Rare Cambrian fossils from Utah reveal unexpected anatomical complexity in early comb jellies

International team of researchers describe two rare Cambrian ctenophore fossils found in the house range of Utah

Peer-Reviewed Publication

HARVARD UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF ORGANISMIC AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY

 

IMAGE: ARTISTIC RECONSTRUCTION OF CTENORHABDOTUS CAMPANELLIFORMIS (TOP) AND THALASSOSTAPHYLOS ELEGANS (BOTTOM) view more 

CREDIT: ILLUSTRATED BY HOLLY SULLIVAN

Ctenophores, also known as comb jellies, are a group of over 200 living species of invertebrate animals with a transparent gelatinous body superficially resembling that of a jellyfish. There is much interest in ctenophore evolution in recent years as their controversial phylogenetic position in the animal tree of life has prompted conflicting hypotheses. While some studies suggest they might represent the earliest branching animals, others suggest a more traditional position as close relatives of jellyfish.

These hypotheses carry different and important implications for understanding the origin of animals themselves because, depending on the position of comb jellies in the tree of life, it’s possible that muscles and the nervous system might have had multiple origins, a rather big deal as these are some of the most distinguishing features of animals today. 

In a study published in iScience an international team of researchers describe two new species of fossil ctenophores from the mid-Cambrian of Western USA, one of which has a preserved nervous system, which illuminates the early evolution of nervous and sensory features in ctenophores.

Despite their importance for understanding animal evolution, most information about ctenophores comes from living species alone as fossil comb jellies are extremely rare due to their gelatinous bodies. However, some fossil ctenophores have been discovered in early and middle Cambrian sites (about 520-500 million years ago) with exceptional preservation. These fossilized specimens, found around the world in sites including Burgess Shale in Canada and Chengjiang in South China, show that Cambrian ctenophores are a bit different from living representatives. The fossils include features such as a skeleton that supported the ctenes, or comb rows, as well as up to 24 comb rows – many more than the eight comb rows possessed by living species.

In this study, researchers describe the first ctenophore fossils ever discovered in the United States and in doing so, add two new species to the scant fossil record of the group. These 500 million-years-old fossils were found in the Marjum Formation in the House Range of Utah. These exceptional marine deposits are known for preservation of delicate organisms that normally would not be represented in the shelly fossil record. More importantly, the fossils are preserved flattened as films of organic carbon, which aids the preservation of internal organs. Using electronic microscopy, the researchers were able to detect carbon film signals that allowed them to identify parts of the original internal anatomy.

CAPTION

Fossil specimen of Ctenorhabdotus campanelliformis from the mid-Cambrian Marjum Formation in Utah. Light photograph (left), elemental map showing nervous system as carbon films (center), and interpretative drawing (right).

CREDIT

Luke Parry, Rudy Lerosey-Aubril, and James Weaver

The first species, Ctenorhabdotus campanelliformis, has a small bell-shaped body with up to 24 comb rows and a wavy mouth opening. Intriguingly, this species shows two important features. First, there is a rigid capsule that protects the sensory apical organ, which represents the remains of the skeleton found in older ctenophores from the early Cambrian. Secondly, this species also shows a preserved nervous system. The nerves are long, and connect with a ring around the mouth. “This was quite an unexpected finding, as only one species (Euplokamis) of comb jellies today has comparable long nerves. Most modern comb jellies have a diffuse nervous net, and not well-defined long nerves,” said senior author Professor Javier Ortega-Hernández, the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University.

The second species, Thalassostaphylos elegans, has a rounder appearance, approximately 16 comb rows, and a wavy mouth opening. Although this species does not show fossilized nerves, it has an important feature known as the “polar fields”, which can be seen as two small dots on top of the apical organ. “These are also important for sensing the environment in living comb jellies, and finding evidence for them in the Cambrian is significant for understanding their evolution,” said Ortega-Hernández. “Interestingly, Thalassostaphylos elegans does not have a rigid capsule, indicating that the skeleton found in early Cambrian ctenophores was already lost in some representatives by the mid-Cambrian.”

Ultimately, the two new species from Utah illuminate the evolution of the nervous system, sensory structures, and diversity of Cambrian ctenophores. The researchers conclude that Cambrian ctenophores had more complex nervous systems compared to those observed today. Living species of comb jellies have a diffuse nervous system similar to the structure of chicken wire, but very thin and transparent. Cambrian ctenophores’ nervous systems were condensed with specific nerve tracks that basically ran along the length of the body and then as a ring around the mouth. This complex system is only seen in one living species, the Euplokamis, which is regarded as potentially being an early branching ctenophore living today. However, while Euplokamis has this elongated nerve structure that runs the length of the body, it does not have the ring around the mouth, so it too is simpler compared to Cambrian ctenophores.

