HI,
There are just so many monumental global events happening all at the same time these days. It’s hard to keep up and various perpetrators are likely counting on this overload and confusion to obfuscate their crimes. Climate heating events continue in Pakistan, China, East Africa and southwest USA. Puerto Rico, other Caribbean islands have just been decimated by a hurricane which is now on its way to eastern Canada. Alaska too has just been hit. Russia continues its disgusting war on Ukraine, perhaps setting back the global climate agenda by five years. There are many more as detailed in this space in the last few weeks. There’s even a new Ebola outbreak in Uganda. And following the funeral of the late great Queen Elizabeth II the UN General Assembly just got going with leaders and countries from all over the world coming together to work for peace and harmony around the globe. But the UN Secretary General didn’t mince his opening words:
“Our world is in big trouble. Divides are growing deeper; inequalities are growing wider; challenges are spreading father... we need hope... we need action across the board.”
“Let’s have no illusions. We are in rough seas. A winter of global discontent is on the horizon. A cost-of-living crisis is raging. Trust is crumbling. Our planet is burning. People are hurting – with the most vulnerable suffering the most. The United Nations Charter and the ideals it represents are in jeopardy.”
And the while the international community had a duty to act, “we are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction. The international community is not ready or willing to tackle the big dramatic challenges of our age. These crises threaten the very future of humanity and the fate of our planet.”
Along with the climate emergency and biodiversity loss, and the war in Ukraine, the UN chief said with crises like the dire financial situation of developing countries, the fate of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), “a forest of red flags across a host of new technologies”, rising hate speech and “out of control” digital surveillance, “we don’t have the beginning of a global architecture to deal with any of this.”
“But the reality is that we live in a world where the logic of cooperation and dialogue is the only path forward,” said Mr. Guterres, explaining that "no power or group alone can call the shots. No major global challenge can be solved by a coalition of the willing. We need a coalition of the world.”
All this as I spend this week in Saskatchewan attending to family business and visiting old friends and relatives here in my birth province, where I spent my first 21 years. What a blessing it is turning out to be, uniting with them and having a couple days to enjoy the peace and serenity of post-summer Prince Albert National Park’s Waskesiu Lake (see ENDSHOTS). Seeing nature at its best is so motivating, so mind relaxing, so inspiring. But it doesn’t take long to get back to all the current events, interrupting these feelings and doing their best to negate them.
Scroll down for the mind altering information in this week’s Planetary Health Weekly (#38 of 2022):
- CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY UPDATES:
- International aid for Pakistan flood relief should not be seen as charity,
- Majority of trash in Great Pacific Garbage Patch linked to just five countries,
- South Sudan declares disaster in flood-affected areas,
- Hundreds of thousands of American homes will be swallowed by the sea,
- Biodiversity thrives in Ethiopia’s church forests,
- South African motor industry relief as electric vehicle manufacturing plans start to take shape,
- Solar panels installed in all Nunatsiavut towns as Inuit government eyes energy independence,
- Switching to renewable energy could save trillions,
- The pandemic gave scientists a new way to spy on emissions,
- The road to success when it comes to mitigating flood disasters,
- Banking on climate chaos – Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2022, The world’s 60 biggest banks poured $4,600,000,000,000 into the fossil fuel industry, driving climate chaos & causing deadly local community impacts,
- Annual report shows Canada’s big five (banks) poured CA$910.84 billion into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement in 2015,
- CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
- The Lancet Commission on lessons for the future from the Covid-19 pandemic,
- Boosting vitamin D levels not associated with protection against respiratory tract infections or Covid-19,
- Prevanlence and influencing factors of pandemic fatigue among Chinese public in Xi’an city during Covid-19 new normal,
- A direct side-by-side comparison of all available Covid-19 vaccines,
- Vaccines could help alleviate the symptoms of long Covid,
- What makes brain fog so unforgiving? THEN
- Human progress set back 5 years by Covid-19 & other crises: UN report,
- Wasting away: Kenya’s dreadful malnutrition crisis,
- For the first time Americans are smoking more marijuana than cigarettes,
- Dying of hunger: what is famine?
