15 November 22
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Egypt Dispatch 3--Finally some noise at the COP
I remember many of these affairs—most vividly, maybe, a cold, giant, and angry march of at least a hundred thousand through the streets of Copenhagen in 2009, with Danes appalled at the collapsing conference setting small fires and, in a Scandinavian way, jousting with the police. The Paris talks came in the wake of the Bataclan nightclub massacres and so there were understandable restrictions on gathering; still the streets were alive with protest. And last year in Glasgow was wonderful—the youth march, especially, which gathered in a park amidst the trees, Greta near its head.
This year was different. The march was about three hundred yards long (my watch counts steps and I took about 800, and I was dancing back and forth to take these pictures). Instead of winding through the streets, it walked down a hot and dusty access road between two of the warehouse-style buildings that house the pavilions of various countries and interest groups. That’s because this COP is taking place in, well, a cop state. Egypt doesn’t allow protest out in the wild; we were in only politically free five acres in this vast country.
And yet for me there was at least one thing redeeming in its shrunken size—it let me pick out many of the faces (old and weathered or young and fresh) that make up the core of climate activism around the world. There have been a few groups of people whose inspiration has been absolutely necessary for the planet to even starting to take on the climate crisis: scientists, who provided the insights to let us know what was wrong; engineers, who provided the tools (solar panels, wind turbines, batteries) that give us a chance; and activists, who have provided the pressure that might let us speed climate action enough to begin catching up with the dire physics that the scientists first understood. Plenty of other people are required—businesspeople, diplomats, heads of big NGOs, and bureaucrats all have important roles to play, and they are all in evidence here. But in some sense they are interchangeable—indeed, today’s environment minister is often yesterday’s tourism minister and tomorrow’s commerce minister.
But the activists—well,I hesitate to even start naming names, because there are a thousand for every one listed here. (Most of them aren’t in Egypt—read Peter Kalmus’s thread about the stunning protests against private jets going on this weekend too). Still, many of my inspirations were on hand. I looked at Tom Goldtooth, of the Indigenous Environmental Network, rightly at the front of the march, and I thought of million conferences and protests and webinars he’s patiently attended; had he not done that work (alongside many others) then the great gathering at Standing Rock, with all its meant for movement building around the world, could not have happened in quite the same way
Or Tasneem Essop, who like many learned to fight power during the apartheid days in South Africa (when she came to the bullhorn she began with the cry “Amandla,” and many in the largely African crowd knew to answer “Awethu,” which is more or less Power to the People) and who somehow manages to coordinate the 1,300 member groups of the Climate Action Network or Harjeet Singh, most dapper of all activists, who has worked in and out of the UN agencies for many years, but never become a bureaucrat—always, instead, a strategist for translating outside agitation into inside power.
Or gentle unyielding Yeb Sano, whose turn from official diplomat to activist amid the chaos of Typhoon Haiyan—he began a fast at the Warsaw climate talks in 2014—was one of the great emotional boosts in the history of the movement, helping animate the climactic Paris talks the next year.
New leaders are constantly emerging, often pushed by the force of events. Svitlana Romanko, for instance, had always been a stalwart and effective campaigner, at 350.org and the Global Catholic Climate Movement; but when Vladimir Putin invaded her native Ukraine this year, she was forced to become something much more, a spokesman for the crucial proposition that fossil fuel equals fascism. She rose to the occasion spectacularly, and it was a joy to be able to celebrate the liberation of Kherson here in Egypt today.
Whole regions have produced remarkable fighters—here are some of the Pacific Climate Warriors, who punch so far above the modest populations of their tiny islands that it’s hard to even imagine.
Along with African activists—who were definitely today’s most powerful voices—they were the ones that gave us the 1.5 degree target, first shouted as a slogan in a march like this one inside the Copenhagen meeting, and eventually enshrined in the Paris accords.
And happily the movement keeps reproducing itself, as a younger generation of activists emerges to the fore. The most famous of them isn’t here—Greta’s decision not to fly on planes was, among many other things, a generous way to cede attention to others. But she was not absent either—this march chanted “no more blah blah blah” as it marched past the delegation offices, remembering her apt summation of the Glasgow accords.
