It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Monday, June 17, 2024
Hospital hackings surge, putting patient data and safety at risk
By Dr. Tim Sandle DIGITAL JOURNAL June 16, 2024 UK hospital bosses say they may be forced to cut services this winter due to soaring energy prices - Copyright AFP Frederic J. BROWN
Cyberattacks on hospital systems are rising, putting patient data —and safety — at risk. Steven McKeon, founder and CEO of MacguyverTech and MacNerd, has explained why he is advocating for more robust efforts to update old technology in our healthcare systems, improve cybersecurity measures and compel governments to get involved.
McKeon focuses on enhancing cybersecurity practices. Unlike traditional approaches, he emphasizes layered security, which deters hackers by increasing the effort needed to breach defences. With the rising cyber threats, his mission is to protect and educate others about security.
One of the reasons for the rise in health sector cybercrime is because the same technology that makes it convenient for patients to request prescription refills, view test results and schedule appointments with physicians has also made it easier for hackers to launch crippling cyberattacks on hospitals and healthcare systems.
“These cyberattacks on our hospital infrastructures here and abroad only highlight the very urgent need for improved cybersecurity in healthcare overall,” states McKeon.
In 2023, the healthcare and public health sector was the most targeted in the United States by ransomware attackers, according to a new FBI report, far surpassing other critical services like transportation and energy.
According to McKeon, cybercriminals launch these very intricate and damaging ransomware attacks to lock up critical computer systems and steal data as a means of extortion.
Why is healthcare such an easy target? McKeon also raises the issue of ageing technology.
“Our company’s experience and its increasing demand to fix outdated technology that is in some cases more than a decade old is quite alarming,” McKeon points out.
“With 1 in 3 Americans impacted by data breaches, modernizing these systems and enhancing cybersecurity measures are essential in protecting patient data and ensuring safety and continuity of care.”
In particular, McKeon thinks, the healthcare system needs help. He recommends this happens in the form of increased federal funding and enforcement of required cybersecurity practices and enhancements.
“Collaborative efforts between governments and the healthcare industries are vital to tackling these threats and securing these systems for the long haul,” McKeon advises.
Put tobacco-style warnings on social media: US health official
US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for Congress to pass mandates on social media to protect young Americans' mental health - Copyright AFP Mandel NGAN
Social media platforms should feature tobacco-style health warnings for adolescents, a top US government health official said Monday.
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, in an essay published by The New York Times, called social media “an important contributor” to a sweeping mental health crisis among young people.
“It is time to require a surgeon general’s warning label on social media platforms, stating that social media is associated with significant mental health harms for adolescents,” he wrote.
Murthy said spending more than three hours a day on social media doubles the risk of anxiety and depression symptoms for adolescents — and that the daily average use in the summer of 2023 was nearly five hours.
“A surgeon general’s warning label, which requires congressional action, would regularly remind parents and adolescents that social media has not been proved safe,” he wrote.
“Evidence from tobacco studies show that warning labels can increase awareness and change behavior.”
Murthy pointed to previous actions by lawmakers to address high vehicle-related deaths, including mandates requiring seatbelts, airbags and crash testing to make cars safer.
Labels warning of the health impact from tobacco first appeared on US cigarettes after a federal government mandate in 1965.
In 2023, Murthy issued a health advisory warning that social media presents a “profound risk” to children and advising that 13 is too young to join apps.
The surgeon general on Monday also called on schools nationwide to “ensure that classroom learning and social time are phone-free experiences.”
He also said parents should wait until after middle school before giving their children access to social media, and to create “phone-free zones around bedtime, meals and social gatherings.”
U.S. governor pardons 175,000 marijuana convictions
Agence France-Presse June 17, 2024 Maryland Governor Wes Moore (Andrew Harnik/AFP)
The governor of the U.S. state of Maryland issued a mass pardon of drug offenses on Monday, in a far-reaching move forgiving 175,000 low-level marijuana convictions across multiple decades.
Democrat Wes Moore said his act -- "the most sweeping state-level pardon" in American history -- was aimed at addressing social and economic injustices disproportionately impacting tens of thousands of Black people.
Moore, the eastern state's first Black governor, said he intended to right the "decades of harm" wrought by drug policy that had disproportionately targeted African Americans, depriving them of access to housing, education and employment.
Nearly half of all state drug arrests during the early 2000s were for cannabis, he said, with Black Marylanders three times more likely to be detained over cannabis-related charges than white residents.
And while the state's population of six million is 33 percent Black, more than 70 percent of Maryland's male incarcerated population is Black.
"Today, we take a big step enacting the kinds of policies that can reverse the harm of the past and to help us to work together to build a brighter future," Moore said as he signed the pardons into law in a ceremony in the capital Annapolis. "This is a big deal. This is a really big deal."
He said the scope of the pardons -- affecting some 100,000 people -- amounted to a "sweeping and unapologetic" executive action by officials looking to erase criminal justice inequities as more states nationwide ease marijuana laws.
After a state-wide referendum, Maryland legalized cannabis for adults and retail sales of the drug in 2023.
The governor said the pardons would extend to anyone with a misdemeanor conviction for possession of marijuana or paraphernalia. - 'Modern day shackles' -
"The data shows the deeply rooted bias in drug-related arrests and sentencing. Cannabis convictions for hundreds of thousands of people here in Maryland were Scarlet Letters, modern day shackles," added Maryland's Attorney General Anthony Brown.
"This morning, I can almost hear the clanging of those shackles falling to the floor."
The pardons will not result in anyone being released from jail, the governor's office said.
The action was cheered by criminal justice reform activists including Jason Ortiz, director of strategic initiatives for the Last Prisoner Project, who recounted being arrested at 16 for cannabis possession.
"I was thrown out of school, denied access to my high school education, ripped from my family and my friends, and had to endure two years of isolation for a simple cannabis possession charge," he said.
"The Last Prisoner Project applauds Governor Moore (and) his administration's actions to rectify the historic racial disparities caused by cannabis prohibition... Today is literally the most powerful day in cannabis justice history for the entire nation. That's an incredible thing."
Heather Warnken, executive director at the Center for Criminal Justice Reform at the University of Baltimore Law School, called the action a "win for thousands of Marylanders getting a fresh start," but also a victory for the legitimacy of the justice system itself.
"We have a lot of work to do, but for this moment here today, we celebrate this first step," she said.
"We celebrate the justice and dignity and restoration that it represents and, filled with that momentum, tomorrow, we keep forging ahead."
Religious Trauma Syndrome: Here's how some beliefs lead to mental health problems
At age sixteen I began what would be a four year struggle with bulimia. When the symptoms started, I turned in desperation to adults who knew more than I did about how to stop shameful behavior—my Bible study leader and a visiting youth minister. "If you ask anything in faith, believing," they said. "It will be done." I knew they were quoting the Word of God. We prayed together, and I went home confident that God had heard my prayers.
But my horrible compulsions didn't go away. By the fall of my sophomore year in college, I was desperate and depressed enough that I made a suicide attempt. The problem wasn't just the bulimia. I was convinced by then that I was a complete spiritual failure. My college counseling department had offered to get me real help (which they later did). But to my mind, at that point, such help couldn't fix the core problem: I was a failure in the eyes of God. It would be years before I understood that my inability to heal bulimia through the mechanisms offered by biblical Christianity was not a function of my own spiritual deficiency but deficiencies in Evangelical religion itself.
Dr. Marlene Winell is a human development consultant in the San Francisco Area. She is also the daughter of Pentecostal missionaries. This combination has given her work an unusual focus. For the past twenty years she has counseled men and women in recovery from various forms of fundamentalist religion including the Assemblies of God denomination in which she was raised. Winell is the author of Leaving the Fold – A Guide for Former Fundamentalists and Others Leaving their Religion, written during her years of private practice in psychology. Over the years, Winell has provided assistance to clients whose religious experiences were even more damaging than mine. Some of them are people whose psychological symptoms weren't just exacerbated by their religion, but actually caused by it.
Two years ago, Winell made waves by formally labeling what she calls "Religious Trauma Syndrome" (RTS) and beginning to write and speak on the subject for professional audiences. When the British Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Psychologists published a series of articles on the topic, members of a Christian counseling association protested what they called excessive attention to a "relatively niche topic." One commenter said, "A religion, faith or book cannot be abuse but the people interpreting can make anything abusive."
Is toxic religion simply misinterpretation? What is religious trauma? Why does Winell believe religious trauma merits its own diagnostic label? I asked her.
Let's start this interview with the basics. What exactly is religious trauma syndrome?
Winell: Religious trauma syndrome (RTS) is a set of symptoms and characteristics that tend to go together and which are related to harmful experiences with religion. They are the result of two things: immersion in a controlling religion and the secondary impact of leaving a religious group. The RTS label provides a name and description that affected people often recognize immediately. Many other people are surprised by the idea of RTS, because in our culture it is generally assumed that religion is benign or good for you. Just like telling kids about Santa Claus and letting them work out their beliefs later, people see no harm in teaching religion to children.
But in reality, religious teachings and practices sometimes cause serious mental health damage. The public is somewhat familiar with sexual and physical abuse in a religious context. As Journalist Janet Heimlich has documented in, Breaking Their Will, Bible-based religious groups that emphasize patriarchal authority in family structure and use harsh parenting methods can be destructive.
But the problem isn't just physical and sexual abuse. Emotional and mental treatment in authoritarian religious groups also can be damaging because of 1) toxic teachings like eternal damnation or original sin 2) religious practices or mindset, such as punishment, black and white thinking, or sexual guilt, and 3) neglect that prevents a person from having the information or opportunities to develop normally.
Can you give me an example of RTS from your consulting practice?
Winell: I can give you many. One of the symptom clusters is around fear and anxiety. People indoctrinated into fundamentalist Christianity as small children sometimes have memories of being terrified by images of hell and apocalypse before their brains could begin to make sense of such ideas. Some survivors, who I prefer to call "reclaimers," have flashbacks, panic attacks, or nightmares in adulthood even when they intellectually no longer believe the theology. One client of mine, who during the day functioned well as a professional, struggled with intense fear many nights. She said, I was afraid I was going to hell. I was afraid I was doing something really wrong. I was completely out of control. I sometimes would wake up in the night and start screaming, thrashing my arms, trying to rid myself of what I was feeling. I'd walk around the house trying to think and calm myself down, in the middle of the night, trying to do some self-talk, but I felt like it was just something that – the fear and anxiety was taking over my life.
Or consider this comment, which refers to a film used by Evangelicals to warn about the horrors of the "end times" for nonbelievers. I was taken to see the film "A Thief In The Night". WOW. I am in shock to learn that many other people suffered the same traumas I lived with because of this film. A few days or weeks after the film viewing, I came into the house and mom wasn't there. I stood there screaming in terror. When I stopped screaming, I began making my plan: Who my Christian neighbors were, who's house to break into to get money and food. I was 12 yrs old and was preparing for Armageddon alone.
In addition to anxiety, RTS can include depression, cognitive difficulties, and problems with social functioning. In fundamentalist Christianity, the individual is considered depraved and in need of salvation. A core message is "You are bad and wrong and deserve to die." (The wages of sin is death.) This gets taught to millions of children through organizations like Child Evangelism Fellowship, and there is a group organized to oppose their incursion into public schools. I've had clients who remember being distraught when given a vivid bloody image of Jesus paying the ultimate price for their sins. Decades later they sit telling me that they can't manage to find any self-worth.
After twenty-seven years of trying to live a perfect life, I failed. . . I was ashamed of myself all day long. My mind battling with itself with no relief. . . I always believed everything that I was taught but I thought that I was not approved by God. I thought that basically I, too, would die at Armageddon. I've spent literally years injuring myself, cutting and burning my arms, taking overdoses and starving myself, to punish myself so that God doesn't have to punish me. It's taken me years to feel deserving of anything good.
Born-again Christianity and devout Catholicism tell people they are weak and dependent, calling on phrases like "lean not unto your own understanding" or "trust and obey." People who internalize these messages can suffer from learned helplessness. I'll give you an example from a client who had little decision-making ability after living his entire life devoted to following the "will of God." The words here don't convey the depth of his despair.
I have an awful time making decisions in general. Like I can't, you know, wake up in the morning, "What am I going to do today? Like I don't even know where to start. You know all the things I thought I might be doing are gone and I'm not sure I should even try to have a career; essentially I babysit my four-year-old all day.
Authoritarian religious groups are subcultures where conformity is required in order to belong. Thus if you dare to leave the religion, you risk losing your entire support system as well.
I lost all my friends. I lost my close ties to family. Now I'm losing my country. I've lost so much because of this malignant religion and I am angry and sad to my very core. . . I have tried hard to make new friends, but I have failed miserably. . . I am very lonely.
Leaving a religion, after total immersion, can cause a complete upheaval of a person's construction of reality, including the self, other people, life, and the future. People unfamiliar with this situation, including therapists, have trouble appreciating the sheer terror it can create. My form of religion was very strongly entrenched and anchored deeply in my heart. It is hard to describe how fully my religion informed, infused, and influenced my entire worldview. My first steps out of fundamentalism were profoundly frightening and I had frequent thoughts of suicide. Now I'm way past that but I still haven't quite found "my place in the universe.
Even for a person who was not so entrenched, leaving one's religion can be a stressful and significant transition.
Many people seem to walk away from their religion easily, without really looking back. What is different about the clientele you work with?
Winell: Religious groups that are highly controlling, teach fear about the world, and keep members sheltered and ill-equipped to function in society are harder to leave easily. The difficulty seems to be greater if the person was born and raised in the religion rather than joining as an adult convert. This is because they have no frame of reference – no other "self" or way of "being in the world." A common personality type is a person who is deeply emotional and thoughtful and who tends to throw themselves wholeheartedly into their endeavors. "True believers" who then lose their faith feel more anger and depression and grief than those who simply went to church on Sunday.
Aren't these just people who would be depressed, anxious, or obsessive anyways?
Winell: Not at all. If my observation is correct, these are people who are intense and involved and caring. They hang on to the religion longer than those who simply "walk away" because they try to make it work even when they have doubts. Sometime this is out of fear, but often it is out of devotion. These are people for whom ethics, integrity and compassion matter a great deal. I find that when they get better and rebuild their lives, they are wonderfully creative and energetic about new things.
In your mind, how is RTS different from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?
Winell: RTS is a specific set of symptoms and characteristics that are connected with harmful religious experience, not just any trauma. This is crucial to understanding the condition and any kind of self-help or treatment. (More details about this can be found on my Journey Free website and discussed in my talk at the Texas Freethought Convention.)
Another difference is the social context, which is extremely different from other traumas or forms of abuse. When someone is recovering from domestic abuse, for example, other people understand and support the need to leave and recover. They don't question it as a matter of interpretation, and they don't send the person back for more. But this is exactly what happens to many former believers who seek counseling. If a provider doesn't understand the source of the symptoms, he or she may send a client for pastoral counseling, or to AA, or even to another church. One reclaimer expressed her frustration this way: Include physically-abusive parents who quote "Spare the rod and spoil the child" as literally as you can imagine and you have one fucked-up soul: an unloved, rejected, traumatized toddler in the body of an adult. I'm simply a broken spirit in an empty shell. But wait…That's not enough!? There's also the expectation by everyone in society that we victims should celebrate this with our perpetrators every Christmas and Easter!!
Just like disorders such as autism or bulimia, giving RTS a real name has important advantages. People who are suffering find that having a label for their experience helps them feel less alone and guilty. Some have written to me to express their relief: There's actually a name for it! I was brainwashed from birth and wasted 25 years of my life serving Him! I've since been out of my religion for several years now, but i cannot shake the haunting fear of hell and feel absolutely doomed. I'm now socially inept, unemployable, and the only way i can have sex is to pay for it.
