Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple reportedly lobbied to weaken a bill aimed at preventing them from manufacturing products in China using forced Uighur labor

tsonnemaker@businessinsider.com (Tyler Sonnemaker) 

© REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson 

Hong Kong protesters rally in support of Xinjiang Uighurs' human rights in Hong Kong, China, December 22, 2019. 

Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple were among the companies that lobbied to weaken a bill aimed at banning US firms from relying on Chinese forced labor, The New York Times reported Sunday.

HSBC, American Apparel, and several industry groups also lobbied on the bill, which would ban many goods imported from Xinjiang unless companies prove they weren't made with forced labor.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, as it's called, passed the House in September by a 406-3 margin, and according to The New York Times, has the support needed to pass the Senate.

Various reports have linked Nike, Coca-Cola, Apple, and other major US companies to suppliers in the region, where China has been accused of detaining and violating the rights of as many as one million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities.

Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple all sought to weaken proposed legislation aimed at barring US companies from relying on the forced labor of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China's Xinjiang region, The New York Times reported Sunday.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act would ban US companies from importing a wide range of goods made in Xinjiang, where China has been accused of mass human rights violations unless companies can prove that the goods weren't made using forced labor.

The bill passed the House in September by a margin of 406 to 3, and aides told The Times that it has enough support to pass the Senate.

Other companies and trade groups, including HSBC, American Apparel, the National Retail Federation, and the US Chamber of Commerce also lobbied on the bill, according to lobbying disclosure forms.

None of the above organizations responded to a request for comment on this story.

Apple took issue with the claim that it tried to water down the bill in a statement to The Times.

Nike's global communications director, Greg Rossiter, told The Times that the company "did not lobby against" the bill but rather had "constructive discussions" with congressional staffers.

Coca-Cola told The Times in a statement that it "strictly prohibits any type of forced labor in our supply chain."

The US Chamber of Commerce declined to comment to The Times. It instead referred it to a letter it and other groups wrote in November, saying they supported addressing forced labor.

Human rights groups, media reports, and other independent researchers have extensively documented China's mass surveillance and detainment of as many as one million Uighurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and other Muslim minority groups in internment camps, where reports allege they are subjected to torture, sexual abuse, and forced labor for little or no pay.

In March, a report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), which estimated that 80,000 Uighurs have been forcibly relocated to factories across China, found evidence of forced Uighur labor at four separate factories in Apple's supply chain as well as the supply chains of Nike, BMW, and Amazon.

Also in March, the Congressional-Executive Commission said in a report that Nike and Coca-Cola, as well as major brands such as Adidas, Campbell Soup, Costco, H&M, Kraft Heinz, Patagonia, and Tommy Hilfiger, were suspected of relying on forced Chinese labor.

Nike claimed in a March statement that it "does not source products" from Xinjiang and that it "confirmed with our contract suppliers that they are not using textiles or spun yarn from the region." Nike also told The Times that a factory in Qingdao that makes its shoes stopped using Uighur labor in 2019, though the ASPI report, citing Chinese state media, found that 800 Uighurs were still forced to work there as of November 2019.

Coca-Cola told The Times that a COFCO Tunhe plant in Xinjiang — that The Wall Street Journal reported last year was using forced labor — passed an independent audit in 2019 as well.

Amid growing bipartisan support for punishing China over the alleged human rights abuses, as well as holding companies accountable for exploiting it, US lawmakers introduced the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act earlier this year. The bill could force companies — especially those with substantial supply chains in China, such as Nike, Coca-Cola, and Apple — to make major changes to how and where they manufacture their products, and is viewed as having more teeth than current laws.

In response, many companies have sought to weaken the disclosure and compliance requirements proposed in the bill.

The Washington Post reported earlier this month that Apple had lobbied against the bill, and according to The Times, the tech giant pushed for longer deadlines to reach compliance, less disclosure to the general public, and putting more onus on the US government to assess whether Chinese entities are complicit in the oppression of Muslims.

Apple, Nike, and Coca-Cola have over the years been accused by human rights groups of a variety of labor abuses and worker exploitation, particularly in China. They have also made various pledges and taken some steps to address that criticism.

Monitoring that, however, has become difficult. Five major auditing groups hired by Western firms told The Wall Street Journal in September that they are no longer carrying out supply chain inspections in China because restrictions imposed by government officials have made it too difficult to effectively and independently evaluate working conditions in the country.
Read the original article on Business Insider

Biden urged to pick California attorney who fought sweatshop slavery as new head of Labor Department

cdavis@insider.com (Charles Davis) 

California Labor Secretary Julie Su is photographed at her home in Cerritos, California. Katie Falkenberg/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

California labor activists are asking President-elect Joe Biden to select Julie Su as his Secretary of Labor.

Su, once dubbed the "bane of deadbeat employers," has served as California's Labor Secretary since 2019.

Previously, Su served as the state's labor commissioner. She also co-founded the group Sweatshop Watch.

"Thinking about Julie Su as Secretary of Labor is almost a physical sense of relief," one source in the labor movement told Business Insider.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Labor organizers in Southern California are pushing President-elect Joe Biden to pick a progressive, hometown hero for Labor Secretary, arguing that the state's top labor official — an anti-sweatshop campaigner dubbed the "bane of the deadbeat employer" — is supremely qualified to protect workers' rights during the pandemic.


Julie Su has served in statewide office since 2011, when former Gov. Jerry Brown picked her to lead the state's enforcement of labor laws. Before that, at the age of 26, she represented dozens of undocumented Thai workers who were effectively enslaved at a garment factory outside Los Angeles, a landmark case that prompted federal and state efforts to combat human trafficking; that work was cited by the MacArthur Foundation, which awarded her its "genius" award in 2001.

As labor commissioner, Su turned the state's under-resourced team of worker advocates into "what could be the most aggressive and effective state labor law enforcement division in the country," according to a 2013 report from In These Times, a progressive magazine.

Under Su's reign, California sought the largest-ever judgment against an employer in state history, assessing almost $12 million in citations against a construction company. "[E]mployers who steal from workers will end up paying for it," she said at the time.

In 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom promoted her to Secretary of Labor, a role that has seen her oversee worker safety and unemployment checks amid a pandemic and recession — experience her advocates believe has well prepared her to do the same on a larger scale.

"Workers, especially workers of color, are hurting across the country," Marissa Nuncio, director of the Garment Worker Center in Los Angeles, told Business Insider. "They need and deserve someone with a demonstrated record of leadership and expertise in fighting for working individuals and families, and Julie's record is exemplary."

 Julie Su received a 2001 "genius" grant from the MacAuthur Foundation for her efforts to protect undocumented immigrant workers. 

Carlos Chavez/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

As Bloomberg Law reported last week, Su's odds for a cabinet pick have been aided by a split in union support among contenders who are better known on the national stage, such as US Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Andy Levin. "I think she's very, very viable," Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, a supporter, told Bloomberg. "She's really been a warrior for us."

But, the outlet noted, a lack of public support from organized labor has also been one factor hindering Su's candidacy.

A letter sent to the president-elect on Sunday aims to address that gap.

"It is a critical time for women's leadership and we need a strong woman as US Secretary of Labor, especially a woman of color who understand what it's like to grow up in an immigrant household," states the letter signed by Dolores Huerta, the famed farm worker organizer, and the leaders of groups such as the Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance, the Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California, and the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy.

"She fully enforced the rights of farm workers, janitors, and domestic workers," the letter says. "In short, Su has been at the forefront of some of the most innovative policies and enforcement strategies in our state's history.

A senior staffer at a national labor organization, requesting anonymity to speak freely, said a Su cabinet post would be seen as a big win for the labor movement.

"Thinking about Julie Su as Secretary of Labor is almost a physical sense of relief," the source told Business Insider. She's spent years leading enforcement in the world's fifth-largest economy and before that fought for workers' rights as an activist exposing labor conditions in the garment industry.

"She is widely respected as a labor rights and civil rights attorney, so she truly 'speaks the language' of workers' issues," the source said, noting she is also fluent in both Spanish and Mandarin.

Su "will walk in that door fully capable, ready to work, and without any serious shadows of past transactional relationships or controversies," they added.

 

Robot probes the Red Sea's carbon storage system

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY (KAUST)

Research News 

IMAGE: BY STUDYING THE FATE OF ORGANIC CARBON IN THE RED SEA, KAUST RESEARCHERS HOPE TO REFINE MODELS THAT PREDICT THE CARBON SINK CAPACITY OF THE WORLD'S OCEANS IN THE FUTURE.... view more 

CREDIT: © SUSANN ROSSBACH

Warming waters and oxygen depletion in the Red Sea could slow the flow of organic carbon from the surface into the deep ocean where it can be stored, out of reach of the atmosphere. A KAUST team has used an underwater robot to investigate the little-studied mesopelagic, or "twilight," zone, at depths of between 100 and 1000 meters.

The oceans absorb billions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere each year that either dissolves or is transformed into organic carbon by plants and phytoplankton in the sunlit shallows (0 - 100m). Most of this organic carbon is converted back into CO2 by microorganisms as it falls through the mesopelagic zone, but some of it eventually sinks into the deep ocean, where it can remain for centuries.

