There can’t be any doubt left in any Canadian’s mind about the climate crisis any longer after last weekend when Hurricane Fiona wreaked so much devastation all over Eastern Canada. Personally, I was really set back when viewing the TV coverage and seeing the extent of the damage and the pain of hundreds of thousands of our citizens. It was the largest storm ever recorded in Canada; just another record climate event, part of an on-going litany of disasters over the last decade. It’s truly amazing how records just keep getting broken. Today it's Hurricane Ian in Florida, other eastern states and Cuba. Last week it was Puerto Rico and Alaska. The week before…
The logical question, then, is when’s the next event going to happen to overtake these ones, or even coming close would be disaster enough. While I hope it’s not soon, all experience tells us it’s coming, and likely just around the corner. We just now don’t know exactly when or where but we can be sure there's more to come. The next logical question is why are our governments giving the perpetrators of the crisis (i.e., those most responsible for the causative carbon emissions) continual subsidies, tax breaks and approval; just as our minister of environment and climate change did this last week by stating there will be no windfall tax on these oil companies who are raking in billions of excess profits. All this, too, to the detriment of citizens having to pay more than ever for petrol to get to work or take their children to school; that is, if the schools and offices are still standing.
These companies just merrily go on, continually extracting more and more from Earth, but Earth is not letting us off the hook. We know 100% what this is doing to our world. Why won’t Canada and others actually begin to reduce emissions according to their Paris Agreement commitments, instead of just planning and talking about it? It’s incomprehensible. Worse even, is the stand of our official opposition party.
All this while we begin celebrating a National Day for Truth and Reconciliation to honour lost Indigenous children and Survivors of our scandalous residential school system, and their families and communities. I just spent last week in the western province of Saskatchewan where I spent my first 21 years, happily going through many important stages of life, though all the while knowing absolutely nothing about these schools of which there were many (139). It was only some 35 years later that I began to learn of them and the atrocities committed against our Indigenous peoples, feel some of their pain and change my life accordingly. That this horror was kept from me for so long still pains me, but it’s nothing compared to what hundreds of thousands of Indigenous children, families and communities went through for decade after decade after decade. How could this ever have happened, and in the shadows? Now that we’re finding the unmarked graves of thousands of these children, makes me even sicker. And to top it off, basically all of it was done without any accountability and atonement, until very current days. But it’s all still so inadequate. Please do think more about this.
This day, September 30, is a time not only for reflection on what took place but also to reflect on the ongoing impact of colonization and assimilation on Indigenous Peoples today. So much of the hate and discrimination continues. It’s all the more criminal when we consider that these Peoples, who for thousands of years, defined their culture by respect of Earth and its inhabitants and lived in harmony with them (see ENDSHOTS) - miles ahead of oil companies, banks and politicians who continue to greenwash their lust for money, enhancing the climate crisis daily - now leading to deaths and huge destruction all over the world. It’s just so simple. Cause and effect. Nothing complex. They fully know their role, but obviously don’t care. We surely can and must do better, or else. We must change or be changed. Nature is not holding back.
In today’s Planetary Health Weekly (#39 of 2022)
you’ll read much more of injustice, inadequacies, deception and disaster, tweaked by a couple rays of hope:
CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES:
Burning world’s fossil fuel reserves could emit 35.trillion tons of greenhouse gas,
Options to cap and cut oil and gas sector greenhouse gas emissions to achieve 2030 goals and net-zero by 2050,
G7 corporate climate plans spell 2.7C heating,
Climate groups call for World Bank chief to be fired,
World Bank president says he will not resign, apologizes for remarks on climate science,
How a Quebec lithium mine may help make electric cars affordable,
China droughts highlight energy challenge as climate heats up,
White House surges aid to hurricane-hit Puerto Rico on a haunting five-year anniversary,
‘Angry sea’: huge storm floods roads, homes in Alaska as governor declares disaster,
Truss energy plan ‘shows government doesn’t understand climate crisis’,
How Patagonia’s ownership bombshell changes the game for American business,
Battery firm ONE reveals cell tech for 600-mile EVs, including trucks and SUVs,
Amnesty says Egypt trying to cover up rights violations (ahead of COP27),
CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
‘I’m dropping my Covid hubris,’ vows a top immunologist,
Imagining Covid is ‘like the flu’ is cutting thousands of lives short – it’s time to wake up,
There’s terrific news about the new Covid boosters – but few are hearing it,
Biden is wrong, the Covid-19 pandemic isn’t over,
Biden’s comments about pandemic widen public health split over how U.S. should respond to Covid-19,
Five virus families that could cause the next pandemic,
WHO ‘strongly advises against’ use of two Covid treatments (sotrovimab and casirivimab-imdevimab),
‘Very harmful’ lack of data blunts U.S. response to outbreaks
Spanish flu pandemic claim masks the truth about deaths, THEN
Hunger now killing one person every four seconds,
Dying of hunger: what is a famine?
Small number of huge companies dominate global food chain,
Fish stocks cannot recover without urgent intervention,
Perinatal health risks and outcomes among U.S. women with self-reported disability,
Ospreys hunted to extinction are now breeding across England for the first time in 200 years,
Sea turtle boom astonished volunteers in Florida with best nesting season on record,
Indigenous conservation is key to protecting wilderness in Canada,
After visiting both ends of the Earth I realized how much trouble we’re in,
Barbados raises sugary drinks tax to fight disease,
Providing respite care for Indigenous children and youth,
Quote by WHO chief on environmental vandalism and self-sabatoge,
Anger and alienation at UN General Assembly,
Mapped: the world’s population density by latitude,
How to embrace despair in the age of climate change,
WHO and 192 global health groups endorse Global Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty,
New book: “Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis” by Britt Wray,
Going global – George Brown College in Toronto launches transit ads in Hong Kong & York University receives $7.5m to build network and use AI and big data in fight against infectious diseases, and lastly
ENDSHOTS of Indigenous and Métis Art at the rRemai mModern gallery in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Lots to read and look at this week, as usual. Best, david
David Zakus, Editor and Publisher
PS, and if you are interested or know someone who might be interested in volunteering with our small PHW team, please let me know (davidzakus@gmail.com). We'd love to have you join us.
Hawkrigg Lane, Seguin, Ontario
September 28, 2022
COMPLETELY WITH UKRAINE SEEKING PEACE, SOLIDARITY AND VICTORY
The Bruce Mansfield power station, a coal-fired power station on the Ohio River near Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Photograph: Clarence Holmes Photography/Alamy
Burning the world’s proven reserves of fossil fuels would emit more planet-heating emissions than have occurred since the industrial revolution, easily blowing the remaining carbon budget before societies are subjected to catastrophic global heating, a new analysis has found.
An enormous 3.5tn tons of greenhouse gas emissions will be emitted if governments allow identified reserves of coal, oil and gas to be extracted and used, according to what has been described as the first public database of fossil fuel production.
The database, which covers around three-quarters of global energy production, reveals that the US and Russia each have enough fossil fuel reserves to single-handedly eat up the world’s remaining carbon budget before the planet is tipped into 1.5C (2.7F) or more of heating compared to the pre-industrial era. Read more at The Guardian
Addressing emissions from the oil and gas sector—the largest source of GHG emissions in Canada—is critical to the achievement of Canada’s climate goals and international commitments, and vital to the sustainability and competitiveness of Canada’s energy industry. This discussion document invites input on the design and implementation of an approach to cap and cut emissions from the sector. The document seeks input on two potential regulatory approaches:
The details of how best to design and implement a cap will require close collaboration with industry, provinces and territories, Indigenous partners, and civil society. The government welcomes feedback on these options. (See below for three tables from this document.)
Businesses in Canada are the worst performing in terms of decarbonization plans, with 88% of reported greenhouse gas emissions coming from firms that have no disclosed net zero plans.
However, emissions caused by agriculture must be addressed, too. “The food we eat is the biggest cause of biodiversity loss in the world and the second biggest source of greenhouse gasses, so it’s very difficult to address those problems without considering the food system,” says Ian Bateman, co-director of the Land, Environment, Economics and Policy Institute (LEEP) at the University of Exeter.
The World Health Organization, along with a group of 192 international health organizations, has endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which calls for global cooperation to end fossil fuel expansion, and ensure a timely and equitable transition to more sustainable systems. The groups’ letter cites the many adverse health effects of fossil fuels, including the dangers of air pollution, the increased spread of certain infectious diseases in a warming climate, and the risks to human health posed by extreme weather.
A group of environmental organizations is calling for World Bank President David Malpass to be fired following remarks he made on September 20 on whether he believed in human-driven climate change. After repeatedly being asked at an event whether fossil fuel burning is warming the planet, Malpass deferred before saying: “I am not a scientist.”
Liz Truss’s energy plans show the UK has effectively abandoned net-zero targets just three years after its world-leading commitment to cutting emissions, the government’s former chief scientific adviser has said. A major new fossil fuels campaign, including lifting the ban on fracking and expanding drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea, has already been announced by the new prime minister’s administration. The drive for more oil and gas production is “completely at odds” with the UK’s legally binding net-zero target, said Sir David King, head of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group, who was chief scientific adviser to the government between 2000 and 2007.
Forget woke capitalism or some tax scheme. Patagonia has moved the goalposts—again—on our expectations of what companies can do to fight climate change.
Amnesty International accused Egypt of attempting to cover up a decade of “unrelenting violations of human rights” in order to improve its international standing ahead of hosting the world climate summit. Egypt is among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, along with Turkey and China, according to 2021 data produced by the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Human Rights Watch estimated in 2019 that as many as 60,000 political prisoners are incarcerated in Egyptian prisons.
Globally, nationally and locally, the pandemic continues in many countries, regardless of what some leaders say. Many erroneously feel it's over, whereas it continues though it is slowing down. We are at about the same spot, with numbers of deaths, as June, 2022 and March, 2020 - with still 400+/day in the USA; 100/day in Russia; 60-75/day in Germany, Brazil, Japan and the UK; and 34/day in Canada. Collective action and leadership has all but disappeared.
Over the last week, cases continue at about 400,000/day (though reporting is highly inaccurate); deaths continue but slightly reduced at about 1400/day; and vaccinations are down from 5 to 3.4 million/day, a continual errosion of uptake.
Vaccination, despite ongoing concerns about waning immunity and huge slander and lies about deaths by conspiracy folks, along with other proven public health measures, remains the best ways to keep yourself and others safe from serious consequences. Get all the shots/boosters you can, asap, and practise other public health measures especially indoors with crowds.
See below for a few global stats and current hotspots:
Immunologist Chris Goodnow had to step away from directing the Immunogenomics Lab at Australia’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, because of post-COVID effects. Credit: Garvan Insititute of Medical Research
Last May a subvariant of the ever-evolving Omicron stunned Chris Goodnow, an internationally renowned immunologist. The extremely fit Australian scientist, who hiked, biked and surfed at Sydney’s Manly Beach, had been bolstered by four doses of vaccine. Having spent nearly four decades studying how white blood cells in the immune system protect us from infection, he felt pretty safe about removing his mask.
“Maybe it would be better to catch the ’rona and get it over with, now that I’m fully vaccinated?” he remembers speculating. “After all, isn’t it just a cold in fully immunized people? And once I’ve had it, won’t I have acquired immunity that will mean I won’t get sick at all if I get it again?”
But Omicron made a mockery of these popular assumptions.
On May 26, Goodnow came down with a scratchy throat. Twelve days later his immune system had not cleared the virus. Then he got hit by congestive heart failure. He developed a chest cough and was breathless. His ankles swelled up.
Goodnow was lucky. His acute myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) was on the mild end of the spectrum but severe enough to reduce his mobility and working life. As a consequence of the infection, last July Goodnow resigned his directorship of the Immunogenomics Lab at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, Australia, “for health reasons.”
In a remarkably blunt interview with an Australian radio station, and later a personal column, Goodnow admitted that COVID had not behaved as widely expected. “That is the thing that really stunned me and I’m sure has stunned most immunologists,” he said in the radio interview. Like many scientists Goodnow wrongly assumed that any infection after vaccination would be mild; that reinfections would largely be asymptomatic; that COVID would behave like a cold after vaccination; and that variant-specific vaccines would deliver us from the pandemic.
Two COVID-19 antibody therapies are no longer recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), on the basis that Omicron and the variant's latest offshoots have likely rendered them obsolete.
An Australian Facebook user claims the majority of deaths during the Spanish flu pandemic a century ago were due to people wearing masks, not the influenza virus. The claim was made in a post (screenshot here) on May 10 alongside screenshots of two other Facebook posts including an Israel National News article with the headline, “New study: Face mask usage correlates with higher death rates”. “Most people don’t realize but the vast majority of the deaths during the Spanish flu were NOT actually attributed to the flu virus but rather widespread bacterial infections as a result of wearing masks,” the text in the post reads.
The claim is false. While many deaths during the 1918-1919 pandemic were associated with secondary bacterial infections, evidence shows they were caused by the influenza virus – not mask use. The Spanish flu was the most severe pandemic in recent history. The US Centers for Disease Control and Protection estimates about one-third of the world’s population became infected and at least 50 million people died.
Earlier this year, United Nations agencies warned of a 'looming catastrophe' as world hunger levels rose again after the year 2020. Credit: Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP Photo
One person is estimated to be dying of hunger every four seconds, more than 200 NGOs have warned, urging decisive international action to “end the spiralling global hunger crisis”. In an open letter addressing world leaders gathering in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, 238 organizations from 75 countries – including Oxfam, Save the Children, and Plan International – expressed outrage at skyrocketing hunger levels.
“A staggering 345 million people are now experiencing acute hunger, a number that has more than doubled since 2019,” they said in a statement.“ Despite promises from world leaders to never allow famine again in the 21st century, famine is once more imminent in Somalia. Around the world, 50 million people are on the brink of starvation in 45 countries,” they said. Pointing out that as many as 19,700 people are estimated to be dying of hunger every day, the NGOs said that this translates to one person dying of hunger every four seconds. Read more at Aljazeera
Syngenta is majority owned by the Chinese government through Sinochem and ChemChina. Credit: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
The dominance of a small number of big companies over the global food chain is increasing, aided by the rising use of “big data” and artificial intelligence, new research has found. Only two companies control 40% of the global commercial seed market, compared with 10 companies controlling the same proportion of the market 25 years ago, according to the ETC Group, an eco-justice organisation.
Agricultural commodity trading is similarly concentrated, with 10 commodity traders in 2020 dominating a market worth half a trillion dollars. Food prices have risen sharply in recent months, after the disruptions caused by the Ukraine war, and the continuing impacts of the Covid pandemic, sending the profits of key commodity traders and grain producers soaring. Read more at The Guardian
Scientists from the University of British Columbia, the University of Bern and the Stanford Center for Ocean Solutions have concluded that without strong measures to mitigate the devastating effects of climate change, global fish socks by biomass will not be able to recover to sustainable levels.
The researchers used computer modeling to track fish stocks by biomass from 1950 to 2001. Sadly, the research showed that stocks declined from historical levels in 103 of 226 marine area studies. The scientist’s data showed that stocks would struggle to rebuild without intervention due to the effects of global warming.
Commenting on the research, Dr. William Cheung, professor at the Institute for the Oceans and Fisheries and lead author, stated:
“More conservation-oriented fisheries management is essential to rebuild over-exploited fish stocks under climate change. However, that alone is not enough. Climate mitigation is important for our fish stock rebuilding plans to be effective…Tropical ecoregions in Asia, the Pacific, South America and Africa are experiencing declining fish populations as species both move further north to cooler waters and are also unable to recover due to fishing demands…These regions are the ones that feel the effects of global warming first and our study shows that even a slight increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius could have a catastrophic effect on tropical nations that are dependent on fisheries for food and nutrition security, revenue, and employment.”
While IOF postdoctoral fellow and study co-author Dr. Juliano Palacios-Abrantes stated:
“To rebuild fish stocks, climate change must be fully considered…We live in a globalized world, where situations are interconnected. We are seeing this most significantly in tropical regions, but also in the Arctic, where many exploited species are slow to mature, or Ireland, Canada and the USA, with high fishing mortality rates. These climate effects, even when we looked at conservation-focused scenarios, are making it too difficult for fish stocks to bounce back.”
Women with disabilities experience elevated risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes. Most studies have inferred disabilities from diagnosis codes, likely undercounting disabilities. We analyzed data, including self-reported disability status, from the National Survey of Family Growth for the period 2011–19. We compared respondents with and without disabilities on these characteristics: smoking during pregnancy, delayed prenatal care, preterm birth, and low birthweight. A total of 19.5% of respondents who had given birth reported a disability, which is a much higher prevalence than estimates reported in US studies using diagnosis codes.
Respondents with disabilities were twice as likely as those without disabilities to have smoked during pregnancy (19.0% versus 8.9%). They also had 24% and 29% higher risk for preterm birth and low birthweight, respectively. Our findings suggest that studies using diagnosis codes may represent only a small proportion of pregnancies among people with disabilities. Measurement and analysis of self-reported disability would facilitate better understanding of the full extent of disability-related disparities, per the Affordable Care Act.
Nora and Monty on their nest on the Dyfi estuary, Wales. Credit: Andy Rouse/Wildlife Trust
In North Yorkshire, England, young nesting ospreys recently-produced two chicks. In America this would not make news headlines, but for Yorkshire they were the first ospreys born in the county in over 200 years. It’s a sign of changing winds, as the osprey is recovering across several areas of England, having been hunted to extirpation on the Island by 1916. Ospreys are now found breeding in Cumbria, Northumberland, and north and west Wales, and a trust is now trying to reintroduce them to East Anglia as well. Read more at Good News Network
Indigenous-managed conservation areas are key to Canada’s pledge to designate nearly one third of its land and ocean waters for biodiversity protection by the end of this decade, according to a new report. The report from World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Canada stresses that protected areas should be “co-developed and implemented with Indigenous consent” as part of Canada’s reconciliation process.
Its release coincides with efforts by a group of world leaders, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, to press their counterparts on biodiversity preservation ahead of international negotiations in Montreal (COP15) later this year.
Mr. Trudeau spoke at an event occurring on the margins of the UN General Assembly, last week in New York. The event was co-organized by the High Ambition Coalition for Nature and People, a group of more than 100 countries that have all formally endorsed the target of protecting at least 30% of the world’s land and oceans by 2030. Read more at Nation Talk
Nothing on earth compares to the icy sweeps of the planet’s polar extremes. It’s why, perhaps, explorers and scientists who have been there often seek more distant analogies, describing the poles’ austere swaths of frozen terrain in lunar terms, unworldly with their slimmed-down palettes of white, black, and icy blues. Home only to the most exquisitely adapted organisms, the Arctic and Antarctic are largely lethal to humankind, unforgiving with their dark winters, harsh winds and violent cold. Yet these remote, inhospitable places have more impact on our lives than almost anything closer to home. The poles regulate our climate, our weather patterns, and even our maritime food supply. And they are warming faster than anywhere else on earth, with untold consequences for those who live at the planet’s more accommodating latitudes.
I saw this firsthand on Feb. 6, 2020, when Antarctica logged its hottest temperature on record—18.3°C (64.9°F)—at Argentina’s Esperanza weather station. I was on nearby Anvers Island, accompanying a team of ornithologists from New York’s Stony Brook University conducting a census of the region’s chinstrap penguin population. Members of the expedition relished the balmy weather, stripping down to T-shirts, but it was an ominous sign for the species they were there to document.
