Antarctic biodiversity increasingly under threat as human activity spreads across continent


By environment reporter Nick Kilvert
Posted Wednesday 15 July 2020

Less than 32 per cent of Antarctica remains free from human interference according to the research.(Getty Images: Robert Harding Productions)

Antarctica is one of the most untouched and remote regions left on the planet, but new research shows that it's not as untouched as we thought it was.

Key points:

Less than a third of Antarctica is 'inviolate' or hasn't been visited by people and current sanctuaries are insufficient to protect the continent

Colonisation by pests is becoming more likely as ice recedes

Waste and landfill are thawing, increasing the risk of contamination

In the study published today in Nature, researchers found that people have accessed more than two-thirds of the continent, and that the proportion of "inviolate" areas, or places not impacted by people is shrinking.

Only a small number of specially protected areas have been sanctioned under the Antarctic Treaty — an international agreement to preserve the scientific, environmental and cultural value of specific sites — and very few of those areas haven't suffered from some form of human impact, according to study co-author Steven Chown of Monash University.

"Antarctica still has a fair bit of wilderness but it's not properly protected," he said.

Professor Chown and colleagues are calling for a significant expansion of Antarctic areas that are kept permanently free of people, in order to ensure that its unique biodiversity is conserved

"Some of the negligibly impacted areas, where there is high biodiversity, are what I think are the first [priorities for conservation]."
Human impact highest in most biodiverse areas

For the first time, researchers analysed more than 2.7 million records of human activity in Antarctica over 200 years to establish a thorough picture of our influence over the region.

While most of the continent is still technically wilderness, much of that is the ice-covered interior that doesn't support much biodiversity.

Most human activity — predominantly research and tourism — happens in the ice-free and coastal regions, said Sharon Robinson of the University of Wollongong, who wasn't involved with the research.

"Wherever there's an ice-free area you get biodiversity," said Professor Robinson, who studies mosses and lichens.
Moss grows in coastal and ice-free environments in Antarctica.(Supplied: Sharon Robinson)

Mosses and lichens, which are sentinels of climate change, can grow on mountain tops that stick up out of 3 - 4 kilometres of ice.

"Those [mountain tops] work like islands. So you get things on those islands that don't exist anywhere else [on Earth]."

There are currently 72 specially protected areas in Antarctica.

"The problem is most of the [protected areas] are near stations, Professor Robinson said.

"They were mostly set up so that science could take place, and so you didn't have people building on things that were being studied," she said.

When people visit an area even once, they run the risk of introducing pathogens — things like microbes and plant spores — which have the potential to permanently alter the ecology of the region.
Melting exposing 'everything from fuel to batteries to dead huskies'

And climate change is compounding the threat of poor environmental protections on several fronts.

Firstly, retreating ice sheets mean more exposed land and greater opportunity for pathogens to colonise.

And warmer temperatures also mean species from more northern latitudes are likely to survive in Antarctica.
Retreating ice is beginning to expose buried landfill in Antarctica.(Australian Antarctic Division: Richard Youd)

But there's another threat that the receding ice is posing as well.

Early stations would bury their waste as landfill, rather than transporting it back to their countries of origin.

That was OK as long as it remained frozen, but some of these landfill sites are in danger of thawing, Professor Robinson said.

"That's one of the big concerns with climate change is when the permafrost melts there's all this buried [waste] from the 1950s," she said.


"Everything from fuel to batteries to dead huskies — that's already starting to melt and there's this concern about what to do to clean those up."
The politics of creating people-free zones
In total there are 29 consultative parties to the Antarctic Treaty.(Photo: Peter Campbell/Australian Antarctic Division)

In order to properly protect Antarctica, the researchers argue that there needs to be very large sanctuaries where human access is completely off limits.

Research could still take place in those areas, but only remotely through technologies such as satellite sensing and drone sampling.

There is strong support among the scientific community to increase the amount of people-free regions across Antarctica, said Tony Press of the University of Tasmania's Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies.

But, he said, achieving that goal relies upon getting consensus from all the 29 countries who signed the Antarctic Treaty.


"The obstacles are political or geopolitical really. Somebody has to propose and get support for these initiatives," Professor Press said.

The researchers found that over the 200 years of records they looked at, activity has been increasing recently and is not limited to any single country.

While China is currently building new bases, other countries like Belarus and Turkey are increasing their presence and tourism is expanding, according to Professor Chown.

"If you look at the overall number of people and expeditions and stations being built, it's definitely on the rise," Professor Chown said.

"In the pre-COVID tourist year, we're up to about 50,000 visitors a year."
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Although creating sanctuaries is a necessary step, all the researchers the ABC spoke to said climate change was the biggest issue affecting Antarctica that must be addressed.


"Unless we actually protect these places they're going to disappear before we know what is there and what those organisms can do," Professor Robinson said.

She said the fact that we were able to all-but ban CFCs to combat ozone depletion shows we can work collectively to tackle climate change.

"I'm stubbornly optimistic because not being optimistic means you just give up. You have to have hope."

US wildlife agency RESPONSIBLE FOR PROTECTING ENDANGERED SPECIES rejects protections for rare fish species

This photo provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows an Arctic grayling captured in a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fish trap at Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge near Lima, Montana. U.S. wildlife officials have rejected federal protections for the rare, freshwater fish species at the center of a long-running legal dispute. The decision, on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, comes almost two years after a federal appeals court faulted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for dismissing the threat that climate change and other pressures pose to Arctic grayling. (Jim Mogen/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via AP)

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. wildlife officials on Wednesday rejected special protections for a rare, freshwater fish related to salmon that’s been at the center of a long-running legal dispute, citing conservation efforts that officials say have increased Arctic grayling numbers in a Montana river.

The Associated Press obtained details of the decision not to protect the fish under the Endangered Species Act in advance of a public announcement.

The move comes almost two years after a federal appeals court faulted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for arbitrarily dismissing threats to grayling from climate change and other pressures.

FILE - In this June 27, 2005, file photo, an Arctic grayling is shown in Emerald Lake in Bozeman, Mont. U.S. wildlife officials have rejected federal protections for the rare, freshwater fish species at the center of a long-running legal dispute. The decision, on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, comes almost two years after a federal appeals court faulted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for dismissing the threat that climate change and other pressures pose to Arctic grayling. (Ben Pierce/Bozeman Daily Chronicle via AP, File)

While some of those threats will persist, government officials said conservation measures have improved the fish’s habitat and will lessen future temperature increases in the cold waters where they reside.

Known for their iridescent appearance and sail-shaped dorsal fins, Arctic grayling are members of the salmon family that can reach 30 inches (76 centimeters) in length and are prized by many anglers.

Officials credited a conservation agreement involving landowners and government agencies for recent improvements to the grayling’s river habitat in southwestern Montana’s Big Hole Valley.

