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Study: Unemployed, uninsured less likely to receive cancer screening


Researchers say that unemployed, uninsured people are less likely to undergo routine cancer screenings -- and that these gaps decrease their long-term likelihood for staying up-to-date on routine screenings. File Photo by CristinaMuraca/Shutterstock


Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Unemployed adults in the United States are less likely to undergo recommended cancer screening because they lack health insurance, a survey published Monday by the journal Cancer found.

More than 40% of responding adults who were unemployed reported that they did not have health insurance, compared with just 10% of those who had a job, the data showed.

Compared with those who were employed at the time of the study, fewer unemployed adults indicated they were up-to-date on recommended screening for breast, cervical, colorectal and prostate cancers.

For example, 68% of unemployed adults had been screened for breast cancer versus 78% of those currently working, according to the researchers.

And, screening rates for colorectal cancers, including colon cancer, were lower among the unemployed, at 42%, than the employed, at 49%.

"People who were unemployed at the time of the survey were less likely to have a recent cancer screening test and they were also less likely to be up-to-date with their cancer screenings over the long term," study co-author Stacey Fedewa said in a press release.

"This suggests that being unemployed at a single point in time may hinder both recent and potentially longer-term screening practices," said Fedewa, a senior principal scientist at the American Cancer Society.

Not undergoing routine screening for cancer can increase a person's risk of being diagnosed with late-stage cancer, which is more difficult to treat than cancer that is detected at an early stage.

About 30 million people in the United States do not have health insurance, the Department of Health and Human Services estimates.

Screening guidelines differ by type of cancer.

For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that adults undergo screening for colon cancer, via colonoscopy, starting between age 45 and 50.

It also advises women to get screened for cervical cancer every three years, starting in their 20s, while they should undergo mammograms between age 50 and 74.

Prostate cancer screening recommendations are less clear.

For this study, Fedewa and her colleagues analyzed information from adults under age 65 who responded to the 2000-2018 National Health Interview Survey, a nationally representative annual survey of the United States population on health and insurance status.

Among the unemployed, 79% had been screened for cervical cancer, compared with 86% of those currently working, the data showed.

Similarly, 25% of the unemployed said they had been screened for prostate cancer, while 36% of the employed had done so.

All differences in cancer screening rates were eliminated after the researchers accounted for health insurance coverage, highlighting the importance of insurance coverage for enabling individuals to receive recommended cancer screening tests, they said.


"Our finding that insurance coverage fully accounted for unemployed adults' lower cancer screening utilization is potentially good news, because it's modifiable," Fedewa said.

"When people are unemployed and have health insurance, they have screening rates that are similar to employed adults," she said.

Walmart tests driverless trucks to deliver groceries bought online


Walmart is testing the Gatik vehicles as part of a model for several store locations where smaller fulfillment centers are closer to buyers. Photo courtesy Gatik

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Walmart announced on Monday that it's been making grocery deliveries with driverless trucks for months and the technology has proven to be safe and cost-effective.

The company said it's been testing two trucks in Bentonville, Ark., without a human safety monitor since August.

The collaboration between Walmart and autonomous car company Gatik began about two years ago.

A year ago, the Arkansas State Highway Commission granted approval for the companies to remove the human safety monitor.

"This milestone signifies a revolutionary breakthrough for the autonomous trucking industry," Gatik CEO Gautum Narang said in a statement.

"These are frequent, revenue-generating, daily runs that our trucks are completing safely in a range of conditions on public roads."

The retailer is testing the vehicles as part of a model for several store locations where smaller fulfillment centers are closer to buyers.

Gatik says on its website that it operates autonomous vehicles seven days a week for 12 hours a day on routes with fixed pick-up and drop-off locations. It says self-driving vehicles can reduce logistics costs by up to 30% for a grocery business.

Other grocery chains are also testing autonomous deliveries, including Kroger and Albertson's.

US Supreme Court hears religious discrimination case over 'state secrets'



The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a religious discrimination case involving an FBI operation at a California mosque. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments in a high-profile religious discrimination case that could decide whether the government can withhold information in civil lawsuits by relying on "state secrets privilege."

The case --- Federal Bureau of Investigation vs. Fazaga -- stems from a series of events in 2006, when the FBI and the Orange County, Calif., Joint Terrorism Task Force conducted a yearlong counterterrorism operation at a mosque.

The plaintiffs are Yassir Fazaga, a former imam at the Orange County Islamic Foundation, Ali Uddin Malik and Yasser Abdel Rahim, members of the Islamic Center of Irvine. They allege the government and its agents illegally targeted members of the faith communities because of their Muslim religion and are urging the high court to allow their case to move forward

The case is on appeal from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which in 2019 reversed a 2012 district court decision that dismissed the case in which the federal government invoked the state secrets privilege.

