Canada's CPPIB to buy Ports America from Oaktree to further infrastructure push
(Reuters) -Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) said on Wednesday it had agreed to buy Ports America, one of the largest marine terminal operators in the United States, from investment firm Oaktree Capital Management LP.
While no valuation was given in the announcement statement, the deal values Ports America at over $4 billion, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The transaction comes amid heightened interest in logistics, with supply-chain disruption in focus as the global economy recovers from the paralysis caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
"There are lots of tail winds for logistics assets writ large, but our approach is for the long term and so this type of strategic ports asset will be important to the U.S. for decades to come," Scott Lawrence, head of infrastructure at CPPIB, said in an interview.
Under the terms of the deal, which is expected to close by the end of the year, the Canadian pension manager will take full ownership of Ports America.
CPPIB had previously held a 9.4% stake in Ports America. The pension fund also owns a 34% stake in Associated British Ports, as well as stakes in toll roads, utilities and digital infrastructure providers in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia, according to its website.
Alternative asset manager Oaktree has controlled Ports America since 2014, when it acquired Highstar Capital and the infrastructure-focused investor's funds, which included the Jersey City, New Jersey-based ports operator.
"Ports America's growth, track record of innovation and strong financial profile have positioned the company for success in today's cargo management and terminal operations environment, and we fully expect the business will only benefit from this new ownership structure," said Emmett McCann, managing director and co-portfolio manager of Oaktree's Infrastructure Investing strategy.
Founded a century ago, Ports America has operations in 70 locations across 33 ports in the United States. It currently handles 13.4 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) annually, which includes 10 million tons of cargo, 2.5 million vehicles and 1.7 million cruise ship passengers.
(Reporting by Sohini Podder in Bengaluru and David French in New YorkEditing by Krishna Chandra Eluri and Matthew Lewis)
Friday, October 01, 2021
Climate change is 'a freight train' making some places too dangerous to live in, experts say
Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
Joshua Schreiber and his family have never been city people. When they moved from Sacramento, California, to the Sierra Nevada foothills, they were thrilled to exchange cramped urban lots for a “jaw-dropping” vista and 5 acres that backed onto public land.
“It was insanely gorgeous and very affordable,” the social worker said.
But after four years, they sold and moved 27 miles west to the far edges of the state capital's suburbs. As much as they loved their home, it was no longer tenable. Wildfires became more frequent, torching nearby ridgelines and inspiring dread.
“Every year it got drier and drier. We just didn’t feel safe living there anymore,” Schreiber said of the home in Pollock Pines they left. “We got tired of being on standby in the summer to evacuate.”
This month, the 221,000-acre Caldor fire came within a mile from their former town, so close it singed two friends' houses and melted the vinyl windows of another, but sparing the one they used to live in. Still, only 76% contained, it has burned for 43 days across three counties, destroying 1,003 structures.
No adult in the room
Federal infrastructure programs take time. For now, despite the increasing number of Americans living in danger zones, federal, state, or local governments do little to stand in their way.
"The ball is essentially in homebuyers hands, said Zhong-Ren Peng, director of the International Center for Adaptation Planning at Design at the University of Florida.
Zoning is a local matter, and politicians are mostly interested in keeping property values high and increasing the tax base with more building, he said. Mortgage companies continue to sell in risky areas. Insurers raise rates or cease offering insurance at all, which prompts cries for federal programs.
There are solutions, say experts, but they require political and economic backbone to stop building in danger zones or at least insist on expensive adaptations.
"And adaptation means some places should not be developed at all," said Peng.
Asking individuals to make those decisions when they seldom have access to all the facts is unfair, said Jesse Keenan, a professor of real estate who researches climate change adaptation, economics and regulation at Tulane University in New Orleans.
"There's a climate intelligence arms race," he said. "The private sector is moving quietly to uncover these emergent risks but as a general proposition we just don't have good disclosure."
Thomas Ruppert, a coastal planning specialist at Florida Sea Grant and the University of Florida Extension, isn't confident anyone's going to be "the adult in the room” when it comes to making decisions about where is safe to build.
“There's no one at this point who has sufficient political or economic reason to stand up and say these things loud enough,” he said.
The money’s coming out of everyone’s pocket
Not only those who live in harm’s way pay. The costs end up on everyone’s shoulders.
The National Flood Insurance Program is a federally subsidized insurance program that provides more than 95% of flood insurance in the United States. It’s $20 billion in debt, which falls on taxpayers.
There's no national fire insurance program, though some are calling for one. California has the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, a state-mandated insurance pool that sells basic fire insurance for high-risk properties where traditional insurance will not.
In California, the cost of fire insurance has begun to go up as more fires hit every summer. No standard insurance companies would sell fire insurance to the Schreibers in the area they used to live. “We had to go through Lloyds of London. It was almost like another mortgage payment,” Schreiber said. It was one reason they moved.
So far in 2021, almost 2 million acres of the state have burned and 3,050 structures have been damaged or destroyed according to CalFire. Last year it was 4.2 million acres burned and 10,488 structures. Such events result in higher insurance premiums for everyone.
The California Department of Insurance last Monday issued a temporary moratorium on insurance companies dropping customers in 22 counties who live next to or in the perimeter of a declared wildfire disaster. It was the third time such a moratorium had been declared since the law was first passed in 2018.
Property insurance, especially when it's federally subsidized, can create what experts call a moral hazard, encouraging continuing risky behavior because there’s less downside.
Homeowners benefit from an implicit subsidy, Keenan said. "They aren't taking the risk, the government and the taxpayers are."
Insurance companies walk a fine line between being affordable and being rational. Consumers want cheaper insurance but that can result in bad choices.
Insurers are working to collect the data they need to properly price policies in risk-prone areas, said Karen Collins, assistant vice president for policy, research and international with the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. “We’re starting to see a tipping point in California,” she said. “There’s discussion of putting the brakes on new development.”
Any changes will need to be gradual, said Cooper Martin, director of sustainability and solutions at the National League of Cities.
"It's not to say you can't price risk, but you can't go from the system that we set up in the 1970s, fast-forward 40 years and just make those changes all at once," he said.
It might seem that lenders wouldn't want to buy a mortgage on a home that might not survive for 30 years. But there’s no incentive for them to stop providing mortgages in high-risk areas when they can easily unload them, said Keenan.
Banks are disproportionately selling such home loans to the secondary market and not keeping them on their books, his research found.
"It's like musical chairs," said Lee Reiners, executive director of the Global Financial Markets Center at Duke University law school. "Lenders are still willing to knowingly make loans in areas that are at risk of climate change-related losses because they’re just going to sell it on."
This could change. In January, the Federal Housing Finance Agency put out a request for comment on a plan to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's pricing reflect climate change risk.
Or it could not. There's powerful political pressure not to do so "because there are a lot of hands in this cookie jar," Reiners said. "If you say people are going to have to pay higher interest rates or higher insurance premiums, their congressmen are going to hear from them."
An equity issue
Some areas have instituted buyout programs for homes hit with repetitive losses, usually due to flooding. Louisiana has a state Watershed Initiative which includes a buyout program for flood-prone areas aimed especially at low- to moderate-income residents.
But most buyout programs favor the wealthy and all do nothing for the 36% of American households who rent, said A.R. Siders, a professor of climate change adaptation policies at the University of Delaware.
No matter how many homes are bought out, the amount of land being developed in danger zones and the size of those zones continue to grow. In many areas, far from pulling back from vulnerable lots development is expanding – and not just on the sandy Florida coast.
A 2019 Zillow and Climate Central analysis found that Connecticut is developing in flood risk zones three times faster than safer locations. In Delaware, Mississippi, New Jersey and Rhode Island, building is twice as fast than in areas less prone to flooding. New Jersey, Florida, and North Carolina have allowed the most homes built in risky zones.
The risk all too often ends up transferred to those who can least afford it when owners move out after floods or fires because the risk is too great and lower-income renters move in.
"This is a huge problem," said Tulane's Keenan. "What do you do about the people who come in and fill the void in these transitions?”
The adaptation paradox
An alternative to leaving danger zones is adapting to the coming changes. If sea levels are rising, build a sea wall. If wildfires loom, create buffer areas and fire harden buildings. If increasing rains cause flooding, raise houses and beef up sewer systems.
But sometimes protection can backfire. It's called "the safe development paradox."
“When people see a seawall, they have the false conception that they’re living somewhere safe, so they don’t even want to buy insurance,” said Peng.
Making better land-use choices now would be cheaper in the long run, but there’s little incentive for towns to do that because it doesn't add to the tax base.
Sometimes, even adaptation is impossible, as climate scientist Klaus Hans Jacob discovered when his wife fell in love with a house in Piermont, New York, in the Hudson River's tidal estuary. From decades of research, he knew rising sea levels would make the neighborhood even more prone to storm surges and flooding.
Jacob struck a deal with her. They’d buy it, but only if he could lift the foundation six feet.
“So we handed in the plans to our local government and they said, ‘That’s all good and forward-looking, but you can’t raise it more than two and a half feet because you’ll exceed the zoning height limitation,’” said Jacob, a professor of climate risk at Columbia University’s Lamont Observatory.
They asked for a variance and were told no “because it would set a precedent.”
When Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, the couple had two and a half feet of mud in their living room. “A week after Sandy, I get a letter in the mail. It said, ‘Now you can raise it up.’”
If you tell them, maybe they won’t come
It might seem no one would buy or rent a house in an area experts say is likely to flood or burn, but that’s only true if the potential residents know.
Organizations like the First Street Foundation and ClimateCheck have created detailed maps to show the climate-related risks of specific properties. A Flood Factor tool already exists and has been incorporated into the Redfin and Realtor.com sites, and a wildfire tool is coming this year.
"Our mission is to democratize the information," said First Street's Michael Lopes. "Banks have this information, insurance companies have it, the government has it. Often (the buyer) is the last person to know."
In 21 states there’s no requirement for full disclosure of threats when properties are sold. Out of the 10 states with the highest risk of severe floods over the next 100 years, only two have strong flood risk disclosure laws – California, and Louisiana, according to data from the Natural Resources Defense Council.
In New York state, for example, there is a requirement that sellers disclose whether a property is located in a designated floodplain and whether there have been previous flooding problems. But sellers can opt out of the requirement by paying a $500 fine.
The argument by homeowners, real estate agents and some cities has been that making risk information available could cause some houses to lose value.
“But think about the alternative,” Siders said. “We’re tricking buyers by not giving them information in order to get them to pay more in order to live in a risk-prone area.”
Hard choices
Solutions won’t be easy.
According to experts, zoning must be tightened to stop building in highly vulnerable areas. Building codes must be strengthened so what's built can withstand what's coming. Sellers and landlords must be required to reveal known threats to would-be buyers and renters. Insurance premiums need to be more in line with known and anticipated risks. Government buyout programs must expand so homeowners and renters have an out.
Not everyone can move, so some kind of adaptation will be necessary, said Cooper Martin, director of Sustainability and Solutions for the National League of Cities.
"We can't just pick up and move thousands and thousands of people, whether it's supported by the government or not," he said.
Broadly, it will take rethinking the way housing and development have been structured since the Second World War. Take Florida, which was built on a culture of urban sprawl development, said Florida's Ruppert.
“In order to pay for today we need new development to inject more money into the economy to pay the bills to support areas that we’ve already built,” he said.
Making existing towns denser and easier to protect from rising waters would save money because the tax base would increase with the existing infrastructure. Density can be cheaper to maintain and can produce the highest value per acre, said the National League of Cities' Martin.
"Cities are starting to talk about a combination of climate, housing and transportation planning all in one, instead of keeping those things separate," he said.
Breaking the cycle is difficult but to survive economically communities much change, Ruppert said.
“The way we live is not inevitable, it’s the product of the choices we’ve made,” he said. “If we learn that, we can start to rethink those choices and create the world we want to live in.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Climate change is 'a freight train' making some places too dangerous to live in, experts say
Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY
Joshua Schreiber and his family have never been city people. When they moved from Sacramento, California, to the Sierra Nevada foothills, they were thrilled to exchange cramped urban lots for a “jaw-dropping” vista and 5 acres that backed onto public land.
“It was insanely gorgeous and very affordable,” the social worker said.
But after four years, they sold and moved 27 miles west to the far edges of the state capital's suburbs. As much as they loved their home, it was no longer tenable. Wildfires became more frequent, torching nearby ridgelines and inspiring dread.
“Every year it got drier and drier. We just didn’t feel safe living there anymore,” Schreiber said of the home in Pollock Pines they left. “We got tired of being on standby in the summer to evacuate.”
This month, the 221,000-acre Caldor fire came within a mile from their former town, so close it singed two friends' houses and melted the vinyl windows of another, but sparing the one they used to live in. Still, only 76% contained, it has burned for 43 days across three counties, destroying 1,003 structures.
© Provided by USA TODAY Many people are dead or missing after catastrophic flash floods struck all across Tennessee, and President Joe Biden offers full federal support.