Understanding what controls the fate of organic carbon at different depths could help scientists predict how the oceans will absorb and store atmospheric CO2 in the future. Malika Kheireddine and her team used an underwater robot equipped with bio-optical sensors to measure particulate organic carbon (POC) variations between the surface and the bottom of the mesopelagic zone in the northern Red Sea, where sea temperatures are rising particularly fast. "The Red Sea offers unrivalled opportunities as a natural laboratory for studying the impact of climate change on the fate of organic carbon," says Kheireddine.

Throughout 2016, the device also measured water temperature, salinity, density and oxygen concentrations. "Our observations allowed us to estimate the rates at which POC is converted back into CO2 by marine microorganisms," explains Giorgio Dall'Olmo, a co-author from the UK National Centre for Earth Observation, "and how these microorganisms are affected by temperature and oxygen levels."

In the Red Sea's warm and oxygen-starved waters, the conversion occurred mainly in the shallowest, most productive layer of the mesopelagic zone; only 10 percent of POC sank below 350 meters. "The conversion rates could be expressed as a function of temperature and oxygen concentration," adds Kheireddine, "which could help us predict how climate change will affect these rates in the future."

The team was surprised to find that more than 85 percent of POC was broken down within a few days of entering the mesopelagic zone, whereas the rest drifted for weeks to months before being consumed. There are multiple drivers of organic carbon transfer and transformation in tropical seas.

"Underwater gliders in the Red Sea are collecting continuous data that could reveal the effects of physical processes, such as eddies and coastal currents, on these biogeochemical processes," says group leader Burton Jones, a marine scientist at KAUST.

"The fate of organic carbon in the oceans affects the global climate," says Kheireddine. "Our findings will help refine models showing whether the amount of carbon sinking in the ocean is increasing or decreasing." The deeper organic carbon sinks before it is converted to CO2, the longer it is likely to remain there, locked away from the atmosphere.

###

Men tuning into Insta-spiration

Clothed or bare-chested, is influence growing?

FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: FLINDERS UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY MARIKA TIGGEMANN. view more 

CREDIT: FLINDERS UNIVERSITY

New research confirms men and teens are affected by Instagram influencers who set global benchmarks for ideal body shape, fashion and even facial trends.

While perhaps not as focused on 'thinness' as women appear to be from female influencers, the Flinders University study confirms males are responding to the body image and fitness messages shared by Instagram leaders, some with millions of followers.

This may mean men are less exposed to some of the negatives of social media but confirms the influence of fitspiration ('fitspo') and body image on this online platform, says psychology Professor Marika Tiggemann and Isabella Anderberg in a new paper in Body Image.

"Despite the rise in use of social media, there haven't been many studies into its effect on men and our new study found there are similarities and differences between women and men," says lead author Professor Tiggemann, who has extensively researched the power of social media images on body image, eating and other behaviours in women.

"While participants all had some vulnerable responses to some types of social media imagery, results typically obtained for women cannot simply be generalised to men."

Co-author Isabella Anderberg says the new study shows there is a high level of response to fitspiration goals via Instagram influencers.

"It is interesting that both the fitspiration and fashion images made participants feel more inspired to exercise, and we have certainly seen a rise in men following international fitspo and professional sporting hero influencers."

The Flinders research studied responses from 300 US adult men aged 18-30 who were randomly shown images of bare-chested (fitspiration), clothed (fashion) and control images, similar to those posted by Instagram influencers.

It was found that exposure to bare-chested and muscular images resulted in significantly lower body satisfaction relative to viewing clothed fashion images or scenery images.

"It's important to expand this research, including on the 'Brotox' facial ideals set in social media which is leading to more men reportedly using skin products and even cosmetic fillers and botox to keep up to influencers," Ms Anderberg adds.

###

The new paper, Muscles and bare chests on Instagram: The effect of Influencers' fashion and fitspiration images on men's body image (2020) by Marika Tiggemann and Isabella Anderberg has been published in Body Image DOI: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.10.001 Volume 35, December 2020, Pages 237-244

 

Area burned by severe fire increased 8-fold in western US over past four decades

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

Research News

 

WASHINGTON--The number of wildfires and the amount of land they consume in the western U.S. has substantially increased since the 1980s, a trend often attributed to ongoing climate change. Now, new research finds fires are not only becoming more common in the western U.S. but the area burned at high severity is also increasing, a trend that may lead to long-term forest loss.

The new findings show warmer temperatures and drier conditions are driving an eight-fold increase in annual area burned by high severity fire across western forests from 1985-2017. In total, annual area burned by high severity wildfires -- defined as those that kill more than 95% of trees -- increased by more than 450,000 acres.

