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HI,
Well, I’ve done it!! I’ve become another statistic, though not one I had been aiming for, believe me. Two days ago I became one of 3453 lab confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Ontario. What a disappointment, but on the bright side, after two days of hard symptoms they’ve largely passed and I’m back to feeling quite well again. Thank goodness, but the timing isn’t great with Christmas a couple days away, and me in self-isolation until a couple days post the day I so look forward to every year. At least I can listen to carols and watch the sun rise, the snow fall, Zoom with kids, and eat the great food a close friend delivered yesterday.
So many others, though, are being impacted much worse than me, with case numbers going through the roof right across Canada, and elsewhere. Yes, we’re in a whole new phase of the pandemic, and it rages with many new severe public health measures being (re)imposed. I already spend so much time following the latest Covid news, but now when watching press conferences of politicians and scientists I’ll be constantly reminded that I have real skin in the game.
As Omicron rages around the world, perhaps it now being the most highly infectious disease ever, kind of like measles before its vaccine, so highly infective. Time will tell about its ranking. So sad though when we have (and have had for about ten months now) the tools to defeat it, though rejected by enough to ensure its survival. And now the tools are losing effectiveness, requiring additional injections, but again this is nothing new with vaccines. At least, for now, the 3rd ‘booster’ is very effective and safe. A hospital resident who called me the other day, when chitchatting with her, told me she doesn’t expect Covid to ever go away, that we will have to adapt and live with it. Well, that’ll be maybe like we do with various other vaccine preventable diseases, though they never saw such a concerted kickback from a small minority of linked-up social media misled persons. That too is a disease.
I could continue on about how millions in Malaysia are now coping with extreme floods just as a major highway in British Columbia opened after being wiped out by an atmospheric river a month ago, but I’ll leave all this and more for when I have more energy :-)
I'm hoping you have more, though, for all the stories in today’s Planetary Health Weekly (#51 of 2021), including:
- COP26 AFTERMATH:
- COP26 signals phase-down of coal with increased ambition to keep 1.5 degrees alive (great summary),
- World coal power demand to hit new high after China, India, U.S. surge,
- The broken $100-billion promise of climate finance – and how to fix it,
- Alberta invited two Suncor oilsands executives to join COP26 guest list,
- Distraction, not biofuel, the likely output from Exxon algae initiative,
- CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
- The great Covid-19 infodemic: how disinformation networks are radicalizing Canadians,
- World cannot defeat pandemic in uncoordinated way: UN chief,
- South Africa develops own coronavirus vaccine,
- Scientists urge people to get boosters as Omicron found to reduce Covid-fighting antibodies, THEN
- UN deputy chief, women leaders, others proffer solutions to gender-based violence,
- 13th
Ebola outbreak in DR Congo is over,
- One-third of Arab world food insecure in 2020,
- Global energy transition could be a $61B opportunity for Alberta,
- Meet 1 of 20 young Yukoners helping preserve their language – by learning it,
- China’s ‘artificial sun’ brings nuclear fusion one step closer, breaking world record,
- Canada’s Covid policies in Africa reflect a long, troubling history,
- Australia looks to Canada as it launches inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women,
- Algonquins of Barriere Lake, Quebec struggling with a mental health crisis,
- Quoting "A COVID CHRISTMAS" poem,
- Warming trends: A regular column from Inside Climate News highlights climate-related studies, innovations, books, cultural events and other developments from the global warming frontier,
- Oceana Fishery Audit 2021,
- ‘A trash heap for our children’: how Norilsk, in the Russian Arctic, became one of the most polluted places on Earth,
- Afghanistan is in the midst of an economic, humanitarian and human rights catastrophe,
- New eBook: “The rise of buildings & places that help me thrive – how the WELL Building Standard sparked a movement (in Australia),
- A mapping of health education institutions and programs in the WHO African Region, and lastly
- ENDSHOTS from self-isolation today in northern Ontario amid latest stats and charts of Covid-19 in Canada and around the world.