The Big Hole River and its tributaries — home to one of the few native populations of the fish in the Lower 48 states — saw grayling numbers roughly double during the last decade to about 1,500 adult fish, said Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Jim Boyd. The population figure was derived from an estimate of the number of breeding fish.

“If you can increase the number of breeding individuals, you can start to feel really good about the conservation efforts and know they are truly working,” he said.

Wildlife advocates criticized Wednesday’s decision and said the worsening climate crisis leaves the grayling’s survival in doubt. Even with a commitment from ranchers along the Big Hole to reduce the amount of water withdrawn to grow hay, flows drop sharply during dry periods and imperil grayling, they said.

Despite recent habitat improvements, Arctic grayling occupy only a fraction of the streams across the upper Missouri River basin where they were historically widespread. The species declined over the past century because of competition from non-native fish and after their habitat was significantly altered by dams and high summer water temperatures.

“The commitment of landowners along the Big Hole River is commendable and absolutely essential for the survival of grayling. We question whether it’s enough,” said attorney Jenny Harbine with Earthjustice, the environmental law firm that represented wildlife advocates in a lawsuit over the fish.

Montana Tech professor Pat Munday, a plaintiff in the lawsuit who fishes the Big Hole regularly, said grayling have become increasingly scarce over the past three decades. Munday alleged government biologists were “cooking the books” by inflating population estimates to justify their decision.

“The biologists and technicians get better and better at knowing where to anticipate grayling and they get better at finding them, but that doesn’t mean the numbers are increasing,” said Munday, a professor of science and technology studies and author of “Montana’s Last Best River: The Big Hole and Its People.”

Efforts to protect Arctic grayling date to at least 1991, when wildlife advocates petitioned the government to add the fish to its list of threatened and endangered species. Officials determined in 1994 and again in 2010 that protections were needed. But they were never imposed because other species were given a higher priority.

The Fish and Wildlife Service in 2014 determined that protections were no longer needed because the landowner conservation agreement had helped the fish rebound. Wildlife advocates then sued in federal court and prevailed before the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2018.

The appeals court faulted the government for not taking into account data that showed the fish’s population in the Big Hole River was then declining and for dismissing the potential for climate change to cause lower water flows and warmer temperatures.

Federal wildlife officials said steps already taken, such as more shade trees on stream banks and the reduced water withdrawals, have decreased the duration of warmer water temperatures that can hurt the fish. Those measures also will help protect them going forward, they said.

“We can decrease water temperatures despite the fact that air temperature is increasing,” Boyd said.

Arctic grayling are native to river drainages around the Arctic Ocean, Hudson Bay and the northern Pacific Ocean. A population in Michigan was wiped out last century, but scientists are seeking to reintroduce the fish to parts of the state.

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Follow Matthew Brown on twitter: @matthewbrownap

AP-NORC poll: Very few Americans back full school reopening

1 in 10 say daycare centers, preschools and K-12 schools should start the school year like any other.

Fairfax County Public School buses parked at a middle school in Falls Church, Va., Monday, July 20, 2020. Very few Americans believe schools should return to normal operations this fall, a new poll says, even as President Donald Trump insists that’s what parents and students want. The poll, conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, finds that only about 1 in 10 say daycare centers, preschools and K-12 schools should start the school year like any other.

 (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

THEY CAN ONLY OPEN IF YOU INCREASE CUSTODIAL STAFF PER SCHOOL 100%

AND THEY HAVE TO BE IN HOUSE NOT CONTRACTED OUT FOR VIRAL CONTROL  

BOSTON (AP) — Virtual instruction. Mandated masks. Physical distancing. The start of school will look very different this year because of the coronavirus — and that’s OK with the vast majority of Americans.

Only about 1 in 10 Americans think daycare centers, preschools or K-12 schools should open this fall without restrictions, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs. Most think mask requirements and other safety measures are necessary to restart in-person instruction, and roughly 3 in 10 say that teaching kids in classrooms shouldn’t happen at all.

The findings are a sharp contrast to the picture that President Donald Trump paints as he pressures schools to reopen. Trump said Wednesday that he would be “comfortable” with his son Barron and grandchildren attending school in person this fall.

“I would like to see the schools open,” he told reporters.

Few schools, however, plan to return to business as usual. Many of the nation’s largest school districts have announced that they’ll be entirely virtual in the fall or use a hybrid model that has children in classrooms only a couple of days a week.

The poll finds only 8% of Americans say K-12 schools should open for normal in-person instruction. Just 14% think they can reopen with minor adjustments, while 46% think major adjustments are needed. Another 31% think instruction should not be in person this fall. It’s little different among the parents of school-age children.
The poll also shows Americans feel the same about colleges and universities reopening this fall.

Americans show little confidence in Trump’s handling of education issues. Only 36% say they approve of Trump’s performance, while 63% disapprove. But a stark political divide on opening schools suggests many Republicans are taking cues from the president.

About 9 in 10 Democrats say requiring students and staff to wear masks is essential to reopening, while only about half of Republicans say the same. Democrats are roughly twice as likely as Republicans to say schools should use a mix of in-person and virtual instruction to reduce the number of students in buildings, 77% to 39%.

Patty Kasbek, of Bartlesville, Oklahoma, said she desperately wants her two children, ages 5 and 10, to return to school. After months at home, the family is stressed and anxious. But with the virus surging, she doesn’t see a safe way to reopen.

“School shouldn’t even be considered right now,” said Kasbek, 40. “We need to get this under control before we play with the virus. It’s just too dangerous to put our kids out there like guinea pigs.”

Her local school district is planning to reopen with new safety measures, she said, but she’s opting to enroll her children in a virtual school. She isn’t as worried about her own health but fears that reopening schools could spread the virus to others.

“I just see it going very badly, and I’m very, very worried for the teachers,” said Kasbek, who considers herself a Democrat.

The poll finds a majority of Americans, 56%, say they are very or extremely concerned that reopening schools will lead to additional infections in their communities; another 24% are somewhat concerned.

Some, however, see little risk. James Rivers, of Ramsey, Minnesota, said schools should reopen without protective measures against the virus. Rivers, a Republican, says Trump is doing a “fine job” and will have his vote in November.

“I think it should be just business as usual,” said Rivers, 54. “Yes, there is a COVID virus, but is it any more deadly than the common flu? I don’t think so.”

Rivers, who does not have school-age children, said parents who fear the virus can home school. “As for everybody else who isn’t afraid of a virus that has a less than 2% chance of being fatal, send your kid back to school. Let’s get it done,” he said.

Majorities say it is essential that buildings be disinfected daily, temperature checks and face masks be mandatory and desks be spread apart if schools are to reopen.

And 6 in 10 think a mix of in-person and virtual instruction is necessary, to limit the number of students inside at one time. Some of the nation’s largest districts, including New York City’s schools, plan to use that model. But Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says that fails students and taxpayers, arguing that students should be in the classroom every day.

