Climate disasters rising at 'staggering' rate since 2000

Extreme weather events have increased over the last two decades, a new report shows. Fiji is shown after being hit by a cyclone in 2016. File Photo by OCHA/Danielle Parry


Oct. 12 (UPI) -- United Nations researchers said Monday climate disasters have risen at a "staggering" rate in the first 20 years of this century.

From 2000-2019, 7,348 disaster events occurred worldwide, killing 1.23 million people, affecting 4.2 billion people, and resulting in approximately $2.97 trillion in global economic losses, researchers said. 

These new figures show a "staggering" rise in climate disasters compared with the previous two decades, according to researchers.

The previous 20-year period, from 1980 to 1999, had 4,212 reported disasters from natural hazards, with 1.19 million deaths, more than 3 billion people affected and economic losses totaling $1.63 trillion.

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Researchers said that better reporting may explain some of the increase, but the significant rise in climate-related emergency was the main reason for the increase.

Climate-related events, including extreme weather events, rose from 3,653 (1980-1999) to 6,681 (2000-2019), according to the report. Major floods alone more than doubled in the last 20 years, from 1,389 to 3,254, and the incidence of storms rose from 1,457 to 2,034.

Floods accounted for more than 40% of disasters affecting 1.65 billion people, storms 28%, earthquakes 8%, and extreme temperatures 6%.

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"This is clear evidence that in a world where the global average temperature in 2019 was 1.1 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial period, the impacts are being felt in the increased frequency of extreme weather events including heatwaves, droughts, flooding, winter storms, hurricanes and wildfires," the report said.

U.N. Office on Disaster Risk Reduction Chief Mami Mizutori said that disaster management agencies have "succeeded in saving many lives," through improving preparation, and dedicated staff and volunteers, but industrial nations are "failing miserably" in curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

"Disaster risk governance depends on political leadership above all, and delivery on the promises made when the Paris agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction were adopted," Mizutori said. "But the sad fact is that we are willfully destructive. And that is the conclusion of this report; COVID-19 is but the latest proof that politicians and business leaders have yet to tune into the world around them."

Disasters include a dramatic rise in major fire events, such as over 4 million acres burning in California, Australia's 2019 bush fires that killed or displaced nearly 3 billion animals, illegal fires in the Amazon, and more than 100 fires in the arctic circle last year, a video linked to a U.N. Office Twitter post shows.

The report called the "Human Cost of Disasters" was published on the heels of Oct. 13, which marks the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction.

Report data came from the Emergency Events Database that records disasters that have killed 10 or more people; affected 100 or more people; resulted in a declared state of emergency; or call for international assistance.

Belgium's Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters at UCLouvain maintains the database.

Fighting climate change is more cost-effective than cleaning up the mess, study suggests

The effects of climate change are having a greater impact on human systems and ecosystems than scientists previously predicted, new research suggests. Photo courtesy NOAA


Sept. 20, 2019 (UPI) -- It pays to fight climate change, new research suggests.

Transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources won't be cheap or easy. But new research suggests the investments will pay off in the long run.

That's because the cost of inaction -- letting climate change run its course and dealing with the consequences -- will be much more expensive than curbing emissions.

In other words, climate mitigation efforts yield a good return on investment, researchers said.

"That investment is even more compelling given the wealth of evidence that the impacts of climate change are happening faster and more extensively than projected even just a few years ago," Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, deputy director of the Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence in Coral Reef Studies, said in a news release. "This makes the case for rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions more urgent."

According to Hoegh-Guldberg and his colleagues, the "synergistic nature" of the effects of climate change are having a greater impact on human systems and ecosystems than scientists previously predicted.

For example, the combination of bigger storms and rising seas can combine to exacerbate a variety of already existing human problems. Increasingly damaging storms can worsen poverty and magnify inequality in coastal communities. Increases in poverty can trigger a variety of other societal problems.

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"Each risk may be small, but small changes in a number of risks can lead to large impacts," Hoegh-Guldberg said.

The cascade effect of climate change impacts ensures the human and economic costs are quite steep.

For the new study -- published this week in the journal Science -- scientists modeled the difference in risks to forests, biodiversity, food, crops and other critical systems under different warming scenarios. They found limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as opposed to 2 degrees, has significant social and economic benefits.

To limit warming and prevent a cascade of negative effects, scientists with the United Nations suggest global greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut in half over the next decade. The global economy needs to be carbon neutral by 2050.

Authors of the new study estimated public and private entities will need to invest between $2 trillion and $4.5 trillion each year in energy supply and demand measures from 2016 and 2050 to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. But researchers estimated these investments would net a total of $496 trillion in savings by 2200.

The benefits will total "at least four or five times the size of the investments," researchers wrote in their paper.

"Current emission reduction commitments are inadequate and risk throwing many nations into chaos and harm, with a particular vulnerability of poor peoples," said Hoegh-Guldberg. "To avoid this, we must accelerate action and tighten emission reduction targets so they fall in line with the Paris Agreement. Our paper shows this is much less costly than suffering the impacts of 2 degrees or more of climate change."

11K scientists declare climate emergency in new paper

More than 11,000 scientists from 153 countries endorsed a new paper offering six areas of action for climate change mitigation based on analysis of 40 years of data.
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Authors of a new paper declaring a climate emergency said they're encouraged by the increase in public demands for climate change mitigation, especially by youth activists.

 File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 5, 2019 (UPI) -- After compiling 40-years worth of publicly available climate change data, scientists have declared a climate emergency.

The climate scientists responsible for the declaration, published Tuesday in the journal BioScience, say experts have been sounding the alarm for decades.

"Yet greenhouse gas emissions are still rapidly rising, with increasingly damaging effects on the Earth's climate," scientists wrote in their paper. "An immense increase of scale in endeavors to conserve our biosphere is needed to avoid untold suffering due to the climate crisis."

The newly published paper was signed by 11,000 scientists from 153 countries.

"We have continued to conduct business as usual and have failed to address this crisis," William Ripple, distinguished professor of ecology at Oregon State University, said in a news release.

Before making their declaration, scientists analyzed a variety of models and data sets related to energy use, surface temperature, population growth, land-use changes, deforestation, polar ice melting, carbon emissions and more.

"Global surface temperature, ocean heat content, extreme weather and its costs, sea level, ocean acidity and land area are all rising," Ripple said. "Ice is rapidly disappearing as shown by declining trends in minimum summer Arctic sea ice, Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and glacier thickness. All of these rapid changes highlight the urgent need for action."

RELATED Scientists publish strategy for carbon neutral land sector by 2040

Thomas Newsome, from the University of Sydney, said scientists have a moral obligation to warn the planet's citizens about the threat of catastrophic climate change.

"From the data we have, it is clear we are facing a climate emergency," Newsome said.

According to the new paper, world leaders and policy makers should focus their climate change mitigation efforts on six fronts: energy, short-lived pollutants, nature, food, the economy and population.

