Tuesday, August 03, 2021

FAMINE; ONE OF THE FOUR HORSEMEN

UN warns hunger is expected to rise in 23 global hotspots

Hunger is expected to rise in 23 global hotspots in the next three months with the highest alerts for "catastrophic" situations in Ethiopia's embattled Tigray region, southern Madagascar, Yemen, South Sudan and northern Nigeria, two U.N. agencies warned Friday.

The Food and Agriculture Organization and World Food Program said in a new report on "Hunger Hotspots" between August and November that "acute food insecurity is likely to further deteriorate."

They put Ethiopia at the top of the list, saying the number of people facing starvation and death is expected to rise to 401,000—the highest number since the 2011 famine in Somalia—if humanitarian aid isn't provided quickly.

In southern Madagascar, which has been hit by the worst drought in the past 40 years, pests affecting staple crops, and rising food prices—14,000 people are expected to be pushed into "catastrophic" acute food insecurity marked by starvation and death by September. And that number is expected to double by the end of the year with 28,000 people needing urgent help, the two agencies said.

In a report in May, 16 organizations including FAO and WFP said at least 155 million people faced acute hunger in 2020, including 133,000 who needed urgent food to prevent widespread death from starvation, a 20 million increase from 2019.

"Acute hunger is increasing not only in scale but also severity," FAO and WFP said in Friday's report. "Overall, over 41 million people worldwide are now at risk of falling into famine or famine-like conditions, unless they receive immediate life and livelihood-saving assistance."

The two Rome-based agencies called for urgent humanitarian action to save lives in the 23 hotspots, saying help is especially critical in the five highest alert places to prevent famine and death.

"These deteriorating trends are mostly driven by conflict dynamics, as well as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic," they said. "These include food price spikes, movement restrictions that limit market and pastoralists activities alike, rising inflation, decreased purchasing power, and an early and prolonged lean season" for crops.

FAO and WFP said South Sudan, Yemen and Nigeria remain at the highest alert level, joined for the first time by Ethiopia because of Tigray and southern Madagascar.

In South Sudan, they said, "famine was most likely happening in parts of Pibor county between October and November 2020, and was expected to continue in the absence of sustained and timely humanitarian assistance" while two other areas remain at risk of famine.

"In Yemen, the risk of more people facing famine-like conditions may have been contained, but gains remain extremely fragile," the U.N. agencies said. "In Nigeria, populations in conflict-affected areas in the northeast may be at risk of reaching catastrophic food insecurity levels."

Nine other countries also have high numbers of people facing "critical food insecurity" coupled with worsening drivers of hunger—Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Colombia, Congo, Haiti, Honduras, Sudan and Syria, the report said.

Six countries have been added to the hotspot list since the agencies' March report—Chad, Colombia, North Korea, Myanmar, Kenya and Nicaragua, it said. Three other countries also facing acute food insecurity are Somalia, Guatemala and Niger, while Venezuela wasn't included due to lack of recent data, it said.

In Afghanistan, FAO and WFP said 3.5 million people are expected to face the second-highest level of food insecurity, characterized by acute malnutrition and deaths, from June to November. They said the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces as early as August could lead to escalating violence, additional displaced people and difficulties in distributing humanitarian assistance.

In reclusive North Korea, which is under tough U.N. sanctions, the agencies said "concerns are mounting over the food security situation ... due to strained access and the potential impact of trade limitations, which may lead to food gaps." While data is "extremely limited," they said recent figures from the country's Central Bureau o Stations and an FAO analysis "highlight a worrying cereal deficit."

Pandemic, war, climate change fuel food fears

As Asian cities sink, managed retreat must be tabled

by SciDev.Net

Even as Asia's megacities continue to submerge, officials of one small Philippine city are planning a major US$460 million reclamation project that will damage or sink their beautiful seaside city into the dark blue southern sea.

Scientists and environmentalists have called on the local government of Dumaguete to scrap the reclamation project, citing the devastating impact it may have on the marine environment and coastal communities. The 174-hectare project seeks to develop the site as a "5G-ready mini-city, complete with shopping malls, condominiums, esplanades and other business establishments."

This is developing as rising sea levels and climate change are posing serious threats to the population and economy of several Asian coastal cities—Bangkok, Dhaka, Jakarta, Manila and Shanghai, among them.

Threats come from a combination of tropical cyclones, storm surges, high tides and sea-level rise that increase risk of serious flooding by 2030. Some 600 million people worldwide—the majority in Asia—will be affected by rising sea levels in flood-prone coastal regions, some of them economic centers.

Sinking cities, rising seas

Imperceptible to most residents, major Asian cities continue to slide under water for a variety of causes. As global warming comes, scientists worry that the world is heading towards a perfect storm of sinking cities and rising seas in a decade.

This is not a new story, of course. More than a decade ago in 2008, some South-East Asian coastal nations were concerned about how vulnerable they were to the forces of the seas. In one of the early conferences on the problems of coastal cities, scientists from Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Japan studied the impact of sea flooding on migration from coastal areas.

The study focused on migration as a response to the sinking cities. The idea was that people would leave their homes voluntarily and migrate to safer places to avoid the rising seas. The study said Vietnam was in a class by itself with a high coastal plain population. By 2040, it was expected to experience a relatively high land loss due to submergence forcing people to migrate.

According to the study, by 2100 the continuing sea level rise was expected to result in a loss of wetland area with nearly 22 million people experiencing floods every year in Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

The causes of the sinking cities and rising seas are not quite the same though the impacts are similar—submerging large areas of cities and populations under water in a decade or sooner. As cities plan their retreats, the big cities slowly sink at different rates, some faster than others.

Jakarta reportedly holds the record for the world's fastest sinking city, at a rate of around 25.4cm per year. Around 40 percent of the city now lies below current sea levels. Over half of its 10.6 million people lack access to piped water and surface water is heavily polluted, so they dig illegal wells to extract groundwater. Rains are not enough to replenish water in the soils because over 97 percent of Jakarta is covered in asphalt and concrete.

Bangkok with its 9.6 million population is also vulnerable to rising sea levels. Six years ago, in 2015, its government published a report that said the city could be underwater in 15 years. The city, now only around 1.5 meters above sea level, is sinking at a rate of about two centimeters per year. Bangkok's sinking has been made worse by the sheer weight of its high-rise buildings which pressing into the sea the foundations of the city. The city has about 700 buildings with 20 floors or more and 4,000 buildings with 8—20 floors, putting considerable pressure on the land on which they sit.

Manila with its core city population of 13.3 million people is sinking at around 10 centimeters per year. Since the city has an average elevation of around five meters it is living on borrowed time. The sinking increases the risk of floods and cause high tides to penetrate further inland and water to recede more slowly. Unless there is intervention, much of the land area bordering Greater Manila Bay—Pasay to Manila to Malabon to most of Bulacan province north of Manila—will go under several centimeters of water by 2050.

Bangladesh's capital city of Dhaka, population 18.9 million, is another low-lying, riverside city in Asia beset by a sinking feeling caused by unsustainable extraction of groundwater. As in other cities they exploit groundwater because the rivers are polluted. The city is sinking at a rate of about 1.4 centimeters per year, with most urbanized areas a mere 6–8 meters above sea level. Sea level rise appears to be happening at a rate ten times greater than the global average in the Bay of Bengal, southwest of the city.

Managing retreat from rising seas

There is still time to prevent a worst-case scenario if people act now. Governments and corporations must immediately transition to large-scale renewable energy to keep the world's temperature rise under 1.5 degree Celsius.

Governments can do this if they phase-out coal-fired power plants and accelerate the shift to clean and renewable energy. Governments must upgrade their nationally determined contribution targets promised in the Paris Agreement ahead of COP26.

As seas rise and climate change brings rains and floods, countries must now plan strategies to protect their communities. They have a variety of defenses to choose from: protection (e.g., hard shoreline dikes), accommodation (e.g., elevating or flood-proofing structures), or managed retreat. 4

Managed retreat for now seems to be a last resort. This basically means relocating people and infrastructure away from vulnerable coastal areas to flood-free ecosystems—out of harm's way before disasters strike.

For instance, about two years ago, the Indonesian government announced that they are planning to develop a new capital in Kutai Kertanagara in East Kalimantan at an estimated cost of US$33 billion. The new city will relocate some 1.5 million people mostly civil servants and their families and economic actors. However, it seems that there is no commitment on the poor coastal folks in North Jakarta which will be left to deal with the unsolved land subsidence and rising seas.

Certainly, a managed retreat should be inclusive for all especially the most vulnerable and impoverished who are left with little choice but to sink or swim hard to survive.

Sea level rise up to four times global average for coastal communitiesProvided by SciDev.Net

Global team of wildlife researchers furthers study of elusive, tree-dwelling animals

by Samantha Murray, University of Florida

The pandemic has turned many of us to technology as a way to connect with not just other people, but also nature.

Camera traps—stationary cameras such as trail cams that capture still images or video of animals that cross their path—are increasingly popular windows into the everyday lives of birds, mammals, insects and more.

"Wildlife researchers have been using camera traps for decades to document flora and fauna," said Jennifer Moore, who led a new review study on the method's latest evolution: arboreal camera traps.

"Camera traps on the ground have been used for a long time, but arboreal camera traps are a newer approach. They capture what is going on at the level of the tree canopy," said Moore, a post-doctoral associate in the UF/IFAS department of wildlife ecology and conservation.

A canopy-level view is invaluable to wildlife researchers who study animal species that spend their lives in the trees.

"Sometimes we may not even know a species is in an area until we catch them on camera up in the trees," said Moore, whose recent research focuses on wildlife conservation in Rwanda's national parks.

"And you can't conserve what you don't know is there," Moore added.

Looking back through the scientific literature, the study's authors found that wildlife researchers have been using arboreal camera traps for about the last 30 years, though their use has increased dramatically in recent years.

"The growth has been exponential," said Tremaine Gregory, a conservation biologist at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Center for Conservation and Sustainability, and a co-author on the study.

"There are many advantages to arboreal camera traps. For one, they allow us to see wildlife that would be nearly impossible to see if you're on the ground looking up, even with binoculars," Gregory said. "They are also less invasive than the traditional method of surveying wildlife, which is to walk through the habitat on transects. Finally, they allow us to more effectively document wildlife at night, and so many animals that live up in the trees are nocturnal."

But as with many innovations, camera trapping has a steep learning curve, the study's authors say.

"Camera traps offer a lot of advantages, but there are some common mistakes people make. In our study, we lay out some best practices to help researchers avoid those pitfalls," Moore said.

The study's 18 authors also provide unique mini-guides that provide guidance on topics specific to arboreal camera trapping such as ways to mount cameras to managing interference from animals in the canopy. The mini-guides also cover best practices for installing cameras up in trees safely.

· Camera mounts

· Climbing protocols and safety

· Non-climbing methods

· Managing animal interference

"These best practices could also be useful for nature lovers interested in putting a camera trap in their backyards," Gregory added.

Some of the earliest uses of camera traps in urban areas were nest cams trained on nests of species like ospreys, which are often built on the tops of high urban structures. Today, sites like YouTube are full of live camera feeds showing animals in their most candid moments.

"Camera traps are a great tool for increasing public awareness about the environment and conservation efforts," Moore said.

The study is published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

It's a trap! Study finds effects of weather, time on wildlife sightings

More information: Jennifer F. Moore et al, The potential and practice of arboreal camera trapping, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (2021). DOI: 10.1111/2041-210X.13666

Journal information: Methods in Ecology and Evolution

Provided by University of Florida

SOYLENT BLUU

Alternative to fishing – cell-based fish from the bioreactor

by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Already about 90 percent of all fish stocks are considered maximally exploited or overfished, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. But as the world's population continues to grow, more and more people rely on fish as a source of protein. Bluu GmbH—a spin-off of the Fraunhofer Research and Development Center for Marine and Cellular Biotechnology EMB, which is an associated center of the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Individualized and Cell-Based Medical Engineering IMTE—has a solution to the problem. The company specializes in the production of cell-based fish, which is made from real fish cells and grown in a bioreactor. Unlike wild-caught fish, this is not at the expense of animal welfare.

Bluu Biosciences is the first company in Europe to specialize in the development and production of cell-based fish. Worldwide, there are currently only a handful of companies operating in this field. Bluu Biosciences is thus closing a gap in the market: Just about everywhere today, more fish are caught than can naturally regenerate. This threatens the basic food supply of hundreds of millions of people. Cell-based fish, produced with the help of modern biotechnology, can make decisive contribution to secure the global supply of animal protein in the future.

"We see a fast-growing market here. The future belongs to products manufactured in a circular economy," says Dr. Sebastian Rakers, founder and managing director of Bluu GmbH. In May 2020, he launched the company together with Simon Fabich. Their aim is to introduce the products to the market via restaurants as a first step. Later, the products will also be supplied to supermarkets. Rakers cites the end of 2023 as a realistic date for market launch. The portfolio will initially include hybrid products such as fish balls, fish sticks and fish tartar, which are made up of a mix of cell components and vegetable proteins. Fish filet is not going to be market-ready until a later date since more research is needed. The challenge is to develop a porous structural framework that allows sufficient nutrients and oxygen to reach the cells. "This is essential to ensure that the cells are growing on the structural framework and form in the same way as they would in natural fish tissue," explains the marine biologist, who has been doing research with fish cells at the Fraunhofer EMB for twelve years.

Cell lines from adult stem cells

Dr. Rakers and his team isolate the cells from a biopsy coming from a piece of adult fish tissue. The isolated cells, similar to progenitor cells or adult stem cells, are then multiplied in the laboratory in an in-vitro culture. Since they do not age, they can divide infinitely. The cells are then fed with a nutrient medium in the bioreactor. The reactor currently comprises a maximum of five liters. However, to obtain a marketable product, a larger reactor is required. "We are not there yet, because we first have to refine the process steps needed by the cells to grow. Our current challenge is to take the step towards industrial production."

Free from genetic engineering, antibiotics and environmental toxins

The benefits of cell-based fish production are numerous. "There is no need to slaughter fish, and ideally a biopsy is only required once," the researcher lists as examples of the many advantages. Thirty percent of all fish stocks are overfished, while sixty percent are exploited to the maximum. Non-land-based aquaculture, on the other hand, which has grown rapidly, especially in the last decade, and is associated with factory farming, is causing pollution of the oceans and eutrophication of waters, especially in areas with little flow. Other benefits of cultivated fish are its high nutritional value as well as its availability and the associated short supply chains. Fish products made from fish cells are free from genetic engineering, antibiotics and environmental toxins. They can be produced on-demand in a decentralized manner. Unlike aquaculture, a cell-based factory can be set up anywhere in the world.

Production free of fetal calf serum

Currently, researchers are focusing on optimizing the medium to make sure the fish cells are produced in a cost-effective manner and to refine cell properties such as flavor and texture. This is achieved, for example, by increasing the proportion of omega-3 fatty acids as an important flavor carrier. The technology required for this was outlicensed from the Fraunhofer EMB. In addition, researchers are working to replace fetal calf serum (FCS) with other, plant-based growth factors and achieve FCS-free production. "FCS is derived from the blood of cow fetuses and is a major component of many growth media needed to grow and culture cells in cell cultures," Rakers explains. "Our first prototype will be completely FCS-free." Bluu GmbH continues to cooperate closely with Fraunhofer EMB in its research work.

Feeding both fish and pond yields more protein with lower quality feed

Provided by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

USA

Drive to charge packagers for recycling, but industry fights

by Patrick Whittle

In this Thursday, Sept. 6, 2018, file photo, workers clean

consumer plastic shopping bags from the clogged rollers of

a machine which separates paper, plastic and metal recyclable

material, in a processing building at EL Harvey & Sons, a

waste and recycling company, in Westborough, Mass.

States around the country are looking to adopt new recycling

regimes that require producers of packaging to pay for its

inevitable disposal. Credit: AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File

States across the U.S. are looking to adopt new recycling regimes that require producers of packaging to pay for its inevitable disposal—but industry is digging in to try to halt the movement.

Maine became the first state to adopt such a program in July when Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill that requires producers of products that involve packaging materials to pay into a new state fund. The fund will be used to reimburse municipalities for recycling and waste management costs.

Oregon has approved a similar bill that is awaiting signature from Democratic Gov. Kate Brown, and at least six other state legislatures have similar bills pending, said Yinka Bode-George, environmental health manager for the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators. Lawmakers in at least four other states have also expressed interest in such bills, she said.

The states with active bills—most of them Democratic-leaning—include large, influential economies like New York and California. Environmentalists in those states and others believe shifting packaging disposal costs away from taxpayers and toward producers is long overdue.

More laws like Maine's would incentivize industry to stop creating excessive packaging in the first place, Bode-George said. "This culture of throwing things away after one use is part of the problem," she added. "It's important for the producers of these materials to really take ownership of them."

Maine's bill is designed to cut down on plastic, cardboard, paper and other packaging waste by requiring what the state called "producer payments." The companies can lower the payments by implementing their own, independent recycling programs or simply reducing packaging. The fees will go to a private organization that will reimburse municipalities for recycling and waste management costs and invest in education geared at reducing packaging and improving recycling.

Oregon's proposed law is slightly different in that it would require producers and manufacturers of packaging to create a nonprofit group tasked with developing a recycling plan for packaging materials.

Advocates of these strategies sometimes call them "extended producer responsibility." They are widely used in Europe as well as in some Canadian provinces. The National Waste & Recycling Association, a Virginia-based trade group, has said it can support such programs when they focus on "incentives to create new markets for recycling materials," because buyers are needed for all these recyclables.

"The most important thing is that there's a market for it," said Brandon Wright, a spokesperson for the group.

But the moves have ignited heavy pushback from several sectors of American industry where fears are widespread that the new laws will drive up the cost of doing business in some states. New recycling obligations could cause companies to pull out of those states or pass on costs to consumers, industry members say.

The American Institute for Packaging and the Environment, or AMERIPEN, which represents the packaging industry, had asked Mills to veto Maine's bill and plans to play an active role in an upcoming rulemaking process about it, said Dan Felton, the group's executive director.

AMERIPEN hoped to work with Maine on a different new recycling scheme, but the approved law leaves "producers and the people of Maine on the outside of the process and forced to foot the bill for a system where the Maine Department of Environmental Protection is the sole decision-maker," Felton said.

The proposed recycling laws have also generated pushback from industries that don't work directly in packaging, but rely on it. Robert Luria, government relations manager for Scotts Miracle-Gro Company, told a state committee that Maine's law "has the potential to increase inefficiencies in Maine's recycling system."

Recycling, particularly of plastics, has been further complicated by China's decision to stop accepting plastic waste from other countries.

Advocates say the new recycling bills could help with that waste disposal problem by decreasing reliance on single-use plastic products. Maine's bill sent "a strong signal that it's time for big corporations and brands to do their part to curb plastic pollution and reduce wasteful packaging," said Sarah Nichols of the Natural Resources Council of Maine.

In Maine, industry representatives who opposed the bill know the changes are coming and are working with the state to craft rules they can live with.

Industry is also preparing for other states to follow Maine's lead, said Christine Cummings, executive director of the Maine Grocers & Food Producers Association.

"I think this is just the very start of what this program will evolve into both in Maine and around the country," Cummings saidMaine becomes first state to ban single-use foam containers

Indigenous fire stewardship promotes global biodiversity

by University of Waterloo

The disruption of Indigenous-controlled fire use at the onset of colonization has resulted in high-severity fire activity, according to a new study by a research team at the University of Waterloo.

The researchers examined how Indigenous fire stewardship—specifically cultural burning—reduces the risks of interface fires, which have the potential to involve buildings and vegetation simultaneously, and fire impacts to ecological and human communities.

Indigenous fire stewardship is a global practice used for resource management, community protection, and cultural purposes. Importantly, it has increased biodiversity and ecosystem heterogeneity across all of Earth's major terrestrial biomes.

"Declines in biodiversity were associated with high-severity fire activity, which began with the disruption of Indigenous-controlled fire use at the onset of colonization," said research co-lead Kira Hoffman, a recent postdoctoral fellow in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Waterloo, now a jointly appointed postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia's Faculty of Forestry and The Bulkley Valley Research Centre.

"Agency and public support for Indigenous-led fire stewardship, specifically cultural burning can revive important cultural practices while helping protect ecosystems and human communities from increasingly destructive wildfires."

The study points out that over a century of fire suppression, combined with warmer and drier conditions associated with climate change, has led to increasingly severe wildfire events, which is threatening biodiversity on a global scale.

The team made up of undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the Trant Ecological Legacies Lab in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability (SERS) conducted a review of primary ecological literature published from 1900 to the present, noting 79 percent of applicable studies reported increases in biodiversity as a result of Indigenous fire stewardship.

"Identifying and implementing human-fire interactions supporting a variety of valuable social and ecological outcomes is becoming increasingly urgent, given what we're seeing in Western Canada, Manitoba, and Ontario, our forest fire situation that can only go from bad to worse without changes to existing strategies," said Andrew Trant, Associate Professor in SERS and co-author of the recent publication.

Although evidence for widespread and contemporary Indigenous fire stewardship exists, the millennia-old practice is still debated in many parts of the world. Hoffman said misunderstandings of what cultural burning is, have been driven in part by colonialism, fear of fires becoming out of control, and real versus perceived public perceptions of wildfire risk, which can be in direct opposition to scientific evidence and Indigenous Ecological Knowledge that fire is a necessary and healthy component of functioning ecosystems.

"Importantly, Indigenous-led fire stewardship continues to demonstrate the value of routinely applying controlled fire to adapt to changing environments while promoting desired landscapes, habitats, and species while also supporting subsistence practices, communities and livelihoods," Hoffman said.

Indigenous peoples comprise only 5 percent of the world's population but protect approximately 85 percent of the world's biodiversity through stewardship of Indigenous-managed lands. This is partly due to long-term and widespread relationships with and dependence on fire, which has been applied as a tool for managinglandscapes for millennia.

The findings of the open-access study co-authored by Hoffman, Trent, Emma Davis, and Sara Wickham were published today in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Scientists warn on the harmful implications of losing Indigenous and local knowledge systems

More information: Conservation of Earth's biodiversity is embedded in Indigenous fire stewardship, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2021). www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.2105073118

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Provided by University of Waterloo

#ECOCIDE

Damaged Hyperion plant is releasing partially treated sewage into Santa Monica Bay

by Robert J. Lopez

More than two weeks after a flood of raw sewage inundated the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant and triggered a massive discharge into Santa Monica Bay, the damaged facility has continued to release millions of gallons of partially treated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, in violation of its environmental permit, the Los Angeles Times has learned.

Responding to repeated inquiries from The Times, Los Angeles city sanitation officials confirmed that the facility has violated multiple state and federal water pollution limits since an emergency discharge sent 17 million gallons of raw sewage into the waters off Dockweiler and El Segundo beaches July 11 and 12. The surge of wastewater sent workers fleeing for their lives and has left the plant in a damaged state.

Sanitation officials said in emails that the facility has exceeded levels for solid particles in the wastewater as well as levels for biological oxygen demand and turbidity, or water clarity, all of which are used to measure the degree of organic pollution during the treatment process.

Each day, the plant discharges 260 million gallons of wastewater into the ocean through a five-mile pipe about 12 feet in diameter. State regulators and environmental experts say that because the wastewater is not fully treated, it could harm people and marine life.

"We are very concerned about the potential impacts on Santa Monica Bay," said Renee Purdy, executive officer of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The water board ordered Hyperion officials on Thursday evening to conduct daily offshore testing and provide daily status reports on water quality and equipment repair until the plant can resume normal operations, which sanitation officials say could take weeks. The order corroborates information obtained by The Times and shows that the violations began on July 19 and have continued through Wednesday, when the most recently available testing data was returned.

Residents who live near the plant, as well as environmental experts, say city sanitation officials should have informed the public that the facility has been releasing partially treated wastewater into the ocean.

"We are shocked," said Katherine Pease, science and policy director for Heal the Bay. "It's been two weeks since the 17-million-gallon sewage spill, and we are only learning now that the plant is not able to fully treat sewage."

A spokeswoman for the L.A. Sanitation and Environment Department, which operates the Hyperion plant, said in a statement Friday that the violations were the result of the significant damage caused to the plant by the flooding.

"Hyperion had 11 years of compliance with effluent discharge permit limits prior to the July 11, 2021, flooding incident," spokeswoman Elena Stern said. "Hyperion expects to return to its exemplary compliance record with effluent discharge limits in the near future."

The state order also provides new details on the damage caused after a rapid and huge flow of raw sewage on July 11 forced Hyperion crews to evacuate a water treatment building and subsequently flooded about half of the 200-acre facility.

"Multiple pieces of equipment were rendered non-operational as a result of the flooding," the order said, including sludge pumps and a waste solid processing system. As a result, solids have accumulated in processing tanks and affected water quality, according to the order.

Hyperion officials have credited the "valiant" work of crews during the flooding with preventing a large-scale environmental disaster.

In an update posted July 21, Sanitation and Environment Department officials said that multiple ocean water tests conducted by the agency showed that bacteria levels were well below state standards.

The agency did not say in that update or subsequent reports posted on its website that sanitation officials had begun notifying state regulators on July 19 that the Hyperion plant was exceeding water quality standards, records show.

"The public still doesn't know the full impacts of the spill on the facility's treatment processes or whether current discharges are impacting our marine environment," said Ben Harris, a staff attorney with the environmental organization Los Angeles Waterkeeper.

Operations at Hyperion have come under increasing scrutiny and criticism by local officials and residents who live near the plant. They say that sanitation officials have provided insufficient information regarding the spill and its effects on people and marine life.

A report prepared for the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors earlier this week found that multiple communications breakdowns involving officials at the Hyperion plant and the county Department of Public Health delayed critical public notifications and a full emergency response during the sewage discharge incident.

In El Segundo, which borders the facility, neighbors have complained of continuous foul orders, as well as rashes, burning eyes and nausea.

Neal Boushell, who lives about a block from the plant, said Friday that the smell was so bad that he left with his family two days earlier to spend time in Carpinteria.

"It is just so awful," he said of the odor.

17 million gallons of sewage discharged from treatment plant; some LA beaches closed

PANDEMIC ECONOMICS

Australia's Qantas to furlough 2,500 workers

SAVE JOBS FIRE THE BOSS

Qantas said the airline had gone from operating almost 100 percent of its usual domestic flying capacity in May to less than 40 — *Qantas said the airline had gone from operating almost*

Australian airline Qantas announced Tuesday it will furlough 2,500 workers as coronavirus outbreaks and regional lockdowns pummel demand for flights.

Pilots, cabin crew and airport workers from Qantas and its low-cost affiliate Jetstar will be sent home without pay from mid-August for an estimated two months, the firm said.

"This is clearly the last thing we want to do, but we're now faced with an extended period of reduced flying and that means no work for a number of our people," CEO Alan Joyce said in a statement.

Qantas said the airline had gone from operating almost 100 percent of its usual domestic flying capacity in May to less than 40 percent in July due to coronavirus restrictions.

Most of the affected staff are based in New South Wales, a state that is largely cut off from the rest of the country and the world by travel restrictions.

A lockdown in the country's largest city, Sydney, is now in its sixth week and is likely to last for at least another month.

Qantas and Jetstar have already stood down thousands of international air crew since early 2020, with Australia's borders remaining closed to most overseas travellers.

The country's third-biggest city, Brisbane, is currently under stay-at-home orders while other states have only recently emerged from lockdowns.

Qantas said staff will be paid for two weeks before the change comes into effect.

"Based on current case numbers, it's reasonable to assume that Sydney's borders will be closed for at least another two months," Joyce said.

"We know it will take a few weeks once the outbreak is under control before other states open to New South Wales and normal travel can resume."

Qantas, which previously said it had seen an Aus$11 billion (US$8.1 billion) plunge in revenue during 2020, embarked on a cost-cutting blitz last year that included grounding planes and restructuring.

Australian carrier Qantas slashes international routes 90%

China gaming shares dive after 'spiritual opium' warning

Tencent shares dived after state media described online gaming as 'spiritual opium'

Shares of Tencent and other major Chinese gaming companies plummeted Tuesday after a state-run media article described online games as "spiritual opium".

The criticism triggered fears among investors that online gaming was the next target for China's communist rulers as they crackdown on Big Tech and other powerful sectors deemed to be out of control.

The Economic Information Daily, an arm of the government's Xinhua news agency, complained about "widespread" online gaming addiction among children.

"The harmfulness of games has been increasingly recognised by society, and they are often referred to as 'spiritual opium' and 'electronic drugs'," it said.

The article cited views that "no industry or sport should develop in a way that wrecks a generation".

Shares in Tencent, one of China's biggest tech firms that is behind "Honor of Kings" and other global blockbuster games, dived more than 10 percent in Hong Kong shortly after the publication of the article.

Rivals NetEase and XD Inc also tumbled, falling more than 11 percent in Hong Kong.

The fallout spread to Japanese gaming stocks, with shares of online game company Nexon sliding more than 9 percent in Tokyo.

China has stunned investors around the world with a series of crackdowns on tech firms, citing national security, data privacy and monopoly concerns, as well as their impacts on society in general.

E-commerce, education, music streaming and ride-hailing have been some of the sectors targeted, wiping billions of dollars from the share values of companies.

Last month, Tencent's super app WeChat—which is used for everything from messaging to bill payment—said it was suspending new user registrations until early August for a security upgrade, fuelling concerns over its prospects.

China's Tencent turns to facial recognition to snag late-night child gamers

Religious suffering is, at one and the same time, the expression of real suffering and a protest against real suffering.

Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions.

It is the opium of the people.

https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment