Europe's hedgehog numbers in decline due to habitat loss

Conservationists have reported dramatic reductions in Western Europe's native hedgehog populations. They say that saving them from extinction will be a challenge.

THIS HEDGEHOG 'HOSPITAL' IS SAVING HUNDREDS OF LIVES
The downtown hedgehog sanctuary
Located in the western city of Wuppertal, Netzwerk Igel e.V. is one of a shrinking number of nonprofit organizations in Germany that cares for sick and injured hedgehogs. It takes in between 400 and 500 hedgehogs every year and provides them with food, medicine and shelter as they recover.
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Hedgehogs are a common sight in gardens in some parts of Europe. But the first time Monika Thomas saw one was at a friend's medical practice, where a person had brought one in for treatment. Now she sees these tiny animals every day.

Thomas, who is trained in medicine, established a hedgehog sanctuary called Netzwerk Igel in 2006. It's a nonprofit association located in Wuppertal, Germany, that provides care, food and shelter for nearly 500 orphaned or wounded hedgehogs every year.

2022 is a year in which hedgehog populations in Europe appear to be in steep decline.
Hedgehogs are a 'vulnerable species'

There are indications that hedgehog populations are in decline in Germany, as well as other European countries. But statistics are scarce and experts say they can only estimate the true extent of the decline.


The Netzwerk Igel hedgehog sanctuary cares for about 500 injured hedgehogs every year

One sanctuary in France described hedgehogs as "the polar bear in our gardens" and said climate change was affecting their ability to find food.

In February 2021, a British conservationist group reported that the local countryside hedgehog population had shrunk by an average of 8.3% per year over the past two decades.

Another British report classified the species as "vulnerable to extinction."
Hedgehog population decline linked to loss of habitat

There may be more than one reason for the decline in hedgehog populations, and that may be making the problem harder to address.

Carsten Schiller, who heads the German conservation group Pro Igel, lists the destruction of natural habitats among the top causes.

Take, for example, Europe's native species Erinaceus europaeus, also known as the West European hedgehog or common hedgehog.

Erinaceus europaeus have lived on Earth for nearly 60 million years, making them one of the oldest surviving mammals. They tend to live in open landscapes.

But the expansion of monoculture — or single-crop — farming, the development of human settlements and the use of insecticides are said to be displacing hedgehogs from the foothills, grasslands and fields they typically inhabit.

"Based on the destruction of natural habitats by [human] activities, including soil sealing, we expect that the hedgehog population will reduce up to 50% in the span of a decade," said Schiller.

Hedgehogs feed off insects, and shouldn't be fed any food made for human consumption

Soil sealing is when porous ground is sealed by laying concrete, for instance. That cuts off access to food in the soil for many species, including hedgehogs.
Victims of climate change

When food is scarce, hedgehogs move from one territory to another. They can cover distances of up to 8 kilometers (5 miles) during a single night, the time of day when hedgehogs are most active.

Drought also affects hedgehogs as they feed on insects (they have an insectivore diet). "Because of drought, the soil gets very hard. The plants that [host] these insects tend to retreat into the ground," said Thomas.

Pesticides also kill insects and invertebrates that are part of a hedgehog's diet.

Hedgehogs are also exposed to multiple risks when changing territories. They can end up on busy roads or get bitten by a dog — these are some of the most common emergencies that Thomas sees at the sanctuary in Wuppertal.
Need for more statistics and resources

The conservationists said lack of data and poor funding are making it harder for them to tailor an appropriate response to the situation.

They called for more up-to-date statistics, but neither Germany nor any of its federal states have any historical data that could serve as a point of comparison for any monitoring conducted today.

Then there is the issue of funding. Another hedgehog sanctuary near Wuppertal had to close its doors after operating for 35 years, leaving Netzwerk Igel to receive more emergency cases than ever before.

Overworked and lacking sufficient resources, the sanctuary survives on donations and a helping hand from volunteers. "I'm only able to hire one person full time. We don't have any municipal support," said Thomas.
We can all help the hedgehogs

Despite the situation, Thomas says she remains positive: "I'm an optimist."

When hedgehogs are forced to leave their habitats in search of food, they often cross busy, dangerous roads

At Pro Igel, meanwhile, Schiller said environmental authorities should engage more in the issue and design initiatives to keep track of native wildlife statistics.

"The conservation of our native species relates to the preservation and creation of natural habitats," he said.

But we can all help the hedgehogs. If you see a hedgehog during the daytime, it's likely that this nocturnal animal is hurt or vulnerable.

So if you find a hedgehog during the day, contact a local sanctuary or a conservationist group. They will know if it's an emergency and act accordingly.

