Medium expectations, unprecedented, madness, more disappointment, desperation, despondency, sabotage, new normal, omnicrisis, devastating, hottest, fastest, largest, historic, highest, lowest, catastrophic.
HI,
And greetings from Montréal where I have just arrived by train to take in and next week share with you the last few days of the Nature COP (COP15) on Biodiversity. I hope I will have good news to discuss next week. But, so far, what continues to be the major output has been hope. I shared a couple weeks ago one conceptualization of hope as deceptive expectation, which I certainly hope won’t be the case here These past couple of weeks, while in Mexico and practising my Spanish I contemplated that, in that language, the same word ('esperar') is used for both ‘hope’ and ‘waiting’. How appropriate with what world leadership continues to pass on to us: hope and waiting for action. It’s something I feel ambivalent about, and it seems to be the only thing, so far, that we are passing onto our children and next generations. But what a cop out for action and totally irresponsible.
As long as we continue to pass on our deceptive expectations in the form of waiting, what is there really? This COP15 is anchored in expectations to make big strides in protecting our biosphere to continue enabling a fulsome life for us and many generations to come. The NGOs at the conference are there to inspire and advocate for action, as are, in my optimistic naivety, most of the official attendants all working on saving our biological heritage, which in the words of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, we continue to “flush down the toilet”. That’s a pretty graphic description for our continual destruction of nature, now projected to be a million species by the end of this century, let alone all that we have sent on their way already along with the great heritage of our forests. Another of the most worrying, at the moment, is that of birds and insects, whom we unwittingly rely on for so many ecosystem services, mostly out of sight, including that of pollination allowing billions of we humans to have something to eat every day. While we usually think of insects as pests, just like viruses, the vast majority of them actually do us service.
In today’s Planetary Health Weekly (#50 of the year) you’ll read more about this and:
- CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES:
- How to design a formula to pay for climate loss,
- 1.5C still achievable, claiming otherwise serves fossil interests,
- Changing climate impacts biodiversity in protected areas globally,
- Climate change amplifies risk of ‘insect apocalypse’,
- New Zealand wants to tax farmers for livestock’s emissions,
- Billionaires emit a million times more greenhouse gases than the average person,
- The Great Smog of London woke the world to the dangers of coal,
- CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
- Two years of Covid vaccines prevented millions of hospitalizations and death,
- Mucosal vaccination triggers superior T-cell response against SARS CoV-2,
- Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy associated with increased risk of traffic accidents in Ontario, THEN
- BEZ’S BLOG: Acute Childhood Experiences (ACEs),
- It’s official, France bans short haul domestic flights in favour of train travel,
- CO2 emissions just the ‘tip of the iceberg’ for the climate cost of air travel,
- Catastrophic hunger levels recorded for the first time in Haiti,
- The Nigerian woman cleaning up a land soaked in oil,
- Young climate actors building resilient communities around the world,
- Viewpoint: reject GM crops because they’re ‘not natural’? Here’s a primer on 9000 years of human tampering with our food supply,
- FIFA refuses to set up compensation fund for exploited workers,
- Returning to our origins to continue being Siekopai,
- UN Secretary-General on how we are treating the world,
- “Re: Agriculture III”,
- India’s original eco-warriors: meet the Bishnoi community who won’t cut down living trees,
- A silent killer is stalking babies in Nelson Mandela Bay,
- Mapped: which countries have the highest inflation?
- New book: “Inequality Kills Us All – COVID-19’s Health Lessons for the World" by Stephen Bezruchka, PHW blogger (as above),
- Canada must revamp education, retention of STEM professionals to avoid skills shortages, and lastly
- ENDSHOTS from the 17th Biennial Poster Exhibition at the Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City.
I hope you’ll enjoy this issue. Until next week. Best, david
David Zakus, Editor and Publisher
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IN COMPLETE SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE SEEKING PEACE AND VICTORY AND IN DISBELIEF AT WHAT RUSSIA CONTINUES TO DO |
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AND WITH THE BRAVE PROTESTERS IN IRAN (AND QATAR) |
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Credit: AL-Monitor, Ozan KOSE |
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CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES |
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An attendee poses for a picture near a model earth during the COP27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt November 19, 2022. Credit: REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany - RC2YOX9PCZYM
There will be no joy if countries get help for climate damage from a fund promised at COP27, but the planet still fries. This is why the recent United Nations climate conference in Egypt ended with a lot of hand-wringing. The European Union, in particular, had hoped to tie together the two issues of fighting climate change and supporting countries which suffer disasters, but failed.
