Extreme Greenland ice melt raised global flood risk: study

Author: AFP

|Update: 01.11.2021 


The ice sheet atop the world's largest island contains enough frozen water to lift oceans some six metres (20 feet) globally, and extreme melting events there have been increasing in frequency for at least 40 years / © GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File


The 3.5 trillion tonnes of Greenland's ice sheet that has melted over the past decade has raised global sea levels by one centimetre and is heightening worldwide flood risks, new research showed on Monday.

The ice sheet atop the world's largest island contains enough frozen water to lift oceans some six metres (20 feet) globally, and extreme melting events there have been increasing in frequency for at least 40 years.

Although it is one of the most studied places on Earth by climatologists, Monday's research is the first to use satellite data to detect Greenland ice sheet runoff.


Writing in the journal Nature Communications, researchers said that Greenland's meltwater runoff had risen by 21 percent over the past four decades.

More strikingly, the data provided by the European Space Agency showed that the ice sheet had lost 3.5 trillion tonnes of ice since 2011, producing enough water to raise oceans globally and put coastal communities at higher risk of flood events.

One-third of the ice lost in the past decade came in just two hot summers -- 2012 and 2019 -- the research showed.

The images showed significant annual variation in ice melt and, combined with temperature data, showed that heatwaves were increasingly a major cause of ice loss -- above and beyond global temperature rises.

In 2012, for example, when changes in atmospheric patterns caused unusually warm air to hover over the ice sheet for weeks, 527 billion tonnes of ice was lost.

"As we've seen with other parts of the world, Greenland is also vulnerable to an increase in extreme weather events," said Thomas Slater, from the University of Leeds Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling and lead author.

"As our climate warms, it's reasonable to expect that the instances of extreme melting in Greenland will happen more often."

Predicting how much Greenland's melt will contribute to rising sea levels is notoriously tricky for scientists who also need to factor in the potential rise caused by other land-based glacier melt.

And, as oceans warm, water expands, and also contributes to higher seas.

Monday's authors said that the satellite data had allowed them to quickly and accurately estimate how much ice Greenland had lost in a given year, and convert that into sea-level rise equivalent.

"Model estimates suggest that the Greenland ice sheet will contribute between 3-23 cm to global sea-level rise by 2100," said co-author Amber Leeson, senior lecturer in Environmental Data Science at Britain's Lancaster University.

"These new spaceborne estimates of runoff will help us to understand complex ice melt processes better... and just enable us to refine our estimates of future sea-level rise."

RIP 

ADO CAMPEOL
'Father PROMOTER of WIFE'S tiramisu' dies in Italy aged 93

Author: AFP

Update: 01.11.2021 


Tiramisu is today considered one of the staples of Italian cuisine and comes in many varieties / © AFP/File

Ado Campeol, dubbed "the father" of the world-famous tiramisu dessert, died over the weekend, the governor of the Veneto region has announced. He was 93.

Campeol was the owner of Le Beccherie restaurant in the city of Treviso that began first offering the concoction of coffee-soaked biscuits and mascarpone in the 1970s.

The dessert, which first came about because of a mistake by Campeol's wife and his chef at the time according to local media reports, quickly took off and is today considered a staple of Italian cuisine beloved by those with a sweet tooth the world over.

"With Ado Campeol, gone today at age 93, Treviso loses another one of its gastronomical stars," Luco Zaia, the governor of the Veneto region, wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday.

"It is at his restaurant, thanks to intuition and the imagination of his wife, that was born the tiramisu, one of the most celebrated desserts in the world."

Classic tiramisu is made by layering espresso-soaked biscuits with mascarpone and topped off with powdered cocoa.

Today the dessert comes in a myriad of varieties, from fruit to peanut butter.

WATER IS LIFE
Oregon city sues to keep Google’s water use secret

THE DALLES, Ore. (AP) — The city of The Dalles, Oregon, has filed suit in an effort to keep Google’s water use a secret.

The move comes ahead of a key City Council vote on a $28.5 million water pact between the city and the tech giant.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the city is seeking to overturn a ruling earlier from Wasco County’s district attorney, who found Google’s water use is a public record and ordered The Dalles to provide that information to the news organization.

The city sued Friday, asking a judge to intervene.

Google is contemplating two new server farms on the site of a former aluminum smelter in The Dalles, where it already has an enormous campus of data centers on its property along the Columbia River.

Google says it needs more water to cool its data centers, but neither the company nor the city will say how much more – only that The Dalles can’t meet Google’s needs without expanding its water system. The deal calls for Google to pay for the upgrade.

The proposed water pact has attracted scrutiny and skepticism in The Dalles, a riverfront city of about 15,000 approximately 80 miles east of Portland.

Residents and nearby farmers are concerned about the city’s water long-term water supply amid an ongoing drought. They complain they don’t know enough about Google’s actual water use.

The city is now going to court to keep that information under wraps, arguing it’s a Google “trade secret” exempt from disclosure under Oregon law.