Climate change – and the ever more extreme weather it brings – is changing real estate equations. American dreams are increasingly running into weather nightmares, raising pressing questions about where it makes sense to live.
“There are just some places that are too dangerous to occupy,” said Chad Berginnis, executive director for the Association of State Floodplain Managers. “It’s like a freight train coming at us but politicians and citizens aren’t ready to hear that yet.”
Wild weather events, such as stronger storms, flooding, droughts and fires, are expected to worsen and become more frequent in the coming years, according to last month’s report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
Climate change – and the ever more extreme weather it brings – is changing real estate equations. American dreams are increasingly running into weather nightmares, raising pressing questions about where it makes sense to live.
“There are just some places that are too dangerous to occupy,” said Chad Berginnis, executive director for the Association of State Floodplain Managers. “It’s like a freight train coming at us but politicians and citizens aren’t ready to hear that yet.”
Wild weather events, such as stronger storms, flooding, droughts and fires, are expected to worsen and become more frequent in the coming years, according to last month’s report by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
© ASSOCIATED PRESS The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change releases a new and devastating report on the danger climate change has on the world.
Last year equaled 2016 as the hottest year on record. And this year will likely be one of the coldest of the coming century. The heating up of the Earth’s atmosphere and accompanying dramatic climate swings are having an impact on life on its surface and the homes of people who live there.
Nearly 6 million more homes and commercial properties are at risk than identified on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s floodplain maps, according to a recent analysis by the nonprofit First Street Foundation. That's by 2050, within the 30-year mortgage window. Similarly, more homes face extreme risk of wildfires than current projections by the USDA Forest Service, the First Street Foundation said.
Last year equaled 2016 as the hottest year on record. And this year will likely be one of the coldest of the coming century. The heating up of the Earth’s atmosphere and accompanying dramatic climate swings are having an impact on life on its surface and the homes of people who live there.
Nearly 6 million more homes and commercial properties are at risk than identified on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s floodplain maps, according to a recent analysis by the nonprofit First Street Foundation. That's by 2050, within the 30-year mortgage window. Similarly, more homes face extreme risk of wildfires than current projections by the USDA Forest Service, the First Street Foundation said.
© Action News Now The Monument Fire burns in Northern California on Aug. 2, 2021, near forests set aside to offset industrial carbon pollution. Healthy forests store carbon naturally, but when they burn, the carbon literally goes up in smoke, adding to global climate change instead of helping to slow it.
So far this year, wildfires have burned more than 5.7 million acres nationally across 10 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Sixty-three large fires were active as of Saturday.
Last year, the United States experienced 22 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The horrific collapse of Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida, brought home to many the potential danger of saltwater intrusion as sea levels rise.
On Aug. 31, Hurricane Ida, one of the strongest storms to ever hit the mainland U.S., ripped ashore in Louisiana before slamming into the Northeast. It killed more than 60 people. Insured property losses could range from $17 billion to $25 billion, according to AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe modeling company.
Torrential rains in Tennessee last month killed 20 people and left dozens missing. Global warming is causing more of these kinds of extreme rain events, with the amount of precipitation in the southeastern United States increasing by a third between 1958 and 2016, according to the U.S. National Climate Assessment.
On Sept. 7, President Joe Biden declared a "code red" on climate change, saying "we're living through it now. We don't have any more time." He hopes that Congress will approve his $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which includes several items to tackle global warming.
So far this year, wildfires have burned more than 5.7 million acres nationally across 10 states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Sixty-three large fires were active as of Saturday.
Last year, the United States experienced 22 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The horrific collapse of Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida, brought home to many the potential danger of saltwater intrusion as sea levels rise.
On Aug. 31, Hurricane Ida, one of the strongest storms to ever hit the mainland U.S., ripped ashore in Louisiana before slamming into the Northeast. It killed more than 60 people. Insured property losses could range from $17 billion to $25 billion, according to AIR Worldwide, a catastrophe modeling company.
Torrential rains in Tennessee last month killed 20 people and left dozens missing. Global warming is causing more of these kinds of extreme rain events, with the amount of precipitation in the southeastern United States increasing by a third between 1958 and 2016, according to the U.S. National Climate Assessment.
On Sept. 7, President Joe Biden declared a "code red" on climate change, saying "we're living through it now. We don't have any more time." He hopes that Congress will approve his $1 trillion infrastructure plan, which includes several items to tackle global warming.
No adult in the room
Federal infrastructure programs take time. For now, despite the increasing number of Americans living in danger zones, federal, state, or local governments do little to stand in their way.
"The ball is essentially in homebuyers hands, said Zhong-Ren Peng, director of the International Center for Adaptation Planning at Design at the University of Florida.
Zoning is a local matter, and politicians are mostly interested in keeping property values high and increasing the tax base with more building, he said. Mortgage companies continue to sell in risky areas. Insurers raise rates or cease offering insurance at all, which prompts cries for federal programs.
There are solutions, say experts, but they require political and economic backbone to stop building in danger zones or at least insist on expensive adaptations.
"And adaptation means some places should not be developed at all," said Peng.
Asking individuals to make those decisions when they seldom have access to all the facts is unfair, said Jesse Keenan, a professor of real estate who researches climate change adaptation, economics and regulation at Tulane University in New Orleans.
"There's a climate intelligence arms race," he said. "The private sector is moving quietly to uncover these emergent risks but as a general proposition we just don't have good disclosure."
Thomas Ruppert, a coastal planning specialist at Florida Sea Grant and the University of Florida Extension, isn't confident anyone's going to be "the adult in the room” when it comes to making decisions about where is safe to build.
“There's no one at this point who has sufficient political or economic reason to stand up and say these things loud enough,” he said.
The money’s coming out of everyone’s pocket
Not only those who live in harm’s way pay. The costs end up on everyone’s shoulders.
The National Flood Insurance Program is a federally subsidized insurance program that provides more than 95% of flood insurance in the United States. It’s $20 billion in debt, which falls on taxpayers.
There's no national fire insurance program, though some are calling for one. California has the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, a state-mandated insurance pool that sells basic fire insurance for high-risk properties where traditional insurance will not.
In California, the cost of fire insurance has begun to go up as more fires hit every summer. No standard insurance companies would sell fire insurance to the Schreibers in the area they used to live. “We had to go through Lloyds of London. It was almost like another mortgage payment,” Schreiber said. It was one reason they moved.
So far in 2021, almost 2 million acres of the state have burned and 3,050 structures have been damaged or destroyed according to CalFire. Last year it was 4.2 million acres burned and 10,488 structures. Such events result in higher insurance premiums for everyone.
The California Department of Insurance last Monday issued a temporary moratorium on insurance companies dropping customers in 22 counties who live next to or in the perimeter of a declared wildfire disaster. It was the third time such a moratorium had been declared since the law was first passed in 2018.
Property insurance, especially when it's federally subsidized, can create what experts call a moral hazard, encouraging continuing risky behavior because there’s less downside.
Homeowners benefit from an implicit subsidy, Keenan said. "They aren't taking the risk, the government and the taxpayers are."
Insurance companies walk a fine line between being affordable and being rational. Consumers want cheaper insurance but that can result in bad choices.
Insurers are working to collect the data they need to properly price policies in risk-prone areas, said Karen Collins, assistant vice president for policy, research and international with the American Property Casualty Insurance Association. “We’re starting to see a tipping point in California,” she said. “There’s discussion of putting the brakes on new development.”
Any changes will need to be gradual, said Cooper Martin, director of sustainability and solutions at the National League of Cities.
"It's not to say you can't price risk, but you can't go from the system that we set up in the 1970s, fast-forward 40 years and just make those changes all at once," he said.
It might seem that lenders wouldn't want to buy a mortgage on a home that might not survive for 30 years. But there’s no incentive for them to stop providing mortgages in high-risk areas when they can easily unload them, said Keenan.
Banks are disproportionately selling such home loans to the secondary market and not keeping them on their books, his research found.
"It's like musical chairs," said Lee Reiners, executive director of the Global Financial Markets Center at Duke University law school. "Lenders are still willing to knowingly make loans in areas that are at risk of climate change-related losses because they’re just going to sell it on."
This could change. In January, the Federal Housing Finance Agency put out a request for comment on a plan to have Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's pricing reflect climate change risk.
Or it could not. There's powerful political pressure not to do so "because there are a lot of hands in this cookie jar," Reiners said. "If you say people are going to have to pay higher interest rates or higher insurance premiums, their congressmen are going to hear from them."
An equity issue
Some areas have instituted buyout programs for homes hit with repetitive losses, usually due to flooding. Louisiana has a state Watershed Initiative which includes a buyout program for flood-prone areas aimed especially at low- to moderate-income residents.
But most buyout programs favor the wealthy and all do nothing for the 36% of American households who rent, said A.R. Siders, a professor of climate change adaptation policies at the University of Delaware.
No matter how many homes are bought out, the amount of land being developed in danger zones and the size of those zones continue to grow. In many areas, far from pulling back from vulnerable lots development is expanding – and not just on the sandy Florida coast.
A 2019 Zillow and Climate Central analysis found that Connecticut is developing in flood risk zones three times faster than safer locations. In Delaware, Mississippi, New Jersey and Rhode Island, building is twice as fast than in areas less prone to flooding. New Jersey, Florida, and North Carolina have allowed the most homes built in risky zones.
The risk all too often ends up transferred to those who can least afford it when owners move out after floods or fires because the risk is too great and lower-income renters move in.
"This is a huge problem," said Tulane's Keenan. "What do you do about the people who come in and fill the void in these transitions?”
The adaptation paradox
An alternative to leaving danger zones is adapting to the coming changes. If sea levels are rising, build a sea wall. If wildfires loom, create buffer areas and fire harden buildings. If increasing rains cause flooding, raise houses and beef up sewer systems.
But sometimes protection can backfire. It's called "the safe development paradox."
“When people see a seawall, they have the false conception that they’re living somewhere safe, so they don’t even want to buy insurance,” said Peng.
Making better land-use choices now would be cheaper in the long run, but there’s little incentive for towns to do that because it doesn't add to the tax base.
Sometimes, even adaptation is impossible, as climate scientist Klaus Hans Jacob discovered when his wife fell in love with a house in Piermont, New York, in the Hudson River's tidal estuary. From decades of research, he knew rising sea levels would make the neighborhood even more prone to storm surges and flooding.
Jacob struck a deal with her. They’d buy it, but only if he could lift the foundation six feet.
“So we handed in the plans to our local government and they said, ‘That’s all good and forward-looking, but you can’t raise it more than two and a half feet because you’ll exceed the zoning height limitation,’” said Jacob, a professor of climate risk at Columbia University’s Lamont Observatory.
They asked for a variance and were told no “because it would set a precedent.”
When Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012, the couple had two and a half feet of mud in their living room. “A week after Sandy, I get a letter in the mail. It said, ‘Now you can raise it up.’”
© Elizabeth Weise A house put up on stilts in Louisiana to protect against flooding. May 22, 2019.
If you tell them, maybe they won’t come
It might seem no one would buy or rent a house in an area experts say is likely to flood or burn, but that’s only true if the potential residents know.
Organizations like the First Street Foundation and ClimateCheck have created detailed maps to show the climate-related risks of specific properties. A Flood Factor tool already exists and has been incorporated into the Redfin and Realtor.com sites, and a wildfire tool is coming this year.
"Our mission is to democratize the information," said First Street's Michael Lopes. "Banks have this information, insurance companies have it, the government has it. Often (the buyer) is the last person to know."
In 21 states there’s no requirement for full disclosure of threats when properties are sold. Out of the 10 states with the highest risk of severe floods over the next 100 years, only two have strong flood risk disclosure laws – California, and Louisiana, according to data from the Natural Resources Defense Council.
In New York state, for example, there is a requirement that sellers disclose whether a property is located in a designated floodplain and whether there have been previous flooding problems. But sellers can opt out of the requirement by paying a $500 fine.
The argument by homeowners, real estate agents and some cities has been that making risk information available could cause some houses to lose value.
“But think about the alternative,” Siders said. “We’re tricking buyers by not giving them information in order to get them to pay more in order to live in a risk-prone area.”
Hard choices
Solutions won’t be easy.
According to experts, zoning must be tightened to stop building in highly vulnerable areas. Building codes must be strengthened so what's built can withstand what's coming. Sellers and landlords must be required to reveal known threats to would-be buyers and renters. Insurance premiums need to be more in line with known and anticipated risks. Government buyout programs must expand so homeowners and renters have an out.
Not everyone can move, so some kind of adaptation will be necessary, said Cooper Martin, director of Sustainability and Solutions for the National League of Cities.
"We can't just pick up and move thousands and thousands of people, whether it's supported by the government or not," he said.
Broadly, it will take rethinking the way housing and development have been structured since the Second World War. Take Florida, which was built on a culture of urban sprawl development, said Florida's Ruppert.
