HI,
What is it going to take - to add two and two together? Many Albertans are now fleeing their homes to escape wildfires, a state of emergency has been declared, areas are expecting 15C (27F) higher temperatures than usual, yet all their oil companies will continue with impunity to mine and ship their destructive product around the world to keep lights on, and bring them similar fates. When will we really take seriously the need to develop sufficient renewable Earth safe sources of energy to meet our needs? Some renewable sources are now even cheaper than the gas and oil lighting the fires and burning homes to the ground, destroying families and societies. This is not just in Alberta but just about everywhere; it's constantly in the news.
Right now Alberta’s wildfires are 150 times worse than the previous average for this time of year and many of the 80 fires burning are still out of control. This is just another record being set in the region. Maybe, with current concerns, they forget the burning down of tar sands city Fort McMurray in 2016 causing 88,000 people to flee, or the incineration of Lytton, BC (just next door) that destroyed 90% of its structures in 2021, a day after it recorded Canada's highest ever temperature. Is this just nature or the result of continuing human folly? Are we just stupid, suicidal or too addicted to seeing the rich get richer?
What’s wrong with Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith, who wants to keep polluting our atmosphere. Some six weeks ago, at a conference in Ottawa, she complained of federal government policy to attempt to decrease GHG emissions and said: “We're a natural gas basin in Alberta, it makes sense for us to heat our homes with natural gas, it makes sense for us to have gas stoves, it makes sense for us to have electricity that is powered by natural gas.” Does it make sense that they should also burn their houses to the ground?
When will she and others in position of power stop contributing to endangering the lives of their citizens with policies that keep us speeding down the road to destruction. Alberta even cancelled funds for an elite wildfire-fighting crew in 2019 despite pleas to keep the program, just to save US$1m.
So many extreme weather events (let alone rising seas, etc.) are right now destroying lives and livelihoods all around the world. Why cannot she, and other such hapless politicians (“drill baby drill”), see what’s happening and start acting ethically and responsibly, not just doing whatever will garner them political points, or election financing, from those also harbouring out-of-date and destructive perspectives. Why is there such a deficit of responsible leadership?
Why do we put up with a system where corporate delinquents are so highly rewarded for working towards the destruction of our common home? How can it be that last year Saudi Arabia’s oil company Aramco posted profits of $161 billion from the production and sales of substances proven destructive to our common humanity? And they aren’t alone. Canadian Natural Resources Limited ($11b), Shell ($40b), ExxonMobil ($57b), Total ($36b), BP ($28b), Russia ($146b), etc. are similarly raking it in – even while growing millions are going hungry in their neighbourhoods.
With each passing day we are losing time against the climate crisis. My feeling is the gains from many trying their hardest and investing their money are being outdone by the setbacks you’ve read about here and in many of the stories in the Planetary Health Weekly, including those in today’s edition #19 of 2023.
Do read on. Best, david
David Zakus, Editor and Publisher
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SUNRISE AT WHITEFISH LAKE - 6:23AM |
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IN COMPLETE SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE SEEKING PEACE AND VICTORY |
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"TYPHUS IN UKRAINE DURING CIVIL WAR (1918-1920)" |
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Hungry people in railroad stations were the main source of the typhus bacteria. Epidemic typhus is spread to people through contact with infected body lice. During World War I and the Russian Civil War between the White and Red, the typhus epidemic caused 2–3 million deaths out of 20–30 million cases in Russia between 1918 and 1922. It is rare today, the latest outbreak was in Burundi in 1997; it can be treated by antibiotic doxycycline. Epidemic Typhus | Typhus Fevers | CDC There is no vaccine to prevent epidemic typhus. Artist: S. Odaynk in: "The Way Artists See It" (1994; p. 118) by A. Grando, founder and director of the Central Museum of Medicine of Ukraine in Kyiv. (ISBN
5-7707-6698-0) |
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AND SOLIDARITY TOO WITH THE BRAVE PROTESTERS IN IRAN (AND AFGHANISTAN AND RUSSIA) |
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CLIMATE AND BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES
GLOBAL HEALTH NEWS
MILNER ON BIODIVERSITY BLOG #14: "Farmers and the Countryside"
SPOTLIGHT ON HUMAN RIGHTS
SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS
SPOTLIGHT ON POLICY
SPOTLIGHT ON MEDIA
SPOTLIGHT ON EDUCATION
MAY READING - NEW BOOK
QUOTE OF THE WEEK on UAE Oil Company and the influence of its oil industry on upcoming COP28
FYI #1
FYI #2
UPCOMING EVENTS
ENDSHOTS: More Early Spring Signs of Renewal
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CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES |
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Analysis: China's New Coal Plants Set to Become a Costly Second Fiddle to Renewables |
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Credit: China Electricity Council, Reuters, Kripa Jayaram and David Stanway
China's plans for some 100 new coal-fired power plants to back up wind and solar capacity have sparked warnings that the world's second-biggest economy is likely to end up lumbered with even more loss-making power assets. Analysts question the logic of policies that intend to reduce the role of the dirtiest fossil fuel but at the same time require more coal-fired power plants to be built - especially given that only a small number of older plants are typically retired each year. The plans also highlight how local government interests have impeded the development of an effective nationwide power market that would allow surplus power to be delivered to regions that need it. "The reality is that China has more coal power capacity than it needs," said Zhang Shuwei, director at Draworld Energy Research Centre. "It doesn't make sense to give more incentives for more coal-fired power investments."
China is the world's largest and fastest-growing producer of renewable energy, which is expected to account for a third of all power supplied to its grid by 2025, up from 28.8% in 2020. But it was scarred by a record drought last year that slashed hydropower output, forcing factories throughout the southwest to shut down and raising concerns that power shortages could undermine its post-COVID economic recovery. The experience increased its determination not to be too reliant on the intermittent nature of wind and solar power and has made China the only major economy building new coal-powered plants.
The construction of 106 gigawatts of coal-fired power was approved last year - four times more than in 2021 and the highest amount since 2015, according to research published last month by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor (GEM). That's equivalent to about a hundred large coal-fired plants and enough to supply the whole of Britain. At least 50 GW of that capacity began construction in 2022, the report said.
China's big jump in coal power approvals has sparked fears that there will be backsliding on its climate goals.
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The Laundromat: How the Price Cap Coalition Whitewashes Russian Oil in Third Countries |
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Credit: CREA Analysis Based on Kpler Data
Western countries that have largely banned the imports of oil from Russia imported EUR 42 billion worth of oil products from countries that have increased imports of Russian crude oil in the 12 month period since Russia’s invasion. Well into the second year of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU, most of the G7 countries, and Australia have cracked down on their imports of Russian crude oil and oil products. At the same time, these countries, which are all part of the price-cap coalition whose objective is to limit Russia’s revenues from fossil fuel exports, have increased imports of refined oil products by leaps and bounds from the countries that have become the largest importers of Russian crude oil. A CREA report takes an in-depth look at the laundering of Russian oil by countries importing Russian crude and then selling oil products on to price-cap coalition countries that have sanctioned Russian oil.
Key Findings:
- The EU, most of G7 and Australia have banned or limited imports of Russian crude oil and oil products, leading to a significant fall in Russia’s oil prices and export revenues. However, these price cap coalition countries have increased imports of refined oil products from countries that have become the largest importers of Russian crude. This is a major loophole that can undermine the impact of the sanctions on Russia.
- One year on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the price cap coalition countries increased the imports of refined oil products from China (+3.6 million tonnes or +94%), India (+0.3 million tonnes or +2%), Turkey (+1.8 million tonnes or +43%), UAE (+2.6 million tonnes or +23%) and Singapore (+1.8 million tonnes or +33%). Price cap coalition countries’ imports of refined oil products from these five countries rose by +10 million tonnes (+26%) or EUR 18.7 bln (+80% in value terms) in the year since Russia’s invasion compared to the prior year. We call these five countries that have increased purchases of Russian oil and “launder” it into products shipped to countries having sanctioned Russian oil the “laundromat” countries.