Labeling RTS encourages professionals to study it more carefully, develop treatments, and offer training. Hopefully, we can even work on prevention.
What do you see as the difference between religion that causes trauma and religion that doesn't?
Winell: Religion causes trauma when it is highly controlling and prevents people from thinking for themselves and trusting their own feelings. Groups that demand obedience and conformity produce fear, not love and growth. With constant judgment of self and others, people become alienated from themselves, each other, and the world. Religion in its worst forms causes separation.
Conversely, groups that connect people and promote self-knowledge and personal growth can be said to be healthy. The book, Healthy Religion, describes these traits. Such groups put high value on respecting differences, and members feel empowered as individuals. They provide social support, a place for events and rites of passage, exchange of ideas, inspiration, opportunities for service, and connection to social causes. They encourage spiritual practices that promote health like meditation or principles for living like the golden rule. More and more, nontheists are asking how they can create similar spiritual communities without the supernaturalism. An atheist congregation in London launched this year and has received over 200 inquiries from people wanting to replicate their model.
Some people say that terms like "recovery from religion" and "religious trauma syndrome" are just atheist attempts to pathologize religious belief.
Winell: Mental health professionals have enough to do without going out looking for new pathology. I never set out looking for a "niche topic," and certainly not religious trauma syndrome. I originally wrote a paper for a conference of the American Psychological Association and thought that would be the end of it. Since then, I have tried to move on to other things several times, but this work has simply grown.
In my opinion, we are simply, as a culture, becoming aware of religious trauma. More and more people are leaving religion, as seen by polls showing that the "religiously unaffiliated" have increased in the last five years from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. It's no wonder the internet is exploding with websites for former believers from all religions, providing forums for people to support each other. The huge population of people "leaving the fold" includes a subset at risk for RTS, and more people are talking about it and seeking help. For example, there are thousands of former Mormons, and I was asked to speak about RTS at an Exmormon Foundation conference. I facilitate an international support group online called Release and Reclaim which has monthly conference calls. An organization called Recovery from Religion, helps people start self-help meet-up groups
Saying that someone is trying to pathologize authoritarian religion is like saying someone pathologized eating disorders by naming them. Before that, they were healthy? No, before that we weren't noticing. People were suffering, thought they were alone, and blamed themselves. Professionals had no awareness or training. This is the situation of RTS today. Authoritarian religion is already pathological, and leaving a high-control group can be traumatic. People are already suffering. They need to be recognized and helped.
Silhouette of crosses held up at sunset (Shutterstock)
Arizona's school voucher program is not just subsidizing private education, Mother Jones reported on Monday — it's giving money to a Christian nationalist institution affiliated with a pro-Trump megachurch.
Specifically, money is flowing to Dream City Christian Academy, a school established by Dream City Church which sees a 21,000-attendance congregation each week, and where Trump held a town hall-style campaign stop earlier this month.
The church has hosted a number of Christian nationalist and far-right figures, including some with ties to former Trump administration official and QAnon activist Michael Flynn.
"In 2022, Arizona became the first state in which all students are allowed to use state vouchers to cover a portion of tuition at any private school, secular or religious. Through Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, each participating family receives about 90 percent of the money the state would have spent on the child’s public school education — around $7,000 per student per year — for private school tuition," said the report.
That amount covers up to two thirds of tuition for the school's 800 students. "Dream City Christian Academy received almost $1 million in tuition voucher money last year, the Arizona Republic recently reported."
Dream City Christian Academy is part of a network called Turning Point Academy, a project of the pro-Trump student group Turning Point USA which has seen a number of controversies over racism and extremism.
Turning Point Academy describes itself as “an educational movement that exists to glorify God and preserve the founding principles of the United States through influencing and inspiring the formation of the next generation” — and much of its material appears to explicitly endorse the revisionist history that America was founded as a Christian nation with law based on Biblical principles.
"When Arizona passed the legislation that allowed for private school vouchers, the program was projected to cost $65 million in 2024 and $125 million in 2025. But the most recent estimates put that cost at a staggering $940 million per year, more than 1,000 percent of he initial estimate," the report continued.
"A report last month from Brookings Institution, the nonpartisan policy think tank, found that Arizona’s program was disproportionately used by wealthy families — even though it was designed to boost the academic achievement of students from families in underserved school districts. As it turned out, families in the highest poverty areas were five times less likely than people in the wealthiest areas to use vouchers."
California blaze raises fears for dangerous wildfire season
Los Angeles (AFP) – California firefighters on Monday tackled the state's biggest blaze of the year so far, as fears intensify over ominous conditions forecast for the hot, dry months ahead.
Issued on: 17/06/2024
US firefighters are using helicopters to tackle blazes in California
The inferno just north of Los Angeles rapidly burned through almost 15,000 acres (60 square kilometers) over the weekend, forcing the evacuation of more than a thousand campers from a recreational park and the closure of a popular boating lake.
Some 1,150 firefighters were working to contain the so-called "Post Fire," dousing the flames from seven air tankers and constructing perimeter lines, but it remained just eight percent contained by Monday morning.
The blaze is "exhibiting extreme fire behavior," warned the National Interagency Fire Center, with low visibility and winds of up to 50 miles (80 kilometers) per hour impeding firefighters' efforts.
