Environmental groups sue TotalEnergies over climate marketing claims

Simon Jessop, Gloria Dickie and Benjamin Mallet
Wed, March 2, 2022

The logo of French oil and gas company TotalEnergies is pictured at an electric car charging station in Courbevoie

LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) - A group of environmental organisations has filed a lawsuit in France against the country's largest energy company TotalEnergies, accusing it of misleading consumers about its efforts to fight climate change.

The claim, which has been served on TotalEnergies and was to be filed before the Paris Judicial Court, concerns the company's "reinvention" marketing campaign. Claimants say the campaign broke European consumer law by suggesting TotalEnergies can reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 whilst still producing more fossil fuels.

Environmentalists have long complained about corporate "greenwashing" which they define as marketing or public relations campaigns that attempt to hide pollution or make a company's operations appear more environmentally friendly than they are.

TotalEnergies told Reuters it was implementing its strategy in a "concrete way", including through investments and reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, and was acting "in line with the objectives that the company has set itself... It is therefore wrong to claim that our strategy is 'greenwashing'."

Launched globally in May 2021, the adverts said TotalEnergies was committed to being "a major player in the energy transition" and was aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050.

The campaigners allege the company's plan to continue increasing production of fossil fuels such as oil and gas - key contributors to man-made global warming - was at odds with this.

A report from the International Energy Agency last year said no more new oil and gas fields should be developed from this year if the world is to have a chance of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average by 2050.

Claimants allege TotalEnergies was in breach of the European Unfair Consumer Practices Directive (UCPD), which bans misleading practices that can include promoting false or leaving out relevant information that impacts consumer decision-making.

The case, part of a growing field of legal challenges to corporate climate efforts, was brought by Greenpeace France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire à Tous and supported by environmental lawyers ClientEarth.

"We need to protect consumers from disinformation PR strategies that leave them trying to tell fact from fiction and delay the urgent climate action we need," Clara Gonzales, legal counsel at Greenpeace France, said in a statement.

TotalEnergies has previously said it expects its oil production to peak in the decade before declining, with an increase of around 3% per year by 2026 driven by the growth of liquefied natural gas (LNG), expected at 6% per year.

It plans to spend $13-15 billion a year between 2022-25 and will allocate half to developing new energies, mainly renewables and electricity, and the other 50% to natural gas.

More companies have been making climate pledges to appeal to consumers, and investors and climate activists are increasingly probing their actions to determine whether they can help meet the world's climate goal of net-zero emissions by 2050.

In the case of TotalEnergies, a leading investor group engaging with companies over climate transition plans has also flagged concern over its efforts https://www.climateaction100.org/company/total, including lack of a target to reduce emissions from the use of its products by consumers.

"We've seen a huge rush to adopt this language...even oil and gas companies which have a real challenge to get to net-zero," said Thomas Hale, a global public policy researcher at the University of Oxford and co-lead of the Net Zero Tracker Project.

"Companies who take on these targets are under additional scrutiny to see that they're really walking the walk."

(Reporting by Simon Jessop in London; Editing by David Gregorio)

New Dr. Seuss-inspired books to feature diverse creators
By MARK PRATT

A mural that features Theodor Seuss Geisel, left, also known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, covers part of a wall near an entrance at The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss Museum, May 4, 2017, in Springfield, Mass. Sketches of fantastic creatures by Dr. Seuss that have never before been published will see the light of day in new books being written and illustrated by an inclusive group of up-and-coming authors and artists, the company that owns the intellectual property rights to Dr. Seuss' works announced Wednesday, March 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

Sketches of fantastic creatures by Dr. Seuss that have never before been published will see the light of day in new books being written and illustrated by an inclusive group of up-and-coming authors and artists, the company that owns the intellectual property rights to Dr. Seuss’ works announced Wednesday.

The new line of books will include original stories inspired by previously unpublished illustrations selected from the author’s archives at the University of California San Diego, Dr. Seuss Enterprises said in a statement on the late writer’s birthday.

The announcement comes exactly one year after the business founded by the family of Dr. Seuss — whose real name was Theodor Seuss Geisel — announced that it would stop publishing six Dr. Seuss titles because they include racist and insensitive images, a decision that drew both condemnation and praise.

In “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” an Asian person is portrayed wearing a conical hat, holding chopsticks and eating from a bowl. “If I Ran the Zoo” includes a drawing of two bare-footed African men wearing what appear to be grass skirts with their hair tied above their heads. The other books affected were “McElligot’s Pool,” “On Beyond Zebra!,” “Scrambled Eggs Super!,” and “The Cat’s Quizzer.”

The new authors and illustrators will represent a diverse cross-section of racial backgrounds to represent as many families as possible, Dr. Seuss Enterprises said. Company officials were not available to comment, a spokesperson said.

“We look forward to putting the spotlight on a new generation of talent who we know will bring their unique voices and style to the page, while also drawing inspiration from the creativity and imagination of Dr. Seuss,” Susan Brandt, President and CEO of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, said in a statement.

The books, under the banner Seuss Studios and published by Random House Children’s Books, will be geared toward readers ages 4 to 8.

“The original Dr. Seuss sketch that serves as the inspiration for each of the new Seuss Studios books will be included in the book, along with a note from the creators explaining how they were inspired, and their process,” the San Diego-based company said.




