Floods, other water-related disasters could cost economy $7.8 trillion by 2050: Report

AUGUST 29, 2022

A residential cul-de-sac is covered in floodwaters after heavy rain

 in Chehalis, Washington, US, on Jan 7, 2022. Picture taken with a drone.
Reuters

LONDON – Worsening droughts, storms and torrential rain in some of the world's largest economies could cause $5.6 trillion (S$7.8 trillion) in losses to the global economy by 2050, according to a report released on Monday (Aug 29).More from AsiaOneRead the condensed version of this story, and other top stories with NewsLite.

This year heavy rains have triggered floods that inundated cities in China and South Korea and disrupted water and electricity supply in India, while drought has put farmers' harvests at risk across Europe.

Such disasters are costing economies hundreds of billions of dollars.

Last year's extreme droughts, floods and storms led to global losses of more than $224 billion, according to the Emergency Events Database maintained by the Brussels-based Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters.

But as climate change fuels more intense rainfall, flooding and drought in coming decades, these costs are set to soar, warns the report by engineering and environmental consultancy firm GHD.


Water – when there's too much or too little – can "be the most destructive force that a community can experience," said Don Holland, who leads GHD's Canadian water market programme.

GHD assessed the water risks in seven countries representing varied economic and climatic conditions: the US, China, Canada, the UK, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.


Read Also Heat-weary Chongqing, Sichuan now on flood alert amid torrential rain


Using global insurance data and scientific studies on how extreme events can affect different sectors, the team estimated the amount of losses countries face in terms of immediate costs as well as to the overall economy.

In the US, the world's biggest economy, losses could total $3.7 trillion by 2050, with US gross domestic product shrinking by about 0.5 per cent each year up until then.

China, the world's No. Two economy, faces cumulative losses of around $1.1 trillion by mid-century.

Of the five business sectors most vital to the global economy, manufacturing and distribution would be hit hardest by disasters costing $4.2 trillion as water scarcity disrupts production while storms and floods destroy infrastructure and inventory.

The agricultural sector, vulnerable to both drought and extreme rainfall, could see $332 billion in losses by 2050. Other sectors facing major challenges are retail, banking and energy.

At this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, a global group of experts launched a new commission to research the economics of water that aims to advise policymakers on water management.

We must "transform how we govern water and the climate together," said commission co-chair Tharman Shanmugaratnam.

"The costs of doing so are not trivial, but they are dwarfed by the costs of letting extreme weather wreak havoc."

America’s secrets: Trump’s unprecedented disregard of norms

By AAMER MADHANI

today

1 of 11

Former President Donald Trump speaks at a rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., 

Saturday, Sept. 3, 2022. 

(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump isn’t the first to face criticism for flouting rules and traditions around the safeguarding of sensitive government records, but national security experts say recent revelations point to an unprecedented disregard of post-presidency norms established after the Watergate era.

Document dramas have cropped up from time to time over the years.

Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson’s national security adviser held onto explosive records for years before turning them over to the Johnson presidential library. The records showed that the campaign of his successor, Richard Nixon, was secretly communicating in the final days of the 1968 presidential race with the South Vietnamese government in an effort to delay the opening of peace talks to end the Vietnam War.

A secretary in Ronald Reagan’s administration, Fawn Hall, testified that she altered and helped shred documents related to the Iran-Contra affair to protect Oliver North, her boss at the White House National Security Council.

Barack Obama’s CIA director, David Petraeus, was forced to resign and pleaded guilty to a federal misdemeanor for sharing classified material with a biographer with whom he was having an affair. Hillary Clinton, while Obama’s secretary of state, faced FBI scrutiny that extended into her 2016 presidential campaign against Trump for her handling of highly classified material in a private email account. The FBI director recommended no criminal charges but criticized Clinton for her “extremely careless” behavior.

As more details emerge from last month’s FBI search of Trump’s Florida home, the Justice Department has painted a portrait of an indifference for the rules on a scale that some thought inconceivable after establishment of the Presidential Records Act in 1978.

“I cannot think of a historical precedent in which there was even the suspicion that a president or even a high-ranking officer in the administration, with the exception of the Nixon administration, purposely and consciously or even accidentally removing such a sizable volume of papers,” said Richard Immerman, who served as assistant deputy director of national intelligence from 2007 to 2009.

FBI agents who searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort on Aug. 8 found more than 100 documents with classification markings, including 18 marked top secret, 54 secret and 31 confidential, according to court filings. The FBI also identified 184 documents marked as classified in 15 boxes recovered by the National Archives in January, and it received additional classified documents during a June visit to Mar-a-Lago. An additional 10,000 other government records with no classification markings were also found.

That could violate the Presidential Records Act, which says that such records are government property and must be preserved.

That law was enacted after Nixon resigned from office in the midst of the Watergate scandal and sought to destroy hundreds of hours of secretly recorded White House tapes. It established government ownership of presidential records starting with Ronald Reagan.

The act specifies that immediately after a president leaves office, the National Archives and Records Administration takes legal and physical custody of the outgoing administration’s records and begins to work with the incoming White House staff on appropriate records management.

According to the National Archives, records that have no “administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value” can be disposed of before obtaining the archivist’s written permission.

Documents have been recovered from Trump’s bedroom, closet, bathroom and storage areas at his Florida resort, which doubles as his home. In June, when Justice Department officials met a Trump lawyer to retrieve records in response to a subpoena, the lawyer handed them documents in a “Redweld envelope, double-wrapped in tape.”

Trump has claimed he declassified all the documents in his possession and had been working in earnest with department officials on returning documents when they conducted the Mar-a-Lago search. During the 2016 campaign, Trump asserted that Clinton’s use of her private email server for sensitive State Department material was disqualifying for her candidacy; chants from his supporters to “lock her up” became a mainstay at his political rallies.

James Trusty, a lawyer for Trump in the records matter, said on Fox News that Trump’s possession of the sensitive government material was equivalent to hanging on to an “overdue library book.”

But Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, said in a separate Fox News interview that he was “skeptical” of Trump’s claim that he declassified everything. “People say this (raid) was unprecedented -- well, it’s also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, OK,” Barr said.

Trump’s attitude about White House records is not so surprising to some who worked for him.

One of Trump’s national security advisers, John Bolton, said briefers quickly learned that Trump often tried to hang onto sensitive documents, and they took steps to make sure documents didn’t go missing. Classified information was tweeted, shared with reporters and adversaries — even found in a White House complex bathroom.

That approach is out of step with how modern-day presidents have operated.

Obama, while writing his White House memoir after leaving office, had paper records he used in his research delivered to him in locked bags from a secure National Archives storage facility and returned them in similar fashion.

Dwight Eisenhower, who left office years before the Presidential Records Act was passed, kept official records secure at Fort Ritchie, Maryland, even though there was no requirement for him to do so.

Neil Eggleston, who served as White House counsel during the final years of the Obama administration, recalled that Fred Fielding, who held the same position in the George W. Bush administration, advised him as he started his new job to hammer home to staff the requirements set in the records act.

Similarly, Trump’s White House counsel, Donald McGahn, sent a staff-wide memo in the first weeks of the administration underscoring “that presidential records are the property of the United States.”

“It’s not a hard concept that documents prepared during the course of our presidential administration are not your personal property or the president’s personal properties,” Eggleston said.

Presidents are not required to obtain security clearances to access intelligence or formally instructed on their responsibilities to safeguard secrets when they leave office, said Larry Pfeiffer, a former CIA officer and senior director of the White House Situation Room.

But guidelines issued by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the intelligence agencies, require that any “sensitive compartmented information” –- some of the highest-value intelligence the U.S. possesses –- be viewed only in secure rooms known as “SCIFs.”

The FBI, in a court filing, this past week included a photo of some of the records that agents discovered in the search of Trump’s estate. The photo showed cover sheets on at least five sets of papers that are marked “TOP SECRET/SCI,” a reference to sensitive compartmented information, as well as a cover sheet labeled “SECRET/SCI” and “Contains sensitive compartmented information.” The FBI also found dozens of empty folders marked classified, with nothing inside and no explanation of what might have been there.

A president can keep reports presented during a briefing for later review. And presidents –- or nominees for president during an election year -– aren’t always briefed in a SCIF, depending on their schedules and locations, Pfeiffer said.

“There’s no intelligence community directive that says how presidents should or shouldn’t be briefed on the materials,” said Pfeiffer, now director of the Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security. “We’ve never had to worry about it before.”

People around the president with access to intelligence are trained on intelligence rules on handling classified information and required to follow them. But imposing restrictions on the president would be difficult for intelligence agencies, Pfeiffer said, because “by virtue of being the executive of the executive branch, he sets all the rules with regard to secrecy and classification.”

President Joe Biden told reporters recently that he often reads his top secret Presidential Daily Briefing at his home in Delaware, where he frequently spends his weekends and holidays. But Biden said he takes precautions to make certain the document stays secure.

“I have in my home a cabined-off space that is completely secure,” Biden said.

He added: “I read it. I lock it back up and give it to the military.”

___

Associated Press reporter Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.

___

Follow AP’s coverage of Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump

US election conspiracies find fertile ground in conferences

By MARGERY A. BECK and CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY

today

1 of 11

From left, Douglas Frank chats with Melissa Sauder and her daughter, Anley, 13, of Grant, Neb., before the start of the Nebraska Election Integrity Forum on Saturday, Aug. 27, 2022, in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Rebecca S. Gratz)

LONG READ

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — On a quiet Saturday in an Omaha hotel, about 50 people gathered in a ballroom to learn about elections.

The subject wasn’t voter registration drives or poll worker volunteer training. Instead, they paid $25 each to listen to panelists lay out conspiracy theories about voting machines and rigged election results. In language that sometimes leaned into violent imagery, some panelists called on those attending to join what they framed as a battle between good and evil.

Among those in the audience was Melissa Sauder, who drove nearly 350 miles from the small western Nebraska town of Grant with her 13-year-old daughter. After years of combing internet sites, listening to podcasts and reading conservative media reports, Sauder wanted to learn more about what she believes are serious problems with the integrity of U.S. elections.

She can’t shake the belief that voting machines are being manipulated even in her home county, where then-President Donald Trump won 85% of the vote in 2020.

“I just don’t know the truth because it’s not open and apparent, and it’s not transparent to us,” said Sauder, 38. “We are trusting people who are trusting the wrong people.”

It’s a sentiment now shared by millions of people in the United States after relentless attacks on the outcome of the 2020 presidential election by Trump and his allies. Nearly two years after that election, no evidence has emerged to suggest widespread fraud or manipulation while reviews in state after state have upheld the results showing President Joe Biden won.

Even so, the attacks and falsehoods have made an impact: An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from 2021 found that about two-thirds of Republicans say they do not think Biden was legitimately elected.

Events like the one held Aug. 27 in Nebraska’s largest city are one reason why.

Billed as the “Nebraska Election Integrity Forum,” the conference featured some of the nation’s most prominent figures pushing conspiracy theories that the last presidential election was stolen from Trump through widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines. It was just one of dozens of similar events that have been held around the country for the better part of a year.

Despite the relatively light attendance, the events are often livestreamed and recorded, ensuring they can reach a wide audience.

Over eight hours with only a brief lunch break, attendees were deluged with election conspiracies, complete with charts and slide shows. Speakers talked about tampering of voting machines or the systems that store voter rolls, ballot-box stuffing and massive numbers of votes cast by dead people and non-U.S. citizens -- all theories that have been debunked.

