New normal, omnicrisis, devastating, hottest, fastest, largest, historic, highest, lowest, catastrophic...
HI,
Have you ever wondered: Who or what controls the number of satellites that can be launched into space?
Who gives permission to fishermen to dredge and clear out ocean floors or to kill 100 million sharks per year?
Who gives oil companies permission to keep extracting substances that they know are ruining our world, causing death and destruction?
Who can prevent or stop a big bully neighbour from trying to take over your land, terrorizing and killing you while doing it?
Who gives anyone permission to appropriate the letter “Z” to signal aggression and mask their true identity?
Who can prevent those who so adamantly want to strip women of fundamental rights?
And, how who can stop the climate crisis from getting worse?
There are just so many things out of our control in the big picture. We ignore it all to our peril, though they just keep going making things worse for everyone. Floods continue to devastate about 2/3 of Nigeria and so many other places, famine is inching forward daily in Somalia with a seriously malnourished child being admitted to hospital every minute, and now there's an extended drought in Canada's super beautiful Sunshine Coast (just north of Vancouver) which is usually flush with water, turning taps dry and farms into dust, just like in California.
The importance of understanding the big picture cannot be understated. For without it, we remain mired in parochialism and without the necessary vision to enable the needed solutions. Learning about the complexity of nature has been one of the great pleasures of my life. As hard as it is to get a big picture, though, it’s an important goal to strive for. Otherwise we don’t have the understanding to make the best decisions and stay motivated, and we remain at the mercy of conspiracies and their perpetrators, always on the prowl to put a dagger into the heart of science, health and politics.
Along with all the environmental problems, a pandemic that won’t end and liberal democracy being widely threatened, the uninformed, deceptive or conspiracy factions, all shouting on social media being scared of or denied a real community forum, are signals that too many are happy to concede to ‘the new normal’ - a kind of accepting whatever you want, including the feeling of doom. To me that’s the path to social and environmental breakdown. It’s not for me.
I reject all of it and I hope that we don’t accept the current state of climate, health and political disfunction as the norm. We must keep advancing for the changes needed now and for future generations, regardless of well funded shoutouts to the contrary.
In today’s Planetary Health Weekly (#42 of 2022)
you’ll find stories to keep filling in parts of the big picture:
- CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES:
- California wells run dry as (mega)drought depletes groundwater,
- How the cradle of mankind has descended into climate conflict,
- Strip mining worsened the severity of deadly Kentucky floods,
- Why the capital of India is flush with mosquitoes,
- UN issues climate wake-up call for Europe,
- World Bank continues financing fossil fuels despite climate crisis,
- Exxon could have helped stop climate change 30 years ago, ‘proprietary’ docs show,
- We’re sued on pretty much everything we try’: Canada’s climate minister,
- Citizens officially win fight to ban oil and gas development in Quebec,
- Energy crisis: fuel shortages could be a ‘blessing’ for the climate says UN weather chief, Is Florida becoming a failed state?
- News coverage of coal’s link to global warming in 1912!!
- CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
- Study struggles to explain Covid death toll in Quebec,
- Covid prompts global surge in biolabs,
- Long Covid linked to persistence of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in blood,
- More uniformly infectious, more treatable, more genetically predicable: how coronavirus is getting closer to flu,
- Study coauthored by Dr. Bonnie Henry documents colossal increase in Covid-19 in metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley,
- Estimate: 10.5 Million Children Lost a Parent, Caregiver to COVID-19, THEN
- BEZ’S BLOG #10: U.S. Health in International Perspective,
- Food vs. fuel: Ukraine war sharpens debate on use of crops for energy,
- World will miss nearly all UN development goals without radical interventions,
- WFP regional director say ‘virtually no aid access n Tigray’,
- UN body votes to establish Russia human rights investigator – Moscow protests,
- Major milestone for Greek energy as renewables power 100% of electricity demand,
- The harmful effects of microplastics and 10 ways you can prevent pollution,
- It’s shocking to see so many left-wingers lured to the far right by conspiracy theories,
- Mass shootings in the United States: population health impacts and policy levers,
- Intergenerational intersections: salmon stories flow with Roger Willian and Trevor Mack,
- Quote by Thai official on the end of doing business in order to maximize profits,
- Science’s no-fee public-access policy will take effect in 2023,
- Changing food systems and infectious disease risks in low and middle-income countries,
- Healthy sustainable diets accessible and achievable: a new framework for assessing nutrition, environmental and equity impacts of packaged foods,
- Tanzania: thousands of Maasai flee into the bush after dozens shot and detained following evictions for trophy hunting and conservation,
- New book: “The Carbon Almanac: It’s Not Too Late” by the Carbon Almanac Network and Seth Godin,
- Tell the truth – educational content and climate crisis advocacy from Extinction Rebellion, and lastly
- ENDSHOTS: “The Show Continues: More Ontario Autumn Beauty.”
- I do hope you’ll keep reading.
Best, david
David Zakus, Editor and Publisher
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IN COMPLETE SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE SEEKING PEACE AND VICTORY |
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AND WITH THE BRAVE WOMEN OF IRAN |
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CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES |
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Tomas Chairez stands next to a faucet that doesn't work because his property has lost access to water after a domestic well went dry in Fairmead, Calif., Sept. 14, 2022. Chairez is trying to get the county to provide a storage tank and water delivery service. For now, his tenants have to fill up 5-gallon (19-liter) buckets at a friend’s home and transport water by car each day. Credit: AP Photo/Terry Chea
Amid a megadrought plaguing the American West, many rural communities are losing access to groundwater as heavy pumping depletes underground aquifers that aren’t being replenished by rain and snow. More than 1,200 wells have run dry this year statewide, a nearly 50% increase over the same period last year, according to the California Department of Water Resources. By contrast, fewer than 100 dry wells were reported annually in 2018, 2019 and 2020. The groundwater crisis is most severe in the San Joaquin Valley, California’s agricultural heartland, which exports fruits, vegetables and nuts around the world.
