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, April 05, 2021
New paper shows benefits of Louisiana coastal restoration to soil carbon sequestration
BATON ROUGE, La. (March 2021) - Without restoration efforts in coastal Louisiana, marshes in the state could lose half of their current ability to store carbon in the soil over a period of 50 years, according to a new paper published in American Geophysical Union Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences.
"This reduction in capacity could significantly alter the global carbon budget, given that Louisiana's marsh soils account for between 5 and 21 percent of the global soil carbon storage in tidally influenced wetlands," said Melissa Baustian, lead author and coastal ecologist at The Water Institute of the Gulf.
The article, "Long-term carbon sinks in marsh soils of coastal Louisiana are at risk to wetland loss" examined 24 south Louisiana sites located within four marsh habitats defined by the amount of saltwater influence - fresh, intermediate, brackish, and saline. Carbon sink is a reservoir that stores more carbon than it releases.
By working with colleagues from U.S. Geological Survey, Vernadero Group, Abt Associates, and Tulane University the team used marsh habitat maps from 1949 to 2013, deep soil cores, soil carbon accumulation rates, and maps of future marsh area, to confirm the importance of considering historical habitats when evaluating a coastal areas' long-term ability to store carbon in the soil. Due to the evolving nature of coastal wetland habitats, simply looking at current conditions might not reflect how much carbon was buried historically or how much carbon can be buried in the future, especially in Louisiana where land loss is a continuing concern.
"Protection and restoration of these marshes is vital to help protect the pool of buried carbon in the soils, and to prevent release of carbon to the atmosphere from soil oxidation," Baustian said.
As Louisiana continues to build projects contained with its 50-year Coastal Master Plan, Gov. John Bel Edwards announced in August that the Institute, led by Baustian, will be working with the state to quantify the carbon sink potential of coastal Louisiana with and without restoration projects in the state's 2017 Coastal Master Plan to examine how these potential coastal carbon sinks could help reach the Governor's greenhouse gas emissions goals of 2025, 2030, and 2050.
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Lightning strikes will more than double in Arctic as climate warms
UCI-led team reports that an increase in lightning will drive both wildfires and warming above Arctic Circle
Irvine, Calif. -- In 2019, the National Weather Service in Alaska reported spotting the first-known lightning strikes within 300 miles of the North Pole. Lightning strikes are almost unheard of above the Arctic Circle, but scientists led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine have published new research in the journal Nature Climate Change detailing how Arctic lightning strikes stand to increase by about 100 percent over northern lands by the end of the century as the climate continues warming.
"We projected how lightning in high-latitude boreal forests and Arctic tundra regions will change across North America and Eurasia," said Yang Chen, a research scientist in the UCI Department of Earth System Science who led the new work. "The size of the lightning response surprised us because expected changes at mid-latitudes are much smaller."
The finding offers a glimpse into the changes that're in store for the Arctic as the planet continues warming; it suggests Arctic weather reports during summertime will be closer to those seen today far to the south, where lightning storms are more common.
James Randerson, a professor in UCI's Department of Earth System Science who co-authored the study, was part of a NASA-led field campaign that studied wildfire occurrence in Alaska during 2015, which was a extreme year for wildfires in the state. "2015 was an exceptional fire year because of a record number of fire starts," Randerson said. "One thing that got us thinking was that lightning was responsible for the record-breaking number of fires."
This led Chen to look at over-twenty-year-old NASA satellite data on lighting strikes in northern regions, and construct a relationship between the flash rate and climatic factors. By using future climate projections from multiple models used by the United Nations, the team estimated a significant increase in lightning strikes as a result of increases in atmospheric convection and more intense thunderstorms.
A lightning strike bump could open a Pandora's box of related troubles. Fires, Randerson explained, burn away short grasses, mosses, and shrubs that are important components of Arctic tundra ecosystems. Such plants cover much of the landscape, and one thing they do is keep the seeds of trees from taking root in the soil. After a fire burns away low-lying plants, however, seeds from trees can more easily grow on bare soil, allowing forests stands to expand north. Evergreen forests will replace what's typically a snow-covered landscape; snow's white hue reflects sunlight back out into space, but darker forests absorb solar energy, helping warm the region even further.