“In order to pay for today we need new development to inject more money into the economy to pay the bills to support areas that we’ve already built,” he said.
Making existing towns denser and easier to protect from rising waters would save money because the tax base would increase with the existing infrastructure. Density can be cheaper to maintain and can produce the highest value per acre, said the National League of Cities' Martin.
"Cities are starting to talk about a combination of climate, housing and transportation planning all in one, instead of keeping those things separate," he said.
Breaking the cycle is difficult but to survive economically communities much change, Ruppert said.
“The way we live is not inevitable, it’s the product of the choices we’ve made,” he said. “If we learn that, we can start to rethink those choices and create the world we want to live in.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Climate change is 'a freight train' making some places too dangerous to live in, experts say
Scientists come closer to solving Caribbean seaweed mystery
By Jake Spring
By Jake Spring
© Reuters/STRINGER
Besieged by Seaweed: Caribbean nations, entrepreneurs scramble to make use of sargassum
(Reuters) - Scientists were baffled when a band of seaweed longer than the entire Brazilian coastline sprouted in 2011 in the tropical Atlantic - an area typically lacking nutrients that would feed such growth.
A group of U.S. researchers has fingered a prime suspect: human sewage and agricultural runoff carried by rivers to the ocean.
The science is not yet definitive. This nutrient-charged outflow is just one of several likely culprits fueling an explosion of seaweed in warm waters of the Americas. Six scientists told Reuters they suspect a complex mix of climate change, Amazon rainforest destruction and dust blowing west from Africa's Sahara Desert may be fueling mega-blooms of the dark-brown seaweed known as sargassum.
In June 2018, scientists recorded 20 million metric tons of seaweed, a 1,000% increase compared with the 2011 bloom for that month.
"There are probably multiple factors" driving the growth, said oceanographer Ajit Subramaniam at Columbia University. "I would be surprised if there is one clear villain."
Still, a recent study examining the chemistry of seaweed from the 1980s up to 2019 offers the strongest evidence yet that water coming from city and farm runoff has been a major contributor to expansion of the so-called Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, which now stretches for nearly 9,000 kilometers.
NITROGEN RUNOFF
That study, co-authored by biologist Brian Lapointe at Florida Atlantic University, found that sargassum collected recently in coastal waters from Brazil to the southern United States, and including several Caribbean nations, contained levels of nitrogen that were 35% higher on average than in samples taken more than three decades earlier. The findings were published in May in the journal Nature Communications.
Nitrogen is found in human and animal waste and in fertilizers. The results suggest that sewage and farm runoff that's flowing into rivers throughout the Americas and then on to the ocean is feeding offshore sargassum growth. Currents carry much of this seaweed to the Caribbean Sea, where it's bedeviling the region's tourism-dependent coastal economies.
The samples also showed, for example, a 111% rise in the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus during the same time frame. That ratio has been nearly constant across the world's oceans going back decades. The change suggests the water chemistry has been radically altered.
The researchers singled out the Amazon River for particular scrutiny.
CLIMATE CHANGE
As global temperatures rise, scientists believe that rainstorms are intensifying in certain areas of the globe, including over the Amazon. Those storms are increasing the frequency of extreme flooding, which likely is pushing more nitrogen-rich runoff out to sea, Lapointe told Reuters, in a sequence he calls "a double whammy."
Experts note that peak Amazon River flooding pushes a plume of nutrients hundreds of kilometers out to sea in March and April, coinciding with major sargassum blooms. From there, currents push the seaweed around the coast of Venezuela into the Caribbean Sea and sometimes even farther north into the Gulf of Mexico.
Climate change is also fueling stronger hurricanes, which at sea are pulling more nutrients up from the seabed to potentially fertilize sargassum.
AFRICAN DUST AND ASH
Scientists have also theorized that dust from the Sahara Desert, along with smoke and ash, could be contributing to the seaweed boom. As the particles are blown westward over the Atlantic Ocean, they run into clouds and get rained down as fertilizing iron and phosphorus deposits in the water.
Proving exactly how much each of these factors might be contributing to sargassum's growth will take years of funding and research. But scientists say that doesn't mean governments can't act now to reverse the trend.
"This phenomenon will continue until there is a change in public policy," said Carlos Noriega, an oceanographer at Brazil's Federal University of Pernambuco. Brazil, for example, could slow deforestation, which has led to a boom in cattle ranching that allows loose soil, manure and fertilizer to wash into rivers.
He also noted the burgeoning human population in Brazil's Amazon region. The five largest cities there have grown by nearly 900,000 people since 2010, and much of the region lacks sufficient sewage treatment.
"Treating sewage and stopping deforestation, that's the only way to control it," Noriega said.
(Reporting by Jake Spring in Brasilia; additional reporting by Cassandra Garrison in Mexico City; editing by Katy Daigle and Marla Dickerson)
(Reuters) - Scientists were baffled when a band of seaweed longer than the entire Brazilian coastline sprouted in 2011 in the tropical Atlantic - an area typically lacking nutrients that would feed such growth.
A group of U.S. researchers has fingered a prime suspect: human sewage and agricultural runoff carried by rivers to the ocean.
The science is not yet definitive. This nutrient-charged outflow is just one of several likely culprits fueling an explosion of seaweed in warm waters of the Americas. Six scientists told Reuters they suspect a complex mix of climate change, Amazon rainforest destruction and dust blowing west from Africa's Sahara Desert may be fueling mega-blooms of the dark-brown seaweed known as sargassum.
In June 2018, scientists recorded 20 million metric tons of seaweed, a 1,000% increase compared with the 2011 bloom for that month.
"There are probably multiple factors" driving the growth, said oceanographer Ajit Subramaniam at Columbia University. "I would be surprised if there is one clear villain."
Still, a recent study examining the chemistry of seaweed from the 1980s up to 2019 offers the strongest evidence yet that water coming from city and farm runoff has been a major contributor to expansion of the so-called Great Atlantic Sargassum Belt, which now stretches for nearly 9,000 kilometers.
NITROGEN RUNOFF
That study, co-authored by biologist Brian Lapointe at Florida Atlantic University, found that sargassum collected recently in coastal waters from Brazil to the southern United States, and including several Caribbean nations, contained levels of nitrogen that were 35% higher on average than in samples taken more than three decades earlier. The findings were published in May in the journal Nature Communications.
Nitrogen is found in human and animal waste and in fertilizers. The results suggest that sewage and farm runoff that's flowing into rivers throughout the Americas and then on to the ocean is feeding offshore sargassum growth. Currents carry much of this seaweed to the Caribbean Sea, where it's bedeviling the region's tourism-dependent coastal economies.
The samples also showed, for example, a 111% rise in the ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus during the same time frame. That ratio has been nearly constant across the world's oceans going back decades. The change suggests the water chemistry has been radically altered.
The researchers singled out the Amazon River for particular scrutiny.
CLIMATE CHANGE
As global temperatures rise, scientists believe that rainstorms are intensifying in certain areas of the globe, including over the Amazon. Those storms are increasing the frequency of extreme flooding, which likely is pushing more nitrogen-rich runoff out to sea, Lapointe told Reuters, in a sequence he calls "a double whammy."
Experts note that peak Amazon River flooding pushes a plume of nutrients hundreds of kilometers out to sea in March and April, coinciding with major sargassum blooms. From there, currents push the seaweed around the coast of Venezuela into the Caribbean Sea and sometimes even farther north into the Gulf of Mexico.
Climate change is also fueling stronger hurricanes, which at sea are pulling more nutrients up from the seabed to potentially fertilize sargassum.
AFRICAN DUST AND ASH
Scientists have also theorized that dust from the Sahara Desert, along with smoke and ash, could be contributing to the seaweed boom. As the particles are blown westward over the Atlantic Ocean, they run into clouds and get rained down as fertilizing iron and phosphorus deposits in the water.
Proving exactly how much each of these factors might be contributing to sargassum's growth will take years of funding and research. But scientists say that doesn't mean governments can't act now to reverse the trend.
"This phenomenon will continue until there is a change in public policy," said Carlos Noriega, an oceanographer at Brazil's Federal University of Pernambuco. Brazil, for example, could slow deforestation, which has led to a boom in cattle ranching that allows loose soil, manure and fertilizer to wash into rivers.
He also noted the burgeoning human population in Brazil's Amazon region. The five largest cities there have grown by nearly 900,000 people since 2010, and much of the region lacks sufficient sewage treatment.
"Treating sewage and stopping deforestation, that's the only way to control it," Noriega said.
(Reporting by Jake Spring in Brasilia; additional reporting by Cassandra Garrison in Mexico City; editing by Katy Daigle and Marla Dickerson)
JOE MANCHIN'S BUDDIES
Exxon Mobil has been lobbying against parts of Democrats' big social and climate spending bill
Exxon Mobil has been lobbying against pieces of a sprawling Democratic budget bill aimed at boosting working class families and fighting climate change.
The fossil fuel giant has spent $275,000 over the past week on Facebook ads that include spots targeting tax hikes Democrats have proposed including in the bill.
The final shape of the bill, now pegged at about $3.5 trillion, has yet to be determined, although it is expected to include measures to boost child and elder care, and policies to cut carbon emissions
Exxon Mobil has been lobbying against parts of Democrats' big social and climate spending bill
Exxon Mobil has been lobbying against pieces of a sprawling Democratic budget bill aimed at boosting working class families and fighting climate change.
The fossil fuel giant has spent $275,000 over the past week on Facebook ads that include spots targeting tax hikes Democrats have proposed including in the bill.
The final shape of the bill, now pegged at about $3.5 trillion, has yet to be determined, although it is expected to include measures to boost child and elder care, and policies to cut carbon emissions
.
© Provided by CNBC A view of the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, May 15, 2021.
Exxon Mobil has been lobbying against pieces of a sprawling Democratic budget bill aimed at boosting working class families and fighting climate change.
The fossil fuel giant has spent $275,000 over the past week on Facebook ads that include spots targeting tax hikes Democrats have included in the bill, which has a $3.5 trillion price tag at the moment. An Exxon lobbyist earlier this year also focused on legislation regarding corporate and international taxes.
The final shape of the bill has yet to be determined, although it is expected to include measures to boost child and elder care, and policies aimed at cutting carbon emissions. Democratic leaders hope to pass the bill within weeks.
The ads don't mention President Joe Biden or the Democrats. At least six of the ads ran from Friday through Monday, although they are now inactive. One of those advertisements says, "Tell Congress no tax hikes." After a user clicks the ad, it reads, "Contact your elected officials today and let them know you oppose the proposed tax increases on American businesses."
The recent $275,000-plus ad buy is part of $2 million Exxon has spent on Facebook ads over the past 90 days. The spots pushing opposing raising taxes on businesses also ran before the prior-week period.
Democrats have proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5% as a way to help pay for the bill. They have also called for increased fees on the fossil fuel industry, while they are divided over whether to include a carbon tax.
The public is largely supportive of tax increases on corporations and the wealthy. A recent Morning Consult poll shows that 68% of those surveyed support raising taxes on the wealthy, and 62% have the same opinion of a possible uptick in corporate taxes.
Several special interest groups have launched lobbying efforts against the tax proposals and other elements of the bill, with much of the focus on centrists such as Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. Democrats need all 50 members of their caucus in the Senate to pass the measure using a tactic called budget reconciliation, which means they won't need to sway any Republicans to reach the usual 60-vote threshold to allow bills to proceed
Exxon Mobil has been lobbying against pieces of a sprawling Democratic budget bill aimed at boosting working class families and fighting climate change.
The fossil fuel giant has spent $275,000 over the past week on Facebook ads that include spots targeting tax hikes Democrats have included in the bill, which has a $3.5 trillion price tag at the moment. An Exxon lobbyist earlier this year also focused on legislation regarding corporate and international taxes.
The final shape of the bill has yet to be determined, although it is expected to include measures to boost child and elder care, and policies aimed at cutting carbon emissions. Democratic leaders hope to pass the bill within weeks.
The ads don't mention President Joe Biden or the Democrats. At least six of the ads ran from Friday through Monday, although they are now inactive. One of those advertisements says, "Tell Congress no tax hikes." After a user clicks the ad, it reads, "Contact your elected officials today and let them know you oppose the proposed tax increases on American businesses."
The recent $275,000-plus ad buy is part of $2 million Exxon has spent on Facebook ads over the past 90 days. The spots pushing opposing raising taxes on businesses also ran before the prior-week period.
Democrats have proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21% to 26.5% as a way to help pay for the bill. They have also called for increased fees on the fossil fuel industry, while they are divided over whether to include a carbon tax.
The public is largely supportive of tax increases on corporations and the wealthy. A recent Morning Consult poll shows that 68% of those surveyed support raising taxes on the wealthy, and 62% have the same opinion of a possible uptick in corporate taxes.
Several special interest groups have launched lobbying efforts against the tax proposals and other elements of the bill, with much of the focus on centrists such as Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. Democrats need all 50 members of their caucus in the Senate to pass the measure using a tactic called budget reconciliation, which means they won't need to sway any Republicans to reach the usual 60-vote threshold to allow bills to proceed
.
© Provided by CNBC A logo of the Exxon Mobil Corp is seen at the Rio Oil and Gas Expo and Conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September 24, 2018.
Any overhaul will require support from Manchin, whose home state of West Virginia is a large producer of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil. The state is home to part of the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation that also serves as one of the biggest natural gas fields in North America. Exxon Mobil oil and gas fracking subsidiary XTO Energy has operations in West Virginia.
Since the 2012 election cycle, Manchin has received just over $12,000 from the Exxon Mobil political action committee, according to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Manchin is the chair of the Senate's energy and natural resources committee. A senior Exxon lobbyist was caught on camera by the UK's Channel 4, saying that Manchin was one of his top targets. The lobbyist called Manchin the "Kingmaker" and said that he spoke to the senator's office on a weekly basis.
After publication of this story, a Manchin spokeswoman told CNBC that the Exxon lobbyist "greatly exaggerated" his influence with Manchin's team. E&E News reports that the lobbyist is no longer with the company.
"Throughout his entire public service career, Senator Manchin and those who work for him have always had an open door policy and a willingness to learn from those with varying and diverse opinions," Manchin's spokeswoman told CNBC in an email on Wednesday. "But recently an Exxon employee greatly exaggerated his relationship and influence with Senator Manchin's staff in an attempt to advance his own career only to be misled by an activist organization with an agenda of their own. To suggest that Senator Manchin is beholden to anyone except West Virginians is categorically false."
Exxon Mobil has spent over $2.7 million on lobbying so far this year, according to CRP data. Michael Solon, one of the Exxon lobbyists, was paid $10,000 for work done in the second quarter that specifically focused on "unspecified reconciliation legislation related to corporate and international taxes," according to the disclosure report.
Before he was a lobbyist, Solon worked as a policy director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
A spokesperson for Exxon did not return a request for comment.
Democrats in the House and the Senate are trying to craft the framework of a bill that could win support from centrists and progressives alike in both chambers. While a final bill will likely look different, the policies approved by House committees this month as Democrats put together a larger proposal offer clues into what the plan could contain. Democratic leaders are aiming to pass their investment in the social safety net and climate policy in the coming weeks.
Other companies with links to the oil and gas industry have also been actively taking aim at the reconciliation tax proposals through their lobbyists. Gas giant Valero paid Cornerstone Government Affairs less than $5,000 in the second quarter to engage with House and Senate lawmakers on the "corporate tax provisions of the Build Back Better budget reconciliation bill," according to the lobbying disclosure report.
The International Association of Drilling Contractors, a nonprofit trade association, spent around the same amount for lobbying lawmakers and Biden administration officials on "oil and gas policies in reconciliation," among other policies, according to their second quarter report. The group is "dedicated to enhancing the interests of the oil-and-gas and geothermal drilling and completion industry worldwide," according to their LinkedIn page.
There are other Democratic proposals linked to fighting climate change that could be of concern for oil and gas industry players.
As part of its markup, the House Natural Resources Committee proposed increased fossil fuel fees and royalties for extraction on public lands, among other plans that would affect the oil industry. The panel has also pushed to repeal the oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge set up as part of the 2017 Republican tax law.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee also advanced a fee on methane emissions, a product of oil and gas operations, among other energy-related policies.
Democrats are also split over whether to include a proposed carbon tax in the legislation. The provision, which could run afoul of Biden's pledge not to raise taxes on households that make less than $400,000, aims to reduce fossil-fuel emissions.
Any overhaul will require support from Manchin, whose home state of West Virginia is a large producer of fossil fuels such as coal, natural gas and oil. The state is home to part of the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation that also serves as one of the biggest natural gas fields in North America. Exxon Mobil oil and gas fracking subsidiary XTO Energy has operations in West Virginia.
Since the 2012 election cycle, Manchin has received just over $12,000 from the Exxon Mobil political action committee, according to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Manchin is the chair of the Senate's energy and natural resources committee. A senior Exxon lobbyist was caught on camera by the UK's Channel 4, saying that Manchin was one of his top targets. The lobbyist called Manchin the "Kingmaker" and said that he spoke to the senator's office on a weekly basis.
After publication of this story, a Manchin spokeswoman told CNBC that the Exxon lobbyist "greatly exaggerated" his influence with Manchin's team. E&E News reports that the lobbyist is no longer with the company.
"Throughout his entire public service career, Senator Manchin and those who work for him have always had an open door policy and a willingness to learn from those with varying and diverse opinions," Manchin's spokeswoman told CNBC in an email on Wednesday. "But recently an Exxon employee greatly exaggerated his relationship and influence with Senator Manchin's staff in an attempt to advance his own career only to be misled by an activist organization with an agenda of their own. To suggest that Senator Manchin is beholden to anyone except West Virginians is categorically false."
Exxon Mobil has spent over $2.7 million on lobbying so far this year, according to CRP data. Michael Solon, one of the Exxon lobbyists, was paid $10,000 for work done in the second quarter that specifically focused on "unspecified reconciliation legislation related to corporate and international taxes," according to the disclosure report.
Before he was a lobbyist, Solon worked as a policy director for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
A spokesperson for Exxon did not return a request for comment.
Democrats in the House and the Senate are trying to craft the framework of a bill that could win support from centrists and progressives alike in both chambers. While a final bill will likely look different, the policies approved by House committees this month as Democrats put together a larger proposal offer clues into what the plan could contain. Democratic leaders are aiming to pass their investment in the social safety net and climate policy in the coming weeks.
Other companies with links to the oil and gas industry have also been actively taking aim at the reconciliation tax proposals through their lobbyists. Gas giant Valero paid Cornerstone Government Affairs less than $5,000 in the second quarter to engage with House and Senate lawmakers on the "corporate tax provisions of the Build Back Better budget reconciliation bill," according to the lobbying disclosure report.
The International Association of Drilling Contractors, a nonprofit trade association, spent around the same amount for lobbying lawmakers and Biden administration officials on "oil and gas policies in reconciliation," among other policies, according to their second quarter report. The group is "dedicated to enhancing the interests of the oil-and-gas and geothermal drilling and completion industry worldwide," according to their LinkedIn page.
There are other Democratic proposals linked to fighting climate change that could be of concern for oil and gas industry players.
As part of its markup, the House Natural Resources Committee proposed increased fossil fuel fees and royalties for extraction on public lands, among other plans that would affect the oil industry. The panel has also pushed to repeal the oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge set up as part of the 2017 Republican tax law.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee also advanced a fee on methane emissions, a product of oil and gas operations, among other energy-related policies.
Democrats are also split over whether to include a proposed carbon tax in the legislation. The provision, which could run afoul of Biden's pledge not to raise taxes on households that make less than $400,000, aims to reduce fossil-fuel emissions.
Former Sudbury woman speaks out on front line medical care of Alberta’s pandemic emergency
A former Northern Ontario woman now working in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in a Calgary hospital says she is upset that the COVID-19 pandemic is lasting so long.
She said poor political leadership and the anti-vaxx crowd are responsible for the continuing spread of the disease.
Sarah Erickson is a graduate of North Bay's Canadore College and is a respiratory therapist looking after seriously ill COVID patients.
Erickson worked in Sudbury and New Brunswick before heading to Alberta.
"I am a respiratory therapist, as is my husband. We both work in the ICU. We only see the sickest patients. Our specialty is airways and ventilators. Therefore we see every COVID patient," Erickson said.
As it turns out, Alberta is in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic emergency. The provincial government declared an emergency on Sept. 16 as case counts and hospital admissions were on the rise. Erickson said working with so many critically ill patients has been intense.
"Right now our ICU is at 150 per cent capacity, and that includes surge beds," she said, adding that 90 per cent of the seriously ill patients, ranging in age from 30 to 70, are unvaccinated.
"This is directly a result of low vaccine rates and our poor leadership," said Erickson.
She specifically targeted Premier Jason Kenney, who earlier this year promised Albertans the “best summer ever.” She also named former Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro. She blamed both for "fueling the fire of anti-vaxxers."
Erickson said that easing restrictions and allowing the province to open up resulted in the fourth wave of the pandemic coming on hard.
"Alberta is very split with people who are vaxxed and follow rules to people who still think it's fake and don't follow any rules," said Erickson.
"It's the wild west. Without specific rules or laws or mandates those who wish to bend every recommendation do so because they 'don't have to'," she said.
"Kenney has always tried to bend to the far right to get votes, regardless of people dying. Case in point; 'let’s cut nurses and roll back wages across the board so my budget looks better come voting time'," Erickson said.
She added that the intensity of the pandemic is different in all of Canada's provinces, but it is worse in those provinces that have lower vaccination rates and where the political leadership hasn't taken it seriously. Saskatchewan and Manitoba are two examples, she said.
She added that it has made her work more stressful than she ever imagined it would be.
"Ourselves and our co-workers are very stressed and very tired. It's been an incredibly long two years. The rate at which we are working is not sustainable. Several colleagues have taken a leave of absence because they can no longer cope," said Erickson.
Another concern is that she and her husband, as front-line health workers, are constantly aware of their own health and the importance of not bringing COVID-19 home with them.
"We take it very seriously,” said Erickson. “We have a four-year-old daughter. We change before we get home and have showers before we see her. We both have senior parents, two of which are immunocompromised.
“Luckily most of our family is vaccinated and take precautions seriously. Until everyone who can be vaccinated is vaccinated, we are concerned for our daughter's health and definitely minimize contact with those who aren't vaccinated.”
She said she remembers how it was just after the SARS epidemic back in the mid-2000s when she graduated from college.
"While Sudbury wasn't directly affected it still changed our practices,” Erickson said. “Never did I think we'd have a true pandemic, especially one that's gone on for so long."
Len Gillis, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Sudbury.com
A former Northern Ontario woman now working in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in a Calgary hospital says she is upset that the COVID-19 pandemic is lasting so long.
She said poor political leadership and the anti-vaxx crowd are responsible for the continuing spread of the disease.
Sarah Erickson is a graduate of North Bay's Canadore College and is a respiratory therapist looking after seriously ill COVID patients.
Erickson worked in Sudbury and New Brunswick before heading to Alberta.
"I am a respiratory therapist, as is my husband. We both work in the ICU. We only see the sickest patients. Our specialty is airways and ventilators. Therefore we see every COVID patient," Erickson said.
As it turns out, Alberta is in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic emergency. The provincial government declared an emergency on Sept. 16 as case counts and hospital admissions were on the rise. Erickson said working with so many critically ill patients has been intense.
"Right now our ICU is at 150 per cent capacity, and that includes surge beds," she said, adding that 90 per cent of the seriously ill patients, ranging in age from 30 to 70, are unvaccinated.
"This is directly a result of low vaccine rates and our poor leadership," said Erickson.
She specifically targeted Premier Jason Kenney, who earlier this year promised Albertans the “best summer ever.” She also named former Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro. She blamed both for "fueling the fire of anti-vaxxers."
Erickson said that easing restrictions and allowing the province to open up resulted in the fourth wave of the pandemic coming on hard.
"Alberta is very split with people who are vaxxed and follow rules to people who still think it's fake and don't follow any rules," said Erickson.
"It's the wild west. Without specific rules or laws or mandates those who wish to bend every recommendation do so because they 'don't have to'," she said.
"Kenney has always tried to bend to the far right to get votes, regardless of people dying. Case in point; 'let’s cut nurses and roll back wages across the board so my budget looks better come voting time'," Erickson said.
She added that the intensity of the pandemic is different in all of Canada's provinces, but it is worse in those provinces that have lower vaccination rates and where the political leadership hasn't taken it seriously. Saskatchewan and Manitoba are two examples, she said.
She added that it has made her work more stressful than she ever imagined it would be.
"Ourselves and our co-workers are very stressed and very tired. It's been an incredibly long two years. The rate at which we are working is not sustainable. Several colleagues have taken a leave of absence because they can no longer cope," said Erickson.
Another concern is that she and her husband, as front-line health workers, are constantly aware of their own health and the importance of not bringing COVID-19 home with them.
"We take it very seriously,” said Erickson. “We have a four-year-old daughter. We change before we get home and have showers before we see her. We both have senior parents, two of which are immunocompromised.
“Luckily most of our family is vaccinated and take precautions seriously. Until everyone who can be vaccinated is vaccinated, we are concerned for our daughter's health and definitely minimize contact with those who aren't vaccinated.”
She said she remembers how it was just after the SARS epidemic back in the mid-2000s when she graduated from college.
"While Sudbury wasn't directly affected it still changed our practices,” Erickson said. “Never did I think we'd have a true pandemic, especially one that's gone on for so long."
Len Gillis, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Sudbury.com
Remote work has finally made me - a legally-blind person - feel like I can thrive at my job. I'm sad it took this long.
insider@insider.com (Rachel Christian)
Rachel Christian is a journalist and personal finance writer based Central Florida.