Penguins aren’t just adorable icons of Antarctica. They’re a sentinel species—an animal whose behaviours can tell scientists if something is going wrong in a particular environment. Chinstraps feed mainly on krill, tiny crustaceans that are the foundation of the marine food chain. Almost every animal in the ocean eats either krill or something else that eats krill, all the way up to the tuna that ends up on our dinner tables. Krill feed on the algae and phytoplankton that cling to the underside of ocean ice. As global temperatures rise because of increased carbon emissions, sea ice is declining. It would be impossible to survey the health of the world’s krill populations, but if chinstraps aren’t doing well, it’s likely that krill, and everything that eats krill, aren’t doing well either. And our carbon canaries are not doing well. The Stony Brook researchers found that most of the chinstrap colonies had declined over the past 50 years, some by half and others by up to 77%.
I came away from both poles with a mounting sense of frustration over a global unwillingness to act in the face of certain doom, as well as fear. A warming Arctic is not just a warning. It has the potential to take us with it in its demise. Permafrost, the layer of permanently frozen ground that undergirds both poles, is a carbon bomb waiting to go off. As the soil thaws it releases greenhouse gases, warming the region further and setting off a perpetual feedback loop. Scientists don’t yet know if Arctic emissions are on par with a small developing nation, or, more likely, another China. (The South Pole’s permafrost is trapped under the Antarctic ice sheet. If that melts away, we have bigger things to worry about, like a 200-ft. sea-level rise).
We tend to think of the earth’s polar regions as victims of our own carbon profligacy. But if we push them past the tipping point, they will become perpetrators. Our polar regions protect life as we know it only as much as we protect them. It’s worth sacrificing a little bit more to ensure we leave a better world behind.
Barbados Raises Sugary Drinks Tax To Fight Disease
Credit: Astrakan Images/Offset Images
Sugary drinks are a major driver of the global epidemic of chronic conditions like obesity and diabetes. Barbados is one of several countries around the world looking to lower consumption of these health-harming beverages while generating public funds.
The skinny on sugar sweetened beverages
Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) like sodas, juice drinks, and energy and sports drinks have been singled out by many studies as a major driver of the obesity epidemic and the tide of chronic diseases – like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease – that has accompanied it. And the burden is growing. By 2030, it’s predicted that 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men will be living with obesity, or over 1 billion people globally.
The rise has been most drastic across low- and middle-income countries, where, at the same time, junk food – including sugary drinks – has become widely available. Since 1990, Latin America and the Caribbean, and parts of southern and north Africa, have experienced huge increases in consumption of these unhealthy goods. But in all countries, it’s the poor and more marginalised communities that face the highest risks from these harmful products, where healthier choices are often expensive and less available than ultra-processed foods and drinks.
There’s a lot of strong evidence that links regular long-term drinking of SSBs – especially carbonated soft drinks – with weight gain and a higher risk of various chronic conditions.
Providing Respite Care For Indigenous Children And Youth
Credit: Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society
As we approach the second inaugural National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30, 2022, the Vancouver Aboriginal Child and Family Services Society (VACFSS) is calling on the First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities of Greater Vancouver to support families involved with the agency by providing respite care for Indigenous children and youth.
Respite caregivers temporarily provide care for a child whose biological family needs a break from their daily parenting responsibilities. VACFSS supports families with respite care as a part of its restorative practice approach to address the intergenerational trauma from the legacy of residential schools.
“Respite care undoubtedly reduces the risk of children coming into foster care by providing parents with a necessary break as part of their healing journey,” says Gavin O’Toole, VACFSS Resources Manager.
For thousands of years, Indigenous communities successfully used traditional systems of care to ensure the safety and well-being of their children. Indigenous Peoples have endured the devastating effects of colonization, and Indigenous Peoples continue to be marginalized by colonial systems, legislation, and policies.
VACFSS is strongly committed to having children be cared for by members of the Indigenous community to promote the child’s sense of identity and belonging. Respite caregivers work inclusively with the child’s biological family and community. Caregivers help to connect the child with their Indigenous community and culture, strengthening children’s Indigenous identity by helping them learn about their history, and related cultural practices and remain connected with extended family and community.
