Dozens dead as Hurricane Ida triggers flash floods in New York area


Issued on: 03/09/2021 - 

Text by: NEWS WIRES|

Video by: Jessica LE MASURIER

Flash flooding caused by the remnants of Hurricane Ida killed at least 41 people in the New York area overnight into Thursday, including several who perished in their basements during the "historic" weather event that officials blamed on climate change.

Record rainfall, which prompted an unprecedented flash flood emergency warning for New York City, turned streets into rivers and shut down subway services as water cascaded down platforms onto tracks.

"I'm 50 years old and I've never seen that much rain ever," said Metodija Mihajlov whose basement of his Manhattan restaurant was flooded with three inches of water.

"It was like living in the jungle, like tropical rain. Unbelievable. Everything is so strange this year," he told AFP.

Hundreds of flights were cancelled at LaGuardia and JFK airports, as well as at Newark, where video showed a terminal inundated by rainwater.

"We're all in this together. The nation is ready to help," President Joe Biden said ahead of a trip Friday to the southern state of Louisiana, where Ida earlier destroyed buildings and left more than a million homes without power.

Flooding closed major roads across New Jersey and New York boroughs including Manhattan, The Bronx and Queens, submerging cars and forcing the fire department to rescue hundreds of people.

At least 23 people died in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy told reporters.

"The majority of these deaths were individuals who got caught in their vehicles," he said.

Twelve died in New York City, including 11 who could not escape their basements, police said. The victims ranged from the ages of 2 to 86.

"Among the people MOST at risk during flash floods here are those living in off-the-books basement dwellings that don't meet the safety codes necessary to save lives," lawmaker Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

"These are working class, immigrant, and low-income people & families," she added.

Three also died in the New York suburb of Westchester while another three died in Montgomery County outside Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, a local official confirmed.

Ida blazed a trail of destruction north after slamming into Louisiana over the weekend, bringing severe flooding and tornadoes.

"We're enduring an historic weather event tonight with record-breaking rain across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said late Wednesday.

State emergencies were declared in New York and New Jersey while the National Weather Service issued its first-ever emergency flash flood warning for New York City, urging residents to move to higher ground.

"You do not know how deep the water is and it is too dangerous," the New York branch of the National Weather Service (NWS) said in a tweet.

The NWS recorded 3.15 inches (80 millimetres) of rain in Central Park in just an hour -- beating a record set just last month during Storm Henri.

The US Open was also halted as howling wind and rain blew under the corners of the Louis Armstrong Stadium roof.

Lingering tornado threat

New Yorkers woke to clear blue skies Thursday as the city edged back to life but signs of the previous night's carnage weren't far away: residents moved fallen tree branches from roads as subway services slowly resumed.

Around 98,000 homes in Pennsylvania, 60,000 in New Jersey and 40,000 in New York were without power, according to the website poweroutage.us.

It is rare for such storms to strike America's northeastern seaboard and comes as the surface layer of oceans warms due to climate change.

The warming is causing cyclones to become more powerful and carry more water, posing an increasing threat to the world's coastal communities, scientists say.

"Global warming is upon us and it's going to get worse and worse and worse unless we do something about it," said Democratic senator Chuck Schumer.

In Annapolis, 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Washington, a tornado ripped up trees and toppled electricity poles.

The NWS warned the threat of tornadoes would linger, with tornado watches in effect for parts of southern Connecticut, northern New Jersey, and southern New York as Ida tracked north through New England Thursday.

(AFP)

Storm Ida triggers deadly flooding in New York and New Jersey

Issued on: 02/09/2021 - 

People make their way in rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Ida on September 1, 2021, in the Bronx borough of New York City. © David Dee Delgado, AFP

Text by: FRANCE 24

Video by: Jessica LE MASURIER


The governors of New York and New Jersey declared a state of emergency late on Wednesday as record-breaking rains from tropical storm Ida led to flooding and hazardous conditions on the roads, killing at least 26 people on the US East Coast.

"I am declaring a state of emergency to help New Yorkers affected by tonight's storm," New York Governor Kathy Hochul said on Twitter.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio described the flooding and weather on Wednesday night as a "historic weather event". The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency in New York City for the first time.

At least 12 people died in New York City, police said, one of them in a car and eight in flooded basement apartments that often serve as relatively affordable homes in one of the nation’s most expensive housing markets. Officials said at least eight died in New Jersey and three in Pennsylvania's suburban Montgomery County; one was killed by a falling tree, one drowned in a car and another in a home. An on-duty state trooper in Connecticut was swept away in his cruiser and later taken to a hospital, state police and local authorities said.

Nearly all New York City subway lines were suspended late on Wednesday as the remnants of Ida brought torrential rain and the threat of flash floods and tornadoes to parts of the northern mid-Atlantic, CNN reported earlier.