In his campaign to reopen schools, Trump argues that Democrats oppose it for political reasons. He has threatened to cut federal funding for schools that fail to reopen fully. The White House has said he wants to work with Congress to tie future relief funding to reopening. He argues that other countries have reopened schools safely, although some he cites have used the hybrid model that DeVos decried.

The Trump administration also has argued that it’s not just about academics. Students need access to meal programs and mental health services, it says.

But Trump’s demands put him at odds with his own health officials. He rebuked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for releasing school guidelines that he said were too tough.
The poll finds about half of parents saying they are at least somewhat concerned about their child losing services like school lunches or counseling because of the pandemic.

More say they are worried about their child falling behind academically: 55% are very concerned, with another 21% somewhat concerned.

A majority of parents, 65%, are at least somewhat concerned about their own ability to juggle responsibilities.

Jimmy La Londe, 70, of Hiawassee, Georgia, thinks schools should reopen with safety measures that local officials think are necessary. Still, La Londe, who considers himself a Republican, said keeping schools closed will only hurt students and anger taxpayers.

“They have to keep the momentum, they have to keep people used to going to school,” he said. “I don’t think you can stop school forever.”

___

Fingerhut reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

Child abduction, forced labor scandal widens in south Mexico
LIKE THE PROBLEM OF FEMICIDE, CHILD ABDUCTION IS DENIED BY NEO LIBERAL PRESIDENTE AMLO 


Juana Perez, whose 2 1/2 year-old son Dylan is missing, holds a poster of him outside of the presidential palace that asks for President Manuel Andres Lopez Obrador to help her find him, in Mexico City, Wednesday, July 22, 2020. The search for Perez's boy who was led away from a market in southern Mexico's Chiapas state three weeks ago led police to a horrifying discovery: 23 abducted children being kept at a house and forced to sell trinkets in the street. Pérez said officials told her that her son had not yet been found. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)
MEXICO CITY (AP) — A scandal involving the abduction and exploitation of young children in a colonial Mexican city popular with tourists widened Wednesday when prosecutors released additional evidence that an adult apparently used other children to help kidnap a missing 2-year-old boy.

The search for Dylan Esaú Gómez Pérez led prosecutors in southern Chiapas state, on the Guatemalan border, to a house in San Cristobal de las Casas where 23 abducted children were being kept in deplorable conditions and forced to sell trinkets and handicrafts in the street.

But Dylan, who turns 3 in November, was not among them.

Reviewing surveillance cameras, state prosecutor Jorge Llaven said that a boy and a girl, both apparently around 12, were seen talking to a woman who is a suspect in the June 30 abduction. Llaven identified the woman as only as “Ofelia,” and offered a $13,500 reward for information about the location of her or the missing boy.

In photos from cameras, the boy and the girl enter the public market where Dylan’s mother worked in the colonial city. Dylan appears to follow the boy, and then the girl takes Dylan by the back of the jacket and walks out of the market with him. The girl is later seen returning alone, apparently having handed the missing boy over to someone else.

Llaven said Tuesday that a search carried out Monday, apparently related to Dylan’s disappearance, had revealed a house where children — most between 2 and 15 years old, but three infants aged between 3 and 20 months — were forced to sell things on the street.

“Moreover, they were forced to return with a certain minimum amount of money for the right to get food and a place to sleep at the house,” Llaven said.

San Cristobal is a picturesque, heavily Indigenous city that is popular among tourists. It is not unusual to see children and adults hawking local crafts like carvings and embroidered cloth on its narrow cobblestone streets.

But few visitors to the city suspected that some of the kids doing the selling had been snatched from their families.

The Chiapas state prosecutors’ office said in a statement the children “were forced through physical and psychological violence to sell handicrafts in the center of the city,” adding the kids showed signs of “malnutrition and precarious conditions.”

According to video presented by the prosecutors, many of them slept on what appeared to be sheets of cardboard and blankets on a cement floor. Three other women have been detained in that case and may face human trafficking and forced labor charges.

Dylan was with his mother, Juana Pérez, at the market on the day he was snatched.

Pérez, who traveled to Mexico City to ask President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to help find her son, works at the market selling fruit and vegetables. She said her son would sometimes wander off to play, but that no children had ever been snatched from the market before.

The boy’s father emigrated to California to find work, and thus Pérez, 23, has had to care for Dylan and his sister by herself.

AP Explains: Hagia Sophia’s history of conflict and faith


1 of 15 https://apnews.com/2d125b085e11bd94ccfc7221cbf42032
Visitors walk inside the Byzantine-era Hagia Sophia, in the historic Sultanahmet district of Istanbul, Friday, Oct. 15, 2010. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to join hundreds of worshipers Friday, July 24, 2020, for the first Muslim prayers at the Hagia Sophia in 86 years, weeks after a controversial high court ruling paved the way for the landmark monument to be turned back into a mosque. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)


ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to join hundreds of worshippers Friday for the first Muslim prayers at the Hagia Sophia in 86 years, after a controversial high court ruling paved the way for the landmark monument to be turned back into a mosque.

A government decree reopened the “jewel” of the Byzantine Empire for Muslim worship and abolished its status as a museum. The conversion of what was once the most important church of Christendom has led to an international outcry.

The 6th century monument, which remains the main feature of the Istanbul skyline, has a history rich with symbolism.



THE BYZANTINE ERA

Hagia Sophia, or the Church of Holy Wisdom, was built by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I on the site of an destroyed basilica of the same name. Completed in 537, it was among the world’s largest domed structures and would serve as the foremost Orthodox Christian church for some 900 years. Imperial ceremonies, including the crowning of emperors, were held there. The multicolored mosaics depicting the Virgin Mary, the baby Jesus, angels and other Christian symbols along with emperors and their families that centuries of rulers installed added to its reputation as an architectural gem.

THE OTTOMAN CONQUEST

Ottoman sultan Mehmet the Conqueror defeated the Byzantine Empire and captured Istanbul, then known as Constantinople, in 1453. The 21-year-old immediately turned the majestic Hagia Sophia into a mosque as an emblem of Muslim triumph over the city. The structure served as an imperial mosque and subsequent sultans added minarets, a school, library and a fountain, completing its transformation into a mosque complex. The mosaics were eventually plastered over in line with iconoclasm traditions that bar the depiction of figures.

A MUSEUM FOR A SECULAR TURKEY

Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the war hero who founded the Turkish Republic from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire in 1923, had Hagia Sophia made into a museum in 1934 as part of his reforms to build a secular country. Its mosaics were brought back into the open, and the structure served for years as a symbol of Istanbul’s rich multi-faith and multicultural past.

Included on the list of World Heritage sites maintained by the U.N. cultural body UNESCO, it became one of Turkey’s most-visited landmarks, drawing millions of tourists every year. However, Atakurk’s decision to cease Hagia Sophia’s use as a mosque was met with dismay by religious and nationalist groups. They had long called for the iconic building to be “freed from its chains” and converted back into a Muslim place of worship.