BEST to ALL. Keep Well and Safe. Have Happy and Wonderful Holidays and MERRY CHRISTMAS, david
David Zakus, Editor and Publisher
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| Happy Shortest Day of the Year!!! |
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Tuntiak Katan, a leader of the Indigenous Organisations of the Amazon River Basin (COICA), spoke on forests at the summit. Credit: Karwai Tang/ UK Government
The 2021 U.N. Climate Change Summit, COP26, in Glasgow has raised both hopes and doubts that government and business leaders will deliver on pledges that could significantly reduce coal power and halt deforestation in order to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels this century.
The two-week event, which involved almost 200 countries and more than 40,000 registered participants, ended with a compromise agreement, the Glasgow Climate Pact, that – for the first time – calls on parties to phase “down” their use of unabated coal power and to phase out inefficient subsidies for fossil fuels.
In late-night negotiations over the final weekend, India and other nations succeeded in diluting the language in the Pact’s text to prevent a complete phasing “out” of coal, which accounts for 46% of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. Vulnerable countries, in particular, disapproved of the amendment but endorsed the final language in order to preserve other aspects of the pact.
“May I just say to all delegates, I apologize for the way this process has unfolded and I’m deeply sorry,” COP26 President Alok Sharma said after the negotiations. “I also understand the deep disappointment. But I think, as you have noted, it is also vital that we protect this package.”
The Pact also stresses the urgency of enhanced ambition and action this decade. Nations are encouraged to increase their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement ahead of next year’s at COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, whereas these plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions were formerly only expected to be updated by 2025.
Scientists say carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced by 45% from 2010 levels by 2030, and to net zero by 2050, in order to achieve the 1.5-degree target. Human activities have already caused around 1.1 degrees of global warming.
Even with all the pledges made in Glasgow, global greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 will still be around twice as high as necessary for the 1.5-degree limit, according to the Climate Action Tracker monitoring tool. The world is heading for at least 2.4 degrees of warming it said in its annual global update, which was released at the conference. Read more at Landscape News
See last week's PHW Editorial for DZ's summary of
COP26 Highlights
See Also:
At Reuters: World Coal Power Demand To Hit New High After China, India, U.S. Surge - IEA
At Nature: The Broken $100-Billion Promise Of Climate Finance — And How To Fix It
At National Observer: Alberta Invited Two Suncor Oilsands Executives To Join COP26 Guest List
At Energy Mix: Distraction, Not Biofuel, the Likely Output from Exxon Algae Initiative
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| SARS-CoV-2 & COVID-19 UPDATES |
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The Omicron variant is spreading like wildfire. Why are the unvaxed still occupying almost all the Covid-19 hospital beds? So many questions these days. Globally, the situation is still far from good. As we approach the end of 2021, is there an end in sight?
Over the last week there were about 5.3 million new cases (up about 6%) and 48,000 deaths (down slightly). These numbers have remained remarkedly similar for months now. About 287 million people received a vaccine, or an average of almost 40 million doses per day - continuing an impressive and upward trend, while distribution though still remains grossly distorted, favouring wealthy countries and the rich. Cases in Canada are up about 105% this week! See many stats and charts in ENDSHOTS.
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| "It is the plague in seemingly all sincerity." Bob Woodward |
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Credit: Global News
The COVID-19 “infodemic” — the spread of misinformation alongside the spread of a virus — has been described as one of the greatest threats to overcoming the pandemic. But it’s also nothing new; false narratives swirled around the polio vaccine in the 1950s, too. The major difference in 2021, is that we have social media.
While social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter say they are doing their best to stamp out COVID-19 misinformation, such groups continue to hide in plain sight. All they’ve done is gotten more creative with their names; searches for “anti vaccine Canada” won’t turn up any results, but plug in synonyms for “freedom” or “unity” and “Canada” and you’ll find plenty.
Others have migrated to alternative messaging sites such as Telegram. This is where you’ll find “Unvaxxed Canada,” “Vaccine Choice Canada” and “BC Interior Freedom Fighters” and the various region-specific and career-specific groups they have spawned, which include hundreds of members regularly espousing anti-vaccine sentiments. There are now groups for unvaccinated healthcare workers, teachers, police officers and federal employees.
