New studies push back evidence for open habitats in Africa by more than 10 million years

U of M researchers shift the narrative of human evolution through paleontological and geological fieldwork

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

 

IMAGE: USING RIGOROUS AND DETAILED COLLECTION METHODS, RESEARCHERS WERE ABLE TO PLACE THE REMAINS OF FOSSIL APES, SUCH AS MOROTOPITHECUS, WITHIN DETAILED HABITAT RECONSTRUCTIONS. view more 

CREDIT: CORBIN RAINBOLT

The story of human evolution has long been a tale of a forested Africa that gradually became drier, giving rise to open grasslands and causing our forest-loving ape ancestors to abandon the trees and become bipedal. Even though ecological and fossil evidence suggested this narrative was too simplistic, the theory remains prominent in many evolutionary scenarios. 

Two new studies recently published in Science led by researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities put this idea to rest. The findings outline paleoecological reconstructions of early ape fossil sites in eastern Africa dated to the Early Miocene — between 23 and 16 million years ago — showing early apes lived in a wide variety of habitats, including open habitats like scrublands and wooded grasslands that existed 10 million years earlier than previously known.

Research findings include:

• Some of these habitats included substantial C4 plant biomass, grasses that today characterize tropical savannas, but were thought previously to have become dominant only 10 million years ago. 
• Modern ape anatomy may have evolved in open woodlands among leaf-eating apes rather than in forest-dwelling fruit-eating apes.
• The combination of open habitats with significant C4 biomass in the Early Miocene suggests that traditional scenarios regarding the evolution of animal and plant communities in Africa, including the origin of hominins, need to be reconsidered.

Researchers across nine fossil site complexes — which included 30 experts from African, North American and European institutions — conducted paleontological and geological fieldwork, collecting thousands of fossil plant and animal remains and sampling fossil deposits for multiple lines of evidence to reconstruct the ancient habitats.

“None of us could have reached these conclusions working in isolation at our individual fossil sites,” said Kieran McNulty, a professor of Anthropology in the College of Liberal Arts, lead author and organizer of the decade-long Research on East African Catarrhine and Hominoid Evolution (REACHE) project. “Working in the fossil record is challenging. We discover hints about past life and need to assemble and interpret them across space and time. It’s like a 4D puzzle, where each team member can only see some of the pieces."

“You go into a project like this not knowing for sure what you will find out, which is exciting. In this case, we realized we were looking at a picture of Early Miocene communities in eastern Africa that is quite different than what we had expected,” said David Fox, a professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department in the College of Science and Engineering. “There was no single ‘ah ha moment’ but over years of field seasons and the steady accumulation of new fossils and new data, we realized that the environments of the earliest apes varied significantly from the traditional picture of forested habitats.”

"The findings have transformed what we thought we knew about early apes, and the origin for where, when and why they navigate through the trees and on the ground in multiple different ways," said Robin Bernstein, program director for biological anthropology at the National Science Foundation. "For the first time, by combining diverse lines of evidence, this collaborative research team tied specific aspects of early ape anatomy to nuanced environmental changes in their habitat in eastern Africa, now revealed as more open and less forested than previously thought. The effort outlines a new framework for future studies regarding ape evolutionary origins."

Continued research at these fossil sites will enhance our understanding of these habitats, especially of finer-grained changes in space and time. Likewise, similar collaborations focused on earlier and later time periods are needed to fully understand the interactions between fossil species and their environments.

“This level of cooperation among different teams is unique in paleoanthropology,” said McNulty. “These two studies highlight the importance of extending collaboration and dialog beyond our immediate research partners.”

The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, Leakey Foundation, McKnight Land-Grant Fellowship, and Leverhulme Trust Fellowship.

---

JOURNAL

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.abq2834 

ARTICLE TITLE

Oldest evidence of abundant C4 grasses and habitat heterogeneity in eastern Africa

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Apr-2023

Righting toppled US ship in drydock will be 'very complicated', warns marine expert

 

Investigationsm are ongoing into why the vessel owned by the US Navy toppled over in the dry dock (Picture: PA).

Workers face a "very complicated" task of righting a vessel which toppled over while in drydock, a marine expert said as investigations into the incident continue.

Two huge cranes have been placed next to the US Navy vessel the Petrel, which tipped to a 45-degree angle last month, leaving 35 people injured.

The incident sparked a huge emergency service operation at the drydock in Leith, Edinburgh, which is operated by Dales Marine Services.

Iraklis Lazakis, of the University of Strathclyde, said the two cranes are at the vessel’s port side but “no other specific action can be speculated on about righting the vessel”, which he said would be a “very complicated procedure”.

Police remain at the scene, and on Thursday a police car could be seen as workers operated the cranes and moved around the stricken 3,371-tonne vessel.

Both the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and Police Scotland said investigations into the incident, which happened on March 22, are continuing.

A view of the ship Petrel at Imperial Dock in Leith, Edinburgh, which became dislodged from its holding on Wednesday March 22 (Picture: PA).

An HSE spokesman said: "Specialist inspectors from HSE are assessing the technical aspects of the structural collapse and continue to work with Police Scotland on the investigation into this incident."

Dr Lazakis, of the Department of Naval Architecture, Ocean and Marine Engineering, said for the ship to be put upright a number of aspects need to be considered, including "the potential damage on the outer hull of the vessel on the starboard side, any internal structural damages or otherwise, any transfer of loads internally, and any movements of the keel blocks due to the shifting of the ship".

He added: "One would also need to consider the lifting capacity/radius and angle of lift of the cranes in relation to the ship's lightweight – or lightship – as well as any additional weights or loads within the ship.

'A very complicated procedure'

Dr Lazakis added: "Another way to bring the ship up would be by initially assessing its structural condition externally and internally and shifting of loads etc, as well as performing any repairs needed on the outer hull, repositioning the keel blocks in the drydock if needed as per the ship’s docking plan, then starting to flood the drydock very slowly and tilting the vessel upright gradually.

"Overall, this is a very complicated procedure, also considering that, as I understand it, the drydock is used by another vessel I believe.

"I cannot speculate on how long this would take as there are so many unknowns at the moment."

The Petrel

The 76m-long Petrel was once owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who bought the ship to locate historically significant shipwrecks and discovered 30 sunken warships, including the Japanese Imperial Navy's IJN Musashi.

But in 2022 the Isle of Man-registered vessel was sold to the US Navy and is now operated by American-owned firm Oceaneering International.

The Petrel has been moored at Imperial Drydock in Leith since September 3, 2020, due to "operational challenges" from the pandemic.

Twenty-three people injured in the incident were taken to hospital and 12 were treated at the scene.

Oil Workers In Restive Kazakh Town Resume Rallies Demanding Jobs

The oil workers held a similar protest in the capital, Astana, earlier this week before they were dispersed by police and sent back to Zhanaozen.

April 14, 2023
By RFE/RL's Kazakh Service

ZHANAOZEN, Kazakhstan -- About 100 oil workers have resumed protests in Kazakhstan's volatile town of Zhanaozen to demand jobs after a similar protest they held in Astana was forcibly dispersed earlier this week and the demonstrators were sent home.

The workers gathered on April 14 in front of the offices of OzenMunaiGaz, a subsidiary of the oil-rich nation's energy giant KazMunaiGaz, demanding jobs after they lost their positions because their former employer, BerAli Manghystau Company, recently lost a tender.

The protesters said they will stay at the site until all their demands are met.

Officials at OzenMunaiGaz have said there are no vacancies at the company.

On April 11, at least 80 former workers of BerAli Manghystau Company were detained in Astana after they spent a night in front of the Energy Ministry building demanding jobs at OzenMunaiGaz.

They were released late in the night and the majority of them were forced to leave Astana for Zhanaozen by train early in the morning on April 12. Less than a dozen of the workers remains in the capital.

On April 12, a court in Astana sentenced opposition politician Nurzhan Altaev to 15 days in jail over his support for the workers. The court found the politician guilty of violating regulations on holding public gatherings.

Zhanaozen, located in Kazakhstan's southwest, was the scene of mass anti-government rallies in 2011 staged by oil workers that resulted in the deaths of at least 16 people when police opened fire on unarmed protesters.

In early January last year, other protests in the restive town over abrupt energy price hikes quickly spread across the tightly controlled former Soviet republic and led to violent clashes in the country's largest city, Almaty, and elsewhere that left at least 238 people, including 19 law enforcement officers, dead.

President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev then moved to deprive influential former President Nursultan Nazarbaev of his lifetime post atop the Kazakh Security Council, taking the post himself.

The crisis prompted Toqaev to seek help from troops from the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) to quell the unrest.

Toqaev's moves since then appear aimed at weakening Nazarbaev, his relatives and close allies.

Kristof: How United States can avoid a war with China

We’re again too complacent about the risks of conflict ahead

A supporter of Taiwan holds a sign reading “I am Chinese, I stand for Taiwan’s Independence” in front of the Westin Bonaventure hotel where Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will spend the night ahead of meeting with Kevin McCarthy, in Los Angeles, April 4, 2023. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

By NICHOLAS KRISTOF |
PUBLISHED: April 14, 2023 

In the summer of 1914, few wanted war or thought a major war was possible. My grandparents were married that spring in Lviv, Austria-Hungary, and I look at their giddy wedding photos and realize they had no clue that a cataclysm would soon erase their country, shatter their lives and eventually send a branch of the family fleeing to the New World.

This year I sometimes worry that we’re again too complacent about the risks of conflict ahead. And perhaps the worst geopolitical risk over the next decade or two is a war with China. While neither side wants war, each now accepts that conflict may be looming and is preparing accordingly — driving suspicions on the other side and fueling an arms race.

It’s time for both sides to take a deep breath and step back from rhetoric and symbolic jabs that rally nationalists at home but that also increase the risks of a global catastrophe. A reminder of the risks came on Monday when China responded to the warm welcome given in the United States to Taiwan’s president by sending a record number of military aircraft near Taiwan.

From an American vantage point, another cold war may not seem so terrible, since we and the Russians managed to avoid incinerating each other in the last one. But millions died in the last cold war in proxy war zones from Vietnam to Angola. And Russia and the United States avoided nuclear war in part because leaders on each side had memories of World War II that made them cautious. I worry that today, as in 1914, overconfidence and myopic political pressures on each side might drive continuing escalation.

I need no reminder of how oppressive China can be. I was on Tiananmen Square in June 1989 and witnessed as the People’s Liberation Army fired on the crowd that I was in. But I also saw China lifting more people out of poverty than any other country in history and vastly improving education and health outcomes. We in the United States have to grapple with the uncomfortable reality that a newborn in Beijing may not be able to look forward to a meaningful vote or to free speech but has a life expectancy seven years longer than that of a newborn in Washington, D.C.

When I say we must talk to each other, I am not downplaying American concerns. I’m among those wary of TikTok because of the risk that it might be used for spying. But I also know that the United States has similarly used private businesses to spy on China.

I think the United States should press China harder on some issues, such as the reckless way Chinese companies export chemicals to Mexico that are turned into fentanyl. That Chinese-origin fentanyl kills many thousands of Americans each year, and it’s hard to see why the deaths of so many aren’t higher on the bilateral agenda.

But we also need humility. America’s politicians, pharma companies and regulators themselves catastrophically bungled the opioid crisis. Why should we expect Chinese leaders to care more about young American lives than our own leaders do?

Fulmination is not a policy, and it alienates the ordinary Chinese citizens who are that country’s best hope after Xi has left the scene. That’s the long game.

The single biggest step the United States could take would simply be to tackle American dysfunction — from addiction to child poverty and our failed foster care system — and to invest in our education system so as to produce stronger citizens and a more robust nation. That, not prickly nationalism, is the lesson we should take from China — and is the best way for us to meet the China challenge.

Nicholas Kristof is a New York Times columnist.

Asteroids, meteorites and difficult issues to solve


April 13, 2023
By Giancarlo Elia Valori

Mankind is ready to start exploring space resources. Such resources seem unusually attractive today, but what are the real possibilities of space travel for their extraction?

The most sought-after mineral resource in space is water, which will be the source of oxygen and hydrogen needed for astronauts’ breathing and for rocket thrusters. An equally valuable resource is the Moon as a territory outside our planet, where manned stations with fully controlled living conditions can be located. Astronautics can begin to develop these resources in the near future.

As seen above, small bodies in the solar system – mainly the numerous asteroids – are becoming increasingly attractive as sources of raw materials as space technology develops. Meteorites sometimes fly to Earth from the depths of space, some of which consist of a pure iron alloy with nickel and cobalt.

Spectrophotometric observations of asteroids, however, show that the nature of the reflection of sunlight on their surface is almost the same as that from the surface of meteorites, which are further interesting celestial bodies. Hence we can infer that the composition of asteroids must be identical to meteorites. If this is true, then meteorites, along with asteroids, can also theoretically contribute to the development of the Earth’s depleted mining industry.

The annual world production of iron is currently estimated at one billion tonnes. The same amount of iron – some people say half as much (albeit a considerable amount) – can be contained in an asteroid about 300 metres in diameter. In the solar system, the number of asteroids of this size is estimated at 7,500 – hence the expanses of space look to many like a modern-day pristine Klondike. The presence of precious metals for industry, which have a high commercial value, should be added to this.

Most asteroids in the solar system are located in the so-called main asteroid belt, situated between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. But some of the asteroids have orbits that approach Earth’s orbit and pass through it at a distance of several million kilometres. These asteroids may be of particular interest as they are substantially more accessible than the asteroids in the main belt.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration pays great attention to the study of asteroids. It has carried out a number of successful missions that have laid the foundations for contact methods for their study. NASA has also initiated the development of projects to intercept asteroids in deep space and tow them into near-Earth space for industrial exploitation. However, there is still no certainty about the economic feasibility of using asteroids as raw materials in space.

Information on the physical and chemical properties of asteroids is scarce and needs to be updated. Remote methods for studying celestial bodies – systems developed in astronomy – make it possible to study the optical properties of the surface of asteroids. In particular, all hypotheses on the chemical composition of asteroids are based on a comparison of spectra obtained from asteroids and meteorites, the composition of which is reliably known.