At Least Three Dead After Luxury High-Rise Collapses In Nigeria

Carlie Porterfield
Forbes Staff
Updated Nov 1, 2021, 04:43pm EDT

TOPLINE

Three people have died in the sudden collapse of a 21-story luxury building under construction in Lagos, Nigeria, while first responders continue to work to rescue people trapped inside

.

People stand to look at the rubble of a building under construction that collapsed in the Ikoyi 

 [+] AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS

Police confirmed that at least three people have died in the collapse and many more are still trapped, according to the BBC.

Employees at the site said as many as 100 construction workers were working on the building at the time of its collapse, according to Reuters.

The building, one of many high-rises being built in Lagos’ well-heeled Ikoyi neighborhood, suddenly fell in on itself Monday afternoon amid construction, according to local media.

The exact number of deaths, people trapped and the cause of the collapse is still unclear.

Photos and videos posted to social media show people passing by jumping in to help rescue survivors from the rubble.

KEY BACKGROUND

Building collapses are relatively common in Nigeria. A whopping 43 buildings in Nigeria fell in 2019 alone, according to a study from the Building Collapse Prevention Guild, a Nigerian group. In 2016, at least 160 people died after a church collapsed in Uyo, a city located near Nigeria’s southeast border. In 2014, the collapse of a guesthouse located on the grounds of a Christian megachurch in Lagos State killed at least 115 people.

Several workers trapped under collapsed highrise in Nigeria: Witnesses

Reuters
Nneka Chile
Publishing date:Nov 01, 2021 • 

People walk to rescue workers from the rubble of a 21-storey building under construction that collapsed at Ikoyi district of Lagos, on Nov. 1, 2021. 

PHOTO BY PIUS UTOMI EKPEI /AFP via Getty Images

LAGOS — A luxury residential highrise under construction in Nigeria’s commercial capital Lagos collapsed on Monday, trapping several workers under a pile of concrete rubble, witnesses said.

Two workers at the site in the affluent neighbourhood of Ikoyi, where many blocks of flats are under construction, told Reuters that possibly 100 people were at work when the building came crashing down.

Building collapses are frequent in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, where regulations are poorly enforced and construction materials often substandard.

There were heaps of rubble and twisted metal where the 20-story building once stood, as several workers looked on. One man wailed, saying his relative was among those trapped.

It was not immediately clear what caused the collapse.

The building was part of three towers being built by private developer Fourscore Homes. In a brochure for potential clients, the company promises to offer “a stress-free lifestyle, complete with a hotel flair.” The cheapest unit was selling for $1.2 million.

Calls to the numbers listed for Fourscore Homes and the main building contractor did not ring through.

The Lagos State Emergency Management Agency said it had activated its emergency response plan. “All first responders are at the scene while heavy duty equipment and life detection equipment have been dispatched,” the agency said in a statement.

RIP

Dr. Aaron Beck, father of cognitive therapy, dies at 100

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Dr. Aaron T. Beck, a groundbreaking psychotherapist regarded as the father of cognitive therapy, died Monday at his Philadelphia home. He had turned 100 in July.

Beck’s work revolutionized the diagnosis and treatment of depression and other psychological disorders. He died peacefully in his sleep, according to the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavior Therapy, which he co-founded with his daughter, Dr. Judith Beck.

“My father was an amazing person who dedicated his life to helping others,” the daughter said in a statement, nothing that her father continued to work until his death. “He has inspired students, clinicians, and researchers for several generations with his passion and his groundbreaking work.”

Beck developed the field of cognitive therapy, a clinical form of psychotherapy, at the University of Pennsylvania in the 1960s. It trains patients to identify and dismiss irrational negative thoughts about themselves, the world and the future.

He developed the treatment after finding that his depressed patients frequently experienced distorted negative ideas — he dubbed them “automatic thoughts.”

Unlike Freudian psychoanalysis, which delves into a patient’s childhood and searches for hidden internal conflicts, cognitive therapy says turning around a self-disparaging inner monologue is key to alleviating many psychological problems, often in a dozen sessions or fewer.

He touted the idea with an anti-Freudian maxim: “There’s more to the surface than meets the eye.”

Beck discovered that patients who learn to recognize the faulty logic of their negative automatic thoughts — such as, “I’ll always be a failure” or “No one likes me” — could learn to overcome their fears and think more rationally, which diminished their anxiety and improved their mood. He found that results endured long after therapy was finished, as patients learned to confront those thoughts on their own.

Cognitive therapy sessions follow a strict format, which always include setting goals for the session and homework assignments. Besides depression, it has been used to treat conditions including bulimia, panic attacks, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and drug abuse.

Beck’s pragmatic view of psychotherapy had its skeptics. Some psychologists called cognitive therapy superficial and little more than a morale booster, but it became required training for psychiatry residents.

Beck always responded to critics with data from his research. He published much of his work in his own journal, Cognitive Therapy and Research, partly because other mental health professionals disregarded his findings.