It was one of around a dozen mostly smaller fires to ignite over a weekend in California that saw high temperatures, low humidity and gusty winds.
The blazes come at the start of a potentially critical time for the notoriously fire-prone region.
In the western United States, recent wet winters have prompted the rapid growth of vegetation, which experts warn could prove dangerous as it dries out in the weeks and months ahead.
Grasses and trees in parts of California are already "sufficiently dry to support elevated fire weather concerns, and recent fire activity suggests that fuels are drying quickly and supportive of fire spread," said the National Weather Service.
"As the result of two consecutive wet winters, there is a lot of additional growth, particularly of grass, but also, to a lesser extent, of heavier brush too," said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles.
"Those grasses are starting to dry out," although this early in the summer there is still some moisture, he added.
Wildfires are a natural -- and necessary -- part of the region's life cycle.
But climate change, caused by humanity's burning of fossil fuels -- which releases greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere -- is making extreme weather conditions more intense and frequent.
A potentially historic heat wave is set to hit vast swaths of the central and eastern United States this week, where temperatures are expected to be unseasonably high for June.
Scorching temperatures have already broken early summer records in the western United States.
Earlier this month Las Vegas recorded a 111 degree Fahrenheit (44 degrees Celsius) day earlier in the year than ever before.
Some 42,000 acres have already burned in California this year -- around 50 percent higher than the five-year average by this point in the year.
Echoing a national trend, wildfires in 2024 have been fewer in number, but larger in size, than in recent years.
As the Midwestern and Eastern U.S. braced for what could be the longest heatwave in decades for some locations, a wildfire near Los Angeles forced more than 1,000 people to evacuate over Father's Day weekend.
The climate crisis caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels is making both heatwaves and wildfires more frequent and extreme, and politicians and environmental advocates pointed out the role that state and national policy can play in fueling extreme weather.
"Each of the last 12 months have been the hottest on record," Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wrote on social media on Sunday. "This week, cities across the country will see record-high temperatures. A vote for Donald Trump is a vote to surrender the fight against the devastation of climate change. We cannot let that happen."
"Politicians making bad policy decisions (like killing congestion pricing) is the number one cause of climate change, which makes heatwaves like this one worse."
Former U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly told oil and gas executives this spring that donating $1 billion to his campaign would be a "deal" for them because he would dismantle the Biden administration's climate regulations.
Sanders' remarks came as the National Weather Service (NWS) Weather Prediction Center forecast that "record-breaking heat" would "expand from the Midwest and Great Lakes to the Northeast this week, potentially lingering through early next week."
NWS said the heatwave would be the "first significant" heatwave of the season and could break daily temperature records and some monthly June temperature records for the portion of the country stretching from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast between Monday and next Saturday.
"The longevity of dangerous heat forecasted for some locations has not been experienced in decades," NWS said.
The heat index could come close to 105°F in many places, and nighttime temperatures of around 75°F mean that those without cooling infrastructure will see "little to no relief."
The high temperatures could impact millions of people from Michigan to Maine. As of Saturday, 22.6 million people were under extreme heat warnings, watches, or advisories, according toThe New York Times.
University of California, Los Angeles, climate scientist Daniel Swain told the Times that the heat would "affect a bunch of highly populated areas where there hasn't been quite as many stories about extreme heat recently," adding, "Now, it's New England's turn."
The NWS warned, "With the intense heat and high humidity it is important to take precautions to protect one's health, particularly those without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration."
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul issued a warning on social media on Saturday, pointing out that extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of death in the U.S.
However, climate advocates criticized Hochul for exacerbating the root cause of more extreme heatwaves with her last-minute cancellation of a New York City congestion pricing plan earlier this month.
"Politicians making bad policy decisions (like killing congestion pricing) is the number one cause of climate change, which makes heatwaves like this one worse," the Sunrise Movementwrote in response to Hochul's post.
Long-time climate advocate and author Bill McKibbensaid: "This governor just blocked congestion pricing, one of the most important climate policy advances possible. She's redefining trolling."
Climate Central noted that, "while heatwaves are common in summer, this early season excessive, likely record-breaking heat is made as much as two times to five times MORE likely to occur in mid-June due to human-caused climate change (particularly overnight warmth)."
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, the Post Fire ignited at around 1:45 pm on Saturday local time in Los Angeles County, California, about 65 miles from downtown Los Angeles, The Washington Post reported.
As of Sunday afternoon, it had spread 12,265 acres and was 2% contained, according to California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire). Fire officials said the blaze was fanned by heat, low humidity, and wind and had damaged two structures.
"Currently crews are working to construct perimeter fire lines around the flakes of the fire. Aircraft are working to stop forward progress but have limited visibility," Cal Fire wrote on Sunday, adding that "the fire is pushing up into Hungry Valley Park. California State Park Services have evacuated 1,200 people from Hungry Valley Park. Pyramid Lake is closed because of the threat of the Post Fire."
One of those evacuated was 33-year-old Oscar Flores, who was visiting Hungry Valley Park with his 12-year-old son on Saturday.
"It looked like it was the last day of the world," Flores told the Los Angeles Times. "People were loading quickly and merging out, driving fast. The ranger said you have 10 minutes [to get] whatever you can pack."