Shrinking groundwater supplies reflect the severity of California’s drought, which is now entering its fourth year. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than 94% of the state is in severe, extreme or exceptional drought.
California just experienced its three driest years on record, and state water officials said Monday they’re preparing for another dry year because the weather phenomenon known as La Nina is expected to occur for the third consecutive year.
Farmers are getting little surface water from the state’s depleted reservoirs, so they’re pumping more groundwater to irrigate their crops. That’s causing water tables to drop across California. State data shows that 64% of wells are at below-normal water levels.
Water shortages are already reducing the region’s agricultural production as farmers are forced to fallow fields and let orchards wither. An estimated 531,00 acres (215,000 hectares) of farmland went unplanted this year because of a lack of irrigation water, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Read more at AP News
See More:
At The Telegraph: How the Cradle of Mankind has Descended into Climate Conflict
When Ole-Supen's father was young, Lake Baringo in Kenya's Great Rift Valley was surrounded by green forests and grasslands. That landscape no longer exists. After decades of droughts, flash floods and overgrazing, the region is parched and the ecosystem is slowly collapsing. Once known as the cradle of mankind, this is has backdrop for a new battle over water.
“The faster you pull the trigger, the safer you are,” said Ole-Supen, a young herder, describing the violence that has erupted over scarce resources. “Most people only have one clip of bullets, so you've got to be like a sniper. One-shot. Dead.”
The main source of greenery around the pastoralist's village in the hills around the lake are 12-foot-high walls of cacti. Even these have become embroiled in the conflict. “People plant the cactus as a sort of fortress. You keep your cattle in there at night. If the bandits come, you wait inside and shoot,” said Ole-Supen, clapping his hands to indicate a gunshot and laughing at the dark absurdity of it all.
At Inside Climate News: Strip Mining Worsened the Severity of Deadly Kentucky Floods, Say Former Mining Regulators. They Are Calling for an Investigation
Two former state and federal mining regulators say state and federal authorities should investigate the role strip mining played in August’s devastating and deadly flooding in eastern Kentucky and the condition of the mines after the torrential rainfall.
The Kentucky counties, and areas of West Virginia and Virginia, flooded by torrential rains have for decades been heavily logged and strip-mined for coal—land-use practices that dramatically alter the landscape and contribute to flooding. The recent flooding has killed at least 37 people.
With strip mining, trees are the first to go. Then, hundreds of feet of rock may be blasted away from the tops or sides of mountains to get at underground seams of coal.
At Undark: Why the Capital of India Is Flush with Mosquitoes
According to a recent survey conducted by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation, Delhi’s mosquito density was almost nine times higher than normal this past March and April, a 50 percent increase over the previous year. Yet local authorities did not mount a vigorous response because the insects belonged to the Culex genus, which is not known to transmit the well-known diseases — malaria, dengue, chikungunya — that are at the forefront of India’s public health initiatives.
When it comes to malaria in particular, India has achieved success in reducing disease. But even as malaria deaths are on the decline, the sheer number of mosquitoes, particularly in urban areas, has shot up. This is partly due to climate change, said Ramesh C Dhiman, an expert in malaria epidemiology who spent three decades as a government researcher at the Indian Council of Medical Research before becoming an independent consultant. Mosquito populations are on the rise in other countries, too, fueled not just by climate change, but by increased urbanization and the decay of residual DDT in the environment.
At Reuters: UN issues Climate Wake-up Call for Europe
Greenhouse gas emissions in Europe are still climbing, air quality in the region remains poor and taxes collected with the stated goal of funding environmental protections are not being used as intended, a United Nations report indicates. Authorities in European countries must ramp up recycling efforts and environmental spending, the report warns.
At Desmog: World Bank Continues Financing Fossil Fuels Despite Climate Crisis
The World Bank Group has funneled $14.8 billion into fossil fuel projects around the world since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2015, undercutting global efforts to combat the worsening climate crisis. That money has helped build gas pipelines, refineries, liquefied natural gas import terminals and gas-fired power plants, according to a new report from the Big Shift Global, a coalition of NGOs from both the Global North and Global South.
The report analyzed the financial flows from the World Bank in recent years, and identified the top 10 fossil fuel projects moving forward with the help of the development bank. In the list’s number-one spot is the Trans-Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP), a long-distance gas pipeline that runs from Azerbaijan through Turkey, moving gas from the Shah Deniz field in the Caspian Sea throughout southern Europe.
The Big Shift Global report called on the World Bank to definitively rule out support, both direct and indirect, for fossil fuel projects, which it has yet to do. Instead, the Bank should scale up support for renewable energy while also implementing environmental, social, and governance safeguards, including the consent of local communities, the report argued.
At Desmog: Exxon Could Have Helped Stop Climate Change 30 Years Ago, ‘Proprietary’ Docs Show
Exxon figured out a solution that could have helped achieve “stabilization” of the climate emergency back in the early 1990s, and then came up with a communication strategy to make sure that solution wouldn’t happen. That’s according to a newly reviewed 1993 document labeled “proprietary” that was written by the company’s Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil, one of the top producers in a heavily polluting oil deposit known as the Alberta tar sands.
The document directed leaders at the company to stress the “many uncertainties” of implementing a national tax on greenhouse gas emissions when talking with journalists and politicians, even though Imperial Oil had privately studied the policy and learned that it could cause national emissions to plateau and then shrink without doing significant damage to the economy. If Exxon had back then used its vast political and financial power to aggressively push for a national carbon tax to be adopted in major economies around the world, global emissions might have already peaked by now.