RELATED Report: Fewer than 25 percent of nations close to sustainability goals

"The world must quickly implement massive energy efficiency and conservation practices and must replace fossil fuels with low-carbon renewables," researchers wrote in their paper.

In addition to quickly curbing CO2 emissions, the study's authors called on the world's governments to enact policies that dramatically reduce short-lived pollutants like methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons.

"Doing this could slow climate feedback loops and potentially reduce the short-term warming trend," researchers wrote.

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According to the study, a concerted effort to protect nature and restore ecosystems, including coral reefs, forests, wetlands and more would boost the planet's natural carbon absorption and sequestration abilities.

Additionally, study authors called on policy makers to transform the planet's economic and agriculture systems.

"Excessive extraction of materials and overexploitation of ecosystems, driven by economic growth, must be quickly curtailed to maintain long-term sustainability of the biosphere," scientists wrote.

Perhaps most controversially, the newly published paper also calls on world leaders to address population growth. Specifically, scientists suggest developing a framework for population stabilization -- and eventually, world population reduction -- that simultaneously boosts human rights while lowering fertility rates.

Several recent reports have highlighted similar strategies for climate change mitigation. According to one report by United Nations scientists, carbon emissions need to be halved in the next decade and reduced to zero by 2040.

Authors of the latest paper are hopeful that the world's governments and its populations can enact the necessary changes.

"Mitigating and adapting to climate change while honoring the diversity of humans entails major transformations in the ways our global society functions and interacts with natural ecosystems," researchers wrote. "We are encouraged by a recent surge of concern. Governmental bodies are making climate emergency declarations. Schoolchildren are striking. Ecocide lawsuits are proceeding in the courts. Grassroots citizen movements are demanding change, and many countries, states and provinces, cities, and businesses are responding. As an Alliance of World Scientists, we stand ready to assist decision makers in a just transition to a sustainable and equitable future."

Carbon capture could be climate change solution, or a waste of time
Carbon capture and storage promises to scrub CO2 from the exhaust pipes of coal and gas plants, for sale or storage, but high costs have prevented wide-scale adoption. And some scientists hope it stays that way.

Carbon capture and store technologies promise to clear CO2 from power plants from the air, but a data analysis suggests CCS may not reduce levels by useful amounts. Photo by Marak007/Pixabay

Nov. 8, 2019  (UPI) -- Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Fossil Energy announced $110 million in federal funding for research and development of carbon capture and storage projects.

According to DOE, carbon capture and storage technologies, or CCS, are "increasingly becoming widely accepted as a viable option" for coal- or gas-fired power plants to reduce their emissions.

Carbon capture technologies promise to scrub CO2 from the flumes and exhaust pipes of coal and gas plants. The captured carbon can be permanently buried underground or sold for other uses like making fertilizers or boosting oil extraction. The technologies have been tested on small scales, but high costs have prevented wide-scale adoption.

While subsidy-free wind and solar power now offer the cheapest sources of electricity generation in most major economies -- and continue to dominate new electric generating capacity -- only a handful of operating carbon capture facilities exist.

And quite a few climate scientists and clean energy advocates hope it stays that way.

"They're a boondoggle," Mark Jacobson, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, told UPI.

The United Nations latest climate report calls on the world's governments to cut emissions in half by 2030 and to zero by 2040 in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial averages, a threshold for avoiding the worst impacts of climate change. The United Nations report -- and the cost minimization models used by the report's authors -- suggests carbon capture technologies could be part of the path to carbon neutrality.

Jacobson isn't convinced. He recently published a study in the journal Energy and Environmental Science suggesting these technologies do more harm than good.

SEE ABSTRACT BELOW

According to Jacobson, many of the models that purport to demonstrate the viability of carbon capture overestimate the technology's efficiency.

"All these other groups that use models, they just assume that the technology captures 85 to 90 percent," he said.

For his study, Jacobson didn't rely on models. He used the first six months of carbon capture data recorded at Petra Nova, a coal-burning power plant built in Texas with a post-combustion carbon capture treatment system. The data showed the technology was just 55.4 percent efficient during the six months, on average.

"But that's not even the major issue," Jacobson said. "The major issue is what is not even considered by their models, and that is that they literally built a natural gas plant to power their carbon capture technology."

Models favorable to carbon capture's potential ignore the upstream emissions and air pollution impacts, he said. In the case of Petra Nova, that is the emissions release and pollution caused by all that goes into constructing and fueling a gas power plant.

When Jacobson accounted for the upstream impacts, he found the Petra Nova project reduced the coal boiler's emissions by just 10 percent.

It would be much better, Jacobson contends, to simply build renewable energy to produce the equivalent power provided by the Petra Nova plant. In fact, Jacobson suggests it would be better to simply do nothing than increase upstream air pollution inputs with inefficient carbon capture projects.

James Mulligan agrees that all things being equal, renewable energy is superior to carbon capture as an energy solution for climate change mitigation. But according to Mulligan, things aren't always equal.

Billions of dollars are spent every year on new gas power plants, and thousands more power plants with purchasing agreements ensure they will be online for many more years.

Mulligan argues Jacobson's contention that it would be better to not do anything at all than to deploy carbon capture technology is based on flawed assumptions.

"Jacobson is a huge advocate of 100 percent renewable," Mulligan told UPI. "His research is a good reminder that we should be shooting for as much renewable as possible, but he's trying to kneecap an entire technology by painting a very shoddy picture of the very first power plant."

Mulligan's first issue is with Jacobson's use of Petra Nova's efficiency data.

"I'm not sure if someone botched the deployment of the system, or they simply weren't operating at full capacity in their first six months," he said. "Jacobson doesn't know either, because he doesn't ask. But we know this technology can capture up to 90 percent of CO2 emissions."

Mulligan likened Jacobson's assumption to taking an umbrella out in the rain, failing to open it up and concluding that it doesn't work.

"If we did that, we'd be called fools," Mulligan said.

Supporters of carbon capture technology suggest steps can be taken to reduce upstream emissions and other environmental impacts. Carbon capture systems also can be powered by renewable energy.

Jacobson's research suggests the Earth and its atmosphere would be better off if renewable energy were built to replace fossil fuels, not power technology designed to reduce the emissions of fossil fuel sources.

But scenarios might exist in which renewables aren't a viable option, Mulligan said.

"Renewable energy is great for providing electricity. Less great for providing on-demand high-quality thermal energy for industrial processes," Mulligan said. "It also does nothing for emissions from concrete. In these applications, even groups like Greenpeace and Sunrise acknowledge we'll likely need CCS."

A risk also exists that as renewable energy becomes the dominant source of energy, its reliability will become an issue. Solar and wind are cheap, but they're not available all the time. Until better, cheaper battery storage technologies come along, some fossil fuel plants will need to continue to operate to maintain the power grid's reliability and ensure prices don't skyrocket.

It would be better, Mulligan argues, if regulation mandated that fossil fuel power plants that must continue to exist, for whatever reason, be retrofitted with carbon capture technology.

But Jacobson's isn't the only study that has painted carbon capture in an unfavorable light. Another paper, published last spring in the journal Nature Energy, found that renewables were far superior to CCS from the standpoint of energy return-on-investment.

"Given its net energy disadvantages, carbon capture and storage should be considered a niche and supplementary contributor to the energy system, rather than be seen as a critical technology option as current climate agreements view it," Denes Csala, a lecturer in energy storage and system dynamics at Lancaster University, said in a statement.

Carbon capture has allies in the oil and gas industry and the labor sector -- many unions see it as a lifeline for fossil fuel industry jobs -- and has been characterized as "essential" to climate change mitigation by the International Energy Agency. The United Nations has acknowledged that the technology could be used as one of many solutions for carbon emissions reductions.

But plenty of environmental advocates remain opposed. In 2017, Michael Bloomberg told a crowd at the Bloomberg New Energy Finance summit that the technology was "a figment of the imagination." Last year, Al Gore told Axios that he thought carbon capture was "nonsense."

Critics of carbon capture worry that the technology will usurp public and private funds that otherwise might be used for renewable energy, as well as further entrench the interests of the fossil fuel industry, which controls much of the technology involved in carbon capture.

A report published this year by the Center for International Environmental Law echoes these concerns.

"We need to transition away from reliance on fossil fuels," researchers wrote. "Anything that moves us toward greater reliance will not be a solution, and the push for geoengineering is likely to do exactly that."

Another report by Clean Air Task Force, an environmental non-profit group friendly to "low carbon" alternatives to renewables determined the development of carbon capture technologies would not displace wind and solar projects.

Mulligan agrees that CCS should mostly be reserved for special circumstances, but he doesn't think the technology should be impugned unconditionally.

"I don't want to take the CCS option off the table," he said. "This isn't about doing CCS instead of renewable energy. This is about managing the risk that our first-best preference for decarbonization fails to fully and completely deliver on a tight timetable."

If there's one thing on which those friendly to and antagonistic towards CCS can agree, it's that carbon isn't properly priced by world governments or major economies. One way to fix that would be a carbon tax.

"We don't have a lot of CCS because we don't have a real price on carbon," Mulligan said.

But while a carbon tax and a real price on carbon would make CCS projects viable in the short run, a hard price on carbon also likely would accelerate the demise of fossil fuel energy and prove a boon to renewable energy and storage technologies.

The health and climate impacts of carbon capture and direct air capture

Mark Z. Jacobson  

Abstract

Data from a coal with carbon capture and use (CCU) plant and a synthetic direct air carbon capture and use (SDACCU) plant are analyzed for the equipment's ability, alone, to reduce CO2. In both plants, natural gas turbines power the equipment. A net of only 10.8% of the CCU plant's CO2-equivalent (CO2e) emissions and 10.5% of the CO2 removed from the air by the SDACCU plant are captured over 20 years, and only 20–31%, are captured over 100 years. The low net capture rates are due to uncaptured combustion emissions from natural gas used to power the equipment, uncaptured upstream emissions, and, in the case of CCU, uncaptured coal combustion emissions. Moreover, the CCU and SDACCU plants both increase air pollution and total social costs relative to no capture. Using wind to power the equipment reduces CO2e relative to using natural gas but still allows air pollution emissions to continue and increases the total social cost relative to no carbon capture. Conversely, using wind to displace coal without capturing carbon reduces CO2e, air pollution, and total social cost substantially. In sum, CCU and SDACCU increase or hold constant air pollution health damage and reduce little carbon before even considering sequestration or use leakages of carbon back to the air. Spending on capture rather than wind replacing either fossil fuels or bioenergy always increases total social cost substantially. No improvement in CCU or SDACCU equipment can change this conclusion while fossil fuel emissions exist, since carbon capture always incurs an equipment cost never incurred by wind, and carbon capture never reduces, instead mostly increases, air pollution and fuel mining, which wind eliminates. Once fossil fuel emissions end, CCU (for industry) and SDACCU social costs need to be evaluated against the social costs of natural reforestation and reducing nonenergy halogen, nitrous oxide, methane, and biomass burning emissions.

THE REALITY IS THAT CCS IS NOT GREEN NOR CLEAN IT IS GOING TO BE USED TO FRACK OLD DRY WELLS SUCH AS IN THE BAKAN SHIELD IN SASKATCHEWAN
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-myth-of-carbon-capture-and-storage.html

ALSO SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CCS

Study: Renewables, not nuclear power, 

can provide truly low carbon energy



Renewable energy programs are more likely to help countries reduce carbon emissions than nuclear energy projects. Photo by University of Sussex


Oct. 5 (UPI) -- Nuclear energy programs around the world have failed to deliver on promises of carbon emissions reductions, according to a new survey.

When researchers at the University of Sussex Business School, in Britain, and the ISM University of Management and Economics, in Lithuania, analyzed nuclear energy programs and renewable power operations in 123 countries over the last 25 years, they found the two tend not to co-exist all that well.

In low-carbon energy systems, the two programs crowd one another other out of the energy market, as well as diminish the efficiency of the other, researchers said.

The latest findings, published Monday in the journal Nature Energy, suggest countries are less likely to meet carbon emissions reduction targets when nuclear energy programs box out renewables.

"The evidence clearly points to nuclear being the least effective of the two broad carbon emissions abatement strategies, and coupled with its tendency not to co-exist well with its renewable alternative, this raises serious doubts about the wisdom of prioritizing investment in nuclear over renewable energy," lead study author Benjamin Sovacool said in a news release.

"Countries planning large-scale investments in new nuclear power are risking suppression of greater climate benefits from alternative renewable energy investments," said Sovacool, a professor of energy policy at Sussex.

Researchers relied on World Bank and International Energy Agency data to examine the impacts of nuclear programs on renewables, and vice versa.

The analysis showed that when electricity transmission and distribution systems are optimized for large-scale, centralized power production, like a nuclear power plant, small-scale, often-heterogenous renewable power sources are put at a disadvantage.

Likewise, when financial markets, regulatory bodies and employment practices are designed to facilitate large-scale nuclear power construction projects, small-scale renewable projects lose out on access to capital, permits and workers.

"This paper exposes the irrationality of arguing for nuclear investment based on a 'do everything' argument," said study co-author Andy Stirling.

"Our findings show not only that nuclear investments around the world tend on balance to be less effective than renewable investments at carbon emissions mitigation, but that tensions between these two strategies can further erode the effectiveness of averting climate disruption," said Stirling, a professor of science and technology policy at Sussex.

It's not that nuclear power programs don't provide any benefits, though.

Researchers found nuclear energy programs were associated with a small drop in carbon emissions in countries with high GDP per capita. However, the data also revealed a stronger correlation between investments in renewable energy and carbon emissions reductions in countries with high GDP per capita.

In less wealthy countries, nuclear energy projects were associated with slight increases in carbon emissions.

"While it is important to acknowledge the correlative nature of our data analysis, it is astonishing how clear and consistent the results are across different time frames and country sets," said study co-author Patrick Schmid.

"In certain large country samples the relationship between renewable electricity and CO2-emissions is up to seven times stronger than the corresponding relationship for nuclear," said Schmid, a researcher at ISM International School of Management München.

Energy report says COVID-19 has shown path away from climate change

"Solar is the new king of global electricity markets," 


Seats inside a terminal at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport are seen empty on August 4. Decreased air travel and driving worldwide due to the coronavirus pandemic have driven down carbon emissions worldwide. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Oct. 13 (UPI) -- While carbon emissions worldwide have fallen dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, energy experts said in an influential report Tuesday that more global efforts are needed to prevent a return to the higher readings seen before the health crisis.

The International Energy Agency said in its World Energy Outlook 2020 it expects global energy demand to decline by 5% for the year, and fall a record 7% for energy-related emissions.

Under present scenarios, global demand is expected to return to pre-pandemic levels by early 2023 but that could be delayed until 2025 if the crisis endures, the IEA said.

According to one model, carbon emissions could surge next year, surpass 2019 levels by 2027 and rise to 36 gigatons by 2030.

Since the start of the pandemic, global emissions have declined sharply due to a major decrease in driving and air travel worldwide -- proof, many environmentalists say, that the world is capable of controlling the climate change crisis.

Carbon emissions from energy use are expected to fall to 33.4 gigatons for 2020, the lowest level since 2011 and the largest year-to-year decline since 1900 when record-keeping began, the IEA said.

If the world wants to continue affecting climate change for the better, the outlook says, it needs to take more advantage of the present downturn before carbon emissions return to 2019 levels. The outlook called the next decade "pivotal."

"It has been a tumultuous year for the global energy system. The COVID-19 crisis has caused more disruption than any other event in recent history, leaving scars that will last for years to come. But whether this upheaval ultimately helps or hinders efforts to accelerate clean energy transitions and reach international energy and climate goals will depend on how governments respond to today's challenges," it states.

"A surge in well-designed energy policies is needed to put the world on track for a resilient energy system that can meet climate goals."

"Despite a record drop in global emissions this year, the world is far from doing enough to put them into decisive decline," IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement.

"The economic downturn has temporarily suppressed emissions, but low economic growth is not a low-emissions strategy -- it is a strategy that would only serve to further impoverish the world's most vulnerable populations."

Birol called for quicker structural changes in the way energy is produced and consumed in the form of renewable sources to break the expected upward trend of carbon emissions.

"Governments have the capacity and the responsibility to take decisive actions to accelerate clean energy transitions and put the world on a path to reaching our climate goals, including net-zero emissions," he said.

The report said the pandemic has helped accelerate some renewable alternatives, such as solar power. The IEA report projects that the use of solar power will increase by an average of 13% per year between now and 2030.

"Solar is the new king of global electricity markets," Birol said.

Eight nations, including U.S., sign accords for moon missions


NASA's Space Launch System rocket is shown in this artist's concept launching into space for a lunar mission, which would be governed by a new framework signed Tuesday by eight nations. Image courtesy of NASA


ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Eight nations have signed NASA's new framework to govern lunar exploration missions, the agency's administrator, Jim Bridenstine, announced Tuesday.

By signing the agreement, the eight nations commit to peaceful activities on the moon and in travel to the moon.

Provisions in the Artemis Accords stipulate that nations, and private companies in those nations, will openly disclose plans for lunar missions, and mine resources on the moon in accordance with the international Outer Space Treaty that dates to 1967.

The accords also commit signing nations to render aid to other nations on the moon if necessary, to minimize space debris and to register all objects taken to the lunar surface.

In addition to the United States, Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, United Arab Emirates and Britain signed the Artemis Accords.

"We are one human race and we are in this together. The Accords help us to work together to benefit all," Sarah Al Amiri, chair of the United Arab Emirates Council of Scientists, said in a live broadcast Tuesday.

Bridenstine had said in a press conference Monday that more nations are expected to sign the accords this year, and that he hopes all nations eventually will.

"As NASA, we always try to be very transparent and what our plans and policies are, and we think it's good for all nations to be transparent with their plans," Bridenstine said.

The new agreement comes as NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon in 2024, with further plans to establish a lunar base to tap water ice for possible long-term habitation.

NASA officials on Monday acknowledged they didn't approach all space-faring nations in drafting the accords because the agency wanted to move quickly. NASA sought a few nations believed to have common values, said Mike Gold, associate administrator for NASA's Office of International and Interagency Relations

"We wanted to begin with a group substantive and large enough to make an impact," Gold said. "It's very challenging to do that with too large a group. Now that the text of the accords have been finalized we can broaden the coalition."

Bridenstine said NASA couldn't approach China, which already has landed two robotic missions on the moon, because federal law prohibits negotiations with China.

When asked how the accords would be enforced, Bridenstine said the intent of the agreement is to pre-empt conflict by being transparent.

"If one of the participants chooses to disregard the guidance, other participants ... ultimately could be asked to leave the Artemis program, but I would hope that they will come to a better resolution," Bridenstine said.

Space agency leaders call for greater international cooperation


A Long March 5 rocket developed by China, which is one of six nations that have full launch capabilities, carried the Tianwen-1 Mars rover into orbit from Wenchang, Hainan province, China, on July 23. Photo by EPA-EFE/STR CHINA

Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Leaders of seven national space agencies called for greater international cooperation on space endeavors Monday during an online conference, and they cited climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic as areas in which cooperation could pay off.

"I want to work closely with international partners and exchange best practices," said Lisa Campbell, president of the Canadian Space Agency. "We need to do this together to ensure the benefits come back to Earth to solve challenges for future generations."

Campbell was joined by heads of space agencies in the United States, Europe, China, Russia, Japan and India at the 71st International Astronautical Congress, hosted by the Paris-based International Astronautical Federation.

Speakers noted that space activity is still growing despite the pandemic, and as eight nations now have full space exploration programs.

"If the whole world can actually unite together in the space endeavor, we can actually achieve greater success," said Kejian Zhang administrator of the China National Space Administration.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said the U.S. Artemis program to return people to the moon in 2024 makes international cooperation more important than ever.

"In the International Space Station, we've had 15 countries operating ... for 20 years with humans on board," Bridenstine said. "Now, when we go to the moon under the Artemis program and on to Mars, we can build on that framework and we can have more collaboration than ever before."

He noted that Japan and Europe and other nations are cooperating by building infrastructure for Artemis.

Despite Bridenstine's assessment, the head of Russia's agency, Roscosmos, said that his nation will not participate in the Artemis program because it is too "U.S.-centric."

"The most important thing here would be to base this program on the principles of international cooperation," which were used to fly to the space station, Dmitry Rogozin, the director-general of Roscosmos, said through a translator.

"If we could get back to considering making these principles as the foundation of the program, then Roscosmos could also consider its participation."

Rogozin said that, despite the lack of Russia's participation, he hopes the United States will include a port to accommodate Russian spacecraft on the proposed lunar Gateway, an orbiting station that missions would use as a staging ground to descend to the moon.

Bridenstine later posted on Twitter that the United States and its partners "look forward to working with the international community" on Artemis missions and on the Gateway.

He has said in the past that NASA's proposed Artemis Accords, governing principles for moon missions, will guide international cooperation while the Gateway has been designed using the same framework as the space station.

NASA advances plan to commercialize International Space Station


Axiom Space habitat modules are depicted attached to the International Space Station as part of NASA's plan to further commercialize work in low Earth orbit. Image courtesy of Axiom



ORLANDO, Fla., Oct. 12 (UPI) -- The planned launch of a private commercial airlock to the International Space Station in November will accelerate NASA's plan to turn the station into a hub of private industry, space agency officials said.

The commercialization plan also includes the launch of a private habitat and laboratory by 2024 and a project NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine announced on Twitter in May in which actor Tom Cruise will film a movie in space.

The 20-year-old space station may even have a private citizen on board again for the first time in years in late 2021, according to Phil McAlister, NASA's director of commercial spaceflight. It's part of a plan to wean the space station off NASA's public funding of $3 billion to $4 billion per year.

"We expanded the scope and range of activities that can be done on ISS," McAlister said in an interview earlier this year. "We carved out resources -- power, oxygen, data -- and we know we can support a paying customer, probably twice a year for up to a month."

Detailed plans for those stints at the space station are partly proprietary, he said.

Whether private citizens return or not, NASA has increased corporate missions to the space station in recent years.

One example was Estee Lauder, which sent 10 bottles of skin cream to the space station Oct. 1 as part of a $128,000 contract with NASA, according to the company and NASA.

The agency charges $17,500 per hour for the astronauts' time, according to its fee schedule. A representative for Estee Lauder confirmed the project last week, but declined to elaborate.

Anheuser-Busch has sent barley seeds to the ISS several times, including an experiment to see how the seeds could be sprouted, known as malting, in microgravity.

"By exposing barley to microgravity, we learned how to maximize production volumes, grow higher quality crops and overall, what it might take to successfully grow and malt barley in microgravity -- ultimately furthering our understanding of agriculture both on Earth and in space," a report from the beer company said.

Freeing up resources on the existing space station for private use will only take NASA so far, and additional infrastructure is needed in space, commercial spaceflight director McAlister said.

NASA plans to install a private airlock to release science experiments and a private habitation module for more space tourism or private researchers.

Pittsburgh-based space company Nanoracks plans to launch its Bishop Airlock to the space station on the next SpaceX cargo mission, scheduled for Nov. 22, the company and NASA confirmed last week.

Having a private airlock just for science experiments and small satellites will allow more efficient use of the station's airlocks and allow for more commercial activity, McAlister said.

Nanoracks funded the construction of the airlock, which cost about $15 million, for the opportunity to have private enterprise utilize it, according to the company. NASA signed an agreement with the company for the idea.

Houston-based Axiom Space, meanwhile, plans to launch the private habitat to the space station in 2024, the same year that NASA wants to land astronauts again on the moon.

Axiom intends to send multiple modules to the space station, growing its total indoor space exponentially through 2028, according to a company spokesman Beau Holder.

At that point, the space station will be nearing the end of its planned lifespan, and Axiom plans to detach its modules and create a separate space station, eventually freeing NASA from financing the operation.

"What Axiom provides is an opportunity for NASA to free up resources to take on the next exploration challenges while maintaining ability to do on-orbit research and exploration technology demonstrations," Holder said.


upi.com/7046158

Study: Nearly one in three U.S. college students smokes pot


Marijuana use among college students is on the rise, while alcohol consumption remains stable, a new study has found. Photo Jantaaa/Pixabay

Oct. 12 (UPI) -- Nearly one-third of all college students in the United States smoke marijuana, a study published Monday by JAMA Pediatrics found.

Roughly twice as many -- 62% -- drink alcohol, the data showed.

At the same time, the number of students who say they abstain from both has increased to 28% from just under 20% in the early 2000s.

The percentage of college students who meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder also has declined to 10% over the same period from just under 20%, they said.

RELATED Study: Pot users may need more anesthesia, painkillers during, after surgery

"Abstinence from both alcohol and marijuana have increased," study co-author Ty Schepis,, professor of psychology at Texas State University, told UPI.

And "the number of young adults with alcohol use disorders has significantly declined, [and] the same is true with combined alcohol and marijuana use disorders," he said.

The findings are based on an analysis of data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health for the period of 2002 through 2018, which included information on alcohol and marijuana consumption for between 7,000 and 11,000 young adults annually.

RELATED More using pot for depression, but it may not help, researchers say

In 2018, 31% of college students reported using marijuana, up from 27% in 2002, the data showed.

However, the percentage of students who met the criteria for marijuana use disorder remained stable over the study period, at about 6%, the researchers said.

Marijuana use disorder is a "problematic pattern of ... use leading to clinically significant impairment or distress," according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

RELATED Teen pot use may be climbing again since legalization

Although 62% of college students drank alcohol in 2018, a slight increase from 60% in 2002, the number who met the criteria for alcohol use disorder dropped by half over the same period, the data showed.

People with alcohol use disorder find that "drinking -- or being sick from drinking -- often interfere[s] with taking care of [their] home or family" and causes problems at work, school or home, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Still, the percentage of students who reported co-use of alcohol and marijuana increased to 24% in 2018 from 17% in 2002. Young adults who were not in college reported roughly the same rates of alcohol and marijuana use, the researchers said.

"It is helpful for parents to know about the changes in the substance use landscape among adolescents and young adults," study co-author Sean Esteban McCabe told UPI. "These findings remind us that we need comprehensive plans for the full continuum of relationships people have with substances," he said.

"Parents can play a key role by having candid conversations with their kids about how they fit into the substance use landscape and discuss how their strategies are working during challenging times," said McCabe, director of the University of Michigan's Center for the Study of Drugs, Alcohol, Smoking and Health.

WHO: Herd immunity through COVID-19 exposure will cause suffering, death

THE NEW TRUMP DOCTRINE


World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the notion of attempting to achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus by allowing people to become infected was unethical. Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/ EPA-EFE

Oct. 13 (UPI) -- World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus dismissed the idea of attempting to fight the coronavirus with "herd immunity" achieved by allowing COVID-19 to spread, saying this method will only cause suffering and death.

"Never in the history of public health has herd immunity been used as a strategy for responding to an outbreak, let alone a pandemic. It is scientifically and ethically problematic," the head of the U.N. health body said Monday during his opening remarks at a WHO COVID-19 media briefing.

According to the Mayo Clinic, herd immunity is achieved when a large enough portion of a community becomes immune to the virus and can protect those who are susceptible to infection.

Tedros explained the term concerns immunity achieved through vaccination and not from unmitigated infection.

"Herd immunity is achieved by protecting people from a virus, not by exposing them to it," he said.

Much is still unknown about COVID-19 and while many who have been infected show immunity, it is unclear if that immunity will persist, he said, adding that there have been reports of people falling sick a second time and that there is a lack of data concerning the long-term effects of infection.

"Letting the virus circulate unchecked, therefore, means allowing unnecessary infections, suffering and death," he said. "Allowing a dangerous virus that we don't fully understand to run free is simply unethical. It's not an option."

Tedros made the comments as cases continue to skyrocket in Europe and the Americas, with the world setting record daily highs for infections on each of the last four days.

However, the pandemic is uneven, he said, explaining that nearly 70% of the cases reported in the last week were from 10 countries with almost half coming from three.

There are tools to prevent further spread of the virus that are not limited to shutdowns or stay-at-home orders, such as contact tracing, quarantine, physical distancing and many others, he said

"There are no shortcuts and no silver bullets," he said. "The answer is a comprehensive approach, using every tool in the toolbox."

According to a live tracker of the virus by Johns Hopkins University, more than 37.8 million people have been infected with COVID-19, killing more than 1 million of them.

#MEDICAREFORALL

Pandemic-related job cuts have led 14.6M in U.S. to lose insurance

By HealthDay News



Researchers say that job losses related to the COVID-19 pandemic have also led to the loss of health insurance for 14.6 million people in the United States. Photo by TBIT/Pixab

Up to 7.7 million U.S. workers lost jobs with employer-sponsored health insurance during the coronavirus pandemic, and 6.9 million of their dependents also lost coverage, a new study finds.

Workers in manufacturing, retail, accommodation and food services were especially hard-hit by job losses, but unequally impacted by losses in insurance coverage.

Manufacturing accounted for 12% of unemployed workers in June. But because the sector has one of the highest rates of employer-sponsored coverage at 66%, it accounted for a bigger loss of jobs with insurance -- 18% -- and 19% of potential coverage loss when dependents are included.

Nearly 3.3 million workers in accommodation and food services had lost their jobs as of June -- 30% of the industry's workforce. But only 25% of workers in the sector had employer-sponsored insurance before the pandemic. Seven percent lost jobs with employer-provided coverage.

The situation was similar in the retail sector. Retail workers represented 10% of pre-pandemic employment and 14% of unemployed workers in June. But only 4 in 10 retail workers had employer-sponsored insurance before the pandemic. They accounted for 12% of lost jobs with employer-sponsored insurance and 11% of potential loss including dependents.

The study was a joint project of the Employee Benefit Research Institute, the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research and the Commonwealth Fund.

"Demographics also play an important role. Workers ages 35 to 44 and 45 to 54 bore the brunt of [employer insurance]-covered job losses, in large part because workers in these age groups were the most likely to be covering spouses and other dependents," said Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI's Health Research and Education Program.

"The adverse effects of the pandemic recession also fell disproportionately on women," Fronstin added in an EBRI news release. "Although women made up 47% of pre-pandemic employment, they accounted for 55% of total job losses."

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID-19.
RELATED First case of COVID-19 reinfection in U.S. had no known risk factors for disease



Copyright 2020 HealthDay. All rights reserved.

WTO: EU can impose tariffs on $4 billion of U.S. goods


A view of Boeing's manufacturing facility in El Segundo, Calif. The World Trade Organization ruled Tuesday the European Union could place tariffs on U.S. goods because of illegal subsidies to Boeing. Photo by Ken Wolter/Shutterstock


Oct. 13 (UPI) -- The World Trade Organization ruled Tuesday that the European Union can to hit $4 billion worth of U.S. goods with tariffs in retaliation for outlawed subsides given to Boeing.

The ruling is the latest in a dispute that has been ongoing since 2004 between Boeing and its European rival Airbus. The WTO's decision was slowed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The body said last year that the United States had given Boeing illegal subsidies, suggesting tax breaks the domestic airplane maker received would amount to roughly $6 billion from 2006 to 2040. It also allowed the Trump administration to place tariffs on goods in Europe in response to subsidies given to Airbus.

Boeing had originally accused Airbus of receiving illegal aid from numerous governments to create and build the A350 twin-aisle plane and the related A380 superjumbo aircraft.

"The arbitrator concluded that the European Union may request authorization from the (WTO) to take countermeasures with respect to the United States," the ruling stated.

Before the tariffs can go into effect, the EU must first request authorization from the WTO. An Oct. 26 meeting is the earliest opportunity to do so.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the tax breaks cited by the WTO are no longer in effect, making a decision based on them null and void.

"Because Washington state repealed that tax break earlier this year, the EU has no valid basis to retaliate against any U.S. products," Lighthizer said. "Any imposition of tariffs based on a measure that has been eliminated is plainly contrary to WTO principles and will force a U.S. response."

Airbus Chief Executive Guillaume Faury appeared to offer an olive branch, suggesting that differences between it and Boeing and the wider dispute can be hammered out through talks.

"Airbus did not start this WTO dispute, and we do not wish to continue the harm to the customers and suppliers of the aviation industry and to all other sectors impacted," Faury said. "As we have already demonstrated, we remain prepared and ready to support a negotiation process that leads to a fair settlement."

Lebanese expect the worst as poverty surges

Business owners, most of whom had to close their companies, gather with anti-government protesters during a demonstration over deteriorating living conditions and after the government raised bread prices, in Beirut, Lebanon, on July 2. File Photo by Nabil Mounzer/EPA-EFE


BEIRUT, Lebanon, Oct. 13 (UPI) -- With no new government in sight to adopt reforms that would release urgently needed international aid, poverty is growing in Lebanon, with a pervasive fear that it's going to get worse.

The streets are increasingly filled with beggars, mostly Syrian refugees. The minimum monthly wage has fallen to 600,000 Lebanese lira, the equivalent of $400 just a year ago, currently worth $69 at the black market rate

In August, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia estimated Lebanon's poverty rate had surged to 55 percent in May, compared to 28 percent last year.

Bader Jamal el Naboulsi, a construction worker from the Bab al-Tabbaneh neighborhood in Tripoli, has been jobless for months.

RELATED Lebanon's fate linked to regional settlement

"Now, I just do anything like cleaning homes and carpets or [work] as porter to raise at the end of the day 25,000 LL," which equates to $16 at the official rate and less than $3 at the black market rate, Naboulsi, a father of eight, told UPI. "Some days we sleep without food. I never beg for anything."

But his wife, Rima, is obliged to ask her neighbors for "bread, potatoes or anything they can spare" to feed her children. "I need at least 50,000 LL just to put some food on the table for my children."

What the Lebanese people fear most is that the central bank will not be able to maintain the subsidy over basic commodities. What is left of its U.S. dollar reserves, estimated at $1.8 billion, barely allows it to continue subsidizing wheat, fuel and medicine at the official exchange rate of 1,507 Lebanese pound for $1, compared to LL 3,900 per U.S. dollar traded at the banks and nearly LL 8,700 in the black market.

RELATED Lebanon's acting prime minister resigns, endangering reform

Already drivers are seen queuing up at the gas stations to fill their tanks while many are touring the pharmacies to get medications that are in short supply.

Lebanon's descent began a year ago with an unprecedented economic and financial crisis resulting in the national currency losing 80 percent of its value against the U.S. dollar; inflation, poverty and unemployment rates reaching record levels; foreign currency reserves at the Central Bank nearing depletion; and severe banking restrictions depriving depositors of their life savings -- restrictions that remain in place.

The alarming spread of COVID-19 and the Aug. 4 massive blast at the Beirut port accentuated the population's suffering. Many hospitals were badly damaged by the port explosion, at a time the health sector was greatly affected by the financial crisis, facing dwindling medical supplies and shortage of medication due to the lack of liquidity of the dollar.

RELATED Major explosion at arms depot in Lebanon injures 4

Like the Naboulsis, the eight-member family of Khaled Suleiman al Assi only "eat meat and chicken if donated." Everything in their house "is by donation -- the TV, the fridge, the oven and even the closet and the blankets," said 13-year-old Amina.

In the predominantly Shiite southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, people are in no better situation.

"Here, not everyone is being paid by Hezbollah in U.S. dollars," one resident, who refused to be identified or disclose what he does for a living, told UPI. "Many poor people, including Syrians, are seen late at night or early morning rushing to the vegetable and fruit markets to get the leftover for free or whenever they hear that donated food boxes are being distributed."

The man, 46, has been unemployed for more than two years.

"My life was completely destroyed...Not only I cannot support my family, I am about to lose the apartment I bought after so many years of hard work because I can no longer pay my housing loan to the bank," he said. "It is a catastrophe...the situation will turn really bad: People will steal or kill to eat."

Despite the "dreadful situation," Hani Bohsali, the owner of Bohsali Foods and president of the Syndicate of Importers of Foodstuffs in Lebanon, said the country is not at risk of starvation, at least for the time being.

"Anything is possible, but we haven't reached that point...it is not to be compared with Venezuela," Bohsali told UPI, explaining that the country is surviving on its remaining food reserves. "But what will happen in 2021 when no more reserves or money [are] left?"

Venezuela has been in crisis for years, suffering from growing political discontent and a collapsed economy that resulted in skyrocketing hyperinflation, soaring unemployment, widespread poverty and hunger, medicine shortages, power cuts and rising crime rates. Nearly 5 million people have fled the country to seek refuge in neighboring countries.

The humanitarian assistance that poured into Lebanon from numerous countries and international organizations after the Beirut port explosion, which killed more than 190 people and made 300,000 homeless, helped meet immediate needs, but the country cannot survive without sustainable solutions.

Only a big infusion of U.S. dollars -- mainly as part of a program with the International Monetary Fund -- can contribute to adjusting the financial situation, reactivating a stagnant local economy and making fresh U.S. dollars available in the market. However, the IMF and other donor countries won't pay unless the Lebanese authorities adopt requested reforms.

Lebanon's political leaders thus have to end their endless disputes and agree on forming a new government to spare the country another cycle of violence.

"Lifting subsidies mean that the price of bread will triple, 20 liters of gasoline will jump from LL 25,000 to more than LL 75,000 and the salary of an army soldier will drop to $20-$30 a month...and so we will enter an ugly cycle," said Joseph Bahout, the newly appointed director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. "The most important is that violence does not exceed a certain level."

With a heavily armed Hezbollah and other groups recently displaying their weapons, the risk of slipping into a civil war is a frightening possibility, former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Thursday.

"We are all waiting for the U.S. presidential elections, for Washington and Tehran to resume their negotiations and for a big change in the region," Bahout told UPI. "But the situation may not change: Iran might not accept to negotiate and so Washington will increase its sanctions. We don't know what will happen first: Lebanon's collapse or the regional developments."

Raptors coach Nick Nurse says it's a good thing Black Lives Matter has become a bigger part of our lives


Anti-racism protests should have made us all more political: Nurse

CBC Radio · Posted: Oct 13, 2020 

Nick Nurse said the Toronto Raptors had 'very open and candid discussions' about their own experiences following recent anti-racism protests. (Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press)



The Current 19:55

Raptors head coach Nick Nurse on leadership on and off the court
FULL EPISODE: The Current for Oct. 13, 2020

During the global protests that followed the death of George Floyd, Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse says his job was to get his players together "and just let everybody speak."

"We had very open and candid discussions with our players — nothing to do with basketball, just ideas on how we can make the world a better place," said Nurse, who led the Raptors to the team's first NBA championship victory in 2019,

His new book is titled Rapture: Fifteen Teams, Four Countries, One NBA Championship and How to Find a Way to Win — Damn Near Anywhere.

Nurse told The Current's Matt Galloway that the players were "amazing in voicing their concerns," and shared their own stories about "run-ins they had with law enforcement."

"My job was to lead them, to give them a voice, to listen to them, put [an] arm around them if I need to, to help them with their ideas — going forward — of things they wanted to get done, and be part of their group."

Amid anti-Black racism protests, Masai Ujiri urges people to ask: 'Who are you as a person?'
Raptors VanVleet, Powell speak out against Blake shooting, consider boycotting games

The killing of George Floyd — an unarmed Black man pinned to the ground by a white police officer kneeling on his neck during his arrest in Minneapolis in May — led to months of protests and global discussions on systemic racism.


How NBA players are pushing for social justice as playoff games resume
Pro sports games have now resumed after NBA players led a boycott this week in solidarity with protests against deadly police violence. The National looks at what they're doing to keep that message at the forefront, and how the NBA reacted much differently to racial unrest in the 1990s. 2:11

In August, NBA players halted play for three days in a protest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, another Black man in Kenosha, Wis. Play resumed after the league agreed to partner with players on initiatives on racial justice and voting in the upcoming U.S. election.

While U.S. President Donald Trump condemned the protest at the time — saying politics would destroy the sport — Nurse commended the NBA for giving players a platform, and said he hopes the issues raised in recent months have a lasting impact on people.

"I hope it made everybody more political," he told Galloway.

"[When] the pandemic became part of life, you had to start educating yourself on what to do," he said.

"And then Black Lives Matter became part of our lives a little bit more, and it's a good thing. It needed to be."

Nurse signed a multi-year extension to his Raptors contract last month, in the middle of a season interrupted by COVID-19, and ending for his team with a second-round exit against the Boston Celtics.




Tatum, Celtics sends Raptors packing in 2nd round of NBA playoffs
1 month ago
0:25Jayson Tatum had 29 points to go along with 12 boards as the Boston Celtics beat the Toronto Raptors 92-87 in game 7 of their second round series. 0:25

While he said resuming the season under strict COVID-19 bubble restrictions "wasn't that fun," he welcomed the chance to get back to work.

"I thought people around the world needed sports, you know, even if it was just on TV to watch it, as some positivity."

Nurse came close to quitting

In August, Nurse was named the NBA's coach of the year. But at tbe beginning of his career in the mid-1990s, he came close to quitting.

Born in Carroll, Iowa, in 1967, Nurse spent his early coaching years in Europe, working with teams in the British Basketball League.

"I was coaching the Birmingham Bullets, my team was eight and eight [wins and losses], and I didn't think I was any good at it," he told Galloway.

Nurse said he started to question whether his move to Europe was paying off, especially as he was away from family and not making much money.

"I went and sat down in my hotel room and wrote down about four other things that I thought about doing instead of coaching, and they all looked like absolute shit to me," he laughed.

"I decided I better get to work and become a better coach."

Police brutality continually treated like a 'one-off' in Canada, says Desmond Cole

Almost 25 years later, he led the Raptors to their first NBA championship. It's the first time a Canadian team has won the league's top prize.

In the book, he describes surrendering control as part of his coaching style.

"I lay out a vision, I try to put out a plan, then I let my assistant coaches coach … and then I let the players play," he said.

"We put in a structure and a framework, but we leave lots of room for freedom so people can show their creativity."




Toronto Raptors victory parade erupts into massive celebration
1 year agoThe parade shut down parts of Toronto's downtown area for cheers, chants and champagne showers. 7:48

Nurse said that he's tried to stay focused on self improvement at every step of his career.

"Each and every season I was trying to find a way to become better, and if I was ever going to get a shot at a really big-time job, I wanted to be ready for it," he said.

His advice to anyone trying to succeed is to "love the job you're in."

"Give that job everything you have, and it'll prepare you for something bigger down the road."

Written by Padraig Moran. Produced by Howard Goldenthal.

For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.

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CANADA

Pandemic is creating a new type of homelessness, says outreach worker

New COVID-19 supports mean other homeless individuals finding housing they need

CBC Radio ·  October 13,2020

A homeless person is seen in downtown Toronto, on Wednesday, January 3, 2018. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press)



The Current

20:34

How COVID-19 has affected homelessness in Canada
FULL EPISODE: The Current for Oct. 12, 2020


A Halifax-based street outreach worker says that since the pandemic started, he's met more and more people who have likely become homeless for the first time.

"Everywhere I look … I see a place where last year or six months ago, there wasn't somebody sleeping. But now there's people in every park, there's people on so many different benches," said Eric Jonsson, program co-ordinator with Navigator Street Outreach.

"I've been doing this for about 10 years or so, and in previous years … you really had to look. But now you don't have to look very hard to find people who are homeless."

COVID-19 has been particularly hard on Canada's homeless population. With shelters cutting back the number of beds they offer to facilitate physical distancing, many cities have seen homeless encampments popping up in parks as people try to find a safe place to sleep.

One Toronto organization warned earlier this year that the pandemic could push more people into homelessness as people who have lost their jobs struggle to pay their bills.

Eric Jonsson is the program co-ordinator at Navigator Street Outreach in Halifax. (Submitted by Eric Jonsson)

Jonsson is seeing the pandemic's economic toll firsthand.

While mental health and addiction have historically been barriers to people accessing housing, he said that now it seems as though many people simply can't pay their rent.

"We're seeing not only more people, but a whole new, I don't know, type of homeless person," he told The Current's Matt Galloway.

"There's a lot of people who are newly homeless and the main driving factor is there's just no place for them to live."
An affordability crisis

Dr. Andrew Bond, medical director at Inner City Health Associates in Toronto, says Canada's increasing affordability crisis is part of the problem.

While housing prices have been rising, pandemic benefits like the CERB have been difficult to get into the hands of people living on the streets, he said.

"The ability to match income to available, affordable places is certainly a huge challenge that's increased throughout COVID," said Bond.

"People are opting, when they don't have any other options, to go the streets, to go to tents and encampments, to try and get as much distance as they can to keep themselves safe," he added.

"It's very much a self-protective practice that's happening amidst an economic crisis at the same time."

A homeless encampments in Montreal. Sites like this have been popping up in cities across the country since the pandemic began. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press)

But the pandemic hasn't been all bad news when it comes to addressing homelessness.

Bond said he recognized early on in the health crisis that there was a need for standalone isolation facilities for homeless individuals who were exposed to, or tested positive for the virus. And governments have responded by pouring cash into those kinds of supports.

"In February and March, we were fortunate enough, along with many municipalities across the country, to receive provincial funding … as well as a large federal release of funds that were fairly unrestricted, to allow us to do this kind of work, but also to really advocate for the need for outreach testing and surveillance within the shelters," Bond said.

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Raquel Winslow, who lives in Coquitlam, B.C., is grateful for some of the changes the pandemic has brought.

After living on the streets for several years, she's found relief at a shelter that opened in her city because of the pandemic.

"I was just, like, ecstatic ... to know that I might have a bed and a room of my own after six years," she said. "I mean, you really value that when you don't have it."
I feel safe for the first time in a while.- Raquel Winslow

Winslow now has her own bedroom in a hotel, where the shelter is being run out of.

And she said the program is working and that staff have been helping her get her life back on track.

Raquel Winslow, who was homeless for several years, now has a roof over her head because of a shelter that was set up during the COVID-19 pandemic (Submitted by Phoenix Society)

"People are starting to, you know, trust that maybe there are people here who want to do something more than just give you somewhere to sleep at night," she said.

"I feel safe for the first time in a while."

'There needs to be trust, respect,' says doctor

Bond said building trust between homeless individuals and the communities they are being supported by is key to making them feel welcome.

But not everyone has been happy about shelters springing up during the pandemic.

Demonstrators took to the streets in Toronto's midtown neighbourhood this summer after three city-run homeless shelters opened up there. Some residents say the shelters have made their neighbourhood less safe, while others argue people must show empathy and educate themselves about homelessness and addiction.

Dr. Andrew Bond is the medical director at Inner City Health Associates in Toronto. (Submitted by Andrew Bond)

"Any time you move any group of people into a new place, to a new community, there's bound to be relationship challenges and sort of relationship-building that needs to happen," he said.

"In order to have that happen, there needs to be trust, respect and confidence in what's happening in that space."
It's a shame it took something like COVID for people to see that people need a home and that we're all the same.- Raquel Winslow

We also have to start seeing each other as human beings, Raquel says.

She said she feels like the pandemic has been her chance for people to notice her.

COVID-19 highlights decades of failure to help homeless, but is also a chance for change, says advocate

"It's a shame it took something like COVID for people to see that people need a home and that we're all the same," she said.

"That shouldn't happen in a place like Canada."

Written by Kirsten Fenn. Produced by Ines Colabrese, Mary-Catherine McIntosh and Rachel Levy-McLaughlin.


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