Hi. I’m just getting so sick of this war, and especially of its ruthless and ugly perpetrator, V. Putin. I wish I could just spit him out like a fly, pull off his wings. How can anyone call this dictator, the closest thing to Hitler in today’s world, their friend, and then not change their mind after witnessing the intense destruction he is responsible for in Ukraine? Causing and executing war against a peace loving nation is the most egregious act against global health possible. 1000+ civilians have been killed, at least 64 health facilities are known to have been attacked, ambulances have been blown up, pregnant women are having a very rough time, and 10 million have been displaced. Willfully causing death, destruction and huge collateral global strife is unacceptable and must stop. By raising himself to the status of the world’s most horrible and hated person he is not only destroying the lives of Ukrainians and Russians (perhaps 15,000 have been killed and up to 125,000 have fled), but also of so many more around the world.
Hunger will soon set in, if it hasn't already, for the millions who rely on food from this part of the world, which is a global breadbasket. Many countries hugely rely on wheat, corn and oils from Russia and Ukraine. The West will have to rush in, just as it is now in providing weapons, sanctions, and personal and moral support.
The courage and success to date, though, of this David against the Russian cyclops inspires and gives me hope that this evil will be rid of soon. The challenges of global health and the climate crisis are being exacerbated by disregard for humankind. Flights are now having to fly around Russian airspace adding huge quantities of greenhouse gasses. New fossil fuel facilities are being planned; and many countries are being encouraged to increase their oil production, though this is certainly the time to be going full speed ahead with green energy sources. It all must change soon or there won’t be a world left for my great grandchildren, let alone for my dear grandchildren. I personally wish I had the guts (and youth) of one of my heroes, war surgeon Norman Bethune, who like many in his day travelled far to personally battle the fascism he saw threatening his world.
In today’s Planetary Health Weekly (#12 of 2022) you’ll learn more about current battles. Please load your slingshot (again) and take aim:
Climate Crisis Updates:
The Antarctic “Doomsday Glacier” is irreversibly melting,
Sea level to rise one foot along U.S. coastlines by 2050,
Conservative Party-linked Facebook page, Canada Proud, is a major source of climate disinformation,
Tracking viral misinformation – 41 million Americans are QAnon believers, survey finds,
Momentum for global climate action continues to build,
Energy, power, cells modules, cooling: watch Lucid’s CEO give the best battery primer, yet,
The clean energy employment shift, by 2030, infographic,
CORONAVIRUS UPDATES:
‘A moral failure’: global vaccine inequity hits Africa hardest,
WHO now ‘strongly supports’ Covid-19 boosters, reversing previous call,
Staring into the human genome to diagnose Covid,
Covid deaths probably three times higher than records say (says major study on excess deaths),
How Omicron overtook Delta in three charts,
BA.2 Omicron Covid variant could be dominant in U.S. in weeks,
How worrying is Deltacron Covid variant, hybrid of Delta and Omicron? (not much yet),
Hong Kong sets global Covid infection record as morgues overflow,
China locks down Shenzhen and province of 24 million over Covid,
Black scientists say misinformation on vaccines hurt black communities, THEN
The battle for food supplies in Ukraine,
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives global food insecurity,
Huge floating solar farm puts Thailand on track towards carbon neutrality,
Video shows hundreds of blackbirds in Mexico mysteriously plummet from the sky – many nosediving to their deaths,
(Japanese encephalitis) virus spreading across Australia is ‘growing global threat,’
More flights in the works to transport pediatric patients from Ukraine to Toronto,
Turkish man plants 30 million saplings and creates forest on once-barren land,
A plea to make widespread environmental damage an international crime takes centre stage at The Hague,
Textile waste is a growing problem – and Canada still isn’t doing enough to solve it,
Statement of the death of Heather Winterstein,
Quote by Chinese president on state of the world,
International Health Trends and Perspectives (a new journal based at Ryerson University, Toronto) is dedicating a special issue to the topic of Planetary Health (see graphic below) to highlight research and theoretical contributions of scientists and scholars globally. Inviting manuscripts that are solutions and equity-focused. See the call for papers details here https://bit.ly/3tDixHT
The proliferation of the podcast,
Shock in France after giant trawler sheds 100,000 dead fish off coast,
Fugitive coal dust in the (Alberta) wind,
Fight to the last drop: a glimpse into Alberta’s water future,
As China’s economy slows, its slow economy takes root,
New book (Open Access): “Contemporary Developments and Perspectives in International Health Security” edited by Stanislaw P. Stawicki (and see chapter on ‘Reflections on climate change and public health in Africa in the era of global pandemic'),
‘No future for us left in Russia,’ say fleeing academics, and lastly
ENDSHOTS of "Going On Calming Walks."