There is no evidence of widespread fraud or tampering with election equipment that could have affected the outcome of the 2020 election, in which Biden won both the popular vote — topping the Republican incumbent by more than 7 million nationwide — and the Electoral College count. Numerous official reviews and audits in the six battleground states where Trump challenged his loss have upheld the validity of the results. Judges, including some appointed by Trump, dismissed numerous lawsuits making various claims of fraud and wrongdoing.

Trump’s former attorney general, William Barr, and other advisers and top government officials told him there was no evidence of widespread fraud. As part of the U.S. House committee’s investigation of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Barr told congressional investigators that the claims by Trump allies surrounding voting machines were disturbing but also were “made in such a sensational way that they obviously were influencing a lot of people.” He added that the false claims were doing a “grave disservice to the country.”

Many local and state election officials have said the conspiracies have already led to rampant misinformation, vitriol aimed at election workers and calls to toss out voting equipment. Trey Grayson, a former Republican secretary of state in Kentucky who is critical of those spreading conspiracy theories, said previous election-year attacks were focused on candidates or political parties but now are targeted at election administration.

“There are a lot of really bad actors here that are trying to undermine confidence in a system. It is dangerous,” he said.

Despite all the evidence that the 2020 election was fair and the results accurate, the conspiracy theories have persuaded many Republicans otherwise — with real world consequences.

In New Mexico this year, fears of voting machines being manipulated led one rural county commission to threaten that it would vote against certifying the results of its primary election even though the county clerk insisted the results were accurate. In Nevada, a rural county is pushing ahead with a plan to count by hand its thousands of ballots this November, a lengthy and painstaking process that ironically could lead to errors.

At the Omaha conference, evidence of an accurate election was ignored as speaker after speaker told attendees that machines are rigged and elections are stolen. One of the event’s headliners was Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com who said he has spent some $20 million of his own money since 2020 trying to prove that voting machines were manipulated in that election and remain susceptible to tampering.

Wearing jeans and a black suit jacket over a yellow T-shirt, Byrne began his presentation by saying voting machines are vulnerable to hacking and outlining various security failures associated with them.

That any technology is vulnerable, including voting machines, is not in dispute. State and local election officials throughout the U.S. have focused on improving their security defenses with help from the federal government. After the 2016 election, the government designated voting systems as “critical infrastructure” -- on par with the nation’s banks, dams and nuclear power plants. Government and election security experts have declared the 2020 election as “the most secure in American history.”

But Byrne and some of the other speakers said they believe government has been corrupted and cannot be trusted. In his remarks, he complained about those who say fraud did not occur in 2020 and about journalists who report that, labeling them “election fraud deniers.”

He accused critics of “trying to incite violence” and later told the attendees that China is planning to take over the U.S. by 2030.

“I can promise, every nice home in the United States, there’s someone in China who already has a deed to your home,” Byrne said, eliciting gasps from the crowd.

Another main speaker at the Omaha event was Douglas Frank, an Ohio math and science educator who has been traveling the country engaging with community groups and meeting with local election officials, offering to examine and analyze their voting systems.

Commonly known as Dr. Frank because of his doctorate in chemistry, he gives off a professorial vibe with his signature bow tie and glasses. He peppers his presentations with algorithms, line graphs and charts that he claims prove elections are corrupt. Frank said he has been to 43 states over the past 20 months.

He had harsh words for some of those who oversee elections at the state level.

“I like to tell people that we have evil secretaries of states,” Frank said. “We have a few of those in our country, and it’s sort of like World War II — when the war’s over, we need to have Nuremberg trials and we need to have firing squads, OK? I’m looking forward to the trials, OK?”

The crowd applauded.

State and local election officials have faced a barrage of harassment and death threats since the 2020 election. That has led some to quit or retire, raising concerns about a loss of experience heading into the November general election, along with worries that their replacements may seek to meddle in elections or tamper with voting systems.

Also addressing the audience was Tina Peters, the clerk of Mesa County, Colorado, who has been charged in a security breach of voting systems in her election office. She has claimed she had an obligation to investigate and produced reports purporting to show tampering with voting systems, but her claims have been debunked by local authorities and experts.

During her remarks over video conference, Peters impugned the integrity of judges who have rejected dozens of legal efforts to challenge the 2020 presidential results. She urged citizens to join in the fight.

“You can’t be afraid of going to jail,” Peters told the crowd. “They can’t get us all. Be bold. Be courageous. The Lord is on our side.”

Frank, in an online post after the event, apologized for remarks he made during the forum about Nebraska’s chief election official, Secretary of State Bob Evnen. Frank had called Evnen, a Republican, incompetent and said the official had “made a fool of himself” by refuting Frank’s assertions that called into question the security of Nebraska’s election.

One of the organizers of the event was Robert Borer, who unsuccessfully challenged Evnen in Nebraska’s GOP primary this year. Borer said he ran because he was convinced that state election officials were not doing enough to address fraud and he believes the 2020 election was stolen.

“The whole objective of that election was to take down Trump,” he said.

Since losing his bid to become the state’s top election official, Borer has launched a campaign for Nebraska governor as a write-in candidate. This means his name will not appear on the November ballot, which, for him and his supporters, is entirely the point.

“We don’t want the machines to count our votes,” Borer said. “If someone casts a write-in vote, the machine has to kick that out. It cannot read that vote, so they have to count that manually.”

The Omaha conference was sponsored by American Citizens & Candidates Forum for Election Integrity, which has hosted more than a dozen such gatherings since the 2020 election.

The event was a study in contradictions.

Speakers insisted the issue of election integrity transcended party politics, with many repeating “this is not about Republicans or Democrats,” before maligning both Democrats and so-called RINOs -- an acronym for “Republicans in name only” -- as “evil“ or “criminal.”

