Humans in ancient Turkey adapted to climate change, thrived
Using radiocarbon dating, researchers created a fine-scale archaeological timeline of societal activity across a northern stretch of the Levant during the early and late Bronze Age. Photo by Tayinat Archaeological Project
Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Climate change can trigger societal collapse and force populations to move, but not always.
New archaeological research suggests populations in ancient Turkey were able to adapt and flourish in the face of two periods of climate change, occurring between 4,500 and 3,000 years ago.
The findings -- published this week in the journal PLOS One -- suggest human responses to climate change are surprisingly variable. The challenges presented by climate change can stress societies beyond the breaking point, but also provide opportunities for resiliency and ingenuity.
For the study, researchers collected and analyzed local, fine-scale archeological data across a northern portion of the Levant known as Tell Tayinat. The Levant is a historical region of human occupation that stretches across the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea.
"The study shows the end of the Early Bronze Age occupation at Tayinat was a long and drawn out affair that, while it appears to coincide with the onset of a mega-drought 4,200 years ago, was actually the culmination of processes that began much earlier," Tim Harrison said in a news release.
"The archaeological evidence does not point towards significant local effects of the climate episode, as there is no evidence of drought stress in crops," said Harrison, a professor of archaeology at the University of Toronto and director of the Tayinat Archaeological Project.
Instead, researchers found archaeological evidence of local political and spatial reconfiguration.
Some of the earliest cities and state-level societies were established in the Levant and surrounding Middle East, during the mid-to late Early Bronze Age, between 3000 and 2000 B.C., and the Late Bronze Age, between 1600 and 1200 B.C.
These novel systems of social and political organization proved unstable, with both periods culminating in collapse.
Without precise, fine-scale archaeological evidence, researchers were unable to tease out detailed changes in societal activity. As a result, archaeologists turned to shifts in climate to explain the societal collapses that marked the ends of the early and late Bronze Age.
Using radiocarbon dating, researchers created a more fine-scale timeline of societal activity at Tayinat during two periods of climate change.
"The absolute dating of these periods has been a subject of considerable debate for many years, and this study contributes a significant new dataset that helps address many of the questions," said lead study author Sturt Manning.
"The detailed chronological resolution achieved in this study allows for a more substantive interpretation of the archaeological evidence in terms of local and regional responses to proposed climate change, shedding light on how humans respond to environmental stress and variability," said Manning, a professor of classical archaeology at Cornell University.
Oversight committee: HHS sought celebrities for scrapped $265 million COVID-19 PSA
The House committee on oversight and reform on Thursday said the Health and Human Services Department paid a contractor to vet hundreds of celebrities for a $265 million ad campaign on the COVID-19 pandemic. File Photo by Stefani Reynolds/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 29 (UPI) -- The Trump administration paid a contractor to vet hundreds of celebrities for a scrapped $265 million ad campaign about the COVID-19 pandemic, House Democrats said Thursday.
The House committee on oversight and reform issued a statement saying it had sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar seeking documents regarding the agency's contracting of a company to vet 274 celebrities to participate in the public service announcement to "defeat despair and inspire hope" amid the pandemic.
Criteria for the ad included previous arrests, prior support for LGBTQ rights and same-sex marriage and whether they had disagreed with President Donald Trump in the past.
The PSA campaign also sought to include holiday actors, including professional Santas, and those playing Mrs. Claus and elves, who were offered a chance to get an early COVID-19 vaccine if it became available.
"It is critical that HHS provide accurately nonpolitical public health information to the American people that encourages mask wearing, social distancing and other science-backed public health recommendations," wrote oversight and reform committee, Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney, along with subcommittee heads James Clyburn and Raja Krishnamoorthi. "Yet, the documents we have obtained indicate that HHS political appointees sought to use taxpayer dollars to advance a partisan political agenda and direct taxpayer money to their friends and allies."
The committee said that HHS assistant secretary of public affairs, Michael Caputo sought to influence the PSA for "partisan political purposes" by intervening directly in communications between agency contractors and employees.
It added that contractor employees and career staff at the Food and Drug Administration "pushed back on these inappropriate efforts."
The documents also showed that as of Oct. 1, all of the celebrities who agreed to participate in the ad campaign had withdrawn their consent to do so.
