California releases groundbreaking reparations report urging 'comprehensive’ compensation for Black Americans


Marquise Franci
·National Reporter & Producer
Wed, June 1, 2022, 

An activist carries a Pan-African flag during a protest to mark the National Reparations Day on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2019. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

California’s first-in-the-nation task force on reparations released an extensive report on Wednesday detailing the state’s role in 170 years of discrimination toward Black Americans, outlining how the lasting effects of slavery have produced “innumerable harms” that no level of government has addressed to date.

The exhaustive 500-page report documents how descendants of slavery in California, and more broadly in the U.S., have suffered compounding inequities through more than a dozen facets of life, including education, employment and housing, and offers recommendations to right those wrongs through systemic policy shifts and “comprehensive” financial compensation.

“In 1883, the Supreme Court interpreted the 13th Amendment as empowering Congress ‘to pass all laws necessary and proper for abolishing all badges and incidents of slavery in the United States,’” the report reads.

Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., testifies about reparations for the descendants of slaves during a House hearing in 2019. (Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call)

“However, throughout the rest of American history, instead of abolishing the ‘badges and incidents of slavery,’ the United States federal, state and local governments, including California, perpetuated and created new iterations of these ‘badges and incidents.’ The resulting harms have been innumerable and have snowballed over generations.”

The report, which is the first of its kind to be produced on the state level, urges the creation of a new statewide office that would provide a pathway for financial reparations for Black Americans, and pushes for expanded voter registration and the improvement of Black neighborhoods, among other recommendations. The document, however, stopped short of attaching a specific number to the reparations, mainly because it’s the first of two reports coming from the nine-member task force, with the second to be released some time next year.

“I’m hoping that this report is used as an education tool and an organizing tool, educating the state of California and the United States at large about the harms against the African American community and the contributions of the African American community in the United States,” said Kamilah Moore, chair of the task force. “This report is documenting the full corpus of evidence around the harms against the African American community, which will substantiate the claims for reparations in the final report.”

A resident of Tulsa, Okla., tells people about the history of the area in 2021. 

(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Members of the task force claim this is the first government-commissioned study on harm against Black Americans since the 1968 Kerner Commission report, which was ordered by then-President Lyndon Johnson.

The findings come at a time of increased fervor around the topic of reparations — just last month more than 25 social justice organizations penned a letter to President Biden urging him “to study and develop reparations proposals for African Americans” by Juneteenth, or June 19, the anniversary of the day in 1865 that African-Americans returned in Galveston, Texas, to news that they were freed. Last March, Evanston, Ill., became the first city in the country to approve reparations for Black residents.

A sign welcomes visitors to the city on March 23, 2021 in Evanston, Illinois. The City Council of Evanston voted yesterday to approve a plan, which may be the first of its kind in the nation, to make reparations available to Black residents due to past discrimination. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Advocates for reparations believe the only way Black Americans will see any kind of financial compensation will be through policy and politics.

“This has to be a political campaign on top of a matter of policy and any sort of moral argument,” James Lance Taylor, a political science professor at the University of San Francisco and a member of the city of San Francisco’s reparations task force, told the Washington Post. “Anything in favor of expanding rights to Black people has always been negatively received. The odds are always against us, but we are further along than we’ve ever been.”

"The depth, breadth and scope of the report is astounding," task force member Lisa Holder told USA Today. "We are evaluating racism beginning in 1619 and going all the way to the present … and connecting (past) injustices to injustice that we are seeing today."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on September 07, 2021 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed legislation to create the task force in 2020, becoming the only state to move forward with a reparations study at this scale. Following Wednesday’s report, the task force will now pivot to creating a detailed proposal for reparations for the Legislature to consider. In March, the group voted 5-4 to limit cash reparations only to people who can prove that they are descended from enslaved and free Black Americans who were in the country before the end of the 19th century.

“The harm against the African American community has been so extensive that reparations are pretty much overdue,” Moore said.

_____

Cover thumbnail photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Relief through student debt cancellation will help workers today

BY REP. ANDY LEVIN (D-MICH.), OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 06/01/22 


Mr. President: do you want to be the most pro-worker and pro-union president?

My advice is simple: cancel student debt.

Americans collectively owe $1.6 trillion in federal student loan debt, affecting nearly 43.4 million American workers. The student debt crisis is fueled by a cycle of suppressed wages, demand for higher credentials and rising costs in the pursuit of an education.

As a union organizer and former chief workforce officer for the state of Michigan who spearheaded Michigan’s No Worker Left Behind program, I’ve seen firsthand what access to affordable education and job training can do to uplift workers and our economy. However, that opportunity ceases to exist in a system where growing student debt prevents workers from fully participating in our economy—buying homes, changing careers, even starting families.

Studies indicate that 60 percent of all jobs in the U.S. economy require postsecondary education and training beyond high school. Research from the Bureau of Labor Statistics suggests that a bachelor’s degree is typically required for entry in 169 occupations.

Thinking they were investing in their future, millions of U.S. workers have gone back to school or pursued a college degree. In 1960, roughly 7.7 percent of the U.S. population had graduated from college. Now more than 37.5 percent of U.S. workers aged 25 and above have at least a college degree.

But as students have graduated, they have entered a job market where wages are outpaced by tens-of-thousands in student loan debt. Over the past 40 years, wage growth for a typical worker was 23.1 percent, compared to a 169 percent increase in the cost of a college education in the U.S. In this world, investment in a higher education far too often is not paying off. Add to that that roughly 40 percent of workers with student debt were unable to finish their degree.

Wage growth for Black and Hispanic workers over the past 40 years also lagged behind wages for white workers, growing only 18.9 percent and 16.7 percent respectively.

Black workers are also more heavily impacted by the student debt crisis, owing an average of $25,000 more in student loan debt than white college graduates. Black women stand to benefit the most from debt cancellation, holding the highest average debt amount among all demographics.

