो किताब घरमा छ । हिजो विदा थियो । म पछि डाक्टर हुन्छु ।
Ma śiśir ho. Ma sāt varṣa hum̐. Mero kitāb kālo cha. Mero kitāb ghar-mā cha. Hijo vidā thiyo. Ma pachi ḍākṭar hunchu
ANSWERS (translations are purely illustrative only)
B.(2.4.). bhayo/thiyo (depends on if you want to say happened or was, respectively)
D.4. thiyo < cha
D.5. bhayo < huncha
E.(D.1.). ऊ मेरी हो (ū merī ho)
E.(D.2.). पानी निलो छ (pānī nilo cha)
E.(D.3.). पत्ता हरियो हुन्छ (pattā hariyo huncha)
E.(D.4.). कागज सेतो थियो (kāgaj seto thiyo)
E.(D.5.). भोज हियो भयो (bhoj hiyo bhayo)
F. I am Shishir. I am 7 years (old). My book is black. My book is at home. Yesterday was (a) holiday. I (will) later become (a) doctor.
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To be or not to be, that is the lesson: whether it is nobler in the mind to decipher an important verb in Nepali, or skip it altogether. While I am no Shakespeare, the verb we are about to discuss is of utmost importance, because it helps us define or describe an entity’s properties.
The verb is ‘to be’, which in Nepali is हुनु (hunu). Why is it important? Basically speaking, hunu is what linguists call a ‘copula’. A copula is a word that helps link a subject with its complement (with an ‘e’ and not an ‘i’), such that the subject is the word used. In this case, since our copula is a verb, we can also call it a copulative verb. Copula helps us connect two things in a sentence, either defining or describing the subject in question. Take the following sentences that use the copula ‘to be’:
The sky is blue. [Of the sky, its description is blue]
I am John. [About myself, that person is John]
The verb is extremely irregular, as in the case of copulas in many languages. While English and Nepali both have only one copulative verb, Nepali has two forms of the copula for the past tense, three for present and one for future, whose meanings change according to the tense used. Nepali also inflects the verb heavily, so please do take care while conjugating verbs. Before we learn the different types of copula, it is important to learn the factors that Nepali considers before using the copula.
ESSENCE VS. STATE
As discussed in Sentence Structure, a sentence that employs a copula in Nepali appears in the following order:
Subject + Subject Complement + Copula
ऊ जन हो (ū jan ho)
[he + John + is]
He is John.
The subject complement (can also be called as the predicate) is the word that either renames or subject or describes now. When you dig in deeper, you will see that renaming or describing something are actions that talk more about the fundamental nature of the subject. In other words, what you want to address is either the essence or the state of the subject.
Take the following statements:
- He is John.
- He is tall.
In statement 1, what you want to talk about is that the person ‘he’ is actually John, or that ‘he’ and ‘John’ are the
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same people. In the first statement, you do not introduce two different ideas, but rather show that the two seemingly different ideas are really just the same thing. The subject and subject complement are identical. If you look at it in this way, you may also call it as renaming the subject, as you are presenting the same thing in just another word.
In statement 2, what you want to talk about is that the person introduced ‘he’ has an associated property, that being ‘tall’. These two can exist independently and thus can be mutually exclusive to each other; they are two vastly different ideas. The subject and subject complement are not identical, but rather that the subject currently has a property that is conveyed by the subject complement. If you look at it in this way, you may call the whole process as describing the subject.
Thus, we come to the definitions of essence and state; statement 1 conveys the essence of the subject, while statement 2 conveys the state of the subject. In short, the essence is the immutable description of the subject so that it has a one-one correspondence, while the state is the description of the subject’s features that do not have a one-one correspondence. Mind you that while it is somewhat similar to Romance languages (sum– vs sto-), it is not exactly identical and thus should not be applied as such.
I know what you are all thinking; the word is rather eerily similar to an English word of the same spelling. While the English word does carry a negative connotation, this one does not because it is a rather fundamental part of a sentence. So, please bear with me and understand that Nepali people are not really degrading people after every other sentence, but rather expressing a statement.
हो (ho) is the definer. It renames things to show that in essence, the subject and the subject complement are really the same thing. It is defining the subject, such that one can be familiar with it with another namesake. Take the following statements:
- I am John.
- She is (the) doctor.
- You are (a) student.
- My name is Sarah.
In each of the above cases, you are making a statement by introducing two elements, namely the subject (leftmost word) and the subject complement (rightmost word). Now, by using the copula ‘to be’ (or its various forms), you are showing that the two concepts are essentially the same. You are renaming the subject, such that you show the subject complement is really the subject as well. In Nepali, the statements would be:
- म जन हुँ (ma jan hum̐) [Note that using ho is also acceptable]
- ऊ चिकित्सक हो (ū cikitsak ho)
- तिमी विद्यार्थी हौ (timī vidyārthī hau)
- मेरो नाम सारा हो (mero nām sārā ho)
In simple terms, when you say that A B ho, then you are saying that A is in essence, B, and thus can be said that A and B are the same objects. In the first statement, you are renaming ‘I’ as ‘John’. In the second statement, you are saying that ‘She’ is essentially the same as ‘(the) doctor’. In the third statement, you are saying that ‘you’ and ‘student’ are in essence, same. In the fourth statement, you are saying that ‘your name’ and ‘Sarah’ are essentially identical concepts.
Care must be taken that the verb does conjugate according to the subject as well, like all the other Nepali verbs.
म जन हुँ (ma jan hum̐) [first person]
= I am John.
तिमी जन हौ (timī jan hau) [second person, medium respect]
= You are John.
You can find out the various forms of the conjugation in the spreadsheet here.
छ (cha) is the describer. It describes an object’s characteristics, states, location, or possession. Aside from showing characteristics, it is also used to show that an object exists. Thus it can be said that it shows the state and existence of an object. Note that the characteristics and states an object can take vary; factors include temperature, size, weight, shape, colour etc.
When used with appropriate case markers or postpositions, it can also be used to show existence. Chief among these case markers are सँग (sam̐ga), which is the Nepali equivalent of with, and मा (mā) which is the Nepali equivalent of on. When used this way, the first can also mean ‘to have’ in the sense of ‘I am in possession of an object’ and the second can mean ‘An object is on another object’.
- House is red. [describing colour]
- You are tall. [describing size]
- Here is (a) house. [describing location, or showing that the house exists ‘here’]
- Today is hot. [describing temperature/ state of weather]
- With me is (a) pen. [displaying possession] = I have (a) pen.
- Pen is on (the) book. [showing location]
In each of the sentences above, you are describing some property of the subject. For example, the first statement is describing the house as having the property of being ‘red’. In each of the sentences, the subject and the subject complement are related, but they are not exactly identical. Rather, the subject has the property of the subject complement but at the same time, are not the complement. They are independent of each other. Word for word, the Nepali statements that lead to the above sentences are below:
- घर रातो छ (ghar rāto cha)
- तिमी अग्लो छौ (timī aglo chau)
- यहाँ घर छ (yahām̐ ghar cha)
- आज गर्मी छ (āja garmī cha)
- मसँग कलम छ (ma-sam̐ga kalam cha)
- कलम किताबमा छ (kalam kitāb-mā cha)
When you say that A B cha, you are saying that A has the property of being ‘B’-like, or that B is the description of A. It can also mean that A has B in its existence, or that A has the possession of B. In the first statement, the ‘house’ has the property of being ‘red’. In the second statement, ‘you’ have the property of being ‘tall’. In the third statement, ‘here’ has a ‘house’ in its existence, or that the ‘house’ exists in a location called ‘here’. In the fourth statement, ‘today’ has the property of being ‘hot’. In the fifth statement, ‘with you’ is the possession of a ‘pen’. In the sixth statement, the ‘pen’ exists on the ‘book’, or that the ‘pen’ is on the ‘book’.
You should take care of the conjugation according to the subject, but when you use the postposition sam̐ga, the perspective will always be in third person thus takes up third-person conjugation. That is because sam̐ga does not take a nominative case and thus, cannot determine the verb conjugation.
हुन्छ (huncha) is the weird one here; although it is a conjugation of hunu, it does not always connote the meaning of ‘to be’. It could also mean ‘to become’ or ‘to happen’. It is also used to state facts or ideas that are generally known or holds for the given subject. When you are describing facts this way, the complement will always be a quality-describing word, sending a meaning of ‘Generally speaking, X is Y’. It is also used to affirm a statement, indicating whether the subject is okay or not.
In Nepali, the present tense can also be used to denote the future. Although we have dedicated future tense, it is more likely for people to state the general future with the present tense. This is especially true with ‘huncha’, as it is also used to describe things that will ‘become’ or ‘happen’. This is why translations often include ‘will’ to provide some context behind the translation. Now, let’s look at a few sentences in English where ‘huncha’ will be used in Nepali:
- He (will) become(s) (a) doctor. [to become]
- (The) eclipse happens today. [to happen]
- In cold (temperatures), water becomes / is cold. [stating facts]
- Houses of this village are red. [stating claims that applies in a general sense to the entity being talked about here]
- Blue (item) is right/fine. [describing affirmation]
In each of the sentences above, you are either describing events that will happen, become or stating general claims. It has also been used to describe affirmation, as to indicate whether something ‘belongs’ well or not to your ideals.
- ऊ डाक्टर हुन्छ (ū ḍākṭar huncha)
- आज ग्रहण हुन्छ (āja grahaṇ huncha)
- चिसोमा पानी चिसो हुन्छ (ciso-mā pānī ciso huncha)
- यो गाउँका घरहरू रातो हुन्छन् (yo gāum̐-kā ghar-harū rāto hunchan)
- निलो ठीक हुन्छ (nilo ṭhīk huncha)
In the first statement, ‘he’ becomes a ‘doctor’, indicating he is not a doctor yet will soon will become one. In the second statement, the ‘eclipse’ will occur ‘today’, describing an event that occurs. In the third statement, ‘water’ is described as ‘cold’, along with a condition ‘in cold (weather)’. This describes a fact that cannot be negated, or denotes some property that occurs when certain conditions are met. In the fourth statement, ‘houses’ are ‘red’ along with the condition ‘in this village’. Huncha can also be used to describe the habits or features of something like a group (or an individual) in general. By using so, you describe that the quality is a ‘feature’ and not only a state it currently possesses. This also indicates a type of habitual existence in this sense. In the fifth statement, ‘blue’ is being ‘fine’, indicating an affirmation to your thoughts currently. Note that apart from statement 1, the complement is almost always an adjective or an adverb.
CHA VS HUNCHA
With both cha and huncha seem to do the same thing as describing, what is the difference then? The difference is that, huncha always denotes an internal quality that cha does not describe. Cha can only describe what you can observe. Huncha on the other hand, applies that description to the species in question in a general matter-of-fact sense. For example, if I looked at a cup and was asked to describe it, I would say that it looks green and small to me. These are described using cha. However, after that I wanted to comment how cups are made of ceramic as a general matter-of-fact, so I’d say that the cup is ceramic in nature. This description of an individual trait vs. a general trait is one difference between cha and huncha. Here is an example of the subtle difference, although both sentences translate into ‘water is cold’:
पानी चिसो छ (pānī ciso cha)
An observation that the water is cold currently. It could have been hot before, and might be hot later, but as of now this particular water is cold. This is an individual trait, and other water(s) may be in some other state like hot or jelly-like.
पानी चिसो हुन्छ (pānī ciso huncha)
Stating that coldness is a general trait of water. It is a persistent trait such that coldness and water have a correlation that cannot be changed otherwise. It won’t turn into something else and will remain cold as it is something the water will always be. This is a very general trait, and it applies to all water(s) out there. This is akin to describing that all stars are bigger than an atom.
Of course, water is not always ‘cold’ through experience, so the statement is pragmatically incorrect (despite being grammatically correct). Contextually, statements such as this could describe water of a particular place instead, such as water in the Arctic sea, but it requires more supporting evidence than just a simple ‘water is cold’.
The future form of both हो (ho), छ (cha) and हुन्छ (huncha) is हुनेछ (hunecha). This will be quite simple, as the three present forms all collapse into one word in the future (although huncha itself denotes some sense of future). In its meaning, हुनेछ (hunecha) usually means ‘will be’. Take these examples:
ऊ बाह्र वर्ष हुनेछ (ū bāhra varṣa hunecha)
= He will be twelve year(s).
घर रातो हुनेछ (ghar rāto hunecha)
= House will be red.
लुगा ठीक हुनेछ (lugā ṭhīk hunecha)
= Clothe(s) will be fine.
In the first statement, the present form would use ho while the second would use cha. In both cases, they indicate the future and the distinction between ho and cha is lost. The third statement uses huncha, but needs more context because huncha already displays some sort of future action.
What does it mean by that? Since huncha carries a meaning of ‘to become/ to happen’, using the present tense suffices enough to indicate that one will become something or someone in the future. Using the future tense will thus indicate a very strong future, something that will happen by obligation rather than a casual statement.
Furthermore, Nepali uses present tense as if it were future tense, because all future tense conjugations denote a strong obligatory action that occurs in the future. The casual sense of a future time is thus denoted by the present tense instead, making future tenses quite obsolete compared to other two tenses.
Personally, I would suggest not learning the future tense until much later, because it is not frequently used to denote a future action. Instead, the present tense is used.
- He was John.
- You were (a) student.
- House was red.
- Pen was on (the) book.
- Blue (item) was right/fine.
The sentences above describes locations, identities that were present in the past but is perhaps no longer the case today.
- ऊ जन थियो (ū jan thiyo)
- तिमी विद्यार्थी थियौ (timī vidyārthī thiyau)
- घर रातो थियो (ghar rāto thiyo)
- कलम किताबमा थियो (kalam kitāb-mā thiyo)
- निलो ठीक थियो (nilo ṭhīk thiyo)
In the first statement, ‘he’ was ‘John’ but perhaps he’s someone else today. In the second statement, ‘you’ were a student, but you are no longer one now. In the third statement, the ‘house’ used to be red, but now it is in a different colour. In the fourth statement, the ‘pen’ was on the ‘book’ but now it is no longer there. The fifth statement finally describes an earlier affirmation, one that was given some time ago but not now. The first two statements use ‘ho’ in the present tense and the last two use ‘cha’. The last one would use ‘huncha’.
One note is that the only function of huncha carried by thiyo is when it is describing an earlier affirmation. The rest is covered up by bhayo with a caveat.
भयो (bhayo) is the past for of huncha, so it must follow the same rules as huncha does, except in the past. However, since huncha is also used to describe facts, general descriptions and universal truths as well, bhayo cannot be used to that respect because it would be self-contradictory.
- He became (a) doctor.
- (The) eclipse happened today.
The two properties properly carried by bhayo are that, something either happened, or became. Thus:
- ऊ डाक्टर भयो (ū ḍākṭar bhayo)
- आज ग्रहण भयो (āja grahaṇ bhayo)
The first statement covers the event of ‘he’ becoming a ‘doctor’ in the past. The second statement describes the ‘eclipse’ that happened ‘today’. In some sense, bhayo either only means ‘became’ or ‘happened’ or ‘finished’ (finished describes an action that was completed, or happened). Why can’t it be used to describe past facts, then?
The reason why is because, just because the
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New York City public schools have restricted access to ChatGPT, the AI system that can generate text on a range of subjects and in various styles, on school networks and devices. As widely reported this morning and confirmed to TechCrunch by a New York City Department of Education spokesperson, the restriction was implemented due to concerns about “[the] negative impacts on student learning” and “the safety and accuracy” of the content that ChatGPT produces.
“While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch via email, adding that the restricted access came in response to requests from schools.
It’s not a ban per se. The New York City public school system is using the same filter for ChatGPT that it uses to block other apps and websites — for example, YouTube and Facebook — on school property. Individual schools can request to have ChatGPT unblocked, and the spokesperson said that the New York City Department of Education would “welcome” the opportunity to have a conversation with OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, about how the tool could be adapted for education.
When reached for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company is developing “mitigations” to help anyone spot text generated by ChatGPT. That’s significant. While TechCrunch reported recently that OpenAI was experimenting with a watermarking technique for AI-generated text, it’s the first time OpenAI has confirmed that it’s working on tools specifically for identifying text that came from ChatGPT.
“We made ChatGPT available as a research preview to learn from real-world use, which we believe is a critical part of developing and deploying capable, safe AI systems. We are constantly incorporating feedback and lessons learned,” the OpenAI spokesperson said. “We’ve always called for transparency around the use of AI-generated text. Our policies require that users be upfront with their audience when using our API and creative tools. . . We look forward to working with educators on useful solutions, and other ways to help teachers and students benefit from AI.”
ChatGPT has an aptitude for answering questions on topics ranging from poetry to coding, but one of its biggest flaws is its ability to sometimes give answers that sound convincing but aren’t factually true. That led Q&A coding site Stack Overflow to temporarily ban users from sharing content generated by the AI, saying that ChatGPT made it too easy for users to flood the platform with dubious answers. More recently, the International Conference on Machine Learning, one of the world’s largest AI and machine learning conferences, announced a prohibition on papers that include text generated by ChatGPT and other similar AI systems for fear of “unanticipated consequences.”
In education, the debate has revolved largely around the cheating potential. Perform a Google search for “ChatGPT to write school papers,” and you’ll find plenty of examples of educators, journalists and students testing the waters by wielding ChatGPT to complete homework assignments and standardized essay tests. Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern used ChatGPT to write a passing AP English essay, while Forbes staffer Emma Whitford tapped it to finish two college essays in 20 minutes. Speaking to The Guardian, Arizona State University professor Dan Gillmor recalled how he gave ChatGPT one of the assignments he typically gives his students and found that the AI’s essay would’ve earned “a good grade.”
Plagiarism is another concern. Like other text-generating AI systems, ChatGPT — which is trained on public data, usually collected without consent — can sometimes regurgitate this information verbatim without citing any sources. That includes factual inaccuracies, as alluded to earlier, as well as biased — including blatantly racist and sexist — perspectives. OpenAI continues to introduce filters and techniques to prevent problematic text generations, but new workarounds pop up every day.
Despite those limitations and issues, some educators see pedagogical potential in ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI technologies. In a recent piece for Stanford’s Graduate School of Education website, Victor Lee, associate professor of education at Stanford, noted that ChatGPT may help students “think in ways they currently do not” — for example, by helping them discover and clarify their ideas. Teachers may benefit from ChatGPT as well, he posits, by generating many examples for students of a narrative where the basic content remains the same but the style, syntax or grammar differ.
“ChatGPT may [allow] students to read, reflect and revise many times without the anguish or frustration that such processes often invoke, [while] teachers can use the tool as a way of generating many examples and nonexamples of a form or genre,” Lee said in a statement. “Obviously, teachers are less delighted about the computer doing a lot of legwork for students. And students still need to learn to write. But in what way, and what kinds of writing? A . . . side effect of this new medicine is that it requires all of us to ask those questions and probably make some substantive changes to the overarching goals and methods of our instruction.”
In any case, the New York City public schools policy, which appears to be the first of its kind in the country, will surely force the conversation at school districts elsewhere. As use of the tech grows — ChatGPT had over a million users as of December — independent researchers and companies have begun piloting tools to detect the use of AI-generated text in student submissions. Some educators might choose to embrace them, while others, like Lee, instead encourage the use of ChatGPT as an assistive writing tool.
|
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New York City public schools have restricted access to ChatGPT, the AI system that can generate text on a range of subjects and in various styles, on school networks and devices. As widely reported this morning and confirmed to TechCrunch by a New York City Department of Education spokesperson, the restriction was implemented due to concerns about “[the] negative impacts on student learning” and “the safety and accuracy” of the content that ChatGPT produces.
“While the tool may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success,” the spokesperson told TechCrunch via email, adding that the restricted access came in response to requests from schools.
It’s not a ban per se. The New York City public school system is using the same filter for ChatGPT that it uses to block other apps and websites — for example, YouTube and Facebook — on school property. Individual schools can request to have ChatGPT unblocked, and the spokesperson said that the New York City Department of Education would “welcome” the opportunity to have a conversation with OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, about how the tool could be adapted for education.
When reached for comment, an OpenAI spokesperson said the company is developing “mitigations” to help anyone spot text generated by ChatGPT. That’s significant. While TechCrunch reported recently that OpenAI was experimenting with a watermarking technique for AI-generated text, it’s the first time OpenAI has confirmed that it’s working on tools specifically for identifying text that came from ChatGPT.
“We made ChatGPT available as a research preview to learn from real-world use, which we believe is a critical part of developing and deploying capable, safe AI systems. We are constantly incorporating feedback and lessons learned,” the OpenAI spokesperson said. “We’ve always called for transparency around the use of AI-generated text. Our policies require that users be upfront with their audience when using our API and creative tools. . . We look forward to working with educators on useful solutions, and other ways to help teachers and students benefit from AI.”
ChatGPT has an aptitude for answering questions on topics ranging from poetry to coding, but one of its biggest flaws is its ability to sometimes give answers that sound convincing but aren’t factually true. That led Q&A coding site Stack Overflow to temporarily ban users from sharing content generated by the AI, saying that ChatGPT made it too easy
|
for users to flood the platform with dubious answers. More recently, the International Conference on Machine Learning, one of the world’s largest AI and machine learning conferences, announced a prohibition on papers that include text generated by ChatGPT and other similar AI systems for fear of “unanticipated consequences.”
In education, the debate has revolved largely around the cheating potential. Perform a Google search for “ChatGPT to write school papers,” and you’ll find plenty of examples of educators, journalists and students testing the waters by wielding ChatGPT to complete homework assignments and standardized essay tests. Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern used ChatGPT to write a passing AP English essay, while Forbes staffer Emma Whitford tapped it to finish two college essays in 20 minutes. Speaking to The Guardian, Arizona State University professor Dan Gillmor recalled how he gave ChatGPT one of the assignments he typically gives his students and found that the AI’s essay would’ve earned “a good grade.”
Plagiarism is another concern. Like other text-generating AI systems, ChatGPT — which is trained on public data, usually collected without consent — can sometimes regurgitate this information verbatim without citing any sources. That includes factual inaccuracies, as alluded to earlier, as well as biased — including blatantly racist and sexist — perspectives. OpenAI continues to introduce filters and techniques to prevent problematic text generations, but new workarounds pop up every day.
Despite those limitations and issues, some educators see pedagogical potential in ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI technologies. In a recent piece for Stanford’s Graduate School of Education website, Victor Lee, associate professor of education at Stanford, noted that ChatGPT may help students “think in ways they currently do not” — for example, by helping them discover and clarify their ideas. Teachers may benefit from ChatGPT as well, he posits, by generating many examples for students of a narrative where the basic content remains the same but the style, syntax or grammar differ.
“ChatGPT may [allow] students to read, reflect and revise many times without the anguish or frustration that such processes often invoke, [while] teachers can use the tool as a way of generating many examples and nonexamples of a form or genre,” Lee said in a statement. “Obviously, teachers are less delighted about the computer doing a lot of legwork for students. And students still need to learn to write. But in what way, and what kinds of writing? A . . . side effect of this new medicine is that it requires all of us to ask those questions and probably make some substantive changes to the overarching goals and methods of our instruction.”
In any case, the New York City public schools policy, which appears to be the first of its kind in the country, will surely force the conversation at school districts elsewhere. As use of the tech grows — ChatGPT had over a million users as of December — independent researchers and companies have begun piloting tools to detect the use of AI-generated text in student submissions. Some educators might choose to embrace them, while others, like Lee, instead encourage the use of ChatGPT as an assistive writing tool.
|
I have featured this series over the last ten years on a regular basis for new readers who might have joined the blog. Our bodies are are greatest asset. It has a long road ahead of if from birth, through the teen years, work life, parenthood, middle age and then into our 70s and beyond.
At every stage of our life healthy nutrition is essential to help the body develop and remain as disease free as possible. I appreciate that many of you may have read this series before three years ago, but I hope it will be a reminder of how amazing our bodies are, and simply eating the right foods, exercising moderately and not doing anything too reckless…will go a long way to enjoying later life to the full.
In this first series of posts I am going to be exploring the brain and its functions.
Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and other related conditions are rarely out of the headlines and it is probably everyone’s worst fear. There is a genetic link to some forms of dementia,but it is not as common as lifestyle related deterioration of the brain. Even though we are living longer, dementia is not an automatic progression and understanding how this amazing organ works and what it requires to be health, is vital.
Part Two: Development from conception to old age
The Brain – Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
Some links to the latest research on dementia..
Magnetic stimulation of the brain improves working memory, offering a new potential avenue of therapy for individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, according to new research from the Duke University School of Medicine: : Science Daily
In a records review of 290 people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, scientists at Johns Hopkins say they have identified an average level of biological and anatomical brain changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease that occur three to 10 years — some even more than 30 years — before the disease’s first recognizable symptoms appear. Science Daily
High blood levels of primary fatty acid amides (PFAMS), a class of fatty molecules involved in sleep and movement control, are associated with increased accumulation of beta-amyloid protein in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, a study finds. Researchers believe that this class of fatty molecules may represent a new blood biomarker that can help physicians diagnose Alzheimer’s earlier. Alzheimer’s News Today
Dementia is actually a collective name for progressive degenerative brain diseases, which affect our memory, thought, behaviour and emotions. It is not a normal result of ageing and it does not seem to have any specific social, economic, ethnic or geographical links. It can effect different people in different ways, which makes it difficult sometimes to diagnose and to treat
Certain dementia, such as vascular dementia, where plaque is blocking the blood vessels in the brain are linked to lifestyle related causes such as heavy alcohol consumption. Most dementia is likely to have an element of environmental, diet or lifestyle involved in its development.
There is no known cure, but there are ways that we can modify our lifestyle to reduce our risks of brain degeneration and to slow down any process that has already begun.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and accounts for around 60% of all cases. The disease is degenerative over a period of years and destroys brain cells and nerve cells causing a disruption to the transmitters, which carry messages in the brain, particularly those that are responsible for our memories.
As the disease progresses, the brain shrinks and gaps develop in the temporal lobe and hippocampus. These areas are responsible for storing and retrieving new information. The damage results in a reduction in a person’s ability to remember events that happened in the short term, to speak, think and to make decisions. All this is both frightening and confusing, as a person will be aware of these lapses in the early stages of the condition.
What are the symptoms of Alzheimer’s
In the beginning, there may be infrequent lapses in memory, forgetting where keys have been left or perhaps failing to switch off electric cookers or other equipment. A person will start to forget the names of everyday objects or people that they are usually very familiar with. They can also suffer from mood swings and panic attacks.
As the disease progresses these symptoms worsen and there is an element of confusion over completing every day tasks such as shopping, cooking and more dangerously driving.
The changes in personality are often attributable to fear and the awareness that something is very wrong. In the earlier stages people tend to try and hide the symptoms. This happens because, much of the time, they will be aware that there is a problem and will not want to accept that this could be as serious a condition as dementia.
In the advanced stages it is not only extremely stressful for the person concerned but also very distressing for their immediate family. We have experience of the problem with a close family friend who was in his 80’s and was looking after his wife who had Alzheimer’s for two years before she went into a home. At that point he was no longer able to cope. She was in danger of hurting herself as she was wandering off in the middle of the night, falling over and hurting herself as well as becoming terrified and disorientated. My own mother in the last two years of her life became increasingly confused but she was nearly 95 when she died. She had family and remained in her own home but for future millions who perhaps have not surviving family it will be a challenge for them and the care services.
What are the risk factors?
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of dementia, but there are several probable links that have been the subject of research in recent years.
There is some evidence of a genetic link to the disease, but that is not proven. Lifestyle most definitely will have played a contributory role as exposure to toxins from smoking, excessive alcohol consumption or work environment will cause damage to the body as a whole and certainly to the brain.
There is obviously natural age related degeneration of the entire body and its systems to take into account and any previous head trauma may be part of the problem. There are links to chemical contamination including poisoning from mercury – which can be found in some of the fish that we eat – and also from aluminum, which is most commonly linked to the metal in some of our cooking utensils.
Some recent statistics suggest that at least 10% of those over 65 and 50% of those over 85 years old will be suffering from varying degrees of dementia. We unfortunately have no control over natural ageing, or our genetic background, which means that we should be looking at ways to prevent or minimise the risk of us developing the disease from a much earlier age than our 60’s.
What preventative measures can we take – starting today?
- The key factors to reducing your risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in particular are very simple and effective.
- Your brain is a major organ of the body that requires nutrients to function efficiently and to repair and protect itself. There are specific foods that provide those nutrients and including them in your diet on a very regular basis will be effective.
- You need to keep your heart and arterial system clear of oxidised LDL cholesterol and working efficiently to enable vital nutrients and oxygen to reach the brain. However, cholesterol is essential for the body and is involved in many processes including the production of hormones and therefore brain function. Reducing total cholesterol can therefore impact your brain health. Healthy fats are essential in various forms.
- You must work the brain as you would any muscle in your body. Stimulating activities strengthen brain cells and the connections between them and may even create new nerve cells.
- We all need people around us and it is even better if we involve ourselves in activity that requires mental and physical co-ordination.
- Physical exercise maintains healthy blood flow to all our organs including the brain where it will prolong the health of existing brain cells by preventing any further damage.
The one way to deal with an overwhelming fear is to face it and take control of it. For me that has meant a radical change in lifestyle. At one time I smoked over 40 cigarettes a day and drank more than was good for me. My diet was atrocious and I was morbidly obese. I was certainly in a high-risk category for declining brain health, if I had lived long enough to develop the disease.
That is not to say that you have to totally abstain from everything that gives you pleasure. We only have one life and whilst I am totally anti smoking these days, I do believe that we should balance our lifestyle with our pleasures factored in. You will often find me quoting my 80/20 rule. If you follow a healthy lifestyle 80% of the time and the other 20% indulge yourself a little then you will be on the right track.
Reduce the Risk
- Good Nutrition and hydration.
- Low levels of plaque in our arteries so that oxygen can get to the brain
- Exercise your brain as well as your body
- Social interaction
©sally cronin Just Food for Health 1998 – 2023
Next week – caring for someone with dementia and a shopping list of foods that could maintain your brain health during your lifetime.
A little bit about me nutritionally. .
About Sally Cronin
I am a qualified nutritional therapist with twenty-four years experience working with clients in Ireland and the UK as well as being a health consultant on radio in Spain.
Although I write a lot of fiction, I actually wrote my first two books on health, the first one, Size Matters, a weight loss programme 21 years ago, based on my own weight loss of 154lbs. My first clinic was in Ireland, the Cronin Diet Advisory Centre and my second book, Just Food for Health was written as my client’s workbook. Since then I have written a men’s health manual, and anti-aging programme, articles for magazines, radio programmes and posts here on Smorgasbord.
Thanks reading and I hope you will join me again next week…Sally.
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I have featured this series over the last ten years on a regular basis for new readers who might have joined the blog. Our bodies are are greatest asset. It has a long road ahead of if from birth, through the teen years, work life, parenthood, middle age and then into our 70s and beyond.
At every stage of our life healthy nutrition is essential to help the body develop and remain as disease free as possible. I appreciate that many of you may have read this series before three years ago, but I hope it will be a reminder of how amazing our bodies are, and simply eating the right foods, exercising moderately and not doing anything too reckless…will go a long way to enjoying later life to the full.
In this first series of posts I am going to be exploring the brain and its functions.
Dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease and other related conditions are rarely out of the headlines and it is probably everyone’s worst fear. There is a genetic link to some forms of dementia,but it is not as common as lifestyle related deterioration of the brain. Even though we are living longer, dementia is not an automatic progression and understanding how this amazing organ works and what it requires to be health, is vital.
Part Two: Development from conception to old age
The Brain – Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
Some links to the latest research on dementia..
Magnetic stimulation of the brain improves working memory, offering a new potential avenue of therapy for individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, according to new research from the Duke University School of Medicine: : Science Daily
In a records review of 290 people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, scientists at Johns Hopkins say they have identified an average level of biological and anatomical brain changes linked to Alzheimer’s disease that occur three to 10 years — some even more than 30 years — before the disease’s first recognizable symptoms appear. Science Daily
High blood levels of primary fatty acid amides (PFAMS), a class of fatty molecules involved in sleep and movement control, are associated with increased accumulation of beta-amyloid protein in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, a study finds. Researchers believe that this class of fatty molecules may represent a new blood biomarker that can help physicians diagnose Alzheimer’s earlier. Alzheimer’s News Today
Dementia is actually a collective name for progressive degenerative brain diseases, which affect our memory, thought, behaviour and emotions. It is not a normal result of ageing and it does
|
not seem to have any specific social, economic, ethnic or geographical links. It can effect different people in different ways, which makes it difficult sometimes to diagnose and to treat
Certain dementia, such as vascular dementia, where plaque is blocking the blood vessels in the brain are linked to lifestyle related causes such as heavy alcohol consumption. Most dementia is likely to have an element of environmental, diet or lifestyle involved in its development.
There is no known cure, but there are ways that we can modify our lifestyle to reduce our risks of brain degeneration and to slow down any process that has already begun.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia and accounts for around 60% of all cases. The disease is degenerative over a period of years and destroys brain cells and nerve cells causing a disruption to the transmitters, which carry messages in the brain, particularly those that are responsible for our memories.
As the disease progresses, the brain shrinks and gaps develop in the temporal lobe and hippocampus. These areas are responsible for storing and retrieving new information. The damage results in a reduction in a person’s ability to remember events that happened in the short term, to speak, think and to make decisions. All this is both frightening and confusing, as a person will be aware of these lapses in the early stages of the condition.
What are the symptoms of Alzheimer’s
In the beginning, there may be infrequent lapses in memory, forgetting where keys have been left or perhaps failing to switch off electric cookers or other equipment. A person will start to forget the names of everyday objects or people that they are usually very familiar with. They can also suffer from mood swings and panic attacks.
As the disease progresses these symptoms worsen and there is an element of confusion over completing every day tasks such as shopping, cooking and more dangerously driving.
The changes in personality are often attributable to fear and the awareness that something is very wrong. In the earlier stages people tend to try and hide the symptoms. This happens because, much of the time, they will be aware that there is a problem and will not want to accept that this could be as serious a condition as dementia.
In the advanced stages it is not only extremely stressful for the person concerned but also very distressing for their immediate family. We have experience of the problem with a close family friend who was in his 80’s and was looking after his wife who had Alzheimer’s for two years before she went into a home. At that point he was no longer able to cope. She was in danger of hurting herself as she was wandering off in the middle of the night, falling over and hurting herself as well as becoming terrified and disorientated. My own mother in the last two years of her life became increasingly confused but she was nearly 95 when she died. She had family and remained in her own home but for future millions who perhaps have not surviving family it will be a challenge for them and the care services.
What are the risk factors?
It is difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of dementia, but there are several probable links that have been the subject of research in recent years.
There is some evidence of a genetic link to the disease, but that is not proven. Lifestyle most definitely will have played a contributory role as exposure to toxins from smoking, excessive alcohol consumption or work environment will cause damage to the body as a whole and certainly to the brain.
There is obviously natural age related degeneration of the entire body and its systems to take into account and any previous head trauma may be part of the problem. There are links to chemical contamination including poisoning from mercury – which can be found in some of the fish that we eat – and also from aluminum, which is most commonly linked to the metal in some of our cooking utensils.
Some recent statistics suggest that at least 10% of those over 65 and 50% of those over 85 years old will be suffering from varying degrees of dementia. We unfortunately have no control over natural ageing, or our genetic background, which means that we should be looking at ways to prevent or minimise the risk of us developing the disease from a much earlier age than our 60’s.
What preventative measures can we take – starting today?
- The key factors to reducing your risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in particular are very simple and effective.
- Your brain is a major organ of the body that requires nutrients to function efficiently and to repair and protect itself. There are specific foods that provide those nutrients and including them in your diet on a very regular basis will be effective.
- You need to keep your heart and arterial system clear of oxidised LDL cholesterol and working efficiently to enable vital nutrients and oxygen to reach the brain. However, cholesterol is essential for the body and is involved in many processes including the production of hormones and therefore brain function. Reducing total cholesterol can therefore impact your brain health. Healthy fats are essential in various forms.
- You must work the brain as you would any muscle in your body. Stimulating activities strengthen brain cells and the connections between them and may even create new nerve cells.
- We all need people around us and it is even better if we involve ourselves in activity that requires mental and physical co-ordination.
- Physical exercise maintains healthy blood flow to all our organs including the brain where it will prolong the health of existing brain cells by preventing any further damage.
The one way to deal with an overwhelming fear is to face it and take control of it. For me that has meant a radical change in lifestyle. At one time I smoked over 40 cigarettes a day and drank more than was good for me. My diet was atrocious and I was morbidly obese. I was certainly in a high-risk category for declining brain health, if I had lived long enough to develop the disease.
That is not to say that you have to totally abstain from everything that gives you pleasure. We only have one life and whilst I am totally anti smoking these days, I do believe that we should balance our lifestyle with our pleasures factored in. You will often find me quoting my 80/20 rule. If you follow a healthy lifestyle 80% of the time and the other 20% indulge yourself a little then you will be on the right track.
Reduce the Risk
- Good Nutrition and hydration.
- Low levels of plaque in our arteries so that oxygen can get to the brain
- Exercise your brain as well as your body
- Social interaction
©sally cronin Just Food for Health 1998 – 2023
Next week – caring for someone with dementia and a shopping list of foods that could maintain your brain health during your lifetime.
A little bit about me nutritionally. .
About Sally Cronin
I am a qualified nutritional therapist with twenty-four years experience working with clients in Ireland and the UK as well as being a health consultant on radio in Spain.
Although I write a lot of fiction, I actually wrote my first two books on health, the first one, Size Matters, a weight loss programme 21 years ago, based on my own weight loss of 154lbs. My first clinic was in Ireland, the Cronin Diet Advisory Centre and my second book, Just Food for Health was written as my client’s workbook. Since then I have written a men’s health manual, and anti-aging programme, articles for magazines, radio programmes and posts here on Smorgasbord.
Thanks reading and I hope you will join me again next week…Sally.
|
The year was 1852 and the Utah Territorial Legislature had a decision to make: whether to grant Black men the right to vote.
Orson Pratt, who served as a representative and a Latter-day Saint apostle, persistently pushed for it. In the opposite corner, powerful governor and Latter-day Saint prophet Brigham Young, pushed back, arguing “we just as well make a bill here for mules to vote as Negroes or Indians.”
This and other speeches to emerge from this fiery debate, University of Utah historian W. Paul Reeve said, are among some of the most important — and disturbing — not only for the state’s history but also the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Despite their value, however, most of them have never seen the light of day.
Today, the public can access those transcripts and other primary source documents regarding Indigenous and African American enslavement in the Utah Territory through a new digital database called This Abominable Slavery.
The collection constitutes the most exhaustive compilation of primary sources to date on the subject and represents a joint effort by Reeve, LaJean Carruth of the Church History Library, and U. doctoral student Christopher Rich. The three are co-authors of a narrative history based on these documents due out from Oxford University Press in 2024 to be titled “This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah.”
The U.’s J. Willard Marriott Library and the Church History Department also contributed to the database.
Among the collection’s most noteworthy sources is what Reeve called “the worst speech in Latter-day Saint history,” a racist 1852 screed delivered by Young in which the church leader “created a cursed racial identity” that, Reeve said in an interview, would be used for more than a century to deny Black Latter-day Saints equal status in their faith.
Another includes Pratt’s 1856 rejection of this argument — “the only” one, Reeve noted, “that Young ever gave” for the policy that barred Black Latter-day Saints from the faith’s temples and all-male priesthood. Church leaders lifted the ban in 1978.
Ultimately, Young’s view would rule the day in early Utah and the right to vote was not extended to Black males. That same year, the Legislature overrode Pratt’s objections — documented in the database — to pass a bill that failed to free anyone then enslaved, even while granting them limited rights.
It appears that Pratt did sway fellow lawmakers to erase a clause that would have made enslavement perpetual. “Without that clause,” Reeve explained in a news release, “the likely legislative intent was that the condition of servitude not pass to the next generation.”
Still, Pratt wanted no part of slavery in Utah. “Shall we hedge up the way before us by introducing this abominable slavery? No! … Shall we take then the innocent African that has committed no sin and damn him to slavery and bondage without receiving any authority from heaven to do [so]?” he questioned. “For us to bind the African because he is different from us in color [is] enough to cause the angels in heaven to blush!”
Users of the collection can also view a bill of sale for an enslaved woman named Lucinda, sold by Latter-day Saints Margaret Thompson McMeans and Abraham O. Smoot for $400, and an estate settlement for another Latter-day Saint that listed two Native American boys and three Black individuals, including an 11-year-old girl named Tampian, valued at $300.
Alice Faulkner Burch, a board member of the Utah-based Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation, plans to use the database to teach about the Beehive State’s Black history.
The documents “reveal the truth of enslavement in Utah,” she said, “and the contribution of past leadership toward its furtherance and perpetuation.”
Reeve stressed that he hoped users would feel empowered by the unfettered access to this “burst of new information” to primary sources to draw their own conclusions about what past Utahns and Latter-day Saints thought and did in regards to race and slavery, along with the faith’s former racist priesthood and temple restrictions.
“People do not have to take our word for it,” he said, “but they can access the evidence and read the speeches in their entirety.”
|
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The year was 1852 and the Utah Territorial Legislature had a decision to make: whether to grant Black men the right to vote.
Orson Pratt, who served as a representative and a Latter-day Saint apostle, persistently pushed for it. In the opposite corner, powerful governor and Latter-day Saint prophet Brigham Young, pushed back, arguing “we just as well make a bill here for mules to vote as Negroes or Indians.”
This and other speeches to emerge from this fiery debate, University of Utah historian W. Paul Reeve said, are among some of the most important — and disturbing — not only for the state’s history but also the history of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Despite their value, however, most of them have never seen the light of day.
Today, the public can access those transcripts and other primary source documents regarding Indigenous and African American enslavement in the Utah Territory through a new digital database called This Abominable Slavery.
The collection constitutes the most exhaustive compilation of primary sources to date on the subject and represents a joint effort by Reeve, LaJean Carruth of the Church History Library, and U. doctoral student Christopher Rich. The three are co-authors of a narrative history based on these documents due out from Oxford University Press in 2024 to be titled “This Abominable Slavery: Race, Religion, and the Battle over Human Bondage in Antebellum Utah.”
The U.’s J. Willard Marriott Library and the Church History Department also contributed to the database.
Among the collection’s most noteworthy sources is what Reeve called “the worst speech in Latter-day Saint history,” a racist 1852 screed delivered by Young in which the church leader “created a cursed racial identity” that, Reeve said in an interview, would be used for more than a century to deny Black Latter-day Saints equal status in their faith.
Another includes Pratt’s 1856 rejection of this argument — “the only” one, Reeve noted, “that Young ever gave” for the policy that barred Black Latter-day Saints from the faith’s temples and all-male priesthood. Church leaders lifted the ban in 1978.
Ultimately, Young’s view would rule the day in early Utah and the right to vote was not extended to Black males. That same year, the Legislature overrode Pratt’s objections — documented in the database — to pass a
|
bill that failed to free anyone then enslaved, even while granting them limited rights.
It appears that Pratt did sway fellow lawmakers to erase a clause that would have made enslavement perpetual. “Without that clause,” Reeve explained in a news release, “the likely legislative intent was that the condition of servitude not pass to the next generation.”
Still, Pratt wanted no part of slavery in Utah. “Shall we hedge up the way before us by introducing this abominable slavery? No! … Shall we take then the innocent African that has committed no sin and damn him to slavery and bondage without receiving any authority from heaven to do [so]?” he questioned. “For us to bind the African because he is different from us in color [is] enough to cause the angels in heaven to blush!”
Users of the collection can also view a bill of sale for an enslaved woman named Lucinda, sold by Latter-day Saints Margaret Thompson McMeans and Abraham O. Smoot for $400, and an estate settlement for another Latter-day Saint that listed two Native American boys and three Black individuals, including an 11-year-old girl named Tampian, valued at $300.
Alice Faulkner Burch, a board member of the Utah-based Sema Hadithi African American Heritage and Culture Foundation, plans to use the database to teach about the Beehive State’s Black history.
The documents “reveal the truth of enslavement in Utah,” she said, “and the contribution of past leadership toward its furtherance and perpetuation.”
Reeve stressed that he hoped users would feel empowered by the unfettered access to this “burst of new information” to primary sources to draw their own conclusions about what past Utahns and Latter-day Saints thought and did in regards to race and slavery, along with the faith’s former racist priesthood and temple restrictions.
“People do not have to take our word for it,” he said, “but they can access the evidence and read the speeches in their entirety.”
|
Molly Sampson, 9, and her older sister, Natalie, 17, wanted insulated chest waders so they could go shark-tooth hunting “like professionals.”
That’s when Molly, a budding paleontologist, made a rare discovery: a five-inch tooth, as big as her hand, that once belonged to a now-extinct megalodon shark that lived millions of years ago.
“Molly has been searching for a meg because she knows how big they can be, and also how rare they are,” her mother, Alicia Sampson, said in an email to The Washington Post. She added that her husband, Bruce, has hunted teeth for decades and inspired the girls to do the same. Molly, she said, has a collection of more than 400 teeth. “Molly has literally been sharks tooth hunting since she could walk on the beach.”
The family took Molly’s ancient finding to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Md., so it could be assessed by experts from the paleontology department. Staff there are familiar with the family, who live close by and have been sharing their findings for years with Stephen Godfrey, curator of paleontology at the museum.
Godfrey said in an interview Wednesday that he was impressed by Molly’s most recent find, which he said once belonged to the species known as Otodus megalodon. Godfrey, by analyzing the tooth and age of the sediment where it was discovered, concluded that the tooth is probably around 15 million years old and probably came from a shark between 45 and 50 feet long.
“Megalodon teeth are found on a fairly regular basis along Calvert Cliffs, however one that large are rare indeed,” Godfrey said, adding that just a handful are found each year. “I was very happy for Molly because I have known for some time now that she is passionate about becoming a paleontologist, and her find may well seal the deal.”
The size of the tooth’s root serves as proof that the tooth is from the upper left side of the shark’s jaw, Godfrey said, noting that the large root would have “anchored the tooth firmly to the jaw, so that this massive macro-predator would have been able to bite through any whale or dolphin that it was able to catch.”
Molly’s family says she spoke her finding into existence. “I’m looking for a meg!” Molly exclaimed as she headed for the water, her mother said. By 10 a.m., Molly had plucked the giant megalodon tooth from the water.
Molly’s find on Christmas is actually the sixth megalodon tooth she has found, her mother said, but this one is “definitely the biggest.”
On social media, fellow fossil hunters said they have been looking for such a find “for years and years,” while others hailed Molly’s discovery as “amazing” and “incredible.” Some even said the 9-year-old had inspired them to start hunting for ancient artifacts in their spare time.
As interest around the giant tooth swirled, the marine museum took to Instagram on Tuesday to reassure people that Molly would of course be able to keep the tooth — which the family is keeping a close eye on.
“We haven’t really let her take it out much, other than her favorite cafe,” Alicia Sampson said, adding that the tooth is being kept in a special display case where Molly stores her findings.
These include teeth from snaggletooth, lemon, mako, silky, sand tiger and great white sharks. Smaller jars, Sampson said, are used to keep smaller teeth found by the sisters.
Godfrey noted that such a find holds monetary value, though he highly doubts Molly will want to sell it. “Molly will never sell her find because the life-affirming value it holds is priceless,” he joked.
Molly’s mother was inclined to agree. “I am sure she will always keep it with her — to her, this tooth is priceless!” Sampson said.
Is Molly enjoying her newfound fame? Sampson said the 9-year-old is rather shy — but hopes her story will show other children “how fun it is to explore.”
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Molly Sampson, 9, and her older sister, Natalie, 17, wanted insulated chest waders so they could go shark-tooth hunting “like professionals.”
That’s when Molly, a budding paleontologist, made a rare discovery: a five-inch tooth, as big as her hand, that once belonged to a now-extinct megalodon shark that lived millions of years ago.
“Molly has been searching for a meg because she knows how big they can be, and also how rare they are,” her mother, Alicia Sampson, said in an email to The Washington Post. She added that her husband, Bruce, has hunted teeth for decades and inspired the girls to do the same. Molly, she said, has a collection of more than 400 teeth. “Molly has literally been sharks tooth hunting since she could walk on the beach.”
The family took Molly’s ancient finding to the Calvert Marine Museum in Solomons, Md., so it could be assessed by experts from the paleontology department. Staff there are familiar with the family, who live close by and have been sharing their findings for years with Stephen Godfrey, curator of paleontology at the museum.
Godfrey said in an interview Wednesday that he was impressed by Molly’s most recent find, which he said once belonged to the species known as Otodus megalodon. Godfrey, by analyzing the tooth and age of the sediment where it was discovered, concluded that the tooth is probably around 15 million years old and probably came from a shark between 45 and 50 feet long.
“Megalodon teeth are found on a fairly regular basis along Calvert Cliffs, however one that large are rare indeed,” Godfrey said, adding that just a handful are found each year. “I was very happy for Molly because I have known for some time now that she is passionate about becoming a paleontologist, and her find may well seal the deal.”
The size of the tooth’s root serves as proof that the tooth is from the upper left side of the shark’s jaw, Godfrey said, noting that the large root would have “anchored the tooth firmly to the jaw, so that this massive macro-predator would have been able to bite through any whale or dolphin that it was able to catch.”
Molly’s family says she spoke her finding into existence. “I’m looking for a meg!” Molly exclaimed as she headed for the water, her mother said. By 10 a.m., Molly had pluck
|
ed the giant megalodon tooth from the water.
Molly’s find on Christmas is actually the sixth megalodon tooth she has found, her mother said, but this one is “definitely the biggest.”
On social media, fellow fossil hunters said they have been looking for such a find “for years and years,” while others hailed Molly’s discovery as “amazing” and “incredible.” Some even said the 9-year-old had inspired them to start hunting for ancient artifacts in their spare time.
As interest around the giant tooth swirled, the marine museum took to Instagram on Tuesday to reassure people that Molly would of course be able to keep the tooth — which the family is keeping a close eye on.
“We haven’t really let her take it out much, other than her favorite cafe,” Alicia Sampson said, adding that the tooth is being kept in a special display case where Molly stores her findings.
These include teeth from snaggletooth, lemon, mako, silky, sand tiger and great white sharks. Smaller jars, Sampson said, are used to keep smaller teeth found by the sisters.
Godfrey noted that such a find holds monetary value, though he highly doubts Molly will want to sell it. “Molly will never sell her find because the life-affirming value it holds is priceless,” he joked.
Molly’s mother was inclined to agree. “I am sure she will always keep it with her — to her, this tooth is priceless!” Sampson said.
Is Molly enjoying her newfound fame? Sampson said the 9-year-old is rather shy — but hopes her story will show other children “how fun it is to explore.”
|
World Food Day – South Africa’s runaway hunger problem
The data is there, the case for the alleviation of hunger has been made, the proposals from activists and civil society are there. All that remains is for those who preside over the levers of power to stop turning a blind eye and act within the best interests of the country.
Imagine being a mother of three and not knowing what to feed your children or yourself because you are unemployed and have no means to provide for your family. Desperate, you turn to killing your children and yourself to stop the gnawing and dehumanising hunger. This is the tragedy that befell the Buso family in rural Eastern Cape, in August this year, prompting the leader of humanitarian relief organisation Gift of the Givers, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, to say: “Hunger is an insidious psychological, emotional and physical pain consuming parents as they lose hope and watch in anguish how their children and families waste away.”
One in 10 South Africans goes hungry every day, which means in our population of 62 million about 12 million are hungry. What is even more worrying is that hunger is disproportionately affecting children – they make up eight million of this number. Hunger is linked to many societal challenges, chief among them poverty and unemployment. With South Africa’s unemployment at 32.9% and 55% of the population living in poverty, it is unsurprising that so many people go to bed hungry.
Yet, section 27 (1) (b) of the Constitution says: “Everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water…” and Section 28 (1) (c) gives an unqualified right to food for children when it notes: “Every child has the right to basic nutrition…” South Africa is also a signatory to regional and global human rights agreements guaranteeing the right to food. Litigation against the state to realise this right, specifically for children, was successfully engaged in by civil society organisations Equal Education and SECTION27 regarding the continuation of the much-needed National School Nutrition Programme.
In 2021, Unicef published a disturbing article, The slow violence of malnutrition in South Africa, which pointed out that despite South Africa being considered to be an upper-middle-class country, the stunting rate, a result of malnutrition, among children was 27%, which is double the global rate. Now, it cannot be said enough that the effects of stunting can be rather dire as they impede both physical and cognitive development which limit a child’s future as a fully functional and productive member of society. Since this mostly occurs in poor communities it often has the direct effect of trapping these children in a generational cycle of poverty.
Living in such desperate conditions has also, unsurprisingly, been found to have enduring mental health impacts on people. In a Daily Maverick article, Dr Luke Metelerkamp from ICLEI Africa explains that “a growing number of community activists are trying to raise the alarm about the links between chronic hunger and the mental health crisis in South Africa. This includes depression, suicide and gender-based violence.” Showing the multilayered impact that going without food has on people, making them physically and mentally unhealthy.
Read more in Daily Maverick: South Africa’s triple burden of disease — hunger and its hidden links to our mental health crisis
While the well-being of all who live in South Africa is mandated to the South African government, the inaccessibility of food to so many people has almost been normalised. In the acceptance that it is the fate of millions to go hungry, lies a loss of humanity and compassion. This issue is not new yet it stubbornly clings to our country’s agenda.
So what is the answer?
Activists have devised many proposals and plans to curb this issue, but is anybody listening? Among them is the DG Murray Trust which in June this year unveiled a proposal and campaign to “close the food gap” by calling on retailers, the government and manufacturers to lower the prices of 10 essential nutritional food items so that low- to no-income households can afford them. The items are eggs, dried beans and lentils, tinned fish, fortified maize meal, peanut butter, rice, amasi, soya mince, 4-in-1 soup mix and powdered full-cream milk. If the proposal is accepted and implemented it will make these items 30% cheaper, a significant reduction and an inroad towards curbing hunger.
If we are to forge a healthy and well-adjusted society we cannot afford to lose more time and, most importantly, people to the avoidable issue of hunger in the country. The data is there, the case for the alleviation of hunger has been made, the proposals from activists and civil society are there. All that remains is for those who preside over the levers of power to stop turning a blind eye and act within the best interests of the country. Hopefully then, in the near future World Food Day will be commemorated as a triumphant marker over the scourge of hunger. DM
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World Food Day – South Africa’s runaway hunger problem
The data is there, the case for the alleviation of hunger has been made, the proposals from activists and civil society are there. All that remains is for those who preside over the levers of power to stop turning a blind eye and act within the best interests of the country.
Imagine being a mother of three and not knowing what to feed your children or yourself because you are unemployed and have no means to provide for your family. Desperate, you turn to killing your children and yourself to stop the gnawing and dehumanising hunger. This is the tragedy that befell the Buso family in rural Eastern Cape, in August this year, prompting the leader of humanitarian relief organisation Gift of the Givers, Dr Imtiaz Sooliman, to say: “Hunger is an insidious psychological, emotional and physical pain consuming parents as they lose hope and watch in anguish how their children and families waste away.”
One in 10 South Africans goes hungry every day, which means in our population of 62 million about 12 million are hungry. What is even more worrying is that hunger is disproportionately affecting children – they make up eight million of this number. Hunger is linked to many societal challenges, chief among them poverty and unemployment. With South Africa’s unemployment at 32.9% and 55% of the population living in poverty, it is unsurprising that so many people go to bed hungry.
Yet, section 27 (1) (b) of the Constitution says: “Everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water…” and Section 28 (1) (c) gives an unqualified right to food for children when it notes: “Every child has the right to basic nutrition…” South Africa is also a signatory to regional and global human rights agreements guaranteeing the right to food. Litigation against the state to realise this right, specifically for children, was successfully engaged in by civil society organisations Equal Education and SECTION27 regarding the continuation of the much-needed National School Nutrition Programme.
In 2021, Unicef published a disturbing article, The slow violence of malnutrition in South Africa, which pointed out that despite South Africa being considered to be an upper-middle-class country, the stunting rate, a result of malnutrition, among children was 27%, which is double the global rate. Now, it cannot be said enough that the
|
effects of stunting can be rather dire as they impede both physical and cognitive development which limit a child’s future as a fully functional and productive member of society. Since this mostly occurs in poor communities it often has the direct effect of trapping these children in a generational cycle of poverty.
Living in such desperate conditions has also, unsurprisingly, been found to have enduring mental health impacts on people. In a Daily Maverick article, Dr Luke Metelerkamp from ICLEI Africa explains that “a growing number of community activists are trying to raise the alarm about the links between chronic hunger and the mental health crisis in South Africa. This includes depression, suicide and gender-based violence.” Showing the multilayered impact that going without food has on people, making them physically and mentally unhealthy.
Read more in Daily Maverick: South Africa’s triple burden of disease — hunger and its hidden links to our mental health crisis
While the well-being of all who live in South Africa is mandated to the South African government, the inaccessibility of food to so many people has almost been normalised. In the acceptance that it is the fate of millions to go hungry, lies a loss of humanity and compassion. This issue is not new yet it stubbornly clings to our country’s agenda.
So what is the answer?
Activists have devised many proposals and plans to curb this issue, but is anybody listening? Among them is the DG Murray Trust which in June this year unveiled a proposal and campaign to “close the food gap” by calling on retailers, the government and manufacturers to lower the prices of 10 essential nutritional food items so that low- to no-income households can afford them. The items are eggs, dried beans and lentils, tinned fish, fortified maize meal, peanut butter, rice, amasi, soya mince, 4-in-1 soup mix and powdered full-cream milk. If the proposal is accepted and implemented it will make these items 30% cheaper, a significant reduction and an inroad towards curbing hunger.
If we are to forge a healthy and well-adjusted society we cannot afford to lose more time and, most importantly, people to the avoidable issue of hunger in the country. The data is there, the case for the alleviation of hunger has been made, the proposals from activists and civil society are there. All that remains is for those who preside over the levers of power to stop turning a blind eye and act within the best interests of the country. Hopefully then, in the near future World Food Day will be commemorated as a triumphant marker over the scourge of hunger. DM
|
Recent heavy snow is crucial to the Colorado River but it's not a drought ender
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
California has been hit by a series of storms in recent weeks that's caused at least 20 deaths and lots of damage. But the wet weather out West is also responsible for a deep snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, which might be good for the Colorado River because the snow could boost depleted reservoirs. The thing is, it won't be enough to undo the impacts of a long-running drought. From member station KUNC, Alex Hager reports.
ALEX HAGER, BYLINE: The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing, and high in the mountains of Colorado, the ski slopes are getting busy.
BILL PHILLIPS: To be schmaltzy, it's heavenly. It's a heavenly day of skiing.
HAGER: Bill Phillips stands at the top of a lift at Snowmass Ski Area near Aspen, where the flakes are piling up.
PHILLIPS: It's a fabulous year. And we've had regular snow. It's not just huge dumps, but regular, really nice, powder, fluffy snow to ski in.
HAGER: All of that powder is crucial for the Colorado River. Two-thirds of its water starts as snow in Colorado. This year, with totals well above average, spring snowmelt could help refill lakes Powell and Mead, the nation's largest reservoirs.
But Brad Udall, a climate researcher at Colorado State University, cautions against getting too excited.
BRAD UDALL: Everybody is so eager to make an early call on this. And invariably, you'll get caught with your pants down if you think you know what's going to happen.
HAGER: The Colorado River Basin has experienced more than two decades of megadrought. Udall says climate change is making this whole region drier. And even with snow totals at 130% of average, it would take more than one year of deep powder to make a real dent.
UDALL: We would need five or six years at 150% snowpack to refill these reservoirs, and that is extremely unlikely.
HAGER: Udall says warmer temperatures have already cut into the amount of snow that melts into the Colorado River. Since 1970, temperatures in the region have gone up by 3 degrees Fahrenheit. And on top of that, abnormally dry soil soaks up water before it can reach the places where people divert and collect it.
UDALL: I mean, we need to continue to plan for the worst year. That's what we've seen the last 23 years. That's what these warming temperatures continue to tell us. We have to plan for the worst.
HAGER: But planning has gotten a lot harder lately. Cynthia Campbell knows this firsthand. She's a water management adviser with the city of Phoenix. The fifth largest city in the country gets more than a third of its water from the Colorado River. Lately, she's been keeping closer track of the high-altitude snow.
CYNTHIA CAMPBELL: Our worst-case scenario, from our perspective, is that we have to be in the habit of annually looking to the mountains to see, what is the precipitation?
HAGER: Campbell says reservoirs provide a buffer against the fluctuation of dry years and wet years. But with those reserves shrinking, cities around the Southwest can only plan a year at a time.
CAMPBELL: That's just not enough time to make changes that you would have to make. But that is where we are. And so in some ways we're living - is it the worst nightmare? Might be.
HAGER: Seven states use water from the Colorado River, including Colorado, Utah and California. They've struggled to reduce their demand, threatening water for crops and hydropower that supplies electricity to millions. States can't agree on a plan to significantly cut back on use, so big water users are trying to stretch the supplies they already have.
Adel Hagekhalil runs the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which stretches from north of Los Angeles all the way past San Diego.
ADEL HAGEKHALIL: One storm is not going to change the game. Whether we get a wet year or not, we need to continue to focus on building the infrastructure we need to create local water supply.
HAGER: Hagekhalil is talking about programs to reuse existing water - cleaning up sewage to make it drinkable, capturing stormwater and incentivizing cutbacks to home water use. That's all to help provide insurance for the 19 million people whose taps draw from this system.
HAGEKHALIL: We have to be ready, and it will be on us if we're going to take the right actions today to invest and build the necessary infrastructure.
HAGER: And as climate change keeps shrinking the snow that supplies water to people and farms across the Southwest, the need to adapt is only getting bigger.
For NPR News, I'm Alex Hager in Snowmass Village, Colo.
(SOUNDBITE OF STAN FOREBEE'S "RUBY HILL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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Recent heavy snow is crucial to the Colorado River but it's not a drought ender
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
California has been hit by a series of storms in recent weeks that's caused at least 20 deaths and lots of damage. But the wet weather out West is also responsible for a deep snowpack in the Rocky Mountains, which might be good for the Colorado River because the snow could boost depleted reservoirs. The thing is, it won't be enough to undo the impacts of a long-running drought. From member station KUNC, Alex Hager reports.
ALEX HAGER, BYLINE: The snow is snowing, the wind is blowing, and high in the mountains of Colorado, the ski slopes are getting busy.
BILL PHILLIPS: To be schmaltzy, it's heavenly. It's a heavenly day of skiing.
HAGER: Bill Phillips stands at the top of a lift at Snowmass Ski Area near Aspen, where the flakes are piling up.
PHILLIPS: It's a fabulous year. And we've had regular snow. It's not just huge dumps, but regular, really nice, powder, fluffy snow to ski in.
HAGER: All of that powder is crucial for the Colorado River. Two-thirds of its water starts as snow in Colorado. This year, with totals well above average, spring snowmelt could help refill lakes Powell and Mead, the nation's largest reservoirs.
But Brad Udall, a climate researcher at Colorado State University, cautions against getting too excited.
BRAD UDALL: Everybody is so eager to make an early call on this. And invariably, you'll get caught with your pants down if you think you know what's going to happen.
HAGER: The Colorado River Basin has experienced more than two decades of megadrought. Udall says climate change is making this whole region drier. And even with snow totals at 130% of average, it would take more than one year of deep powder to make a real dent.
UDALL: We would need five or six years at 150% snowpack to refill these reservoirs, and that is extremely unlikely.
HAGER: Udall says warmer temperatures have already cut into the amount of snow that melts into the Colorado River. Since 1970, temperatures in the region have gone up by 3 degrees Fahrenheit. And on top of that, abnormally
|
dry soil soaks up water before it can reach the places where people divert and collect it.
UDALL: I mean, we need to continue to plan for the worst year. That's what we've seen the last 23 years. That's what these warming temperatures continue to tell us. We have to plan for the worst.
HAGER: But planning has gotten a lot harder lately. Cynthia Campbell knows this firsthand. She's a water management adviser with the city of Phoenix. The fifth largest city in the country gets more than a third of its water from the Colorado River. Lately, she's been keeping closer track of the high-altitude snow.
CYNTHIA CAMPBELL: Our worst-case scenario, from our perspective, is that we have to be in the habit of annually looking to the mountains to see, what is the precipitation?
HAGER: Campbell says reservoirs provide a buffer against the fluctuation of dry years and wet years. But with those reserves shrinking, cities around the Southwest can only plan a year at a time.
CAMPBELL: That's just not enough time to make changes that you would have to make. But that is where we are. And so in some ways we're living - is it the worst nightmare? Might be.
HAGER: Seven states use water from the Colorado River, including Colorado, Utah and California. They've struggled to reduce their demand, threatening water for crops and hydropower that supplies electricity to millions. States can't agree on a plan to significantly cut back on use, so big water users are trying to stretch the supplies they already have.
Adel Hagekhalil runs the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which stretches from north of Los Angeles all the way past San Diego.
ADEL HAGEKHALIL: One storm is not going to change the game. Whether we get a wet year or not, we need to continue to focus on building the infrastructure we need to create local water supply.
HAGER: Hagekhalil is talking about programs to reuse existing water - cleaning up sewage to make it drinkable, capturing stormwater and incentivizing cutbacks to home water use. That's all to help provide insurance for the 19 million people whose taps draw from this system.
HAGEKHALIL: We have to be ready, and it will be on us if we're going to take the right actions today to invest and build the necessary infrastructure.
HAGER: And as climate change keeps shrinking the snow that supplies water to people and farms across the Southwest, the need to adapt is only getting bigger.
For NPR News, I'm Alex Hager in Snowmass Village, Colo.
(SOUNDBITE OF STAN FOREBEE'S "RUBY HILL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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Elaine Harris Spearman Commentary: Challenger Center a chance to change state's future
“Without Walt Cunningham, there would be no moon landing.” So says Buzz Aldrin, the lunar module pilot for the Apollo 11 mission, the first in which men walked on the moon.
His dear friend died at the age of 90 on Jan. 3, and was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission.
Cunningham was part of the Apollo 1 accident review board and helped redesign the Apollo capsule following the tragic fire in 1967 that killed three astronauts.
Aldrin talked about how he and Cunningham got into the NASA astronauts' program in an article for the Washington Post.
Cunningham was studying physics, engineering and working hard. His hallmark was gratitude and keeping his ego in check. He suggested design changes, rethought the Apollo capsule’s environmental control system and re-engineered the spacecraft for safety.
The Walt Cunninghams and Buzz Aldrins may be sitting in today’s classrooms across a large swath of Northeast Alabama.
The proposed North Alabama Challenger Learning Center, for which a task force is trying to marshal support and funds to locate in Gadsden, offers an exciting opportunity to change this state's future.
Two human dynamos are the tailwinds for the proposed center that will offer opportunities to prepare the workforce for current and future businesses in Northeast Alabama.
Martha Lavender and Theresa Rhea’s unwavering commitment to locating the Challenger Center in Gadsden is at the heart of this great possibility. There are others involved on the task force; all are committed to excellence in education and the development of opportunities for young people.
What is a Challenger Learning Center? It is a simulated, fully immersive space themed STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) center. It uses space-themed simulated learning and role-playing strategies developed by NASA to help students bring their classroom studies to life and cultivate skills needed for future success such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, teamwork and collaboration.
It helps shift self-identity from “I don’t like science,” to “I like science, I can do science and I want to learn more about science.”
The program will impact fifth- through eighth-grade students in Northeast Alabama. The Gadsden “base camp” area includes Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Dekalb, Etowah, Marshall and St. Clair counties. The Northeast Alabama school population for grades 5-12 is more than 62,000 students.
There have been meetings and presentations since late 2022. District representatives, legislators, school superintendents, area mayors, Gov. Kay Ivey and her staff and critical stakeholders have all been involved in coordinated presentations.
John Langlois, Riverview CEO, actually participated in a Challenger Center program and gave participants a first-hand view.
The closest Challenger Center is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Many task force members made a fall trip for a hands-on presentation and tour. The excitement was palpable.
The first Challenger Center opened in 1988. The whole idea rests on equity in education and leveling the playing field.
We rarely hear young people making career choices of scientist, astronaut, technological advancement or mathematically related fields.
While all career choices have benefits and burdens, the jobs of the future appear to dictate a STEM education for young people to be successful.
Recruitment of business and industry to Alabama requires a prepared workforce, and a future pool of high school and college graduates ready to enter the workforce with the necessary skills for industry and business.
There is more to come as the Challenger Center project continues to develop and funding sources become more tangible.
Elaine Harris Spearman, Esq., a Gadsden native, is an attorney and is the retired legal advisor to the comptroller of the City of St. Louis. The opinions reflected are her own.
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Elaine Harris Spearman Commentary: Challenger Center a chance to change state's future
“Without Walt Cunningham, there would be no moon landing.” So says Buzz Aldrin, the lunar module pilot for the Apollo 11 mission, the first in which men walked on the moon.
His dear friend died at the age of 90 on Jan. 3, and was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 7, the first successful manned Apollo mission.
Cunningham was part of the Apollo 1 accident review board and helped redesign the Apollo capsule following the tragic fire in 1967 that killed three astronauts.
Aldrin talked about how he and Cunningham got into the NASA astronauts' program in an article for the Washington Post.
Cunningham was studying physics, engineering and working hard. His hallmark was gratitude and keeping his ego in check. He suggested design changes, rethought the Apollo capsule’s environmental control system and re-engineered the spacecraft for safety.
The Walt Cunninghams and Buzz Aldrins may be sitting in today’s classrooms across a large swath of Northeast Alabama.
The proposed North Alabama Challenger Learning Center, for which a task force is trying to marshal support and funds to locate in Gadsden, offers an exciting opportunity to change this state's future.
Two human dynamos are the tailwinds for the proposed center that will offer opportunities to prepare the workforce for current and future businesses in Northeast Alabama.
Martha Lavender and Theresa Rhea’s unwavering commitment to locating the Challenger Center in Gadsden is at the heart of this great possibility. There are others involved on the task force; all are committed to excellence in education and the development of opportunities for young people.
What is a Challenger Learning Center? It is a simulated, fully immersive space themed STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) center. It uses space-themed simulated learning and role-playing strategies developed by NASA to help students bring their classroom studies to life and cultivate skills needed for future success such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, teamwork and collaboration.
It helps shift self-identity from “I don’t like science,” to “I like science, I can do science and I want to learn more about science.”
The program will impact fifth- through eighth-grade students in Northeast Alabama. The Gadsden “base camp” area includes Blount, Calhoun, Cherokee, Dekalb, Etowah, Marshall and St. Clair counties. The Northeast
|
Alabama school population for grades 5-12 is more than 62,000 students.
There have been meetings and presentations since late 2022. District representatives, legislators, school superintendents, area mayors, Gov. Kay Ivey and her staff and critical stakeholders have all been involved in coordinated presentations.
John Langlois, Riverview CEO, actually participated in a Challenger Center program and gave participants a first-hand view.
The closest Challenger Center is located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Many task force members made a fall trip for a hands-on presentation and tour. The excitement was palpable.
The first Challenger Center opened in 1988. The whole idea rests on equity in education and leveling the playing field.
We rarely hear young people making career choices of scientist, astronaut, technological advancement or mathematically related fields.
While all career choices have benefits and burdens, the jobs of the future appear to dictate a STEM education for young people to be successful.
Recruitment of business and industry to Alabama requires a prepared workforce, and a future pool of high school and college graduates ready to enter the workforce with the necessary skills for industry and business.
There is more to come as the Challenger Center project continues to develop and funding sources become more tangible.
Elaine Harris Spearman, Esq., a Gadsden native, is an attorney and is the retired legal advisor to the comptroller of the City of St. Louis. The opinions reflected are her own.
|
In the nineteen-sixties, Joseph Weizenbaum, a computer scientist at M.I.T., created a computer program called Eliza. It was designed to simulate Rogerian therapy, in which the patient directs the conversation and the therapist often repeats her language back to her:
Weizenbaum made Eliza as satire. He doubted that computers could simulate meaningful human interaction. He was alarmed, therefore, when many people who tried the program found it both useful and captivating. His own secretary asked him to leave the room so that she could spend time alone with Eliza. Worse, doctors saw it as a potentially transformative tool. “Several hundred patients an hour could be handled by a computer system designed for this purpose,” three psychiatrists wrote in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, in 1966. “The human therapist, involved in the design and operation of this system, would not be replaced, but would become a much more efficient man since his efforts would no longer be limited to the one-to-one patient-therapist ratio as now exists.”
Weizenbaum became an outspoken critic of artificial intelligence. “But the genie was out of the bottle,” Brian Christian, who chronicled the episode in his book “The Most Human Human,” told me. A few years later, a Stanford psychiatrist named Kenneth Colby created Parry, a program that attempted to simulate the language of a person with paranoid schizophrenia, to train students before they cared for real patients. Psychiatrists given transcripts of therapy sessions often couldn’t tell the difference between Parry and humans; in this narrow sense, the chatbot passed the Turing test. In 1972, Parry and Eliza met up for a therapy session:
Over time, programmers developed Jabberwacky, Dr. Sbaitso, and Alice (the Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity). Exchanges with these chatbots were often engaging, sometimes comical, and occasionally nonsensical. But the idea that computers could serve as human confidants, expanding therapy’s reach beyond the limits of its overworked practitioners, persisted through the decades.
In 2017, Alison Darcy, a clinical research psychologist at Stanford, founded Woebot, a company that provides automated mental-health support through a smartphone app. Its approach is based on cognitive behavioral therapy, or C.B.T.—a treatment that aims to change patterns in people’s thinking. The app uses a form of artificial intelligence called natural language processing to interpret what users say, guiding them through sequences of pre-written responses that spur them to consider how their minds could work differently. When Darcy was in graduate school, she treated dozens of hospitalized patients using C.B.T.; many experienced striking improvements but relapsed after they left the hospital. C.B.T. is “best done in small quantities over and over and over again,” she told me. In the analog world, that sort of consistent, ongoing care is hard to find: more than half of U.S. counties don’t have a single psychiatrist, and, last year, a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association found that sixty per cent of mental-health practitioners don’t have openings for new patients. “No therapist can be there with you all day, every day,” Darcy said. Although the company employs only about a hundred people, it has counselled nearly a million and a half, the majority of whom live in areas with a shortage of mental-health providers.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text TALK to 741741.
Maria, a hospice nurse who lives near Milwaukee with her husband and two teen-age children, might be a typical Woebot user. She has long struggled with anxiety and depression, but had not sought help before. “I had a lot of denial,” she told me. This changed during the pandemic, when her daughter started showing signs of depression, too. Maria took her to see a psychologist, and committed to prioritizing her own mental health. At first, she was skeptical about the idea of conversing with an app—as a caregiver, she felt strongly that human connection was essential for healing. Still, after a challenging visit with a patient, when she couldn’t stop thinking about what she might have done differently, she texted Woebot. “It sounds like you might be ruminating,” Woebot told her. It defined the concept: rumination means circling back to the same negative thoughts over and over. “Does that sound right?” it asked. “Would you like to try a breathing technique?”
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In the nineteen-sixties, Joseph Weizenbaum, a computer scientist at M.I.T., created a computer program called Eliza. It was designed to simulate Rogerian therapy, in which the patient directs the conversation and the therapist often repeats her language back to her:
Weizenbaum made Eliza as satire. He doubted that computers could simulate meaningful human interaction. He was alarmed, therefore, when many people who tried the program found it both useful and captivating. His own secretary asked him to leave the room so that she could spend time alone with Eliza. Worse, doctors saw it as a potentially transformative tool. “Several hundred patients an hour could be handled by a computer system designed for this purpose,” three psychiatrists wrote in The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, in 1966. “The human therapist, involved in the design and operation of this system, would not be replaced, but would become a much more efficient man since his efforts would no longer be limited to the one-to-one patient-therapist ratio as now exists.”
Weizenbaum became an outspoken critic of artificial intelligence. “But the genie was out of the bottle,” Brian Christian, who chronicled the episode in his book “The Most Human Human,” told me. A few years later, a Stanford psychiatrist named Kenneth Colby created Parry, a program that attempted to simulate the language of a person with paranoid schizophrenia, to train students before they cared for real patients. Psychiatrists given transcripts of therapy sessions often couldn’t tell the difference between Parry and humans; in this narrow sense, the chatbot passed the Turing test. In 1972, Parry and Eliza met up for a therapy session:
Over time, programmers developed Jabberwacky, Dr. Sbaitso, and Alice (the Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity). Exchanges with these chatbots were often engaging, sometimes comical, and occasionally nonsensical. But the idea that computers could serve as human confidants, expanding therapy’s reach beyond the limits of its overworked practitioners, persisted through the decades.
In 2017, Alison Darcy, a clinical research psychologist at Stanford, founded Woebot, a company that provides automated mental-health support through a smartphone app. Its approach is based on cognitive behavioral therapy, or C.B.T.—a treatment that aims to change patterns in people’s thinking. The app uses a form of artificial intelligence called natural language processing to interpret what
|
users say, guiding them through sequences of pre-written responses that spur them to consider how their minds could work differently. When Darcy was in graduate school, she treated dozens of hospitalized patients using C.B.T.; many experienced striking improvements but relapsed after they left the hospital. C.B.T. is “best done in small quantities over and over and over again,” she told me. In the analog world, that sort of consistent, ongoing care is hard to find: more than half of U.S. counties don’t have a single psychiatrist, and, last year, a survey conducted by the American Psychological Association found that sixty per cent of mental-health practitioners don’t have openings for new patients. “No therapist can be there with you all day, every day,” Darcy said. Although the company employs only about a hundred people, it has counselled nearly a million and a half, the majority of whom live in areas with a shortage of mental-health providers.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or text TALK to 741741.
Maria, a hospice nurse who lives near Milwaukee with her husband and two teen-age children, might be a typical Woebot user. She has long struggled with anxiety and depression, but had not sought help before. “I had a lot of denial,” she told me. This changed during the pandemic, when her daughter started showing signs of depression, too. Maria took her to see a psychologist, and committed to prioritizing her own mental health. At first, she was skeptical about the idea of conversing with an app—as a caregiver, she felt strongly that human connection was essential for healing. Still, after a challenging visit with a patient, when she couldn’t stop thinking about what she might have done differently, she texted Woebot. “It sounds like you might be ruminating,” Woebot told her. It defined the concept: rumination means circling back to the same negative thoughts over and over. “Does that sound right?” it asked. “Would you like to try a breathing technique?”
|
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – It’s just after daybreak on Fort Lauderdale Beach and Local 10 News’ Louis Aguirre is riding with a crew from Broward County’s Sea Turtle Conservation Program at Nova Southeastern University.
“We’ve had a record setting season so far this year,” said program director and research scientist Dr. Dereck Burkholder. “It’s been it’s been a fantastic year.”
The group was checking in on the nests that have been laid along the shore over the past couple of months.
“In over 30 years of monitoring in Broward County beaches, we’ve already shattered our number of nests for all three species: leatherbacks, green turtles and loggerheads,” said Burkholder.
There has been an increase of 1,200 nests so far this year.
Against all odds, sea turtles are having a very good summer on South Florida beaches.
“We’ve seen about 4,200 nests,” said Burkholder. “And we’re still getting nests each day. That’s a fantastic number.”
One of the nests the group visited had hatched three days prior.
The team went in to excavate it to see how well it faired. Out of 95 eggs, 68 hatched.
A total of 18 baby loggerheads were still in the egg chamber. Though the majority of hatchlings had already left, those needed an extra boast to go on their way.
“We usually are going to find a few hatchlings that maybe didn’t make it out with everybody else, whether they were a little bit tired,” Burkholder said. “Maybe they got stuck.”
Since they were found before 9 a.m., Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rules allows them released to the sea, otherwise they’d have to be held and wait until nightfall to avoid them becoming prey to crabs and seabirds.
“It’s estimated that one out of every 1,000 turtles that leave the beach will make it to adulthood,” Burkholder said.
Many species of sea turtles are threatened or endangered, so the monitoring program is highly regulated by the state, which is why the video from the nest sites must, by law, be stamped with the ID of the team they were working with.
“Sea turtles face a wide variety of threats,” said Burkholder. “Once they get into the water, seabirds, fish, sharks. Unfortunately, everything else they deal with is our fault.”
Right now, scientists are closely monitoring rising global temperatures. The whole world is in the throes of the hottest summer ever recorded on the planet, bleaching our coral reefs and impacting the future of the tiny turtle hatchlings.
“For sea turtles in general, they’re the sex of the hatchlings is actually determined by the temperature of the sand that they’re incubating in,” said Burkholder.
According to a recent NOAA study, if temperatures of the sand stay below 81.86 degrees Fahrenheit, the hatchlings will be born male, but anything above 88.8 degrees means they’ll be born female.
Sand temperatures between those two ranges means a mix of genders and is essential for the survival of the species.
“That’s going to be one of those things that we’re going to have to figure out as time goes on,” said Burkholder. “Right now, we’re seeing potentially as much as 100% of our hatchlings, at least at certain times of the year, that are leaving South Florida beaches are female.”
But if the planet gets any hotter, the future for all hatchlings is in jeopardy.
“As things get too warm, and it can reach a critical temperature where the eggs will not survive,” said Burkholder.
And it’s not just climate change. Some oceanfront properties still are not complying with state law mandating sea turtle friendly lighting and instead continue to endanger baby sea turtles, who become disoriented in bright light and wander into danger.
“And so we really asked people to implement turtle-friendly lighting in their homes, their businesses, which is low to the ground, it’s shielded, and it’s long wavelength amber or red LED as best,” said Stephanie Roche, Environmental Project Coordinator with Broward County’s Natural Resources Division.
To give the hatchlings a fighting chance, strictly-monitored cages have been installed over nests near properties that still don’t comply, so that teams can safely release the baby turtles when it’s safe.
This season, they’ve had to install about 90 cages because not everybody is playing by the rules and installing sea turtle friendly lighting.
There’s been a vast improvement, but there’s still a long way to go.
“We also want people to remember their interior lights too, because that can be just as visible to the turtles on the beach as your exterior lighting,” said Roche.
But perhaps the biggest threat continues to be pollution and our obsessive addiction to plastic and balloons.
“Some of our species of sea turtles are eating jellyfish,” said Burkholder. “So that plastic bag looks just like a jellyfish in the water.”
“So they’ll go up they’ll munch on it,” added Abby Evans, Project Manager and Permit Holder for the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program. “They ingest it and then it just gets caught up inside of them and they’ll eventually die.”
The deck is stacked against our sea turtles, and that’s why the team is so dedicated to the mission.
From March to the end of October, rain or shine, they’re out there protecting the turtles that are left, making sure the keystone species survives for generations to come.
“The best part of the job is getting to see all the hatchlings and knowing that you are helping them as best as you can,” said Evans. “It’s really great. They are adorable. That never gets old.”
The most important thing we can do to help our sea turtles out is to leave the beach as clean and as natural as we found it.
Don’t leave holes in the sand, level your sand castles before you go home, and please don’t litter. Throw out your trash or take it home with you, and no more balloon releases. What goes up, must come down.
Also, sea turtles are protected, so if you see them, enjoy them from a safe distance. Please let them do their thing.
It is illegal to touch them or harass them or disturb their nests in any way.
The Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program at Nova Southeastern University does monitor a 24 hour, 365 day hotline, so if you ever see a sick, dead or injured sea turtle, please give them a call at 954-328-0580.
|
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FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – It’s just after daybreak on Fort Lauderdale Beach and Local 10 News’ Louis Aguirre is riding with a crew from Broward County’s Sea Turtle Conservation Program at Nova Southeastern University.
“We’ve had a record setting season so far this year,” said program director and research scientist Dr. Dereck Burkholder. “It’s been it’s been a fantastic year.”
The group was checking in on the nests that have been laid along the shore over the past couple of months.
“In over 30 years of monitoring in Broward County beaches, we’ve already shattered our number of nests for all three species: leatherbacks, green turtles and loggerheads,” said Burkholder.
There has been an increase of 1,200 nests so far this year.
Against all odds, sea turtles are having a very good summer on South Florida beaches.
“We’ve seen about 4,200 nests,” said Burkholder. “And we’re still getting nests each day. That’s a fantastic number.”
One of the nests the group visited had hatched three days prior.
The team went in to excavate it to see how well it faired. Out of 95 eggs, 68 hatched.
A total of 18 baby loggerheads were still in the egg chamber. Though the majority of hatchlings had already left, those needed an extra boast to go on their way.
“We usually are going to find a few hatchlings that maybe didn’t make it out with everybody else, whether they were a little bit tired,” Burkholder said. “Maybe they got stuck.”
Since they were found before 9 a.m., Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rules allows them released to the sea, otherwise they’d have to be held and wait until nightfall to avoid them becoming prey to crabs and seabirds.
“It’s estimated that one out of every 1,000 turtles that leave the beach will make it to adulthood,” Burkholder said.
Many species of sea turtles are threatened or endangered, so the monitoring program is highly regulated by the state, which is why the video from the nest sites must, by law, be stamped with the ID of the team they were working with.
“Sea turtles face a wide variety of threats,” said Burkholder. “Once they get into the water, seabirds, fish, sharks. Unfortunately, everything else they deal with
|
is our fault.”
Right now, scientists are closely monitoring rising global temperatures. The whole world is in the throes of the hottest summer ever recorded on the planet, bleaching our coral reefs and impacting the future of the tiny turtle hatchlings.
“For sea turtles in general, they’re the sex of the hatchlings is actually determined by the temperature of the sand that they’re incubating in,” said Burkholder.
According to a recent NOAA study, if temperatures of the sand stay below 81.86 degrees Fahrenheit, the hatchlings will be born male, but anything above 88.8 degrees means they’ll be born female.
Sand temperatures between those two ranges means a mix of genders and is essential for the survival of the species.
“That’s going to be one of those things that we’re going to have to figure out as time goes on,” said Burkholder. “Right now, we’re seeing potentially as much as 100% of our hatchlings, at least at certain times of the year, that are leaving South Florida beaches are female.”
But if the planet gets any hotter, the future for all hatchlings is in jeopardy.
“As things get too warm, and it can reach a critical temperature where the eggs will not survive,” said Burkholder.
And it’s not just climate change. Some oceanfront properties still are not complying with state law mandating sea turtle friendly lighting and instead continue to endanger baby sea turtles, who become disoriented in bright light and wander into danger.
“And so we really asked people to implement turtle-friendly lighting in their homes, their businesses, which is low to the ground, it’s shielded, and it’s long wavelength amber or red LED as best,” said Stephanie Roche, Environmental Project Coordinator with Broward County’s Natural Resources Division.
To give the hatchlings a fighting chance, strictly-monitored cages have been installed over nests near properties that still don’t comply, so that teams can safely release the baby turtles when it’s safe.
This season, they’ve had to install about 90 cages because not everybody is playing by the rules and installing sea turtle friendly lighting.
There’s been a vast improvement, but there’s still a long way to go.
“We also want people to remember their interior lights too, because that can be just as visible to the turtles on the beach as your exterior lighting,” said Roche.
But perhaps the biggest threat continues to be pollution and our obsessive addiction to plastic and balloons.
“Some of our species of sea turtles are eating jellyfish,” said Burkholder. “So that plastic bag looks just like a jellyfish in the water.”
“So they’ll go up they’ll munch on it,” added Abby Evans, Project Manager and Permit Holder for the Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program. “They ingest it and then it just gets caught up inside of them and they’ll eventually die.”
The deck is stacked against our sea turtles, and that’s why the team is so dedicated to the mission.
From March to the end of October, rain or shine, they’re out there protecting the turtles that are left, making sure the keystone species survives for generations to come.
“The best part of the job is getting to see all the hatchlings and knowing that you are helping them as best as you can,” said Evans. “It’s really great. They are adorable. That never gets old.”
The most important thing we can do to help our sea turtles out is to leave the beach as clean and as natural as we found it.
Don’t leave holes in the sand, level your sand castles before you go home, and please don’t litter. Throw out your trash or take it home with you, and no more balloon releases. What goes up, must come down.
Also, sea turtles are protected, so if you see them, enjoy them from a safe distance. Please let them do their thing.
It is illegal to touch them or harass them or disturb their nests in any way.
The Broward County Sea Turtle Conservation Program at Nova Southeastern University does monitor a 24 hour, 365 day hotline, so if you ever see a sick, dead or injured sea turtle, please give them a call at 954-328-0580.
|
Editor’s note: Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
An international team of astrophysicists has discovered hundreds of mysterious structures in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
These one-dimensional cosmic threads are hundreds of horizontal or radial filaments — slender, elongated bodies of luminous gas that potentially originated a few million years ago when outflow from Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, interacted with surrounding materials, according to a study published Friday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The filaments are relatively short in length, each measuring 5 to 10 light-years.
The findings come nearly 40 years after Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, the study’s lead author, and other researchers discovered another population of nearly 1,000 one-dimensional filaments, which are vertical and much larger at up to 150 light-years long each, near the galaxy’s center. Yusef-Zadeh and collaborators also found hundreds more paired and clustered vertical filaments in the same area in 2022, realizing the filaments were likely related to Sagittarius A* activity rather than bursts of supernovae, which they had previously thought. The new study both reinforces and builds upon the earlier findings.
Finding the “new population of structures that seem to be pointing in the direction of the black hole” was a surprise, Yusef-Zadeh, a professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, said in a news release.
“I was actually stunned when I saw these. We had to do a lot of work to establish that we weren’t fooling ourselves,” added Yusef-Zadeh, who’s also a member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics. “We found that these filaments are not random but appear to be tied to the outflow of our black hole. … It is satisfying when one finds order in (the) middle of a chaotic field of the nucleus of our galaxy.”
The findings related to the black hole located about 26,000 light-years from Earth are “really exciting” and “demonstrate how beautiful the universe is,” said Erika Hamden, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona who wasn’t involved in the study.
Sagittarius A* “is the closest supermassive black hole to us, but it’s relatively quiet and therefore somewhat difficult to really study,” Hamden added. “But this work provides evidence that it was recently ejecting quite a lot of energy into space in the form of a jet and conical outflow.”
Learning more about the Milky Way
The researchers found the structures by analyzing images produced by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s MeerKAT telescope, which has 64 satellite dishes that are each 65 feet (nearly 20 meters) tall and connected across 5 miles (about 8 kilometers) of a sparsely populated area with minimal interference.
“The new MeerKAT observations have been a game changer,” Yusef-Zadeh said. “It’s really a technical achievement from radio astronomers.”
Despite the similarities between the newly discovered filaments and those identified in 1984, the authors of the new study don’t think the populations share exactly the same traits.
|
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Editor’s note: Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
An international team of astrophysicists has discovered hundreds of mysterious structures in the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
These one-dimensional cosmic threads are hundreds of horizontal or radial filaments — slender, elongated bodies of luminous gas that potentially originated a few million years ago when outflow from Sagittarius A*, the Milky Way’s central supermassive black hole, interacted with surrounding materials, according to a study published Friday in The Astrophysical Journal Letters. The filaments are relatively short in length, each measuring 5 to 10 light-years.
The findings come nearly 40 years after Farhad Yusef-Zadeh, the study’s lead author, and other researchers discovered another population of nearly 1,000 one-dimensional filaments, which are vertical and much larger at up to 150 light-years long each, near the galaxy’s center. Yusef-Zadeh and collaborators also found hundreds more paired and clustered vertical filaments in the same area in 2022, realizing the filaments were likely related to Sagittarius A* activity rather than bursts of supernovae, which they had previously thought. The new study both reinforces and builds upon the earlier findings.
Finding the “new population of structures that seem to be pointing in the direction of the black hole” was a surprise, Yusef-Zadeh, a professor of physics and astronomy at Northwestern University’s Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, said in a news release.
“I was actually stunned when I saw these. We had to do a lot of work to establish that we weren’t fooling ourselves,” added Yusef-Zadeh, who’s also a member of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics. “We found that these filaments are not random but appear to be tied to the outflow of our black hole. … It is satisfying when one finds order in (the) middle of a chaotic field of the nucleus of our galaxy.”
The findings related to the black hole located about 26,000 light-years from Earth are “really exciting” and “demonstrate how beautiful the universe is,” said Erika Hamden, an assistant professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona who wasn’t involved in the study.
Sagittarius A* “is the closest supermassive black hole to us, but it’s relatively quiet and therefore
|
somewhat difficult to really study,” Hamden added. “But this work provides evidence that it was recently ejecting quite a lot of energy into space in the form of a jet and conical outflow.”
Learning more about the Milky Way
The researchers found the structures by analyzing images produced by the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory’s MeerKAT telescope, which has 64 satellite dishes that are each 65 feet (nearly 20 meters) tall and connected across 5 miles (about 8 kilometers) of a sparsely populated area with minimal interference.
“The new MeerKAT observations have been a game changer,” Yusef-Zadeh said. “It’s really a technical achievement from radio astronomers.”
Despite the similarities between the newly discovered filaments and those identified in 1984, the authors of the new study don’t think the populations share exactly the same traits.
|
EVs are much heavier than gas vehicles, and that's posing safety problems
Vehicles are adding poundage as the auto industry goes electric — and that's problematic for traffic safety, parking garages and roads.
Why it matters: Gas vehicles are slowly giving way to electric vehicles as investors, regulators and consumers clamor for more environmentally sustainable transportation.
State of play: Electric vehicles can be anywhere from hundreds to thousands of pounds heavier than similarly sized gas vehicles because EV batteries are so much heavier than engines.
- For example, the 2023 GMC Hummer EV, a full-size pickup, weighs more than 9,000 pounds, sporting a 2,900-pound battery. In comparison, the 2023 GMC Sierra, also a full-size pickup, weighs less than 6,000 pounds, according to Kelley Blue Book.
- The average weight of U.S. vehicles has already increased from about 3,400 pounds to 4,300 pounds over the last 30 years as Americans have ditched passenger cars for pickups and SUVs, according to Evercore ISI analysts.
Threat level: Safety watchdogs are raising concerns after the recent deadly collapse of a parking garage in New York City called attention to the challenge of creaking infrastructure.
- Traffic safety is particularly concerning. In crashes, the "baseline fatality probability" increases 47% for every 1,000 additional pounds in the vehicle — and the fatality risk is even higher if the striking vehicle is a light truck (SUV, pickup truck, or minivan), according to a 2011 study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- "Since we’re seeing pedestrian and roadway fatalities at record levels, the introduction of more weight into crashes via EVs will complicate any attempts to reduce the ongoing fatality crisis that has showed no signs of abating," Center for Auto Safety acting executive director Michael Brooks tells Axios in an email.
Flashback: In a speech in January, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy praised the effort to reduce carbon emissions by switching to EVs but warned of the "unintended consequences" being "more death on our roads," the AP reported.
- While the Manhattan parking garage collapse in early April was not blamed on EVs, the disaster nonetheless underscored an issue of growing concern: whether aging roads and old garages can handle all the extra weight.
- Less than two weeks before the collapse, a British Parking Association official recommended that parking structures integrate higher load-bearing weights amid concerns about more EVs, the Telegraph reported.
The big question: Can automakers make batteries more energy-efficient so that they weigh less yet still pack a powerful punch?
- "Unless we see incredibly rapid advances in battery design and vehicle designs, and taking smart steps like using battery energy density gains to save weight rather than extend range, or opening the doors to battery swapping, we are likely to see many additional deaths and injuries attributable solely to the added weight of EV batteries," Brooks says.
|
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EVs are much heavier than gas vehicles, and that's posing safety problems
Vehicles are adding poundage as the auto industry goes electric — and that's problematic for traffic safety, parking garages and roads.
Why it matters: Gas vehicles are slowly giving way to electric vehicles as investors, regulators and consumers clamor for more environmentally sustainable transportation.
State of play: Electric vehicles can be anywhere from hundreds to thousands of pounds heavier than similarly sized gas vehicles because EV batteries are so much heavier than engines.
- For example, the 2023 GMC Hummer EV, a full-size pickup, weighs more than 9,000 pounds, sporting a 2,900-pound battery. In comparison, the 2023 GMC Sierra, also a full-size pickup, weighs less than 6,000 pounds, according to Kelley Blue Book.
- The average weight of U.S. vehicles has already increased from about 3,400 pounds to 4,300 pounds over the last 30 years as Americans have ditched passenger cars for pickups and SUVs, according to Evercore ISI analysts.
Threat level: Safety watchdogs are raising concerns after the recent deadly collapse of a parking garage in New York City called attention to the challenge of creaking infrastructure.
- Traffic safety is particularly concerning. In crashes, the "baseline fatality probability" increases 47% for every 1,000 additional pounds in the vehicle — and the fatality risk is even higher if the striking vehicle is a light truck (SUV, pickup truck, or minivan), according to a 2011 study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research.
- "Since we’re seeing pedestrian and roadway fatalities at record levels, the introduction of more weight into crashes via EVs will complicate any attempts to reduce the ongoing fatality crisis that has showed no signs of abating," Center for Auto Safety acting executive director Michael Brooks tells Axios in an email.
Flashback: In a speech in January, National Transportation Safety Board chair Jennifer Homendy praised the effort to reduce carbon emissions by switching to EVs but warned of the "unintended consequences" being "more death on our roads," the AP reported.
- While the Manhattan parking garage collapse in early April was not blamed on EVs, the disaster nonetheless underscored an issue of growing concern: whether aging roads and old garages can handle all the extra weight.
- Less
|
than two weeks before the collapse, a British Parking Association official recommended that parking structures integrate higher load-bearing weights amid concerns about more EVs, the Telegraph reported.
The big question: Can automakers make batteries more energy-efficient so that they weigh less yet still pack a powerful punch?
- "Unless we see incredibly rapid advances in battery design and vehicle designs, and taking smart steps like using battery energy density gains to save weight rather than extend range, or opening the doors to battery swapping, we are likely to see many additional deaths and injuries attributable solely to the added weight of EV batteries," Brooks says.
|
Get informed, take action during Cancer Prevention Month | Mark Mahoney
February is National Cancer Prevention Month. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America only surpassed by heart disease.
The American Cancer Society estimates for 2022 are that there will be an estimated 1.9 million new cancer cases diagnosed and 609,360 cancer deaths in the United States. (Note: Estimates for 2022 do not reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic because they are based on incidence and mortality data reported through 2018 and 2019, respectively.)
Heart health:Love your heart: February delivers strong message for health | Mark Mahoney
Walking:Walking into 2023: Reduce stress, expand life | Gregg Patterson
According to the American Association for Cancer Research, more than 40 percent of all cancers diagnosed and nearly half of all deaths from cancer in the United States can be attributed to preventable causes – things like smoking, excess body weight, physical inactivity, and excessive exposure to the sun.
Screening and 6 steps to reduce risk
You can lower your risk of getting many common kinds of cancer by making healthy choices. Screening tests can find some cancers early, when treatment works best. Vaccines (shots) can help prevent several kinds of cancer.
Here are six action steps to take to reduce your risk.
1. Maintain a healthy weight and active lifestyle
- Eat a plant based diet and decrease your intake of higher calorie food
- Overweight and obesity are associated with at least 13 types of cancer, including endometrial (uterine), breast, and colorectal cancer
- Limit processed meats and alcohol.
- Include at least 30 minutes of physical activity in your daily routine. Even better, strive for at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic physical activity.
2. Avoid smoking and tobacco products
- Smoking and secondhand smoke cause 90% of lung cancer deaths in the United State
- All forms of tobacco products have many chemicals that damage DNA and cause cancer
- No forms are safe including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco/snuff, hookas/waterpipes, and even secondhand smoke.