CAPTION

Holotype fossil specimen of Thalassostaphylos elegans from the mid-Cambrian Marjum Formation in Utah. Light photograph (left), interpretative drawing (center), and magnification of polar fields (right).

CREDIT

Luke Parry and Rudy Lerosey-Aubril.

To better understand the evolution of this group, the team performed phylogenetic analysis which suggests the condensed nervous system is actually the ancestral condition and that only modern ctenophores have lost this complex nervous system and instead favored a more diffuse nerve net.

“This discovery means that there has a been a secondary simplification of comb jellies during their evolution, first losing the rigid skeleton, and then the discrete nerves observed in the fossils,” said Dr. Luke A. Parry, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, UK. “These are insights that would be impossible to obtain from only studying living comb jellies, so the fossil record is providing a valuable glimpse into the evolution of these enigmatic animals.”

Ortega-Hernández agreed, “In this context, Euplokamis would be showing a sort of vestigial organization of the nervous system, which are not seen in other living ctenophores. Ctenophores have a more complex evolutionary history than what can be reconstructed from their living representatives alone. Fossils allow us to understand the morphology that developed first and how it has changed through time.”

The studied fossil material consists of specimens from the Bureau of Land Management, and are permanently curated at the Natural History Museum of Utah in Salt Lake City. “The Bureau of Land Management is proud to preserve and protect paleontological resources on public lands, including in the Marjum Formation located in the House Range of west central Utah,” said Philip Gensler, acting BLM regional   paleontologist. “This site contains more than 100 species of Cambrian-age invertebrate fossils and provides opportunities to learn more about the evolution of marine species and the environment 500 million years ago. The BLM supports research and discovery on public lands and applauds the Natural History Museum of Utah and Harvard University for the outstanding preservation of these specimens, scientific research, and revelation about the evolution of comb jellies.”

The Museum curatorial staff contacted co-author Dr. Rudy Lerosey-Aubril, project coordinator and Research Associate, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, and Ortega-Hernández in 2019 to aid in examining and cataloging the vast collection of Cambrian fossils from the House Range of Utah. “The Cambrian deposits of western Utah are key to our understanding of the Cambrian Explosion. Our collaboration with the Natural History Museum of Utah has boosted our research on these remarkable fossil assemblages, leading to exciting discoveries that we are eager to report” said Lerosey-Aubril.

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JOURNAL

iScience

DOI

10.1016/j.isci.2021.102943 

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

20-Aug-2021

Disclaimer: AAAS and 

Under the northern lights: Mesospheric ozone layer depletion explained

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NAGOYA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: IN GEOSPACE, THE ARASE SATELLITE OBSERVES CHORUS WAVES AND ENERGETIC ELECTRONS, WHILE ON THE GROUND, EISCAT AND OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS OBSERVE PULSATING AURORAE AND ELECTRON PRECIPITATION IN THE MESOSPHERE. view more 

CREDIT: THE ERG SCIENCE TEAM

The same phenomenon that causes aurorae — the magical curtains of green light often visible from the polar regions of the Earth — causes mesospheric ozone layer depletion. This depletion could have significance for global climate change and therefore, understanding this phenomenon is important.

Now, a group of scientists led by Prof. Yoshizumi Miyoshi from Nagoya University, Japan, has observed, analyzed, and provided greater insight into this phenomenon. The findings are published in Nature’s Scientific Reports.

In the Earth’s magnetosphere — the region of magnetic field around the Earth — electrons from the sun remain trapped. Interactions between electrons and plasma waves can cause the trapped electrons to escape and enter the Earth’s upper atmosphere (thermosphere). This phenomenon, called electron precipitation, is responsible for aurorae. But, recent studies show that this is also responsible for local ozone layer depletions in the mesosphere (lower than thermosphere) and may have a certain impact on our climate.

What’s more, this ozone depletion at the mesosphere could be occurring specifically during aurorae. And while scientists have studied electron precipitation in relation to aurorae, none have been able to sufficiently elucidate how it causes mesospheric ozone depletion.

Prof. Miyoshi and team took the opportunity to change this narrative during a moderate geomagnetic storm over the Scandinavian Peninsula in 2017. They aimed their observations at “pulsating aurorae” (PsA), a type of faint aurora. Their observations were possible through coordinated experiments with the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) radar (at an altitude between 60 and 120 km where the PsA occurs), the Japanese spacecraft Arase, and the all-sky camera network.

Arase data showed that the trapped electrons in the Earth’s magnetosphere have a wide energy range. It also indicated the presence of chorus waves, a type of electromagnetic plasma wave, in that region of space. Computer simulations then showed that Arase had observed plasma waves causing precipitations of these electrons across the wide energy range, which is consistent with EISCAT observations down in the Earth’s thermosphere.