At The Tyee: ‘We’re Sued on Pretty Much Everything We Try’: Canada’s Climate Minister
Among various questions in the interview: How is the commitment to phase out fossil fuel subsidies by 2023 going?
It’s part of our agreement with the NDP and you may have seen that in the last budget we phased out another one. We said it would happen and it is going to happen.... We will encourage our provincial counterparts to do what we’re doing but we can’t dictate what provinces decide to do or not do.
Canada has missed every emissions reduction target it has set. Now we’ve got the goal of reducing emissions by 40 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030 and being net-zero by 2050. The climate crisis is killing people in this province and we’ve got a poor track record of hitting our emissions targets. Why should Canadians trust the federal government when it says it’s doing something about climate change now?
Show me a time in our history where our government has done half of the things we’ve done in terms of investment. Everyone’s talking about how the new U.S. inflation act bill was passed. And it’s $300 billion of investment. We’re investing $110 billion.
The U.S. hasn’t started — we’ve been at it for five years, or six. So proportionately we’re doing three times more in terms of investment than the U.S. is doing. We’re doing pricing — unfortunately they won’t for the foreseeable future. The U.S. is advancing on methane on zero emission vehicles. They don’t have a cap on oil and gas, they don’t have a federal clean fuel standard.
No government has ever tried the way we have. I think that’s what gives me hope. But we need to do the work and we need to keep going at it every day.
There are things that are still being developed; regulation, for example, or the oil and gas cap.
Canada missed all of its previous targets because we didn’t try. We had no real plans, certainly no measures. Now we have all these things. We have fiscal measures, we have financial measures, we have regulations, we have legislation, we’re throwing everything at it, and I’m confident that we will get there. But we need to do the work.
At CTV News Montreal: Citizens officially win fight to ban oil and gas development in Quebec
Quebec had become the first jurisdiction in the world to explicitly ban oil and gas development in its territory after decades of campaigning by environmental organizations and citizen groups.
"Citizens rallied, citizens regrouped and actually won this fight because it was in their backyards … it would have had major impacts on their way of living on the territory," Émile Boisseau-Bouvier, Équiterre’s climate policy analyst, told Canada’s National Observer.
The newly adopted law will end petroleum exploration and production as well as the public financing of those activities in Quebec. It passed only one week after the federal government approved a new oil project off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador despite a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that found there is no place for new fossil fuel infrastructure in a climate-safe future.
At Euronews: Energy crisis: Fuel shortages could be a ‘blessing’ for the climate, says UN weather chief
The war on Ukraine "may be seen as a blessing" from a climate perspective, says the head of the UN weather agency.
The comment from Petteri Taalas, secretary-general of the World Meteorological Organization, refers to the acceleration in green energies prompted by war-related fuel shortages.
Last month, head of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) Francesco La Camera made similar comments - albeit with a better choice of words.
"In the mid- and long term, the Ukraine crisis will bring an acceleration to the energy transition because governments finally realise that going for renewables is not only good for the environment, jobs, GDP, but also good for ensuring higher energy independency," La Camera said.
Although some countries have quickly turned to fossil fuels to meet surging demand, rising prices have also made renewable energies like solar, wind and hydrothermal more competitive in the energy marketplace.
The energy crunch has also led many big consuming countries in Europe and beyond to initiate conservation measures, and talk of rationing has emerged in some places.
Economic sanctions against key oil and natural gas producer Russia are behind the surge in gas and energy prices.
This has prompted an upturn in the use of fossil fuels, and has been a "shock for the European energy sector", according to Taalas.
"From the five-to-10-year timescale, it's clear that this war in Ukraine will speed up our consumption of fossil energy, and it's speeding up this green transition," he said.
"So we are going to invest much more in renewable energy, energy-saving solutions," and some small-scale nuclear reactors are likely to come online by 2030 as "part of the solution", he said.
He warned that climate change is affecting electricity generation - and it could have an increasing impact in the future. Among the risks, nuclear plants that rely on water for cooling could be affected by water shortages, and some are located in coastal areas that are vulnerable to sea-level rise or flooding.
In its report, WMO noted that in 2020, some 87 per cent of global electricity generated from thermal, nuclear and hydroelectric systems - which produce less CO2 than plants run by fossil fuels - depended on water availability.
At The Nation: Is Florida Becoming a Failed State?
Florida will try to kill you. This is the Florida Rule, and it governs one of the most capricious landscapes on earth. Misunderstand the environment at your peril, as we were reminded by Hurricane Ian this past month. Parts of our unique paradise lie in ruin, and we will spend months, if not years, trying to process the experience. While Hurricane Ian has left Florida, it remains behind in the flooding and in our governor’s political maneuverings. It persists in the minds of survivors and in the material effects on their lives. Left behind, too, as porous as the sand the storm surge deposited miles inland, are questions about policy, storytelling, and the future of the state.
At Web.Archive.Org: News Coverage of Coal’s Link to Global Warming, in 1912
Scientific analysis pointing to a human role in warming the climate through burning fossil fuels goes back to 1896, with Svante Arrhenius’s remarkable paper, “On the Influence of Carbonic Acid [Carbon Dioxide] in the Air upon the Temperature of the Ground.”
Starting in the late 1930s, Guy Stewart Callendar, a British engineer and amateur meteorologist, stirred the field by calculating that rising carbon dioxide levels were already warming the climate. Check out his 1938 paper on the subject: “The Artificial Production of Carbon Dioxide and Its Influence on Temperature.”
By 1956, The New York Times was writing on combustion-driven global warming.
But when did news coverage begin?
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SARS-CoV-2 & COVID-19 UPDATES |
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Globally, nationally and locally, the pandemic continues in many countries. Many erroneously feel it's over, whereas it continues. "Covid is still a life threatening disease associated with many complications and we (in the USA) still have 300 to 400 deaths per day, so if there is ever a doubt about the risk of developng severe illness, I would contact your doctror immediately" says Albert Ko, Yale professor. If you think it's going away just look at the numbers, when you can find them. Collective action, data reporting and leadership have all but disappeared.
Over the last week, cases are about 400,000/day (though reporting is under-reported); deaths are still at about 1600/day; and vaccinations are down with way too many not getting their boosters. The anti-vaccination movement cannot be allowed to dictate the demise of public health's greatest intervention ever.
Vaccination, despite ongoing concerns about waning immunity and huge slander and lies about deaths and vaccine ineffectiveness by conspiracy folks, along with other proven public health measures, remain the best ways to keep yourself and others safe from serious consequences. Get all the shots/boosters you can and practise other public health measures especially indoors with crowds.
See below for a few global stats and current hotspots:
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"It is the plague in seemingly all sincerity." Bob Woodward |
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Credit: Canadian Press/Graham Hughes
Researchers are having a hard time explaining why Quebec had the country’s highest official COVID−19 death toll despite a relatively low number of excess deaths between March 2020 and October 2021. A new study released by the Canadian Medical Association Journal tried to answer that question but came up short.
"I would say at this point it’s something we need to understand," Kimberlyn McGrail, professor at University of British Columbia’s school of population and public health, said in an interview.
The study, "Excess mortality, COVID−19 and health−care systems in Canada," says Quebec had 4,033 excess deaths between March 2020 and October 2021 but reported 11,470 COVID−19 fatalities — almost three times more. It’s the biggest gap recorded in Canada during the pandemic. Excess deaths refer to the degree to which observed deaths exceed expected deaths based on modelling from previous years. Read more at The National Observer
SEE ALSO:
At Nature: COVID prompts global surge in biolabs
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, plans are afoot to build more than 40 high-level biosafety laboratories around the world, including in India, the Philippines and Singapore. Investments in biosafety labs often follow major epidemics, but some scientists worry about the huge cost of maintaining biosafety-level-3 (BSL-3) and BSL-4 facilities. Others fear the risks posed by these labs, such as the possibility of creating dangerous pathogens or of microorganisms escaping. But researchers in the countries that plan to build these laboratories say they are needed, especially to strengthen the response to emerging threats. “In this light, the critical element of any preparedness programme is lab preparedness,” said Bharati Pawar, India’s minister for health and family welfare.
At Medical News: Long COVID linked to persistence of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein in blood
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), which is caused by infection with the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), can lead to a wide spectrum of clinical features, ranging from asymptomatic infection to life-threatening or fatal disease. In fact, some patients continue to be symptomatic for weeks or months following their clinical recovery. This syndrome is called post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) or long COVID. A new Clinical Infectious Diseases study reports SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen and cytokine levels in a sample of infected individuals, of which a subset had long COVID.
At Stat News: More uniformly infectious, more treatable, more genetically predictable: How coronavirus is getting closer to flu
“Ordinary viruses don’t cause 1 million deaths in one country in just 2 years,” tweeted epidemiologist Jessica Malaty Rivera, a senior adviser at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Pandemic Prevention Institute.
SARS-CoV-2 remains a long way from being ordinary. It has not yet found seasonal cadence — take the recent surge in Europe and the U.K., which comes just weeks after the initial Omicron wave subsided — and it’s still capable of inflicting mass death and disability (see Hong Kong’s lethal last few months).
But there are signs that the virus — and our relationship to it — is shifting in subtle ways that make it more like seasonal flu than it was at the start of the pandemic.
At The Straight: Study coauthored by Dr. Bonnie Henry documents colossal increase in COVID-19 in Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley
A new research paper shows an astronomical rise in residents of Greater Vancouver and the Fraser Valley being infected by COVID-19 during the last school year. The largest percentage increase was among those 19 years of age and younger.
The researchers focused on infection-induced seroprevalence (level of a pathogen in a population, as measured in blood serum) over the course of the pandemic. This was done through eight cross-sectional surveys from March 2020 to August 2022.
In all age groups, the infection-induced seroprevalence rate was below 15 percent through September/October 2021. It rose to around 40 percent by March 2022 after the very infectious Omicron variant had arrived in B.C. By July/August of this year, it had reached 60 percent. Among those 19 years of age and younger, at least 70 to 80 percent demonstrated infection-induced seroprevalence. People between 20 to 59 years of age had 60 to 70 percent infection-induced seroprevalence by this summer. The rate fell to 40 percent of adults who were 60 years of age and older.
At JAMA: Estimate: 10.5 Million Children Lost a Parent, Caregiver to COVID-19
About 10.5 million children worldwide experienced COVID-19–associated loss of parents and caregivers through May 1, 2022, according to estimates based on World Health Organization (WHO) data. COVID-19 orphaned an estimated 7.5 million of those children.
Writing in JAMA Pediatrics, researchers cautioned that the consequences for bereaved children can be “devastating,” including traumatic grief, abuse, mental health problems, and poor educational and health outcomes.
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U.S. Health in International Perspective |
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Greenpeace UK building an underwater boulder barrier Credit: Greenpeace UK
By Stephen Bezruchka
This blog presents data on health, as measured by mortality rates, for those in the United States to suggest that no one in America can claim the best health possible.
