Ethics: Origin and Development 
Pëtr Kropotkin
PDF
https://lib.anarhija.net/library/petr-kropotkin-ethics-origin-and-development.pdf

Contents

Translators’ Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Introduction by the Russian Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Chapter 1: The Present Need of Determining the Bases of Morality 10
Chapter 2: The Gradually Evolving Bases of the New Ethics 23
Chapter 3: The Moral Principle in Nature (17th and l8th Centuries) (continued) 33
Chapter 4: Moral Conceptions of Primitive Peoples 54
Chapter 5: Development of Moral Teachings — Ancient Greece 70
Chapter 6: Christianity — The Middle Ages — The Renaissance 91
Chapter 7: Development of Moral Teachings in the Modern Era (17th and
18th Centuries) 114
Chapter 8: Development of Moral Teachings in the Modern Era (17th and
l8th Centuries) (continued) 136
Chapter 9: Development of Moral Teachings in the Modern Era (End of
18th century and beginning of 19th century) 161
Chapter 10: Development of Moral Teachings — XIX Century 174
Chapter 11: Development of Moral Teachings — XIX Century (continued) 195
Chapter 12: Development of Moral Teachings — XIX Century (continued) 215
Chapter 13: Development of Moral Teachings — XIX Century (concluded) 240
Chapter 14: Conclusion 248

Restore soil to absorb billions of tonnes of carbon: study

AFP

Restoring and protecting the world's soil could absorb more than five billion tonnes of carbon dioxide each year -- roughly what the US emits annually -- new research showed Monday.

© Raul ARBOLEDA Last year the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the world needed to work harder to retain the land's ability to absorb and store planet-warming greenhouse gases

Last year the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said that the world needed to work harder to retain the land's ability to absorb and store planet-warming greenhouse gases and prevent it turning from a carbon sink to a source.


Just the first metre of soil around the world contains as much carbon as is currently in the atmosphere, locking up the CO2 sequestered in trees as they decompose and return to the earth.

A new paper in the journal Nature Sustainability analysed the potential for carbon sequestration in soils and found it could, if properly managed, contribute a quarter of absorbtion on land.

The total potential for land-based sequestration is 23.8 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent, so soil could in theory absorb 5.5 billion tonnes annually.

Most of this potential, around 40 percent, can be achieved simply by leaving existing soil alone -- that is, not continuing to expand agriculture and plantation growth across the globe.

"Most of the ongoing destruction of these ecosystems is about expanding the footprint of agriculture, so slowing or halting that expansion is an important strategy," said Deborah Bossio, principal study author and lead soil scientist for The Nature Conservancy.

She said that soil restoration would have significant co-benefits for humanity, including improved water quality, food production and crop resilience.

"There are few trade-offs where we build soil carbon and continue to produce food," she told AFP.

The IPCC said in August that humanity was facing tough choices between how land -- Earth's forests, wetlands, savannah and fields -- is used to provide food and material and how it is used to mitigate climate change.

There is simply not enough space to feed 10 billion people by 2050 and limit catastrophic climate change, its 1,000-page study warned.

Agriculture already contributes as much as a third of all greenhouse gas emissions and vast amounts of food are wasted, driving global inequality.

Bossio said governments needed to ensure that agricultural practices seek to provide us with more than just food.

"Shift the incentive structures in agriculture towards payments for the range of ecosystem services, food, climate, water and biodiversity that agriculture can provide to society," she said.

READ

Fields, Factories, and Workshops - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Fields,_Factories,_and_Workshops
Fields, Factories, and Workshops is an 1899 book by anarchist Peter Kropotkin that discusses the decentralization of industries, possibilities of agriculture, and uses of small industries. Before this book on economics, Kropotkin had been known for his anarchist militarism and Siberian geography.
Pages‎: ‎315
Publisher‎: ‎Houghton, Mifflin & Co.
Publication date‎: ‎1899
‎Bibliography · ‎Further reading

 Fields, Factories and Workshops Tomorrow - Center for a ...
c4ss.org › wp-content › uploads › 2014/08 › FactoriesPDF
by P Kropotkin - ‎Cited by 221 - ‎Related articlesFields, Factories and Workshops Tomorrow by Pyotr Kropotkin. Contents. 1. Introduction to the C4SS Edition by Kevin A. Carson. 5. 2. Introduction by Colin Ward.

Ice loss in Antarctica and Greenland increased sixfold in the last 30 years


Brandon Specktor, Live Science

Antarctica and Greenland are losing ice six times faster than in the 1990s, a pair of studies in the journal Nature show.

© Murat Tellioglu Image: Iceberg

According to the international team of climatologists behind the research, the unprecedented rate of melt has already contributed 0.7 inches (1.78 centimeters) to global sea level rise in the last three decades, putting the planet on track for the worst-case climate warming scenario laid out in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) latest report.


The dreaded scenario, which predicts a total sea level rise of 23.6 inches (60 cm) by the year 2100, would put hundreds of millions of people living in coastal communities at risk of losing their homes — or their lives — to flooding.

"Every centimeter of sea level rise leads to coastal flooding and coastal erosion, disrupting people's lives around the planet," study author Andrew Shepherd, a professor of Earth Observation at the University of Leeds in England, said in a statement. "If Antarctica and Greenland continue to track the worst-case climate warming scenario, they will cause an extra 6.7 inches (17 cm) of sea level rise by the end of the century."

"This would mean 400 million people are at risk of annual coastal flooding by 2100," Shepherd added.

For the new studies, a team of 89 scientists assessed ice loss data from 11 satellites that have been monitoring Antarctica and Greenland since the early 1990s. The data created a detailed picture of how much mass each region's glaciers have lost over the last 30 years, and showed how quickly the remaining ice is flowing into the sea.