And there's more trouble: more fires mean more permafrost -- perennially frozen soil that defines much of the Arctic landscape -- will melt as the fires strip away protective insulative layers of moss and dead organic matter that keep soils cool. Permafrost stores a lot of organic carbon that, if melted out of the ice, will convert to greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane, which, when released, will drive even more warming.
The lighting finding comes of the heels of another study that, led by Randerson, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research on Monday, April 5 describes how amplified Arctic warming and the melting of the Greenland ice sheet will scramble food webs in the surrounding oceans.
Now, Chen and Randerson say, scientists need to start paying more attention to the frequency of Arctic lightning strikes so they can gauge how the story unfolds in the coming decades.
"This phenomenon is very sporadic, and it's very difficult to measure accurately over long time periods," said Randerson. "It's so rare to have lightning above the Arctic Circle." Their results, he hopes, will galvanize calls for new satellite missions that can monitor Arctic and boreal latitudes for lightning strikes and the fires they might ignite.
Back in 2019, the National Weather Service in Alaska released a special announcement about the North Pole lightning strikes. Such announcements, however, may struggle to make headlines by the end of the century.
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This work, funded by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, NASA's Interdisciplinary Science and Carbon Monitoring System programs, and DOE's Next Generation Ecosystem Experiment Arctic project, includes researchers from the University of California, Berkeley; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Harvard University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
Increased winter snowmelt threatens western water resources
IMAGE: COMBINED PHOTOS OF THE SENATOR BECK BASIN IN THE COLORADO SAN JUAN MOUNTAINS DURING INCREASINGLY WARMER MONTHS. view more
CREDIT: JEFFREY DEEMS/CIRES AND MATTHEW KENNEDY/CU BOULDER EXTREME ICE SURVEY
More snow is melting during winter across the West, a concerning trend that could impact everything from ski conditions to fire danger and agriculture, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder analysis of 40 years of data.
Researchers found that since the late 1970s, winter's boundary with spring has been slowly disappearing, with one-third of 1,065 snow measurement stations from the Mexican border to the Alaskan Arctic recording increasing winter snowmelt. While stations with significant melt increases have recorded them mostly in November and March, the researchers found that melt is increasing in all cold season months--from October to March.
Their new findings, published today in Nature Climate Change, have important implications for water resource planning and may indicate fewer pristine powder days and crustier snow for skiers.
"Particularly in cold mountain environments, snow accumulates over the winter--it grows and grows--and gets to a point where it reaches a maximum depth, before melt starts in the spring," said Keith Musselman, lead author on the study and research associate ,at the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (INSTAAR) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
But the new research found that melt before April 1 has increased at almost half of more than 600 stations in western North America, by an average of 3.5% per decade.
"Historically, water managers use the date of April 1 to distinguish winter and spring, but this distinction is becoming increasingly blurred as melt increases during the winter," said Noah Molotch, co-author on the study, associate professor of geography and fellow at INSTAAR.
Snow is the primary source of water and streamflow in western North America and provides water to 1 billion people globally. In the West, snowy mountains act like water towers, reserving water up high until it melts, making it available to lower elevations that need it during the summer, like a natural drip irrigation system.
"That slow trickle of meltwater that reliably occurs over the dry season is something that we have built our entire water infrastructure on in the West," said Musselman. "We rely very heavily on that water that comes down our rivers and streams in the warm season of July and August."
More winter snowmelt is effectively shifting the timing of water entering the system, turning that natural drip irrigation system on more frequently in the winter, shifting it away from the summer, he said.
This is a big concern for water resource management and drought prediction in the West, which depends heavily on late winter snowpack levels in March and April. This shift in water delivery timing could also affect wildfire seasons and agricultural irrigation needs.
Wetter soils in the winter also have ecological implications. One, the wet soils have no more capacity to soak up additional water during spring melt or rainstorms, which can increase flash flooding. Wetter winter soils also keep microbes awake and unfrozen during a time they might otherwise lay dormant. This affects the timing of nutrient availability, water quality and can increase carbon dioxide emissions.