It is important to remember that from the spectra of only about 70% of the asteroids analysed, it is possible to find traces of the meteoritic substance, but these are only indirect signs of their similarity. If we adhere to the widespread idea among astronomers that asteroids are constantly struck by meteorites and micrometeorites, it is easier to assume that the surface properties of asteroids are characteristic of the meteorites accumulated on it, and not of the main body of the asteroid itself. Therefore, the opinion based on indirect evidence that an asteroid consists of pure iron or platinum requires careful verification and even the sending of a reconnaissance mission, not to mention the solution of the technically more expensive and more complex task of intercepting an asteroid and delivering it to near-Earth space.

The second circumstance, which greatly complicates the design of devices for studying the contact of small solar system bodies, is associated with the inconsistency of today’s scientists’ ideas about the structure of asteroids. It is widely believed that asteroids that had suffered numerous collisions with each other (as evidenced by the many impact craters on their surfaces) should have been destroyed as a result of the aforementioned impacts and are now instead “piles of stones” once again joined into a single body by the mutual gravitational force of the fragments. This more than controversial view, based on only a few indirect observational data, is also persistently applied to explain the surface structure of the asteroids examined in detail.

If we agree with this widespread idea among astronomers that asteroids are constantly hit by meteorites and micrometeorites, we can assume that the surface properties of asteroids are characteristic of the meteorites accumulated on it, and not of the main body of the asteroid itself.

The Japanese researchers’ claim that asteroid 25143 Itokawa (with an average diameter of about 0.33 km) is also a “pile of stones” seems very strained and far-fetched. To do so, they were forced to assume that the entire small fraction of “fragments” covered a part of the asteroid in a uniform layer and were not preserved in other parts of it. They came to the conclusion that the asteroid surface is entirely solid and does not contain regolith. This is a blanket of unconsolidated, loose and heterogeneous surface deposits covering solid rock. It includes dust, broken rocks and other related materials and is present on Earth, the Moon, Mars, some asteroids and other planets and their moons.

In this respect, studies of the Moon surface have clearly shown that the lunar regolith layer is very thin, even under conditions of much stronger lunar gravity, and dust particles should also be ejected from the surface of small asteroids by micrometeoroid impacts.

From the viewpoint of astronautics, the property of asteroids whereby there is a completely negligible gravitational force on their surface is very important. With such acceleration in free fall, even a small force can propel the entire apparatus out of the asteroid’s region of attraction. The developers of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Rosetta mission faced a similar problem when they landed the Philae module on the surface of 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko, which is a periodic comet in our solar system with an orbital period of 6.45 Earth years. The moderate landing speed of the module proved sufficient for the elastic forces to launch it off the surface of the cometary nucleus, and only after several jumps did Philae stop at a completely different spot where its soft landing was planned. This meant that the ESA designers had estimated the strength of the dust layer on the surface of the cometary nucleus differently.

Therefore, for the same reason as the low gravity of and on asteroids, we should be wary of the very idea that asteroids destroyed in many fragments as a result of mutual collisions can reassemble into a single body under the influence of mutual attraction.

This is because the force of attraction between the individual stones is fully negligible, and its action simply could not be sufficient to slow down the flying fragments. The asteroids of the main belt, instead, are most probably monolithic bodies due to melting and solidifying in remote times.

These examples clearly show that an accurate knowledge of asteroid surface properties is a prerequisite for conducting research missions to them, not to mention solving the problem of towing an asteroid. This implies that some plans for using the space resources available in asteroids are premature.

The outcome on the uncertain docking – rather than landing – of Philae of the Rosetta mission shows that in order to conduct real research missions to asteroids and comets, it is necessary to create a docking system for a small-mass celestial body, which would be equally effective for a monolithic asteroid and a loose comet nucleus, or for a hypothetical pile of rocks.

In preparation for missions to the Moon and Mars, a method was developed for landing containers with scientific equipment (and drillers) at a speed of hundreds of metres per second. Scientists have gone even further and should have found a way to safely bring the most delicate scientific equipment to the surface of the bodies studied after the containers landing hard at a cosmic speed of up to several kilometres per second.

Curious Planeteer working to make the Earth's changes visible, accessible and actionable.

Queryable Earth: combining satellite imagery and next-gen AI

By: Kevin Weil and Andrew Zolli

 April 12, 2023

Pulse Home

Back in 2018, Planet co-founder and CEO Will Marshall asked the audience during his TED talk: what if you could search the surface of the Earth the same way you search the internet?

It wasn’t science fiction. Using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to index objects on the planet over time – which could make ships, trees, buildings, and other objects on earth searchable, the same way you search with your internet browser. Planet and its partners have been making accelerating progress on this since Will’s TED talk: high-altitude balloon tracking, building damage classification to aid disaster response, mapping utility-scale wind and solar power across the globe, etc.

Several of these projects have been done in collaboration with Microsoft’s AI for Good Lab. It’s been in those meeting rooms, and working with each other’s data and tools, and crunching code that we’ve asked ourselves: how else can the combination of high-resolution satellite imagery and AI technology help in solving some of humanity’s greatest challenges?