I hope you will keep reading. Best, david
David Zakus, Editor and Publisher
There is only one road to Peace: Russia must stop its illegal and merciless war on peaceful Ukraine, an egregious attack on planetary health..
A new interview with researcher David Holland, an atmospheric scientist at New York University, reveals just how quickly the Thwaites Glacier is melting. Nicknamed the “Doomsday Glacier,” Axios reported this morning that the West Antarctica ice shelf could melt in as quickly as a few decades, unleashing the inland ice it holds back into the ocean and raising sea levels by several catastrophic feet.
Holland is currently aboard an icebreaker ship navigating thick sea ice where he hopes to study the Thwaites’ grounding line, which is where the ice meets the seafloor. Temperatures and salinity levels will tell scientists how quickly the iceberg is melting, and if it’s melting from underneath as well.
Human-caused climate change, driven mostly by the burning of fossil fuels, has accelerated global sea level rise to the fastest rate in more than 3,000 years. The report by NOAA, NASA and five other federal agencies — updating a study from 2017 — predicts that ocean levels along U.S. coasts will increase as much by 2050 as they did over the past century.
This amount of water battering the coasts “will create a profound increase in the frequency of coastal flooding, even in the absence of storms or heavy rainfall,” NOAA said.
“We’re unfortunately headed for a flood regime shift,” said William Sweet, an oceanographer at the NOAA National Ocean Service and the nation’s top scientist on sea level rise. “There will be water in the streets unless action is taken in more and more communities.”
Even if the world takes swift action to curb carbon emissions, he said, the trajectory for sea level rise “is more or less set over the next 30 years.”
Looking ahead to the end of the century, the amount of planet-warming pollution people release into the atmosphere could mean the difference between sea levels stabilizing at about two feet above the historical average or surging by almost eight feet, NOAA reports.
Leading the charge is Canada Proud, a right-wing Facebook page with close ties to the Conservative Party, which made post after post in the early days of the invasion urging the country to export more hydrocarbons to Europe.
“The world is enriching Vladimir Putin when they buy his oil and gas,” it explained in one to its nearly 400,000 followers. “Shouldn’t the world be buying Canadian oil and gas instead?”
The political circumstances may be novel, but this is merely the latest variation on a message that Canada Proud has pushed online for years: that we need to remove as many restrictions as possible on the production, transport and export of fossil fuels.
New research from Simon Fraser University shows that Canada Proud is incredibly effective at spreading that message. The Ontario-based group founded by Jeff Ballingall, a paid strategist for former Conservative leader Erin O’Toole, punches far above its weight on social media when it comes to global heating, posting content dismissive of climate action that regularly outperforms national environmental groups and rivals the reach of mainstream media.
More than a year after Donald J. Trump left office, the QAnon conspiracy theory that thrived during his administration continues to attract more Americans, including many Republicans and far-right news consumers, according to results from a survey released on Thursday from the Public Religion Research Institute.
The nonprofit and nonpartisan group found that 16 percent of Americans, or roughly 41 million people, believed last year in the three key tenets of the conspiracy theory. Those are that Satanist pedophiles who run a global child sex-trafficking operation control the government and other major institutions, that a coming storm will sweep elites from power and that violence might be necessary to save the country.
If you're looking to learn more about EV batteries, Lucid Motors CEO and CTO Peter Rawlinson may have just delivered the best primer yet. (Video roughly 36 minutes)
With many countries and companies pledged to reduce emissions, the clean energy transition seems to be an inevitability. And that transition will undoubtedly have an impact on employment.
New sources of power don’t just require new and updated equipment, they also require people to operate them. And as demand for cleaner fuels shifts attention away from fossil fuels, it’s likely that not every sector will see a net gain of employment.
This graphic shows projected global employment growth in the clean energy sector and related areas, under announced climate pledges as of 2021, as tracked by the IEA’s World Energy Outlook.
Globally, nationally and locally, the pandemic continues. It remains far from being over. Please remember that.
Over the last week there were about 12 million new cases (no change though testing is sorely insufficient and this is an underestimation) and 43,000 deaths (up this week ~15%), and about 100 million people received a Covid-19 vaccine (down ~4%).
In Canada there are still about 33 deaths/day over the last week (down about 30%). Some countries currently have very high daily case counts, including: South Korea, Vietnam, Germany, France, Russia, and the UK. The hotspots for cases remain the richer industrialized countries.
As AIDS surged worldwide in the 1990s, the most effective treatments were made available in the United States and Western Europe within months of their regulatory approval. But those same treatments took years to reach Africa. Without access to these lifesaving drugs, millions in Africa died of the disease.
Now, Dr. Evrard Nahimana fears that scenario is playing out again—this time, with COVID-19.
Wealthy nations have surpluses of COVID-19 vaccines and have since rolled out booster programs. But more than 80% of people in Africa hadn’t received a single dose, as of December. Read more at PIH
Newspaper, the Guardian, has spoken to farmers about what life is like on the ground, with the Russian army hiding tanks in barns and stocks of potatoes expected to deplete within weeks.
One farmer who co-manages a 2,000-hectare (4,940-acre) arable farm near the city of Lviv in western Ukraine, grows potatoes and protein crops including soya beans. The farm is a major supplier of potatoes to domestic markets, with a new crop due to be planted within the next few weeks.
His farm supplies potatoes from storage to the Ukrainian military and refugees, but he said he only had about four to five weeks of supply left.
He said growers in the country had critical decisions to make in the next fortnight about what spring crops to grow this year, with shortages of fuel, fertilizer and pesticides.
“There is a desire from the Ukrainian government that the crop is planted. We will scale back slightly here, but do plan to plant. However, we need help particularly in terms of crop-protection supplies to protect our potatoes from diseases such as late blight that can devastate crops,” he said. Read more at Freshtalk Daily
The IMF has issued a warning that the world's food supplies are in peril. Russian's invasion of Ukraine is not the sole factor driving global food insecurity, but it is significant.
In Thailand’s northeastern province of Ubon Ratchathani, a reservoir has been transformed into a shimmering network of solar panels - capable of reducing the kingdom’s carbon emissions by 47,000 tonnes every year.
Touted as the "world's largest floating hydro-solar farm”, the Sirindhorn dam project is capable of creating solar power by day and hydropower by night.
The 720,000 square metre installation is the first of 15 farms Thailand plans to build as part of its ongoing commitment to reach carbon neutrality by the year 2050.
"This is the first and biggest project like this in the world," says Prasertsak Cherngchawano, Thailand’s deputy governor of electricity. “There are 144,000 solar panels here. One panel is two square metres, and the whole farm is equivalent to 70 football fields.. Read more at Euro News.
Hundreds of yellow-headed blackbirds swarmed over Chihuahua, Mexico, last week when something sent them crashing to the ground, leaving dozens of the birds dead along the street. Read more CBS News
Japanese encephalitis - a viral brain infection - has killed two people, with 15 others infected. The virus is found in pigs and birds, and passed to mosquitoes when they bite infected animals. It cannot be spread from person to person, so is not as big a threat as a Covid-type virus.
It's most common in rural areas in southeast Asia, the Pacific islands and the Far East. The cases in Australia are thought to have emerged in piggeries, after four states reported infections last month. Two people, a man in his 70s and another in his 60s, have died from the virus since February 28.
Health scientist and CEO of the Encephalitis Society Dr Ava Easton has shared fears a significant number of people will either die or face "life-changing" effects from the virus. Dr Easton said: "For those who develop encephalitis as a result of a bite from a mosquito, nearly a third of those who contract encephalitis in that way will sadly die, and a third to 50 per cent will be left with serious to life changing consequences." She told 7NEWS the recent floods in eastern Australia have created a perfect breeding ground for mosquitos. Read more at NEWSBREAK
Credit: Article The non-profit organization that successfully transported two pediatric cancer patients from Ukraine to Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children said their first mission has paved the way for additional flights.
“We're already working toward another flight,” said Brian MacDonald, executive director of Aman Lara – the organization that spearheaded this mission. The institution was established last summer to evacuate Afghans fleeing the Taliban. Read more at CTV News
Hikmet Kaya has proved that good intentions and hard work can yield big rewards. The retired Turkish forest management chief has posed proudly in front of the barren land that he and his team have transformed into a lush forest. He began his career in the town of Sinop in 1978 and while he retired 19 years later, his legacy has continued to grow—literally. Read more at my modern met
The campaign to make ecocide an international crime took center stage in the Hague on Tuesday as Bangladesh, Samoa and Vanuatu advocated criminalizing environmental destruction during a virtual forum at the annual meeting of the International Criminal Court’s 123 member nations.
The forum, attended by more than 1,300 individual participants, represented a collective cry for justice from three of the world’s most climate vulnerable countries. . Read more at Inside Climate News
At Paul Long's clothing store Anián, each garment gives new life to used wool.
The fabric is recycled from discarded clothing from landfills and rag houses — warehouses full of second-hand clothing — in southeast Asia and Africa that eventually lands in Vancouver, where Long's team uses it to create new garments.
Long estimates his business kept 136 tonnes of textile waste out of landfills abroad in 2020 — around the weight of a blue whale — and he's hoping to make even larger strides in recycling in the future. Read more at CBC.
On December 9, 2021, Heather Winterstein, a young Indigenous woman, went to the emergency room at St. Catharine’s General Hospital, suffering from pain and feeling unwell. After being sent home with Tylenol, the pain became far more severe and Heather called for an ambulance. After finally being taken back to the ER, she was left in the waiting room, unattended and unmonitored, until she collapsed and died. Heather, who was 24 years old, died from Necrotizing Fasciitis (Strep A), a condition that is entirely preventable if treated properly.
Heather was an Indigenous woman with family ties to Six Nations (Cayuga). Read more at APTN News and at CBC News
As of last week, residents of First Nations impacted by long-term boil-water advisories can apply for compensation as part of a class-action lawsuit taking aim at the Federal government.
The $8 billion First Nations Drinking Water Settlement, reached in December 2021, earmarked $1.8 billion in compensation for impacted First Nations, as well as a $6 billion commitment for construction and maintenance of safe water infrastructure in communities across Canada.
Quote Of The Week:
Credit article
"The prevailing trend of peace and development is facing serious challenges...The world is neither tranquil nor stable."
President Xi Jinping of China in conversation with U.S. President Biden on March 18, 2022.
International Health Trends and Perspectives (a new journal based at Ryerson University, Toronto) is dedicating a special issue to the topic of Planetary Health (see graphic below) to highlight research and theoretical contributions of scientists and scholars globally. Inviting manuscripts that are solutions and equity-focused. See the call for papers details here https://bit.ly/3tDixHT
March 28-April 3, 2022: CUGH 2022 Global Health Conference - All virtual: Healthy People, Healthy Planet, Social Justice (Los Angeles, California). Virtual Satellite Sessions: March 21-25, 2022
The podcast form of communication has proliferated so much that there seem to be more podcasts now than there are stars in the summer/winter sky. Some are excellent, most are not, and a few dominant ones, such as Joe Rogan’s show, have become as central to the national discussion as anything in print or on television. In “Reasons to Abandon Spotify That Have Nothing to Do with Joe Rogan,” Alex Ross, who usually writes about music, considers the platform that hosts the misinformation-spreading, slur-using host. In “Brené Brown’s Empire of Emotion,” Sarah Larson, contributes to The New Yorker’sPodcast Dept.
