It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
EU Puts Bitcoin in Crosshairs With Crypto Energy Labeling Plan
John Ainger and Alberto Nardelli Tue, October 18, 2022 at 3:49 AM·2 min read
(Bloomberg) -- The European Union will develop an energy efficiency label for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in a bid to rein in the growing electricity consumption of the industry.
The European Commission will work with international partners to come up with a grading measure that will encourage more environmentally friendly crypto systems, such as “proof of stake,” according to a draft proposal seen by Bloomberg News set to be announced Tuesday. The EU will also call on countries to target miners’ energy consumption this winter as it tries to navigate the season with far less Russian gas.
“Just as their use has grown significantly, the energy consumption of cryptocurrencies has more,” the the EU’s executive arm said in the draft action plan. “In harnessing the use of cryptocurrencies and other blockchain technologies in energy markets and trading, care must be taken to use only the most energy efficient versions of the technology.”
While the EU makes up only around 10% of proof-of-work crypto mining -- a more-energy intensive system used by Bitcoin to issue new digital tokens -- any action taken by the bloc can still have knock-on effects globally. It has previously considered banning proof-of-work practices before deciding that cryptoasset providers should be required to disclose the energy consumption and environmental impact of the assets they choose to list.
By comparison, proof-of-stake mining -- which is now used by Ethereum -- can use 99.9% less energy than proof-of-work. The idea is that a labeling system could encourage other cryptocurrencies to make the switch.
The bloc will also produce a report that evaluates the climate impact of the industry by 2025, while urging member states to put an end to tax breaks for cryto-miners, according to the document. In the event of an electricity shortage, countries must also be ready to stop mining activities, the EU will recommend.
NATO air strikes in Libya did not cause 'half a million civilian casualties' in 2011
BUT IT DID CAUSE THE RAPE, TORTURE AND MURDER OF KADHAFI
AFP Hong Kong Mon, October 17, 2022
Social media posts circulating globally have falsely claimed air strikes during NATO's 2011 military campaign in Libya that led to the toppling of strongman Moamer Kadhafi resulted in more than half a million civilian casualties. While the United Nations and rights groups say the NATO air strikes led to civilian deaths, the number is far lower than the half a million alleged by the posts. A UN investigation found NATO air strikes killed 60 civilians and separate reports by rights organisations indicate there were dozens of civilian deaths.
"NATO launched more than 10,000 air raids on Libya in 2011 with over 500,000 civilian casualties," reads a simplified Chinese tweet posted on October 10, 2022.
"When they were questioned about civilian casualties they insisted that it was collateral damage and that it happens in wars," the post adds.
The Chinese post is a direct translation of a tweet by an Africa-based user that was shared more than 20,000 times.
The false claim -- also debunked by Reuters and USA Today -- has been circulating since March in English and Chinese-language posts shared on Twitter and Weibo.
A screenshot of the misleading tweet, captured on October 18, 2022
NATO, the world's biggest military alliance of 30 European and North American countries, took sole command of air strikes in Libya in 2011 under a UN mandate to protect civilians.
The seven-month campaign led to Moamer Kadhafi being overthrown.
In June 2011, NATO addressed allegations it had targeted a residential building to the west of Libya's capital, Tripoli, saying: "While NATO cannot confirm reports of casualties, we would regret any loss of civilian life and we go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties."
While the UN and rights groups say NATO air strikes killed civilians, the number of deaths that social media posts claim were caused by the strikes has been inflated.
A UN commission investigating war crimes and human rights violations in Libya reported in March 2012 that NATO air strikes in the country killed 60 civilians and wounded 55 others.
Audrey Kawire Wabwire, a spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch, told AFP: "NATO air strikes killed at least 72 civilians, one-third of them children under age 18.
"Altogether, NATO conducted roughly 9,700 strike sorties and dropped over 7,700 precision-guided bombs during the seven-month campaign."
The organisation's full report was published here.
A separate report by Amnesty International here said it had documented "55 cases of named civilians, including 16 children and 14 women, killed in airstrikes in Tripoli, Zlitan, Majer, Sirte and Brega."
Responding to the claim that there were 500,000 civilian casualties, a NATO official told AFP: "This is completely bogus."
ELECTORAL POLITICS THAT IS
Greta Thunberg: I don't want to go into politics
Amol Rajan - Media editor Tue, October 18, 2022 at 3:47 AM·2 min read
Climate activist Greta Thunberg has said she will not pursue a career in politics - because it is too "toxic".
The Swedish teenager became a household name in 2018, after she skipped school and inspired an international movement to fight climate change.
Now 19, she says the necessary changes "will only come if there's enough public pressure from the outside - and that is something that we create".
And she never intended to become the face of a global movement.
"It's too much responsibility," Ms Thunberg said. "Sometimes I can snap. I say, 'If you think that all the hope in the world rests on burned-out teenagers' shoulders, I mean, that's not very good.'''
The 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Cop27), is in Egypt, on 6-18 November - but Ms Thunberg will be absent.
"I'm not needed there," she said. "There will be other people who will attend, from the most affected areas. And I think that their voice there is more important." Greta Thunberg has been telling BBC News media editor Amol Rajan about her views and life
Ms Thunberg told me she remained unaffected by abuse on social media but said: "What I am most bothered about is when people lie about me and spread, like, conspiracy theories - because I can't lie, so when other people lie about me, it's like, 'No - don't.'''