RESTORATION AS A MOSQUE

Erdogan signed a July 10 decree fulfilling their wishes soon after Turkey’s highest administrative court ruled that Istanbul’s conqueror had bequeathed the Hagia Sophia as a mosque and that the 1934 museum conversion was illegal. His government has vowed to protect the Hagia Sophia’s Christian artifacts and to keep the structure open to tourists outside of prayer hours.

The ticket kiosk outside has been removed and the interior marble floors have been covered in a turquoise-colored carpet chosen by the president himself in preparation for the first Friday prayers. Some 500 invited participants will be required to maintain social distance due to the coronavirus outbreak. The mosaics will be covered up with curtains during the prayers, officials have said.

FULFILLING AN ISLAMIST DREAM

For Erdogan, a pious Muslim whose ruling party has roots in Turkey’s Islamic movement, performing Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia is a dream from his youth coming true. He has described Ataturk’s decision to turn it into a museum as a “mistake” that is now being rectified.

Critics see the president’s decision as the latest move by Erdogan to distract attention from economic woes the coronavirus has only exacerbated and to shore up his conservative-religious support base. Opening up Hagia Sophia to Muslim prayers is also seen as a part of Erdogan’s efforts to deepen Turkey’s Muslim identity and to roll back his predecessor’s secular legacy.

AP-NORC poll: 3 in 4 Americans back requiring wearing masks In this June 9, 2020, file photo, California Gov. Gavin Newsom wears a protective mask on his face while speaking to reporters at Miss Ollie's restaurant during the coronavirus outbreak in Oakland, Calif. According to a new poll, Americans overwhelmingly are in favor of requiring people to wear masks around other people outside their homes, reflecting fresh alarm over spiking infection rates. The poll also shows increasing disapproval of the federal government's response to the pandemic. California is among the states seeing the greatest surge in cases now. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, Pool, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three out of four Americans, including a majority of Republicans, favor requiring people to wear face coverings while outside their homes, a new poll finds, reflecting fresh alarm over spiking coronavirus cases and a growing embrace of government advice intended to safeguard public health.

The survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also finds that about two-thirds of Americans disapprove of how President Donald Trump is handling the outbreak, an unwelcome sign for the White House in an election year shaped by the nation’s battle with the pandemic.

More than four months after government stay-at-home orders first swept across the U.S., the poll spotlights an America increasingly on edge about the virus. The federal government’s response is seen as falling short, and most Americans favor continued restrictions to stop the virus from spreading even if they might hamstring the economy.

Support for requiring masks is overwhelming among Democrats, at 89%, but 58% of Republicans are in favor as well. The poll was conducted before Trump, who for months was dismissive of masks, said this week that it’s patriotic to wear one.

“Not wearing a mask, to me, poses a greater risk of spreading the COVID,” said Darius Blevins, a 33-year-old Republican-leaning independent from Christiansburg, Virginia, who works in bank operations. Blevins said he wears a mask in public because “it’s much more effective than not wearing the mask.”

It’s an opinion echoed by data analyst James Shaw, an independent who tilts Democratic. “If you understand the facts, there is really no issue,” said Shaw, 56, of Noble, Illinois. “The data is crystal clear.”

For months health officials have said several simple steps could save lives — washing hands frequently, staying away from crowds, especially while indoors, and pulling on a mask when heading out to the supermarket, the office or a restaurant. And despite heated rhetoric about masks in some corners, 95% of Democrats and 75% of Republicans said they’re wearing face coverings when leaving the house. Overall, 86% of Americans say they’re doing so, compared with 73% in May.

As the tally of coronavirus infections continues to climb, state and local governments have tried to find a balance between restrictions intended to limit the virus’ spread, such as closing bars and indoor dining at restaurants, and getting workers back on the job after many businesses were idled and millions of people were left jobless by the initial stay-at-home orders.

The U.S. has more than 3.9 million known cases of the coronavirus, with many more undetected, and more than 140,000 people have died of it this year. The U.S. leads the world in confirmed cases and deaths and ranks near the top on a per-capita basis. California, which earned plaudits from health officials for aggressive early action that included the first statewide stay-at-home order, is among states seeing a surge. On Wednesday, California passed New York for the most confirmed cases with 409,000.

About half of Americans now say they’re extremely or very worried about themselves or someone in their families being infected with the virus — about the same as in March, but a steep increase from June, when just 32% said they were that concerned. Republicans were less likely to be anxious about the illness, but concern rose among members of both parties.

There were other signs of continued unease. Support for limiting the size of gatherings ticked back up to 66%, after sliding for several months to a low of 59% in June. Eighty-five percent of Americans say they’re avoiding large groups.

About half say they favor requiring people to stay in their homes except for essential trips. That number remained about steady since June. About half also favor requiring bars and restaurants to close.

Nearly three-quarters of Americans said restrictions to slow the spread of the virus should override concerns about damaging the economy, but California retiree Kimberly Greenan said she favors relaxing rules and allowing people to get back to work. Greenan says she wears a mask on trips to the grocery store and at church, but not if she’s walking in a park, away from other people.

“If people are vigilant, if they do what’s right, this economy could come back,” said Greenan, 67, a Republican and former accountant and teacher from Santee, in the San Diego suburbs.

While tough steps were needed initially, “for the most part people are ready to get on with their lives,” she said. “I don’t think tying everyone down is the right move.”

The poll finds that only 24% of Americans approve of the federal government’s response to the outbreak, with disapproval hitting 55%, ticking up 7 percentage points from May. The remainder did not have an opinion either way.

Trump’s recent endorsement of masks came after he said in April that “I just don’t want to wear one.” The Republican president was not seen wearing a mask in public until July 11, months after the coronavirus took hold in the U.S. Trump has recently suggested the virus is under control, but he changed course Tuesday, saying it will “get worse before it gets better.”

Democratic California Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Wednesday again called for a national mask requirement.

“We need a mandate at the federal level that will uniformly require masks across the country,” she said in a statement. “This isn’t a political issue.”

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Swanson reported from Washington.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,057 adults was conducted July 16-20 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points.

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Online:

AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/.

‘Squad’ member Tlaib may be vulnerable in tough primary

By SARA BURNETT

FILE - In an Oct. 26, 2018, file photo, Rashida Tlaib, left, then-Democratic candidate for the Michigan's 13th Congressional District, and Brenda Jones speak during a rally in Detroit. Tlaib's approach to governing as an unapologetic fighter, taking aim at the status quo alongside three other first-term congresswomen of color who make up the "squad" has made her a target of the GOP and her own party. Now the Michigan Democrat is the squad's most vulnerable member, as she faces Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones in the Aug. 4 primary. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)


Rep. Rashida Tlaib had been in Congress for a matter of hours when she was seen on video telling supporters that she and other Democrats were going to impeach President Donald Trump, using an expletive rather than Trump’s name. The room full of activists cheered, but some people back home — and in Democratic leadership — were not pleased.

