25 years later and First Nations no further ahead in control of oil and gas


The Indian Resource Council is fed-up with a 25-year-old memorandum of understanding with the federal government that has failed to move them along in acquiring control over the oil and gas on their reserves.

Now they are “demanding a high-level meeting” with Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) Minister Marc Miller and calling on him to take action on the Crown agency Indian Oil and Gas Canada (IOGC) and its co-management board.

In a resolution passed June 30, the IRC directed Miller to “initiate an Auditor General investigation of IOGC to determine the extent to which it is fulfilling its stated goal and mandate of serving the best interests of First Nations as fiduciary and trustee.”

“It’s a bureaucratic system that’s not working for First Nations,” said IRC president Stephen Buffalo, whose organization represents 140 member Nations who have produced oil and gas in the past, are producing now or have the potential to produce.

The IRC was created in 1987 to “keep an eye” on the IOGC “to make sure it did its job,” says Larry Kaida, assistant to the president.

The IOGC was created in 1987 through an order-in-council by Cabinet as an agency within then-Indian Affairs and Northern Development Canada, mandated to manage and regulate oil and gas resources on First Nations communities. The IOGC now falls under the purview of the ISC.

Almost 10 years later, in 1996, an MOU was signed creating a co-management board for IOGC with representatives from IRC, the government, and industry.

“The objective in 1996 was to get First Nations inside IOGC to understand that business and prepare themselves for eventual take over,” said Kaida.

Through co-management, he says, First Nations would learn the business and come to understand what it is they wanted to do in the industry while IOGC remained in control through legislation and regulations.

The MOU offered a three-phase approach to that end-goal: it began with co-management, moved into delegation and then finally control. The long-term vision was to have member IRC First Nations direct and assume full control of the IOGC.

But the approach never moved beyond co-management and even that wasn’t true co-management, says Kaida, despite IRC having six members and the government two members.

“The board has always been very shy to make the decisions, because that comes with consequences and liabilities, so they defer decision-making to the IOGC,” he said.

On top of that, adds Kaida, the government-appointed board member has veto power as the board can’t make decisions outside of the regulations and legal constraints of the IOGC.

“As long as we continue to have that kind of relationship where IOGC is the ultimate decision maker, we’re going to continue having the same problems,” he said.

The lack of an industry representative on the board for quite some time is another illustration of the inability of the co-management approach to work. Kaida points out that the industry board position has become one of advisor because of liability issues, which includes Canada being unable to provide liability insurance for board members.

First Nations want control over their natural resources, says Kaida, but Canada needs to maintain the fiduciary responsibility, which includes liability.

“If First Nations took over complete management of oil and gas, who’s going to pay for it if something risky happens on their lands?” said Kaida, pointing out that First Nations don’t have the “deep pockets” Canada does. “We need a backstop for these devolved activities.”

He said these concerns were very much the issue when the minister of the time recommended a pilot project the year after the MOU was signed. In that case, funding was made available for legal and other supports for five First Nations—four from Alberta and one from Saskatchewan—to take control of their resources. Three years later, two of the Nations had dropped out of the pilot project.

“There was this fear: What was Canada exactly offloading on First Nations?” said Kaida.

The pilot project resulted in the First Nations Oil and Gas and Moneys Management Act (FNOGMMA) in 2006, which allowed First Nations to opt out of the Indian Act in order to manage and regulate on-reserve oil and gas activities or assume control of their capital and revenue trust moneys held by Canada.

Community support was needed for First Nations to enact FNOGMMA, but that didn’t happen on the oil and gas side.

“If First Nations opt into FNOGMMA, they would relieve Canada of their fiduciary duty over their oil and gas resources. No First Nation is willing to jump from this deep end so far. But FNOGMMA is still sitting on the shelf for any willing takers,” said Kaida.

In 2015, the IRC pushed for a formal review of the IOGC co-management board. It was the first formal review since the board’s inception.

In a confidential report acquired by Windspeaker.com, MNP, who conducted that review, concluded the co-management board was “not effective” as the IRC’s mandate was to support First Nations in their efforts to control their oil and gas resources, while the government portion of the board made decisions based on policy.

The MNP review pointed out that the “confrontational nature” of the co-management board made it impossible for it to meet the original intent and mandate of the MOU.

“This lack of effectiveness is exacerbated by the fact that board members and the larger stakeholder community have different views with respect to how Indian oil and gas resources can and should be managed,” read the report.

“Not a hell of a lot” has come from the findings of that review, says Kaida.

Now the IRC has one more criticism to add to its growing list against the IOGC. The June 30 resolution points to the IOGC’s failure to regulate industry clean-up of abandoned wells on First Nations land.

Last year, the federal government allotted $1.7 billion to deal with orphan wells as part of Canada’s coronavirus pandemic economic measures. That money flowed through the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia and none went directly to First Nations.

It was the IRC that negotiated an $85 million set aside from Alberta for site reclamation on First Nations land, said Buffalo.

The resolution calls for Indigenous Services Canada “to provide adequate funding resources to ensure that the well abandonment program that IRC initiated on behalf of its members is successful.”

Kaida says the mandate of IOGC must also be revisited to support First Nations who want to diversify into green energy.

“They've got a totally outdated mandate and we're calling on the minister to enable those changes within IOGC so they've got a modern mandate that takes into account the changes in the energy sector,” said Kaida.

Indigenous Services Minister Marc Miller did not respond to a request from Windspeaker.com to confirm the upcoming meeting or for information on how he would be moving forward on the issues outlined by IRC.

Windspeaker.com

By Shari Narine, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Windspeaker.com, Windspeaker.com

WATER IS LIFE MNI WICONI

Coalition blasts plans to divert Colorado River amid drought

Sam Metz, The Associated Press

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Farmers, environmentalists and small-town business owners gathered at the Hoover Dam on Thursday to call for a moratorium on building pipelines and dams along the Colorado River that they say would jeopardize the 40 million people who rely on it as a water source.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

They're pushing for the moratoriums as parts of the U.S. West are gripped by historic drought and hotter temperatures and dry vegetation provide fuel for wildfires sweeping the region. Federal officials expect to make the first-ever water shortage declaration in the Colorado River basin next month, prompting cuts in Arizona, Nevada and Mexico.

“We’re here to say, ‘Damn the status quo,'" said Kyle Roerink, the executive director of the Great Basin Water Network.

“No more business as usual. Why? Because we’re failing: It’s plain and simple. We shouldn’t be seeing that bathtub ring growing like it is,” he added, gesturing toward the white band that wraps the perimeter of Lake Mead, marking former water levels.

Hot temperatures and less snowpack have decreased the amount of water that flows from the Rocky Mountains down through the arid deserts of the Southwest into the Gulf of California.

Scientists attribute the extreme conditions to a combination of natural weather patterns and human-caused climate change, which has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years.

Almost a century after seven U.S. states divvied up the river, Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the two manmade reservoirs that store river water — are shrinking faster than expected, spreading panic throughout a region that relies on the river to sustain 40 million people and a $5 billion-a-year agricultural industry.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages water, dams and reservoirs in 17 states, published new two-year projections showing more expected drops in the West's largest reservoirs. The agency has begun releasing water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Wyoming and said Friday that they intend to draw from reservoirs in New Mexico and Colorado in the upcoming months to keep Lake Powell from dropping low enough to threaten Glen Canyon Dam’s hydropower-generating capability.

Video: Drought concerns Colo. rafters, oases can be found (The Canadian Press)

Nevada stands to be less affected by the cuts tied to the water shortage declaration than Arizona because it doesn't use its full share of river water. In Arizona, farmers will have to rely more heavily on groundwater and leave fields unplanted.

Officials in both states acknowledge the record lows are part of an ongoing downward spiral for the river but assure water users that they've spent years preparing and have enough water to accommodate expected population growth and supply farmers.

But those speaking at Hoover Dam on Thursday blasted water officials and said agreements reached in 2007 and 2019 weren't fulfilling their purpose to maintain the river. They said proponents of projects to facilitate more water consumption weren't being realistic about action needed to ensure the Colorado River continues to supply water and hydropower to the region's cities and farms.

Utah Rivers Council Executive Director Zach Frankel said state and federal officials should abandon plans to build a pipeline to siphon water from Lake Powell to the Sand Hollow Reservoir in southern Utah. He said it was important to ensure federal infrastructure dollars weren't spent on projects that enable more wasteful water use and pointed out that Utah's Washington County — which would benefit from the diversion — uses more water per capita than Las Vegas and Phoenix.

"It is simply madness that as the Colorado River reaches its lowest levels in recorded history that we will be proposing a new water diversion upstream. While the lower basin is going to diet and cutting its water use, we should not let the upper basin go to an all-you-can-eat buffet," he said.

The Imperial Irrigation District, which oversees water in parts of Southern California and has water rights to roughly 20% of the Colorado River — more than Nevada and Arizona combined — withdrew from the most recent set of negotiations.

JB Hamby, the vice president of the district's board, said it was important that water management policies made in the future ensured that rural farming communities — which use the majority of the region's water — wouldn't bear the brunt of the drought so that cities can keep growing.

“A suburban ‘manifest destiny’ threatens the current and future sustainability of this river and communities that depend on it. We must champion and protect the diverse benefits of irrigated farmland for the West, the nation and the world — for food production and security, the environment, wildlife preservation, recreation and tourism and efficient water management.”

___

Sam Metz is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

Finding the Mother Tree: ecologist Suzanne Simard offers solutions to B.C.’s forest woes


Everything in an ecosystem is connected. A tiny sapling relies on a towering ancient tree, just like a newborn baby depends on its mother. And that forest giant needs the bugs in the dirt, the salmon carcass brought to its roots by wolves and bears and the death and decay of its peers. It thrives not in isolation, but because of dizzyingly complex connections with other trees and plants through vast but tiny fungal networks hidden below the forest floor.

It’s here, in the soil, that forest ecologist Suzanne Simard found her calling. Simard is a professor at the University of British Columbia and author of hundreds of peer-reviewed articles. She recently published a memoir, Finding the Mother Tree, about her life journey to discover what makes the forest tick. Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal bought the movie rights to the book and Adams is set to play Simard in a feature film based on the memoir.

As a child, Simard’s relationship with the forest was simple. Spending her summers in the old-growth forests of the Monashee Mountains in southern B.C., she and her siblings did what most kids do in a forest: run, play, build forts. She also had a habit of snacking on the soil.

“I ate dirt all the time,” she tells The Narwhal from her home in Nelson, B.C. “I didn’t think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna study dirt.’ I ate it. I threw it. I dug in it. I rode my bike through big holes in it.”

Simard’s connection with the forest goes back generations. Her grandpa was a horse-logger, which means he chose one good tree at a time, cut it down, dragged it out of the bush with horses and launched it down a steep hillside into a lake where it could be floated downriver and sold. As those trees were taken from the forest, their selective removal let in new light that young plants greedily turned into photosynthate, sugars spurring their growth. The old trees provided shade and protection as the new trees filled in the gaps and the ecosystem continued to function as it had for thousands of years — cycles of warmth and growth, cold and decay.

When she followed in the footsteps of the loggers before her and entered the male-dominated industry in the late 1970s as a forester, Simard found herself working in a system that looked nothing like the horse-logging operations of her grandparents’ generation. Rough roads winding along valley bottoms and switchbacking up mountainsides led to big open spaces — clearcuts — where chainsaws, feller-bunchers (heavy machinery capable of cutting down and moving smaller trees, sometimes two or three at a time) and logging trucks able to navigate those roads worked efficiently and at a breakneck pace to take as many trees as possible, feeding mills and markets with the promise that those clearcuts would be replanted and when the trees were big enough, the process could begin all over again.

“I got my first job in the forest industry in Lillooet,” she says. “I loved the work because I love the bush and I love the danger of it all, the excitement of it all. But I was also conflicted because it was so different [from] what I understood, what I grew up with. It wasn’t careful — it was just exploitation.”

In those massive replanted clearcuts Simard found a sea of dying saplings, not the promised green gold. She set out to learn why.

The first clues the young forester found were wrapped around the roots of saplings. Healthy baby conifers uprooted from the dirt would reveal roots dangling a tangled web of fine fungal threads — mycelium — varied and brightly coloured. In contrast, the roots of sick seedlings, plucked from the hard, dry soil compacted by the machinery that had extracted the tall, old trees, were black and devoid of any mycelium.

As a young woman in an industry resistant to change, she found herself struggling to apply her observations to the work she was tasked to do: feed an industry increasingly hungry for trees while finding a way to make sure that hunger would always be satiated. Her suggestions to plant multiple species in clusters, mimicking the natural succession of healthy forests, instead of the preferred monocrop plantations of pine in neat little rows, were dismissed. While frustrating, she says coming face-to-face with the problems of entrenched forestry practices fuelled her curiosity.

“I think in some ways having that experience in industrial forestry and being part of the clearcutting machine myself was essential to the development of the questions I eventually asked,” she says. “I had conflicts and regrets, but it was also formative for me too.”

After working with logging companies, reluctantly flagging ancient forests for harvest, she got a job with the B.C. Forest Service and started conducting field experiments, fighting for funding and recognition of her work.

She eventually learned the mycelium were part of an extraordinary mycorrhizal network that was working with the trees to mutual benefit, carrying resources like carbon and nitrogen back and forth through the underground forest ecosystem. She popularized the term, Mother Tree, explaining the ecological connections between trees is like the nurturing connection between mother and child. She discovered that old trees feed new trees a cocktail of nutrients necessary for survival and change the ingredients of the cocktail in response to climatic conditions. She even found old trees recognize their own kin, preferentially distributing nutrients to their offspring over seedlings that took root in their shade carried there by wind or dropped by a bird or animal.

She also demonstrated the connection between different species, such as birch and fir, alder and pine, and proved through multi-year experiments that the forest management practice of eradicating deciduous species both manually and through the use of herbicides like glyphosate was in fact detrimental to regrowth, in some cases catastrophically so.

Yet, even when she’d proved that trees share resources and communicate through the mycorrhizal network, publishing her findings in peer-reviewed journals, she found there was another network at play, a network of politicians, policy-makers and corporate interests. Her theories and discoveries were scoffed at, discredited and mostly ignored by the people who needed to listen.

“When I published my first work on connection and forests, I just got slaughtered,” she says. “Honestly, it was too much for me. I didn’t have the strength. I was raising my kids at the time. They were little tiny babies, and it was just too much.”

She persevered and shifted into academia, taking a position at the University of British Columbia, juggling her work with motherhood, grief after her brother was killed in an accident and, later, breast cancer.