The three plaintiffs alleged religious discrimination, but the government has argued that those claims should be dismissed since they could result in divulging secret information that might endanger national security.
At issue is whether Section 1806(f) of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 displaces the state secrets privilege and authorizes a district court to resolve, in camera and ex parte, the merits of a lawsuit challenging the lawfulness of government surveillance by considering the privileged evidence.

In 2006, the Brennan Center for Justice implored Congress to stop what it called the abuse of state-secrets privilege used primarily during the administrations of President George W. Bush following the Sept. 11 attacks and President Barack Obama.


High court to hear secrets case over Muslim surveillance

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is preparing to hear a case about the government’s ability to get lawsuits thrown out of court by claiming they would reveal secrets that threaten national security.

The case before the high court Monday involves a group of Muslim men from Southern California. They filed a class action lawsuit claiming that the FBI spied on them and hundreds of others in a surveillance operation following the Sept. 11 attacks. The group, represented by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and others, claimed religious discrimination and violations of other rights, saying they were spied on solely because of their faith.

A lower court dismissed almost all their claims after the government said allowing the case to go forward could reveal “state secrets” — whom the government was investigating and why. But an appeals court reversed that decision, saying the lower court first should have privately examined the evidence the government said was state secrets to see if the alleged surveillance was unlawful.

The Biden administration, like the Trump administration before it, is telling the justices that decision is wrong.

The case involves a confidential informant, Craig Monteilh, the FBI used from 2006 to 2007. Monteilh pretended to be a new convert to Islam as a way to become part of Southern California’s Muslim community.

Monteilh told people he was a fitness consultant, but he was really working as part of a surveillance program known as Operation Flex. Monteilh regularly attended the Islamic Center of Irvine in Orange County and has said that he was told to collect as much information on as many people as possible. He gathered names and phone numbers and secretly recorded thousands of hours of conversations and hundreds of hours of video using a camera concealed in a shirt button.

Ultimately Monteilh’s handlers told him to ask about jihad and express a willingness to engage in violence. Those questions caused members of the community to report him to the FBI and other authorities and seek a restraining order against him.

The FBI has acknowledged Monteilh was an informant, and the story was covered in the news media including on the National Public Radio show “This American Life.”

Three of the men Monteilh allegedly recorded sued seeking damages and asking the government to destroy or return the information it had gathered.

This is the second case the court has heard involving the state secrets privilege since beginning its new term in October. Last month the court heard a case involving a Guantanamo Bay detainee that also involved the states secrets privilege.

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Remington Firearms relocating HQ from New York to Georgia

A Remington rifle and handgun were on display at Chuck's Firearms in Atlanta on February 13, 2018. RemArms LLC announced it is moving its headquarters from New York to Georgia. File photo by Erik S. Lesser/EPA-EFE

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Gun manufacturer Remington Firearms announced Monday it will relocate its corporate headquarters from New York to Georgia with plans to build a $100 million manufacturing center in the state.

The arms maker, which owns some of the assets of the former Remington Outdoor Co., said it will build an advanced manufacturing operation and establish a "world-class research and development center" in LaGrange, Ga., located about 70 miles southwest of the state capital

The company, officially known as RemArms LLC, is currently located in Ilion, N.Y.

"We are very excited to come to Georgia, a state that not only welcomes business but enthusiastically supports and welcomes companies in the firearms industry," RemArms CEO Ken D'Arcy said in a statement.

RELATED Judge to decide if Sandy Hook families can delay Remington bankruptcy

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp praised the move by the nation's oldest arms maker, whose lines of shotguns and hunting rifles date back to 1816.

"I am a proud owner of some of Remington's first-class product, and now, I am excited to welcome them to their new home in the Peach State," he said in a release. "As yet another big manufacturing win for our state, I look forward to seeing the oldest firearms manufacturer in America thrive in Georgia's pro-business environment."

Kemp said the move will result in 856 new jobs created over a five-year period in Troup County, Ga.

RELATED Remington Arms files for bankruptcy

RemArms purchased several rifle brands from Remington Outdoor Co., which was broken up after its second bankruptcy filing last year in the wake of a lawsuit brought by families of victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

The families argued that Remington had marketed its Bushmaster AR-15-style assault rifle in a way that inspired gunman Adam Lanza in his plot to attack the school. Twenty children and six adults died in the assault.

JPMorgan Chase and Franklin Advisors gained ownership of Remington after its first bankruptcy filing in 2018 while seven banks, including Bank of America, gave the company $193 million in loans. The private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management owned it before that.

Pandemic has led to 8.4M tons of excess plastic waste, researchers estimate

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to about 8.4 million tons of excess plastic waste produced globally, according to a new study. 