The images include a catlike creature with enormous ears and a series of colorful hummingbirds with pointy noses.

The goal is to continue Geisel’s legacy, started in 1957 with the launch of the Beginner Books imprint at Random House, of inspiring young readers and supporting writers and artists starting their publishing careers, the company said.

The company seems genuine in its efforts to address inclusiveness, said Pamela Good, president of Beyond Basics, a Michigan-based nonprofit that promotes literacy.

“We believe that literacy is for everyone,” she said. “And as you try to find solutions that really are thoughtful and are heartfelt, they really do embrace everyone and allow everybody to be celebrated. And I think that what they’re doing right now is is a step in the right direction.”

Dr. Seuss Enterprises has not yet disclosed the writers and illustrators who will work on the new books because contracts are still being ironed out.

The first of the new books is expected to hit shelves next year, and the goal is to publish at least two new books per year.

Dr. Seuss books such as “Green Eggs and Ham” and “The Cat in the Hat” remain popular more than 30 years after Geisel’s death in 1991.

He earned an estimated $35 million in 2021, making him the fifth-highest paid dead celebrity of the year, according to Forbes. Roald Dahl is No. 1, followed by Prince, Michael Jackson and Charles Schulz.

Geisel, who was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, was No. 2 on the list in 2020 with $33 million in earnings. His books have been translated into dozens of languages, as well as in Braille, and are sold in more than 100 countries.

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AP video journalist Luke Sheridan in New York contributed to this story.

UN: Climate change to uproot millions, especially in Asia

By VICTORIA MILKO and JULIE WATSON

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A military truck drives through the water on a flooded toll road following heavy rains in Jakarta, Indonesia, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021. A United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report released on Monday, Feb. 28, 2022, says a staggering 143 million people will be uprooted over the next 30 years by rising seas, searing temperatures and other climate calamities. 

(AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The walls of Saifullah’s home in northern Jakarta are lined like tree rings, marking how high the floodwaters have reached each year — some more than 4 feet from the damp dirt floor.

When the water gets too high, Saifullah, who like many Indonesians only uses one name, sends his family to stay with friends. He guards the house until the water can be drained using a makeshift pump. If the pump stops working, he uses a bucket or just waits until the water recedes.

“It’s a normal thing here,” Saifullah, 73, said. “But this is our home. Where should we go?”

As the world’s most rapidly sinking major city, Jakarta demonstrates how climate change is making more places uninhabitable. With an estimated one-third of the city expected to be submerged in the coming decades – in part because of the rising Java Sea – the Indonesian government is planning to move its capital some 1,240 miles (2,000 kilometers) northeast to the island of Borneo, relocating as many as 1.5 million civil servants.

A staggering 143 million people will likely be uprooted over the next 30 years by rising seas, drought, searing temperatures and other climate catastrophes, according to an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report published Monday by the United Nations.

In Asia, governments are already scrambling to deal with it.

One in three migrants in the world today comes from Asia, which leads the world in the number of people being displaced by extreme weather, largely storms and flooding, according to the report. With rural villages emptying out and megacities like Jakarta at risk, scientists predict migration flows and the need for planned relocations will only grow.

“Under all global warming levels, some regions that are presently densely populated will become unsafe or uninhabitable,” the report said.

By one estimate, as many as 40 million people in South Asia may be forced to move over the next 30 years because of a lack of water, crop failure, storm surges and other disasters.

Rising temperatures are of particular concern, said Stanford University environmental scientist Chris Field, who chaired the U.N. report in previous years.

“There are relatively few places on Earth that are simply too hot to live now,” he said. “But it’s beginning to look like in Asia, there may be more of those in the future and we need to think really hard about the implications of that.”

No nation offers asylum or other legal protections to people displaced specifically because of climate change, though the Biden administration has studied the idea.

People leave their homes for a variety of reasons including violence and poverty, but what’s happening in Bangladesh demonstrates the role climate change also plays, said Amali Tower, who founded the organization Climate Refugees.

Scientists predict as many as 2 million people in the low-lying country may be displaced by rising seas by 2050. Already, more than 2,000 migrants arrive at its capital of Dhaka every day, many fleeing coastal towns.

“You can see the actual movement of people. You can actually see the increasing disasters. It’s tangible,” Tower said.

The migration flows can be slowed if countries like the United States and European nations act now to drop their greenhouse gas emissions to zero, she said. Others say richer countries that produce more emissions should offer humanitarian visas to people from countries that are disproportionally impacted.

Dealing with climate migrants will become a major policy issue for Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America as well over the next few decades, according to the U.N. report. Most people will be moving from rural areas to cities, especially in Asia where two-thirds of the population could be urban in 30 years.

“It’s essentially people migrating from rural areas and then probably squatting in a slum somewhere,” said Abhas Jha, a practice manager with the World Bank’s Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management in South Asia.

The migration doesn’t have to cause a crisis, said Vittoria Zanuso, executive director of the Mayors Migration Council, a global group of city leaders.

In the northern part of Bangladesh’s capital, Dhaka, for example, officials are building shelters for climate migrants and improving the water supply. They also are working with smaller cities to be designated “climate havens” that welcome migrants, Zanuso said.

