HI,
Devastating, hottest, fastest, largest, historic, highest, lowest, catastrophic.
It’s my last day today in Halifax. Yesterday, at the World Ocean Tech and Innovation Summit (Oct. 4-5) the session opening Indigenous elder claimed that Ocean is the womb of Mother Earth. She then proceeded to drum the Mother’s heart, the first language we learned while in our mother's womb. What a great way to start the second day of the Economist Impact organized Summit (see also ENDSHOTS). With giant Hurricane Fiona that devastated this area of Canada just ten days ago still fresh in mind, being here to learn about the harms we are inflicting on Ocean and how to rectify them and protect it for our future security has been a privilege and very interesting.
Our prime minister, Justin Trudeau, in the last session on Day One, claimed that he believes Ocean to be a uniting force, one that all peoples of all ages in the world can relate to. While also claiming that there is now an understanding among Canadians of the ‘tragedy of the commons’ and the global nature of climate change along with an appetite to transition away from fossil fuels, understanding more about Ocean is important. That we are now witnessing daily extreme climate and weather related events around the world, this message is one to be taken to heart. Finally, he claimed that we Canadians instinctively come to the help of neighbours. But, then, I ask, why is Canada so far behind in meeting our stated climate commitments? What about our neighbours in Pakistan where 30+ million still live in misery after a climate event weeks ago. We really haven't stepped up.
Witnessing still the devastation in Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Florida and record setting temperatures in California and British Columbia, the smoke signals are clear; and it was great to hear about lots of Ocean innovation, from those on the front line of the battle, including many in Maritime Canada. I learned of new paint solutions to increase ship fuel efficiency, decrease noise from aggravating all outside the hull, and significantly reduce the quantity required to cover giant propellers and hulls. Much time was given to aquaculture and a data driven blue economy (now worth up to $500bn/year), including for example measuring maritime GHG emissions or taking stock of fish; but that how much further behind marine applications are from terrestrial IT/AI.
Whereas in the past the focus was on hardware, and there’s great innovation happening on autonomous vehicles, much of it today is on data. “That which is measurable can be managed.” 90% of the world’s fish stocks are either fully exploited, over exploited or depleted. There’s now great hope in off-shore wind. Holistic approaches were also promoted, including combining Indigenous knowledge with its Western complements, as was the need to combine bottom-up approaches (involving communities) with those from the top (policy incentives) to promote equity, innovation and results. But innovation and business models will not flourish down the line, we were told, unless children and youth are educated about career paths in the ocean economy.
Ocean produces about 50% of atmospheric oxygen, it regulates the weather, it’s an economic lifeline for , 90% of world trade is conducted on it, wars are fought on it, it absorbs about 25% of emitted CO2, contains potential pharmaceuticals, comprises 97% of all Earth’s water and 71% of its surface. Much greater attention to it must be given. Like the sun, Ocean is a source of life on Earth. The bottom line of the Summit was that Ocean health and wealth are intimately related, and that there are lots of good people working hard on solutions, with their own and other investments, trying to make a positive contribution to the commons. Very heartening indeed. Everyone in every area of endeavour has a role to play in protecting Ocean.
Read on in today’s Planetary Health Weekly (#40 of the year) for:
- CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES:
- Energy to waste – fossil fuels’ dirty secret,
- Nord Stream pipeline blowouts highlight vulnerability of fossil fuel fuels,
- Record methane leak from Nord Stream pipelines is ‘catastrophic for climate,’
- Moody’s has a $1.9 trillion warning over biodiversity,
- Estimating the global diversity financing gap,
- In Africa, conflict and climate super-charge the forces behind famine and food insecurity,
- Delivering record climate financing,
- Louisiana faces an insurance crisis leaving people afraid they can’t afford their homes,
- Hurricane Ian could cost US$67bn in economic damages,
- UN Chief: windfall tax on oil and gas can pay for loss and damage,
- Charted: 40 years of global energy production by country,
- CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
- Long Covid: 200 symptoms, 145 million affected, no known cause – an no shortage of theories about what triggers the virus hangover,
- Long Covid in children,
- Covid-19 hospitalization and emergency department statistics for Canada,
- How to improve race, ethnicity and language data and disparities interventions,
- Pandemic health costs pushed half a billion people into poverty,
- Zoonotic pathogens in wildlife traded in markets for human consumption – Laos,
- Global Covid-19 vaccine apartheid: Nepal,
- White House advisor Nahid Bhadelia on Covid-19 in resource-limited nations – undercounted deaths, vaccine inequity and more, THEN
- WWF-Canada calls for a new model creating protected areas to meet international commitments in countdown to UN Convention on Biodiversity COP15 (in Montreal in December),
- Tata launches a $10,000 electric car for India,
- Midwest states ally to produce hydrogen, potentially for fuel-cell semis and others,
- The solar power duck curve explained,
- The invention of “accidents” – thousands die preventable deaths each year – why do we consider them mishaps?
- Engineers point the way to more affordable & sustainable urban neighbourhoods,
- Research discovery a pearl of hope for imperilled oyster reefs,
- Corporate pushback against climate action is getting desperate,
- Can ‘peanuts’ save Shanghai’s Covid-ravaged retail sales and economy?
- Beijing extends exemption of 5% purchase tax on electric cars until end of 2023 in boost for sector,
- The fight back from extinction: how hunting rights resurrected the Sinixt Band,
- Quote on the climate crisis by the mayor of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia,
- Draining the world’s oceans to visualize Earth’s surface,
- How do you solve a problem like malaria,
- 2021-2022 data show largest avian flu epidemic in Europe ever,
- ‘It was wonderful’” Eviation’s Alice electric airplane wins praise after its first flight test,
- New book: “Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World” by Gaia Vince,
- The early impact of the global lockdown on post-secondary students and staff: a global description study, and lastly
- ENDSHOTS from the World Ocean Tech and Innovation Summit this week in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
I hope you’ll keep reading.