So many others were on hand—Luisa Neubauer, now a skillful navigator of the corridors of European power, or Mitzi Tan bringing the heat from the Phillipines on behalf of Fridays for the Future.
Or Disha Ravi, who I was truly delighted to finally meet. A young Indian woman, she was arrested and charged by the ever-more-authoritarian Indian government last year for her protests; they wouldn’t let her come to Glasgow; she’s here, she told me, “on parole,” and it gave everyone a boost to see her courage.
Or Ugandan Vanessa Nakate, who came to world prominence when the AP cropped her out of a picture at Davos while she sat alongside Greta. She is a wonderful voice at this African COP, but also just a wonderful voice period, and she tweeted out a picture yesterday that I want to share even though I’m in it because I think it captures something moving.
The assumption is that activists must be gregarious, extroverted, aggressive. Somehow this image captures for me the fact that many of us are the opposite—sometimes shy, introverted, out of place. It is hard to just decide to speak up, to try and make the world listen. We do our best.
But of course not all of us can, at least relatively easy. This COP is carrying on under the shadow cast by the thousands of political prisoners in Sisi’s jails. The title for today’s march was “We Have Not Yet Been Defeated,” which both sums up the climate crisis pretty accurately and is (almost) the title of the essay collection by the most famous of those prisoners, Alaa Abdel Fattah. (I’ve been wearing a t-shirt I printed up with his name on it around the conference, and it’s been enough to earn me a trailing cordon of a couple of large men with earpieces; I feel like a head of state, kind of). His sister Sanaa—a woman of great grace and courage, now facing charges of “subversion” for defending her brother, who has been sheltering at the conference because the government won’t arrest her in front of the international press—was at the rally today, but instead of speaking she asked her remarks be read for her. “I came here thinking I would be alone,” she said, “but instead I found my family here. Know that your voices have echoed into every dark corner of every prison cell. I go to Cairo tomorrow to stand outside the prison gates with my mother, but I know I don’t go alone.”
That is indeed how movements work at their best. Alongside the solar panel, the nonviolent social movement was the key technological innovation of the 20th century; if we survive the 21st, it will be because of both.
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Associate Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas sits with his wife and conservative activist Ginni Thomas. (photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
ALSO SEE: Ginni Thomas Joins Conservatives Pressing to Delay House,
Senate GOP Elections
The Supreme Court conservative indicated with his dissent that he would not have allowed a subpoena involving Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward to go forward.
The committee is seeking Ward’s records related to her role in former President Donald Trump’s effort to steal the 2020 election as a fake elector casting ballots in the Electoral College for Trump.
This is the second time Thomas has indicated that he would intervene to hamper the committee’s efforts to investigate the plot to overturn the 2020 election in which his wife, Ginni Thomas, played a role
Thomas previously was the lone justice to dissent from the court’s refusal to block the release of White House records held by the National Archives to the Jan. 6 Committee. It was later revealed in March that his wife had been in communication with White House officials about Trump’s machinations to overturn President Joe Biden’s victory.
Text messages between Trump’s former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Ginni Thomas revealed the justice’s wife to be enraptured by baseless conspiracy theories about election fraud and involved in plotting with the White House to overturn Trump’s loss.
Email messages from Thomas to state lawmakers, including those in Arizona, revealed her efforts to pressure Republican state legislatures to reject Biden electors and appoint fake electors in support of Trump. These fake GOP elector slates, which included Ward, could then be submitted to Congress as part of Trump’s plan to get then-Vice President Mike Pence to reject Biden’s electors and declare Trump the victor.
Ward had asked the high court to block lower court decisions ordering her to comply with the committee’s subpoena. She declared the case “one of the most important First Amendment cases in history” and said forcing her to comply could put a “chill on public participation in partisan politics.”
But the court rejected her appeal, clearing the way for the House panel to get Ward’s phone records. Justice Samuel Alito joined Thomas in dissenting on the denial of Ward’s request. Neither justice wrote an opinion explaining their dissents.
While Thomas has refused to recuse himself from cases involving his wife’s political activities, he did previously recuse himself from cases involving his son.
Ginni Thomas testified privately before the Jan. 6 Committee in September. She reportedly told the panel that she still believes the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.