"As more area burns at high severity, the likelihood of conversion to different forest types or even to non-forest increases," said Sean Parks, a research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station and lead author of the new study. "At the same time, the post-fire climate is making it increasingly difficult for seedlings to establish and survive, further reducing the potential for forests to return to their pre-fire condition."

Parks will present the results Wednesday, 9 December at AGU's Fall Meeting 2020. The findings are also published in AGU's journal Geophysical Research Letters, which publishes high-impact, short-format reports with immediate implications spanning all Earth and space sciences.

Scientists have known for years that wildfires are on the rise in the western U.S., coincident with recent long-term droughts and warmer temperatures. Many western states, especially parts of California, have undergone several multi-year droughts over the past four decades, a fact scientists attribute to human-caused changes to the climate. However, it is less clear how fire severity has changed over the past half century.

In the new study, Parks and John Abatzoglou, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California Merced, used satellite imagery to assess fire severity in four large regions in the western U.S. from 1985 to 2017. Rather than analyze the amount of area burned each year, they instead looked at the area burned at high severity, which is more likely to adversely impact forest ecosystems and human safety and infrastructure.

"The amount of area burned during a given year is an imperfect metric for assessing fire impacts," Parks said. "There was a substantial amount of fire in the western U.S. prior to Euro-American colonization, but that fire did not likely have the extreme effects that we're seeing now."

Beneficial fires

Wildfires were historically a common component of many forest ecosystems, especially in dry areas that receive little or sporadic rainfall. Fire was such a common occurrence in some regions that many tree species - especially certain species of pine - evolved traits that allow them to not only survive fires but to facilitate their ignition as well.

In the mountainous slopes of California, for example, ponderosa pines, sugar pines and giant sequoias sport thick bark that keeps the living tissue underneath insulated from extreme heat. Some tree species also drop the branches growing closest to the ground, which might otherwise allow fires to climb up into the canopy.

Species like jack pines are so dependent on fire that their seeds are unable to effectively disperse until a passing blaze melts the resinous coating surrounding their cones. And the slender, needle-like leaves of pines dry out more quickly than the broad leaves of deciduous hardwoods, making them excellent kindling.

The catch is these trees evolved to cope with frequent, low-intensity fires. During a severe fire, even the most well-adapted plants can succumb to mortality. If too many trees die, forest regrowth can be impeded by the lack of viable seeds.

"Forest burned at high severity bears the biggest ecological impacts from a fire," said Philip Dennison, a fire scientist at the University of Utah who was unaffiliated with the study. "These are the areas that are going to take the longest to recover, and in many places that recovery has been put into question due to higher temperatures and drought."

A 2019 study authored by Parks found up to 15% of intermountain forests in the western U.S. are at risk of disappearing. In dry regions, such as the southwestern U.S., that number increases to 30% when assuming fires burn under extreme weather.

As western North America continues to reel from the vice-like grip of droughts and increasing temperatures, scientists expect severe fires will become even more common.

"One take home message is that fire severity is elevated in warmer and drier years in the western U.S., and we expect that climate change will result in even warmer and drier years in the future," Parks said.

###

AGU supports 130,000 enthusiasts to experts worldwide in Earth and space sciences. Through broad and inclusive partnerships, we advance discovery and solution science that accelerate knowledge and create solutions that are ethical, unbiased and respectful of communities and their values. Our programs include serving as a scholarly publisher, convening virtual and in-person events and providing career support. We live our values in everything we do, such as our net zero energy renovated building in Washington, D.C. and our Ethics and Equity Center, which fosters a diverse and inclusive geoscience community to ensure responsible conduct.

Notes for Journalists

This research study is freely available through December 31. Download a PDF copy of the paper here. Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.

Sean Parks will present the results of this work at AGU Fall Meeting 2020. The oral presentation has been pre-recorded and will be available online starting 1 December to members of the press who are registered for Fall Meeting 2020. Register for the meeting here. A live Q&A with Parks will take place on Wednesday, 9 December during a scientific session on ecosystem resilience.

Session information: B044 - Fire-Vegetation Interactions and Ecosystem Resilience in a Warmer World I, Wednesday, 9 December, 23:30-00:30 PT.

Presentation abstract: B044-01 - Observed and Expected Increases in Fire Severity Weaken Stabilizing Feedbacks that Promote Forest Resilience

For information about Fall Meeting 2020, including the schedule of press events, visit the Fall Meeting 2020 Media Center.

Neither the paper, presentation, nor this press release is under embargo.