As someone who is legally blind, Christian says remote work has been a game-changer for her career.
At home, she can control her work environment and not worry about transportation or feeling self-conscious in front of coworkers.
As someone in the blind and low-vision community, the expansion of remote work has been an economic game-changer.
Normally, people with visual impairments face major hurdles in the workforce, from overcoming hiring discrimination to securing reliable transportation - less than half of US adults with visual impairments were in the labor force in 2019.
Transportation is often a major barrier to steady employment for the blind and visually impaired
A survey by the American Federation for the Blind found that 38% of people with blindness or low vision had turned down a job because of transportation concerns.
I experienced this first-hand as a 21-year-old college student. I was a year-and-a-half from graduation and a prestigious daily newspaper internship was at my fingertips.
I'd been freelancing for the paper for a semester, and had built a rapport with the news editor. I submitted my resume and clips, and cinched the interview.
Completing an online application was the final step. It was just a formality, the editor told me.
I breezed through it until I hit a seemingly mundane question: Do you have a valid driver's license?
My heart sank. My vision has been deteriorating since I was 15 years old due to a rare retinal disease called cone dystrophy. There's no cure. But I've adapted. I learned how to adjust the contrast, brightness, and zoom on my computer and smartphone to be able to excel in college.
Despite overcoming these challenges, I still didn't have a driver's license. I still don't. I've never even driven a car.
I told the truth on the application. A few days later, the editor informed me the internship was off the table. The driver's license requirement was corporate policy. Interns often went out on assignment - you had to have a car. His hands were tied, he said.
I went on to land a different internship, but that missed position still haunted me. I'd been so close to my goal, and was disqualified simply because I couldn't drive.
Transportation remained a chronic pain point throughout my career. Without a car, certain opportunities were eliminated. If a job wasn't near a bus or train stop, it didn't matter how well qualified I was. It wasn't an option.
About six months after starting a job at the marketing firm, the pandemic hit. My company went fully remote, like so many others across the country.
The transition to remote work changed my life - for the first time, I could completely control my work environment
I no longer struggled to see my computer screen in the sun-drenched window-filled office. I could keep my apartment as dark as a cave without inconveniencing anyone, and if I needed to lean forward and squint at my monitor, I didn't feel self-conscious or worry about what my coworkers might think.
My writing speed spiked. I made fewer mistakes. I picked up extra assignments and added two hours to my day previously lost to commuting.
The shift to remote work can make disabilities much less visible. My accommodations are already on my computer, so my coworkers don't even realize assistive technology is in place.
In the past, companies only hired people who lived within commuting distance of the office
This capped the pool of candidates to a tight geographic area, limiting the employment options and the earning potential of workers - especially those with low vision.
Due to the pandemic, that's no longer the case. Now, having a polished online portfolio and web presence goes much further than handshakes at happy hour meet-ups.
I experienced this firsthand about a month ago when a recruiter messaged me on LinkedIn about a senior writer position with a personal finance website. The office was an hour and a half away, but to attract qualified candidates, the company had made the position fully remote.
I applied and got the job because of my experience, skillset, and personality - the way it's supposed to be.
I haven't told my new employer about my vision impairment because, for the first time, it doesn't matter
My home office is customized and adapted to my needs. I've mastered the technology that helps me do my job. I still have occasional hiccups with Zoom, but hey, don't we all?
There's no need to hide my disability - but there's no need to disclose it yet either. A lack of transportation won't hinder my ability to write or get to work on time.
Of course, the pandemic hasn't leveled the playing field for all blind workers - only those who are proficient with technology and work a desk job. Still, more jobs than ever are going remote, from customer service to writing to data entry.
To expand inclusivity to more people in the blind and low-vision community, companies need to do their part. Employers should audit their own accessibility capabilities and establish inclusive initiatives for remote employees with disabilities.
It's also on the employee to educate themselves and their employers on accessible technology. If you have low vision, work with state agencies and nonprofits such as the Lighthouse to gain the proper training, education, and equipment you need to succeed. Don't be afraid to ask what low-vision aids or other devices your company may provide you.
Working with a disability is never easy. But the current labor market positions people impacted by vision loss to excel in a remote work world. For the millions of US adults with a vision impairment, inclusion and newfound economic opportunity may be the greatest perk of a remote work world.
Rachel Christian is a journalist and personal finance writer in Central Florida.
insider@insider.com (Rachel Christian)
© Provided by Business Insider Rachel Christian say remote work has greatly improved career opportunities for the blind and low-vision community. Rachel Christian
Rachel Christian is a journalist and personal finance writer based Central Florida.
As someone who is legally blind, Christian says remote work has been a game-changer for her career.
At home, she can control her work environment and not worry about transportation or feeling self-conscious in front of coworkers.
As someone in the blind and low-vision community, the expansion of remote work has been an economic game-changer.
Normally, people with visual impairments face major hurdles in the workforce, from overcoming hiring discrimination to securing reliable transportation - less than half of US adults with visual impairments were in the labor force in 2019.
Transportation is often a major barrier to steady employment for the blind and visually impaired
A survey by the American Federation for the Blind found that 38% of people with blindness or low vision had turned down a job because of transportation concerns.
I experienced this first-hand as a 21-year-old college student. I was a year-and-a-half from graduation and a prestigious daily newspaper internship was at my fingertips.
I'd been freelancing for the paper for a semester, and had built a rapport with the news editor. I submitted my resume and clips, and cinched the interview.
Completing an online application was the final step. It was just a formality, the editor told me.
I breezed through it until I hit a seemingly mundane question: Do you have a valid driver's license?
My heart sank. My vision has been deteriorating since I was 15 years old due to a rare retinal disease called cone dystrophy. There's no cure. But I've adapted. I learned how to adjust the contrast, brightness, and zoom on my computer and smartphone to be able to excel in college.
Despite overcoming these challenges, I still didn't have a driver's license. I still don't. I've never even driven a car.
I told the truth on the application. A few days later, the editor informed me the internship was off the table. The driver's license requirement was corporate policy. Interns often went out on assignment - you had to have a car. His hands were tied, he said.
I went on to land a different internship, but that missed position still haunted me. I'd been so close to my goal, and was disqualified simply because I couldn't drive.
Transportation remained a chronic pain point throughout my career. Without a car, certain opportunities were eliminated. If a job wasn't near a bus or train stop, it didn't matter how well qualified I was. It wasn't an option.
About six months after starting a job at the marketing firm, the pandemic hit. My company went fully remote, like so many others across the country.
The transition to remote work changed my life - for the first time, I could completely control my work environment
I no longer struggled to see my computer screen in the sun-drenched window-filled office. I could keep my apartment as dark as a cave without inconveniencing anyone, and if I needed to lean forward and squint at my monitor, I didn't feel self-conscious or worry about what my coworkers might think.
My writing speed spiked. I made fewer mistakes. I picked up extra assignments and added two hours to my day previously lost to commuting.
The shift to remote work can make disabilities much less visible. My accommodations are already on my computer, so my coworkers don't even realize assistive technology is in place.
In the past, companies only hired people who lived within commuting distance of the office
This capped the pool of candidates to a tight geographic area, limiting the employment options and the earning potential of workers - especially those with low vision.
Due to the pandemic, that's no longer the case. Now, having a polished online portfolio and web presence goes much further than handshakes at happy hour meet-ups.
I experienced this firsthand about a month ago when a recruiter messaged me on LinkedIn about a senior writer position with a personal finance website. The office was an hour and a half away, but to attract qualified candidates, the company had made the position fully remote.
I applied and got the job because of my experience, skillset, and personality - the way it's supposed to be.
I haven't told my new employer about my vision impairment because, for the first time, it doesn't matter
My home office is customized and adapted to my needs. I've mastered the technology that helps me do my job. I still have occasional hiccups with Zoom, but hey, don't we all?
There's no need to hide my disability - but there's no need to disclose it yet either. A lack of transportation won't hinder my ability to write or get to work on time.
Of course, the pandemic hasn't leveled the playing field for all blind workers - only those who are proficient with technology and work a desk job. Still, more jobs than ever are going remote, from customer service to writing to data entry.
To expand inclusivity to more people in the blind and low-vision community, companies need to do their part. Employers should audit their own accessibility capabilities and establish inclusive initiatives for remote employees with disabilities.
It's also on the employee to educate themselves and their employers on accessible technology. If you have low vision, work with state agencies and nonprofits such as the Lighthouse to gain the proper training, education, and equipment you need to succeed. Don't be afraid to ask what low-vision aids or other devices your company may provide you.
Working with a disability is never easy. But the current labor market positions people impacted by vision loss to excel in a remote work world. For the millions of US adults with a vision impairment, inclusion and newfound economic opportunity may be the greatest perk of a remote work world.
Rachel Christian is a journalist and personal finance writer in Central Florida.
For the 1st time, Listuguj Mi'kmaq can legally sell fall lobster catch
Tue., September 28, 2021,
Lobster boats from the Mi'kmaw community of Listuguj in the Gaspé returned with their first fall catch on Monday. For the first time, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans has issued a commercial license for the annual September and October harvest. (Isabelle Larose/Radio-Canada - image credit)More
Freshly caught lobster is a fall tradition for the Listuguj Mi'kmaq on the southern coast of Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula. And this year, for the first time, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has recognized the community's right to sell some of its September and October catch.
"Everyone's excited," said Denny Isaac, associate director of fisheries for the Listuguj Mi'gmaq Government.
"[Monday was] the first harvest, the first haul of the traps. Everyone's excited 'cause...it's also the first day the community gets a feed of lobster."
In April, Listuguj signed a five-year rights reconciliation agreement with Canada's Minister of Fisheries Bernadette Jordan and in August, the two sides came to terms on a licensed fall commercial lobster fishery.
"It's a demonstration of the recognition of our rights," said Listuguj Chief Darcy Gray, "something that we've been pushing for for a number of years."
"This year we have 21 fishers that are out there fishing for a couple of weeks and it's tremendous," he said. "But are there other opportunities that might exist down the road?"
The fishery runs from Sept. 26 through Oct. 10. Isaac says the new commercial element hasn't changed Listuguj's community-first approach.
"We fish 67 traps for the community," he said. "We aim for about 500 pounds a day to bring home to be cooked."
Over the course of two weeks, Isaac says 235 total traps bring in roughly 7,000 pounds of lobster. Everything that's caught is weighed and recorded through a dockside monitoring program that helps ensure sustainable harvesting.
Isaac says a portion of each boat's daily catch goes to a community kitchen where it's cooked and handed out every evening on a first-come, first-served basis.
"We know it's a limited resource but we try to share it as equally as possible," he said.
Isabelle Larose/Radio-Canada
Some lobsters are reserved for elders and others are served at community events. Isaac says Listuguj band members also have the option of signing up, at no cost, to have a fisher harvest for them directly.
"There's two different ways that community members get lobster," he said. "They can either come to the Listuguj lineup or they can ask a fisher to fish a tag for them and register that tag... [But] you can't get a tag and go to the community lineup — it's either or."
Concern over impact on lobster stocks
Not everyone in the region is happy about the new commercial harvest.
The Regroupement des pêcheurs du sud de la Gaspésie, a regional association of southern Gaspé fishermen, told CBC it's frustrated none of its members were consulted and it's worried about the impact the fall harvest will have on lobster stocks.
"Commercial fishermen who have always been at the forefront of conservation deplore DFO's decision to transform...what was previously supposed to be a small fall lobster fishery into a full-blown, unchecked commercial fishery," the association said in a statement.
"Listuguj already holds four commercial lobster licences during the normal commercial spring season as well other very lucrative fishing licences."
Isaac says the agreement for the new commercial fishery accounts for the fact that lobster are easier to catch after mating season, which runs from July to September, and locals aren't putting out any more traps than they usually would this time of year.
He says the new licence also dictates that for every day Listuguj fishermen are out on the water this fall, an average of seven days will be deducted from their spring licence during the usual commercial lobster season.
Isaac says the Listuguj fishery operates on local government funding as well as federal grants and subsidies and without commercial sales it is impossible to turn a profit.
"It costs money to run this," he said. "It's good news because individuals were selling in the past but they were being harassed. We're still feeding our people and now the guys can get a good market price and offset their expenses."
"I'd say it's a good step forward, however there's more work to do," he said."We're still negotiating with the government to discover a new way that they can recognize the full scope of our rights."
"Getting governments and fisheries and industry groups to understand the complexity of our rights but also our traditions that give us a little bit of priority and access to the resources to feed and sustain our people."
Tue., September 28, 2021,
Lobster boats from the Mi'kmaw community of Listuguj in the Gaspé returned with their first fall catch on Monday. For the first time, Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans has issued a commercial license for the annual September and October harvest. (Isabelle Larose/Radio-Canada - image credit)More
Freshly caught lobster is a fall tradition for the Listuguj Mi'kmaq on the southern coast of Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula. And this year, for the first time, Fisheries and Oceans Canada has recognized the community's right to sell some of its September and October catch.