An underutilized data source
Across the western U.S., hundreds of thin, fluid-filled metal pillows are carefully tucked away on the ground and out of sight from outdoor enthusiasts. These sensors are part of an extensive network of long-running manual and automated snow observation stations, which you may have even used data from when looking up how much snow is on your favorite snowshoeing or Nordic skiing trail.
This new study is the first to compile data from all 1,065 automated stations in western North America, providing valuable statistical insight into how mountain snow is changing.
And by using automated, continuously recording snowpack stations instead of manual, monthly observations, the new research shows that winter melt trends are very widespread--at three-times the number of stations with snowpack declines, according to Musselman.
Snowpack is typically measured by calculating how much water will be produced when it melts, known as snow-water equivalent (SWE), which is affected by how much snow falls from the sky in a given season. But because winter snowpack melt is influenced more by temperature than by precipitation, it is a better indicator of climate warming over time.
"These automated stations can be really helpful to understand potential climate change impacts on our resources," said Musselman. "Their observations are consistent with what our climate models are suggesting will continue to happen."
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Other authors on this publication include Nans Addor at the University of Exeter and Julie Vano at the Aspen Global Change Institute.
SURPRIZE, WE WERE NOT VEGAN
Humans were apex predators for two million years
What did our ancestors eat during the stone age? Mostly meat
Researchers at Tel Aviv University were able to reconstruct the nutrition of stone age humans. In a paper published in the Yearbook of the American Physical Anthropology Association, Dr. Miki Ben-Dor and Prof. Ran Barkai of the Jacob M. Alkov Department of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, together with Raphael Sirtoli of Portugal, show that humans were an apex predator for about two million years. Only the extinction of larger animals (megafauna) in various parts of the world, and the decline of animal food sources toward the end of the stone age, led humans to gradually increase the vegetable element in their nutrition, until finally they had no choice but to domesticate both plants and animals - and became farmers.
"So far, attempts to reconstruct the diet of stone-age humans were mostly based on comparisons to 20th century hunter-gatherer societies," explains Dr. Ben-Dor. "This comparison is futile, however, because two million years ago hunter-gatherer societies could hunt and consume elephants and other large animals - while today's hunter gatherers do not have access to such bounty. The entire ecosystem has changed, and conditions cannot be compared. We decided to use other methods to reconstruct the diet of stone-age humans: to examine the memory preserved in our own bodies, our metabolism, genetics and physical build. Human behavior changes rapidly, but evolution is slow. The body remembers."
In a process unprecedented in its extent, Dr. Ben-Dor and his colleagues collected about 25 lines of evidence from about 400 scientific papers from different scientific disciplines, dealing with the focal question: Were stone-age humans specialized carnivores or were they generalist omnivores? Most evidence was found in research on current biology, namely genetics, metabolism, physiology and morphology.
"One prominent example is the acidity of the human stomach," says Dr. Ben-Dor. "The acidity in our stomach is high when compared to omnivores and even to other predators. Producing and maintaining strong acidity require large amounts of energy, and its existence is evidence for consuming animal products. Strong acidity provides protection from harmful bacteria found in meat, and prehistoric humans, hunting large animals whose meat sufficed for days or even weeks, often consumed old meat containing large quantities of bacteria, and thus needed to maintain a high level of acidity. Another indication of being predators is the structure of the fat cells in our bodies. In the bodies of omnivores, fat is stored in a relatively small number of large fat cells, while in predators, including humans, it's the other way around: we have a much larger number of smaller fat cells. Significant evidence for the evolution of humans as predators has also been found in our genome. For example, geneticists have concluded that "areas of the human genome were closed off to enable a fat-rich diet, while in chimpanzees, areas of the genome were opened to enable a sugar-rich diet."
Evidence from human biology was supplemented by archaeological evidence. For instance, research on stable isotopes in the bones of prehistoric humans, as well as hunting practices unique to humans, show that humans specialized in hunting large and medium-sized animals with high fat content. Comparing humans to large social predators of today, all of whom hunt large animals and obtain more than 70% of their energy from animal sources, reinforced the conclusion that humans specialized in hunting large animals and were in fact hypercarnivores.