In compliance with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) five Calls to Action for child welfare, VACFSS has implemented restorative practices while fulfilling the obligations of the CFCSA. Examples include respite care, the Inclusive Foster Care policy, the Concrete Needs Support policy, and the Out-of-Care Options program. Read more at Nation Talk
Sept. 30 Deadline and On-going: International Health Trends and Perspectives (IHTP, a new journal based at Toronto Metropolitan University, (formerly Ryerson University, Toronto) is dedicating a special issue to the topic of Planetary Health to highlight research, theoretical and community based contributions of scientists, scholars and activists globally. It is inviting manuscripts that are solutions and equity-focused. See the call for papers and details here: https://bit.ly/3tDixHT
November 21-23, 2022: Canadian Conference on Global HealthJoin us in Toronto for the 28th Canadian Conference on Global Health (CCGH). This year's hybrid event will explore the theme of: "Inclusive Global Health in Uncertain Times: Research and Practice".
As per usual for the annual UN General Assembly (UNGA), the media focus was on the U.S. president, a couple of European leaders, and a token evildoer or two. This year, the evildoers were fewer, but the spotlight homed on Joe Biden, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and the absent Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But that was not what many wanted to discuss. These are unprecedented times, and although many of the world’s current problems stem from the actions of one of the three gentlemen above, we can’t blame him for the devastating floods in Pakistan, drought in sub-Saharan Africa, and sickness just about everywhere.
Leaders from the global south made impassioned speeches from the podium that “veered away from the U.S. script,” writes Colum Lynch. He noted a tone of resentment toward their wealthy, northern neighbours. The U.S. and Europe want global support in the fight against Russia but leave struggling nations forsaken after promises to address numerous existential crises.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, clearly distressed by the floods at home, railed against polluting nations, saying, “the undeniable truth is that this calamity has not been triggered by anything we have done.” Pakistan is one of 10 countries most vulnerable to climate change but has generated less than 1% of global emissions, he argued.
The triple crises of the pandemic, climate-induced drought and famine, and a war that left inflation “supercharged” have exacerbated traditional tensions between the global north and global south, writes Colum. It has also fuelled a sense of alienation from high-income nations among lower-income nations, which have seen a raft of commitments on sustainable development goals — to end poverty and hunger and make vaccines available to low- and middle-income nations — fall well short of expectations.
When you think about areas with high population densities, certain regions spring to mind. This could be a populous part of Asia or a cluster of cities in North America or Europe.
Usually density comparisons are made using cities or countries, but this map from Alasdair Rae provides another perspective. This world map depicts population density by latitude, going from the densest populated coordinates in deep red to the sparsest in light blue.
Why Certain Latitudes (and Regions) Are More Densely Populated
Numerous factors affect an area’s population density. These can range from topography, or the physical terrain characteristics of the place, to more direct factors like an area’s climate, which can impact both the survivability and agricultural potential. Political, economic, and social factors are also at play—for example, there is a natural lack of livelihood opportunities in sparse areas such as the Amazon rainforest or the Himalayas.
How To Embrace Despair In The Age Of Climate Change
Credit: SAM WHITNEY; GETTY IMAGES
IN THE EARLY days of the Covid-19 pandemic, Charlie Glick, a musician in his late twenties living in California, was strolling through LA’s Atwater Village neighbourhood, thinking about work. Music was all he had ever wanted to do with his life, and before the pandemic, playing with his band had been starting to stabilize into something that looked like a career. Covid-19 upended all that, though. Lockdown and social distancing measures meant the band couldn’t go on tour or play live shows for who knows how long.
Charlie had always loved camphor trees, and on that day’s reflective wander, a remarkably large and friendly-looking one, rooted at a corner on Edenhurst Avenue, beckoned him over to it. He walked under its arms as they rustled in the breeze, and the shade the tree cast over him conjured a sudden intuition that made his blood run cold. “I just had this instantaneous feeling like, oh, the rest of my life is going to be this series of increasingly dire crises,” he told me.