It’s not too late. The key is to design a formula with the right incentives. The basic principles should be that carbon polluters pay less into the fund if they cut carbon emissions - and those who suffer damage receive less if they don’t reduce theirs.
So far, the new fund is pretty much a blank slate. There is no decision about how to prove damages, or how big the fund will be. Answering those questions will involve a lot of diplomatic wrangling. The main decision at COP27 was to establish a committee, which will propose a solution by COP28, next year’s UN conference in Dubai.
Let’s imagine the committee was concerned only with pinning the costs on the biggest polluters and creating the best incentives to save the planet - and didn’t have to worry about how to extract money from recalcitrant governments. What formula would it propose?
Read more at Newslink Reuters
SEE ALSO:
At The Energy Mix: 1.5° Still Achievable, Claiming Otherwise Serves Fossil Interests, Birol Says
It’s “factually incorrect and politically very wrong” to say a 1.5°C limit on average global warming is no longer possible, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said this week, pushing back on the “unusual coalition” of scientists, activists, and fossil industry “incumbents” that have been carrying that message.
“The fact is that the chances of 1.5°C are narrowing, but it is still achievable,” and slamming the door on that pathway plays into the hands of fossil fuel proponents, Birol told the Guardian in an exclusive interview. “I find the emerging chorus of this unusual coalition of people saying 1.5C is dead factually and politically wrong,” he declared. “They are jumping to conclusions that are not borne out by the data.”
With that evidence as a starting point, Birol said it’s “unhelpful” to talk down any possibility of a 1.5°C future, since investors and financial institutions “will react with lower ambition” if they think there’s no point trying to hit the more ambitious target. “Proponents of the existing energy systems will be the beneficiaries if the obituary of 1.5°C is written.”
He said wind and solar power are now cheaper than fossil fuels across much of the world, and a focus on national security and industrial policy is prompting more countries to speed up the transition to clean energy sources. To meet that potential, global investment in the clean energy transition—already expected to hit US$2 trillion per year by 2030, a 50% increase this decade —will have to double again.
At Science Daily: Changing Climate Impacts Biodiversity in Protected Areas Globally
A recent study provides insights for developing climate-smart conservation strategies by looking at the global network of protected areas, evaluating potential for shifts in where plants and animals occur due to climate change.
"As the planet continues to warm, we expect a number of species to move out of some protected areas and into others as they shift their ranges in response to climate change," says lead-author Sean Parks, a research ecologist with the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station, Aldo Leopold Wilderness Research Institute.
The researchers found that some species currently in protected areas may have to cross international boundaries to find more suitable climate conditions. As they move, they may face physical barriers, such as border fences, and non-physical barriers, such as inconsistent conservation policies in different areas and countries.
Findings point to the need for strategic conservation plans that transcend international borders to protect at-risk species.
At The Energy Mix: Climate Change Amplifies Risk of ‘Insect Apocalypse’
For most of us, the world’s insects are doubly vital to our well-being, a growing body of research is finding. But warnings by scientists of a probable insect apocalypse are steadily growing more frequent and urgent.
The planet’s pollinators, predominantly insects, ensure that three-quarters of global food crops can first produce a harvest and then reproduce themselves. Beyond that, a world with eight billion people is likely to depend increasingly on novel foods—including insects themselves—for sustenance.
One of the latest alarms comes from Professor William Laurance, a scientist at James Cook University (JCU) in Australia, and co-author of a major international study on the future of insects under climate change scenarios. He says what is happening to insects will radically alter the environment and mean a drastic reduction in the ability of humans to build a sustainable future.
The biosphere has already warmed by about 1.1°C since the start of the Industrial Age and is projected to warm by a further two to five degrees by 2100 unless greenhouse gas emissions are significantly reduced.
“A growing body of evidence shows many populations of insects are declining rapidly in many places,” Laurance said. “These declines are of profound concern, with terms like an emerging ‘insect apocalypse’ being increasingly used by the media and even some scientists to describe this phenomenon.” One recent study went so far as to suggest that half of all insects may have disappeared by 2100.
Because insects benefit wider aspects of the environment such as pollination, pest control, and nutrient recycling (all beneficial to other higher-order creatures, including humans), what happens to them is bound to affect us, for better or worse.
“The loss of insects works its way up the food chain, and may already be playing an important role in the widespread decline of their consumers, such as insect-eating birds in temperate environments,” Laurance said.