- Among the price cap coalition, the largest importer of oil products from the laundromat countries was the EU, whose imports amounted to EUR 17.7 bln. Australia purchased EUR 8.0 bln worth in the 12 month period since Russia’s invasion, followed by the USA (EUR 6.6 bln), the UK (EUR 5.0 bln) and Japan (EUR 4.8 bln). The highest proportions of imported oil products into oil price cap coalition countries were diesel (29%), jet fuel (23%) and gasoil (13%).
- China’s monthly exports of oil products to Europe and Australia spiked in late 2022, far above historical levels. In the lead up to sanctions on Russian oil, China significantly increased its oil products exports, reaching 2.9 million tonnes in Q4 of 2022 which was 150% higher than the quarterly average in 2022.
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Provincial State of Emergency Declared in Alberta as Wildfires Spread and More Residents Flee |
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A smoke column rises from a wildfire near Shining Bank, Alta. on May 5, 2023.
Credit: Alberta Wildfire/ Handout via Reuters
The Alberta government has declared a provincial state of emergency as out-of-control wildfires force more residents from their homes. Under the Emergency Management Act, declaring a state of emergency is a legal mechanism that provides the provincial government with a higher level of intergovernmental co-ordination by working with municipalities, organizations, and businesses to support evacuated residents. This also allows around the clock monitoring of the situation, access to emergency discretionary funds, the ability to mobilize additional support.
Nearly 25,000 Albertans have been forced from their homes as wildfires continue to rage in north and central Alberta, while 5,200 residents are on evacuation alert. The number of active fires increased to 110 from 103, as hot and dry conditions led to fast-spreading wildfires that threatened homes, businesses and lives. Thirty-six of those fires were considered out-of-control.
"I want to assure everyone that our province has the right tools, the right technology, and the right resources in place to tackle this challenge, and they will get the supports that they need," Smith said. The federal government is on standby to help, if needed, Smith said. "It's a high danger time, but I do have to say this year is significantly higher as far as hectares burned than we've seen in the last five years," wildfire information officer Christie Tucker said during the media briefing. She added that close to 350,000 hectares of land have burned since Jan 1. as of Saturday evening. Tucker said that on average, the total hectares burned at this time of year usually sits at around 800.
"The City of Edmonton Reception Centre [is providing] temporary lodging, food services, clothing, health care and animal care for people evacuated," it said. Residents will be offered space in the curling rink. The town is also working on providing space for residents travelling with holiday trailers.
Rain will help firefighting efforts. One of the largest evacuations is in the Edson area, including the town's 8,000 residents. People in that area are being told to evacuate to Jasper or Hinton, as parts of Highway 16 east of the area are closed. Edson remains under "significant threat" from an out-of-control wildfire 14 kilometres southeast of the town. The fire had consumed about 78,000 hectares at the last estimate, Alberta Wildfire said in an update Sunday morning. The forecast is favourable for the next few days, with trace amounts of rain and overcast conditions in the Edson forest area, which "should assist with firefighting efforts," the update said.
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MORE CLIMATE CRISIS RELATED NEWS |
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International Nurses Day & Florence Nightingale |
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Credit: Hulton Archive/ Getty Images
May 12 is International Nurses Day, and also the birthday of Florence Nightingale, who is considered the founder of modern nursing. This comes as a survey of nurses released last week shows many are thinking about leaving the profession due to a substantial decline in work satisfaction and a significant increase in stress levels brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read More About Florence Nightingale at https://kids.nationalgeographi...
Florence Nightingale just wanted to help. As a young woman in England in the 1840s, she saw how hard it was for poor people to get help when they were sick. She wanted to be a nurse, but her rich parents thought that the job was beneath her, that she should instead marry a wealthy man. Defying what most women of her time would do, she went to Germany to study nursing. The mostly male doctors of the day focused on treating the diseases patients came into the hospital with, and not necessarily on how the diseases spread. (The idea of germs spreading diseases hadn’t quite caught on yet.) But while volunteering at a hospital during a cholera outbreak, Nightingale noticed that people were catching and spreading diseases inside the hospital itself. It was then she realized that dirty conditions inside hospitals might be spreading diseases, and that if hospitals were cleaner, patients might be safer.