- Fights against AIDS, TB and malaria bounced back post-Covid – but not enough,
- Barbados builds new disaster preparedness hub,
- South African government must not give in to intense fossil fuel industry lobbying on carbon tax bill,
- Free winter tires for people choosing bikes over cars in Sweden,
- U.S. completes renaming of 650 places to remove derogatory Native term,
- Official replacement names for Sq_,
- Quote by UNDP chief on the need for urgent transformation,
- How greenwashing fools us,
- IPCC video: Climate Change 2022 - Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability,
- Why it’s so hard to treat pain in infants,
- 50 million people worldwide in modern slavery,
- Northwest Ohio egg farm forced to euthanize 3 million chickens due to bird flu,
- New book: “The Code Breaker – Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race” by Walter Isaacson,
- Rebooting critical thinking, and lastly
- ENDSHOTS of Nature At Its Best: Seeking Peace of Mind in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan.
Happy reading. Best, david
David Zakus, Editor and Publisher
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Waskesiu Lake, Prince Alberta Natioinal Park, Saskatchewan |
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COMPLETELY WITH UKRAINE SEEKING PEACE, SOLIDARITY AND VICTORY |
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CLIMATE & BIODIVERSITY CRISES UPDATES |
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People carry belongings salvaged from their flooded home in Pakistan's Sindh province. Credit: Fareed Khan/The Associated Press
As NGOs and other nations scramble to help Pakistan deal with devastating floods, one expert is calling on others to remember the role of climate change — and the countries that contributed to it.
"When Europe was industrializing and other Western states were industrializing, we increased these emissions into the atmosphere by many, many magnitudes," said Ayesha Siddiqi, a lecturer in Cambridge University's Department of Geography. "Of course, they're resulting in all kinds of climate-related weather events, but this flooding is one of [those] weather events," she told The Current's Matt Galloway.
The floods have been ongoing since mid-June. They've been described as "the worst in the history of Pakistan" by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and have taken the lives of at least 1,314 people.
Record monsoon rains and melting glaciers in Pakistan's northern mountains have been blamed in part for the catastrophe. According to Pakistan's minister of climate change Sherry Rehman, some provinces have received as much as 784% more rainfall than the August average. Read more at CBC News
SEE MORE:
At The Weather Network: Majority of trash in Great Pacific Garbage Patch linked to just five countries
The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is located between Hawaii and California and is the largest accumulation of ocean plastic on Earth. Ocean currents transport the plastic until they eventually converge, leading the trash into a swirling gyre that continues to grow in size. The size of the garbage patch is estimated to be 1.6 million square kilometres — three times the size of France.
Through a collaboration with The Ocean Cleanup organization, over 6,000 pieces of plastic debris were collected from the garbage patch in the North Pacific Ocean in 2019. The trash was then counted, weighed, categorized, and analyzed for its origin and age.
Of the objects that were inscribed with an identifiable language or another indicator of origin, such as brand name, the top five identified origins were Japan (34 per cent), China (32 per cent), Korea (10 per cent), United States (7 per cent), and Taiwan (6 per cent). Other countries with significant contributions include Canada (4.7 per cent) and France (1.3 per cent).
At AP News: South Sudan declares disaster in flood-affected areas
At Futurism: Hundreds of thousands of American homes will be swallowed by the sea, scientists say
At Nature: Biodiversity thrives in Ethiopia’s church forests
At Daily Maverick: South African motor industry relief as electric vehicle manufacturing plans start to take shape
If you see a forest in Ethiopia, you know there is very likely to be a church in the middle, says Alemayehu Wassie. Wassie, a forest ecologist, has spent the past decade on a mission: preserving, documenting and protecting the unique biodiversity in pockets of forest that surround Ethiopia’s orthodox churches.
These small but fertile oases — which number around 35,000 and are dotted across the country — are some of the last remaining scraps of the tall, lush natural forests that once covered Ethiopia, and which, along with their biodiversity, have all but disappeared.
At CBC News: Solar panels installed in all Nunatsiavut towns as Inuit government eyes energy independence
At BBC: Switching
to renewable energy could save trillions - study
The report said it was wrong and pessimistic to claim that moving quickly towards cleaner energy sources was expensive. Gas prices have soared on mounting concerns over energy supplies. But the researchers say that going green now makes economic sense because of the falling cost of renewables.