This crisis extends beyond age or generation, with the fastest growing population of student debt carriers being Americans aged 65 years old and older.

Student debt cancellation isn’t just a “young person’s” issue as we so often hear. It’s an economic, workers’ rights, racial justice and gender equity issue spanning generations.

While we must have a full recalibration of our nation’s higher education policy to ensure college is once again affordable in the long term—and I’m proud to lead the America’s College Promise Act that will do just that and provide two years of free community college to every single American—immediate relief through student debt cancellation will help workers today.

This is relief people will feel immediately. It will lift millions of workers out of debt and give people across the country a pathway to financial stability to buy a house, change their career, get married and have kids. In the medium term, it will help grow the economy and empower workers by allowing them the freedom to compete for better jobs.

It is no longer a question of whether student debt should or can be cancelled. Poll after poll has indicated that Americans want student debt relief. And President Biden and the Department of Education have already exercised their authority to cancel student debt, cancelling roughly $17 billion for students defrauded by universities and beginning to fix a broken Public Loan Forgiveness Program.

It is now a question of when student debt will be cancelled.

For workers across the country, we must cancel student debt boldly. Cancelling $50,000 will make 76% of current borrows debt-free, transforming lives and delivering the biggest racial justice impact.

Means-testing student debt cancellation is also unnecessary and costly. The majority of federal loans are held by workers with no household wealth at all, with 97 percent of all student debt being held by people earning below $150,000. There is nothing to means test.It’s time to close a gaping import loophole to improve US competitiveness against ChinaBiden’s plan to ‘cancel’ student debt passes the buck to all taxpayers

For families being crushed by higher costs as inflation soars, we must do it now.

Mr. President, the ball is in your court and this crisis can be solved with a stroke of a pen. The American people are counting on you.

Andy Levin represents Michigan’s 9th District. He is a member of the Education and Labor Committee.

Washington gridlock could delay new COVID relief funds until fall — or longer


Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) says a new COVID relief package is “very, very much needed.”

(J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)

BY ALAN FRAM
ASSOCIATED PRESSJUNE 1, 2022
WASHINGTON —

The U.S. is headed for “a lot of unnecessary loss of life,” the Biden administration says, if Congress fails to provide billions more dollars to brace for the COVID-19 pandemic’s next wave. Yet the quest for that money is in limbo, the latest victim of election-year gridlock that’s stalled or killed a host of Democratic priorities.

President Biden’s appeal for funds for vaccines, testing and treatments has hit opposition from Republicans, who’ve fused the fight with the precarious politics of immigration. Congress is in recess, and the next steps are uncertain, despite admonitions from White House COVID coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha of damaging consequences from “every day we wait.”

Administration officials say they’re running low on money to stock up on, or even begin to order, the latest vaccines, tests and treatments. Also lacking are funds to reimburse doctors treating uninsured patients and to help poor countries control the pandemic.

House and Senate Democrats have been wrangling over how to resolve the stalemate and even over which chamber should vote first. It’s an open question whether they’ll ever get the GOP votes they’ll need to pull the legislation through the 50-50 Senate, and prospects in the narrowly divided House are unclear as well.

“There is still an urgency to pass a COVID relief package,” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), said last week. “It’s very, very much needed.”

Optimists hope the measure could start rolling once Congress returns to session next week. Pessimists say that without quick resolution, Democrats may not have enough leverage to push the money to passage until early fall. That’s when they could stuff it into legislation that will probably be needed to finance government and avert a federal shutdown — a pre-election distraction Republicans will be desperate to avoid.

The heap of sidelined Democratic initiatives has grown this year, a victim of GOP opposition and rebellions by centrists like Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). Casualties include bills on voting rights, healthcare, environment, taxes, gun curbs, abortion rights, policing tactics and an investigation of the 2021 Capitol storming by then-President Trump’s supporters.

While lawmakers have approved massive packages financing federal agencies through September and helping Ukraine counter Russia’s invasion, other priorities are dead or drifting, even as Democrats’ days running Congress are likely dwindling. Republicans are favored to win House control in November’s elections and could grab the Senate as well, and Democrats’ frustration is clear.

“So far it hasn’t moved,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) said of Biden’s latest $22.5-billion request for COVID-19 relief, which he initially sent Congress three months ago. “But then, neither has sensible gun legislation, neither has voting rights.”

“The 50-50 Senate sucks,” she said.

The COVID money is needed quickly, officials say. Their warnings have come with over 1 million U.S. deaths from the disease and a fresh variant that daily is hospitalizing over 100,000 Americans and killing more than 300. Both numbers are rising.

Officials say that, lacking fresh funds, the U.S. is falling behind other countries that are already lining up supplies needed for fall and winter. That’s prompted Jha to plan for the chance that Congress provides no new money at all, threatening painful choices about what to do if there aren’t enough vaccines or therapeutics for all who need them.

“It would be terrible,” Jha told reporters recently. “I think we would see a lot of unnecessary loss of life if that were to happen.”

Congress has provided $370 billion for purchasing supplies, research and other public health initiatives to combat the pandemic, according to administration tallies obtained by the Associated Press. Around $14 billion of it was unspent or not committed to contracts as of April 5, the documents show, an amount the administration says falls below the ultimate need.

Most Republicans are skeptical about added pandemic funding. “I have a hard time believing that there’s not enough money and not enough flexibility already” to use it, said Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.).

Counterintuitively but unsurprisingly for the always perplexing Senate, one intractable puzzle stymying Democrats is immigration.

Senate Republicans are demanding a vote an amending the pandemic legislation with language retaining Trump-era border controls that, citing COVID-19, have made it easier to bar migrants from entering the U.S.

A federal judge has blocked Biden from ending those restrictions. Liberals want Congress to eliminate the clampdown, but some moderate Democrats in both chambers facing tough reelections want to vote to retain it.

