HI,
I was so saddened two days ago when waking up listening to the radio and learning of a good old friend, a family physician and global health colleague, who has decided to retire from medicine because of covid vaccination harassment. Following a rumour spread by a local politician she began to receive threats and hate mail and phone calls. What a tragedy for her and those in northern rural Ontario who have been relying on her care and dedication for decades. And who will replace her, considering the perceived unattractiveness of rural medical practice and the local anti-medicine/science types lurking around the corner. The divisiveness and calousness spawned by anti-vaxxers is wholly reprehensible. Their actions are destroying our right to health care and life, including the thousands who have now died from delayed medical intervention. And how interesting to now be in Quebec where winter tires are required by law, which can cost many hundreds of dollars compared to a free vaccine. I don't see any protests. Such decisions, even the chlorination of water, are made for the public good.
Talk, too, is now all Omicron, the new Covid-19 variant of concern, now in over two dozen countries, which has lead to the stigmatization of southern African countries - whereas it seems it was already circulating in Europe at least a month before being ‘discovered’ in South Africa. And this even from the Euro zone which won’t waive vaccine patent rights. The worse, though, to me was the only reaction of the covid-ridden western countries was to bar flights and citizens from South Africa and its neighbours rather than offering a helping hand and a wholehearted ‘thanks’. We all know, and it’s common wisdom, that the pandemic won’t end until all have been well vaccinated. There are now more third shots being given in wealthy countries than first shots in poor ones. Such viral mutants, including more dangerous ones, are totally predictable, especially among unvaccinated populations where the virus is circulating, which is everywhere. How terrible, too, it is that as the virus currently plagues several countries in western Europe, a small horrid fraction of their population is protesting public health containment measures and putting themselves at risk too of fostering mutations. From the land of reason and logic to the irrational. It’s going to be a long ride yet.
In today’s Planetary Health Weekly (#48 of the year)
you’ll read more about this but also more about COP26 and other ecological and health challenges and successes from around the world, including:
- STILL FOLLOWING COP26:
- COP26 deal brings support for victims of climate disaster a step closer,
- World leaders fail to honour climate pledge of monetary support,
- The broken $100-billion promise of climate finance – and how to fix it,
- The best way to fight inflation: ditch fossil fuels,
- Glasgow leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use,
- China creates a vast research infrastructure to support ambitious climate goals,
- The rich world’s climate hypocrisy,
- Fact check: is global warming merely a natural cycle?
- CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
- Failure to send more jabs to Africa is a ‘huge mistake’,
- Huge protests across Europe over new restrictions,
- How Dr. Fauci and other officials withheld information on China’s coronavirus experiments,
- Europe gripped by fifth wave, University of Guelph Covid-19 wastewater report,
- Disrupted prevention: condom and contraception access and use among young adults during the initial months of the Covid-19 pandemic,
- Two-meter Covid-19 rule is ‘arbitrary measurement’ of safety, THEN
- Diabetes is a ‘pandemic of unprecedented magnitude,’ and experts fear Covid-19 may make it worse,
- Greening deserts: India powers renewable ambitions with solar push,
- British Columbia uses best available science to identify and partially defer logging of at-risk old-growth forest – critical funding measures still missing,
- Supporting research on health security preparedness in the Eastern Mediterranean Region,
- Chloris Geospatial: forest carbon intelligence company sparks to life with $2.5m investment,
- Northvolt in Sweden claims first EV battery cell with 100% recycled nickel, manganese and cobalt,
- The street and the boardroom are closer than they have ever been on climate,
- Surviving day school – abuse, death and reconciliation,
- Tiny House Warriors get human rights award for ‘heroic resistance’ against Transmountain pipeline (TMX),
- Quote on the end of fossil fuels by Mary Robinson,
- Parliamentarians must make sure that climate commitments are met after COP26,
- A Globaldev guide to new social media,
- 9 key elements of Joe Biden’s plan for a clean energy revolution,
- 250+ organizations plea with President Biden to cancel unprecedented oil and gas magasale in Gulf of Mexico,
- The Moon’s top layer alone has enough oxygen to sustain 8 billion people for 100,000 years,
- Anti-inflamatory diet may be best to slow cognitive aging,
- Two new books: Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons from Marine Mammals by Alexis Pauline Gumbs; and Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse by Dave Goulson,
- Dr. Sumanta Pal: general advice from a mentor, and lastly
- ENDSHOTS from Immersive Van Gogh amid latest stats and charts of Covid-19 in Canada and around the world.