He wrote or co-wrote 17 books, published more than 500 articles and received honors for his work including the Lesker Award, Heinz Award and the Sarnat Award from the Institute of Medicine.

American Psychologist magazine in 1982 named Beck one of the 10 most influential psychotherapists ever.

A native of Providence, R.I., and the third son of middle-class Russian Jewish immigrants, Beck’s first exercises in cognitive therapy were on himself, after a childhood hospitalization at age 8. The athletic child and Boy Scout became fearful of hospitals and blood, and the smell of ether could make him faint.

He said he overcame those fears by learning to disregard his wooziness and keep busy with other activities.

Beck graduated from Brown University in 1942 and Yale Medical School in 1946. After stints at hospitals in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, he joined the psychiatry department at Penn in 1954.

As a young psychologist, he conducted experiments disproving the Freudian theory that people were depressed because they somehow needed to suffer. He concluded that depression didn’t come from masochism, as Freud believed, but from low self-worth.

Beck’s later work researched cognitive therapy’s effectiveness as part of a treatment regimen for schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder and for patients with repeat suicide attempts.

Beck is survived by his wife of more than 70 years, former state Judge Phyllis Beck, who was also a former Penn law school vice dean, along with three other children, 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

___ Former AP reporter JoAnn Loviglio contributed to this report.

Mexican villages try to preserve authentic Day of the Dead

By FERNANDA PESCE

Family members keep vigil beside graves during Day of the Dead festivities at the Tzintzuntzan cemetery in Michocan, Mexico, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. In a tradition that coincides with All Saints Day and All Souls Day on Nov. 1 and 2, families decorate the graves of departed relatives with marigolds and candles, and spend the night in the cemetery, eating and drinking as they keep company with their deceased loved ones. 

(AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)


AROCUTIN, Mexico (AP) — The famed Day of the Dead ceremonies around Mexico’s Lake Patzcuaro were once again thronged with visitors on Monday, economic relief for a tourist-dependent region that suffered from last year’s pandemic shutdown of the observance.

In the lakeside city of Patzcuaro itself, tourists were treated to a parade, theater and music performances.

“Come and visit us, Patzcuaro welcomes you with open arms,” said Julio Arreola, mayor of the city in the western state of Michoacan that is famed for its colonial-era plazas and architecture.

But in some smaller villages around the lakeshore, residents tried to preserve the authentic, non-tourist flavor of traditions passed down for hundreds of years.

While kids in Mexico City donned Halloween-style costumes based on the Netflix series “Squid Game,” people in the village of Arocutín were more concerned with the flower arrangements and candles meant to guide the spirits of the dead home.




Locals carry flowers outside of Arocutin municipal cemetery as people arrive to pay their respects to their dead in Arocutin, Michoacan, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Residents of Arocutín started hanging up traditional garlands of marigold flowers early morning Sunday to adorn the entrance of the small local cemetery.

Arocutín remains a holdout: It is the only town in the region where the cemetery lies in the churchyard, and where all the tombs are dug directly into the earth, surrounded by a simple ring of stones, rather than the more elaborate cement and brick vaults used elsewhere.

“It’s all about preserving tradition as much as we can”, said Alma Ascencio, the representative for local artisans. “Tourism has distorted everything. This is a celebration, sure, but a religious one, so there is no music or much alcohol. It is very private, a completely different thing.”

While the island of Janitzio in Lake Patzcuaro is the site best known for colorful Day of the Dead celebrations, the tiny island remains remains closed to visitors to avoid crowding.

That raised concerns that tourists might flock to smaller villages nearby.

Those concerns may be overstated. The only American in Arocutín Monday was Georgia Conti. A retired healthcare manager, she decided to move to Arocutín precisely because of its beauty and traditions, and she now lives here with her dog.

When she was building her house with her late husband, they found bones that were believed to be those of a soldier killed in 1915 during the Mexican Revolution.

“Some tourists do come around here, but here is a different world. I really respect their traditions”, said Conti. “Villagers are really welcoming and told me I could lay my mother’s ashes here, next to the unknown soldier. I will probably be buried here when I die”.

The Day of the Dead originated in Indigenous cultures and has been celebrated for thousands of years, but tourists started arriving in Arocutín only in 2002. Residents are open to sharing their costumes, but resistant to changing them in any way.

“We don’t celebrate Halloween here. We are not American, we celebrate our dead. Our culture is rich enough here in Michoacán and Mexico,” Ascencio said while preparing marigold garlands.

Preparations for the Day of the Dead start on the 31st with residents adorning the tombs with marigold arches and candles.

That is the night Mexicans celebrate their deceased children, while the night from the 1st to the 2nd is dedicated to the adult dead.

Arocutín is one of the few communities where a church bell rings to call the souls and guide them back to the land of the living, to prevent them from getting lost. Each community has a different sound. This is also one of the few communities where people stay up all night, offering food and presents to the deceased.