Fundamentally, access to data and insights made available through digital analysis can be transformational for businesses, academics, researchers, policymakers, and more. As the world seeks to account for physical change on Earth, data can inform supply chain tracking, actions to mitigate the effects of climate change, disaster preparedness and response, and food insecurity.

So at Explore23, Planet’s annual user conference, we teased the outcome of one of those Microsoft-Planet brainstorm sessions: how next-gen AI can make satellite data more accessible for all by making it searchable, conversational and context-aware.

In collaboration with the Microsoft AI for Good Lab, we built this proof-of-concept project affectionately known as “Queryable California.” This won’t be in your internet browser tomorrow – but it shows the art of the possible. And that’s what’s incredibly exciting to us.

The idea with Queryable California is to evaluate how Microsoft’s next-gen AI can make our high-resolution satellite imagery and Planetary Variables data products more accessible by both indexing physical characteristics of life on Earth and making them searchable, in plain and easy-to-understand language, with real-world context about location and time. All in hopes of empowering people with data and insights – following a few strokes on a keyboard – that can guide better decision-making.

In this demo video below, you can see we’re asking a customized next-gen AI interface questions about the temperature in Sacramento. We’ve combined this with a query engine and Planetary Variables’ datasets, like land surface temperature, so that the AI can compute important insights like the average temperature of the ground and the hottest year over the last two decades. With forest fires, it’s able to not just tell us about how much tree cover was destroyed in the 2018 California Camp Fire, but also how much forest carbon was lost. This is an example of what we often talk about: a future where we abstract out the satellite image and provide to the user the specific information from the image that they need to make a decision

Talk to any Planeteer, and we’ll tell you that making change visible is about agile aerospace and Planet’s ability to rapidly build large constellations of satellites that can produce new datasets the world has never seen before. Making change accessible is about stitching that data together, allowing for quick and easy analysis, and helping our customers and partners extract insights from it. Making change actionable is about bringing these building blocks to the customer, wherever they are, and providing an Earth Data Platform that enables them to build our solutions into their workflows.

So this proof of concept is a flavor of what we mean, and what we aspire to. This is only one example of what Planet’s satellite data and Microsoft’s AI technology can unlock and we look forward to sharing more in the future.

Forward-looking Statements

Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters set forth in this blog are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including, but not limited to, the Company’s ability to capture market opportunity and realize any of the potential benefits from current or future product enhancements, new products, or strategic partnerships and customer collaborations. Forward-looking statements are based on the Company’s management’s beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to them. Because such statements are based on expectations as to future events and results and are not statements of fact, actual results may differ materially from those projected. Factors which may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, but are not limited to the risk factors and other disclosures about the Company and its business included in the Company’s periodic reports, proxy statements, and other disclosure materials filed from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) which are available online at www.sec.gov, and on the Company’s website at www.planet.com. All forward-looking statements reflect the Company’s beliefs and assumptions only as of the date such statements are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

The Crotone Migrant Shipwreck: A Cat-and-Mouse Blame Game and the Role of Technologies at External Borders

Written by Aphrodite Papachristodoulou

 April 12, 2023

There are myriad ways States could exercise effective remote control over the rights of persons, including detrimental rescue instructions, as well as policy and operational arrangements that can hinder human rights protection. On 26 February 2023, a migrant shipwreck off the Italian coast of Crotone, yet again ‘shocked’ the European Union (EU). Indeed, it has been quite a while since a shipwreck has garnered so much attention. To be clear, hundreds of shipwrecks go missing every year on the Mediterranean Sea, without a trace of them. Unlike the tragedy that unfolded south of Crotone, those shipwrecks remain unannounced, with the hope that the spotlight will not flash again on the ‘migration crisis’, which the EU declared as ‘over’ in March 2019 ahead of the European Parliament elections.

The Crotone shipwreck is another paradigm of the delayed/non-assistance saga that has been unfolding in the Mediterranean region at the expense of human lives. However, what makes this incident different is its factual context. While no distress call was placed from the migrants on the boat to alert the Italian authorities, the use of technology by the EU’s Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) alerted the relevant authorities of a strong likelihood of an emergency, that arguably should have been marked as a Search and Rescue (SAR) event. As a matter of fact, there are countless incidents concerning drownings and facilitated push-and-pull-backs taking place amidst the use of and facilitation by technologies at external borders. Bewildering questions, as such, arise as to the nature of State obligations and responsibilities towards persons in distress at sea that epicentre upon the exercise of extraterritorial human rights jurisdiction, and the nexus between the State’s capacity to act and the impact of its (in)actions. It needs to be stressed that various facts are yet to be conclusively established as the reconstruction of events is still in process.