File Photo by nanD_Phanuwat/Shutterstock


Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Countries globally produced about 8.4 million tons of excess plastic waste over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic through August of this year, researchers estimated in an article published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Just over 87% of this waste has been generated by hospitals, though discarded personal protective equipment, or PPE, such as face masks and gloves accounts for less than 8% of it, the data showed.

Virus testing kits and their packaging account for about 5% of the waste, the researchers said.

North and South America account for less than 25% of this pandemic-related plastic waste, despite the fact the continents have recorded about 70% of the world's COVID-19 cases.

Although less than 1% of this plastic waste is likely to end up in oceans, due to dumping in rivers and other watersheds, an estimated 30,000 tons are still expected to end up in the seas, according to the researchers.

About 71% of this ocean-discharged excess waste will likely land on beaches by the end of this year, the researchers said.

"Globally ,public awareness of the environmental impact of PPE and other plastic products needs to be increased," wrote the researchers, from Nanjing University in China and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego.

Worldwide, up to an estimated 13 million metric tons of plastic enter the oceans annually, according to Our World in Data, a consortium made up of thousands of researchers.

However, as healthcare systems and other institutions have relied even more on disposable plastic products -- from face masks to virus testing kits -- during the COVID-19, plastic pollution is expected to increase significantly, research suggests.

For this analysis, the researchers derived their estimates of excess plastic pollution attributable to the pandemic based on data regarding use of products made from material from more than 40 countries.

This data was fed into a mathematical model created by the researchers to calculate the level of plastic waste generated through this usage.

The model found that levels of excess plastic generated during the pandemic could be as low as 4.4 million tons or as high as 15.1 million tons.

Asia has accounted for 46% of the excess plastic waste linked with the pandemic, while Europe has produced about 24%, the researchers said.

"A lot of single-use plastic items were produced during the pandemic," Philippe Miron, a researcher at Florida State University's Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies, told UPI in an email.
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"Many factors led to the increase of plastic production during the pandemic, such as the higher demands of PPE, while at the same time the recycling industry was forced to shut down," said Miron, who was not involved in this study but has conducted similar research.

Study: Air pollution exposure raises depression risk, affects brain function

A Chinese couple looks at part of the Forbidden City under a polluted sky in Beijing. Air pollution exposure may increase the risk for anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, according to a new study of people in China. 

File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Exposure to high levels of air pollution increases a person's risk for depression and adversely affects problem-solving and other brain functions, a study published Monday by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found.

The analysis of 352 healthy adults living in Beijing, China, a city with significant air pollution, found that those exposed to large amounts of particulate matter, or PM2.5, exhibited more symptoms of depression.

Study participants exposed to PM2.5, which are microscopic dust particles and other pollutants, also reported more difficulties with problem-solving and other mental tasks, the data showed.

In addition, magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, screenings of the study participants revealed that those exposed to high levels of PM2.5 showed evidence of disruption in activity in 22 brain regions, including those involved in thinking and memory, the researchers said.

"Air pollution not only affects heart and lung health, it can directly affect the operation of genes in the brain that control thinking and emotional functions that can lead to brain disorders like depression," study co-author Dr. Hao Yang Tan told UPI in an email.

"The nuance of this is that while any air pollution is bad, for people with genetic risk for depression, the effects on brain function and ultimately risk for depressive illness are much worse," said Tan, lead investigator at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

About 90% of the global population lives in regions with air pollution levels above the thresholds for human health established by the World Health Organization, the international agency estimates.

RELATED Poor air quality in offices impacts worker productivity, study finds

Fine particulate matter such as PM2.5 has been linked with up to 4 million early deaths worldwide annually and has been described as "the greatest threat to human health."

Although most of the health complications related to air pollution are associated with the heart and lungs, there is evidence that it can also affect mental health, with a study published earlier this year suggesting that worker productivity is impacted in offices with poor air quality.

For this study, Tan and his colleagues assessed 352 otherwise healthy adults living in Beijing for symptoms of depression using standard diagnostic criteria.

RELATED Particulate pollution the 'world's greatest threat to human health,' study finds

Study participants also answered questionnaires on mental health and brain function throughout the course of the study.

In addition, they also underwent genetic testing to establish their risk for depression based on family history, according to the researchers.

The researchers estimated each participant's PM2.5 exposure in the six months immediately before the study using data from the nearest air monitoring station to their residential address.

Participants were also asked to solve several mathematical problems while being timed and undergoing functional MRI scanning, which measures brain activity during the performance of certain tasks.

Study participants living in areas with higher PM2.5 levels based on monitoring station data had more symptoms of depression and showed greater evidence of compromised brain performance on functional MRI, according to the researchers.