This press release and accompanying images are available online at: https://news.agu.org/press-release/area-burned-by-severe-fire-has-increased-8-fold-in-western-u-s-forests-over-past-four-decades/

Area burned by severe fire has increased 8-fold in western U.S. forests over past four decades

AGU press contact: Lauren Lipuma, +1 (202) 777-7396, news@agu.org

Contact information for the researchers: Sean A. Parks, U.S. Forest Service, sean.parks@usda.gov (U.S. Mountain Time, UTC-7)

 

Report assesses promises and pitfalls of private investment in conservation

Leading scientists, lawyers, investors and economists explore how privately financed conservation projects can generate both financial returns and positive conservation outcomes

ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Research News

 

IMAGE: A SHADE-GROWN COFFEE FARM NEAR THE TOWN OF JARDÍN IN THE ANTIOQUIA DEPARTMENT OF COLOMBIA. COFFEE BEANS GROWN UNDER TREES ARE HIGHER QUALITY, SUPPORTING THE LIVELIHOODS OF FARMERS AND THEIR... view more 

CREDIT: AMANDA RODEWALD

The Ecological Society of America (ESA) today released a report entitled "Innovative Finance for Conservation: Roles for Ecologists and Practitioners" that offers guidelines for developing standardized, ethical and effective conservation finance projects.

Public and philanthropic sources currently supply most of the funds for protecting and conserving species and ecosystems. However, the private sector is now driving demand for market-based mechanisms that support conservation projects with positive environmental, social and financial returns. Examples of projects that can support this triple bottom line include green infrastructure for stormwater management, clean transport projects and sustainable production of food and fiber products.

"The reality is that public and philanthropic funds are insufficient to meet the challenge to conserve the world's biodiversity," said Garvin Professor and Senior Director of Conservation Science at Cornell University Amanda Rodewald, the report's lead author. "Private investments represent a new path forward both because of their enormous growth potential and their ability to be flexibly adapted to a wide variety of social and ecological contexts."

Today's report examines the legal, social and ethical issues associated with innovative conservation finance and offers resources and guidelines for increasing private capital commitments to conservation. It also identifies priority actions that individuals and organizations working in conservation finance will need to adopt in order to "mainstream" the field.

One priority action is to standardize the metrics that allow practitioners to compare and evaluate projects. While the financial services and investment sectors regularly employ standardized indicators of financial risk and return, it is more difficult to apply such indicators to conservation projects. Under certain conservation financing models, for example, returns on investment are partially determined by whether the conservation project is successful - but "success" can be difficult to quantify when it is defined by complex social or environmental changes, such as whether a bird species is more or less at risk of going extinct as a result of a conservation project.

Another priority action is to establish safeguards and ethical standards for involving local stakeholders, including Indigenous communities. In the absence of robust accountability and transparency measures, mobilizing private capital in conservation can result in unjust land grabs or in unscrupulous investments where profits flow disproportionately to wealthy or powerful figures. The report offers guidelines for ensuring that conservation financing improves the prosperity of local communities.

According to co-author Peter Arcese, a professor at the University of British Columbia and adjunct professor at Cornell University, opportunities in conservation finance are growing for patient investors who are interested in generating modest returns while simultaneously supporting sustainable development.

"Almost all landowners I've worked with in Africa and North and South America share a deep desire to maintain or enhance the environmental, cultural and aesthetic values of the ecosystems their land supports," Arcese said. "By creating markets and stimulating investment in climate mitigation, and forest, water and biodiversity conservation projects, we can offer landowners alternative income sources and measurably slow habitat loss and degradation."

Rodewald sees a similar landscape of interest and opportunity. "No matter the system - be it a coffee plantation in the Andes, a timber harvest in the Pacific Northwest, or a farm in the Great Plains - I am reminded again and again that conservation is most successful when we safeguard the health and well-being of local communities. Private investments can be powerful tools to do just that," said Rodewald.

###

The report is No. 22 in a series of reports published by the Ecological Society of America that use commonly understood language to present the consensus of a panel of scientific experts on issues related to the environment. Previous reports in the series are available at https://www.esa.org/publications/issues/.

CAPTION

Ancient Haida mortuary totems at SGang Gwaay llnagaay, Haida Gwaii, which are protected under the Constitution of the Haida Nation and commemorated by the Government of Canada as a National Historic Site. In 2009, a reconciliation protocol established co-management of the islands by the Haida Nation and the Province of British Columbia. The Haida Nation subsequently purchased a large forest tenure and established a Nation-owned and operated logging company that follows strict environmental and social standards for responsible forest management. The investment was supported by funding from Coast Funds (www.coastfunds.ca), an Indigenous-focused conservation finance organization that invests in First Nations-led sustainable business development initiatives.

