“We want our pound of flesh”: US railroaders press for strike action after pro-company ruling by Biden’s Presidential Emergency Board

Our reporters

WSWS.ORG

Hundreds of railroaders have contacted the WSWS over the past week with their thoughts about the PEB ruling and the potential for strike action. Add your voice to theirs! Contact us by filling out the form at the bottom of this article. All comments will be kept anonymous. We will continue to publish statements from workers in the coming days.

A Norfolk Southern freight train makes it way through Homestead, Pa. on April 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

* * *

“Workers want their pound of flesh from the railroads”

The World Socialist Web Site received the following letter from an Indiana Norfolk Southern worker :

“It was supposed to be the company’s turn. For years, we’ve had concession after concession. We were told we had to take it now because profits were down and the companies were hurting, and the unions said we’d get it when profits are there. Now profits are here … but health care is going up. The carrier is getting rewarded. Premiums are uncapped, which is unprecedented. It is a slap in the face when the carrier says we’re grossly overpaid. They make $1 billion in a quarter, it’s a drop in the bucket for them. When the PEB was announced, nothing happened to railroad stocks. This was a win for the carriers.

“The PEBs always seem for the carriers. Now it’s supposed to be a more worker-friendly environment and they still rule on the carrier’s side. Railroads can’t hire because of the lifestyle. Many railroads deny personal days claiming ‘needs of service’ while eliminating a quarter of the workforce.

“If you roll over personal days, you can only cash them out but can’t use them. Some people had 100 days denied. They want you to mark sick to lose the paid day off, which makes you lose your attendance bonus. With the attendance policy, the PEB didn’t touch it. But they also said, to go back to local level since they couldn’t do it on this level. No, it’s because of the election year.

“During the pandemic we were considered Federal Subcontractors since we haul military freight. But we don’t have the same rights as Federal Subcontractors. We have paid sick days denied, unlike the 15 sick days paid we’re supposed to receive. How can the PEB go against that?

“More people will quit. Some people are waiting for the contract. [Two decades ago], you’d start out at $65,000, and now new workers now start at $52,000. Why!? You can work at other places, why would anyone work with that pay? If you’re lowest man you have no “time off,” you get the worst of it. At $52,000 no wonder they can’t hire people. Then the railroads say the $5000 bonus is helping which is a lie. In my yard there are 18- and 20-year-olds working for Norfolk Southern.

“We saw the statement from the companies on how profits come from capital investments and risk. People are making t-shirts and stickers and placing them all around the job site.

“I’m frustrated and surprised by Biden. I never trusted him; the Democrats always say they’re pro-union but side with the company.

“The higher ups in the union say they will ‘negotiate’ this. But Congress will rubber stamp this. When we talk about striking, you look at the 1800s, when it wasn’t about following the law but what was right. People are leaving and railroads say this job is not for them or they found another opportunity.

“Our phones ring every day. I've gone to work all parts of the day. We had call windows in the 2015 contract for our yard. But the NLRB shut us down even though it’s put in the pay scale and it’s a violation. But we were told, unless both sides agree to it, it’s only an option.

“This [PEB] is an attack on the middle class workers. Supposedly the Biden administration is pro-union, but not allowing us to strike even for 10 minutes. Obama even waited until the 11th hour to sign the PEB. Biden signed it on the Friday before the deadline, which surprised me. Now the people who should be talking are quiet. The unions are quiet except for [SMART-TD President] Ferguson, who was forced to say something because workers are frustrated. BLE have yet to make announcement, even Biden is silent.

“Workers are the only ones talking. BLE is maybe hanging back because they’re swamped, but honestly, they say vote blue and you’ll be taken care of. Then they called for the PEB even before the company. Next point should’ve been to strike. Why ask for a PEB? I believe it’s because of the election. Now they’re like, ‘we have s*** on our face,’ now workers are mad. With the pandemic, attendance policy, workers want a pound of flesh from the railroads.”