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FDA Approves First RSV Vaccine, a Long- Sought Scientific Achievement |
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Credit: Kenzo Tribouillard/ AFP via Getty Images
The Food and Drug Administration licensed the first-ever vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, completing an elusive quest that has been decades in the making. The product, GSK’s Arexvy, was approved for adults ages 60 and older. GSK is a vaccine that was developed by Pfizer and aimed at the same demographic is expected to be approved by the end of the month.
Phil Dormitzer, GSK’s senior vice president and global head of vaccines research and development, spoke of the sense of promise that many in the field of RSV research and prevention are currently feeling. “There’s just the broad excitement of finally, after all these years, having good options emerging for RSV,” Dormitzer told STAT in an interview. “I guess also the triumph of the basic science — the fact that a very basic study … really changed the hunt for a vaccine and led to one or even more than one potential products coming forward to prevent RSV.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must recommend the vaccines before they can be pushed into the marketplace. That will likely happen after a CDC vaccine expert panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, meets on June 21 and 22.
A vaccine to protect infants in their first six months of life — the age group at highest risk of being hospitalized with RSV — is expected to gain FDA approval later this year. Developed by Pfizer, it is designed to be given to pregnant people to generate antibodies that protect both the pregnant person and their newborn. Also up for approval soon is an antibody treatment, to be marketed in the U.S. by Sanofi, that would be given as an injection after birth or near the start of RSV season to protect in the first year of life.
In the United States, pediatric deaths from RSV are not common but the infection is the No. 1 cause of hospitalizations for children under the age of 1. Globally, however, it is the second leading cause of death in children under 1, after malaria.
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"FARMERS AND THE COUNTRYSIDE" |
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During a career making documentary films about environmental topics, I have frequently interviewed farmers and foresters. They have always struck me as having a proprietorial view of the countryside based on a clear belief that they were not only technical experts but also the true ‘custodians of the natural world’ – their mission apparently to defend it from changes to their current practices. This included fending off the malign influence of ignorant ‘townies’ (including presumptuous filmmakers) - a generic term for politicians, scientists, wildlife experts and tourists, all of whom they assumed to be not only out of touch with the true essence of the countryside but also possibly harbouring malevolent feelings towards it – and them. To some extent the feeling has been mutual; after all, the term ‘country yokel’ suggests not just contempt but even pity. To what extent this mutual suspicion applies throughout Europe I’m not sure, but I think I have detected something similar in other countries from Portugal to Sweden. On occasion I have had to admit that these self-styled custodians aren’t entirely wrong; in the UK some of the policies handed down by both the Ministry of Agriculture (or Defra, as it is now), and the European Commission in Brussels, have been, to say the least, misguided and often contradictory, driven by the sole purpose of increasing food production at any cost. As a number of reports have shown, biodiversity has suffered, with conservation organisations pitted against the commercial interests of farmers, water companies and the whole agri-business conglomeration.
Since the Second World War, British politicians have encouraged the corporate world to move into the countryside in a big way. Over time, this seems to have completely compromised much of the rural community; UK fertiliser and pesticide use is now among the highest in Europe. Studies show that not only are the profit-driven water companies releasing raw sewage into rivers on a regular basis, but agricultural run-off and direct pollution from business-oriented intensive cultivation and livestock-rearing activities has defiled our waterways for decades. Hedges have been ripped out on an industrial scale, leaving some landscapes alarmingly featureless while once-common farmland birds have shown dramatic declines (the worst in Western Europe), as have many insect populations. So much for caring about nature. In some cases, it’s far too profitable not to, in others, it’s the only way to survive as a viable farm unit under prevailing economic pressures, and when small farms can no longer survive they are gobbled up by industrial-scale farming enterprises.
Climate change has compounded an already bad situation arising from other threats such as water shortages and the loss of topsoil. As ‘custodians of the countryside’ one might expect that farmers would be in the vanguard in trying to halt and reverse all these negative developments, if only to promote the long-term prospects of their own way of life. Yet farming organisations have a long history of obstructing the regulation of damaging activities such as restricting artificial chemical use. This is not a new phenomenon – it’s more than fifty years since Rachel Carson raised the alarm about the impact of industrial chemicals such as DDT in the wider environment more than half a century ago (Silent Spring, 1962). Her message was fought by the chemical industry tooth and nail at the time and, alas, one could be left with the feeling that little has changed since. A recent letter published in The Scotsman referred to Carson’s ‘dystopian view of modern agriculture’, as if the fault was her viewpoint, when her conclusions were drawn from sound scientific research, and the loss of birdlife well documented.