CREDIT

Brodie Guy

---

Report:

Amanda Rodewald, et al. 2020. "Innovative Finance for Conservation: Roles for Ecologists and Practitioners." https://www.esa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ESA_IssuesInEcology_no.22.pdf 

Author contacts:

Amanda Rodewald (arodewald@cornell.edu">arodewald@cornell.edu)

Peter Arcese (peter.arcese@ubc.ca">peter.arcese@ubc.ca)

Authors:

• Amanda D. Rodewald, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, NY; Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• Peter Arcese, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC; Department of Natural Resources, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• Janis Sarra, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
• John Tobin-de la Puente, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY; Cornell Institute for Public Affairs, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
• Jeffrey Sayer, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
• Frank Hawkins, International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), Washington, DC
• Tara Martin, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
• Brodie Guy, Coast Funds, Vancouver, BC
• Kelly Wachowicz, Catch Together, Chatham, MA

 

CAPTION

Cover of Issues in Ecology No. 22. Innovative Finance For Conservation: Roles For Ecologists and Practitioners.

Funding:

Production of Issues in Ecology 22 was funded by a Purchase Order Agreement (PO#1063592) between ESA and the Charles Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University. Other funding and services were provided by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at the University of British Columbia (UBC), the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the UBC Faculty of Forestry, and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canada.

 

The Ecological Society of America, founded in 1915, is the world's largest community of professional ecologists and a trusted source of ecological knowledge, committed to advancing the understanding of life on Earth. The 9,000 member Society publishes five journals and a membership bulletin and broadly shares ecological information through policy, media outreach, and education initiatives. The Society's Annual Meeting attracts 4,000 attendees and features the most recent advances in ecological science. Visit the ESA website at https://www.esa.org.

Issues in Ecology is an official publication of ESA, using commonly-understood language to report the consensus of a panel of scientific experts on issues related to the environment. Issues in Ecology aims to build public understanding of the importance of the products and services provided by the environment to society. The text for every Issues in Ecology is reviewed for technical content by external expert reviewers. https://www.esa.org/publications/issues/

 

Link found between drought and HIV among women in less-developed countries

New research explores the consequences of drought and lack of environmental resources on women in less-developed countries and shows the direct and indirect associations to women's percentage of HIV.

LEHIGH UNIVERSITY

Research News

Current research predicts that by 2025, 1,800 million people are expected to be living in countries or regions with insufficient water resources, and models show increased severity of droughts in years to come. Food insecurity and other consequences of droughts will become intensified, influencing disease vulnerabilities among populations in less-developed countries. New research from Kelly Austin, associate professor of sociology at Lehigh University, explores how droughts shape gender inequalities in the HIV burden, indirectly through increased food insecurity.

The paper, "Drying Climates and Gender Suffering: Links Between Drought, Food Insecurity, and Women's HIV in Less-Developed Countries," is published in Social Indicators Research.

This study builds on previous attempts to explain women's disproportionate share of global HIV cases through biological, cultural and socioeconomic inequalities by bringing the environment and climate-related disasters into the discussion.

"While many infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS do not have a direct link to the environment in their transmission patterns or vectors, disasters such as drought can still have a significant influence on the social conditions that shape and enhance vulnerabilities," said the researchers, adding that hunger and food insecurity are key factors motivating women's engagement in early marriage, commercial sex, transactional sex relationships, and other forms of risky sex engagements.

Using a structural equation modeling approach, Austin and her colleagues were able to test the indirect and direct links between food insecurity and HIV as well as the causal chain of factors involving drought, food insecurity, and women's HIV.

The results from the study found that drought escalates food insecurity, and food insecurity has indirect, negative impacts on women's status, including lower participation in education, higher fertility rates and reduced access to medical care. Since women's status and the use of contraceptives are tightly linked, these impediments directly increase the percentage of HIV cases among women, confirming the researchers' hypothesis.

"Uncovering these mechanisms would not have been possible with more mainstream approaches," said Austin.

It's common to see strict gender norms in place where women are typically the household managers, carrying the responsibility for growing and harvesting food, collecting firewood, fetching water, and other tasks that provide household needs through environmental resources. In less-developed countries, droughts are the most common cause of severe food shortages, affecting agriculture first. As a result, changes to the environment are likely to compromise women's health in these unique ways.

According to the research, when a crisis hits, women are typically the first to sacrifice their own food to ensure their children and others have enough to eat. Food insecurity directly leads to infection risks through nutrient deficiencies. Additionally, food insecurity indirectly intensifies gendered inequalities that limit women's access to healthcare, education, and improved autonomy, potentially putting women in a more vulnerable position of contracting HIV.