"Hunting large animals is not an afternoon hobby," says Dr. Ben-Dor. "It requires a great deal of knowledge, and lions and hyenas attain these abilities after long years of learning. Clearly, the remains of large animals found in countless archaeological sites are the result of humans' high expertise as hunters of large animals. Many researchers who study the extinction of the large animals agree that hunting by humans played a major role in this extinction - and there is no better proof of humans' specialization in hunting large animals. Most probably, like in current-day predators, hunting itself was a focal human activity throughout most of human evolution. Other archaeological evidence - like the fact that specialized tools for obtaining and processing vegetable foods only appeared in the later stages of human evolution - also supports the centrality of large animals in the human diet, throughout most of human history."
The multidisciplinary reconstruction conducted by TAU researchers for almost a decade proposes a complete change of paradigm in the understanding of human evolution. Contrary to the widespread hypothesis that humans owe their evolution and survival to their dietary flexibility, which allowed them to combine the hunting of animals with vegetable foods, the picture emerging here is of humans evolving mostly as predators of large animals.
"Archaeological evidence does not overlook the fact that stone-age humans also consumed plants," adds Dr. Ben-Dor. "But according to the findings of this study plants only became a major component of the human diet toward the end of the era."
Evidence of genetic changes and the appearance of unique stone tools for processing plants led the researchers to conclude that, starting about 85,000 years ago in Africa, and about 40,000 years ago in Europe and Asia, a gradual rise occurred in the consumption of plant foods as well as dietary diversity - in accordance with varying ecological conditions. This rise was accompanied by an increase in the local uniqueness of the stone tool culture, which is similar to the diversity of material cultures in 20th-century hunter-predators, long periods of similarity and continuity were observed in stone tools, regardless of local ecological conditions.
In contrast, during the two million years when, according to the researchers, humans were apex "Our study addresses a very great current controversy - both scientific and non-scientific," says Prof. Barkai. "For many people today, the Paleolithic diet is a critical issue, not only with regard to the past, but also concerning the present and future. It is hard to convince a devout vegetarian that his/her ancestors were not vegetarians, and people tend to confuse personal beliefs with scientific reality. Our study is both multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary. We propose a picture that is unprecedented in its inclusiveness and breadth, which clearly shows that humans were initially apex predators, who specialized in hunting large animals. As Darwin discovered, the adaptation of species to obtaining and digesting their food is the main source of evolutionary changes, and thus the claim that humans were apex predators throughout most of their development may provide a broad basis for fundamental insights on the biological and cultural evolution of humans."
CAPTION
the evolution of the HTL during the Pleistocene as we interpret it, based on the totality of the evidence.
CREDIT
Dr. Miki Ben Dor
What are forever chemicals, and do they last forever? (video)
IMAGE: FOREVER CHEMICALS ARE KNOWN FOR BEING WATER-, HEAT- AND OIL-RESISTANT, WHICH MAKES THEM USEFUL IN EVERYTHING FROM RAIN JACKETS TO FIREFIGHTING FOAMS. BUT THE CHEMISTRY THAT MAKES THEM SO USEFUL... view more
CREDIT: THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2021 -- Forever chemicals are known for being water-, heat- and oil-resistant, which makes them useful in everything from rain jackets to firefighting foams. But the chemistry that makes them so useful also makes them stick around in the environment and in us -- and that could be a bad thing: https://youtu.be/tqKEG5LxPiY.
Ozone pollution harms maize crops, study finds
CARL R. WOESE INSTITUTE FOR GENOMIC BIOLOGY, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
IMAGE: MAIZE EXPERIMENTAL FIELD PLOT FUMIGATED WITH ELEVATED OZONE (GREEN PIPES). MAIZE LEAF SAMPLES WERE COLLECTED FROM SIMILAR RINGS THROUGHOUT THE GROWING SEASON, TO UNDERSTAND THE RESPONSE IN DIVERSE MAIZE LINES. view more
CREDIT: AINSWORTH LAB
Although stratospheric ozone protects us by filtering out the sun's ultraviolet radiation, tropospheric ozone is a harmful pollutant. A new study has shown that ozone in the lower layers of the atmosphere decreases crop yields in maize and changes the types of chemicals that are found inside the leaves.
Ozone is formed when nitrous oxide, released from industries and tail pipes of cars, is broken down by sunlight and chemically reacts to form ozone. Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have been studying the effects of ozone pollution on crops for over 20 years at a unique facility where crops can be grown under real-world farm field conditions but with increased concentrations of ozone pollution.