Speakers insisted that they rejected violence, yet they were throwing out menacing terms.

“I believe we’re in a civil war,” Graham Ledger, a conservative television show host, told the crowd at one point. “It’s an unconventional, asymmetrical civil war, but it’s red state versus blue state now.”

Mark Finchem, the Republican nominee for secretary of state in Arizona, appeared remotely and spoke about his efforts to compel his state to ditch voting machines and switch to hand-counting ballots. Election experts say that process is time-consuming, will delay results and is unnecessary due to the rigorous testing that occurs before and after an election to ensure the equipment is working correctly.

“We have a fight on our hands,” Finchem told attendees. “The establishment and the Democrats want to do everything they can to subvert our elections.”

The speakers urged those in attendance to take action. That includes getting to know their local election officials and local sheriff, and to volunteer to be poll watchers for the November election with the goal of reporting any activity they think could be fraudulent.

Omaha resident Kathy Austin said she recently submitted her name to serve as a poll worker, but has not heard back from local election officials. She is convinced that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump.

“I had not really been involved in politics before the 2020 election,” said Austin, 75. That began to change after she saw posts making claims of election fraud on the social media platform Telegram, which is popular with Trump supporters.

“Then I talked to different people,” she said. “And the more I learned, the more it became clear there is a problem.”

___

Cassidy reported from Atlanta.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for CONSPIRACY 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for AMERICAN CONSPIRACIES 

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for RULING CLASS STUDIES 

2020 video of Trump calling Democrats' fascists' resurfaces after Republicans slammed President Biden for saying MAGA ideology was 'semi-fascism'

bdawson@insider.com (Bethany Dawson) 

A 2020 video clip of Donald Trump calling Democrats "fascists" has resurfaced on social media.

The video, which has gone viral on Twitter, shows the former president speaking at Mankato regional airport, Minnesota, in August 2020 when he was on the presidential campaign trail.

He tells his supporters that Democrats are "fascists," saying they want to "destroy our second amendment, attack the right to life, and replace American freedom with left-wing fascism. Fascists, they are fascists."

In August, President Biden caused outrage among Republicans when he declared that "semi-fascism" underpinned "extreme MAGA philosophy."

Governor Sununu of New Hampshire called on Biden to apologize and said the remarks were "insulting." The RNC, in a statement to CNN, called Biden's speech "despicable."

Following Biden's comments, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said MAGA Republicans allied to former President Donald Trump fit the "definition of fascism" and play a part in "attacking our democracy."

PUTIN ALLIES
Salvini sparks political storm in Italy by questioning Russia sanctions

Daniel Stewart -

The leader of Italy's far-right League party, Matteo Salvini, has stirred up a political storm by questioning the effectiveness of sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.


The leader of the Italian party League, Matteo Salvini - Johannes Neudecker/dpa© Provided by News 360

"You can't joke about the issue of war and sanctions. It is irresponsible to campaign like that and it questions the reliability of the country," Democratic Party leader Enrico Letta has warned during his participation in the Ambrosini Forum being held in the northern Italian town of Cernobbio.

"When I hear Salvini talk about sanctions, I seem to hear Putin's propaganda and I sincerely worry that our country is giving a nod to Putin," added for her part the Minister for Southern and Territorial Cohesion, Mara Carfagna, of the conservative Forza Italia party.

For Antonio Tajani, also of Forza Italia, "sanctions are inevitable and any decision must be taken at the European level." "Within the center-right there is debate, but not quarrels. At this moment we need strong European solidarity," he said.

Salvini defended that "the Italians are losing and the Russians are winning" and that "evidently in Brussels, someone has made a mistake with the accounts."

"We are facing the only case in the world in which sanctions to stop a war, to bring a regime to its knees, to block attacks, do not harm those sanctioned, but those who sanction", he said.

"We must continue to support, defend and help the Ukrainian people, but sanctions are not hurting Russia, which is making hundreds of billions more. They are hurting our businesses and our families," he noted.

Already on Sunday, Salvini was more conciliatory. "Europe says no lifting of sanctions? Well. One alone goes nowhere. I do not bark at the moon. Let's leave them," he said. In addition, he has called for a "European shield", although he has reiterated his argument: "Sanctions do not work. Whoever invades a country is totally wrong. We have always supported any aid to Ukraine, but several months have passed and the gas bills are even tripling. The war continues and Russia's coffers are filled with money," he reiterated.

CNN Exclusive: Scientists make major breakthrough in race to save Caribbean coral

Isabel Rosales - 1h ago


Scientists at the Florida Aquarium have made a breakthrough in the race to save Caribbean coral: For the first time, marine biologists have successfully reproduced elkhorn coral, a critical species, using aquarium technology.

Video: Florida coastline's dwindling coral species revitalized by breakthrough technology   View on Watch   Duration 3:02

It’s a historic step forward, and one they hope could help revitalize Caribbean ecosystems and could pay humans back by offering extra protection from the fury of hurricanes.

Elkhorn coral once dominated the Caribbean. But, just as other vital coral ecosystems are degrading around the world, elkhorn are now rarely seen alive in the wild. This species — so important because it provides the building blocks for reefs to flourish — has been until now notoriously difficult to grow in aquariums.

Which is why scientists were thrilled when they saw their reproductive experiment was a success.

“When it finally happened, the first sense is just sheer relief.” said Keri O’Neil, the senior scientist that oversees the Tampa aquarium’s spawning lab. “This is a critical step to preventing elkhorn coral from going extinct in the state of Florida.”

O’Neil’s colleagues call her the “coral whisperer” because she has managed to spawn so many varieties of coral. Elkhorn marks the aquarium’s 14th species spawned inside the Apollo Beach lab, but the team ranks it as its most important yet.

O’Neil estimates there are only about 300 elkhorn coral left in the Florida Keys Reef Tract — but the spawning experiment produced thousands of baby coral. She expects up to 100 of them could survive into adulthood.