All non-emergency vehicles were banned from New York City's streets until 5am (9am GMT) on Thursday due to the weather, city authorities said on Twitter.

At least five flash flood emergencies were issued on Wednesday evening by the National Weather Service, stretching from west of Philadelphia through northern New Jersey.

Earlier in the night, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy also declared a state of emergency. He wrote on Twitter that 81,740 power outages were reported late on Wednesday.

A tornado swept through New Jersey's Gloucester County, damaging multiple homes, according to CNN affiliate WPVI.

All New Jersey Transit rail services apart from the Atlantic City Rail Line were suspended due to the extreme weather, the service said on its website.

The storm damage from Ida had astounded officials on Wednesday, three days after the powerful hurricane pounded southern Louisiana, and reconnaissance flights revealed entire communities devastated by wind and floods.

Tornadoes spawned by the storm ripped through parts of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, images on social media showed.

New Jersey's Newark Liberty Airport said on Twitter it was experiencing "severe flooding". It said it resumed "limited flight operations" close to midnight after all flight activity was suspended late on Wednesday.

Social media images showed water gushing over New York City's subway platforms and trains. Subway service was "extremely limited" due to the flooding, the Metropolitan Transit Authority said.

First responders evacuated people from the subway system, the acting chair and CEO of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Janno Lieber, said in a statement.

De Blasio urged people to stay home.

"Please stay off the streets tonight and let our first responders and emergency services get their work done. If you're thinking of going outside, don't. Stay off the subways. Stay off the roads. Don't drive into these heavy waters. Stay inside," he wrote on Twitter.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

‘Simply dystopian’: Viral photos of NYC flooding draw comparisons to climate change disaster film

The city looked like a scene from a disaster movie.

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw
Internet Culture
Published Sep 2, 2021

New York and New Jersey were hit by flash floods in the wake of Hurricane Ida on Wednesday night, with both state governors declaring a state of emergency. Footage from New York City is particularly shocking, showing flooded streets, subways, and apartment buildings—and inspiring comparisons to the disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow.

Released in 2004, The Day After Tomorrow depicts a heavily fictionalized image of climate change, where catastrophic weather devastates New York City in a matter of days. First comes a tsunami of floodwater, followed by a new ice age. As one of the quintessential NYC disaster movies, some of its scenes now look disturbingly similar to real life.

Some of the scenes from Wednesday night can best be described as apocalyptic, as people attempted to drive or wade through the flood waters. Mayor Bill de Blasio warned New Yorkers to stay inside due to “record breaking rain across the city, brutal flooding and dangerous conditions on our roads,” but many were still stranded while trying to brave the storm. Eight people have been reported dead so far, and there are widespread concerns about the dangers of walking through contaminated floodwater.

Over the past decade, NYC has experienced an influx of extreme weather, most famously with Hurricane Sandy in 2012. This February saw the heaviest snowfall in the city’s history, and another storm resulted in floods this July.

Hurricane Ida was particularly devastating, highlighting two interconnected problems: The city’s failing infrastructure and the increasingly obvious impact of climate change. New York’s subway system is notoriously in need of maintenance, but it was also never designed to withstand this level of flooding. So while The Day After Tomorrow may be a corny movie that played fast and loose with climate science, the comparisons are wholly understandable. On Wednesday night, New York really did look like a scene from a disaster movie.


Gavia Baker-Whitelawis a staff writer at the Daily Dot, covering geek culture and fandom. Specializing in sci-fi movies and superheroes, she also appears as a film and TV critic on BBC radio. Elsewhere, she co-hosts the pop culture podcast Overinvested. Follow her on Twitter: @Hello_Tailor

‘Nice dystopia you got there’: Grubhub worker spotted delivering food amid NYC floods sparks outrage

'Don't make people deliver food to you in weather like this. What the f*ck?'

@UnequalScenes/Twitter

Mikael Thalen
Internet Culture
Published Sep 2, 2021 

An apparent Grubhub worker who was spotted wading through waist-high water to deliver food in New York City is stirring widespread debate on social media.

And through it all! @Grubhub delivery still out there bringing your dinner,” @UnequalScenes tweeted.

Many Twitter users responded to the clip, which has been seen more than 4.7 million times, by expressing outrage over the fact that someone had felt it necessary to order food.

“Hi folks, I promise you’ll be okay if you just make yourself a PB&J for the night,” @DatFirePrincess wrote. “Or even if you eat the peanut butter straight from the jar. Don’t make people deliver food to you in weather like this. What the fuck?”



“Shame on the person who made the order, and bigger shame on grubhub for accepting the order. The poor delivery person doesn’t deserve this,” another person added.

https://twitter.com/xxoorita/status/1433283917323378688?s=20



The viral video also led many to discuss the current state of the economy as well as poverty in modern day America.