"Ozone pollution is higher in the northern hemisphere, and peaks in the warmer, summer months. High concentrations of ozone pollution overlap temporally and spatially with crop growth, so it is important to study how the high ozone concentrations affect crop yields," said Jessica Wedow, a former PhD student in the Ainsworth lab.
The researchers looked at three types of maize: two inbred lines B73 and Mo17, and the hybrid cross B73 × Mo17. Surprisingly, they found that chronic ozone stress caused a 25% decrease in yield in the hybrid crops while the inbred plants remained unaffected. The hybrid plants also aged faster than the inbred crops.
To understand why B73 × Mo17 was affected, the researchers measured the chemical composition of the leaves. "The inbred plants did not respond to ozone. On the other hand, the hybrid plants produced more α?tocopherol and phytosterols, which help quench reactive oxygen molecules and stabilize the chloroplast membranes," Wedow said. These results suggest that the since the hybrid maize is more sensitive to ozone exposure, they may be producing more chemicals that deal with the consequences of chronic ozone stress.
"This study provides clues to improve maize tolerance to ozone pollution," said Lisa Ainsworth (GEGC), the Research Leader of the USDA ARS Global Change and Photosynthesis Research Unit. The group is currently studying whether these responses are consistent across other important grasses, including those used for bioenergy.
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The paper "Age-dependent increase in a-tocopherol and phytosterols in maize leaves exposed to elevated ozone pollution" was published in Plant Direct and can be found at https://doi.org/10.1002/pld3.307. The study was funded by the NSF Plant Genome Research Program.
A new 'Kung Fu' debuts at a crucial time for Asian Americans
NEW YORK — Up-and-coming actors will sometimes claim to know a variety of skills to be considered for roles, but Olivia Liang set a boundary early in her career.
“When I started off in the industry, people would ask me why martial arts wasn’t on my resume because it was such a typecast for Asians to do martial arts roles," said Liang. "So I made a promise to myself. I was like, ‘I’ll never learn martial arts until someone pays me to learn martial arts.'"
Liang kept that promise. She learned martial arts as the lead of The CW's new series, “ Kung Fu ” — and she's getting paid for it. “Kung Fu” is inspired by the 1972 series starring David Carradine. It stars Liang as Nicky Shen, who while visiting China, joins a monastery where she is taught Shaolin values and martial arts. When her mentor is killed, she returns home to find her community disrupted by a local gang. She must use the martial arts skills she learned to protect her neighbourhood and family, and soon discovers she's being targeted by the same assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor.
Liang says what makes “Kung Fu” different than the superhero shows The CW is known for is that Nicky is not a vigilante.
“Nicky is heroic, but she doesn’t see herself as a hero. She doesn’t have a hero complex where she is going out to find bad guys. She sees bad things happening and feels like she needs to do something about it.”
The series has a mostly Asian American cast with an Asian American showrunner and executive producer, Christina M. Kim. “I’m so excited that I get to give some people this opportunity to shine," said Kim.
“When I was on set for the first time, we did a camera test and I literally was staring at the monitor and it just hit me. I was like, ‘I’ve never seen the screen filled with Asian American faces like this is.’"
Kim says her writers room is also diverse. She has five writers of Asian descent on staff. Half of the writers are also women, which Kim says is a novelty. “Usually it's just me and one other woman in a room.”
“Kung Fu” premieres Wednesday on The CW and the pilot will be re-broadcast on TNT on Sunday.
Tzi Ma, who plays Nicky's father, Jin, says it's remarkable to have so many people with Asian backgrounds working on the show, because he doesn't have to explain the Asian experience to people who are making creative assumptions to what that's like.
“Not only is there representation on screen but we back it up from our writers room to all our guest directors. It is an amazing sight to behold. I’ve been doing this for a minute now and I have never seen this kind of make up,” said Ma.
Ma hopes the authenticity of the series will help to change the public consciousness at a time when hate crimes against Asian Americans are on the rise.
“The camera is a very interesting instrument. I want the audience to have the opportunity finally to see what real reputation representation is like. And when they get educated... they will begin to develop their taste of what’s good, what’s real and what’s true.”
The Asian American community is also paying attention, not only to see their stories on TV but to see how they're told. Valerie Soe, a professor in the Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University, hopes the producers and writers will be careful with what imagery is presented to viewers.
“The tricky part will be for the folks who are in charge to make sure that the show doesn’t veer too much into older stereotypes and tropes." She cites the gang storyline as potentially problematic because it promotes the theory "that all Asian men are gangsters and villains."
Overall, Soe says the series is a win because it's one more example of an Asian American story being told.
“There’s a phrase called ‘narrative plentitude’ that Viet Thanh Nguyen the author uses — about having a lot of different stories out there to pick from so we don’t have to just like obsessively focus on one. Like, ‘Is ’Crazy Rich Asians' going to represent us accurately? Is 'Joy Luck Club' going to represent us accurately?' It’s like, ‘Well, if that one doesn’t, then we’ve got this other one,’" she said.
"The more the merrier. I think not everything’s going to be fabulous and not everything’s going to be exactly what we want. But, if you have a lot of different choices, then you don't expect everything from one."
___ A new 'Kung Fu' debuts at a crucial time for Asian Americans
Follow Alicia Rancilio at http://www.twitter.com/aliciar
Alicia Rancilio, The Associated Press
I RECCOMEND WATCHING THE SERIES 'WARRIORS' ON NETFLIX, ASIAN VERSION OF GANGS OF NEW YORK MEETS KUNG FU
GOOD NEWS Bulgaria's course unclear after fractured election result
THE DICTATORSHIP OF THE PARTY IS ENDED
AFP
Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov's centre-right party came first in the weekend's parliamentary elections, partial results showed Monday, but with protest parties surging it has no clear partner to form a governing coalition.
Borisov's GERB party, undermined by scandals and protests after nearly a decade in power, won just 26 percent of Sunday's vote.
With the country facing an uncertain political period ahead as Borisov attempts to form a government, he pitched himself as a leader representing stability.
"You won't make it on your own... let's unite," the 61-year-old said in a live broadcast on Facebook Sunday night.
"Do you have someone more experienced than me?"
He also suggested a cabinet of "experts... to carry the responsibility and to make the maximum efforts for Bulgaria until December in order to exit the pandemic," after an election held at the peak of the country's third coronavirus wave.
Slavi Trifonov came in a surprise second with 18 percent Analysts predicted an uphill battle for Borisov to cobble together a new coalition after an unexpectedly strong performance by new populist and anti-government protest parties. "The results show the profound fragmentation of society," political analyst Antony Galabov said.
"No clear majority is in view and GERB owes its win only on voters' concern for stability."
- 'Political crisis'? -
The new populist party There is Such a Nation of 54-year-old entertainer-turned-politician Slavi Trifonov came in a surprise second with 18.4 percent of the vote, according to Monday's official partial results.
The traditional main opposition Socialist party received a mere 14.9 percent, its lowest number in the Balkan country's post-communist history.
Socialist leader Kornelia Ninova said Monday the movement "will not support any government -- neither political, nor made up of experts -- put forward by GERB", predicting a "political crisis" ahead.
But political analyst Daniel Smilov said it was "too early to talk about a political crisis".
"Let's wait for the various coalition options, even if they unrealistic, to be examined," he said, while adding that "there are many unknowns".
Several other parties appear set to enter the 240-seat parliament, including two which led massive anti-government protests last summer, accusing Borisov of protecting oligarchs.
They are the right-wing Democratic Bulgaria coalition, which won around 10 percent of the vote, while new leftist coalition Stand up! Mafia out! -- which is close to President Rumen Radev, a sharp critic of Borisov -- took nearly five percent.
The kingmaker in a number of previous Bulgarian governments, the Turkish minority Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, came fifth with nine percent.
GERB's current coalition partners VMRO meanwhile failed to pass the four-percent threshold to enter parliament. - 'Don't know what to expect' -
Borisov's poor performance came despite observers from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe documenting that "massive use of state resources gave the ruling party a significant advantage" in a report published Monday.
The OSCE also complained of "lack of editorial diversity" in the media, with Bulgaria standing 111th in Reporters Without Borders' global press freedom ranking.