Best and have a good week to come, david
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HMCS SACKVILLE (KIBI), Canada’s Naval Memorial and a National Historic Site |
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Halifax Harbour, Nova Scotia |
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COMPLETE SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE SEEKING PEACE AND VICTORY |
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CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES |
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Daily US consumption of petroleum put in perspective. Credit: The Guardian & US Energy Information Administration (graphical addition by illuminem editorial team)
Detractors of renewables like to wring their hands about the waste involved in solar panels, EV batteries and even wind turbine blades. But they never talk about the enormous waste streams associated with fossil fuels. Or just how little renewable infrastructure would be needed to power all our energy needs in comparison.
In summary for fossil fuels:
- 15 billion tonnes of materials per annum, producing over
- 40 billion tonnes of greenhouse emissions;
- 1.1 billion tonnes of solid waste;
- vast amounts of polluted water;
- smog choked cities;
- 8 million premature deaths; and
- trillions of dollars in global healthcare and lost productivity costs due to the respiratory conditions they cause or exacerbate (including, for example, around 12% of childhood asthma due to gas cooktops in homes [10]).
That’s one side of the ledger. Onto renewables…
There is no waste mountain associated with the transition to clean energy. Far from it, the changes, phased in globally over the next few decades, will greatly reduce the need for materials and produce a fraction of the waste currently generated by fossil fuels.
However, perspective is critical: if we continue anthropogenic emissions, cross natural tipping points [45] and let the climate genie completely out of the bottle, then the environmental damage from non-fossil mining operations will be the least of our worries. [46] It’s a classic case where we can’t let perfect be the enemy of the good.
Another Red Herring
Let’s face it, recycling qualms about renewables are simply another diversion, another red herring, used by fossil fuel firms and their allies to deflect attention from the truly mammoth and horrific environme
Last week, the Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines began
to leak from three separate places at around the same time in waters near
Denmark.
The leaks have led to a significant release of methane, a potent
greenhouse gas which traps heat in the atmosphere. Climate scientist Zeke
Hausfather said that
while some methane could have been adsorbed by the oceans, “a substantial
majority of it likely escaped” into the atmosphere.
“There are three leaks and therefore it is difficult to imagine
that it could be accidental,” said Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen.
“These are deliberate actions, not an accident,” she added. The EU said the
incidents were caused by sabotage
To increase resilience, the Council on State Fragility, which
represents many war-torn states, has recommended installing distributed
renewable systems like rooftop solar panels.
In a report last year, the
group said “attacking infrastructure is a common practice in conflicts and
electric power systems are obvious targets” but distributed renewables “allow
for a diversified energy supply, increasing resilience”.
At The Energy Mix: Record Methane Leak from Nord Stream Pipelines is ‘Catastrophic for Climate’
Methane leaking from the damaged Nord Stream pipelines is likely the biggest burst of the climate super-pollutant on record by far, and countries in the region suspect this week’s undersea explosions were a case of sabotage.
The stricken pipelines are pumping huge volumes of methane into the Baltic Sea and atmosphere and could discharge as much as five times as much of the potent greenhouse gas as was released by California’s Aliso Canyon disaster, the largest known terrestrial release of methane in U.S. history, The Associated Press reports.
Andrew Baxter, a chemical engineer who formerly worked in the offshore oil and gas industry, and is now at the U.S. Environmental Defense Fund, thought the Danish estimate was likely too high. But his more conservative calculation was still more than double the Aliso Canyon disaster.
“That’s one thing that is consistent with these estimates. It’s catastrophic for the climate.” said Andrew Baxter, an offshore oil and gas engineer. The leaks were all in international waters. Two were within the Danish exclusive economic zone while the third is in the Swedish equivalent. Read more at Illuminem Voices
At BNN Bloomberg: Moody’s Has a $1.9 Trillion Warning Over Biodiversity
That’s the amount Moody’s Investors Service says is at stake as biodiversity loss intensifies nature-related risks. With financial markets currently under siege, concerns about biodiversity probably aren’t the first thing that comes to mind for panicked investors. But the long-term ramifications of a depleted natural world are potentially devastating.
High-risk sectors such as coal and metals mining, as well as oil and gas exploration and production, will likely face greater regulatory and investor scrutiny as every day passes. Companies that lack credible management strategies in this arena face the prospect of not only reputational damage, but also serious financial repercussions, Moody’s wrote in a 14-page report.
“Risks such as ecosystem health, biodiversity loss and natural resource management are rising up the policy and investor agenda,” said Rahul Ghosh, managing director of environmental, social and governance issues at Moody’s.
The Moody's report jibes with recent research on the dangers of biodiversity loss. In a report published last year, the World Bank outlined the potentially devastating consequences of inaction from an “unprecedented” decline in biodiversity, with roughly 1 million animal and plant species at risk of extinction. And the World Economic Forum has estimated that roughly half of global gross domestic product, or about $44 trillion worth of economic value, depends on the natural world in some way, meaning its destruction represents an enormous financial loss.
(As of 2019, current spending on biodiversity conservation is between $124 and $143 billion per year, against a total estimated biodiversity protection need of between $722 and $967 billion per year. This leaves a current biodiversity financing gap of between US$ 598 billion and US$ 824 billion per year.)
https://www.paulsoninstitute.org/conservation/financing-nature-report/
There are nine sectors with almost $1.9 trillion in rated debt that have “high” or “very high” inherent exposure to natural capital.
Companies that are dependent on “ecosystem services,” such as protein and agriculture, are also vulnerable. In fact, forestry, agriculture, fishing and tourism are among the sectors most at risk. Additionally, Moody’s said its “environmental heat map” identified another 24 industries with $9.6 trillion of debt that have “moderate exposure” to natural-capital risks.