"Everyone's excited," said Denny Isaac, associate director of fisheries for the Listuguj Mi'gmaq Government.
"[Monday was] the first harvest, the first haul of the traps. Everyone's excited 'cause...it's also the first day the community gets a feed of lobster."
In April, Listuguj signed a five-year rights reconciliation agreement with Canada's Minister of Fisheries Bernadette Jordan and in August, the two sides came to terms on a licensed fall commercial lobster fishery.
"It's a demonstration of the recognition of our rights," said Listuguj Chief Darcy Gray, "something that we've been pushing for for a number of years."
"This year we have 21 fishers that are out there fishing for a couple of weeks and it's tremendous," he said. "But are there other opportunities that might exist down the road?"
The fishery runs from Sept. 26 through Oct. 10. Isaac says the new commercial element hasn't changed Listuguj's community-first approach.
"We fish 67 traps for the community," he said. "We aim for about 500 pounds a day to bring home to be cooked."
Over the course of two weeks, Isaac says 235 total traps bring in roughly 7,000 pounds of lobster. Everything that's caught is weighed and recorded through a dockside monitoring program that helps ensure sustainable harvesting.
Isaac says a portion of each boat's daily catch goes to a community kitchen where it's cooked and handed out every evening on a first-come, first-served basis.
"We know it's a limited resource but we try to share it as equally as possible," he said.
Isabelle Larose/Radio-Canada
Some lobsters are reserved for elders and others are served at community events. Isaac says Listuguj band members also have the option of signing up, at no cost, to have a fisher harvest for them directly.
"There's two different ways that community members get lobster," he said. "They can either come to the Listuguj lineup or they can ask a fisher to fish a tag for them and register that tag... [But] you can't get a tag and go to the community lineup — it's either or."
Concern over impact on lobster stocks
Not everyone in the region is happy about the new commercial harvest.
The Regroupement des pêcheurs du sud de la Gaspésie, a regional association of southern Gaspé fishermen, told CBC it's frustrated none of its members were consulted and it's worried about the impact the fall harvest will have on lobster stocks.
"Commercial fishermen who have always been at the forefront of conservation deplore DFO's decision to transform...what was previously supposed to be a small fall lobster fishery into a full-blown, unchecked commercial fishery," the association said in a statement.
"Listuguj already holds four commercial lobster licences during the normal commercial spring season as well other very lucrative fishing licences."
Isaac says the agreement for the new commercial fishery accounts for the fact that lobster are easier to catch after mating season, which runs from July to September, and locals aren't putting out any more traps than they usually would this time of year.
He says the new licence also dictates that for every day Listuguj fishermen are out on the water this fall, an average of seven days will be deducted from their spring licence during the usual commercial lobster season.
Isaac says the Listuguj fishery operates on local government funding as well as federal grants and subsidies and without commercial sales it is impossible to turn a profit.
"It costs money to run this," he said. "It's good news because individuals were selling in the past but they were being harassed. We're still feeding our people and now the guys can get a good market price and offset their expenses."
"I'd say it's a good step forward, however there's more work to do," he said."We're still negotiating with the government to discover a new way that they can recognize the full scope of our rights."
"Getting governments and fisheries and industry groups to understand the complexity of our rights but also our traditions that give us a little bit of priority and access to the resources to feed and sustain our people."
‘Raising Sm’algyax’: Tsimshian mothers reclaim the language through nursery rhymes for toddlers
Tue., September 28, 2021
Dr. Mique’l Dangeli’s toddler, Hayetsk, is the first among two successive generations in his family to have Sm’algyax as his primary language.
Dangeli jests that his maternal grandmother worries she might find it difficult to communicate with her grandson who knows more of the language than she ever has her whole life.
“I tell her not to worry, Hayetsk will teach you,” said Dangeli whose battle to revive the dialect of the Tsimshian people is slowly materializing as a tiny army of toddlers begin to adopt it as a first language.
Sm’algyax –which was nearly lost to colonization as generations of First Nation families were forbidden to speak their first language in residential schools– is slowly making a come back, thanks to the efforts of scholars like Dangeli who spent years learning and passing along the knowledge to the next generation.
Dangeli has taught Sm’algyax at “all levels of human development,” right from toddlers to youngsters at Kitsumkalum First Nation’s Na Aksa Gyila̱k’yoo School to Tsimshian adults spread across North America.
Her most recent project, ‘Raising Sm’algyax,’ was created with a friend, Alex Roehl, from her hometown in Juneau,Alaska during the pandemic.
What initially started as a hashtag on social media, now has around 90 young Tsimshian mothers from across the north coast of B.C., Vancouver Island, Washington and Alaska coming together every week, virtually, to compose and learn nursery rhymes to teach their children.
“Raising our babies in our language, when that has been taken away from us for so many generations, is something I feel is an aspect of our language learning that needs more attention,” Dangeli explains.
There were very few resources available to young mothers to teach their children Sm’algyax when they started the group.
For example, “How do you talk about things that are part of your child’s everyday routine? Like diaper changing and bottles and teething and things that are very specific to little ones nursing and also even just talking about pregnancy and turning a baby.”
While the process of decolonization is very much embedded into her work as a teacher, motherhood was the driving factor for getting involved with this project.
As a Tsimshian mother, Dangeli didn’t want her son to grow up learning “colonial rhymes.”
“I wanted my son to hear our language,” she said, adding that the boy is her biggest inspiration when it comes to composing songs.
She took the melody of popular rhymes and changed the lyrics to reflect aspects that are more meaningful to the First Nations’ culture.
The group became a place of creativity, she says, as young Tsimshian mothers and grandmothers came together and helped create more than 85 songs since March 2020.
“Most of the songs have been completely written by our members, or translated and modified,” she says.
Dangeli’s favourite example of a modified song is the extremely catchy Apples & Bananas song from Sesame Street.
“One of the mothers took the song and she put in all of our traditional foods,” she said, giving an example of teaching children food names in Sm’algyax.
An adjunct professor of First Nation Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), Dangeli’s work with the language began at a very young age while growing up in her grandmother’s house in Alaska. Her interest in the language came through dance, the first Tsimshian art form she learned.
“So learning our songs and our dances, I was learning our language through them and I had so many questions for my grandmother.”
While Dangeli’s grandmother, an oral historian, spoke Sm’algyax fluently, she hesitated to teach the young girl at first because of her experience at the residential school.
Dangeli says her grandmother was very worried for safety because of what she had experienced,” said Dangeli.
It was only when she was 22 and graduated from university, that her grandmother saw that it was not only safe for her to learn Sm’algyax but that she was finding success in it and being called on to teach the language.
“It opened her up to teach me more of our language.”
After completing her PhD in 2015, she went on to teach Sm’algyax at the University of Alaska Southeast briefly.
When she moved to Terrace in 2017 with her husband, Dangeli had the opportunity to further hone her Sm’algyax under the tutelage of Tsimshian scholars and first language fluent speakers like Dr. Margaret Anderson, Velma Nelson, Bea Robinson, Ellen Mason, Edward Innes and Bernice Bolton among others.
“I wouldn’t have been able to raise my son in our language if I didn’t study with them,” she said about how they helped her grow exponentially.
Dangeli leaves for a tenure track position at the University of Fraser Valley next month but she is confident that the language program she started at Kitsumkalum’s school is in safe hands.
“I’ve worked really hard to create succession,” she says, as one of her students prepares to take over.
Having taught Sm’algyax since she was 19-years-old in Alaska, Dangeli says it is not a tough language to learn but it takes a lot of time and dedication.
Through the process of reclaiming their language, she says, Tsimshian are simultaneously working through the emotions of language loss, too.
And that language loss also has to do with the loss of people. “So it reminds us of elders, you know, in our family and grandparents and aunties and uncles that we wish we would have spent more time with not knowing at that time, that not knowing at that time that our language was dying.”
In that sense, learning Sm’algyax is a very powerful tool because Indigenous language learning is integral to all the processes of decolonization and indigenization.
“When we can see our land and our waterways and our children and our grandparents through the lens of our ancestors, it’s the closest that we can get to recovering and healing from the trauma of colonization… Our words for people in our lives, our words, for everything around us have such complex and beautiful information to teach us about the ways in which our ancestors understood relationships between people, between waterways, between land, between animals, our origins… It’s a way of coming into yourself that nothing else provides.”
Binny Paul, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Terrace Standard
Tue., September 28, 2021
Dr. Mique’l Dangeli’s toddler, Hayetsk, is the first among two successive generations in his family to have Sm’algyax as his primary language.
Dangeli jests that his maternal grandmother worries she might find it difficult to communicate with her grandson who knows more of the language than she ever has her whole life.
“I tell her not to worry, Hayetsk will teach you,” said Dangeli whose battle to revive the dialect of the Tsimshian people is slowly materializing as a tiny army of toddlers begin to adopt it as a first language.
Sm’algyax –which was nearly lost to colonization as generations of First Nation families were forbidden to speak their first language in residential schools– is slowly making a come back, thanks to the efforts of scholars like Dangeli who spent years learning and passing along the knowledge to the next generation.
Dangeli has taught Sm’algyax at “all levels of human development,” right from toddlers to youngsters at Kitsumkalum First Nation’s Na Aksa Gyila̱k’yoo School to Tsimshian adults spread across North America.
Her most recent project, ‘Raising Sm’algyax,’ was created with a friend, Alex Roehl, from her hometown in Juneau,Alaska during the pandemic.
What initially started as a hashtag on social media, now has around 90 young Tsimshian mothers from across the north coast of B.C., Vancouver Island, Washington and Alaska coming together every week, virtually, to compose and learn nursery rhymes to teach their children.
“Raising our babies in our language, when that has been taken away from us for so many generations, is something I feel is an aspect of our language learning that needs more attention,” Dangeli explains.
There were very few resources available to young mothers to teach their children Sm’algyax when they started the group.
For example, “How do you talk about things that are part of your child’s everyday routine? Like diaper changing and bottles and teething and things that are very specific to little ones nursing and also even just talking about pregnancy and turning a baby.”
While the process of decolonization is very much embedded into her work as a teacher, motherhood was the driving factor for getting involved with this project.
As a Tsimshian mother, Dangeli didn’t want her son to grow up learning “colonial rhymes.”
“I wanted my son to hear our language,” she said, adding that the boy is her biggest inspiration when it comes to composing songs.
She took the melody of popular rhymes and changed the lyrics to reflect aspects that are more meaningful to the First Nations’ culture.
The group became a place of creativity, she says, as young Tsimshian mothers and grandmothers came together and helped create more than 85 songs since March 2020.
“Most of the songs have been completely written by our members, or translated and modified,” she says.
Dangeli’s favourite example of a modified song is the extremely catchy Apples & Bananas song from Sesame Street.
“One of the mothers took the song and she put in all of our traditional foods,” she said, giving an example of teaching children food names in Sm’algyax.
An adjunct professor of First Nation Studies at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC), Dangeli’s work with the language began at a very young age while growing up in her grandmother’s house in Alaska. Her interest in the language came through dance, the first Tsimshian art form she learned.
“So learning our songs and our dances, I was learning our language through them and I had so many questions for my grandmother.”
While Dangeli’s grandmother, an oral historian, spoke Sm’algyax fluently, she hesitated to teach the young girl at first because of her experience at the residential school.
Dangeli says her grandmother was very worried for safety because of what she had experienced,” said Dangeli.
It was only when she was 22 and graduated from university, that her grandmother saw that it was not only safe for her to learn Sm’algyax but that she was finding success in it and being called on to teach the language.
“It opened her up to teach me more of our language.”
After completing her PhD in 2015, she went on to teach Sm’algyax at the University of Alaska Southeast briefly.
When she moved to Terrace in 2017 with her husband, Dangeli had the opportunity to further hone her Sm’algyax under the tutelage of Tsimshian scholars and first language fluent speakers like Dr. Margaret Anderson, Velma Nelson, Bea Robinson, Ellen Mason, Edward Innes and Bernice Bolton among others.
“I wouldn’t have been able to raise my son in our language if I didn’t study with them,” she said about how they helped her grow exponentially.
Dangeli leaves for a tenure track position at the University of Fraser Valley next month but she is confident that the language program she started at Kitsumkalum’s school is in safe hands.
“I’ve worked really hard to create succession,” she says, as one of her students prepares to take over.
Having taught Sm’algyax since she was 19-years-old in Alaska, Dangeli says it is not a tough language to learn but it takes a lot of time and dedication.
Through the process of reclaiming their language, she says, Tsimshian are simultaneously working through the emotions of language loss, too.
And that language loss also has to do with the loss of people. “So it reminds us of elders, you know, in our family and grandparents and aunties and uncles that we wish we would have spent more time with not knowing at that time, that not knowing at that time that our language was dying.”