It wasn’t the last time Tlaib’s approach to governing — an unapologetic fighter, taking aim at the status quo alongside three other first-term congresswomen of color who make up “the squad” — would make her a target, both of the GOP and her own party.

And every time, Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones says, agitated constituents would call and encourage her to challenge her fellow Michigan Democrat to a rematch of their 2018 battle for the party’s congressional nomination. Now Tlaib is the squad’s most vulnerable member, as she and Jones are set to square off again in Michigan’s Aug. 4 primary.

The contest points to the broader debate in the Democratic Party between the establishment and largely younger, more progressive activists, as well as the racial dynamics of a heavily Democratic Detroit-area district at a time when racial injustices are getting renewed attention. To Jones, it all boils down to one thing for a district that is among the country’s poorest: who can “bring home the bacon.”

“There are things that I might feel, but I just don’t say in public and an example is ‘impeach the M-F’ on the very first day,” said Jones, 60. “Not to say you’re going to always agree, but you have to be able to work with those people because you never know who you’re going to need in order to get things done that need to be done.”

The two candidates have a history. In 2018, Jones finished a close second to Tlaib in a six-person primary for the seat long held by Democratic Rep. John Conyers, who stepped down amid sexual harassment allegations. But Jones defeated Tlaib in a two-person special election to finish the final weeks of Conyers’ term — which she did, spending five weeks in Washington before Tlaib was sworn in for the full term in January.

Tlaib says that she has legislated exactly the way she promised and that she’s gotten results by pushing back against those who are too cozy with corporations and big developers.

She notes that Trump signed into law a bill she sponsored to protect retirees’ pension benefits — even if she didn’t get invited to the White House for the signing — and that she’s gotten amendments approved with bipartisan support, including a measure that provides billions to replace lead pipes and prioritizes low-income communities.


William Clark works in his yard Thursday, July 16, 2020, in Detroit. Rep. Rashida Tlaib had been in Congress for a matter of hours when she was seen on video telling supporters that she and other Democrats were going to impeach President Donald Trump. Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones says agitated constituents would call and encourage her to challenge the Michigan Democrat to a rematch in 2020. Tlaib and Jones are set to square off in Michigan's Aug. 4, 2020 primary. Clark thinks Jones is too conservative. "Black, white, Hispanic, Martian, I don't care who is in power, just do what you say you're going to do," he said.     (AP Photo/Corey Williams)



“I’m pretty tenacious and it’s resulting in actual things getting done,” Tlaib said. “It’s not just about me as a person, but all of the various social justice issues that I’ve been standing up for for the last year and a half that have not been popular among the wealthy.”

The only other member of the squad still facing a primary challenge is Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, whose top challenger on Aug. 11 is a political newcomer who raised millions more than the incumbent congresswoman last quarter. Some of Antone Melton-Meaux’s donations came from pro-Israel groups and conservative donors. Omar has apologized for tweets suggesting members of Congress support Israel because they are paid to do so. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez easily won her primary last month, while Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley is unopposed.

Race and religion are also factors in Tlaib’s diverse district, where over half of the residents are Black, while the rest are a mix of white, Arab American, Latino and other races. Tlaib, a Palestinian who was born and raised in Detroit, was one of the first two female Muslim members of Congress; Jones is Black. Conyers was also Black and was the longest-serving Black member of Congress, holding office for over five decades.

Ian Conyers, whose grandfather was the former congressman’s brother, said the district was drawn to ensure a voice for Black residents, and he believes it should continue to have a Black representative, particularly following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis and the elevation of racial justice issues.

“Folks are wanting someone to make their case in their own words,” said Conyers, who also ran in the 2018 primary. He said other candidates of color should look to gain political power in white districts, “and not simply look at urban areas and the African American community as a place to win a seat.”

Some Black voters who plan to support Tlaib said race didn’t matter. William Clark, 74, thinks Jones is too conservative.

“Black, white, Hispanic, Martian, I don’t care who is in power, just do what you say you’re going to do,” he said. “Rashida will speak. She is real.”

Branden Snyder, who leads the grassroots organization Detroit Action, called Tlaib a “visionary” and praised her candor and willingness to fight, saying she isn’t beholden to “the same old status quo.”

“Right now politics as usual ain’t been working for our communities,” Snyder said during an event announcing the organization’s endorsement of Tlaib.

Tlaib has a huge financial advantage over Jones, having raised more than $2 million, and she has backing from the political action committee Justice Democrats and other progressive groups.

Jones has brought in about $140,000 but was far outraised in 2018 and lost by only 1 percentage point. The four other candidates are now backing Jones.

Besides the racial issues, Conyers said Tlaib has been too focused on issues outside the district. Jones points to moments like last summer, when Tlaib booed Hillary Clinton at an event for Clinton’s former rival, Sen. Bernie Sanders, in his 2020 presidential bid.

Tlaib remains unapologetic.

“I didn’t have to change who I am” to please voters, Tlaib said. “I didn’t sell out. That’s one thing I promised them, that I wouldn’t do it. And I didn’t.”

LAWNORDER
2 standoffs in Oregon show differing views of US STATE response

1 of 6
FILE - In this July 20, 2020, file photo, Norma Lewis holds a flower while forming a "wall of moms" during a Black Lives Matter protest in Portland, Ore. When armed protesters took over a remote wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon four years earlier to oppose federal control of public lands, U.S. agents negotiated with the conservative occupiers for weeks while some state leaders begged for stronger action. In July 2020, federal officers sent to Portland, Ore., to quell chaotic protests against racial injustice took swift and, some say, harsh action: launching tear gas, firing less-lethal ammunition and helping arrest more than 40 people in the first two weeks. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — When armed protesters took over a remote wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon four years ago to oppose federal control of public lands, U.S. agents negotiated with the conservative occupiers for weeks while some state leaders begged for stronger action.

This month, federal officers sent to Portland to quell chaotic protests against racial injustice took swift and, some say, harsh action: launching tear gas, firing less-lethal ammunition and helping arrest more than 40 people in the first two weeks. State leaders are imploring federal forces to leave the progressive city, saying they’re escalating a volatile situation.

The reaction from state leaders, protesters and anti-government groups to the U.S. response to two disparate situations shows the inconsistencies in how both sides view federal intervention, often based on the politics of who’s protesting and who’s cracking down.

J.J. MacNab, a fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, said many right-wing extremists who espouse anti-government and pro-gun views have embraced the authoritarian tactics used by President Donald Trump that they denounced under his Democratic predecessor.

“It’s like night and day,” she said. “They hated government when Obama was in office. They love government now.”

MacNab, who’s been monitoring social media chatter by supporters of anti-government groups like the Oath Keepers and the militia-style Three Percenters, said she’s seen a steady stream of violent rhetoric directed toward Portland protesters.

MacNab said the Oath Keepers in 2015 promoted a conspiracy theory that a U.S. military training exercise was a pretext for the federal government to impose martial law.

“They are literally 180 degrees from where they were in 2015,” she said.