Targeted on Twitter by several world leaders, including Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, she has responded usually by changing her Twitter profile.
"I just think it's genuinely funny," she said. "I mean, the most powerful people in the world feel intimidated by teenagers. That is funny. It says more about them than it does about me."
Greta Thunberg watches as then US President Donald Trump enters the United Nations in 2019
Ms Thunberg's most recent project has been creating and curating a book of essays by dozens of experts, to provide a toolkit for those concerned about climate change.
Amol Rajan Interviews Greta Thunberg is on BBC2, at 19:30 BST, on Tuesday, 18 October, and BBC iPlayer.
Trees Help Protect the Planet From Climate Change.
But The World Isn’t Doing Enough to Protect Forests
Jennifer Fergesen
TIME Tue, October 18, 2022 BRAZIL-UN-COP26-CLIMATE-AMAZON
Aerial view of a burnt area of the Amazon rainforest near Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, on Sept. 15, 2021. The Amazon, the world's biggest rainforest, is known as the "lungs of the Earth." But it is now emitting more carbon than it absorbs. Credit - MAURO PIMENTEL/AFP—Getty Images
People breathe out carbon dioxide, trees breathe in carbon dioxide. It’s one of the first things children learn about the carbon cycle, the paths carbon takes as it moves among the living and nonliving things that make up the planet. That might be part of the reason trees and forests have long been a focal point of the carbon sequestration conversation. Dozens of companies have committed to planting and protecting trees as part of their efforts to counteract greenhouse gas emissions, and by 2030 the Trillion Trees Campaign is aiming to increase the number of trees in the world by one third.
Tree planting sounds great and makes for striking photo-ops of CEOs and presidents turning soil with golden shovels—and there’s compelling evidence that both new trees and existing forests can help bring down the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. But trees’ and forests’ role in global warming is more complex than it may seem. Anyone hoping to harness the power of trees in the fight against global warming needs to appreciate that complexity.
Forest protection and tree planting projects predate the idea of net-zero: The Trillion Trees Campaign is a continuation of the Billion Trees Campaign of the early 2000s, which was inspired by the Green Belt Movement that started in Kenya in the 1970s. The current number comes from a much-cited 2015 paper that calculated that planting an additional 1.2 trillion trees would absorb the equivalent of 10 years of carbon emissions. A later 2019 paper calculated that 1 trillion trees could fit on about 2.2 million acres of available land, though its definition of “available” has been contested. Remembering Basic Science
How would trees pull off this feat? In a word, photosynthesis. Carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O) are the ingredients for this recipe; light serves as the energy that helps the plant reassemble the hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon into carbohydrates (CH2O) and oxygen (O2).
Plants use some of the carbohydrates they make through respiration. This is the same process people use when we convert the food we eat into energy; like people, plants breathe out some carbon dioxide when they respirate. On average, plants emit about half of the carbon dioxide they absorb and store the rest in their bodies as biomass while they’re alive. Trees can store more carbon in their bodies and hold onto it longer than most plants because they’re larger, denser, and live longer than the average blade of grass.
For nearly 100 million years after trees evolved in the Carboniferous period, nothing could break down the tough lignin that gives wood its rigidity, so dead trees piled up in swampy deposits that hardened under pressure and over time. Some of these deposits became the coal seams that are now mined and burned, re-releasing the carbon stored by ancient forests. The Carboniferous period is named after these carbon-rich coal seams, surrounded by layers of rock where geologists can find fossils of trees, ferns, marine animals, and other creatures from a bygone world.
Today, however, fungi have evolved to be able to break down lignin, and trees eventually decay after they die like the rest of us. Fungi and other decomposers also produce carbon dioxide through respiration, so the carbon that trees store can be re-released to the atmosphere as they decompose. Trees also release their carbon if they burn, either in wildfires (which have increased in frequency and intensity with global warming) or the slash-and-burn practices employed by farmers and ranchers that clear forest for agriculture. That’s a key detail to keep in mind when considering the role of forests in combating global warming.
One might assume that the most significant carbon sinks would be tropical rainforests, the most biodiverse biomes on the terrestrial earth. But Southeast Asia’s tropical rainforests, one of the world’s three largest systems, are now a net source of carbon emissions due to fires, clearing for plantations, and peat soil drainage. The Amazon rainforest is on the brink of becoming a net source due to similar disturbances. The world’s second largest tropical rainforest, located in the Congo River Basin, is the only rainforest in the top three that is still a significant carbon sink. These dire statistics are part of the reason why protecting forests, especially rainforests, has become a key talking point around decarbonizing the atmosphere and slowing global warming.
“Whether it’s in Amazonia or the Tongass Rainforest in Alaska … those are all the lungs of our planet,” says Dominick DellaSala, chief scientist at Wild Heritage, an environmental organization based in Berkeley, California. “The logging and development that takes place in those forests, that forever changes their ability to absorb and hang onto carbon.” DellaSala says that businesses can avoid being part of the problem by avoiding wood and fiber sourced from old-growth forests.
Many other globally traded products are grown on land cleared from rainforests, including beef, cacao, and palm oil. The complex commodities market can make it difficult to account for which products are grown on former rainforest land, but companies such as Nestlé and IKEA have published “forest positive” plans to reduce the amount of deforestation involved in their supply chains through efforts such as satellite monitoring and supply chain mapping.