One of the most challenging concepts to get people to understand and accept is that their individual health is to a large part beyond an individual's control. We believe we have free will and are responsible for what happens to us as we course through life. Consider that if someone told you in early 2019 that soon your life would be profoundly changed by a viral infection that likely did not exist then you would have discounted such nonsense. Yet consider what happened in those few years. While many feel that the COVID-19 pandemic is behind us, we may just be at the end of the beginning.
Last month's blog on how early life conditions impact our adult health is a good example of how little autonomy we have to direct our lives.
We are always being given advice on how to be healthy. Given what I have covered so far in my blogs the tips for good health could be stated as:
Be born in a caring, sharing, and repairing society.
Nurture strong family and social ties.
Don’t be poor.Don’t have poor parents.
Don’t work in a stressful, low-paid and meaningless job.
Don’t live in a country with:
-high income or wealth inequality
-large health inequities
-lack of time and resources for parenting
-costly specialized inaccessible medical care.
Ridiculous as they sound, these are not choices we can make on our own. They represent the decisions made by societies through their political process. There are countless studies demonstrating this concept. One simple statement relates to Americans, no matter where they rank, being less healthy than similar groups in other nations. "Americans with healthy behaviors or those who are white, insured, college-educated, or in upper-income groups appear to be in worse health than similar groups in comparison countries." This comes from a book appropriately titled: U.S. Health in International Perspective: Shorter Lives, Poorer Health.
Let's begin with the tip to not be poor (or if you are poor, don't be poor for long). We need to make comparisons of U.S. health with those in other countries. An important study by Schwandt and colleagues
appeared in 2021 comparing U.S. mortality rates in various age ranges with those of six other nations: England, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway and Spain. The graph (see above) for deaths among working adults, those aged 20-64, presents deaths per thousand in 2018 stratified by a measure called poverty ranking. The lower the ranking the higher the income. U.S. Blacks are the red triangles and White the blue filled circles. The open circles are the average of the six countries above. The fitted lines are the regression lines. The light grey lines are those for the individual non-U.S. countries.
To interpret, the poorest White (blue filled circle on the upper right), has a mortality in the middle range of the red triangles representing U.S. Blacks. The richest U.S. Blacks have higher mortality than the richest fifth of Whites. Mortality in the other six nations is essentially below that of any of the American ethnicities depicted. We can interpret this as demonstrating that everyone's health (measured by mortality) in the USA is not as good as those living in the other six countries.
This is just one study. We should never stake a claim on the basis of one research investigation. Another study, though, considered the most privileged U.S. White citizens (those living in the richest 1% or 5% of counties) and compared their health with those in twelve other rich countries. The comparative mortality and survival measures associated with healthcare interventions were: infant and maternal mortality, colon and breast cancer, childhood acute lymphocytic leukemia, and acute myocardial infarction. Instead of overall adult mortality, we are considering conditions amenable to medical care. The outcomes for our most privileged group were better than others in the U.S. but were typically behind the average of the outcomes in the 12 other nations.
There are many other studies. None of them contradict the basic concept that people living in the U.S. have compromised health if the standard is comparing themselves to those in other nations.
I find this the most difficult concept to get Americans to consider. Namely no matter what they believe will work to be healthy, being born in another nation would be more effective.
Now for the bad news! In September the United Nations came out with its 2022 Human Development Report that presented 2021 life expectancies for UN nations. In my February blog (#2) the 2019 health Olympics depicted there had the U.S. as tied for 36th. For 2021 it now stands 44th (see chart below).
Part of the reason for this decline is the shameful American response to the COVID-19 pandemic which has so far taken almost 1.1 million lives. If the U.S. eradicated its three leading causes of death - heart disease, cancer and COVID-19 - it still wouldn't be the longest lived country.
Back when the U.S. ranking dropped to 25th (about 1999), I was sure the decline had stopped. How wrong I was. Today there is too much mud on the crystal ball to see what the future holds.
The next blog (Nov. 17) will go back to early life and consider what being of low birthweight does to brain development, then look at adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) which are being increasingly recognized, and finally issues of parenting.
Read more of Bez's Blogs at PHW BLOGS
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Credit: FT montage; Getty/Dreamstime
Biofuels — ethanol made from corn and sugarcane and biodiesel made from vegetable oils including soyabean oil and palm oil — have been blended into motor fuel since the early 2000s to boost energy supplies and reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuels.
Soaring food prices caused by the war in Ukraine have increased the risk of famine, raising pressure on producers of low-carbon fuels derived from crops and sparking a “food versus biofuel” debate. Before Russia’s invasion, global biofuel production was at a record high. In the US, the leading biofuels producer, 36 per cent of total corn production went into biofuels last year, while biodiesel accounted for 40% of soyabean oil supplies.
But some food companies and policymakers are calling for an easing of mandates for blending biofuels into petrol and diesel to increase global grain and vegetable oil supplies. “Now is not the time [for governments] to be encouraging the conversion of food crops to energy through artificial policy incentives or mandatory blending targets,” said the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute. Between them, Russia and Ukraine produce nearly a fifth of the world’s corn and more than half its sunflower oil, but crop exports from the countries are at a fraction of prewar levels. Hundreds of millions of people are at risk of “hunger and destitution” because of food shortages caused by the war, the UN’s secretary-general has warned.
The total amount of crops used annually for biofuels is equal to the calorie consumption of 1.9bn people, according to data firm Gro Intelligence, highlighting the volume of agricultural commodities that could be diverted from energy use if the food security crisis worsened.
Read more at The Financial Times
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Credit: Simon Townsley
The world will miss nearly all of the UN development goals by 2030 without inventions as radical as the creation of HIV antiretrovirals, one of the world’s biggest philanthropic organisations has warned.
