Warmer, wetter, wilder: 38 million people in the Great Lakes region are threatened by climate change

by John Hartig, Patrícia Galvão Ferreira, Robert Michael McKay, The Conversation

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

The Great Lakes are getting warmer, wetter and wilder. These atypical conditions are amplifying other threats. Harmful algal blooms are increasing inseverity and geographic extent, sewers are overflowing and stormwater is flooding neighborhoods and parks. Many terrestrial organisms are shifting northwards and worsening air quality is disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable people living in cities.

The Great Lakes hold one-fifth the standing freshwater on the Earth's surface and more than 34 million people live in the basin, supporting an economy worth US$5 trillion—if it were a country, it would be one of the largest economies in the world. And yet shoreline communities are faltering under the weight of billions of dollars in damages—and are worried that climate change will continue to make things even worse.

Like the Arctic's thawing permafrost, the Great Lakes basin is a key sentinel of climate change. Climate change has already immensely affected the region and its impacts will continue to expand as the pace of climate change accelerates, bringing new socio-economic and environmental challenges.

With the UN climate conference in Glasgow (COP26) underway, world leaders are discussing what must be done to address the climate crisis and making pledges to take specific actions. Adaptation features heavily in the COP26 agenda, including the Glasgow Adaptation Imperative to assess action taken and action needed to meet the Paris Agreement goal on adaptation and promote a more climate resilient future for all, particularly the most vulnerable communities and ecosystems.

Climate change impacts

In the Great Lakes, climate change is considered a threat multiplier, meaning it exacerbates other threats to the ecosystem.

All the Great Lakes are warming, but Lake Superior stands out. Still the coldest lake, its summer surface water temperatures increased 2.5 C between 1979 and 2006, even faster than air temperatures. Even the deep waters of Lake Michigan are warming at a rate of 0.5 C per decade.

The Great Lakes have lost more than 70 percent of their total winter ice cover over the past 50 years. That means more open water during winter, thinner ice and less of the ice fishing that is so popular with basin denizens. Less ice cover will, however, lengthen the commercial shipping season.

Overall, warming of the lakes will alter the seasonal patterns of warm and cold water layers and the dynamics of the lakes' food webs, and it will lead to greater shoreline damage from strong winter storms.

In some areas within the Great Lakes basin, water levels have risen by two meters, eroding shorelines, washing away houses, destroying roads, threatening infrastructure such as water treatment plants and disrupting age-old traditions of Indigenous Peoples.

Climate change is one of the leading threats to birds in the Great Lakes and North America. The 2019 Audubon Report "Survival by Degrees" found that 64 percent of bird species (389 of 604) across breeding and non-breeding seasons were moderately or highly vulnerable to climate change. As indicator species, birds are telling us the time to act is now.

In addition, climate change will likely alter the range and distribution of certain fish species, increase the frequency and severity of harmful algal blooms, exacerbate wetland loss, create new threats from invasive species, diminish beach health and, in some cases, displace or extirpate native species.

A small home along Lake Michigan’s shoreline toppled down a bluff in January 2020.

Urban impacts of climate change

The effects of climate change are heightened in urban areas and impose a high financial burden to municipalities. Detroit is a good example.

Detroit is an old city with combined storm and sanitary sewers that overflow stormwater and raw sewage during heavy rainfall events. It also has plenty of impervious surfaces that promote runoff.

Extreme rainfall events have flooded highways, streets and neighborhoods. High water levels have frequently flooded Detroit's Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood. In response, the city spent US$2 million in 2020 on "tiger dams," large, temporary, water-filled berms, to keep the water from flooding houses.

On the 398-hectare Belle Isle State Park, high water levels closed roads, flooded picnic areas and postponed 60 weddings at the popular Boat House, a more than 100-year-old rowing facility, in 2019. They have also delayed a US$5-million habitat restoration project on Blue Heron Lagoon and forced the redesign of the one-hectare, US$4.2-million Oudolf Garden, designed by Piet Oudolf, an internationally renowned Dutch garden designer.

Detroit is also projected to experience a significant increase in the number of very hot days by the end of the century, reaching as many as 65 days above 32.2 C. The burden of heat and poor air quality accompanying the climate threat will disproportionately affect the city's most vulnerable residents.