Please do keep reading. Best, david
David Zakus, Editor and Publisher
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Outside the main entrance of COP26, Glasgow, Scotland |
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Residents evacuate with their belongings after flash floods in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Cedit: Hariardi Hafid/Greenpeace
A network to help the victims of climate disaster could be up and running within a year, after negotiators struck a deal at Cop26 on what its remit should be.
Negotiators from developing countries told Climate Home News they were “pleased” that agreement on the remit had not been kicked down the road to next year’s UN climate talks, as developed countries had originally wanted. The Santiago Network on loss and damage will act as a co-ordinator, linking those who can provide finance or expertise, like governments, charities, companies or banks, with those in need of help. It will also disseminate research. Read more at Climate Change News
SEE ALSO:
At Nature: The broken $100-billion promise of climate finance — and how to fix it
Twelve years ago, at a United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen, rich nations made a significant pledge. They promised to channel US$100 billion a year to less wealthy nations by 2020, to help them adapt to climate change and mitigate further rises in temperature.
That promise was broken. Figures for 2020 are not yet in, and those who negotiated the pledge don’t agree on accounting methods, but a report last year for the UN1 concluded that “the only realistic scenarios” showed the $100-billion target was out of reach. “We are not there yet,” conceded UN secretary-general António Guterres.
Compared with the investment required to avoid dangerous levels of climate change, the $100-billion pledge is minuscule. Trillions of dollars will be needed each year to meet the 2015 Paris agreement goal of restricting global warming to “well below” 2 °C, if not 1.5 °C, above pre-industrial temperatures. And developing nations (as they are termed in the Copenhagen pledge) will need hundreds of billions of dollars annually to adapt to the warming that is already inevitable. “But the $100 billion is iconic in terms of the good faith of the countries that promised it,” says Saleemul Huq, director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development in Dhaka.
At New Republic: The Best Way to Fight Inflation: Ditch Fossil Fuels
At UKCOP26: Glasgow Leaders' Declaration on Forests and Land Use
At Nature China Creates Vast Research Infrastructure to Support Ambitious Climate Goals
At Project: The Rich World's Climate Hypocrisy
At DW: Fact check: Is global warming merely a natural cycle?
Scientists have been exploring the cause of the planet's rising temperature since the 20th century. Climate change skeptics say that human-caused CO2 emissions don't have an effect. DW takes a look at the facts.
AND see ENDSHOTS at the end of this newsletter for more news, analysis and photos from COP26.
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SARS-CoV-2 & COVID-19 UPDATES |
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Globally, the situation is getting worse, especially Europe, and now with the variant Omicron, named after the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet (bypassing Xi). How exasperating!
Over the last week there were about 4 million new cases (down slightly) and 50,000 deaths (little change). About 500 million people received a vaccine (up over 100%!!), or an average of some 70 million doses per day - very impressive (perhaps due to booster shots), while distribution is still grossly distorted, favouring wealthy countries and the rich.
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"It is the plague in seemingly all sincerity." Bob Woodward |
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Though Africa currently has fewer cases of COVID-19 than Europe, experts fear there will be more waves as only about 7% of the continent's 1.3 billion inhabitants are fully vaccinated.