“I’ve lost relationships and friendships to this job”

The WSWS also continues to receive extensive comments from workers about the toll which the railroads has taken on their lives. One railroad worker from the Great Plains writes:

“I am the father of a 5-year-old boy. I have been working for the railroad for 4 plus years now. The job is okay I can’t complain about working hard for my paycheck. But with this job I’ve lost relationships and friendships, not to mention if I want to spend time with my son and watch him grow up I have to sacrifice sleep and any overtime they are offering.

“I’ve moved twice and can’t even afford to save money for a house. I can barely afford a 2-bedroom apartment in not even an okay area. Every year rent and bills go up with no raise. I’m forced to cut from my savings and can’t even afford to go on vacation. Getting 2 weeks vacation with no personal time, I am forced to use my vacation days for doctors and school appointments.

“Giving us a $1,000 yearly bonus is a slap in the face that will just be taken when they decide to increase our insurance because of the no cap they proposed. There are a lot of people leaving and they are trying to hire more people because of it. Now posting jobs that give hiring bonuses that are insane like $12,500 for someone to work in my craft. How about reward your people that you have that are staying with a fair wage and benefits and PTO?

“It’s just ass-backwards, making me feel like I need to go elsewhere and waste the time I have given them. It’s all about greed and the rich just getting richer and us blue collar workers getting the leftovers. Soon there will be no middle class and I do believe that’s what they want.”

“It is time to fight back and make a stand the companies and the government”

A railroader from the East Coast wrote: “Disgusted is not the word! I have been with the railroad for almost 12 years and during that time it has progressively gotten worse year over year. We are treated like the lowest of the low and are basically told to shut up and just do what we say! We are told to break FRA [Federal Railroad Administration] rules on a daily basis but if we make the smallest infraction, we are in deep trouble. We average working between 65-70 hours per week. So whoever lied and said that we average 32 hours per week has no clue! I never get to see my family because of this lifestyle.

“As for this proposal. It is junk. I say strike! It is time to fight back and make a stand against these draconian companies and government that think we are stupid. I honestly believe they are all in cahoots. Company, Union, and Government. I am over it all! If something doesn’t change, I will be another statistic and find another line of work!”

A Norfolk Southern worker told us what the ultimate goal of the railroads is: “Cindy Sanborn with Norfolk Southern and other railroad executives want and desire more automation which that will inevitably mean more market share profitability. American railroads do not appreciate any of their workers. If a contract employee went into management, he or she would still be undervalued and still be a no contributor.

“The only reason to have a manned freight train is for liability purposes so rail executives will not have to face disciplinary action if a train derails. To avoid this, Automation is what rail executives want. That means no labor disputes, no pay raises, no health care, and no arbitration. That’s what American corporations want. They despise workers.”

Another railroader sent us the following: “The Railway Labor Act is illegal and should be removed immediately.

“The IBEW issued a statement over the weekend that the PEB gave us 72 of what we were asking for. They must be doing corporate math. It doesn’t take a scholar to figure out we were screwed once again. They are never willing to put up a fight but always willing to cave at the first offer. I can’t remember a contract that I would consider was fair from this company.

“Our brothers and sisters of the IBEW need to band together and go forward with a STRIKE ACTION! All unions need to continue to stand strong as one. If a WILDCAT is necessary, so be it, a nationwide walkout, absolutely. We contribute nothing, so when we all stand together we’ll see how this goes.”

Edinburgh bin strike:  pictures showing Edinburgh 'covered in rubbish' as Capital welcomes guests from all over world

Images shared across social media by locals, Fringe performers and more shows litter mounting on the streets of Edinburgh amid an 11 day strike during the festival season.

By Stephen Mcilkenny
Monday, 22nd August 2022, 12:29 pm

Rubbish has been spilling out of overflowing bins and piling up on the streets, with city centre areas particularly badly affected given the Edinburgh festivals as cleansing workers remaining on strike.