Named for its resemblance to elk antlers, the coral thrives at the top of reefs, typically growing in water depths of less than 20 feet. This makes their colonies crucial for breaking up large waves. During peak hurricane season, reefs are a silent but powerful ally that protects Florida’s coastlines from storm surges, which are growing larger as sea levels rise.

“As these reefs die, they begin to erode away and we lose that coastal protection as well as all of the habitat that these reefs provide for fish and other species,” O’Neil said. “Now there are so few left, there’s just a few scattered colonies. But we’re really focusing on restoring the elkhorn coral population for coastal protection.”



Just as other vital coral ecosystems are degrading around the world,

 elkhorn are now rarely seen alive in the wild. - Ead72/Adobe Stock

The Florida Aquarium’s news comes after scientists reported in early August that the Great Barrier Reef was showing the largest extent of coral cover in 36 years. But the outlook for coral around the world is grim — studies have shown that the climate crisis could kill all of Earth’s coral reefs by the end of the century.

Elkhorn coral was listed as federally threatened under the US Endangered Species Act in 2006 after scientists found that disease cut the population by 97% since the 1980s. And ocean warming is its largest threat. As ocean temperature rises, coral expels the symbiotic algae that lives inside it and produces nutrients. This is the process of coral bleaching, and it typically ends in death for the coral.

“They’re dying around the world,” O’Neil told CNN. “We are at a point now where they may never be the same. You can’t have the ocean running a fever every summer and not expect there to be impacts.”

‘You know that’s impossible’

Elkhorn coral seem to have something analogous to a fertility problem. Its reproduction is sporadic in the wild, making it difficult to sustain a much-needed increase in population. Because of its low reproductive rate, genetic diversity can also be very low, making them more susceptible to disease.

“You could say they’re successfully having sex, but they’re not successfully making babies [in the wild],” O’Neil said. “Terrestrial animals do this all the time. When you have an endangered panda or chimpanzee, the first thing you do is start a breeding program, but coral reproduction is super weird.”

The most challenging part for O’Neil’s team was doing the unprecedented — getting the coral to spawn in a lab. O’Neil said other researchers doubted they could pull it off.

“We faced a lot of criticism from people,” she said. They would say “‘you can’t keep those in an aquarium. You know that’s impossible!’”

They were right. At first.

Elkhorn coral only spawn once a year. In the lab’s 2021 experiment, the environment was strictly controlled to imitate natural conditions. Using LED lights, they accurately mimicked sunrise, sunset and moon cycles. But the coral didn’t spawn.

We “realized that the timing of moonrise was off by about three hours,” O’Neil said.

After that frustrating failure, the aquarium’s scientists knew they had a much better shot this year. And, with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the Florida Aquarium did in August what was thought impossible by some peers.


A microscope image of the baby coral that spawned at the Florida Aquarium.

 - Courtesy of The Florida Aquarium

The spawning could be a game-changer, according to Thomas Frazer, the dean of the College of Marine Science at the University of South Florida, and it could lead to a future where coral is more resilient to the dramatic changes brought by the climate crisis.

“This type of work really matters,” Frazer told CNN. “Corals selected for restoration might, for example, be more resistant to warmer ocean temperatures and bleaching, exhibit skeletal properties that are able to withstand more intense wave energy, or traits that might make them more resistant to disease or other environmental stressors.”

Margeret W. Miller is a coral ecologist who has focused on restoration research for more than two decades. Miller co-authored a study in 2020 that found the elkhorn rate of reproduction in the Upper Florida Keys was so low, it would indicate the species was already “functionally extinct” and could be wiped out in six to 12 years.

Miller said the Florida Aquarium’s breakthrough will open new doors to tackle the larger restoration effort.

“Because this species is an important restoration target, the capacity for spawning under human care opens lots of research opportunities to develop interventions that might make restoration efforts more resilient to climate change and other environmental threats,” Miller told CNN.


A researcher works with the newly spawned coral in an aquarium. 

- Courtesy of The Florida Aquarium

Miller said more research needs to be done to make sure lab-spawning elkhorn coral is reasonably safe and effective, to be used in species conservation.

“This sort of captive spawning is not a tool that directly addresses widespread coral restoration at the global scale that would match the scale of the need. Indeed, no current coral restoration efforts meet that scale, and none will truly succeed unless we can take serious action to ensure that coral reef habitats can remain in a viable condition where corals can thrive,” Miller told CNN.

The climate crisis is the ultimate problem that needs to be solved, Miller said. The rapid increase in ocean temperature needs to be addressed, along with threats to water quality. Still, she said, the ability to grow elkhorn in a lab is an important tool in the restoration effort.

“The research on coral propagation and interventions that can be enabled by captive spawning efforts can, however, buy time for us to make such changes effectively before corals disappear from our reefs completely,” Miller said.

Buying time

Elkhorn branches can grow as much as five inches per year, making it one of the fastest-growing coral species, according to NOAA. And based on observations from the Florida Aquarium scientists, their new elkhorn coral babies will take three to five years to become sexually mature.

Within a year or two, scientists intend to replant these lab-grown corals in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

In the race to restore the reefs, scientists agree this breakthrough is only a first step.

“We are really buying time,” O’Neil said. “We’re buying time for the reef. We’re buying time for the corals.”

The ultimate goal is a breeding program where scientists could select for genetic diversity and breed more resilient coral capable of withstanding threats like pollution, warming ocean waters and disease.

Then nature can take the wheel.

“There is hope for coral reefs,” O’Neil said. “Don’t give up hope. It’s all not lost. However, we need to make serious changes in our behavior to save this planet.”

For more CNN news and newsletters create an account at CNN.com

Group has close encounter with shore-skimming orca pod in B.C.