Adapting to climate change

Many municipalities, provinces and states around the Great Lakes have been developing adaptation plans to address local impacts of climate change at a high cost. This decentralized approach comes with its own problems, like unintended cross-border effects of local adaptation or duplication of efforts. The United Nations has shown that flood risk reduction strategies in one part of a basin may increase flood risks in another portion of the basin that is located in another country.

An integrated, basin-wide ecosystem approach could allow for cost-sharing of scientific studies and co-ordinated policy action at national and sub-national levels, leading to better adaptation. Because the Great Lakes are a shared resource among many governments, including those of Canada, the United States, eight states, two provinces and tribes, First Nations and the Métis Nation, transboundary co-operation is needed.

In 2017, the Great Lakes Water Quality Board of the International Joint Commission, an independent adviser to Canada and the United States, recommended that both countries negotiate and develop a co-ordinated strategy for climate change adaptation and ecological resilience. These recommendations reflect strong public opinion, yet almost five years later no comprehensive binational climate change strategy has been put into place.

The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement calls for strengthened measures to anticipate and prevent ecological harm, by following the precautionary principle—when human activities may lead to unacceptable harm that is scientifically plausible but uncertain, actions shall be taken to avoid or diminish that harm.

There is enough scientific evidence that climate change poses a threat to the entire Great Lakes region—and the 38 million people who live there. As is being discussed and pledged at COP26, all must work together to limit global warming to 1.5 C, including the Great Lakes region, and all must immediately advance climate adaptation and resilience.Lakes are changing worldwide

Provided by The Conversation 

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Survey reveals 'eco-anxiety' over climate crisis

by University of York

The survey revealed 78 per cent of people reported some level of fear about climate 

change Pic: Glacier in Europe. Credit: Alistair Keely, University of York

A majority of people believe that climate change will have a more significant effect on humanity than will COVID-19, according to a survey involving the University of York.

The survey, carried out as part of a study into "eco-anxiety" by the University of York and Global Future thinktank, revealed that overall, 78 percent of people reported some level of fear about climate change, with 41 percent reporting being very much or extremely fearful.

The survey is published as hundreds of world leaders gather in Glasgow for COP26 to discuss the climate. The two-week summit is seen as crucial if climate change is to be brought under control.

Concerns

Fear about climate change is high amongst all classes with 42 percent of middle and upper-class people reporting high levels of concern compared to 39 percent amongst working class groups, the survey showed.

Nearly half (43 percent) of people living in London, the east and southeast of England reported high levels of fear regarding climate change, compared to 38 percent of those living in the north and the midlands.

The survey also revealed that women remain significantly more anxious about climate change (45 percent) than men (36 percent), and are more likely to change their behavior.

The authors of the report say that people are skeptical about the impact their personal lifestyle changes can make. They are more likely to blame industrialized nations, corporations and consumer culture for climate change than individuals.

Priorities

Dr. Pavlos Vasilopoulos, politics lecturer at the University of York and one of the authors, said: "These findings contest commonly held views that the environment is only an issue for the southern middle class.

"Instead, climate change appears to be becoming more similar to issues such as unemployment or crime, which are recognized as priorities by the majority and are used to evaluate government performance."

Rowenna Davis, director of Global Future, said: "Everyone—rich and poor, young and old, north and south, men and women—is suffering eco-anxiety. Therefore, some cynical politicians who seek to use wedge issues like petrol prices to divide the public are not only wrong, they are also making a strategic error.

"Whoever hopes to win the next election will need to win the 'red wall." This will mean responding to concerns these voters actually hold rather than perceptions of them. From our research, this must include a meaningful response to climate change."UK public concern over climate crisis 'at all-time high' as crucial COP26 summit begins

Provided by University of York 

Marine National Monument offshore from Connecticut is protected once again

by Elaina Hancock, University of Connecticut

This large bubblegum coral (Paragorgia arborea) was observed during Dive 19 of the 

2021 North Atlantic Stepping Stones expedition. Based on published radial growth rates

 for this species, this colony is approximately 100 years old! We saw several large coral 

colonies during the dive, prompting one of our on-shore scientists to refer to the dive site

 as "the land of giants." Credit: Peter Auster

On October 8th, President Joe Biden restored protections from commercial-scale fishing in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, which had been removed in June 2020. The monument is about 130 miles offshore of Connecticut, is about the same size as the state, and boasts canyons vaster than the Grand Canyon and seamounts taller than any east of the Rocky Mountains. This protected area is the only one of its kind in the Atlantic, and it will serve as a vital refuge, closed to mineral and fossil fuel exploration, and now commercial-scale fishing, that could otherwise severely impact the ecosystem. Peter Auster, UConn Research Professor Emeritus of Marine Sciences and Senior Research Scientist at Mystic Aquarium, was one of the experts who helped ensure the area was protected. Auster met with UConn Today to explain the diversity and importance of the Marine National Monument, and the process of ensuring it remains a protected space.