Most investors and intermediaries are only just beginning to include nature-related risks in their assessments. The Paulson Institute estimates the market for biodiversity investments may reach as much as $93 billion by 2030, up from about $4 billion in 2019. That would follow a similar trajectory to other environmentally-labeled products like green bonds, which had sales of more than $500 billion last year, little more than a decade after the first one was issued.
At EC Europa: Estimating the global biodiversity financing gap
The Paulson Institute, The Nature Conservancy, and the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability at Cornell University have set out to estimate the global biodiversity financing gap – the difference between how much is spent and how much financing is needed in the next ten year to protect the most important biodiversity and the services it provides. The analysis suggests that to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, on average USD 711 billion is needed each year in the next ten years.
At Politico: In Africa conflict and climate super-charge the forces behind famine and food insecurity
Jeffrey Maganya has spent the last three decades of his professional life trying to prevent people from going hungry. But in all those years, something beyond his control has crept into the work, slowly growing like the heat.
Now, he’s battling another hunger crisis.
In four counties of northern Kenya, rural farmers are facing near-famine conditions after repeated droughts. Their crops have withered. More than 1.5 million cattle carcasses are disintegrating into the region’s dusty soils. The trucks that used to come with food have stopped making the trek on terrible roads. It’s not worth their time.
Maganya, a regional advisor with the aid organization Oxfam, calls it “a really dire humanitarian situation.”
“It’s long-term climate change,” he adds, placing blame where he sees it. “The rains are failing.”
When Maganya started his career at 21, famine was largely seen as a failure of government—the consequence of war or weak government, made worse by the occasional year of dry weather or flooding or storms. But now climate change has scrambled once-reliable weather patterns, making it impossible for rural farmers to decide what to plant and when.
“There’s just too little rain or too much rain. Abnormality is the new normal,” Maganya said. “Human beings are adapted to patterns, and if we don’t have patterns, we don’t know how to respond. We’re still using the old memories. But there’s something big happening here, under our feet.”
The numbers this year are staggering: Conflict, Covid and climate change-fueled weather conspired to bring 193 million people toward “crisis levels” of hunger in 2021, nearly double that of 103 million five years ago. That figure will climb when the effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine are taken into account.
And nowhere is the crisis more acute right now than in these three African countries, where the “fingerprints” of climate change are especially obvious.
“With climate change, there’s a new challenge every year, every month,” said Moses Emalu, a manager for Save the Children, covering Kenya and Madagascar. “It used to be that you talked about drought every 10 years. Now it’s become so frequent. Every year communities lose their livelihoods.”
At World Bank: Delivering Record Climate Financing
The World Bank Group delivered a record $31.7 billion in fiscal year 2022 (FY22) to help countries address climate change. This is a 19% increase from the $26.6 billion all-time high in financing reached in the previous fiscal year. The Bank Group continues to be the largest multilateral financier of climate action in developing countries.
“In our last fiscal year ending June 2022, we provided a record $31.7 billion to countries to identify and enable high-priority climate-related projects as part of their development plans.” said David Malpass, President of the World Bank Group. “We will continue providing solutions to pool funding from the global community for impactful and scalable projects that reduce GHG emissions, improve resilience, and enable the private sector.”
Financing for climate action in FY22—which covers July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022—reached 36% of total Bank Group financing. This exceeds the target set in the Group’s Climate Change Action Plan for 2021-2025 to deploy an average of 35% of the institution’s financing in support of climate action.
IBRD and IDA together delivered $26.2 billion in FY22 in climate finance. Nearly half of that—$12.9 billion—specifically supported investments in adaptation and resilience. IFC, the private sector arm of the World Bank Group, delivered an unprecedented $4.4 billion in climate finance and mobilized an additional $3.3 billion from other sources. MIGA, the World Bank Group’s political risk insurance and credit enhancement arm, delivered $1.1 billion in climate finance.
As part of its ongoing effort to help countries integrate climate and development objectives, the Bank Group recently launched a number of Country Climate and Development Reports (CCDRs). CCDRs are a new core diagnostic to help countries prioritize the most impactful actions that can reduce GHG emissions and boost adaptation. A summary of the preliminary findings of these reports will be published in coming months to foster action-oriented discussion in the global community.
At Action Network: Louisiana faces an insurance crisis, leaving people afraid they can’t afford their homes
At Climate Change News: Hurricane Ian could cost US $67bn in economic damages
Hurricane Ian has battered Cuba and Florida, killing at least 100 people, leaving millions without power, destroying homes and ravaging key
regional industries, such as tobacco and citrus fruits.
Ian brought powerful
winds, heavy rainfall and storm surges to Florida and Cuba, where it knocked out the
electricity grid. In
Cuba, at least two people died in the storm and in Florida at least ten were
killed. The storm also caused in Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic.
The Category 4
hurricane, which is one of the most
powerful to ever make landfall in Florida at 150mph, is also set to be one of
the costliest storms in US history.
Chuck Watson, a
disaster modeller at Enki Research, said the storm could cost the US up to $67 billion in economic damages. Besides
damaging homes and infrastructure, the hurricane also ruined orange farms in
the largest producing state, causing orange juice prices
to surge.
Only around 30% of the
damage is covered by commercial insurance, Watson told Climate Home News. 60%
of Florida residents do not have flood insurance, according to a 2020 McKinsey report.
At Climate Change News: UN chief: Windfall tax on oil and gas can pay for loss and damage
United Nations secretary general António Guterres has called on developed economies to tax the windfall profits of oil and gas companies and redirect some of the revenues to help nations affected by climate disasters recover.
Opening the high-level segment of the UN general assembly with a scathing speech about the lack of international cooperation at a time of global challenges, Guterres said “polluters must pay” to support communities on the climate frontlines and help vulnerable consumers.