The Carbon Offset Problem
Some businesses are investing directly in forest protection through the carbon offset market. Organizations such as the Coalition for Rainforest Nations and the Rainforest Trust sell the opportunity to protect the rainforest for as little as $5 an acre, money which they say goes to Indigenous people, local governments, and other groups who might otherwise choose to cut down the rainforest for economic reasons. Companies can buy these credits to offset their own greenhouse gasses as part of the carbon accounting involved in reaching net-zero.
However, ProPublica reported in 2019 that several forest protection projects that had received money from carbon credit sales were not keeping their promises; some protected plots were cleared even though people had been paid to keep them forested. Even when the people involved stick to their commitments, forests set aside for carbon offsets can be burned by wildfires, releasing their carbon.
Additionally, there is just not enough land available for carbon projects (and without impacting food security). A 2021 report from Oxfam notes that “the total amount of land required for planned carbon removal could potentially be five times the size of India, or the equivalent of all the farmland on the planet.”
Some carbon offset projects involve planting new trees, but these plantings do not absorb as much carbon as mature, natural forests. Still, each tree can absorb tens of pounds of carbon dioxide in a year, and carbon credit sellers, governments, and organizations are all getting involved in tree planting “to the point where we’re also now concerned about the supply chain for tree planting to make sure that we’re going to be able to have enough seeds to meet that demand,” says Joe Fargione, lead scientist for North America at The Nature Conservancy.
Fargione says that the most effective tree planting projects focus on restoring existing forests, rather than trying to create new ones. If planted in the wrong environment, trees can cause an increase in carbon emissions through side effects that may be difficult to anticipate ahead of time. For example, planting trees in grasslands can increase the risk of fire, releasing the carbon stored naturally in that environment’s plants and soil. Draining peatlands to plant trees releases the carbon those wetland ecosystems can hold onto for centuries.
As much as they love trees and forests, scientists like Fargione and DellaSala agree that we can’t rely on them to take care of the glut of carbon dioxide emissions humans have added to the atmosphere. To maintain trees’ current role as a sink for a large slice of carbon dioxide emissions, the priority should be to restore and maintain the mature forests that still exist, finding better ways to protect them against ourselves. —With reporting by Jennifer Junghans
This article is part of a series on key topics in the climate crisis for time.com and CO2.com, a division of TIME that helps companies reduce their impact on the planet. For more information, go to co2.com
Planting trees – and hope – in a flood-prone Nigerian town
Ahmad Adedimeji Amobi Tue, October 18, 2022
A quarter of a century after the event, Soladoye Gbenjo still remembers the storm that changed everything. For months during the rainy season, battering rains tore through Igbajo, his rural community in the southwestern Nigerian state of Osun. Then came a wind that tore off the roof of his house, and dumped most of his belongings in the surrounding flooded fields.
Mr. Gbenjo, an agriculturist, realized something: His house, like most in the district of steep, windswept hills, was too open to the elements.
After replacing his roof, Mr. Gbenjo did the only other thing he could think of to make his home safer – he planted dozens of trees around it.
Mr. Gbenjo did not know it then, but that decision was a seed that would come to fruition more than two decades later, as the community found itself grappling with the increasing ravages of climate change.
“I developed an interest in tree planting from what happened to me,” says Mr. Gbenjo, now an octogenarian, pointing with a trembling hand at the dozens of trees he has planted around his house over the decades.
Trees can help mitigate damage in storm- and flood-prone areas. Leaf canopies reduce erosion caused by falling rain and provide a surface area for water to evaporate; and tree branches and roots also act as a drag on wind and floodwater, reducing the speed of both.
Nigerians need all the help they can get tackling floods, which are predicted by scientists to rise as the climate emergency gathers pace. Already the country has one of the highest levels of deforestation in the world. As the oil-producing nation grapples with a rapidly growing population, trees are being lost to urbanization, wood burning, and environmental disasters such as oil spills. An annual deforestation rate of about 3.5% translated to the loss of around 14,587 hectares in 2020. Today, Africa’s most populous nation has lost all but 4% of its primary forest.
In recent weeks, much of Nigeria has been hit by devastating floods that have affected 29 of the country’s 36 states.
Caught off guard by extreme weather events, Nigeria’s government has struggled to contain the catastrophic fallout. Widespread deluges caused by extreme rainfall and the release of excess water from a dam in neighboring Cameroon has displaced 1.4 million citizens and killed 500 in the past month alone, according to government officials.
But in Igbajo, residents have long since banded together to try to plug the gaps left by government inaction. As is common in Nigeria, the community of around 25,000 residents has an informal association tasked with resolving local disputes and issues that rarely reach state – or even local – government offices. As floods ravage large parts of the country, residents in Igbajo have been largely spared in part thanks to that association.
When Mr. Gbenjo began planting his trees 25 years ago, the chairman of the Igbajo Development Association immediately saw the advantages it would bring. And so, in a series of spontaneous gatherings, Shola Fanowopo asked the well-respected Mr. Gbenjo to talk to other community members about the benefits of planting trees.
So convinced were locals by the plan, that they pooled money to buy about 40 hectares of land to turn into a juvenile forest. That forest, in turn, would serve as a reservoir for eventually repopulating the entire district’s depleted trees, they hoped.
But first, they needed the actual trees.
Olalere Ajayi, a local farmer, was one of dozens who was convinced to sign up after seeing a neighbor’s roof torn off during a violent storm.
That made him realize the “need to protect my house,” Mr. Ajayi says, while walking through rows of young saplings on the edge of the community.
Within a year, almost every compound had rows of seedlings sprouting around houses. Residents planted gmelina, afara, and maple saplings common to the area, hardy and fast-growing trees.
Out in the surrounding fields, farmers also planted teak trees – whose firm grain makes it particularly useful for weather control – alongside their cash crops of cocoa, cassava, and yams.
In the first year, about 2,000 trees were planted, Mr. Fanowopo says. This year, volunteers are on track to plant a whopping 20,000 saplings, making a total of 50,000 trees planted since the project launched.
Like about 40 other residents who regularly volunteer, Mr Ajayi can often be found pitching in, either planting seedlings into small nylon bags; spraying growing saplings to keep insects and disease at bay; or digging older saplings to transplant them to where they’re needed.
Not all of those trees make it. Some seedlings don’t germinate, while others die after being uprooted to be transferred.
“The weather,” Mr. Gbenjo notes dryly, often doesn’t help.
Then there’s a lack of funding to maintain and fuel the trucks used to transport the trees across different locations – now even more difficult amid rocketing costs of diesel. And with inflation hitting a 17-year high, residents of the rural community are having to tighten belts, meaning the project is being put on the back burner.
Nigeria has announced several strategies to tackle deforestation, such as REDD+ – a United Nations-backed project launched at the COP26 climate summit last year, which aimed to limit the number of trees being cut down. But local residents and researchers say such plans rarely translated into results on the ground, with most state governments lacking the financing and data needed to make significant progress.
Agriculturists say initiatives like the one in Igbajo could be successfully transplanted to other communities, though that would require more input from government agencies.
“Hopefully the government will wake up and take action,” says Ugwu Shedrach, a young agriculturist and soil scientist in Nigeria’s central Nasarawa State.
In Igbajo, residents say they are determined to press ahead regardless. Watching recent floods unleashed across the country prompted Funke Abu to volunteer her time toward a planting expedition. “It took me two days to pick 1,000 gmelina seedlings,” she says, weary but satisfied.
The Word for World Is Forest was originally published in the anthology Again, Dangerous Visions in 1972. It was published as a standalone book in 1976 by ...
Written in the glare of the United States' war on Indochina, and first published as a separate book in that war's dire aftermath, The Word for World is Forest ...
J&J looks at job cuts despite weathering inflation impact
Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday posted better than expected third-quarter earnings
The Johnson & Johnson logo is displayed on a screen on the floor of the NYSE in New York
Tue, October 18, 2022 By Manas Mishra and Michael Erman
(Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday posted better than expected third-quarter earnings on strong demand for its cancer drug Darzalex, but said it may still cut some jobs as it contends with inflationary pressure and challenges created by the strong dollar.
J&J Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said the U.S. healthcare conglomerate is looking at "right sizing" itself, particularly as it moves from being a three-segment business to a two segment business through the spinoff of its consumer unit.
That business, which will be called Kenvue and hold many of the company's best known brands like Band-Aid bandages and Tylenol, is set to be spun out late next year.
J&J said it was not immune to the affects of inflation on its business and the impact of a strong dollar, despite "healthcare being more resilient" than most industries. A stronger dollar will reduce 2023 adjusted earnings by between 40 cents and 45 cents, the company said.
"We are looking at making sure that our resources are deployed on those projects, those initiatives, those services that really add the most value for our business," Wolk told Reuters.
Johnson & Johnson shares were marginally down in early trading at $166.29, reversing from their premarket gains.
The share move was mainly due to macroeconomic and currency concerns which are not unique to J&J, said Edward Jones analyst John Boylan.
The company expects some inflationary pressures to ease next year, but warned higher costs of inventory manufactured in 2022 could weigh on 2023 profit.
Total sales rose 1.9% to $23.79 billion in the third quarter, topping estimates of $23.34 billion, according to Refinitiv IBES data.
Excluding items, J&J earned $2.55 per share, beating Wall Street estimates by 8 cents.
Sales of cancer drug Darzalex jumped nearly 30% to $2.05 billion in the quarter.
The medical devices unit reported a 2.1% rise in sales to $6.78 billion on demand for contact lenses and wound-closure products. (Reporting by Manas Mishra, Raghav Mahobe and Bansari Mayur Kamdar in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Bill Berkrot)
A recent campaign by Law Students for Justice in Palestine (LSJP), a student group supporting Palestinian liberation, asking other progressive student groups to pledge not to host speakers that support Israeli apartheid has provoked a wave of condemnation and disinformation.
Berkeley Law’s Dean Erwin Chemerinsky publicly condemned the campaign in a statement, strongly implying it ran afoul of free speech and anti-discrimination principles. Chancellor Carol Christ, too, condemned the campaign, suggesting that excluding speakers with particular views on Israel would endanger the safety and security of Jewish community members. Following these statements, a Democratic member of Congress and a long list of Israel lobby organizations and professors piled on. And to add to the absurdity, an article in Jewish Journal falsely alleged that the campus was creating “Jewish free zones” by permitting the adoption of the pledge.
But this is nonsense: student organizations can determine for themselves which speakers align with their politics; they cannot be compelled to invite any speaker. Campus groups organized around issue areas, from antiracism to reproductive rights, host speakers and events in order to advance a particular political perspective. Just as these groups are under no obligation to host white supremacists or people who oppose a woman’s right to an abortion, no student group is constitutionally obligated to host pro-Zionist speakers.