Justice Thomas first ruled in favor of blocking the disclosure of Trump White House documents prior to his wife’s text messages with Meadows being publicly disclosed. Since then, congressional Democrats have called on him to recuse himself, resign or be impeached for inserting himself into cases that appear to be in defense of his wife’s political activities.
Others have noted that Thomas’ continued participation in Jan. 6 cases highlighted the need to require the court to abide by a binding ethics code.
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Katie Hobbs rose to national prominence when she stood steadfast against efforts by Trump loyalists to overturn the results of Arizona's 2020 election. (photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images)
Hobbs defeated a Republican many thought was the strongest of the pro-Trump election deniers running in swing states President Joe Biden carried in 2020.
Hobbs' victory is key for Democrats in a presidential battleground state and a rebuke to a prominent election denier — although the closeness of the contest left the result up in the air for nearly a week.
“I am honored to have been selected to serve as the next Governor of Arizona,” Hobbs said in a statement Monday night. “I want to thank the voters for entrusting me with this immense responsibility. It is truly an honor of a lifetime, and I will do everything in my power to make you proud.”
A record number of early ballots were dropped off on Election Day in Maricopa County, officials said, which had to be processed in a more time-intensive manner that includes signature verification. Maricopa, the state's most populous county, said Sunday that it estimated that its count was 94% complete after it received a historic 290,000 of those early ballots on Election Day.
Lake, a MAGA firebrand and former local newscaster who closely linked her campaign to former President Donald Trump and his false claims of a rigged election in Arizona, ultimately fell short after polling in the final weeks of the campaign suggested she was grabbing the lead from Hobbs, who as secretary of state in 2020 vocally defended the state's election system and the accuracy of the count.
About 90 minutes after NBC News called the race for Hobbs, Lake tweeted: "Arizonans know BS when they see it."
Hobbs’ low-key approach during the campaign contrasted sharply with that of Lake, who seemed omnipresent on the trail. Lake’s television charisma boosted her in the race but did not appear to make up for voter concerns about her positions on the 2020 election and abortion rights and how closely she aligned herself with the former president, who saw independent voters in the state abandon the Republican Party during his presidency, allowing Joe Biden to flip the once-ruby-red state.
The stakes were high. Arizona presented perhaps the greatest chance for an election-denying candidate to win a swing-state governor’s race this fall, with the winner having a direct role in the state’s certification of the 2024 presidential vote.
But Arizona was subjected to some of the highest inflation rates anywhere in the country, and voters were also concerned about high numbers of undocumented immigrants crossing into the state from Mexico. In the closing weeks of her campaign, Lake focused on the economy, education and crime rather than her push to change election laws.
Still, election administration took center stage in the final days of the campaign, on Election Day itself and in the days that followed as election officials faced a series of snafus and votes took days to count at a slow pace. Lake and other statewide GOP candidates blasted the process, some suggesting without evidence that nefarious activity was afoot.
At her election night event, Lake said, “We had a big day today, and don’t let those cheaters and crooks make you think anything different,” adding that she predicted victory “within hours.”
“We will declare victory, and we will get to work turning this around,” she said.
Arizona Democrats, who boosted Lake during her primary, had hoped that her refusal to moderate her stances, which include declaring an invasion at the southern border and vowing to enforce new abortion bans after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, would help Hobbs court independent voters. In Arizona, voters are essentially divided into thirds among Republicans, Democrats and independents.
Hobbs and her allies centered the campaign on abortion rights, putting Republican-endorsed restrictions at the forefront of their message. But they also sought to contrast their plans on inflation and immigration with those of Lake, a political newcomer.
NBC News exit polling bore out Hobbs’ theory of the case, with 58% of Arizona voters feeling either dissatisfied or angry about the Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe V. Wade and 80% of those voters casting ballots for Hobbs.
NBC News exit polling also found Hobbs winning the majority of independent voters and 59% of self-described moderates, who made up a plurality of the electorate. More than 70% of voters 29 and under, who made up about 12% of the electorate, backed Hobbs, who also won over a higher percentage of Republican voters than Lake won Democrats.