The vocal UN chief has previously described oil and gas companies’ record profits in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “immoral” and “grotesque greed” and backed calls for windfall taxes.
In the plenary hall of the UN headquarters in New York, he went a step further.
“Today, I am calling on all developed economies to tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies. Those funds should be re-directed in two ways: to countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis, and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices,” he said.
So far only a handful of mostly European countries have adopted a windfall tax.
At Fast Company: Charted: 40 Years of Global Energy Production, by Country
Energy was already a hot topic before 2022, but soaring household energy bills and a cost of living crisis has brought it even more to the forefront. Which countries are the biggest energy producers, and what types of energy are they churning out? This graphic by 911 Metallurgist gives a breakdown of global energy production, showing which countries have used the most fossil fuels, nuclear, and renewable energy since 1980.
All figures refer to the British thermal unit (BTU), equivalent to the heat required to heat one pound of water by one degree Fahrenheit.
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SARS-CoV-2 & COVID-19 UPDATES |
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Globally, nationally and locally, the pandemic continues in many countries, especially in Western Europe. Many erroneously feel it's over, whereas it continues though it is slowing down. Collective action and leadership has all but disappeared.
Over the last week, cases continue at about 400,000/day (though reporting is under-reported); deaths continue at about 1400/day; and vaccinations are at about 7 million/day, much lower than desired. The anti-vaccination movement must be confronted.
Vaccination, despite ongoing concerns about waning immunity and huge slander and lies about deaths and ineffectiveness 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:
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Above From: New Data Dashboard Tracks COVID-19 Risk for Unvaccinated People Compared to Vaccinated People |
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"It is the plague in seemingly all sincerity." Bob Woodward |
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Fatigue, breathlessness and brain fog are among the common symptoms in Covid patients, months after they have recovered. Credit: Shutterstock
Millions of people around the world are believed to suffer from long Covid. Although little is known about the condition, recent research has proposed several theories for its cause.
Between 10 and 20 per cent of people who contract the disease are estimated to have long Covid symptoms – most commonly fatigue, breathlessness and a lack of mental clarity dubbed brain fog – months after recovering from the initial infection.
The US-based Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) estimates that nearly 145 million people worldwide had at least one of those symptoms in 2020 and 2021.
In Europe alone, 17 million people had a long Covid symptom at least three months after infection during that time, according to IHME modelling for the World Health Organization (WHO) recently published.
These millions “cannot continue to suffer in silence”, WHO Europe director Hans Kluge said, calling for the world to act quickly to learn more about the condition. Researchers have been racing to catch up but the vast array – and inconsistency – of symptoms has complicated matters. Read more at: South China Morning Post
SEE MORE COVID-19 STORIES:
At JAMA Network: Long COVID in Children
Post-acute
sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC) appears to be uncommon in children and
presents with features different from long COVID in adults, according to a
cohort study published in JAMA Pediatrics that included 659 286
children. Investigators used electronic health records from 9 US children’s
hospitals to collect data on children and adolescents who had an antigen or
reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for SARS-CoV-2.
The average age of the children in the study was 8.1 years. In the study
sample, 9.1% tested positive for SARS-CoV-2.
At CIHI: COVID-19 hospitalization and emergency department statistics for Canada
Hospitals and emergency departments (EDs) across the country play a critical role in the COVID-19 pandemic. The data collected for these areas can provide a better understanding of resource utilization and outcomes for COVID-19 patients.
From April 2021 to March 2022, there were more than 101,000 hospital stays in Canada (excluding Quebec) for patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19. During the same period, more than 262,700 ED visits for COVID-19 were reported by participating jurisdictions. From January 2020 to March 2021, there were more than 65,615 hospital stays and 158,860 ED visits (data updated February 3, 2022, to include hospitalizations from Quebec).
Use the data tables to explore the most recent information on hospitalizations and ED visits for patients with a diagnosis of COVID-19. We will continue to update this information as the pandemic unfolds.
Note: Estimated costs for COVID-19 hospitalizations have been updated with the most recent financial information as of August
Key findings
- Patients who were hospitalized more recently with COVID-19 (April 2021 to March 2022) were younger (median age of 63 compared with 71) and experienced lower in-hospital death rates (11% compared with 19%) than those who were hospitalized between January 2020 and March 2021.
- The majority of patients (71%) who went to the ED were discharged home, while 23% were admitted to the hospital. The average length of stay in hospital was 13 days, and 90% of ED visits were completed within 15 hours. Patients from the least-affluent neighbourhoods accounted for the highest number and percentage of COVID-19 hospitalizations and ED visits.
- More than half (63%) of patients admitted to the hospital were discharged home, while 11% died in facility. Patients who died in hospital were older than those who did not die (median age of 76 compared with 60). The in-hospital death rate was 10% for females and 13% for males. The in-hospital death rate was 12% among patients from the least-affluent neighbourhoods compared with 10% among patients from the most-affluent neighbourhoods. Patients from the least-affluent neighbourhoods accounted for a higher proportion of in-hospital deaths (31%) compared with patients from the most-affluent neighbourhoods (12%).
- More than 1 in 5 (21%) hospital stays included an intensive care unit (ICU) admission. Among those patients with ICU stays, 60% received ventilation and 26% died in the facility.
- Patients with at least one comorbidity had longer stays in hospital than those with no comorbidities (average length of 18 days compared with 10 days) and higher in-hospital death rates (20% compared with 7%). Presence of a comorbidity was also associated with increased need for ICU admission (28% compared with 17%) and ventilation (18% compared with 11%). Worse outcomes were observed for patients with comorbidities, regardless of age.