But be mindful of the fact that hedgehogs cannot eat human food. They require an insectivore diet, and human foods in large quantities or over long periods can harm them, Schiller explained.

Most of the emergencies received by Igel Netzwerk arrive during the summertime. This happens because hedgehogs often seek refuge in residential backyards. But this is also a time when people like to mow their lawns.

Thomas recommends leaving some of your lawn to grow wild, so that hedgehogs can make a nest. And take a look at the yard before mowing it, to see if you have any hedgehogs living there, especially if you use a robot lawnmower, as these tools can hurt them.

Edited by: Zulfikar Abbany

Meet the pilot who quit flying because of the climate crisis

Not many pilots climbing steadily up the ranks retire their wings in the name of environmental activism. But Todd Smith did just that at great expense. He spoke with DW about this life transition.

'To go out and fly passengers was a dream come true'

Born into a family of modest means on the outskirts of London, Todd Smith didn't grow up taking much for granted. Except, perhaps, his father's repeated insistence that he should choose a job he loves. For many, that's the challenge of a lifetime. Not for Todd. 

From the moment he was taken to a watch a local Royal Air Force aerobatics display, he knew his future was written in the skies. "I was just in absolute awe of these nine aircraft flying wing to wing. That was the beginning of my journey." He was 5.

It could have been a passing phase, but his young mind had been captivated. As he got a little older, he started playing flight simulator games and by the age of 11 he was knocking on the door of the nearest branch of the air cadets asking them to bend their minimum age rules to let him join the squadron. Surprisingly, they agreed. 

He went twice a week for years, and though his enthusiasm remained very much alive, with an RAF career out of reach and without the €150,000 ($162,000) necessary to train as a commercial pilot, by the time he was 16 his dream of flying started to "feel like a distant reality."

A family effort to find the necessary money

Instead, Todd went to London to become an apprentice electrician, and spent a few years moving from job to job — none of which came close to flying. "I feel very at home in the air. It gives me this feeling of freedom and tranquility," he told DW.

When he decided to take out a bank loan to train for his private pilot's license, his family saw what it meant to him and rallied to raise the money for commercial training. 

Over five years, through a combination of his grandmother selling her house to move in with Todd's parents, them remortgaging their home and Todd using his own wages, he officially became a commercial pilot.

'Getting your hands on an actual jet was... nothing can ever really compare to be honest'

"The examiner said to me afterwards 'you're a credit to aviation and you're going to go very far in your professional career.' My mum and dad were there. It was incredible really."

The last thing on his mind at that moment — or over the next three years as he flew vacationers across Europe and began climbing the ranks of his profession — were the greenhouse gas emissions the aviation industry generates annually.

Slow burn of an environmental epiphany

But that began to change in 2018, when a gut inflammation forced Todd to take a break from the pilot's cabin. It was the last thing he wanted and he was so "desperate to get back to flying as soon as possible" that he accepted a doctor's challenge of trading his meat-eating habits for an almost exclusively plant-based diet.  

During this time, he watched a couple of documentaries that highlighted how animal agriculture damages the climate and environment.

"It really hit home." Hard enough to make him commit to veganism and start "reading up on climate science." When, in a strange twist of fate during his medical leave, a tick bite in a London park left him with Lyme disease and grounded for even longer, he began to dig deeper. 

'It was a bittersweet moment. The guide told us that Peru was one of the first places to be hit by climate change'

As he dug, he had a retrospective dawning of realization. He recalled a bittersweet moment from a couple of years earlier when he had stood on the brightly colored Rainbow Mountain in Peru. "There were people walking up and down it like ants. It was so beautiful, but we shouldn't have been able to see it at all." 

Its glorious colors had previously been hidden under a blanket of snow, melted by warming temperatures. He had, in seeing the mountain, been a "firsthand witness to the impacts of climate change and mass tourism."

Becoming immersed in climate action

Todd could no longer deny that he'd been in denial. And that changed everything. He delved deeper into climate science and the carbon footprint of flight. He learned that the industry is responsible for more than 2% of global emissions and that of the 80% of people who have never been on a plane, many are disproportionately affected by climate change.

"I was struck by the injustice of it all. Especially since half of those emissions are generated by 1% of the population," he said. 

He started trying to explain his new insights to colleagues in the aviation industry, but didn't find many willing listeners. "At the time, Greta Thunberg was the focus of all these vile comments. I actually think the industry felt really threatened by her. She was walking the walk."