The result: testy divisions between the Democrats’ two ideological factions, and knotty questions for party leaders about how to resolve them and push a pandemic package to passage.

Their task is compounded by disputes between House and Senate Democrats over why the COVID-19 battle remains unresolved.

Senate Democrats note a bipartisan $15.6-billion pandemic compromise was on the cusp of House passage in March until that chamber’s progressive Democrats rebelled against spending cuts to pay for it, derailing the money. “We’re waiting for the House to send us something,” Schumer said last week.

House Democrats say that even if they do, the biggest hurdle will still be the Senate, where 10 GOP votes will be required to reach that chamber’s usual 60-vote threshold for passage. They note that an April deal between Schumer and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) for $10 billion in COVID-19 money collapsed after Republicans demanded the immigration vote.

“We want to get COVID-19 done, but the only impediment right now is the United States Senate,” House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) told reporters recently.

That’s left Republicans waiting for Democrats’ next move.

“I would imagine at this point way over half of our members will vote against this, no matter what. So the question is what do you do to get it acceptable to 10 or 12 [Republican senators],” said Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri, a member of GOP leadership. “And I don’t know.”

P3

NASA outsources development of Moon spacesuit to two private companies

Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace are tasked with creating NASA’s next-generation suits

By Loren Grush@lorengrush Jun 1, 2022, 

An artistic rendering of astronauts wearing next-generation spacesuits on the Moon. Image: NASA

Today, NASA announced that two private companies — Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace — will develop the next-generation spacesuits that future astronauts will wear to conduct spacewalks and eventually traverse the surface of the Moon. It’s a bold new direction for spacesuit development at NASA, with the agency handing the job over to the private sector after years of struggling to develop a new suit of its own.

These new spacesuits will play a critical role in NASA’s Artemis program, the agency’s flagship initiative to send humans back to the lunar surface. Currently, NASA is aiming to land the first Artemis astronauts on the Moon by 2025 — a one-year delay from the 2024 deadline originally set by the Trump administration. When the astronauts do land, NASA wants them to be equipped with proper spacesuits they can use to explore the Moon’s terrain.

There’s plenty of doubt that NASA can meet the 2025 deadline, though, as there’s still a significant amount of work left to do on the hardware and vehicles needed to achieve the first landing. But one of the primary holdups has turned out to be spacesuit development. Multiple audits have revealed that NASA’s quest to create next-generation suits has been inefficient, faced numerous technical challenges, and is many years behind schedule. Now, after 15 years of struggle to make these new suits, the agency is handing the reins over to the commercial industry. Collins Aerospace has history with spacesuit building, as it helped to create the current suits used by NASA, while Axiom Space is a relatively new company aimed at creating private space stations.

ONE OF THE PRIMARY HOLDUPS HAS TURNED OUT TO BE SPACESUIT DEVELOPMENT

NASA announced that the total value of the contracts is $3.5 billion, though the space agency would not say the individual values of each company’s contract, claiming that information will be revealed in a source selection statement that will be published at the end of the month. The $3.5 billion is a ceiling that covers the life of the contracts, encompassing both partial development costs and future purchases of the suits for use by NASA. Once the suits are complete, though, the companies will own them and have the option to use them for other purposes unrelated to NASA

The suits are meant to fit a wide range of body types, from the 5th percentile female to the 95th percentile male. The goal is for the spacesuits to be ready to be worn by astronauts on Artemis III, the third launch of NASA’s new rocket, the Space Launch System, and the current target for the first landing. Artemis also strives to land the first woman and the first person of color on the Moon. “So that she has got a suit that’s appropriately sized and tailored for her — that doesn’t feel like a spacecraft that feels like a ruggedized set of extreme sports outerwear — that should be the goal,” Dan Burbank, a former astronaut and senior tech fellow at Collins Aerospace, said during a press conference.

The new suits that these companies develop aren’t meant just for lunar exploration, though. NASA wants a new line of suits that are much more versatile than their predecessors to be used by both Artemis astronauts when exploring the Moon and to replace the aging suits on the International Space Station.

For the last four decades, NASA astronauts have relied on the same basic spacesuit design to conduct spacewalks on the ISS. Called the EMU, for Extravehicular Mobility Unit, the suit made its debut during the Space Shuttle era, and an “enhanced” version is used by astronauts on the ISS to leave the lab and conduct improvements and repairs on the outside of the station. The EMUs haven’t been upgraded in decades, though, and they aren’t intended to be used for lunar spacewalks. Plus, they are limited in sizing.

A prototype of NASA’s xEMU suit, featured in white, red, and blue in the middle, was unveiled in 2019.

 Photo by Joel Kowsky/NASA via Getty Images

But transitioning to a new spacesuit has proven difficult for NASA. The agency started work on new spacesuits back in 2007 and has spent a total of $420 million on spacesuit development since then. Those efforts eventually culminated in a new suit called the xEMU, a prototype of which was unveiled back in 2019. At the time of the unveiling, NASA hoped to have two suits ready to test on the space station before sending them to the lunar surface for the 2024 landing.

But, in August, an audit by NASA’s Office of Inspector General found that development of NASA’s new suits was significantly delayed due to a lack of money, technical problems, and issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, the report claimed the xEMU would not be ready by the Trump administration’s 2024 deadline. (A few months later, NASA moved the deadline to 2025.) The audit also noted that NASA would likely spend $1 billion total on spacesuit development by the time the first flight suits would be ready, which would be “April 2025 at the earliest.”

“WE WERE AT A GREAT PLACE TO TRANSITION”

Meanwhile, in April 2021, NASA put out a request for information from private companies for designs of new spacesuits that could be used for Artemis missions. At the time, NASA said it would still continue to develop the xEMU in-house, but the move signaled that the agency might rely on commercial suits instead. “NASA has a responsibility to taxpayers and future explorers to re-examine its infrastructure as needed to reduce costs and enhance performance,” the agency wrote when announcing the news.