In this context, a recent news item from the Netherlands, one of Europe’s leading agriculture-based economies, is more than a little puzzling. Far from being concerned about the effects of nitrogen pollution and so backing backing policies to reduce it, the Farmer-Citizen Movement (BBB), a new right-wing political party, is objecting to the Government’s whole climate and biodiversity strategy, which they apparently portray as politicians (‘townies’) trampling on individuals’ rights – their rights, as has been pointed out, to continue being wholesale polluters. This in the face of generous offers from the EU to close down highly polluting livestock farms. The problem in the Netherlands is not a new one. Forty years ago, reports of excess pesticide use and increased pollution due to livestock farming did result in policy proposals to curtail them, to reduce livestock numbers and restore more environmentally friendly methods. These proposals were all voted down. Farmers and agribusiness corporations were making too much money and everything was expanding and intensifying – so slowing down was not an option. The true costs involved have never been paid.
Is it naïve to expect that farmers (of all people) should be aware of and be concerned about, changes to the countryside caused by industrialised agriculture? Haven’t they noticed the appalling state of our rivers due to sewage and agricultural pollution? Or the losses of biodiversity from familiar farmland birds to common insects including natural pollinators? You might expect that they would be in the vanguard campaigning most strongly for the protection of nature – due to their close association with the natural world and role as ‘countryside guardians’? Yet some farmers are apparently dead set against initiatives aimed at improving biodiversity by, for example, limiting nitrogen emissions. Throughout Europe the farming industry (and I use the term ‘industry’ quite deliberately because it is industrial-scale farming that is the major issue) spends millions lobbying Governments against such measures, and fights to block any proposals that would change current methods, even when offered subsidies to do so. Who actually cares about the losses of biodiversity? When a chicken farm leaks nitrogenous wastes into the local river, there is a real cost to the environment and thus to the whole community. But as with the manufacturers of other toxic and polluting products such as long-lasting chemicals and single-use plastics, agribusiness is effectively subsidised by never having to pay for the damage it causes. The Polluter Pays principle is generally accepted as the only equitable way to assess true costs, yet in the countryside it rarely, if ever, applied – the recent case of a jail term for a farmer canalising the protected River Lugg (BBC News ,20 April 2023) continuing to be very much the exception rather than the rule. How many illegal outflows of foul waste from chicken farms are prosecuted? Virtually none.
I have found other self-styled custodians of the countryside to be pretty suspect too. When making a film about the misguided afforestation of the Flow Country in northern Scotland (On the Great Peatlands, 1987, ACACIA Productions), I interviewed a local representative of the UK Government’s Forestry Commission, proud of his professional responsibilities as a forester, who tried to persuade me that draining vast peatlands and planting them with fast-growing Sitka spruce trees was ‘good for biodiversity’. He quoted a study that showed the arrival of several species of common garden birds now to be found in and around these new plantations. The loss of rare species that depended on the pre-existing peatland concerned him less. And so one or two rare species had been replaced by several common ones. Elsewhere, Sitka spruce had even been planted among ancient Scots pines in some remnants of the Caledonian Forest. Both schemes were backed by major commercial interests and generous Government tax incentives. Following an outcry, this form of planting had recently been recognised as a mistake, so suddenly changing tack the Forestry Commission man I interviewed became bullish about the process of removing these aliens and wanted credit for efforts in restoring native forest! Overall, the damage done to peatlands and
ancient forests during this time was unconscionable, yet the fiction that foresters remained diligent environmental custodians was apparently unshaken.
What these stories have in common is the fiction that single-minded commercial priorities are compatible with responsible stewardship. So long as the true costs are ignored the whole approach is clearly unsustainable. A more sophisticated approach is required, but the motivation for this seems unlikely to come from these self-styled custodians. The fanatics of the Dutch BBB party are on the wrong side of history; they should have been campaigning years ago – against the mistaken policies that resulted in such environmental damage. Sadly, the whole chemical-based system of industrial farming has become too profitable and like drug addiction the possibility of change gradually becomes more and more difficult. There are individual farmers and foresters with a longer-term vision, but for the farming industry as a whole to claim that the health of the rural environment is safe in its hands, is at best naïve and at worst cynically manipulative.