'Action on climate change means coming back to community, reconnecting with nature and an economic system that values health and well-being over GDP'

As Todd continued to walk his own walk away from the job that had been his whole identity, he felt a sense of "responsibility and morality" that meant he couldn't return to living the way he had before. He joined the Extinction Rebellion protest movement, for whom he is now a spokesperson, and started "taking climate activism really seriously."

At the same time, he still also owed his family a lot of money. But flying to pay them back was off the cards. "I couldn't even go on a plane as a passenger now. Let alone fly one," he said. 

Getting his parents to understand his change of heart and conscience has taken time, empathy, reassurance that he will pay them back and their own foray into climate action. This spring, they joined him for their first protest event.

"It was a really incredible moment. And they really do get it now, so we can share in conversations about oil companies and stuff like that."

Trying to change the aviation industry from the inside 

Through his activism, Todd also met fellow aviation workers who echo his climate worries. They initially formed a casual group that has since become Safe-Landing, an organization trying to change the sector from within by challenging industry leaders to "conform with climate science and reject dangerous growth."

'We want to empower aviation workers to understand the limits of technology to solve this problem'

"With the remaining carbon budget we have, we can't continue to double air traffic every 15 years, like we have historically. We want to empower aviation workers to understand that we need to fly less if we want to ensure a long-term future in the industry," he said.

He still loves flying and misses being up in the skies. But he won't return until the industry takes its obligations seriously. In the meantime, he plans to continue honoring his own.

"As pilots, we're trained to think, free from bias, to mitigate risks, to preserve life. I'm simply following my training and trying all that I can to get the industry to mitigate its risks. After all, safety is our No. 1 priority." 

Edited by: Jennifer Collins

IN PICTURES: INDIA SWELTERS AS SEVERE HEAT WAVE SWEEPS REGION
Skyrocketing temperatures sweep country
A girl uses sunglasses, a mask, a long cloth and an umbrella to protect herself from the sun on her way to school in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. In April, northwest and central India recorded average maximum temperatures of 35.9 and 37.78 Celsius (96.6 and 100 Fahrenheit) respectively, the highest since the Indian Meteorological Department began keeping records 122 years ago.
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NO NUKES EITHER

Germany's energy U-turn: Coal instead of gas

Berlin has realized it will never again import as much energy from Russia as before the Ukraine war. So the challenge is to wean Germany off its dependence on Russian energy sources, and quickly. The question is how.

On August 1, the coal power station in Mehrum became the first to be reactivated

Starting this week, German hard coal-fired power stations are restarting operations, which were being phased out because of the hugely detrimental climate impact on a world already ravaged by global warming. Germany's goal had been to phase out all coal-generated electricity by 2038.

But now, the government is swallowing the bitter pill of allowing coal-fired power back onto the grid. It is hoped that this will replace the gas-fired electricity that currently makes up some 10% of Germany's overall energy mix.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke of temporary emergency measures "imposed for a very short period of time that don't take anything away from our climate targets." 

"What must not happen is that we slide into a global renaissance of fossil energy, and coal in particular," the chancellor warned.

But at first glance, last year's global data seems to suggest that is precisely what is happening: Never before has the world used so much coal to generate so much electricity. And the International Energy Agency (IEA) warns that the same pattern of high demand and high production will be repeated this year.

Import ban on Russian coal

Alexander Bethe, chairman of the Board of the Berlin-based Association of Coal Importers, is sure of that: "This winter, we will certainly import over 30 million tonnes (33 million US tons) of hard coal to keep our power stations in operation. That would be 11% up on 2021."

Before the war in Ukraine, 50% of the coal for Germany's power stations was imported from Russia. But on April 9, the EU hit Russia with a sales and import ban on coal and oil — yet not with immediate effect. Oil will be delivered until the end of the year, while coal shipments may only be delivered and offloaded through August 10.

Finding other suppliers is not the problem, say German coal importers. These include sources in South Africa, Australia, the US, Colombia and Indonesia, says Bethe. But these various kinds of coal each have different characteristics and qualities, he explains. It's important to see which mix is the best for the German power stations. And tests are underway.

More difficult perhaps, according to Bethe, are the transport routes for coal. The big sea ports like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Antwerp are all booked out. Inland shipping routes taking coal by ship or train from the big ports to the power stations are at their limit. This is also in part due to Germany's shortage of skilled labor.

The workforce had already been cut back in line with German's goal of phasing out coal by 2038. Inland waterways were frantically reducing their capacities in line with expectations.

One-third of Germany's coal imports come up the River Rhine. But at the time of summer drought, the water levels there are so low that ships can only sail at 30% to 40% of their loading capacity.