“I got really depressed about climate change and then I got sick with breast cancer,” she says. “So I stopped reading about the details of climate change, because I understood it enough. And I started looking at how systems work more. I just said, ‘I’ve got to focus on these positive things.’ ”

Fast forward to 2015 when Simard, now well-respected and her work widely accepted and the inspiration for a character in the Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Overstory by Richard Powers, started The Mother Tree Project to continue her research on how trees communicate with each other in the hopes that the discoveries can influence change, not only by increasing our understanding of forest ecology but also by presenting solutions to the problems facing B.C.’s forests as provincial policy continues to perpetuate destructive clearcutting practices.

“I’d done all this fundamental work on forests as social places, that forest trees are connected, that they share resources, they’re communicative, they’re regenerative, they’re interdependent on all these different ages of trees, between the old trees and the young trees,” she says. “And yet the work was never really applied.”

Partnering with a team of ecologists, foresters and researchers and leveraging her professorship to catalyze graduate students to tackle different aspects of the ambitious project, Simard started by establishing experimental sites in nine climatic regions across the province, sites that were chosen to better our understanding of how climate change will impact the success of forest regeneration.

“How do we protect these old trees and still be able to harvest some trees?” she asks. “And what would the patterns be as the climate is changing? As we have to migrate trees, what do they need? We’re finding out that survival of new migrants is about 30 per cent higher when they have the cover of old trees.”

It all comes back to the soil and the trade network that exists between forest organisms.

“It really is about bootstrapping up the new generations with as many fungi as it can support for a productive ecosystem,” she says. “The way to do it is to leave these old trees spread through the forest in clusters so that the old trees are protected against wind and infestations and just shock from being left alone.”

With enough old trees left behind to distribute resources where (and when) they’re most needed and shelter new growth, the next part of the process is stimulating and replicating natural systems. She explains encouraging native plants to remain builds the soil structure and adds diversity to the fungal species that help transfer resources from tree to tree.

Simard says the experiment is starting to gain traction with the likes of logging companies and BC Timber Sales, the government agency responsible for managing about 20 per cent of the province’s forests.

“They were reluctantly, grudgingly drawn into the project because they saw it as contributing, I think, to their social licence,” she says. “Now, those licensees are going, ‘Wow, this actually worked.’ I was just on a call with BC Timber Sales yesterday at this little conference and they’re saying, ‘Well, the public is pressuring us to shift to partial cutting, so we need to know about partial cutting.’ They’re talking about leaving 40 to 60 per cent of the basal area. That is a huge, huge shift.”

While partial cutting has yet to land in provincial policy, she says change, while slow, is gaining momentum through a combination of public pressure and the marriage of western and Indigenous science.

“I’ve worked in every sector — I’ve worked in industry, I’ve worked as a consultant, I’ve worked in government and academia — and I’ve pushed and pushed and pushed from inside. And the change you can make is just this tiny little incremental change, or nothing at all, or backwards. The civil disobedience [and] the protests are absolutely essential,” she says, referring to the movement to protect old-growth forests on southern Vancouver Island, where more than 200 people have been arrested, adding, “but they need the science to back it up.”

That science is what she dedicated her life to, finally coming to fruition with the Mother Tree project, but Simard warns of the urgency to protect those ecosystems for their role in fighting climate change and preserving biodiversity. Reforestation and adjusting harvest techniques is only one part of the shift needed, she says, explaining we also need to cut less and consider ecosystem values like carbon sequestration, water and biodiversity, not just the price a two-by-four will fetch on the market.

“We still need these big decision makers at the policy level, like Minister Conroy and the chief forester, Diane Nichols, and we need [NDP Premier] Horgan to stand behind them, to make these changes. Either we do partial cutting but we spread it over a bigger landscape or we do more concentrated clearcutting, which people don’t like and isn’t good for the forest. We need to make those two things happen at the same time: reduce the cut and save the old-growth forest and reforest what we do cut right away, but leave these old trees.”

The stakes are higher than ever, and grow exponentially as the extraction of the last of B.C.’s remaining productive old-growth continues.

“We need these old-growth forests, like at Fairy Creek, for their ability to store carbon [and] for species at risk that live there,” she says. “And these old-growth trees, we need them because the genes of those trees, the seeds, have seen many, many climates in the past. We need that legacy in order to deal with climate change in the future.”

Simard says the solutions — and hope — can be found in the forest itself.

“In an ecosystem, all the creatures (the biotic) create the trees, the plants, the fungi and so on. The way they have evolved is for resilience. They’ve evolved to be efficient, they’ve evolved to recover [and] they’ve evolved to regenerate. You can look at a system and say, ‘Well, there’s not much happening, it’s not really doing anything.’ I know that at some point it starts to build momentum. And it is just that all these creatures are working at small scales and it builds and builds like a nucleus that’s growing, and then the system can suddenly recover very quickly. That gives me incredible hope.”