"Your failure to provide the documents we requested -- especially in light of the information we have learned from the contractors -- appears to be part of a cover-up to conceal the Trump Administration's misuse of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for partisan political purposes ahead of the upcoming election and to direct taxpayer funds to friends and allies of Trump administration officials," the chairs added.
Future pandemics will be worse without major strategy shift, study says
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Pedestrians, wearing masks to curb the spread of COVID-19, walk toward the Al Aqsa Compound in the Israeli-controlled Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday. Photo by Debbie Hill/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 29 (UPI) -- International experts in a new scientific study warned on Thursday that pandemics like COVID-19 will emerge more often in the future unless more targeted efforts are made to control them.
The 62-page assessment by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) says future pandemics will spread quicker, kill more people and cause greater economic damage than COVID-19 unless there's a "seismic shift" from reaction to prevention.
Experts said while pandemics typically originate in diverse microbes carried by animal reservoirs, human activities and their environmental impact help drive their emergence.
"There is no great mystery about the cause of the COVID-19 pandemic -- or any modern pandemic," said Dr. Peter Daszak, chair of the IPBES workshop and president of the EcoHealth Alliance. "The same human activities that drive climate change and biodiversity loss also drive pandemic risk through their impacts on our environment.
"Changes in the way we use land; the expansion and intensification of agriculture; and unsustainable trade, production and consumption disrupt nature and increase contact between wildlife, livestock, pathogens and people. This is the path to pandemics."
The report says the risks are increasing rapidly and any of the several new diseases that emerge each year could create another global heath crisis.
It says risk can be reduced through conservation and other measures to reduce human activities that contribute to biodiversity loss. That, the authors say, will dwindle human contact with wildlife and spillover of new diseases.
"We have the increasing ability to prevent pandemics -- but the way we are tackling them right now largely ignores that ability," Daszak added. "We still rely on attempts to contain and control diseases after they emerge, through vaccines and therapeutics.
"We can escape the era of pandemics, but this requires much greater focus on prevention in addition to reaction."
Fiscally, the report notes, the economic damage created by pandemics is about 100 times higher than the estimated cost of prevention.
Experts say there are 1.7 million unknown viruses that currently exist in animals and about 850,000 of those could potentially infect humans.
The report recommends creating a high-level intergovernmental pandemic prevention council to provide decision-makers with data and evidence about emerging diseases and help leaders evaluate the impacts. The councilors would also coordinate a global monitoring mechanism.
It also calls for new taxes on meat consumption, livestock production and other forms of high-risk human activities that invite pandemics.
The United Nations-backed study came from a virtual workshop the IPBES convened to investigate the relationship between pandemic risk and the degradation of nature. Nearly two dozen experts were part of the workshop.
U.S. consumers' focus shifts from COVID-19 to personal finances
Americans have turned their focus toward shopping low prices to ease personal finance troubles. File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Americans' worries about COVID-19 have dropped since the start of the pandemic in March as more report that their personal finances are are poor in recent months.
The survey by London-based customer data science firm dunnhumby said 24% of Americans were worried about the coronavirus in September, down from 31% in March. That figure has been on a downward trajectory since then except for a spike to 30% in July.
Worldwide, 22% of people were concerned with the virus in September, down from a high of 34% in March.
Americans' concerns appear to have shift instead to their personal finances. In September, 49% said their personal finances are either "not good" or "poor," up from 41% in July and a low of 36% in April.
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That concern has translated into a focus on food prices and shopping where regular prices are low. Fifty-eight percent said they shop where regular prices are low, while 22% said they pay more for quality.
"Since the pandemic first hit, we have been analyzing and studying consumer reactions to the virus, how it impacted their shopping behavior, and how they in turn reacted to retailers' actions to combat the virus," said Jose Gomes, president of North America for dunnhumby.
"Seven months after shutdowns, we are now seeing a major pivot with consumer focus turning away from the virus itself to now being more concerned with increasing food prices while the economy and their personal finances are deteriorating.
"Retailers need to take note that most shoppers right now are on the hunt for more value by shopping at stores with regularly low prices, while also seeking discounts and promotions."
The U.S. Commerce Department issued a quarterly report Thursday showing the economy expanded by 33% between July and October after a 31% drop in the prior quarter. The second-quarter dip shattered the previous record for decline over a three-month quarterly period.
"The increase in real GDP reflected increases in personal consumption expenditures, private inventory investment, exports, nonresidential fixed investment and residential fixed investment that were partly offset by decreases in federal government spending," the department said in a statement.
Chinook salmon that migrate in spring, fall more alike than thought
Spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon both spawn in the fall, but spring-run salmon -- pictured here in Northern California's Butte Creek -- migrate upriver early in the year and spend the summer in cool, deep pools. Photo by Allen Harthorn
Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Traditionally, spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon have been classified as two separate subspecies, or ecotypes, but new genetic analysis suggests the two groups are much more similar than they are different.
According to the new study, published this week in the journal Science, the migration patterns of spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon are dictated by differences in a small snippet of DNA in their genomes.
"Understanding the genetic basis of ecotypic differentiation in salmon provides a solid framework for predicting the outcome of different management actions," study co-author John Carlos Garza, professor of ocean sciences at the University of California, Santa Cruz, told UPI in an email.
Scientists previously observed evidence that members of the same Chinook salmon lineages switch between fall and spring migrations. The new research showed spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon are indeed two versions of the same fish, like a brother and sister with different colored hair.
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When researchers compared the genomes of spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon, they discovered two versions of a set of genes in a part of the genome scientists dubbed the Region of Strongest Association, or RoSA -- an E version for early migration and L version for late migration.
Because these versions, or variations, feature a handful of switched-around genes -- not just one -- they're called haplotypes.
And since salmon offspring inherit a chromosome from both their mother and father, they can boast one of three different RoSA haplotypes: EE, LL or EL. Since these haplotypes trigger different behaviors, or traits, they're also referred to as genotypes.
When researchers sampled and analyzed more than 500 salmon caught by the Yurok Tribe in the Klamath River Estuary of Northern California, they found no overlap in the migrations of fish with EE and LL genotypes.
Researchers found EL fish tended to overlap mostly with spring-run fish, but some EL fish were also found migrating alongside fall-run salmon. The abundance of EL fish, they said, suggests fall-run and spring-run salmon regularly interbreed.
As part of the study, researchers analyzed genetic samples from post-spawning salmon carcasses in a handful of rivers throughout northern California, as well as Oregon's Siletz River. The survey turned up EL genotype fish in every river where both spring- and fall-run salmon are found.
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"We also performed an elegant simulation analysis that found that the proportion of combinations of gene variants inside and outside of the core region found in the genomes of Klamath salmon could not have arisen through interbreeding in the period of large-scale human manipulation of the basin," Garza said. "So it is a natural process that has been going on for a long time."
The survey data and genomic modeling also proved the ecotype variations present among Chinook salmon evolved at least 180 years ago. That's good news for the project of salmon conservation in the Klamath River, the researchers said.
For decades, damming has prevented a spring run in the upper reaches of the Klamath River Klamath River.
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As the construction of dams depleted cool water refuges in the Klamath, spring-run salmon, which must spend the summers in freshwater, were depleted. But the latest research suggests the migration pattern has been preserved in populations of nearby salmon.
"The finding that the E haplotype is highly conserved across Chinook salmon lineages -- i.e. it is much more similar in those lineages than the rest of the genome -- means that the same ancient mechanism underlies the early migration phenotype throughout our study area," Garza said.
That means a spring run can be reestablished -- once their habitat has been restored via major dam removals -- by introducing or cross-breeding fish carrying the E lineage into a predominately fall-run population.
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Delta, pilots union agree to defer furloughs until at least 2022
The agreement in principle calls for Delta Air Lines to avoid furloughing any of its pilots until at least the start of 2022. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Delta Air Lines and its pilots union say they have reached an agreement in principle under which the carrier would avoid furloughing pilots until 2022.
In a memo to flight operation employees Thursday, Delta Senior Vice President John Laughter said that the agreement allows the carrier to generate "much needed savings through a path to help avoid furloughs."
The Air Line Pilots Association negotiating committee told members the agreement would provide furlough protection "for every Delta pilot on the seniority list until January 1, 2022."
Once the contractual language is finalized and agreed upon, the agreement in principle will become a "tentative agreement" and be put up for a vote by Delta's 14,000 pilots.
"While this agreement is still subject to approval by [ALPA], we are confident this can help Delta to be better positioned through the long and choppy COVID-19 pandemic recovery," Laughter wrote in the memo.
Avoiding furloughs, he wrote, has been "a key goal of ours from the beginning."
While competitors American Airlines and United Airlines began furloughing more than 30,000 employees this month with the expiration of federal COVID-19 stimulus protections, Delta has avoided doing so through a program of buyouts, early retirements and other cost-cutting measures.
Delta posted a net loss of $5.4 billion in the third quarter, $4 billion directly related to COVID-19, including fleet-related restructuring charges.
U.S. one of world's top contributors to plastic pollution
Contaminated plastic waste -- from Australia, the United States, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Japan, China, Spain and Bangladesh -- is seen inside cargo containers in Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia, in 2019, before it is sent back to its country of origin in. Photo by Fazry Ismail/EPA-EFE
Oct. 30 (UPI) -- The coastline of the United States is relatively clean compared to other parts of the world, but new research suggests the U.S. is one of the world's top contributors to coastal plastic pollution.
The U.S. exports large amounts of plastic waste. Previous studies have ignored plastic scrap exports, offering the impression that the United States was effectively collecting, disposing and recycling its plastic waste, researchers have said.
According to a new study, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, more than half of the plastic waste collected for recycling in the U.S. -- 1.99 million metric tons of 3.91 million metric tons -- is shipped out of the country.
Researchers found the vast majority of exported plastic scraps, 88 percent, ends up in countries that are struggling to adequately manage plastic waste. Environmental scientists determined at least 1 million metric tons of plastic waste exported by the U.S. ends up polluting environments abroad every year.
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"For years, so much of the plastic we have put into the blue bin has been exported for recycling to countries that struggle to manage their own waste, let alone the vast amounts delivered from the United States," study lead author Kara Lavender Law said in a news release.
"And when you consider how much of our plastic waste isn't actually recyclable because it is low-value, contaminated or difficult to process, it's not surprising that a lot of it ends up polluting the environment," said Law, a research professor of oceanography at the Sea Education Association.
Researchers also determined that a small but not inconsequential amount of plastic waste collected in the U.S. each year -- 2 to 3 percent -- is littered or illegally dumped.
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After accounting for exported waste, as well as littered or illegally dumped domestic waste, researchers determined the U.S. was responsible for 2.25 million metric tons of plastic pollution in 2016, the last year for which pollution data is readily available.
Roughly two-thirds of the plastic polluted by the U.S. ends up in coastal environs, according to the new study -- making the U.S. the world's third largest producer of coastal plastic pollution.
Despite accounting for just 4 percent of the world's population, the U.S. is responsible for 17 percent of the world's coastal plastic pollution.
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"The United States generates the most plastic waste of any other country in the world, but rather than looking the problem in the eye, we have outsourced it to developing countries and become a top contributor to the ocean plastics crisis," said study co-author Nick Mallos.
"The solution has to start at home. We need to create less, by cutting out unnecessary single-use plastics; we need to create better, by developing innovative new ways to package and deliver goods; and where plastics are inevitable, we need to drastically improve our recycling rates," said Mallos, senior director of the Ocean Conservancy's Trash Free Seas program.
The researchers suggest their findings should serve as a wakeup call for U.S. policy makers and industry leaders to take responsibility for the nation's plastic pollution footprint.
"For some time, it has been cheaper for the United States to ship its recyclables abroad rather than handle them here at home, but that has come at great cost to our environment," said study co-author Natalie Starr.
"We need to change the math by investing in recycling technologies and collection programs, as well as accelerating research and development to improve the performance and drive down the costs of more sustainable plastics and packaging alternatives to address the current challenge," said Starr, principal at DSM Environmental Services.
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ExxonMobil announces 1,900 layoffs
The brand Exxon Mobil and price of Energy are on a display at the New York Stock Exchange on August 17, 2018. The oil giant said Thursday it plans to layoff 1,900. Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 29 (UPI) -- Oil industry giant ExxonMobil announced Thursday it will be laying off about 1,900 workers through layoffs and voluntary programs, blaming the reductions on the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
The Texas-based company said in a statement the decision came from a "global review" of the oil industry, which has been rocked hard by travel restrictions brought on by the spread of COVID-19 around the globe.