Many share links to petitions challenging vaccine mandates, links to fake news stories about exaggerated vaccine side effects, and despite the inherent distrust of the mainstream media, links to news articles in the mainstream media. Information is shared about public venues — gyms and restaurants, mostly — not enforcing vaccine mandates. Channels of businesses against mandates exist with thousands of subscribers. Read more at Global News
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Credit: Article
UN Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed and other senior UN women leaders examined ways to end ‘invisible emergency’ of gender-based violence, which the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified. The top officials and heads of key UN agencies at a roundtable held from the UN Headquarters in New York, said women remained vulnerable to gender-based violence.
According to them, whether at home, at work, in the streets or even online, women and girls across the world remain highly vulnerable to gender-based violence, something which the COVID-19 pandemic has only magnified. Read more at The Sun
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Credit: AFP Photo
Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo) on Thursday declared the end of an Ebola outbreak that emerged in early October in North Kivu province and infected 11 people, killing six.
DR Congo declared its 13th outbreak of the disease on Oct. 8 in Beni in the east of the country, prompting fears of a repeat of a 2018-2020 epidemic that killed nearly 2,300 people in the same region, the second-highest toll recorded in the disease's history. "My warm congratulations to health workers in the health zone of Beni who have suspended their strike movement to cope with this epidemic," Health Minister Jean-Jacques Mbungani told an online news briefing.
The virus, which causes severe vomiting and diarrhea, and is spread through contact with body fluids, was first discovered near the Ebola River in 1976.
Health authorities vaccinated more than 1,800 people using Merck's recently licensed ERVEBO vaccine, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement.
"During this outbreak, the Democratic Republic of Congo was able to limit widespread infections and save lives. Crucial lessons are being learned and applied with every outbreak experience," said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO's Africa director. "Stronger disease surveillance, community engagement, targeted vaccination and prompt response are making for more effective Ebola containment in the region," Moeti said. Read more at Daily Sabah
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Hungry men reach for bread behind barbed wire while waiting to enter Tunisia after fleeing Libya on February 28, 2011 in Ras Jdir, Tunisia. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Nearly one-third of the Arab world’s population experienced food insecurity in 2020, according to a new report from the United Nations’ food agency.
Some 69 million in the region were undernourished in 2020, in what the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said Thursday was a 91% increase in the past two decades. Roughly 32% of the region lacked regular access to sufficient and nutritious food. The UN agency said the spike in undernourishment was observed across all income levels, in both conflict-ridden and stable countries.
The onset of COVID-19 was a major driver of food insecurity, with 4.8 million more people undernourished in 2020 than the year before. Along with the economic impact of the pandemic, food insecurity in 2020 was triggered by protracted crisis, social unrest, climate change and poverty, the report said. FAO warned that recent trends suggest the Arab region is unlikely to reach the UN's goal of zero hunger by 2030. Read more at AL Monitor
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Credit: Darryl Dyck/CP
The global energy transition could create 170,000 jobs in Alberta and contribute $61 billion to the province's GDP by 2050, according to a new study released Tuesday by provincial economic development groups.
The report — commissioned by Calgary Economic Development and Global Edmonton — suggests the global pursuit of climate goals and net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 could be a major boon for the province that still ranks traditional oil and gas as its No. 1 industry.
But the report also warns that if Alberta continues on a "business as usual path," it will be on track to a materially lower 20,000 new jobs and just $4 billion in GDP from clean technology sources by 2050.
The study — conducted by Delphi Group, Foresight Canada and Cleantech Group — suggests the province has the opportunity to leverage its existing assets and infrastructure, as well as its highly educated workforce, to capitalize on clean tech opportunities such as carbon capture and storage, hydrogen production and electrification. Read more at CBC
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Credit: Submitted by Nathan Easterson-Moore
Growing up in Burwash Landing, Yukon, Nathan Easterson-Moore learned some of the basics of the Southern Tutchone language, but it was minimal. In lessons at the community school, he learned the words used for some animals, greetings and other "small stuff," he said. But that all ended when he moved from Burwash.