“Forcing your way through dangerous floodwaters in the middle of a storm to deliver someone a burger is the reality of the poverty and precarity at the heart of the gig economy,” @bencsmoke added.

Countless users also began tagging Grubhub to demand that the company provide better conditions for their workers. The official Twitter account for Grubhub has not responded to the viral video. The Daily Dot reached out to Grubhub via email but did not immediately hear back.

“Deliveristas putting their lives at risk to deliver food in a tropical storm are the consequences of an unregulated gig economy,” @SamelysLopez said. “It’s inhumane.”

Hurricane Ida has led to at least 15 deaths across the region and produced record-breaking rainfall across New York. Yet gig workers, many who can’t afford to take time off, continue to face not only the coronavirus pandemic but devastating weather conditions as well.

Update 3:08pm CT: Grubhub told the Daily Dot they were looking into whether the person in the video is one of their drivers and said the safety of their employees is a priority for them.

Mikael Thalen is a tech and security reporter based in Seattle, covering social media, data breaches, hackers, and more.

AOC Blasts Manchin over NYC Flooding: ‘Bipartisan Corruption’ is Killing People

By BRITTANY BERNSTEIN
September 2, 2021 

From left: Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Rep. Ayanna Pressley hold a news conference on Capitol Hill, July 15, 2019. (Erin Scott/Reuters)

Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.) lashed out at Senator Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) on Thursday after he said he would not support Democrats’ $3.5 trillion in proposed spending, accusing him of “killing people” with “‘bipartisan’ corruption.”

“Manchin has weekly huddles w/ Exxon & is one of many senators who gives lobbyists their pen to write so-called ‘bipartisan’ fossil fuel bills,” the progressive congresswoman wrote in a tweet in response to an essay Manchin wrote for the Wall Street Journal about the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation plan.

“It’s killing people. Our people. At least 12 last night,” Ocasio-Cortez said, referring to the deaths caused by flooding in New York City during Tropical Storm Ida on Wednesday. “Sick of this ‘bipartisan’ corruption that masquerades as clear-eyed moderation.”

She continued: “Fossil fuel corps & dark money is destroying our democracy, country, & planet. All day our community has been pulling bodies out of homes from the flood. Entire families. And we’re supposed to entertain lobbyist talking points about why we should abandon people & do nothing? No.”

Representative Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.), who is a member of the progressive “Squad” along with Ocasio-Cortez, was also critical of Manchin’s essay.

“Instead of writing op-eds, why don’t you look into the faces of my residents who have had their basements flooded with sewage multiple times and their power out for days, Senator Manchin. We deserve better,” she tweeted.

The “Squad” members’ criticism comes after Manchin said Thursday he would not support his party’s $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill in its current form and criticized Democrats’ efforts to pass the measure “with no regard to rising inflation, crippling debt or the inevitability of future crises.”

“Some in Congress have a strange belief there is an infinite supply of money to deal with any current or future crisis, and that spending trillions upon trillions will have no negative consequence for the future. I disagree,” Manchin wrote.

Democrats on the House and Senate committees are working to draft and mark up sections of the spending bill ahead of September 15, the soft deadline to complete the draft.

In order to pass the massive spending bill using budget reconciliation, the party will need the support of all 50 Democrats in the Senate to reach a simple majority.

Ocasio-Cortez threatens to blow up Joe Manchin's bipartisan infrastructure deal after he demands spending 'pause'
Bob Brigham
September 02, 2021

Screengrabs.

Second-term progressive Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) stood up to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on the question of infrastructure spending.

Manchin, a conservative Democrat, on Thursday had an op-ed published in The Wall Street Journal calling for a "pause" on the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill.

"Instead of rushing to spend trillions on new government programs and additional stimulus funding, Congress should hit a strategic pause on the budget reconciliation legislation," Manchin wrote.

However, the budget reconciliation legislation amounts to the vast majority of infrastructure spending in President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" agenda.

Ocasio-Cortez threatened to block the smaller portion of Biden's infrastructure agenda, the bipartisan budget framework that Manchin has supported.

She also blasted the bipartisan budget framework as "Exxon lobbyist drafted" and cited climate change as a reason passing the larger legislation is necessary.

Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) agreed with Ocasio-Cortez's attacks on Manchin, also citing climate change.

With disasters occurring from coast-to-coast, the climate change message progressives are using to support passing both bills is also being used by the White House.

"The past few days of Hurricane Ida, wildfires in the West, and unprecedented flash floods in New York and New Jersey are another reminder that the climate crisis is here," Biden wrote on Thursday.

"We need to be better prepared. That's why I'm urging Congress to act and pass my Build Back Better plan," he said, referring to passage of both bills.