Background

From what we know so far, on 22 February 2023, a Turkish wooden boat with over 150 migrants onboard, departed from Turkey and set sail along the ‘Calabria route’ towards Italy. In its course, the vessel had broken up in rough seas and became in distress, with large quantities of water entering the boat. On 25 February 2023, Frontex’s aircraft (part of the joint operation Themis surveilling the area) was able to first identify the boat, 40 nautical miles from Italy. Though Frontex submitted that there appeared to be ‘no signs of distress’, the evidence that the agency acquired by thermal cameras, and communicated then to the Italian law enforcement authorities and those of maritime rescue, indicated strong elements that the boat was in distress as it showed a high number of people on board with sea state 4 conditions, meaning the situation at sea was extremely perilous. This information was acquired by the use of the aforementioned technologies, which (ought to have) played a critical part in providing the authorities with sufficient knowledge of the potential distress state of the boat and the need for a SAR mission. It has also been reported that the thermal signs indicated that not only the boat was overcrowded, but also, that there ‘might be people below the deck’.

Italy had access to the live streaming sensors that were shared by Frontex, but still did not classify the incident as an ‘emergency’, hence no SAR operation was launched. In turn, Italy mobilized two patrol boats of Guardia di Finanza (GDF) initiating a police operation to investigate the situation, who had to then return to the port due to bad weather and sea conditions. It should be noted though that the GDF is ill-equipped to carry out a SAR operation; had the Italian Coast Guard been deployed though, they would have been able to navigate and undertake a SAR, even with worse weather conditions (sea force 8), as they are more professionally equipped. From what we know so far, 79 lives were lost, including a total of 33 minors, several others are still missing (approximately 20), and 86 have survived the incident.

Protection of life at sea

Under the law of the sea terrain, the duty to render assistance to those in distress reflects a customary duty to protect life at sea, and as I have argued elsewhere, a right to be rescued at sea ought to be recognized in human rights law as its ultimate logical correlative; the need has never been more pressing. This duty, under the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the other International Maritime Oganization (IMO) treaties, unlike (most) human rights treaties, requires no jurisdictional nexus between the shipmaster and the persons that need to be rescued. In this incident, the fact that the migrants’ boat was in the search and rescue region (SRR) of Italy, would not ipso facto trigger the State’s human rights obligations, as an SRR zone does not equate to a jurisdictional zone. Instead, these, are spaces where State parties need to ensure the cooperation and coordination of SAR activities. In this context, Attard and Vella de Fremeaux have argued that it would be difficult to posit that jurisdiction would exist ‘by the simple presence of a vessel in distress in a State’s SRR’.  Hence, what would be required is some action or inaction on the part of the SAR State for human rights jurisdiction to be triggered (as the sole fact that the migrants’ boat was in Italy’s SRR will not suffice).

The definition of the concept of ‘distress’

Turning to the meaning of the term ‘distress’, the 1979 International Maritime Search and Rescue Convention (SAR Convention, as amended) provides that it is ‘a situation wherein there is a reasonable certainty that a person, a vessel or other craft is threatened by grave and imminent danger and requires immediate assistance’ (Annex, 1.3.13). Against this backdrop, it can be anticipated that a wooden, overloaded, and leaky vessel together with evidence generated by thermal imaging showing signs of bodies beyond the deck, indicates a reasonably foreseeable threat to human life which will qualify as distress. This is important to reconcile as identifying what is ‘distress’ remains pivotal at the policy as well as the operational level, as the people on board did not alter the Italian authorities of their distress state that would have potentially triggered a ‘special relationship of dependency’ between the persons in danger and the State authorities as the Human Rights Committee (HRC) reasoned in A.S. and others v. Italy (CCPR/C/130/DR/3042/2017, § 2.7).

Technologies as knowledge generators

Manifestly, the principal reason behind the human tragedy appears to be Italy’s negligent acts and omission to launch a SAR operation in its SRR zone, which had fatal consequences. Are we still then, looking at an ‘invisible’ phenomenon? It is unquestionable that sea crossings are placed under substantial aerial surveillance vis-à-vis generating visual knowledge by their ability to detect and trace migration movements. One would have legitimately expected that such use would have enhanced the SAR capacities of States by providing early warnings and to an extent, fill the vacuum of migrants’ protection at sea. (I discuss this further in a forthcoming paper.)

As the HRC has stressed, States obligation to respect and protect human rights includes ‘persons located outside any territory effectively controlled by the State, whose [rights are] nonetheless impacted by its military or other activities’.  It can be in turn argued that the detection of cross border movements makes it possible, and provides States with the capacity to control from a distance how a situation will unfold thus, impacting the rights’ of migrants, by exerting what Moreno-Lax calls ‘contactless control’ over individuals. In this way, technologies used and deployed at external borders can be conceptualized as knowledge generators that have the ability to activate the jurisdictional nexus, triggering in this way a State’s positive human rights obligations to exercise due diligence in coordinating rescue efforts. Undoubtedly, what I am advocating here is a functional conception of jurisdiction, that posits that Italy by its sovereign decisions (acts and omissions) exercised a sufficient degree of effective remote control over the migrants’ fate. Hence, the authorities had the capacity to impact the concerned migrants’ lives in a direct and reasonably foreseeable manner (for analysis on similar issues, see e.g. Milanovic’s post).