Now, for the first time since he was in Grade 8 — almost five years ago — he's picking it up again, and getting paid for it too. He's among the 20 youth being paid to take classes full-time in their Indigenous language as part of a new program launched by the Council of Yukon First Nations, called The Youth Today: Language Leaders Tomorrow. The goal is to help keep Indigenous languages alive. Read more at CBC
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Credit: Chris Bolan, CC license
It’s time to wake up and smell the plasma, as thermonuclear fusion energy inches closer and closer to reality. In its quest to develop unlimited green energy, the EAST Fusion Facility in Heifei, China recently created a plasma gas that was heated to 120° million Celsius—that’s three-times hotter than the sun—and kept it there for 101 seconds before it dissipated, setting a new world record both for heat and duration.
“The breakthrough is significant progress, and the ultimate goal should be keeping the temperature at a stable level for a long time,” said Li Mao, director of physics at Southern University of Sci-Tech in Shenzhen. Read more at Good News Network
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| Canada's COVID Policies In Africa Reflect A Long, Troubling History |
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Credit: Shiraaz Mohamed/The Associated Press
NDP foreign affairs critic Heather McPherson labelled Canada's recent COVID-19 measures directed at southern Africa "racist". Unfortunately, Canada's policy toward Africa has long been that way. After the Conservative party's public safety critic called on the government to act against the "African variant," Canada banned travel from the southern part of the continent. This was Ottawa's way of "rewarding" South Africa for alerting the world to the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
The federal government subsequently added Nigeria, Malawi and Egypt to an Africa-only no-fly list, despite more Omicron cases confirmed in various European nations. Concurrently, the government introduced a rule requiring Canadians in southern Africa wanting to return to take a COVID test in a third country. Apparently, Ottawa trusts South African scientists' ability to sequence a new variant but not its PCR tests.
The World Health Organization (WHO) condemned the test measures and travel ban Canada introduced. This is not the first time Ottawa has been at odds with the WHO regarding pandemic inequity.
Canada has failed to support a World Trade Organization patent waiver for COVID-19 vaccines. At the same time as Canadian officials have worked against a year-old South African and Indian proposal designed to speed up vaccinations in poorer countries, they have been accused of hoarding COVID vaccines, purchasing enough doses to inoculate every Canadian five times. These measures have contributed to a stark inequity in which 6% of Africans are fully vaccinated, which increases the ability of the virus to spread and mutate. Read more at CBC
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Muriel Craig, centre in a black dress, and supporters, calling for justice for her daughter, Colleen Walker. Walker went missing in 1990 in Bowraville, New South Wales, when she was 16 years old. Craig is skeptical that Australia's new inquiry into murdered and missing First Nations women will lead to meaningful change. Credit: Muriel Craig
Australia will launch an inquiry into missing and murdered First Nations women and children after the country's Senate voted to form a committee to investigate systemic causes of violence.
The motion to launch the inquiry was brought by Sen. Dorinda Cox and Sen. Lidia Thorpe — both Indigenous women who are senators for the Australian Greens political party. Cox and Thorpe are also both family members of murdered Indigenous women.
These women have never had justice, Thorpe told the Senate when the motion was tabled on Nov. 25. "No justice, because they weren't important enough for investigations to happen around those murders." Thorpe, a DjabWurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman based in Melbourne, said her cousin was killed and dumped on a family member's front lawn.
Among the duties of the Senate inquiry will be to investigate the number of First Nations women and children who are missing or murdered in Australia. Although some data are collected by police services state-by-state, there is currently no national database tracking the number of women and children who have vanished or been killed. Read more at CBC
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| SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS |
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Credits, respectively: Rapid Lake Lodge; RapidLake.com; Canadian Encyclopedia
Algonquins of Barriere Lake officials in northwestern Quebec are struggling to address a months-long mental health crisis.