Around 250 members of staff walked out on Thursday, with the action not scheduled to conclude until 30 August, the day following the end of the Edinburgh International and Fringe festivals.

Comedian Eleanor Morton said Edinburgh was “looking shocking” with “rubbish everywhere,” while Dougie Morgan said he was “ashamed” to be in the city.

Unions to consider revised Cosla offer as rubbish mounts on streets of Edinburgh

Addressing a tweet to the City of Edinburgh Council about the “embarrassing” state of the streets, he said: “How can you welcome visitors from all over the world with the pavements of Edinburgh strewn with rubbish. Get it sorted.!

Edinburgh has suspended waste collections and closed its recycling centres and is advising residents to store their rubbish at home.



1. The state of the streets in Edinburgh

The state of the streets in Edinburgh

Photo: National World



2. Litter around a bus stop

Rubbish has been piling up in streets around Edinburgh since the strike action began.

Photo: National World



3. Bins overflowing in Edinburgh

Comedian Eleanor Morton said Edinburgh was “looking shocking” with “rubbish everywhere,” while Dougie Morgan said he was “ashamed” to be in the city.

Photo: National World



4. Rubbish near a bus stop in Edinburgh

Cleansing workers in Edinburgh began an 11-day strike last week after turning down a pay offer from Cosla, the council umbrella organisation.

Photo: National World

Once again, Apple calls workers back to the office—once again, workers fight back

An internal petition says individual teams should set remote-work policies.

SAMUEL AXON - 8/22/2022

A photo taken onsite at Apple Park in Cupertino, California—an office complex Apple built with onsite work culture in mind.

Apple has asked its employees to spend more time in the office as pandemic restrictions continue to loosen, but it has again been met with organized resistance and an internal petition advocating for more time working from home, according to a report from the Financial Times.

A week ago, Apple once again announced a deadline for when its corporate employees should return to the office at least three days a week. This time, the date is September 5. Beginning that day, the company will require its employees to work onsite on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as one additional weekday that will be decided on a team-by-team basis.

This was not the first time Apple made such an announcement—though the previous attempt mandated Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays instead of offering one team-dependent flex day—but the company's leadership has repeatedly had to postpone the shift in light of new developments in the pandemic since first announcing a three-day plan in June 2021.

FURTHER READING Big tech companies are at war with employees over remote work

Presently, many Apple employees are going into the office two days a week, not three.

The new mandate comes as the CDC and other organizations have recently reduced COVID-19 safety recommendations regarding behaviors like sheltering in place after potential exposure to the virus, mask-wearing, or social distancing. Cases of the virus in most of the metropolitan areas where Apple has large offices are relatively low, though not always lower than they were before the omicron variant's initial surge earlier this year.

But some of the company's employees have formed an internal advocacy group called "Apple Together" to push back against further return-to-office plans. An internal petition circulated for signatures by the group on Sunday and seen by the Financial Times claims that Apple's workers are "happier and more productive" working from home and that a "uniform mandate from senior leadership" ignores "compelling reasons" why many employees should be able to continue to work from home more than three days a week or on the days they deem most appropriate.Advertisement


Instead of demanding a blanket work-from-home policy, though, the employee group advocates a system whereby individual employees could talk with their direct managers to decide expectations on a case-by-case basis, without "high-level approvals" or "complex procedures" making things more restrictive.

The petition has not yet been formally sent to Apple's senior leadership, as it is still collecting employee signatures.

Fighting the tides of change in tech

While it has not been as aggressive about bringing employees back into offices as some traditional, non-tech corporations in the more conservative parts of the United States, Apple has pursued a return to the old normal more vigorously than many of its American peers in tech.

For example, Ars has been told that Microsoft allows exactly what Apple's employees are asking for, in that individual team managers can set their own policies in lieu of a top-down, company-wide policy. Some Microsoft corporate jobs require pre-pandemic levels of onsite work, others permit fully remote work, and others still strike some hybrid balance between the two extremes.

