New study pinpoints the most common long-term challenges after psychedelic use

2023/11/18


A recent study explored the enduring challenges individuals face after using psychedelic substances like psilocybin and LSD, finding that emotional difficulties, such as anxiety and fear, were the most common, along with self-perception and cognitive issues. The study, published in PLOS One, also identified factors that could contribute to these difficulties.

The motivation behind this study lies in the growing interest and use of psychedelic substances like psilocybin and LSD for various purposes, including therapy and personal growth. These substances have shown potential in treating conditions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD, and they are being considered for legal medical use in some countries. However, along with the potential benefits, there have been reports of individuals experiencing enduring difficulties or challenges after using psychedelics.

“We felt that there was a research gap in the field of psychedelic science, specifically looking at whether psychedelic experiences ever led to extended difficulties lasting longer than a day,” said study author Jules Evans, the director of of the Challenging Psychedelic Experiences Project. “If so, what sort of difficulties, and what helps people deal with them. These are important questions – millions of people are now trying psychedelics, encouraged by extremely positive media coverage of the last decade, and they have no awareness that sometimes psychedelics can lead to difficulties lasting beyond the trip.”

The researchers used various channels, such as social media, newsletters, email lists, and newspaper advertisements, to recruit a sample of 608 English-speaking adults who had experienced difficulties lasting more than 24 hours following a psychedelic experience.

Participants were asked to provide detailed information about their psychedelic experiences, including the type of substance used, the dosage, and the setting in which the experience occurred. They were also questioned about the duration and nature of the difficulties they encountered after the experience.

The most commonly reported substances were psilocybin (27%) and LSD (25%), followed by ayahuasca (10%), cannabis (10%), MDMA (7%), DMT (5%), ketamine (4%), mescaline (2%), and salvia divinorum (1%). Some participants also mentioned other substances like iboga, 5-MEO-DMT, PCP, Bufo toad venom, 2C-B, 2C-E, nitrous oxide, and sananga.

The most common setting was “with a friend, partner, or group of friends,” followed by “on my own,” and “in a group ceremony.” These settings were categorized as guided (with a specialist leading the experience) and unguided (without a specialist guide) for later analysis.

One of the most striking findings was the duration of difficulties reported by participants. Many individuals experienced enduring difficulties that lasted for 1–3 years or even longer. Evans said she was surprised to uncover “how long some people’s difficulties last – one sixth say their difficulties last over three years. For some people they lasted decades.”

The enduring difficulties reported by the participants were categorized into eight main themes:

1. Emotional difficulties, such as anxiety, fear, and panic, were the most prevalent, reported by 67% of participants.
2. Existential or ontological difficulties made up 42% of the reports, where existential struggle (17%) and derealization (15%) were predominant. Struggles to integrate experiences into everyday life (10%) and magical/irrational/delusional beliefs (6%) were also reported.
3. Social difficulties were reported by 27% of individuals, with communication difficulties (6%) and social anxiety/fear of ostracism (5%) being the most common issues. A sense of disconnection from others/society (13%) was another significant subtheme.
4. Self-perception difficulties were noted by 23% of individuals, with depersonalization/dissociation (16%) and a diminished or disempowered self (9%) being prominent concerns.
5. Perceptual difficulties were experienced by 21% of individuals. Visual hallucinations/visual disturbances and flashbacks/feeling of experience being repeated both stood at 7%, followed by non-specific sensory disturbance/hallucinations (3%).
6. Cognitive difficulties were reported by 18% of the individuals, with difficulty thinking clearly/confusion (9%) and intrusive/ruminative/obsessive/fixed thoughts (7%) as the leading subthemes.

7. Somatic difficulties account for 19% of the reports, with sleep problems and nightmares (9%), non-specific somatic issue (4%), and fatigue (3%) being the most frequently mentioned.
8. Behavioral difficulties made up 11% of the reports, with difficulty with performing in career/studying (6%) and substance use/abuse (2%) being the most common issues.

In addition, 5% of participants reported experiencing symptoms akin to a psychotic episode. This was classified as a distinct category because it encompassed elements from multiple main themes, rather than aligning exclusively with any single one.

“We know from other studies that psychedelic drugs can lead to functional impairment lasting longer than a day, in about 9% of cases,” Evans told PsyPost. “Our study gives us a better picture of the sorts of difficulties people can get into. Clearly psychedelics can sometimes lead to extended difficulties, most typically of the sort described above. We now need to research what may cause these extended difficulties and what helps people cope with them.”

Participants were also asked about their perceptions of the relationship between their difficulties and prior mental illness or childhood trauma. A significant number (28.5%) had been diagnosed with a mental illness before their psychedelic experience, and nearly half of them believed this diagnosis could be linked to the difficulties they faced afterward. Moreover, 40% of participants suspected that childhood trauma might have played a role in the difficulties arising from their psychedelic experiences.

Nearly 19% of the participants reported being diagnosed with a mental illness after the psychedelic experience, and more than half of those with a post-experience diagnosis believed that their psychedelic experience contributed to this diagnosis.

Despite the enduring difficulties, a majority of participants (54.9%) reported still taking psychedelic drugs, and nearly 90% agreed that the insights and healing gained from psychedelics, when taken in a supportive setting, are worth the risks involved.

The researchers also tested several hypotheses to identify factors that predict the range and duration of difficulties. They found that experiencing a more challenging trip and being in an unguided setting at the time of the psychedelic experience were associated with a greater range of difficulties. The challengingness of the trip was also linked to the duration of difficulties. However, other factors like prior mental illness diagnoses did not significantly predict the duration or variety of enduring difficulties.