Coal transport infrastructure is maxed out in Germany

Coal price hikes

At the beginning of 2021, a tonne of hard coal would go for $64 (€63) on the world market. Now, the price has risen close to $400. Some 7.4 billion tonnes of hard coal were mined last year, half of it in China. But coal-mining countries meet their own needs first, and only 1 billion tonnes end up being traded on the global market.

Given the fact that electricity prices are rising dramatically, there are huge incentives for operators of decommissioned plants to make every effort to get them back on the grid. The first operator to do so was the Mehrum plant in central Germany, which belongs to Czech energy concern EPH and had been closed down at the end of 2021. Others say they intend to follow suit.

German energy supplier EnBW only wants to keep one plant in operation longer than previously planned. Five other plants that had been turned off for good are too old and out-of-date to be reactivated.

Brown coal comeback as well?

But it is not only hard or black coal-fired power plants that are to be brought back online: The German government is also preparing a regulation for the beginning of October to restart lignite-fired power plants that have been shut down.

This also affects the Jänschwalde power plant in Brandenburg, where two units had been switched off to so-called "safety standby." If they were to be restarted, they could supply as much electricity as a regular nuclear power plant.

Bad news for climate activists: Lignite power stations are likely to see a renaissance, too

But if they were to be restarted now, 13 million cubic meters of water would be needed to drive the steam turbines, says environmental network Green League. According to the network, this would further exacerbate the water shortage in the Spree River.

Another problem is that the old units do not comply with emissions regulations, as the operator did not consider it necessary to upgrade them in view of the complete shutdown.

Moreover, there is a lack of skilled personnel; the workers have long since been deployed elsewhere.

This article was originally written in German.

Germany braces for social unrest over energy prices

German officials have expressed fears that a worst-case winter of energy problems could prompt an extremist backlash. How bad things get may depend on how well they manage the crisis — in policy and perception.

    

Lawmakers are worried inflation and high energy prices may lead to social unrest,

 like with the COVID restrictions protests

State and federal lawmakers in Germany are exploring a sweeping set of measures to save energy, from turning off street lights to lowering building temperatures; and they are pleading with the public to cut consumption at home.

Whether those efforts spur a call to solidarity or a call to arms won't become clear until the cold sets in and bills come due. Yet Chancellor Olaf Scholz is not in a wait-and-see mood, telling public broadcaster, ARD, last month that spiraling heating costs are a "powder keg for society."

In explicitly naming the elephant in the room, the chancellor and his government are on the hook for nipping social unrest in the bud.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz has warned of social unrest in the fall

"In using this 'powder keg' narrative, the chancellor is trying to make way for key decisions," Ricardo Kaufer, a professor of political sociology at the University of Greifswald, told DW. "So all actors who could potentially stand in the way of measures are cajoled into compromise."

In other words, Scholz is signaling to his governing partners, political opposition, business leaders, and civil society that they bicker over policy responses at the country's peril.

This is a "lesson learned" from the pandemic, Kaufer said, when lawmakers often seemed unprepared to contain it, despite scientific predictions on how and when the virus would spread. Their communication was more often reactive than proactive.

Measures and messaging

The Bundestag, the German parliament, has already passed legislation that hopes to insulate society's most vulnerable from price shocks. At the same time, German utilities will be allowed to pass some of their increased costs onto consumers.

In crafting policy, officials are walking a fine line. They want to help secure household finances, especially for low-wage earners, but not so much that they undermine the incentive to save energy.

More relief may follow the summer recess, however agreement on what that looks like, how much it will cost, and how it will get paid for is likely weeks away, at least.

The smallest of the parties in the governing coalition, the neoliberal Free Democrats (FDP), control the finance ministry, which gives them significant power of the purse. Its minister, Christian Lindner, has made clear he intends to use that power sparingly, as he stands up for his party's values of low tax, low spending, and low regulation.

The FDP's bigger partners, Scholz's center-left Social Democrats and the environmentalist Greens, are pushing for a more generous helping hand. 

Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck strikes a nerve with the population,

 who appreciate his honesty

Even if the government gets the measures right, they could still get the messaging wrong, which political scientists say can be just as important in steering public sentiment. As the pandemic showed, money and resources are only half the battle; clear and consistent communication is the other half. 

"Perceptions are decisive," Evelyn Bytzek, a professor of political communication at the University of Koblenz-Landau, told DW. "Ultimately, we all act based more on what we perceive to be true than what is true."

Symbolism is a powerful tool in maintaining public support, Bytzek said. She pointed to Gerhard Schröder's visit to flood-stricken parts of eastern Germany in 2002, which gave him a boost in his reelection campaign for chancellor. He went onto win a few weeks later.