Edward Milner, London, UK
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SPOTLIGHT ON HUMAN RIGHTS |
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Human Rights Initiatives Are Too Important to Allow Them to Fail Through Technical Weakness, Donor Indulgence, and Great Powers Cynicism |
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Credit: The Walthew Law Firm
This Reader (the latest of a weekly series from Claudio Schuftan) is about fears of claim holders facing rising cost-of-living expenses and inflation in the absence of collective rights.
Below is a quick overview:
1. Claim holders have always lived in fear, yet, claim holders, their poverty, and their fears, have only been a study material.
2. Fear derails any kind of cognitive act. Fear often has extremely mal-adaptive consequences.
3. Problems about which we intellectuals usually have doubts, claim holders are very clear about. We learn from them - and they learn from us... although the latter much less! The dramatic impact of increased cost-of-living on claim holders' realization of their human rights, particularly economic and social rights is clear. Cost-of-living issues are often caused by supranational factors.
4. Disparity reduction is not contemplated under the UN's ICESCR.
5. HR activists already outlined several measure key to ensure a human-centered approach to the cost-of-living crisis.
a) Targeted cash transfers,
b) The prioritization of public spending, and
c) Progressive taxation
Claim holders are impacted by inflation.
6. Retrogression can only be justified if such actions were necessary, non-discriminatory, proportional, and temporary in nature. must also have involved participation of affected groups. The obligation of states to avoid retrogression is clearly established in international human rights law.
7. Given the impacts of cost-of-living measures (and inflation monitoring of HR important. Trust-but-verify must be the gist achieved through observable measures.
Are individual or collective rights (or both) being violated here?
8. Most current constitutional designs do not include the search for effective and workable collective rights. The world community, including the UN system do not have effective measures/ in a diverse, multi-ethnic society are respected and protected.
It is impossible to understand a country’s collective human rights record without seeing how it differs from other countries (Seymour M. Lipsett). Those who know only one country know no country.
9. In the United States, the law focuses on individual rights, not on collective rights. US law claims to be 'racially bling. This blindness leads to disregarding HR. The US unipolar hegemony is unsustainable. The problem is that the U.S. empire itself does not know this.
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SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS |
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Missing: Why are Children Disappearing from B.C.'s Child Welfare System? |
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Credit: Report Cover
Stories of children and youth who are lost or missing from the child welfare system continue to emerge as an area of concern across Canada, in some cases resulting in tragic and preventable injuries and deaths. Missing presents findings by RCY on children and youth who are missing, “running from,” or “hiding from,” the care system. It also examines how the child welfare system and other child-serving systems have created conditions that lead to children being lost in care. There is currently no complete and accurate measure of the number of children who are lost or missing from B.C.’s child welfare system. The Representative was able to identify at least 6% of children in the system’s care whose whereabouts were unknown over the course of this review, and suspects the number is likely considerably higher given the ministry’s (self-assessed) poor reporting compliance. Between April 1 and Dec. 31, 2022, RCY received 520 reports regarding children and youth whose whereabouts were unknown and for whom there were safety concerns. These reports represented 198 distinct children, and an average of 37 children who went missing one or more times per month. During the same time frame, the ministry’s Provincial Centralized Screening received 12,262 reports regarding children and youth whose whereabouts were unknown and for whom there were no safety concerns, for an average of 432 distinct children each month who went missing one or more times. Taken together, this information suggests that nearly 470 children in care whose whereabouts are unknown are reported within/to MCFD every month.
Indigeneity
All the monitoring and research data reviewed for this issues brief note the over-representation of Indigenous children and youth in missing populations both in the child welfare system and the general population. A missing persons review of police data in Australia, revealed that 26% of the children who went missing and 34% of youth who went missing from their care system were Indigenous. MCFD reported that 65% of its April 2015 to March 2018 sample were Indigenous and RCY found that 54.4% of its April to December 2022 sample were Indigenous. These findings mirror the higher-than-average missing person rates for Indigenous people across Canada, particularly for Indigenous women and girls.