Analysis of EISCAT data showed that electrons of a wide energy range, from a few keV (kilo electron volts) to MeV (mega electron volts), precipitate to cause PsA. These electrons carry enough energy to penetrate our atmosphere to lower than 100 km, up to an ~60 km altitude, where mesospheric ozone lies. In fact, computer simulations using EISCAT data showed that these electrons immediately deplete the local ozone in the mesosphere (by more than 10%) upon hitting it.

Prof. Miyoshi explains, “PsAs occur almost daily, are spread over large areas, and last for hours. Therefore, the ozone depletion from these events could be significant.” Speaking of the greater significance of these findings, Prof. Miyoshi continues: “This is only a case study. Further statistical studies are needed to confirm how much ozone destruction occurs in the middle atmosphere because of electron precipitation. After all, the impact of this phenomenon on the climate could potentially impact modern life.”

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JOURNAL

Scientific Reports

DOI

10.1038/s41598-021-92611-3 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Penetration of MeV electrons into the mesosphere accompanying pulsating aurorae

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

12-Jul-2021

Nutrient-rich human waste poised to sustain agriculture, improve economies

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN, NEWS BUREAU

 

IMAGE: A NEW STUDY FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN HELPS DEFINE THE GLOBAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE AND SANITATION TECHNOLOGY. view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY L. BRIAN STAUFFER

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The future connection between human waste, sanitation technology and sustainable agriculture is becoming more evident. According to research directed by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign civil and environmental engineering professor Jeremy Guest, countries could be moving closer to using human waste as fertilizer, closing the loop to more circular, sustainable economies.

A new study characterizes the spatial distribution of human urine-derived nutrients – nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium – and agricultural fertilizer demand to define supply-demand location typologies, their prevalence across the globe and the implications for resource recovery. The findings are published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

“The total amount of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium largely remains constant in our bodies, once we stop growing,” said Guest, who also serves as the acting associate director for research at the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment at the U. of I. “Whatever comes in through food and drink must come out in our urine, feces and sweat. Knowing that, we can estimate how much of each of these nutrients is in a population’s bodily waste if we know their diet.”

Previous studies by Guest and others have assessed the potential for recovering the nutrients from human waste across the globe and identified locations with a surplus of human waste-derived nutrients relative to the local demand for agricultural fertilizers.

“The new study is the first to describe human waste-derived nutrient supply-demand location relationships using a single mathematical equation,” Guest said. “The quality of sanitation infrastructure varies greatly across the globe, as do people’s diets and the availability of land suitable for agriculture. Having the means to characterize and quantitatively compare a location’s nutrient-recovery potential can go a long way to better inform decision-makers when it comes to future sanitation and agriculture policy.”

The team performed extensive numerical and geographic analyses of dietary, population, sanitation and agricultural data from 107 countries to accomplish this quantitative characterization at the global scale. The investigation revealed three distinct supply-demand typologies: countries with a co-located supply-demand; countries with a dislocated supply-demand; and countries with diverse supply-demand proximities.

The United States and Australia, for example, fall under the dislocated supply-demand typology. They have intensive agriculture in areas far from large cities, thus the human waste-derived nutrient supply is far away from where it is needed, Guest said. Even with advanced sanitation infrastructure in place, this means that nutrients would need to be transported over large distances, either as heavy fluids or converted into concentrated crystalline products. Economically speaking, Guest said, it would make sense to work with a concentrated product to implement a human waste-derived fertilizer in these countries.

The study reports that in countries with co-located supply-demand typologies like India, Nigeria and Uganda, human populations are more substantively in the proximity of agricultural areas, making local reuse possible. In many communities with co-located supply-demand, however, there is a need for improved sanitation infrastructure. Guest said implementing a human waste-derived fertilizer program could be highly beneficial to sanitation and agriculture in these places.

Countries like Brazil, Mexico, China and Russia exhibit a continuum

of co-location to dislocation of nutrient supply and demand. The study reports that policymakers would need to approach human waste-derived nutrient use with more regionalized strategies and a range of local reuse and transport approaches. “Higher income countries in this group may have the infrastructure and economic support for various technologies, but those with limited financial resources would require prioritization of resource-recovery technology in some areas,” Guest said.

The team was surprised to find the typologies corresponded closely to the United Nations Human Development Index.

“Higher HDI-scoring countries like the U.S., Western Europe and Australia tend to fall in the dislocated supply-demand typology and lower HDI-scoring countries tend to fit the co-located supply-demand typology. Of course, there are exceptions, but we did not expect to find such a strong correlation,” Guest said.

The team hopes this research will help clarify the salient economic, sanitation and agricultural characteristics of countries across the globe so that decision-makers can prioritize investment, policies and technologies that will advance goals for a circular economy and the provision of sanitation to all, Guest said.