“We coexist with our dead. We bring them all the things they liked when they were alive. Sometimes it is a beer, or a tequila with a cigarette,” said Alma Ascencio.

Elizabeth Ascencio lost her newborn 20 years ago and every year comes to adorn the small stone tomb with marigold petals to guarantee his return for the night.

“This is a special day, a beautiful day”, said Elizabeth Ascencio. “We try very hard to welcome our dead”.

Every year,the town erects a big decorated arch at the entrance to the cemetery. To many, this is the door through which the dead enter.

According to tradition, the only force that allows residents to lift the tree trunks that form the arch are the souls of the children who respond to the sound of the bells and come to help.

Bunches of Mexican marigolds adorn another monumental wooden arch that lies on the floor of another small cemetery not far from Arocutín. A group of residents patiently tie the flowers to the tree trunks, while others rest or enjoy a taco under the sun. The villagers decorate the arches, then lift them into place.

Cecilio Sánchez, a construction worker and a resident of the neighboring town of San Francisco Uricho, learned how to make the flower arch from his elders.

“But for all of us, our arch is much more beautiful than the one in Arocutín,” Sánchez said.

Maria Ermenegildo, 69, is a traditional embroidery artisan who has lived in Arocutín her entire life.

“We’ve always done it this way,” said Ermenegildo, while finishing the last marigold garlands ahead of the big night. “No other village can decorate and celebrate the way we do. We feel very proud every time tourists tell us how beautiful everything is.”

Pandemic-hit Mexican town awaits reunion with dead

Pandemic-hit Mexican town awaits reunion with dead

Mexico's Day of the Dead festival centers around the belief that souls of the deceased return for a brief reunion (AFP/Claudio CRUZ)

Alexander Martinez
Mon, November 1, 2021

Sandra Jimenez lost two sisters to the coronavirus, which devastated her small Mexican town. On Monday she awaited the return of their souls for the Day of the Dead.

Many events linked to what is considered Mexico's most important festival were canceled last year as the Latin American country battled to contain the virus.

But with a third wave of infections now subsiding, this year has seen the return of cemetery visits and other public celebrations, including a parade through the capital.


In Santa Cruz Atizapan, in the central State of Mexico, church bells rang out for months at the height of the pandemic in a show of respect for the many victims.

The residents found it so traumatizing that they asked for the tolling to stop, Jimenez said as she tidied the graves of relatives in the town's cemetery.

"It was horrible, distressing!" the 64-year-old said.

The Day of the Dead, which is rooted in indigenous culture, centers around the belief that the souls of the dead return on the night of November 1-2.

Families put out altars with pictures of relatives and their favorite foods, along with candles and decorative skulls.

- 'Calmer now' -

Atizapan is the Mexican municipality with the highest mortality rate due to Covid-19 relative to its population size, according to data from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

The town of 12,894 people has registered 303 deaths from coronavirus, with a peak seen at the beginning of this year.

"Two or three people died every day. We were burying them up until the night," said Freddy Gonzalez, who manages the town's cemetery.

Before the crisis, annual deaths were around 60, so the graveyard had to expand its capacity and schedule to keep up, he said.

"But it's calmer now. There are two or three deaths every month," the 29-year-old said.

With the pandemic easing, relatives were allowed to enter the cemetery to tidy and decorate the graves before the Day of the Dead.

The country of 126 million has an official Covid-19 death toll of more than 288,000 -- one of the highest in the world.

Jimenez's sister Estela died in June 2020. In December, the coronavirus claimed the life of another sister.

Maria Luisa, who was 74, had continued to travel by public transport to her job as a domestic worker in Mexico City, putting her at risk of infection.

Estela, 76, died when the oxygen in her tank ran out on the way to a clinic.

"I gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation," but it was not enough, Jimenez said.

A woman takes part in a Day of the Dead parade in Mexico City, where an easing of the pandemic led to the return of public celebrations (AFP/CLAUDIO CRUZ)

- 'Crying not enough' -

Atizapan only has one hospital providing basic care and many patients faced a one-hour journey for treatment, according to a paramedic working in the area.

At critical moments in the pandemic the hospitals were overwhelmed, said the man, who attended hundreds of emergencies in the town.

"Crying was not enough to release the emotion. We wanted to throw in the towel, but we had to continue," said the 27-year-old, who did not want to be named.

To honor those who died and try to ease the pain, the residents of Atizapan prepared colorful altars for the visiting souls.

"Not even the pandemic dampened our enthusiasm," said Antonio Briseno, 35, who lost his mother-in-law during the pandemic.

"We wait for our loved ones with much affection and respect," said Briseno, who put out photos of his mother, grandmother and mother-in-law along with fruit, beans, rice, chicken, chocolate, brandy and cigars.

Like his neighbors, he scattered marigold petals on the floor to guide the spirits to the altar.

Gonzalez, the cemetery manager, placed an offering in the chapel for the people whose bodies lie unidentified.