While this study provides crucial insights into the challenges some individuals face after psychedelic use, it is not without limitations. The predominantly Western, English-speaking sample may not represent the experiences of individuals from different cultural backgrounds or subcultures where psychedelics are used for religious or therapeutic purposes.

Additionally, the study relied on self-reported data, which may be influenced by memory and personal interpretations. It did not explore the duration, significance, or impact of each difficulty type, which could provide further insights into which difficulties cause the most distress.

“Our study only focused on people who said they’d experienced difficulties lasting longer than a day,” Evans said. “We need to see how common these difficulties are as a percentage of total psychedelic experiences. We also need to learn more about what might make extended difficulties more likely, and what specific treatments or interventions shorten the intensity or duration of people’s suffering.”

The study, “Extended difficulties following the use of psychedelic drugs: A mixed methods study“, was authored by Jules Evans, Oliver C. Robinson, Eirini Ketzitzidou Argyri, Shayam Suseelan, Ashleigh Murphy-Beiner, Rosalind McAlpine, David Luke, Katrina Michelle, and Ed Prideaux.

© PsyPost

Birds’ nests express their unique style and past experiences

The Conversation
November 17, 2023

Zebra finches learn from experience when it comes to building nests. (Shutterstock)

Walking through a town or city, you will encounter buildings with diverse shapes and sizes. These unique styles exist in part because the buildings were constructed by different architects, engineers and builders.

Birds are also architects, engineers and builders. Our research finds that, similar to human architecture, individual birds build nests in their own unique style. Experienced birds build with more consistent style and use fewer material resources than inexperienced birds.

Animal architecture

Architecture impacts our everyday lives, allowing us to adapt to and thrive in various climates. Humans build different structures to achieve different goals: farms to grow and store food, castles and skyscrapers to display wealth, homes for shelter or as a place to raise a family.

The same is true for other species. Bees build hives and honey combs to store and protect food. Spiders spin webs to catch prey. Beavers build dams to create a pool. Many species of birds construct nests for shelter or to raise their chicks.

Building architecture allows animals to shape their environments to better meet specific needs.

Architectural styles

Human structures look different, even when those structures share a similar purpose. This might reflect differences in culture and available resources.

In western societies, houses tend to be cuboids made from stone, wood and glass. Plains Indigenous Peoples make conical tipis from wood and bison hides. Inuit peoples use ice and snow to make spherical igloos. East African Maasai peoples build cylindrical manyatta huts from earth, grass and cow dung.

There are differences in architectural style among individuals within the same culture using the same materials.

Visualize your home: the size and shape of each room, position of doors and windows, arrangement of furniture. Now compare your visualized blueprint to the blueprint of a friend’s house. They likely look quite different, as humans have individual variation in architectural style.

Our research suggests the same is true for animal architects: animals also build structures with individual variation in architectural style.

Avian architects

Birds are among the most well-known builders in the animal world. Many avian species build nests to create safe, warm environments to incubate their eggs and raise chicks. Nest building is a key task that individuals must complete to successfully reproduce.

Our team, the Animal Cognition Research Group in the Department of Psychology at the University of Alberta, ran an experiment testing whether birds built nests in their own individual style.

We studied zebra finches, small songbirds native to Australia. Zebra finches have been bred in captivity for years and are common in pet stores and scientific research. These birds are ideal for our test, as males build many nests in short periods of time using a range of materials.

We measured the sizes and shapes of multiple nests built by the same zebra finches. Comparing nests built by the same male found similarities in style. Comparing nests built by different males found dissimilarities in style. This shows individuals do build nests in their own unique and repeatable style.

Psychology of style

The minds of human architects can be studied through analyzing the style in which they build. This gives insights on their understanding of technology and their cultural influences or social values.

Some ancient structures, like the pyramids of Giza, Stonehenge and Mayan structures, are aligned to the sun and stars. This demonstrates ancient architects had the ability to precisely plan and execute designs with great detail. It also suggests that celestial bodies held some significance to these cultures, perhaps for mapping landscapes or the passage of seasons.

An individual architect might specialize in building structures of a particular style, such as Gothic, Art Deco, Victorian or Brutalist. Their style might change over time as the architect learns and refines their skills through experience.

These examples show how the psychology of style can be analyzed in human architects. We wanted to investigate the psychology of style, specifically learning from experience, in our zebra finches.

Style and experience

We gave one group of zebra finches practise building five nests, giving each male opportunities to learn from this nest-building experience. A second group of zebra finches had no practise building. These males had never built a nest before the start of the experiment. Both groups then built nests so that we could compare the nest style built by the two groups.

Experienced birds had more consistent nest style and used less material compared to inexperienced birds. This indicates that learning opportunities influence nest style.

Practice building nests allows birds to develop motor skills and better manipulate materials. Birds also remember past outcomes of nests and will replicate successful design elements.

Individual style might develop from differences in learning opportunities. Maintaining a style might even be beneficial. Creating consistent nests while using fewer resources may be advantageous, especially if the style has been successful or resources are limited.

We can learn a lot about how both human and animal architects adapt and respond to their surroundings and culture by studying the structures they build. Our research also shows home isn’t just where the heart is … it’s also in the brain.

Ben Whittaker, Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta and Lauren Guillette, Assistant Professor & Canada Research Chair in Cognitive Ecology, Department of Psychology, University of Alberta, University of Alberta


This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Jurassic Park: why we’re still struggling to realize it 30 years on

The Conversation
November 21, 2023


Jurassic Park is arguably the ultimate Hollywood blockbuster. Aside from the appeal of human-chomping dinosaurs, tense action sequences and ground-breaking cinematography, its release in 1993 was a movies-meet-science milestone.

