02 May 20
Bill McKibben | How to Combat Climate Depression
Bill McKibben, The New Yorker
McKibben writes: "If there existed some kind of gauge for measuring ambient sadness, I imagine the needle would now be pinned to the far end of the red."
Bill McKibben, The New Yorker
McKibben writes: "If there existed some kind of gauge for measuring ambient sadness, I imagine the needle would now be pinned to the far end of the red."
EXCERPT:
But here’s the worse news: even before the coronavirus descended, that’s how the world looked to an awful lot of Americans, especially younger ones. Seventh Generation, the recycled-paper-towel and household-products company, commissioned a survey, released in April. It showed that seventy-one per cent of millennials and sixty-seven per cent of Generation Z feel that climate change has negatively affected their mental health. How upset were they? Four in five people in the eighteen-to-twenty-three age cohort “aren’t planning—or didn’t want—to have children of their own as a result of climate change.” Even if the survey were off by fifty per cent, that would still be an astonishing number.
I spend a lot of time with young people, and I find much the same thing: they’re far more aware of the science behind climate change than their elders are, and they know what it means. They understand that if we can’t check the rise in temperatures soon, we will see an ongoing series of crises. In fact, those have already begun in large parts of the world. Year after year on the West Coast, summer has become the season of wildfire smoke, lingering for weeks in the air above our major cities. We’ve always had hurricanes, but they drop more rain than we’ve ever seen before. If you anticipated that your life was going to be punctuated by one major disaster after another, would you be eager to have kids? It’s worth remembering that the last big novel disease to hit our hemisphere—the Zika virus, which caused microcephaly in some babies—prompted the health ministers of several countries to urge women to forgo pregnancy for a year or more.
Armed men take part in an 'American Patriot Rally,' organized by Michigan United for Liberty on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol in Lansing, demanding the reopening of businesses, April 30, 2020. (photo: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP/Getty Images)
Trump's Nationalism Advances on a Predictable Trajectory to Violence. His Supporters Will Kill When They're Told To.
Aleksandar Hemon, The Intercept
Hemon writes: "Ever since Donald Trump declared his presidential candidacy and rank racism in 2015, those of us who'd witnessed the nationalist undoing in the Balkans at the end of the last millennium have found the subsequent rise of Trumpism frighteningly familiar."
Aleksandar Hemon, The Intercept
Hemon writes: "Ever since Donald Trump declared his presidential candidacy and rank racism in 2015, those of us who'd witnessed the nationalist undoing in the Balkans at the end of the last millennium have found the subsequent rise of Trumpism frighteningly familiar."
EXCERPT:
In the meantime, Trump, the chosen tool of undoing, has been carrying out his promises, with the full and passionate support of the GOP and many of its rich donors. The claims of false and foolish pundits notwithstanding, at no point was Trump going to relent, change, or metamorphose into being “presidential,” for the simple reason that Trumpism is nothing without the constant perpetuation of conflict.
For many of my fellow ex-Yugoslavs, it was instantly clear that once the GOP and Trump committed to conflict and destruction, they could never afford to quit, for that would constitute a tactical error leading to an irreversible defeat. They now have no choice but to follow their trajectory to its logical extreme, which must be victory and rebirth at all cost. They will kill if they have to, or at least let Covid-19 do it.
When armed Trumpists pretend to be a happening of good people who demand the end of the lockdown, anti-fascist ex-Yugoslavs don’t necessarily see an American version of murderous Serbian paramilitaries. What we see with heart-clenching clarity is that the familiar nationalist strategy of perpetually inciting conflict is advancing along a predictable trajectory.
What is even more frightening is the hankering across the political range for a magical national correction, the indulging of a persistent fantasy that some essential American quality (decency, reasonability, checks and balances, etc.) will finally kick in and halt the Trumpist madness, thus allowing the country to snap out of its nightmare and revert to its good old national essence. That was never going to happen: The ongoing conflict is not a glitch but a process that cannot be stopped or resolved politically. With the GOP in death-cult mode, a steady destruction of checks and balances previously imagined to be fail-safe, the jelly-spined leadership of the Democratic Party, and the Soviet-grade purging of any disloyalty or disobedience in the federal systems, Trump has effectively destroyed American politics.