Research shows that historical and ongoing systemic inequalities have created conditions of unbelonging for Indigenous children and youth and that these inequalities can be attributed to acts of colonial violence that displace Indigenous children from their traditional homelands, disconnect them from their culture and languages, and disadvantage them through the acceptance of high rates of poverty, homelessness, food insecurity and violence.
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Policy Impact and Future Directions for Behavioral Economics - New Report |
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Credit: Part of the Report Cover
A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine calls for increased collaboration between behavioral economists and policymakers and examines the future research directions for the field of behavioral economics.
While economists consider behavioral influences in their work, behavioral economics is a narrower field that incorporates insights from the behavioral sciences into economic models of human behavior. These insights can be applied to policies to encourage people to make choices that, for example, promote health, support financial well-being, or protect the environment. The new report highlights how behavioral economics has built invaluable evidence about why people may act in seemingly irrational ways, how they respond to interventions, and how public policy can be designed to help people make better decisions.
The committee that wrote the report explored current research in health, retirement benefits, social safety net benefits, climate change, education, and criminal justice. The report provides recommendations for researchers, policymakers, universities, and government units to increase collaboration, pursue research about the application of behavioral economics, integrate behavioral specialists into policy development, and increase investment in interdisciplinary research.
Behavioral Economics: Policy Impact and Future Directions examines the evidence for behavioral economics and its application in six public policy domains: health, retirement benefits, climate change, social safety net benefits, climate change, education, and criminal justice. The report concludes that the principles of behavioral economics are indispensable for the design of policy and recommends integrating behavioral specialists into policy development within government units. In addition, the report calls for strengthening research methodology and identifies research priorities for building on the accomplishments of the field to date.
The report, Behavioral Economics: Policy Impact and Future Directions, is now available for immediate release.
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China Migrants Use Social Media on Long Trek to the U.S. |
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Migrants from China disembark from the motorized boat they used to cross the Rio Grande river into the U.S. from Mexico and are pointed towards the town cemetery in Fronton, Texas, U.S., April 10, 2023.
Credit: REUTERS
Lihua Wu's journey to the United States started when she scrolled past the words “The Route,” one of several common hashtags on Douyin, the Chinese counterpart of TikTok, advising migrants on the irregular overland trek across Latin America to the United States, also known online as “the Big Beautiful.” By the time the single mother and her five-year-old daughter were apprehended by U.S. Border Patrol on a dirt road near the U.S.-Mexico border just before midnight on April 2, Wu said she had relied on social media for detailed instructions for her trip, including footwear (Crocs as well as hiking boots) and how to find and pay for a reliable local guide.
The difficulty of obtaining U.S. visas and the economic after-shocks of China’s COVID lockdowns have led to a sharp increase in Chinese nationals presenting at the U.S.-Mexico border – and some of those arrivals, like Wu, learned about how to come online, migrants, immigration experts, attorneys, and current and former U.S. officials, told Reuters.
Over the course of three weeks photographing and reporting from a remote border stretch in southeastern Texas, Reuters witnessed hundreds of Chinese migrants crossing into the United States and interviewed more than two dozen in Mandarin. All of those interviewed said they got the idea to take the land route to the United States on social media and drew on influencers, private groups and comments to plan their trips.
Apprehensions of Chinese nationals at the U.S.-Mexico border reached more than 6,500 in the six months since October 2022, the highest on record and a more than 15-fold increase over the same period a year ago, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. While just a sliver of the hundreds of thousands of migrants arriving at the southwest border, Chinese people were the fastest growing demographic in those six months, CBP data show.
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A New Hope in Higher Education |
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Credit: Book Cover
Despite higher education’s proven transformative impact on individuals and society, it faces continuous criticism. While it’s true that students with occupational training can out-earn some college graduates, the four-year degree is still the best economic bet. But how can colleges incorporate skills training into their curricula and prepare students for jobs in ways that meet employers’ needs today?