Deadly flash floods show how vulnerable New York’s infrastructure is to climate change

PUBLISHED THU, SEP 2 2021
Catherine Clifford@CATCLIFFORD

KEY POINTS

Hurricane Ida’s remnants exposed vulnerabilities in New York City’s infrastructure to the kind of extreme weather that is being generated by climate change.

“The subway system is a shallow system, and it’s not a submarine,” Janno Lieber, the acting chair and CEO of the New York City MTA, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday.

“The buses have been running nonstop,” Lieber told CNBC. “The bus drivers were heroic. They got a lot of people home.”

WATCH NOW

VIDEO03:32

Ida batters New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania with record rain and floods

Hurricane Ida’s remnants, which triggered flash floods that killed at least 22 people in New York and New Jersey on Wednesday night, exposed vulnerabilities in New York City’s infrastructure to the kind of extreme weather being generated by climate change.

“We really have to work with our friends in the city government to make sure that the street-level drainage is a little more at capacity so we don’t, in these new climate change-era flash-flooding situations, get as much coming down into the subway system,” Janno Lieber, the acting chair and CEO of the New York City MTA, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Thursday.

“Because gravity does its thing, and the subway system is a shallow system, and it’s not a submarine. So we really need to work with the street-level drainage folks at the city government, and we’ll do that,” Lieber told CNBC.

Floodwater surrounds vehicles following heavy rain on an expressway in Brooklyn, New York early on September 2, 2021, as flash flooding and record-breaking rainfall brought by the remnants of Storm Ida swept through the area.
Ed Jones | AFP | Getty Images

The MTA was overwhelmed by the massive amounts of rain that fell in a relatively small window of time.

“There was a historic rainfall last night — the first time a flash flood emergency declared in the New York area,” Lieber told CNBC. “What really took a toll was three and a half inches of rain fell in one hour, basically between 9 and 10 p.m.”

“That overwhelmed much of our infrastructure, roads, bridges, so much else, and it took a toll on the mass transit system,” he said.

At 11:27 p.m. Wednesday night, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio instructed New Yorkers not to go outside. “Please stay off the streets tonight and let our first responders and emergency services get their work done. If you’re thinking of going outside, don’t,” de Blasio tweeted.

“Stay off the subways. Stay off the roads. Don’t drive into these heavy waters. Stay inside,” de Blasio said.

New York’s fire department rescued hundreds of people Wednesday night from subways, buildings and roadways, an FDNY spokesperson told NBC News.

While the city’s transportation infrastructure struggled with the flash flooding, it was not as bad as it could have been, according to Lieber. He cited as a saving grace the construction done in the wake of Superstorm Sandy, which hit New York City in late October 2012.

WATCH NOW

VIDEO02:27

New York City MTA CEO on historic flooding shuttering transit service

“We’ve done a ton of investment in coastal resiliency since Superstorm Sandy, and that paid off,” Lieber told CNBC. “Our underwater tunnels were able to pump, and pumping capacity really did very well, but in some of these higher elevation areas, flash flooding coming from the overwhelmed drains and sewers at the street level found its way into the subway system and knocked us out for a few hours.”

The MTA buses were able to continue running and were key in getting New Yorkers home Wednesday night, Lieber said.

“The buses have been running nonstop,” Lieber told CNBC. “The bus drivers were heroic. They got a lot of people home. They steered their way around all those abandoned cars and all that ponding. And the bus system is working well.”

There was limited service on certain subway lines on Thursday morning, Lieber told CNBC, and “we expect to have a lot of service by the afternoon on the subway.”

The Metro-North commuter train service “is really out of business today” and another local commuter train system, the Long Island Rail Road, “is coming back well, but also has some limits,” Lieber said.

“But the bus system really bailed us out yesterday, and the subway system is coming back quickly,” Lieber said.

HE SHOULD USE HIS YACHT TO RESCUE FOLKS IN QUEENS FROM IDA FLOODING
Sen. Joe Manchin Writes He Won’t Support Democrats’ $3.5 Trillion Budget Bill
POLITICSJack Phillips Sep 2, 2021 EPOCH TIMES
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) talks with reporters after stepping off the Senate Floor at the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, on May 28, 2021. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)


Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Thursday said Democrats need to take a “strategic pause” before considering a $3.5 trillion bill that is designed to further push President Joe Biden’s agenda.

“Instead of rushing to spend trillions on new government programs and additional stimulus funding, Congress should hit a strategic pause on the budget-reconciliation legislation,” Manchin, considered by many to be the most conservative Democrat in the Senate, wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. “A pause is warranted because it will provide more clarity on the trajectory of the pandemic, and it will allow us to determine whether inflation is transitory or not.”

He added: “While some have suggested this reconciliation legislation must be passed now, I believe that making budgetary decisions under artificial political deadlines never leads to good policy or sound decisions. I have always said if I can’t explain it, I can’t vote for it, and I can’t explain why my Democratic colleagues are rushing to spend $3.5 trillion.”