###

Desarae Echevarria, a former Illinois civil and environmental engineering graduate student, is the lead author of the study.

The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Graduate College Fellowship, the SURGE Fellowship from the Grainger College of Engineering, and the Civil and Environmental Engineering Distinguished Graduate Fellowship supported this study.

Editor’s notes:

To reach Jeremy Guest, call 217-244-9247; jsguest@illinois.edu.

The paper “Defining nutrient co-location typologies for human-derived supply and crop demand to advance resource recovery” is available online and from the U. of I. News Bureau. DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.1c01389.

More information about sanitation technology research is available from the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment at the U. of I.

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JOURNAL

Environmental Science & Technology

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Defining nutrient co-location typologies for human-derived supply and crop demand to advance resource recovery

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

14-Jul-2021

Superhero battles Covid lies in California theater production

Issued on: 20/08/2021 

Veronica Flores (L) and Leonor Garcia (R) wear coronavirus masks ahead of a superhero-themed Covid-19 play at the El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center in San Bernardino, California 

Frederic J. BROWN AFP

San Bernardino (United States) (AFP)

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Captain Empathy, a superhero ready to vanquish misinformation about vaccines in a Hollywood-style twist on the fight against Covid-19.

Wearing a yellow cape, the warrior battles the evil Coronavirus with medical science as his superpower in a piece of educational theater in San Bernardino, near Los Angeles, California. The hero disarms his nemesis by convincing two young people to get immunized.

"We thought of this play as a way to educate people about the importance of vaccines, especially young people," says director Valentina Sanabria.

Captain Empathy, played by Nathaniel Chavez, is attacked by the Covid-19 virus, played by Kenneth Artry

 Frederic J. BROWN AFP

"There are many people who are resisting the vaccine... because of rumors that it contains a microchip, or because... not enough time has passed to take a good look and educate themselves," she says.

Vaccines in the United States are free and widely available for anyone over the age of 12 who wants them, but just 51 percent of the population is fully immunized against Covid-19.

The low vaccination rate has doctors worried. They say that a recent surge in cases -- driven by the infectious Delta variant -- is largely affecting the unvaccinated, particularly in conservative southern states, among ethnic minorities and in poorer communities.

Artry, who plays the Covid-19 virus, jumps off stage during rehearsals of a superhero-themed Covid-19 play at the El Sol Neighborhood Educational Center 

Frederic J. BROWN AFP

"Captain Empathy vs. Covid-19" is a community-based effort to counter the skepticism about vaccines, with the spikey-shelled villain seen spreading lies about the effects of the jab.

"We are doing this to fight back against the misinformation," says Natanael Chavez, who plays the hero. "Not being vaccinated puts the whole family at risk."

With great power comes great responsibility, but, it appears, Captain Empathy is equal to the task, and has already won over at least one cast member.

Captain Empathy, Chavez (R), fights the Covid-19 virus during the closing scene of a superhero-themed Covid-19 play on August 19 

Frederic J. BROWN AFP

"I thought that since I already had Covid, I already had antibodies and I didn't need to get vaccinated," says Julia Perez, 26, who plays one of the girls initially refusing the jab.

"Here they let me know that it's important," said Perez, who, like her character, is now ready to book her shot.

© 2021 AFP

Nigerian oil hub hails coronation of new king

Issued on: 21/08/2021 -

The king or Olu of Warri is one of the most important traditional rulers in Nigeria reigning over a kingdom dating back to the 15th century

 PIUS UTOMI EKPEI AFP
2 min
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ODE-ITSEKIRI (Nigeria) (AFP)

Thousands of people in traditional red and white attire thronged to the riverine community of Ode-Itsekiri in southern Nigeria's oil hub Warri on Saturday to witness the ascension of their new king.

The king or Olu of Warri is one of the most important traditional rulers in Nigeria, reigning over a kingdom dating back to the 15th century with a trading hub and seaport once used by Portuguese and Dutch slave merchants.

Nigeria's kings and emirs hold no official political powers, but they wield enormous influence as custodians of spiritual and cultural heritage in Africa's most populous nation which has more than 300 ethnicities.

The new King, Omo Oba Utienyinoritsetsola Emiko, 37, ascended the throne as the 21st Olu of Warri at the ceremony in Ode-Itsekiri, his people's ancestral home.

The US-educated prince was crowned by traditional chiefs of the ancient town in the presence of ministers, governors, senators, religious leaders and diplomats.

After the crown was placed on his head, the kingmakers bowed to pay hommage to the new king to applause from the ecstatic crowd of onlookers.

The new king, now officially known as Ogiame Atuwatshe III of Warri kingdom, urged Itsekiri to support him, as guests were given displays of music, dancing, acrobatics and a boat regatta.