Friday


QUADRA ISLAND — A pod of orcas surprised a group of friends visiting Quadra Island, British Columbia, last weekend, appearing metres from where they stood on the waterline of Moulds Bay.

.© Provided by The Canadian Press

The shore-skimming encounter prompted one marine mammal expert to warn that observers should not to get too close to such behaviour.

"They're on the hunt. We can observe it, we just can't be a part of it," said Andrew Trites, professor and director of the Marine Mammal Research Unit at the University of British Columbia, on Friday.

Erika van Sittert, who captured a video of the encounter, said she and her four friends were excited when they first spotted the pod in the distance.

She said they were then shocked when the whales appeared about 20 minutes later, coming within three metres of her friend Callum MacNab, standing ankle-deep in the water.

Van Sittert, who had been seated on a rock above, said she was initially worried for MacNab's safety because of the whales' high-speed approach, but describes the encounter as "easily one of the most exciting moments" of her life.

"I was mostly in awe. I didn't expect that to happen. I used to work in whale watching and I've had some encounters, but nothing quite like that," she said in an interview Friday. "It was just incredible."

She said the group is now considering getting matching orca tattoos to commemorate the experience.

Jared Towers, a killer whale researcher with Fisheries and Oceans Canada, identified the pod as the T-090 family, which includes a mother, her adult son and two daughters.

"The two daughters, aged five and 12, were the two whales that came closest to the shore and rolled over on their sides to check out Callum on the shore," he said in an interview Friday.

Towers said he doesn't believe the whales had malicious intent and were likely either hunting and initially mistook the humans for prey, or were "just curious."

"They love hunting in that area (because) there's a lot of harbour seals, and that's really what makes up the bulk of their diet, and they hang out near shore," he said.

Towers said there is no record of an orca killing a human in the wild.

"They're certainly masters of their own environment and if there's anything swimming around out there, they want to check it out, see what it looks like and see if it is prey," he said.

Trites, of the Marine Mammal Research Unit, predicted these types of encounters will happen more frequently in B.C.

"Everybody now has a high-definition video camera in their pockets and so we're seeing these encounters, but it's also evidence that the whales are here far more frequently now than they used to be," he said.

"All of us want to have these amazing close encounters, but not at the expense of injuring the animals, harming them, or causing them to avoid coming here."

Trites said killer whales are comfortable hunting near shore at this time of year and people should aim to keep a distance.

"It is about us developing this new relationship, because things have changed. The oceans have changed very dramatically and we're seeing that play out in front of us," he said.

"Just as you wouldn't wander into the Serengeti and take part in a lion hunt, you also need to respect and stand back as killer whales are going about their lives because they're hunting."

— By Brieanna Charlebois in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2022.

The Canadian Press

Eight in hospital, some seriously injured, after Newfoundland refinery explosion


ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — Eight people were sent to hospital Friday after an explosion at a refinery in Come By Chance, N.L., about 150 kilometres west of St. John's, police said.

RCMP said some were seriously injured in the blast and had to be airlifted to St. John's, though Cpl. Jolene Garland could not confirm how many.

"The fire caused by the explosion has been contained leaving no further danger at the worksite and all employees have been accounted for," the Mounties said in a news release Friday night. Both police and the province's Occupational Health and Safety division have launched an investigation into the incident, the release said.

Refinery owner Braya Renewable Fuels said in a statement earlier Friday evening that the company will cooperate fully with investigations by authorities.

"We will do everything we can to support (those injured) and their families during this time," the statement said.

The refinery is a main source of employment in the town of Come By Chance and its neighbouring community of Arnold's Cove. Together, the two municipalities are home to about 1,200 people.

The refinery produced oil before it was sold in November, though it had been idled for over a year amid crashing global oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic. Texas-based private equity firm Cresta Fund Management bought a controlling stake in the refinery and announced it would be converted to produce renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel. The facility and its operator was then renamed Braya Renewable Fuels.

As of Friday, that conversion from an oil-producing plant to a biofuel operation was still in process, said a company spokesperson.

Local police asked people to stay away from the refinery so as not to interrupt emergency crews or investigators. Later Friday, the local RCMP in Clarenville, N.L., closed a Sobeys grocery store parking lot to traffic so emergency aircraft could land and pick up injured people.

Garland said several aircraft, including a Cormorant helicopter, were called in to transport injured people from the small hospital in Clarenville to the provincial capital for care.

Premier Andrew Furey tweeted his concern Friday for those who had been hurt in the explosion.

"I have been speaking with representatives of the company and union to share concern and good wishes for the injured workers, their families, friends, and coworkers," Furey wrote. "Thank you to all responding to this incident."

Federal Labour Minister Seamus O'Regan also tweeted about the incident. He represents the Newfoundland district of St. John's South-Mount Pearl.

"We’re all thinking of the injured workers at the Come By Chance refinery and their families," O'Regan wrote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2022.

Sarah Smellie, The Canadian Press

Quebec election: CAQ proposes two private medical centres to ease hospital strain

MONTREAL — The Coalition Avenir Québec promised Saturday to build a pair of private medical centres that would provide services that would be free to Quebecers and reimbursed by medicare in an attempt to ease overflowing public emergency rooms.



CAQ Leader François Legault made the announcement on Day 7 of the Quebec election campaign in the eastern Montreal riding of Anjou-Louis-Riel, a region where the party is hoping to increase its presence on the Island of Montreal where it currently only holds two seats.

Legault said the first two clinics would be up and running by 2025 in Montreal's east-end and Quebec City, with plans to eventually build up to a dozen in the province.

“If we want to change the health network, well, we have to change the recipe, we have to innovate,” Legault said.

Legault described the proposed centres, built privately for $35 million, as falling somewhere between a family clinic and a large hospital. They would aim to ease the strain on Quebec's health network, he added.