At a Trump rally in the state last month, Lake made it clear she was still fully aligned with the former president: “I have some of these know-nothing consultants who say, ‘You know, you really need to back away from President Trump right now.’ And I say to them, ‘Put down Hunter’s [Biden] crack pipe right now.’”
Days earlier, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., urged Arizonans at a forum at Arizona State University not to vote for Lake because of her refusal to accept the election results should she lose, saying that if she lived in Arizona, she would back Hobbs.
Cheney’s PAC put more than $500,000 toward an ad in Arizona that targeted Lake and fellow election denier Mark Finchem, who ran for secretary of state.
Lake at the time issued a statement thanking Cheney, claiming her ad was doing "just the opposite" and leading to more votes.
"You’re welcome, @KariLake," Cheney tweeted Monday night after the election was called for Hobbs.
During the primary, outgoing GOP Gov. Doug Ducey, who drew Trump's ire for certifying Biden's 2020 win, condemned Lake and endorsed her Republican opponent, Karrin Taylor Robson. But Ducey and Lake patched up their relationship after her victory, and the Republican Governors Association, which Ducey chairs, spent millions to boost Lake.
Lake seized on Hobbs’ refusal to debate and centered it in her campaign’s closing weeks. She even disrupted the start of a forum where both candidates were supposed to appear separately last month, asking that Hobbs come out and debate her, before she agreed to leave the audience until it was her turn to speak.
Responding to concerns from allies about her own campaign, Hobbs said last month: “I am out here. I’m fighting.”
NBC News has already projected that Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., and the Democratic nominee for secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, defeated Republicans Blake Masters and state Rep. Mark Finchem, respectively. The battle for attorney general, featuring Democrat Kris Mayes and Trump-backed Republican Abraham Hamadeh, remains too close to call.
About the election denial movement, for which Arizona was in many ways ground zero, Hobbs said in an interview ahead of Election Day that she saw little evidence such conspiracies would recede after the votes were counted.
"I think 2020 was the start of this long campaign," said Hobbs, who pledged to accept the results regardless of who won. "And, depending on the outcome of a lot of these elections, I think it could get worse, because Kari Lake has already said she will only accept the result if she’s the winner. And so I don’t think any of these folks are going to go away quietly if they lose their races."
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Video showed Israeli police officers attacking mourners at the funeral of Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American journalist for Al Jazeera who was killed in the West Bank. (photo: Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images)
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz made the statement on Twitter, saying Israel has made it clear to the U.S. "that we won't cooperate with any external investigation."
"We will not allow interference in Israel's internal affairs," he added.
A Palestinian who covered Israeli operations in the Palestinian territories for years, Abu Akleh was also a U.S. citizen.
A Justice Department spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Gantz's statement. It was not immediately clear when the investigation might have begun and what it would entail. But a probe by the U.S. into Israeli actions was a rare step that could shake the strong alliance between the two countries.
Palestinian officials, Abu Akleh's family and Al Jazeera accuse Israel of intentionally targeting and killing the 51-year-old journalist, who was wearing a helmet and a protective vest marked with the word "press" when she was shot last May in the occupied West Bank.
She had covered the West Bank for Al Jazeera for two decades and was a well-known face across the Arab world. Her death reverberated across the region.
Abu Akleh's family did not immediately respond to requests for comment late Monday, nor did Palestinian Foreign Ministry officials. A spokeswoman for outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid declined to comment, and former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to return to lead the country in the coming weeks, also had no immediate comment.
Israel has acknowledged that Israeli fire probably killed Abu Akleh, but vigorously denied allegations that a soldier intentionally targeted her.
It is not unusual for the FBI or other U.S. investigators to mount probes into non-natural deaths or injuries of American citizens abroad, particularly if they are government employees.
However, such separate investigations are not the rule and it is rare, if not unprecedented, for them to occur in a U.S.-allied country like Israel that is recognized in Washington as having a credible and independent judicial system.
Critics have long accused the military of doing a poor job of investigating wrongdoing by its troops and seldom holding forces accountable. Following their own investigation into the death, Israeli authorities decided not to launch a criminal investigation.