The paramedic dedicated his altar to those he saw pass away during the pandemic.

"Many died with empty stomachs," he said.

axm-dr/st

Mexicans return to Day of the Dead celebration with a vengeance


Sun, October 31, 2021

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Thousands of Mexicans crowded into the main avenue of Mexico City for a lively Day of the Dead parade on Sunday, relishing the chance to mark the festive tradition after the coronavirus pandemic cast a thick pall over it last year.

Most of the mass of spectators lining Paseo de la Reforma boulevard wore protective face masks as they watched colorful floats, bands and performers trundle down the street.

Others proudly sported bright depictions of calavera skulls on their faces to celebrate.

"I love coming to see this tradition we Mexicans can't lose sight of," said Leticia Galvan, a 67-year-old civil servant decked out in a skeleton suit and trilby, and with half of her face painted in the colors of a La Catrina skull.

"It's us making light of death, celebrating death."

Children sat atop their parents' shoulders to catch sight of the procession of floats bearing dancers in indigenous attire and feathered headdresses, scaled-down reproductions of Mexico City landmarks and spectral figures.

Mexico has endured one of the highest death tolls worldwide from the COVID-19 pandemic, and last year the city authorities urged the public to stay at home, ordering cemeteries to close during festivities traditionally held on Nov. 1-2.

But with nearly half the population now fully vaccinated against the virus, Mexico has in recent weeks significantly reduced daily infections, enabling the capital and most other regions of the country to lift restrictions on the public.

Many Mexicans still mask up when they go outdoors and some spectators kept their distance from the parade.

"I didn't expect to see so many people," said Rebeca Brito, a 22-year-old nurse, hanging back to avoid the crowds. "After all the time spent cooped up, they want to get out now."

Mexico Day of the Dead

A woman made up as a "Catrina" and wearing a face shield posed for a photo during Day of the Dead festivities in Mexico City, Sunday, Oct. 31, 2021. Altars and artwork from around the country were on display in a parade, as Mexicans honor the Day of the Dead. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Mexico celebrates Day of the Dead after pandemic closures

MARCO UGARTE and LISSETTE ROMERO
Sun, October 31, 2021,

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico returned Sunday to mass commemorations of the Day of the Dead, after traditional visits to graveyards were prohibited last year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

But the one-year hiatus showed how the tradition itself refuses to die: Most families still celebrated with home altars to deceased loved ones, and some snuck into cemeteries anyway.

Gerardo Tapia Guadarrama on Sunday joined many others at the cemetery as he visited the grave of his father Juan Ignacio Tapia, who died in May 2020 of a thrombosis.

Even though cemeteries in Mexico were closed to visitors last year to avoid spreading the virus, so strong is the tradition that his son still slipped into the cemetery in the eastern Mexico City suburb of Valle de Chalco to visit him.

’Lat year it was prohibited, but we found a way," Tapia Guadarrama said slyly. Much of graveyard has low walls that can be jumped.

“To live is to remember,” he said. “What they (the dead) most want want is a visit from those they were close to in life."

A musician walks in the Valle de Chalco municipal cemetery as people begin to arrive to pay their respects to their dead, on the outskirts of Mexico

The holiday begins Oct. 31, remembering those who died in accidents; it continues Nov. 1 to mark those died in childhood, and then those who died as adults on Nov. 2.

Observances include entire families cleaning and decorating graves, which are covered with orange marigolds. At both cemeteries and at home altars, relatives light candles, put out offerings of the favorite foods and beverages of their deceased relatives.

There was a special altar in downtown Mexico City dedicated to those who died of COVID-19. Relatives were allowed into a fenced-off plaza and offered equipment to print out photos of their loved ones, which they could then pin, along with handwritten, messages on a black wall.

It was a quiet, solemn remembrance in a country where coronavirus deaths touched almost all extended families.

Mexico has over 288,000 test-confirmed deaths, but probable coronavirus mortalities as listed on death certificates suggest a toll closer to 440,000, by some counts the fourth-highest in the world.

For a country where people usually die surrounded by relatives, COVID-19 was particularly cruel, as loved ones were taken off alone in plastic tents, to die alone in isolation.

“The only thing I could say to him was, ‘Do everything the doctors tell you,’” Gina Olvera said of her father, who died of coronavirus. “That was the last thing I was able to say to him.” Olvera said she told her father, as she taped his photo to the memorial, “Well, you didn't make it, but you are here with us.”

One woman wept as she pinned up a photo of a female relative. Another, Dulce Moreno, was calm but sad as she pinned up a photo of her uncle and her grandfather, Pedro Acosta Nuñez, both of whom died of complications of COVID-19.

“The house feels empty now without him (the grandfather), we feel lost,” Moreno said.

For most, it was a joyful return, above all, to public activities like public altars and the Hollywood-style Day of the Dead parade that Mexico City adopted to mimic a fictitious march in the 2015 James Bond movie “Spectre.”

