The International Brigades by Giles Tremlett review – fighting fascism in Spain

This overarching history of the Brigades who fought in the Spanish civil war is a remarkable collection of testimonies and captivatingly readable

British volunteers in the International Brigade, 1937. Photograph: Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Dan Hancox
Sat 3 Oct 2020 

“We shall not forget you,” promised the famous Spanish communist known as La Pasionaria, addressing the surviving International Brigades as they departed Barcelona in October 1938, with Franco’s victory in the Spanish civil war nearly complete: “And when the olive tree of peace is in flower … return!” In mid-September 2020, the Spanish cabinet made a remarkable gesture in the same spirit: approving a draft of a new “democratic memory” law, which would offer citizenship to the descendants of those same volunteers. “It is about time we said to these heroes and heroines of democracy: thank you for coming,” Deputy PM Pablo Iglesias wrote.

A government spokesperson later rowed back on this highly unusual idea, but its spirit speaks to a unique moment in 20th-century history, where the engine of political change was in overdrive across Europe, to the point that volunteers travelled in their thousands to fight fascism and defend democracy in a foreign land, in the face of their own government’s indifference. There exist few parallels either before or since, although the journey of some volunteers to help the Kurds fighting Islamic State is one notable exception. For the late academic and writer David Graeber, whose father volunteered to fight fascism in Spain, the resonance was especially painful; he argued in the Guardian that the west’s abandonment of the struggle in Rojava, Syria, was tantamount to letting history repeat itself.

The Spanish civil war has long been valorised by the European left, documented, debated and commemorated in incredible detail – in many thousands of books, but also in film, in song, in musical theatre, in poster exhibitions, badges and T-shirts. And while there are many tales of selfless sacrifice, solidarity and idealism, there is also much in the story that is inglorious – the boredom, unpreparedness and terrible equipment, the panic, internal arguments and betrayals, lice, accidental deaths and injuries and Franco’s eventual triumph.
Sculpture of ‘La Pasionaria’ in Glasgow, Photograph: Peter Marshall/Alamy

Imposing order on a history that is both chaotic and contentious can be tricky, but like the volunteer army itself, Giles Tremlett’s epic new book is greater than the sum of its many parts. It comprises 52 time-specific chapters, discrete moments, battles, battalions and tales, building into a narrative of astonishing scope. Tremlett is known for his reporting and several books, among them the excellent Ghosts of Spain, which looks at the shadows cast by the “memory wars” in a country otherwise riding high, pre-financial crash. This latest study is a remarkable act of scholarship, as well as being captivatingly readable. The first overarching history of the brigades in English, it is alive with the testimonies of those who fought, and so much richer for stretching far beyond the obvious and famous Anglophone accounts of men of letters.

It is true the brigades drew an astonishing array of international literary figures – Orwell, Hemingway, Spender, Auden – and also great photographers, artists, and politicians in the making. But above all, it attracted working-class men and women from across Europe and beyond: many of them already refugees, those fleeing or fearing persecution, unemployment and degradation. There were French, Poles, Germans and Italians in their thousands, but also brigaders from Ethiopia, Argentina, Indonesia, Japan and Pakistan. A good half of those who volunteered were communists, and they did so alongside socialists, anarchists, liberals, democrats, people of all faiths and none, even a few conservatives and politically agnostic adventurers, from 65 countries, with only one thing uniting them: anti-fascism. Remarkable individual lives fly past in a single tantalising line: the three Jewish tailors from Stepney who had “arrived by bicycle”, for example.

In one of many unforgettable vignettes, a trainload of new volunteers from “all the nations in Europe, and some from outside Europe as well” crossing the border into Spain with no common language, join together to sing the “Internationale”, but each doing so in their own tongue. “I find it extremely difficult to explain how exhilarating this was,” recalls a British volunteer. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt the same feeling at any other time in my life.”
   

Photograph: Photo 12/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

For too long the volunteers were fighting an amateur war in defence of the republic; they were a ragtag collection of militias in mismatched uniforms, who looked, in the words of artist Felicia Browne, “like pirates”. In October 1936, when the first official brigade departed from a base in Albacete for the front, the British writer John Sommerfield recalled that their uniforms and equipment had arrived that very afternoon. “Everyone got something and no one got everything. We marched off looking like a lot of scarecrows, and in filthy tempers.”

Bad weapons, lack of training, the urgency of the conflict and, in the minds of some brigaders, “absurd democratisation” weakened discipline in the ranks. Tremlett records the distrust and tensions, especially in the anarchist and Poum ranks, over the Soviet Union’s semi-professionalisation of the initial anti-fascist militias: “Discipline was something that the fascist army in front of them used to oppress its working-class soldiers,” Tremlett writes. These were internal suspicions that would last almost throughout the three-year conflict.

As recounted in one horrifying chapter, the Sans Nom, or “nameless” battalion of Poles, Serbs and other miscellaneous non-French volunteers, went to the southern front in Andalusia after just five days of training, having fired only six practice shots each, with only four of their 36 machine guns working. They were sent into battle on Christmas Eve without maps, mostly on foot, right into a Francoist assault. Abandoned by their commander to the fascists’ Moroccan cavalry, they fled chaotically – rather than beating an organised retreat – across the substantial Guadalquivir river, where some drowned, and others were picked off with ease on the other side. On Christmas Day, unarmed groups and individuals wandered the olive groves, lost, clothes in tatters, eating bitter olives and grass for sustenance; only half of the 700 Sans Nom volunteers made it back alive.

Betrayal is a thread that runs throughout the Spanish tragedy. The brigades were often let down by their Soviet and Spanish commanders, but also by their own governments, who left both their lives and that of Spanish democracy to the fate of the aerial assault of Hitler and Mussolini. On returning to their own countries – those who did make it home; one-fifth of British volunteers died in Spain – many were treated as dangerous dissidents, spied on and prevented from fighting fascism in the second world war. But they were not abandoned by the establishment in its entirety: it is notable that both Clement Attlee and the anti-appeasement Edward Heath were among the crowd at Victoria Station to welcome home the returning British volunteers.

A memorial to anti-fascist dead in Valladolid. Photograph: Juan Medina/Reuters

The International Brigades arrives at a critical point in more ways than one. It would be useful for some contemporary pundits and politicians to be reminded that “horseshoe theory”, which places anti-fascist activity in the same category as the fascists they oppose, is dangerous nonsense. But it is also a critical point for the legacy of the brigaders: the last British veteran, Geoffrey Servante, died last year at the age of 99; there are at most a couple of other survivors left in the world.

Fortunately, Tremlett is a worthy custodian of their stories. He has created a dazzling mosaic of vignettes and sources, of lives lived and lost, of acts of heroism, solidarity, betrayal and futility, that builds to a grand picture of a conflict that drew idealists from across the world. The war left many of them in despair, injured or dead – but also hardened many more in their determination to defeat fascism. This book is as close to a definitive history as we are likely to get.

• The International Brigades: Fascism, Freedom and the Spanish Civil War is published by Bloomsbury (£16.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

1400 CANADIANS FOUGHT WITH THE INTERNATIONAL BRIGADES 


The Spanish civil war: a primer


Jules Paivio, right, is the last surviving veteran of the Mackenzie-Papineau Batallion. This photo shows him with two other briadistas, Briton Frank Graham and American Harold Smith, during the Spanish Civil War.