"We strongly believe the reign of King Emiko will usher in peace, progress and development in Warri kingdom," retired civil servant Felix Agbeyegbe, told AFP, wearing a black hat with white and red clothing.

The 77-year-old, who has witnessed the ascension of three Olu of Warri, described the new king as "a child of destiny who should be supported to succeed".

Emiko rose to the throne after the death of the former king, his uncle, but his ascension was not without controversy. Some traditional leaders disagreed because his mother is not from Itsekiri.

Rumours of a cancellation of his coronation also emerged after local media reports his traditional crown, the symbol of authority, was missing.

Two sons of the late king were reportedly invited for questioning by the police over the matter.

"The dispute has been resolved as the crown has been found," a palace source told AFP. "Prince Emiko will receive his crown."

In a message, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari urged the new king to put the controversy surrounding his emergence behind him and to work for his people.

Streets and corners in Warri and its environs were adorned with festive banners and buildings, offices and markets were decorated with white and red, the symbol of the Itsekiri.

Security was heavy and police helicopters hovered over the town.

Warri businessman Jolomi Otiri, 32, hoped the king "with his pedigree, will attract more development to the town".

But he urged the king "to unite all the sons and daughters of Warri irrespective of their religious and political affiliations and beliefs."

© 2021 AFP

Singh says NDP will crack down on 'renovictions', provide up to $5K in rent help

TORONTO — Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh pledged to offer relief from soaring housing prices on Saturday, promising thousands of dollars in subsidies for those struggling to keep pace with payments on rising rental costs.


Singh's pledge of $5,000 in annual rent subsidies came in downtown Toronto, a riding-rich district where the New Democrats are hoping to win seats away from the Liberals and where the NDP leader says average rents have skyrocketed by more than $4,000 in the past six years.

Singh also said his party would impose strict rules on Canadian Housing and Mortgage Corporation loans in an effort to stop so-called "renovictions." For-profit companies, he said, have been taking advantage of loans from the federal housing agency to purchase buildings, renovate them and then jack up the rent, forcing those who can't afford the new rates to find somewhere else to live.

"Buying is out of the question for so many people, even renting has become so difficult," Singh said at the downtown campaign stop. "Over the past couple of years, (it) has become more and more unaffordable."

"Justin Trudeau's allowed this to happen, allow this crisis to get worse, it's gotten worse while he's been in power and the CMHC is being used to 'renovict' people."

When asked where the funding for an annual supplement of up to $5,000 a year would come from, he pointed to his party's previous promise to introduce new taxes on the rich.

Video: Singh says NDP will crack down on 'renovictions', provide up to $5K in rent help (The Canadian Press)

A real estate economist said transferring cash to those with low-income is better than just building affordable housing, noting a subsidy can be allocated for other basic expenses.

"It's not a crazy idea but $5,000 is probably too much," said Tom Davidoff, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, noting that such subsidies would likely benefit renters more than supply-side aid such as the rental investment incentives proposed by the Conservatives.

Singh accused the Liberal leader of allowing rents to rise and housing prices to balloon by protecting investors over families.

The Liberal government kicked off a 10-year, multibillion-dollar national housing strategy in 2018-19. The parliamentary budget officer recently found program delays at CMHC, expired community housing deals with the provinces and a shift toward more expensive affordable homes have limited the impact of the strategy.

The NDP leader proposed only allowing CMHC loans to be used on affordable housing rather than renoviction projects, adding Canadians shouldn't have to compete with foreign investors when buying homes.

"I don't want them to come to Canada. I don't want them here," said Singh, reiterating his pledge of a 20 per cent foreign buyers' tax on the sale of homes to individuals who are not Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 21, 2021.

Denise Paglinawan, The Canadian Press

New Bill Proposes Cutting Pentagon Spending to Fund Vaccines for Poor Nations

"We can't bomb our way out of a global pandemic," said Rep. Mark Pocan, the sponsor of the legislation, "Shifting funds from weaponry and military contractors to producing Covid vaccines will save hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of lives around the world."


Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby speaks to the media on January 28, 2021 in Arlington, Virginia. (Photo: Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)


JAKE JOHNSON

August 20, 2021

Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin introduced legislation this week that would cut billions of dollars from the Pentagon's massive budget and invest those funds in global coronavirus vaccination efforts, which are badly lagging as rich countries continue to hoard doses and rush ahead with booster shots.

"Shifting funds from weaponry and military contractors to producing Covid vaccines will save hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of lives around the world."
—Rep. Mark Pocan

The Covid Defense Act proposes transferring $9.6 billion in U.S. military spending to Covax—a global vaccination initiative led by the World Health Organization—to assist with the procurement of doses for the people of low-income nations. Thus far, just 1.3% of people in poor countries have received at least one vaccine dose.

