HI,
Why are we not getting anywhere close to where we need to be with fighting the climate crisis? Perhaps it's because the antagonists are just so good at what they do. With our global economic model being such that you try to make the most money, the most profit on whatever product you offer, these criminal organizations seem to be champions. Oil companies are so good at making profit that they just can’t stop destroying the world while they’re at it. They even go to great lengths to deceive us, lie about, hide and coverup their actions. What is wrong with this thinking and these actions and what can we do? We must answer this to our peril, for our survival.
Excessive carbon emissions, especially from the burning of fossil fuels (which create at least 91% of global emissions), are not declining despite the huge efforts to put online large scale renewable energy sources like solar and wind, which now cover most new energy demand. And fossil fuel subsidies more than doubled from 2021-2022 to $1.1 trillion (and this after COP26 where the world promised to accelerate the phase out such subsidies). Investment in oil and gas continues almost unabated, along with the profit taking.
The drive to keep producing and profiting from more and more proven destruction, even proven by those forces themselves, is so strong. It’s so strong that the upcoming host country of COP28 later this year, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is going forward on spending US$150 billion on expanded fossil fuel extraction activities, an “accelerated growth strategy”. How can this huge contradiction be allowed? They are pushing their destructive tendencies right into the heart of our global response to the climate crisis, putting their gain of wealth ahead of everything else; an easy to spot conflict of interest. It surely seems they are intent on derailing the climate agenda, rubbing salt into the wound. Should this leadership continue, COP28 will end in tragedy, irrelevance, becoming a farce, even a parody if one can summon a chuckle. It’s all so absurd.
The UAE's oil company Adnoc, headed by their delegated president of the conference, is just one of the huge corporations that keeps marching forward and quickly to the tune of profits and destruction of our chances of survival. They may say they care, are committed to a just energy transition, but it’s all hogwash. All this harkens to previous global debates on destructive issues that continued to plague humankind for decades until it just got too absurd to continue. Consider tobacco, a substance that was proven to cause cancer many decades before strict controls on it were imposed. Think, too, about asbestos, ozone depleting refrigerants, leaded petrol, PCBs, other carcinogens of all types including glyphosate which continues to be sold around the world (as Roundup) and even spread over replanted land in Canadian forests that have been chopped and pulverized out of existence. Consider also alcohol, junk foods, sugar drinks, breastmilk substitutes…
In each case the perpetrator of Earth’s and humanity's pain is a large usually multinational corporation, whose only concern is turning our global commons into profit for themselves, regardless of collateral costs, from which they are mostly immune, thanks to their huge bank accounts and legions of lawyers.
This is truly a moment to reflect further into what it’s going to take to get us off the doomsday trajectory we’re on. How do we break the destructive corporate hold on our lives? Read on in today’s Planetary Health Weekly (#17 of the year) for more about all this and much more.
Best, david
David Zakus, Editor and Publisher
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SUNRISE AT WHITEFISH LAKE |
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APRIL 27, 2023, 6:32AM, -2C |
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IN COMPLETE SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE SEEKING PEACE AND VICTORY |
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"PORTRAIT OF ACADEMICIAN A. ROMODANOV" (1920-1993) |
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Famous Ukrainian neurosurgeon, author of numerous books on the diagnosis and treatment of brain injuries and tumours. Artist: A. Budnikov in: "The Way Artists See It" (1994; p. 141) by A. Grando, founder and director of the Central Museum of Medicine of Ukraine in Kyiv. ISBN
5-7707-6698-0
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AND SOLIDARITY TOO WITH THE BRAVE PROTESTERS IN IRAN (AND AFGHANISTAN AND RUSSIA) |
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CLIMATE AND BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES
GLOBAL HEALTH NEWS
CARLOS ON FOOD SECURITY IN LATIN AMERICA
SPOTLIGHT ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS
SPOTLIGHT ON POLICY
SPOTLIGHT ON MEDIA
SPOTLIGHT ON EDUCATION
IMPORTANT END OF APRIL READING
QUOTE OF THE WEEK - In Alberta, "It's like an infectious diseases textbook from the turn. of the century"
FYI #1
FYI #2
UPCOMING EVENTS
ENDSHOTS
- Climate data from Twitter yesterday among some Spring beauty
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CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES |
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The World Just Failed Its Annual Health Checkup |
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A man uses a hand fan in a park in central Madrid during a heatwave, on August 2, 2022.
Credit: Thomas Coex/ AFP/ Getty Images
Droughts, floods, and record low ice levels – from the top of the world’s mountains to the depths of the ocean, the climate crisis took a heavy toll as it continued to intensify in 2022, new analysis from the World Meteorological Organization shows. The WMO’s annual State of the Climate Report, published Friday ahead of Earth Day, is essentially a health checkup for the world. It analyzes a series of global climate indicators – including levels of planet-heating pollution, sea level rise, and ocean heat – to understand how the planet is responding to climate change and its impact on people and nature.