As global audiences were soaking up the gory action, the premise of the movie - extracting DNA from fossil insects preserved in amber to resurrect dinosaurs - was given the credibility of publication by several high-profile studies on fossil amber. The authors recovered ancient DNA from amber, and even revived amber-hosted bacteria. The world seemed primed for a real-life Jurassic Park.

But since then, the science has taken many twists and turns. An increasing number of palaeontologists are reporting evidence of DNA and proteins, which also give genetic information, in fossils. These chemical traces could provide unprecedented insights into ancient life and evolution. But such reports are the source of ongoing debate and controversy among scientists. Our recent study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, offers new insight.

Ancient DNA

DNA yields the most detailed information, compared to other molecules, on how closely species are related. However, DNA is extremely fragile and decays rapidly after an organism dies.

That said, DNA can sometimes survive in polar climates, because the freezing temperatures slow down decay. Geologically young DNA (thousands of years old) therefore has the potential to resurrect extinct animals from the last ice age through to the recent past.

Commercial companies such as Pleistocene Park, Colossal and Revive & Restore are working on projects to bring back the woolly mammoth and passenger pigeon.

There is a long time gap between these mammoths and dinosaurs, which went extinct 66 million years ago. There is some evidence, though, that genetic material may survive in fossils even on these timescales.

For example, fossil chromosomes – fragments of DNA smaller than a cell – have been found in plants up to 180 million years old and a 75 million-year-old dinosaur.

Scientists have yet to find evidence, however, that actual DNA can survive for tens of millions of years.

Ancient proteins

Proteins also code information (in the form of amino acid sequences) that can shed light on the evolutionary links among species.

Scientists believe that proteins can survive for longer than DNA. Indeed, researchers have found many examples of fossilised proteins, most notably intact amino acid sequences of collagen (a protein found in connective tissues), but these are at most a few million years old.

Scientists don’t expect large protein fragments to survive for as long as these smaller ones. So the scientific community was electrified in 2007 by the report of 68 million-year-old collagen fragments in a Tyrannosaurus rex bone.

Controversy soon followed though as concerns mounted about the team’s methodology, such as the potential for contamination and the lack of rigorous controls and independent verification.

Similar debate surrounds more recent reports of degraded proteins and collagen fibres in fossils as old as 130 million years.

A way forward

These studies highlight the difficulties of working with fossils, especially using analytical methods that may not be appropriate to use on ancient tissues. The evidence for survival of fossil protein remnants, however, has proved compelling.

These studies are also stimulating other researchers to explore new methods and analytical approaches that might be better suited for use with fossils.

Our new study explores one such approach, using a focused beam of light plus X-rays to irradiate samples of ancient feathers. These techniques reveal which chemical bonds are present, providing information on the structure of proteins. In turn, this helps us to detect traces of proteins in fossil feathers.

Our analyses of the 125 million-year-old feathered dinosaur Sinornithosaurus revealed abundant corrugated protein structures, consistent with a protein called beta-keratin, which is common in modern feathers. Spiral protein structures (indicative of another protein called alpha-keratin) were present only in small amounts.

When we simulated the process of fossilization in laboratory experiments, we found that corrugated protein structures unravel and form spiral structures when heated.

These findings suggest that ancient feathers were remarkably similar in chemistry to modern-day feathers. It also suggests that spiral protein structures in fossils are probably artifacts of the fossilization process.

But ultimately, our findings suggest traces of proteins do survive for hundreds of millions of years.

Real-life Jurassic Park – science fact or fiction?

Palaeontologists today can test fossils for evidence of ancient molecules using an arsenal of techniques that were not available 30 years ago. This has allowed us to identify fragments of molecules in fossil animals that are tens to hundreds of millions of years old.

Scientists have discovered hemoglobin, a protein in red blood cells, in 50-million-year-old insects, and melanin pigments in the ink sacs of 200-million-year-old squid.

Ultimately though, we need intact DNA to resurrect species. So although scientists have made a lot of progress, the prospect remains in the realm of science fiction. All data from fossils and experiments to date suggests that DNA is simply unlikely to survive for tens of millions of years.

Even if scientists did find DNA fragments in dinosaur fossils, these would probably be very short. Short fragments of DNA are unlikely to give us useful information about a species. And we don’t yet have the technology to validate such rare DNA fragments as original rather than random combinations of amino acids, generated during fossilization.

Better lab protocols and fossilization experiments are helping us to make more accurate interpretations of fossils. This is paving the way for more rigorous studies of ancient molecules.

In the future, these studies may challenge what we think we know about how long molecules can survive, and may even reshape our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth.


Tiffany Shea Slater, Postdoctoral Researcher, Palaeobiology, University College Cork and Maria McNamara, Professor, Palaeobiology, University College Cork

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Why the future might not be where you think it is

The Conversation
November 21, 2023

Disintegrating Clock (Bystrov/Shutterstock

Imagine the future. Where is it for you? Do you see yourself striding towards it? Perhaps it’s behind you. Maybe it’s even above you.

And what about the past? Do you imagine looking over your shoulder to see it?

How you answer these questions will depend on who you are and where you come from. The way we picture the future is influenced by the culture we grow up in and the languages we are exposed to.

For many people who grew up in the UK, the US and much of Europe, the future is in front of them, and the past is behind them. People in these cultures typically perceive time as linear. They see themselves as continually moving towards the future because they cannot go back to the past.