"Even if you're a climate denier, you should be on board with what we're advocating," Prof Doyne Farmer from the Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School told BBC News. "Our central conclusion is that we should go full speed ahead with the green energy transition because it's going to save us money," he said.
At Wired: The Pandemic Gave Scientists a New Way to Spy on Emissions
At Science Daily: The road to success when it
comes to mitigating flood disasters
As Australia continues to mop up after one of the wettest years on record, councils might want to consider a new flood mitigation strategy -- permeable pavements to suit specific soil and rainfall conditions.
At StandEarth: Annual report shows Canada’s big five pour CA$ 910.84 billion into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement signed in 2016
All of Canada’s major banks grew support for the fossil sector last year, despite recognizing the need for emissions to fall, according to the flagship report. Alarmingly, tar sands, (Canada’s fastest-growing source of carbon pollution) saw a 51% increase in financing from last year to $21 billion CAD, with the biggest jump coming from RBC and TD.
The 13th edition of the Banking on Climate Chaos report shows that RBC, Scotiabank, CIBC, TD, and Bank of Montreal all increased their financing of fossil fuels by a combined $61 billion in 2021. Between 2016 and 2021, Canadian banks have funnelled an alarming $911 billion into coal, oil, gas, and tar sands. Just last year, all of Canada’s banks vowed to become ‘net-zero’ by 2050 – pledging to reduce financed emissions to zero, including offsetting measures – yet in that very same year they provided $165 billion to fossil fuel clients.
At Banking On Climate Chaos: Fossil Fuel Finance Report 2022
The world’s 60 biggest banks poured poured $4,600,000,000,000 over 6 years into the fossil fuel industry, driving climate chaos & causing deadly local community impacts. This report adds up financing (lending, and underwriting of debt and equity issuances) from the world’s 60 biggest banks for the fossil fuel sector as a whole, as well as for top expanders of the fossil fuel industry and top companies in specific sectors.
(See below for three charts from the above report)
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SARS-CoV-2 & COVID-19 UPDATES |
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Globally, nationally and locally, the pandemic continues in many countries, regardless of what some 'leaders' say. Many erroneously feel it's over, whereas it continues though it is slowing down. Collective action and leadership has all but disappeared.
Over the last week, cases continue at about 500,000/day (though reporting is highly inaccurate); deaths continue but slightly reduced at about 1700/day; and vaccinations are down from 5 to 3.4 million/day, a continual errosion of uptake.
Vaccination, despite ongoing concerns about waning immunity and huge slander 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, asap, and practise the 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: The Lancet
As of May 31, 2022, there were 6·9 million reported deaths and 17·2 million estimated deaths from COVID-19, as reported by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME; throughout the report, we rely on IHME estimates of infections and deaths; note that the IHME gives an estimated range, and we refer to the mean estimate). This staggering death toll is both a profound tragedy and a massive global failure at multiple levels. Too many governments have failed to adhere to basic norms of institutional rationality and transparency, too many people—often influenced by misinformation—have disrespected and protested against basic public health precautions, and the world's major powers have failed to collaborate to control the pandemic.
The multiple failures of international cooperation include (1) the lack of timely notification of the initial outbreak of COVID-19; (2) costly delays in acknowledging the crucial airborne exposure pathway of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and in implementing appropriate measures at national and global levels to slow the spread of the virus; (3) the lack of coordination among countries regarding suppression strategies; (4) the failure of governments to examine evidence and adopt best practices for controlling the pandemic and managing economic and social spillovers from other countries; (5) the shortfall of global funding for low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), as classified by the World Bank; (6) the failure to ensure adequate global supplies and equitable distribution of key commodities—including protective gear, diagnostics, medicines, medical devices, and vaccines—especially for LMICs; (7) the lack of timely, accurate, and systematic data on infections, deaths, viral variants, health system responses, and indirect health consequences; (8) the poor enforcement of appropriate levels of biosafety regulations in the lead-up to the pandemic, raising the possibility of a laboratory-related outbreak; (9) the failure to combat systematic disinformation; and (10) the lack of global and national safety nets to protect populations experiencing vulnerability. Read more at The Lancet
SEE MORE COVID-19 STORIES:
At Medical News: Boosting vitamin D levels not associated with protection against respiratory tract infections or covid-19
At Research Gate: Prevalence and influencing factors of pandemic fatigue among Chinese public in Xi'an city during COVID-19 new normal: a cross-sectional study
This study aimed to assess Chinese public pandemic fatigue and potential influencing factors using an appropriate tool and provide suggestions to relieve this fatigue.