Those with a family history of depression, based on genetic data, who were also exposed to high levels of PM2.5 were at higher risk for the disorder compared with those without a genetic history, the data showed.

"These findings are likely the tip of the iceberg in terms of the genes and brain functions involved," Tan said.

"While we focus on depression, it is likely other related disorders from ADHD, to anxiety disorders, to perhaps even psychosis and dementia," he said.

Study: Heart attack rate down in U.S. as COVID-19 lockdowns cut air pollution

By Dennis Thompson, HealthDay News

Researchers say the number of heart attacks in the United States dropped as air pollution from driving declined because fewer people were driving as a result of COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Urban air cleared during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns as fewer commuters hit the road daily, and that might have resulted in one unexpected heart health benefit for Americans, a new study suggests.

Those reductions in air pollution appear to be linked to a decrease in heart attacks during the shutdowns, according to research slated for presentation Saturday at the American Heart Association's online annual meeting.

The number of heart attacks dropped by 6% for every 10 microgram-per-cubic-meter decline in fine particle pollution, researchers found.

"The main message from our research is that efforts to reduce ambient pollution can prevent the most severe form of heart attacks," said lead researcher Sidney Aung, a fourth-year medical student at the University of California-San Francisco.

"We hope that this would provide a greater impetus for increased public health efforts aimed at reducing air pollution," Aung said.

Prior research had found a reduction in fine particle pollution while people stayed home during lockdowns, Aung said.

There was about a 4.5% drop in fine particle pollution during the last two weeks of March 2020, compared to the same period in previous years, Aung said.

Such pollution dropped by more than 11% when looking at counties in states that instituted early closures of non-essential businesses.

To see how cleaner air might have improved health, Aung's team used federal data to compare the frequency of heart attacks with air quality in different regions of the United States.

It turned out there was a direct correlation. Nearly 61,000 heart attacks occurred from January through April 2020, and then the number of heart attacks declined as air grew cleaner in specific parts of the nation.

The tiny particles that make up fine particle pollution are truly minuscule, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Individual particles are 2.5 micrometers or smaller by comparison, a single hair from your head is 70 micrometers in diameter, or 30 times larger than the largest fine particle.

Studies have linked breathing in these tiny particles to increased inflammation, irregular heart rhythm and thicker blood, Aung said.

"These all represent ways that bad air could lead to more heart attacks, which is why we think improvements in air quality could lead to fewer heart attacks," Aung said.

A drop of 10 micrograms per cubic meter is not small potatoes, however. Aung noted that Los Angeles' average pollution level in 2018 was 12.7 micrograms per cubic meter.

"However, we want to reiterate that even a smaller decrease in particulate matter concentration and subsequently any reduction in heart attacks could be tremendously beneficial for public health," Aung said

The findings provide another powerful reason for pursuing clean energy technologies, said Dr. Joel Kaufman, chair of the American Heart Association's 2020 policy statement on air pollution.

"If these results hold up, it reinforces the benefits of air pollution reduction as a cost-effective way to improve health," said Kaufman, a professor of environmental and occupational health sciences, epidemiology and medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

"It also means that reducing fossil fuel combustion -- which we need to do anyway, to combat climate change -- might mean tremendous health benefits now, even if the climate benefits take a few years to accrue," Kaufman said.

Aung agreed, while adding that air quality is likely to deteriorate as more folks start commuting again.

"We believe that it is highly possible that air quality will return to usual higher levels as people shift towards resuming their normal pre-pandemic activities," Aung said. "We hope that our research will have implications for greater support of clean energy technologies to reduce air pollution levels."

As an observational analysis, the study does not prove cause and effect, only that there is a link between air quality and heart attack.

Findings presented at medical meetings are also considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.


More information

The Environmental Protection Agency has more about particle pollution.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

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Jan. 6 Capitol rioter seeks asylum in Belarus

Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Evan Neumann, wanted by the FBI for participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, appears to be seeking asylum in Belarus, according to a report on its state-run news media on Monday.

Neumann is wanted for violent entry and disorderly conduct on the Capitol grounds, as well as for assaulting, resisting and obstructing law enforcement during civil disorder, among other charges, according to the Justice Department.

In an excerpt of his interview, Neumann claimed that he "lost almost everything and is being persecuted by the U.S. government" because he "sought justice and asked uncomfortable questions" following the 2020 presidential election, according to the Washington Post.

Neumann said he was staying in Ukraine until security service agents started following him and he escaped to Belarus. Belarusian border guards detained him on Aug. 15.