Manchin also wrote that he is opposed to the timetable established by top Democrats to try and pass the massive bill by reconciliation, which requires a simple majority to pass and bypasses the filibuster.


Elaborating further, the West Virginia lawmaker said he can’t agree to the plan “or anywhere near that level of additional spending” without conducting a careful assessment of the economy amid fears of inflation and higher prices for goods.

Manchin also reiterated his disapproval for some Democrats’ proposals to pay for that spending including previous White House-backed plans to increase corporate tax rates from 21 percent to 28 percent. A 25 percent corporate tax rate has been previously endorsed by the senator.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) also publicly stated that she opposes the $3.5 trillion spending level, and Republicans are also unified in their opposition to the package.

About a week ago, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives met during an emergency session and approved the budget resolution, which is chiefly supported by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). All 212 Republicans voted against advancing the budget, while all 220 Democrats voted to advance it.

Addressing fears from Manchin and Republicans about increasing the national debt, House Budget Chair John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) said during a recent committee hearing that the federal government has the ability to spend as much as they need on the measure.

“The federal government is not a family. And it’s not a small business. And it’s not a local government. And it’s not a state government,” Yarmuth said. “We can spend whatever we need to spend in the interest of serving the American people.”

Despite the House passing the measure, Senate Democrats have just 51 votes including Vice President Kamala Harris’s tie-breaker, meaning they cannot afford to lose even a single defection to pass the budget bill.

AOC ON TEXAS ABORTION BAN

 "Republicans promised to overturn Roe v Wade, and they have. Democrats can either abolish the filibuster and expand the court, or do nothing as millions of peoples’ bodies, rights, and lives are sacrificed for far-right minority rule," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., wrote on Twitter.

US House panel approves $3.75 billion military budget increase for 2022

“A day after the United States withdrew from one of the most costly wars in history, the absolute LAST thing congressional representatives should be doing is increasing the Pentagon budget.”

By Marlee Kokotovic
-September 2, 2021
SOURCE NationofChange




Yesterday, a House of Representatives panel approved a $37.5 billion military budget increase from last year’s budget.

This decision leaves progressive lawmakers and activists angered, especially as U.S. troops exit Afghanistan.

“Today, the House Armed Services Committee voted to put arms dealer profits before the needs of everyday people. Let’s not mince words: Every congressperson who voted for this should be ashamed,” says Win Without War senior Washington director Erica Fein.

According to Common Dreams, the NDAA amendment would add $25 billion to President Joe Biden’s $753 billion topline military spending request for the next fiscal year—at a time when progressives are calling for bold investment in urgent human needs.

“A day after the United States withdrew from one of the most costly wars in history, the absolute LAST thing congressional representatives should be doing is increasing the Pentagon budget,” says CodePink national co-director Carley Towne.

SEE PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Deadlines may be effective in building support for climate change action

Climate change messages with deadlines have been criticized as causing people to feel disengaged; however, a new UCF study finds this may not always be the case.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

ORLANDO, Sept. 2, 2021 – Human-caused climate change — including increased extreme weather and climate events — is here, according to the recently released United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change 2021 report, but the best way to communicate the concern is still debated.

The panel’s previous report in 2018 was widely reported by media as setting a 12-year deadline of 2030 to turn things around and start reducing the planet’s temperature before the Earth reaches a tipping point of no-return. This messaging was sometimes criticized, including by the 2018 IPCC report’s authors, as causing people to feel hopelessness, despair and disengagement.

However, a new University of Central Florida study in the journal Environmental Communication finds that this deadline messaging may be effective after all.

In an experiment involving more than 1,000 participants from an online Qualtrics panel, the study’s authors found that using “deadline-ism” messaging increased perceptions of the threat of climate change and support for making climate change a government priority. Qualtrics is a U.S.-based research company.

Critics of the 12-year “deadline-ism” message argued it would have a counterproductive influence, resulting in despair and disengagement, says the study’s lead author, Patrice Kohl, an assistant professor in UCF’s Nicholson School of Communication and Media.

“Communication scholars often propose portraying climate change in more proximate terms could play an important role in engaging audiences by making climate change more personally relevant,” Kohl says. “We did not find any evidence of deadline-ism resulting in disengagement or other counterproductive responses. Our results more closely align with arguments in favor of presenting climate change in more proximate terms.”

For the study, the researchers randomly assigned participants to one of two experimental groups or a control group. Participants in the experimental groups read one of two versions of a news article about climate change, one that gave a deadline for taking meaningful climate change action or one that referred to a deadline but then refuted it. Participants in the control group did not read any article.

Rather than be disengaged, the researchers found that participants who read the deadline article significantly supported more political action to mitigate climate change than those in the control condition.

