Half a degree makes a big difference in a warming world

Issued on: 04/10/2021

Experts say a 2C warmer Earth would see the number of people facing extreme heat waves more than double

 JOSH EDELSON AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

Half a degree Celsius may not seem like much, but climate experts say a world that has warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius above 19th-century levels compared to 2C could be the difference between life and death.

A 2C Earth would see the number of people facing extreme heat waves more than double. A quarter of a billion more people would face water shortages.

The Arctic Ocean will be ice-free not once in a century but once every 10 years.

Countries that signed the Paris Agreement vowed to cap the rise in global temperatures -- already 1.1C above the pre-industrial benchmark -- at well below 2C, and preferably at 1.5C.

Humanity is still far off the mark: even if fulfilled, current pledges to reduce emissions would still set the planet on course to warm by a "catastrophic" 2.7C, according to the UN.

Here's what the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says we can expect in a world that warms by 1.5C, 2C and beyond.

- Heat waves -

Maximum temperatures in some areas will increase by three degrees if the climate warms 1.5C, four if global heating reaches the 2C mark.

Heat waves that occur once-a-decade today will become four times more likely at 1.5C, and nearly six times more likely at 2C.

The odds of extreme hot spells currently seen once every 50 year increase by nearly nine fold at 1.5C, and 40 fold in a 4C world.

More people will be affected as well: the percentage of humanity exposed to extreme heatwaves at least once every five years jumps from 14 percent at 1.5C to 37 percent with an extra half-a-degree.

- Storms -

Global warming will cause more rain at higher latitudes, north and south of the equator, as well as in the tropics and some monsoon zones.

Precipitation in sub-tropical zones will likely become rarer, raising the spectre of drought.

Extreme precipitation events today are 1.3 times more likely and seven percent more intense than before global warming kicked in.

At 1.5 degrees of warming, extreme rain, snowfall or other precipitation events will be 10 percent heavier

 ASHRAF SHAZLY AFP/File

At 1.5 degrees of warming, extreme rain, snowfall or other precipitation events will be 10 percent heavier and 1.5 times more likely.

- Drought -

In drought-prone regions dry spells are twice as likely in a 1.5C world, and four times more likely if temperatures climb 4C.

Capping the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5C rather than 2C would prevent an additional 200-250 million people from facing severe water shortages.

Limiting drought would also reduce the risk of related disasters such as wildfires.

- Food -

In a world that is two degrees warmer than pre-industrial levels, seven-10 percent of agricultural land will no longer be farmable.

Yields are also predicted to decrease, with corn harvests in tropical zones estimated to drop by three percent in a 1.5C warmer world and seven percent with a rise of 2C.

- Sea levels -

If global warming is capped at 2C, the ocean watermark will go up about half a metre over the 21st century. It will continue rising to nearly two metres by 2300 -- twice the amount predicted by the IPCC in 2019.

Because of uncertainty over ice sheets, scientists cannot rule out a total rise of two metres by 2100 in a worst-case emissions scenario.

Limiting warming to 1.5C would reduce rising sea levels by 10 about centimetres.

- Species in peril -

All these impacts affect the survival of plants and animals across the planet.

Global warming capped at 1.5C negatively affects seven percent of ecosystems. At 2C, that figure nearly doubles.

An increase of 4C would endanger half of the species on Earth.

© 2021 AFP

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M 

Switzerland files criminal complaint over Greensill


ZURICH (Reuters) - Switzerland's economic affairs secretariat (SECO) has filed a criminal complaint in relation to collapsed financier Greensill Capital for alleged violations of the law against unfair competition, it told Reuters on Sunday.

The Greensill Bank is pictured in downtown Bremen

The Swiss NZZ am Sonntag newspaper said police searched Credit Suisse offices last week after the Zurich public prosecutor's office opened criminal proceedings in relation to Greensill following a complaint from SECO.

"No criminal investigation has yet been opened against certain former and current employees of Credit Suisse Group," the paper cited the prosecutor's office as saying.

Credit Suisse, Switzerland's second-largest bank, said on Sunday that data had been collected from the bank as part of an official procedure that was not directed against the lender, when asked for comment about the NZZ am Sonntag report.

"Credit Suisse fully cooperates with the authorities and will, for the time being, not make any further statements on this as this is an ongoing investigation," it told Reuters.

Credit Suisse was forced in March to shut $10 billion of supply chain finance funds that invested in bonds issued by Greensill when the finance firm imploded.

Administrators for Greensill and the Zurich public prosecutor's office did not respond immediately to requests for comment.

SECO referred Reuters to the Zurich prosecutor's office for any further comment about the proceedings.

(Reporting by Michael Shields; Editing by David Clarke)

CANADA FOR $ALE

Australia's Sayona Mining raises $72.5 million to buy lithium project in Canada

(Reuters) - Australian lithium producer Sayona Mining said on Monday it raised A$100 million ($72.5 million) through a share issue to fund the acquisition of the Moblan Lithium Project in Quebec, Canada.

Lithium miners are racing to raise money and expand projects, with global demand for the electric-vehicle battery metal set to soar in the coming decade as more countries move to electrify transportation and cut carbon emissions.

Sayona, which operates in Western Australia and Quebec, said nGLF5dF8Dl it would undertake an additional non‐renounceable rights issue to raise up to A$25.5 million for all its shareholders.

"The Moblan acquisition represents a significant growth opportunity as we build a new lithium base in Northern Québec, adding to our existing Abitibi lithium hub," said Brett Lynch, Manging Director, Sayona Mining.

Last Thursday, the lithium producer said it would acquire Canada-based Lithium Royalty Corp's right to purchase a 60% stake in the Moblan project from Guo Ao Lithium for $86.5 million.

($1 = 1.37601 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Tejaswi Marthi in Bengaluru; editing by Richard Pullin)

A PYRAMID SCHEME BY ANY OTHER NAME 

MLMs and COVID-19: Inside the ‘almost predatory’ business model that thrives during tough times

Rachel Gilmore 

© AP Photo/Upstairs Circus, Matt Johannsen This undated photo provided by Upstairs Circus shows women attending a night of crafting wine bottle tumblers and beaded wrap bracelets at the bar in Denver. Multi-level marketing is often associated with the…

It usually starts with a message: “Hey hun!”