She says returning now to the forests where she spent her childhood summers eating dirt is heartbreaking — because they’re gone. From above, the patchy clearcuts on the hills and mountains around Mabel Lake look like a 1990s haircut gone horribly wrong.

“When I drive by the brand-new clearcuts around my town, I feel sick to my stomach,” she says. “But then I go to the forest and I recover myself and I’m able to go back and do the fight again.”

“We have no choice but to remain hopeful, to continue to push and push and push as much as we possibly can in our own capacities and not exhaust ourselves,” she continues. “Get all the people around you that support what you’re doing, and you support them. Then you can survive this.”

She adds ecosystems have an inherent ability to recover, in the same way humans can recover from adversity and disease with help from a network of relationships, family and friends.

“I was meant to recover from breast cancer — I healed myself. And forests can heal themselves.”

Matt Simmons, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Narwhal

SPECULATORS OF THE ROARING TWENTIES

Cryptocurrencies are taking the developing world by storm, with more users now in Nigeria than in the US - 2 experts lay out how bitcoin is changing emerging-market finance

cshumba@insider.com (Camomile Shumba ) 

© Robert Alexander Globe 

Insider spoke to James Butterfill from CoinShares and Marius Reitz from Luno in Africa about bitcoin in the developing world.

El Salvador recently made bitcoin legal tender and other governments may follow suit.

Cryptocurrencies can bring finance to the "unbanked" and help counter volatile domestic currencies, the two experts said.

Cryptocurrencies have made it into the mainstream this year, with crypto-backed bank cards, investment products and traders, both big and small, have got in on the action, driving the likes of bitcoin, ether and dogecoin to record highs.

In the developing world, crypto adoption is growing at breakneck speed. Young, fast-growing populations that lack access to traditional finance, but have smartphones, from Brazil to Botswana, are driving the surge in the use of cryptocurrencies.

James Butterfill, who is an investment strategist at CoinShares, the largest crypto exchange traded product provider in Europe, and Marius Reitz, the general manager in Africa of crypto exchange Luno discussed the social benefits of bitcoin for the developing world.

"In third-world countries, we are seeing the take-up of bitcoin. If you look at bitcoin volume growth, it's massive," Butterfill told Insider.

For example, according to a Statista survey of global consumers in February, nearly one in three of those polled in Nigeria said they owned, or used, cryptocurrencies, versus just 6 out of every 100 in the United States, in 2020.

El Salvador's recent decision to make bitcoin legal tender is an example of how developing countries are using crypto. The World Bank recently said it would not work with the country on its cryptocurrency plans because of how volatile it believes these assets are.

The amount of bitcoin that changes hands in emerging economies is exploding. Trading volumes in Brazil have risen 2,247% year-on-year in 2021, while in Venezuela, where political turmoil has created hyperinflation and economic crisis, crypto trading volumes have risen 833% in the last 12 months, according to data provider Kaiko.

In Nigeria, Africa's largest economy, trading volumes have risen 128% year on year, and in Turkey, where inflation and economic decline have hit the lira, they're up 143%, based on Kaiko's data.

Bitcoin has been trading between $40,000 and $31,900 over the last month, but has moved between lows of $30,000 and to highs of as much as $63,500 over the course of 2021. Despite its volatility, consumers in developing countries love it.

There are about 1.7 billion people that are considered "unbanked". However, around 48% of the global population has a smartphone and that percentage, in theory, have access to the internet, and therefore, cryptocurrencies, Butterfill said.

In Latin America, only 30% of the population over the age of 15 have a bank account, according to 2019 data by consultant Mckinsey.

"I think that really is a positive thing that bitcoin's helping the unbanked be bankable," Butterfill said.

A closer look at Africa

Crypto use has also grown in Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

"One region that may go unnoticed in the development and usage of cryptocurrencies, is Africa. The continent is one of, if not the most promising, regions for the adoption of cryptocurrencies due to its unique combination of economic and demographic trends," Luno's Reitz said.

One of the key factors that is encouraging people in Africa to use cryptocurrency is the cost of transferring money. The World Bank reported in 2020 that sending money to Africa via traditional bank transfer cost an average fee of 8.9% compared to the global average of 6.8%.

Sending money abroad, or even receiving funds from overseas, is littered with additional costs, including exchange rates and this is where crypto is helping fill that gap.

"It's either really expensive, or really difficult to do. So, with something like bitcoin, you can have an international bank account and it costs you virtually nothing, that's what's really powerful about it," CoinShares' Butterfill said.

Read the original article on Business Insider

Race, politics divide Americans on sports issues

Study finds gaps on paying college athletes, anthem protests

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Research News

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Although some people may yearn for sports to be free of political or racial divisiveness, a new study shows how impossible that dream may be.

Researchers found that Americans' views on two hot-button issues in sports were sharply divided by racial, ethnic and political identities. In addition, their opinions on topics unrelated to sports, like the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, also were linked to their beliefs about the two sports issues.