These participants also perceived the severity of climate change as greater than those in the control group and they also had a greater sense that they, individually and collectively, could do something about it.

Perceived ability to do something about climate change, individually and collectively, was also greater in the no-deadline group than the control group, perhaps because the article refutes the idea of an expiration date for meaningful climate change action to reduce impacts—that any action, at any time, makes a difference, Kohl says.

But only the deadline article group also resulted in greater support for political climate change action than the control condition.

“As the recent IPCC report illustrates, we’re going to have to learn how to talk about tough climate change realities in ways that engage rather than disengage audiences,” Kohl says. “I understand why critics worry that the idea of a deadline for meaningful action in avoiding catastrophic climate change might cause people to throw up their hands in defeat. But our research suggests that assumption might not be quite right.”

The study’s co-author was Neil Stenhouse, research director with the Organizing Empowerment Project in Washington, D.C.

Kohl received her doctorate in life sciences communication and her master’s and bachelor’s in journalism and mass communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She joined the Nicholson School of Communication and Media, part of UCF’s College of Sciences, in 2018.

CONTACT: Robert H. Wells, Office of Research, robert.wells@ucf.edu

---

JOURNAL

Environmental Communication

DOI

10.1080/17524032.2021.1941175 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

12 Years Left: How a Climate Change Action Deadline Influences Perceptions and Engagement

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

11-Aug-2021

COI STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

 

Painful fractures: Large eggs push small

 hens to the breaking point

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN - THE FACULTY OF HEALTH AND MEDICAL SCIENCES

The indigenous hen lays around 20 eggs a year, whereas a modern laying hen produces around 320 eggs a year. In other words, being a hen bred for the food industry is a full-time job. In fact, the egg laying appears to be such a strain on Danish as well as foreign hens that it results in bone fractures.

New research from the University of Copenhagen shows that too large eggs in too small hens affect the Danish animal welfare. In the largest study of its kind, the researchers have shown that around 85 per cent of Danish laying hens suffer from keel bone fractures. This is, to all appearances, because the large eggs pressure their bodies from within.

‘We knew there was a problem, but we certainly did not expect it to apply to almost all laying hens in the country. These animals suffer, both when the fracture occurs and afterwards, so we are dealing with a huge animal welfare problem here’, says Assistant Professor Ida Thøfner from the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences. She explains that the problem is not only widespread among Danish hens, but is of global extent.

A painful problem among both organic, battery, barn and free-range hens

Together with Professor Jens Peter Christensen, she has examined almost 4,800 hens in 40 different flocks for keel bone fractures and found fractures in almost 4,100 of them.

‘We see these types of fractures in all production systems. That is, regardless of whether the hens are kept in cages, or they are organic or barn or free-range hens. In other words, it is a widespread problem in all parts of the industry’, says Jens Peter Christensen.

He explains that fractures usually occur at the tip of the keel bone, and the nature of these fractures suggests that the hen’s body is simply under too much strain due to too large eggs.

‘If you have ever tried to fracture a bone, you know that it hurts. A cast and rest is not an option for laying hens, whose fractures probably hurt a lot and take a long time to heal’, he says.

Small hens, large eggs

The researchers also tried to identify the exact cause for the many fractured bones by pointing out the risk factors in play.

‘Generally, we can see that the larger the eggs and the smaller the hens, the greater the problem. Their bodies are simply under too much strain because they are bred to be small and to lay a lot of large eggs. At the same time, we know that the keel bone takes a long time to mature. Unfortunately, it takes some generations of hen breeding to solve that problem’, says Jens Peter Christensen.

However, Danish farmers may be able to reduce the problem quickly and without having to involve the breeding companies.

‘The earlier these hens enter into production, the larger the problem is. We are fairly convinced that you could postpone egg laying for a couple of weeks until the hens are more robust and the keel bone is more resilient to fracturing without losing money, because the hens will simply lay eggs for a longer time if you follow this strategy’, Ida Thøfner explains.

The researchers now hope to attract funding for an intervention project in order to study the effect of various measures on solving the problem and increasing the animal welfare. 

 

 

---

JOURNAL

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0256105 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

Keel bone fractures in Danish laying hens: Prevalence and risk factors

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Aug-2021

COI STATEMENT

One author (JD) is employed at The Danish Agriculture & Food Council, which represents the farming and food industries of Denmark including companies, trade and farmers’ associations resulting in a potential or perceived conflict of interest. However, the two independent academic partners (ICNT and JPC, University of Copenhagen) explicit endorses that the work is at “arms length” from commercial interest. The first and senior author have led the process and are satisfied that the results are independent. This does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials.