The sender has a friendly tone. They pepper their messages with pet names. Maybe it’s a friend, a distant cousin, or someone you haven’t spoken to since high school.

But the real reason for their message becomes clear when they finally ask: have you ever wanted to be your own boss?

That was the kind of message Anna Lange, who lives in Missouri, had been turning down for months. But then COVID-19 hit. Lange had an 11-month old baby at home. The self-described workaholic had become a stay-at-home mom after having just graduated college. She was living in a new city. She was lonely, and she wanted to help her husband by bringing home some extra cash.

She said yes. And today, Lange is still recovering from it financially and emotionally.

Read more: Why direct sales appeals to so many moms

The business opportunity she pursued was with a multi-level marketing company, also known as an MLM. She paid to buy products to sell. She paid for marketing materials. But the sales just didn't come. By the time the dust settled, Lange was about US$5,000 in debt.

And she wasn’t alone. Industry data shows participation in direct selling -- the umbrella term for the sales industry that includes MLMs -- grew by 20 per cent in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

“I saw a lot of recruitment posts, ‘because it's COVID, people are working from home,’ they're like, ‘now's the perfect time to join in because we're going to have this boom,’” Lange said.

“They told me when I signed up, ‘you can just sell the products and you will be able to make a full-time income doing that.’”

Video: Younger consumers falling victim to gift card scams

But despite the promises made to people like Lange, more than 80 per cent of participants in the direct selling industry make less than 10 per cent of their household income from this work.

“Realistically, I would say that probably five per cent or less of the people doing direct selling in Canada make a full-time wage or something near that,” Peter Maddox, the president of the Direct Sellers Association of Canada – the industry group representing MLMs – told Global News in an interview.

On top of that, “less than one (per cent) of MLM participants profit,” according to a paper published on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission website in 2011.

It’s a lesson Lange learned the hard way.

“I fell on my face big time,” she said.

It all started with the door-to-door salesman.

Often portrayed on TV as a slick, persistent man who won’t take no for an answer, these individual sellers would march up customers’ porches and try to sell them a product.

That’s what direct selling is -- it’s a business model where, instead of placing a product on store shelves, individual "consultants" hawk a brand to their family, friends and community.

It has a long history. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, women would hold Tupperware parties. They’d pass around the plastic containers in the comfort of their living rooms in the hopes of making a buck.

But in an MLM model, the host of that kind of party isn’t just selling the product -- they’re trying to recruit an army of others to sell the goods, too. The recruiter, commonly called the “upline” gets a percentage of any sales the recruit, or the “downline,” makes.

As laws changed and society moved online, these salespeople did too. Selfies and product pictures posted on Instagram overtook these living room sales parties. Salesmen and women who might once have knocked at your door now slide into your direct messages on social media.

But their goal remains the same: sell the product and recruit a sales team. Push your sales team to recruit a sales team of their own. Rinse. Repeat. Theoretically, a recruiter could make limitless commissions from their downline of sellers.

If this sounds like a pyramid scheme, it’s because the two business models are very similar -- but with one important difference: pyramid schemes have no real product and are illegal.

MLMs are legal because the focus is on the real, tangible products -- even if the sellers can beef up their earnings by recruiting more sellers.

Much like Lange, Lillian Cariaga was feeling isolated in her Mississauga, Ont., home when she received the message from a friend in June of 2020.

“It just felt nice to reconnect with someone outside of my household,” Cariaga said.

The friend mentioned she had been exploring a new business opportunity. She was working from home.

Eventually, Cariaga, a single mother at the time, opened up about her financial struggles.

“That's where the hook was,” Cariaga said.

The friend went all-in. She told Cariaga how much money she had made in her first few months with the company. The opportunity, she said, had “changed her life.”

Eventually, the friend invited Cariaga onto a Zoom call with other moms who were part of the MLM. That’s when Cariaga caved.

“It just felt nice to be part of a community of moms who have similar goals,” she said. “The good feeling outweighed the red flags.”

There were quite a few red flags, according to Cariaga. She said there was a major focus on recruiting, rather than selling. She was also told to cut off unsupportive friends and family. After six months with the company, Cariaga was left to clean up the financial and physical mess she feels it may have caused.

Cariaga had been using the hair products she was selling, and one day, her partner pointed out she had a bald spot.

She was also diagnosed with an autoimmune disease that Cariaga said may have been the source of the hair loss.

Still, when she raised the hair loss with her upline – the person who recruited her — Cariaga was “appalled” by the reaction.

“I showed her a picture ... and said, ‘my hair wasn't like this when I started using this, girl.’ And then she said, ‘well, have you been using it consistently and correctly?’” Cariaga said.

“There was no empathy in it.”

Cariaga had also put one of her kids in daycare so she could focus on her MLM work. But she quickly realized she had miscalculated the cost of the daycare. That expense piled on to the debt she was already accumulating from working with the MLM.

“We racked up a few thousand on that, too, so I had to pick up shifts,” Cariaga said. “I was working like five days a week overnight, running on two to three hours of sleep.”

She left the MLM, but the climb back to financial stability was proving steep.

Ultimately, the stress and the lack of sleep took their toll.

"My health got affected. I was hospitalized for blood pressure issues,” she said.

Cariaga said the tactics used to get her to join in the first place were "almost predatory." That became even more clear to her when she was being trained to turn around and recruit more members herself.

"There was an emphasis in the calls, in the training, to emotionally connect – to emotionally connect and see where their pain points are," Cariaga said.

"It's all about building relationships, finding out what the pain points are, and then hooking into those pain points."

Read more: Ontario salesman claims Amway product will filter COVID-19 virus

Lange said she was pressured to use similar tactics.

"My upline was going through a miscarriage and she was like, 'oh, we know this is really hard, but it's bringing me people who see my story and they want to join me,'" she said.

"And I'm like, I don't want anyone to join me because of that. That's not something I want to be profiting off of."

Her team also suggested she use her mental health issues to reach potential recruits.

"They told me .. .you could reach so many women by the fact you had postpartum depression," Lange said.

Maddox said in a statement that the industry association does not support these kinds of tactics.

"Any statements made by independent sales consultants associated with DSA Canada member companies, which are considered to be deceptive or unethical, go entirely against what the companies commit to and stand for," he said in a statement.

"DSA Canada member companies have comprehensive processes in place to deal with concerns from consumers and independent sales consultants, and they invite people impacted to contact them directly."