"These actions will improve the company's long-term cost competitiveness and ensure the company manages through the current unprecedented market conditions," ExxonMobil said in a statement. "The impact of COVID-19 on the demand for ExxonMobil's products has increased the urgency of the ongoing efficiency work."
ExxonMobil had previously announced 1,600 layoffs in Australia and its European operations.
"The company recognizes these decisions will impact employees and their families and has put these programs in place only after comprehensive evaluation and thoughtful deliberation," ExxonMobil said. "Employees who are separated through involuntary programs will be provided with support, including severance and outplacement services."
Exxon CEO Darren Woods told workers who attended a town hall meeting last week in the Houston suburb of Spring that it could not hold off layoffs much longer because of the crumbling oil industry.
"ExxonMobil's announcement about thousands of job cuts is another log on the bonfire that's been oil and gas employment in 2020," Jeff Bush, president of CSI Recruiting, said.
ExxonMobil, once of the world's largest publicly traded company at $136 billion, was surpassed by Zoom ($140 billion) in market value this year
Boeing to slash 7,000 jobs due to pandemic, 737 Max crisis
Boeing's shares dropped 5.23% as of Wednesday afternoon announcing third-quarter results and a cut of 7,000 jobs. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 28 (UPI) -- U.S. aeronautical company Boeing announced Wednesday it's slashing more than 7,000 jobs as it deals with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing disruptions caused by malfunctions with the 737 Max aircraft.
Boeing announced the cuts as part of its third-quarter results, which showed a net loss of $466 million, a sharp decrease from its $1.2 billion profit the same time last year. Sales were down 29% at $14.1 billion, with the biggest drop among commercial aircraft -- from $8.2 billion in 2019 to $3.6 billion in 2020.
"As we share our third-quarter financial results today, the deep impacts of COVID-19 on the commercial aviation market and our business are reflected in lower revenue, earnings and cash flow compared to this time last year," Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun said.
"As we align to market realities, our business units and functions are carefully making staffing decisions to prioritize natural attrition and stability in order to limit the impact on our people and our company. We anticipate a workforce of about 130,000 employees by the end of 2021."
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The Chicago-based company has seen a drop in new plane orders as airlines worldwide adjust to reduced travel since the start of the pandemic earlier this year.
But even before travel restrictions in response to the novel coronavirus, Boeing was dealing with the fallout of two crashes in its 737 Max within six months, which killed 346 people.
Investigators determined both flights showed problems with their maneuvering characteristics augmentation system, which affects the pitch of the aircraft. Boeing 737 Max planes were grounded worldwide in March 2019 as the company worked to fix the error.
Higher COVID-19 deaths could strip some support for Trump, study says
President Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at the Waukesha County Airport in Waukesha, Wis., on October 24. Photo by Alex Wroblewski/UPI | License Photo
Oct. 30 (UPI) -- Voters who live in areas with more COVID-19 deaths are at least somewhat less likely to support President Donald Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2020 election, according to a study published Friday.
Researchers said the findings provide the first "clear causal evidence" that the rise in COVID-19 deaths have turned some Americans away from Trump.
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Using "granular" data sources such as local-level information on deaths and voter attitude surveys, the researchers concluded that higher death counts are translating into softer support for Trump and other GOP candidates.
"States and local areas with higher levels of COVID-19 fatalities are less likely to support President Trump and Republican candidates for House and Senate. Our results show that [they] would benefit electorally from a reduction in COVID-19 fatalities," wrote authors Christopher Warshaw of George Washington University and Lynn Vavreck and Ryan Baxter-King, both of the University of California, Los Angeles
"This implies that a greater emphasis on social distancing, masks, and other mitigation strategies would benefit the president and his allies."
The study found that Americans who live in counties where COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 residents had doubled in the previous 30 days were 0.14% less likely to support Trump. Where deaths doubled at the on a statewide level, voters were almost 0.4% less likely.
The researchers tapped data compiled by The New York Times to measure variations in the magnitude of the pandemic across the United States, as well as more than 300,000 survey responses gathered by the Democracy Fund + UCLA Nationscape Project, between mid-2019 and this summer, to measure how attitudes have shifted.