The study analyzed opinions on whether college athletes should be paid and whether it is acceptable for pro athletes to protest racial injustice by not standing during the national anthem.

The gap between Americans on those two topics was sometimes stark - there was an 82-percentage-point difference in whether people supported athletes protesting during the national anthem (a low of 13% to a high of 95%) depending on combinations of race, political orientation, voting intentions and beliefs about issues like BLM.

"Sports are and have increasingly become a central part of the culture wars," said Chris Knoester, co-author of the study and associate professor of sociology at The Ohio State University.

"Sports are not a neutral ground."

The study, published online recently in the journal Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, was co-authored by Rachel Allison, associate professor of sociology at Mississippi State University, and David Ridpath, associate professor of sports administration at Ohio University.

While many people believe the political divide concerning sports found in this study is a modern phenomenon, it really is not, Allison said.

"We like to think that sport is all about fun and entertainment, what we like to do or watch outside of our 'real' lives at work or in our families, and so in a sphere somehow outside of politics," she said.

"But the history of sport shows that it has never been outside of the political. Our study shows that continues to be the case."

Data for the study came from the online Taking America's Pulse 2016 Class Survey, designed and run by researchers at Cornell University and the GfK Group. The survey included 1,461 Americans.

Overall, the study found white adults were particularly likely to be opposed to paying college athletes (69%) and protests during the national anthem (73%). Black adults were especially likely to be supportive, with only 29% and 32%, respectively, opposed to these rights for athletes.

Latino adults and other adults of color were generally more supportive of these rights for athletes than white adults, but not as supportive as Black adults.

"In large part, we think these racial and ethnic differences occur because paying college athletes and allowing protests during the national anthem are frequently seen as antiracist actions particularly supporting Black athletes," Knoester said.

Other results in the study support this, particularly those related to Americans' beliefs about two race-related issues outside of sports.

One issue was racial discrimination in education: Participants were asked whether white students, or Black and Latino students, are advantaged in U.S. educational institutions.

The second issue was BLM. Survey participants were asked whether BLM advocates for Black lives mattering more than other lives.

Participants' beliefs on these two issues were strongly linked to their views on paying colleges athletes and athlete protests, the study found. As expected, the impact of these beliefs was compounded by the race and ethnicity of those surveyed.

White adults who were upset about BLM and who believed Black and Latino students were advantaged in education had a 75% predicted probability of being opposed to athletes being paid and an 85% probability of being opposed to athletes protesting.

Meanwhile, Black adults who believed white students were advantaged and who supported BLM had a 28% predicted probability of opposing athlete payments and a 21% probability of opposing athlete protests.

Self-identified conservativism and intentions to vote for Donald Trump for president (the survey was done in the month before the 2016 election) were also strongly linked to opposing pay for college athletes and pro athlete protests. Liberals and those intending to vote for Hillary Clinton were much more supportive of athletes' rights on both issues.

"We found that race, ethnicity and political beliefs all were linked to views about these two sports issues," Ridpath said.

"While political views were important, they did not completely erase the effects of people's race and ethnicity."

For example, it wasn't just conservative white adults who opposed paying college athletes. White adults who identified as middle-of-the-road politically were also generally opposed to paying college athletes (a 66% predicted probability).

Meanwhile, Black adults with moderate political views had only a 35% probability of being opposed. Other people of color with moderate political views were about 50/50 on opposing payment to college athletes.

Combining various identities solidified opposition or support on these two issues, the study found.

For example, a Black adult who was extremely liberal, intended to vote for Clinton, who thought white students were advantaged in education and who didn't think BLM inappropriately valued Black lives had a 13% predicted probability of being opposed to athletes' protests during the national anthem.

Meanwhile, a white adult who was extremely conservative, intended to vote for Trump, thought white students were not advantaged and believed BLM inappropriately valued Black lives had a 95% predicted probability of being opposed to athlete protests.

Since the data in this study was collected, public opinions have appeared to shift somewhat toward the rights of college athletes to get paid and pro athletes to protest, Knoester said. And those shifts have translated into policy changes.

NCAA college athletes have recently been given the opportunity to financially benefit from their name, image and likeness.

And the International Olympic Committee recently gave athletes more scope to protest at the Tokyo games, although significant restrictions remain.

But the controversies are likely to persist, and politics and race will remain a presence in sports, Knoester said.

"Racial and political issues are a part of society, so they will be a part of sports," he said.