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A prisoner. (photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
Complaint on behalf of six detained people who have not yet seen a judge targets largest jail system in US
The complaint was filed on Monday on behalf of six people in LA jails who were recently arrested but have not yet seen a judge, been arraigned or assigned a public defender.
The case is the first to challenge LA’s “bail schedule”, the county’s formal guidelines for the cash amounts based on alleged offenses.
LA county is home to the largest jail system in the US, which has recently been mired in scandals involving claims of widespread physical abuse against incarcerated people and “barbaric” conditions where people are chained to chairs for days and made to sleep on concrete floors. Bail leaves thousands of poor people behind bars, according to Public Justice’s Debtors’ Prison Project and the Civil Rights Corps, two non-profit groups that filed the suit.
The consequences of this bail system can be fatal, lawyers said. The complaint lists 10 people who died in LA jails while they couldn’t afford to pay bail and before they were arraigned and formally charged.
The bail they faced ranged from $500 to $100,000.
One plaintiff, Phillip Urquidi, 25, lives in his pickup truck and makes $500 a week at a temp staffing agency. He was arrested by the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) on 9 November for a charge of vandalism alleging damage of $400 or more, the suit says. He was told he would be released the next morning, but instead has remained in jail with his bail set at $20,000.
Urquidi has not been given a public defender or seen a judge. He has been housed in a bedbug-infested cell and unable to take his medications, the suit says. His girlfriend has been left alone in their truck and has no money for gas. Two days after his arrest, he was told that the district attorney did not plan to prosecute him, but he still hasn’t been released, according to the complaint.
In a handwritten declaration, Urquidi wrote: “If I could afford to buy my freedom, I would. The conditions here are awful – expired food, trash everywhere, it’s unsanitary … There is no one in my family who could come bail me out.”
Another jailed plaintiff, Terilyn Goldson, became unhoused earlier this year and had recently been living in a tent community, hoping to transfer to a shelter, the suit says. She was arrested on 9 November by the LA sheriff’s department (LASD) on a vehicle code charge of reckless evading. Her bail is $75,000.
“I have family members who love me … but that is so much money I can’t imagine how they would be able to help me,” Goldson wrote, adding that she has been forced to wear a gown that does not properly cover her and has left her cold.
Leslie Bailey, director of Public Justice’s Debtors’ Prison Project, said she had visited Goldson in jail and that the conditions were freezing and the gown had left Goldson exposed: “It is so heartbreaking to see them in this situation and to know that if they had the money, they wouldn’t be suffering like this.”
Another defendant, Susana Perez, is unhoused and had been living in a van for three years and was arrested by LAPD for vandalism, with $20,000 bail: “I cannot afford to hire an attorney and I do not have a public defender yet,” she wrote in her declaration. Perez said her food stamps had recently been cut off and that she needed to get out of jail so she could complete her paperwork: “When I suffer, my family suffers too. I want a safe and stable place to live.”
All of the plaintiffs are unhoused or precariously housed and struggling with poverty.
The attorneys cited a California supreme court ruling that stated “conditioning detention on the arrestee’s financial resources, without ever assessing whether a defendant can meet those conditions or whether the state’s interests could be met by less restrictive alternatives” was unconstitutional. The complaint argues that there is no public safety justification and plaintiffs are not considered too dangerous to release. Others with identical charges would get out immediately if they had the funds, the suit says.
“Being jailed for even short periods of time may cause them to lose their jobs, their housing, or custody of their children,” the complaint says.
The suit was filed against the city and county of LA and the LAPD and LASD. The LA city attorney’s office declined to comment and spokespeople for the other agencies did not immediately respond to inquiries on Monday.
A similar lawsuit in San Francisco led to changes in the bail system, and advocates in Los Angeles hope this challenge will undo the bail policies that leave people incarcerated based on their inability to pay.
“The legal system can push people further towards the brink rather than doing anything to protect public safety or help society at large,” said Brian Hardingham, another attorney on the case.
Bail has become a national issue in the US and a point of debate during the midterm elections, during which some candidates focused on crime concerns and opposing criminal justice reform. Defenders of cash bail, including law enforcement groups, have argued that bail is necessary for safety, but research has suggested otherwise. A reform in a Texas county eliminating cash bail for some offenses led to a reduction in jail time and recidivism, a recent study found. Research has also repeatedly shown that people are more likely to plead guilty if they are in jail and can’t afford bail.