Neumann sold him home in Mill Valley, Calif., in April for $1.3 million after charges were filed against him. His brother, Mark Neumann, a local construction worker in the area, said in July he knew nothing of his brother's whereabouts

Belarus is led by authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

New gold rush fuels Amazon destruction

New gold rush fuels Amazon destructionAn aerial view of an illegal gold mine in Sao Felix do Xingu, in Brazil's Para state -- as investors have sought a haven from the Covid-19 chaos in gold, illegal miners have responded by hacking rust-colored scars into the plush green of the Amazon 

(AFP/MAURO PIMENTEL)More

Joshua Howat Berger, with Valeria Pacheco in Brasilia
Mon, November 8, 2021

Standing over the gaping pit in the middle of his small farm, Brazilian wildcat miner Antonio Silva struggles to explain why he joined the new gold rush sweeping the Amazon.

The 61-year-old grandfather of six had planned to retire from illegal mining, and the environmental destruction that comes along with it.

He bought this farm in rural Sao Felix do Xingu, in the southeastern Amazon, and was starting a cattle ranch on a long-deforested patch of jungle where he would not have to cut down more trees.

But then the pandemic hit, gold prices soared, and Silva -- a pseudonym, as the man is involved in illicit activity -- couldn't resist the temptation of easy money.

He put his retirement plans on hold and spent 50,000 reais ($9,000) of his meager savings to rent an excavator, hire four workers, and dig a hole the size of a large house that now dominates his emerald pastures.

Filled with murky gray-green water, the hole is outfitted with a pump sitting on a ramshackle raft that delivers muddy sediment to a sluice to be panned for gold. To his chagrin, he has found only trace amounts so far.

"I know it's wrong. I know the problems mining causes. But I don't have anything else," says Silva, who got his start mining in the gold rush of the 1970s and 80s at the infamous Serra Pelada mine, known for images of tens of thousands of mud-soaked men swarming its cavernous sides like ants, hauling sacks of dirt from its bowels.

Now, illegal mining is surging again in the mineral-rich Amazon basin, fueled by poverty, greed, impunity and record gold prices.

As investors have sought a haven from pandemic-induced economic chaos in gold, illegal miners have responded by hacking giant rust-colored scars into the plush green of the world's biggest rainforest.

Mining has already destroyed a record 114 square kilometers (44 square miles) of the Brazilian Amazon this year -- more than 10,000 football pitches.

Silva's operation is relatively tiny, and the land he's damaging is his own.

But much of the destruction is on protected indigenous reservations.

There, gangs with heavy equipment and brutal tactics are installing huge mines, attacking villages, spreading disease, poisoning the water -- and devastating the very communities experts say are key to saving the Amazon.

- 'You'll have to kill me' -

The Brazilian Amazon has 1.2 million square kilometers (450,000 square miles) of indigenous reservations. Most of it is pristine forest, thanks to native traditions of living in harmony with nature.

Mineral-rich and remote, many reservations are also easy prey for illegal mining gangs. Their camps often are a breeding ground for other crimes, prosecutors say, including the drugs trade, sex trafficking and slave labor.

The government estimates there are 4,000 illegal miners operating on indigenous territory in the Amazon, though activists say the figure is much higher.

Recent studies found they used 100 tonnes of mercury in 2019-2020 to separate gold dust from soil -- and that up to 80 percent of children in nearby villages show signs of neurological damage from exposure to it.

Mercury also poisons the fish that many indigenous communities rely on for food.

Native peoples facing this nightmare have begun organizing anti-mining patrols and protests -- sometimes paying a heavy price.

Maria Leusa Munduruku is a leader of the Munduruku people, whose territory has been among the hardest hit.

When illegal miners started buying off community members with cash, alcohol and drugs in a bid to move in on tribal land, Munduruku, 34, organized local women to resist.

Soon, she was getting death threats, she says.

On May 26, armed men swarmed her home.

"They poured gasoline on my house, then set it on fire," she says, red flowers crowning her black hair, her baby nursing at her breast.

"I said I wasn't leaving, that they would have to kill me. Somehow, my house survived. God only knows why it didn't catch fire. They burned everything inside it."

Munduruku, who has five children and a grandson, did not back down.

In September, she traveled to Brasilia, some 2,500 kilometers (1,550 miles) from her village, to help lead a protest of indigenous women demanding the government protect their land.

That rally came in the wake of another major indigenous demonstration in the capital a month earlier, also over land rights issues.

"We have to make sure our children have a river to fish in, land to live on," she says.

"That's why I keep fighting."

- Backed by Bolsonaro -

Brazil mined 107 tonnes of gold last year, making it the world's seventh-biggest producer.

Illegal mines have exploded under far-right President Jair Bolsonaro, who has pushed to open indigenous reservations to mining since taking office in 2019.

A recent study found just one-third of Brazil's gold production is certified as legally mined.

Current regulations allow sellers to vouch for the origin of their gold by simply signing a paper.

The Amazon region is notoriously hard to police.

"We realized using only on-the-ground police operations was an exercise in futility," says Helena Palmquist, spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors' office in the northern state of Para.

Miners would flee into the jungle when police arrived, she says. Authorities burned the machinery left behind. But in a sign of how well-financed the gangs are, they easily replaced the excavators, which cost 600,000 reais apiece.

So prosecutors got creative, going after the powerful financiers trafficking illegal gold.

In August, they moved to suspend the operations of three major gold dealerships, asking a court to fine them 10.6 billion reais. The ruling is pending.

But there are powerful interests in play.

"Gold-sector lobbyists regularly meet with the environment minister, with top administration officials. They have direct access to the government," Palmquist says.

"And there's a very deep-rooted idea here in Brazil that the Amazon is a good that exists to be exploited."

That may be changing.

In downtown Sao Felix, Dantas Ferreira is fishing at dusk on the Xingu River, a bright blue Amazon tributary, just upstream from where another river, the Fresco, dumps its turbid, brown-stained waters into the Xingu's crystalline ones.

Authorities say the Fresco is badly polluted with illegal mining waste.

Like most people in Sao Felix, Ferreira, a 53-year-old cattle rancher, is a proud Bolsonaro supporter.

But he says the environmental destruction in the region has gone too far.

The president "needs to stop this," he says.

"If they don't crack down on illegal mining, our water is never going to be normal again."

jhb-val/sst

'We can't live in a world without the Amazon': scientist


Erika Berenguer, an Amazon ecologist, measuring the circumference of a tree during research in the Tapajos National Forest, Brazil in 2019 Marizilda Cruppe Rede Amazonia Sustentavel/AFP

Issued on: 09/11/2021 

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Erika Berenguer, an Amazon ecologist at Oxford and Lancaster universities, is one of the most prominent scientists studying how the rainforest functions when humans throw it off balance.

AFP asked the 38-year-old Brazilian to break down the latest research on the Amazon and what it means for us all.
There are lots of headlines on the destruction of the Amazon. What does the science say?

"The results are truly horrifying. They are in line with discussions about the 'tipping point' (at which the rainforest would die off and turn from carbon absorber to carbon emitter).

"One study found that in the southeast of the Amazon in the dry season, the temperature has increased by 2.5 degrees Celsius (over the past 40 years). That is truly apocalyptic.

"I don't think even academics were prepared for that. The Paris deal is trying to limit the world to 1.5 degrees; 2.5 in the Amazon is huge.

"And in the northeast Amazon, we've seen a decrease of 34 percent in precipitation in peak dry season (from August to October).

"The implication of all this is that if you have a hotter and dryer climate, fires are just going to escape more into the forest. So it gets into this feedback loop, this vicious cycle of horror."
Can we still save the Amazon? What happens if we don't?

"That's the million-dollar question. We'll never know the tipping point until we're past it. That's the definition of a tipping point. But different parts of the Amazon are speeding up toward it at different paces.

"If we pass the tipping point, it's the end. And I don't say that lightly. We're talking about the most biodiverse place on the planet collapsing.

"Millions and millions of people becoming climate refugees. Rainfall patterns being disrupted across South America.

"Without rainfall, we don't have hydroelectricity, so it means the collapse of industry in Brazil, and therefore the collapse of one of the largest economies in the world, of one of the biggest food suppliers in the world.

"We cannot live in a world without the Amazon."
Your WhatsApp profile picture has the word 'hope' written in big letters. What keeps you hopeful for the Amazon?

"Chocolate (laughs).

"But really, there is definitely hope for change. Within my lifetime, I saw a decrease of more than 80 percent in deforestation, between 2004 and 2012. It wasn't easy.

"You require coordination between several (government) agencies. But they did it. So why can't we see it again?

"Globally, there are several levels of solutions for everyone in the world. Everybody has to reduce their carbon footprint. Nobody's going to go back to living in a cave, but we all need to have a deep reflection on what we can do.

"We also need to pressure for transparency on commodities that come from Amazonia. Know where your gold is coming from, know where your beef is coming from.

"But most importantly, we need to insist on structural changes. We need to pressure our governments and corporations to cut emissions."

© 2021 AFP

The Amazon: a paradise lost?

Issued on: 09/11/2021

A forest fire in Porto Jofre, in the Pantanal area of Brazil's Mato Grosso state -- studies indicate the rainforest is near a 'tipping point' at which it will dry up and turn to savannah, its 390 billion trees dying off en masse CARL DE SOUZA AFP/File

Sao Felix do Xingu (Brazil) (AFP) – Seen from the sky, the Amazon is an endless expanse of deep green, a place where life explodes from every surface, broken only by the blue rivers snaking across it.

Endless, that is, until it isn't.

Fly toward the edges of the world's biggest rainforest, and you will come to the vast brown scar tissue, the places where the jungle is being razed and burned to make way for roads, gold mines, crops and especially cattle ranches.

This is the fast-advancing "arc of deforestation" that cuts across South America, and it is a cataclysm in the making for our planet.

Thanks to its lush vegetation and the miracle of photosynthesis, the Amazon basin has, until recently, absorbed large amounts of humankind's ballooning carbon emissions, helping stave off the nightmare of rampant climate change.

A forest fire in Porto Jofre, in the Pantanal area of Brazil's Mato Grosso state -- the Amazon jungle is being razed and burned to make way for roads, gold mines, crops and especially cattle ranches CARL DE SOUZA AFP/File

But studies indicate the rainforest is near a "tipping point," at which it will dry up and turn to savannah, its 390 billion trees dying off en masse.

Already, the destruction is quickening, especially since far-right President Jair Bolsonaro took office in 2019 in Brazil -- home to 60 percent of the Amazon -- with a push to open protected lands to agribusiness and mining.

The devastation is growing for the Amazon's exquisitely intricate web of interdependent species -- more than three million of them -- including iconic wildlife such as the powerful harpy eagle and sleek, majestic jaguar.

A bull and felled trees in Alta Floresta, in Brazil's Mato Grosso state in August 2021 CARL DE SOUZA AFP/File

Violent incursions by illegal gold miners into indigenous lands have also taken a terrible toll on native peoples, the best guardians of the forest because of their traditions of deep respect for nature.

"The sun is hotter, the rivers are drying up, the animals are disappearing. Things are falling apart," says Eldo Shanenawa, a leader of the Shanenawa people in northwestern Brazil, who at 42 years old says he has seen the Amazon change before his eyes.

Scientists say if the Amazon reaches the tipping point, instead of helping curb climate change, it will suddenly accelerate it, spewing up to a decade's worth of carbon emissions back into the atmosphere.

Devastation is growing for the Amazon's exquisitely intricate web of interdependent species -- more than three million of them -- including iconic wildlife such as the powerful harpy eagle CARL DE SOUZA AFP/File

"As bad as the predictions are (on climate change), they're actually optimistic.... We're going to reach the horror-show scenario way sooner," says Brazilian atmospheric chemist Luciana Gatti.

"We're killing the Amazon."

This is, in some ways, a story of evil: of violent bad guys in black hats exploiting a lawless frontier, political corruption and massive inequality to increase their wealth on riches ripped from the land.

But it is also the story of all humanity: our relationship with nature, our endless appetites, our seeming inability to stop.

A jaguar in Porto Jofre, in the Pantanal area of Brazil's Mato Grosso state CARL DE SOUZA AFP/File

After all, the gold, timber, soy and beef destroying the rainforest are a question of global supply and demand.

The products killing the Amazon can be found in homes around the world.

© 2021 AFP

Amazon deforestation threatens jaguars, giant eagles

Ousado, a wild jaguar, was badly burned in devastating wildfires in Brazil in 2020; the destruction of the Amazon is putting many species at risk (AFP/CARL DE SOUZA)


Conservationists use an aerial radio to track and locate the jaguar Ousado, after it suffered injuries in wildfires (AFP/CARL DE SOUZA)

Florian PLAUCHEUR, Carl DE SOUZA
Mon, November 8, 2021, 

Boating slowly upriver through the Pantanal, the world's biggest tropical wetlands, Brazilian biologist Fernando Tortato scans the bank for signs of Ousado, a jaguar badly burned in devastating wildfires last year.

A thousand kilometers (600 miles) to the north, at the rapidly receding edge of the Amazon rainforest, conservationist Roberto Eduardo Stofel peers through his binoculars, monitoring a baby harpy eagle sitting alone in a giant nest, its parents apparently out searching for increasingly hard-to-find food.

The sleek, majestic jaguar and spectacularly powerful harpy eagle are two of the most iconic species threatened by the accelerating destruction of the Amazon, whose breathtaking biodiversity risks collapsing as the world's biggest rainforest approaches a "tipping point."


Scientists say that is the point at which a vicious circle of deforestation, wildfires and climate change could damage the rainforest so badly it dies off and turns to savannah -- with catastrophic consequences for its more than three million species of plants and animals.

 

Amazon deforestation threatens jaguars, giant eaglesOne wild Harpy eagle eats food set out for it by conservationists -- the birds are threatened by deforestation, and in the background, a logging truck hauls giant tree trunks from the forest (AFP/CARL DE SOUZA)

- 'Flying rivers' drying up -

The jaguar and harpy eagle are already feeling the impact.