A slew of climate records were broken, many of which have been, or are on course to be, broken again this year:
- Oceans reached record-high temperatures, with nearly 60% experiencing at least one marine heatwave.
- Global sea levels climbed to the highest on record due to melting glaciers and warming oceans, which expand as they heat up.
- Antarctica’s sea ice dropped to 1.92 million square kilometers in February 2022, at the time the lowest level on record (the record was broken again this year).
- The European Alps saw a record year for glacier melt, with Switzerland particularly badly affected, losing 6% of its glacier volume between 2021 and 2022.
- Levels of planet warming pollution, including methane and carbon dioxide, reached record highs in 2021, the latest year for which there is global data.
Last year, climate change-fueled extreme weather “affected tens of millions, drove food insecurity, boosted mass migration, and cost billions of dollars in loss and damage,” WMO Security General Petteri Taalas said. In 2022, China had its most extensive and long-lasting drought on record. Droughts also affected East Africa, with more than 20 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia facing acute food insecurity as of January this year. Many western and southern US states experienced significant drought and Europe’s punishing heatwave is estimated to have led to 15,000 excess deaths. In Pakistan, record-breaking rainfall left huge swaths of the country underwater, killing more than 1,700 people, with almost 8 million displaced, and causing $30 billion in damages. The most vulnerable are the hardest hit, Baddour said. “Communities and countries which have contributed least to climate change suffer disproportionately.”
The past eight years were the hottest on record, despite three consecutive years of the La Niña climate phenomenon, which has a global cooling effect. “This is really a wake up call that climate change isn’t a future problem, it is a current problem. And we need to adapt as quickly as possible,” Samantha Burgess added.
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'Like None Before:' Deadly, Record-Smashing Heat Wave Scorches Asia |
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A man swims in a canal as temperatures hit a record 45.5 degrees Celsius (113.7 Fahrenheit) in Bangkok, Thailand, April 22, 2023.
Credit: REUTERS/ Chalinee Thirasupa
Much of southern and southeastern Asia is enduring a deadly, record-smashing heat wave, one that's being called the continent's worst ever recorded in April. Several all-time record high temperatures have been broken, including a torrid 113.7 degrees in Tak, Thailand, the nation's hottest reading on record. Laos also recorded its highest reliable temperature in its history earlier this week, with 108.9 degrees at Luang Prabang.
Heat Turns Deadly in India:
According to CNN, 13 people died of heat stroke, and 50 to 60 others were hospitalized after attending a ceremony in the city of Navi Mumbai, located in the western state of Maharashtra last Sunday. Elsewhere, the eastern Indian state of West Bengal closed all colleges this week due to scorching heat. In addition, this February was recorded as the warmest February in the country in 122 years.
Record Heat in China, Japan and Koreas:
Meanwhile, hundreds of weather stations across China have seen their warmest April temperatures on record, the Capital Weather Gang said. Climate specialist Jim Yang said 109 weather stations across 12 provinces broke their record for high temperature for April on Monday. The heat reached Japan and the Koreas on Wednesday, Herrera said, as temperatures reached near 90 degrees, which is unusually high for April in those countries. More records are expected there in the next couple of days, he added.
What Caused the Heat Wave? Is Climate Change to Blame?:
"The heat was caused by a building, large ridge of high pressure that reached from the Bay of Bengal to the Philippine Sea," AccuWeather meteorologist Jason Nicholls said. High pressure prevents clouds and precipitation from forming, and typically brings clear skies. More broadly speaking, AccuWeather said the scale of the heat wave bears the hallmarks of climate change, as human-induced warming is making heat waves in the region last longer at higher intensities. Axios said "the most recent report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change made clear that 'every increment' of additional warming will worsen climate change effects, including heat waves.
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Thai Authorities Issue Extreme Heat Warnings for Dozens of Provinces |
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Thailand just measured over 45°C for the first time on record. A new national heat record has been set. A brutal heatwave tightens its grip across more than a dozen countries in Asia.
Credit: Scott Duncan
Authorities have warned residents across large swathes of country, including the capital Bangkok, to avoid going outdoors due to extreme heat. Parts of Asia are reporting extreme heat this month, with record-breaking temperatures seen in some countries. In Bangladesh and parts of India, extreme heat is leading to surge in power demand, causing power cuts and shortages for millions of people. In the Bagna district of Bangkok, the temperature reached 42 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit), while the heat index - which includes relative humidity and measures what the temperature feels like - hit a record 54 C (129 F), according to the meteorological department. Authorities warned residents to avoid outdoor activities and be wary of the danger of heat stroke. Thailand's department of disaster prevention and mitigation said that temperatures will exceed 40 C in at least 28 provinces on Saturday. Recent extreme heat has smashed electricity consumption records, with the country consuming more than 39,000 megawatts on April 6, surpassing the previous record of 32,000 megawatts in April last year, government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri said.
"What is happening right now is caused by climate change, influencing abnormal (weather) and a phenomenon that is called extreme weather," says Mathinee Yucharoen, a researcher of coastal oceanography and climate change at Prince of Songkhla University.
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Climate Impacting Ocean Plankton |
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Credit: Climate Crocks/Associated Press
The warming of the waters off the East Coast has come at an invisible, but very steep cost — the loss of microscopic organisms that make up the base of the ocean’s food chain. The growing warmth and saltiness of the Gulf of Maine off New England is causing a dramatic decrease in the production of phytoplankton. Phytoplankton, sometimes described as an “invisible forest,” are tiny plant-like organisms that serve as food for marine life. The scientists found that phytoplankton are about 65% less productive in the Gulf of Maine, part of the Atlantic Ocean bounded by New England and Canada, than they were two decades ago. The Gulf of Maine has emerged as one of the fastest warming sections of the world’s oceans. Potential loss of phytoplankton has emerged as a serious concern in recent years in other places, such as the Bering Sea off Alaska. The loss of the tiny organisms has the ability to disrupt valuable fishing industries for species such as lobsters and scallops, and it could further jeopardize imperiled animals such as North Atlantic right whales and Atlantic puffins, scientists said.
“The drop in the productivity over these 20 years is profound,” said William Balch, a senior research scientist with Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, who led the study. “And that has large ramifications to what can grow here. The health of the ecosystem, the productivity of the ecosystem.” Phytoplankton are eaten by larger zooplankton, small fish and crustaceans, and they are critically important to sustaining larger marine life up the food chain such as sharks and whales. Loss of phytoplankton “will likely have negative impacts on the overall productivity” of larger animals and commercial fisheries, the study states.
Decline of fish stocks in the Gulf of Maine would be especially disruptive to American fishermen because it’s a key ground for the U.S. lobster industry. Other important species such as haddock, flounder, and pollock are also harvested there. Researchers have tracked similar warming trends in the Bering Sea, Southern Ocean, and northern Barents Sea in recent years. Warming’s impact on plankton is an ongoing subject of scientific inquiry. A 2020 article in the journal Nature Communicationsfound that climate change “is predicted to trigger major shifts in the geographic distribution of marine plankton species.”
Cyclical ocean conditions also have placed more stress on phytoplankton. An El Niño climate pattern, when surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer, can reduce phytoplankton production, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said. The impacts include lack of anchovies off South America, fewer squid off California, and less salmon in the Pacific, NOAA said. The Maine scientists say loss of phytoplankton is also significant because the organisms absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, much like plants do on land. It’s part of the toll climate change is taking on ecosystems all over the world, said Jeff Runge. “There’s mounting evidence that it’s linked to climate change,” Runge said. “It’s having all kinds of effects on the system that we’re beginning to see.
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MORE CLIMATE CRISIS RELATED NEWS |
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STDs are at a Shocking High. How do we Reverse the Trend? |
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This colored scanning electron micrograph shows a chlamydia infection, with Chlamydia trachomatis bacteria in yellow. Chlamydia can usually be effectively treated with antibiotics: more than 95% of people will be cured if they take their antibiotics correctly.
Credit: Science Photo Library
Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are skyrocketing in the United States, according to the latest data, as gonorrhea, syphilis, and congenital syphilis soared above pre-pandemic levels in 2021. All are preventable and curable if detected early. If that’s the case, why are the numbers increasing? It’s true COVID-19 scrambled and exhausted our healthcare system—but the pandemic explains only part of how we ended up here. Generations-old stigmas, decreased funding of health programs, and limited sex education all contribute.
The agency reported that there are at least 2.5 million cases of the four major STIs (the three previously mentioned and chlamydia). Despite having federally funded prevention programs, this number rose 4 percent from 2020. Those are just reported cases. The CDC notes that a 2018 report found as many as one in five people (about 68 million) have an STI (also known as an STD), so it’s highly likely the actual numbers are even higher. “STIs show no signs of slowing down,” says Leandro Mena, director of CDC’s STI prevention division.
Anyone can get an STI, but cases are not evenly distributed. Half were among teens and young adults, ages 15 to 24. Thirty-one percent of all cases of chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis were among Black people, even though they make up only 12 percent of the U.S. population. Men who have sex with men (MSM) are also disproportionately affected. Almost 40 percent of MSM reporting syphilis had also been diagnosed with HIV. These disparities are stark, but it doesn’t mean people outside these groups have nothing to worry about.
Syphilis is a great example of why we need to take precautions. Syphilis was relatively recently thought to be on the cusp of eradication, but it surged 32 percent from 2020 to 2021. When a woman has syphilis, she can pass congenital syphilis to her baby—but this is preventable through early detection, says Kristen Batstone, a policy expert at the National Women's Health Network.
How'd we get here?
Although the relationship between the pandemic and STIs might not be immediately clear, the cause and effect is relatively simple: At the height of the pandemic, personnel and resources like medical supplies were diverted to fight COVID-19. As a result, STI screening, treatment, and prevention were put on hold or limited. Doctors were addressing urgent health needs, which, in some cases, meant overlooking things like STI screening. People also lost their jobs and their health care, making STI screening even harder to get.
People most in need:
Half of the STI cases in the new report were among teens and adolescents. One contributing reason: Some local policies limit sex education. Where that happens, kids are left to find answers about sex from their friends or online. It’s not just youth that could use more guidance, though. Sanders says doctors themselves may not know where to get guidance on who to screen or when to screen for STIs. Without consistent guidance, screening among youth may be overlooked. People in the LGBT community face discrimination based on their sexuality, making it even harder for them to get care. Last month, Tennessee rejected federal funding for HIV prevention because it wants more control over who gets the money. Native Americans and Black people also deal with racism and a history of being medically mistreated, and many distrust healthcare providers. People who are low income or live in rural areas have less access to care because of affordability or distance. Often, people belong to more than one of these groups, making it much more difficult for them to get care.
Reversing the trends:
Overcoming the decade-long trend of increasing STI rates will require a significant effort, starting with additional funding for public health systems. COVID-19 was useful in showing that state and local governments can quickly organize free testing and treatment—a necessity for those who are low income or uninsured. Advancing technology is allowing for easier screening and treatment. Mena says a new medicine is showing promise in trials that will reduce risk of gonorrhea, chlamydia and syphilis taken up to 72 hours after sex. At home testing is becoming more available, and vaccines for bacterial STIs are being developed.
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Living on a 'Dead' River in Bangladesh |
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Children play in the sewage that flows unfiltered into the Buriganga. Outside of monsoon season, the river is so polluted that its waters appear pitch black and emit a foul stench. Many of Bangladesh's 170 million inhabitants depend on rivers for a living and transport. Like the Buriganga, many of these rivers and streams are suffocated by severe pollution.
Credit: Mohammad Ponir Hossain/ Reuters
Bangladesh's once mighty Buriganga River is now of the most polluted in the world. Its waters are so full of toxins, they now look black. Two decades ago, Nurul Islam fished Buriganga's waters. Today, the river has hardly any fish. Thanks to the uncontrolled dumping of industrial and human waste, the river is on the verge of death. Day laborer Motahar Hossain has no choice but to bathe in the filthy river. Only one in four households in Bangladesh has running water at home. In 1995, the government made it mandatory for industries to clean their wastewater to halt widespread river pollution - an edict that has been widely disregarded.
Every day, untreated wastewater, fabric dyeing byproducts, and other chemical wastes from nearby mills and factories flow into Buriganga. Bangladesh is the world's second-largest garment exporter after China. But the booming industry is also causing the river's ecological demise. Unfiltered wastewater colored red by textile dye flows from a drain into a tributary of the Buriganga.
Ferryman Siddique Hawlader says the river makes people sick. "Those who bathe in this river often suffer from scabies on their skin. Sometimes our eyes itch and burn".
Channels are clogged as well. Water once flowed through a canal in Dhaka into the Buriganga. Now there is so much plastic and other waste that the water can't get through. The dried-up canal bed reveals layer upon layer of garbage. With no waste disposal system in place, people simply throw their rubbish into the canal. With landfill sites located right next to the rivers like the Dhaleshwari, Bangladesh desperately needs investment in waste management. In Dhaka, the first waste-to-energy plant is scheduled to go online in 2024. Could that begin to turn this tide?
Visit the website for a short photo essay.
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CARLOS ON FOOD SECURITY IN LATIN AMERICA |
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The new United Nations report Overview of Food Security and Nutrition 2022 finds that 22.5% of the Latin America and the Caribbean population cannot afford a healthy diet. In the Caribbean this figure reaches 52%; in Mesoamerica, 27.8%; and in South America, 18.4%. The region has the highest cost for a healthy diet compared to the rest of the world, at USD 3.89 per person per day, while the world average is USD 3.54.
The publication reports that 131.3 million people in the region could not afford a healthy diet in 2020. This represents an increase of 8 million compared to 2019 and is due to the higher average daily cost of healthy diets in Latin America and the Caribbean compared to the rest of the world's regions, reaching in the Caribbean a value of USD 4.23, followed by South America and Mesoamerica with USD 3.61 and USD 3.47, respectively. This problem is related to different socioeconomic and nutritional indicators. The report presents a clear relationship between the inability to afford a healthy diet and such variables as a country's income level, the incidence of poverty, and the level of inequality. The report also reveals that the rise in international food prices experienced since 2020, exacerbated after the start of the conflict in Ukraine, and a regional increase in food inflation above the general level, have increased the difficulties for people to access a healthy diet.
"There is no individual policy that can solve this problem independently. National and regional coordination mechanisms need to be strengthened to respond to hunger and malnutrition," said Mario Lubetkin, FAO Assistant Director and Regional Representative for Latin America and the Caribbean. "To contribute to the affordability of healthy diets, it is necessary to create incentives for the diversification of the production of nutritious foods aimed mainly at family farming and small-scale producers, take measures for the transparency of the prices of these foods in markets and trade, and actions such as cash transfers and improving school menus," Lubetkin concluded.
"We are talking about the region of the world with the most expensive healthy diet, which particularly affects vulnerable populations – small farmers, rural women, and indigenous and Afro-descendant populations – who allocate a greater percentage of their income to the purchase of food," said IFAD Regional Director Rossana Polastri.
“Food insecurity will continue to rise due to the food and fuel price crisis caused by the conflict in Ukraine and the aftermath of COVID-19,” said Lola Castro, WFP Regional Director. “We must act now, but how can we do it? Supporting governments to expand social protection networks because the pandemic once again demonstrated that social protection is useful to improve the affordability of a healthy diet, preventing crises like this from hitting affected populations even more”. Other food policies, such as nutritional labelling, subsidizing nutritious foods, and taxing unhealthy or non-nutritious foods that do not contribute to healthy diets, if well designed, can improve the affordability of healthy diets and prevent debilitating conditions and diseases related to overweight and obesity.
Countries with higher levels of poverty and inequality tend to have more significant difficulties accessing a healthy diet, which is directly associated with a higher prevalence of hunger, chronic malnutrition in boys and girls, and anemia in women aged 15 to 49. “For children to grow up healthy, it is not only urgent to ensure the availability of nutritious food at affordable prices. It is also necessary to develop public policies that guarantee adequate nutrition, in addition to nutritional counselling, focusing actions on the most vulnerable populations,” said Garry Conelly, UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
The number of hungry people in the region continues to rise:
Between 2019 and 2021, the number of hungry people in the region increased by 13.2 million, reaching 56.5 million hungry people in 2021. The highest increase was in South America, where an additional 11 million people suffered from hunger. Between 2019 and 2021, hunger reached a prevalence of 7.9% in South America, 8.4% in Mesoamerica, and 16.4% in the Caribbean. In 2021, 40.6% of the regional population experienced moderate or severe food insecurity, compared to 29.3% worldwide. Severe food insecurity was also more frequent in the region (14.2%) than in the world (11.7%).
Read more at: Pan American Health Organization
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SPOTLIGHT ON HUMAN RIGHTS |
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India: Migration from Climate Change Getting Worse |
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People moving to higher ground as a river in India overflowed its banks.
Credit: Joerg Boethling/ Alamy
From: https://indiaclimatedialogue.n...
Extreme weather events including heat waves, floods, cyclones and rising sea levels have resulted in a rise in climate-induced migration in India. Experts suggest the problem is set to get worse. Protima Rai still remembers the aftermath of tropical Cyclone Bulbul that struck the Sundarbans in 2019 leaving behind a trail of destruction and lost lives. The cyclone that had formed in the Bay of Bengal forced Rai, 27, and hundreds of other families from to migrate from their village to safer areas. "The fields were not fit for cultivation. Rising sea levels and increasing salinity deprived the people living in the core Sundarbans areas of their main sources of livelihood — which is agriculture and fishing," Rai told DW. Substantial migration from the Sundarbans still continues on a permanent, seasonal and temporary basis. According to the Rural Household Survey, over 25% of the principal earners of individual families migrated temporarily searching for work. The Sundarbans is a cluster of low-lying islands in the Bay of Bengal, spread across India and Bangladesh, famous for its unique mangrove forests. The Indian Sundarbans has 104 islands in total, of which 54 are inhabited by humans. Environmentalists point out that coastal erosion and rising sea levels are gradually eating away at the land in the Sundarbans. Many people from the villages are being forced to migrate to cities, like Kolkata, because their fertile land is turning saline with an increasing number of storms and floods.
Climate-induced migration is not taken seriously enough
"Limiting migration calls for conducive policies and action plans, especially that can climate-proof climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture and tourism, among others. While India has a robust climate action plan both at the national and sub-national level, it hardly encompasses climate-induced migration as a pivotal issue," Mohanty told DW. India records some of the highest numbers of displacements in the world every year, the vast majority of them triggered by disasters. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) in India there are currently about 14 million people who have been displaced due to climate change. Though migrants receive immediate support in terms of relief and rehabilitation in the aftermath of these disasters, there is little long-term institutional support for their needs.
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SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS |
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Police Evict the Residents of Sitilpech, Yucatán, México, Who Oppose a Factory Pig Farm |
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Credit: Adrian Brijbassi photo for VacayNetwork.com
From: https://www.vacaynetwork.com/i...