- The estimated total cost of COVID-19 hospital stays in Canada (excluding Quebec) from April 2021 to March 2022 is about $2.5 billion, with an average estimated cost of $25,000 per hospital stay. Hospital stays with ICU admissions are significantly more costly than hospital stays without ICU admissions ($61,000 compared with $16,000). From January 2020 to March 2021, the total estimated cost of COVID-19–related hospitalizations was over $1.6 billion (including Quebec).
At Health Affairs: How To Improve Race, Ethnicity, And Language Data And Disparities Interventions
The disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on historically marginalized communities has elevated and motivated a focus on equity-oriented data—especially race, ethnicity, and language (REL) data—that can be used to identify and intervene on urgent population health priorities. In particular, the pandemic increased awareness of structural racism and structural inequities that have led to long-standing disparities in health outcomes by REL categories, prompting public health and social driver interventions. Health care and public health entities with more complete REL data were able to more quickly and equitably allocate pandemic resources to communities hardest hit by the pandemic. However, the quality and completeness of REL data vary across health care organizations and states, creating state-specific challenges that impede efforts to identify and intervene on observed disparities. Without a valid and reliable “source of truth” for REL data across organizations, efforts to reduce health inequities risk being scattershot or misdirected.
At Aljazeera: Pandemic health costs pushed half a billion people into poverty
More than half a billion people globally were pushed into extreme poverty last year as they paid for health costs out of their own pockets during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the World Health Organization and the World Bank. The pandemic disrupted health services globally and triggered the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, making it even more difficult for people to pay for healthcare, a joint statement from the two organisations said on Sunday.
“All governments must immediately resume and accelerate efforts to ensure every one of their citizens can access health services without fear of the financial consequences,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Globally, the pandemic made things worse and immunization coverage dropped for the first time in 10 years, with deaths from tuberculosis and malaria increasing.
According to a Pew Research Center study published in March, the pandemic has driven 32 million Indians out of the middle class, defined as those earning $10 to $20 a day. It estimated the crisis has increased the number of India’s poor – those with incomes of $2 or less a day – by 75 million.
Meanwhile, a report published in December by the United Nations Children’s agency (UNICEF) said that 100 million additional children were estimated to now be living in multidimensional poverty because of the pandemic, a 10-percent increase since 2019.
At US CDC: Zoonotic Pathogens in Wildlife Traded in Markets for Human Consumption, Laos
Consumption of wildlife meat drives emerging infectious diseases, often amplified by human encroachment into natural areas and changes in land use. Wildlife trade and consumption have been responsible for outbreaks of diseases such as HIV-1 (2), Ebola (3), and monkeypox (4) and possibly for the coronavirus disease pandemic (5). Wildlife markets bring diverse species into contact, usually in dense and unsanitary conditions, enabling mixing, amplification, and transmission of pathogens among species, including humans (6). Small mammals host diverse pathogenic bacteria and viruses (7), but little investigation of endemic bacteria transmission has occurred. Determining pathogens present in traded wildlife is vital to guide appropriate measures to combat zoonotic diseases and document societal and environmental costs of wildlife trade.
We tested animals from wildlife trade sites in Laos for the presence of zoonotic pathogens. Leptospira spp. were the most frequently detected infectious agents, found in 20.1% of animals. Rickettsia typhi and R. felis were also detected. These findings suggest a substantial risk for exposure through handling and consumption of wild animal meat.
At YouTube: Covid-19 Aparteid in Nepal (57 minute video)
At NY Times: White House Advisor Nahid Bhadelia, MD, MALD, on COVID-19 in Resource-Limited Nations—Undercounted Deaths, Vaccine Inequity, and More
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Credit: eea.europa.eu
As world leaders met recently at the UN General Assembly to secure ambitious goals for climate and biodiversity negotiations this fall, a report from WWF-Canada outlines the need for a new model for protected area establishment in Canada — one that protects the right areas, in the right ways, for the right reasons.
In order for Canada to meet its international commitments to reduce carbon emissions and reverse biodiversity loss, a protected areas network of the future should act as a nature-based climate solution by providing habitat for wildlife and storing and sequestering carbon. Past approaches to protected areas establishment have focused on setting aside areas on a map, without consideration of how they ladder up to a larger, future-proof network, and without prioritizing Indigenous rights and title. WWF-Canada’s Beyond Targets report shows how this approach has left gaps of ecological representation (e.g., size, connectivity and quality) in our protected areas network, at a time when urgent action is needed to reduce emissions and reverse wildlife loss.
The creation of new protected areas in Canada must advance Indigenous rights and title, as well as consider four other factors: the location of species at risk, connectivity of protected areas, climate resiliency and carbon storage.
After identifying gaps in the current protected areas network, WWF-Canada’s new analysis evaluated these four factors and identified areas of high conservation value across Canada that, if protected, can deliver effective nature-based climate solutions and help meet our international biodiversity and climate commitments.
Key takeaways:
- As international governments move toward a post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework that aims to reverse biodiversity loss by 2030, protected areas will play an increasingly significant role in achieving both national and international biodiversity and climate goals.
- There are fewer natural areas remaining in the south (the provinces) because of current and historical higher human footprint, which means that protection will have to be accompanied by restoration of degraded or destroyed landscapes.
- In the north (the territories in this assessment), there are large swaths of unprotected natural areas that provide opportunities for advancing community-led conservation.
- Protected areas networks need to be reimagined to gain maximum positive impact for biodiversity, climate, and Indigenous rights and governance structures.
Read more at Nation Talk
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Credit: Tata Tiago.ev
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 Green Car Reports
See also at GreenReports: Midwest States Ally to Produce Hydrogen, Potentially for Fuel-cell Semis (and others)
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Credit: Elements.visualcapitalist.com
The Solar Power Duck Curve Explained
With the increasing demand for electricity as the world shifts away from fossil fuels, cleaner sources of energy like solar and wind are becoming more and more common.
However, as more solar power is introduced into our grids, operators are dealing with a new problem that can be visualized as the “duck curve.”