The influx of a new work force offers smaller cities an opportunity for economic growth, she said. And it prevents migrants who may be fleeing villages threatened by rising seas from seeking refuge in a city with scarce water supplies and basically “swapping one climate risk for another.”

In coming years, she said helping prepare cities for the influx of migrants will be key: “They are on the frontlines.”

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Watson reported from San Diego. AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein contributed to this report.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

UN: Africa, already suffering from warming, will see worse

By WANJOHI KABUKURU

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Stephen Mudoga, 12, the son of a farmer, tries to chase away a swarm of locusts on his farm as he returns home from school, at Elburgon, in Nakuru county, Kenya on March 17, 2021. Africa has contributed relatively little to the planet's greenhouse gas emissions but has suffered some of the heaviest impacts of climate change and the reverberations of human-caused global warming will only get worse, according to a new United Nations report released Feb. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

Although Africa has contributed relatively little to the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, the continent has suffered some of the world’s heaviest impacts of climate change, from famine to flooding.

Yet from its coral reefs to its highest peaks, the reverberations of human-caused global warming will only get worse, according to a new United Nations report

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicted Monday that Saharan flooding, heat and drought will increase, Africa’s rich array of wildlife and plants will decline and glaciers on its most iconic mountains will disappear in coming decades.

On a continent already grappling with high poverty levels and food insecurity, the panel warned that fishermen and farmers will feel the pain of future climate change on their lives and livelihoods.

In Kenya, farmer Safari Mbuvi already is trying to weather his country’s a four-year drought — and watching his crops fail, again and again.

“Since I was young, my father used to get a bounty harvest in this farm, but now, there seems to be a change in climate and the rains are no longer dependable,” he said. “I will not harvest anything, not even a single sack of maize is possible. ... And I am not the only one. Every farmer in this area has lost everything.”

Warming temperatures will weaken Africa’s food production system by leading to water scarcity and shorter growing seasons, the U.N. report said. Yields of olives, sorghum, coffee, tea and livestock production are expected to decline.

“Agricultural productivity growth has been reduced by 34% since 1961 due to climate change more than any other region.” the panel said.

Climate change, along with conflicts, instability and economic crises, has contributed to hunger. Since 2012, the undernourished population in sub-Saharan Africa has increased by 45.6%, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. And in 2020, approximately 98 million people suffered from acute food insecurity and needed humanitarian assistance in Africa, said the Global Report on Food Crises by the World Food Programme.

If the world warms just another degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) by 2050, an additional 1.4 million African children will suffer severe stunting from malnutrition that limits growth and cognitive development, the IPCC said.

“The lack of food and under-nutrition are strongly linked with hot climates in the sub-Saharan area and less rainfall in West and Central Africa,” the panel said in a FAQ document. “Climate change can undermine children’s education attainment, thus reducing their chances for well-paid jobs or higher incomes later in life.”

Jean Paul Adam, who heads the climate change division at the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa, said, “Africa constitutes 17% of global population but only accounts for less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions. This is the region of the world already being severely impacted of climate change plus having an extremely low adaptive capacity.”

Climate change has a major social injustice component, with the poor hit harder by pollution from the rich, said former Ireland President Mary Robinson, now with The Elders, a Nelson Mandela- founded group of senior statesmen. “All of the injustices are captured by looking at the region of Africa.”

Drought is a problem that hits the continent particularly hard. While only 7% of the world’s disasters were drought related, they caused slightly more than one-third of the disaster deaths, “mostly in Africa,” the IPCC report said.

Droughts have also reduced Africa’s hydropower by about 5% compared to the long-term average, hindering growth, the report said.

“When we look at impacts, it isn’t just that Africa is getting hit with the droughts and cyclones and the sea level rise and the disruption of rainfall patterns,” said Canadian climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist for The Nature Conservancy. “It’s that their vulnerability is so much higher than a lot of other places.”

Scientists say it is impossible to untangle Africa’s poverty and harm from climate change.

“Africa gets the short shrift because it’s in some ways more vulnerable to physical impacts, but also because there’s going to be a lot of people living on less than a dollar a day,” said climate scientist Zeke Hausfather of the Breakthrough Institute.

Monday’s report said sea-surface temperatures are projected to rise, threatening fragile marine ecosystems, including East African coral reefs. The report warns of threats posed to livelihoods of 12.3 million people who depend on fisheries.

The report said global warming also will hit Africa’s famous wildlife and highest mountains.

It predicted glacier ice covers on the Ruwenzori Mountains and Mount Kenya would be gone by 2030 and that Mount Kilimanjaro would lose its around 2040.

By 2100, the report said, climate change is expected to lead to loss of more than half of African bird and mammal species — and a 20% to 25% decline in the productivity of Africa’s lakes and plant species. Increased damage to coral reefs from pollution and climate change is expected to harm fisheries and overall marine biodiversity.

In the coming decades, Africa’s mainland, islands and coastal cities will be exposed to climate change risks that can seriously undermine economic sectors such agriculture, tourism, transportation and energy.

The report predicts reduced frequency of Category 5 cyclones, although it says they are projected to be more intense with high impacts upon landfall.

By 2030, the report projects that 108 to 116 million people in Africa will be exposed to sea-level rise — and that without adaptation measures, 12 major coastal cities will suffer a total of $65 billion to $86.5 billion in damages.