- The use of tobacco products is linked to cancers of the larynx, mouth and throat, esophagus, urinary bladder, kidney, pancreas, cervix, colon, rectum, liver, and stomach.
- If you need help quitting tobacco, ask your qualified health professional about products and strategies available to support you. Support in Florida is available at tobaccofreeflorida.com.
3. Protect your skin (and eyes) from the sun
- Stay out of the sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to the extent possible.
- Generously use sunscreen, cover exposed areas with hats or loose clothing, and utilize shady areas when outdoors.
- Avoid tanning beds and sun lamps
- Skin cancer is the most common and preventable cancer in the United States.
- Use appropriate protective eyewear for your eyes when outdoors in the sun.
4. Get vaccinated against infectious diseases
- Certain viruses can cause cancer. There are vaccines that have been proven to be effective to reduce your risk.
- The Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine can significantly decrease the risk of several cancers including cervical, throat, tongue, anal, and other genital cancers.
- The Hepatitis B vaccine decreases the risk for liver cancer.
5. Get regular cancer screenings
- Regular screenings help detect cancers early and maximize your chance for successful treatment.
- Check out the American Cancer Society’s (ACS’s) cancer screening guidelines by age. Go to: cancer.org.
6. Know your family history
- 5-10% of all cancers are inherited.
- Knowing your family health history can help you and your physician determine which screening tests are needed and when
- Understanding your family history can help guide your discussion with your physician of when and whether to consider genetic counseling.
Consider a cancer health check
The choices we make each day can help to reduce our risk of cancer. Check out the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) Cancer Health Check tool to w help you learn more about your choices and how you can stack the odds in your favor. Access the tool at aicr.org.
The National Cancer Institute provides a good patient-oriented cancer prevention overview at cancer.gov.
Mark A. Mahoney, Ph.D. has been a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist for over 35 years and completed graduate studies in Nutrition & Public Health at Columbia University. He can be reached at <email-pii>.
|
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Get informed, take action during Cancer Prevention Month | Mark Mahoney
February is National Cancer Prevention Month. Cancer is the second leading cause of death in America only surpassed by heart disease.
The American Cancer Society estimates for 2022 are that there will be an estimated 1.9 million new cancer cases diagnosed and 609,360 cancer deaths in the United States. (Note: Estimates for 2022 do not reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic because they are based on incidence and mortality data reported through 2018 and 2019, respectively.)
Heart health:Love your heart: February delivers strong message for health | Mark Mahoney
Walking:Walking into 2023: Reduce stress, expand life | Gregg Patterson
According to the American Association for Cancer Research, more than 40 percent of all cancers diagnosed and nearly half of all deaths from cancer in the United States can be attributed to preventable causes – things like smoking, excess body weight, physical inactivity, and excessive exposure to the sun.
Screening and 6 steps to reduce risk
You can lower your risk of getting many common kinds of cancer by making healthy choices. Screening tests can find some cancers early, when treatment works best. Vaccines (shots) can help prevent several kinds of cancer.
Here are six action steps to take to reduce your risk.
1. Maintain a healthy weight and active lifestyle
- Eat a plant based diet and decrease your intake of higher calorie food
- Overweight and obesity are associated with at least 13 types of cancer, including endometrial (uterine), breast, and colorectal cancer
- Limit processed meats and alcohol.
- Include at least 30 minutes of physical activity in your daily routine. Even better, strive for at least 150 minutes a week of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous aerobic physical activity.
2. Avoid smoking and tobacco products
- Smoking and secondhand smoke cause 90% of lung cancer deaths in the United State
- All forms of tobacco products have many chemicals that damage DNA and cause cancer
- No forms are safe including cigarettes, e-cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco/snuff, hookas/waterpipes, and even secondhand smoke.
- The use of tobacco products is linked to cancers of the larynx, mouth and throat, esophagus, urinary bladder, kidney, pancreas, cervix,
|
colon, rectum, liver, and stomach.
- If you need help quitting tobacco, ask your qualified health professional about products and strategies available to support you. Support in Florida is available at tobaccofreeflorida.com.
3. Protect your skin (and eyes) from the sun
- Stay out of the sun between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. to the extent possible.
- Generously use sunscreen, cover exposed areas with hats or loose clothing, and utilize shady areas when outdoors.
- Avoid tanning beds and sun lamps
- Skin cancer is the most common and preventable cancer in the United States.
- Use appropriate protective eyewear for your eyes when outdoors in the sun.
4. Get vaccinated against infectious diseases
- Certain viruses can cause cancer. There are vaccines that have been proven to be effective to reduce your risk.
- The Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine can significantly decrease the risk of several cancers including cervical, throat, tongue, anal, and other genital cancers.
- The Hepatitis B vaccine decreases the risk for liver cancer.
5. Get regular cancer screenings
- Regular screenings help detect cancers early and maximize your chance for successful treatment.
- Check out the American Cancer Society’s (ACS’s) cancer screening guidelines by age. Go to: cancer.org.
6. Know your family history
- 5-10% of all cancers are inherited.
- Knowing your family health history can help you and your physician determine which screening tests are needed and when
- Understanding your family history can help guide your discussion with your physician of when and whether to consider genetic counseling.
Consider a cancer health check
The choices we make each day can help to reduce our risk of cancer. Check out the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) Cancer Health Check tool to w help you learn more about your choices and how you can stack the odds in your favor. Access the tool at aicr.org.
The National Cancer Institute provides a good patient-oriented cancer prevention overview at cancer.gov.
Mark A. Mahoney, Ph.D. has been a Registered Dietitian/Nutritionist for over 35 years and completed graduate studies in Nutrition & Public Health at Columbia University. He can be reached at <email-pii>.
|
Virtual reality takes a seat in college classrooms
As schools gingerly embrace virtual reality, Meta announced Tuesday that it's supplying VR equipment and resources to 15 U.S. universities as part of a broader goal to make classroom education more "immersive."
Why it matters: Teachers and tech executives say VR and the metaverse could eventually be a game-changer for hands-on learning, but there are lots of kinks to work out first.
- "This is a long road," Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, tells Axios in an exclusive interview. "We're now moving from talking about the potential of these immersive technologies in the classroom to actually trying to develop a head of steam."
Driving the news: Meta is donating $300 Quest 2 headsets to 15 U.S. universities that use VR as a pedagogical tool.
- Stanford University and the University of Iowa will use them to teach "soft skills" to business school students — how to have a difficult conversation with an employee, for example, or how to interview well.
- Arizona State University, which has been working with VR startup Dreamscape since 2020, will use them to teach languages, enabling students to converse in new tongues in different virtual settings.
- Morehouse College, which has been teaching a course on Black history in VR, will use them in its "digital twin" college — also called "metaversities" — where lessons are virtual.
- Purdue Global will use them to train nurses in virtual simulations of hospitals, while Nova Southeastern University will use them to train medical students in anatomy.
The big picture: Meta, Apple and a host of other companies large and small are betting that VR, AR (augmented reality) and MR (mixed reality) will become an integral part of the learning experience at all educational levels.
- They predict VR headsets will become standard fixtures in classrooms, adopted over time the way calculators and laptops were in years past.
- The so-called "EdTech" sector, in which hardware and software facilitate learning, is widely predicted to expand rapidly.
- The pandemic acclimated students and teachers to virtual learning at the same time that VR headsets started to become more popular and affordable.
The equity issue: Advocates for VR in the schools say the metaverse can give disadvantaged students up-close-and-personal access to experiences that might otherwise be unavailable to them — like a visit to the Louvre or a field trip to NASA.
- At a school in Muskegon, Michigan, for example, students "have used the goggles to tour the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam or stand on the cliffs of Machu Picchu," per Education Week.
Of note: The body of research supporting the power of VR as a teaching tool is small but growing.
- Meta cites work by PwC and Brookings on the power and immediacy of the metaverse as a learning environment.
- Meta itself "is supporting a detailed, global research program that is looking at how to maximize the benefits of these technologies while minimizing the risks," Clegg wrote on Medium.
Yes, but: Many teachers are skittish about the introduction of VR — it's expensive and difficult to manage for a large group of students, and it can be hard to make sure everyone's engaged.
- "It can be, at the moment, a little cumbersome for a teacher to have 12 to 15 headsets which all have to be personally configured and logged on," Clegg acknowledged.
- Meta plans to build "far more classroom-ready applications of the hardware, so that you can basically take them out of the box, and they can be used," he said. "That's not the case at the moment."
- While "we're not firing on all cylinders yet" in the classroom market, "we're seeing very strong demand," Clegg said.
Between the lines: Meta has been struggling to make its heavy financial investment in the metaverse pay off, and it sees the education market as potentially fruitful.
- It will take "quite a while" before VR is "prevalent in education settings around the world on a scale that would make a society-wide difference," Clegg said, adding: "We believe it can."
- "This is the phase where we're trying to build up sufficient research and an empirical base to prove the benefits of these technologies, and to get them into the hands of" educators and students.
- VR "can't replace teachers," Clegg said. Rather, Meta's schools initiatives are "all about making sure that teachers have got the tools" they need.
Meta won't say how much it's giving to the 15 universities, other than that it's "donating Quest 2 devices and [is] available for any support the universities may need." (The Quest 2, released in 2020, is an older model; the latest is the $1,000 Quest Pro.)
- "Some of the schools had their own devices previously, as they've been teaching using VR before this collaboration," a Meta spokeswoman said.
- The software/applications that the universities are using aren't under Meta's purview.
Meta has set up "a $150 million fund called Meta Immersive Learning," Clegg wrote in a separate post on Medium.
- "One project it has supported is a partnership with Prisms VR, run by a former teacher, to build a virtual math and science curriculum for grades 8–12, which is currently being piloted in Ohio with plans to expand to Boston and Los Angeles."
- "Another is a partnership with Victory XR to launch 10 digital twin campuses — replicas of existing campuses constructed in fully spatial 3D, at colleges and universities in the United States."
- Clegg tells Axios that the fund is paying for the Quest 2 devices for the universities.
💬 Thought bubble from Axios chief technology correspondent Ina Fried: VR has struggled to find its place, but learning and training are seen as areas where there could be enough value to justify both the cost and trade-offs in terms of bulkiness and short battery life.
What's next: As schools embrace VR, "the next ambition is personalized education," Clegg said.
- "I think there's a mixture of a VR immersive experience with a personalized sort of AI engine behind [that] really will allow teachers to tailor their teaching to students."
|
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|
Virtual reality takes a seat in college classrooms
As schools gingerly embrace virtual reality, Meta announced Tuesday that it's supplying VR equipment and resources to 15 U.S. universities as part of a broader goal to make classroom education more "immersive."
Why it matters: Teachers and tech executives say VR and the metaverse could eventually be a game-changer for hands-on learning, but there are lots of kinks to work out first.
- "This is a long road," Nick Clegg, Meta's president of global affairs, tells Axios in an exclusive interview. "We're now moving from talking about the potential of these immersive technologies in the classroom to actually trying to develop a head of steam."
Driving the news: Meta is donating $300 Quest 2 headsets to 15 U.S. universities that use VR as a pedagogical tool.
- Stanford University and the University of Iowa will use them to teach "soft skills" to business school students — how to have a difficult conversation with an employee, for example, or how to interview well.
- Arizona State University, which has been working with VR startup Dreamscape since 2020, will use them to teach languages, enabling students to converse in new tongues in different virtual settings.
- Morehouse College, which has been teaching a course on Black history in VR, will use them in its "digital twin" college — also called "metaversities" — where lessons are virtual.
- Purdue Global will use them to train nurses in virtual simulations of hospitals, while Nova Southeastern University will use them to train medical students in anatomy.
The big picture: Meta, Apple and a host of other companies large and small are betting that VR, AR (augmented reality) and MR (mixed reality) will become an integral part of the learning experience at all educational levels.
- They predict VR headsets will become standard fixtures in classrooms, adopted over time the way calculators and laptops were in years past.
- The so-called "EdTech" sector, in which hardware and software facilitate learning, is widely predicted to expand rapidly.
- The pandemic acclimated students and teachers to virtual learning at the same time that VR headsets started to become more popular and affordable.
The equity issue: Advocates for VR in the schools say the metaverse can give disadvantaged students up-close-and-personal access to experiences that might otherwise be unavailable to them — like a visit to the Louvre or a field trip to NASA.
|
- At a school in Muskegon, Michigan, for example, students "have used the goggles to tour the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam or stand on the cliffs of Machu Picchu," per Education Week.
Of note: The body of research supporting the power of VR as a teaching tool is small but growing.
- Meta cites work by PwC and Brookings on the power and immediacy of the metaverse as a learning environment.
- Meta itself "is supporting a detailed, global research program that is looking at how to maximize the benefits of these technologies while minimizing the risks," Clegg wrote on Medium.
Yes, but: Many teachers are skittish about the introduction of VR — it's expensive and difficult to manage for a large group of students, and it can be hard to make sure everyone's engaged.
- "It can be, at the moment, a little cumbersome for a teacher to have 12 to 15 headsets which all have to be personally configured and logged on," Clegg acknowledged.
- Meta plans to build "far more classroom-ready applications of the hardware, so that you can basically take them out of the box, and they can be used," he said. "That's not the case at the moment."
- While "we're not firing on all cylinders yet" in the classroom market, "we're seeing very strong demand," Clegg said.
Between the lines: Meta has been struggling to make its heavy financial investment in the metaverse pay off, and it sees the education market as potentially fruitful.
- It will take "quite a while" before VR is "prevalent in education settings around the world on a scale that would make a society-wide difference," Clegg said, adding: "We believe it can."
- "This is the phase where we're trying to build up sufficient research and an empirical base to prove the benefits of these technologies, and to get them into the hands of" educators and students.
- VR "can't replace teachers," Clegg said. Rather, Meta's schools initiatives are "all about making sure that teachers have got the tools" they need.
Meta won't say how much it's giving to the 15 universities, other than that it's "donating Quest 2 devices and [is] available for any support the universities may need." (The Quest 2, released in 2020, is an older model; the latest is the $1,000 Quest Pro.)
- "Some of the schools had their own devices previously, as they've been teaching using VR before this collaboration," a Meta spokeswoman said.
- The software/applications that the universities are using aren't under Meta's purview.
Meta has set up "a $150 million fund called Meta Immersive Learning," Clegg wrote in a separate post on Medium.
- "One project it has supported is a partnership with Prisms VR, run by a former teacher, to build a virtual math and science curriculum for grades 8–12, which is currently being piloted in Ohio with plans to expand to Boston and Los Angeles."
- "Another is a partnership with Victory XR to launch 10 digital twin campuses — replicas of existing campuses constructed in fully spatial 3D, at colleges and universities in the United States."
- Clegg tells Axios that the fund is paying for the Quest 2 devices for the universities.
💬 Thought bubble from Axios chief technology correspondent Ina Fried: VR has struggled to find its place, but learning and training are seen as areas where there could be enough value to justify both the cost and trade-offs in terms of bulkiness and short battery life.
What's next: As schools embrace VR, "the next ambition is personalized education," Clegg said.
- "I think there's a mixture of a VR immersive experience with a personalized sort of AI engine behind [that] really will allow teachers to tailor their teaching to students."
|
Why Vermont produced 20% less maple syrup this year
Vermont’s maple syrup production decreased by 20% this year following last season’s record-high.
TheUnited States Department of Agriculture announcedFriday that Vermont produced just over 2 million gallons of syrup, a significant decrease from what the state's 2,500+ sugar makers produced in 2022.
A variety of factors go into determining sap and syrup yield, including temperature, snowpack, drought and sugar content. This year, location played an even more important role.
Allison Hope, the executive director for the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association, said temperatures remained too cold in areas around the state for the snowpack to melt enough so sap would flow.
“The pockets of cold climates throughout the state didn't really see a loss of snowpack around the base of the trees in the way that would have helped for that sap just to release,” she said.
Cold pockets occurred more frequently in northern Vermont, leaving these areas with less flowing sap.
Hope also mentioned the impacts of winter storm Elliott, which battered Vermont from Dec. 22 to Dec. 24 of 2022. The storm caused a large amount of tree damage to sugarbushes around the state, which is likely to impact sugar production for many years.
“Sugar makers are playing the long game when it comes to sugarbush health, and so downed maple trees that they were counting on tapping, it's not like they can regrow those over the course of a couple of years,” Hope said.
Still, amid the challenges of this year’s sugaring season, Hope said sugar content was high enough to make up for some of the losses.
Sugar content is how much sugar is naturally in the sap. When it's high, more syrup can be produced from the same amount of sap.
But Hope says these types of unpredictable weather patterns are going to become the norm.
“We're going to get used to the fact that it's never going to be just perfect,” she said.
She says technology and following best practices will help sugar makers continue to produce syrup in the coming years. This includes increasing education about which trees to tap, what tubes to use, and how to set up tubing most efficiently.
Vermont still remains the highest producer of maple syrup in the country, and Hope is confident the state can maintain its beloved tradition.
“It's going to be an interesting ride, “ she said. “An extra dose of hopefulness and optimism is going to be necessary.”
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.
|
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Why Vermont produced 20% less maple syrup this year
Vermont’s maple syrup production decreased by 20% this year following last season’s record-high.
TheUnited States Department of Agriculture announcedFriday that Vermont produced just over 2 million gallons of syrup, a significant decrease from what the state's 2,500+ sugar makers produced in 2022.
A variety of factors go into determining sap and syrup yield, including temperature, snowpack, drought and sugar content. This year, location played an even more important role.
Allison Hope, the executive director for the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers’ Association, said temperatures remained too cold in areas around the state for the snowpack to melt enough so sap would flow.
“The pockets of cold climates throughout the state didn't really see a loss of snowpack around the base of the trees in the way that would have helped for that sap just to release,” she said.
Cold pockets occurred more frequently in northern Vermont, leaving these areas with less flowing sap.
Hope also mentioned the impacts of winter storm Elliott, which battered Vermont from Dec. 22 to Dec. 24 of 2022. The storm caused a large amount of tree damage to sugarbushes around the state, which is likely to impact sugar production for many years.
“Sugar makers are playing the long game when it comes to sugarbush health, and so downed maple trees that they were counting on tapping, it's not like they can regrow those over the course of a couple of years,” Hope said.
Still, amid the challenges of this year’s sugaring season, Hope said sugar content was high enough to make up for some of the losses.
Sugar content is how much sugar is naturally in the sap. When it's high, more syrup can be produced from the same amount of sap.
But Hope says these types of unpredictable weather patterns are going to become the norm.
“We're going to get used to the fact that it's never going to be just perfect,” she said.
She says technology and following best practices will help sugar makers continue to produce syrup in the coming years. This includes increasing education about which trees to tap, what tubes to use, and how to set up tubing most efficiently.
Vermont still remains the highest producer of maple syrup in the country, and Hope is confident the state can maintain its beloved tradition.
“It's going to be an interesting ride, “ she said. “An extra
|
dose of hopefulness and optimism is going to be necessary.”
Have questions, comments or tips? Send us a message.
|
A ship that vanished with her entire crew in a storm nearly 130 years ago has been found in near-perfect condition at the bottom of a lake.
The Africa was towing another vessel, the Severn, through Lake Huron, on the US-Canada border, when she disappeared in a snowstorm in October 1895.
With the towline broken, the Severn ran aground on Canada’s Bruce Peninsula, where her crew was rescued – but the Africa was never seen again. It wasn’t the first misfortune the ship had suffered – she had already burned down to the waterline in 1886 before being rebuilt.
The Africa’s remarkable discovery was made entirely by accident by a couple filming a nature documentary.
Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick were shooting a documentary about quagga mussels – a species alien to the Great Lakes – when they found the wreck.
Mr Melnick said: “We received a tip that scientists doing an offshore fish survey had noticed an anomaly on their sonar readout – basically an unusual bump on an otherwise flat lakebed.
“We honestly expected to find a pile of rocks,” said Ms Drebert.
“We were down for only a few minutes when a huge structure loomed up from the depths – it was a shipwreck. We couldn’t believe it.
“The ship is in pristine condition – sitting upright on the lakebed, as though it’s just fallen straight from the surface and is resting on the bottom.”
The Africa was found using an underwater remotely operated vehicle at a depth of some 280 feet.
But the ship is covered in invasive quaggas, a mussel species which arrived in the Great Lakes some 30 years ago, which made identifying the vessel a challenge.
“There are so many quaggas filtering the Great Lakes that the lakes are up to three times as clear as they were before the mussels,” said Ms Drebert.
“The quaggas are the reason we’re able to see the shipwreck in almost 300 feet of water without any additional lights.”
To identify the ship, the filmmakers enlisted the help of historian Patrick Folkes, and Scarlett Janusas, a marine archaeologist.
One clue was the enormous dimensions of the wreck – which is 148 ft long, 26 ft wide and 12.5 ft high.
There is also a debris field of coal surrounding the vessel – the same cargo carried by the two ships on the fateful night.
Having identified the wreck as the Africa, Ms Drebert unravelled the mystery of why she sank, taking her crew of 11 with her.
She said: “The Africa sank during an early season snowstorm. Intense winds would’ve been pounding the ship, driving it into the trough of the waves, and causing it to take on water.
“In our video we can see that there is some hull damage to the ship, however that could have been caused by the ship settling on the lakebed. Most likely, it was taking on water that brought the Africa down.”
In their documentary, All Too Clear, the pair explore how quaggas are re-engineering the Great Lakes’ ecosystem on a scale not seen since the retreat of the glaciers.
Built in 1873, the Africa was carrying coal from the US city of Ashtabula, Ohio, to Owen Sound in Ontario, Canada, when she sank.
The discovery of the 128-year-old lost ship has also brought closure to the families of the men who perished on the voyage.
Mr Melnick said family members have since reached out to him and his wife.
“And we’re working with those families to try to find a way to remember those sailors who had died 128 years ago.”
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A ship that vanished with her entire crew in a storm nearly 130 years ago has been found in near-perfect condition at the bottom of a lake.
The Africa was towing another vessel, the Severn, through Lake Huron, on the US-Canada border, when she disappeared in a snowstorm in October 1895.
With the towline broken, the Severn ran aground on Canada’s Bruce Peninsula, where her crew was rescued – but the Africa was never seen again. It wasn’t the first misfortune the ship had suffered – she had already burned down to the waterline in 1886 before being rebuilt.
The Africa’s remarkable discovery was made entirely by accident by a couple filming a nature documentary.
Yvonne Drebert and Zach Melnick were shooting a documentary about quagga mussels – a species alien to the Great Lakes – when they found the wreck.
Mr Melnick said: “We received a tip that scientists doing an offshore fish survey had noticed an anomaly on their sonar readout – basically an unusual bump on an otherwise flat lakebed.
“We honestly expected to find a pile of rocks,” said Ms Drebert.
“We were down for only a few minutes when a huge structure loomed up from the depths – it was a shipwreck. We couldn’t believe it.
“The ship is in pristine condition – sitting upright on the lakebed, as though it’s just fallen straight from the surface and is resting on the bottom.”
The Africa was found using an underwater remotely operated vehicle at a depth of some 280 feet.
But the ship is covered in invasive quaggas, a mussel species which arrived in the Great Lakes some 30 years ago, which made identifying the vessel a challenge.
“There are so many quaggas filtering the Great Lakes that the lakes are up to three times as clear as they were before the mussels,” said Ms Drebert.
“The quaggas are the reason we’re able to see the shipwreck in almost 300 feet of water without any additional lights.”
To identify the ship, the filmmakers enlisted the help of historian Patrick Folkes, and Scarlett Janusas, a marine archaeologist.
One clue was the enormous dimensions of the wreck – which is 148 ft long, 26 ft wide and 12.5 ft high.
There is also a debris field of coal surrounding the vessel – the same cargo carried by the two ships on the fateful night.
Having identified
|
the wreck as the Africa, Ms Drebert unravelled the mystery of why she sank, taking her crew of 11 with her.
She said: “The Africa sank during an early season snowstorm. Intense winds would’ve been pounding the ship, driving it into the trough of the waves, and causing it to take on water.
“In our video we can see that there is some hull damage to the ship, however that could have been caused by the ship settling on the lakebed. Most likely, it was taking on water that brought the Africa down.”
In their documentary, All Too Clear, the pair explore how quaggas are re-engineering the Great Lakes’ ecosystem on a scale not seen since the retreat of the glaciers.
Built in 1873, the Africa was carrying coal from the US city of Ashtabula, Ohio, to Owen Sound in Ontario, Canada, when she sank.
The discovery of the 128-year-old lost ship has also brought closure to the families of the men who perished on the voyage.
Mr Melnick said family members have since reached out to him and his wife.
“And we’re working with those families to try to find a way to remember those sailors who had died 128 years ago.”
|
Poison Prevention Awareness Week: Avoiding accidents at home
Tens of thousands of children are treated for poisoning in emergency rooms.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - March 19-25 is National Poison Prevention Week, zeroing in on the risks presented by household items.
“Each year, Americans report more than 2 million poisoning cases and tens of thousands of children are treated for poisoning in emergency rooms after accidentally ingesting dangerous household chemicals,” according to a White House proclamation on NPPW.
Dr. Christine Murphy specializes in pediatric toxicology at Atrium Health. It’s one of only three toxicology groups in North Carolina. She says nearly half the poisonings they see are in children under the age of 6.
[More on Safety First: ‘Pay or go to jail’: Law enforcement scams on the rise]
“Anything that looks like candy to a toddler is something that they’re going to put in their mouth, or if it looks like juice and it’s a liquid chemical, it’s got that blue dye or fancy coloring, they will put it in their mouth,” Dr. Murphy explained.
The danger is commonplace: everything from hygiene products to medication to household cleaners to antifreeze and other automotive products and the button batteries found in toys and key fobs can pose a threat, especially to children.
North Carolina Poison Control reported a 23% increase in exposure to household cleaning products in 2020 compared with the previous year.
In older children, Dr. Murphy says incorrect doses or medication mix-ups lead to hospital visits. In elderly patients, it often comes in the form of accidental overdoses due to ineffective medication storage.
Families should be encouraged to act quickly, especially when it comes to young children who may not be able to confirm what they’ve come in contact with.
“Just start initially by washing their skin off, getting their clothes off of them, washing out their mouth,” said Dr. Murphy. “You can call the Poison Control Center, which is a phenomenal resource to help identify ‘Is this something that I need to bring my child to the emergency department or is this something I can handle at home?’”
The effects of poisoning range depending on the product. In severe cases, it can be deadly, it can lead to breathing difficulties, vomiting, or something as mild as an upset stomach or a cough.
According to America’s Poison Centers, 3,809 poison-related deaths were reported in 2021.
She says it’s important to note that prevention is key, but that families shouldn’t be ashamed to ask for help.
“This happens to everybody,” Dr. Murphy said. “It happens universally to the best parents with the closest observation. Things just happen, so don’t be ashamed about calling for help coming to the emergency department to have your child or your loved one evaluated.”
Experts say 93% of poisonings happen at home. Here are some simple things you can do to make at-home poisonings less likely:
Keep things locked and out of reach of children
Avoid transferring things out of their original containers, and adequately label any containers being used
Consider a cabinet lock for lower cabinetry
Opt for pill binders for medication storage
Get rid of old/expired/unwanted medication in the home
Program the poison control number in your phone (1-800-222-1222) or bookmark the NC Poison Control website to chat at NCPoisonControl.org.
Copyright 2023 WBTV. All rights reserved.
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Poison Prevention Awareness Week: Avoiding accidents at home
Tens of thousands of children are treated for poisoning in emergency rooms.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) - March 19-25 is National Poison Prevention Week, zeroing in on the risks presented by household items.
“Each year, Americans report more than 2 million poisoning cases and tens of thousands of children are treated for poisoning in emergency rooms after accidentally ingesting dangerous household chemicals,” according to a White House proclamation on NPPW.
Dr. Christine Murphy specializes in pediatric toxicology at Atrium Health. It’s one of only three toxicology groups in North Carolina. She says nearly half the poisonings they see are in children under the age of 6.
[More on Safety First: ‘Pay or go to jail’: Law enforcement scams on the rise]
“Anything that looks like candy to a toddler is something that they’re going to put in their mouth, or if it looks like juice and it’s a liquid chemical, it’s got that blue dye or fancy coloring, they will put it in their mouth,” Dr. Murphy explained.
The danger is commonplace: everything from hygiene products to medication to household cleaners to antifreeze and other automotive products and the button batteries found in toys and key fobs can pose a threat, especially to children.
North Carolina Poison Control reported a 23% increase in exposure to household cleaning products in 2020 compared with the previous year.
In older children, Dr. Murphy says incorrect doses or medication mix-ups lead to hospital visits. In elderly patients, it often comes in the form of accidental overdoses due to ineffective medication storage.
Families should be encouraged to act quickly, especially when it comes to young children who may not be able to confirm what they’ve come in contact with.
“Just start initially by washing their skin off, getting their clothes off of them, washing out their mouth,” said Dr. Murphy. “You can call the Poison Control Center, which is a phenomenal resource to help identify ‘Is this something that I need to bring my child to the emergency department or is this something I can handle at home?’”
The effects of poisoning range depending on the product. In severe cases, it can be deadly, it can lead to breathing difficulties, vomiting, or something as mild as an upset stomach or a cough.
According to America’s Poison Centers, 3,809 poison-related deaths were reported
|
in 2021.
She says it’s important to note that prevention is key, but that families shouldn’t be ashamed to ask for help.
“This happens to everybody,” Dr. Murphy said. “It happens universally to the best parents with the closest observation. Things just happen, so don’t be ashamed about calling for help coming to the emergency department to have your child or your loved one evaluated.”
Experts say 93% of poisonings happen at home. Here are some simple things you can do to make at-home poisonings less likely:
Keep things locked and out of reach of children
Avoid transferring things out of their original containers, and adequately label any containers being used
Consider a cabinet lock for lower cabinetry
Opt for pill binders for medication storage
Get rid of old/expired/unwanted medication in the home
Program the poison control number in your phone (1-800-222-1222) or bookmark the NC Poison Control website to chat at NCPoisonControl.org.
Copyright 2023 WBTV. All rights reserved.
|
Unicorns in southern Africa – the fascinating story behind one-horned creatures in rock art
Some explorers believed they had found unicorns depicted on rocks. The truth behind the paintings is far more interesting.
One-horned creatures are found in myths around the world. Although unicorns in different cultures have little to do with one another, they have multiple associations in European thought.
For example, the Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder wrote about unicorns in the first century AD. The unicorn features in both medieval Christian and Celtic beliefs, and is Scotland’s national animal. The unicorn’s prominence in European culture spread across the globe with colonisation.
In southern Africa, colonial European ideas encountered older indigenous beliefs about one-horned creatures. I’ve highlighted this in a recent research article about some of the region’s rock art.
Unicorns in Africa?
In the age of natural science, unicorns were gradually dismissed as mythical rather than biological creatures. But some thought that real animals with single horns might yet exist in the “unexplored wilds” of Africa.
A famous search for such evidence was carried out by the English traveller, writer and politician Sir John Barrow (1764-1848). He’d heard rumours about “unicorns” from the colonists and local people he encountered on his southern African travels.
One of those rumours was that unicorns were depicted in the rock paintings made by the indigenous San inhabitants of the region. Barrow searched unsuccessfully for them. Then, in mountains in what’s now the Eastern Cape province, he found and copied an image of a unicorn.
But many were sceptical of his claims. His published copy resembles a European engraving rather than a San rock painting. More generally, critics have argued that rock paintings of unicorns were probably inspired by side-on views of gemsbok or South African oryxes – antelope with long, straight horns – or by rhinos (which might have one horn in India, but have two in southern Africa).
My research concludes that these criticisms don’t take into account several factors that have since come to light. My paper provides further support for the claims that some San rock paintings do indeed depict one-horned creatures.
Multiple rock art depictions
I draw attention to additional examples of rock paintings of one-horned creatures.
Collectively, these show that rock paintings of one-horned creatures can’t be dismissed as naturalistic profile views of two-horned creatures, one horn covering the other.
The second way in which my research engages with early criticisms is to draw attention to previously overlooked indigenous beliefs concerning one-horned beings.
The evidence suggests that the “unicorns” in indigenous mythical beliefs and rock art are actually animal-like forms of rain, known as rain-animals.
Tongue’s colleague and co-worker, Dorothea Bleek, compared Stow’s and Tongue’s copies and suggested in 1909 that rock paintings of one-horned antelope were probably kinds of rain-animals, which she knew from |Xam San myths.
Rain-animals feature prominently in San ritual, myth and art. They take many forms, ranging from four-legged creatures to serpents. They were ritually captured and slaughtered by San rainmakers to cause rain to fall in specific places. Many |Xam myths tell of the dangerous male rain, sometimes personified as the “Rain”, who turned pubescent girls and their families into frogs when the girls did not correctly observe their initiation taboos.
Among other details, my paper highlights a fascinating and previously missed reference to a one-horned water creature. In one of the variants of a story told by |Han≠kass’o or Klein Jantje – a |Xam man who was an expert storyteller – a “water child” or juvenile rain-animal is said to have a single horn. The story was written down in phonetic script (to record the sounds of the San langauge) by Lucy Lloyd (Bleek’s aunt) and translated into English.
The girl in |Han≠kass’o’s story breaks the rules of her ritual puberty seclusion by going to a pond and catching (like fish) the children of the rain, which she cooks and eats. After a few times she struggles to catch another one: unlike the others, this last creature is “a grown-up water”.
We know what made it recognisably grown-up: unlike the others, it had a single horn that poked out of the water. We have, therefore, the actual |Xam San words (which translate as “horned rain-child”) used to describe this kind of rain-animal, which we find in the rock paintings in and around the Eastern Cape.
Read m0re in Daily Maverick: A brief history of unicorns
An intersection of beliefs
In the colonial period, indigenous people were exposed to European images of unicorns on crests, badges and buttons and through tales. In one of the recorded instances, indigenous people at the Cape saw the British royal coat of arms and commented on the unicorn in it. They recognised it as their “god”, but this description, translated into English from an unknown indigenous idiom, probably refers to the creature’s mythical nature rather than a genuine god-like status.
Foreign unicorn images may have gradually influenced local ones. Some rock paintings of one-horned creatures – dated by associated human figures in European dress to the colonial period – show horns pointing upward or forward like the European unicorn, rather than backwards like antelopes, such as the eland, on which many rock paintings of one-horned rain-animals are modelled.
One-horned animals depicted in rock art are neither mere rhinos nor antelope, nor are they the creatures of European myth.
Indigenous beliefs help us to explain that the uncanny resemblance between European unicorns and South African “unicorns” was pure chance. The mixing of foreign beliefs with local ones in colonial South Africa has hidden the independent, indigenous creature. DM
David M. Witelson is a Postdoctoral research fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand.
|
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Unicorns in southern Africa – the fascinating story behind one-horned creatures in rock art
Some explorers believed they had found unicorns depicted on rocks. The truth behind the paintings is far more interesting.
One-horned creatures are found in myths around the world. Although unicorns in different cultures have little to do with one another, they have multiple associations in European thought.
For example, the Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder wrote about unicorns in the first century AD. The unicorn features in both medieval Christian and Celtic beliefs, and is Scotland’s national animal. The unicorn’s prominence in European culture spread across the globe with colonisation.
In southern Africa, colonial European ideas encountered older indigenous beliefs about one-horned creatures. I’ve highlighted this in a recent research article about some of the region’s rock art.
Unicorns in Africa?
In the age of natural science, unicorns were gradually dismissed as mythical rather than biological creatures. But some thought that real animals with single horns might yet exist in the “unexplored wilds” of Africa.
A famous search for such evidence was carried out by the English traveller, writer and politician Sir John Barrow (1764-1848). He’d heard rumours about “unicorns” from the colonists and local people he encountered on his southern African travels.
One of those rumours was that unicorns were depicted in the rock paintings made by the indigenous San inhabitants of the region. Barrow searched unsuccessfully for them. Then, in mountains in what’s now the Eastern Cape province, he found and copied an image of a unicorn.
But many were sceptical of his claims. His published copy resembles a European engraving rather than a San rock painting. More generally, critics have argued that rock paintings of unicorns were probably inspired by side-on views of gemsbok or South African oryxes – antelope with long, straight horns – or by rhinos (which might have one horn in India, but have two in southern Africa).
My research concludes that these criticisms don’t take into account several factors that have since come to light. My paper provides further support for the claims that some San rock paintings do indeed depict one-horned creatures.
Multiple rock art depictions
I draw attention to additional examples of rock paintings of one-horned creatures.
Collectively, these show that rock paintings of one-horned creatures can’t be dismissed as naturalistic profile views of two-horned creatures, one horn covering the
|
other.
The second way in which my research engages with early criticisms is to draw attention to previously overlooked indigenous beliefs concerning one-horned beings.
The evidence suggests that the “unicorns” in indigenous mythical beliefs and rock art are actually animal-like forms of rain, known as rain-animals.
Tongue’s colleague and co-worker, Dorothea Bleek, compared Stow’s and Tongue’s copies and suggested in 1909 that rock paintings of one-horned antelope were probably kinds of rain-animals, which she knew from |Xam San myths.
Rain-animals feature prominently in San ritual, myth and art. They take many forms, ranging from four-legged creatures to serpents. They were ritually captured and slaughtered by San rainmakers to cause rain to fall in specific places. Many |Xam myths tell of the dangerous male rain, sometimes personified as the “Rain”, who turned pubescent girls and their families into frogs when the girls did not correctly observe their initiation taboos.
Among other details, my paper highlights a fascinating and previously missed reference to a one-horned water creature. In one of the variants of a story told by |Han≠kass’o or Klein Jantje – a |Xam man who was an expert storyteller – a “water child” or juvenile rain-animal is said to have a single horn. The story was written down in phonetic script (to record the sounds of the San langauge) by Lucy Lloyd (Bleek’s aunt) and translated into English.
The girl in |Han≠kass’o’s story breaks the rules of her ritual puberty seclusion by going to a pond and catching (like fish) the children of the rain, which she cooks and eats. After a few times she struggles to catch another one: unlike the others, this last creature is “a grown-up water”.
We know what made it recognisably grown-up: unlike the others, it had a single horn that poked out of the water. We have, therefore, the actual |Xam San words (which translate as “horned rain-child”) used to describe this kind of rain-animal, which we find in the rock paintings in and around the Eastern Cape.
Read m0re in Daily Maverick: A brief history of unicorns
An intersection of beliefs
In the colonial period, indigenous people were exposed to European images of unicorns on crests, badges and buttons and through tales. In one of the recorded instances, indigenous people at the Cape saw the British royal coat of arms and commented on the unicorn in it. They recognised it as their “god”, but this description, translated into English from an unknown indigenous idiom, probably refers to the creature’s mythical nature rather than a genuine god-like status.
Foreign unicorn images may have gradually influenced local ones. Some rock paintings of one-horned creatures – dated by associated human figures in European dress to the colonial period – show horns pointing upward or forward like the European unicorn, rather than backwards like antelopes, such as the eland, on which many rock paintings of one-horned rain-animals are modelled.
One-horned animals depicted in rock art are neither mere rhinos nor antelope, nor are they the creatures of European myth.
Indigenous beliefs help us to explain that the uncanny resemblance between European unicorns and South African “unicorns” was pure chance. The mixing of foreign beliefs with local ones in colonial South Africa has hidden the independent, indigenous creature. DM
David M. Witelson is a Postdoctoral research fellow at the University of the Witwatersrand.
|
It is widely accepted that indoor smoke detectors are a good thing. They have a proven track record when it comes to saving lives and preventing fires from escalating further.
According to figures from the National Fire Prevention Association, between 96 and 97% of households have at least one smoke alarm. And in many regions, smoke alarms are now legally required in residential settings.
But as the threat from wildfires continues to grow in certain parts of the United States, is it time that households also started to fit outdoor smoke alarms to warn them of possible danger?
A new survey by fire detection company Torch highlights the growing concerns many households now have about outdoor fires and wildfires, particularly as the 2023 season approaches.
The survey, which was conducted by Propeller Insights, found more than three quarters (77.6%) of respondents are concerned about wildfires affecting them and their family’s health and well-being this year.
More than 45% said they or a family member live in a state that has been affected by wildfire smoke and unhealthy air quality in the last five years.
And nearly three quarters (73.9%) believe the 2023 wildfire season could result in lost jobs and negative economic impacts in the United States.
In addition to being a deadly threat to people and property, outdoor fires are highly detrimental to the environment and climate.
Researchers from University of California and University of Chicago found the California wildfires in 2020 emitted twice as much greenhouse gas as the total reduction of greenhouse gas in California between 2003 and 2019.
Torch’s chief executive officer Michael Buckwald told Forbes in an interview the amount of land being affected is “growing significantly” and wildfires are becoming a “truly global problem”.
He added “in an ideal world” between 20% and 30% of all land in America at relatively high risk would be covered with sensors to warn households, emergency services and authorities of possible dangers.
“If sensors were embedded across the country, then the problem is still going to be chronic, but it’s also going to be more manageable,” he said.
He said the growing need for a smart and low-cost solution has led Torch to develop a new solar-powered outdoor smoke detector, similar to the ones which already installed indoors.
Each Torch device incorporates multiple sensors that measure visual, thermal and gas levels across 10 acres.
The company’s chief operating officer and co-founder Vasya Tremsin said the sensors can detect fires smaller than the size of a car and can be paired with a mobile app, that can alert households in case of danger.
The app also allows users to opt into sharing information with other sensors nearby, building up a wider decentralised early-warning system.
As a San Francisco resident, Tremsin was inspired to develop the system after witnessing first-hand the 2017 Napa Valley fires, which burnt entire communities to the ground.
When he demonstrated the concept at the 2018 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, he won the top ward in earth and environmental services.
Buckwald said the company’s mission is to empower anyone to “detect fires early and prevent disaster at the earliest opportunity”.
“Our advanced technology immediately notifies you about a flame at its earliest stages, giving you the power to stop a fire in its infancy and prevent a deadly inferno,” he added.
|
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It is widely accepted that indoor smoke detectors are a good thing. They have a proven track record when it comes to saving lives and preventing fires from escalating further.
According to figures from the National Fire Prevention Association, between 96 and 97% of households have at least one smoke alarm. And in many regions, smoke alarms are now legally required in residential settings.
But as the threat from wildfires continues to grow in certain parts of the United States, is it time that households also started to fit outdoor smoke alarms to warn them of possible danger?
A new survey by fire detection company Torch highlights the growing concerns many households now have about outdoor fires and wildfires, particularly as the 2023 season approaches.
The survey, which was conducted by Propeller Insights, found more than three quarters (77.6%) of respondents are concerned about wildfires affecting them and their family’s health and well-being this year.
More than 45% said they or a family member live in a state that has been affected by wildfire smoke and unhealthy air quality in the last five years.
And nearly three quarters (73.9%) believe the 2023 wildfire season could result in lost jobs and negative economic impacts in the United States.
In addition to being a deadly threat to people and property, outdoor fires are highly detrimental to the environment and climate.
Researchers from University of California and University of Chicago found the California wildfires in 2020 emitted twice as much greenhouse gas as the total reduction of greenhouse gas in California between 2003 and 2019.
Torch’s chief executive officer Michael Buckwald told Forbes in an interview the amount of land being affected is “growing significantly” and wildfires are becoming a “truly global problem”.
He added “in an ideal world” between 20% and 30% of all land in America at relatively high risk would be covered with sensors to warn households, emergency services and authorities of possible dangers.
“If sensors were embedded across the country, then the problem is still going to be chronic, but it’s also going to be more manageable,” he said.
He said the growing need for a smart and low-cost solution has led Torch to develop a new solar-powered outdoor smoke detector, similar to the ones which already installed indoors.
Each Torch device incorporates multiple sensors that measure visual, thermal and gas levels across 10 acres.
The company’s chief operating
|
officer and co-founder Vasya Tremsin said the sensors can detect fires smaller than the size of a car and can be paired with a mobile app, that can alert households in case of danger.
The app also allows users to opt into sharing information with other sensors nearby, building up a wider decentralised early-warning system.
As a San Francisco resident, Tremsin was inspired to develop the system after witnessing first-hand the 2017 Napa Valley fires, which burnt entire communities to the ground.
When he demonstrated the concept at the 2018 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, he won the top ward in earth and environmental services.
Buckwald said the company’s mission is to empower anyone to “detect fires early and prevent disaster at the earliest opportunity”.
“Our advanced technology immediately notifies you about a flame at its earliest stages, giving you the power to stop a fire in its infancy and prevent a deadly inferno,” he added.
|
A simplistic view of fascia is this: “it is a thin casing of connective tissue that surrounds and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber and muscle in place”. When I went to college over 20 years ago we did not even pay attention to fascia. During Dissection we hastily cut it out so we could see the important stuff which were the muscles, nerves, bones and blood vessels. Little did I know that I was ignoring the subject that would make the biggest difference in solving chronic pain.
Muscles may move the bones but if it was not for the fascia the shape of the body would not be held together. When fascia gets tight it can exert up to 2,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. This pressure on pain sensitive structures can produces headaches, chronic back pain, fibromyalgia, posture problems and restrict normal motion. In addition, fascia also has pain fibers within it and can be almost a sensitive as the skin.
Now that the importance of this structure is realized, lets look at the complexity of how it affects the body. This tough (think 2,000 pounds of pressure) tissue spreads throughout the body in a three-dimensional webbing from head to toe, uninterrupted. The Fascia on the head and shoulder area is connected throughout the complex webbing structure to the fascia of the ankle and foot.
The fascial system is the container of fluid in the body. Trauma, thwarted inflammatory responses and surgeries can dehydrate the fluid of the fascial system. When the fascia gets dehydrated it can solidify to a point that it creates a crushing pressure on pain-sensitive structures causing pain, numbness, tingling and lack of motion.
Standard tests such as x-rays, myelograms, CAT scans, electromyography etc, do not show fascial restrictions. It is suspected that there is a high percentage of people suffering with pain, tingling and lack of motion and even struggle to manage their posture may have significant fascial restrictions that go undiagnosed since there is not a standard test to detect them.
The three dimensional structure of the fascial system is unique and its viscoelastic qualities cause it to resist a suddenly applied force. It protects itself and the body with this resistance. However, this makes it more resistant to deep and more aggressive forms of soft tissue work. Truly effective manual fascial work is more on the gentle side. The drawback is that it can take a long time to allow the fascia to soften.
Another effective form of fascial release is through the use of dry needling. The practitioner can feel the compression and density of the tissues through the needle point. This allows for specific treatment in restricted areas. The use of a metal needle polarizes the tissues and allows them to lengthen. The exact mechanism of how this works is still being understood; however, the thick and dense tissues soften within seconds of the insertion of the needle.
Using a gentle form of myofascial release following dry needling is an ideal combination. The needling technique can soften some of the toughest and most restricted areas; however, it tends to work in a smaller area due to the pinpoint accuracy of the needle. The gentle myofascial release then allows the surrounding tissues to lengthen and expand and can address the tissue tension lines that can span longer distances in the body. For example, a restriction in in the left hip could offset the fascial system and cause pain in the right shoulder.
Treating the fascial system can be like trying to figure out a puzzle. Luckily I loved puzzles as a kid. These days I cannot find the time for them because I am too busy figuring out the puzzles in each of my clients bodies. It keeps me from getting bored because every fascial restriction can be unique to each person.
If you think your pain may be the result of a fascial restriction then reach out to me and let me help you solve the puzzle. It is one of my passions to solve these puzzles and I would love to help you with yours. You can reach out to me at <email-pii>.
In Abundant Health,
|
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A simplistic view of fascia is this: “it is a thin casing of connective tissue that surrounds and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber and muscle in place”. When I went to college over 20 years ago we did not even pay attention to fascia. During Dissection we hastily cut it out so we could see the important stuff which were the muscles, nerves, bones and blood vessels. Little did I know that I was ignoring the subject that would make the biggest difference in solving chronic pain.
Muscles may move the bones but if it was not for the fascia the shape of the body would not be held together. When fascia gets tight it can exert up to 2,000 pounds of pressure per square inch. This pressure on pain sensitive structures can produces headaches, chronic back pain, fibromyalgia, posture problems and restrict normal motion. In addition, fascia also has pain fibers within it and can be almost a sensitive as the skin.
Now that the importance of this structure is realized, lets look at the complexity of how it affects the body. This tough (think 2,000 pounds of pressure) tissue spreads throughout the body in a three-dimensional webbing from head to toe, uninterrupted. The Fascia on the head and shoulder area is connected throughout the complex webbing structure to the fascia of the ankle and foot.
The fascial system is the container of fluid in the body. Trauma, thwarted inflammatory responses and surgeries can dehydrate the fluid of the fascial system. When the fascia gets dehydrated it can solidify to a point that it creates a crushing pressure on pain-sensitive structures causing pain, numbness, tingling and lack of motion.
Standard tests such as x-rays, myelograms, CAT scans, electromyography etc, do not show fascial restrictions. It is suspected that there is a high percentage of people suffering with pain, tingling and lack of motion and even struggle to manage their posture may have significant fascial restrictions that go undiagnosed since there is not a standard test to detect them.
The three dimensional structure of the fascial system is unique and its viscoelastic qualities cause it to resist a suddenly applied force. It protects itself and the body with this resistance. However, this makes it more resistant to deep and more aggressive forms of soft tissue work. Truly effective manual fascial work is more on the gentle side. The drawback is that it can take a long time to allow the fascia to soften.
Another effective
|
form of fascial release is through the use of dry needling. The practitioner can feel the compression and density of the tissues through the needle point. This allows for specific treatment in restricted areas. The use of a metal needle polarizes the tissues and allows them to lengthen. The exact mechanism of how this works is still being understood; however, the thick and dense tissues soften within seconds of the insertion of the needle.
Using a gentle form of myofascial release following dry needling is an ideal combination. The needling technique can soften some of the toughest and most restricted areas; however, it tends to work in a smaller area due to the pinpoint accuracy of the needle. The gentle myofascial release then allows the surrounding tissues to lengthen and expand and can address the tissue tension lines that can span longer distances in the body. For example, a restriction in in the left hip could offset the fascial system and cause pain in the right shoulder.
Treating the fascial system can be like trying to figure out a puzzle. Luckily I loved puzzles as a kid. These days I cannot find the time for them because I am too busy figuring out the puzzles in each of my clients bodies. It keeps me from getting bored because every fascial restriction can be unique to each person.
If you think your pain may be the result of a fascial restriction then reach out to me and let me help you solve the puzzle. It is one of my passions to solve these puzzles and I would love to help you with yours. You can reach out to me at <email-pii>.
In Abundant Health,
|
HOUSTON — The largest solar farm in Alaska will soon begin harvesting power from the sun, helping suppress electricity costs in the fastest-growing region of the state.
The new Houston Solar Farm, stretched across a brushy lot that in 1996 was scorched by the costly Miller’s Reach fire, will provide enough energy to power about 1,400 homes when it’s turned on, developers say.
It will nearly double the solar energy generated in Alaska, they say.
But the 8.5-megawatt project, located near Houston High School, is just part of the solar power picture in Southcentral Alaska, where solar panels are increasingly sprouting on rooftops amid gloomy forecasts that the region’s longtime power source, Cook Inlet natural gas, will dwindle starting in 2027.
When electricity starts flowing from the solar farm, some time in the coming weeks, the Matanuska Electric Association will buy it for slightly less than the cost of Cook Inlet gas, said Jenn Miller, chief executive of Renewable IPP, the project developer.
That means the solar farm will likely generate significant and growing savings into the future for the utility, especially if costly natural gas needs to be imported from Outside as expected, observers say.
Miller said the solar farm will produce eight times the electricity as the company produces at its nearby Willow solar project, built four years ago and previously the largest solar farm in Alaska.
The Houston farm won’t be the last solar project for the company. It’s already planning to build an even larger solar farm on the Kenai Peninsula.
“This is a first step of many here in the state,” Miller said, speaking at a ribbon-cutting for the Houston solar farm on Tuesday, held under a drizzling sky.
Replacing natural gas
The sweeping rows of panels at the Houston farm cover an area the size of 34 football fields, Miller said. And there’s space for more panels to be added in the future, she said.
The panels are more efficient than those at the farm in Willow, she said. They’re bifacial, so they’ll absorb sunlight from above and from snow below.
She said 30 workers, along with subcontractors, built the project over the past year. Planning took a few years.
“I think we think of solar and renewables as the light, fluffy version of energy generation,” she told about 100 people on Tuesday. “I’m here to tell you there’s nothing light or fluffy about it. We’ve got over 200,000 pounds of steel, 14,400 solar panels, over 40 miles of wires, and over hundreds of thousands of nuts and bolts.”
Tony Izzo, chief executive of the Matanuska Electric Association, said studies show that Alaska utilities will need to import gas in the coming years, though he said they should be as limited as possible.
He said the solar project’s output will be half the energy produced at one of the 10 gas-fired generators at the utility’s power plant in Eklutna.
That can help stabilize rates as costs rise, he said. And it will help lower the utility’s $45 million annual gas bill, by about $100,000.
Along with hydropower and other projects the utility is weighing, the Houston solar farm can help Matanuska Electric move closer to its goal of using 50% clean energy by 2050, he said.
The utility got 16% of its power from clean energy last year, thanks largely to the Bradley Lake and Eklutna hydropower facilities, said Julie Estey, the utility’s spokeswoman.
The solar farm will help the utility move closer to 17%.
“You combine that with other things we’re doing and slowly you can take those offline, or cycle them differently to burn less,” Izzo said, referring to gas-fueled generators.
Residential solar installations are also helping make a small difference in the utility’s service area and across Southcentral, though they collectively produce a little less power than the Houston Solar Farm.
Those residential customers, who can sell their excess solar power to Matanuska Electric, grew by 33% last year, to more than 400 ratepayers, utility reports show. In the Anchorage area, their numbers grew by 18%, with more than 775 ratepayers now generating their own solar power, Chugach Electric Association reported.
‘Making more than we use’
Concerns about rising natural gas prices and dwindling supply is part of the reason that Mike Chmielewski and his wife, Lee Henrikson, recently expanded the number of solar panels atop their house in downtown Palmer.
The retired educators want to make as much of their own electricity as possible, Chmielewski said.
Their 15 panels meet their summer power needs, including for their Kia Niro electric car.
“That means I’m driving for free,” he said.
They also sell excess power to the utility for credits in Alaska’s sun-starved winter. They’ve cut their annual bill roughly in half, to less than $600, he said. After the new installation costs are paid for, he estimates in about seven years, the system will generate free power for decades, he said.
“The payback is better than you can get on most other investments,” he said.
Stephen Trimble, who co-owns Arctic Solar Ventures in Anchorage, said forecasts for a Cook Inlet gas shortage are encouraging more Alaskans to sign up for solar installations.
“People are like, ‘Oh gosh, I should be thinking about where my energy is coming from, and how can I control the cost of that,’ ” he said.
Federal tax credits that start at 30% for solar projects are also helping drive sales, he said.
Many people are opting for larger installations than they once did, and projects are typically paid off in about 10 years, so they generate profits for the homeowners for two decades or more, he said.
After a dip during the pandemic, sales for his company are up sharply in Anchorage and in the more politically conservative Mat-Su area, he said.
“Being in a resource development state, we focus on the economic benefits,” he said of the projects. “It’s a good financial choice, and the other benefits you’ll get whether you like it or not,” such as environmental benefits, he said.
Louisa Branchflower, who lives near downtown Palmer and works at a local nonprofit, said she and her family of five — if you count an exchange student from Belgium — began generating power from 20 panels atop their house this summer.
They wanted to reduce their carbon footprint, she said.
She joined up with other households in the area to slightly lower project costs under the Solarize program led by the Alaska Center. The program facilitates group installations by multiple households, lowering prices.
The only downside was a delay in getting the panels shipped to Alaska, perhaps because of the demand, Branchflower said.
On Tuesday, even under thick clouds, the system produced more power than the family needed, allowing some to be sold to the utility, she said.
“It’s great that we’re making more than we use,” she said.
Lots of solar opportunity in Alaska
Miller said there’s room for solar power to grow in Alaska. She has pointed to Germany as an example. It gets a similar amount of sunlight to Alaska, but more than 10% of its power comes from solar energy.
Miller declined to disclose the location of the company’s next project on the Kenai Peninsula. But she said plans call for a solar farm with about four times the power output of the new Houston project.
Estimates show it will meet more than 10% of electricity demand in the service area of the Homer Electric Association, she said.
“So it will be a significant contribution,” she said.
As for the Houston project, Miller declined to disclose the cost.
She said numerous partners helped make it happen. Financing came from CleanCapital, a New York-based firm that has acquired more than 200 solar projects across the U.S., and will own the Houston solar farm. The Alaska Energy Authority, a state agency, also provided a $5 million loan.
Miller said the Houston project can further prove up the benefits of solar power in Alaska, leading to new solar farms that, along with wind power and other clean energy, can help address the looming Cook Inlet gas shortage.
“It opens the doors for more projects to be done and builds that momentum to address our energy supply issue,” she said.
|
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HOUSTON — The largest solar farm in Alaska will soon begin harvesting power from the sun, helping suppress electricity costs in the fastest-growing region of the state.
The new Houston Solar Farm, stretched across a brushy lot that in 1996 was scorched by the costly Miller’s Reach fire, will provide enough energy to power about 1,400 homes when it’s turned on, developers say.
It will nearly double the solar energy generated in Alaska, they say.
But the 8.5-megawatt project, located near Houston High School, is just part of the solar power picture in Southcentral Alaska, where solar panels are increasingly sprouting on rooftops amid gloomy forecasts that the region’s longtime power source, Cook Inlet natural gas, will dwindle starting in 2027.
When electricity starts flowing from the solar farm, some time in the coming weeks, the Matanuska Electric Association will buy it for slightly less than the cost of Cook Inlet gas, said Jenn Miller, chief executive of Renewable IPP, the project developer.
That means the solar farm will likely generate significant and growing savings into the future for the utility, especially if costly natural gas needs to be imported from Outside as expected, observers say.
Miller said the solar farm will produce eight times the electricity as the company produces at its nearby Willow solar project, built four years ago and previously the largest solar farm in Alaska.
The Houston farm won’t be the last solar project for the company. It’s already planning to build an even larger solar farm on the Kenai Peninsula.
“This is a first step of many here in the state,” Miller said, speaking at a ribbon-cutting for the Houston solar farm on Tuesday, held under a drizzling sky.
Replacing natural gas
The sweeping rows of panels at the Houston farm cover an area the size of 34 football fields, Miller said. And there’s space for more panels to be added in the future, she said.
The panels are more efficient than those at the farm in Willow, she said. They’re bifacial, so they’ll absorb sunlight from above and from snow below.
She said 30 workers, along with subcontractors, built the project over the past year. Planning took a few years.
“I think we think of solar and renewables as the light, fluffy version of energy generation,” she told about 100 people on Tuesday. “I’m here to tell you there’s
|
nothing light or fluffy about it. We’ve got over 200,000 pounds of steel, 14,400 solar panels, over 40 miles of wires, and over hundreds of thousands of nuts and bolts.”
Tony Izzo, chief executive of the Matanuska Electric Association, said studies show that Alaska utilities will need to import gas in the coming years, though he said they should be as limited as possible.
He said the solar project’s output will be half the energy produced at one of the 10 gas-fired generators at the utility’s power plant in Eklutna.
That can help stabilize rates as costs rise, he said. And it will help lower the utility’s $45 million annual gas bill, by about $100,000.
Along with hydropower and other projects the utility is weighing, the Houston solar farm can help Matanuska Electric move closer to its goal of using 50% clean energy by 2050, he said.
The utility got 16% of its power from clean energy last year, thanks largely to the Bradley Lake and Eklutna hydropower facilities, said Julie Estey, the utility’s spokeswoman.
The solar farm will help the utility move closer to 17%.
“You combine that with other things we’re doing and slowly you can take those offline, or cycle them differently to burn less,” Izzo said, referring to gas-fueled generators.
Residential solar installations are also helping make a small difference in the utility’s service area and across Southcentral, though they collectively produce a little less power than the Houston Solar Farm.
Those residential customers, who can sell their excess solar power to Matanuska Electric, grew by 33% last year, to more than 400 ratepayers, utility reports show. In the Anchorage area, their numbers grew by 18%, with more than 775 ratepayers now generating their own solar power, Chugach Electric Association reported.
‘Making more than we use’
Concerns about rising natural gas prices and dwindling supply is part of the reason that Mike Chmielewski and his wife, Lee Henrikson, recently expanded the number of solar panels atop their house in downtown Palmer.
The retired educators want to make as much of their own electricity as possible, Chmielewski said.
Their 15 panels meet their summer power needs, including for their Kia Niro electric car.
“That means I’m driving for free,” he said.
They also sell excess power to the utility for credits in Alaska’s sun-starved winter. They’ve cut their annual bill roughly in half, to less than $600, he said. After the new installation costs are paid for, he estimates in about seven years, the system will generate free power for decades, he said.
“The payback is better than you can get on most other investments,” he said.
Stephen Trimble, who co-owns Arctic Solar Ventures in Anchorage, said forecasts for a Cook Inlet gas shortage are encouraging more Alaskans to sign up for solar installations.
“People are like, ‘Oh gosh, I should be thinking about where my energy is coming from, and how can I control the cost of that,’ ” he said.
Federal tax credits that start at 30% for solar projects are also helping drive sales, he said.
Many people are opting for larger installations than they once did, and projects are typically paid off in about 10 years, so they generate profits for the homeowners for two decades or more, he said.
After a dip during the pandemic, sales for his company are up sharply in Anchorage and in the more politically conservative Mat-Su area, he said.
“Being in a resource development state, we focus on the economic benefits,” he said of the projects. “It’s a good financial choice, and the other benefits you’ll get whether you like it or not,” such as environmental benefits, he said.
Louisa Branchflower, who lives near downtown Palmer and works at a local nonprofit, said she and her family of five — if you count an exchange student from Belgium — began generating power from 20 panels atop their house this summer.
They wanted to reduce their carbon footprint, she said.
She joined up with other households in the area to slightly lower project costs under the Solarize program led by the Alaska Center. The program facilitates group installations by multiple households, lowering prices.
The only downside was a delay in getting the panels shipped to Alaska, perhaps because of the demand, Branchflower said.
On Tuesday, even under thick clouds, the system produced more power than the family needed, allowing some to be sold to the utility, she said.
“It’s great that we’re making more than we use,” she said.
Lots of solar opportunity in Alaska
Miller said there’s room for solar power to grow in Alaska. She has pointed to Germany as an example. It gets a similar amount of sunlight to Alaska, but more than 10% of its power comes from solar energy.
Miller declined to disclose the location of the company’s next project on the Kenai Peninsula. But she said plans call for a solar farm with about four times the power output of the new Houston project.
Estimates show it will meet more than 10% of electricity demand in the service area of the Homer Electric Association, she said.
“So it will be a significant contribution,” she said.
As for the Houston project, Miller declined to disclose the cost.
She said numerous partners helped make it happen. Financing came from CleanCapital, a New York-based firm that has acquired more than 200 solar projects across the U.S., and will own the Houston solar farm. The Alaska Energy Authority, a state agency, also provided a $5 million loan.
Miller said the Houston project can further prove up the benefits of solar power in Alaska, leading to new solar farms that, along with wind power and other clean energy, can help address the looming Cook Inlet gas shortage.
“It opens the doors for more projects to be done and builds that momentum to address our energy supply issue,” she said.
|
The Taliban are digging an enormous canal
A mega-project in northern Afghanistan risks raising regional tensions
Taliban officials have started talking up a new canal under construction in the arid north of Afghanistan. A video recently posted on YouTube shows shiny diggers roaring over sand dunes and workers from different ethnic groups toiling together. The Islamist regime says some 5,500 people are working around the clock on the project, using over 3,300 bits of machinery. Once completed, the Qosh Tepa Canal will divert water from the Amu Darya river for irrigation. The river, once known as the Oxus, rises in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, flows into Uzbekistan and is one of the longest in Central Asia. The Taliban expects the project to turn 550,000 hectares of desert into much-needed farmland.
Amid much terrible news from Afghanistan, including the threatened impoverishment of almost its entire population of 40m, the canal is a prominent test of the Taliban’s ability to govern. “Many people doubt we have the capacity to implement this project,” Abdul Rahman Attash, head of the National Development Corporation, has declared. “We will prove Afghanistan can stand up its economy and implement national projects on its own.”
The jihadists have so far done little of that. Since they retook Afghanistan in August 2021 it has been gripped by an economic crisis, in part due to the imposition of sanctions and evaporation of the international aid on which the country had depended. The World Bank reckons its economy contracted by over 20% in 2021. Exacerbated by a severe drought and an unusually cold winter, the crisis has pushed 20m people into acute hunger.
Global warming, which is especially conspicuous in semi-arid Central Asia, is meanwhile making access to water an urgent concern. Afghanistan’s former president, Ashraf Ghani, revelled in the completion of a dam near the border with Iran to produce irrigation and electricity. Similarly, the Taliban, as Ashley Jackson of the Centre on Armed Groups, an nGO, puts it, are using the Qosh Tepa Canal to project “autonomy, independence and strength”.
The project is not new. Plans for a canal in north Afghanistan have been discussed for decades; feasibility studies were carried out under its former American-backed government. Even so, the Taliban’s progress looks impressive. Satellite imagery supplied by Planet Labs, pBC, an American firm, reveals that over 100km of canal has been excavated in the past 10 months.
Speedy work is not necessarily good work, however. Najibullah Sadid, an Afghan engineer based in Germany, worries that the canal is not being lined or covered. In that case, much of its water would be lost to seepage in the region’s dry, sandy soil. Besides, digging a ditch is the easy bit of canal construction. Mr Sadid is sceptical that the Taliban can manage the complex engineering work, including building culverts and bridges, that should come next. “They are in a hurry,” he says.
Funding the canal won’t be easy, either. Afghanistan’s finance ministry suggests it will do so from domestic revenues, which have increased thanks to a crackdown on tax avoidance and corruption. It has little alternative. Foreign donors are not lining up to hand the Taliban money for grand projects while the regime is banning women and girls from public life. Yet the canal’s first phase, covering over 100km of its planned 285km length, is expected to cost 8.2bn afghanis ($91m). That is equivalent to about 8% of the domestic revenues Afghanistan collected in the first eight months of 2022.
Another concern is that, if completed, the canal could cause an increase in regional conflict. It will divert water from the Amu Darya close to the border with Uzbekistan, which relies on the river to irrigate the cotton fields that are its biggest source of jobs. And given that Afghanistan imports much of its electricity from Uzbekistan, it can ill afford to antagonise it. In recent weeks, residents of Kabul have had as little as two hours of electricity a day because the government in Tashkent responded to an electricity shortage at home by cutting exports to Afghanistan. Rising tensions over water would make a difficult relationship worse. ■
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Ditch-digging"
From the February 18th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition
More from Asia
Millions of dead fish are washing up in Australia
Climate change and poor management are imperilling its biggest river system
Russian arms have fewer takers in South-East Asia
South Korea looks set to become the region’s new weapons-maker of choice
North Koreans are at growing risk of starvation
Reports of terrible hunger are emerging from the closed-off state
|
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The Taliban are digging an enormous canal
A mega-project in northern Afghanistan risks raising regional tensions
Taliban officials have started talking up a new canal under construction in the arid north of Afghanistan. A video recently posted on YouTube shows shiny diggers roaring over sand dunes and workers from different ethnic groups toiling together. The Islamist regime says some 5,500 people are working around the clock on the project, using over 3,300 bits of machinery. Once completed, the Qosh Tepa Canal will divert water from the Amu Darya river for irrigation. The river, once known as the Oxus, rises in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, flows into Uzbekistan and is one of the longest in Central Asia. The Taliban expects the project to turn 550,000 hectares of desert into much-needed farmland.
Amid much terrible news from Afghanistan, including the threatened impoverishment of almost its entire population of 40m, the canal is a prominent test of the Taliban’s ability to govern. “Many people doubt we have the capacity to implement this project,” Abdul Rahman Attash, head of the National Development Corporation, has declared. “We will prove Afghanistan can stand up its economy and implement national projects on its own.”
The jihadists have so far done little of that. Since they retook Afghanistan in August 2021 it has been gripped by an economic crisis, in part due to the imposition of sanctions and evaporation of the international aid on which the country had depended. The World Bank reckons its economy contracted by over 20% in 2021. Exacerbated by a severe drought and an unusually cold winter, the crisis has pushed 20m people into acute hunger.
Global warming, which is especially conspicuous in semi-arid Central Asia, is meanwhile making access to water an urgent concern. Afghanistan’s former president, Ashraf Ghani, revelled in the completion of a dam near the border with Iran to produce irrigation and electricity. Similarly, the Taliban, as Ashley Jackson of the Centre on Armed Groups, an nGO, puts it, are using the Qosh Tepa Canal to project “autonomy, independence and strength”.
The project is not new. Plans for a canal in north Afghanistan have been discussed for decades; feasibility studies were carried out under its former American-backed government. Even so, the Taliban’s progress looks impressive. Satellite imagery supplied by Planet Labs, pBC, an American
|
firm, reveals that over 100km of canal has been excavated in the past 10 months.
Speedy work is not necessarily good work, however. Najibullah Sadid, an Afghan engineer based in Germany, worries that the canal is not being lined or covered. In that case, much of its water would be lost to seepage in the region’s dry, sandy soil. Besides, digging a ditch is the easy bit of canal construction. Mr Sadid is sceptical that the Taliban can manage the complex engineering work, including building culverts and bridges, that should come next. “They are in a hurry,” he says.
Funding the canal won’t be easy, either. Afghanistan’s finance ministry suggests it will do so from domestic revenues, which have increased thanks to a crackdown on tax avoidance and corruption. It has little alternative. Foreign donors are not lining up to hand the Taliban money for grand projects while the regime is banning women and girls from public life. Yet the canal’s first phase, covering over 100km of its planned 285km length, is expected to cost 8.2bn afghanis ($91m). That is equivalent to about 8% of the domestic revenues Afghanistan collected in the first eight months of 2022.
Another concern is that, if completed, the canal could cause an increase in regional conflict. It will divert water from the Amu Darya close to the border with Uzbekistan, which relies on the river to irrigate the cotton fields that are its biggest source of jobs. And given that Afghanistan imports much of its electricity from Uzbekistan, it can ill afford to antagonise it. In recent weeks, residents of Kabul have had as little as two hours of electricity a day because the government in Tashkent responded to an electricity shortage at home by cutting exports to Afghanistan. Rising tensions over water would make a difficult relationship worse. ■
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Ditch-digging"
From the February 18th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition
More from Asia
Millions of dead fish are washing up in Australia
Climate change and poor management are imperilling its biggest river system
Russian arms have fewer takers in South-East Asia
South Korea looks set to become the region’s new weapons-maker of choice
North Koreans are at growing risk of starvation
Reports of terrible hunger are emerging from the closed-off state
|
Cannabis, a plant that has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years, has recently been gaining attention for its potential anti-cancer properties. The use of cannabis in cancer treatment is a controversial topic, but there is scientific evidence to support its efficacy.
Cannabis contains over 100 chemical compounds known as cannabinoids. The two most well-known cannabinoids are delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC is the psychoactive compound in cannabis that produces the “high” associated with recreational use, while CBD is non-psychoactive and has been shown to have a variety of medicinal benefits.
Studies have shown that cannabinoids have anti-cancer properties, including the ability to slow the growth and spread of cancer cells, induce cancer cell death, and inhibit the formation of new blood vessels that feed tumors. Additionally, cannabinoids have been shown to reduce inflammation and relieve pain, which are common side effects of cancer and cancer treatments.
One of the most well-known anti-cancer effects of cannabis is its ability to help alleviate the side effects of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is a common cancer treatment that uses powerful drugs to kill cancer cells. However, chemotherapy also damages healthy cells in the body, leading to side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. Cannabis has been shown to reduce these side effects, allowing patients to better tolerate their chemotherapy treatments.
In addition to its ability to reduce chemotherapy-related side effects, cannabis has also been shown to have direct anti-cancer effects. A 2014 study published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics found that THC and CBD can cause cancer cells to die by triggering a process called apoptosis. Apoptosis is a natural process by which cells self-destruct when they are damaged or no longer needed. Cancer cells often bypass this process, leading to uncontrolled growth and spread. The study found that cannabinoids can activate this process in cancer cells, leading to their death.
Another study, published in the journal Cancer Research in 2006, found that THC can inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells in mice. The study found that THC caused the cancer cells to self-destruct and prevented the growth of new blood vessels that would have fed the tumor. The researchers concluded that THC may have potential as an anti-cancer therapy for lung cancer patients.
Despite these promising findings, cannabis is not yet a mainstream treatment option for cancer. There are several reasons for this. First, cannabis is still illegal under federal law in the United States, which makes it difficult to conduct large-scale clinical trials. Additionally, there is still a lack of research on the long-term effects of cannabis use, particularly in cancer patients who may be more vulnerable to the effects of the drug.
However, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that cannabis has anti-cancer properties and can be an effective treatment option for cancer patients. In states where cannabis is legal, doctors are increasingly recommending it as a complementary therapy to help alleviate the side effects of cancer treatments and improve patients’ quality of life.
In conclusion, cannabis has the potential to be an effective anti-cancer therapy. Its ability to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and directly inhibit the growth and spread of cancer cells make it a promising treatment option for cancer patients. However, more research is needed to fully understand the potential benefits and risks of cannabis use in cancer treatment. As always, patients should speak with their healthcare provider before starting any new treatment regimen.
|
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Cannabis, a plant that has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years, has recently been gaining attention for its potential anti-cancer properties. The use of cannabis in cancer treatment is a controversial topic, but there is scientific evidence to support its efficacy.
Cannabis contains over 100 chemical compounds known as cannabinoids. The two most well-known cannabinoids are delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). THC is the psychoactive compound in cannabis that produces the “high” associated with recreational use, while CBD is non-psychoactive and has been shown to have a variety of medicinal benefits.
Studies have shown that cannabinoids have anti-cancer properties, including the ability to slow the growth and spread of cancer cells, induce cancer cell death, and inhibit the formation of new blood vessels that feed tumors. Additionally, cannabinoids have been shown to reduce inflammation and relieve pain, which are common side effects of cancer and cancer treatments.
One of the most well-known anti-cancer effects of cannabis is its ability to help alleviate the side effects of chemotherapy. Chemotherapy is a common cancer treatment that uses powerful drugs to kill cancer cells. However, chemotherapy also damages healthy cells in the body, leading to side effects such as nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite. Cannabis has been shown to reduce these side effects, allowing patients to better tolerate their chemotherapy treatments.
In addition to its ability to reduce chemotherapy-related side effects, cannabis has also been shown to have direct anti-cancer effects. A 2014 study published in the journal Molecular Cancer Therapeutics found that THC and CBD can cause cancer cells to die by triggering a process called apoptosis. Apoptosis is a natural process by which cells self-destruct when they are damaged or no longer needed. Cancer cells often bypass this process, leading to uncontrolled growth and spread. The study found that cannabinoids can activate this process in cancer cells, leading to their death.
Another study, published in the journal Cancer Research in 2006, found that THC can inhibit the growth of lung cancer cells in mice. The study found that THC caused the cancer cells to self-destruct and prevented the growth of new blood vessels that would have fed the tumor. The researchers concluded that THC may have potential as an anti-cancer therapy for lung cancer patients.
Despite these promising findings, cannabis is not yet a mainstream treatment option for cancer. There are several reasons for this. First,
|
cannabis is still illegal under federal law in the United States, which makes it difficult to conduct large-scale clinical trials. Additionally, there is still a lack of research on the long-term effects of cannabis use, particularly in cancer patients who may be more vulnerable to the effects of the drug.
However, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that cannabis has anti-cancer properties and can be an effective treatment option for cancer patients. In states where cannabis is legal, doctors are increasingly recommending it as a complementary therapy to help alleviate the side effects of cancer treatments and improve patients’ quality of life.
In conclusion, cannabis has the potential to be an effective anti-cancer therapy. Its ability to reduce the side effects of chemotherapy and directly inhibit the growth and spread of cancer cells make it a promising treatment option for cancer patients. However, more research is needed to fully understand the potential benefits and risks of cannabis use in cancer treatment. As always, patients should speak with their healthcare provider before starting any new treatment regimen.
|
In rock imagery, the “Goggle-Eye Entity” is a haunting emissary of West Texas prehistory
If you've visited Hueco Tanks State Park, near El Paso, you likely haven't forgotten its penetrating gaze. What archeologists call the “Goggle-Eye Entity” was painted or pecked at hundreds of sites in the desert borderlands, by a prehistoric people known as the Jornada Mogollon. Its form varies, but its bulging eyes are a constant.
What do we know of this haunting figure?
There's something that leaps to mind at the sight of the Goggle-Eye Entity.
Margaret Berrier is a rock art researcher.
“We went to see it and I brought my two grandsons,” Berrier said. “So I asked the younger one, 'What do you think that is?' And he says, 'an alien!'”
Known as Marglyph, in tribute to her decades-long study of petroglyphs, Berrier is an artist who has drawn, recorded and cataloged thousands of rock-art images in West Texas and New Mexico.
That includes more than 700 Goggle-Eye – or “GE” – Entities, which has given her a singular perspective.
“There's a real variety when you sit down and look at all the images that I've found,” she said. “And that's the thing that always fascinates me, that they have that similarity of the eyes, but the rest of it can be wildly imaginative.”
Some are six-feet high, others less than a foot. Striking examples feature trapezoidal heads or bodies. Some include intricate geometric patterns, like the “step-fret” motif, used in Native American design in the Southwest today. Some GEs have limbs. Others, perhaps most hauntingly, are simply a pair of wide eyes.
Who is this arresting being?
Archeologists have long answered that by looking south to the wide-eyed Aztec rain god, Tlaloc. The Jornada Mogollon flourished from the Guadalupe Mountains to southern New Mexico and Chihuahua for untold centuries. By 500 CE, they were creating distinctive ceramics. But around 1000 CE, they became increasingly agricultural. Archeologists assumed the Jornada “imported” Tlaloc, along with farming, from present-day Mexico around that time.
But new findings suggests otherwise.
In West Texas caves, GEs have been found painted on sotol stalks, dating to 600 CE. The dating of Hueco Tanks paintings reveals a comparable antiquity. And while the big eyes are shared, Marglyph noted the GE lacks several of Tlaloc's defining features — like fangs and a mustache.
The two icons may have emerged from a broadly shared mythology. But the GE doesn't appear elsewhere in the ancient Southwest — it seems distinctive to the Jornada.
Still, Marglyph noted, entrenched beliefs change slowly.
“Even a guy that I've worked with for 15 years, he said, 'Don't you think it's about time that you just accept my idea that Tlaloc came from West Mexico in an ancestor bundle?'” she said. “There are some people that are very attached to their theories.”
There's other evidence the Goggle-Eye was a signature Jornada image.
For unknown reasons, the Jornada abandoned their villages around 1450 CE. Much of their iconography endures in contemporary Indigenous communities. Jornada rock art, for example, includes stunning images of figures with headdresses. Strikingly similar headdresses are part of ceremonial life in Pueblos today, from Taos to Hopi. But when the Jornada culture vanished, so did the Goggle-Eye Entity.
Marglyph focuses on documenting images, not interpreting them. She said that some archeologists have tied the GE Entity to rain, but that such connections are speculative.
This West Texas icon may always remain mysterious. But we can be sure that for our region's ancient people, it held immense meaning.
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In rock imagery, the “Goggle-Eye Entity” is a haunting emissary of West Texas prehistory
If you've visited Hueco Tanks State Park, near El Paso, you likely haven't forgotten its penetrating gaze. What archeologists call the “Goggle-Eye Entity” was painted or pecked at hundreds of sites in the desert borderlands, by a prehistoric people known as the Jornada Mogollon. Its form varies, but its bulging eyes are a constant.
What do we know of this haunting figure?
There's something that leaps to mind at the sight of the Goggle-Eye Entity.
Margaret Berrier is a rock art researcher.
“We went to see it and I brought my two grandsons,” Berrier said. “So I asked the younger one, 'What do you think that is?' And he says, 'an alien!'”
Known as Marglyph, in tribute to her decades-long study of petroglyphs, Berrier is an artist who has drawn, recorded and cataloged thousands of rock-art images in West Texas and New Mexico.
That includes more than 700 Goggle-Eye – or “GE” – Entities, which has given her a singular perspective.
“There's a real variety when you sit down and look at all the images that I've found,” she said. “And that's the thing that always fascinates me, that they have that similarity of the eyes, but the rest of it can be wildly imaginative.”
Some are six-feet high, others less than a foot. Striking examples feature trapezoidal heads or bodies. Some include intricate geometric patterns, like the “step-fret” motif, used in Native American design in the Southwest today. Some GEs have limbs. Others, perhaps most hauntingly, are simply a pair of wide eyes.
Who is this arresting being?
Archeologists have long answered that by looking south to the wide-eyed Aztec rain god, Tlaloc. The Jornada Mogollon flourished from the Guadalupe Mountains to southern New Mexico and Chihuahua for untold centuries. By 500 CE, they were creating distinctive ceramics. But around 1000 CE, they became increasingly agricultural. Archeologists assumed the Jornada “imported” Tlaloc, along with farming, from present-day Mexico around that time.
But new findings suggests otherwise.
In West Texas caves, GEs have been found painted on sotol stal
|
ks, dating to 600 CE. The dating of Hueco Tanks paintings reveals a comparable antiquity. And while the big eyes are shared, Marglyph noted the GE lacks several of Tlaloc's defining features — like fangs and a mustache.
The two icons may have emerged from a broadly shared mythology. But the GE doesn't appear elsewhere in the ancient Southwest — it seems distinctive to the Jornada.
Still, Marglyph noted, entrenched beliefs change slowly.
“Even a guy that I've worked with for 15 years, he said, 'Don't you think it's about time that you just accept my idea that Tlaloc came from West Mexico in an ancestor bundle?'” she said. “There are some people that are very attached to their theories.”
There's other evidence the Goggle-Eye was a signature Jornada image.
For unknown reasons, the Jornada abandoned their villages around 1450 CE. Much of their iconography endures in contemporary Indigenous communities. Jornada rock art, for example, includes stunning images of figures with headdresses. Strikingly similar headdresses are part of ceremonial life in Pueblos today, from Taos to Hopi. But when the Jornada culture vanished, so did the Goggle-Eye Entity.
Marglyph focuses on documenting images, not interpreting them. She said that some archeologists have tied the GE Entity to rain, but that such connections are speculative.
This West Texas icon may always remain mysterious. But we can be sure that for our region's ancient people, it held immense meaning.
|
One of the basic but golden rules of politics is: if possible, once elected, stay elected.
In the United States, as in Ireland, for some politics is a career. Individuals have remained on the political stage for years and years.
Joe Biden was first elected as a senator in 1973. He has been in public life as a senator, vice-president and now president for 50 years with the exception of the four years between early 2017 and early 2021 when Donald Trump was in power.
The current longest-serving senator is Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who was first elected in 1981 and has served for 42 years. But this is just trotting after Michigan politician John Dingell, a Democrat who spent 59 years in the House of Representatives – winning election an astonishing 29 times.
There are 435 seats in the US House, but given local politics as well as gerrymandering of constituencies, in the recent midterm elections in November it was estimated that only about 80 were competitive between parties.
[ America Letter: Gas stove warning cooks up a political storm ]
There can be tight contests within parties for the right to run. However, incumbents tend to have the benefits of name recognition, fundraising capacity and the ability to bring government investment to their areas.
Limiting the time politicians can serve was a popular idea on the right about 30 years ago but then seemed to fade away. But there are some who still advocate for such restrictions. Such campaigners ask whether the founders of the country envisaged a political class or whether there should be “citizen politicians” who would give service to the state for a while and then, like George Washington, go back to their farms.
In 1995 the US supreme court found that individual states could not introduce qualifications for prospective members of Congress that were stricter than those set out in the constitution. This decision, in effect, invalidated provisions for term limits that some states wanted.
The introduction of restrictions on how long politicians could serve in Congress would involve changing the constitution. At present the US president can only serve two four-year terms. Senators serve six-year terms and House members two years. However, they are eligible for re-election more or less indefinitely.
There have been proposals put forward in some state legislatures for a convention of states to propose a constitutional amendment to allow for term limits.
Those of us in Congress ought to serve for a reasonable period and then return home to live under the laws we enacted— Ralph Norman, a House member from South Carolina
Earlier this week Republican senator Ted Cruz sponsored a resolution in the Senate proposing such an amendment to the US constitution limiting the number of terms a member of Congress may serve. The initiative, if passed by Congress and ratified by the states, would restrict members of the House to three terms, or six years, and senators to two terms, or 12 years.
Cruz said term limits were critical to fixing the problems of Washington DC. “The founding fathers envisioned a government of citizen legislators who would serve for a few years and return home, not a government run by a small group of special interests and lifelong, permanently entrenched politicians who prey upon the brokenness of Washington to govern in a manner that is totally unaccountable to the American people.”
The counter argument, of course, is that getting rid of experienced politicians could leave those who replaced them – and who were new to the world of Washington DC – more under the spell of lobbyists and special interests.
The proposal put forward by Cruz has 11 Republican cosponsors so far. The Texas senator has brought forward similar proposals before but they did not go anywhere. And on this occasion it also seems unlikely that the resolution will receive the support of the necessary two-thirds of both chambers of Congress.
[ ‘Double standards’ claim as Trump house raided, while Biden’s is searched by appointment ]
However, Republicans now control the House of Representatives. One of those backing the Cruz plan is House member Ralph Norman from South Carolina, who said this week that elected office should be a “short-term privilege” and not a career choice. “Those of us in Congress ought to serve for a reasonable period and then return home to live under the laws we enacted.”
As part of the recent wheeling and dealing within the Republican Party that led to Kevin McCarthy becoming speaker of the House, Norman said he had been given a commitment to holding a vote on the floor of the chamber on introducing term limits.
The measure may not pass but we are likely to hear more about it in the weeks ahead.
|
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One of the basic but golden rules of politics is: if possible, once elected, stay elected.
In the United States, as in Ireland, for some politics is a career. Individuals have remained on the political stage for years and years.
Joe Biden was first elected as a senator in 1973. He has been in public life as a senator, vice-president and now president for 50 years with the exception of the four years between early 2017 and early 2021 when Donald Trump was in power.
The current longest-serving senator is Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who was first elected in 1981 and has served for 42 years. But this is just trotting after Michigan politician John Dingell, a Democrat who spent 59 years in the House of Representatives – winning election an astonishing 29 times.
There are 435 seats in the US House, but given local politics as well as gerrymandering of constituencies, in the recent midterm elections in November it was estimated that only about 80 were competitive between parties.
[ America Letter: Gas stove warning cooks up a political storm ]
There can be tight contests within parties for the right to run. However, incumbents tend to have the benefits of name recognition, fundraising capacity and the ability to bring government investment to their areas.
Limiting the time politicians can serve was a popular idea on the right about 30 years ago but then seemed to fade away. But there are some who still advocate for such restrictions. Such campaigners ask whether the founders of the country envisaged a political class or whether there should be “citizen politicians” who would give service to the state for a while and then, like George Washington, go back to their farms.
In 1995 the US supreme court found that individual states could not introduce qualifications for prospective members of Congress that were stricter than those set out in the constitution. This decision, in effect, invalidated provisions for term limits that some states wanted.
The introduction of restrictions on how long politicians could serve in Congress would involve changing the constitution. At present the US president can only serve two four-year terms. Senators serve six-year terms and House members two years. However, they are eligible for re-election more or less indefinitely.
There have been proposals put forward in some state legislatures for a convention of states to propose a constitutional amendment to allow for term limits.
Those of us in Congress ought to serve for
|
a reasonable period and then return home to live under the laws we enacted— Ralph Norman, a House member from South Carolina
Earlier this week Republican senator Ted Cruz sponsored a resolution in the Senate proposing such an amendment to the US constitution limiting the number of terms a member of Congress may serve. The initiative, if passed by Congress and ratified by the states, would restrict members of the House to three terms, or six years, and senators to two terms, or 12 years.
Cruz said term limits were critical to fixing the problems of Washington DC. “The founding fathers envisioned a government of citizen legislators who would serve for a few years and return home, not a government run by a small group of special interests and lifelong, permanently entrenched politicians who prey upon the brokenness of Washington to govern in a manner that is totally unaccountable to the American people.”
The counter argument, of course, is that getting rid of experienced politicians could leave those who replaced them – and who were new to the world of Washington DC – more under the spell of lobbyists and special interests.
The proposal put forward by Cruz has 11 Republican cosponsors so far. The Texas senator has brought forward similar proposals before but they did not go anywhere. And on this occasion it also seems unlikely that the resolution will receive the support of the necessary two-thirds of both chambers of Congress.
[ ‘Double standards’ claim as Trump house raided, while Biden’s is searched by appointment ]
However, Republicans now control the House of Representatives. One of those backing the Cruz plan is House member Ralph Norman from South Carolina, who said this week that elected office should be a “short-term privilege” and not a career choice. “Those of us in Congress ought to serve for a reasonable period and then return home to live under the laws we enacted.”
As part of the recent wheeling and dealing within the Republican Party that led to Kevin McCarthy becoming speaker of the House, Norman said he had been given a commitment to holding a vote on the floor of the chamber on introducing term limits.
The measure may not pass but we are likely to hear more about it in the weeks ahead.
|
Seven US government investigators briefly fell ill in early March while studying the possible health impacts of a toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to CNN on Thursday.
The investigators’ symptoms included sore throats, headaches, coughing and nausea – consistent with what some residents experienced after the February 3 train derailment that released a cocktail of hazardous chemicals into the air, water and soil.
The investigators who experienced symptoms were part of a team conducting a house-to-house survey in an area near the derailment, and they immediately reported their symptoms to federal safety officers.
“Symptoms resolved for most team members later the same afternoon, and everyone resumed work on survey data collection within 24 hours. Impacted team members have not reported ongoing health effects,” a CDC spokesperson said in the statement.
The illnesses are coming to light after repeated assurances by government officials and representatives from Norfolk Southern, the company that operated the train, that the air and drinking water in East Palestine is not hazardous to health.
It is not clear what caused the investigators’ symptoms – whether chemical exposure or something else, such as fatigue. But the team, some of whom are officers and physicians in the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, found it suspicious that they became ill at the same time and with the same symptoms, according to an official familiar with the cases who spoke to CNN.
The official asked to not be identified because they are not authorized to share details of the incident; a CDC spokesperson confirmed information in the official’s account, including the date, the number of people involved and the symptoms they experienced.
Because the investigators’ symptoms improved soon after they left the area, the incident was not reported to the public, the official said, noting that reports of illnesses experienced by CDC personnel on the job wouldn’t ordinarily be disclosed.
Still, experts in chemical exposures say the episode is significant.
“It adds confirmation that the symptoms reported by East Palestine residents are real and are associated with environmental exposures from the derailment and chemical fire,” said David Michaels, an epidemiologist and professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health who ran the Occupational Safety and Health Administration between 2009 and 2017. He has not been involved in the investigation in East Palestine.
In a separate case in February, two contractors who were working for the US Environmental Protection Agency reported symptoms related to strong odors and reported them to the site safety officer. The safety officer advised the contractors to step away from the area where they were working and monitor their symptoms, according to a statement sent to CNN by an EPA spokesperson. Their symptoms eased, and they returned to work at the site the same day. No other incidents have been reported by more than 100 EPA personnel deployed to the site, the statement said.
CNN asked the EPA where the contractors were working and what they were doing when they experienced these symptoms, but the EPA did not respond by deadline.
A spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency says its safety officer didn’t receive any reports of staff experiencing symptoms while working in the area.
Andrew Whelton, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Purdue University who has been traveling to East Palestine to conduct independent testing for the town, says he hopes the government agencies will continue to be forthcoming about the experiences of their staff and contractors in the area.
“I think it is important for not only government officials to communicate with each other, but also to communicate their experiences with the public, so that everybody can understand what’s going on, and how help needs to be brought to East Palestine and the surrounding areas,” Whelton told CNN.
Team experienced symptoms they were investigating
The cause of the February 3 crash is still under investigation, but preliminary reports suggest that a wheel bearing on the train overheated, caught fire and failed – sending 11 cars carrying more than a million pounds of hazardous chemicals off the tracks.
Chemicals spilled into the soil and air and into two small creeks that run through the town. A car carrying flammable vinyl chloride became unstable, sparking fears of a massive explosion. Nearby residents were evacuated while small holes were punched in the railcars so the vinyl chloride could be channeled into a trench where it was burned. A black mushroom cloud rose over the town and left ash and soot on cars and buildings for miles around.
Since February 8, when the burning railcars were finally extinguished, state and federal officials have consistently told East Palestine residents that they have not detected any chemicals linked to the derailment in air or drinking water at levels that would threaten human health.
Yet people living in East Palestine and the surrounding area have continued to share stories about unexplained symptoms including headaches, sore throats, nasal congestion, bloody noses, skin rashes, coughs and eye irritation.
The government team that experienced symptoms is from the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, or ATSDR, a branch that assesses the health impacts of chemical exposures. After the train derailment, ATSDR sent 15 people to East Palestine to conduct an Assessment of Chemical Exposure, known as an ACE investigation.
They often worked 18-hour days, going door-to-door to ask residents a detailed set of questions about where they spent their time in the days after the spill and what symptoms they or their pets may have experienced.
They worked in small groups of two and three to visit houses in the areas that they expected to be the most affected by the chemicals based on their proximity to the spill and two area creeks, Leslie Run and Sulphur Run, which have been heavily contaminated. They also surveyed parts of nearby Beaver County, Pennsylvania, which was downwind of the spill on the night of the derailment and the controlled burn of five tankers of vinyl chloride, a chemical used to make PVC pipe.
It’s not clear what area the team members were in when they began to feel ill. The CDC spokesperson said the other eight members of the team did not experience symptoms.
The official who was familiar with the cases said team members reported their illnesses to the EPA’s on-site safety officer, who advised them to return to their hotel in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles from East Palestine, and to the CDC’s Office of Safety, Security and Asset Management, or OSSAM, the agency’s workplace safety office. OSSAM agreed with the EPA assessment that team members should return to their hotel that night, March 6. The team then worked from their hotel on March 7, according to the official.
The CDC acknowledged the incident to CNN after posts began circulating on social media saying the team was sent home because they got sick; the official said that wasn’t the case.
Members of the team began to rotate out of the area as they finished their work. Most of the team members left March 10, and the last member left March 16, according to the official.
Early results of the Ohio ACE survey show that more than half of the 514 residents who have taken it so far have experienced symptoms after the derailment. The top symptoms reported by residents in the area are headaches, reported by 74% of people taking the survey; anxiety (61%); coughing (53%); fatigue (53%); pain, irritation or burning of the skin (50%); and stuffy nose/sinus congestion (50%), according to the Ohio Department of Health. The questions on the survey ask about a “burning nose or throat” but didn’t specifically mention sore throats or nausea.
The surveys can’t prove that residents were exposed to harmful levels of chemicals or that those chemicals caused their symptoms. They are meant to be a snapshot, documenting the health of the community after an event that results in potentially hazardous exposures.
The ATSDR team reports the results of the surveys back to the state departments of health and may make recommendations based on the findings. The team is doing a total of three reports: one for Ohio, one for residents in Pennsylvania and a third on the first responders to the derailment.
Preliminary results are expected to be shared with the states in early April, with final reports released to the public within a few months.
As of March 28, ATSDR had conducted 1,002 ACE surveys: 686 for area residents and 316 for derailment responders, the CDC spokesperson said in an email to CNN.
The EPA continues real-time air monitoring in East Palestine using a specially equipped bus that samples and tests the air. To date, the agency reports that the cleanup has removed an estimated 11,961 tons of contaminated soil and 9.2 million gallons of liquid wastewater.
It has also tested the indoor air of 624 area homes and sampled the soil at 115 properties in the area.
The agency said this week that early results of its dioxin testing have not shown any levels above expected background levels, although it didn’t release any of the test results, which are still going through quality checks.
Testing conducted by the Ohio EPA shows that two creeks that run through East Palestine are still testing positive for chemicals released by the spill. The state is using aerators to increase oxygen in the water to speed the breakdown of those chemicals.
The testing shows that the chemical levels in the streams are dropping over time, but some chemicals spilled from the train are still being detected almost two months after the derailment. On a recent visit to the area, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said children and adults should not go near the creeks.
“As a father, I would not advise anybody – adult or child – play in the creeks or stream. What we’ve said is the drinking water has been tested” and found to be safe, Regan said at a news conference in East Palestine on March 1.
At a hearing this month, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw was asked whether he would live in East Palestine, given what he knows about the derailment.
“Yes, sir,” Shaw responded in testimony before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee on March 9. “I believe that the air is safe. I believe that the water is safe. There are hundreds of tests, there are millions of data points, and they all point to the same thing.”
To residents, the official assurances that everything is fine sound hollow.
“They’re all scientists. They’re sitting up here telling us nothing’s wrong. I want you to tell me why everybody in my community is getting sick,” resident Jami Cozza told a panel of federal and state experts at a contentious town hall in East Palestine on March 2.
State and federal government officials have also suggested that the physical complaints some continue to experience are being driven by fear and anxiety, rather than some kind of chemical exposure.
“While all the tests of the air and the soil and the water have thus far shown repeatedly that things are safe, fear – fear remains,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on March 23.
DeWine also announced this month that the temporary health assessment clinic, which has been operating out of a local church, will expand its services and become permanent through a partnership with East Liverpool City Hospital, a nonprofit health center.
The clinic will offer primary care, including blood and urine testing and physical exams. Krista McFadden, CEO of East Liverpool City Hospital, told CNN that it will treat anyone who needs care, regardless of their ability to pay.
The clinic is scheduled to open April 10.
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Seven US government investigators briefly fell ill in early March while studying the possible health impacts of a toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to CNN on Thursday.
The investigators’ symptoms included sore throats, headaches, coughing and nausea – consistent with what some residents experienced after the February 3 train derailment that released a cocktail of hazardous chemicals into the air, water and soil.
The investigators who experienced symptoms were part of a team conducting a house-to-house survey in an area near the derailment, and they immediately reported their symptoms to federal safety officers.
“Symptoms resolved for most team members later the same afternoon, and everyone resumed work on survey data collection within 24 hours. Impacted team members have not reported ongoing health effects,” a CDC spokesperson said in the statement.
The illnesses are coming to light after repeated assurances by government officials and representatives from Norfolk Southern, the company that operated the train, that the air and drinking water in East Palestine is not hazardous to health.
It is not clear what caused the investigators’ symptoms – whether chemical exposure or something else, such as fatigue. But the team, some of whom are officers and physicians in the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service, found it suspicious that they became ill at the same time and with the same symptoms, according to an official familiar with the cases who spoke to CNN.
The official asked to not be identified because they are not authorized to share details of the incident; a CDC spokesperson confirmed information in the official’s account, including the date, the number of people involved and the symptoms they experienced.
Because the investigators’ symptoms improved soon after they left the area, the incident was not reported to the public, the official said, noting that reports of illnesses experienced by CDC personnel on the job wouldn’t ordinarily be disclosed.
Still, experts in chemical exposures say the episode is significant.
“It adds confirmation that the symptoms reported by East Palestine residents are real and are associated with environmental exposures from the derailment and chemical fire,” said David Michaels, an epidemiologist and professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health who ran the Occupational Safety and Health Administration between 2009 and 2017. He has not been involved in the investigation in East Palestine.