But some of them don’t fully support the federal tactics targeting two months of protests in Portland that began after George Floyd’s death by Minneapolis police. Large, mostly peaceful crowds had dwindled to smaller groups that have vandalized the federal courthouse and other public buildings downtown, which federal authorities say gives them authority to act to protect their officers and property.

Eric Parker, president of The Real 3%ers of Idaho, supported an armed standoff with federal authorities in 2014 near the Nevada ranch of Cliven Bundy, whose sons led the occupation at the wildlife refuge in Oregon two years later. Both standoffs pushed for states’ rights and keeping the federal government out of people’s lives.

Parker was charged with pointing a semi-automatic rifle at armed federal agents but ultimately pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. He spent about 18 months in federal custody.

“I had to go through due process with my activism, if you’re willing to call it that,” he said this week. “And if you’re going to do activism, you have to be willing to do that.”

Parker, who’s running for Idaho state Senate, has some concerns about the federal response to protests in Portland and elsewhere.

“It makes me uncomfortable, sure,” he said. He worries that videos appearing to show U.S. agents grabbing people off the street and whisking them away in unmarked cars could mean people are being arrested without probable cause.

Still, he doesn’t necessarily oppose U.S. agencies taking action.

“If Portland isn’t going to protect its police department or the federal building or what have you, I could see them having to,” Parker said.

Parker, who was in eastern Oregon during the 2016 occupation but said he didn’t take part, criticized the difference in the Democratic governor’s reactions to the federal response then and now.

Gov. Kate Brown has compared the presence of federal agents at the Portland protests to pouring gasoline on a fire.

“This a democracy, not a dictatorship. We cannot have secret police abducting people in unmarked vehicles. I can’t believe I have to say that to the President of the United States,” she tweeted.

But “in 2016 she was begging federal law enforcement to do whatever they had to do to stop the peaceful occupation in the middle of a desert,” Parker said. “The idea that now federal agents are storm-troopers of death I find quite hypocritical.”

The armed occupation at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge started Jan. 2, 2016, and lasted 41 days. Negotiations began in the first weeks, with Ammon Bundy questioning whether the federal government had the authority to operate in the rural county.

Bundy and others were allowed to come and go as Obama’s administration tried to avoid the bloodshed that’s characterized confrontations with right-wing groups in the past.

By the end of January, state police and FBI agents used a roadblock to stop Bundy and other protest leaders as they headed to a meeting. During the confrontation, occupier Robert “LaVoy” Finicum was shot and killed by police and several others were arrested. Finicum’s death sparked protests in over a dozen cities nationwide.

The FBI gave the remaining occupiers time to leave the refuge. Most did — though some were arrested — and soon just four holdouts remained. They surrendered as federal agents moved in Feb. 10.

U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both Oregon Democrats, had urged the FBI to move quickly to end the occupation. Now, they strongly criticize federal actions in Portland. Wyden described them as “paramilitary assaults” on people’s constitutional rights, while Merkley called them “profound offenses against Americans.”

In Portland, the federal response escalated faster. U.S. officers were deployed in early July, and they have repeatedly deployed tear gas and rubber bullets and used force to scatter protesters.

A protester was hospitalized with critical injuries on July 11 after a federal officer struck him in the head with a round of less-lethal ammunition. A video last weekend showed a federal agent hitting a Navy veteran repeatedly with a baton while another pepper-sprayed him in the face. U.S. officials said they’re investigating.

Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, author of the 2016 book “To Protect and Serve: How to Fix America’s Police,” said Trump appears to be using “his own private political army” in a quest to “override home rule and local authority.”

“If it’s not unprecedented, it’s extremely rare and as dangerous as I think it is uncommon,” Stamper said.

Stamper said National Guard troops, unlike federal agents deployed by the Trump administration, are trained to respond to civil unrest and operate at the direction of state and local officials.

“For me, the larger question is: Who is in charge of these federal forces?” he said.

Bundy, who lives in Emmett, Idaho, is asking a similar question. He said this week that he planned to attend a local Black Lives Matter rally calling for reduced police funding.

“We have to understand that there is an enormous amount of Black people, you know, that need their rights defended,” he said in an online video. “I do believe, in many ways, the police need to be defunded. We have become a police state because of the funding that they receive.”

Some followers sharply criticized him, which Bundy said disgusted him. He later decided not to go to the protest, saying he feared his presence would increase the risk of violence from opponents.

“There needs to be a defunding of government in general, and especially the police forces, because they’re the ones that are actually going to seek and destroy us,” he said in a video. “And there are many people in the Black Lives Matter organization, along with patriots and, you know, libertarians and Republicans and Democrats that understand this.”


NOT BLACK LIVES MATTER 
RATHER IT'S THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT 

THE BUNDY GANG, ARMED WHITE MORMON REACTIONARIES

FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 4, 2016, file photo, members of the group occupying the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters stand guard near Burns, Ore. When armed protesters took over a remote wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon to oppose federal control of public lands, U.S. agents negotiated with the conservative occupiers for weeks while some state leaders begged for stronger action. In July 2020, federal officers sent to Portland, Ore., to quell chaotic protests against racial injustice took swift and, some say, harsh action: launching tear gas, firing less-lethal ammunition and helping arrest more than 40 people in the first two weeks. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)


FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2016, file photo, a man stands guard after members of the "3% of Idaho" group and several other organizations arrive at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Ore. When armed protesters took over a remote wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon to oppose federal control of public lands, U.S. agents negotiated with the conservative occupiers for weeks while some state leaders begged for stronger action. In July 2020, federal officers sent to Portland, Ore., to quell chaotic protests against racial injustice took swift and, some say, harsh action: launching tear gas, firing less-lethal ammunition and helping arrest more than 40 people in the first two weeks. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)



FILE - In this July 20, 2020 file photo Federal agents use crowd control munitions to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse in Portland, Ore. When armed protesters took over a remote wildlife refuge in eastern Oregon four years ago to oppose federal control of public lands, U.S. agents negotiated with the conservative occupiers for weeks while some state leaders begged for stronger action. This month, federal officers sent to Portland to quell chaotic protests against racial injustice took swift and, some say, harsh action: launching tear gas, firing less-lethal ammunition and helping arrest more than 40 people in the first two weeks. (AP Photo/Noah Berger,File)

LAWNORDER 

Mayor of Portland, Oregon, tear gassed by federal agents FINALLY!

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

Mayor Ted Wheeler speaks to people gathered in downtown Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Wheeler faced a hostile crowd of protesters, who screamed at and sharply questioned him as he tried to rally demonstrators who have clashed repeatedly with federal agents sent in by President Donald Trump to quell ongoing unrest in the city. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus)

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The mayor of Portland, Oregon, was tear gassed by the U.S. government late Wednesday as he stood at a fence guarding a federal courthouse during another night of protest against the presence of federal agents sent by President Donald Trump to quell unrest in the city.

Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, said it was the first time he’d been tear gassed and appeared slightly dazed and coughed as he put on a pair of goggles someone handed him and drank water. He didn’t leave his spot at the front, however, and continued to take gas. Around Wheeler, the protest raged, with demonstrators lighting a large fire in the space between the fence and the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse and the pop-pop-pop of federal agents deploying tear gas and stun grenades into the crowd.

It wasn’t immediately clear if the federal agents knew Wheeler was in the crowd when they used the tear gas.

Earlier in the night, Wheeler was mostly jeered as he tried to rally demonstrators who have clashed nightly with federal agents but was briefly applauded when he shouted “Black Lives Matter” and pumped his fist in the air. The mayor has opposed federal agents’ presence in Oregon’s largest city, but he has faced harsh criticism from many sides and his presence wasn’t welcomed by many, who yelled and swore at him.



“I want to thank the thousands of you who have come out to oppose the Trump administration’s occupation of this city,” Wheeler told hundreds of people gathered downtown near the federal courthouse. “The reason this is important is it is not just happening in Portland ... we’re on the front line here in Portland.”

Some Portland residents, including City Council members, have accused Wheeler of not reining in local police, who have used tear gas multiple times before federal agents arrived early this month in response to nearly two months of nightly protests since George Floyd was killed. Others, including business leaders, have condemned Wheeler for not bringing the situation under control before the agents showed up.

Protesters in the crowd held signs aloft that read “Tear Gas Ted” in reference to the Portland Police Bureau’s use of the substance before federal agents arrived. When the mayor left the protest, around 12:40 a.m., some protesters surrounded him and shouted angrily at him as he walked away. One person shouted, “You’ve got to be here every single night!”

While taking questions Wednesday night — and before he was tear gassed — Wheeler was criticized for the actions of his own police department, not defunding the local police, national movement that seeks to redirect funds from policing to community needs like housing and education, and not having Portland police protect people from federal agents. The mayor said he wants to use the energy of the protests to make changes.

Wheeler then addressed the much larger crowd from a raised balcony, saying “I am here tonight to stand with you.”

Earlier Wednesday, the City Council banned police from cooperating with federal agents or arresting reporters or legal observers.

Wheeler’s tense nighttime appearance downtown came hours after attorneys for Oregon urged a judge to issue a restraining order against agents deployed to quell the protests.

The arguments from the state and the U.S. government came in a lawsuit filed by Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, who accuses federal agents of arresting protesters without probable cause, whisking them away in unmarked cars and using excessive force. Federal authorities have disputed those allegations.

The lawsuit is part of the growing pushback to Trump sending federal agents to Portland and announcing they would be going to Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to fight rising crime, a move that’s deepening the country’s political divide and potentially setting up a constitutional crisis months ahead of the presidential election. Democratic mayors of 15 cities condemned the use of federal officers in a letter to the U.S. attorney general.

The court hearing focused on the actions of more than 100 federal agents responding to protests outside the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse, which has been a target for the demonstrations.

The motion for a temporary restraining order asks U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman to command agents from the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol, Federal Protective Service and U.S. Marshals Service to immediately stop detaining protesters without probable cause, identify themselves and their agency before arresting anyone, and explain why an arrest is taking place.

The state acknowledged that federal agents have the right to defend the courthouse but argued that they had overstepped.

Rosenblum, the state attorney general, said she wanted the court to “declare it not acceptable for federal officers to use unconstitutional, police-state-type acts to detain citizens of Oregon without cause.”

David Morrell, an attorney for the U.S. government, called the motion “extraordinary” and said it was based solely on “a few threadbare declarations” from witnesses and a Twitter video.

“The Hatfield courthouse did not damage itself,” he said, calling the protests “dangerous and volatile.”

The lawsuit is one of several filed over authorities’ response to the Portland protests. On Thursday, a judge will hear arguments in a legal challenge that the American Civil Liberties Union filed on behalf of journalists and legal observers who say they were targeted and attacked by Portland police while documenting demonstrations.

A freelance photographer covering the protests for The Associated Press submitted an affidavit that he was beaten with batons, chemical irritants and hit with rubber bullets.

A U.S. judge previously ruled that journalists and legal observers are exempt from police orders requiring protesters to disperse once an unlawful assembly has been declared. Federal lawyers say that journalists should have to leave when ordered.

The ACLU filed another lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of volunteer medics who have been attending to injured protesters. It alleges that federal agents have used rubber bullets, tear gas, pepper spray, batons and stun grenades against medics in violation of federal protections for freedom of speech and freedom of movement.

Police say protesters have tried repeatedly to break into the federal courthouse and set fires around it and that the federal agents drive them back with tear gas and stun grenades.

Federal authorities have defended their response, saying officials in Oregon had been unwilling to work with them to stop the vandalism against the the U.S. courthouse and violence against federal officers.

___

Associated Press writers Sara Cline in Salem, Oregon, Nicholas K. Geranios in Spokane, Washington, and Colleen Long and Ben Fox in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/gflaccus.

In this image made from video released by Jonathan Maus, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, center in black looking away, stands at a fence guarding a federal courthouse as tear gas drifts by early July 23, 2020, in Portland Oregon, during another night of protest against the presence of federal agents sent by President Donald Trump to quell unrest in the city. (Jonathan Maus/BikePortland via AP)


In this image made from video released by Karina Brown, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, right, stands at a fence guarding a federal courthouse as tear gas drifts by early July 23, 2020, in Portland Oregon, during another night of protest against the presence of federal agents sent by President Donald Trump to quell unrest in the city. (Karina Brown via AP)


In this image made from video released by Karina Brown, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, stands at a fence guarding a federal courthouse as tear gas drifts by early July 23, 2020, in Portland Oregon, during another night of protest against the presence of federal agents sent by President Donald Trump to quell unrest in the city. (Karina Brown via AP)

In this image made from video released by Karina Brown, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler puts his hands to his mouth as he stands at a fence guarding a federal courthouse as tear gas drifts by early July 23, 2020, in Portland Oregon, during another night of protest against the presence of federal agents sent by President Donald Trump to quell unrest in the city. (Karina Brown via AP)
 
In this image made from video released by Karina Brown, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler wears googles in thick tear gas as he stands near the federal courthouse early July 23, 2020, in Portland Oregon, during another night of protest against the presence of federal agents sent by President Donald Trump to quell unrest in the city. (Karina Brown via AP)

Demonstrators protest in downtown Portland, Ore., Wednesday, July 22, 2020. Mayor of Portland Ted Wheeler faced a hostile crowd of protesters, who screamed at and sharply questioned him as he tried to rally demonstrators who have clashed repeatedly with federal agents sent in by President Donald Trump to quell ongoing unrest in the city. (AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus)