In a report published on Tuesday, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation said that all the 17 development goals set by world leaders in 2015 would be missed unless cutting-edge solutions emerged. It said that without new innovation, some goals, such as gender equality, would not be hit until 2108 – three generations later than expected.
“We’d need to speed up the pace of our progress five times faster to meet most of our goals,” the report, titled ‘The Future of Progress’ said. Today, at the halfway point, it is unlikely the world will meet even a handful of the targets set.
The report cites the example of antiretroviral therapy for the HIV/Aids epidemic as the type of innovation that is now needed to tackle areas as diverse as hunger and equal rights for women and girls.
The arrival of antiretrovirals 20 years ago led to a near 60 per cent decline in annual deaths from HIV/Aids between 2000 and 2020. Without the medication, the world would be suffering close to five million Aids-related deaths per year, instead of the 650,000 recorded in 2021.
“We believe it’s possible that one day we will look back at the data in this report the same way we look at the Aids data from the turn of the millennium: in disbelief at how quickly and dramatically things turned around,” the Foundation said.
One of the next major game changers could be rollout of genetically superior seeds for vital crops such as rice and maze. So called “magic seeds” – which allow crop yields to climb even in the face of soaring temperatures – would dramatically improve food security, wrote Bill Gates.
“When a region can’t grow enough to feed its people, there’s [currently] only one solution – to import food – which Africa does on the order of US $23 billion a year. Each African nation is different, but none is likely buying grain from Eastern Europe because it wants to. It’s importing because it has to,” Mr Gates said. “The goal should not simply be giving more food aid. It should be to ensure no aid is needed in the first place.”
Read more at The Telegraph
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People wait for food aid from WFP, at the Um Rakuba refugee camp, which houses people fleeing the fighting in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on December 2020. Credit: Baz Ratner / Reuters
Following the resumption of fighting in northern Ethiopia at the end of August, there is now “virtually no access and hence no humanitarian support going into Tigray,” according to Michael Dunford, regional director for eastern Africa at the World Food Programme.“In many ways, we're back to square one,” he said about the nearly two-yearlong conflict during a conversation hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, or CSIS.Millions of people across northern Ethiopia — including Tigray, Afar, and Amhara — are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. While the conflict has impacted all of these regions significantly, the government has imposed specific restrictions on the flow of aid into Tigray, which has included blockades on telecommunications and banking services.
Read more at DEVEX
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The United Nations headquarters building is pictured with a UN logo in the Manhattan borough of New York City, New York, U.S., March 1, 2022. Credit: REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
A U.N. human rights body comfortably passed a motion on Friday to appoint a new independent expert on alleged human rights abuses in Russia, accusing Moscow of creating a "climate of fear" through repression and violence.
The Russian government quickly made clear it would not cooperate with the expert.
Members voted 17 in favour and six against, with 24 abstaining. The move is the first time that the 16-year-old Human Rights Council (HRC) has set up a Special Rapporteur to examine the rights record of one of its so-called 'P5' members, which hold permanent seats on the Security Council.
The 47-member council is deeply divided, with a growing chorus of countries led by Russia and China opposing any action against specific countries, which they say amounts to political meddling. This win comes as a relief to Western countries after the historic defeat of a China motion on October 6.
Read more at Reuters
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Credit: REUTERS/Alexandros Avramidis TPX
Renewable energy met all of Greece’s electricity needs for the first time ever last week, the country’s independent power transmission operator IPTO announced.
For at least five hours on Friday, renewables accounted for 100 per cent of Greece’s power generation, reaching a record high of 3,106 megawatt hours.
Solar, wind and hydro represented 46 per cent of the nation’s power mix in the eight months to August this year, up from 42 per cent in the same period in 2021, according to Greece-based environmental think-tank The Green Tank.
Green Tank called it, a "record of optimism for the country's transition to clean energy, weaning off fossil fuels and ensuring our energy sufficiency.”
"European countries like Greece are rapidly accelerating away from fossil fuels and towards cheap renewable electricity. The milestone reached by Greece proves that a renewables-dominated electricity grid is within sight,” Elisabeth Cremona, an analyst at energy think tank Ember, told Euronews Green.
“This also clearly demonstrates that the electricity system can be powered by renewables without compromising reliability. But there remains more to do to ensure that renewables overtake fossil fuels in Greece's power sector across the whole year."
Greece aims to more than double its green energy capacity to account for at least 70 per cent of its energy mix by 2030. To help hit that target, the government is seeking to attract around €30 billion in European funds and private investments to upgrade its electricity grid.
Read more at EuroNews
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‘How do we remain true to our countercultural roots?’ Anti-vax protesters in London, in September 2020. Credit: Guy Bell/REX/Shutterstock
It’s an uncomfortable thing to admit, but in the countercultural movements where my sympathies lie, people are dropping like flies. Every few days I hear of another acquaintance who has become seriously ill with Covid, after proudly proclaiming the benefits of “natural immunity”, denouncing vaccines and refusing to take the precautions that apply to lesser mortals. Some have been hospitalised. Within these circles, which have for so long sought to cultivate a good society, there are people actively threatening the lives of others.
It’s not just anti-vax beliefs that have been spreading through these movements. On an almost daily basis I see conspiracy theories travelling smoothly from right to left. I hear right-on people mouthing the claims of white supremacists, apparently in total ignorance of their origins. I encounter hippies who once sought to build communities sharing the memes of extreme individualism. Something has gone badly wrong in parts of the alternative scene.
There has long been an overlap between certain new age and far-right ideas. The Nazis embraced astrology, pagan festivals, organic farming, forest conservation, ecological education and nature worship. They promoted homeopathy and “natural healing”, and tended to resist vaccination. We should be aware of this history, but without indulging what Simon Schama calls the “obscene syllogism”: the idea that because the Nazis promoted new age beliefs, alternative medicine and ecological protection, anyone who does so is a Nazi.
Read more by George Monbiot at The Guardian
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Mass Shootings In The United States: Population Health Impacts And Policy Levers |
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Credit: Health Affairs
The United States is experiencing a gun violence epidemic, and mass shootings are one of its most tragic manifestations. During the past four decades, mass shootings have caused at least 1,000 deaths and another 1,500 injuries in the United States. Although mass shootings account for less than 1 percent of all firearm deaths annually in the country, they evoke significant public interest and have detrimental effects that extend far beyond the harm to the direct victims and their families.
This health policy brief reviews research about mass shootings and their effects on population health. We also discuss policy interventions that may reduce the population health harms inflicted by mass shootings and outline areas for future research. We focus on mass shootings, not the broader phenomenon of gun violence, which is another critical yet distinct issue.
Read more at Health Affairs
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SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS |
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Intergenerational Intersections: Salmon Stories Flow with Roger William and Trevor Mack |
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Credit: The Raven
You know the real thing when you see it. Witnessing the flow of intergenerational knowledge that passed between Chief Roger William and Trevor Mack was a shot of genuine inspiration.
For anyone who needs a bit of help to scrape together kindling enough to light the fires of hope: may we suggest taking in this conversation?
After an opening song and story with Sierra William, Mack and Chief Roger, we heard from the venerable elder who led his people in resistance to clearcut logging and open-pit mining. In dialogue with Tsilhqot’in story weaver Trevor Mack, William laid out a 3-punch, knock-out strategy: beginning with the creation of the Nemiah Declaration, to the blockade of roads and bridges, and finally to the Supreme Court victories that kicked out Taseko Mines and established Aboriginal Title to sacred Teztan Biny.
The intricacies of how Tsilhqot’in warriors Nation fought Big Mining — and won — are an object lesson in strategy and perseverance. Learning how the Nation is uplifting their youth through cultural exchange and ceremony beautifully illuminates the simple idea that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’.
Folks on Salt Spring Island were fortunate enough to enjoy a feast with fresh caught salmon — fished by Mack using the traditional dip-net method on the Chilco River — along with salads featuring the staple foods of Indigenous Turtle Island. Wild rice, corn, beans and quinoa accompanied succulent sockeye cooked on the grill to perfection. Watch the 1:12 video.
. Read and see more at The Raven Trust
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Credit: Thaiger
Thailand is preparing to welcome the 21 APEC members to Bangkok next month with a new business code of conduct that espouses a Bio-Circular-Green (BCG) economic model.
The BCG model is both environmentally-friendly and responsible, the Foreign Ministry’s senior APEC official Cherdchai Chaivaivid said during an interview with The Nation. He added:
“This is the end of doing business in order to maximize profits. It is time to consider how to run a sustainable business while also living in harmony with the community and the environment. We must find a way to balance business growth with environmental sensitivity.”
Read more at The Thaiger
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- On-going until October 31: International Health Trends and Perspectives (IHTP, a new journal based at Toronto Metropolitan University, (formerly Ryerson University, Toronto) is dedicating a special issue to the topic of Planetary Health to highlight research, theoretical and community based contributions of scientists, scholars and activists globally. It is inviting manuscripts that are solutions and equity-focused. See the call for papers and details here: https://bit.ly/3tDixHT
- October 22-25 (virtual) and October 28-30 (in-person) StellenboschU-CUGH African Global Health Conference, 2022 (Cape Town, South Africa)
- October 31- November 2: Planetary Health Alliance Annual Meeting (Boston and Virtual)
- 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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Science’s No-fee Public-access Policy Will Take Effect in 2023 |
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From January, authors of Science papers will be allowed to post accepted manuscripts in a public repository of their choice without delay. Credit: Getty
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which publishes Science, will soon allow the authors of its research papers to make public an almost-final version of their manuscript in a repository of their choice immediately on publication, without paying any fees. This approach, announced in a 9 September editorial, differs to that taken by the publishers of the similarly high-impact journals Cell and Nature, which levy article processing charges (APCs) on most authors to make the final, published versions of their articles open access. The policy will come into effect in January 2023, Nature has learnt.
he new approach for Science comes hot on the heels of a huge policy shift by the US government regarding access to federally funded research. An August announcement stated that by the end of 2025, the findings of research funded by federal agencies should be free to read as soon as they are published — scrapping existing rules that allowed a year-long wait before work had to be made public.
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Credit: New Food Magazine
The emergence of COVID-19 has drawn the attention of health researchers sharply back to the role that food systems can play in generating human disease burden. But emerging pandemic threats are just one dimension of the complex relationship between agriculture and infectious disease, which is evolving rapidly, particularly in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) that are undergoing rapid food system transformation. We examine this changing relationship through four current disease issues.
The first is that greater investment in irrigation to improve national food security raises risks of vector-borne disease, which we illustrate with the case of malaria and rice in Africa. The second is that the intensification of livestock production in LMICs brings risks of zoonotic diseases like cysticercosis, which need to be managed as consumer demand grows. The third is that the nutritional benefits of increasing supply of fresh vegetables, fruit, and animal-sourced foods in markets in LMICs pose new food-borne disease risks, which might undermine supply. The fourth issue is that the potential human health risks of antimicrobial resistance from agriculture are intensified by changing livestock production.
For each disease issue, we explore how food system transition is creating unintentional infectious disease risks, and what solutions might exist for these problems. We show that successfully addressing all of these challenges requires a coordinated approach between public health and agricultural sectors, recognising the costs and benefits of disease-reducing interventions to both, and seeking win–win solutions that are most likely to attract broad policy support and uptake by food systems.