Rapid African urbanization, inadequate infrastructure as well growth of informal settlements will expose more people to climate hazards, the report said.

It noted that sub-Saharan Africa is the only region that has recorded increasing rates of flood mortality since the 1990 — and that millions of people were displaced by weather-related causes in 2018 and 2019.

“A lot of cities are completely unprepared for the scale of the challenges ahead, or even actively making the situation worse,” said Kaisa Kosonen a senior policy advisor at Greenpeace Nordic. “Real action on climate change requires resilient urban development and justice.”

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

ECOCIDE
House to vote on bill to help veterans exposed to burn pits

By KEVIN FREKING

In this April 28, 2011, photo, an Afghan National Army pickup truck passes parked U.S. armored military vehicles, as smoke rises from a fire in a trash burn pit at Forward Operating Base Caferetta Nawzad, Helmand province south of Kabul, Afghanistan. The House is poised to pass legislation that would dramatically boost health care services and disability benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Simon Klingert, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is poised to pass legislation that would dramatically boost health care services and disability benefits for veterans exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The bill set for a vote Thursday has the backing of the nation’s major veterans groups and underscores the continued cost of war years after the fighting has stopped. If passed into law, it would increase spending by more than $300 billion over the next decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

“If we’re not willing to pay the price of war, we shouldn’t go,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

The bill would open up Department of Veterans Affairs health care to millions of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans exposed to toxic substances during their service even if they don’t have a service-connected disability.

The bill also would provide new or increased disability benefits to thousands of veterans who have become ill with cancer or respiratory conditions such as bronchitis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. The VA would presume that veterans developed their illness as a result of exposure to toxic substances during their service.

The bill’s supporters say it is a clear recognition from Congress that veterans were exposed to toxic substances, they are suffering as a result, and the process of proving to the VA that their illness was caused by their exposure is too burdensome.

Opponents of the legislation say it would grant health and disability benefits to many veterans whose conditions may not have anything to do with their military service. They expressed worry that the influx of cases would tax an already stressed VA system, leading to longer wait times for health care and processing disability claims.

The political dynamics surrounding the vote was evident on the House floor Wednesday as scores of Democrats, some from competitive swing districts, spoke in favor of the bill.

“This bill addresses the true cost of war and opposing it would be a vote against our servicemembers and veterans,” said Rep. Mark Takano of California, the Democratic chairman of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.

Republicans generally left it to Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa to do all the talking Wednesday in opposition to the bill. Miller-Meeks is a U.S. Army veteran and said she hears from fellow veterans frequently in Iowa who wait months, or even years, for the benefits they earned, and that problem will only grow if the bill becomes law. She also noted that the projected cost of the bill is more than the budgets of nine Cabinet-level departments combined.

“We are not doing right by our veterans by being fiscally irresponsible in their name,” Miller-Meeks said.

The military routinely used burn pits to dispose of waste during operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. A 2020 study from the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine found that existing health studies provided insufficient evidence to determine whether exposure to burn pit emissions are linked to adverse respiratory conditions such as asthma, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer. The authors of the study said the uncertainty doesn’t mean there is no association — only that there was insufficient data to draw definitive conclusions.

President Joe Biden is among those who has voiced suspicion that his son’s death from brain cancer was linked to burn pits that were in use while Maj. Beau Biden served in Iraq.

“And they come home, many of the world’s fittest and best trained warriors, never the same — headaches, numbness, dizziness, a cancer that would put them in a flag-draped coffin,” he said during Tuesday’s State of the Union address.

Biden said it’s unknown whether a burn pit caused his son’s brain cancer, or the diseases of so many others who served, “but I’m committed to finding out everything we can.”

The White House has endorsed the House bill, which goes beyond Iraq and Afghanistan. It also adds hypertension to the list of illnesses that Vietnam veterans are presumed to have developed because of exposure to Agent Orange. The CBO estimates that about 600,000 of the 1.6 million veterans who served in Vietnam and who already receive disability compensation also have hypertension, or high blood pressure. They would be eligible for increased compensation, which would depend upon the severity of the illness.

Biden called on the VA last year to examine the impact of burn pits and other airborne hazards. He has backed expanding the number of conditions that the VA would presume were caused by toxic exposure from burn pits.

In November, the White House announced that soldiers exposed to burn pits who developed any of three specific ailments — asthma, rhinitis and sinusitis — within 10 years can receive disability benefits. The House bill greatly builds on that effort with 21 additional presumptive conditions, and possibly more to come in ensuing years.

The bill also provides for retroactive benefits to veterans whose disability claims have been denied, and to survivors of deceased veterans.

The sums are substantial. For example, Vietnam veterans eligible for retroactive payments due to hypertension from exposure to Agent Orange would receive retroactive payments averaging about $13,500, while survivors would receive about $100,000, the CBO said in a December report.

Meanwhile, some 268,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan whose claims have been denied would receive retroactive payments averaging about $50,000. And some 5,500 survivors would receive about $160,000, on average, CBO said.

It is unclear how the House bill will fare in an evenly divided Senate where legislation generally needs 60 votes to advance.

The Senate has unanimously passed a much narrower bill extending how long combat veterans are guaranteed VA care. But House Democrats said the Senate legislation is just a fraction of what is needed.