Federal officers disperse Black Lives Matter demonstrators at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Federal officers use chemical irritants and crowd control munitions to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters outside the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Black Lives Matter protesters gather at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Tuesday, July 21, 2020, in Portland, Ore. Demonstrators removed portions of the boarding, which cover the building's ground floor, before federal officers used chemical irritants and rubber bullets to disperse them. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A federal officer pushes back demonstrators at the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Tuesday, July 21, 2020, in Portland, Ore. A federal judge is hearing arguments on Oregon's request for a restraining order against federal agents who have been sent to the state's largest city to quell protests that have spiraled into nightly clashes between authorities and demonstrators.(AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A man passes graffiti near the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse following a Black Lives Matter protest on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore. A federal judge is hearing arguments on Oregon's request for a restraining order against federal agents who have been sent to the state's largest city to quell protests that have spiraled into nightly clashes between authorities and demonstrators. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

A Black Lives Matter protester displays a pyrotechnic grenade he found on the street after federal officers used chemical irritants and rubber bullets to disperse demonstrators on Wednesday, July 22, 2020, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)





https://apnews.com/edd4ebdd7a245e568da69db38aea04db

AUSTRALIA FRACKS

CSIRO fracking research 'doesn't pass the pub test', expert says
By George Roberts Posted Tuesday 14 July 2020

A coal seam gas well on a property near Dalby in October 2019.(ABC Southern Queensland: Nathan Morris)

The CSIRO has been accused of having a conflict of interest with the coal seam gas (CSG) industry after releasing a report that it says found fracking has little to no impact on the environment.

Key points:

Six fracked gas wells were tested, chosen by industry, out of the 19,000 wells in Queensland

There are concerns the CSIRO is compromised by its relationship with the CSG industry

GISERA says it is the most chemically detailed study ever undertaken into CSG in Australia

Research by an alliance between the Commonwealth research agency and major CSG companies has been used to argue that fracking is a safe method of extracting gas.

The CSIRO said the report — Air, Water and Soil Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing in the Surat Basin, Queensland — found "little to no impacts" from fracking "on air quality, soils, groundwater and waterways", but the organisation was subsequently criticised for testing just six gas wells out of the 19,000 across the state.

The research was conducted by the Gas Industry Social and Economic Research Alliance (GISERA), which is a joint research venture that includes the CSIRO and major gas companies.

An environmental scientist from Queensland's Griffith University, Emeritus Professor Ian Lowe, said that sample size "doesn't pass the pub test".

"Six [wells] is just too small a sample out of 19,000 wells to have any confidence in the results," Professor Lowe said.

"The second and more basic problem is that the wells weren't chosen randomly: they were chosen by the industry and the industry obviously has a vested interest in looking good."
Professor Lowe says the GISERA report on fracking has fundamental problems.(ABC News: Tara Cassidy)

Former Australian chief scientist Professor Penny Sackett agreed.

Professor Sackett, who now works for the ANU's Climate Change Institute, questioned the choice of sites.

"There's simply not enough sites that are tested and also I think there could be a concern that the sites were chosen by the gas industry itself," she said.

Gas industry picked the sites

A spokesperson for GISERA said the research included a large amount of sampling and analysis, making it the most chemically detailed study ever undertaken in a CSG field in Australia.

More than 100 water samples were taken from creeks and groundwater, and dozens of tests were carried out on soil samples, the spokesperson said.

GISERA's website also states its alliance agreement with CSG companies "provides a robust and transparent governance framework to ensure that GISERA's research is demonstrably independent".

But Professor Sackett said there were concerns the CSIRO was compromised by its relationship with the CSG industry.

"The report was essentially conducted on behalf of the gas industry, funded primarily by the gas industry, with sites chosen by the gas industry," Professor Sackett said.

"You really want those sorts of reports done by independent bodies that are funded independently, preferably by public money."

She also pointed out the research had found significant contamination to soil.

"When you read all the way down into the report and its statements, they were much stronger in saying that hydraulic fracking fluid had a significant adverse effect on subsurface soil microbes, and that much more study was needed," Professor Sackett said.



A satellite photo of hundreds of CSG wells near Chinchilla in September 2019.(Source: Google Earth)

The Australia Institute think-tank analysed the results of the research and said there was a huge margin of error with only six wells tested.

Australia Institute spokesman Mark Ogge said it was "not representative of CSG in Queensland".

"Overall — in fact — it's got a margin of error of around 40 per cent," Mr Ogge said.

"What you've got is a situation where the gas industry is funding and overseeing research into its own impacts and then that research is being used to influence decision makers at all levels of government."

"You've got fracking companies funding research and overseeing research on the impacts of fracking, so there's a huge conflict of interest at the heart of this research.

"There's 19,000 CSG wells in Queensland and this report only … looked at six wells, which is a tiny sample size."

Commercial CSG production began in Queensland in 1996.(ABC News)



'Six wells is a joke'

Professor Lowe, Professor Sackett and Mr Ogge all said they had no dispute with the work of the CSIRO scientists involved in the research, but questioned how it had been interpreted.

Professor Lowe drew a parallel with the tobacco industry.

"Imagine asking the tobacco industry to choose from 19,000 smokers [with] six to be tested for their health," he said.

"I'm sure they could find six healthy people, and they would then assert that smoking was not a health risk for the report to be credible."



Queensland farmer Russel Bennie, from Cecil Plains near Toowoomba on Queensland's Darling Downs, said "it's very obvious that six wells is a joke to any stretch of imagination".

"When you start to selectively sample populations, you can prove anything," Mr Bennie said.
'Very real risk'

After Mr Bennie bought his property 10 years ago, he discovered there was a plugged and abandoned exploration well that had not been rehabilitated.

"About nine years ago, we had a visit from the gas companies," he said.

"They were operating on neighbouring properties and they told us that that water bore that had been in existence [on my property] for 100 years … was going to start spewing gas as a result of their operations next door.

"There is a risk — the very real risk is obviously methane escaping in large quantities."
Mr Bennie bought his property 10 years ago.(ABC News: George Roberts)

Mr Bennie chose not to enter into an agreement to have the bores fixed because he would be locked into a confidentiality agreement and not be allowed to speak publicly about the problems with CSG.

"Someone has to be the canary in the coal mine here," he said.

"At the moment, there's no independent people spread throughout the gas field who in any way have an independent voice.

"I think it's worthwhile being that independent voice."

Program 'independently assessed'

A CSIRO spokesman said the major output of the first phase of the GISERA study was "independently peer reviewed by international and Australian experts and their feedback was incorporated into the final Phase 2 study designs prior to work commencing".

"The research program is overseen by independent Regional Research Advisory Committees in which community stakeholder representatives and independent experts always have majority voting rights," the spokesman said.

Fracking involves pumping a mixture of water, sand and chemicals down gas wells under pressure to release trapped gas.

Coal seam gas is natural gas formed within coal seams, usually 400 to 1,000 metres underground.

To extract CSG, wells are drilled into coal seams and water is pumped out to allow the trapped gas to flow.

Commercial CSG production began in Queensland in 1996.

Related Stories

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'No-one is providing transparency': Report savages Queensland's CSG regulation
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