Site new care homes near trees and away from busy roads to protect residents’ lungs, says new study
UNIVERSITY OF SURREY
To shield older residents from dangerous air pollution, new care homes should be built as far from heavy traffic as possible, according to a new study from the University of Surrey.
Researchers also found that trees planted between the homes and the road could significantly mitigate the impact of air pollution.
“Older adults in care settings can be especially vulnerable to poor quality air. Our study confirms that building care homes next to busy roads without adequate tree planting can significantly increase their exposure to deadly fine particle pollution.
“We hope planners will be able to use our findings to make sure care homes are built in safer locations – striking the right balance between the convenience of urban living and better air quality.”
Researchers studied three care homes in the Chinese city of Nanjing. They measured fine particle pollution (PM2.5) at various locations in and around the care homes.
They found that the amount of pollution inside the care home decreased exponentially, the further it was from the road.
Huaiwen Wu, a researcher at GCARE, said:
“Our study gives so many useful insights into where to build new care homes.
“For instance, there was a significant relationship between outdoor and indoor pollution. This tells us that bedrooms should be kept on the far side of the building where possible."
Professor Shi-Jie Cao, Visiting Professor at GCARE and Professor at the Southeast University, China, said:
“We also saw how pollution was highest during rush hour. Concentrations were higher during spells of lighter winds, and during colder seasons when more people are heating their homes.
“As such, care homes near busy roads could keep their windows closed more during those periods – then open them afterwards to mitigate the accumulation of emissions.”
ITHACA, N.Y. – In addition to its human consequences, cocaine trafficking harms the environment and threatens habitats important to dozens of species of migratory birds, according to a new study.
Two-thirds of the areas that are most important to forest birds – including 67 species of migratory birds that breed in the U.S. and Canada and overwinter in Central America – are at increased risk from cocaine trafficking activities, according to the study, “Intersection of Narco-Trafficking, Enforcement and Bird Conservation in the Americas,” published June 12 in Nature Sustainability.
“When drug traffickers are pushed into remote forested areas, they clear land to create landing strips, roads and cattle pastures,” said lead author Amanda Rodewald, senior director of the Center for Avian Population Studies at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. “Those activities – and the counterdrug strategies that contribute to them – can deforest landscapes and threaten species.”
In the study, scientists from four universities, as well as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, combined measures of various landscape characteristics and concentrations of migratory birds in Central America to highlight the unexpected connection between a pervasive social problem and biodiversity.
More than half of the global population of one in five migratory species inhabit areas that became more attractive to trafficking following peak law enforcement pressure, measured as the volume of cocaine seized. For example, 90% of the world’s population of federally endangered golden-cheeked warblers and 70% of golden-winged warblers and Philadelphia vireos winter in those vulnerable landscapes.
The largest remaining forests in Central America, which are disproportionately inhabited by Indigenous people – known as the Five Great Forests – are seeing growing levels of cocaine trafficking.
“U.S. drug policy in Central America focuses on the supply side of the equation, and law-enforcement pressure plays a significant role in the movement of trafficking routes and locations of narco-deforestation,” said co-author Nicholas Magliocca, associate professor at the University of Alabama. “After 40 years that approach has not worked. In fact, cocaine trafficking has only expanded and become a worldwide network. It used to be that cocaine was just passing through Central America, but now it’s become a hub of global trans-shipment.”
This study builds upon previous ethnographic and modeling work done by Magliocca and a core group of researchers examining land-use conditions and decisions made by the traffickers themselves based on perceived risk and profit.
“This research gives an even fuller accounting of the harms caused by drug trafficking and the way we currently go about fighting it,” Magliocca said. “Adaptive behavior by the traffickers must be taken into consideration. You have to do more than reactively chase after the drug traffickers, who have nearly unlimited money and power in the region. No question it’s a complex, fluid and dangerous situation.”
“Incorporating measures that build capacity in local communities and governments to monitor and protect their forests, grow alternate forms of income, and resolve unclear land tenure would go a long way,” Rodewald said. “Our study is a reminder that we can’t address social problems in a vacuum because they can have unintended environmental consequences that undermine conservation.” This research was conducted by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, University of Alabama, Ohio State University, Northern Arizona University, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service with funding from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University and NASA.
An international team of scientists has identified the oldest fossil of a sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere – a nothosaur vertebra found on New Zealand’s South Island. 246 million years ago, at the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs, New Zealand was located on the southern polar coast of a vast super-ocean called Panthalassa.
Reptiles first invaded the seas after a catastrophic mass extinction that devastated marine ecosystems and paved the way for the dawn of the Age of Dinosaurs almost 252 million years ago. Evidence for this evolutionary milestone has only been discovered in a few places around the world: on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, northwestern North America and southwestern China. Although represented by just a single vertebra that was excavated from a boulder in a stream bed at the foot of Mount Harper on the South Island of New Zealand – this discovery has shed new light on the previously unknown record of early sea reptiles from the Southern Hemisphere.
The New Zealand nothosaur was discovered during a geological survey in 1978, but its importance was not fully recognised until palaeontologists from Sweden, Norway, New Zealand, Australia and East Timor joined their expertise to examine and analyse the vertebra and other associated fossils.
“The nothosaur found in New Zealand is over 40 million years older than the previously oldest known sauropterygian fossils from the Southern Hemisphere. We show that these ancient sea reptiles lived in a shallow coastal environment teeming with marine creatures within what was then the southern polar circle,” explains Dr Benjamin Kear from The Museum of Evolution at Uppsala University, lead author on the study.