Excrement from 48,000 pigs is flowing into the water supply of an Indigenous Mayan village. Children are getting sick with diseases like chikungunya, dengue, and intestinal diseases. Yet Mexico’s biggest pork producer, Kekén, got the greenlight to EXPAND its megafarm. The local community set up a protest camp outside the farm, but then the police started a brutal crackdown. A few days ago, in the early hours of the morning, they broke into the village where 15 Mayan women, children, and elderly people were in the camp. More than 100 riot police beat, tortured, and stole the belongings of the people. Since then, intimidation and criminalisation of the community has continued. In a protest in support of Sitilpech, 4 people were arbitrarily arrested. They have been released but two are facing charges. A judge even agreed that two of these arrests were illegal. To fight back, the community has decided to take the pork giant to court. Under the Mexican constitution, Indigenous groups have to give their consent for companies to operate on their land…and Kekén has been operating without their consent for years.
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What the New Covid-19 Vaccine Guidance Means for You |
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A syringe containing a bivalent Covid-19 vaccine on November 9, 2022 in Brandenburg, Germany.
Credit: Wolfgang Kumm/ picture alliance via Getty Images
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices rolled out streamlined vaccine recommendations aimed at helping people figure out what to do right now. Specifically, the guidance elevates the bivalent vaccine — introduced last fall as a tool to train immune systems to protect from both older and newer strains of the virus — from “booster” status. Under the new recommendations, the bivalent vaccine can be used as the first and only shot a person gets as their primary vaccine.
The new guidance applies to the updated, bivalent formulations of the mRNA vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. The original vaccine series most Americans received earlier in the pandemic is no longer available: Earlier, monovalent formulations from Moderna and Pfizer are no longer authorized in the US, and others, like Novavax and Johnson and Johnson’s, have been used here only infrequently. The upshot: For now, to be considered up-to-date, everyone should have at least one bivalent vaccine. However, only higher-risk people should be getting repeat bivalent vaccinations.
Bivalent vaccine uptake has not been great in the U.S. Only 42 percent of people 65 and over — who are at highest risk for severe disease and hospitalization due to Covid-19 — have received the shot. In all, fewer than 17 percent of all Americans have gotten a bivalent vaccine.
Visit the link for recommendations based on age.
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Thousands Rally Outside UK Parliament in Biodiversity Protest |
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Members of the performance troupe Red Rebel Brigade march in London at the Extinction Rebellion demonstration.
Credit: AFP Lillian SUWANRUMPHA
Thousands of protesters descended on Britain’s parliament last Saturday as part of a four-day campaign designed to “highlight the environmental failures” of government. The protest focused on nature and biodiversity, and started from Westminster Abbey with attendees, many of them children, wearing animal costumes and masks. Many had made banners for the occasion, with one reading: “We defend the climate but police arrest us” and another “Extinction is forever”. Others warned that a third of UK birds were “at risk of extinction”.
The march ended in Parliament Square with a mass “die-in”, which the activists described as “a symbolic spectacle” where participants “lie down in silence, in memory and mourning for the heartbreaking 70 percent decline in wild animal populations since the first Earth Day in 1970.” Areeba Hamid, Greenpeace UK's executive director, said the four-day event would “act as the catalyst of a new united fight against the vested interests putting profits over people and the planet”.
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Throwing Soup or a Climate Rally - What Wins Twitter? |
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Credit: DW
Activist Anna Holland from Just Stop Oil is convinced that such actions attract attention. Last year, together with a fellow climate protester, she threw a can of tomato soup on Van Gogh's painting "Sunflowers" hanging in London's National Gallery. "When Phoebe and I threw that soup, it got more people talking about the climate crisis than when 33 million people were displaced by floods in Pakistan," Holland, 21, told DW. "And that's solid evidence that disruptive action is incredibly effective."
But does it have more or less impact than conventional forms of demonstration? In order to find out, DW analyzed 4.6 million tweets published by 30 large English-language news organizations between August 20, 2018, when Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg began her climate school strikes, and February 20, 2023.
People are interested in climate protest stories
Although climate protests only account for a small share of all tweets published by news organizations, they generate disproportionate levels of engagement. They often rank among the best performing tweets of the week. 32% of tweets about climate activism were among the top 10% performers on their respective channels.
Disruptive protests do not necessarily generate the most attention
When comparing the average engagement rates for each category, tweets about non-disruptive protests are twice as likely to be among the top performing tweets of any channel in any given week. "Non-disruptive protests work when the media cycle is already a bit focused on climate change. Disruptive protests like the soup (throwing) work when the media cycle is about something else, and they put it on climate change," said Ozden.
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The Student Experience Should be Awesome! |
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Credit: Ariel Skeely/ DigitalVision/ Getty Images
From: https://www.cnbc.com/select/wh...
A postsecondary experience should nurture awe in students. Universities should do all they can to expand students’ horizons by exposing them to the transcendentally vast, says Andy Tix.