In that sense, learning Sm’algyax is a very powerful tool because Indigenous language learning is integral to all the processes of decolonization and indigenization.
“When we can see our land and our waterways and our children and our grandparents through the lens of our ancestors, it’s the closest that we can get to recovering and healing from the trauma of colonization… Our words for people in our lives, our words, for everything around us have such complex and beautiful information to teach us about the ways in which our ancestors understood relationships between people, between waterways, between land, between animals, our origins… It’s a way of coming into yourself that nothing else provides.”
Binny Paul, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Terrace Standard
'Jesus was a healer': One man's rage at anti-vaccination pastors in local churches
Fri., October 1, 2021
Joe Gee has been busy caring for family members who've come down with COVID-19 in the Perth-Andover area. The only person among his siblings and parents who’s vaccinated, he's breaking his silence to take on what he says is a widespread anti-vaccination sentiment in the area driven by several local churches. (Ed Hunter/CBC - image credit)More
You can see in his slow walk and his dull eyes that Joe Gee is exhausted.
He's exhausted physically from caring for several members of his family in the Perth-Andover area of western New Brunswick who are infected with COVID-19.
And he's exhausted emotionally because he believes he can trace those infections back to a local church with a pastor who, he's been told, "discouraged people from protecting themselves" with vaccinations, masks and physical distancing.
"Different people who are connected with that church have explained, they have shared with me, that that pastor used this disease as a way to test people's faith in the Lord."
That also makes him angry.
"For people to say, 'Oh, you shouldn't get angry' … we all have a right to be scared, and we damn sure have a right to be angry.
"Vaccines are free. Vaccines are not poison.… You need to go get vaccinated, because if you don't, you just might be living the nightmare that I'm living right now."
Gee is the only person among his siblings and parents who's vaccinated. He's breaking his silence to take on what he says is a widespread anti-vaccination sentiment in the Perth-Andover area driven by several local churches.
"It's stupidity," he says. "If you want to make this a thing about religion, why not tell people that the Lord has already answered our prayers by giving us brains, and by giving us science?
"Jesus was a healer. People trusted Jesus. Why don't they trust these doctors that have the information that we need to protect ourselves and protect our loved ones?"
WATCH | Anti-vaccine sentiment driving COVID-19 spread through N.B. community:
In an interview in Carlingford, the rural community where he lives outside Perth-Andover near the U.S. border, Gee says he's "scared to death" of what's happening to his family.
It would be easy to cut ties over their decision to not be vaccinated, but he says he can't.
"I love all my family members, and it's because I love them that I'm feeling the way that I'm feeling. If I didn't love them, I wouldn't care. I wouldn't be here right now."
Indications of widespread infection in community
It's impossible to measure active COVID-19 cases around Perth-Andover. The province refuses to break down the 217 active cases in Zone 3, a large health region that includes Fredericton. Vaccination rates in the province are also not broken down by community.
But there are indications of widespread infections in this part of the zone.
Three schools in Perth-Andover have closed for two weeks. District superintendent David McTimoney said Wednesday the three schools have a total of 34 cases.
And the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville, which serves an area that also includes the towns of Woodstock and Hartland, was at 106 per cent capacity on Wednesday, the only Horizon Health hospital officially over capacity at the time.
Jacques Poitras/CBC
"Perth-Andover and the surrounding area is a hot zone right now for COVID cases," Gee says.
"We're hearing every day about different families and different people getting COVID and now it's turned into, 'This so-and-so lost their family member this day,' and 'So-and-so lost her family member today.'
"And it seems to be gaining some traction, and becoming more and more frequent. And it's devastating."
Gee's father was hospitalized last week. The same morning he spoke to CBC News this week, he called 911 to have an uncle taken by ambulance to the hospital in Waterville.
When he arrived, there was no bed for him.
Submitted by Joe Gee
Retired insurance salesman and Perth-Andover resident Jim Pickett guesses there are 60 cases or more in the area.
"It's all coming on at once, and vaccination, we've been told, is still the way out," Pickett says. "How these people are so determined each day that they're not going to get vaccinated … someone needs to drop a hammer."
Former Progressive Conservative MLA Wes McLean says there's "a mixture of fear and anxiety" in the community.
"I would call it a collective sadness among people of our community about what's happening."
He agrees there is "an anti-vaxx sentiment broadly" in the area.
Premier has said churches are source of cases
Gee won't name the church that he says is the source of the outbreak infecting his family.
Pickett says he knows of at least three churches where pastors have preached against vaccines and other public health measures such as masks and distancing.
"Most of the people I find that are unvaccinated have some tie to one of the churches," he says. "This certain church in Limestone Siding, I know of over 20 people that are sick or in the hospital or who have died, and we've never faced this before."
Jacques Poitras/CBC
That church, Amazing Grace Pentecostal, was also the location of the very first exposure notification in the area, back on Aug. 29.
Since then, there have been 20 more exposure notifications in Perth-Andover and nearby communities.
CBC News attempted to contact Roy Dee, the pastor at Amazing Grace, but he did not respond to two messages requesting an interview.
Premier Blaine Higgs has said churches have played a role in the growth of cases provincially. At first his government resisted imposing new COVID-19 restrictions on places of worship earlier this month.
But last Friday, the province's new emergency order said churches must now choose between requiring proof of vaccination or holding services at 50 per cent capacity with distancing, contact tracing lists and no singing. Masks are mandatory with either option.
"This is one strict policy or another strict policy," Health Minister Dorothy Shephard said.
'I'm talking about it'
On Tuesday, everyone was masked as they entered the church for a funeral for Dee's brother-in-law Donnie Moran. Moran died on Sept. 23 at the age of 90 following "a brief illness," according to his obituary.
Ed Hunter/CBC
Pickett says there are signs that some attitudes are changing.
"There's a certain church in our town where the minister told me a year ago this was all fake and foolishness," he says.
"And I noticed last week at the restaurant, he was not talking with the same enthusiasm because he has now a few people infected in his church."
Gee hopes that change is real. He's sleeping and eating poorly and trying to overcome the stress that comes with monitoring his family's health.
"I don't know how much longer I can do this," he says. "The nurses and the EMTs and the doctors and all the medical staff I know, I understand now what they're going through."
But he says he'll use what energy he has left to loudly urge people to get vaccinated and to hold faith leaders accountable.
"For so long, the argument has been, 'I don't know anybody that has it.… It ain't here,'" he says.
Jacques Poitras/CBC
"But now that it's here, people are trying to hide it. They don't want to talk about it. And I think a lot of that comes from that church, telling people to keep hushed and, 'Don't say anything.' So I'm coming out and I'm talking about it, and I'm going to do something about it."
He says that may include a civil lawsuit against the pastor whose anti-vaccination preaching he believes sparked the outbreak in Carlingford.
Gee also doesn't fear blowback from church-goers in the community who don't want him speaking out.
"That's the least of my worries right now. What I'm worried about is, who else this is going to kill and who else this is going to get sick?
"There's going to be more people like me that's vaccinated, that's going to have to take care of the unvaccinated. I'm worried about our hospitals that are full right now.
"So I don't give a rat's ass about blowback. If I stayed silent and didn't say anything at all and it kept going — I'm more worried about my conscience than I am blowback."
If there's one silver lining for Gee, it's his engagement to his partner, Tracey Connors, which happened last Sunday at a moment when the burden of COVID got the better of him.
Submitted by Joe Gee
He got a call at home from a woman who had watched her sister die via video call at 4:30 that morning and who had seen his impassioned Facebook posts.
"She thanked me for being open, and so I broke down after that, and I realized that I wouldn't have been able to do everything that I have if it hadn't been for my fiancee," he says.
He proposed to Connors on the spot. She said yes.
His vision of the wedding, whenever it happens, is a simple one: "That all my family is there, healthy and alive."
Fri., October 1, 2021
Joe Gee has been busy caring for family members who've come down with COVID-19 in the Perth-Andover area. The only person among his siblings and parents who’s vaccinated, he's breaking his silence to take on what he says is a widespread anti-vaccination sentiment in the area driven by several local churches. (Ed Hunter/CBC - image credit)More
You can see in his slow walk and his dull eyes that Joe Gee is exhausted.
He's exhausted physically from caring for several members of his family in the Perth-Andover area of western New Brunswick who are infected with COVID-19.
And he's exhausted emotionally because he believes he can trace those infections back to a local church with a pastor who, he's been told, "discouraged people from protecting themselves" with vaccinations, masks and physical distancing.
"Different people who are connected with that church have explained, they have shared with me, that that pastor used this disease as a way to test people's faith in the Lord."
That also makes him angry.
"For people to say, 'Oh, you shouldn't get angry' … we all have a right to be scared, and we damn sure have a right to be angry.
"Vaccines are free. Vaccines are not poison.… You need to go get vaccinated, because if you don't, you just might be living the nightmare that I'm living right now."
Gee is the only person among his siblings and parents who's vaccinated. He's breaking his silence to take on what he says is a widespread anti-vaccination sentiment in the Perth-Andover area driven by several local churches.
"It's stupidity," he says. "If you want to make this a thing about religion, why not tell people that the Lord has already answered our prayers by giving us brains, and by giving us science?
"Jesus was a healer. People trusted Jesus. Why don't they trust these doctors that have the information that we need to protect ourselves and protect our loved ones?"
WATCH | Anti-vaccine sentiment driving COVID-19 spread through N.B. community:
In an interview in Carlingford, the rural community where he lives outside Perth-Andover near the U.S. border, Gee says he's "scared to death" of what's happening to his family.
It would be easy to cut ties over their decision to not be vaccinated, but he says he can't.
"I love all my family members, and it's because I love them that I'm feeling the way that I'm feeling. If I didn't love them, I wouldn't care. I wouldn't be here right now."
Indications of widespread infection in community
It's impossible to measure active COVID-19 cases around Perth-Andover. The province refuses to break down the 217 active cases in Zone 3, a large health region that includes Fredericton. Vaccination rates in the province are also not broken down by community.
But there are indications of widespread infections in this part of the zone.
Three schools in Perth-Andover have closed for two weeks. District superintendent David McTimoney said Wednesday the three schools have a total of 34 cases.
And the Upper River Valley Hospital in Waterville, which serves an area that also includes the towns of Woodstock and Hartland, was at 106 per cent capacity on Wednesday, the only Horizon Health hospital officially over capacity at the time.
Jacques Poitras/CBC
"Perth-Andover and the surrounding area is a hot zone right now for COVID cases," Gee says.
"We're hearing every day about different families and different people getting COVID and now it's turned into, 'This so-and-so lost their family member this day,' and 'So-and-so lost her family member today.'
"And it seems to be gaining some traction, and becoming more and more frequent. And it's devastating."
Gee's father was hospitalized last week. The same morning he spoke to CBC News this week, he called 911 to have an uncle taken by ambulance to the hospital in Waterville.
When he arrived, there was no bed for him.
Submitted by Joe Gee
Retired insurance salesman and Perth-Andover resident Jim Pickett guesses there are 60 cases or more in the area.
"It's all coming on at once, and vaccination, we've been told, is still the way out," Pickett says. "How these people are so determined each day that they're not going to get vaccinated … someone needs to drop a hammer."
Former Progressive Conservative MLA Wes McLean says there's "a mixture of fear and anxiety" in the community.
"I would call it a collective sadness among people of our community about what's happening."
He agrees there is "an anti-vaxx sentiment broadly" in the area.
Premier has said churches are source of cases
Gee won't name the church that he says is the source of the outbreak infecting his family.
Pickett says he knows of at least three churches where pastors have preached against vaccines and other public health measures such as masks and distancing.
"Most of the people I find that are unvaccinated have some tie to one of the churches," he says. "This certain church in Limestone Siding, I know of over 20 people that are sick or in the hospital or who have died, and we've never faced this before."
Jacques Poitras/CBC
That church, Amazing Grace Pentecostal, was also the location of the very first exposure notification in the area, back on Aug. 29.
Since then, there have been 20 more exposure notifications in Perth-Andover and nearby communities.
CBC News attempted to contact Roy Dee, the pastor at Amazing Grace, but he did not respond to two messages requesting an interview.
Premier Blaine Higgs has said churches have played a role in the growth of cases provincially. At first his government resisted imposing new COVID-19 restrictions on places of worship earlier this month.
But last Friday, the province's new emergency order said churches must now choose between requiring proof of vaccination or holding services at 50 per cent capacity with distancing, contact tracing lists and no singing. Masks are mandatory with either option.
"This is one strict policy or another strict policy," Health Minister Dorothy Shephard said.
'I'm talking about it'
On Tuesday, everyone was masked as they entered the church for a funeral for Dee's brother-in-law Donnie Moran. Moran died on Sept. 23 at the age of 90 following "a brief illness," according to his obituary.
Ed Hunter/CBC
Pickett says there are signs that some attitudes are changing.
"There's a certain church in our town where the minister told me a year ago this was all fake and foolishness," he says.