Origins of the Duck Curve
In a world heavily reliant on electricity, utility companies have gotten better at using data to anticipate demand and trying to operate as efficiently as possible.
Usually, power companies supply the least amount of power overnight while most consumers are sleeping, ramping up during the morning as people wake up and businesses get going. Then, at sunset, energy demand peaks.
Utility companies use models to predict demand and operate as efficiently as possible by supplying more power during times of higher demand. But the introduction of solar power has brought about problems in these demand curve models.
Since solar power relies on the Sun, peak solar production occurs around midday, when electricity demand is often on the lower end. As a result, energy production is higher than it needs to be, and net demand—total demand minus wind and solar production—falls. Then, when evening approaches, net demand increases, while solar power generation falls.
This discrepancy results in a net demand curve that takes the shape of a duck, and the duck curve gets more pronounced each year, as more solar capacity is added and net demand dips lower and lower at midday.
Why the Curve is Ruffling Feathers
The drop in net demand at midday basically creates two problems:
- Solar energy production wanes as the sun sets, just as demand for energy typically peaks. Utility companies are having to ramp up production to compensate for this gap, often overstressing a grid that is not yet set up for these peaks.
- Traditional sources of energy like nuclear and coal are only economic when they are running all the time. If you have to turn them off at mid-day because the power is supplied by solar, they become economically unfeasible.
Due to overproduction, solar power is already being wasted in some places where the technology is widely used, like California.
The problem is most intense during summer or spring when part of the solar panels has to be turned off to avoid overloading or even damaging the power grid.
Flattening the Duck
With more countries starting to rely on solar power, there are many potential solutions for the duck curve being explored (and implemented):
- Energy Storage: Overproduction of solar power during the day can be utilized by improving batteries and grid storage capacity.
- Powering Alternatives: Extra solar power can go towards powering energy generation at night, such as pumping water for hydroelectricity or overheating a material to dissipate energy later.
- Other Clean Sources: Unlike solar energy, sources like nuclear, hydroelectric, and geothermal can operate continuously and fill in the demand gap.
While grid managers study how to serve the new supply and demand, the duck curve is one of the greatest challenges facing renewable energy.
Read more at Visual Capitalist
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Credit: ADRIAN SHERRATT/CONSTRUCTION PHOTOGRAPHY/AVALON/GETTY IMAGES
In her new book, There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster―Who Profits and Who Pays the Price, (by Jessie Singer) she looks at a wider range of fatalities that have been chalked up, at various times in the past century, as accidents or mere flukes: not just car crashes but also toxic chemical spills, catastrophic mine explosions, collapsed bridges, the Boeing 737 Max plane crashes, opioid overdoses, and more. In chapter after chapter, Singer makes the case that we should think of accidents not as “chance mishaps but systemic inevitabilities.” The stories she tells share a theme: that in the U.S. whether a person’s death is deemed an accident or not is largely a measure of that person’s proximity to power.
The likelihood of dying by accident in the U.S. is nontrivial: One in 24 people die this way. The pattern of these deaths maps onto stark inequalities in society. Race is a major risk factor for accidental death: Not only are people of color more likely to live near high-risk chemical facilities than white people are, but “accidents” at those facilities happen twice as often in Black neighborhoods as in white ones. Black people are twice as likely to die in accidental fires as white people, and both Black and Indigenous people are more likely than white people to be fatally struck by a driver while crossing the street. The same holds for being shot by accident, freezing to death, and burning to death—race inflects almost every way to die by accident. Black people also are more likely to be accused of causing accidents—like driving a car that hits someone. In a society structured by racism, risks fall disproportionately on people of color, while racism also makes it easier to blame accidental deaths on the communities they affect most severely and forgo attempts to make them safer.
While cars in some European countries come with pedestrian bonnets, or exterior air bags that pop up if cars smash into pedestrians, cars made in the U.S. have no such feature. According to Joan Claybrook, former head of the NHTSA, the agency has all but abdicated its regulatory responsibility. Its investigations into vehicle defects dropped by more than 93 percent between 1989 and 2017. The advent of driverless cars poses a further set of challenges.
Read more at New Republic
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Credit: theZebra.com
Analysis presents a first-of-its-kind framework to design the most efficient mix of urban buildings along with integrated systems to supply power and water services. The approach could significantly reduce costs and pollution compared to traditional systems.Share: Read more at Science Daily
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Credit: Edible Orlando
University of Virginia researchers, in partnership with The Nature Conservancy, are sharing the good news that the future of oyster reefs, which have experienced greater than 85% loss worldwide over the past two centuries, doesn't have to be bleak. Their 15-year study demonstrates that restored reefs can match natural reef oyster populations in about six years and continue to hold strong thereafter.
"Our study shows that restoration can catalyze rapid recovery of an imperiled coastal habitat and help reverse decades of degradation," said the study's lead author, Rachel Smith, a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Environmental Sciences at UVA. Read more at Science Daily
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A coal power plant in Eschweiler, Aachen, Germany. Credit: Mario Goebbels/Flickr
Our UN-backed initiative was told we could be sued for saying new coal isn’t compatible with science-based targets. We need regulatory reform
It’s not every day that professors are told they risk breaking the law for articulating basic scientific facts. But that’s the reality of giving expert advice in the deepening climate crisis.
As net zero commitments reshape the world economy, and as the impacts of climate change accelerate, climate politics is getting existential. Vulnerable communities are fighting to survive. This month, one-third of Pakistan, a country of 220 million people, was flooded. At the same time, fossil fuel interest groups – coal, in particular – are trying every tactic to delay the inevitable.
Capitalism has become the battleground for this conflict. Over the past decades, a groundswell of voluntary action on climate change has surged around the world. According to the Net Zero Tracker, one in three of the world’s 2,000 largest companies now has a net zero target, up from one in five in 2021.