“These days are not sad here; they are a way to remember our dead with great happiness,” said Otilia Ochoa, a homemaker who came along with dozens of others to take pictures of the flower-decked offerings near the coronavirus memorial. “What is good is to recover this liberty, this contact we had lost” during the pandemic, Ochoa said.

Tens of thousands of Mexico City — almost all wearing masks, despite the city's relatively high vaccination rate — gathered along the city's main boulevard Sunday to watch the parade of dancing skeletons, dancers and floats.

There were few references to coronavirus in the parade, but there was a whole section of skeleton-dressed actors representing Mexico City's street traders and vendors.

“We are here to celebrate life!” Mexico City Tourism Secretary Paola Felix Diaz said in kicking off the parade.

More risky group activities like Halloween-style costume parties and trick-or-treating have still not recovered from the pandemic. But children took the opportunity to dress up in Mexico-style Day of the Dead costumes as skull-like Catrinas, or as red-clad guards from the Netflix series “Squid Game.”

But Mexico has long had a different attitude toward death, more social, more accepting than in many parts of the world. Wakes and funerals here are often elaborate, days-long events gathering entire neighborhoods and extended families for eating, praying and remembering.

CLIMATE CHANGE IS WW3.0

Prince Charles: World should be on 'warlike' footing to fight climate change

Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Britain's Prince Charles was among the first key speakers on Monday at the United Nations Climate Change Conference, and said one strategy to control global warming would be for the world to take a "warlike" approach.

Prince Charles spoke during the opening ceremony at the conference, also known as COP26, and said that kind of an effort would make up a lot of ground in meeting key climate goals set out in the Paris Agreement.

"We need a vast military-style campaign to marshal the strength of the global private sector," he said. "With trillions [of dollars] at its disposal."

Prince Charles followed British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the stage. In his remarks, Johnson said the world is quickly running out of tim

"Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change," he said. "It's one minute to midnight on that doomsday clock and we need to act now."

Charles addressed dozens of world leaders in the room and said he's met with many in the international community over the past 18 months

"The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us just how devastating global cross-border threat can be," he said

"The scale and scope of the threat we face call for a global systems-level solution based on radically transforming our current fossil fuel-based economy to one that's genuinely renewable and sustainable.

"We have to put ourselves on what might be called a warlike footing."

Charles urged nations to unite and provide accelerated nature-based solutions and a circular bio-economy. To fund such a campaign, he called for orchestrated support from the global private sector.

"It offers the only real prospect of fundamental economic transition."

'Digging our own graves': COP26 leaders told take climate action

World leaders were told to help "save humanity" on Monday at the COP26 climate summit and warned that failure was "immoral" and would sow bitterness for generations.

 

What is the role of developing countries in COP26 

summit ?

The COP26 climate summit in Glasgow has been described as the “last best chance” to bring climate change under control. FRANCE 24 Valerie Dekimpe is in Glascow and she talks about the role of developing countries in the COP26 summit with Yasmine Fouad, Egypt's Minister of Environmental Affairs.

Barbados PM says failure to fund climate adaptation 'immoral'

Author: AFP|Update: 01.11.2021 


Barbados' Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley said decades of delay had contributed to climate disaster / © AFP

Rich countries' failure to cough up a promised $100 billion a year to help vulnerable nations cope with climate change has deadly consequences, the prime minister of Barbados said Monday at the COP26 summit in Glasgow.

Impacts from climate-enhanced droughts, heatwaves, floods and wildfires are "measured in lives and livelihoods in our communities and that, my friends, is immoral and unjust," Mia Mottley told more than 120 world leaders kicking off the critical 13-day negotiations.

Dozens of small island states and major low-lying cities worldwide are also exposed to the existential threat of superstorms, made more destructive by rising seas.


Wealthy nations first made the $100 billion pledge in 2009, but fell $20 billion short ahead of their 2020 deadline.

Last week, in a revised schedule, they laid out a plan for hitting the target only in 2023.

Such delays, a paucity of funds devoted to adaptation needs, and the large share in the form of loans rather than grants have deepened an old rift between developing and rich nations struggling to find common ground.

"Are we really going to leave Scotland without the results and ambitions needed to save lives and our planet?," Mottley asked, her voice laced with anger.

"How many more pictures of people must we see on these screens without being able to move? Are we so blinded and hardened that we can no longer appreciate the cries of humanity?"

Capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius -- the aspirational goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement -- is an absolute necessity, she continued.

"For those who have eyes to see, for those who have ears to listen, and those who have a heart to feel, 1.5C is what we need to survive," she said.

"2C is a death sentence for the people of Antigua and Barbuda, for the people of the Maldives, of Dominica and Fiji, of Kenya and Mozambique, and yes, for the people of Barbados."

Even if newly revised carbon-cutting pledges submitted in the run-up to COP26 are fulfilled, it would still lead to "catastrophic" warming of 2.7C, according to a UN report last week.