In a press release, Pocan's office said that the funding—which represents just 1.3% of the $740.5 billion in U.S. military spending approved for 2021—"could lead to an additional 1.8 billion Covid vaccine doses for lower-income countries in 2021 and early 2022." If passed, Pocan's office said, the new legislation could provide vaccine access to another 30% of the world's poorest and most vulnerable populations.

"We can't bomb our way out of a global pandemic," Pocan said in a statement. "Right now, Covid is the greatest risk to our national security as well as the world's security. Shifting funds from weaponry and military contractors to producing Covid vaccines will save hundreds of thousands—if not millions—of lives around the world."

"At a time when America spends more on its military than the next 11 closest nations combined," the Wisconsin Democrat added, "we should be able to sacrifice a little over 1% of that to save lives, build global goodwill, and actually make the world a safer, healthier place."



Pocan unveiled his legislation as Covax's vaccine distribution effort—which relies heavily on donations from rich countries—continues to falter, in large part due to inadequate supply. As the New York Times reported earlier this month, "Covax has struggled to acquire doses: It stands half a billion short of its goal."

"Covax hasn't failed, but it is failing," Dr. Ayoade Alakija, a co-chair of the African Union's vaccine delivery program," told the Times. "We really have no other options. For the sake of humanity, Covax must work."

The Covid Defense Act would authorize President Joe Biden to direct $9.6 billion in funding to coronavirus vaccine production and distribution efforts benefiting low-income countries, many of which are currently being ravaged by Covid-19.

According to survey results released Thursday by the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, nearly 70% of likely U.S. voters want the Biden administration to invest in global vaccination efforts, particularly a worldwide vaccine manufacturing program.

"The American public overwhelmingly supports doing what's right and necessary: massively ramping up coronavirus vaccine production so that everyone on the planet can be vaccinated," Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen, said in a statement. "That's a humanitarian imperative as the disease spreads faster and faster among low-vaccinated low- and middle-income countries. It's also a requirement even to end the pandemic in the U.S."

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Nearly Half the World's Children at 'Extremely High Risk' for Facing Effects of Climate Crisis, Report Finds

"Virtually no child's life will be unaffected" by the climate emergency, said the director of UNICEF.


A village official evacuates a child from a flooded area following heavy rains in Dazhou in China's southwestern Sichuan province on July 12, 2021. 

(Photo: STR/AFP via Getty Images)

JULIA CONLEY

August 20, 2021

On Friday, the third anniversary of climate campaigner Greta Thunberg's lone protest outside the Swedish Parliament, a global report revealed the scale of risks posed by the climate emergency for the world's children.

The United Nations' agency for children's rights, UNICEF, introduced the first-ever Children's Climate Risk Index, which shows that nearly half of the world's children are at "extremely high risk" for being faced with dangerous effects of the planetary crisis.

"The climate crisis is a child rights crisis," said UNICEF.

About one billion children live in dozens of developing countries that are facing at least three to four climate impacts, including drought, food shortages, extreme heat, and disease, the report, launched in collaboration with Fridays for Future, found.

"For the first time, we have a complete picture of where and how children are vulnerable to climate change, and that picture is almost unimaginably dire," said Henrietta Fore, executive director of UNICEF, in a statement.

"Our futures are being destroyed, our rights violated, and our pleas ignored."
—climate activists Greta Thunberg, Adriana Calderón, Farzana Faruk Jhumu, and Eric Njuguna

Some of the highest-risk countries include India, Nigeria, and the Central African Republic—countries which are among the least responsible for rampant fossil fuel extraction and greenhouse gas emissions contributing to the climate crisis.

"The top 10 countries that are at extremely high risk are only responsible for 0.5% of global emissions," Nick Rees, lead author of the report, told The Guardian.

UNICEF used high-resolution maps of climate impacts as well as maps showing children's vulnerability to poverty, lack of access to clean water, and other factors that make young people less able to survive climate-related catastrophes like extreme weather events.

While nearly half of the world's children are at extreme risk for experiencing multiple effects of the climate crisis firsthand, nearly every child on Earth was found to be at risk for at least one impact, including heat waves and air pollution.

"Virtually no child's life will be unaffected," Fore said.

According to the report, 820 million children—more than one-third—are at risk for experiencing extreme heatwaves like the deadly ones that have affected the United States' Pacific Northwest, Canada, and Western Europe this year. One in seven children are at risk for facing flooding rivers, and two billion are currently highly exposed to air pollution.


"Children are not afraid—and nor should they be—to demand that adults do everything they can to protect their future home."
—UNICEF

Thunberg, who is 18, was among the young climate leaders who wrote the foreward to the report, demanding urgent action by the world's policymakers as she did outside the Swedish Parliament in 2018 and then at weekly Fridays for Future demonstrations that quickly spread across the world, with millions of children and young adults joining.

"Our futures are being destroyed, our rights violated, and our pleas ignored. Instead of going to school or living in a safe home, children are enduring famine, conflict and deadly diseases due to climate and environmental shocks," wrote Thunberg, Adriana Calderón of Mexico, Farzana Faruk Jhumu of Bangladesh, and Eric Njuguna of Kenya. "These shocks are propelling the world's youngest, poorest, and most vulnerable children further into poverty, making it harder for them to recover the next time a cyclone hits, or a wildfire sparks."

The young advocates also published an op-ed in the New York Times on Friday to mark the release of the report.

"The fundamental goal of the adults in any society is to protect their young and do everything they can to leave a better world than the one they inherited," they wrote. "The current generation of adults, and those that came before, are failing at a global scale."

The report calls for children to be included in worldwide policy discussions and decision-making regarding the mitigation of the climate crisis, including the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) scheduled for November.

Policymakers attending the conference hope to secure a plan for global net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, mobilize financing from rich countries to help the developing world mitigate the crisis, and finalize regulations to make the Paris climate agreement operational.

"There is still time for countries to commit to preventing the worst, including setting the appropriate carbon budgets to meet Paris targets, and ultimately taking the drastic action required to shift the economy away from fossil fuels," reads the report. "We must acknowledge where we stand, treat climate change like the crisis it is and act with the urgency required to ensure today’s children inherit a liveable planet."

Considering that decisions made at COP26 "will define their future," Fore told The Guardian, "children and young people need to be recognized as the rightful heirs of this planet that we all share."

The report also recommends increasing the resilience and delivery of social services including healthcare, access to clean water, and social safety nets to "mitigate the worst impacts of climate change" and nature-based solutions to the crisis including wetland restoration and ecosystem protection.

UNICEF highlighted some positive recent large-scale changes including the falling cost of renewable energy sources and increased recognition by the financial system of "the risks that a degrading climate poses," leading to divestment from pollution-causing fossil fuel projects.

"One of the biggest reasons for hope is the power of children and young people. In recent years, children and young people have taken to the streets to demand action on climate change, and throughout the Covid-19 pandemic they have continued their protest online," reads the report. "They have revealed the depth of frustration that they feel at this intergenerational form of injustice, as well as their courage and willingness to challenge the status quo, and their role as key stakeholders in addressing the climate crisis."

"Children are not afraid—and nor should they be—to demand that adults do everything they can to protect their future home," said UNICEF.

"Movements of young climate activists will continue to rise, continue to grow and continue to fight for what is right because we have no other choice," said Jhumu, Njuguna, Calderón, and Thunberg in the report. "We must acknowledge where we stand, treat climate change like the crisis it is, and act with the urgency required to ensure today’s children inherit a liveable planet."

ACADEMIA
Letters
Government leadership and social mobilisation for crises planning: 

From wartime mobilisation to pandemic response to climate action

Laurence Delina
As we continue working towards containing COVID-19, we see how public resources have been deliberately re-adjusted towards this public health disaster. Many governments went on to adopt a wartime-like mobilization approach to produce necessary testing kits and pro-tective gears in quantities at a period of time never previously thought out (Kreitman 2020;Mulder 2020; Yglesias 2020). Research funds were also made available at quick speed to develop vaccines (Piper 2020). Communities started producing their own foods reminiscent of Victory Gardens during World War 2 (Sarmiento 2020; Rao 2020). Everywhere, we hearthe translation of wartime lingo to everyday conversations from ‘frontliners’ to ‘heroism to‘a common enemy.’ Crisis mobilisations, such as for the present pandemic and the past Great War, provides some lenses to strategize about another lingering emergency—that of acceler-ating climate change.These strategies, which I explored in details in my book (Delina, 2016), call for the mobil-isations of technologies, finance, labour, and policy to speed up the transition to sustainable and renewable energy systems.

 Deploying systems that will generate energy from wind, water, and sunlight to replace existing fossil fuel-based energy assets require massive investments of money, time, skills, and capacity. Factoring in the need to accomplish this project as quickly possible and across all communities, cities, and countries in light of the climate emergency would necessitate extraordinary mobilisation of vast resources. Sounds impossible but the present response to the pandemic and the historical stories of mobilisations for war seem to provide some sorts of a blueprint

https://www.academia.edu/44790571/Government_leadership_and_social_mobilisation_for_crises_planning_From_wartime_mobilisation_to_pandemic_response_to_climate_action?auto=download&email_work_card=download-paper

Hurricane Henri: How the climate crisis is changing hurricanes

In the same week that Tropical Storm Fred caused catastrophic flooding in North Carolina, and Hurricane Grace made its second landfall in Mexico, Hurricane Henri is barreling toward New England, where it's expected to be the first to make landfall there in 30 years.

© Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images An aerial view of damage in the Bahamas from Hurricane Dorian on September 5, 2019.

By Rachel Ramirez, CNN

Hurricanes -- also called tropical cyclones or typhoons outside North America -- are enormous heat engines of wind and rain that feed on warm ocean water and moist air. And scientists say the climate crisis is making them more potent.

The proportion of high-intensity hurricanes has increased due to warmer global temperatures, according to a UN climate report released earlier this month. Scientists have also found that the storms are more likely to stall and lead to devastating rainfall and they last longer after making landfall.

"We have good confidence that greenhouse warming increases the maximum wind intensity that tropical cyclones can achieve," Jim Kossin, senior scientist with the Climate Service, an organization that provides climate risk modeling and analytics to governments and businesses, told CNN. "This, in turn, allows for the strongest hurricanes -- which are the ones that create the most risk by far -- to become even stronger."

© David J. Phillip/AP Evacuees wade down a submerged section of Interstate 610 in Houston after Hurricane Harvey in 2017 caused widespread flooding.

Scientists like Kossin have observed that, globally, a larger percentage of storms are reaching the highest categories -- 3, 4 and 5 -- in recent decades, a trend that's expected to continue as global average temperature increases. They are also shifting closer to the poles, moving more slowly across land, growing wetter, and stalling in one location, Kossin found.

"There's evidence that tropical cyclones are more likely to stall," said Kossin, naming hurricanes Harvey, in 2017, Florence, in 2018, and Dorian, in 2019, as examples. Hurricane Harvey dumped more than 60 inches of rain on some parts of Texas, causing about $125 billion in damages, according to the National Hurricane Center, and killing more than 100 people.

"All of these were devastating to the places where they stalled," he added. "The combination of slower movement and more rain falling out of them increases coastal and inland flooding risk tremendously."

A 2020 study published in the journal Nature also found storms are moving farther inland than they did five decades ago. Hurricanes, which are fueled by warm ocean water, typically weaken after moving over land, but in recent years they have been raging longer after landfall. The study concludes that warmer sea surface temperatures are leading to a "slower decay" by increasing moisture that a hurricane carries.

And as storms like Henri makes landfall, torrential rain, damaging winds and storm surge become the most significant, often pernicious, threats. Storm surge, produced by wind blowing ocean water onshore is also expected to get worse over time due to stronger hurricane winds and climate change-fueled sea level rise, according to Kerry Emanuel, a professor of atmospheric science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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© David Goldman/AP In the aftermath of Hurricane Florence in 2017, Bob Richling carries Iris Darden out of her flooded North Carolina home as her daughter-in-law, Pam Darden, gathers her belongings.

"It's a very dangerous phenomenon," he said. "And it's responsible for a lot of the loss of life in the storms."

For every fraction of a degree the planet warms, according to the UN report, rainfall rates from high-intensity storms will increase, as warmer air can hold more moisture. Earlier this week, what had been Tropical Storm Fred dumped more than 10 inches of rain on western North Carolina, according to the National Weather Service, which pushed the Pigeon River near Canton 9 feet above flood stage and killed at least four people.

The science behind climate change attribution, which attempts to determine how much of a role it played in extreme weather, has made significant advances in the past decade, according to the UN climate report. Heat waves, flooding, drought and higher coastal storm surge are things that scientists are more confident now in linking to climate change. But there are still some questions around hurricane development that need answers, according to Emanuel.

"Knowing where they develop and where they move is critical to understanding the threat," Emanuel said. "So we have to take into account changing tracks, changing intensity, changing frequency, and changing genesis -- and we're confident about some of them and we're not so confident about other elements."

Although it's hard for scientists to tell whether odd storm tracks in the North Atlantic, like Henri's, are becoming more frequent because of climate change, long-term changes along the coast in the Northeast will ultimately influence the storms that do make landfall there.

"One thing that we might be able to speculate on is that the very unusually warm ocean along the US Northeast coast and Canada has a likely human fingerprint on it," Kossin added. "These warm waters should allow Henri to maintain greater intensity as it moves northward."

Bob, in 1991, was the last hurricane that made landfall in the New England region. However, Irene, in 2011, and Sandy, in 2012, were destructive for the Northeast when they came ashore, even though they did not make landfall as hurricanes.

The 2020 hurricane season tore through the alphabet so quickly that it was forced to use Greek letters as names from September through November. This year's season is already above average: Atlantic storms beginning with the letter H typically occur toward the end of September, meaning Henri formed more than a month ahead of average.

As the planet rapidly warms, extreme weather events will become more disastrous and possibly harder to predict. Unless climate and emergency management policies are fixed, Emanuel says infrastructure damage and potential loss of life will increase.

"The forecasters' nightmare is going to bed with a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico, headed toward a populated area, and waking up with a Category 4," Emanuel said. "And as the climate warms, that becomes more and more likely."