The medical centres would include a family medicine clinic, other basic health services and an emergency room for minor or lower priority cases and day surgeries.

Legault said using the word "private" when it comes to health care is "delicate," but noted that 20 per cent of services in the province are already provided by the private sector.

More than 21,000 Quebec residents are awaiting a surgical procedure in the province. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Quebec sent some patients to be treated privately to reduce some of the wait times.

"The private sector can be complementary to what we do," said Christian Dubé, the province's most recent health minister, who is seeking re-election. "The more we will settle (minor cases), the more it leaves room for surgeons in major hospitals … to attack the waiting list."

The CAQ promise was denounced by political rivals, with Quebec solidaire's co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois saying if private involvement really worked in health care, there would already be plenty of examples.

“François Legault persists with solutions that do not work," said Nadeau-Dubois, whose party has proposed upgrading community clinics and turning the province's 811 health line into a proper triage service. "The reality is that he has a dogmatic love for the private sector and that he persists with proposals that weaken our system."

Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade said the private system should be used to deal with surgical backlogs only.

The Conservative Party of Quebec has also promised to make more room for private health care as part of its plan. But Legault said Saturday's promise had "nothing to do with what is happening in the other parties" and the CAQ believes the emergency room is too often the main point of entry for patients.

On Day 7 of the provincial election campaign, Quebec solidaire pledged 37,000 new subsidized daycare spaces if they are elected during a stop in Rimouski, Que., in the lower St-Lawrence region.

For its part, the Parti Québécois promised to bring private daycares under the public system, converting 119,000 spaces over five years at a cost of $543 million per year. PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said home daycares would not be part of the conversion plan.

"If we know that more than 50,000 children are on the waiting list, we can assume that tens of thousands of parents right now … are not participating in the labour market due to a lack of child care spaces," St-Pierre Plamondon said in Quebec City, adding he had personally dealt with the lack of child care spaces during the pandemic.

Speaking in Senneterre, Que., in the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region, Anglade announced a $500 million plan to encourage seniors to return to work to deal with the province's labour shortage through a number of measures, including raising basic income tax exemptions to ensure they aren't penalized if continuing to work while earning a pension.

The Liberals say there are no fewer than 270,000 vacant jobs in Quebec.

Also Saturday, Conservative Leader Éric Duhaime visited a winery in the Mauricie region where he pledged to end the monopoly of the Quebec Liquor Corporation and loosen rules regarding competition and where alcohol can be sold.

"The sale of alcohol must certainly be supervised, but not in the form of a state monopoly," Duhaime said in a statement. "Currently, we are in an extremely complex and over-regulated system."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 3, 2022.

— with files from Caroline Plante, Patrice Bergeron, Stéphane Rolland and Frédéric Lacroix-Couture.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press

Quebec election: CAQ admits that family doctor for all Quebecers 'not possible'

Friday

MONTREAL — The Coalition Avenir Québec is no longer promising all Quebecers access to a family doctor, recognizing Friday that a key promise the party made four years ago is simply not achievable.



CAQ Leader François Legault during the 2018 election campaign promised everyone a family doctor but failed to follow through after he was elected premier.

On Day 6 of the election campaign, outgoing Health Minister Christian Dubé said the party won't promise something that is "not possible." Instead, he said, what Quebecers really need is access to medical care from qualified health workers — such as nurses or pharmacists.

"I think what Quebecers want is access to a health professional," Dubé said just south of Quebec City alongside Legault. "In the best circumstances, that should be a doctor, but I think what Quebecers have realized, especially during the pandemic, is they can be served by health professionals who are not necessarily doctors."

The Liberals, meanwhile, have promised that if they are elected, the hundreds of thousands of Quebecers waiting for a family physician would get one.

Legault and Dubé promised Friday that the CAQ would gradually launch a digital health platform to serve as an entry point into the health system and direct people to the right health-care professional. The objective would be to offer someone with a medical need — that isn't an emergency — an appointment with a health-care worker within 36 hours.

Meanwhile, in Lachute, Que., northwest of Montreal, Conservative Party of Quebec Leader Éric Duhaime discussed his party's health plan, which includes a substantial contribution from the private sector

Duhaime said private companies should be permitted to manage the operations of some hospitals and doctors should be encouraged to practise in the public and private health systems. Quebecers, he added, would be allowed under a Conservative government to buy supplemental insurance for treatment in private clinics. The party also promised to train 1,000 more physicians and to hire as many more nurse practitioners.

In Gatineau, Que., Liberal Leader Dominique Anglade promised access to subsidized daycare spaces for all Quebec children. Anglade told reporters at a local daycare that no fewer than 52,000 kids are waiting for a spot. She said her party would create 67,000 extra places at $1.1 billion per year, with financing coming from a recently signed daycare agreement with the federal government.

Québec solidaire promised to introduce an allowance for caregivers worth up to $15,000 per year and to double home-care services offered by the province. The two measures would cost $1.1 billion annually.

“I walk on the campaign trail and I hear comments like, 'I would rather die than end up in a (long-term care home),'” Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois told reporters while visiting the Gaspé Peninsula. "I hear that almost every week on the ground. It's not normal; I don't accept that."

On Friday, the Parti Québécois promised to triple the amount of home-care services by investing an additional $3 billion a year into the health system. Campaigning in Gatineau, Que., leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon proposed abandoning the Legault government's model of new, smaller seniors homes — a key 2018 promise by the CAQ. St-Pierre Plamondon said he would only complete the homes under construction.

Legault, however, insisted that both long-term care and home care are needed. Currently, 43 of the promised 46 seniors homes are under construction.

“We have invested $2 billion in the last four years for home care and services, except that there are people who at some point no longer have their autonomy and need continuous service — to go in a (long-term care home) or a seniors home," Legault said.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 2, 2022.