Can you explain what the marine monument is?

United States jurisdiction over ocean resources extends out 200 miles from all our coasts. In the Atlantic Ocean the limit extends down the continental slope and into the deep sea, where there are submarine canyons incised into the edge of the continental shelf. Once we get beyond the edge of the continental slope, we see the beginning of a chain of extinct underwater volcanoes that extend out to the Mid Atlantic ridge. The monument is composed of the Oceanographer, Gilbert, and Lydonia submarine canyons, and the Bear, Physalia, Retriever, and Mytilus seamounts, and the waters above them to the sea surface.

Those seamounts start just off the continental slope, and they became inactive volcanos as seafloor spreading opened the Atlantic Basin with the movement of tectonic plates. The oldest seamount is Bear Seamount, right off of Georges Bank. Bear Seamount is about 100 million years old, with the adjacent seamounts slightly younger.

The monument is about the size of Connecticut, about 1.5% of federal waters in the Atlantic Ocean. Beyond our territorial sea there's been lots of research focused on understanding the distribution of biological diversity and resources such as minerals and natural products that are within our jurisdiction, but much more needs to be learned, especially beyond the edge of the continental shelf.

NOAA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, began a program in ocean exploration, and I was one of the principal investigators on the first ocean exploration cruise in 2001 that used the RV Atlantis and the submersible Alvin where we dove in Oceanographer Canyon. On that first dive we collected a soft coral specimen that turned out to be a species new to science.

Diving in the monument, traveling from the surface to the seafloor, and down the walls of canyons and seamounts, is akin to hiking (or driving) up a mountain on land, traveling through multiple life zones. In the ocean, these zones are correlated with temperature, light, productivity, ocean currents, and sediment type. These physical features influence the interactions between species (predation, competition) and their population biology (reproduction, survivorship, growth, connectivity).

What kinds of wildlife live within the monument?

The monument encompasses an incredibly precipitous landscape of complex seafloor features. These features influence currents—the flow of water—and result in supporting an incredible diversity of very organisms from the sea surface to the seafloor, such as whales and seabirds, sharks and billfish, tuna, midwater fish and squid, and deep-sea coral and sponge species attached to the seafloor. Our analyses from previous studies demonstrate this region is a biodiversity hotspot for marine mammals and seafloor species.

On a recent ROV dive to the summit of Retriever Seamount (about 1850 m depth), we saw some of the most dense forests of corals and sponges on any of the seamounts. One of my colleagues called it "the land of the giants," because of the size of many of the coral colonies. They stand tall like trees anchored to the sea floor with branches extended into the current to capture food from the water, and look like they are standing in the wind. One of the coral colonies was estimated to be about 1,600 years old. These are old, old organisms, old colonies, that are extremely fragile and sensitive to disturbance.

We saw other organisms that took forms that were very Dr. Seuss-like. We were there to do science, but it was also obvious to all of us that love nature that these are very special places.

Based on earlier studies in the region, and because of the nature of the animals—the corals and sponges are all tremendously fragile, and vulnerable to human disturbance—we started talking about the idea that these are special places, and they deserve some degree of protection. There's still much more to be explored.

What steps were taken to ensure the seamounts were protected?

There are multiple ways of protecting areas of the ocean from different kinds of human activities. For instance, there's the Magnuson-Stevens Act that governs fishing and management of fishing in federal waters in the United States. The National Marine Sanctuaries Act allows designation of sanctuaries, that are generally multiple-use areas akin to national forests. There's also the Antiquities Act that gave the president the authority to designate areas as national monuments by proclamation in order to rapidly protect places that are under threat.

Back in 2015 a colleague, Scott Krauss from the New England Aquarium, and I synthesized existing information and data into an analysis on the potential role that protection of this area would provide, with the idea for a Marine National Monument. Senator Richard Blumenthal and the entire Connecticut delegation sent an official proposal for the monument to President Obama, then in 2016 the president designated the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

In 2020 President Trump, by proclamation, essentially changed the conditions of the earlier proclamation, which a number of legal scholars indicated was illegal—only Congress can make such changes—but it had never been tested in court. There is a case pending in federal court.

The Biden administration promised to restore protections to national monuments that President Trump removed, and that included Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante. We didn't know when this was going to happen. I said I'll celebrate when I see Biden sign the proclamation, which he did, and I did.

Why is it important to establish protected areas?

There's always been a conflict between those that support utilitarian access to federal lands and waters versus conservation. This started out with John Muir and Gifford Pinchot in the 1800s. Essentially, the solution was to have both a National Forest Service and a National Park Service so national forests and other federal lands were used to produce wood products and wildlife products, for instance, and national parks were for conservation and enjoyment of people in perpetuity. The designation of the Grand Canyon National Monument (before it became a National Park) was thought by some to be the doom of the Arizona economy, but others saw the future. Today tourism is a major economic driver and the Grand Canyon landscape and associated diversity are protected for current and future generations.

One is not preeminent over the other, but conflict emerges whenever we start putting lines on a map and excluding people, or even the perception of excluding, the perception is that some people are diminished by that, even though they don't necessarily use the area. That still looms large in our politics. These conflicts are both challenging and frustrating and seemingly the cost of doing business. Especially in this time of climate change and biodiversity decline, and everyone needing resources, these issues are going to continue. We need to figure this out. The challenge for conservation scientists and policy-makers is how do we get the greatest diversity possible through this next century?

It is critical to make important decisions and not just kick the can down the road. What kind of world do we want to live in and leave to the future? How do we get through this period? One of the tools is to have places where we don't do anything like the Marine National Monument and others that currently exist, and then with President Biden's 30 by 30 initiative, that doesn't necessarily mean 30% of every region around the country is closed, but they are effective conservation measures in place, goals that have greater long term conservation emphasis, and using the existing legal framework.

We need to conserve places that are outstanding examples of our natural heritage. Designating monuments is an American tradition that goes back to Teddy Roosevelt. Presidents of both parties have designated places on land and now in the ocean to do that, so this is part of a long American tradition that's taken hold around the world to conserve these fragile, sensitive, outstanding examples of our natural heritage.

This is the first marine monument in federal waters in the Atlantic Ocean and a first in terms of designating an area in a place that has lots of human use. It's hard to find places in the US waters of the Atlantic where somebody is not doing something. This had a minimal effect on current users. We just can't stop doing everything, but we can decide where we want to do these things in the ocean to get the resources we need and where we don't.

Not only is it a place where the science community can study what the ocean should look like in the absence of effects like fishing and mining, it's a place for the American public and is protected in perpetuity, while the other 98.5% of our Atlantic waters is left for whatever else is going to happen.

Protecting marine animals is an important element also, whales, dolphins, seabirds, sea turtles. The protections exclude commercial fishing and after 2023 that form of fishing that includes vertical lines is excluded from the monument as well. When that happens, this will be the largest and only year-round vertical line free area on our entire coast so there will be fewer animals getting tangled and drowning as bycatch in this area of US waters.

While most people won't visit the monument directly, there are opportunities to visit for whale and bird watching, and recreational fishing for the adventurous types. For others, Mystic Aquarium has an exhibit that features a tactile, immersive replica of an underwater canyon and three-dimensional, holographic, and digital representations of sealife, as well as moving imagery and graphics.Opening protected area off New England coast to commercial fishing compromises protections

Provided by University of Connecticut 

Hunting for marine plastic with satellites

by European Space Agency

Credit: ESA-P. de Maagt

Marine plastic litter was dumped into a realistic scale model of the Atlantic Ocean to test if space technologies would be able to detect it from orbit.

The best estimate is that an average 10 million tons of plastic enter the ocean annually—equivalent to a fresh truckload of plastic dumped every minute—but researchers only know what happens to about 1% of it. Satellite monitoring might in future help track its extent, and see where it goes—if it can be proven to work in practice.

"Our goal here is to answer a few fundamental questions," says ESA antenna engineer Peter de Maagt, overseeing the campaign.

"To start with, can we detect floating plastics with space-based monitoring at all? And if so, which techniques show the most promise, at what frequency and with what sensitivity? Up until now researchers have had general gut feelings about what might work the best, but we are working to remove any guesswork."

The test campaign took place at the Deltares research institute near Delft in the Netherlands, inside its mammoth Atlantic Basin Facility.

Anton de Fockert, flow expert from Deltares, explains: "This one of a kind 650 sq. m. facility is equipped with wave generators to create realistic deep water waves which can be found in the ocean."

Peter notes: "We decided to make this facility available to various European groups researching different satellite methods to identify marine plastic litter.The teams were recruited through ESA's Open Space Innovation Platform, OSIP, seeking novel ideas for new space research activities."

Anton de Fockert adds: "The plastic used in the basin included material previously recovered from the sea through cleanup campaigns by Stichting de Noordzee and Schone Rivieren as well as 'fresh' samples."

For maximum realism, the plastic placed into the basin took the form of popular items found at sea, such as bags, bottles, marine nets and ropes, cutlery and Styrofoam balls. Additional non-plastic items were also added—to better mimic actual distribution found at sea—including cigarette ends.

"This first test campaign lasted for two weeks, plus an initial week for setup," says Peter. "We started simple with a lot of floating plastic and no waves, moving to reducing the overall plastic amount as we began with gentle waves, then made them progressively bigger."

Monitoring from above the facility were the participating teams, plus their specialist instrumentation, intended to simulate observations from space.

Teams from the Institute for Telecommunications in Portugal and the University of Stirling in Scotland employed radar remote sensing. Spain's Polytechnic University of Catalonia made use of "GNSS reflectometry," which relies on reflected signals from navigation satellites. A group from the University of Oldenburg in Germany deployed optical instrumentation.

Meanwhile a combined team from the University of Alberta in Canada and Technical University Delft in the Netherlands performed fundamental physic analyses—including attempting to better quantify the wave-damping effect of marine plastic litter, which might be harnessed to estimate plastic concentrations in the future.

"We're now processing our data," explains Peter. "The initial results look promising, meaning that under certain circumstances the teams did receive useable signals, but there is a lot of analysis still to be performed. We aim to use the time between this test campaign and the follow-up, due to take place early next year, to identify gaps in knowledge that need further focus."

Video: Keeping an eye on ocean plastic pollution from space

Provided by European Space Agency 

Housing and homelessness left behind in post-COVID recovery

by Kay Harrison, University of New South Wales

The construction of new social housing is missing from the national economic recovery

 effort. Credit: sunnypicsoz-Geoff Childs / Shutterstock.com

"Building back better" is not in our sights for housing and homelessness despite the pandemic's singular opportunity to kickstart overdue investment. That's according to UNSW School of Built Environment housing policy expert Professor Hal Pawson, who says the pandemic has been insufficient in triggering the housing policy reform needed.

"COVID-19 was a focusing event for housing policy and innovations," the associate director of the City Futures Research Centre says. "But the way it looks now, I don't think the crisis has been serious enough to stimulate systemic change [in Australia]."

Prof. Pawson is conducting fieldwork into the housing and homelessness impacts of the pandemic. The research is a collaboration between the City Futures Research Centre and colleagues at Heriot-Watt University and Glasgow University in Scotland.

It forms part of the Poverty and Inequality Partnership between UNSW and the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS) and is also supported by Mission Australia, National Shelter and Queensland Shelter.

Australia out of step with global sentiment

The onset of COVID-19 prompted dramatic policy innovations in Australia to protect incomes and housing security. More recently, in response to 2021 lockdowns, such emergency assistance has been reinstated by the NSW and Victorian governments.

"Beyond social security income support and short-term wage subsidies, these have also importantly included freezes on rental evictions and mass hotel bookings as emergency safe housing for homeless people," Prof. Pawson says.

Some other countries—notably New Zealand—have invested heavily in social housing as part of national economic recovery efforts, the initial report found. And, indeed, some Australian state governments have also pledged multi-million-dollar construction programs.

The Australian Government, however, stood back from any such commitments, the initial report found. In contrast with governments of other countries considered in the research, it also declined any new financial contribution to emergency homelessness programs or longer-term housing for those assisted.

"The national level of government has had less direct involvement or interest in this than any other country [examined in the research], including federations like U.S. and Canada," Prof. Pawson says.

Opportunity for reform gone to waste?

The pandemic created an extraordinary stimulus for 'outside-the-box' policy innovations. Rapidly enacted and large-scale emergency responses challenged wisdom about what was politically and economically feasible. But such interventions failed to recognize or address fundamental housing system flaws, Prof. Pawson says.

"As revealed by our work, a remarkable 40,000 homeless people were assisted with emergency accommodation from March to October 2020," he says.

But inadequate social housing infrastructure and income support meant less than a third could be transitioned to longer-term housing, the report found.

"The ability to transition those people into longer-term housing is very, very constrained," he says.

A growing social housing deficit, inadequate rent assistance and social security benefits form barriers to stable long-term housing for low-income Australians, the report found.

A story that crosses state boundaries

The series quantifies state and territory action on housing and homelessness, omitted from routinely published official statistics. It draws on in-depth interviews with government, industry and advocacy stakeholders, homelessness and rental housing service delivery organizations, and affected communities.

"The project aims to document the extraordinary government responses to the pandemic in housing and homelessness that we've seen over the past 18 months, as well as to highlight the limitations of some of those actions," Prof. Pawson says.

Research like this seeks to convey findings in language accessible to the public as well as to policymakers, he says, with media exposure an important part of raising awareness through public discourse.

"The research and impact collaboration between ACOSS and UNSW Sydney has increased awareness of the issues surrounding poverty and inequality, making the research produced by the partnership one of the most authoritative sources of poverty and inequality research in Australia," says Dr. Cassandra Goldie, CEO of ACOSS.

"It has created a sustained evidence base and platform for lifting up the voices and experiences of people experiencing poverty and inequality in Australia, and also led to the collaborative advocacy by academics and civil society leaders that is necessary to tackle poverty and inequality."

The roadmap out of crisis

Prof. Pawson's UNSW-ACOSS report builds on the team's biennial Australian Homelessness Monitor (AHM) series, commissioned by Launch Housing. The scale and upward trend of homelessness seen in Australia is in part an outcome of policy and political choices, the AHM 2020 argues.

"In responding to the problem, governments need to implement more effective actions to prevent homelessness from occurring; but also, to recognize the need for a fundamental re-set of the broader housing system," Prof. Pawson says.

"Australia's challenge is taking the homelessness prevention successes achieved during COVID-19 and integrating them into more housing and more support instead of relying on band-aid interventions that are costly and only lessen the harm for a short period of time," Bevan Warner, CEO of Launch Housing, says.

"Homelessness is bad for health, the economy and bad for our society at all times, not just during pandemics."

The AHM takes its blueprint from the UK Homelessness Monitor, commissioned by Crisis UK. It has delivered 18 reports (on England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) since its establishment in 2010 by Prof. Pawson and Prof. Suzanne Fitzpatrick at Heriot Watt University.

"As a longitudinal study, the UKHM offers vital insights for understanding the homelessness crisis in the UK and how changes in policy can bring homelessness levels down. With collective action, informed insight and political will, we can end homelessness once and for all," says Francesca Albanese, Head of Research and Evaluation from Crisis.

Looking long term

"Governments have partnered with community organizations to get people off the streets during the pandemic, which is something to celebrate," Prof. Pawson says. "But without purposeful re-engagement by our national government, Australia's housing policy challenges will only continue to intensify."

The second and third reports in the COVID series, including a focus on international comparisons, are due for release later this year.We must act on homelessness before COVID-19 winter

More information: Housing and homelessness policy in the COVID-19 pandemic and recession: crisis, innovation and building back better: 

cityfutures.ada.unsw.edu.au//r … uilding-back-better/

Provided by University of New South Wales 

The Pandora Papers: How punishing tax cheats can serve as a deterrent

by Tisha King, The Conversation

Enforcing punishments on proven tax cheats could provide benefits beyond improving 

compliance to tax laws. Once offenders pay up, billions lost to offshore scandals could be

 recouped and the tax burden more fairly shared among taxpayers. Credit: Shutterstock

Law-abiding taxpayers look on with disappointment and disdain as details about the illicit financial arrangements of the ultra-wealthy surface —again. The latest leak of nearly 12 million offshore financial records—the so-called Pandora Papers—provides clues as to how the rich avoid paying their fair share of taxes.

Sports stars Jacques Villeneuve, a former Formula One racer, and figure skating legend Elvis Stojko are among the Canadians who have been named in the Pandora Papers.

This is not the first time the public has learned about how the wealthy evade taxes and shield their riches. The Panama Papers, Paradise Papers and Luxembourg Leaks uncovered aggressive tax planning and tax evasion undertaken by the global elite.

When the rich, famous and infamous don't pay their fair share of taxes, the public looks to authorities to enforce tax laws and punish the offenders. Punishment creates a sense of retributive justice and serves as a reminder that tax compliance laws should be obeyed for the collective good of society. However, authorities often fail to deliver, perpetuating the cycle of injustice.

Does punishment deter tax evasion?

What we don't know for sure is whether punishing the offenders involved in global tax scandals benefits the reported income compliance of observers and deters tax cheats. My preliminary research suggests that the answer is "yes," but only if observers perceive that the tax offender is fully blameworthy or responsible.

If the punishment of blameworthy offenders can improve compliance, it would seem logical for tax authorities to actively prosecute all suspected offenders. But this is hardly the case.

With limited resources and the risk of losing costly legal battles, not everyone who evades taxes and shields wealth gets punished. Even worse, if prosecutors' cases don't stand up in court, it can encourage aggressive tax planning or tax evasion because a precedent is set that undermines tax authorities.

Why does compliance increase when tax cheats are punished? My research findings reveal that compliance improves when wrongdoers appear more deserving of prosecution and are ultimately punished. Observers experience satisfaction when authorities uphold justice, especially for the wealthy.

When justice is applied equally, authorities reinforce their requirement to be obeyed, which signals both their competence and that tax evaders will be found and held accountable.

Pointing the finger at advisers

Being perceived as guilty increases perceptions of an offender deserving a punishment. As such, a strategic course of action for those exposed in global tax scandals is to deny responsibility. Ultra-wealthy individuals named in the Pandora Papers and other tax scandals often blame lawyers or advisers.

Stojko has denied responsibility and said he trusted his lawyer to manage his financial details.

Similarly, the wealthy Cooper family of British Columbia—named in the Panama Papers—denied responsibility. Marshall Cooper, who grew up in South Africa, stated that he was unaware of Canadian tax laws and simply hired the best advisers to manage the family's finances.

With blame being tossed back and forth, perhaps authorities should pursue the lawyers and advisers of the wealthy rather than simply punishing tax evaders.

The media may shame the wealthy, but lawyers, accountants and other advisers act as enablers who facilitate aggressive tax planning, and likely in some cases tax evasion. If enablers share responsibility, they too should be punished. It's possible that punishing enablers could also compel taxpayers to comply with tax laws.

Billions recouped?

Enforcing punishments on proven tax cheats could provide added benefits beyond improving compliance to tax laws. Once offenders pay up, billions lost to offshore scandals could be recouped and the tax burden more fairly shared among taxpayers.

Still, in the aftermath of the Pandora Papers, taxpayers are likely wondering what the authorities will do this time and whether tax offenders will get the punishments they deserve. Global tax transparency efforts are ratcheting up, possibly offering a glimmer of hope that justice will prevail. But even with this silver lining, some remain pessimistic.

With evidence that punishment can re-establish a sense of justice, authorities should use their resources to ensure culpable offenders are held accountable. Upholding justice, especially for the wealthy and privileged, serves the collective good of society.Death penalty can express society's outrage, but biases often taint the verdictProvided by The Conversation 

 

A natural CO2-sink thanks to symbiotic bacteria

by Max Planck Society

A researcher from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology taking samples in 

seagrass meadows in the Mediterranean Sea. The measuring device determines the

 oxygen content in the seabed. Credit: Hydra Marine Sciences GmbH

Seagrasses cover large swathes of shallow coastal seas, where they provide a vital habitat. They also remove large amounts of carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere and store it in the ecosystem. However, seagrasses need nutrients to thrive, particularly nitrogen. Up to now, researchers have assumed that the plants take up the nitrogen primarily from the surrounding seawater and sediment. However, in many of the regions where seagrasses are most successful there is little nitrogen to be found. Researchers of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen now show that seagrass in the Mediterranean Sea lives in symbiosis with bacteria that reside in their roots and provide the nitrogen necessary for growth. Such symbioses were previously only known from land plants. The study was published in the journal Nature.