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FYI #3 |
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Healthy, Sustainable Diets Accessible and Achievable: A New Framework for Assessing the Nutrition, Environmental and Equity Impacts of Packaged Foods |
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Credit: Eating Well
There is a growing global consensus among food system experts that diets and how we source our foods must change. The sustainable nutrition community continues exploring the environmental impact and dietary value of foods. Packaged foods have been largely ignored within the dialogue, and if they are addressed, existing frameworks tend to label them all as “ultra-processed” and uniformly discourage their consumption. This approach lacks the nuance needed to holistically evaluate packaged foods within recommended dietary patterns.
Additionally, there is considerable diversity of opinion within the literature on these topics, especially on how to best improve nutrition security in populations most at risk of diet-related chronic disease. In support of addressing these challenges, eight sustainability and nutrition experts were convened by Clif Bar & Company for a facilitated discussion on the urgent need to drive adoption of healthy, sustainable diets; the crucial role that certain packaged foods can play in helping make such diets achievable and accessible; and the need for actionable guidance around how to recommend and choose packaged foods that consider human, societal, and planetary health.
This paper summarizes the meeting discussion, which informed the development of a proposed framework based on guiding principles for defining sustainable, nutritious packaged foods across key nutrition, environmental, economic and sociocultural wellbeing indicators. While additional research is needed to substantiate specific metrics in order to operationalize the framework, it is intended to be a foundation from which to build and refine as science and measurement capabilities advance, and an important step toward broader adoption of healthy, sustainable diets.
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FYI #4 |
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Tanzania: Thousands of Maasai Flee Into the Bush after Dozens Shot and Detained Following Evictions for Trophy Hunting and Conservation |
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Elderly Maasai man wounded in the military attack on protesters. Credit: Survival
Thousands of Maasai people have fled their homes and escaped into the bush following a brutal police crackdown on protests against government attempts to evict them to make way for trophy hunters and conservation.
On June 8 dozens of police vehicles and an estimated 700 officers arrived in Loliondo, N. Tanzania, near the world-famous Serengeti National Park, to demarcate a 1,500 km2 area of Maasai land as a Game Reserve. On June 10 they fired on Maasai protesting at efforts to evict them: at least 18 men and 13 women were shot, and 13 wounded with machetes. One person is confirmed dead.
Videos and photos widely shared on social media show a deadly and indiscriminate attack on the protesters.
Now, police are going house-to-house in Maasai villages, beating and arresting those they believe distributed images of the violence, or took part in the protests. A man aged 90 was beaten by police because his son was accused of filming the shooting. In one village alone at least 300, including children, are reported to have fled into the bush. A dozen people have been arrested.
The violence of the last few days is the latest episode in a long-running effort by Tanzania’s authorities to evict Maasai from their land in Loliondo for safari tourism and trophy hunting. The United Arab Emirates (UAE)-based Otterlo Business Company (OBC) — which runs hunting excursions for the country’s royal family and their guests — will reportedly control commercial hunting in the area.
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FYI #5: OCTOBER READING - NEW BOOK |
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"The Carbon Almanac: It's Not Too Late" by The Carbon Network (Author) and Seth Godin (Editor, Foreword) |
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Credit: Book Cover
When it comes to the climate, we don’t need more marketing or anxiety. We need established facts and a plan for collective action.
The climate is the fundamental issue of our time, and now we face a critical decision. Whether to be optimistic or fatalistic, whether to profess skepticism or to take action. Yet it seems we can barely agree on what is really going on, let alone what needs to be done. We urgently need facts, not opinions. Insights, not statistics. And a shift from thinking about climate change as a “me” problem to a “we” problem.
The Carbon Almanacis a once-in-a-lifetime collaboration between hundreds of writers, researchers, thinkers, and illustrators that focuses on what we know, what has come before, and what might happen next. Drawing on over 1,000 data points, the book uses cartoons, quotes, illustrations, tables, histories, and articles to lay out carbon’s impact on our food system, ocean acidity, agriculture, energy, biodiversity, extreme weather events, the economy, human health, and best and worst-case scenarios. Visually engaging and built to share,
The Carbon Almanacis the definitive source for facts and the basis for a global movement to fight climate change.
This isn’t what the oil companies, marketers, activists, or politicians want you to believe. This is what’s really happening, right now. Our planet is in trouble, and no one concerned group, corporation, country, or hemisphere can address this on its own. Self-interest only increases the problem. We are in this together. And it’s not too late for concerted, collective action for change.
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FYI#6: SPOTLIGHT ON EDUCATION and CLIMATE CRISIS ADVOCACY |
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Tell The Truth |
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Credit: Extinction Rebellion
We are facing an unprecedented global emergency. Life on Earth is in crisis: scientists agree we have entered a period of abrupt climate breakdown, and we are in the midst of a mass extinction of our own making.
Everyday we move closer and closer to a state of irreversible climate chaos, ridden with sickness, greed and desperation. Or – we can choose to move toward global societal change and a world we want to live in. The choice is ours. Don’t feed the system, feed the future.
See some great educational content from Extinction Rebellion on their website.
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More Ontario Autumn Beauty |
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WHITEFISH LAKE and HAWKRIGG LANE
SEGUIN, ONTARIO
October 14-20, 2022
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Photo Credits: David Zakus |
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THANKS FOR READING THE FREE
PLANETARY HEALTH WEEKLY
Current News on Ecological Wellness and Global Health
To Subscribe and access Archives of all Past Issues & Yearly Indexes GO TO: planetaryhealthweekly.com
AND PLEASE PASS IT ON TO FAMILY & FRIENDS
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