— With files from Stéphane Rolland, Frédéric Lacroix-Couture, Patrice Bergeron, and Pierre Saint-Arnaud.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press

RAND PAUL GOT SURGERY THERE

It's a world-renowned, for-profit Ontario hospital. Could Shouldice be a model for private health care?

Mark Gollom - Yesterday 

When Ontario Premier Doug Ford recently mused about potential reforms to the provincial health-care system, he referenced Shouldice Hospital as an example of the positive role privatization could play.

His praise of the world-renowned private hernia clinic, one of only a few Ontario hospitals allowed to operate for profit, also raised the question of whether it's a model that could be replicated or would lead to the erosion of medicare and the creation of a two-tier system.

The hospital, in Thornhill, just north of Toronto, is on a 20-acre country estate, complete with gardens and walking paths — making it look more like a spa — 89 licensed beds and five surgical theatres. The menu includes entrées such as rainbow trout with hollandaise sauce, roasted potatoes and french beans or coconut curry chicken with Singapore noodles.

One former patient recently quipped on Facebook that he keeps checking for "another hernia so I can have another mini vacation."

However, the hospital's main claim to fame is the number of hernia surgeries it performs, about 7,000 a year.

That means, according to the hospital, its surgeons repair more hernias in a year than most others do over a lifetime.

"Our surgeons and surgical team are second to none," John Hughes, managing director of Shouldice Hospital, said in an email to CBC News. "Since our surgeons only do hernia repairs … they are simply excellent at what they do — what you do more you get better at."

Shouldice also claims that its model allows it to perform at a lower cost per case than public hospitals, and that wait times are a fraction of those in the public system.

The hospital also says its rate of infection, complications and recurrence is less than 0.5 per cent for primary inguinal hernia repairs, the lowest recorded in the world.

The surgeries themselves are covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan.

Outside of that "we charge for a semi-private room at a rate in line with the rest of [Toronto-area] hospitals," Hughes said. "There is no extra billing for any other services — for example medical, food, medication."

But because of the hospital's policy that most patients must stay at least three days or more after surgery, those room expenses generate significant revenue, critics say.

"A lot of people who go there, go there because they have very good private insurance," said Ontario MPP France Gélinas, the NDP's health critic, in a statement.

Founded in 1945

The hospital was founded in 1945 by Dr. Edward Earle Shouldice, who performed hernia surgeries for servicemen during World War II, according to his grandson Daryl Urquhart.

At the end of the war, there was this line up of people willing and wanting to get their hernia repaired. And there was a shortage of beds in the hospitals. And so my grandfather decided that the best way to handle this was to open a hospital," said Urquhart, who is also a former co-owner and former director of business development for Shouldice.

Its first location was in downtown Toronto, but as it became more popular, it moved to Thornhill, to the estate of George McCullagh, a millionaire miner and newspaper publisher, who purchased the Globe newspaper and the Mail and Empire, merging them to create the Globe and Mail.

The estate's main residence was converted into a hospital. In 1971, the province's Private Hospitals Act was amended to ban any new private hospitals, but those already in operation were grandfathered in. There are only three private, for-profit hospitals left in Ontario, and one is Shouldice.

Its patients have included noted politicians and figures including former prime minister Joe Clark, U.S. consumer advocate Ralph Nader and U.S. Sen. Rand Paul.

In 2006, it stirred up controversy for NDP leader Jack Layton, a critic of private health care, who was accused of hypocrisy after he admitted he'd been a patient there in the mid 1990s. (Layton said he wasn't aware it was a private hospital.)

Urquhart says Shouldice's model of specialization has produced an efficiency and a skill set unavailable anywhere else.

"You simply can't achieve higher level efficiencies in a general factory that you can achieve in a focused factory," he said.

Model can be replicated

He says the model could be replicated, but would require a focused initiative of specialized medical professionals.

"It has to be a concerted effort between professionals and administrative people and bureaucratic people. And that type of action typically happens in the private sector, not in the public sector," he said.

But Dr. Hasan Sheikh, vice chair of Canadian Doctors For Medicare, said there are "wonderful examples" of not-for-profit surgical centres that do high volume operations for specific ailments.



NDP MPP health critic France Gélinas says public hospitals can perform hernia operations just as well without any charges to patients.

© Mathieu Gregoire/CBC

"And without that profit motive, are able to provide extremely efficient and high-quality care," he said, citing the Kensington Institute in Toronto, which specializes in eye surgery, as a "great example."

"There's a comfort in sending people to a place that does one thing and one thing only. And I think that, you know, there's no reason why that has to happen in a for-profit delivery model."

Patient stay questioned

Sheikh also questions whether hernia patients really need to stay at Shouldice for a few days after an operation.

"One of the big concerns I have is the fact that for a hernia repair — which is a fairly simple operation and in most public hospitals is a day procedure — at Shouldice, those patients are staying for three nights.

"Keeping people for longer to do the same procedure doesn't sound particularly innovative to me," he said. "And I think that when you have this profit motive … it begs this question of if these decisions are being made based on what's best for patients."

Gélinas, the NDP health critic, says thousands of hernia operations are done in hospitals across the province by hundreds of general surgeons.

"And everybody recoups and everybody is satisfied."

Gélinas also says that, with only a limited supply of general surgeons in the system, the more who go to private clinics means fewer "are available for the rest of us."

"Private for-profit clinics will cost us all dearly," she said. "It's deeply worrying that Mr. Ford mentioned Shouldice as a model to look to."

However Urquhart defends the hospital's three-day policy, saying it lessens patient anxiety and leads to fewer potential complications.

"You will get people who say 'They don't need to stay. Shouldice only needs to make money and so on.' And that's not true. If Shouldice sent home the patients the same day or the next day, they would just be putting through more patients through the system."

"It makes no difference. The most important thing about the model has always been what is the best thing for the patient."