In Building Tomorrow's Work Force, our reporters spoke with experts in seven growing sectors of the workforce to learn their perspectives on how higher education can better prepare students for post-college careers. In this report you'll learn about:
- What skills are needed in today's expanding fields.
- Why boot camps and short-term credentials are a threat that can be overcome.
- How to build relationships with employers and communicate the value of your students' degrees.
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The Power of Trees: How Ancient Forests Can Save Us if We Let Them |
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By Peter Wohlleben and Translated by Jane Billinghurst |
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Credit: Book Cover/ Amazon
In his beloved book The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben revealed astonishing discoveries about the social networks of trees and how they communicate. Now, in The Power of Trees, he turns to their future, with a searing critique of forestry management, tree planting, and the exploitation of old growth forests. As human-caused climate change devastates the planet, forests play a critical role in keeping it habitable. While politicians and business leaders would have us believe that cutting down forests can be offset by mass tree planting, Wohlleben offers a warning: many tree planting campaigns lead to ecological disaster. Not only are these trees more susceptible to disease, flooding, fires, and landslides, we need to understand that forests are more than simply a collection of trees. Instead, they are ecosystems that consist of thousands of species, from animals to fungi and bacteria. The way to save trees, and ourselves? Step aside and let forests—which are naturally better equipped to face environmental challenges—heal themselves.
Wohlleben also shares emerging scientific research about how forests shape climates both locally and across continents; that trees adapt to changing environmental conditions through passing knowledge down to their offspring; and how old growth may in fact have the most survival strategies for climate change.
At the heart of The Power of Trees lies Wohlleben's passionate plea: that our survival is dependent on trusting ancient forests, and allowing them to thrive.
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“If we don’t make some dramatic changes, COP28 is going to be the lost climate summit,” said the U.S. congressman Jared Huffman, who in a letter at the end of March called on the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, John Kerry, to push the UAE to remove Jaber from his post as COP28 president. “To somehow pretend that all of these fossil fuel personnel and all of these connections are not a massive threat to the entire conference goes beyond naive.” |
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Credit: Rula Rouhana/ Reuters
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10 Travel Mistakes That Are Increasing Your Carbon Footprint |
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Credit: IPCC
From: https://www.eesi.org/papers/vi...
Travel provides an exciting opportunity to explore different cultures, taste new cuisines and make long-lasting memories. With rising concerns about climate change, however, it’s important to be mindful of the impact our vacations have on the environment.
Common mistakes travelers make that increase their carbon footprints:
1. Taking indirect flights
2. Overpacking
3. Flying when trains and buses are options
4. Not eating or shopping locally
5. Booking business class
6. Choosing hotels that are not eco-friendly
7. Requesting daily hotel cleanings
8. Leaving AC on in your room
9. Choosing activities and tour operators that aren't eco-friendly
10. Spreading your travel across multiple short trips
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Nigerian Pro-chancellors, Vice-chancellors Mourn Nimi Briggs |
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Credit: Article
According to a statement by his family, Prof Briggs passed away in the early hours of Easter Monday, 2023, aged 79 years. Until his death, the late Briggs was the 5th Vice Chancellor of University of Port-Harcourt, Pro-Chancellor of Federal University, Abakaliki, Bayelsa Medical University, Yenagoa, and Chairman, Committee of Pro Chancellors of Nigerian Universities. Bashir Dalhatu, alternate chairman of the Committee of Pro-chancellors, noted that the late Briggs was a complete gentleman, a family man and a man of deep thought and vision. “His footprints in medicine, in general, and in public and private lives are timeless. His service to our country, Africa, and the rest of the world will continue to remind us of this great man.”
PS, Prof. Briggs was a close friend and colleague over many years of collaboration in Nigeria with the University of Port Harcourt. I will miss him greatly. Editor
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MORE EARLY SPRING SIGNS OF RENEWAL |
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HAWKRIGG LANE, SEGUIN, ONTARIO
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Red and White Trillium (Ontario's Official Floral Emblem)
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Common Mugwort
Starch Grape Hyacinth
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Yellow Birch with shoots of Canada Mayflower
Garden Tulips and Wild Daffodils
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Photo Credits: David Zakus |
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Current News on Ecological Wellness and Global Health
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