Environmentalists Say Turkish Wastewater Lake Could Cause an Environmental Disaster
Friday, March 19, 2021
Imperial Oil urges shareholders to reject 'premature' net-zero 2050 carbon motion
CALGARY — Imperial Oil Ltd.. is recommending investors attending its annual meeting in May vote against a shareholder resolution that it adopt a corporate wide target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050
.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
The motion, made by Aequo Shareholder Engagement Services on behalf of Quebec group retirement system Batirente, argues that Imperial's current 2023 emissions reduction target is a step in the right direction but that it is also important to have a long-term strategy.
In its notice of meeting, however, Imperial recommends voting down the proposal because, although it supports initiatives to control global warming, it is "premature" to set targets before it has a concrete plan for how to reach them.
The company says it has a portfolio of technologies at various stages of commercialization that could be employed, including the use of solvents to produce bitumen from oilsands wells with less energy and using carbon capture and storage to create emission offsets.
It says it is intent on its current goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 10 per cent by 2023 relative to 2016 levels.
Batirente CEO Daniel Simard says all companies, especially those in the energy sector, have to align their strategies with the Paris Agreement and reduce their emissions by 2050.
“Our climate commitment as unveiled in autumn 2020, aims to both alleviate the cause of climate warming, through the reduction of GHG emissions, and mitigate its consequences, by building resilience," he said in a news release.
“It is important for Batirente to meet its fiduciary responsibility by taking measures to optimally allocate the capital entrusted to us.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2021.
Companies in this story: (TSX:IMO)
The Canadian Press
The motion, made by Aequo Shareholder Engagement Services on behalf of Quebec group retirement system Batirente, argues that Imperial's current 2023 emissions reduction target is a step in the right direction but that it is also important to have a long-term strategy.
In its notice of meeting, however, Imperial recommends voting down the proposal because, although it supports initiatives to control global warming, it is "premature" to set targets before it has a concrete plan for how to reach them.
The company says it has a portfolio of technologies at various stages of commercialization that could be employed, including the use of solvents to produce bitumen from oilsands wells with less energy and using carbon capture and storage to create emission offsets.
It says it is intent on its current goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 10 per cent by 2023 relative to 2016 levels.
Batirente CEO Daniel Simard says all companies, especially those in the energy sector, have to align their strategies with the Paris Agreement and reduce their emissions by 2050.
“Our climate commitment as unveiled in autumn 2020, aims to both alleviate the cause of climate warming, through the reduction of GHG emissions, and mitigate its consequences, by building resilience," he said in a news release.
“It is important for Batirente to meet its fiduciary responsibility by taking measures to optimally allocate the capital entrusted to us.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2021.
Companies in this story: (TSX:IMO)
The Canadian Press
No Good Evidence That 5G Harms Humans, New Studies Find
Ed Cara
Concerns over the potential harms of 5G technology are overblown, according to two large new reviews of research recently published by scientists in Australia. Both found no clear evidence that the type of radiofrequency energy used by 5G mobile networks poses any danger to human health.
© Photo: William West/AFP (Getty Images)
The State of 5G in 2021: Are We There Yet?
That delayed promise hasn’t stopped some people from warning that 5G will only accelerate the harms purportedly caused by our existing use of wireless technology. The evidence for any health risks from our cell phones today isn’t particularly strong, but it’s still something scientists are keeping an eye on. In particular, there have been many studies in the lab and on animals trying to figure how varying levels of radiofrequency energy could possibly affect the body, including the sort of energy that would be emitted by 5G networks.
The two new papers are the work of researchers from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) and the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. Both were published this week in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology and are billed as the first reviews to focus on 5G specifically.
Aside from looking at animal and lab experiments, one review also analyzed epidemiological studies of radar, which uses the same sort of RF (low-level energy fields above 6 gigahertz to as high as 300 GHz) that 5G is expected to rely on. Their conclusions, based on reviewing data from over 100 studies, should be reassuring.
“In conclusion, a review of all the studies provided no substantiated evidence that low-level radio waves, like those used by the 5G network, are hazardous to human health,” said Ken Karipidis, assistant director of assessment and advice at ARPANSA, in a statement released by the agency.
The second review, which focused on RF energy specifically in the millimeter wave (MMW) band, which 5G will use, also found no link between low levels of MMW exposure and health effects. According to the researchers, both findings are just more evidence that cell phones today and in the near future will continue to emit levels of RF well below the safety thresholds established by the International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) that have been adopted worldwide.
No, a Study Didn't Just Prove That Cellphones Cause Brain Cancer
Some studies did find plausible biological effects from this sort of RF exposure. But importantly, these studies usually weren’t replicated by other, similar experiments. Overall, most of the studies they reviewed were deemed to be low quality, Karipidis and his team concluded.
All that said, these reviews won’t be the final word on vetting the safety of 5G and cell phone radiation in general. And the researchers hope their work will help strengthen the ongoing research looking into it.
“We recommend that future experimental studies improve their design with particular attention to dosimetry and temperature control and that future epidemiological studies continue to monitor long-term health effects in the population related to wireless telecommunications,” said Karipidis.
Concerns over the potential harms of 5G technology are overblown, according to two large new reviews of research recently published by scientists in Australia. Both found no clear evidence that the type of radiofrequency energy used by 5G mobile networks poses any danger to human health.
5G is the next generation of wireless communication. It enables faster speeds and lower latency than LTE, and while we’re already seeing that in action on 5G phones, it’ll take years before 5G’s potential to transform industries like autonomous cars becomes a reality.
© Photo: William West/AFP (Getty Images) Public service announcement posters deployed last year in Melborne, Australia.
The State of 5G in 2021: Are We There Yet?
That delayed promise hasn’t stopped some people from warning that 5G will only accelerate the harms purportedly caused by our existing use of wireless technology. The evidence for any health risks from our cell phones today isn’t particularly strong, but it’s still something scientists are keeping an eye on. In particular, there have been many studies in the lab and on animals trying to figure how varying levels of radiofrequency energy could possibly affect the body, including the sort of energy that would be emitted by 5G networks.
The two new papers are the work of researchers from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) and the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia. Both were published this week in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology and are billed as the first reviews to focus on 5G specifically.
Aside from looking at animal and lab experiments, one review also analyzed epidemiological studies of radar, which uses the same sort of RF (low-level energy fields above 6 gigahertz to as high as 300 GHz) that 5G is expected to rely on. Their conclusions, based on reviewing data from over 100 studies, should be reassuring.
“In conclusion, a review of all the studies provided no substantiated evidence that low-level radio waves, like those used by the 5G network, are hazardous to human health,” said Ken Karipidis, assistant director of assessment and advice at ARPANSA, in a statement released by the agency.
The second review, which focused on RF energy specifically in the millimeter wave (MMW) band, which 5G will use, also found no link between low levels of MMW exposure and health effects. According to the researchers, both findings are just more evidence that cell phones today and in the near future will continue to emit levels of RF well below the safety thresholds established by the International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) that have been adopted worldwide.
No, a Study Didn't Just Prove That Cellphones Cause Brain Cancer
Some studies did find plausible biological effects from this sort of RF exposure. But importantly, these studies usually weren’t replicated by other, similar experiments. Overall, most of the studies they reviewed were deemed to be low quality, Karipidis and his team concluded.
All that said, these reviews won’t be the final word on vetting the safety of 5G and cell phone radiation in general. And the researchers hope their work will help strengthen the ongoing research looking into it.
“We recommend that future experimental studies improve their design with particular attention to dosimetry and temperature control and that future epidemiological studies continue to monitor long-term health effects in the population related to wireless telecommunications,” said Karipidis.
Is it snowing microplastics in Siberia?
Russia scientists take samples
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian scientists are trying to understand the scale of a potential threat to the environment in Siberia: snow polluted with microplastics that then melts and seeps into the ground.
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian scientists are trying to understand the scale of a potential threat to the environment in Siberia: snow polluted with microplastics that then melts and seeps into the ground.
© Reuters/Siberian Microplastics centre of Microplastic particles found in snow samples taken in Siberia are seen through a microscope in Tomsk
Scientists at Tomsk State University (TSU) say they have gathered snow samples from 20 different Siberian regions - from the Altai mountains to the Arctic - and that their preliminary findings confirm that airborne plastic fibres are turning up in snow in remote parts of the wilderness.
Scientists at Tomsk State University (TSU) say they have gathered snow samples from 20 different Siberian regions - from the Altai mountains to the Arctic - and that their preliminary findings confirm that airborne plastic fibres are turning up in snow in remote parts of the wilderness.
© Reuters/Siberian Microplastics centre of A researcher carries snow samples collected to investigate microplastic pollution levels in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region
"It's clear that it's not just rivers and seas that are involved circulating microplastics around the world, but also soil, living creatures and even the atmosphere," Yulia Frank, scientific director at TSU's Microplastics Siberia centre, told Reuters.
Microplastics, which are created when bigger pieces of plastic litter break up over time, are increasingly being found in the air, food, drinking water and even Arctic ice. Scientists are increasingly worried they may pose a risk to human health and marine life, though there is no consensus yet on the issue. 
"It's clear that it's not just rivers and seas that are involved circulating microplastics around the world, but also soil, living creatures and even the atmosphere," Yulia Frank, scientific director at TSU's Microplastics Siberia centre, told Reuters.
Microplastics, which are created when bigger pieces of plastic litter break up over time, are increasingly being found in the air, food, drinking water and even Arctic ice. Scientists are increasingly worried they may pose a risk to human health and marine life, though there is no consensus yet on the issue.
© Reuters/Siberian Microplastics centre of Researchers collect snow samples to investigate microplastic pollution levels in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region
Video: How putting particles in the stratosphere might just slow global warming
Tomsk scientists have previously found microplastics in the digestive systems of fish caught in Siberian rivers, confirming that they are contributing to polluting the Arctic Ocean with plastic.
"Siberia is absolutely under-researched in this aspect and our (Russia's) interest in this problem comes late compared to the rest of the world," Frank said.
Scientists are now studying the snow samples to understand to what degree population density, the proximity of roads and other human activity contributes to the pollution.
(Reporting by Dmitry Turlyun; Writing by Maria Vasilyeva; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Video: How putting particles in the stratosphere might just slow global warming
Tomsk scientists have previously found microplastics in the digestive systems of fish caught in Siberian rivers, confirming that they are contributing to polluting the Arctic Ocean with plastic.
"Siberia is absolutely under-researched in this aspect and our (Russia's) interest in this problem comes late compared to the rest of the world," Frank said.
Scientists are now studying the snow samples to understand to what degree population density, the proximity of roads and other human activity contributes to the pollution.
(Reporting by Dmitry Turlyun; Writing by Maria Vasilyeva; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Bakery owner frustrated employees were denied Alberta's critical worker benefit
An Edmonton bakery owner says he was surprised to find his application for Alberta’s critical worker benefit program denied despite the government listing bakers as eligible.
BECAUSE INCOMPETENT UCP IGNORED FED FUNDS FOR WORKERS
UNTIL THE NDP ASKED THEM ABOUT IT
Lisa Johnson
An Edmonton bakery owner says he was surprised to find his application for Alberta’s critical worker benefit program denied despite the government listing bakers as eligible.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal Simon Underwood, co-owner of Doughnut Party, says his attempt to get his workers the one-time $1,200 payments was turned down because doughnuts are not considered as essential as bread.
Simon Underwood, co-owner of Doughnut Party, says his attempt to get his workers the one-time $1,200 payments was turned down because doughnuts are not considered as essential as bread.
“Where is this particular piece of criteria coming from, and why is it being used to disqualify our staff?” said Underwood, who added if the program had used all the money, that would be fine — but that’s not what he was told.
He said the experience was “uniquely frustrating,” since the rules weren’t clearly outlined and seemed to be an arbitrary splitting of hairs.
“Were people not supposed to have any treats? Is pizza essential food or non-essential food?” said Underwood.
The application portal for private workers is set to be closed by Friday, but many workers who were once listed as eligible have already found out they will not receive it because that criteria has since been narrowed.
At first, the government’s website listed “truck transportation” occupations as eligible, but when more details of the program were released and the application portal opened, it specified only those involved with the delivery of food and medical supplies could access the cash.
When the program was announced Feb. 10 , the province said more than 380,000 frontline workers would receive the one-time payments. The province would pitch in $118 million towards the total $465-million benefit cost, shared with the federal government.
Since the opening of applications a week later on Feb 17, questions have swirled about why essential workers like food delivery drivers, retailers, restaurant employees and taxi drivers were not included.
Simon Underwood, co-owner of Doughnut Party, says his attempt to get his workers the one-time $1,200 payments was turned down because doughnuts are not considered as essential as bread.
“Where is this particular piece of criteria coming from, and why is it being used to disqualify our staff?” said Underwood, who added if the program had used all the money, that would be fine — but that’s not what he was told.
He said the experience was “uniquely frustrating,” since the rules weren’t clearly outlined and seemed to be an arbitrary splitting of hairs.
“Were people not supposed to have any treats? Is pizza essential food or non-essential food?” said Underwood.
The application portal for private workers is set to be closed by Friday, but many workers who were once listed as eligible have already found out they will not receive it because that criteria has since been narrowed.
At first, the government’s website listed “truck transportation” occupations as eligible, but when more details of the program were released and the application portal opened, it specified only those involved with the delivery of food and medical supplies could access the cash.
When the program was announced Feb. 10 , the province said more than 380,000 frontline workers would receive the one-time payments. The province would pitch in $118 million towards the total $465-million benefit cost, shared with the federal government.
Since the opening of applications a week later on Feb 17, questions have swirled about why essential workers like food delivery drivers, retailers, restaurant employees and taxi drivers were not included.
© Provided by Edmonton Journal Labour Minister Jason Copping said the government considers critical workers those who provided specific supports in health care and those in the private sector supporting food and medicine supply chains.
Labour Minister Jason Copping said at an estimates committee last week that the program had to differentiate between essential and critical workers because there was limited funding. The government considers critical workers those who provided specific supports in health care and those in the private sector supporting food and medicine supply chains, Copping said.
“We wanted to design a program that worked for Alberta,” said Copping, who added that a large majority of Alberta’s workforce was designated as essential.
“I thank all workers who continued to work throughout the pandemic — they’ve come to work and done an incredible job,” he said.
As of March 10, the program had received 6,930 calls and 9,284 applications, although department officials were unable to confirm how many applications or employees had been denied. Copping’s office did not provide updated numbers or comment as of press time Thursday.
At a Thursday news conference, NDP labour critic Christina Gray again called on the government to fill the gaps in the program that she said was denying thousands of deserving workers.
“It seems to me that it was rolled out quickly, without consultation with workers, without reflecting what’s happening on the ground in this pandemic,” said Gray.
Gray was joined by taxi industry representatives who said they were insulted to have been left out of the benefit.
Taxi driver Sardar Rashid Yousaf said the rules were unfair to drivers on the front lines of the pandemic.
“If somebody is sick, who would they pick? If somebody goes to the hospital, who would they pick? So we are taking a risk on our life,” he said.
On Wednesday, the federal government finally confirmed the province would receive the $347 million the province had announced for the critical worker benefit.
Katherine Cuplinskas, press secretary to federal Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, said in an email Wednesday Ottawa had provided $30 million and would be providing $317 million as part of a plan originally billed as a wage top-up for essential workers.
“We are pleased that Alberta requested this additional funding to help those who have been on the front lines of the pandemic for over a year. Albertans deserve this financial support in recognition of their hard work and sacrifice,” said Cuplinskas.
Copping has said the majority of the province’s money would be out the door before the end of the month.
lijohnson@postmedia.com
twitter.com/reportrix
For more on Alberta’s vaccine rollout, read our guide driven by reader questions.
Labour Minister Jason Copping said at an estimates committee last week that the program had to differentiate between essential and critical workers because there was limited funding. The government considers critical workers those who provided specific supports in health care and those in the private sector supporting food and medicine supply chains, Copping said.
“We wanted to design a program that worked for Alberta,” said Copping, who added that a large majority of Alberta’s workforce was designated as essential.
“I thank all workers who continued to work throughout the pandemic — they’ve come to work and done an incredible job,” he said.
As of March 10, the program had received 6,930 calls and 9,284 applications, although department officials were unable to confirm how many applications or employees had been denied. Copping’s office did not provide updated numbers or comment as of press time Thursday.
At a Thursday news conference, NDP labour critic Christina Gray again called on the government to fill the gaps in the program that she said was denying thousands of deserving workers.
“It seems to me that it was rolled out quickly, without consultation with workers, without reflecting what’s happening on the ground in this pandemic,” said Gray.
Gray was joined by taxi industry representatives who said they were insulted to have been left out of the benefit.
Taxi driver Sardar Rashid Yousaf said the rules were unfair to drivers on the front lines of the pandemic.
“If somebody is sick, who would they pick? If somebody goes to the hospital, who would they pick? So we are taking a risk on our life,” he said.
On Wednesday, the federal government finally confirmed the province would receive the $347 million the province had announced for the critical worker benefit.
Katherine Cuplinskas, press secretary to federal Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, said in an email Wednesday Ottawa had provided $30 million and would be providing $317 million as part of a plan originally billed as a wage top-up for essential workers.
“We are pleased that Alberta requested this additional funding to help those who have been on the front lines of the pandemic for over a year. Albertans deserve this financial support in recognition of their hard work and sacrifice,” said Cuplinskas.
Copping has said the majority of the province’s money would be out the door before the end of the month.
lijohnson@postmedia.com
twitter.com/reportrix
For more on Alberta’s vaccine rollout, read our guide driven by reader questions.
Downed Iran UKRAINE plane: Families of Edmonton victims demand real truth in wake of final report
Chris Chacon
Unsettling reaction poured in Thursday after the final report into the downing of Ukraine Airlines flight PS752 was released.
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board says Iranian officials failed to provide evidence that a passenger jet was shot down by mistake early last year, leaving key questions unanswered as Iran’s military effectively investigated itself.
It is unusual for the TSB to comment on the results of a report into an incident that took place in another country.
READ MORE: Victims’ loved ones say Iranian report into downing of Ukrainian flight 752 lacks details
"All of the families of the victims are stuck on Jan. 8 because we didn't have any closure, we don't know exactly what happened that night," Soleimani said.
Soleimani and other families now forced to confront their grief again after Iran issued its final report.
Parents of University of Alberta mechanical engineering PhD student Amir Hossein Saeedinia, who also died on the flight, said the report is unacceptable.
"I read it page by page, it was a torture to me every page that I read. Their lies to attempt to hide the truth, it made me sad, I cried," Amir's father Masoud Saeedinia said.
Video: Flight PS752: Remembering the victims of the Iran plane crash
READ MORE: UN investigator says questions remain over whether Iran intentionally downed Ukraine jet
Iran's report echoes what the Iranian government has claimed for a year that human error caused the tragedy.
"It does not explain any of the underlying factors behind why the missiles were launched at PS752, which is the stated cause of the accident," Transportation Safety Board Chair Kathy Fox said.
"In short, the report says what happened but it doesn't answer the why."
The families said they believe the attack was intentional, but want to know why it happened. They want the Canadian government, Ukraine and other countries to take this matter to the International Court of Justice for real answers.
Read more: Iran plane crash, one year later: 13 victims with ties to Edmonton remembered as brilliant, loving
The Canadian government also appointed a special group of investigators to look into this crash. They are acting separately from the TSB, and are expected to file a report in the coming weeks.
Video: Iran plane crash report explains what happened, but doesn’t say why: TSB
— With files from Jordan Press, The Canadian Press
Chris Chacon
GLOBAL NEWS
3/18/2021
Unsettling reaction poured in Thursday after the final report into the downing of Ukraine Airlines flight PS752 was released.
© Chris Chacon/Global News Image of Amir Hossein Saeedinia parents.
More than a year later, the victims' families — even the Transportation Safety Board of Canada — are left with more questions than answers.
"I'm still waiting for her, honestly. I haven't believed that she's really gone.
"It's just a long nightmare," said Javad Soleimani, husband of Elnaz Nabiy, who was on flight PS752.
Ever since Soleimani lost his wife, he's been looking for answers.
The final report from Iran’s civil aviation body blamed “human error” as the reason why the Revolutionary Guard shot down a jetliner minutes after it took off from Tehran on Jan. 8 last year.
All 176 people on board were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents and dozens of others bound for Canada. Thirteen of those people called Edmonton home.
Read more: TSB says Iran report on downing of flight PS752 explains what happened, but doesn't say why
The report didn’t provide a detailed explanation or evidence about the underlying factors that caused Iran’s military to fire two surface-to-air missiles at Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752.
More than a year later, the victims' families — even the Transportation Safety Board of Canada — are left with more questions than answers.
"I'm still waiting for her, honestly. I haven't believed that she's really gone.
"It's just a long nightmare," said Javad Soleimani, husband of Elnaz Nabiy, who was on flight PS752.
Ever since Soleimani lost his wife, he's been looking for answers.
The final report from Iran’s civil aviation body blamed “human error” as the reason why the Revolutionary Guard shot down a jetliner minutes after it took off from Tehran on Jan. 8 last year.
All 176 people on board were killed, including 55 Canadian citizens, 30 permanent residents and dozens of others bound for Canada. Thirteen of those people called Edmonton home.
Read more: TSB says Iran report on downing of flight PS752 explains what happened, but doesn't say why
The report didn’t provide a detailed explanation or evidence about the underlying factors that caused Iran’s military to fire two surface-to-air missiles at Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752.
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board says Iranian officials failed to provide evidence that a passenger jet was shot down by mistake early last year, leaving key questions unanswered as Iran’s military effectively investigated itself.
It is unusual for the TSB to comment on the results of a report into an incident that took place in another country.
READ MORE: Victims’ loved ones say Iranian report into downing of Ukrainian flight 752 lacks details
"All of the families of the victims are stuck on Jan. 8 because we didn't have any closure, we don't know exactly what happened that night," Soleimani said.
Soleimani and other families now forced to confront their grief again after Iran issued its final report.
Parents of University of Alberta mechanical engineering PhD student Amir Hossein Saeedinia, who also died on the flight, said the report is unacceptable.
"I read it page by page, it was a torture to me every page that I read. Their lies to attempt to hide the truth, it made me sad, I cried," Amir's father Masoud Saeedinia said.
Video: Flight PS752: Remembering the victims of the Iran plane crash
READ MORE: UN investigator says questions remain over whether Iran intentionally downed Ukraine jet
Iran's report echoes what the Iranian government has claimed for a year that human error caused the tragedy.
"It does not explain any of the underlying factors behind why the missiles were launched at PS752, which is the stated cause of the accident," Transportation Safety Board Chair Kathy Fox said.
"In short, the report says what happened but it doesn't answer the why."
The families said they believe the attack was intentional, but want to know why it happened. They want the Canadian government, Ukraine and other countries to take this matter to the International Court of Justice for real answers.
Read more: Iran plane crash, one year later: 13 victims with ties to Edmonton remembered as brilliant, loving
The Canadian government also appointed a special group of investigators to look into this crash. They are acting separately from the TSB, and are expected to file a report in the coming weeks.
Video: Iran plane crash report explains what happened, but doesn’t say why: TSB
— With files from Jordan Press, The Canadian Press
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
The cofounders of bankrupt poop-testing startup uBiome have been charged with fraud💩💩💩
lramsey@businessinsider.com (Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer)
lramsey@businessinsider.com (Lydia Ramsey Pflanzer)
3/18/2021
The SEC has charged uBiome cofounders Jessica Richman and Zachary Apte with fraud.
Richman and Apte also face criminal charges related to the poop-testing startup uBi.
© Provided by Business Insider UBiome founders and former co-CEOs Zachary Apte and Jessica Richman. uBiome; Yutong Yuan/Business Insider
The SEC has charged uBiome cofounders Jessica Richman and Zachary Apte with fraud.
Richman and Apte also face criminal charges related to the poop-testing startup uBi.
uBiome was a microbiome-testing startup that shut down in 2019 after an FBI raid.
Jessica Richman and Zachary Apte, the cofounders of the now shuttered microbiome company uBiome, are facing criminal and civil charges stemming from their efforts to build uBiome into a poop-testing powerhouse.
The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Richman and Apte defrauded investors out of $60 million by giving a false impression of how well the company was doing. The married cofounders are also facing criminal charges in federal court in California. They were indicted on Thursday on charges including healthcare fraud and wire fraud, as well as related conspiracy charges.
The SEC complaint alleged Richman, 46, and Apte, 36, portrayed uBiome as receiving health-insurance reimbursements for its tests, which tested poop samples for different conditions related to gut health. The complaint alleged the cofounders made millions as uBiome raised money from investors.
"We allege that Richman and Apte touted uBiome as a successful and fast-growing biotech pioneer while hiding the fact that the company's purported success depended on deceit," Erin Schneider, the director of the SEC's San Francisco regional office, said in a statement.
[Gallery] A Single Photo Almost Derailed This Pole Vaulter’s Promising CareerSEE MORESponsored by NEW ARENA
uBiome is the latest Silicon Valley biotech to be accused of tricking investors. The now shuttered blood-testing company Theranos in 2018 settled with the SEC over allegations of "massive fraud." Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was charged with fraud and is expected to appear in court this summer.
© Hollis Johnson / Business Insider The microbiome-testing company uBiome came under scrutiny after an FBI raid. Hollis Johnson / Business Insider
uBiome morphed from science project to venture-backed startup
uBiome was founded in 2012 on the promise of helping ordinary people understand the bacteria living in and on them, known as their microbiome.
The company morphed from citizen science project to venture-backed startup, taking in $105 million from investors and reaching a valuation of $600 million.
Then the troubles began. The FBI raided the company in April 2019. By the end of June that year, the company's top leadership and many of its board members had departed. In October 2019, the company said it was shutting down in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.
The complaints paint a detailed picture of how uBiome got health-insurance companies to cover its tests using what prosecutors say was deception.
The SEC complaint alleged the uBiome founders duped doctors into ordering tests. uBiome built out a portal that connected patients with doctors who could order the test. The complaint alleged the network of doctors was designed to get doctors to order the two medical tests uBiome offered and prescribe based only on an online question form.
How uBiome got health insurers to pay for its tests
The civil complaint also alleged the company fooled doctors into retesting old samples. The criminal complaint alleged that uBiome worked to "re-sequence" existing samples by telling consumers that there had been newer versions of uBiome's test. By doing so, the complaint alleged, uBiome could increase the number of billable claims, all while using an existing sample.
By using this network of doctors, uBiome was often able to get reimbursements from insurers.
The criminal complaint alleged uBiome tricked insurers into paying for tests that weren't medically necessary or properly vetted by medical regulators. In some cases, the company faked documents by using the names of doctors and other healthcare workers without their knowledge, prosecutors said.
But the insurers were catching on to uBiome.
According to the SEC complaint, at least 18 insurers had sent the company letters about its billing practices by April 2019. The criminal complaint alleged that Apte and Richman didn't tell investors about the questions insurers were asking.
What's more, the complaint alleged that Apte and Richman "had to falsify documents and lie to insurance providers in order to attempt to keep them at bay."
Read the original article on Business Insider
Jessica Richman and Zachary Apte, the cofounders of the now shuttered microbiome company uBiome, are facing criminal and civil charges stemming from their efforts to build uBiome into a poop-testing powerhouse.
The Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Richman and Apte defrauded investors out of $60 million by giving a false impression of how well the company was doing. The married cofounders are also facing criminal charges in federal court in California. They were indicted on Thursday on charges including healthcare fraud and wire fraud, as well as related conspiracy charges.
The SEC complaint alleged Richman, 46, and Apte, 36, portrayed uBiome as receiving health-insurance reimbursements for its tests, which tested poop samples for different conditions related to gut health. The complaint alleged the cofounders made millions as uBiome raised money from investors.
"We allege that Richman and Apte touted uBiome as a successful and fast-growing biotech pioneer while hiding the fact that the company's purported success depended on deceit," Erin Schneider, the director of the SEC's San Francisco regional office, said in a statement.
[Gallery] A Single Photo Almost Derailed This Pole Vaulter’s Promising CareerSEE MORESponsored by NEW ARENA
uBiome is the latest Silicon Valley biotech to be accused of tricking investors. The now shuttered blood-testing company Theranos in 2018 settled with the SEC over allegations of "massive fraud." Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes was charged with fraud and is expected to appear in court this summer.
© Hollis Johnson / Business Insider The microbiome-testing company uBiome came under scrutiny after an FBI raid. Hollis Johnson / Business InsideruBiome morphed from science project to venture-backed startup
uBiome was founded in 2012 on the promise of helping ordinary people understand the bacteria living in and on them, known as their microbiome.
The company morphed from citizen science project to venture-backed startup, taking in $105 million from investors and reaching a valuation of $600 million.
Then the troubles began. The FBI raided the company in April 2019. By the end of June that year, the company's top leadership and many of its board members had departed. In October 2019, the company said it was shutting down in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing.
The complaints paint a detailed picture of how uBiome got health-insurance companies to cover its tests using what prosecutors say was deception.
The SEC complaint alleged the uBiome founders duped doctors into ordering tests. uBiome built out a portal that connected patients with doctors who could order the test. The complaint alleged the network of doctors was designed to get doctors to order the two medical tests uBiome offered and prescribe based only on an online question form.
How uBiome got health insurers to pay for its tests
The civil complaint also alleged the company fooled doctors into retesting old samples. The criminal complaint alleged that uBiome worked to "re-sequence" existing samples by telling consumers that there had been newer versions of uBiome's test. By doing so, the complaint alleged, uBiome could increase the number of billable claims, all while using an existing sample.
By using this network of doctors, uBiome was often able to get reimbursements from insurers.
The criminal complaint alleged uBiome tricked insurers into paying for tests that weren't medically necessary or properly vetted by medical regulators. In some cases, the company faked documents by using the names of doctors and other healthcare workers without their knowledge, prosecutors said.
But the insurers were catching on to uBiome.
According to the SEC complaint, at least 18 insurers had sent the company letters about its billing practices by April 2019. The criminal complaint alleged that Apte and Richman didn't tell investors about the questions insurers were asking.
What's more, the complaint alleged that Apte and Richman "had to falsify documents and lie to insurance providers in order to attempt to keep them at bay."
Read the original article on Business Insider
US EMBARGO KILLS
Cuban migrants are increasingly embarking on treacherous sea journeys as the economic crisis worsensBy Patrick Oppmann, CNN
3/19/2021
When Beatriz Jimenez closes her eyes, she sees her daughter and two young grandchildren and they are alive.
When Beatriz Jimenez closes her eyes, she sees her daughter and two young grandchildren and they are alive.
© U.S. Coast Guard Coast Guard Station Islamorada law enforcement crew interdicts a migrant boat with 7 migrants, Islamorada, Florida, March 2, 2021. The migrants were repatriated to Cuba.
Jimenez's family left the small seaside town of Cabarién, on Cuba's north coast, on March 4, aboard a packed smuggler's boat.
The boat had come from Florida and picked up a group of Cubans desperate to reach the US, according to a statement from the Cuban foreign ministry.
The smuggling run violated both US and Cuban laws and put the passengers' lives at risk. Although the communist-run island is only 90 nautical miles from the US, the weather in the Florida Straits is treacherous, particularly in the spring when "Easter winds," as Cubans call seasonal abrupt shifts in weather, can transform the sea into a frothing monster.
Jimenez said her daughter Lisbethy took the trip because she had been apart from her husband in Florida for more than a year, after the pandemic forced Cuba to cut most international flights. Lisbethy had been afraid to leave her daughter Kenna Mariana, 6 years old, and Luis Nesto, 4, behind in Cuba and risk a lengthy separation.
"My daughter is a good mother. She wouldn't have done this if everything wasn't safe. She wouldn't have put them through this. Her children are everything to her," Jimenez told CNN from the small room full of toys that her daughter had shared with the children.
According to the Cuban foreign ministry statement, the smugglers made the migrants switch boats once they reached Bahamian waters, likely to try and confuse any Coast Guard ships that could be in pursuit.
As the second boat sped north, it lost control and capsized. It is not clear how many people were aboard.
Some 14 hours later, a Royal Bahamian Defence ship found 12 survivors and one dead body, according to a Bahamian government statement. Lisbethy and her children were not among them.
Jimenez said relatives in Florida, who had contacted survivors in the Bahamas, later told her the smugglers had not brought life vests for any of the passengers.
As Cuba's economic crisis worsens, US Coast Guard officials say they are seeing more Cubans attempting the dangerous journey by boat.
Since October 1, the Coast Guard has intercepted 90 Cubans at sea, according to spokesman Brandon Murray. That number already surpasses the 49 Cuban migrants the previous fiscal year and does not account for many migrants who may arrive in third countries like the Bahamas or who successfully reach the US.
In February, a small boat carrying eight Cubans, including two pregnant women, capsized as it reached the Florida coast after 16 days at sea.
The same month, the US Coast guard rescued three Cubans who had been living mostly off coconuts after being stranded on a deserted island in the Bahamas for 33 days.
While so far the numbers of Cuban migrants taking to the seas are far less than the rafters crisis of the 1990's, when thousands of people attempted the dangerous crossing by boat, the increase is raising alarms.
"The Coast Guard does not recommend anyone taking to the seas in vessels that are not seaworthy. The vessels are often overloaded, the seas are unpredictable and the risk of loss of life is too great," the US Coast Guard said in a statement provided to CNN.
Most Cubans caught entering the US now are returned to the island, after President Obama, in his final days in office in 2017, canceled the "Wet Foot, Dry Foot' policy that allowed those who reached the country to remain.
According to figures released by the Coast Guard. 5,396 Cubans were interdicted in the fiscal year of 2016. That number dropped to 1,468 the next fiscal year, following Obama's policy change, and since then has stayed in the hundreds.
But a worsening economic climate could push more Cubans to make the desperate voyage, despite having lost their preferential status. In 2020, the economy shrank by 11%, according to Cuban government figures, as the island's tourism industry was almost entirely shut down by the pandemic.
That followed a series of punishing sanctions by the Trump administration -- the toughest in decades -- that included returning Cuba to the list of countries that support terrorism, limiting US citizens' ability to travel to the island and cutting off channels for Cuban-Americans to send remittances to relatives there.
"Remittances basically determine who can eat and who can't," said Ernesto Gonzalez, whose remittances company Vacuba was impacted by the Trump sanctions. Gonzalez said he is urging the Biden administration to restore the money transfer services before Cubans face a humanitarian crisis.
Desperate circumstances
Increasingly Cubans wait in hours-long lines to buy food, which they must pay for in US dollars at many Cuban government-run stores.
Without tourists, restaurants and home rentals opened by Cuban entrepreneurs sit empty. Many Cubans compare the ongoing crisis to the dark years the island experienced following the collapse of their ally the Soviet Union in 1991, when tens of thousands of Cubans fled to the US by boat and raft.
The Biden administration has said it is studying potential changes to its Cuba policy, including determining how scores of US diplomats working at the US Embassy became ill. The mysterious health incidents led the State Department in 2017 to pull most of their diplomats from the island and shut down embassy services through which Cubans could receive US visas.
According to a State Department report, as of November 2020, more than 78,000 Cubans were on a waiting list for immigrant visas.
Beatriz Jimenez said her daughter had hoped to apply for a visa to reunite with her husband in the US but as the embassy closure and disruption caused by the pandemic dragged on, she could not wait any longer.
As Jimenez held a vigil with neighbors and relatives for her missing family, she prayed for word of their rescue.
"They are alive. I know it because I believe in God. I know it will be a miracle," she said. "I am desperate but clinging to the idea that we will have an answer."
But ten days after their disappearance, the Cuban government announced it was suspending the search operation. Jimenez still does not know what became of her daughter and grandchildren.
The children and their mother had vanished into the sea.
Jimenez's family left the small seaside town of Cabarién, on Cuba's north coast, on March 4, aboard a packed smuggler's boat.
The boat had come from Florida and picked up a group of Cubans desperate to reach the US, according to a statement from the Cuban foreign ministry.
The smuggling run violated both US and Cuban laws and put the passengers' lives at risk. Although the communist-run island is only 90 nautical miles from the US, the weather in the Florida Straits is treacherous, particularly in the spring when "Easter winds," as Cubans call seasonal abrupt shifts in weather, can transform the sea into a frothing monster.
Jimenez said her daughter Lisbethy took the trip because she had been apart from her husband in Florida for more than a year, after the pandemic forced Cuba to cut most international flights. Lisbethy had been afraid to leave her daughter Kenna Mariana, 6 years old, and Luis Nesto, 4, behind in Cuba and risk a lengthy separation.
"My daughter is a good mother. She wouldn't have done this if everything wasn't safe. She wouldn't have put them through this. Her children are everything to her," Jimenez told CNN from the small room full of toys that her daughter had shared with the children.
According to the Cuban foreign ministry statement, the smugglers made the migrants switch boats once they reached Bahamian waters, likely to try and confuse any Coast Guard ships that could be in pursuit.
As the second boat sped north, it lost control and capsized. It is not clear how many people were aboard.
Some 14 hours later, a Royal Bahamian Defence ship found 12 survivors and one dead body, according to a Bahamian government statement. Lisbethy and her children were not among them.
Jimenez said relatives in Florida, who had contacted survivors in the Bahamas, later told her the smugglers had not brought life vests for any of the passengers.
As Cuba's economic crisis worsens, US Coast Guard officials say they are seeing more Cubans attempting the dangerous journey by boat.
Since October 1, the Coast Guard has intercepted 90 Cubans at sea, according to spokesman Brandon Murray. That number already surpasses the 49 Cuban migrants the previous fiscal year and does not account for many migrants who may arrive in third countries like the Bahamas or who successfully reach the US.
In February, a small boat carrying eight Cubans, including two pregnant women, capsized as it reached the Florida coast after 16 days at sea.
The same month, the US Coast guard rescued three Cubans who had been living mostly off coconuts after being stranded on a deserted island in the Bahamas for 33 days.
While so far the numbers of Cuban migrants taking to the seas are far less than the rafters crisis of the 1990's, when thousands of people attempted the dangerous crossing by boat, the increase is raising alarms.
"The Coast Guard does not recommend anyone taking to the seas in vessels that are not seaworthy. The vessels are often overloaded, the seas are unpredictable and the risk of loss of life is too great," the US Coast Guard said in a statement provided to CNN.
Most Cubans caught entering the US now are returned to the island, after President Obama, in his final days in office in 2017, canceled the "Wet Foot, Dry Foot' policy that allowed those who reached the country to remain.
According to figures released by the Coast Guard. 5,396 Cubans were interdicted in the fiscal year of 2016. That number dropped to 1,468 the next fiscal year, following Obama's policy change, and since then has stayed in the hundreds.
But a worsening economic climate could push more Cubans to make the desperate voyage, despite having lost their preferential status. In 2020, the economy shrank by 11%, according to Cuban government figures, as the island's tourism industry was almost entirely shut down by the pandemic.
That followed a series of punishing sanctions by the Trump administration -- the toughest in decades -- that included returning Cuba to the list of countries that support terrorism, limiting US citizens' ability to travel to the island and cutting off channels for Cuban-Americans to send remittances to relatives there.
"Remittances basically determine who can eat and who can't," said Ernesto Gonzalez, whose remittances company Vacuba was impacted by the Trump sanctions. Gonzalez said he is urging the Biden administration to restore the money transfer services before Cubans face a humanitarian crisis.
Desperate circumstances
Increasingly Cubans wait in hours-long lines to buy food, which they must pay for in US dollars at many Cuban government-run stores.
Without tourists, restaurants and home rentals opened by Cuban entrepreneurs sit empty. Many Cubans compare the ongoing crisis to the dark years the island experienced following the collapse of their ally the Soviet Union in 1991, when tens of thousands of Cubans fled to the US by boat and raft.
The Biden administration has said it is studying potential changes to its Cuba policy, including determining how scores of US diplomats working at the US Embassy became ill. The mysterious health incidents led the State Department in 2017 to pull most of their diplomats from the island and shut down embassy services through which Cubans could receive US visas.
According to a State Department report, as of November 2020, more than 78,000 Cubans were on a waiting list for immigrant visas.
Beatriz Jimenez said her daughter had hoped to apply for a visa to reunite with her husband in the US but as the embassy closure and disruption caused by the pandemic dragged on, she could not wait any longer.
As Jimenez held a vigil with neighbors and relatives for her missing family, she prayed for word of their rescue.
"They are alive. I know it because I believe in God. I know it will be a miracle," she said. "I am desperate but clinging to the idea that we will have an answer."
But ten days after their disappearance, the Cuban government announced it was suspending the search operation. Jimenez still does not know what became of her daughter and grandchildren.
The children and their mother had vanished into the sea.
© Patrick Oppmann/CNN Jimenez holds a picture of her grandchildren Kenna Mariana, 6, and Luis Nesto, 4
Fungi are key to our survival.
Are we doing enough to protect them?
Sarah Gibbens 
State of the fungi
In a 2018 report assessing the state of the world’s fungi, scientists found that compared to the 68,000 animals and 25,000 plants that had been evaluated to assess whether they were existentially threatened, only 56 fungi had been evaluated. Currently, 168 mushrooms have been assessed as threatened around the world.
Overharvesting mushrooms, like the white ferula in Sicily, contributes to their decline. In addition to being eaten, many mushrooms are also prized for their medicinal value. The caterpillar fungus found in Tibet, cordyceps sinesis, is used to treat everything from coughing to back pain. Chaga mushrooms, found around the world and sold as a cure for seemingly everything, are increasingly being overharvested, threatening populations in certain regions.
Mushrooms also face many of the same threats plants contend with. Habitat loss, pollution, and specifically the use of fungicide-laden fertilizer, wipe out mushrooms. Studies show that climate change also affects mushrooms, changing the temperature and humidity levels that determine when they pop a fruiting body out of the ground.
Scientists are currently working to understand the effect fungi themselves might have on the climate.
In 2013, Mueller and his colleagues launched the Fungal Red List as a subsection of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The initiative was launched when just three fungi—two lichens and the white ferula—were listed as endangered, and it sought to highlight the importance of conserving fungi.
“Another great advance that’s helped is the engagement of the citizen science community,” says Mueller. Mushroom-hunting clubs and websites like iNaturalist and Mushroom Observer allow amateur mushroom enthusiasts to log the mushrooms they find and thus generate more field data for scientists.
Pringle, who serves as the vice president of Mushroom Observer, notes that the site has even helped rediscover species previously thought to be extinct, like a fungus called hazel fingers found in the Appalachian mountains and parts of the U.K.
In the past decade, the white ferula has been discovered outside Sicily on a Greek island, and Mueller says it may soon be downgraded from “critically endangered” to “endangered.”
Why does it matter?
Not only are fungi crucial partners for trees, as Money says, they affect the climate of the whole planet.
Walk through a temperate forest in autumn and everything you see on the ground—leaves, branches—is dead. But beneath that layer of dead material is a thriving world of fungi working to decompose it. Studies show that fungi help break down the carbon stored in plant material, locking it into soil. Around the world, soil is a massive reservoir for carbon pollution, holding more carbon than the atmosphere and plants combined.
We’re still learning exactly how fungi play a role in the carbon cycle, which ones are crucial, and how many we need, says Pringle.
“Say there are 100 species [of fungi] that cycle carbon through a forest,” says Pringle. “Can we lose one of them? Ten of them? Fifty? Sixty? Maybe we can lose 99 of them. How many species can we afford to lose before we reach a tipping point, and we’re in some sort of trouble?”
3/18/2021
When Italian botanist Giuseppe Inzenga first tasted the white ferula mushroom in 1863, he described it as one of the tastiest he had ever had.
When Italian botanist Giuseppe Inzenga first tasted the white ferula mushroom in 1863, he described it as one of the tastiest he had ever had.
© Photograph by Rebecca Hale, Nat Geo Image Collection
Edible fungi have been linked to boosting immunity and improving treatment results in cases of cancer, high cholesterol, and neurological diseases.
Found primarily in Sicily’s Madonie mountain range growing in limestone and at elevations of over 1,000 feet, the prized mushroom is sold for around 50 euros for two pounds.
“This mushroom is really delicious. You can eat it raw and also cooked,” says Giuseppe Venturella, a mycologist at the University of Palermo in Sicily. He compares it to a porcini, notes that it’s rich in B vitamins, and says the best way to experience the taste is eating it raw, with a little olive oil and parmesan cheese
Found primarily in Sicily’s Madonie mountain range growing in limestone and at elevations of over 1,000 feet, the prized mushroom is sold for around 50 euros for two pounds.
“This mushroom is really delicious. You can eat it raw and also cooked,” says Giuseppe Venturella, a mycologist at the University of Palermo in Sicily. He compares it to a porcini, notes that it’s rich in B vitamins, and says the best way to experience the taste is eating it raw, with a little olive oil and parmesan cheese
© Photograph by Giuseppe Venturella
Pleur nebrodensis, White Ferula Mushroom
Fast forward 100 years from Inzenga’s enthusing, and the same mushroom species, still prized for its taste, is now listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, an organization that tracks population numbers for many of the world’s species.
Picking the mushroom is off limits in protected areas inside the Madonie National Park region, but foragers can pluck mature mushrooms, indicated by a cap with sides growing longer than three centimeters, in surrounding regions. Unlike most mushroom species, the white ferula fruits in spring, with its season lasting from April to late May
Fast forward 100 years from Inzenga’s enthusing, and the same mushroom species, still prized for its taste, is now listed as critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, an organization that tracks population numbers for many of the world’s species.
Picking the mushroom is off limits in protected areas inside the Madonie National Park region, but foragers can pluck mature mushrooms, indicated by a cap with sides growing longer than three centimeters, in surrounding regions. Unlike most mushroom species, the white ferula fruits in spring, with its season lasting from April to late May
.
© Photograph by Kevin Frayer, Getty Images Tibetan nomads inspect cordycep fungus for sale at a market on May 22, 2016 on the Tibetan Plateau in Yushu town in the Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Qinghai province. The Tibetan Plateau is home to the cordyceps fungus, also known as caterpillar fungus, is a parasitic spore that thrives in high altitude, low temperature conditions on the Tibetan plateau. While not historically a part of Tibetan culture, cordyceps are a prized ingredient of traditional Asian medicinal treatments that purportedly heal ailments ranging from asthma to impotence to cancer. Demand in China alone has created a booming economy for what Tibetans call yartsa gunbu, or summer grass, winter worm, which sells for up to $50,000 US per pound. As the state-supported cordyceps industry has developed, Tibetans who rely primarily on farming and herding have turned to the weeks-long harvest as a means of earning income to last through the year. The annual gold rush has transformed parts of rural Tibetan areas, generating about 40% of the local economy. However, environmentalists increasingly warn that over-harvesting of cordyceps carries the cost of degradation to mountain grasslands that are essential for yak and cattle grazing. Due to below average rainfall the 2016 harvest is expected to be the lowest on record with many harvesters reporting yields way lower then expectations.
The white ferula was the first mushroom to be recognized for the impact humans were having on its survival, and from 2006 to 2015 it was the only one of its kind to be globally recognized as endangered.
“It was so beloved by people in [Sicily] that when the numbers began to decline, it was part of popular conversation,” says Nicholas Money, a mycologist at Miami University in Ohio.
But what about the mushrooms we don’t notice? And how many of them are endangered?
“We think the true biodiversity of fungi is somewhere between one million and six million species,” says Anne Pringle, a University of Wisconsin-Madison mycologist—as fungus experts are called—and a National Geographic explorer. Yet despite their global prevalence, fungi have historically been left out of conservation initiatives.
“Because people eat it,” says Pringle of the white ferula, “they notice and care. There might be more than a thousand stories like that of fungi in trouble that we just don’t know about.”
So how do we conserve organisms we can’t see and don’t understand? And why should we try?
“Life on the planet wouldn’t exist without fungi as we know it,” says Greg Mueller, a mushroom conservation expert and the chief scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Conserving them, Money says, “is an urgent concern because of their relationship with forests and trees. You can’t have the trees without the fungi…. We cannot survive without them. In terms of the health of the planet, they’re incredibly important.”
The white ferula was the first mushroom to be recognized for the impact humans were having on its survival, and from 2006 to 2015 it was the only one of its kind to be globally recognized as endangered.
“It was so beloved by people in [Sicily] that when the numbers began to decline, it was part of popular conversation,” says Nicholas Money, a mycologist at Miami University in Ohio.
But what about the mushrooms we don’t notice? And how many of them are endangered?
“We think the true biodiversity of fungi is somewhere between one million and six million species,” says Anne Pringle, a University of Wisconsin-Madison mycologist—as fungus experts are called—and a National Geographic explorer. Yet despite their global prevalence, fungi have historically been left out of conservation initiatives.
“Because people eat it,” says Pringle of the white ferula, “they notice and care. There might be more than a thousand stories like that of fungi in trouble that we just don’t know about.”
So how do we conserve organisms we can’t see and don’t understand? And why should we try?
“Life on the planet wouldn’t exist without fungi as we know it,” says Greg Mueller, a mushroom conservation expert and the chief scientist at the Chicago Botanic Garden.
Conserving them, Money says, “is an urgent concern because of their relationship with forests and trees. You can’t have the trees without the fungi…. We cannot survive without them. In terms of the health of the planet, they’re incredibly important.”
Fungi, mushroom, mycelium—oh my
Mushrooms as we know them—the cute buttons and flat caps that pop out of soil—are only a small, reproductive part of a larger fungal organism. The above-ground portion is referred to as the fruit body, but below ground, it’s connected to a large network of thin, microscopic threads called mycelium. In 1998, scientists determined that the largest organism on Earth, at least by area covered, was a fungus in Oregon’s Blue Mountains whose mycelium spanned over 2,000 acres underground.
Some so-called mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic relationships with plants. As many as 90 percent of the common plants we see on land have a beneficial relationship with fungi.
“The fungal filaments penetrate the roots of the plant, forming a placenta-like connection between the fungal colony and the roots,” says Money. “It’s like an additional root system for the plant.”
These root networks help plants take in additional water, minerals, and nutrients, and in return the fungus gets a portion of the sugars plants generate from photosynthesis.
Scoop a chunk of dirt out of soil, and you’re holding unseen mycelium, says Pringle. Advances in DNA sequencing have helped scientists see that fungal DNA sequences live unseen in everything from dirt to the nectar of a flower.
This, however, also makes them hard to count. Depending on the species, mycelium might sprout anywhere from one to several fruiting bodies, meaning what we see above ground doesn’t correspond to how many individuals are living below.
“There might be a mycelium under the ground that sends up one mushroom here and one mushroom here,” says Pringle. “Are they two individuals? Or are they coming from the same individual underground?”
“There are ways to solve it,” she notes, “But they’re time intensive and expensive.” Her work has focused on genetically sequencing fungi to help distinguish them.
Mushrooms as we know them—the cute buttons and flat caps that pop out of soil—are only a small, reproductive part of a larger fungal organism. The above-ground portion is referred to as the fruit body, but below ground, it’s connected to a large network of thin, microscopic threads called mycelium. In 1998, scientists determined that the largest organism on Earth, at least by area covered, was a fungus in Oregon’s Blue Mountains whose mycelium spanned over 2,000 acres underground.
Some so-called mycorrhizal fungi form symbiotic relationships with plants. As many as 90 percent of the common plants we see on land have a beneficial relationship with fungi.
“The fungal filaments penetrate the roots of the plant, forming a placenta-like connection between the fungal colony and the roots,” says Money. “It’s like an additional root system for the plant.”
These root networks help plants take in additional water, minerals, and nutrients, and in return the fungus gets a portion of the sugars plants generate from photosynthesis.
Scoop a chunk of dirt out of soil, and you’re holding unseen mycelium, says Pringle. Advances in DNA sequencing have helped scientists see that fungal DNA sequences live unseen in everything from dirt to the nectar of a flower.
This, however, also makes them hard to count. Depending on the species, mycelium might sprout anywhere from one to several fruiting bodies, meaning what we see above ground doesn’t correspond to how many individuals are living below.
“There might be a mycelium under the ground that sends up one mushroom here and one mushroom here,” says Pringle. “Are they two individuals? Or are they coming from the same individual underground?”
“There are ways to solve it,” she notes, “But they’re time intensive and expensive.” Her work has focused on genetically sequencing fungi to help distinguish them.
State of the fungi
In a 2018 report assessing the state of the world’s fungi, scientists found that compared to the 68,000 animals and 25,000 plants that had been evaluated to assess whether they were existentially threatened, only 56 fungi had been evaluated. Currently, 168 mushrooms have been assessed as threatened around the world.
Overharvesting mushrooms, like the white ferula in Sicily, contributes to their decline. In addition to being eaten, many mushrooms are also prized for their medicinal value. The caterpillar fungus found in Tibet, cordyceps sinesis, is used to treat everything from coughing to back pain. Chaga mushrooms, found around the world and sold as a cure for seemingly everything, are increasingly being overharvested, threatening populations in certain regions.
Mushrooms also face many of the same threats plants contend with. Habitat loss, pollution, and specifically the use of fungicide-laden fertilizer, wipe out mushrooms. Studies show that climate change also affects mushrooms, changing the temperature and humidity levels that determine when they pop a fruiting body out of the ground.
Scientists are currently working to understand the effect fungi themselves might have on the climate.
In 2013, Mueller and his colleagues launched the Fungal Red List as a subsection of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The initiative was launched when just three fungi—two lichens and the white ferula—were listed as endangered, and it sought to highlight the importance of conserving fungi.
“Another great advance that’s helped is the engagement of the citizen science community,” says Mueller. Mushroom-hunting clubs and websites like iNaturalist and Mushroom Observer allow amateur mushroom enthusiasts to log the mushrooms they find and thus generate more field data for scientists.
Pringle, who serves as the vice president of Mushroom Observer, notes that the site has even helped rediscover species previously thought to be extinct, like a fungus called hazel fingers found in the Appalachian mountains and parts of the U.K.
In the past decade, the white ferula has been discovered outside Sicily on a Greek island, and Mueller says it may soon be downgraded from “critically endangered” to “endangered.”
Why does it matter?
Not only are fungi crucial partners for trees, as Money says, they affect the climate of the whole planet.
Walk through a temperate forest in autumn and everything you see on the ground—leaves, branches—is dead. But beneath that layer of dead material is a thriving world of fungi working to decompose it. Studies show that fungi help break down the carbon stored in plant material, locking it into soil. Around the world, soil is a massive reservoir for carbon pollution, holding more carbon than the atmosphere and plants combined.
We’re still learning exactly how fungi play a role in the carbon cycle, which ones are crucial, and how many we need, says Pringle.
“Say there are 100 species [of fungi] that cycle carbon through a forest,” says Pringle. “Can we lose one of them? Ten of them? Fifty? Sixty? Maybe we can lose 99 of them. How many species can we afford to lose before we reach a tipping point, and we’re in some sort of trouble?”
Forecast for spring: Nasty drought worsens for much of US
With nearly two-thirds of the United States abnormally dry or worse, the government’s spring forecast offers little hope for relief, especially in the West where a devastating megadrought has taken root and worsened
With nearly two-thirds of the United States abnormally dry or worse, the government’s spring forecast offers little hope for relief, especially in the West where a devastating megadrought has taken root and worsened
.
© Provided by The Canadian Press
Weather service and agriculture officials warned of possible water use cutbacks in California and the Southwest, increased wildfires, low levels in key reservoirs such as Lake Mead and Lake Powell and damage to wheat crops.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s official spring outlook Thursday sees an expanding drought with a drier than normal April, May and June for a large swath of the country from Louisiana to Oregon. including some areas hardest hit by the most severe drought. And nearly all of the continental United States is looking at warmer than normal spring, except for tiny parts of the Pacific Northwest and southeast Alaska, which makes drought worse.
“We are predicting prolonged and widespread drought,” National Weather Service Deputy Director Mary Erickson said. “It’s definitely something we’re watching and very concerned about.”
NOAA expects the spring drought to hit 74 million people.
Several factors go into worsening drought, the agency said. A La Nina cooling of parts of the central Pacific continues to bring dry weather for much of the country, while in the Southwest heavy summer monsoon rains failed to materialize. Meteorologists also say the California megadrought is associated with long-term climate change.
Thursday's national Drought Monitor shows almost 66% of the nation is in an abnormally dry condition, the highest mid-March level since 2002. And forecasters predict that will worsen, expanding in parts of Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota, with small islands of relief in parts of the Great Lakes and New England.
More than 44% of the nation is in moderate or worse drought, and nearly 18% is in extreme or exceptional drought — all of it west of the Mississippi River. Climate scientists are calling what’s happening in the West a “megadrought” that started in 1999.
“The nearly West-wide drought is already quite severe in its breadth and intensity, and unfortunately it doesn't appear likely that there will be much relief this spring,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who writes the Weather West blog and isn’t part of the NOAA outlook. “Winter precipitation has been much below average across much of California, and summer precipitation reached record low levels in 2020 across the desert Southwest.”
With the Sierra Nevada snowpack only 60% of normal levels, U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist Brad Rippey said “there will be some water cutbacks and allocation cutbacks in California and perhaps other areas of the Southwest” for agriculture and other uses. It will probably hit nut crops in the Golden State.
Winter and spring wheat crops also have been hit hard by the western drought with 78% of the spring wheat production area in drought conditions, Rippey said.
The dry, warm conditions the upcoming months likely will bring “an enhanced wildfire season," said Jon Gottschalck, chief of NOAA's prediction branch.
Swain of UCLA said the wildfires probably will not be as bad as 2020 because so much vegetation already has burned and drought conditions retarded regrowth. Last year, he said, wildfire was so massive it will be hard to exceed, though this fire season likely will be above average.
Drought and heat breed a vicious cycle. When it's this dry, less of the sun’s energy goes to evaporating soil moisture because it’s not as wet, Swain said. That leaves more of the energy to heat up the air, and the heat makes the drought worse by boosting evaporation.
“Across the West, it is clear that climate change has increased temperatures essentially year round, which has decreased mountain snowpack and increased evaporation — substantially worsening the severity of the ongoing drought conditions," he said.
In the next week or two, parts of the central United States may get pockets of heavy rain, but the question is whether that will be enough to make up for large rain deficits in the High Plains from the past year, Nebraska state climatologist Martha Shulski said.
The drought's flip side is that for the first time in three years, NOAA is projecting zero major spring flooding, with smaller amounts of minor and moderate flooding.
About 82 million people will be at risk for flooding this spring, mostly minor with no property damage. That's down from 128 million people last year.
Flooding tends to be a short-term expensive localized problem while drought and wildfire hit larger areas and are longer lasting, NOAA climatologist Karin Gleason.
Since 1980, NOAA has tracked weather disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage. The 28 droughts have caused nearly $259 billion in damage, while the 33 floods have cost about $151 billion.
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Read more stories on climate issues by The Associated Press at https://www.apnews.com/Climate
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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears .
Weather service and agriculture officials warned of possible water use cutbacks in California and the Southwest, increased wildfires, low levels in key reservoirs such as Lake Mead and Lake Powell and damage to wheat crops.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s official spring outlook Thursday sees an expanding drought with a drier than normal April, May and June for a large swath of the country from Louisiana to Oregon. including some areas hardest hit by the most severe drought. And nearly all of the continental United States is looking at warmer than normal spring, except for tiny parts of the Pacific Northwest and southeast Alaska, which makes drought worse.
“We are predicting prolonged and widespread drought,” National Weather Service Deputy Director Mary Erickson said. “It’s definitely something we’re watching and very concerned about.”
NOAA expects the spring drought to hit 74 million people.
Several factors go into worsening drought, the agency said. A La Nina cooling of parts of the central Pacific continues to bring dry weather for much of the country, while in the Southwest heavy summer monsoon rains failed to materialize. Meteorologists also say the California megadrought is associated with long-term climate change.
Thursday's national Drought Monitor shows almost 66% of the nation is in an abnormally dry condition, the highest mid-March level since 2002. And forecasters predict that will worsen, expanding in parts of Florida, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming and South Dakota, with small islands of relief in parts of the Great Lakes and New England.
More than 44% of the nation is in moderate or worse drought, and nearly 18% is in extreme or exceptional drought — all of it west of the Mississippi River. Climate scientists are calling what’s happening in the West a “megadrought” that started in 1999.
“The nearly West-wide drought is already quite severe in its breadth and intensity, and unfortunately it doesn't appear likely that there will be much relief this spring,” said UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who writes the Weather West blog and isn’t part of the NOAA outlook. “Winter precipitation has been much below average across much of California, and summer precipitation reached record low levels in 2020 across the desert Southwest.”
With the Sierra Nevada snowpack only 60% of normal levels, U.S. Department of Agriculture meteorologist Brad Rippey said “there will be some water cutbacks and allocation cutbacks in California and perhaps other areas of the Southwest” for agriculture and other uses. It will probably hit nut crops in the Golden State.
Winter and spring wheat crops also have been hit hard by the western drought with 78% of the spring wheat production area in drought conditions, Rippey said.
The dry, warm conditions the upcoming months likely will bring “an enhanced wildfire season," said Jon Gottschalck, chief of NOAA's prediction branch.
Swain of UCLA said the wildfires probably will not be as bad as 2020 because so much vegetation already has burned and drought conditions retarded regrowth. Last year, he said, wildfire was so massive it will be hard to exceed, though this fire season likely will be above average.
Drought and heat breed a vicious cycle. When it's this dry, less of the sun’s energy goes to evaporating soil moisture because it’s not as wet, Swain said. That leaves more of the energy to heat up the air, and the heat makes the drought worse by boosting evaporation.
“Across the West, it is clear that climate change has increased temperatures essentially year round, which has decreased mountain snowpack and increased evaporation — substantially worsening the severity of the ongoing drought conditions," he said.
In the next week or two, parts of the central United States may get pockets of heavy rain, but the question is whether that will be enough to make up for large rain deficits in the High Plains from the past year, Nebraska state climatologist Martha Shulski said.
The drought's flip side is that for the first time in three years, NOAA is projecting zero major spring flooding, with smaller amounts of minor and moderate flooding.
About 82 million people will be at risk for flooding this spring, mostly minor with no property damage. That's down from 128 million people last year.
Flooding tends to be a short-term expensive localized problem while drought and wildfire hit larger areas and are longer lasting, NOAA climatologist Karin Gleason.
Since 1980, NOAA has tracked weather disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage. The 28 droughts have caused nearly $259 billion in damage, while the 33 floods have cost about $151 billion.
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Read more stories on climate issues by The Associated Press at https://www.apnews.com/Climate
___
Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at @borenbears .
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