Scholz won last year's election in part due to his Merkel-like passive leadership style. Now that could become a liability — and stoke unrest — if the public feels their ship of state is without a captain at the helm with an iceberg ahead.

"Crisis is not just a danger, but also an opportunity to generate more trust when crisis management is well perceived," Bytzek said.

Scholz's deputy, the Greens' Robert Habeck, seems to understand that. As economy minister, Habeck has the lead on energy policy and has been forced to make hard choices that often contradict his own environmentalist credentials. Polls show he has won points for regularly explaining the rationale behind those decisions.

Though there are limits to what communication can do. Habeck was booed at townhall events last week. However, those protests were more anti-war than anti-democratic.

Protesters took to the streets to voice opposition against regulations

 to contain the COVID-19 pandemic

Evaluating the risk

The Federal Interior Ministry told DW that protests of similar magnitude to those against pandemic restrictions are foreseeable, depending on how much the cost and supply of energy burden society.

"We can assume that populists and extremists will again try to influence protests to their liking," Britta Beylage-Haarmann, a ministry spokesperson, told DW in a statement. "Extremist actors and groups in Germany can lead to a growth in dangers if corresponding social crisis conditions allow for it."

The Federal Police, which fall under the ministry, told DW they have "no insights" into specific threats arising from the crisis.

Perception also plays a role in how much unrest can shake a country. Querdenker and others who have taken to the streets to challenge state authority during the pandemic are loud, but they have never represented more than a small minority of public opinion. Still, they have received an outsized share of media and political attention.

Political sociologists like Greifswald University's Kaufer say protest movements stand out more in a country like Germany, where consensus-based political culture and federal power-sharing dissuade the instrumentalization of social discontent than elsewhere in Europe. France, for example, has a reputation for confrontation.

Instability in Germany often has a negative connotation, he said, linked to events like bloody street battles amid hyperinflation in Weimar-era Germany, which gave rise to the Nazis.

"There has been a failure of discourse among progressive forces to recognize positive examples in German history," Kaufer added. "There is a fear of protest, that people will take action without the legitimacy of processes like voting."

He cited East German street protests in 1953 and the peaceful revolution of 1989, and the West German anti-nuclear movement in the 1970s and 80s, as examples that deserve a stronger anchor in Germany's collective memory.

In 1989 one million protesters took to the streets in East Berlin

 bringing down the GDR regime

Inequality means instability

Longer-term risks to social cohesion, however, don't end with the coming of spring.

Germany was once one of Europe's most egalitarian countries, in which class and social status had less influence in determining one's success in life. That is changing, as Germany follows a general trend towards growing income inequality.

"We're seeing that social mobility can no longer address social inequality," Susanne Pickel, a comparative politics professor at the University of Duisberg-Essen, told DW.

Inflation and energy prices will disproportionately impact the country's most vulnerable, according to economic models, as low earners have less disposable income to absorb increased costs. That also makes them more susceptible to anti-government rhetoric than other income groups.

"Pandemic, war, and inflation endanger the lower middle class. If we can't manage to stabilize them, then their fears of being permanently pushed down grow," Pickel said, "then we may see more people take to the streets in Germany. And even more virulent, agreement with the [far-right populist] AfD and the appearance of solutions from far-right populists can change voting behavior."

Edited by: Rina Goldenberg

After 'historic' US climate bill, scientists urge global action

Issued on: 08/08/2022 - 

With a little over 1.1C of warming so far, Earth is already being buffeted by extreme weather DAVID MCNEW AFP/File

Paris (AFP) – Scientists on Monday welcomed the passing of US President Joe Biden's "historic" climate bill while calling for other major emitters -- namely the European Union -- to follow suit and implement ambitious plans to slash emissions.

The bill, which would see an unprecedented $370 billion invested in cutting US emissions 40 percent by 2030, should provide a launchpad for green investment and kickstart a transition towards renewable energy in the world's largest emitter.

It passed the Senate on Sunday night after months of arduous negotiations and only after a number of tax and energy provisions were tacked on to Biden's original proposal.

Michael Pahle, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said the bill was particularly relevant to EU lawmakers, who he said were on the verge of adopting "the world's most ambitious climate policy" in the form of the bloc's "Fit for 55" plan.

"The EU's policy can only succeed -- economically and politically -- when major emitters and trade partners take similar action," he told AFP.

"Especially in face of the changing geopolitical landscape, US-EU cooperation is key and the bill an important enabling factor."

The EU initiative -- which envisages a 55-percent emissions fall by 2030 -- has no set budget as yet.

But a recent assessment found member states would need to spend an 350 billion euros more each year than they did between 2011-2020 in order to hit the climate and energy targets.