Microsoft's no-size-fits-all approach is more or less typical of major American tech companies at this time, but some others like Twitter have taken an even more liberal approach and mandated full-time remote work and location-agnostic options for most employees from the top.

But Apple CEO Tim Cook has said that on-the-fly chance encounters and discussions within a physical workplace are essential to Apple's company culture and part of its secret sauce for success. That philosophy underpinned Steve Jobs and Jony Ive's plans for the circular Apple Park headquarters in Cupertino, California, which opened in April 2017.

Countering that, Apple employees have previously claimed that with teams split between multiple office sites in Northern California as well as in other places like San Diego; Austin, Texas; and Culver City (a municipality within the Los Angeles metro), that sort of serendipitous work is already not possible.

Apple opened some of these additional offices to more easily poach talent from competitors in businesses Apple plans to expand into without the deterrent of requiring those new hires to relocate to the Bay Area. For example, the San Diego office is where it is in part because it improves the company's prospects for attracting talent from rival Qualcomm.

But Apple leadership's resistance to more flexible remote-work policies may counter the company's goals of attracting and retaining talent in competitive fields. To that point, a notable machine learning director named Ian Goodfellow left Apple for Alphabet subsidiary DeepMind and named remote work policy as a reason for his departure.

  
SAMUEL AXON  Based in Chicago, Samuel is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars Technica, where he leads the site's gadget and reviews section. He covers Apple and display tech, as well as hardware and software for developers and creative professionals. He has been writing about technology for 15 years, and is an AR and game developer for iOS and other platforms. 

EMAIL samuel.axon@arstechnica.com

Swiss glaciers are melting so fast they've already shrunk more than half, study finds

Jamey Keaton
Associated Press

GENEVA — Switzerland's 1,400 glaciers have lost more than half their total volume since the early 1930s, a new study has found, and researchers say the ice retreat is accelerating at a time of growing concerns about climate change.

ETH Zurich, a respected federal polytechnic university, and the Swiss Federal Institute on Forest, Snow and Landscape Research on Monday announced the findings from a first-ever reconstruction of ice loss in Switzerland in the 20th century, based in part on an analysis of changes to the topography of glaciers since 1931.

The researchers estimated that ice volumes on the glaciers had shrunk by half over the subsequent 85 years — until 2016. Since then, the glaciers have lost an additional 12%, over just six years

“Glacier retreat is accelerating. Closely observing this phenomenon and quantifying its historical dimensions is important because it allows us to infer the glaciers’ responses to a changing climate,” said Daniel Farinotti, a co-author of the study, which was published in scientific journal The Cryosphere.

By area, Switzerland’s glaciers amount to about half of all the total glaciers in the European Alps.

The teams drew on a combination of long-term observations of glaciers. That included measurements in the field and aerial and mountaintop photographs — including 22,000 taken from peaks between the two world wars. By using multiple sources, the researchers could fill in gaps. Only a few of Switzerland's glaciers have been studied regularly over the years

The research involved using decades-old techniques to allow for comparisons of the shape and position of images of terrain, and the use of cameras and instruments to measure angles of land areas. The teams compared surface topography of glaciers at different moments, allowing for calculations about the evolution in ice volumes.

Not all Swiss glaciers have been losing ice at the same rates, the researchers said. Altitude, amounts of debris on the glaciers, and the flatness of a glacier's “snout” — its lowest part, which is the most vulnerable to melting — all affect the speeds of ice retreat.

The researchers also found that two periods — in the 1920s and the 1980s — actually experienced sporadic growth in glacier mass, but that was overshadowed by the broader trend of decline.

The findings could have broad implications for Switzerland's long-term energy sources, since hydropower produces nearly 60% of the country's electricity, according to government data.

 

The Pentagon has been exposed

"Politico" writes that the U.S. authorities have allocated more weapons to Kyiv than the U.S. administration announced.

SOURCE: SPUTNIK TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 2022 

Ilustracija: Depositphotos/icholakov01

The text also mentions that last Friday, a high-ranking representative of the Pentagon admitted at a press conference that the US has been supplying Ukraine with anti-radar missiles "HARM" for some time, without announcing it to the public.

"When we first announced that we were delivering HARM missiles, we did not provide specific information about it. We described it as the delivery of anti-radar systems," said that official, as reported by Sputnik.

Later, the "Yahoo News" portal also wrote about the possibility that the USA handed over ATACMS (the MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System) guided operational-tactical ballistic missiles to Ukraine.

"It is unclear if this is so, but if it is true, then it contradicts what the administration has announced," states "Politico", adding that sources told them that part of the new package of military aid to Kyiv, which was announced at the end of last week, includes Excalibur guided artillery missiles (revolutionary, extended-range, precision munition).

Those missiles were not listed in the Pentagon's official announcement, which contains a list of weapons in the new tranche of military aid.

"Politico" had access to the official notice regarding the new military aid package, which the administration submitted to the U.S. Congress. In that document, according to the newspaper, it is emphasized that the weapons that Washington supplies to Kyiv "are not limited" to those on the list.

"We admit that these are only assumptions. No one from the administration has confirmed or hinted at the existence of secret arms deliveries to Ukraine. Even if there are, it is unlikely that the U.S. authorities would tell us that there is such a secret decision," the paper concludes.

David Kay, Who Debunked Presence Of WMDs In Iraq, Has Died

"It turns out we were all wrong," David Kay said in his bombshell 2004 testimony.



Lydia O'Connor
Aug 22, 2022,



David Kay, the weapons inspector who disproved the United States’ main rationale for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, died earlier this month, his wife told The Washington Post and New York Times.

He died from cancer on Aug. 13 at the age of 82, said his wife, Anita Kay.

Kay was a prominent figure in the early 2000s for his role searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He ultimately resigned when he concluded the weapons stockpiles simply did not exis

“We were almost all wrong, and I certainly include myself here,” Kay said in bombshell testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in 2004. “It turns out we were all wrong, probably in my judgment, and that is most disturbing.”

The CIA tapped Kay, who’d already surveyed Iraq for weapons in the 1990s, to lead the search for WMDs there after President George W. Bush’s administration said it had evidence the country was stockpiling weapons. That supposed stockpile was Bush’s main justification for invading Iraq following the 9/11 attacks by al-Qaeda Islamist militants.

By 2004, Kay concluded that CIA intelligence about the weapons had been faulty and that it was extremely unlikely any WMDs would be found in Iraq.

He resigned from his position and told Bush that despite his findings, he still supported the invasion. He made similar comments before the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying it was reasonable that Bush’s administration came to its conclusion about WMDs based on the evidence it had, but that the reality on the ground had been different

Bush’s administration publicly downplayed Kay’s findings and insisted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein may have smuggled weapons or that he was preparing to build up a WMD stockpile.

Bob Drogin, a journalist who wrote a 2007 book about the faulty intelligence and Kay’s endeavor, told the Post that he “always saw David as a heroic but tragic figure.”

“He publicly admitted that all the experts, including himself, had been wrong on Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction,” Drogin wrote to the Post upon Kay’s death. “The CIA and the Bush White House could not forgive him for that. He became an outcast for speaking truth to power.”

The Iraq War ultimately led to at least 100,000 Iraqi civilian deaths and more than 4,000 U.S. military deaths. The total cost of the war to the U.S. economy has topped $2 trillion, and its financial effects are expected to continue for decades. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found in Iraq.

Nicole Mann will be the 1st Native woman in space

August 22, 20224:14 PM ET
Heard on All Things Considered

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NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with NASA astronaut Nicole Mann, a member of the Wailacki of the Round Valley Indian Tribes, who is going to be the first Native woman in space.

Scientists say they can bring extinct species back. But should they?


Mike Bebernes
·Senior Editor
Mon, August 22, 2022 
“The 360” shows you diverse perspectives on the day’s top stories and debates.


Scientists Are Trying To ‘De-Extinct’ This Species

What’s happening

A group of scientists last week announced a plan to resurrect the Tasmanian tiger, a coyote-like marsupial that has been extinct for nearly a century, using state-of-the-art gene editing technology.

The goal, researchers say, is to eventually reintroduce the creature back into the Australian wilderness, where it roamed as an apex predator before being hunted into extinction in the early 20th century. To achieve this, scientists plan to splice genetic material from old Tasmanian tigers with the DNA of its closest living relative — a mouse-sized marsupial called a dunnat — to create a new animal nearly identical to its long-dead ancestor.

The project is a collaboration between Australian researchers and a U.S.-based company called Colossal Biosciences. Last year, Colossal unveiled a bold plan to bring back the woolly mammoth. As difficult as reviving the Tasmanian tiger might be, the mammoth presents even larger challenges. Mammoths have been extinct for 4,000 years, meaning there is even less genetic material available to work with. The people behind the project concede that — if their work is successful — it will result in a creature that isn’t exactly a mammoth as it once existed, but really a “cold-resistant elephant with all of the core biological traits of the Woolly Mammoth.”

These efforts are part of an emerging scientific movement called “de-extinction.” Separate projects have been launched in hopes of bringing back extinct species like the Christmas Island rat, the passenger pigeon and even possibly the dodo. Similar work is being done to help animals currently at risk of extinction. In 2020, scientists successfully cloned a black-footed ferret, a severely threatened species that would likely disappear without new members being added to wild populations.

As significant as the question of whether these animals can be brought back — and a lot of experts have their doubts — there is a lot of debate over whether they should be.

Why there’s debate

Supporters of de-extinction say, beyond the sheer wonder it creates, the science gives us a chance to right some of the wrongs committed in the past by reviving species eradicated by humans. There is also hope that, once reintroduced, these creatures will help reestablish an equilibrium missing from their ecosystems since they went extinct.

Advocates say there are other potential outcomes that could benefit humans as well. The scientists trying to bring back mammoths, for example, say wild herds of these enormous animals may help combat climate change by slowing the erosion of permafrost in the snowy regions they may one day roam. Others say ambitious projects like de-extinction are likely to unlock breakthroughs in genetic science that can be used to protect endangered species.

But critics say the attention, effort and — perhaps most important — money put into de-extinction efforts would be much more effective if they were used to preserve the 1 million currently existing species that face extinction. There are also questions about whether it’s right to bring animals back into a world very different from what they once knew, how their reintroduction might harm creatures living there now and even broader concerns about the ethics of “playing God” by manipulating the natural order.

What’s next

Scientists at Colossal say they hope to have a living woolly mammoth, or mammoth-elephant hybrid, within the next five to six years. The company hasn’t given a specific timeline for the Tasmanian tiger, but there’s optimism that, thanks to its relatively short gestational period, it could be the first species they successfully bring back.
Perspectives

Supporters

De-extinciton could have enormous benefits for science and conservation

“Most de-extinction researchers aren’t looking to resurrect a charismatic ancient beast just for the sake of putting it into the nearest zoo for viewer pleasure. Rather, they are aiming to create proxies for educational or conservation purposes, such as to fill the void left by their extinct counterparts in ecosystems or to boost the numbers of modern-day endangered species.” — Yasemin Saplakoglu, Quanta

The research could unlock new tools to save other species from extinction

“It’s vital we maintain robust scrutiny and skepticism of ambitious projects, but we must also support scientists to push boundaries and take educated risks. And sometimes we learn, even when we ‘fail.’” — Wildlife ecologist Euan Ritchie to The Conversation

There’s real value in accomplishing something that once seemed impossible

“The prospect of de-extinction is profound news. That something as irreversible and final as extinction might be reversed is a stunning realization. The imagination soars. Just the thought of mammoths and passenger pigeons alive again invokes the awe and wonder that drives all conservation at its deepest level.” — Stewart Brand, National Geographic

Skeptics

Scientists should focus on saving species that are facing extinction right now

“​​There is evidence of a mass extinction taking place, the likes of which hasn’t been seen on Earth for millions of years. When it comes to protecting biodiversity on our planet, resurrecting a prehistoric creature is low on the priority list.” — Justine Calma, The Verge

The choice of what species get to be revived shouldn’t be left to private companies

“Reshaping the planet shouldn’t be left to a chosen few, with insider advice from hand-picked experts. Instead, Colossal, and all companies like it, should do something as radical for business as its plans are for the planet: actively involve the public in its research decisions.” — Victoria Herridge, Nature

Animals will suffer enormously along the way

“The whole discourse is about bringing this animal back, but the welfare of the individual animals isn’t really talked about. [Animal suffering] cannot be justified for such an uncertain result. It would be many years, if ever, that cloned [Tasmanian tigers] could have anything like the life they may have had—and deserve—in the wild.” — Carol Freeman, animal studies researcher, to Scientific American

De-extinction is impossible

“De-extinction is a fairytale science. It’s pretty clear to people like me that thylacine or mammoth de-extinction is more about media attention for the scientists and less about doing serious science.” — Jeremy Austin, animal DNA researcher, to Sydney Morning Herald

Is there a topic you’d like to see covered in “The 360”? Send your suggestions to the360@yahoonews.com.

Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Torsten Blackwood/AFP via Getty Images, Philippe Caron/Getty Images

What the sighting of El Jefe could mean for the future of jaguars in the Southwest

By Lauren Gilger
Published: Monday, August 22, 2022 -

UA/USFWS
Photos of El Jefe in Arizona in 2015.

The jaguar known as El Jefe has been spotted for the first time in nearly a decade in Sonora, Mexico — an encouraging sign for researchers who feared the cat wouldn't be able to move south of the border again because of the extensive border wall that now stands in its way.

Aletris Neils is one of those researchers; she's the founder and executive director of the group Conservation CATalyst in Tucson.

The Show spoke with her, and she said El Jefe has become a kind of symbol for the effort to save jaguars in the desert Southwest.

But while it’s good news he was spotted south of the border, Neils also said the future of jaguars in the region is all but certain.

From China to New York City, climate change is making drought conditions worse

Ben Adler

·Senior Editor

Mon, August 22, 2022 

As climate change makes droughts more frequent and severe, major population centers across the world are suffering through droughts this summer.

According to the National Weather Service, 36% of the New York City metropolitan area — the most populous metropolitan region in the United States, with more than 20 million residents — is in a “severe” or “extreme” drought.

On Thursday, the U.S. Drought Monitor, — a joint project of two federal agencies and the University of Nebraska — released its latest report which listed the south shore of Long Island and a chunk of north-central New Jersey as being in "severe drought.” The New York City borough of Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn are also in a severe drought. For Brooklyn, which has 2.5 million residents, this is its first severe drought in 20 years. Manhattan’s Central Park averages 10.7 inches of rain from June 1 to Aug. 11, but this year it received just over 8 inches in that period, leaving many plants shriveled and lawns brown.

New Yorkers sunbathing in Central Park in July. (John Smith/VIEWpress)

A local TV channel, WNBC Channel 4, reported last week that local farms are being affected.

“Crops in New Jersey are noticeably smaller than before, or the plants themselves simply not growing nearly as high, due to the dry conditions,” the outlet reported on its website. “Corn fields are withering on their stalks, with corn cobs barely fit for consumption. Apples much smaller than normal by this time of year.”

Some local governments have instituted restrictions on water usage. The east end of Long Island, home to the famed beachfront mansions of the Hamptons and the vineyards of the North Fork, is in a "stage one water emergency.” Residents with irrigated lawns and gardens have been asked to stop irrigation between midnight and 7 a.m., to preserve water pressure for firefighting. An area resident told Yahoo News that non-irrigated lawns have turned visibly brown from the hot weather and a lack of rain.

The New York City area is just one of many across the United States undergoing a drought. Parts of eastern Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are in severe drought. Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on Thursday announced a stage 3 drought level, corresponding to a moderate drought, for Middlesex, New London and Windham counties, each of which have received roughly 60% to 65% of normal precipitation thus far this year.

Climate change is the culprit, say local government officials, because warmer air causes more water evaporation and makes the water cycle more prone to extreme swings.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont. (Brad Horrigan/Hartford Courant/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

“Droughts are cyclical, typically occurring in New England every 10 years,” the Providence Journal reported last Thursday. “What [Ken Ayars, an official with the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management] has noticed, however, is the droughts are coming every two years.”

“The intervals between droughts are shorter,” Ayars told the newspaper. “Compared to 2020, this is much more significant because it’s following the previous drought.”

The Northeast’s drought is comparatively minor, though, relative to a two decades-long megadrought across the western U.S. Extreme drought conditions are currently found in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, Nevada, California, New Mexico and Oregon, among other states. Water usage restrictions are already in effect in a number of jurisdictions, including parts of California. Earlier this month, the United Nations warned that the two largest reservoirs in the U.S. — Lake Mead and Lake Powell, both created by dams on the Colorado River — are at “dangerously low levels.”

The surge in summertime droughts is not limited to the United States. In China, a nationwide drought alert was issued on Friday. Record-breaking droughts in the country have caused some rivers to run dry, causing significant economic damages. The Yangtze, the world’s third-longest river, has reached record-low water levels this summer.

Low water levels along the Yangtze River in China. (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

As a result, hydropower plants are operating at reduced capacity and shipping has been interrupted. The province of Sichuan has suspended or limited power supply to factories, causing firms such as Toyota and Tesla to suspend production. The provincial disaster committee said last Saturday 116,000 acres of crops have been lost and 1.1 million acres have been damaged by the drought and the heat wave baking southwestern China.

Rivers are also going dry in Europe, where a summer of climate disruption has seen record-setting heat waves across the continent, leading to thousands of deaths and the number of wildfires on pace to be the worst year on record. The Loire River in France is currently barely navigable due to drought.

“The Loire’s tributaries are completely dried up. It is unprecedented,” Eric Sauquet, head of hydrology at France’s National Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment, told Reuters last Wednesday.

“Looking to the future, as the frequency of extreme weather events looks set to grow, the future could be even more bleak,” Bernice Lee, chair of the advisory board of the London-based Chatham House Sustainability Accelerator in London told the Guardian on Monday.

A dried-up pond in Smithville, Texas. (Sergio Flores/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In addition to the fact that warmer temperatures increase evaporation and dry out soil and plants, climate change increases drought risk and intensity in other ways. For example, many places depend on water from melting winter snowpacks to help sustain plant and animal life. However, the average global temperature has increased 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the mid-19th century. That means less precipitation will fall as snow and more as rain in the winter, and that rain will be long gone by summer. Warmer temperatures in the spring also mean snowpack will melt earlier and more quickly.

Attributing specific droughts to climate change is complicated, but scientists are developing the tools to do so. A 2020 study in the journal Science looked at changes in temperature, relative humidity and precipitation between 1901 and 2018 in the western U.S. and found that climate change is responsible for 46% of the current megadrought’s severity.

Global warming also exacerbates droughts by increasing the demand for water, since animals and plants require more water in hotter weather.

“The loss of water from our reservoirs evaporating off is higher,” said Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, Calif., in an interview with Yahoo News last year. “The demand for water from agricultural crops is greater. And so the warnings that the climate cycle and the water cycle are changing, and that those impacts are going to be increasingly severe, are now coming true.”