KATE TAYLOR

Spanish Civil War: Deep divisions in Spanish society between the army, church and monarchists, and the democratically elected reformist Republican government supported by democrats, anarchists, socialists and communists led to a military coup in 1936. Russia and Mexico supported the Republicans; Italy, Germany and Portugal supported the Nationalists. The bloody conflict that ensued ended with the Nationalists' victory in 1939 and the collapse of the government: General Francisco Franco took power in a military dictatorship that lasted until his death in 1975, after which King Juan Carlos established a constitutional monarchy.

International Brigades: In the absence of armed support for Spain from the Western powers, the Communist International headquartered in Paris organized a volunteer army, with Soviet approval. About 60,000 men and women from more than 50 countries, including France, Italy, Germany, Britain, Canada and the United States, volunteered for combat and non-combat roles. They were soldiers, nurses, doctors (includijng Norman Bethune) and journalists (such as George Orwell). At any given point in the war, it was estimated that 20,000 volunteers were fighting. The brigades were discharged by the Spanish government in 1938, shortly before it fell. In recent years, Spain has awarded honorary citizenship to the remaining brigadistas.

The Mackenzie-Papineau Batallion: In 1937, Canadian volunteers, who first fought in the two American battalions, formed their own unit and fought in Spain until 1938. They took their name from William Lyon Mackenzie and Louis-Joseph Papineau, two heroes of the 1837 Rebellion. Library and Archives Canada records the names of 1,546 Canadians who fought in Spain, and estimates that about 400 of them were killed, although some researchers put the death toll higher. Because of the brigades' association with communism, the veterans had difficulty getting recognition at home, even as thousands more Canadians were soon fighting fascism in Europe during the Second World War. A monument to their memory was finally erected in Ottawa in 2001.

RADIO
The Mac-Paps get the last word

Spain; 1937-1938--Spanish Civil War-- Soldier of the Mackenzie-Papineau Batallion in a trench.
(CP PHOTO) 1999 (NATIONAL ARCHIVES OF CANADA)

KATE TAYLOR
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 9, 2012

At the click of a mouse, a frail and cracked old voice fills the office of a CBC radio producer. "I have been a very lucky guy … I was lined up to be shot," says 95-year-old veteran Jules Paivio as he recalls his last-minute escape from a fascist firing squad during the Spanish Civil War.

CBC producer Steve Wadhams is also lucky: To create The Spanish Crucible, a two-hour radio documentary filled with the voices of veterans of the Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion, he didn't have to rely solely on his recent interview with Paivio, the last living Canadian volunteer to have fought in Spain in 1936 to 1938. Instead, he could draw on 150 hours of interviews with dozens of hearty middle-aged men that were recorded in the 1960s, but never aired.

"Forty-plus years of doing radio, and I have never stumbled into a treasure trove like this," Wadhams said.

The producer of Living Out Loud, a weekly program on CBC Radio One devoted to oral stories submitted by the public, Wadhams read about Paivio in a newspaper when the veteran was honoured with Spanish citizenship earlier this year. He asked CBC archivist Ken Puley to hunt for any interviews that might be on file. Puley found there was a 90-minute one with Paivio as well as "a few more." Puley handed over a stack of written summaries and "my jaw hit my chest," Wadhams said.

Puley had discovered the tapes from an oral history project conducted by CBC producer Mac Reynolds in 1964-65. Reynolds interviewed about 60 of the Mac-Paps, as the soldiers were known, a group of about 1,600 Canadian volunteers who, out of political conviction hardened by the Great Depression, went to the rescue of Spain's Republican government when it was under attack from the Spanish army lead by General Francisco Franco. Reynolds had recorded the stories of the often poor or unemployed Canadians who went to Europe to form an ill-equipped, amateur army fighting a bloody and ultimately unsuccessful battle against professionals backed by fascist governments in Italy and Germany.

"They were mainly working-class guys, a lot of them recent immigrants to Canada, 10-year immigrants. Loggers, miners, restaurant workers, out of work, in the relief camps. Some intellectuals, a university student, an accountant, a nurse, the only woman I've got," Wadhams said, referring to the interview with Rosaleen Ross, who worked on the mobile blood-transfusion team established by Canadian doctor Norman Bethune during his time in Spain. The volunteers were leaving the Depression behind, Wadhams said: "They were riding the rails, having a hard time in Canada, and they were politicized. Some were from Europe and saw what was happening."

The democratically elected reformist Republican government in Spain faced a military revolt, igniting the civil war, and anti-fascist volunteers were recruited abroad and sent to Spain. After the Canadian government passed a law in 1937 banning citizens from fighting in foreign wars, only the Communist Party was willing to flout the law and continue recruiting. Many of the volunteers were themselves Communists or at least sympathizers: The recruiters tried to weed out men who were seeking adventure or looking to escape a family.

Their politics and their decision to support a foreign government before Canada had entered the Second World War to join the battle against fascism in Europe were often held against them when they returned home. Discharged honourably by the Spanish government in 1938, shortly before its collapse in 1939, the Mac-Paps were regarded with suspicion by the RCMP, sometimes had trouble volunteering for the Canadian armed forces and were not recognized with their own monument in Ottawa until 2001.

Those politics may also explain why the CBC didn't use the tapes earlier: Wadhams speculates that during the Cold War years, the public broadcaster wasn't comfortable with, or at least not interested in, a project that might lionize the Mac-Paps. Reynolds is dead, but his daughter has told Wadhams that he was a Communist sympathizer, and may have regretted not going to Spain himself.

Wadhams says many documentaries about the International Brigades are clearly on the side of the boys, but he is trying to tell the story of these ill-paid and idealistic mercenaries more neutrally.

The details themselves are harrowing. The interviews include Paivio's description of climbing the snow-covered Pyrenees in dress shoes as the volunteers snuck into Spain from France. Others in a group that sailed to Barcelona narrowly escaped drowning when their ship was torpoed by an Italian submarine. They had arms supplied by the Russians – they often complained about their quality – and had to dig trenches in hard Spanish soil with helmets and spoons because they had no shovels. Their ranks were decimated in battles with the Nationalist army; more than a quarter of the battalion did not make it home.

If caught, they were treated to summary justice. But at the moment when Paivio and his comrades were about to be shot, an officer pulled them out of the firing line, perhaps recognizing that foreign nationals might prove useful hostages. When the war ended with the fascist victory, the foreigners were expelled while Spanish Republicans were relentlessly pursued by the regime that lasted until Franco died and democracy was restored in the 1970s.

"I'm lost in wonder," Wadham says of their experiences. "I can't imagine doing this, but they did … I feel an honour putting this on the radio, a responsibility. It's now or never."

In February 1965, almost 30 years after he set out for Spain, Paivio told a CBC interviewer: "The main thing was a terrible fear of fascism taking over. I didn't expect to come back … but it seemed a worthwhile thing."

Susie Dent 'gutted' after new book Word Perfect printed with host of typos

Lexicographer and Countdown personality says she can now attest to the power of ‘lalochezia’: swearing to alleviate stress

Susie Dent, on Good Morning Britain in February. Photograph: Ken McKay/ITV/Rex/Shutterstock

Alison Flood

Fri 2 Oct 2020 

Countdown’s resident lexicographer Susie Dent has testified to the effectiveness of lalochezia, or “the use of swearing to alleviate stress and frustration”, after discovering that her new book Word Perfect was printed with a host of typos.

Dent said on Thursday that she had just found out that the initial printing of Word Perfect, which is described by its publisher as a “brilliant linguistic almanac”, had been completed using an early version of the text. “I’m so sorry about this. I’ll be in touch as soon as I can with details on how we’re going to fix it,” said Dent on Twitter, where she described herself as “gutted” over the error.

Her publisher John Murray also apologised. “We’re very sorry that, due to a printing error, early copies of Word Perfect are not word perfect. We’re taking urgent steps to recall these copies, reprint and resolve this swiftly,” it said, adding that customers needing a replacement should get in touch. However, copies have already made it to many UK bookshops.

Dent told the Times: “I just opened it up and saw there was something wrong in the acknowledgments. And then I had to close it because I felt a bit sick. There are quite a few errors. I haven’t counted them and I don’t really want to.”

Dent has appeared in the Channel 4 quiz show Countdown’s Dictionary Corner since 1992. In Word Perfect, she provides the stories behind a word for every day of the year, from why May Day became a distress call, to the meaning of “snaccident” – unintentionally eating a whole packet of biscuits.

SHE IS NOT THE ONLY ONE I HAVE BEEN FINDING MORE AND MORE TYPOS AS HUMAN PROOF READERS ARE REPLACED BY AI

A universal wage will reduce poverty for First Nations people and for all Australians
By Megan Krakouer | 2 October 2020
Indigenous people living below the poverty line suffer even more without a financial safety net (Screenshot via YouTube)

Working at the coalface with the poorest, Megan Krakouer argues the importance of a minimum living wage for everyone.

A UNIVERSAL WAGE, even for the unemployed, is not only fundamental to a just society but it is in society’s best interests, including fiscally. We can reduce the number of Australians incarcerated, we can reduce the horrific numbers of my First Nations people incarcerated. We can reduce the suicide toll and reduce domestic violence.

Not only must there be a greater increase to Centrelink support payments, but there must also be a living wage that makes life for all Australians dignified. Crime will decrease — this is a no-brainer.

I work only for people living below the Henderson Poverty Line and therefore I work at the coalface of the grimmest settings.

Recently, Centrelink confirmed to us that here at the National Suicide Prevention & Trauma Recovery Project (NSPTRP), we are the lead agency in Western Australia in the last year – September 2019 to August 2020 – to have supported more First Nations Western Australians through Centrelink’s Indigenous Services Unit.

The NSPTRP has logged more than 1,000 support payment assists in that year-long period to my First Nations brothers and sisters and already more than 100 in the few weeks since. According to Centrelink, this is more than ten times any other service. We have also assisted non-Indigenous Western Australians.


Australia's invisible Indigenous left behind

Megan Krakouer promises to hold governments and institutions to account as a vital suicide prevention program remains unfunded.

In the last year, we have assisted more than 10,000 individuals across the nation. Eighty per cent have been First Nations, but we also have many migrant-born and other Australians walk through our doors or call us. We know what poverty looks like. I walk into the homes of our most vulnerable and we support those without a home, the street-present, those who sleep in cars or wherever they can.

Gerry Georgatos, national co-ordinator of NSPTRP, said:
“It is indisputable, support payments, the only means of income for the majority of our most vulnerable, are often encumbered by reporting requirements and interruptions to payments hit far too many.”

In fact, on average each month, hundreds of my First Nations people in Western Australia have their support payments stopped. For the poorest, with little light on the horizon, they often feel broken, kicked in the gut and do not have the will to look for support. Many will finish in a police lockup or gaol. Many will meltdown. Many will leave behind their families.

Gerry Georgatos said:
We support many individuals fleeing domestic violence, many with relationship breakdown and who have taken full care of the children, many leaving juvenile detention and prison without their support payments arranged.

It is a long-established fact and also identified by the Productivity Commission that the two most risk-riddled stressors are housing security and support payment interruptions.

Someone leaving prison without support payments arranged is at elevated risk of offending, at elevated risk of finishing up homeless. A family where support payments have been interrupted are at risk of negative aberrance, displaced anger and domestic violence. The lowest quintile of income comprises the most significant proportion of suicidality and therefore, to be without any income dramatically escalates risk.

Dickensian Australia — homeless orphans and ten-year-old children gaoled

Instead of offering assistance, our political system is one that would sooner incarcerate children in desperate need.

There is not a day that goes by without a support payment assist. Our service assists both First Nations and the non-Indigenous. We work only with people living in proximity to and below the poverty line. My First Nations people are dramatically disproportionally impacted by poverty. I know that assisting with support payments can save a life.

I have had highly stressed and agitated individuals, families with children in tow, leave a Centrelink queue after the restlessness of their children and visit our offices so we can sort their payments while the children are busied by colleagues.

Centrelink’s Indigenous Services Unit is a huge affirmative action for my First Nations People. I am surprised that our small national service, with only several personnel in Western Australia, is the lead agency in the support payment assists. In fact, it is only three of us out of the Western Australia office who do the support assists — myself, Gerry Georgatos and his daughter, who is our invaluable support admin, Connie Georgatos. I encourage other social services to utilise Centrelink’s Indigenous Services Unit so together we can meet needs.

The Indigenous Services Unit is of such high calibre that without fail, for every single individual we have sought assistance we had a same-day outcome. This is a vital validation to those in need and of an immediate significant reduction of what in the end is preventable distress.

To incarcerate a youth in juvenile detention on an annual basis costs $300,000. To incarcerate an adult on an annual basis costs $200,000. Support payments on a per person basis annually are less than $30,000. To lose someone to suicide because of their poverty comes at a greater cost than money alone can describe.

We should be doing everything we can to address support payment interruption, to ensure that everybody has that safety net at all times. We should ramp up the calls for a significant universal living wage. In one of the nation’s richest economies, we should leave no one behind.




Megan Krakouer LLB is a Mineng Noongar woman from Mt Barker in Western Australia’s southwest. Presently, Megan is the Director of the National Suicide Prevention & Trauma Recovery Project and also works as a human rights legal practitioner for the National Justice Project.

Protests rumble in India over alleged gang rape of young woman

HINDUTVA MISOGYNY, CASTISM, NATIONALISM AND RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY


By Saurabh Sharma, Danish Siddiqui


LUCKNOW/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Galvanised by the alleged gang rape of a young woman who died of her injuries earlier this week, political parties representing India’s downtrodden Dalit community held protests in several cities on Friday.

In Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh, the state where the crime took place, police baton-charged more than 100 activists from the Samajwadi Party, who held placards demanding justice for the dead woman.

The Bhim Army, a party championing Dalit rights, protested at the historic Jantar Mantar monument in central Delhi.

The chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, also joined the protest attended by around 3,000 people, including political party workers and non-profit organisations representing the Dalit community.

“The whole country would like to appeal to the Uttar Pradesh government that the culprits be given stringent punishment and must be hanged till death,” Kejriwal said.


The family of the dead woman has accused four high caste Hindu men, who have been arrested but not charged by police. Caste still plays an influential role in the politics of Uttar Pradesh, where the current state government is led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

Dalits, once known as “untouchables”, are at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

The 19-year-old victim, who was allegedly attacked on Sept. 14 in a field near her home in Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh, died on Tuesday. The incident sparked nationwide protests.

While the family say the woman died as the result of a brutal sexual assault, senior state police officer Prashant Kumar told ANI News on Thursday the woman died due to a neck injury. “No sperm was found in samples,” said Kumar.


Bhuri Singh, the uncle of the victim, said her “dying declaration said she was raped”.

India is one of the world’s most dangerous places for women with a rape occurring every 15 minutes, federal data shows. In December 2012, the gang rape of a 23-year-old woman sparked nationwide outrage and led to a tough new anti-rape law.

Public criticism mounted in recent days after the family of the latest victim said her body was cremated by police without their consent, an allegation officials deny.

On Friday, members of a regional opposition party, the Trinamool Congress, were stopped close to the victim’s house while some leaders were roughed up by police officers, video footage from ANI showed.

And in the eastern city of Kolkata, activists from the main opposition Congress Party also protested. On Thursday, police barred Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, siblings and leaders of Congress, from visiting the dead woman’s family in their village.


Reporting by Saurabh Sharma in Lucknow and Danish Siddiqui in New Delhi; Writing by Nupur Anand; Editing by Aditya Kalra & Simon Cameron-Moore

Massive Layoffs Are Underway Across the U.S.,

 Threatening the Already Frail Recovery

Airline industry workers hold signs during a protest in Federal Plaza in Chicago, Illinois, on September 9, 2020.
Kamil Krzaczynski—AFP/Getty Images

BY EMILY BARONE TIME
OCTOBER 2, 2020

U.S. employers brought back 661,000 workers in September, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures released Friday. The unemployment rate clocked in at 7.9%, down from 8.4% in August. About half of the jobs lost to the pandemic have returned.

The problem, economists say, is that the pace of recovery is slowing. Going forward, we may see only incremental employment gains at best, at least until the virus is completely under control. “It will be hard to get a full recovery before we get a vaccine or big advancement in therapeutics,” says Sarah House, senior economist at Wells Fargo. “The second half of the recovery will be a lot longer.” Massive layoffs planned by major companies in the coming days and weeks are also likely to take a toll.

The big job gains over the summer were the result of furloughed workers coming back to their jobs when local economies reopened. For example, the Cheesecake Factory announced at the end of August that it had brought back just about all of the 41,000 staffers who were unable to work when lockdowns began in March. The company’s permanent layoffs totaled just 175.

But employment gains from reopening were easy. Now, companies that are suffering deeper fundamental impacts from the pandemic—in sectors like travel, hospitality and energy—are now adjusting to a new normal. In many cases, that means permanent cuts. Several major corporations announced huge layoffs in recent days: 28,000 at Disney. 3,600 at Ralph Lauren. 3,800 at Allstate insurance. 2,000 at Marathon Petroleum. 31,000 at American Airlines and United Airlines, combined.

“These numbers are worrisome,” says Betsey Stevenson, professor of public policy and economics at University of Michigan. “When they let people go, it’s not temporary layoffs. These are companies struggling to keep people on and thought could get to the other end [of the pandemic]. But the end is not in one or two months. And maybe not in six months.”

The labor market is losing momentum as 10.7 million Americans are still out of work compared with February. About 1.5 million people filed initial unemployment claims last week, according to BLS data released yesterday, either through their state or through the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which was designed for gig workers like Uber drivers. Those who have lost their jobs may find it even tougher than usual to find a new one, given that they’re competing with more than 10 million other unemployed Americans.

Some businesses had been using federal stimulus programs like the CARES Act, passed in March, as a backstop. But provisions of the law have expired or will expire by year’s end, including layoff protections for aviation workers that ran through the end of September. As a result, airlines that accepted Washington’s financial help have been free to lay off workers since Thursday. Air carriers have urged Congress to pass another round of aid; both American Airlines and United Airlines have pledged to reverse course on their furloughs if such help materializes. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday asked airlines to pause layoffs, promising industry-specific help is on the way.

But even if the airlines get more help, it’s unlikely a broader relief bill will pass Congress. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, which includes some aid for small businesses. But the legislation, which doesn’t have bipartisan congressional support and is opposed by the White House and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, is a nonstarter in the Republican-led Senate.

“If they don’t get additional support, which is our expectation with our forecast, companies need to put that in their calculus in terms of their revenue forecasts and staffing needs,” notes House.

The continued unemployment crisis, compounded by massive layoffs, could have serious economic consequences even for those Americans fortunate enough to remain employed. If people don’t get back to work, it could dampen consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. GDP. Less spending could in turn trigger even more layoffs, potentially causing a downward spiral. “There’s still some firepower among consumers, but so long as this goes on, then the gains we’ve seen thus far are in jeopardy,” says House.

“We’re at an inflection point,” Stevenson adds. “Half the people who were temporarily laid off have come back. It was always clear that we weren’t going to get 100%. We may only get to 70.”

Signs of life on Venus may have been found decades ago

  

The planet Venus. Image source: NASA/JPL-Caltech
By Mike Wehner @MikeWehner
October 2nd, 2020 

NASA found the clues to life on Venus almost four decades ago but never realized it.
A probe that was sent to Venus back in 1978 returned readings that showed the presence of what appears to be phosphine, which may be produced by biological processes.
The data supports the recent research that found phosphine in Venus’ atmosphere, though we still don’t know if life actually exists there.

There’s been a whole lot of talk recently about the possibility of life existing in some form on Venus. The planet is a toxic hellscape, but upon scanning its atmosphere a compound called phosphine was detected, which can originate from organic processes. It’s big news, and space agencies are already talking about how they might further probe the mystery with missions to Venus, but is this really news? Shockingly, it might not be.

As LiveScience reports, a now-ancient NASA mission to Venus way back in 1978 may have detected the presence of phosphine decades before this more recent discovery. The data is examined in a new paper that was published to arXiv.

When the news began to circulate that phosphine was discovered in the atmosphere of Venus, researchers began to wonder if a similar signature might be lurking in data collected by the Pioneer 13 mission which included a probe that cruised down to the planet’s surface while collecting data about its atmosphere and other conditions.

The probe was supported by a parachute, giving it time to collect samples and analyze them, beaming the data back to Earth as rapidly as possible. At the time, the researchers didn’t mention anything about phosphine or other phosphorus-based compounds, but the data was still available to be studied, and that’s exactly what a team of researchers did.

So, what did they find? Well, the data shows the presence of phosphorous compounds, and based on the readings and a little bit of math, it seems likely that the data indicates the presence of phosphine.

“We were inspired to re-examine data obtained from the Pioneer-Venus Large Probe Neutral Mass Spectrometer (LNMS) to search for evidence of phosphorus compounds,” the researchers write. “The LNMS obtained masses of neutral gases (and their fragments) at different altitudes within Venus’ clouds. Published mass spectral data correspond to gases at altitudes of 50-60 km, or within the lower and middle clouds of Venus – which has been identified as a potential habitable zone. We find that LMNS data support the presence of phosphine; although, the origins of phosphine remain unknown.”

So, yeah, NASA’s probe detected what is likely phosphine nearly four decades ago and never realized it. That’s pretty wild, and it kind of makes you wonder what other discoveries have been unknowingly made over the decades that NASA and other space agencies have been conducting missions in space.

Why the health of the Amazon River matters to us all: An interview with Michael Goulding
by Rhett A. Butler on 9 September 2020


Like the rainforest which takes its name, the Amazon is the largest and most biodiverse river on the planet. The river and its tributaries are a critical thoroughfare for an area the size of the continental United States and function as a key source of food and livelihoods for millions of people. Yet despite its vastness and importance, the mighty Amazon is looking increasingly vulnerable due to human activities.
Few people understand more about the Amazon’s ecology and the wider role it plays across the South American continent than Michael Goulding, an aquatic ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) who has worked in the region since the 1970s studying issues ranging from the impact of hydroelectric dams to the epic migration of goliath catfishes. Goulding has written and co-authored some of the most definitive books and papers on the river, its resident species, and its ecological function.
In recognition of his lifetime of advancing conservation efforts in the Amazon, the Field Museum today honored Goulding with the Parker/Gentry Award. The Award — named after ornithologist Theodore A. Parker III and botanist Alwyn Gentry who were killed in a plane crash during an aerial survey of an Ecuadorian cloud forest in 1993 — is given each year to “an outstanding individual, team or organization in the field of conservation biology whose efforts have had a significant impact on preserving the world’s natural heritage and whose actions and approach can serve as a model to others.”
In a September 2020 interview ahead of the prize ceremony, Goulding spoke with Mongabay about his research and the current state of the Amazon.Aerial view of flooded forest in the Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler for Mongabay.

Like the rainforest which takes its name, the Amazon is the largest and most biodiverse river on the planet: the Amazon carries more than five times the volume of world’s second largest river — the Congo — and its basin is home to at least 3,000 species of fish. The river and its tributaries are a critical thoroughfare for an area the size of the continental United States and function as a key source of food and livelihoods for millions of people.

Yet despite its vastness and importance, the Amazon faces a deluge of threats: a dam-building spree across the basin is disrupting fish migration and nutrient cycling, large-scale deforestation is destroying habitats and increasing sedimentation, pollution from mining and agribusiness is affecting aquatic ecosystems, overfishing is diminishing the capacity of some species to recover, and drought and flood cycles are becoming more pronounced. The effects of climate change could exacerbate some of these impacts by increasing temperatures, the severity of droughts, and the incidence of fires. The mighty Amazon is looking increasingly vulnerable.Blackwater lake, rainforest, and a whitewater river in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett A. Butler.

Few people understand more about the Amazon’s ecology and the wider role it plays across the South American continent than Michael Goulding, an aquatic ecologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) who has worked in the region since the 1970s studying issues ranging from the impact of hydroelectric dams to the epic migration of goliath catfishes. Goulding has written and co-authored some of the most definitive books and papers on the river, its resident species, and its ecological function.

In recognition of his lifetime of advancing conservation efforts in the Amazon, the Field Museum will today honor Goulding with the Parker/Gentry Award. The Award — named after ornithologist Theodore A. Parker III and botanist Alwyn Gentry who were killed in a plane crash during an aerial survey of an Ecuadorian cloud forest in 1993 — is given each year to “an outstanding individual, team or organization in the field of conservation biology whose efforts have had a significant impact on preserving the world’s natural heritage and whose actions and approach can serve as a model to others.”Michael Goulding with his colleagues at WCS in the Peruvian Amazon. Michael Goulding

According to the Field Museum, the Award “is designed to highlight work that could benefit from wider publicity and fuller dissemination of scientific results.” The Museum said it selected Goulding as “one of the world’s leading experts on Amazonian rivers and their biodiversity.”

“He is helping change our largely terrestrial view of conservation to one that puts rivers at the center,” said Field in a statement. “He pulls together multiple disciplines and collaborators across the Amazon basin to understand historical patterns, identify current concerns, and make recommendations for the future.”

“[Goulding] has been a driving force on a slew of peer-review articles that champion a basin-wide approach to understanding reproduction of Amazonian food fishes, especially long-distance migrants. His efforts have led to new approaches to Amazon conservation, focusing on its aquatic life.”

In a September 2020 interview ahead of the prize ceremony, Goulding spoke with Mongabay about his research and the current state of the Amazon.

Michael Goulding.

Mongabay: What led you to pursue your career?

Michael Goulding: I have been interested in Nature and rivers since childhood. In college, I first became interested in geography because of a desire to travel to foreign lands, which soon led to an interest in the tropics, especially those of the New World.

While in college in California, I travelled extensively in Mexico and saw rainforests for the first time. This ignited my interest in rainforest. Along with a desire to study rivers, this led me to start thinking about just where to direct my career, and I soon settled on South America and, shortly after that, on the Amazon as it has the world’s largest rainforests and rivers.

My interest in fish was also since childhood, but learning of the unequalled diversity of Amazon fishes it was an easy zoological choice for the naturalist side of me.

In graduate school at UCLA, I focused on ecosystems, biogeography, conservation, ichthyology, and plant taxonomy to prepare to work in the Amazon. I was extremely lucky to be hired by the National Institute of Amazonian Research (INPA) in Manaus, Brazil while I also finished my Ph.D dissertation. This opportunity was the first conduit to realize my career dreams.

You’ve been working in the Amazon since the 1970s, during which more than 750,000 square kilometers of forest has been cleared across the basin. What are the biggest changes have you seen since the beginning of your career? Both in terms of shifts in the research field and ecological/environmental changes.

At the mega level, deforestation and dams on large rivers are the two major changes since the early 1970s when I made my first trip to the Amazon. Large-scale and artisanal mining and urbanization are the next biggest changes. Taken together, these changes now have synergistic impacts at the ecosystem level. Potential deforestation impacts became apparent relatively early, especially with the construction of the Tran-Amazon Highway in Brazil aimed at opening cattle ranches and settling agriculturalists from Northeastern Brazil to develop the Amazon.Devastation wrought by an open pit gold mine in the Peruvian Amazon. Photo by Rhett Butler.

Relatively little attention, however, was given to wetland forest destruction, especially on the floodplains of the lower Amazon River where jute farming and livestock ranching had taken a toll. The exponential increase in new highways and roads since the 1970s resulted in large-scale deforestation across a wide part of the Amazon, and especially south of the Amazon River. The expansion of the soybean frontier in the southeastern basins of the Amazon and agricultural and mining expansion in the Andes also led to serious deforestation and local pollution of westernmost headwaters.

Satellite imagery and GIS software in the last two decades made it possible to track deforestation accurately across the Amazon. The conceptual linkage of the rainforest to the hydrological cycle through the evapotranspiration role of trees greatly strengthened the need for an ecosystem approach to the Amazon. Ironically, however, since about the late 1980s most research and conservation attention focused on relatively small areas without complementary larger scale perspectives to place them in a larger ecological context. River flow impacts increase cumulatively in a downstream direction; thus everyone is downstream in some way. It became apparent that river basin perspectives provide an urgent synergistic view of upland and wetland impacts together at multiple scales across the Amazon if management conservation of the aquatic ecosystem is to be successful.

Since the late 1990s, the Amazon has experienced at least four major droughts. What are the implications of these droughts for aquatic life in the region?

Extreme hydrological events, either droughts or floods, or some combination, affects ecosystem function. For aquatic biodiversity, droughts are often of more concern than extreme floods, and the opposite is often true for human societies along the rivers. Extreme droughts lead to a great reduction of habitat space, especially on floodplains but also in rivers and streams. Increased fish and other biodiversity mortality increases because of limited space, increased predation and overfishing by local and urban fishers. The latter greatly exacerbates the already precarious management of fisheries. Likewise, other aquatic wildlife, such as turtles and the Amazon manatee, become even more vulnerable than fishes.Boto dolphins, a top predator in Amazonian waters. Photo by Michael Goulding.

The long-term effects of large floods on aquatic biodiversity are more difficult to ascertain. It appears that they can increase fish production because of expanded space and a longer period of inundation. With extreme droughts and associated mortality, however, this theoretical advantage of large floods would disappear. Extreme flood levels for three or four years can also lead to die-offs of parts of floodplain shrub and tree communities, as they need an emerged period each year.

While a number of dam projects have been put on hold the past few years, there are still ambitious plans for hydropower expansion across much of the Amazon Basin. What are the potential implications of large-scale dam construction in the basin?

Most focus has been on large dams constructed on the Tocantins, Xingu and Madeira rivers in the eastern half of the Amazon Basin in Brazil. These dams are located on the ancient uplands referred to as the Brazilian Shield, which in the west extends somewhat across the Madeira River where its dams are located. The Brazilian Shield drains four large rivers, and the only one thus far not dammed is the Tapajós, though there are proposals to dam it as well. All four of these tributaries enter the Amazon Basin in its eastern half. To date, large dams affect their individual tributaries more than having a cumulative impact on the Amazon River or its estuary. Since the southeastern sub-basins are also major agricultural and mining frontiers, a synergistic combination of deforestation, dams, pollution and mining affects the rivers. We still do not know where the tipping point is, that is, at what point do x number of dammed major tributaries then begin to affect the ecology of the Amazon River and its estuary 

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Satellite image of the Balbina Dam in Brazil in September 2020. Courtesy of Zoom.Earth.

Unlike the other three Brazilian Shield tributaries, the Madeira has headwaters in the Andes of Bolivia and Peru. The two existing Madeira dams represent the first major basin-wide impact on the Amazon aquatic ecosystem. Although run-the-river dams with relatively low walls, the Madeira dams nevertheless block fish migrations, such as those of goliath catfishes that migrate upstream from the estuary to spawn in or near the Andes. A fish bypass constructed at the Santo Antonio dam near the city of Porto Velho in the state of Rondônia is not functioning as planned, and none exits at the Jirau dam upstream of it. This means that the Madeira dams block some of the most important fish migrations in the Amazon, and this has impacts as far away as the Amazon River estuary, the nurseries for some of the species. Similar to salmon, it appears that at least the dourada (Portuguese) or dorado (Spanish) catfish might practice homing, the biological phenomenon where a species returns to the general region of its birth. This would mean that the Madeira dams would drive a major population of the species to extinction and eliminate perhaps 40% of the spawning grounds of the species.

Thus far, the Andes has few large dams, though governments have identified six major potential hydroelectric dam sites near the outlets from the mountains. Unlike in the Eastern Amazon, the Andean large dams would mostly likely have high walls with deep reservoirs. The Andes are the sediment and nutrient bank for not only for the tributaries that drain them but for the Amazon River as well. Thus, high wall dams could seriously affect the chemistry and alluvial properties of a major part of the Amazon aquatic ecosystem, from more than 4,000 km upstream to the Atlantic. Decreased sediments and nutrients would lead to decreased productivity on the western floodplains and along the Amazon River to its estuary, all of which are important nurseries for fish. Most ecological and social focus is on the Marañón River at the Pongo de Manseriche, a gorge where the largest of the six potential dams is located. It is still unclear whether Peru will move ahead with the Manseriche dam.The Cachoeira de Teotônio, the largest of the Madeira rapids in Brazil, was traditionally a site for catching catfishes as they migrated upstream. But the Teotônio fisheries have disappeared since the construction of the Santo Antônio Dam, which submerged the cataracts. Photo by Michael Goulding.

A large number of small dams can often have even greater impacts than a single large dam. Small dam construction is exploding across the Amazon from the highlands to the lowlands, but especially in drier areas in the north and south and in the higher parts of the Andes. With predicted drier climates and expanded agriculture and aquaculture, and lack of stream management, small dam construction now presents a major ecological challenge in some parts of the Amazon.

Perhaps a major positive note on dam building in the region is that the Amazon River will remain the only large river in the world without a dam or locks. Although there were futuristic proposals to dam the Amazon River, none is feasible.

A generation ago there was a lot of discussion around the potential for fish farming in the Amazon floodplains to provide a more sustainable source of protein than land-based livestock. Has this materialized? And what are the implications?

Governments subsidized many of the first efforts but the private sector now leads in aquaculture development. Fish farming exists between ecological controversy and dreamland, with a practical center somewhere between.

Fisherman with an arapaima (left) and a women selling fish in a market in Pucallpa, Peru. Photo by Michael Goulding.

Two major aspects of aquaculture are relevant to the Amazon, generally categorized as intensive and extensive fish farming. Most fish farming in the Amazon is intensive and uses excavated ponds or dammed streams, with floating cages in the floodplain lakes or in smaller river channels of only minor importance. Most aquaculture is for food fish with minimal production for aquarium and sport fishing species. There have been aquaculture projects aimed at export markets because of higher prices, though to date these have not been particularly successful. The most successful operations target high-priced species now threatened in the wild, thus opening an urban market for aquaculture more than aimed as decreasing overfishing of wild stocks.

An especially important species is the large fruit-and-seed eater called tambaqui in Brazil and often gamitana in Spanish-speaking countries of the Amazon. Overfishing has led to nearly commercial extinction of wild-caught large fish over most of the Amazon. The tambaqui was the most important commercial species captured in the Central Amazon during the 1970s but now is relatively unimportant in fisheries. Aquaculture now produces more tonnage of this species than the maximum wild catches registered decades ago, but this has done little to decrease overexploitation of wild populations. A large wild tambaqui can sell for more than $100, thus there is economic incentive to exploit it despite its rarity. Farm-raised fish contribute relatively little to overall food security since they are too expensive for lower income groups. In short, it seems improbable that aquaculture can substitute wild fisheries or decrease pressure on favored wild species.

The tambaqui (Colossoma macropomum) is an important seed disperser in the flooded forest. Photo by Michael Goulding.

Another big question is whether aquaculture could realistically be an alternative to livestock ranching, that is deforestation, for protein production and, if so, just how? Perhaps the main metric is whether quality fish, without subsidies, fetch the same price or cheaper as chicken since poultry is generally less expensive than beef and pork and more accessible to poorer economic classes. Chicken farming is just as intensive if not more so than aquaculture and operates in a similar manner in terms of processed feed for the captive animals. Thus, if the idea is to produce affordable protein for multiple economic classes, then poultry might be a better solution to alleviate fishing pressure on wild fish populations.

Aquaculture beyond any doubt has a role in the Amazon for urban markets. The main controversy is whether overexploited species, such as the tambaqui, would benefit from restocking. Extensive aquaculture involves placing nursery-raised young fish into the wild to replenish overfished populations. There are few experiments to know if this would even be successful in the Amazon and what impacts it might have, such as on genetic diversity of wild populations. Extensive aquaculture already exists to some extent with exotic rainbow trout in the higher Andes, but this has introduced exotic parasites, always a major concern to the health of native species.

Along with your colleagues, you’ve written a number of landmark books and papers on the aquatic ecology of the Amazon Basin. Which of your findings or projects are you most proud of?

My main criterion has always been rather our work was directly relevant to conservation and how does it fit into the big picture. At the most fundamental ecological connectivity level, this meant elucidating how rivers and rainforests are connected. I called this very simply “The Fishes and the Forest” since the two are dependent on each other. Fishes across the Amazon are highly dependent on wetland forests to which they migrate during the floods for food and protection from predators. Likewise, fruit-eating fishes are important seed dispersers for many wetland tree and shrub species.

Boy with a ‘dorado’ catfish. Photo by Michael Goulding.

Another large-scale phenomenon we worked on aimed at dispelling the idea that the Amazon’s second largest tributary, the Rio Negro, a blackwater river, could not support high aquatic biodiversity because of its extreme nutrient poverty, low pH and organic compounds that render it blackish or brownish in color. We were able to demonstrate that there is actually “Rich Life in Poor Water”, a concept vitally important not only for conservation of the Rio Negro but also other blackwater rivers in the Amazon.

A third major theme I worked on over decades, along with Ronaldo Barthem of the Goeldi Museum and other colleagues, was long-distance fish migrations from the Amazon River estuary to as far away as the Andean foothills. Demonstrating these migrations, and the scale at which they occur, demonstrated how the Amazon aquatic ecosystem connects biologically from the Andes to the Atlantic in what we termed “The Catfish Connection”. This has major implications in terms of infrastructure development impacts, including dams and headwater deforestation that can affect these continental-wide migrations.Satellite image of the Rio Negro in September 2020. Courtesy of Zoom.Earth.

Other projects included viewing fisheries at the ecosystem level, the importance of palm swamps, human use of the Amazon River floodplain and helping to develop a new river basin classification for the Amazon that enhances analyzes and spatial views of the aquatic ecosystem in its many facets. All of these works aimed at increasing an understanding of ecosystem scale and its implications for conservation and management planning.

What’s your outlook for the Amazon’s aquatic ecology? And what do you see as the best ways to maintain the health and productivity of the ecosystem?

The main positive that the Amazon has in terms of aquatic ecology conservation is its size, though this also presents the greatest challenge, as there are too few people and funds to analyze the in-water and on-ground impacts of deforestation, dams, mining, increased river traffic, urbanization and other influences at large river basin scales. Other than addressing these challenges through environmental policy, there must also be a scientific and social paradigm shift beyond a propensity to focus only on local areas. A complementary big-picture approach that integrates biological and social data is also required.

Fisherman in an estuary in the Amazon. Photo by Michael Goulding.

I believe the most fruitful approach that unites upland and wetland perspectives, and local and broader-based views, is integrated river basin management. This approach also addresses transnational concerns such as dams and migratory fishes, accumulative downstream pollution, headwater deforestation and the efficacy of protected areas and indigenous territories to aquatic ecosystem conservation and management.

If we view conservation outlook through the lens of major river basins and the Amazon River mainstem, which includes its vast floodplains, then some of the large sub-basins, such as Tocantins, Xingu, Tapajós and parts of the Madeira drainage, will continue to be highly modified by deforestation, dams and mining and they will eventually require restoration. The blackwater basins, such as the Rio Negro, will be less impacted as a whole because of poorer soils for agricultural development, though they will still face threats from mining operations and headwater deforestation. The roads and agricultural and mining frontiers moving down all major Andes-Amazon tributaries present transnational challenges to river basin management and together present the potential western ‘headwater tipping point’ of the aquatic ecosystem.

A floodplain scene in the Amazon. Photo by Michael Goulding.

Fishermen selling their catches at the Manaus waterfront.. Photo by Michael Goulding.

Brazil is downriver of all Andean countries in the Amazon Basin, thus it should be as concerned with what is happening in the Andes as in its own territory. Likewise, the Andean countries need to look downstream as many fish migrations that enter their territories originate in Brazil. The lower Amazon River floodplain has been heavily deforested. If wetland deforestation continues upstream, it will have major impacts on aquatic biodiversity and production, not only on the mainstem but on its tributaries as well. The Amazon mainstem is especially problematic because it has few protected areas and indigenous territories that could help manage its floodplains. Even where there are protected areas, the river channels are not included.

Maintaining the health and productivity of the aquatic ecosystem for biodiversity and human wellbeing requires taking on a series of basic steps in a realistic time framework, which will probably be decades. First, is addressing the need to scale-up conservation initiatives to basin levels, including coordinated transnational levels where required. Second, the critical importance of wetland forests for fish and other aquatic biodiversity, and human wellbeing, requires explicit legislation and implementation of the same to protect these habitats from conversion to livestock ranches, rice fields or other types of large-scale agriculture. At present, the fisheries suffer from a lack of sound management and lack of data collecting. Overfishing is becoming the norm. Community management projects help inform local challenges, but it will take urban fish market monitoring and enforced regulations across the Amazon to control overfishing. The lack of statistical data for a resource as important as fish in the Amazon is indefensible, and considering the many impacts taking place, it becomes even more egregious.Z

All Amazonian countries now have excellent scientists addressing ecological and social issues related to the Amazon aquatic ecosystem or parts of it. This human capital is an amazing asset and governments need to recognize it as such to inform and mitigate infrastructure development and the proper management of aquatic resources on which biodiversity and human well-being in the Amazon depend. Therein lies optimism for the future.

Learn more about Amazon River ecology at AmazonWaters.org.

Mercury from gold mining contaminates Amazon communities’ staple fish
by Fernanda Wenzel on 3 September 2020 | Translated by Roberto Cataldo

The four species of fish most commonly consumed by Indigenous and riverine people in the Brazilian state of Amapá contain the highest concentrations of mercury.
In some species, researchers found levels of mercury four times in excess of World Health Organization recommendations.
The mercury comes from gold-mining activity, where it’s used to separate gold from ore before being burned off and washed into the rivers.
The health impacts of mercury contamination are well-documented, and include damage to the central nervous system, potentially resulting in learning disabilities for children and tremors and difficulty walking for adults.

For the communities of the Amazon, a land defined by its rivers, fish has always been an important part of the diet. In the northern reaches of the Amazon, the top four species are tucunaré, pirapucu, trairão and mandubé.

But small-scale gold mining has turned these fish into an often deadly health hazard. According to a study published in July in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, mercury levels found in pirapucu (Boulengerella cuvieri) were four times higher than the safe limit established by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The researchers analyzed 428 samples of fish caught between 2017 and 2018 in five rivers in the Brazilian state of Amapá. The collection points were close to potential mining areas, where mercury is often used to separate gold from ore. The result: detectable levels of mercury were found in all samples. In 28.7% of them, the amount exceeded the WHO limit.

The study — a joint effort by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), WWF Brazil, the Amapá Institute for Scientific and Technological Research (IEPA) and the Institute for Indigenous Research and Training (Iepé) — reveals the risks to which the state’s Indigenous and riverine populations are exposed, especially children.

To collect fish samples, the researchers traveled along remote rivers such as the Oiapoque and Araguari, near Brazil’s border with French Guiana. Image courtesy of Iepé.

Study co-author Paulo Basta, a medical doctor and researcher at Fiocruz, a scientific institution in Rio de Janeiro, says the impacts of mercury exposure on unborn children are already well-documented. These children “may face intelligence quotient impairments that will last throughout their lives,” he says. “They will have learning difficulties and fewer chances of getting good jobs and income. The result is a permanent cycle of inequality and poverty.” In the most severe cases, the child may be born with deformities.

In adults, mercury contamination may lead to coordination problems such as difficulty walking and hand tremors, hearing and vision impairment, and even dementia, Basta says.

Iepé assistant executive director Décio Yokota, another co-author of the study, says fish from the area studied is consumed by people from at least four Indigenous territories: Wajãpi, Uaçá, Juminã and Galibi. For these populations, fish is the main source of protein and also the main vector of mercury contamination as a result of bioaccumulation. “Small fish eat the algae, then a bigger fish eats the small fish and is eaten by other, even bigger, fish,” he says. “That’s why the most contaminated fish are usually at the top of food chains. They accumulate a very large amount of mercury in the process.”

This explains why carnivorous fish had the highest levels of contamination in the study: 77.6% of them had mercury above the WHO limit. “If you eat these contaminated fish every day, you increase your level of contamination each time you eat them,” Basta says.

The proportion contaminated with unsafe levels of mercury was 20% among omnivorous fish, which feed on both fish and plants, and 2.4% among herbivorous fish. The study authors recommend eating a maximum of 200 grams (7 ounces) of carnivorous fish a week. In the case of mandubé (Ageneiosus inermis), pirapucu, tucunaré (Cichla monoculus) and trairão (Hoplias aimara), consumption should be restricted to once a month

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Tucunaré (Cichla monoculus) collected during research. As a carnivorous fish at the top of the food chain, it accumulates the highest concentration of mercury. Image courtesy of Iepé.

Yokota acknowledges that it isn’t easy for people who rarely have other sources of protein to follow the recommendation. “Ideally, mining should be eliminated. If that’s not possible, we need to think about changing our diet. But we cannot tell people who have no other source of protein not to eat fish. That’s why we suggest that they try to eat more herbivorous fish, whose levels of contamination are much lower.”

A 2014 report shows mining is the main cause of deforestation in the Guiana Shield, a ​​2.5-million-square-kilometer (965,300-square-mile) area that straddles part of northern Brazil, French Guiana, Suriname, Guyana and part of Venezuela. It’s a long-standing problem that has gotten worse in recent years, according to Marcelo Oliveira-da-Costa, a WWF Brazil conservation expert and co-author of the new study. “Managers of Amapá’s conservation units say law enforcement has not been effective, and the political signals sent by the federal government are terrible,” he says. “If you look at the Amazon as a whole, [mining] is only increasing.”

Oliveira says there’s an urgent need for studies on the impact of mercury contamination on the Amazon’s Indigenous peoples. “We know that people are contaminated in several areas, such as the Yanomami, the Munduruku … but what are the effects? There is no investment to study the effects of contamination on those populations,” he says.

To fill in this information gap, the same research institutions plan to carry out studies later this year to assess the impact of mercury on the health of Amapá’s riverine families and the Munduruku people in Pará state.

The researchers collected 428 fish samples from 18 different locations. The fish were caught by local fishermen hired for the study. Image courtesy of Iepé.

Banner image of a fish caught during one of the expeditions, courtesy of Iepé.

This story was first reported by Mongabay’s Brazil team and published here on our Brazil site on Aug. 17, 2020.

Citation:

Hacon, S. D., Oliveira-da-Costa, M., Gama, C. D., Ferreira, R., Basta, P. C., Schramm, A., & Yokota, D. (2020). Mercury exposure through fish consumption in traditional communities in the Brazilian northern Amazon. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(15). doi:10.3390/ijerph17155269
Article published by Xavier Bartaburu

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Coastal flooding will disproportionately impact 31 million people globally

Study is first to assess the impact of climate change on the global population of river deltas

INDIANA UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

IMAGE: AN AERIAL VIEW OF BELEM, BRAZIL, A CITY SITUATED ALONG THE AMAZON DELTA IN NORTHEASTERN BRAZIL. A NEW STUDY BY IU RESEARCHERS FOUND THAT CLIMATE CHANGE PLACES MILLIONS OF PEOPLE... view more 

CREDIT: PHOTO BY EDUARDO BRONDIZIO, INDIANA UNIVERSITY

Thirty-one million people living in river deltas are at high risk of experiencing flooding and other impacts from tropical cyclones and climate change, according to a study by Indiana University researchers.

"To date, no one has successfully quantified the global population on river deltas and assessed the cumulative impacts from climate change," said Douglas Edmonds, the Malcolm and Sylvia Boyce Chair in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and lead author on the study. "Since river deltas have long been recognized as hotspots of population growth, and with increasing impacts from climate change, we realized we needed to properly quantify what the cumulative risks are in river deltas."

The findings are the result of a collaboration facilitated by IU's Institute for Advanced Study with support from the Environmental Resilience Institute.

The team’s analysis shows that river deltas occupy 0.5 percent of the earth’s land surface, yet they contain 4.5 percent of the global population—a total of 339 million people. Because river deltas form at the ocean at or below sea level, they are highly prone to storm surges, which are expected to occur more frequently due to climate change-fueled sea-level rise and coastal flooding.

In the study, IU researchers analyzed these geographic regions, which include cities like New Orleans, Bangkok, and Shanghai, using a new global dataset to determine how many people live on river deltas, how many are vulnerable to a 100-year storm surge event, and the ability of the deltas to naturally mitigate impacts of climate change.

“River deltas present special challenges for predicting coastal floods that deserve more attention in discussions about the future impacts of climate change,” said IU Distinguished Professor of Anthropology Eduardo Brondizio, a co-author of the study who has been working with rural and urban communities in the Amazon delta for 3 decades. “Our estimates are likely a minimum because the storm surge and flooding models do not account for the compound interactions of the climate impacts, deficient infrastructure, and high population density.”

With Edmonds and Brondizio, co-authors on the study include Rebecca Caldwell and graduate student Sacha Siani.

In addition to the threat of flooding, many of the residents in river deltas are low-income and experience water, soil, and air pollution, poor and subnormal housing infrastructure, and limited access to public services. According to the study, of the 339 million people living on deltas throughout the world, 31 million of these people are living in the 100-year storm surge floodplains. To make matters worse, 92 percent of the 31 million live in developing or least-developed economies. As a result, some of the most disadvantaged populations are among the most at-risk to the impacts of climate change.

“These communities are already dealing with health risks, lack of sanitation and services, poverty, and exposure to flooding and other environmental risks. Climate change is exacerbating all of these issues and creating more impacts,” Brondizio said.

To conduct their study, the researchers created a global dataset of delta populations and areas, aggregating 2,174 delta locations. They then cross-referenced the dataset with a land population count to determine how many people were living in the deltas. To determine the natural mitigation capacity of the deltas, researchers looked at the volume of incoming sediment deposited by rivers and other waterways flowing out to sea. The volume of incoming sediment was compared to the relative area of the delta to determine if the delta would be considered sediment starved and thus unable to naturally mitigate flooding.

Decades of engineering have expanded the habitable land area of river deltas, but they’ve also starved the regions of flood-preventing sediment. Without the sediment being renewed naturally, the shorelines will continue to recede, worsening the impacts of storm surges

“To effectively prepare for more intense future coastal flooding, we need to reframe it as a problem that disproportionately impacts people on river deltas in developing and least-developed economies,” said Edmonds. “We need better models for the climate impacts that are capable of stimulating compound flooding in densely populated areas so that exposure and risk can be mapped to more accurately assess risk and vulnerability.”