Simon Lewis, professor of global chance science at University College London, said the US bill showed how lawmakers can advance climate legislation while responding to voters' short-term concern over fuel price inflation.

"It's really important that the world's largest economy is investing in climate and doing it as part of a package to generate jobs and a new, cleaner, greener economy," Lewis told AFP.

"Part of that is a package tackling inflation. I think that shows the world how to get climate policy passed, by hitching it to things that really matter to ordinary people, to make sure it's part of an overarching package to make life better for people."
'Massive increase'

The independent Rhodium Group think tank said the "historic and important" bill -- officially the Inflation Reduction Act -- would reduce US emissions by at least 31 percent by 2040, compared with 2005 levels.

However it said that with favourable macroeconomic conditions including increasingly high fossil fuel prices and cheap renewables, a 44-percent emissions drop was possible.

"The cost of living is here partly because we didn't get out of fossil fuels early enough," said Lewis.

"This bill means is that the transition away from fossil fuels is about to speed up."

Eric Beinhocker, director of the Institute of New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, said the bill would lead to a "massive increase" in clean technology and would drive the cost of renewables down even further.

"This is particularly important when the world is suffering not just from the climate effects of fossil fuels but also from their skyrocketing costs," he told AFP.

The legislation provides millions to help conserve forests and billions in tax credits to some of the country's worst-polluting industries to accelerate their transition to greener tech.

It almost didn't happen, however, with the bill delayed for months after Democrat Joe Manchin blocked Biden's more expensive Build Back Better infrastructure plan.

Pahle said that a failure by the US to agree an ambitious emissions cutting plan would have been a "major drawback on the viability of the Paris Agreement".

The 2015 accord enjoins nations to work to limit global temperature rises to "well below" two degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels and envisages a safer 1.5C heating cap.

With a little over 1.1C of warming so far, Earth is already being buffeted by extreme weather such as drought and storms supercharged by rising temperatures.
Just the start

Although acknowledging that the bill represented progress, scientists were quick to stress that it was far from perfect.

Michael Mann, director of Penn State's Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media, said the bill's commitment to build new gas pipelines was "a step backwards".

"It's difficult to reconcile a promise to decarbonise our economy with a commitment to new fossil fuel infrastructure," he said.

Radhika Khosla, from the University of Oxford's Smith School, said that only action on a global scale could achieve the emissions cuts necessary to stave off the worst impacts of global heating.

"The effects of climate change are being felt by all of us," she said.

"This summer alone parts of the globe as disparate as China, the UK and Tunisia all saw record-breaking, deadly heatwaves.

"Lasting change will require ambitious action from all of us as well," she told AFP.

© 2022 AFP

'Little hope' of saving beluga whale stranded in France's Seine river

Hopes of saving a malnourished beluga whale that has swum up the Seine river were receding on Sunday, as rescuers said they were in a race against time to find a solution.

Beluga whale stranded in Seine still alive but now stationary, NGO says

Issued on: 08/08/2022 -

In this image taken from video footage by the French fire services of the Eure department (SDIS27), a beluga whale is seen in the River Seine in Saint-Pierre-la-Garenne, west of Paris, on August 4, 2022. © SDIS27 via AP

A malnourished beluga whale that has swum up France's River Seine is no longer progressing but is still alive, environmental group Sea Shepherd said Monday.

Hopes are fading to save the animal, which was first spotted on Tuesday in the river that runs through Paris to the English Channel.

"It is alert but not eating," Sea Shepherd France president Lamya Essemlali told AFP in a text message.

There was, however, "no worsening of its condition", she said.

Since Friday the whale has been between two locks some 70 kilometres (44 miles) north of the French capital.

Rescuers are considering last-ditch efforts to extract the animal from the Seine as the river's warm water is harming its health.

One alternative would be to open the locks in the hope that the beluga will swim towards the English Channel, authorities said.

Opening the locks would harbour the risk of the whale moving further upriver towards Paris, which would be even more disastrous.

Several attempts to feed the whale have failed in the past days.

On Saturday, veterinarians administered "vitamins and products to stimulate its appetite", said a statement on Sunday by the police in Normandy's Eure department, which is overseeing the rescue effort.



Belugas are normally found only in cold Arctic waters, and while they migrate south in the autumn to feed as ice forms, they rarely venture so far.

An adult can reach up to four metres (13 feet) in length.

According to France's Pelagis Observatory, specialised in sea mammals, the nearest beluga population is off the Svalbard archipelago, north of Norway, 3,000 kilometres from the Seine.

(AFP)

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Axios sold to Cox Enterprises for $525 million

BY DOMINICK MASTRANGELO - 08/08/22 1



Axios, the digital media company founded by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen and Roy Schwartz, has sold to Cox Enterprises for more than a half billion dollars.