The team found that Greenland and Antarctica have lost a combined 7 trillion tons of ice (6.4 trillion metric tons) from 1992 to 2017. Almost all of the lost ice in Antarctica and about half of the lost ice in Greenland is due to warming ocean waters melting the edges of glaciers, causing each region's ice sheets to flow more quickly toward the sea. The rest of Greenland's ice loss is due to warming air temperatures, which melt the ice sheets at their surfaces, the researchers said.

The rate of ice loss in each ice sheet also increased substantially over that period, rising from a combined 89 billion tons (81 billion metric tons) per year in the 1990s to 523 billion tons (475 billion metric tons) per year in the 2010s.

This sixfold increase in the rate of ice loss means that the melting polar ice sheets are responsible for a third of all sea level rise, the researchers said. (Thermal expansion, which causes water to take up more space as it warms, is responsible for much of the remaining sea level rise.)

The accelerated ice loss puts the planet well on the way toward the IPCC's worst-case scenario.

Images of melt: Earth's vanishing ice
The reality of climate change: 10 myths busted
Top 10 ways to destroy Earth

Originally published on Live Science.

Current oil prices will be around for a while: 
Sadad Al-Husseini

Sadad Al-Husseini of Husseini Energy joins “Squawk on the Street”

 via phone to discuss the oil markets. TUE, MAR 17 2020

Oil below $30 a barrel a disaster for shale producers: API CEO

Mike Sommers, American Petroleum Institute CEO, calls in to 'Power Lunch' to discuss what oil falling below $30/barrel means for the industry in the U.S.

‘No blank check’ for airlines seeking more than $50 billion in coronavirus aid, Democrats warn

PUBLISHED TUE, MAR 17 2020


KEY POINTS

U.S. airlines are seeking more than $50 billion in government aid as business collapses during the coronavirus outbreak.

Some lawmakers and labor unions say airlines have to protect workers and consumers in return.

The four biggest U.S. carriers — Delta, American, Southwest and United — have collectively spent about $39 billion over the last five years buying back shares, according to a tally from S&P Dow Jones Indices.

A Delta flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport flies

 nearly empty to JFK on March 15, 2020 near New York City.
John Moore | Getty Images

The more than $50 billion in government aid U.S. airlines are seeking as the coronavirus ravages their businesses must include worker and consumer protections, Democratic lawmakers and labor unions said Tuesday. They criticized airlines for spending years of windfall profits buying back their own stock.

“No blank check industry bailouts,” tweeted Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.

Airlines are reeling from what executives have called an unprecedented collapse in travel demand as COVID-19 spreads, prompting millions of Americans to stay at home. More than 5,000 cases of coronavirus have been detected so far in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday said he is discussing with lawmakers a sprawling aid package that will include assistance for U.S. airlines.

As a result of the virus, airlines are culling thousands of flights, parking airplanes, deferring orders and asking workers to take unpaid leave in a bid to preserve cash. U.S. airlines employ close to 750,000 people, according to federal data.

Airlines’ requested aid includes $25 billion in direct grants — five times more than what they received following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — and it is crucial for the carriers, according to their lobbying group, Airlines for America, which represents American, Delta, United, Southwest and others.

Congress has begun negotiations around a third emergency funding bill to address the pandemic. The bill is expected to include some form of industry aid, as well as protections for individuals and companies battling the virus.

Labor unions and some Democratic lawmakers say that while the carriers didn’t cause the dire situation they’re now in, aid should come with some conditions.

“We have told Congress that any funds for the aviation industry must come with strict rules,” said Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents some 50,000 cabin crews at United, Alaska, Spirit and others. “That includes requiring employers across aviation to maintain pay and benefits for every worker. No taxpayer money for CEO bonuses, stock buybacks or dividends. No breaking contracts through bankruptcy.”

Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., on Monday her support of the framework laid out by Nelson.

The four biggest U.S. carriers — Delta, American, Southwest and United — have collectively spent about $39 billion over the last five years buying back shares, according to a tally from S&P Dow Jones Indices. Those carriers’ shares are now trading at multiyear lows. Boeing, which is also seeking government aid, spent more than $35 billion in that period.

“If there is so much as a DIME of corporate bailout money in the next relief package, it should include a reinstated ban on stock buybacks,” tweeted Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat.

“We fully recognize that the company had the opportunity to build up its cash reserves and repeatedly advocated for them to do so,” wrote Todd Insler, chairman of the union that represents United’s pilots, the Air Line Pilots Association. “In spite of ALPA’s warnings, they instead chose to spend company resources differently.

“In the future, there will be a time for a reckoning, blame, and restitution — I assure you of that. For now, we need management to focus on the enterprise, and we need to work together to survive,” he said.

Larry Willis, president of the Transportation Trades Department, an umbrella group of 33 unions in the sector, notes that workers were hit with layoffs after the 9/11 bailouts and that it took years for the sector to recover.

“Lawmakers must ensure bailout and stimulus funds flow to working families, and collective bargaining rights need to be preserved and respected,” he said. “Front-line workers, including those in the aviation sector, need to know they are supported by policies that will put their families first and position our country to flourish once this crisis passes.”

Lawmakers are also seeking that airlines protect workers and consumers. Airlines have increased fees to change tickets and for check bags, and also added new ones such as seat selection for standard legroom, drawing ire from some lawmakers.

Sen. Edward Senator Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said that “any infusion of money to the airlines must have some major strings attached,” which include protections for front-line airline employees like flight attendants, pilots and airport workers. It must also come with new rules to “prohibit consumer abuses like unfair change and cancellation fees,” which can run $200 or more.

Congress should ensure workers and businesses receive relief on a “broad and equitable basis,” said Sen. Tom Udall, a New Mexico Democrat. “While the travel and tourism industries are important to New Mexico, economic relief should be focused on keeping workers and their families in their homes with enough support for their daily needs. Any economic relief should be contingent on the benefits flowing to workers and their families, not CEOs and shareholders.”

Other travel companies are also talking with White House officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, about the drop in bookings. The U.S. Travel Association, whose members include giants like Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott and retailers like Macy’s, are meeting with White House officials about the financial damage from the coraonvirus crisis. They estimate a loss of $1.4 billion in revenue every week and that 1 million hotel jobs have been eliminated or will be because of the drop in bookings.

Correction: Sen. Tom Udall is a New Mexico Democrat. An earlier version misidentified his state.

MEDICARE FOR ALL WILL BE $1 TRILLION PER YEAR FOR TEN YEARS

FREE POST SECONDARY EDUCATION AND LOAN FORGIVENESS              WILL BE ABOUT $1 TRILION DOLLARS

CONSERVATIVES GO NUTS OVER THESE SANDERS PROPOSALS

SAME  CONS THAT APPROVED THIS NO QUESTIONS ASKED 

The White House is seeking a stimulus package worth anywhere from $850 billion to more than $1 trillion as the Trump administration looks to battle the economic impact from the coronavirus pandemic, according to a source familiar with the matter.

An administration official said the package could include:

• $500 billion to $550 billion in direct payments or tax cuts
• $200 billion to $300 billion in small business assistance 
• $50 billion to $100 billion in airline and industry relief

Potentially $250 billion of the package could go toward making direct payments to Americans, 

a White House official told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. 

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier Tuesday that the administration wants to get emergency funds in Americans’ pockets “immediately.

The coronavirus outbreak is a ‘different kind of crisis,’ says Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz

PUBLISHED TUE, MAR 17 2020 Huileng Tan@HUILENG_TAN

KEY POINTS

On Sunday, the Fed slashed interest rates to near-zero and announced a $750 billion asset-purchasing program to shelter the economy from the impact of the virus.

“This is a different kind of crisis than normal crises. It’s just not a problem of aggregate demand,” said Joseph Stiglitz, former chief economist at the World Bank.

The spread of the coronavirus disease, formally known as COVID-19, has disrupted the global economy and supply chains as countries implement strict border controls, massive city-wide lockdowns and quarantines in order to contain the virus.


Aggressive policy action by the Federal Reserve is “obviously not” enough to help the U.S. avert a downturn caused by the coronavirus outbreak, said Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel laureate in economics.

“Given the nature of the uncertainties, given the nature of the collapsing incomes of so many people, it can help stabilize financial markets at best and it’s clear that it didn’t do that,” Stiglitz told CNBC on Tuesday.

On Sunday, the Fed slashed interest rates to near-zero and announced a $750 billion asset-purchasing program to shelter the economy from the impact of the virus. Despite that, the markets crashed Monday — with the Dow suffering its worst day since the “Black Monday” market crash in 1987 and its third-worst day ever.


While the situation might have been worse without the Fed’s moves, “clearly it didn’t stabilize the stock markets,” said Stiglitz, who is a former chief economist at the World Bank.

The problem is that “this is a different kind of crisis than normal crises. It’s just not a problem of aggregate demand,” he said.

“Because of the disease, people are shutting down their businesses. In the United States, restaurants in New York City have been closed,” said Stiglitz. “More demand is not going to save that particular problem.”

The spread of the coronavirus disease, formally known as COVID-19, has disrupted the global economy and supply chains as countries implement strict border controls, massive city-wide lockdowns and quarantines in order to contain the virus.

There are now at least 168,019 cases of the coronavirus worldwide, according to data from the World Health Organization. At least 6,610 have died from the disease.

Even though financial institutions have assured that their positions are strong amid the market rout, Stiglitz said no bank would be spared from the impact of a major economic downturn even if it is adequately capitalized.

“People wouldn’t be able to repay their loans, people wouldn’t be taking out new loans, businesses wouldn’t be taking out new loans. The business model of banks is very sensitive to the business cycle,” he said.
Give help to targeted segments

Stiglitz advocated for targeted assistance to help people and sectors weather the public health emergency.

“It is clearly a case where targeted fiscal policy is what is needed. It’s been true for a long while that monetary policies has had only have limited efficacy,” said the Columbia University professor, who is also chief economist at the Roosevelt Institute.

The support should focus on those who will be “facing enormous stress,” strengthening the capacity of the healthcare system and encouraging people to not interact, as well as get tested and not show up at work if they are sick, said Stiglitz.

“We are going to need to get large amounts of money — you might call it ‘helicopter money’ — to those people who are going to be under enormous stress,” he said, citing the example of Hong Kong, which announced a 10,000 Hong Kong dollar ($1,287) cash payout to all permanent residents above 18 years old.

In fact, large government spending in today’s pressing circumstances while paying no attention to deficit “is correct,” he said.

“The deficit is something that we will have to deal with in the future. When we went to World War II, we didn’t ask ‘could we afford it,’” said Stiglitz. “We spent the money as we needed it.”

“We had to make sure that we weren’t overspending in the sense that we had inflation. We had to manage the economy.”

Trump had ‘no idea’ about the seriousness of coronavirus crisis: Stiglitz

WATCH NOW VIDEO 2:55

Public health emergency declared in Alberta

'The situation is very serious': COVID-19 pandemic prompts Alberta to declare a state of public health emergency

Matthew Black CTV News Edmonton March 17, 2020 

EDMONTON -- Alberta Premier Jason Kenney declared a public state of health emergency on Tuesday in an effort to combat the growing spread of COVID-19.

"The situation is very serious," said Kenney. "Decisive action is needed and we are taking that action."

"We have to take more aggressive measures to contain the virus, more aggressive social distancing measures."

Kenney also announced a number of new measures on social distancing as recommended by provincial health authorities, including a ban on any organized gatherings of more than 50 people.

Albertans are now prohibited from visiting a number of venues including: public recreation centres, casinos, bingo halls, bars, nightclubs, fitness centres, arenas, museums, and indoor children's play centres.

Sit-down restaurants, pubs, delis and coffee shops are now limited to a maximum of 50 people or 50 per cent of their maximum capacity, whichever is lower.

"Drive-thru, take-out and delivery will still be permitted," Kenney said adding the province has changed regulations allowing restaurants to engage in off-sales of liquor.

Conferences, weddings and funerals are not exempt from the declaration and should be cancelled, said Kenney.

He said the new restrictions go into effect immediately.

"I recognize these measures will have a profound impact on the lives of Albertans. But they are frankly necessary in the face of this growing pandemic."

Venues deemed to be essential services including grocery stores, airports, homeless shelters, soup kitchens and the Alberta legislature building will remain open.

The government also announced $60 million in funding to be sent to social agencies and another $30 million devoted to supporting seniors.

Kenney announced more government spending measures to deal with the economic implications of the pandemic will be announced tomorrow.

"This is a serious moment in our history," said Kenney. "This province is resilient and we are ready for the test."

Kenney said the availability of trained personnel remains a concern for health authorities as the pandemic continues.

He said the province may bring back recently retired medical professionals or cancel vacation for existing staff to boost the province's health care capacity.

WHAT DOES A PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY MEAN?

The declaration comes under the province's Public Health Act which typically permits a 30-day period for the state of emergency, which can be extended to 90 days.

Kenney said the declaration is limited to health care powers, where section 52 of the act allows a 60-day state of emergency to "prompt co-ordination of action or special regulation of persons or property is required in order to protect the public health."

The Emergency Management Act also allows the government to take central control of a crisis by enacting a number of emergency powers over a 28-day period, including:
Putting into operation an emergency plan or program.

Authorize or require local authorities to put into effect their own emergency plans.
Acquire or use any property necessary to prevent or alleviate the effects of the emergency.
Control or prohibit travel to or from any area of Alberta.

Procure or fix prices for food, clothing, fuel, equipment, or other essential supplies.
Order the evacuation of persons and property from any area affected by a disaster.

Kenney said his government is not enacting all aspects of the act's powers, instead using the declaration to aid health care administration. He said the other powers could be used in the future if needed.

The legislation permits for a 90-day period if the order is "in respect of a pandemic influenza."

In 2016, the province declared a provincial state of emergency in response to the Fort McMurray fires. The state of emergency came into effect on May 4, 2016 and lasted for 58 days, until July 1, 2016.

Earlier Tuesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency in his province, including a ban on public events of over 50 people including parades, events and services within places of worship until March 31.

COVID-19 Cases in Alberta
Infogram

'This is a serious moment in our history': Alberta Premier Jason Kenney declares public health emergency

Social Sharin

• LinkedI

Bars, casinos to shut immediately while restaurants, coffee shops to get seating limits

CBC News · Posted: Mar 17, 2020

The decision to put the province under a state of public emergency is part of Alberta's effort in a bid to slow the rising number of coronavirus infections. 3:02Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has declared a state of public health emergency as the province works to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

"This declaration is meant to empower authorities under the Public Health Act to effectively manage the COVID response," Kenney said.

"Decisive action is needed and we are taking that action."

Kenney made the announcement Tuesday at the Alberta legislature.

Alberta's Provincial Operations Centre has been elevated from a level 3 to a level 4, the highest level, Kenney said.

he funding will go to adult homeless shelters, women's emergency shelters and the Family and Community Support Services (FCSS) program, which supports municipalities and civil society organizations in providing services to vulnerable Albertans.

Bars, nightclubs and casinos will close immediately.

Seating in restaurants and coffee shops will be limited to a maximum of 50 people or 50-per-cent capacity, whichever is lower, he said.

Take-out, delivery and drive-through service is permitted.

Licensed facilities will also be permitted to deliver liquor, in part to help them sell off inventory.

"We apologize to operators of these establishments for the suddenness of this, although I think they've seen it coming," Kenney said.

Mass gatherings are now limited to no more than 50 attendees. This includes worship gatherings and family events such as weddings, the province said in a news release.

Kenney said funerals with more than 50 people should also be cancelled.

Grocery stores, shopping centres, health-care facilities, airports, the legislature and other essential services are not included. Soup kitchens and homeless shelters will also not be affected by the order.

Albertans are prohibited from attending public recreational facilities and private entertainment facilities, including gyms, swimming pools, arenas, science centres, museums, art galleries, community centres, children's play centres, casinos, racing entertainment centres, and bingo halls.

Not-for-profit community kitchens, soup kitchens and religious kitchens are exempt, but sanitization practices are expected to be in place and support will be in place for this practice

The decision to put the province under a state of public health emergency is part of Alberta's effort to try to slow the rising number of coronavirus infections.

"This is a serious moment in our history and COVID-19 will test us," Kenney said. "We will do whatever it takes to slow the spread of this virus."
$60 million in emergency funding

Municipalities, charitable and non-profit organizations providing social services support will immediately get $60 million to help their COVID-19 response, the government news release said.
The money will be dispersed before March 31, Kenney said. He said he has appointed Jeremy Nixon, former executive director of The Mustard Seed, as parliamentary secretary for civil society.

Nixon will work with charities and non-profits to ensure they are helping to reach out to seniors and other vulnerable people who are in isolation.

Half of the $60 million will be dedicated to immediate support to women's shelters and homeless shelters.

The other $30 million will extend support services to seniors and other communities who are isolated because of the pandemic or otherwise affected.

Don't hoard groceries, Kenney says

Kenney said he has been assured by the Retail Council of Canada, and chains such as Loblaws and Walmart, that supply chains and food security are not compromised, so there is no need for people to engage in hoarding or panic buying.

"We do recommend that people have enough food on hand to cope through a couple of weeks, given the likelihood that many people will be affected by self-isolation for 14 days," he said. "But there is no logical reason for people to go out and buy weeks and weeks or months of supplies."

He commended Alberta retailers who have set specific hours for seniors to do their shopping in safety, and encouraged all other retailers to follow suit.
Emergency Management Act may be needed

Kenney said officials may decide to invoke other powers under the Emergency Management Act.

Those powers could be used to prevent people from leaving or entering the province, or allow authorities to seize property, he said

"It's conceivable that if the pandemic goes in the wrong direction, that we may need to effectively use hotels to house people for quarantine, for example," Kenney said.

"The [legislation] would give us those authorities. We do not believe that they are currently necessary but I have told officials that if they believe we need those powers, they should recommend it and we should invoke that."

Earlier Tuesday, Ontario Premier Doug Ford declared a state of emergency in that province


Public health emergency declared in Alberta

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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney declares a state of emergency amid COVID-19 pandemic.
What does public health emergency mean for you?COVID-19 Cases in Alberta

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PM Trudeau says emergency measures are under consideration

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How U.S. coronavirus testing stalled: Flawed tests, red tape and resistance to using the millions of tests produced by the WHO

Peter Whoriskey, Neena Satija


When Olfert Landt heard about the novel coronavirus, he got busy.

© Joshua Roberts/Reuters Robert Redfield, director of the 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies about

 coronavirus preparedness on Capitol Hill on March 12.

Founder of a small Berlin-based company, the ponytailed 54-year-old first raced to help German researchers come up with a diagnostic test and then spurred his company to produce and ship more than 1.4 million tests by the end of February for the World Health Organization.

“My wife and I have been working 16 hours a day, seven days a week, ever since,” Landt said by phone about 1 a.m. Friday, Berlin time. “Our days are full.”

By contrast, over the same critical period, U.S. efforts to distribute tests ground nearly to a halt, and the country’s inability to produce them left public health officials with limited means to determine where and how fast the virus was spreading. From mid-January until Feb. 28, fewer than 4,000 tests from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were used out of more 160,000 produced.

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The United States’ struggles, in Landt’s view, stemmed from the fact the country took too long to use private companies to develop the tests. The coronavirus pandemic was too big and moving too fast for the CDC to develop its own tests in time, he said.

“There are 10 companies in the U.S. who could have developed the tests for them," Landt said. “Commercial companies will run to an opportunity like this.”

As the coronavirus continues to spread across the United States, causing more than 80 deaths and over 4,000 confirmed cases, the struggles that overwhelmed the nation’s testing are becoming clearer.

First, the CDC moved too slowly to tap into the expertise of academia and private companies such as Landt’s, experts said. For example, it wasn’t until last week that large companies such as Roche and Thermo Fisher won approval from the Food and Drug Administration to produce their own tests.

Moreover, while FDA and CDC officials have attributed some of the testing delays to their determination to meet exacting scientific standards they said were needed to protect public health, the government effort was nevertheless marred by a widespread manufacturing problem that stalled U.S. testing for most of February.

The CDC has yet to fully explain the nature of the manufacturing problem but told The Washington Post on Monday that the design could also have resulted in flawed tests.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the CDC, said earlier this month that it is investigating the defect in many of the initial coronavirus test kits.

It has been long-standing practice for CDC scientists in emergencies to develop the first diagnostic tests, in part because the CDC has access to samples of the virus before others, officials said. Later, private companies that win FDA authorization can scale up efforts to meet demand.

In responses for this story, CDC spokesman Benjamin Haynes said in a statement: “This process has not gone as smoothly as we would have liked. ... CDC has a responsibility to ensure that all CDC laboratory research and development activities, testing processes, and data are the highest possible quality and are traceable, reproducible, and documented with appropriate rigor.”

He said the manufacturing problem may have arisen because of the test’s design or because of contamination.

Finally, acknowledging that there “is a great need for test manufacturers to rapidly make testing available,” the statement said that “commercial labs are working to develop their own tests and hopefully will be available soon for clinical settings throughout the country.”

But critics say government officials should have moved much more quickly to bring on expertise from outside the CDC.

“The CDC has good scientists and they are proud,” Landt said. “But in this situation, they took the wrong approach.”
‘We can be proud. ... We moved quickly’

At the very beginning, U.S. efforts to develop a diagnostic test for the coronavirus kept pace with the rest of the world.

Shortly after publication of the virus’s genome in early January, German researchers announced they had designed a diagnostic test. Then, within days, scientists at the CDC said they’d developed one, too, and even used it detect the first U.S. case.

“We actually do have laboratory diagnostics here at CDC that are stood up,” Nancy Messonnier, the CDC’s director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told reporters on Jan. 17.

From there, however, U.S. efforts fell quickly behind, especially when compared with the efforts of the WHO, which has distributed more than 1 million tests to countries around the world based in part on the method developed by the German researchers.

As early as Feb. 6, four weeks after the genome of the virus was published, the WHO had shipped 250,000 diagnostic tests to 70 laboratories around the world, the agency said.

By comparison, the CDC at that time was shipping about 160,000 tests to labs across the nation — but then the manufacturing troubles were discovered, and most would be deemed unusable because they produced confusing results. Over the next three weeks, only about 200 of those tests sent to labs would be used, according to CDC statistics.

In fact, the U.S. efforts to distribute a working test stalled until Feb. 28, when federal officials revised the CDC test and began loosening up FDA rules that had limited who could develop coronavirus diagnostic tests.

During that critical interval, the CDC repeatedly assured the public that progress was being made, even as public health officials around the country began to raise alarms about the shortage of tests.

In January, CDC officials boasted during the coronavirus briefings that the United States has “one of the strongest public health systems in the world.”

At briefing on Feb. 12, Messonnier said “rapid development of a diagnostic and rapid deployment to the states” is “clearly a success.”

On Feb. 14, she said: “We can be proud. … We moved quickly.”

On Feb. 21, Messonnier acknowledged problems with the testing kits, but described the issues as “normal.”

But by that point, public health labs around the nation had run very few of the CDC tests, according to the agency. Health officials across the country began pleading for a test that worked, or at least the authorization to use another test.

© John Moore/AFP/Getty Images Flowers adorn trees outside the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash. As of March 15, 29 covid-19 deaths had been associated with the home.
‘You can’t track what you don’t see’

In the absence of tests, the calls for the United States to tap into the expertise of academia, hospitals and private companies, such as Landt’s, grew more insistent.

“It took [the CDC] a while to come up with the test, honestly,” said Alex Greninger of the University of Washington.

His lab had developed its own test and began seeking approval to use it on patients on Feb. 18. But that test, along with others that had been developed in various academic centers and hospitals, could not be used on patients until the FDA relaxed its testing rules on Feb 29.

He noted that many of the state public health labs had also figured out how to use the CDC test properly — by tossing one of its components — but were not allowed to actually do so until the FDA approved the workaround that same day.

“We had all these state public health labs that had a perfectly good [test] on their hands, and they knew it, they were upset,” Greninger said.

“What surprised me the most was to hear how much emphasis there is at CDC on quality control — to the point where, in my opinion, it really compromised surveillance,” said Michelle Mello, a professor of law and medicine and Stanford who recently wrote a paper about the delays in testing for coronavirus in the United States. “You can’t track what you don’t see.”

On March 7, FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn stressed the importance of quality, noting that diagnostic tests in some other countries have been flawed. He did not specify which countries he meant, but China’s test may have produced lots of false positives, according to a recent publication by Chinese researchers.

“What’s important here is that we have a test that the American people can trust," Hahn said.

But even a small firm, like Landt’s, is capable of producing a lot of high-quality tests and could have helped the efforts in the U.S., Landt said. His company, known as TIB for TIB Molbiol Syntheselabor GmbH, based their tests on the methods the German researchers published in January.

Though it has just 55 employees globally, TIB had experience in developing tests for SARS and the swine flu. It began producing the coronavirus tests in mid-January, just days after the Chinese researchers posted the virus’s genome, Landt said. It can produce about a million of them a week.

As wearying as his schedule has been, Landt said, “I like the feedback from people.”

© Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg Olfert Landt, founder of TIB 

Molbiol Syntheselabor GmbH, poses for a photograph 

with a coronavirus diagnostic test kit at his production 

facility in Berlin on March 6.

Labs waited weeks after tests malfunctioned

Exactly what went wrong with the CDC’s first tests in the first critical weeks hasn’t been fully explained by the agency, aside from the possibility that the design was flawed or that the tests were contaminated.

While such diagnostic tests can vary in the specifics, they typically involve trying to match the genetics of a patient sample, taken from nasal and throat swabs, against those of the virus.

In the case of the CDC method, the test consisted of attempts to match a patient sample against three distinct pieces of the virus’s genetic code. A patient was declared to have coronavirus if each of those three attempts came back as a match.

The trouble with the CDC test arose because the third attempt at a match, known as the N3 component, produced an inconclusive result even on known samples of the coronavirus.

While the cause of the problem in the CDC test may yet be unknown, it meant that in the weeks before Feb. 28, the public health labs were left waiting for a usable test.

By Feb. 8, public health labs were notifying the CDC of troubles with the test, and four days later, about a week after the first CDC tests had shipped, officials acknowledged the problem during a news conference.

“Some of the states identified some inconclusive laboratory results,” Messonnier said Feb. 12. “We are working closely with them to correct the issues and as we’ve said all along, speed is important, but equally or more important in this situation is making sure that the laboratory results are correct.”

In the following weeks, CDC officials repeatedly said that they were working to resolve the manufacturing problem. Then on Feb. 28, the agency announced that it would just scrap the N3 component of the test that had been causing trouble. Officials also contacted a private company called Integrated DNA Technologies and asked it to make new test kits, the company said.

While the problems with the CDC test persisted, the vast majority of testing had to be done at the CDC’s Atlanta lab, and the numbers being tested were woefully below what experts said was needed.

As late as Feb. 27, only 203 specimen tests had been run out of state labs; another 3,125 had been run out of the CDC.

James Lawler, director of the global center for health security and an epidemiologist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, was one of the infectious disease specialists who flew out to meet the Diamond Princess cruise ship passengers in Japan and flew back with them to the United States. Lawler said the problem was not just in the manufacturing of the test but in the design.

In his view, the test has design problems that make it too difficult for many labs to make it work unless they have perfect conditions.

He said that even though the University of Nebraska Medical Center — a world renowned infectious disease institution that houses the state’s public health lab — was able to get the CDC version of the test to work, the Nebraska center developed its own test based on the German lab design published by the WHO.

“It’s very nuanced and complicated to make a diagnostic test,” Lawler said. "If you don’t go back and fix things ... and realize, ‘Hey, maybe I should try a different target,’ that’s when you can run into problems. ... Everything down to the details of the humidity and temperature in some people’s laboratories is going to be different. "

If the design of the test is flawed, he said, "all of those conditions may come into play. Some people have been able to get reproducibly good results and others haven’t.”


Concerns about scarce testing continue

Shortly after Feb. 28, when CDC officials announced the decision to reconfigure the CDC test, the number of those tests run by public health labs soared, from roughly 25 or fewer per day to as many as 1,500. At the same time, authorities were allowing other facilities to use their own tests — including Cleveland Clinic, Stanford and Greninger’s at the University of Washington.

Even so, complaints of testing scarcity continued to roll in last week. And even as tests become more widely available, experts and officials have cautioned that a backlog will continue because of critical shortages: swabs to collect patient samples, machines to extract the genetic material from the swabs, workers qualified to run the tests.

Even if those problems are resolved, however, those critical early delays, when the CDC was struggling to issue tests to the states, significantly damaged efforts to contain the spread of the coronavirus, experts said.

In a CDC tele-briefing on Feb. 29 that included some local and state public health directors, local officials lamented the initial inability to test. A reporter asked: “Did the lack of testing capabilities delay finding out who these cases were, particularly the person who died?”

In answering, Jeff Duchin, the public health chief in King County, Washington, where 37 deaths have been reported, suggested the lack of tests was critical, in addition to the fact that authorities had limited who could be tested. Initially, they had said tests would only be used for those who had traveled in affected regions of the globe or had otherwise been in contact with an infected person.

“So, you know, if we had the ability to test earlier, I’m sure we would have identified patients earlier in the community, possibly at hospitals, but we were also looking at not only availability of testing but whether patients met criteria for testing,” Duchin said.” So, given the fact that we just recently acquired our availability of testing and new criteria were published, this person was brought to our attention.”

Thomas Frieden, an infectious disease physician who served as CDC director under former president Barack Obama, called on Sunday for an “independent group” to investigate what went wrong with the CDC’s testing process. He said in the past, the CDC moved quickly to produce tests for diseases such as H1N1, or swine flu.

“We were able to get test kits out fast,” Frieden said on CNN. “Something went wrong here. We have to find out why so we can prevent that in the future.”

Frieden said the agency has been muzzled under President Trump and despite the multitude of problems with the rollout of testing, “the CDC is still the greatest public health institution in the world.”

Climate report warns "time is fast running out" to avoid worst

CBS 3/10/2020 

The United Nations' weather and climate agency is out with its annual State of the Climate report, and it says "the tell-tale physical signs of climate change" are everywhere. The report documents unprecedented heat waves, fires and floods over the past year, and warns that there is likely more to come.

© Getty Images / iStockphoto heat wave

In the report, the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO) cited the historic fires in Australia and the Amazon, record-shattering heat waves in Europe, and soaring levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. In a statement released with the report, the leader of the United Nations calls climate change "the defining challenge of our time" and said "time is fast running out for us to avert the worst impacts of climate disruption."

"We are currently way off track to meeting either the 1.5°C or 2°C targets that the Paris Agreement calls for," said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, referring to the goal of limiting the rise in global temperatures to no more than 1.5 or 2 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average. "This report outlines the latest science and illustrates the urgency for far-reaching climate action."

10 common myths about climate change — and what science really says

In order to reach those targets the world would have to rein in our dependence on burning fossil fuels, which release heat-trapping greenhouse gases. However, carbon dioxide (CO2) levels once again hit a record in 2019 — nearly 40% higher now than before the Industrial Revolution and the highest levels in 3 million years.

More than 90% of the heat from these excess greenhouse gases is trapped in the oceans, and that has resulted in another record-breaking year for ocean heat content. Even though there was no El Nino, a climate pattern which allows ocean heat to escape into the atmosphere, 2019 still ended up being the globe's second-warmest year on record. In fact, the five warmest years on record worldwide occurred over the most recent five years.

The impact on humans is growing, with climate variability and extreme weather "among the key drivers of the recent rise in global hunger," the UN said in a press statement.

The report also highlighted the most consequential climate-change-driven events over the past year.

Historic fires

If there's one thing most of the planet will remember about 2019, it's the out-of-control fires. From Australia to the Amazon to California, devastating fires dominated news headlines for weeks.

As shown in the recent CBSN Originals documentary "Complicit: The Amazon Fires," slash-and-burn techniques for deforestation are rapidly fracturing the vital rainforest. Scientists warn it may be only a few years before the ecosystem reaches a tipping point and transitions into a more open savanna, with vastly less ability to absorb greenhouse gases and buffer the Earth against climate change.

In Australia's worst fire season on record, 46 million acres were burned, more than 1 billion animals died and the estimated price tag is in the tens of billions of dollars. A international study recently concluded that the Australian bushfires were made much more likely and more intense due to human-caused climate change.
Heat waves

The same mechanism that set the stage for the historic bushfire season in Australia also supercharged the heat wave which helped fuel those fires. A phenomenon called the Indian Ocean Dipole, with cool waters near Australia and warm waters near east Africa, combined with a climate system spiked by human heating to cause a record-shattering heat wave in Australia.

The WMO report notes that Australia experienced the entire country's hottest day on record at 107 degrees Fahrenheit in December, with 2019 featuring the 7 hottest days on record for the nation.

Europe also experienced two historic heat waves this past summer, in late June and late July. In France, a national record high temperature of 115 degrees Fahrenheit shattered the old record by 3.5 degrees. National records were also set in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom.

Not even Antarctica was spared from record breaking heat, with temperatures of 69 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit reported on two separate days in February. The unusual warmth is rapidly melting ice and fracturing ice shelves.
Ocean heat

As mentioned above, ocean heat content (the amount of heat stored in the ocean) set a new record in 2019. While ocean waters help absorb heat and buffer the atmosphere from a rapidly warming climate, that heating takes its toll on the oceans. The report notes that 84% of oceans experienced a marine heat wave in 2019.
© Provided by CBS News

During this past summer a huge ocean heat blob extended from Alaska to California to Hawaii, making for sweltering summer heat in Hawaii with hundreds of record hot temperatures set.

Currently, ocean heat is building up over Australia's Great Barrier Reef, where NOAA Reef Watch predicts that a mass bleaching event, perhaps the most widespread ever, is now underway. The WMO report says that the world's coral reefs are projected to decline to as low as 10% of their former cover when the Earth reaches 1.5° Celsius of global warming, and to less than 1% of their former extent at 2° Celsius of warming.

So far the Earth's atmosphere has warmed by 1.1° Celsius since pre-industrial times. We will likely reach 1.5° of warming in just the next couple of decades.
© Provided by CBS News


Massive floods

While Australia was searing in heat, drought and fire, the other side of the Indian Ocean was suffering from the opposite: torrential rains and flooding in east Africa. Also related to the extreme Indian Ocean Dipole, enhanced by a warmer climate, the unusually heavy rain in late 2019 contributed to the worst desert locust outbreak in the Horn of Africa region in 25 years and the most serious in 70 years for Kenya. This locust outbreak is expected to spread further through June, destroying crops and posing a severe threat to food security.

As the climate continues to warm, the atmosphere can hold more moisture. This results in more extreme rain events — and the United States has not been spared. 2019 was one of the wettest years on record for the U.S. with historic floods plaguing the middle of the nation for months last spring. Total economic losses from flooding in the United States in 2019 were estimated at $20 billion.
Tropical cyclones and displacement

There were 105 named tropical systems worldwide in 2019. The strongest storms of the year were Typhoon Halong in the western Pacific with winds of 190 mph and the now infamous Hurricane Dorian, which struck the Bahamas with winds of 185 mph.

Recent research shows that the extra heat being stored by the oceans is powering stronger tropical cyclones with heavier rainfalls. That trend is expected to continue in the coming decades.

As a direct result of cyclones, especially a select few major disasters, the WMO report says 6.7 million people were displaced just between January and June of 2019.

For the full year, the number was forecast to reach close to 22 million, up from 17.2 million in 2018.

The biggest impact events were Cyclone Idai in Southeast Africa, Cyclone Fani in South Asia and Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas. CBS News' "60 Minutes" recently revisited the hard-hit Abaco Islands in the Bahamas to see how residents are recovering.

Climate scientists are in clear consensus that the devastating climate events of 2019 are in part driven by human-caused climate change, and they say such disasters will only get worse until humanity manages to decarbonize our economies and reduce excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This climate challenge is herculean, but one that is necessary to preserve Earth's fragile life systems.


Floods and fires show 'time is fast running out' to address climate change

Denise Chow
3/10/2020
The world is significantly falling short when it comes to efforts to curb climate change, according to a new report released Tuesday by the World Meteorological Organization.

© Johannes Eisele Image: TOP SHOT-US-WEATHER-CLIMATE-HEATWAVE

The intergovernmental organization's assessment evaluated a range of so-called global climate indicators in 2019, including land temperatures, ocean temperatures, greenhouse gas emissions, sea-level rise and melting ice. The report finds that most of these indicators are increasing, which means the planet is veering way off track in trying to control the pace of global warming.


"Climate change is the defining challenge of our time," United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. "Time is fast running out for us to avert the worst impacts of climate disruption and protect our societies from the inevitable impacts to come."

And there were plenty of disruptions and impacts last year. The report, which linked events such as heat waves, flooding and extreme weather to climate change, highlighted how these disruptions have affected human health and security.

Two severe heat waves in Europe last summer, for example, led to 1,462 deaths in the affected regions, according to the report. The study also estimated that 22 million people were displaced by flooding and other extreme weather events in 2019, up from 17.2 million in 2018.

The report also confirmed that 2019 was the second warmest year on record. Global average temperatures last year were 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Last year fell shy of the record held by 2016, but the report noted that 2015 to 2019 are the five warmest years in recorded history. And since the 1980s, each subsequent decade has been warmer than any preceding decade since 1850.

© Sean Gallup Image: Western Greenland Hit By Unseasonably Warm Weather

The meteorological organization highlighted that emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases continued to rise last year, with early projections based on the first three quarters of 2019 indicating that global carbon dioxide emissions likely increased by 0.6 percent.

"Given that greenhouse gas levels continue to increase, the warming will continue," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas, said in a statement. "A recent decadal forecast indicates that a new annual global temperature record is likely in the next five years. It is a matter of time."

The report outlined the impacts of human-caused warming on the world's oceans, which play a crucial role in the planet's carbon cycle by storing carbon and absorbing heat. According to the meteorological organization, oceans absorb about 90 percent of the heat trapped in the atmosphere from increasing greenhouse gas emissions. Last year, the report found, oceans hit their warmest level in recorded history.

Warmer land and ocean temperatures also drive the melting of sea ice and glaciers, which can speed sea level rise around the globe. Both Antarctica and the Arctic recorded low sea ice extents in 2019, and sea levels continue to rise at an accelerated pace, according to the report.

"This is exposing coastal areas and islands to a greater risk of flooding and the submersion of low-lying areas," Taalas said in the statement.

The trends highlighted in the report indicate that the world is failing to meet the goal set out by the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of the century.

"We are currently way off track to meeting either the 1.5 degrees C or 2 degrees C targets that the Paris Agreement calls for," Guterres said in the statement. "This report outlines the latest science and illustrates the urgency for far-reaching climate action."

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