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Democratic Republic of the Congo youth get the first steps of basic military training in Goma, eastern Congo, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. (photo: AP)
Fighting between the M23 and the DRC army has led to a looming humanitarian crisis as thousands have been displaced in the country’s volatile east.
Clashes picked up again in North Kivu province on Friday, ending about a week of relative calm since the group launched their latest offensive on October 20.
Battles have broken out around the villages of Kibumba, Rugari and Tongo, North-Kivu army spokesman Guillaume Ndjike said on Monday.
Kibumba is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) north of Goma, which the M23 briefly overran during their first big insurrection in 2012. “They are attacking but we are containing them and taking initiatives to push them back,” Ndjike told the Reuters news agency.
A Tongo resident who did not wish to be named said by telephone that the army had left and that people were fleeing en masse. A witness in Kibumba painted a similar picture.
On Tuesday, Al Jazeera’s Malcolm Webb, reporting from Kibati village approximately 15km (9 miles) away from Goma, said the Congolese government forces initially repelled M23’s attack on the town of Kibumba after more than a day of heavy fighting.
That has come against the backdrop of a looming humanitarian crisis, as displaced people sleep in makeshift camps in the area and complain about having little food for now.
“Meanwhile, community leaders on the other side of the front line have told us that about 60,000 people are stuck behind the front line in the territory held by the M23 rebel group and that they want a humanitarian corridor to be created so they can leave that area before the fighting gets closer to them,” Webb said.
Hundreds have fled to Kibati in recent days.
Kibati has set up three camps for internally displaced people over the past month. Some have taken refuge in houses already abandoned by residents moving further south, according to a Reuters reporter.
Insecurity has prevented humanitarian assistance.
“I left my wife and children behind, I didn’t even take clothes,” said Ndazimana Kasigwa, aged 25, who came from Rugari.
At least 188,000 have been displaced in North Kivu since October 20, according to the United Nations.
Diplomacy and dialogue
The M23 have staged a considerable comeback in the eastern DRC this year since they were chased into neighbouring Rwanda and Uganda in 2013.
Tens of thousands have fled fresh fighting that has caused a diplomatic rift between the DRC and Rwanda, which Kinshasa accuses of backing the Tutsi-led group. Rwanda denies any involvement.
Rights groups and military sources have said the M23 is using drone surveillance and the UN has said the group is using sophisticated weaponry and available evidence points to it being backed by Rwanda.
The M23 has also said the Congolese army is fighting alongside other armed groups, a charge that military authorities deny.
More than 3,000 new Congolese military recruits began training earlier this month, after a plea from President Felix Tshisekedi.
Regional efforts are under way to cool tensions between the two countries and end the conflict unfolding along their shared border.
Kenya’s ex-President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has been in the DRC this week before peace negotiations with armed groups took place, said talks in Nairobi would be held before the end of the month – later than the original proposed date of this Wednesday.
“We have not come here with a prescription but rather with the idea of listening to our brothers and sisters and hope to be able to make a contribution towards bringing lasting peace,” he said late on Monday after meeting various stakeholders.
Angolan President Joao Lourenco mediated earlier talks between Congolese and Rwandan officials in Luanda and visited both nations over the past weekend.
Guinea-Bissau President and Chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Umaro Sissoco Embalo, has also travelled to Kinshasa and Kigali.
An M23 leader, Bertrand Bisimwa, blamed the DRC’s army for starting a war against the group.
“They are not taking responsibility for their initiative,” he told Reuters by telephone.
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For 30 years the Arctic has been melting at three times the global rate. (photo: Getty Images)
Researchers in Churchill, Manitoba — sometimes called the polar bear capital of the world — are exploring whether radar technology could provide an early warning of the largest land carnivores’ presence.
Now, researchers in Churchill, Manitoba — sometimes called the polar bear capital of the world — are exploring whether radar technology could provide an early warning of the largest land carnivores’ presence.
They hope the technology, which could cost as little as a few thousand dollars to implement in its smallest form, could become part of a strategy to prevent conflict between polar bears and people from boiling over in a world where fast-rising temperatures are pushing animals out of their usual habitats.