If liberal education is to be truly transformative, it should “nurture awe on and off campus,” writes Andy Tix for Times Higher Education. Tix explains how experiencing “awe” expands and changes our mental frameworks, which in turn positively affects learning and development. From a psychological perspective, Tix writes that experiencing “awe” in the classroom could greatly benefit the student’s education. The author concludes that postsecondary institutions should prioritise “awesome” educational practices like internships, field trips, community events, and study-abroad programmes.
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NEW MAJOR REPORT - END OF APRIL READING |
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CO2 Emissions in 2022 - Analysis - International Energy Agency |
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Credit: Article
CO2 Emissions in 2022 provides a complete picture of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions in 2022. The report finds that global growth in emissions was not as high as some had originally feared amid the disruptions caused by the global energy crisis. This latest release brings together the IEA’s latest analysis, combining the Agency’s estimates of CO2 emissions from all energy sources and industrial processes, as well as providing information on energy-related methane and nitrous oxide emissions.
Key messages:
- Global energy-related CO2 emissions grew by 0.9% or 321 Mt in 2022, reaching a new high of over 36.8 Gt. Following two years of exceptional oscillations in energy use and emissions, caused in part by the Covid-19 pandemic, last year’s growth was much slower than 2021’s rebound of more than 6%. Emissions from energy combustion increased by 423 Mt, while emissions from industrial processes decreased by 102 Mt.
- In a year marked by energy price shocks, rising inflation, and disruptions to traditional fuel trade flows, global growth in emissions was lower than feared, despite gas-to-coal switching in many countries. Increased deployment of clean energy technologies such as renewables, electric vehicles, and heat pumps helped prevent an additional 550 Mt in CO2 emissions. Industrial production curtailment, particularly in China and Europe, also averted additional emissions.
- Specific challenges in 2022 contributed to the growth in emissions. Of the 321 Mt CO2 increase, 60 Mt CO2 can be attributed to cooling and heating demand in extreme weather and another 55 Mt CO2 to nuclear power plants being offline.
- CO2 growth in 2022 was well below global GDP growth of 3.2%, reverting to a decade-long trend of decoupling emissions and economic growth that was broken by 2021’s sharp rebound in emissions. Improvements in the CO2 intensity of energy use were slightly slower than the past decade’s average.
- Emissions from natural gas fell by 1.6% or 118 Mt, following continued tightening of supply exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Reductions in emissions from gas were particularly pronounced in Europe (-13.5%). The Asia Pacific region also saw unprecedented reductions (-1.8%).
- Increased emissions from coal more than offset reductions from natural gas. Amid a wave of gas-to-coal switching during the global energy crisis, CO2 emissions from coal grew by 1.6% or 243 Mt, far exceeding the last decade’s average growth rate, and reaching a new all-time high of almost 15.5 Gt.
- Emissions from oil grew even more than emissions from coal, rising by 2.5% or 268 Mt to 11.2 Gt.Around half of the increase came from aviation, as air travel continued to rebound from pandemic lows, nearing 80% of 2019 levels. Tempering this increase, electric vehicles continued to gain momentum in 2022, with over 10 million cars sold, exceeding 14% of global car sales.
- The biggest sectoral increase in emissions in 2022 came from electricity and heat generation, whose emissions were up by 1.8% or 261 Mt. In particular, global emissions from coal-fired electricity and heat generation grew by 224 Mt or 2.1%, led by emerging economies in Asia.
- A strong expansion of renewables limited the rebound in coal power emissions. Renewables met 90% of last year’s global growth in electricity generation. Solar PV and wind generation each increased by around 275 TWh, a new annual record.
- Emissions from industry declined by 1.7% to 9.2 Gt last year. While several regions saw manufacturing curtailments, the global decline was largely driven by a 161 Mt CO2 decrease in China’s industry emissions, reflecting a 10% decline in cement production and a 2% decline in steel making.
- China’s emissions were relatively flat in 2022, declining by 23 Mt or 0.2%. Growing emissions from combustion were offset by declines from industrial processes. Weaker economic growth, declining construction activity, and strict Covid-19 measures led to reductions in industrial and transport emissions. Power sector emissions growth slowed compared with the average of the past decade but still reached 2.6%.
- The European Union saw a 2.5% or 70 Mt reduction in CO2 emissions despite oil and gas market disruptions, hydro shortfalls due to drought, and numerous nuclear plants going offline. Buildings sector emissions fell markedly, helped by a mild winter. Although power sector emissions increased by 3.4%, coal use was not as high as anticipated. For the first time, electricity generation from wind and solar PV combined exceeded that of gas or nuclear.
- US emissions grew by 0.8% or 36 Mt. The buildings sector saw the highest emissions growth, driven by extreme temperatures. The main emissions reductions came from electricity and heat generation, thanks to unprecedented increases in solar PV and wind, as well as coal-to-gas switching. While many other countries reduced their natural gas use, the United States saw an increase of 89 Mt in CO2 emissions from gas, as it was called upon to meet peak electricity demand during summer heat waves.