Some of these targets are credible; many are not. To mobilise action and combat greenwashing, a host of initiatives, standards, and regulations have arisen to define science-based pathways to net zero and hold companies accountable for meeting them.
One such initiative is the Race to Zero campaign, which commits companies, investors, cities, regions, and others to reach net zero by mid-century or sooner. To join, these entities need to meet science-based criteria as defined by an independent advisory group of experts, which I co-chair (a voluntary, unpaid position).
The good news is that regulatory reform is now at the top of the agenda, featuring in a report launched this week. Before the next global climate summit takes place in Egypt in November, a high level panel appointed by the UN Secretary-General, chaired by former Canadian environment minister Catherine McKenna, is set to lay out a global review of net zero targets and identify ways forward.
Without prejudging the report, I predict it will state again what thousands of experts have already affirmed: any credible path to net zero requires phasing fossil fuels down and out. Surely they can’t sue all of us?
Read more at Climate Change News
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Can ‘Peanuts’ Save Shanghai’s Covid-Ravaged Retail Sales and Economy? |
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Visitors walk through the Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai on October 2. Credit: Bloomberg
Shanghai, China’s primary commercial and financial hub, is banking on an electronic shopping coupon lottery to revive consumer spending and reclaim its pride as the mainland’s key economic growth engine.
The municipal government is pinning hopes on 1 billion yuan (US$140.5 million) worth of retail vouchers to encourage its 25 million residents to buy goods and services. The coupons will be doled out in a lottery system in three rounds through November, it announced in August.
The size of the handout, while small relative to the local economy, represents an attempt to spark life into the city’s retailing industry. A two-month lockdown in April and May under Beijing’s strict zero-Covid policy, rattled confidence and turned big spenders into budget-conscious consumers amid losses in job and stock markets. Read more at SCMP
SEE ALSO: Electric cars: Beijing extends exemption from 5 per cent purchase tax to end of 2023 in boost for sector
The exemption from a 5% tax levied on electric vehicle purchases will be extended until 2024, Beijing announced. In the first seven months of this year, the exemption saved Chinese EV buyers 40.7 billion yuan (USD5.7bn) in tax payments.The EV adoption rate in China is likely to top 30 per cent in the coming months, compared to 25 per cent in August, said Paul Gong, a UBS analyst. Total deliveries could surpass 6 million units this year, more than double last year’s total, he added.
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SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS |
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The Fight Back from Extinction - How Hunting Rights Resurrected The Sinixt Band |
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Credit: Aboriginal Peoples Televsion Network (APTN)
It was a long time coming – generations fighting for a return to their land followed by a decade-long court fight and a year of pandemic delays. But this summer, more than 100 people from an American tribe returned to southeastern B.C. to celebrate a 2021 Supreme Court victory against the Canadian government, which gives them rights on their ancestral lands in the Slocan Valley where they were declared extinct in 1956.
The April 2021 win puts new life in their fight for recognition in this country, and potentially impacts all cross-border tribes who watched the battle for rights wind through four levels of court.
The tribe is the Sinixt (pronounced sin-eye-ixt) who, before contact, lived alongside other tribes in the West Kootenay region of southeastern B.C. The Sinixt lived off waters fed by the Columbia River. Before they even laid eyes on settlers, were hit hard by their diseases. They reportedly lost 80% of their population to smallpox in the late 1700s.) Read more at APTN News
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Credit: LinkedIn
“We have to prepare for what’s next, and we don’t know what’s coming.”
Amanda McDougall, Mayor of Cape Breton Greater Area, Nova Scotia in discussing the hit from Hurricane Fiona, which devastated the area, totally unprecedented.
From CBC TV Newsworld “Power and Politics”, October 5, 2022
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- October 13-15, 2022: IUCN Leaders Forum – Call for Youth Change Makers (Jeju, South Korea)
- October 22-25 (virtual) and October 28-30 (in-person) StellenboschU-CUGH African Global Health Conference, 2022 (Cape Town, South Africa)
- October 31 - November 4, 2022: 7th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (Bogotá, Colombia)
- November 6-18, 2022: COP 27 UN Climate Change Conference (Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt)
- November 21-23, 2022: Canadian Conference on Global Health Join 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".
- December 7-8, 2022: The 4th International Conference on Rare Diseases (Vienna, Austria)
- December 7-19, 2022: COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference (Montreal, Canada)
- April 14-16, 2023: CUGH's Annual Global Health Conference - Global Health at a Crossroads: Equity, Climate Change and Microbial Threats
- May 23-25, 2023: The Battery Show Europe (Stuggart, Germany).
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FYI#1 SPOTLIGHT ON MEDIA |
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Draining the World’s Oceans to Visualize Earth’s Surface |
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Credit: VisualCapitalist
Although many maps of our planet go into great topographical detail on land, almost two-thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered by the world’s oceans.
Hidden from sight lie aquatic mountain ranges, continental shelves, and trenches that dive deep into the Earth’s crust. We might be familiar with a few of the well-known formations on the ocean floor, but there’s a whole detailed “world” that’s as rich as the surface, just waiting to be explored.
This animation from planetary researcher James O’Donoghue of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NASA simulates the draining the world’s oceans to quickly reveal the full extent of the Earth’s surface.
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FYI #3 |
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2021-2022 Data Show Largest Avian Flu Epidemic in Europe Ever |
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Credit: ECDC Europa
The 2021–2022 highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) epidemic season is the largest observed in Europe so far. The latest data from the joint EFSA, ECDC and EU reference laboratory report show a total of 2,467 outbreaks in poultry, 48 million birds culled in the affected establishments, 187 detections in captive birds, and 3,573 HPAI events in wild birds. Additionally, the geographical extent of the outbreak is unprecedented, ranging from Svalbard islands to South Portugal and eastern to Ukraine, affecting 37 European countries.