It was in that moment, under the camphor’s leafy dome, that Charlie understood what many public health officials have said about the pandemic: It is a sign from the Earth that we are rubbing up against ecological limits, and a warning of much worse things to come. Whereas experiencing the climate crisis often meant processing warnings about ecological breakdown, living in a pandemic caused by a zoonotic virus was the ecological breakdown that climate rhetoric warned about. Whether the tree whispered this to him or it all clicked in that moment for a more rational reason doesn’t really matter; the result was that the pandemic and the climate crisis ceased to be separate concepts in his mind. One all-enveloping hazard foreshadowed the other and yet was simultaneously indivisible from it. Realizing this sent him spinning down a rabbit hole of grief and anxiety, where he imagined the gritty pain of climate disasters, dwindling energy supplies, political turmoil, and even more pandemics that would punctuate the rest of his life. He felt himself collapse—emotionally and physically—in the shelter of the tree.
WHO, Global Health Groups Endorse Global Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty
Credit: Fossil Fuel Treaty
The World Health Organization, along with a group of 192 international health organizations, has endorsed the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, which calls for global cooperation to end fossil fuel expansion, and ensure a timely and equitable transition to more sustainable systems. The groups’ letter cites the many adverse health effects of fossil fuels, including the dangers of air pollution, the increased spread of certain infectious diseases in a warming climate, and the risks to human health posed by extreme weather.
From ClimateFast September 2022 Newsletter (Sept. 19, 2022)
"Generation Dread: Finding Purpose in an Age of Climate Crisis" by Britt Wray
Credit: Book Cover
An impassioned generational perspective on how to stay sane amid climate disruption.
Climate and environment-related fears and anxieties are on the rise everywhere. As with any type of stress, eco-anxiety can lead to lead to burnout, avoidance, or a disturbance of daily functioning.
In Generation Dread, Britt Wray seamlessly merges scientific knowledge with emotional insight to show how these intense feelings are a healthy response to the troubled state of the world. The first crucial step toward becoming an engaged steward of the planet is connecting with our climate emotions, seeing them as a sign of humanity, and learning how to live with them. We have to face and value eco-anxiety, Wray argues, before we can conquer the deeply ingrained, widespread reactions of denial and disavowal that have led humanity to this alarming period of ecological decline.
It’s not a level playing field when it comes to our vulnerability to the climate crisis, she notes, but as the situation worsens, we are all on the field—and unlocking deep stores of compassion and care is more important than ever. Weaving in insights from climate-aware therapists, critical perspectives on race and privilege in this crisis, ideas about the future of mental health innovation, and creative coping strategies, Generation Dread brilliantly illuminates how we can learn from the past, from our own emotions, and from each other to survive—and even thrive—in a changing world.
Going Global – George Brown College In Toronto Launches Transit Ads In Hong Kong
Credit: Article
We're connecting millions of people in Hong Kong’s Central District with our first international advertising campaign aimed at raising brand awareness in China and beyond.
Two of Hong Kong’s iconic tramcars and the Wan Chai Station shelter are George Brown College (GBC)-branded, showcasing George Brown College in the urban centre known as Asia’s World City. The campaign kicked off on September 12 and runs to October 9.
“We're making impressions on Hong Kong locals and also on people who use Hong Kong as a business hub,” George Brown College Associate Vice-President Global Partnerships and Education David Begg said. “A lot of people are going to see the words George Brown College as those trams trundle through Hong Kong. They include potential students and partners and other audiences who are interested in Canada, in education, and, hopefully, in getting to know George Brown better.”
Earlier this year, we launched our bold new Class of Your Own campaign here at home. While George Brown’s heart lies in Toronto, Begg says these new ads position GBC as a global player ready to engage with partners around the world.
Liang Wu, George Brown’s Director, Asia, says the ads feature GBC as a top-choice school when it comes to studying in Canada with the tag line “Land on the right spot in Canada.” The campaign coincides with the EduCanada Fair, October 1-2, organized by the Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong.
“Hong Kong serves as a perfect international city for the campaign given its highly dense population, metropolitan vibe and the exploding interest in studying in Canada that the college has been capitalizing on,” Wu said.
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