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic became fertile ground for recruiters looking to grow their downline. Both Lange and Cariaga joined their MLMs during the pandemic, in part due to the feeling of isolation and a desire to find a community.

They weren't alone.

As the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered businesses and forced many Canadians out of work, retail sales from direct selling grew by 26 per cent, according to the Direct Selling Association of Canada. In 2020 alone, the number of Canadians that signed up to sell for these companies rose 20 per cent from the previous year, the association said.

MLMs tend to thrive at times when the broader economy is struggling, Maddox admitted.

"When economic indicators aren't as great, there is a little bit of a pick-up in terms of people who are active in direct selling," he said.

"Some people just sign up because they want to get discounts on the product ... but the people who do have signed up with the intent of sales ... that definitely, that does go up at that point."

Lange said her husband was able to work from home during the pandemic, but she felt "super guilty" after leaving the MLM, because she spent the U.S. stimulus checks on the business.

"Any sort of sale that I made went back into the business. It was buying marketing materials. It was buying samples for people who wanted to try the product," she said.

"It really took a hit to our finances."

Lange and her husband had plans to buy a house before she joined the MLM.

"Obviously, that didn't happen because of the housing market. But like, we can't even get an apartment right now because we're still paying off credit card debt from my time with the company," she said.

"And that's really hard. And I feel really guilty about that."

In Canada, there are laws in place to protect sellers like Lange and Cariaga.

The recruiter can’t force the seller to buy more product -- product the recruiter makes a commission from -- than they could possibly ever sell. They also have to have a reasonable “buy-back guarantee” or a refund policy, so you can send back your extra product if you ever leave the gig.

Recruiters also can’t misrepresent how much money there is to be made.

But with so many individual sellers sending so many direct messages to so many people, Maddox acknowledged that it can be a heavy lift to ensure everyone is complying.

"Honestly, it keeps our member companies up at night," Maddox said. "I've visited some of our member companies, most of them are based in the U.S. ... They'll have a whole floor of their building that is the compliance department."

There are people, Maddox said, who "scrub all their consultants' social media accounts" in a bid to find out if anything is being misrepresented.

"There are strict rules in the U.S. and Canada about making income claims, about making product claims," he said.

But in the last five years, the Competition Bureau told Global News it has not laid a single charge against a multi-level marketing company.

When the Bureau does find evidence of potentially illegal activities, it said it "does not hesitate to take action."

"The Bureau is determined to crack down on those who use deceptive marketing practices to steal Canadians’ hard-earned money," said Marie-Christine Vézina, a spokesperson for the Competition Bureau.

"We strongly encourage Canadians who suspect deceptive marketing practices to file a complaint on our website."

Still, one lawyer said that while the laws are there, “in terms of actual enforcement, I see virtually none.”

Toronto-based lawyer Steve Szentesi, who specializes in competition, antitrust and advertising law, used to regularly advise MLM companies about the legal framework for setting up in Canada. He did that work for more than a decade.

"I have not seen a significant appetite for compliance with Canadian laws over the last 10 years," he said.

Video: New warning about old pyramid scheme

Part of the problem, according to Szentesi, is that there are both federal and provincial laws that companies and direct sellers have to abide by -- and many of these laws are "pretty opaque and highly factual."

Provincial and territorial laws, Szentesi said, largely lay out obligations for the individual direct sellers. The broader MLM companies, however, have to comply with both those provincial and federal laws.

"The main obstacle I have found has just been – for sellers and operators and even the courts, in some cases, and the enforcers – to distinguish between legal and illegal," he said.

"If consumers are thinking about joining an MLM plan and have some concerns, they should get competent legal advice."

Lange remembers how much the tone shifted in the messages she received from her MLM colleagues after she made it clear she wanted to leave.

When she joined, she said, they told her she could work "as little or as much as you want" without needing to sign a contract.

"But when you leave, it's 'you're not working hard enough. You didn't do what I told you to. You're not coachable.' And the tables get turned so quickly when you are not putting the dollar signs in their pockets," Lange said.

And while Lange didn't form a tight-knit bond with the team that promised her community when she felt isolated -- most of them lived out of town -- she was still iced out by them after leaving.

Video: ‘Cancel Culture’ may not be a new phenomenon, Trent University experts say

"They all unfollowed me on Instagram. They all unfriended me on Facebook," she said. "Except for the main upline, she's the one who hasn't, but I think it's because our husbands are friends."

Read more: Scammers have never had a more target-rich environment amid coronavirus pandemic: experts

Cariaga had a similar experience. Her MLM team had held training about how to handle unsupportive friends and family, and one instructor said she stopped seeing her best friend of almost 10 years because of the MLM.

Cariaga said she had come close to cutting off her best friend, too, who raised concerns about her new line of work. That was a red flag, she said.

Now she doesn't really talk to anyone from the MLM.

"I felt like I lost that drive that I had, the connection with people that were outside of my family, just that sense of direction," she said, "because that vision that I had of building something for my family – it was gone."

On top of that, she said, she "felt very ashamed" about getting involved with the MLM.

"I was beating myself up," Cariaga said.

But after speaking to the best friend she almost lost and finding an online community of others who had left MLMs, she found a new community that helped her cope.

"I thought, 'OK, I'm not alone in this whole recovery,'" she said.

As Cariaga looks to the future and tries to heal the mental and financial wounds from her time spent with an MLM, she has a message for anyone who is thinking of joining one.

"Be very careful. Don't fall in too deep, if you do decide to go," she said.

"And the moment you start to feel like your family is turning on you, remember who loved you first."

Hungarian LGBT activist among Time's 100 most influential

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — An academic and LGBT activist in Hungary is among the word's 100 most influential people, according to Time magazine, for her work on a children's book that set in motion a debate over human rights in the Central European country

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

“It’s an honor. Obviously, it feels really rewarding to be one of these amazing 100 people,” Dorottya Redai, a researcher at the CEU Democracy Institute in Budapest and activist with the Labrisz Lesbian Association, told The Associated Press.

The magazine included Redai on its annual TIME100 list last month to honor her efforts to advance LGBT rights in Hungary, where recent moves by the country's right-wing government have been blasted as an attack on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

At the center of Redai's recent work was her spearheading the publication of “Meseorszag Mindenkie” ("Fairyland is for Everyone"), a children's book that retells classic fairytales. The book features disabled children, Roma people, LGBT protagonists and members of other minority groups as characters.

According to Redai, who helped coordinate and recruit the 17 authors who contributed tales, the book was intended to “address social issues in ways that are digestible for younger children,” and to provide parents and teachers with a tool for discussing difficult topics like child neglect, the death of a parent, adoption and poverty.

But its publication sparked a backlash in Hungary. A week after “Fairyland is for Everyone" came out, a politician from a far-right party tore pages out of a copy and put them through a paper shredder, calling the book “homosexual propaganda.”

Prime Minister Viktor Orban said of the book in a radio interview that Hungary is a “tolerant and patient” country concerning LGBT people, but that there is a “red line: leave our children alone.”

“It was really like a tsunami of media and politicians saying really unimaginable things about how we corrupt children,” Redai said. “The book became immediately branded as an LGBT book, which it really isn’t.”

The uproar also made the book a bestseller in Hungary, Redai said, and led to international publishers seeking to release editions in numerous other languages.

Still, the travails in Hungary were not over. In January, a government office in Budapest ordered the book's publisher to place a disclaimer on titles that “display patterns of behavior that differ from traditional gender roles.”

Then in June, Hungary's parliament passed a law that prohibits the “depiction or promotion” of homosexuality and sex reassignment in materials accessible to minors under 18.

That law — along with newer regulations passed in August — means that “Fairyland is for Everyone” must appear on store shelves in opaque packaging and can't be sold within 200 meters (650 feet) of a school or church.

Last month, a mayor in a small town near Budapest ordered the book's removal from a local library, citing the controversial regulations.

Redai's efforts to publish and defend the collection of tales make her a “symbol of courage” in a “hostile societal environment,” Terry Reintke, a German member of the European Union parliament and a co-president of its LGBTI Intergroup, wrote in the TIME100 issue.

“This work shows so beautifully how colorful life is. It makes young people believe that - no matter who you are - there is a fairy tale waiting for you that is your life,” Reintke wrote.

Redai said she hopes her placement on the magazine's list "gives encouragement to LGBT people who are not necessarily activists, to say, ‘You are not alone, the whole world is watching you, so you should hold on.’”

Justin Spike, The Associated Press

CANADIAN Senator accused of being China's 'mouthpiece' worries about rise of anti-Asian racism

OTTAWA — Last June, 33 Canadian senators voted to defeat a motion decrying China's treatment of Uyghur Muslims as a genocide.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

While they all faced criticism from some quarters, only one — Sen. Yuen Pau Woo, leader of the Independent Senators Group — seems to have been singled out as an alleged stooge of China's communist regime, told to resign and "go home."

Last week, Woo got a similar reaction when he tweeted about the release of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, the two Canadians arbitrarily detained by China for nearly three years in retaliation for Canada's arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou at the behest of the United States.

Woo tweeted that it was a "happy day" for the families of the Canadian men who became known around the world as the "two Michaels" and for Meng, who was simultaneously released and allowed to return to China. He urged Canadians to ponder the lessons learned from the affair.

He attached a link to an op-ed published in the Toronto Star that cited a former U.S. ambassador, Chas Freeman, saying that the "U.S., assisted by Canada, took Meng hostage in the first place as part of its trade-and-technology war with China."

That earned Woo a scathing rebuke from Chris Alexander, a former diplomat and one-time immigration minister in Stephen Harper's Conservative government.

DURING THE 2015 ELECTION ALEXANDER PROMOTED AN ISLAMOPHOBIC BARBARISM CULT HOTLINE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS..THAT DIED FAST DURING THE CAMPAIGN

Chris Alexander: The Conservatives' golden boy falls

https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/chris-alexanders-fall-a-golden...

2015-10-20 · Chris Alexander's very bad day: A golden boy falls, but for how long? Right now he represents Conservative failures. One day he may run the party. By Cathy Gulli October 20, 2015. Chris Alexander ...

• Estimated Reading Time: 6 mins

"By claiming Meng was 'taken hostage' @yuenpauwoo has violated his oath as a Canadian senator and should resign," Alexander tweeted.

"Mouthpieces for foreign propaganda … should have no place in Canada's Parliament," he added.

Alexander's tweet was shared by others who variously referred to Woo as "pond scum" and a "Chinese commie f---" who should be "sent back to China along with Meng."

China has maintained from the outset that Meng's arrest was politically motivated. Canada and the U.S. have strenuously denied it but plenty of American and Canadian experts nevertheless share Freeman's view that she was a political bargaining chip.

That view was fuelled by former U.S. president Donald Trump, who was attempting to negotiate a trade deal with China at the time of Meng's arrest and who said he'd intervene in her extradition case "if I think it's good for what will be the largest trade deal ever made."

John Manley, a former Liberal deputy prime minister and Canadian foreign affairs minister, said at the time that Trump's comments had "given Ms. Meng's lawyers quite a good reason to go to the court and say, 'This is not an extradition matter. This is actually leverage in a trade dispute and it's got nothing to do with Canada.'"

Woo notes that Manley and others who have echoed similar views have not been denounced as mouthpieces for China.

That's a specific kind of opprobrium, he believes, meant to stigmatize people of Chinese descent and he's worried about where the rising tide of anti-Asian sentiment in Canada could lead.

"I am Exhibit A, if you will, only because I have a bit of public profile," Woo said in an interview.

"But there are many others in the community who do not have my protections and are genuinely fearful of the increasing typecasting and stigmatization that's going on."

Woo was actually born in Malaysia and raised in Singapore before coming to Canada at age 16.

He has been accused of being unabashedly "Beijing friendly," a mouthpiece and lobbyist for the Communist Party of China, even though he points out he's "three generations removed from the mainland (China)."

He fears recent immigrants from China, who still have connections to family there, are considered even more suspect and are less able to defend themselves.

Woo points to reports suggesting that Chinese Canadians might have been influenced by or acting on the behest of China when they voted in last month's federal election, resulting in the defeat of several Conservative incumbents who had advocated a hardline stance against Beijing.

"This is really a slanderous and dangerous way of thinking because it makes assumptions about Chinese Canadians … who have views that may not be mainstream (and) it presumes that they are not able to think for themselves," he said.

"The accusation that they are foreign agents or stooges of the Chinese government is a very, very serious allegation and, of course, hearkens back to the days of McCarthyism when careers were ruined and lives were lost and we have to be very careful not to go back to that place."

One of those defeated Conservative MPs, Kenny Chiu, who lost his B.C. riding to a Liberal in the Sept. 20 election, told The Canadian Press that during the campaign there were WeChat posts he says contained false information about the Conservatives and allegations a private member's bill he tabled would discriminate against Chinese Canadians. But he also said his party could have done a better job speaking directly to members of that community.

When Woo spoke against the motion labelling China's treatment of Uyghurs a genocide last June, he argued that Canada, given its history of forcing Indigenous children to attend residential schools, should not try to lecture China from a position of moral superiority on human rights.

Rather, he said, Canada should appeal to its Chinese "friends" not to make the same morally wrong and societally damaging mistake of trying to repress and forcibly assimilate a minority group.

Sen. Peter Harder, the former government representative in the Senate who now sits with the Progressive Senate Group, made a similar argument.

Sen. Peter Boehm, a former senior Global Affairs bureaucrat and Sherpa for prime ministers at G7 summits, argued that the motion's "few paragraphs of what passes for megaphone diplomacy" would accomplish nothing, other than to anger China and possibly hurt attempts to win the release of Kovrig and Spavor.

Boehm, a member of the Independent Senators Group, said in an interview that both he and Harder got "a few brickbats" for their speeches, including from his former colleague, Alexander.

Alexander could not be reached for comment in time for publication.

"What I was getting was 'You're an experienced diplomat, you should know better, shame on you.' That was basically what I was getting from Chris Alexander and from others who consider themselves experts," Boehm said.

But unlike Woo, he said: "No one has tweeted or commented that I should go back to China."

Boehm agrees with Woo that "there's a correlation here with anti-Asian racism on the rise in Canada … and some of this is permeating into the utterances or what various Canadians who should know better are putting on their social media feeds.

"I think it's unfair and demeaning."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2021.

Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press

BJP HINDUTVA NATIONALISM IS FACISM

India’s Christians living in fear as claims of ‘forced conversions’ swirl
Hannah Ellis-Petersen in Chhattisgarh 

It was a stifling July afternoon when the crowd moved into the small district of Lakholi, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, and gathered outside the house of Tamesh War Sahu. Sahu, a 55-year-old volunteer with the Home Guard who had begun following Christianity more than five years previously, had never before had issues with his neighbours.

© Provided by The Guardian Photograph: Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images

 An Indian church at Christmas. The Christian community in Chhattisgarh numbers about 500,000, according to the last census.

But now, more than 100 people had descended from surrounding villages and were shouting Hindu nationalist slogans outside his front door. Sahu’s son Moses, who had come out to investigate the noise, was beaten by the mob, who then charged inside.

As the men entered the house, they shouted death threats at Sahu’s wife and began tearing posters bearing Bible quotes down from the walls. Bibles were seized from the shelves and brought outside where they were set alight, doused in water and the ashes thrown in the gutter. “We will teach you a lesson,” some people were heard to shout. “This is what you get for forcing people into Christianity.”

Sahu’s family was not the only one attacked that day. Four other local Christian households were also targeted by mobs, led by the Hindu nationalist vigilante group Bajrang Dal, known for their aggressive and hardline approach to “defending” Hinduism. “We had never had any issue before but now our local community has turned against us,” said Sahu.

Since the beginning of the year there have been similar attacks across Chhattisgarh, already the Indian state with the second highest number of incidents against Christians. In some villages, Christian churches have been vandalised, in others pastors have been beaten or abused. Congregations have been broken up by mobs and believers hospitalised with injuries. The police, too, stand accused – of making threats to Christians, hauling them into police stations and carrying out raids on Sunday prayer services.

The attacks have coincided with renewed attention on a longstanding claim from rightwing Hindu groups: that a string of forced conversions are taking place in Chhattisgarh. Such claims have been made by senior figures in the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which governs India but is in opposition in the state government, as well as rightwing vigilante groups.

Speeches, rallies and press statements in recent months have openly attacked Christian pastors and activists for allegedly converting, through force and coercion, tens of thousands of people from tribal communities and poor, lower-caste Hindu families. They allege they are lured into churches by proselytising pastors offering cash payments, free medical assistance and foreign trips, funded by foreign donors.

Dozens of “anti-conversion” rallies have been held across Chhattisgarh in the past month, as well as direct violent action On 29 August, 100 people, led by members of another rightwing group, Hindu Sara Ja Jagtar Samiti, tried to attack three churches in the district of Kawardha.

In the first church, in Polmi village, Pastor Moses Logan was conducting the Sunday prayer service when the mob burst in. Logan’s wife and mother were badly beaten, the church curtains torn down, musical instruments smashed and furniture destroyed. Logan’s clothes were ripped as the mob grabbed him and marched him to the local police station, where they attempted unsuccessfully to get a police report filed against him for conducting forced conversions.

As Logan’s car left the police station that night with an escort for safety, it was set upon by people waiting outside, who threw boulders and sticks and smashed the windscreens.

Hindu nationalist groups have attempted to file dozens of similar police reports against members of the Christian community, and in multiple incidents mobs have charged into police stations to try to force the arrest of pastors.

Senior BJP figures told the Guardian that forced conversions were now at the forefront of their agenda in the state.

“We are loudly challenging this issue because it will change the demography of the country and is a threat to law and order,” said Brijmohan Agrawal, a BJP former minister in Chhattisgarh who has spoken at several anti-conversion rallies. “These conversions are foreign funded and so those are who are lured in and converted will also be turned against India. Their patriotism then comes under question.”

Yet the Christian community in Chhattisgarh, which according to the last census numbers about 500,000, denies all charges of forced conversion as false and unfounded. Those who spoke to the Guardian said they had no outside funding and were involved in no active proselytising, as per the state law, though Bibles are often distributed in rural villages and slum areas.

Many members of tribal communities and lower-caste families in Chhattisgarh do attend church services, and they are referred to as “believers” rather than Christians. However, most spoke of first coming to church of their own accord seeking community or on the recommendation of a friend or neighbour. While dozens of complaints have been recently made to police against pastors, no official police reports have been filed nor any arrests made, owing to lack of evidence.

Chhattisgarh is one of nine Indian states that already have draconian laws regulating religious conversions. Those wishing to change their religion are required to gain permission from the local district magistrate, and anyone carrying out forced conversions can be punished with a three-year jail sentence.

Instead, many in the Christian community allege that they have become a political target, saying that the conversion claims has been revived by the BJP as a way to tarnish the reputation of the Congress party, which rules the Chhattisgarh state government.

“There have never been any tensions between Hindus and Christians before, this is a completely political issue,” said Obed Das, a pastor in Durg district who was recently threatened after he was accused of forced conversions.

Amit Sahu, the state president of the BJP youth wing in Chhattisgarh, claimed that tens of thousands of pastors and Christian activists were involved in forced conversions and said the plan was to catch them and “fill the jails”.

He said that across the state, BJP workers were being instructed to make lists of Christians they believed were converting tribal and Hindu families and keep them under surveillance. “When our party workers are aggressive, then no one can save these pastors,” said Sahu. “We will do anything to save our religion, to save our culture, to save our country.”

The impact on the Christian community has been palpable. Many spoke of being demonised in their own communities and living in fear or in hiding. Those who spoke to the Guardian agreed to do so only in remote locations so they would not be seen. Pastor Ashish Nag, of Good Shepherd church in Bagbahara, who was among those recently reported to the police for forced conversions, said he had been told he was now a target.

“I am worried and scared,” said Nag. “I have been told I’m under surveillance from these Hindu groups, and they report on my movements and who comes to my church.”

Harish Sahu, 43, a pastor at New Life Fellowship ministry church in Bhatagon, Raipur, had a police report filed against seven members of Bajrang Dal who had attacked him in a police station, and two arrests have been made, but police are now stationed outside his church during Sunday service for protection.

There are signs that the claims of forced conversions are now being taken up by the BJP and rightwing groups in other states such as Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh.

Some of the threats in Chhattisgarh have come directly from the BJP rather than fringe groups. In early August, Pastor Benu Mehananda, of Church of God church in Shamma, Raipur, was accused by two local BJP leaders of carrying out forced conversions. Standing outside his church, they told him if he did not leave the community he would end up like Graham Staines, the Australian Christian missionary who was burned alive with his two sons by members of Bajrang Dal in neighbouring state of Odisha in 1999.

“The BJP has no issue to attract voters here so they are using conversion to polarise the voters down religious lines,” said Mehanada. “The impact for Christians is terrifying. Some families have stopped coming to my services.”

Rishi Mishra, the state coordinator for Bajrang Dal, said: “Religious conversion is the biggest problem in Chhattisgarh and the top of our agenda. Until recently, this problem was limited to rural areas and the tribal belt. But of late they have started their work of religious conversions in urban areas, in an open and fearless manner.”

Mishra claimed that even when they presented police with evidence and witnesses of forced conversions, the police refused to file cases due to pressure from the ruling Congress government. He said Bajrang Dal was also working to convert many of the believers back to Hinduism, and that they had succeeded with 15 families so far.

“Bajrang Dal was established for dealing with things in an aggressive manner,” he said. “Whoever attempts to convert Hindus should be in fear of Bajrang Dal. Bajrang Dal was created for this very purpose. “

Mahendra Chhabda, a member of the ruling Congress government in Chhattisgarh and chair of the minority commission, said forced conversions were not a problem in the state. However, he said he had had a meeting recently with leaders of the Christian community and advised them to stop distributing Bibles to try to ease tensions.

“The BJP and other groups are talking about forced conversions but I have never been presented with evidence for a single case where a person says they have been forced to convert or given benefits to come to church,” said Chhabda. “All over India the BJP have been targeting Muslims to win votes. Now in Chhattisgarh they have decided to come for the Christians.”

Additional reporting by Mohammad Sartaj Alam

SEE LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for HINDUISM IS FASCISM 

MUTUAL AID

Elephants will cooperate to acquire food -- assuming there's enough

Cooperation lies at the beating heart of most societies. For Asian elephants in a recent study, a bit of teamwork helped them access delicious bananas. A new study examines elephants' ability to work together for a reward and the circumstances that limit their capacity for cooperation.

Li-Li Li, a doctoral student at the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said she chose to work on elephants because she had always longed to work with the biggest animals on the planet. Li and her colleagues also wanted to understand what motivated cooperation. Elephants, evolutionarily distant from primates, were a perfect vehicle for studying how cooperation could crop up in distant species.

Back in 2011, a group of researchers published a paper showing that Asian elephants in Thailand could cooperate to obtain food rewards on an out-of-reach table, using a rope they had to pull at the same time. They would wait for partners before pulling, showing they understood how cooperation worked and that their partner's behavior mattered for success. But in that first study, the researchers paired the elephants, so they couldn't choose their partners.

© STOCK IMAGE/Cheryl Ramalho/Shutterstock

 2 adult female Asian elephants carouse together in a field in rural northern Thailand in an undated photo.

In the new study, published Sept. 28 in the journal PLoS Biology, the team of international researchers went further, offering a group of nine elephants free access to the testing table -- handing the decision of picking teammates and figuring out how to cooperate to the animals themselves. They found that cooperation was maintained at a high rate (more than 80% of the time) even in the face of competition, and only broke down when the food on the table was limited and could easily be monopolized.

The complexity of cooperation, particularly in an experimental task, is rarely investigated outside primates or birds, the researchers said. The elephants in the study were part of the Myaing Hay Wun Elephant Camp in Taikkyi, Yangon, Myanmar, all owned by the Myanma Timber Enterprise. When logging was banned in Myanmar in 2016 these creatures retired from their work and came under the care of an elephant handler who works full time bathing and checking up on each elephant. The surrounding forests are also home to wild elephants. The retired, semi-wild elephants sometimes intermingle with them.

The retired elephants were subjected to a classic teamwork task, which was first developed in the 1930s and has been tested on species from otters to macaques. The elephants had to pull two ends of the same rope to access trays of bananas or tamarind balls.

© Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images, FILE 

Asian elephants eat in a forest at the Asian Elephant Breeding and Rescue Centre in Xishuangbanna in southwest China's Yunnan province, July 20, 2021.

In the first part of the study, there were two trays, so both partners could feast. But in the second part of the study, there was only one tray of tasty treats -- so one partner could monopolize the food. That's when the competition became more fierce, more intense, Li says, with more fights and more monopolizing of the treats. The allegiance broke down quickly from there.

Similar breakdowns in cooperation happen in other species, including humans, when benefits are reduced, said Alicia Melis, an experimental psychologist at the University College London in the United Kingdom who was not involved in the study. She pointed out that there are several different kinds of cooperation: One type is where both parties benefit, as in this teamwork exercise, and another, more altruistic, type is where one side benefits immediately and the other is just helping out for potential future benefits.

Melis has worked on similar experiments in bonobos and chimpanzees, and she said the elephant results aren't terribly surprising: It could be that some higher-ranking individuals are monopolizing the food intake.MORE: Whitest white paint could help fight climate change

The problem of cooperation is cheaters, she said. Recognizing others' contributions to the collaborative effort by rewarding them with part of the spoils is key to keeping collaborators motivated long term -- and something that develops in children around age 3. Cheaters, those who plunder the spoils without collaborating, undermine this delicate balance.

"Other species, like the elephants here, or chimps in our studies, seem a bit more constrained in this regard," Melis said. "The more dominant individuals monopolize the food, not rewarding partners, which leads to cooperation breaking down. However, if the monopolization potential is reduced by placing the food rewards far apart, they successfully coordinate their actions."

Li said she learned that elephants have individual personalities and temperaments -- and their own ways of dealing with others. Knowledge of the individuals and their personalities can help conservation of Asian elephants in China, where they number only around 300, and where she is evaluating the protected areas. Li said that in developing strategies to protect them, it helps to know if a group of elephants is a family or a loose herd of bachelor males. "Different elephants have different kinds of culture, as well as personalities."

Inside Science is an editorially independent nonprofit print, electronic and video journalism news service owned and operated by the American Institute of Physics.

Mutual aid: Kropotkin's theory of human capacity | ROAR ...

https://roarmag.org/essays/kropotkin-mutual-aid

2021-02-08 · In Mutual Aid Kropotkin used his “anarchized” evolutionary theory to attack advocates of state order or “subordination.” While this included laissez-faire liberals and

GRIMES TROLLS PAPARAZZI AS A MARXIST


Grimes

It looks like Grimes has fooled photographers following her around after her high-profile split from SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

On Saturday (Oct. 2), the “Violence” singer admitted on Twitter that she recently trolled paparazzi by staging a photo of herself reading Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto while sitting on a sidewalk in downtown Los Angeles.

“Paparazzi followed me 2 a shoot so I tried 2 think what I could do that would yield the most onion-ish possible headline and it worked haha,” Grimes captioned a screenshot of a New York Post article about the images in question.

Grimes added on Instagram that she’s still living with Musk and clarified that she’s “not a communist.” The art-pop singer also issued a playful warning to other celebrity photographers: “If paparazzi keep chasing me perhaps I will try to think of more ways to meme — suggestions welcome!”

Her IG post garnered supportive comments from fellow musical artists like SZA, Kiesza, Lights and Jewel. “Unreal veteran move,” Lights wrote. Jewel added, “I love this so much!” And SZA said, “I mean ya look hot lol.”

Last week, Grimes released a new song titled “Love” that addresses her feelings about the heightened media scrutiny surrounding her personal life and directly called out members of the paparazzi who’ve reportedly harassed her.

“I wrote and produced this song this week in response to all the privacy invasion, bad press, online hate and harassment by paparazzis I’ve experienced this week,” she wrote on Instagram.

In late September, Musk confirmed he and Grimes had broken up after dating for three years in a statement to Page Six, and explained what their co-parenting strategies are like with their 1-year-old son, X Æ A-12.

“We are semi-separated but still love each other, see each other frequently and are on great terms,” Musk said. “It’s mostly that my work at SpaceX and Tesla requires me to be primarily in Texas or traveling overseas, and her work is primarily in L.A. She’s staying with me now and Baby X is in the adjacent room.”

Following the announcement, Grimes made headlines when she joked in a statement about “colonizing Europa [one of Jupiter’s moons] separately from Elon for the lesbian space commune.”

See Grimes’ tweet about trolling the paparazzi below.

People are flocking to Colorado for the great outdoors, but air pollution is leading to more days when residents are stuck inside

kvlamis@insider.com (Kelsey Vlamis)

© Marianne Ayala/Insider 

With mild winters, plenty of open space, and endless opportunities for outdoor recreation, it's easy to see why Colorado is one of the fastest-growing states in the US.

"We were tired of having to spend nine winter months indoors without the sun," Ashley O'Connor, who moved to Colorado from Chicago in 2015, told Insider. "We like to joke that we traded skyscrapers for mountains."

O'Connor and her husband are hardly alone. According to census data, Colorado was one of the fastest-growing states from 2010 to 2020, increasing its population by nearly 15%. Colorado real estate has also been booming for years and experienced an even greater boost during the pandemic as urbanites ditched cities for less crowded spaces.

But one of the state's biggest draws - abundant access to the outdoors - is under threat.

The air in Colorado is getting dirtier, resulting in more days where haze obscures the mountains and when public health officials say it's unsafe to be outside, let alone do something active.

"For the last three months, three out of four days were air quality alerts," Frank Flocke, a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, told Insider in mid-September. "We just had a clear day for the first time for weeks, where you could actually see the mountains."

 A hazy view of the downtown Denver skyline from Sloan Lake in Denver, Colorado on Tuesday, August 3, 2021.

Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post/Getty Images

Ozone pollution and wildfire smoke are largely responsible for obscuring the view of the Rocky Mountains, an increasingly common sight in Colorado, according to Flocke.

This summer, Colorado public health officials issued an ozone alert every day from July 5 to August 14, marking a 41-day stretch of air quality warnings. The state issued 65 ozone action day alerts from June through August, more than any year since 2016, when the current ozone standard was set.
'Hazy, smoky mountain ranges have become a bit of a regular sight'

For longtime residents, the change in air quality, and the impact it's had on their outdoor life, is evident.

"Honestly, it's heartbreaking," Susanna Joy, who has lived in Colorado most of her life, told Insider. "Those of us that are from here have noticed a really big shift in our ability to enjoy life how we grew up."

Joy said she grew up outdoors and remains an avid hiker who loves camping and being outside as much as possible. She said air quality and wildfires weren't even on her radar growing up, a stark difference from recent years.

"I never thought about air quality when I was planning outdoor adventures and now it's something that we look at consistently," Joy said.


Now, she gets an email every morning from a local newspaper that tells her the air quality for that day, so she can decide if she even wants to think about doing something outside.

"There's been multiple times where we're planning a 40-mile bike ride and we just don't do it because the air quality is too bad or it's too hot," she said.

Checking in on air quality has become a daily part of many Coloradoans' lives. The air quality index, or AQI - a tool used by government agencies to convey to the public how safe the air is on any given day - has become as common a discussion point as which 14er, or mountain peak higher than 14,000 feet, is hardest to hike to.

Even for recent transplants, the change is palpable, according to O'Connor, who lives in the Rockies in Summit County, home to some of the state's most popular ski resorts, like Breckenridge and Keystone.

Being outside "isn't just about hobbies, it is a way of life," O'Connor said. She loves to ski, bike, take her sailboat out on the Dillon Reservoir, and hike the many trails located minutes from her home.

But the "hazy, smoky mountain ranges have become a bit of a regular sight since moving here," she said. "Not only has it affected the amount of time we are willing to spend outdoors, but how we spend it."

O'Connor said she and her husband even wake up sometimes with "red, burning, itchy eyes" and congestion due to the poor air quality.

Sun sets behind the Rocky Mountains on Sept. 10, 2021, in Colorado, where smoke from western wildfires has funneled into the region to create colorful sunsets and sunrises and trigger air quality alerts. 

David Zalubowski/Associated Press

The culprits: 'A product of our own doing'

Ozone is the primary pollutant taking a toll on Colorado's air, according to Flocke.

Colorado has some of the worst ozone pollution of anywhere in the US. In 2019, the Environmental Protection Agency reclassified the Denver area as a "serious" violator of federal air quality standards. The agency gave the state until July of this year to get the ozone pollution under control, but that deadline came and went.

Ozone is a naturally occurring and man-made gas found in Earth's atmosphere. High-altitude ozone, like that found in the ozone layer, protects the planet by absorbing UV rays from the sun. Ground-level ozone, on the other hand, is emitted by things like cars, chemical plants, and oil and gas refineries, and enters the air we breathe.

Flocke said ozone pollution is "mainly a product of our own doing," calling transportation of people and goods and the oil and gas industry the "elephants in the room" when it comes to cutting ozone emissions.

A 2019 study co-authored by Flocke found the fossil fuel and transportation sectors were the major contributors to ozone on Colorado's front range.

 In this Jan. 7, 2018, photo, traffic backs up on Interstate 70 in Colorado, a familiar scene on the main highway connecting Denver to the mountains. 

Thomas Peipert/Associated Press

The millions of recent Colorado transplants aren't helping the problem, as the increase in population and traffic only causes those emissions to rise.

Breathing ozone can lead to serious health effects, according to the EPA, including coughing, throat irritation, chest pain, and shortness of breath, as well as longer-lasting issues like declining lung function. There is also strong evidence linking higher ozone levels with asthma attacks, increased hospitalizations, and increased mortality.

Sensitive groups, including older people, children, and people with respiratory issues are especially at risk, but high ozone levels can trigger symptoms even for people who aren't at higher risk.
'The fires make everything worse'

Those impacts are only magnified by the other pollutant permeating Colorado's air: fine particulate matter from wildfires. Particulate matter, or PM pollution, refers to tiny particles found in the air that are so small they can be inhaled when breathing.

"The fires make everything worse because they add the particles to the ozone," Flocke said.

The particles emitted from wildfires can get deep into the lungs and even the bloodstream, according to the EPA. Studies have linked PM to premature deaths in people with heart or lung disease, heart attacks, decreased lung function, and respiratory problems.

Even in years when Colorado has a relatively mild wildfire season, like this year, the state still deals with dangerous levels of PM blown in from other parts of the West. This year, fires in California and Oregon brought hazy, smoky days all the way to Colorado.

Smoke from the Grizzly Creek Fire blankets Glenwood Canyon and Interstate 70 on August 26, 2020 in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. 

Alex Edelman/Getty Images

"They made a lot of the days multiple pollutant warning days, where you had ozone exceed the standard and particulates exceed the standard at the same time," Flocke said. "For people that are sensitive to pollution, that really makes it hard to be outside and enjoy life."

Flocke said the issue is worsened by the fact that the meteorological conditions that prevent the local ozone from being flushed out by cold fronts are the same conditions that bring in the wildfire smoke from the coast.
'If we tackle the climate problem, we will slowly also tackle our air quality problem'

The impact of wildfires on Colorado's air quality is unlikely to let up so long as the climate continues to warm, according to Russ Schumacher, director of the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University.

"Many studies, going back 10 to 15 years, have projected that the amount of acreage burned of wildfires in the West was going to increase as the climate warms," he told Insider. "We're starting to see that now."

Schumacher said the wildfires aren't solely due to climate change, but that climate change and the related droughts and heatwaves have set the stage for these big fires.

Climate change and air quality are "intimately connected," according to Flocke: "Our lifestyle causes emissions of CO2, which exacerbate climate change, which exacerbate the fires, which exacerbate our air quality problems."

 Denver Skyline as seen from the Cherry Creek Dam road in Denver, Colorado on a relatively clear day in 2015. 

Helen H. Richardson/ The Denver Post/Getty Images

But, he said, both crises could be addressed in Colorado with many of the same actions. Enacting tighter regulations on oil and gas emissions, improving public transportation, and disincentivizing driving would all help cut greenhouse gas emissions and other air pollutants.

"If we tackle the climate problem, we will slowly also tackle our air quality problem," Flocke said, adding that the solutions are "clear" but that there needs to be political will to actually implement them.

He said the increase in awareness about air quality, partly driven by the wildfires and climate change, could result in a greater push for change. The many transplants moving to the state could have a positive impact on that as well.

"People move to Colorado because they have this idea that we have clean mountain air," he said. "Maybe they will be more susceptible to accept stricter regulations."

Joy echoed those sentiments, saying she's "hopeful that this isn't just how summer is now, because I enjoyed summer so much as a kid."

While she personally tries to minimize her impact on emissions, she said she's also trying to come to terms with the fact that "until we make some big changes that help us reduce the impact that we're having overall, it's not going to change. It's going to continue to amplify."

Have a news tip? Contact this reporter at kvlamis@insider.com.
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