Cox Enterprises is a publicly traded media conglomerate that was founded on ownership of local newspapers. Today its subsidies include cable provider Cox Communications, Cox Automotive and Cox Media Group.

Sources familiar with the deal said the agreement to purchase Axios totals $525 million.

“With so much happening in the world, Axios plays a critical role in delivering balanced, trusted news that people need,” said Cox Enterprises Chairman and CEO Alex Taylor. “Our company started in the media business, and we have always had a passion for journalism. Bringing a forward-thinking organization like Axios into Cox Enterprises is exciting for us on many levels, and we look forward to helping them continue to scale and grow.”

The outlet reported part of the deal includes new investment of $25 million in Axios’s media arm, which has recently branched out into a number of local news markets including Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta.

The companies’ three founders — VandeHei, Allen and Schwartz — will all keep a minority shareholder status at Axios and remain on its board while continuing to make day-to-day newsroom and business decisions.

“Not a chance,” VandeHei told The New York Times when asked if he planned to step aside in the near future. “This is my life’s work, it’s my passion. I would do it for free.”Watch live: Biden briefed on Kentucky floodingBiden says he’s ‘not worried’ about China’s response to Pelosi visit to Taiwan

The Axios communications software business, Axios HQ, will become an independent company majority-owned by the founders and will include Cox as sole minority investor. VandeHei will be chairman of the board of Axios HQ and Schwartz will be its CEO.

Axios is the latest in a slew of D.C.-based media companies to sell to large media conglomerates in recent months. Last summer, Politico was acquired by German publisher Axel Springer and the Times purchased The Athletic in January.

The Hill was sold to Nexstar Media Group last August.

Monkeypox: Déjà VU All Over Again
We’ve been through this before and have come out stronger. We will do it again.

August 7, 2022 

by James W. Gaynor

Covid and its variants have yet to disappear, and now Monkeypox – a new outbreak of a virus that can be transmitted during sex – makes its dramatic entrance. And if that wasn’t bad enough, its first concentration is in the M2M demographic. Sound familiar?

According to a recent article in The Guardian, New York City is fast becoming a global epicentre of the disease. And, once again, public health here is unequipped to handle an outbreak in a population this city would prefer to ignore once the Pride Parades are over.

However, as someone in the HIV trenches during the worst of HIV, I have some sense of optimism — despite the similarities, this isn’t going to be as bad.

Why not? First, this strain of Monkeypox is not generally fatal, although it can be incredibly painful and debilitating.

More importantly, my optimism is based on what we learned in the AIDS wars— our community can and will take care of our own.

So, while yet again we wait for a vaccine, we need to look at what we can do right now — publicise the facts about transmission, identify the symptoms, and, most importantly, use common sense around safer sex practices.

We’ve been through this before and have come out stronger. We will do it again. And, if there’s one thing this poet has learned from his third-in-a-lifetime pandemic: Versifiers and epidemiologists have something in common – love and viruses never disappear completely — and they share the disquieting habit of showing up again when least expected.

Stay healthy!

READ MORE:

Factsheet for Reporters on Monkeypox (MPV) and the LGBTQ Community

CDC Estimates 1.7 Million Gay and Bisexual Men Face Highest Risk From Monkeypox

As Monkeypox Strikes Gay Men, Officials Debate Warnings to Limit Partners

Gottlieb: White House ‘can still catch up’ after monkeypox emergency declaration

BY JULIA MUELLER - 08/07/22


Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb on Sunday said that the Biden administration “can still catch up” and control the monkeypox outbreak in the U.S. with ramped-up testing.

“I think they can still catch up. I think there’s a potential to get this back in the box. But it’s going to be very difficult at this point,” Gottlieb told CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports 7,510 monkeypox cases in the U.S. as of Friday — as well as 28,220 global cases.

Gottlieb on Sunday said officials are focusing on the community of men who have sex with men, the group within which most cases have been identified so far, but added that “there’s no question” monkeypox has spread outside that community.

“We’re looking for cases in that community, so we’re finding them there. But we need to start looking for cases in the broader community.”

Gottlieb also said that doctors should be allowed to test people with what appear to be atypical cases of shingles or herpes for monkeypox.

He noted that the CDC “has been reluctant” to expand testing, and has been administering just 8,000 of a possible 80,000 tests a week.

“If we’re going to contain this and make sure that it doesn’t spread more broadly in the population, we need to start testing more broadly.”

Cases in the broader community are likely still low, the former FDA administrator said, adding that “if we want to contain this, if we want to prevent this from becoming an endemic virus, we need to be looking more widely for it.”