"Women in less-developed countries disproportionately bear the burden in terms of ill health when facing food insecurity or a shock or disaster like drought that impacts the ability to get food or harvest food," said Austin. "This information would be useful for policy makers and people working in international development and disaster response."

###

Austin investigates this subject in a sister paper, "Drought and Disproportionate Disease: An Investigation of Gendered Vulnerabilities to HIV/AIDS in Less-Developed Nations," published in Springer Nature's Population & the Environment.

Swedish government sidelines epidemiologist who steered country's no lockdown experiment as deaths rise


Richard Orange
Sat, November 28, 2020

State epidemiologist Anders Tegnell of the Public Health Agency of Sweden listens during a news conference - REUTERS

The high-profile epidemiologist who led Sweden's no lock-down strategy in the spring appears to be being sidelined by the government after his prediction that greater immunity would mean a lighter second wave proved badly wrong.

Anders Tegnell's biweekly press conference was on Thursday pushed into the shade by an overlapping press conference fronted by Sweden's Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, where new scenarios prepared by the Public Health Agency were announced.

"There's certainly a split, and I'm pretty sure that many in the government have rather lost faith in the Public Health Agency," said Nicholas Aylott, an associate politics professor at Stockholm's Södertorn University.

"By some counts, we've now got exactly the same level of spread of the virus that we had in the spring, and that's about as clear a refutation of Tegnell's strategy as you could wish for."

Dr Tegnell has always insisted that his Public Health Agency has never pursued a herd immunity strategy, but he repeatedly suggested in the summer that his counterparts in Norway, Finland and Denmark would face a tougher task over the winter because of lower levels of immunity in their populations.

This month, though, the number of deaths in Sweden has again begun to soar above that of its Nordic neighbours, with 630 deaths so far registered as a result of Covid-19. That is about ten times the per capita death rate in Norway -- where just 30 Covid-19 deaths were registered between October 28th and November 25th.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control expects Sweden to next month surpass the peak death rates it suffered in April, with between 100 and 140 people projected to die of the virus each day.

Ewa Stenberg, a political commentator for the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, said the agency's failure to predict the severity of the second wave had damaged its standing.

"There is criticism against the Public Health Agency in the government because of that, and because of their lack of stringency in their advice to people," she said.

Shaken by the worsening situation, Sweden's government has started to itself take the initiative, imposing a ban on alcohol sales after 10pm and reducing the maximum allowed public gathering to eight people - a measure Lofven described as having "no equivalent in modern times".

"In the spring, there was a proposal first from the Public Health Agency, but in these latest decisions, the government has made a proposal, and then they have asked for The Public Health Agency to respond," Ms Stenberg said.


Both Dr Tegnell and Mr Lofven have denied that there has been a breakdown in trust.

"All rumours about a rift between the government and the agency are completely false. We have a continuous very strong dialogue and a strong level of trust between us," Dr Tegnell said on Thursday.

His comments were echoed by Mr Lofven in an interview with Sweden's Expressen newspaper. “There is no rift whatsoever. I imagine there sometimes might be a temptation in media to portray conflicts. But here there is none,” he said.

Sweden's newspapers, however, have been reporting the growing friction. "The split grows: how Tegnell lost his veto," read the headline of the Svenska Dagbladet newspaper's Sunday feature.

An article in Expressen depicted growing pessimism within the government, with one anonymous civil servant telling a journalist that they now feared that pandemic would grind on for years, creating a "new normal".

"You're probably never going to be able to let your ageing parents look after your snotty kids ever again," he said.

Football in hijab: Thai Muslim lesbians tackle stereotypes

By Rina Chandran
NOVEMBER 29, 2020

PATTANI, Thailand (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Anticha Sangchai did not come out to her family until she was 30 and married with a child. It was her own struggle confronting the conservative community in southern Thailand that led her to create a place where women like her might feel more at home.

In the bookshop she set up in Pattani city, discussions on gender and sexuality led to the birth of Buku Football Club for lesbian, bisexual and queer (LBQ) girls and women four years ago.

Buku means book in Malay - and the club is now thriving.

Last month, Buku FC hosted its first LBQ futsal tournament, a hardcourt game similar to five-a-side football.

Among six teams from three southern provinces, many players wore hijab and were cheered on by family in the stands.

That would have been unthinkable when she was growing up, Anticha said.

“Football is very popular in Thailand, yet not many girls play it - especially Muslim girls, who face more hurdles because many consider it a sin,” said Anticha, 43, who was raised Buddhist in the Muslim-majority province.

“Playing football allows them to be free, be themselves, and also helps them face up to the bullying and bias they face,” she said, watching a Buku FC team take on a rival team.