What the actual resolution might look like, I fear to envision, but I know it will not resemble anything Americans can remember or dare to imagine.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Donald Trump. (photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters)
Donald Trump Team Blocks Anthony Fauci From Testifying Before Congressional Committee
David Jackson and Michael Collins, USA TODAY
Excerpt: "The White House is blocking epidemic expert Anthony Fauci from testifying before a congressional committee next week, less than two months after Fauci critiqued the nation's coronavirus testing system during a public hearing."
David Jackson and Michael Collins, USA TODAY
Excerpt: "The White House is blocking epidemic expert Anthony Fauci from testifying before a congressional committee next week, less than two months after Fauci critiqued the nation's coronavirus testing system during a public hearing."
EXCERPTS:
The House Appropriations Committee had sought Fauci’s testimony at a Wednesday subcommittee hearing to look into the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic that has killed nearly 65,000 Americans.
“We have been informed by an administration official that the White House has blocked Dr. Fauci from testifying,” committee spokesman Evan Hollander said Friday.
A White House spokesman said the administration is busy fighting the spread of the coronavirus, re-opening the economy, and seeking a vaccine, so "it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at congressional hearings."
"We are committed to working with Congress to offer testimony at the appropriate time," spokesman Judd Deere said.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a March 12 House hearing that the nation's coronavirus testing system was not what it should be.
"The system is not really geared to what we need right now, what you are asking for," Fauci said. "That is a failing."
Instead of Fauci, the House committee will hear next week from Dr. Tom Frieden, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Congress and the American public deserve a clear-eyed view of the path forward for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic," Rep. Nita M. Lowey, D-N.Y., who serves as the committee chairwoman, and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who chairs the subcommittee, said in a joint statement.
Critics said the White House is seeking to silence Fauci, citing news reports that officials have prevented him from appearing at news briefings.
"Hearing that Fauci will 'take a back seat' makes me more determined than ever to elect Joe Biden," tweeted Rep. David Cicilline, D-R.I.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., accused Trump of imposing a "gag order" on Fauci.
"His excuse? That it would be 'counterproductive,'" Van Hollen tweeted. "Translation: he doesn't want the public to hear the full truth, like 'don’t inject disinfectants' or 'we need more rapid testing.' Free Fauci!"
A red sign hanging on the glass door of a shop saying 'Closed due to coronavirus.' (photo: Yahoo!)
Democratic Senators Push for Paycheck Guarantee in Next Coronavirus Response Bill
Jessica Smith, Yahoo Finance
Smith writes: "Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) have introduced the Paycheck Security Act, which they say will ensure workers maintain their health insurance and keep getting paid until the pandemic subsides."
Jessica Smith, Yahoo Finance
Smith writes: "Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) have introduced the Paycheck Security Act, which they say will ensure workers maintain their health insurance and keep getting paid until the pandemic subsides."
Under the senators’ proposal, businesses that see at least a 20% month-over-month drop in revenues could receive grants to help cover workers’ payroll and benefits for at least six months. The grants would cover benefits and up to $90,000 in wages for each furloughed or laid off employee. The grants also include up to 20% of revenue to pay rent, utilities insurance policies and maintenance.
More than 30 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks, as the coronavirus wreaks havoc on the U.S. economy.
“America may get up to 20% unemployment. This is not happening in Europe where government has done direct intervention,” said Warner in a call with reporters on Friday.
The senators argue their program would be more effective than the current coronavirus response efforts. On the call, Blumenthal said the current programs are causing too much fear, confusion and uncertainty.
“Uncertainty about how long they're going to last and whether, in fact, loans will be turned into grants, whether there will be another payment,” said Blumenthal on the conference call. “This proposal provides a measure of security and comfort that is absolutely essential.”
Congress has already approved more than $2.5 trillion in coronavirus relief. As state unemployment systems strain to keep up with jobless claims and the Paycheck Protection Program has struggled with technical problems and backlash over big businesses accepting the loans, Warner said it might be time to reassess.
“We’re barely keeping the economy going and we think now is the time to pause and say there may be a better, more efficient and more effective way,” said Warner.
‘Simpler’ than what we have now
The Paycheck Security proposal would allow businesses of all sizes to receive the grants if they prove revenue losses, unless they hold more than 18 months of average payroll in cash or cash equivalents. Businesses that received money from the PPP or other federal relief programs would be ineligible, unless that money ran out.
“We wouldn’t have the kind of abuses that are taking place in PPP,” said Warner. “We really want to make sure we target this towards those businesses and more specially those workers who are feeling the most pain.” (According to reports, the Justice Department has found possible fraud among businesses seeking relief in a preliminary investigation of money disbursed through PPP.)
The IRS and the Treasury Department would issue the grants, either through payroll processors or a direct deposit from the IRS. The program would phase out as the economy recovers.
“In terms of implementation, it’s a heck of a lot simpler than what we have done up to now,” said Sanders.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) has introduced a similar measure in the house, which would cover up to $100,000 in workers’ wagers. Some Republicans have also warmed to the idea of covering company payrolls. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) proposed covering 80% of wages up to the median wage. It’s far less money than what the Democratic senators are suggesting — but Warner still sees that as a promising sign.
“The numbers don't really match, but that would be part of a negotiation,” said Warner. “I think there is recognition on the Republican side. And there's also been actually some strong business support for this because the uncertainty that's created right now — for middle market firms who've got no support, or even businesses that have received PPP support, you know, they're all questioning what happens when that eight weeks runs out.”
“I've actually been really pleasantly surprised at how much broad-based support there is,” he added.
Still, the next round of COVID-19 negotiations will likely prove difficult for a divided Congress. Lawmakers are bracing for a fight as both parties dig in on their list of priorities. Democratic lawmakers insist on funding for state and local governments while Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says liability protections for businesses are a “red line” for the Republican party.
“An absolute blanket heal from any legal responsibility for businesses is going to be a non-starter,” said Blumenthal. “I'm mystified as to why because already the leader wants to confuse and distract us from the basic task of reopening the economy and putting people back to work.”
The Senate is set to return to Washington on May 4, but the House will remain in recess until at least the following week.
Researchers from Brazil's National Institute of Science and Technology and employees of the Minas Gerais Sanitation collect sewage samples to try to detect the coronavirus on April 16 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. (photo: Douglas Magno/AFP/Getty Images)
An Early Warning System for Coronavirus Infections Could Be Found in Your Toilet
Brady Dennis, The Washington Post
Dennis writes: "David Hirschberg has a simple explanation for why a growing number of scientists are looking to sewage to help track the spread of the novel coronavirus in communities around the world."
Brady Dennis, The Washington Post
Dennis writes: "David Hirschberg has a simple explanation for why a growing number of scientists are looking to sewage to help track the spread of the novel coronavirus in communities around the world."
“S*** is a great source of information,” said Hirschberg, a founder of a nonprofit biotech firm and professor at the University of Washington at Tacoma. “This is the kind of early warning system you want to have. When people start showing up at hospitals and start dying, that’s not the indicator you want to have. That’s too late.”
Researchers say the virus can be detected in untreated wastewater within days of infection and as much as two weeks before a person grows ill enough to seek medical care — that is, if symptoms ever materialize at all.
Hirschberg and his colleagues, who have been monitoring raw wastewater coming into treatment plants in Tacoma and Pierce County for evidence of the virus over the past month, are among researchers in the United States, Europe, Australia and elsewhere who say the approach allows a glimpse at the curve of likely infections before confirmed cases begin to rise.
As the lack of adequate testing in many places has made it difficult keep pace with the highly infectious coronavirus, scientists say that monitoring sewage for the presence of the virus can provide public health officials with a relatively cheap and reliable tool that could remove some of the guesswork about when to impose local lockdowns — or when to ease them.
“We’re hopeful this info can really be a valuable addition to all the other information they are looking at to help them decide in the safest, most responsible — but also the fastest way possible — when to open up our economy and our cities,” said Newsha Ghaeli, president of Biobot, a Massachusetts-based start-up that analyzes wastewater.
Her firm — working alongside researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University and Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital — has undertaken one of the most ambitious efforts to ramp up sewage surveillance as the pandemic persists. More than 170 wastewater facilities across 37 states, representing about 13 percent of the U.S. population, have been sending regular samples for analysis.
So far, the samples have consistently shown a higher concentration of virus in places with more intense outbreaks. And the firm’s modeling, which estimates the likely number of cases in an area based on the amount of virus in wastewater, corroborates what other researchers are also finding: Many more people have covid-19 than official counts suggest.
“Our estimates are about 10 times higher than the cumulative [confirmed] cases up to that date,” said Mariana Matus, a Biobot co-founder.
Case in point: New Castle County, Del.
Based on sampling Biobot conducted there in mid-April, researchers estimated there were roughly 15,000 cases of covid-19 in the county — more than 15 times the 974 cases that had been confirmed. More recently, as the number of confirmed cases has continued to climb by several hundred, the firm estimated there were actually thousands of more cases across the county.
New Castle County Executive Matt Meyer said the findings offered valuable evidence that the local outbreak was still intensifying, that many infected residents were asymptomatic and that people should continue social distancing, wearing masks and staying home.
“When you’re dealing with imperfect facts, it’s really important to get as much data as you can,” Meyer said, adding that the wastewater data can be helpful to policymakers who are wrestling with uncertainties as they try to figure out when and how to ease current restrictions.
“You have this virus which really is not understood that well. There’s a lot of data, there’s a lot of misinformation, and there’s a lot of things we just don’t know,” he said. “The worst enemy is an invisible enemy.”
The ongoing pandemic is not the first time that epidemiologists have looked in wastewater for clues about the spread of an infectious disease.
In 2013, for example, Israel used a sewage surveillance system, which had been put in place decades earlier, to detect the circulation of the polio virus — a situation that threatened to set back global efforts to eradicate the crippling disease.
Because of the early detection in sewage, officials were able to pinpoint the most likely areas for infection and work quickly to ramp up a vaccination campaign to head off a more serious outbreak.
Monitoring wastewater for the novel coronavirus is hardly a panacea. The approach faces a number of challenges, including the logistics of deploying it on a massive scale and winning buy-in from government officials. Effective surveillance would need to be ongoing, and the results would likely need to be available more rapidly than they sometimes are now. The turnaround for Biobot’s results, officials there said, is roughly five days because samples are mailed to the firm from around the country.
Laurent Moulin, a microbiologist with Eau de Paris, the French capital’s publicly owned water utility, believes wastewater surveillance could prove especially useful in helping detect the second wave of covid-19 infections that many public health officials have warned is likely.
“When we stop the lockdowns, a lot of people could have interactions, and the virus could start to spread again,” said Moulin, who recently published findings, which have yet to be peer-reviewed, in which he and colleagues detailed how the rise and fall of confirmed infections in Paris correlated to the amount of virus detected in sewage. “If we monitor the wastewater, we can have an early warning system,” he said.
Zhugen Yang, a professor at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom, who is working to develop a rapid, paper-based test for the coronavirus in wastewater, said such technology ultimately could act as more than just a way of alerting authorities to the need for more restrictions as infections rise.
It also could be deployed on a hyperlocal level to give officials some measure of comfort in reopening schools and businesses. If cases are falling and the virus begins to disappear from wastewater, he said, sewage could help decide when it’s okay to inch back toward normality.
“If we can do proper detection, we could know in some communities there is lower risk,” Yang said. “It could be a signal to say that certain communities are not affected, and give them more freedom."
A digital spy sitting in front of a computer, 2020. (photo: Twitter/@BluRadioCo)
Colombia's New Scandal: The Army Spied on Journalists
teleSUR
Excerpt: "The magazine Semana Friday published a special investigation showing that the Colombian Army spied on journalists who were reporting on the armed conflict and military corruption."
teleSUR
Excerpt: "The magazine Semana Friday published a special investigation showing that the Colombian Army spied on journalists who were reporting on the armed conflict and military corruption."
EXCERPT:
Foreign journalists who were monitored by Colombian security forces include the New York Times correspondent Nick Casey, freelance photographer Stephen Ferry, and Lynsey Addario.
Between February and December 2019, the military also carried out computer monitoring of former ministers, presidential officials, generals, politicians, and trade unionists. This secret activity included spying on their family and social contacts.
"The army units involved were receiving financial aid from a foreign intelligence agency," Semana magazine holds, explaining that part of those financial resources was used to acquire the tools to spy on U.S. citizens.
"That foreign intelligence agency provided the Colombian cyber intelligence battalions with approximately US$400,000 annually to acquire computer equipment and tools."
'Stopping deforestation will not only reduce our exposure to new disasters but also tamp down the spread of a long list of other vicious diseases that have come from rain forest habitats.' (photo: Luis Barreto/WWF)
Stopping Deforestation Can Prevent Pandemics
Scientific American
Excerpt: "SARS, Ebola and now SARS-CoV-2: all three of these highly infectious viruses have caused global panic since 2002 - and all three of them jumped to humans from wild animals that live in dense tropical forests."
Scientific American
Excerpt: "SARS, Ebola and now SARS-CoV-2: all three of these highly infectious viruses have caused global panic since 2002 - and all three of them jumped to humans from wild animals that live in dense tropical forests."
Destroying habitats makes viruses and other pathogens more likely to infect humans
Three quarters of the emerging pathogens that infect humans leaped from animals, many of them creatures in the forest habitats that we are slashing and burning to create land for crops, including biofuel plants, and for mining and housing. The more we clear, the more we come into contact with wildlife that carries microbes well suited to kill us—and the more we concentrate those animals in smaller areas where they can swap infectious microbes, raising the chances of novel strains. Clearing land also reduces biodiversity, and the species that survive are more likely to host illnesses that can be transferred to humans. All these factors will lead to more spillover of animal pathogens into people.
Stopping deforestation will not only reduce our exposure to new disasters but also tamp down the spread of a long list of other vicious diseases that have come from rain forest habitats—Zika, Nipah, malaria, cholera and HIV among them. A 2019 study found that a 10 percent increase in deforestation would raise malaria cases by 3.3 percent; that would be 7.4 million people worldwide. Yet despite years of global outcry, deforestation still runs rampant. An average of 28 million hectares of forest have been cut down annually since 2016, and there is no sign of a slowdown.
Societies can take numerous steps to prevent the destruction. Eating less meat, which physicians say will improve our health anyway, will lessen demand for crops and pastures. Eating fewer processed foods will reduce the demand for palm oil—also a major feedstock for biofuels—much of which is grown on land clear-cut from tropical rain forests. The need for land also will ease if nations slow population growth—something that can happen in developing nations only if women are given better education, equal social status with men and easy access to affordable contraceptives.
Producing more food per hectare can boost supply without the need to clear more land. Developing crops that better resist drought will help, especially as climate change brings longer, deeper droughts. In dry regions of Africa and elsewhere, agroforestry techniques such as planting trees among farm fields can increase crop yields. Reducing food waste could also vastly lessen the pressure to grow more; 30 to 40 percent of all food produced is wasted.
As we implement these solutions, we can also find new outbreaks earlier. Epidemiologists want to tiptoe into wild habitats and test mammals known to carry coronaviruses—bats, rodents, badgers, civets, pangolins and monkeys—to map how the germs are moving. Public health officials could then test nearby humans. To be effective, though, this surveillance must be widespread and well funded. In September 2019, just months before the COVID-19 pandemic began, the U.S. Agency for International Development announced it would end funding for PREDICT, a 10-year effort to hunt for threatening microbes that found more than 1,100 unique viruses. USAID says it will launch a new surveillance program; we urge it to supply enough money this time to cast a wider and stronger net.
In the meantime, governments should prohibit the sale of live wild animals in so-called wet markets, where pathogens have repeatedly crossed over into humans. The markets may be culturally important, but the risk is too great. Governments must also crack down on illegal wildlife trade, which can spread infectious agents far and wide. In addition, we have to examine factory farms that pack thousands of animals together—the source of the 2009 swine flu outbreak that killed more than 10,000 people in the U.S. and multitudes worldwide.
Ending deforestation and thwarting pandemics would address six of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals: the guarantee of healthy lives, zero hunger, gender equality, responsible consumption and production, sustainably managed land, and climate action (intact tropical forests absorb carbon dioxide, whereas burning them sends more CO2 into the atmosphere).
The COVID-19 pandemic is a catastrophe, but it can rivet our attention on the enormous payoffs that humanity can achieve by not overexploiting the natural world. Pandemic solutions are sustainability solutions.
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