Insects are among the groups of creatures most affected by climate change, because of their generally small body size and because the vast majority of species can’t regulate their own body temperature. So they are highly susceptible to changing temperature and moisture levels.
At We Don't Have Time: New Zealand Wants to Tax Farmers for Livestock’s Emissions
As part of New Zealand’s efforts to combat climate change, PM Jacinda Arderns government propose farmers to pay for their livestock’s methane emissions. – This is an important step forward in New Zealand’s transition to a low emissions future and delivers on our promise to price agriculture emissions from 2025, Says Jacinda Ardern in a statement. The Animal production accounts for almost 15 percent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions (according to livsmedelsverket.se). The meat and livestock industry are responsible for the emissions their business produce, and politicians are responsible to make decisions for our planet! Well done Jacinda Arden.
At CNBC: Billionaires emit a million times more greenhouse gases than the average person: Oxfam
The investments of 125 billionaires produce 393 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions every year, according to a report by Oxfam. That’s the equivalent CO2 output to the whole of France and makes the average billionaire’s annual emissions a million times higher than a person in the poorest 90% of the world’s population, the global poverty charity says.
The billionaires included in the study have a collective $2.4 trillion stake in 183 companies, which averages out at 3 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted per billionaire, per year. People outside the world’s wealthiest 10% emit an average of 2.76 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.
The report by Oxfam analyzed how 125 of the world’s richest people had invested their money and looked at the carbon emissions of those investments. The study found that around 14% of the billionaires’ investments were in “polluting industries,” such as non-renewable energy and materials such as cement, while the average investor has half that amount invested in those sectors.
Danny Sriskandarajah, chief executive of Oxfam GB, called for world leaders at the COP27 climate summit to “expose and change the role that big corporates and their rich investors are playing in profiting from the pollution that is driving the climate crisis. The role of the super-rich in super-charging climate change is rarely discussed,” Sriskandarajah said in the report’s press release, ”[t]his has to change. These billionaire investors at the top of the corporate pyramid have huge responsibility for driving climate breakdown. They have escaped accountability for too long.”
At Reuters: The Great Smog of London Woke the World to the Dangers of Coal
For five days in December 1952, a thick fog strangled the streets of London—a disaster that killed thousands of people. It would affect British health—and its climate—for years to come.
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Matt Pritchett, The Telegraph |
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The pandemic continues all over the world and is now complicated by epidemic flu and RSV (most common in children). Children's hospitals in Canada and elsewhere are still crowded with cases, presenting another dire outcome and hit to the medical system. Information about Covid-19's prevalence and outcomes is increasingly hard to find, and many erroneously feel it's over. It is far from over. Covid is still a life threatening disease associated with many complications; it's infecting and killing many. New variants are continually on the rise. Many health authorities call for widespread public health measures, but it remains confusing and little adhered to. Collective action, data reporting and leadership have mostly disappeared.
Over the last week, cases are about the same at 600,000/day (though this is only registered cases); deaths down about 25% to about 1300/day; and vaccinations are way up again (~30%) to about 4.6 million/day. That's positive.
Vaccination, despite ongoing concerns about waning effectiveness and slander against it, along with other proven public health measures, remain the best ways to keep yourself and others safe from serious consequences. Get all the shots/boosters you can, and practise other public health measures (like masking) especially indoors with crowds.
See below for a few global stats and current hotspots.
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Above and below from Twitter - December 9 and 13, 2022, respectively
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"It is the plague in seemingly all sincerity." Bob Woodward |
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A person receiving their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Los Angeles on April 9, 2021. Findings from a new study highlight the substantial impact of the U.S. vaccination program on reducing infections, hospitalizations and deaths. Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images
It has been two years since the first COVID-19 vaccine was given to a patient in the United States. Since then, the U.S. has administered more than 655 million doses — 80 percent of the population has received at least one dose — with the cumulative effect of preventing more than 18 million additional hospitalizations and more than 3 million additional deaths. The swift development of the vaccine, emergency authorization to distribute widely, and rapid rollout have been instrumental in curbing hospitalization and death, while mitigating socioeconomic repercussions of the pandemic.
As more transmissible and immune-evasive variants have emerged over the past two years, the U.S. has responded by deploying additional doses and variant-specific boosters. The Omicron variants caused the largest wave of infections during the pandemic. COVID-19 monovalent vaccines available at the time were not as efficacious against the variant as bivalent boosters introduced later, but the wave would have been more devastating in the absence of vaccination.
Read more at: Commonwealth Fund
SEE ALSO:
At Sage Pub: Mucosal Vaccination Triggers Superior T-cell Response Against SARS CoV-2
Currently, there are no mucosal (intranasal) adjuvants approved for use in humans. Mastoparan-7 (M7) appears to work in vivo and has shown efficacy in enhancing the titer of antigen-specific antibodies in animal models when delivered via the subcutaneous route as well as application to the nasal mucosae.
The currently used COVID-19 vaccines do not appear to induce robust airway-resident antigen-specific T cells, thus, necessitating the potential of next-generation COVID-19 vaccines to improve mucosal and systemic immune responses through modulation of T cells. Mucosal vaccination against the S-RBD antigen of SARS-CoV-2 promoted a T cell-intrinsic phenotype associated with superior systemic immune responses and antibody responses that improved antibody persistence in vivo and cross-protection against SARS-CoV-2 VOCs compared to subcutaneous vaccination with the same formulation.
This study is unique in using an M7 adjuvant, which could be injected into the skin and administered at mucosal surfaces, to directly compare the immune responses induced by the same dose of antigen administered via the two routes. The COVID-19 vaccines relying on high titer-specific nAbs with limited induction of mucosal responses need improvements. The mucosal vaccination strategy could prove helpful by helping improve the systemic immune responses and cross-reactive nAbs; thus, this strategy could potentially be used in the next-generation SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
At Global News: COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Associated with Increased Risk of Traffic Crashes in Ontario
Those who have not had a COVID-19 vaccine have an increased risk of being involved in a traffic crash in Ontario, a new study suggests. In the study, published in The American Journal of Medicine, researchers tested whether COVID-19 vaccination was associated with the risks of traffic crashes in Ontario. Lead investigator, Dr. Donald A. Redelmeier, a University of Toronto medicine professor and physician at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, said investigators “theorized that adults who neglect health recommendations may also neglect basic road safety guidelines.”
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ACUTE CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCES (ACE's) |
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One current use of the word trauma evolved from the study of adverse childhood experiences (ACE's) that began in the 1970s. That study[1]
began at the Kaiser Permanente Clinic in San Diego where Dr. Vincent Felitti was using supervised fasting to help control rising obesity in his patients. Under clinical conditions he was able to get some patients to lose a hundred pounds in a year. Unexpectedly, many of the women participants (4100+) would quickly put that weight back on. From them he learned that with such weight loss they would become more? sexually attractive to men. Regaining the weight made that less of a hazard, as they perceived it. He discovered that these women had been sexually abused as children. Their over weight was their 'body armor.'
Together with Dr. Robert Anda, Dr. Felitti wanted to see how common such adverse experiences (ACE's) were. They followed those enrolled in their clinic for many years to see what happened to adult health among those abused as children. These people were not the indigent as they had healthcare insurance. Their astounding results were published in 1998. More than half of the survey population had one or more ACEs out of a possible range of 7. Three categories of abuse were delineated: physical, emotional and sexual. Then there is emotional and physical neglect. Finally, household dysfunction was characterized as mental illness, an incarcerated relative, mother treated violently, substance abuse and divorce. The more ACEs (abuse during childhood) the more adverse adult health behaviors they engaged in and the more adult diseases they had including heart attacks, cancer, lung disease, skeletal fractures (the other kind of trauma) and liver disease, all of which are leading causes of death.
Those with higher ACE scores were more likely to be on antipsychotic drugs, engage in early sexual intercourse, and experience teen pregnancy and paternity, injection drug use, suicide attempts, not to mention early death.
Learning about ACE's has been one of those game changers for me. I attended a conference where Dr. Felitti gave a presentation that you can watch.
Not unsurprisingly the higher the ACE score, the greater the risk of dying before average life expectancy. There are now ten ACEs as the term is used in the US. Poorer people have more ACEs but they are seen all the way up to the top of the socioeconomic spectrum. There is increasing media attention to such trauma and books that delve into trauma such as Van Der Kolk's book[2]
mentioned last month.
Felitti and Anda observe that "Clearly, much of what we see in adult medical practice and as current major public health problems has its origins in what was present but unrecognized in pediatrics. There is a need to move from our current symptom-responsive approach in primary care to the comprehensive approach that was conceived but not attained—a biopsychosocial approach."[3]
ACEs, more broadly, can be considered to have three realms: those that happen within the family (the ACE's study); those that happen in the community (substandard wages, jobs, poverty, violence, racism); and those that are environmental (earthquakes, air pollution, climate crisis).
Having many ACE's doesn't doom you, of course. Some seem to sail through them because of factors termed "resilience." However, there is no prescription for a pill that will give you resilience. Felitti feels that acknowledging ACE's in people is the first step in therapy. Trauma informed-care is another important 'treatment' to consider.
What is required, in the absence of a rapid remedy, are societal or political changes. Van Der Kolk writes: "When I give presentations on trauma and trauma treatment, participants sometimes ask me to leave out the politics and confine myself to talking about neuroscience and therapy. I wish I could separate trauma from politics, but as long as we continue to live in denial and treat only trauma while ignoring its origins, we are bound to fail. "
Appropriate parenting is one salve required. That and politics are the topics of a future blog. With this one, though, I wanted to continue emphasizing the absolute importance of the early years of life on health and wellbeing, and that they go well beyond the physical or pathological.
Stephen Bezruchka, Seattle, Washington
[1] Felitti, V. J. (2019). "Origins of the ACE Study." American Journal of Preventive Medicine 56(6): 787-789.
[2] Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. New York, New York : Viking.
[3] Felitti, V. J. and R. F. Anda (2014). The Lifelong Effects Of Adverse Childhood Experiences. Chadwick's child maltreatment. Sexual Abuse and Psychological Maltreatment. D. L. Chadwick, R. Alexander, A. P. Giardino, D. Essemio-Jenssen and J. D. Thackeray. Saint Louis, MO, STM Learning. Volume 2: 203-215.
Read more at: PHW BLOGS
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Paris to London journeys could soon be a thing for the past for jetsetters. Credit: Getty/frankpeters
France has been given the green light to ban short haul domestic flights. The European Commission has approved the move which will abolish flights between cities that are linked by a train journey of less than 2.5 hours.
The decision was announced on Friday. The changes are part of the country’s 2021 Climate Law and were first proposed by France's Citizens' Convention on Climate - a citizens' assembly tasked with finding ways to reduce the country's carbon emissions. France is also cracking down on the use of private jets for short journeys in a bid to make transport greener and fairer for the population.
Transport minister Clément Beaune said the country could no longer tolerate the super rich using private planes while the public are making cutbacks to deal with the energy crisis and climate change. Private jets have been a source of outrage lately, as the city-hopping exploits of celebrities and billionaires come to light. A jet belonging to Steven Spielberg burned around €117,000 worth of fuel in the two months since June, according to flight tracking data.
A report from Transport and Environment (T&E), the European federation for clean transport, found that private jets are up to 14 times more polluting than commercial flights per passenger mile, and 50 times worse than trains.
Read more at :EuroNews
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A plane lands at Heathrow Airport in London. - Credit: AP Photo/Matt Dunham
The true cost of flying could be far worse than we thought - with two-thirds of the climate impact coming from emissions that aren’t CO2.
Alongside this greenhouse gas, aircraft engines emit other elements like nitrous oxides and sulphur dioxide as well as particulates such as soot when fuel is burnt. These all contribute to what are known as the non-CO2 climate impacts.
At high altitudes, these emissions can affect the physical and chemical properties of the atmosphere, leading to an increase in greenhouse gases and the formation of contrails (condensation trails). The consequence is a net warming effect on the climate that is bigger than that of CO2.
A European Commission report using the latest available science was published in 2020 and found that the non-CO2 impact of aviation was twice that of CO2 impact.
NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) argues these potential climate-warming emissions are not covered by the EU’s most recent clean aviation laws. Overall, this means that around two-thirds of the climate impact of the sector could be unregulated.
Read more at: EuroNews
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Credit: World Food Program
An unrelenting series of crises has trapped vulnerable Haitians in a cycle of growing desperation, without access to food, fuel, markets, jobs and public services, bringing the country to a standstill, warn the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Hunger has reached Catastrophic levels, or the highest level, 5 on the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), in Cité Soleil, an urban neighborhood in Port-au-Price, Haiti.
According to the latest IPC analysis, a record 4.7 million people are currently facing acute hunger (IPC 3 and above), including 1.8 million people in Emergency phase(IPC 4) and, for the first time ever in Haiti, 19,000 people are in Catastrophe phase (IPC 5).
Cité Soleil has seen a worrisome rise in food insecurity over three years. Currently, 65 percent of its population, especially the poorest and most vulnerable, are in high levels of food insecurity with 5 percent of them in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. Increased violence in Cité Soleil, with armed groups vying for control of the area has meant that residents have lost access to their work, markets and health and nutrition services. Many have been forced to flee or hide in their homes.
Read more at: World Food Program
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Credit: BBC
It is the rarest of stories. A fix for an environmental disaster that is actually working.
Oil spill after oil spill has turned the Niger Delta, in southern Nigeria, into one of the most polluted places on Earth.
It's extremely dangerous - militant groups blow up pipelines, oil companies are accused of negligence, kidnappings are growing - and there's deep mistrust of outsiders.
In a land soaked in oil and scorched by fires, one scientist from the University of Port Harcourt, Eucharia Nwaichi, comes armed with knowledge and a calm but unshakeable determination to detoxify. She believes the contaminated land should be restored so crops can grow again and fishing is made possible, instead of communities focussing only on financial compensation.
"We want solutions that are green and based on nature. We aim to do no harm in everything we do," she tells the BBC in an interview. Despite being offered jobs at prestigious US universities, she says she stayed to work in the Niger Delta, because she has "a mission to make my country great".
Many environmentalists undoubtedly consider international oil companies an enemy. Amnesty International and Friends of Earth have fought to hold them to account for communities left with poor health, without safe drinking water and their livelihoods destroyed.
But Eucharia says she's not interested in taking sides. "We are not here for battle. We just want people to be responsible," she says. "Being responsible is more important than fighting. It's more enduring." Despite the ever-present risk of violence, she continues because she believes "mother nature called on me to be a steward" and because she sees facts as a force for good. "The power of science is that people can prove that this wasn't done based on bias or someone's personal interests," she says.
Read more at: BBC
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Credit: Global Resiience Partnership
From Costa Rica to Kenya, India to Benin, Mozambique to Brunei; whether through science, technology, activism, art, formal or traditional education, eco-friendly lifestyle, or entrepreneurship young people are increasingly creating solutions to deal with the increasing impacts of climate change.
In the lead up to the COP27 Resilience Hub, GRP and its partners through the Resilience Knowledge Coalition launched a social media contest to highlight youth action from the local, national and global level. This was an opportunity for young people from all over the world to use their voice and share their innovations and solutions for building their communities’ resilience to shocks and stresses like climate change. Young people from 43 countries shared videos, photos and paintings showcasing their resilience solutions.
Introducing the five winning entries:
Cyclone buffers – The women of Sundarbans, West Bengal, India
Enhancing resilience in the Maasai Community, Kenya
Tata Somba Ecological Museum: Preserving traditional knowledge, Benin
Restoring the riverbanks of the Mathare and Nairobi River, Kenys
The story of Boruca Women, Costa Rica
Read more at Global Resilience Partnership
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Credit: Formato
One of the most frequently cited concerns about ‘genetically modified’ food is that it is ‘unnatural’ or as the then Prince of Wales (now King Charles III) coined it in 1998, that it strays ‘into realms which belong to God and God alone.’
But the simple truth is that all the crops and animals we farm have been genetically modified from their natural or ‘God-given’ counterparts.
Maize is unrecognisably transformed from its original ancestor, a slim grass called teosinte. Some time around 9,000 years ago in the Balzas Valley in Mexico people began transforming that wild grass into a crop so unnatural that today it cannot reproduce without human assistance.
Modern wheat is an extraordinary genetic monster, with six copies of each chromosome, derived from three wild ancestors via two separate hybridisation events around 10,000 years ago, producing a domesticated plant that cannot survive without human intervention.
The humble potato is utterly transformed from the small, hard, toxic tuber to be found growing in the wild above 3,000 metres in the Andes. Who discovered, 9,000 years ago, that it could be bred into a tasty meal, indeed the most productive food plant we know, we will never know.
Read more at: Genetic Literacy Project
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FIFA Refuses to Set Up Compensation Fund for Exploited Workers |
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Credit: Freedom United
Freedom United is deeply disappointed by FIFA’s reported refusal to set up a support fund for migrant workers who faced exploitation in the lead up to the World Cup. FIFA is set to rake in over $7 billion from the tournament. Our #PayUpFIFA campaign is calling for the soccer governing body to set aside $440 million to compensate exploited workers and support the families who relied on remittances from loved ones who died in Qatar. Read more at: Freedom United
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SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS |
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Returning to Our Origins to Continue Being Siekopai |
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Roberto Piaguaje, 66 years old. Credit: Amazon Frontlines
What does it take to reclaim
ancestral lands that you were systematically dispossessed of? And what does it
mean when your people’s very cultural and physical survival depends upon it? The Siekopai
(Secoya) nation of Ecuador, a small Upper Amazonian nation located
in the Western Amazon that numbers just over 800, is grappling with that
question right now.
Pë’këya
(Lagartococha), a labyrinthine network of lagoons, slow-moving
creeks, and flooded forests, is the Siekopai’s traditional homeland and
spiritual heartland. In the 1940s, during a border dispute
between Ecuador and Peru, the area was militarized and the Siekopai were forced
out on both sides of the border, and later prevented from returning when the
Ecuadorian government assumed ownership over Pëkëya by creating a
National Park in the area in the 1970s.
In an effort to
regain control of their land, the Siekopai decided to take
the Ecuadorian government to court in
September over its failure to recognize the nation as the ancestral stewards of
Pë’këya. Plaintiffs in the case include elders who seek to recover their
spiritual homeland and ensure the
physical and cultural survival for future generations, youth who seek
to revitalize their culture, and children who want to learn and grow
up with a sense of Siekopai identity and knowledge.
In
January 2023, a provincial judge will finally hear oral testimony from elders,
leaders, youth and children. Maps, archaeological evidence and even paintings
will also be presented, identifying the Siekopai as the ancestral owners of the
area. In anticipation of the hearing, we share the profound perspectives of
community members. They have a clear message for the judge, the court, the
Ecuadorian government, and the world: Pë’këya is essential for Siekopai
survival and the time for their land to be given back is far overdue.
Read more at :Amazon Frontlines
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Credit: Sky News
Humanity is "treating nature like a toilet...(and is) waging war on nature", the United Nations boss has warned as urgent negotiations to slow the destruction of wildlife begin in Canada.
"Humanity has become a weapon of mass extinction" by exploiting precious species, dumping pollution and spreading dangerous invasive species, he told governments gathered in Montreal.
Mr Guterres accused multinational corporations of "filling their bank accounts while emptying our world of its natural gifts".
António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
Read more at: SkyNews
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FYI#1 SPOTLIGHT ON MEDIA: NEW SERIES |
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"Re: Agriculture III" (3/3 video series, 56 minutes) |
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Credit: We Don't Have Time
We Don’t Have Time and Unilever are proud to present Re:Agriculture III, the third episode in a series of 3 about how the world can feed itself while dealing with multiple challenges from climate change and the loss of precious plant and animal life to ensuring farmers and rural communities have sustainable lives and livelihoods. The focus of this series will be regenerative agriculture as the key to systems change and the delivery mechanism for a food and farming transformation.
In this first episode viewers were introduced to what regenerative agriculture is, its role in healing our soils and our lands and its potential to deliver the healthy food the world needs and while helping to meet local and global challenges across countries and continents, North and South.
Re:Agriculture III, is the third episode in a series of 3 about how the world can feed itself while dealing with multiple challenges from climate change and the loss of precious plant and animal life to ensuring farmers and rural communities have sustainable lives and livelihoods. The focus of this series will be regenerative agriculture as the key to systems change and the delivery mechanism for a food and farming transformation.
In this third episode, we are going to celebrate amazing regenerative agriculture projects happening at scale and hear in detail from some of the most advanced practitioners.
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In this photograph taken on November 15, 2022, Ghevar Ram, a member of the Bishnoi community, bottle feeds milk to a fawn at an animal rescue centre in Khejarli village. - Credit: AFP/ MONEY SHARMA
The Bishnoi community are India’s original eco-warriors. Members of the Hindu sect - which has more than 1.5 million devotees - have been fighting to protect the environment for more than 500 years. The community believes in the sanctity of all life, shunning meat and avoiding felling living trees.
Spread mostly in hamlets across the state of Rajasthan, members draw inspiration from Amrita Devi, a Bishnoi woman killed in 1730 while trying to protect a grove of khejari trees.
The Bishnoi community was established in the 16th century by Guru Jambheshwar. Many of the Guru’s 29 precepts - rules that govern the conduct of believers - are explicit about the protection of nature. Devotees agree to “be merciful to all living beings and love them” and “not to cut green trees”. In 1730, 363 Bishnoi men, women, and children died for these beliefs.
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FYI #3 |
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A Silent Killer is Stalking Babies in Nelson Mandela Bay |
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Credit: iStock
Between April and September, 10 children died and 108 were hospitalised with severe acute malnutrition in Nelson Mandela Bay.
In the six months from April to September this year, 108 children were admitted to Dora Nginza Provincial Hospital in Nelson Mandela Bay and Uitenhage Provincial Hospital with severe acute malnutrition, according to the Eastern Cape Department of Health. Some also suffered from other diseases and conditions, including cerebral palsy.
Ten of these children died, including some with multiple diseases as their health conditions left them vulnerable to severe acute malnutrition.
“The emerging concerns now amongst those children who are presenting with and dying of severe acute malnutrition are that some are newly diagnosed with TB and/or HIV. Many have also not been immunised,” said health spokesperson Yonela Dekeda.
She said many mothers and children were defaulting on their HIV and TB treatments because they did not have food, and the medication must be taken with food.
The available government Child Support Grant cannot keep up with food inflation, making it impossible for mothers to use it to look after themselves and their children.
A joint research project carried out in 2021 by the University of Cape Town and Nelson Mandela University in the outpatient unit of Dora Nginza Provincial Hospital and published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health showed that only a third of households that formed part of the survey had enough food. Close to 30% were at risk of hunger and 37.5% of respondents said they regularly did not have enough food, leaving children hungry.
Researchers added that the prevalence of stunting, being underweight and wasting among children was high. At the time of the research, 2.8% of the children surveyed were classified as having severe acute malnutrition, 3.9% had moderately severe malnutrition and 13% were at risk of wasting, with about the same percentage underweight for their age. A quarter of the children were stunted and 12.5% were severely stunted
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FYI #4 |
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Mapped: Which Countries Have the Highest Inflation? |
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Credit: Visual Capitalist
Many countries around the world are facing double or triple-digit inflation. See which countries have the highest inflation rates on this map.
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FYI #5: DECEMBER READING - NEW BOOK |
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"Inequality Kills Us All: COVID-19's Health Lessons for the World" by Stephen Bezruchka (PHW Blogger) |
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Credit: Book Cover
The complex answer to why the United States does so poorly in health measures has at its base one pervasive issue: The United States has by far the highest levels of inequality of all the rich countries. Inequality Kills Us All details how living in a society with entrenched hierarchies increases the negative effects of illnesses for everyone.
The antidote must start, Stephen Bezruchka recognizes, with a broader awareness of the nature of the problem, and out of that understanding policies that eliminate these inequalities: A fair system of taxation, so that the rich are paying their share; support for child well-being, including paid parental leave, continued monthly child support payments, and equitable educational opportunities; universal access to healthcare; and a guaranteed income for all Americans. The aim is to have a society that treats everyone well—and health will follow.
From: Richard D. Wolff, Professor of Economics Emeritus, Univ of Massachusetts, Amherst and co-founder of Democracy at Work.
"When the pandemic hit, we imagined a silver lining – ‘at least we’ll realize that we’re in this together.’ That laughable naiveté evaporated as the virus disproportionately savaged America’s have-nots. Stephen Bezruchka, one of the subject’s wisest scholars, documents how Covid-19 is merely a sped-up version of decades of festering health inequality. This superb book will convince anyone other than ideologues that something is brutally wrong with American health."
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FYI#6: SPOTLIGHT ON EDUCATION |
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Canada Must Revamp Education, Retention of STEM Professionals to Avoid Skills Shortages |
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Credit: hundrED
In an era when a nation’s quality of life depends on the supply
of science-based professionals, Canada is facing difficulties in replacing
retirees in STEM-related fields, reports Gwyn Morgan for Net News Ledger. Reflecting
on a recent study that found a shortage of STEM skills in the country, Morgan
describes the need to fundamentally change science education to engage and
motivate students to study the field. In addition to the reforms needed in the
K-12 system, the author argues that it is essential to improve the retention
efforts of established and international professionals. “Canada’s immigration
program is doing a good job of supplying STEM-trained immigrants with vitally
important skills,” writes Morgan, “but professional associations responsible for
their integration need to be a source of support rather than frustration.” If
changes are not made, Morgan asserts that the country could face a “brain
drain.”
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17th Mexican Biennial Poster Exhibition (2020-2022) |
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Armando Castillo Barraza, México
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Valeria De Los Ángeles Astorca Araya, Costa Rica
"This terrible consumption is sickening the Oceans and filling them with pain"
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Kutluhan Adiyaman, Turkey
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"Migration must been seen as a right to grow" |
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Photo Credits: David Zakus |
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THANKS FOR READING THE FREE
PLANETARY HEALTH WEEKLY
Current News on Ecological Wellness and Global Health
To Subscribe and access Archives of all Past Issues & Yearly Indexes GO TO: planetaryhealthweekly.com
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