Conclusion: The prevalence of pandemic fatigue among the Chinese public was prominent. COVID-19 fear and COVID-19 attitude were the strongest risk factors and protective factors, respectively. These results indicated that the government should carefully utilize multi-channel promotion of anti-pandemic policies and knowledge.
At Medical News: A direct side-by-side comparison of all available COVID-19 vaccines
In the present study, researchers compared several heterologous and homologous COVID-19 vaccination regimens to determine the most effective vaccine strategy against SARS-CoV-2.
Different SARS-CoV-2 vaccines (based on three mechanisms [adenovirus vector-based, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based and inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines) were administered in homologous [same vaccine administered for the first/prime dose (D1) and the second/booster dose (D2)] or heterologous (different vaccines used for D1 and D2) combinations.
The highest anti-SARS-CoV-2 Ab titers were observed when mRNA-1273 vaccinations were administered as D2, irrespective of the vaccine type used for D1.
At Medical News: Vaccines could help alleviate the symptoms of long COVID
At The Atlantic: What Makes Brain Fog So Unforgiving
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A medical worker in protective gear in Beijing, China. Credit: AP
The UN Development Program (UNDP) announced that for the first time since it was created over 30 years ago, the Human Development Index – a measure of countries’ life expectancies, education levels, and standards of living – has declined for two years straight, in 2020 and 2021. “It means we die earlier, we are less well educated, our incomes are going down,” UNDP chief Achim Steiner said in an interview. Just with three parameters, you can get a sense of why so many people are beginning to feel desperate, frustrated, worried about the future,” he said.
The Human Development Index has steadily risen for decades, but began sliding in 2020 and continued its fall in 2021, erasing the gains of the preceding five years, the paper says.
The report also describes how transformational forces, such as climate change, globalization and political polarization, present humanity with a complex level of uncertainty “never seen in human history”, leading to rising feelings of insecurity. Read more at South China Morning Post
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Oriental Market, Managua, Nicaragua, September, 2022. Credit: Carlos Jimenez
The Sixth World Report on Food Crises registered 12.6 million people in crisis or food emergency in four Central American countries and Haiti.
The Global Network against Food Crises with the support of the Food Security Information Network (FSIN) made official the "Global Report on Food Crises 2022", which revealed that 193 million people from 53 countries or regions in the world are in a situation of food crisis or emergency.
The global report, referring to four Central American countries that are members of the Central American Integration System (SICA) and Haiti, indicates that acute food insecurity increased significantly by 12.6 million people in food crisis or emergency, compared to 11.8 million reported in 2020.
The report data describes that Guatemala registered more than 3.7 million people in food crisis or worse, while Honduras estimated 3.3 million people in food crisis or worse, a figure that increased compared to the previous year as a result of Hurricanes Eta and Iota among other common situations in the region. As for El Salvador, 1.0 million people were reported in a food crisis or worse. In the case of Nicaragua, 0.4 million people were identified as having a food crisis or worse. In the four Central American countries, 8.4 million people were reported in a food crisis, which require immediate action.
The report shares that among the situations identified that increased the severity (percentage of people) of acute food insecurity in crisis or emergency in the region, it was due to climatic conditions mainly due to Eta and Iota, the economic effects accentuated by the pandemic of COVID-19, the rise in the prices of food products, as well as the complications reported in the issue of the global supply chain.
Information Systems Program for Resilience in Food and Nutritional Security of the SICA Region, second phase (PROGRESAN-SICA II) is a program of the General Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (SG-SICA) with funding from the European Union. It is supported by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), the World Food Program, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the Global Integrated Classification Initiative. of Food Safety in Phases (CIF), among others.