Ousado, a four-year-old, 75-kilogram (165-pound) male, was wounded a year ago when wildfires tore through the Pantanal, fueled by the region's worst drought in 47 years.

The region, which sits just south of the Amazon, is known for its stunning wildlife, drawing tourists from around the world.

But nearly a third of it burned in last year's fires, killing or wounding countless animals -- including Ousado, who was found with third-degree burns on his paws, barely able to walk.

Veterinarians took the big black-and-yellow spotted cat to an animal hospital, treated him, and then reintroduced him to the wild with a tracking collar to monitor his recovery -- which is going well.

The destruction of the Pantanal, Tortato explains, is directly linked to that of the Amazon.

The rainforest's 390 billion trees generate water vapor that dumps rain across much of South America -- a phenomenon known as "flying rivers."

Sometimes appearing as wisps of mist streaking skyward, then gathering into giant clouds that look like streams of cotton, these "rivers" likely carry more water than the Amazon River itself, scientists say.

As humans raze the forest for farms and pastureland, "the rainfall that would normally arrive in the Pantanal via the 'flying rivers' has diminished," says Tortato, 37, of conservation group Panthera.

Classified as "near threatened," the jaguar, the biggest cat in the Americas, has its stronghold in the Amazon.

Its population declined an estimated 20 to 25 percent over the past two decades.

- Facing starvation -

Known for its massive size, fearsome claws and tufts of feathers protruding Beethoven-like from its head, the harpy eagle is, like the jaguar, an apex predator in the Amazon.

Weighing up to 10 kilograms, harpies scope their prey from the canopy, and then swoop in with deadly precision, snatching monkeys, sloths and even small deer.

But despite their hunting prowess, they are at risk of starvation.

It takes the gray and white eagles, which mate for life, about two years to raise their young. They fledge just one eaglet at a time, but need enormous territory to hunt enough food.

A recent study found harpy eagles are not adapted to hunt for prey outside the forest, and cannot survive in areas with more than 50 percent deforestation -- increasingly common at the Amazon's edges.

"They are at high risk of extinction in this region because of deforestation and logging," says Stofel, 43, who works on a harpy conservation program in Cotriguacu, in Mato Grosso state.

The area sits on the so-called "arc of deforestation."

In a poignant snapshot of the harpy's plight, AFP journalists saw one eagle eating food set out for it by conservationists, against the backdrop of a logging truck hauling giant tree trunks from the forest.

"We've monitored nests where the eaglets starved to death because the parents couldn't hunt enough food," Stofel says.

- Matter of survival (our own) -

For Cristiane Mazzetti of environmental group Greenpeace, it is crucial to protect the Amazon's threatened biodiversity -- and not just for the plants and animals' sake.

Nature's complex interlocking web plays an essential role in the planet's ability to provide food, oxygen, clean water, pollination and myriad other "ecosystem services" on which all life depends.

"Biodiversity isn't something that can be resuscitated," says Mazzetti.

"It's important to protect it for our own survival."

bur-jhb/sst

Women plant mangroves to bolster India's cyclone defences


This file picture from 2008 shows mangrove seedlings planted at a nursery in the Sunderbands (AFP/Desha-Kalyan CHOWDHURY)


Mon, November 8, 2021

With India facing ever more powerful cyclones, women in the world's largest mangrove forest are planting thousands of saplings to help protect their coastal communities from climate change.

The Sundarbans straddle the coastline into neighbouring Bangladesh and are home to some of the world's rarest creatures, including the Bengal tiger and the Irrawaddy dolphin.

The forest has been designated a World Heritage site but has in the past suffered from illegal logging and is regularly battered by intense monsoon storms.


Walking ankle-deep along a muddy shore, and balancing young plants on their heads, a group of local women last week began the long process of reforesting a bare stretch of coastline.

"This is an area prone to storms and cyclones," said Shivani Adhikari, one of the women involved in the initiative. "So to protect the embankments, all of us women are planting."

Mangroves protect coastlines from erosion and extreme weather events, improve water quality by filtering pollutants, and serve as nurseries for many marine creatures, according to the UN Environment Programme.

They can help fight climate change by sequestering millions of tons of carbon each year in their leaves, trunks, roots and the soil.

And they also help buffer coastal communities from the cyclones that have coursed through the area.

"If these embankments are protected, our village will survive," said Goutam Nashkar, who lives near the project site.

"If our village survives, we will survive," he added. "This is our hope, our wish."

The project, backed by a local non-profit and the West Bengal government, aims to plant around 10,000 mangrove saplings.

India's eastern states and the coast of Bangladesh are regularly battered by cyclones that have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in recent decades.

While the frequency and intensity in storms have increased -- with climate change to blame -- deaths have fallen thanks to faster evacuations, better forecasting and more shelters.

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