Most African countries depend on vaccine doses from abroad, even if there are efforts to build up local production centers. But, as the number of cases rises in Europe, supplies to Africa will likely suffer. Germany, for example, has already made a decision to retain vaccine doses that were destined for poorer countries. "We have even postponed some of our COVAX donations, international BioNTech donations, from December to January and February so that there will be enough doses in Germany," Health Minister Jens Spahn said this week.
His words came just a few days after World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus criticized certain countries for stockpiling vaccines. "Every day, there are six times more boosters administered globally than primary doses in low-income countries," he said. "This is a scandal that must stop now. Read more at the DW.
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Credit: Article
Despite a century of advancements in treatment, education and prevention, World Diabetes Day 2021 occurs in the wake of grim statistics. One in 10 adults around the world -- some 537 million people -- are currently living with diabetes, according to figures recently released by the International Diabetes Federation (IDF).
By 2024, the IDF predicted that the number of people with diabetes is expected to rise to 1 in 8 adults.
"As the world marks the centenary of the discovery of insulin, I wish we could say we've stopped the rising tide of diabetes," IDF President Dr. Andrew Boulton told CNN. "Instead, diabetes is currently a pandemic of unprecedented magnitude." Read more at CNN
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Credit: Solar Daily As camels munch on the fringes of Thar desert, an oasis of blue solar panels stretches further than the eye can see at Bhadla Park -- a cornerstone of India's bid to become a clean energy powerhouse.
Currently, coal powers 70% of the nation's electricity generation, but Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged that by 2030, India will produce more energy through solar and other renewables than its entire grid now.
"First, India will increase its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts... Second, by 2030, 50% of our energy requirements will come from renewable resources," Modi told the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.
The arid state of Rajasthan, where Bhadla Park takes up an area almost the size of San Marino, sees 325 sunny days each year, making it perfectly placed for the solar power revolution, officials say.
Once an expanse of desert, authorities have capitalised on the sparsely populated area, claiming minimal displacement of local communities. Today robots clean dust and sand off an estimated 10 million solar panels, while a few hundred humans monitor. This pursuit of a greener future is fuelled by necessity. Read more at SolarDaily
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Photo: iStock/Kanawa_Studio
Conservationists with the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) commend a BC government announcement made today releasing independent scientific mapping of BC’s endangered old-growth forests, and in principle accepting recommendations to defer logging in 2.6 million hectares of at-risk old-growth forests. The province has also immediately deferred all future BC Timber Sales (BCTS) cutblocks that overlap with identified at-risk forests. However, critical conservation funding to enable the full scale of deferral recommendations is still missing.
A summary report and new scientific mapping produced by an independent Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel has revealed there are 5 million hectares of unprotected, at-risk old-growth forest across BC. These forests are categorized into ancient, rare and big tree forests. The panel recommended the province immediately defer logging in 2.6 million hectares of these forests, focusing on the most critically endangered stands. Read more at The Ancient Forest Alliance
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Credit: TDR-WHO
TDR, the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO), and the WHO Health Security Preparedness Department are pleased to announce the 13 recipients of grants to conduct research on health security preparedness.
Health emergencies pose significant risks to communities, organizations and governments across the world. Hazardous events create the risk of morbidity and mortality, interruption of essential health services, and wider uncertainty and economic disruption. Improving health security and preparedness can help avert these harmful, and often inequitable impacts.
Operational and implementation research should be a key part of the design and review of preparedness programmes at country level. Yet there is a scarcity of research and development in health security/emergency preparedness, especially in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region, which can guide national and sub-national decision-making and the development of guidance for emergency preparedness at national, regional and global levels. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights the challenge of effectively measuring the presence of such capacities and the need for more research in these areas of work. Read more at TDR-WHO
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Credit: Twitter
Chloris Geospatial, a Boston-based start-up that is pioneering advanced approaches to produce accurate planetary-scale terrestrial biomass accounting, has secured first round seed investment. Chloris closed the round with a $2.5 million investment from At One Ventures, Counteract, and experienced angel sustainability investors.