Thailand, a largely conservative Buddhist society, is known for its relaxed attitude towards gender and sexual diversity, with homosexuality decriminalised as early as 1956.

Yet LGBT+ people face widespread discrimination, particularly outside the country’s capital Bangkok, and are often rejected by their families, human rights activists say.

Like Safiyah Awea, 22, a member of Buku FC for three years, whose father is an imam - a Muslim religious leader - and had opposed both her playing football and identifying as lesbian.

So Safiyah left home, cut her hair short, and only wears a hijab at work and at religious functions.

“I don’t see a conflict between my faith and my lesbian identity or my playing football,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation alongside her team mates.

“But I don’t engage with people who question my belief, as their minds cannot be changed,” said Safiyah, dressed in shorts and a Buku FC jersey.

OPEN DISCUSSION

The Thai cabinet earlier this year approved a Civil Partnership Bill that would recognise same-sex unions with almost the same legal rights as married couples.

The legislation, which is awaiting parliamentary approval, would make Thailand only the second place in Asia to allow registration of same-sex unions, with couples able to adopt children, and with rights to inheritance and property ownership.

LGBT+ Thais are increasingly visible in politics, with last year’s election bringing four LGBT+ first-time lawmakers, as well as the first transgender candidate for prime minister.

Young LGBT+ Thais have also been a big part of ongoing anti-government protests, pressing their demand for equality.

These are key to greater acceptance, said Anticha, who wants to marry her partner as soon as the law allows.

She and other LGBT+ campaigners favour an equal marriage law, which the government has shied away from, as it would require a change to the Civil Code to amend the description of marriage, now defined as between a man and a woman.

“Our goal is equal marriage at the end. But we choose to go step by step - like many other countries have done,” said Nareeluc Pairchaiyapoom, director of the international human rights division in the Ministry of Justice.

“It is a big change for Thai society. People will take time to understand and accept - and we need to reach a compromise with religious groups and others,” she said, without giving a timeline for the bill’s passage.

Anticha said religion - particularly Islam - complicates the question for the LBQ players at Buku FC.

“The question of reconciling being Muslim and LBQ comes up often, and the takeaway generally is that they should have the right to be themselves, no matter what religious belief they have,” she said.

“In making my intention of marrying my partner public (on social media), I wanted to show the community you can choose how to live your life and live openly,” said Anticha, who teaches religion and philosophy at a university in Pattani.

SHINY SEQUINS

The Buku FC club began with about 20 members, and now has more than 70. Members meet for three hours on Saturday and Sunday, except during the holy month of Ramadan.

Anticha and other staff also offer counselling for families if requested.

With two regional tournaments this year, which Anticha hopes will become a regular annual feature, Buku FC has secured the support of local authorities, as well.

“A tournament like this helps us reach the larger community, who otherwise don’t acknowledge or accept us,” she said.

“It is a chance for them to see how confident the girls are, how we are not that different from anyone else,” she said.

Fadila Ponsa, 16, is among the newest members of Buku FC, having joined just a month earlier.

“It feels very empowering to play football, and to be with other girls like me who are not straight,” she said.

“I don’t think Islam has a problem with girls playing football or being gay,” said Fadila, who wore a black hijab with coloured sequins, and shorts over black leggings.

For others in Buku FC, the tug of war between religion, their sexual identity and football takes longer to resolve.

“Islam does not allow my identity, and says it’s a sin. My family also think it’s wrong. But I want to be myself,” said Najmee Taniong, 26, dressed in shorts and a jersey.

“Being Muslim is who I am. Being lesbian and a footballer is also who I am. I don’t think there should be a conflict between these, or that I should be forced to choose between them.”


Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran; Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit news.trust.org

Thai Student group sues prime minister for misuse of laws resulting in civil liberty violations


ByJames Wilson November 27, 2020


A student group is suing the Prime Minister for misuse of the state emergency at the Bangkok Civil Court on Friday.

The student group said that they are suing Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha on the grounds that the imposition of the Severe State of Emergency Decree was unwarrted and led to the violation of people’s rights and liberty.

The group said the decree resulted in the misuse of force and led to a crackdown on protesters of October 16 at Pathumwan intersection – an operation carried out by security forces which violated international norms.

“We are suing the government because we want the Sever State of Emergency to be fully removed because just withdrawing it does not mean it is fully removed”, said Sugreeya Wannayuwut, one of six students that is suing the Prime Minister.

“The excessive use of the Severe State of Emergency has resulted in the violation of people’s rights, violation of their body, their freedom of expression, and freedom of public assembly.”

The Severe State of Emergency in Bangkok was announced on October 15 by Prayut Chan-ocha citing security concerns. It was later withdrawn on October 22.