In some other cultures, however, the location of the past and the future are inverted. The Aymara, a South American Indigenous group of people living in the Andes, conceptualize the future as behind them and the past in front of them.

Scientists discovered this by studying the gestures of the Aymara people during discussions of topics such as ancestors and traditions. The researchers noticed that when Aymara spoke about their ancestors, they were likely to gesture in front of themselves, indicating that the past was in front. However, when they were asked about a future event, their gesture seemed to indicate that the future was perceived as behind.
Look to the future

Analysis of how people write, speak and gesture about time suggests that the Aymara are not alone. Speakers of Darij, an Arabic dialect spoken in Morocco, also appear to imagine the past as in front and the future behind. As do some Vietnamese speakers.

The future doesn’t always have to be behind or in front of us. There is evidence that some Mandarin speakers represent the future as down and the past as up. These differences suggest that there is no universal location for the past, present and future. Instead, people construct these representations based on their upbringing and surroundings.

Culture doesn’t just influence where we see the position of the future. It also influences how we see ourselves getting there.



It’s easy to assume everyone thinks of the future the way you do.

In the UK and US, people typically see themselves as walking with their faces pointing forward towards the future. For the Māori of New Zealand, however, the focus of attention when moving through time is not the future, but the past. The Māori proverb Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua, translates as “I walk backwards into the future with my eyes fixed on my past”.

For the Māori, what is in front of us is determined by what can or has been seen. The Māori consider the past and present as known and seen concepts because they have already happened. The past is conceptualised as in front of a person, where their eyes can see them.

The future, however, is considered unknown because it has not happened yet. It is thought of as behind you because it is still unseen. Māori perceive themselves as walking backwards rather than forwards into the future because their actions in the future are guided by lessons from the past. By facing the past, they can carry those lessons forwards in time.

Different approaches

Scientists are not sure why different people represent the past, present and future differently. One idea is that our perspectives are influenced by the direction that we read and write in. Research shows that people who read and write from left to right draw timelines in which the past is on the left and the future is on the right, reflecting their reading and writing patterns.

However, people who read from right to left, such as Arabic speakers, often draw timelines with events from the past on the right and the future on the left. However, reading direction cannot explain why some left-right reading people think of the future as “behind”.

Another theory is that cultural values may influence our orientation to the future. Cultures vary in the extent to which they value tradition. Researchers believe your spatial concept of the future may be determined by whether your culture emphasises traditions of the past or focuses on the future.

In cultures that stress the importance of progress, change and modernization, the future is normally in front – for example, the UK and the US. However, in cultures that place a high value on tradition and ancestral history, such as in Morocco and indigenous groups such as the Māori, the past is the focus and is therefore usually in front.

These differences may also have implications for initiatives to tackle global challenges. If the future is not always in front, then western campaign mantras about “moving forward”, “moving on” and “leaving the past behind” may lack resonance for many people.

Perhaps, however, if we can learn from other cultures’ representations of time, we may be able to reframe our understanding of some of the world’s most pressing problems. Approaching the future with regular looks over the shoulder to the past could lead to a fairer future for everyone.

Ruth Ogden, Professor of the Psychology of Time, Liverpool John Moores University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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How movies use music to manipulate your memory

The Conversation
November 21, 2023



Around one in five American adults manage to squeeze in watching a movie on a daily basis. It’s a great way to escape the daily grind and unwind with loved ones. But, what can you actually remember about last night’s film?

You may be able to remember the title, the rough story outline or the Hollywood star who acted in it. But dig a little deeper. How easily does a specific movie sequence come to mind right now? And more importantly, can you hear or recognise the film’s musical score?

Filmmakers have long used music to try to make movies, scenes and characters more memorable. Now psychological research has started to uncover the science behind this process.

Music is so closely ingrained in our cinematic experience that we sometimes end up having false memory for it. One study showed that, after watching a brief movie sequence, up to two-thirds of participants believed that the sequence was accompanied by a musical score – even when it wasn’t. Scientists call this “expectancy bias”.

A successful musical score often involves earworms – songs that stick in our minds. These tend to be songs that have achieved great success and recent runs in the music charts.

When paired with a movie sequence, fresh takes on old hits help keep audiences entertained. Their sing-along, foot-tapping familiarity reflect the huge exposure they’ve had for decades. They are therefore readily exploited as an effective marketing hook, especially in movie trailers – where there’s little time to make an impact on viewers.

Music also helps us interpret characters. Research shows that listening to a 15 seconds segment of fearful music can act as an important cue to look for signs of fear in the facial expressions of the characters on the screen.

But how are deeper emotional connections made? Filmmakers rely on a range of techniques to try to create enduring and distinctive movie scenes. They often home in on the emotional properties of the pairing between sound and images. But is there any firm evidence that music can actually influence visual memories in this way?

Research into music and memory has unveiled that the two are strongly linked. People are more accurate in recalling the actions, characters and final outcome of a positive or negative film scene if it is accompanied by music with a similar positive or negative emotional quality, respectively.

This match between the emotional content of the film and music is called a mood-congruency effect. It enhances our memory of what was previously viewed by “chunking” memory fragments into a quick, easy and more manageable whole in our minds.

Irony and incongruency

Irony is linked to the ability to say one thing while meaning the opposite. Often considered a linguistic device, it is also apparent in sound and image pairings. In the ironic contrast technique, scenes that depict negative events or emotions such as sadness, anger and fear are paired with emotionally positive music.

The outcome of this pairing is that the incongruous background disrupts the emotional tone of the film scene, often creating a sarcastic or melancholic effect that is memorable.

The movies Bowling for Columbine and A Clockwork Orange provide examples of violent episodes that are accompanied by incongruent music.

Mood-incongruency effects represent yet another twist in viewers’ expectations. We rely on our own personal experiences and associations with musical conventions to help shape our understanding of what happens next.

Watching a brief clip of a wedding party set against a backdrop of slow-paced, sad music, for example, alerts us to a mismatch between the visual content and our previous (direct or indirect) experiences of wedding parties. The movie script in our mind might be asking, “where is the upbeat music for the party guests to dance to?” Searching for the answer makes us notice the mood-incongruency effect conveyed by the music even more.

This enables us to develop a more distinctive image in our memory. In fact, we’ve tested this in the lab. We asked 60 participants to view a romantic comedy trailer to either sad, happy or no music. When we tested their memory of the trailer later on, we found that people who had heard the sad music had a better visual memory of the film scene than those who watched it with happy music or without any music at all.

Mood-incongruency effects are not limited to audio-visual pairings. They can be found with other senses too, such as odours, and serve to alert us quickly and efficiently to expectancy violations in our immediate environment. This is almost like a “what’s coming next” setting in our brain that makes us pay more attention – and therefore remember the event better.

These effects appear to be relatively short-lived and whether they can exert any longer-term impact beyond the few minutes of a movie trailer or a film scene is yet to be fully determined. Ultimately, they are informed by our previous experiences and stored in our long-term memory, ready and on standby for the next plot twist.

So what happens if our previous experiences of these music-induced emotions are fragmented or missing altogether, as might be the case in individuals who are deaf or hearing-impaired?

Can captioning a piece of music as “ominous” elicit similar ironic contrast effects on memory as actual, ominous-sounding music, for example? And if the unexpected becomes the expected, is the irony lost? Answers to these questions might just open up a new portal into our movie-viewing universe.

Libby Damjanovic, Research Fellow of Psychology, Lund University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

China says no unusual pathogens found after WHO queries respiratory outbreaks
2023/11/23


(Reuters) -Chinese health authorities have not detected any unusual or novel pathogens and provided the requested data on an increase in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

The WHO had asked China for more information on Wednesday after groups including the Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases (ProMED) reported clusters of undiagnosed pneumonia in children in north China.

As per the rule, China responded to the WHO within 24 hours. The WHO had sought epidemiologic and clinical information as well as laboratory results through the International Health Regulations mechanism.

The data suggests the increase is linked to the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions along with the circulation of known pathogens like mycoplasma pneumoniae, a common bacterial infection that typically affects younger children and which has circulated since May.

Influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and adenovirus have been in circulation since October.

The agency does not advise against travel and trade as they have been monitoring the situation with authorities.

No unusual pathogens have been detected in the capital of Beijing and the northeastern province of Liaoning.

Chinese authorities from the National Health Commission held a press conference on Nov. 13 to report an increase in incidence of respiratory disease.

Both China and the WHO have faced questions about the transparency of reporting on the earliest COVID-19 cases that emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan in late 2019.

The U.N. health agency had also asked China for further information about trends in the circulation of known pathogens and the burden on healthcare systems. The WHO said it was in contact with clinicians and scientists through its existing technical partnerships and networks in China.

WHO China said it was "routine" to request information on increases in respiratory illnesses and reported clusters of pneumonia in children from member states, such as China.

The global agency decided to issue a statement on China to share available information, as it received a number of queries about it from media, WHO China said in an emailed statement.

The ProMED alert was based on a report by FTV News in Taiwan that came out on Tuesday.

Undiagnosed pneumonia was not mentioned at last week's press conference, according to a transcript, but one speaker said everyone felt like there had been an increase in respiratory illnesses this year compared with three years ago.

The speaker said that global monitoring for mycoplasma pneumoniae had been at a low over the past three years and outbreaks were cyclical, occurring every three to seven years.

'SEASONAL SURGE'

The rise in respiratory illnesses comes as China braces for its first full winter season since it had lifted strict COVID-19 restrictions in December. Many other countries saw similar increases in respiratory diseases after easing pandemic measures.

"It is just a relatively large seasonal surge, perhaps partly due to chance and partly because there's a bit of 'immunity debt' from the lesser winter surges in the last three years," said Ben Cowling, an epidemiologist at Hong Kong University.

China's National Health Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Thursday, it published an interview with the state media agency Xinhua in which it advised parents what to do and mentioned that big hospitals were receiving a large number of patients and waiting times were long. It did not comment on the WHO notice.

Since mid-October, the WHO said northern China had reported an increase in influenza-like illness compared with the same period in the previous three years.

It said China had systems in place to capture information on trends in illness incidence and to report that data to platforms such as the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System.

In recent days, media in cities such as Xian in the northwest have posted videos of hospitals crowded with parents and children awaiting checks.

Some social media users have posted photos of children doing homework while receiving intravenous drips in hospital.

The WHO said that while it was seeking additional information, it recommended that people in China follow measures to reduce the risk of respiratory illness.

Measures included vaccination, keeping distance from sick people, staying at home when ill, getting tested and medical care as needed, wearing masks as appropriate, ensuring good ventilation, and regular hand-washing, it said.

(Reporting By Deena Beasley in Los Angeles, Andrew Silver in Shanghai, Jennifer Rigby in London and Emma Farge in Geneva, Urvi Dugar in Bengaluru; Editing by Robert Birsel, Miyoung Kim and Josie Kao)

© Reuters

Explainer-Why carbon capture is no easy solution to climate change

2023/11/22


By Leah Douglas

(Reuters) -Technologies that capture carbon dioxide emissions to keep them from the atmosphere are central to the climate strategies of many world governments as they seek to follow through on international commitments to decarbonize by mid-century.

They are also expensive, unproven at scale, and can be hard to sell to a nervous public - making unworkable, at the moment, the model envisaged worldwide of capturing carbon and storing it for money.

As nations gather for the 28th United Nations climate change conference in the United Arab Emirates at the end of November, the question of carbon capture’s future role in a climate-friendly world will be in focus. Here are some details about the state of the industry now, and the obstacles in the way of widespread deployment:

FORMS OF CARBON CAPTURE

The most common form of carbon capture technology involves capturing the gas from a point source like an industrial smokestack. From there, the carbon can either be moved directly to permanent underground storage or it can be used in another industrial purpose first, variations that are respectively called carbon capture and storage (CCS) and carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS).

There are currently 42 operational commercial CCS and CCUS projects across the world with the capacity to store 49 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually, according to the Global CCS Institute, which tracks the industry. That is about 0.13% of the world’s roughly 37 billion metric tons of annual energy and industry-related carbon dioxide emissions.

Some 30 of those projects, accounting for 78% of all captured carbon from the group, use the carbon for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), in which carbon is injected into oil wells to free trapped oil. Drillers say EOR can make petroleum more climate-friendly, but environmentalists say the practice is counter-productive.

The other 12 projects, which permanently store carbon in underground formations without using them to boost oil output, are in the U.S., Norway, Iceland, China, Canada, Qatar, and Australia, according to the Global CCS Institute.

It is unclear how many of these projects, if any, turn a profit.

Another form of carbon capture is direct air capture (DAC), in which carbon emissions are captured from the air.

About 130 DAC facilities are being planned around the world, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), though just 27 have been commissioned and they capture just 10,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually.

The U.S. in August announced $1.2 billion in grants for two DAC hubs in Texas and Louisiana that promise to capture 2 million metric tons of carbon per year, though a final investment decision on the projects has not been made.

HIGH COSTS

One stumbling block to rapid deployment of carbon capture technology is cost.

CCS costs range from $15 to $120 per metric ton of captured carbon depending on the emissions source, and DAC projects are even more expensive, between $600 and $1,000 per metric ton, because of the amount of energy needed to capture carbon from the atmosphere, according to the IEA.

Some CCS projects in countries like Norway and Canada have been paused for financial reasons.

Developers say they need a carbon price, either in the form of a carbon tax, trading scheme or tax break, that makes it profitable to capture and store the carbon. Without that, only carbon capture projects that increase revenue in a different way - like through increased oil output - are profitable.

Countries including the U.S. have rolled out public subsidies for carbon capture projects. The Inflation Reduction Act, passed in 2022, offers a $50 tax credit per metric ton of carbon captured for CCUS and $85 per metric ton captured for CCS, and $180 per metric ton captured through DAC.

Though those are meaningful incentives, companies may still need to take on some added costs to move CCS and DAC projects ahead, said Benjamin Longstreth, global director of carbon capture at the Clean Air Task Force.

Some CCS projects have also failed to prove out the technology's readiness. A $1 billion project to harness carbon dioxide emissions from a Texas coal plant, for example, had chronic mechanical problems and routinely missed its targets before it was shut down in 2020, according to a report submitted by the project’s owners to the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Petra Nova project restarted in September.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Where captured carbon can be stored is limited by geology, a reality that would become more pronounced if and when carbon capture is deployed at the kind of massive scale that would be needed to make a difference to the climate. The best storage sites for carbon are in portions of North America, East Africa, and the North Sea, according to the Global CCS Institute.

That means getting captured carbon to storage sites could require extensive pipeline networks or even shipping fleets – posing potential new obstacles.

In October, for example, a $3 billion CCS pipeline project proposed by Navigator CO2 Ventures in the U.S. Midwest - meant to move carbon from heartland ethanol plants to good storage sites - was canceled amid concerns from residents about potential leaks and construction damage.

Companies investing in carbon removal need to take seriously community concerns about new infrastructure projects, said Simone Stewart, industrial policy specialist at the National Wildlife Federation.

"Not all technologies are going to be possible in all locations," Stewart said.

(Reporting by Leah DouglasEditing by Marguerita Choy)





© Reuters

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/11/sci-fi-tek-carbon-removal-is-latest-way.html

UK

Foreign workers and students’ 'shift in behaviour' skewed net migration estimate

Charles Hymas
Thu, 23 November 2023 

In 2022 one in 30 foreign workers left before the 12 months was up - BEN STANSALL/AFP

A major shift in the behaviour of foreign workers and students has been blamed by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for a massive underestimate of net migration.

‌The ONS had originally calculated net migration for the year to December 2022 as 606,000 for the number who had come to the UK to work, study or seek refuge minus those who had emigrated.

‌However, in its latest analysis, published on Thursday, it upgraded that figure to 745,000, the highest annual net migration on record. It means that 139,000 more people than previously thought arrived in Britain in the year to December 2022.

‌This was largely because overseas workers and students stayed longer in Britain than previously, meaning their provisional estimates for the year to December were askew and underestimated the number of “long-term” migrants, defined as those staying more than 12 months.

‌Before the pandemic, one in five students did not stay long term in the UK and instead left before 12 months was up. By 2022, it had fallen to just one in seven.

‌The trend is even more stark amongst foreign workers. Whereas one in six left before 12 months was up, it fell to one in 30 in 2022.


‌This is a consequence of the changing nature of international migrants coming to the UK.

Whereas before Brexit, it was predominantly people coming from the UK to live, work and study, they are now non-EU migrants from further afield with an incentive to stay longer given the distance travelled.

‌They are also more likely than ever before to bring their spouses and children, giving them an extra incentive to stay for longer in the UK as they settle into UK life.

‌The figures are particularly high for NHS and care staff, with 173,896 dependants brought for 143,990 actual workers, meaning more dependants arrive than actual workers.

‌For every three students granted a visa, a dependent also got one. This is a dramatic increase from 26 students per dependent in 2019.

‌The ONS published its 606,000 estimate for the year to December in May, which meant it was “provisional” and based on previous assumptions of migrant behaviour.

Only now, having collected more definitive data, has it been able to make a more accurate estimate.

‌On Thursday, it said the significant revision of last year’s figures was due to “unexpected patterns” in the behaviour of migrants.
‘Staying for longer’

‌Jay Lindop, of the ONS, said that before the pandemic migration was “relatively stable but patterns and behaviours have been shifting considerably since then”.

‌“More recently, we’re not only seeing more students arrive but we can also see they’re staying for longer. More dependents of people with work and study visas have arrived too, and immigration is now being driven by non-EU arrivals,” he said.

Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the University of Oxford, said the ONS faced a “trade-off between accuracy and timeliness”.

“The thing that people focus on is the recent figures and I think that they (the ONS) do just face a trade-off between accuracy and timeliness,” she said.

“And I think there’s a cost in terms of public trust, of having – even if the revisions are planned – revisions that are really big.”

She said the hope is that patterns would settle down, leaving it easier to predict who will turn out to be long-term and short-term migrants.

Hotel still 'hostile and unwelcoming' to Native Americans despite DOJ order: lawsuit

Matthew Chapman
November 23, 2023 

Hotel website gallery photo

A South Dakota hotel at the heart of a Justice Department case that forced the owner to resign for discriminating against Native Americans is accused of going back to its old tricks in a new lawsuit, reported The Daily Beast.

"The Department of Justice reached an agreement with South Dakota’s Grand Gateway Hotel earlier this month which stipulated that owner Connie Uhre would have nothing to do with the direction or overview of the company or its subsidiary businesses after she made public comments discriminating against Indigenous Americans," reported Brooke Leigh Howard, noting that Uhre had previously proclaimed they would "no longer allow any Native American on property." "Now, a year after the Justice Department launched an investigation stemming from complaints alleging racism, the hotel is under fire again for anti-Indigenous practices — this time, allegedly at the hands of the owner’s son, Nick Uhre."

According to the new lawsuit, filed by newly married couple Ryan and Jessica White against the Grand Gateway Hotel and the Cheers Sports Lounge and Casino, an employee refused to honor their reservation number from Travelocity, even after they pointed out vacancies on the hotel website, demanded that a Travelocity representative with an accent "speak English!" and ordered them out of the lobby while calling security for backup. Ryan is Indigenous American.

“As a result of the Grand Gateway’s discrimination, the White family felt and feels threatened, embarrassed, humiliated, disturbed, and shocked,” said the suit. “The discrimination experienced by the White family was part of a pattern of discrimination by the Grand Gateway ... The Grand Gateway created a hostile, discriminatory, and unwelcoming environment for Native Americans.”

Nick Uhre has denied that his mother has any racist beliefs. However, tribal leaders have served a notice of trespass to the former hotel owner, saying that the hotel's location violates a treaty signed with the Sioux in 1868.

“We’re tired of this bullsh-t,” saidKevin Killer, President of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Tribe as the incident escalated last year, adding, “I get profiled almost every single day; I know that. You just have to take a stand at a certain point.”

RAINBOW BRIDGE CAR EXPLOSION

Fox News walks back claim car 'full of explosives' in 'terror attack' at Canada border

AND THEY IMPLIED THE CAR WAS COMING FROM CANADA

David Edwards
November 22, 2023 

Fox News/screen grab

Fox News on Wednesday changed its story on a possible "terror attack" at the U.S.-Canada border.

Following the vehicle explosion at the New York border with Canada, Fox News quickly called the event a "terror attack," citing "sources."

The network also reported that the vehicle was "full of explosives."

But within an hour, the network changed its reporting.

"Now we told you earlier that there was an explosion because there were explosives inside the car, and now authorities are apparently walking that back just a little bit saying it's unclear if there were explosives or how many explosives," Fox News host Trace Gallagher clarified to viewers.

"And so you can see as, as the fog clears on this air, and they're kind of getting a better idea of what's happening," he added.

Within minutes, the network also backed off its claim of a "terror attack" and instead labeled the motive as "unclear."

"Clearly, this might not be a terror attack at all," Gallagher said.

Watch the video below from Fox News or click the link here.

'Performative clown': GOP candidates slammed for assuming terrorism caused car explosion

M.L. Nestel
November 22, 2023 

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)


They're eating terrorism crow.

Two Republican candidates seeking higher office were both shouting terrorism and publicly shamed.

GOP presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy jumped the terrorism gun — early after a car bulleted toward a U.S.-Canada bridge checkpoint and then smashed and blew up causing the deaths of two people.

They later backed off its claim of a "terror attack" and instead labeled the motive as "unclear."

"I’ve been saying it for a long time & will say it again: we must secure our *NORTHERN* border too," Ramaswamy wrote in a post on Twitter/X. "It’s the forgotten frontier of the border crisis in our country."

Kari Lake, the failed Arizona pro-Trump gubernatorial candidate who is now running for Senate, also shouted terrorism.

"This looks like at attempted terrorist attack along our Northern border," she tweeted. "Our worst fears are being realized. @JoeBiden's open border invites chaos & misery into our country."

An hour later she changed her tune.

"Multiple outlets are walking back the initial reports of a terror attack," her follow-up an hour later reads. "While I mourn for the two men killed, I’m thankful this appears to have been a tragic accident. The sad reality is that an attack on this country seems inevitable with our border crisis. That MUST change."

At no point was it officially confirmed that the deadly incident at the Rainbow Bridge one day before the Thanksgiving holiday was a terroristic threat.

That didn't stop Ramaswamy or Lake from claiming straightaway, and without any validation, that the incident an attack by some kind of terroristic element. Ramaswamy soon clarified his statement, but not before he doubled down.

"One month ago, @GovChristie ridiculed me for demanding more security on the Northern Border: 'I don’t think you’ve heard anyone who knows anything ask for that.' Well, it’s radio silence from him today," Ramaswamy wrote. "The bipartisan establishment is filled with these clowns & it’s pathetic."

And critics came to give them a dose of humble pre-Thanksgiving pie.

GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie called out his rival.

"Radio silence from me because I have years of law enforcement experience fighting terrorists and crime and you do not. You jump to the conclusion it is terrorism without any definitive proof," Christie wrote on Wednesday. "This is why your judgment is so flawed and you’d be such an awful President. Here’s a hint for you: wait for the evidence and then make judgments. That’s what any experienced leader would do."

Heath Mayo, a conservative Christian lawyer warned Ramaswamy to rethink his attempt to run for president given his judgement to assume the incident in upstate New York was a terroristic act.

"If you fall for misreporting and jump to erroneous conclusions without the facts this quickly, why should anyone trust you to make major judgments as president," he asked in a tweet. "Spare the country, please. Take a job that doesn’t depend on your judgment."

And former Republican congressman Adam Kinzinger (ret. R-IL) pressed Lake to remain a civilian and stay out of politics.

"Just a reminder that @KariLake was ready to change American policy and take a victory lap…. Before anything. Take a breath," his tweet from Wednesday reads. "But she is just a performative clown."

'Not responsible': Officials slam speculation on explosion as Fox calls it terrorism

Matt Keeley, The New Civil Rights Movement
November 22, 2023 8:30PM ET

 REUTERS/Chris Wattie

Canadian authorities said it’s irresponsible to speculate about the explosion at the Rainbow Bridge border crossing on Wednesday, as the investigation continues. Meanwhile, Fox News reported the explosion was an attempted terrorist attack without naming sources.

“We’re taking this circumstance very seriously, but to speculate on the origin of this particular circumstance, the reasons why this may have happened, until we have more accurate information is simply not responsible,” Dominic LeBlanc, Canadian Public Safety Minister, addressed reporters at about 2:20 p.m. local time.

At 2:30 p.m., Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressed the Canadian Parliament.

“We will continue to be engaged, we will provide updates. The update I can give right now is there are four border crossings that are right now closed, Rainbow Bridge, Whirlpool Bridge, Queenston Bridge and Peace Bridge. Additional measures are being contemplated and activated at all border crossings across the country. We are taking this extraordinarily seriously,” Trudeau said.

U.S. President Joe Biden has also been briefed on the explosion, according to The Guardian. The vehicle reportedly was coming from Canada into the U.S. when it was flagged for a secondary inspection by border officials. At this point, the car rapidly accelerated and drove through a fence and onto the bridge plaza, then drove towards the inspection lanes, hit a structure and exploded, according to the Niagara Gazette. The two men inside the vehicle were killed, and a border patrol official was injured.

Fox News called the explosion an attempted “terrorist attack” according to Reuters. Other outlets, however, including CNN, have said that it’s unclear whether or not it was an attack, an accident or a medical emergency that caused the acceleration. It is also unclear if there was an explosive device or if the car exploded on impact.

“Those bomb technicians are an absolutely essential part of this response. And they should be able to tell pretty quickly whether or not there was an explosive device in that vehicle. If the answer is no, and this is entirely the result of either unintentional or an inadvertent vehicle crash, that’ll tell us how quickly they’ll be able to restore service to that side of the bridge,” Andy McCabe, former deputy director of the FBI, said on CNN.

Josh Campbell, CNN’s Security Correspondent, also pointed out that if the explosion is a terrorist attack, it doesn’t look like other terrorist attacks.

“Yeah, I’m just not seeing it,” Campbell said. “Most terrorists … their intent is to cause you know, mass loss of life as much loss of life as they can. And so just the very nature of that you have two individuals who are in a vehicle at the same time, that’s unusual. I mean, typically if you have you know, two terrorists, for example, they would select different targets and work to try to maximize the harm.”

McCabe agreed with Campbell that what happened was “something that really any car could do,” regardless of whether or not it had explosives.

“I think there’s a lot of circumstances that point in that same direction, as Josh Campbell was saying just few minutes ago, from what we know about terrorist operatives, and the way that they stage attacks. If you had a vehicle that was … loaded with explosives that you intended to detonate, you wouldn’t crash the car and then detonate the explosives. You’d wait, you take the car in an unobtrusive way, unremarkable way, as close as you could possibly get to the target and then you would intentionally detonate it, and that doesn’t seem to be that doesn’t fit the circumstances that we’re aware of so far.”

However, McCabe also said that it wasn’t a sure thing that the explosion wasn’t an attack.

“It starts to look more like trying to potentially, you know, to people trying to essentially push their way across the border because they’re afraid of getting stopped if they tried it in the lawful way,” McCabe said. “But we can’t rule out the fact … that this could have been two people trying to make some sort of a statement that ended up unfortunately in a in a life-taking way for themselves.”