In a separate case in February, two contractors who were working for the US Environmental Protection Agency reported symptoms related to strong odors and reported them to the site safety officer. The safety officer advised the contractors to step away from
|
the area where they were working and monitor their symptoms, according to a statement sent to CNN by an EPA spokesperson. Their symptoms eased, and they returned to work at the site the same day. No other incidents have been reported by more than 100 EPA personnel deployed to the site, the statement said.
CNN asked the EPA where the contractors were working and what they were doing when they experienced these symptoms, but the EPA did not respond by deadline.
A spokesperson for the Federal Emergency Management Agency says its safety officer didn’t receive any reports of staff experiencing symptoms while working in the area.
Andrew Whelton, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Purdue University who has been traveling to East Palestine to conduct independent testing for the town, says he hopes the government agencies will continue to be forthcoming about the experiences of their staff and contractors in the area.
“I think it is important for not only government officials to communicate with each other, but also to communicate their experiences with the public, so that everybody can understand what’s going on, and how help needs to be brought to East Palestine and the surrounding areas,” Whelton told CNN.
Team experienced symptoms they were investigating
The cause of the February 3 crash is still under investigation, but preliminary reports suggest that a wheel bearing on the train overheated, caught fire and failed – sending 11 cars carrying more than a million pounds of hazardous chemicals off the tracks.
Chemicals spilled into the soil and air and into two small creeks that run through the town. A car carrying flammable vinyl chloride became unstable, sparking fears of a massive explosion. Nearby residents were evacuated while small holes were punched in the railcars so the vinyl chloride could be channeled into a trench where it was burned. A black mushroom cloud rose over the town and left ash and soot on cars and buildings for miles around.
Since February 8, when the burning railcars were finally extinguished, state and federal officials have consistently told East Palestine residents that they have not detected any chemicals linked to the derailment in air or drinking water at levels that would threaten human health.
Yet people living in East Palestine and the surrounding area have continued to share stories about unexplained symptoms including headaches, sore throats, nasal congestion, bloody noses, skin rashes, coughs and eye irritation.
The government team that experienced symptoms is from the CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, or ATSDR, a branch that assesses the health impacts of chemical exposures. After the train derailment, ATSDR sent 15 people to East Palestine to conduct an Assessment of Chemical Exposure, known as an ACE investigation.
They often worked 18-hour days, going door-to-door to ask residents a detailed set of questions about where they spent their time in the days after the spill and what symptoms they or their pets may have experienced.
They worked in small groups of two and three to visit houses in the areas that they expected to be the most affected by the chemicals based on their proximity to the spill and two area creeks, Leslie Run and Sulphur Run, which have been heavily contaminated. They also surveyed parts of nearby Beaver County, Pennsylvania, which was downwind of the spill on the night of the derailment and the controlled burn of five tankers of vinyl chloride, a chemical used to make PVC pipe.
It’s not clear what area the team members were in when they began to feel ill. The CDC spokesperson said the other eight members of the team did not experience symptoms.
The official who was familiar with the cases said team members reported their illnesses to the EPA’s on-site safety officer, who advised them to return to their hotel in Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles from East Palestine, and to the CDC’s Office of Safety, Security and Asset Management, or OSSAM, the agency’s workplace safety office. OSSAM agreed with the EPA assessment that team members should return to their hotel that night, March 6. The team then worked from their hotel on March 7, according to the official.
The CDC acknowledged the incident to CNN after posts began circulating on social media saying the team was sent home because they got sick; the official said that wasn’t the case.
Members of the team began to rotate out of the area as they finished their work. Most of the team members left March 10, and the last member left March 16, according to the official.
Early results of the Ohio ACE survey show that more than half of the 514 residents who have taken it so far have experienced symptoms after the derailment. The top symptoms reported by residents in the area are headaches, reported by 74% of people taking the survey; anxiety (61%); coughing (53%); fatigue (53%); pain, irritation or burning of the skin (50%); and stuffy nose/sinus congestion (50%), according to the Ohio Department of Health. The questions on the survey ask about a “burning nose or throat” but didn’t specifically mention sore throats or nausea.
The surveys can’t prove that residents were exposed to harmful levels of chemicals or that those chemicals caused their symptoms. They are meant to be a snapshot, documenting the health of the community after an event that results in potentially hazardous exposures.
The ATSDR team reports the results of the surveys back to the state departments of health and may make recommendations based on the findings. The team is doing a total of three reports: one for Ohio, one for residents in Pennsylvania and a third on the first responders to the derailment.
Preliminary results are expected to be shared with the states in early April, with final reports released to the public within a few months.
As of March 28, ATSDR had conducted 1,002 ACE surveys: 686 for area residents and 316 for derailment responders, the CDC spokesperson said in an email to CNN.
The EPA continues real-time air monitoring in East Palestine using a specially equipped bus that samples and tests the air. To date, the agency reports that the cleanup has removed an estimated 11,961 tons of contaminated soil and 9.2 million gallons of liquid wastewater.
It has also tested the indoor air of 624 area homes and sampled the soil at 115 properties in the area.
The agency said this week that early results of its dioxin testing have not shown any levels above expected background levels, although it didn’t release any of the test results, which are still going through quality checks.
Testing conducted by the Ohio EPA shows that two creeks that run through East Palestine are still testing positive for chemicals released by the spill. The state is using aerators to increase oxygen in the water to speed the breakdown of those chemicals.
The testing shows that the chemical levels in the streams are dropping over time, but some chemicals spilled from the train are still being detected almost two months after the derailment. On a recent visit to the area, EPA Administrator Michael Regan said children and adults should not go near the creeks.
“As a father, I would not advise anybody – adult or child – play in the creeks or stream. What we’ve said is the drinking water has been tested” and found to be safe, Regan said at a news conference in East Palestine on March 1.
At a hearing this month, Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw was asked whether he would live in East Palestine, given what he knows about the derailment.
“Yes, sir,” Shaw responded in testimony before the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee on March 9. “I believe that the air is safe. I believe that the water is safe. There are hundreds of tests, there are millions of data points, and they all point to the same thing.”
To residents, the official assurances that everything is fine sound hollow.
“They’re all scientists. They’re sitting up here telling us nothing’s wrong. I want you to tell me why everybody in my community is getting sick,” resident Jami Cozza told a panel of federal and state experts at a contentious town hall in East Palestine on March 2.
State and federal government officials have also suggested that the physical complaints some continue to experience are being driven by fear and anxiety, rather than some kind of chemical exposure.
“While all the tests of the air and the soil and the water have thus far shown repeatedly that things are safe, fear – fear remains,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation on March 23.
DeWine also announced this month that the temporary health assessment clinic, which has been operating out of a local church, will expand its services and become permanent through a partnership with East Liverpool City Hospital, a nonprofit health center.
The clinic will offer primary care, including blood and urine testing and physical exams. Krista McFadden, CEO of East Liverpool City Hospital, told CNN that it will treat anyone who needs care, regardless of their ability to pay.
The clinic is scheduled to open April 10.
|
A “tsunami” of plastic which is damaging human health must be stopped, scientists have warned the UN amid negotiations on a global treaty.
As world leaders gather in Nairobi to debate an agreement on reducing plastics, more than 20 health scientists have called on them to use this “once in a lifetime opportunity” to ensure the agreement is “strong enough to protect the health of future generations”.
Dr John Peterson Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences and member of the Plastic Health Council, which organised the letter, said: “What began as an almost invisible trickle near the beginning of the 20th century now in the 21st has become a monstrous tsunami.
“Plastic and plastic chemicals have spread like a scourge to every part of our planet, even inside us at levels known to be hazardous. Yet industry projections based on ‘business as usual’ anticipate the volume of plastics created will double by the mid-century.
“We must choose. Will we smother the Earth and ourselves with toxic plastics? Or do we have the courage and foresight to stop the onslaught?”
Negotiations on an international legally binding treaty on plastic pollution began at the UN in 2022 and they hope to have an agreement in place by the end of 2024.
Ahead of negotiations on the treaty on Monday, the UN released a first draft which includes proposals to reduce plastic production and to introduce bans or to phase out certain polymers and chemicals of concern.
The draft represents the views expressed by its members at earlier meetings on the treaty, the UN has said, but is not a finished agreement.
However, the letter published in the Telegraph on Sunday warned that the draft “falls far short of what is actually needed to protect human and wildlife health”.
It notes that “many of the 16,000 chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic are hazardous” and can lead to issues including fertility problems, heart disease and cancer.
“Moreover, mounting evidence demonstrates that plastic particles pollute the air, drinking water, and food, leading to an ever-increasing risk of inhalation and ingestion on a global scale,” they said.
‘Found in human blood’
“Plastic particles have been found in human blood, lungs and the placenta, posing a serious public health threat.”
Prof Hugh Montgomery of University College London, Dr Linda Birnbaum of Duke University and Prof Dr Dick Vethaak of VU University Amsterdam are among the signatories.
They are calling on the UN to deliver “a treaty that will reduce the production volume of plastics overall, eradicate all but verifiably essential single-use plastic items (and commits to funding sustainable chemistry research to innovate safe replacements), mandates proper testing of all chemicals in plastics and unequivocally prohibits ‘chemical recycling’ of plastics.”
Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet and the Plastic Health Council, said: “Plastic is inescapable, omnipresent in our lives, and so are the chemical additives and particles that come with it.
“We are breathing, drinking and eating plastic every day. It is a material that is not on the periodic table. It is a blend of chemicals; some of them deemed toxic by health scientists. No more research and facts are needed to irrefutably prove these chemicals are bad for us.”
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A “tsunami” of plastic which is damaging human health must be stopped, scientists have warned the UN amid negotiations on a global treaty.
As world leaders gather in Nairobi to debate an agreement on reducing plastics, more than 20 health scientists have called on them to use this “once in a lifetime opportunity” to ensure the agreement is “strong enough to protect the health of future generations”.
Dr John Peterson Myers, chief scientist at Environmental Health Sciences and member of the Plastic Health Council, which organised the letter, said: “What began as an almost invisible trickle near the beginning of the 20th century now in the 21st has become a monstrous tsunami.
“Plastic and plastic chemicals have spread like a scourge to every part of our planet, even inside us at levels known to be hazardous. Yet industry projections based on ‘business as usual’ anticipate the volume of plastics created will double by the mid-century.
“We must choose. Will we smother the Earth and ourselves with toxic plastics? Or do we have the courage and foresight to stop the onslaught?”
Negotiations on an international legally binding treaty on plastic pollution began at the UN in 2022 and they hope to have an agreement in place by the end of 2024.
Ahead of negotiations on the treaty on Monday, the UN released a first draft which includes proposals to reduce plastic production and to introduce bans or to phase out certain polymers and chemicals of concern.
The draft represents the views expressed by its members at earlier meetings on the treaty, the UN has said, but is not a finished agreement.
However, the letter published in the Telegraph on Sunday warned that the draft “falls far short of what is actually needed to protect human and wildlife health”.
It notes that “many of the 16,000 chemicals used in the manufacture of plastic are hazardous” and can lead to issues including fertility problems, heart disease and cancer.
“Moreover, mounting evidence demonstrates that plastic particles pollute the air, drinking water, and food, leading to an ever-increasing risk of inhalation and ingestion on a global scale,” they said.
‘Found in human blood’
“Plastic particles have been found in human blood, lungs and the placenta, posing a serious public health threat.”
Prof Hugh Montgomery of University College London, Dr Linda Birnbaum of Duke University and Prof Dr Dick Vethaak of VU University Amsterdam are among the signatories.
They are calling on the UN to deliver “a
|
treaty that will reduce the production volume of plastics overall, eradicate all but verifiably essential single-use plastic items (and commits to funding sustainable chemistry research to innovate safe replacements), mandates proper testing of all chemicals in plastics and unequivocally prohibits ‘chemical recycling’ of plastics.”
Sian Sutherland, co-founder of A Plastic Planet and the Plastic Health Council, said: “Plastic is inescapable, omnipresent in our lives, and so are the chemical additives and particles that come with it.
“We are breathing, drinking and eating plastic every day. It is a material that is not on the periodic table. It is a blend of chemicals; some of them deemed toxic by health scientists. No more research and facts are needed to irrefutably prove these chemicals are bad for us.”
|
Typically honed when people become young adults, critical thinking skills are key to being successful in almost all walks and aspects of life, as well as to growing to become well-rounded individuals.
They are described by the University of Galway as “higher order” skills – that is, skills requiring ways of thinking that are deeper and more complex than the kind of “everyday thinking” we use to, say, cook a meal, or learn our times tables.
These skills involve analysing and evaluating the information that you encounter, and then making inferences or drawing conclusions based upon your analysis and evaluation.
Developing these skills will make it possible for you to master the key skill of reflective judgment or the ability to make a reasoned judgment, based on the available information, while also being cognisant of the nature and limits of knowledge and knowing.
An important point to note is that being critical does not imply being negative. Being critical means considering things in a balanced and objective way, and using reason and logic – rather than instinct, emotion, or belief – to reach a conclusion.
University of Galway director of entrepreneurial development Natalie Walsh has another word for it: design thinking.
The college has spearheaded a collaborative innovation space known as IdeasLab as a means to support its students in their development as the next generation of creators, problem-solvers and innovators.
“In essence, we are asking students to engage in design thinking,” says Walsh. “We see it like a Swiss Army Knife – versatile, practical and fun.
“When you enable and empower students with these skills, it’s our experience that you are giving them the foundation to tackle challenges with a creative and adaptable mindset.”
Students work in teams. On occasion they are required to think critically, and in some instances they are asked to communicate their ideas “with style and flair”.
“It can start off with what seemingly appears as an abstract design requirement, or a challenge they have to solve,” says Walsh.
“Take the Galway International Arts Festival, which has a strong partnership and relationship with the university.
Consider how the solution at hand may impact others... this can help you better understand the effects of your decision and weigh them appropriately— Sarah Carroll, Indeed
“We asked students to work on the future of festivals in a post-Covid world and how we could leverage technologies to connect audiences with the culture, creativity and craic of Galway city during the festival season.”
Students used a blend of virtual reality and augmented reality combined with a sensory subscription box that included the tastes, smells and sounds of Galway for global audiences.
In another example, the university worked with US biotech group Boston Scientific and asked students to meet a CAT lab nurse who needed to immerse her hands in freezing cold water for nine minutes to prepare a stent.
“We replicated the issue in IdeasLab – students immersed their hands in ice water and tried to thread a needle,” says Walsh.
“It’s an experience of the challenge which drove them to then come up with the solution of a dexterous thermal glove. Better outcome for the nurse and potentially a better standard of care for patients.
“Experience of skills development like this gives people the power to transform their ideas – sometimes wild, sometimes wonderful – into reality. They are solving complex problems in a very human-centred way.”
Walsh says the university is also taking the combined challenges and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence further this year.
“We have integrated it into our programmes and each week one of the teams in each programme will use ChatGPT to complete activities towards developing their solution direction,” she explains. “We then compare and reflect on the activities as a learning group.
“Students experience artificial intelligence in action – how to leverage it; how to make the most of it; while also becoming aware of its limitations, particularly in relation to critical thinking, problem-solving and innovation.
“Many of the challenges that our students work to solve are created in partnership with companies that span the creative, technology, health and space sectors, so there is something for everybody and lots of opportunities working with IdeasLab.”
The university has also created a new module called Empathy in Action, spearheaded by Prof Pat Dolan and Dr Bernadine Brady, who are both internationally recognised experts in the area.
“Students are effectively asked to place themselves in the position of others – walk in their shoes – to create new products and services, with and for society,” Walsh says.
“Students get access to what we call the Empathy Lab, which uses a blend of role-play, interviews, virtual reality and simulation to develop emotional intelligence, self-awareness and resilience.”
Sarah Carroll, a careers expert with jobs website Indeed, says critical thinking skills are vital to understanding problems that you will encounter at work daily throughout your entire career, whether as an entry level grad or a C-suite executive.
“Critical thinking ensures you fully understand a situation and its potential effects at the outset, rather than diving head first into solution-mode,” is how she puts it.
“Graduate roles are all about learning and absorbing new information, making it an ideal time to develop and hone your critical thinking skills.
“New grads need to expand their horizons, taking the space to explore new areas of business and understand the types of problems they are trying to solve.
“This might mean sitting in on meetings, job shadowing and asking questions to learn more about the different types of customers, departments, and aspects of the industry beyond the area they directly work in.
“By understanding the wider challenges the business faces, you can develop a more lateral view and see how your work fits into the bigger picture, which is crucial as you climb the career ladder.”
Some of her practical tips to help critical thinking include understanding your own thought process.
“Understanding how you interpret, react or listen to information, and how your personal beliefs affect your thought processes, can help you be more objective in your decision-making,” she explains.
Another tip is to consider the wider picture: “Consider how the solution at hand may impact others,” she says. “Although not always a deciding factor, this can help you better understand the effects of your decision and weigh them appropriately.”
Sometimes students feel that if they disagree with another person, this might be considered rude or impolite. But much new knowledge and thinking stems from respectful disagreement with others— Advice from University of Galway
Her final tip is to practise what she calls “active listening” in your day-to-day and professional life. “Make an effort to be a better listener, actively concentrating and considering what someone has to say,” she says. “Don’t just let your eyes glaze over and nod along.
“If needed to clarify, recap your meeting notes in an email to make sure you understand the issue correctly.”
Sigmar Recruitment chief executive Frank Farrelly believes work experience is one of the best ways to work on your critical thinking faculties.
“For those who did general degrees or who want to work outside their qualification, getting work experience is a great way to expand your mind,” he says.
“Different companies, mentors, managers, will spark creative thinking. Starting your career as a temporary agency worker is a great way to get exposed to different companies, sectors and to different managers.
“Learning from a variety of colleagues with different approaches, styles and mindsets is brilliant. Seeking out different experiences will give candidates the internal data to allow them to develop and calibrate ideas and solve problems.
“While I am a fan of hybrid and flexible work, in person work experience really helps many people develop critical thinking.”
The University of Galway has also has some tips for developing your critical thinking skills.
“Accept that criticism and disagreement are not the same as conflict,” it says. “It’s okay to hold different views to a classmate, friend or lecturer. Learn how to disagree and to offer and accept criticism without it ever being personal.
“Sometimes students feel that if they disagree with another person, this might be considered rude or impolite. But much new knowledge and thinking stems from respectful disagreement with others.”
A way to practise this it to get involved in tutorial discussions in college. “These are your main opportunity to really flesh out what has been covered in lectures, so make use of them: ask questions, offer your opinion, and question the opinions of others,” the college says.
“Let your lecturers or tutors know if you feel strongly about something that they have taught you, or about feedback that they have given you. This applies whether you agree, disagree, or just want to know more.”
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Typically honed when people become young adults, critical thinking skills are key to being successful in almost all walks and aspects of life, as well as to growing to become well-rounded individuals.
They are described by the University of Galway as “higher order” skills – that is, skills requiring ways of thinking that are deeper and more complex than the kind of “everyday thinking” we use to, say, cook a meal, or learn our times tables.
These skills involve analysing and evaluating the information that you encounter, and then making inferences or drawing conclusions based upon your analysis and evaluation.
Developing these skills will make it possible for you to master the key skill of reflective judgment or the ability to make a reasoned judgment, based on the available information, while also being cognisant of the nature and limits of knowledge and knowing.
An important point to note is that being critical does not imply being negative. Being critical means considering things in a balanced and objective way, and using reason and logic – rather than instinct, emotion, or belief – to reach a conclusion.
University of Galway director of entrepreneurial development Natalie Walsh has another word for it: design thinking.
The college has spearheaded a collaborative innovation space known as IdeasLab as a means to support its students in their development as the next generation of creators, problem-solvers and innovators.
“In essence, we are asking students to engage in design thinking,” says Walsh. “We see it like a Swiss Army Knife – versatile, practical and fun.
“When you enable and empower students with these skills, it’s our experience that you are giving them the foundation to tackle challenges with a creative and adaptable mindset.”
Students work in teams. On occasion they are required to think critically, and in some instances they are asked to communicate their ideas “with style and flair”.
“It can start off with what seemingly appears as an abstract design requirement, or a challenge they have to solve,” says Walsh.
“Take the Galway International Arts Festival, which has a strong partnership and relationship with the university.
Consider how the solution at hand may impact others... this can help you better understand the effects of your decision and weigh them appropriately— Sarah Carroll, Indeed
“We asked students to work on the future of festivals in a post-Covid world and how we could leverage technologies to connect audiences with the culture, creativity and craic of Galway city during the festival season.”
Students used a blend of virtual reality and augmented reality combined with a sensory subscription box that included the tastes, smells and
|
sounds of Galway for global audiences.
In another example, the university worked with US biotech group Boston Scientific and asked students to meet a CAT lab nurse who needed to immerse her hands in freezing cold water for nine minutes to prepare a stent.
“We replicated the issue in IdeasLab – students immersed their hands in ice water and tried to thread a needle,” says Walsh.
“It’s an experience of the challenge which drove them to then come up with the solution of a dexterous thermal glove. Better outcome for the nurse and potentially a better standard of care for patients.
“Experience of skills development like this gives people the power to transform their ideas – sometimes wild, sometimes wonderful – into reality. They are solving complex problems in a very human-centred way.”
Walsh says the university is also taking the combined challenges and opportunities posed by artificial intelligence further this year.
“We have integrated it into our programmes and each week one of the teams in each programme will use ChatGPT to complete activities towards developing their solution direction,” she explains. “We then compare and reflect on the activities as a learning group.
“Students experience artificial intelligence in action – how to leverage it; how to make the most of it; while also becoming aware of its limitations, particularly in relation to critical thinking, problem-solving and innovation.
“Many of the challenges that our students work to solve are created in partnership with companies that span the creative, technology, health and space sectors, so there is something for everybody and lots of opportunities working with IdeasLab.”
The university has also created a new module called Empathy in Action, spearheaded by Prof Pat Dolan and Dr Bernadine Brady, who are both internationally recognised experts in the area.
“Students are effectively asked to place themselves in the position of others – walk in their shoes – to create new products and services, with and for society,” Walsh says.
“Students get access to what we call the Empathy Lab, which uses a blend of role-play, interviews, virtual reality and simulation to develop emotional intelligence, self-awareness and resilience.”
Sarah Carroll, a careers expert with jobs website Indeed, says critical thinking skills are vital to understanding problems that you will encounter at work daily throughout your entire career, whether as an entry level grad or a C-suite executive.
“Critical thinking ensures you fully understand a situation and its potential effects at the outset, rather than diving head first into solution-mode,” is how she puts it.
“Graduate roles are all about learning and absorbing new information, making it an ideal time to develop and hone your critical thinking skills.
“New grads need to expand their horizons, taking the space to explore new areas of business and understand the types of problems they are trying to solve.
“This might mean sitting in on meetings, job shadowing and asking questions to learn more about the different types of customers, departments, and aspects of the industry beyond the area they directly work in.
“By understanding the wider challenges the business faces, you can develop a more lateral view and see how your work fits into the bigger picture, which is crucial as you climb the career ladder.”
Some of her practical tips to help critical thinking include understanding your own thought process.
“Understanding how you interpret, react or listen to information, and how your personal beliefs affect your thought processes, can help you be more objective in your decision-making,” she explains.
Another tip is to consider the wider picture: “Consider how the solution at hand may impact others,” she says. “Although not always a deciding factor, this can help you better understand the effects of your decision and weigh them appropriately.”
Sometimes students feel that if they disagree with another person, this might be considered rude or impolite. But much new knowledge and thinking stems from respectful disagreement with others— Advice from University of Galway
Her final tip is to practise what she calls “active listening” in your day-to-day and professional life. “Make an effort to be a better listener, actively concentrating and considering what someone has to say,” she says. “Don’t just let your eyes glaze over and nod along.
“If needed to clarify, recap your meeting notes in an email to make sure you understand the issue correctly.”
Sigmar Recruitment chief executive Frank Farrelly believes work experience is one of the best ways to work on your critical thinking faculties.
“For those who did general degrees or who want to work outside their qualification, getting work experience is a great way to expand your mind,” he says.
“Different companies, mentors, managers, will spark creative thinking. Starting your career as a temporary agency worker is a great way to get exposed to different companies, sectors and to different managers.
“Learning from a variety of colleagues with different approaches, styles and mindsets is brilliant. Seeking out different experiences will give candidates the internal data to allow them to develop and calibrate ideas and solve problems.
“While I am a fan of hybrid and flexible work, in person work experience really helps many people develop critical thinking.”
The University of Galway has also has some tips for developing your critical thinking skills.
“Accept that criticism and disagreement are not the same as conflict,” it says. “It’s okay to hold different views to a classmate, friend or lecturer. Learn how to disagree and to offer and accept criticism without it ever being personal.
“Sometimes students feel that if they disagree with another person, this might be considered rude or impolite. But much new knowledge and thinking stems from respectful disagreement with others.”
A way to practise this it to get involved in tutorial discussions in college. “These are your main opportunity to really flesh out what has been covered in lectures, so make use of them: ask questions, offer your opinion, and question the opinions of others,” the college says.
“Let your lecturers or tutors know if you feel strongly about something that they have taught you, or about feedback that they have given you. This applies whether you agree, disagree, or just want to know more.”
|
Young adults embarking on new careers are often advised to follow their passions. However, a new study shows that this advice may narrow people’s career choices and contribute to the lack of women in STEM fields.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs recommended that graduating students follow their passions in a commencement speech he gave at Stanford University. "You've got to find what you love….Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle," Jobs instructed.
Jobs wasn't alone; similar advice has been doled out in commencement addresses, books and blogs for decades. As evidence of its growing popularity, the phrase “follow your passions” was forty times more likely to appear in English-language books in 2019 compared to 1990. Although the advice is popular in the United States, in other countries, advice often centers around finding a lucrative career that provides a good income and job security.
Researchers compared how these two types of advice, follow your passions versus follow the money, impacted career choice and fields of study. They found that the follow-your-passions advice led to more gender disparities.
The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that when both students and adults were advised to follow their passions, they chose fields that were more consistent with what was expected of their gender. Women chose jobs in the arts or healthcare. Men chose careers in science and business. In other words, women were more likely to choose stereotypically feminine fields, while men were more likely to choose stereotypically masculine ones.
However, when study participants were advised to think about job security, earning money and other practical concerns, the gender differences in occupational choice and field of study decreased. Women who were given this advice were more likely to choose lucrative careers in male-dominated STEM fields, like computer science and engineering.
Oliver Siy, the lead author of the research and user experience researcher at Google, commented on how this seemingly innocuous inspirational advice offered to students and graduates could lead to gender segregation at work. "There's no mention of gender in the follow-your-passions ideology. It doesn't reference gender at all on its surface, yet it can lead to these gendered outcomes. And it makes me wonder what other aspects of our lives we're exposed to that lead to gendered outcomes," he says. Siy completed the research while a graduate student at the University of Washington.
Despite their findings, the researchers do not suggest that job seekers forego happiness and slug it out at a stable, well-paying job they hate. Instead, the researchers suggest that the follow-your-passions advice may lead women to overlook male-dominated fields as potential passions without ever giving them a fair chance. People often decide on their passions based on stereotypes, with little hands-on evidence about what they are actually like. "As a result, the follow-your-passions ideology may limit people to certain fields rather than giving them the opportunity to explore other fields that they may be passionate about," the researchers conclude in their paper.
Siy doesn’t buy into the idea that men and women have inherently different interests due to their biology or gender identification. "There's a tendency to view an interest as something that is inherent or that resides in you. But I think there's a lot of socialization that takes place that influences what we become interested in," Siy explains. As a result of different socialization and experiences, women and men develop unique interests. Telling people to follow their passions encourages them to home in on the interests they’ve already developed instead of trying new ones.
Other studies have also concluded that “follow your passions” may not be the best advice for job seekers because it conveys that passions are fixed and unchanging. Researchers found that some people believe their core interests will never change, while others believe that interests develop and change over time. Those who believe that interests can grow and morph over time (often referred to as the growth theory of interests) have a healthier outlook and are open to pursuing more areas. "The growth theory leads people to express greater interest in new areas, to anticipate that pursuing interests will sometimes be challenging, and to maintain greater interest when challenges arise," these researchers conclude.
To truly inspire those embarking on new careers to expand their horizons, we need to communicate that interests aren’t fixed and can develop over time. In his 2015 commencement speech at Columbia University, venture capitalist Ben Horowitz reversed the typical advice, suggesting to the graduating class, "Don't follow your passions." He warned them that passions change with time and added that people are not necessarily good at what they are passionate about.
Ultimately, Horowitz questioned the notion that doing what you love leads to success. He explained to the graduates, "If you poll 1,000 people who are successful, they'll all say that they love what they do. And so, the broad conclusion of the world is that if you do what you love, then you'll be successful. But we're engineers, and we know that that might be true. But it also might be the case that if you're successful, you love what you do. You just love being successful."
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Young adults embarking on new careers are often advised to follow their passions. However, a new study shows that this advice may narrow people’s career choices and contribute to the lack of women in STEM fields.
Apple co-founder Steve Jobs recommended that graduating students follow their passions in a commencement speech he gave at Stanford University. "You've got to find what you love….Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle," Jobs instructed.
Jobs wasn't alone; similar advice has been doled out in commencement addresses, books and blogs for decades. As evidence of its growing popularity, the phrase “follow your passions” was forty times more likely to appear in English-language books in 2019 compared to 1990. Although the advice is popular in the United States, in other countries, advice often centers around finding a lucrative career that provides a good income and job security.
Researchers compared how these two types of advice, follow your passions versus follow the money, impacted career choice and fields of study. They found that the follow-your-passions advice led to more gender disparities.
The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that when both students and adults were advised to follow their passions, they chose fields that were more consistent with what was expected of their gender. Women chose jobs in the arts or healthcare. Men chose careers in science and business. In other words, women were more likely to choose stereotypically feminine fields, while men were more likely to choose stereotypically masculine ones.
However, when study participants were advised to think about job security, earning money and other practical concerns, the gender differences in occupational choice and field of study decreased. Women who were given this advice were more likely to choose lucrative careers in male-dominated STEM fields, like computer science and engineering.
Oliver Siy, the lead author of the research and user experience researcher at Google, commented on how this seemingly innocuous inspirational advice offered to students and graduates could lead to gender segregation at work. "There's no mention of gender in the follow-your-passions ideology. It doesn't reference gender at all on its surface, yet it can lead to these gendered outcomes. And it makes me wonder what other aspects of our lives we're
|
exposed to that lead to gendered outcomes," he says. Siy completed the research while a graduate student at the University of Washington.
Despite their findings, the researchers do not suggest that job seekers forego happiness and slug it out at a stable, well-paying job they hate. Instead, the researchers suggest that the follow-your-passions advice may lead women to overlook male-dominated fields as potential passions without ever giving them a fair chance. People often decide on their passions based on stereotypes, with little hands-on evidence about what they are actually like. "As a result, the follow-your-passions ideology may limit people to certain fields rather than giving them the opportunity to explore other fields that they may be passionate about," the researchers conclude in their paper.
Siy doesn’t buy into the idea that men and women have inherently different interests due to their biology or gender identification. "There's a tendency to view an interest as something that is inherent or that resides in you. But I think there's a lot of socialization that takes place that influences what we become interested in," Siy explains. As a result of different socialization and experiences, women and men develop unique interests. Telling people to follow their passions encourages them to home in on the interests they’ve already developed instead of trying new ones.
Other studies have also concluded that “follow your passions” may not be the best advice for job seekers because it conveys that passions are fixed and unchanging. Researchers found that some people believe their core interests will never change, while others believe that interests develop and change over time. Those who believe that interests can grow and morph over time (often referred to as the growth theory of interests) have a healthier outlook and are open to pursuing more areas. "The growth theory leads people to express greater interest in new areas, to anticipate that pursuing interests will sometimes be challenging, and to maintain greater interest when challenges arise," these researchers conclude.
To truly inspire those embarking on new careers to expand their horizons, we need to communicate that interests aren’t fixed and can develop over time. In his 2015 commencement speech at Columbia University, venture capitalist Ben Horowitz reversed the typical advice, suggesting to the graduating class, "Don't follow your passions." He warned them that passions change with time and added that people are not necessarily good at what they are passionate about.
Ultimately, Horowitz questioned the notion that doing what you love leads to success. He explained to the graduates, "If you poll 1,000 people who are successful, they'll all say that they love what they do. And so, the broad conclusion of the world is that if you do what you love, then you'll be successful. But we're engineers, and we know that that might be true. But it also might be the case that if you're successful, you love what you do. You just love being successful."
|
Should you replace your gas stove with an electric one? Here's what you need to know.
Federal regulators have raised concerns about air pollutants emitted by gas stoves. But what does that mean for the millions of homes that have one?
CPSC Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric added that the commission is researching emissions from gas stoves.
Some cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and New York, however, have banned gas appliances in certain new buildings. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed banning natural gas heating and appliances in the state to combat climate change.
For consumers, there are several reasons to consider switching to electric appliances, experts said, because gas stoves emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, and methane leaks could pose health risks.
"Switching from gas stoves to a more efficient electrical appliance is good for indoor air quality," said Jon Levy, chair the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University. "It's also good for climate change, and some of the newer technologies are even better for cooking."
No more fire in the kitchen:Cities are banning natural gas in homes to save the planet
Which stove is better: Gas or electric?
The main difference between gas and electric stoves lies in how they're powered, said Kimberly Palmer, personal finance expert at NerdWallet.
"Gas ranges connect to a natural gas line or propane hookup," Palmer said in an email. "Electric ranges are plugged into a special outlet."
Electric stoves, in many cases, tend to perform better than gas, said Paul Hope, senior home editor at Consumer Reports. Induction stoves and cooktops, which use electromagnetic pulses to heat cookware, usually outperform their counterparts in Consumer Reports tests.
"Of the induction ranges in our rating," Hope said, "a full 90% actually get our top score for speed of heating, which is how quickly basically a stove can boil water."
Consumers who prefer gas will still be able to find good options, Hope said. Gas stoves, he said, offer more visual indicators than electric ones because the flame offers constant feedback.
But there are advantages in switching to electric, Hope said.
"The good news for anyone wanting to make the switch is it's generally far easier to switch from gas to electric than than the other way around," Hope said. "If you want to install a gas range and haven't had one before, you need to have new gas lines installed."
Consumers may also be eligible for a rebate when they purchase a new electric appliance, including stoves and cooktops. The Inflation Reduction Act includes rebates up to $840 for the purchase of electric appliances.
Is it cheaper to buy a gas or electric stove?
Regular electric stoves and gas ones tend have comparable prices, Hope said. Consumers usually pay a slight premium for induction models.
When deciding whether to buy a gas or electric stove, startup costs are the main factor consumers should keep in mind. The biggest cost probably will be installing new hardware, such as a gas line or special outlet, if needed, meaning consumers can save money by using the existing energy source, Palmer said.
"In terms of the ongoing costs of gas and electricity, it can vary by location but tend to be somewhat similar, with gas costing slightly less than electricity," Palmer said.
Consumer price index report:Fall in gas prices helps inflation slow again in December
Do gas stoves cause respiratory problems? Can gas cause asthma?
Gas stoves emit nitrogen dioxide when in use. Studies have shown the compound is a respiratory irritant that can trigger asthma attacks, Levy said.
"If you put the pieces together, it's pretty clear that having a gas stove in your home and using it is a risk factor for increased asthma attacks," Levy said. "There's strong and growing evidence that it's also a risk factor for developing asthma if you don't already have it."
A study in December 2022 found that 12% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S. could be attributed to the use of gas stoves.
Exposure to high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide over short periods can aggravate respiratory diseases and lead to hospital admissions and emergency room visits, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Should people with a gas stove worry?
People who have gas stove in their home can take steps to reduce risks from indoor pollution. How much a gas stove contributes to air pollution depends in part on the ventilation in the home, Levy said.
"There are certainly plenty of folks who can't replace (their stove) because they're renters, or it's not economically viable or practical," Levy said. "The first thing you need to do is make sure that ventilation is optimized."
Home cooks can improve ventilation by running a a range hood that vents outdoors while they cook and opening windows in the kitchen, Levy said.
"As we set policies or give out guidance, we certainly need to think about who who are the highest-exposure households and what can we do to reduce their exposure the best way possible," Levy said.
Induction cooking: Here's why you should make the switch.
No stupid questions: What real people want to know about induction cooking.
Which cooks best? Gas or electric
Contributing: Jordan Mendoza
|
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Should you replace your gas stove with an electric one? Here's what you need to know.
Federal regulators have raised concerns about air pollutants emitted by gas stoves. But what does that mean for the millions of homes that have one?
CPSC Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric added that the commission is researching emissions from gas stoves.
Some cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle and New York, however, have banned gas appliances in certain new buildings. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed banning natural gas heating and appliances in the state to combat climate change.
For consumers, there are several reasons to consider switching to electric appliances, experts said, because gas stoves emit air pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide, and methane leaks could pose health risks.
"Switching from gas stoves to a more efficient electrical appliance is good for indoor air quality," said Jon Levy, chair the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University. "It's also good for climate change, and some of the newer technologies are even better for cooking."
No more fire in the kitchen:Cities are banning natural gas in homes to save the planet
Which stove is better: Gas or electric?
The main difference between gas and electric stoves lies in how they're powered, said Kimberly Palmer, personal finance expert at NerdWallet.
"Gas ranges connect to a natural gas line or propane hookup," Palmer said in an email. "Electric ranges are plugged into a special outlet."
Electric stoves, in many cases, tend to perform better than gas, said Paul Hope, senior home editor at Consumer Reports. Induction stoves and cooktops, which use electromagnetic pulses to heat cookware, usually outperform their counterparts in Consumer Reports tests.
"Of the induction ranges in our rating," Hope said, "a full 90% actually get our top score for speed of heating, which is how quickly basically a stove can boil water."
Consumers who prefer gas will still be able to find good options, Hope said. Gas stoves, he said, offer more visual indicators than electric ones because the flame offers constant feedback.
But there are advantages in switching to electric, Hope said.
"The good news for anyone wanting to make the switch is it's generally far easier to switch from gas to electric than than the other way around," Hope said. "If you want to install a gas range and haven't had one before, you need to have new gas lines installed."
Consumers may also be eligible for a rebate
|
when they purchase a new electric appliance, including stoves and cooktops. The Inflation Reduction Act includes rebates up to $840 for the purchase of electric appliances.
Is it cheaper to buy a gas or electric stove?
Regular electric stoves and gas ones tend have comparable prices, Hope said. Consumers usually pay a slight premium for induction models.
When deciding whether to buy a gas or electric stove, startup costs are the main factor consumers should keep in mind. The biggest cost probably will be installing new hardware, such as a gas line or special outlet, if needed, meaning consumers can save money by using the existing energy source, Palmer said.
"In terms of the ongoing costs of gas and electricity, it can vary by location but tend to be somewhat similar, with gas costing slightly less than electricity," Palmer said.
Consumer price index report:Fall in gas prices helps inflation slow again in December
Do gas stoves cause respiratory problems? Can gas cause asthma?
Gas stoves emit nitrogen dioxide when in use. Studies have shown the compound is a respiratory irritant that can trigger asthma attacks, Levy said.
"If you put the pieces together, it's pretty clear that having a gas stove in your home and using it is a risk factor for increased asthma attacks," Levy said. "There's strong and growing evidence that it's also a risk factor for developing asthma if you don't already have it."
A study in December 2022 found that 12% of childhood asthma cases in the U.S. could be attributed to the use of gas stoves.
Exposure to high concentrations of nitrogen dioxide over short periods can aggravate respiratory diseases and lead to hospital admissions and emergency room visits, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Should people with a gas stove worry?
People who have gas stove in their home can take steps to reduce risks from indoor pollution. How much a gas stove contributes to air pollution depends in part on the ventilation in the home, Levy said.
"There are certainly plenty of folks who can't replace (their stove) because they're renters, or it's not economically viable or practical," Levy said. "The first thing you need to do is make sure that ventilation is optimized."
Home cooks can improve ventilation by running a a range hood that vents outdoors while they cook and opening windows in the kitchen, Levy said.
"As we set policies or give out guidance, we certainly need to think about who who are the highest-exposure households and what can we do to reduce their exposure the best way possible," Levy said.
Induction cooking: Here's why you should make the switch.
No stupid questions: What real people want to know about induction cooking.
Which cooks best? Gas or electric
Contributing: Jordan Mendoza
|
Mission Majnu: Why India could not thwart Pakistan’s nuclear aspiration
In January 1987, India amassed nearly half a million troops in the Rajasthan province bordering Pakistan — ostensibly for a military exercise codenamed Brasstacks.
It was the largest armed mobilisation in South Asia and involved hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles backed by air support. The drills were conducted a few kilometres from Sindh, the Pakistani province that borders Rajasthan.
Behind that military posture was the Indian army chief Lieutenant General Krishnaswami Sundarji, a known Pakistani hawk, who had for years raised concerns about Islamabad’s clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
That’s the closest New Delhi ever got to undermining Pakistan’s nuclear ambition.Exercise Brasstacks brought the armies of two countries close to a war. (AP Archive)
The military build up happened around the time when India was reeling from a violent insurgency in its province of Punjab, which was up in arms after security forces carried out an operation at the Golden Temple, a holy site of the Sikh minority, to drive out militants.
India accused Islamabad of supporting Sikh separatists who were demanding a territory of their own that they called Khalistan.
“Sundarji wanted to trigger a war and in garb of that, he was planning to strike Kahuta, the nuclear facility where weapons-grade uranium was being enriched,” says Feroz Khan, a professor of nuclear proliferation at the Naval Postgraduate School and author of ‘Eating Grass: the Making of the Pakistani Bomb.’
“But a counter mobilisation by Pakistan worried then-Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who wasn’t properly briefed by Sundarji. The two sides eventually deescalated the situation.” Tensions were high after Indian troops stormed the Golden Temple, a holy site for Sikhs. (AP Archive)
For decades, researchers have studied if New Delhi made any serious attempts to take out Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme while it was in its infancy in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s.
The debate was given a fresh impetus in January with the release of an Indian movie on Netflix, ‘Mission Majnu.’
The action-packed Bollywood flick is about an Indian spy who infiltrates Pakistan, where he masquerades as a tailor, marries a blind Muslim woman and eventually comes close to his target, Kahuta. After gathering evidence about the secret nuclear facility, he single handedly fights off dozens of Pakistani soldiers. In the end, the protagonist, who is a Sikh, redeems his rebel father’s treachery, dying in a shootout after shouting “Hail Mother India.”
Many in Pakistan called it a ‘propaganda’ film, arguing that its plot was more comical than factual. The makers of the film insist it is inspired by ‘true events.’
Behind the cinematic theatrics, there’s a real story about how India responded to Pakistan’s nuclear project. It’s serious and complicated. It’s a story of arrogance, disbelief, threats and diplomacy. And it all started with former Pakistani prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
‘We’ll feed on grass, even if we had to’
Bhutto was the foreign minister in 1965 when a journalist from the Manchester Guardian asked how Pakistan would react if India decided to build a nuke.
“If India makes an atom bomb, then even if we have to feed on grass and leaves — or even if we have to starve — we shall also produce an atom bomb as we would be left with no other alternative,” Bhutto said.
India had stepped up efforts to acquire technology to make a plutonium bomb after China conducted its first nuclear explosion in 1964. Pakistani leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto played a major role to start Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme. (AP Archive)
It was a pivotal period for India and Pakistan as the two neighbours fought a bloody war in 1965 and both sides wanted to beef up their defences.
India became a nuclear power when it successfully tested its first nuclear bomb in 1974.
Bhutto, however, had to wait years before Pakistan came close to producing a bomb, according to Khan, who served as a brigadier in Pakistan’s army and for a time worked at the Strategic Plans Division, which is responsible for guarding the nuclear arsenal.
“Those initial efforts didn’t go anywhere until 1974, when Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan entered the picture,” says the professor.
Dr A Q Khan, known as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, was a metallurgist who copied designs of German centrifuges while working in Europe and brought them back to Pakistan.
With a doctorate in copper metallurgy from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, his expertise brought him in close contact with those developing centrifuges in a plant in Almelo, the Netherlands. That facility was run by URENCO Group, a nuclear fuel supplier.
Fluent in English, French and German, his managers would often ask him to translate German reports on centrifuge technologies. The importance of the sketches and details he saw didn’t escape his attention. India conducted the first nuclear explosion in 1974. (AP Archive)
The blueprints weren’t enough to build a functional nuclear programme capable of producing weapons-grade uranium.
Only a handful of European companies that made critical parts and components such as vacuum pumps, valves and aluminium casing were willing to trade with Islamabad.
Spearheaded by A Q Khan, Pakistani diplomats, intelligence operatives and even A Q Khan’s friends set up shell companies around the world to buy those components. Whatever wasn’t available was produced locally.
Centrifuges rotate at twice the speed of sound to separate the U-235 isotope from U-238. Thousands of centrifuges operate in a cascade formation at the same time. Malfunction and failures were common in the initial years and Pakistani scientists learned how to master enrichment through trial and error.
A factual distortion in the Netflix film ‘Mission Majnu’ was centred around how Pakistan imported uranium. A key input for uranium enrichment — the process whereby weapons-grade uranium is produced — is the uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas. Pakistan didn’t import uranium because of international scrutiny. It mined the key ingredient in the Baghal Chur area of the Dera Ghazi Khan district in 1975 and 1976 and produced its own UF6 gas.
n June 1978, Pakistani scientists were able to figure out how to successfully run the gas centrifuges. From here on, it was a matter of enriching the uranium so it could be used as fuel in a weapon.
But the cover of Pakistan’s nuclear programme and A Q Khan’s network of suppliers was blown in March 1979, when German broadcaster ZDFran a documentary exposing how A Q Khan had stolen centrifuge designs while working in the Netherlands.
ZDF’s documentary lumped Islam, the Middle East, A Q Khan and Israel’s national security together, weaving all four elements into an enticing conspiracy plot.
That’s when the catchphrase ‘Islamic Bomb’ became a media trope, writes Dr Malcolm Craig in his book ‘America, Britain and Pakistan’s Nuclear Programme 1974-1980.’
Yet most governments — including India’s — didn’t feel the urgency in the late 1970s to act because they deemed that a low-income country which had just lost its eastern wing (today’s Bangladesh) lacked the capacity and skill to handle such sophisticated technology.
There was perhaps one exception: Israel.
Any real attempts to harm Pakistan’s nuclear programme were revealed when executives at European companies doing business with A Q Khan began receiving threats. Some even faced assassination attempts.
A letter bomb exploded at the home of Heinz Mebus in Erlangen, West Germany. Mebus, who had helped Pakistan build fluoride and uranium conversion plants, escaped unharmed, but his dog died in the explosion. A similar bombing targeted a senior executive of a Swiss company, CORA Engineering, which had also worked on Pakistan’s nuclear programme, codenamed 706.
Threatening letters were sent and phone calls made to European officials who were known to be working with A Q Khan. Little-known organisations such as the Group for Non Proliferation in South Asia propped up, claiming responsibility.
While Tel Aviv never acknowledged its role in the bombings, historians and researchers such as Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, authors of a book on Pakistan’s nuclear programme, have blamed Israel’s foreign intelligence outfit Mossad.
“They didn’t want a Muslim country to have the bomb,” says Feroz Khan.
Saudi Arabia and Libya had, under Muammar Gaddafi, financially helped Pakistan’s nuclear programme, he adds.
Like Pakistan, Israel had also pilfered technology and know-how to make nuclear weapons. But while Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan was later arrested and humiliated on national television for allegedly running an illegal proliferation network, the Israeli agent Arnon Mlichan was celebrated for his scientific feats without any state scrutiny or scorn.
Milchan, who stole European designs for centrifuges that were built at the Dimona nuclear facility in Israel, went on to become a famous Hollywood producer behind hit films such as ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘Fight Club.’
Yet curiously enough, the Indian state didn’t take the neighbouring country’s enrichment attempt seriously until it was too late. At the heart of that underestimation was a superiority complex stemming from the Hindu caste system wherein Brahmins are considered better than all others.
“The Brahminical contempt for the abilities of Pakistan’s scientists and engineers also was intensified by the difficulties India’s well-educated had in trying to master large-scale uranium enrichment,” writes George Perkovish in his seminal book ‘India’s Nuclear Bomb.’
There are two ways to make a nuclear weapon — either through highly enriched uranium or plutonium. India took the plutonium route to make its first bomb. New Delhi announced archiving capability to enrich weapons-grade uranium in 1986.
The ‘myth’ of the Osirak contingency
“It was probably in 1981 that Indian intelligence started to pick up evidence that Pakistan was making the bomb,” says Sumit Ganguly, a political professor at the Indiana University Bloomington, who has written extensively on nuclear issues in South Asia.
In the years after they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947, India and Pakistan struggled to boost their economies and take millions of people out of poverty.
New Delhi still boasted a much larger industrial base with the capability to indigenously produce cars and key metals.
“I have heard this independently from Indian analysts that the Indian scientific establishment believed that Pakistanis may have theoretical knowledge, but they don’t have the industrial capacity. That was arrogance on their part,” says Ganguly.
When it finally dawned on New Delhi that Pakistan was close to making a bomb, some military leaders, including Sundarji, pushed the government to take action.
One popular narrative that has made its way into history books centres around a secret Indian plan to use jets to blow up Kahuta, located some 40 kilometres from Islamabad.
As the story goes, at some point in 1981, India’s military prepared a squadron of its Jaguar jets to fly close to the terrain, infiltrate Pakistani territory and blow up the centrifuges.
Experts’ opinions differ as to whether such a plan was ever conceived.
That same year, an Israeli air raid destroyed a nuclear reactor at Osirak in Iraq. Some Indian military officials considered carrying out a similar strike against Kahuta as part of what they called the ‘Osirak contingency’.
“We never got clear-cut confirmation about such an operation. My view is that, yes, military officers felt it was their duty to offer certain military options to the political leadership and ultimately Indira Gandhi, then-Indian prime minister, said no to the plan,” says Ganguly.
Reports that the Indian air force was preparing to strike the Kahuta nuclear site matched a leaked US cable showing satellite images of a group of Indian Jaguar aircrafts that were missing from their designated air base.
But Pakistanis took the information seriously and sent their own jets on regular flights over Kahuta — just in case. But years later, an Indian Air Force officer laughed at the whole missing-Jaguar incident.
The planes were hidden in nearby woods as part of a passive air defence drill, writes Perkovich in ‘India’s Nuclear Bomb.’
About Pakistan’s air patrol over Kahuta, “We said fine, burn up your engines,” the Indian officer told Perkovish.
Militaries around the world draw up plans, prepare contingencies and run simulated war games, but that doesn’t constitute a precursor for an attack against an enemy, notes Ganguly.
“An Indian attack would have disastrous consequences with the OIC (the Organization of Islamic Countries). The OIC would have been absolutely furious,” he says.
Besides the funds that were flowing into Pakistan’s nuclear project from Saudi Arabia and other OIC members, it was the notion of Islamic solidarity that deterred New Delhi, he adds.
A perpetual threat
The fear of either side trying to hit each other’s nuclear facilities was real enough for both countries to take necessary precautions. India also beefed up air defences around its Trombay nuclear facility near Mumbai.
It was not only India and Israel that were interested in trying to find out how far Pakistan had progressed in making a bomb, however.
After the ZDF documentary disclosed A Q Khan’s activities, Robert Galluci, a senior US State Department official, tried to visit the Kahuta research facility to see what was happening there.
Situated close to the Pakistani capital, Kahuta is a small, scenic town where families often go to wind down. When Pakistani intelligence officials stopped Galluci, he said he was going to Kahuta for a picnic. He was nevertheless turned back.
But the then-French ambassador to Pakistan, Pol le Gourrierec, and his first secretary weren’t so lucky. They were beaten up by security officials when they attempted to get too close to Kahuta. The incident strained diplomatic ties between Paris and Islamabad.
Another incident related to foreign surveillance was rather bizarre. Workers near the centrifuge plant accidentally came across a rock that broke open and revealed wires and circuits protruding from inside.
“It was obvious it was planted by US intelligence. No one else could have done that,” says Feroz Khan.
The Brasstack tension of the mid-1980s deescalated after diplomatic negotiations.
In the mid 1990s, Pakistan and India signed an agreement promising not to attack each other’s nuclear facilities. Then, in 1998, both sides conducted nuclear tests, making a nuclear strike against each other a foregone conclusion.
In the ensuing years, the two archrivals, who were involved in border and air skirmishes as recently as 2019, built up an arsenal of hundreds of nukes and delivery systems, including long-range missiles.
But they have also taken steps to avoid any mishap, says Dr Mario Carranza, a political science professor at the Texas A&M University Kingsville.
“They have a commitment to notify each other before they test ballistic missiles. There’s also a de facto moratorium on nuclear testing because they haven’t tested nuclear weapons in years.”
New Delhi and Islamabad exchange locations of civilian nuclear facilities every year as a confidence-building measure.
A sign of how they can avoid any serious escalation came last year when an Indian cruise missile that had been accidentally launched landed deep inside Pakistan. The missile was not armed and no one was injured. Pakistani officials didn’t raise the issue in any international forum.
“But they have completely ignored nuclear arms control or even the possibility of seriously engaging in nuclear arms control. They are even modernising their nuclear arsenal,” says Carranza.
“So the Damocles sword continues to hang on millions of people in South Asia.”
|
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Mission Majnu: Why India could not thwart Pakistan’s nuclear aspiration
In January 1987, India amassed nearly half a million troops in the Rajasthan province bordering Pakistan — ostensibly for a military exercise codenamed Brasstacks.
It was the largest armed mobilisation in South Asia and involved hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles backed by air support. The drills were conducted a few kilometres from Sindh, the Pakistani province that borders Rajasthan.
Behind that military posture was the Indian army chief Lieutenant General Krishnaswami Sundarji, a known Pakistani hawk, who had for years raised concerns about Islamabad’s clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
That’s the closest New Delhi ever got to undermining Pakistan’s nuclear ambition.Exercise Brasstacks brought the armies of two countries close to a war. (AP Archive)
The military build up happened around the time when India was reeling from a violent insurgency in its province of Punjab, which was up in arms after security forces carried out an operation at the Golden Temple, a holy site of the Sikh minority, to drive out militants.
India accused Islamabad of supporting Sikh separatists who were demanding a territory of their own that they called Khalistan.
“Sundarji wanted to trigger a war and in garb of that, he was planning to strike Kahuta, the nuclear facility where weapons-grade uranium was being enriched,” says Feroz Khan, a professor of nuclear proliferation at the Naval Postgraduate School and author of ‘Eating Grass: the Making of the Pakistani Bomb.’
“But a counter mobilisation by Pakistan worried then-Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who wasn’t properly briefed by Sundarji. The two sides eventually deescalated the situation.” Tensions were high after Indian troops stormed the Golden Temple, a holy site for Sikhs. (AP Archive)
For decades, researchers have studied if New Delhi made any serious attempts to take out Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme while it was in its infancy in the mid-1970s and mid-1980s.
The debate was given a fresh impetus in January with the release of an Indian movie on Netflix, ‘Mission Majnu.’
The action-packed Bollywood flick is about an Indian spy who infiltrates Pakistan, where he masquerades as a tailor, marries a blind Muslim woman and eventually comes close to his target, Kahuta. After gathering evidence about the secret nuclear facility, he single handedly fights
|
off dozens of Pakistani soldiers. In the end, the protagonist, who is a Sikh, redeems his rebel father’s treachery, dying in a shootout after shouting “Hail Mother India.”
Many in Pakistan called it a ‘propaganda’ film, arguing that its plot was more comical than factual. The makers of the film insist it is inspired by ‘true events.’
Behind the cinematic theatrics, there’s a real story about how India responded to Pakistan’s nuclear project. It’s serious and complicated. It’s a story of arrogance, disbelief, threats and diplomacy. And it all started with former Pakistani prime minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.
‘We’ll feed on grass, even if we had to’
Bhutto was the foreign minister in 1965 when a journalist from the Manchester Guardian asked how Pakistan would react if India decided to build a nuke.
“If India makes an atom bomb, then even if we have to feed on grass and leaves — or even if we have to starve — we shall also produce an atom bomb as we would be left with no other alternative,” Bhutto said.
India had stepped up efforts to acquire technology to make a plutonium bomb after China conducted its first nuclear explosion in 1964. Pakistani leader Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto played a major role to start Pakistan’s nuclear weapons programme. (AP Archive)
It was a pivotal period for India and Pakistan as the two neighbours fought a bloody war in 1965 and both sides wanted to beef up their defences.
India became a nuclear power when it successfully tested its first nuclear bomb in 1974.
Bhutto, however, had to wait years before Pakistan came close to producing a bomb, according to Khan, who served as a brigadier in Pakistan’s army and for a time worked at the Strategic Plans Division, which is responsible for guarding the nuclear arsenal.
“Those initial efforts didn’t go anywhere until 1974, when Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan entered the picture,” says the professor.
Dr A Q Khan, known as the father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, was a metallurgist who copied designs of German centrifuges while working in Europe and brought them back to Pakistan.
With a doctorate in copper metallurgy from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, his expertise brought him in close contact with those developing centrifuges in a plant in Almelo, the Netherlands. That facility was run by URENCO Group, a nuclear fuel supplier.
Fluent in English, French and German, his managers would often ask him to translate German reports on centrifuge technologies. The importance of the sketches and details he saw didn’t escape his attention. India conducted the first nuclear explosion in 1974. (AP Archive)
The blueprints weren’t enough to build a functional nuclear programme capable of producing weapons-grade uranium.
Only a handful of European companies that made critical parts and components such as vacuum pumps, valves and aluminium casing were willing to trade with Islamabad.
Spearheaded by A Q Khan, Pakistani diplomats, intelligence operatives and even A Q Khan’s friends set up shell companies around the world to buy those components. Whatever wasn’t available was produced locally.
Centrifuges rotate at twice the speed of sound to separate the U-235 isotope from U-238. Thousands of centrifuges operate in a cascade formation at the same time. Malfunction and failures were common in the initial years and Pakistani scientists learned how to master enrichment through trial and error.
A factual distortion in the Netflix film ‘Mission Majnu’ was centred around how Pakistan imported uranium. A key input for uranium enrichment — the process whereby weapons-grade uranium is produced — is the uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas. Pakistan didn’t import uranium because of international scrutiny. It mined the key ingredient in the Baghal Chur area of the Dera Ghazi Khan district in 1975 and 1976 and produced its own UF6 gas.
n June 1978, Pakistani scientists were able to figure out how to successfully run the gas centrifuges. From here on, it was a matter of enriching the uranium so it could be used as fuel in a weapon.
But the cover of Pakistan’s nuclear programme and A Q Khan’s network of suppliers was blown in March 1979, when German broadcaster ZDFran a documentary exposing how A Q Khan had stolen centrifuge designs while working in the Netherlands.
ZDF’s documentary lumped Islam, the Middle East, A Q Khan and Israel’s national security together, weaving all four elements into an enticing conspiracy plot.
That’s when the catchphrase ‘Islamic Bomb’ became a media trope, writes Dr Malcolm Craig in his book ‘America, Britain and Pakistan’s Nuclear Programme 1974-1980.’
Yet most governments — including India’s — didn’t feel the urgency in the late 1970s to act because they deemed that a low-income country which had just lost its eastern wing (today’s Bangladesh) lacked the capacity and skill to handle such sophisticated technology.
There was perhaps one exception: Israel.
Any real attempts to harm Pakistan’s nuclear programme were revealed when executives at European companies doing business with A Q Khan began receiving threats. Some even faced assassination attempts.
A letter bomb exploded at the home of Heinz Mebus in Erlangen, West Germany. Mebus, who had helped Pakistan build fluoride and uranium conversion plants, escaped unharmed, but his dog died in the explosion. A similar bombing targeted a senior executive of a Swiss company, CORA Engineering, which had also worked on Pakistan’s nuclear programme, codenamed 706.
Threatening letters were sent and phone calls made to European officials who were known to be working with A Q Khan. Little-known organisations such as the Group for Non Proliferation in South Asia propped up, claiming responsibility.
While Tel Aviv never acknowledged its role in the bombings, historians and researchers such as Adrian Levy and Catherine Scott-Clark, authors of a book on Pakistan’s nuclear programme, have blamed Israel’s foreign intelligence outfit Mossad.
“They didn’t want a Muslim country to have the bomb,” says Feroz Khan.
Saudi Arabia and Libya had, under Muammar Gaddafi, financially helped Pakistan’s nuclear programme, he adds.
Like Pakistan, Israel had also pilfered technology and know-how to make nuclear weapons. But while Pakistani nuclear scientist A Q Khan was later arrested and humiliated on national television for allegedly running an illegal proliferation network, the Israeli agent Arnon Mlichan was celebrated for his scientific feats without any state scrutiny or scorn.
Milchan, who stole European designs for centrifuges that were built at the Dimona nuclear facility in Israel, went on to become a famous Hollywood producer behind hit films such as ‘Pretty Woman’ and ‘Fight Club.’
Yet curiously enough, the Indian state didn’t take the neighbouring country’s enrichment attempt seriously until it was too late. At the heart of that underestimation was a superiority complex stemming from the Hindu caste system wherein Brahmins are considered better than all others.
“The Brahminical contempt for the abilities of Pakistan’s scientists and engineers also was intensified by the difficulties India’s well-educated had in trying to master large-scale uranium enrichment,” writes George Perkovish in his seminal book ‘India’s Nuclear Bomb.’
There are two ways to make a nuclear weapon — either through highly enriched uranium or plutonium. India took the plutonium route to make its first bomb. New Delhi announced archiving capability to enrich weapons-grade uranium in 1986.
The ‘myth’ of the Osirak contingency
“It was probably in 1981 that Indian intelligence started to pick up evidence that Pakistan was making the bomb,” says Sumit Ganguly, a political professor at the Indiana University Bloomington, who has written extensively on nuclear issues in South Asia.
In the years after they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947, India and Pakistan struggled to boost their economies and take millions of people out of poverty.
New Delhi still boasted a much larger industrial base with the capability to indigenously produce cars and key metals.
“I have heard this independently from Indian analysts that the Indian scientific establishment believed that Pakistanis may have theoretical knowledge, but they don’t have the industrial capacity. That was arrogance on their part,” says Ganguly.
When it finally dawned on New Delhi that Pakistan was close to making a bomb, some military leaders, including Sundarji, pushed the government to take action.
One popular narrative that has made its way into history books centres around a secret Indian plan to use jets to blow up Kahuta, located some 40 kilometres from Islamabad.
As the story goes, at some point in 1981, India’s military prepared a squadron of its Jaguar jets to fly close to the terrain, infiltrate Pakistani territory and blow up the centrifuges.
Experts’ opinions differ as to whether such a plan was ever conceived.
That same year, an Israeli air raid destroyed a nuclear reactor at Osirak in Iraq. Some Indian military officials considered carrying out a similar strike against Kahuta as part of what they called the ‘Osirak contingency’.
“We never got clear-cut confirmation about such an operation. My view is that, yes, military officers felt it was their duty to offer certain military options to the political leadership and ultimately Indira Gandhi, then-Indian prime minister, said no to the plan,” says Ganguly.
Reports that the Indian air force was preparing to strike the Kahuta nuclear site matched a leaked US cable showing satellite images of a group of Indian Jaguar aircrafts that were missing from their designated air base.
But Pakistanis took the information seriously and sent their own jets on regular flights over Kahuta — just in case. But years later, an Indian Air Force officer laughed at the whole missing-Jaguar incident.
The planes were hidden in nearby woods as part of a passive air defence drill, writes Perkovich in ‘India’s Nuclear Bomb.’
About Pakistan’s air patrol over Kahuta, “We said fine, burn up your engines,” the Indian officer told Perkovish.
Militaries around the world draw up plans, prepare contingencies and run simulated war games, but that doesn’t constitute a precursor for an attack against an enemy, notes Ganguly.
“An Indian attack would have disastrous consequences with the OIC (the Organization of Islamic Countries). The OIC would have been absolutely furious,” he says.
Besides the funds that were flowing into Pakistan’s nuclear project from Saudi Arabia and other OIC members, it was the notion of Islamic solidarity that deterred New Delhi, he adds.
A perpetual threat
The fear of either side trying to hit each other’s nuclear facilities was real enough for both countries to take necessary precautions. India also beefed up air defences around its Trombay nuclear facility near Mumbai.
It was not only India and Israel that were interested in trying to find out how far Pakistan had progressed in making a bomb, however.
After the ZDF documentary disclosed A Q Khan’s activities, Robert Galluci, a senior US State Department official, tried to visit the Kahuta research facility to see what was happening there.
Situated close to the Pakistani capital, Kahuta is a small, scenic town where families often go to wind down. When Pakistani intelligence officials stopped Galluci, he said he was going to Kahuta for a picnic. He was nevertheless turned back.
But the then-French ambassador to Pakistan, Pol le Gourrierec, and his first secretary weren’t so lucky. They were beaten up by security officials when they attempted to get too close to Kahuta. The incident strained diplomatic ties between Paris and Islamabad.
Another incident related to foreign surveillance was rather bizarre. Workers near the centrifuge plant accidentally came across a rock that broke open and revealed wires and circuits protruding from inside.
“It was obvious it was planted by US intelligence. No one else could have done that,” says Feroz Khan.
The Brasstack tension of the mid-1980s deescalated after diplomatic negotiations.
In the mid 1990s, Pakistan and India signed an agreement promising not to attack each other’s nuclear facilities. Then, in 1998, both sides conducted nuclear tests, making a nuclear strike against each other a foregone conclusion.
In the ensuing years, the two archrivals, who were involved in border and air skirmishes as recently as 2019, built up an arsenal of hundreds of nukes and delivery systems, including long-range missiles.
But they have also taken steps to avoid any mishap, says Dr Mario Carranza, a political science professor at the Texas A&M University Kingsville.
“They have a commitment to notify each other before they test ballistic missiles. There’s also a de facto moratorium on nuclear testing because they haven’t tested nuclear weapons in years.”
New Delhi and Islamabad exchange locations of civilian nuclear facilities every year as a confidence-building measure.
A sign of how they can avoid any serious escalation came last year when an Indian cruise missile that had been accidentally launched landed deep inside Pakistan. The missile was not armed and no one was injured. Pakistani officials didn’t raise the issue in any international forum.
“But they have completely ignored nuclear arms control or even the possibility of seriously engaging in nuclear arms control. They are even modernising their nuclear arsenal,” says Carranza.
“So the Damocles sword continues to hang on millions of people in South Asia.”
|
Defense Department officials are pushing back against health concerns raised by environmental groups and regulators over the use of PFAS in products such as uniforms, batteries, and microelectronics, KFF Health News has reported.
PFAS, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are chemicals that resist grease, oil, water, and heat, according to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Known as "forever chemicals" because they don't break down in the environment and can build up in the human body, PFAS have been associated with such health problems as cancer.
Although regulators have proposed restrictions on PFAS' use or manufacturing, Pentagon officials have told Congress that eliminating the chemicals would undermine military readiness.
"DOD is reliant on the critically important chemical and physical properties of PFAS to provide required performance for the technologies and consumable items and articles which enable military readiness and sustainment," an August DOD report said, KFF Health News reported.
"Losing access to PFAS due to overly broad regulations or severe market contractions would greatly impact national security and DOD's ability to fulfill its mission."
The DOD report said most major weapons systems contain PFAS chemicals, KFF Health News reported. That includes helicopters, airplanes, submarines, missiles, torpedoes, tanks, and assault vehicles.
The report said PFAS are also found in textiles such as uniforms, footwear, tents, and duffel bags, as well as nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare protective gear.
A federal study in July showed a direct link between testicular cancer and PFOS, a PFAS chemical that has been found in the blood of thousands of military personnel.
Some types of PFAS have been linked to low birth weight, developmental delays in children, thyroid dysfunction, and reduced response to immunizations, KFF Health News reported.
The report did not address the health concerns and noted that there is "no consensus definition of PFAS as a chemical class." It added that the broad term, which addresses thousands of artificial chemical chains, "does not inform whether a compound is harmful or not."
Environmental Working Group (EWG) researchers said the report lacked acknowledgment of the health risks posed by PFAS and ignored the availability of PFAS-free replacements for material, tents, and duffel bags.
"It's kind of like that report you turn in at school," senior scientist David Andrews said, "when you get a comment back that you did the minimum amount possible."
EWG in August said more than 700 military installations likely were contaminated with PFAS.
"The Defense Department has failed to treat PFAS with the urgency service members and their families rightly deserve," EWG senior policy analyst Jared Hayes said. "For too long, people living in communities near military installations also have been the victims of the Pentagon’s failure to act."
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
|
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Defense Department officials are pushing back against health concerns raised by environmental groups and regulators over the use of PFAS in products such as uniforms, batteries, and microelectronics, KFF Health News has reported.
PFAS, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are chemicals that resist grease, oil, water, and heat, according to the U.S. Food & Drug Administration.
Known as "forever chemicals" because they don't break down in the environment and can build up in the human body, PFAS have been associated with such health problems as cancer.
Although regulators have proposed restrictions on PFAS' use or manufacturing, Pentagon officials have told Congress that eliminating the chemicals would undermine military readiness.
"DOD is reliant on the critically important chemical and physical properties of PFAS to provide required performance for the technologies and consumable items and articles which enable military readiness and sustainment," an August DOD report said, KFF Health News reported.
"Losing access to PFAS due to overly broad regulations or severe market contractions would greatly impact national security and DOD's ability to fulfill its mission."
The DOD report said most major weapons systems contain PFAS chemicals, KFF Health News reported. That includes helicopters, airplanes, submarines, missiles, torpedoes, tanks, and assault vehicles.
The report said PFAS are also found in textiles such as uniforms, footwear, tents, and duffel bags, as well as nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare protective gear.
A federal study in July showed a direct link between testicular cancer and PFOS, a PFAS chemical that has been found in the blood of thousands of military personnel.
Some types of PFAS have been linked to low birth weight, developmental delays in children, thyroid dysfunction, and reduced response to immunizations, KFF Health News reported.
The report did not address the health concerns and noted that there is "no consensus definition of PFAS as a chemical class." It added that the broad term, which addresses thousands of artificial chemical chains, "does not inform whether a compound is harmful or not."
Environmental Working Group (EWG) researchers said the report lacked acknowledgment of the health risks posed by PFAS and ignored the availability of PFAS-free replacements for material, tents, and duffel bags.
"It's kind of like that report you turn in at school," senior scientist David Andrews said, "when you get a comment back that you did the minimum amount possible."
EWG in August said more than 700 military installations likely
|
were contaminated with PFAS.
"The Defense Department has failed to treat PFAS with the urgency service members and their families rightly deserve," EWG senior policy analyst Jared Hayes said. "For too long, people living in communities near military installations also have been the victims of the Pentagon’s failure to act."
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
© 2023 Newsmax. All rights reserved.
|
USDA reinstates road work, logging restrictions to Tongass National Forest
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal agency said Wednesday it is reinstating restrictions on road-building and logging on the country’s largest national forest in Southeast Alaska, the latest move in a long-running fight over the Tongass National Forest.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in late 2021 announced that it was beginning the process of repealing a Trump administration-era decision that exempted the Tongass — a rainforest that is also home to rugged coastal islands and glaciers — from the so-called roadless rule.
The agency on Wednesday said it had finalized that plan.
The new rule will take effect once it is published in the Federal Register, which is expected to happen Friday, said agency spokesperson Larry Moore.
The Tongass is roughly the size of West Virginia and provides habitat for wildlife, including bears, wolves, bald eagles and salmon.
Roadless areas account for about one-third of all U.S. national forest system lands. But Alaska political leaders have long sought an exemption to the roadless rule for the Tongass, seeing the restrictions as burdensome and limiting economic opportunities. They supported efforts under former President Donald Trump to remove the roadless designation for about 9.4 million acres on the Tongass.
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy on social media Wednesday said people in Alaska “deserve access to the resources that the Tongass provides — jobs, renewable energy resources and tourism, not a government plan that treats human beings within a working forest like an invasive species.”
Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola told Alaska’s News Source in an emailed statement that she remains “concerned” about the reimposition of the roadless rule for the Tongass, citing her belief that Alaskans should determine how to use their land.
“This rule could leave communities in the designated roadless area with even fewer options for economic activity and development, including crucial renewable energy projects that can’t be built or connected to local grids because of these regulations,” Peltola said. “We should be updating our regulations to account for the present and future needs of Southeast Alaska.”
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan accused the Biden administration in a statement to Alaska’s News Source of excessive overreach in issues involving the state.
“The Biden Administration has now unleashed 42 executive orders or actions targeting Alaska and the economic well-being of our citizens. No other state in the Union is getting such targeted and unwanted attention from the Biden administration,” Sullivan said. “I have repeatedly called on President Biden for a ceasefire in his war on Alaska’s working families, but to no avail. Alaskans in Southeast — like any Americans — have a right to connect their communities, sustain local economies, build renewable energy projects, and responsibly harvest resources. But the Forest Service’s return to the overly-burdensome 2001 Roadless Rule totally undermines all of those.
“My message to hard-working Alaskans who are being crushed and utterly disregarded by this Administration: I will fight this and other Biden Administration anti-Alaska actions with everything in my power.”
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a statement that the roadless rule should never have applied to the Tongass, saying there is no large-scale development threat from timber harvesting, and adding that the Biden administration’s decision is “federal paternalism at its worst.”
“With this decision, the Biden administration is turning the Tongass into a political football, where access changes with each new President and creates whiplash for those who might want to invest or build in Southeast Alaska,” Murkowski said. “We should see this for what it is: a regulation in spite of reality that will only serve to make it take longer, cost more, or outright impossible to develop the limited infrastructure — including renewable energy — necessary for a sustainable regional economy.”
The dispute goes back more than two decades.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in revisiting the issue, cited a directive from President Joe Biden at the start of his term to review and address rules enacted under Trump that might conflict with environmental and climate aims laid out by Biden.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement called the Tongass “key to conserving biodiversity and addressing the climate crisis. Restoring roadless protections listens to the voices of Tribal Nations and the people of Southeast Alaska while recognizing the importance of fishing and tourism to the region’s economy.”
The Alaska Department of Law released a statement condemning the act.
“This unfortunate decision is a blow to the economic and socioeconomic development of Southeast Alaska,” Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor said. “It marks another bitter chapter in this long-running saga, once more forcing the State and its citizens to pay the costs of near-absolute preservation. It denies them the most basic and fundamental developments of society, which are taken for granted in nearly every other part of the country.”
Conservation groups cheered the decision.
“The Tongass Roadless Rule is important to everyone,” Organized Village of Kake President Joel Jackson said in a statement from Earthjustice, an environmental nonprofit organization.
“The old-growth timber is a carbon sink, one of the best in the world. It’s important to our way of life — the streams, salmon, deer, and all the forest animals and plants.”
Environment America Research and Policy Center Public Lands Campaign Director Ellen Montgomery applauded the decision in a statement.
“Our largest national forest provides critical habitat for countless birds, salmon and its ancient trees absorb staggering amounts of carbon,” Montgomery said. “The roadless area, 9.2 million acres, has been protected from logging since 2001. Thanks to the Biden administration, this critical forestland will have continued protection for decades longer.
“Now that this Trump era rollback has been restored, it’s time for the Biden administration to move to increase protection from logging for all old and mature forests across the entire country.”
The initiative SalmonState said in a press release that Southeast Alaska is in “an exciting new era.”
“The reinstatement is a core element of the U.S. Forest Service’s Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy — a new approach to land management and development that puts Southeast Alaskan communities and Tribes squarely in the lead,” the release said.
Alaska’s News Source contributed to this story.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
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USDA reinstates road work, logging restrictions to Tongass National Forest
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — A federal agency said Wednesday it is reinstating restrictions on road-building and logging on the country’s largest national forest in Southeast Alaska, the latest move in a long-running fight over the Tongass National Forest.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture in late 2021 announced that it was beginning the process of repealing a Trump administration-era decision that exempted the Tongass — a rainforest that is also home to rugged coastal islands and glaciers — from the so-called roadless rule.
The agency on Wednesday said it had finalized that plan.
The new rule will take effect once it is published in the Federal Register, which is expected to happen Friday, said agency spokesperson Larry Moore.
The Tongass is roughly the size of West Virginia and provides habitat for wildlife, including bears, wolves, bald eagles and salmon.
Roadless areas account for about one-third of all U.S. national forest system lands. But Alaska political leaders have long sought an exemption to the roadless rule for the Tongass, seeing the restrictions as burdensome and limiting economic opportunities. They supported efforts under former President Donald Trump to remove the roadless designation for about 9.4 million acres on the Tongass.
Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy on social media Wednesday said people in Alaska “deserve access to the resources that the Tongass provides — jobs, renewable energy resources and tourism, not a government plan that treats human beings within a working forest like an invasive species.”
Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola told Alaska’s News Source in an emailed statement that she remains “concerned” about the reimposition of the roadless rule for the Tongass, citing her belief that Alaskans should determine how to use their land.
“This rule could leave communities in the designated roadless area with even fewer options for economic activity and development, including crucial renewable energy projects that can’t be built or connected to local grids because of these regulations,” Peltola said. “We should be updating our regulations to account for the present and future needs of Southeast Alaska.”
Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan accused the Biden administration in a statement to Alaska’s News Source of excessive overreach in issues involving the state.
“The Biden Administration has now unleashed 42 executive orders or actions targeting Alaska and the economic well-being of our citizens. No other state in the Union is getting such targeted and unwanted attention from the Biden administration
|
,” Sullivan said. “I have repeatedly called on President Biden for a ceasefire in his war on Alaska’s working families, but to no avail. Alaskans in Southeast — like any Americans — have a right to connect their communities, sustain local economies, build renewable energy projects, and responsibly harvest resources. But the Forest Service’s return to the overly-burdensome 2001 Roadless Rule totally undermines all of those.
“My message to hard-working Alaskans who are being crushed and utterly disregarded by this Administration: I will fight this and other Biden Administration anti-Alaska actions with everything in my power.”
Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said in a statement that the roadless rule should never have applied to the Tongass, saying there is no large-scale development threat from timber harvesting, and adding that the Biden administration’s decision is “federal paternalism at its worst.”
“With this decision, the Biden administration is turning the Tongass into a political football, where access changes with each new President and creates whiplash for those who might want to invest or build in Southeast Alaska,” Murkowski said. “We should see this for what it is: a regulation in spite of reality that will only serve to make it take longer, cost more, or outright impossible to develop the limited infrastructure — including renewable energy — necessary for a sustainable regional economy.”
The dispute goes back more than two decades.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, in revisiting the issue, cited a directive from President Joe Biden at the start of his term to review and address rules enacted under Trump that might conflict with environmental and climate aims laid out by Biden.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a statement called the Tongass “key to conserving biodiversity and addressing the climate crisis. Restoring roadless protections listens to the voices of Tribal Nations and the people of Southeast Alaska while recognizing the importance of fishing and tourism to the region’s economy.”
The Alaska Department of Law released a statement condemning the act.
“This unfortunate decision is a blow to the economic and socioeconomic development of Southeast Alaska,” Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor said. “It marks another bitter chapter in this long-running saga, once more forcing the State and its citizens to pay the costs of near-absolute preservation. It denies them the most basic and fundamental developments of society, which are taken for granted in nearly every other part of the country.”
Conservation groups cheered the decision.
“The Tongass Roadless Rule is important to everyone,” Organized Village of Kake President Joel Jackson said in a statement from Earthjustice, an environmental nonprofit organization.
“The old-growth timber is a carbon sink, one of the best in the world. It’s important to our way of life — the streams, salmon, deer, and all the forest animals and plants.”
Environment America Research and Policy Center Public Lands Campaign Director Ellen Montgomery applauded the decision in a statement.
“Our largest national forest provides critical habitat for countless birds, salmon and its ancient trees absorb staggering amounts of carbon,” Montgomery said. “The roadless area, 9.2 million acres, has been protected from logging since 2001. Thanks to the Biden administration, this critical forestland will have continued protection for decades longer.
“Now that this Trump era rollback has been restored, it’s time for the Biden administration to move to increase protection from logging for all old and mature forests across the entire country.”
The initiative SalmonState said in a press release that Southeast Alaska is in “an exciting new era.”
“The reinstatement is a core element of the U.S. Forest Service’s Southeast Alaska Sustainability Strategy — a new approach to land management and development that puts Southeast Alaskan communities and Tribes squarely in the lead,” the release said.
Alaska’s News Source contributed to this story.
This story has been updated with additional information.
Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
|
Before Canada’s wildfires caused New York City’s air to become one of the worst in the world, many east coasters might have been unfamiliar with the term Air Quality Index (AQI).
AQI is national standard for determining how polluted an area’s air has become. But the number goes beyond just warning you to stay inside on particularly smoggy and hazy days.
What does the AQI measure?
There are five major pollutants that the index monitors, which are those specified by the Clean Air Act, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. These include:
- Ground-level ozone
- Particle pollution (or particulate matter)
- Carbon monoxide
- Sulfur dioxide
- Nitrogen dioxide
These substances are known to harm human health and are major contributors to environmental damage by causing events like acid rain. The EPA sets a baseline level of just how much of these substances can be found in the air before contributing to human and ecological health consequences.
What does the number mean?
The AQI number you see on your phone doesn’t actually correspond to a measurement, like temperature, for example. Instead, it’s just a combined calculation of how much of each pollutant is found in the air: the higher the number, the more polluted the air.
The numbers are categorized into colors to illustrate which groups of people should take precautionary measures:
- Green/Good (AQI 0-50): Air quality is healthy.
- Yellow/Moderate (AQI 51-100): Air quality is acceptable, and only those who are very sensitive to pollution should be concerned.
- Orange/Unhealthy for sensitive groups (AQI 101-150): Air is visibly polluted, but won’t affect the general public. Those sensitive to air pollution will start feeling effects.
- Red/Unhealthy (AQI 151-200): Pollution will begin affecting the general public. Those more sensitive may experience more serious health problems.
- Purple/Very Unhealthy (AQI 201-300): General public at risk of experiencing serious health problems. Staying indoors becomes essential.
- Maroon/Hazardous (AQI 301-500): Entire population at risk of severe health consequences. Considered a public health and environmental emergency.
How is the AQI measured?
Both ground instruments and satellites are used to collect data about air quality, with satellites particularly helpful for tracking the density and spread of particulates.
The View From Mexico
The U.S. AQI is not based off a universal system, and every country and non-governmental party generates their alert system based on different standards. Mexico, for example, has an AQI rating specific to Mexico City, once considered the world’s most polluted city by the United Nations.
Although meteorologists, climatologists, and city planners all monitor the same substances the EPA does, the index is different because of the city’s geography and high-altitude, meaning pollutants like fuel do not combust fully and can contaminate the air more. This has pushed Mexico City to adopt stricter AQI standards when enacting restrictions like limiting driving.
Room for Disagreement
IQAir, a Swiss company that develops air pollution mitigation technology, argues that the U.S. AQI is actually sub-par to the World Health Organization’s standards because the EPA heavily relies on and adheres to outdated research.
“The U.S. EPA’s more dated standards for ’good' are not good enough to protect human health,” the company said.
|
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Before Canada’s wildfires caused New York City’s air to become one of the worst in the world, many east coasters might have been unfamiliar with the term Air Quality Index (AQI).
AQI is national standard for determining how polluted an area’s air has become. But the number goes beyond just warning you to stay inside on particularly smoggy and hazy days.
What does the AQI measure?
There are five major pollutants that the index monitors, which are those specified by the Clean Air Act, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. These include:
- Ground-level ozone
- Particle pollution (or particulate matter)
- Carbon monoxide
- Sulfur dioxide
- Nitrogen dioxide
These substances are known to harm human health and are major contributors to environmental damage by causing events like acid rain. The EPA sets a baseline level of just how much of these substances can be found in the air before contributing to human and ecological health consequences.
What does the number mean?
The AQI number you see on your phone doesn’t actually correspond to a measurement, like temperature, for example. Instead, it’s just a combined calculation of how much of each pollutant is found in the air: the higher the number, the more polluted the air.
The numbers are categorized into colors to illustrate which groups of people should take precautionary measures:
- Green/Good (AQI 0-50): Air quality is healthy.
- Yellow/Moderate (AQI 51-100): Air quality is acceptable, and only those who are very sensitive to pollution should be concerned.
- Orange/Unhealthy for sensitive groups (AQI 101-150): Air is visibly polluted, but won’t affect the general public. Those sensitive to air pollution will start feeling effects.
- Red/Unhealthy (AQI 151-200): Pollution will begin affecting the general public. Those more sensitive may experience more serious health problems.
- Purple/Very Unhealthy (AQI 201-300): General public at risk of experiencing serious health problems. Staying indoors becomes essential.
- Maroon/Hazardous (AQI 301-500): Entire population at risk of severe health consequences. Considered a public health and environmental emergency.
How is the AQI measured?
Both ground instruments and satellites are used to collect data about air quality, with satellites particularly helpful for
|
tracking the density and spread of particulates.
The View From Mexico
The U.S. AQI is not based off a universal system, and every country and non-governmental party generates their alert system based on different standards. Mexico, for example, has an AQI rating specific to Mexico City, once considered the world’s most polluted city by the United Nations.
Although meteorologists, climatologists, and city planners all monitor the same substances the EPA does, the index is different because of the city’s geography and high-altitude, meaning pollutants like fuel do not combust fully and can contaminate the air more. This has pushed Mexico City to adopt stricter AQI standards when enacting restrictions like limiting driving.
Room for Disagreement
IQAir, a Swiss company that develops air pollution mitigation technology, argues that the U.S. AQI is actually sub-par to the World Health Organization’s standards because the EPA heavily relies on and adheres to outdated research.
“The U.S. EPA’s more dated standards for ’good' are not good enough to protect human health,” the company said.
|
Why did the US and allies invade Iraq, 20 years ago?
- Published1 day ago
On 20 March 2003, US and allied forces invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The US said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was a threat to international peace, but most countries refused to support military action against it.
Why did the US want to invade Iraq?
In the Gulf War of 1990-1991, the US had led a multinational coalition which forced invading Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
Afterwards, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 687 ordering Iraq to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) – a term used to describe nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and long-range ballistic missiles.
In 1998, Iraq suspended cooperation with UN weapons inspectors, and the US and UK responded with air strikes.
After al-Qaeda’s 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, President George W Bush’s administration started making plans to invade Iraq.
President Bush claimed Saddam was continuing to stockpile and manufacture WMDs and that Iraq was part of an international “axis of evil”, along with Iran and North Korea.
In October 2002, the US Congress authorised the use of military force against Iraq.
“Many people in Washington believed that there was significant evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and that it posed a genuine threat,” says Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the US and Americas Programme at Chatham House, a foreign affairs think tank in London.
In February 2003, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell asked the UN Security Council to give the go-ahead for military action against Iraq, saying it was violating previous resolutions with its alleged WMD programme.
However, he did not persuade the Council. Most of its members wanted weapons inspectors from the UN and International Energy Authority – who had gone to Iraq in 2002 – to carry out more work there to find evidence of WMDs.
The US said it would not wait for the inspectors to report, and assembled a “coalition of the willing” against Iraq.
Who supported the war?
Of the 30 countries in the coalition, the UK, Australia and Poland participated in the invasion.
The UK sent 45,000 troops, Australia sent 2,000 troops and Poland sent 194 special forces members.
Kuwait allowed the invasion to be launched from its territory.
Spain and Italy gave diplomatic support to the US-led coalition, along with several east European nations in the “Vilnius Group”, who said they believed that Iraq had a WMD programme and was violating UN resolutions.
What allegations did the US and UK make against Iraq?
US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the UN in 2003 that Iraq had “mobile labs” for producing biological weapons.
However, he acknowledged in 2004 that the evidence for this “appears not to be… that solid”.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption,
US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the UN that Iraq was producing weapons of mass destructions
The UK government made public an intelligence dossier claiming that Iraqi missiles could be readied within 45 minutes to hit UK targets in the eastern Mediterranean.
The UK’s then-Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said it was “beyond doubt” that Saddam Hussein was continuing to produce WMD.
The two countries relied heavily on the claims of two Iraqi defectors – a chemical engineer called Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi and an intelligence officer called Maj Muhammad Harith – who said they had first-hand knowledge of Iraq’s WMD programme.
Both men later said they had fabricated their evidence because they wanted the allies to invade and oust Saddam.
Who refused to support the war?
Two neighbours of the US, Canada and Mexico, refused to support it.
Germany and France, two key US allies in Europe, also refused support.
French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin said military intervention would be “the worst possible solution”.
Turkey – a fellow Nato member and neighbour of Iraq – refused to let the US and allies use its airbases.
Middle Eastern countries which had supported the US against Iraq in the 1990-91 Gulf War, such as Saudi Arabia, did not support its invasion in 2003.
“The Gulf Arab states thought the plan was crazy,” says Professor Gilbert Achcar, an expert in Middle Eastern politics at University of London SOAS.
“They were worried about Iran getting control of Iraq after the fall of Saddam’s regime.”
What happened in the war?
At dawn on 20 March 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom began with 295,000 US and allied troops invading Iraq across its border with Kuwait.
70,000 members of the Kurdish Peshmerga militia fought Iraqi forces in the north of the country.
By May, Iraq’s army had been defeated and its regime overthrown. Saddam Hussein was later captured, tried and executed.
However, no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.
In 2004, the country was engulfed by a sectarian insurgency. In later years, a civil war broke out between Iraq’s Sunni and Shi’a Muslim factions.
US troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011.
It is estimated that 461,000 people died in Iraq from war-related causes between 2003 and 2011 and that the war cost the US $3 trillion.
“America lost a lot of credibility from this war,” says Dr Karin von Hippel, director-general of the Royal United Services Institute think tank.
“You still hear people saying, twenty years later: why do we want to believe American intelligence?”
Shock And War: Iraq 20 Years On
The BBC’s security correspondent Gordon Corera seeks to find new answers to why the Iraq war happened, what it meant, and its legacy today.
Listen at 13:45 BST each weekday or stream or download all 10 episodes on BBC Sounds
|
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Why did the US and allies invade Iraq, 20 years ago?
- Published1 day ago
On 20 March 2003, US and allied forces invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The US said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was a threat to international peace, but most countries refused to support military action against it.
Why did the US want to invade Iraq?
In the Gulf War of 1990-1991, the US had led a multinational coalition which forced invading Iraqi forces out of Kuwait.
Afterwards, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 687 ordering Iraq to destroy all its weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) – a term used to describe nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, and long-range ballistic missiles.
In 1998, Iraq suspended cooperation with UN weapons inspectors, and the US and UK responded with air strikes.
After al-Qaeda’s 11 September 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, President George W Bush’s administration started making plans to invade Iraq.
President Bush claimed Saddam was continuing to stockpile and manufacture WMDs and that Iraq was part of an international “axis of evil”, along with Iran and North Korea.
In October 2002, the US Congress authorised the use of military force against Iraq.
“Many people in Washington believed that there was significant evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and that it posed a genuine threat,” says Dr Leslie Vinjamuri, director of the US and Americas Programme at Chatham House, a foreign affairs think tank in London.
In February 2003, then-US Secretary of State Colin Powell asked the UN Security Council to give the go-ahead for military action against Iraq, saying it was violating previous resolutions with its alleged WMD programme.
However, he did not persuade the Council. Most of its members wanted weapons inspectors from the UN and International Energy Authority – who had gone to Iraq in 2002 – to carry out more work there to find evidence of WMDs.
The US said it would not wait for the inspectors to report, and assembled a “coalition of the willing” against Iraq.
Who supported the war?
Of the 30 countries in the coalition, the UK, Australia and Poland participated in the invasion.
The UK sent 45,000 troops, Australia sent 2,000 troops and Poland
|
sent 194 special forces members.
Kuwait allowed the invasion to be launched from its territory.
Spain and Italy gave diplomatic support to the US-led coalition, along with several east European nations in the “Vilnius Group”, who said they believed that Iraq had a WMD programme and was violating UN resolutions.
What allegations did the US and UK make against Iraq?
US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the UN in 2003 that Iraq had “mobile labs” for producing biological weapons.
However, he acknowledged in 2004 that the evidence for this “appears not to be… that solid”.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGESImage caption,
US Secretary of State Colin Powell told the UN that Iraq was producing weapons of mass destructions
The UK government made public an intelligence dossier claiming that Iraqi missiles could be readied within 45 minutes to hit UK targets in the eastern Mediterranean.
The UK’s then-Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said it was “beyond doubt” that Saddam Hussein was continuing to produce WMD.
The two countries relied heavily on the claims of two Iraqi defectors – a chemical engineer called Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi and an intelligence officer called Maj Muhammad Harith – who said they had first-hand knowledge of Iraq’s WMD programme.
Both men later said they had fabricated their evidence because they wanted the allies to invade and oust Saddam.
Who refused to support the war?
Two neighbours of the US, Canada and Mexico, refused to support it.
Germany and France, two key US allies in Europe, also refused support.
French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin said military intervention would be “the worst possible solution”.
Turkey – a fellow Nato member and neighbour of Iraq – refused to let the US and allies use its airbases.
Middle Eastern countries which had supported the US against Iraq in the 1990-91 Gulf War, such as Saudi Arabia, did not support its invasion in 2003.
“The Gulf Arab states thought the plan was crazy,” says Professor Gilbert Achcar, an expert in Middle Eastern politics at University of London SOAS.
“They were worried about Iran getting control of Iraq after the fall of Saddam’s regime.”
What happened in the war?
At dawn on 20 March 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom began with 295,000 US and allied troops invading Iraq across its border with Kuwait.
70,000 members of the Kurdish Peshmerga militia fought Iraqi forces in the north of the country.
By May, Iraq’s army had been defeated and its regime overthrown. Saddam Hussein was later captured, tried and executed.
However, no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq.
In 2004, the country was engulfed by a sectarian insurgency. In later years, a civil war broke out between Iraq’s Sunni and Shi’a Muslim factions.
US troops withdrew from Iraq in 2011.
It is estimated that 461,000 people died in Iraq from war-related causes between 2003 and 2011 and that the war cost the US $3 trillion.
“America lost a lot of credibility from this war,” says Dr Karin von Hippel, director-general of the Royal United Services Institute think tank.
“You still hear people saying, twenty years later: why do we want to believe American intelligence?”
Shock And War: Iraq 20 Years On
The BBC’s security correspondent Gordon Corera seeks to find new answers to why the Iraq war happened, what it meant, and its legacy today.
Listen at 13:45 BST each weekday or stream or download all 10 episodes on BBC Sounds
|
San Francisco's reparations plan set for public hearing
San Francisco's proposed reparations plan, which would give $5 million to each eligible Black person, will be publicly discussed for the first time at the city's Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Details: To be eligible for reparations, a person would need to be at least 18 years old and have identified as Black or African American on public documents for at least 10 years.
- They may also need to prove they were born in San Francisco between 1940 and 1996 and lived in the city for at least 13 years, and were displaced, or a descendant of someone displaced, from the city by urban renewal.
State of play: The city is trying to make amends for previous actions that ultimately led to a lack of opportunities and displacement of a portion of the city's Black population.
- San Francisco's urban renewal of the 1960s and '70s, for example, decimated the Black population in San Francisco's Fillmore District, an area once known as the Harlem of the West due to its bustling jazz scene.
- The city's redevelopment of the Fillmore shuttered 883 businesses, displaced 4,729 households and damaged the lives of nearly 20,000 people, according to the reparations committee.
- Black people made up 13.4% of the city's population in 1970, according to U.S. Census data. That has dropped to just 5.7%, according to 2021 Census population estimates.
Catch up quick: San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton in 2020 wrote the since unanimously approved legislation to establish the African American Reparations Advisory Committee.
- The committee released a draft plan in December that recommended a number of reparations, including a one-time $5 million payment to eligible Black individuals and payroll and property tax exemptions for Black business owners.
- It also recommended the creation of a mandatory curriculum that centers Black history and culture in the school district and more.
Between the lines: To determine the $5 million figure, the committee looked at factors like income disparity, the wealth gap and "specific incidents where Black folks in San Francisco were legislated out of opportunity," Tinisch Hollins, the committee's vice chair, told Axios.
- "There's no way to quantify the harm done to Black Americans," she said, but added the amount the committee is proposing "is not unreasonable."
- If approved, it's unclear where the money would come from, but some supervisors have suggested decreasing the police budget or using revenue from the Cannabis Business Tax to fund reparations, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
What they're saying: "We know the negative impacts of slavery, what it's done to economic equality, what it's done to the education [and] overcriminalization for Black people across the country, but also the negative impacts of slavery for folks right here in San Francisco," Walton told Axios.
The other side: Since the plan's release, city Supervisor Joel Engardio has said the $5 million payment "may not be feasible under current budget constraints."
- The city, for example, has a projected budget deficit of $728 million from July through June 2025.
- Meanwhile, San Francisco Republican Party chairman John Dennis told Axios the process for determining the reparations "was a very unserious thing," arguing a better approach would be for Black people to pursue litigation against the city.
What's next: The reparations committee will continue to meet monthly before submitting its final proposal in June.
- From there, the Board of Supervisors will decide whether to accept, reject or modify the plan.
More San Francisco stories
No stories could be found
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios San Francisco.
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San Francisco's reparations plan set for public hearing
San Francisco's proposed reparations plan, which would give $5 million to each eligible Black person, will be publicly discussed for the first time at the city's Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday afternoon.
Details: To be eligible for reparations, a person would need to be at least 18 years old and have identified as Black or African American on public documents for at least 10 years.
- They may also need to prove they were born in San Francisco between 1940 and 1996 and lived in the city for at least 13 years, and were displaced, or a descendant of someone displaced, from the city by urban renewal.
State of play: The city is trying to make amends for previous actions that ultimately led to a lack of opportunities and displacement of a portion of the city's Black population.
- San Francisco's urban renewal of the 1960s and '70s, for example, decimated the Black population in San Francisco's Fillmore District, an area once known as the Harlem of the West due to its bustling jazz scene.
- The city's redevelopment of the Fillmore shuttered 883 businesses, displaced 4,729 households and damaged the lives of nearly 20,000 people, according to the reparations committee.
- Black people made up 13.4% of the city's population in 1970, according to U.S. Census data. That has dropped to just 5.7%, according to 2021 Census population estimates.
Catch up quick: San Francisco Supervisor Shamann Walton in 2020 wrote the since unanimously approved legislation to establish the African American Reparations Advisory Committee.
- The committee released a draft plan in December that recommended a number of reparations, including a one-time $5 million payment to eligible Black individuals and payroll and property tax exemptions for Black business owners.
- It also recommended the creation of a mandatory curriculum that centers Black history and culture in the school district and more.
Between the lines: To determine the $5 million figure, the committee looked at factors like income disparity, the wealth gap and "specific incidents where Black folks in San Francisco were legislated out of opportunity," Tinisch Hollins, the committee's vice chair, told Axios.
- "There's no way to quantify the harm done to Black Americans," she said, but
|
added the amount the committee is proposing "is not unreasonable."
- If approved, it's unclear where the money would come from, but some supervisors have suggested decreasing the police budget or using revenue from the Cannabis Business Tax to fund reparations, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
What they're saying: "We know the negative impacts of slavery, what it's done to economic equality, what it's done to the education [and] overcriminalization for Black people across the country, but also the negative impacts of slavery for folks right here in San Francisco," Walton told Axios.
The other side: Since the plan's release, city Supervisor Joel Engardio has said the $5 million payment "may not be feasible under current budget constraints."
- The city, for example, has a projected budget deficit of $728 million from July through June 2025.
- Meanwhile, San Francisco Republican Party chairman John Dennis told Axios the process for determining the reparations "was a very unserious thing," arguing a better approach would be for Black people to pursue litigation against the city.
What's next: The reparations committee will continue to meet monthly before submitting its final proposal in June.
- From there, the Board of Supervisors will decide whether to accept, reject or modify the plan.
More San Francisco stories
No stories could be found
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios San Francisco.
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American Founding Fathers knew early on they wanted to amend the Constitution | Opinion
Amendments are part of the Constitution. The first ten amendments, or Bill of Rights, were ratified in December 1791.
- Paul G. Summers is a lawyer. He is a former appellate and senior judge, district attorney general, and the Attorney General of Tennessee. He resides in Holladay and Nashville.
Editor's note: This is a regular feature on issues related to the Constitution and civics written by Paul G. Summers, retired judge and state attorney general.
No one is above the law. These rules are established in the Constitution of the United States and the 27 Amendments.
They are the bedrocks of our government. They structure government; allocate and establish power and authority; and provide for the three branches of government. Constitutions provide freedoms and liberty. Amendments are just as much a part of the Constitution as is the document which was ratified.
The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of America. Our Constitution provides: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land….”
Hear more Tennessee Voices:Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought provoking columns.
How the Founding Fathers viewed government
Amendments are part of the Constitution. The first ten amendments, or Bill of Rights, were submitted to the state legislatures in September 1789. The Bill of Rights was ratified in December 1791.
Our Founders created three separate and equal branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial. The first two are political; the judiciary is not. Judges must be independent, follow the rule of law, and act as checks and balances on abuse of power by any branch of government. The Supreme Court ultimately decides whether a law or activity of any branch of government comports with the Constitution. The Court makes the final decision.
We need to keep these principles in mind, especially during political and national debates. The independence of the third branch is the crown jewel of our constitutional republic. We named it the United States of America. Powers not delegated to the federal government, nor prohibited by the Constitution to the states, are reserved to the states, or the people.
Sign up for Latino Tennessee Voices newsletter:Read compelling stories for and with the Latino community in Tennessee.
Sign up for Black Tennessee Voices newsletter:Read compelling columns by Black writers from across Tennessee.
What does the First Amendment say?
Our review will be at the 10,000 foot level to give our readers an overview of each of the 27 amendments. Our goal is that we have a working understanding of the amendatory part of our Constitution, which is just as important as that which was ratified originally.
Libraries have hundreds of books and treatises written on just single parts of the First Amendment. This Amendment states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The First Amendment prevents or prohibits any governmental interference from freedom of religion or freedom of expression. It prohibits any laws that create a national religion or hinders the free exercise of religion, or abridges freedom of speech or of the press (media publication). This amendment prohibits any law that interferes with people who peaceably assemble or petition our government over issues or grievances.
We shall continue with the First Amendment in the next article. Reading our Constitution is time well spent.
Paul G. Summers is a lawyer. He is a former appellate and senior judge, district attorney general, and the Attorney General of Tennessee. He resides in Holladay and Nashville.
|
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American Founding Fathers knew early on they wanted to amend the Constitution | Opinion
Amendments are part of the Constitution. The first ten amendments, or Bill of Rights, were ratified in December 1791.
- Paul G. Summers is a lawyer. He is a former appellate and senior judge, district attorney general, and the Attorney General of Tennessee. He resides in Holladay and Nashville.
Editor's note: This is a regular feature on issues related to the Constitution and civics written by Paul G. Summers, retired judge and state attorney general.
No one is above the law. These rules are established in the Constitution of the United States and the 27 Amendments.
They are the bedrocks of our government. They structure government; allocate and establish power and authority; and provide for the three branches of government. Constitutions provide freedoms and liberty. Amendments are just as much a part of the Constitution as is the document which was ratified.
The U.S. Constitution is the supreme law of America. Our Constitution provides: “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land….”
Hear more Tennessee Voices:Get the weekly opinion newsletter for insightful and thought provoking columns.
How the Founding Fathers viewed government
Amendments are part of the Constitution. The first ten amendments, or Bill of Rights, were submitted to the state legislatures in September 1789. The Bill of Rights was ratified in December 1791.
Our Founders created three separate and equal branches of government: legislative, executive and judicial. The first two are political; the judiciary is not. Judges must be independent, follow the rule of law, and act as checks and balances on abuse of power by any branch of government. The Supreme Court ultimately decides whether a law or activity of any branch of government comports with the Constitution. The Court makes the final decision.
We need to keep these principles in mind, especially during political and national debates. The independence of the third branch is the crown jewel of our constitutional republic. We named it the United States of America. Powers not delegated to the federal government, nor prohibited by the Constitution to the states, are reserved to the states, or the people.
Sign up for Latino Tennessee Voices newsletter:Read compelling stories for and
|
with the Latino community in Tennessee.
Sign up for Black Tennessee Voices newsletter:Read compelling columns by Black writers from across Tennessee.
What does the First Amendment say?
Our review will be at the 10,000 foot level to give our readers an overview of each of the 27 amendments. Our goal is that we have a working understanding of the amendatory part of our Constitution, which is just as important as that which was ratified originally.
Libraries have hundreds of books and treatises written on just single parts of the First Amendment. This Amendment states:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The First Amendment prevents or prohibits any governmental interference from freedom of religion or freedom of expression. It prohibits any laws that create a national religion or hinders the free exercise of religion, or abridges freedom of speech or of the press (media publication). This amendment prohibits any law that interferes with people who peaceably assemble or petition our government over issues or grievances.
We shall continue with the First Amendment in the next article. Reading our Constitution is time well spent.
Paul G. Summers is a lawyer. He is a former appellate and senior judge, district attorney general, and the Attorney General of Tennessee. He resides in Holladay and Nashville.
|
GOTHIC — Tiny bees are as busy as they proverbially can be near this once-upon-a-time ghost town. They zig and zag around a patch of fleabane, blue flax, potentilla and sneezeweed, collecting gluttonous bunches of nectar and golden pollen.
Rebecca Irwin and her team are equally busy as they make their way through the flowers, swiping long-handled nets over plants to capture the buzzing insects.
Each bee gets a number and a quick but thorough going over. Are they queens, female workers or wandering males bent on early mating? What is the pattern of their orange, yellow and black stripes? Do they have shaggy “hair”? Is their pollen load packed in abdomen baskets or stuck on their legs making them look like they have on baggy pants? Do they have long or short antennae? Short or long faces? What kind of flowers were they feeding on when they suddenly found themselves enveloped in mesh?
That information is jotted down in notebooks as the bees are examined in bee “squeeze chutes” — small tubes with plungers that force the bees up to a grid on top. The field researchers can peer through that grid that serves as a tiny window for bee inspection.
If the captives are bumblebees, they are identified, counted and dotted with neon markers so they won’t be counted more than once. Then they are allowed to buzz off to continue their work in the flowers. Native bees are dumped into vials of a preservative solution — sacrificed for the sake of knowledge. They are so small they must be examined with a microscope after they are pinned and labeled.
This bee hunt is part of a climate change-related science called phenology — the study of the cyclic nature of biological events. In this case, that comes down to the intersection of the flowering of plants, the arrival of the pollinator bees and the weather.
Irwin has been working on this study for 14 years at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, or RMBL, one of the most important phenology research sites in the world.
Fourteen years is too soon to make sweeping declarations about the survival of bees in a world with a rapidly changing climate, Irwin says. But what she has learned so far indicates that smaller species of bees — solitary critters that live in holes in the ground like sweat bees, leafcutters and mason bees — seem to be holding their own for now. The bigger bumblebees may be in a bit of trouble.
“These little gals, “Irwin says, pointing to tiny bees circling potentilla flowers like shoppers in a Whole Foods produce department, “we anticipate these little gals will do well.”
Climate change has entered the conversation
The “little gals” represent the possibility of some rare good news at RMBL, where much of the long-term scientific measurements of the flora and fauna are on the doom-and-gloomy end of chronicling a warming Earth. Lab observations here at 9,500 feet date back a century and show that changing weather patterns have tipped growing and migrating patterns in this subalpine zone into the quirky realm.
The numbers of many pollinators are decreasing for many climate-related reasons, including the fact that the wildflowers no longer necessarily bloom at the same time that the hummingbirds wing in and the wild bees climb out of their nest holes to begin their short life cycle.
“I think we can really see that things are out of whack,” said David Inouye, a University of Maryland professor and world-renowned phenology expert who has been counting flowers and pollinators around Gothic since 1973. He has teamed with Irwin on the study focusing on how the bees and the blossoms intersect.
☀️ OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
When Inouye began looking at pollinator habitats, climate change hadn’t entered the vocabulary or the world’s growing list of worries. He was one of just a handful of scientists at RMBL back then studying when flower budding and pollination began and ended.
Now, academics are in full bloom around Gothic studying all sorts of critters, plants, soils and weather phenomena. Some 200 of these visiting scientists poke up from the meadows and mountainsides this summer in sun shirts and wide-brimmed hats, clutching clipboards, nets, and packs stuffed with vials, solutions and tools.
Their work used to be a remote pursuit. Today, it is on display along a county road with a steady stream of vehicles and mountain bikes bound for higher terrain with its cooler temperatures and wildflowers that are still holding on after five weeks of little to no rain.
School groups bob around in the flora outside the weathered lab buildings at Gothic. Tourists hover near the general store and nearby coffee shop. RMBL has become a tourist attraction as well as a serious science location.
Away from the bustle of an outdoor research lab, scientists and budding scientists do the all-important job of cataloging phenology data in a warren of computers, stacks of notebooks, pressed flowers and pinned insects.
Climate scientists around the world value data collected at Gothic that relates to the visitation of the birds-and-bee pollinators to an area famous for its proliferation of wildflowers. The dates of first flowers, the seasons they continue to bloom, the frost and heat damage they sustain, the burgeoning of some and shriveling of others, are all measured and documented and compared.
Inouye notes that it is data that has been bested only by the thousand years of records establishing the timing of the first flowering of cherry trees in Kyoto, Japan.
“But we have additional detail,” Inouye said in a low-key boast.
Those extra details, noted first in reams of hand-numbered charts, focus on the necessary intersection of flowers and pollinators — something mostly overlooked by the hordes of flower peepers who flock to Crested Butte each summer to ooh and aah over the flamelike licks of Indian paintbrush, the polka-dot fields of yellow mules’ ears and the profusion of spiky blue lupines.
LEFT: Indian paintbrush blooming on a hillside near Almont. RIGHT: Lupin blooming in an aspen grove on Kebler Pass. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)
ABOVE: Indian paintbrush blooming on a hillside near Almont. BELOW: Lupin blooming in an aspen grove on Kebler Pass. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Visitors are drawn to the beauty of the flowers, but most aren’t aware of how much they have bees to thank for the floral display, said Rick Reavis, an interpretative flower guide at RMBL and the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival, and author of a wildflower guidebook.
Reavis, who has a background in botany, delves into the findings of a host of RMBL research projects to educate visitors. He talks about how the Mancos shale underlying the Crested Butte area helps to nourish flowers; how the three growing zones in the area are shifting so that some plants are moving into higher alpine zones while drought-tolerant shrubs move into lower areas; how so-called “superblooms” — the fields of flowers loved by Instagrammers — are a desert phenomenon and don’t really happen around Crested Butte; how some flowers such as the green gentian can live in a state of sleep for decades; and how the bees that visitors swat at as stinging pests bear a lot of responsibility for the flowers.
A season of floral abundance like this year’s is not just good for photos; it predicts how many eggs a bee can lay — eggs that will be packed in solitary underground nests with pollen and nectar before the new crop of bees emerge to scoop up more pollen and start the cycle all over again.
The rare study of bees and flowers together
Irwin, an ecologist from North Carolina State University, has been zeroing in on those bees since Inouye recruited her for his phenology project because he needed someone to count bees while he focused on his first love — counting flowers.
Their joint study is the only one of its kind in Colorado and one of very few around the world that examines the combination of bees and flowers.
Irwin said she also does her study in collaboration with the National Native Bee Monitoring Network, a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded effort to conserve native bees. The network works to establish best practices for bee collection projects across the country.
On the ground in Gothic, the combined study of bees and flowers plays out with Inouye and his team hunching over a flower patch on a mountainside meadow, while Irwin’s team darts about after bees in an area fringed by skunk cabbage and willows, circled by squawking crows and peppered with biting horseflies.
The studies take the researchers to 16 other sites spread from Almont 24 miles to the south and to the other side of Scofield Pass above Gothic. The bee researchers move so that no site is tested more often than every two weeks and the bee populations are not depleted. The team can capture up to 100 bees an hour.
Irwin said it will take many years to establish broad science-based conclusions establishing that the variability of the smaller-sized bee species is indeed increasing.
For now, the bees are demonstrating this resilience in a season when wildflowers sprouted late in a wild profusion because of the epic snow that piled up to 351 inches in Gothic over the past winter. Now those wildflowers are dying out quickly after an extended period without rain.
But even as the flowers are withering in the heat, the tiny bees are out there gathering wads of orange and yellow pollen from blossoms that are now looking sad and sparse. The flowers have reduced their nectar production because they are in a distressed state, so the bees have to work harder on their collecting.
Melanie Kazenel, a postdoctoral researcher, and Jade McLaughlin, a field technician, who are also working on the bee study, said they believe that part of the bees’ resilience is likely due to the fact that many of the species they are capturing are “generalists.” That means they are not picky eaters; they snack on pollen and nectar from many different flowers. Bees that gather their sustenance from only one type of flower could be in for more trouble.
“There are so many questions that can be answered with this data,” Kazenel said as she examined a pollen-loaded bee through the grid in a tube and pulled out a bee identification printout to check on its stripe pattern.
One question is what kind of flowers will be thriving around Crested Butte in the future. Will Crested Butte continue to be the Wildflower Capital of Colorado? What these researchers can answer, without a doubt, is that the bees will have an important say in that.
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GOTHIC — Tiny bees are as busy as they proverbially can be near this once-upon-a-time ghost town. They zig and zag around a patch of fleabane, blue flax, potentilla and sneezeweed, collecting gluttonous bunches of nectar and golden pollen.
Rebecca Irwin and her team are equally busy as they make their way through the flowers, swiping long-handled nets over plants to capture the buzzing insects.
Each bee gets a number and a quick but thorough going over. Are they queens, female workers or wandering males bent on early mating? What is the pattern of their orange, yellow and black stripes? Do they have shaggy “hair”? Is their pollen load packed in abdomen baskets or stuck on their legs making them look like they have on baggy pants? Do they have long or short antennae? Short or long faces? What kind of flowers were they feeding on when they suddenly found themselves enveloped in mesh?
That information is jotted down in notebooks as the bees are examined in bee “squeeze chutes” — small tubes with plungers that force the bees up to a grid on top. The field researchers can peer through that grid that serves as a tiny window for bee inspection.
If the captives are bumblebees, they are identified, counted and dotted with neon markers so they won’t be counted more than once. Then they are allowed to buzz off to continue their work in the flowers. Native bees are dumped into vials of a preservative solution — sacrificed for the sake of knowledge. They are so small they must be examined with a microscope after they are pinned and labeled.
This bee hunt is part of a climate change-related science called phenology — the study of the cyclic nature of biological events. In this case, that comes down to the intersection of the flowering of plants, the arrival of the pollinator bees and the weather.
Irwin has been working on this study for 14 years at the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, or RMBL, one of the most important phenology research sites in the world.
Fourteen years is too soon to make sweeping declarations about the survival of bees in a world with a rapidly changing climate, Irwin says. But what she has learned so far indicates that smaller species of bees — solitary critters that live in holes in the ground like sweat bees, leafcutters and mason bees — seem to be holding their own for now. The bigger bumble
|
bees may be in a bit of trouble.
“These little gals, “Irwin says, pointing to tiny bees circling potentilla flowers like shoppers in a Whole Foods produce department, “we anticipate these little gals will do well.”
Climate change has entered the conversation
The “little gals” represent the possibility of some rare good news at RMBL, where much of the long-term scientific measurements of the flora and fauna are on the doom-and-gloomy end of chronicling a warming Earth. Lab observations here at 9,500 feet date back a century and show that changing weather patterns have tipped growing and migrating patterns in this subalpine zone into the quirky realm.
The numbers of many pollinators are decreasing for many climate-related reasons, including the fact that the wildflowers no longer necessarily bloom at the same time that the hummingbirds wing in and the wild bees climb out of their nest holes to begin their short life cycle.
“I think we can really see that things are out of whack,” said David Inouye, a University of Maryland professor and world-renowned phenology expert who has been counting flowers and pollinators around Gothic since 1973. He has teamed with Irwin on the study focusing on how the bees and the blossoms intersect.
☀️ OUR RECOMMENDATIONS
When Inouye began looking at pollinator habitats, climate change hadn’t entered the vocabulary or the world’s growing list of worries. He was one of just a handful of scientists at RMBL back then studying when flower budding and pollination began and ended.
Now, academics are in full bloom around Gothic studying all sorts of critters, plants, soils and weather phenomena. Some 200 of these visiting scientists poke up from the meadows and mountainsides this summer in sun shirts and wide-brimmed hats, clutching clipboards, nets, and packs stuffed with vials, solutions and tools.
Their work used to be a remote pursuit. Today, it is on display along a county road with a steady stream of vehicles and mountain bikes bound for higher terrain with its cooler temperatures and wildflowers that are still holding on after five weeks of little to no rain.
School groups bob around in the flora outside the weathered lab buildings at Gothic. Tourists hover near the general store and nearby coffee shop. RMBL has become a tourist attraction as well as a serious science location.
Away from the bustle of an outdoor research lab, scientists and budding scientists do the all-important job of cataloging phenology data in a warren of computers, stacks of notebooks, pressed flowers and pinned insects.
Climate scientists around the world value data collected at Gothic that relates to the visitation of the birds-and-bee pollinators to an area famous for its proliferation of wildflowers. The dates of first flowers, the seasons they continue to bloom, the frost and heat damage they sustain, the burgeoning of some and shriveling of others, are all measured and documented and compared.
Inouye notes that it is data that has been bested only by the thousand years of records establishing the timing of the first flowering of cherry trees in Kyoto, Japan.
“But we have additional detail,” Inouye said in a low-key boast.
Those extra details, noted first in reams of hand-numbered charts, focus on the necessary intersection of flowers and pollinators — something mostly overlooked by the hordes of flower peepers who flock to Crested Butte each summer to ooh and aah over the flamelike licks of Indian paintbrush, the polka-dot fields of yellow mules’ ears and the profusion of spiky blue lupines.
LEFT: Indian paintbrush blooming on a hillside near Almont. RIGHT: Lupin blooming in an aspen grove on Kebler Pass. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)
ABOVE: Indian paintbrush blooming on a hillside near Almont. BELOW: Lupin blooming in an aspen grove on Kebler Pass. (Dean Krakel, Special to The Colorado Sun)
Visitors are drawn to the beauty of the flowers, but most aren’t aware of how much they have bees to thank for the floral display, said Rick Reavis, an interpretative flower guide at RMBL and the Crested Butte Wildflower Festival, and author of a wildflower guidebook.
Reavis, who has a background in botany, delves into the findings of a host of RMBL research projects to educate visitors. He talks about how the Mancos shale underlying the Crested Butte area helps to nourish flowers; how the three growing zones in the area are shifting so that some plants are moving into higher alpine zones while drought-tolerant shrubs move into lower areas; how so-called “superblooms” — the fields of flowers loved by Instagrammers — are a desert phenomenon and don’t really happen around Crested Butte; how some flowers such as the green gentian can live in a state of sleep for decades; and how the bees that visitors swat at as stinging pests bear a lot of responsibility for the flowers.
A season of floral abundance like this year’s is not just good for photos; it predicts how many eggs a bee can lay — eggs that will be packed in solitary underground nests with pollen and nectar before the new crop of bees emerge to scoop up more pollen and start the cycle all over again.
The rare study of bees and flowers together
Irwin, an ecologist from North Carolina State University, has been zeroing in on those bees since Inouye recruited her for his phenology project because he needed someone to count bees while he focused on his first love — counting flowers.
Their joint study is the only one of its kind in Colorado and one of very few around the world that examines the combination of bees and flowers.
Irwin said she also does her study in collaboration with the National Native Bee Monitoring Network, a U.S. Department of Agriculture-funded effort to conserve native bees. The network works to establish best practices for bee collection projects across the country.
On the ground in Gothic, the combined study of bees and flowers plays out with Inouye and his team hunching over a flower patch on a mountainside meadow, while Irwin’s team darts about after bees in an area fringed by skunk cabbage and willows, circled by squawking crows and peppered with biting horseflies.
The studies take the researchers to 16 other sites spread from Almont 24 miles to the south and to the other side of Scofield Pass above Gothic. The bee researchers move so that no site is tested more often than every two weeks and the bee populations are not depleted. The team can capture up to 100 bees an hour.
Irwin said it will take many years to establish broad science-based conclusions establishing that the variability of the smaller-sized bee species is indeed increasing.
For now, the bees are demonstrating this resilience in a season when wildflowers sprouted late in a wild profusion because of the epic snow that piled up to 351 inches in Gothic over the past winter. Now those wildflowers are dying out quickly after an extended period without rain.
But even as the flowers are withering in the heat, the tiny bees are out there gathering wads of orange and yellow pollen from blossoms that are now looking sad and sparse. The flowers have reduced their nectar production because they are in a distressed state, so the bees have to work harder on their collecting.
Melanie Kazenel, a postdoctoral researcher, and Jade McLaughlin, a field technician, who are also working on the bee study, said they believe that part of the bees’ resilience is likely due to the fact that many of the species they are capturing are “generalists.” That means they are not picky eaters; they snack on pollen and nectar from many different flowers. Bees that gather their sustenance from only one type of flower could be in for more trouble.
“There are so many questions that can be answered with this data,” Kazenel said as she examined a pollen-loaded bee through the grid in a tube and pulled out a bee identification printout to check on its stripe pattern.
One question is what kind of flowers will be thriving around Crested Butte in the future. Will Crested Butte continue to be the Wildflower Capital of Colorado? What these researchers can answer, without a doubt, is that the bees will have an important say in that.
|
Fighting chronic inflammation
When your body suffers an injury or illness, your immune system is activated. Inflammatory cells are sent out to attack bacteria or heal damaged tissue. This is a good thing, as your body is very powerful when it comes to helping heal itself. However, if your body sends out inflammatory cells when you are not sick or injured, then chronic inflammation can result, and that can lead to illness.
Constant inflammation is a symptom of a number of diseases, such as arthritis, cardiovascular illness, Type II Diabetes, cancer and others. According to researchers at Harvard Medical School, three out of five people die from diseases linked to chronic inflammation.
If you are suffering from chronic health issues, the first step is to identify any underlying causes. At West End Wellness, we can help with that by performing some simple, standard medical tests. If the cause is chronic inflammation, then there are a number of steps that you can take to mitigate this condition.
The first step is to look at diet as there are foods that increase inflammation in the body, as well as foods that help fight inflammation. Sugar is one of the big culprits when it comes to inflammation. Reducing the amount of sugar in your diet often greatly improves issues such as joint and muscle pain. Reducing sugar can also help you lose weight. Maintaining a healthy weight helps knock down inflammation as well as improve your overall health. Making key changes to your diet can also yield great health benefits. Some foods that help fight inflammation include salmon and other fatty fish, leafy green vegetables such as kale and spinach, blueberries, tomatoes and cooking with olive oil.
The use of herbs and supplements can also be useful. Tumeric and ginger are proven inflammation fighters and can be useful either added to dishes or taken as supplements.
Exercise is another recommended tool. Light, regular exercise not only releases “feel good” endorphins, it also helps boost your immune system, controls weight, helps you sleep better, aids in joint function, regulates metabolism and keeps muscles firing properly. Try to get in good, moderate exercise such as walking if not daily, then at least four times per week to reap the benefits. Remember, doing things such as taking the stairs, housework, yard work or parking your car further away from your destination all help in upping your exercise quota.
As previously mentioned, getting consistent good quality sleep can greatly help get inflammation under control. Your body needs seven to eight hours of good sleep each night in order to heal from its daily battle of fighting off would be health issues. Sleep not only allows you to rest, it also boosts your immune system. If you are having trouble sleeping, first make sure you are creating the right sleep environment and establishing solid preparations for sleep. Sleep in a cool, dark, quiet room. Shut down technology at least an hour before bed. Create a sleep ritual by taking a warm bath, maybe having some warm milk, putting on pjs and reading for a bit (or some other relaxing activity), then turn off the light and rest. If sleep is still elusive, there are supplements such as melatonin and valerian root that can be useful. At West End Wellness, we specialize in natural products and can find the right sleep solution for you.
Stopping smoking and reducing alcohol intake also helps your body reduce inflammation. An occasional cocktail or small glass of wine is fine, but consistent heavy drinking impacts your body in numerous harmful ways, as does smoking.
One of the biggest causes of inflammation is stress, something which many people battle regularly. While there is no one way to reduce stress, there are a number of tools which can help. As already mentioned, exercise is one, but people also find help through meditation, yoga, tai chi and breathing exercises. All of these help you slow down, regulate your breathing, and be more in the moment. Good rest and a healthy diet also allow you to cope better with stress.
Inflammation can be controlled and doing so can make major differences in your present and future health.
Dr. Michael Blackman is a natural health expert specializing in functional nutrition. He previously had a thriving chiropractic practice in Dover for 20 years and offered nutritional counseling. Learn more at www.westendwellness.us
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Fighting chronic inflammation
When your body suffers an injury or illness, your immune system is activated. Inflammatory cells are sent out to attack bacteria or heal damaged tissue. This is a good thing, as your body is very powerful when it comes to helping heal itself. However, if your body sends out inflammatory cells when you are not sick or injured, then chronic inflammation can result, and that can lead to illness.
Constant inflammation is a symptom of a number of diseases, such as arthritis, cardiovascular illness, Type II Diabetes, cancer and others. According to researchers at Harvard Medical School, three out of five people die from diseases linked to chronic inflammation.
If you are suffering from chronic health issues, the first step is to identify any underlying causes. At West End Wellness, we can help with that by performing some simple, standard medical tests. If the cause is chronic inflammation, then there are a number of steps that you can take to mitigate this condition.
The first step is to look at diet as there are foods that increase inflammation in the body, as well as foods that help fight inflammation. Sugar is one of the big culprits when it comes to inflammation. Reducing the amount of sugar in your diet often greatly improves issues such as joint and muscle pain. Reducing sugar can also help you lose weight. Maintaining a healthy weight helps knock down inflammation as well as improve your overall health. Making key changes to your diet can also yield great health benefits. Some foods that help fight inflammation include salmon and other fatty fish, leafy green vegetables such as kale and spinach, blueberries, tomatoes and cooking with olive oil.
The use of herbs and supplements can also be useful. Tumeric and ginger are proven inflammation fighters and can be useful either added to dishes or taken as supplements.
Exercise is another recommended tool. Light, regular exercise not only releases “feel good” endorphins, it also helps boost your immune system, controls weight, helps you sleep better, aids in joint function, regulates metabolism and keeps muscles firing properly. Try to get in good, moderate exercise such as walking if not daily, then at least four times per week to reap the benefits. Remember, doing things such as taking the stairs, housework, yard work or parking your car further away from your destination all help in upping your exercise quota.
As previously mentioned, getting consistent good quality sleep can greatly help get inflammation under control. Your body needs seven to eight hours of good sleep each night in order to heal from its daily battle of fighting
|
off would be health issues. Sleep not only allows you to rest, it also boosts your immune system. If you are having trouble sleeping, first make sure you are creating the right sleep environment and establishing solid preparations for sleep. Sleep in a cool, dark, quiet room. Shut down technology at least an hour before bed. Create a sleep ritual by taking a warm bath, maybe having some warm milk, putting on pjs and reading for a bit (or some other relaxing activity), then turn off the light and rest. If sleep is still elusive, there are supplements such as melatonin and valerian root that can be useful. At West End Wellness, we specialize in natural products and can find the right sleep solution for you.
Stopping smoking and reducing alcohol intake also helps your body reduce inflammation. An occasional cocktail or small glass of wine is fine, but consistent heavy drinking impacts your body in numerous harmful ways, as does smoking.
One of the biggest causes of inflammation is stress, something which many people battle regularly. While there is no one way to reduce stress, there are a number of tools which can help. As already mentioned, exercise is one, but people also find help through meditation, yoga, tai chi and breathing exercises. All of these help you slow down, regulate your breathing, and be more in the moment. Good rest and a healthy diet also allow you to cope better with stress.
Inflammation can be controlled and doing so can make major differences in your present and future health.
Dr. Michael Blackman is a natural health expert specializing in functional nutrition. He previously had a thriving chiropractic practice in Dover for 20 years and offered nutritional counseling. Learn more at www.westendwellness.us
|
Vultures are found everywhere in the world, except for Australia and Antarctica.
But this hasn't always been the case.
The remains of an extinct species have been found down under — and a depiction of what it might have looked like has been unveiled at the Naracoorte Caves, by Flinders University palaeontologist Ellen Mather.
Dr Mather and other researchers have spent several years studying the vulture and other extinct giant birds from Australia's past.
Crucial to their understanding was the examination of bones of the vulture, Crytopgyps lacertosus, gathered from the submerged Green Waterhole at Tantanoola in South Australia's south east.
Wings, shoulder and spine
The find was made in 1978 and the bones have been kept in storage.
Dr Mather said the fossils were particularly special, as they were mostly from one individual bird and included parts of the skeleton not examined before.
The fossils include most of the bones from the wings, as well as bones from the shoulder and spine.
"When these birds were alive there was a pool of water at the bottom of the site in Green Waterhole cave," Dr Mather said.
"Today it is almost completely submerged so you have to go diving to get the fossils, but back then it would have been mostly dry.
"The living bird would have possibly drowned in the pool and its bones sunk to the bottom."
The fossils were buried in calcite rafts at the bottom of the cave, which have been tested using uranium-series dating by John Hellstrom from University of Melbourne.
Dr Hellstrom's tests indicated the fossilised vulture was alive about 60,000 years ago, and that the species had survived up until the time of the mass extinction of Australia's megafauna 10,000 years later.
Extinct eagle also identified
Dr Mather said the fossils also suggested the vulture was more primitive than previously thought, and lacked an adaption common in most modern vultures that gave them extremely light wing bones filled with air cavities.
The picture to be unveiled at the Naracoorte Caves also depicts Dynatoaetus pachyosteus, a newly identified extinct eagle.
Fossils of this species have only been found at Naracoote so far.
Dr Mather said it appeared the eagle — although a similar size to the modern wedge-tailed eagle — was more closely related to the large-crested serpent eagle and Philippine eagle, found today in jungle environments.
"Based on where they're found, these fossils would be within a few 100,000 years old," Dr Mather said.
"So quite recent, geologically speaking."
Dr Mather said eagle fossils were rare and it was difficult to know when the eagle and its larger relative, Dynatoaetus gaffae, which has been found at Naracoorte and in the Flinders Ranges, became extinct.
But she said examination of the newly identified species showed it was likely to have been more powerful and heavily built than a present-day wedge-tailed eagle.
Why the wedge-tailed eagle survived
Dr Mather said fossil materials indicated that when the extinction of megafauna and Australia's ancient vultures took place about 50,000 years ago in the Pleistocene era, it was generally smaller birds that were more able to survive than larger ones.
"The wedge-tailed eagle was probably quite lucky because it was what we call a generalist; it wasn't too fussy about how it hunted or what it hunted or where it lived," she said.
"[It] can practically be found over all the continent today and that probably contributed to its success where others failed."
She said as a specialist in carrion, the vulture would have been very reliant on having large-bodied animals around to provide carcasses for it to feed on.
"If those large-bodied animals die out, then you're in a bit of trouble," she said.
Dr Mather said the question of why the megafauna had died out was still being thoroughly debated.
"There's two camps arguing how much of that is as a result of climate change and the other as a result of human arrival and hunting," she said.
"It's quite likely there was a bit of interplay between the two — perhaps some species might have survived longer but it's still a matter of debate."
The artwork by John Barrie, a South Australian artist and natural historian, was unveiled on November 16 and will remain on display at Naracoorte Caves.
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Vultures are found everywhere in the world, except for Australia and Antarctica.
But this hasn't always been the case.
The remains of an extinct species have been found down under — and a depiction of what it might have looked like has been unveiled at the Naracoorte Caves, by Flinders University palaeontologist Ellen Mather.
Dr Mather and other researchers have spent several years studying the vulture and other extinct giant birds from Australia's past.
Crucial to their understanding was the examination of bones of the vulture, Crytopgyps lacertosus, gathered from the submerged Green Waterhole at Tantanoola in South Australia's south east.
Wings, shoulder and spine
The find was made in 1978 and the bones have been kept in storage.
Dr Mather said the fossils were particularly special, as they were mostly from one individual bird and included parts of the skeleton not examined before.
The fossils include most of the bones from the wings, as well as bones from the shoulder and spine.
"When these birds were alive there was a pool of water at the bottom of the site in Green Waterhole cave," Dr Mather said.
"Today it is almost completely submerged so you have to go diving to get the fossils, but back then it would have been mostly dry.
"The living bird would have possibly drowned in the pool and its bones sunk to the bottom."
The fossils were buried in calcite rafts at the bottom of the cave, which have been tested using uranium-series dating by John Hellstrom from University of Melbourne.
Dr Hellstrom's tests indicated the fossilised vulture was alive about 60,000 years ago, and that the species had survived up until the time of the mass extinction of Australia's megafauna 10,000 years later.
Extinct eagle also identified
Dr Mather said the fossils also suggested the vulture was more primitive than previously thought, and lacked an adaption common in most modern vultures that gave them extremely light wing bones filled with air cavities.
The picture to be unveiled at the Naracoorte Caves also depicts Dynatoaetus pachyosteus, a newly identified extinct eagle.
Fossils of this species have only been found at Naracoote so far.
Dr Mather said it appeared the eagle — although a similar size to the modern wedge-tailed eagle — was more closely related to the large-crested serpent eagle and Philippine eagle, found today in jungle environments.
"Based on
|
where they're found, these fossils would be within a few 100,000 years old," Dr Mather said.
"So quite recent, geologically speaking."
Dr Mather said eagle fossils were rare and it was difficult to know when the eagle and its larger relative, Dynatoaetus gaffae, which has been found at Naracoorte and in the Flinders Ranges, became extinct.
But she said examination of the newly identified species showed it was likely to have been more powerful and heavily built than a present-day wedge-tailed eagle.
Why the wedge-tailed eagle survived
Dr Mather said fossil materials indicated that when the extinction of megafauna and Australia's ancient vultures took place about 50,000 years ago in the Pleistocene era, it was generally smaller birds that were more able to survive than larger ones.
"The wedge-tailed eagle was probably quite lucky because it was what we call a generalist; it wasn't too fussy about how it hunted or what it hunted or where it lived," she said.
"[It] can practically be found over all the continent today and that probably contributed to its success where others failed."
She said as a specialist in carrion, the vulture would have been very reliant on having large-bodied animals around to provide carcasses for it to feed on.
"If those large-bodied animals die out, then you're in a bit of trouble," she said.
Dr Mather said the question of why the megafauna had died out was still being thoroughly debated.
"There's two camps arguing how much of that is as a result of climate change and the other as a result of human arrival and hunting," she said.
"It's quite likely there was a bit of interplay between the two — perhaps some species might have survived longer but it's still a matter of debate."
The artwork by John Barrie, a South Australian artist and natural historian, was unveiled on November 16 and will remain on display at Naracoorte Caves.
|
Fighting climate change by sucking carbon dioxide out of the air with giant blowers seems like a brilliant idea. Why knock yourself out trying to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions when you can continue to produce the emissions and then snatch them back from the atmosphere? That solution reminds me of the little red vehicle with robotic arms that the Cat in the Hat uses to clean up the house that he, Thing One and Thing Two have just trashed. “Have no fear of this mess,” the Cat in the Hat tells the children. “I always pick up all my playthings.”
But direct air capture of carbon, as the nascent technology is called, is not as reliable as Dr. Seuss’s three-wheeled deus ex machina. And it’s coming in for heavy criticism at COP28, the United Nations climate summit that’s happening in the desert city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. “It’s incredibly dangerous for the fossil fuel industry and its enablers in government to promote the idea that they can keep burning fossil fuels while pulling carbon out of the air or out of the smokestacks with technologies that consistently fail to deliver,” Collin Rees, the U.S. program manager at Oil Change International, wrote in an email.
Direct air capture of carbon isn’t a completely bad idea. In fact, it’s going to have to be part of the solution to climate change eventually. That’s because in some sectors of the economy, it’s impossible or extremely costly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions all the way to zero. Jet aviation and cement production are two examples that people sometimes mention (although technological breakthroughs may change that). In such sectors, it’s more cost-effective to get to net zero by allowing a little carbon to dribble out and then cleaning it up through direct air capture.
So it makes sense to invest in research on the technology for the long run. I’m glad that the Biden administration is spending $3.5 billion to develop four regional hubs — the first two in Texas and Louisiana — to accelerate the development and deployment of direct air capture. Approaches differ, but the general idea is to push air through some kind of filter that separates out the carbon dioxide, then bury it in the ground or use it in manufacturing. The plan is to keep the energy-intensive process green by using electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind. “The science says we cannot get to net zero 2050” without some use of carbon capture, John Kerry, the U.S. climate envoy, said on Wednesday.
The problem comes when direct air capture is seen as partly an alternative to vigorous efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The president of this year’s climate summit, Sultan Al Jaber, seems to lean in that direction. Al Jaber, who is the head of the United Arab Emirates national oil company, Adnoc, said last month that there was “no science” behind the idea that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures would require ending fossil fuel production.
Adnoc is working on direct air capture with Occidental Petroleum. Oxy, as it calls itself, broke ground in April on a $1.3 billion plant in Texas that will suck carbon dioxide out of the air. It intends to inject the carbon dioxide into the ground to force more oil to the surface. So it’s part of a strategy to extend the life of the oil business. “This gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed,” Vicki Hollub, Oxy’s chief executive, said at a conference.
That kind of talk worries climate scientists and activists. Even the International Energy Agency, which is hardly radical on environmental issues, warned recently against “excessive expectations and reliance” on carbon capture as a solution. The carbon capture the agency refers to includes direct air capture, namely pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (very expensive), as well as pulling carbon dioxide from smokestacks, where it’s highly concentrated (less expensive).
It would take an “inconceivable” amount of carbon capture to keep the planet’s temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius “if oil and natural gas consumption were to evolve as projected under today’s policy settings,” the agency wrote. The electricity required to capture that much carbon as of 2050 would be more than the entire globe’s use of electricity in 2022, it added.
Joseph Romm, a senior research fellow at the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media, sent me an article he wrote before the climate summit that called direct air capture a “trap” that “distracts from reducing CO2 emissions.” Direct air capture makes some sense in the long run, when all efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have been taken to their fullest, he wrote to me in an email. But for decades to come, he wrote, “direct air capture will be a costly misallocation of renewables.”
So is direct air capture a savior or a snare? I conclude that it’s a savior in the long run but a snare in the short run. The right combination is to spend money researching and developing the technology for when it’s eventually necessary but put the bulk of our effort into cutting emissions drastically. The Cat in the Hat won’t save us now.
The Readers Write
Thank you, Peter, for your piece on Charlie Munger and investing. I, like many millions, will miss his wit and wisdom.
You ask, “Who ever said magazines need to be ink on paper?” I did and still do. I can’t stand trying to read lengthy articles on the tiny cellphone screen or not much bigger tablet or the desktop (on which I spend too much time already). I get considerable enjoyment by reading The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic in my favorite chair with a glass of single malt.
Fernandina Beach, Fla.
Concerning your newsletter about Elon Musk, another theory is that he has adopted the approach that “I can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any support.” Memories are short, and Twitter/X is used by so many.
Quote of the Day
“Members of other ethnic groups will forever be convinced that a Harvard man, no matter how fierce his revolutionary rhetoric, how wild his beard, how bizarre his dress, is still at root a Harvard man.”
— Andrew Greeley, “Intellectuals as an ‘Ethnic Group,’” The New York Times (July 12, 1970)
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Fighting climate change by sucking carbon dioxide out of the air with giant blowers seems like a brilliant idea. Why knock yourself out trying to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions when you can continue to produce the emissions and then snatch them back from the atmosphere? That solution reminds me of the little red vehicle with robotic arms that the Cat in the Hat uses to clean up the house that he, Thing One and Thing Two have just trashed. “Have no fear of this mess,” the Cat in the Hat tells the children. “I always pick up all my playthings.”
But direct air capture of carbon, as the nascent technology is called, is not as reliable as Dr. Seuss’s three-wheeled deus ex machina. And it’s coming in for heavy criticism at COP28, the United Nations climate summit that’s happening in the desert city of Dubai, United Arab Emirates. “It’s incredibly dangerous for the fossil fuel industry and its enablers in government to promote the idea that they can keep burning fossil fuels while pulling carbon out of the air or out of the smokestacks with technologies that consistently fail to deliver,” Collin Rees, the U.S. program manager at Oil Change International, wrote in an email.
Direct air capture of carbon isn’t a completely bad idea. In fact, it’s going to have to be part of the solution to climate change eventually. That’s because in some sectors of the economy, it’s impossible or extremely costly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions all the way to zero. Jet aviation and cement production are two examples that people sometimes mention (although technological breakthroughs may change that). In such sectors, it’s more cost-effective to get to net zero by allowing a little carbon to dribble out and then cleaning it up through direct air capture.
So it makes sense to invest in research on the technology for the long run. I’m glad that the Biden administration is spending $3.5 billion to develop four regional hubs — the first two in Texas and Louisiana — to accelerate the development and deployment of direct air capture. Approaches differ, but the general idea is to push air through some kind of filter that separates out the carbon dioxide, then bury it in the ground or use it in manufacturing. The plan is to keep the energy-intensive process green by using electricity from renewable sources such as solar and wind. “The science says we cannot get to net zero 2050” without some use of carbon capture, John Kerry, the U.S. climate
|
envoy, said on Wednesday.
The problem comes when direct air capture is seen as partly an alternative to vigorous efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The president of this year’s climate summit, Sultan Al Jaber, seems to lean in that direction. Al Jaber, who is the head of the United Arab Emirates national oil company, Adnoc, said last month that there was “no science” behind the idea that limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial temperatures would require ending fossil fuel production.
Adnoc is working on direct air capture with Occidental Petroleum. Oxy, as it calls itself, broke ground in April on a $1.3 billion plant in Texas that will suck carbon dioxide out of the air. It intends to inject the carbon dioxide into the ground to force more oil to the surface. So it’s part of a strategy to extend the life of the oil business. “This gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed,” Vicki Hollub, Oxy’s chief executive, said at a conference.
That kind of talk worries climate scientists and activists. Even the International Energy Agency, which is hardly radical on environmental issues, warned recently against “excessive expectations and reliance” on carbon capture as a solution. The carbon capture the agency refers to includes direct air capture, namely pulling carbon dioxide from the atmosphere (very expensive), as well as pulling carbon dioxide from smokestacks, where it’s highly concentrated (less expensive).
It would take an “inconceivable” amount of carbon capture to keep the planet’s temperature from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius “if oil and natural gas consumption were to evolve as projected under today’s policy settings,” the agency wrote. The electricity required to capture that much carbon as of 2050 would be more than the entire globe’s use of electricity in 2022, it added.
Joseph Romm, a senior research fellow at the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media, sent me an article he wrote before the climate summit that called direct air capture a “trap” that “distracts from reducing CO2 emissions.” Direct air capture makes some sense in the long run, when all efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have been taken to their fullest, he wrote to me in an email. But for decades to come, he wrote, “direct air capture will be a costly misallocation of renewables.”
So is direct air capture a savior or a snare? I conclude that it’s a savior in the long run but a snare in the short run. The right combination is to spend money researching and developing the technology for when it’s eventually necessary but put the bulk of our effort into cutting emissions drastically. The Cat in the Hat won’t save us now.
The Readers Write
Thank you, Peter, for your piece on Charlie Munger and investing. I, like many millions, will miss his wit and wisdom.
You ask, “Who ever said magazines need to be ink on paper?” I did and still do. I can’t stand trying to read lengthy articles on the tiny cellphone screen or not much bigger tablet or the desktop (on which I spend too much time already). I get considerable enjoyment by reading The New York Times Magazine and National Geographic in my favorite chair with a glass of single malt.
Fernandina Beach, Fla.
Concerning your newsletter about Elon Musk, another theory is that he has adopted the approach that “I can shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and not lose any support.” Memories are short, and Twitter/X is used by so many.
Quote of the Day
“Members of other ethnic groups will forever be convinced that a Harvard man, no matter how fierce his revolutionary rhetoric, how wild his beard, how bizarre his dress, is still at root a Harvard man.”
— Andrew Greeley, “Intellectuals as an ‘Ethnic Group,’” The New York Times (July 12, 1970)
|
Thwaites Glacier findings reveal clues about Antarctic ice melt
Thwaites Glacier, the largest glacier in West Antarctica, is melting faster in some spots than its shape would at first suggest, new studies show.
Why it matters: Thwaites tops the list of glaciers that keep polar scientists up at night. If it were to disintegrate into the ocean, the portions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet it holds back could raise global sea levels by up to 10 feet.
Driving the news: Two new studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature provide some of the most detailed results gleaned from a $50 million, five-year international research campaign between the U.S. and the U.K., aimed at shedding light on the factors influencing Thwaites' future.
- Specifically, scientists were interested in investigating the glacier's grounding zone, which is where the ice meets the sea and becomes a floating ice shelf.
State of play: Thwaites is unique in that as one travels inland from the grounding line, the ice rests on bedrock that dips below sea level.
- This makes this region especially susceptible to extensive and potentially rapid melting since there is no hill or steep upward slope to slow or stop the ice's retreat.
Zoom in: Scientists used remotely operated submersibles, including a craft known as Icefin, inserted into a 2,000-foot hole drilled into the ice, along with other means to obtain data on the water coming into contact with Thwaites' grounding line and floating ice shelf.
- The submersible captured data on ocean temperatures and salinity, among other important variables.
- Abundant new information was also gleaned about the topography of the bedrock underlying the glacier, including at the grounding line.
Of note: Thwaites may have already begun a rapid and irreversible ice loss that will add about two feet of sea level rise this century.
Between the lines: One of the studies found that water that is well above freezing is located near the grounding zone, but not all of it is reaching the base of the ice.
- This suggests that rapid grounding line retreat, which continues to be observed here, could be tied to modest melt rates, and that this pace of retreat is likely to continue.
- Should the even warmer water reach the base of the ice, retreat would likely quicken, and it may be much higher in other parts of the glacier this study did not examine.
- "The [melt] rates found at the particular location were low and yet this is a place that retreated fast," study coauthor Eric Rignot of UC Irvine told Axios via email.
- "This means we should be worried, very worried for the other places where the melt [rates are] high and the retreat is high. The system is very sensitive to the ocean, more than we thought."
The intrigue: The second study looked at the topography of the glacier's grounding line, and found the ice shelf melting faster where there are steep slopes and crevasses carved into the ice.
- Specifically, the ice slopes greater than 30 degrees were estimated to contribute to 27% of the total areal melt rate of the study region, despite comprising just 9% of the portion of the ice base that was surveyed.
What they're saying: "These types of observations are incredibly difficult to make, but they are so important to informing the modeling community about how indeed the vulnerable parts of the ice sheets are melting," coauthor Peter Washam of Cornell University told Axios.
- "Overall, these papers don’t really change my level of worry about Thwaites collapse or not," said Richard Alley, a climate scientist at Penn State University who was not involved in the new research.
- "But, the papers increase my optimism that we can make sense of this incredibly difficult and important system, and improve our ability to project what it may do in the future."
What's next: Rignot noted that these studies were the result of a massive scientific effort, of the sort that is rarely mounted. However, the costs versus benefits of such campaigns in Antarctica favor doing them more often, he said.
- "The research will serve to protect cities from sea level rise, with adaptation costs in the billions of dollars for any major city, and trillions of dollars worldwide," Rignot said.
|
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Thwaites Glacier findings reveal clues about Antarctic ice melt
Thwaites Glacier, the largest glacier in West Antarctica, is melting faster in some spots than its shape would at first suggest, new studies show.
Why it matters: Thwaites tops the list of glaciers that keep polar scientists up at night. If it were to disintegrate into the ocean, the portions of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet it holds back could raise global sea levels by up to 10 feet.
Driving the news: Two new studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature provide some of the most detailed results gleaned from a $50 million, five-year international research campaign between the U.S. and the U.K., aimed at shedding light on the factors influencing Thwaites' future.
- Specifically, scientists were interested in investigating the glacier's grounding zone, which is where the ice meets the sea and becomes a floating ice shelf.
State of play: Thwaites is unique in that as one travels inland from the grounding line, the ice rests on bedrock that dips below sea level.
- This makes this region especially susceptible to extensive and potentially rapid melting since there is no hill or steep upward slope to slow or stop the ice's retreat.
Zoom in: Scientists used remotely operated submersibles, including a craft known as Icefin, inserted into a 2,000-foot hole drilled into the ice, along with other means to obtain data on the water coming into contact with Thwaites' grounding line and floating ice shelf.
- The submersible captured data on ocean temperatures and salinity, among other important variables.
- Abundant new information was also gleaned about the topography of the bedrock underlying the glacier, including at the grounding line.
Of note: Thwaites may have already begun a rapid and irreversible ice loss that will add about two feet of sea level rise this century.
Between the lines: One of the studies found that water that is well above freezing is located near the grounding zone, but not all of it is reaching the base of the ice.
- This suggests that rapid grounding line retreat, which continues to be observed here, could be tied to modest melt rates, and that this pace of retreat is likely to continue.
- Should the even warmer water reach the base of the ice, retreat would likely quicken, and it may be much higher in other parts of the glacier this study did not examine.
- "The [melt] rates found at
|
the particular location were low and yet this is a place that retreated fast," study coauthor Eric Rignot of UC Irvine told Axios via email.
- "This means we should be worried, very worried for the other places where the melt [rates are] high and the retreat is high. The system is very sensitive to the ocean, more than we thought."
The intrigue: The second study looked at the topography of the glacier's grounding line, and found the ice shelf melting faster where there are steep slopes and crevasses carved into the ice.
- Specifically, the ice slopes greater than 30 degrees were estimated to contribute to 27% of the total areal melt rate of the study region, despite comprising just 9% of the portion of the ice base that was surveyed.
What they're saying: "These types of observations are incredibly difficult to make, but they are so important to informing the modeling community about how indeed the vulnerable parts of the ice sheets are melting," coauthor Peter Washam of Cornell University told Axios.
- "Overall, these papers don’t really change my level of worry about Thwaites collapse or not," said Richard Alley, a climate scientist at Penn State University who was not involved in the new research.
- "But, the papers increase my optimism that we can make sense of this incredibly difficult and important system, and improve our ability to project what it may do in the future."
What's next: Rignot noted that these studies were the result of a massive scientific effort, of the sort that is rarely mounted. However, the costs versus benefits of such campaigns in Antarctica favor doing them more often, he said.
- "The research will serve to protect cities from sea level rise, with adaptation costs in the billions of dollars for any major city, and trillions of dollars worldwide," Rignot said.
|
From tried-and-true cowboys to colorful adventurists and outlaws, many Irish immigrants called the Old West home. They came for many reasons ranging from pursuing opportunity to fleeing persecution. Some of their lives ended well, while others were not so lucky. Here’s a brief background on a few:
Thomas Fitzpatrick: This original mountain man immigrated to the U.S. in 1810. He became part of a fur trading expedition in 1823 and learned the ins and outs of the frontier. He discovered the south pass through the Rockies, paving the way for other cowboys who would follow in his footsteps. He was a fearless mountain man and explorer, a guide who saved countless lives while conducting emigrants to new lives in the West, and an Indian agent who worked tirelessly in the pursuit of justice for the Native Americans. He’s a legendary figure of the American West.
Nellie Cashman: Born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1845, Nellie left her widowed mother and sister to pursue a life in America. She was a quintessential gold mining stampeder and her quests for gold took her throughout the western United States, south into Mexico, and later into British Columbia and the Yukon Territory, Canada. She paid her way by establishing businesses, buying and selling mines, and mining. Excess dollars earned from these ventures, supplemented by funds she raised from her fellow miners, were used to establish schools, churches, and hospitals from the Mexican border to Alaska.
Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan: James Dolan was born in Galway, Ireland and moved to the U.S. with his family when he was five. He served in the Union Army and then moved to Lincoln County, New Mexico where he worked as a clerk for Lawrence Murphy. In 1874, the two men became business partners in a retail and banking operation. They were highly successful, but not well liked by local farmers and ranchers because they had no business competition and took advantage of this by charging high prices for goods. In 1878, a war broke out (The Lincoln County War) over some commercial real estate issues and Dolan ended up murdering one of his employees, but was later acquitted. He went on to purchase multiple properties and became a successful business owner.
Billy the Kid: We’d certainly be remiss if we left out one of the most notable Irish cowboys of all time. He was born in New York, the son of Irish immigrants and orphaned at the age of 15. He was arrested for the first time when he was 16 and then headed out west. He continued to pursue a life of crime and was responsible for many killings during his short life of 21 years. He was an outlaw, but eventually his Irish luck ran out.
If you want to read more about the Irish in the west, check out this book: “How the Irish Won the West.”
|
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From tried-and-true cowboys to colorful adventurists and outlaws, many Irish immigrants called the Old West home. They came for many reasons ranging from pursuing opportunity to fleeing persecution. Some of their lives ended well, while others were not so lucky. Here’s a brief background on a few:
Thomas Fitzpatrick: This original mountain man immigrated to the U.S. in 1810. He became part of a fur trading expedition in 1823 and learned the ins and outs of the frontier. He discovered the south pass through the Rockies, paving the way for other cowboys who would follow in his footsteps. He was a fearless mountain man and explorer, a guide who saved countless lives while conducting emigrants to new lives in the West, and an Indian agent who worked tirelessly in the pursuit of justice for the Native Americans. He’s a legendary figure of the American West.
Nellie Cashman: Born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1845, Nellie left her widowed mother and sister to pursue a life in America. She was a quintessential gold mining stampeder and her quests for gold took her throughout the western United States, south into Mexico, and later into British Columbia and the Yukon Territory, Canada. She paid her way by establishing businesses, buying and selling mines, and mining. Excess dollars earned from these ventures, supplemented by funds she raised from her fellow miners, were used to establish schools, churches, and hospitals from the Mexican border to Alaska.
Lawrence Murphy and James Dolan: James Dolan was born in Galway, Ireland and moved to the U.S. with his family when he was five. He served in the Union Army and then moved to Lincoln County, New Mexico where he worked as a clerk for Lawrence Murphy. In 1874, the two men became business partners in a retail and banking operation. They were highly successful, but not well liked by local farmers and ranchers because they had no business competition and took advantage of this by charging high prices for goods. In 1878, a war broke out (The Lincoln County War) over some commercial real estate issues and Dolan ended up murdering one of his employees, but was later acquitted. He went on to purchase multiple properties and became a successful business owner.
Billy the Kid: We’d certainly be remiss if we left out one of the most notable Irish cowboys of all time. He was born in New York,
|
the son of Irish immigrants and orphaned at the age of 15. He was arrested for the first time when he was 16 and then headed out west. He continued to pursue a life of crime and was responsible for many killings during his short life of 21 years. He was an outlaw, but eventually his Irish luck ran out.
If you want to read more about the Irish in the west, check out this book: “How the Irish Won the West.”
|
In coastal communities across the U.S., new data shows land that’s home to more than 260,000 Americans is at risk of increased flooding over the next 20 years. That number is projected to grow five-fold by the end of the century if nations continue their current course of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Human Climate Horizons, a collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme and the Climate Impact Lab.
The new information shows increased coastal flooding this century will put over 70 million people worldwide in the path of expanding floodplains.
CBS News traveled to the world’s northernmost and fastest-warming community of Svalbard, Norway, because what scientists are learning there can help Americans understand the changes happening in the United States. As the Arctic warms, it adds to rising sea levels along our coasts and instability in the atmosphere that contributes to our extreme weather events.
“The effects of rising sea levels will put at risk decades of human development progress in densely populated coastal zones, which are home to one in seven people in the world,” said Pedro Conceição, director of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office.
The data finds the most extreme risks of lost land and critical infrastructure worldwide will be in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Pacific and small island states — including hundreds of highly populated cities like Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Sydney, Australia.
“These projections are not foregone conclusions; instead, they can be a catalyst for action,” said Hannah Hess, associate director at the Climate Impact Lab, a collaborative group of scientists and researchers who measures the real-world costs of climate change. “Swift and sustained action to reduce emissions will affect how quickly and how much coastal communities are impacted.”
Carbon dioxide emissions from cars and factories are the primary driver of climate change. They warm the planet, melt glaciers and ice sheets and raise sea levels.
“What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic”
42% of sea level rise comes from warming ocean water, which expands as the temperature increases; 21% comes from melting glaciers around the world; and 23% comes from the melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, according to WCRP Global Sea Level Budget Group.
As a result, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s U.S. sea level rise projections anticipate 10-14 inches of rise on the East Coast, 14-18 inches on the Gulf Coast and 4-8 inches on the West Coast over the next 30 years.
“What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic,” said Jack Kohler, a glaciologist with the Norwegian Polar Institute.
Kohler studies the melting glaciers of Svalbard, which is a group of islands near the North Pole.
“If you live in Florida, you’re seeing the effect of sea level rise already,” he said. “There’s plenty of pictures of very high tides, which are not caused by any storms or anything, and this is because sea level is inexorably rising.”
The new data also finds that many low-lying, coastal regions in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia may face permanent inundation, which the UNDP said is part of an alarming trend that could negatively impact economic progress in less-developed parts of the world.
According to the new data, climate change is expected to submerge a significant share of land in the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Turks and Caicos, Tuvalu and Seychelles by 2100.
“I have colleagues all over the globe who are doing similar things and they’re all seeing the same thing,” Kohler said about measuring the melting glaciers that are fueling sea level rise.
Take an adventure to Svalbard, Norway, in this special interactive web page and learn how climate change is impacting communities across our country.
Meet our experts
Jack Kohler is a glaciologist who has studied the disappearing glaciers of Svalbard for 27 years for the Norwegian Polar Institute. It’s hard work. At the end of winter, Kohler lands on a glacier by helicopter to pound long stakes deep into the ice. Six months later, after the summer melting season, he returns to record how much of the stakes are now exposed. The more of a stake he can see, the more ice has been lost.
David Schechter is a national environmental correspondent and the host of “On the Dot with David Schechter,” a guided journey to explore how we’re changing the earth and earth is changing us.
The post More than 70 million face increased threat of sea level rise worldwide appeared first on CBS News.
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In coastal communities across the U.S., new data shows land that’s home to more than 260,000 Americans is at risk of increased flooding over the next 20 years. That number is projected to grow five-fold by the end of the century if nations continue their current course of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Human Climate Horizons, a collaboration between the United Nations Development Programme and the Climate Impact Lab.
The new information shows increased coastal flooding this century will put over 70 million people worldwide in the path of expanding floodplains.
CBS News traveled to the world’s northernmost and fastest-warming community of Svalbard, Norway, because what scientists are learning there can help Americans understand the changes happening in the United States. As the Arctic warms, it adds to rising sea levels along our coasts and instability in the atmosphere that contributes to our extreme weather events.
“The effects of rising sea levels will put at risk decades of human development progress in densely populated coastal zones, which are home to one in seven people in the world,” said Pedro Conceição, director of UNDP’s Human Development Report Office.
The data finds the most extreme risks of lost land and critical infrastructure worldwide will be in Latin America, the Caribbean, the Pacific and small island states — including hundreds of highly populated cities like Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Sydney, Australia.
“These projections are not foregone conclusions; instead, they can be a catalyst for action,” said Hannah Hess, associate director at the Climate Impact Lab, a collaborative group of scientists and researchers who measures the real-world costs of climate change. “Swift and sustained action to reduce emissions will affect how quickly and how much coastal communities are impacted.”
Carbon dioxide emissions from cars and factories are the primary driver of climate change. They warm the planet, melt glaciers and ice sheets and raise sea levels.
“What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic”
42% of sea level rise comes from warming ocean water, which expands as the temperature increases; 21% comes from melting glaciers around the world; and 23% comes from the melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica, according to WCRP Global Sea Level Budget Group.
As a result, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s U.S. sea level rise projections anticipate 10-14 inches of rise on the East Coast, 14-18 inches on the Gulf Coast and 4-8 inches on the West Coast over the
|
next 30 years.
“What happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic,” said Jack Kohler, a glaciologist with the Norwegian Polar Institute.
Kohler studies the melting glaciers of Svalbard, which is a group of islands near the North Pole.
“If you live in Florida, you’re seeing the effect of sea level rise already,” he said. “There’s plenty of pictures of very high tides, which are not caused by any storms or anything, and this is because sea level is inexorably rising.”
The new data also finds that many low-lying, coastal regions in Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia may face permanent inundation, which the UNDP said is part of an alarming trend that could negatively impact economic progress in less-developed parts of the world.
According to the new data, climate change is expected to submerge a significant share of land in the Bahamas, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Turks and Caicos, Tuvalu and Seychelles by 2100.
“I have colleagues all over the globe who are doing similar things and they’re all seeing the same thing,” Kohler said about measuring the melting glaciers that are fueling sea level rise.
Take an adventure to Svalbard, Norway, in this special interactive web page and learn how climate change is impacting communities across our country.
Meet our experts
Jack Kohler is a glaciologist who has studied the disappearing glaciers of Svalbard for 27 years for the Norwegian Polar Institute. It’s hard work. At the end of winter, Kohler lands on a glacier by helicopter to pound long stakes deep into the ice. Six months later, after the summer melting season, he returns to record how much of the stakes are now exposed. The more of a stake he can see, the more ice has been lost.
David Schechter is a national environmental correspondent and the host of “On the Dot with David Schechter,” a guided journey to explore how we’re changing the earth and earth is changing us.
The post More than 70 million face increased threat of sea level rise worldwide appeared first on CBS News.
|
A Montana judge handed a significant victory on Monday to more than a dozen young plaintiffs in the nation’s first constitutional climate trial, as extreme weather becomes more deadly and scientists warn the climate crisis is eroding our environment and natural resources.
In a case that could have legal reverberations for other climate litigation, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled that Montana’s continued development of fossil fuels violates a clause in its state constitution that guarantees its citizens the right to a “clean and healthful environment.” Montana is one of several states that have explicit environmental guarantees written into their state constitutions.
While Seeley’s ruling won’t prevent mining or burning fossil fuels in the state, it will reverse a recently passed state law that prohibits state agencies from considering planet-warming pollution when permitting fossil fuel projects.
It is also a landmark win for young climate advocates who are turning more to the courts for judgments on the causes and impacts of the climate crisis.
“Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate as part of the environmental life support system,” Seeley wrote in her order.
Rikki Held, one of the plaintiffs, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” the outcome was “a long time coming” and she was very excited.
“Getting a ruling that listens to our stories and our voices and the best available science is just really important,” she said.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs called the court’s decision a “sweeping win” in a statement.
“Today, for the first time in US history, a court ruled on the merits of a case that the government violated the constitutional rights of children through laws and actions that promote fossil fuels, ignore climate change, and disproportionately imperil young people,” said Julia Olson, chief legal counsel and executive director of Our Children’s Trust. “This is a huge win for Montana, for youth, for democracy, and for our climate. More rulings like this will certainly come.”
Olson told Tapper she thinks the ruling will hamper the state’s ability to approve fossil fuel projects.
“The judge says it’s unconstitutional to continue to do so. And the state’s going to have to look hard at continuing to allow fossil fuel development and emissions in Montana going forward,” Olson said.
Experts noted that while the state of Montana didn’t try to dispute the science of climate change during the trial, they argued the state’s greenhouse gas emissions were a drop in the bucket compared to global emissions.
The Montana attorney general’s office will appeal Seeley’s ruling to the Montana Supreme Court, Emily Flower, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Austin Knudsen, said in a statement.
“This ruling is absurd, but not surprising from a judge who let the plaintiffs’ attorneys put on a weeklong taxpayer-funded publicity stunt that was supposed to be a trial,” Flower said. “Their same legal theory has been thrown out of federal court and courts in more than a dozen states. The State will appeal.”
Yet some legal experts believe this case sets a tone for climate litigation in the US.
Seeley’s decision is “dramatic,” said Pat Parenteau, emeritus professor of law at the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School. “Any decision by any court recognizing a constitutional right to a safe climate would be a breakthrough in the US for sure.”
Impact on other cases
Olson and other attorneys are also pursuing a federal case against the Biden administration, as well as cases in four other states; another youth climate trial could start in Hawaii as soon as this fall.
The youth victory in Montana could serve as a new legal underpinning for future cases – especially in other state courts, legal experts said.
“People are very attuned to what’s happening in other jurisdictions,” said Daniel Farber, an environmental law professor and expert at the University of California Berkeley. “It does send a signal to judges in other states that maybe these cases aren’t so far out after all.”
The Montana case won’t have a direct impact on another federal climate case – Juliana v. United States – that Our Children’s Trust lawyers are also bringing in hope it will go to trial by spring of 2024. The federal climate case alleges the federal government’s activities allowing further fossil fuel development, including permitting and leasing for oil and gas drilling, is violating young people’s constitutional rights to life, liberty and property.
Olson recently told CNN she hopes the state case will boost the Juliana case.
“I do think it will inform at the federal level as well, even though it’s not binding on federal courts,” Olson said.
But independent experts said they expect the Juliana case to have a difficult path forward: The Biden administration’s Department of Justice is aggressively fighting it from getting to trial, the US constitution does not contain such explicit guarantees to a clean environment and a conservative US Supreme Court likely won’t look favorably on it, given its recent opinions that have made it more difficult for federal agencies to regulate planet-warming pollution.
“We’re all operating under the shadow of a conservative Supreme Court,” Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University Law School, told CNN. “This Supreme Court has been more about taking away rights than granting new ones.”
Still, Gerrard and other experts said the Montana case is an important step in a small but growing body of climate change law in the US.
“I think with any really new idea, a big part of what you’re trying to do with a new kind of litigation is get it from seeming like a very fringe speculative activity to the point where it becomes thinkable for judges that they take these cases seriously,” Farber told CNN. “And they can’t just put them aside into the category of far-out legal efforts.”
This story has been updated.
CNN’s Virginia Langmaid contributed to this report.
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A Montana judge handed a significant victory on Monday to more than a dozen young plaintiffs in the nation’s first constitutional climate trial, as extreme weather becomes more deadly and scientists warn the climate crisis is eroding our environment and natural resources.
In a case that could have legal reverberations for other climate litigation, District Court Judge Kathy Seeley ruled that Montana’s continued development of fossil fuels violates a clause in its state constitution that guarantees its citizens the right to a “clean and healthful environment.” Montana is one of several states that have explicit environmental guarantees written into their state constitutions.
While Seeley’s ruling won’t prevent mining or burning fossil fuels in the state, it will reverse a recently passed state law that prohibits state agencies from considering planet-warming pollution when permitting fossil fuel projects.
It is also a landmark win for young climate advocates who are turning more to the courts for judgments on the causes and impacts of the climate crisis.
“Plaintiffs have a fundamental constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment, which includes climate as part of the environmental life support system,” Seeley wrote in her order.
Rikki Held, one of the plaintiffs, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” the outcome was “a long time coming” and she was very excited.
“Getting a ruling that listens to our stories and our voices and the best available science is just really important,” she said.
Attorneys for the plaintiffs called the court’s decision a “sweeping win” in a statement.
“Today, for the first time in US history, a court ruled on the merits of a case that the government violated the constitutional rights of children through laws and actions that promote fossil fuels, ignore climate change, and disproportionately imperil young people,” said Julia Olson, chief legal counsel and executive director of Our Children’s Trust. “This is a huge win for Montana, for youth, for democracy, and for our climate. More rulings like this will certainly come.”
Olson told Tapper she thinks the ruling will hamper the state’s ability to approve fossil fuel projects.
“The judge says it’s unconstitutional to continue to do so. And the state’s going to have to look hard at continuing to allow fossil fuel development and emissions in Montana going forward,” Olson said.
Experts noted that while the state of Montana didn’t try to dispute the science of climate change during the trial, they argued the state’s greenhouse gas emissions were a drop in the bucket compared to global emissions.
The Montana
|
attorney general’s office will appeal Seeley’s ruling to the Montana Supreme Court, Emily Flower, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Austin Knudsen, said in a statement.
“This ruling is absurd, but not surprising from a judge who let the plaintiffs’ attorneys put on a weeklong taxpayer-funded publicity stunt that was supposed to be a trial,” Flower said. “Their same legal theory has been thrown out of federal court and courts in more than a dozen states. The State will appeal.”
Yet some legal experts believe this case sets a tone for climate litigation in the US.
Seeley’s decision is “dramatic,” said Pat Parenteau, emeritus professor of law at the Environmental Law Center at Vermont Law School. “Any decision by any court recognizing a constitutional right to a safe climate would be a breakthrough in the US for sure.”
Impact on other cases
Olson and other attorneys are also pursuing a federal case against the Biden administration, as well as cases in four other states; another youth climate trial could start in Hawaii as soon as this fall.
The youth victory in Montana could serve as a new legal underpinning for future cases – especially in other state courts, legal experts said.
“People are very attuned to what’s happening in other jurisdictions,” said Daniel Farber, an environmental law professor and expert at the University of California Berkeley. “It does send a signal to judges in other states that maybe these cases aren’t so far out after all.”
The Montana case won’t have a direct impact on another federal climate case – Juliana v. United States – that Our Children’s Trust lawyers are also bringing in hope it will go to trial by spring of 2024. The federal climate case alleges the federal government’s activities allowing further fossil fuel development, including permitting and leasing for oil and gas drilling, is violating young people’s constitutional rights to life, liberty and property.
Olson recently told CNN she hopes the state case will boost the Juliana case.
“I do think it will inform at the federal level as well, even though it’s not binding on federal courts,” Olson said.
But independent experts said they expect the Juliana case to have a difficult path forward: The Biden administration’s Department of Justice is aggressively fighting it from getting to trial, the US constitution does not contain such explicit guarantees to a clean environment and a conservative US Supreme Court likely won’t look favorably on it, given its recent opinions that have made it more difficult for federal agencies to regulate planet-warming pollution.
“We’re all operating under the shadow of a conservative Supreme Court,” Michael Gerrard, founder of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University Law School, told CNN. “This Supreme Court has been more about taking away rights than granting new ones.”
Still, Gerrard and other experts said the Montana case is an important step in a small but growing body of climate change law in the US.
“I think with any really new idea, a big part of what you’re trying to do with a new kind of litigation is get it from seeming like a very fringe speculative activity to the point where it becomes thinkable for judges that they take these cases seriously,” Farber told CNN. “And they can’t just put them aside into the category of far-out legal efforts.”
This story has been updated.
CNN’s Virginia Langmaid contributed to this report.
|
Bridges: Mexican leader Santa Anna's impact on Texas can't be denied, part 3
(Editor's note: This is the third and final installment in a series on Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's impact on Texas history.)
The career of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna brought him to the height of power in Mexican politics, serving as president on eleven different occasions though he preferred to be leading his armies in the field. His career had also brought him nearly into political oblivion. In spite of the many problems Mexico faced and the disaster of his surrender to Gen. Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 and his roles in many coups against elected governments, Mexico still reluctantly turned to him in times of crisis by the late 1830s and into the 1840s.
By 1841, he had clawed his way back into the presidency. He led a nation that was deeply divided and near bankruptcy. Instead of concentrating on Mexico, he turned his eyes toward Texas and revenge.
Santa Anna led a raid into Texas in 1842. By September, he reached San Antonio and captured the city. Texas troops attempted to retake the town, leading to the Battle of Salado Creek just on the outskirts. Mexican troops killed 36 Texas troops in what was called the Dawson Massacre. In spite of Mexico’s numerical superiority, they suffered heavy casualties and retreated back into San Antonio. A few days later, Mexican troops headed south and returned to Mexico. It was the last time Santa Anna was in Texas. The incident convinced most Texans to pursue annexation to the United States once again. Santa Anna left office a month later. He was president twice more before being overthrown in 1844 and forced into exile in Cuba.
When the U. S. and Mexico went to war in 1846, Santa Anna returned and led the army once again. At the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, Santa Anna led a much larger force against the U. S. but faced difficult resistance. The Americans weren’t going to give in, but Santa Anna was gaining the advantage. Poised for victory after two days of fighting, Santa Anna suddenly left the battlefield in the dead of night. In his arrogance, he was more interested in the political drama in Mexico City as the government disintegrated. The retreat allowed American forces to advance rapidly southward. He installed himself as president again but stepped down weeks later to fight American forces approaching the capital. While Santa Anna delayed American forces, Mexico ultimately surrendered.
Mexico was force to give up territory from California to Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. In yet another indignity to the self-proclaimed “Napoleon of the West,” Illinois forces captured Santa Anna’s amputated and buried leg from the 1838 Pastry War with France and took it back to the United States, sparking a diplomatic dispute that has lasted for decades.
By 1853, he was once again president. He ruled with the same heavy hand. Instead of due process or free speech, his opponents usually saw the army seizing their property. Seeing Mexico’s treasury bankrupt again, he agreed to a land deal with the U. S. He agreed to sell portions of southern Arizona and southern New Mexico in what is now known as the Gadsden Purchase. After having lost nearly half their territory to the U. S., his opponents had finally had enough of Santa Anna. In what came to be called the Liberal Revolution, a coalition of generals, aristocrats, and high-ranking politicians forced Santa Anna from office in 1855. His successors embarked on an ambitious program of reforms to undo the harsh and dictatorial policies that had marked his presidency and restore civil liberties to the people.
Santa Anna bounced around the Caribbean for a while before ending up in New York. He tried his hand at business. He tried selling Mexican chicle, a natural gum used since ancient times, to use on buggy and carriage tires instead of rubber. Thomas Adams bought a large shipment, but it proved a poor substitute. Instead, Adams began selling chicle as chewing gum, introducing the popular treat to Americans in part because of Santa Anna.
France invaded Mexico in 1862 after a debt dispute and seized Mexico City, while President Benito Juarez launched a long insurgency to defend the country. By 1865, hoping to be the hero of the nation again, Santa Anna offered to return to Mexico to lead the army against its invaders. Seeing the pattern that had marked so much of Santa Anna’s career, Juarez refused. In the meantime, Santa Anna tried to raise money for an army while in New York City, only to see these efforts falter. After Mexico repelled the French in 1867, Santa Anna continued to live in the United States.
In 1874, Santa Anna was offered amnesty and was allowed to return to Mexico. His return was met with little fanfare. Barely able to walk, deep in debt, and almost blind, he lived his remaining days quietly. He died in 1876 at age 82, with Mexico still unsure how to place him in its history.
Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan. He holds a doctorate from the University of North Texas. Bridges can be reached by email at <email-pii>.
|
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Bridges: Mexican leader Santa Anna's impact on Texas can't be denied, part 3
(Editor's note: This is the third and final installment in a series on Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna's impact on Texas history.)
The career of Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna brought him to the height of power in Mexican politics, serving as president on eleven different occasions though he preferred to be leading his armies in the field. His career had also brought him nearly into political oblivion. In spite of the many problems Mexico faced and the disaster of his surrender to Gen. Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto in 1836 and his roles in many coups against elected governments, Mexico still reluctantly turned to him in times of crisis by the late 1830s and into the 1840s.
By 1841, he had clawed his way back into the presidency. He led a nation that was deeply divided and near bankruptcy. Instead of concentrating on Mexico, he turned his eyes toward Texas and revenge.
Santa Anna led a raid into Texas in 1842. By September, he reached San Antonio and captured the city. Texas troops attempted to retake the town, leading to the Battle of Salado Creek just on the outskirts. Mexican troops killed 36 Texas troops in what was called the Dawson Massacre. In spite of Mexico’s numerical superiority, they suffered heavy casualties and retreated back into San Antonio. A few days later, Mexican troops headed south and returned to Mexico. It was the last time Santa Anna was in Texas. The incident convinced most Texans to pursue annexation to the United States once again. Santa Anna left office a month later. He was president twice more before being overthrown in 1844 and forced into exile in Cuba.
When the U. S. and Mexico went to war in 1846, Santa Anna returned and led the army once again. At the Battle of Buena Vista in February 1847, Santa Anna led a much larger force against the U. S. but faced difficult resistance. The Americans weren’t going to give in, but Santa Anna was gaining the advantage. Poised for victory after two days of fighting, Santa Anna suddenly left the battlefield in the dead of night. In his arrogance, he was more interested in the political drama in Mexico City as the government disintegrated. The retreat allowed American forces to advance rapidly southward. He installed himself as president again but stepped
|
down weeks later to fight American forces approaching the capital. While Santa Anna delayed American forces, Mexico ultimately surrendered.
Mexico was force to give up territory from California to Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. In yet another indignity to the self-proclaimed “Napoleon of the West,” Illinois forces captured Santa Anna’s amputated and buried leg from the 1838 Pastry War with France and took it back to the United States, sparking a diplomatic dispute that has lasted for decades.
By 1853, he was once again president. He ruled with the same heavy hand. Instead of due process or free speech, his opponents usually saw the army seizing their property. Seeing Mexico’s treasury bankrupt again, he agreed to a land deal with the U. S. He agreed to sell portions of southern Arizona and southern New Mexico in what is now known as the Gadsden Purchase. After having lost nearly half their territory to the U. S., his opponents had finally had enough of Santa Anna. In what came to be called the Liberal Revolution, a coalition of generals, aristocrats, and high-ranking politicians forced Santa Anna from office in 1855. His successors embarked on an ambitious program of reforms to undo the harsh and dictatorial policies that had marked his presidency and restore civil liberties to the people.
Santa Anna bounced around the Caribbean for a while before ending up in New York. He tried his hand at business. He tried selling Mexican chicle, a natural gum used since ancient times, to use on buggy and carriage tires instead of rubber. Thomas Adams bought a large shipment, but it proved a poor substitute. Instead, Adams began selling chicle as chewing gum, introducing the popular treat to Americans in part because of Santa Anna.
France invaded Mexico in 1862 after a debt dispute and seized Mexico City, while President Benito Juarez launched a long insurgency to defend the country. By 1865, hoping to be the hero of the nation again, Santa Anna offered to return to Mexico to lead the army against its invaders. Seeing the pattern that had marked so much of Santa Anna’s career, Juarez refused. In the meantime, Santa Anna tried to raise money for an army while in New York City, only to see these efforts falter. After Mexico repelled the French in 1867, Santa Anna continued to live in the United States.
In 1874, Santa Anna was offered amnesty and was allowed to return to Mexico. His return was met with little fanfare. Barely able to walk, deep in debt, and almost blind, he lived his remaining days quietly. He died in 1876 at age 82, with Mexico still unsure how to place him in its history.
Ken Bridges is a writer, historian and native Texan. He holds a doctorate from the University of North Texas. Bridges can be reached by email at <email-pii>.
|
We all recognize the need for cleaner energy, but there is a major gap
between our capability to generate it and our daily needs. Even those who practice a subsistence lifestyle in Alaska — living primarily off the land and water — rely on boats, snowmachines and ATVs, and those all need fuel. In rural parts of our state, gasoline prices have been as high as $18 a gallon
. That is crippling — both for our economy and for the practice of traditional livelihoods, which new energy supplies will only help.
We need affordable energy today, and we will need it well into the future. And both are reasons why Willow matters.
First, the basics.
Willow is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska
(NPR-A), an area in northwest Alaska roughly the size of Indiana
. In 1976, Congress re-designated the area explicitly for environmentally responsible resource development. That occurs based on sound science and the best available technology, and is carried out in careful balance with the subsistence and economic needs of Alaska Native communities on our North Slope.
The project's developer, ConocoPhillips, says it has paid approximately $120 million to the federal government for lease acquisition and rental costs, which it started to acquire
during the Clinton-Gore administration. After a decade of preliminary environmental studies, the company listened as the Obama-Biden administration urged development
in the petroleum reserve and ultimately applied
to develop Willow in 2018.
More than five years later, after several rounds of environmental analysis, career civil servants at the Bureau of Land Management have recommended
Willow's approval with some modifications to reduce the project size and footprint.
Now, the question is whether the Biden-Harris administration recognizes that Willow will dramatically benefit the Alaska Native people who live on the North Slope, our state's stagnant economy and our nation's energy security — all while creating
hundreds of permanent jobs and thousands of temporary ones, and generating fewer emissions
than imported oil.
This should be an easy decision. The administration has made combating
climate change a priority, while also acknowledging
that the transition to cleaner energy will take time. In the meantime, we need oil, and compared to the other countries we can source it from, we believe Willow is by far the most environmentally responsible choice.
In total, the Bureau of Land Management's preferred project will impact just 429 acres
, which is a tiny fraction of the 23-million-acre petroleum reserve. The Biden administration has separately blocked
surface development on 11 million acres of NPR-A, meaning that Alaskans are asking to develop an area of land 25,600 times smaller than what has been placed off limits.
Willow is meticulously planned and will be developed safely. It will adhere to hundreds of lease stipulations
and best practices — including the use of ice roads
and underground extended reach drilling
— to minimize impacts.
Despite its small size, the project will still deliver immense benefits. According to ConocoPhillips, it will provide
2,500 construction jobs, 75% of which will be union jobs. According to the
Bureau of Land Management's estimates, the government revenues it generates over the life of the project, up to $17 billion
, will be split among the fede
|
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We all recognize the need for cleaner energy, but there is a major gap
between our capability to generate it and our daily needs. Even those who practice a subsistence lifestyle in Alaska — living primarily off the land and water — rely on boats, snowmachines and ATVs, and those all need fuel. In rural parts of our state, gasoline prices have been as high as $18 a gallon
. That is crippling — both for our economy and for the practice of traditional livelihoods, which new energy supplies will only help.
We need affordable energy today, and we will need it well into the future. And both are reasons why Willow matters.
First, the basics.
Willow is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska
(NPR-A), an area in northwest Alaska roughly the size of Indiana
. In 1976, Congress re-designated the area explicitly for environmentally responsible resource development. That occurs based on sound science and the best available technology, and is carried out in careful balance with the subsistence and economic needs of Alaska Native communities on our North Slope.
The project's developer, ConocoPhillips, says it has paid approximately $120 million to the federal government for lease acquisition and rental costs, which it started to acquire
during the Clinton-Gore administration. After a decade of preliminary environmental studies, the company listened as the Obama-Biden administration urged development
in the petroleum reserve and ultimately applied
to develop Willow in 2018.
More than five years later, after several rounds of environmental analysis, career civil servants at the Bureau of Land Management have recommended
Willow's approval with some modifications to reduce the project size and footprint.
Now, the question is whether the Biden-Harris administration recognizes that Willow will dramatically benefit the Alaska Native people who live on the North Slope, our state's stagnant economy and our nation's energy security — all while creating
hundreds of permanent jobs and thousands of temporary ones, and generating fewer emissions
than imported oil.
This should be an easy decision. The administration has made combating
climate change a priority, while also acknowledging
that the transition to cleaner energy will take time. In the meantime, we need oil, and compared to the other countries we can source it from, we believe Willow is by far the most environmentally responsible choice.
In total, the Bureau of Land Management's preferred project will impact just 429 acres
, which is a tiny fraction of the
|
23-million-acre petroleum reserve. The Biden administration has separately blocked
surface development on 11 million acres of NPR-A, meaning that Alaskans are asking to develop an area of land 25,600 times smaller than what has been placed off limits.
Willow is meticulously planned and will be developed safely. It will adhere to hundreds of lease stipulations
and best practices — including the use of ice roads
and underground extended reach drilling
— to minimize impacts.
Despite its small size, the project will still deliver immense benefits. According to ConocoPhillips, it will provide
2,500 construction jobs, 75% of which will be union jobs. According to the
Bureau of Land Management's estimates, the government revenues it generates over the life of the project, up to $17 billion
, will be split among the fede
|
What to do about Detroit's neighborhood animals
The city says it is inundated with concerns about wildlife causing problems and needs your help.
Why it matters: Officials want Detroiters to fill out a survey disclosing what problems they have with animals in their neighborhoods and what population control options they prefer, per deputy chief operations officer Jessica Parker.
- She spoke alongside the state's wildlife managers, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), at a community meeting Wednesday in Rouge Park.
- Let's face it — this is about possibly killing the animals.
Be smart: Detroit parks, especially Rouge and Palmer, have ecosystems of wildlife that are "out of balance" and bleeding into neighborhoods, Jeff Klein of the General Services Department said at the meeting.
- There's a lack of natural predators in urban areas to keep wildlife populations in check — especially deer that kill smaller trees, overgraze, destroy gardens and collide with cars, Klein added.
- Urban deer have a survival rate of 89% vs. 50% in rural areas, per the DNR.
- Deer-car collisions were up 47% in Wayne County between 2016 and 2022.
Meanwhile, geese have poop that harms water quality and makes for unpleasant park experiences.
- Migratory geese are dwindling but "resident" geese that stay around, get used to people and cause problems are "skyrocketing," per the DNR's Jared Duquette.
- They can live 20 or more years and produce 100 babies in a lifetime.
🦌 For dealing with too many deer, the city's survey asks residents to pick from the following next steps:
- Bring in U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters to kill "a reasonable number of deer" and "donate the meat to a food bank."
- "Do nothing" and allow the population to continue increasing.
🐦 For geese, the options are:
- Egg oiling — dipping eggs in oil to block pores in the shell and asphyxiate the embryos — which is seen as more effective than just destroying eggs. The geese keep nesting with the eggs that won't ever hatch instead of laying another set.
- Herding up geese and euthanizing them.
- "Do nothing."
Context: The DNR needs "strong justification" to issue permits for federal agencies or contractors to kill overpopulated animals, Duquette said at the meeting.
What's next: The city says it's collecting survey results and deciding what to do from there.
More Detroit stories
No stories could be found
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios Detroit.
|
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What to do about Detroit's neighborhood animals
The city says it is inundated with concerns about wildlife causing problems and needs your help.
Why it matters: Officials want Detroiters to fill out a survey disclosing what problems they have with animals in their neighborhoods and what population control options they prefer, per deputy chief operations officer Jessica Parker.
- She spoke alongside the state's wildlife managers, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), at a community meeting Wednesday in Rouge Park.
- Let's face it — this is about possibly killing the animals.
Be smart: Detroit parks, especially Rouge and Palmer, have ecosystems of wildlife that are "out of balance" and bleeding into neighborhoods, Jeff Klein of the General Services Department said at the meeting.
- There's a lack of natural predators in urban areas to keep wildlife populations in check — especially deer that kill smaller trees, overgraze, destroy gardens and collide with cars, Klein added.
- Urban deer have a survival rate of 89% vs. 50% in rural areas, per the DNR.
- Deer-car collisions were up 47% in Wayne County between 2016 and 2022.
Meanwhile, geese have poop that harms water quality and makes for unpleasant park experiences.
- Migratory geese are dwindling but "resident" geese that stay around, get used to people and cause problems are "skyrocketing," per the DNR's Jared Duquette.
- They can live 20 or more years and produce 100 babies in a lifetime.
🦌 For dealing with too many deer, the city's survey asks residents to pick from the following next steps:
- Bring in U.S. Department of Agriculture sharpshooters to kill "a reasonable number of deer" and "donate the meat to a food bank."
- "Do nothing" and allow the population to continue increasing.
🐦 For geese, the options are:
- Egg oiling — dipping eggs in oil to block pores in the shell and asphyxiate the embryos — which is seen as more effective than just destroying eggs. The geese keep nesting with the eggs that won't ever hatch instead of laying another set.
- Herding up geese and euthanizing them.
- "Do nothing."
Context: The DNR needs "strong justification" to issue permits for federal agencies or contractors to kill overpopulated animals, Duquette said at the meeting.
What
|
's next: The city says it's collecting survey results and deciding what to do from there.
More Detroit stories
No stories could be found
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios Detroit.
|
Climate Change Is Forcing Humanity To Build Back The Nature We Need
Would you allow scientists to experiment with nature on large scales? Or to build new nature?
Probably not, right? It sounds too much like the sequel to Frankenstein.
But would you allow such experimentation and building if it led to solutions for climate change, biodiversity loss, future pandemic risk and many of the other staggering challenges facing us?
For example: Would you allow prairies to be designed so floodwaters could be stored experimentally in underground aquifers for use later in times of drought?
What if I told you that deforestation, large-scale agriculture and urbanization are all essentially large-scale experiments being conducted on nature—without scientific controls or associated strong inference about their impact on the planet? Because most of us have no problem with these activities.
We take risks with experimentation—medical and otherwise—because the payoffs can be so important. But in the case of nature, we allow a deep and misplaced sentimentality about what nature is to cloud our thinking about how we should be using nature to solve the challenges we now face.
Mice And Longevity: The Stakes Are No Different
To achieve the breathtaking medical breakthroughs that make headlines seemingly every week (and that so many of us benefit from), researchers conduct all kinds of experiments—including some we’d probably rather not know the details about.
For instance, a new study in the journal Cell Metabolism suggests that the aging caused by stress can be reversed and that biological age in humans is “much more dynamic than people previously thought,” as one of the study’s co-authors told Live Science. Research such as this study could eventually have profound consequences on human longevity.
But part of the study involved a twisted-sounding experiment in which younger mice were surgically attached to older mice so the two could share blood circulation. During the three months they were connected, the younger mice’s biological ages increased beyond their mere chronological ages. But when they were detached, the younger mice’s biological ages eventually returned to normal.
Most humans are willing to accept these kinds of Frankensteinian experiments for the payoffs they might produce. And indeed, we already accept Frankensteins of a sort in nature as well.
For instance: the tailwater trout fishery in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon. It’s not two mice connected on a board, but it’s a highly engineered fishery. We have those all over the world; trout have been introduced to every continent except Antarctica. In some places, the trout displace native fish. In others, they interbreed with endangered trout. But in almost all cases, they provide human enjoyment. (I’ve caught rainbow trout at the headwaters of the Amazon, and it was a wonderful three hours.) And not many would argue that’s a bad thing, unless you’re a purist who thinks that all non-native species are evil.
If we can introduce trout across the planet, why can’t we experiment with components of the ecosystem that are more important for climate adaptation? Why is there a fishermen’s exception, but not one for climate warriors?
A CALL FOR CONTROL
For many people, nature is a pristine thing, static in time, fragile and always in need of protection. In this view, humans are monotonous predators and despoliers. We can’t make more nature—only nature makes itself. Our only option is to restore the nature we’ve traipsed on back to an idealistic baseline of the past.
Here’s a more clear-eyed view: We’re under existential threat. Nature is one of our greatest potential assets in the fight against climate change, and we don’t have time to regard it with such sentimentality. We have to use it and build new nature fit for purpose.
The urgency is compounded because so much human activity is already experimenting with nature and engineering it. From hydropower dams that change the flow and sediment of the great rivers of the world to plastics pollution in the oceans to fertilizer runoff making its way from America’s Midwestern farm fields to the Gulf of Mexico, our experiments with nature now happen on a far grander scale than what I’m proposing for science. It’s just that most of us aren’t aware of these experiments as experiments—endeavors for which we don’t know the outcomes, much less the consequences.
That’s what makes many experiments to increase longevity—and to tackle climate change impacts and other grand challenges—often worth the risk. They are for the greater good. As an aquatic ecologist, I conducted experiments on fish, lizards and countless invertebrate species. There are those who may call some of our tinkerings in nature pure torture. To my students who refused to do the experiments, I explained that this is for a greater good.
When we think about experimenting with nature, it’s imperative that we start thinking about that greater good instead of the pristine state of nature. Because nature doesn’t care whether we think it’s nature or not. Migratory birds don’t care that flooded rice fields in California in the winter aren’t actually original wetlands—it’s just more good habitat for them along their flyway. Here are some examples of opportunity for building nature to create an ecosystem in which humans can thrive in the face of climate change:
- Whole lake experiments in the 1970s in which phosphorus (a key ingredient to good fertilizer) was added to one half of a single lake and not the other (divided by a curtain). End result: A Frankenstein-green lake on one side (with phosphate) and a clear lake on the other. Policy outcome: Phosphate regulation in commercial laundry detergents.
- Industrial forestry-scale experiments in the ’80s and ’90s in which buffer strips—7 to 100 meters of native forest left intact on either side of rivers—were implemented in clear-cut forest settings (or not, the control). End result: Lower stream temperatures and sediment flux from harvested forest to stream bottom, higher salmon survival. Regulation on riparian (near river) harvest of timber.
- Whole farm experiments in the 20-teens in which native prairie was added in different amounts (area) and designs (controlling for area). End result: Less fertilizer runoff into the Mississippi River tributaries in Iowa. USDA programs minted in 2018 incentivizing (de-risking) conversion of some farmlands to prairie.
- National park scale coastal restoration in Louisiana (in progress) in which the river is allowed to flood forests formerly protected from floods by levees. The goal is to deliver critical water, nutrients and sediment to these forests to maintain their health and service as a front line against wind damage from hurricanes and tropical storms. End result: We will not know because there is no control. Policy outcome: The state already has an action plan and layout of projects spanning the state’s coast and riparian areas along the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers.
Experiments with nature should be bold. But they should never be reckless. Experiments are more about testing something next to a control and learning from the test. That approach is careful and designed to produce knowledge. The uncontrolled experiments with nature we have conducted in the past—that’s reckless, along with hands-off romanticism about nature that puts one of our best tools against climate change on the sidelines.
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Climate Change Is Forcing Humanity To Build Back The Nature We Need
Would you allow scientists to experiment with nature on large scales? Or to build new nature?
Probably not, right? It sounds too much like the sequel to Frankenstein.
But would you allow such experimentation and building if it led to solutions for climate change, biodiversity loss, future pandemic risk and many of the other staggering challenges facing us?
For example: Would you allow prairies to be designed so floodwaters could be stored experimentally in underground aquifers for use later in times of drought?
What if I told you that deforestation, large-scale agriculture and urbanization are all essentially large-scale experiments being conducted on nature—without scientific controls or associated strong inference about their impact on the planet? Because most of us have no problem with these activities.
We take risks with experimentation—medical and otherwise—because the payoffs can be so important. But in the case of nature, we allow a deep and misplaced sentimentality about what nature is to cloud our thinking about how we should be using nature to solve the challenges we now face.
Mice And Longevity: The Stakes Are No Different
To achieve the breathtaking medical breakthroughs that make headlines seemingly every week (and that so many of us benefit from), researchers conduct all kinds of experiments—including some we’d probably rather not know the details about.
For instance, a new study in the journal Cell Metabolism suggests that the aging caused by stress can be reversed and that biological age in humans is “much more dynamic than people previously thought,” as one of the study’s co-authors told Live Science. Research such as this study could eventually have profound consequences on human longevity.
But part of the study involved a twisted-sounding experiment in which younger mice were surgically attached to older mice so the two could share blood circulation. During the three months they were connected, the younger mice’s biological ages increased beyond their mere chronological ages. But when they were detached, the younger mice’s biological ages eventually returned to normal.
Most humans are willing to accept these kinds of Frankensteinian experiments for the payoffs they might produce. And indeed, we already accept Frankensteins of a sort in nature as well.
For instance: the tailwater trout fishery in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon. It’s not two mice connected on a board, but it’s a highly engineered fishery. We have those all over the world; trout have been introduced to every continent except Antarctica. In some
|
places, the trout displace native fish. In others, they interbreed with endangered trout. But in almost all cases, they provide human enjoyment. (I’ve caught rainbow trout at the headwaters of the Amazon, and it was a wonderful three hours.) And not many would argue that’s a bad thing, unless you’re a purist who thinks that all non-native species are evil.
If we can introduce trout across the planet, why can’t we experiment with components of the ecosystem that are more important for climate adaptation? Why is there a fishermen’s exception, but not one for climate warriors?
A CALL FOR CONTROL
For many people, nature is a pristine thing, static in time, fragile and always in need of protection. In this view, humans are monotonous predators and despoliers. We can’t make more nature—only nature makes itself. Our only option is to restore the nature we’ve traipsed on back to an idealistic baseline of the past.
Here’s a more clear-eyed view: We’re under existential threat. Nature is one of our greatest potential assets in the fight against climate change, and we don’t have time to regard it with such sentimentality. We have to use it and build new nature fit for purpose.
The urgency is compounded because so much human activity is already experimenting with nature and engineering it. From hydropower dams that change the flow and sediment of the great rivers of the world to plastics pollution in the oceans to fertilizer runoff making its way from America’s Midwestern farm fields to the Gulf of Mexico, our experiments with nature now happen on a far grander scale than what I’m proposing for science. It’s just that most of us aren’t aware of these experiments as experiments—endeavors for which we don’t know the outcomes, much less the consequences.
That’s what makes many experiments to increase longevity—and to tackle climate change impacts and other grand challenges—often worth the risk. They are for the greater good. As an aquatic ecologist, I conducted experiments on fish, lizards and countless invertebrate species. There are those who may call some of our tinkerings in nature pure torture. To my students who refused to do the experiments, I explained that this is for a greater good.
When we think about experimenting with nature, it’s imperative that we start thinking about that greater good instead of the pristine state of nature. Because nature doesn’t care whether we think it’s nature or not. Migratory birds don’t care that flooded rice fields in California in the winter aren’t actually original wetlands—it’s just more good habitat for them along their flyway. Here are some examples of opportunity for building nature to create an ecosystem in which humans can thrive in the face of climate change:
- Whole lake experiments in the 1970s in which phosphorus (a key ingredient to good fertilizer) was added to one half of a single lake and not the other (divided by a curtain). End result: A Frankenstein-green lake on one side (with phosphate) and a clear lake on the other. Policy outcome: Phosphate regulation in commercial laundry detergents.
- Industrial forestry-scale experiments in the ’80s and ’90s in which buffer strips—7 to 100 meters of native forest left intact on either side of rivers—were implemented in clear-cut forest settings (or not, the control). End result: Lower stream temperatures and sediment flux from harvested forest to stream bottom, higher salmon survival. Regulation on riparian (near river) harvest of timber.
- Whole farm experiments in the 20-teens in which native prairie was added in different amounts (area) and designs (controlling for area). End result: Less fertilizer runoff into the Mississippi River tributaries in Iowa. USDA programs minted in 2018 incentivizing (de-risking) conversion of some farmlands to prairie.
- National park scale coastal restoration in Louisiana (in progress) in which the river is allowed to flood forests formerly protected from floods by levees. The goal is to deliver critical water, nutrients and sediment to these forests to maintain their health and service as a front line against wind damage from hurricanes and tropical storms. End result: We will not know because there is no control. Policy outcome: The state already has an action plan and layout of projects spanning the state’s coast and riparian areas along the Mississippi and Atchafalaya rivers.
Experiments with nature should be bold. But they should never be reckless. Experiments are more about testing something next to a control and learning from the test. That approach is careful and designed to produce knowledge. The uncontrolled experiments with nature we have conducted in the past—that’s reckless, along with hands-off romanticism about nature that puts one of our best tools against climate change on the sidelines.
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Two Massachusetts residents tested positive for the West Nile virus (WNV), according to the state Department of Public Health. These are first two human cases of the disease in Massachusetts this year.
One individual was exposed in Middlesex County and the other contracted the virus outside of the state, DPH said in a statement on Tuesday. The news came after the detection of the mosquito sample carrying the virus last month.
“August and September are the months when most people are exposed to West Nile virus in Massachusetts,” said DPH Commissioner Robert Goldstein in a statement. “Populations of mosquitoes that can carry and spread this virus are fairly large this year and we have seen recent increases in the number of WNV-positive mosquito samples from multiple parts of the Commonwealth.”
West Nile virus is usually transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. There were eight human cases of the virus in Massachusetts last year.
While it can infect people of all ages, people over the age of 50 are at higher risk for severe disease. Most people infected with the virus will have no symptoms. When present, symptoms usually include fever and a flu-like illness. In rare cases, more severe illness can occur.
The DPH says there is a moderate risk of West Nile virus infection in humans in Greater Boston, along with Berkshire, Bristol, Hampden, Hampshire, Plymouth and Worcester counties.
State epidemiologist Catherine M. Brown said mosquitoes carrying the disease will persist for several more months. Below are a few steps she suggested residents can take to reduce potential exposure to the virus.
Use the right mosquito repellent
Apply insect repellent when outdoors and use a repellent with an EPA-registered ingredient. Repellent products should not be used on infants under 2 months old and avoid using in concentrations of 30% or less on older children. Oil of lemon eucalyptus should not be used on children under age 3.
Be aware of peak mosquito hours
The hours from dusk to dawn are peak biting times for many mosquitoes. Consider rescheduling outdoor activities that occur during evening or early morning in areas of high risk.
Dress to avoid bites
Wearing long sleeves, long pants and socks when outdoors will help keep mosquitoes away from your skin.
Monitor the outside of your home
Monitor for and drain any standing water in items around your home, like unused flowerpots or wading pools. That's where mosquitoes often lay their eggs. If you have a birdbath, change the water frequently. Keep mosquitoes outside by installing tightly fitting screens on your windows and doors.
Protect your animals
Make sure you drain any containers or troughs your animals use on a regular basis. Water troughs provide especially excellent mosquito breeding habitats and should be flushed out at least once a week during the summer months to reduce mosquitoes. Horse owners should keep horses in indoor stalls at night to reduce their risk of exposure to mosquitoes. Talk to your vet about animal-approved mosquito repellents, and any vaccinations available to protect your pets or livestock.
|
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Two Massachusetts residents tested positive for the West Nile virus (WNV), according to the state Department of Public Health. These are first two human cases of the disease in Massachusetts this year.
One individual was exposed in Middlesex County and the other contracted the virus outside of the state, DPH said in a statement on Tuesday. The news came after the detection of the mosquito sample carrying the virus last month.
“August and September are the months when most people are exposed to West Nile virus in Massachusetts,” said DPH Commissioner Robert Goldstein in a statement. “Populations of mosquitoes that can carry and spread this virus are fairly large this year and we have seen recent increases in the number of WNV-positive mosquito samples from multiple parts of the Commonwealth.”
West Nile virus is usually transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. There were eight human cases of the virus in Massachusetts last year.
While it can infect people of all ages, people over the age of 50 are at higher risk for severe disease. Most people infected with the virus will have no symptoms. When present, symptoms usually include fever and a flu-like illness. In rare cases, more severe illness can occur.
The DPH says there is a moderate risk of West Nile virus infection in humans in Greater Boston, along with Berkshire, Bristol, Hampden, Hampshire, Plymouth and Worcester counties.
State epidemiologist Catherine M. Brown said mosquitoes carrying the disease will persist for several more months. Below are a few steps she suggested residents can take to reduce potential exposure to the virus.
Use the right mosquito repellent
Apply insect repellent when outdoors and use a repellent with an EPA-registered ingredient. Repellent products should not be used on infants under 2 months old and avoid using in concentrations of 30% or less on older children. Oil of lemon eucalyptus should not be used on children under age 3.
Be aware of peak mosquito hours
The hours from dusk to dawn are peak biting times for many mosquitoes. Consider rescheduling outdoor activities that occur during evening or early morning in areas of high risk.
Dress to avoid bites
Wearing long sleeves, long pants and socks when outdoors will help keep mosquitoes away from your skin.
Monitor the outside of your home
Monitor for and drain any standing water in items around your home, like unused flowerpots or wading pools. That's where mosquitoes often lay their eggs. If you have a birdbath, change the water frequently. Keep mosquitoes outside by installing tightly fitting screens on your windows
|
and doors.
Protect your animals
Make sure you drain any containers or troughs your animals use on a regular basis. Water troughs provide especially excellent mosquito breeding habitats and should be flushed out at least once a week during the summer months to reduce mosquitoes. Horse owners should keep horses in indoor stalls at night to reduce their risk of exposure to mosquitoes. Talk to your vet about animal-approved mosquito repellents, and any vaccinations available to protect your pets or livestock.
|
By John Domen
For more than a year now, an archaeologist and a team of volunteers have been slowly and methodically combing through a wooded hillside in Bowie.
They’re on a quest to document and provide a proper accounting for what was once thought to be dozens of unmarked graves — many of them containing the remains of African Americans, some of whom were enslaved on land that was once a Jesuit-owned plantation known as White Marsh.
But it turns out there weren’t just dozens of graves. There were hundreds.
Over the last year that number has gotten even bigger, and what was thought to be a search confined to an acre or two of land is now spanning eight acres with even more places to dig through in the years to come. Yes, years.
“Now along the hillside, we’ve mapped close to 600 potential grave markers,” said Dr. Laura Masur, an archaeologist and assistant professor of anthropology at Catholic University, who has overseen the efforts to identify unmarked graves on the grounds of Sacred Heart Catholic Church as well as other cemeteries once owned by the Jesuits.
Masur said she anticipates there are perhaps 100 to 200 more grave markers along the hillside where the team has been concentrating its efforts.
“So we’re probably looking at somewhere in the order of about 800 unmarked graves in this area,” she added.
The hillside, visible from Maryland Route 450/Annapolis Road, is now covered with tiny pink and orange flags, each marking a grave site. The hillside is adjacent to a cemetery — with some graves dating back centuries — that’s been well-maintained over the years. There are about 800 grave stones there, though some mark the resting place of entire families, rather than individuals.
Along the hilly stretch of land, Masur has been digitally mapping every rock and presumed grave site into an electronic database, adding names when she can. In many cases it hasn’t been possible.
“It’s a really challenging thing to piece out when you have an unmarked grave. Is it a marker of poverty? Is it a marker of race? Could it be both? And that’s one of the big questions that we’ve been puzzling over,” she said.
Based on historical records and other documents, Masur has identified about 2,100 burials as having taken place on the hillside near the cemetery on what once was the White Marsh tobacco plantation.
“About 700 of them are probably African American, but we only know the locations of perhaps about a dozen of those African American graves — so that’s where we can link an individual’s name and inscription,” Masur said. In part, that’s done by referencing a list of common surnames of known African Americans buried at White Marsh.
“But most of the African Americans we have recorded as being buried between maybe the 1850s and the 1930s, we don’t know where they’re buried,” Masur said. “So we presume those are predominantly the burials that are along the hillside.”
She added that “the way it looks is, it’s a very active cemetery in the 19th and early 20th century, and then it declines.” That was in the 1930s.
Then in the late 1960s, when Sacred Heart parish was founded, more burials started to fill up the cemetery once again.
Still, there are frustrating gaps in the historical record.
Despite exhaustive searches from descendants and parishioners, there are no documented deaths before the year 1819, and Masur estimates that there are probably several hundred more people from that time period buried on the property.
‘It was no longer someone else’s story’
These days, it’s not just the earth on that wooded hillside that’s being searched for clues.
Descendants of those who lived and worked on the land decades, if not centuries, ago have started up a nonprofit called the White Marsh Historical Society to help scour through family trees, tax records, death records and other genealogical records to try to determine who might be buried there.
Much of the work is done by people living locally, but it has become a nationwide effort with some now scattered far across the country trying to unearth the mysteries of the land and their ancestors who were laid to rest there.
A year ago, the group started with a few dozen names of those buried at White Marsh. Now, they know the names of about 700 people who, according to death records and genealogical materials, were buried there.
It’s been an eye-opening experience for Denise Barton, a Georgetown University graduate who grew up in Pennsylvania and now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She remembers visiting Bowie for family reunions, never knowing the connections she had to the land.
“I’ve experienced the full range of emotion,” Barton said. “Once I found out, I actually ordered the early records of White Marsh from the Prince George’s County Genealogical Society … and I turned to a page and decided just to go line by line to see if any relatives’ names were on there. And when I saw the names of my great-grandparents and my great-great-grandparents and that they were baptized there — it leapt off the page. So it was no longer someone else’s story. It was then my story.”
In the fall of 2022, before much was known about the property, Barton said she inadvertently walked right past the tombstone of her great-great-grandfather, Francis Johnson, without even knowing it. When she went online and saw his burial site, she said “it just hit me like a ton of bricks.”
The list of names that could unearth hidden history
In fact, throughout the last year, the White Marsh Historical Society has been working to connect with as many descendants as possible. They’re spread out all across the country, though significant numbers live around St. Louis, Louisiana and Philadelphia — places where ancestors were sold centuries ago. Many, however, still live in the D.C. area — with no clue that their ancestors’ final resting place is so close by.
“People are shocked. They’re really amazed and it takes a while to absorb it all,” said Lynn Nehemiah, the vice president of the historical society. “They’re totally blown away. People are excited to know that they are connected to an important part of American history. But at the same time, they’re saddened to hear it — to know that they have personal connections to those who were enslaved. You know it, but to know it at a deeper level in terms of knowing names.”
The effort to uncover names and rediscover missing links in family trees is what Kevin Porter, the president of the White Marsh Historical Society, calls “reparative research.”
“It’s unfortunate that a lot of information has been lost through time,” said Porter, whose ancestors are buried at White Marsh. “A lot of the history has been lost, too. And a lot of the reparative research that we’re trying to do is to identify as many names as possible, connect those individuals that are buried here to the family networks throughout this area. A lot of the families are connected, not only to the people that were enslaved here, but to the neighboring families — prominent families, such as the Bowie family, the Carroll family.”
Now, the group has a long list of surnames — some with multiple spellings — who they reach out to in order to connect. An event at Holy Family Catholic Church in Mitchellville, Maryland, just a few miles away, led to even more connections.
Honoring the dead
The list of names just keeps growing. The amount of work not just for Masur, but for all those who volunteer on various committees, also keeps growing.
“A year later, we’re still in the discovery phase,” said Rev. Michael Russo, a priest at Sacred Heart. “We’re still in this very intense research phase of trying to understand how big this burial ground is, how big the connections of the descendant community are and what more work we need to do.”
In many cases, those who might have to reckon with the more shameful side of history might be reluctant to get involved. But that hasn’t been the case at Sacred Heart.
“We’ve discovered more people that are part of the Communion of saints,” said Rob Hayes, a parishioner, using the term from the Catholic doctrine to describe the fellowship between Christians, both living and the dead.
Hayes helps lead what is known as the Cemetery Committee at the church.
“We didn’t know they were there,” he said. “There may have been records that are long gone, but now that we’ve discovered them, we’ve discovered the graves, and so it’s really our duty and our privilege to honor them.”
Honoring the dead, he pointed out, is one of the “corporal works of mercy,” alongside feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.
Call for volunteers
Back on Nov. 1, which is All Saints Day in the church, hundreds of candles were lit and placed on each grave marker along the hillside. And throughout the last year, hundreds of people — parishioners, descendants, and the public at large — have put in thousands of combined hours to help clean up and reduce decades of overgrowth that nearly swallowed up the forgotten history on the hillside.
On Monday, the public is invited to do it again. Crews will be working from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to remove fallen tree limbs, rake up leaves and debris, and do other landscaping work.
A parish that has long embraced its colonial roots is also acknowledging the indignities that occurred there.
“It’s not a comfortable part of the history, but it is part of the history,” said Hayes. “There’s research to be done, there are things to find and preserve that history, and tell the broader story of the people that lived there, worshipped there, died there — both the enslaved as well as the others. We don’t know yet what we’re going to find because there’s a lot of history we have not uncovered. And so we’re going do our best to pursue that and tell the broader story.”
That willingness to help is so important to those who can trace their ancestors back to that hillside.
“We need their help. They have a lot of history about the property that we wouldn’t otherwise have,” said Crystal Queen, a cousin of Kevin Porter, who also lived much of her life not knowing about her family’s history. “It’s been refreshing that they’ve been willing to work with us on this cemetery project and uncovering more of our history. In some other places, that hasn’t been the case. So we’re definitely appreciative of that.”
But a story that old will take a lot of time to write and tell. And erosion on the hillside remains a concern, especially as brush and other forms of vegetation are removed. That has the potential to disturb even more grave sites than have already been impacted by erosion there. For now, those involved in uncovering the history are focusing on about eight acres of land, even though there’s strong belief that the cemetery wraps further around the hillside.
Mother Nature has posed challenges in other ways, too. Every time a big rainstorm hits — such as the major downpours across the D.C. region Tuesday — even more stones are unearthed on the hillside. It’s not certain that every stone marks a grave site, but Masur said the location certainly makes it possible.
“One of the biggest challenges of the project is finding ways to get an accurate total number,” acknowledged Masur. “I think we’ll get as close as we can.”
At the moment, the number of names doesn’t match the number of stones around the property. And sometimes a stone is just that, a stone.
“So it’s going to keep going, it’s going to keep growing,” said Rev. Russo. “But the important thing is we want, as much as possible, the whole story to be known and to be told.”
“Sometimes it’s hard because everyone wants immediate results,” Masur said. “And everyone wants a clear resolution to a project when, in reality, this takes multiple years and a lot of difficult discussions to actually get a sense of closure for a project.”
Those who are involved in the effort have been applying for grant money to help maintain and preserve the land. Meanwhile, Masur, who is due to give birth in a month, continues to try to record as much data about the land as possible, knowing all the final answers and conclusions everyone wants might not be attainable.
Other smaller projects elsewhere have taken decades. This effort has been underway for about a year.
Eventually, when the database is complete, it’ll be made public and will provide the acknowledgment that many of those buried there never got. It won’t be precise, it won’t be perfect, but it will be a major step toward reclaiming and resurrecting a history that once was all but lost.
“Our goal is in looking at the historical information. If we have a record that someone is buried here and we have a record of a burial that is unmarked, then we can say, ‘these are the names of the people who could be buried here,’” Masur said. “And we can sort of have a digital map saying, ‘perhaps for these 800 people, these 800 names we have, this is where they’re buried.’ We don’t know where each individual person is buried. But we know that they’re buried in this area. And it’s the best we can do at this point.”
And that’s why she keeps walking, mapping each stone on a tablet and recording history, inspired by the support she’s gotten so far from everyone involved — the church, the Archdiocese of Washington, bishops from around the country and those whose ancestors were once forgotten.
“We’re working to try and make sure that we have as many records as we can, and that we find a way to make those available to the community so that people can come here and … visit the graves of their loved ones,” she said.
As part of Maryland Matters’ content sharing agreement with WTOP, we feature this article from John Domen. Click here for the WTOP News website.
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By John Domen
For more than a year now, an archaeologist and a team of volunteers have been slowly and methodically combing through a wooded hillside in Bowie.
They’re on a quest to document and provide a proper accounting for what was once thought to be dozens of unmarked graves — many of them containing the remains of African Americans, some of whom were enslaved on land that was once a Jesuit-owned plantation known as White Marsh.
But it turns out there weren’t just dozens of graves. There were hundreds.
Over the last year that number has gotten even bigger, and what was thought to be a search confined to an acre or two of land is now spanning eight acres with even more places to dig through in the years to come. Yes, years.
“Now along the hillside, we’ve mapped close to 600 potential grave markers,” said Dr. Laura Masur, an archaeologist and assistant professor of anthropology at Catholic University, who has overseen the efforts to identify unmarked graves on the grounds of Sacred Heart Catholic Church as well as other cemeteries once owned by the Jesuits.
Masur said she anticipates there are perhaps 100 to 200 more grave markers along the hillside where the team has been concentrating its efforts.
“So we’re probably looking at somewhere in the order of about 800 unmarked graves in this area,” she added.
The hillside, visible from Maryland Route 450/Annapolis Road, is now covered with tiny pink and orange flags, each marking a grave site. The hillside is adjacent to a cemetery — with some graves dating back centuries — that’s been well-maintained over the years. There are about 800 grave stones there, though some mark the resting place of entire families, rather than individuals.
Along the hilly stretch of land, Masur has been digitally mapping every rock and presumed grave site into an electronic database, adding names when she can. In many cases it hasn’t been possible.
“It’s a really challenging thing to piece out when you have an unmarked grave. Is it a marker of poverty? Is it a marker of race? Could it be both? And that’s one of the big questions that we’ve been puzzling over,” she said.
Based on historical records and other documents, Masur has identified about 2,100 burials as having taken place on the hillside near the cemetery on what once was the White Marsh tobacco plantation.
|
“About 700 of them are probably African American, but we only know the locations of perhaps about a dozen of those African American graves — so that’s where we can link an individual’s name and inscription,” Masur said. In part, that’s done by referencing a list of common surnames of known African Americans buried at White Marsh.
“But most of the African Americans we have recorded as being buried between maybe the 1850s and the 1930s, we don’t know where they’re buried,” Masur said. “So we presume those are predominantly the burials that are along the hillside.”
She added that “the way it looks is, it’s a very active cemetery in the 19th and early 20th century, and then it declines.” That was in the 1930s.
Then in the late 1960s, when Sacred Heart parish was founded, more burials started to fill up the cemetery once again.
Still, there are frustrating gaps in the historical record.
Despite exhaustive searches from descendants and parishioners, there are no documented deaths before the year 1819, and Masur estimates that there are probably several hundred more people from that time period buried on the property.
‘It was no longer someone else’s story’
These days, it’s not just the earth on that wooded hillside that’s being searched for clues.
Descendants of those who lived and worked on the land decades, if not centuries, ago have started up a nonprofit called the White Marsh Historical Society to help scour through family trees, tax records, death records and other genealogical records to try to determine who might be buried there.
Much of the work is done by people living locally, but it has become a nationwide effort with some now scattered far across the country trying to unearth the mysteries of the land and their ancestors who were laid to rest there.
A year ago, the group started with a few dozen names of those buried at White Marsh. Now, they know the names of about 700 people who, according to death records and genealogical materials, were buried there.
It’s been an eye-opening experience for Denise Barton, a Georgetown University graduate who grew up in Pennsylvania and now lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She remembers visiting Bowie for family reunions, never knowing the connections she had to the land.
“I’ve experienced the full range of emotion,” Barton said. “Once I found out, I actually ordered the early records of White Marsh from the Prince George’s County Genealogical Society … and I turned to a page and decided just to go line by line to see if any relatives’ names were on there. And when I saw the names of my great-grandparents and my great-great-grandparents and that they were baptized there — it leapt off the page. So it was no longer someone else’s story. It was then my story.”
In the fall of 2022, before much was known about the property, Barton said she inadvertently walked right past the tombstone of her great-great-grandfather, Francis Johnson, without even knowing it. When she went online and saw his burial site, she said “it just hit me like a ton of bricks.”
The list of names that could unearth hidden history
In fact, throughout the last year, the White Marsh Historical Society has been working to connect with as many descendants as possible. They’re spread out all across the country, though significant numbers live around St. Louis, Louisiana and Philadelphia — places where ancestors were sold centuries ago. Many, however, still live in the D.C. area — with no clue that their ancestors’ final resting place is so close by.
“People are shocked. They’re really amazed and it takes a while to absorb it all,” said Lynn Nehemiah, the vice president of the historical society. “They’re totally blown away. People are excited to know that they are connected to an important part of American history. But at the same time, they’re saddened to hear it — to know that they have personal connections to those who were enslaved. You know it, but to know it at a deeper level in terms of knowing names.”
The effort to uncover names and rediscover missing links in family trees is what Kevin Porter, the president of the White Marsh Historical Society, calls “reparative research.”
“It’s unfortunate that a lot of information has been lost through time,” said Porter, whose ancestors are buried at White Marsh. “A lot of the history has been lost, too. And a lot of the reparative research that we’re trying to do is to identify as many names as possible, connect those individuals that are buried here to the family networks throughout this area. A lot of the families are connected, not only to the people that were enslaved here, but to the neighboring families — prominent families, such as the Bowie family, the Carroll family.”
Now, the group has a long list of surnames — some with multiple spellings — who they reach out to in order to connect. An event at Holy Family Catholic Church in Mitchellville, Maryland, just a few miles away, led to even more connections.
Honoring the dead
The list of names just keeps growing. The amount of work not just for Masur, but for all those who volunteer on various committees, also keeps growing.
“A year later, we’re still in the discovery phase,” said Rev. Michael Russo, a priest at Sacred Heart. “We’re still in this very intense research phase of trying to understand how big this burial ground is, how big the connections of the descendant community are and what more work we need to do.”
In many cases, those who might have to reckon with the more shameful side of history might be reluctant to get involved. But that hasn’t been the case at Sacred Heart.
“We’ve discovered more people that are part of the Communion of saints,” said Rob Hayes, a parishioner, using the term from the Catholic doctrine to describe the fellowship between Christians, both living and the dead.
Hayes helps lead what is known as the Cemetery Committee at the church.
“We didn’t know they were there,” he said. “There may have been records that are long gone, but now that we’ve discovered them, we’ve discovered the graves, and so it’s really our duty and our privilege to honor them.”
Honoring the dead, he pointed out, is one of the “corporal works of mercy,” alongside feeding the hungry and clothing the naked.
Call for volunteers
Back on Nov. 1, which is All Saints Day in the church, hundreds of candles were lit and placed on each grave marker along the hillside. And throughout the last year, hundreds of people — parishioners, descendants, and the public at large — have put in thousands of combined hours to help clean up and reduce decades of overgrowth that nearly swallowed up the forgotten history on the hillside.
On Monday, the public is invited to do it again. Crews will be working from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. to remove fallen tree limbs, rake up leaves and debris, and do other landscaping work.
A parish that has long embraced its colonial roots is also acknowledging the indignities that occurred there.
“It’s not a comfortable part of the history, but it is part of the history,” said Hayes. “There’s research to be done, there are things to find and preserve that history, and tell the broader story of the people that lived there, worshipped there, died there — both the enslaved as well as the others. We don’t know yet what we’re going to find because there’s a lot of history we have not uncovered. And so we’re going do our best to pursue that and tell the broader story.”
That willingness to help is so important to those who can trace their ancestors back to that hillside.
“We need their help. They have a lot of history about the property that we wouldn’t otherwise have,” said Crystal Queen, a cousin of Kevin Porter, who also lived much of her life not knowing about her family’s history. “It’s been refreshing that they’ve been willing to work with us on this cemetery project and uncovering more of our history. In some other places, that hasn’t been the case. So we’re definitely appreciative of that.”
But a story that old will take a lot of time to write and tell. And erosion on the hillside remains a concern, especially as brush and other forms of vegetation are removed. That has the potential to disturb even more grave sites than have already been impacted by erosion there. For now, those involved in uncovering the history are focusing on about eight acres of land, even though there’s strong belief that the cemetery wraps further around the hillside.
Mother Nature has posed challenges in other ways, too. Every time a big rainstorm hits — such as the major downpours across the D.C. region Tuesday — even more stones are unearthed on the hillside. It’s not certain that every stone marks a grave site, but Masur said the location certainly makes it possible.
“One of the biggest challenges of the project is finding ways to get an accurate total number,” acknowledged Masur. “I think we’ll get as close as we can.”
At the moment, the number of names doesn’t match the number of stones around the property. And sometimes a stone is just that, a stone.
“So it’s going to keep going, it’s going to keep growing,” said Rev. Russo. “But the important thing is we want, as much as possible, the whole story to be known and to be told.”
“Sometimes it’s hard because everyone wants immediate results,” Masur said. “And everyone wants a clear resolution to a project when, in reality, this takes multiple years and a lot of difficult discussions to actually get a sense of closure for a project.”
Those who are involved in the effort have been applying for grant money to help maintain and preserve the land. Meanwhile, Masur, who is due to give birth in a month, continues to try to record as much data about the land as possible, knowing all the final answers and conclusions everyone wants might not be attainable.
Other smaller projects elsewhere have taken decades. This effort has been underway for about a year.
Eventually, when the database is complete, it’ll be made public and will provide the acknowledgment that many of those buried there never got. It won’t be precise, it won’t be perfect, but it will be a major step toward reclaiming and resurrecting a history that once was all but lost.
“Our goal is in looking at the historical information. If we have a record that someone is buried here and we have a record of a burial that is unmarked, then we can say, ‘these are the names of the people who could be buried here,’” Masur said. “And we can sort of have a digital map saying, ‘perhaps for these 800 people, these 800 names we have, this is where they’re buried.’ We don’t know where each individual person is buried. But we know that they’re buried in this area. And it’s the best we can do at this point.”
And that’s why she keeps walking, mapping each stone on a tablet and recording history, inspired by the support she’s gotten so far from everyone involved — the church, the Archdiocese of Washington, bishops from around the country and those whose ancestors were once forgotten.
“We’re working to try and make sure that we have as many records as we can, and that we find a way to make those available to the community so that people can come here and … visit the graves of their loved ones,” she said.
As part of Maryland Matters’ content sharing agreement with WTOP, we feature this article from John Domen. Click here for the WTOP News website.
|
O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, you always make me so sneezy!
Is this what happens to you once the December Holidays roll around? Do you get various allergy-like symptoms such as a runny nose, watery eyes, coughing, difficulty breathing, a rash or itchiness specifically whenever you go rocking around a Christmas tree? If so, then you may be experiencing what’s been dubbed “Christmas tree syndrome.”
What is Christmas Tree Syndrome?
“Christmas tree syndrome” is not when you hoard Christmas trees or somehow believe that everything—including your family members—is actually a Christmas tree. Rather, it’s when you are allergic to something that’s either on or in a Christmas tree. This can be a real or fake Christmas tree. Not surprisingly, this syndrome is most common among those who already have a history of allergies or asthma. But just because you’ve been allergy-free all your life doesn’t mean that one day something about O Tannenbaum won’t start needling your immune system.
What Are Possible Causes of Christmas Tree Syndrome?
You see the tree can carry a lot with it. Typically, the tree itself won’t cause allergic reactions. But by the time a real Christmas tree has reached your home, it’s been around the block so to speak. It’s not exactly virginal. A pine tree can be covered by not only pine pollen but also the pollen from lots of different plants around it such as ragweed and grass. And lots of people are allergic to ragweed and grass pollen.
Moreover, a Christmas tree can carry mold, up to 50 different kinds of molds, according to a research letter published in 2011 in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. Think about that the next time you consider cuddling up in bed with your Christmas tree.
Then there are the P’s: pesticides, pollution, poop, pee and pretty much anything that may be in the great outdoors. If you think about it, a Christmas tree is sort of like a gigantic brush. It will pick up lots of stuff while it’s being dragged across the ground and different surfaces. And guess what animals might be inclined to do when they see a tree. Here’s a hint: it rhymes with tree and starts with a “P.”
The scent of pine tree sap can be a problem too. That scent comes from chemicals called terpenes that can take to the air, get into your respiratory tract and cause inflammation. Pine nuts can drive some people’s immune systems a bit nuts as well.
While a fake tree may not have the natural pine sap scent, pine nuts, pollen or some of the other allergens that a real tree typically has, fake may not necessarily give you a break from allergic reactions. A fake Christmas trees can still have dust, mold, dirt, poop, pee, insects, insect droppings and other things that can throw your immune system into a tizzy. This can be especially likely if you’ve stored the tree in an unprotected location all year. So, when not “oooing” and “ahhing” your fake Christmas tree and sayin, “It looks so real,” it’s good to keep your fake tree tucked away in a place that’s clean, dry and free of insects and other animals. Also, check on the fake tree periodically throughout the course of the year to make sure it hasn’t become covered with mold or turned into a cabana by a pack of racoons.
How Can You Prevent a Christmas Tree Allergy?
There are other things that you can do to keep yourself as free from Christmas Tree Syndrome as possible:
- Keep the tree outdoors: This may be a problem if you celebrating Christmas in the Eastern Antarctic Plateau, where temperatures can get down to -94°C. But if you are in warmer climes, the outdoors can provide more natural ventilation to blow away a lot of the allergens.
- Clean your tree: This is not a euphemism. If you are going to bring your tree indoors, try washing it down first with a hose, blowing away allergens with a leaf blower or at least shaking the tree first.
- Clean yourself: As soon as you’ve had an encounter with a tree, change your clothes and don’t wear them until they are washed. If you were wearing one of those ugly Christmas sweaters, don’t put it on again ever. Consider taking a shower too so that you can remove any allergens that may still be attached to you.
- Clean everything: The tree may also spread allergens to everything around it such as the carpet, the furniture and the tree ornaments. So, you may want to vacuum and clean frequently around the tree.
- Make sure the room is well-ventilated and the air around the tree is well-filtered: Placing an air-purifier right next to the tree can help pull allergens from the air.
- Minimize exposure to the tree: You can still admire a tree from afar. Consider putting the tree in a room that you don’t frequent such as your neighbor’s bathroom. Also, get rid of the tree as soon as the Holiday season is over. The longer you keep the tree, the more mold can grow, the more insects can poop on it and the more exposure to all the allergens you’ll have. Plus, things can get awkward when you have to explain to your Valentine’s Day date why your Christmas tree is still up.
- Try allergy medications: If you do start having symptoms, over-the-counter oral antihistamine medications or nasal steroid sprays may help. Hydrocortisone cream may calm down any skin issues specifically. If you these don’t alleviate your symptoms enough, see your doctor.
If all of the above fail, you could consider an alternative to a Christmas tree. Sure, a Christmas lamp post or a Christmas life-sized statue of Shaquille O’Neal statue could leave you pining for a real Christmas tree in the short run. But suffering allergic symptoms throughout every December Holiday season is nothing to sneeze at either.
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O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, you always make me so sneezy!
Is this what happens to you once the December Holidays roll around? Do you get various allergy-like symptoms such as a runny nose, watery eyes, coughing, difficulty breathing, a rash or itchiness specifically whenever you go rocking around a Christmas tree? If so, then you may be experiencing what’s been dubbed “Christmas tree syndrome.”
What is Christmas Tree Syndrome?
“Christmas tree syndrome” is not when you hoard Christmas trees or somehow believe that everything—including your family members—is actually a Christmas tree. Rather, it’s when you are allergic to something that’s either on or in a Christmas tree. This can be a real or fake Christmas tree. Not surprisingly, this syndrome is most common among those who already have a history of allergies or asthma. But just because you’ve been allergy-free all your life doesn’t mean that one day something about O Tannenbaum won’t start needling your immune system.
What Are Possible Causes of Christmas Tree Syndrome?
You see the tree can carry a lot with it. Typically, the tree itself won’t cause allergic reactions. But by the time a real Christmas tree has reached your home, it’s been around the block so to speak. It’s not exactly virginal. A pine tree can be covered by not only pine pollen but also the pollen from lots of different plants around it such as ragweed and grass. And lots of people are allergic to ragweed and grass pollen.
Moreover, a Christmas tree can carry mold, up to 50 different kinds of molds, according to a research letter published in 2011 in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology. Think about that the next time you consider cuddling up in bed with your Christmas tree.
Then there are the P’s: pesticides, pollution, poop, pee and pretty much anything that may be in the great outdoors. If you think about it, a Christmas tree is sort of like a gigantic brush. It will pick up lots of stuff while it’s being dragged across the ground and different surfaces. And guess what animals might be inclined to do when they see a tree. Here’s a hint: it rhymes with tree and starts with a “P.”
The scent of pine tree sap can be a problem too. That scent comes from chemicals called terpenes that can take to the air, get into your respiratory tract and cause
|
inflammation. Pine nuts can drive some people’s immune systems a bit nuts as well.
While a fake tree may not have the natural pine sap scent, pine nuts, pollen or some of the other allergens that a real tree typically has, fake may not necessarily give you a break from allergic reactions. A fake Christmas trees can still have dust, mold, dirt, poop, pee, insects, insect droppings and other things that can throw your immune system into a tizzy. This can be especially likely if you’ve stored the tree in an unprotected location all year. So, when not “oooing” and “ahhing” your fake Christmas tree and sayin, “It looks so real,” it’s good to keep your fake tree tucked away in a place that’s clean, dry and free of insects and other animals. Also, check on the fake tree periodically throughout the course of the year to make sure it hasn’t become covered with mold or turned into a cabana by a pack of racoons.
How Can You Prevent a Christmas Tree Allergy?
There are other things that you can do to keep yourself as free from Christmas Tree Syndrome as possible:
- Keep the tree outdoors: This may be a problem if you celebrating Christmas in the Eastern Antarctic Plateau, where temperatures can get down to -94°C. But if you are in warmer climes, the outdoors can provide more natural ventilation to blow away a lot of the allergens.
- Clean your tree: This is not a euphemism. If you are going to bring your tree indoors, try washing it down first with a hose, blowing away allergens with a leaf blower or at least shaking the tree first.
- Clean yourself: As soon as you’ve had an encounter with a tree, change your clothes and don’t wear them until they are washed. If you were wearing one of those ugly Christmas sweaters, don’t put it on again ever. Consider taking a shower too so that you can remove any allergens that may still be attached to you.
- Clean everything: The tree may also spread allergens to everything around it such as the carpet, the furniture and the tree ornaments. So, you may want to vacuum and clean frequently around the tree.
- Make sure the room is well-ventilated and the air around the tree is well-filtered: Placing an air-purifier right next to the tree can help pull allergens from the air.
- Minimize exposure to the tree: You can still admire a tree from afar. Consider putting the tree in a room that you don’t frequent such as your neighbor’s bathroom. Also, get rid of the tree as soon as the Holiday season is over. The longer you keep the tree, the more mold can grow, the more insects can poop on it and the more exposure to all the allergens you’ll have. Plus, things can get awkward when you have to explain to your Valentine’s Day date why your Christmas tree is still up.
- Try allergy medications: If you do start having symptoms, over-the-counter oral antihistamine medications or nasal steroid sprays may help. Hydrocortisone cream may calm down any skin issues specifically. If you these don’t alleviate your symptoms enough, see your doctor.
If all of the above fail, you could consider an alternative to a Christmas tree. Sure, a Christmas lamp post or a Christmas life-sized statue of Shaquille O’Neal statue could leave you pining for a real Christmas tree in the short run. But suffering allergic symptoms throughout every December Holiday season is nothing to sneeze at either.
|
The Sun has woken up. The beginning of 2023 has seen our star crackle with activity, with observers seeing black sunspots all over its surface as it waxes towards possibly one of its strongest periods on record.
The resulting “X-class” solar flares can affect Earth's magnetic field with the potential to damage satellites and communications equipment as well as casing power grids to overload. Solar flares are also a threat to orbiting astronauts.
A ball of hydrogen and helium gas about 93 million miles from Earth, the Sun has a roughly 11 year solar cycle. During that time it moves from a period of “solar minimum” to a “solar maximum.” The latter—the peak of the current Solar Cycle 25—is expected to occur in 2024 or 2025, making this year theoretically one of the most powerful periods for the Sun for almost a decade.
The evidence is suddenly everywhere as “space weather” increases. After more sunspots appeared on its surface last week our star issued three solar flares of the strongest type possible — so-called X-flares. That was on the back of one of its most active days for years in December 2022. On January 5, 9 and 10, respectively, X1-class solar flares erupted from sunspots, sending pulses of x-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation out into the solar system traveling at light-speed, some of it in the direction of Earth.
Since then there have been a number of less intense M-class solar flares with a chance of more X-class flares in the coming days.
Solar flares—which can cause radio blackouts on Earth minutes after occurring—are eruptions of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun’s atmosphere. They’re caused by twisted magnetic fields, typically above sunspots—cooler, darker regions of the Sun’s surface that form when clumps of its magnetic field well up from deep within the Sun. Sunspots appear in solar telescopes as as tiny specks on the Sun’s surface, but they can be colossal in size. Their frequency is the main clue solar physicists have in gauging how intense (or otherwise) solar activity is and, right now, they’re everywhere. In fact, if sunspot production continues at this rate for the rest of January the monthly sunspot number will reach a 20-year high, according to Spaceweather.com.
So far Solar Cycle 25 has been known for producing sunspots on the Sun’s far side, but the Jan. 9 event’s extreme ultraviolet flash was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) (main image, above). It caused a shortwave radio blackout in the Pacific Ocean.
While the effects of solar flares on Earth can be sudden, it’s what can often happen next that are more noticeable. From sunspots and solar flares can come coronal mass ejections (CMEs), large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona that can take 15-18 hours to reach Earth (although they can be aimed anywhere in the solar system). When a CME arrives at Earth it can cause geomagnetic storms, a significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field.
Forecasters at the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Space Weather Prediction Center predict that an M-class solar flare and CME on Jan. 14 could cause a geomagnetic storm on Jan. 19.
That means intense Northern Lights could be on the way.
One result could be more intense and frequent aurora. When a CME comes our way, Earth’s magnetosphere accelerates the charged particles down its field lines to the poles. The result is brighter and more frequent are the displays of the Northern Lights and the Southern Lights.
While the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are typically the best places to view aurora, during an intense geomagnetic storm the “auroral oval” increases in size so people who live in areas that normally don’t experience aurora—such as the USA and Western Europe—sometimes get to see them. And it’s right now, as we approach solar maximum, that aurora are at their most frequent and spectacular.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
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The Sun has woken up. The beginning of 2023 has seen our star crackle with activity, with observers seeing black sunspots all over its surface as it waxes towards possibly one of its strongest periods on record.
The resulting “X-class” solar flares can affect Earth's magnetic field with the potential to damage satellites and communications equipment as well as casing power grids to overload. Solar flares are also a threat to orbiting astronauts.
A ball of hydrogen and helium gas about 93 million miles from Earth, the Sun has a roughly 11 year solar cycle. During that time it moves from a period of “solar minimum” to a “solar maximum.” The latter—the peak of the current Solar Cycle 25—is expected to occur in 2024 or 2025, making this year theoretically one of the most powerful periods for the Sun for almost a decade.
The evidence is suddenly everywhere as “space weather” increases. After more sunspots appeared on its surface last week our star issued three solar flares of the strongest type possible — so-called X-flares. That was on the back of one of its most active days for years in December 2022. On January 5, 9 and 10, respectively, X1-class solar flares erupted from sunspots, sending pulses of x-rays and extreme ultraviolet radiation out into the solar system traveling at light-speed, some of it in the direction of Earth.
Since then there have been a number of less intense M-class solar flares with a chance of more X-class flares in the coming days.
Solar flares—which can cause radio blackouts on Earth minutes after occurring—are eruptions of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun’s atmosphere. They’re caused by twisted magnetic fields, typically above sunspots—cooler, darker regions of the Sun’s surface that form when clumps of its magnetic field well up from deep within the Sun. Sunspots appear in solar telescopes as as tiny specks on the Sun’s surface, but they can be colossal in size. Their frequency is the main clue solar physicists have in gauging how intense (or otherwise) solar activity is and, right now, they’re everywhere. In fact, if sunspot production continues at this rate for the rest of January the monthly sunspot number will reach a 20-year high, according to Spaceweather.com.
So far Solar Cycle 25 has
|
been known for producing sunspots on the Sun’s far side, but the Jan. 9 event’s extreme ultraviolet flash was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) (main image, above). It caused a shortwave radio blackout in the Pacific Ocean.
While the effects of solar flares on Earth can be sudden, it’s what can often happen next that are more noticeable. From sunspots and solar flares can come coronal mass ejections (CMEs), large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona that can take 15-18 hours to reach Earth (although they can be aimed anywhere in the solar system). When a CME arrives at Earth it can cause geomagnetic storms, a significant disturbances in Earth's magnetic field.
Forecasters at the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Space Weather Prediction Center predict that an M-class solar flare and CME on Jan. 14 could cause a geomagnetic storm on Jan. 19.
That means intense Northern Lights could be on the way.
One result could be more intense and frequent aurora. When a CME comes our way, Earth’s magnetosphere accelerates the charged particles down its field lines to the poles. The result is brighter and more frequent are the displays of the Northern Lights and the Southern Lights.
While the Arctic and Antarctic Circles are typically the best places to view aurora, during an intense geomagnetic storm the “auroral oval” increases in size so people who live in areas that normally don’t experience aurora—such as the USA and Western Europe—sometimes get to see them. And it’s right now, as we approach solar maximum, that aurora are at their most frequent and spectacular.
Wishing you clear skies and wide eyes.
|
The past few weeks have brought light to the stark increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, including hurricanes, heat waves and wildfires. These are part of a new and alarming trend in which we see the compounding effect of multiple weather events occurring simultaneously, amplifying the collective impact and posing a challenge for communities and businesses across the U.S.
Understanding Compound Weather Events
Simply put, compound weather events are a combination of weather and climate drivers that lead to potentially high-impact events. For example, a heatwave followed by heavy rainfall leads to flooding, or a prolonged drought followed by an intense storm surge leads to the same disastrous results. These combined events can interact in ways that significantly heighten their impacts, resulting in cascading consequences that stretch beyond the sum of their parts. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes does an excellent job of explaining compound events by comparing them to going to a doctor's visit.
While subsequent impacts from weather events are not new, the changing climate landscape can cause events that were not only once improbable but also are happening more frequently. Another factor driving this phenomenon is that compound weather events often trigger feedback loops, where one event exacerbates the conditions for another. For example, a wildfire may reduce vegetation cover, increasing the likelihood of soil erosion and mudslides during heavy rainfall. This creates a domino effect and amplifies the overall impact on communities, businesses and the environment.
Compound Weather Event Examples
The recent catastrophic wildfire event in Hawaii is a recent example of climate change driving compound events. Studies have shown that this is driving the increase in wildfire season length and the frequency of wildfires. The ingredients for high fire risk—drought, ignitable grass species and high temperatures—were already present in Hawaii, which is why the island state was under a red flag warning. The strong winds generated by Hurricane Dora, a Category 4 hurricane literally fanning the flames, made the fire worse. Individually, both events can cause structural damage and interrupt business continuity, but their occurrence is not unusual. However, the presence of both extreme events at the same time magnified the impact.
Wildfires also compound health impacts. This summer, air quality issues due to wildfires have been prevalent throughout much of the United States, causing heightened risks to public health. New York City experienced its worst-ever wildfire-related air quality when residents were exposed to pollution levels more than five times above the national standard, and on several occasions earlier this summer, several U.S. cities had some of the unhealthiest air anywhere on Earth.
Another example of compound weather events is within our oceans. Rising sea surface temperatures can intensify hurricanes, leading to more powerful storms and heavier rainfall, as we saw with Hurricane Ian last year and more recently with Hurricane Idalia, the strongest storm to make landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida in over 100 years. The reason Hurricane Idalia increased to Category 4 intensity was the warmer sea temperatures in the Gulf, adding energy or “fuel” for its formation. The compounding events with hurricanes are the extreme storm surge and rainfall leading to devastating flooding, even in towns hundreds of miles from landfall.
While we will continue to see compound weather events increase and cause unprecedented impacts, it’s important to know that scientists and researchers worldwide are collaborating to prioritize research and technology development that will help communities and businesses make informed, long-term financial and infrastructure choices. Over time, attribution science will be able to scientifically determine whether climate change contributed to extreme events that will further inform governments, businesses and communities on how to design more resilient plans for a changing climate.
|
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The past few weeks have brought light to the stark increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather, including hurricanes, heat waves and wildfires. These are part of a new and alarming trend in which we see the compounding effect of multiple weather events occurring simultaneously, amplifying the collective impact and posing a challenge for communities and businesses across the U.S.
Understanding Compound Weather Events
Simply put, compound weather events are a combination of weather and climate drivers that lead to potentially high-impact events. For example, a heatwave followed by heavy rainfall leads to flooding, or a prolonged drought followed by an intense storm surge leads to the same disastrous results. These combined events can interact in ways that significantly heighten their impacts, resulting in cascading consequences that stretch beyond the sum of their parts. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes does an excellent job of explaining compound events by comparing them to going to a doctor's visit.
While subsequent impacts from weather events are not new, the changing climate landscape can cause events that were not only once improbable but also are happening more frequently. Another factor driving this phenomenon is that compound weather events often trigger feedback loops, where one event exacerbates the conditions for another. For example, a wildfire may reduce vegetation cover, increasing the likelihood of soil erosion and mudslides during heavy rainfall. This creates a domino effect and amplifies the overall impact on communities, businesses and the environment.
Compound Weather Event Examples
The recent catastrophic wildfire event in Hawaii is a recent example of climate change driving compound events. Studies have shown that this is driving the increase in wildfire season length and the frequency of wildfires. The ingredients for high fire risk—drought, ignitable grass species and high temperatures—were already present in Hawaii, which is why the island state was under a red flag warning. The strong winds generated by Hurricane Dora, a Category 4 hurricane literally fanning the flames, made the fire worse. Individually, both events can cause structural damage and interrupt business continuity, but their occurrence is not unusual. However, the presence of both extreme events at the same time magnified the impact.
Wildfires also compound health impacts. This summer, air quality issues due to wildfires have been prevalent throughout much of the United States, causing heightened risks to public health. New York City experienced its worst-ever wildfire-related air quality when residents were exposed to pollution levels more than five times above the national standard, and on several occasions earlier this summer,
|
several U.S. cities had some of the unhealthiest air anywhere on Earth.
Another example of compound weather events is within our oceans. Rising sea surface temperatures can intensify hurricanes, leading to more powerful storms and heavier rainfall, as we saw with Hurricane Ian last year and more recently with Hurricane Idalia, the strongest storm to make landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida in over 100 years. The reason Hurricane Idalia increased to Category 4 intensity was the warmer sea temperatures in the Gulf, adding energy or “fuel” for its formation. The compounding events with hurricanes are the extreme storm surge and rainfall leading to devastating flooding, even in towns hundreds of miles from landfall.
While we will continue to see compound weather events increase and cause unprecedented impacts, it’s important to know that scientists and researchers worldwide are collaborating to prioritize research and technology development that will help communities and businesses make informed, long-term financial and infrastructure choices. Over time, attribution science will be able to scientifically determine whether climate change contributed to extreme events that will further inform governments, businesses and communities on how to design more resilient plans for a changing climate.
|
Your health: February is great time to think about your heart health
We often think of Valentine's Day when we think about the month of February — it is one of my favorite months as it is filled with chocolate and roses. However, February is also a very important month in the field of medicine — heart month. American Heart Month started in the 1960s and has been celebrated to educate and inform people about the ever so important battle against heart disease.
February is also one of my husband’s favorite months because, well, football and the Super Bowl. In a twist of events, the irony was lost on me when a couple weeks ago we watched Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin crumble on the field during a regular NFL football game. It was later determined to be cardiac arrest. Heart disease affects anyone and everyone, so let's talk about it.
Valentine's Day ideasOn the Menu: Upland Brewing, Irish Lion, FARMbloomington, Hive offer Valentine's specials
The heart is a muscle that beats to keep us alive — to keep blood flowing and allow for nutrients and oxygen to be distributed to our body. It is one of the most vital and sensitive organs we have. If our hearts are not healthy it affects virtually every part of our body. Heart disease is a common condition that affects the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle.
Cholesterol can build up in the body and cause atherosclerosis (a build of plaque). This can essentially constrict the blood vessels and cause heart attacks or strokes. Cholesterol increases can be attributed to various reasons — mostly because of diet and lifestyle factors such as smoking, a lack of exercise, high blood pressure and diabetes. Remember it this way — our bodies are high functioning systems with the heart as one of the main engines. Like any engine there are various parts that help the engine function to its full capacity and all the parts need to work in order for the engine to function. If the pipes leading to the engine are failing or “clogged,” the engine will start failing. This is exactly how our hearts work. But what can we do to prevent heart disease?
Prevention is key.
More:Your health: New year is perfect time to start preventing diabetes
Yep, it’s me preaching again to quit smoking! Smokers are two to four times more likely to get heart disease, and they are at a doubled risk of stroke.
Get regular blood work done. Your LDL (bad cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol, yes there is good cholesterol!) should be checked yearly. Eat healthy and maintain a healthy weight. If you have high blood pressure take steps to reduce your blood pressure by medication, diet, exercise or a combination of the three. If you have diabetes or are pre-diabetic work toward reducing and stabilizing your blood sugar by again, medication, diet, exercise or a combination.
There are many ways you can reduce the risk of heart disease but all starts with the first step, literally and figuratively. Moving more, eating less and knowing your numbers will go a long way toward a healthy lifestyle. Symptoms that something may be amiss with heart health include chest pain, dizziness and shortness of breath, swollen feet or ankles.
Always remember if you have extreme chest pain accompanied with shortness of breath you will need to call 911.
Our hearts are sensitive organs, and we owe it to our hearts to keep them healthy. Our hearts work while we sleep, eat, breathe and never quit on us. I hope you take a few steps to have a healthy heart, remember that small changes can make a big difference. Wishing you a happy and healthy February!
Krutika Simon is a pharmacist based in Bloomington with a focus on health and wellness and specialty medications. You can contact her at <email-pii>.
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Your health: February is great time to think about your heart health
We often think of Valentine's Day when we think about the month of February — it is one of my favorite months as it is filled with chocolate and roses. However, February is also a very important month in the field of medicine — heart month. American Heart Month started in the 1960s and has been celebrated to educate and inform people about the ever so important battle against heart disease.
February is also one of my husband’s favorite months because, well, football and the Super Bowl. In a twist of events, the irony was lost on me when a couple weeks ago we watched Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin crumble on the field during a regular NFL football game. It was later determined to be cardiac arrest. Heart disease affects anyone and everyone, so let's talk about it.
Valentine's Day ideasOn the Menu: Upland Brewing, Irish Lion, FARMbloomington, Hive offer Valentine's specials
The heart is a muscle that beats to keep us alive — to keep blood flowing and allow for nutrients and oxygen to be distributed to our body. It is one of the most vital and sensitive organs we have. If our hearts are not healthy it affects virtually every part of our body. Heart disease is a common condition that affects the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle.
Cholesterol can build up in the body and cause atherosclerosis (a build of plaque). This can essentially constrict the blood vessels and cause heart attacks or strokes. Cholesterol increases can be attributed to various reasons — mostly because of diet and lifestyle factors such as smoking, a lack of exercise, high blood pressure and diabetes. Remember it this way — our bodies are high functioning systems with the heart as one of the main engines. Like any engine there are various parts that help the engine function to its full capacity and all the parts need to work in order for the engine to function. If the pipes leading to the engine are failing or “clogged,” the engine will start failing. This is exactly how our hearts work. But what can we do to prevent heart disease?
Prevention is key.
More:Your health: New year is perfect time to start preventing diabetes
Yep, it’s me preaching again to quit smoking! Smokers are two to four times more likely to get heart disease, and they are at a doubled risk of stroke.
Get regular blood work done. Your LDL (bad cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol
|
, yes there is good cholesterol!) should be checked yearly. Eat healthy and maintain a healthy weight. If you have high blood pressure take steps to reduce your blood pressure by medication, diet, exercise or a combination of the three. If you have diabetes or are pre-diabetic work toward reducing and stabilizing your blood sugar by again, medication, diet, exercise or a combination.
There are many ways you can reduce the risk of heart disease but all starts with the first step, literally and figuratively. Moving more, eating less and knowing your numbers will go a long way toward a healthy lifestyle. Symptoms that something may be amiss with heart health include chest pain, dizziness and shortness of breath, swollen feet or ankles.
Always remember if you have extreme chest pain accompanied with shortness of breath you will need to call 911.
Our hearts are sensitive organs, and we owe it to our hearts to keep them healthy. Our hearts work while we sleep, eat, breathe and never quit on us. I hope you take a few steps to have a healthy heart, remember that small changes can make a big difference. Wishing you a happy and healthy February!
Krutika Simon is a pharmacist based in Bloomington with a focus on health and wellness and specialty medications. You can contact her at <email-pii>.
|
Some major Boston area institutions — the Boston Athenaeum, Mass General and McLean Hospital, Perkins School for the Blind among them — share a complicated history. They were all financed in part with money that local merchants made from trading opium with China in the 19th century.
At that time, American merchants imported heavily from China — tea and silk were the most sought-after items on their list. But the Chinese were less interested in Western goods. The only thing that sparked their interest was opium — a highly addictive substance that, at the time, was legal in the U.S. and illegal in China.
Prominent families, known as Boston Brahmins built their fortunes shipping — and in this case, on smuggling opium to China. The shipments caused clashes known as the Opium Wars and fueled addiction across China.
The Cabots, Cushings, Welds, Delanos (Franklin Delano Roosevelt's ancestors) and Forbes were among Boston families involved in the illegal trade.
WBUR's Radio Boston host Tiziana Dearing sat down with Heidi Vaughn, executive director of Forbes House Museum, and Peter Drummey, chief historian and Stephen T. Riley librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Together, they unpacked the effects of the opium trade on Boston's past, present and future.
Highlights from this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.
On why the history of the role of the U.S. in the Opium Wars (which led to the Chinese Exclusion Act and anti-immigration sentiment in the U.S.):
Drummey: "A very powerful feeling in China that exists to this day [is] the unfairness of this foreign intervention in their country, both militarily in the Opium Wars, and in terms of this influx of the forbidden product that continues to this day.
"We think in the past few years about the return of sovereignty to China of Hong Kong, but we don't think of Hong Kong as essentially being this base right on the coast of China, which was taken as part of the treaty at the end of the First Opium War and essentially was this bastion of foreign policy and influence right within sight of the mainland of China."
On the history of Chinese immigration to the U.S.:
Drummey: "Chinese immigrants to America start early. There was a very early presence of a small number of people, but it's really the California Gold Rush that brings a very large number of immigrants from everywhere in the world, but a very large number of Chinese [people] who come to work in the gold fields. And then are essential in the building of the transcontinental railroad. [As well as the Granite Railway that ran in Massachusetts, from Quincy to Milton.]
"It's really striking, how, coming here, looking for opportunity and work — leaving a country [where] there were more things going on than the opium crisis ... China was riven by rebellions and essentially civil war through the course of the 19th century. So, people were leaving for opportunity."
On the origins of the Chinese Exclusion Act:
Drummey: "Chinese contract workers [were brought] essentially everywhere where there was hard, difficult work to do. And American merchants were involved in that business as well. In America, the presence of Chinese workers in the American West — there was ferocious reaction against this. ... People were afraid that people who worked hard for low wages were going to undercut the role and prosperity of American workers — to have immigrants displacing American workers. And that's the impetus of what becomes an exclusion act in 1882. It's for 10 years, but got extended and then was made permanent and lasts until the Second World War.
"[The act meant that] it was impossible for a person of Chinese ancestry essentially to become a citizen or live in the United States over an extended period of time. It was, I believe, the first time in U.S. history, where there was a law specifically aimed at an ethnic group."
On the complicated roots of Boston's philanthropists:
Vaughan: "[At the Forbes House Museum,] one of the last stops on the tour was looking at philanthropy and asking everyone to step back and ask themselves, what do you support and why do you support that. Because you can look at the Forbes' and wonder why they came to aid the Irish at the height of the Great Famine, but never thought to come to the aid of the Chinese. ... It was a lot of thinking about where you see the effects of your philanthropy and how close you are to the subject.
"This is a subject that deserves continued exploration. It's a very complicated history and it's not one that's going away. I think the more we dive into it, the more we could help on many fronts, in terms of helping people understand better how to get along with people that are different from them, but also to understand people who suffer from substance use. And appreciating that history is important in understanding our lives today and in navigating a path forward."
On learning from the past:
Drummey: "History doesn't repeat itself, but you can see in the past where things were changed, perhaps in ways that you don't think about: One of the reasons for the great crisis in opium addiction in China in the 19th century was a new delivery system. People were smoking opium rather than eating it or drinking it in liquid form. And that had a much more powerful effect, just as artificial opioids have had a role in this latest opioid crisis."
This article was originally published on June 20, 2023.
This segment aired on June 20, 2023.
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Some major Boston area institutions — the Boston Athenaeum, Mass General and McLean Hospital, Perkins School for the Blind among them — share a complicated history. They were all financed in part with money that local merchants made from trading opium with China in the 19th century.
At that time, American merchants imported heavily from China — tea and silk were the most sought-after items on their list. But the Chinese were less interested in Western goods. The only thing that sparked their interest was opium — a highly addictive substance that, at the time, was legal in the U.S. and illegal in China.
Prominent families, known as Boston Brahmins built their fortunes shipping — and in this case, on smuggling opium to China. The shipments caused clashes known as the Opium Wars and fueled addiction across China.
The Cabots, Cushings, Welds, Delanos (Franklin Delano Roosevelt's ancestors) and Forbes were among Boston families involved in the illegal trade.
WBUR's Radio Boston host Tiziana Dearing sat down with Heidi Vaughn, executive director of Forbes House Museum, and Peter Drummey, chief historian and Stephen T. Riley librarian at the Massachusetts Historical Society. Together, they unpacked the effects of the opium trade on Boston's past, present and future.
Highlights from this interview have been lightly edited for clarity.
On why the history of the role of the U.S. in the Opium Wars (which led to the Chinese Exclusion Act and anti-immigration sentiment in the U.S.):
Drummey: "A very powerful feeling in China that exists to this day [is] the unfairness of this foreign intervention in their country, both militarily in the Opium Wars, and in terms of this influx of the forbidden product that continues to this day.
"We think in the past few years about the return of sovereignty to China of Hong Kong, but we don't think of Hong Kong as essentially being this base right on the coast of China, which was taken as part of the treaty at the end of the First Opium War and essentially was this bastion of foreign policy and influence right within sight of the mainland of China."
On the history of Chinese immigration to the U.S.:
Drummey: "Chinese immigrants to America start early. There was a very early presence of a small number of people, but it's really the California Gold Rush that brings a very large number of immigrants from everywhere in the
|
world, but a very large number of Chinese [people] who come to work in the gold fields. And then are essential in the building of the transcontinental railroad. [As well as the Granite Railway that ran in Massachusetts, from Quincy to Milton.]
"It's really striking, how, coming here, looking for opportunity and work — leaving a country [where] there were more things going on than the opium crisis ... China was riven by rebellions and essentially civil war through the course of the 19th century. So, people were leaving for opportunity."
On the origins of the Chinese Exclusion Act:
Drummey: "Chinese contract workers [were brought] essentially everywhere where there was hard, difficult work to do. And American merchants were involved in that business as well. In America, the presence of Chinese workers in the American West — there was ferocious reaction against this. ... People were afraid that people who worked hard for low wages were going to undercut the role and prosperity of American workers — to have immigrants displacing American workers. And that's the impetus of what becomes an exclusion act in 1882. It's for 10 years, but got extended and then was made permanent and lasts until the Second World War.
"[The act meant that] it was impossible for a person of Chinese ancestry essentially to become a citizen or live in the United States over an extended period of time. It was, I believe, the first time in U.S. history, where there was a law specifically aimed at an ethnic group."
On the complicated roots of Boston's philanthropists:
Vaughan: "[At the Forbes House Museum,] one of the last stops on the tour was looking at philanthropy and asking everyone to step back and ask themselves, what do you support and why do you support that. Because you can look at the Forbes' and wonder why they came to aid the Irish at the height of the Great Famine, but never thought to come to the aid of the Chinese. ... It was a lot of thinking about where you see the effects of your philanthropy and how close you are to the subject.
"This is a subject that deserves continued exploration. It's a very complicated history and it's not one that's going away. I think the more we dive into it, the more we could help on many fronts, in terms of helping people understand better how to get along with people that are different from them, but also to understand people who suffer from substance use. And appreciating that history is important in understanding our lives today and in navigating a path forward."
On learning from the past:
Drummey: "History doesn't repeat itself, but you can see in the past where things were changed, perhaps in ways that you don't think about: One of the reasons for the great crisis in opium addiction in China in the 19th century was a new delivery system. People were smoking opium rather than eating it or drinking it in liquid form. And that had a much more powerful effect, just as artificial opioids have had a role in this latest opioid crisis."
This article was originally published on June 20, 2023.
This segment aired on June 20, 2023.
|
The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Qualified immunity is not reserved for police officers. Other government officials invoke QI as well. A reasonable number of QI cases actually arise in the educational context. A recent example is McElhaney v. Williams from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in which school officials allegedly retaliated against a parent who criticized his daughter's softball coach.
Judge Readler summarized the issues as follows:
Youth sports are as much about instilling life lessons as they are winning and losing. Child athletes can be forgiven for occasionally losing sight of this bigger picture. But we expect more from their parents.
As this case demonstrates, those expectations are not always met. Randall McElhaney is an enthusiastic supporter of his daughter, who, when this dispute arose, was an infielder on her high school softball team. His passion, however, sometimes gets the best of him. When his daughter was benched, McElhaney sent text messages to her coach criticizing his managerial decisions. In response, school officials banned McElhaney from attending games for the next week.
A dispute over the team's starting infield soon became much more. McElhaney filed this suit, alleging that school officials retaliated against him for criticizing his daughter's coach, speech that McElhaney believed was shielded by the First Amendment. Defendants moved for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. In their minds, McElhaney was not denied a constitutional right, let alone one that was clearly established. Reaching only the clearly established prong of qualified immunity, the district court granted defendants' motion and entered judgment in their favor.
As we see things, it is clearly established at a low level of generality that when a school employee interacts with a student, speech by the student's parent about those interactions enjoys First Amendment protection. On that basis, we must reverse the district court. We remand the case to resolve whether retaliation occurred in the first instance.
And from later in the opinion:
In this day and age, one need not look (or scroll) far to find speech she deems disrespectful. Many of us might share her sentiment. But that does not mean the disrespectful speech opens one up to government retaliation. The First Amendment muscularly protects most types of speech. For today's purposes, it is enough to say that those protections encompass a parent's criticism of the ways in which school employees treat the parent's child at school. See Jenkins, 513 F.3d at 588. In that situation, it is clearly established at a low level of generality that a school official may not retaliate against the parent for the content of his speech. See id.
Accordingly, McElhaney has satisfied the clearly established prong of the qualified immunity inquiry. That leaves the threshold question of whether a constitutional violation in fact occurred, a determination best made by the district court on remand. Cf. Novak, 932 F.3d at 430 (remanding a First Amendment retaliation qualified immunity claim). Back in the district court, the evidence might show that none (or only some) of defendants' actions were motivated by McElhaney's speech, rather than the time, place, or manner of that speech. Or it might show that the ban was not a sufficiently adverse action. Rudd v. City of Norton Shores, 977 F.3d 503, 51415 (6th Cir. 2020) (collecting cases on instances of "adverse action"). Either way, these questions are best answered by the district court in the first instance.
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The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Qualified immunity is not reserved for police officers. Other government officials invoke QI as well. A reasonable number of QI cases actually arise in the educational context. A recent example is McElhaney v. Williams from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in which school officials allegedly retaliated against a parent who criticized his daughter's softball coach.
Judge Readler summarized the issues as follows:
Youth sports are as much about instilling life lessons as they are winning and losing. Child athletes can be forgiven for occasionally losing sight of this bigger picture. But we expect more from their parents.
As this case demonstrates, those expectations are not always met. Randall McElhaney is an enthusiastic supporter of his daughter, who, when this dispute arose, was an infielder on her high school softball team. His passion, however, sometimes gets the best of him. When his daughter was benched, McElhaney sent text messages to her coach criticizing his managerial decisions. In response, school officials banned McElhaney from attending games for the next week.
A dispute over the team's starting infield soon became much more. McElhaney filed this suit, alleging that school officials retaliated against him for criticizing his daughter's coach, speech that McElhaney believed was shielded by the First Amendment. Defendants moved for summary judgment on qualified immunity grounds. In their minds, McElhaney was not denied a constitutional right, let alone one that was clearly established. Reaching only the clearly established prong of qualified immunity, the district court granted defendants' motion and entered judgment in their favor.
As we see things, it is clearly established at a low level of generality that when a school employee interacts with a student, speech by the student's parent about those interactions enjoys First Amendment protection. On that basis, we must reverse the district court. We remand the case to resolve whether retaliation occurred in the first instance.
And from later in the opinion:
In this day and age, one need not look (or scroll) far to find speech she deems disrespectful. Many of us might share her sentiment. But that does not mean the disrespectful speech opens one up to government retaliation. The First Amendment muscularly protects most types of speech. For today's purposes, it is enough to say that those protections encompass a
|
parent's criticism of the ways in which school employees treat the parent's child at school. See Jenkins, 513 F.3d at 588. In that situation, it is clearly established at a low level of generality that a school official may not retaliate against the parent for the content of his speech. See id.
Accordingly, McElhaney has satisfied the clearly established prong of the qualified immunity inquiry. That leaves the threshold question of whether a constitutional violation in fact occurred, a determination best made by the district court on remand. Cf. Novak, 932 F.3d at 430 (remanding a First Amendment retaliation qualified immunity claim). Back in the district court, the evidence might show that none (or only some) of defendants' actions were motivated by McElhaney's speech, rather than the time, place, or manner of that speech. Or it might show that the ban was not a sufficiently adverse action. Rudd v. City of Norton Shores, 977 F.3d 503, 51415 (6th Cir. 2020) (collecting cases on instances of "adverse action"). Either way, these questions are best answered by the district court in the first instance.
|
Walking has plummeted across America
There's been a staggering decline in the number of trips Americans take by putting one foot in front of the other, per a new report.
Why it matters: Walking is good for us.
- That's true both on an individual level (thanks to the many health benefits it confers) and in the big-picture climate change sense (given that it's the OG form of zero-emissions travel).
Driving the news: The number of annual average daily walking trips dropped a whopping 36% in the contiguous U.S. between 2019 and 2022, per a new StreetLight Data report.
- "In every metro and state that StreetLight analyzed, walking trips declined over the three-year period by at least 20%," per the report.
- The rate of decline slowed from -16% between 2019 and 2020 and -19% between 2020 and 2021 to -6% between 2021 and 2022. But that's still a significant overall drop, from about 120 million trips in 2019 to fewer than 80 million in 2022.
How it works: StreetLight measures travel behavior based on anonymized data from mobile devices, vehicle GPS systems and more.
- For this analysis, one "walking trip" is any trip taken by foot that is more than 250 meters — about 820 feet — from start to finish.
Zoom in: New York City ranks highest among the top 50 U.S. metro areas sorted by annual average daily walking trips per capita in 2022, at 390 per 1,000 people — no surprise to anyone who's ever lived there and racked up a few miles of walking every day in the normal course of life.
- Orlando (350), Las Vegas (320) and San Diego (320) follow.
- Portland, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; and Ogden, Utah, are all tied for last place, at just 220 trips per 1,000 people.
Bucking the trend: Los Angeles (+19%), San Diego (+14%) and Modesto, California (+13%) all saw an increase in annual average daily walking trips in 2022 compared to the previous year.
- That's not a shocker, given their often pleasant weather.
The intrigue: "Active transportation" — that is, walking and biking — accounted for just 10% of overall trips in 2022, down from 14% in 2019.
- Driving, however, is only 4% below 2019 levels — yet another sign that America is a country of car lovers.
Our thought bubble: So much for all that walking people were doing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What they're saying: It's clear that the pandemic had an "obvious impact," StreetLight says. But beyond that, the group isn't sure what's keeping Americans off their feet.
- Some of this could be remote work, which can make it all too easy to become overly sedentary.
- And some of it could be part of the downtown recovery story — if a city has fewer restaurants, shops and so on open, there's less reason for locals and visitors to have a walkabout.
The bottom line: "For communities focused on safety, climate, health and equity initiatives, an all-hands-on-deck strategy across safety, transit, land use and more will be needed to increase walking activity," per StreetLight's report.
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Walking has plummeted across America
There's been a staggering decline in the number of trips Americans take by putting one foot in front of the other, per a new report.
Why it matters: Walking is good for us.
- That's true both on an individual level (thanks to the many health benefits it confers) and in the big-picture climate change sense (given that it's the OG form of zero-emissions travel).
Driving the news: The number of annual average daily walking trips dropped a whopping 36% in the contiguous U.S. between 2019 and 2022, per a new StreetLight Data report.
- "In every metro and state that StreetLight analyzed, walking trips declined over the three-year period by at least 20%," per the report.
- The rate of decline slowed from -16% between 2019 and 2020 and -19% between 2020 and 2021 to -6% between 2021 and 2022. But that's still a significant overall drop, from about 120 million trips in 2019 to fewer than 80 million in 2022.
How it works: StreetLight measures travel behavior based on anonymized data from mobile devices, vehicle GPS systems and more.
- For this analysis, one "walking trip" is any trip taken by foot that is more than 250 meters — about 820 feet — from start to finish.
Zoom in: New York City ranks highest among the top 50 U.S. metro areas sorted by annual average daily walking trips per capita in 2022, at 390 per 1,000 people — no surprise to anyone who's ever lived there and racked up a few miles of walking every day in the normal course of life.
- Orlando (350), Las Vegas (320) and San Diego (320) follow.
- Portland, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; and Ogden, Utah, are all tied for last place, at just 220 trips per 1,000 people.
Bucking the trend: Los Angeles (+19%), San Diego (+14%) and Modesto, California (+13%) all saw an increase in annual average daily walking trips in 2022 compared to the
|
previous year.
- That's not a shocker, given their often pleasant weather.
The intrigue: "Active transportation" — that is, walking and biking — accounted for just 10% of overall trips in 2022, down from 14% in 2019.
- Driving, however, is only 4% below 2019 levels — yet another sign that America is a country of car lovers.
Our thought bubble: So much for all that walking people were doing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
What they're saying: It's clear that the pandemic had an "obvious impact," StreetLight says. But beyond that, the group isn't sure what's keeping Americans off their feet.
- Some of this could be remote work, which can make it all too easy to become overly sedentary.
- And some of it could be part of the downtown recovery story — if a city has fewer restaurants, shops and so on open, there's less reason for locals and visitors to have a walkabout.
The bottom line: "For communities focused on safety, climate, health and equity initiatives, an all-hands-on-deck strategy across safety, transit, land use and more will be needed to increase walking activity," per StreetLight's report.
|
Research has shown that around 70% of organizations are currently suffering from some form of skills shortage. With the Covid pandemic prompting many to leave the workforce, the problem has only become more severe.
Our research has shown that millions of workers are overlooked for roles they could adequately perform due to factors that are largely unrelated to their skills. For instance, they might have disabilities, mental health problems, or a criminal record. Evidence shows that there are millions of "invisible" workers across the economy that are not being utilized by organizations today.
A skills-based approach
In their latest Human Capital Trends report, consulting firm Deloitte argues that a skills-based approach would help to fill that gap. It's an approach that Deloitte has helped to spread via the OneTen initiative, which is a coalition formed in 2020 by 37 founding companies to help one million Black individuals advance despite not having a four-year degree.
Research from Berkeley demonstrates just how important a goal this is, as Asian and white men tend to do considerably better than Black men and women without a college education. Indeed, the researchers found that young Black men without a college education earn around half what their Asian American and white peers earn.
“Earnings are an important factor to study because they’re related to other outcomes, like health, engagement with the criminal justice system and family development,” the researchers explain. “So we focus on the non-college population at an early age. They are already disadvantaged economically — they have very low earnings. If there’s a sizable racial or ethnic earnings disparity in this population, there may be severe consequences.”
The researchers estimate that around 1 million young people enter the job market each year with just a high school education. This is a problem as the labor market increasingly requires advanced skills to even earn an average salary. It’s a group in which Black and LatinX people tend to be over-represented.
The team behind OneTen believes that the credentials that so often form the basis of hiring today represent a systemic barrier and that a more skills-based approach would be fairer as well as more effective for organizations.
They highlight that too often we perceive skills and credentials as being one and the same, but that's seldom the case. This has placed those who haven't been able to get a degree at a clear disadvantage in the labor market as those with credentials are nearly always chosen ahead of them, even if they have more relevant skills to offer.
With an estimated 70 million people across the United States "skilled through alternative routes", the untapped market is considerable. What’s more, the upward mobility of these people is far less than that of their peers with degrees.
The U.S. Navy provides an example of what can be done. Their MilGears platform allows both service members and veterans to capture any skills that are acquired via on-the-job experience, education, or training. These skills are then linked to the O*NET framework, which connects those skills with jobs across the economy.
The platform allows service members to log their credentials, determine any skills gaps they may have, and then use their profiles to help them effectively plan for their post-military careers.
Of course, credentials provide a shortcut for employers to use when gauging the skills of individuals, so it’s vital that new and simpler ways are developed to tease out insights about the skills candidates possess and the learning we do regardless of where and how we do it. The MilGears platform offers an example of how this might emerge.
A smarter approach
Deloitte clearly believes a skills-based approach offers benefits to employers too. For instance, workers are commonly now working outside of the narrow confines of their job description, with work increasingly performed across boundaries.
They also believe that a skills-based approach makes it much more likely that talent is placed effectively, with this in turn making it more likely that talent will be retained as their abilities are being better utilized and developed.
Indeed, in their skills-based organization survey, 75% of executives said hiring, promoting, and deploying people based on skills can help democratize and improve access to opportunities.
Relying on degrees and other credentials to gauge our ability is a blunt instrument for truly understanding what people are capable of, of course, so there are clear benefits for employers of focusing more on skills rather than credentials. A skills-based approach to recruitment not only promises to be faster and more effective but also fairer as resumes no longer need names, years of experience, or the various other things that may bias our decisions.
this article was co-written with Professor Zografia Bika
|
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Research has shown that around 70% of organizations are currently suffering from some form of skills shortage. With the Covid pandemic prompting many to leave the workforce, the problem has only become more severe.
Our research has shown that millions of workers are overlooked for roles they could adequately perform due to factors that are largely unrelated to their skills. For instance, they might have disabilities, mental health problems, or a criminal record. Evidence shows that there are millions of "invisible" workers across the economy that are not being utilized by organizations today.
A skills-based approach
In their latest Human Capital Trends report, consulting firm Deloitte argues that a skills-based approach would help to fill that gap. It's an approach that Deloitte has helped to spread via the OneTen initiative, which is a coalition formed in 2020 by 37 founding companies to help one million Black individuals advance despite not having a four-year degree.
Research from Berkeley demonstrates just how important a goal this is, as Asian and white men tend to do considerably better than Black men and women without a college education. Indeed, the researchers found that young Black men without a college education earn around half what their Asian American and white peers earn.
“Earnings are an important factor to study because they’re related to other outcomes, like health, engagement with the criminal justice system and family development,” the researchers explain. “So we focus on the non-college population at an early age. They are already disadvantaged economically — they have very low earnings. If there’s a sizable racial or ethnic earnings disparity in this population, there may be severe consequences.”
The researchers estimate that around 1 million young people enter the job market each year with just a high school education. This is a problem as the labor market increasingly requires advanced skills to even earn an average salary. It’s a group in which Black and LatinX people tend to be over-represented.
The team behind OneTen believes that the credentials that so often form the basis of hiring today represent a systemic barrier and that a more skills-based approach would be fairer as well as more effective for organizations.
They highlight that too often we perceive skills and credentials as being one and the same, but that's seldom the case. This has placed those who haven't been able to get a degree at a clear disadvantage in the labor market as those with credentials are nearly always chosen ahead of them, even if they have more relevant skills to offer.
With an estimated 70 million people across the United States "skilled
|
through alternative routes", the untapped market is considerable. What’s more, the upward mobility of these people is far less than that of their peers with degrees.
The U.S. Navy provides an example of what can be done. Their MilGears platform allows both service members and veterans to capture any skills that are acquired via on-the-job experience, education, or training. These skills are then linked to the O*NET framework, which connects those skills with jobs across the economy.
The platform allows service members to log their credentials, determine any skills gaps they may have, and then use their profiles to help them effectively plan for their post-military careers.
Of course, credentials provide a shortcut for employers to use when gauging the skills of individuals, so it’s vital that new and simpler ways are developed to tease out insights about the skills candidates possess and the learning we do regardless of where and how we do it. The MilGears platform offers an example of how this might emerge.
A smarter approach
Deloitte clearly believes a skills-based approach offers benefits to employers too. For instance, workers are commonly now working outside of the narrow confines of their job description, with work increasingly performed across boundaries.
They also believe that a skills-based approach makes it much more likely that talent is placed effectively, with this in turn making it more likely that talent will be retained as their abilities are being better utilized and developed.
Indeed, in their skills-based organization survey, 75% of executives said hiring, promoting, and deploying people based on skills can help democratize and improve access to opportunities.
Relying on degrees and other credentials to gauge our ability is a blunt instrument for truly understanding what people are capable of, of course, so there are clear benefits for employers of focusing more on skills rather than credentials. A skills-based approach to recruitment not only promises to be faster and more effective but also fairer as resumes no longer need names, years of experience, or the various other things that may bias our decisions.
this article was co-written with Professor Zografia Bika
|
One way to get more Austinites screened for colon cancer: Mail-in poop tests
Dr. Michael Pignone, a professor at Dell Medical School, saw a problem with a solution in reach: Too few Austinites were getting screened for colorectal cancer, especially among low-income, uninsured and minority groups. All he had to do was get patients to send samples of their poop in the mail.
Pignone’s interest in getting screening rates up began early in his career as a primary care doctor in the mid-1990s. At the time, awareness about colorectal cancers was low.
“I was looking for an area to work on where there was good evidence of benefit, but underutilization,” he said.
Cancers that affect the colon and rectum are the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. They are also largely preventable with regular screening through methods like colonoscopies and stool tests. Colorectal cancers are slow-developing; a potentially problematic growth in the lower intestine can take a decade to become cancerous, so regular screening helps stop these cancers in their tracks.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends people begin screening at age 45. That recommendation was moved from age 50 in 2021 in response to data that showed rising colorectal cancer rates in younger people.
In the early 2000s, national awareness campaigns brought attention to colorectal cancers, and screening rates saw a steady and progressive uptick. The National Cancer Institute estimates screening rates for adults aged 50-75 went from 38% in 2000 to 68% in 2019.
Colon cancer screening is expensive without health insurance, though. And colonoscopy, the leading screening method, is inconvenient for many people: It involves a full day of preparation in which patients have to stick to a liquid diet and take laxatives. As a result, testing for certain groups lags. As of 2019, Americans at less than 200% of the federal poverty level — that's an annual income of around $29,000 for a single person — were being screened at a rate 16% lower than their peers who earned more.
A local solution
Pignone saw this as a particularly salient issue in Texas, which has the highest rate of uninsured residents in the U.S. at 18%. He wanted to eliminate barriers to screening for uninsured Texans by meeting people where they are; he would mail stool tests to patients’ homes, where they could collect a sample themselves and send it back to a lab for screening. This was already a tested method commonly used in other countries, like Australia, where Pignone had helped implement a test-by-mail program in 2010. However, the U.S. health care system presented roadblocks to this solution.
“The economics of it just aren’t all that favorable,” Pignone said. “If you’re running your private practice and relying on being able to charge for stool testing, the amount you get back is not equal to the cost of running the whole program.”
Additionally, if a patient’s stool test indicates a problem, follow-up care can be costly. According to Pignone, many care providers are hesitant to push for screening if they know a patient won’t be able to afford the treatment that comes with a positive test.
To launch a viable program in Austin, he got grants from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), a state agency that provides funding for cancer research. He also established a partnership with a chain of local health clinics called CommUnityCare. As a federally qualified health center, CommUnityCare primarily serves low-income and uninsured residents and had previously seen low rates of colorectal cancer screening.
Beginning in 2017, CommUnityCare sent stool tests out to every patient in the clinic’s rolls who was in the recommended age bracket and wasn’t up to date on screening. Instructions in English and Spanish told patients how to collect their sample and send it back in the mail. If a test was positive, bilingual coordinators were available to help with next steps.
Since 2017, the clinics have sent out more than 60,000 tests, and around 13,500 patients have completed testing. In just the first year of the program, CommUnityCare’s rate of screening for recommended patients went from 18.4% to 37%. As of this year, that number has inched up to 44%.
Among the people who sent in stool samples, 726 had a positive test, meaning blood was found; 75% of those folks were brought in for colonoscopies, the next step in testing.
“There has been a lot of benefit already on a population health level. And because we are targeting marginalized communities, this is really driving improvements in health equity,” Dr. Nicholas Yagoda, Chief Medical Officer for CommUnityCare, said.
Dell Medical School and CommUnityCare won a major national prize this year given by the American Cancer Society, the CDC and the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable in honor of their work. And Pignone received the American Cancer Society’s prestigious Clinical Research Professor Award, which comes with a grant he’ll use to focus on expanding his test-by-mail efforts and other projects.
Pignone has already used CPRIT funding to start another mail-in screening partnership with Lone Star Circle of Care clinics in Central Texas. He has also been in talks with other federally qualified health centers throughout the state to discuss how they might create a centralized program for mail-in colorectal screening.
But to truly scale the program, funding problems must be solved. CPRIT funding covered follow-up colonoscopies and further testing for CommUnityCare patients who had positive stool tests, and Travis County’s public hospital district, Central Health, helped cover care for patients with cancer. But partnerships like this don’t exist in every county, so more expansive funding is needed to establish a statewide initiative.
Expanding Medicaid in the state so fewer residents are uninsured would be one way to move the needle. However, Texas lawmakers haven’t moved any bills to expand Medicaid during the current legislative session, save one pending in the Senate that applies to new moms.
However, there is a rider in the proposed state budget that asks for $10 million annually to fund colorectal cancer treatment for uninsured and low-income Texans.
“That's what it would take to build out a full statewide program and move Texas from the lower end of performance in terms of cancer screening and prevention into the higher end of performance,” Pignone said. “It's my hope that we can become an exemplar for states in the Southeast about how to make that conversion.”
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One way to get more Austinites screened for colon cancer: Mail-in poop tests
Dr. Michael Pignone, a professor at Dell Medical School, saw a problem with a solution in reach: Too few Austinites were getting screened for colorectal cancer, especially among low-income, uninsured and minority groups. All he had to do was get patients to send samples of their poop in the mail.
Pignone’s interest in getting screening rates up began early in his career as a primary care doctor in the mid-1990s. At the time, awareness about colorectal cancers was low.
“I was looking for an area to work on where there was good evidence of benefit, but underutilization,” he said.
Cancers that affect the colon and rectum are the second-leading cause of cancer death in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. They are also largely preventable with regular screening through methods like colonoscopies and stool tests. Colorectal cancers are slow-developing; a potentially problematic growth in the lower intestine can take a decade to become cancerous, so regular screening helps stop these cancers in their tracks.
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommends people begin screening at age 45. That recommendation was moved from age 50 in 2021 in response to data that showed rising colorectal cancer rates in younger people.
In the early 2000s, national awareness campaigns brought attention to colorectal cancers, and screening rates saw a steady and progressive uptick. The National Cancer Institute estimates screening rates for adults aged 50-75 went from 38% in 2000 to 68% in 2019.
Colon cancer screening is expensive without health insurance, though. And colonoscopy, the leading screening method, is inconvenient for many people: It involves a full day of preparation in which patients have to stick to a liquid diet and take laxatives. As a result, testing for certain groups lags. As of 2019, Americans at less than 200% of the federal poverty level — that's an annual income of around $29,000 for a single person — were being screened at a rate 16% lower than their peers who earned more.
A local solution
Pignone saw this as a particularly salient issue in Texas, which has the highest rate of uninsured residents in the U.S. at 18
|
%. He wanted to eliminate barriers to screening for uninsured Texans by meeting people where they are; he would mail stool tests to patients’ homes, where they could collect a sample themselves and send it back to a lab for screening. This was already a tested method commonly used in other countries, like Australia, where Pignone had helped implement a test-by-mail program in 2010. However, the U.S. health care system presented roadblocks to this solution.
“The economics of it just aren’t all that favorable,” Pignone said. “If you’re running your private practice and relying on being able to charge for stool testing, the amount you get back is not equal to the cost of running the whole program.”
Additionally, if a patient’s stool test indicates a problem, follow-up care can be costly. According to Pignone, many care providers are hesitant to push for screening if they know a patient won’t be able to afford the treatment that comes with a positive test.
To launch a viable program in Austin, he got grants from the Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT), a state agency that provides funding for cancer research. He also established a partnership with a chain of local health clinics called CommUnityCare. As a federally qualified health center, CommUnityCare primarily serves low-income and uninsured residents and had previously seen low rates of colorectal cancer screening.
Beginning in 2017, CommUnityCare sent stool tests out to every patient in the clinic’s rolls who was in the recommended age bracket and wasn’t up to date on screening. Instructions in English and Spanish told patients how to collect their sample and send it back in the mail. If a test was positive, bilingual coordinators were available to help with next steps.
Since 2017, the clinics have sent out more than 60,000 tests, and around 13,500 patients have completed testing. In just the first year of the program, CommUnityCare’s rate of screening for recommended patients went from 18.4% to 37%. As of this year, that number has inched up to 44%.
Among the people who sent in stool samples, 726 had a positive test, meaning blood was found; 75% of those folks were brought in for colonoscopies, the next step in testing.
“There has been a lot of benefit already on a population health level. And because we are targeting marginalized communities, this is really driving improvements in health equity,” Dr. Nicholas Yagoda, Chief Medical Officer for CommUnityCare, said.
Dell Medical School and CommUnityCare won a major national prize this year given by the American Cancer Society, the CDC and the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable in honor of their work. And Pignone received the American Cancer Society’s prestigious Clinical Research Professor Award, which comes with a grant he’ll use to focus on expanding his test-by-mail efforts and other projects.
Pignone has already used CPRIT funding to start another mail-in screening partnership with Lone Star Circle of Care clinics in Central Texas. He has also been in talks with other federally qualified health centers throughout the state to discuss how they might create a centralized program for mail-in colorectal screening.
But to truly scale the program, funding problems must be solved. CPRIT funding covered follow-up colonoscopies and further testing for CommUnityCare patients who had positive stool tests, and Travis County’s public hospital district, Central Health, helped cover care for patients with cancer. But partnerships like this don’t exist in every county, so more expansive funding is needed to establish a statewide initiative.
Expanding Medicaid in the state so fewer residents are uninsured would be one way to move the needle. However, Texas lawmakers haven’t moved any bills to expand Medicaid during the current legislative session, save one pending in the Senate that applies to new moms.
However, there is a rider in the proposed state budget that asks for $10 million annually to fund colorectal cancer treatment for uninsured and low-income Texans.
“That's what it would take to build out a full statewide program and move Texas from the lower end of performance in terms of cancer screening and prevention into the higher end of performance,” Pignone said. “It's my hope that we can become an exemplar for states in the Southeast about how to make that conversion.”
|
On July 20th, 1969, Nasa’s Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon and, for the first time ever, human beings walked on a celestial body other than the Earth. Neil Armstrong’s words announcing a “giant leap for mankind” resonate today.
Before the Moon landing, it was the stuff of imagination. Afterwards, it was historical fact, and an accomplishment of science and human progress. The effect of seeing the Earth from space is so profound that many astronauts have experienced what is called the ‘overview effect’, a cognitive shift whereby they no longer identify with a specific nationality or culture, instead seeing themselves and all citizens on Earth as one people, living on one world.
They have described seeing the Earth like seeing “a tiny, fragile ball of life hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere” and as “a fragile oasis” for the only life that we know of in the entire universe.
By 1972 the United States had sent five further crewed landings to the moon, at enormous cost. But 1972 also saw the publication of the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth report which, for the first time, assessed the impact of growth on the home planet. The MIT researchers examined the five basic factors that determine and ultimately limit growth on the planet: population increase, agricultural production, non-renewable resource depletion, industrial output and pollution, including atmospheric CO2.
By feeding data on all these factors into a global computer model the MIT team was able to examine scenarios with different assumptions about technological progress. The report, and subsequent studies by the same team, found that if humanity kept pursuing economic growth without regard for environmental and social impacts, global society would experience a sharp decline in economic, social and environmental conditions within the 21st century.
The report looked at scenarios where constraints are introduced for any or some of the factors above (eg stable population, lower levels of pollution), but found that only where all of the major feedbacks are prevented from growing is overshoot and collapse averted.
Only by imposing limits on these factors and the production of material goods can a global state of equilibrium be reached with population and production kept in balance with each other. Global collapse could be avoided and living standards maintained, they claimed, if dramatic shifts in priorities and social values took place away from material goods and towards social progress.
It is common to react to this information with disbelief and dislike for the measures it entails. The Limits to Growth report unsurprisingly was attacked – by economists, business interests, the Catholic Church and by those on the political left and right who believed in infinite growth for different reasons.
We don’t need astronauts to tell us that there is no such thing as infinite growth on a (tiny, fragile) finite planet
The abundant oil resources from the North Sea and Saudi Arabia that flowed from the late 1970s helped to quell the fear that the oil crises of the 1970s were precursors to the scenarios predicted by the report. Just like Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring led to an industry-led PR campaign of denial and personal attacks, the authors of the Limits to Growth report were ridiculed and dismissed for more than three decades. Industry-sponsored smear campaigns (that are also implicated in climate change denial) have been highly effective in closing down both public and academic consideration of the main findings of the original report.
The report found that of the three alternatives – unrestricted growth, a self-imposed limitation to growth or a nature-imposed limitation to growth – only the last two are actually possible. A more recent review by analyst Gaya Herrington in 2020, published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, examined the extent to which recent empirical data aligned with the Limits to Growth scenarios (which were updated in 1992 and 2004).
She found that observed data indicates a halt in welfare, food and industrial production over the next decade or so, putting into question yet again the suitability of continuous economic growth as humanity’s goal.
According to Herrington, while there is a possibility that future declines will be relatively “soft landings”, it is not possible to innovate ourselves out of the Earth’s hard limits indefinitely. Instead of betting on endless technological progress, we should aim for a transformation of societal priorities that can put humanity on a sustainable and fair path where resources are managed for the future and shared equitably among all.
We don’t need astronauts to tell us that there is no such thing as infinite growth on a (tiny, fragile) finite planet. But somehow the critical lessons offered by the Limits to Growth reports have escaped our consciousness and we march on, lemming-like, towards overshoot and collapse.
Sadhbh O’Neill a researcher in climate policy and is writing in a personal capacity
|
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On July 20th, 1969, Nasa’s Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon and, for the first time ever, human beings walked on a celestial body other than the Earth. Neil Armstrong’s words announcing a “giant leap for mankind” resonate today.
Before the Moon landing, it was the stuff of imagination. Afterwards, it was historical fact, and an accomplishment of science and human progress. The effect of seeing the Earth from space is so profound that many astronauts have experienced what is called the ‘overview effect’, a cognitive shift whereby they no longer identify with a specific nationality or culture, instead seeing themselves and all citizens on Earth as one people, living on one world.
They have described seeing the Earth like seeing “a tiny, fragile ball of life hanging in the void, shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere” and as “a fragile oasis” for the only life that we know of in the entire universe.
By 1972 the United States had sent five further crewed landings to the moon, at enormous cost. But 1972 also saw the publication of the Club of Rome’s Limits to Growth report which, for the first time, assessed the impact of growth on the home planet. The MIT researchers examined the five basic factors that determine and ultimately limit growth on the planet: population increase, agricultural production, non-renewable resource depletion, industrial output and pollution, including atmospheric CO2.
By feeding data on all these factors into a global computer model the MIT team was able to examine scenarios with different assumptions about technological progress. The report, and subsequent studies by the same team, found that if humanity kept pursuing economic growth without regard for environmental and social impacts, global society would experience a sharp decline in economic, social and environmental conditions within the 21st century.
The report looked at scenarios where constraints are introduced for any or some of the factors above (eg stable population, lower levels of pollution), but found that only where all of the major feedbacks are prevented from growing is overshoot and collapse averted.
Only by imposing limits on these factors and the production of material goods can a global state of equilibrium be reached with population and production kept in balance with each other. Global collapse could be avoided and living standards maintained, they claimed, if dramatic shifts in priorities and social values took place away from material goods and towards social progress.
It is common to react to this information with disbelief and dislike for the measures it entails. The
|
Limits to Growth report unsurprisingly was attacked – by economists, business interests, the Catholic Church and by those on the political left and right who believed in infinite growth for different reasons.
We don’t need astronauts to tell us that there is no such thing as infinite growth on a (tiny, fragile) finite planet
The abundant oil resources from the North Sea and Saudi Arabia that flowed from the late 1970s helped to quell the fear that the oil crises of the 1970s were precursors to the scenarios predicted by the report. Just like Rachel Carson, whose book Silent Spring led to an industry-led PR campaign of denial and personal attacks, the authors of the Limits to Growth report were ridiculed and dismissed for more than three decades. Industry-sponsored smear campaigns (that are also implicated in climate change denial) have been highly effective in closing down both public and academic consideration of the main findings of the original report.
The report found that of the three alternatives – unrestricted growth, a self-imposed limitation to growth or a nature-imposed limitation to growth – only the last two are actually possible. A more recent review by analyst Gaya Herrington in 2020, published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, examined the extent to which recent empirical data aligned with the Limits to Growth scenarios (which were updated in 1992 and 2004).
She found that observed data indicates a halt in welfare, food and industrial production over the next decade or so, putting into question yet again the suitability of continuous economic growth as humanity’s goal.
According to Herrington, while there is a possibility that future declines will be relatively “soft landings”, it is not possible to innovate ourselves out of the Earth’s hard limits indefinitely. Instead of betting on endless technological progress, we should aim for a transformation of societal priorities that can put humanity on a sustainable and fair path where resources are managed for the future and shared equitably among all.
We don’t need astronauts to tell us that there is no such thing as infinite growth on a (tiny, fragile) finite planet. But somehow the critical lessons offered by the Limits to Growth reports have escaped our consciousness and we march on, lemming-like, towards overshoot and collapse.
Sadhbh O’Neill a researcher in climate policy and is writing in a personal capacity
|
Yale honors the work of a 9-year-old Black girl whose neighbor reported her to police
Updated February 4, 2023 at 11:17 AM ET
Nine-year-old Bobbi Wilson may be in the fourth grade, but last month the Yale School of Public Health held a ceremony honoring the budding scientist's recent work.
The university entered Bobbi's collection of 27 spotted lanternflies — an extremely invasive species that is harmful to trees and other plants — into the Peabody Museum of Natural History database. Bobbi was also presented with the title of "donor scientist" during the Jan. 20 ceremony.
"We wanted to show her bravery and how inspiring she is, and we just want to make sure she continues to feel honored and loved by the Yale community," Ijeoma Opara, an assistant professor at the school, said in a statement.
The accolades come just three months after Bobbi, who is Black, made headlines when former Caldwell Borough Council member Gordon Lawshe, who is white, called local police on the girl.
She was collecting spotted lanternfly specimens. Her neighbor became frightened and called the cops
On Oct. 22, Lawshe was home, and things in the mostly white neighborhood seemed copacetic. But looking at the tree-lined street, Lawshe saw something scary. Recognizing it was not an emergency per se, he called the police department dispatcher instead.
"There's a little Black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees on Elizabeth and Florence," Lawshe told the dispatcher, according to a call obtained by CNN.
"I don't know what the hell she's doing. Scares me, though," Lawshe added.
Outside, Bobbi, a petite child who wears pink-framed glasses, was doing her bit to comply with the state's Stomp it Out! campaign, which urges New Jersey residents to help eradicate the spotted lanternfly infestation. She'd learned about it at school and made her own version of an insect repellent she'd seen on TikTok. Making her way from tree to tree, Bobbi would spray the bugs, pluck them from the tree and drop them into a plastic bottle.
Bobbi was still at it when an officer arrived, curious about what she was doing. Body camera footage shows officer Kevin O'Neill approach the child before her mother, Monique Joseph, intervenes.
"Am I in trouble?" the small girl asks.
"No," Joseph and O'Neill respond simultaneously.
Joseph adds, "How many trees did you save?"
O'Neill explains that he was responding to a call made by Lawshe. The information appears to baffle Joseph, who has said that she has lived across the street from the 71-year-old for eight years and that they are on friendly terms.
Bobbi's mother and sister speak out about racial profiling
Unable to shake the gnawing feeling that things could have easily escalated and ended in tragedy, as they have in other circumstances involving Black children and law enforcement, Joseph decided to address the issue head-on at a Caldwell council meeting a few weeks later. During the meeting, Joseph and her 13-year-old daughter, Hayden Wilson, called the episode an instance of racial profiling.
"She was not only doing something amazing for our environment — she was doing something that made her feel like a hero," Hayden said in her speech to the council.
"What Mr. Gordon Lawshe did to my sister was extremely offensive, traumatic and scarring towards my family. I can confidently assure you guys that she will never forget this," she added.
Scientists and scholars rally around Bobbi
The outpouring of support for Bobbi and her love of science has been constant since the police stop hit the internet. She has received the Caldwell Environmental Commission's Sustainability Award for her contributions to improving the town's environment. At least one science writer has given Bobbi a collection of books and stickers to encourage her passion for learning. And there is the recognition from Yale.
"Yale doesn't normally do anything like this. ... This is something unique to Bobbi," Opara, the Yale professor, said. She helped organize the recent ceremony and previously invited Bobbi and her sister to the campus to meet "other successful Black female scientists and to counter the horrible memories of that day."
Shortly after the police encounter, Joseph told CNN that her 9-year-old hasn't been the same. But at the ceremony, she expressed gratitude for the community that has rallied around the entire family.
"You know, you hear about racism; you kind of experience it in your peripheral if you're lucky in your life. It doesn't come knocking on your door. That morning when it happened, my world stopped," Bobbi's mother said, according to the university.
She added: "The whole community, the science community, got together and said, 'She's one of us and we're not going to let her lose her steam for STEM. We're going to support the family, we're going to support this girl."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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Yale honors the work of a 9-year-old Black girl whose neighbor reported her to police
Updated February 4, 2023 at 11:17 AM ET
Nine-year-old Bobbi Wilson may be in the fourth grade, but last month the Yale School of Public Health held a ceremony honoring the budding scientist's recent work.
The university entered Bobbi's collection of 27 spotted lanternflies — an extremely invasive species that is harmful to trees and other plants — into the Peabody Museum of Natural History database. Bobbi was also presented with the title of "donor scientist" during the Jan. 20 ceremony.
"We wanted to show her bravery and how inspiring she is, and we just want to make sure she continues to feel honored and loved by the Yale community," Ijeoma Opara, an assistant professor at the school, said in a statement.
The accolades come just three months after Bobbi, who is Black, made headlines when former Caldwell Borough Council member Gordon Lawshe, who is white, called local police on the girl.
She was collecting spotted lanternfly specimens. Her neighbor became frightened and called the cops
On Oct. 22, Lawshe was home, and things in the mostly white neighborhood seemed copacetic. But looking at the tree-lined street, Lawshe saw something scary. Recognizing it was not an emergency per se, he called the police department dispatcher instead.
"There's a little Black woman walking, spraying stuff on the sidewalks and trees on Elizabeth and Florence," Lawshe told the dispatcher, according to a call obtained by CNN.
"I don't know what the hell she's doing. Scares me, though," Lawshe added.
Outside, Bobbi, a petite child who wears pink-framed glasses, was doing her bit to comply with the state's Stomp it Out! campaign, which urges New Jersey residents to help eradicate the spotted lanternfly infestation. She'd learned about it at school and made her own version of an insect repellent she'd seen on TikTok. Making her way from tree to tree, Bobbi would spray the bugs, pluck them from the tree and drop them into a plastic bottle.
Bobbi was still at it when an officer arrived, curious about what she was doing. Body camera footage shows officer Kevin O'Neill approach the child before her mother, Monique Joseph, intervenes.
"Am I in trouble?" the small girl asks.
"No," Joseph and
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O'Neill respond simultaneously.
Joseph adds, "How many trees did you save?"
O'Neill explains that he was responding to a call made by Lawshe. The information appears to baffle Joseph, who has said that she has lived across the street from the 71-year-old for eight years and that they are on friendly terms.
Bobbi's mother and sister speak out about racial profiling
Unable to shake the gnawing feeling that things could have easily escalated and ended in tragedy, as they have in other circumstances involving Black children and law enforcement, Joseph decided to address the issue head-on at a Caldwell council meeting a few weeks later. During the meeting, Joseph and her 13-year-old daughter, Hayden Wilson, called the episode an instance of racial profiling.
"She was not only doing something amazing for our environment — she was doing something that made her feel like a hero," Hayden said in her speech to the council.
"What Mr. Gordon Lawshe did to my sister was extremely offensive, traumatic and scarring towards my family. I can confidently assure you guys that she will never forget this," she added.
Scientists and scholars rally around Bobbi
The outpouring of support for Bobbi and her love of science has been constant since the police stop hit the internet. She has received the Caldwell Environmental Commission's Sustainability Award for her contributions to improving the town's environment. At least one science writer has given Bobbi a collection of books and stickers to encourage her passion for learning. And there is the recognition from Yale.
"Yale doesn't normally do anything like this. ... This is something unique to Bobbi," Opara, the Yale professor, said. She helped organize the recent ceremony and previously invited Bobbi and her sister to the campus to meet "other successful Black female scientists and to counter the horrible memories of that day."
Shortly after the police encounter, Joseph told CNN that her 9-year-old hasn't been the same. But at the ceremony, she expressed gratitude for the community that has rallied around the entire family.
"You know, you hear about racism; you kind of experience it in your peripheral if you're lucky in your life. It doesn't come knocking on your door. That morning when it happened, my world stopped," Bobbi's mother said, according to the university.
She added: "The whole community, the science community, got together and said, 'She's one of us and we're not going to let her lose her steam for STEM. We're going to support the family, we're going to support this girl."
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
|
India and Pakistan are choking on each other’s pollution
Fixing the problem will require countries that hate each other to co-operate
Indians are accustomed to seeing their streets getting a lick of paint or the odd pothole being filled before a senior politician or foreign dignitary comes to town. But to prepare for a visit from Narendra Modi, the prime minister, on February 10th officials in Mumbai deployed a new tactic. They sprinkled its roads with water.
They hoped to damp down the street and construction dust that contributes to the city’s pervasive smog. For much of this winter, Mumbai’s skyscraper-filled skyline has been almost invisible behind a grey haze of particulate matter. On some days the Arabian Sea city’s air has been worse than that in Delhi, India’s more famously polluted capital. Between November and the end of January, Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital, recorded 36 days with “poor” air quality, a level at which even otherwise healthy people can have difficulty breathing. This represents a grim extension of what was already one of the world’s worst environmental problems.
Delhi and nearby cities on the populous Indo-Gangetic Plain, which extends from Pakistan to Bangladesh, have long had the world’s filthiest air. Yet as infrastructure-building and industrialisation accelerate across the region, due in part to a post-pandemic growth spurt, the smog is spreading. According to a new analysis by the World Bank, nine of the world’s ten cities worst afflicted by air pollution are in South Asia. And on February 12th, at the height of the winter smog season, only two of the ten most polluted places in India were in and around Delhi. The rest, including Mumbai, were in western India.
Earlier in the season the Pakistani cities of Karachi, also on the Arabian Sea, and Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, both briefly topped a global index of cities with the worst air quality. In Kathmandu, on the northern edge of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the peaks of the snowy Himalayas that fringe Nepal’s capital are often hidden by yellow-brown haze.
South Asia’s filthy air takes a terrible toll on the health and economic prospects of millions. High levels of fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, burrow deep into lungs and enter the bloodstream, increasing the risk of heart and lung disease as well as strokes. Air pollution is estimated to kill over 2m people in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan each year. Globally, it reduces average life expectancy by 2.9 years. The corresponding figure for India is five years. On the Indo-Gangetic Plain, according to a recent study, the average Indian life is up to seven years shorter due to air pollution than it would be otherwise.
A study recently published in the Lancet, a medical journal, estimated that in 2019 India’s economy lost $37bn, or 1.4% of GDP, to pollution-related death and illness. Another study by the Clean Air Fund, an ngo, and the Confederation of Indian Industry, a trade body, calculated that India lost 1.3bn working days that year due to employees staying at home because they or their family members had pollution-linked illness. Pakistan’s province of Punjab, which accounts for 60% of the country’s output, has seen serious smog-related disruptions this winter; its school holidays were extended, flights diverted or delayed and motorways closed overnight.
Predictably, the poor see the worst of this. The Indo-Gangetic states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are among the poorest parts of South Asia—over 115m of their inhabitants live on less than $2 a day—and also the most polluted. Poor people are likelier to use dirty fuels, contributing to high levels of indoor pollution. Meanwhile, “the rich are trying to create a bubble for themselves with air purifiers,” says Karthik Ganesan of the Council on Energy Environment and Water, a think-tank in Delhi.
Air pollution, which nonetheless affects rich and poor, however unevenly, is a political concern across the region. Yet its governments’ mitigation efforts have mostly been ineffective. India launched its National Clean Air Programme in 2019 with the aim of improving air quality in 102 cities (later increased to 131). Four years on, only 38 are on track to hit their targets. Pollution in many of the rest, including Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Nagpur, has increased. Pakistan, beset by perma-crises, is vacillating over whether to launch its own national clean-air programme. Bangladesh drafted a clean-air act in 2019 but has not passed it. Across South Asia, there has been “very little improvement despite the policies in place to improve” air quality, says Hans Timmer of the World Bank.
There are many explanations for this failure, including the difficulty of regulating industry in a region where government is weak and corruption rife. Yet the biggest reason, the Bank suggests, is that policymakers are mostly trying to abate pollution within the cities concerned, and much of it originates elsewhere.
Take the smoke that arises in India’s state of Punjab every autumn when its million-odd farmers set fire to their stubble fields. It drifts eastwards, enveloping Delhi and other cities of the northern plain. Or the fug of pollution arising from the brick kilns that ring Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. “In most cases less than 50% of the pollution is coming from the cities themselves,” says Mr Timmer. In three South Asian capitals—Colombo, Dhaka and Kathmandu—less than a third of air pollution comes from within the city. Around 30% of Indian Punjab’s pollution originates in Pakistan, while 30% of pollution in Bangladesh’s major cities has blown in from India.
A better approach is to design and deploy controls across the far-flung zones, known as airsheds, in which air pollution circulates. It has been done successfully in Europe and China, whose capital was once as synonymous with smog as Delhi is today. Beijing’s air is now cleaner chiefly thanks to the creation in 2013 of a powerful airshed-wide authority responsible for the capital, the city of Tianjin and 26 adjacent prefectures. In 2017 PM2.5 levels in Beijing were half those of the previous year.
India is trying to follow this example in and around Delhi. In 2021 it launched a pollution-control agency, called the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), with responsibility for a 55,000-square-km area, encompassing the capital and parts of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It is home to 46m people. Its constituent authorities include Delhi and four states, several central-government ministries, and various universities and ngos. “The idea is not just to bulldoze, but to follow a practice by which everybody is taken into confidence,” says M.M. Kutty, the commission’s chairman.
Though many have criticised the CAQM’s slow pace of progress, the early results are promising. According to official figures, Delhi’s average daily concentration of PM2.5 declined in 2022, the body’s first full year of operation, to 98 micrograms per cubic metre from 105 the previous year. The number of hours of “severe” PM2.5 fell from 628 to 204. Yet more significant progress, the Bank suggests, will require a major expansion of this approach.
Blue sky thinking
It has identified six regional airsheds. They are vast areas, covering multiple urban, provincial and national jurisdictions. Significantly, four of the six span national borders. One stretches from eastern Iran into western Afghanistan and southern Pakistan; another covers much of northern India and western Bangladesh. According to the Bank’s modelling, the more co-ordinated the pollution controls adopted in these expanses, the more cost-effective and beneficial they would be.
The ideal scenario, it suggests, would be for authorities within a given airshed to co-operate on data-sharing and policy formulation, while each working towards a locally determined target. This would allow them to prioritise relatively easy or low-cost forms of pollution control—such as regulating brick kilns—over more difficult or expensive sorts, such as closing coal-fired power stations. The Bank reckons that in this scenario South Asian life expectancies would rise, infant mortality would drop and health-care expenditure would fall. For a cost of $5.7bn, it estimates the approach could bring economic benefits worth $52.5bn by 2030.
The idea of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan—let alone Afghanistan and Iran—working together to such an extent is, the Bank’s authors concede, “far from straightforward”. It might almost seem absurd. South Asia is one of the most unneighbourly, least-integrated regions in the world. It is haunted by a history of war and mutual suspicion. Its cross-border linkages are meagre. Trade within the region is just 5% of its members’ total trade; the corresponding figure for East Asia is 50%, according to the Brookings Institution, a think-tank in Washington, Dc.
Yet if anything could begin to knit the region’s divisions, perhaps the shared goal of helping its people breathe easier might. Air pollution is politically salient across South Asia and the very opposite of zero sum. The subcontinent’s winds blow back and forth; none of South Asia’s polluting countries and cities is permanently upwind. To seriously reduce the blight from which all of them are suffering, they will, in the end, have to co-operate. ■
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Choked and gasping"
From the February 18th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition
More from Asia
Millions of dead fish are washing up in Australia
Climate change and poor management are imperilling its biggest river system
Russian arms have fewer takers in South-East Asia
South Korea looks set to become the region’s new weapons-maker of choice
North Koreans are at growing risk of starvation
Reports of terrible hunger are emerging from the closed-off state
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India and Pakistan are choking on each other’s pollution
Fixing the problem will require countries that hate each other to co-operate
Indians are accustomed to seeing their streets getting a lick of paint or the odd pothole being filled before a senior politician or foreign dignitary comes to town. But to prepare for a visit from Narendra Modi, the prime minister, on February 10th officials in Mumbai deployed a new tactic. They sprinkled its roads with water.
They hoped to damp down the street and construction dust that contributes to the city’s pervasive smog. For much of this winter, Mumbai’s skyscraper-filled skyline has been almost invisible behind a grey haze of particulate matter. On some days the Arabian Sea city’s air has been worse than that in Delhi, India’s more famously polluted capital. Between November and the end of January, Mumbai, the country’s commercial capital, recorded 36 days with “poor” air quality, a level at which even otherwise healthy people can have difficulty breathing. This represents a grim extension of what was already one of the world’s worst environmental problems.
Delhi and nearby cities on the populous Indo-Gangetic Plain, which extends from Pakistan to Bangladesh, have long had the world’s filthiest air. Yet as infrastructure-building and industrialisation accelerate across the region, due in part to a post-pandemic growth spurt, the smog is spreading. According to a new analysis by the World Bank, nine of the world’s ten cities worst afflicted by air pollution are in South Asia. And on February 12th, at the height of the winter smog season, only two of the ten most polluted places in India were in and around Delhi. The rest, including Mumbai, were in western India.
Earlier in the season the Pakistani cities of Karachi, also on the Arabian Sea, and Peshawar, near the border with Afghanistan, both briefly topped a global index of cities with the worst air quality. In Kathmandu, on the northern edge of the Indo-Gangetic Plain, the peaks of the snowy Himalayas that fringe Nepal’s capital are often hidden by yellow-brown haze.
South Asia’s filthy air takes a terrible toll on the health and economic prospects of millions. High levels of fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, burrow deep into lungs and enter the bloodstream, increasing the risk of heart and lung disease as well as strokes. Air pollution is estimated to
|
kill over 2m people in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan each year. Globally, it reduces average life expectancy by 2.9 years. The corresponding figure for India is five years. On the Indo-Gangetic Plain, according to a recent study, the average Indian life is up to seven years shorter due to air pollution than it would be otherwise.
A study recently published in the Lancet, a medical journal, estimated that in 2019 India’s economy lost $37bn, or 1.4% of GDP, to pollution-related death and illness. Another study by the Clean Air Fund, an ngo, and the Confederation of Indian Industry, a trade body, calculated that India lost 1.3bn working days that year due to employees staying at home because they or their family members had pollution-linked illness. Pakistan’s province of Punjab, which accounts for 60% of the country’s output, has seen serious smog-related disruptions this winter; its school holidays were extended, flights diverted or delayed and motorways closed overnight.
Predictably, the poor see the worst of this. The Indo-Gangetic states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are among the poorest parts of South Asia—over 115m of their inhabitants live on less than $2 a day—and also the most polluted. Poor people are likelier to use dirty fuels, contributing to high levels of indoor pollution. Meanwhile, “the rich are trying to create a bubble for themselves with air purifiers,” says Karthik Ganesan of the Council on Energy Environment and Water, a think-tank in Delhi.
Air pollution, which nonetheless affects rich and poor, however unevenly, is a political concern across the region. Yet its governments’ mitigation efforts have mostly been ineffective. India launched its National Clean Air Programme in 2019 with the aim of improving air quality in 102 cities (later increased to 131). Four years on, only 38 are on track to hit their targets. Pollution in many of the rest, including Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Nagpur, has increased. Pakistan, beset by perma-crises, is vacillating over whether to launch its own national clean-air programme. Bangladesh drafted a clean-air act in 2019 but has not passed it. Across South Asia, there has been “very little improvement despite the policies in place to improve” air quality, says Hans Timmer of the World Bank.
There are many explanations for this failure, including the difficulty of regulating industry in a region where government is weak and corruption rife. Yet the biggest reason, the Bank suggests, is that policymakers are mostly trying to abate pollution within the cities concerned, and much of it originates elsewhere.
Take the smoke that arises in India’s state of Punjab every autumn when its million-odd farmers set fire to their stubble fields. It drifts eastwards, enveloping Delhi and other cities of the northern plain. Or the fug of pollution arising from the brick kilns that ring Dhaka, Bangladesh’s capital. “In most cases less than 50% of the pollution is coming from the cities themselves,” says Mr Timmer. In three South Asian capitals—Colombo, Dhaka and Kathmandu—less than a third of air pollution comes from within the city. Around 30% of Indian Punjab’s pollution originates in Pakistan, while 30% of pollution in Bangladesh’s major cities has blown in from India.
A better approach is to design and deploy controls across the far-flung zones, known as airsheds, in which air pollution circulates. It has been done successfully in Europe and China, whose capital was once as synonymous with smog as Delhi is today. Beijing’s air is now cleaner chiefly thanks to the creation in 2013 of a powerful airshed-wide authority responsible for the capital, the city of Tianjin and 26 adjacent prefectures. In 2017 PM2.5 levels in Beijing were half those of the previous year.
India is trying to follow this example in and around Delhi. In 2021 it launched a pollution-control agency, called the Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM), with responsibility for a 55,000-square-km area, encompassing the capital and parts of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It is home to 46m people. Its constituent authorities include Delhi and four states, several central-government ministries, and various universities and ngos. “The idea is not just to bulldoze, but to follow a practice by which everybody is taken into confidence,” says M.M. Kutty, the commission’s chairman.
Though many have criticised the CAQM’s slow pace of progress, the early results are promising. According to official figures, Delhi’s average daily concentration of PM2.5 declined in 2022, the body’s first full year of operation, to 98 micrograms per cubic metre from 105 the previous year. The number of hours of “severe” PM2.5 fell from 628 to 204. Yet more significant progress, the Bank suggests, will require a major expansion of this approach.
Blue sky thinking
It has identified six regional airsheds. They are vast areas, covering multiple urban, provincial and national jurisdictions. Significantly, four of the six span national borders. One stretches from eastern Iran into western Afghanistan and southern Pakistan; another covers much of northern India and western Bangladesh. According to the Bank’s modelling, the more co-ordinated the pollution controls adopted in these expanses, the more cost-effective and beneficial they would be.
The ideal scenario, it suggests, would be for authorities within a given airshed to co-operate on data-sharing and policy formulation, while each working towards a locally determined target. This would allow them to prioritise relatively easy or low-cost forms of pollution control—such as regulating brick kilns—over more difficult or expensive sorts, such as closing coal-fired power stations. The Bank reckons that in this scenario South Asian life expectancies would rise, infant mortality would drop and health-care expenditure would fall. For a cost of $5.7bn, it estimates the approach could bring economic benefits worth $52.5bn by 2030.
The idea of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan—let alone Afghanistan and Iran—working together to such an extent is, the Bank’s authors concede, “far from straightforward”. It might almost seem absurd. South Asia is one of the most unneighbourly, least-integrated regions in the world. It is haunted by a history of war and mutual suspicion. Its cross-border linkages are meagre. Trade within the region is just 5% of its members’ total trade; the corresponding figure for East Asia is 50%, according to the Brookings Institution, a think-tank in Washington, Dc.
Yet if anything could begin to knit the region’s divisions, perhaps the shared goal of helping its people breathe easier might. Air pollution is politically salient across South Asia and the very opposite of zero sum. The subcontinent’s winds blow back and forth; none of South Asia’s polluting countries and cities is permanently upwind. To seriously reduce the blight from which all of them are suffering, they will, in the end, have to co-operate. ■
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Choked and gasping"
From the February 18th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contentsExplore the edition
More from Asia
Millions of dead fish are washing up in Australia
Climate change and poor management are imperilling its biggest river system
Russian arms have fewer takers in South-East Asia
South Korea looks set to become the region’s new weapons-maker of choice
North Koreans are at growing risk of starvation
Reports of terrible hunger are emerging from the closed-off state
|
Pretty and sustainable: Why native NC plants can be good for your garden and the coast
One day it's 72 degrees during the day, and 35 degrees at night. The next day, it's a high of 40 degrees and lows well below freezing for days on end, before returning to the 70s for good measure.
Welcome to winter in coastal North Carolina.
Summer can be just as schizophrenic, with a months-long drought headlined by temperatures reaching triple digits ended by a tropical storm that dumps a foot of rain over three days ... followed by another long drought.
For those coastal residents looking to test their green thumb, the region's weather can make landscaping a challenge − never mind trying to grow something in our sandy soil. And with so many people moving to North Carolina from other parts of the country, what plants they grew up with in, say, Connecticut, might not be the right ones for success in a backyard along the Intracoastal Waterway.
Realizing the challenges facing residents, along with the budding industry of going native, horticulturalists and plant lovers from several organizations came together roughly five years ago and formed the Coastal Landscapes Initiative (CLI).
"We really wanted to see if we could help people, educate them on how they can practice sustainable landscaping at the coast, which includes a number of things including how you water, how you fertilize, how you manage your stormwater, and where you plant," said Gloria Putnam, a coastal resources and communities specialist with N.C. Sea Grant.
With runoff among the biggest threats to coastal water quality, managing how properties control how much water they use and where it goes is vital − and a key part of that is what landscaping you choose.
SMALL BUT MIGHTY:4 things to know about Wilmington-grown microgreens
Putnam said vegetation is often the things removed from a property before it's developed, and the last thing that's put back.
"Often we remove the vegetation and then plant back with vegetation that doesn’t provide the benefits that native vegetation did," she said. “It changes the dynamics of the site, so the idea was can we move the needle a little bit on this to see if we can provide information to people who are ready to do things a little differently."
Climate change is another reason coastal homeowners might want to go native when it comes to their gardens. With natives often more drought- and heat-tolerant than non-native plants, and with longer periods of dry, hot weather forecast for North Carolina in coming decades, they could be a hardier bet than exotics from another part of the country or world. Native coastal plants are also generally better able to withstand salt water, which can make them a better alternative for waterfront homeowners with sea levels projected to keep rising in coming decades and tide surges set to increase.
In the latest edition of N.C. Sea Grant's Coastwatch magazine, the Coastal Landscapes Initiative has recommended a dozen plants and trees that are beautiful, environmentally beneficial, cost-efficient and adapted to thrive in the coast's harsh conditions.
Some of the plants might not be well known to many, and you might have to look beyond your nearby big-box retailer to find them. They also might be a bit more expensive than more common and popular plant species, since demand dictates supply.
“In some cases, you might have to look hard, but they're out there," Putnam said, adding that local cooperative extension offices and CLI's website can help folks find nurseries that offer them. The local offices and many public gardens also often have native plant gardens, so homeowners can see what the plants look like in a real-world setting.
Here's a look at some of the group's native plant picks:
A warm-season bunchgrass that gets its name from its bluish-green springtime growth.
Putnam said the grass is salt tolerant and, once established, very drought tolerant.
"It's an attractive plant," she said.
Bluestem performs best in well-drained soils in full sun. It also tolerates a wide range of soil conditions, including clay.
A drought-tolerant plant that thrives in full or partial light, wild indigo is also known as Baptisia. The plant is long-lived, low-maintenance, virtually pest-free and its spring-blooming flower spires are real attention getters − and not just for humans.
Bumblebees and other pollinators love wild indigo.
"It’s a lovely plant," Putnam said. "It takes a while to get established, but it adds a lot of color and structure to a garden.”
Like a bit of color in your garden in the fall that also can help attract a variety of insect pollinators and butterflies, including the monarch butterfly?
Then goldenrods are for you.
Putnam said goldenrods are shade-tolerant and very easy to maintain, tolerating poor soils.
"That's the great thing about native plants," she said, adding that the plant is an "insect magnet" and blooms for a very long time.
An understory shrub. the plants provides myriad of advantages for homeowners and their gardens' winged guests.
In the spring, American beautyberry's flowers attract pollinators. The plant follows that up in the fall by producing purple berries that draw songbirds to the garden. And if that wasn't enough, the shrub's leaves repel mosquitoes and ticks.
The plant is also very resistant to pests and is largely drought-tolerant.
Another shrub that can add something special to summer garden, sweet pepperbush's leaves turn golden brown in the fall.
Once established the plant can withstand short periods of drought and flooding, and it is fire-resistant.
The shrub's flowers produce high quality nectar and pollen that supports hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators.
To see more native plants recommended by the Coastal Landscapes Initiative for coastal gardens, go to the winter 2022 edition of N.C. Sea Grant's Coastwatch magazine.
Reporter Gareth McGrath can be reached at <email-pii> or @GarethMcGrathSN on Twitter. This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund and the Prentice Foundation. The USA TODAY Network maintains full editorial control of the work.
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Pretty and sustainable: Why native NC plants can be good for your garden and the coast
One day it's 72 degrees during the day, and 35 degrees at night. The next day, it's a high of 40 degrees and lows well below freezing for days on end, before returning to the 70s for good measure.
Welcome to winter in coastal North Carolina.
Summer can be just as schizophrenic, with a months-long drought headlined by temperatures reaching triple digits ended by a tropical storm that dumps a foot of rain over three days ... followed by another long drought.
For those coastal residents looking to test their green thumb, the region's weather can make landscaping a challenge − never mind trying to grow something in our sandy soil. And with so many people moving to North Carolina from other parts of the country, what plants they grew up with in, say, Connecticut, might not be the right ones for success in a backyard along the Intracoastal Waterway.
Realizing the challenges facing residents, along with the budding industry of going native, horticulturalists and plant lovers from several organizations came together roughly five years ago and formed the Coastal Landscapes Initiative (CLI).
"We really wanted to see if we could help people, educate them on how they can practice sustainable landscaping at the coast, which includes a number of things including how you water, how you fertilize, how you manage your stormwater, and where you plant," said Gloria Putnam, a coastal resources and communities specialist with N.C. Sea Grant.
With runoff among the biggest threats to coastal water quality, managing how properties control how much water they use and where it goes is vital − and a key part of that is what landscaping you choose.
SMALL BUT MIGHTY:4 things to know about Wilmington-grown microgreens
Putnam said vegetation is often the things removed from a property before it's developed, and the last thing that's put back.
"Often we remove the vegetation and then plant back with vegetation that doesn’t provide the benefits that native vegetation did," she said. “It changes the dynamics of the site, so the idea was can we move the needle a little bit on this to see if we can provide information to people who are ready to do things a little differently."
Climate change is another reason coastal homeowners might want to go native when it comes to their gardens. With natives often more drought- and heat-tolerant than non-native plants
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, and with longer periods of dry, hot weather forecast for North Carolina in coming decades, they could be a hardier bet than exotics from another part of the country or world. Native coastal plants are also generally better able to withstand salt water, which can make them a better alternative for waterfront homeowners with sea levels projected to keep rising in coming decades and tide surges set to increase.
In the latest edition of N.C. Sea Grant's Coastwatch magazine, the Coastal Landscapes Initiative has recommended a dozen plants and trees that are beautiful, environmentally beneficial, cost-efficient and adapted to thrive in the coast's harsh conditions.
Some of the plants might not be well known to many, and you might have to look beyond your nearby big-box retailer to find them. They also might be a bit more expensive than more common and popular plant species, since demand dictates supply.
“In some cases, you might have to look hard, but they're out there," Putnam said, adding that local cooperative extension offices and CLI's website can help folks find nurseries that offer them. The local offices and many public gardens also often have native plant gardens, so homeowners can see what the plants look like in a real-world setting.
Here's a look at some of the group's native plant picks:
A warm-season bunchgrass that gets its name from its bluish-green springtime growth.
Putnam said the grass is salt tolerant and, once established, very drought tolerant.
"It's an attractive plant," she said.
Bluestem performs best in well-drained soils in full sun. It also tolerates a wide range of soil conditions, including clay.
A drought-tolerant plant that thrives in full or partial light, wild indigo is also known as Baptisia. The plant is long-lived, low-maintenance, virtually pest-free and its spring-blooming flower spires are real attention getters − and not just for humans.
Bumblebees and other pollinators love wild indigo.
"It’s a lovely plant," Putnam said. "It takes a while to get established, but it adds a lot of color and structure to a garden.”
Like a bit of color in your garden in the fall that also can help attract a variety of insect pollinators and butterflies, including the monarch butterfly?
Then goldenrods are for you.
Putnam said goldenrods are shade-tolerant and very easy to maintain, tolerating poor soils.
"That's the great thing about native plants," she said, adding that the plant is an "insect magnet" and blooms for a very long time.
An understory shrub. the plants provides myriad of advantages for homeowners and their gardens' winged guests.
In the spring, American beautyberry's flowers attract pollinators. The plant follows that up in the fall by producing purple berries that draw songbirds to the garden. And if that wasn't enough, the shrub's leaves repel mosquitoes and ticks.
The plant is also very resistant to pests and is largely drought-tolerant.
Another shrub that can add something special to summer garden, sweet pepperbush's leaves turn golden brown in the fall.
Once established the plant can withstand short periods of drought and flooding, and it is fire-resistant.
The shrub's flowers produce high quality nectar and pollen that supports hummingbirds, butterflies, bees and other pollinators.
To see more native plants recommended by the Coastal Landscapes Initiative for coastal gardens, go to the winter 2022 edition of N.C. Sea Grant's Coastwatch magazine.
Reporter Gareth McGrath can be reached at <email-pii> or @GarethMcGrathSN on Twitter. This story was produced with financial support from 1Earth Fund and the Prentice Foundation. The USA TODAY Network maintains full editorial control of the work.
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Working women over the age of 16 made 82 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2022, according to a study from Pew Research Center, released Wednesday—a rate that hasn’t meaningfully changed since 2002.
The pay gap has only narrowed 2 cents since 2002, when women made 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to Pew.
In 1982, women earned just 65 cents for every dollar earned by men, and over the following 20 years, that rate jumped 15 cents.
Women tend to earn less than men as they age: Women who were between the ages of 25 and 34 years old in 2010 made 92% of the median hourly earnings of men their same age, but in 2022, these same women, who were now between the ages of 37 and 46 years old, made just 84%, following a similar trend from women who were in these age groups starting in 2005 and 2000.
In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned 92% of the median hourly earnings of men, compared to those 35 to 44 and those 45 to 54, who each made 83%, and women 55 to 64, who made 79%.
Last year, white women earned 83% of the median hourly earnings of men, as Asian women earned 93%, Black women 70% and Hispanic women 65%.
Pew used data from the U.S. Census Bureau for its findings.
There are several causes behind the gender pay gap, according to the Center for American Progress. Jobs that have historically been relegated to women, or are female-dominated fields, tend to offer lower pay than those that have historically been dominated by men. Women are also forced out of the workplace due to caregiving responsibilities much more than men are and therefore often have less experience than their male counterparts. Because of these caregiving responsibilities, women also tend to work fewer hours than men do. And while gender-based pay discrimination has been illegal nationwide since 1963, it also plays a major role in women’s salaries, compared to men. In 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that women make up an estimated 44% of the workforce, but 41% of managers.
Nearly $1.6 trillion. That’s how much money working women in the U.S. lose every year because of the pay gap, the National Partnership for Women and Families reported in 2022.
The U.S. will mark Equal Pay Day on March 14, a day that signifies how far into the year women must work to earn what men did the previous year. It has been dedicated since 1996.
Salary Transparency Could Help Speed The End Of The Gender Pay Gap (Forbes)
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Working women over the age of 16 made 82 cents for every dollar earned by men in 2022, according to a study from Pew Research Center, released Wednesday—a rate that hasn’t meaningfully changed since 2002.
The pay gap has only narrowed 2 cents since 2002, when women made 80 cents for every dollar earned by men, according to Pew.
In 1982, women earned just 65 cents for every dollar earned by men, and over the following 20 years, that rate jumped 15 cents.
Women tend to earn less than men as they age: Women who were between the ages of 25 and 34 years old in 2010 made 92% of the median hourly earnings of men their same age, but in 2022, these same women, who were now between the ages of 37 and 46 years old, made just 84%, following a similar trend from women who were in these age groups starting in 2005 and 2000.
In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned 92% of the median hourly earnings of men, compared to those 35 to 44 and those 45 to 54, who each made 83%, and women 55 to 64, who made 79%.
Last year, white women earned 83% of the median hourly earnings of men, as Asian women earned 93%, Black women 70% and Hispanic women 65%.
Pew used data from the U.S. Census Bureau for its findings.
There are several causes behind the gender pay gap, according to the Center for American Progress. Jobs that have historically been relegated to women, or are female-dominated fields, tend to offer lower pay than those that have historically been dominated by men. Women are also forced out of the workplace due to caregiving responsibilities much more than men are and therefore often have less experience than their male counterparts. Because of these caregiving responsibilities, women also tend to work fewer hours than men do. And while gender-based pay discrimination has been illegal nationwide since 1963, it also plays a major role in women’s salaries, compared to men. In 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that women make
|
up an estimated 44% of the workforce, but 41% of managers.
Nearly $1.6 trillion. That’s how much money working women in the U.S. lose every year because of the pay gap, the National Partnership for Women and Families reported in 2022.
The U.S. will mark Equal Pay Day on March 14, a day that signifies how far into the year women must work to earn what men did the previous year. It has been dedicated since 1996.
Salary Transparency Could Help Speed The End Of The Gender Pay Gap (Forbes)
|
When you go to get your newly updated Covid-19 booster this fall, you might want to choose the arm the vaccine goes in carefully.
The immune response may be stronger if your booster goes in the same arm as your last Covid-19 shot, according to a study published August 11 in the journal eBioMedicine.
“The question seems so banal, so trivial that nobody before has thought to ask it,” study coauthor Martina Sester, a biologist and head of the department of the Institute of Infection Medicine at Saarland University Hospital in Germany, said in a news release.
The researchers used the data of 303 people who received the mRNA vaccine as well as a booster shot as part of Germany’s vaccine campaign.
Two weeks after the booster, the number of “killer T cells” was significantly higher in those who had both shots in the same arm, according to the study.
Those cells, which attack and destroy the other cells they target, were present in 67% of the same-arm cases and only 43% in people who had their injections in different arms, according to study coauthor Laura Ziegler, a doctoral student at Saarland University.
“It’s absolutely fascinating because this is a subject that is clearly under studied,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and former medical director of the nonprofit National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Schaffner was not involved in the study.
“I can’t remember another study similar to this with other vaccines,” he said.
Why it might or might not work
It makes sense why the location of the injection would make a difference, Schaffner added.
The cells that provide the immune response are in local lymph nodes, he said.
Lymph nodes are across the body in places including the neck, chest, abdomen and armpits, according to the American Cancer Society.
If the immune cells in those lymph nodes are restimulated in the same place, there is a greater immunological response, the study said.
Although the study showed a greater immune response, researchers can’t say for sure that getting the booster in the same arm results in better or longer lasting protection, Schaffner said.
“We wouldn’t know that unless we did a much larger clinical study with follow-up actual infections,” he added.
The immune cells are important for quickly destroying the virus, but antibodies are also important to prevent further harm, the study said. And researchers did not find a larger number of antibodies.
However, the antibodies in people with the booster in the same arm were better at binding to the viral spike proteins, the study showed. Spike proteins are responsible for the coronavirus entering cells, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Still a good idea
Questions remain about the actual protection impact, and this study is small, but Schaffner said it is worthwhile to consider the results when going for your next booster.
“I do not have a critique of the methods,” he said. “I think the results as presented can be taken at face value.”
The laboratory assessment of the immune response is solid, Schaffner said.
This study made Schaffner think about this fall, when he will get vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, and influenza as well as a Covid-19 booster.
“I began thinking, ‘Which arm am I going to get them in?’ And I think I’m going to get my Covid booster — on the basis of this study — in the same as the previous inoculations,” he said.
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When you go to get your newly updated Covid-19 booster this fall, you might want to choose the arm the vaccine goes in carefully.
The immune response may be stronger if your booster goes in the same arm as your last Covid-19 shot, according to a study published August 11 in the journal eBioMedicine.
“The question seems so banal, so trivial that nobody before has thought to ask it,” study coauthor Martina Sester, a biologist and head of the department of the Institute of Infection Medicine at Saarland University Hospital in Germany, said in a news release.
The researchers used the data of 303 people who received the mRNA vaccine as well as a booster shot as part of Germany’s vaccine campaign.
Two weeks after the booster, the number of “killer T cells” was significantly higher in those who had both shots in the same arm, according to the study.
Those cells, which attack and destroy the other cells they target, were present in 67% of the same-arm cases and only 43% in people who had their injections in different arms, according to study coauthor Laura Ziegler, a doctoral student at Saarland University.
“It’s absolutely fascinating because this is a subject that is clearly under studied,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville and former medical director of the nonprofit National Foundation for Infectious Diseases. Schaffner was not involved in the study.
“I can’t remember another study similar to this with other vaccines,” he said.
Why it might or might not work
It makes sense why the location of the injection would make a difference, Schaffner added.
The cells that provide the immune response are in local lymph nodes, he said.
Lymph nodes are across the body in places including the neck, chest, abdomen and armpits, according to the American Cancer Society.
If the immune cells in those lymph nodes are restimulated in the same place, there is a greater immunological response, the study said.
Although the study showed a greater immune response, researchers can’t say for sure that getting the booster in the same arm results in better or longer lasting protection, Schaffner said.
“We wouldn’t know that unless we did a much larger clinical study with follow-up actual infections,” he added.
The immune cells are important for quickly destroying the virus, but antibodies are also important to prevent further harm, the study said. And researchers did not find a larger number
|
of antibodies.
However, the antibodies in people with the booster in the same arm were better at binding to the viral spike proteins, the study showed. Spike proteins are responsible for the coronavirus entering cells, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Still a good idea
Questions remain about the actual protection impact, and this study is small, but Schaffner said it is worthwhile to consider the results when going for your next booster.
“I do not have a critique of the methods,” he said. “I think the results as presented can be taken at face value.”
The laboratory assessment of the immune response is solid, Schaffner said.
This study made Schaffner think about this fall, when he will get vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV, and influenza as well as a Covid-19 booster.
“I began thinking, ‘Which arm am I going to get them in?’ And I think I’m going to get my Covid booster — on the basis of this study — in the same as the previous inoculations,” he said.
|
We’re only halfway through 2023 and so many climate records are being broken, some scientists are sounding the alarm, fearing it could be a sign of a planet warming much more rapidly than expected.
In a widely shared tweet, Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, called rising ocean and air temperatures “totally bonkers.”
He added, “people who look at this stuff routinely can’t believe their eyes. Something very weird is happening.”
Other scientists have said while the records are alarming, they are not unexpected due to both the continued rise of planet-heating pollution and the arrival of the natural climate phenomenon El Niño, which has a global heating effect.
Whether the broken records are a sign of climate change progressing beyond what climate the models predict, or are the outcome of the climate crisis unfolding as expected, they remain a very concerning signal of what’s to come, scientists said.
“These changes are deeply disturbing because of what they mean for people this coming summer, and every summer after, until we cut our carbon emissions at a much faster pace than we’re currently doing,” Jennifer Marlon, research scientist at Yale School of the Environment, told CNN.
“We’ve been saying this for a long time – as polar scientists and as climate scientists – we’ve been saying you can count on the next few decades to consistently get warmer,” Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado-Boulder, told CNN. “We’re not going to turn back until we actually do something about this.”
Here are four charts showing just how record-breaking this year has already been, with the hottest months still to come.
Global temperatures spike
This year is shaping up to be one of the hottest yet, with global data showing temperatures spiking to unusually high levels.
The first eleven days of June saw the highest temperatures on record for this time of year by a substantial margin, according to an analysis released Thursday by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. It is also the first time global air temperatures during June exceeded preindustrial levels by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the scientists found.
Heat records are being broken across the world.
In Canada, where an unusually stifling heat wave is blanketing much of the country, temperatures have broken multiple records. The heat has helped set the stage for “unprecedented,” early wildfires already burning an area about 15 times bigger than average for this time of the year and sending hazardous smoke into the United States.
Several all-time heat records were also broken earlier this month in Siberia, as temperatures shot up above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Parts of Central America, as well as Texas and Louisiana are also facing blistering temperatures. And Puerto Rico experienced extreme heat this June, with temperatures feeling like more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service.
“The current situation is bizarre,” Phil Reid with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, told CNN. “The strangest El Niño ever. How are you supposed to define or declare an El Niño when everywhere is hot?”
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We’re only halfway through 2023 and so many climate records are being broken, some scientists are sounding the alarm, fearing it could be a sign of a planet warming much more rapidly than expected.
In a widely shared tweet, Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, called rising ocean and air temperatures “totally bonkers.”
He added, “people who look at this stuff routinely can’t believe their eyes. Something very weird is happening.”
Other scientists have said while the records are alarming, they are not unexpected due to both the continued rise of planet-heating pollution and the arrival of the natural climate phenomenon El Niño, which has a global heating effect.
Whether the broken records are a sign of climate change progressing beyond what climate the models predict, or are the outcome of the climate crisis unfolding as expected, they remain a very concerning signal of what’s to come, scientists said.
“These changes are deeply disturbing because of what they mean for people this coming summer, and every summer after, until we cut our carbon emissions at a much faster pace than we’re currently doing,” Jennifer Marlon, research scientist at Yale School of the Environment, told CNN.
“We’ve been saying this for a long time – as polar scientists and as climate scientists – we’ve been saying you can count on the next few decades to consistently get warmer,” Ted Scambos, a glaciologist at the University of Colorado-Boulder, told CNN. “We’re not going to turn back until we actually do something about this.”
Here are four charts showing just how record-breaking this year has already been, with the hottest months still to come.
Global temperatures spike
This year is shaping up to be one of the hottest yet, with global data showing temperatures spiking to unusually high levels.
The first eleven days of June saw the highest temperatures on record for this time of year by a substantial margin, according to an analysis released Thursday by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. It is also the first time global air temperatures during June exceeded preindustrial levels by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, the scientists found.
Heat records are being broken across the world.
In Canada, where an unusually stifling heat wave is blanketing much of the country, temperatures have broken multiple records. The heat has helped set the stage for “unprecedented,” early wildfires already burning an area about 15 times
|
bigger than average for this time of the year and sending hazardous smoke into the United States.
Several all-time heat records were also broken earlier this month in Siberia, as temperatures shot up above 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Parts of Central America, as well as Texas and Louisiana are also facing blistering temperatures. And Puerto Rico experienced extreme heat this June, with temperatures feeling like more than 120 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the National Weather Service.
“The current situation is bizarre,” Phil Reid with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology, told CNN. “The strangest El Niño ever. How are you supposed to define or declare an El Niño when everywhere is hot?”
|
Every day a baby is born with syphilis is a tragedy. Not only for the mothers who might have avoided this outcome, but for those in charge of public policy who could have done more to prevent it.
Health officials nationwide sounded the alarm last week after reporting a significant jump in newborn syphilis cases. This is a disease that can be remedied early in pregnancy. But if left untreated it can lead to infant deaths, stillbirths and miscarriages.
More than 3,700 babies in the United States were born with congenital syphilis in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is a 32% increase from the previous year. In Texas, the numbers are also remarkable: a 39% spike in 2020-21, compared with the previous biannual report, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
While some experts are pointing to reduced preventive medical care and testing during the pandemic as the reasons behind this jump, Dr. Philip Huang, Dallas County health director, noted that sexually transmitted diseases were steadily on the rise even before COVID-19 upended health care.
There are multiple factors for the rise of syphilis in newborns, including a lack of transportation and child care options for child-bearing mothers. But the lack of affordable health insurance is an overarching reason.
In a state where 18% of the population is uninsured and where Texas is one of 10 hold-out states avoiding Medicaid expansion, the prevalence of congenital syphilis should not come as a surprise given the social and economic factors that are preventing low-income women from receiving prenatal care.
Congenital syphilis can result in the baby’s death up to 40% of the time, but chances drop to 2% if the pregnant mother receives treatment with antibiotics. Yet, this simple solution is out of reach for many. Nearly half of Texas counties are maternity care deserts, according to a 2022 March of Dimes report. Even in southern Dallas County, there are areas where access to health care services is an issue.
“If a mom has to choose between paying the rent and going for a [doctor] visit, they will pay the rent so they’re going to be missing a visit,” said Yolande Pengentze, a pediatrician and leading physician-scientist at Parkland Services for Clinical Innovation.
PCCI, which develops data-driven solutions for Parkland Health, has a program that identifies pregnant women at higher risk of preterm birth, and it is already yielding some results. It has helped reduce preterm birthrates by 20% and has increased prenatal doctor visits by 8% to 15%, Pengentze told us.
Having this data available allows Parkland to target specific groups. The county health system has also added more community clinics, telemedicine options and information campaigns.
Finding solutions at the community level is a sensible approach, but Texas must look for ways to expand health care access for all. Too many are falling through the cracks, and in a state that boasts its economic miracle, this is unacceptable.
|
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Every day a baby is born with syphilis is a tragedy. Not only for the mothers who might have avoided this outcome, but for those in charge of public policy who could have done more to prevent it.
Health officials nationwide sounded the alarm last week after reporting a significant jump in newborn syphilis cases. This is a disease that can be remedied early in pregnancy. But if left untreated it can lead to infant deaths, stillbirths and miscarriages.
More than 3,700 babies in the United States were born with congenital syphilis in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is a 32% increase from the previous year. In Texas, the numbers are also remarkable: a 39% spike in 2020-21, compared with the previous biannual report, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
While some experts are pointing to reduced preventive medical care and testing during the pandemic as the reasons behind this jump, Dr. Philip Huang, Dallas County health director, noted that sexually transmitted diseases were steadily on the rise even before COVID-19 upended health care.
There are multiple factors for the rise of syphilis in newborns, including a lack of transportation and child care options for child-bearing mothers. But the lack of affordable health insurance is an overarching reason.
In a state where 18% of the population is uninsured and where Texas is one of 10 hold-out states avoiding Medicaid expansion, the prevalence of congenital syphilis should not come as a surprise given the social and economic factors that are preventing low-income women from receiving prenatal care.
Congenital syphilis can result in the baby’s death up to 40% of the time, but chances drop to 2% if the pregnant mother receives treatment with antibiotics. Yet, this simple solution is out of reach for many. Nearly half of Texas counties are maternity care deserts, according to a 2022 March of Dimes report. Even in southern Dallas County, there are areas where access to health care services is an issue.
“If a mom has to choose between paying the rent and going for a [doctor] visit, they will pay the rent so they’re going to be missing a visit,” said Yolande Pengentze, a pediatrician and leading physician-scientist at Parkland Services for Clinical Innovation.
PCCI, which develops data-driven solutions for Parkland Health, has a program
|
that identifies pregnant women at higher risk of preterm birth, and it is already yielding some results. It has helped reduce preterm birthrates by 20% and has increased prenatal doctor visits by 8% to 15%, Pengentze told us.
Having this data available allows Parkland to target specific groups. The county health system has also added more community clinics, telemedicine options and information campaigns.
Finding solutions at the community level is a sensible approach, but Texas must look for ways to expand health care access for all. Too many are falling through the cracks, and in a state that boasts its economic miracle, this is unacceptable.
|
Since time immemorial, Mars has tantalized earthlings with the possibility that it harbors life. But like a bad soap opera, its exploration has created astrobiological cliffhangers that have mostly turned out to be dead ends.
Today, planetary scientists are confident that for a brief 500-million-year epoch early in its history, Mars had running liquid water on its surface, with rivers, lakes, deltas and maybe even an ocean. The reality at present, however, is that the Martian surface is even more inhospitable than the driest deserts on Earth.
The surface is completely inhospitable, Jennifer Stern, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told me. Coupled with the fact that there’s no liquid water at the surface, Mars also suffers from a continual stream of cosmic and solar radiation, she says. It’s really difficult to imagine that some sort of organism could have adapted to these really bad conditions, says Stern.
From what we've measured on the surface at least, everything points to abiotic, non-biological processes, says Stern in a presentation this past week at the, 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) here in Seattle. The best hope for future Mars exploration lies in its subsurface, she says.
The unexplored near subsurface could have maintained a habitable environment longer than the surface, Stern notes in her AAS abstract. And records of organic molecules may persist beyond the reach of ionizing radiation from galactic cosmic rays, she writes.
How has the Mars habitability paradigm shifted since the era of the mars Viking landers?
When NASA sent the two Viking landers, they really threw everything at the question of life, says Stern.
But when they did not detect life, that was sort of the death knell for NASA’s Mars exploration for the next 25 years, she says.
Then when we did go back, we started thinking about what's the most basic thing that life needs, Stern asks. And it's pretty indisputable that that water needs to be present for life as we know it to exist, she says.
But to date, there’s no hard evidence for life at Mars’ surface.
With NASA’s Mars rovers, detections of complex organics in both some 3.8-billion-year-old Gale Crater and Jezero Crater mudstones, we now know that organic carbon is likely widely distributed on Mars, Stern noted in her AAS presentation.
Certain organic molecules, like amino acids and lipids, are more indicative of life and the things that we see in the fossil record on Earth, says Stern. But we are not seeing those molecules on Mars, she says. And we don’t see evidence of microfossils, says Stern.
Are we halfway there in understanding Mars’ history of habitability?
I think that we're pretty far along, says Stern. With the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, we've confirmed that there are organic carbon-bearing molecules on Mars, she says.
Does Mars currently have any flowing water?
There's a lot of evidence of past water, but we don't have evidence of flowing water today, says Stern. The minerals that we find are minerals that can only be made in water, she says.
Why did Mars go hard so horribly wrong so quickly?
“I don't know if it's that Mars went so wrong or maybe that Earth just really got lucky in its habitability,” said Stern.
Even so, Mars had the misfortune of just being smaller than earth which means it cooled much faster, says Stern. Mars likely lost its internal dynamo early which normally would have generated a global magnetic field which would have protected the red planet from the ravages of the Sun’s charged particles.
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft showed that Mars was likely stripped of its atmosphere by the solar wind’s charged particles.
We know there is ice in Mars’ subsurface and there may well be liquid water in the subsurface, we just don't know, says Stern. On Mars the subsurface is completely unexplored, but we know that Earth’s subsurface is a habitable environment, she says. There's life on Earth some five kilometers deep, says Stern.
Does Mars also have life beneath its surface?
I think all bets are off because we haven't gone there yet, so we don't know, says Stern. If there can be life deep in the Earth, there very well could be life deep in Mars, she says.
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Since time immemorial, Mars has tantalized earthlings with the possibility that it harbors life. But like a bad soap opera, its exploration has created astrobiological cliffhangers that have mostly turned out to be dead ends.
Today, planetary scientists are confident that for a brief 500-million-year epoch early in its history, Mars had running liquid water on its surface, with rivers, lakes, deltas and maybe even an ocean. The reality at present, however, is that the Martian surface is even more inhospitable than the driest deserts on Earth.
The surface is completely inhospitable, Jennifer Stern, a planetary scientist at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told me. Coupled with the fact that there’s no liquid water at the surface, Mars also suffers from a continual stream of cosmic and solar radiation, she says. It’s really difficult to imagine that some sort of organism could have adapted to these really bad conditions, says Stern.
From what we've measured on the surface at least, everything points to abiotic, non-biological processes, says Stern in a presentation this past week at the, 241st meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS) here in Seattle. The best hope for future Mars exploration lies in its subsurface, she says.
The unexplored near subsurface could have maintained a habitable environment longer than the surface, Stern notes in her AAS abstract. And records of organic molecules may persist beyond the reach of ionizing radiation from galactic cosmic rays, she writes.
How has the Mars habitability paradigm shifted since the era of the mars Viking landers?
When NASA sent the two Viking landers, they really threw everything at the question of life, says Stern.
But when they did not detect life, that was sort of the death knell for NASA’s Mars exploration for the next 25 years, she says.
Then when we did go back, we started thinking about what's the most basic thing that life needs, Stern asks. And it's pretty indisputable that that water needs to be present for life as we know it to exist, she says.
But to date, there’s no hard evidence for life at Mars’ surface.
With NASA’s Mars rovers, detections of complex organics in both some 3.8-billion-year-old Gale Crater and Jezero Crater mudstones, we now know that organic carbon is likely widely distributed on Mars, Stern noted in her A
|
AS presentation.
Certain organic molecules, like amino acids and lipids, are more indicative of life and the things that we see in the fossil record on Earth, says Stern. But we are not seeing those molecules on Mars, she says. And we don’t see evidence of microfossils, says Stern.
Are we halfway there in understanding Mars’ history of habitability?
I think that we're pretty far along, says Stern. With the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, we've confirmed that there are organic carbon-bearing molecules on Mars, she says.
Does Mars currently have any flowing water?
There's a lot of evidence of past water, but we don't have evidence of flowing water today, says Stern. The minerals that we find are minerals that can only be made in water, she says.
Why did Mars go hard so horribly wrong so quickly?
“I don't know if it's that Mars went so wrong or maybe that Earth just really got lucky in its habitability,” said Stern.
Even so, Mars had the misfortune of just being smaller than earth which means it cooled much faster, says Stern. Mars likely lost its internal dynamo early which normally would have generated a global magnetic field which would have protected the red planet from the ravages of the Sun’s charged particles.
NASA's MAVEN spacecraft showed that Mars was likely stripped of its atmosphere by the solar wind’s charged particles.
We know there is ice in Mars’ subsurface and there may well be liquid water in the subsurface, we just don't know, says Stern. On Mars the subsurface is completely unexplored, but we know that Earth’s subsurface is a habitable environment, she says. There's life on Earth some five kilometers deep, says Stern.
Does Mars also have life beneath its surface?
I think all bets are off because we haven't gone there yet, so we don't know, says Stern. If there can be life deep in the Earth, there very well could be life deep in Mars, she says.
|
When two little penguins came ashore on the far south coast of New South Wales and mated they were, without knowing it, pioneers in re-establishing a colony that had been locally extinct for 30 years.
- Eden's thriving penguin colony became locally extinct in the 1990s
- An Australian-first sound attraction system has helped bring penguins back to the area
- This month, one little penguin chick became the first known to be born in Eden in 30 years
Scientists watched through remote cameras as the female laid two eggs.
While one rolled away, the remaining egg hatched into a healthy little penguin chick — the first born on mainland New South Wales outside of Sydney in three decades.
Alan Fraser used to live on a street overlooking Eagles Claw Nature Reserve in Eden where the penguin hatched.
Forty years ago, little penguins would nest in the undergrowth along his back fence, while his neighbour had nesting boxes for the birds under his house and in the yard.
"We used to get numerous penguins coming up and down the cliff," Mr Fraser said.
"Every night you could open the window and hear them all night long."
However, predators such as dogs, foxes, and sea eagles, as well as erosion of their nesting environments, led to a decline in the little penguin population.
The colony was extinct by the early 1990s.
"We weren't happy about it," Mr Fraser said.
So in an effort to help bring the penguins back a grieving Eden community banded together and raised funds for a solution.
Extinct colony feared lost forever
In a paper written back when the local extinction was realised, the now Central Queensland University Vice-Chancellor Nick Klomp discussed how a replacement colony would need to be set up quickly if it were to return.
Penguins would not be drawn to the reserve unless they heard the cry of other penguins.
To revive a population, he said, was easier than to start from scratch.
The money raised by the community sat in an account until 2016 when NSW Department of Planning and Environment's senior research scientist Nicholas Carlile came across it.
Mr Carlile decided the conditions were right to restart Eden's little penguin colony.
However, there were challenges.
Creating the perfect penguin haven
Foxes are a constant threat on the mainland, so fences were installed along the cliff top near Eagles Claw Nature Reserve to keep out predators.
A concrete artificial habitat was installed, specifically designed to act as a burrow with a curved entrance sharp enough to keep goannas out.
And the problem identified 30 years earlier by Professor Klomp was addressed by the installation of what researchers called "the love machine".
It is a solar-powered audio system that blasts mating sounds recorded from penguins on the nearby Montague Island/Baranguba out across Twofold Bay during mating season.
"We're slowly coercing these birds into thinking this is a really good penguin colony site," Mr Carlile said.
"The penguins think 'oh there's a party, let's go join it'."
The love machine worked, with two mating birds deciding the little sanctuary was suitable for nesting this year.
By winter, remote-controlled cameras on the reserve had taken more than 1,000 photos of the birds moving around and making their nest.
Then one day the cameras captured a sight which had researchers delighted — the slightest white glint of an egg.
There were two eggs in the nest. But, in September, one egg rolled away.
The second egg survived and hatched in early October.
Eden is now only the second mainland breeding colony of little penguins, with the other being in Manly.
A patience game
Researchers are unable to approach the new chick because it is "well hidden by cranky adults," Mr Carlile said.
It will remain in the nest for eight weeks before venturing into the water for the first time where it will live for two years, fending entirely for itself.
When it reaches maturity after that time, it may return to its Eden nest.
"Generally, about 10 per cent of chicks that fledge come back, so the odds are stacked against it," Mr Carlile said.
"The idea is to establish as many pairs as we can and eventually those pairs will produce enough young that those young will come back and keep the colony going.
"It's a very slow burn establishing a seabird colony."
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When two little penguins came ashore on the far south coast of New South Wales and mated they were, without knowing it, pioneers in re-establishing a colony that had been locally extinct for 30 years.
- Eden's thriving penguin colony became locally extinct in the 1990s
- An Australian-first sound attraction system has helped bring penguins back to the area
- This month, one little penguin chick became the first known to be born in Eden in 30 years
Scientists watched through remote cameras as the female laid two eggs.
While one rolled away, the remaining egg hatched into a healthy little penguin chick — the first born on mainland New South Wales outside of Sydney in three decades.
Alan Fraser used to live on a street overlooking Eagles Claw Nature Reserve in Eden where the penguin hatched.
Forty years ago, little penguins would nest in the undergrowth along his back fence, while his neighbour had nesting boxes for the birds under his house and in the yard.
"We used to get numerous penguins coming up and down the cliff," Mr Fraser said.
"Every night you could open the window and hear them all night long."
However, predators such as dogs, foxes, and sea eagles, as well as erosion of their nesting environments, led to a decline in the little penguin population.
The colony was extinct by the early 1990s.
"We weren't happy about it," Mr Fraser said.
So in an effort to help bring the penguins back a grieving Eden community banded together and raised funds for a solution.
Extinct colony feared lost forever
In a paper written back when the local extinction was realised, the now Central Queensland University Vice-Chancellor Nick Klomp discussed how a replacement colony would need to be set up quickly if it were to return.
Penguins would not be drawn to the reserve unless they heard the cry of other penguins.
To revive a population, he said, was easier than to start from scratch.
The money raised by the community sat in an account until 2016 when NSW Department of Planning and Environment's senior research scientist Nicholas Carlile came across it.
Mr Carlile decided the conditions were right to restart Eden's little penguin colony.
However, there were challenges.
Creating the perfect penguin haven
Foxes are a constant threat on the mainland, so fences were installed along the cliff top near Eagles Claw Nature Reserve to keep out predators.
A concrete artificial
|
habitat was installed, specifically designed to act as a burrow with a curved entrance sharp enough to keep goannas out.
And the problem identified 30 years earlier by Professor Klomp was addressed by the installation of what researchers called "the love machine".
It is a solar-powered audio system that blasts mating sounds recorded from penguins on the nearby Montague Island/Baranguba out across Twofold Bay during mating season.
"We're slowly coercing these birds into thinking this is a really good penguin colony site," Mr Carlile said.
"The penguins think 'oh there's a party, let's go join it'."
The love machine worked, with two mating birds deciding the little sanctuary was suitable for nesting this year.
By winter, remote-controlled cameras on the reserve had taken more than 1,000 photos of the birds moving around and making their nest.
Then one day the cameras captured a sight which had researchers delighted — the slightest white glint of an egg.
There were two eggs in the nest. But, in September, one egg rolled away.
The second egg survived and hatched in early October.
Eden is now only the second mainland breeding colony of little penguins, with the other being in Manly.
A patience game
Researchers are unable to approach the new chick because it is "well hidden by cranky adults," Mr Carlile said.
It will remain in the nest for eight weeks before venturing into the water for the first time where it will live for two years, fending entirely for itself.
When it reaches maturity after that time, it may return to its Eden nest.
"Generally, about 10 per cent of chicks that fledge come back, so the odds are stacked against it," Mr Carlile said.
"The idea is to establish as many pairs as we can and eventually those pairs will produce enough young that those young will come back and keep the colony going.
"It's a very slow burn establishing a seabird colony."
|
The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
When Congress proposed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, it specified in its joint resolution (86 Stat. 1523), agreed to by two-thirds of each House, that the ERA would become valid "when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission by the Congress." Not enough states ratified before the seven years elapsed, or even before the end of a three-year extension that Congress tried to grant by simple majority in 1978. So the ERA is generally thought to be dead.
But since then, a few more legislatures have purported to ratify the Amendment anyway, pushing the total number over three-fourths. So whether the U.S. Constitution currently includes the ERA or not partly depends on whether this "within seven years" limit is legally effective—or whether it's an unconstitutional addition to the two-thirds-and-three-fourths requirements of Article V. (It also depends on whether legislatures can rescind their ratifications, as some may have done; for more on that, see Michael Stokes Paulsen's General Theory of Article V.)
While looking for something else, I recently came across some material that might shed new light on the ERA's validity. The idea of putting legally operative language in the joint resolution wasn't an invention of the twentieth century, but a long tradition stretching back to 1803 and before. Not only in proposing the Bill of Rights, but also in proposing the Twelfth and the Seventeenth Amendments, Congress included in the amending resolutions crucial terms specifying the effect of the language that would be added and the parts of the Constitution that would be replaced—terms that, as far as I can tell, courts and scholars haven't yet noticed. This tradition offers a better explanation of Congress's powers vis-à-vis proposed amendments than the twentieth-century Supreme Court decisions that dominate the modern debate. And it suggests that the ERA really is dead.
In the twentieth century, Congress occasionally included time limits in an amendment's text. For example, Section 3 of the Eighteenth Amendment states that "[t]his article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress." Over time, it switched to placing the time limits in the amending resolution's language instead—so as not to "clutter up the Constitution," as Sen. Kefauver put it in 1955.
But the history of operative language in amending resolutions goes back far beyond Sen. Kefauver. When the First Congress proposed the Bill of Rights, it specified that "all or any of [its] articles" could be ratified independently by state legislatures, rather than having to be voted up or down as a package. This binding "procedural instruction" is relatively well known in the ERA debate; the Trump Administration's Office of Legal Counsel cited it in a 2020 opinion rejecting the ERA.
What's less well known is that not long after, when proposing the Twelfth Amendment in 1803, Congress included more instructions, this time of substance and not just of procedure. The opening of its joint resolution (2 Stat. 306) read:
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two thirds of both houses concurring, That, in lieu of the third paragraph of the first section of the second article of the constitution of the United States, the following be proposed as an amendment to the constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three fourths of the legislatures of the several states, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said constitution, to wit :—
The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted: the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately by ballot the President. But in choosing the President, the vote shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.
The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the Vice President: a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.
But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States.
This "in lieu of" language wasn't just a preamble or interpretive commentary. It followed the resolving clause rather than preceding it: it was part of what Congress actually adopted, "two thirds of both houses concurring." And it specified which parts of the existing Constitution the new material suggested later on would, if ratified, replace. Anything in the original Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 was, by default, overridden by the new amendment; anything outside that clause was, by default, unaffected.
So "in lieu of" actually contributes to the legal content of the article text that the resolution proposed. Of course it's possible for that new language to have conflicted with other parts of the Constitution, parts it wasn't being adopted "in lieu of." But if it can be read consistently with those other parts of the Constitution, it should be—whereas we shouldn't narrow its new language to preserve what's being explicitly overridden. (In this way the "in lieu of" arguably resembles a non obstante clause, the subject of Caleb Nelson's great work on Preemption.)
And this language wasn't just boilerplate. Members of Congress seem to have thought it mattered. While the first set of amendments and the Eleventh Amendment were all relatively easy to tack on to the end of Constitution, the Twelfth Amendment was performing major surgery to the Constitution's text, with detailed edits to a complicated election scheme. During the deliberations, at least one Senator objected to making any cross-references from the new text to the old, arguing that the proposed amendment "would render it necessary in order to avoid confusion to repeal the section which comes within its purview." An early proposal in the House solved this problem by imposing its new rules only "in all future elections of President and Vice-President." Another draft version in the Senate was even more explicit, providing "That the third paragraph of the first section of the second article of the Constitution of the United States, in the words following, to wit: '[reciting the entire paragraph]:'—be expunged from the Constitution, and that the following paragraph be inserted in lieu thereof, to wit: '[reciting the new language to be added].'" And after a subsequent draft removed this expunged/inserted structure to follow the House's language, the Senate then came up with the final version, in which the "in lieu of" language was deliberately added back in.
Something similar happened a hundred years later in the Seventeenth Amendment. The 1912 joint resolution (37 Stat. 646) read as follows:
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That in lieu of the first paragraph of section three of Article I of the Constitution of the United States, and in lieu of so much of paragraph two of the same section as relates to the filling of vacancies, the following be proposed as an amendment to the Constitution, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States:
"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
"When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
"This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution."
Here, too, the "in lieu of" clauses have legally operative effect. They specify how much of Article I, Section 3, Clauses 1 and 2 remain valid after the amendment's adoption. They make clear, for example, that one-third of the newly elected Senators will still "be chosen every second Year," as Clause 2 had previously provided; that part of Clause 2 isn't about filling vacancies, so its legal effect is preserved. And they also make clear that the new language has nothing to do with, say, Clause 3's requirement that Senators be thirty years old; even if a state's most famous 29-year-old might be "elected by the people thereof," that person still isn't a Senator.
And members of Congress again used this language on purpose. An early draft of the Seventeenth Amendment gave the states full power over the time, place, and manner of choosing Senators. Accordingly, that draft resolution also contained another in-lieu-of clause, making clear that any new text would operate "in lieu of all of paragraph 1 of section 4 of said Article I, in so far as same relates to any authority in Congress to make or alter regulations as to the times or manner of holding elections for Senators."
Other draft amendments put even more significant changes in their resolutions. In 1851, future president Andrew Johnson proposed a set of amendments on a variety of topics: popular election of the President, popular election of Senators, and staggered twelve-year terms for judges. His draft resolution had multiple resolving clauses, letting the states ratify some changes and not others; it also followed James Madison's initial suggestion of revising the existing text of the Constitution rather than tacking on amendments only at the end. For example, the second clause read:
Resolved, that article 1, section 3, be amended by striking out the word "Legislature," and inserting in lieu thereof the following words, viz.: "persons qualified to vote for members of the most numerous branch of the Legislature;" so as to make the third section of said article, when ratified by three-fourths of the States, read as follows:
Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the persons qualified to vote for members of the most numerous branch of the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.
As this history suggests, there's nothing in Article V that requires our usual tacking-on-the-end approach as opposed to Madison's initial scissors-and-paste approach, or even Johnson's hybrid approach. Whichever way we frame it, two thirds of both Houses have to concur in proposing changes to the Constitution. Anything that follows a resolving clause can be legally operative as part of those changes—whether it adds new language to the Constitution or revises existing language, and whether it does so with or without various conditions or caveats on its legal effect.
(I haven't yet run to ground how the states reacted to these provisions. But at least some treated the resolution language the way Congress did, as a fundamental part of the changes to the Constitution under consideration. For example, New Jersey's joint resolution ratifying the Seventeenth Amendment included the "in lieu of" clauses in reciting what Congress had actually resolved upon, before announcing that its state legislature "does hereby ratify the above recited proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States." And while its act ratifying the Twelfth Amendment didn't mention the in-lieu-of clauses, it did make clear that the legislature was ratifying the thing that Congress had proposed: the act declared that the "amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed at the first session of the Eighth Congress, * * * is hereby * * * ratified and made a part of the Constitution of the United States," only then adding "which amendment is in the following words, to wit: * * * .")
All this casts the ERA question in a new light. As far as I know, this practice of including operative language in resolution text has gone almost entirely unnoticed; the Twelfth Amendment's in-lieu-of clause doesn't seem to appear in any law review article or judicial opinion in Westlaw. Instead, most of the current debate—including the D.C. Circuit's recent opinion in Illinois v. Ferriero—focuses on twentieth-century caselaw. In a strangely reasoned opinion in Dillon v. Gloss, the Court rejected a tenuous claim that the Eighteenth Amendment's textual time limit rendered the whole Amendment invalid—not on the straightforward ground that amendments can say whatever they want, but on the wholly unnecessary ground that amendments must be adopted within "some reasonable time," and that this reasonable time is to be set by Congress, which has broad power to supply such "subsidiary matters of detail as the public interests and changing conditions may require." And in an equally strange opinion in Coleman v. Miller, the Court claimed that the Constitution vests "the ultimate authority in the Congress" to determine whether an amendment has in fact been adopted. (Cf. the Biden Administration OLC's 2022 suggestion that courts and Congress can still declare the ERA ratified.)
Both these cases seem wrongly reasoned. Article V makes no reference to any time limit, reasonable or no—which is why the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1992, is valid law. And Article V also contains no ban on time limits, which is why the Eighteenth Amendment's Section 3 is valid law too. There's no need to invent any generic congressional time-limit power to explain this, much less a power that could be exercised by simple majority vote outside the Article V process. And while Congress does have the Necessary and Proper Power, and while figuring out which amendments have been ratified might well be necessary and proper for carrying various things into execution, that doesn't create a generic congressional ratification-declaring power either—especially when the texts of the instruments themselves show it isn't so. (Knowing which statutes were passed and when is necessary and proper to a bunch of things too; but Congress can't avoid ex post facto problems by declaring past statutes to have been enacted earlier than they were, the accurate dates on the enrolled instruments be damned.)
The simpler picture is just that Congress, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, gets to decide what kinds of changes to the Constitution it wants to propose. If it puts those changes in a joint resolution, it can put them anywhere after a resolving clause; all that matters is that the instrument tells us that they've been resolved upon. And it just doesn't matter very much whether the operative language is found in a set of instructions ("strike section 3 and renumber subsequent sections"), in a separate piece of text which these instructions say will be added to the Constitution, or in some combination of the two.
On this picture, the "within seven years" limit in the ERA is plainly valid. Congress can impose a time limit like the Eighteenth Amendment's Section 3, in text that the resolution says will be added to the Constitution. Or it can impose the same time limit the way it did in the ERA, amid the instructions that specify when and whether any text will be added (e.g., "within seven years" or not at all). Or it can impose a time limit without any added text—say, in a resolution to "strike section 3 and renumber subsequent sections, but only if this amendment is ratified within seven years and not otherwise." It's all part of the amendment, the whole thing; everything Congress resolves upon is what's being proposed to amend the Constitution, even if we usually call only the text of an added article "The Seventeenth Amendment."
This picture also makes Congress's 1978 effort to extend the ERA deadline look pretty silly. The resolution is the amendment; changing the resolution ex post is proposing a new amendment without the votes. Could a simple majority in 1912 have added more provisions for the then-pending Seventeenth Amendment to act "in lieu of," erasing them from the Constitution without a two-thirds vote? (And without consulting the states that had already ratified?) If not, how could a mere majority in 1978 say that the then-pending ERA's "within seven years" requirement really means that ten years is okay too?
Is there anything resolution language can't do? Maybe. If, say, the edits in Johnson's proposed resolution hadn't matched the article text that followed, we'd have to decide what to do with an internally incoherent amendment—just as if Sections 1 and 2 of the article text were contradictory. Or if Congress seemed to be manipulating the process through sneaky resolution language (say, proposing an article "in which 'Congress' shall be read to mean 'the President' and vice versa"), maybe we'd say that the states didn't really ratify it, especially if their instruments of ratification fail to mention the bait-and-switch. But the notion that states ratify only the suggested article text, and not the whole suite of changes actually proposed by Congress, is hard to square with the history—which makes clear that resolutions, and not just suggested article text, are what Congress proposes. Besides, if Congress and the states are in such fatal disagreement on what an amendment says, why would the states' version win out, as opposed to the amendment's failing altogether? Both Congress and the states have to act together; the states can't ratify what Congress never really proposed. And the same goes for the ERA, in which what Congress really proposed is an amendment that's valid only if ratified within seven years from its submission.
I don't claim that this kind of resolution language settles the ERA question forever. But it may make it harder for a future Congress—or for the Biden Administration—to reject the sort of language that past Congresses have thought legally significant for hundreds of years.
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The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
When Congress proposed the Equal Rights Amendment in 1972, it specified in its joint resolution (86 Stat. 1523), agreed to by two-thirds of each House, that the ERA would become valid "when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission by the Congress." Not enough states ratified before the seven years elapsed, or even before the end of a three-year extension that Congress tried to grant by simple majority in 1978. So the ERA is generally thought to be dead.
But since then, a few more legislatures have purported to ratify the Amendment anyway, pushing the total number over three-fourths. So whether the U.S. Constitution currently includes the ERA or not partly depends on whether this "within seven years" limit is legally effective—or whether it's an unconstitutional addition to the two-thirds-and-three-fourths requirements of Article V. (It also depends on whether legislatures can rescind their ratifications, as some may have done; for more on that, see Michael Stokes Paulsen's General Theory of Article V.)
While looking for something else, I recently came across some material that might shed new light on the ERA's validity. The idea of putting legally operative language in the joint resolution wasn't an invention of the twentieth century, but a long tradition stretching back to 1803 and before. Not only in proposing the Bill of Rights, but also in proposing the Twelfth and the Seventeenth Amendments, Congress included in the amending resolutions crucial terms specifying the effect of the language that would be added and the parts of the Constitution that would be replaced—terms that, as far as I can tell, courts and scholars haven't yet noticed. This tradition offers a better explanation of Congress's powers vis-à-vis proposed amendments than the twentieth-century Supreme Court decisions that dominate the modern debate. And it suggests that the ERA really is dead.
In the twentieth century, Congress occasionally included time limits in an amendment's text. For example, Section 3 of the Eighteenth Amendment states that "[t]his article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress."
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Over time, it switched to placing the time limits in the amending resolution's language instead—so as not to "clutter up the Constitution," as Sen. Kefauver put it in 1955.
But the history of operative language in amending resolutions goes back far beyond Sen. Kefauver. When the First Congress proposed the Bill of Rights, it specified that "all or any of [its] articles" could be ratified independently by state legislatures, rather than having to be voted up or down as a package. This binding "procedural instruction" is relatively well known in the ERA debate; the Trump Administration's Office of Legal Counsel cited it in a 2020 opinion rejecting the ERA.
What's less well known is that not long after, when proposing the Twelfth Amendment in 1803, Congress included more instructions, this time of substance and not just of procedure. The opening of its joint resolution (2 Stat. 306) read:
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, two thirds of both houses concurring, That, in lieu of the third paragraph of the first section of the second article of the constitution of the United States, the following be proposed as an amendment to the constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three fourths of the legislatures of the several states, shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the said constitution, to wit :—
The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President; and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate; the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted: the person having the greatest number of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately by ballot the President. But in choosing the President, the vote shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional disability of the President.
The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have a majority, then from the two highest numbers on the list the Senate shall choose the Vice President: a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice.
But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States.
This "in lieu of" language wasn't just a preamble or interpretive commentary. It followed the resolving clause rather than preceding it: it was part of what Congress actually adopted, "two thirds of both houses concurring." And it specified which parts of the existing Constitution the new material suggested later on would, if ratified, replace. Anything in the original Article II, Section 1, Clause 3 was, by default, overridden by the new amendment; anything outside that clause was, by default, unaffected.
So "in lieu of" actually contributes to the legal content of the article text that the resolution proposed. Of course it's possible for that new language to have conflicted with other parts of the Constitution, parts it wasn't being adopted "in lieu of." But if it can be read consistently with those other parts of the Constitution, it should be—whereas we shouldn't narrow its new language to preserve what's being explicitly overridden. (In this way the "in lieu of" arguably resembles a non obstante clause, the subject of Caleb Nelson's great work on Preemption.)
And this language wasn't just boilerplate. Members of Congress seem to have thought it mattered. While the first set of amendments and the Eleventh Amendment were all relatively easy to tack on to the end of Constitution, the Twelfth Amendment was performing major surgery to the Constitution's text, with detailed edits to a complicated election scheme. During the deliberations, at least one Senator objected to making any cross-references from the new text to the old, arguing that the proposed amendment "would render it necessary in order to avoid confusion to repeal the section which comes within its purview." An early proposal in the House solved this problem by imposing its new rules only "in all future elections of President and Vice-President." Another draft version in the Senate was even more explicit, providing "That the third paragraph of the first section of the second article of the Constitution of the United States, in the words following, to wit: '[reciting the entire paragraph]:'—be expunged from the Constitution, and that the following paragraph be inserted in lieu thereof, to wit: '[reciting the new language to be added].'" And after a subsequent draft removed this expunged/inserted structure to follow the House's language, the Senate then came up with the final version, in which the "in lieu of" language was deliberately added back in.
Something similar happened a hundred years later in the Seventeenth Amendment. The 1912 joint resolution (37 Stat. 646) read as follows:
Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That in lieu of the first paragraph of section three of Article I of the Constitution of the United States, and in lieu of so much of paragraph two of the same section as relates to the filling of vacancies, the following be proposed as an amendment to the Constitution, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the States:
"The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.
"When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.
"This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution."
Here, too, the "in lieu of" clauses have legally operative effect. They specify how much of Article I, Section 3, Clauses 1 and 2 remain valid after the amendment's adoption. They make clear, for example, that one-third of the newly elected Senators will still "be chosen every second Year," as Clause 2 had previously provided; that part of Clause 2 isn't about filling vacancies, so its legal effect is preserved. And they also make clear that the new language has nothing to do with, say, Clause 3's requirement that Senators be thirty years old; even if a state's most famous 29-year-old might be "elected by the people thereof," that person still isn't a Senator.
And members of Congress again used this language on purpose. An early draft of the Seventeenth Amendment gave the states full power over the time, place, and manner of choosing Senators. Accordingly, that draft resolution also contained another in-lieu-of clause, making clear that any new text would operate "in lieu of all of paragraph 1 of section 4 of said Article I, in so far as same relates to any authority in Congress to make or alter regulations as to the times or manner of holding elections for Senators."
Other draft amendments put even more significant changes in their resolutions. In 1851, future president Andrew Johnson proposed a set of amendments on a variety of topics: popular election of the President, popular election of Senators, and staggered twelve-year terms for judges. His draft resolution had multiple resolving clauses, letting the states ratify some changes and not others; it also followed James Madison's initial suggestion of revising the existing text of the Constitution rather than tacking on amendments only at the end. For example, the second clause read:
Resolved, that article 1, section 3, be amended by striking out the word "Legislature," and inserting in lieu thereof the following words, viz.: "persons qualified to vote for members of the most numerous branch of the Legislature;" so as to make the third section of said article, when ratified by three-fourths of the States, read as follows:
Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the persons qualified to vote for members of the most numerous branch of the Legislature thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote.
As this history suggests, there's nothing in Article V that requires our usual tacking-on-the-end approach as opposed to Madison's initial scissors-and-paste approach, or even Johnson's hybrid approach. Whichever way we frame it, two thirds of both Houses have to concur in proposing changes to the Constitution. Anything that follows a resolving clause can be legally operative as part of those changes—whether it adds new language to the Constitution or revises existing language, and whether it does so with or without various conditions or caveats on its legal effect.
(I haven't yet run to ground how the states reacted to these provisions. But at least some treated the resolution language the way Congress did, as a fundamental part of the changes to the Constitution under consideration. For example, New Jersey's joint resolution ratifying the Seventeenth Amendment included the "in lieu of" clauses in reciting what Congress had actually resolved upon, before announcing that its state legislature "does hereby ratify the above recited proposed amendment to the Constitution of the United States." And while its act ratifying the Twelfth Amendment didn't mention the in-lieu-of clauses, it did make clear that the legislature was ratifying the thing that Congress had proposed: the act declared that the "amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed at the first session of the Eighth Congress, * * * is hereby * * * ratified and made a part of the Constitution of the United States," only then adding "which amendment is in the following words, to wit: * * * .")
All this casts the ERA question in a new light. As far as I know, this practice of including operative language in resolution text has gone almost entirely unnoticed; the Twelfth Amendment's in-lieu-of clause doesn't seem to appear in any law review article or judicial opinion in Westlaw. Instead, most of the current debate—including the D.C. Circuit's recent opinion in Illinois v. Ferriero—focuses on twentieth-century caselaw. In a strangely reasoned opinion in Dillon v. Gloss, the Court rejected a tenuous claim that the Eighteenth Amendment's textual time limit rendered the whole Amendment invalid—not on the straightforward ground that amendments can say whatever they want, but on the wholly unnecessary ground that amendments must be adopted within "some reasonable time," and that this reasonable time is to be set by Congress, which has broad power to supply such "subsidiary matters of detail as the public interests and changing conditions may require." And in an equally strange opinion in Coleman v. Miller, the Court claimed that the Constitution vests "the ultimate authority in the Congress" to determine whether an amendment has in fact been adopted. (Cf. the Biden Administration OLC's 2022 suggestion that courts and Congress can still declare the ERA ratified.)
Both these cases seem wrongly reasoned. Article V makes no reference to any time limit, reasonable or no—which is why the Twenty-Seventh Amendment, proposed in 1789 and ratified in 1992, is valid law. And Article V also contains no ban on time limits, which is why the Eighteenth Amendment's Section 3 is valid law too. There's no need to invent any generic congressional time-limit power to explain this, much less a power that could be exercised by simple majority vote outside the Article V process. And while Congress does have the Necessary and Proper Power, and while figuring out which amendments have been ratified might well be necessary and proper for carrying various things into execution, that doesn't create a generic congressional ratification-declaring power either—especially when the texts of the instruments themselves show it isn't so. (Knowing which statutes were passed and when is necessary and proper to a bunch of things too; but Congress can't avoid ex post facto problems by declaring past statutes to have been enacted earlier than they were, the accurate dates on the enrolled instruments be damned.)
The simpler picture is just that Congress, by a vote of two-thirds of each House, gets to decide what kinds of changes to the Constitution it wants to propose. If it puts those changes in a joint resolution, it can put them anywhere after a resolving clause; all that matters is that the instrument tells us that they've been resolved upon. And it just doesn't matter very much whether the operative language is found in a set of instructions ("strike section 3 and renumber subsequent sections"), in a separate piece of text which these instructions say will be added to the Constitution, or in some combination of the two.
On this picture, the "within seven years" limit in the ERA is plainly valid. Congress can impose a time limit like the Eighteenth Amendment's Section 3, in text that the resolution says will be added to the Constitution. Or it can impose the same time limit the way it did in the ERA, amid the instructions that specify when and whether any text will be added (e.g., "within seven years" or not at all). Or it can impose a time limit without any added text—say, in a resolution to "strike section 3 and renumber subsequent sections, but only if this amendment is ratified within seven years and not otherwise." It's all part of the amendment, the whole thing; everything Congress resolves upon is what's being proposed to amend the Constitution, even if we usually call only the text of an added article "The Seventeenth Amendment."
This picture also makes Congress's 1978 effort to extend the ERA deadline look pretty silly. The resolution is the amendment; changing the resolution ex post is proposing a new amendment without the votes. Could a simple majority in 1912 have added more provisions for the then-pending Seventeenth Amendment to act "in lieu of," erasing them from the Constitution without a two-thirds vote? (And without consulting the states that had already ratified?) If not, how could a mere majority in 1978 say that the then-pending ERA's "within seven years" requirement really means that ten years is okay too?
Is there anything resolution language can't do? Maybe. If, say, the edits in Johnson's proposed resolution hadn't matched the article text that followed, we'd have to decide what to do with an internally incoherent amendment—just as if Sections 1 and 2 of the article text were contradictory. Or if Congress seemed to be manipulating the process through sneaky resolution language (say, proposing an article "in which 'Congress' shall be read to mean 'the President' and vice versa"), maybe we'd say that the states didn't really ratify it, especially if their instruments of ratification fail to mention the bait-and-switch. But the notion that states ratify only the suggested article text, and not the whole suite of changes actually proposed by Congress, is hard to square with the history—which makes clear that resolutions, and not just suggested article text, are what Congress proposes. Besides, if Congress and the states are in such fatal disagreement on what an amendment says, why would the states' version win out, as opposed to the amendment's failing altogether? Both Congress and the states have to act together; the states can't ratify what Congress never really proposed. And the same goes for the ERA, in which what Congress really proposed is an amendment that's valid only if ratified within seven years from its submission.
I don't claim that this kind of resolution language settles the ERA question forever.
|
The European Union and energy firms from the continent are embarking on ambitious projects to develop Venezuela’s natural gas sector. Beyond the economic benefits, there is an essential environmental element. The run-down energy infrastructure has turned the Latin American country into a top polluter in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem degradation.
Europe will nonetheless need confidence. Since the White House started imposing sanctions –mainly between 2017 and 2020–, third-country multinationals have been scared away from the country. European corporations are mostly taking small steps, taking comfort in authorisation letters from Washington DC.
Beyond emissions, there are many other environmental concerns. Activists and experts are pointing out that pipelines and storage tanks are routinely spilling into the ground. Mangroves in national parks, essential for offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, are contaminated by leaks. In the far west of the country, Lake Maracaibo has been uninterruptedly enduring spills and other forms of pollution for decades, dating back to the rise of the oil industry in the country.
Gas flaring: Burning cash
The run-down infrastructure of PDVSA is causing a severe environmental problem: it is flaring an estimated two billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. In 2022, the country became the 17th largest emitter of methane from flaring and leaks, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The process of flaring is common in oil production. However, while Venezuela and the US burn through a similar volume of gas, the former produces around 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the latter around 12 million. Venezuela alone burns as much gas through flaring as Colombia consumes in a year.
The infrastructure was already facing problems before sanctions were implemented. The government of Hugo Chavez diverted PDVSA funds into social spending. While this allowed for the financing of ambitious programmes for health, education, and housing, the oil firm became over-indebted and under-invested in its operations. In 2012, 40% of PDVSA’s sales went to the state; even while global oil prices rose, the firm saw free negative cash flow. Corruption was also a key factor in the deterioration of the oil industry, before Washington DC ramped up pressure.
The novelty is that European firms intend to enter a virtually untapped sector, in partnership with a now eager government in Caracas. The main hurdle remains the extraterritoriality of US sanctions, given its broad reach in global finance and trade, even though it is illegal. Even companies from the US and other regions could also become interested if economic sanctions are lifted. After Chevron
This year, the EU has been proposing to boost Venezuela’s natural gas production with funds from the “Global Gateway”. The initiative is Brussels’ response to China’s “Belt and Road”. Although there are not many details available to the public, the stated goal is the “reduction of methane and CO2 emissions to tackle climate change, improve environmental preservation and energy efficiency in the State of Monagas.” Already in April, at the Bogota conference, the EU’s Josep Borrell pointed out the missed opportunity with gas, and the need to rescue the sector. This would have to take place within a larger deal guaranteeing fair elections in 2024, according to Borrell.
The project would require $1.5bn, and participants would include Eni, Repsol and Maurel & Prom, also using funds from the Global Gateway initiative. A pipeline would need to be constructed linking inland fields in Monagas to the sea at Güiria, in Sucre state, close to Trinidad. It would then be taken by sea to the island’s extensive facilities. According to Bloomberg, it would cost about “$350 million and would take about 36 to 48 months from research until construction.” Sources close to the matter have confirmed this information to Over the Hedge.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the natural gas would be liquefied by a joint operation between Shell and the local National Gas Company. There are other points of collaboration between Venezuela, the island nation, and the British-based multinational. The three parties are close to agreeing on a deal to develop the Dragon gas field. On September 14th, Shell finally gave financial approval for the development of the Manatee gas field, shared between Trinidad and Venezuela. Estimates say there are 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with 7.3 in the Venezuelan side and 2.7 on Trinidad’s.
On the Caribbean coast, there are two crucial, almost untapped offshore natural gas blocks: Cardon IV in the West and Dragon to the East, overlapping with Trinidad and Tobago. Within Cardon IV, Eni and Repsol jointly operate the Perla gas field. Following comfort letters from Washington DC. From there, PDVSA has been allowed to buy 550 million cubic feet per day (mmcf). After an upgrade announced in late August, output would rise to 800 mmcf. PDVSA estimates there are 9.51 trillion cubic feet in the Perla field, and more than 4 trillion in Dragon.
Investment conditions changing?
During the “commodities boom”, the bonanza allowed for the chavista government to set the rules. Extraction projects were frequently expropriated; ExxonMobil
“Natural gas sourced from oil production was always burned, or reinjected into the ground” said José Chalhoub, a political risk and oil consultant for Venergy. “It was not produced for the local market or exported. There just wasn’t any investment”.
Now, this same regime needs all the investment it can get. Maduro has announced the creation of special economic zones (SEZ), which are to learn from China’s example. They would need to materialise and, not just have a favourable regulatory framework but equally importantly the necessary infrastructure. For instance, Margarita Island, which would be one such SEZ, suffers from frequent water and electricity shortages. The employers’ union, Fedecámaras, is also demanding more guarantees on private investment and institutionalisation, so that the economy can grow sustainably.
The government in Caracas is still laying down one condition: it wants cash. Washington DC has made multiple waivers for firms to recoup debt owed to them with oil and gas shipments, inconveniently for Venezuela’s cash-strapped state. European energy corporations have thus far needed comfort letters to upgrade their relationship with Venezuela.
“Production and export of natural gas, looking towards the EU market, will be the key to unlock the blockade on Venezuela” said Victor Hugo Majano, editor at La Tabla. The hypothesis is that after sanctions were put in place against Russia, Europe is in desperate need of alternative sources of gas and other resources. Consequently, it could drop overcompliance, and venture into a legal yet risky territory. The Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) has punished firms from third countries for breaching its blacklists, in a legally questionable move. Banks such as BNP Paribas, ING, Credit Suisse, Commerzbank, Societe Generale and others have paid fines for dealing with Cuba and other targeted states.
Pollution problems have been neglected for decades, and significantly worsened since the economic and humanitarian crisis hit the country. However, we now stand at a potential turning point: foreign firms are willing to enter the scene and invest in renovating infrastructure, and the government seems ready to welcome them. The EU, in particular, is seeking to develop natural gas in a way that will considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On the other side, the Venezuelan government is changing its attitude towards foreign capital, as it attempts to recover a damaged economy.
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The European Union and energy firms from the continent are embarking on ambitious projects to develop Venezuela’s natural gas sector. Beyond the economic benefits, there is an essential environmental element. The run-down energy infrastructure has turned the Latin American country into a top polluter in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and ecosystem degradation.
Europe will nonetheless need confidence. Since the White House started imposing sanctions –mainly between 2017 and 2020–, third-country multinationals have been scared away from the country. European corporations are mostly taking small steps, taking comfort in authorisation letters from Washington DC.
Beyond emissions, there are many other environmental concerns. Activists and experts are pointing out that pipelines and storage tanks are routinely spilling into the ground. Mangroves in national parks, essential for offsetting greenhouse gas emissions, are contaminated by leaks. In the far west of the country, Lake Maracaibo has been uninterruptedly enduring spills and other forms of pollution for decades, dating back to the rise of the oil industry in the country.
Gas flaring: Burning cash
The run-down infrastructure of PDVSA is causing a severe environmental problem: it is flaring an estimated two billion cubic feet per day of natural gas. In 2022, the country became the 17th largest emitter of methane from flaring and leaks, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). The process of flaring is common in oil production. However, while Venezuela and the US burn through a similar volume of gas, the former produces around 700,000 barrels per day (bpd) and the latter around 12 million. Venezuela alone burns as much gas through flaring as Colombia consumes in a year.
The infrastructure was already facing problems before sanctions were implemented. The government of Hugo Chavez diverted PDVSA funds into social spending. While this allowed for the financing of ambitious programmes for health, education, and housing, the oil firm became over-indebted and under-invested in its operations. In 2012, 40% of PDVSA’s sales went to the state; even while global oil prices rose, the firm saw free negative cash flow. Corruption was also a key factor in the deterioration of the oil industry, before Washington DC ramped up pressure.
The novelty is that European firms intend to enter a virtually untapped sector, in partnership with a now eager government in Caracas. The main hurdle remains the extraterritoriality of US
|
sanctions, given its broad reach in global finance and trade, even though it is illegal. Even companies from the US and other regions could also become interested if economic sanctions are lifted. After Chevron
This year, the EU has been proposing to boost Venezuela’s natural gas production with funds from the “Global Gateway”. The initiative is Brussels’ response to China’s “Belt and Road”. Although there are not many details available to the public, the stated goal is the “reduction of methane and CO2 emissions to tackle climate change, improve environmental preservation and energy efficiency in the State of Monagas.” Already in April, at the Bogota conference, the EU’s Josep Borrell pointed out the missed opportunity with gas, and the need to rescue the sector. This would have to take place within a larger deal guaranteeing fair elections in 2024, according to Borrell.
The project would require $1.5bn, and participants would include Eni, Repsol and Maurel & Prom, also using funds from the Global Gateway initiative. A pipeline would need to be constructed linking inland fields in Monagas to the sea at Güiria, in Sucre state, close to Trinidad. It would then be taken by sea to the island’s extensive facilities. According to Bloomberg, it would cost about “$350 million and would take about 36 to 48 months from research until construction.” Sources close to the matter have confirmed this information to Over the Hedge.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the natural gas would be liquefied by a joint operation between Shell and the local National Gas Company. There are other points of collaboration between Venezuela, the island nation, and the British-based multinational. The three parties are close to agreeing on a deal to develop the Dragon gas field. On September 14th, Shell finally gave financial approval for the development of the Manatee gas field, shared between Trinidad and Venezuela. Estimates say there are 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, with 7.3 in the Venezuelan side and 2.7 on Trinidad’s.
On the Caribbean coast, there are two crucial, almost untapped offshore natural gas blocks: Cardon IV in the West and Dragon to the East, overlapping with Trinidad and Tobago. Within Cardon IV, Eni and Repsol jointly operate the Perla gas field. Following comfort letters from Washington DC. From there, PDVSA has been allowed to buy 550 million cubic feet per day (mmcf). After an upgrade announced in late August, output would rise to 800 mmcf. PDVSA estimates there are 9.51 trillion cubic feet in the Perla field, and more than 4 trillion in Dragon.
Investment conditions changing?
During the “commodities boom”, the bonanza allowed for the chavista government to set the rules. Extraction projects were frequently expropriated; ExxonMobil
“Natural gas sourced from oil production was always burned, or reinjected into the ground” said José Chalhoub, a political risk and oil consultant for Venergy. “It was not produced for the local market or exported. There just wasn’t any investment”.
Now, this same regime needs all the investment it can get. Maduro has announced the creation of special economic zones (SEZ), which are to learn from China’s example. They would need to materialise and, not just have a favourable regulatory framework but equally importantly the necessary infrastructure. For instance, Margarita Island, which would be one such SEZ, suffers from frequent water and electricity shortages. The employers’ union, Fedecámaras, is also demanding more guarantees on private investment and institutionalisation, so that the economy can grow sustainably.
The government in Caracas is still laying down one condition: it wants cash. Washington DC has made multiple waivers for firms to recoup debt owed to them with oil and gas shipments, inconveniently for Venezuela’s cash-strapped state. European energy corporations have thus far needed comfort letters to upgrade their relationship with Venezuela.
“Production and export of natural gas, looking towards the EU market, will be the key to unlock the blockade on Venezuela” said Victor Hugo Majano, editor at La Tabla. The hypothesis is that after sanctions were put in place against Russia, Europe is in desperate need of alternative sources of gas and other resources. Consequently, it could drop overcompliance, and venture into a legal yet risky territory. The Office of Foreign Assets (OFAC) has punished firms from third countries for breaching its blacklists, in a legally questionable move. Banks such as BNP Paribas, ING, Credit Suisse, Commerzbank, Societe Generale and others have paid fines for dealing with Cuba and other targeted states.
Pollution problems have been neglected for decades, and significantly worsened since the economic and humanitarian crisis hit the country. However, we now stand at a potential turning point: foreign firms are willing to enter the scene and invest in renovating infrastructure, and the government seems ready to welcome them. The EU, in particular, is seeking to develop natural gas in a way that will considerably reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On the other side, the Venezuelan government is changing its attitude towards foreign capital, as it attempts to recover a damaged economy.
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What is vinyl chloride? Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – Days after crews released and burned toxic chemicals carried by a train that wrecked in Ohio, residents were concerned about toxic substances that could be lingering in their evacuated neighborhoods.
About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday in East Palestine, according to rail operator Norfolk Southern and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Vinyl chloride was released into the air Monday from five of those cars before crews ignited it to get rid of the highly flammable toxic chemicals in a controlled environment, creating a dark plume of smoke.
Residents in the immediate area there and nearby in Pennsylvania were evacuated because of health risks from the fumes and had not been allowed to return as of Wednesday.
What is vinyl chloride?
The gas is used to make the polyvinyl chloride hard plastic resin in plastic products. It is found in products such as credit cards, furniture and car parts but is most notably used in PVC plastic piping, a common material in plumbing.
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Is vinyl chloride dangerous?
Vinyl chloride is associated with increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute.
The effect was studied in PVC pipemakers who breathed in vinyl chloride and developed rare liver cancers, said Ruth Lunn, who studies carcinogens at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
“If you worked longer, you had a higher risk, and if your exposure levels were high, you had a higher risk," Lunn said.
Vinyl chloride is dozens of times less toxic per molecule than the U.S.-banned insecticide DDT, but it's more dangerous per part than ammonia and natural gas, according to federal regulations that dictate acceptable levels in the air.
What happens when vinyl chloride burns?
Officials warned the controlled burn would send phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air. Phosgene is a highly toxic, colorless gas with a strong odor that can cause vomiting and breathing trouble and was used as a weapon in World War I.
Phosgene is considered safe at 0.1 parts per million during an eight-hour exposure, or 0.2 ppm for a 15-minute exposure. The eight-hour exposure threshold would have to be even lower when measuring inside people’s homes, where residents often spend more than eight consecutive hours.
Hydrogen chloride is a colorless to yellowish gas with a strong odor, and its primary effect on humans is skin, eye, nose and throat irritation. It is considered safe at 5 ppm for an eight-hour exposure.
What is being monitored?
James Justice, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said that a network of air station monitors inside and outside the evacuation zone was collecting samples and that none of their readings found anything to be concerned about. “We want to make sure that’s not going to change,” he said.
Justice said the agency was still working with experts to determine safe levels for various gases before reopening the evacuation zone. The incident response team did not specify what substances it was monitoring.
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The gases experts suspect are in the area are heavier than air, which means they could be sitting in low-lying areas if not dissipated.
National Guard members wearing protective gear were taking readings inside homes, basements and businesses, Maj. Gen. John Harris Jr. said.
The EPA also sampled nearby rivers to determine whether there has been any water contamination and was awaiting results.
When will the risk be over?
Whatever chemicals are in the air, gases largely dissipate fairly rapidly when out in the open, said George Gray, a public health professor at George Washington University. “Sunlight can change that, the movement of air can change that, temperature can change that,” Gray said.
Residents are concerned about long-term effects of low-grade exposure.
“There’s all that smoke and all those chemicals in there," said Mason Shields, who lives in East Palestine and visited an aid center outside the evacuation zone. “I’m wondering if it’s even going to be safe for people to return within the next week or month or however long.”
Borenstein reported from Kensington, Maryland. Associated Press videojournalist Patrick Orsagos contributed from East Palestine, Ohio.
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What is vinyl chloride? Toxic gases connected to Ohio train derailment cause concern
EAST PALESTINE, Ohio – Days after crews released and burned toxic chemicals carried by a train that wrecked in Ohio, residents were concerned about toxic substances that could be lingering in their evacuated neighborhoods.
About 50 cars, including 10 carrying hazardous materials, derailed in a fiery crash Friday in East Palestine, according to rail operator Norfolk Southern and the National Transportation Safety Board.
Vinyl chloride was released into the air Monday from five of those cars before crews ignited it to get rid of the highly flammable toxic chemicals in a controlled environment, creating a dark plume of smoke.
Residents in the immediate area there and nearby in Pennsylvania were evacuated because of health risks from the fumes and had not been allowed to return as of Wednesday.
What is vinyl chloride?
The gas is used to make the polyvinyl chloride hard plastic resin in plastic products. It is found in products such as credit cards, furniture and car parts but is most notably used in PVC plastic piping, a common material in plumbing.
SCHOOL DISTRICT SUED:Dad files federal lawsuit after Wisconsin police officer filmed kneeling on 12-year-old's neck
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Is vinyl chloride dangerous?
Vinyl chloride is associated with increased risk of liver cancer and other cancers, according to the federal government’s National Cancer Institute.
The effect was studied in PVC pipemakers who breathed in vinyl chloride and developed rare liver cancers, said Ruth Lunn, who studies carcinogens at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
“If you worked longer, you had a higher risk, and if your exposure levels were high, you had a higher risk," Lunn said.
Vinyl chloride is dozens of times less toxic per molecule than the U.S.-banned insecticide DDT, but it's more dangerous per part than ammonia and natural gas, according to federal regulations that dictate acceptable levels in the air.
What happens when vinyl chloride burns?
Officials warned the controlled burn would send phosgene and hydrogen chloride into the air. Phosgene is a highly toxic, colorless gas with a strong odor that can cause vomiting and breathing trouble and was used as a weapon in World War I.
Phosgene is considered safe at 0.1 parts per million during an eight-hour exposure, or
|
0.2 ppm for a 15-minute exposure. The eight-hour exposure threshold would have to be even lower when measuring inside people’s homes, where residents often spend more than eight consecutive hours.
Hydrogen chloride is a colorless to yellowish gas with a strong odor, and its primary effect on humans is skin, eye, nose and throat irritation. It is considered safe at 5 ppm for an eight-hour exposure.
What is being monitored?
James Justice, of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said that a network of air station monitors inside and outside the evacuation zone was collecting samples and that none of their readings found anything to be concerned about. “We want to make sure that’s not going to change,” he said.
Justice said the agency was still working with experts to determine safe levels for various gases before reopening the evacuation zone. The incident response team did not specify what substances it was monitoring.
'A BLACK HOLE':How a state medical board bungled sex abuse cases for years
11,000 DEAD:Earthquakes in Turkey, Syria are among the deadliest in recent history
The gases experts suspect are in the area are heavier than air, which means they could be sitting in low-lying areas if not dissipated.
National Guard members wearing protective gear were taking readings inside homes, basements and businesses, Maj. Gen. John Harris Jr. said.
The EPA also sampled nearby rivers to determine whether there has been any water contamination and was awaiting results.
When will the risk be over?
Whatever chemicals are in the air, gases largely dissipate fairly rapidly when out in the open, said George Gray, a public health professor at George Washington University. “Sunlight can change that, the movement of air can change that, temperature can change that,” Gray said.
Residents are concerned about long-term effects of low-grade exposure.
“There’s all that smoke and all those chemicals in there," said Mason Shields, who lives in East Palestine and visited an aid center outside the evacuation zone. “I’m wondering if it’s even going to be safe for people to return within the next week or month or however long.”
Borenstein reported from Kensington, Maryland. Associated Press videojournalist Patrick Orsagos contributed from East Palestine, Ohio.
|
You're more likely to die in a milder heatwave in Queensland compared to extreme hot weather conditions, new data shows
The risk of dying is 5 per cent higher in Queensland during a heatwave, a new study has found, however your chances increase if you live in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast or Gold Coast.
- The number of days of heatwaves in Queensland has increased
- Ambulance call-outs are more common during low-intensity heatwaves
- You're more at risk of dying in a heatwave in more built up areas
Low-intensity heatwaves are continuing today, with Brisbane to hit 36 degrees Celsius and Ipswich 38C, both well above the March averages.
James Cook University researchers have released new data which reveals how likely you are to die during a heatwave, with some results appearing counterintuitive.
They analysed death records from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and climate data from the Bureau of Meteorology between 2010 and 2019.
The study found that people who live in built-up areas, elders, and those with a low socio-economic background or medical conditions were more at risk of dying during heatwaves.
Furthermore, people living in metropolitan areas had a 7 per cent risk of dying in a "severe" heatwave, two percentage points higher than the state average.
"We call it the urban heat island effect, which happens when you're living in kind of a concrete jungle, that actually exacerbates the heat," researcher Hannah Mason said.
Interestingly, Ms Mason pointed out that the risk of dying in Brisbane reduced during an "extreme heatwave" compared to just "severe" conditions.
"There appears to be some adaptive measures going on, where in a city in an extreme heatwave, people know that they need to stay hydrated and flick on the air-conditioning once we get to those extreme levels of heat," she said.
Whereas during milder conditions, they're still going out to do the gardening, playing soccer, or going for walks, Ms Mason said.
The Department of Environment and Science contributed funding to the study, and researchers will continue to investigate heatwaves' impacts on emergency departments and hospital admissions, to inform the government and health services.
Number of heatwave days has grown
The paper revealed that the number of heatwave days each year across 455 regions in Queensland increased from 9,504 cumulative days in 2010-11 to 31,236 days in 2018-19.
"Over the last 100 years, heatwaves have killed more Australians than all other natural hazards combined," the department said.
"Heatwaves are predicted to become longer, more frequent and to be more intense due to the impacts of climate change."
Ms Mason said preliminary research had shown that ambulance call outs were most common during low-severity heatwaves, however that research is due to be published next month.
"If we've got a hospital system that are already operating at 100 per cent capacity, a 5 per cent increase in deaths causes a lot of extra pressure and stress on our system," Ms Mason said.
The study also showed that the over 65s were 9 per cent more likely to die in a heatwave, so too were people with mental and behavioural conditions, followed by respiratory conditions at 7 per cent.
While people with moderate and high socio-economic disadvantage were also more at risk (5 and 4 per cent), Ms Mason said that data was taken from postcodes rather than individual circumstances.
The study uses the excess heat factors classification for determining heatwaves.
Ms Mason called on governments to improve messaging and access to cool refuges and drinking water, particularly because the less severe heatwaves appear to have the worst consequences.
Ms Mason said heat-health impacts are considered largely preventable.
"Understanding who is at greater risk of mortality is important for local and state authorities to tailor public health messages,” she said.
"There is considerable variability across communities, demographic groups, and medical conditions, and there can be no 'one-size-fits-all' approach.
"To protect these groups, protective measures such as cooling systems, cool refuges, shady green spaces, access to cool drinking water, and social supports must be in place."
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You're more likely to die in a milder heatwave in Queensland compared to extreme hot weather conditions, new data shows
The risk of dying is 5 per cent higher in Queensland during a heatwave, a new study has found, however your chances increase if you live in Brisbane, the Sunshine Coast or Gold Coast.
- The number of days of heatwaves in Queensland has increased
- Ambulance call-outs are more common during low-intensity heatwaves
- You're more at risk of dying in a heatwave in more built up areas
Low-intensity heatwaves are continuing today, with Brisbane to hit 36 degrees Celsius and Ipswich 38C, both well above the March averages.
James Cook University researchers have released new data which reveals how likely you are to die during a heatwave, with some results appearing counterintuitive.
They analysed death records from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and climate data from the Bureau of Meteorology between 2010 and 2019.
The study found that people who live in built-up areas, elders, and those with a low socio-economic background or medical conditions were more at risk of dying during heatwaves.
Furthermore, people living in metropolitan areas had a 7 per cent risk of dying in a "severe" heatwave, two percentage points higher than the state average.
"We call it the urban heat island effect, which happens when you're living in kind of a concrete jungle, that actually exacerbates the heat," researcher Hannah Mason said.
Interestingly, Ms Mason pointed out that the risk of dying in Brisbane reduced during an "extreme heatwave" compared to just "severe" conditions.
"There appears to be some adaptive measures going on, where in a city in an extreme heatwave, people know that they need to stay hydrated and flick on the air-conditioning once we get to those extreme levels of heat," she said.
Whereas during milder conditions, they're still going out to do the gardening, playing soccer, or going for walks, Ms Mason said.
The Department of Environment and Science contributed funding to the study, and researchers will continue to investigate heatwaves' impacts on emergency departments and hospital admissions, to inform the government and health services.
Number of heatwave days has grown
The paper revealed that the number of heatwave days each year across 455 regions in Queensland increased from 9,504 cumulative days in 2010-11 to 31,
|
236 days in 2018-19.
"Over the last 100 years, heatwaves have killed more Australians than all other natural hazards combined," the department said.
"Heatwaves are predicted to become longer, more frequent and to be more intense due to the impacts of climate change."
Ms Mason said preliminary research had shown that ambulance call outs were most common during low-severity heatwaves, however that research is due to be published next month.
"If we've got a hospital system that are already operating at 100 per cent capacity, a 5 per cent increase in deaths causes a lot of extra pressure and stress on our system," Ms Mason said.
The study also showed that the over 65s were 9 per cent more likely to die in a heatwave, so too were people with mental and behavioural conditions, followed by respiratory conditions at 7 per cent.
While people with moderate and high socio-economic disadvantage were also more at risk (5 and 4 per cent), Ms Mason said that data was taken from postcodes rather than individual circumstances.
The study uses the excess heat factors classification for determining heatwaves.
Ms Mason called on governments to improve messaging and access to cool refuges and drinking water, particularly because the less severe heatwaves appear to have the worst consequences.
Ms Mason said heat-health impacts are considered largely preventable.
"Understanding who is at greater risk of mortality is important for local and state authorities to tailor public health messages,” she said.
"There is considerable variability across communities, demographic groups, and medical conditions, and there can be no 'one-size-fits-all' approach.
"To protect these groups, protective measures such as cooling systems, cool refuges, shady green spaces, access to cool drinking water, and social supports must be in place."
|
Yale experts chart course for move away from race-based medicine
Medical and public health research, practice and education regularly utilize race as a biologically relevant variable, operating upon historical systems of oppression.
Eric Wang, Senior Photographer
Researchers, epidemiologists and clinicians have begun to reconcile the history of systemic racism and its inherent links to the modern American medical system of research, training and practice — providing insight into what equitable changes can be made to these practices.
In 2020, Yale and affiliate healthcare practitioners and researchers called for a shift in medical and public health research, training and practice from a race-based to a race-conscious approach in a Lancet editorial. The editorial sparked the Office of Health Equity at Yale School of Medicine to review how race is utilized in their medical education with the goal of creating a more equitable training curriculum. Still to this day, healthcare researchers are debating how race should be approached or if it should even be used in epidemiological and genetic research, which influences evidence-based clinical training and practice.
“Race in medical care takes the form of shaping the actual clinical tools, and the way that we think about human physiology … that are kind of more insidious and not consciously recognized, from drug dosing to assessments of risk,” Jessica Cerdeña GRD ’22 MED ’23, one of the authors of this article, said. “It also shapes the way that patients are cared for, and clinical spaces, clinics, hospitals and so on. So I don’t view medicine as being really exceptional. It’s really kind of the norm in terms of how racism shapes our society.”
Cerdeña believes that the historical implications of the racialization of humans continues to permeate healthcare in the sense that race is still treated as a biologically relevant variable.
At Yale, professor of African American Studies and history of science, medicine and public health Carolyn Roberts is teaching the popular undergraduate course “Sickness and Health in African American History,” which details the historical linkages between slavery and the racialization of human classification in early scientific history with current medical practice and research.
According to Cerdeña and Roberts, medicine has been no exception to the racism which structures American society: there are many examples from the early origins of racism in medical education such as the classification of humans based on racial hierarchies, medical students sourcing Black bodies for anatomy labs and the exploitation of and experimentation on enslaved people.
Cerdeña and Roberts referenced the ways in which race correction is still used today in risk calculators such as eGFR, which determines kidney function, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and spirometers, which determine pulmonary function. These tools all utilize an input of whether the patient is Black in their calculation of risk.
For example, Black people are assigned a higher level of kidney function based on the eGFR calculation, due to the idea that they have more muscle mass, according to Roberts.
“One of the things that troubles me the most about what I call this ‘race habit,’ the habit to just go to race … as an easy rationale for human difference is because you miss the actual conditions in which people are living and dying,” Roberts said. “Rather than imagining there’s some difference in pulmonary function, why don’t we ask the patient like, ‘Where do you live?’ ‘What kind of air are you breathing?’ ‘Are you drinking clean water?’ A lot of the environmental toxins are in Black and Brown communities. … That is actually the most important part of care. The holistic view of the human person.”
Cerdeña echoed the sentiments that the current racialization of medicine fails to view patients as human beings, and that physicians are taught to analyze disease and diagnosis rather than to analyze what factors in the patient’s life could be reinforcing health and illness.
She noted the real dangers of propagating racism within medicine and healthcare, as these patient-provider interactions represent “moments of extreme vulnerability” in which patients seek healing.
“When we care for people who are racialized differently in our society, we treat them differently,” Cerdeña said. “That’s where medicine really kind of sets itself apart from the other spaces in which racism occurs, because we’re supposed to be a symbol of trust. Patients share all of their lives and their secrets with us. And when we go back on our word, by … reducing people who are complex, social, beautiful beings to seeing somebody as rudimentary as a skin tone, or the width of their nose, or their height, or their lip thickness, the shape of their face bones, that is a really kind of cruel form of treating someone.”
Additionally, Cerdeña and her colleague Emanuella Asabor MED ’24 GRD ’23 recently found that in UpToDate — a widely used resource physicians use in real-time to make clinical decisions for their patients — 93 percent of the time that Black or African American race was mentioned in the literature, it was done so in a way implying that race was biological.
Asabor emphasized that during clinical rotations, she observed physicians heavily rely upon this tool which consistently demonstrated “inappropriate usage” of Black race.
“Despite a wealth of research that has really challenged the utility of thinking about race in a biological way, we as a medical community are still having trouble understanding that race has limited utility as a proxy for biological difference,” Asabor said. “Often as a medical community we say that race is socially constructed, but I am not sure that the medical literature and the way that people think about race in practice necessarily reflects that statement.”
Lou Hart, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics and medical director of health equity in the Yale New Haven Health System, emphasized that medical school curriculum teaching that “certain outcomes are associated with certain racial groups” without explaining the additional factors leading to these disparities is a modern example of scientific racism.
Hussein Mohsen GRD ’22 — who earned his PhD in history of science, medicine and public health and computational biology and bioinformatics — noted that race has been rejected as a genetically relevant variable in genetics research.
“There is a strongly growing consensus that on a genetic level, race categories are neither valid nor accurate,” Mohsen said. “Biologicizing race is a legacy of early modern times, and it was a phenomenon that was muddled with confused results, collusion with colonial violence and scientific limitations.”
Both Mohsen and Cerdeña pointed out that the relationship between science and sociopolitical systems has always been “bi-directional,” and that both have historically fueled racial hierarchies by building off one another. They both emphasized the harmful ways that inappropriate data collection and the politics of data collection itself impact research into racial disparities or genetic variation.
Cerdeña pointed out that historically, doctors were responsible for propagating essentialist ideas that one could infer intelligence or someone’s likely behaviors from their skin color or skull size.
“Science, like any field, is in a bi-directional relationship with, and is embedded in, society,” Mohsen wrote. “There is an interaction between political and social transformations, and the produced scientific knowledge at a point in time and space. And that’s not to say that there are no patterns that could be observed in, say, nature, or that you can not measure or replicate results. Yet, there are always limitations in data, and there are politics determining what data are collected, and as importantly, what data are not collected; how results are interpreted; how hypotheses are generated; and which hypotheses are funded.”
Race as a variable in research
Many argue that racial data must be collected in epidemiological research in order to investigate disparities in care and determine genetic variation within human populations.
Within the field of genetics research, scientists have called for the need to use race as a variable with intention, or trace genetic variants as a function of ancestry as opposed to race which is a social construction.
“There has been a shift to using continental ancestry in genetic research instead of race,” Mohsen said. “But continental ancestry categories do have their limitations, and have inaccurately been conflated with race categories.”
Roberts emphasized that race as a social rather than biological category is “very important” and can drastically influence outcomes, as this influences our governance structures and political systems. She noted that framing race through this lens influences how researchers understand the different opportunities and privileges certain groups have over others.
“We need to just continually reiterate race as a social category as a social determinant of people’s health, and begin to somehow create language in the studies that are done to allow that to be blatantly clear, because we lean back on racist biology because it’s our habit,” Roberts said.
However, according to Asabor and Cerdeña, issues arise when this data is not used with intentionality and when correct hypotheses are not being formulated — which instead imply causation rather than correlation between race and health outcomes.
Asabor strongly believes race must be studied “explicitly” and that because the experience of race is “not reducible to oppression,” it is critical to collect data on race when trying to understand racial disparities. She emphasized that simply collecting data on income, for example, would miss the unique ways in which racism manifests itself in the United States when investigating health inequities.
She noted that while race is “certainly enacted through wealth and class,” this is not an exclusive interaction, as “oppression and marginalization” is a shared experience related to being Black in America.
For example, Asabor said, investigating maternal mortality disparities by only using income or education data would miss the fact that controlling for these factors, Black mothers still experience disparities, and that the “experience of being a Black woman” in the U.S. healthcare system is still shaped by “medical racism.”
However, Asabor acknowledged a prevalent issue in the field of epidemiology and public health research related to conflating race with social determinants of health. Asabor asserted that this phrase is too broad to be utilized in research when trying to determine targets for health interventions.
“To start, I think that social determinants of health as a phrase … is too broad and it lacks precision,” Asabor said. “Sometimes when we say social determinants of health, it becomes this catch-all phrase … one person will read social determinants of health and there are things that will pop into their mind and another person could … have a completely different set of issues that they are really thinking about when they see that phrase.”
Instead of focusing attention on attempting to understand the role “race” plays in creating disparities, we must rather ask questions about the role that “racism” plays in creating those disparities, Asabor said.
Abasor speculated that as people formulate studies to investigate racial disparities, they may be “careless” with the way they handle race as a variable in a way that they normally would not with other variables.
“If we shift the focus of attention from ‘How do people differ in their disease experiences on the basis of race?’ and instead we ask, ‘How do people differ in their illness experience on the basis of their relationship to structural marginalization on the basis of their race?’ I think we start to ask a much more precise question,” Asabor said.
According to Asabor and Cerdeña, researchers utilizing racial data “responsibly” must formulate hypotheses, questions and conceptual frameworks with intentionality. Asabor explained that in linking disease outcome disparities to specific groups of people, one must ask appropriate questions when utilizing race in quantitative research.
First, researchers must define what race means and what role it plays in the study’s context, as well as understand why it is necessary to utilize it as a variable in the study, in the case there is not a “better proxy” variable to answer the proposed question.
According to Asabor, the “scientific rigor” that approaching race in studies requires is lacking in comparison to the way other variables are approached in biomedicine.
She emphasized that many people conducting research on health equity and racial disparities are “comfortable designing studies without leaning on the rich literature on racism” and literature that may exist outside of public health. She noted that often, epidemiologists may intentionally avoid collaborating with health equity scholars, as they “do not recognize it as a space of expertise.”
Asabor advocates for scientists to recognize community partners’ expertise and form partnerships to shape a more just and inclusive healthcare system.
Hart leads data-driven efforts within YNHHS to intentionally collect data that can better inform leaders in establishing that racial disparities exist and understanding why they exist in order to address them.
While Hart understands that in statistical analysis, other covariates can be controlled to show that race doesn’t play a role in the independent variable and outcome, real life is different. “Social drivers of health” like access to housing and neighborhood safety cannot be “control[led] away” in real life, he said, emphasizing that not enough physicians implement this knowledge.
“Since race in our country has been so inextricably linked with class, with poverty, with lack of access, with who is an essential worker, with who takes mass transportation, who lives in what zip code, then clinically … it’s what shows up in front of you,” Hart said. “And I just think not enough clinicians are aware of that, of that history. And many are trying to hide from the difficult conversations that might come along with how different groups have been treated differently by the system.”
How do we achieve race-conscious healthcare?
According to Cerdeña, race-conscious medicine is a response to race-based medicine and considers racism to be a risk factor or problem rather than race. Recognizing the effect of racism on health outcomes “changes the equation,” Cerdeña said.
“We are no longer considering somebody by virtue of their race to be at increased … or lower risk for certain outcomes and it creates a responsibility to treat that and to intervene on racism,” she explained. “That means that I will advocate for policies that will put that person in a better environment, I will probe to consider what are the experiences of racism that somebody is encountering, I will recognize that these are not the experiences of individuals and that these are the result of interlocking and mutually constitutive and oppressive structures.”
Cerdeña emphasized how this thinking shifts the focus away from individual risk factors in terms of choices and behaviors, but towards targeting the environmental and social barriers to their health.
She argued that it should become a norm for doctors to think critically about dynamics such as patients’ experience with systematic oppression, access to affordable housing, access to health insurance and whether they need an interpreter to help them navigate the healthcare system.
“I think the norms really need to be that people pay attention, learn to know what racism looks like, how it’s institutionalized, how it is propagated,” Cerdeña said. “[That means] noticing all those dynamics, really centering patient narratives, and empathizing because everyone is entitled to that.”
Cerdeña believes that physicians have a responsibility to advocate for the policies that maximize their patients’ health, through increasing opportunities for preventive care and having a “structural solution” that can produce “tangible outcomes.”
She provided examples such as expanding Medicaid or addressing New Haven’s eviction crisis as potential legislation physicians should advocate for on behalf of their patients.
“We are the ones who are actually interacting with our patients and can be thinking about these things,” Cerdeña said. “We’re not always going to be the ones who are actually enacting legislation or local community interventions. But we have a voice … and it’s important for us to recognize how racism harms health, and to consider ourselves as important actors in the fight for racial health justice.”
According to Hart, when he arrived at the Office of Health Equity in 2021, there were already efforts under way to transform the medical school education, which also translates to equity work for providers within the system. He attributes the launch of this work to the efforts spurred by the Lancet article co-authors, alongside other key leaders at the School of Medicine.
Hart noted that although there is currently a “lack of awareness” within current providers regarding implicit bias and racism, and that it is difficult for many physicians to reconcile with these truths, the system can be transformed through “a generational shift” of physicians focused on delivering race-conscious care with a more equitable medical curriculum.
“There’s a whole generation of physicians that have kids who are growing up in a world that’s hard to segregate, [but] especially with online access, people can meet people from all around the world and break down barriers,” Hart said. “We are just kind of taught things differently in medical school, and maybe we’re a little bit more critical of the dogmas of medicine. … We will get there as more of the younger generation rises to power and takes on clinical leadership roles.”
Roberts emphasized that this shift to race-conscious medicine and de-racializing healthcare in America will take a long time. She hopes that in the future, more will be done to extricate the ties between racism and medicine.
“Right now we’re in, you know, like a 60-year-old experiment,” Roberts said. “The 60-year-old experiment is Black people having more equal access to white healthcare spaces… It’s miserably failing in a lot of ways. … We have now at least two decades or more of research showing that there’s disparate care. So little has changed in those 20 years. What are we doing if that is where we’re at? More has to be done.”
In 2021, the National Kidney Foundation and American Society of Nephrology reassessed the inclusion of race in diagnosing kidney disease, resulting in a novel eGFR equation that estimates kidney function without the inclusion of a race variable.
Correction 2/27: This article has been updated to accurately reflect Asabor’s wording.
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Yale experts chart course for move away from race-based medicine
Medical and public health research, practice and education regularly utilize race as a biologically relevant variable, operating upon historical systems of oppression.
Eric Wang, Senior Photographer
Researchers, epidemiologists and clinicians have begun to reconcile the history of systemic racism and its inherent links to the modern American medical system of research, training and practice — providing insight into what equitable changes can be made to these practices.
In 2020, Yale and affiliate healthcare practitioners and researchers called for a shift in medical and public health research, training and practice from a race-based to a race-conscious approach in a Lancet editorial. The editorial sparked the Office of Health Equity at Yale School of Medicine to review how race is utilized in their medical education with the goal of creating a more equitable training curriculum. Still to this day, healthcare researchers are debating how race should be approached or if it should even be used in epidemiological and genetic research, which influences evidence-based clinical training and practice.
“Race in medical care takes the form of shaping the actual clinical tools, and the way that we think about human physiology … that are kind of more insidious and not consciously recognized, from drug dosing to assessments of risk,” Jessica Cerdeña GRD ’22 MED ’23, one of the authors of this article, said. “It also shapes the way that patients are cared for, and clinical spaces, clinics, hospitals and so on. So I don’t view medicine as being really exceptional. It’s really kind of the norm in terms of how racism shapes our society.”
Cerdeña believes that the historical implications of the racialization of humans continues to permeate healthcare in the sense that race is still treated as a biologically relevant variable.
At Yale, professor of African American Studies and history of science, medicine and public health Carolyn Roberts is teaching the popular undergraduate course “Sickness and Health in African American History,” which details the historical linkages between slavery and the racialization of human classification in early scientific history with current medical practice and research.
According to Cerdeña and Roberts, medicine has been no exception to the racism which structures American society: there are many examples from the early origins of racism in medical education such as the classification of humans based on racial hierarchies, medical students sourcing Black bodies for anatomy labs and the exploitation of and experimentation on enslaved people.
Cerdeña and Roberts referenced the ways in which race correction is still used today in risk calculators such as eGFR, which
|
determines kidney function, cardiovascular disease risk factors, and spirometers, which determine pulmonary function. These tools all utilize an input of whether the patient is Black in their calculation of risk.
For example, Black people are assigned a higher level of kidney function based on the eGFR calculation, due to the idea that they have more muscle mass, according to Roberts.
“One of the things that troubles me the most about what I call this ‘race habit,’ the habit to just go to race … as an easy rationale for human difference is because you miss the actual conditions in which people are living and dying,” Roberts said. “Rather than imagining there’s some difference in pulmonary function, why don’t we ask the patient like, ‘Where do you live?’ ‘What kind of air are you breathing?’ ‘Are you drinking clean water?’ A lot of the environmental toxins are in Black and Brown communities. … That is actually the most important part of care. The holistic view of the human person.”
Cerdeña echoed the sentiments that the current racialization of medicine fails to view patients as human beings, and that physicians are taught to analyze disease and diagnosis rather than to analyze what factors in the patient’s life could be reinforcing health and illness.
She noted the real dangers of propagating racism within medicine and healthcare, as these patient-provider interactions represent “moments of extreme vulnerability” in which patients seek healing.
“When we care for people who are racialized differently in our society, we treat them differently,” Cerdeña said. “That’s where medicine really kind of sets itself apart from the other spaces in which racism occurs, because we’re supposed to be a symbol of trust. Patients share all of their lives and their secrets with us. And when we go back on our word, by … reducing people who are complex, social, beautiful beings to seeing somebody as rudimentary as a skin tone, or the width of their nose, or their height, or their lip thickness, the shape of their face bones, that is a really kind of cruel form of treating someone.”
Additionally, Cerdeña and her colleague Emanuella Asabor MED ’24 GRD ’23 recently found that in UpToDate — a widely used resource physicians use in real-time to make clinical decisions for their patients — 93 percent of the time that Black or African American race was mentioned in the literature, it was done so in a way implying that race was biological.
Asabor emphasized that during clinical rotations, she observed physicians heavily rely upon this tool which consistently demonstrated “inappropriate usage” of Black race.
“Despite a wealth of research that has really challenged the utility of thinking about race in a biological way, we as a medical community are still having trouble understanding that race has limited utility as a proxy for biological difference,” Asabor said. “Often as a medical community we say that race is socially constructed, but I am not sure that the medical literature and the way that people think about race in practice necessarily reflects that statement.”
Lou Hart, assistant professor of clinical pediatrics and medical director of health equity in the Yale New Haven Health System, emphasized that medical school curriculum teaching that “certain outcomes are associated with certain racial groups” without explaining the additional factors leading to these disparities is a modern example of scientific racism.
Hussein Mohsen GRD ’22 — who earned his PhD in history of science, medicine and public health and computational biology and bioinformatics — noted that race has been rejected as a genetically relevant variable in genetics research.
“There is a strongly growing consensus that on a genetic level, race categories are neither valid nor accurate,” Mohsen said. “Biologicizing race is a legacy of early modern times, and it was a phenomenon that was muddled with confused results, collusion with colonial violence and scientific limitations.”
Both Mohsen and Cerdeña pointed out that the relationship between science and sociopolitical systems has always been “bi-directional,” and that both have historically fueled racial hierarchies by building off one another. They both emphasized the harmful ways that inappropriate data collection and the politics of data collection itself impact research into racial disparities or genetic variation.
Cerdeña pointed out that historically, doctors were responsible for propagating essentialist ideas that one could infer intelligence or someone’s likely behaviors from their skin color or skull size.
“Science, like any field, is in a bi-directional relationship with, and is embedded in, society,” Mohsen wrote. “There is an interaction between political and social transformations, and the produced scientific knowledge at a point in time and space. And that’s not to say that there are no patterns that could be observed in, say, nature, or that you can not measure or replicate results. Yet, there are always limitations in data, and there are politics determining what data are collected, and as importantly, what data are not collected; how results are interpreted; how hypotheses are generated; and which hypotheses are funded.”
Race as a variable in research
Many argue that racial data must be collected in epidemiological research in order to investigate disparities in care and determine genetic variation within human populations.
Within the field of genetics research, scientists have called for the need to use race as a variable with intention, or trace genetic variants as a function of ancestry as opposed to race which is a social construction.
“There has been a shift to using continental ancestry in genetic research instead of race,” Mohsen said. “But continental ancestry categories do have their limitations, and have inaccurately been conflated with race categories.”
Roberts emphasized that race as a social rather than biological category is “very important” and can drastically influence outcomes, as this influences our governance structures and political systems. She noted that framing race through this lens influences how researchers understand the different opportunities and privileges certain groups have over others.
“We need to just continually reiterate race as a social category as a social determinant of people’s health, and begin to somehow create language in the studies that are done to allow that to be blatantly clear, because we lean back on racist biology because it’s our habit,” Roberts said.
However, according to Asabor and Cerdeña, issues arise when this data is not used with intentionality and when correct hypotheses are not being formulated — which instead imply causation rather than correlation between race and health outcomes.
Asabor strongly believes race must be studied “explicitly” and that because the experience of race is “not reducible to oppression,” it is critical to collect data on race when trying to understand racial disparities. She emphasized that simply collecting data on income, for example, would miss the unique ways in which racism manifests itself in the United States when investigating health inequities.
She noted that while race is “certainly enacted through wealth and class,” this is not an exclusive interaction, as “oppression and marginalization” is a shared experience related to being Black in America.
For example, Asabor said, investigating maternal mortality disparities by only using income or education data would miss the fact that controlling for these factors, Black mothers still experience disparities, and that the “experience of being a Black woman” in the U.S. healthcare system is still shaped by “medical racism.”
However, Asabor acknowledged a prevalent issue in the field of epidemiology and public health research related to conflating race with social determinants of health. Asabor asserted that this phrase is too broad to be utilized in research when trying to determine targets for health interventions.
“To start, I think that social determinants of health as a phrase … is too broad and it lacks precision,” Asabor said. “Sometimes when we say social determinants of health, it becomes this catch-all phrase … one person will read social determinants of health and there are things that will pop into their mind and another person could … have a completely different set of issues that they are really thinking about when they see that phrase.”
Instead of focusing attention on attempting to understand the role “race” plays in creating disparities, we must rather ask questions about the role that “racism” plays in creating those disparities, Asabor said.
Abasor speculated that as people formulate studies to investigate racial disparities, they may be “careless” with the way they handle race as a variable in a way that they normally would not with other variables.
“If we shift the focus of attention from ‘How do people differ in their disease experiences on the basis of race?’ and instead we ask, ‘How do people differ in their illness experience on the basis of their relationship to structural marginalization on the basis of their race?’ I think we start to ask a much more precise question,” Asabor said.
According to Asabor and Cerdeña, researchers utilizing racial data “responsibly” must formulate hypotheses, questions and conceptual frameworks with intentionality. Asabor explained that in linking disease outcome disparities to specific groups of people, one must ask appropriate questions when utilizing race in quantitative research.
First, researchers must define what race means and what role it plays in the study’s context, as well as understand why it is necessary to utilize it as a variable in the study, in the case there is not a “better proxy” variable to answer the proposed question.
According to Asabor, the “scientific rigor” that approaching race in studies requires is lacking in comparison to the way other variables are approached in biomedicine.
She emphasized that many people conducting research on health equity and racial disparities are “comfortable designing studies without leaning on the rich literature on racism” and literature that may exist outside of public health. She noted that often, epidemiologists may intentionally avoid collaborating with health equity scholars, as they “do not recognize it as a space of expertise.”
Asabor advocates for scientists to recognize community partners’ expertise and form partnerships to shape a more just and inclusive healthcare system.
Hart leads data-driven efforts within YNHHS to intentionally collect data that can better inform leaders in establishing that racial disparities exist and understanding why they exist in order to address them.
While Hart understands that in statistical analysis, other covariates can be controlled to show that race doesn’t play a role in the independent variable and outcome, real life is different. “Social drivers of health” like access to housing and neighborhood safety cannot be “control[led] away” in real life, he said, emphasizing that not enough physicians implement this knowledge.
“Since race in our country has been so inextricably linked with class, with poverty, with lack of access, with who is an essential worker, with who takes mass transportation, who lives in what zip code, then clinically … it’s what shows up in front of you,” Hart said. “And I just think not enough clinicians are aware of that, of that history. And many are trying to hide from the difficult conversations that might come along with how different groups have been treated differently by the system.”
How do we achieve race-conscious healthcare?
According to Cerdeña, race-conscious medicine is a response to race-based medicine and considers racism to be a risk factor or problem rather than race. Recognizing the effect of racism on health outcomes “changes the equation,” Cerdeña said.
“We are no longer considering somebody by virtue of their race to be at increased … or lower risk for certain outcomes and it creates a responsibility to treat that and to intervene on racism,” she explained. “That means that I will advocate for policies that will put that person in a better environment, I will probe to consider what are the experiences of racism that somebody is encountering, I will recognize that these are not the experiences of individuals and that these are the result of interlocking and mutually constitutive and oppressive structures.”
Cerdeña emphasized how this thinking shifts the focus away from individual risk factors in terms of choices and behaviors, but towards targeting the environmental and social barriers to their health.
She argued that it should become a norm for doctors to think critically about dynamics such as patients’ experience with systematic oppression, access to affordable housing, access to health insurance and whether they need an interpreter to help them navigate the healthcare system.
“I think the norms really need to be that people pay attention, learn to know what racism looks like, how it’s institutionalized, how it is propagated,” Cerdeña said. “[That means] noticing all those dynamics, really centering patient narratives, and empathizing because everyone is entitled to that.”
Cerdeña believes that physicians have a responsibility to advocate for the policies that maximize their patients’ health, through increasing opportunities for preventive care and having a “structural solution” that can produce “tangible outcomes.”
She provided examples such as expanding Medicaid or addressing New Haven’s eviction crisis as potential legislation physicians should advocate for on behalf of their patients.
“We are the ones who are actually interacting with our patients and can be thinking about these things,” Cerdeña said. “We’re not always going to be the ones who are actually enacting legislation or local community interventions. But we have a voice … and it’s important for us to recognize how racism harms health, and to consider ourselves as important actors in the fight for racial health justice.”
According to Hart, when he arrived at the Office of Health Equity in 2021, there were already efforts under way to transform the medical school education, which also translates to equity work for providers within the system. He attributes the launch of this work to the efforts spurred by the Lancet article co-authors, alongside other key leaders at the School of Medicine.
Hart noted that although there is currently a “lack of awareness” within current providers regarding implicit bias and racism, and that it is difficult for many physicians to reconcile with these truths, the system can be transformed through “a generational shift” of physicians focused on delivering race-conscious care with a more equitable medical curriculum.
“There’s a whole generation of physicians that have kids who are growing up in a world that’s hard to segregate, [but] especially with online access, people can meet people from all around the world and break down barriers,” Hart said. “We are just kind of taught things differently in medical school, and maybe we’re a little bit more critical of the dogmas of medicine. … We will get there as more of the younger generation rises to power and takes on clinical leadership roles.”
Roberts emphasized that this shift to race-conscious medicine and de-racializing healthcare in America will take a long time. She hopes that in the future, more will be done to extricate the ties between racism and medicine.
“Right now we’re in, you know, like a 60-year-old experiment,” Roberts said. “The 60-year-old experiment is Black people having more equal access to white healthcare spaces… It’s miserably failing in a lot of ways. … We have now at least two decades or more of research showing that there’s disparate care. So little has changed in those 20 years. What are we doing if that is where we’re at? More has to be done.”
In 2021, the National Kidney Foundation and American Society of Nephrology reassessed the inclusion of race in diagnosing kidney disease, resulting in a novel eGFR equation that estimates kidney function without the inclusion of a race variable.
Correction 2/27: This article has been updated to accurately reflect Asabor’s wording.
|
Mountaineer and environmentalist Bayram Çini has been hiking around Lake Akşehir, one of Türkiye's largest lakes, since 1995.
It was once a sprawling deep blue expanse, and home to more than 60 types of birds and countless fish species, some of which only existed here.
"In fact, the value given to the lake cannot be explained," Mr Çini said, adding that it was the centre of local industry, culture and even folk tales.
But this year, it's no longer a lake.
After watching Akşehir slowing dry up for years, Mr Çini was horrified on his most recent visit to find nothing but a huge plane of cracked earth scattered with dead birds.
And it's not the only one. Mr Çini said four of the great tectonic lakes of this vast region known as Türkiye's Lake District have dried up and four more have receded to critically low levels.
In a study published in the journal Science last week, a team of international researchers reported that more than half of the world's large lakes and reservoirs had shrunk since the early 1990s due to climate change, unregulated water use and dam construction.
The report, which used satellite measurements combined with climate and hydrological models, found "significant drying trends" in 53 per cent of the world's natural lakes.
It said unsustainable human use and rising temperatures had driven lake levels down, resulting in the loss of billions of tons of water.
In Türkiye, which is almost entirely covered by three of the world's critical biodiversity hotspots, experts say water loss is effecting endemic species, and impacting migratory bird numbers on a harrowing scale.
Across the country over the past 50 years, dozens of lakes as well as around 1.5 million hectares of wetland have dried up, sometimes taking entire species along with them, said Dr Çağan H Şekercioğlu, a Turkish professor of ecology, ornithology and conservation biology.
"A lot of species are going extinct, especially Turkey’s endemic freshwater fish, and people don't even notice," he told the ABC, using Türkiye's previous English name which was officially changed last year.
"They just die quietly — gone forever — and there's nobody to mourn them."
Last year, Dr Şekercioğlu said he travelled to the Lake District to film a documentary about a species of fish that was endemic to one particular lake.
Instead of a lake, they found "a field covered in concrete, rubble and garbage".
"Here's a lake with an endemic fish species — gone! And these fish are now extinct from the planet and we're the first people to notice it," he recalled.
Of the 96 countries where he has worked, he said the state of Türkiye's wetlands "are by far the worst", and while it's "fashionable to blame climate change", the main culprit is actually unsustainable water use and draining for agriculture and development.
"Climate change often just delivers the last blow."
Türkiye's Lake District turning to dust
Back at Lake Akşehir, Mr Çini explained that for months birds that once lived or migrated there have been dying off as the waters receded.
When he first saw scores of dead young mallard ducks in December, he said "he couldn't breathe".
"Seeing thousands of mallards dead really affected me deeply," he said.
"Believe me, I forgot my humanity in front of that scene. It was unfair to these souls," he said, explaining that the lake was dried by human hands, but nature was paying the ultimate price.
Mr Çini began an investigation into the cause of the deaths with the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, but no toxic or chemical substances were found.
He believes, being the end of the breeding season, the young ducks could not fly well enough yet to make it to nearby Lake Eber, which has also severely receded.
Mr Çini said illegal damming of streams and unregulated use of underground water supplies for agriculture was fast pushing the area towards "desertification".
"For 10,000 years, the lake and the fertile land surrounding it gave us life, but we did not understand it," he said.
"Dams are built on every stream bed and we dump our waste into this area."
But locals say small dams and irrigation are vital for their farmlands, while more than 700 hydro-electric facilities — some of which have flooded villages and natural habits while drying up lakes and river downstream — generate about 17 per cent of Turkey’s electricity.
For 30 years, Mr Çini and others have advocated for change, but have instead witnessed the slow death of their beloved lakes, and now much of the plant and animal life of the region is "on the verge of extinction".
"This world is not just ours, it is their home too … but we destroy it with our own hands."
Türkiye's 'damming craze' reaches the 'wild east'
On the other side of Türkiye, Dr Şekercioğlu and his small team of workers and volunteers are fighting to save Lake Kuyucuk from the same fate.
Dr Şekercioğlu grew up in the suburbs of Istanbul, playing in the wetlands nearby and dreaming of becoming a zoologist.
While growing up, he saw those wetlands drained and developed, and that loss inspired a lifetime dedicated to conservation.
The now 47-year-old went on to study biology, ecology and ornithology at Harvard and then Stanford before returning for a research project on butterflies in Türkiye's "untamed and wild east".
"I always thought of the eastern part of the country like 'Turkey's Alaska'", he said, but even in this remote region, he discovered a "huge human impact" and land destroyed by overgrazing and the country's "damming craze".
"And since we discovered eight [butterfly] species new to science we realised that a number of species probably went extinct without ever being discovered, so that was really eye opening."
This inspired the creation of the KuzeyDoğa Society — a conservation group founded by Dr Şekercioğlu in 2008 to preserve the critical wildlife habits of the east.
After recording 313 bird species in this "globally critical" region, the team saw the levels of Lake Kuyucuk begin to drop due to ill-planned and illegal blocking of all five streams feeding the lake for agricultural use.
Complaints to local government only led to attempts to stop the team's conservation work and "silence them".
By 2018, this once 230-hectare lake was "completely gone".
'It's not too late'
"To save the lake from disappearing permanently, we had to provide it with emergency water," Dr Şekercioğlu said.
They began pumping underground water to replenish part of the lake, effectively putting the region's ecology on "life support".
"As an ecologist, I know this is not a sustainable solution … but we just had to keep it going," he said.
"Meanwhile, we worked with the government to convince local villagers to take down two of the smaller dams."
In December last year, they had a breakthrough, after the Kars provincial governor ordered the largest illegal dam to be taken down.
"We were so excited," he recalled, but the local farmers who say they need the water for their livestock and crops, simply rented a bulldozer and rebuilt it within weeks.
The fight continues as the team face threats for their conservation efforts.
In the meantime, what remains of the lake is a wet marshland with some water in the centre.
"It's no longer like the lake it used to be," he said, adding that the loss in bird numbers was staggering.
"In the fall when it's like the most important time, it used to have 40,000 to 45,000 birds and now it's got a few thousand."Loading...
But he believes there is still time to save Kuyucuk and other disappearing lakes across the world.
"It's not too late because most of it is due to human impact," Dr Şekercioğlu said.
"People simply blame climate change instead of solving the human problem. They say, 'oh, it's because of climate change that the forests are burning. It's climate change that is drying the lakes. What can we do?'"
But he says in reality, there's a lot that can be done through efficient water usage.
"If the government enforces existing laws about water usage and damming it can be reversed," he said, adding that agriculture doesn't need to suffer.
In recent years, The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has stated that models were being created to reduce water use and promote crops with low water consumption.
Dr Şekercioğlu said by some estimates, a simple change to drip irrigation could reduce agricultural water consumption in Türkiye by up to 90 per cent.
But currently, most of the country's irrigation is via open channels, resulting in huge evaporation loss, and if nothing changes, he said, in the coming years "we will lose dozens more lakes and wetlands".
Türkiye's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change did not respond to requests for comment.
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Mountaineer and environmentalist Bayram Çini has been hiking around Lake Akşehir, one of Türkiye's largest lakes, since 1995.
It was once a sprawling deep blue expanse, and home to more than 60 types of birds and countless fish species, some of which only existed here.
"In fact, the value given to the lake cannot be explained," Mr Çini said, adding that it was the centre of local industry, culture and even folk tales.
But this year, it's no longer a lake.
After watching Akşehir slowing dry up for years, Mr Çini was horrified on his most recent visit to find nothing but a huge plane of cracked earth scattered with dead birds.
And it's not the only one. Mr Çini said four of the great tectonic lakes of this vast region known as Türkiye's Lake District have dried up and four more have receded to critically low levels.
In a study published in the journal Science last week, a team of international researchers reported that more than half of the world's large lakes and reservoirs had shrunk since the early 1990s due to climate change, unregulated water use and dam construction.
The report, which used satellite measurements combined with climate and hydrological models, found "significant drying trends" in 53 per cent of the world's natural lakes.
It said unsustainable human use and rising temperatures had driven lake levels down, resulting in the loss of billions of tons of water.
In Türkiye, which is almost entirely covered by three of the world's critical biodiversity hotspots, experts say water loss is effecting endemic species, and impacting migratory bird numbers on a harrowing scale.
Across the country over the past 50 years, dozens of lakes as well as around 1.5 million hectares of wetland have dried up, sometimes taking entire species along with them, said Dr Çağan H Şekercioğlu, a Turkish professor of ecology, ornithology and conservation biology.
"A lot of species are going extinct, especially Turkey’s endemic freshwater fish, and people don't even notice," he told the ABC, using Türkiye's previous English name which was officially changed last year.
"They just die quietly — gone forever — and there's nobody to mourn them."
Last year, Dr Şekercioğlu said he travelled to the Lake District to film a documentary about a species of fish that was endemic to one particular lake.
Instead of a lake, they found "a field covered in
|
concrete, rubble and garbage".
"Here's a lake with an endemic fish species — gone! And these fish are now extinct from the planet and we're the first people to notice it," he recalled.
Of the 96 countries where he has worked, he said the state of Türkiye's wetlands "are by far the worst", and while it's "fashionable to blame climate change", the main culprit is actually unsustainable water use and draining for agriculture and development.
"Climate change often just delivers the last blow."
Türkiye's Lake District turning to dust
Back at Lake Akşehir, Mr Çini explained that for months birds that once lived or migrated there have been dying off as the waters receded.
When he first saw scores of dead young mallard ducks in December, he said "he couldn't breathe".
"Seeing thousands of mallards dead really affected me deeply," he said.
"Believe me, I forgot my humanity in front of that scene. It was unfair to these souls," he said, explaining that the lake was dried by human hands, but nature was paying the ultimate price.
Mr Çini began an investigation into the cause of the deaths with the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, but no toxic or chemical substances were found.
He believes, being the end of the breeding season, the young ducks could not fly well enough yet to make it to nearby Lake Eber, which has also severely receded.
Mr Çini said illegal damming of streams and unregulated use of underground water supplies for agriculture was fast pushing the area towards "desertification".
"For 10,000 years, the lake and the fertile land surrounding it gave us life, but we did not understand it," he said.
"Dams are built on every stream bed and we dump our waste into this area."
But locals say small dams and irrigation are vital for their farmlands, while more than 700 hydro-electric facilities — some of which have flooded villages and natural habits while drying up lakes and river downstream — generate about 17 per cent of Turkey’s electricity.
For 30 years, Mr Çini and others have advocated for change, but have instead witnessed the slow death of their beloved lakes, and now much of the plant and animal life of the region is "on the verge of extinction".
"This world is not just ours, it is their home too … but we destroy it with our own hands."
Türkiye's 'damming craze' reaches the 'wild east'
On the other side of Türkiye, Dr Şekercioğlu and his small team of workers and volunteers are fighting to save Lake Kuyucuk from the same fate.
Dr Şekercioğlu grew up in the suburbs of Istanbul, playing in the wetlands nearby and dreaming of becoming a zoologist.
While growing up, he saw those wetlands drained and developed, and that loss inspired a lifetime dedicated to conservation.
The now 47-year-old went on to study biology, ecology and ornithology at Harvard and then Stanford before returning for a research project on butterflies in Türkiye's "untamed and wild east".
"I always thought of the eastern part of the country like 'Turkey's Alaska'", he said, but even in this remote region, he discovered a "huge human impact" and land destroyed by overgrazing and the country's "damming craze".
"And since we discovered eight [butterfly] species new to science we realised that a number of species probably went extinct without ever being discovered, so that was really eye opening."
This inspired the creation of the KuzeyDoğa Society — a conservation group founded by Dr Şekercioğlu in 2008 to preserve the critical wildlife habits of the east.
After recording 313 bird species in this "globally critical" region, the team saw the levels of Lake Kuyucuk begin to drop due to ill-planned and illegal blocking of all five streams feeding the lake for agricultural use.
Complaints to local government only led to attempts to stop the team's conservation work and "silence them".
By 2018, this once 230-hectare lake was "completely gone".
'It's not too late'
"To save the lake from disappearing permanently, we had to provide it with emergency water," Dr Şekercioğlu said.
They began pumping underground water to replenish part of the lake, effectively putting the region's ecology on "life support".
"As an ecologist, I know this is not a sustainable solution … but we just had to keep it going," he said.
"Meanwhile, we worked with the government to convince local villagers to take down two of the smaller dams."
In December last year, they had a breakthrough, after the Kars provincial governor ordered the largest illegal dam to be taken down.
"We were so excited," he recalled, but the local farmers who say they need the water for their livestock and crops, simply rented a bulldozer and rebuilt it within weeks.
The fight continues as the team face threats for their conservation efforts.
In the meantime, what remains of the lake is a wet marshland with some water in the centre.
"It's no longer like the lake it used to be," he said, adding that the loss in bird numbers was staggering.
"In the fall when it's like the most important time, it used to have 40,000 to 45,000 birds and now it's got a few thousand."Loading...
But he believes there is still time to save Kuyucuk and other disappearing lakes across the world.
"It's not too late because most of it is due to human impact," Dr Şekercioğlu said.
"People simply blame climate change instead of solving the human problem. They say, 'oh, it's because of climate change that the forests are burning. It's climate change that is drying the lakes. What can we do?'"
But he says in reality, there's a lot that can be done through efficient water usage.
"If the government enforces existing laws about water usage and damming it can be reversed," he said, adding that agriculture doesn't need to suffer.
In recent years, The Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has stated that models were being created to reduce water use and promote crops with low water consumption.
Dr Şekercioğlu said by some estimates, a simple change to drip irrigation could reduce agricultural water consumption in Türkiye by up to 90 per cent.
But currently, most of the country's irrigation is via open channels, resulting in huge evaporation loss, and if nothing changes, he said, in the coming years "we will lose dozens more lakes and wetlands".
Türkiye's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry and the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change did not respond to requests for comment.
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In the Netherlands, a farmers party taps into widespread discontent with government
LEIDEN, The Netherlands — On a strip of land amongst the canals that crisscross the flat Dutch countryside stand 50 black-and-white Holstein cows, heads down, chewing on a lunch of hay served to them by their owner, farmer Wilbert van der Post.
"I'm the fourth generation on this farm," says van der Post as he spreads the hay along the floor of the barn. "My great-grandfather came here around 1900."
Van der Post now fears he might be his family's last generation of farmers. The manure and urine his cows produce is rich in nitrogen compounds that contribute to smog, harming the lungs of his country's 17.5 million residents. Van der Post's cows are among tens of millions of animals nationwide that are contributing to what environmentalists call a nitrogen crisis.
The Netherlands, only the size of Maryland, is the world's second-largest exporter of food. It's one of the most intensely farmed countries in the world, and its soil has high levels of environmentally damaging nitrogen compounds from both animal manure and fertilizers.
A series of court rulings has forced the Dutch government to come up with ways to reduce nitrogen pollution, among them cutting animal herds by half by the end of this decade.
"If every farmer has to reduce 50% of their herd, it will be a problem for me," says van der Post. "It's not possible to earn money from that."
Van der Post says he's already turned to other ways to make money. He's organizing school excursions to his farm, and corporate retreats.
"We do cow cuddling," he explains. "That's when people come here and pay us to lie against a cow."
But at around $50 per cow-cuddling session, he says it's still not enough for him to make a steady income under the new nitrogen reduction rules.
An environmental reckoning forces a change in Dutch farming
Those rules, say environmentalists, are being implemented for a reason.
"We have an enormous amount of manure and an enormous amount of emissions that you hardly find somewhere else in the world," says Natasja Oerlemans, head of food and agriculture for the World Wildlife Fund of the Netherlands.
"Basically, a former minister put it as follows: we import all this feed, we produce meat and dairy, and we export 70 to 80% of meat and dairy," she says. "And the s*** remains here, literally."
Oerlemans says Dutch farmers import most of their animals and nitrogen-rich feed. The small nation produces meat, dairy and eggs from 4 million cows, 13 million pigs and 104 million chickens each year. She says the urine and manure these animals produce emit high levels of nitrogen compounds.
"If you look at the European nitrogen emission maps in the Netherlands, it's not even dark red, it's not even purple, but it's black," says Oerlemans. "It's the highest value in Europe as far as it goes for nitrogen emissions."
Oerlemans supports the 2019 Dutch court decision directing the government to do something to drastically cut these emissions, but she also thinks farmers should receive government subsidies while they cull their herds and transition to less intensive farming.
Dutch farmers, though, would prefer to maintain the status quo. They've shut down the nation's highways with their tractors to protest the proposed nitrogen rules.
In the past four years, these rallies have evolved into what's called the Farmer-Citizen Movement, a political party that shocked many earlier this year when it won 16 of the 75 seats in the Dutch Senate, more than any other party.
The party has garnered support well beyond the country's 50,000 farmers and is now polling in third place as the country gears up for a national election in late November.
Farmers' protests have resonated beyond the fields
"People in Holland have the feeling that the government's needs are more important than the needs of the citizens," says Caroline van der Plas, founder of the Farmer-Citizen Movement party, known in Dutch as the BoerBurgerBeweging, or by its acronym, the BBB.
Political analysts and the Dutch media have labeled the BBB a protest movement and a single-issue party, but van der Plas, who spent much of her career as a journalist and is now a member of parliament — and has never worked as a farmer — is quick to differ.
"I have the feeling that people who are afraid of the BBB getting bigger because it, of course, affects the traditional parties and the traditional policies, those are the people who say we are a one-issue party," she says.
In her years in parliament, van der Plas has become popular for her straight-shooting style and her ability to branch out beyond the nitrogen rules to criticize government interference in citizens' lives writ large.
"A lot of people are worried about their future," she says. "They're worried about, 'can my children buy a house in the coming years?' They're worried about all the costs that are soaring, the costs of food and gas. People can't pay their bills anymore because everything is getting so expensive and they find in us a party that they trust."
Van der Plas says she wants government to be more accessible to citizens, not a disembodied entity that is making decisions on behalf of citizens without their consent.
University of Amsterdam political scientist Wouter van der Brug says van der Plas and her party have successfully tapped into a wider sense of unease among Dutch voters that the government isn't serving their interests.
"It's probably arising from a deeper-felt feeling that society's changing too fast and not in a direction that people appreciate," says van der Brug. "And also that these new measures that probably have to be implemented to protect the environment are also being enforced upon us for no good reasons by outside forces."
Farmer Wilbur van der Post, inside his barn with his cows, agrees. He says the proposed nitrogen ban would reduce emissions in the Netherlands, but it wouldn't reduce global nitrogen emissions.
"We produce more per hectare than other countries with the same amount of manure," he says. "The footprint is one of the lowest in the world. If we reduce the agriculture sector here in the Netherlands, other countries will have to produce more. But there, the footprint is higher."
And that's why, he says, he'll be voting for the Farmer-Citizens Movement on election day, Nov. 22. Unless his party ends up in government, he says, no amount of cow-cuddling will be able to soothe his anger at those in positions of power.
Esme Nicholson contributed to this report.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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In the Netherlands, a farmers party taps into widespread discontent with government
LEIDEN, The Netherlands — On a strip of land amongst the canals that crisscross the flat Dutch countryside stand 50 black-and-white Holstein cows, heads down, chewing on a lunch of hay served to them by their owner, farmer Wilbert van der Post.
"I'm the fourth generation on this farm," says van der Post as he spreads the hay along the floor of the barn. "My great-grandfather came here around 1900."
Van der Post now fears he might be his family's last generation of farmers. The manure and urine his cows produce is rich in nitrogen compounds that contribute to smog, harming the lungs of his country's 17.5 million residents. Van der Post's cows are among tens of millions of animals nationwide that are contributing to what environmentalists call a nitrogen crisis.
The Netherlands, only the size of Maryland, is the world's second-largest exporter of food. It's one of the most intensely farmed countries in the world, and its soil has high levels of environmentally damaging nitrogen compounds from both animal manure and fertilizers.
A series of court rulings has forced the Dutch government to come up with ways to reduce nitrogen pollution, among them cutting animal herds by half by the end of this decade.
"If every farmer has to reduce 50% of their herd, it will be a problem for me," says van der Post. "It's not possible to earn money from that."
Van der Post says he's already turned to other ways to make money. He's organizing school excursions to his farm, and corporate retreats.
"We do cow cuddling," he explains. "That's when people come here and pay us to lie against a cow."
But at around $50 per cow-cuddling session, he says it's still not enough for him to make a steady income under the new nitrogen reduction rules.
An environmental reckoning forces a change in Dutch farming
Those rules, say environmentalists, are being implemented for a reason.
"We have an enormous amount of manure and an enormous amount of emissions that you hardly find somewhere else in the world," says Natasja Oerlemans, head of food and agriculture for the World Wildlife Fund of the Netherlands.
"Basically, a former minister put it as follows: we import all this feed, we produce meat and dairy, and we export 70 to 80%
|
of meat and dairy," she says. "And the s*** remains here, literally."
Oerlemans says Dutch farmers import most of their animals and nitrogen-rich feed. The small nation produces meat, dairy and eggs from 4 million cows, 13 million pigs and 104 million chickens each year. She says the urine and manure these animals produce emit high levels of nitrogen compounds.
"If you look at the European nitrogen emission maps in the Netherlands, it's not even dark red, it's not even purple, but it's black," says Oerlemans. "It's the highest value in Europe as far as it goes for nitrogen emissions."
Oerlemans supports the 2019 Dutch court decision directing the government to do something to drastically cut these emissions, but she also thinks farmers should receive government subsidies while they cull their herds and transition to less intensive farming.
Dutch farmers, though, would prefer to maintain the status quo. They've shut down the nation's highways with their tractors to protest the proposed nitrogen rules.
In the past four years, these rallies have evolved into what's called the Farmer-Citizen Movement, a political party that shocked many earlier this year when it won 16 of the 75 seats in the Dutch Senate, more than any other party.
The party has garnered support well beyond the country's 50,000 farmers and is now polling in third place as the country gears up for a national election in late November.
Farmers' protests have resonated beyond the fields
"People in Holland have the feeling that the government's needs are more important than the needs of the citizens," says Caroline van der Plas, founder of the Farmer-Citizen Movement party, known in Dutch as the BoerBurgerBeweging, or by its acronym, the BBB.
Political analysts and the Dutch media have labeled the BBB a protest movement and a single-issue party, but van der Plas, who spent much of her career as a journalist and is now a member of parliament — and has never worked as a farmer — is quick to differ.
"I have the feeling that people who are afraid of the BBB getting bigger because it, of course, affects the traditional parties and the traditional policies, those are the people who say we are a one-issue party," she says.
In her years in parliament, van der Plas has become popular for her straight-shooting style and her ability to branch out beyond the nitrogen rules to criticize government interference in citizens' lives writ large.
"A lot of people are worried about their future," she says. "They're worried about, 'can my children buy a house in the coming years?' They're worried about all the costs that are soaring, the costs of food and gas. People can't pay their bills anymore because everything is getting so expensive and they find in us a party that they trust."
Van der Plas says she wants government to be more accessible to citizens, not a disembodied entity that is making decisions on behalf of citizens without their consent.
University of Amsterdam political scientist Wouter van der Brug says van der Plas and her party have successfully tapped into a wider sense of unease among Dutch voters that the government isn't serving their interests.
"It's probably arising from a deeper-felt feeling that society's changing too fast and not in a direction that people appreciate," says van der Brug. "And also that these new measures that probably have to be implemented to protect the environment are also being enforced upon us for no good reasons by outside forces."
Farmer Wilbur van der Post, inside his barn with his cows, agrees. He says the proposed nitrogen ban would reduce emissions in the Netherlands, but it wouldn't reduce global nitrogen emissions.
"We produce more per hectare than other countries with the same amount of manure," he says. "The footprint is one of the lowest in the world. If we reduce the agriculture sector here in the Netherlands, other countries will have to produce more. But there, the footprint is higher."
And that's why, he says, he'll be voting for the Farmer-Citizens Movement on election day, Nov. 22. Unless his party ends up in government, he says, no amount of cow-cuddling will be able to soothe his anger at those in positions of power.
Esme Nicholson contributed to this report.
Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
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5 March 2023 marked 70 years since the death of Joseph Stalin, the man whose rule Soviet citizens remember, on the one hand, for the victory in the Great Patriotic War and, on the other, for the millions of victims of the Great Purge, devastating collectivisation, and mass starvation.
The figure of Stalin had been present in modern Russian politics for a while: there were talks of depicting him on a mosaic in the newly-built cathedral of the Ministry of Defence as well as efforts to ban the distribution of a comedy film about his death. But after Russia began its full-scale war against Ukraine, the pace of re-Stalinisation seems to have accelerated. This February, for instance, was memorable not only for the transient renaming of Volgograd into Stalingrad, but also for the installation of a new monument to “The Leader”.
Novaya-Europe correspondent Ira Purysova spoke to Andrea Graziosi, Italian historian and expert on Stalinism, about why Vladimir Putin needs the figure of Stalin and Stalinist practices, what they have to do with Ukraine, and how life under dictatorship has affected Soviet and Russian society.
Andrea Graziosi is an Italian historian and Sovietologist, professor of Modern History at Università di Napoli Federico II, and fellow at Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute and Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. In 2006, he was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise for his research on the Holodomor famine and efforts to attract international attention to the subject. He is the author of “A New, Peculiar State: Explorations in Soviet History, 1917-1937” (2000), “Stalinism, collectivization and the Great Famine” (2009), “History of the USSR” (2011), and other works.
The fake that came true
In early February, a monument to Joseph Stalin was opened in Volgograd, and the city was renamed Stalingrad for a day (the latter, however, is common practice nowadays). Can we say that the war in Ukraine has actualised the figure of Stalin, or has this been going on before but we’ve only now noticed it?
Of course, the war has given everything new strength, even to phenomena that already existed. And naturally, the idea of Stalingrad and the victory in World War II have been given new importance. I think Putin’s relationship to Stalin is a conflicted one. We know that among his heroes are [writer] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Anton Denikin, the head of the Russian nationalist White Army — and both these figures hated Stalin. However, Stalinism has deep roots in modern Russia. Already in 1995, under Boris Yeltsin, 7 November, the day of the October revolution, was legally linked to the military parade of 7 November 1941, where Soviet soldiers marched in front of Stalin before going to the front to fight the Germans near Moscow. I would also say that fear of [fear of a recurrence of mass purges — editor’s note], and at the same time admiration for Stalin was decisive in shaping the ideology of Putinism. Of course, there are also other elements within Putinism — like, for example, gangsterism — but this is a key element.
What do you think turned Russia back into the 20th century and made it closer to the Stalin era in spirit?
A crucial point was the reinterpretation of the 1990s. I spent much time in Russia at the time and I remember that the year 1991 used to be a national holiday for the Russian state — celebrating the liberation from the Soviet Union. The idea was that the collapse of the Soviet Union was actually a consensual “divorce”. Those who went to sign the Bialowieza Agreement said: look, we are not like Yugoslavia, we are having a civilised divorce.
And this is true. [The leaders of the Union republics] calmly admitted there was nothing else they could do with the Soviet Union. This was a realistic assessment: the USSR had failed economically and was impossible to reform. But even those who were at the time willing to say “Let’s kill the Soviet Union” in a way regretted it, because [at least some members of the new Russian elite] actually liked this idea of a huge space.
Then Putin came to power and formalised it when he said that “the collapse of the USSR was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”. Instead of admitting that it was a failed system where, for example, people had a much lower life expectancy than in Western states, he made out the collapse of the USSR to be a plot of the West.
So, Putin created a fake, and it became true because many people believed in it. And I think the reason why they believed it was not because of a few malign people who elaborated this tale, but because they wanted to believe in it.
The Soviet Union was a big failure, and nobody likes to see their past as a big failure.
Why didn’t the memory of Soviet hardship prevent this?
Everybody knew that life was very tough in the USSR. But since the Soviet Union was the other superpower, you could be proud not of the suffering, but of being a superpower. This Soviet greatness cost a lot of blood, including the blood spilled during World War II. And the cult of victory became the other important narrative of the 1990s: “We were humiliated, but our greatness remains. It’s in the war, it’s in our victories.” At the same time one cannot deny that the victory was the result of the heroic effort of many millions of soldiers, but also of Joseph Stalin, who led the country. The fact is that you cannot claim the victory of 1945 to be a cornerstone of your history and then say you don’t like Stalin unless you present the war not as the triumph of a great power but as the symbol of resistance to a vicious aggression, an interpretation that Vasily Grossman proved possible.
In the 1990s, the Russian authorities started using the interpretation of victory as a “Muscovite” triumph as a way of healing [the trauma of the collapse]. I would say that this healing turned out to be poisonous. The re-Stalinisation process was amplified by the imperial structure of the Soviet Union and also by the criminal elements that came to power in that decade. This is what produced this cluster of ideology that we are dealing with today.
A 7 October demonstration in the Moscow centre, 2021. Photo: Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images
‘There were more letters defending people than denouncing them’
How has the creeping re-Stalinisation affected the spread of Soviet-era dictatorship practices in contemporary Russia? We see that people are once again writing denunciations, not only under police pressure but sometimes also voluntarily. The state is looking for spies and “foreign agents”. Severe censorship has been introduced and propaganda is very strong.
When discussing this, one must keep in mind the proportions. The number of denunciations during the Stalin era is not comparable to what we are told about Russia today. If we talk about the Great Terror, that’s about 2,000 people shot per day for 14 months. This is absolutely unthinkable in modern Russia.
Besides, the purges were not as based on denunciation letters as we tend to believe. People were forced to confess and denounce others both on public trial and in private. They were tortured to this intent. We also know that about 800,000 people killed during the Great Terror were shot on the basis of secret decrees by categories — something like quotas. If you had a Polish name, were of German origin, were a member of the Orthodox Church, were convicted for more than three years, had already passed through the Gulag in the past or were an anarchist, you could be shot. It was not only denunciations, but also a clean-up operation of enormous scale.
When I worked in the former Soviet archives, there were many more letters defending those who were arrested than those that denounced them.
They all read along the lines of “You have arrested my uncle, but he is a completely innocent man. Why have you done so?” Maybe there have been new archives discovered since then, but my very strong impression was that the role of denunciations has been exaggerated. Of much greater importance were the secret decrees that I invite everybody to read now that they have been made public — starting from the decree from July 1937 and then the decrees concerning the “Polish operation” and the “German operation”. This was what gave those numbers of casualties. Those who ended up in the first category were shot, the second category was sent to the camps.
All of this was done administratively. Let’s say I’m a local NKVD chief and receive an order to find in my city 5,000 people for the first category and 10,000 for the second category to be deported within the next two months. So, I make a list and realise that there are not enough names on it. I know that if I don’t get the necessary number, I will be next in line for sabotage. So, I start torturing people, extracting confessions out of them and demanding that they give me more names. After the torture, the person would include their aunts, uncles, friends on this list, writing that they are all British spies. This was the real mechanism of repression in 1937-38.
The search for “national traitors” has clearly intensified in Russia today. At the legislative level this is done, for example, through the status of “foreign agents” and “undesirable organisations”. At the level of rhetoric, it is manifested in Putin’s statements about “all this scum” that is allegedly trying to split society. In such an information field, it is difficult not to think of the Soviet era. How did the category of “enemy of the people” appear in the USSR and how did this categorisation work?
The “enemy of the people” category comes up in every war. During World War I, European countries had been gripped by a fear of enemy agents. Stalin was a Bolshevik, hence a man who waged war even in peacetime. Therefore, he saw traitors who were getting in the way of building socialism all over the place. From this point of view, the Soviet experience in Stalin’s era becomes a radicalised version of the common European experience during World War I. You have to mobilise to be victorious. In Stalin’s mind, victory meant socialism. The closer you are to socialism, the more dangerous the enemies, since they see that your victory is coming. So, the label “enemy of the people” was used as a propaganda tool. That is how they labelled people who were supposedly dangerous and needed to be destroyed.
Could people not have been aware of the repressions? If, for example, they did not fall under decree categories or were apolitical.
The vast majority knew of the repressions. You have to understand that not everybody who went to the Gulag stayed there. Many returned home. During a period of over 20 years (1930-1953), a total of about 35 million people, out of a population of 170 million, had experienced repression in some way. Many died, but a very significant percentage made it through the system.
I don’t think most people knew what you could be imprisoned for, because the contents of the secret decrees only became known much later. But it was also impossible not to know that this was happening.
How similar do you think this fear of sudden arrest is to what war-opposing activists in Russia or those listed as “foreign agents” now feel?
If I were in their place, I would be totally scared — that’s why I don’t believe the opinion polls. Of course, the situation is different now: people are unlikely to be suddenly taken away, tortured, and killed on such a mass scale. But the fear is the same. I think there were brief moments in the USSR when the population hoped for real improvements. In the first post-war years, around 1944 to 1946, for instance, there was this hope that the victory was going to bring on an open society. But with the famine and new arrests, these hopes went away, and there was a reign of fear until Stalin died. I always tell my students as an example of the scale of things that in a mere two weeks after Stalin died, the first million people were released from the camps because everybody knew this was untenable [this refers to the vast amnesty signed by Lavrentiy Beria on 27 March 1953, which freed 1,201,738 people — editor’s note].
Prisoners working on the construction of the White Sea Canal. Photo: Laski Diffusion / Getty Images
On the other hand, we see that in modern Russia there are no purges among the elites, as was the case in Stalin’s day. Why did the repression affect the elites then and not now?
I think this is explained by Putin’s megalomania. He rebuilt the Russian state and has been in power for 23 years now. Everybody that got a commanding position was appointed by him. Everybody owes him something. I think Putin feels that his hold on the Russian elite is very strong. Stalin could not be so sure of things in 1931-1934, because the elite surrounding him was the Leninist elite.
So, Putin is closer to a post-victory Stalin in 1945, resting assured that the elite will not revolt against him.
On the other hand, think of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He was put in jail and kept there with no charges, and people know this. Since the beginning of his rule, Putin has used brutal violence very selectively. But I do believe that many in the top Russian elite would rather see Putin dead, the same fate many top Stalinists hoped for Stalin in 1952.
‘The Holodomor was a punishment for Ukrainians’
What was Stalin’s attitude towards Ukraine? Is it similar to Putin’s attitude?
There are similarities and differences. For the young Stalin, Russia was not a single nation, but more like Europe — a continent inhabited by many different people. This is very similar to what Putin now says about the “Russian world” — “many nations gathered around the great Russian people”.
And it’s very similar to the words on the banner: “I am Kalmyk, but today we are all Russians!”
Precisely. In 1932, the Soviet Ukrainians became the Ukrainians that Stalin did not want — he wanted “his own Ukrainians”. So, the idea was to recast them, turn them into “good” Ukrainians. To do this, Stalin not only caused the great Ukrainian famine, which killed millions [according to the Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the excess mortality in 1932-1934 was 3.9 million people — editor’s note], but also destroyed the entire Ukrainian communist and intellectual elite. Mykola Skrypnyk, a prominent Ukrainian party figure who was a personal friend of Stalin and opposed his policies in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, committed suicide during this time.
Interestingly, in 1939, when Stalin initiated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and invaded Poland, he used the same logic that is used today, calling the attack a “special military operation” and not a war, since the USSR was allegedly recovering Ukrainian territories. [Similar rhetoric was used in relation to Western Belarus and part of the Republic of Lithuania, whose lands were annexed to the USSR as a result of partition Poland — editor’s note]
Body of a woman starved to death. Poltava region of Ukraine, 1934. Photo: Daily Express / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Can we see any parallels here with the way Putin perceives Ukraine?
I think Putin sees the Belarusians and Ukrainians as local manifestations of the Russian people. They can only exist as separate groups if they behave well. If they behave badly, they should be punished. So, there is a certain similarity in Putin’s and Stalin’s attitude towards Ukraine, though it comes from a different context. In a sense, Putin is more of an original Russian nationalist, which can be seen in his close relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church. For the Russian Orthodox Church, the fact that Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians are one people is undeniable.
What distinguishes the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933 from other famines in the USSR, and why does the Ukraine, as well as many other countries, consider it a genocide?
The more we study Soviet history, the more we learn about the famines plaguing it. We knew that after the Civil War there was a great famine in 1921-1922 which was caused by political factors as well as the weather. We knew there was a massive famine in the early 1930s and also after the end of World War II, in 1946-1947. We now know that there were at least five or six famines of a similar yet different nature in the early 1930s.
The first epicentre was in Kazakhstan. In 1931, many nomadic Kazakhs died of starvation because their herds were being taken away to provide meat rations for the army and the cities.
There was a terrible famine in the German Volga region, in the rural areas of Kuban and in the North Caucasus. Deported kulak peasants died of hunger in mass in 1931 and 1932.
The specificity of the Ukrainian famine is that it was a punishment. Kazakhstan suffered because the Soviet state needed meat, which was taken from the republic without much concern for what would happen to the people there.
A memorial to the victims of the Holodomor, Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo: Oleg Pereverzev / NurPhoto / Getty Images
With regard to Ukraine, however, Stalin believed that it was necessary to break the Ukrainian peasantry and destroy the national-communist elite that had ruled Soviet Ukraine from 1922 to 1932.
And for this, the Holodomor was a suitable tool. This is why I think that the term “genocide” can be used, even though genocide is a legal category, so it is difficult to use for historians as it implies very clear criteria. But if you use that terminology, the famine in Kazakhstan was also genocide — it may have taken the lives of up to a third of the republic’s population, which put the Kazakh way of life on the brink of destruction.
In a sense, although on a much smaller scale, we now see a parallel with the “denazification” with which Putin justifies the war. At the start of the war, Putin expected that the Ukrainians would be happy that the Russians are coming. There would only be a few thousand “traitors”, “Nazis” — whatever you want to call them. They would be killed or forced to flee, and the rest of the Ukrainians would welcome the Russians and be happy. But the Ukrainians resisted, and suddenly it turned out that there were not thousands, but millions of “traitors”. At some point, it became impossible to discuss and after a brief discussion of how to mass re-educate millions of “traitors” the topic was basically dropped.
The next step was similar to Stalin’s methods, however, though at least not as bloody — for now. So you don’t want to be Russian? You don’t want to be with us? Then you will suffer and die in winter without heating and electricity, because we will bomb your energy infrastructure.
What role does the famine in Ukraine play in Russian historical policies and contemporary Russian society? The Russian state does not officially acknowledge that it was genocide.
The idea of recognising it as genocide was rejected at the official level back in the 1990s, although discussions were open then. I remember having very civilised arguments about it with my Russian colleagues. They did not deny that there was a famine, that millions died in Ukraine, but they always stressed that it was a Soviet-wide tragedy, that it was not specific to Ukraine, to Kazakhstan, to the Kuban region.
Of course, in a way this makes sense — everybody was suffering in the early 1930s. But Russian society refuses to see the specificity and peculiarity of these cases and the much bigger catastrophe —because it would have implied that the Ukrainians were somehow different.
The memory surrounding victory
In your opinion, why has the memory of repressions not become the basis for building a post-Soviet society? Even in school history classes, the Great Terror is usually glossed over.
For the most part this is because the period of the 1930s and 1940s has been superseded in Russian historiography and history teaching by the Great Patriotic War and the victory in it. This is not to say that the authorities do not recognise that the terror took place: there is a monument to the victims of political repression in the centre of Moscow; Putin himself supported the idea of its installation and, together with Dmitry Medvedev, attended Solzhenitsyn’s funeral in 2008. Putin’s rhetoric has the hallmarks of a wide range of ideologies, it is a hybrid, and hybrids can be very aggressive and dangerous.
There have been real battles for memory going on in Ukraine since 1991. A significant proportion of both historians and ordinary citizens believe that the Holodomor should be the cornerstone of Ukraine’s historical policy as a new state. In Russia, such the active battle for memory did not last long, because building memory around the victory in the war was the simplest and most obvious solution.
Back in the 1990s, I had a conversation with the now-deceased founder of “Memorial”, and he told me that one could have tried to base Russia’s historical policy on different periods and figures — for example, Peter the Great, Alexander Kerensky, or the Socialist Revolutionaries. However, this would not have caught on with the populace because the real legitimisation of Russia is unavoidably 1945.
How was Stalin’s dictatorship perceived in society?
The perception of Stalin by the society of his time must be divided into two stages: before the war and after. Before the war, Stalin was an extremely unpopular figure. There was even a secret decree forbidding him from walking in the city for fear of assassination attempts. He knew that he was also disliked even within the party, and that 80% of the population, meaning the peasantry, hated him because he had, in effect, imposed a new serfdom.
Victory in the war made him a leader in the eyes of a great many people, so the difference between before 1941 and after 1945 is serious. Of course, he was not accepted by the population of Western Ukraine, the modern Baltic states, and other forcibly annexed territories, and the “punished peoples”. But he earned popularity among the new imperial bureaucracy that he created. Imagine being a nobody from some Russian town and being appointed head of a Czech or Hungarian city. So Stalin became popular among the elites after World War II.
At the same time, the elites feared him. That is the only explanation as to why they decided to openly declare what a monster he was only in 1956, three years after his death [in 1956, Khrushchev made his report “On the Cult of Personality and its Consequences” to the 20th Congress of the CPSU — editor’s note], although they had begun discussing this fact immediately afterwards.
A 1940s Soviet poster. Photo: Universal History Archive / Universal Images Group / Getty Images
What effects of Stalin’s dictatorship could be seen in society after his death?
After Stalin’s death, society changed a lot. In a sense, the “good times” came. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, there was less repression, albeit no freedom — people continued to be imprisoned, including for dissent. But for fifteen or twenty years the Soviet people had hopes, which ended in 1968 with the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Later, in the 1970s and 1980s, the situation became much more complicated.
I would say that it was as if the USSR had lived two lives. One of them was very tough, horrible; the other had positive aspects, especially in comparison. Nowadays, people try not to look into the harder part. Memory is a political construct. It depends a lot on what surrounds you: where you get your education, what you watch on TV, what you read.
Do you think that the mechanisms of dictatorship that were used then can be effective in Putin’s Russia? I mean the methods, not the scale.
We can look for similarities between Stalin and Putin, but it is very difficult to answer this question. Like Stalin, Putin loves history, talks about it, writes articles about it. Both have chosen the West as their primary target. Both have made Russia the centre of their own world. But we are talking about different eras.
Putin has already used violence at liberty — remember what he did in Chechnya. What he is doing now in Ukraine is also terrible for Russia (I do not mention how terrible it is for Ukraine because this is obvious). And I think a lot of Russians know this is disastrous for Russia.
Stalin is now an important conflictual figure for Putin. He has repeatedly spoken positively about Solzhenitsyn and meetings with him. Putin must therefore be aware that Stalin destroyed the Russian peasantry, the Russian Orthodox Church, Russian culture and the Russian intelligentsia. However, what is more important to Putin today is that Stalin represents the “Russian world” and the rebirth of an empire.
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5 March 2023 marked 70 years since the death of Joseph Stalin, the man whose rule Soviet citizens remember, on the one hand, for the victory in the Great Patriotic War and, on the other, for the millions of victims of the Great Purge, devastating collectivisation, and mass starvation.
The figure of Stalin had been present in modern Russian politics for a while: there were talks of depicting him on a mosaic in the newly-built cathedral of the Ministry of Defence as well as efforts to ban the distribution of a comedy film about his death. But after Russia began its full-scale war against Ukraine, the pace of re-Stalinisation seems to have accelerated. This February, for instance, was memorable not only for the transient renaming of Volgograd into Stalingrad, but also for the installation of a new monument to “The Leader”.
Novaya-Europe correspondent Ira Purysova spoke to Andrea Graziosi, Italian historian and expert on Stalinism, about why Vladimir Putin needs the figure of Stalin and Stalinist practices, what they have to do with Ukraine, and how life under dictatorship has affected Soviet and Russian society.
Andrea Graziosi is an Italian historian and Sovietologist, professor of Modern History at Università di Napoli Federico II, and fellow at Harvard’s Ukrainian Research Institute and Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. In 2006, he was awarded the Ukrainian Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise for his research on the Holodomor famine and efforts to attract international attention to the subject. He is the author of “A New, Peculiar State: Explorations in Soviet History, 1917-1937” (2000), “Stalinism, collectivization and the Great Famine” (2009), “History of the USSR” (2011), and other works.
The fake that came true
In early February, a monument to Joseph Stalin was opened in Volgograd, and the city was renamed Stalingrad for a day (the latter, however, is common practice nowadays). Can we say that the war in Ukraine has actualised the figure of Stalin, or has this been going on before but we’ve only now noticed it?
Of course, the war has given everything new strength, even to phenomena that already existed. And naturally, the idea of Stalingrad and the victory in World War II have been given new importance. I think Putin’s relationship to Stalin is a conflicted one. We
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know that among his heroes are [writer] Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Anton Denikin, the head of the Russian nationalist White Army — and both these figures hated Stalin. However, Stalinism has deep roots in modern Russia. Already in 1995, under Boris Yeltsin, 7 November, the day of the October revolution, was legally linked to the military parade of 7 November 1941, where Soviet soldiers marched in front of Stalin before going to the front to fight the Germans near Moscow. I would also say that fear of [fear of a recurrence of mass purges — editor’s note], and at the same time admiration for Stalin was decisive in shaping the ideology of Putinism. Of course, there are also other elements within Putinism — like, for example, gangsterism — but this is a key element.
What do you think turned Russia back into the 20th century and made it closer to the Stalin era in spirit?
A crucial point was the reinterpretation of the 1990s. I spent much time in Russia at the time and I remember that the year 1991 used to be a national holiday for the Russian state — celebrating the liberation from the Soviet Union. The idea was that the collapse of the Soviet Union was actually a consensual “divorce”. Those who went to sign the Bialowieza Agreement said: look, we are not like Yugoslavia, we are having a civilised divorce.
And this is true. [The leaders of the Union republics] calmly admitted there was nothing else they could do with the Soviet Union. This was a realistic assessment: the USSR had failed economically and was impossible to reform. But even those who were at the time willing to say “Let’s kill the Soviet Union” in a way regretted it, because [at least some members of the new Russian elite] actually liked this idea of a huge space.
Then Putin came to power and formalised it when he said that “the collapse of the USSR was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the 20th century”. Instead of admitting that it was a failed system where, for example, people had a much lower life expectancy than in Western states, he made out the collapse of the USSR to be a plot of the West.
So, Putin created a fake, and it became true because many people believed in it. And I think the reason why they believed it was not because of a few malign people who elaborated this tale, but because they wanted to believe in it.
The Soviet Union was a big failure, and nobody likes to see their past as a big failure.
Why didn’t the memory of Soviet hardship prevent this?
Everybody knew that life was very tough in the USSR. But since the Soviet Union was the other superpower, you could be proud not of the suffering, but of being a superpower. This Soviet greatness cost a lot of blood, including the blood spilled during World War II. And the cult of victory became the other important narrative of the 1990s: “We were humiliated, but our greatness remains. It’s in the war, it’s in our victories.” At the same time one cannot deny that the victory was the result of the heroic effort of many millions of soldiers, but also of Joseph Stalin, who led the country. The fact is that you cannot claim the victory of 1945 to be a cornerstone of your history and then say you don’t like Stalin unless you present the war not as the triumph of a great power but as the symbol of resistance to a vicious aggression, an interpretation that Vasily Grossman proved possible.
In the 1990s, the Russian authorities started using the interpretation of victory as a “Muscovite” triumph as a way of healing [the trauma of the collapse]. I would say that this healing turned out to be poisonous. The re-Stalinisation process was amplified by the imperial structure of the Soviet Union and also by the criminal elements that came to power in that decade. This is what produced this cluster of ideology that we are dealing with today.
A 7 October demonstration in the Moscow centre, 2021. Photo: Mikhail Svetlov / Getty Images
‘There were more letters defending people than denouncing them’
How has the creeping re-Stalinisation affected the spread of Soviet-era dictatorship practices in contemporary Russia? We see that people are once again writing denunciations, not only under police pressure but sometimes also voluntarily. The state is looking for spies and “foreign agents”. Severe censorship has been introduced and propaganda is very strong.
When discussing this, one must keep in mind the proportions. The number of denunciations during the Stalin era is not comparable to what we are told about Russia today. If we talk about the Great Terror, that’s about 2,000 people shot per day for 14 months. This is absolutely unthinkable in modern Russia.
Besides, the purges were not as based on denunciation letters as we tend to believe. People were forced to confess and denounce others both on public trial and in private. They were tortured to this intent. We also know that about 800,000 people killed during the Great Terror were shot on the basis of secret decrees by categories — something like quotas. If you had a Polish name, were of German origin, were a member of the Orthodox Church, were convicted for more than three years, had already passed through the Gulag in the past or were an anarchist, you could be shot. It was not only denunciations, but also a clean-up operation of enormous scale.
When I worked in the former Soviet archives, there were many more letters defending those who were arrested than those that denounced them.
They all read along the lines of “You have arrested my uncle, but he is a completely innocent man. Why have you done so?” Maybe there have been new archives discovered since then, but my very strong impression was that the role of denunciations has been exaggerated. Of much greater importance were the secret decrees that I invite everybody to read now that they have been made public — starting from the decree from July 1937 and then the decrees concerning the “Polish operation” and the “German operation”. This was what gave those numbers of casualties. Those who ended up in the first category were shot, the second category was sent to the camps.
All of this was done administratively. Let’s say I’m a local NKVD chief and receive an order to find in my city 5,000 people for the first category and 10,000 for the second category to be deported within the next two months. So, I make a list and realise that there are not enough names on it. I know that if I don’t get the necessary number, I will be next in line for sabotage. So, I start torturing people, extracting confessions out of them and demanding that they give me more names. After the torture, the person would include their aunts, uncles, friends on this list, writing that they are all British spies. This was the real mechanism of repression in 1937-38.
The search for “national traitors” has clearly intensified in Russia today. At the legislative level this is done, for example, through the status of “foreign agents” and “undesirable organisations”. At the level of rhetoric, it is manifested in Putin’s statements about “all this scum” that is allegedly trying to split society. In such an information field, it is difficult not to think of the Soviet era. How did the category of “enemy of the people” appear in the USSR and how did this categorisation work?
The “enemy of the people” category comes up in every war. During World War I, European countries had been gripped by a fear of enemy agents. Stalin was a Bolshevik, hence a man who waged war even in peacetime. Therefore, he saw traitors who were getting in the way of building socialism all over the place. From this point of view, the Soviet experience in Stalin’s era becomes a radicalised version of the common European experience during World War I. You have to mobilise to be victorious. In Stalin’s mind, victory meant socialism. The closer you are to socialism, the more dangerous the enemies, since they see that your victory is coming. So, the label “enemy of the people” was used as a propaganda tool. That is how they labelled people who were supposedly dangerous and needed to be destroyed.
Could people not have been aware of the repressions? If, for example, they did not fall under decree categories or were apolitical.
The vast majority knew of the repressions. You have to understand that not everybody who went to the Gulag stayed there. Many returned home. During a period of over 20 years (1930-1953), a total of about 35 million people, out of a population of 170 million, had experienced repression in some way. Many died, but a very significant percentage made it through the system.
I don’t think most people knew what you could be imprisoned for, because the contents of the secret decrees only became known much later. But it was also impossible not to know that this was happening.
How similar do you think this fear of sudden arrest is to what war-opposing activists in Russia or those listed as “foreign agents” now feel?
If I were in their place, I would be totally scared — that’s why I don’t believe the opinion polls. Of course, the situation is different now: people are unlikely to be suddenly taken away, tortured, and killed on such a mass scale. But the fear is the same. I think there were brief moments in the USSR when the population hoped for real improvements. In the first post-war years, around 1944 to 1946, for instance, there was this hope that the victory was going to bring on an open society. But with the famine and new arrests, these hopes went away, and there was a reign of fear until Stalin died. I always tell my students as an example of the scale of things that in a mere two weeks after Stalin died, the first million people were released from the camps because everybody knew this was untenable [this refers to the vast amnesty signed by Lavrentiy Beria on 27 March 1953, which freed 1,201,738 people — editor’s note].
Prisoners working on the construction of the White Sea Canal. Photo: Laski Diffusion / Getty Images
On the other hand, we see that in modern Russia there are no purges among the elites, as was the case in Stalin’s day. Why did the repression affect the elites then and not now?
I think this is explained by Putin’s megalomania. He rebuilt the Russian state and has been in power for 23 years now. Everybody that got a commanding position was appointed by him. Everybody owes him something. I think Putin feels that his hold on the Russian elite is very strong. Stalin could not be so sure of things in 1931-1934, because the elite surrounding him was the Leninist elite.
So, Putin is closer to a post-victory Stalin in 1945, resting assured that the elite will not revolt against him.
On the other hand, think of Mikhail Khodorkovsky. He was put in jail and kept there with no charges, and people know this. Since the beginning of his rule, Putin has used brutal violence very selectively. But I do believe that many in the top Russian elite would rather see Putin dead, the same fate many top Stalinists hoped for Stalin in 1952.
‘The Holodomor was a punishment for Ukrainians’
What was Stalin’s attitude towards Ukraine? Is it similar to Putin’s attitude?
There are similarities and differences. For the young Stalin, Russia was not a single nation, but more like Europe — a continent inhabited by many different people. This is very similar to what Putin now says about the “Russian world” — “many nations gathered around the great Russian people”.
And it’s very similar to the words on the banner: “I am Kalmyk, but today we are all Russians!”
Precisely. In 1932, the Soviet Ukrainians became the Ukrainians that Stalin did not want — he wanted “his own Ukrainians”. So, the idea was to recast them, turn them into “good” Ukrainians. To do this, Stalin not only caused the great Ukrainian famine, which killed millions [according to the Institute of Demography and Social Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the excess mortality in 1932-1934 was 3.9 million people — editor’s note], but also destroyed the entire Ukrainian communist and intellectual elite. Mykola Skrypnyk, a prominent Ukrainian party figure who was a personal friend of Stalin and opposed his policies in the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, committed suicide during this time.
Interestingly, in 1939, when Stalin initiated the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and invaded Poland, he used the same logic that is used today, calling the attack a “special military operation” and not a war, since the USSR was allegedly recovering Ukrainian territories. [Similar rhetoric was used in relation to Western Belarus and part of the Republic of Lithuania, whose lands were annexed to the USSR as a result of partition Poland — editor’s note]
Body of a woman starved to death. Poltava region of Ukraine, 1934. Photo: Daily Express / Hulton Archive / Getty Images
Can we see any parallels here with the way Putin perceives Ukraine?
I think Putin sees the Belarusians and Ukrainians as local manifestations of the Russian people. They can only exist as separate groups if they behave well. If they behave badly, they should be punished. So, there is a certain similarity in Putin’s and Stalin’s attitude towards Ukraine, though it comes from a different context. In a sense, Putin is more of an original Russian nationalist, which can be seen in his close relationship with the Russian Orthodox Church. For the Russian Orthodox Church, the fact that Ukrainians, Belarusians, and Russians are one people is undeniable.
What distinguishes the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933 from other famines in the USSR, and why does the Ukraine, as well as many other countries, consider it a genocide?
The more we study Soviet history, the more we learn about the famines plaguing it. We knew that after the Civil War there was a great famine in 1921-1922 which was caused by political factors as well as the weather. We knew there was a massive famine in the early 1930s and also after the end of World War II, in 1946-1947. We now know that there were at least five or six famines of a similar yet different nature in the early 1930s.
The first epicentre was in Kazakhstan. In 1931, many nomadic Kazakhs died of starvation because their herds were being taken away to provide meat rations for the army and the cities.
There was a terrible famine in the German Volga region, in the rural areas of Kuban and in the North Caucasus. Deported kulak peasants died of hunger in mass in 1931 and 1932.
The specificity of the Ukrainian famine is that it was a punishment. Kazakhstan suffered because the Soviet state needed meat, which was taken from the republic without much concern for what would happen to the people there.
A memorial to the victims of the Holodomor, Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo: Oleg Pereverzev / NurPhoto / Getty Images
With regard to Ukraine, however, Stalin believed that it was necessary to break the Ukrainian peasantry and destroy the national-communist elite that had ruled Soviet Ukraine from 1922 to 1932.
And for this, the Holodomor was a suitable tool. This is why I think that the term “genocide” can be used, even though genocide is a legal category, so it is difficult to use for historians as it implies very clear criteria. But if you use that terminology, the famine in Kazakhstan was also genocide — it may have taken the lives of up to a third of the republic’s population, which put the Kazakh way of life on the brink of destruction.
In a sense, although on a much smaller scale, we now see a parallel with the “denazification” with which Putin justifies the war. At the start of the war, Putin expected that the Ukrainians would be happy that the Russians are coming. There would only be a few thousand “traitors”, “Nazis” — whatever you want to call them. They would be killed or forced to flee, and the rest of the Ukrainians would welcome the Russians and be happy. But the Ukrainians resisted, and suddenly it turned out that there were not thousands, but millions of “trait
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This method of constructing high rise buildings does not require large cranes or dangerous high altitude iron work. Once the top level is erected, each subsequent floor is completed on the ground, then raised to fit in its place, like a 500 ton elevator car. Most of the construction can be automated, like an automated factory.
Semiconductor giant Intel first proved the novel high rise construction concept in 2017 on its campus in Bangalore, India. The time-lapse video below shows how it is done:
Meanwhile in downtown Detroit, Michigan, on a lot too small to use conventional high rise construction methods, Barton Marlow construction company is erecting a high rise residential building using the LIFTbuild vertical manufacturing method almost identical to the method used by Intel in India.
These buildings can be built faster, safer, with far less labor, and on a smaller land footprint than if conventional high rise construction were used. In fact, if you wanted to build a city in the middle of nowhere from scratch, you could construct several buildings simultaneously using a small labor force — if you had the materials, electric power, and fuel required. Conversely, if you wanted to build a “city within a city,” this approach allows you to use every bit of land available.
LIFTbuild’s vertical manufacturing approach aims to transform how the world is built. Traditionally, construction has been among the most static industries, using many of the same building methods first adopted in the 19th century. LIFTbuild will catapult the construction industry forward by providing opportunities for a safer, quality-driven, and more efficient project site.
LIFTbuild works by utilizing structural, concrete spines, and steel/concrete framed decks for floorplates. Each floor of a building is assembled at the ground level and lifted up the spines, where they’re subsequently locked into place. The fit-out is accomplished in a fully enclosed and conditioned space, while the lower floors are built below. The assembly process is designed to maximize cost and schedule savings while providing a safe, efficient, and highly productive work environment.LIFTbuild Vertical Manufacturing Methodology
The LIFTbuild method is less expensive than traditional high rise construction for many reasons, including saving time by making it easier to stick to schedule. This saves significantly on current and future financing.
The Detroit project completed its first “lift” in spring of 2022. It is scheduled to complete its final lift this coming spring.
Automated Construction on Mars
Learning to automate construction on Earth is one step toward automating construction on Mars, the moon, and other locations in the solar system. On Mars and Luna, the building materials are plentiful, once we learn how to use them effectively.
Once the method is perfected, mining and construction robots will be dropped from orbit, where they can begin building the colonists’ habitats, workshops, and laboratories autonomously.
“The whole reason to do that is, it’s too expensive to ship materials to Mars,” Malott said to Space.com. “We want a place for the astronauts to stay in,” he added. When we are ready to send humans to live on the surface of Mars, they will need somewhere to live. But construction equipment and materials are large and heavy, and it would be both difficult and extremely expensive to send them to another planet.
Buildings on Mars have “to be made robotically in advance of the astronauts arriving using materials made from Mars,” Malott added.Space.com
3d print building construction on Earth
Stop Wasting Terrestrial Resources on Wind, Solar, Climate Apocalypse
Advanced western governments are wasting hundreds of $billions on technologies that don’t work. The final costs will be in the $trillions, once humans finally come to terms with their grand folly. Those are scarce resources which might have gone toward building an abundant and expansive human future. Instead, the money is going to politically connected billionaires who have close ties to government, corporate media, high tech corporations, and other social institutions including universities and publishing.
Climate change is not the same thing as “climate apocalypse.” But it is the apocalypse which is being sold to us — being crammed down our throats — by our overlords in government, media, education, and the other social institutions.
Our most precious resource is the human cognitive resource, which is being rapidly depleted due to the failure of intelligent humans to procreate. This depletion is in part due to the apocalyptic panic that is actively instigated around the issue of climate apocalypse.
We need all of our precious resources to face the genuine challenges in front of us. We cannot afford to squander them on the hobgoblins of fanatical ideologues.
Civilization is Upheld by Force
Prolific science fiction author Robert Heinlein understood that an orderly civilization does not just happen, nor can it sustain itself without considerable force and resources. But our new leftist overlords either cannot understand this, or they do not care one way or another. Once beautiful cities are falling into ruin, one after another, due to the failure of the new breed of leftist government to heed the unpleasant truths of human social order.
Civilization, in the end, is upheld by force. In areas where anarchy is of an unusual degree, a higher degree of force is needed. It really is that simple. Rather than confront violence in the hood, the Left blames whites and further hamstrings already demoralized, overworked cops. The result will be more disorder and, ultimately, the need for more heavy-handed policing in the communities that need it most.Making Water Run Uphill
To maintain an advanced society one needs these critical infrastructures:
Intermittent unreliable energy sectors such as wind and solar, are disruptive and destructive to the vital electric power infrastructure of every advanced nation. Every government that mandates these exorbitantly expensive and catastrophically destructive technologies, is guilty of sabotaging the futures of its own people — for the sake of the corrupt financial gain of the politically connected.
Underlying all Critical Infrastructure is the Cognitive Infrastructure
If through our own ideological stupidity and selfishness we lose our collective cognitive ability to sustain our own advanced critical infrastructures — no matter what the “reasons” we give — we probably deserve our downfall, and the downfalls of all of the less advanced societies around the world that depend upon our cognitive output.
It may be possible for artificial intelligence to partially make up for the steady degradation of our cognitive infrastructure. We seem to be automating everything from heavy construction, manufacturing, and drug discovery, to the composition of music, art, and literature. As long as humans are around to fine tune, modify, and maintain the AI and the robotic machinery, then several nations are capable of maintaining economic output for some time while suffering from a critically dwindling human population.
The nation’s cognitive infrastructure includes the mental capacities of our citizens and the decision-making ability of people, organizations and our government. It also includes the information channels used to feed our decision-making capabilities and the education and training systems used to prepare people and organizations for critical thinking.
Our cognitive infrastructure is threatened in ways few of us ever imagined just a few years ago. Old style propaganda has been modernized and is now being aided by advanced technologies and new information dissemination methods.Another Perspective of Cognitive Infrastructure
One example of the risk of cognitive infrastructure is when most of a nation’s advanced technical and scientific training in universities is being devoted to foreign students, rather than domestic.
Never stop learning. Pay attention to what the information gatekeepers are trying to tell you, and what they are trying to keep you from hearing. Think for yourself.
We are passing through a stage where the overlords of government, media, academia, corporations, and other cultural institutions are trying to restrict the free flow of information at all levels of society — including among scientists and technologists. These overlords are also diverting large quantities of scarce resources to deal with artificially created phantasms — to the great economic and political benefit of well connected political donors, puppet-masters, and information gatekeepers.
It is nothing new, but it is getting worse, and the numbers of cognitively capable and potentially enlightened persons available to overthrow the suffocating oligarchy of extinction, are shrinking.
Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. It is never too late to have a Dangerous Childhood © .
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This method of constructing high rise buildings does not require large cranes or dangerous high altitude iron work. Once the top level is erected, each subsequent floor is completed on the ground, then raised to fit in its place, like a 500 ton elevator car. Most of the construction can be automated, like an automated factory.
Semiconductor giant Intel first proved the novel high rise construction concept in 2017 on its campus in Bangalore, India. The time-lapse video below shows how it is done:
Meanwhile in downtown Detroit, Michigan, on a lot too small to use conventional high rise construction methods, Barton Marlow construction company is erecting a high rise residential building using the LIFTbuild vertical manufacturing method almost identical to the method used by Intel in India.
These buildings can be built faster, safer, with far less labor, and on a smaller land footprint than if conventional high rise construction were used. In fact, if you wanted to build a city in the middle of nowhere from scratch, you could construct several buildings simultaneously using a small labor force — if you had the materials, electric power, and fuel required. Conversely, if you wanted to build a “city within a city,” this approach allows you to use every bit of land available.
LIFTbuild’s vertical manufacturing approach aims to transform how the world is built. Traditionally, construction has been among the most static industries, using many of the same building methods first adopted in the 19th century. LIFTbuild will catapult the construction industry forward by providing opportunities for a safer, quality-driven, and more efficient project site.
LIFTbuild works by utilizing structural, concrete spines, and steel/concrete framed decks for floorplates. Each floor of a building is assembled at the ground level and lifted up the spines, where they’re subsequently locked into place. The fit-out is accomplished in a fully enclosed and conditioned space, while the lower floors are built below. The assembly process is designed to maximize cost and schedule savings while providing a safe, efficient, and highly productive work environment.LIFTbuild Vertical Manufacturing Methodology
The LIFTbuild method is less expensive than traditional high rise construction for many reasons, including saving time by making it easier to stick to schedule. This saves significantly on current and future financing.
The Detroit project completed its first “lift” in spring of 2022. It is scheduled to complete its final lift this coming spring.
Automated Construction on Mars
Learning to automate construction on Earth is one step
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toward automating construction on Mars, the moon, and other locations in the solar system. On Mars and Luna, the building materials are plentiful, once we learn how to use them effectively.
Once the method is perfected, mining and construction robots will be dropped from orbit, where they can begin building the colonists’ habitats, workshops, and laboratories autonomously.
“The whole reason to do that is, it’s too expensive to ship materials to Mars,” Malott said to Space.com. “We want a place for the astronauts to stay in,” he added. When we are ready to send humans to live on the surface of Mars, they will need somewhere to live. But construction equipment and materials are large and heavy, and it would be both difficult and extremely expensive to send them to another planet.
Buildings on Mars have “to be made robotically in advance of the astronauts arriving using materials made from Mars,” Malott added.Space.com
3d print building construction on Earth
Stop Wasting Terrestrial Resources on Wind, Solar, Climate Apocalypse
Advanced western governments are wasting hundreds of $billions on technologies that don’t work. The final costs will be in the $trillions, once humans finally come to terms with their grand folly. Those are scarce resources which might have gone toward building an abundant and expansive human future. Instead, the money is going to politically connected billionaires who have close ties to government, corporate media, high tech corporations, and other social institutions including universities and publishing.
Climate change is not the same thing as “climate apocalypse.” But it is the apocalypse which is being sold to us — being crammed down our throats — by our overlords in government, media, education, and the other social institutions.
Our most precious resource is the human cognitive resource, which is being rapidly depleted due to the failure of intelligent humans to procreate. This depletion is in part due to the apocalyptic panic that is actively instigated around the issue of climate apocalypse.
We need all of our precious resources to face the genuine challenges in front of us. We cannot afford to squander them on the hobgoblins of fanatical ideologues.
Civilization is Upheld by Force
Prolific science fiction author Robert Heinlein understood that an orderly civilization does not just happen, nor can it sustain itself without considerable force and resources. But our new leftist overlords either cannot understand this, or they do not care one way or another. Once beautiful cities are falling into ruin, one after another, due to the failure of the new breed of leftist government to heed the unpleasant truths of human social order.
Civilization, in the end, is upheld by force. In areas where anarchy is of an unusual degree, a higher degree of force is needed. It really is that simple. Rather than confront violence in the hood, the Left blames whites and further hamstrings already demoralized, overworked cops. The result will be more disorder and, ultimately, the need for more heavy-handed policing in the communities that need it most.Making Water Run Uphill
To maintain an advanced society one needs these critical infrastructures:
Intermittent unreliable energy sectors such as wind and solar, are disruptive and destructive to the vital electric power infrastructure of every advanced nation. Every government that mandates these exorbitantly expensive and catastrophically destructive technologies, is guilty of sabotaging the futures of its own people — for the sake of the corrupt financial gain of the politically connected.
Underlying all Critical Infrastructure is the Cognitive Infrastructure
If through our own ideological stupidity and selfishness we lose our collective cognitive ability to sustain our own advanced critical infrastructures — no matter what the “reasons” we give — we probably deserve our downfall, and the downfalls of all of the less advanced societies around the world that depend upon our cognitive output.
It may be possible for artificial intelligence to partially make up for the steady degradation of our cognitive infrastructure. We seem to be automating everything from heavy construction, manufacturing, and drug discovery, to the composition of music, art, and literature. As long as humans are around to fine tune, modify, and maintain the AI and the robotic machinery, then several nations are capable of maintaining economic output for some time while suffering from a critically dwindling human population.
The nation’s cognitive infrastructure includes the mental capacities of our citizens and the decision-making ability of people, organizations and our government. It also includes the information channels used to feed our decision-making capabilities and the education and training systems used to prepare people and organizations for critical thinking.
Our cognitive infrastructure is threatened in ways few of us ever imagined just a few years ago. Old style propaganda has been modernized and is now being aided by advanced technologies and new information dissemination methods.Another Perspective of Cognitive Infrastructure
One example of the risk of cognitive infrastructure is when most of a nation’s advanced technical and scientific training in universities is being devoted to foreign students, rather than domestic.
Never stop learning. Pay attention to what the information gatekeepers are trying to tell you, and what they are trying to keep you from hearing. Think for yourself.
We are passing through a stage where the overlords of government, media, academia, corporations, and other cultural institutions are trying to restrict the free flow of information at all levels of society — including among scientists and technologists. These overlords are also diverting large quantities of scarce resources to deal with artificially created phantasms — to the great economic and political benefit of well connected political donors, puppet-masters, and information gatekeepers.
It is nothing new, but it is getting worse, and the numbers of cognitively capable and potentially enlightened persons available to overthrow the suffocating oligarchy of extinction, are shrinking.
Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst. It is never too late to have a Dangerous Childhood © .
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Back in 2022, I wrote a piece looking at prior attainment in English and maths GCSE by Key Stage 5 subject choice. And some readers asked whether this varies by gender.
This seemed like a very good question, and I’m going to try and answer it here. I’ll be using data from the KS4 and KS5 pupil and exam tables from the National Pupil Database, focusing on pupils who completed KS4 in a state-funded school in England in 2019.
First, a note on how I’m defining ‘gender’. I’ll be referring to gender (as opposed to sex) throughout this post and will be using two categories: male and female. This is based on what the DfE records as part of the termly school census. Whether this is a good way of defining gender is open to question. But it’s what’s available to us in the data.
Now let’s look at how KS4 attainment breaks down by gender.
In 2019, female pupils’ attainment at GCSE was, on average, higher than that of male pupils. Their average Attainment 8 score was 50.4, compared to 45.5 for male pupils. This means that, on average, female pupils achieved the equivalent of a grade 5.0 in each of the qualifications that makes up their Attainment 8 score, while male pupils achieved the equivalent of half a grade lower.
The chart below shows the distribution of GCSE maths and English grades for male and female pupils.
In English, male pupils’ grades are skewed towards the lower end, and female pupils’ towards the higher end; female pupils tended to get higher grades than male pupils. 22% of female pupils achieved a grade 7 or above in English, compared to 12% of male pupils.
But in maths, the distributions are very similar. Male pupils tended to achieve slightly higher grades but the difference was much smaller than in English: 20% of female pupils achieved a grade 7 or above in maths compared to 21% of male pupils.
The pattern looks a little different when we look at pupils who went on to enter a Level 3 qualification. Female pupils were more likely to do so than male pupils: 60% of those who completed KS4 in 2019 went on to enter a Level 3 qualification at the end of KS5 in 2021, compared to 47% of male pupils.
The chart below shows the grade distributions for those pupils who went on to enter a Level 3 qualification in 2021.
These pupils tended to achieve higher grades in both subjects than all KS4 pupils. And in English, female pupils’ grades tended to be higher than male pupils’, as we saw with all KS4 pupils: 33% of female pupils in this group achieved a grade 7 or above, compared to 23% of male pupils.
But – unlike for all KS4 pupils – there were quite large differences between male and female pupils in terms of maths GCSE grades. 31% of female pupils in this group achieved a grade 7 or above in maths, compared to 41% of male pupils.
Let’s see how this breaks down by subject.
We’ll include all KS5 subjects that had more than 5,000 entries in 2021 from students who completed KS4 in state-funded schools.
In all of these subjects, female students had achieved higher Attainment 8 scores, on average, than male students. But the difference was larger among students taking some KS5 subjects than others.
The chart below shows the difference in the average Attainment 8 score for female and male students by KS5 subject.
The differences are highest in physics and computer science. In physics, the difference is close to five points – which is the equivalent of male students achieving half a grade less than female students in each of the subjects that make up the Attainment 8 score.
At the other end of the scale, religious studies and English language & literature have the smallest differences.
Now let’s look at GCSE grades in English and maths.
The chart below shows the difference in the average GCSE English grade for female students and male students by KS5 subject.
In all of the KS5 subjects included, the average grade for female students was higher than the average grade for male students. But – as with Attainment 8 scores – the difference was particularly high among students of physics and computer science.
The average GCSE English grade for female physics students was 6.9, compared to 6.1 for male physics students. For computer science, the figures were 6.6 for female students and 5.8 for male students.
There was also a large gender difference among BTEC Health Studies students; female students achieved an average GCSE English grade of 4.9, compared to 4.1 for male students.
The differences were smallest among students who took A-Level English.
Now for the difference in average GCSE maths grade.
This looks rather different; in most KS5 subjects, male students’ average GCSE maths grade was higher than female students’, although the differences were smaller than for English grades. The subject with the largest difference was BTEC Business Studies, in which the average GCSE maths grade for male students was 4.7 compared to 4.5 for female students.
But there are some subjects that buck the trend. This includes physics and computer science, the subjects in which the differences between male and female students in terms of English grade was particularly high.
In both subjects, female students achieved slightly higher GCSE maths grades, on average, than male students. The average GCSE maths grades for female computer science students was 7.4, compared to 7.2 for male students. For physics students, the figures were 7.8 for female students and 7.7 for male students.
Gender balance and prior attainment
Some readers may have noticed that the two subjects in which female students’ average grades were highest relative to male students’ – physics and computer science – are also subjects with relatively few female students.
So could there be a link here? Perhaps particularly high attaining female students feel more confident about entering a subject in which they’re likely to be in a minority? And could the same be true of male students in subjects that are more popular with girls, like English and art?
Let’s take a look at how the difference in average female and male GCSE grades relates to the proportion of female students studying a KS5 subject.
There does indeed appear to be an association between relatively high English GCSE grades for female students and relatively low proportions of female students. Similarly, in subjects with a relatively low proportion of male students, the gender gap in attainment at GCSE English tends to be smaller.
There is a notable outlier on the top right of the chart – BTEC Health Studies. Over 90% of the students who entered this qualification were female, but it still had one of the highest gender differences in GCSE English grade.
Turning to maths grades, we see a slightly different pattern.
For subjects with a low proportion of female students, there does appear to be an association between the proportion of female students and the gender difference in GCSE maths grade.
But there isn’t such clear association when we look at subjects with more than around 40% female students.
The full grade distribution
For the sake of making some comparisons between subjects, we’ve been focusing on average grades. But readers with an interest in a particular subject may be keen to see more.
So the charts below show the full monty – you can select your subject of interest and see the grade distribution in both English and maths GCSE for male and female students.
The familiar differences in male and female attainment in GCSE English and maths do vary considerably when broken down by Key Stage 5 subject.
And there are some intriguing links between relative prior attainment and the proportion of female students studying a subject.
: Subjects shown here are A-Level subjects, except where it’s specified that they are BTECs.
: Data suppression rules do not allow us to publish any data based on fewer than 10 students. To avoid this, we have grouped some grades together. For every subject, we show the proportions achieving a grade of 2 or below rather than those achieving a U, 1 or 2 separately. For some subjects, we have also grouped other grades together where numbers were low.
Want to stay up-to-date with the latest research from FFT Education Datalab? Sign up to Datalab’s mailing list to get notifications about new blogposts, or to receive the team’s half-termly newsletter.
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Back in 2022, I wrote a piece looking at prior attainment in English and maths GCSE by Key Stage 5 subject choice. And some readers asked whether this varies by gender.
This seemed like a very good question, and I’m going to try and answer it here. I’ll be using data from the KS4 and KS5 pupil and exam tables from the National Pupil Database, focusing on pupils who completed KS4 in a state-funded school in England in 2019.
First, a note on how I’m defining ‘gender’. I’ll be referring to gender (as opposed to sex) throughout this post and will be using two categories: male and female. This is based on what the DfE records as part of the termly school census. Whether this is a good way of defining gender is open to question. But it’s what’s available to us in the data.
Now let’s look at how KS4 attainment breaks down by gender.
In 2019, female pupils’ attainment at GCSE was, on average, higher than that of male pupils. Their average Attainment 8 score was 50.4, compared to 45.5 for male pupils. This means that, on average, female pupils achieved the equivalent of a grade 5.0 in each of the qualifications that makes up their Attainment 8 score, while male pupils achieved the equivalent of half a grade lower.
The chart below shows the distribution of GCSE maths and English grades for male and female pupils.
In English, male pupils’ grades are skewed towards the lower end, and female pupils’ towards the higher end; female pupils tended to get higher grades than male pupils. 22% of female pupils achieved a grade 7 or above in English, compared to 12% of male pupils.
But in maths, the distributions are very similar. Male pupils tended to achieve slightly higher grades but the difference was much smaller than in English: 20% of female pupils achieved a grade 7 or above in maths compared to 21% of male pupils.
The pattern looks a little different when we look at pupils
|
who went on to enter a Level 3 qualification. Female pupils were more likely to do so than male pupils: 60% of those who completed KS4 in 2019 went on to enter a Level 3 qualification at the end of KS5 in 2021, compared to 47% of male pupils.
The chart below shows the grade distributions for those pupils who went on to enter a Level 3 qualification in 2021.
These pupils tended to achieve higher grades in both subjects than all KS4 pupils. And in English, female pupils’ grades tended to be higher than male pupils’, as we saw with all KS4 pupils: 33% of female pupils in this group achieved a grade 7 or above, compared to 23% of male pupils.
But – unlike for all KS4 pupils – there were quite large differences between male and female pupils in terms of maths GCSE grades. 31% of female pupils in this group achieved a grade 7 or above in maths, compared to 41% of male pupils.
Let’s see how this breaks down by subject.
We’ll include all KS5 subjects that had more than 5,000 entries in 2021 from students who completed KS4 in state-funded schools.
In all of these subjects, female students had achieved higher Attainment 8 scores, on average, than male students. But the difference was larger among students taking some KS5 subjects than others.
The chart below shows the difference in the average Attainment 8 score for female and male students by KS5 subject.
The differences are highest in physics and computer science. In physics, the difference is close to five points – which is the equivalent of male students achieving half a grade less than female students in each of the subjects that make up the Attainment 8 score.
At the other end of the scale, religious studies and English language & literature have the smallest differences.
Now let’s look at GCSE grades in English and maths.
The chart below shows the difference in the average GCSE English grade for female students and male students by KS5 subject.
In all of the KS5 subjects included, the average grade for female students was higher than the average grade for male students. But – as with Attainment 8 scores – the difference was particularly high among students of physics and computer science.
The average GCSE English grade for female physics students was 6.9, compared to 6.1 for male physics students. For computer science, the figures were 6.6 for female students and 5.8 for male students.
There was also a large gender difference among BTEC Health Studies students; female students achieved an average GCSE English grade of 4.9, compared to 4.1 for male students.
The differences were smallest among students who took A-Level English.
Now for the difference in average GCSE maths grade.
This looks rather different; in most KS5 subjects, male students’ average GCSE maths grade was higher than female students’, although the differences were smaller than for English grades. The subject with the largest difference was BTEC Business Studies, in which the average GCSE maths grade for male students was 4.7 compared to 4.5 for female students.
But there are some subjects that buck the trend. This includes physics and computer science, the subjects in which the differences between male and female students in terms of English grade was particularly high.
In both subjects, female students achieved slightly higher GCSE maths grades, on average, than male students. The average GCSE maths grades for female computer science students was 7.4, compared to 7.2 for male students. For physics students, the figures were 7.8 for female students and 7.7 for male students.
Gender balance and prior attainment
Some readers may have noticed that the two subjects in which female students’ average grades were highest relative to male students’ – physics and computer science – are also subjects with relatively few female students.
So could there be a link here? Perhaps particularly high attaining female students feel more confident about entering a subject in which they’re likely to be in a minority? And could the same be true of male students in subjects that are more popular with girls, like English and art?
Let’s take a look at how the difference in average female and male GCSE grades relates to the proportion of female students studying a KS5 subject.
There does indeed appear to be an association between relatively high English GCSE grades for female students and relatively low proportions of female students. Similarly, in subjects with a relatively low proportion of male students, the gender gap in attainment at GCSE English tends to be smaller.
There is a notable outlier on the top right of the chart – BTEC Health Studies. Over 90% of the students who entered this qualification were female, but it still had one of the highest gender differences in GCSE English grade.
Turning to maths grades, we see a slightly different pattern.
For subjects with a low proportion of female students, there does appear to be an association between the proportion of female students and the gender difference in GCSE maths grade.
But there isn’t such clear association when we look at subjects with more than around 40% female students.
The full grade distribution
For the sake of making some comparisons between subjects, we’ve been focusing on average grades. But readers with an interest in a particular subject may be keen to see more.
So the charts below show the full monty – you can select your subject of interest and see the grade distribution in both English and maths GCSE for male and female students.
The familiar differences in male and female attainment in GCSE English and maths do vary considerably when broken down by Key Stage 5 subject.
And there are some intriguing links between relative prior attainment and the proportion of female students studying a subject.
: Subjects shown here are A-Level subjects, except where it’s specified that they are BTECs.
: Data suppression rules do not allow us to publish any data based on fewer than 10 students. To avoid this, we have grouped some grades together. For every subject, we show the proportions achieving a grade of 2 or below rather than those achieving a U, 1 or 2 separately. For some subjects, we have also grouped other grades together where numbers were low.
Want to stay up-to-date with the latest research from FFT Education Datalab? Sign up to Datalab’s mailing list to get notifications about new blogposts, or to receive the team’s half-termly newsletter.
|
Unvaccinated kindergarteners on the rise in Arkansas
2.5% of kindergartners across Arkansans were granted exemptions to required vaccines as of the school year ending in 2022, compared to 0.9% in 2012.
Why it matters: Vaccinations reduce the spread of childhood illnesses — some potentially fatal — that once plagued the country, such as polio.
- Children are generally required to get a number of vaccinations before attending public school; however, exemptions can be given for both medical and nonmedical reasons, such as religious or philosophical objections.
- Studies have found an increased risk of infection from vaccine-preventable diseases among exempt children.
Driving the news: COVID-19 vaccinations are not required for young children attending public school anywhere in the U.S., but it appears that vaccine skepticism is swelling among a relatively small but growing number of parents — though that trend certainly existed before the pandemic.
By the numbers: The nationwide median kindergarten vaccination exemption rate was rising even before COVID-19, up from 1.4% in 2012 and 2.6% in 2019.
- It has stayed at 2.5% or higher since 2020, coming in at 2.7% in 2022, the latest year for which data is available.
Zoom in: As of 2022, Idaho (9.8%), Utah (7.4%) and Oregon (7%) had the highest median kindergarten vaccination exemption rates.
- Mississippi, New York and West Virginia were tied for the lowest, at 0.1%.
Between the lines: Even as the kindergarten vaccine exemption rate ticks up, Americans as a whole are overwhelmingly supportive of childhood vaccinations, per a recent Pew survey.
- When it comes to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot, 88% of Americans said the benefits outweigh the risks, compared to 10% who feel the opposite.
- "The share expressing confidence in the value of MMR vaccines is identical to the share who said this in 2019, before the coronavirus outbreak," per Pew.
Yes, but: Just 70% of Americans now say healthy kids should be vaccinated as a requirement to attend public school, Pew found — down from 82% in the prepandemic era.
- While Democratic support for vaccine requirements held steady at around 85% between pre- and post-pandemic years, Republican support took a remarkable nosedive, falling from 79% in 2019 to 57% in 2023.
- Put another way, the overall decline in support for vaccination requirements is being driven almost entirely by Republicans.
The bottom line: We'd like to see further research before definitively saying that skepticism around the COVID shots is leading to higher childhood vaccination exemption rates, but it sure seems that way.
- As Pew put it: "Those who are not vaccinated for COVID-19 are among those most likely to express concern about childhood vaccines generally."
More NW Arkansas stories
No stories could be found
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios NW Arkansas.
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Unvaccinated kindergarteners on the rise in Arkansas
2.5% of kindergartners across Arkansans were granted exemptions to required vaccines as of the school year ending in 2022, compared to 0.9% in 2012.
Why it matters: Vaccinations reduce the spread of childhood illnesses — some potentially fatal — that once plagued the country, such as polio.
- Children are generally required to get a number of vaccinations before attending public school; however, exemptions can be given for both medical and nonmedical reasons, such as religious or philosophical objections.
- Studies have found an increased risk of infection from vaccine-preventable diseases among exempt children.
Driving the news: COVID-19 vaccinations are not required for young children attending public school anywhere in the U.S., but it appears that vaccine skepticism is swelling among a relatively small but growing number of parents — though that trend certainly existed before the pandemic.
By the numbers: The nationwide median kindergarten vaccination exemption rate was rising even before COVID-19, up from 1.4% in 2012 and 2.6% in 2019.
- It has stayed at 2.5% or higher since 2020, coming in at 2.7% in 2022, the latest year for which data is available.
Zoom in: As of 2022, Idaho (9.8%), Utah (7.4%) and Oregon (7%) had the highest median kindergarten vaccination exemption rates.
- Mississippi, New York and West Virginia were tied for the lowest, at 0.1%.
Between the lines: Even as the kindergarten vaccine exemption rate ticks up, Americans as a whole are overwhelmingly supportive of childhood vaccinations, per a recent Pew survey.
- When it comes to the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) shot, 88% of Americans said the benefits outweigh the risks, compared to 10% who feel the opposite.
- "The share expressing confidence in the value of MMR vaccines is identical to the share who said this in 2019, before the coronavirus outbreak," per Pew.
Yes, but: Just 70% of Americans now say healthy kids should be vaccinated as a requirement to attend public school, Pew found — down from 82% in the prepandemic era.
-
|
While Democratic support for vaccine requirements held steady at around 85% between pre- and post-pandemic years, Republican support took a remarkable nosedive, falling from 79% in 2019 to 57% in 2023.
- Put another way, the overall decline in support for vaccination requirements is being driven almost entirely by Republicans.
The bottom line: We'd like to see further research before definitively saying that skepticism around the COVID shots is leading to higher childhood vaccination exemption rates, but it sure seems that way.
- As Pew put it: "Those who are not vaccinated for COVID-19 are among those most likely to express concern about childhood vaccines generally."
More NW Arkansas stories
No stories could be found
Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios NW Arkansas.
|
How the “nine-dash line” fuels tensions in the South China Sea
China has co-opted a cartographic mistake to bully its neighbours
CHART THE course of Chinese coastguard ships in the South China Sea and a pattern emerges. The boats’ patrols often follow a U-shaped route that stretches over 700 nautical miles from China’s coastline, encircling most of a sea that plays an outsize role in global trade and security. This path is the “nine-dash line”. China claims everything inside it as its own, ignoring protests from neighbouring countries. Last year its coastguard spent longer patrolling key reefs along the line than ever before. China’s assertiveness in enforcing this claim is perhaps the biggest obstacle to calming tensions in the South China Sea. How did this line become so important?
The nine-dash line is partly the result of a cartographic mistake. Chinese officials had little interest in, or knowledge of, the South China Sea before the 20th century. But after a series of humiliations at the hands of imperialist powers, map-making became a way to reclaim national pride, at least on paper. In 1933 Chiang Kai-Shek’s nationalist government created a committee to give Chinese names to islands in the South China Sea. The committee copied names from Western maps into Chinese, mistranslating the James Shoal, an underwater bank far from China, as “Zengmu tan”. “Tan” means a sandbank above water.
When Bai Meichu, a private geographer and teacher inspired by the flurry of nationalistic cartography, drew a map with the first U-shaped line, he curved it around the James Shoal. Two of Bai’s students were later hired by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government and, in 1946, appear to have helped draw the first official map containing the line. By 1948, a year before the KMT lost power in a civil war, the government began to officially assert the legitimacy of the line—and implicitly claim everything within it. Officials were documenting new maritime ambitions rather than any historical claim, says Bill Hayton, author of “The South China Sea”.
When the Communists took over in 1949, they retained the nine-dash line and began to build a mythology around it. In the 1990s China’s government started to say that it had “historic rights” over everything inside the dashes, on the basis of absurd claims that it was first to discover islands within the line. It has never clarified whether that refers just to territory, or to the fish, oil and water, too. The vagueness suits China, because its maximalist position allows it to strong-arm its neighbours over issues such as exploration rights in the South China Sea.
China’s claims have no basis in modern maritime law, which is governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a treaty agreed in 1982 and ratified by 168 countries, including China. Coastal countries are entitled to 12 nautical miles of territorial sea, where they have sovereignty. They also get exclusive rights to drilling, fishing and mining—but only up to 200 nautical miles from their coast (see map). In 2013 the Philippines challenged China at an international tribunal, which ruled that China’s claims based on the nine-dash line were unlawful. China rejects the ruling. It argues that its traditional maritime claims trump the UNCLOS principles.
China has considerably expanded its navy and coastguard in the decades since the line was sketched out, and now acts as a maritime bully within it. Around an eighth of the world’s fish are caught in the South China Sea and it contains untapped oil and gas reserves. Chinese aggression curtails neighbouring countries’ legal attempts to extract these resources. Its vessels harass fishing boats and disrupt oil-and-gas drilling carried out by Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.
China is unlikely to change its stance. Xi Jinping, China’s president, has promised to recover lost territory and with it the country’s place in the world. In 2013 China added a tenth dash, to emphasise that Taiwan falls within the line. As long as China continues to flout international law, talks to resolve disputes in the South China Sea are unlikely to succeed, says Ian Storey of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a think-tank. Tension will continue to bubble in one of the world’s most hotly disputed regions. ■
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How the “nine-dash line” fuels tensions in the South China Sea
China has co-opted a cartographic mistake to bully its neighbours
CHART THE course of Chinese coastguard ships in the South China Sea and a pattern emerges. The boats’ patrols often follow a U-shaped route that stretches over 700 nautical miles from China’s coastline, encircling most of a sea that plays an outsize role in global trade and security. This path is the “nine-dash line”. China claims everything inside it as its own, ignoring protests from neighbouring countries. Last year its coastguard spent longer patrolling key reefs along the line than ever before. China’s assertiveness in enforcing this claim is perhaps the biggest obstacle to calming tensions in the South China Sea. How did this line become so important?
The nine-dash line is partly the result of a cartographic mistake. Chinese officials had little interest in, or knowledge of, the South China Sea before the 20th century. But after a series of humiliations at the hands of imperialist powers, map-making became a way to reclaim national pride, at least on paper. In 1933 Chiang Kai-Shek’s nationalist government created a committee to give Chinese names to islands in the South China Sea. The committee copied names from Western maps into Chinese, mistranslating the James Shoal, an underwater bank far from China, as “Zengmu tan”. “Tan” means a sandbank above water.
When Bai Meichu, a private geographer and teacher inspired by the flurry of nationalistic cartography, drew a map with the first U-shaped line, he curved it around the James Shoal. Two of Bai’s students were later hired by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) government and, in 1946, appear to have helped draw the first official map containing the line. By 1948, a year before the KMT lost power in a civil war, the government began to officially assert the legitimacy of the line—and implicitly claim everything within it. Officials were documenting new maritime ambitions rather than any historical claim, says Bill Hayton, author of “The South China Sea”.
When the Communists took over in 1949, they retained the nine-dash line and began to build a mythology around it. In the 1990s China’s government started to say that it had “historic rights” over everything inside the d
|
ashes, on the basis of absurd claims that it was first to discover islands within the line. It has never clarified whether that refers just to territory, or to the fish, oil and water, too. The vagueness suits China, because its maximalist position allows it to strong-arm its neighbours over issues such as exploration rights in the South China Sea.
China’s claims have no basis in modern maritime law, which is governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a treaty agreed in 1982 and ratified by 168 countries, including China. Coastal countries are entitled to 12 nautical miles of territorial sea, where they have sovereignty. They also get exclusive rights to drilling, fishing and mining—but only up to 200 nautical miles from their coast (see map). In 2013 the Philippines challenged China at an international tribunal, which ruled that China’s claims based on the nine-dash line were unlawful. China rejects the ruling. It argues that its traditional maritime claims trump the UNCLOS principles.
China has considerably expanded its navy and coastguard in the decades since the line was sketched out, and now acts as a maritime bully within it. Around an eighth of the world’s fish are caught in the South China Sea and it contains untapped oil and gas reserves. Chinese aggression curtails neighbouring countries’ legal attempts to extract these resources. Its vessels harass fishing boats and disrupt oil-and-gas drilling carried out by Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia.
China is unlikely to change its stance. Xi Jinping, China’s president, has promised to recover lost territory and with it the country’s place in the world. In 2013 China added a tenth dash, to emphasise that Taiwan falls within the line. As long as China continues to flout international law, talks to resolve disputes in the South China Sea are unlikely to succeed, says Ian Storey of the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, a think-tank. Tension will continue to bubble in one of the world’s most hotly disputed regions. ■
|
This is the final installment in our series on alternate CAR T therapies. Part one describes a version of CAR T which uses a universal adaptor. Part two introduces SNAPtag, an alternative CAR T therapy. Visit the website www.williamhaseltine.com for more on CAR T therapies.
In a previous installment, we described an alternative cell treatment which relies on synNotch receptors. These synthetic receptors react to a specific input and produce a desired cell response. This modular design promises greater therapeutic flexibility than its more well-established counterpart, CAR T therapy. The design is further improved when integrated with a universal adaptor called SNAPtag. Here, we describe how researchers at the University of Pittsburgh developed this synNotch-adaptor duo and how it works.
SynNotch and the Universal Adaptor
SynNotch cells depend on transcription factors to change a gene, while CAR T cells trigger T cell signal cascades. Despite relying on distinct mechanisms, the two therapies share similar limitations: they are both hard to control and can only target one antigen at a time. To this end, Ruffo and colleagues sought to develop an adaptor that worked not only with CAR T cells, but with synNotch T cells, as well.
The adaptor should, in theory, create a bridge between the receptor and the target antigen. In this way, using an adaptor on synNotch cells would allow the therapy to target multiple antigens at the same time or sequentially. The antigen target could also be switched by introducing a new antibody with the same tag. And importantly for control, the therapy could be halted or intensified by altering the adaptor concentration or introducing tags as a competitive inhibitor.
As demonstrated previously, the universal adaptor is composed of two key elements: an antibody and a benzylguanine (BG) tag (Figure 1). The tag permanently fastens to the extracellular portion of the synNotch receptor via covalent bonding. Meanwhile, the antibody tail senses and binds to a specific antigen on a target cell. Antigen binding stretches the synNotch receptor and reveals a cleavage site on its core protein. As Figure 2 shows, enzymes will cut the cleavage site and release a transcription factor into the intracellular domain of the cell. The transcription factor should travel to the nucleus, where it influences the expression of a target gene.
Does Adapted SynNotch Work?
SynNotch receptor function was tested with four different types of adaptors, each composed of a distinct and clinically relevant antibody (see Table 1). The synNotch cells were co-incubated with corresponding tumor cells and exposed to differing concentrations of the adaptor. After 48 hours, the cells were assayed using flow cytometry to measure gene expression. Target gene expression should increase if the adaptor molecules successfully bind to a tumor cell on one side and a synNotch receptor on the other.
The synNotch cells successfully activated target genes when exposed to the universal adaptor. Notably, the synNotch cells could regulate the expression of a gene called IL-7 which promotes T cell proliferation—an important component to bolster a patient’s immunity.
Receptor activation proved sensitive at low concentrations of the adaptor. Fascinatingly, once the adaptor concentration exceeded 0.25µg/mL, target gene expression no longer increased. In fact, a “hook effect” was observed; although the adaptor concentration increased, target gene expression continually decreased. Gene expression was completely inhibited in adaptor concentrations of 10µg/mL.
The authors posit that the “hook effect” occurred due to oversaturation. Likely at these concentrations, the adaptor molecules are binding to the target tumor or synNotch cells without creating a bridge. Without binding on both sides of the adaptor, the synNotch receptor cannot be activated.
SynNotch T cells have the potential to exceed CAR T cell performance with their flexibility. The design allows researchers to determine the input and output of a cell response. Integrating a universal adaptor further extends the possibilities of the treatment to respond to multiple antigen targets or turn on/off at will. While presently in early stages of testing, clinical translation of this platform would greatly benefit patients with solid tumors and other hard-to-treat diseases.
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This is the final installment in our series on alternate CAR T therapies. Part one describes a version of CAR T which uses a universal adaptor. Part two introduces SNAPtag, an alternative CAR T therapy. Visit the website www.williamhaseltine.com for more on CAR T therapies.
In a previous installment, we described an alternative cell treatment which relies on synNotch receptors. These synthetic receptors react to a specific input and produce a desired cell response. This modular design promises greater therapeutic flexibility than its more well-established counterpart, CAR T therapy. The design is further improved when integrated with a universal adaptor called SNAPtag. Here, we describe how researchers at the University of Pittsburgh developed this synNotch-adaptor duo and how it works.
SynNotch and the Universal Adaptor
SynNotch cells depend on transcription factors to change a gene, while CAR T cells trigger T cell signal cascades. Despite relying on distinct mechanisms, the two therapies share similar limitations: they are both hard to control and can only target one antigen at a time. To this end, Ruffo and colleagues sought to develop an adaptor that worked not only with CAR T cells, but with synNotch T cells, as well.
The adaptor should, in theory, create a bridge between the receptor and the target antigen. In this way, using an adaptor on synNotch cells would allow the therapy to target multiple antigens at the same time or sequentially. The antigen target could also be switched by introducing a new antibody with the same tag. And importantly for control, the therapy could be halted or intensified by altering the adaptor concentration or introducing tags as a competitive inhibitor.
As demonstrated previously, the universal adaptor is composed of two key elements: an antibody and a benzylguanine (BG) tag (Figure 1). The tag permanently fastens to the extracellular portion of the synNotch receptor via covalent bonding. Meanwhile, the antibody tail senses and binds to a specific antigen on a target cell. Antigen binding stretches the synNotch receptor and reveals a cleavage site on its core protein. As Figure 2 shows, enzymes will cut the cleavage site and release a transcription factor into the intracellular domain of the cell. The transcription factor should travel to the nucleus, where it influences the expression of a target gene.
Does Adapted SynNotch Work?
SynNotch receptor function was tested with four different types of adaptors, each composed of a distinct and clinically relevant antibody (see Table 1). The synNotch cells were co-inc
|
ubated with corresponding tumor cells and exposed to differing concentrations of the adaptor. After 48 hours, the cells were assayed using flow cytometry to measure gene expression. Target gene expression should increase if the adaptor molecules successfully bind to a tumor cell on one side and a synNotch receptor on the other.
The synNotch cells successfully activated target genes when exposed to the universal adaptor. Notably, the synNotch cells could regulate the expression of a gene called IL-7 which promotes T cell proliferation—an important component to bolster a patient’s immunity.
Receptor activation proved sensitive at low concentrations of the adaptor. Fascinatingly, once the adaptor concentration exceeded 0.25µg/mL, target gene expression no longer increased. In fact, a “hook effect” was observed; although the adaptor concentration increased, target gene expression continually decreased. Gene expression was completely inhibited in adaptor concentrations of 10µg/mL.
The authors posit that the “hook effect” occurred due to oversaturation. Likely at these concentrations, the adaptor molecules are binding to the target tumor or synNotch cells without creating a bridge. Without binding on both sides of the adaptor, the synNotch receptor cannot be activated.
SynNotch T cells have the potential to exceed CAR T cell performance with their flexibility. The design allows researchers to determine the input and output of a cell response. Integrating a universal adaptor further extends the possibilities of the treatment to respond to multiple antigen targets or turn on/off at will. While presently in early stages of testing, clinical translation of this platform would greatly benefit patients with solid tumors and other hard-to-treat diseases.
|
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
Scientists have long wondered what lies at the very center of the Earth, and the latest research is putting weight behind a theory that our planet has a distinct ball of iron within its metallic core.
Beneath the outermost crust, the mantle and the molten-liquid outer core lies the Earth’s solid metal center — which actually has a hidden layer, or an “innermost inner core” within, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
The monumental finding suggests the Earth has five major layers instead of four, and offered new details scientists could use to help unlock some of the oldest mysteries about our planet and how it was formed.
Geoscientists first suggested that the Earth’s core might have an additional, imperceptible layer about 20 years ago, according to a news release. Now, using new data sets collected by measuring the seismic waves of earthquakes as they passed through the Earth’s center, researchers have finally detected that innermost core, the new study said.
Seismic waves are vibrations that run within or along the surface of the Earth and through its inner layers as a result of earthquakes, volcanoes or other means.
“In this study, for the first time, we report observations of seismic waves originating from powerful earthquakes traveling back and forth from one side of the globe to the other up to five times like a ricochet,” study coauthor Dr. Thanh-Son Phạm, a seismologist and postdoctoral fellow at the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra, in an email.
Detection through quake activity
The reason this layer had not been previously observed in more detail is because its composition is so similar to what lies above it, Pham said. Both this newly detected center — which the study reports is likely a 400-mile-wide (644-kilometer-wide) ball of metal — and its outer shell are made of iron-nickel alloy, with trace amounts of other elements.
“Additionally, the transition from the innermost (solid) ball to the outer shell of the inner core (also solid shell) seems rather gradational than sharp,” Pham said. “That is why we cannot observe it via direct reflections of seismic waves from it.”
Using instruments that detect the vibrational waves, researchers found the innermost inner core has a distinct anisotropy, which is a property of a substance that allows it to take on different characteristics depending on the angle from which it’s approached. An example of an object that’s anisotropic is a piece of wood: It’s much easier to hack a piece of firewood apart by hitting it along the direction of its grain than against it.
It is that feature that distinguishes the innermost core.
When it came to assessing the Earth’s core, researchers looked at how fast seismic waves traveled through it in different directions, and they found the innermost inner core changed the speed of those waves in a different way than the layer above it, the center core’s outer shell.
Detecting the new layer more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) beneath our feet is significant. The presence of a distinct innermost core could give scientists a better understanding of Earth’s magnetic field and how it has evolved and will continue to do so.
The new finding also “gives us a glimpse of what might have happened with other planets,” Pham said. “Take Mars as an example. We don’t understand yet why (Mars’ magnetic field) ceased to exist in the past.”
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Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.
Scientists have long wondered what lies at the very center of the Earth, and the latest research is putting weight behind a theory that our planet has a distinct ball of iron within its metallic core.
Beneath the outermost crust, the mantle and the molten-liquid outer core lies the Earth’s solid metal center — which actually has a hidden layer, or an “innermost inner core” within, according to a new study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications.
The monumental finding suggests the Earth has five major layers instead of four, and offered new details scientists could use to help unlock some of the oldest mysteries about our planet and how it was formed.
Geoscientists first suggested that the Earth’s core might have an additional, imperceptible layer about 20 years ago, according to a news release. Now, using new data sets collected by measuring the seismic waves of earthquakes as they passed through the Earth’s center, researchers have finally detected that innermost core, the new study said.
Seismic waves are vibrations that run within or along the surface of the Earth and through its inner layers as a result of earthquakes, volcanoes or other means.
“In this study, for the first time, we report observations of seismic waves originating from powerful earthquakes traveling back and forth from one side of the globe to the other up to five times like a ricochet,” study coauthor Dr. Thanh-Son Phạm, a seismologist and postdoctoral fellow at the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra, in an email.
Detection through quake activity
The reason this layer had not been previously observed in more detail is because its composition is so similar to what lies above it, Pham said. Both this newly detected center — which the study reports is likely a 400-mile-wide (644-kilometer-wide) ball of metal — and its outer shell are made of iron-nickel alloy, with trace amounts of other elements.
“Additionally, the transition from the innermost (solid) ball to the outer shell of the inner core (also solid shell) seems rather gradational than sharp,” Pham said. “That is why we cannot observe it via direct reflections of seismic waves from it.”
Using instruments that detect the vibrational waves, researchers found the innermost inner core has a distinct anisotropy, which is a property of a substance that allows it
|
to take on different characteristics depending on the angle from which it’s approached. An example of an object that’s anisotropic is a piece of wood: It’s much easier to hack a piece of firewood apart by hitting it along the direction of its grain than against it.
It is that feature that distinguishes the innermost core.
When it came to assessing the Earth’s core, researchers looked at how fast seismic waves traveled through it in different directions, and they found the innermost inner core changed the speed of those waves in a different way than the layer above it, the center core’s outer shell.
Detecting the new layer more than 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) beneath our feet is significant. The presence of a distinct innermost core could give scientists a better understanding of Earth’s magnetic field and how it has evolved and will continue to do so.
The new finding also “gives us a glimpse of what might have happened with other planets,” Pham said. “Take Mars as an example. We don’t understand yet why (Mars’ magnetic field) ceased to exist in the past.”
|
Archeologists said Tuesday that they had uncovered a new moai statue on the Chilean territory of Easter Island, capping off a big week in historical revelations that include a hidden corridor in Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza and the site of a 19th century shipwreck in Lake Huron in North America.
It’s been a rich year for dig sites around the world which have so far unearthed a 5,000-year-old restaurant pub and ancient tombs belonging to a priest and a palace official known as “the keeper of secrets.”
The View From Easter Island
The new moai — one of Easter Island’s iconic stone statues — was found in a newly dried-out lake which reached nearly 10 feet deep, suggesting the moai was not recently moved.
The area suffered a fire last year, damaging several of the sculptures erected by the Rapa Nui people.
Found face-up, the moai’s unearthing has given researchers renewed hope that they could uncover more statues. There are more than 1,000 moai on the island which are estimated to be about 500 years old.
The View From Iraq
A 5,000-year-old Sumerian restaurant was uncovered in February in Iraq, and researchers are hopeful the find will shed some light on the day-to-day lives of people in the world’s first cities.
Among the discoveries unearthed at the site were animal bones, around 150 serving bowls, several tables and benches for diners, and evidence of an early refrigeration system.
The View From Saqqara
The ancient Egyptian necropolis of Saqqara has been the gift that keeps on giving for researchers. The necropolis has previously yielded burial sites for ancient royalty and a tomb full of sacred cats and lions.
In January, archaeologists found a well-preserved sarcophagus and two previously undiscovered tombs dating back to the fifth and sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom. One tomb belonged to a priest and the other to a palace official whose title was “the keeper of the secrets,” the Associated Press reported.
“I put my head inside to see what was inside the sarcophagus: A beautiful mummy of a man completely covered in layers of gold,” said Zahi Hawass, the excavation’s director.
The View From Lake Huron
A pristinely preserved shipwreck was located in Lake Huron in 2019, and researchers this week announced their findings. The ship, belonging to the Ironton, was downed after a collision with a schooner, killing many crew members. The find corroborates the story told by the ship’s survivors: A lifeboat was found attached to the ship, confirming that the boat was never deployed.
The View From Giza
A 30-foot-long hidden corridor was found in Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza. Two voids were detected in Giza in 2016 and 2017, and the Egyptian government revealed results from its Scan the Pyramids project on Thursday, unveiling 3D renderings of the corridor.
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Archeologists said Tuesday that they had uncovered a new moai statue on the Chilean territory of Easter Island, capping off a big week in historical revelations that include a hidden corridor in Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza and the site of a 19th century shipwreck in Lake Huron in North America.
It’s been a rich year for dig sites around the world which have so far unearthed a 5,000-year-old restaurant pub and ancient tombs belonging to a priest and a palace official known as “the keeper of secrets.”
The View From Easter Island
The new moai — one of Easter Island’s iconic stone statues — was found in a newly dried-out lake which reached nearly 10 feet deep, suggesting the moai was not recently moved.
The area suffered a fire last year, damaging several of the sculptures erected by the Rapa Nui people.
Found face-up, the moai’s unearthing has given researchers renewed hope that they could uncover more statues. There are more than 1,000 moai on the island which are estimated to be about 500 years old.
The View From Iraq
A 5,000-year-old Sumerian restaurant was uncovered in February in Iraq, and researchers are hopeful the find will shed some light on the day-to-day lives of people in the world’s first cities.
Among the discoveries unearthed at the site were animal bones, around 150 serving bowls, several tables and benches for diners, and evidence of an early refrigeration system.
The View From Saqqara
The ancient Egyptian necropolis of Saqqara has been the gift that keeps on giving for researchers. The necropolis has previously yielded burial sites for ancient royalty and a tomb full of sacred cats and lions.
In January, archaeologists found a well-preserved sarcophagus and two previously undiscovered tombs dating back to the fifth and sixth dynasties of the Old Kingdom. One tomb belonged to a priest and the other to a palace official whose title was “the keeper of the secrets,” the Associated Press reported.
“I put my head inside to see what was inside the sarcophagus: A beautiful mummy of a man completely covered in layers of gold,” said Zahi Hawass, the excavation’s director.
The View From Lake Huron
A pristinely preserved shipwreck was located in Lake Huron in 2019, and researchers this week announced their findings. The ship,
|
belonging to the Ironton, was downed after a collision with a schooner, killing many crew members. The find corroborates the story told by the ship’s survivors: A lifeboat was found attached to the ship, confirming that the boat was never deployed.
The View From Giza
A 30-foot-long hidden corridor was found in Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza. Two voids were detected in Giza in 2016 and 2017, and the Egyptian government revealed results from its Scan the Pyramids project on Thursday, unveiling 3D renderings of the corridor.
|
On November 30, 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT was launched. Almost overnight millions began experimenting with it writing silly poems, having fun trying to trick it into making some type of mistake or being more practical and creating letters, writing agreements or composing emails.
Over the years, I have interviewed hundreds of senior business executives on the issues for thought leadership, innovation and strategy. I’ve also written continuously on the importance of the use of quality & representative data for machine learning initiatives.
That is why after hearing about all the excitement caused by ChatGPT, I decided it would be great to interview this technology for this blog. Of course, that would depend on whether or not ChatGPT agreed to answer a series of questions I submitted. Fortunately, ChatGPT agreed to answer the questions. I began with basic questions on background and best uses for and moved to more complex questions. The most interesting question answered was to a question I submitted for a trend file of Prosper Insights & Analytics data covering three years of consumer purchase plans for women’s clothing. ChatGPT not only analyzed the data it provided context, meaning and guidance why various changes may have occurred. In other words, the data became knowledge.
Here is my interview with ChatGPT.
Drenik: Please tell me what a chatbot is?
ChatGPT: A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet. Chatbots are often used in customer service and online shopping to provide quick and automated assistance to customers. They can be programmed to respond to specific commands or to use artificial intelligence to understand and respond to more complex inquiries. Some chatbots are designed to be used on messaging platforms, while others are integrated into websites or mobile apps. Chatbots can be useful for businesses because they can handle a large volume of interactions with customers, freeing up time for human customer service agents to handle more complex or high-priority tasks.
Drenik: What types of inquiries can chatbots respond to?
ChatGPT: Chatbots can be programmed to handle a wide variety of inquiries, depending on their design and the specific business or service they are intended to support. Some common types of inquiries that chatbots can handle include:
- Basic information: Chatbots can be programmed to provide basic information about a business or service, such as store hours, location, and contact information.
- Customer service: Chatbots can be used to handle common customer service inquiries, such as answering questions about products or services, handling returns and exchanges, and providing assistance with account issues.
- Order processing: Chatbots can be used to process orders and handle payment transactions.
- Appointments and reservations: Chatbots can be used to schedule appointments or make reservations for services or events.
- Troubleshooting: Chatbots can be programmed to troubleshoot and diagnose problems with products or services.
- Personalized recommendations: Chatbots can use artificial intelligence to provide personalized recommendations to customers based on their previous purchases or interactions with the business.
Overall, chatbots can be programmed to handle a wide range of inquiries and interactions with customers, depending on the specific needs of the business or service.
Drenik: How do chatbots differ from search engines?
ChatGPT: There are a few key differences between chatbots and search engines:
- Purpose: Chatbots are designed to simulate conversation and provide assistance to users, while search engines are designed to help users find information on the Internet. Chatbots are typically used to provide assistance within a specific context or domain, such as a business or service, while search engines are designed to provide information on a wide range of topics.
- Input and output: Chatbots typically accept input in the form of natural language text or voice commands, and provide output in the form of text or voice responses. Search engines, on the other hand, accept input in the form of keywords or phrases and provide output in the form of a list of relevant web pages or documents.
- Context and personalization: Chatbots can use artificial intelligence to understand the context and intent of user inquiries and provide personalized responses, while search engines typically provide the same results for a given query regardless of the user or context.
Overall, chatbots and search engines are different tools that serve different purposes. Chatbots are designed to provide assistance and support within a specific context, while search engines are designed to help users find information on a wide range of topics.
Drenik: How important is it to input accurate and representative data for a chatbot to analyze?
ChatGPT: It is very important to input accurate and representative data for a chatbot to analyze, as this can significantly impact the performance and effectiveness of the chatbot. Chatbots rely on data to learn and understand the context and intent of user inquiries, and to generate appropriate responses. If the data used to train a chatbot is inaccurate or unrepresentative, the chatbot may have difficulty understanding user inquiries or providing appropriate responses. This can lead to poor user experiences and may even cause users to lose confidence in the chatbot.
To ensure that a chatbot is able to accurately analyze and respond to user inquiries, it is important to input a diverse and representative set of data that accurately reflects the types of inquiries and interactions that the chatbot will encounter in practice. This may include training data that covers a wide range of topics and languages, as well as data that reflects different user demographics and contexts. By inputting accurate and representative data, businesses can help ensure that their chatbots are able to provide high-quality assistance and support to users.
Drenik: Does GIGO impact the analysis of a chatbot?
ChatGPT: Yes, the principle of "garbage in, garbage out" (GIGO) can definitely impact the analysis of a chatbot. GIGO refers to the idea that if inaccurate or poor-quality data is input into a system, the output of that system will also be of poor quality. This principle applies to chatbots as well as other types of computer systems.
If a chatbot is trained on inaccurate or unrepresentative data, it may have difficulty understanding user inquiries or providing appropriate responses. This can lead to poor user experiences and may even cause users to lose confidence in the chatbot. To ensure that a chatbot is able to accurately analyze and respond to user inquiries, it is important to input a diverse and representative set of data that accurately reflects the types of inquiries and interactions that the chatbot will encounter in practice. By following the principle of GIGO, businesses can help ensure that their chatbots are able to provide high-quality assistance and support to users.
Drenik: Can chatbots analyze data and make recommendations?
ChatGPT: Yes, chatbots can be programmed to analyze data and make recommendations. Chatbots can use artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, such as machine learning, to analyze data and make predictions or recommendations based on that data.
For example, a chatbot designed for online shopping could analyze a customer's past purchases and browse history to recommend products that the customer might be interested in. A chatbot designed for customer service could analyze customer inquiries and interactions to identify patterns or trends, and make recommendations for how to improve the customer experience.
Overall, chatbots can be very useful for analyzing data and making recommendations, as they can handle a large volume of interactions with users and quickly identify patterns or trends that may not be immediately apparent to human analysts. By leveraging the data analysis capabilities of chatbots, businesses can gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, and use those insights to improve their products, services, and overall customer experience.
Drenik: OK, Please analyze this data file forecasting women's apparel spending over the last 3 years and make recommendations based upon the data.
ChatGPT: Based on the data provided, it appears that consumer spending on women's apparel has fluctuated over the past three years, with some months showing higher spending and others showing lower spending. Overall, spending appears to have been relatively consistent, with some periods of higher spending followed by periods of lower spending.
One notable trend in the data is the sharp drop in spending in April 2020, which may be due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. Spending also appears to have recovered somewhat in the months following the pandemic, with some months showing higher spending compared to the same period in the previous year.
Given these trends, it may be helpful for businesses in the women's apparel industry to focus on maintaining a consistent level of spending, rather than expecting significant increases or decreases in spending from month to month. It may also be helpful to focus on maintaining a strong online presence and offering a wide range of products and services to customers, as this may help businesses adapt to changes in consumer spending patterns. Finally, it may be helpful for businesses to monitor changes in the economy and consumer behavior, and adjust their strategies as needed to respond to these changes.
Drenik: Keep going.
ChatGPT: Based on the data provided, it appears that consumer spending on women's apparel has remained relatively stable over the past three years, with some months showing higher spending and others showing lower spending. While the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on consumer spending in April 2020, spending appears to have recovered somewhat in the months following the pandemic.
To maximize the chances of success in the women's apparel industry, businesses may want to focus on building strong relationships with their customers, offering high-quality products and services, and adapting to changes in consumer preferences and the economy. This may involve offering a wide range of products and services to appeal to a diverse customer base, as well as leveraging technology and social media to connect with customers and build brand awareness.
In addition, businesses may want to consider offering promotions and discounts to encourage customer loyalty and drive sales. This could include offering loyalty programs, running sales or discounts on certain products, or offering limited-time promotions to drive traffic and interest in the business.
Overall, it is important for businesses in the women's apparel industry to stay up-to-date with changes in consumer behavior and the economy, and to be proactive in adapting their strategies and approaches to these changes in order to succeed in a competitive market.
Drenik: What are some of the best ways to monitor changes in consumer behavior?
ChatGPT: There are a number of ways that businesses can monitor changes in consumer behavior:
- Market research: Conducting market research, such as surveys, focus groups, or customer interviews, can help businesses understand the needs, preferences, and behaviors of their target customers.
- Social media monitoring: Tracking social media conversations and trends can provide valuable insights into what consumers are saying about a business, its products or services, and its competitors.
- Customer feedback: Gathering customer feedback through reviews, ratings, or customer service inquiries can provide valuable insights into what consumers like or dislike about a business and its products or services.
- Data analysis: Analyzing data from sales and customer interactions can help businesses identify trends and patterns in consumer behavior, and inform marketing and sales strategies.
- Industry reports and studies: Keeping track of industry reports and studies can help businesses stay up to date with trends and changes in consumer behavior in their specific industry.
Overall, monitoring changes in consumer behavior is an important part of running a successful business. By staying attuned to the needs and preferences of customers, businesses can identify opportunities to improve their products or services and adapt to changes in the market.
Drenik: Will businesses use more consumer data inputs in the future to help make better decisions?
ChatGPT: It is likely that businesses will continue to use consumer data to help make better decisions in the future. The availability of consumer data has increased significantly in recent years due to the growth of online platforms and the proliferation of connected devices. This data can be very valuable to businesses, as it can provide insights into consumer preferences, behaviors, and patterns.
Businesses can use consumer data to inform marketing and sales strategies, improve products or services, and optimize operations. For example, data analysis can help businesses identify trends in consumer behavior and tailor their marketing efforts to specific segments of their target audience. Consumer data can also help businesses identify opportunities to improve their products or services based on customer feedback and reviews.
Overall, it is likely that businesses will continue to use consumer data to inform their decision-making processes in the future. By leveraging the insights provided by consumer data, businesses can make more informed and effective decisions that better meet the needs of their customers.
Drenik: Will privacy issues disrupt business use of consumer data?
ChatGPT: Privacy issues are an important consideration for businesses when using consumer data. In recent years, there has been increasing concern about the collection, use, and protection of personal data by businesses and other organizations. This has led to the introduction of various laws and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States, which aim to protect the privacy of consumers and regulate the use of personal data by businesses.
While these laws and regulations can help protect the privacy of consumers and ensure that businesses are transparent about their data collection and use practices, they can also create challenges for businesses. For example, businesses may need to invest in compliance efforts to ensure that they are in compliance with these laws, which can be time-consuming and costly.
Overall, while privacy issues are an important consideration for businesses when using consumer data, they are not necessarily a major disruption. By taking steps to ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations and being transparent about their data collection and use practices, businesses can continue to use consumer data to inform their decision-making processes while also protecting the privacy of their customers.
Drenik: What is the future potential for chatbots?
There is significant potential for chatbots to continue to evolve and become more sophisticated in the future. Chatbots are already being used in a wide range of applications, including customer service, e-commerce, and healthcare, and there is potential for them to be used in even more areas.
One area where chatbots may see significant growth in the future is in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. By leveraging AI and machine learning techniques, chatbots can become more sophisticated in their ability to understand and respond to user inquiries, and can provide more personalized and accurate responses.
Another area of potential growth for chatbots is in the use of natural language processing (NLP), which enables chatbots to understand and respond to human language more effectively. This could allow chatbots to become more effective at handling a wider range of inquiries and interactions with users.
Overall, the future potential for chatbots is significant, and they are likely to become an increasingly important tool for businesses and organizations looking to improve customer service, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.
Drenik: How about the future of chatbots and data?
ChatGPT: As chatbots continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, it is likely that they will also continue to rely on data to inform their decision-making processes and provide better assistance to users. Chatbots can use data to learn and understand the context and intent of user inquiries, and to generate appropriate responses. They can also use data to make recommendations or predictions based on user behavior and preferences.
In the future, chatbots may be able to access and analyze even larger and more diverse sets of data, which could enable them to provide more personalized and accurate assistance to users. This could be particularly useful in industries such as healthcare, finance, and e-commerce, where chatbots could use data to provide tailored recommendations or support to users.
Overall, the future of chatbots and data is likely to be closely intertwined, as chatbots continue to rely on data to improve their performance and provide better assistance to users. By leveraging the data analysis capabilities of chatbots, businesses and organizations can gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, and use those insights to improve their products, services, and overall customer experience.
Drenik: Thank you ChatGBT for taking the time to provide answers to what I believe is your first formal interview. We are looking forward to following your success and interviewing you again in the future.
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On November 30, 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT was launched. Almost overnight millions began experimenting with it writing silly poems, having fun trying to trick it into making some type of mistake or being more practical and creating letters, writing agreements or composing emails.
Over the years, I have interviewed hundreds of senior business executives on the issues for thought leadership, innovation and strategy. I’ve also written continuously on the importance of the use of quality & representative data for machine learning initiatives.
That is why after hearing about all the excitement caused by ChatGPT, I decided it would be great to interview this technology for this blog. Of course, that would depend on whether or not ChatGPT agreed to answer a series of questions I submitted. Fortunately, ChatGPT agreed to answer the questions. I began with basic questions on background and best uses for and moved to more complex questions. The most interesting question answered was to a question I submitted for a trend file of Prosper Insights & Analytics data covering three years of consumer purchase plans for women’s clothing. ChatGPT not only analyzed the data it provided context, meaning and guidance why various changes may have occurred. In other words, the data became knowledge.
Here is my interview with ChatGPT.
Drenik: Please tell me what a chatbot is?
ChatGPT: A chatbot is a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet. Chatbots are often used in customer service and online shopping to provide quick and automated assistance to customers. They can be programmed to respond to specific commands or to use artificial intelligence to understand and respond to more complex inquiries. Some chatbots are designed to be used on messaging platforms, while others are integrated into websites or mobile apps. Chatbots can be useful for businesses because they can handle a large volume of interactions with customers, freeing up time for human customer service agents to handle more complex or high-priority tasks.
Drenik: What types of inquiries can chatbots respond to?
ChatGPT: Chatbots can be programmed to handle a wide variety of inquiries, depending on their design and the specific business or service they are intended to support. Some common types of inquiries that chatbots can handle include:
- Basic information: Chatbots can be programmed to provide basic information about a business or service, such as store hours, location, and contact information.
- Customer service: Chatbots can be used to handle common customer service inquiries, such
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as answering questions about products or services, handling returns and exchanges, and providing assistance with account issues.
- Order processing: Chatbots can be used to process orders and handle payment transactions.
- Appointments and reservations: Chatbots can be used to schedule appointments or make reservations for services or events.
- Troubleshooting: Chatbots can be programmed to troubleshoot and diagnose problems with products or services.
- Personalized recommendations: Chatbots can use artificial intelligence to provide personalized recommendations to customers based on their previous purchases or interactions with the business.
Overall, chatbots can be programmed to handle a wide range of inquiries and interactions with customers, depending on the specific needs of the business or service.
Drenik: How do chatbots differ from search engines?
ChatGPT: There are a few key differences between chatbots and search engines:
- Purpose: Chatbots are designed to simulate conversation and provide assistance to users, while search engines are designed to help users find information on the Internet. Chatbots are typically used to provide assistance within a specific context or domain, such as a business or service, while search engines are designed to provide information on a wide range of topics.
- Input and output: Chatbots typically accept input in the form of natural language text or voice commands, and provide output in the form of text or voice responses. Search engines, on the other hand, accept input in the form of keywords or phrases and provide output in the form of a list of relevant web pages or documents.
- Context and personalization: Chatbots can use artificial intelligence to understand the context and intent of user inquiries and provide personalized responses, while search engines typically provide the same results for a given query regardless of the user or context.
Overall, chatbots and search engines are different tools that serve different purposes. Chatbots are designed to provide assistance and support within a specific context, while search engines are designed to help users find information on a wide range of topics.
Drenik: How important is it to input accurate and representative data for a chatbot to analyze?
ChatGPT: It is very important to input accurate and representative data for a chatbot to analyze, as this can significantly impact the performance and effectiveness of the chatbot. Chatbots rely on data to learn and understand the context and intent of user inquiries, and to generate appropriate responses. If the data used to train a chatbot is inaccurate or unrepresentative, the chatbot may have difficulty understanding user inquiries or providing appropriate responses. This can lead to poor user experiences and may even cause users to lose confidence in the chatbot.
To ensure that a chatbot is able to accurately analyze and respond to user inquiries, it is important to input a diverse and representative set of data that accurately reflects the types of inquiries and interactions that the chatbot will encounter in practice. This may include training data that covers a wide range of topics and languages, as well as data that reflects different user demographics and contexts. By inputting accurate and representative data, businesses can help ensure that their chatbots are able to provide high-quality assistance and support to users.
Drenik: Does GIGO impact the analysis of a chatbot?
ChatGPT: Yes, the principle of "garbage in, garbage out" (GIGO) can definitely impact the analysis of a chatbot. GIGO refers to the idea that if inaccurate or poor-quality data is input into a system, the output of that system will also be of poor quality. This principle applies to chatbots as well as other types of computer systems.
If a chatbot is trained on inaccurate or unrepresentative data, it may have difficulty understanding user inquiries or providing appropriate responses. This can lead to poor user experiences and may even cause users to lose confidence in the chatbot. To ensure that a chatbot is able to accurately analyze and respond to user inquiries, it is important to input a diverse and representative set of data that accurately reflects the types of inquiries and interactions that the chatbot will encounter in practice. By following the principle of GIGO, businesses can help ensure that their chatbots are able to provide high-quality assistance and support to users.
Drenik: Can chatbots analyze data and make recommendations?
ChatGPT: Yes, chatbots can be programmed to analyze data and make recommendations. Chatbots can use artificial intelligence (AI) techniques, such as machine learning, to analyze data and make predictions or recommendations based on that data.
For example, a chatbot designed for online shopping could analyze a customer's past purchases and browse history to recommend products that the customer might be interested in. A chatbot designed for customer service could analyze customer inquiries and interactions to identify patterns or trends, and make recommendations for how to improve the customer experience.
Overall, chatbots can be very useful for analyzing data and making recommendations, as they can handle a large volume of interactions with users and quickly identify patterns or trends that may not be immediately apparent to human analysts. By leveraging the data analysis capabilities of chatbots, businesses can gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, and use those insights to improve their products, services, and overall customer experience.
Drenik: OK, Please analyze this data file forecasting women's apparel spending over the last 3 years and make recommendations based upon the data.
ChatGPT: Based on the data provided, it appears that consumer spending on women's apparel has fluctuated over the past three years, with some months showing higher spending and others showing lower spending. Overall, spending appears to have been relatively consistent, with some periods of higher spending followed by periods of lower spending.
One notable trend in the data is the sharp drop in spending in April 2020, which may be due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the economy. Spending also appears to have recovered somewhat in the months following the pandemic, with some months showing higher spending compared to the same period in the previous year.
Given these trends, it may be helpful for businesses in the women's apparel industry to focus on maintaining a consistent level of spending, rather than expecting significant increases or decreases in spending from month to month. It may also be helpful to focus on maintaining a strong online presence and offering a wide range of products and services to customers, as this may help businesses adapt to changes in consumer spending patterns. Finally, it may be helpful for businesses to monitor changes in the economy and consumer behavior, and adjust their strategies as needed to respond to these changes.
Drenik: Keep going.
ChatGPT: Based on the data provided, it appears that consumer spending on women's apparel has remained relatively stable over the past three years, with some months showing higher spending and others showing lower spending. While the Covid-19 pandemic had a significant impact on consumer spending in April 2020, spending appears to have recovered somewhat in the months following the pandemic.
To maximize the chances of success in the women's apparel industry, businesses may want to focus on building strong relationships with their customers, offering high-quality products and services, and adapting to changes in consumer preferences and the economy. This may involve offering a wide range of products and services to appeal to a diverse customer base, as well as leveraging technology and social media to connect with customers and build brand awareness.
In addition, businesses may want to consider offering promotions and discounts to encourage customer loyalty and drive sales. This could include offering loyalty programs, running sales or discounts on certain products, or offering limited-time promotions to drive traffic and interest in the business.
Overall, it is important for businesses in the women's apparel industry to stay up-to-date with changes in consumer behavior and the economy, and to be proactive in adapting their strategies and approaches to these changes in order to succeed in a competitive market.
Drenik: What are some of the best ways to monitor changes in consumer behavior?
ChatGPT: There are a number of ways that businesses can monitor changes in consumer behavior:
- Market research: Conducting market research, such as surveys, focus groups, or customer interviews, can help businesses understand the needs, preferences, and behaviors of their target customers.
- Social media monitoring: Tracking social media conversations and trends can provide valuable insights into what consumers are saying about a business, its products or services, and its competitors.
- Customer feedback: Gathering customer feedback through reviews, ratings, or customer service inquiries can provide valuable insights into what consumers like or dislike about a business and its products or services.
- Data analysis: Analyzing data from sales and customer interactions can help businesses identify trends and patterns in consumer behavior, and inform marketing and sales strategies.
- Industry reports and studies: Keeping track of industry reports and studies can help businesses stay up to date with trends and changes in consumer behavior in their specific industry.
Overall, monitoring changes in consumer behavior is an important part of running a successful business. By staying attuned to the needs and preferences of customers, businesses can identify opportunities to improve their products or services and adapt to changes in the market.
Drenik: Will businesses use more consumer data inputs in the future to help make better decisions?
ChatGPT: It is likely that businesses will continue to use consumer data to help make better decisions in the future. The availability of consumer data has increased significantly in recent years due to the growth of online platforms and the proliferation of connected devices. This data can be very valuable to businesses, as it can provide insights into consumer preferences, behaviors, and patterns.
Businesses can use consumer data to inform marketing and sales strategies, improve products or services, and optimize operations. For example, data analysis can help businesses identify trends in consumer behavior and tailor their marketing efforts to specific segments of their target audience. Consumer data can also help businesses identify opportunities to improve their products or services based on customer feedback and reviews.
Overall, it is likely that businesses will continue to use consumer data to inform their decision-making processes in the future. By leveraging the insights provided by consumer data, businesses can make more informed and effective decisions that better meet the needs of their customers.
Drenik: Will privacy issues disrupt business use of consumer data?
ChatGPT: Privacy issues are an important consideration for businesses when using consumer data. In recent years, there has been increasing concern about the collection, use, and protection of personal data by businesses and other organizations. This has led to the introduction of various laws and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the United States, which aim to protect the privacy of consumers and regulate the use of personal data by businesses.
While these laws and regulations can help protect the privacy of consumers and ensure that businesses are transparent about their data collection and use practices, they can also create challenges for businesses. For example, businesses may need to invest in compliance efforts to ensure that they are in compliance with these laws, which can be time-consuming and costly.
Overall, while privacy issues are an important consideration for businesses when using consumer data, they are not necessarily a major disruption. By taking steps to ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations and being transparent about their data collection and use practices, businesses can continue to use consumer data to inform their decision-making processes while also protecting the privacy of their customers.
Drenik: What is the future potential for chatbots?
There is significant potential for chatbots to continue to evolve and become more sophisticated in the future. Chatbots are already being used in a wide range of applications, including customer service, e-commerce, and healthcare, and there is potential for them to be used in even more areas.
One area where chatbots may see significant growth in the future is in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. By leveraging AI and machine learning techniques, chatbots can become more sophisticated in their ability to understand and respond to user inquiries, and can provide more personalized and accurate responses.
Another area of potential growth for chatbots is in the use of natural language processing (NLP), which enables chatbots to understand and respond to human language more effectively. This could allow chatbots to become more effective at handling a wider range of inquiries and interactions with users.
Overall, the future potential for chatbots is significant, and they are likely to become an increasingly important tool for businesses and organizations looking to improve customer service, increase efficiency, and reduce costs.
Drenik: How about the future of chatbots and data?
ChatGPT: As chatbots continue to evolve and become more sophisticated, it is likely that they will also continue to rely on data to inform their decision-making processes and provide better assistance to users. Chatbots can use data to learn and understand the context and intent of user inquiries, and to generate appropriate responses. They can also use data to make recommendations or predictions based on user behavior and preferences.
In the future, chatbots may be able to access and analyze even larger and more diverse sets of data, which could enable them to provide more personalized and accurate assistance to users. This could be particularly useful in industries such as healthcare, finance, and e-commerce, where chatbots could use data to provide tailored recommendations or support to users.
Overall, the future of chatbots and data is likely to be closely intertwined, as chatbots continue to rely on data to improve their performance and provide better assistance to users. By leveraging the data analysis capabilities of chatbots, businesses and organizations can gain insights into customer behavior and preferences, and use those insights to improve their products, services, and overall customer experience.
Drenik: Thank you ChatGBT for taking the time to provide answers to what I believe is your first formal interview. We are looking forward to following your success and interviewing you again in the future.
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Black History Month: Moving to Hawaiʻi and creating community in the 1940s
When forces of Kamehameha I conquered Oʻahu in 1796, at least one Black person was already living on the island, according to the National Park Service. But the history of African Americans in Hawaiʻi is less well-known than some other strands of local history.
Ethnic studies professor Ethan Caldwell has the story of two Black people who moved to Hawaiʻi in the 1940s and found a community.
Ernest Golden was born on May 21, 1923, in Athens, Georgia. He left Athens and the South in 1942 for a civil service job in Hawaiʻi and stayed afterward in the airport porter industry. Golden shares his thoughts on the challenges of building community through business and assimilation.
Golden: One reason why we didn't get into business, because we didn't have one area where Blacks had gathered to the point where it was conducive to have a business, and this was intentional. I often criticized us for that. We're just so afraid of creating a ghetto here. And I've often tried to find a name, a term to apply to this, and I use assimilation, assimilating into the community, we try to lose our identity into the Hawaiian community. And I think we tried to blend, and because we tried to blend, we lost our identity. And losing our identity, we lost any possibility of having any strong business needs, the demands that come about when you have a group of people living in an area where there’s a commonality of interest. There was little or no social entertainment and loss of culture, loss of any financial clout, that sort of thing. But some of us got together and started some sort of social life for ourselves. Ten of us got together and created what was called the Ten Bachelors Club. And this was quite a successful social club. And all of us were single guys. Finally, one of us got married and I think that was sort of the wedge that was driven into the Ten Bachelors Club, and so we finally dissipated. We all finally got married, I guess once we got married, there was no need to be having the club or anything like that.
Bertha Dunson was born on March 8, 1918, in New Orleans. Dunson and her husband Nathaniel arrived in Hawaiʻi during World War II as civilian workers for the U.S. military. Dunson talks about finding community on and off base as they integrated with their Wai'anae neighbors.
Dunson: I have never been turned down at a nightclub or anything like that. We went where we wanted to go. And the places probably where they would turn me down, I didn’t want to go. I wanted to go to the better classes of places and I was never turned down at any of them. Of course, we patronized the military clubs quite a bit — Schofield, Hickam, Shafter, Barber’s Point and down here in Poka’i Bay, and in my neighborhood in Wai’anae when I lived there in '51, I was the only Black there, and I had Japanese friends, oh, Hawaiian friends, Portuguese friends, haole friends, I had all kinds of friends and we were party people. We gave parties every weekend, and we had a houseful. All the Schofield Barracks guys would come and their wives and then the neighborhood people. It was real nice.
Interviewer Kathryn Takara: Would your daughter feel that she was Black or would she feel that she was local?
Dunson: Oh, no, she felt she was Black. She couldn’t be anything else but Black. (chuckles)
Takara: But she never encountered any problems.
Dunson: No, went to school, and her friends, that’s how I met most of my friends, is through my daughter’s schoolmates.
Both interviews were conducted in 1988 by Kathryn Takara. This oral history project is supported by the SHARP initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Council of Learned Societies.
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Black History Month: Moving to Hawaiʻi and creating community in the 1940s
When forces of Kamehameha I conquered Oʻahu in 1796, at least one Black person was already living on the island, according to the National Park Service. But the history of African Americans in Hawaiʻi is less well-known than some other strands of local history.
Ethnic studies professor Ethan Caldwell has the story of two Black people who moved to Hawaiʻi in the 1940s and found a community.
Ernest Golden was born on May 21, 1923, in Athens, Georgia. He left Athens and the South in 1942 for a civil service job in Hawaiʻi and stayed afterward in the airport porter industry. Golden shares his thoughts on the challenges of building community through business and assimilation.
Golden: One reason why we didn't get into business, because we didn't have one area where Blacks had gathered to the point where it was conducive to have a business, and this was intentional. I often criticized us for that. We're just so afraid of creating a ghetto here. And I've often tried to find a name, a term to apply to this, and I use assimilation, assimilating into the community, we try to lose our identity into the Hawaiian community. And I think we tried to blend, and because we tried to blend, we lost our identity. And losing our identity, we lost any possibility of having any strong business needs, the demands that come about when you have a group of people living in an area where there’s a commonality of interest. There was little or no social entertainment and loss of culture, loss of any financial clout, that sort of thing. But some of us got together and started some sort of social life for ourselves. Ten of us got together and created what was called the Ten Bachelors Club. And this was quite a successful social club. And all of us were single guys. Finally, one of us got married and I think that was sort of the wedge that was driven into the Ten Bachelors Club, and so we finally dissipated. We all finally got married, I guess once we got married, there was no need to be having the club or anything like that.
Bertha Dunson was born on March 8, 1918, in New Orleans. Dunson and her husband Nathaniel arrived in Hawaiʻi during World War II as civilian workers for the U.S. military
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. Dunson talks about finding community on and off base as they integrated with their Wai'anae neighbors.
Dunson: I have never been turned down at a nightclub or anything like that. We went where we wanted to go. And the places probably where they would turn me down, I didn’t want to go. I wanted to go to the better classes of places and I was never turned down at any of them. Of course, we patronized the military clubs quite a bit — Schofield, Hickam, Shafter, Barber’s Point and down here in Poka’i Bay, and in my neighborhood in Wai’anae when I lived there in '51, I was the only Black there, and I had Japanese friends, oh, Hawaiian friends, Portuguese friends, haole friends, I had all kinds of friends and we were party people. We gave parties every weekend, and we had a houseful. All the Schofield Barracks guys would come and their wives and then the neighborhood people. It was real nice.
Interviewer Kathryn Takara: Would your daughter feel that she was Black or would she feel that she was local?
Dunson: Oh, no, she felt she was Black. She couldn’t be anything else but Black. (chuckles)
Takara: But she never encountered any problems.
Dunson: No, went to school, and her friends, that’s how I met most of my friends, is through my daughter’s schoolmates.
Both interviews were conducted in 1988 by Kathryn Takara. This oral history project is supported by the SHARP initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities through the American Council of Learned Societies.
|
Little is known about Joel. He appears to be a prophet to Judah and Jerusalem (3:20). The occasion of his letter is a plague of locusts that attack Judah (1:2-10). The plague of locusts augurs further judgement to come – the judgement of the eschatological Day of the Lord. The imminent Day of the Lord is a major theme of the prophecy. The terror of that coming can only be averted by a nation whose hearts are humble and contrite. For such the day of the Lord will bring salvation not judgement. Scholars find it difficult to agree on the historical setting. The believed date of the prophecy varies widely, perhaps somewhere between the 9th-5th centuries B.C. Part of the problem is the absence of datable historical events in the text. Actually, the date doesn’t really matter; what matters is the prophecy. Its message is universal; only threpentant before God will escape eschatological wrath.
A Plague of Locusts
Joel’s main theme is the impending ‘day of the Lord’ (1:15, 2:1,11, 31, 3:14). It is an eschatological day, the day when God visits the world to administer justice. A prior plague of locusts was the harbinger of this apocalyptic judgement.
Judah and Jerusalem experienced a destructive plague of locusts (1:4). The locusts devastated the land, destroying crops and vines; famine and drought follow (1:11,12, 19 , 20). With the shrivelling of the crops comes the shrivelling of human happiness (1:12). The locusts attack is like that of a ferocious destructive enemy nation (1:6). The devastation they wreak is expressed in the piled list of destroyed fruit trees (1:12). Moreover, the destruction of grape and wine has brought to an end the daily offerings signalling fellowship with God has ended (v13). Jerusalem is like a betrothed bride whose bridegroom is no more. Again a broken relationship is implied. The covenant curses included locust plagues (Deut 28:38-42). There was little doubt that the locust attack was a divine judgement. This was confirmed in the prophetic word that came from the Lord to Joel (1:1). However awful the plague of locusts is it foreshadows an imminent and much more immense judgement, namely, the day of the Lord. For a people to be experiencing divine displeasure is a dangerous place to be. It calls for immediate action.
In the light of this impending day of divine destruction there is only one recourse and Joel urges it; national self-humbling before the Lord (2:15).
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering. are withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders. and all the inhabitants of the land. to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. (1:13.14)
Only earnest crying to the Lord can possibly prevent the nation experiencing the crushing weight of ‘the day of the Lord’.
Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. (1:15).
The call for repentance grows in intensity and comes finally from the Lord himself.
Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. 14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, for the LORD your God?
How do we escape the fearful holocaust of the day of the Lord? How do we escape its foreboding, its darkness and gloom? By fasting, weeping and mourning, before God who is ’slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love’. That is, by sincere repentance over sin. When we relinquish our sin God ‘relents over disaster’; he turns away from the judgement he promised. From the beginning of his relationship with Israel the Lord proved himself merciful. Even as the law was being carved on stone on Sinai, Israel was engaged in idolatry on the plain below. By covenant stipulations Israel deserved to be wiped out; she wasn’t. God relented of threatened judgement and his grace, mercy and steadfast love triumph (Ex 33,34). Joel, believes that the heart of God remains the same (2:17). Hope for Judah lies in a God who is ‘gracious and merciful’ and who responds to penitent hearts. Salvation for. Israel does not lie in national identity, or religious observance it lies in repentance and faith. God does not despise contrite hearts (Ps 51:7). When people turn from sin and call upon the Lord he is quick to respond in grace and salvation; It is this sovereignty merciful God who saves both Israel and the nations in the NT (Roms 9-11). If Israel repents of her sin then God will relent of his judgement. Joel says ‘who knows whether he will not turn and relent’ (v14) not because God’s willingness to forgive is in doubt but because God is sovereign and Joel wishes to emphasise his grace flows from his own freedom and not from obligation. Forgiveness is lavish but cannot be taken for granted. It does not exist on tap for our convenience.
We are not told by Joel why Israel is being judged. Other prophets enumerate her sins, Joel mentions only drunkenness and this only in the context of withered vines. Yet, whatever the specific sins of Israel, the solution is not in doubt – repentance and self-humbling before God in his house. It is a change in heart that is required. The nation requires fundamental spiritual renewal. Perhaps this is the point. All the privileges of the covenant do not make Israel right with God. Humanity, including Israel, naturally deserves judgement; he is born in sin. He must be born again; he requires a circumcised heart if he is to be blessed and not cursed (2L12,13). Israel must learn this if she is to endure the day of the Lord.. And so much the church today.
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Little is known about Joel. He appears to be a prophet to Judah and Jerusalem (3:20). The occasion of his letter is a plague of locusts that attack Judah (1:2-10). The plague of locusts augurs further judgement to come – the judgement of the eschatological Day of the Lord. The imminent Day of the Lord is a major theme of the prophecy. The terror of that coming can only be averted by a nation whose hearts are humble and contrite. For such the day of the Lord will bring salvation not judgement. Scholars find it difficult to agree on the historical setting. The believed date of the prophecy varies widely, perhaps somewhere between the 9th-5th centuries B.C. Part of the problem is the absence of datable historical events in the text. Actually, the date doesn’t really matter; what matters is the prophecy. Its message is universal; only threpentant before God will escape eschatological wrath.
A Plague of Locusts
Joel’s main theme is the impending ‘day of the Lord’ (1:15, 2:1,11, 31, 3:14). It is an eschatological day, the day when God visits the world to administer justice. A prior plague of locusts was the harbinger of this apocalyptic judgement.
Judah and Jerusalem experienced a destructive plague of locusts (1:4). The locusts devastated the land, destroying crops and vines; famine and drought follow (1:11,12, 19 , 20). With the shrivelling of the crops comes the shrivelling of human happiness (1:12). The locusts attack is like that of a ferocious destructive enemy nation (1:6). The devastation they wreak is expressed in the piled list of destroyed fruit trees (1:12). Moreover, the destruction of grape and wine has brought to an end the daily offerings signalling fellowship with God has ended (v13). Jerusalem is like a betrothed bride whose bridegroom is no more. Again a broken relationship is implied. The covenant curses included locust plagues (Deut 28:38-42). There was little doubt that the locust attack was a divine judgement. This was confirmed in the prophetic word that came from the Lord to Joel (1:1
|
). However awful the plague of locusts is it foreshadows an imminent and much more immense judgement, namely, the day of the Lord. For a people to be experiencing divine displeasure is a dangerous place to be. It calls for immediate action.
In the light of this impending day of divine destruction there is only one recourse and Joel urges it; national self-humbling before the Lord (2:15).
Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering. are withheld from the house of your God. Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders. and all the inhabitants of the land. to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD. (1:13.14)
Only earnest crying to the Lord can possibly prevent the nation experiencing the crushing weight of ‘the day of the Lord’.
Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. (1:15).
The call for repentance grows in intensity and comes finally from the Lord himself.
Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. 14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, for the LORD your God?
How do we escape the fearful holocaust of the day of the Lord? How do we escape its foreboding, its darkness and gloom? By fasting, weeping and mourning, before God who is ’slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love’. That is, by sincere repentance over sin. When we relinquish our sin God ‘relents over disaster’; he turns away from the judgement he promised. From the beginning of his relationship with Israel the Lord proved himself merciful. Even as the law was being carved on stone on Sinai, Israel was engaged in idolatry on the plain below. By covenant stipulations Israel deserved to be wiped out; she wasn’t. God relented of threatened judgement and his grace, mercy and steadfast love triumph (Ex 33,34). Joel, believes that the heart of God remains the same (2:17). Hope for Judah lies in a God who is ‘gracious and merciful’ and who responds to penitent hearts. Salvation for. Israel does not lie in national identity, or religious observance it lies in repentance and faith. God does not despise contrite hearts (Ps 51:7). When people turn from sin and call upon the Lord he is quick to respond in grace and salvation; It is this sovereignty merciful God who saves both Israel and the nations in the NT (Roms 9-11). If Israel repents of her sin then God will relent of his judgement. Joel says ‘who knows whether he will not turn and relent’ (v14) not because God’s willingness to forgive is in doubt but because God is sovereign and Joel wishes to emphasise his grace flows from his own freedom and not from obligation. Forgiveness is lavish but cannot be taken for granted. It does not exist on tap for our convenience.
We are not told by Joel why Israel is being judged. Other prophets enumerate her sins, Joel mentions only drunkenness and this only in the context of withered vines. Yet, whatever the specific sins of Israel, the solution is not in doubt – repentance and self-humbling before God in his house. It is a change in heart that is required. The nation requires fundamental spiritual renewal. Perhaps this is the point. All the privileges of the covenant do not make Israel right with God. Humanity, including Israel, naturally deserves judgement; he is born in sin. He must be born again; he requires a circumcised heart if he is to be blessed and not cursed (2L12,13). Israel must learn this if she is to endure the day of the Lord.. And so much the church today.
|
One hundred years ago this week, poet WB Yeats was basking in the afterglow of his Nobel Prize win. Head of government at the time WT Cosgrave declared the award well merited and an honour “which will enhance the reputation of our country in the domain of the arts”. Yeats responded that he saw the award as “part of Europe’s welcome to the Free State and I am very happy that it should be so.” By that stage Yeats was also a senator; as a senior and now internationally decorated artist, stitched into the establishment, he would later describe this as the phase of his life when he was a “smiling public man.”
He was not smiling, however, by the end that decade when it came to the domain of the arts, such was the nature of the censorship impulse. In reacting to the proceedings of the Committee on Evil Literature and the proposal to establish a censorship board, Yeats told the Manchester Guardian in 1928: “Our zealot’s idea of establishing the Kingdom of God upon Earth is to make Ireland an island of moral cowards”.
A few days after Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize, Cosgrave told the Dáil: “We are a free people now, entirely independent, and we are responsible for this country.” However exaggerated these sentiments were politically, they found robust expression culturally in the 1929 Censorship of Publications Act which, it was announced this week, is finally to be repealed. It is easy in the 21st century to construct a mocking narrative of such cultural priorities and their perceived excesses, but the legislation was in keeping with the international climate of moral panic in the 1920s.
The censorship question incorporated many other issues and was by no means an isolated Irish Free State phenomenon. Censorship in Ireland became centralised and severe, but it was not unique: Australia had one of the strictest censorship systems in the world in the 1920s.
Books were only one consideration. The Irish Catholic bishops had quite a list to recite in their 1927 pastoral: ‘The evil one is ever setting his snares for unwary feet’
The idea that the political chaos of the early 20th century had resulted in a moral crisis was shared on both sides of the Border and even those considered liberal in outlook lamented the decline. Just as the Committee on Evil Literature was appointed in 1926, this newspaper lamented that the Free State was “a more immoral country than it was fifteen years ago. Parents are losing the capacity to control their children. Extravagance in dress is almost universal... Fifteen years ago few women of the middle classes touched strong liquors, even in their own homes. Today, many of them take wine and whiskey in public places; and women and men drink with equal abandon in the dance halls of country towns and villages. Sexual immorality has increased.”
Books were only one consideration. The Irish Catholic bishops had quite a list to recite in their 1927 pastoral: “The evil one is ever setting his snares for unwary feet. At the moment, his traps for the innocent are chiefly the dance hall, the bad book, the indecent paper, the motion picture, the immodest fashion in female dress – all of which tend to destroy the virtues characteristic of our race.”
Those who railed against censorship were hardly representative. Likewise, constitutional drafting the following decade, which included the provision relating to women and their stated contribution to the common good through their life in the home, now due to be revisited in a referendum next year, was hardly at the centre of public discourse in humble homesteads nationwide.
The proposed wording was seen as “sinister and retrogressive” by the Women’s Graduate Association, but an amusing cartoon in Dublin Opinion Magazine in 1937 witnessed a harried mother in her apron preparing food in her cramped kitchen surrounded by at least 12 children while her husband sat apart on a bench, smoking a pipe and reading a newspaper. The mother says: “Will yiz shut up, all of yiz, while yer father’s explainin me position under the New Constitution!”
At the time of the publication of the Ryan report in 2009, the Irish Times described its contents as ‘the map of an Irish hell. It defines the contours of a dark hinterland of the State’
While there was widespread support for censorship, there was concern about how it might be applied: it did not need to be the type, suggested The Irish Times in 1926, that would “divert public attention from more urgent perils. The things that defile Ireland today come not from without, but from within”.
How true that was. One of the great ironies of the censorship crusade was that so much “evil” under Irish noses was ignored. At the time of the publication of the Ryan report in 2009, The Irish Times described its contents as “the map of an Irish hell. It defines the contours of a dark hinterland of the State.” The idea of “the evil one setting his snares for unwary feet” had been revealed to have a whole other meaning, as the “virtues characteristic of our race” were proven to be bogus indeed.
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One hundred years ago this week, poet WB Yeats was basking in the afterglow of his Nobel Prize win. Head of government at the time WT Cosgrave declared the award well merited and an honour “which will enhance the reputation of our country in the domain of the arts”. Yeats responded that he saw the award as “part of Europe’s welcome to the Free State and I am very happy that it should be so.” By that stage Yeats was also a senator; as a senior and now internationally decorated artist, stitched into the establishment, he would later describe this as the phase of his life when he was a “smiling public man.”
He was not smiling, however, by the end that decade when it came to the domain of the arts, such was the nature of the censorship impulse. In reacting to the proceedings of the Committee on Evil Literature and the proposal to establish a censorship board, Yeats told the Manchester Guardian in 1928: “Our zealot’s idea of establishing the Kingdom of God upon Earth is to make Ireland an island of moral cowards”.
A few days after Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize, Cosgrave told the Dáil: “We are a free people now, entirely independent, and we are responsible for this country.” However exaggerated these sentiments were politically, they found robust expression culturally in the 1929 Censorship of Publications Act which, it was announced this week, is finally to be repealed. It is easy in the 21st century to construct a mocking narrative of such cultural priorities and their perceived excesses, but the legislation was in keeping with the international climate of moral panic in the 1920s.
The censorship question incorporated many other issues and was by no means an isolated Irish Free State phenomenon. Censorship in Ireland became centralised and severe, but it was not unique: Australia had one of the strictest censorship systems in the world in the 1920s.
Books were only one consideration. The Irish Catholic bishops had quite a list to recite in their 1927 pastoral: ‘The evil one is ever setting his snares for unwary feet’
The idea that the political chaos of the early 20th century had resulted in a moral crisis was shared on both sides of the Border and even those considered liberal in outlook lamented the decline. Just as the Committee on Evil Literature was appointed in 1926, this newspaper lamented that the Free
|
State was “a more immoral country than it was fifteen years ago. Parents are losing the capacity to control their children. Extravagance in dress is almost universal... Fifteen years ago few women of the middle classes touched strong liquors, even in their own homes. Today, many of them take wine and whiskey in public places; and women and men drink with equal abandon in the dance halls of country towns and villages. Sexual immorality has increased.”
Books were only one consideration. The Irish Catholic bishops had quite a list to recite in their 1927 pastoral: “The evil one is ever setting his snares for unwary feet. At the moment, his traps for the innocent are chiefly the dance hall, the bad book, the indecent paper, the motion picture, the immodest fashion in female dress – all of which tend to destroy the virtues characteristic of our race.”
Those who railed against censorship were hardly representative. Likewise, constitutional drafting the following decade, which included the provision relating to women and their stated contribution to the common good through their life in the home, now due to be revisited in a referendum next year, was hardly at the centre of public discourse in humble homesteads nationwide.
The proposed wording was seen as “sinister and retrogressive” by the Women’s Graduate Association, but an amusing cartoon in Dublin Opinion Magazine in 1937 witnessed a harried mother in her apron preparing food in her cramped kitchen surrounded by at least 12 children while her husband sat apart on a bench, smoking a pipe and reading a newspaper. The mother says: “Will yiz shut up, all of yiz, while yer father’s explainin me position under the New Constitution!”
At the time of the publication of the Ryan report in 2009, the Irish Times described its contents as ‘the map of an Irish hell. It defines the contours of a dark hinterland of the State’
While there was widespread support for censorship, there was concern about how it might be applied: it did not need to be the type, suggested The Irish Times in 1926, that would “divert public attention from more urgent perils. The things that defile Ireland today come not from without, but from within”.
How true that was. One of the great ironies of the censorship crusade was that so much “evil” under Irish noses was ignored. At the time of the publication of the Ryan report in 2009, The Irish Times described its contents as “the map of an Irish hell. It defines the contours of a dark hinterland of the State.” The idea of “the evil one setting his snares for unwary feet” had been revealed to have a whole other meaning, as the “virtues characteristic of our race” were proven to be bogus indeed.
|
In high school I memorized a scene from “Hamlet” in which the gloomy prince tries to persuade his mother to leave the usurper king, the brother of Hamlet’s murdered father. “Assume a virtue, if you have it not,” Hamlet implores Gertrude. And a few lines later: “Refrain tonight, / And that shall lend a kind of easiness / To the next abstinence: the next more easy; / For use almost can change the stamp of nature.”
The idea that “use almost can change the stamp of nature” is embedded in economics, although I didn’t appreciate it in high school.
“Virtue is an acquired practice,” the Nobel economics laureate James Heckman, Bridget Galaty and Haihan Tian wrote in a working paper released last month by the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago. They added that this acquired practice “may eventually become the dominant preference of agents in the sense that it influences behaviors.”
I’ll wager that’s exactly how Hamlet would have put it if he’d received graduate training in economics instead of kicking around a castle in Denmark.
Virtue is usually seen as the province of religion, ethics, philosophy or psychology, but Heckman and his co-authors wrote that economics “provides a framework for giving precision and empirical content to the study of virtue ethics.” They show how that framework can be applied to “specific interventions designed to promote personality and cognition.”
In “Meno,” a Socratic dialogue by Plato, Socrates expressed the idea that virtue is not taught but rather a gift of God, the working paper said. Aristotle disagreed with Socrates in a way that made him a kindred spirit of modern economics. He (like Hamlet) believed that virtue could be acquired.
“Interpreting Aristotle through the lens of an economic model is both provocative and fruitful for philosophy, psychology and economics,” the authors wrote in the working paper, which is boldly titled “The Economic Approach to Personality, Character and Virtue.”
I should pause and acknowledge that scholars in fields adjacent to economics — not to mention those not adjacent — aren’t always happy when economists step on their turf. It happens a lot because economists perceive their tools as being broadly applicable. Gary Becker, also a Nobel laureate from the University of Chicago, was famous for applying economic thinking to marriage, crime, addiction and discrimination.
The risk for economists as interlopers is that they won’t appreciate the contributions that other kinds of scholars have already made and will try to force economic analysis into places it doesn’t belong. Heckman is at least aware of that risk. The working paper credited two University of Chicago philosophy professors, Agnes Callard and Gabriel Lear, for instruction on Aristotle.
Heckman, who shared the 2000 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to microeconometrics, and Galaty and Tian, predoctoral fellows in the Center for the Economics of Human Development at Chicago, wrote the paper to be a chapter in an upcoming book.
While most of the paper is theoretical, there is a section that covers Heckman’s longstanding interest in the long-term benefits of early childhood education. The paper reviewed the Perry Preschool Project, which was conducted from 1962 to 1967 for disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-old African American children. Researchers found that children who participated in the project’s intensive educational program improved what Aristotle might have called virtue during their years in school. They were less likely to be absent, to lie and cheat, to steal and to swear. Notice that these are not measures of intelligence or academic achievement.
When researchers followed up half a century later, the former Perry students showed better executive functioning, positive personality, grit and openness to experience than their peers who didn’t go through the program, a working paper found. Even participants’ children had better educational and employment outcomes, less criminal activity and improved health, according to the research. Other interventions had similar results, another paper found.
I interviewed Heckman last week. He said economists focus on how people respond to incentives. “Incentives are amazingly absent from sociology and psychology,” he said. Also, he said, economists have tools for separating out the various influences on people’s behavior, instead of simply chalking up the behavior to “traits.” (I am bracing for indignant emails from sociologists and psychologists.)
“It sounds very naïve but I think we can create what Aristotle called flourishing lives,” he told me.
The point of Heckman et al. is that virtue matters and it can be taught. Hamlet and Aristotle would certainly agree.
Outlook: Fitch Ratings
Tropical Storm Arlene formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday. It’s the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. A day earlier, Fitch Ratings said that forecasters are predicting “modestly below-average hurricane frequency in 2023 relative to long-term activity.” Fitch said it has a neutral outlook on the credit ratings of the U.S. property and casualty insurance industry and the global reinsurance sector.
Quote of the Day
“I think my analytical abilities are rather deficient, but I do have a very strong critical faculty. I am not a professional security analyst. I would rather call myself an insecurity analyst.”
— George Soros, “Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve” (1995)
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In high school I memorized a scene from “Hamlet” in which the gloomy prince tries to persuade his mother to leave the usurper king, the brother of Hamlet’s murdered father. “Assume a virtue, if you have it not,” Hamlet implores Gertrude. And a few lines later: “Refrain tonight, / And that shall lend a kind of easiness / To the next abstinence: the next more easy; / For use almost can change the stamp of nature.”
The idea that “use almost can change the stamp of nature” is embedded in economics, although I didn’t appreciate it in high school.
“Virtue is an acquired practice,” the Nobel economics laureate James Heckman, Bridget Galaty and Haihan Tian wrote in a working paper released last month by the Becker Friedman Institute at the University of Chicago. They added that this acquired practice “may eventually become the dominant preference of agents in the sense that it influences behaviors.”
I’ll wager that’s exactly how Hamlet would have put it if he’d received graduate training in economics instead of kicking around a castle in Denmark.
Virtue is usually seen as the province of religion, ethics, philosophy or psychology, but Heckman and his co-authors wrote that economics “provides a framework for giving precision and empirical content to the study of virtue ethics.” They show how that framework can be applied to “specific interventions designed to promote personality and cognition.”
In “Meno,” a Socratic dialogue by Plato, Socrates expressed the idea that virtue is not taught but rather a gift of God, the working paper said. Aristotle disagreed with Socrates in a way that made him a kindred spirit of modern economics. He (like Hamlet) believed that virtue could be acquired.
“Interpreting Aristotle through the lens of an economic model is both provocative and fruitful for philosophy, psychology and economics,” the authors wrote in the working paper, which is boldly titled “The Economic Approach to Personality, Character and Virtue.”
I should pause and acknowledge that scholars in fields adjacent to economics — not to mention those not adjacent — aren’t always happy when economists step on their turf. It happens a lot because economists perceive their tools as being broadly applicable. Gary Becker, also a Nobel laureate from the University of Chicago, was famous for applying economic thinking to marriage, crime, addiction and discrimination.
The risk for economists as interlopers is that they won’t appreciate the contributions that other kinds of scholars have already made and will try to force
|
economic analysis into places it doesn’t belong. Heckman is at least aware of that risk. The working paper credited two University of Chicago philosophy professors, Agnes Callard and Gabriel Lear, for instruction on Aristotle.
Heckman, who shared the 2000 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to microeconometrics, and Galaty and Tian, predoctoral fellows in the Center for the Economics of Human Development at Chicago, wrote the paper to be a chapter in an upcoming book.
While most of the paper is theoretical, there is a section that covers Heckman’s longstanding interest in the long-term benefits of early childhood education. The paper reviewed the Perry Preschool Project, which was conducted from 1962 to 1967 for disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-old African American children. Researchers found that children who participated in the project’s intensive educational program improved what Aristotle might have called virtue during their years in school. They were less likely to be absent, to lie and cheat, to steal and to swear. Notice that these are not measures of intelligence or academic achievement.
When researchers followed up half a century later, the former Perry students showed better executive functioning, positive personality, grit and openness to experience than their peers who didn’t go through the program, a working paper found. Even participants’ children had better educational and employment outcomes, less criminal activity and improved health, according to the research. Other interventions had similar results, another paper found.
I interviewed Heckman last week. He said economists focus on how people respond to incentives. “Incentives are amazingly absent from sociology and psychology,” he said. Also, he said, economists have tools for separating out the various influences on people’s behavior, instead of simply chalking up the behavior to “traits.” (I am bracing for indignant emails from sociologists and psychologists.)
“It sounds very naïve but I think we can create what Aristotle called flourishing lives,” he told me.
The point of Heckman et al. is that virtue matters and it can be taught. Hamlet and Aristotle would certainly agree.
Outlook: Fitch Ratings
Tropical Storm Arlene formed in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday. It’s the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. A day earlier, Fitch Ratings said that forecasters are predicting “modestly below-average hurricane frequency in 2023 relative to long-term activity.” Fitch said it has a neutral outlook on the credit ratings of the U.S. property and casualty insurance industry and the global reinsurance sector.
Quote of the Day
“I think my analytical abilities are rather deficient, but I do have a very strong critical faculty. I am not a professional security analyst. I would rather call myself an insecurity analyst.”
— George Soros, “Soros on Soros: Staying Ahead of the Curve” (1995)
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