Their community of Rapid Lake, located about four hours from Montreal, has had a dozen suicide attempts in the last two and a half months. As well as two members who have taken their own lives. “The latest suicide hit a lot of people because she was such a huge person, she was a friend to everyone and she was just…that person, you know?” said Nicole Ratt, director of the Barriere Lake Health Centre “We didn’t think that would happen. That she would do that.” According to Ratt, the community’s team of front-line workers has been thinned by burnout. “We had a 24-hour crisis response team going on the weekends, there’s a total of four left. We were a team of ten,” explained Ratt.
Ratt said the social crisis team has very little support considering they frequently are the first on scene and can find themselves dealing with friends and family in crisis. Ratt does have counsellors who visit to work with her staff, but adds that it’s not enough.
“We’re a community that’s very small, so we’re all connected in some way,” said Ratt “It’s been hard to retain these workers [social crisis staff].” The community of about 600 is plagued with substance abuse and domestic violence. Many houses are overcrowded and in disrepair. And when things boil over, the nearest police station is an hour and half a way.
“I don’t want to give the connotation that we are a very dangerous, ferocious community,” says Barriere Lake Chief Tony Wawatie. “We’re just a community that’s suffering from the impacts of residential schools, the intergenerational impacts of Canada’s policies, Canadian settler state policies, and it pisses me off.” Wawatie says the band council is in discussions with federal and provincial agencies to get more support. He wants to put emphasis on long-term solutions for housing and policing fixed. In a perfect world, Wawatie envisions a healing lodge on the land to help address addiction and mental health issues.
“I don’t want to see another successful suicide, that’s enough. And we need the Canadian government to help us in all this, to provide us with these things that we are requesting.” Read more at APTN News
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| Credit: inhauscreative / Getty Images |
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A COVID CHRISTMAS (Tom McDonald via Decatur Tribune)
Twas the night before Christmas, but Covid was here,
So we all had to stay extra cautious this year.
Our masks were all hung by the chimney with care
In case Santa forgot his and needed a spare.
With Covid, we couldn't leave cookies or cake
So we left Santa hand sanitizer to take.
The children were sleeping, the brave little tots
The ones over 5 had just had their first shots,
And mom in her kerchief and me in my cap
Had just settled in for a long winter's nap.
But we tossed and we turned all night in our beds
As visions of variants danced in our heads.
Gamma and Delta and now Omicron
These Covid mutations that go on and on
I thought to myself, "If this doesn't get better,
I'll soon be familiar with every Greek letter".
Then just as I started to drift off and doze
A clatter of noise from the front lawn arose.
I leapt from my bed and ran straight down the stair
I opened the door, and an old gent stood there.
His N95 made him look pretty weird
But I knew who he was by his red suit and beard.
I kept six feet away but blurted out quick
" What are you doing here, jolly Saint Nick?"
Then I said, "Where's your presents, your reindeer and sleigh?
Don't you know that tomorrow will be Christmas Day?"
And Santa stood there looking sad in the snow
As he started to tell me a long tale of woe.
He said he'd been stuck at the North Pole alone
All his white-collar elves had been working from home,
And most of the others said "Santa, don't hire us!
We can live off the CERB now, thanks to the virus".
Those left in the toyshop had little to do.
With supply chain disruptions, they could make nothing new.
And as for the reindeer, they'd all gone away.
None of them left to pull on his sleigh.
He said Dasher and Dancer were in quarantine,
Prancer and Vixen refused the vaccine,
Comet and Cupid were in ICU,
So were Donner and Blitzen, they may not pull through.
And Rudolph's career can't be resurrected.
With his shiny red nose, they all think he's infected.
Even with his old sleigh, Santa couldn't go far.
Every border to cross needs a new PCR.
Santa sighed as he told me how nice it would be
If children could once again sit on his knee.
He couldn't care less if they're naughty or nice
But they'd have to show proof that they'd had their shot twice.
But then the old twinkle returned to his eyes.
And he said that he'd brought me a Christmas surprise.