###

Contact: Chris Knoester, Knoester.1@osu.edu Rachel Allison, rca174@msstate.edu David Ridpath, Ridpath@ohio.edu

Written by Jeff Grabmeier, 614-292-8457; Grabmeier.1@osu.edu

Exploring the Gap Between Excess Mortality and COVID-19 Deaths in 67 Countries

Francesco Sanmarchi, MD¹; Davide Golinelli, MD¹; Jacopo Lenzi, PhD¹; et alFrancesco Esposito, MD¹; Angelo Capodici, MD¹; Chiara Reno, MD¹; Dino Gibertoni, PhD¹

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(7):e2117359. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.17359

Research Letter 

Global Health

July 16, 2021

COVID-19 Resource Center

Introduction

During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, a surge in overall deaths has been recorded in many countries, most of them likely attributable to COVID-19. However, COVID-19 confirmed mortality (CCM) is considered an unreliable indicator of COVID-19 deaths because of national health care systems’ different capacities to correctly identify people who actually died of the disease.^1,2 Excess mortality (EM) is a more comprehensive and robust indicator because it relies on all-cause mortality instead of specific causes of death.³ We analyzed the gap between the EM and CCM in 67 countries to determine the extent to which official data on COVID-19 deaths might be considered reliable.

Methods

In this cross-sectional study, we retrieved aggregated country-level data on population and COVID-19 overall confirmed cases, deaths, and testing as of December 31, 2020, from Our World in Data. Data on countries’ overall deaths from 2015 to 2020 were obtained from the World Mortality Data set (eAppendix in the Supplement). This research was based on public use datasets that do not include identifiable personal information and, per the Common Rule, was exempt from Institutional Review Board review and approval. For the same reason, no informed consent was required. This study follows the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) reporting guideline.

Negative binomial regression models were used to estimate projected deaths in 2020 using mortality data from 2015 to 2019. Two-sided 95% CIs for country-specific projected deaths were calculated applying the normal approximation to the Poisson distribution. EM in the pandemic period (ie, February 26 to December 31, 2020) was estimated as the difference between cumulative observed deaths and projected deaths. Countries’ testing capacity was assessed with their cumulative test-to-case ratio (eAppendix in the Supplement). The association between country-specific cumulative CCM and EM per 100 000 population of 2020 was displayed using a scatterplot, in which the identity line discriminates countries with EM exceeding CCM from those with EM lower than CCM. A color was assigned to countries based on their decile of testing capacity. All analyses were performed using R version 4.0.4 (R Project for Statistical Computing). Details on the analytic approach are available in the eAppendix in the Supplement.

Results

Most of the 67 countries experienced an increase in mortality during 2020 (Table). Among countries with increased mortality (ie, those located above 0 on the y-axis in the Figure), a small number appeared under the identity line, showing lower-than-expected mortality after subtracting COVID-19 deaths. Countries located above the identity line can be visually classified into 2 groups: 1 with several Latin American and East European countries, which exhibit a large gap between EM and CCM (eg, Mexico, 212 excess deaths vs 96 COVID-19 deaths per 100 000 population); the other, more heterogeneous group showed a moderate EM beyond CCM (eg, Greece, 57 excess deaths vs 45 COVID-19 deaths per 100 000 population). Countries with negative EM also had very low CCM and were mainly located in East Asia. The lowest figures of EM and CCM generally belonged to countries with higher testing capacity (in green) and the largest differences between EM and CCM to countries with poorer testing capacity (in red).

Discussion

This comparison of CCM and EM revealed the different national health systems’ capacity to test and diagnose COVID-19 and their responsiveness to the health crisis. Underreporting of COVID-19 deaths because of strained health care systems’ capacity might explain our findings for countries where EM exceeded CCM.^2,4 In contrast, the effects of nonpharmaceutical interventions on populations’ main causes of deaths, such as the decrease in work and road accidents, could be responsible for the reduction in overall mortality in countries where CCM exceeded EM.⁵ Notably, most of the countries that presented reduced overall mortality during 2020 had extremely high testing capacity and were praised for their effective response measures against the pandemic.⁶

Limitations of our analysis include the lack of stratification by age and sex, the underrepresentation of some areas of the world, and not considering nonpharmaceutical interventions. Despite these drawbacks, our findings corroborate the evidence that in many countries the accuracy in quantifying the death toll of COVID-19 is still a missed target. The global action against the pandemic is being conditioned by diverse responses to the crisis, but reliable evidence should be the pillar on which effective prevention measures are built.

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Article Information

Accepted for Publication: May 13, 2021.

Published: July 16, 2021. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.17359

Open Access: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the CC-BY License. © 2021 Sanmarchi F et al. JAMA Network Open.

Corresponding Author: Davide Golinelli, MD, Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, Alma Mater Studiorum–University of Bologna, Via San Giacomo 12, 40126 Bologna, Italy (davide.golinelli@unibo.it).

Author Contributions: Dr Sanmarchi had full access to all of the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Concept and design: Sanmarchi, Golinelli, Capodici, Gibertoni.

Acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data: All authors.

Drafting of the manuscript: Sanmarchi, Golinelli, Capodici.

Critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content: Sanmarchi, Golinelli, Lenzi, Esposito, Reno, Gibertoni.

Statistical analysis: Sanmarchi, Lenzi, Capodici, Gibertoni.

Supervision: Golinelli, Gibertoni.

Conflict of Interest Disclosures: None reported.