Read more in the Full Report at SICA
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Amaro Maria, 65, a resident of Illeret village in Marsabit County on April 2, 2022. Credit: JOSEPH KANYI
When the World Bank confirmed Kenya’s status as a lower-middle income country in 2015, it opened the country for restrictions on access to international donor funds to purchase RUTFs
Kenya lacks a government entity specifically dedicated to nutrition as it sees nutrition as something that can be merely sorted by lowering seed and fertiliser prices to increase food production
If rains don't come, food insecurity will worsen in Marsabit County to emergency levels. Even if rains come, it will take households longer than usual to reap the benefits of a good season. Read more at The Nation (Kenya)
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Credit: CBS NEWS
For the first time on record, regular cannabis usage has surpassed cigarette use in the U.S., according to a new Gallup poll. Marijuana use has increased dramatically over the past half-century and is currently the highest Gallup has ever recorded.
Of the American adults who participated in the poll, around 16% said they currently smoke marijuana, while nearly half said they have tried it at some point in their lifetime. When the question was first asked in 1969, only 4% of respondents said they had tried it.
That same year, 40% of respondents said they had smoked cigarettes in the same week. But during the past decades, cigarette use has decreased among Americans.
Read more and see video at CBS News
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People wearing face masks walk around 798 Art Zone, or Dashanzi Art District, in Beijing, China, 12 September 2022. Credit: EPA-EFE/WU HAO
Efforts to tackle AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria began to recover last year after being hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, but the world is still not on track to defeat these killer diseases, according to a report.
Read more at Daily Maverick
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Credit: The Weather Network
From rising sea levels to catastrophic hurricanes, Caribbean islands are highly exposed to the destructive impacts of the changing climate. Over the past 70 years, there have been 511 disasters in Small Island Developing States and 324 occurred in the Caribbean.
In an effort to adapt to the worsening nature of storms in the Caribbean and enhance emergency response systems, a new disaster preparedness hub will soon be built at Barbados’ international airport.
“The Caribbean islands are right on the frontlines of climate change. As hurricanes become more frequent and severe, we need to be fully prepared so that lives are saved, livelihoods are defended, and hard-won development gains are protected,” David Beasley, WFP Executive Director, said in a press release.
The main goals of the new preparedness hub will be to strengthen the broader disaster management system, expand the logistics infrastructure, and stock relief items and equipment within the Caribbean. This will allow regional institutions to quickly deploy key equipment that is needed in the initial phase of the response.
Read more at The Weather Network
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Credit: itep.org
National Treasury and Sars are currently considering a suite of tax legislation. This includes proposed amendments to the Carbon Tax Act, 2019 (CTA), foreshadowed in finance minister Enoch Godongwana’s February 2022 budget speech, in which he called the carbon tax the “main mechanism to ensure we lower our greenhouse emissions”.
Looking at the current state of and proposed changes to South Africa’s carbon tax, that is a dismal prospect.
One of the Paris Agreement’s three main goals is to make “finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development”. It is not controversial that taxing carbon emissions is a powerful tool to change behaviour — and redirect capital — by altering economic incentives. If carbon were priced correctly so that it reflects the actual costs of emissions to society, this would be transformative in limiting the worst impacts of the climate crisis.
The idea of a carbon tax is that the burden and responsibility for the damage from greenhouse (GHG) emissions are shifted back to the emitters. Those companies that wish to continue emitting are liable to pay carbon tax (what is called the “polluter pays” principle); alternatively, to limit the tax liability, emitters must transform their operations to be lower-carbon, or wind them down responsibly.
But what rate of carbon tax will shift finance flows onto a Paris-aligned path? Globally, most carbon prices are still significantly below what climate science dictates is required: less than 4% of global emissions are currently covered by a direct carbon price within the range needed by 2030.
Understandably, carbon-intensive companies — keen to protect their competitiveness and bottom lines — want to keep the tax as low as possible by continuing to externalise the costs of their emissions onto the rest of society, and ultimately the fiscus.
In the first quarter of this year, the world’s largest energy companies made almost $100-billion in profit. This starkly demonstrates that the industries responsible for the majority of carbon being pumped into the atmosphere remain hopelessly inadequately disincentivized to change the way they do business.