"Politicians now have to show wisdom because in this fragmented parliament it would be difficult to form a government if they don't show political will, desire and vision," 67-year-old software engineer Lyubomir Tsekov told AFP Monday in the capital Sofia, adding he hoped to avoid new elections.
Some elderly voters were puzzled by the rise of Trifonov, who has been quite popular for many years but mostly as a singer and talk show host.
But analyst Mira Radeva said Trifonov's main appeal was among "not very political young people aged 18 to 30".
"I have no opinion of Trifonov as a politician, he is just a showman!," 64-year-old Violeta Mihaylova said.
"I don't know what to expect," she said, adding that she was disappointed with the election results.
ds/tgb/dl
The collapse of 'big steel' should be a warning for climate skeptics
R. David Harden and Eric Haxthausen, opinion contributor
THE HILL
4/5/2021
For most of the last century, America was the king of steel. In 1900, the United States was the leading steel producer of the world. By the middle of the 20th century, the United States was producing roughly half of the world's supply. At the time, the U.S. ste
el industry employed up to 650,000 workers, with pay significantly above the national average wage. The U.S. dominance of the global steel industry contributed to the allied victory in two world wars. Steel was the symbol of American military strength and economic power.
But by the late 1970s, the steel industry was under assault by rising economic powers. Fueled by low-cost labor and raw materials, government subsidies and investments in new technology, foreign producers rapidly gained market share. Yet, the U.S. government chose not to act on clear-eyed assessments of the need to invest in modernizing the American steel industry, opting for a laissez-faire approach that failed to connect industrial and manufacturing policies to national and economic security. Big Steel resorted to closing facilities and pressing the unions to accept lower wages and benefits, viewing profitability as a zero-sum battle between labor and management.
The result was foreseeable. Employment in the U.S. steel industry fell by more than 60 percent, and the American share of global production dropped even more. The collapse of the steel industry devastated communities across the United States. Generations later, cities like Baltimore and Cleveland have never fully recovered.
History often repeats itself. Today, climate change is the new market disruptor.
Across the world, technology, and capital flows are converging on climate opportunities. These trends will restructure energy, agriculture, transportation, and infrastructure as well as most of the global economy over the next decade. America will not be exempt; the U.S. will either innovate and lead - or buy from other nations that do.
Out-of-touch climate skepticism and fear of public investment will assure our decline in the face of these market forces. Our nation simply cannot fail to seize this moment. We learned our lesson 40 years ago.
To forge the next American century, Congress must enact legislation to implement President Biden's infrastructure plan. This should not be a partisan issue. The United States increasingly lags in the quality of its infrastructure, and risks falling behind its strategic competitors. The American Society of Civil Engineers recently assessed that failing to address the $2.6 trillion gap in infrastructure funding would cost the United States $10 trillion in economic growth and more than 3 million jobs in the next two decades.
Climate change is placing new demands on physical infrastructure. More frequent extreme weather events and warmer temperatures put added stress on roads and structures. Rising sea levels threaten coastal communities, which will need to elevate roadways, develop defenses, manage coastal erosion and flooding, or make tough decisions to relocate homes and facilities. There is widespread recognition that our roadways, transit systems, rail, ports, airports, water systems, schools and other buildings need modernization to handle the effects of climate change and to support a net-zero carbon emissions future. These upgrades, along with a modern and resilient electric grid, affordable and universal broadband internet access, and secure 5G telecommunications technology, are essential to our economic future.
Such investments will yield breakout returns. Earlier federal investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy delivered more than a 27 percent annual return. Strengthening support for emerging technologies will help assure a pathway to commercialization. For instance, by improving energy efficiency in the manufacturing and the building sectors, U.S. firms can capture new markets and reduce carbon emissions.
Pairing these investments with "demand-pull" strategies, including incentives, federal procurement commitments, and clean energy standards, will ensure that American innovations capture commercial opportunities both at home and abroad.
Critically, these investments should also be integrated with regional economic development strategies and proven workforce development programs, particularly in rural and other underserved communities to create jobs in those parts of the country most affected by this energy transition.
How will we pay for this big vision?
Climate innovation is a long-term investment. Adjusted for inflation, it currently costs the government less to borrow than to hold cash: real interest rates on all but the longest term bonds are negative. This is the moment to make bold commitments that will pay themselves back over time. These investments will unleash broad based economic opportunity, create jobs, accelerate innovation, and expand American trade to new climate markets overseas, all of which will grow the tax base and spur economic growth. Federal dollars will leverage private capital through project financing, equity investment and licensing fees. State and local governments can raise capital with matching federal support using revolving funds and climate impact bonds to build community infrastructure.
America has a bipartisan history of building big infrastructure at a time of national crisis. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln connected the nation and secured a century of progress by launching the transcontinental railroad. Franklin D. Roosevelt launched the Works Progress Administration that built the roads, dams, airports and water systems to help America climb out of the Great Depression. Eisenhower championed the interstate highway system during the height of the Cold War to open unprecedented American travel, trade and prosperity in the late 20th Century.
Now is our time. Tackling climate change and renewing our infrastructure is our opportunity. Like Lincoln, Roosevelt and Eisenhower before, President Biden can seize the future by building the infrastructure, innovating the technology, securing energy independence, and unlocking talent and capital for generations to come. Congress just needs to act.
R. David Harden is managing director of the Georgetown Strategy Group and former assistant administrator at USAID's Bureau for Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, where he oversaw U.S. assistance to all global crises. Follow him on Twitter at @Dave_Harden.
Eric Haxthausen is an independent consultant advising on climate policy and strategy. He has served in the Federal government under four presidential administrations, and as an economist and U.S. climate change policy director for leading environmental organizations.
Why Native American children have higher rates of disability
The rates of disability among U.S. children are increasing, with the highest rate of disability among Native American children, according to a newly released brief by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Video COVID-19’s toll on the Navajo Nation More than 3 million children in the U.S. had a disability in 2019, slightly up from data collected more than a decade ago.
But a disproportionate number of Native American children (5.9%) had a disability, followed by children of more than one race (5.2%) and Black children (5.1%). Household income also appeared to play a role, with 6.5% of children living below the poverty line having a disability, as compared to 3.8% of children living in families with incomes above the poverty threshold.
"There are decades of evidence that these particular racial and ethnic groups, especially American Indian, Native American groups and Black Americans, have poor access to care, and also may not have access to the same quality of health care services," said Dr. Regan Bergmark, an otolaryngologist at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital with an interest in addressing health care disparities.
Bergmark said screening programs can be an important first step in identifying disabilities that may benefit from early intervention and treatment. A disability includes problems with seeing or hearing, thinking, walking and other disabilities that affect day-to-day living. But these conditions also negatively impact a child's future employment and socialization.
A lack of access to high-quality care can be a major contributor to the higher rates of disability. Native American children and their families have historically had inadequate prenatal care, higher rates of premature birth and exposure to environmental stressors. Some live in rural or remote communities where they may experience difficulty with transportation to appointments and higher wait times. Finding primary care providers and pediatricians who understand the unique cultural needs of these children can also pose a challenge.
For example, some children might benefit from therapy that incorporates their tribes' historical connection to horses.
"In many tribes, horses are connected to the land and to ceremony, and using them to help children with walking, with emotional and social therapy and even mental health therapy has been really effective," said Dr. Shaquita Bell, a pediatrician at Odessa Brown Children's Clinic in Seattle and past chair of the Committee on Native American Child Health, in describing how culturally sensitive therapies can benefit children.
The Indian Health Service, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, aims to promote health at local, regional and national levels for members of more than 500 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and their descendants. However, the IHS remains underfunded, limiting the services it can provide, according to Bell and Bergmark.MORE: To Native Americans, reparations can vary from having sovereignty to just being heard
Experts say that it's important for doctors and other health care providers to learn as much as they can about Native American history and customs, so they can provide culturally competent care.
"You are probably caring for native children; your kids are probably going to school with them; you're probably grocery shopping with folks, so awareness ... of the unique needs of American Indian and Alaskan Native children are really important so that we can help them achieve their health goals," Bell emphasized.
Sara Yumeen, M.D., is a preliminary-year internal medicine resident at Hartford Healthcare St. Vincent's Medical Center in Connecticut and is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