Tainted water ‘shatters’ Native Hawaiians’ trust in military

By JENNIFER SINCO KELLEHER

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A group of demonstrators gather at the Hawaii state capitol for a rally over water contamination by the U.S. Navy near Pearl Harbor on Feb. 11, 2022, in Honolulu. Native Hawaiians who revere water in all its forms as the embodiment of a Hawaiian god say the Navy's acknowledgement that jet fuel leaked into Pearl Harbor's tap water has deepened the distrust they feel toward the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones)


HONOLULU (AP) — A well-known adage in Hawaiian, ola i ka wai, means “water is life.”

Native Hawaiians revere water in all its forms as the embodiment of one of the Hawaiian pantheon’s four principal gods.

The resource is so valuable that to have it in abundance means prosperity. The Hawaiian word for water — wai — is repeated in the word for wealth — waiwai.

So when the Navy confirmed petroleum from one of its fuel tank facilities had leaked into Pearl Harbor’s tap water, many Native Hawaiians were not just concerned, they were hurt and offended.

“This has been the most egregious assault on a public trust resource in the history of Hawaii,” said Kamanamaikalani Beamer, a former trustee of the Commission on Water Resource Management.

Nearly 6,000 people, mostly those living in military housing at or near Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, got sick after petroleum-laced water came pouring out of their taps late last year. Residents worry fresh water for broader Oahu also is in danger because the aging tank system sits above an aquifer that provides drinking water to most of the island and has a history of leaks.

The Navy is working to address the problem. But many say it has deepened a distrust in the military that dates to at least 1893, when a group of American businessmen, with support from U.S. Marines, overthrew the Hawaiian kingdom. More recently, Native Hawaiians fought to stop target practice bombing on the island of Kahoolawe and at Makua Valley in west Oahu.

“The military has a long history of poor stewardship of Hawaii’s natural and cultural resources,” Carmen Hulu Lindsey, chair of the board of trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, said in an email in response to questions. “Time after time the people of Hawaii have been left to clean up after the military ravages our sacred lands — from unexploded ordnance and toxic waste to the loss of cultural and historic sites and endangered species — without even appropriating resources to finance these efforts.”

For some, the water contamination was the last straw.

The crisis has “shattered people’s trust in the military,” said Kawenaʻulaokalā Kapahua, a Native Hawaiian political science doctoral student and one of the activists pushing to shut down the tank facility.

“I think this is really pushing people to the edge because we all need water to live,” Kapahua said. “And I think it’s a very scary thought for people that their children or their grandchildren may never be able to drink the water that comes out of the tap.”

Navy officials seemed aware of the distrust when they announced to members of Congress in January the Navy wouldn’t continue fighting Hawaii’s order to defuel the tanks.

“I understand the deep connection that the people of Hawaii, particularly the Native Hawaiian community, have with the lands and waters of Hawaii,” Rear Adm. Blake Converse, deputy commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, said while noting he lived in Hawaii off and on for more than eight years.

Rear Adm. John Korka, commander of Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command, also noted his connection to the islands, sharing which church he worshipped in and the Catholic school his children attended while living in Hawaii. “This is a personal issue for me, and I’m sorry.”

Using 2019 Census data, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs estimates that 3,439 Native Hawaiians across the United States serve in the armed forces, which is 0.8% of the total Native Hawaiian adult population in the U.S.

Many see value in the state’s relationship with the military, which also provides civilian jobs that are considered desirable alternatives to service work in the tourism industry.

Native Hawaiian Vietnam War veteran Shad Kane said he is troubled by the contaminated water, but it hasn’t tested his faith in the military. His trusty pickup truck bears special Hawaii license plates indicating he’s a combat veteran. He plans to transfer the plates to his new Toyota Tacoma.

“Yes, I’m bothered by that, but I also know the Navy has a greater responsibility,” Kane said. “The Navy wants to do the right thing.”

The Navy hasn’t determined how petroleum got in the water. Officials are investigating a theory that jet fuel spilled from a ruptured pipe last May and somehow entered a fire suppression system drain pipe. They suspect fuel then leaked from the second pipe Nov. 20, sending it into the drinking water well.

The Navy has been trying to clear petroleum from the contaminated well and pump it out of the aquifer. Officials are also flushing clean water through the Navy’s water system — which serves 93,000 people in military homes and offices in and around Pearl Harbor. In the meantime, the Navy put up affected military families in Waikiki hotels.











A wood and stone shrine stands at the gates of the headquarters of the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet on Tuesday, February 1, 2022 in Honolulu. The shrine was erected during a traditional ceremony by protesters who oppose the U.S. Navy's use of a giant fuel storage tank facility blamed for jet fuel that leaked into a drinking well. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher)


Beamer, the former water commission trustee, had been calling for the decommissioning of the tanks since 2014, when more than 27,000 gallons (102,200 liters) of fuel leaked from one of tanks.

The Navy “promised us nothing like this would possibly happen,” he recalled. “They would never risk the lives of their own. ... They drink out of the same aquifer.”

After initially resisting, the Navy said in January it would comply with Hawaii’s order to remove fuel from the tank facility, which is used to power many U.S. military ships and planes that patrol the Pacific Ocean. But in February, the Navy lodged an appeal in court.