- Emissions from Asia’s emerging market and developing economies, excluding China, grew more than those from any other region in 2022, increasing by 4.2% or 206 Mt CO2. Over half of the region’s increase in emissions came from coal-fired power generation.
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'It's like an infectious diseases textbook from the turn of the century" |
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Dr. Lynora Saxinger, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta |
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Credit: Article
Tuberculosis, syphilis, whooping cough, mumps, and measles: doctors alarmed at the rise of 'retro' diseases.
Doctors say the pandemic caused many to neglect routine vaccinations for easily preventable diseases like whooping cough, mumps, and measles.
A surge in “retro” conditions that are typically rare in Canada highlights how people neglecting routine vaccinations is leading to higher infection rates and in some cases outbreaks, according to an infectious diseases expert. The most recent example is an outbreak of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, in Alberta, which was declared in January and continues to grow.
“We shouldn’t be having whooping cough outbreaks,” said Dr. Lynora Saxinger, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Alberta. "We would usually consider pertussis to be very rare in Canada … Pertussis seems very retro, but we’re seeing a lot of retro diseases these days and it seems like bad sign — tuberculosis, syphilis, pertussis, it’s like an infectious diseases textbook from the turn of the previous century.”
As of last Friday, there were 126 confirmed cases of pertussis in the province, with all but four of those in the south zone, Alberta Health Services (AHS) said.
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Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle |
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From: https://8billiontrees.com/carb...
A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. This number can vary based on a vehicle’s fuel, fuel economy, and the number of miles driven per year. In addition to carbon dioxide (CO2), automobiles produce methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) from the tailpipe and hydrofluorocarbon emissions from leaking air conditioners. The emissions of these gases are small in comparison to CO2; however, the impact of these emissions can be important because they have a higher global warming potential (GWP) than CO2. A vehicle that operates exclusively on electricity (an EV) will not emit any tailpipe emissions. A fuel cell vehicle operating on hydrogen will emit only water vapour.
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How AI Can Help the Environment |
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Credit: Alexander Limbach/ Zoonar/ picture alliance
One study commissioned by tech giant Microsoft estimated that AI applications in the sectors of agriculture, water, energy and transport could lead to a 4% cut in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 — equivalent to the annual emissions of Australia, Canada and Japan combined.
AI innovations that can help the planet:
1. Saving trees with AI 'guardians'
Almost 600 of these devices, dubbed "guardians," have been installed in 35 countries, from Brazil to Indonesia, Congo to the Philippines, according to the nonprofit's website. It says they've collected more than 107 million minutes of audio data, covering more than 400,000 hectares of land.
2. Cutting energy waste in buildings
According to the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence report, these tweaks can save 10-30% of the energy used in a typical commercial building.
3. Fighting poaching algorithms
If poachers are close, it then sends an alert to wildlife operations centers and anti-poaching teams. The devices are being used at different sites from Kenya down to South Africa.
4. Smart farming
Germany-based startup Agvolution has developed an AI system that draws on data from solar-powered sensors monitoring the microclimate around crops. The devices measure temperature, humidity, radiation and soil moisture in the field, while algorithms use these insights to make precise recommendations about plant health and exactly how much water and fertilizer to use. This can both boost yields and reduce wasted resources. The company says this can increase ecological and economic efficiency by up to 40%.
5. Here comes the sun: using computers to plot clouds
Nonprofit Open Climate Fix has teamed up with the UK's National Grid and uses AI to provide more accurate solar forecasts — the goal being to reduce the reliance on fossil-powered reserves. Their machine learning model is being trained on over a decade of satellite imagery over Europe to get a precise picture of how clouds develop. They also use solar readings from more than 25,000 solar power systems across the UK to predict how much power solar panels will be able to produce. The nonprofit says these short-term forecasts can reduce emissions generated in the UK by around 100,000 tons of CO2 per year.
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- May 1-3, 2023: 8th International New York Conference on Evolving Trends in Interdisciplinary Research & Practices (New York, Manhattan, USA)
- May 23-25, 2023: The Battery Show Europe (Stuggart, Germany)
- May 23-June 16, 2023: McGill Summer Institutes in Global Health (Montreal, Canada and Online). The 2023 edition will offer 15 short non-credit professional development courses on topics ranging from infectious diseases to disability to sustainability. Discounts and scholarships are available until May 5.
- June 22-23, 2023: Positive Zero Transport Futures and Mobility Network will host the Emerging Mobility Scholars Conference at the University of Toronto. Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows across Canadian institutions are invited to join in person at the University of Toronto to exchange ideas and showcase research relative to mobility and climate change.
- June 25-30, 2023: The 3rd World Non-Communicable Diseases Congress (WNCD 2023) (Toronto, Canada).
- October 12-22, 2023: Planet In Focus: International Environmental Film Festival (Toronto, Canada)
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SPRING BEAUTY AMONG HARD CLIMATE STATS |
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Whitefish Lake, Seguin, Ontario
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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
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