Influenza viruses circulating in animal species such as pigs or birds can sporadically infect humans, causing mild to very severe disease. These viruses have the potential to severely affect public health, such as during the epidemics of avian influenza H5N1 in Egypt or H7N9 in China, or the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic caused by a virus initially spreading from pigs to humans. Despite the exceptionally large number of cases recently detected in poultry and birds as well as numerous transmission events of avian influenza to different mammal species, no human transmission has been observed in the EU/EEA in recent years. In addition, only a small number of human infections with asymptomatic or mild disease have been reported globally. Therefore, the overall risk to the population remains at low levels, but slightly higher to people in occupations where they are directly exposed to infected birds.
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FYI #4 |
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‘It was wonderful’: Eviation’s Alice electric airplane wins praise after its first flight test |
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Eviation’s all-electric Alice airplane streaks over the runway at Moses Lake, Wash. Credit: Eviation
After years of on-the-ground development, Eviation’s all-electric Alice airplane quietly took to the air here this morning for its first test flight.
Test pilot Steve Crane guided the nine-passenger aircraft, powered by two 640-kilowatt electric motors, through its takeoff from Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, a facility in Eastern Washington’s high desert that’s often used for testing innovations in aviation.
When the motors revved up, they sounded like electric grass trimmers. And when the plane flew overhead, the noise was more like a hum than a roar.
Alice flew for eight minutes and reached a maximum altitude of 3,500 feet before landing safely back at the airport.
So how was the ride? “It was wonderful,” Crane said. “It handled just like we thought it would. Very responsive, very quick to the throttle, and it came on in for a wonderful landing. I couldn’t be happier.”
Crane explained that the relatively short flight was intended to be the first in a series of “baby steps” for the test program. “Today was just about the initial envelope,” he told reporters. “For future tests, we’ll expand that envelope.”
The Alice aircraft — whose name was inspired by the book “Alice in Wonderland” and the Jefferson Airplane song “White Rabbit” — will come in different variants for commuter, cargo and executive flights. Davis said the initial goal is to build a plane with a maximum range of 200 to 300 nautical miles. According to Eviation’s stats, Alice’s maximum useful load would be 2,500 to 2,600 pounds, and its maximum operating speed would be 260 knots (300 mph).
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FYI #5: FIRST OCTOBER READING - NEW BOOK |
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"Nomad Century: How Climate Migration Will Reshape Our World" by Gaia Vince |
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Credit: Book Cover
This book has 12 main chapters, and a total of about 211 pages, not including the Notes. At the end of the Conclusion section there is a ‘Further Reading’ list, which suggests some other books that cover these topics.
In the Introduction Vince outlines some of the issues that she will discuss in the book. She explains that global climate change, along with an aging population will result in economic issues and mass migrations over the next few decades. New cities will have to be built in more hospitable regions, and geopolitical cooperation would be ideal to support this rapid transition.
There are several charts and diagrams throughout the book, and although most of them are very helpful, a few were hard to read in the Kindle edition.
In the first few chapters, Vince dives into the global climate issues. She does a good job of describing some of the catastrophic results of just a 4-degree Celsius rise in global temperatures, and the effects of increased fire, heat, drought and floods. The next few chapters deal with migration and population change, and some of the geopolitical and economic reactions to these changes. Vince predicts that some shifts towards a more global and less nationalistic mindset will need to occur, since every country will be affected by migrating populations, and the sense of being tied to a specific location will decrease over time. In the last few chapters, she covers city planning, strategic use of resources, changes in food and energy production, and protecting biodiversity.
Overall, I appreciated the wealth of information in this book. Vince predicts some very likely issues that all of humanity will have to face in the not-to-distant future, and she provides some ideas for working toward solutions. Some of the political changes do seems a bit unlikely in our current world, but Vince acknowledges this too, and believes that even these changes will gradually be enacted out of necessity when faced with death and displaced populations. I would’ve preferred even more proposed solutions, but these problems are very complicated so I can see how that is a lot to ask. 4.5 / 5 from an Amazon Top 50 Reviewer
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FYI#6: SPOTLIGHT ON EDUCATION |
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The Early Impact of the Global Lockdown on Post-secondary Students and Staff: A Global, Descriptive Study |
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Credit: UNESCO
Objectives: The aim of this study, published in January, 2022, was to gain a preliminary, broad-level understanding of how the first lockdown impacted post-secondary students, faculty, and staff worldwide.
Methods: The data were obtained via a global online cross-sectional questionnaire survey using a mixed-method design and disseminated to university students, faculty, and staff from April to November 2020. The data were categorized in four themes/categories: (1) social life and relationships, (2) access to services, (3) health experiences, and (4) impact on mental health well-being.
Results: The survey included 27,804 participants from 121 countries and 6 continents. The majority of participants were from Europe (73.6%), female (59.2%), under 30 years of age (64.0%), living in large urban areas (61.3%), %), and from middle-income families (66.7%). Approximately 28.4% of respondents reported that the lockdown negatively impacted their social life, while 21.2% reported the lockdown had a positive impact. A total of 39.2% reported having issues accessing products or services, including essentials, such as groceries, or medical services. In addition, respondents reported an increase in stress and anxiety levels and a decrease in quality of life during the first 2 weeks of the lockdown.
Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown measures had an evident impact on the lives of post-secondary students, faculty, and staff. Further research is required to inform and improve policies to support these populations at both institutional and national levels.
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WORLD OCEAN TECH AND INNOVATION SUMMIT |
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HALIFAX CONVENTION CENTRE |
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Halifax, Nova Scotia
October 4-5, 2022
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Above by Andre Hugo - Nova Scotia Fishing Scene |
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Photo Credits: David Zakus |
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THANKS FOR READING THE FREE
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Current News on Ecological Wellness and Global Health
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