Dutch-owned trawler FV Margiris, the world’s second-biggest fishing vessel, has shed more than 100,000 dead fish into the Atlantic Ocean off France.
France’s maritime minister, Annick Girardin, called the images of the dead fish – which formed a floating carpet of carcasses spotted by environmental campaigners – “shocking” and has asked the national fishing surveillance authority to launch an investigation.
Virginijus Sinkevicius, the European commissioner for environment, oceans and fisheries, also said he was seeking “exhaustive information and evidence about the case”.
Last April, while walking along Silver Springs ridge overlooking the Bow River and Dale Hodges Park in Calgary, I was slowed to a standstill by winds gusting up to 70km/h. I looked across the valley, west of Canada Olympic Park, and a towering cloud of dust rose above the Stoney Trail highway construction project.
One of the speakers at a recent meeting raised concerns about the coal mining dust that would fall on their lands and communities, including the Blood Tribe Reserve. At the time, my focus was water contamination, but while sand pelted my face on that windy ridge, I couldn’t help feeling that the water protectors had a valid point.
As China's Economy Slows, Its Slow Economy Takes Root
Credit: Visual Capitalist
In China’s eastern Jiangsu province, a giant snail sculpture sits proudly amid canola fields just outside the town of Yaxi. It mimics the logo of Cittaslow — the international organization that promotes slow living and recognizes towns that support this way of life.
After the town of 20,000 residents became the first Chinese city to gain Cittaslow accreditation in 2010, the movement seemed in no hurry to take off in the rest of the country. It appeared that slow cities — which represent a rejection of the high-speed, high-intensity life, along with the rapid urbanization that have come to epitomize China’s development — were out of tune with the world’s second-largest economy.
But now, as China faces its worst recession since 1976, more and more communities are adopting a less urgent lifestyle, breaking with the country’s approach for the past several decades. That trend is expected to pick up steam with the coronavirus pandemic underscoring the pitfalls of modern life.
Today, 12 Chinese cities are accredited by Cittaslow, whose name is rooted in “città,” the Italian word for city. Another 120 cities and counties have applied and are awaiting assessment, as the country — and the world — battles its biggest public health crisis in decades. Cities have to meet 72 criteria.
"Contemporary Developments and Perspectives in International Health Security" edited by Stanislaw P. Stawicki
Credit: Book Cover
Since the publication of the first volume of Contemporary Developments and Perspectives in International Health Security, a lot has happened in this rapidly evolving area. Perhaps the most dominant global event of the past eighteen months is the COVID-19 pandemic.
Within this general context, the importance of the multiple and diverse international health security (IHS) subdomains is becoming evident, especially when one begins to appreciate the interconnectedness of the modern world and the interdependence of various existing societal systems. Moreover, this complexity presents our civilization with both dangers and opportunities, and among the most pronounced opportunities is our ability to effectively “work together and coordinate” as humanity.
With a goal to summarize and synthesize our collective experiences from the COVID-19 pandemic, this second tome of Contemporary Developments and Perspectives in International Health Security is a repository of knowledge and a practical resource for those who seek to learn about the current pandemic as well as for those who may already be preparing for the “next pandemic” or as yet unforeseen IHS threats. In addition to the COVID-19 global response, topics discussed in this book include climate change, mental health, supply chain management, and clinical diagnostics, among others.
‘No Future For Us Left in Russia,’ Say Fleeing Academics
Credit: Getty Russian academics who have fled the country in recent weeks say there’s no future left for them there, amid a clampdown on free speech and severing of international ties.
Three scholars who spoke to Times Higher Education after fleeing their home country in the wake of its invasion of Ukraine could be the tip of a new brain drain, with Western sanctions also set to crush the Russian economy.
Publisher and Editor: Dr. David Zakus Production: Aisha Saleem and Julia Chalmers Social Media: Mahdia Abidi, Shalini Kainth and Ishneer Mankoo Website, Index and Advisory: Eunice Anteh, Gaël Chetaille, Evans Oppong, Jonathan Zakus, Dr. Aimée-Angélique Bouka & Elisabeth Huang Blogs: Dr. Stephen Bezruchka, Aisha Saleem and Dr. Jay Kravitz