When I unwrapped the box and opened it wide,
Starlight and rainbows streamed out from inside.
Some letters whirled round and flew up to the sky
And they spelled out a word that was 40 feet high.
There first was an H, then an O, then a P,
Then I saw it spelled HOPE when it added the E.
"Christmas magic" said Santa as he smiled through his beard.
Then suddenly all of the reindeer appeared.
He jumped into his sleigh and he waved me good-bye,
Then he soared o'er the rooftops and into the sky.
I heard him exclaim as he drove out of sight
"Get your vaccines my friends, Merry Christmas, good-night".
Then I went back to bed and a sweet Christmas dream
Of a world when we'd finished with Covid-19.
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- January 16-17, 2022: 6th International Covid 19 Studies Conference (New York, USA). By Institute of Economic Development and Social Researches)
Open to all covid-19 and pandemic studies from all disciplines.
Presentations will be in disciplinary sessions, inp-erson and online participation.
- March 28th-April 1st, 2022: Healthy People, Healthy Planet, Social Justice. (CUGH Virtual Satellite Sessions: March 21st-25th, 2022)
- April 1-3, 2022: CUGH 2022 Global Health Conference - Hybrid: Healthy People, Healthy Planet, Social Justice (Los Angeles, California). Virtual Satellite Sessions: March 21-25, 2022; In-person Satellite Sessions: March 31, 2022
- April 23 - 25, 2022: 8th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies for Ageing Well and e-Health (online streaming)
- May 14-15, 2022: Canadian Conference on Global Health (Montreal, Quebec)
- May 15-19, 2022: 24th World Conference on Health Promotion (Montreal, Quebec)
- October 31 - November 4, 2022: 7th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (Bogotá, Colombia)
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| FYI#1 SPOTLIGHT ON MEDIA |
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| Warming Trends: A Potential Decline in Farmed Fish, Less Ice on Minnesota Lakes and a ‘Black Box’ for the Planet |
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Credit: Scott Olson/Getty Images
Inside the “black box” recovered from an airplane crash, investigators can find out everything that led up to the mishap, piecing together weather conditions, mechanical failures and the dialogue between the pilot, the copilot and the control tower, to figure out what went wrong.
With the planet heading for its own, climate-driven disastrous crash, several groups in Australia are collaborating to create “Earth’s Black Box,” a building that will store data on temperature changes, ocean acidity, solar radiation and hundreds of other climate indicators, as well as speeches and media coverage of policymakers, the “pilots” attempting to steer Earth away from a fiery crash.
“Really what we want to have this box do is actually help people realize when they do say something and when they do pledge something, when they do think about something good or bad, that the box will record it,” said Michael Ritchie, managing director of Revolver, an Australian production company working on the Earth’s Black Box project.
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Credit: Article
Oceana Canada’s fifth annual Fishery Audit assesses the current state of Canada’s fisheries and fisheries management, tracks progress from 2017–2021 and provides recommendations to meet federal policy commitments to return wild fish populations to abundance in Canada’s oceans.
This report focuses exclusively on Canada’s marine fisheries. This includes finfish, shellfish and other invertebrates but not freshwater fish or fish, like salmon, that spend part of their life in freshwater. The 2021 data in this report covers the period from July 2, 2020, to July 1, 2021.
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| FYI #3 |
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| ‘A Trash Heap For Our Children’: How Norilsk, In The Russian Arctic, Became One Of The Most Polluted Places on Earth |
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It was 2 a.m. and the sun was shining, as it does day and night in mid-July in Norilsk, a Siberian city 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
Igor Klyushin went to the bank of the river where he used to fish with his father for grayling, a sleek and dorsal-finned beauty known for its graceful leaps above the water surface. “A very merry fish,” Klyushin recalled. “It enjoys cold and clean, clean water.”
He doubted there would be grayling there that night, but if there were, authorities had long warned it was unsafe to fish for them in the Daldykan River.