"We've come here to say: 'Try harder'," she added. "Our people, the world, the planet need our action now -- not next year, not in the next decade."

US Supreme Court rejects Catholic hospital's appeal over transgender patient


The case would have pitted the transgender WO man's rights against religious rights claimed by a Catholic hospital, which argued that the surgery would have violated its core religious beliefs. File Photo by torwaiphoto/Shutterstock/UPI


Nov. 1 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday decided not to hear an appeal from a California hospital over a lawsuit filed by a transgender man who says the institution refused to perform a hysterectomy after it learned he was transgender.

The California Court of Appeals previously ruled that Evan Minton's lawsuit against Mercy San Juan Medical Center near Sacramento, a hospital in the Dignity Health chain, could move forward with the suit that says the hospital violated his civil rights under state law that protects LGBTQ persons.

The case would have pitted Minton's rights against religious rights claimed by the Catholic hospital, which has argued that the surgery would have violated its core religious beliefs.

After Minton and his physician went public about the operation's cancellation, it was performed at a Methodist hospital that's part of the same chain.

Supreme Court Justices Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have accepted the case.

The hospital said that California state law "provides no protection whatsoever to religious healthcare providers that are compelled to allow procedures that violate their faith."

Minton said the hospital routinely performs hysterectomies and believes his surgery was cancelled solely because he was transgender.

"When I heard the news I remember being so devastated that I collapsed to the ground," Mintons said at a hearing last year, according to NBC News. "I felt distraught and helpless that the hospital was refusing to treat me simply because of who I am."

Nurses get panic buttons, guard dogs due to rising patient violence

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News

As the COVID-19 pandemic has dragged on, researchers say that nurses -- already at highest risk among health workers for verbal abuse and threats of physical violence -- are getting panic buttons and guard dogs for self-protection. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Emergency room nurse Grace Politis was catching up on paperwork during her shift when she suddenly realized her head hurt badly. Then she blacked out.

"Later on, I found out I was hit in the head twice with a fire extinguisher by a patient," said Politis, who works at Lowell General Hospital in Lowell, Mass.

A disturbed man awaiting psychiatric evaluation had fractured Politis' skull, causing her head to bleed in two places and crushing one of her fingers.

Workplace violence in health care facilities has been shockingly high for years. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that a health care worker is five times more likely to suffer violence and injury on the job than workers overall.

Worker stress high during pandemic, particularly among health staffs, study finds

Now, the stress of the pandemic has made an already dangerous situation even worse.

Nurses providing care for COVID-19 patients are more than twice as likely to be physically attacked or verbally abused at work than those who care for other patients, according to a study from workplace violence researcher Jane Lipscomb that was recently published in the journal Workplace Health & Safety.

"Given how politicized the whole issue of vaccines and masking has become, I would think that we're actually going to see an increase in violence, rather than any kind of decrease," Lipscomb said in a HealthDay Now interview.

The threat of violence and abuse from patients and their families has gotten so bad that CoxHealth hospitals in Springfield, Mo., have started handing out panic buttons to staff and placing guard dogs in risky areas, Natalie Higgins, an emergency room nurse with CoxHealth, told HealthDay Now.

"When I first started, you would see it every once in a while. It wasn't a huge ordeal. But now it's every day," Higgins said.

"The verbal attacks are every day when we're at triage. We have a visitor policy, and people don't appreciate the visitor policy and so they lash out at us, like it's our decision. Or our patients are frustrated with wait times," Higgins said. "The physical isn't as common, thankfully, but it's still happening too often."

Primary doctor shortage in U.S. costing lives, study says

Pandemic making threat worse

The pandemic already has placed incredible strains on health care staff, as hospitals run near capacity during COVID-19 surges. Worker burnout continues to threaten staffing levels at hospitals.

"Before everything happened, we always chipped in to do what we could do, but now you have to do X, Y and Z because we just don't have the people to do it," Higgins said. "It's stretching us thinner, and it's getting tougher and tougher to go to work every day."

Politis added, "A lot of times, what really, really counts is the co-workers that you have and the environment that you make it. As rough as a shift may be, if you have those co-workers that you can count on to make you laugh for even a split second, it makes it worth it."

Now, the aggressive nature of some COVID-19 patients and their families are adding yet another strain to the burden on health care workers during the pandemic.

"I've seen patients who have COVID-19 that become very confused and try to get out of bed, or become verbally abusive, or just aggravated," Politis said.

"I've also seen young healthy adults become very, very angry and upset just for the pure fact that they have COVID-19, and of course the doctors and the nurses who tell them the result of what we're doing, we are kind of the ones that take the brunt of everything and all of the aggression," Politis added.

Hospitals now are taking extra steps like panic buttons to help workers feel safer on the job. When someone presses their panic button, it notifies every staff member where the incident is occurring, Higgins said.

"They page it overhead, so everyone knows what's happening so we can all work together and keep our staff member safe," Higgins said.