World Health Organization (WHO) officials have also warned that outbreaks commonly start in one group before spreading to others, and that monkeypox should not be expected to stay confined to the community of men who have sex with men. Several U.S. monkeypox cases have already been reported among women and children.

WHO declared monkeypox a public health emergency last month, and the White House followed suit last week.

Why is Ron DeSantis’s surgeon general trying to lower public trust in the monkeypox vaccine?

The surgeon general once appeared in a COVID-19 disinformation video alongside a woman who says that "demon sperm" causes ovarian cysts.

By Daniel Villarreal

Friday, August 5, 2022

Ron DeSantisPhoto: Shutterstock

Joseph Ladapo — Florida’s surgeon general appointed by the state’s anti-LGBTQ Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis — is trying to make people distrust the monkeypox vaccine, stating that there is “little data” on it, which is misleading.

Ladapo’s position is hardly surprising considering that he spent years spreading COVID-19 disinformation and echoing DeSantis’ distrust in vaccines.

On Tuesday, DeSantis criticized the Democratic governors of California, Illinois, and New York for declaring states of emergency over monkeypox. The declarations give their governments greater ability to mobilize resources against the virus. (U.S. President Joe Biden declared a national state of emergency for monkeypox on Thursday.)

DeSantis said the governors were using the emergency declarations to stoke fear, control people, and “restrict your freedom.”

Ladapo backed up DeSantis’ words, stating, “It’s just kind of remarkable to see some of the headlines — the headlines that very clearly are trying to make you afraid of monkeypox or fill-in-the-blank. You know, because if you’re not afraid of this there will be something else after that and something else after that.”

“These people are determined to make you afraid and do whatever it is they want you to do. And, um, you know, I hope that more and more people choose not to do that,” he added.

Then after revealing that Florida had distributed 8,500 monkeypox vaccines, Lapado said, “You should know that there’s actually very little data on this vaccine.”

To understand why Lapado’s claim is misleading, a little background is necessary.

As of Tuesday, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 6,326 monkeypox cases within the United States. The Florida Department of Health shows 525 monkeypox cases statewide, The Florida Phoenix reported.

The U.S. has purchased seven million doses of Bavarian Nordic’s Jynneos vaccine to prevent a worse monkeypox outbreak. The vaccine, which was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in September 2019, is based on the smallpox vaccine, which has been around since 1796.

The Jynneos vaccine is made from a virus that is closely related to, but less harmful than, monkeypox viruses. It does not cause disease in humans and cannot reproduce in human cells.

A study of 400 individuals found that the Jynneos vaccine was as effective against monkeypox as the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine, which the FDA approved in 2007. The safety of Jynneos was assessed in more than 7,800 individuals who received at least one dose of the vaccine, the FDA said. Previous studies have shown that smallpox vaccines are 85% likely to provide a high level of immunity against monkeypox for up to two years, according to the MIT Technology Review.

Ladapo’s authority on vaccines is highly questionable at best.

In July 2020, near the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he appeared in a 43-minute viral video as part of a group called America’s Frontline Doctors. The group, which had no epidemiologists or immunologists qualified to speak on infectious diseases, promoted the anti-malaria medication hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for COVID-19, even though no studies substantiated that claim. The video also said that face masks do not slow the virus’s spread and that COVID-19 is less deadly than the flu. Both claims are untrue.

The video also featured Dr. Stella Immanuel, a pediatrician and religious minister who gained notoriety in 2020 for her bizarre theories, including that “demonic seed” causes endometriosis and ovarian cysts. Immanuel explained on her church’s website that demons insert sperm into sleeping individuals when they have sex in their dreams.

The doctors’ recorded speech was organized by the Tea Party Patriots, a right-wing group backed by wealthy Republican donors. Lapado has written numerous op-eds repeating the video’s false claims.

The video received millions of views when then-President Donald Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr. and other right-wing media figures shared it on social media. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter all removed the video for violating their policies on sharing COVID-19 misinformation.

In October 2020, Ladapo signed the Great Barrington Declaration, a statement that called for developing societal herd immunity to COVID-19 through natural infection. In response, 80 medical researchers signed an open letter published in The Lancet, a leading medical journal, calling the declaration’s theory “a dangerous fallacy unsupported by scientific evidence.”

Florida ranks third among U.S. states with the highest numbers of COVID-19 infections and related deaths. DeSantis has signed orders expanding exemptions for people who don’t want to get vaccinated against COVID-19 vaccines and to prevent schools and local governments from instating face mask mandates in Florida.

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/10/more-trump-quackery-his-so-called.html