 PRISON NATION USA

High incarceration rates fuel COVID-19 spread and undermine US public safety

National study of anti-contagion policies is first worldwide to show reducing jail populations leads to community-wide public health benefits

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

• Study shows that decarceration, along with mask mandates, school closures and nursing home restrictions, are the most important government policies for reducing COVID-19 spread
• U.S. jails function as ‘infectious disease incubators’ for surrounding communities; high rates of viral transmission cause COVID-19 cases to multiply, ‘boomerang’ back to communities
• Weekly turnover rate in U.S. jails is 55%, meaning infections in communities quickly spread to jails, vice versa
• First study to link mass incarceration systems to pandemic vulnerability and international biosecurity

CHICAGO --- How can government slow the spread of COVID-19 in the U.S.? Look to America’s unique epidemic engines: jails and prisons in America. 

Extremely high rates of incarceration in the U.S. undercut national public health and safety. The overcrowded, tight quarters in jails fuel constant risks of outbreaks. Add to that the daily movement of 420,000 guards in and out of the facilities and 30,000 newly released people who are likely to inadvertently carry the virus back to communities.

A new study from Northwestern Medicine, Toulouse School of Economics and the French National Centre for Scientific Research found the best way to address this public safety threat is through decarceration (i.e., reducing the number of people detained in jails).

“If we can immediately stop jailing people for minor alleged offenses and begin building a national decarceration program to end mass incarceration, these changes will protect us from COVID-19 now and will also benefit long-term U.S. public health and pandemic preparedness,” said first author Dr. Eric Reinhart, an anthropologist of public health and resident physician in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

The study evaluated the association of jail decarceration and government anti-contagion policies with reductions in the spread of SARS-CoV-2 in the U.S. It will be published Sept. 2 in the journal JAMA Network Open.

It is the first study to link mass incarceration systems to pandemic vulnerability and international biosecurity (i.e., systems for protecting against disease or harmful biological agents). In a pandemic, amplification of COVID-19 spread by one country spills over into other nations such that mass incarceration in the U.S. is a threat not only to Americans but also to global public health at large.

Although many prior studies have documented that high incarceration rates are associated with harm to communitywide health, this study of 1,605 U.S. counties is the first to show that decarceration is associated with community-wide public health benefits.

U.S. jails, prisons are ‘infectious disease incubators’

The U.S. incarcerates people at seven times the average rate among peer nations such as France, Canada, Germany, England, etc., and holds almost 25% of the world’s incarcerated population. Due to crowded conditions with poor healthcare, U.S. jails and prisons have effectively become infectious disease incubators in which at least 661,000 cases of COVID-19 have been documented since the pandemic began. 

Reinhart said this is due in large part to the 55% weekly turnover rate in U.S. jail populations, which means crowds of people—totaling approximately 650,000 each day, 75% of whom are awaiting trial and 25% of whom are serving short sentences for minor offenses—are being detained in cramped spaces, and then most are released back to their communities shortly thereafter. While detained, their chances of contracting SARS-Cov-2 increase dramatically, and when they return home, many unknowingly carry the virus back to their friends, family and neighbors.



“The majority of these people should never have been taken to jail in the first place,” Reinhart said. “There is no plausible public safety justification for their detention in a large proportion of cases, and a significant percentage of those jailed will never be convicted of the alleged crimes for which they were detained. Furthermore, no one––regardless of whether they have in fact committed a crime––should be subjected to the high risk of coronavirus infection imposed by the poor conditions in these facilities. 

“The high rate at which people are cycled between communities and unnecessary short-term stays in jails is creating epidemiologic pumps that drive more and more infections in both jails and communities. This jail churn effectively produces epidemic machines that seed outbreaks both in and beyond jails, undermining public safety for the entire country.” 

‘A natural experiment’

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in large-scale releases of inmates, with many jails decarcerating at rates between 20-50%, Reinhart said. 

“We used this exceptional historical episode during the pandemic to ask, ‘What were the consequences of this large-scale jail decarceration?’ It provided an opportunity for a natural experiment,” Reinhart said. “Pandemic-era decarceration wasn’t associated just with benefits for people who were released but also for everyone in the community. No study has ever been able to show this before, largely because we haven’t previously seen a real-world scenario with such sudden large-scale decarceration along with a well-documented means––like Covid-19 cases––to trace its implications for communities.”

The 1,605-county analysis from Reinhart and his co-author Daniel Chen of the Toulouse School of Economics and The World Bank encompassed 72% of the total U.S. population to provide one of the most fine-grained large analyses of anticontagion policies to date (jail decarceration along with 10 policies), including mask mandates, school closures, stay-at-home orders and more. 

Reinhart and Chen estimated that an 80% reduction in U.S. jail populations––a level of decarceration achievable simply by pursuing alternatives to jail detention for those detained for non-violent alleged offenses––would have been associated with 2% reduction in daily COVID-19 case growth rates. This effect size was eight times larger in counties with above-median population density, including large urban areas, and was considerably larger when Reinhart and Chen considered not just changes in jail populations but also estimated jail turnover. 