Read more at Daily Maverick
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Free Winter tires for People Choosing Bikes Over Cars in Sweden |
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Studded bicycle tire for snowy conditions. Credit: Pixabay
Västtrafik, a public transport operator in Western Sweden, has initiated a project called Winter Cyclist, in collaboration with 13 municipalities. The essence of the project is simple – 420 people will get free studded bike tires and reflective vests if they ditch driving in favour of cycling this winter for at least three days every week.
The aim of the project is just as simple – proving that the onslaught of the cold season doesn’t mean that bicycles should become irrelevant and that cycling can be a viable year-long mobility option. The project participants will also report on how winter road maintenance works in the municipality. In this way, they also help other cyclists and pedestrians.
Read more at The Mayor.EU
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SPOTLIGHT ON INDIGENOUS WELLNESS |
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U.S. Completes Renaming of 650 Places to Remove Derogatory Native Term |
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U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland speaks during the National Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, U.S., December 2, 2021. Credit: REUTERS/Leah Millis
The Biden administration on Thursday said it had completed the removal of the word "squaw" from nearly 650 place names on federal land as part of an effort to reckon with the nation's racist past.
The Interior Deparment had said in November of last year that it was beginning a process to do away the word, a term for Indigenous women that Native Americans find offensive.
"I feel a deep obligation to use my platform to ensure that our public lands and waters are accessible and welcoming. That starts with removing racist and derogatory names that have graced federal locations for far too long," Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to lead a cabinet agency, said in a statement.
Read more at Reuters
See also at US Geological Services: Official Replacement Names for Sq_
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Credit: geogebra.org
“We can’t continue with the playbook of the last century,” Achiim Steiner argued, preferring a focus on economic transformation rather than a reliance on growth as a panacea.
“Frankly speaking, the transformations we now need require us to introduce the metrics of the future: low carbon, less inequality, greater sustainability.”
Steiner also called for a reversal in the recent downward trend of development assistance to the most vulnerable countries. Continuing down that road would be a grave error, said Steiner, and “underestimates the impact it has on our ability to work together as nations.”
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) chief Achim Steiner
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- Sept. 23 All over the World - Take part in the Climate Strike
#FridaysForFuture #PeopleNotProfit There’s just 5 weeks to go for Fridays For Future’s big Global Climate Strike on September 23. Be sure to support your local youth! Here is their call to action: Join in for the Global Climate Strike as we demand policymakers and world leaders to prioritize #PeopleNotProfit! We demand that our Governments listen to MAPA voices [1] and immediately work to provide Loss & Damage Finance to the communities most affected by the climate crisis. One of the best ways you can help is by amplifying youth voices - if you can’t attend a march in your area (or if there aren’t any), make sure to follow youth groups on social media and amplify their call to action. All events, big or small, add up and politicians and the media take notice. Find out more: fridaysforfuture.org/september23 Official FFF Map (shows Canada events): https://fridaysforfuture.ca/event-map
- Sept. 30 Deadline and On-going: International Health Trends and Perspectives (IHTP, a new journal based at Toronto Metropolitan University, (formerly Ryerson University, Toronto) is dedicating a special issue to the topic of Planetary Health to highlight research, theoretical and community based contributions of scientists, scholars and activists globally. It is inviting manuscripts that are solutions and equity-focused. See the call for papers and details here: https://bit.ly/3tDixHT
- October 4-5, 2022: World Ocean Tech and Innovation Summit (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)
- October 6-12, 2022: PHM-Exch> (EN/AR/ES/FR) Course on Struggle for Health by PHM and Amel Association / الموضوع: دورة تدريبية عن النضال من أجل الصحة لمنطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا تقوم بتنفيذها حركة صحة الشعوب بالتعاون مع مؤسسة عامل الدولية / Curso sobre la lucha por la salud impartido por PHM y la Asociación Amel / Cours sur la lutte pour la santé par le PHM et l'association Amel
- October 13-15, 2022: IUCN Leaders Forum – Call for Youth Change Makers (Jeju, South Korea)
- October 22-25 (virtual) and October 28-30 (in-person) StellenboschU-CUGH African Global Health Conference, 2022, Cape Town, South Africa
- October 31 - November 4, 2022: 7th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research (Bogotá, Colombia)
- November 6-18, 2022: COP 27 UN Climate Change Conference, Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt
- November 21-23, 2022: Canadian Conference on Global Health Join us in Toronto for the 28th Canadian Conference on Global Health (CCGH). This year's hybrid event will explore the theme of: "Inclusive Global Health in Uncertain Times: Research and Practice".