And the pledge has nothing to do with Judaism; it is about student groups with shared progressive values agreeing not to host speakers who don't share those values, namely, by supporting Israel's policies of land theft, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid. It does not discriminate on the basis of religion at all: Hosting a non-Jewish Zionist (for example, a Christian or Hindu) would violate the pledge, whereas hosting a Jewish anti-Zionist would not. Tellingly, no one in the status quo seems to have a problem with the fact that Hillel, an organization that purports to be a center for all Jewish life, maintains standards of partnership that prohibit it from hosting anti-Zionist speakers.
This egregious double standard demonstrates that what is at stake is not just freedom of expression. It is the content of what is being expressed, namely a political commitment to Palestinian liberation and a steadfast opposition to apartheid, that has provoked this backlash.
And the playbook is consistent: 1) reframe the issue to exclusively center Jewish students, erasing both Palestinian perspectives on campus and the impact that U.S. support for Israeli apartheid has for Palestinians living under occupation; 2) falsely conflate opposition to Israeli apartheid with antisemitism; and 3) take punitive measure against students organizing for justice. We’ve responded to over a thousand of such cases, and the repression keeps coming.
The students’ campaign comes at a time of increased scrutiny on Israel. Recent reports from some of the world’s most respected human rights organizations have confirmed what Palestinians like myself have been saying for decades: Israel is an apartheid regime.
Following a report from B’tselem, the leading Israeli human rights organization, that concluded as much in early 2021, both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International issued comprehensive reports on Israeli apartheid.
This should come as no surprise for anyone paying attention to news from the region. Since the beginning of 2021, Israel has conducted another horrific bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip, which it has kept under blockade since 2007, in which they targeted residential buildings and killed scores of Palestinian civilians; continued settlement expansion in the West Bank; assassinated the iconic Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh; imprisoned hundreds of Palestinians, many of whom are children, without charges or trial in its controversial practice of administrative detention; all while maintaining its illegal and deadly occupation of Palestinian land.
It is against this backdrop that LSJP has encouraged fellow student groups to pledge not to host speakers who support apartheid. By condemning this activism, university administrators are stating loud and clear that opposition to Israeli apartheid is not welcome on campus.
For myself, as an alumnus of the law school and social justice advocate who is both Palestinian and a Jewish American, I am proud that these students are taking a bold stand against injustice and building solidarity across axes of oppression along the way. I just received my alumni magazine with a cover page promoting "how [Berkeley Law is] fighting for our rights and working to advance justice, freedom, and equality at home and around the world."
Does that extend to Palestinians—or is there an exception for us?
REFUGEES, AMNESTY SEEKERS More than 100 migrants stranded near Puerto Rico await help
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Federal authorities on Tuesday said they were trying to rescue more than 100 migrants stranded on an uninhabited island near Puerto Rico during a human smuggling operation.
The nationality of the migrants awaiting help on Mona Island wasn’t immediately known, although officials believe the majority are Haitian, said Jeffrey Quiñones, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Puerto Rico.
It wasn't immediately clear if anyone in their group drowned before authorities were notified of the situation. Quiñones said authorities are still interviewing the migrants.
In the group are 60 women, 38 men and five children ranging in age from 5 to 13 years old, according to Anaís Rodríguez, secretary of Puerto Rico's Natural Resources Department. She noted that three of the women are pregnant, adding that the group overall is in good health. Mona Island is located in the treacherous waters between Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico and has long been a dropping off point for human smugglers promising to ferry Haitian and Dominican migrants to the U.S. territory aboard rickety boats. Dozens of them have died in recent months in an attempt to flee their countries amid a spike in poverty and violence.
In late July, authorities rescued 68 Haitian migrants dropped off in waters surrounding Mona Island. At least five others drowned.
“The conditions in Mona are inhospitable,” Quiñones said. “Smugglers do not have any regards for the safety of people they’re transporting. They basically pile them up in a boat."
From October 2021 to March, 571 Haitians and 252 people from the Dominican Republic were detained in waters around Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Of the Haitians, 348 landed on Puerto Rico’s uninhabited Mona Island and were rescued.
The migrants are taken to Puerto Rico for processing, where some request asylum given the increasingly chaotic situation in Haiti, where fuel and water supplies are dwindling amid a cholera outbreak as a powerful gang blocks access to a key fuel terminal for more than a month. Haitian leaders have requested the immediate deployment of foreign troops.
CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M WELFARE FRAUD
Director: Mississippi does not track welfare program results
EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS Tue, October 18, 2022
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi's scandal-plagued welfare program turns away most applicants for cash assistance, and it has not been tracking whether its programs fulfill the goal of lifting people out of poverty in one of the poorest states in the nation, lawmakers were told Tuesday.
Robert G. “Bob” Anderson said that when he became director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services in March 2020, he found the agency had “output numbers" to track spending.
“But we didn’t have a lot of outcome information," Anderson said. “We were not tracking outcomes as an agency.”
In response to questions from Democratic Rep. Robert Johnson of Natchez, Anderson said Human Services is looking at data to define whether programs are effective, but he did not say when a program to track outcomes will be in place.
Anderson spoke at the state Capitol during a hearing held by the state House and Senate Democratic caucuses.
Democratic leaders said they convened because Republicans, who control the two chambers, have not held hearings on a multimillion-dollar welfare misspending scandal that has ensnared several prominent figures, including retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre.
“We cannot help but to recognize that Mississippi has two hands — one hand that is basically taking aid from the poor and another hand that is basically giving it to the wealthy,” said Sen. Derrick Simmons of Greenville. “And Mississippi needs to do a better job.”
Anderson said about 90% of people who apply for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families in Mississippi don’t receive it, either because their applications are denied or because they abandon their applications. He said Human Services is considering using “navigators” to help applicants.
Brandy Nichols of Jackson told lawmakers that she has four children — an 8-year-old, 5-year-old twins and a 4-year-old. She has worked several different jobs, including as a cashier and a housekeeper.
She said she never expected to need government aid, but TANF helped her pay for groceries, cleaning supplies, clothing and unexpected expenses such as emergency car repairs. She said she has already used the five-year limit on payments under the program.
“I can no longer receive TANF,” Nichols said. “But my children’s most expensive years are ahead.”
Anderson is a former assistant U.S. attorney, and Republican Gov. Tate Reeves nominated him to lead Human Services just weeks after one of the agency's former directors, John Davis, was arrested on allegations of misspending millions of dollars that were intended to help some of the poorest people in the United States.
Davis was chosen by Reeves' predecessor, Republican Gov. Phil Bryant. Davis recently pleaded guilty to state and federal charges tied to some of the misspending.
As Human Services director, Davis had direct control of federal funds that prosecutors said were improperly used on expenses such as drug rehab for a former professional wrestler and first-class airfare for Davis.
Court documents also show that under Davis, $5 million from TANF was spent on a volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi — a project that Favre pushed at the school, where his daughter was playing the sport.
Favre has repaid $1.1 million he received for speaking fees to help pay for the volleyball facility. The money came from the Mississippi Community Education Center, a nonprofit group that spent TANF dollars with Human Services' approval. State Auditor Shad White said Favre still owes $228,000 in interest.
Favre is not facing criminal charges but is one of 38 defendants in a civil lawsuit that seeks to recover misspent welfare money. Favre, a Pro Football Hall of Fame member, said last week that he has been “ unjustly smeared in the media” in coverage over the welfare spending.
Johnson said the Mississippi Legislature needs to eliminate hurdles for welfare applicants, including a drug screening requirement in state law. Adults applying for TANF must complete a questionnaire about drug use. If the answers show a “reasonable likelihood” of a substance use disorder, the applicant must take a drug test.
The Center for Law and Social Policy, or CLASP, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce poverty, said Mississippi received 11,407 TANF applications in 2017. After the questionnaire, 464 applicants were given drug tests, and six of those tests found drug use.
Elizabeth Lower-Basch, deputy director of policy for CLASP, told lawmakers Tuesday that another Washington-based advocacy organization, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, found that for every 100 families with children living in poverty in Mississippi, 71 families received cash assistance through a welfare program in 1979. By 1995-96, aid was going to 39 families per 100 living in poverty. By 2019-20, Mississippi's aid number was down to four families per 100 living in poverty — tied for last in the U.S.
“The share of people who are getting cash assistance compared to the extensive need is just astonishing,” Lower-Basch said.
More than 80% of US waterways contaminated by ‘forever chemicals’
Tom Perkins
THE GUARDIAN Tue, October 18, 2022
Most of America’s waterways are likely contaminated by toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, a new study conducted by US water keepers finds.
The Waterkeeper Alliance analysis found detectable PFAS levels in 95 out of 114, or 83%, of waterways tested across 34 states and the District of Columbia, and frequently at levels that exceed federal and state limits.
“The results clearly show widespread PFAS contamination across the country and demonstrate that existing laws and regulations are inadequate for protecting us,” said Marc Yaggi, CEO of the Waterkeeper Alliance, a non-profit network that represents local “water keepers” who monitor watersheds throughout the country for pollution.
PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of about 12,000 chemicals often used to make products resist water, stain and heat. They are called “forever chemicals” because they don’t naturally break down, and are linked to cancer, liver problems, thyroid issues, birth defects, kidney disease, decreased immunity and other serious health problems.
Previous analyses have used municipal utility data to estimate that the chemicals are contaminating drinking water for over 200 million people, while another study found widespread contamination of groundwater drawn by private and municipal wells.
Lax regulation allows industrial users to discharge the chemicals into the environment largely unchecked, though some states and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are taking steps to begin tracking them. Landfills, airports, military bases, paper mills and wastewater treatment plants are among common sources.
The new study checked a range of surface waters, including canals, creeks and rivers. It found PFAS in 29 out of 34 states, and the 19 waterways in which it didn’t detect the compounds ran through largely undeveloped regions.
The study detected two of the most studied and dangerous compounds, PFOS and PFOA, at 70% of testing sites – more than any other of the 33 compounds it found.
The EPA lowered its health advisory limit for PFOA and PFOS to .004 parts per trillion (ppt) and .02 ppt, respectively, effectively finding that no level of exposure is safe. PFOS was detected in Maryland’s Piscataway Creek, a tributary that feeds into the Potomac River just south of Washington DC, at a level exceeding 1,300 ppt. The reading is nearly 70,000 times the EPA’s advisory level.
Regulators and utilities have been slow to address PFAS contamination in part because of costs. The EPA has proposed designating PFOS and PFOA as hazardous substances, which could force industry to fund cleanups for those compounds, but not the other 33 found in the study, or thousands more that exist. That will leave it up to taxpayers to cover those cleanup costs.
“In other words, the public is going to be subsidizing the industrial polluters,” Yaggi said.
‘Forever chemicals’ taint rivers across SC; drinking water threatened
Sammy Fretwell Tue, October 18, 2022
Toxic “forever chemicals’’ that are suspected of increasing cancer risks, causing liver damage and triggering kidney problems for those exposed to them are showing up in rivers and creeks that residents of South Carolina and other states rely on for drinking water.
A report released Tuesday by the national Waterkeeper Alliance identified the chemicals in at least six of the state’s river basins, including the Saluda-Congaree near Columbia, the Savannah near Augusta, the Catawba south of Charlotte and the Cooper near Charleston. Chemicals also were found in the Black-Sampit river system near Georgetown and the Waccamaw River watershed west of Myrtle Beach.
Data show that two of the most common chemicals exceeded a federal health advisory limit in every river or creek tested in South Carolina, according to the Waterkeeper Alliance study, billed as the first nationwide look of its kind about forever chemical pollution.
The Saluda River below the Lake Murray dam also registered one type of toxic forever chemical found at only two other places in the country.
Nationally, more than 80 percent of the 114 waterways sampled for the Waterkeeper Alliance report had at least one type of forever chemical in the water, the national report said. The chemicals were found in measurable concentrations in 29 states, the report found.
While much still needs to be learned about the effects of forever chemicals on public health, laboratory studies on animals have linked exposure to some of the most common forever chemicals to health problems in the animals. Cancer is among the risks as is damage to the liver and kidneys. The question is how much exposure does it take to get sick.
Tuesday’s report verifies data collected recently by state regulators in South Carolina. The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control also found the contaminants in rivers across the state. The agency has not publicly released the data, but provided a snapshot of its survey of forever chemicals in water to a group of industries and environmental groups this past Friday.
DHEC also has previously found low levels in more than three dozen drinking water systems that get water from rivers or lakes.
Forever chemicals are also known as per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a class of compounds used to repel water on clothing, coat non-stick frying pans, and fight fires at military bases. Considered important to the manufacture of an array of products, PFAS have been used in the United States since the 1940s. The lower Saluda River near Columbia
The aptly named chemicals, largely unregulated by states and the federal government, pose a threat because they do not break down easily in the environment. They have become of increasing concern across the country as more is learned about their abundance and toxic effects.
“This data unequivocally demonstrates that this dangerous PFAS pollution is widespread in surface waters across the country, and that existing laws and regulations have been inadequate to protect public health and the environment from this under-appreciated threat,’’ the Waterkeeper Alliance report said.
Congaree Riverkeeper Bill Stangler and Savannah Riverkeeper Tonya Bonitatibus said they are not surprised that forever chemicals were found in rivers. Stangler and Bonitatibus were among riverkeepers collecting samples for the analysis.
Stangler said the primary known threat is to drinking water. On the Saluda River, for instance, the sites where he found forever chemicals in water are upstream of large drinking water plants in Cayce and West Columbia.
“It is not something the average person who goes off a rope swing or goes tubing in the Saluda needs to worry about,’’ Stangler said. “The real general concern, I think, is ‘How much of this are you putting in your body by drinking it, or potentially consuming it in food, like fish.’’
Specific waterways tainted by PFAS include the Saluda, Catawba, Sampit and Savannah Rivers, as well as Bushy Park Reservoir near Charleston and Steritt Swamp near Conway. The study said 100 percent of the 11 samples taken in South Carolina registered PFAS.
Bonitatibus said action is necessary to prevent threats like the one that occurred in eastern North Carolina’s Cape Fear River.
A manufacturer of forever chemicals for years released the material into the river, fouling drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people. The facility has been sued over the discharges and fined heavily by regulators in North Carolina.
“What happened on the Cape Fear is an absolute tragedy,’ Bonitatibus said. “As we move forward we need to make sure we are identifying sources and removing them quickly.’’ Savannah Riverkeeper Tonya Bonitatibus stands along the river separating Georgia and South Carolina.
Some places around the country had higher levels of PFAS than South Carolina. Georgia, which shares the Savannah with South Carolina, had higher levels of PFAS concentrations. North Carolina, where some rivers run into South Carolina, also registered higher levels, the report found.
Two of the most common types of PFAS of concern – PFOA and PFOS – have been discontinued in the United States, but many related compounds are still being manufactured and used. PFOA and PFOS remain a threat to the environment.
In South Carolina, riverkeepers who worked on the Waterkeeper Alliance study found multiple places where PFOA and PFOS showed up at higher levels than the recently established federal health advisory standard.
The new health advisory level is between 0 and 1 part per trillion. Test results by riverkeepers found PFOS levels of 6.4 parts per trillion at one spot on the lower Saluda and 4.8 parts per trillion at another spot on the river, according to the Waterkeeper Alliance data.
DHEC’s data showed even higher levels of PFOA and PFOS on the Congaree, just downstream from the Saluda. Two readings topped 9 parts per trillion for PFOS, while results for PFOA exceeded 7 parts per trillion, according to a presentation DHEC gave to industry and environmental groups last week.
One type of PFAS, commonly called GenX, also was found in the lower Saluda River, according to test results from the Waterkeeper Alliance. The Saluda River was one of three rivers in the country where waterkeepers found GenX. The others were the Cape Fear in North Carolina and Tar Creek in Oklahoma, the report said.
GenX was developed to replace the toxic PFOA, but was later discovered to also be harmful to health.
“The surprise to me is that we saw GenX show up at all,’’ Stangler said.
Discharges of PFAS, including PFOS, PFOA and GenX, commonly are associated with textile plants, paper mills, landfills and military bases, one of which has polluted private drinking water wells in Sumter County. Textile mills, found throughout South Carolina, are a particular concern.
The Environmental Working Group says as many as 1,500 textile mills across the country could be releasing PFAS responsible for polluting drinking water.
On the Saluda, PFAS were found below Shaw Industries in Irmo and an abandoned site. Efforts to reach a spokesperson for Shaw were not successful Tuesday.
Finding PFAS in rivers is of concern to utilities that rely on the rivers to supply drinking water to the public. Birds perch on a rock visible from Boyd Island, a new park at the confluence of the Broad and Saluda Rivers on Thursday March 24, 2022.
Clint Shealy, an assistant Columbia city manager who oversees the city’s drinking water utility, said the city has previously found PFAS in water coming into the plant and finished water that leaves the plant.
The big question, however, is how harmful microscopic levels of PFAS can be, he said.
The federal government recently sharply lowered the health advisory limit for the two most commonly known forever chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, from 70 parts per trillion to near zero.
But that standard is only an advisory limit, meaning the city’s drinking water remains in compliance with federal laws, he said.
The government is now weighing whether to establish an enforceable limit on how much of some PFAS materials should be allowed in drinking water. One question is whether the enforceable drinking water limit will be as low as the new advisory limit.
“A part per trillion is one drop of water in an Olympic sized swimming pool, roughly,’’ Shealy said. “So we went from 70 drops to a tiny fraction of one drop being within the health advisory level. That’s a real challenge for all utilities.’’
If the city had to treat the water for PFAS — which it does not currently — it could cost millions of dollars. That’s why it is important to find out where the pollution is coming from and stop it, he said.
“The way to combat this is to eliminate or minimize the compounds getting into our rivers,’’ he said. “Source water control is by far the best for our rivers and anything that might uptake those chemicals, like aquatic wildlife, but that also makes a positive impact on our drinking water. ‘’
Not Just a Big Fish, but Perhaps
the Biggest Bony Fish Ever
Annie Roth
Researchers with a giant sunfish at the marina in Horta in Portugal's Azores archipelago in December 2021. (Atlantic Naturalist via The New York Times)
It was easy for scientists to have doubts when they were told that the carcass of a colossal fish had been found floating just off the coast of Faial Island in Portugal’s Azores archipelago in the mid-Atlantic Ocean in December 2021. People do tend to exaggerate when it comes to the size of fish, after all. However, their skepticism lifted the moment they laid eyes on the fish. It was the biggest bony fish they had ever seen. In fact, it might have been the biggest anyone had ever seen.
Weighing just over 6,000 pounds, which is around the weight of a Chevrolet Suburban, and stretching more than 10 feet in length, the scientists say the supersize southern sunfish, a species of mola, was the heaviest bony fish ever recorded.
More than 90% of fish have bony skeletons and thus fall into the category of bony fish. This sets them apart from sharks, rays and some fish that have cartilaginous skeletons. Although no bony fish has ever come close to reaching the size of a whale shark, the largest cartilaginous fish, the size of the sunfish found in the Azores is impressive.
“It’s pretty rare to find big fish these days due to overfishing and habitat degradation,” said Kory Evans, a fish ecologist at Rice University who was not involved in the discovery of the SUV-size sunfish.
The last bony fish recorded anywhere near that size was a female of the same species caught in Japan in 1996 that weighed around 5,070 pounds and measured roughly 8.9 feet across.
The massive southern sunfish found in the Azores is “not an abnormal individual whose extreme size is due to a genetic mutation,” said José Nuno Gomes-Pereira, a marine biologist with Atlantic Naturalist and co-author of a study published this month in Journal of Fish Biology that documented the specimen. “This species can get to this size. We just finally managed to weigh and measure one. There are more of these monsters out there.”
Aside from their size, molas are known for their clumsy swimming style. Unlike most fish, molas use their dorsal and anal fins to propel their huge, hulking bodies through the water, which they do slowly and haphazardly. The open-ocean fish are often seen floating on their sides at the sea’s surface, which scientists think is to warm up or to make it easy for seabirds to make a meal of the parasites on their skin.
After local fishermen and boaters found the southern sunfish floating near the Azores, a group of scientists from the research nonprofit Atlantic Naturalist and the local marine wildlife authorities towed its body into Horta Harbor and hoisted it onto land using a forklift.
Gomes-Pereira and his colleagues spent several hours measuring the length, weight and stomach contents of the fish. The mola’s nearly 8-inch thick skin made the dissection particularly tricky. And because the fish was too large for any local museum to preserve, it was buried on a nearby hillside.
The scientists weren’t able to determine the exact age of the fish, but Gomes-Pereira believes the creature was at least two decades old. Estimates suggest that is around the limit of their life span, but no one really knows how long these animals can live.
This particular fish’s life may have been cut short. While examining the fish, Gomes-Pereira noticed a large contusion on the side of the animal’s head. That could be a sign that the fish was hit by a boat. The scientists believe the boaters in the Azores need to slow down and be more mindful of their effect on ocean wildlife.
At the same time, Gomes-Pereira hopes that the discovery of this fish shows people that the ocean is still healthy enough to support the largest animals on the planet, as well as inspire them to do more to protect it. “It’s a warning for us in terms of the need for further conservation measures,” he said.