Respectively, the obligation to protect the right to life in international human rights law encompasses a duty to ‘prevent’ loss of life according to a due diligence standard. The European Court of Human Rights in Ilascu and Others v. Moldova and Russia identified a ‘reasonable knowledge’ condition which provided that the preventive positive obligation arises if the State’s authorities knew or should have known of a real and immediate risk to the life of an identified individual(s) (for extensive analysis see here). Of course, knowledge rests on the factual circumstances, yet given the history of casualties taking place across the Mediterranean Sea (especially over the last decade), coupled with pre-existing knowledge of the Mediterranean migration routes, States are reasonably expected to apprehend that such information manifested a certain risk to the life of migrants that was foreseeable. It appears then, that the Italian authorities failed to act in a diligent manner to prevent the imminent threat to life from materializing, even when they knew or should have known about the risk of harm and the fate which awaited the migrants in distress (on ‘knowledge’ see Stoyanova’s article).

Conclusion

As the events of the Crotone migrant shipwreck are being currently reconstructed, it remains to be seen whether Italy will be held responsible for its acts and omissions. The fact that the migrants in this case attempted to cross the Eastern Mediterranean route is arguably a result of the intensification of efforts on the Central Mediterranean, and the bilateral agreements concluded between Italy and Libya, which have clearly diverted migrant crossings to other routes, which in itself has further reduced the safety of crossings. The inherent dangers that lie in such diversions are clear, not least of which non-governmental organizations are not carrying out rescues a priori in that area. It follows that the need to address and prevent foreseeable deaths on maritime migrant routes buttresses the claim of recognizing a right to be rescued at sea vested in individuals. While a conclusive determination on accountability is difficult to be made at this stage, the Crotone migrant shipwreck is a reminder and a clear-cut result of the governments’ continuous failure to cooperate and – a plea – to adopt a humanitarian migration response.

Demand for mental health service in Canada is climbing. So are wait times for specialists

Social Sharing

• Facebook
• Twitt
• Pinteres
• Reddit
• LinkedIn
• Email

Studies show more Canadians accessing services and some left feeling unsatisfied

Bob Becken · CBC Radio · Posted: Apr 10, 2023 

A Statistics Canada study shows almost one in five Canadians aged 12 and older report they require help with their mental health. About 45 per cent of respondents say they felt their needs were either unmet or only partially met. (Chanintorn.v/Shutterstock)

Cross Country Checkup1:53:00FULL EPISODE: How accessible are mental health services in Canada?

After what her family endured, Christine Hodge says she sympathizes with Canadian families who cannot access essential medications and treatments for mental illness.

The Ottawa woman's daughter, now 21, was diagnosed with Bipolar I disorder before the pandemic began; however, it took more than two years — and a lot of advocacy — to find a psychiatrist willing to take her on. 

"This diagnosis, and all that that entails, was not able to get her a psychiatrist for over two years, which would be the bedrock of her treatment," said Hodge. "If she wasn't able to get there for over two years, then what the heck is available to other people who are less fortunate?"

Ottawa's Christine Hodge says it took more than two years to land a psychiatrist for her daughter who was diagnosed with Bipolar I disorder. (Submitted by Christine Hodge)

In a Statistics Canada study released in 2021, almost one in five Canadians aged 12 and older reported that they needed some help with their mental health. About 45 per cent of respondents said they felt their needs were either unmet or only partially met.

And, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, wait times in some jurisdictions for community mental health counselling are longer for children and youth up to 18 years of age, compared to adults. For all ages, the average wait time across Canada is 22 days. 

Even if the entire wait list was magically erased today, it wouldn't take long for us to start falling behind again because we can't even keep up with the ongoing demand.- Child and adolescent psychiatrist Tamara Hinz

Saskatchewan psychiatrist Dr. Tamara Hinz says the child and adolescent psychiatry waitlist in Saskatoon currently sits at more than 300 referrals, and the patient who's been waiting the longest was referred back in January 2020. 

Demand for mental health care service is up, according to Hinz, and so is the shortage of psychiatrists and psychologists, she said.

"We drive ourselves crazy sometimes trying to figure out how to reorganize or redistribute the services we provide," Hinz said. "But at the end of the day, there's just not enough pie there."

"Every month we go further and further behind. We are getting more new referrals than what our practice group has the capacity to see. Even if the entire wait list was magically erased today, it wouldn't take long for us to start falling behind again because we can't even keep up with the ongoing demand."

• Demand for mental health services has surged, pushing some providers to their limits

• IN DEPTH
  Growing demand for mental health services linked to long wait times

A big part of the problem, said Hinz, is that psychiatrists are covered by public funding, but psychologists typically aren't — and the few spots that are publicly funded are snapped up quickly.