The oldest nothosaur fossils are around 248 million years old and have been found along an ancient northern low-latitude belt that stretched from the remote northeastern to northwestern margins of the Panthalassa super-ocean. The origin, distribution and timing of when nothosaurs reached these distant areas are still debated. Some theories suggest that they either migrated along northern polar coastlines, or swam through inland seaways, or used currents to cross the Panthalassa super-ocean.
The new nothosaur fossil from New Zealand has now upended these long-standing hypotheses.
“Using a time-calibrated evolutionary model of sauropterygian global distributions, we show that nothosaurs originated near the equator, then rapidly spread both northwards and southwards at the same time as complex marine ecosystems became re-established after the cataclysmic mass extinction that marked the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs” says Kear.
“The beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs was characterised by extreme global warming, which allowed these marine reptiles to thrive at the South Pole. This also suggests that the ancient polar regions were a likely route for their earliest global migrations, much like the epic trans-oceanic journeys undertaken by whales today. Undoubtedly, there are more fossil remains of long-extinct sea monsters waiting to be discovered in New Zealand and elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere,” says Kear.
Original fossil of the New Zealand nothosaur vertebra. The oldest sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere. Image by Benjamin Kear
Computerised tomography image of the New Zealand nothosaur vertebra. The oldest sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere. Image by Aubrey Roberts.
Reconstruction of the New Zealand nothosaur. The oldest sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere. Artwork by Johan Egerkrans
The New Zealand nothosaur fossil is held in the National Palaeontological Collection at GNS Science in New Zealand.
Dr Benjamin Kear, Curator of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Researcher in Palaeontology at The Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University. Tel: +46 70-818 87 82 Email: benjamin.kear@em.uu.se
New Curtin University-led research has identified 100-million-year-old fossilised bones discovered in western Queensland as belonging to a newly identified species of pterosaur, which was a formidable flying reptile that lived among the dinosaurs.
Unearthed in 2021 by Kronosaurus Korner museum curator Kevin Petersen, the fossilised remains have been found to belong to Haliskia peterseni, a new genus and species of anhanguerian pterosaur.
Based on the shape of its skull, arrangement of teeth and shape of the shoulder bone, a research team led by PhD student Adele Pentland, from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, identified the specimen as an anhanguerian, which is a group of pterosaurs known to have lived across the world, including in what is now Brazil, England, Morocco, China, Spain and the United States.
“With a wingspan of approximately 4.6m, Haliskia would have been a fearsome predator around 100 million years ago when much of central western Queensland was underwater, covered by a vast inland sea and globally positioned about where Victoria’s southern coastline is today,” Ms Pentland said.
“Careful preparation by Mr Petersen has provided the remains of the most complete specimen of an anhanguerian, and of any pterosaur, discovered in Australia to date.
“Haliskia is 22 per cent complete, making it more than twice as complete as the only other known partial pterosaur skeleton found in Australia.
“The specimen includes complete lower jaws, the tip of the upper jaw, 43 teeth, vertebrae, ribs, bones from both wings and part of a leg. Also present are very thin and delicate throat bones, indicating a muscular tongue, which helped during feeding on fish and cephalopods.”
Haliskia peterseni joins several significant marine fossil specimens on display at Kronosaurus Korner, including Kronosaurus queenslandicus, the largest marine reptile with a skull at least 2.4m long, the most complete plesiosaur from Australia and bones from the plesiosaur Eromangasaurus and the ichthyosaur Platypterygius.
Mr Petersen said this latest discovery was an exciting boost for science, education and regional tourism.
“I’m thrilled that my discovery is a new species, as my passion lies in helping shape our modern knowledge of prehistoric species,” Mr Petersen said.
The full study titled ‘Haliskia peterseni, a new anhanguerian pterosaur from the late Early Cretaceous of Australia’ will be published in the journal Scientific Reports/Springer Nature (doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-60889-8).
Haliskia peterseni, a new anhanguerian pterosaur from the late Early Cretaceous of Australia’
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
12-Jun-2024
Discovery of the microfossil Qingjiangonema from the 518-million-year-old Qingjiang biota sheds light on the adaptive evolution of sulfate-reducing bacteria in response to oxygenation in Earth’s history
SCIENCE CHINA PRESS
IMAGE:
(A) OPTICAL PHOTOGRAPH OF A SOFT-BODIED MACROFOSSIL (SPECIMEN NO. CY266) OF UNKNOWN AFFINITY, WITH ABUNDANT FILAMENTOUS MICROFOSSILS OF Q. CAMBRIA (B–G) PRESENT ON THE SURFACE. (B) SEM IMAGE OF ROD-SHAPED CELLS, PHOTOGRAPHED AFTER ACID MACERATION, SHOWING EQUIMORPHIC AND EQUIDIMENSIONAL MICROCRYSTALS WITHIN EACH CELL. (C) SEM IMAGE, SHOWING A CELL EMBEDDED IN CLAYSTONE SEDIMENTS. (D, E) BSEM IMAGES, SHOWING MULTICELLULAR FILAMENTS. (F) SEM IMAGE OF A FOUR-CELL FILAMENT, SHOWING ELONGATED CELLS WITH A DIVISION GROOVE AT THE MID LENGTH (ARROWS). (I) BSEM IMAGE OF A FILAMENT COMPOSED OF CELLS OF VARIABLE LENGTH; NOTE CONSTRICTIONS BETWEEN NEIGHBORING CELLS.