And besides, he wasn’t there to fish. He began to record video of the clay-colored muck flowing downriver from somewhere beyond a railway overpass that is a gateway to one of the largest metal mining and smelting complexes in the world. The discolored water represented “the latest environmental crime of Norilsk Nickel,” Klyushin said in the video he posted on “Norilchane”— or “Citizens of Norilsk”—the YouTube channel he helps moderate.
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| FYI #4 |
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| Afghanistan Is In The Midst Of An Economic, Humanitarian And Human Rights Catastrophe |
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Credit: WFP Food Distribution
Afghanistan is in the midst of a humanitarian and human rights disaster. Since the fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban in August, the Afghan economy has been in a tailspin. A major liquidity crisis is causing widespread suffering among the Afghan people including severe food insecurity.
Meanwhile, a new report from Human Rights Watch details a spate of summary executions and violence meted out by the newly installed de-facto Taliban government. Patricia Gossman, Associate Asia Director for Human Rights Watch, explains Afghanistan’s concurrent human rights, humanitarian, and economic crises– and what the international community can do to lessen the suffering of Afghans as winter sets in.
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| FYI #5: DECEMBER READING: NEW EBOOK |
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| “The Rise Of Buildings & Places That Help Me Thrive – How The WELL Building Standard Sparked A Movement” |
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Credit: Books
We’re excited to publish today (and make freely available) our latest ebook, "The rise of buildings and places that help me thrive – How the WELL Building Standard sparked a movement." It’s published in collaboration with the International WELL Building Institute.
What a great story to tell.
When we first wrote about WELL – and we claim we were the first in Australia to do so – we knew this was something big. The industry instantly took it to heart and today Australia leads the Asia Pacific region in take up of WELL-certified buildings for commercial space with a quarter of all commercial office space now WELL-enrolled.
The amount of floor space falling under that umbrella in the APAC region now totals a gobsmacking 80 million square metres. But how was that number reached? What were the business and human drivers that make this such a success story? The story of WELL is one borne of necessity and that of a great idea whose time has come.
Our book takes you through the logic of that take up and delves into the case studies from companies such as Lendlease, Investa and Charter Hall to explain why these leading property owners jumped on the bandwagon.
We also take an international look in this book at how National University of Singapore and Canadian based Oxford Properties have integrated the opportunities.
When you think of what WELL actually encourages and assesses – air, water, nourishment, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind and community – you can see what all the fuss is about.
Enjoy!
Tina Perinotto
Managing editor and publisher
The Fifth Estate , Australia
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| FYI#6: SPOTLIGHT ON EDUCATION |
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| A Mapping Of Health Education Institutions And Programs In The WHO African Region |
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Credit: Article
Background: Information on health education institutions is required for planning, implementing and monitoring human resources for health strategies. Details on the number, type and distribution of medical and health science programs offered by African higher education institutions remains scattered.
Results: Nine hundred and nine (909) institutions were identified in the 47 countries. Together they offered 1,157 health professional programs (235 medicine, 718 nursing, 77 public health and 146 pharmacy) and 1,674 post-graduate programs (42 certificates, 1,152 Master’s and 480 PhDs). Regionally, East Africa had the most countries with multiple academic health science centres - institutions offering medical degrees and at least one other health professional program. Among countries, South Africa had the most institutions and post-graduate programs with 182 and 596, respectfully. A further five countries had between 53-105 institutions, 12 countries had between 10 and 37 institutions, and 28 countries had between one and eight institutions. One country had no institution. Countries with the largest populations and gross domestic products had significantly more health education institutions and produced more scientific research (ANOVA testing).
Discussion: We envision an online database being made available in a visually attractive, user-friendly, open access format that nationally, registered institutions can add to and update. This would serve the needs of trainees, administrators, planners and researchers alike and support the World Health Organization’s Global strategy on human resources for health: workforce 2030.
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WINTER'S SHORTEST DAYS
WHITEFISH LAKE & HAWKRIGG LANE, ONTARIO
DECEMBER 23, 2021
Amid Latest Covid-19 Stats and Charts from Canada and Around the World
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| Photo Credits: David Zakus |
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