Seagrasses are widespread in shallow coastal regions of both temperate and tropical seas, covering up to 600,000 square kilometers, which is roughly the area of France. They form the basis of the entire ecosystem, which is home to numerous organisms, some of them endangered species such as turtles, seahorses and manatees, and nursery ground for many economically important fish species. Moreover, seagrasses protect coastlines from erosion by storm surges and sequester millions of tons of carbon dioxide every year, which is stored in the ecosystem as so-called "blue carbon" for long periods of time.

Lush life despite a lack of nutrients

The habitat of many seagrasses is poor in nutrients, such as nitrogen, for much of the year. Although nitrogen is abundant in the sea in its elemental form (N2), seagrasses cannot use it in this form. How can the plants still thrive? It is thanks to their now discovered microscopic partners: Bacterial symbionts living within the plants roots that convert N2 gas into a form that the plants can use. Wiebke Mohr and her colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen, Germany, Hydra Marine Sciences in Bühl, Germany, and the Swiss Water Research Institute Eawag now describe how this intimate relationship between seagrass and bacteria works.

Harmony in the roots

"It was assumed that the so-called fixed-nitrogen for the seagrasses comes from bacteria that live around their roots in the seafloor," Mohr explains. "We now show that the relationship is much closer: The bacteria live inside the roots of the seagrass. This is the first time that such an intimate symbiosis has been shown in seagrasses. It was previously only known from land plants, especially agriculturally important species such as legumes, wheat and sugar cane." These, too, have symbiotic bacteria, to which they supply carbohydrates and other nutrients in return for fixed nitrogen. A very similar exchange of metabolic products also occurs between the seagrass and its symbiont.

The bacteria that live in the seagrass roots are a new discovery. Mohr and her team named them Celerinatantimonas neptuna, after their host, the neptune grass (Posidonia). Relatives of C. neptuna have previously been found in association with seaweeds. "When the seagrasses moved from land to sea about 100 million years ago, they probably adopted the bacteria from the seaweeds," Mohr speculates. "They virtually copied the system that was highly successful on land and then, in order to survive in the nutrient-poor seawater, acquired a marine symbiont." The current study looked at seagrasses of the genus Posidonia in the Mediterranean Sea. However, such symbioses may also occur elsewhere. "Genetic analyses suggest that similar symbioses also exist on tropical seagrasses and in salt marshes," says Mohr. "This way, these flowering plants manage to colonize a wide variety of seemingly nutrient-poor habitats, both in the water and on land."

A part of Fetovaia Bay, in which most samples of this study were retrieved. 

Credit: Wiebke Mohr /Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

Going with the seasons

As the seasons change, the amount of nutrients present in coastal water varies. In winter and spring, the nutrients present in the water and sediment seem sufficient for the seagrasses. "At that time, we do find scattered symbionts in the roots of the plants, but they are probably not very active," says Mohr. In summer, when sunlight increases and more and more algae grow and consume the few available nutrients, nitrogen quickly becomes scarce. Then the symbionts take over. They directly supply the seagrasses with the nitrogen they need. This is how seagrasses can reach their largest growth in summer, when nutrients are most scarce in the environment.

The symbiosis under the microscope: On the left a cross-section through a seagrass root,

 on the right a fluorescence image of the bacteria (in pink) inside the seagrass root. 

Credit: Daniela Tienken/Soeren Ahmerkamp /Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology

Many different methods for a clear picture

The present study bridges the entire ecosystem, from seagrass productivity to the symbionts that live in their roots and ultimately fuel the system. To accomplish this, the researchers used a variety of different methods to understand the symbiosis as fully as possible: Oxygen measurements carried out in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea revealed the productivity of the seagrass meadow. Microscopy techniques, in which individual bacterial species are color-labeled (known as FISH), helped to visualize the bacteria in and between the root cells of the seagrass. In the NanoSIMS, a state-of-the-art mass spectrometer, they showed the activity of the individual bacteria. Genomic and transcriptomic analyses revealed which genes are probably particularly important for the interaction and that these pathways are heavily used. As a result, the researchers succeeded in providing a sound and detailed description of this amazing collaboration. "Our next step is to study these new bacteria in more detail," says Mohr. "We want to isolate them in the laboratory to further investigate how the symbiosis works and how it developed. It will certainly also be exciting to search for comparable systems in other regions and habitats."Seagrasses will benefit from global change

More information: Wiebke Mohr, Terrestrial-type nitrogen-fixing symbiosis between seagrass and a marine bacterium, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-021-04063-4. www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-04063-

Journal information: Nature 

Provided by Max Planck Society