"And I noticed last week at the restaurant, he was not talking with the same enthusiasm because he has now a few people infected in his church."
Gee hopes that change is real. He's sleeping and eating poorly and trying to overcome the stress that comes with monitoring his family's health.
"I don't know how much longer I can do this," he says. "The nurses and the EMTs and the doctors and all the medical staff I know, I understand now what they're going through."
But he says he'll use what energy he has left to loudly urge people to get vaccinated and to hold faith leaders accountable.
"For so long, the argument has been, 'I don't know anybody that has it.… It ain't here,'" he says.
Jacques Poitras/CBC
"But now that it's here, people are trying to hide it. They don't want to talk about it. And I think a lot of that comes from that church, telling people to keep hushed and, 'Don't say anything.' So I'm coming out and I'm talking about it, and I'm going to do something about it."
He says that may include a civil lawsuit against the pastor whose anti-vaccination preaching he believes sparked the outbreak in Carlingford.
Gee also doesn't fear blowback from church-goers in the community who don't want him speaking out.
"That's the least of my worries right now. What I'm worried about is, who else this is going to kill and who else this is going to get sick?
"There's going to be more people like me that's vaccinated, that's going to have to take care of the unvaccinated. I'm worried about our hospitals that are full right now.
"So I don't give a rat's ass about blowback. If I stayed silent and didn't say anything at all and it kept going — I'm more worried about my conscience than I am blowback."
If there's one silver lining for Gee, it's his engagement to his partner, Tracey Connors, which happened last Sunday at a moment when the burden of COVID got the better of him.
Submitted by Joe Gee
He got a call at home from a woman who had watched her sister die via video call at 4:30 that morning and who had seen his impassioned Facebook posts.
"She thanked me for being open, and so I broke down after that, and I realized that I wouldn't have been able to do everything that I have if it hadn't been for my fiancee," he says.
He proposed to Connors on the spot. She said yes.
His vision of the wedding, whenever it happens, is a simple one: "That all my family is there, healthy and alive."
Wyoming city reflects vaccine hesitancy in conservative US
Tue., September 28, 2021,
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) — As her beloved grandmother’s health declined, Lauren Pfenning's family insisted that she get a COVID-19 vaccine before paying her a final visit.
She spent over a week researching vaccines on the internet and anguished over the decision during and after 12-hour shifts at her job hauling coal in an open-pit mine near Gillette, Wyoming. Her grandmother died earlier this month before she made a decision, but Pfenning stands by her choice to not get vaccinated.
Pfenning embodies the fiercely independent, deeply conservative Wyoming way of life that has defined the state’s response to the pandemic and made it the second-least vaccinated state as of Tuesday, behind only West Virginia. Only 23% of residents in her county have been vaccinated, putting it among the bottom handful of places in America that have not cracked 25% with their COVID-19 immunization rates.
The vaccine hesitancy in Gillette is emblematic of the live-free, mind-your-own-business mentality toward the pandemic that is dominant across conservative America at a time when the delta variant is tearing through unvaccinated communities.
For every 100 people spotted around town in Gillette, the number wearing masks can be counted on one hand. Among a group of six people on a smoke break downtown, all said they had too many concerns about the vaccine to mess with it. Down the street, a black shirt displayed in a storefront warned, “ATTENTION SNOWFLAKES: THIS IS NOT A SAFE PLACE.”
People bristle at the workplace vaccine mandate being pushed by President Joe Biden. When asked about workplace mandates and the option to bypass the requirement with regular virus testing, Pfenning’s immediate response: “Test away!"
Anger over presidential meddling in Wyoming’s affairs is dominant across the state, but in Gillette, it gets personal.
The area’s vast coal industry has suffered a decade of decline amid competition from renewable energy and inexpensive natural gas, and coal regulations imposed by President Barack Obama — and lifted by President Donald Trump — have provoked fury among residents.
“It just feels like one attack after another. I think we’re just wanting to fight back harder at this point. Wyoming as a whole is just sick of being pushed around,” said Pfenning.
All the while, COVID-19 patients have been filling several of Wyoming’s hospitals including the one in Gillette, the state’s third-largest city.
At Campbell County Memorial Hospital, 17 of 27 intensive care and medical-surgical unit patients recently had severe COVID-19, leaving just two beds open while the very worst coronavirus cases got flown to more intensive treatment in neighboring states.
Meanwhile, a local surge — up 34% in a week — drove up COVID-19 cases to almost four times the national rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Statewide, more than 96% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated. Yet the daily flow of COVID-19 failed to persuade many Campbell County Memorial Hospital employees to get the vaccine.
Only 39% of the hospital’s workforce is vaccinated, and there are no plans to require or incentivize it, said the hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Attila Barabas. Wyoming’s statewide vaccination rate of 41% is well below the national rate of 55%.
“I’m a big believer in freedom of choice. I honestly think that’s a fundamental aspect of being an American. And I think mandates can be troublesome and can cause a pushback to some degree,” Barabas said.
The doctor got the vaccine and has encouraged relatives and patients to do the same. Ultimately, though, “that has to be a choice that you make,” Barabas said.
Wyoming’s view of vaccine mandates could come to a head soon. Wyoming officials are promising a vigorous fight against Biden’s vaccine mandate, with talk about using the president’s coronavirus relief funds to compensate businesses for fines levied against them for defying the mandate.
At the same time, they are gently encouraging people to get the jab.
In a television ad showing people line dancing to country music, a woman says she got vaccinated to be able to have “ladies’ night out.” Wyoming has spent $900,000 and plans to spend another $685,000 on such ads, according to the Wyoming Department of Health.
Striving for balance with COVID-19 policies has whipsawed Republican Gov. Mark Gordon at times. Preparing to impose an unpopular statewide mask mandate last year, Gordon lashed out at people who refused to take steps to control the virus, calling them “knuckleheads.”
This year, as the delta variant brought more death and illness to the state, Gordon promised no mask mandate but said people should get vaccinated “if you’re willing.”
Vaccine resistance during the pandemic reflects a broader dilemma for public health officials in a region where prevailing attitudes cause high smoking and low flu immunization, cancer screening and seat belt use rates, said the department’s interim director, Stefan Johansson.
“We just have a population that I think is indicative of the Mountain West culture that, you know, lives free and doesn’t always take the health advice,” Johansson said.
For Pfenning, the coal mine worker, the decision to not vaccinate came down to her belief that the approval process was rushed and there are too many risky side effects, despite the fact that hundreds of millions of people have safely gotten the shots and avoided serious illness and hospitalization.
“It has nothing to do with politics. I’m even picky on what I give my horses, I’m picky on what I give my dogs. And we over-vaccinate,” said Pfenning.
And while Pfenning said her decision wasn’t political, politics pervades. In November, Wyoming gave Trump his widest margin of victory of any state, 70%. Campbell County gave Trump his one of his widest margins of victory in Wyoming, 87%.
“The people are so conservative here that they have these grass roots of saying, ’Look, I don’t like the government regulating my life,’” summed up Campbell County Commissioner Del Shelstad.
Scott Clem, pastor of Gillette’s Central Baptist Church, is among the many in the city who are not vaccinated. The former Republican legislator led a mask-burning protest at the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne in January and says he trusts his immune system to protect him.
“It's none of your business whether I'm vaccinated or not,” said Clem. “That, I think, in some sense, is being a busybody in other men's matters. I think that's some of the sentiment out here in Wyoming. We're pretty rugged individuals out here in the West.”
___
Follow Mead Gruver at https://twitter.com/meadgruver
Mead Gruver, The Associated Press
Tue., September 28, 2021,
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) — As her beloved grandmother’s health declined, Lauren Pfenning's family insisted that she get a COVID-19 vaccine before paying her a final visit.
She spent over a week researching vaccines on the internet and anguished over the decision during and after 12-hour shifts at her job hauling coal in an open-pit mine near Gillette, Wyoming. Her grandmother died earlier this month before she made a decision, but Pfenning stands by her choice to not get vaccinated.
Pfenning embodies the fiercely independent, deeply conservative Wyoming way of life that has defined the state’s response to the pandemic and made it the second-least vaccinated state as of Tuesday, behind only West Virginia. Only 23% of residents in her county have been vaccinated, putting it among the bottom handful of places in America that have not cracked 25% with their COVID-19 immunization rates.
The vaccine hesitancy in Gillette is emblematic of the live-free, mind-your-own-business mentality toward the pandemic that is dominant across conservative America at a time when the delta variant is tearing through unvaccinated communities.
For every 100 people spotted around town in Gillette, the number wearing masks can be counted on one hand. Among a group of six people on a smoke break downtown, all said they had too many concerns about the vaccine to mess with it. Down the street, a black shirt displayed in a storefront warned, “ATTENTION SNOWFLAKES: THIS IS NOT A SAFE PLACE.”
People bristle at the workplace vaccine mandate being pushed by President Joe Biden. When asked about workplace mandates and the option to bypass the requirement with regular virus testing, Pfenning’s immediate response: “Test away!"
Anger over presidential meddling in Wyoming’s affairs is dominant across the state, but in Gillette, it gets personal.
The area’s vast coal industry has suffered a decade of decline amid competition from renewable energy and inexpensive natural gas, and coal regulations imposed by President Barack Obama — and lifted by President Donald Trump — have provoked fury among residents.
“It just feels like one attack after another. I think we’re just wanting to fight back harder at this point. Wyoming as a whole is just sick of being pushed around,” said Pfenning.
All the while, COVID-19 patients have been filling several of Wyoming’s hospitals including the one in Gillette, the state’s third-largest city.
At Campbell County Memorial Hospital, 17 of 27 intensive care and medical-surgical unit patients recently had severe COVID-19, leaving just two beds open while the very worst coronavirus cases got flown to more intensive treatment in neighboring states.
Meanwhile, a local surge — up 34% in a week — drove up COVID-19 cases to almost four times the national rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Statewide, more than 96% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 were unvaccinated. Yet the daily flow of COVID-19 failed to persuade many Campbell County Memorial Hospital employees to get the vaccine.
Only 39% of the hospital’s workforce is vaccinated, and there are no plans to require or incentivize it, said the hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Attila Barabas. Wyoming’s statewide vaccination rate of 41% is well below the national rate of 55%.
“I’m a big believer in freedom of choice. I honestly think that’s a fundamental aspect of being an American. And I think mandates can be troublesome and can cause a pushback to some degree,” Barabas said.
The doctor got the vaccine and has encouraged relatives and patients to do the same. Ultimately, though, “that has to be a choice that you make,” Barabas said.
Wyoming’s view of vaccine mandates could come to a head soon. Wyoming officials are promising a vigorous fight against Biden’s vaccine mandate, with talk about using the president’s coronavirus relief funds to compensate businesses for fines levied against them for defying the mandate.
At the same time, they are gently encouraging people to get the jab.
In a television ad showing people line dancing to country music, a woman says she got vaccinated to be able to have “ladies’ night out.” Wyoming has spent $900,000 and plans to spend another $685,000 on such ads, according to the Wyoming Department of Health.
Striving for balance with COVID-19 policies has whipsawed Republican Gov. Mark Gordon at times. Preparing to impose an unpopular statewide mask mandate last year, Gordon lashed out at people who refused to take steps to control the virus, calling them “knuckleheads.”
This year, as the delta variant brought more death and illness to the state, Gordon promised no mask mandate but said people should get vaccinated “if you’re willing.”
Vaccine resistance during the pandemic reflects a broader dilemma for public health officials in a region where prevailing attitudes cause high smoking and low flu immunization, cancer screening and seat belt use rates, said the department’s interim director, Stefan Johansson.
“We just have a population that I think is indicative of the Mountain West culture that, you know, lives free and doesn’t always take the health advice,” Johansson said.
For Pfenning, the coal mine worker, the decision to not vaccinate came down to her belief that the approval process was rushed and there are too many risky side effects, despite the fact that hundreds of millions of people have safely gotten the shots and avoided serious illness and hospitalization.
“It has nothing to do with politics. I’m even picky on what I give my horses, I’m picky on what I give my dogs. And we over-vaccinate,” said Pfenning.
And while Pfenning said her decision wasn’t political, politics pervades. In November, Wyoming gave Trump his widest margin of victory of any state, 70%. Campbell County gave Trump his one of his widest margins of victory in Wyoming, 87%.
“The people are so conservative here that they have these grass roots of saying, ’Look, I don’t like the government regulating my life,’” summed up Campbell County Commissioner Del Shelstad.
Scott Clem, pastor of Gillette’s Central Baptist Church, is among the many in the city who are not vaccinated. The former Republican legislator led a mask-burning protest at the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne in January and says he trusts his immune system to protect him.
“It's none of your business whether I'm vaccinated or not,” said Clem. “That, I think, in some sense, is being a busybody in other men's matters. I think that's some of the sentiment out here in Wyoming. We're pretty rugged individuals out here in the West.”
___
Follow Mead Gruver at https://twitter.com/meadgruver
Mead Gruver, The Associated Press
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