“Although this may sound like a small number,” Reinhart said, “because daily growth routes compound over time, even just a 2% reduction in daily case growth rates in the U.S. from the beginning of the pandemic until now would translate to the prevention of millions of cases. And, if on top of that, you factor in prison-related spread and the contribution of over 400,000 jail and prison guards to COVID-19 cases in their home communities––something we didn’t have access to data to track––then the contribution of the U.S. carceral system to overall COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has clearly been enormous,” he said. 

Nursing home visitation bans were associated with the largest reduction (7.3%) in COVID-19 case growth rates of all the policies Reinhart and Chen analyzed, followed by school closures (4.3%), mask mandates (2.5%), prison visitation bans (1.2%), and stay-at-home orders (0.8%).

Reinhart suggested these results also carry policy lessons not just for immediate anticontagion measures but also for broader public investments to improve conditions in schools and nursing homes.

As COVID-19 cases are again increasing around the world in connection with the delta variant, Reinhart believes this study’s findings “contain useful evidence for informing maximally effective policymaking to protect the public,” he said. 

Jail-linked disease spread and racial disparities

Reinhart and Chen’s recent related study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences focused on the ways in which what they call “carceral-community epidemiology”–– how health in jails and prisons is always interconnected with health in broader communities––particularly affects U.S. communities of color. Black and Latinx neighborhoods endure the highest rates of policing and incarceration, so when jails amplify disease in communities, this especially affects these racialized groups, Reinhart said. 

“Our prior research showed that this jail-community spread of coronavirus likely accounts for a substantial proportion of the racial disparities we have seen in COVID-19 cases across the U.S.,” Reinhart said. “Ultimately, this also harms all U.S. residents regardless of race, class or partisan affiliations, as disregarding the health of marginalized people inevitably causes harm––albeit unevenly––to everyone else in a society too.” 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.23405 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Association of Jail Decarceration and Anticontagion Policies With COVID-19 Case Growth Rates in US Counties

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

2-Sep-2021

 

Going up: Birds and mammals evolve faster if their home is rising

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

The rise and fall of Earth’s land surface over the last three million years shaped the evolution of birds and mammals, a new study has found, with new species evolving at higher rates where the land has risen most.

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have combined reconstructions of the Earth’s changing surface elevations over the past three million years with data on climate change over this timeframe, and with bird and mammal species’ locations. Their results reveal how species evolved into new ones as land elevation changed - and disentangle the effects of elevation from the effects of climate.

The study found that the effect of elevation increase is greater than that of historical climate change, and of present-day elevation and temperature, in driving the formation of new species – ‘or speciation’.

In contrast to areas where land elevation is increasing, elevation loss was not found to be an important predictor of where speciation happens. Instead, present-day temperature is a better indicator of speciation in these areas.

The results are published today in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution.

“Often at the tops of mountains there are many more unique species that aren’t found elsewhere. Whereas previously the formation of new species was thought to be driven by climate, we’ve found that elevation change has a greater effect at a global scale,” said Dr Andrew Tanentzap in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, senior author of the paper.

As land elevation increases, temperature generally decreases and habitat complexity increases. In some cases, for example where mountains form, increasing elevation creates a barrier that prevents species moving and mixing, so populations become reproductively isolated. This is the first step towards the formation of new species.

The effect of increasing elevation on that rate of new species formation over time was more pronounced for mammals than for birds; the researchers think this is because birds can fly across barriers to find mates in other areas. Birds were affected more by present-day temperatures; in birds, variation in temperature creates differences in the timing and extent of mating, risking reproductive isolation from populations of the same species elsewhere.

Until now, most large-scale studies into the importance of topography in generating new species have only considered present-day land elevation, or elevation changes in specific mountain ranges.

“It’s surprising just how much effect historical elevation change had on generating the world’s biodiversity – it has been much more important than traditionally studied variables like temperature. The rate at which species evolved in different places on Earth is tightly linked to topography changes over millions of years,” said Dr Javier Igea in the University of Cambridge’s Department of Plant Sciences, first author of the paper.

He added: “This work highlights important arenas for evolution to play out. From a conservation perspective these are the places we might want to protect, especially given climate change. Although climate change is happening over decades, not millions of years, our study points to areas that can harbour species with greater potential to evolve.”

The researchers say that as the Earth’s surface continues to rise and fall, topography will remain an important driver of evolutionary change.

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JOURNAL

Nature Ecology & Evolution

DOI

10.1038/s41559-021-01545-6 

ARTICLE TITLE

Global topographic uplift has elevated speciation in mammals and birds over the last 3 million years

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

1-Sep-2021