"We now have a guard dog at each hospital. That helps with de-escalating patients," Higgins added. "We take de-escalation classes every year. That sort of helps us with the verbal and if we do have to take a patient down, how we do it as a team."

Hospitals can contribute by creating a safer environment for their employees, Lipscomb said. They can install glass or plexiglass partitions that provide protection from patients, and choose waiting room furniture that can't easily be used as a weapon.

A safer work environment

"It's much easier to take care of the environment as opposed to changing patient and worker behavior, so that's the place to start," Lipscomb said.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been working on standards for workplace violence, but their progress has lagged for years, Lipscomb said. Legislation that would require them to move quickly has passed the U.S. House of Representatives, but hasn't been introduced in the Senate.

In the meantime, nurses like Politis and Higgins will be left wondering why they should remain at a job that places them at risk.

Higgins went into emergency nursing with dreams of helping people survive terrible trauma.

"You don't think about, am I going to get assaulted verbally today? Am I going to get assaulted physically? Do I have enough staff? What if I do push my button? Are there people who are going to be able to make it to me in time?" Higgins said.

"I anticipated some of it, especially with psychiatric patients, because a lot of the time they are under the influence," Higgins added. "But seeing what I've seen, I would have never expected to go to work and think, man, am I go home to my family tonight? That's been a real eye-opener for me, the last four years."

It's particularly heartbreaking for Politis, who hasn't been able to work in the ER since she was assaulted.

"Putting blue scrubs back on for the first time after the attack, I went through a wave of emotions I never thought I would go through - just putting on my work clothes I used to do without any issue," Politis said. "I haven't been back to the emergency room. Every time I think about it, I get anxious, I get fearful."

"That hurts because I always thought I was an emergency room [nurse] through and through," Politis continued. "I love the emergency room. There's nothing like it. It's my flow, but unfortunately I don't think that I might be able to ever go back, just because of what happened."

More information

You can find more about health care workplace violence at the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the American Hospital Association.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

AMERICAN GUN KULTURKAMPF
Stress over shootings, violence at schools raises LA teens' risk for anxiety, study finds


Parents stand at a makeshift memorial in front of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla, site of a shooting in 2018. Worries over violence in school raises teens' risk for mental health disorders, according to a new study. File photo by Gary Rothstein/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 1 (UPI) -- Concerns about gun violence at their schools or other places they go has put high school students at increased risk for anxiety and other mental health conditions, a study published Monday by JAMA Network Open found.

Of roughly 2,200 11th- and 12th-graders at 10 schools in Los Angeles, 38% said they were "very or extremely concerned" about shootings or violence at their school or others, the data showed.

Roughly one-third of the participating students described themselves as "worried" about these events, while 15% used the word "stressed."

After assessing students for anxiety and panic disorder with a commonly used scale, being concerned, worried or stressed about shootings or violence in schools was found to raise risk for generalized anxiety disorder by 31%, according to the researchers.

RELATED Colorado study finds rural teens have easier access to guns, are more suicidal

Students concerned, worried or stressed about shootings or violence also were 18% more likely to develop panic disorder, the data showed.

"Today's adolescents have a lot to worry about, and our study suggests that worries about school violence and shootings are a common source of stress that may contribute to mental health problems," study co-author Kira E. Riehm told UPI in an email.

"Our findings also highlight the need for mental health education to be a formally legislated component of school curricula," said Riehm, an epidemiologist at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City.

RELATED 1 in 18 teens carries a gun to school, study says

A 2018 Pew Research poll found that more than half of all elementary, middle and high school students nationally are worried about the possibility of a shooting happening at their school.

Meanwhile, a separate Pew Research survey revealed that 70% of teens ages 13 to 17 reported anxiety and depression as major problems among their peers.

For this study, Riehm and her colleagues surveyed the Los Angeles high schoolers three times, each six months apart, over an 18-month period in 2015 and 2016.

RELATE  Bullied teens more likely to take weapons to school

They also asked participating students to report symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder, depression and panic disorder based on the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale, a 47-item questionnaire commonly used in the initial diagnosis of these conditions.

The Temple of Time, built to mourn the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., burns in February 2018. Worries over violence in school raises teens' risk for mental health disorders, according to a new study. File photo by Gary Rothstein/UPI | License Photo

Participants who expressed concern, worry or stress about violence at school were more likely to report symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder, but not depression, the data showed.

Generalized anxiety disorder is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about events, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Panic disorder is a similar condition that causes panic attacks, or sudden periods of intense fear, that may include heart palpitations, sweating, shaking or shortness of breath.

Less than 3% of teens nationally have been formally diagnosed with either of these disorders, the institute estimates.

"In addition to the essential role of stronger gun violence prevention policies to reduce the incidence of school shootings, policies that reduce school violence and encourage a positive school climate could be helpful," Riehm said.

"This could include a range of prevention strategies, such as teaching conflict mediation to students and staff and developing connections with the community to foster a sense of inclusion and purpose," she said.