- December 7-8, 2022: The 4th International Conference on Rare Diseases Vienna, Austria
- December 7-19, 2022: COP15 UN Biodiversity Conference, Montreal, Canada
- April 14-16, 2023: CUGH's Annual Global Health Conference - Global Health at a Crossroads: Equity, Climate Change and Microbial Threats
- May 23-25, 2023: The Battery Show Europe (Stuggart, Germany)
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FYI#1 SPOTLIGHT ON MEDIA |
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How Greenwashing Fools Us |
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Credit: The New York Times, Shutterstock
“Sustainable.”
“Eco-friendly.”
“Natural.”
We’re surrounded by products that are made to sound “green” and good. Greenwashing is everywhere. And, according to a recent study by a global consulting firm, it’s also very effective. Worst of all, it works especially well on those who say they are concerned about the environment.
Here’s how greenwashing can work, and what can be done to blunt its power.
It’s not always outright lies.
By greenwashing, I mean misleading claims made by a company about its environmental credentials. They’re designed to hoodwink consumers.
“Research shows, again and again, that expressing greenness can be beneficial for companies and brands,” said Menno D.T. de Jong, a communications professor at the University of Twente in the Netherlands.
De Jong told me that greenwashing is often characterized by claims that are incomplete or unverifiable. That makes them difficult to disprove. “It is very hard for normal people to evaluate green claims,” he said.
Even when presented with the full picture, de Jong said, reality might not sink in for many consumers. “When they are confronted with third-party information that the green claims may not be entirely true, they may not be inclined to believe that the company is telling complete lies,” he said.
We’re impressionable...
ALSO Watch the IPCC’s recent video: Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation & Vulnerability
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Credit: CRAIG CUTLER
For decades physicians believed that premature babies didn’t experience pain. Here’s what doctors know now – and the innovative solutions being embraced by today's caregivers.
Doctors once believed that infants—especially premature babies—did not feel pain, and if they did, they would not remember it.
This might sound like Medieval medicine. But as recently as the 1980s, babies undergoing surgery were given a muscle relaxant to paralyze them while in the operating room but were not given any pain medication, says Fiona Moultrie, a pediatrician and researcher at the University of Oxford who focuses on neonatal pain. “At the time, it was assumed that most of the behaviors that infants were exhibiting were just reflexes.”
Over the next decades, studies documented changes in infant behavior, stress hormones, and brain activity, proving that even the tiniest babies did indeed suffer pain. Research also revealed that continued pain could derail a child’s short- and long-term neurological, social, and motor development, especially in fragile, preterm babies born earlier than 37 weeks, says Björn Westrup, a neonatologist and researcher at the Karolinska Institute near Stockholm, Sweden.
Rapid advances in medicine now allow very fragile, tiny, preterm babies to survive. But preemies may spend weeks or months in the hospital undergoing the constant, often painful procedures needed to save their lives. Strategies to make such procedures less traumatic are vital, as premature births are rising globally. In the United States alone, about 380,000 babies are born prematurely each year, or about one in 10 births. Worldwide, it’s about 15 million.
The medical profession tries to manage or prevent infant suffering with drugs such as ibuprofen (for mild to moderate pain) and fentanyl (used to alleviate extreme pain). For most analgesic drugs, though, the proper dosage, effectiveness, or effects on the brain remain unknown, so increasingly, hospitals are incorporating non-pharmaceutical interventions that center on techniques known as developmental care, which keep babies and their families together rather than isolating infants in incubators.
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FYI #3 |
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Modern Slavery: 50 Million People Worldwide in Modern Slavery |
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Credit: International Labour Organization (ILO)
Latest estimates show that forced labour and forced marriage have increased significantly in the last five years, according to the International Labour Organization, Walk Free and the International Organization for Migration.
Fifty million people were living in modern slavery in 2021, according to the latest Global Estimates of Modern Slavery . Of these people, 28 million were in forced labour and 22 million were trapped in forced marriage.
The number of people in modern slavery has risen significantly in the last five years. 10 million more people were in modern slavery in 2021 compared to 2016 global estimates. Women and children remain disproportionately vulnerable.
Modern slavery occurs in almost every country in the world, and cuts across ethnic, cultural and religious lines. More than half (52 per cent) of all forced labour and a quarter of all forced marriages can be found in upper-middle income or high-income countries.
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FYI #4 |
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Northwest Ohio Egg Farm Forced to Euthanize 3 Million Chickens Due to Bird Flu |
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Credit: U.S. Department of Agriculture
The highly pathogenic disease has returned to the Midwest earlier than authorities expected after a lull of several months. It only occasionally affects humans.
An outbreak of bird flu that has led to the deaths of 43 million chickens and turkeys this year across the U.S. has been found at a giant egg-laying operation in Ohio, state and federal agriculture officials said Wednesday.
The case confirmed two weeks ago in Ohio's Defiance County has affected roughly 3 million chickens, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The egg-laying farm has started euthanizing all of its flock, said Dennis Summers, the state's veterinarian.
The highly pathogenic disease has returned to the Midwest earlier than authorities expected after a lull of several months with cases in Indiana, Minnesota, North Dakota and Wisconsin within the past week. There also have been several detections in western states over the summer.
The disease is typically carried by migrating waterfowl, such as geese and ducks, Summers said. It only occasionally affects humans, such as farm workers, and the USDA keeps poultry from infected flocks out of the food supply.
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FYI #5: SEPTEMBER READING - NEW BOOK |
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"The Code Breaker - Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race" by Walter Isaacson |
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Credit: Book Cover
The bestselling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs returns with a “compelling” (The Washington Post) account of how Nobel Prize winner Jennifer Doudna and her colleagues launched a revolution that will allow us to cure diseases, fend off viruses, and have healthier babies.
When Jennifer Doudna was in sixth grade, she came home one day to find that her dad had left a paperback titled
The Double Helixon her bed. She put it aside, thinking it was one of those detective tales she loved. When she read it on a rainy Saturday, she discovered she was right, in a way. As she sped through the pages, she became enthralled by the intense drama behind the competition to discover the code of life. Even though her high school counselor told her girls didn’t become scientists, she decided she would.
Driven by a passion to understand how nature works and to turn discoveries into inventions, she would help to make what the book’s author, James Watson, told her was the most important biological advance since his codiscovery of the structure of DNA. She and her collaborators turned a curiosity of nature into an invention that will transform the human race: an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions.
The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code.
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FYI#6: SPOTLIGHT ON EDUCATION |
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Rebooting Critical Thinking |
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Credit: TEDx
Helen Lee Bouygues is a world-renowned misinformation and critical thinking expert. In 2018, she founded the Paris-based Reboot Foundation, whose mission is to promote richer, more reflective forms of thought in schools, homes, and businesses—especially in the face of our vastly changing technology. The foundation also funds efforts to better integrate critical thinking into the daily lives of people around the world. It conducts surveys and opinion polls, leads its own research, and supports the work of independent scholars. Bouygues is also a columnist for Forbes and is working on a book on critical thinking. Recently, she answered a few questions for Skeptical Inquirer.
Skeptical Inquirer magazine is published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), whose mission is “to promote scientific inquiry, critical investigation, and the use of reason in examining controversial and extraordinary claims.”
As an advocate of critical thinking, do you also consider yourself a skeptic?
Being a good critical thinker means questioning your assumptions, walking through problems logically, and then reflecting on your thinking to better understand it. I think it’s important to read widely and not rely on any one source for your information. Anyone can be a better critical thinker if they question assumptions, reason through logic, and seek out diversity of thought. Most of the time, I believe it’s better to ask good questions than to have all the answers. Does that make me a skeptic? Perhaps.
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FEELING THE PEACE AND SERENITY AT WASKESIU LAKE |
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Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan
September 18-21, 2022
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Photo Credits: David Zakus |
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THANKS FOR READING THE FREE
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Current News on Ecological Wellness and Global Health
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