References

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Bilinski  A, Emanuel  EJ.  COVID-19 and excess all-cause mortality in the US and 18 comparison countries.   JAMA. 2020;324(20):2100-2102. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.20717
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Karanikolos  M, McKee  M; European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies. How comparable is COVID-19 mortality across countries? Eurohealth. 2020;26(‎2):45-50. Accessed June 12, 2021. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/336295

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Garber  AM.  Learning from excess pandemic deaths.   JAMA. 2021. Published online April 02, 2021. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.5120
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Woolf  SH, Chapman  DA, Sabo  RT, Zimmerman  EB.  Excess deaths from COVID-19 and other causes in the US, March 1, 2020, to January 2, 2021.   JAMA. 2021;325(17):1729-1730. doi:10.1001/jama.2021.5199
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Davies  NG, Kucharski  AJ, Eggo  RM, Gimma  A, Edmunds  WJ; Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases COVID-19 working group.  Effects of non-pharmaceutical interventions on COVID-19 cases, deaths, and demand for hospital services in the UK: a modelling study.   Lancet Public Health. 2020;5(7):e375-e385. doi:10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30133-XPubMedGoogle ScholarCrossref

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Wang  CJ, Ng  CY, Brook  RH.  Response to COVID-19 in Taiwan: big data analytics, new technology, and proactive testing.   JAMA. 2020;323(14):1341-1342. doi:10.1001/jama.2020.3151
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Variations in Processes of Care and Outcomes for Hospitalized General Medicine Patients Treated by Female vs Male Physicians

Anjali Sergeant, BASc¹; Sudipta Saha, SM²; Saeha Shin, MPH³; et alAdina Weinerman, MD⁴; Janice L. Kwan, MD, MPH⁵; Lauren Lapointe-Shaw, MD, PhD⁵; Terence Tang, MD⁵; Gillian Hawker, MD, MSc⁵; Paula A. Rochon, MD, MPH⁶; Amol A. Verma, MD, MPhil⁵; Fahad Razak, MD, MSc⁵

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Health Forum. 2021;2(7):e211615. doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2021.1615

Key Points

Question  Is physician gender associated with mortality and other patient outcomes in a general internal medicine inpatient setting?

Findings  In this cross-sectional study of 171 625 hospitalized patients, patients cared for by female physicians had lower in-hospital mortality after adjustment for hospital and for patient characteristics, but this was no longer statistically different after adjustment for physician characteristics.

Meaning  The lower mortality rate in patients cared for by female physicians may be partially explained by differences in physician characteristics.

Abstract

Importance  Hospitalized medical patients cared for by female physicians may have decreased mortality rates compared with patients of male physicians. However, this association has yet to be assessed outside of the US, and little is known about factors that may explain this difference.

Objective  To determine whether mortality, other hospital outcomes, and processes of care differed between the patients cared for by female and male physicians.

Design, Setting, and Participants  This retrospective cross-sectional study included patients admitted to general medical wards at 7 hospitals in Ontario, Canada, between April 1, 2010, and October 31, 2017. The association of physician gender with patient outcomes was examined while adjusting for hospital fixed effects, patient characteristics, physician characteristics, and processes of care. All patients were admitted to a general internal medicine service through the emergency department and were cared for by a general internist or family physician-hospitalist. Patients were excluded if length of stay was greater than 30 days or if the attending physician cared for less than 100 hospitalized general medicine patients over the study period. Statistical analyses were performed from October 15, 2020, to May 8, 2021.

Main Outcomes and Measures  In-hospital mortality, length of stay, intensive care unit admission, 30-day readmissions, and process-of-care measures (blood tests, medications, imaging, endoscopy, and interventional radiology services).

Results  A total of 171 625 hospitalized patients with a median age of 73 years (interquartile range, 56-84 years) were included (84 221 men [49.1%], 87 402 women [50.9%], and 2 patients with unspecified sex). Patients were cared for by 172 attending physicians (54 female physicians [31.4%] and 118 male physicians [68.6%]). In fully adjusted models, female physicians ordered more imaging tests, including computed tomography (adjusted difference, −1.70%; 95% CI, −2.78% to −0.61%; P = .002), magnetic resonance imaging (−0.88%; 95% CI, −1.37% to −0.38%; P = .001), and ultrasonography (−1.90%; 95% CI, −3.21% to −0.59%; P = .005). Patients treated by female physicians had lower in-hospital mortality (2256 of 46 772 patients [4.8%] vs 6452 of 124 853 patients [5.2%]). This difference persisted after adjustment for patient characteristics but was no longer statistically different after adjustment for other physician characteristics (adjusted difference, 0.29%; 95% CI, −0.08% to 0.65%; P = .12). The difference was similar after further adjustment for processes of care.

Conclusions and Relevance  In this cross-sectional study of patients admitted to general medical units in Canada, patients cared for by female physicians had lower mortality rates than those treated by male physicians, adjusting for patient characteristics. This finding was nonsignificant after adjustment for other physician characteristics.

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