Rear Adm. Tim Kott, commander of Navy Region Hawaii, said in a statement this week that Navy officials will continue to work with, listen to and learn from the Native Hawaiian community.

“We know we have a lot of work ahead of us to gain the trust of the communities across the island, and in particular Native Hawaiians,” he said. “We will continue to work tirelessly to restore community trust and the safe drinking water of our families and neighbors.”

U.S. Rep. Kaiali‘i Kahele, a combat pilot who serves as an officer in the Hawaii National Guard, has invoked the Hawaiian word hewa, which can mean sinful or wrong, to describe the Navy water contamination. He has also called it “crisis of astronomical proportions.”

He traces his Native Hawaiian family’s roots to a small fishing village near the southern tip of Hawaii’s Big Island where there’s no running water and residents rely on catching rain.

Elders instilled in him that every drop is precious.

“All life originated through having healthy, fresh water,” Kahele said.

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Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report.

Overdose deaths higher among Black Americans than White Americans in 2020

Drug overdose deaths among Black Americans surpassed those of White Americans in 2020 for the first time in more than 20 years, according to a new study. 

Photo by stevepb/Pixabay

March 2 (UPI) -- Deaths after drug overdoses were 16% higher among Black Americans than in White Americans in 2020, the first time this has been the case since 1999, an analysis published Wednesday by JAMA Network Open found.

Overdose death rates among Black Americans increased to 37 per 100,000 people in the general population in 2020, up from 25 per 100,000 people in 2019, the data showed.

In 2020, the overdose death rate among White Americans was 32 per 100,000 people in the general population, the researchers said.

American Indian or Alaska Native individuals experienced the highest rate of overdose death in 2020, at 41 per 100,000 people in the general population, according to the researchers.

RELATED Report: 1.2M more opioid overdose deaths expected in North America by 2029

Drug overdose rates among Hispanic or Latin Americans people were the lowest among the groups assessed, at 17 per 100,000 people in the general population, they said.

"Overdose deaths must be treated as an urgent racial justice issue," study co-author Joseph Friedman told UPI in an email.

"Long-standing inequalities in access to harm reduction, treatment for substance use disorders and access to housing and social services must be addressed," said Friedman, a social sciences researcher at the University of California-Los Angeles.

RELATED CDC: Fentanyl-related overdose deaths rose nationally during pandemic

More than 100,000 people died from drug overdoses in the United States in 2020, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

These numbers are expected to increase in the coming years, driven at least in part by the availability of drugs such as fentanyl, which carry a high overdose risk, research suggests.

"One thing we know is key is that illicit drug supply has increasingly become more toxic," Friedman said.

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"People think they are buying heroin or pills like Oxycontin, but are actually receiving illicit synthetic opioids, whose strength can fluctuate wildly," he said.

For this study, Friedman and his colleagues compared overdose deaths by race and ethnicity in the United States as reported to the CDC between 1999 and 2020.

Much of the change in the racial and ethnic make-up of overdose deaths nationally has occurred over the past decade, the researchers said.

In 2010, for example, the overdose death rate for White Americans was 16 per 100,000 people in the general population, or about twice that of Black Americans, the data showed.

From 2019 to 2020, the overdose death rate for Black Americans increased by nearly 50%, while it rose by 40% for Hispanic or Latin Americans and by 30% for American Indian or Alaska Natives, the researchers said.

It increased by 26% among White Americans over the same period, they said.

"Percent increases in 2020 were higher than during any prior year for all race and ethnic groups assessed," Friedman said.

"This is a problem across the board, although it has disproportionately affected minority communities," he said.

Amid rising military suicide rate, lawmakers question DoD over prevention

By Catherine Buchaniec, Medill News Service

A woman and child walk between some of the American flags placed on the National Mall by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America that represent veterans and service members who died by suicide in a recent year. 

File Photo by Kevin Dietsch/UPI | License Photo

WASHINGTON. March 3 (UPI) -- The chair of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee grilled Pentagon officials Wednesday about the rising suicide rate among members of the military, saying the Defense Department is not "providing the right resources at the right time or at the right place," while experts said the assessment process is flawed.

The suicide rate for active-duty service members rose to 28.7 deaths per 100,000 individuals in 2020 compared to 26.3 deaths per 100,000 in 2019, according to the Department of Defense's Annual Suicide Report.

In 2020 alone, 580 members died by suicide. Pentagon officials said they do not have suicide rates for 2021 yet.

The Department of Defense has introduced various suicide prevention initiatives over the past decade. But during Wednesday's hearing, veterans' advocates said the programs aren't making a meaningful difference in preventing deaths.

RELATED Military, veterans need better mental health services, experts tell Congress

When asked by lawmakers to explain the increased numbers, officials from the department pointed to the complicated nature of suicide and the many contributing factors that lead to death by suicide in service members and the general population.

Some lawmakers, including subcommittee Chair Jackie Speier, D-Calif., pushed back against the limited response.

"It's different in the military," Speier said. "You have control over your service members. You can query them. You can have them seek services."

Speier said that she has spoken with family members of Army soldiers who have died by suicide in Alaska, where the rate is extremely high. "In every instance, the message was clear - we are not doing enough."

"We're not providing the right resources at the right time or at the right place so that soldiers and their families can overcome the burdens that are pushing them over the edge."

Veterans' health advocates agreed, highlighting the lack of meaningful resources, especially when it comes to assessing those at risk.

RELATED Military suicides increase amid COVID-19 pandemic, Pentagon says

Craig Bryan, director of the suicide prevention program at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, said part of the problem is concern that admitting to suicidal thoughts could hurt service members' careers.

For example, if people with top-secret clearances decide to seek help from a mental health professional, they typically must report their decision to their command, risking loss of the clearance or other negative career impacts, Bryan said.

"The irony in many ways is that we're encouraging people to get help, but we have policies in place that actually directly impede our ability to do that," Bryan said.

Beth Zimmer Carter, a volunteer with Tragedy Assistance Program For Survivors, agreed.

While the military does conduct mental health screenings, Zimmer Carter said that answering questionnaires honestly can compromise a person's deployment, saying "it doesn't seem to be very meaningful assessment."

Zimmer Carter's son, Special Forces Army Ranger Christopher Carter, died by suicide at age 22 in 2015.

Bryan's research funded by the Department of the Defense shows similar conclusions, he said.

When conducting a study aimed at improving screening, Bryan said that he and other researchers found that expanded questioning about suicidal ideation did not meaningfully improve detection rates because the first onset of suicidal ideation occurs on the same day that the suicide is attempted.

"They're having this incredibly fast transition from a low-risk to high-risk state," Bryan said.

To screen effectively, service members would have to be asked multiple times a day if they are considering suicide to meaningfully improve detection, which is not feasible, he said.

Instead, Bryan said that military health professionals should be more strategic about what it means to screen and "move away from this obsession with suicidal ideation as the only or the most effective way to do screening."

Speier said that Congress should address ways to reduce military suicide rates when writing the National Defense Authorization Act for next year.

FROM HEROES TO ZEROES
Wages for healthcare workers lag behind all other sectors

By HealthDay News

Overall, wages increased 6.7% in 2020 and 6.9% in 2021, compared to 5% and 1.5%, respectively, for healthcare workers.

Doctor using a computer. File photo by www.BillionPhotos.com/Shutterstock

Though they're on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. healthcare workers' paychecks don't always adequately reward those efforts.

Wages for healthcare workers actually rose less than the average across all U.S. employment sectors during the first and second years of the pandemic, according to a new study that also reported a nationwide decline in the number of healthcare workers.

The research was done by investigators from Indiana University, the University of Michigan and the nonprofit Rand Corporation in Santa Monica, Calif.

"While federal programs provided financial assistance to hospitals and institutions, it is important to focus on the effect of the pandemic on healthcare employment levels and wages, especially if we want to prevent such shortages in the future," said study co-author Christopher Whaley, a policy researcher at Rand. He spoke in an Indiana University news release.

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For the study, the researchers analyzed federal data covering 95% of all U.S. jobs during 2020 and the first six months of 2021. Overall, wages increased 6.7% in 2020 and 6.9% in 2021, compared to 5% and 1.5%, respectively, for healthcare workers.

Meanwhile, the number of healthcare-related jobs fell from 22.2 million in 2019 to 21.1 million in mid-2020, a 5.2% drop. The largest decreases were in dental offices (10%) and skilled nursing facilities (8.4%).

While employment levels in most healthcare sectors rebounded to pre-COVID levels last year, employment at skilled nursing facilities was 13.6% lower in 2021 than in 2019.

RELATED Hospitals recruiting international nurses to fill pandemic shortages

The findings -- recently published in JAMA Health Forum -- are important for planning for and responding to ongoing and future public health crises, the researchers said.

They said though employment declines in the healthcare sector have received extensive media coverage, nationwide employment and wage evidence had been scarce.

"These findings provide a data-driven picture of employment levels by various healthcare settings and can help guide decision-making not only around the current healthcare shortage but also during a future crisis," said study co-author Kosali Simon, a professor of public and environmental affairs at Indiana University Bloomington.

RELATED Nurses in crisis over COVID-19 dig in for better work conditions

More information

For more about the COVID pandemic's impact on healthcare workers, visit the Chicago School of Professional Psychology.

Copyright © 2021 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

THIRD WORLD USA
COVID-19 pandemic hurts struggling child care sector, legislators are told

By Courtney Degen, Medill News Service

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated long-standing problems within the child care sector, especially the high cost that makes it inaccessible for some parents, experts told lawmakers Wednesday. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Agriculture


WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated long-standing problems within the child care sector, especially the high cost that makes it inaccessible for some parents, and the government must provide permanent support to both families and providers to resolve them, lawmakers and experts said Wednesday.

Speaking before the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., emphasized that federal pandemic relief packages, like the American Rescue Plan, are only a temporary solution.

"Although pandemic-related relief programs have helped families and providers cope with the immediate effects of the coronavirus, sustained federal investment is still needed to aid recovery and address problems that existed before the pandemic," said Clyburn, who chairs the subcommittee.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly upended child care arrangements for families across the country. In June 2020, two out of three working parents had changed their child care arrangements since March, and 60% said they expected a change within the following year, according to a report from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.

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The American Rescue Plan Act, which was signed into law in March 2021, dedicates $39 billion to child care funding, including $24 billion for child care stabilization grants and $15 billion in discretionary funds. However, experts say that the child care industry's pre-pandemic challenges remain.