Microbial sulfate reduction dating back to the Paleoarchean plays a crucial role in driving global carbon and sulfur cycles in ancient and modern Earth. Over 150 species of sulfate reducers from bacterial and archaeal phyla have been identified across a range of different environments. However, their origin is elusive and unequivocal fossils are lacking. Recently, a 518-million-year-old microbial fossil from China identified as an ancient sulfate-reducing bacterium sheds light on the adaptive evolution of sulfate-reducing bacteria in response to Earth’s oxygenation events. This new fossil, named as Qingjiangonemacambria, is reported by a research team led by Prof. Xingliang Zhang from the Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Early Life and Environments at Northwest University, Prof. Jinhua Li from the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGGCAS) and Prof. Yinzhao Wang from the School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.
Qingjiangonema was discovered in black shales of the Shuijingtuo Formation that yields the Qingjiang biota, an early Cambrian Burgess Shale–type (BST) fossil Lagerstätte of South China. And it appears as a long filament comprising hundreds of rod-shaped cells. Cells are constricted at junctions, ∼1 to 3 μm wide and ∼0.8 to 11.0 μm long. Each cell is externally enveloped by a trilaminar ultrathin film and internally filled by equimorphic and equidimensional pyrite microcrystals. The unique chain-like morphology and its presence in black shales (cemented anoxic mud), provide crucial clues to determine the biological affinity of Qingjiangonema. The faithful replication of cell morphology by pyrite microcrystals infilling suggests that Qingjiangonema be able to precipitate minerals intracellularly when it was alive.
To further determine the physiology of Qingjiangonema, in situ sulfur isotope analyses of intracellular pyrite microcrystals using Secondary Ion Mass Spectroscopy (SIMS) were carried out, and the result shows the intracellular pyrite microcrystals have a light sulfur isotope composition and large isotopic fractionation which are comparable to that of the modern Desulfonema in anoxic mud.
Interestingly, among the vast array of modern sulfate-reducing bacteria and their relatives, only the members of Desulfonema and cable bacteria within the phylum Desulfobacterota exhibit similar chain-like morphologies. Desulfonema species are filamentous sulfate reducers characterized by reducing sulfate under anoxic condition with a large sulfur isotope fractionation from sulfate to sulfide. The cable bacteria, however, are opposite in metabolism. They are aerobic sulfide-oxidizing bacteria well-known for long-distance electron transport over centimeter-scale distances and share canonical sulfate-reducing genes with the members in Desulfobacterota.
Overall, multiple lines of evidence including fossil morphology, living condition assessment and isotope analyses demonstrate that Qingjiangonema was a filamentous multicellular sulfate-reducing microfossil.
The discovery of this remarkable microfossil sheds light on the evolution of sulfate-reducing bacteria and cable bacteria. Phylogenomic and molecular clock analyses confirm an independent origin of multicellularity of Desulfonema and cable bacteria within the phylum Desulfobacterota. More importantly, these molecular biological analyses infer that Desulfobacterota, encompassing majorities of sulfate-reducing taxa, diverged ~2.4 billion years ago during the Paleoproterozoic Great Oxygenation Event (GOE), while cable bacteria diverged ~0.56 billion years ago during or after Neoproterozoic Oxygenation Event.
Taking together, the authors considered that Qingjiangonema cambria is either akin to Desulfonema or represents a sulfate-reducing ancestor to cable bacteria. They proposed that sulfate-reducing bacteria were firstly diversified in response to the increase of oceanic sulfate concentrations during the GOE and that sulfur-oxidizing cable bacteria evolved from a filamentous multicellular sulfate-reducing ancestor by reversal of the sulfate reduction pathway when large areas of the seafloor became oxygenated during or after the NOE.
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The Cambrian microfossil Qingjiangonema reveals the co-evolution of sulfate-reducing bacteria and the oxygenation of Earth’s surface
Ultrastructures of the microfossil Qingjiangonema cambria.
(a, b) SEM images of a Q. cambria on the macrofossil in Fig. 2a, indicating FIB milling positions of longitudinal and cross sections, respectively. (c) STEM-HAADF image of the ultrathin cross section in (b), showing microcrystals tightly packed within a thin envelope. (d) STEM-HAADF image of the ultrathin longitudinal section in (a), showing that neighboring cells are disconnected with intercellular boundaries, note that microcrystals are much smaller in the smaller cell than those in the larger neighboring cells. (e) Close-up of the boxed area in (c), showing the ultra-thin, multilayered film comparable to the typical cell envelope of Gram-negative bacteria, which comprises a cytoplasmic membrane (CM), a periplasmic space (PS) and an outer membrane (OM).
(a) Time tree of the major lineages of the phylum Desulfobacterota, with the sulfate-reducing Desulfonema and sulfide-oxidizing cable bacteria falling in two separate linages. (b) Evolution of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen content through time, PAL = present atmospheric level. (c) Simplified estimate for the history of seawater sulfate concentrations. Shaded areas crossing (a) to (c) represent time intervals of GOE and NOE, respectively, highlighting the coincidence between phylogenetic evolution of the sulfate-reducing bacteria and major increases of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen content as well as oceanic sulfate concentrations.