Now, NASA is putting all its expectations on Collins Aerospace and Axiom Space. The space agency said that its engineers would continue testing on the xEMU through the end of the year, but eventually, it will shift focus and provide insight to the commercial companies as they move forward. Additionally, the data and research that NASA gathered throughout xEMU development will be made available to the two companies.

As for the companies’ abilities to meet the 2025 deadline, that will play out over the next few years. Collins Aerospace unveiled a prototype lunar suit back in 2019 and, today, Burbank said the company has already spent years of development on a suit. As for Axiom Space, the company’s CEO Mike Suffredini also said suit development began a few years back, as the company has long considered making suits for its future space stations. “We have a number of customers that already would like to do a spacewalk,” Suffredini said. “And we had planned to build a suit as part of our program.”

Still, 2025 is just a few years away. NASA says it’s confident about transitioning spacesuit duties at this juncture, claiming the existing xEMU research will help “reduce risk” and speed things up. “We were at a great place to transition, just because of how mature the xEMU was at the time,” Lara Kearney, the manager of the Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program at NASA, said during the conference. “And I think getting it to these guys sooner allows them to run.”

Plus, there are a whole host of milestones that NASA and its commercial partners need to meet in order to make 2025 work, including launching the agency’s new deep-space rocket for the first time and finishing up human lunar landers to take people to the Moon’s surface. Spacesuits are just one piece of the highly complex puzzle NASA must solve to get back to the Moon.

Our Best Defense Against Hurricanes Is to Modernize This Coastal Law

Congress must expand on the success of the Coastal Barrier Resources Act to protect people and birds from climate change.


By Portia Mastin

Coastal Conservation Policy Manager

AUDOBON SOCIETY
June 01, 2022

Birds in This Story


American Oystercatcher

Latin: Haematopus palliatus
peeps



Piping Plover

Latin: Charadrius melodus
peeplo calls



Least Tern

Latin: Sternula antillarum
typical shrill calls #1

American Oystercatcher. Photo: Jackie Connelly-Fornuff/Audubon Photography Awards

Protect Seabirds by Saving Forage Fish

The Forage Fish Conservation Act will help ensure proper management of forage fish—the primary food source for seabirds.
Take Action

Today marks the start of another hurricane season, which the National Weather Service predicts will be busier than usual for the seventh year in a row. Many folks where I live in Louisiana, still recovering from the last two years of storms, are revisiting their evacuation plans and restocking their batteries, flashlights, and other supplies. This year, there’s an important task that should be on Congress’s hurricane season preparation list: modernize and expand the Coastal Barrier Resources Act.

This 40-year-old bipartisan law saves lives and protects coastal habitat and property in a unique way. Undeveloped beaches and coastal wetlands around our country provide important habitat for birds and wildlife, but these areas are particularly prone to flooding and storms that endanger lives. The Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) discourages development in these hazard-prone areas by removing federal spending like flood insurance, disaster recovery grants, and other federal expenditures on the CBRA’s system of protected areas. This market-based approach is working, as less than 5% of the areas protected by CBRA have been developed, while areas outside of the system have experienced much higher rates of development. CBRA has already saved federal taxpayers nearly $10 billion, and is projected to save another $11-109 billion in the future.

The barrier islands, beaches, inlets, and wetlands that make up the CBRA’s 3.5-million-acre system act as nature’s speed bumps, buffering nearby communities from storms and floodwaters. Nationwide, coastal wetlands provide $23 billion in storm protection services each year, reducing storm recovery costs for communities and taxpayers. Birds like Piping Plovers and American Oystercatchers depend on the beaches and islands in the CBRA system to nest, forage, and rest during migration. The surrounding wetlands and inlets also support recreational and commercial fisheries that are essential to our economy and coastal heritage.

It’s time now to expand these benefits to even more areas on our coasts. In April, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that Congress add over 277,000 acres to the CBRA System along nine states most impacted by Hurricane Sandy. After Sandy struck the East Coast nearly 10 years ago, a study found that coastal wetlands prevented $625 million in additional property damages. Adding new areas to the CBRA system from Virginia to New Hampshire will help buffer these coastal communities from the sea-level rise and storms, while protecting birds and saving even more tax dollars.

This diagram illustrates how marshes can adapt to rising sea levels and naturally "migrate" upland if given enough space. Credit: Julie Rossman/Audubon

Additionally, Audubon urges Congress to update the areas covered by the CBRA system to include coastal bluffs and spits and other related areas. CBRA should also be expanded inland to include wetland migration corridors, where wetlands could naturally “migrate” in response to climate change and sea level rise. Without the space to move inland, we risk losing many of our wetlands, and with them, our birds. CBRA should also be expanded to the Pacific Coast, not yet included in the system. Currently, CBRA protects areas along the Atlantic Coast, Great Lakes, Gulf of Mexico, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands. Including the Pacific Coast would be a major achievement for those coastal communities and for the coastal birds that need those areas, like the California Least Tern. Each of these provisions was included last year in the Ocean-Based Climate Solutions Act, introduced in the House Natural Resources Committee, and we hope to see them re-emerge this year as part of legislation to expand CBRA along the nine states impacted by Hurricane Sandy.

Last but not least, pressure to open up CBRA areas to federally funded sand mining continues to threaten CBRA. Plundering sand from these protected areas would put people and wildlife at risk. Congress must ensure CBRA areas remain intact and fully protected.

It’s time for Congress to introduce new legislation that puts these provisions into action. Expanding and protecting the Coastal Barrier Resources Act will ensure this critically important bipartisan coastal law can continue to deliver benefits to birds and people in the face of climate change.