"That creates an additional backlog for our services because there are still certain parts of assessment and treatment that a psychologist can't do compared to a psychiatrist." 

Saskatchewan child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Tamara Hinz says demand for mental health care service is up, and so is the shortage of psychiatrists and psychologists. (Desiree Martin Photography)

Hinz, who's also an assistant psychiatry professor at the University of Saskatchewan, says it continually strikes her how long people are waiting to see mental health specialists and the effects that could be having on them.

"I met a teen boy who should be in Grade 11, and is enrolled in Grade 10 but not going, and has been sort of struggling with mental health symptoms and undertreated ADHD while on our waitlist for over two years."

"We are constantly dealing with these kinds of scenarios where we look at all of this as time and opportunity wasted."

Shortage of accessible and affordable psychologists

Dr. David Dozois says he's advocating for Canadian psychologists to be covered under provincial and territorial health plans.

The professor of psychology at Western University says he believes mental health care should be universal, similar to physical health care.

"Psychologists are covered only as long as they're in a government-funded hospital agency or clinic," said Dozois. "If they're not, then the cost of a psychologist is considered extraneous to the public health system."

Either people pay to see psychologists with their own funds, he said, or they have an insurance plan through their employer. 

Western University psychology professor David Dozois says he’s advocating for Canadian psychologists to be covered under provincial and territorial health plans. (Submitted by David Dozois)

Dozois says there's a "tremendous shortage" of psychologists in Canada's public hospital system because many are leaving for better pay in the private sector. 

"There are often waiting lists, but certainly people can get to see a private practice psychologist much, much quicker than they can in the public system," he said.

"If you have the [financial] resources, it results in an inequitable health-care system in many respects. In the public system, often people are waiting at least six months, often a year or 18 months."

There are approximately 19,500 psychologists in Canada, according to Statistics Canada.

Unify access of mental health and addictions services

A B.C. psychiatrist says there also needs to be unification in mental health with addictions treatment in all provinces and territories.

Bill MacEwan, with Vancouver's Downtown Community Court mental health team, said the people he sees need sites that will treat you for both, at the same time.

"If you don't have that, they'll never be able to help the individual at that moment they walk through the door," he said. "You have to do what you can at that moment and then try and have a significant impact. In Ontario, I know some centres do that. There's better systems out there. We don't have to reinvent the wheel."

Psychiatrist Dr. Bill MacEwan says the people he sees in downtown Vancouver need access to programs that will simultaneously treat you for mental illness and addictions. (Tristan Le Rudulier)

When dealing with someone with psychosis or bipolar disorder or depression, MacEwan said the biggest obstacle is also managing their drug use and preventing them from overdosing. The two often go hand-in-hand, he said.

• How a B.C. doctor's plan to treat 300 people with addictions, mental illness could tackle the overdose crisis

Hodge said her family was fortunate to eventually land a psychiatrist and get her daughter on a stabilizing mixture of medications.

She called her daughter's psychologist in tears asking for assistance, said Hodge.

Hodge said she told him, "'She's about to start not coming to you because the psychological help you're providing is not really helping all that much.'" 

"He then reached out throughout his network and landed us a psychiatrist willing to take her on, based on his words. That's what it took."

Hodge said her family is incredibly lucky and that her daughter "dodged a bullet."

"She's doing so great and she's worked really, really, really hard because she has the cornerstone of the proper drugs." 

Apple Reportedly in Talks With Suppliers to Assemble MacBooks in Thailand

Thursday April 13, 2023

 by Tim Hardwick

Apple is said to be in talks with suppliers to make MacBooks in Thailand as the company continues to diversify its supply chain outside of China.


According to Nikkei Asia, suppliers involved in the talks already have established bases in Thailand for other clients, which has facilitated discussion surrounding the possible assembly and production of MacBook components and modules in the country.

"Ideally, Apple asked us to set up facilities in Vietnam for MacBooks, following in the footsteps of other Apple suppliers, but we offered an alternative option of building the product at our Thailand plants, which still have a massive space that can be reserved for the client," a senior executive at one of the suppliers told Nikkei Asia. "As MacBook assembly will begin in Vietnam first, we could support the components from our Thailand plants, too. ... It will only take two to three days of logistics and custom clearance."

Another supplier told Nikkei it is building new plants in Thailand for Apple, and construction of a new factory for MacBooks and other products will be completed this year. Apple has already been mass producing its Apple Watch in Thailand for more than a year, according to the outlet's sources.

Apple has expanded its supply chain beyond China over the past several years, with some production now occurring at factories in India and Vietnam. Apple industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has also said that the main production location outside of China for Apple's future MacBooks may be Thailand, as such diversification helps Apple to mitigate geopolitical tensions and avoid risks like U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports.