Largest study of Asia's rivers unearths 800 years of paleoclimate patterns

The SUTD study will be crucial for assessing future climatic changes and making more informed water management decisions.

SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN

Research News

 

IMAGE: MAP OF THE ASIAN MONSOON REGION; RIVER BASINS INVOLVED IN THIS STUDY ARE HIGHLIGHTED BY SUBREGION, RIVERS BELONGING TO THE WORLD'S 30 BIGGEST ARE SHOWN WITH NAMES INDICATED IN BLUE.... view more 

CREDIT: SUTD

813 years of annual river discharge at 62 stations, 41 rivers in 16 countries, from 1200 to 2012. That is what researchers at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) produced after two years of research in order to better understand past climate patterns of the Asian Monsoon region.

Home to many populous river basins, including ten of the world's biggest rivers (Figure 1), the Asian Monsoon region provides water, energy, and food for more than three billion people. This makes it crucial for us to understand past climate patterns so that we can better predict long term changes in the water cycle and the impact they will have on the water supply.

To reconstruct histories of river discharge, the researchers relied on tree rings. An earlier study by Cook et al. (2010) developed an extensive network of tree ring data sites in Asia and created a paleodrought record called the Monsoon Asia Drought Atlas (MADA). SUTD researchers used the MADA as an input for their river discharge model.

They developed an innovative procedure to select the most relevant subset of the MADA for each river based on hydroclimatic similarity. This procedure allowed the model to extract the most important climate signals that influence river discharge from the underlying tree ring data.

"Our results reveal that rivers in Asia behave in a coherent pattern. Large droughts and major pluvial periods have often occurred simultaneously in adjacent or nearby basins. Sometimes, droughts stretched as far as from the Godavari in India to the Mekong in Southeast Asia (Figure 2). This has important implications for water management, especially when a country's economy depends on multiple river basins, like in the case of Thailand," explained first author Nguyen Tan Thai Hung, a PhD student from SUTD.

Using modern measurements, it has been known that the behaviour of Asian rivers is influenced by the oceans. For instance, if the Pacific Ocean becomes warmer in its tropical region in an El Nino event, this will alter atmospheric circulations and likely cause droughts in South and Southeast Asian rivers. However, the SUTD study revealed that this ocean-river connection is not constant over time. The researchers found that rivers in Asia were much less influenced by the oceans in the first half of the 20th century compared to the 50 years before and 50 years after that period.

"This research is of great importance to policy makers; we need to know where and why river discharge changed during the past millennium to make big decisions on water-dependent infrastructure. One such example is the development of the ASEAN Power Grid, conceived to interconnect a system of hydropower, thermoelectric, and renewable energy plants across all ASEAN countries. Our records show that 'mega-droughts' have hit multiple power production sites simultaneously, so we can now use this information to design a grid that is less vulnerable during extreme events," said principal investigator Associate Professor Stefano Galelli from SUTD.

CAPTION

This "heat map" shows the reconstructed history of 62 river reaches (each row) over 812 years (each column). The stations are arranged approximately north to south (top down on y?axis) and divided into five regions as delineated in Figure 1: CA (Central Asia), EA (East Asia), WA (West Asia), CN (eastern China), SEA (Southeast Asia), and SA (South Asia).

China Sinopharm’s vaccine has 79% protection rate against COVID-19

30 Dec 2020 

BEIJING: A COVID-19 vaccine developed by a Beijing firm linked to Sinopharm has a protection rate of 79.34 per cent against the disease, the firm said in a statement on Wednesday (Dec 30).

Beijing Biological Products Institute said it had applied to the National Medical Products Administration for conditional approval of the inactivated coronavirus vaccine, a type of inoculation using particles of the pathogen.

The result is based on interim analysis of data from its Phase III clinical trial, but the firm did not give details such as the number of infections in the trial.

The efficacy of the Chinese vaccine candidate is lower than rival jabs developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna but a potential breakthrough in the battle to stem the pandemic in Asia.

READ: China Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine taken by about 1 million people in emergency use

China has been racing against to develop its own COVID-19 vaccines, with five already in large-scale Phase 3 clinical trials. But it has struggled to gain international trust for its vaccine candidates, hindered by a lack of transparency on test results.

It has also been slow to complete Phase 3 trials, which had to be conducted abroad due to China's success at curbing the spread of COVID-19 within its own borders.

Chinese officials have repeatedly assured the public of the vaccines' safety, claiming that there have been no serious adverse reactions.

More than 1 million people have already been vaccinated with unapproved vaccines in China under its emergency use programme, including frontline health workers, state-owned enterprise employees and workers planning to travel abroad.

READ: Chinese COVID-19 vaccines are poised to fill gap, but will they work?

The United Arab Emirates approved a Sinopharm vaccine earlier this month, becoming the first foreign country to approve a China-developed COVID-19 vaccine.

Beijing has pledged to share the vaccine at a fair cost - a potential boost for poorer Asian countries who are otherwise reliant on limited distribution offered by the COVAX scheme.

"China has made the firm commitment that after China's new coronavirus vaccines are completed and put into use, they will serve as a global public product and be supplied to the world at a fair and reasonable price," foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said Friday.

"We will also give priority to developing countries for vaccines. This will be made through a variety of ways, including through donations and aid."

BOOKMARK THIS: Our comprehensive coverage of the coronavirus outbreak and its developments

Damaged nerves, scarred lungs, exhausted bodies: Some COVID-19 patients face a long haul that can last for months

by Emily Brindley, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

For Anna Lawrence, a history professor at Fairfield University, it started the third week of March.

Her symptoms were textbook—chest pain, difficulty breathing, fatigue, racing heart.

"It was pretty clearly COVID," she said.

Lawrence battled the virus, the constant tiredness and breathlessness, for a month until her symptoms began to let up. But then, she started to recover. Things seemed better. She felt almost out of the woods.

"Then I started to slip back again," she said. Lawrence went through the cycle four times—sick for a month or so, rebounding for a couple of weeks and then sick again. Each time, "I went right back to square one."

Lawrence is one of many across Connecticut and the country who are commonly referred to as "COVID-19 long-haulers"—thousands of people who contract the virus, and then battle its effects for months and months afterward.

Now, in her fourth cycle of COVID-19 symptoms, the chest pain and difficulty breathing seem to have dissipated. But they're replaced by an exhaustion so complete that she said it feels like a depression.

"Since March, I've spent more time in bed than I have upright," Lawrence said. "I can do something pretty normal, like wiping down counters, and I have to sit down and rest."

There's no one set of symptoms that defines a long-hauler—although many report extreme fatigue. There's also no one profile of a long-hauler. Physicians say they've seen people with severe COVID-19 cases, moderate cases and mild cases all become long-haulers.

At this point, with so much about COVID-19 and its long-term effects still unknown, medical experts say it's unclear if all or even most long-haulers will ever return to their pre-coronavirus health.

'I have never been more frightened'

For some long-haulers, COVID-19 hits like a truck—bringing severe illness and leaving them wondering if they'll even survive.

On the morning of March 12, Kathy Flaherty woke up with a fever. Eight days later, she was in the emergency room. It was COVID-19.

"It was terrifying," she said. "I have never been more frightened."

Flaherty, the executive director of the Connecticut Legal Rights Project, said there were times she asked her husband to label things and take them to the office, because she didn't know if she was going to survive.

After being discharged from the hospital and spending more time recovering at home, Flaherty said she started to realize that she probably wasn't going to get back to normal anytime soon.

"It just keeps dragging on, and then you're just stuck in this chronic stage," she said. "There's no further setback, but there's not further progress."

George Aiello, 77, was a full-time X-ray technician at Norwalk Hospital when he caught COVID-19 at work. He spent 37 days on a ventilator. In May, he was transferred from Danbury Hospital to Wallingford's Gaylord Hospital—but it was another seven months before he was discharged and sent home.

The most difficult part, Aiello said, was learning how to walk again.

"Like a baby," he said. "And here I am a grown man."

Sonya Huber, a creative writing professor at Fairfield University, has spent the past nine months dealing with mental health effects on top of long-hauler symptoms.

In her initial bout with COVID-19, which began in March, the threat of dying and the fear of the unknown pushed her into survival mode.

"I don't know if I was near death, but I consider it the equivalent of a near-death experience," Huber said. "I sort of shut down into crisis and kind of just really withdrew from feeling about it."

'A web of unhealthiness'

The COVID-19 diagnosis is often only the beginning for long-haulers.

Lawrence has lung damage and undifferentiated connective tissue disease, which is an autoimmune disease that she's still learning about. Both issues stem from COVID-19.

"It felt like this disease had planted a web of unhealthiness, and every time I went to a doctor it was another little sticky tendril wrapped around a leg," Lawrence said. "Now my body feels kind of bound up."

Aiello, after learning to walk again and being discharged back to his home, is still in physical therapy five times a week. Surgery on his throat has left his voice quiet and wheezing. Nerve damage to his hands means he can't make a fist. His heart races. His left shoulder aches.

"It's all part of COVID," Aiello said.

Flaherty's back lights up with burning pain, and she uses an inhaler to calm her lungs and medication to calm her stomach. Huber's aorta is dilated, her lungs are scarred and her blood pressure spikes at random times.

For all of them, coronavirus may have begun with classic symptoms—shortness of breath, coughing, fever—but it did not end there.

"It's a very weird thing to go from feeling like your body knows what it's doing ... and now I feel like I can't really trust it anymore," Lawrence said.

'Am I ever really going to recover?'

Long-haul COVID-19 is a relatively new phenomenon, by nature even more recent than COVID-19 itself.

Dr. Jordan Powner, a pulmonologist and critical care doctor at Hartford Hospital, said he would estimate about 10% to 15% of coronavirus patients become long-haulers. But he emphasized that that figure is an educated guess.

Powner said he and his colleagues are particularly worried about cardiac problems, and that there's some evidence that long-haulers may be more prone to heart disease and stroke.

But for now, he said, the extent of the long-term effects is just not knowable.

"We're kind of just catching the tip of the iceberg now," Powner said.

Dr. Jessica Abrantes-Figueiredo, the chief of infectious disease at Hartford's St. Francis Hospital, said she feels that long-haulers get overlooked when people talk about the toll of COVID-19.

"Yes, there's death," she said. "But then there are the people who are left behind with all these symptoms."

In recent weeks, Huber's long-hauler symptoms have started to ebb. She said she still worries what will happen when she goes back to pre-pandemic activity—"I'm wondering what that will do to my body and my energy levels"—but it seems she's slowly getting back to her old self.

Aiello, Flaherty and Lawrence haven't yet been able to say the same. All three worry that they might not be able to work like they used to.

Aiello, though 77, was working full time as an X-ray technician before he got sick. But going back to work at all now depends on his nerve-damaged hands.

Flaherty, who's still batting constant exhaustion, is limited to working half time.

"I'd give anything to be able to go back to work full time," she said.

And Lawrence said the constant exhaustion has impacted her work, too, even though she was able to teach during the fall semester. Her constant exhaustion has eaten away at her deadlines, and her brain fog has chipped away at her access to her memories.

As a historian, Lawrence is used to pulling up names and dates on command. But recently, she said, she'll listen back to her lectures and hear herself struggling to find the right words.

"Am I ever really going to recover?" she said. For now, doctors can't give her a sure answer.


Explore further The frightening uncertainty of long-haul COVID-19

Provided by Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Tips for making music good medicine

by From Mayo Clinic News Network, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Music has been a part of humanity for as long as humanity has existed. Archeologists have unearthed relatively complex bone instruments greater than 40,000 years old. Certainly, human ancestors likely were making music in more rudimentary ways even before this. It is no surprise then that music is so fundamental to development as humans and their continued psychological well-being.

There's no doubt the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulties people all have experienced this year have taken a toll on mental health. Music is one tool to use ease the strain on your mental health, and help you to heal in the future.

No one can tell a person exactly how to enjoy music. This is because music preferences are as unique as each person.

Music therapy is field of medicine where music is used to treat various conditions, much as a physical therapist might treat a patient. You can use some of their techniques to inspire your own healing and manage your mental health. These techniques are wide ranging. No matter your preferences for music, you can make activities like these work for you.

Performing music often is more powerful than listening. If you have the skill, you should try to perform music. You don't need to be a classically trained musician, and you don't need an audience. Sure, you can sit down and play the piano, but belting out a tune in the shower or in your car likely is just as helpful. Whistling is performing music, too. Getting a group of people together outside, using social distancing, to play kazoos, rarely ends without laughter, which also is powerful medicine. However you do it, find a way to make music.

Music has always been a social bonding activity. If you aren't comfortable making your own music, you can make listening more powerful by listening together. With quarantine, this takes creativity. Try listening to a song together on Facetime with a friend or playing music that you and a neighbor enjoy. If you and another person have a song that you share as your special song, call him or her ― or send them the song to listen to ― and then call and talk when the song is done. If you are quarantined together, listen together.

Music often is linked to some of our deepest and most resilient memories and emotions. If you are feeling down, think back to music you listened to during a happier time. Often this is music from your youth. Whatever this music is, listen to it, and it may lighten the mood.

In many cultures, music and dance are closely linked, so much so that one seems incomplete without the other. So listen or perform music and dance. Do it with a family partner in your home if you can, but alone will do, and you don't need an audience for this either. We all need to move more than we do, even in normal times. While stuck in quarantine, this is doubly true, and evidence shows that exercise also improves mental health. There are many ways ― and no wrong way ― to move with music. Many places are offering things like online movement and dance classes, and other ways to move to music and connect to people online. You don't need anything fancy. If you can find a way to hear music and move your body to it, then do it.

There are many other ways to fit music into your lives. Let my suggestions be motivation for your own creativity. Music has always been a refuge for people during the most difficult times, and it can certainly help during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So sing, dance, play and connect to make each day a little better.


Explore further

Music-induced emotions can be predicted from brain scans

Provided by Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

©2020 Mayo Clinic News Network

For young Californians, climate change is a mental health crisis too

by Brian Contreras, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Maddie Cole in eighth grade stopped running cross country. She'd competed the year before, but the air quality in her native Sacramento, California, was so bad that she got sick during a race; she soon learned she had asthma.

The next year the sky above Sacramento turned gray with smoke from the 2018 Camp fire. Maddie and her classmates went to school with masks on. "It felt," she said, "like a futuristic apocalypse."

The situation has only worsened as wildfires and their devastation have become so routine that she and her classmates are "just used to it," said Maddie, now 16 and a junior. This fall "it was just like, 'Yeah, California's on fire again. It's that time of year.'"

Neither the polluted air nor the wildfires punctuating Maddie's adolescence are random. Both are being exacerbated by climate change, and the future they portend has left Maddie feeling helpless, anxious and scared. Climate anxiety and other mental health struggles are rampant among Maddie's generation, according to experts who warn that young Californians are growing up in the shadow of looming catastrophe—and dealing with the emotional and psychological fallout that comes with it.

The scope of the problem is enormous.

The Earth's temperature has skyrocketed since the Industrial Age, fueled by human activity and accompanying greenhouse gas emissions. Dramatic reductions in those emissions, and in fossil fuel use, will be necessary to prevent temperatures from reaching a tipping point by 2030, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned two years ago.

Without reducing those emissions, climate change will make natural disasters, food shortages and rising sea levels even worse, experts say. The world is not yet on track to make the changes necessary to ameliorate its worst effects.

Such dire predictions can affect mental health, particularly among young people. Polls have found that climate change-related stress affects daily life for 47% of America's young adults; over half of teenagers feel afraid and angry about climate change; and 72% of young adults are concerned that it will harm their community.

Climate depression played a central role in teenage activist Greta Thunberg's political awakening, and according to Varshini Prakash—executive director of youth-focused climate activism group the Sunrise Movement—it's not uncommon for her group to meet kids who have contemplated suicide over the climate crisis.

"Surveys have found that young people often experience more fear, sadness and anger regarding climate change than their older counterparts, as well as an increased sense of helplessness or hopelessness," said Hasina Samji, an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University who has explored the mental toll of climate change on young people, in an email. In particular, "areas that suffer direct, visible effects of climate change … have been observed to face acute impacts such as trauma, shock and PTSD."

Young Los Angeles residents described similar emotions and mental stress when contemplating the climate crisis. Kate Shapiro, 15, said humanity's selfishness, greed and "lack of foresight" about the warming planet contributes to her depression. Sarah Allen, 25, said she shudders in "real terror" when contemplating the plight of future generations. And Sam Jackson, 29, said the enormity of the problem leaves him feeling "exhausted."

To cope, many have become activists or taken steps to reduce their own effect on the planet. Some go vegetarian or vegan. Others have opted not to buy a car, even in car-centric Los Angeles, or are making plans to leave Los Angeles before the fires and droughts become unbearable. And a few said the looming environmental disaster has discouraged them from having children.

"As I've gotten to learn more about how much or how disproportionate an impact an additional American has … (I'm) less and less inclined to create a new person," said Elliott Lee, 26, of Los Angeles.

Others are throwing themselves into climate activism as a way to deal with the stress.

Lifestyle changes "empower individuals to feel like they can act," said Abby Austin, 23, the political lead for the Sunrise Movement's L.A. branch—echoing medical professionals who say that even small personal actions can help people feel like broader change remains possible.

Getting involved with activism can serve a similar function. Many young Californians said volunteering with climate advocacy groups such as the Sunrise Movement or for politicians who have made climate change a central plank in their platforms has given them a sense of purpose.

"A lot of the people who are in Sunrise," Austin said, "are literally organizing out of climate anxiety."


Explore further

Majority of US adults believe climate change is most important issue today

Provided by Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

©2020 Los Angeles Times.

Wind powers more than half of UK electricity for first time

THE DESIGNER WAS SCARED BY PINK FLAMINGOS

Britain intends to rely heavily on offshore wind power as part of its efforts to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in order to help meet its commitments under the Paris climate accord

Wind power accounted for more than half of Britain's daily generated electricity on Saturday in the wake of Storm Bella, according to energy giant Drax.


The percentage of wind power in the country's energy mix hit a record 50.67 percent on Saturday, the company said over the weekend, beating the previous record of 50 percent in August.

"For the first time ever (on Saturday), amid #StormBella, more than half of Great Britain's electricity was generated by the wind," Drax Group tweeted.

It added: "This is the first time ever wind has supplied the majority of the country's power over the course of a whole day."

The encouraging news comes ahead of COP26, the UN's global climate change summit, which will be held in Glasgow next year.

The British government wants offshore wind farms to provide one third of the country's electricity by 2030, as part of its strategy to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050 to help meet its commitments under the Paris climate accord.

The UK has also placed nuclear power at the heart of its low-carbon energy policy.

"Britain has experienced a renewables revolution over the last decade with the growth of biomass, wind and solar power," Drax said.

Added to the brightening picture, National Grid's Electricity System Operator (NGESO) division declared Tuesday that this year was a historic year for UK renewables.

"2020 was the greenest year on record for Britain's electricity system, with average carbon intensity—the measure of CO2 emissions per unit of electricity consumed—reaching a new low," NGESO said in a statement.

National Grid also revealed that on Christmas Day, December 25, the share of coal in the UK electricity mix stood at zero for the first time.

That compared with just 1.8 percent the previous year—and 20 percent in 2009.


Explore furtherRenewables overtake hydrocarbons in UK electricity generation: study

© 2020 AFP

How coronavirus made 2020 the year of the electric bike

by Ashley Cooper, Angie Page and Jessica E Bourne, 

The Conversation

DECEMBER 29, 2020

Credit: Halfpoint/Shutterstock

Walking and cycling gained a higher profile than ever in 2020 as a result of the pandemic. Governments around the world encouraged individuals to go on foot or take their bikes where possible instead of using crowded public transport, and invested in widescale cycling infrastructure to help them do so.

In the UK, the link between obesity and poorer coronavirus outcomes and the country's new obesity strategy led to doctors prescribing cycling to improve patients' health.

While manufacturers and retailers reported a rise in bicycle sales and cycling in general during the pandemic, there remain many people who may not feel fit enough to cycle very far (or at all), have a long commute, or live in hilly places.

For these people, bicycles that provide electrical assistance for the rider when pedalling, known as electric bikes or e-bikes, have proved an attractive option because they make cycling easier. As a result, sales of e-bikes also boomed in 2020, with manufacturers struggling to keep up with the demand.

The advantages of e-bikes

Requiring less effort to ride, e-bikes allow the user to carry more luggage than conventional cycles, and are often used for utilitarian purposes such as shopping or commuting, as well as for recreation. E-bike owners have been found to cycle more frequently and for longer distances than conventional cyclists.

In Europe, e-bikes represent one of the fastest growing segments of the transport market, with sales in Germany in 2018 accounting for 23.5% of all bikes sold, while more than half of the adult bikes sold in the Netherlands in 2018 were electric.

That was before the pandemic sent numbers through the roof. Now, industry groups say sales of e-bikes in Europe could double in the next five years.

A replacement for cars

Car travel is an essential part of everyday life for many people, but has a major impact on the environment through air pollution, particularly from congested traffic. As half of all car journeys in the UK are between one and five miles in length, substituting many of them with e-cycling is an achievable aim.

To explore the influence of e-cycling on travel, we conducted a scoping review of previous research. In 42 studies examining the impact of e-bike use on other travel modes, the proportion of car journeys substituted after people bought e-bikes ranged from 20% to as high as 86%. Adoption of e-cycling can therefore contribute at some level to reducing congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

Who benefits from e-bikes?

We have also researched the health benefits of e-bikes in a 2018 systematic review of studies. In 17 studies involving a range of groups, we found that e-cycling provided physical activity of at least moderate intensity, which was lower than the intensity elicited during conventional cycling, but higher than that during walking. E-cycling can therefore contribute to meeting physical activity recommendations and increasing physical fitness.

Most people who are not regularly active could benefit from e-cycling. However, for those with health conditions such as obesity or type 2 diabetes, who may particularly benefit from physical activity but often find it difficult, e-cycling may be an important way to become more regularly active.

Our research shows that rates of active commuting in these groups is low—just 5.5% for those with type 2 diabetes. In response to this statistic, we conducted the first feasibility study to explore whether e-cycling was acceptable to, and could potentially improve the health of, people with this condition.

We recruited 20 people with type 2 diabetes to use an e-bike for 20 weeks. We found that participants enjoyed using the e-bikes, cycling on average 21km per week. Participants' heart rate during e-bicycle journeys was 74.7% of maximum, compared with 64.3% of maximum when walking, a level sufficient to generate improvements in fitness. This is comparable to the changes seen when healthy inactive individuals take up conventional cycling.

The future of e-bikes

There is now increasing interest in the potential of e-bikes for other people who are recommended more physical activity but find this hard to achieve, such as those recovering from cancer. We can see a future where doctors could prescribe e-cycling to patients, with provision to buy bikes at reduced cost or spreading the payments.

Although it has been a difficult year, there may be a small silver lining to the pandemic. With fewer of us commuting, and less motorised travel overall, the pandemic has driven a change in physical activity behaviour and raised awareness of traffic congestion and air pollution.

With many of us exploring or re-discovering ways to be active outdoors and cut down on motorised transport, the future is bright for e-cycling. With the development of smaller and more efficient batteries, e-bikes will become lighter and have a longer range of travel, and will become a common sight on our streets.

Providers of e-bikes often refer to the e-bike smile—the look of joy on peoples face when they try one for the first time. Try to remember how it felt when a parent held the back of your bike saddle and whizzed you along—the feeling is very similar.

If you haven't yet tried an e-bike, we would encourage you to do so. They are great fun, will make becoming healthy a lot easier, and you may have a reason look back on something positive from 2020.


Explore further Think e-bikes are cheating? Think again

Provided by The Conversation

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

What's the best way to boost the economy? Invest in high-voltage transmission lines

by Peter Martin, The Conversation

DECEMBER 29, 2020

Credit: Bohbeh/Shutterstock

When, in the midst of the pandemic, the Economic Society of Australia invited 150 of Australia's keenest young thinkers to come up with "brief, specific and actionable" proposals to improve the economy, amid scores of ideas about improving job matching, changing the tax system, providing non-repayable loans to businesses and accelerating telehealth, two proposals stood out.


They were actually the same proposal, arrived at independently by two groups of "hackers" in the society's annual (this time virtual) "hackathon".

I was one of the judges.

The mentors who helped test and guide the proposals were some of the leading names in economics, among them Jeff Borland, John Quiggin, Gigi Foster, Deborah Cobb-Clark, Peter Abelson and John Hewson.

The proposal is to fast track the 15 or more projects already identified by the Australian Energy Market Operator as essential to meet the electricity grid's transmission needs over the next 20 years.

Starting them immediately, when business investment is weak and there's a need for jobs and governments can borrow at rates close to zero, will bring forward all of the benefits of being able to bring ultra-cheap power from the places it will be made to the places it will be needed as expensive fossil-fuel generators bow out or are out competed.

Judges Alison Booth, Jeremy Thorpe and I noted that policy hacks were the most useful where neither the market nor the government was getting the job done.

The proposal would help ensure renewables can connect to the grid, something "neither the market nor the government is managing to do quickly".

AEMO Integrated System Plan

A few weeks later Labor leader Anthony Albanese used his budget reply speech to propose the same thing—a Rewiring the Nation Corporation to turn the projects identified in the Energy Market Operator's integrated system plan into reality.


Here is what is proposed in the winners' own words:

Accelerating priority transmission projects

Nick Vernon, Agrata Verma, Bella Hancock

Investment in new renewable generators in Australia sank 40% in 2019. A major factor holding them back is grid access. The best locations for wind and sun often have poor access to the cables that transport electricity to consumers.

Our near-term recommendation is to guarantee Project EnergyConnect, a 900-kilometre cable between NSW and South Australia due to begin construction next year. The network operators got approval in January, but there is now uncertainty over whether they will get the funding.

We propose that the two state governments agree to cover the shortfall between approved revenues and realised costs (up to a pre-determined limit) to ensure construction starts on time in 2021.

Medium-term, we recommend the Australian Energy Regulator conduct the regulatory investment test and revenue adjustment processes for all priority projects in parallel to condense approval timelines and that the Commonwealth and state governments underwrite priority projects' early works.

This would allow service providers to commission new transmission lines sooner after regulatory approval.

The case for fast tracking transmission

Patrick Sweeney, Sam Edge, Elke Taylor, Jacob Keillor, Timothy Fong

Currently valued at A$20 billion, the Australian transmission network was designed for a centralised 20th century power mix and suffers from aging infrastructure.

The $6 billion upgrade we propose would have as its centrepiece 15 projects the Energy Market Operator has already identified as essential.

Fast-tracking these projects has the potential to generate 100,000 jobs, to bring about strong private investment in low-carbon power production, and to place downward pressure on wholesale power prices, producing $11 billion in benefits.

A national taskforce consisting of the department of energy and the market operator would oversee a project of a similar size to the Snowy Mountains scheme, which itself created more than 100,000 jobs during its lifecycle.

The government would procure the funds by issuing bonds, with recent rates indicating the yield payable will be less than the rate of inflation.

Firms that tendered for the work would be evaluated on their capacity to upscale production to meet milestones and on their plans to generate long-term, sustainable employment.


Explore further

Up to 90% of electricity from solar and wind the cheapest option by 2030

Provided by The Conversation

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

HIN5; IN THE 'HOOD
COVID cluckers: Pandemic feeds demand for backyard chickens

by Terence Chea
DECEMBER 30, 2020

Ron and Allison Abta hold hens in front of their backyard chicken run in Ross, Calif., Dec. 15, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic is coming home to roost in America's backyards. Forced to hunker down at home, more people are setting up coops and raising their own chickens, which provide an earthy hobby, animal companionship and a steady supply of fresh eggs. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

The coronavirus pandemic is coming home to roost in America's backyards.


Forced to hunker down at home, more people are setting up coops and raising their own chickens, which provide an earthy hobby, animal companionship and a steady supply of fresh eggs.

Amateur chicken-keeping has been growing in popularity in recent years as people seek environmental sustainability in the food they eat. The pandemic is accelerating those trends, some breeders and poultry groups say, prompting more people to make the leap into poultry parenthood.

Businesses that sell chicks, coops and other supplies say they have seen a surge in demand since the pandemic took hold in March and health officials ordered residents to stay home.

Allison and Ron Abta of Northern California's Marin County had for years talked about setting up a backyard coop. They took the plunge in August.

The couple's three kids were thrilled when their parents finally agreed to buy chicks.

"These chickens are like my favorite thing, honestly," said 12-year-old Violet, holding a dark feathered hen in her woodsy backyard. "They actually have personalities once you get to know them."

Members of the Abta family, from left, Allison, Violet, Eli, and Ariella hold hens in front of their backyard chicken run in Ross, Calif., on Dec. 15, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic is coming home to roost in America's backyards. Forced to hunker down at home, more people are setting up coops and raising their own chickens, which provide an earthy hobby, animal companionship and a steady supply of fresh eggs. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

The baby birds lived inside the family's home for six weeks before moving into the chicken run in the yard. A wire-mesh enclosure now houses the five heritage hens—each a different breed—and protects them from bobcats, foxes and other predators.

Mark Podgwaite, a Vermont chicken breeder who heads the American Poultry Association, said he and other breeders have noticed an uptick in demand for chicks since the pandemic began. His organization, which represents breeders and poultry-show exhibitors, has seen a jump in new members.

"Without question, the resurgence in raising backyard poultry has been unbelievable over the past year," said Podgwaite, who keeps a flock of roughly 100 birds. "It just exploded. Whether folks wanted birds just for eggs or eggs and meat, it seemed to really, really take off."

The Abta family bought the chicks from Mill Valley Chickens, which sells chickens, feed and supplies and builds coops and runs. Owner Leslie Citroen also offers classes for first-time chicken keepers. She estimates her sales have grown 400% this year.

Ben Duddleston discusses buying chickens and supplies from Leslie Citroen, owner of Mill Valley Chickens in Mill Valley, Calif., Dec. 15, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic is coming home to roost in America's backyards. Citroen says demand for heritage hens has increased sharply since the pandemic began and Duddleston says the pandemic influenced his decision to become a "first-time chicken dad." (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

A heritage hen sits on a wire enclosure at Mill Valley Chickens in Mill Valley, Calif., Dec. 15, 2020. The coronavirus pandemic is coming home to roost in America's backyards. Owner Leslie Citroen says demand for backyard chickens has increased sharply since the pandemic began. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

"Once COVID hit, my phone just started ringing off the hook and it just has not slowed down," Citroen said. "I don't think it's going to slow down. I think this new interest and passion in chickens is permanent."


Citroen said most of her customers this year are first-time chicken keepers. They range from parents looking for something to keep homebound children busy to "preppers" who want their own protein supply in case the world falls apart.

"Demand is just through the roof right now," Citroen said. "I've sold all my baby chicks. I've sold all my juveniles. And I'm starting to sell some of my family flock."

One of her newest customers is Ben Duddleston, who lives in nearby San Anselmo. He stopped by her home to buy three hens.

The self-described "first-time chicken dad" wanted to surprise his kids, ages 5 and 10, on Christmas.

"I think it's totally pandemic related. I don't think that I'd be doing this if in normal times," Duddleston said.


Explore further   National warning on backyard chooks after salmonella outbreaks

© 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Restoring longleaf pines, keystone of once vast ecosystems

by Janet McConnaughey

DECEMBER 30, 2020

This photo provided by The Nature Conservancy shows a prescribed fire sweeping through longleaf pines in 2019 at The Nature Conservancy's Calloway Preserve near Fort Bragg, N.C. An intensive effort in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas is bringing back longleaf pines—armor-plated trees that bear footlong needles and need regular fires to spark their seedlings' growth and to support wildly diverse grasslands that include carnivorous plants and harbor burrowing tortoises. (Margaret Fields/The Nature Conservancy via AP)

When European settlers came to North America, fire-dependent savannas anchored by lofty pines with footlong needles covered much of what became the southern United States.


Yet by the 1990s, logging and clear-cutting for farms and development had all but eliminated longleaf pines and the grasslands beneath where hundreds of plant and animal species flourished.

Now, thanks to a pair of modern day Johnny Appleseeds, landowners, government agencies and nonprofits are working in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas to bring back pines named for the long needles prized by Native Americans for weaving baskets.

Longleaf pines now cover as much as 7,300 square miles (19,000 square kilometers)—and more than one-quarter of that has been planted since 2010.

"I like to say we rescued longleaf from the dustbin. I don't think we had any idea how successful we'd be," said Rhett Johnson, who founded gopher tortoise whose burrows shelter scores of animal species including mice, foxes, rabbits, snakes, even birds, and hundreds of kinds of insects.

Plants and animals have lost ground along with the longleaf. Nearly 30 are endangered or threatened. Dozens more are being studied to decide whether they should be protected.

A fire-charred longleaf pine stands in the DeSoto National Forest in Miss. on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. An intensive effort in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas is working to bring back the pines named for the long needles prized by Native Americans for weaving baskets. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)

Johnson, who retired in 2006 as director of Auburn's Solon Dixon Forestry Education Center in south Alabama, said working surrounded by longleaf made him realize that stands were losing quality and shrinking in range. "Just as alarming, people who understood longleaf were disappearing as well," he said.

Johnson and alliance cofounder Dean Gjerstad spread the word about the tree's importance. "We were like Johnny Appleseed—we were on the road all the time," said Johnson, who retired from the alliance in 2012.

By 2005, the alliance, government agencies, nonprofits, universities and private partners were working together. In 2010, they launched America's Longleaf Restoration Initiative, with a goal of having 12,500 square miles (32,370 square kilometers) of longleaf by 2025.

The initiative built on efforts by federal and state agencies including the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Resources Conservation Service to provide incentives for owners to return land to longleaf pines, Johnson said.

Longleaf pines, about 80 to 85 years old, stand tall in the DeSoto National Forest in Miss., on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. An intensive effort in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas is working to bring back the pines named for the long needles prized by Native Americans for weaving baskets. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)

Most of the land planted in the last 10 years had been "highly erodible cropland," he said. "Better a longleaf plantation than a cotton field."

The initiative is trying to ensure that at least half the restored land is close enough to existing forests that plants and animals could, over generations, turn the new stands into functioning ecosystems.

When the ecosystem returns, landowners can look forward to annual income from activities such as hunting and wildlife photography rather than only from intermittent timber harvests, said Kevin Norton, acting chief of the National Resources Conservation Service.

Because most longleaf acreage is privately owned, 80% to 85% of the planting so far has been on private land, said Carol Denhof, president of The Longleaf Alliance.

Another 5,160 square miles (13,360 square kilometers) must be planted or reclaimed from stands overly mixed with other tree species to meet the initiative's 2025 deadline, she said. "I'm hopeful we can get there but ... we have a lot of work to do."

Silviculturist Keith Coursey walks between a 2-year-old longleaf pine "grass stage" seedling and a stand of 80- to 85-foot-tall longleaf pines in the DeSoto National Forest on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. An intensive effort in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas is bringing back longleaf pines—armor-plated trees that bear footlong needles and need regular fires to spark their seedlings' growth and to support wildly diverse grasslands that include carnivorous plants and harbor burrowing tortoises. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)

Footlong needles that give longleaf pine its name are seen in the DeSoto National Forest on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. An intensive effort in nine coastal states is bringing back longleaf pines—armor-plated trees that bear footlong needles and need regular fires to spark their seedlings' growth and to support wildly diverse grasslands that include carnivorous plants and harbor burrowing tortoises. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)

This photo taken July 8, 2010, shows a baby Louisiana pine snake poking its head through the shell of its egg while hatching, which can take up to 24 hours, at The Memphis Zoo. Pine snakes are among nearly 30 plant and animal species that have become threatened or endangered as longleaf pines lost ground. (Jim Weber/The Commercial Appeal via AP, File)

A 2-year-old "grass stage" longleaf pine seedling stands in the DeSoto National Forest on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020, with U.S. Forest Service silviculturist Keith Coursey and some 80- to 85-year-old trees in the background. Longleaf forests once covered an estimated 92 million acres, a figure which had fallen to 3.4 million by 2010. Since then, people in nine coastal states from Texas to Virginia have added 1.3 million acres—some by planting seedlings, others by taking out shrubs and other trees in mixed forests. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)

This photo from Florida's State Archives, taken near Mount Pleasant, Florida, on Aug. 7, 1936, shows two men in front of a stand of virgin longleaf pine before it was logged. When European settlers came to North America, fire-dependent savannas anchored by lofty pines with footlong needles covered much of what became the southern United States. Yet by the 1990s, logging, clear-cutting for farms and development and fire suppression had all but eliminated longleaf pines and the grasslands beneath where hundreds of plant and animal species flourished. Now an intensive effort in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas is bringing back the pines named for the long needles prized by Native Americans for weaving baskets. (Florida Forest Service/Florida's State Archives via AP)

This photo, from Florida's State Archives, shows loggers felling a longleaf pine at De Leon Springs in April 1915. When European settlers came to North America, fire-dependent savannas anchored by lofty pines with footlong needles covered much of what became the southern United States. Yet by the 1990s, logging, clear-cutting for farms and development and fire suppression had all but eliminated longleaf pines and the grasslands beneath where hundreds of plant and animal species flourished. Now an intensive effort in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas is bringing back the pines named for the long needles prized by Native Americans for weaving baskets. (Florida's State Archives via AP)

In this photograph, from the State Archives of Florida, loggers use a team of oxen to haul away longleaf pine logs near Mount Pleasant, Fla., on Aug. 7, 1936. When European settlers came to North America, fire-dependent savannas anchored by lofty pines with footlong needles covered much of what became the southern United States. Yet by the 1990s, logging, clear-cutting for farms and development and fire suppression had all but eliminated longleaf pines and the grasslands beneath where hundreds of plant and animal species flourished. Now an intensive effort in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas is bringing back the pines named for the long needles prized by Native Americans for weaving baskets. (Florida Forest Service/State Archives of Florida via AP)

Charred bark on a 20-year-old, 8-inch diameter longleaf pine in the DeSoto National Forest in Miss., on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020, shows where a fire swept by, protecting grasses and wildflowers that otherwise would be robbed of sunlight by shrubs and shorter trees. An intensive effort in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas is bringing back longleaf pines—armor-plated trees that bear footlong needles and need regular fires to spark their seedlings' growth and to support wildly diverse grasslands that include carnivorous plants and harbor burrowing tortoises. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)
A stand of 80- to 85-year-old longleaf pines and an open, grassy area where seedlings can grow unhampered—including a few at the top of the shadow are seen in the DeSoto National Forest in Miss. Landowners and government agencies in nine states from Texas to Virginia are working to bring back longleaf pines, planting seedlings in some areas and managing others to remove shrubs and other kinds of trees. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)

Tiny carnivorous plants called sundews, like the fingertip-sized one shown here in the DeSoto National Forest, in Miss., on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020, are part of the wildly diverse longleaf pine ecosystem. An intensive effort in nine coastal states from from Virginia to Texas is bringing back longleaf pines—armor-plated trees that bear footlong needles and need regular fires to spark their seedlings' growth and to support wildly diverse grasslands that include carnivorous plants and harbor burrowing tortoises. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)

Longleaf pine needles and a chunk of bark frame tiny carnivorous plants called sundews in the DeSoto National Forest in Miss., on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. An intensive effort in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas is bringing back longleaf pines—armor-plated trees that bear footlong needles and need regular fires to spark their seedlings' growth and to support wildly diverse grasslands that include carnivorous plants and harbor burrowing tortoises. (AP Photo/Janet McConnaughey)

Silviciulturist Keith Coursey stands in a thicket of gallberries—one of the shrubs that would block the sun from grasses and wildflowers in longleaf pine forests without regular fires—in front of a stand of 80- to 85-foot-tall longleaf pines in the DeSoto National Forest on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. An intensive effort in nine coastal states from Virginia to Texas is bringing back longleaf pines—armor-plated trees that bear footlong needles and need regular fires to spark their seedlings' growth and to support wildly diverse grasslands that include carnivorous plants and harbor burrowing tortoises. (AP Photo/Janet 

About 400 acres (160 hectares) of land returned to longleaf were planted by the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, for their needles.

About 400 acres (160 hectares) of land returned to longleaf were planted by the Alabama-Coushatta Tribe of Texas, for their needles. But branches from most of the first planting are now too high to reach. So Gesse Bullock, the tribe's fire management specialist, said he is pushing for another planting on the 10,200-acre (4,100-hectare) reservation.

Basket weavers include the tribe's realty officer, Elliott Abbey. "When I was younger," he said, "I thought it was work—something my aunts made me do,"

Now, Abbey said, "It strikes me in the heart that this could die out."

Explore further

Landscape-level habitat connectivity is key for species that depend on longleaf pine

© 2020 The Associated Press.