5 historical U.S. landmarks threatened by climate change

By —Tim McPhillips 

NPR Nation Jun 1, 2022 

America’s historic monuments – both natural landmarks and human-built structures – draw millions each year to witness and pay tribute to our simultaneously rich and painful heritage. But summertime, when many of us get the chance to play tourist, is also the start of hurricane and wildfire seasons – a reminder that the physical markers of our history are at risk from the effects of a changing climate.

“Historic places are primary sources, just like documents, diaries and letters. They tell us about ourselves. And they tell us about the complex and intertwined shared narrative of our country,” said Katherine Malone-France, chief preservation officer for the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a nonprofit working to preserve historic places in America.

Unless global carbon dioxide emissions are cut drastically, the Earth will sail past the 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius threshold seen as our best chance to rein in the most severe consequences of climate change. And as the temperature of the planet increases, scientists say, so will the intensity and frequency of heat waves, storms and other extreme weather events, as well as the risk to cultural treasures.

READ MORE: We have the tools to save the planet from climate change. Politics is getting in the way, new IPCC report says

Right now, these landmarks prompt visitors to “think about ourselves and our stories and our actions as part of a larger continuum. We are part of something bigger than ourselves,” Malone-France said. But losing that history to climate change means we also lose a chance at connection with “each other’s heritage and accomplishments and stories.”

Here are five historic places at serious risk.

1. Jamestown

An aerial view of Jamestown from 2016 showing the reconstructed fort walls. The western bulwark (bottom left) has already washed into the river before the 1901 seawall was constructed to halt erosion. Photo by Danny Schmidt/ Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation

When British sailors arrived in 1607 at the strip of land that would become Jamestown, Virginia, it was not an island, but a small peninsula in the James River, just up from where the Chesapeake Bay meets the Atlantic Ocean. The English colonists chose it for their first permanent settlement in North America, in part for its defensive outlook to guard against Spanish forces.

At the time, the area had already been home to Indigenous people for thousands of years, and the Powhatan tribe clashed with the hostile British newcomers as they tried to form a new colony and took over more land. Jamestown is also significant for its role in the tragic history of American slavery; in 1619, the first Africans who had been captured, enslaved and brought to English-controlled North America arrived in Jamestown.

Today, low-lying Jamestown is surrounded by water. Visitors in 2022 can still see the ruins of the original British fort, as well as the town settlement that formed after the fort, operated through a partnership between the U.S. National Park Service and Historic Jamestowne, a nonprofit organization.

Depending on what climate action is taken, the Chesapeake could rise 1 to 5 feet in the coming century, according to the University of Maryland’s state sea level rise report, and data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggests a 1 to 2 foot rise would submerge a significant portion of the island.

Preserving Jamestown, which is on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2022 list of Most Endangered Historic Places, is as complex and intertwined as its history, said Malone-France. Plans are already in place to rebuild seawalls, raise land, and install pumps. But “we are going to have to make decisions, too, about what we can’t save,” she added.

2. Ponce Historic Zone

Catedral de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, Plaza Munoz Rivera, in Ponce, Puerto Rico. Photo courtesy the Library of Congress

The Ponce Historic Zone, which made the National Trust’s 2020 most endangered list, is a collection of more than 1,000 structures in Puerto Rico’s second-largest city, ranging from schools to businesses to civic buildings.. According to Malone-France, this architectural treasure trove represents a “rich combination of cultural resources that tell the stories of Puerto Rico and its history.”

But buildings erected in the 1800s are not equipped to handle the storms of today and beyond. Hurricane Maria made landfall on the island in September 2017 as a Category 4 storm. Ponce, located on the southern coast, got 5 to 10 inches of rain and was struck by wind gusts nearing 100 miles per hour, damaging many of the buildings. Earthquakes that have rattled the island have also taken a toll.

Investment in these buildings is needed now, before the next direct hit from a hurricane, Malone-France said. “We have to do even more preparation in our preservation because the storms that impact places like Ponce, they are incredibly unpredictable. But we know that they are not going to stop.”

For this city, that means mapping the existing edifices, then working to improve resiliency against high winds, as well as improving drainage systems.

3. Boston Harbor Islands

Boston Light, located in Boston Harbor. Photo by Boston Harbor Now

The islands that are located in Boston Harbor are a sacred site of commemoration for Indigenous Americans and, Malone-France said, “the most intact Native American archeological landscape within the city.” According to the U.S. National Park Service, Indigienous people lived on the islands from spring until late fall, fishing, hunting and planting crops before European colonizers arrived. As European settlers arrived and took over more land, they forced an unknown number of Native people to relocate to the islands in the 1670s. There, they were kept captive and many died of starvation.

Decades later, colonists built the Boston Light, the first lighthouse in North America, on Little Brewster Island. During the Revolutionary war, it was a target of both American and British forces and was completely destroyed in 1776 before being rebuilt in 1783.

Today, the islands still serve a key environmental purpose, helping shield the inner Boston Harbor from large waves rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean. But storms and sea level rise are chipping away the coast, taking history with it.
According to Mallone-France, “The threat to the Boston Harbor Islands really comes from storm surges, which are intensifying, which means that coastal erosion is intensifying.”

In response, Boston has developed an “archeology climate plan,” to survey and manage the harbor’s archeological assets, while working to find solutions for restoring the islands’ coastlines.

4. Olivewood Cemetery

Photo courtesy Descendants of Olivewood

Houston’s oldest plotted Black cemetery, Olivewood, was incorporated in 1875, 10 years after the end of chattel slavery in Texas. Buried there are many prominent figures from the community, including some who had been enslaved.

“They are the graves of Black citizens who built Houston and who were critical to its history and its development,” Malone-France said. The cemetery is also listed as UNESCO Site of Memory on the Slave Route Project, which recogonizes places associated with the international slave trade.

The Descendants of Olivewood, a nonprofit dedicated to preserving the grounds, has worked to restore and maintain the cemetery for over 30 years. But the land and the gravesites face rising threats of erosion caused by storms and flooding, which is why the National Trust for Historic Preservation highlighted it as a most endangered place this year.

“First, they had to fight against the fact that it had been neglected and overgrown,” Malone-France said about the group dedicated to Olivewood. “Then they had to fight against encroaching development all around it… Now they are facing increasingly severe storms, whether they are single storms like Hurricane Harvey or a succession of smaller, more severe storms.”

An increase in the frequency and severity of wet weather poses a unique risk for Olivewood Cemetery, Malone-France said. “These storms put graves under water for significant periods of time. They deposited silt and other erosion throughout the cemetery, and they damage the tombstones and other markers.”

5. New Mexico monuments

Bandelier National Monument. Photo by Sally King/ NPS

In Bandelier National Monument, around 40 miles northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, evidence of human habitation dates back 11,000 years. More recently, Ancestral Puebolans lived there until about 1550, when they moved on to other areas, due in part to severe drought, according to the National Park Service. Today, 23 Indigenous tribes consider it to be tribal or ancestral land.

It’s not water or storms that most endanger this landscape, but wildfires fueled by extreme heat and drought. While wildfire is a natural part of the ecosystem in the American West, climate change is driving conditions for more frequent, severe fires. As of late May, nearly the entire state of New Mexico was experiencing severe or exceptional drought, and that has helped lead to one of the worst fire years in the state’s history.

To the east of Bandelier, the state’s largest wildfire – sparked by a prescribed burn – has been spreading for almost two months, and has destroyed more than 315,000 acres. In late April, the park was shut down due to danger from the Cerro Pelado fire, which is now 95 percent contained.

While it can take years to notice rising sea levels, wildfires are unpredictable and fast-moving.

“We’re going to have to let landscapes change and evolve in sensitive ways,” Malone-France said, and preserving monuments like Bandelier is about being good stewards of the land.

The first step, she added, is to “make sure we understand the full extent of the resources that are threatened.” From there, investments and changes, like cutting firebreaks and clearing understory growth in forests, can help protect cultural landscapes from fires.

NO ONE IS ILLEGAL

Syrian refugees to be on first deportation flight from UK to Rwanda, charity says

The UK partnership with Rwanda has been criticised by rights groups and is expected to face pushback before the first scheduled flight on 14 June

Migrants picked up at sea while attempting to cross the English Channel are helped by a member of the UK Border Force to disembark from a boat at Dover on 3 May 2022 (AFP)

By MEE staff
Published date: 1 June 2022

A group of Syrian refugees will be sent to Rwanda later this month as part of the UK government's controversial deportation scheme, a charity has said.

Zoe Gardner, head of policy and advocacy at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said on Twitter on Tuesday that 15 Syrians had been told they would be sent to Rwanda on 14 June.

Protect Civilians, a Syrian refugee advocacy group, said refugees from Syria and Afghanistan would be on the list of people set to be deported, Sky News reported.

The Home Office said on Tuesday that an initial group of migrants have started to receive formal letters telling them they are being sent to Rwanda to "rebuild their lives in safety".

"The Removal Direction confirms that they will be going to Rwanda and when," Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel said in a statement. "The first flight is expected to take place next month, on the 14th of June."


The Home Office did not confirm how many asylum seekers would be on the first flight, but one official told BBC News all those to be issued with the direction are currently in asylum detention.

One group threatening legal action is Detention Action, which noted that the June 14 date had been announced in the week that Britain celebrates 70 years since Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne, AFP reported.

"What a way to mark the Platinum Jubilee weekend, by telling torture and slavery survivors who have travelled thousands of miles to reach safety that they will be expelled to an oppressive dictatorship," it said.

UK policy to send asylum seekers to Rwanda criticised as 'cruel'

Read More »

In April, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that some migrants who arrived without authorisation would be sent to Rwanda where their applications will be processed.

Those who fail in their asylum bids in Rwanda will be offered the chance to apply for visas under other immigration routes if they wish to return to the country, but they could still face deportation, BBC reported.

In 2021, Middle East and North African countries made up 11 of the top 20 countries for those who came to the UK via small boats, according to data from the Home Office, MEE reported last month.

Iran was the highest with 7,874 arrivals, followed by Iraq with 5,414. Syria came in fourth.

Johnson’s policy - which will affect people from countries such as Syria, Iraq, Sudan and Yemen, who arrived in the UK in small boats and were likely to be fleeing persecution - was widely condemned by politicians, charities, and rights groups and is expected to have significant impacts on those fleeing persecution in the Middle East and North Africa.

"We cannot sustain a parallel illegal system. Our compassion may be infinite, but our capacity to help people is not," Johnson said at the time.

According to Reuters, Johnson had been under pressure to deliver on his promise to "take back control" of Britain's borders.

"There is a deliberate attempt to paint people seeking asylum as jumping the queue," Enver Solomon, CEO of the Refugee Council, told Middle East Eye in a statement last month.

"Yet this ignores the fact that the government's own data shows that two-thirds of men, women and children arriving in small boats across the channel come from countries where war and persecution have forced them from their homes."

A similar deal to the UK's new policy was also struck between Rwanda and Israel between 2014 and 2017, but it resulted in most of the 4,000 asylum seekers reportedly leaving the African country soon after arrival.

CORAL REEFS 'SING,' AND THEY CHANGE THEIR SONG WHEN THEY’RE SICK

If we start hearing coral reef techno, we might have another problem entirely.

By Cassidy Ward

Coral reef scenery with Red Sea bannerfish (Heniochus intermedius), golden butterflyfish (Chaetodon semilarvatus), orange face or hooded butterflyfish (Chaetodon larvatus) and lyretail anthias or goldies (Pseudanthias squamipinnis). 

Photo: Georgette Douwma/Getty Images


The animated world of the Trolls universe hinges on the titular characters’ love for music. In the sequel, Trolls World Tour we learned that Trolls have significant diversity, with disparate groups living in separate regions of their world, each with their own genre preferences. Among them, living in an underwater aquatic environment, are the Techno Trolls who make their music at Techno Reef.

The bombastic electronic musical stylings of the Techno Trolls were seemingly at odds with the peaceful silence we often think of when we consider coral reef ecosystems in the real world. It turns out, we might have been wrong about that. Not only do coral reef systems make sounds, but scientists can use those sounds to gauge the overall health of the ecosystem. Now, new research has taken the music of the reef and given it a decidedly electronic bent by introducing artificial intelligence.

Ben Williams from the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Exeter, and colleagues, trained an artificial intelligence to listen to audio recordings of reef systems and determine from the sounds alone whether or not the reef is healthy. Their findings were published in the journal Ecological Indicators.

To be clear, the corals themselves aren’t making much noise, and if they are, we aren’t picking it up with our hydrophones, but the communities they support are alive with the sound of music.

“We hear snapping shrimp everywhere, it’s like the crackling of a campfire in the background,” Williams told SYFY WIRE. “On a thriving reef, there will be a lot of fish sounds. They make all kinds of whoops and grunts. Sometimes they even chorus, you’ll hear them for minutes or hours at a time, producing the same sounds across the reef.”

All of those sounds are an indication of the reef’s health. As a reef’s health starts to decline, many of those sounds disappear. Scientists might still pick up the sound of snapping shrimp, but all of those extra layers, the sounds of fish communicating and interacting with the environment, are gone.

In the past, scientists have analyzed recordings of reefs manually in a process that requires a certain amount of expertise and a lot of patience. For this study, they wanted to pass off some of that work to a computer. Perhaps surprisingly, the artificial intelligence learned to correctly differentiate between healthy and unhealthy reefs almost immediately.

“We didn’t need to feed it many recordings. WE had about 150 minutes from our healthy and degraded reefs, split about 50/50 and that’s all we needed. Then we started trying new recordings and it was able to get about 92% accuracy,” Williams said.

That means that researchers could drop hydrophones around reef systems all over the world and collect data over the course of days or months then play those recordings to the A.I. and get data about the health of the reef over time.

Scientists hope they might be able to use this system to monitor restoration efforts and get an idea of when reefs reach a tipping point at which the A.I. starts to recognize them as healthy again. At present, it’s unclear precisely what the system is listening for to make its determinations.

“With artificial intelligence, it’s kind of a black box. It does its job really well, but we don’t always know what patterns it has learned. Currently, it’s a binary healthy or unhealthy signal,” Williams said.

Going forward, scientists want to pair their artificially intelligent listening system with visual surveys to try and pinpoint exactly when and why a reef moves from unhealthy to healthy or vice versa. It could be the return of a specific species of fish or when coral growth reaches a certain density, or it could be something we’re not even aware of yet, but a better listening system could help unlock those mysteries.

“Typically, when we’re monitoring, we’re only getting a snapshot of the time when we’re there. A real bonus of this is we can just drop the hydrophone in the water, disappear, and come back later. That allows us to get long-term continuous data sets,” Williams said.

Marine ecosystems are particularly well-suited for this sort of work because water is a perfect medium for sound to travel in, but there is potential to take this eavesdropping A.I. into terrestrial environments as well. Animal ecosystems in rainforests and grasslands might also give us hints as to their health based on the richness of their song. We just need to sit back and listen.

Ukraine defeats Scotland in World Cup playoff as Scottish fans sing Ukrainian national anthem

A Ukrainian fan holds his flag aloft while wearing a kilt at Hampden Park, Glasgow.

(Getty Images: Andrew Milligan/PA Images)

Ukraine has taken a step forward in its emotion-filled quest to qualify for the World Cup amid an ongoing war, winning 3-1 win over Scotland in a pulsating playoff semifinal on Wednesday.

Key points:

Ukraine defeated Scotland 3-1 after the World Cup playoff semifinal was delayed due to war

The loss means Scotland's World Cup drought extends to 24 years

Ukraine now faces Wales in order to earn a spot in the Qatar World Cup in November

Veteran captain Andriy Yarmolenko lifted his nation by scoring a deft lobbed goal in the 33rd minute and then helped set up Roman Yaremchuk's header in the 49th.

Ukraine dominated for much of a deserved win though had to resist a Scotland revival as risk-filled attacks brought a goal in the 79th by Callum McGregor, before Ukraine substitute Artem Dovbyk broke clear to score with the last kick of the game.

Dovbyk led teammates toward the corner of the stadium to share the celebration with 3,000 Ukraine fans in the 51,000 -strong crowd, applauding each other with hands raised high above their heads.

Now Ukraine moves on to face Wales on Sunday with a place at the World Cup at stake.

The winner in Cardiff will go to Qatar in November to play in a group against England, the United States and Iran.

Ukraine put in a slick display despite using six starters who had not played a competitive game of any kind since December.

Most of Ukraine's squad play for home-based clubs whose league was shut down after Russia's invasion, and the playoff in Glasgow was postponed in March. FIFA and Scotland agreed to give the Ukrainian team a fair chance to prepare for games that have become a focus of national identity and pride.

Scotland lacked the class needed. Its wait for World Cup soccer now extends beyond the 24 years since it went to the 1998 tournament.

Ukraine's win could have been sealed earlier but for saves early and often by 39-year-old Scotland goalkeeper Craig Gordon. When the Scots chased a way back into the game, John McGinn placed a 67th-minute header inexplicably wide from close range.

Ukraine is riding a wave of global goodwill as the victim of Russian aggression and its players' intense motivation to reward the nation with a place on soccer's biggest stage was clear.

The Ukrainian players all walked onto the field with a blue and yellow national flag draped on their shoulders.

The warm welcome saw Ukraine's national anthem, Shche ne vmerla Ukrainas, applauded loudly by Scotland fans. Many of those same fans stayed after the game to salute their victorious opponents off the field.

Some of the Ukrainian fans had travelled far and had made plans to stay in Britain for the decisive playoff on Sunday.

George Butromeyev said before the game he came from Toronto with friends to support the players who "need to show the people of Ukraine that we are warriors".

Ukrainian players celebrate Roman Yaremchuk's goal to make it 2-0 against Scotland.

(Getty Images: Ross MacDonald/SNS Group)

"It's not only about football," Yaroslav Grygorenko, who travelled from Amsterdam, said.

"It's important to be on the top of the discussions here in Europe, to not let [people] forget what is happening in Ukraine."

Scotland-born Alex Demianczuk wore a kilt in Ukrainian yellow and blue colours and wanted his parents' nation to advance. Ukraine playing at the World Cup, he said, would be "something that's really going to get on (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's nerves".

In Kyiv, fans determined to get together to see the match had the war-time curfew to contend with, which kicked in at 11pm local time, before the start of the second half.

The Beer & Meet bar in downtown Kyiv got around the restriction on movement by offering fans the possibility to stay there until 5am.

Police swung by the bar in a patrol car a few minutes before kick-off, asking fans who had gathered outside to go down into the drinking hole's basement rooms because of an air-raid warning.


Oleksii Safin, 40, who works as a voice actor, stood with his right hand over his heart as he belted out the national anthem. He and other supporters erupted in celebration when Ukraine scored first. But the war raging in the east of the country was not forgotten.

"It looks like we are having lots of fun but, actually, we are not," he said.

"We are trying to look normal, as far as we can, but we still remember what is going on out in the east.

"It's a good fight, just like the fight that we have right now with the Russians.

"We can show that we can do it."

AP

Federal ethics commissioner flooded with emails calling for investigation into WEF conspiracy

Christopher Nardi -National Post

6/1/2022


OTTAWA – The federal ethics commissioner’s office was flooded with over 1,000 emails, calls, letters and even faxes this winter from people asking it to investigate a conspiracy theory claiming some parliamentarians and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland are beholden to the World Economic Forum.

Founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab arrives on stage during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, on May 25, 2022. (Photo by Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP)

“In February and March 2022, the Office received over 1,000 requests from members of the public asking the Commissioner to investigate the participation of Members and ministers in the World Economic Forum,” says a short line in the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner’s (CIEC) latest annual report published Monday.

The document notes that the requests “did not provide sufficient evidence to warrant an investigation.”

But the CIEC is just the latest government institution to see its email and phone lines flooded with people driven by “misinformation” or conspiracy theories demanding impossible action such as dissolving government or removing members of Parliament from their posts.

For example, the National Post revealed in February that “Freedom convoy” supporters convinced that the Governor General could dissolve Parliament on a whim flooded Rideau Hall with calls to register a “non-confidence” vote towards the prime minister.

That prompted Rideau Hall to later put out a statement saying that the campaign was “misinformation” and that the Governor General could do no such thing.

CIEC director of communications Melanie Rushworth said communications, mostly by email but sometimes by call, letter and even fax, began arriving at the office at the end of February and poured in until early March.

It quickly became evident to her staff that this was a coordinated campaign, as all the messages seemed taken from the same template accusing Freeland and other MPs of being under the shadowy influence of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

The WEF is best known for its annual meeting in the ritzy Swiss town of Davos, where politicians, businesspeople and other global elites meet behind closed doors to discuss world affairs.


During early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WEF and its founder Klaus Schwab became the focus of an increasingly mainstream conspiracy theory that claims they are at the centre of efforts to restructure society into a “new world order” through a project called “The Great Reset”.

The conspiracy theory claims that WEF’s influence extends to the Canadian government and that it controls the Trudeau Liberal government — and even the prime minister directly.

Recent discourse from politicians like Maxime Bernier or Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre — who recently promised that if he is elected prime minister he would not permit his ministers to attend a WEF meeting — is feeding the theory, said disinformation expert Carmen Celestini, who teaches a course on conspiracy theories at the University of Waterloo.

AND I WILL CUT OFF MY NOSE TO SPITE MY FACE

“By fostering that discussion, saying, ‘Well, we won’t do that,’ you’re giving validation and credence to this idea of the great reset,” she said.

In a copy of the messages provided to National Post, writers asked the CIEC to investigate MPs who have ties to “World Economic Forum and the Young Global Leaders,” because they are “promoting foreign interference in our government.”

These organizations, they claim, aim to “intentionally dismantle the existing societal structure and Bill of Rights in Canada and install a foreign-controlled digital banking system.”

The message then claims that Canada’s National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) concluded in a 2019 report that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland are “under the influence and control” of foreign states. (The NSICOP report did not make that claim, except to say that “some” elected and appointed government officials are “wittingly or unwittingly subject to foreign interference activities.”)

The missive ends by stating that MPs who are representing a “private foreign agenda” should be removed from office.

Rushworth said it was the first time since she started working for the CIEC three years ago that she’s had to deal with such a coordinated campaign. The WEF-related correspondences represented roughly one third of the 3,500 public and media communications received in 2021-2022.

“We basically wrote back to all of the people that had emailed us with general information about what it is that the commissioner does, and that without specific, clear information, we don’t know what they’re asking us to look at,” she said.

Celestini says there will only be more of these kinds of campaigns if authorities and governments across the world don’t seriously begin to address the rampant spread of disinformation and misinformation online.

“It’s something we should absolutely be concerned about, because what we see with conspiracy theories is a lot of xenophobia, we see a lot of racism, we see a lot of classism that’s happening,” Celestini said.

“So, if we don’t actually confront these ideas, and build trust in our institutions again, it can actually have very significant effects in people joining white nationalist groups or very right-wing extremist groups.”