The company is building a high integrity data platform of carbon stock and change with globally consistent direct measurements, giving its customers the highest possible transparency on the true performance of land assets, from rainforests to managed landscapes.
Launched in February 2021, it builds on almost two decades of innovative remote sensing research and detailed ground calibration by the founding team. Chloris is already capable of providing accurate, reliable measurement of carbon stock and change globally.
Chloris’ global coverage and high integrity approach mean that its technology is suitable for carbon project developers, corporate buyers of offsets, investors seeking to understand opportunities, funders looking to evaluate the performance of their grants, and public institutions looking to cross-validate their estimates.
The company intends to rapidly roll-out access to its data platforms and solutions within the next six months, so that organizations can accurately evaluate investment opportunities, track, and report their impact on the natural environment, and monitor the performance of their biomass assets over time. Read more at Climate Change News
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Rendering of Northvolt Revolt Ett battery recycling plant. Credit: Green Car Reports
Swedish battery supplier Northvolt has announced that its Revolt recycling program had produced a functioning EV battery using recycled metals. The single battery cell used a nickel-manganese-cobalt cathode made with metals recovered from waste batteries, Northvolt said in a press release. In testing, the recycled materials performed on par with newly produced metals, the company said.
Northvolt said recycling and production were both done at a single site in Västerås, Sweden. The process to recover nickel, manganese and cobalt involved use of an "aqueous solution" to isolate the metals from other material. Read more at Green Car Reports
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The Blue Zone "action zone" at Cop26 in Glasgow. Credit: Karwai Tang/UK Government)
The Glasgow Climate Pact and recent pledges have kept 1.5C alive, just. But to get 1.5C out of intensive care we need all these pledges and national plans to be delivered without delay.
People took to the streets calling for urgent, just and decisive climate action. Activists were right to call out those governments and businesses using distant net zero pledges to delay meaningful action today. It is true that many of the current informal and unregulated offset schemes are insufficient and can lead to greenwashing.
However, more than 1,000 companies are setting 1.5C-aligned science-based targets to reduce their emissions. The Net Zero Standard launched at Cop26 enables companies to align their climate action with limiting global warming to 1.5C. The business leaders I (Maria Mendiluce) met with in Glasgow had come with credible evidence of their progress as well as a sincere and urgent desire to push governments to go further and faster.
While some saw Cop26 as a story of opposing voices inside and outside, I believe that the street and the boardroom are closer than they have ever been. Their message to world leaders is loud. Action, action, action is the only antidote for the blah, blah, blah. Read More at ClimateChangeNews
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Credit: Article
Aboriginal Peoples' Television Network (APTN) News obtained documents from the federal government that, for the first time, uncover the mystery around what officials called day schools.
Of course the schools had little to do with education. They were set up to assimilate First Nation, Inuit and Métis children into Canadian society. What hasn’t been known until now is the conditions at these 699 schools across the country, and how many died there.
This series answers some of those questions about a relatively unknown, dark chapter in Canadian history. Read more at APTN News
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SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS |
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Kanahus Manuel, birth keeper and member of the Tiny House Warriors. The tiny homes provide housing for Secwe̓pemc families, while acting as a barrier to the TMX expansion. Credit: Kanahus Manuel
For almost four years, the Tiny House Warriors have been working to stop the TMX pipeline from encroaching on their territory, and as of Tuesday, the Secwe̓pemc land defenders have a human rights award to go along with their efforts.
The group, which has been building tiny houses in Blue River, B.C., since 2017 in an attempt to block the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project, was presented with the Carole Geller Human Rights Award and the $15,000 that goes along with it. The recognition is welcome, said Kanahus Manuel of the Tiny House Warriors at a virtual event, as is the money, which will help with mounting legal fees associated with their front-line action. Read more at National Observer.
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Credit: The Elders |
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“The transition to a net zero, climate-resilient economy has profound implications for every aspect of our lives, particularly for those of us who live in industrialized countries whose business models and infrastructure have been based on fossil fuels for decades.
For such a transition to be accomplished in an effective, sustainable and equitable fashion, then democratic consent is essential.
If climate policies are imposed in what is perceived to be a “top-down” manner with little sensitivity towards the needs and budgets of ordinary citizens – for example regarding fuel taxes or subsidies – this, as we have seen, can spark a backlash, the “gilet jaunes” in France, which can then be exploited by populist forces who are all too adept at exploiting grievances for their own cynical ends.
As you well know, parliamentarians need to be alive to the concerns of their electors and to ensure that climate policies do not disproportionately penalize the poorest and most vulnerable in society. At the same time, parliamentarians need to show courage and leadership by explaining the longer-term consequences of both climate action and inaction, reminding the public that either the benefits or price will be paid not today but by future generations, and to remind them that the science is compelling.
… Let me conclude with words from our founder Nelson Mandela who brought The Elders together in 2007. He put it very succinctly, I think, when he said:
“It always seems impossible until it is done.””
Mary Robinson delivered this speech at the 2021 Global Conference on Health and Climate Change event at COP26 on 7 November 2021.
She is Chair of The Elders; First woman President of Ireland and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; a passionate advocate for gender equality, women’s participation in peace-building, human dignity and climate justice.
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- March 28th-April 1st, 2022: Healthy People, Healthy Planet, Social Justice. (Virtual Satellite Sessions: March 21st-25th, 2022)
- April 1-3, 2022: CUGH 2022 Global Health Conference- Hybrid: Healthy People, Healthy Planet, Social Justice (Los Angeles, California). Virtual Satellite Sessions: March 21-25, 2022; In-person Satellite Sessions: March 31, 2022
- April 23 - 25, 2022: 8th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health
- October 31 - November 4, 2022: 7th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (Bogotá, Colombia)
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FYI#1 SPOTLIGHT ON MEDIA |
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A Globaldev Guide to New Social Media |
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Credit: Allard Schager/Alamy
Our latest report explores how global development organizations are evolving their work within the new social media landscape. You’ll learn:
- The latest social media trends and what they mean for globaldev organizations.
- Which organizations in the sector are smashing it on TikTok, and the secrets to their success.
- How Clubhouse could help with outreach, partnerships, and even fundraising.
- WhatsApp’s role in health messaging during the pandemic.
- How charities can respond to a surge in misinformation and trolling.
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FYI #3 |
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The Moon’s Top Layer Alone Has Enough Oxygen to Sustain 8 Billion People for 100,000 Years |
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Credit: Shutterstock
Alongside advances in space exploration, we’ve recently seen much time and money invested into technologies that could allow effective space resource utilisation. And at the forefront of these efforts has been a laser-sharp focus on finding the best way to produce oxygen on the Moon. In October, the Australian Space Agency and NASA signed a deal to send an Australian-made rover to the Moon under the Artemis program, with a goal to collect lunar rocks that could ultimately provide breathable oxygen on the Moon. Although the Moon does have an atmosphere, it’s very thin and composed mostly of hydrogen, neon and argon. It’s not the sort of gaseous mixture that could sustain oxygen-dependent mammals such as humans. That said, there is actually plenty of oxygen on the Moon. It just isn’t in a gaseous form. Instead it’s trapped inside regolith — the layer of rock and fine dust that covers the Moon’s surface. If we could extract oxygen from regolith, would it be enough to support human life on the Moon?
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FYI #4 |
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Anti-inflammatory Diet May Be Best to Slow Cognitive Aging |
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Credit: Harvard Medical School
Ongoing low-grade inflammation is a key contributor to many chronic illnesses including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis and depression. Cognitive decline and dementia are also tied to chronic inflammation.
Plenty of evidence suggests that certain foods and nutrients dampen inflammation in the body. Indeed, diets plentiful in anti-inflammatory ingredients have been shown to guard against a number of inflammation-related diseases.
Only a few studies, however, have investigated the link between the inflammatory potential of one’s diet and dementia risk.
Now, new findings add to growing evidence that an anti-inflammatory diet protects later-life cognitive health. They also suggest that the higher a diet’s inflammatory potential, the greater the risk of dementia. Read more at Globe and Mail
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FYI #5: NOVEMBER READING |
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"Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals By Alexis Pauline Gumbs" AND "Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse" by Dave Goulson |
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Credit: Books
Undrowned: Black Feminist Lessons From Marine Mammals
By Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Emergent Strategy Series, AK Press, 2020
Alexis Pauline Gumbs is one of the most innovative voices on nature and the environment today, and this small, turquoise paperback makes for a calm, thoughtful read in troubled times, perfect for absorbing in small doses and returning to over and over.
These small essays on different marine mammals from a Black feminist perspective feel something like sermons (the Dharma talk kind, not the fire and brimstone kind), but they weave together science writing with an empathy for and curiosity about the lives of other species in a way that feels entirely new.
In the chapter “Honor Your Boundaries,” Gumbs leaps from the frequent deaths of Amazon river dolphins living in captivity to the theory that one contributor to those deaths is massive sleep deprivation—ocean dolphins can rest in the center of open water, but river dolphins need the shelter of a riverbank to let their guard down. Writes Gumbs, “Another way to say it is that the sleep deprivation that boto dolphins suffer in captivity is a result of a lack of the boundaries that helped them rest well at home. Is a lack of supportive boundaries impacting your sleep?” A few sentences later, Gumbs has moved on to the CIA's use of sleep deprivation and the rest-centered activism of people like Nap Ministry founder Tricia Hersey. I can guarantee you won’t read anything else like Undrowned, this or any other summer.
SEE ALSO:
Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse
By Dave Goulson
Harper, 2021
“Nature has introduced great variety into the landscape, but man has displayed a passion for simplifying it,” wrote Rachel Carson in Silent Spring. Single-crop farming and pesticides were wiping out this “great variety,” not only the plant species, but the bugs, birds, and other creatures that lived nearby, and Carson recognized the danger this loss of diversity posed to humans and nature alike.
More than 50 years later, British entomologist Dave Goulson takes up Carson’s mantle in the forthcoming Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse. As the title suggests, the scope is bigger this time around. Pesticides are still a problem, but not the only one. It’s the way we farm, the way we garden, and the way we design our cities. Goulson meticulously lays out the evidence for insect declines and offers concrete solutions for change, his vision for a bug-friendly future, and even a fictional account of a world decades from now in which the only insects around are the ones we hate.
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FYI#6: SPOTLIGHT ON EDUCATION |
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Dr. Sumanta Pal: General Advice From a Mentor |
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Credit: Daily News
PracticeUpdate: Dr. Pal, what has driven you to become a mentor?
Dr. Pal: For me, becoming a mentor is a way of giving back. I've benefited so much over the years from individuals who have catapulted me in my career, giving me opportunities that were easily ones they could have taken themselves and elevated my career as a consequence. I'm trying to do the same for individuals who are around me. I have to tell you, while patient care is incredibly rewarding, mentoring can in many ways be equally rewarding in the sense that you feel you're creating a legacy of individuals who will have the same attention to patients’ needs, the same attention to research, that you've got, and I think mentors have such an essential place. There are many, many caring and compassionate physicians out there in oncology. I'm very grateful for that. I think that, in the mentoring community, the community of truly exceptional mentors is actually very limited. So, being a good mentor, helping craft the careers of others, is something that, I think, is altogether rare and something we need to celebrate.
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IMMERSIVE VAN GOGH EXHIBIT
(WALL PROJECTIONS OF NATURAL BEAUTY & DISASTER)
TORONTO, NOVEMBER 19, 2021
Amid Latest Covid-19 Stats and Charts from Canada and Around the World
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Photo Credits: David Zakus |
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