“If we’re asking people to conserve a large predator like a polar bear, we have to make sure people who live and work with them are safe,” said Geoff York, the senior director of conservation and staff scientist at Polar Bears International, which has led testing of several versions of the equipment. The technology could be fully deployed for the first time as soon as next summer.
Churchill, a small village on the western edge of Hudson Bay in northern Manitoba in Canada, offers some of the best access to polar bear viewing in the world. When the sea ice along the bay melts, the bears migrate to make their home on land and wait for the ice to return.
“Churchill is unique in that bears come to shore, depending on the year, from July to August, and they’re on land until this time of year,” York said, adding that as many as 800 bears come ashore near Churchill and nearby Indigenous Cree communities.
Along the Hudson Bay, ice tends to re-form first near Churchill, said Tom Smith, a wildlife biologist at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
“The bears are not feeding. They’re waiting. It provides people an opportunity to see bears in a natural habitat,” he said. “It makes it ideal to test new technologies.”
Although every season is different, climate change is lengthening how long bears are away from sea ice.
“Bears are spending up to 43 more days off the ice,” York said.
Bear encounters are common enough that Churchill has its own bear alert program, which began in 1982. Call a hotline — 675-BEAR — and trained responders will come to haze bears away from town or immobilize them. The program also has a facility to hold problem bears.
For a polar bear hot spot like Churchill, the response program makes sense.
But as climate change limits sea ice habitat, it’s expected to push more hungry bears toward communities that haven’t dealt with these creatures before.
“Places that historically didn’t have polar bears and are going to have more,” said BJ Kirschhoffer, the director of conservation technology for Polar Bears International. “Polar bear alert is a fantastic program, but who is going to have the budget?”
That’s where radar and remote sensing could fill a gap.
Researchers with Polar Bears International have been testing 10 different radar technologies from three different companies to figure out how to best sense polar bears at differing costs and ranges.
The researchers are using machine learning technology developed by the radar companies to better distinguish polar bears from other creatures, snowmobiles or other moving objects.
“We’re really in the testing phase here in regards to this tool and how it interacts with artificial intelligence and things like that,” Kirschhoffer said. “We’re really in its infancy. There are not a lot of people trying to figure this out.”
Researchers this year set up one system — from SpotterRF — on a new mobile tower for testing along pathways frequently traveled by polar bears.
The system, which has a range up to about 200 meters (about 656 feet), should be ready for use at a historic fort frequented by visitors to Churchill next summer, York said.
A cheaper short-range system, which was constructed by Brigham Young University students, is slated to begin testing for its second year Monday. The researchers think it could be most useful at identifying bears on a smaller scale — at a cabin or a landfill, for example.
The risk polar bears present to people is often overstated, said the school’s Smith, who is building a database of bear attacks. He said polar bears likely account for about 5% of all bear attacks in North America. Nevertheless, the bears maintain an outsize place in people’s minds.
“I wouldn’t exactly brand them as stalker killers,” he said. “Polar bears represent a small percentage of human bear conflict in North America, but I don’t know, it takes just one polar bear mauling to ruin your whole day.”
A 2017 study documented 73 attacks by wild polar bears from 1870-2014 in Canada, Greenland, Norway, Russia and the United States. These attacks caused 20 human deaths and 63 injuries, according to the paper, published in the Wildlife Society Bulletin.
Attacks are a risk to humans and bears alike. When bears kill, people often carry out retaliatory killings, Smith said, which can further cause stress on a wildlife population dealing with climate change impacts.
Conflict between people and polar bears is expected to escalate. Researchers have documented that polar bears are spending more time on shore as sea ice diminishes. Smith’s research shows that trash dumps are increasingly drawing polar bears toward human populations.
“We showed many villages had many different conflicts and we predict it will only escalate,” he said. “The big problem, of course, is climate change, but it’s one more of a thousand cuts that’s going to cause the demise of this species.”
The researchers hope developing radar technology and bringing it to northern communities could help people adjust to a region being reshaped by climate change.
“If the end goal is to live in harmony with bears, this is definitely going to be another tool in our box to make that happen,” he said.
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