"The cost of child care, particularly high-quality child care, prior to the pandemic, made working too expensive for some parents, and yet the child care market is still far from recovering to these inadequate levels of access and affordability," Betsey Stevenson, professor of public policy and economics at the University of Michigan, told the subcommittee.

The average price of child care in 2020 was $10,174 per year, a 5% increase from 2019, according to a recent report from Child Care Aware of America, a nonprofit organization advocating for more accessible child care.

In his State of the Union speech Tuesday, President Joe Biden addressed the rising cost of child care.

"My plan would cut the cost of child care in half for most families and help parents, including millions of women, who left the workforce during the pandemic because they couldn't afford child care, to be able to get back to work," Biden said.

Several experts pointed to the challenges that child care workers face, specifically their low wages. In 40 states, median child care worker wages fall below the living wage for a single adult in that state, according to a 2020 report from the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California-Berkeley.

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"Our economy relies on workers who are parents, and so many parents cannot work without reliable child care, and child care cannot work effectively until its own workforce is secure," said Lea J.E. Austin, executive director of the Center for the Study of Child Care Employment.

Gina Forbes, an early childhood educator and parent from Brunswick, Maine, described her experience working as the director of a preschool at which keeping tuition costs low meant keeping wages low, as well.

"This lack of fair pay, inability to offer health and other benefits, and the high demands of the job is a recipe for teacher burnout, stress and sometimes turnover," Forbes said.

Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., criticized House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, the top Republican on the subcommittee, for focusing on what he called political motivations for lifting mask mandates across the country.

Other Republican committee members brought up similar concerns rather than discussing child care.

Experts: Russian move to hold up OneWeb launch may affect entire space industry

By Paul Brinkmann

A Soyuz MS-18 rocket launches NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei with Roscosmos cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy in April from Kazakhstan. 

File Photo by Bill Ingalls | License Photo


March 2 (UPI) -- Russia's invasion of Ukraine hit the space industry harder Wednesday after Russian space agency Roscosmos said it would hold up a satellite launch for a British company -- which experts say may completely shift the industry away from Russia.

OneWeb, a communications satellite company partly owned by the British government, intended to launch 36 satellites Friday on a Russian Soyuz rocket. But Roscosmos issued a statement Tuesday saying the launch was in doubt.

"Roscosmos demands guarantees OneWeb satellites not to be used [sic] for military purposes," the agency posted on Twitter. "Because of Britain's hostile stance against Russia, another condition for the March 5 launch is that the British government withdraws from OneWeb."

OneWeb currently has over 400 satellites in orbit.

The British government issued a statement Tuesday saying it may no longer make sense to launch on any Russian rockets, according to the BBC.

But there will be no negotiation regarding the launch, Kwasi Kwarteng, Britain's Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, said on Twitter Tuesday.

"The UK Government is not selling its share. We are in touch with other shareholders to discuss next steps..." he tweeted.

Стартовики на Байконуре решили, что без флагов некоторых стран наша ракета будет краше выглядеть. pic.twitter.com/jG1ohimNuX— РОГОЗИН (@Rogozin) March 2, 2022

The moves by Roscosmos, as it becomes increasingly isolated, could cripple the space agency even more, Todd Harrison, a director with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in an interview.

"Russia's space industry was already in a tailspin with the loss of business from the U.S.," Harrison said. "The response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine will exacerbate problems within Russia's space sector and could ultimately cause it to implode."

"We haven't seen this kind of rapid reshuffling of the space industry since the end of the Cold War, if ever," he added.

Space companies like OneWeb now clearly see the "risk of doing business with a nation like Russia ... or nations with potentially aggressive aspirations, like China," Harrison said.

"The big winners out of this will be low-cost launch providers outside of Russia -- with SpaceX being at the front of the pack," he said.

The dissolution of space ties between Russia and the West is shocking for its pace, but not unthinkable after the U.S. response to Russia's so-called "annexation" of the Crimea region of Ukraine in 2014, space analyst Chris Quilty said in an email.

"OneWeb will have to decide how to launch the remaining 220 satellites of its first-generation constellation. This is a difficult time to find new launch arrangements as five of the world's seven heavy-lift vehicles are retiring and being replaced by new upgraded vehicles over the next two years," Quilty, owner of St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Quilty Analytics, said.

He said Soyuz is the most-flown space rocket in human history, so moving on without it will "certainly cause some discomfort."

He said Europe already plans to develop new Ariane rockets and the Vega C rocket.

"Outside of Europe, other countries that had payloads slated to launch through Russia will likely decide between SpaceX, Arianespace, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and a range of emerging launch vehicles," Quilty said.

Dmitry Rogozin, director general at Roscosmos, tweeted a video clip of workers at the Russian spaceport in Kazakhstan as they removed Japanese, British and U.S. flags from the rocket for Friday's launch.

"The launchers at Baikonur decided that without the flags of some countries, our rocket would look more beautiful," Rogozin said in the post, according to a translation.

NASA relies on Russia to provide vital services to the International Space Station, including thrust needed to keep the station in the proper orbit.

So far, NASA has said it doesn't believe the conflict in Ukraine will impact the space station, but other experts have said the crisis is the worst in the history of the ISS partnership of nations.